In several private conversations I have had with reporters and others in Alaska, I have been told that Gov. Palin had come under considerable, though mostly under the radar, scrutiny (even some criticism) regarding how inconsistently her children attended school, and how glibly they were moved from place to place. Track, for example, attended most of his senior year in Michigan, allegedly to play on a more prominent hockey team, but when his hockey prospects dimmed he was, in March of his senior year, brought back to Wasilla where he finished the year at Wasilla High School. Having shepherded six children through high school I cannot fathom a teen changing schools three quarters of the way through his senior year, but maybe that's just me being too picky or something.
Exact details concerning the whereabouts of Bristol Palin, however, have been harder to pin down. In particular, Bristol’s attendance during the 2007-08 school year has been questioned on this site and on others. This school year, of course, is the focus of our interest. Why?
1. Someone had to be pregnant with Trig Palin during most of what would have been the 2007 - 2008 school year. If it were not Sarah Palin, it had to be someone else. Period.
2. Photographs of Bristol Palin taken in September of 2007 when compared to June of 2007 show physical changes which are consistent with pregnancy. Does this prove she WAS pregnant? No. Does it suggest that she could have been? Yes.
3. "Something" appears to have happened in Bristol Palin's life during the summer of 2007. She went from being openly in school in the spring of 2007, attending First Family events (albeit reluctantly), posting frequently on social networking sites, working at a coffee shop in early summer of that year, to... as far as we can tell... dropping almost totally out of sight by early fall. She was photographed in Juneau in mid September 2007, then no other photograph of her exists until late April of 2008. ONE family photograph (containing Bristol) released by the Palin family to the media of "Christmas 2007" has been shown to actually have been taken Christmas 2006.
4. Rumors that Bristol Palin WAS pregnant were circulating in Alaska as early as December of 2007, long before Trig was allegedly born in April of 2008.
So obviously Bristol's school attendance during the fall of 2007 is of considerable interest to those of us who are trying to get solid answers to this mystery. Imagine our surprise, then, when out of the blue two days ago comes a totally new, previously unheard of revelation from Levi Johnston to GQ Magazine: he and Bristol, at some point during this 2007 - 2008 school year, homeschooled TOGETHER at the Palin home.
My initial response: Huh?
Her attendance during that year at both Wasilla and Anchorage West has been extensively questioned based on conflicting reports, and spotty information. Of course, neither school will (or should) give any information about a minor student "on the record." So what is known must be pieced together from media reports, which often contradict each other. Wasilla High Assistant Principal Mark Okeson told the media in September that Bristol had transferred to Anchorage “midyear”, though he admitted: “I never heard the story why.” This certainly makes it sound as if she attended Wasilla until Christmas 2007 and then left. The National Enquirer reported that Sarah banished Bristol to live with her Aunt Heather in Anchorage after learning of her pregnancy. And Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News, speaking with Heather Bruce shortly after Sarah’s nomination, confirmed from Bristol's own aunt that Bristol attended Anchorage West “in the spring." Bristol's attendance was also confirmed by a private source who has stated to me that Bristol, a friend of her child's, attended Anchorage West in January and February, leaving some time before mid-March 2008.
Yet, the details surrounding the transition from Wasilla to Anchorage remain fuzzy. If Tripp was born at or close to full term in late December, 2008, Bristol could not have known about her pregnancy prior to either very late April or early May of 2008. Anchorage West's LAST day of school in 2008 was May 16th. So it is absurd to suggest that she lived with Heather Bruce AND went to school at any point during her pregnancy with Tripp. She didn't. If it is true that she lived with Heather Bruce while pregnant AND she attended school, it MUST refer to a prior pregnancy.
We do know from Sarah Palin’s interview with Alaska Magazine that, as of fall 2007, the plan at that point had been for Bristol to stay in Wasilla to finish out her high school career. If so, it would be understandable. Not many teenagers appreciate being taken away from friends, favorite teachers, and social events right in the middle of high school.
But, there may have been another option, and, based on Levi's recent statement to GQ, one that may well have been utilized by the Palins. In an article published by the Boston Herald on September 2, 2008, WHS principal Dwight Probasco stated that, while Levi did play for the Wasilla Warriors hockey team during the 2007-08 season, he was not attending classes that year--instead, he was homeschooled via the Mat-Su Correspondence Study School. Here's the exact quote:
Principal Dwight Probasco explained Levi’s decision to drop out: “School might have interfered with Levi’s moose-hunting, so he did a home school course. He continued to play on the ice hockey team, even though he stopped coming to classes two years ago. I understand he is now out of work.”
And now, a new article in GQ magazine not only confirms that Levi was homeschooling during that school year, but appears to impart some additional information that we had not heard before. Referring to Levi at that time:
“The previous year [this has to refer to 2007-2008] he’d been in a homeschool scenario. Alaska boasts the most lax homeschooling rules of any state in the union, in the sense that they have literally almost no rules. Levi was doing his learning online, through a Brigham Young University program. Unsupervised, at the Palins’ house, where Bristol Palin was homeschooling, too.”
The timeline for Bristol's homeschooling is--what a surprise--unclear. It is generally accepted, though, that she began attending Anchorage West at some point in 2008, so this article appears to be referring to the months prior to that. Read that again. This article is now strongly suggesting that Bristol was NOT in fact attending Wasilla High in the fall of 2007, but was "homeschooling."
Wow. Bristol Palin - popular, athletic, good student, missed all of her friends at Wasilla High SO much while in Juneau the previous spring that she decided to... home school? IN Wasilla? What's wrong with this picture?
And adding gasoline to the intrigue fire is a quote from Gov. Palin herself, in August of 2007, where she states specifically to interviewer Armstrong Williams that, the previous day, Bristol (and her siblings) had been registered for school. In fact, what Gov. Palin specifically says is, "Four kids, four different schools." No mention of homeschooling here whatsoever. (Forgive the digression, but I must point out another curious fact: the fourth kid can only be Track, and since he had graduated from high school the previous spring, this has to refer to registering for community college or some other higher education source. Yet... within a month he's changed his mind and has enlisted in the military. It's been suggested many places that Track's enlistment decision was abrupt, and motivated, at least in part, by something other than pure patriotism. This certainly seems to confirm that his mother, in August of 2007, had no clue he was about to enlist.)
Something just ain't right here, folks. Homeschooling is one of the button issues of the religious right. If Palin had homeschooled any of her children for any time at all, don't you think it would have been used during the campaign? Good grief, they used everything else they could find. But no... homeschool prior to the fall of 2008 was never mentioned once that I can find in connection with the Palin family.
I have suspected for a long time that Bristol Palin did not attend school in the fall of 2007, but have not been able to prove it. Does this chance comment from Levi Johnston (just keep talking, kid) provide conclusive proof? No. Does it bring us one step closer? I think so.
138 comments:
Great work as always Audrey! Everyone should read the July GQ article at
http://tinyurl.com/lxermw
I think that the Johnston/Palin definition of 'homeschooling' is quite different than what I know if it, which is more defined and specific. This sounds more like a couple of unsupervised kids pretending to do schoolwork at home. With NO disrespect to folks with ADD/dyslexia etc in their families, I think that in Levi's case it's more a matter of a bad, unmotivated student who is allowed to not attend school, probably because the parents know he won't attend anyway.
The whole story lends more credence to Bristol being out of the school building for a long period of time.
Another interesting point in the article is when Levi is reading over a report in the National Enquirer and he sees some details that very few people know, and he realizes that his friends have been talking behind his back.
I just read the GQ article and the same paragraph jumped out at me. I came straight here hoping you'd be on this. Something is really weird here alright. Given that in the article Levi says Todd and Sarah never liked him, it really set off bells to find out that Levi and Bristol were homeschooling together at her house.
WOW, I'm excited there is new info and a post! Question though, why did the Principal state that Bristol abruptly "left" if she wasn't truly there (meaning homeschooling?) I do believe Trigg is Bristol's & it's just a matter of time before the truth comes out, and I do hope Bristol can mother her baby publicly (she clearly has the stronger maternal feelings/intuition than does the elder Palin.) Now we also know why she graduated with such a high GPA :)
It would be interesting if someone could dig up stats on how many Alaskan, particularly Wasilla or Anchorage, kids homeschool or take online courses. The local HS here is so crowded they're practically *begging* parents to take correspondence classes. It would also be interesting to know how often governor's kids were/are yanked out of school for trips, events, campaigning, etc. and what their ages were. Were Sasha & Malia out of school for any extended period during the campaign? I remember an article quoting our First Lady as saying she wanted to "keep their lives as normal as possible." I do not remember seeing them that much during the campaign. Anyone? I read and ask questions and would love to research but my overtired kids and husband are yelling for more mommy snuggles LOL :) Thanks for all your hard work Audrey & Co.
wv="lessest" meaning the least or teeniest tidbit of info could break the story? Or "least of these" meaning care for the disabled, poor, elderly? I do NOT like how Trigg was handled during that Special Olympics spot, especially when Piper pushed him back and Sarah kept smiling. Contrast that to how Bristol and Levi hold him, close to their chest, cradled as a baby should be, facing outward with one hand around his stomach while Sarah walks in heels. (Video is somewhere.) That poor kid deserves his REAL mama and papa. If the theory is Sarah and Todd have more resources to take care of him, ummmmm then why haven't they put him in any programs? My son just went to the OT today, in bad times we have 4-5 different doc appts a week. The Governor can find more time to do that then Bristol?
Just keep talkin' kid. I think that is the key. Get those Wasilla kids talking. The stories they would tell...
As soon as I saw the quote at the end of this excerpt from the upcoming GQ article, I thought of you, Audrey.
As this homeschooling concept has crept out at us between the cracks, oozed out around the corners, only to appear in recent weeks as an "it's been true all along" type of reality that no one bothered to mention as it was happening, it made sense to me only in the retroactive, convenient-excuse way -- like the oft-used "I was working at home" line used by your pal with the hangover who didn't show up at work but would like to collect his paycheck anyway.
I swallowed the homeschooling for Levi as being a good faith effort to address ADD or other learning disabiity issues. I had the impression that this homeschooling for Levi took place way before his senior year (not sure now what I based that on). Never did I have the idea that he and Bristol were homeschooling together, in the fall of 2007, as the quote at the end of this excerpt from the upcoming GQ article suggests:
He did not even skate his senior year. Tripp was born about the start of the season.
The previous year he’d been in a homeschool scenario. Alaska boasts the most lax homeschooling rules of any state in the union, in the sense that they have literally almost no rules. Levi was doing his learning online, through a Brigham Young University program. Unsupervised, at the Palins’ house, where Bristol Palin was homeschooling, too.
“May I ask if that’s how Tripp came into the world?”
He did not kiss and tell. He did however shrug and smile.
So I'm scratching my head about the timeline here:
The BYU online homeschooling must be fall 2007 if it is "at the Palin's house" and in "the previous year." I thought Bristol was in school in Wasilla up to Dec 2007, whereupon she went to the SP sister. Bristol would already be pregnant with Trig at that point, if we think Trig was born to Bristol anytime between Feb and April 2008.
But if the idea is that Tripp might have been conceived during that period of homeschooling, then it would have to be in April/May 2008 -- April if we buy the "5 mo pregnant" statement released at the RNC intended to prove Bristol could not be the Mom of Trig; or later if we think Tripp was born later than the end-Dec birthday announced for him.
So let's say the intent of Levi's statement is to put it in the April/May 2008 time slot. Isn't that the time when they were acknowledged to have dropped out of high school? Only in December 2008 did SP contest the "dropout" label, at about the time Tripp's birth was announced.
I'm also thinking that if the guidelines for the homeschooling are so lax, why didn't they both just finish, get the damn degree and be done with it? Levi's electrician job would not have later been in jeopardy, and there would have been some basis, at that time, for the "I'm not a dropout" claim.
Once again, as with my earlier "because she was not pregnant" list, all this is most easily explained by saying "it didn't happen." This is after-the-fact damage-control talk. It doesn't fit because it didn't happen. A red herring, tossed out either deliberately or in ignorance.
Unless it was maybe one of those things you do for about 10 minutes before abandoning it. That would fit: neither Levi nor Bristol seems to have gotten a high school degree out of this BYU effort, or even come close enough to doing so to have EVER talked about it before. So maybe they did it for 10 min. Which would make it true. And irrelevant.
