From Huffington Post: (and it is many other places for those who think Fox News is the definitive news(sic) station)

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Shannyn Moore

Just a girl from Homer, Alaska

Sarah Palin & company spent several days in Homer filming her “Sarah Palin’s Uh-laska” show. (Eyes rolled).

On the public dock, private security patted down private citizens. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure from their government. Private security searching private citizens in a public place, doesn’t fall under that category. It’s a bit more hinky.

Whether it was TLC or the Palins who contracted security, under what authority did they operate in a public location? Were they looking for weapons? Well, now there’s a Second Amendment issue.

 

This is Alaska, we carry guns. You can open-carry or acquire a concealed weapons permit from the state. If you are a law abiding citizen, you don’t even need a permit. Sarah Palin recently endorsed Alaska Tea Party Candidate Joe Miller for US Senate. His supporters carried assault rifles in last month’s Golden Days Parade in Fairbanks. If weapons are good enough for a public parade, weapons should be fine at a public dock.

Maybe it wasn’t about guns. Maybe it was about cameras. In that case, it’s a First Amendment issue. Whether Palin had a problem with the First Amendment, the Second Amendment or the Fourth Amendment, she contradicted her entourage’s actions at the Homer dock.

Risking accusations of being all “Wee-Wee’d Up”, one Homer woman made a sign in her shed. She then took the 30-foot-by-3-foot banner out to the boat harbor. It said “WORST GOVERNOR EVER”. Kathleen Gustafson is a teacher married to a local commercial fisherman. She felt like Sarah Palin had let the state down by becoming a dollar-chasing celebrity and ignoring the oath of office she’d sworn on a Bible.

Kathleen was motivated by the fact Palin was using the very place where her family makes a living to fortify the Palin personality cult — pretending to do the very thing they worked so hard to sustain. Initially, Kathleen just wanted to waste a little of the camera crew’s time, since Palin wasted so much of her time purporting to represent Alaska’s interests.

She didn’t imagine Palin would be so easy to draw out.

Saturday morning, Billy Sullivan helped Kathleen tape the banner up on his place of business at the top of the boat ramp. Then here she came. Sarah.

She couldn’t just walk by. Only a few fishermen and tourists would have seen the banner, but Sarah had to stop and protest. I spoke with Kathleen. She said she wanted Palin to know how she felt, but never dreamed she’d get the chance to say to her face, “You’re not a leader, you’re a climber!” Early in the conversation, Sarah actually winked at Kathleen in what seemed to be a case of eyelid Tourette’s Syndrome.

At one point, a Palin daughter chanted, “You’re just jealous”. Kathleen told Sarah she was disappointed that she dropped her responsibility to the state to became a celebrity. Palin said incredulously, “I’m honored. No, she thinks I’m a celebrity!” Really? So the camera crew wasn’t an indicator? How many times do you have to be on magazine covers to gain celebrity status? Something about camping with Kate Plus Eight in rain slickers seems, well, a little celebrity.

Billy Sullivan caught much of the interchange on his cell phone camera. The back of her security guard’s head and Todd Palin attempted to block Billy’s view, continually rotating like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. What were they afraid of? I guess that’s what happens when you’re filming a “celebrity”. He was even told by one of the Palin daughters, “You’re an A-hole”. Charming family values.

I asked both Billy and Kathleen which Palin daughter said what. Neither knew. They don’t have televisions and aren’t interested in Palin’s personal life and dramas.

In what has become typical tragic irony, Sarah initially claimed to support Kathleen’s First Amendment Rights. But as soon as Billy Sullivan walked toward the dock, one of Palin’s entourage tore down the sign to great applause from her group.

Todd Palin approached Billy (who owns a business called Dockside Fish and buys halibut on that dock) and asked him to get out of the Discovery crew’s shot. “You just can’t get enough of her, can you?” he asked. An Alaska State Trooper told Billy he should call the Homer Police Department and report the trespassing and destruction of property.

What the Palin folks don’t seem to understand is simple; if Fred Phelps gets to hold his hateful signs up at military funerals, Billy should be able to put Kathleen’s “WORST GOVERNOR EVER” banner on his building and not have a Palin goon tear it down.

