I don’t mean to sound old-fashioned and I certainly don’t want to appear all nitpicky and semantical (if Sarah can make up words so can I) but – if Sarah wants to keep calling this bogus bus tour a family vacation wouldn’t it be prudent to actually include – oh I dunno – the family?
Ok Track’s a newlywed but in most big families just getting hitched wouldn’t be an acceptable excuse for not showing up for the big family road trip. The newlywedded (don’t bother spell-checking that one either) son would just be expected to bring along the newlywedded Mrs. So what gives?
Willow’s in schoo- no? uh yeah Sarah took Willow out of school so she could personally home tutor her. Umm how do you personally tutor a kid who is back in Alaska while you’re on vacation in New York? And wouldn’t this ‘family vacation’ where the family is ‘tooling around educating folks on stuff like the constitution and liberty bell and statute statue of liberty and the Paul Revere ride to warn the British with bells and whistles’ be the perfect tutorial for your teenage tutoree? No, huh?
Bristol is worki – oh wait. Bristol isn’t working. Unless the filming of her new bogus reality show has started there’s actually no reason why she and her son couldn’t have gone on this family vacation with the rest of her siblings. Tripp would have been a great brothercousinuncle companion for Trig – wait – where’s Trig again? Not on the bus?
Well it can’t be that he’s too young because Sarah carted the poor kid around on her hip like a football just about 18 months ago during her book signing tour on that very same bus! So we know that can’t be the reason. Hmm…
Well Todd – wait – where’s Todd anyway? Wasn’t he there at the beginning of this trip? Sure he was we saw pictures of him and Piper riding a motorcycle at that pesky invite-me invite-me-not Memorial Day rally. So where’d he go? He’s not out on the family fishing boat like he is every other year in June. He’s not on the slopes working a mine – where’s dad? How do you have a family vacation without dad?
So the primary family unit of two parents and four five kids and two one grandsons plus new daughter-in-law and Sarah’s parents who by the way could easily all fit into this titanic-sized motorhome has dwindled down to Sarah, Piper, Grandma and Gramps?
Wow. A family vacation with only one of your five kids, no grandkids and only a cameo appearance by your husband. Doesn’t sound to me like the Palin clan got the memo about family values and sticking together. No wonder little Piper’s nose is so out of joint. All the fun people abandoned ship!
Sarah – you might have at least let her bring a friend along, There’s no one on this bus her own age with whom to interact? That’s just really bad planning, bad parenting and I hope your peers in Alaska call you out on it. -Oz
============ UPDATE ============
Sarah took a detour on Friday and landed in Arizona to ‘thaw out and regroup’. Watch video here. (H/T to tm68 for the link.)
Sure because everybody takes a break from a family vacation less than a week in the making… must be nice to have that much money eh? Transporting the family bus from Alaska to Washington DC – then flying the family from Alaska to the bus – then flying people back to Alaska – then flying yourself, your daughter and parents to Arizona – in the middle of the vacation…
Oh wait – Sarah’s not paying for all this transportation her devoted fans are! You remember them – the people who donate to her PAC thinking they are contributing to making America better! Turns out they’re really just paying for room service and airfare.
Ok, everyone who’s surprised that Sarah Palin’s new Reality TV show starts by dishing up some whopping big lies, shout A M E N!
Yuh, that’s what I thought.
While the primary focus of TLC’s trailer (as seen here at Huffington Post) on Sarah Palin’s Alaska has been steady on how badly she and her husband Todd have overreacted to and lied about the behaviour of their summer neighbour, Joe McGinniss, I couldn’t help notice something entirely different about this bizarre peek into Sarah’s show.
Maybe it’s because I was the pregnant mother of two when I endeavoured to publish my first piece, or maybe it’s because I do a lot of writing outdoors, or maybe it’s the two years of conditioned mistrust for the former Alaska half-governor – whatever the reason, my brain zeroed in on the surroundings Sarah calls ‘where I like to write…’ and not one active brain cell bought it.
So without permission I took some screenies and if somebody at TLC wants to yell at me, let them. My email addy is in the nav bar at the top.
First up is the opening shot of Sarah sitting at a table in her backyard, overlooking Lake Lucille. It’s a dramatic shot, contrasting the enormity of the wall of windows to our tiny little Sarah. She refers to her cement patio as a cement slab – a trailer park term which only serves to accent her lack of education.
I’m struck by the sheer barrenness of the setting.
A closer look at the patio table and chairs is a bit telling. There are only four chairs. On that huge patio, there are only four chairs. One small table and four chairs for a family of – Seven? Eight? Nine? Odd.
Enter Todd, stage right. Notice a few things: 1) The windows behind him are reflecting darkening clouds. 2) He’s wearing a black hoodie with a monogrammed top pocket over a pale blue t-shirt. 3) He’s dressed for chilly weather. She’s bare armed and in a loose tee. 4)The patio is bare. No raised flower boxes, no knick knacks or patio lounge chairs. Not a squeaky family swing or cushioned redwood deck chairs.
He asks if she’s comfortable. She initially says yes, but uses the question to bring up the subject of their neighbour, Joe McGinniss.
Sarah and Todd sit together complaining about how hard it’s been on them since the arrival of Mr. MGinniss and how disruptive his presence has been on their lives.
But look at the table instead of listening to their drivel. Sarah opens this segment with the claim that she’s out on the patio to write. To research and write. This is her favourite place in the whole world to… research and write. Uh…
Sarah’s belongings on this table consist of one book (which looks suspiciously like the red jacket of a book I’ve seen her photographed with before but can’t place it at the moment) a writing tablet, a pen, her Blackberry and what looks to be a second writing tablet, but could be a second pamphlet-style book, and a cold drink container with straw. It could also be a lunch menu from Taco Bell, who knows.
