Palin smear blogger exposed. He's a kindergarten teacher!
Actually Jesse Griffin is a kindergarten teaching assistant.
>> As many of you are already aware I DID receive a notification from Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein yesterday. It arrived in my e-mail in PDF form and you can read it over at the Alaska Report.
Now Van Flein is forcing me to make an admission that I have resisted addressing for the four plus years I have had this blog.
Yes I DO work in a Kindergarten class during the school year. My main job affords me some time during the day and I have chosen to use it teaching children to read, and helping them to become more independent. I do it because it brings me joy to work with these children and I believe, and have been told, that I am very good at it.
riehlworldview.com
rsmccain.blogspot.com
spectator.org
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CNN Bozo Accidentally Outs His Source; Palins Threaten LegalActionOn Divorce Smear
By Robert Stacy McCain on 8.2.09 @ 8:53PM
An attorney for Sarah Palin has delivered a letter threatening legal action against an anti-Palin blogger who was the source of a divorce rumor that the attorney for the former Alaska governor called "categorically false."
Publication of the letter at a Web site that repeated the rumor has uncovered circumstantial evidence that the anti-Palin blogger "Gryphen" is a kindergarten teacher at an Anchorage elementary school.
Saturday, the rumor that Todd and Sarah Palin were divorcing created an online uproar. CNN stringer/anti-Palin blogger Dennis Zaki published a thinly-sourced "news" item asserting that "multiple sources" had confirmed the rumor first published by "Gryphen" at his Immoral Majority blog.
Zaki obtained a copy of a letter from Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein, ordering "Gryphen" to retract the allegations -- calling them "complete fabrications, false and defamatory" -- or face legal action. The Van Flein letter, published by Zaki with the name of the recipient blacked out, ended with this sentence:
"If you do not have an attorney, please let me know if you want to be served with the summons and complaint at the kindergarten where you assist or at your residence." (Emphasis added.)
By publishing the letter, Zaki inadvertantly provided valuable information to an anonymous tipster who compiled online research indicating the identity of "Gryphen," whose Immoral Minority blog received more than 170,000 visits in July. Blogger Dan Riehl received the same information.
The tipster also forwarded examples of the Immoral Minority blog's attacks on Palin, where "Gryphen" used vulgar obscene language in reference to Mrs. Palin, including the so-called "Trig Truther" suggestion that the governor was not actually the mother of her fifth child:
"Wherever Trig came from he has proved to be a very valuable asset to Sarah Palin indeed. But just where did Trig Palin come from? As of today, as of this minute, and after over a month of searching I cannot tell you. I simply do not know for certain. I do know however where he did not come from. He did not issue forth from Sarah Palin. He may have been conceived inside her house (The jury is still out on that one), but he was not conceived in her uterus. On that one fact I have absolutely no doubt."
-- June 6, 2009
I am currently awaiting confirmation from Alaska sources of the tipster's circumstantial identification of "Gryphen," who has been inadvertantly put in career jeopardy by his friend Zaki's publication of the Van Flein letter.
Media in Alaska will not be able to ignore the news that the state's most notorious anti-Palin blogger is a kindergarten teacher at public school. Having spent part of my early career as a newspaper reporter covering the education beat, I can predict that "Gryphen" will soon at the center of a maelstrom of controversy.
UPDATE 9:21 p.m.: Dan Riehl, who has even better sources in Alaska than I do, reports that we are now "gold" on the tipster's identification of "Gryphen" as Jesse Griffin, a part-time teaching assistant at Trailside Elementary School in Anchorage. At his Immoral Minority blog, Griffin now confirms the basics (without using his real name), saying he has "every confidence that I will be vindicated."
Huffington Post reports on the controversy, and the blogosphere is beginning to fan the flames. Good luck with that vindication, Mr. Griffin. Im sure the taxpayers of Anchorage won't mind you calling Mrs. Palin all those ugly names -- "trailer trash Barbie" being a relatively mild example.
spectator.org
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'Mommy, Why Does My Kindergarten Teacher Lie About Sarah Palin?'