The First Amendment only matters when you say or write something someone else doesn’t like.

For someone who doesn’t hold elected office and denies being a celebrity, Sarah Palin may want to get a “Constitutional Handler”.

This looks and sounds like an entire family of thugs. Kathleen has a law suit, but she seems like the kind of woman who wouldn’t dream of suing. How dare the Palin-ioso tear down a sign on someone else’s building? And the children? Lippy little things, aren’t they? I would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap.

A smart politician would not have walked over to engage in confrontation. A smart politician would not have allowed the thugs to pat down private citizens on a public dock. A smart politician would not have allowed her children to speak out so rudely to anyone.   I can only surmise from what I see on this tape that she really isn’t very smart and has limited understanding of much of anything. 

This capture makes me dislike Sarah Palin. Heretofore I just thought she was a buffoon. I was wrong.

29 Thoughts to “A Palin Constitution Moment”

  1. marinm

    Good video. She engaged a person she knew that she was hostile towards her and listened to her points without being preachy. She’s great. She’s a good symbol of an empowered confident and intelligent female politician and executive.

    I would be proud to salute her were she ever to be elected as our executive.

  2. Does anyone know who Shannyn Moore might be? And how she feels about Palin? Since this encounter was recorded, why isn’t there any evidence of her kid’s words? I gather, from other posts on the internet, that she has a history of writing disparaging articles about Palin, but, I cannot find the blog post that I read that in.

    Whoever was trying to block the camera was an idiot. The video actually does not show Palin in a BAD light, just an average light. She comes across as a chirpy, overly friendly woman that’s trying too hard. She would have done better to tone down the cheerfulness. A serious comment would have been better and ignoring it best of all.

    I do find it ironic that the woman, who is a theater tech, not a teacher, research has found, calls her the “worst governor ever” but wanted her to stay in the role as Governor. Trust me, if Obama wants to quit his job for ANY reason, I will applaud his going.

    Palin left because harassing lawsuits made it impossible for her to do her job and was bankrupting her family. So she left and defused the situation.

  3. She left to make money, in my opinion. She was elected to office and should have diffused the situation by sticking to it. I just thought she looked like a buffoon. That spiel about the constitution and the army really was sickening…after the sign was torn down. The sing-songy voice and the snide looks…just horrible.

    Shannyn Moore is a journalist and a blogger. I believe the incident was recorded by one of the townspeople on his cell phone video camera. Why would he be blocked?

    Marin, I am surprised that you didn’t revolt over the people on the public pier being patted down.

    I suppose we all see what we want to see.

    As for the kid, you could hear some of it in the background. I didn’t hear the A hole part.

  4. Elena

    Did anyone notice the reaction of Palin when this woman said she was a teacher? It was very odd to me.

    Yes, poor Sarah, how she hates being seen as a celebrity as opposed to a “serious” politician. Thank G-d she isn’t near any real position of power.

  5. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Elena :
    Did anyone notice the reaction of Palin when this woman said she was a teacher? It was very odd to me.
    Yes, poor Sarah, how she hates being seen as a celebrity as opposed to a “serious” politician. Thank G-d she isn’t near any real position of power.

    Yeah, her polling numbers are, like, what?……Above Obama? Tied with Obama? Cool, ain’t it?

  6. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Palin’s job is to draw fire. She’s good at her job! And AAAAriana Huffington, Daaaahhhling!!

  7. marinm

    Elena, the ‘eye roll’ hasn’t caught traction because teachers run in the Palin family. Anything and everything is thrown her way and it just doesn’t stick. If the media did 1/10th the hatchet job on our President than they have on her CNN, MSNBC and CBS wouldn’t be in the ratings free fall they’re currently in.

    The video clip didn’t show the pat downs referenced.

    Pat downs, colleges that ask for arrest records, as I’ve said before to NO answer from my friends here on the left… How many rights – privacy or constitutional – are you all willing to sacrifice for this illusion of safety?