Very interesting, Audrey. So Bristol is home schooled while pregnant with Trigg, delivers in Dec,'07 ? and goes back to Anchorage West for Jan and Feb '08 per your private source and stays undercover. You'd think everyone there would have seen her big and pregnant and spilled the beans if she delivered in early 2008. But it doesn't appear possible she delivered in Dec 07 before she went to Anchorage West,as Trig even if he was born premature, is rolled out in April, '08 looking fairly small. Something doesn't fit.
My conclusion? With so many loose ends, one can weave almost anything.
But I still stick to the following idea: BP became pregnant with Trig in summer 2007. Track's partying behavior and abrupt departure is somehow related to this, as is Bristol's own rumored heavy partying, as is Dr CBJ, as is Sherry Johnston's OxyContin access.
Bristol conceals the pregnancy from SP (although not from her peers, if the "common knowledge" rumors at the time were true) as long as she can, but then tells her. The paternity is a difficult issue. That's the real reason to initiate the amnio at the too-early point of 13 weeks, or even at all: so SP can verify that the paternity claimed was actually true.
With the results of the amnio, the difficult paternity issue is confirmed and also the DS is revealed. The former more than the latter, if revealed to the public, will ruin SP's blossoming political hopes.
Up to now, SP is not talking about this pregnancy as hers or anyone else's -- that's why no one in the family is told yet. She is on record as telling McAllister that the "common knowledge" rumors about Bristol being pregnant are not true (even though SP knows they are).
Bristol is sent to the sister.
SP thinks it over: what to do, oh what to do? Her political chances keep looking better and better. It's now or never, politically, for SP.
The possible church adoption option falls through because of the enormous consequences of DS. An official adoption is unacceptable because it would require access to the birth certificate, home visits, interviews, paperwork, investigation -- and that can't be allowed.
The hoax is planned and then put into action, as we have seen. The wild ride story was not intended to happen -- it was an on-the-fly damage control invention intended to validate something SP's father let slip -- as that interview 3 days postpartum makes abundantly clear.
Trig is born in Feb? Mar? Apr? Bristol's telling her parents about THIS conception is "worse than labor," although this quote from Bristol in the GVS interview is said (by Bristol) to describe the announcement of Tripp's conception.
As Bristol is grieving the complicated circumstances of Trig's birth (a little post-partum depression would seem entirely normal here), comforted by Levi, at some point she becomes pregnant with Tripp. Perhaps during the BYU online homeschooling effort! The announcement of THIS conception is the giggles-and-waving-of-test-stick scene reported by Sherry in her Brit tabloid interview. How can it be otherwise?
The Tripp conception takes place between April 2008 (if we buy the "5 mo preg" RNC announcement) or later (if we think Tripp was born later than stated). The specific dates do not matter for this scenario to work, so long as Bristol is known to be pregnant a little before the RNC.
Nothing has dissuaded me from this scenario so far. All the facts and factoids continue to point to it.
And just to repeat: why do we care? For the same reason(s) we didn't like Edwards lying to us, or Bill Clinton lying. Because this lie is so integrated into her family values pitch, revealing it to be the sham that it is. Because she is a charismatic speaker who mobilizes a large part of the population for shameful reasons. Because the fat-cat right wing is keeping this hoax out of the MSM, a scary enough idea just on its own.
Audrey and Company ~ thank you so much for your careful attention to detail.
It's hard for the nay-sayers to call you a nutjob.
wv: sninas (sorry, i can't make anything relevant out of that!)
This is one of many issues we are going to get clarity on from Levi's interview(s). The other thing that struck me from the GQ interview right off is the comment referring to how long he has stuck it out with Bristol (3 years). There are so many discrepancies around this.
Thanks, Audrey.
Levi probably spent most of his time homeschooling at the Johnston's home. I think the time Bristol & Levi home schooled in the Palin palace would have been during the period that they were caring for their newborn son, Trig in March and April 2008, not fall of 2007.
Good work Audrey.
I had read about the homeschooling comments at another blog. I was wondering who would dissect it. Good to see it here.
Alaska homeschooling, having no rules, is a joke. I hope that now it has come out that functional illiterates are graduating by using (abusing) the system, that it changes. "Education" by Palin. Scary. Very Scary.
Audrey - Good to hear from you again. I've been eager to hear what you would glean from Levi's GQ article. The circumstantial case grows ever stronger.
LondonBridges said...
Bristol & Levi home schooled in the Palin palace . . . in March and April 2008, not fall of 2007.***
I agree that Bristol probably went to Wasilla High in fall 2007.
I don't find Track's return to Wasilla High at the end of his senior year suspicious. I've read elsewhere that he wanted to graduate with his class. I suspect that was planned even before he suffered his injury.
Audrey's source called Misty is one of the biggest pieces I can't fit into the scenario. She saw Bristol in January and February at Misty's home in Anchorage and didn't notice a pregnancy. She probably didn't know how thin Bristol had been, as in the boat picture, but could Bristol really hide a third trimester baby under a sweatshirt? I don't think so.
Audrey, how do you reconcile Misty's account?
I believe that Bristol lived with her aunt more than once. In the beginning of 2008, pregnant with Trig or not, I'm now thinking not, since you have evidence that Bristol did attend school in Jan, Feb of 2008. She wouldn't be able to hide a pregnancy at that stage in a public school.
I also believe she lived with her again during her pregnancy with Tripp, at the beginning of the 08/09 school year. To hide from the media at that point and to take classes(at home probably). She did graduate on time, so I assume wasn't behind and fulfilled requirements.
I know others may disagree but that is how I read the reporting of it. It makes sense to me.
Is this why Levi said he used to live with the Palins?
I think the homeschooling wasn't discussed for the obvious to us but also, too, because the idea of homeschooling to the conservatives is about the parent being the teacher, not some computer. I have a friend who homeschoold using a web-based program and it was great but she was with them all day. SP couldn't tout homeschooling from a values perspective because that wasn't what was happening.
Jennifer
Thx for link to GQ article, NYTabloidChick:
http://tinyurl.com/lxermw
Well written, very good article.
There were published rumours that Bristol was seen pregnant by students while attending school in Anchorage in early 2008. Also since she was a new student there, her normal physique would not be available for comparison purposes.
My thoughts are;
1. When Levi was homeschooling with Bristol it was during the time he was "Living" with the Palins and helping to take care of Trigg (with the knowledge that this was his baby, but the Palins would be his "Parents" for insurance reasons.
2. It has been reported many times that Bristol was a "Party" girl. Various drugs can make a person gain/loose weight rapidly. If she went through a period of taking "uppers" (ADHD Medication, cocaine, diet pills) she would have lost a weight quickly. (possibly summer). Then took "downers" (Marijuana, oxycodone, sleeping pills) this would have put on weight quickly (early fall).
3. The car accident in February. I think that caused the early labor of Trigg (if you google "car accidents premature labor" you will find lots of examples of minor car accidents causing a placenta tear several days after the accident). I think at this time it was discovered Trigg was Downs Syndrome with a heart problem as well as being premature and underweight. It was during this time Sarah decided to have to fake the pregnancy to cover for Bristol and her own political plans.
My WV is "Duped"....how fitting!
As the wife of a teacher, I find this business of switching schools and pick-up online courses really absurd. Teacher's work so hard to plan their curriculum so that every important thing gets covered. It's bad enough when kids miss a lot of classes but to wander from school to school to online course is just educationally dysfunctional. What disrespect it shows for the work done by educators.
When I think about that grade point average quoted for Bristol, I cannot imagine how that could be. They're not really doing her any favors--all she's learning is that you just need the right connections and presto you're a "scholar". I guess her teachers are intimidated by Sarah and take the easy way out and give the governor's kids good grades.
I'm so glad I live in a state (NJ) that is proud of its schools and pays teachers well. It should be that way everywhere if we want to hang onto our democracy. Our type of government is dependent on educated citizens who can make informed decisions in the voting booth.
"There were published rumours that Bristol was seen pregnant by students while attending school in Anchorage in early 2008."
Anyone know where these are? I haven't seen them. I would think there would be alot more than rumours if students saw Bristol pregnant.
We've seen Bristol at 7 months pregnant with Tripp in Walmart. I don't think she could even remotely hide that at school, it would be obvious.
**MODERATOR REMINDER**
Let's try to stay on topic as much as we can and remember that this thread is NOT a place to bash educational choices. We're discussing Palin, not the virtues of homeschooling vs. public education.
On a personal note:
I'm sure there are people here who utilize both systems. I happen to homeschool, and my oldest daughter who was homeschooled now teaches in the public school system.
Not every homeschooler has problems with public education, and not every teacher has problems with homeschoolers. We have friends with multiple kids who homeschool one or two and send the others to school.
And homeschoolers are not all religious, by the way. Nor are they all conservative. Our local homeschool group - which originally started out with more conservatives - later split into two groups, one for the religious homeschoolers and one for the secular homeschoolers. The secular homeschool group is actually larger and far more active.
The conservatives homeschoolers I've met seen homeschooling as part of their Christian identity, so it does seem curious that Sarah never trumpeted her decision to teach Bristol at home. She could hae gotten another conservative "bump" from that admission. The fact that she never said anything about it means she wasn't doing it for any educational or spiritual benefit, but because she was trying to hide Bristol.
Quick question for wiser heads: How does a paternity test differ from prenatal testing? Does the genetic material drawn during amniocentesis/chorionic villus sampling also lend itself to testing to determine paternity, as well as disclosing genetic anomalies?
I'm asking from an admittedly cosy bubble in which the paternity of my children was certain, and amnio and CVS were performed to determine lung maturity and to scout for genetic defects.
How would the paternity testing fit in to BP's situation? Thanks.
Thanks, Audrey, for moving the discussion forward once again. I am always grateful for your new commentary and for keeping this website available. Thanks, too, to Morgan for faithfully moderating our comments.
I find it very intriguing that John Sullivan, the author of the GQ article, states that Alaska has the most lax home-school rules of any state. Evidently Levi did not attend school at all during the 2007-2008 school year, yet played on the Wasilla ice-hockey team.
I hope we have some Alaskan high school teachers or administrators who read this blog and would answer a few questions for me.
During 2007-2008 would Levi have been enrolled at Wasilla but not physically there (except for hockey practice and hockey games) because he was home-schooling?
If Bristol was enrolled in high school in Wasilla until Christmas, 2007, does that mean she was attending regularly? Could she have been enrolled and home-schooling at the same time?
In January 2008 could Bristol be enrolled at Anchorage West but not be physically there because she was home-schooling?
I am beginning to believe that in Alaska being enrolled in school does not mean the same thing that it means in many of the lower 48 and Hawaii. Because of the stringent attendance rules and regulations in most of our local school districts, I think many of us have assumed that because Bristol was enrolled first in the Wasilla schools, then the Anchorage schools for a specific period, it meant she attended, at least most of the time. Now I think that such a presumption is not correct.
However, even if Bristol did attend Anchorage West during Jan/Feb of 2008, I disagree that she would not have been able to hide a pregnancy with a March/April due date. Because I have seen too many teenagers do just that, I know it is possible.
I have long been puzzled by Anne Kilkenny's assertion that she knows Sarah gave birth to Trig. As far as I can tell, Anne Kilkenny wrote the letter about Sarah, verified that the letter was legitimate, then never said anything else. I would like to know if she still thinks that Sarah is Trig's mom or if she's changed her mind, but I don't believe she's commented at all on anything, at least not for publication.
I have always suspected that when Sarah told McAllister in February, 2008, that it wasn't true that Bristol was pregnant, what Sarah was really saying was that Bristol wasn't pregnant anymore.
I think that by the time Sarah had that conversation with McAllister, Trig had been born and she could truthfully say that Bristol was not pregnant.
I think it should be obvious by now, with all the information that has surfaced since Audrey’s post on 11-3-08, that “Misty” either lied about seeing Bristol “on several occasions between early January and spring break”, OR Misty saw Bristol AFTER she had already given birth to Trig. Since it had been several months after the fact, Misty may have been mistaken as to the timing of when she saw Bristol “between early January and spring break”.
The other questionable information from Misty is this:
“She did not hear any more information on Bristol until her son told her in very late April or early May that Bristol was pregnant. She cannot date this precisely but is sure it was before her son - who was a senior - was finished with school. (Last year (spring 2008) the last day of school was May 22nd, but seniors finish early. Last year, seniors last day was May 12th.)”
Bristol herself would not have known she was pregnant with Tripp by May 12, 2008.
Rather than calling Misty an outright liar, I will give her the benefit of the doubt that she simply did not have very good recall as to the dates that occurred several months earlier.
