The Pregnancy That Never Was

Before September slips away totally, I thought I'd post about a difficult topic:  proving a negative. When you find signs or evidence that someone actually DID something, you prove the positive.  The culprit can be convicted even with circumstantial evidence.  Proving a negative is much more tricky.  In this case, the negative statement is, "Sarah Palin did not give birth to the child who became her political prop during the 2008 election season."

Perhaps this is why so many in the other media have had such a hard time with the subject of Sarah's "wild ride" and its implications.  Here's what I mean.  They simply took for granted that she was the miracle mother who survived the 11-hour Dallas to Wasilla journey while leaking amniotic fluid to produce a 6lb 2oz, 5-week (at least) premature Down syndrome infant in a facility that was not even equipped to handle twins.  In order to challenge this story, one would have to prove the negative—that it never happened.

But what is missing from this story tale?  Are there not enough missing pieces to make the whole puzzle unsolvable?  Here's a partial list of what we have not seen as evidence to support this fantastic tale:

• Official or family pictures showing Mrs. Palin's normal progression through pregnancy
  -The reason?  She didn't TELL anyone, even her family, of the pregnancy.
  
• Hospital records of a live birth on the day specified (April 18, 2008)
  -Curiously, the local hospital suddenly stopped publishing birth announcements and went 'dark' in April 2008.
  
• A birth certificate
  -Mrs. Palin has claimed she provided this evidence but nobody has seen it.
  
• Medical records indicating routine pre-natal visits
  -Again, Mrs. Palin claimed she opened her medical records but nobody has seen them.
  
• Travel documents and time sheets accounting for normal pre-natal visits
  -Scrutiny of Mrs. Palin's official calendar reveals no time off or travel for such visits.
  
• Contemporaneous accounts by any patient or visitor who witnessed the birth mother arriving, remaining at, or leaving the hospital where birth occured
  -Apparently, nobody saw her at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, or they chose never to talk about it.
  
• Pictures of the birth mother in bed with child and/or being visited by family members in the hospital
  -We saw Mrs. Palin's parents with an infant identified as Trig in a single picture but not one of her with the baby, with her children, with her husband, or even with close friends and well-wishers in the hospital
  
• Contemporaneous accounts by anyone in Texas during the Governor's conference who had contact with Mrs. Palin at the hotel or at the conference itself or anyone seeing her on travel between Alaska and Texas and back (that support her state of pregnancy)
  -We only have Mrs. Palin's recounting of Governor Perry mentioning her pregnancy, but there is no supporting evidence this happened, and the Alaska Airlines statement declines to confirm her "state of pregnancy"
  
• Anecdotal evidence from anyone regarding the state of and progression of the pregnancy who may have witnessed her doctor's visits, trips to the store, interactions during the course of her government business or unofficial snapshots during public events
  -Instead of this sort of confirmation, we have legislators who were there, where Mrs. Palin was, on the job, saying she sure as heck did NOT look pregnant
  
• Baby shower pictures for showers given before birth, as is the norm
  -The only baby shower we know of was some weeks after the supposed birth, and the baby in the pictures is clearly NOT the same baby that was shown being held by Mrs. Palin's parents in a news release
  
• Evidence of any maternity outfits instead of the omnipresent long black jacket, black scoop-necked top, and black pants or skirt plus colored scarves
  -Surely a woman well-known for caring about clothing and appearance (she gets custom manicures for her toes!) would splurge and buy one or two stylish maternity outfits, but not Mrs. Palin...
  
• Baby pictures and/or stories about Trig's early treatment for Down syndrome or prematurity
  -Apparently the birth was so easy and the DS disability so trivial that Mrs. Palin never thought to talk about or write about or schedule appointments about taking care of her new "blessing from God"
  
• Correspondence from/to family members and friends or staff discussing any aspect of the pregnancy
  -Many of Mrs. Palin's e-mails requested through the FOIA were released but not one contained what would be normal information about her pregnancy except for a curious one, "How to answer questions about the pregnancy..."

There's a saying that the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.  But in this case, the overwhelming absence of any evidence that Mrs. Palin was indeed pregnant is most telling. Surely there would be some publicly accessible documents or images that would add weight to Mrs. Palin's assertion that she was indeed pregnant with and actually gave birth to the child called Trig.

The only evidence for the positive is Mrs. Palin's own story, told and re-told and embellished and told again, plus the appearance of the mysterious Gusty photos right after Mrs. Palin's selection as the VP nominee.  That's basically it.  Is the reason there is no other evidence to support her crazy tale because it simply does not exist?

Anyone with knowledge or information regarding facts that either support or refute Mrs. Palin's "pregnant with Trig" claims:  Please contact me (find my e-mail in my profile) or better yet, send information to the secure and anonymous hotline at Palingates.blogspot.com.

