Palin causes unprecedented event:Labor unions condemn 'lying'

Mike Hendrix refers to Palin's enemies as "deranged droolcases." What is most interesting about anti-Palin fanatics is how uninteresting they are. Insanity is interesting; stupidity is not. And never have such dull people gone so hopelessly mad.

Case in point: Americans United For Change, a labor-union front group, runs a Facebook ad with this message:

"Health insurance reform is too important for outright lies. Send Sarah Palin a message; tell her to stop lying about 'death panels.'"

If truth-in-advertising laws applied to labor unions, they would have gone out of business long ago. Labor unions are bad for the economy, period, and they are especially bad for workers in any private-sector industry where they are dominant.

The U.S. auto industry is now in receivership because of union control. It's obviously not because American workers cannot make cars -- Toyota, Nissan, Honda, KIA and many other foreign automakers have U.S. plants. But those plants are all located in "right-to-work" states, where unions can't force workers to join.

Join a labor union and you're paying dues to those who will eventually put you out of a job.

The only industry where the anti-competitive effect of unionism seems to have no such job-killing effect is . . . government. Government employee unions are a conspiracy against the taxpayer. You can look at the fiscal catastrophe in California and see the ineluctable result of union dominance in public-sector employment.

Given that the job-killing anti-economic effects of unionism is so easily demonstrated, and given the notorious corruption of union leadership, labor union officials specialize in dishonesty.

"Americans United for Change" steals money from its members dues and then uses it to buy Facebook ads? Par for the course.

The Palins Are Getting Divorced,As Are Mrs. Other McCain and I

(BUMPED; SEE UPDATES BELOW.) Also, it's entirely possible that George W. and Laura Bush -- perhaps even George H.W. and Barbara Bush -- are heading for "Splitsville," if we accept such "proof" as we find in the latest edition of Star magazine:

"Sarah and Todd are fighting all the time," Mercede Johnston — sister of Levi Johnston, ex-boyfriend of Sarah's eldest daughter, Bristol — tells Star in an exclusive interview. "When they do, Todd often ends up sleeping on the couch at their home in Wasilla. Bristol used to tell Levi that her parents would argue and bicker over the littlest things, like who was supposed to take out the trash or wash the dishes."
Levi, the father of Bristol's 7-month-old son, Tripp, recently told RadarOnline.com that Sarah and Todd have had marital trouble "from day one," and that he believed their escalating problems were the reason behind her mysterious decision to resign as governor of Alaska last month with more than a year left in her term.
His sister Mercede predicts: "If they ended their marriage within the next year, I wouldn't be surprised at all. It really seems to me their marriage is just a sham for the cameras now!"

Ri-iiiight. The trashy sister of that scumsucking vermin Levi Johnston (a/k/a "Ricky Hollywood" ) is such an expert on marriage, y'know.

Feel free to ask Mrs. Other McCain how recently -- and if memory serves, it was week before last -- she gave me the kind of spousal ultimatum that involves an offer to help me pack my bags. We've made it past the 20-year mark, and I'm determined to hold true to my vow of "till death do us part," even if sometimes Mrs. Other McCain also helpfully offers to assist me with the "death" part.

Hang in there, Todd and Sarah: I put my journalistic credibility on the line for you. Like I said this morning:

I don't care if Todd Palin hikes the Appalachian Trail to Argentina or Sarah Palin flies to Vegas and spends Labor Day weekend with the Chippendales dancers. As long as the Palins don't get a divorce, the continuation of their marriage proves that Jesse Griffin is a liar, Dennis Zaki is a floppy-shoed clown, and I'm solid gold, baby.

Think of the children! (And me, of course.) Also, everybody needs to hit the tip jar today, just to remind my wife what a solid-gold guy she married.

UPDATE 3 p.m.: Jesse Griffin denies having anything to do with the Star story:

It looks like Mercede has been talking to them again. And just to put the potential rumor to rest Mercede is NOT one of my sources.

He thus denies an accusation no one ever made. But "Gryphen" already told us who his sources are:

The operator of the Immoral Minority blog admits that he is in regular contact with one Rex Butler and Tank Jones. Rex Butler is the high-priced attorney who is handling legal issues for the Johnston family.

The Rex Butler/Tank Jones angle, of course, leads straight to "Ricky Hollywood," and it looks like the whole grubby Johnston clan is feeding at the same trough of slime:

Butler magically appeared in court to defend Sherry Johnston on her drug-dealing related arrest -- she originally was so broke she had to get a public defender.

