Sarah Palin -Investigated for Abuse of Power

Sarah Palin is receiving legal help from the state of Alaska

2011-08-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

State to provide legal help for Palin's lawsuit defense
DEFENSE: Assistant attorney general will be paid for, but not personal lawyer of ex-governor.

By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press

Sarah Palin is receiving legal help from the state in a civil lawsuit.

Assistant Attorney General Dale House said Palin asked the state to help defend her against the lawsuit by activist Chip Thoma.

The claims made against Palin date to when she was governor, and House said Wednesday that it's typical for the state to get involved if the person is being sued largely because of the title they held or because of something they did in the course of their official duties. He said there are exceptions, including for criminal cases.

House said the state will pay for his participation but not for Palin's personal lawyer, John Tiemessen, who will be co-counsel.

Thoma is suing Palin for at least $100,000, claiming that she undertook a campaign to "punish, embarrass, discredit and silence" him while governor after he complained about tour bus traffic on the windy, narrow streets around the governor's mansion.

Traffic increased after Palin returned to Juneau after her failed 2008 GOP vice presidential campaign. According to Thoma's lawsuit, which was amended in May, he complained about the traffic to a state agency and made signs and fliers about the traffic situation that he posted and handed out.

The lawsuit alleges Palin and unidentified conspirators retaliated, in some cases "twisting" his words and in others, "concocting complete fabrications" to silence him and others whom Palin perceived as speaking out against her.

The initial lawsuit was based in part on a leaked draft manuscript of an aide of Palin's at that time, Frank Bailey. Bailey's book, which has since been published, claims Palin aides "went into discrediting Chip overdrive," after Palin expressed frustration with complaints that she took as an attack on her family being in Juneau. Palin had taken heat during her tenure for not staying in Juneau, the state capital, full-time.

Tiemessen has called the lawsuit frivolous and said it was filed "merely for the purpose of harassment." House said he is not aware of any evidence of defamation by Palin or others at her request.

The case is pending in federal court. No trial date has been set.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/08/10/2008767/palin-seeks-state-help-in-defense.html#ixzz1VhIokSG2

McLeod says the Law is Clear

2010-09-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Activist Andrée McLeod is charging the administration of Sean Parnell with an ethics violation for improper disclosure of information. She is alleging former Sarah Palin aide Frank Bailey has had unfettered access to Palin’s e-mails for an insider book he’s putting together with two co-writers.

McLeod points out that while Bailey, et al., may have had access to the emails, they have been withheld from the public and the media, for as long as two years.

She’s basing the allegation on an Anchorage Daily News blurb in the Alaska Ear: “Bailey hasn’t been giving interviews, but earwigs say he and two co-writers are about 70 percent done with a manuscript based heavily on thousands of e-mails sent and received by people in the gov’s office during that period.”

McLeod says the law is clear: A current or former public officer may not disclose or use information gained in the course of, or by reason of, the officer’s official duties that could in any way result in the receipt of any benefit for the officer or an immediate family member, if the information has not also been disseminated to the public. Also, a current or former public officer may not disclose or use, without authorization information acquired in the course of official duties that is confidential by law.

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McLeod files ethics complaint against former Palin aide Bailey

2010-09-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

Activist Andrée McLeod is charging the administration of Sean Parnell with an ethics violation for improper disclosure of information. She is alleging former Sarah Palin aide Frank Bailey has had unfettered access to Palin’s e-mails for an insider book he’s putting together with two co-writers.

McLeod points out that while Bailey, et al., may have had access to the emails, they have been withheld from the public and the media, for as long as two years.
McLeod files ethics complaint against former Palin aide Bailey

Anchorage activist Andrée McLeod has filed an ethics complaint with the state Attorney General’s office, this time against former Palin aide Frank Bailey, who is reportedly writing a book about her time as governor.

The complaint is based on an item in Sunday’s Alaska Ear column:

“Bailey hasn’t been giving interviews, but earwigs say he and two co-writers are about 70 percent done with a manuscript based heavily on thousands of e-emails sent and received by people in the gov’s office during that period.”

The essence of McLeod’s complaint is that it’s unethical for Bailey to use government e-mails for personal gain if the e-mails haven’t been made public. McLeod, along with the Associated Press, Mother Jones and MSNBC, asked for a variety of Palin administration e-mails in 2008 and have yet to see the release of many of them.

McLeod files ethics complaint against former Palin aide Bailey

Read more: http://community.adn.com/node/153052#ixzz0z3Dtx0X1

Another Abuse of Power Finding

2010-06-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

By Geoffrey Dunn

Sarah Palin's erstwhile attorney Thomas Van Flein issued another of his bizarre missives on Palin's Facebook page yesterday in what appeared to be a strange portent of a forthcoming legal ruling ready to crash down on Palin.

In a commentary posted on a judge's recent ruling in Alaska dismissing a suit filed by Alaska political watchdog Andree McLeod regarding Todd Palin's emails, Van Flein--who has the expository grace of an Arctic muskrat--noted that "some claims and suits are pending and are getting resolved in time." It hardly has the sound of justice triumphant, does it?
Van Flein concluded:

"There are, of course, some remaining issues to address....There will be times when Sarah Palin will have to take one for the team in order to continue on with her message to the country and simply resolve matters without having to incur crushing personal debt. That is the cost, unfortunately, of public life today. When that happens, read the details closely--like the details in this court opinion. Every time you do you will see that Sarah Palin has always acted with honest intent. You will see that again soon."

It doesn't sound like good news for the Thrilla from Wasilla to me. Van Flein and Palin have obviously been warned that another legal storm is on the horizon.

And what might that be? Sources of mine in both Anchorage and Juneau involved with Alaska's Department of Law and the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) are speculating that an ethics act complaint filed last year against Palin and the establishment of her Alaska Fund Trust is about to be settled--against Palin.

Nearly a year ago, on July 14, 2009, shortly after Palin resigned her governorship, Alaska Personnel Board attorney Tom Daniel issued a preliminary finding which found that:

"In light of the evidence that the governor expressly authorized the creation of the trust and the fact the trust website quite openly uses the governor's position to solicit donations, there is probable cause to believe that Governor Palin used, or attempted to use, her official position for personal gain in violation of Alaska statute."

Daniel's finding did not sit well with the Palin camp. There have been rumors of hard-core legal pushback for the past year by Palin and Van Flein, who were reportedly furious over the finding and have proved unsuccessful in getting it reversed.

And what might that be? Sources of mine in both Anchorage and Juneau involved with Alaska's Department of Law and the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) are speculating that an ethics act complaint filed last year against Palin and the establishment of her Alaska Fund Trust is about to be settled--against Palin.

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View More Proof of "Abuse of Power"

2010-02-19T16:39:00.000-08:00

Visit Crivella West

Check out who went through the state sytem all the way to Todd? Peek Here

Background

Background In September of 2008 Aram Roston, then at NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, made several public records requests to the governor of the State of Alaska. Roston sought e-mails dated from January 2007 to September 24, 2008 that were copied to, directed to, or from Todd Palin and seven members of then Governor Sarah Palin's staff, including Governor Palin. The records provided by the governor's office consist of 2,544 pages and were subsequently provided to Bill Dedman, an msnbc.com investigative reporter. In collaboration with msnbc.com, Crivella West Incorporated, a knowledge discovery company, digitized, analyzed and arranged this Palin e-mail collection. Further, Crivella West categorized these documents into Special Collections for easy review. Bill Dedman detailed his findings from this production in an article published on February 5, 2010 which you can find at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35238034/ns/politics/
The State of Alaska's Response to Roston's requests, as well as a listing of records the governor's office withheld or redacted, can be accessed on the links below.

Further Information on the request

State of Alaska Response
Privilege Log

How to search the Palin E-mail 01/25/2010
1. Click on Search link located under Public Access Collections.
2. Enter desired search term(s) into search bar and click the "Search" button.
3. Select desired document and click on document link - example, "Subject: RE: schedule".
4. Search term(s) can include single terms or phrases.
5. When searching for a phrase, surround with double quotes - example "Anchorage office".
6. Advanced operators that can be used while searching include AND, OR, and NOT.

Crivella West

Another Ethics Complaint Filed Against Palin

2009-12-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin Still Unethical - Another Ethics Complaint Filed
From the Associated Press --

A longtime critic of Sarah Palin has filed an ethics complaint alleging past aides of the former Alaska governor misused state resources during her run as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Andree McLeod filed her complaint Friday with the state attorney general's office. Five other ethics complaints filed by McLeod against Palin or her staff have been dismissed and another is pending.

In the latest grievance, McLeod maintains eight staffers in the former governor's office violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by using state time, property and resources to benefit the campaign of presidential hopeful John McCain and running mate Palin.

Judy Bockmon, an assistant attorney general and the state's ethics attorney, says ethics complaints being investigated are confidential and she cannot comment on their status or whether they even exist. (Read the complaint, with attached e-mails here)

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What are they hiding?

No matter what you think about Andrée McLeod - and she has stirred up her share of enemies with public records requests of the Palin administration - it is becoming increasingly clear something is grossly amiss.

She submitted her public records request more than a year ago, and the law requires the request be answered in 10 days.

Yet here we are, waiting and waiting and waiting. Instead of providing the information requested, the Palin, and now the Parnell, administrations have requested and received time extension after time extension to respond.

We join those who are asking after the ninth such extension: What are they hiding?

Ms. McLeod says the continued government stalling is “unacceptable and outrageous!” She is being kind. It is government at its worst.

List of Ethics Complaint Filed Against Sarah Palin

2009-07-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

A listing of known ethics complaints filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin:
By The Associated Press

1. July 28, 2008: Alaska lawmakers launched an investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan over his refusal to let go a state trooper involved in a contentious divorce with Palin's sister. Stephen Branchflower, a special counsel leading the investigation, concluded Oct. 10 that Palin violated a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain. The firing itself was deemed lawful since Monegan was an at-will employee.

2. Aug. 6, 2008: Complaint filed by outspoken Palin critic Andree McLeod of Anchorage contended Palin and some staff members used their influence to get a Palin supporter a job in state government. Complaint alleged Palin staffers helped Tom Lamal, who once co-hosted a Palin fundraiser, to get a job as a surveyor. Dismissed by state personnel board, although the board's investigator recommended ethics training for one staffer who made questionable comments in e-mails.

3. Aug. 20, 2008: Complaint accused Palin of breaking election law by taking a public position on a mining ballot initiative days before the vote. Filed by Brian Kraft, founder of the Bristol Bay Alliance, a group that opposed the Pebble Mine prospect. Rejected May 8 by the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
Aug. 29, 2008: Palin named as John McCain's running mate.

4. Sept. 2, 2008: Palin filed a "self disclosure" with the state personnel board over the Troopergate affair, saying a state legislative probe had become too political. On Nov. 3 -- the day before the election -- Timothy Petumenos, a lawyer hired by the board, said that Palin violated no ethics laws when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

5. Sept. 3, 2008: Complaint by the Public Safety Employees Association alleged Palin or her staff had unauthorized access to and improperly disclosed information from personnel records of Trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's ex-brother-in-law. Complaint was later amended to include an allegation of harassment. The PSEA's allegations were investigated alongside Palin's filing and also dismissed.

6. Oct. 13, 2008: Monegan asked the board for a hearing to clear his name. Petumenos, in his Nov. 3 Troopergate report to the panel, said there was no legal basis or jurisdiction for such a hearing.

7. Oct. 23, 2008: Complaint with the Federal Election Commission by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics alleged the $150,000-plus designer wardrobe the Republican Party bought to outfit Palin in her vice presidential quest violated Federal Election Campaign Act. The Washington watchdog group argued that candidates aren't supposed to use donor money for personal expenses. The FEC ruled May 19 that party money is not covered by the ban.

8. Oct. 24, 2008: Complaint contended Palin abused her power by charging the state when her children traveled with her. The personnel board found no wrongdoing, but in a Feb. 23 settlement Palin agreed to reimburse the state about $10,000 for costs associated with 10 trips found to be of questionable state interest among 72 travel authorizations studied. The money is due to the state on Tuesday.

9. Nov. 14, 2008: Accused Palin of partisan "post-election damage control" for talking to reporters about the campaign in her state office. Filed by Zane Henning, a North Slope worker from Wasilla, Palin's hometown. Dismissed by state personnel board March 23.

10. Dec. 2, 2008: Alleged Palin violated ethics law by campaigning for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. Filed by Anthony Martin of Talkeetna. Dismissed by state personnel board March 23.

11. Dec. 18, 2008: Complaint contended Palin misused funds of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, a quasi-government entity, to promote her political ambitions with advertisements featuring her, violating ethics law. The ads promoting Alaska seafood ran in the National Fisherman last year through November. Dismissed Jan. 12 after a personnel board investigation determined Palin's only involvement was to give permission to use her image long before she was named McCain's running mate.

12. Jan. 12: Complaint alleging interference in a job hiring was filed under the name of Edna Birch, a busybody character on the British soap opera Emmerdale. Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said no one by that name could be found living in Alaska and the filer refused to use a real name, so the complaint was dismissed Feb. 20.

13. and 14. Jan. 26: Two complaints filed by McLeod alleged two of Palin's top aides misused their official positions for Palin's personal and political gain. The complaints said then-press secretary Bill McAllister and Kris Perry -- director of the governor's Anchorage office -- worked on state time to benefit Palin's interests during and after her vice presidential quest. Pending.

15. March 18: Contended Palin improperly used state staff, property, time and equipment for partisan political purposes. One of the grievances cited was Palin's posting of her veep candidacy on the official state governor's Web site -- http://gov.state.ak.us/archive.php?id=1439&type=1 Complaint filed by McLeod. Dismissed May 27 as lacking merit by personnel board May 27.

16. March 24: Contended conflict of interest by Palin because she wore Arctic Cat logo gear during the Tesoro Iron Dog snowmobile race. Palin's husband, Todd, is sponsored by Arctic Cat in the race. Filed by Linda Kellen Biegel, a Democratic blogger. Dismissed June 2.

17. April 22: Alleged that work with Palin's political action committee violated two provisions of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by misusing her official position and accepting outside employment. Filed by Anchorage resident Sondra Tompkins. Dismissed as lacking merit by state personnel board May 8.

18. April 27: Contends Palin is misusing the governor's office for personal gain by securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust. The fund was recently established by supporters to help Palin pay off more than $500,000 in legal debts stemming from other ethics complaints, including troopergate. Complaint filed by Eagle River resident, Kim Chatman. Pending.

19. Zane henning
Wasilla resident Zane Henning will be filing an ethics complaint today against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for continuing to collect per diem from the State of Alaska for living in her own home. "I am charging that the Governor has given herself a raise for personal gain by using the per diem process, which is in direct conflict with Section 39.52.120. (a) of the Alaska Executive Ethics Act,” Henning said. “The State of Alaska provides housing in the state's capital of Juneau for our Governor, so there should be no extra expense if she desires to stay in her own home. More than a thousand state employees commute from the Mat-Su Valley daily and none of them get to pocket free money.”
The reasons why I am filing this complaint are as follows:· State travel regulations specify per diem can’t be claimed when travel is less than 50 miles from a state employee’s workplace. Palin works out of her Anchorage office in the Atwood Building which is a scant 45- mile commute from her Wasilla home. · Palin is exempt from personnel and travel rules which means she does NOT HAVE to collect any per diem ever when working out of her Anchorage office. · And most importantly, State Statute 39.20.010 distinctly stipulates that the governor’s salary is $125,000. Period. By pocketing this free money, Palin violates Alaska law by giving herself a raise that totals to thousands of dollars. Attached documents provide proof that Governor Sarah Palin continues to collect per diem as of May 2009.
"The Governor is quitting her job and now more than ever the State of Alaska along with its residents need to be reimbursed for the per diem charges including interest and a fine. Governor Palin is setting precedent for future governors. My hope was that one of our lemming legislators would take a stand and hold Palin accountable for this act, but since that has not happened, it is up to private citizens, like myself, to hold our Governor accountable”, stated Henning.

20. Alaska — Another ethics complaint was filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – less than a week before her resignation – alleging she failed to submit complete gift disclosure forms in a timely manner.
The complaint filed with the attorney general is the 19th ethics grievance against Palin, who responded via Twitter postings that the filings came from a "serial complainer" intent on abusing the political process.
"In violation of Ethics Act more allegations were filed today by serial complainer; gave to press be4 we could respond; ridiculous, wasteful..." Palin wrote in the first of a string of postings on the social networking site Twitter.
"it costs political critics NOTHING to file/play their wasteful game; They should debate policy in political arena,not hide w/process abuse..." she said in another tweet.
In announcing her July 26 resignation, Palin has cited the cost and strain of the multiple complaints on her personally and on her administration. Palin, who leaves with 17 months left on her first term, says she is more than $500,000 in legal debt from fighting them.
Most of the complaints, including a case filed by the governor herself, were filed after Palin was named the GOP vice presidential candidate last year. Most have been dismissed.
The latest is the sixth filed by fellow Republican Andree McLeod, an outspoken critic of the governor. She is asking Attorney General Daniel Sullivan to forward her claim to the state Personnel Board for investigation.
Items are listed in the complaint as unclaimed gifts, including "boxes of unopened mail" to Palin and her family from supporters dating back to the governor's national campaign.
"We deserve to know who plied their governor with gifts," McLeod wrote in her complaint.
Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said the multiple filings by one person raise the prospect that the ethics process "is being abused and is simply being used to harass and annoy." Three of McLeod's cases have been dismissed and two others, including one filed last week, remain active.
The 19 complaints include a "self disclosure" Palin filed with the Alaska Personnel Board just days after she was named John McCain's running mate. It was in response to an investigation by state lawmakers over Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner, a scandal that became known as Troopergate.
The commissioner, Walt Monegan, believed he was terminated over his refusal to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a contentious divorce with Palin's sister. Palin cited budgetary disagreements.
The legislative probe ultimately concluded the governor broke an ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain, although the firing itself was considered lawful since Monegan was an employee who could be dismissed at will.
Palin said the legislative probe had become too political and filed a "self disclosure" with the personnel board, whose three members are appointed by the governor. The day before the presidential election, that investigation concluded that Palin violated no ethics laws.

21. Anchorage resident and registered Republican Andrée McLeod has filed an ethics complaint today with the Attorney General’s Office charging that Governor Palin violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act and knowingly, intentionally and willfully abused her official position and state resources for partisan political purposes and withheld official action for personal and political interests.
“We’ve been had,” says Andrée McLeod. “Sarah Palin failed to preserve, protect and safeguard the office of the governor for selfish reasons and the State of Alaska and Alaskans were left vulnerable and exposed.”
Signed and completed official travel documents show that upon being summoned by the McCain campaign on August 27th Sarah Palin wrote “Conclusion of state business” for that day and flew off to places unknown. After her failed bid, similar documents state “Return to duty status”. However, payroll documents show Palin continued to receive her $125,000 governor’s salary and benefited by using state funded staff on the campaign for ‘state business’ while knowing she was off duty.
“By signing these documents Sarah Palin knew she temporarily quit as governor to campaign for VP full-time; but by pocketing her salary Palin deceivingly used her official position and state staff for partisan political purposes to garner votes.”
The complaint also touches on the Alaska Constitution’s Article 3, Section 9: Acting Governor ~ In case of the temporary absence of the governor from office, the lieutenant governor shall serve as acting governor.
McLeod asks, “What was Sarah Palin thinking when she went off to the Lower 48 for God knows how long without transferring duties to the lieutenant governor? Alaskans were left fending for themselves while Outside political campaign operatives hijacked our system of governance and rendered it paralyzed. Who was looking out for Alaskans and where was the lieutenant governor? How could Sarah Palin be so thoughtless?”
A copy of the ethics complaint is here: sarah-palin-jul-14-ethics-complaint1

New Ethics Complaint Against Palin

2009-07-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release
Monday, July 6, 2009, Wasilla, Alaska- Wasilla resident Zane Henning will be filing an ethics complaint today against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for continuing to collect per diem from the State of Alaska for living in her own home. "I am charging that the Governor has given herself a raise for personal gain by using the per diem process, which is in direct conflict with Section 39.52.120. (a) of the Alaska Executive Ethics Act,” Henning said. “The State of Alaska provides housing in the state's capital of Juneau for our Governor, so there should be no extra expense if she desires to stay in her own home. More than a thousand state employees commute from the Mat-Su Valley daily and none of them get to pocket free money.”
The reasons why I am filing this complaint are as follows:· State travel regulations specify per diem can’t be claimed when travel is less than 50 miles from a state employee’s workplace. Palin works out of her Anchorage office in the Atwood Building which is a scant 45- mile commute from her Wasilla home. · Palin is exempt from personnel and travel rules which means she does NOT HAVE to collect any per diem ever when working out of her Anchorage office. · And most importantly, State Statute 39.20.010 distinctly stipulates that the governor’s salary is $125,000. Period. By pocketing this free money, Palin violates Alaska law by giving herself a raise that totals to thousands of dollars. Attached documents provide proof that Governor Sarah Palin continues to collect per diem as of May 2009.
"The Governor is quitting her job and now more than ever the State of Alaska along with its residents need to be reimbursed for the per diem charges including interest and a fine. Governor Palin is setting precedent for future governors. My hope was that one of our lemming legislators would take a stand and hold Palin accountable for this act, but since that has not happened, it is up to private citizens, like myself, to hold our Governor accountable”, stated Henning.

Palin RESIGNS- Good For Alaska

2009-07-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

"Lucky 13"

2009-05-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

Complaint: Palin's legal fund violates ethics rules
Mark Thiessen/The Associated Press

Originally published Monday, April 27, 2009 at 5:04 p.m.
Updated Monday, April 27, 2009 at 8:26 p.m.

Read Kim Chatman's letter outlining the complaint against Gov. Sarah Palin here.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An ethics complaint filed Monday against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the legal defense fund formed last week to challenge such claims is an ethics violation itself.

The complaint filed with the attorney general's office seeks an investigation by the state personnel board for violations of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. The complainant, Kim Chatman of Eagle River, claims Palin is misusing the governor's office for personal gain by securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts.

The governor's office said Monday the new complaint and others filed against Palin or her staff show a disturbing trend in Alaska politics.

"It's obvious the intent with this unprecedented action against the governor is to see her administration paralyzed and for her to declare personal bankruptcy," Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The new complaint targets the Alaska Fund Trust, which Palin supporter and friend Kristan Cole established last week. Palin has said has said she's accumulated more than $500,000 in legal fees from defending herself against ethics complaints and in Troopergate, the Legislature's probe into the firing of Palin's former public safety commissioner.

Chatman's complaint cites as potential donors the 500,000 supporters signed up for Palin's Facebook account and various political organizations.

"Gov. Palin is perched to improperly receive an enormous amount of money for herself and her family and position a pool of pre-paid defense lawyers organized to deflect consequences of wrongdoings," the complaint says.

Chatman told The Associated Press in a phone interview that she voted for Palin as governor in 2006, but now sees her as unethical. Palin "is not holding up her end of the bargain," she said.

Chatman, 49, says she was never politically active until she started watching Palin more closely. Now, "she makes me pay attention," she said.

At least a dozen other ethics complaints have been filed against Palin, most since she returned from the vice presidential campaign last fall. Most complaints are confidential unless a public accusation is filed or the accused person agrees in writing to make it public.

In Troopergate, Palin originally cooperated with the Legislature's investigation before saying the investigation had become too partisan. She then filed an ethics grievance against herself with the Alaska Personnel Board.

The legislative probe found Palin had abused her office but the commissioner's firing was legal. The separate personnel board investigation found there was no probable cause to believe Palin or any other state official violated ethics laws.

The Dirty Dozen

2009-05-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Spring is springing here on the Last Frontier, and with it pops up a brand new ethics complaint against the governor. For those of you keeping score at home, that makes twelve ethics complaints in all. That number, of course, includes the one Palin filed against herself last fall so the Troopergate investigation could be overseen by the governor-appointed personnel board, instead of leaving it solely to those rogue, mavericky legislators in Juneau.

The complaint will be filed this afternoon asserting that Palin's involvement with SarahPAC constitutes "outside employment" and "misuse of official position."

Anchorage resident Sondra Tompkins, child disability advocate and mother of a special needs child, is filing the complaint after observing Governor Palin repeatedly display "a pattern of unethical behavior." Sondra believes that the tipping point for her was Sarah Palin's most recent abdication of her role as Governor and apparent conflict-of-interest when she spoke at two outside events in Indiana rather than work with the Alaska Legislature during the most critical time, the end of the session.
The complaint alleges:

a) Governor Palin has entered into a contract outside of her official duties with the donors, employees, partners and any or all other participants involved in SarahPAC.

b) The recent partisan trip to Indiana by the Governor was purely to benefit personal interests, had no benefit for the State of Alaska and was in direct conflict with her official duties.

c) The Governor left the State to participate in these events during the most critical end-of-session Legislative activities, at a time where the legislators themselves are not permitted to leave

Another Ethics Complaint Filed Against Sarah Palin. Cat Gate?

2009-03-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

Another ethics complaint has been filed against Governor Sarah Palin today. The list of Palin’s “gates” is long, but this complaint swings open a new one. Cat Gate. And this cat has teeth.

It all began when Governor Sarah Palin lowered the start flag at this year’s Iron Dog Snowmachine race. More than 30 teams race 1971 miles from Big Lake to Nome tracing the northern Iditarod route on “snowmobiles,” as those outside Alaska call them.