The point is, there’s no real research material. There’s no computer laptop or net book, no thesaurus or dictionary, and no pages of notes previously gleaned from different sources in preparation for writing about them here, in this setting, at this, her favourite place to write. And there couldn’t be, because it’s windy and there’s no shelter and why would you bring loose pages or precious resource books outside onto a bare table with no protection from the wind? Then there’s the fact that it looks like it’s going to rain at any second…
And one more thing – as you look at the photos of this patio… there don’t seem to be any electrical outlets. No place to plug in a computer, television, radio or light.
Sarah and Todd have both agreed that they believe Joe McGinniss is on his deck, reading a book. The cameraman has even zoomed in between fence slats to verify that yes, there he is, approximately 20-30’ from them on the other side of a 14’ fence and poor Sarah is now so unnerved that she cannot continue writing. She must relinquish her favourite place to write in the whole world because Joe McGinniss might lean over the 14’ fence from 30’ away and see what she’s writing.
Sarah had so few writing tools she was able to scoop them up in one go and start to walk away. Please note it is the dutiful Todd who leans over to wipe the ring of moisture left behind from Sarah’s large drink. If that doesn’t define their interactive roles for you, nothing will.
Sarah exits stage right and Todd walks straight down center stage, turns his back on the audience, I mean Lake Lucille and begins the most inane diatribe on the ills of living next door to the evil Joe McGinniss and how his wife has struggled to endure his tenancy a scant few feet from her daughter’s (sigh) bedroom. Has this woman never heard of curtains?
Now look at Todd. The black hoodie with the monogrammed top pocket is gone, replaced by an actual black jacket with plain top pocket – and now worn over a black t-shirt, not pale blue. I do love it when the continuity editors screw up. It’s not like anyone has to wait for film to be developed any more. Maybe that’s why it’s called The Learning Channel, eh?
Through dialogue and narration, Todd and Sarah have made it crystal clear they don’t appreciate having their privacy invaded by Joe McGinniss. They go on and on ad nauseam about how they value their privacy and how difficult it’s been to maintain their privacy in light of this recent intruder.
And they say all of this with Lake Lucille as their backdrop. You know – that huge public lake behind their unfenced backyard? The same yard that spreads out in front of the entire back wall of their house? The wall that’s made almost exclusively of huge glass windows? Windows that can be seen from any vessel on any part of the lake if one has the correct zoom lens?
Sarah Palin just continues to remind me of the man who stands naked in his apartment window screaming at passersby to stop looking at him!!!
But that’s not really what I want you to notice the most in this video. It’s this. Take a good look at this photo again:
Take as long as you need. Can you see what’s missing? This is Sarah’s favourite place to write in the whole world . She said so. It stands to reason she spends considerable time here, no? Do you see it now?
Sarah? Where’sTrig? Where are his toys? Where’s his swing and slide? His little toy trucks and sandbox? Where are his riding toys and bubble lawn mower? Where’s the potting bench you and Piper and Trig purportedly used to start your garden in the summer of 2009? Where is the garden, period?
Where’s the BBQ? Where are the patio lights for entertaining your family and guests? The furniture people sit on? Eat at? Where’s the windbreak that lets a writer work outdoors, protected from the sun and wind?
My favourite place to write in the whole world was at a small desk on my front porch overlooking the yard where my kids played. And the neighbouring kids played. And visiting nephews and nieces played. You always had to check for bits of food before you sat down or put your arms on the desk, because let’s face it – the smallest amount of peanut butter and jelly can cover entire rooms.
Several small rocks sat on piles of papers on te desk and on the floor as each time a page wafted away with a gusty breeze one of the kids would fetch it and bring me a new rock to use as a weight - and it wasn’t at all uncommon to see someone had typed a mysterious ‘I love you mommy come play’ message on one of my manuscript pages.
So what did I find missing from Sarah’s favourite place to write in the whole world ? Life. Life is missing.
There are no signs of life in that place Sarah claims to do her writing. No signs of life at all. And if you’re a mother of five who writes at home, the place you write overflows with bits of your kids lives from crayon drawings to spilled strawberry soda stains amidst your scribbled notes of things to remember to write about.
This whole episode is as phony as Sarah herself. If that’s well and truly her favourite place to write in the whole world it speaks volumes for her crappy communications skills.
============ UPDATE ============
On 26 July 2010 the Alsaka Dispatch, responding to the Palin/McGinniss kerfuffle posts this video:
So barely three months ago, Sarah’s favourite writing place didn’t even exist! Interesting, eh? Considering she makes such a big dill out of telling the world Joe McGinniss chased her out of her own backyard!
Lies, lies and more lies…
h/t to dsmyre
@RobDaub who pointed out the dangers of letting small children play near the lake:
More than once since Joe McGinniss moved next door, Sarah tells of having to change the famlies whole lifestyle by making the kids play on the other side of the house - letting us assume this is their normal place to play.
That said, if Todd and Track can erect a 14′ wood fence in an afternoon because her highness has had a hissy fit over a neighbour, they can certaily build a 4′ fence to keep their son/grandson/brother/nephew safe from harm while mom sits in her favourite place to write in the whole world…
@ all the commenters – thanks for your great contributions! OzMud
To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “Sarah Palin Uses Trusty LIE-WRITER to Launch New TV Show” and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud
As an old friend of mine used to say, “Well this just tears it.” Oz Mudflats has some breaking news for all of you and I hope you’re strong enough to handle it. I’ve been getting tips for months now and am finally ready to uncover the sad, miraculous yet ugly truth behind the Trig-Palin-Who’s-Your-Mommy-Little-Ruffled-Ears birth.
