Troopergate Revisited

We all remember Troopergate, when Palin and the First Dude abused the governor's office to try to get Palin's ex-brother-in-law fired.

Now here comes another trooper to cause her problems:

Investigator Kyle Young sent an e-mail to the Public Safety Employees Association saying the search warrant of Johnston's house was delayed for political reasons, the Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.

"It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant WAS delayed because of the pending election and the Mat Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots," Young wrote in the Dec. 30 e-mail.

The warrant was delivered the same day as Sherry Johnston's arrest.

To add to the fun, Tripp's father is now unemployed after it was pointed out he wasn't qualified for the job:

Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, has quit his North Slope oil field job over questions about his eligibility to work in an electrical apprenticeship program, Johnston's father said Monday.

Johnston, 18, began working this fall in the Milne Point oil field with ASRC Energy Services Inc., a major Slope contractor.

In a Sunday newspaper column, Anchorage radio talk show host Dan Fagan questioned how Johnston could take part in ASRC's apprenticeship program without a high school diploma.

Fagan said he understood federal regulations require all members of apprenticeship programs to have a diploma. He also questioned whether the governor might have had a hand in getting Johnston into the program.

Palin adamantly denied that Monday.

Eh. Delays in criminal investigations and her grandbaby's daddy mysteriously landing a job he wasn't qualified for. Oh, how do these things happen?

The thing that is really ironic is that many on the right think that Palin is their future. She seems more like their past and present.

Moose Tracks

Last week, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl had a piece defending Jim Bjorne, police chief of Ishpeming, Michigan, who took it upon himself to eradicate a trespassing moose. In the article, Mr. Stingl mentions that some people felt that the police chief had exceeded his authority and committed "moose murder."

Ironically, the very next day, a report was released, which stated that another moose murderer, Sarah Palin, had also violated the public trust. This time, it wasn't to kill a moose, but an effort by her and her husband (who has way too much influence for a non-elected or appointed governmental agent) to have her former brother-in-law fired violated state ethics law and was an abuse of the power of her office.

Not to anyone's great surprise, Palin denies the charges, and is busy spinning like a top to cover her moose-murdering tracks, but only making herself look even more ridiculous. I say that this is not surprising, given that she doesn't even know what duties are involved with the job she is trying to tell us she is qualified for. Heck, she doesn't even know which side she is supposed to be campaigning for.

The trouble for Palin doesn't end there. My friend, Illy-T, points out that another one of her lies about Obama is being exposed for what it really is, namely, another one of her lies.

All of this leads me to ask: Since we know that moose can be infected with Chronic Wasting Disease, what are the chances that Palin ate some mad moose meat and we are now seeing the effects of the disease on her?

Palin Derails Straight Talk Express

Sarah Palin, the only hope for the McCain campaign, is either a fool, or her handlers are fools.

First, basically acknowledging the fact that she has no foreign relations experience beyond seeing Russia from her house, Team Spuds has her meeting with dignitaries at the United Nations. Mmm, McCain's campaign must be so strapped for cash after running all those smear ads which have been thoroughly discredited, that they could no longer afford cable TV with all those National Geographic specials.

While she was to meet with said international dignitaries, Team Spuds banned all reporters from the event. Needless to say, that went over like a lead balloon. Already tired of the McPalin's constantly harping that the media was biased and against them, the media warned that they'll just take their cameras and go home, thereby denying Palin the attention she desperately wants and that the campaign desperately needs.

There are numerous reasons for Team Spuds keeping their lipsticked bulldog on a short leash.

First of all, she just doesn't do well when she isn't following her scripted teleprompter-provided speeches.

Secondly, she can't seem to open her mouth without the lies just flying out on their own accord.

Thirdly, Team Spuds can not afford to have any questions about Troopergate to come out. She would have a hard time explaining why she did a sudden reversal, and after initially agreeing to cooperate with the investigation, she decided that it was too partisan to allow it to go on. It beats me how a Republican can complain about an investigative body, of which 10 of the 14 people on it are also Republican. Lawyers from Team Spuds have sued to have the investigation stopped.

After switching directions regarding the investigation, Palin switched to a third direction. Now she is suddenly OK with an investigation, and will again cooperate fully. That is, she will cooperate as long as it is done by the personnel review board, which coincidentally consists of three Republicans that can be fired by Palin on a whim.

So, to be perfectly clear, she is accused of firing someone because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law, who had already been investigated and punished. Then, when an investigation starts to see if she abused the power of her office and fired the person for personal reasons, she agrees to cooperate and then stops cooperating. She then states she is willing to cooperate, only if the investigation is done by people whom she can fire for no reason at all, or for a reason such as, they find her guilty of abusing her power.