Last year’s champions? None other than Alaska’s “first dude” Todd Palin and his teammate Scott Davis as the famous Team #22. Everyone knows that. John McCain even talked about it on the campaign trail!

Palin’s sponsor? Arctic Cat - a brand of snowmachine and related gear. Arctic Cat really wanted to sponsor team Davis-Palin this year. For obvious reasons that go above and beyond Todd’s defending champion status, they knew that “Team Palin” was getting lots of attention from Alaskans, and the national media. All eyes would be on that bright green Arctic Cat logo. Turns out there was even a photo shoot and article in Sports Illustrated this year focusing on the “first dude.” That’s some nice exposure; exposure that was worth $5000 for Arctic Cat to get permission to “brand” Todd Palin and his team.

But, as anyone who has taken time to consider “conflict of interest” or anyone who has read the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act (like, hopefully, our governor) knows, there’s a line that can’t be crossed. If the governor’s family benefits directly from a private sponsor, (like getting a $5000 check from them) and the governor shows up to take an official role at an official event, representing all Alaskans, it’s a big fat no-no to show up plastered like a billboard with the official “gear” and giant flaming logo of the company that’s been paying you money.

It might look like…..you’re for sale. Now don’t get me wrong, as far as Alaska politicians selling themselves, $5000 isn’t a bad price. We’ve had state legislators sell themselves for far less than that. But haggling over the price aside, this is just not within the bounds of the rules of the state of Alaska. Period.

If not, I have the feeling Juneau would be hosting the Pepsi Legislative session, and we’d have the 3M Speaker of the House and the Napa Majority Leader. There would be meetings of the Kinkos Judiciary Committe, the Fedex Budget, and the Veco Senate President. (Yes, I know we’ve had one of those already.)

And imagine you owned the competing Polaris dealership. You might be tempted to think…”Hmmm. If I offered Team #22 a couple thousand dollars more than they’re getting from Arctic Cat, maybe I’ll get Sarah Palin to wear my flashy logo suit in front of the cameras next year!” You see where this is leading.

Thus, the reasoning behind the ethics complaint filed against the governor today by activist and local blogger Linda Kellen-Biegel of Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis. This will be the 11th complaint filed against the governor during her term in office. Other complaints have been filed by Anchorage resident Frank Gwartney, Wasilla resident Zane Henning, Anchorage resident Andree McLeod, and one or more who did not go public before filing their complaints.

[So, for those of you who have been playing at home since yesterday, speculating as to the specifics on "Implosion #5" I'll finish the cliffhanger sentence.

Today Governor Sarah Palin was stunned by.....the fact that people still haven't stopped paying attention to her unethical wardrobe choices.]

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Where's Sarah?

2009-03-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

As we were saying...

(3/16/09) Just one day after posting a blog about the governor's lack of leadership on critical issues, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner published a story today about the progress on one of the governor's priority bills for this year.

According to Rena Delbridge writing in the Fairbanks paper, Golden Valley Electric Association CEO Brian Newton attended meetings last week with the Palin administration in Juneau regarding the governor's proposed legislation to combine railbelt utilities.

The legislation would create a framework for the Railbelt’s six electric utilities to form a corporation to own and manage transmission and generation.

GVEA officials have voiced concerns about the proposal and according to some lawmakers, have said privately that there would be no way they'd ever go along with the proposal.

Newton did said the meetings in the capital, held during the Alaska Power Association meetings, were useful. GVEA and the administration will work together to iron out differences, he said.

The most telling line of the story was the last line of the story:

"The governor didn’t meet with GVEA personally, nor did she speak to the Alaska Power Association gathering.

The railbelt consolidation bill is supposedly a priority piece of legislation for the governor and energy is the most critical issue of the legislative session, but yet she didn't meet with or speak to Alaska energy executives when they were in Juneau?

As we said; lights are on but nobody is home.

Andrew Halcro's blog

Call them, Dammit!!!!

2009-02-13T19:18:00.000-08:00

Rumors have begun to circulate in the capitol about the sudden departure of former Attorney General Talis Colberg and possible pressure that was brought upon him as well as a Wasilla State Senator.
Yesterday, a popular blog reported that Governor Sarah Palin's father, Chuck Heath, had called Colberg and asked him to write a letter defending the governor's administration in response to the State Senate passing Senate Resolution 5.
The resolution which passed on a vote of 16 to 1, found that Gov. Palin's husband, Todd, and nine Palin aides in contempt for failing to show up when ordered by subpoena to testify in the Legislature's "Troopergate" investigation of the governor.
Colberg never wrote any such letter.
His abrupt departure without any real explanation has given energy to the rumor that he was pushed out because he refused to escalate the tension that already exists between the executive and legislative branches of state government.
On Wednesday, in an attempt to take the focus off of Colberg's mysterious departure, the governor threw together a press conference, surrounded by a room full of aides and commissioners.
The Alaska Budget Report described the scene at the press conference: "Ensconced by some 25 commissioners, aides and assistants, the governor and her entourage dwarfed the press corps, whose members jockeyed for the scant remaining seats in the Third-Floor conference room."
During the press conference, Sean Cockerham from the Anchorage Daily News asked Palin if she requested that Colberg send a response letter to the Senate challenging SR5.
Instead of answering the question directly, Palin looked up and down the long table to her staff trying to find some consensus before answering the question.
In addition, word began circulating yesterday around the halls of the capital that Colberg wasn't the only to receive a phone call from the governor's father.
A few lawmakers reported to me yesterday that Wasilla Senator Linda Menard, who was one of six Republican Senators who voted in favor of the resolution, received a not so pleasant phone call from Palin's dad.
Menard is a long time friend of the Palins and had strong support during last falls election in winning the seat held by former Wasilla Senator Lyda Green.
Reportedly, the fact that Menard supported the resolution didn't sit well with the family.
These reported attempts to pressure with intimidating phone calls is beginning to sound a lot like the Wooten affair.
Who are these people; the Sopranos?
Meanwhile, with the absence of any real reason for the Colberg departure, rumors are left to fill the vacuum.

Read More

Palin's husband and all her aides found in contempt

2009-02-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

By SEAN COCKERHAM mailto:%20scockerham@adn.com
Published: February 6th, 2009 11:31 AMLast Modified: February 6th, 2009 02:38 PM
JUNEAU - The Alaska Senate voted today to find Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, and nine Palin aides in contempt for failing to show up when ordered by subpoena to testify in the Legislature's "Troopergate" investigation of the governor.

http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/681638.html
But the Senate resolution also said there should be no punishment because Todd Palin and the others did eventually submit written statements to the investigator, Steve Branchflower.
"People kept saying 'You've got to do something about the subpoenas -- what are you going to do about the subpoenas?" said Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French, who sponsored the resolution. "And while there was practically no support for doing anything further about the findings regarding the governor, a lot of people were upset that the subpoenas were ignored.
"It memorializes their contempt and it balances that wrongdoing against their compliance once the suit was resolved," French said.
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg had sued to kill the subpoenas but lost in court. It was after he lost that the witnesses cooperated.
Colberg did not have an immediate comment on the Senate resolution, saying he needed to go through it. The governor's office said it had no comment on the resolution.
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The resolution passed the Senate on a 16-1 vote. Anchorage Republican Sen. Con Bunde was the only senator to vote against it. Sens. Fred Dyson, Gene Therriault and Tom Wagoner were excused.
"We rehash an old issue and then decide to do nothing about it," Bunde said on the Senate floor. "I hope that's not our best."
Anchorage Republican Sen. Kevin Meyer said he sees the resolution as a way to move on from the battles over the investigation.
"It's to bring closure to the whole issue," he said in an interview after the vote.
The subpoenas were issued by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which French chairs. French said it's not necessarily his view, but a lot of his colleagues in the Legislature see what happened as akin to driving 56 mph in a 55 mph zone.
"You can say you broke the law, you went 56 miles an hour, but not every violation of the law gets punished," he said.
French, pressed on his own view, said he believes the resolution struck the right balance. But he left open the possibility of future action against the state attorney general.
"I don't want to get sidetracked by the attorney general's performance in this episode, but it's worth pointing out that this resolution does not resolve questions - significant and serious questions - about his actions during this time," French said in a speech on the Senate floor.
French said in an interview afterward that he's not sure exactly what more is to be done.
"The difficulty is coming to any conclusion about what he did because none of us were in the room. ... It would be very difficult," he said.
French said Colberg broke a deal to cooperate with the subpoenas. Lawmakers also question the attorney general's advising state employees that they didn't have to honor subpoenas lawfully issued by the Legislature.
Colberg, a Palin appointee, has said he doesn't believe he did anything wrong. He said he just gave legal options to the seven state employees he was representing in the matter and they decided how they wanted to proceed.

"The self-proclaimed queen of ethics has again crossed the line"

2009-01-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

Just as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is pushing herself as presidential material for 2012, two of her top aides-- Communications Director and Press Secretary, Bill McAllister, and Palin's Anchorage office director, Kris Perry--are being hit with new ethics charges, to be filed with the state Attorney General on Monday.

Well-known Alaskan political watchdog Andree McLeod--a registered Republican who was once a close political associate of Palin's and who has worked at a variety of jobs in Alaskan government--said that she is filing the complaint because "employees working for Palin conducted partisan political activities while on the clock and on the public's dime."

In August of last year, before Palin was nominated as John McCain's GOP running mate, McLeod filed ethics charges against the Palin administration over the hiring of Palin political crony Tom Lamal. She also has a legal case pending against Palin in which she is trying to make public more than 1,000 state emails that were copied to the governor's husband, Todd. In October, an Anchorage judge ordered Palin and others in her office to "retrieve and preserve" any emails from private accounts that concern state business that were copied to the so-called "First Dude."

In her current complaint against McAllister, McLeod sites a series of activities that she contends violate Alaska's "Executive Branch Code of Ethics," which prohibits public officials from using or authorizing "the use of state funds, facilities, equipment, services, or another government asset or resource for partisan political purposes."

"These campaign activities have absolutely nothing to do with the public's business, and everything to do with promoting Palin's personal endeavors and political aspirations," McLeod declared in an exclusive interview. "This must not go unchallenged."

In her complaint, addressed to Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, McLeod charges that state documents indicate McAllister traveled with the Palin entourage to Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention and that he was on the Alaska payroll September 1 to 5, 2008, allegedly "to provide staff support to the governor regarding state business."

Yet an email from McAllister to Palin (on her controversial private Yahoo account) indicates that McAllister was clearly coordinating Palin's activities for the RNC.

The convention itself is requesting you to act as a surrogate for McCain for national media. Available blocs of time daily, are 5-9 a.m., 11 a.m. - 9.a.m. Within those, they ask when you might be available for this purpose.

Three other state of Alaska employees--Perry, Janice Mason and Sharon Leighow--were also copied by McAllister on what was clearly Republican Party business.

In a television interview McAllister gave to Anchorage station KTUU while at the convention, he declared:

She's been in long, long briefings working on foreign policy, beginning to work on her speech she'll be delivering here when she accepts the nomination. It's a very intense operation. The McCain folks definitely know what they want. They're working with her all day long on various aspects of how this is going to go.

McAllister also said that Palin was feeling "good and ready" for her Wednesday night speech. "It's going to be a friendly crowd here and the audience will likely embrace the governor"--once again, hardly state business and clearly partisan activity.

The McLeod complaint cites several other similar incidents involving McAllister during the presidential campaign that cross over into partisan activities.

But perhaps the most clear-cut violations of the Ethics Code by McAllister cited by McLeod are a series of interviews that McAllister gave following the announcement that Democrat Bob Poe would be challenging Palin for Governor in 2010. McAllister responded directly to charges that Poe made during the announcement of his candidacy, and not only disputed Poe's charges on behalf of Palin, but took political potshots at Poe:

It is unfortunate that Mr. Poe would claim, counter to the obvious facts, that the governor is putting national political aspirations above her role as chief executive of the state. Since the election, the governor has spent less than a day out of state attending to partisan activities.

Then he changed it to five days:

The governor is here has been gone a mere five days in the past two months. Since the election, she has been in Alaska, is working, is focused, and doesn't need a nudge from Bob Poe to do it.

McAllister then got more aggressive. A January 9, 2009, Anchorage Daily News article again had McAllister weighing in on Poe:

"Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said it was presumptuous of Poe to comment on the internal workings of the administration. 'He doesn't know what he's talking about," McAllister said.' McAllister rejected Poe's criticism that Palin's absences have hurt the state. Other governors, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, ran for national office while running their states. Since the election, Palin has been out of the state for five days and she's devoted less than one day to political activity despite numerous requests, McAllister said. As for the natural gas pipeline process....McAllister wondered if Poe wanted a return to closed negotiations and giveaways. 'I don't see any evidence that that's what the public wants,' McAllister said."

McAllister is a former KTUU news reporter in Anchorage who critics say sucked up to Palin during her early stint as governor in pursuit of his current post. Emails uncovered by McLeod indicate that McAllister was angling for his post with Palin several months before receiving it--and while he was still assigned to cover her for KTUU.

In Kaylene Johnson's hagiography on Palin, McAllister brags about betting on Palin in her primary battle with former Alaska governor Frank Murkowski: "I had a bet with my colleagues at work," McAllister boasts, "a high-end single-malt scotch with one and a fine bottle of wine with the other--that Sarah would win the primary." This came while he was covering the race--clearly a violation of journalistic ethics.

McLeod's charges leveled at Perry--Palin's former campaign manager who headed up the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce while Palin was mayor there--are similar to those directed at McAllister. Apparently, Perry spent six weeks on the campaign trail with Palin. She also traveled to Georgia with Palin when she campaigned for Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss--while she was still on the clock in Alaska.

This is not the first time those around Palin have been hit with ethics charges. In her ill-fated 2002 campaign for lieutenant governor, Palin was caught using City of Wasilla resources for campaign related mailings, phone calls, faxes and printing. She also campaigned on city time. More recently, Zane Henning has charged Palin with violations of the ethics code for using state offices for her interview with Greta Van Susteren.

McLeod finds Palin's hypocrisy troubling. "The self-proclaimed queen of ethics has again crossed the line and violated her own oft- repeated ethics principles," McLeod declared. "This dog won't hunt."

Here are the McLeod’s complaints:
Click here for the McAllister complaint
Click here for the Perry complaint

Half-Baked in Alaska: Palin's 11th Hour "Troopergate" Exoneration Was a Lie

2008-11-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

It was surely an odd bit of timing on Monday, November 3--just hours before one of the biggest presidential elections in American history--that the Alaska State Personnel Board issued a finding by its chief investigator, Timothy J. Petumenos, that Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, did not breach state ethics laws when she fired Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan in July of this year.

This last minute finding appeared to exonerate Palin of any legal culpability in the so-called "Troopergate" scandal that dogged her throughout her ill-fated, two-month run on the Republican ticket. Palin boldly claimed it a "vindication," while headlines throughout the world declared that she had been "cleared" of any wrongdoing.

That was hardly the case. Composed entirely of political appointees--and all Republican--the Personnel Board was hell-bent on clearing Palin from the get-go. Its findings were neither final nor impartial. And they leave many questions about her behavior, along with that of her husband's and her staff's, unanswered.

Perhaps the most significant questions that remain are whether or not Governor Palin and her husband, Todd, committed perjury in their sworn affidavits to the personnel board.

There is significant circumstantial evidence that they did.

Less than a month before the Personnel Board's findings, of course, a Republican investigator of the bipartisan Alaska Legislative Council declared that while Palin broke no laws in firing Monegan, she had, in fact, violated the state's Executive Ethics Act by actively pursuing the firing of her former brother-in-law, Alaska state trooper Mike Wooten.

Palin put the lean on Monegan to fire Wooten. He didn't. So he was fired instead.

As Governor, Palin had the executive right to fire Monegan. On that fact, both the Legislative Council and Personnel Board agree.

What they disagree about is whether Palin, her husband, and her staff had the right to hound Monegan about the firing of Wooten. The Personnel Board said that she did have the right; the Legislative Council's reading of the Alaska Ethics Act says she did not.

And hound they did. More than three dozen times in less than two years.

In the aftermath of Monegan's dismissal, Palin gave at least four different reasons for it--all of which seem spurious, at best, and concocted, at worst. And there is strong evidence contradicting every one of her four explanations.

But even more troubling is the absolutely obsessive pattern of strong-arming Monegan about Wooten that began immediately once Palin took office. Within two months of her December 2006 inauguration, Palin and her husband, Todd, contacted Monegan a half-dozen times about firing Wooten. Then Palin's staff members began the assault. Then more contacts from the Palins. Then more from staff.

The pressure was unrelenting and continued right up until the time that Monegan was fired. The record on that--emails, notes, even taped phone conversations--is quite clear.

Perhaps the most troubling piece of evidence is a February 7, 2007, email from Gov. Palin to Monegan. It's a long, rambling missive that concludes with a return to her obsession with Wooten: "Just my opinion -- I know you know I've experienced a lot of frustration with this issue. I know Todd's even expressed to you a lot of concern about our family's safety after this trooper threatened to kill a family member..."

Both Palin and her husband swore under oath that they did not have conversations with Monegan a month earlier (in January 2007) about the Wooten matter. Yet the February 2007 email proves concretely that Palin was aware that her husband had conveyed concerns to Monegan and, by implication ("I know you know") that she had as well. It also clearly establishes the pattern of her trying to use her influence to get Wooten fired from her earliest days in office.

Palin further contradicted her own testimony by saying that her husband complained to her so frequently about the handling of the Wooten matter that she had to tell him to stop, and then shortly thereafter contended that she knew nothing about his activities to get Wooten fired.

Implausible? Absolutely. Perjury? That remains for a legal body to decide.

But will one?

I contacted Monegan's talented attorney in Anchorage, Jeffrey Feldman, of Feldman, Orlansky & Sanders, to ask him about the state of the case and what were the next legal steps in this matter.

"No one knows the answer to that question," he declared. Since the Personnel Board made a finding of "no probable cause" and denied Monegan's request for a hearing, there "is nothing currently pending before the Personnel Board."

Feldman indicated that Monegan's legal options are also limited. He "could file an action in court either challenging his dismissal, asserting defamation claims, or seeking a due process name-clearing hearing," but as of now that's uncertain.

That leaves the Alaska Legislature. When it goes back into session in January, there are a variety of options it could pursue. Although there's a bipartisan majority caucus in the state Senate, Feldman said, it's uncertain whether Senate President-designate, Republican Gary Stevens (not related to the convicted U.S. Senator), will follow up on any matter dealing with Troopergate.

That, to me, would seem to be a dereliction of the Legislature's duty. The Alaska Legislature has the right--and I believe the obligation--to follow-up on the findings of its own investigation and to censure Governor Palin for what was a clear pattern of abusing her power.

Moreover, the Legislature also has the power to seek contempt charges against Palin and other state officials who willingly ignored the Legislative Council's subpoenas during its investigation of Troopergate. And it also has the power to hold hearings on whether or not Palin and her husband committed perjury. There's troubling evidence that they did.

Come January, someone needs to show Alaska's first family that they are not above the law

2008-11-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

Politics
Sarah Palin: The e-mail scandal
The Wasilla Project visited Sarah Palin's hometown to find out how she governed as mayor. This video explores Palin's use of a personal Yahoo account for state business and issues of ethics. Visit the Wasilla Project for more information and videos. You can also find them on Salon, here.

The whole country sees Palin's unethical ways and Abuse of Power

2008-10-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

Palin and Abuse of Power

New Investigation -Not a Clear and Transparent Government

2008-10-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

Gov. Sarah Palin is facing yet another lawsuit accusing her of running an opaque government. This time, her relationship to the mining industry is in question.
Alaskans for Clean Water are suing Palin and various state departments, including the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), for allegedly backing the mining industry - most notably, the controversial Pebble Mine project - by misleading voters about Ballot Measure Four, the so-called Clean Water Initiative which was defeated during

Brian Kraft, a business owner with no ties to Alaskans for Clean Water, is suing the governor's office for access to public records. Wednesday, September 22, 2008. the primary elections. The group is also accusing the governor and her administration of stonewalling public access to public records that could potentially prove whether Palin favored a special interest group.
It all began in August with Brian Kraft, who owns two businesses in Bristol Bay. He supported the ballot measure, which he says DNR helped to defeat with a website just a week before the primaries. Kraft filed a complaint with the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC).

"I thought it was biased, misleading and APOC ruled in our favor," said Kraft, who is not a member of Alaskans for Clean Water. "APOC had an expedited hearing. They viewed the evidence and in that evidence part of it was Gov. Palin's comments of 'I'm taking my hat off and, personally, I'm voting 'no' on ballot measure four."

That evidence - in the form of emails - is what Alaskans for Clean water requested through the public records act. Nearly two months later, they still don't have the records and are now suing for access.

"I'd like to know what those emails were back and forth between the administration, the DNR and the mining industry," said Kraft. "I think as a resident of the state of Alaska, we have a right to those."

The governor's

office says all public records requests have been backlogged
"We're trying to comply with all the public records requests we've gotten," said Bill McAllister, Palin's spokesman. "We've got more than 80 ongoing public records requests right now, not including the ones we've already resolved. What this group has to understand is we're trying to answer inquiries from all over the country that have piled up in a very short time frame."

McAllister says the state is even "pulling lawyers off of other duties to do work they don't normally do to go through and see which of these records can be legally disclosed."

As for the clean water initiative, APOC ordered the state to take down the website but Kraft said the damage had already been done.

"I think it heavily influenced the way people voted, in that people felt secure that the State of Alaska had the rigorous permitting process that the State of Alaska likes to claim," Kraft said.

"I'm not trying to get the governor in trouble," Kraft added. "I'm not trying to make this a political issue. All I want is the truth to be found out."

Second abuse-of-power investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's

2008-10-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

Confidential records will be shared in new Palin probe
UNANIMOUS: Panel gives independent counsel access.

A legislative panel agreed Thursday to share confidential personnel records with the lawyer who is leading a second abuse-of-power investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner. The Legislative Council voted unanimously to provide the confidential documents to the Personnel Board's independent counsel, Tim Petumenos, who is investigating Palin's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan.

Petumenos did not attend the brief session in Anchorage on Thursday and did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Last week, an investigator for the Legislative Council found that Palin was within her right to fire Monegan but had violated ethics laws by trying to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired.

The probe began before Palin became the GOP vice presidential nominee, but it has taken on broader political implications since then.

Palin originally agreed to cooperate with the Legislature's investigation. But after becoming John McCain's running mate, she said the probe had become too partisan and filed a complaint against herself with the Personnel Board, saying it has the proper authority to investigate ethics allegations against the governor.

Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of the Legislative Council, said it was important to share the confidential information to ensure that critical data was not segregated. The council published its findings last week but not the confidential matter.

"I can't speak to whether it will speed up Mr. Petumenos' investigation," Elton said. "I do have to believe that the public component of the report contains most of the information that is pertinent, but conclusions that were drawn in volume one -- the public component -- are backed up by some of the material that has to remain confidential by law."

Under the agreement, neither Petumenos nor the Personnel Board are allowed to reveal contents of the confidential documents without approval from the Legislative Council. That last-minute condition bothered Republican state Rep. Bill Stoltze, who participated by teleconference but didn't vote.

"I just thought we shouldn't put another restriction of confidentiality on this thing," Stoltze told The Associated Press after the meeting. "I thought it was unnecessary and it put out the perception that we're trying to create yet another barrier to public access."

A report by Stephen Branchflower, the council's investigator, concluded that Palin unlawfully abused her power by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired, but it was largely toothless. State lawmakers have no authority to sanction Palin for ethical misconduct. That's up to the three-member Personnel Board, which is appointed by the governor.

Two members are holdovers from the previous governor and Palin reappointed the third.

Members of the board can be fired by the governor for cause.

A costly personal, vindictive Palin vendetta? You betcha

2008-10-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

Let's ignore all of the emails, phone calls and sworn testimony from current employees of Governor Palin that show a bizarre obsession with getting the governor's ex brother in law fired. Lets for a minute ignore all of the evidence and assume that "Troopergate" is much to do about nothing.

Let's assume that the governor and her husband are being honest in their explanation that they were simply protecting their family and the public from a rogue trooper. Let's assume that the governor's public explanation of the phone calls to former Commissioner Walt Monegan from her, her husband and her staff were about honest outrage at a system that allows a dangerous trooper to continue carrying a badge and gun on Alaska's streets.

However, if the risk presented by Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten was so grave, why didn't Gov. Palin do anything to protect Alaskans by letting them know? After all, if this story hadn't become public as a result of Monegan getting unceremoniously fired, not one Alaskan would have been been the wiser about this supposed rogue trooper.

For the better part of thirteen months Gov. Palin, her husband and a handful of her senior staff tried to get Wooten fired through legally impermissible means. Why didn't the governor or her staff spend that time crafting a beneficial public policy that would have protected the public against this trooper as well as future rogue troopers?

If the governor, her husband and her senior staff were truly concerned about their safety or the publics safety, why didn't they propose legislation to change the way the state troopers investigate themselves?

In hindsight, it's hard to understand that after a year of relentlessly pursuing Wooten, while claiming his punishment was a "slap on the wrist" they never once considered speaking about this situation in public. This past session there were over two dozen pieces of public safety legislation where the governor could have had a public platform to inform the public of her concerns, work with lawmakers to propose solutions and change state laws not just for Wooten but for future cases of accused trooper misconduct.