(BUMPED; SEE UPDATE BELOW)
UPDATE 10:53 p.m.: The identification of "Gryphen" as Jesse Griffin, part-time kindergarten teacher at Trailside Elementary in Anchorage, is now confirmed. And let me add an overdue thanks to Dan Riehl, who got the same information and followed up with research and sources of his own.
Dan is one of the best document-research guys in the conservative blogosphere, and his standards of verification make Dennis Zaki look like a clown in floppy shoes. (Of course, Zaki doesn't need much help in that regard.) I've been a reporter for more than 20 years, the past 12 years in D.C. Dan is "just some blog dude" who only moved to the D.C. area two years ago, and in some respects, he's got better sources than I do.
Will update later with more below . . .
11:24 p.m.: LEAVE JESSE GRIFFIN ALONE!
ORIGINAL (6:39 p.m. ET): An anonymous e-mailer forwards to me this communication, which I post without editing, except for formatting purposes:
I would like you to know that Gryphen of Immoral Minority (Palin divorce smear) is actually one Jesse Griffin. He must value his identity because he had his fellow Palin Hater, Dennis Zaki, black out his name in this document:
alaskareport.com
Zaki reveals that Gryphen is a kindergarten teacher of some kind:
Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin's lawyer, threatened Saturday to serve libel papers at a kindergarten to the owner of the highly trafficked "ImmoralMinority" blog for a divorce story on the Palins. The blog was given until 3pm Saturday to remove the story and post a retraction. The blogger stands by the story.
He also admitted in his most recent post that he is a teacher, but note that he won't post his name
Here is the evidence that he is one Jesse Griffin:
Gym forum page where Jesse Griffin's handle is "Gryphen:"
(bottom of page)http://dailyburn.com/buddies/location?city=Anchorage&gym=Powerhouse+Gym&page=2&state=Alaska
Facebook page (friends with other Palin haters)
facebook.com
Donated to "Alaskans for Truth," a group created to smear the Palins:
images.nictusa.com
Now here is the disturbing part, he is a teacher's aide to small children:
web.mac.com
How this person can be allowed access to children is beyond me. He has written absolutely sick things about the Palins. He once posted a cartoon of Governor Palin holding a gun to her head. He once stated that he hoped that the "bitch would snap her ankle" walking off of a curb. This person is absolutely disgusting and should not be around children. At the most, his identity should be exposed in order for Alaskan parents to see who their children are around during the school day. If you look back through his website you will notice a disturbing obsession with the Palin family. He is also a Trig Truther person who thinks Palin's son Trig is not really hers.
These Palin Haters are liars who are trying to destroy a good conservative. I'm sick of this crap.
I cannot vouch for the information alleged by my anonymous correspondent, and convey this message with the links provided, as a public service so that anyone may examine the available evidence and make up their own minds.
"Multiple sources"? Heh.
UPDATE 8:01 p.m. ET: The anonymous e-mailer also passes along examples of the kinds of NSFW things "Gryphen" has said about the Palins on his blog:
"So our trailer trash Barbie of a Governor is also a spoiled brat who blames her failings on the people around her? Nothing that I learn about this nasty bitch surprises me anymore."
-- Nov. 6, 2008
"She kind of reminds of that girl who did not get invited to the prom so she dresses up in a low cut dress and high heels and tries to get all of the boys to pay attention to her instead of their dates. And later you find her in a parked car giving a hand job to the captain of the football team. Pure class."
-- June 9, 2009
And, naturally, the obligatory Sully-style gynephobic Trig-Truther meme:
"Wherever Trig came from he has proved to be a very valuable asset to Sarah Palin indeed. But just where did Trig Palin come from? As of today, as of this minute, and after over a month of searching I cannot tell you. I simply do not know for certain. I do know however where he did not come from. He did not issue forth from Sarah Palin. He may have been conceived inside her house (The jury is still out on that one), but he was not conceived in her uterus. On that one fact I have absolutely no doubt."
-- June 6, 2000
Gym-buff guys obsessed with the uterus of a married woman you don't even know? NTTAWWT. IYKWIMAITYD.
Oh, yeah, Gryphen: The anonymous tipster sends along the screen-capture JPGs of all that crap, so the old "Memory Hole" trick won't help you.
"Sources"!
Have a nice day, Gryphen :D
rsmccain.blogspot.com |