Which, of course, leads directly to the Florida headquarters of . . . the Star:

How does Sherry Johnston afford an attorney like Rex Butler? How do the Johnstons get the money to zoom around the United States giving interviews? How do they pay their rent/mortgage or even the payments on Levi Johnston's truck . . .
Airplane tickets from Anchorage to Los Angeles and New York run a minimum of around $700 per person, and that doesn't include hotel stays and other transportation. Trips from Anchorage to Florida, where Mercede Johnston claimed (on Larry King's show) to have traveled in March, are running around $1200 round trip.
They have claimed on television that they are not receiving compensation for their appearances. So what gives? Levi has no job, his mother has no job, his sister has no job, so who is paying for this "Smear Palin" tour? If you recall the Larry King interview with the Johnstons, you will remember that Mercede Johnston mentioned that she had recently returned from Florida. Why Florida? Well, Florida is where Star Magazine has its headquarters. Hold on a second, Mercede gave an interview to Star Magazine!

You see? It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure this out: The Star is paying its sources, just like the Enquirer pays its sources, which creates a sort of commodity market for anti-Palin dirt in Alaska. As I said:

Meanwhile, here is Jesse Griffin, one of the left-wing Alaska blogospheric myrmidons who've spent the past 11 months trashing Palin online for the amusement of PDS-affected "progressives" worldwide. Now that Palin's resigned as governor and the spotlight has shifted, the blog-o-bucks are harder to get for the Alaskasphere, and everybody -- ex-staffers, "Ricky Hollywood," Griffin, his blog buddies -- is trying to cash in before the sell-by date expires on this dirt-dishing bonanza.

So what you're seeing here, as any Hayekian would surmise, is a final frenzy of activity before the closing bell on the Anchorage Slimeball Exchange.

UPDATE 3:45 p.m.: Oh, it keeps getting better and better, as Griffin updates to assist with the process of elimination that increasingly seems to point the finger at Butler and/or Jones:

Also I did not talk to either Mercede OR Levi before I made my post, and I called some of the other media outlets working this story and asked them if the Johnston family was one of their sources and they said no. So when the Palin-bots come after this family I am here to tell you it just another example of attacking the messenger instead of addressing the validity of the information.

Meanwhile, we learn that last October, Rex Butler was smearing Palin as a racist:

"Blacks don't have the levels of access to the governor and state commissioners as with past administrations," said attorney Rex Butler, an Alaska resident since 1983. "It seems the posture of (Palin's) administration with Blacks is: Don't need them—don’t worry about them."

I'm betting that Butler's financial status is not entirely opaque. Interesting things might turn up in that regard. "Means, motive, opportunity," as they say, and I wonder if the Alaska bar association might be interested in the question of whether Butler's been playing the role of a libel broker in the Anchorage Slimeball Exchange, in which Jesse Griffin seems to have been such an active participant. Keep updating, Jesse!

Expect further updates . . .

THE GRYPHEN FILES: Dan Goes HuntingDuring Open Season on PDS Moonbats

Some of the commenters seem to share my wife's opinion of the Griffin/"Gryphen" story: "Why are you doing this? What's so important about this guy?"

Just asking questions. OK, I've tried to explain before, but since people keep asking, I'll try again.

On the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 1, I was minding my own business, working on a paid feature story that had nothing to do with Sarah Palin. At about the 500-word mark, I decided to take a break and, as is my habit, check Memeorandum:

Todd and Sarah Palin to divorce

Holy mother of crap! How had I missed this story? Why hadn't anybody called me? You've got no idea what a furious mood I was in when I picked up my cell phone, hit a speed-dial number, and left an angry voice-mail demanding to know why I hadn't gotten a tip about this.

Because it wasn't true.

OK, fine. Demolish the Bozo who ruined my Saturday and get back to work. And sources say Sarah Palin thought this line was ROTFLMAO funny:

I sent an e-mail containing the admonishment that now, no matter what happens, the Palins can never get divorced, as this would undermine my credibility.

LOL, but serious as a heart attack: I don't care if Todd Palin hikes the Appalachian Trail to Argentina or Sarah Palin flies to Vegas and spends Labor Day weekend with the Chippendales dancers. As long as the Palins don't get a divorce, the continuation of their marriage proves that Jesse Griffin is a liar, Dennis Zaki is a floppy-shoed clown, and I'm solid gold, baby. (Please, Todd and Sarah, work it out for the sake of the kids. And me.)

On the other hand, as my "smelly Libertarian" friend Tom Knapp points out, the threat of a libel suit against Griffin is probably just a threat because "discovery is a bitch."

Griffin and His Precioussss
Right. And the same is true of Jesse Griffin's threats toward Dan Riehl. If only Griffin had grabbed a nice hot cup of STFU and contented himself with this Mutually Assured Destruction stalemate in the libel-law Cold War, maybe I could have spent the past 10 days chasing leads on IG-Gate. But noooooooo . . .

Jesse Griffin kept pushing and pushing and pushing. That's the most important fact of this whole story: From the very beginning, Jesse Griffin could have put down his precioussss and walked away, and there would have been no purpose in mining all those public records.

Griffin has proven himself a habitual liar, and an unusually stupid liar, at that. He's like a cartographically-impaired soldier who, having accidentally called in fire on his own position, crawls out of the smoldering crater, picks up the radio and tells the artillery commander: "You've got the range! Now hit 'em with all you've got!"