WARNING: Do not operate heavy machinery or sip hot beverages while reading this post.
To begin: Muffy, Buffy and Fluffy, as the triplets names were first meant to be, arrived earlier than anticipated, throwing a proverbial wrench into Sarah’s political plans. But then a stroke of luck; The doctor said the babies had to be a certain weight before they could be released from the hospital, which gave Sarah another month to prepare for their public debut, and also too gave the family time to talk Sarah out of letting Piper name the boys after the bunny rabbits she’d always wanted but never got.
Trig was the first brother big enough to show off in public. Sarah strapped on the prosthetic belly and dragged Todd all over Washington D.C. and Texas, giving speeches and smiling into cameras proving a woman could fake be eight months pregnant and still wear stilettos and short skirts without falling over or looking haggard. (No water-retention here folks, keep it moving…) She planned a flamboyant escape, splashy exit from Texas, complete with an unwitnessed car chase in the dead of night on wintry roads, from the airport in Anchorage to the hospital in Mat-Su Valley. There she got a good night’s sleep endured 10 hours of labour, delivered the little Triglets bub and arranged for her parents to debut the biggest one little guy in front of invited-only press in an unnamed hospital corridor the following day to give the appearance show her fans she’d been too frazzled from childbirth to face the cameras.
But just 72 hours later, bright and early on Monday morning, as if shedding the effects of childbirth were as easy as changing shoes, Sarah, looking fit and sleek as a runway model, took little Trig to work… also to the hair dresser after stroller[ing] him up and down Main St. Alaska proving to the lower 48 a wilderness woman can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan and still have enough energy left over to delegate diaper duties to a drooling staff, keeping her hands free to handle a latte and play freecell on her blackberry. She even let her co-conspirators friends throw her a baby shower.
It was at this baby shower, however, that one of her *high school adversaries pointed out the little ruffles on Trig’s ear. Hmm. This won’t do.
*It should be noted that not being able to find enough ‘actual friends’ to attend Sarah’s baby shower meant Ivy Whatshername resorted to inviting women who had been in Sarah’s class, regardless of their relationship with her. So a couple of women who still bore irrational grudges against Sarah for her unethical fair and balanced behaviour towards them in high school were there, eager to point out the first flaw they could find in Sarah’s perfect little world. No, the ruffled ears wouldn’t do.
When’s that next baby going to be ready anyway? He better be picture-perfect and cherub-chubby before they go on the road with the McCain campaign.
Sarah got her wish (as Sarah always does) and just before embarking on tour as the V.P. nominee, Trig’s other brother Trig (the one with the pretty, round ears) was finally ready to come out of take his place in the prop closet spotlight.
A few months later, after losing the election but successfully fooling the public, passing her oldest daughter off as the national face of abstinence, an unwed pregnant teen, it was time to unveil the third TriggleTriglet triplet – little Trip. But just to be sure no one put it together that the babies might be closer in age than advertised, Trip was conveniently kept out of the scrutinous, public eye.
Here’s the thing. Sarah’s been trying to tell us the truth all along. She has. She’s left us clue after clue as to the true parentage of Trig, the other brother Trig and little Trip but we’ve just been too thick to listen or see. We never stepped far enough outside the box to deduce the whole picture. Until now. So step back, take a deep, deep breath – steady yourself. I know once you see all the clues together, you’ll agree with me how obvious it all should have been from the start.
Here were the clues…
**There are no public photos of Sarah and Todd during any of her first four pregnancies.
**In the family photos taken in late 2007, early 2008, Sarah and Todd are always standing behind one or more of their young daughters.
**While there are photos published of the 2008 Texas Big oil,RepublicanGovernors Sommin-Sommin Convention of Sarah with her fake belly, there are none of Todd.
**No one ever saw Todd help Sarah on or off the airplanes, carrying her luggage or helping her in and out of chairs during their wild ride from Texas to Alaska. We assumed this meant Sarah wasn’t pregnant. But…
**Sarah states in her book that each time she was pregnant Todd was always off on the North Slope. Every time.
**Todd spends long periods of time in the snow, dressed in bulky clothing, only appearing in public long enough to grab a trophy.
**Todd goes incommunicado for long periods of time, for purposes of pretending to be building houses or secret cabins, suspiciously coinciding with the final months of Sarah’s pregnancies.
So there you have it. I invite you to connect the dots yourself. Sarah Palin is not the mother of the Palin Triggles – Todd is.
Our fault Sarah – we should have known you would never have lied to the public without having a darn good reason. I apologize for us all.
* * *
This entire post was inspired by the inspirational words of Elstun Lauesen (in his piece at the Mudflats) when he referred to Fox News commentators as the Downer Triplets. Outstanding, thoughtful piece. I highly recommend using this link.
It’s also inspired another which I’ll be calling The Downer Syndrome – coming soon to a blog near you!
To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title The Trouble With Triggles and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud
You know that glazed look your teenagers give while you’re attempting to explain why they can’t just drop all their math classes because they will actually need a working knowledge of math in order to succeed in life – no matter the path they choose? Well, that’s the look my spouse now fires off at me whenever a sentence of mine begins with the two trigger words, ‘Sarah Palin’.
Even my stateside friends can be heard over the long-distance wire heaving a heavy ‘ohmigodhereshegoesagain’ sigh, followed quickly by an ‘ifIholdreallystillmaybeshewon’tnoticeI’mstillontheline’ inhale – to which I have adeptly given my curt… “I know you’re there I can hear you breathing!” reply.
