With friends like these ...

They try to tie Barack Obama to William Ayers, but the tiny thread is elusive.

But Todd Palin was a member of a political party that wanted secession from the U.S. How patriotic!

The Palins' un-American activities
Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.
By David Talbot

"My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."

So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin' around with?

Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."
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The Republican ticket is working hard this week to make Barack Obama's tenuous connection to graying, '60s revolutionary Bill Ayers a major campaign issue. But the Palins' connection to anti-American extremism is much more central to their political biographies."

He was a member.

Someone needs to ask him why and what he found so attractive about the party.

UPDATE: Here is a great video from Jed.

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Remember, 9-11 was an economic attack

A reader on Andrew Sullivan's blog notes some comments on last night's Bill Maher show:

Is Bin Laden's Strategy Working?
A reader writes:

"Last night on Bill Maher, the comedian Gary Shandling, of all people, synthesized the connection between our current economic crisis and 9/11 and the Iraq War in a way I have not heard:

On 9/11, Al Qaeda had no expectation of a traditional military victory against the United States. The point of the attack was economic -- to draw the U.S. into expensive and protracted foreign wars that would deplete our resources and destabilize our government. By invading Iraq, George Bush became the happy idiot to assist Al Qaeda in this goal. Now, Sarah Palin and John McCain take the leaders of Al Qaeda at their word when they say Iraq is the major front in the war on terror.

Neither consider the possibility that Al Qaeda wants Iraq to be the major front because it furthers their goal of weakening the U.S. while inflicting minimal damage on their operations.

Seven years after 9/11, we are seeing Al Qaeda's long-term goal being realized: the destabilization and economic collapse of the United States. Even as it's happening, the people who supported it all along want to continue facilitating our own long-term disintegration by clinging to simplistic concepts of traditional military victory and defeat. In this sense, they are possibly the most myopic, least strategic thinkers in the history of this nation.

As Gary Shandling said, with this approach, our only hope of killing Osama Bin Laden is that he'll laugh himself to death."

My fear is that the real goal is not just to entrap the West in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of our lives but to trigger an even greater conflagration by being baited into a first strike on Iran. Yes: I know Shiite Iran and Sunni al Qaeda have little in common. But both must be loving the West's self-inflicted wounds of the past seven years and greatly anticipating the hotheaded McCain taking even more bait even further. Palin? Never in their wildest dreams ...

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Bastards!

From ThinkProgress.org:

• Flashback: Seven years ago today, Bush received ‘Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.’ memo.

Digby adds this:

Seven years ago today:
An unnamed CIA briefer ... flew to Bush's Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US."
Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied:
"All right. You've covered your ass, now."
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Read it and weep.

Please read this post over at ThinkProgress.org and try not to get sick:

• Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144

Torture is not an American value.

Al-Qaida recruit Jose Padilla was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months in prison on terrorism conspiracy charges. Worldwide terrorism is a threat to the U.S. and many other nations, and we must pursue the perpetrators and bring them to justice. But justice is the key word. The government's handling of the Padilla case is a stain on this country's honor.
John Cole over at Balloon Juice gets it right:

"I don’t think there is any way to interpret this sentence other than as a rebuke to the government, who had been asking for life while insisting Padilla is a grave threat (yet, conveniently, never presented any evidence of that threat). ... I don’t know what the real story of Padilla’s involvement (if any) in this mess might be, and since most everything we do know was obtained while torturing the man, I doubt we ever will. I suspect that in the future, when cooler heads look back at this disgraceful period in our nation’s history, the alleged villainous treachery of Jose Padilla will be greatly overshadowed by the outrageous treatment he received and the dishonest and bumbling campaign to subvert the law while attempting to publicly convict him. The real story is not Jose Padilla, who for all we know may actually have been dangerous, but who is now, courtesy of the Bush administration, a broken and mentally deficient mess. The real story will be of the little men who, in moments of great patriotic fervor, decided it was up to them to destroy our nation’s principles in order to save us all. History will not look kindly on those pikers."

For a much more detailed and expert view on the Padilla case go to Firedoglake.com.