Rep. Bob Roses introduced House Bill 193 that reformed the Police Standards Council. Sen. Donny Olson introduced Senate Bill 45, dealing with punishment of peace officers. Both were passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Palin without one single public word about any fears or concerns she had about Wooten or the troopers.

The governor failed to propose new legislation, offer any amendments to existing legislation or even try to negotiate changes to the state troopers' new collective bargaining agreement. These facts raise questions about just how much of this pursuit of Trooper Wooten was fear and how much was vendetta.

According to the Branchflower report, Gary Wheeler, a member of the governor's personal security detail since her election, testified under oath that Governor Palin never said she was afraid for her safety concerning Michael Wooten.

With a second investigation now under way which will yield the same evidence, the governor finds herself, her husband, as well as the state, at risk for legal damages. Ironically, it was Commissioner Walt Monegan and his Deputy Commissioner John Glass who both warned the administration early on about the liability with their obsession.

Because Trooper Wooten had already been investigated and disciplined for the conduct raised by the governor and her husband, in the absence of new information or new allegations, re-disciplining him for the same conduct was illegal. Firing him, or in this case trying to get him fired for the conduct for which he had already been disciplined under the Murkowski administration, would almost certainly guarantee that Trooper Wooten would sue the state and that he would likely prevail.

Monegan even warned Chief of Staff Mike Tibbles back in the spring of 2007, "Do you want Trooper Wooten to own your house?"

A misguided and costly personal vendetta? You betcha.

Monegan will have an on going adjustment to his reputation...Palin spokesman said

2008-10-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

by Jason Moore and Rebecca Palsha

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan filed papers with the Personnel Board Tuesday requesting it hold a hearing to address what he calls damage to his reputation.

The request includes Monegan's side of the story and responds to the governor's claims he was insubordinate and had a rogue mentality.

Monegan's attorney wrote: "Governor Palin's public statements accusing Mr. Monegan of serious misconduct were untrue and they have stigmatized his good name, severely damaged -- and continue to damage -- his reputation and impaired his ability to pursue future professional employment."

Monegan said the Legislature's investigation shows the real reason he was fired -- because he wouldn't take action against Trooper Mike Wooten, the governor's former brother in law.

"It's never been my issue ... that she couldn't fire me, because she could for any or no reason at all," Monegan said in a phone interview. "It was the reason why she fired me that I would just like to have known so I could move on with life and figure what to do, or what not to do in the future.

"I think everybody should be entitled to that, and now i have a clear understanding."

But Monegan still wants a finding from the Personnel Board that the governor's claims he had a rogue mentality and displayed outright insubordination were wrong.

Palin's attorney, Tom van Flein, has a different take on it.

"Everything that has come out has come out because of allegations that he has made," van Flein said. "And this is something he should have thought about before he went and accused the governor of wrongdoing."

Van Flein said the governor at first tried to shield Monegan.

"When the governor reassigned him, she made a public statement that was vague -- deliberately vague," van Flein said. "It's often done that way so you don't have to disclose to the world why you were having a problem with an employee.

"He was the one who insisted that those facts come out. The facts came out, he does not like those facts, but that's not defamation."

Meanwhile, the Personnel Board investigator looking into those issues is reportedly expanding the investigation to include other ethics complaints against the governor and other state officials.

That's according to letters from investigator Tim Petumenos to lawyer Meg Simonian, who threatened a lawsuit to make the governor's portion of the investigation public because the governor waived confidentiality.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to go to court and ask a judge to make sure that the investigation related to the governor is separated out from her employees who don't want to waive confidentiality and that any deliberations of the Personnel Board or recommendations made by Mr. Petumenos as they relate to the governor are open," Simonian said.

Van Flein said the governor and her husband will meet with Petumenos next week, likely in the Lower 48 on the campaign trail.

While the Legislature's investigation is over, it appears there are more chapters yet to write in what we have come to know as Troopergate.

Video Gallery

Monegan files complaint
2:33

Also on KTUU.COM

With investigation finished, what's next?
Palin claims contradict report conclusions
Branchflower: Palin abused power
Palin says report clears her

'Very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all

2008-10-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Palin: 'Very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all' (Updated with audio)
Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: October 11, 2008 - 4:28 pm

Comments (339) | Recommend (39)

From Lisa Demer in Anchorage --

Gov. Sarah Palin took about 5 minutes and 30 seconds Saturday afternoon to talk by phone with Alaska reporters and give her view of the Troopergate investigation. She called the case “Tasergate,” a reference to an earlier finding from a trooper investigation that her former brother-in-law used a Taser on his stepson.

Meghan Stapleton, a campaign spokeswoman, opened the conference call and limited questions to one from each reporter. On the line: the ADN, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. Palin could apparently hear us only when an operator turned on our individual lines (which probably explains why there was no response to my follow-up question).

Listen to the interview here:

Here's a transcript:

Palin: Hey, thank you so, Meg. Thank you so much. Thank you also to our local reporters up there in Alaska. Even hearing your names make me feel like I’m right there with you at home. It’s good to get to speak with you. Let me talk a little bit about the Tasergate issue if you guys would let me and, Meg, you want me to just jump right on in there?

Stapleton: Sure governor, go ahead.

Palin: OK cool.

Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that. Todd did what anyone would have done given this state trooper’s very, very troubling behavior and his dangerous threats against our family. Todd did what I think any Alaskan would do.

And he, Todd did what the state’s Department of Law Web site tells anyone to do if they have a concern about a state trooper. And that’s you go to the commissioner and you express your concern. And Todd did what our personal detail asked him to do. Bob Cockrell early on as I was elected and was asked are there any threats against you, and Todd brought the concern as I did to Commissioner Monegan about the state trooper’s threats. He did what any – I think -- any rational person would do so again, nothing to apologize there with Todd’s actions and again very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing.

(Stapleton invites the first question).

ADN: Governor, finding No.1 on the report was that you abused your power by violating state law. Do you think you did anything wrong at all in this Troopergate case?

Palin: Not at all and I’ll tell you, it, I think that you’re always going to ruffle feathers as you do what you believe is in the best interest of the people whom you are serving. In this case I knew that I had to have the right people in the right position at the right time in this cabinet to best serve Alaskans, and Walt Monegan was not the right person at the right time to meet the goals that we had set out in our administration. So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all.

ADN: Have you read the whole report? (No response; Stapleton invites question from KTVA reporter).

KTVA-Channel 11: … The report that came out yesterday, do you think that the end result is partisan?

Palin: Yeah, I did think it did turn into a partisan circus to tell you the truth. Yes I did. You know from Day One it’s been the Personnel Board that clearly laid out in state statute there -- Personnel Board deals with any issue of question regarding a governor, a lieutenant governor or an attorney general in the state of Alaska. What this legislative investigation -- quote unquote -- turned into was a political circus.

KTUU-Channel 2: Governor, so good to hear from you. Do you approve of the way that your campaign has handled themselves here in Alaska? We’ve had a lot of people voice concerns about what they call attacks of good people in our state while you are away.

Palin: Well I haven’t heard of any attacks on good people in Alaska from our campaign. If you have specifics there, maybe I could answer specifically. But no, in John McCain’s mission here, in taking the high road, as you’re going to see too with a lot of unfair shots he has taken in this campaign with some of his opponents’ supporters, McCain and I taking the high road, being positive. I wouldn’t support nor would I condone taking shots at any good Alaskans.

KTUU-Channel 2: Let me answer your question since you asked for specifics.

Palin: Sure.

KTUU-Channel 2: Walt Monegan was called “rogue.” How do you feel about that?

Palin: Rogue isn’t a negative term when you consider that in a cabinet you need a team effort going forward with a governor’s agenda. And our agenda has been to find efficiencies in every department and make sure that we are serving the people of Alaska to the best of our ability given the resources that we have. And remember I fought very hard to increase funding for state troopers so that we could fill positions there and goals not being met that included not being able to recruit and retain all the state troopers that I wanted to best serve Alaska. That could be characterized I think as a cabinet member who – it’s not a negative term I think -- being rogue in terms of not meeting those goals.

Palin guilty of 'Abuse Power'

2008-10-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

A long-awaited Alaska legislative report concluded that Republican Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her authority and broke state ethics law by trying to remove her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

But the report also concluded that the Republican governor did not unlawfully fire her public-safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who said he had been pressured to oust the trooper, Mike Wooten. The report said other factors were involved in Mr. Monegan's controversial dismissal.

Getty Images
Sen. John McCain speaks as Republican vice-presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin listens during a town hall meeting in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
The report, by investigator Stephen Branchflower, was a potential setback to Sen. McCain's lagging presidential campaign. It was released late Friday in Anchorage by the state legislative panel that commissioned it. The bipartisan panel, with two members absent, voted 12-0 to release the findings to the public.

Read More

This piece of work thinks she can clear self of all wrongdoing

2008-10-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

Palin pre-empts state report, clears self
Alaska lawmakers expected to release ethics probe findings Friday
The Associated Press
updated 6:55 p.m. AKT, Thurs., Oct. 9, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.

Sen. John McCain's running mate is the subject of a legislative investigation into whether she abused her power as governor by firing her public safety commissioner. The commissioner, Walter Monegan, says he was dismissed in July for resisting pressure from Palin's husband, Todd Palin, and numerous top aides to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's former brother-in-law.

The move came hours after the state Supreme Court refused to halt the ethics investigation.

Lawmakers were expected to release their own findings Friday. Campaign officials have yet to see that report — the result of an investigation that began before she was tapped as McCain's running mate — but said the investigation has falsely portrayed a legitimate policy dispute between a governor and her commissioner as something inappropriate.

"The following document will prove Walt Monegan's dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administration," campaign officials wrote. "Trooper Wooten is a separate issue."

Monegan said Thursday that he doesn't know what to expect from the legislative panel's own report.

"I just hope that the truth is figured out," Monegan told The Associated Press on Thursday. "That the governor did want me to fire him, and I chose to not. You just can't walk up to someone and say, 'I fire you.' He didn't do anything under my watch to result in termination."

Palin's critics say that shows she used her office to settle family affairs.

"When you're the governor, you leave your household hat at home and you become governor," said state Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican who has frequently clashed with Palin.

Campaign blames former opponent
The campaign's report instead blames former campaign opponent, Andrew Halcro, who has a blog, of conspiring with Wooten to pin Monegan's dismissal on the family's dispute with Wooten. Three days after Monegan was fired, they say, Wooten told his ex-wife, Palin's sister, that: "You guys are going down. Get ready for the show."

Two days after that confrontation, they say, Halcro and Wooten met at a hotel bar in Anchorage for more than three hours — and that evening, Halcro posted the first accusations on his blog that Monegan had been fired because of a vendetta against Wooten by the Palin family.

"It is tragic that a false story hatched by a blogger after drinks with Trooper Wooten led the legislature to allocate over $100,000 of public money to be spent in what has become a politically driven investigation," the 21-page report concludes.

Although the report describes Wooten as a separate issue, the McCain campaign goes into great detail about the "rogue" trooper and his "long history of unstable and erratic behavior." The campaign describes allegations of violence, including threatening Palin's family and shooting his stepson with a stun gun.

The report also includes allegations that Wooten cheated the workers' compensation system. Todd Palin has said he had numerous conversations with government officials about why Wooten was allowed to stay on the job.

"The Palins make no apologies for wanting to protect their family and wanting to bring attention to the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge and abusing the workers' compensation system."

But Todd Palin said he never pressured anyone, including his wife.

The McCain campaign says the investigation has become "muddied with innuendo, rumor and partisan politics."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27105917/

Sarah is guilty of Abuse of Power

2008-10-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

Palins Repeatedly Pressed Case Against Trooper
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
ANCHORAGE — The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin’s Anchorage office was on the line.

As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that TrooperWooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair in late August. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want him nearby.

Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Trooper Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds — in full costume as “Safety Bear,” the troopers’ child-friendly mascot.

Two years earlier, the trooper and the governor’s sister had been embroiled in a nasty divorce and child-custody battle that had hardened the Palin family against him. To Mr. Monegan and several top aides, the state fair episode was yet another example of a fixation that the governor and her husband, Todd, had with Trooper Wooten and the most granular details of his life.

“I thought to myself, ‘Man, do they have a heavy-duty network and focus on this guy,’ ” Mr. Monegan said. “You’d call that an obsession.”

On July 11, Ms. Palin fired Mr. Monegan, setting off a politically charged scandal that has become vastly more so since Ms. Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

By now, the outlines of the matter have been widely reported. Mr. Monegan believes he was ousted because he would not bow to pressure to dismiss Trooper Wooten. The Alaska Legislature is investigating the firing and whether the governor abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta. Its report is due Friday.

Ms. Palin has denied that anyone told Mr. Monegan to dismiss Trooper Wooten, or that the commissioner’s ouster had anything to do with him. But an examination of the case, based on interviews with Mr. Monegan and several top aides, indicates that, to a far greater degree than was previously known, the governor, her husband and her administration pressed the commissioner and his staff to get Trooper Wooten off the force, though without directly ordering it.

In all, the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Trooper Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.

“To all of us, it was a campaign to get rid of him as a trooper and, at the very least, to smear the guy and give him a desk job somewhere,” said Kim Peterson, Mr. Monegan’s special assistant, who like several other aides spoke publicly about the matter for the first time.

Ms. Peterson, a 31-year veteran of state government who retired 10 days before Mr. Monegan’s firing, said she received about a dozen calls herself. “It was very clear that someone from the governor’s office wanted him watched,” she said.

Nor did that interest end with Mr. Monegan, the examination shows. His successor, Chuck Kopp, recalled that in an exploratory phone call and then a job interview, Ms. Palin’s aides mentioned the governor’s concerns about Trooper Wooten. None of the 280 other troopers were discussed, Mr. Kopp said.

Personnel Politics

Immediately after Mr. Monegan’s firing, Ms. Palin said her intent was to change the department’s direction. (She declined to be interviewed for this article.) She has since offered a variety of explanations for his ouster, most recently accusing him of insubordination and opposing her fiscal reforms.

As evidence, she has contended, among other things, that Mr. Monegan arranged two unauthorized lobbying trips to Washington. But according to interviews and records obtained by The New York Times, the governor’s office authorized both trips.

As for Trooper Wooten, Ms. Palin has said she and others were simply lodging legitimate complaints to the appropriate authorities about a trooper with a disciplinary record who was a danger to her family and to the public. In one instance, she said he made a death threat against her father in 2005, an accusation that the trooper has denied.

Ms. Palin initially said she welcomed an investigation into Mr. Monegan’s ouster. But she has since declined to cooperate with the bipartisan inquiry, which Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign says has been “hijacked” by Democratic lawmakers. Ms. Palin has pledged to cooperate with a separate inquiry, by the state’s Personnel Board.

Beyond the potential political consequences, the Legislature’s inquiry, depending on its outcome, could lead lawmakers to censure Ms. Palin or pass legislation making it more difficult for a governor to remove a commissioner, legislative leaders said.

Watching the Trooper

The Palin family’s dispute with Trooper Wooten surfaced long before Ms. Palin became governor.

On April 11, 2005, the day Ms. Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, filed for divorce, her father, Chuck Heath, informed the state police that a domestic-violence restraining order had been served on his son-in-law. Mr. Heath later told the state police that, although Trooper Wooten had not physically harmed Ms. McCann, he had intimidated her. Ms. McCann told the authorities that Trooper Wooten said to her that he would shoot Mr. Heath if he hired her a divorce lawyer and would “take down” Ms. Palin if she got involved.

The family also reported that Trooper Wooten, who was assigned to the wildlife investigations unit, shot a cow, or female, moose without a permit, used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and drank a beer at a friend’s barbecue before taking a second one for the drive home in his patrol car.

In March 2006, after an internal inquiry, Trooper Wooten received a 10-day suspension, which was eventually halved. The suspension letter mentions nothing about threats. At the time, Trooper Wooten and Ms. McCann had been divorced for about two months. But their relationship remained tumultuous, primarily over child custody disputes, said Ms. McCann’s divorce lawyer, Roberta Erwin.

Ms. McCann “wanted to know what relief was available to her” without spending the money to return to court, the lawyer said, adding, “As a close family, the Palins did their best to help her by reaching out further to the trooper hierarchy, with Todd taking the lead.”

On Jan. 4, 2007, a month into the Palin administration and his tenure as public safety commissioner, Mr. Monegan went to the governor’s Anchorage office to talk with Todd Palin, who had requested the meeting. Mr. Palin was seated at a conference table with three stacks of personnel files. That, Mr. Monegan recalled, was the first time he heard the name Mike Wooten.

“He conveyed to me,” Mr. Monegan said, “that he and Sarah did not think the investigation into Wooten had been done well enough and that they were not happy with the punishment. Todd was clearly frustrated.”

Mr. Palin noted Trooper Wooten’s divorce case but dwelt on the moose kill, even showing photographs of the dead animal, Mr. Monegan recalled. The commissioner said he would have his staff evaluate the evidence.

A few days later, Mr. Monegan informed Mr. Palin that the issues raised at the meeting had been addressed in the suspension. The case was closed.

Mr. Palin sounded vexed and said repeatedly Trooper Wooten was getting away with a crime, Mr. Monegan said. “I hung up wondering how long I could keep my job if I tick off my boss’s husband.”

Several evenings later, Mr. Monegan’s cellphone rang. “Walt, it’s Sarah,” the governor said before echoing much of what her husband had said. Trooper Wooten, he recalls being told, was “not the kind of person we should want as a trooper.” He told the governor, too, that there was no new evidence to pursue.

Soon after that, Mr. Palin and several aides began pressing the public safety agency to investigate another matter: whether Trooper Wooten was fraudulently collecting workers’ compensation for a back injury he said he had suffered while helping carry a body bag.

Mr. Palin’s evidence: He told Ms. Peterson, the commissioner’s assistant, that he had seen the trooper riding a snowmobile while on medical leave and that he had photographs to prove it.

When Mr. Palin called back two weeks later, Ms. Peterson said she had met with the trooper but was not authorized to discuss the conversation because it was an official state personnel matter. The issue was eventually resolved in Trooper Wooten’s favor, after his chiropractor sent a letter saying he had approved of the trooper’s riding a snowmobile, as long as he was careful.

Mr. Palin declined to be interviewed. But in a sworn affidavit this week for the legislative investigation, he wrote that he had hundreds of communications about the trooper “with my family, with friends, with colleagues and with just about everyone I could, including government officials.” He added, “In fact, I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her.”

As for what he had told his wife, Mr. Palin said he often raised his concerns about “the unfairness of his remaining on the state troopers when he was obviously so unfit for the job.”

Of the dozen calls Ms. Peterson received about Trooper Wooten, she said, at least half were from Dianne Kiesel, a deputy director at the Department of Administration. The last discussion with Ms. Kiesel came after Ms. Peterson informed her that the trooper had been cleared to work full time.

“Since there was now no business reason to separate Wooten, she wanted to know what else we could do with him,” Ms. Peterson said, adding, “I could tell she was under pressure to come up with something.”

Ms. Kiesel enumerated various possibilities, like moving him to the cold-case unit or a desk job doing background checks.

Ms. Peterson, who had worked in human resources management for most of her government career, said she pointed out that those options would violate the public safety union’s contract.

At one meeting, Ms. Peterson recalled, the commissioner of administration, Annette Kreitzer, said “to keep an eye on him and that he gets no special privileges.”

In an interview, Ms. Kreitzer said she was simply calling for routine monitoring of an employee who had a disciplinary history or had not been evaluated in a while. Six other administration aides who initiated contacts with public safety officials about Trooper Wooten did not return calls or declined to comment.

As for Trooper Wooten’s planned appearance as Safety Bear, Mr. Monegan said he decided to pull him back.

Unexpected Firing

In July, Ms. Palin’s acting chief of staff called Mr. Monegan to another meeting in that same room in the governor’s Anchorage office. The aide, Michael A. Nizich, said the governor wanted him to head the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, part of the public safety department. Put another way, he was no longer commissioner.

Saying the firing had come “out of the blue,” Mr. Monegan asked how he had upset the governor. Ms. Palin, the aide said, wanted to take the agency in a new direction.

“Was it Wooten?” Mr. Monegan recalled asking.

“A new direction,” was the reply.

The Legislature’s investigation began after a local blogger, who had been a political rival of Ms. Palin, linked Mr. Monegan’s firing to, among other reasons, his refusal to dismiss Trooper Wooten. Initially the governor said through a spokeswoman that the dismissal had nothing to do with a “personality conflict.” Since then, her explanations have evolved, from saying that he was lagging on filling trooper vacancies and tackling alcohol-abuse problems in rural Alaska to showing an “intolerable pattern of insubordination” and a “rogue mentality” by resisting her authority and spending reforms, sometimes publicly.

Mr. Monegan’s successor, Mr. Kopp, said that when the trooper came up in his pre-employment conversations with Palin aides, “it was raised within the context of one of the things that I needed to be aware of, but there was no direction to take any job action.”

During his first week on the job, Mr. Kopp received a call from Mr. Nizich. Trooper Wooten, in uniform, had shown up at the governor’s picnic, which is open to the public. “Is there anything you can do?” Mr. Nizich asked, explaining that the Palins were concerned about his presence.

The trooper was told to leave the area.

About a week later, Mr. Kopp resigned amid scrutiny of a 2005 sexual harassment complaint.

Mr. Wooten, who declined to be interviewed for this article, remains on the force as a patrol trooper.

Seven Palin aides to testify in "Palin's Abuse of Power Probe"

2008-10-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

Seven Palin aides to testify in probe
There is no indication that Palin, husband will agree to interview

By Matt Apuzzo | The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE - Seven aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have reversed course and agreed to testify in an investigation into whether the Republican vice presidential nominee abused her powers by firing a commissioner who refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law.

There is no indication, however, that Palin or her husband will now agree to testify in the legislative inquiry, which has dogged her for the past several months and could hurt John McCain in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Palin, a first-term governor, is the focus of a legislative investigation into her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan a year after she, her husband and key advisers began questioning him about getting rid of a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce with her sister.

Monegan says he was dismissed because he wouldn't fire the governor's former brother-in-law, but Palin contends he was dismissed for insubordination. McCain operatives called Monegan a "rogue" who repeatedly tried to work outside normal channels for requesting money.

Lawmakers subpoenaed seven state employees to testify in the inquiry but they challenged those subpoenas. After a judge rejected that challenge last week, the employees decided to testify, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said.

Democratic state Sen. Hollis French, who is managing the investigation, said that, following the court ruling, he again asked Palin and her husband, Todd, whether they planned to testify.

"We've had no response," French said Sunday.

Palin says the legislative inquiry has become too political and she believes that only the state's personnel board should investigate the firing. Todd Palin has agreed to speak with investigators for that panel but not for the legislative inquiry.

The governor has the authority to fire the members of the personnel board.

Alaska's Supreme Court, meanwhile, is considering whether to block the findings of the legislative inquiry. The high court scheduled arguments for Wednesday over whether the case is being manipulated to hurt Palin before Election Day on Nov. 4.

The decision by the state employees to testify will not affect that appeal, said Kevin Clarkson, a lawyer for five Republican lawmakers who brought that challenge.

Palinbots run amuck in the court system

2008-10-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

Judge Peter A. Michalski put to rest those questions that have been repeatedly and erroneously raised by paid mouthpieces of the McCain Campaign to challenge the legitimacy of the investigation. (Below are excerpts from the court decision.)

Question 1: Can the Legislature engage in the "Troopergate Investigation?"

Excerpt from court decision: "...Monegan, as Commissioner of Public Safety, is subject to confirmation by the Alaska Legislature. Alaska Constitution Article III, Section 25. It is legitimately within the scope of the legislature's investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the termination (of) a public officer the legislature has previously confirmed."

Question 2: Did the Legislative Council have the authority to investigate?

Excerpt from the court decision: "...under the Malone rationale, the court can only evaluate whether the Legislative Council is complying with the Alaska Constitution. The Constitution authorizes the "legislative council" to "perform duties and employ personnel as provided by the legislature." Alaska Constitution Article II Section 11. It is clear that the constitution intended the Legislative Council be governed internally by legislature. Under Malone, this is a matter for the legislative branch, not the judicial branch."

Question 3: Are the subjects of the subpoenas outside the jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Committee?

Excerpt from the court decision: "AS 24.25.010 gives the legislature and the Senate Judiciary Committee's subpoena power. Because the investigation is a proper subject for the legislature, any allegation that the Senate Judiciary Committee has stepped outside its boundaries is, under Malone, an issue for the legislative branch, not the judicial branch."

The court has made it very clear that this has always been a constitutionally lawful investigation.

Letter to Palin from Alaskans for Truth

In light of this, the people of Alaska have the right to expect their government to act lawfully in response. As you requested, Governor Palin, we will once again "hold you accountable."
1) Governor Palin, you should immediately provide a deposition for Investigator Branchflower, as you originally promised Alaskans.
2) Governor Palin, you should immediately order those 12 individuals who defied their subpoenas to contact Investigator Branchflower and set up their own depositions.
3) Ask for AG Talis Colberg's immediate resignation for his unethical and potentially unlawful response to this investigation.
4) Tell McCain Campaign's East Coast attorney, Ed O'Callaghan "Thanks, but no thanks," and send him back to New York. As this court decision destroyed all of his talking points, he has nothing left to discuss.