MrsTarquinBiscuitBarrel: I too did not get the connection of amnio and paternity testing. When I connected the dots, my jaw dropped.
But of course: amnio harvests DNA! So from that DNA you can do the testing that amnio is usually associated with. AND you have the DNA for anything else you want to do, like paternity testing in utero.
Few people do that (paternity testing in utero): few people need to know paternity RIGHT NOW -- they either know it, or they can wait until baby is born and then do a simple q-tip swab of baby's inner cheek tissue (zero risk to baby, in contrast to the small risk with amnio). People can do cheek-swab paternity testing on their own (for just their own info) or in a controlled, witnessed way (for legal purposes), where the chain of custody of that q-tip is well documented to prevent substitution.
A hypothetical example: if you were a Mom whose daughter is pregnant, not exactly sure by whom (it could be Nice-Person-A or sleazoid-pond-scum-person-B), you might want to know for sure. Not of course if every child is a gift no matter what, but if your thoughts included the possibility of abortion or giving up for adoption -- then maybe you would want to know. You might also want to know how the land lies in terms of who you might have to deal with in the future, assuming the possible Bad-Dad-person-B is also AWARE that he might be the Dad. Lots of ways to think about this totally hypothetical example.
So the other interesting thing about Trig's amnio is the timing, as we have noted all along. The optimum time is 16 weeks, in terms of best accuracy of results and least risk to baby. But accuracy of results for the DS was not what SP would have had in mind. Not for testing of Bristol. So "just do it ASAP!" I bet she shrieked at her MDs. (Pardon me for thinking that risk to the fetus was also perhaps not her top concern.) SP had it done at 13 weeks, she said. To me, 13 weeks = about the time that one has to admit she is pregnant, even if one does not welcome the news. SP says it was done at 13 weeks.
So when is 13 weeks in Trig's case? According to her MDs letter, the week count is as shown in this tired old graphic -- I think KaJo contributed this piece of info, based on the CBJ letter. Thanks, KaJo -- I have referred to the SOOOO often!
Nov 11-17, 2007, would be Week 13 using that info. I recall some discussion here about when it might have happened based on SP's calendar and travel records, which I have tried not to look at. Could you experts on that weigh in again? When do we think the amnio took place? Presumably, the nano-second of abortion thoughts happened after that.
And it would be after the amnio that the SP preg plan begins to be hatched. First give the church adoption a little time to fall through. Then the abortion idea comes and goes. Bristol goes to SP's sister in Dec.
In Feb begins the wearing of the scarves. In Mar the announcement of the preg right after McCain gets the nomination.
One last point: if it were YOU as one of the actors in this sad tale, wouldn't you have done your own paternity testing of Trig after his birth? Perhaps even maternity testing, depending on what you knew for sure. Not witnessed, usable-in-court testing; just for your own info. Get a piece of hair from SP, one from Bristol, something from the most likely Dads, a cheek swab from Trig, and for a couple of $100s you would know, for your own purposes. I sure would. A fancier, legally acceptable version of that testing could come later, if wanted, but at least I would know what I was dealing with. Don't you think this has already happened?
(When we talk about this testing, I have to laugh at a comment that in this case, maternity testing would be useful, too, for Trig. Not a lot of call for it in normal lives, but there you have the world of SP.)
Of course, 13 wks could be a complete fabrication. So could the amnio. But Trig is real, and SP's flat stomach on that graphic above is real.
Amy1 at 5/30 at 12:19 am – Yes, your second paragraph is exactly what I believe.
However, I feel you and several others are still hung up on one of SP’s talking points – the 13 weeks. I believe that Bristol may have had the amniocentesis while in NYC 10/7-10/11, but Bristol would have been approximately 17-19 weeks pregnant. SP made up the 13 weeks to fit into SP’s pregnant timeline to conform to the made up due date of 5-18-08 and the pretend premature birth on 4-18-08. The only statement made by SP that I think might hold some truth is the “35 weeks”, and that Bristol could have given birth to Trig in late January 2008 at 35 weeks gestation. (I still wonder about the state aircraft being used on 1/25-1/27/08 and again on 1/31-2/2/08, hmmm).
At first I, like many others, could not comprehend how Trig could have been born that early and presented on 4-18-08 as a newborn, but this winter I saw firsthand how a 7 week old preemie baby looked 2 days old, and later at 12 weeks old the baby could still pass for a 2 week old baby. If you add DS difficulties and heart problems in addition to prematurity, I feel that Trig could easily pass as a newborn on 4-18-08 even if he was born in late January. Plus, there is no way anyone would take a 3 day old preemie DS baby to work! Even Sarah! Trig was probably at least 10 weeks old on the day of his presentation on 4-18-08.
I do not give credibility to any “after the fact” statements made by SP. They are very misleading, and were always intended to be misleading. Trig was presented as having been born on 4-18-08, and Sarah Palin almost succeeded with her bizarre faked pregnancy except for one slip-up: Grandpa Heath telling reporters about the water leaking. Then Sarah was trapped, because she had already told the reporter that she called CBJ at 4:00 am. She tried to avoid answering the question about the water breaking, but FORTUNATELY the reporter persisted by telling Sarah that her father had said it. Then Sarah ums, ahs, and stammers and is forced to embellish her concocted story further than she had planned.
Same with the “I never told anyone” bull. I keep seeing people sidetracked on that issue. Any statement SP made or makes is all after-the-fact misleading. Wipe out anything Sarah Palin said and just look at the pictures, travel records and calendar. The only time to consider anything Sarah Palin has said is to compare when it conflicts with something else she has said. Oh, her ghostwriter has such a nightmare ahead of her!
I googled "home schooling requirements Alaska" and came across some VERY interesting links...
It seems most every school (Including Mat-Su school District) has options where a child can study with their classmates while at home using a computer. They are not only given assignments by the teacher via computer, but often have webcam options to see the classroom and teacher, and be seen by the classroom and teacher.
Maybe that is how the Palin girls were able to keep up with their class(es) while on the road (and pregnant). Also how students were able to "see" Bristol in the Jan/Feb 2008 time period. (you would see her face but not her belly, during communications)
This is in addition to the usual "Home Schooling" as we would define it in the lower 48, where a parent would teach a child school requirements as set by the state.
1. http://tinyurl.com/m5xq5q
For Alaskan independent home-schoolers who have resolved to remain free of state control in all manner possible, specifically by not accepting any state monies through the State of Alaska correspondence or charter school programs. Membership to this group is invitation only or through the sponsorship of an existing member.
2. http://www.dcs.k12.ak.us/
A useful option for any of your home-school parents who would prefer to have someone teach more advanced subjects like math, science, and foreign language. We teach the courses ourselves, but the students take the classes at home. Access to a computer and the Internet are required.
3. http://tinyurl.com/me7pe2
This is a place for families who are enrolled or thinking of enrolling in a state funded correspondence school, distance learning or any other homeschool program which is supported by the state or any other public school. Some examples of these are IDEA, Cyberlynx and K12.
4. http://tinyurl.com/nvho8d
We are a sub-group of the Alaska Free Homeschoolers yahoo group. If you are a Christian family living in the Matanuska Valley and are not taking government money to homeschool, you are welcome to apply for membership.
5. Legal Information for Alaska Home Schooling
http://tinyurl.com/l9dv9y
http://tinyurl.com/2eb2at
the devil is in the details...Time for a call to that muthhee guy to rebuke that devil. whoops...TOO LATE!
Slightly off-topic but along the lines of Levi spending time in the Palin household, what jumped out at me from the GQ article was Levi's comment about leaving the Palin household and going home when things got "weird" after the election.
From the GQ article:
Everybody was kind of like, we didn’t talk as much anymore, you know, and we just kind of like drifted apart, as far as me and Sarah and Todd.
Then me and Bristol just started fighting more and more. I thought it was, like, ’cause she was pregnant, she was moody and that kind of thing. So I was dealing with it and stuff. But it didn’t stop after she had Tripp. Things got worse. So I was like, “All right.”
What did he mean, “All right”?
I left and went back home.... My interpretation:
Levi was in fact living with the Palins before and after the election, until things got "weird" after Palin lost and continued to be weird even after Tripp was born. So, he left and went back home.
Which is consistent with what Levi said in his Tyra Banks interview.
To which Palin replied, during a press conference: "...I know details about whether Levi Johnston was allowed to live with my teenage daughter or not. By the way, it would be over my dead body that a kid would live with my teenage daughter."
Riiight! Who do we believe?
try this:
http://tinyurl.com/3pwe9z
ProChoiceGrandma: I'm with you re SP lying. About anything and everything. I agree that no SP dates have much credibility unless we have seen them happen with our own eyes.
That's why I have not been so interested in the exact date of either pregnancy, and why the SP/RNC logic of Bristol's "5 mo along" status seemed irrelevant. Push the dates either way a little or a lot, and everything fits. Add a complexity or two (like the heart condition), and then the flexible dates -- no one knows wtf is correct.
But it doesn't matter. Trig was born. His pregnancy was faked. The photos prove it. The circumstantial data support it.
And how's this for a comment on family values: "You're pregnant? Well, you have to marry him. Or if you dump him altogether, I'll buy you a shiny new car."
I think the "three years" Levi mentioned could be how long he has cared for her, not necessarily the length of the relationship.
LondonBridge -- the date on that article is from last fall, when there was the flurry of reporters starting to talk about it, and then that died off.
Here's a question. We've come to realize that NOTHING that SP says should be considered truthful, unless there is independent verification. Hence, we know first pictures for Trig and Tripp. But their birth dates are a question.
There's a sizable contingent that now believe Trig was born b4 his 4/08 TV debut. But is it Jan, Feb, earlier Apr? Jan theories seem based (at least in part) on travel records, statements about the AHA lunch, etc.
So ProChoiceGrandma's post got me thinking. If Trig was born in Jan, then wouldn't SP want BP at the AHA lunch and have pictures of her not pregnant out there to debunk the rumors? Instead, aren't the first pictures we have of BP since the Sep 07 pictures Mercede's NLT 5/08 pictures?
I also went Googling after I read Audrey's most recent blog entry. My choice to search was hunting up when the Wasilla Warrior hockey season occurred.
I found this article written a week after the McCain announcement in Sept. 2008 about Bristol's pregnancy. Two things stand out:
"...the team's Web site has been stripped of rosters, photos and player information just over a month before practices begin."
(see screen capture @ http://tinyurl.com/nz24od )
...which had to have occurred when McCain's RNC team of vetters cleaned up Alaska politics and everything else so that Palin appeared squeaky clean to their "base".
But I DID find Levi's stats page. There's some dates for ya!
Also, the article confirms that Levi was being homeschooled during the season he played for them. However, the link for that (highlighted) is at a site's archive now, and costs money to read.
And if you went to the link above, you saw reference to "Can't Stop the Bleeding", which is a must-read... :)
THAT article makes mention of the New York Daily News article which (as we probably remember reading at the time, and from which Audrey has quoted) says, in part:
" And the pregnancy? An open secret in the close-knit town of 9,780.
Bristol Palin, now a senior, was frequently seen cheering her young beau from the stands. Levi is also a senior.
Wasilla mom Jennie Johnston, whose son Jade played hockey with Levi, saw the young couple in January at a game.
“She was in a cute little outfit like young girls wear,” "--------------
I'd like to see what that "cute little outfit" looked like. A pinafore, empire waisted?
--------------
And while I'm sidling farther and farther off topic :) -- for any of you who are "into" hockey, and understand the nuances of the game and the terminology, you might enjoy "Sarah Palin Is Not a Hockey Mom", found at Nate Silver's blog FiveThirtyEight.com. It's always fun to read these stories in hindsight.
I am convinced that Trig was born at least four months earlier than when they say he was.
DS kids have trouble nursing, trouble walking, coordination issues, muscle tone issues ... that interview with Greta showed a DS child much older than what they were saying (7 months?).
No way could a less than one year old DS child have the kind of coordination Trig showed there. I just don't buy it.
ProChoiceGrandma: I'll buy your very early Trig birth timetable. Why not? nothing refutes it, and it answers some of the qu we have puzzled over. Any timeframe we pick has loose ends left over, but none has more of them than the official one given us by SP.