The truth is, most of the world is tired of hearing from or about Sarah Palin. Rational people from all walks of life have dismissed her as a non-entity, as done a deal as the poor turkey in the 2008 Thanksgiving Pardoning death cone. I’ve personally heard the comment “She lost – she quit – she’s done – move on.”
But some of us can’t just ‘move on’. Some of us can still see those little legs twitching in the background, ignored and on-camera, symbolic of how Sarah Palin treats all her family, friends and peers and for us, there can be no stopping until we know the list of Sarah Palin Victims is finished as well.
The blog list on the right of this post is made up of very dedicated, quite remarkable yet ordinary Americans who continue to donate their time and energy researching and writing without pay, that the rest of us might keep focused on the real Sarah Palin rather than succumb to the Madison Avenue image created by the John McCain staff in particular, the Republican Party in general, and her own personal greed, made fat by Harper-Collins publishing house.
The fact is, in 2008, Sarah Palin perpetrated a hoax on the American people. A hoax far worse than anything Tiger Woods could ever have done behind closed doors with a consenting adult, and yet Mr. Woods’ transgressions are all over the media while Sarah Palin’s hoax still remains sealed in a cardboard box in a locked storage room behind a well-marked ‘Keep Out’ sign. For those of us who have glimpsed the contents of this box, it makes no sense whatsoever that the politicians, private citizens, educated physicians, and government officials who know the truth should remain silent, or that the media should not be scratching at the door en masse.
No other political aspirant to the White House Executive Staff in any history I can recall has ever, ever been allowed to skate past the press with such arrogant aplomb and total disregard for truth as Sarah Palin. To watch the national press allow this ne’er-do-well politician to slide by with garbled interviews, and outlandish personal stories a blind man could shoot holes through was appalling.
Last December I published a post on the discrepancies between the photos of baby Trig, (1) home from the hospital and cradled in Aunt Mercede’s arms and (2) just hours old in his grandmother’s arms in the hospital hallway. (Sarah, remember, couldn’t be photographed because she was ‘too-tired’.) It’s never made sense to me that the photo of the baby in the hospital corridor, just hours after birth, could show a Trig much bigger than the photo of him taken days later, after he’d been released and sent home.
It also seemed – to me – a bit out of character for a woman bold and brash enough to make a 12+ hour trip, in bad weather, on two separate airplanes with layovers in public airport lounges, to suddenly feign ‘fatigue’ as reason to not sit perfectly still in a comfy chair and have her photo taken holding her brand new ‘this is what I did all this travelling for’ newborn son.
For a woman who craves media attention the way Sarah does, that was like walking barefoot in the snow all the way to the candy shop only to ask the shopkeeper for asparagus instead.
A verbal comment which I’d never published came from the mother of the newborn bub I’d used to illustrate the difference between an actual 6+ lb newborn and Trig who was supposedly born at 6+ lbs. The two newborns were only a few ounces apart in birth weight, but their newborn photos were dramatically different. After reading the post she called to chat – and her very first comment about the two photos [above] of Trig were “Wow. It doesn’t even look like the same bub. No really, they look like two completely different infants.”
I’d only been trying to show that the birth date had to be wrong. My focus was on disproving Sarah’s wild ride from Texas to Alaska to give birth after her water had broken at a political conference. I hadn’t picked up on the actual visual differences between babies in the photos, purportedly all of baby Trig, other than the discrepancies in size on the date and first week of his little life.
So while I heard her comment, it didn’t raise any flags. Until…
Last month, I engaged in an email exchange with two different readers on the subject of Trig Palin’s true identity. These persons each purported to be a ‘friend of a friend’ who’d each had an odd conversation they wanted to pass along. I’ve combined them into one conversation. It went something like:
Emailee: If you and others know the truth about Trig’s birth, why on earth would you [or them] not come forward?
Response:What if the truth were so awful, so unimaginable that baby Trig would be traumatized if the truth came out?
Emailee: Trig is just a baby – he’s too young to be traumatized by anything in the press, and whatever huge secret this is, it’s better out now than later when he can be actually traumatized, don’t you think?
Response:But what if it doesn’t involve just Trig. What if other children are involved? What if all the children are involved?
One of the emailees was concerned about being responsible for ‘putting things in motion’. When asked what that meant, the reply was:
Well, there are so many lunatics out there – and on both sides of the fence – I would feel completely responsible if any harm came to anyone over my raising certain questions – putting those questions into people’s minds who hadn’t thought about it. I mean, if police or doctors, or even those people closer to the inner sanctum of Sarah Palin’s world wanted to go forward, then it would be okay I guess but out here – I would be concerned for people’s safety and welfare.
And then you realize – one day Trig will be old enough to read all this stuff said about the person he grows up to know as his mother. Think about what happens to him then?
I have thought about it. I grew up in a family, in an era where bad things were hidden in closets and no one was ever allowed to speak of them. It’s a crap way to live. Nothing good ever comes from secrets and inevitably, there’s a flood or a fire or a nosey real estate agent and someone does show up to clean out the closet whether you want them to or not.
Gryphen, over at The Immoral Minority is, as you read this, leading a cleaning crew straight for Sarah Palin’s closet door. With the help of some qualified advisors, and other hard-working bloggers, Gryphen is about to smash through that “Keep Out” sign and march the truth about little Trig right out into the daylight.
And I proudly stand with all the other bloggers (see list on right) who are watching his back.
Sarah Palin perpetrated a hoax on the American people during the 2008 Presidential campaign, claiming to have given birth to a Down’s Syndrome baby. She continues to perpetrate this hoax even now. She deserves to be held accountable. America needs her to be held accountable.