Only to a Republican would that make any sense. And only a Republican would see nothing wrong with this. After all, this is right out of the Bush/Cheney playbook.

For further analysis, I would recommend this expose from Mudflats, written by people that actually live in Alaska, but have not claimed to see Russia from their porch. In fact, keep an eye on the whole blog. Well written and gets to the meat of the matter.

Palin's Professional and Personnel Problems Percolate

Camp McPalin has been keeping their VP pick Sarah Palin on a very short leash. Given how poorly she did in her one and only interview, I can understand why. With all the secrecy going on, it's no wonder that some people are already calling her Dick Cheney with lipstick.

But no matter how much McCain's marauders try to hush up any and all information about Palin, there is a political version of Hurricane Ike headed their way. And almost all of it is boiling up regarding Troopergate.

We already know that Troopergate involves Palin firing the state's top cop, Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, for not firing her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten. But everyday, more and more information about Palin's pattern of behavior and other issues surrounding Troopergate are emerging.

As mayor of Wasilla, Palin had a rough start. She fired the police chief because he was giving her "mean looks." She asked twice about banning books. When the librarian told her no, she fired her, which caused an uprising among the citizens. She also fired the head of the museum, which prompted two other department heads to quit. She tried to make museum employees decide which one of them should be fired. She also tried to illegally replace two members of the town council. All of these abuses of power started rumblings of a recall.

As she tried to make a name for herself as a reformer, she showed herself to be no better. From Bloomberg.com:

The moment that crystallized her image as a reformer came when she turned in state Republican chairman Randy Ruedrich after discovering he was using his state e-mail account to conduct party business.

Palin and Ruedrich were serving together as commissioners on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a state regulatory agency, at the time. Ruedrich resigned from the commission in November 2003, and was later fined $12,000, according to a 2004 article in the Anchorage Daily News.

In 2006, Palin found herself asking forgiveness for a similar offense from her past, according to a July 28, 2006, article in the Anchorage Daily News. She had sent campaign e- mails from her Wasilla mayor's office in 2002, when she made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor.

``For any mistakes like that (were) made, I apologize,'' Palin said of the e-mail controversy in July 2006, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

As governor, Palin's pattern of abusing her power continued. When Monegan refused to fire Wooten, who already had been investigated and punished, she fired Monegan. Then the big cover ups and distortions started. First, she tries to say Monegan wasn't fired, but quit. But a TV station in Alaska caught her up in her lies when she states that she fired Monegan for something that she praised him for just a week before. Interestingly enough, the person Palin appointed to replace Monegan had to step down two weeks later due to an old sexual harassment charge.

Palin kept up her personal vendetta against Wooten despite being warned by a judge to drop the issue. More recently, an ethics adviser warned Palin that she should admit her mistakes and move on, before it blew up on her. She obviously did not listen to either of these people.

The Alaskan State Legislature has now issued subpoenas for thirteen people, including Todd Palin, to investigate whether Palin has abused her power of office.

And why Todd? Well, Todd, aka the First Dude, has a history of being overly involved in the affairs of the State, even though he holds no official role or capacity to be so involved. From the New York Times:

While that suggestion goes beyond the image presented of Mr. Palin during the Republican convention as a blue-collar family man and sportsman, it echoes a widely held understanding among lawmakers, state employees and lobbyists about Mr. Palin’s heavy engagement in state government.

In the small circle of advisers close to the governor, these people say, Mr. Palin is among the closest, and he plays an unpaid but central role in many aspects of the administration of Ms. Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president.

Mr. Palin’s involvement in the governor’s office has prompted an irreverent quip by some capital staff members when decisions are to be made that might affect the governor: “What would Todd do?”

Mr. Palin has encouraged lawmakers to support his wife’s agenda, helped her review budget items and polish speeches, surprised some lawmakers by sitting in on meetings. and received copies of top administration staff e-mail messages.

Mr. Palin also has stepped into personnel issues that have personal relevance, most notably his contact with Walt Monegan, then the public safety commissioner, to express concern about the continued employment of a state trooper who had gone through a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister. Mr. Monegan was later fired, and it is that firing that prompted the vote Friday on the subpoena.

On a side note, it is Todd's level of involvement is even more disturbing when one takes in consideration that he was a long standing member of the Alaska Independence Party, which advocates secession from the United States. He even got his wife, Sarah to attend two conventions of the AIP. One can only wonder what other strange and inappropriate things the Palins were into.

Mike Mathias, of Pundit Nation, has more on Palin and her history of cronyism and personal vendettas.

The Mighty Brawler also has more cronyism and how Palin not only bullies underlings, but also citizen bloggers.