I am trying to sort of the timeline here. Some time ago, we heard that Levi quit school to go to work (on the North Slope?) to earn money when he learned that Bristol was carrying his baby. (Which baby was that, when was this dropping out supposed to take place?) Now, we learn that they were both out of school, "home schooling together." (No so, says Sarah). Somewhere in there, Bristol is shipped off to Auntie's house (what happened to Levi then?) Then, it's off to the North Slope towards the end of the year, you know, that electrician job around the time that Tripp was supposed to be born. Must have been the time that things "got weird" after Sarah lost the election. Oh, yeah, that's when they were parenting their butts off at the same time.
What I really don't understand is how a possible candidate for VP, preaching good Christian values, invites the father of her future grandchild into the house without some plan in place for the kids to get married. If they weren't going to get married, why bother to invite him in? Was this an attempt to look like good VP material? Nothing says "conservative" like that boyfriend homeschooling in your house. Now, he's stuck with that ring finger tattoo. What ever happened to the assortment of wedding rings (one on his thumb, another was lost while hunting, a ring on the ring finger in the picture where Bristol & Levi are asleep on the bus. I can't keep track of the stories any more. So, I guess my wish is for everybody to keep on talking.
I do have to admit that I like the idea that the amnio served several functions. Making sure the baby was healthy for a possible adoption and/or 'who's the daddy?'We don't know which 'daddy' Sarah chose; I'm betting on the one that she could most easily manipulate. One would think that all Levi has to do is get a court ordered paternity test to file for his parental rights....unless....
OK, you guys, get talking again!
What if SP thought of Levi as her fourth kid? [She wouldn't have known about TriG then,in Aug 2007, no matter who carried him.] If BP & Levi were close, and he was hanging with the family all the time, he probably was treated like a son - especially if BP was indulging less in partying.
SP must have known Track was enlisting because it was a big deal that he start on September 11. I think that date was orchestrated with total parental input.
I have always been disturbed that SP does not value education as either a leader or as a parent.
IMHO Levi and BP home-schooled under their own initiative or under the influence of someone like Chuck Heath or the Johnstons.
WV: Weeder, as in weeding out the truth.
Thanks for this post. It will also be good to see what SP comes up with in her book, because there are bound to be more slips of the tongue from her.
I liked the part of the article where Levi texts to Bristol that she looked great on television. Should these two kids get back together, for the sake of their 2 children? Stay tuned...
FTR, I homeschooled my daughter from fifth grade on, and she is now attending college. She qualified for Honors English classes, but because of the scheduling, she decided to take regular English courses.
If Bristol got such good grades, why can't she take the GED and pass it? It's really not the difficult of a test. I guess she really didn't need the GED to work for Candies.
Alaska does have high standards and good schools - IMHO far better than the high school I graduated from in Washington state. I am very happy with the education my children have received here.
To get a High School diploma in Alaska, you must pass a High School Graduation Qualifying Examination in reading, writing and math.
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/assessment/hsgqe.html
If you pass all your classes but not the HSGQE then you get a Certificate of Attendance, not a Diploma.
My stepdaughter was homeschooled for two years and it was the best she ever did. However, parental and/or guardian interaction *is* required.
I do not believe the GQ writer's statement is accurate that the rules in Alaska are the most lax. It is not consistent with my experience and knowledge of parents who home-school in Anchorage and rural Alaska.
The State has oversight of parental organizations through which the educational materials and funding are transmitted. I never heard of an external agency such as BYU providing home-school in Alaska, but it has been over five years since I have interacted with any of those parents.
It is true here, as in Morgan's experience, that the home schooling parents usually have strong religious views. That is another reason why I have puzzled that SP did not provide it for Piper, and why she did not brag it up for BP.
SP does not value education, that is why her children have not had regular attendance in school.
Bristol, Track, and Levi for that matter, could walk across the stage - that does not necessarily mean they achieved all of the state requirements to actually get a diploma.
Amy1 said...
""" Get a piece of hair from SP, one from Bristol, something from the most likely Dads, a cheek swab from Trig, and for a couple of $100s you would know ... A fancier, legally acceptable version of that testing could come later, if wanted, but at least I would know what I was dealing with. Don't you think this has already happened? """
I totally agree that it has already been done ... most likely by the Secret Service and/or McCain operatives.
IMO opinion the answer is already known, whether SP knows they know doesn't matter.
She'd be very naive to assume that it wasn't done while she was stirring the public on the campaign trail. But hey, she's not known for thinking things through.
I took the writer's statement that AK's homeschool regulations were 'lax' as a reflection of the physical size of the state, sometimes-treacherous travel conditions and a large native population, not as a reflection on homeschooling in general or on 'real' homeschooling in AK.
In NYC, where students don't usually live more than a few blocks from a school, I suspect a homeschooling parent would be much more easily supervised than would a parent in AK, just because of geographical considerations.
That said, why the conflicting reports of school attendance in various towns v. homeschooling curriculum from BYU? Why not homeschool with the local curriculum? I assume most homeschoolers would want to get the curricula for their kids from the local school(s) so their kids would be on a par with their peers.
Another question about SP's statement about taking four kids to enroll in school(s): Is this an AK thing, where you need to take a child to enroll each time they hit a school milestone (elementary, jr. high, high)? Or did she (claim to) need to do this because the kids were changing districts?
This homeschooling with an out-of-district curriculum seems to be another real problem for SP. If she's homeschooling for religious regions, why not use those resources, available in AK as posted up this thread? And why not play it up to her religious, off-the-grid base? If she's the governor, why doesn't she think her own state provides an adequate curriculum for her own children? If she talks up her dear old dad for his years as an educator, why not show her pride by sending her children to public school?
Another point (sorry for rambling!!): In all the photos of the P hockey arena, oops, house, does anyone remember seeing two computers? Or are computers upstairs in the kids' bedrooms? Because you'd think a supermom like SP would want to keep the computers visible to parental supervision, rather than in a bedroom where all sorts of things (or at least two adorable cuddly "mistakes") could happen.
I think we'll be hunting, ha ha, through this unguarded Levi interview for lots of info!
(Also, too, I think the timing of Sherry's drug sales, investigation and eventual bust deserves a re-visit.)
Sorry, Morgan! Point taken about school choices and I've put my soapbox in a more inaccessible location! I apologize to anyone I offended!!
wv cansd as in cancelled what I posted!
Thank you, Amy1! Lots of good food for thought there... In SP World, one has to suss out proof of both paternity AND maternity. More, even, than what's provided by the company advertised on the unforgettable, apostrophe-free billboard I saw once near Philadelphia: 1-800-WHOSDAD?
I believe that Trig was born much earlier than April and believe in Bristol as the mother.
Something sounds odd about the following. Perhaps it's me wanting to see something where it isn't.
Go here and click on CourtView.
Look up Bristol Palin.
Go to the third case and click on "dockets." This was the February 2008 car accident. Neat, quick, simple case. Happens on 2/11 and ends on 2/26.
Go to the second case and do the same. Why is a simple speeding ticket so drawn out? Why does it take from 8/7/2007 until 1/19/2008 to finish this up? Bristol was in Wasilla.
Here's a link to the homeschooling laws in AK, from the HSLDA website:
http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/Alaska.pdf
NY tabloid chick said... May 31, 2009 7:01 AM
“”” … In NYC … I suspect a homeschooling parent would be much more easily supervised than would a parent in AK… …why the conflicting reports of school attendance in various towns v. homeschooling curriculum from BYU? Why not homeschool with the local curriculum? …Another question about SP's statement about taking four kids to enroll… …If she's homeschooling for religious regions, why not use those resources, available in AK as posted up this thread?”””
NY tabloid chick, I hope to answer these questions but my postulation is that SP is not involved in her children’s schooling. Not for appearances sake, and not for religious reasons and not for the good of her children. Not involved in any education.
As far as SP choosing a curriculum outside of Alaska, if she *was* the one who chose it, it doesn’t make sense. I am confused, too, about why Levi (and possibly BP) used correspondence from BYU – it’s not listed with the correspondence, charter or home-school associations in this state.
My understanding is that required study is standardized by the state, but the correspondence schools, home-school associations and charter schools can form the curriculum to fit. The parent/guardian has to insure the student meets the requirements.
Oversight and auditing over a large service area may be why in AK the correspondence schools, home-school associations and charters are set up, but you can get the correspondence materials directly, you don’t have to be in an association or charter. The correspondence packets are audited by teaching professionals to insure the student is progressing (at least that was the way for my stepdaughter).
In Alaska a parent has to enroll (register) each child each Fall or every time you change districts.
@Silver, Courtview: In my state, a minor traffic incident can be handled in a number of ways, depending on the judge. One solution is to assign the driver to a traffic school for a given period of time. Sometimes one just has to complete the course; sometimes there is a test involved. They do this if they want to go easy on the driver.
I think that the Feb.2008 traffic accident was handled in this way. My clue is "Police Training" and they charged Bristol $10. for the class ($150. for the ticket, driver didn't exercise due care in avoiding the collision-- sorry to paraphrase). The time lag is the couple of weeks in traffic school and time for the paperwork to clear.
Bristol has a grand total of three driving tickets (that I could find on that website). Feb.2008, and another time for failure to carry proper insurance with her. The one that is really long-and-dragged out is a minor citation for speeding filed Aug.6, 2007. This one dragged on for 6 months. First there was "Police Training" which I am guessing is traffic school (Wouldn't you think that they would want to go easy on the governor's kid? Are judges appointed or elected??)
The problem is that the hearing keeps getting rescheduled and rescheduled each month. The ticket for speeding was August 6, 2007 and it was rescheduled to be heard after "Police Training" in Aug.Oct.Nov.Dec.2007, finally resolved in Jan.2008. What we really have to do is figure out what was going on with Bristol starting in Aug. and especially Oct.Nov.Dec.2007.
Does this correspond with a timeline for the coming baby Trig?? Any reason why she couldn't appear in court fall 2007? Sick? Clothes don't fit anymore? When was she shipped out of town to the aunt's house?
And the other part is Jan.2008 resolution of the ticket (finally!)
Some would say that points to Trig's actual birth date. Others might suggest that in the middle of winter, in a big fat padded coat, who would notice anything? Did Willow show up in her place? (Just a wild guess). Could also be handled by a lawyer with no Bristol?? And then, it was followed by another accident, just outside a medical clinic the next month.
The August 2007 ticket was minor, speeding 4-9 miles over the limit.
Traffic school should have taken care of it easily. The delays are interesting, especially if anyone wants to speculate what was going on with Bristol that fall and winter. Thanks for the interesting link!
KaJo -- you always give us such good stuff. I just read your SP Is Not a Hockey Mom -- sooo good. So right. And for him to have seen that so early. I sure did not. I was just this pm thinking about how "nothing ventured, nothing gained" is SP's way. She has bull-dozed herself to an amazing spot, considering her minimal creds. I have a lot of respect for her energy, assertiveness, and street smarts. I just don't want her in a leadership position because she is using her considerable talents for the wrong goals. The ladder she is so good at scrambling up is positioned at the wrong wall -- at a stupid wall. The good news: you can move the ladder, Sarah!
Sarah: you could be truly great if you decided to be rigorously honest and do the right thing. Just start with honest. I've always hoped the book deal could be the vehicle for true liberation from this bad hole you have dug -- for yourself, your family, your ambitions. Here is a meaningful door to a meaningful future. Don't waste it.
Audrey and B: I wonder if "Misty" could be like the other Wasilla commenter (Sue Williams the caterer) who said with absolute conviction and apparently first-hand data that SP birthed Trig. And Williams also said, twice, that Bristol and Levi had gotten married. That puts the kibosh on her SP observations for me.
I don't get all this discussion of homeschooling: isn't it just as good (or bad) as the kid, the parent, and the teacher doing it? Just like any school situation. It's an opportunity, not a guarantee. Some kids go to Harvard after homeschooling, some kids get an unearned degree. And the whole spectrum in between. Just like everywhere else.
The issue for us? Zero. Another set of red herrings that we are stumbling over each other to glean clues from. Another batch of data that is hard to reconcile with other data (which is itself not confirmed). But so what? It's just typical for this story.
I wish to modify my earlier family values statement:
"You're pregnant? Well, you have to marry him. Or, if you dump him altogether, I'll buy you a shiny new car. Why are you together for days and nights on end with the door closed? Homeschooling!!??!! Oh, okay, then."
Bretta, thanks so much for clarifying homeschooling in AK. My suspicion had been that "homeschooling" in this case was simply a coverup for educationally lax families, each of whom raised a high school dropout and is trying to appear in retrospect to care. Sigh.
Amy1,
I respectfully disagree with your assessment that the discussion of homeschooling is a "red herring." If it were, I would not allow it.