We look forward to your response.

Judge hands down ruling in Troopergate lawsuit

2008-10-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Judge Peter Michalski said, the Steve Branchflower investigation does not violate due process. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say they may appeal the decision.
Critics of the investigation tried very hard to throw the defense off-guard. On Wednesday, six republican lawmakers filed a request for a temporary restraining order against the investigation, and late afternoon Wednesday, another last-minute challenge questioning whether Peter Maassen should be allowed to represent Sen. Lyda Green. But in the end, their attempts failed.

For about two hours, Michalski listened to arguments aimed at quashing the seven subpoenas, as well as stopping the investigation altogether.

"Sen. French's response was not to move the investigation after the election to remove all the political aspects of it but to move it earlier, keeping it in October so he could have his October surprise," said Kevin Clarkson, the plaintiffs' attorney.

The defense argued that the investigation is a vital part of constitutional checks and balances.

"If the legislature doesn't have the ability to oversee the actions of the executive, then who does?" said defense attorney Maassen. "Is there anybody in this courtroom who wants to live in a state where the executive is accountable only to the executive? I would think, used to think, the answer to that would be a resounding 'no,' especially from the people like the legislators who are the plaintiffs here."

Rep. Carl Gatto joined the five Republican plaintiffs late Wednesday night.

"Temporary restraining order -- it's temporary," Gatto said. "We're not trying to squash anything. Let's just say it's more important for us to not make this political."

But the defense argues, the request is in itself political.

"There's a legislative investigation within the legitimate sphere of legislative activity, and for the court to even contemplate even shutting it down would be seismic for the balance of powers, the separation of powers doctrine in the state of Alaska. We ask that the motion for TRO be denied."

Ending the debate Judge Michalski adjourned for deliberation, "We'll take the matter under advisement. We'll be in recess."

Hours later, the judge ruled in favor of the defense.

Maassen says he's very pleased with the ruling.

"This is a good day for the constitution," he said.

The plaintiffs' attorneys, however, released a statement: "This decision is dangerous because it robs every Alaskan of the protection specifically provided by the Alaska constitution."

The conclusion of the legislative investigation is slated for October 10th.

A review of Palin's public statements

2008-10-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

A review of her public statements, signed and vetoed bills, and interviews with people in state government provide insight into Ms. Palin’s positions on other statewide issues:

HEALTH CARE Ms. Palin proposed eliminating a requirement that new medical facilities receive a “certificate of need” from the state before opening. She argued that the certificate program had the effect of driving health care costs up by not allowing more competition and potentially better health care in newer facilities.

In an op-ed piece in The Anchorage Daily News in February, Ms. Palin wrote that eliminating the certificate program, “with certain exceptions, will allow free-market competition and reduce onerous government regulation.” The bill, strongly opposed by hospitals, did not make it out of the Legislature.

TRADE Ms. Palin does not appear to have made any trade missions since taking office, and former state officials said the state’s trade staff had been reduced under her watch.

Alaska has also sharply reduced its role in the Northern Forum, an association of state and regional governments from countries including Canada, Russia, Japan and China that works on common issues in northern regions like economic development, flooding and global warming.

Under Governor Murkowski, Palin’s predecessor, the state sent senior administration officials to the forum’s meetings and contributed $60,000 to $100,000 to the forum each year, according to the forum’s executive director, Priscilla Wohl.

Under Palin, the state has reduced its spending to the base-level membership dues, $15,000, and the administration has not attended any forum meetings, including one last fall in Russia.

“Had she participated, in the last 18 months she would have met ambassadors, governors, heads of the European Union’s programs, of United Nations programs,” Ms. Wohl said.

EDUCATION In March, Ms. Palin approved a widely praised legislative effort that would increase education spending by about $200 million over five years, an increase made possible by revenue surpluses from the rising price of oil.

She largely took her education spending proposal from the recommendations of a special task force created by lawmakers to address an issue that had long divided the capital.

The final product increased money for rural schools but also nearly tripled the per-student allocation for students with intensive special needs, in districts like Anchorage, where enrollment has increased from students moving in from rural Alaska for services.

Palin’s son Trig, born in April, has Down syndrome. The special-needs population served by the increase in spending includes students with Down syndrome, said Carol Comeau, superintendent of the Anchorage School District.

Ms. Comeau was among several education experts who gave much of the credit for the increase in financing to the legislative task force but also praised Ms. Palin for approving the bill. She noted that Ms. Palin initially sought a larger per-student increase for the general student population than the Legislature approved.

Some people close to the legislation noted that if Palin had opposed the increases she would have risked alienating Democratic lawmakers whose support she needed for the pipeline legislation.

ENVIRONMENT Ms. Palin has taken positions that reflect her support for developing Alaska’s natural resources. Her views are largely in line with those of voters in her state, but not with environmentalists.

Like most other Alaskans, Ms. Palin supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while her running mate, Senator John McCain, is opposed. She has been ambiguous about whether she believes humans are causing climate change, while Mr. McCain has embraced science linking climate change to human activities.

In August, Ms. Palin sued the federal government for listing the polar bear as a threatened species, saying climate models that showed that the bears would be affected by melting Arctic ice are unreliable. (Documents later revealed that state biologists disagreed with members of the Palin administration.) The governor and other state lawmakers opposed the listing because it could limit drilling for oil off Alaska’s coast.

The most contentious environmental issue within Alaska recently has been the fight over the proposed Pebble Mine, one of the world’s largest discoveries of gold and copper. The proposed mine would be at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to one of the world’s largest runs of wild salmon.

In response to a candidate questionnaire two years ago, Ms. Palin told The Anchorage Daily News, “As part of a Bristol Bay fishing family, I would not support any development that would endanger the most sensitive and productive fishery in the world.”

This year, in August, a ballot initiative before state voters would have made it more difficult to open mines that could damage salmon streams. Ms. Palin came out against the measure just days before it was defeated.

Supporters of the measure believe the governor’s public opposition may have broken ethics laws prohibiting state officials from advocating for ballot initiatives. State ethics officials are reviewing the matter.

THE ELDERLY For many years, Alaska had a so-called longevity bonus, which paid up to $250 a month to elderly people who had lived in Alaska before statehood in 1959. The program was not based on financial need, however, and Mr. Murkowski ended it in 2003, when the state budget was tight.

Ms. Palin promised in her 2006 campaign to restore the bonus. In 2007, however, lawmakers rejected her proposal and instead passed a bill that helped low-income elderly Alaskans. Ms. Palin signed the bill, which pays up to $250 a month to qualifying people over 65.

BUDGET Even with the state enjoying a multibillion-dollar surplus because of high oil prices, Ms. Palin has vetoed about $500 million in capital spending projects requested by state lawmakers in two consecutive budgets. She also supported putting about $7 billion of surplus revenue into state savings over two years.

A chunk of that surplus, about $2 billion, came from the governor’s effort to increase taxes on the oil industry. Ms. Palin’s initial proposal would have brought in about $600 million more in oil taxes, but when lawmakers raised oil taxes higher, Ms. Palin continued to support the measure. That angered many conservative Republicans, as did the governor’s plan to use about $740 million of the surplus to give each Alaskan a $1,200 “rebate” to help pay for high energy costs.

Opponents of the oil tax increase, most of them conservative Republicans, say it ultimately may reduce exploration in the North Slope at a time when oil production is declining. Some also say the rebate money would have been better off saved or spent on long-term efforts to reduce energy costs.

“Throwing money at people is what politicians do when they don’t have a policy,” said Representative Mike Hawker, Republican of Anchorage.

SOCIAL ISSUES Ms. Palin has been open about her conservative views, which include opposition to same-sex marriage and the use of embryonic stem cells for research.

Even so, she has passed over chances as governor to take bold legislative stands on conservative social issues. She declined calls by abortion opponents this year to hold a special session to pass a measure requiring minors to get parental consent before having abortions. The governor chose instead to focus on passing the pipeline legislation. Mr. Hawker, the Republican lawmaker, said the decision reflected Ms. Palin’s political pragmatism.

“She did not take on the Democrats whose support she needed,” he said.

"Palin Truth Squad'

2008-09-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

by Rebecca Palsha
Monday, September 29, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- After disappearing off the radar for a few days, the so-called "Palin Truth Squad' was back in action Monday, claiming there is more proof the Legislature's investigation into the Walt Monegan firing is political.

The McCain-Palin campaign said this past weekend's anti-Palin protest downtown is proof that the investigation is political.

"If there was any doubt that politics is at the heart of the Legislative Council's inquiry into Walt Monegan's replacement, that doubt was dispelled by the Obama rally held Saturday," said Meghan Stapleton of the "Truth Squad."

Hundreds of people, mad at Palin and demanding answers from the filled the Park Strip Saturday, some sporting signs that irked the McCain-Palin campaign.

"This investigation is no longer the unbiased inquiry at arms length from politics that Alaskans were promised," Stapleton said. "This is political theater intended to score points for the campaign of Barack Obama."

Democratic state Sen. Bill Willowkowski disputes that.

"There is no partisanship in this investigation," he said. "I know they want to try to get you to believe that, but that is simply not the case."

The "Truth Squad" also took aim at Rep. Les Gara, who last week asked the state troopers to investigate witness tampering.

"Rep. Gara's actions stink of police-state tactics and should be condemned by any one who supports the Constitutional right of free speech," Stapleton said.

Gara replied: "Everyday they go after a new Democrat, but they never mention all of the Republicans who support the investigation. It's sad, it's a fake pitch. What they've done is they've engaged in personal attacks against Walt Monegan, Steve Branchflower, the list goes on.

"I guess today it's my turn."

In related news, two of the Troopergate lawsuits merged Monday. One was filed by five Republican lawmakers, the other by Attorney General Talis Colberg.

Both are an attempt to get rid of the Legislative investigation.

THE ARROGANCE of the Palin administration

2008-09-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

Palin's people
call Monegan 'rogue'
to cover her tracks

Former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, summarily sacked by an underling of Gov. Sarah Palin, has been the target of some of the most vicious personal attacks in recent memory. The administration, and its new master, the McCain-Palin campaign, has targeted him for lie after lie. They even have stooped to calling him a “rogue.”

Monegan was fired after Palin tried to force him to dump her former brother-in-law from the Alaska State Troopers. She at first denied any pressure was applied, but when a tape recording proved otherwise, she changed her story.

The governor at first said she would cooperate with a legislative investigation of Monegan’s firing, but now is dodging that probe. She instead has tapped a state board she controls to open an investigation of her actions. It should be completed sometime after the Nov. 4 election, if ever. Convenient.

Since that time, her administration and the McCain-Palin ticket that now speaks for the government of Alaska have accused Monegan of going behind the governor’s back to get federal earmarks, being insubordinate and making unauthorized trips to Washington, D.C.

Now, Monegan is surrendering e-mails that present quite a different picture. Not yet released, they may suggest any lack of communications may be the administration’s problem, not his.

Then comes this: This weekend, in the midst of the unending attacks on Monegan, a spokesman for Palin actually had the chutzpah to tell KTUU-Channel 2 that the former commissioner is acting inappropriately. That’s right. Inappropriately.

"The deal is you serve at the pleasure of the governor, and when the governor is no longer pleased, you leave and you're supposed to walk away quietly," Bill McAllister told Channel 2 in a phone interview.

Quietly? And put up with baseless personal attacks? In similar circumstances, you may not do so; neither would we, but Monegan is a gentleman, and he did — until the Palin administration, trying to cover its tracks, began a campaign of personal destruction against him. Now, he is forced to defend himself and the truth.

Add that to the now-famous toe-the-line demand this administration tries to impose and you begin to get quite a picture.

So much for open and transparent. So much for honest dealings. So much for decency.

What next?

Sarah Palin to be withdrawn as Republican VP nominee

2008-09-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

alt="Price for Sarah Palin to be withdrawn as Republican VP nominee/candidate at intrade.com"
title="Price for Sarah Palin to be withdrawn as Republican VP nominee/candidate at intrade.com" border="0">

Palin should step down - for our country

2008-09-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Kathleen Parker: Palin should step down - for our country
Article Launched: 09/26/2008 06:21:45 PM PDT

IF at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream - away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president - and possibly president - is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick - what a difference a financial crisis makes - and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn't know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan's president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she's had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin's narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain's running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood - a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn't make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

Read More

Hold Sarah Palin Accountable

2008-09-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

I can't help but to be saddened to see a American hero like Senator John McCain dragged through the mud for making a hasty political choice. This decision is the most telling to me. It showed that he is willing to gamble with America's future, without blinking. That does not show forethought and reason in his first decision made. I truly believe he would have won and brought many together with anyone else. He chose Palin and gained what? Senator Mccain needs Palin to withdraw

Palin's staff defy subpoenas for their testimony into her abuse of power case

2008-09-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Seven of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's top aides defied subpoenas for their testimony Friday into possible abuse of power by the governor.

Palin's Chief of Staff Mike Nizich and six other aides failed to appear at a legislative hearing into whether Palin abused her power when she fired her public safety commissioner this summer.

Alaska Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, D-Anchorage, waited 30 minutes Friday before reading a statement that the witnesses could be found in contempt when the full Legislature convenes in January.

Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg filed a lawsuit on behalf of the seven state workers Thursday challenging the subpoenas. He claims the committee has no jurisdiction to issue subpoenas in the investigation.

Colberg planned a news conference later Friday.

Palin fired Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner, in July. He claims he was fired for refusing to fire a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce with Palin's sister.

He claims he was pressured by Palin, her husband and members of her staff to fire the trooper.

Palin denies the charge, and says he was dismissed over budget disagreements.

The Legislative Council, in a unanimous bipartisan vote, ordered an investigation into Monegan's firing, and Palin agreed to cooperate — until she was named John McCain's running mate.

Since then, Palin — through the McCain campaign — has accused lawmakers of manipulating the probe to be potentially damaging ahead of the November election.

Why McCain just can't tell the truth.

2008-09-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

About a week after John McCain's campaign unveiled a vice-presidential nominee who incessantly boasted about her decision to turn down federal funding for a notoriously pointless bridge ("I told Congress 'thanks, but no thanks' on that Bridge to Nowhere"), the press corps began to notice that Sarah Palin had, in fact, vigorously championed the project until it was no longer tenable. Political fibs, even brazen ones such as this, are hardly unprecedented. What happened next, though, was somewhat unusual. Despite having its claim exposed in nearly every media outlet, the McCain campaign continued to assert it anyway, day after day, dozens of times in all. It was as if Bill Clinton had persisted in his claim that he did not have sexual relations with that woman even after the appearance of the semen-stained dress.

But what happened after that was even more unusual, and possibly without precedent: McCain's supporters simply suggested that the truth or falsity of their statements didn't matter. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign's factual claims: "We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it." Republican strategist John Feehery made the point even more bluntly, telling The Washington Post: "The more The New York Times and The Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there's a bigger truth out there, and the bigger truths are: She's new, she's popular in Alaska, and she is an insurgent." Then, he added, "As long as those are out there, these little facts don't really matter."

Here we have the distilled essence of the McCain campaign's ethos: Perception is reality. Facts don't matter. McCain has presented himself as the grizzled champion of timeworn values. But the defining trait of his candidacy turns out to be a postmodern disdain for truth. How could McCain--a man widely regarded, not so long ago, as one of the country's most honor-bound politicians, and therefore an unusually honest one--have descended to this ignominious low? Part of the answer is that McCain is simply doing what works--and there is good reason to believe that his campaign's strategy of persistent dishonesty will pay dividends come November 4. But part of the explanation for all this recent dishonesty may lie, oddly enough, in McCain's legendary sense of honor.

Probe turns to workers' compensation claim

2008-09-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

by Jason Moore
Monday, September 22, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan is looking into whether Palin influenced a workers' compensation claim from her former brother in-law.

Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten had his benefits denied three months after an injury forced him out of work. It became part of the probe after the adjuster who handled Wooten's case tipped off the Legislature's investigator.

Back in January of 2007, at a car accident scene, Wooten slipped and injured his back. He applied for and received workers' compensation.

But in April, the state ended the benefits.

"(They) said that he was not entitled to any further benefits at that time, because their doctor said he could go back to unrestricted work," said Wooten's attorney, Chancy Croft. "His doctor was still telling him, 'No, you can't.'"

The form announcing the denial of benefits was signed by Johanna Grasso of Harbor Adjustment Service, which handles the state workers' comp claims.

Grasso is also the person who testified to the Legislature's investigator, Stephen Branchflower, that she was told by the owner of the company that the governor or governor's office wanted Wooten's claim denied.

The governor's spokesman, Bill McAllister, said Wooten's workers' compensation file is confidential, but if it wasn't they could show how Grasso is not telling the truth.

"We can show you the whole chronology including documents with the name of this employee, former employee, of the firm who apparently gave some sort of a statement to Mr. Branchflower indicating that her recollection of events is false," McAllister said.

"The person is a governor, not the queen," Croft said. "She can't go around dispensing out workers' compensation."

Croft said he knows of no interference by the governor's office in Wooten's case.

"This was a pretty normal workers' compensation case," he said.

Wooten returned to light duty shortly after his benefits were denied, and full duty in December of last year.

Meanwhile, the state Personnel Board has also hired an investigator to look into the issue, after Palin filed a complaint against herself and said that was the proper body to do the investigation.

The board hired Anchorage attorney Tim Petumenos, and while fighting the Legislature's inquiry, the McCain-Palin campaign says the governor will cooperate only with the Personnel Board investigation.

Read and Hear More

Time for a GOP Panic?

2008-09-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

By Robert Stacy McCain
Published 9/22/2008 12:08:46 AM

What a difference a week can make. Seven days ago, Democrats were in a state of political panic after Sarah Palin's selection as running mate had helped push John McCain ahead in the polls. Now it may be the Republicans' turn.

Relentless media criticism of Palin seems to have succeeded, at least temporarily, in turning Palin from an asset to a debit for the GOP ticket. Barack Obama's campaign has unleashed a heavy wave of attack ads. Most of all, daily headlines about the financial crisis have shaken voters' confidence in the economic status quo, increasing the appeal of Obama's theme of "Change."

As with the previous panic among Democrats, last week's Republican panic was driven by slumping poll numbers. McCain had boomed to a 5-point lead over Obama in the Gallup daily tracking poll released Sept. 8, and maintained that edge for three consecutive days.

The Palin pick and the post-convention bounce so enhanced the Republican Party's image that by Sept. 12, Gallup was reporting that the GOP had narrowed the gap on the so-called "generic" congressional ballot question -- where Democrats had enjoyed a 15-point advantage earlier this year -- to a slender three-point margin.

Even as these polls prompted one reporter to note a "growing sense of doom among Democrats," however, the Republican momentum was slipping away. On Wednesday, Gallup reported Obama had moved slightly ahead, and by Saturday, Gallup had the Democrat ahead by 6 points, 50-44 percent.

Other polls reported different numbers, but the overall trend was clear -- McCain, who had led nearly every survey taken Sept. 5-11, trailed in nearly every poll taken thereafter, resulting in a net 5-point shift toward Obama in the Real Clear Politics average.

WHAT HAPPENED? The timing of the McCain slump (or Obama surge, as the case may be) makes it difficult to distinguish the causes.

It was on Sept. 10 that ABC began airing the first network exclusive interview with Palin, with Charlie Gibson professorially peering over his glasses playing "stump the governor" by asking her about the Bush doctrine. Afterwards, at least according to a Research 2000 poll commissioned by the liberal DailyKos site, Palin's approval numbers took a nosedive, going from 52% positive to 41% positive in the space of eight days, while her negatives ratings rose from 35% to 46%.

However, it was during the same time frame that the slow-brewing financial crisis hit the meltdown stage. The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was announced Sept. 6. Lehman Brothers stock began a death spiral Sept. 8. A week later came Black Monday, as stocks plummeted, Bank of America took over a collapsing Merrill Lynch, and the insurance giant AIG hit coffin corner.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign unleashed a series of fierce attacks, including a TV ad that debuted Sept. 14 featuring headlines accusing McCain of "lies" and "deception."

If nothing else, those headlines accurately captured the overwhelmingly negative coverage the Republican has endured in recent weeks. As during the primary campaign -- when, as a Media Research Center analysis found, the major networks provided Obama's "margin of victory" over Hillary Clinton -- the media are clearly in the Illinois Democrat's corner.

Despite all the woes afflicting the GOP ticket in recent days, however, it may be too soon for Republicans to hit the panic button.

Granted, the dire economic situation could be expected to hurt Republicans, not only because of the two-term Republican in the White House, but also because the GOP is closely identified with big business in the minds of voters.

Sunday papers-SEPTEMBER 21, 2008

2008-09-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

From David Hulen in Anchorage --

> Alaskans angered that Palin is off-limits (Los Angeles Times)

...The sudden intrusion of a political campaign into so many corners of state government -- not to mention Wasilla, where a dozen or more campaign researchers and lawyers have also begun overseeing the release of any information about Palin's years as mayor -- has touched a raw nerve. McCain staffers have even been assigned to answer calls for Palin's family members, who have been instructed not to talk.

> Lawmakers: Politics 'hijacked' Alaska (Juneau Empire)

"The state of Alaska and the Alaska Attorney General's Office don't need any help from a national campaign," said Sen. President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla...

"National politics have absolutely hijacked the state government, it's really disturbing to see from the governor," said Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau.

> Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar (New York Times)

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

McCain campaign lays heavy influence on state politics

2008-09-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

McCain-Palin campaign accused of co-opting Department of Law

And after the announcement, officials said Colberg hopped on a plane to Kansas for a vacation.

"It appears that the department is in complete disarray," said Sen. Bill Wielechowski. "It appears that the McCain campaign is co-opting our Department of Law and basically calling the shots and I think that's pretty clear from some of the actions we've seen over the past couple of days."

In a letter to Colberg Wednesday from Elton, Elton accuses Colberg of compromising the investigation.

"In four paragraphs, you've broken a deal that was accepted by your office and received by Mr.Branchflower after the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas," Elton writes. "Further your brand new position eviscerates weeks of comments on the record by several parties, including the governor."

Read More

By Corey Allen-Young, CBS 11 News Reporter
Article Last Updated: 09/19/2008 08:27:29 AM AKDT

With Governor Palin in the mix of the national presidential election, many want to know answers to issues right here in Alaska. But with reports of state inquiries being directed to the McCain political campaign, it seems the local media is getting the snub.
A team of McCain operatives has arrived in Anchorage where they have become the one source to answer questions about Alaska's governor and her administration. This was set up to for any media that was not permanently based here in Alaska.

The problem is locals aren't having any luck either. So how easy is it to get an answer or reply from key departments of our state and our governor?

In efforts to contact the office of the governor, the attorney general's office, and the department of administration, CBS reporters were given statements of no comment, e-mails referring to new spokespeople and no messages returned.

This is a noticeable contrast to the way the administration was run prior to Palin's VP nomination.

Now to get an answer about any state business, we are routinely referred to McCain campaign officials.

State lawmakers are beginning to express their own frustrations.

"We are seeing the executive branch of the state government wilt like old flowers when it comes to addressing what should be state business," said Representative Jay Ramras, a republican from Fairbanks.

"The McCain camp has come into the state and taken over essentially the state political system on this Troopergate investigation," said Representative Les Gara, a democrat from Anchorage.

Ramras and Gara both agree that any state business including the investigation of the governor should not be in the hands of outsiders.

"I am going to demand that john McCain stop obstructing justice in our state. Go do your campaign in the lower 48 that's fine but stop obstructing justice here," said Gara.

"The executive branch needs to reassert their propriety rights here and stand up for state rights and for the fact that the state of Alaska has business to conduct," said Ramras.

Many attempts have been made to contact state officials, but the only replies given were from the department of administration's commissioner Annette Kreitzer. However, Kreitzer would only refer inquiries to the governor's spokesperson Sharon Leighow.

Leighow has yet to have returned any phone calls.

Internal Investigation Turned This Up.......

2008-09-18T19:02:00.006-07:00

An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin's most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."

An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin's most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief Walt Monegan, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."
(ABC News Photo Illustration)Fighting back against allegations she may have fired her then-Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for refusing to go along with a personal vendetta, Palin on Monday argued in a legal filing that she fired Monegan because he had a "rogue mentality" and was bucking her administration's directives.

"The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.

The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin's legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.
Read More

Empty Room as Predicted- Who's on the subpoenas list?

2008-09-18T19:02:00.005-07:00

From Wesley Loy in Anchorage --

Here’s the status of subpoenas the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee authorized on Sept. 12 in the Troopergate investigation:

• Frank Bailey, state boards and commissions director, now on paid leave: Provided copy of sworn statement he gave to Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney to legislative investigator Steve Branchflower, satisfying his subpoena.

• Bailey’s cell phone records for calls between Feb. 1 and March 31: Phone company ACS has turned records over to Branchflower.

• John Bitney, Palin’s former legislative liaison, now aide to House Speaker John Harris: Questioned in Branchflower’s office, satisfying his subpoena.

• Murlene Wilkes, owner of Harbor Adjustment Service, an Anchorage business with a state contract to process workers’ compensation claims: Scheduled to give statement Friday to Branchflower.

• Todd Palin, the governor’s husband: Served with subpoena but hasn’t given statement and didn’t appear before the committee as ordered Friday to testify.

