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Though many of us suffer from Palin Factor Fatigue, it is irrefutable that there is a nagging curiosity to have the question answered, ?How in the world did Sarah Palin become so popular and why do we still need to hear about her?? My book answers these questions in detail and urges us all to be vigilant. She is one of a small pool of ?rising stars in the republican party? as John McCain stated as recently as January 25, 2009 on Fox News Sunday.
As unbelievable as her meteoric rise was we cannot delude ourselves, turning our backs once again, into thinking that she and those like her are going away. This woman is joined by millions of loyalists whose perception is that she was persecuted in the media, stifled by McCain, and mocked by liberals - and now the theocratic conservatives are regrouping with a vengeance!
"Blue Oasis" began in 2005 in its Blogger format (now an archive) and became possibly the first Alaska Blog on Progressive Politics. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis was honored to represent Alaska as the state blog.
Transition--Community Blog
In September 2008, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis moved to a Soapblox Community Blog format. Readers can become full participants by registering on the blog to comment and write "diaries." Diary titles appear on the right sidebar for folks to read and provide comments. Blog editors may choose to move some of these diaries to the front page.
While this Community was formed specifically with Alaska in mind, all "friends of Alaska" are welcome as members!
**Note about registering** Scroll down the right side until you find the link to register. Then, just follow the instructions!
**Note about comments** To comment on a story, click on the heading and then look for the "comment bar" at the bottom (it's light grey, I can't seem to change it). I believe the font color NOW permits you to see the "post comment" text.
YOUR BLOGMISTRESS
My name is Linda Kellen Biegel and I am a former 15-year Federal employee. Thirteen of those years were spent working for the US Army Corps of Engineers. I am also semi-retired from the Alaska music scene (singer, sound tech, stage manager, logistics).
When the blog was chosen to represent Alaska in the DNCC State Blogger Pool at the Denver Convention, I attended with the help of Alaska Real blogmistress, Writing Raven and my daughter Morrigan. On August 29th, one day after Barack Obama's inspiring speech at Invesco Field , my life took another turn as it did for all Alaska bloggers when Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen to be John McCain's VP running mate. Since then, I've either assisted or have been interviewed by media from the UK, Italy, Australia and Germany as well as national media outlets such as Wall Street Journal, NY Times, ABC Good Morning America's Kate Snow, National Journal, Dallas Morning News, LA Times, and NPR.
Presently, I work as a freelance writer, PR, event coordinator, community organizer, wife to computer programmer Josh and mother to 11-year-old Morrigan. Our family especially enjoys our summers in Alaska where we get to subsistence set-net fish Sockeye salmon as well as halibut fish/whalewatch in the family's homemade aluminum boat, "The Neverdone" (when it's working). We reside in Anchorage, Alaska.
Origin of "Celtic Diva"
I've used "Celtic Diva" as a screen name since the early 1990's on Web TV.
"Folks have asked about my Celtic heritage, especially in light of my name. What they don't realize is that I'm adopted. I was born Valerie Morehead of the Clan Muirhead. I was adopted at three-months-old by the Kellens. I always "knew" I was Celt even before really knew. I was drawn to all things Scottish, especially music. That's why my parents eventually told me at age 16."
"Linda is well-known in Alaska & beyond as the prominent progressive political blogger Celtic Diva of Celtic Diva?s Blue Oasis. But back in the day, the early 1990s, I knew her as Linda Kellen, a member of the local folk/rock band Sky is Blu, which amongst other things performed in at least a couple or so of the annual women?s show Celebration of Change, in which I also performed. And if you don?t already know, let me tell you: Linda is one fine damn singer."
I went on after the break-up of "Sky is Blu" to perform with various Alaska musicians and work with national folks like Bo Diddly, Coco Montoya, Debbie Davies, Taj Mahal, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Bad Company, Creedence Clearwater, Carny Wilson, etc...
USA Women's Olympic Hockey Team Star Kerry Weiland with our friend Isabella and my daughter Morrigan at St. Baldrick's Day
(Scroll down to find posts.)
(Please register to participate in diaries and comments! We'd love for you to join our Community!)
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Here's the photoshop in question. Originally it was tagged "Baby Burke" because it's Eddie Burke's "monstrous" face (taken from the photo underneath it). Burke even acknowledged it on his radio show.