The fact is that this discussion is quite relevant to the Palin story, especially given how it's leaked out. And for those unfamiliar with homeschooling and homeschooling laws, discussion allows them to put it all in context.
I have requested that this discussion to degenerated into a public school vs. homeschool debate and fortunately the readers have been very respectful of that guideline. So your comment is curious at best.
Were things getting derailed you can be quite sure that I'd take care of it.
Re: homeschooling. In our state, basic goals is decided by the state (the student will achieve a credit in Fine Arts, for example- Arts might be ceramics or painting or Art Appreciation or whatever) but the individual schools decide what their curriculum is. Homeschool programs are free to set up their own curriculum, and some of them are very good- and others aren't. This is something I wrestled with when I served on a school board: for 11 years, every year, I'd meet with the high school principals and counselors to review the cases of students who weren't on track to get a diploma. Some of them were doing additional work via homeschooling and correspondence school. The difficulty was coordinating the homeschooling material with our graduation criteria. The kids could get a homeschooling diploma, but (in our state) this wasn't particularly impressive, so people would apply to have us recognize their homeschooling and give their kids a diploma from our school district. In very few cases were we able to do so- because the homeschooling criteria just wasn't good enough.
I find it interesting that Levi, who apparently has a learning disability (so I've heard) and Bristol were using a curriculum from out of state, and I wonder how Levi in particular could make any progress. I frankly think this could have been a less rigorous program to enable the kids to get their diplomas at some point without actually having to do much work. I am not impressed with the Palins' educational standards.
Given the several offhand references Levi makes in the GQ article to living with the Palins, I think it's pretty obvious that he moved in there. The question is, when? After Trig was born? That's when he dropped out of school and the two would presumably have been "homeschooling." If he was there through the summer, it helps explain how Levi could have acquiesced to Bristol's dictum that he not speak to his sister. Did he have a job, I wonder? Most teenaged guys make lots of money at summer physical-labor type jobs. Is that another thing he gave up for Palin?
It's such a weird, creepy thing to do, to have your 17 yr old's baby daddy move into the family house. If the Palins are so religious, why didn't the young couple get married? Perhaps Bristol was just stringing Levi along--especially once she got pregnant for the second time, they probably wanted to keep him close so that they could make sure he was keeping his mouth shut.
I wonder if the fact that Levi was living with the Palins is one of the things that fueled the rumor that he and Bristol were married? Surely some people in Wasilla knew he was staying there? Unless that high wooden wall the GQ article talks about is there for privacy, and in that case, who knows what has been going on behind that wall?
Morgan, if I may interject my thoughts on what Amy1 posted about homeschooling perhaps being a "red herring".
I don't think she meant that our commenters and the discussion was so much that, but that the homeschooling "red herring" was another one of the tangents or "look there" distractions leaked by the Palin Mafia.
Witness the here today-gone tomorrow-back again data on the Wasilla Warriors hockey website. And, of course, the July 2009 GQ story just out.
Calm down, everybody... :)
Morgan -- my point re the homeschooling discussion was to express ignorance re what does this tell us? I was hoping someone would explain the part I don't seem to get.
We know they lie or alter or misrepresent or obfuscate just about any fact one can name. So to take this one new detail and try to compare/contrast with previous spurious dates/events? It seems to yield little unless we can anchor some actual fact to some other thing(s) we know for sure.
I am looking at the GQ article (the ONLY source for this new "info" about the homeschooling, right?) and and it says:The previous year he’d been in a homeschool scenario. Alaska boasts the most lax homeschooling rules of any state in the union, in the sense that they have literally almost no rules. Levi was doing his learning online, through a Brigham Young University program. Unsupervised, at the Palins’ house, where Bristol Palin was homeschooling, too.This is not a quote from Levi -- there is no source for this paragraph. It is the author's voice, but he gives no source. We can assume a number of ways he would have come up with this info, but he does not tell us where, exactly, it came from.
I say this is very little to go on.
"He was doing his learning online" -- how long? 10 min? was he registered at BYU? For an actual "program"? did he finish anything? I bet the real answers to these question yield a big zero. I bet it's the same as me, looking something up online, studying it for 10 min or an hour or a day, and calling that "learning online." It is, but it's not what I call "homeschooling for a high school student."
To me, the GQ sounds like a little spin-doctoring the author got on deep background from someone interested in making things look more legit and more serious-minded than any other piece of info we have would suggest. In other words, it might just possibly be a **lie.**
Or a tiny detail. ("Hey, Bristol, what say we look up some homeschooling options on the web?" and then they do, and pursue it for 10 min? 30 min? A whole 8 hrs? I think "8 hrs" is starting to put us into the realm of the unrealistic but that's just MHO.) A tiny detail that might be true as such but also not substantial enough to warrant our (or anyone's) attention.
And I don't think it matters, to us, to this blog, to its stated purpose, of establishing the maternity of Trig Palin. Or, rather, I should say, the deception of SP in this one specific matter.
So that's my take on the red-herring-ness of this topic -- and I sincerely do invite someone to explain why homeschooling, or its context, or good or bad homeschooling of either Levi or Bristol, matters to us here.
One thing we can all agree on. No matter what state laws dictate, the success of homeschooling depends on parent involvement. (There are no other adults, as there are in public school, who help cover for parent neglect.)
We can all agree that if SP wanted the homeschooling discussed, it would have been promo'd and spun long before this.
We can all agree that two unsupervised teenagers with the hots for each other will fall into hankypanky-- no matter what homeschool curriculum they use.
So, nope. No red herring. Just more of the same. Family chaos, disregard for education, ignorant parenting of sexual teenagers.
In this case, Homeschooling = no public witnesses.
= No public records and timelines.
= a housebound Bristol
Keep chipping, Audrey & Co.
How do we know Levi and Bristol didn't get married?
Are wedding records public in AK? In Texas they are, but only online up to 2004 or so.
The speeding offense by Bristol is interesting. I don’t think the “training” issue was Bristol taking driver training but rather it is a surcharge which seems to be placed on every ticket and it likely pays for law enforcement training. After all the delays, she was found guilty. The first couple of months delay was likely due to scheduling the case but after that time there were several postponements. It would be interesting for someone to check the actual records which might tell which, if any, of the sessions Bristol attended.
NY tabloid chick said... June 1, 2009 6:25 AM
""" Bretta, thanks so much for clarifying homeschooling in AK. My suspicion had been that "homeschooling" in this case was simply a coverup for educationally lax families, each of whom raised a high school dropout and is trying to appear in retrospect to care. Sigh. """
NY tabloid chick, I suspect your suspicion is correct, and also, too, that actual homeschooling didn't happen. At least not enough to meet the state requirements.
It's all so confusing and twisted, I agree with the sentiment that it's a red herring to throw us off the trail.
How do we know they didn't get married? Are we sure about that? Why was Levi wearing a wedding ring there are several pictures and why was there that story where SP is joking with her sister about Levi getting his wedding ring stuck on his thumb and now he is stuck in the relationship. Even in Alaska the guy doesn't put the wedding ring on until after the wedding.
I agree with KaJo that the homeschooling was thrown out there to distract the insightful detective-bloggers who are honing in on the facts about SP and recent additions to the Palin family.
"To throw the hunter off the scent" is how I interpret "red herring."
I absolutely agree with Morgan that this issue has merit, especially since I know for a fact that a child can be allowed to walk with classmates at graduation even if the requirements are not achieved because my special-ed daughter was told that if she did not complete the requirements she would still be allowed to walk with the class, and all receive an empty board cover, then get the actual paper at the end of the ceremony.
So no one actually knows if you acheived a diploma but you (and your parents).
My daughter fortunately did complete the requirements.
I think the Palins are making a big show out of homeschooling to cover up the lax parenting.
ROFLMAO!!! My WV is "ressess" as in recess(playtime between school work/classes)!
I wanted to comment on the article that quotes Sue Williams the caterer several times....my eye was drawn to the last thing she said;
"Please. What do I care if Trig is Bristol’s baby? Maybe he was and now she’s pregnant again. I don’t know. That seems unlikely to me. Look, all I can tell you is Bristol is pregnant. Have you never lived in a small town? "
Sounds to me like even Ms. Sue Williams is having doubts that Trig is Sarah's natural born child, after seeing and hearing the proof.....
" Ivyfree said...
Re: homeschooling. In our state, basic goals is decided by the state..."
:::sigh::: I'm sorry. ARE decided. Basic goals ARE decided. Guilty of bad editing and posting without caffeine. :::flogs self with wet noodle:::
Maybe "home schooling" of Levi and Bristol consisted of their studying biology in Bristol's bedroom. Their class project, which took 9 months, same as a school year, was to produce life, and I don't mean mold on a pair of gym socks.
O.K. In reading the GQ article and the comments here, I am even more convinced that Bristol is the mother of Trig and Levi thinks he's the father.
I do believe that it's possible that Bristol gave birth to a premature Trig in early January. (The Aug. 07 traffic ticket not being taken care of until Jan. 08 makes me think something was going on with Bristol from Aug. 07 - Dec. 07 and in Jan. 08 she was able to be seen again. Also remember someone stated that Bristol was seen at Levi hockey games in Jan. 08 not pregnant. I think this could be possible).
Bristol and Levi being home-schooled in the Palin's home in Fall of 07 makes me think that they needed Levi there to keep an eye on him. Also remember Levi was still on the Wasilla hockey team until Feb. 08. Then he quit and later withdrew from school. (I'm assuming that he withdrew from the home-school program?) I still think that he was living in the Palin's home taking care of Trig. Remember all the beautiful pictures with Levi, Mercede and Triggybear.
Bristol moves to Anchorage with her Aunt in Jan. 08. Is this because baby Trig was at the Achorage NICU and she wanted to be close to him? Is this why Auntie allowed Levi to visit Bristol while she was living in Anchorage?
Baby Trig was probably born about 30 -35 weeks old which would have made Bristol about 12 weeks (3 mos.) pregant in that Sept. 07 family picture. Also this would have made a first trimester abortion impossible when she and Sarah went to NY in October. Sarah just couldn't allow a 2nd trimester abortion.
Also, keep in mind that it is possible that Bristol wasn't pregnant when she had the car accident in Feb. 08. She was in Wasilla visiting the Clinic after her birth of Trig.
Remember that crazy weekend in Feb. when the Palin family did all of that traveling to and from Anchorage. Was baby Trig getting out of the hospital then? Also someone on this blog noted that shortly before or right after this Feb. Anchorage traveling weekend, Sarah began to wear her scarves.
I think she was contemplating the deception at this time but after McCain got the nomination in early March she made the decision to go for it and announced her pregnancy the following day.
Baby Trig was hid away between Anchorage and Wasilla until his announcement in April. And we all know that the Palins can hide a damn baby. :-)
This is in response to Amy1’s concerns about discussion of the home schooling issue, which may or may not lead anywhere. I guess I have just the opposite opinion about discussing/raising issues here. IMO we do not know what pieces of information put together in a way that no one had thought about before may provide the evidence we need. We should welcome anyone’s clues and suggestions in a positive manner since they may have the key we are missing. This is particularly true for folks new to this site. Yes, they may be discussing issues that more long-term participants feel have been “settled” but sometimes folks looking at events with new eyes may see something that others have missed. So please, let’s be less judgmental about others’ posts and welcoming of new ideas.
IMO brainstorming should be welcomed, discussed, evaluated by the facts and evidence and then everyone can determine for themselves if an idea is validated, shown to be not true or placed in the “maybe” file to be possibly be looked at again.
For me, I put everything into a timeline that helps me organize my thoughts.
In response to Alex, I understand that birth and marriage records are not public in Alaska for 100 years.
Thanks, Jeanette, for word on AK marriage records. I had long thought that Bristol and Levi had married-- the ring finger tattoo was pretty clear. That way they could justify the kids being together 24/7.
Would it really be possible to keep a marriage/divorce secret? If anyone could, I'm betting on the Palins. . .
Naked Truth, I'm with you.
I think Trig was born far more premature than we've been led to believe. I saw a baby this past weekend that looked far more "newborn" than Trig did wrapped in his blanket with the Heaths in the hospital, so I asked his mother how old he was. He was eight weeks. He'd been born nearly two months premature and she'd only had him home a few days. A DS child with heart problems could have been in the NICU far longer.
I stand corrected. I looked up "police training surcharge," and it does refer to a fund created in 1998 for officer and law enforcement training. If the traffic accident had been a big deal the charge would have been $75. Bristol's $10. charge puts her ticket in a very low category.