• Randy Ruaro, Palin’s deputy chief of staff: Served with subpoena but hasn’t given statement and didn’t appear before the committee as ordered Friday to testify.

• Ivy Frye, a Palin special assistant: Served with subpoena but hasn’t given statement and didn’t appear before the committee as ordered Friday to testify.

• Annette Kreitzer, state administration commissioner: Not yet served with subpoena.

• Dianne Kiesel, a state human resources manager: Not yet served with subpoena.

• Nicki Neal, state personnel and labor relations director: Not yet served with subpoena.

• Brad Thompson, state risk management director: Not yet served with subpoena.

• Mike Nizich, Palin’s chief of staff: Not yet served with subpoena.

• Kris Perry, director of the governor’s Anchorage office: Not yet served with subpoena.

• Janice Mason, Palin’s scheduler and executive secretary: Not yet served with subpoena.

French's letter on subpoenas

2008-09-18T19:02:00.004-07:00

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet this morning in Anchorage to talk Troopergate, but the gathering amounted to Sen. Hollis French reading a prepared statement, and distributing this letter he's sending to Sen. Lyda Green today.
None of the people who have been subpoened showed up. Check the French letter for details on each of the players. French said they’re pushing ahead with the investigation and that investigator Steve Branchflower plans to wrap up his report Oct. 10. -- meaning before the election.

Trooper probe turns political

2008-09-18T19:02:00.003-07:00

CNN's Randi Kaye delves deeper into a state probe involving Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her former brother-in-law.

The Power to Arrest

2008-09-18T19:02:00.002-07:00

The AG’s action will likely stoke the partisan fervor further. Almost certainly, this will wind up being handled by the judiciary, which will have to determine whether the AG can actually block the legislative subpoenas, and whether the probe has run off the rails. Since that is a political rather than legal question (unless I missed something in the state constitution), the judiciary will probably throw it all back to the Legislature.
The Legislative Council needs to meet to take back control of this issue from Hollis French and Kim Elton. Either they need to appoint less-partisan special masters from among their own ranks, or they need to end the probe altogether. They could also shift the probe to the State Personnel Board, as Palin’s team has suggested, although that has its own issues; it would have the executive branch investigating the head of the branch, and while they could do that with little problem, it may not satisfy concerns over the potential lack of independence of the probe.
These are the vital safeguards, the core democratic functions, which the Bush administration and now the McCain/Palin campaign are flagrantly subverting.

Anyone with doubts about the seriousness of this abuse of power investigation should just listen to the audio recording of Gov. Palin's top aide, Frank Bailey, calling the Police Commissioner's office and badgering them about firing Palin's ex-brother-in-law, repeatedly suggesting he was doing so on behalf of Palin. The sleaze and impropriety oozes off the audio. That was but one of dozens of similar communications made by close Palin associates, including her husband, prior to the time Palin fired the Police Commissioner. Palin quite implausibly denies that they did so at her behest, and has offered an endless series of shifting explanations for the firing. That's what the Legislature is trying to investigate by questioning her husband and top aides -- and that is what the Palins are now overtly impeding by breaking the law: i.e., refusing to comply with legislative subpoenas.
Wonder what would happen if the Legislative Council began asserting itself? Does the Alaska constitution give them the power to reconvene the legislature?

Section 2.9 - Special Sessions.

Special sessions may be called by the governor or by vote of two-thirds of the legislators. The vote may be conducted by the legislative council or as prescribed by law. At special sessions called by the governor, legislation shall be limited to subjects designated in his proclamation calling the session, to subjects presented by him, and the reconsideration of bills vetoed by him after adjournment of the last regular session. Special sessions are limited to thirty days.

Or what if they held a contempt vote anyway? And issued their own arrest warrants under their inherent authority to enforce their own subpoenas? A subpoena isn't a subpoena if there's no independent power to enforce it. It's inherent in the authority to issue them, which the Legislative Council has by law. Gosh, wouldn't that be interesting for the Alaska State Troopers? (h/t to bmaz at emptywheel's corner of Firedoglake for the tip on the statutes.)

Sure it would end up in court. But it will anyway, since the Palins are already testing a novel legal theory. So why not join them? Let's make it a he said/she said story. Make full use of the Republican-developed "some say" framing. "Some say" the governor and her coterie are absolutely immune from all legislative oversight.

And "some say" Todd Palin is a fugitive from justice.

Update from a local

2008-09-18T19:02:00.001-07:00

Andree McLeod Public Records Request

There is a very nice woman in Anchorage named Andree McLeod who for a number of years was a personal friend of Sarah Palin's (and has copies of email traffic which document their relationship). A year or so ago Andree decided that Sarah had politicized the Office of the Governor in exactly the same way that Randy Ruedrich, the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, had politicized the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission on which Sarah and Randy had served as patronage appointees during Frank the Bank Murkowski's tenure as governor. (Sarah outing Randy and then quitting the Commission is the event that gave Alaska's governor-girl the name recognition and clean-government bona fides that allowed her to beat Frank in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary election.)

To prove that, Andree filed a public records request under the Alaska Freedom of Information Act for a voluminous number of documents from the Office of the Governor, email, text messages, travel documents, etc.

In response to her public records request, in July the Office of the Governor gave Andree three or four thousand heavily redacted documents, plus a log describing 1,100 emails that the Office of the Governor was withholding from disclosure. Several weeks later when McCain selected Sarah as his running mate and the national press corps descended on Anchorage, Andree's document cache became a grab bag of low hanging fruit.

Two weeks ago I became involved because the Office of the Governor justified its redactions and its decision to withhold the 1,100 emails by invoking the "deliberative process executive privilege". For the non-lawyers, that's a legal privilege that allows the head of the executive branch of the government to protect documents from disclosure if they contain confidential advice that people who work in the executive branch have given regarding official executive branch business.

That's fair enough. But it turns out that Sarah's husband, Todd Palin - Alaska's "First Dude" - who is not a State employee and who has no role in the operation of State government - was given a copy of many of the redacted and withheld documents. It also turns out that for the past two years Sarah has been conducting official State business using her private yahoo.com email account.

Because of Todd Palin's presence on the distribution list and Sarah's use of her private email account, the Office of the Governor unintentionally (because Sarah doesn't understand how the day-to-day nuts-and-bolts process of governing is supposed to work) waived the deliberative process executive privilege. So on Andree McLeod's behalf, last Monday I filed an administrative appeal which demands that the Office of the Governor give Andree all of the documents that it has given to Todd Palin. (If you're interested in the legal rationale, the article about Todd and the emails that Mother Jones has posted its website - www.motherjones.com - has a link to a copy of the administrative appeal. Also, yesterday on www.juneauempire.com the Juneau Empire posted a pretty good article on the situation: Alan Suderman, "Palin Asked to Release Her Husband's Emails" (September 14, 2008).)

The evidence of Todd Palin's involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Office of the Governor that Andree McLeod uncovered is particularly timely because of Troopergate.

Troopergate

Troopergate is the local name for the scandal that the Judiciary Committee of the Alaska Senate, chaired by Hollis French, is investigating. The allegation is that Sarah fired Walt Monegan, her Commissioner of Public Safety, because, despite having been leaned on both hard and repeatedly by Todd and Sarah to do so, Walt refused to violate state civil service rules and fire Sarah's ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, from his job as an Alaska State Trooper.

Sarah first agreed to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee's investigation, saying that she had nothing to hide and that the charges were untrue. Then when she became McCain's running mate, she reversed course and started stone-walling (and told her people to stone-wall) in an obvious attempt to run the clock out between now and the November election.

Faced with that, on Friday the Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena thirteen individuals, the most prominent of whom is Todd Palin. So Andree McCLeod's documentation of the extent to which Sarah has allowed Todd to wander around inside the Office of the Governor may play a role in Troopergate.

On Sunday's Meet the Press Rudy Giuliani trashed Hollis by calling the Judiciary Committee's Troopergate investigation a partisan witch hunt, for which reason, insofar as Rudy said he was concerned, Sarah has every good reason not to cooperate with it. Tom Brokaw let that pass because his producers apparently hadn't done their homework.

The actual fact of the matter is that the Judiciary Committee issued its subpoenas on a 3 to 2 vote.

The two no votes were cast by Lesil McGuire (whose husband, Tom Anderson, is residing in a federal prison in Oregon for having accepted a bribe or two or three when he was a member of the Alaska House of Representatives) and Gene Therriault (an extremely good guy who is a Republican from North Pole, a Fairbanks suburb whose political culture is as conservative as Wasilla's).

Of the three yes votes, two were cast by Democrats: Hollis French and Bill Wielechowski. The third (and deciding) vote was cast by Charlie Huggins. Not only is Charlie a conservative Republican (when he cast his vote Charlie did so clad head to toe in a camouflage jump suit because he was heading out to go moose hunting), but he represents Wasilla in the Alaska Senate. So if Republican Charlie Huggins had voted the other way the investigation would have shut down and Sarah (and Todd) would have been home free of Troopergate at least through the election.

Sarah and Her Earmarks

The world would be a much improved place if, while inventing an Aids vaccine, the scientists who are trying to do so also would invent a Pinocchio serum. If they would, the brag Sarah keeps repeating that she said "No thanks" when Congress tried to give Alaska the "Bridge [in the singular] to Nowhere" would have been outed instantaneously - using no tool other than a tape measure - as the prevaricative nonsense that it is.

I mention that because during his interview with Sarah on ABC's 20-20, Charles Gibson called Sarah out for hiring a Washington, D.C., lobbyist when she was mayor of Wasilla in order to get as many earmarks stuffed into as many appropriations bills as her lobbyist's influence-pedaling could pedal.

Sarah responded to the charge by cheerfully admitting that on her watch the City of Wasilla had indeed hired a Washington, D.C., lobbyist. But, with an absolutely straight face, she then had the chutzpah to tell Gibson that if the city had not done so it would have had to have spent the same amount of money anyway flying city officials to and from Capitol Hill to do their own lobbying.

As Tom Brokaw did Rudy Giuliani, Charles Gibson let her get away with that.

The fact that Mayor Palin hired a Washington, D.C., lobbyist to obtain earmarks has been widely reported. But the identity of the lobbyist has been reported considerably less widely. The lobbyist was an attorney named Steve Silver who has been a friend of mine for thirty years. Steve began life on the Hill working for Ted Stevens and rose inside the Stevens organization to be chief of staff. Sarah hired Steve when Ted Stevens became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

To the best of my knowledge, not one of the earmarks Steve got Ted to give Sarah was a project in the President's budget. Instead, Lisa Sutherland, Ted's bag-girl inside the Appropriations Committee for Alaska projects, simply stuffed items off the City of Wasilla's wish list into this or that appropriations bill.

From the Alaska point of view, there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's how we all did business during the Ted Stevens Raj at the Appropriations Committee. But listening to Sarah's newly-invented doe-eyed sanctimony about earmarks - and watching Charles Gibson let her get away with it - was excruciating.

Before leaving earmarks, it's worth relating that the winter of 2001-2002 I flew from Anchorage into Washington National sitting next to a wonderful woman named Judy Patrick. When I chatted her up, Judy turned out to be a member of the Wasilla City Council who was flying east to be chaperoned into the Appropriations Committee by her lobbyist - Steve Silver - to pitch Ted Stevens aka Lisa Sutherland to fund the projects on the City of Wasilla's earmark list. (If you're curious, go to www.nytimes.com, scroll down to "Politics", then click on the article "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes." What will pop up is a photograph of Mayor Palin and the Wasilla City Council. The blond woman dressed in black is Judy.)

Later that week I bumped into Judy and Steve at the Appropriations Committee when I was making my own rounds on the Hill. So contrary to the thoroughly ridiculous lie Sarah told Charles Gibson, hiring Steve did not reduce the City of Wasilla's travel budget.

In any case, that spring I stopped in at Sagaya's, the coffee joint and ersatz Whole Foods Market three blocks from my house where thirty different brands of olive oil and designer mustard are at all times on sale and on Saturday mornings those of us in the neighborhood who have graduate degrees and those of us who do not sit around reading the morning papers, being seen, and being cool.

When I walked in, there was Judy Patrick drinking coffee and reading a book. When I asked Judy what she was reading it turned out to be a book on how to run an election campaign. When I then asked her what she was going to run for, Judy said that one of her best girl friends, a woman named Sarah Palin, who was finishing up as mayor of Wasilla, was going to run for Lieutenant Governor. Before Sarah did so, Judy thought that she and Sarah should try to learn something about how to run a statewide election campaign. So she had checked out a book on the subject from the Library. Let history record that that was the first time the name Sarah Palin was uttered in my presence.)

Palin Ethics Reports

Since her ascendancy as McCain's running mate Sarah has been newly dressed to the nines. And as I sit here typing she's flying around in a private jet, and being put up by the McCain campaign in four star hotels. Since it's reasonable to assume that she's not paying for any of that, it's all a gift. If that's correct, then each of those gifts should be listed on the next ethics report that Alaska law requires governors and legislators to file periodically. That will be terrifically interesting reading. But I doubt that a report has to be filed prior to the election.

Read more at AlaskaDispatch where this piece originally appeared.

Get out of town....

2008-09-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

McCain-Palin campaign accused of co-opting department of law

Todd Palin refuses to testify
by The Associate Press
Thursday, September 18, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Todd Palin says he will not testify about abuse of power allegations against his wife, Gov. Sarah Palin.

Todd Palin no longer believes the Legislature's investigation is legitimate, said McCain-Palin spokesman Ed O'Callaghan.

Independent investigator Stephen Branchflower subpoenaed Palin, who was to appear Friday before Alaska lawmakers on the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

The Palins and the governor's staff are under investigation because some suspect Monegan was fired for refusing to dismiss an Alaska State Trooper who had gone through a bitter divorce with Sarah Palin's sister.

A key lawmaker also said Thursday that the stonewalling of witnesses is likely to stall the probe until after Election Day.

Sarah Palin welcomed the investigation at first, but she has opposed it since becoming the Republican candidate for vice president.

This is a breaking story.

Palin being a Bit too Clever

2008-09-17T18:42:00.002-07:00

John McCain has caught his share of flak for not knowing his way around e-mail. But as his running mate has been discovering over the past week, being a bit too clever with e-mail has its pitfalls as well. As Sarah Palin seeks to beat back charges that she improperly used her position as governor to urge the firing of her estranged brother-in-law, an Alaska state trooper, internal documents suggest that her staff may have hoped to channel sensitive correspondence through unofficial personal e-mail accounts to evade potential subpoenas.

Government may not need warrant to search your e-mail
Hack of Palin e-mail makes case for sticking with .gov account
Curing "sender's remorse" (and screw-ups) with self-destructing e-mail
"Troopergate," as the iron laws of American political scandal nomenclature dictated the fracas would be dubbed, began as a dispute worthy of Judge Judy: Palin's sister was embroiled in a nasty divorce and custody dispute with State Trooper Mike Wooten, and the newly elected governor made no secret of her displeasure that the ex-in-law was not yet an ex-lawman. The family tiff blossomed into a full-blown ethics investigation after Palin dismissed public safety commissioner Walt Monegan, who has claimed his refusal to fire Wooten led to his own termination.

Palin has indicated she won't cooperate with the investigation, which she regards as "tainted" by political motivations, but the McCain-Palin campaign yesterday released a batch of e-mails that her lawyers say demonstrate Monegan was fired for insubordination. But over the past week, press attention has focused on other e-mails that Palin appears more reticent about releasing. In response to a request filed by a conservative activist under Alaska's Public Records Act, Palin sought to invoke executive privilege in order to withhold some 1,100 e-mails (PDF), many of whose subject lines suggest little connection to sensitive policy deliberation.

Gov. Sarah Palin Moreover, Palin's appeal to executive privilege appears to be at odds with a strategy she discussed with aides in correspondence obtained by the Washington Post and New York Times: using unofficial e-mail accounts, like "gov.sarah@yahoo.com" and personal devices like BlackBerries to shield communications from subpoenas as official public records. As bloggers were quick to note, this was the same tactic adopted by White House aides worried that their correspondence could be disclosed to investigators probing the allegedly political firing of US attorneys.

Even before the US attorney scandal, the present administration had exhibited a spectacular gift for losing track of digital correspondence. Thanks to a purported upgrade implemented soon after the Clintons cleared out, the White House e-mail system was left without an effective means of archiving correspondence. Millions of e-mails vanished at least temporarily, and thousands may well be gone for good: A leaked memo suggested, at any rate, that there is little hope of completing the recovery before a new president is sworn in.

Whether the Yahoo-loophole exploited by Palin holds up would depend on how courts interpret the relevant Alaska statues, according to Meredith Fuchs, an attorney with the National Security Archive at George Washington University. "It is a basic tenet of legal ethics that records should not be destroyed if litigation is anticipated," Fuchs told Ars. "If one anticipates litigation, then the destruction of the evidence is called 'spoliation' and in some cases is subject to court sanctions."

That's not to say that alternation between official and unofficial channels is some nefarious Republican invention. One former Democratic congressional staffer with whom Ars spoke noted that colleagues would typically switch to personal mobile phones or e-mail accounts when discussing electoral campaign activities—a form of fuzzy half-compliance with the ban on using congressional office resources for partisan campaign purposes. (Perhaps that's why Palin staffer Ivy Frye waited until a Saturday evening to phone up blogger Sherry Whistine. Whistine, a conservative critic of Palin's, told Ars that Frye angrily demanded she—and perhaps others on what the blogger termed the "Poison Ivy call list"—stop attacking the governor.)

Even if all this proves technically permissible, however, it can't do much good for Palin's straight-shooting reformer image to have traded her official account for Yahoo as a means of avoiding transparency. As with so many political scandals, the cover-up may prove more damaging than the underlying controversy. But if a suit launched Tuesday by five GOP state legislators that aims to end or delay the Troopergate probe until after the election succeeds, Palin stands a good chance of shrugging off the fracas. And it seems even more unlikely that the Bush administration will face any real consequences for its record-keeping failures.

One nagging question, then, is whether these cases don't illustrate the double-edged nature of transparency and "sunshine" rules. Regulation of the intelligence community may make abuse of power less likely, but it makes it downright inconceivable a future generation of spymasters would pen the candid memos, openly admitting criminality, uncovered by the Church Commission in the 1970s. Faced with strong disclosure obligations, public officials may find ways to game the rules and simply avoid leaving trails—paper or pixelated—if there's the slightest doubt about the propriety of their communications. That's surely no reason to abandon the ideal of more open government, but is a reminder that the law of unintended consequences remains in effect. In some cases, at least, eternal sunshine yields the spotless drive.

Read More

Hacked Yahoo Email Account

2008-09-17T18:42:00.001-07:00

Did the internet just cause Sarah Palin to destroy state's evidence? The potential Veep is in a bit of trouble for conducting state business using her personal, unarchived email address (gov.sarah@yahoo.com) instead of her official account (which is, of course, subject to laws requiring the retention of government records). Emails from that Yahoo account are already being sought in connection with the Troopergate investigation. Palin email account: gov.palin@yahoo.com. It looks legit! The offending posts, screenshots, heretofore unseen family photos, and emails have all been deleted from Imageshack and 4Chan. But we have them. You want to read Sarah Palin's email?

Ok, sad thing first: a good Samaritan reset the password and tried to alert Sarah. But he also posted the new password, causing multiple people to try to log in at once, freezing the account for 24 hours. And now, the account has been deleted! Which is, as we said, maybe destruction of evidence? So for now this is, we think, all we'll get to see from this email account (if anyone finds evidence of saved emails, let us know.)

The full timeline of events, with corroborating evidence of the legitimacy of these screengrabs, is here. Here's why it all looks convincing:

The emails to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide who's mentioned in the earlier email stories specifically wondering how best to hide her correspondence with the governor.
The attached contact list (below) features an email address for husband Todd Palin that is legit. As well as an apparently genuine phone number for Bristol Palin and an address for Beth Leschper, Palin's deputy communications director.
The email from Amy McCorkell, a known associate of Palin's from Wasilla who might have the governor's personal email address.
Emails to and from Lt Governor Sean Parnell about a local radio talk host.
Calls to the phone number listed for Bristol Palin apparently go to her voicemail.
The public profile for the gov.palin address dates its last update to April of this year—well before she became McCain's running mate. So if it's a hoax, it's a hoax that began long before anyone outside of Alaska cared about Palin.
We haven't seen these family photos before. Have we?
The previously accessible public profiles for gov.sarah@yahoo and gov.palin@yahoo were both deleted at the same time.
Here are the screenshots of the emails saved before the account went dark, along with the contact list. It's newsworthy and we will not be taking it down!

Check out screenshots

Using the absurd to demonstrate the absurd tactics of Palin's Administration

2008-09-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hackers say they have gained access to U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's Yahoo account and published some of its contents on the Wikileaks Web site. That site seems to have been taken down. Gawker has many of the subject titles and content of Palin's yahoo email account gov.palin@yahoo.com.

I think the secret service had something to do with that and they requested all documents to be handed over. However, I heard on a local news source that AP refused......

On Wednesday, Wikileaks published several screen shots of Yahoo e-mail messages, e-mail addresses of Palin family members and associates, and other data that hackers claim to have obtained from Palin's private Yahoo account.

One e-mail message appears to be from Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, complaining to Palin about an interview by Alaska radio show host Dan Fagan. "Arghhh! He is so inconsistent and purposefully misleading," Palin apparently writes in response. The potential Veep is in a bit of trouble for conducting state business using her personal, unarchived email address (gov.sarah@yahoo.com) instead of her official account (which is, of course, subject to laws requiring the retention of government records). Emails from that Yahoo account are already being sought in connection with the Troopergate investigation.

Andrée McLeod, the activist who filed a FOIA request, said Wednesday evening that Palin should have known better than to conduct state business using an unsecured e-mail account.
"If this woman is so careless as to conduct state business on a private e-mail account that has been hacked into, what in the world is she going to do when she has access to information that is vital to our national security interests?" she asked.

Washington Post

Just for the record......

2008-09-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Governor Sarah Palin's appointed Attorney General sent a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the "Troopergate" investigation, and asked that the subpoenas that were issued last week to comple testimony be withdrawn.

Attorney General Talis Colberg also stated the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature votes to compel their testimony.

According to Colberg, the employees are caught between their respect for the Legislature and their loyalty to the governor, who initially agreed to cooperate with the inquiry but has increasingly opposed and has attempted to delay it since beoming John McCain's running mate.

"This is an untenable position for our clients because the governor has so strongly stated that the subpoenas issued by your committee are of questionable validity," Colberg wrote.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed 13 people. They include 10 employees of Palin's administration and three who are not: her husband, Todd Palin; John Bitney, Palin's former legislative liaison who now is chief of staff for Republican House Speaker John Harris; and Murlene Wilkes, a state contractor.

This is quite a change of tune for Colberg, who just a month ago came under questions for talking to potential witnesses ahead of special investigator Steve Branchflower.

Both Palin and Colberg stated at the time he was gathering evidence to hand over to Branchflower for the investigation.

However today, four weeks later, both Colberg and Palin are questioning the validity of the investigation.

Also on Tuesday, the McCain campaign rolled out what they're calling their "Truth Squad", which consists of former Palin spokesperson Meg Stapleton and a New York lawyer named Ed O'Callahan.

During there initial press conference they claimed that Democratic State Senator Hollis French, manipulated the witness list by leaving off the name of Palin's former Chief of Staff Mike Tibbles.

However they were wrong; Franch had nothing to do with leaving Tibbles name of the list. The move was made by Republican Representative Jay Ramras who felt that Tibbles should be left off because he is now in the private sector and doesn't have the advantage of a state lawyer to defend himself.

So on their first day, the McCain truth squad came up with a false accusation.

So just for the record, we'll share the actual truth with the Meg and Ed about this investigation so they'll know better next time:

Lawmakers seek outside inquiry of Monegan firing - KTUU-TV – July 18, 2008:

Some lawmakers are asking for more answers to the reasons Palin had for firing Monegan. Palin, in Wasilla for the Governor’s Picnic, said she would not fight such an effort to look into this matter by an independent investigator.

“We would never prohibit, or be less than enthusiastic about any kind of investigation. Let’s deal in the facts, and you do that via investigation,” Palin said.

Senate will look into Monegan firing - KTUU-TV – July 19, 2008:

While the governor said there is no need for an investigation from an outside investigator, she said she will answer any questions from lawmakers, media and the public.

Public Safety already headed in ‘new direction,’ some say - Anchorage Daily News - July 22, 2008:

The governor denies any wrongdoing, and says she welcomes any questions on the matter.

Palin under fire – Legislature appears poised to appoint investigator -Aftermath of Monegan Dismissal, Anchorage Daily News - July 22, 2008:

“I’ve said all along, hold me accountable,” Palin told reporters in Juneau. “And I’m telling the truth when I say there was never pressure put on Commissioner Monegan.”

Lawmakers move to investigate Monegan ouster, KTUU-TV – July 24, 2008:

The governor says she welcomes the investigation. “I have absolutely nothing to hide and am happy to answer any questions,” she said. “I’m happy to answer any questions between now and when they do conduct an investigation also.”

Gov. Palin said last weekend that she did not think an independent investigator was needed. “That being the route that they choose, then so be it,” she said. “I’m happy to comply, to cooperate. I have absolutely nothing to hide. No problem with an independent investigation.”