The infant known as Trig Palin needs her to be held accountable.
==================
Footnote:
This is completely off the top of my head but… in chatting with the commenters below, it AGAIN struck me as odd that Sarah Palin’s parents were the ones to present the governor’s new baby to the world without even a sibling or the dad present.But this time, as I’m reading and replying to comments, the penny has dropped that they are in a hospital ‘corridor’. As many times as I’ve typed “hospital corridor/hallway” in my posts regarding this issue, it’s only now just come into my line of sight that wait a minute – why a hallway? Without any activity going on around them, they might just as well have walked into the hospital off the street – met with ADN reporters then got into their car and drove off immediately after the interview.
How about it ADN? How’d that interview take place? Did any of your crew actually see Sarah or Todd? The delivering doctor? Were they even in the maternity ward? How about on the same floor as the maternity ward? Where’s the busy background? The nurses? The nice lady with the teacart? If Sarah was too tired to present her baby to the press, why didn’t they just take a statement from Todd and come back after she’d had some sleep? The first-ever Alaska governor to give birth in office and she lets somebody else stand in for the photos?
Could it be that none of the Palins were actually ‘admitted as patients into maternity’ that day? Could this have been just another Palin-staged photo-op? ==================
To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title: Trig Palin: For a little guy, you sure make a lot of big waves and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud
In her book, Sarah jokes about having had contractions during her infamous ‘my Down Syndrome son isn’t due for a month and my water broke but I don’t need to go to a hospital’ speech in Texas. And yet here’s an excerpt from her press interview given to the ADN (Anchorage Daily News) just 4 days after the alleged birth of Trig Paxson Van Palin:
FAMILY FEELS BLESSED: Back at work already, governor says she wasn’t in labor in Texas. By LISA DEMER ldemer@adn.com Published: April 22nd, 2008 01:11 AM Last Modified: October 20th, 2008 02:15 PM
“I am not a glutton for pain and punishment. I would have never wanted to travel had I been fully engaged in labor,” Palin said. After four kids, the governor said, she knew what labor felt like, and she wasn’t in labor.
So which is it? And how, after delivering four other babies, could she not know that the slightest twinge of labour (false or not) can become fully engaged labour without notice or provocation?
And why didn’t her ghost-writer know to check the local news archives so Sarah’s book would reflect versions of events already in print or on tape? Had the writer never researched a book prior to ghost-writing this one? Would Harper Collins have sent a green ghost-writer to handle such an ambitious, potentially lucrative endeavour? Would they not have wanted to protect their investment with a proper writer? The idea that all the discrepancies in Sarah’s book can be attributed to an inexperienced ghost-writer seems a bit too convenient to me. And fishy too, also.
But put all that aside because we have other discrepancies upon which to focus today. Below is a photo of Trig, a premature baby of almost 5 weeks, at a reported birthweight of 6 lbs 2 oz, being held by his grandmother, in the hospital corridor, just hours after he was allegedly born:
And here is a photo of Trig on Mercede’s lap, in Sarah’s dining room, at least 1 – 7 days after said birth:
Did you get that? Ok look at it another way. BabyTrig, home from the hospital beside my friend with her ‘just born’ bub, Missimoo.
The two babies pictured above are meant to be only 1/4 pound different in weight. Four ounces. 113 grams. That difference is equal to 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 stick of butter (US) or a 1/4 pound Big Mac (without the bun and lettuce).
Look again at the photos of Trig, one allegedly taken only a few hours after his birth, and the other on or just after his homecoming (which was reported to have been the day after his birth):
Now do you get it? The bub Trig in Mercede’s lap is noticeably smaller than the newborn Trig in grandma’s arms, and yet that photo was taken at least one day after Trig’s birth. The photos could not have been mislabelled or taken in any other order because the photos of grandma showing off her ‘hours’ old grandson’ is well documented by newspaper and television crews. Obviously, then, the aunt Mercede holding baby Trig while seated in one of Sarah’s dining room chairs photo, had to have been taken after the hospital hallway photo, after mum and bub have gone home from the hospital.
And yet the two bubs in the photos of Trig don’t appear to be the same age or weight.
Head – meet desk!
For the record, I hadn’t really paid attention to any of these photos when they were first shown a year ago. But some time after Missimoo was born, and I was looking through her hospital photos, the penny dropped. Look how Trig fits in the crook of Mercede’s arm. She needs only one arm to support him and only the one hand to secure his bum and his classic premie-baby, fetal-positioned legs. That was my epiphany. That’s exactly how my 4 lb 4 oz premie son looked and fit in the crook of my arm until he was about 5 lbs (around 4 weeks old). Missimoo, on the other hand, spills over her dad’s arms (see next) and her brother needs both of his arms to balance his sister (see summary). Plus, when you look at the photos side by side, the bub in Mercede’s lap has the look of a premature infant while the bub in grandma’s arms, with his well-rounded face, clearly does not.
This is a 6 lb+ newborn baby:
This is not:
The only logical explanation is that Trig was actually born several weeks prior to his public debut and that the MySpace photos (mysteriously wiped from the internet during the 2008 Presidential campaign) more accurately depict his real homecoming. Sarah’s wild McRide across the US was an amateurish exercise in misdirection, deliberately executed to establish her pregnancy as fact and garner credibility and favour with the media.
The photo-op pictorial of Sarah’s parents holding their newborn grandson in the hospital corridor the next day is as McPhoney as McSarah’s new McCheekbones. But it does establish her parents as willing cohorts in her scheme to separate the American McPeople from their McCash.
