More on Sarah
A buddy of mine sent me the following email. I haven’t seen this particular email on Snopes.com yet, so instead of debunking it just for his benefit, I thought I’d try to do it for everyone’s.
The email begins:
Don’t dismiss the fact that Sarah Palin is Commander of the Alaska
National Guard– consider this.Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system.
The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It’s on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units.
After September 11th, President Bush changed the law so that in the event of an emergency, he becomes the Commander-in-Chief of any state’s National Guard. If the Alaskan National Guard is going to intercept a missile, it’s not going to be on the Governor’s orders. It’s going to be on the President’s.
Additionally, in an interview with the Sacremento Bee, the adjutant general of the Alaskan National Guard confirmed that “Palin hasn’t ordered Alaska National Guard to do anything“:
“When members of the National Guard are federalized, they work for the president,” Campbell said Wednesday. “It’s not just overseas. They could be federalized to go to other states or they could even be federalized in the state.”
Occasions in which Palin retains command authority over the 4,200-member Alaska National Guard are whenever the Guard responds to in-state natural disasters and civic emergencies, said Campbell, who also serves as the commissioner of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. [Since Palin has been governor, there have been neither]
The email continues:
As governor of Alaska , Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden’s and certainly by far exceeds Obama’s.
Both Senators Obama and Biden are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Obama is a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs. How much you wanna bet they’re more in the loop than the Governor of Alaska?
She’s also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF) a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security’s counterterrorism plans.
Other “federally recognized” organizations “incorporated into Homeland Security’s counterterrorism plans” include the Juneau chapter of the Rotary Club. I’m not knocking the Rotary Club (I’m married to a loyal Rotarian), but I’m just saying, if you got a club and you want to help out in the event of a crisis, you can probably get recognition from the Department of Homeland Security.
Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country’s defense. Given Alaska ’s proximity to Russia , she may have security clearances we don’t even know about.
“May” indeed. I’m guessing she isn’t privy to more military and intelligence secrets than any other governor, and definitely not more than the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets.
Nobody ever found out? They met at a National Governor’s Association meeting, and there were six other governors in the room at the time. According to McCain’s campaign, they then met for 15 minutes where the Senator asked her questions about the pipeline she’s trying to build, and came away impressed. And as the Draft Palin blog noted, she already had a bunch of buzz around her name on February 8, 2007, and on February 26, Palin told an interviewer for the Washington Post that she would be interested in being tapped on a national level. Since we know that McCain didn’t make his pick until the last possible moment, and that he in fact preferred Leiberman but instead caved to the right wing of his party, I think it’s safe to say there were no “secrets” being kept here.
She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.
She can’t even be trusted to tell the truth about the “bridge to nowhere.” Nor can she be trusted to not try to ban books. How the hell can be trusted to tell Americans what they need to hear.