What person and money is behind Palin Deception blog and website?

Edited and updated, Aug. 25

Audrey is from ... Charlottesville, Va. Thanks to an e-mail tipster.

Audrey has a profile on Zimbio, and has been posting copies of Palin's Deception blog info since September, apparently.

Why she has no problem posting her city of residence there, and not on her blog or her website, I don't know.

Her profile says:

I am a childbirth educator and midwife's assistant.

My emphasis on the last word. Midwife's assistant, not midwife.

Brief Googling only shows three hits on the phrase "how to become a midwife's assistant." And, it appears there's not much in the way of certification; a week or two of classes. As for "lactation consultant," from her own website, teenage-level jokes aside, I have no idea what that is.

Anyway, this probably explains why I couldn't find her when I just did a Google search before. If she has no professional-level certifications, she's going to be less likely to pop up on a Google search that is based in part on professional background.

That said, it means we should take with a grain of salt her claims to be published, without knowing what she's had published and where.

Aug. 25 update:

Of course I couldn't find her on Amazon. That's not her real name.

It all seems to fit that she is really Anne Briggs. (Minor corroboration from “Audrey’s” blog, Palin’s Deceptions– both she and Anne have four kids.

Hat tip to “the other McCain” on this. And, yes, I can and do give hat tips to conservative bloggers on occasion. Rational thought and analysis is what it is, where it is. Of course, if he cribbed off me, on this original post,a return hat tip would be appreciated.

Anyway, Audrey’s Huffington Post profile also indicates that.

====

At Palin Deception (now dead) and its accompanying blog, Audrey has for some time continued to push a number of issues related to Sarah Palin’s alleged pregnancy with Trig, and now, to a lesser extent, about Bristol’s alleged pregnancy with Tripp.

That said, a new post by Audrey on her blog Jan. 6, about possible Photoshopping of a couple of Sarah Palin pics, brought something that’s been floating in the back of my mind for several weeks to the front.

Here’s the exact comment from that blog post that did it:

Andrea Gusty [from CBS 11 in Anchorage] told factcheck.org that the picture was legitimate. According to factcheck.org, she also provided them with a higher resolution version of the photo, though factcheck.org has never released it; the version on their website is actually LOWER resolution than the one on Flickr. She also told one of my research assistants that the photo was taken on April 13th and that is how Palin looked on that day.

OK, so Audrey has not just A research assistant, but assistantS in the plural.

I’m assuming Audrey is not paying them out of her own wallet. I’m also assuming they’re not working gratis, either out of the goodness of their hearts or because they’re that concerned about the lies of Sarah Palin.

How many research assistants does Audrey have, and who’s paying for them?

She says, and two of them say, they are indeed doing it out of the goodness of their own heart. One of them was enough of a "groupie" (interpret that however you will) to attempt to lay some serious snark on me, or something, in comments, to which I replied where in North Carolina he could stick it.

And, where’s Audrey from herself?

She has e-mailed back, on a few questions I asked her, with some information moderately more in depth on some issues.

She is NOT, and I accept her word, the "Audrey T." who is the top-published author of childbirth-related books on Amazon. Here's what I first posted —

Per her main site, not the blog:

My husband and I are not "left wing bloggers," "conspiracy theorists," or otherwise fruitcakes. I am a childbirth labor coach, a published author in the childbirth field, and a lactation consultant; my husband is a physician who has, until this election, always voted Republican. So we're hardly coming from left field.

Well, I looked for “Audrey” + “childbirth” at Amazon. About half a dozen “Audreys” came up, but the one that most fit the bill?

“Audrey T.. .” From North Carolina. Judging by comments on one blog, evangelical Christian or Messianic Jewish.

OK, wrong Audrey. The actual Audrey has a right to remain anonymous.

Of course, that's part of why she can't/won't accept PayPal donations.

In a post of a couple of days ago, Audrey says she's paying for this on her own dime.

Well, kind of, sort of, if her bio is true. It's probably actually her physician hubby's dime, not hers, unless writing a couple of childbirth books and serving as a childbirth coach pays a whole bunch more money than I imagine it does. I'll stand by that, since she's not the top childbirth author on Amazon, that money for website, and other things, may not be all her own but her physician husband's.

Next, she says she doesn't want to accept PayPal donations from readers because she wants to "keep things 'cleaner.'" Well, yes, and keep from having to report details of who she is, etc., to reader-investors. Ditto on why she thinks no book will come out of this.

She then comments on why she wouldn't lay out to hire a PI:

Just as an aside, on the question of a private investigator: Obviously, hiring such an individual would be an enormously expensive task. I think all would agree that a local "man" could not be used, since, while I am sure anyone who was asked would protest that they were "fair, balanced, and unbiased," anyone from the local area could potentially have strong feelings about Gov. Palin (either pro OR con). Even if the person WAS completely unbiased, no one would ever believe that, and I think results would basically be worthless to the public at large.

