And now a blast from the past.

If you are long time visitors here at IM you are probably well aware that yours truly is often escorted from Palin book signings.

The above video is from the first time it happened, back in 2009 for Palin's "Going Rogue" book tour, and it came as a complete surprise.

Here is what I wrote then:  

My first hint that something may be wrong down in Who-ville was when I was asked for my ID, not once, but twice. Then as Dennis and I were about to sign in, and the lady behind the desk took our picture with a little digital camera! WTF? I have never had anybody do that before at any other event that I attended as a media representative. I wondered why there was such tight security, unaware that my question was only seconds from being answered. 

Almost as soon as I had my picture taken I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

I turned around and came face to face with a local police officer who quickly apologized and then informed me that I was on the "banned list". 

"I am on the WHAT list?" I asked. 

"The banned list sir, I am going to have to escort you off of the property. This is a private event."

Both Dennis Zaki and I were escorted out that day.  And it resulted in quite a backlash against Sarah Palin, her publisher Harper Collins, and the staff in charge of the Curtis C. Menard Memorial Sports Center, where the signing was held.

However I guess I never realized exactly how big of an impact it had on the poor guy who was in charge of the sports center.

The other day Dennis sent me this article from early 2010, that I somehow missed:  

It wasn't the largest event ever held at the Wasilla Sports Complex, or the most lucrative. 

But city recreation and cultural services manager James Hastings said the Dec. 22 book signing that publishing company HarperCollins sponsored for former Gov. Sarah Palin at the facility has been the most controversial by far. 

"The event was easy. The whole thing over being told these folks (on a not-welcome list) can't be here, that was nightmarish," Hastings said. 

Reporters wanted to see the contract between HarperCollins and the city. There was none, Hastings said. The publisher arranged the rental verbally and paid the city electronically. Instructions were handled by e-mail and in a walk-through with Todd Palin before the event. The only written document was instructions he handed out to his staff and three volunteers: A list of names provided by Todd Palin of four people not welcome at the event. 

On the banned list were Dennis Zaki, a photographer who formerly ran the Web site Alaska Report, blogger Jesse Griffin, Anchorage radio host Shannyn Moore and Andree McLeod, an Anchorage activist who filed state ethics complaints against Gov. Palin. 

While neither Moore nor McLeod attended, both Zaki and Griffin were there. After they signed in at the media table that morning, they were told they were banned from attending and escorted out of the building, even though HarperCollins paid $475 to rent only the turf court and mezzanine sections of the sports center. 

Suddenly, with news of a "banned" list, the signing became big news. 

Hastings said that as a result of the hubbub, he plans to end the "handshake and a gentleman's agreement" approach the city has had for one-time rentals. 

"In the next 30 days we're going to have a rental agreement so you write down what you want," Hastings said.

I knew it got a lot of attention, and for awhile Dennis and I even flirted with the idea of suing Harper Collins, but eventually I figured things went back to the usual for the sports center.

Apparently I was mistaken, and our little fracas, for which I continue to proclaim my innocence, resulted in a policy change that continues to this day.

You know the other thing this did was start a trend which Tina Dupuy noticed in 2011, and which inspired her to compile her now famous Sarah Palin's Enemies List.

Of course Dennis and I are on there along with Joe McGinniss and Levi Johnston.

In fact this list became such a status symbol that people were campaigning for the right to be added.

However not to split hairs or anything, but there is "I wrote something critical and now she doesn't like me" enemies, and "The crazy lady hates me so much she keeps throwing me out of book signings" enemies.

Oh, but if you don't think she likes me now, you just wait.

Alaska once again allows Sarah Palin to slip through the grip of justice. Update!

Sarah Palin running at Musk Ox farm in 2003.

This from The Sacramento Bee:  

The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision that does not forbid use of private email accounts for state officials conducting state business. 

The case stemmed from emails sent during then-Gov. Sarah Palin's administration. Palin and members of her administration used private emails to conduct state business. Activist Andree McLeod submitted a records request for all emails sent to or from the private accounts of Palin and her husband, and also sued, seeking to have each email declared a public record. 

The lower court interpreted public records as state agency records preserved or appropriate for preservation under the records management act. 

The high court agreed, saying not every record a state employee creates is appropriate for preservation under the act. 

