From a Salon story today:
Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."
We were aware that Vogler was a crazy, but it gets much more disturbing. Vogler had plans in the year 1993 that he was not allowed to keep.
Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue. That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.
AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S. before he could reach his U.N. platform. "The United States government would have been deeply embarrassed," by Vogler's U.N. speech, darkly suggests Clark. "And we can't have that, can we?"
Vogler was murdered before he could give that address. This is the context here. It was 1993. The AIP was growing as a major third party in Alaska with the absolute crazies. It was 2 years later in the ashes of the murder and the thwarted address sponsored by Iran at the UN that Todd Palin joined the AIP in October 1995.
The rest we pretty much know. Todd stayed with the group until 2002. Sarah Palin went to either one or two of their conventions, and she taped the welcoming video for their 2008 convention.
But Barack Obama knows Bill Ayers.