Palin chose to return to the Northern Idaho panhandle in the 1980’s to attend North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene (population 20,054 in 1980).

What affinities and connections did she have that made her decide to go to a school in that region? Let’s take a guess.

During those years, the Northern Idaho panhandle was a Mecca for white supremacists. The headquarters for the Aryan Nation was at Hayden Lake, only nine miles from where Sarah Palin went to college. The AN operated out of that 20-acre compound from the 1970s until 2001. She knew that because most people living in the Intermountain region did.

Today, five of the eight active hate groups in Idaho operate in this area: The Conspiratological Association (Holocaust Denial), Aryan Nations (Neo-Nazi), Campaign for Radical Truth in History (Holocaust Denial), America's Promise Ministries (Christian Identity) and Church of the Sons of YHVH – Reformed (Christian Identity). What a fun place to live!

Despite the fact that the region is notoriously beautiful, more than the average number of hate-filled White Americans happen to live there. Moreover, they have been establishing themselves there for years. How much did that mindset attract Palin? Are any of these people her longtime friends?

As a conservative, white student living in a small, tight knit community who had previous ties to the area (Palin's parents had lived in Sandpoint, Idaho and moved to Alaska in 1964 when she was a baby), it is definitely possible that Palin had prior connections with local residents. Perhaps she associated with hate group members or sympathizers. Such would be the social life in a relatively small, homogeneous town.

Americans need to know about Sarah Palin associates with during those formative years, or if any of her longtime close friends or relatives are members or sympathizers. The possibility needs to be independently investigated.

There is a definite theme going on with Sarah Palin, her husband's political philosophy, her radical Christian church, and her past history.

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/25828/26/

I'm the Steve Stoll mentioned in a recent article about SP.

I've never been a member of the John Birch Society or the AIP. Or the Democrats or the Republicans or any other party. Or the Mormons, Moslems or Baptists. Look it up. Report facts.

I work hard at my profession; I actually am proud to pay my taxes and I give my Permanent Fund Dividend to Bean's Cafe. I raised two fine sons, both hard-working Alaskans. I never buried weapons in my yard, and no one has ever called me "Black Helicopter Steve." I prefer "Stollie."

I did become involved in local Wasilla politics when the powers that were, including Sarah Palin, promoted a local sales tax that included taxing groceries, but capped the tax on non-essential items. I still feel very strongly that taxing poor people's groceries is morally wrong.

I also felt it was improper for City Employees to get involved in politics. Holding up signs for the incumbent mayor was not only stupid but just plain wrong. Gossiping and politicking on the job, wrong. The Chief of Police should never have lowered himself to printing and distributing political mud-slinging papers at Police HQ; just plain wrong, Irl.

So Mayor John Stein, John Cooper and Chief Stambaugh all lost their jobs over their politics. Go figure. And yes, when Cooper wouldn't apologize for secretly taped gossip which I brought forward at a City Council Meeting- taped comments very similar, by the way, to the current gossip-well, I told him I guess I'd have no choice but to "kick your ass." He disrupted the whole meeting by not being man enough to apologize for his chronic slanderous gossip.

I declared several months ago to my friends and neighbors that I was voting for Barrack Obama. Nothing that has happened recently has changed my mind. This country needs a leader with strength, substance and charisma for the very difficult times ahead. I feel that Obama best meets those criteria.

The reporters in this case are totally off-base, uninformed and just plain wrong. Actually, I would call them incompetent idiots that need to find something useful to do with their lives. And Salon Magazine and Rachel Maddow are even worse for giving them air time and credibility.

I demand an apology. And you know what will happen if you don't!

Thanks but, really, no thanks;

SS

and it is depressing to see how financial crisis, tight elections and the like bring out the absolute worst in people.

Is McCain going to drag us into war with every country in the world? No. Is Palin going to allow Alaska to secede and hand over the reigns of the government to witch hunters? No. Is Obama going to swear in on the Koran and hand the country over to socialists? No. The whole thing is ridiculous, but people can't stick to the issues. They just need that bitter, vitriolic emotional high of trying to show that the person they aren't voting for isn't just someone whose platforms they don't agree with. No, they have to prove that they are BAD that there is something horribly WRONG with them. It's juvenile.

Honestly, I don't believe that we are served well with a two party system, but after the last 8 years (plus most of Clinton's when Newt was running the show) I would probably vote for a puddle of vomit over a republican. They've been at the tiller while our civil liberties have eroded, our debt has shot up and the government has exploded. Our military is getting screwed, our science and technology policy is a joke and the only war that is going well is the one they declared on education. The party needs a serious smack-down if it's ever going to find its way again.

Oh, and an FYI, Unitarian Universalists are about as liberal as you get. Many of us are atheists, secular humanists, wiccans... and I'm pretty sure some of us are Christian. There are even some republicans floating around. Bottom line, the church in Tennessee was targeted because of our liberal social views, pro gay-marriage, anti-torture and the like.