    Didn’t Bush suspend Habeas for ‘our’ safety? Maybe the left on here actually …..likes Dubya. 😉

  8. Her father was a science teacher. That is why I didn’t understand the eye rolling and the look of distain.

    Seriously, Palin fans, did you think her blurb on the constitution and the military interests represented mature speech?

    The pat down stuff was in the article, not the video. I think I left the link.

    I answered you but I am not the left. The left threw me out a long time ago.

    How about employers asking you about arrests? The military doesn’t ask. They just dig it out and help themselves.

    Arrest records are public records. Any reporter can go pick up the entire report out of the magistrates tray. Any person can walk into the courthouse and ask for that file. It is not a secret. Therefore, I don’t think your ‘giving it all up for an illusion of freedom’ holds water. Same with the college arrest record. It can be obtained but what institute has the time to go hunting down arrests. (probably most at the beach over summer break). It is easier to hold students responsible for alerting the college.

    Colleges are simply asking you to provide something that is a matter of public record. Trascripts? Now those are private. Do you resent those being given to a college also?

  9. Wolverine

    The “Charlie Rangel Show” is much more fun to watch. And the “Maxine Waters Show” will soon follow. Will we see those on the Huff Post? Fat chance.

  10. [Best Jon Stewart voice: Deflection time}

    Actually the Charlie Rangel story is all over the Huffington Post almost daily. It generally isn’t very pretty or supportive. Nor is the op/ed commentary.

    I think Charlie Rangel is pathetic. He is an old man and a war hero. Sort of like Ted Stevens. That was sad also.

    Back to Sarah…military interests are defending our constitution. Yea right. I noticed that with the Iraq war. NOT.

  11. Second-Alamo

    Maybe Palin knew this person’s background and was trying to get her to admit her activities knowing she wasn’t a teacher. Besides, rolling your eyes is much more respectful than the replies made by some liberals in similar situations. Face it, those who hate Palin will never find anything positive just as those who hate Obama will do the same. It’s all politics at one level or another. I remember when members of congress were calling the then president Bush a liar, and the left did nothing but cheer them on, but roll your eyes at a citizen and suddenly it’s deemed horrible? Give me a break!

  12. Morning, SA. How about those of us that don’t approve of either behavior? Actually I think calling the president (regardless of whom it is) is worse than eye-rolling.

    I just can’t figure out why she would roll her eyes over the woman being a teacher. It is pretty bad work but its still honorable. Why would she doubt that the woman was a teacher? The woman was in her home town of Homer, working at the docks in the summer, helping with her husband’s business. Surely Palin realizes that many Alaskans feel she is a quitter.

    I don’t hate Sarah Palin. She is an American phenomena. I just feel she is unfit for office. I think less of her family after seeing that display. She is catapulting herself into a position of fame. That’s what Americans do. She could have never done that if she had gone back to Alaska with her tail between her legs and served her state.

    I just don’t need her to defend our Constitution with military interests. Shudder.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20013144-503544.html

  13. hello

    more from the Huff-and-Puff post huh… yawn. Ever think about changing the name of this site from moonhowlings to huffingtonpostJR or huffingtonpostLite or localHuffingtonpost or….?

  14. Actually, what I have thought about is putting you back in time out, Hello. If you don’t like the name of the blog or the sources, then you are free to go to another blog. Isn’t America great.

    Huffington Post is a good place to gather information which is always checked out at other sources. It is what I think they call in the trade, an aggregate. New York Times, Washington Post, Times, and Examiner are also good for gathering information from all perspectives. There are many news source links in the page tabs at the top for those who want to do some reading. There are probably links to 30 different papers and internet sites–some general news, some dedicated political news.

    [Deflection time again. Its hard to defend obnoxious behavior, isn’t it. Let’s pick at Moon for getting the source from Huffington Post ….the liberal RAGGGGGG.]

    Most importantly, it is important to cite sources. Huffington makes it easy. Now unless you want to take the blog over and spend the time necessary to cite all the sources from multiple sources, stuff a sock in it.

  15. marinm

    Hello, I don’t mind HPost being used as a reference. A reference helps you to identify where the information came from and to check if they also referenced anything. Knowing it’s from HPost just tells me to read it with skepticism as the facts will take a bend to the left. Nothing wrong with that as I know going into things that I may be reading more propeganda versus ‘news’. So, I don’t see a reason to object.