If Mrs. Palin was living the simple, rustic life she espouses, none of this would be an issue.  Instead, she flaunts her celebrity status and exerts an impact on national politics whether or not she seeks to run for office.  Once she retreats (or is exposed for the extreme fraud she has perpetrated on the American people), I will stop reloading.

Nine Years On... Still No Answers

"The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies, but would be ashamed to tell big lies."

A Conspiracy By Any Other Name...

 With all due respect to two of my favorite Alaskan bloggers, and I say that sincerely, their discussion with Nicole Sandler made me grit my teeth.  I am speaking of AKM (Jeanne Devon), and Shannyn Moore. AKM is, of course, the brilliant writer behind The Mudflats, and Shannyn's got a widely-read blog, Moore Up North, and a topical daily radio show. I've corresponded with Jeanne by e-mail and called into Shannyn's show at least twice. I met them both in person, right after last year's Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, PA. Their warmth and humor were delightful.  Their disappointment in and disagreements with the former half-term Alaska governor are well-known.

Shannyn (L) and AKM (R) at Pittsburgh Mudstock

Why teeth-gritting, though?  Here's why.  It's one thing to make a personal or political decision about whether or not to cover a particular story, and I'm talking about babygate—the pregnancy that Sarah Palin faked in order to boost her pro-life cred with evangelical Christians and parlay her thin resume into a shot to become the Vice President of these United States.  It's another to disparage, however off-handedly, those who do address, research and endeavor to cover that same story.  If you listen to the Nicole Sandler interview (in the first link of this post), you'll learn that Nicole was able to interview Jeanne and Shannyn just as the two intrepid Alaskans concluded their second Netroots Nation in Las Vegas. Nicole had recently interviewed Patrick, one of the chief authors of the Palin watchdog blog Palingates, twice: see here and here for the details. As a result of her education about the babygate topic, Nicole asked some followup questions of the Alaskan bloggers on her segment.  Their responses were, to my ear, condescending and disparaging.

When you use words like conspiracy theory and tin-foil hats in conjunction with describing why you are not writing or talking about a potential story, you trigger a response in listeners, to wit: "Watch your step here, this is la-la land!"  Both these accomplished ladies seemed to "pooh-pooh" any efforts to get to the bottom of the clearly impossible stories Mrs. Todd Palin has given concerning the birth of the child she calls her son, Trig.

Like I said, I can understand why someone would not want to touch a story that the "mainstream media" decided to let lay fallow.  One only has to read the recently released e-mails from the Journolist group to find some sort of justification for this.  Is the justification valid?  I don't happen to think so, but then, that's me, and I have a day job. My future life plans do not depend on whether or not I blog about the right topics, or the safe topics, or the approved topics.  Running for political office is not in my future.  Cozying up to Marcos Moulitsas or any other notable in the Democratic Party is not one of my goals.

Let's face it. though.  Labels have meaning to people.  Label something a conspiracy theory and red flags shoot up everywhere.  BEWARE, BEWARE!

So fine, don't touch the story, but don't label it in such a way that I, and many of my blogging and commenting friends are made out to be kooks.  It's obvious from some of the details that AKM and Shannyn provided during the interview with Nicole that they are not very well read on the subject of babygate.  There is now a mountain of detailed evidence that makes it clear why not one of us, those who did choose to follow this story, have been threatened with a lawsuit for claiming that Mrs. Todd Palin defrauded the country with her impossible Wild Ride tale and imagined magical birth of Trig.  It is because it is NOT TRUE.

For an excellent overview/summary, I implore you to view these newly released videos:

---

Videos are courtesy of lidia17 who published them at Palingates, and summarize the indisputable evidence that disproves the assertion that Mrs. Todd Palin was actually ever pregnant with the child she claims as her own son, Trig.

Comment of the Day

This, one of 55 comments as of now, appears under a Politico story about GOP House members rejecting a plan to help 9/11 responders who still suffer from chronic illness as a result of their rescue and cleanup efforts:

Why should I werk for others to sit on their behinds pretending to be sick years after an event? Can they prove they were their? I think not. I cant wait for Nov so we can take back our contry from freeloaders and illigals. We need more real Amercans in charge not Socialists who want a free ride paid by my hard eared money.

Posted By: Sarah4Pres2012 | July 29, 2010 at 09:04 PM

It has to be a put-on, doesn't it? Either way, it's the best comment I've read all day.  :)

Activision-Blizzard, Privacy and Me

If you've read the "about me" you will have learned that one of my interests is gaming.  In particular, for the last several years, I've devoted some of my anonymous time on the 'net to Blizzard's wildly popular World of Warcraft game.  This is an MMORPG -- massive multiplayer online role playing game, for those who don't know the acronym.