And for me, here’s the icing on the cake – if it turns out that baby Trig was born not on April 18, but in February or March, my (and a lot of others) original observation that Bristol and Levi, as two teenagers brought up under the misguided banner of abstinence only, erroneously thought they had a window of opportunity to safely engage in unprotected sex following Trig’s birth, thus resulting in Bristol’s falling pregnant a second time, fits surprisingly neatly into the timeline of a second son, Tripp, being born in December.
I cannot possibly know which of the Babygate theories is true, if any of them are true, but I can tell you that my eyes are not so old I can’t tell the difference between the premie look of the bub in the photos gleaned from Mercede’s MySpace, taken in Sarah’s home, and the more matured weight and look of the bub displayed in grandma’s arms, allegedly taken no less than the day before the dining room photos and purportedly only a few hours after his birth for the benefit of news crew cameras.
If (after you’ve stopped banging your head on your desk) you’d like to explore this subject further, there are more opinions, theories and photos on several blogs dedicated to exposing the truth behind politicians in general and Sarah Palin specifically at the following links. Some of my photos were pinched from news archives and these sites:
When I look at these all together in a group, an old Sesame Street song pops into my head. And thanks to youtube, here it is
To comment on this post please scroll back to the title “The four Ounce Gambol (McPhoney McPhotos) nd click the word comments directly beneath – Thanks, OzMud
Because I was watching this Countdown video clip at The Immoral Minority just a few minutes ago and – sheer disbelief had me watching it twice more.
Watch closely between .40 and .59 seconds on the tape.I pinched this but it’s a blur and I’ll most likely have to take it down anyway because I don’t have permission to use it.
But…
Anyone else notice how mom is dressed in full winter gear while the one-year old with health problems is in a summer hoody, bare-handed, bare-headed and the wind is blowing and it’s snowing …
I can almost understand the not putting on a full coat or wrapping him in a blanket to just walk the few feet from the car to the door. But could they not have at least put the bub’s hood over his head? It’s not like dad Todd has both of his arms around him protecting him from the chill or anything…
Who are these people?
====== Comments ======
#7 Anon: “It was really cold–below freezing, as it was sleeting and snowing. The forecast that day for the D.C. region was from 3-5 inches of snow. 31 degrees?”
#3 Albert Lewis: “I visit Alaska at least once a year and must tell you that Alaskans are often in shorts and t-shirts when it’s cold enough to put me into a sweater and jacket, plus hat.”
#12 CG: “Some Alaskans do wear shorts/t-shirts in the winter, but really only those who live an urban lifestyle and don’t expect to be outside – going from car to mall. [Which is kind of stupid to the rest of us Alaskans.]“
Oz- My normal attire when living in snow country was K-Mart special long underwear, jeans, flannel long-sleeved shirt and snow boots with a pair of men’s tube socks. If the sun was shining, I might leave the shirt unbuttoned and roll up the sleeves. When it wasn’t, everything was buttoned up and a nice thick, zip-up jacket was added. The jacket always had a hood and I always had a knitted hat in one pocket and gloves in the other, because temps dropped on a dime.
I raised a special needs kid. The first 5 years were critical to his well-being. It was explained to me by highly educated people that this is when the lion’s share of special needs kids health problems all manifest themselves and act as a prelude to his adolescent years. He would be more prone (than my other kids) to chest infections, ear infections, eye and sinus infections, and the more we could prevent those from occurring while he was little, the less likely he would be to suffer from chronic infections later on. And I don’t mean to sound catty, but his corrective eyewear was worn all the time, not just for photo-ops.
#9 MAnxMama: “I’ve commented on this particular picture before. WTF is the Palin family thinking? People most always ensure that their children are dressed adequately, even if that means going without themselves.”
#11 Chelsea: “I can’t tell you how many times I got my little ones all bundled up and into the car (and yes, just a few steps) while forgetting my own coat, hat and gloves. I’m not a great mom, but I could see to that much before I saw to my own needs.
Oz- That’s precisely what makes a person a great parent though – that basic instinct to shoulder your kids from harm, from the cold, from unpleasant experiences even though it might mean you get wet or cold or tired or scared instead. This was a book signing engagement? Why was Trig even there? He didn’t write anything.
#4 Myrtilla: “The way it looks, one could form the opinion that she did not think the child had nerve endings. I would think that someone did intervene. Notice he is wearing shoes & pants, at least.”
#13 KarenJ: “… At least they put Trig’s shoes on…”
Oz- I’m Godsmacked. It takes ‘someone else’ to remember to put shoes on the fifth child of two parents who’ve previously raised four?
#6 Nick Smith:”Have you sad losers really got nothing better to do with your lives than write this crap?”
Oz- Hey Nick - Thanks for reading! And to answer your question: As long as the Palins keep pulling this crap we’ll all be out here writing about it
Like almost everything Sarah, I’m left with mixed emotions after watching this particular youtube clip of our favourite ill-fated governor speaking on behalf of the 2009 Special Olympics. Part of me thinks if Sarah Palin can increase awareness and support of this worthy cause then you go girl!
The other part of me is just plain angry. I still have trouble swallowing the story of her fifth pregnancy. I don’t understand why, if her story is true, she didn’t just go public with his birth certificate and put an end to the matter. But she never did. If her story is true, why was there never an inquiry into or a medical board hearing addressing the behaviour of Sarah’s ObGyn?
Because if Sarah’s account is true, it means:
A medical doctor licensed to practice in the USA, in a long-distance telephone conversation with her patient, a 44 year old woman in the eighth month of her pregnancy involving an unborn child with Downs Syndrome, upon hearing her patient’s water broke, advised her to travel several thousands of miles in (multiple) cars and airplanes to get home to rural Wasilla Alaska, rather than instruct her patient to immediately check into the nearest Texas hospital – all during an Alaskan blizzard !?!