    MH: Seriously, Palin fans, did you think her blurb on the constitution and the military interests represented mature speech?

    I respond: I think it’s unscripted speech and that’s what makes it grand. Aren’t you sick and tired of polished politicians all from the same elite schools and all – regardless of party – basically saying the same thing? One genuine problem that people across the political spectrum can point to is that ‘Washington doesn’t understand small-town America’ or ‘Washington doesn’t understand anything but Washington’. Isn’t refreshing to have a politician that bucks the system and even puts a poker in her own party if she has to? Compromise for the sake of compromise is evil. — This political ad paid for by Friends of MarinM.

    Employers ask for convictions not arrests (depending on the State). Some states even limit the questioning of that topic to convictions within the ‘field’ — for example if you will be handling money they can ask if you’ve been convicted of any crime of fraud, embezzelment, theft, etc.

    You could make a case that Facebook is a ‘public record’ (though not yet maintained by the State…yet) and that a college has a valid security interest in keeping up with students and activities they partake in on and off campus.

    How about a GPS crammed up my rectum so that the Dean knows at a moments notice if I’m in class or sleeping in my dorm room. Biometric monitoring system implanted to keep track of my vitals so in case I fall ill they can send help post haste!

    What is the limit of the control we want the GOVERNMENT to have on us. I guess my student ID at UVA will be updated to say; Kinte, Konta.

    This idea that government should be our father and mother makes me want to gag.

  16. Gross. Too many personal remarks being made here today. Guys, cuss as you would like but keep the locker room talk out.

    When I was in college the argument was over in loco parentis which we all fought…but the school did serve in that capacity. Thus you had rules, regulations, curfews, etc.

    I don’t think having to report your arrests and convictions is in loco parentis. I think it is just accountability.

    I doubt we will ever agree. Perhaps it is generational.

  17. Marin, I dont mind telepromptors, notes or anything else. I just think Sarah Palin should have gone about her own business and left the woman alone. What came out of her mouth is just political trash and I hope she doesn’t believe herself.

    But you asked about what I find offensive in the political arena: almost everything.

    I find the party system just abhorrent, and I find the amount of money spent on elections obscene. No wonder we get such toads.

  18. MH, RE: the Palin eye-rolling, my impression was that she was disgusted at the idea of someone who is not a right-wing robot like her molding the minds of the children.

  19. marinm

    But, she was going about her business. If a person has a right to protest me as a person should I not have the right to atleast ask them why they’re protesting me? Think about it; Ms. Palin gave her the best gift she could – exposure. Instead of a handful of people seeing the banner, millions have seen it because the media LOVES Ms. Palin.

    So, outside a rogue security agent that needs a refresher on executive protection she actually helped this woman’s 1A right by broadcasting that message across our airwaves and the blogsphere.

    As for the pat downs….this is where I deviate from my conservative friends here and maybe the lefties… I think that the idea of a bubble around the President where you can’t carry guns goes against our founders intent. If the HPost wishes to debate the pat downs on the pier than they need to also understand that the correct position is then to get rid of security checkpoints across everything. No politician by virtue of his or her position should stand over a citizen that wishes to carry a firearm under his 1A or 2A right.

    Anyone wanna sign up to that? 🙂

  20. I think she wanted Sarah Palin to see her. And no, Palin didn’t need to come over to the banner. It was away from where she was doing her business. She has a right to do it. People in this country have a right to do most of the things they do.

    Was it smart? She should have ignored her. This just validates why many of us think she is unsuited for office above something like board of supervisors of Wasilla. And I think she is great there, or perhaps as a state senator.

    As to your question….no. REmember Reagan getting shot? How about Kennedy? Or Bobby Kennedy? Or MLK, or George Wallace? Those were dark days. And the rules we have in place now are because of those dark days and those assassins.

  21. Hit send too soon. The point is, Sarah Palin is a private citizen and unless Alaska provides security for ex governors, she shouldn’t be having her goon squad patting down citizens in public places. That sure is a drift from that touchy feeling Constitution she was talking about.