Gathering herbs in World of Warcraft, Burning Crusade

Activision merged with Blizzard some months ago. Since then, the powers that be at Activision-Blizzard have veered off onto a path they must think will increase their revenue.  It all started with Battle.net, an entity established to register players who participate in the MMO aspect of Blizzard's games.  If you wanted to test your skills against someone else on the other side of town or the continent or even the ocean, you could play Starcraft or Diablo (which are single player games too) by logging in to Battle.net and competing online.   World of Warcraft (WoW) players found, shortly after the Battle.net entity was upgraded, that in order to continue their adventures in the world of Azeroth (WoW's fantasy world), they too had to have a Battle.net ID.

Fine, but, the next step in the still-unrevealed plan was to institute something called Real ID in the WoW game.  What this new coding allowed: players could designate other people as real life friends and thus, see and communicate with all the characters their friends played on any Blizzard game, and be seen and contacted by them as well.  It went further -- friends of friends could also see the real name of anyone who made a neighbor or relative a Real ID friend.  A good friend that I know and trust in real life is one thing, but I do not know who he has friended!

Sentinel Hill at night

 The next step was announced a week ago.  Blizzard would, beginning with its release of a new 3-part Starcraft expansion require anyone who posted on the forums to reveal their real name attached to any forum post they made.  They intended to require this same privacy disclosure for anyone wanting to post on the official Blizzard WoW forums as of the release of the latest upcoming expansion named Cataclysm.  The excuse given was to force the forum trolls into the light… and what, shame them into not posting their garbage?

As a result of the announcement, several thousand players expressed their astonishment, dismay, and rejection of this idea in a huge thread -- nearly 2,500 pages and nearly 50,000 posts.  Most everyone said No - as did I. 

For background, I have respected Blizzard for a dozen years or more.  One reason is they have always made a Mac version of their games, and I refuse to buy a PC just so I can game.  Another reason is their products have been great!  Yet another reason is they have always been relatively responsive to their customer base.  I played the original Warcraft series, the Diablo series and the Starcraft series.  I own collector's editions of the original WoW game and the first two expansions.  I played in the original WoW beta back in 2004.  I have several characters at max level (currently 80), who are fully trained in their professions.  Want a jewelcrafter, blacksmith, alchemist, inscriber, tailor, enchanter, engineer, or leatherworker who can craft any item possible?  I've got one.  Most of my characters are also fully skilled in the lesser professions of cooking, fishing and first aid.

Giving up my legacy characters and the hundreds of hours I've put into their development would be a bitter pill to swallow.  Nevertheless, I cancelled my automatic account subscription as a result of intuiting where Activision-Blizzard was going with their new business plan.  They have deals with Facebook and even Microsoft.  You have to read the updated TOS, EULA, and the Battle.net Terms of Use darn near daily to catch these significant changes.  Players are now subject to in-game advertising.  It was one thing to see vanity pets representative of other Blizzard games.  But who wants to see the Windows 7 logo (with the blue background) temporarily floating in the sky over Azeroth?  Who wants to have to write on someone's Facebook wall to earn an achievement in game?  I'm not saying this will happen, but I can't believe it's too far off the mark.

Fourth of July Fireworks outside Ironforge

According to Bobby Kotick, mover behind Activision and killer of Infinity Ward, WoW players and Facebook facers can be of mutual benefit to each other.  In other words, he would like to parlay Blizzard's 11 million subscribers into Facebook page holders and along the way get Facebook holders buying and playing WoW, and targeting advertising to both groups along the way.  What he doesn't get is that never the twain shall meet.  Social networking is not what an MMORPG is about, and vice versa. 

I can't speak for everyone who plays WoW, but I will assert, with as much might as I can muster, that I do NOT play wow to network socially.  I play WoW to enjoy a pastime that my non-gamer family and non-gamer friends and non-gamer co-workers don't know about and cannot begin to appreciate.  My sister and my fellow employees don't want to know the names of my characters across all the games and even if they did, I don't care to share that information with them.  I don't necessarily want my closest friends to know that I've started a brand new character on a different server just so I can immerse myself in the role-playing aspect of the game without interruption.

Death Knights can be beautiful, and they can walk on water too

The good news is Blizzard's co-founder Mike Morhaime has stated that they will not "at this time" proceed with insisting that we use a real name when posting on the forums.  I released a huge sigh of relief as a result, but am wounded by the thought that such a notion was ever considered.  I do not intend to renew my subscription or pre-order any new packages until I see where this is going.  Was it because of the huge outcry from current subscribers?  Was it because Blizzard's own employees would be put at risk with their real names visible?  Was it California's or Canada's privacy laws?  Was it the ESRB's threat to remove the friendly rating?

I post on numerous forums, and I blog under a pseudonym.  Nowhere (aside from logging in to my employer's online time sheet) is my real name a requirement.

