The Really: You can't believe everything in the papers (as mother told you) but on the internet there is the real information which the press is keeping from you. Really?! Maybe.
Since sarcasm doesn't always translate well on the internet I will use an "!" in each sentence in this story where I am kidding. Rumors will be followed by a "(R)" along with the source unless it is just "crazy shit" in which case I will use "(CS)".
In our explication of the "Track Palin Bus Vandalism Sent Away To School Forced To Join The Military Rumor" (variations include dope dealer, drug user, and MUCH WORSE etc. to which we say, "Who cares?) (CS, R) let's go back to the EVENT itself. The mass vandalism of a whole school district's buses which lead to $10K in damages and forced the closing of school for a day. Important piece of the story: it was 9 degrees below zero on the night in question and over 40 buses were vandalized; so the perps must be skilled in outdoor endurance. Like the son of a Iron Dog winner!!
It also was picked up by The Financial Times and AP: not a little incident. Of course at blogreally.com we never heard about this (in fact we never heard of Governor Palin till the last couple of weeks! Hell, we never hear about Alaska!!) But one day a Palin story on this blog received a comment which seemed sincere, and though you never know with anonymous comments, it seemed worth a Google.
So why is this rumor so terribly important? Youth! Who hasn't done something stupid as a teen? But On September 11 the sequestered and carefully campaign managed Gov. Palin will give her first press interview. September 11 is also the day of her son's deployment to Iraq. These things are not a coincidence. September 11 is also an important day in American history. So is the reason for Track's enlistment not worth considering? I personally am too old for tent shows no matter if they are held by Obama or McCain's VP. Issues please, hold the jingo. And if there is phoniness afoot I would like to know.
It's worth noting that most of the sources which have piqued my interest in this rumor are coming from Alaska --that hotbed of elitist media. Not.
The first thing we found was was the site TPF (The People's Forum) which seemed pretty POLITICAL! but had a link to our new favorite website on Palin news straight from the husky's mouth MUDFLATS. This reasoned, nicely written news blog first reported serious rumor rumoring regarding the bus vandalism incident. And provided the three sentences that most blogs ran with: Here and Here and of course uncredited all across the internet.
Most of the blog comments and stories regarding the "track palin bus vandalism story" have noted that this is a RUMOR but that the dates and circumstances could make the story possible without being crazy.
But we believe some of these rumors must have been around for a time. Wonkette that bitey bastion of funny political pundits has a commentor who goes by the name The 3-Legged Man. Look at his comments back at the end of August in several good stories by Ken Layne and others and particularly this. Who is the 3-Legged Man? Is it TPF? Mudflats? Us? Barack Obama? Will we ever know?
Unfortunately with Digg access and 24/7 silliness the story began to descend into a satire of itself. Here at 23/6 a Huffington product. We don't know if they were trying to be funny but the "facts" of the "rumor" were all wrong. Very funny. And for real "crazy shit" how about the mysterious youbemom.com commentors who have that "baby ate my dingo" sort of vibe.
We can wrap up the "big book" coverage and wait for BREAKING NEWS-- with prayers that the Enquirer is spreading the cash in Wasilla to get to the bottom of this -- by giving equal time to the right wing and left wing view -- and then I need a nap.
Inside the Right/Left links you will find numerous links to stories on this and other rumors by Andrew Sullivan at Atlantic, Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post, a conspiracy website (at least they are not too proud to say so!) and for really inspired Sarah Palin coverage check out Alex Pareene and other writers at Gawker:
LEFT (a day late and a dollar short); RIGHT (an attack on MSM reporters who are trying to cover the Palin rumor mill). Feel free to drop blogreally.com a line if you actually know something (you too Track!) about this rumor (R). Political ops need not apply because we have pretty good bullshit detectors.
Update 1: Here is a very good blog which was covering this story from the bloggy net in Alaska (from comments of other Alaskan bloggers, this site is highly regarded). It speaks to the story's credibility. Read It Here.
Update 2: If anyone can translate this for me, feel free to comment. This is a statement of a spokesperson of the Governor about Track's decision to enlist. "Gov. Palin has declined to comment. The Palin family wants to keep private some aspects of his decision, spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said. " What would one have to say except that they were proud of the decision?
Update 3: snopes.com has opened a thread on this rumor. They usually do a good job of ferreting out the wheat and chaff. They appear to be "open" on this rumor.
Update 4: Ryan Tate of Gawker.com has compiled a guide to ALL the Palin rumors (a task which is comparable to the Harry Potter Lexicon). We are referenced in the link "boards" in the Track Palin story at the top of the rumor list although we are more bloggy at blogreally.com than boardy.
Update 5: Interesting detail of an investigation in this story on newswire.com. Apparently the Washington Post has been investigating this as well. Each of the Alaskan blogs lending some creedance to this story has a source they trust. In the newswire.com story the news director of KUDO referenced claims a source that worked with the judicial system(?) in Anchorage.
Deep Freeze?
First, the school bus vandalism occurred late November 2005.
ReplyDeleteIf he was one of students accused of school bus vandalism a few days later in early December 2006, Track Palin likely would have been held in juvenile detention for a few days.
Whether or not he was subsequently expelled might await a disposition of the charges against him in the juvenile court, which could take a few months. That might take it out to the summer of 2006.
It appears that he moved to Portage, Michigan, to join a Midget AAA team there in the fall of 2006. That meshes with his likely expulsion from school locally.
He returned in March of 2007 to graduate from the Wasilla High School. In April 2007 it was announced that he signed a tender to play on the Alaska Avalanche for the 2007-2008 season in Anchorage.
http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:CgF18aivKj4J:www.akavalanche.com/4_13_2007_frontiersman.html+Track+Palin+Alaska+Avalanche&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
He enlisted in the U.S. Army, sometime between April and September 2007 getting a $20,000 bonus tied joining by September 11 2007.
The Palin campaign issued a press release on September 15, 2007, which said, "Gov. Palin has declined to comment. The Palin family wants to keep private some aspects of his decision, spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said.
Track was adamant about not wanting publicity, according to a military spokesman."
I would guess that the juvenile court disposition did not directly or indirectly require enlistment because of the sequence of events and U.S. Army enlistment policy.
Moreover, I believe that there could be nothing more required of him by the juvenile disposition before he would be permitted to enlist -- the case had to completely closed.
It is difficult to reconcile his decision to sign with the Alaska Avalanche but nevertheless enlist having pursued a hockey career most of life unless (1) he was academically unqualified for college and (2) realized he had no future in professional hockey. It must have a very personal and difficult decision.