Hired help will probe Monegan dismissal - $100,000: Legislators vote to have independent investigator look into controversial firing - Anchorage Daily News –July 29, 2008:

“The governor has said all along that she will fully cooperate with an investigation and her staff will cooperate as well,” Leighow said.

Branchflower to investigate in Monegan firing - KTUU-TV – August 1, 2008:

“I’ve heard (Branchflower’s) name, or course, over the years in Alaska,” Palin said. “I know he’s a prosecutor, probably a heavy duty prosecutor, and so that kind of puzzles us why we are going down that road when we are very, very open to answering any questions anybody has of me or administrators.”

PRESS RELEASE: GOVERNOR TO TURN OVER FINDINGS - Office of the Governor – August 13, 2008:

Governor Palin has directed all her staff to cooperate fully with Branchflower.

Palin administration cooperating with investigator - KTUU-TV – August 15, 2008:

Lawmakers had wanted to know if Steve Branchflower needed them to issues subpoenas to require witnesses to talk to him about Gov. Sarah Palin’s decision to fire Monegan and about the actions of her staffers. But State Sen. Hollis French says the meeting was cancelled because there’s no need for subpoenas at this point.

Palin aide Frank Bailey placed on administrative leave - KTUU-TV – August 19, 2008:

“We figured, if there is an investigation going on with an unknown outcome – we don’t know exactly what (special investigator) Mr. Branchflower is going to conclude – that Mr. Bailey just needed to step away from the situation, although be available to the investigator,” [Palin spokesman] McAllister said. The governor’s office also says that Bailey will cooperate fully with the investigation.

Palin aide put on leave in firing flap, BAILEY: Official who made all inquiring about trooper taken “out of the mix.” - Anchorage Daily News – August 20, 2008:

Spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said that with Bailey still a state employee, Palin “can direct him to assist Mr. Branchflower, thereby fulfilling her pledge to Alaskans to cooperate fully with the investigation.”

Re: Governor Palin and Trooper Investigation - McCain Campaign Press Release – August 30, 2008:

Governor Palin is an open book on this – she did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. As a reformer and a leader on ethics reform, she has been happy to cooperate fully in the inquiry of this matter.

Attorney challenges Monegan firing inquiry – Anchorage Daily News – September 2, 2008:

He [Governor Palin’s Lawyer Mr. Van Flein] said the governor’s office welcomes the inquiry and will cooperate. Palin has made repeated public statements that she’ll cooperate, and that hasn’t changed at this point, Van Flein says.

Any questions?

Palin's attack dogs from McCain's Camp and the lies they tell

2008-09-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Like the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, Governor Sarah Palin has finally come up with yet another excuse for why she fired her former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan that she's hoping is just right.

After offering the public a handful of excuses over the last sixty days about why she suddenly fired Monegan, on Monday her attorney and McCain campaign attack dogs settled on claiming that Palin's reason was "Monegan's "rogue mentality."

Oh really, it took Palin sixty days and the help of John McCains campaign to come up with this bizarre explanation?

According to papers filed by Palin's lawyer, Monegan lost his job as public safety commissioner because he resisted Gov. Sarah Palin's budget policies and ultimately showed "outright insubordination."

According to both Palin's lawyer and a McCain campaign spokesman, it was Monegan's "rogue mentality" on budgeting and other policy issues that got him fired in July, not his alleged refusal to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a messy divorce with the governor's sister.

Ironically, this revelation was released just days after the legislative council heard compelling testimony from special investigator Steve Branchflower that raised such serious questions about the administrations role in trying to fire Palin's former brother in law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, the legislature issue subpoenas.

However, both Palin and her new attack surrogates from the McCain camp should have spent some time vetting both her and her staffs previous statements to the press over the last two months.

On July 14, 2008 Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News asked Palin press spokeperson Sharon Leighow about Monegan's firing:

Hopkins: "Was there a personality conflict here? You know, a rift between the governor and ..."

Leighow: "No, absolutely not. I don't know if there's more to add than what I've already told you as far as the governor wanting to change leadership in the public of safety. I don't know if we can point to one specific incident or one particular, specific detail."

In a July 21, 2008 story in the Anchorage Daily News, "The governor says she dismissed Monegan and replaced him with Kenai Police Chief Chuck Kopp last week because she wants a new direction for the department.

Palin has said she wants more of a focus on trooper recruitment and fighting drug and alcohol abuse in rural Alaska. The governor’s spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, said no more details are coming about the reasons for Monegan’s dismissal."

In a July 28 story in the Anchorage Daily News, Palin abruptly fired Monegan on July 11 and later explained she wanted to take the Department of Public Safety in a different, more energetic direction.

And yet according to McCain campaign spokesperson Megan Stapleton at today's press conference, she said that Monegan's "egregious rogue behavior" had become a major issue over the previous eight months and represented the reason for his termination?

But after two weeks and countless press interviews between July 14 and 28, neither Palin nor her staff uttered not one word of Monegan's rogue behavior.

Nor did they even mention the word rogue.

Is this really their final answer?

Then during an August 13, 2008 press conference, Palin reveals a recorded tape conversation where her close aide Frank Bailey is on tape trying to enlist the help of another State Trooper to help get Palin's ex brother in law fired.

In the recorded phone call, Bailey talks about Palin's feelings toward Monegan; “She (Palin) really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue she feels like it’s, she doesn’t know why there’s absolutely no action for a year … it’s very troubling to her and the family. I can definitely relay that.”

So according to Bailey, the governor "really" liked Monegan's performance, but just not his performance in responding to her wishes to see Wooten out of a job. This was on February 29...and then four months later Monegan is out of a job?

Also during that August 13, 2008 press conference Palin gave more reasons why she fired Monegan.

"And now I want to talk about Walt Monegan. I appointed Monegan as commissioner of public safety because of his grasp of both urban and rural law enforcement issues. Unfortunately as my term progressed, Commissioner Monegan was not making headway on key goals, such as filling numerous trooper vacancies. Alaskans deserve a fully staffed trooper force," Palin said.

Palin's comments however were in complete contradiction to her State of the State speech just months earlier when she told Alaskans, "In Public Safety and Corrections, after years of positions left vacant, we've doubled academy recruits."

Palin then defended her firing of Monegan by saying he wasn't doing enough to combat bootlegging and alcohol problems in rural Alaska. Then she turned around and contradicted herself by saying that Monegan was offered a job where his skills could be better used; in charge of fighting bootlegging and alcohol problems in rural Alaska.

So after firing Monegan for what today is she is calling "outright insubordination" she offered him another job?

Is anybody paying attention to this?

Also during the August 13 press conference she defended her firing of Monegan by saying he was asking for lawmakers for too much money. However records from the State Legislative Finance Division, show Governor Palin proposed a $7.3 million increase to the public safety department budget but the legislature reduced the amount to $6.4 million.

According to one House Finance Committee member, when the governor's original proposal was being cut by $900,000, she nor her staff said a word while Monegan was begging for the administration to fight for the original amount they requested due to skyrocketing fuel prices and increasing costs. He wasn't asking for more, he was simply asking for the original amount proposed by Palin.

In addition, the Associated Press reported today that the McCain campaign released a series of e-mails detailing the frustration several Palin administration officials experienced in dealing with Monegan. The "last straw," the campaign said, was a trip Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.

First, how is the McCain campaign able to release administration emails when the administration itself refuses to release emails that have been requested by both the press and the public?

Second, Monegan stated on the KTUU News that the trip was authorized and supported by Governor Palin which seems to make sense because Alaska leads the nation in sexual assault.

But even if one was to believe Palin's story, the fact that she'd offer someone who she accuses of having a "rogue mentality" and was guilty of "outright insubordination" another job in her administration, raises serious questions about her ability to run government.

And by the way, where have I heard that term rogue cop before?

Oh yeah; in the Anchorage Daily News on September 4, 2008: "Palin says she never pressured anybody, doesn't know that anyone on her staff did, and wasn't aware of what Todd was up to. She has called Wooten a dangerous "rogue trooper."

The only thing rogue around here is Palin's imagination and the McCain camps attempt to mislead Alaskans.

Read More

You Decide

2008-09-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Not a Democrat smear! This has been a pattern for Palin.

The Case For or Against Sarah Palin

2008-09-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

Some women have serious policy disagreements with Sarah Palin or think she might be unqualified to be a heart beat from the presidency. Sarah at best should resign for if only the appearence she might care to raise her 4months and 7 and 14 year old children. However, she will not resign or blink for her family, let alone the fact she has abuse of power and ethics charges against her.

Woman of America; Liberal or Conservative thinkers you are smarter than the woman who wants to be the Vice President of the United States of America That's my point
On the vice presidency:

"But as for that v.p. talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it, exactly, that the v.p. does every day?"

--July 31, 2008, CNBC's "Kudlow & Company"

On Iraq:

"I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice, and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place."

--March 21, 2007, Alaska Business Monthly

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [American soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

--June 8, 2008, Wasilla Assembly of God Church

On creationism:

"Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject--creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides."

--October 25, 2006, gubernatorial debate

On global warming:

"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."

--August 29, 2008, Newsmax

On energy:

"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that."

--June 8, 2008, Wasilla Assembly of God Church

On receiving $1.8 million in federal earmarks for the city of Wasilla:

"FYI This does not include our nearly one million Dollars from the Feds for our Airport Paving Project. We did well!!!"

--June 14, 1999, Wasilla City Council Informational Memorandum 99-62

On that "Bridge to Nowhere":

Question: "Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?"

Palin: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

--October 22, 2006, Anchorage Daily News

On library books she doesn't like:

"What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?"

--October 1996 conversation with librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, Anchorage Daily News

On the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party:

"Your party plays an important role in our state's politics ... keep up the good work, and God bless you."

--2008* video address to Independence Party's convention

On Ivana Trump:

"We want to see Ivana because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture."

--April 3, 1996, Anchorage Daily News

On running Wasilla:

"It's not rocket science. It's six million dollars and fifty-three employees. "

--October 1996, Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman

On being governor:

"I will unambiguously, steadfastly, and doggedly guard the interests of this great state, as a mother naturally guards her own. Like a Southeast Eagle and her eaglets, or, more appropriately here in the Carlson, like a Nanook defending her cub."

--December 4, 2006, inaugural address

On the prospect of becoming a candidate for vice president:

"It kind of cracks me up. It is so far out of the realm of possibility and reality."

--August 14, 2008, Financial Post

*In the magazine, the year of the address is listed as 2006. It is 2008.

Alaska state business done on the Yahoo mail server.

2008-09-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

IF THE QUESTION is whether personal e-mail accounts should be used for state business by Gov. Sarah Palin and her staff the answer is obvious.

And that answer is no. Such a practice does not ensure that public information will be saved and appears to be a neat way around Alaska’s public records law.

Her spokesman, Bill McAllister says, according to the Daily News’s front-page story by Lisa Demer this morning, that he does not hear any “public clamor for access to internal communications of the governor’s office.” Unfortuntely, who cares what he has heard or not heard?

Those communications, unless properly classified as protected by executive privilege, if sent on state equipment, on state time, by a state employee, belong not to the governor’s office or McAllister, but to the people of Alaska.

The idea of the law is to make as much information as possible available about government to average person, not to make such information unavailable.

Unfortunately, it appears this administration for some time has been trying to keep the public in the dark by mixing public and private e-mail accounts to cover its tracks, and there is no telling how long, or if, those messages are being saved. So much for any pretense of “clear and transparent.”

“And I don’t think the public expects us to inundate them, flood them, with all kinds of communications that they don’t need, when in fact, the final decisions will be public, will be documented, will be substantiated, and they always have been.”

Trust us, he seems to say, we’re from the government and we know what you need to see.”

Alaskans deserve better.

Read More

In a dangerous world

2008-09-14T01:53:00.000-07:00

It was bad enough that Sarah's performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.

What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, not on clarity of the conservative message but by denigrating experience, sound judgment and qualifications.

The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Sarah Palin without even knowing her record. You're so excited to follow her as she calls “the mission”, most of you don't know what the mission is. Sarah's abuses and unethical behavior made none of so-called conservatives blink, they won’t even pause for reflection, reason or prayer — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.

In a dangerous world, Americans need a presidential team who knows that real strength requires serious thought, preparation and proper decision making skills.

Sarah appoints Friends and Family

2008-09-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

This article is by Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell. [NYT]

WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”

Read More

Alaska Lawmakers Vote To Subpoena Todd Palin

2008-09-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Alaska lawmakers voted Friday to subpoena the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, in a move that transformed a messy state personnel issue into a national campaign controversy.

The lawmakers acted at the request of Stephen Branchflower, who is in the midst of an investigation into the governor's dismissal of the state's director of public safety.

Branchflower said he also wants to interview the governor, but omitted her from the 13-person list of subpoena targets he presented to the lawmakers overseeing his investigation.

Branchflower said Todd Palin is "such a central figure. ... I think one should be issued for him."

Thomas Van Flein, a private attorney hired to represent the governor, did not immediately return calls for comment.

Two Democrats and one Republican voted for the subpoenas, rejecting attempts by the other two Republicans on the panel to delay them until after the November election.

Sen. Charlie Huggins, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla, appeared in camouflage pants on a short break from moose hunting to cast his vote. He lamented the political maneuvering that he saw as trying to interfere with the investigation.

"I see all this duck-foot action under the water," Huggins said. "Let's just get the facts on the table.

The Legislature hired Branchflower to examine whether Palin ousted her public safety commissioner in July because he had refused to fire state trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten went through a messy divorce from Palin's sister, and the investigation essentially is looking at whether Palin used her power to try to settle a personal score.

One member of Palin's administration was caught on tape discussing personal information about Wooten, raising questions of how he knew those details.

The investigation -- known as "Troopergate" -- began before Palin was chosen as Sen. John McCain's running mate. Since then, Palin's supporters have argued that the investigation is politically motivated, and urged lawmakers to turn the matter over to the three-member State Personnel Board, which is appointed by the governor and charged with handling ethics complaints.

Palin has said she fired the commissioner, Walt Monegan, over disagreements about budget priorities. Monegan said he received repeated e-mails and phone calls from Palin, her husband and her staff expressing dismay over Wooten's continued employment.

Branchflower also asked for a subpoena for the phone records of one Palin administration official, Frank Bailey. Bailey was recorded calling an Alaska State Trooper lieutenant and discussing confidential information about Wooten, including his job application and worker's compensation claim. In a deposition taken by Palin's attorney, he testified that he never saw Wooten's file, but instead received the information from Todd Palin.

Someone tell Sarah...What exactly a VP does!

2008-09-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Fact Check

2008-09-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Upon her arrival yesterday in Fairbanks, Governor Sarah Palin greeted a crowd of 2,000 people with a short speech. We've gone through the remarks and offer up some checks on facts and reality.

Comment:

Palin said she took on politics as usual in Alaska, and made the claim that the "old oil monopoly, undue influence there that had control of our state, it's broken."

Facts:

The only thing Palin did was raise oil taxes to one of the highest marginal tax rates in the world. She didn't break any monopoly as the only way you could possibly do that is by revoking their leases and gutting the ownership terms of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Both of those actions would be illegal. She did nothing more than raise taxes.

Comment:

"And the ethical standards that had led to closed doors and closed door dealings, self-interest, it's gone."

Fact:

The ethics bill she passed had actually been proposed by Democrats in the legislature before she was even elected but didn't pass until the FBI raided several lawmakers office. Then and only then, did lawmakers who refused to take action under former governor Murkowski, agree to move the bill forward when Palin got elected and ethics had become too big of an issue to ignore.

In addition, her administration has hid behind a questionable claim of executive privilege and refused to release 78 pages of emails, totalling 1,100 communications even though many of these were copied to her husband who is not a member of the executive branch. And today, her administration has gone from telling Alaskans that they'd participate openly in the Monegan investigation to stalling and suddenly calling the investigation unconstitutional.

Comment:

Palin said people around the nation are saying "thank you, thank you Alaska," when they hear about the natural gas pipeline from the North Slope.

Fact:

The governor has completely over sold the pipeline plan she passed through the legislature. What the governor's gas pipeline plan does is grant $500 million to a Canadian firm to file paperwork without having the means to actually build the pipeline. Not only is there no guarantee it will be constructed by the Canadian firm, but their CEO has said repeatedly that they cannot order one piece of steel pipe until the major oil companies agree to pay the cost of the project.

Read More

It's not clear or transparent, is this a Constitutional showdown?

2008-09-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

Posted by Wesley Loy

Posted: September 11, 2008 - 11:55 am

From Wesley Loy in Anchorage –

Tomorrow morning we’ll see a big event in the ongoing Troopergate investigation and the growing clash between the governor’s office and the Legislature.

The House and Senate judiciary committees are meeting in Anchorage, and members might vote to issue subpoenas to compel members of Gov. Sarah Palin’s administration – but not the governor herself – to go for interviews with the Legislature’s investigator, Steve Branchflower.

But this week, the state Department of Law – representing Department of Administration employees – threatens in this seven-page letter to go to court to block the subpoenas, thus widening the conflict to all three branches of government.

The letter is signed by Michael Barnhill, senior assistant to Attorney General Talis Colberg, and is addressed to state Sen. Kim Elton, the Juneau Democrat who heads the legislative panel that initiated the Troopergate investigation.

Among its points:

• The governor is basically the boss over all executive branch employees, and she and her staff can legally look at confidential employee personnel files “in the course and scope of their official duties.”

A central question in the Troopergate case, of course, is whether the governor or her staff improperly perused personnel and other files of state Trooper Mike Wooten, who was involved in a rough divorce from Palin’s sister.

“At this point, the Department of Law knows of no evidence that suggests that any Department of Administration employees violated the State Personnel Act in handling Trooper Wooten’s personnel file,” the letter says.

• The letter accuses Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and “project director” for the Legislature’s Troopergate investigation, of making biased media remarks and suggesting state employees might even face criminal prosecution.

• The letter says that, even though legislators have said Branchflower’s investigation will wrap up by Oct. 10 rather than the end of October as originally planned, that’s still suspiciously close to the Nov. 4 election, in which Palin is standing for vice president.

The letter, which drops references to McCarthyism, “secret depositions” and “unchecked investigative enthusiasm,” ends on a note of questioning the legitimacy of the Legislature’s investigation.

“Bluntly and to the point, we think there is a legitimate concern that this investigation is no longer being conducted in a fair manner – and therefore is potentially violative of Alaska’s constitutional due process safeguards,” Barnhill’s letter says, adding:

“The eyes of the nation have now turned upon us.”

the real Constitutional issue

is whether voters in the United States have the right to be informed of a VP candidate's illegal activities and unethical actions -before they vote in November.

That's what this is all about -preventing the nation from seeing the real dirt on Palin and her two-bit staff conducted themselves on the Wooten affair.

I think it at the very least violates the spirit of the Right to Vote -when you use the court system to prevent full disclosure to the voting public.

America, Sarah Palin Is still under Investigation

2008-09-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

Questions for Palin

2008-09-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

This week, she'll finally emerge from her protective shell

Published: September 8th, 2008 10:04 PM
Last Modified: September 8th, 2008 11:37 AM

There's no polite way to say it: Sarah Palin has been hiding out from hard questions. It took 10 days from when John McCain announced his pick until the McCain campaign agreed to schedule Palin an unscripted interview with a serious journalist.

ABC landed the big "get" with Palin. She'll talk to Charlie Gibson of "Good Morning America" later this week.

McCain's camp has handled their vice-presidential pick like some celebrity who will only deign to give an interview if conditions are favorable. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told Fox News Sunday, Palin would take questions "when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it."

Palin has accused Barack Obama of being a me-first celebrity candidate for president. At least he has been facing media questions for the past 18 months.

Here are some of the questions Palin should be answering, for Alaskans and the rest of the country:

• You present yourself as a Republican maverick who took on your own party's corrupt political establishment. In November's election, your party is running an indicted U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, who is awaiting trial on charges he accepted more than $250,000 of unreported gifts from the state's most powerful lobbyist. Will you vote for his opponent? Will you urge Alaskans to help you change Washington and vote him out of office? If not, why not?

• Sen. Ted Stevens' trial is still pending; he has declined to say whether he would accept a pardon from President Bush before Bush leaves office in January. Do Alaska voters deserve an answer to that question before they cast their vote for or against Stevens in November? What is your position on a president pardoning a public official before a jury has ruled on guilt or innocence?

• Alaska Congressman Don Young appears to have won his Republican primary, even though you endorsed his opponent. Will you vote for your fellow Republican Don Young, who has spent over $1 million on legal fees without telling his constituents what sort of legal trouble he is in?

• Why have you reneged on your earlier pledge to cooperate with the Alaska Legislature's investigation into Troopergate? Are you going to be accounable as you told the Alaskan people you would?

• In spring of 2004, the Daily News reported that you cited family considerations in deciding not to try for the U.S. Senate: "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?" What was different this time as you decided to run for vice president?

• As governor of Alaska, you have not pushed for laws or regulations that put your personal views on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism into public policy. As vice president, will you push to outlaw abortion, restrict same-sex marriage and require the teaching of creationism?

• If you were a fully qualified vice-presidential candidate from the get-go, why did you wait more than 10 days to face reporters?

• McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough "deference." How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?

• You have said victory is in sight in Iraq. In July 2007, when you visited Kuwait, you said, "I'm not going to judge the surge." In the March 2007 issue of Alaska Business Monthly, you were asked about the surge and quoted saying:

"I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. . . . While I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place."

Define "victory" in Iraq? What is the exit plan?

BOTTOM LINE: The nation deserves to hear Palin's unfiltered answers to serious questions. She wants to be your VP. It's not really what she is going to say that should really matter- It's what she has done and the incompetence behind it.

Alaskanomics

2008-09-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin's Alaskonomics
By Michael Kinsley

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and has never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.

Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said "No, thanks" to the famous "bridge to nowhere" (McCain's favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said "Yes, please" until the project became a symbol and political albatross.

Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 2 1/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.

Under the state constitution, the governor of Alaska has unusually strong powers to shape the state budget. At the Republican National Convention, Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget. That's how much this warrior for you (the people) against it (the government) could find in wasteful spending under her control.

One thing Barack Obama and McCain disagree on is an oil windfall–profits tax. McCain is against it, on the theory that it is a tax and therefore bad, and also that it would discourage domestic production. Obama is for it, on the theory that if oil companies can make a nice profit when oil sells for $50 per bbl., they can still make a nice profit when it sells for more than $100, even if the government takes a bit and spreads the money around to those who are hurting from higher oil prices.

Although Palin's words side with McCain in this dispute, her actions side with Obama. Her major legislative accomplishment has been to revamp Alaska's windfall-profits tax in order to increase the state's take. Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax. The state assumes that extracting oil from the tundra costs about $25 per bbl. and takes as much as 75% of the difference between that and the sale price.

Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They're more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Washington Post: Palin billed state for nights spent at her Wasilla home

2008-09-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post reports:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

Full Story Here.

Palin is a FRAUD, I tried to tell you.

2008-09-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

Awww, the pit bull hiding behind the big dogs of a party that she despised just two years ago. Sarah's handlers tout, she won't be barking unless the rest of the pack treats her nice? Yeah, she's all ready for the world stage on Day One. yelp yelp, wimper wimper

Notice to America: Talk is sooooo cheap - Actions speak louder than words

Wallace did not ask McCain about ethics investigation into "reformer" Palin

2008-09-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

Summary: On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace did not ask Sen. John McCain about the current ethics investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, despite McCain's statement that Palin is "a reformer" and highly ethical, his selection of her as his vice-presidential running mate "brings a spirit of reform and change that is vital now in our nation's capital."

On the August 31 broadcast of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace did not ask Sen. John McCain about the current ethics investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, despite McCain's statement that Palin is "a reformer" and that his selection of her as his vice-presidential running mate "brings a spirit of reform and change that is vital now in our nation's capital."

The New York Times reported on August 29 that Palin recently became the subject of an ethics investigation "into whether Ms. Palin had fired a top law enforcement official [Walter Monegan] in her administration because he had failed to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a divorce with Ms. Palin's sister." The Times reported that McCain's "campaign is portraying her [Palin] as a champion of ethics reform for taking on members of her own party whom she saw as beholden to special interests. But just a few weeks ago she became the subject of a state ethics investigation." According to the Times, "[t]he inquiry by the Legislature centers on what Mr. Monegan later described as pressure from members of Ms. Palin's administration and her husband, Todd, to fire Mr. [Mike] Wooten [Palin's former brother-in-law]. The governor herself also raised the subject of Mr. Wooten with him, Mr. Monegan has said." The Times reported that Palin "initially denied there had ever been pressure applied to Mr. Monegan," but later "disclosed [that] there had been more than two dozen inquiries from members of her staff to the public safety department about" Wooten. From the Times:

As part of her efforts to demonstrate that she welcomed the Legislature's inquiry, Ms. Palin asked the state's attorney general to look into the accusations as well. Ms. Palin initially denied there had ever been pressure applied to Mr. Monegan.

This month, however, she released an audio recording of a top aide's questioning of a police lieutenant about why no action had been taken against Mr. Wooten. Ms. Palin also disclosed there had been more than two dozen inquiries from members of her staff to the public safety department about him, but she said she had played no role in the inquiries.

Excerpts of the audio recording released by the governor showed Frank Bailey, the state's director of boards and commissions, pushing Lt. Rodney Dial in February about Mr. Wooten.

"Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, 'Why on earth hasn't this, why is this guy still representing the department?' " Mr. Bailey said to the lieutenant.

Additionally, an August 31 Washington Post article reported that after Palin "took office in December 2006," she "appointed Monegan, who'd just retired as Anchorage police chief after five years, to be public safety commissioner, a cabinet position. In January 2007, Palin's husband, Todd, a commercial fisherman, oil company worker and champion snowmobile racer who was now first gentleman of Alaska, invited Monegan to the governor's office. Todd Palin asked Monegan to look into the Wooten matter. Monegan did and later told Todd there was nothing he could do because the matter was closed." According to the Post, Monegan claimed "that Palin called him a few days later on his cellphone, and that he told her the same thing. She brought it up again in February 2007 in the state capitol building and Monegan warned her to stay at arm's length. Monegan said Palin mostly backed off, but kept raising the matter indirectly through e-mails. In the fall of 2007, Monegan said he alerted her to a bad jury verdict against a trooper in rural Alaska, and she replied by mentioning Wooten, but not by name." The Post also reported that after repeated phone calls regarding Wooten from members of Palin's staff, "Monegan became more concerned and warned each caller about exposing the state to litigation from Wooten. ... Meanwhile, Todd Palin continued to collect evidence against his former brother-in-law and lobbied for his dismissal, records and interviews show." The Post reported that "State Sen. Hollis French (D) said that both Republicans and Democrats authorized the hiring of a former prosecutor to determine whether Palin 'used her public office to settle a private score' " and that "[t]he legislative report is due in October."

From the August 31 broadcast of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: Let's start with your choice of a running mate. Of all the people you could have chosen, of all the Republicans leaders you've known for years -- straight talk -- can you honestly say that Sarah Palin is the best person to put a heartbeat away from the presidency?

McCAIN: Oh, yeah. She's a partner and a soul mate. She -- she's a reformer. I don't particularly enjoy the label "maverick," but when somebody takes on the old bulls in her own party, runs against an incumbent governor of her own party, stands up against the oil and gas interests -- I mean, they really are so vital to the economy of her -- of the state of Alaska.

I mean, it's remarkable. It's a remarkable person, and I've watched her record and I've watched her for many, many years as she implemented ethics in lobbying reforms. And, I mean, she led on it. She didn't just vote for it. She led it. I've seen her take on her own party.

Look, one thing I know is that when you take on your own party in Washington, you pay a price for it. You do. You pay a price for it. And she's taken on the party in her own state. She take -- she took on a sitting governor and defeated him. And so I've -- I'm so pleased and proud because this is a person who will help me reform Washington and change the way they do business. And that's what Americans want.

WALLACE: But let me ask you --

McCAIN: Sure.

WALLACE: -- about the concerns that a lot of voters --

McCAIN: Sure.

WALLACE: -- who had never heard of Sarah Palin before yesterday are asking. Compared to, say, Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman, why is Governor Palin superior in dealing with national security and foreign policy?

McCAIN: Look, those people you talk about, Joe and Tom Ridge and Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, they're wonderful people, and I'm grateful for the opportunity that I've had to know them and work with them. But look, what this brings is a spirit of reform and change that is vital now in our nation's capital.

Eighty-four percent of the American people think the country's on the wrong track. In our party, we have corruption. We have former members of Congress residing in federal prison. So, it's not surprising to me that we've seen an incredible invigoration around our party and around the nation, not just Republicans, but Democrats. And by the way, in the last day and a half or whatever it's been, we have raised $4 million on the Internet. I wish I'd have taken her a month ago.

WALLACE: But you have said that the existential threat we face, the threat to --

McCAIN: Sure.

WALLACE: -- our existence, is Islamic terrorism. Foreign policy is job one for the commander in chief.

McCAIN: Sure.

WALLACE: You have criticized Obama as being, quote, "dangerously unprepared" to be president. In the sense of national security and foreign policy specifically, isn't Sarah Palin even more dangerously unprepared?

Evidence will show there are many such conversations of intimadation and cohersion by this governor and her administration. This was the only recording that Sarah wanted to release after doing an inappropreiate investigation on herself using her appointees as the investigators. Yeah, that's ethical, no abuse of power there.

Palin, is facing yet another ethics investigation

2008-09-06T00:30:00.000-07:00

The GOP candidate for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, is facing
yet another ethics investigation back in her home state of Alaska. An
ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the
police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible
wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of
state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the
center of the "Troopergate" scandal.

The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have
improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The
complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."

John Cyr, director of the union that filed the complaint, told NBC
News, "It seems obvious to us somebody has improperly accessed
[Wooten's] personnel file." Governor Palin is that somebody.

Palin is stonewalling the Investigation

2008-09-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

Palin's stall
Governor is stonewalling the Troopergate investigation

(09/05/08 00:11:45)
Gov. Sarah Palin is taking the wrong approach to Troopergate. She should be practicing the open and transparent, ethical and accountable government she promised when running for governor and boasts about now that she's on the national stage.

Instead, Gov. Palin has begun stonewalling the Legislature's attempt to get the bottom of allegations that she, her family or staff violated ethical or state personnel rules.

As a result, the Troopergate allegations hang over Palin's future and cloud her candidacy for vice president.

The allegations are that she, her family or administration improperly pressured then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire Gov. Palin's ex-brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten, who had been in the middle of a custody dispute with Palin's sister.

In July, when legislators started talking about conducting an investigation, Palin denied any wrongdoing and said she welcomed an investigation.

"Hold me accountable," she said.

The Legislature took her up on that offer. But this week, she basically told the Legislature, "Never mind."

Palin's lawyer has asked the Legislature to drop its investigation. He had the governor file an ethics complaint against herself, in a bid to turn the entire matter over to the state Personnel Board, which would hire an independent investigator.

This is not an open and transparent attempt to establish Gov. Palin's accountability. It is an attempt to drag out the investigation until after voters decide the fate of her vice-presidential bid.

Instead, Gov. Palin should honor her pledge to cooperate with the Legislature's investigation, conducted by former state prosecutor Steve Branchflower.

She could start by telling aide Frank Bailey he has to talk to the legislative investigator. She should fire him if he doesn't.

Bailey was caught on an audio recording of a phone conversation with a Public Safety Department official, in which Bailey pushed to get Wooten fired.

Bailey was put on paid leave, not fired. A spokeswoman for Palin said that while Bailey is on the state payroll, Palin can direct him to cooperate with the legislative investigation.

So why is Bailey still on the payroll, after he bailed on a scheduled interview with the legislative investigator Wednesday?

The Legislature hasn't given its investigator the power to subpoena, or compel, testimony of witnesses. Subpoenas appeared unnecessary, since it appeared the governor and administration would be cooperating.

That's over. It's time for the subpoenas.

The Legislature's investigation is supposed to be wrapped up by Oct. 31. That's obviously poor timing from the standpoint of the McCain-Palin presidential campaign, coming just a few days before the national election.

Instead of trying to delay the whole thing, Palin should take a cue from U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who asked that his corruption trial be moved up so it would be completed well ahead of the November general election. Voters deserve to know the outcome of Sen. Stevens trial and the investigation into Palin.

When this investigation into Troopergate started, Gov. Palin's response was refreshingly open. Since she became the Republican candidate for vice president, her approach has changed for the worse. America deserves the same openness and ethics from vice-presidential candidate Palin that she promised to Alaska voters in 2006.

BOTTOM LINE: Gov. Palin is stonewalling on Troopergate; the Legislature should issue subpoenas.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Threat'?

Palin's lawyer tries to play Secret Service card

Gov. Sarah Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, made an absurd threat in his battle to get the Legislature to back off its ethics investigation of the governor and her staff.

Van Flein said legislative investigator Steve Branchflower tried to call First Gentleman Todd Palin directly on "a secure and confidential line. This represents a serious security breach that we may be obligated to report to the Secret Service."

Hello? Branchflower is acting on behalf of the Legislature. That's a security breach?

Lawyers are supposed to vigorously represent their clients, but claiming that a legislative investigator's phone call may be a security matter worthy of Secret Service attention is ridiculous.

Gov. Palin should keep her legal attack dog on a shorter leash.

BOTTOM LINE: More obstruction from Palin in Troopergate.

Read More

Investigation into Palin Now on Fast Track

2008-09-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

Sources Tell ABC News that Report Will Be Released Almost Three Weeks Early
By LEN TEPPER
September 5, 2008

ABC News has exclusively learned that Alaska Senator Hollis French will announce today that he is moving up the release date of his investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired. The results of the investigation were originally scheduled for release Oct. 31 but will now come almost three weeks earlier, according to sources.

Alaska state senator Hollis French, who is running an investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31st.
(The Associated Press)The announcement is set for 9 a.m. AKDT time.

On Record, Palin Less Than Honest

2008-09-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

Palin's RNC Speech Bent the Truth on Her Record and on the Opposition
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Sept. 4, 2008—

In a rousing speech at last night's Republican National Convention, vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, touted her less then conservative record, attacked the opposition, and in some cases, created the facts.

"PALIN: "[Obama] is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word 'victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign."

FACT: On July 15, in a speech in Washington, D.C., Obama twice used the word "victory" in reference to Iraq.

"In fact," he said, "true success in Iraq -- victory in Iraq -- will not take place in a surrender ceremony where an enemy lays down their arms. ... I want Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future, and to reach the political accommodation necessary for long-term stability. That's victory. That's success. That's what's best for Iraq, that's what's best for America, and that's why I will end this war as president.

A week later in Berlin, Germany, on July 23, Obama used the word "victory" three times to describe Allied successes during World War II. And in a June speech about the prospect of universal health care, he said Sen. Hillary Clinton "will be central to that victory."

"PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform -- not even in the state senate."

FACT: The meaning of "major" is open to debate, but Obama worked with Republicans, including Sen. Richard Luger of Indiana, to pass legislation that would expand efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. While a state senator in Illinois, he sponsored two contentious bills, one that studied racial profiling by police and another that ordered interrogations in potential death penalty cases to be recorded.

"PALIN: "I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart."

FACT: That infrastructure project has not yet been approved by federal regulators. The proposed pipeline would ship natural gas from the Alaska's North Slope to homes and businesses across the United States. In June, the Alaskan legislature, with Palin's prodding, agreed to pay Canadian energy company TransCanada $500 million as an incentive to build the pipeline.

"PALIN: "And I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending: nearly half a billion dollars in vetoes. I suspended the state fuel tax and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

FACT: While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired Steven Silver, a former chief of staff for Sen. Ted Stevens, to lobby Congress for earmarks. Wasilla received around $27 million in federal money, about as much as Boise, Idaho. Boise has a population of 200,000 people, compared with Wasilla's 10,000. Earmarked funds went to sewage improvements and improving roads connecting the town to a local ski resort.

As for the Bridge to Nowhere, Palin initially supported using federal funds to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina Island, which has 50 residents and a small airport. It was not until the plan was ridiculed that she withdrew her support. Critics contend she still supports using federal money to build a 3.4 mile Road to Nowhere on the island for $26 million -- from the funds for the bridge.

"PALIN: While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay. I also drive myself to work.

FACT: Soon after entering office, Palin put the state-owned Westwind II jet that her predecessor Frank Murkowski purchased amid much criticism. When the deal fell through with the sole eBay bidder, the plane was sold offline.

Alaskan businessman Larry Reynolds paid $2.1 million for the jet after learning about it from Republican John L. Harris, speaker of the Alaskan House of Representatives.

Palin, as she said, drives herself to work. In July, her Chevy Suburban was rear-ended while driving from Wasilla to her office in downtown Anchorage. At this same time Palin dismissed her security/protection detail from service. Palin has been seen with newborn on the seat of her vehicle or in the arms of a passanger, not in a infant car seat.

BREAKING: Palin Business Shut Down by State

2008-09-05T01:17:00.000-07:00

The WaPo is now reporting that Sarah Palin and her husband were part owners of a business that was shut down by the state for noncompliance with state regulations:

State records show the business ran into trouble with Alaska's division of corporations business and professional licensing after Palin became governor of the state in 2006.

A Feb. 11, 2007 letter to the governor's business partner advises that the car wash had "not filed its biennial report and/or paid its biennial fees," which were more than a year overdue.

The warning letter was written on state letterhead, which carried Palin's name at the top, next to the state seal.

On April 3, 2007, the state went further and issued a "certificate of involuntary dissolution" because of the car wash's failure to file its report and pay state licensing fees.

How can this woman be trusted to run the U.S. government if she can't even run a carwash in Anchorage with plenty of help?

Palin- Better known than Britney Spears

2008-09-04T23:52:00.000-07:00

By TOM BRENNAN
Some of the pundits are predicting that Sarah Palin will be removed from the Republican ticket before the election, but they're wrong. Unless she commits some unimaginable gaffe, Palin is as inevitable as tomorrow morning.

Millions of people know and love her right now and kicking Sarah off the ticket would be like kicking them off. You couldn't do it without losing those people.

Men are attracted to her initially by her good looks and women by the fact that she is an accomplished woman.

Granted those are superficial impressions, but that's what many political decisions are based on. When we have a nation of Palinbots, as we seem to be getting, nobody will listen to the dissenters.

Palin's overnight success is almost impossible to believe, but she is now . . .

better known than Britney Spears.

Some are saying that Joe Biden will clean her clock when they debate on Oct. 2, especially in the area of foreign relations. But she will be thoroughly briefed by the McCain people and, if some of her answers seem simplistic, millions of Americans will think: "that's the way I would have answered him."

What I find surprising is how much her resume is being overhyped by both pundits and the national media.

For one, she gets credit for fighting corruption in Alaska, but the only "corruption" battle I'm aware of is that she got Randy Ruedrich fired from his state job for sending a relative handful of Republican Party e-mails from his office to his home. From home he distributed them to party members.

Ruedrich is chairman of the Alaska Republican Party and was a member, with Palin, of the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. I've known Randy since we worked together at ARCO years ago and he ain't no Boss Tweed.

And then there are her supposedly impeccable credentials as a conservative. Even conservative icon and columnist Ann Coulter talks in support of her. But conservatism as Palin practices it is what we call redneck socialism.

She jacked up taxes on the oil industry to a level certain to discourage investment, raising so much money the state didn't need it all. About $5 billion went into the bank and $1.2 billion went into a free money "energy rebate" to offset the high cost of gasoline and heating oil.

She is also trying to micromanage the private sector by giving $500 million to a Canadian company to do field research and engineering on a natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the U.S. Midwest. She is doing so — with the Legislature's concurrence — even though two major companies are already working on their own pipeline without a state subsidy.

Palin's designated choice, TransCanada, doesn't have the essential ingredient for a gas pipeline — gas. But BP and ConocoPhillips, the two owners of the private sector's Denali pipeline venture, own the leases that give them control over a substantial portion of the gas on the North Slope.

To be successful, TransCanada would actually have to convince BP and ConocoPhillips to commit their gas to TransCanada's line instead of their own.

Some of the Anchorage talk show hosts have been getting grief from listeners because they said Palin threw her daughter Bristol "under the bus" when she put out a press release about Bristol's pregnancy. But the radio guys are right.

The daughter's imminent childbirth would have gotten out — and was fairly well known already in Alaska — but the press release made the information public property and a hot topic of discussion everywhere. Even television's Dr. Phil weighed in on the subject yesterday.

Had the governor let nature and the media take their course, the information would have become widespread, but there would be strong motivation to treat it as a private family matter, an open secret, without the press release.

The only conceivable reason for the big announcement is that she (and the McCain people) wanted to squelch the rumor that Trig, the governor's son and a Down syndrome child, was actually Bristol's baby.

As it is, both Sarah and Bristol are getting credit, which they deserve, for not aborting either child. That is as strong a statement as could possibly be made in support of the party's pro-life, anti-abortion, base.

Palin's exposing her daughter's pregnancy in a high-profile way is a form of child abuse. But even there the positives of the situation will be lauded and the negatives mostly ignored.

Sarah recently asked an interviewer what the vice president does all day. Actually one of the veep's primary duties is, in case of national emergency, to fly to an undisclosed location.

I'm sure our girl could handle that just fine.

Everyone Knows Sarah

2008-09-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

A note to all by Anne Kilkenny

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.
Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a
first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the
residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular
girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because
she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents
for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby.
There was some sense of hesitation to inform the state she was even pregnant most of her first year as governor, however; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and ambitous. I've asked often who's taking care of the children? She regualy worksout at the local gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out
there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a
champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly
sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his
work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or
so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their
major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything
like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000
(at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about
670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had
given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6
years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage
the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said
she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a
multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece
of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was
still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers
involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the
community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it
would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that
could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus
in Alaska. Than increased the profit tax rate to 87%. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's
surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas
or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by
her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the
basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents
rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's
attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for
Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin
fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,
creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally
grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power
to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated”
her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top
cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure
and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that
an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't
fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to
replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded
for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew
her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in
help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council
became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t
like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything
publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit,
exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from
Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel
politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to
nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing
projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply
because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

She is solidly a liberal Republican: no political maverick, no small government gal. The State party leaders dislike her petty and vindictive style. They don't trust her judgement because she has bit them in the back. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal and social conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.
They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and
predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly
stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made
point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package
of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march
to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to
global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state
initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the
state (depending on who you listen to). Governors traditionally are obligated to have declined campaigning for citizen initiaitive.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a
heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true. Not un usual as an Alaskan.
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby
BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents. On the state level increase profit taxes on private industry 400%.
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history. On the state level she has added 1100 new government employees since 2007.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting
programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local
government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen
when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because
few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out
of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no
fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will
cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100
or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's
attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to
say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)
from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of
Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust
for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible
for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are
swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the
population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The
day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the
current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was
5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to
2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

The FRAUD called Sarah Palin

2008-09-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

AP reports:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform -- not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded. Sarah Palin in 1.5 years brought about the 3rd profits tax increase on private industry the highest in the world that totalled 400%.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

The AP report also showed how Palin's champions have exaggerated the Alaskan governor's 'acheivements':

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state -- by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington -- throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS about BIG Government Liberal
Sarah has grown government adding 1600 new government workers from 2007-08.
Alaska held the per-capita record for sucking on the federal teat in 2004, 2003,
2000, 2001, and 2000. According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Alaska gets back $1.84 for every dollar it pays into the U.S. Treasury—even though Alaska enjoys a higher per-capita income than 34 of the 50 states. This is a state that preaches right-wing libertarianism while it practices middle-class socialism.

Palin has not bucked this venerable tradition, she's made it vogue.

THE FACTS about the gas pipeline

There is NO gas pipeline presently being built as she stated. Sarah Palin has done everything she can to prevent neogotiations with the lease holders. Her inducement to a Canadian company was 500B to do a job they cannot do. BP and Conoco Phillips joined to form in FebuaryDenali Alaska Gas Pipeline

THE FACTS of LIFE

Who's Pro Life Sarah Palin did a backdoor deal with the Democrats in the House and Senate to help stall and blame others for a anti abortion and parental consent bills that did not pass. In return for their vote on her flawed AGIA legislation that just passed in August.

Welcome to Our Nightmare

2008-09-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

The conversation I like to imagine is the one that took place at aprox 10:00 a.m. last Thursday morning at a ranch in Arizona. Title: Who Wants to be Leader of the Free World? Senator McCain: So, Sarah. Tell me what you think about America's position in the world? Governor Palin: Well, I think it's so cool that we're like considered a powerhouse. I think we should try to keep it that way. Senator McCain: Good, good. I think so too. What did you think about the Surge? Governor Palin: Well, I'm glad they're evacuatin' New Orleans. DUH, that's what they should do, huh? That's a cool move for them to make. Gotta hand it to Bobby down there. He's a cool guy. Senator McCain: No, not the surge of waves from Gustav - I mean the Surge in Iraq? Governor Palin: Oh, THAT surge. Well, I haven't thought too much about the war over there except that my one and only son signed up for the military last September 11 . I thought that it would look really good for PR. I love to be able to say he will be deployed this September 11. So we better not be fightin' that war for oil. Hell, we got a lot of oil in Alaska, John. Senator McCain: But what do you think about the Surge? Did it work? Governor Palin: Oh, yeah. It was cool how it's been workin' over there. Senator McCain: What do you think about our dependance on foreign oil? Governor Palin: Well, we have a lot of oil in Alaska and we just need to be able to get it out and send it down to the United States because there's an oil shortage down there. You know, John, the United States is craving our oil and gas so we've been workin' on gettin' it to them, to the United States. (let the reader reference the Charlie Rose interview for context here). Senator McCain: Sarah, I hear you're under investigation, what's that all about? Governor Palin: Oh, that's just some of the Haters who hate me in the Legislature. You know, John, we mavericks can really cause havoc sometimes and the Haters just come after us with a vengeance. So, it's not anything at all. Heck, I even investigated myself with the help of my AG. Have you ever heard of that? But that's how open and honest and transparent I am - I investigated myself. So, no, it's nothin' but Haters who hate me because of what I stand for which is openness and honesty and also, you know, it's just what we reformers have to live with - a bunch of Haters and dumbasses. But it's the price we Reformers have to pay. Someone has to Reform America, John, and if it's not gonna be you and me, then who will do it? It's all about reform, John ie:abusing the power. Reformin' the system to make it open and honest and transparent. Senator McCain: So, there's nothing to the investigation? You didn't do anything wrong. Governor Palin: Yup, yup. Nope I didn't do anything wrong. Just workin' on reformin' ie:abusing my power in the State. Senator McCain: Is there anything else I should know about? Governor Palin: Umm. Well, one of my close relatives is in a bit of a situation, but we got it covered and it's all cool. We're working on it. You know, also, just tryin' to keep our eye on the ball of reform - you know, reformin' the systems of governmment to keep them, you know, reform oriented and you know, open and honest and transparent. It's all about reform, John. Senator McCain: Sarah, do you want to run on the ticket with me and be one heartbeat away from the most powerful position in history? Governor Palin: Yup, yup. You bet. Let's go reform ie:abuse America and also, you know, bring the reform ie:abuse that I started in my state when I cleaned the place up and sent all those rotten legislaTORS to prison. Yup, I'm your Reform Gal and we're the Reformin' The Nation ticket, you bet. (word to the reader: it was the FBI who has cleaned up Alaskan politics, but don't let the small details throw you).

McCain's Partner and Soulmate Was Not Vetted

2008-09-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

Questions surround Palin's background check
IN DEPTH? In Alaska, very few people were involved in the GOP vetting process.

By RICHARD MAUER, LISA DEMER and SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News

Published: September 2nd, 2008 12:51 AM
Last Modified: September 2nd, 2008 01:29 AM

Gov. Sarah Palin's reluctant announcement Monday that her unmarried, teenage daughter was within months of making her a grandmother at age 44 also turned a spotlight on Sen. John McCain, who would have Palin as his vice president.

McCain's presidential campaign spent the day trying to assure fellow Republicans and the nation that Palin's background was thoroughly vetted. The pregnancy of Bristol Palin, 17, came as no surprise to them, they said.

But in Alaska, it was hard to find anyone who had been contacted by McCain's campaign.

Thomas Van Flein, the Anchorage lawyer representing Palin and her office in the legislature's investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, said he spoke to several representatives from McCain before Palin's selection was announced Friday.

But Van Flein appears to be in a small minority in the vetting of Palin.

The former U.S. attorney for Alaska, Wev Shea, family friend, who enthusiastically recommended Palin back in March, said he was never contacted with any follow-up questions.

Chris Coleman, one of Palin's next-door neighbors, said no one representing McCain spoke to him about Palin. Another neighbor also was never contacted, he said Monday.

Republican Gail Phillips, a former speaker of the Alaska House, said Friday that she was shocked by McCain's selection of Palin and told her husband, Walt, "This can't be happening because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out." She said she would've heard had someone been poking around.

"We're not a very big state," Phillips said. "People I talk to would've heard something."

Monegan, fired by Palin in July, said that no one from the McCain campaign contacted him, either. His firing is now the subject of a special legislative investigation into whether Palin or members of her administration improperly interfered with the running of his department by pushing for dismissal of a state trooper involved in a divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.

Alaska Senate President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, told The New York Times, "They didn't speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn't speak to anyone in the business community."

Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Palin's background, the Times reported. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.

State Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the legislative investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. "I heard not a word, not a single contact," he told the Times.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Curt Menard told the Daily News, "I never got called, and I never heard of anybody who got called." Perhaps, he laughed, "They don't even know where the Mat-Su Borough is."

Dan Seamount, who served with Palin and Ruedrich on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, wasn't contacted, either.

"I was taken by surprise just like everybody else," Seamount told the Daily News.

Seamount's observations might be of particular interest since he saw first hand how Palin was drawn into investigating Ruedrich for ethics violations in 2003. The case eventually led to Ruedrich being fined $12,000 and to Palin being thrust into the limelight as an ethics reformer in her own party.

On Sunday, The Washington Post quoted McCain campaign manager Rick Davis as saying the FBI conducted a background check of Palin.

But Monday, the FBI told the Atlantic Monthly no such check took place.

"In general, we do not do vetting for political campaigns except as it might regard investigations needed for security clearances," the magazine's Web site quoted John Miller, the chief FBI spokesman. If the agency had conducted a security check of Palin, it wouldn't have shared it with the campaign, the magazine said.