I am Ennealogic.  I am Ennealogic here, and on Palingates, The Mudflats, Immoral Minority,  Washington Post, Huffington Post, NY Times and even on the Wall Street Journal.  I am Ennealogic on Think Progress and Gawker and Daily Kos, and countless other sites.  What I say becomes part of my cred as Ennealogic.  I do not need to be known as my real name for the same cred to apply.  A rose by any other name… I am Ennealogic when it comes to my political thoughts and opinions.  You can Google Ennealogic and find out what I think.  I do not need to reveal my real name in order to express my thoughts and opinions about anything.

I am reminded of the time when Mike Doogan outed AKM from The Mudflats.  We had this discussion then, and his excuse was that AKM had no right to express her opinion and also remain anonymous.  I will never forgive that oaf for crudely and gratuitously attempting to damage a real person who provided a real service to so many readers.  AKM's words and stories have not grown better (or worse) now that we know the name that goes with the acronym.  AKM is now and always has been a reliable, responsible, creative, investigative, and indomitable voice ringing out across the country (and the world!).  She neither lost nor gained any credibility with the outing, but she certainly lost the protection of her anonymity.  She does not speak to the question of whether her business ventures were adversely affected or her family threatened.

Flying over Northrend is an incredible experience

Those who troll forums, regardless of their variety, will still troll because it is their wont -- no matter if they post under the name Jack Fisher or Usuckmydingle.  Those who moderate forums can just as easily ban one name or IP address as another.  Those who suffer the trolls can't do anything anyway, except if a real name is provided, then look up that real name and deliver real world consequences.  Is that what Activision-Blizzard intended?  Did they really want their decent, mature, thoughtful posters to gather up torches and pitchforks and clamor outside the apartment (or basement or hovel) of a troll?  And do what, exactly?

Anyway -- my recent absence from all things politics and Sarah Palin in particular is a result of time spent opposing this recent scheme brought to us by yet one more corporatist who thinks selling customer identities is the path to even more financial rewards. 

I have one thing to say in closing:  measure carefully any request/demand to surrender privacy.  Make sure that you can trust those who ask or require it, and make sure that such disclosure is indeed warranted and needed.  In the case of Activision-Blizzard, nobody needs to know that my character name belongs to my real name.  Nobody but those who bill my credit card.  And if they insist on linking that real information with my avatar and character names, I will surely turn my back on their games.  It will pain me immensely to do so, but I will not abide by such a violation of trust.  They promised me they would keep my personal information inviolate.  I expect no less.

Babygate in the Blogs

With a H/T to Palingates' commenter AKSandhills for bringing it to my attention, please make sure to look at both of these posts in turn:

• A little holiday skepticism by progressive blogger Amanda at Pandagon, and
• Again with a post about Sarah Palin: Responding to the Department of Disingenuously Selective Editing and Smug Name-calling by Deborah at litbrit.

Normally, a skeptic seeks the truth that hides beneath a popularly accepted, "official" story. Not so in Amanda's case, unless she views the Babygate "conspiracy" as the new and now official truth.  But she doesn't.  Instead, she is skeptical about reasons people give for doubting Saint Sarah's holy birth story.  You know, those real good solid reasons like Bristol's cuddling Trig a lot.  If her blog post wasn't so rife with ridiculous statements like

... if you believe the theory, you have to accept Bristol conceived a second time while still pregnant

and warnings like

The Palin conspiracy theory seems tailor-made to rob liberals of our moral authority...

and supporting evidence from an article in the UK Sunday Times about women who don't realize they're pregnant, I could let it pass.

Thankfully, Deborah didn't let it pass -- no doubt because Amanda directly discounts Deborah's statement on the topic: "Litbrit claims it would be impossible to fly during labor, because it’s so painful."  That Sarah was in labor comes from Sarah's own words in both newspaper stories and her book.  (That Sarah slightly changes the story with every telling should be telling, but I doubt Amanda has kept up with the evolution!)  That Amanda disputes the assertion of how difficult it would be to fly for 10 hours while in labor should be enough to totally discredit the rest of her "holiday skepticism" post. Fortunately, Deborah does an outstanding job at rebutting the rebuttal.

Happy Quitter's Day, Enjoy the Potato Salad!

Goodness gracious, one whole year since the quittah from wasilla quitsied!  Thankfully The Mudflats, Palingates, Immoral Minority and Progressive Alaska among others have reminded us about that happy day by posting videos of her breathless, senseless quitter speech so ...

I'm thinking, with a 4-day weekend, time to smoke some ribs and make some lovely potato salad to go with.  I was Googling about how to make some mouthwatering ribs when I came across Meathead's potato salad recipe.  Now, I make a pretty mean potato salad but it never hurts to compare recipes.  In the process, I found this totally jaw-dropping video.  So!  For something completely different (get to at least the 1-minute mark and beyond!), view at your leisure and enjoy your 4th!