I would like to suggest that the 6 month delay could have been a kind of driver's probation period, but the words refer to rescheduling the court appearance. A ticket for 4-9 miles over the limit isn't a big deal, but they dragged it out for 6 months. Why?
(I drive with a lead foot, so I've done my share of appearances in traffic court. I remember watching the other cases before mine, and when a woman was brought in for going 5 miles over the speed limit, the judge laughed at the arresting officer and said, "Is that all you got?" We all should be so lucky!)
To follow up on Diana's post at 8:22 pm June 1st:
In today's Anchorage Daily News (June 2) Gov Sarah Palin decides to not participate in a national effort to write nationwide education standards in reading and math education:
http://www.adn.com/news/education/story/815880.html
This is just another inexplicable about-face from her statement in the VP-Debate:
“Education credit in American has been in
some sense in some of our states just accepted
to be a little bit lax and we have got to increase
the standards.
“My kids as public school participants right
now, it’s near and dear to my heart. I’m very,
very concerned about where we’re going with
education and we have got to ramp it up and
put more attention in that arena.”
Give SP time and she flips like a jumping bean.
Keep up the pressure, Audrey, we need the truth about this so-called Leader.
Naked Truth: "I do believe that it's possible that Bristol gave birth to a premature Trig in early January. (The Aug. 07 traffic ticket not being taken care of until Jan. 08 makes me think something was going on with Bristol from Aug. 07 - Dec. 07 and in Jan. 08 she was able to be seen again. Also remember someone stated that Bristol was seen at Levi hockey games in Jan. 08 not pregnant. I think this could be possible)."
Could the baby presented as Trig in April be anything but a newborn? I think even a baby born 30-35 weeks premature in early Jan would not look like a newborn in mid-April, as that baby did. At the other end, though, BP's appearance in the Sept 14 Xmas pix does says 3 months to me.
How easy would it be for Levi, in all his interviews and comments and personal revelations, to have said simply, maybe with a little humor, "Oh, by the way, all that stuff about Trig being Bristol's and my baby? He's really not. I know he's the governor's. I was living at their house when she had him. Sorry, B and I only ever had Tripp together"? It would be very easy. I know that the absence of any such comment is not proof of anything, but to me it's a giveaway.
@ Naked Truth - I've been following this for what seems forever. I think you have hit on a plausible time line. It puts the pieces together very well.
It occurred to me after reading Naked Truth's post -- and jeannette's -- just above that what we really need posted on Patrick/Kathleen's Flickr pages is an Excel-type spreadsheet with all these dates and locations for Bristol Palin between June 2007 and February 2009, as much as has been determined so far.
If someone can print up one of those sheets and scan it so that an upload-able JPEG graphic can be placed on the PD research team's Flickr page, that is a reference some of us could DOWNLOAD and study.
Volunteers, anyone??
(I'd do it, but I've never been able to figure out the commands for Excel :) )
Naked Truth's summary of events posted on June 1 at 8:30 seems to me the most coherent account we have had to date of the events of Trigg's birth. It incorporates most of the evidence gathered in the many months we have followed this blog and the strands of the collaborating details. I might believe an even earlier date than January '08 for Trigg's delivery based on the cogent observations of "nir" on May 30 below. This would fit in with Bristol's documented return to Anchorage West in January,'08:
"I am convinced that Trig was born at least four months earlier than when they say he was.
DS kids have trouble nursing, trouble walking, coordination issues, muscle tone issues ... that interview with Greta showed a DS child much older than what they were saying (7 months?).
No way could a less than one year old DS child have the kind of coordination Trig showed there. I just don't buy it."
Patrick, Morgan, Kathleen, do you agree with the basic outline of Naked Truth's summary?
Homeschooling is relevant to the meaning of Bristol "enrolling" in Wasilla High in fall 2007 and enrolling at West High in Anchorage in January 2008. I have argued against a much earlier than April birth for TriG because I felt Bristol's pregnancy would have been known at school. That's not true if she wasn't physically attending school. Most classmates in Wasilla would assume she was still in school in Juneau and would not question her absence.
As Audrey explains them, the GQ statements suggest as possible that TriG was due in February and born at 35 weeks in January.
Mel said:
"Could the baby presented as Trig in April be anything but a newborn? I think even a baby born 30-35 weeks premature in early Jan would not look like a newborn in mid-April, as that baby did. At the other end, though, BP's appearance in the Sept 14 Xmas pix does says 3 months to me."
Mel,
I agree. This is something that bothers me too. But then I go back to my 1st child, a daughter born at 35 weeks no DS but 4lbs 10 ounces. In reviewing her growth charts she was only in the 5-10% percentile for her age but at 3 months she was only 6.5 lbs. I remember people always commenting on how small she was.
Check out these growth charts below. There's one for both premature and DS babies.
http://tinyurl.com/pzdgqa
From the GQ article:
"He did not even skate his senior year....The previous year he’d been in a homeschool scenario."
I think it's pretty clear from the context that "previous year" is here referring to Levi's junior year, which is of course the year previous to his senior year. So we're not talking about the calendar year 2007 - we're very likely looking at spring 2008.
Slightly off-topic - I was googling around a bit on the Wasilla Warriors hockey team and found a perplexing link. How do you think the WHS booster club raises money - bake sales and car washes? Not on your life, folks, this is ALASKA!
http://tinyurl.com/qx8jnx
And they do this IN THE SCHOOL GYM!
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new national poll of Republicans suggests that there's no front runner at this extremely early moment in the next race for the White House.
Three possible candidates are all bunched at the top of a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday.
The survey suggests that 22 percent of Republicans would most likely support former Arkansas governor and former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee for their party's presidential nomination in 2012. Twenty-one percent say they would most likely back Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, with an equal number supporting former Massachusetts governor and former White House hopeful Mitt Romney.
Taking into account the poll's 4.5 percent sampling error, Huckabee, Palin and Romney seem to be locked in a hypothetical dead heat.
If Trig was born in January, what was the wild ride about from Texas when "Sarah's water burst?"
Martha
Ghostbuster said:
Slightly off-topic - I was googling around a bit on the Wasilla Warriors hockey team and found a perplexing link. How do you think the WHS booster club raises money - bake sales and car washes? Not on your life, folks, this is ALASKA!
http://tinyurl.com/qx8jnx
And they do this IN THE SCHOOL GYM!
Isn't there a federal law about firearms on school grounds??? Yikes.
Martha asked:
"If Trig was born in January, what was the wild ride about from Texas when "Sarah's water burst?"
I always thought that Sarah held out presenting Trig until after her trip to Texas. The Texas trip was important to her career. Also keep in mind that Sarah wanted to fake a pregnancy for the shortest period possible. But she also needed us to believe that she was far enough along in the pregnancy to have a baby 6 - 7 lbs.
I believe something forced Sarah to return from Texas much sooner than expected. I always thought it could have been Trig having to go back to the hospital for an emergency and Sarah needing to get back to claim him. Remember CBJ stating that Trig was hospitalized shortly after birth for jaundice.
And let's not forget that Sarah had her newborn DS baby in her office showing him off 3 days after birth. That's because he wasn't a newborn.
@Martha, why the wild ride if Trig was born earlier? One suggestion made sometime ago is that when Trig was ready to leave the hospital, they discovered that only the parent could sign him out. Whatever the original plan, Todd and Sarah had to hurry back and complete the sign out. Dr.Cathy hinted in her "medical report" that Trig had jaundice and required light therapy. He may have been in and out of the hospital more than one time. But, with Todd & Sarah out of town, it was suddenly an unforeseen difficulty. (We are all assuming that regardless who the birth parents were, Todd & Sarah had legal adoption papers in place, so they were the legal parents who had to do the sign out). I think that we all agree that whatever excuse she gave her father, his version mushroomed into the "wild ride" story, and rather than contradict him, Sarah stuck with it.
I was also thinking about that poll of Republicans and feeling despair. Then I thought of two things. The first is that, at this stage, it's all about name recognition. So that's saying a third of the respondents recognize and are not appalled by Palin. The more important factor is that the self-described Republican section of the population has shrunk so this poll is only of that section of the population who still identify with the party. It would be helpful to see how the interviewers went about the selection process. Exactly what questions or criteria did they use to determine that these were Republicans to be included in the poll. I DO think that there is great reason to worry about the fact that she is even that popular. It's so frightening to read about the groups, almost invisible to mainstream Americans, swirling around and supporting Palin and Roeder, So this part of the population may be shrinking but is becoming more dangerous, IMO.
wv=dobbet sounds like a diminutive follower of Lou Dobbs... hmmm. maybe it's "date of birth" and "bet" which is at the heart of our inquiries!!
Thanks, Diana...I knew OF your list-timeline but never had a link to it (or forgot to bookmark it in previous references to it by you).
Thanks again.
As the mother of a very active high school junior, nothing -- and I mean NOTHING -- would convince me to pull my child from school mid-year, mid-high-school-career -- unless it was for a life-changing emergency, especially if I had an athlete. (I have a state-champion marching band kiddo.., but down here it's no-pass, no play.. so grades are a priority to all kids who participate in extracurricular activities.)
These people - the Johnstons and the Palins - put great stock in high school athletics. Palin herself was a state champion basketball player. Their kids were expected to participate in sports, and they happily complied -- until -- what happened?
Why homeschooling? For BOTH Levi and Bristol? Why leave school over year before you have your "one and only" baby Tripp?
Unless you have another baby --?
wv: "flursh". Let's flursh out the truth.
"If Trig was born in January, what was the wild ride about from Texas when "Sarah's water burst?"
So far as I've been able to see, the early return is only validated by Sarah, who is, as we know, prone to lying. She said that Todd called to see about earlier flights, but I don't think anyone ever said that they actually returned earlier than they planned. She said they decided to skip the evening events (no mention made of when they decided to skip them)and return "as planned." So take your choice- the wild ride happened, or it didn't happen. Me, I'm thinking that for some reason, they planned to return that day. I don't believe they ever changed their flight plan, and I don't think she was in early labor- because I don't believe she was pregnant with Trig.
Maybe they knew that Trig was going to be released from the hospital and this was a good time to pretend to be in labor- arrive late at night and "have the baby" next morning. Remember nobody saw Sarah in the hospital, either. Todd was seen and I think Sarah's parents showed up and had their picture taken with the baby- but there's no hospital-bed photos of Sarah.
I am one that believes that Trigg is Bristol's baby and I cannot wait until it is exposed. During the campaign, just before the nation saw Sarah Palin as "not ready" for the role in which was selected to run. I found it so strange that not one Governor that was in attendance in Dallas mention how it took guts for a pregnant Sarah Palin to make the trip and speak after the whole world knew that her water broke in Dallas. Not one Governor validated the pregnancy. Besides just watching Bristol & Levi handle Trigg during the primaries and watching Sarah and Todd handle Trigg was as different as daylight and darkness. Bristol and Levi were loving, kind and affectionate...there was a picture of Levi kissing the baby and I find that strange for a self-professed redneck. Then you watch Sarah & Todd, and the first thing to my mind...was she holds him always facing the camera and like a sack of potatoes. The camera was another Palin photo opt. What a lying, conniving fake Sarah Palin is along with the whole family.
This may have been discussed before:
Sarah served as an elected member of the Valley Hospital Board.
From Wikipedia:
In September 06 it reads (under ‘experience’):
Currently, she is serving an elected term on the Valley Hospital board.
In June 07 it reads (under ‘experience’):
She served an elected term on the Valley Hospital board.
In September to December 07 it reads (under ‘Political Experience’):
She also served an elected term on the Valley Hospital board.
In the update of August 28, 2008 the reference to her serving on the Valley Hospital Board has been removed entirely. Now why would someone want that taken off their resume?
Here is the link:
(http://keating5.net/2008/08/31/sarah-palins-wikipedia-entry-gets-overhaulwe-have-the-original/)
Thing that make you go HMMMMMM…
Gryphen @ Immoral Minority reports today that Levi's book deal is "imminent."
Several people have asked if Trig was born in January or February, why did Sarah wait until the “wild ride” home. Given what I think she needed as circumstances surrounding the “birth”, that was the earliest day the event could happen. I think she needed secrecy and privacy and she needed to go to the conference.
IMO she couldn’t “have” the baby in Juneau under the eyes of the reporters covering the legislative session. The session ended on April 13th and Sarah made sure there was a picture taken of her looking very pregnant. in what looked like a pretty empty office. (I suspect she waited until most people went home to have that picture taken since it was quite different from her appearance in other pictures taken about the same time.)