You know I suffered a little blowback in May of 2011, when I suggested that Andree McLeod was perhaps getting in the way of drilling down into the truth about Sarah Palin and her e-mails. 

I said then, and I believe now, that our best bet at seeing exactly what it was that Palin was hiding was to see the e-mails in Frank Bailey's possession. However due to McLeod's aggressive attempts to see those e-mails by going through the courts, Bailey ended up paying an almost $12,000 fine and then handing over the majority of his e-mails to the state, where we now learn they will remain locked up forever.

I begged and pleaded that Bailey release his e-mails through a Wiki-leaks type of program but,  even though I had heard that something like that might be a possibility, it never happened.

The thing is that way back before Bailey ever signed on to do a book deal I received some information as to what those e-mails contained, and it was indeed explosive. However most of that NEVER found its way into "Blind Allegiance." So now that these e-mails are forever locked up, we will simply never have the opportunity to see the REAL truth that Palin worked so hard to hide from the Alaskan people.

I have said it before, but it is worth repeating, if you want to learn the truth about Sarah Palin in Alaska, going the traditional legal route is a complete waste of time.

Update: Perhaps this from the ADN will clarify things a little better:

The opinion also found that allowing employees to choose not to preserve a document "is not absurd because, as the State notes, 'each state agency has the best understanding of the preservation value of its own documents.'

" The court said it agrees with the state that use of private email accounts "is no more an obstruction of access to public records than communicating through paper letters. As the superior court noted, the law requires a state employee to retain records; whether the record exists in paper or electronic form does not change the analysis. 

"Thus using private email accounts for conducting state business, alone, does not constitute an 'obstruction' of access to public records under the Public Records Act," the court said. 

McLeod's attorney, Don Mitchell, said he disagrees with the court's position equating private email messages to letters that get placed in an office file. "There's no way to know whether these private emails exist at all," he said, adding that the private Palin emails came to light when McLeod, through a public records request, noticed a private email address for Palin. 

And this:

He viewed the decision as a partial win for McLeod, and an "important step in the proper direction," clarifying the definition of a public record and the state's preservation obligations. 

Like I said it does not appear that the courts have any intention of honoring Andree's request to force Palin to release to the public the emails from her "private" account, even though they were used to conduct state business.   Therefore the only way we could have access to them is if Bailey were to release them on his own. And that also does not appear to be a possibility any longer.

Frank Bailey comes out swinging against ethics complaint.

From the ADN:

The lawyer for former Sarah Palin aide and author Frank Bailey said Tuesday that Bailey is fully cooperating with the state's investigation into how he put together his upcoming "expose" of Palin.
"Mr. Bailey has complied with all requests from the Attorney General's office and his actions are within the boundaries of his legal rights," attorney Kevin Clarkson said in an emailed statement.

The Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act says former public officials can't use information acquired in the course of their work for personal gain if the information hasn't been publicly disseminated.

Bailey's lawyer said Tuesday that provision is meant for different situations, such as when an official learns the state will build a road to a piece of property and then leaves state employment and buys and develops that property. The emails don't have inherent value, he argued.

"The value that exists in Mr. Bailey's book comes not from the emails, but from his personal recollections of events that transpired within the Palin Administration ... the emails simply serve to refresh Mr. Bailey's recollections as he writes of events, and also as proof of his recollections," he said.

He said the First Amendment protects Bailey's right to pen a book about Palin.

McLeod has been asking the attorney general for months about what's being done with her ethics complaint against Bailey. Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton Walsh responded to her on Friday. Among the issues, Paton Walsh said, are whether Bailey has possession of official state emails that are no longer in state archives.

Bailey attorney Clarkson said Tuesday that, in response to requests from the attorney general's office, Bailey took care to make sure everything was legal.

"Mr. Bailey provided his manuscript to the attorney general's office, along with copies of the emails referenced in the manuscript, for review and approval prior to submitting the final manuscript to his publisher," Clarkson said.

He said Bailey removed from his book references to a few emails that the state felt were privileged information or confidential.

You know I kind of stopped covering Andree McLoed quite a while back when it seemed that she was filing ethics complaints every five minutes.  I do support many of her points of view, as well as her desire to see Palin held accountable for her numerous unethical behaviors, but after awhile it just got to be too much.