We're all going to be left hanging, as the portion of the book I have (page 371) in which she starts to reference me is incomplete. I'm missing 372 and 373 so I won't know the rest of what she says until Tuesday.
**UPDATE** Overnight, my "fairy godfather" sent me the pages (bless him) so I'm no longer "hanging." ****
What information there is on the photoshop incident once again shows a perfect example of this "book of lies" Palin has written:
"Also, unbelievably, hurtful attacks were directed at Trig. On the Internet, a fake Planned Parenthood ad showed a photo of me holding Trig. In one corner there was a coat hanger and in the other a slogan, "Better luck next time." What kind of person creates something like that? Maybe the same kind who would photoshop distorted images over Trig's pretty face in order to make him look monstrous. The person who did this proudly displayed it on her website; she was also the official Alaskan Blogger for the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 election"
She purposely lied about everything, including the timeline. Let's set the record straight...
First, the most basic information: I was the Alaskan Blogger for the Democratic National CONVENTION Committee...DNCC.
Secondly, I was having a web-a-thon to raise money for the emails I wanted from the State, some of which were between Palin and radio host Eddie Burke. Each night, contributor Dr. Chill was making a "thermometer" to show our progress and to let everyone know how far we had to go.
Day Four was the one with Eddie Burke's face. It's unfortunate that Palin thinks Eddie Burke has a "monstrous" face but, well, there's not much we can do about that. Granted, Dr. Chill did have to shrink it and turn it a little sideways to fit it properly in the picture.
Thirdly, folks from the fanatical Palinista blogs saw an opportunity. My blog more than some of the other ones focuses strictly on Alaska, which is why my readers knew what we were doing and understood the "Baby Burke" tag I put on the photo. However, as 99% of their readers knew little or nothing about Alaska other than what they filtered and spoon-fed them, they could spin this any way they wanted. So, they accused me of the illogical, the unthinkable, something this this disabled mom never even considered -- they accused me of trying to make fun of Trig. They farmed that information out to the rest of the blogs that were created by McCain Campaign money and influence trying to make it a big story. It didn't work.
Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child.
The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling. To learn that two Alaskans did it is absolutely sickening. Linda Kellen Biegel, the official Democrat Party blogger for Alaska, should be ashamed of herself and the Democratic National Committee should be ashamed for promoting this website and encouraging this atrocious behavior.
Babies and children are off limits. It is past time to restore decency in politics and real tolerance for all Americans. The Obama Administration sets the moral compass for its party. We ask that special needs children be loved, respected and accepted and that this type of degeneracy be condemned.
What Stapleton and Palin didn't realize is that they, according to Wonkette, "poked a stick in the worlds largest beehive of cheap, tireless insanity and the SomethingAwful.com goons have unleashed a pack of Photoshop Dogs From Hell to make the most incredible collection of Sarah Palin Desecration Images in the History of Time, the end."
It's on page six of the Something Awful thread where you'll find the fake Planned Parenthood ad.
Yes, the fake ad is disgusting, but in many ways Palin had only herself to blame. Many folks saw right through to the motivation behind her press release--partially because she didn't make any sense and partially thanks to great explanatory articles on Huffington Post by AK Muckraker and Shannyn Moore. These Internet veterans viewed her press release as an attack on free speech...that if you lie about someone's motives, act like a victim and have access to the national media to spread those lies, you can force your target to "sit down and shut up." If you read the beginning of their photoshop thread, you'll see that their often-gross photoshops were a reaction to just that.
I'm sure we'll see more-and-more come out today, especially in light of the Oprah interview. I'm not going to write anymore on book pages until I have it tomorrow. I know that Mudflats is "reading and reporting on the book so you don't have to" and I'll be reporting on the issues in the book that I normally cover--i.e. there are TONS more lies about the ethics complaints.
I've been meaning to mention this, Steve Aufrecht over at "What Do I Know" did a good article on the whole brouhaha. Even though our blogs have different styles, he does a beautiful job of highlighting the most important points of the issue...especially in analyzing Stapleton's response.
No, I am not. The Democratic National Convention Committee selected 56 blogs as "State Blogs" to represent their states (and territories, and ex-patriots) at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. That was it!
