C4P Incites Blogosphere Outrage

So, this fellow named Chip Thoma who lives in a residential neighborhood with narrow, winding streets in Juneau near the Governor's Mansion, together with some of his neighbors, is asking that large tour buses stop cruising past their houses just so passengers can get a five-second glimpse of the house that Sarah doesn't live in.



As a result, Thoma is being blasted for his past, maligned and falsely accused by a plethora of right-wing Web outlets for trying to destroy the Alaska tourism industry and Piper Palin's lemonade stand along with it.

The Truth

There is a very short story in one of the local AK newspapers showing Piper and friend at a table selling lemonade on one Sunday when the sun is shining. Nothing about angry mobs trying to tear down the table.

Then, there is another story in the ADN reporting the fact that community members are requesting that large tour buses restrict their travel down certain residential streets in Juneau. The current Governor, as usual, plays the victim in this story by twisting it totally to mean that local residents are upset about Piper's trampoline—which has nothing to do with large tour buses of course. But it's just another occasion for Sarah to cry, "Poor me! Poor Piper! Leave my family alone!" Nothing about Piper AT ALL, except for Sarah's faux outrage.

That's it.

Well, except that C4P (if you don't know what this acronym is, someone is sure to mention it in comments and then you can look it up) has turned this local citizen's reasonable request into something very despicable. Joseph Russo has a story (I'm not going to link it) that is guaranteed to bring a tear to the eyes of Sarasites far and wide. Unfortunately he doesn't provide any source, but based on something he heard from some anonymous person, Russo claims that a very unsavory person is trying to destroy Piper Palin's little enterprise selling lemonade.

There is no evidence that Piper is running an ongoing lemonade business that residents are trying to shut down. There is no evidence that anyone was upset about Piper selling lemonade on that one Sunday. There is no evidence that anyone wants a trampoline moved or taken down. There is no evidence that Thoma wants to harm the tourism industry or the Governor's reputation or anything of the sort. "I'm trying to do what I can here to help the neighborhood. I don't want to make this personal between the governor and I," [Thoma] said. "She is obviously coming after me, and I've never met her before."

Yet, if you Google "Piper Palin lemonade" you'll see quite a few sites repeating the unsourced rumor about how this awful man, who had some DWIs in the past, is trying to destroy a little girl's happiness. (IIRC, Dick Cheney and GWB both had DWIs in their past.) To be fair, I need to mention that Thoma went to a Woodstock reunion concert! And he even filed an ethics complaint against former AK Governor Hickel. I guess that's how you know he's a bad, bad person!

Much ado about nothing much, C4P'rs. Do you need someone to file another ethics complaint so you have something else to get your panties in a knot about?