To keep track of the Palin Veep Circus

2008-09-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

* She has a 4 month old child with special needs and not going to stay home to take care of it.
* She has a pregnant 17 year old daughter who is going to marry the father of the child. (as if that makes everything OK and acceptable!)
* The high ranking Conservative legislators in the State of Alaska are revealing Sarah's lack of credibility and competence.
* She's in the midst of an ethics and abuse of power investigation.
* Her position on the "bridge to nowhere" changed repeatedly despite what she announced in Dayton.
* She's just fine with abortionsto this day for 12 year olds to be able to have an abortion without their parents consent.

And it is early yet today.

Sarah Palin is a Liar

2008-09-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy
Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: September 1, 2008 - 8:49 am

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

A little background on the Bristol pregnancy. We asked the question throughout the weekend, and as recently as Saturday Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said he didn't know if it was true.
"I don't know. I have no evidence that Bristol's pregnant," he said.
Palin's campaign spokeswoman, as well as Palin aide Kris Perry, didn't respond to e-mails and phone messages asking about the rumor Saturday and Sunday.

Read More

The worst mother the world has ever seen

Oh Boy

2008-09-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

OK - the Palin baby speculation is inescapable at this point. The left-leaning Daily Kos posted an item Friday called "Palin faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?"

It's a version of a rumor - long simmering in Alaska -- that Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant and the governor somehow covered it up by pretending to have the baby (Trig) herself.

Here's a story we wrote soon after the birth. At that point, the questions were all about whether Palin should have flown back to Alaska to give birth. In the story, Palin's doctor talks about the labor and addresses questions raised at the time about Palin's decision to board a jet and fly to Alaska from Texas when she showed signs of early labor.

"The stage of her pregnancy was not apparent by observation," said an Alaska Airlines spokeswoman. The doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, said she induced labor once Palin was at the hospital.

What's the McCain campaign say? Nothing so far. They've been called and e-mailed for an on-the-record response, but haven't heard back.

What's Palin's in-state spokesman, Bill McAllister say?

That it's not true. "The answer to that is no," he said.

"But beyond that, I don't know, why should we even have to say anything," he said.

McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.

"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.

At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.

How does McAllister know it's not true?

Meantime, this is all a plotline straight out of a recent season of Desperate Housewives.

Picture from March 14

(The day of birth was April 18.)

Here is a picture from March 14:

The Same Picture is Available Here:

Sarah Palin does not look remotely pregnant.

Read What Alaskans are Saying

Sarah's Weaknesses and Threats

2008-08-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Weaknesses

Many of Palin's claims to fame that she has trumpeted over the last few years that we have already begun to hear parroted on the national media have been over blown and her lack of experience has already become target number one for Democrats.

These weaknesses will be exposed by Democrats, who, flush with cash this election cycle will have ample resources to do opposition research on Palin's real record.

A reformer? While Palin was out spoken against the likes of Randy Ruedrich, Greg Renkes and Frank Murkowksi, as were others, her role was more of a whistle blower than a reformer.

Ethics legislation that was passed in 2007 was two years overdue and supported by the same legislators who looked the other way during the events of the previous administration that pointed out th existing loopholes in the state's ethics laws.

It took the FBI raids in August of 2006 and the indictment of former lawmaker Tom Anderson months later to force lawmakers to finally close the loopholes they had ignored for years.

Cleaning up the Republican Party? Even after her much publicized battle with GOP party chairman Randy Ruedrich over ethics, she remained silent at the 2004 Republican State Convention while Ruedrich was re-nominated unanimously.

This past spring at the 2008 Republican State Convention, Palin in her speech to delegates pushed for replacing Ruedrich but her calls were unanswered. Palin supporters who wanted Ruedrich out simply couldn't attract enough Ron Paul supporters who seemed more concerned with revoking the Patriot Act and legalizing Marijuana.

Another weakness is Palin's habit of tailoring the facts of a situation to meet her political needs.

Yesterday in her Dayton acceptance speech, Palin stated, "...I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress -- I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves."

This was not true.

Not only did the state keep the money that was earmarked for the bridge to be used on other transportation projects, but Palin had been a strong supporter of the bridge during her gubernatorial run in 2006, claiming Alaska needed to seize upon the seniority of its congressional delegation.

According to the Ketchikan Daily News on August 8, 2006, 'People across the nation struggle with the idea of building a bridge because they’ve been under these misperceptions about the bridge and the purpose,' said Palin, who described the link as the Ketchikan area’s potential for expansion and growth.

Palin said Alaska’s congressional delegation worked hard to obtain funding for the bridge as part of a package deal and that she 'would not stand in the way of the progress toward that bridge.'”

And again on September 29, 2006, she told the Ketchikan Daily News, "Part of my agenda is making sure that Southeast is heard. That your projects are important. That we go to bat for Southeast when we’re up against federal influences that aren’t in the best interest of Southeast.'

She cited the widespread negative attention focused on the Gravina Island crossing project. 'We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative,' Palin said.

Yesterday, it took bloggers less than a few hours after her acceptance speech in Dayton to call her on the claim that she turned back the federal earmark for the bridge to nowhere.

Palin will need to learn that reporters are hanging on her every word and that the level of scrutiny from the press will be relentless.

The lack of domestic and foreign policy knowledge will become problematic if Palin doesn't become a fast learner. During her twenty months in office as governor she has introduced no major policy issues dealing with health care, education or public safety.

With Americans worried about mortgage payments, health care and the cost of energy, Palin will need to offer them more than just glittering generalities.

As a close observer of her administration, Palin has had a habit of holding press conferences surrounded by the crutch of her staff.

When questions get too detailed, she anxiously looks around the room for someone to save her. This won't be possible when she is standing on her own.

And foreign policy will be one of her biggest challenges, especially standing toe to toe against Sen. Joe Biden who is considered by many as an expert on foreign affairs. With geo-political events just one match away from becoming a raging bonfire, Palin needs to be able to articulate an understanding of the global conflicts and possible solutions.

Palin's lack of foreign policy is already becoming foder for late night comedians. Friday night Jay Leno poked at Palin's lack of foreign experience.

"Tonight on the show we have Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson who just got back from Beijing. You know what that means don't you? It means she has more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin," Leno joked.

But jokes aside, with McCain's age being a factor, the phrase being a heartbeat away from the presidency takes on new meaning. Palin will need to get up to speed on a tremendous amount of issues fast.

Threats

The most obvious threat is that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be the President of the United States. With John McCain at age 72, he would be the oldest President ever elected. This means the Vice President slot will be watched extremely close.

There are a number of other threats as well that Palin faces if she doesn't realize the rules have changed and the stakes are high. The scrutiny she is under will be unlike anything she has ever been through before.

During the gubernatorial campaign throughout Alaska, if a reporter showed up to cover an event, that was a coup. Today she won't be able to go to the grocery store without press following her and noting what she is buying.

Palin won't be able to say one thing one week and another thing another week. As soon as she does it will be a bit on The Daily Show with John Stewart.

Palin has had the comfort of being treated very respectfully by the Alaska media and some might argue with kid gloves. No more. She will have a pack of two dozen reporters following her every move and hanging on her every word. With the concern about her inexperience already coming into play, the press will be listening and waiting for any slip up to pounce on.

She has also exhibited a quick temper with those who question her. Time to grow a really, really thick skin. Every one of these reporters is looking for a better story than their colleague, which means nothing is off limits.

Finally, she needs to learn and learn fast. During the campaign in 2006 my biggest surprise was that Palin's message on issues never matured between January and November.

In April of 2006, Palin and I shared a cup of coffee together in the Captain Cook coffee shop. We had just been at a debate up at the University of Fairbanks the night before and she said although the was impressed with my ability to state policies and figures, when looking out over the audience, she wondered to herself if having a grasp of that really mattered.

In October of 2006, at a health care debate at UAA late in the campaign, while Tony Knowles and I waited backstage to go on, Palin sat in the corner with two of her aides trying to force feed her health care information. She ended up walking on stage with an arm load of health care reports.

The fact was that having a grasp of policies and figures didn't matter. Because at the end of the day, policies and figures didn't win the election; Palin won the election by being the candidate that people liked the most, not the candidate that knew the most.

The threat is that she will try and apply that same recipe to running on a nationwide platform and I don't think that will help her and will be highlighted by the press and in the media.

But the biggest unknown threat remains the ongoing investigation regarding the firing of former Public safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

The fact that McCain selected Palin even though this investigation has just begun, shows that either Palin has convinced them that this is much to do about nothing, or the McCain camp feels they can spin the outcome if it's bad.

According to Lisa Demer at the Anchorage Daily News, the McCain campaign says Palin “was never directly involved” and blamed the controversy on the campaign of the Democratic nominee, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

“The Governor did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. It’s outrageous that the Obama campaign is trying to attack her over a family issue. As a reformer and a leader on ethics reform, she has been happy to help out in the investigation of this matter, because she was never directly involved,” the campaign said in a statement.

However, for the first time on Friday, Monegan offered confirmation that he felt he was fired by Palin due to his refusal to fire her ex brother in law, State Trooper Mike Wooten.

“It was a significant factor if not the factor,” Monegan said.

In addition, Monegan confirmed publicly what we reported on this blog yesterday about the existence of emails he received directly from Palin regarding Wooten.

This of course contradicts Palin's claim that she was never directly involved.

"Monegan also disclosed for the first time Friday that Palin sent him two or three e-mails that referenced her ex-brother-in-law and his status with troopers but he wouldn’t provide them because of the ongoing investigation," reported the ADN's Demer.

The investigation will take even more turns as there are reports now that the Palin administration has ceased cooperating with special investigator Branchflower and some Palin staffers are talking about jumping ship before it starts to sink.

This remains a constant threat and one that will not go away anytime soon.

They say a week is a lifetime in politics; what happens the next nine weeks will make Alaskan history for a lifetime.

Read More

McCain on the road to skank- With shock jocks

2008-08-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Sarah has always made it a point to appear on this show, she has never appeared on legitimate conservative talk. The Bob & Mark Show on KWHL 106.5 FM -- The same duo who called the Senate President a bitch and cancer as Sarah Palin laughed and giggled at the comments.

Here are a few excerpts, but they're pretty incomplete. You can listen to the Bob & Mark interview here.

BOB & MARK SHOW:

BOB LESTER: Oh my god, you looked so great. I'm so happy for you. ... I got to be honest with you, I cried when my children were born, I cried like a baby this morning.

PALIN: Oh, I love you.

BOB: Wow. Wow. When did you know for sure you had it?

PALIN: Yesterday. Yesterday morning. I spoke with the Senator and he asked do you really want to do this. And I said if I can help, absolutely I want to do this.

LESTER: What kind of process did you have to go through in order for them to say you're the one?

PALIN: Well they had been doing homework for many months evidentally. And in this last week, they just started wrapping everything up. And they called me just a few days ago ...

...

LESTER: Gov. Sarah Palin who is now the vice presidential candidate of the United States of America. Oh my god, I can't believe I just said that it's so awesome. Are you going to still be acting governor while you campaign?

PALIN: Absolutely, It's a 67-day campaign, I will still be serving as governor in addition to campaigning across the country and this is going to be very, very good for Alaskans.

LESTER: it's already great for Alaska. How nice is it to have an Alaska politician on TV not getting arrested?

PALIN: That's right, let us change that image, that perception, ... it's all about reform* Bob. That's what we're going to be all about ...

NOTE: Then, before long, McCain gets on the phone. Seriously. He ignorantly stated, Sarah is a *reformer, she has *reformed Alaska and I can't wait till she has an opportunity to do for America what she has done for Alaska.

*"abuse of power"

Google.... Palin Investigated

2008-08-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Alaska investigating governor's office
CNN - 1 hour ago
Sarah Palin's office is being investigated over the firing of her brother-in-law. Republican John McCain introduced Palin in Dayton, Ohio, as his running ...

McCain Running Mate Palin Faces State Investigation (Update1)
Bloomberg - 1 hour ago
French said it ``remains to be seen'' whether the investigation embarrasses Palin. The important issue, he said, will be whether evidence emerges that ties ...

McCain's VP Pick Palin Facing Ethics Investigation
Washington Post, United States - 4 hours ago
Hollis French, a Democrat, told The Wall Street Journal that Palin could face impeachment. After French's comments, Palin ordered the investigation into ...

Palin Ethics Investigation
New York Times, United States - 4 hours ago
The investigation follows on the heels of Mrs. Palin’s abrupt decision in mid-July to dismiss Walt Monegan, her Public Safety Commissioner. ...

McCain’s VP Choice Is Under Ethics Investigation For Abuse Of ...
Think Progress, DC - 6 hours ago

Though Palin says she doesn’t “have anything to hide” and she “didn’t do anything wrong there,” an investigation has found to the contrary.....

Palin circles the wagons: Transparency a casualty

2008-08-29T00:51:00.000-07:00

Seems like just yesterday, Sarah Palin was on a passionate crusade for open and transparent government. Fighting the Randy Ruedrichs and the Greg Renkes of the world, demanding a government that allowed a clear view for all to see from the outside.

Today it appears time for Palin to write an obituary for that noble crusade.

In a shocking interview with Anchorage Daily News Reporter Lisa Demer on Thursday, Palin's Communication Director Bill McAllister defended the administration's abandonement of their "open and transparent government" promise by saying it didn't really apply to everything.

"Open and transparent government was something that came up during the campaign and was largely in reference to the stranded gas act versus the AGIA concept under Governor Palin."

One thing comes to mind after listening to McAllister rewrite history regarding the promises Palin made about open and transparent government; what the hell is Bill McAllister talking about?

But don't take my word for it; look at the facts.

First, go the State of Alaska website and search the terms "Open and transparent." No fewer than 5 pages appear with soundbites from Governor Palin about her commitment to open and transparent government while speaking about different initiatives.

Second, simply look at history. Time and time again, when Palin has invoked the words open and transparent, there is no mention of the stranded gas act or AGIA as McAllister claims.

In November of 2006 on her campaign website she promised voters, "Sarah will open the door wide to transparent and accountable government."

On November 1, 2007 after the indictment of Vic Kohring, Palin's press release stated, " Public trust and integrity are the foundation of good government. This reaffirms my commitment to conduct the people’s business in an open and transparent fashion.”

On March 28, 2006 in a press release regarding putting the state's checkbook online she said it was part of implementing her mandate for more open, transparent government.

In the interview with McAllister, the ADN's Demer ask him if the Palin administration was backing away from it's "guiding principle" of open and transparent government.

McAllister offered Demer another shocking response, "Open and transparent does not mean you lose all common sense and conduct everything out in the open."

The truth is this entire administration has begun to batten down the hatches due to the Branchflower investigation.

The recent opinion by Attorney General Talis Colberg that state employees have a right to privacy while using state issued communication equipment has set off a heated debate and one that will undoubtedly end up in court.

In addition, the governor's Department of Administration appears on the verge of enacting more stringent requirements for the public to ask for public records.

Oh my dear openness and transparency, what has happened to thee?

I'll tell what happened; Palin and her staff have been using their state issued Blackberrys and computers to conduct acts of personal retribution, and the attorney general is covering for them.

So why come out with this opinion now, especially in the middle of a scandal fueled by the revalations of secret communications?

According to one of my sources who tipped me off about the Bailey phone call days before it was publicly released as well as the Kopp payout days before it was publicly released; the governor is in deep snow.

Apparently there is credible evidence of Blackberry communications that Palin herself communicated with her staff and Monegan about firing Wooten.

This explains Colberg's over reaching opinion which has many government watchers shaking their collective heads.

One of our legal friends offered this brief analysis of Colberg's recent opinion:

The AG says that we the People need to trust our government to make decisions for us. It is doubtful that any employee ever has a constitutionally protected "expectation of privacy" when they are using their employer's communications equipment. That is black letter law for private employers, and the AG makes a huge leap in logic when he then says that the privacy clause of the Alaska Constitution turns that on its head.

This is not a situation where the government is proactively intruding into private citizens' private lives; instead, it is a situation where a person has chosen to be employed by the State and has voluntarily placed their personal information on a public system.

The argument that because the use is "insignificant" in no way means that it should be excepted from the public records act. That logic simply doesn't follow. It just means that if that indeed is the legal standard, and the use is "insignificant," then the employee doesn't get tagged with an ethics violation.

Here is but one ridiculous result from this new ad hoc "policy": the public is not allowed to see the documents by which the public could determine if the use of public resources is de minimus or insignificant. We must simply trust the government – in this case, the same people that may have violated the law -- to look at the communications in secret and out of the public view and make a determination.

The AG also applies tortured interpretation of the public records law to mean that it somehow excludes certain documents because they are not "public records" as defined by statute as "developed or received by a public agency."

Following this reasoning, political activity on state computers (or alleged political activity) would NOT BE A PUBLIC RECORD, and therefore could not be disclosed to the public.

In addition, as noted above, to the extent the privacy clause of the AK Constitution protects state employees expectations of privacy, it would likewise apply allegedly political activity. This cannot be right, and this example shows the fundamental flaw in logic of Sarah's AG office.

The People are entitled to see and judge for themselves if a state employee's communications are de minimus or insignificant just as they are entitled to view alleged political activity and judge for themselves.

A former State Labor Relations Director also offered his opinion:

This is a formal, written opinion of the Attorney General and as such is the law unless and until a Court decides otherwise. Significantly, it was written by Bockman, the Ethics Attorney. More significantly, it represents a fundamental departure from the State's official practice regarding private use of State electronic resources.

Back in the "good old days" the only issue was either excessive time on a State phone or running up long distance bills on one. Excessive time would get you disciplined, running up long distance would get you disciplined and made to pay for them and might get you fired. Life was simple.

The Knowles Administration was in a heated rush to wire the State and get everybody on email and the internet. There were some pretty good fights between the "free internet" types with the Administration, e.g., Com. Boyer, and the tight-assed bureaucrats, like me, who wanted some rules on usage. At first the free internet types had the upper hand, but life being life and employees being employees, a high level IT employee in Public Safety used a State computer to make a date with a fourteen year old, at least it was a girl, and got caught by the APD. The Administration decided they might need some rules after all and the IT policy was promulgated and each employee obligated to adhere to it.

The key to State policy regarding electronic resources, and any other State resources, e.g., your desk drawer, is that it is NOT your resource and you have NO expectation of privacy in its use. The State explicitly tolerates de minimis personal use, but the price of being able to get the grocery list from your spouse by email is that it becomes the State's email and if somebody wanted your grocery list, they get it under the PRA.

This Opinion is a dramatic departure from that, and it is an unnecessary and foolish one. The AG has now countenanced PRIVATE personal use of State resources, something that is unprecedented. The Opinion is right, but the policy is wrong, stupid, and will bite this or some other administration in the a**. It is a policy question as to whether State employees have an expectation of privacy in the use of State electronic resources. If they do have that expectation, then Alaska's quite stringent Constitutional privacy protections inhere to the employees. But the Constitution does not guarantee them that privacy, it only protects them where they have the expectation of privacy.

State employees have never before had the expectation of privacy in ANY act related to their job or for which there is even a nexus to their job. The State rather routinely fires employees for off duty conduct for which a job nexus can be demonstrated. Now the State has said that some of your actions on a cell phone, Blackberry, or State computer are private and cannot be used against you or discovered under the PRA.

I have had some spirited exchanges with AAG Bockman myself over the contours and limits of the Ethics Act. I'm willing to bet this ain't her idea! I know most of the Labor and State Affairs (or whatever they're calling it this week) attorneys and I know they know better than to confer an expectation of privacy on State employees. So, the question becomes, Who made the policy decision and why?

It is evident to anyone watching that almost everyone in this Administration with a range that starts with a 2 uses Blackberries like Ninth Grade girls use their cell phone. It is equally evident that some very dumb things have been said and done on those Blackberries. Now they want to countenance a notion of privacy so those dumb things don't get spread all over the front page of the ADN as the result of a Public Records Act request.

Here's hoping that there's another dumba** in the wings to make a date with a fourteen year old or some such so that the utter foolishness of this shortsighted opinion will become evident and the policy will be reversed.

There's been an ongoing controversy about whether or not even the allowed de minimis use of State cell phones, laptops, PDAs, internet services, etc. represents a form of compensation to employees and thus must be reported to the IRS as taxable compensation.

I'm pretty sure this settles it; now that it is legally sanctioned to make PRIVATE, not governmental, use of these devices, the State can spend a few thousand dollars worth of Fiscal Section time every month going through the bills, emails, and histories to determine what is personal, private use, determining its value, and adding it to each employee's taxable compensation.

Sometimes I'm still amazed at what supposedly intelligent people do.

Changes in regulations regarding public information requests

The Department of Administration has issued a notice to adopt regulation changes in Title 2 of the Alaska Administrative Code, dealing with the Alaska Public Records Act, to comprehensively refine, update and clarify the regulations, standardize terminology used; refine statutory authority citations and make other changes.

It appears very clear that the Palin administration is using the Attorney General's over reaching opinion to craft more restrictive rules on what the public can gain access to.

One has to wonder, what if Governor Murkowski attempted this brazen move while Palin was waving the red flag about Randy Ruedrich and Greg Renkes using state resources for personal business.

The news regarding the death of open government has not been greatly exaggerated.

Concerns about Possible Retribution for Speaking Out

2008-08-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

Due to the valid concerns about possible retribution for speaking out and the prospect that some may feel intimidated not to speak out at all, I'm publishing the content of the email here on my website so the governor can be advised accordingly without putting any of the guardsmen at risk of being identified.

Craig Campbell, the Commissioner of DMVA and the Adjutant General of Alaska made a policy that there would be no Alaska Air National Guard promotions to Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel or Chief Master Sergeant without his personal approval.

The intent is to "motivate" these senior leaders to recruit more new people into the ANG. This policy has frozen the advancement of some very deserving individuals who have already earned the right to be promoted. As the Adjutant General, he has the right to institute any plan he wishes. This edict was tolerated by our loyal Guardsmen until the hypocrisy became overwhelming.

Evidently, General Campbell is receiving an unprecedented and undeserved promotion to three-star rank on Sept 7. The Guardsmen found out about this travesty when a call went out for volunteers to fill the room for his ceremony. The response was almost non-existent.

Adjutants General of the 50 States are authorized Major General (two-star) rank and in all but rare circumstances are granted Federal Recognition as Major Generals. This means they are "real" Major Generals with all the respect that comes with such high rank.

General Campbell's promotion will be a "state" promotion. He will be a three-star general only while on State business. In a very rank-conscious environment, this distinction will not be lost on the other Flag Officers. He will look the part of a three-star general but will not be regarded as one by the very people he needs to work with and influence.

This promotion will only benefit General Campbell who will trumpet his new rank. It will not be help further the cause of the Alaska National Guard or its loyal and now outraged members.

No one can be promoted to the top ranks because of perceived leadership deficiencies but even with his obvious leadership flaws, he has no reluctance whatsoever to accept a cosmetic promotion.

I believe the Governor's office will receive substantial correspondence urging her to reconsider this insult to the men and women of the Alaska National Guard.

I also have no doubt most of that correspondence will be anonymous due to the genuine fear of retribution and retaliation if the Governor does the right thing and cancels this hypocrisy

This is open and transparent government?

2008-08-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

Open Government: The gospel according to Colberg
There are stories abound about the on going Branchflower investigation regarding Troopergate that seem to come right out of a Law & Order episode.

Branchflower showing up in offices, flanked by techies, ordering hands off of keyboards and searching hard drives of state employees computers for emails...or possibly missing emails.

Meanwhile Attorney General Talis Colberg issued the attached memo regarding personal use of state issued equipment such as Blackberry PDA's and computers along with an opinion regarding the liability of those communications being subject to public disclosure.

Pay close attention to pages 12 and 13 of the memo.

It appears that short of going to court and requesting an opinion from a judge, the state and it's current governor and her administration can define just about anything as a private conversation and be protected from public disclosure.

Is this really the true definition of open and transparent government? Actually, this is deceit and corruption by mere amateurs. Funny stuff if it weren't so serious.

See this Article in Print!
Download Article (PDF)

Sarah Palin being interviewed. Who's the "HATER" here?

2008-08-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple clips to prove that point....

Phone interview with Gov. Sarah Palin

And here's a handheld video from an interview in Halcro's Anchorage office.

Just for the Record- Sarah Palin is Deceitful

2008-08-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Non of this is about Trooper Wooten. This is about a person of low character in Sarah Palin getting into a place of power. Than using that power in a vindictive and deceitful way to create an unlawful outcome. All of the complaints against Trooper Wooten were investigated and most were not sustained. We all have complaints about the due process of something, a judges ruling, a jury ruling, a decision made by the planning and zoning commission. That doesn't mean there was a scandal or a cover up it just means people saw things differently. After all, isn't that what the governor is arguing now; that although it looks like pressure...it really wasn't.

Twenty five complaints against Wooten including some that were so ridiculous they shouldn't even of been given any credence but they were. Two of the three he admitted to doing on his own and the third was the unprecendented action taken bu Col. Grimes to go back in and change the investigators findings.

Most of those complaints were obsessive. Like the one where Sarah accused Wooten of drinking and driving then when she was questioned admitted she had never witnessed the incident, but had only heard from someone else that it happened.

If you don't like the process, then change the system....don't keep going after Wooten.

Wooten Challenge
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