Other info: I'm a wife, mother of a beautiful daughter and a disabled person myself. Any other biographical information can be found on the left-hand column of the blog.
What exactly is the story behind how the "photoshopped" picture came to be?
I was doing a fundraiser to gather the exorbitant monies needed for the release of public records from the Governor's Office ($5,552.64) -- a State of Alaska Record's Request. Some of these emails involve Palin-worshipping talk-show-host Eddie Burke and Anchorage Daily News Gossip Columnist and Editor Sheila Toomey.
I had already started so I really couldn't use any of the "thermometer" programs out there (tracks donations and creates a graph) because I had no idea how to make it count the money already in the Paypal account. So, one of my readers offered to photoshop "thermometers" each day for me so the donors could have a visual of how we were doing. He came up with a nice version of the State of Alaska for the second day (we skipped the first...I just put the total up without a thermometer). I wanted to "take that image back" because Conservatives4Palin, a completely non-Alaskan blog, used it for their web-a-thon. On the third day, he sent me the same graphic with the updated percentage, which I put on the blog. Later, he sent the one in question which showed in a humorous way (we thought) the relationship between Palin and Burke. He thought I should have a different one for every day. I didn't have a chance to use it then (I already had the other one up and was away from home) but I told him to do it again for the new percentage tomorrow. He did and, well, you know the rest.
Here are all of the "thermometers" (click each one to enlarge):
We were both absolutely floored that anyone would take it for anything than what it was...poking fun at the Governor and Eddie Burke. We also realized that because of my "digging" and writing about the questionable activities of Governor Palin, they were just looking for anything they could twist to try and discredit me.
Why did you take the image down Wednesday night? Was it because of pressure?
Absolutely not! Dr. Chill (the reader in question) was sending me a new "thermometer image" each night after I sent him the total for the day. So, there was no way that image was going to be up beyond Wednesday night anyway because it had the wrong percentage on it. We weren't going to use that same image again, especially when Dr. Chill got the idea to use Burke in his controversial red t-shirt. Besides, there really wasn't any pressure on Wednesday...it was just faux-outrage whining from a bunch of Palin-worshipping bloggers. It didn't really get interesting until Meg Stapleton put her foot in it on Thursday.
Have you apologized to anyone? Do you intend to apologize?
We have nothing to apologize for...it's Conservatives4Palin, Meg Stapleton and the Governor who should be apologizing. Blue Oasis is an Alaska blog with a mostly Alaska audience. (It fluctuates but it's usually about 65% as I've periodically tracked it. That may have changed after this week.) Alaskans "got it" completely because that's who we were targeting. It was the faux outrage and the lies about the posting generated by Conservatives4Palin (run and read by mostly outsiders) and then kicked into the national media by Meg "the mouth" Stapleton at the behest of the Governor. Any misunderstandings were the result of their collective thirst for tabloid fame and desire to twist any truth to discredit a critic. Those who may have been offended were people who NEVER would have seen the picture otherwise and who were not the intended audience.
Was part of your response to Meg Stapleton really "You fail at life?"
NO...ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! I was NEVER asked for a response to Stapleton's diatribe nor did I post one on the blog. The national media took a quote from an angry article posted 24 HOURS BEFORE STAPLETON'S STATEMENT WAS EVEN RELEASED that was completely directed at Conservatives4Palin and their frenzied smear campaign!!! (The proof...look at the post date.) It was blogger-to-blogger! No matter how much I may disagree with Governor Palin or Stapleton, that would never be part of any response to them.
Will your blog continue to feature satire and satirical images?
I'm adding my hands-down choice for best photoshop EVER!
This was from our friend Lazarhat over at OMFGAlaska (and who is also a diarist at Blue Oasis). The disclaimer/caption is the best part:
(this image is intended as PARODY and as such is covered under US copyright fair use laws -- since it is PARODY, nothing PERSONAL is intended or implied. The opinion above is socio-political commentary and as such is covered by the US First Amendment right to free speech. And besides, I just think it's a cute image. Meg wooks sweepy)
(OK, so it took a friend to tell me the "baby" was a really awful picture of George Soros. Hey George, where's that check everyone says you are paying me?)