To not believe the story is to believe Sarah has defrauded the public on a subject most sacred – the birthright of a child and his mother – so no matter which road your mind takes in this saga, whichever version you swallow, the bizarre pregnancy and Toad’s Wild Ride home or the unthinkable, sinkable hoax - really either is just too much to ask a normal-thinking person to digest.
The following video is presented on youtube as an introduction to the 2009 Special Olympics. It’s posted on the Conservative Media Network account. If you believe the story that Trig is her son it’s almost lovely. But if you have any doubt… if it turns out that Sarah is not Trig’s real mother and she’s spent the first year of Trig’s life giving speeches like this – well that’s just wrong.
But wait! There’s more!
Sarah’s gesture of promoting a worthy cause stops short of being ‘lovely’ as soon as you click open the video’s description and realize it may have been posted on youtube more to embarrass the sitting president than to promote the Special Olympics.
This is the ‘info’ blurb attached to the video on the youtube site:
Exact Date Unknown; 2009) — Alaskan governor Sarah Palin gives her remarks to those attending, and competing in, the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games held in Boise, Idaho.
Palin’s youngest child, Trig, suffers from Down Syndrome.
These comments by Palin stand in contrast with the insensitive joke made by Barack Obama on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 19, 2009, Obama mocked the Special Olympics while referencing his own poor bowling performance during the Democratic primaries.
Obama rolled a 37 while on a tour of the state of Pennsylvania.
Governor Palin — along with millions of other disabled Americans, their loved ones and their friends — is not likely to appreciate the callous remark made by Obama, a comment beneath any president, particularly a sitting one.
These are the tags (directing search engines like Google) to the video:
Conservative New Media
ConservativeNewMedia threat fear angst terror terrified
protect defend slutty flight attendant
David Letterman joke backlash
Willow Bristol Track Todd Piper Trig
So to find this video clip about the Special Olympics through youtube or Google, we should use tag words like threat, fear, terror and slutty flight attendant????
It occurred to me how swiftly some documents have disappeared from the web once attention was brought to them so as I finished publishing this article, I thought I’d wander back over to youtube and take a screenshot of the page itself as backup to my quotes.
I appear to have been wrong in my statement about the tags. I apologize for the error and am pleased to report the tags I quoted appear to have been associated with another blurb. I’m guessing the blurb about President Obama and his unfortunate bowling joke on the Jay Leno was posted on youtube and copy-pasted onto the bottom of the Special Olympics blurb (most probably in an effort to disqualify the President while promoting Sarah) but the person who merged the two blurbs into one didn’t think to remove the tags previously used. Well, with so many people out of work in the US, I imagine it’s hard to find qualified help these days. <insert eyeroll>
In scrolling down to locate the actual tags used to link this video to search lists I noticed the word sexism, and that it’s apparently been translated into a few other languages. Umm huh?
The tags associated with this video clip are at the very bottom in blue lettering. Fear and terror are not there. Thank Goodness! Wait – What’s with the sexism, misogyny, hate, statutory rape, tea and fishing????
And MILF (mother I love to fuck – an acronym embraced by pot smokers) – of all things – is in the tag list as well. A tag list associated with the Special Olympics. A tag list attached to a video clip of Sarah Palin and two of her youngest children. Way to shoot yourself in the foot Conservative New Media!
Someone should tell Letterman he’s off the hook now that Sarah’s own people have publicly linked her, Piper and Baby Trig to sexism, mysogyny, statutory rape and the love of a good root!
Maybe someone should let the nice folks who run the Special Olympics know how their promotional video is being -well, promoted
To comment on this post scroll back to the title: Sarah: Trig’s Mother or The Greatest Porky Ever Told and click the word comments just beneath – Thanks, OzMud
There is a new poll on TOPIX asking it’s readers to not only vote for whom they believe to be Trig Palin’s actual biological mother, but also asks the reasoning behind the vote.
I voted for Sarah Bristol. But my reasoning didn’t fit into the comment box *grins* so I thought I’d post it here;
Please understand my knowledge of Alaska and it’s Governor was nihl to nothing prior to Sarah stepping on the natonal stage last year as the VP candidate on John McCain’s Presidential ticket. Originally, I was behind McCain for the simple reason I had been a Hilary supporter and was gutted when she lost to the Still-Wet-Behind-The-Ears Senator Obama. But Sarah’s campaign of hate and disrespect for her fellow citizens changed everything. I began to campaign for Obama from my perch in Australia, having been won over by his relentless calm and unbounding logic regarding world affairs and economics – and fearful of the consequences a woman like Sarah Palin would proffer holding an executive office.
From the beginning, my gut has steered me away from taking anything Sarah Palin had to say at face value. So far, it’s looking like a pretty accurate instinct. So this is the reasoning behind my vote of ‘Bristol Palin is Trig’s natural mother”
My gut says this is how it all happened:
Bristol and Levi, having only been educated in abstinence and not actual birth control or STD prevention, succumb to teenage hormones and Bristol falls pregnant.
But during the first trimester, before Bristol starts showing or a plan can be made, one of her routine ultrasounds shows an abnormality. An amniocentesis is ordered. The baby has Downs Syndrome.
“How can this be? Bristol is too young to have a Downs baby! Only older women have that!”
