What Are Palin and McCain Hiding?

Between the tight control of access to Sarah Palin - Christianist fruitcake extraordinaire as I will discuss in a future post - and the attempts to interfere with the Alaskan government's investigation of Ms. Palin in "Troopergate," the old adage "if you don't have anything to hide, you don't act as if you do" comes to mind. Obviously, there are two reasons why the McCain/Palin ticket is acting like it is: (1) without controlled and scripted appearances, Palin will demonstrate just what a ridiculous choice she was for the VP slot, and (2) there is substance to the Troopergate allegations. Hence, McCain is desperately trying to keep Palin under wraps so that he can foist a pig in a poke (and a down right crazy one at that) on the American public.

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The media needs to stop facilitating McCain and Palin and do a complete shut down of ANY coverage on their campaign or their stateents unless and until McCain and Palin allow normal, unscripted interviews and press conferences. This shut down should include a total cessation of parroting bullshit dished out by McCain's campaign. Why not force him to spend money to disseminate the lies and deceptions which have become his stock in trade? Perhaps CNN is waking up to how the media is being cynically played as a patsy. Today, rather than be controlled by the campaign and provide photo ops for Palin, CNN walked away as reported by Yahoo News. Here are some highlights:

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At first, campaign aides told the TV producer, print and news agency reporters in the press pool that followed the Alaska governor that they would not be admitted along with still photographers and a video camera crew taken in to photograph her meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who are here for the United Nations General Assembly this week.
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At least two news organizations, including The Associated Press, objected to the exclusion of reporters and were told that the decision was not subject to discussion. Presidents and members of Congress routinely allow reporters to attend photo opportunities along with photographers and the reporters sometimes are able to ask questions during the brief photo sessions, usually held at the beginning of private meetings.

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CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew from the first meeting, with Karzai, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought. But after the campaign agreed to let CNN's producer in as well, the CNN camera crew joined the session. . . . The media were escorted out after about 40 seconds. . . Palin has been criticized for avoiding taking questions from reporters or submitting to one-on-one interviews.

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Meanwhile, in Alaska, here are highlights from what the Juneau Empire is reporting on the "hijacking" of the state investigation (again, if Palin has nothing to hide, why is all of this happening?):

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The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin has taken effective charge of the Alaska state government's response to the legislative investigation into abuse of power allegations against Palin. An investigation that began on a bipartisan basis with several pledges from Palin to participate, is now being manipulated to protect Palin by campaign attorneys who appear to be directing the Palin administration's response, top legislators say.

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"The state of Alaska and the Alaska Attorney General's Office don't need any help from a national campaign," said Sen. President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla. Green said the Palin administration's response seems more geared to help the McCain campaign by shutting down the investigation that's become known as "Troopergate" than informing the Alaska public. "National politics have absolutely hijacked the state government, it's really disturbing to see from the governor," said Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau.

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Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, disagreed. "Clearly the Legislature has the inherent authority to investigate acts by the executive branch," he said at a committee meeting. Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg has said that state employees he represents and who work for Palin risk displeasing her if they comply with legislative subpoenas. That's despite having taken an oath to uphold the Alaska Constitution.

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It is not clear whether Palin ordered state employees to not comply with subpoenas, and Colberg and other top Department of Law officials were unavailable Friday.

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It increasingly looks like Palin is a typical Christianist: wears religion on her sleeve, holds incredibly crazy beliefs that ought to terrify any sane and rational person, and lies incessantly.