I mean after you file that many ethics complaints people just stop taking you seriously.

Having said that, I really think that Andree is getting in her own way here.  If we REALLY want to know what is in many of those e-mails, our best bet is supporting Bailey's book.

After all, HIS e-mails will not be redacted.

Fortunately it looks as if the ethics complaint will NOT stop this book from being published.

Clarkson said Tuesday that the attorney general's office has minor concerns that Bailey shared with co-authors Morris and Devon a few emails considered privileged and pulled from the book. "But the vast bulk of Andree McLeod's ethics complaint is baseless and will be disposed of as such," he said.

Palin foe Andree McLeod receives restraining order against Palin-bot after receiving death threats.

From ADN:

Anchorage citizen activist Andree McLeod has obtained a six-month protective order against a woman who threatened her life over her public records requests for former Gov. Sarah Palin's official e-mails.

The woman, Clare Goodchild, also of Anchorage, admitted making the threats and apologized in court to McLeod. Goodchild said she "meant no harm" when she said she had the cross hairs of her gun scope on McLeod's head and that McLeod had "used up too much oxygen."

"I find it very offensive that Andre Mclead (sic) is asking the state for every e-mail written or received in ANY account maintained by Palin and her husband," Goodchild said in the e-mail to the Daily News, signing it only as "Clare."

"Where does this b*tch get off thinking the public should shell out for her revenge for the Palin family. I've heard enough from this, and I would like to use stronger words to express my feeling for Andre (sic). Well... I think Andre (sic) has used up to (sic) much oxygen. So I have my scope cross hair on her head! She better watch out, the request may have been her last!"

Let this be a reminder to those of you who wonder why more people don't come forward with information about the Palins. 

However as I have said many times in the past if there were more of us willing to tell what we know, and to stand up to this kind of threatening language and bullying from the Sister Sarah and her crazed followers, we could finally end her reign of terror and send her back to the obscurity from which she emerged.

I have to add that this case with Andree is very uncommon.  Most of the threats we receive are from Palin flying monkeys living out of state.  For somebody up here, who should know better, to still be this delusional is very sad. As well as a little frightening.

(Please click the ADN link and read the entire article.)

Unlike Sarah Palin, who whines and complains about nonexistent death threats, local Palin critic, Andree McLeod, only wishes hers were imaginary.

Courtesy the FrumForum:

On December 29, the Anchorage Daily News posted an article reporting that four journalists and McLeod, a local citizen activist, were still waiting for the state to release Palin’s emails in response to requests that they had filed two years earlier. (I am one of those journalists.) The Anchorage Daily News noted that the governor’s office had recently asked for and obtained from the state attorney general the 14th delay in processing the request, and it highlighted McLeod’s role in the request. The paper reported:

McLeod has accused the administrations of Palin and her former lieutenant governor and now successor, Sean Parnell, of abuse of power “with these delay tactics.”

“Who does Sean Parnell protect and defend by keeping these official e-mail documents secret?” McLeod wrote to Sullivan, objecting to the proposed 14th delay. “Who does he serve? Ex-governor Sarah Palin, or the people of Alaska?”

Two days later, an anonymous person posted a death threat targeting McLeod in the “Rants & Raves” section of the Anchorage Craigslist. The posting, which echoed an email sent to the Anchorage Daily News, read in full:

I find it very offensive that Andre Mclead [sic] is asking the state for every e-mail written or received in ANY account maintained by Palin and her husband. Where does this bitch get off thinking the public should shell out for her revenge for the Palin family. I’ve heard enough from this, and I would like to use stronger words to express my feeling for Andre. Well…I think Andre has used up to [sic] much oxygen. So I have my scope cross hair on her head! She better watch out, the request may have been her last!

I know you won’t publish this. ADN relish in bashing the Palin’s too!

Let’s clean up the political garbage.

Gee nothing imaginary or misinterpreted about that.

The facts are that serious death threats and real insanity does NOT come from the Palin critics.  It comes from those who are so mentally unstable that they actually believe that she has the qualities necessary to lead this country.

As a matter fact, in my opinion, one of the signs of a serious mental illness should be the desire to support or send money to Sarah Palin.

Stay safe Andree.