    I think I would have just reserved the public pier for a day and not patted down the private citizens.

  22. marinm

    Your underlying premise is that some people are just ‘better than’ others. That somehow due to there social rank, position or status that they can get a special benefit – in this case protection. Why can’t a private citizen be able to protect themselves to the same extent as our elite?

    Ever notice that they Mayor of Chicago never has a worry about crime on his person? That’s because he’s protected around the clock by police officers. The average guy on the street has to call for help.

    So, what I’m saying is.. If the HPost is ‘serious’ about the issue of citizen patdowns and 2nd amendment rights then they need to go full monty. The idea that we can do something but because a person wears a shiny hat that says they’re important (or at least more important than me) means that I have to give something up so that they can grace me with their presence? Doesn’t that at all smack you of something ‘unfair’?

  23. Some people are higher profile than others…not better. Those are the rules.

    When you can hire the same level of security as a president, I guess you all are on an equal footing.

  24. Wolverine

    In my opinion, the worst part of this episode is a demonstration of the growing desire and need for personal security protection in our society. We have become a society full of absolute crackpots all across the political spectrum. It makes no difference who you are. If you have a public or political persona and pursue an agenda which may irritate others, you seem to draw threats almost automatically in a milieu in which there are never enough police officers to respond and protect you. Politicians of the Left or Right, political commentators, personalities in the entertainment industry — it seems to be happening to all of them. Even our police officers are getting greenlighted. Sheriff Joe in Maricopa County and another sheriff in Arizona, for instance, have both been openly targeted for death by the so-called Mexican Mafia. It seems to me that personal security is becoming one of the few growth industries in the current economy.

    You tell me that Sarah Palin’s bodyguards were a bit overzealous on that pier? No kidding. What’s the alternative? Let Sarah be attacked first and take your chances on her survival? That’s just how bad it has gotten. We have done this to ourselves by letting the political hate get out of hand. I really don’t think anyone here would be happy to see the Constitution followed to the letter and Sarah dead because of it, would they? Hmmm, I just heard that some political wag in Alaska expressed the sentiment that he wished it had been Palin on that crashed plane instead of Ted Stevens. How nice. Makes me sick — as sick as I was about all those pukes on the other side of the aisle who physically threatened Bart Stupak after the health care reform vote.

  25. That makes me sick too, Wolverine. re Palin instead of Stevens. I don’t care for Sheriff Joe’s style but how dare someone put a hit out on him.

    Back to the pier, (which I keep wanting to misspell) It is a public pier. Why should Palin be able to come on it and have her security pat down anyone or tell them to move. She doesn’t hold public office. I have a real problem with that.

    I also read that her security tore the sign down. I don’t know if that is true or not. I saw the downed sign but I didn’t see the who done it part.

    That’s just a family that has worn out its welcome with me. I used to like them as a family (never politically). No longer.

  26. I keep going back to the fact that Palin looked like she was going to barf when the woman said she was a teacher. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the woman picked up on that look and started defending herself, almost apologetically, telling everyone she did other things too…almost as though teaching was some sort of lackey job that definitely incorporated sitting on her ass doing not much of anything. Is that the Alaska view of teaching?

    Palin won’t be forgiven for that look.

  27. Second-Alamo

    It just struck me that conservatives view most in education as liberals, and perhaps that is the link that made Palin take pause as if to mime ‘well that explains it’.

  28. I think you are absolutely right, SA. I don’t think that excuses her behavior though.

    Most of the people I know and knew in education weren’t liberal at all. I knew a couple of people who were but the vast majority of the people known by me were right leaning centrists.

    Mr. Ed: You might be right. It is difficult for me to get into the mind of Sarah Palin. I find it strange that she would forget her roots. Her father was a science teacher before he retired. I still wonder if she would advocate teaching earth history and origins, as well as biology and physics from an evolution point of view.

  29. I doubt if she would be a strong advocate for science-based teachings in schools, we already know she is totally against sex education, preferring “Abstinence Only,” and we see how that has worked out in her family, but I’m sure she’s still against sex.ed. Good old Common Sense Conservatives!!

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