John McCain's choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate continues to amaze. Sunday, I wrote a fairly well-linked post about why his decision showed a lack of judgment. The pick betrayed McCain's discount of experience. It dishonored him and his campaign. It made his campaign slogan "Country First" a lie.

That was two days ago. Since then, new details have come to light on entirely new topics not covered in my lengthy post. Just to keep us all current on why Sarah Palin is the wrong choice to be America's vice-president, here's what we know now that is new.

First, Sarah Palin was described as a member of the Alaska Independence Party, a secessionist group that promotes treason: the dissolution of the American government. Before her election as Wasilla's mayor, she was characterized as a member of the group. As Governor, she recorded this message heralding the organization at its recent convention. Recall as you listen to this welcome message that this organization advocates that Alaska vote on whether to leave the United States of America, just as South Carolina did in the nineteenth century immediately prior to The War Between The States.

Second, Sarah Palin was a director, listed on federal filing forms, of Ted Stevens' 527 organization, the shadowy group he used to accept and re-direct barely-legal bribes without revealing their source.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors.... At the time Stevens revealed the existence of the 527 group -- a type of independent political corporation named for its the section of the tax code -- ethics experts questioned whether it was appropriate.

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that several experts called the group an example of the fine legal line between a legal effort to conduct political activity and then-new prohibitions against raising unlimited soft-money.

Board members of Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service were legally allowed to raise as much money as they wanted from corporations or unions or unlimited donations from individuals -- all of which would have been illegal for Stevens to do himself.

Third, despite the McCain campaign's claims, there was no FBI background check on Sarah Palin.

The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing an interview with campaign manager Rick Davis, that the vetting process "included reviews of financial and other personal data, an FBI background check and considerable discussion among the handful of McCain advisers nvolved in the deliberations.

"In general, we do not do vetting for political campaigns except as it might regard investigations needed for security clearances," said John Miller, the chief FBI spokesperson.

The FBI did not participate in a vet, nor did it run a background check of Gov. Palin as part of the process.

Fourth, Karl Rove, with his ear ever tuned to a possible rogue elephant stampede, told the Maine RNC delegation Monday morning that Palin was a "risky choice."

He said Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) was a risky choice for vice president for the Republicans, but she will help McCain in certain geographic areas.

Fifth, Alaskans are challenging Sarah Palin's claim to have said, "I told Congress thanks but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere."

But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." They're still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin's subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects -- and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines.

"I think that's when the campaign for national office began," said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Weinstein noted, the state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone -- because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.

Finally, there's the other thing, which few members of the McCain campaign seem to have known about:

Sen. John McCain knew. A few members of his senior staff knew. Most members of his senior staff did not know. Palin's spokesman in Alaska did not know. Palin's campaign-appointed spokesman did not know. McCain staffers -- at different levels of the campaign -- are a bit stunned.

Honoring our Democratic nominee's request:

"I hope I am as clear as I can be. So in case I am not, let me repeat, we don't go after people's families, we don't get them involved in the politics. It is not appropriate and it is not relevant," Obama told reporters in Michigan.

"Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be, and if I ever thought it was somebody in the campaign that was involved in something like that they would be fired."

I won't talk about that... but don't you think it's odd that few in the campaign knew? And doesn't that speak to John McCain's decision making, his insularity, his openness to sharing challenges widely with the people around him, his capability to strategize with a large group of advisers instead of a small, insulated group of yes-men and -women like we see in our current White House? Did John McCain know about the other items on this list, and did he discuss them widely?

Just how big is John McCain's circle of advisers, that so few knew such a salient fact of life about Sarah Palin's family? Did this circle know about the Alaska Independence Party? Did they know about the Ted Stevens 527? Did they know that Karl Rove thought Sarah Palin was a risky pick? Did they know there was no FBI background investigation?

And did they tell John McCain to go ahead and choose her anyway? Or did he, all maverickety, rebel against their advice and choose her despite it?

And don't Americans deserve to know the answers to these questions?

UPDATE: Damn, this story is moving fast

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential candidate, has hired a private practice attorney to defend her in the investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

The Legislature is investigating whether Palin fired public safety commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

The governor's decision to hire the attorney was disclosed by the Legislature's investigating committee on Monday, not by Gov. Palin's office. The committee released an e-mailed letter it had received from Palin's new lawyer on Friday, the day McCain announced she would be his running mate.

UPDATE TWO: She just won't sit still long enough to let me post this, will she? Someone else claims to have won the Miss Congeniality award Sarah Palin calls her own:

ALASKA PIPELINE: Amy Gwin, 43, of University City, grew up in Alaska and competed in the Miss Wasilla, Alaska, competition in 1984 against GOP vice presidential choice Sarah Palin. Gwin said Friday that she won the Miss Congeniality award in the competition, although Palin's Wikipedia entry says she won the contest — and the Miss Congeniality award.

Note: The column from Deb Peterson of the St Louis Post-Dispatch, from which the quote in UPDATE TWO was taken on Monday, September 1, has been changed to eliminate the quote I used, with no indication as to why and when the modification was made. I have written to the columnist for an explanation and will post it here when I have it. Thanks to multiple readers for pointing this out in comments, and my apologies for the inaccuracy.

Note Two: St Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Deb Peterson emailed early Wednesday morning (9/3) with this:

gwin contacted me to clarify and correct what she said. there is a correction in today's paper. i don't know how the site administrator handles that online. sorry about that.

The correction appears in the deadtree version of the paper, although there's been no update indicate the column was changed. Here's the correction:

— In comments reported in Deb Peterson's column Saturday, Amy Gwin, a classmate of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's at Wasilla High School, said she was incorrect in stating that the Miss Congeniality award in the Miss Wasilla competition in 1984 went to her and not to Palin. Gwin also said she did not mean that she thought Palin was shallow, but that she believes Palin's political experience is shallow in comparison to that of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

{YouTube courtesy of 1984dobson}