Sarah flew to Anchorage on the 14th and to the conference on the 15th. She arrived at the conference at around 2 pm so she must have left pretty early. Not time enough to have a baby there and make it to the conference.
She gave her speech on the 17th and started her flight back to Alaska shortly thereafter, arriving at around 11pm. So it was late at night, not many people at the hospital and no pesky press around. I think she had to give her parents a reason for why she left early and therefore the “leaking amnio” story. I just don’t think she thought her father would report it and/or it would get much coverage. It seems that Sarah was used to pretty favorable coverage.
I really don’t think the picture of Trig with the Heaths shows a premature baby. I don’t know when Trig was born but my guess would be somewhere around the Heart Luncheon in Fairbanks or maybe a little earlier. That may have been the time when he was brought home to Wasilla.
I'm turning on the "way back machine" to the story that Bristol was missing from school due to mono. This fabrication was reported early in the great lie but dropped in favour of newer and better lies. How did the mono story fit into the larger scheme, time line-wise?
RE: Sarah in SC
Where You May Not Carry A Firearm In Alaska With Or Without A License Or Permit:
Restricted Locations:
· A public or private school for grades K-12 including the school grounds, parking lot or on a bus while used for school sponsored activities, unless the person carrying the firearm has the permission of the chief administrative officer of the school or the school district.
Martha said...
If Trig was born in January, what was the wild ride about from Texas when "Sarah's water burst?" ***
Martha,
She lied.
p.s. - Return in the middle of the night after the legislature had ended was for privacy. Waterbreak was reason given to her dad, who was not in on the deception then and mentioned it to a reporter, causing Sarah to answer to it and embellish her lie. She didn't realize that the Wild Ride would be the dead giveaway: either she 1)didn't give birth or 2)she recklessly endangered the baby, herself, and perhaps passengers.
Martha -
"If Trig was born in January, what was the wild ride about from Texas when "Sarah's water burst?""
I think the general consensus here is that Palin had wanted to discreetly "give birth" in such a manner as to avoid attention from any nosy types. Everyone thought she was in Texas, so when she suddenly appeared in Mat-Su with a baby in tow, anyone who might have questioned the legitimacy of the pregnancy would have been caught by surprise.
The problem, of course, is that someone told her dad a crazy cover story, not knowing that he'd go and blab it to anyone who'd listen. Later, instead of admitting that she'd lied to her dad, Sarah stuck with the "wild ride" story.
Punkinbugg said:
"These people - the Johnstons and the Palins - put great stock in high school athletics. Palin herself was a state champion basketball player. Their kids were expected to participate in sports, and they happily complied -- until -- what happened?
Why homeschooling? For BOTH Levi and Bristol? Why leave school over year before you have your "one and only" baby Tripp?
Unless you have another baby --?"
Exactly! And also we should keep in mind that according to the GQ article, Bristol and Levi were home schooled during the 2007 - 2008 school year. Levi continued to play hockey and played his last game in Feb. 08 before shortly afterwards dropping out of school. Bristol played basketball. Why did she stop playing while being home schooled - Levi didn't? I think she stopped because she was pregnant. Just doesn't make sense for one to participate and the other not.
wv: fight We need to continue to fight until the truth comes out.
Thanks to all of you brave researchers. I think this will come to resolution soon, especially with the information that Levi will provide in his book. I cannot wait!
I am concerned that Trigg may just disappear. Very few people know the truth about all of this. DNA from Trigg will be only way to truly prove who the parents are. I would not put it past Sarah to have Trigg involved in a terrible accident. Something that will make it unable to collect DNA. I know this sounds crazy, but it sure fits her demented thinking. Pam
Wasn't Sarah and/or Todd seen in the hospital by someone on the purported day of Trig's birth? Maybe they had to do the "wild ride" because the baby got ill (jaundice? heart issues?) and had to go to the hospital. Perhaps in the usual Palin style, they were keeping him hidden at home, waiting for the ideal time for him to be "born" to his "mom" Sarah, in which case they could have presented him at a convenient time. But if he was ill and possibly in danger for his life, they would have had to rush home so Sarah could "deliver" him, whatever the case with his health. How else would she explain that she was pregnant and then have no baby? No baby and a grieving teenage daughter... it would have looked bad. And whatever did happen, it HAD to go down at the Wasilla hospital where she has power to keep things quiet. For some reason she had to get there FAST. I propose the theory that Trig was ill and possibly in grave danger, or at least that is how it was conveyed to Sarah in TX to make her rush home.
my wv: repenspl... Repent, Sarah Palin!! :-)
Did everyone see that Bristol and her silly abstinence campaign made the Colbert Report last night?
bike, I think that's very telling that Sarah's ties to the hospital were removed from her Wiki page. Good catch!
Well THIS is interesting. On a lark, I was looking through google images for the search "trig palin". I came across a shot of Sarah, Todd, and Trig at what I believe to be Trig's baby shower. You know, the pics that were made private after we discovered them? I clicked through to the website and it flashed, VERY briefly, on a Sept 7, 2008 article about Trig and love, or some such, but then immediately switched to the current blog post. I played around with the site, searched archives for Sept 2008, but there is NO article for 9/7/08 when I search that way. Can someone else try this and see if they can get *to* the article? Is there some reason this photo/shot is re-directing me?
Google image search for "palin trig www.wesleyjsmith.com" and look for the image about 3 rows down on the left hand side.
TIA!
Yellowgirl
I have a question: I remember seeing a schedule of GINO for the days just before/after Trig was supposedly born, including her schedule in Dallas at the Repub.gov. convention.
My question: What exactly does it say about her schedule in the afternoon/evening/after the convention? Because, if it is an unedited schedule, then she should have the evening gala on it and all the other things that went on - UNLESS she had already pre-arranged all the flights etc. (i.e. her claims that Todd looked for earlier flights would be thrown out the window, if her schedule shows her to return in the afternoon)
Or is a 'schedule' made up AFTER the fact?
Thank you, bike, for the wikipedia info. I do not recall hearing about someone making 30 changes to Palin's entry 24 hours before her nomination was announced.
Also, too, the screen name of the person who made all the changes is "Young Trig!"
CARIBOU & JINDALOO
In Twenty One Two!
Please, oh, pretty please.
WV: stalewed (I am not making this up!)
interesting post from beth56,
a HUFFPOST blogger on SP's recent speech:
Compare her photos during the campaign and those posted since November.
Note her eyes, her hair, her clothes, her words. Consider her relationship with the Alaska Legislature and Senate.
Subtract the negative commentary from the positive in the Anchorage Daily News and you end in with a negative number.
Consider this last speech. While it is horrific in grammar, usage, style, and tone, it is foremost incoherent.
Consider the video on her own website taken on Memorial Day, a video for the whole world to see.
While the cause of the observance is well-founded, the quality of the video mirrors Palin's speech and gives insight into her present state of mind and her journalistic capabilities or lack thereof.
Both speak to the ego, "As long as you can see me and hear me, professionalism, knowledge, respect, and clarity do not matter. I'm on camera. Can you see me? Do I need to speak louder, faster, longer?"
Her entire character displayed since returning to Alaska--disengaged, erratic, deluded--points to substance abuse.
The alternative is worse as substance abuse is treatable through intervention, a concept those closest to Sarah Palin should consider as a favor to her and to the state of Alaska.
What is the connection between Sue Williams the caterer and Sarah? Does Ms. Williams have a vested interest in stating that Sarah & Todd are Trig’s parents? Or that Bristol and Levi got married? Or does she simply support her politically? And how does she “know” that Sarah gave birth to him?
Maybe Levi & Bristol used the BYU home-schooling software because it agrees with Sarah’s view of life…conservative and religious. I realize that it is a different religion than Sarah’s. Maybe their software is the best fit for the Palins when compared to others out there.
I may have said this before, but if Bristol & Levi did get married, why was it kept quiet? Wouldn’t Sarah want everyone to know? Family values and all.
Maybe it was stated that Bristol was home-schooled so that, as a student turning 18, she was still covered on mom’s insurance. Perhaps as a non-student turning 18 she would lose her insurance.
Of course Sarah had to come out in favor of education during the campaign. A politician can hardly come out AGAINST it.
The Obamacon - You could be right that the crazy story was first told to her dad. Thank goodness! Because if she had kept it simple - the mtg in TX was important for AK, so I had my dr. clear me for travel; during the morning mtgs I had the feeling that I needed to go home, so we skipped the evening events; just b4 we got to Wasilla I realized I needed to go to the hospital; Trigg's DS was a complete surprise because in line with my pro-life beliefs I had not had an amnio - would we have been warned that something was fishy?
Sarah said...June 5, 2009 8:09 AM "I propose the theory that Trig was ill and possibly in grave danger, or at least that is how it was conveyed to Sarah in TX to make her rush home."
That doesn't work, because of the obvious health of the baby that Sally and Chuck Heath presented to the television cameras the morning after the "wild ride".
But it could have happened a couple of months earlier when he might have suffered from the purportedly minor heart defect and the jaundice. In an NICU. Somewhere else than Wasilla.
----------------
Wayofpeace, if you have a link directly to that commentary by the HuffPost blogger that you mention in your 6/5/09 4:11 PM post, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
I tried, as Yellowgirl suggested, to access the site wesleyjsmith.com. Didn't see the site on Trigg and Love but found it through a google search. It's an article by a religious Canadian blogger basically gushing over Palin and Trigg. Wesley J Smith is a lawyer and anti-abortion, anti-Peta and anti-euthanasia author. I wonder why he would have photos of the shower. He lives in San Francisco but his interests certainly overlap the Palins".
Yellowgirl:
Here you are
Yellowgirl,
Thanks for finding the new disappearing photo and story. You can download the picture by going to the site and quickly hitting "See full-size image." It doesn't disappear that way.
Here's the URL:
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2008/09/story-of-unconditional-love-birth-of.html
I don't know if there's anything new in the photo, unless there's a birthdate hidden on that cake, or Trig's size tells anything, especially compared to Sarah's back-to-basic-skinny-black-suit.
The story, however, does vanish quickly.I spent an hour scrolling along and taking fast screenshots of the site and was able to transcribe the story, which is basically an opinion page about religious issues like Sarah loving her baby.
IF anyone wants the transcription, I'll send it. It's two Word pages long; maybe I should send it here?
I am thinking that it will not be long now (due to increased exposure of babygate on Grypen's blog and Levi's book deal). The truth will come out about Trig, and the spin will begin. Here is my sad prediction:
Her base will not care one bit! She will be even more of a hero for protecting her young daughter. The lies are all acceptable to them. As frightening as Palin is (her stupidity, her lack of ethics, her lies, her narcissism and her religious fundamentalism), I am just as afraid of her followers. Where the heck do these people come from???
@ Yellowgirl [June 5, 2009 9:51 AM]:
"Google image search for "palin trig www.wesleyjsmith.com" and look for the image about 3 rows down on the left hand side."
I did this, with same results you reported. I can go back to the 'unconditional love' page; however, it quickly re-opens the next page. I was not able to copy the article we wanted, but did snag a link from it to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/us/politics/08baby.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp
... which carries the baby shower photo.
Through the BLOGS links at bottom of the home page that keeps opening, one can access many palin-bot articles.
My wv is: purkf [an apt and enchanting sound byte]
herkimer
@ Yellowgirl:
I did just now find a direct link to that article under 'Secondhand Smoke' in the blogs, but no can go to -- the phrase "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria." is then displayed.
herkimer
A shout-out of gratitude to all of you who pieced together the timeline. I was slightly dizzy after reading it intently, but that's good!
The reason why the GINO's office looked so "empty" when the Gusty shots were taken on April 13, with SP wearing the empathy belly, was because the Lege closed at lunchtime. This gave SP plenty of time to stage the shot.
Regarding the April 2008 "newborn" shots of Trig with SP and Tahhhhd, IMHO he only appeared like an infant, not necessarily a newborn. When babies are professionally swaddled in hospital togs, they seem "newborn." Sleep-fuddled parents don't do nearly as neat a job dressing babies.
Re: wedding rings--Here is a link to a picture showing Bristol wearing a wedding/engagement ring at the Republican National Convention:
http://tinyurl.com/59lszd
Yellowgirl-I tried the link and also reached the website from another direction and the same thing happened to me. I noticed that his archives only listed the past couple months; so maybe the old posts aren't available.