“Well, no, actually, there are a percentage of young women who give birth to Downs babies every year. Statistically, it’s around .6%. That’s six out of every thousand pregnancies. There are actual support groups for young mothers Bristol’s age with Downs babies. I can give you a few numbers…”
But Sarah’s not thinking about support groups. The light in her brain has switched to the [on] position and a plan is hatched. Mom Sarah, realizing how other people would also associate a Downs baby with a late-in-life pregnancy, figures if she steps up and claims the baby is hers, no one would question it. She could avoid a scandal (teenage unwed mother and all that) and this pregnancy would not interfere with her political agenda. She’d only been Governor for a couple of months. This was not the time to test the public waters.
As soon as Bristol’s bump could no longer be hidden under a bulky sweatshirt, she’s pulled out of school and whisked away under the guise of having a case of mononucleosis so severe she requires complete bedrest, sans visitors. Sarah will wait until the very last minute to divulge her secret pregnancy.
After all, it’s also possible that the pregnancy would terminate itself. The doctor said there was a small but not uncommon chance that nature could intervene causing Bristol to miscarry. So she wouldn’t rush to tell people right away. She’d wait until at least the end of the second trimester.
In early March, Sarah begins wearing loose-fitting clothing. It was, after all, just faking a pregnancy. Not rocket science.
But Sarah’s impatient nature doesn’t have her slowing down. She maintains a busy schedule and keeps her eye on the political prize which lies ahead. She makes and keeps all speaking engagements. She adjusts the size of her belly, first with a simple band, then with the same fake bellies used by actresses to show the progressive phases of natural pregnancies. Which was heaps better because the band kept slipping, and she kept needing to explain why she wore her big coats indoors.
She would attribute the lack of swollen ankles and no increase in body fat to a healthy diet and good exercise. She could be pregnant and still do whatever she wanted to do. She would be the epitome of the modern woman.
Bristol going into labour while Sarah was out of state giving a speech tossed a monkey wrench into the mix, but it was still doable. The doctor had also explained that Bristol, being a first time mom would probably have a long labour. Sarah would have plenty of time to give her speech, get on the first plane out of Texas and with Todd at her side, get back to Wasilla before anyone was the wiser. She would make it home in time to say she’d comfortably delivered her baby, in her own state, by her own doctor.
As it was, Bristol didn’t deliver for several hours after she and Todd checked into the hospital. It was all good. They’d get through this politically unscathed.
The rumours of her being on the short list for the VP nomination turned out to be true. Senator McCain sent his scouts to meet with her. She assured them she was up to the task. Everything was going well.
The thing about not properly educating your children about sex, pregnancies and venereal diseases, is they are left to fumble around on their own. The old joke about the Catholic woman thinking ‘the rhythm method’ meant only having sex every Thursday night, isn’t so funny when you realize how many young women are left in the dark about how pregnancies actually happen.
I know, personally, a young woman who, at the age of 15, succumbed to having sex with her 2-year long boyfriend. She contracted herpes on their first intimate encounter. She was horrified. She looked me straight in the eye and said “but I don’t understand! I took a bath right after!”
A very common misnomer is that a woman cannot conceive directly after delivery. That while you are nursing, or bleeding from the delivery, you are safe to have unprotected sex. How appealing that must sound to many young people. Unprotected sex without consequences. No cumbersome rubber! Cool..
Enter baby Trip. And this time, Sarah can’t cover for her child. “Oh well, since we can’t hide her, we’ll just trot her out on the national stage as the pinup girl for abstinence-is-best and make some money off her speaking engagements. Bristol! You now believe in abstinence! Put down that basket of laundry and start writing your speeches!”
Well, that’s my story, and until someone from Wasilla who actually knows the truth, takes some responsibility and drags it out of the shadows and into the light of day, I’m sticking by it.
Hattip to The Immoral Minority (link is just over there >>) for the poll at Topix.
EDIT: Fixed stats number above. Correct stat is .6% (6/1000) rather than 6% as first posted. Thank you, ENOUGHwiththetrainwreck, for catching this error. (I should never try to work with numbers after midnight!)
As few as six weeeks ago, everywhere that Sarah went, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper were in tow. Everywhere. On and off airplanes, in and out of convention centres, everywhere.
As few as four weeks ago, during interviews in their Wasilla home, Trig was always in a photo being carried by either Sarah herself one of the girls.
Where’s Trig now? He didn’t accompany mum to the Turkey Pardon Fiasco, the Governor’s Convention in Florida, or the Chambliss Campaign. I bet Obama would have liked to meet the little guy at his gathering in Philly but again, little Trig, the one time attached-to-the-hip Palin accessory of choice, was a no show.
I never saw an array of ’Thanksgiving photos of the Governor’s Family’ in the ADN even though at the Turkey Pardon Interview Sarah made a big deal out of being in charge of cooking the turkey for her whole family on the day.
Her Staffers reported that Sarah kept Trig with her during April, May, June, July and August while she performed her duties as Governor, and yet there are no AP Wire or ADN candid shots of mum and bub in and around town as she did her job then or now. So what’s the deal?
It’s 6 December 2008. Trig is fast approaching being 8 months of age. He’s a special needs bub. That means he has SPECIAL NEEDS. Surely his physical development is being monitored by someone? Who? Who’s looking after him medically? Who’s looking after him daily?
Is he crawling?
Can he turn over by himself?
Is he holding his head up?
Can he hold his own bottle?
Is he sleeping through the night?
Is he eating any solids yet?
As the Republican Party’s calendar girl for mother of special needs kids, Sarah should be openly sharing her daily experiences so mothers of other special needs kids can feel more secure about their own.
So who’s looking after Trig and where is he?
Oh wait.
Bristol’s not around either, is she.
Well for a Governor who touts herself as the ultimate advocate for transparency in government, this is all clear as mud to me.