She then says hiring a PI from outside Alaska would be too expensive, which gets back to the PayPal issue.

BUT... a PI from outside Alaska who knew enough about the Sarah Palin story to be up to speed right away, not just up to speed on John/Jane Doe level, but up to speed on where Audrey was at, couldn't approach the case without bias. Even more so for a non-Alaska PI whom she would bring up to speed.

Otherwise, I'll accept her at her word that she's that "fixated" (my actual word, not hers) on how the mainstream media don't get birthing details right, and that's what prompted her to jump in. For being as apolitical as she presents herself, I would say it is a fixation. (No, research assistant Morgan, don't try to play verbal judo on me by claiming this post shows I'm fixated about who she is. First, you shouldn't play with matches, or get in a battle where you're logically under-armed. Second, this is the last post I'm likely to write about Audrey, so I'm not fixated on the subject anyway.

Back to some of her fans asking if a book could come of it.

First, this isn't AA's "Big Book." Publishers don't do "anonymous," unless it's a CIA agent or similar.

Second, the only way to have enough material — and enough insight — for a book is either to get very lucky on some Alaskan spilling the beans, or else pulling the trigger on hiring that PI.

That said, there is one person on this case who has all the right qualifications —
• Professional journalist, with research/PI money at least potentially available;
• High name recognition to throw around journalistic weight if necessary;
• Lack of fear of either Sarah Palin or controversial issues in general.

And that, of course, is Andrew Sullivan.

So, I have e-mailed him:

"Have you ever thought about going beyond blogging, and either for the Atlantic, or on your own, actually doing an investigative story on her background, above all the Trig Palin birth questions?"

We shall see. (Haven't gotten a return e-mail from Sully!)

Brief update, Jan. 11:Audrey shot me an e-mail after I posted a link to this post in comments on the blog post of hers referenced above. She's e-mailed me once or twice before, but I had never kept them. This time, I noticed that she was the last initial, or maybe middle initial, of W. on her e-mail name. Well, under "Audrey" +
"childbirth" at Amazon, only one book by an author whose last name begins with a "W" and nothing by ANY "Audrey" using "lactation" instead of childbirth.

So, on the money issue, as to money being spent now, I'm still skeptical, at least, that it's hers rather than her husbands.

And, I just had a lightbulb moment, failing to check Whois until now. Here's the domain name registration info:

Registration Service Provided By: NEARLYFREESPEECH.NET
Contact: +1.8887414678
Website: https://www.NearlyFreeSpeech.NET/

Domain Name: PALINDECEPTION.COM

Registrant:
c/o RespectMyPrivacy, LLC
palindeception.com Domain Administrator (palindeception.com@RespectMyPrivacy.COM)
1892 US HIGHWAY 1 #152
ROCKLEDGE
FL,32955-2822
US
Tel. +1.8664570078
Fax. +1.8663909061

Creation Date: 14-Sep-2008
Expiration Date: 14-Sep-2009

Domain servers in listed order:
ns.phx1.nearlyfreespeech.net
ns.phx3.nearlyfreespeech.net


Administrative Contact:
c/o RespectMyPrivacy, LLC
palindeception.com Domain Administrator (palindeception.com@RespectMyPrivacy.COM)
1892 US HIGHWAY 1 #152
ROCKLEDGE
FL,32955-2822
US
Tel. +1.8664570078
Fax. +1.8663909061

Technical Contact:
c/o RespectMyPrivacy, LLC
palindeception.com Domain Administrator (palindeception.com@RespectMyPrivacy.COM)
1892 US HIGHWAY 1 #152
ROCKLEDGE
FL,32955-2822
US
Tel. +1.8664570078
Fax. +1.8663909061

Not a lot more light there, though. RespectMyPrivacy.com is a proxy hosting service designed to do what its name indicates. NearlyFreeSpeech.net appears to have some association with it, and indeed is run out of the next-door suite in the same strip mall, office building or whatever the physical site is.

As for names, it can't be Audrey N., who has a middle initial listed on some Google hits under Audrey + "labor coach" or "lactation consultant," and that initial isn't "W." Anyway, she's also an MD, and Audrey doesn't make that claim for herself. There is an Audrey P. in Miami, but whether the Rockledge location (due east of Tampa, across the peninsula) for the proxy web host has any relevance or not, I'm not sure. Nor do I know if W. is her middle initial. Or, there's an "Audrey W." by middle initial in St. Louis, but she's also an MD. And, not a published author in trade books, though perhaps in the professional literature.

Well, I can't offer you more for now. But, if I find more, I will proffer it.