KaJo,
here's the HUFFPOST blog link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/screw-political-correctne_b_211635.html
A couple questions I have been seeing asked, that I want to add my two cents about.
1. Why would Sarah want to hide the info that Bristol and Levi were married (if they were secretly married like Sue the caterer has suggested}? Well, how about then Bristol would not be covered by Sarah's insurance. If Bristol was a pregnant teen still living with Mom and Dad and not married, Sarah's insurance would cover Tripp's birth and pregnancy costs. But would not if she was married to Levi. Levi's insurance (or welfare) would have to cover Bristol.
2. What may have motivated the "wild ride"?
Sarah knew she was in the running to be McCain's running mate. Hard to be pregnant and campaigning. She had to time things so she could get the VP nod and not have anyone question that Trig looked "too old to be a newborn". I think if he was born in Jan/Feb that in March he was reaching the size were it would be "iffy" if she waited any longer.
"Her base will not care one bit! She will be even more of a hero for protecting her young daughter. The lies are all acceptable to them. As frightening as Palin is (her stupidity, her lack of ethics, her lies, her narcissism and her religious fundamentalism), I am just as afraid of her followers. Where the heck do these people come from???"
Fear. They'll accept anything from anyone who seems to have all the answers and doesn't ask them to accept anything new. IMO, at least.
I can buy the very early preemie Trig who was then rolled out later as "newborn" Trig.
What I have a harder time with is with Sarah cooking up such an elaborate plan, in advance.
Imagine that Bristol's new baby is at home. You're hiding out the baby while you Sarah (a) cook up a plan to make it all seem ok to your base OR (b) come up with a new plan because -- (1) the baby came early (2) he is DS -- and your original plan won't work.
I find it hard to believe that Sarah could think ahead to the point that aha! I can present Trig as a newborn at 3 mo because DS/preemies mature slowly! Sarah seems far more a spontaneous, by the seat-of-my-pants gal than that.
I find it easier to imagine Sarah copying the Scientology way that the Cruises adopted. Announce a birth, then produce a baby when you feel like it-- so that the fanfare covers any discrepancy in age. (So far this has worked like a charm. Even with Tripp.)
Over and over and over the American people have proved how gullible we are. And politicians who think they're smarter than we are, bank on this every day.
So Sarah sets the TX conference as her roll-out date, because it means a lot to her to go there. Then she mentions, in passing, her waters breaking to her Dad-- to explain why he and Mom weren't called to the hospital til the morning after the "birth."
OR Sarah tells the wild ride story to deflect from the BABY himself. So he just seems like a miracle from God and a sidenote to a Sarah as Heroine Tall Tale.
I just can't help thinking all of this was very simple-- to begin with. Until the lies started snowballing.
What if Bristol and Levi begged to marry when she was pregnant with Trig?
The Palins say no. Trig is born. Then Tripp is conceived. The Palins give in. The kids are married, but like everything else in this soap opera, it has to be a secret. But now they can "cohabitate" freely since God approves.
Can Governors Marry People?
As has been mentioned, when the truth comes out, and it will, "The Base" won't care one bit.
But the majority of Americans will, I can grant you that.
I saw a larger photo of the Palin's with Trig and large blue cake.
What is the date of that baby shower?
Fusing Politics and Motherhood in a New Way
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/us/politics/08baby.html
September 7, 2008
Also a shower in August, no photos
Shower for Trig Palin to Benefit Soldiers
http://gov.state.ak.us/news-7437.html
Does anyone know the date of this photo?
http://xr.com/gug
Tiny url isn't opening up, hope that works.
Sarah and todd are holding a new baby, Trig? she is in a red jacket. He has a black vest with tesoro, salmon shirt.
Trig has the striped blankets and a blue one. It looks like the same hat as the new baby photos with Palins in black.
Why are some of the ADN baby articles archived or removed?
SARA PALIN: the PLAGIARIST:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/palin-plagiarizes-gingric_b_212228.html
more on the short and delusional political life of SP.
Lisantx,
Thanks for the photo of Bristol wearing an engagement ring. just as people wonder where Levi got the money to buy that nice vehicle, where did he get the money to buy the diamond ring? This was before he got the slope job, right?
Wonder why Willow never holds Trig? Isn't a 15-year-old just as capable as a 17-year-old of holding a baby?
Drudge Report's current healine: SP to be on Sean Hannity tonight (Mon)
I wanted to second the comment someone made about why Bristol did not continue in her sports while "homeschooling". The person pointed out that Levi continued in his sport until about Feb of 2008, when he inexplicably dropped out (to help care for Trig????)......so that proves continuing in sports but not attending school was do-able for Bristol as well. The commenter concluded that the only reason Bristol would not have done so also is that she was being "homeschooled" because she was pregnant and it was being kept quiet.
I might add that she may have also dropped out of sports because she had a serious case of mono......LOL no, I don't believe that either--I think that would have made the newspapers at the time if the Governor's daughter was so critically ill with mono that she was unable to attend school for months and months.
But it hadn't been mentioned before that the highly-into-sports Palin family had apparently simply allowed Bristol to drop sports for no reason.
I'd really really REALLY like to know what the Palins told the school system about B's extended absence, or are they not to be questioned because they are the First Family and can do as they please?
B was sooooo totally pregnant with Trig (IMO). I am just waiting for the day that this whole lie comes out and GINO is shown to be even more of a fraud than most people already know her to be.
Also, when people here started suggesting that Trig was born way earlier than April I thought you were kinda nutty.......now, it looks more and more like that is much closer to the truth than an April 18th b-day. Sorry for thinking you guys nutty!!
Well, since MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel brought it up again re. the newborn look of Trig:
I finally talked to several NICU nurses in 'my' hospital where I work, and EVERY ONE OF THEM AGREED that a preemie baby will present as a newborn at the age when he/she is *supposed* to be born - not as a much older baby.
So, for arguments sake, if Trig was born 10 weeks premature - at thirty weeks - at the time he is *supposed to be* born, at 40 weeks, he will NOT look like a ten week old baby, but instead like a newborn one.
IMHO, that is why SP has been able to get away with her claims that he was born on April 18 and not much earlier, because most people do NOT know this - especially not her 'bots!
LOL! My wv is toment...
Alex said, "What I have a harder time with is with Sarah cooking up such an elaborate plan, in advance.
I would suppose, Alex, that that's why Sarah Palin surrounds herself with people who can step in and answer questions for her at her state of AK press conferences, and why a close relationship with a physician-friend like Cathy Baldwin-Johnson was taken advantage of.
I would guess that Dr. CB-J came up with the original scenario and why it would work -- and the Palin/Heath family in their ignorance threw a few monkey wrenches in the works with the square pillows, the scarves, the absence of maternity clothes, the sudden solitary appearance of a picture showing a massive belly, and the "water broke"/wild ride story.
You're right -- even with all that idiocy, the American people who want to believe this story are even more ignorant than the Palins are, and certainly gullible.
It's so easy to disprove most of what this story is all about, yet they don't, evidently because they don't want to know.
I have to admit, as the months have gone on my anticipation has increased to see Palin's house of cards fall down.
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Most of you here, I'm sure, are not baseball fans. I was, quite avidly, from the mid-'80s until just recently (gee, I wonder what other interest has occupied my time? ...heh).
The story of Roger Clemens -- the premier pitcher for the Red Sox, then the Toronto Blue Jays, then the NY Yankees, then the Astros, then back to the Yankees again -- is one I'm quite familiar with.
I just read a book recently written about him, entitled "The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality". It summarizes his dominant years with Boston, and several swings back and forth from mediocrity to excellence thereafter -- all apparently dependent on his use of steroids from 1996 to 2007.
The Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball "outed" Clemens, but he denied, denied, denied, even to the point where he filed a suit against his trainer who'd "fingered" him, and demanded a hearing before the Congressional committee reviewing the results of the Mitchell Report. He's being investigated now for perjury, lying about his steroid use as well as using his wife's one-time HGH injection as a "red herring".
Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter (smiley face), it struck me after reading this book and reading news reports for two decades about Roger Clemens' day to day behavior, that his personality reminds me A LOT of that of Sarah Palin.
They're both narcissists to a great degree, they struggled with their self-image as youths, they weren't great students, they molded themselves into the persons they wanted to be, they manipulated other people, they surroundeded themselves with sycophants, they prevaricated about nearly EVERYTHING, they proved to be inarticulate when asked to speak extemporaneously (Clemens was an AWFUL interview for the baseball writers).
Now Clemens is close to being indicted for perjury because he couldn't bring himself to burst his own bubble of "baseball immortality".
One wonders what's "in the cards" for Palin.
Molly @6/8/09 at 12:09pm said: “Also, when people here started suggesting that Trig was born way earlier than April I thought you were kinda nutty.......now, it looks more and more like that is much closer to the truth than an April 18th b-day. Sorry for thinking you guys nutty!!”
NoMore @6/8/09 at 2:13 pm said: “I finally talked to several NICU nurses in 'my' hospital where I work, and EVERY ONE OF THEM AGREED that a preemie baby will present as a newborn at the age when he/she is *supposed* to be born - not as a much older baby.”
Thank you Molly and NoMore, now you are seeing the picture! I don’t remember what they are called, but there are pictures that just look like a mosaic of colors at first, but if you stare at them for a minute, you suddenly see an animal or person or some object. If you don’t stare at it long enough, the object remains hidden. Voila! We have stared at babygate long enough that we are finally seeing the object clearly coming into view!
How many others here still cling to Trig’s announced birthdate of 4-18-08 because Sarah Palin said so? Because if you still believe Trig was born on 4-18-08, Sarah Palin succeeded in her deception. If you have never seen a preemie and the great difference from that of a full term newborn, I can understand why you are still confused, because I could not figure it out either – until I saw a preemie!
I posted on 3-5-09 that this winter I saw a preemie for the first time in my life. The baby was 7 weeks old when I first saw it, and it could have passed for a 2 day old baby, and still much smaller than my children when they were born. Shortly after seeing that preemie for the first time, the First Family photo was positively identified as taken on 9-14-07. CLICK! I again saw that same baby at 12 weeks old, and it looked like it was only 2 weeks old at best. CLICK CLICK!!
One more thing that just occurred to me, but I have not seen anyone mention, is that Bristol may have been wearing spandex underwear, girdle or whatever in that 9-14-07 First Family photo. I am convinced that she was 4 months pregnant in that picture because that is what I looked like, and my daughter, at 4 months. But if Bristol was wearing a girdle, she may have been up to 5 months pregnant. I didn’t wear a girdle at 4 months pregnant, but I had no need to hide my pregnancies from anyone!
Hey everyone, Audrey has a new post.
KaJo @ 8.41 a.m. --
Your Clemens analogy is excellent (fellow baseball fan here!) Remember, too, that for years, there were whispers about Clemens being a steroid user. Very few of those whispers made their way into the mainstream media -- couldn't have an All-American Hero (TM) denigrated in that way! -- and now, of course, everyone knows what Clemens really is.
Someday soon, everyone will know what Sarah Palin really is, too.
KaJo and eLiz, I think Keith Olbermann would LOVE your analysis! Keith loves baseball and shares our view of Sarah Palin. Keith, please use this on your show! Please bring babygate out in the open!
nomore noted, "Well, since MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel brought it up again re. the newborn look of Trig:
"I finally talked to several NICU nurses in 'my' hospital where I work, and EVERY ONE OF THEM AGREED that a preemie baby will present as a newborn at the age when he/she is *supposed* to be born - not as a much older baby."
nomore, I may have said this elsewhere on this or other sites, so please indulge me if I did: one of my sons, born at 38 weeks, spent a few days in the NICU, and the preemie in the crib next to his had been born seven weeks premature, had just "bulked up" to four pounds, and was getting ready to go home. He looked MUCH more "newborn" than my son, who weighed just shy of eight pounds. The NICU nurses told me then that preemies didn't really "catch up" developmentally until at least their initial projected due dates.
And SP's unsubstantiated insistence that TriG was born on April 18, 2008? Written on the wind, like almost all of what she says...
I am new to this website and I must say, you have me convinced of something I vaguely suspected ever since the campaign. But the one thing that gives me pause is why are there no teens from Wasilla or Anchorage, who knew or saw Bristol at the time, coming forward?--or at least spreading more concrete gossip about details? I understand that her close friends may be bound by loyalty (although I think that is pretty remarkable for teenagers) but there has to be "friends of friends" or unfortunately frequent in the teenage social world, "enemies", that would want to dish on this situation. What is your theory on this? Thanks. Keep up the good work.
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