Griffin relentlessly pursued this self-destructive course of action despite repeated clues that Dan Riehl had a huge supply of ammunition and was prepared to fire it with brutal accuracy.

Just how clueless is Griffin? As recently as Monday, he claimed that a celebrity interview with Levi Johnston -- a/k/a "Ricky Hollywood" -- was the overdue vindication of his bogus Aug. 1 rumor.

Levi Johnston vs. Dan Riehl. As the man says, "Heh."

Speaking of "Heh," let me add here that I've noticed Professor Glenn Reynolds doesn't like this story. Griffin is just a clueless PDS-afflicted liar, but the author of An Army of Davids can't be happy to see even a fraudulently dangerous blogger being destroyed in this fashion. Honestly, I don't like it either, but what can I do?

Two Kinds of Crazy
We're talking about Dan Riehl. He's from New Jersey. When Dan digs in, he really digs in:

That fits with what a college girlfriend once said of me - I'm a bulldog and never let go of something until done once I latch on.

Dan doesn't really need my help, but when he calls me -- "Hey, Stace. What is this, Tuesday already? Been up since Sunday, man. I must've smoked a carton of Marlboros in the past 24 hours . . ." -- and starts telling me what he's dug up, the ghosts of certain departed Old School editors tell me to get on the assignment. If somebody asked me to start up a news operation tomorrow and told me the operation was budgeted for exactly one research staffer, Dan would get that job.

Woodward and Bernstein? Nah. Working with Dan is more like Lethal Weapon. I like hanging out with crazy people, because I get so tired of always being the token crazy guy in the room. Invite another crazy guy to the party, and I can relax and watch.

Fortunately, Dan is the opposite kind of crazy from me. If I'm ADD -- skittish, imaginative, all over the place -- Dan's OCD: Laser-focused, toiling endlessly to nail down whatever he's working on. He gets mad at my tendency to be distracted, I get annoyed by his stubborn refusal to admit that sometimes my crazy gut-hunches are pure genius. Dan has gut hunches of his own, but he's all about facts, and he sure as heck isn't going to trust somebody else's gut hunches.

Which is to say that, on a story like this "Gryphen" thing, Dan had me at "hello." Whoever the anonymous Internet dude was who CC'd Dan on that "Gryphen"/Griffin ID, they got my attention. And the minute Dan called and started telling me what the public records showed on Griffin, my gut hunch said it was going to be a big story.

The world of blogs and journalism is big enough for me to take the risk that Byron York might beat me on the next IG-Gate scoop. I got the last break on the ITC IG investigation, Congress is on recess and . . .

Hey, wait a minute. "Waste, fraud and abuse"? Clinica Sierra Vista gets $4.3 million in stimulus cash? Wonder what might happen if our buddy SIGTARP decides to poke around that one? Just asking questions . . .

Anyway, I figure Team Obama's going to throw Griffin under the bus, and if SIGTARP investigators start asking questions, he'll have the right to remain silent. (A nice hot cup of STFU, long overdue.)

So even if everybody in the blogosphere thinks Dan and I are crazy for chasing this story, my gut hunch tells me it's a long way from over. Watching Dan go after Griffin is like a Nintendo Wii game, Rambo vs. Elmer Fudd: Open Season On Moonbats.

So pop some popcorn. Conservatives4Palin just posted the Breitbart TV interview with Dan. Heckuva show.

Don't forget to hit the tip jar, folks. The geniuses at VRWC-HQ apparently can't afford my cell-phone bill or car payment, but if enough blog readers hit my tip jar, maybe I can buy a ticket to Anchorage and apply some shoe leather to this story. Crazier things have happened.

Watch for updates at RIEHL WORLD VIEW.

UPDATE: EXCLUSIVE! ALL RUMORS ARE TRUE, IF YOUR STANDARDS ARE LOW ENOUGH!

Sarah Palin: Laying pipe!

Energy development in Alaska = "Stimulus we can believe in!" says the hottest governor of the coldest state, in an interview with Michael Medved (via Conservatives4Palin):

Also: "First Dude" is 6th in the Iron Dog.

How cool is Todd Palin?

John McCain has the ultimate spouse -- I mean, how cool is that, to marry the heiress to a beer distributorship? -- but Sarah Palin's married to the coolest dude in Alaska:

In Alaska . . . snowmobiling is the ultimate glamour sport, like Formula One racing in Europe. Todd Palin is a snowmobiling god. During this year’s 1,971-mile (3,172km) Tesoro Iron Dog race — which the First Dude has won no fewer than four times — he was flung 70ft (21m) from his machine when it hit a barrel hidden in deep snow. He broke his arm but completed the race, finishing fourth.

He's like the Richard Petty of snow.

UPDATE: Headlined at AOSHQ. Thanks.