Spreading the Wealth??

They're at it again. One more item to add to the growing list of distortions and half truths and, yes, LIES.

Earlier Palin accused Obama of "paling around with terrorists." Not "terrorist", but "terrorists." And not a "terrorist" that is on any list of "terrorists", but a "washed up old '60s radical" who is now a noted educationalist. Not exactly a lie, but about as close  as you can get.

Then came the troopergate report with it's  undeniable condemnation of Palin's abuse of office. Her response? To deny it. "I'm so glad I was vindicated," she said.   This was a bald faced lie. But she says it with such a lack of guile that the press lets it slide on by.

Now, she and McCain are on the trail claiming that Obama is a socialist who wants to "spread the wealth." They base this on the Fox News expose of Obama speaking to "Joe the Plumber" (who isn't - another lie).

Well, now it turns out that Obama wasn't suggesting this at all. The clip that Fox News used was a carefully edited attempt to smear Obama (surprise, surprise). And the McCain/Palin team carried the Fox football.

"He wants to spread the wealth!" they say. "He's a socialist. No, he's a Communist!" And the red meat crowd eats it up.

But here's what he actually said. Socialism? Not even close . .

From The New York Times:

“My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s going to be good for everybody,” Mr. Obama said, according to the transcript, adding that plumbers are better off when there are more customers who can afford to hire them. “And right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody, and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Mr. Obama said.

Full Article Here

Sarah Palin Yuks it Up on Saturday Night Live

Just one word for Palin's appearance last night on SNL:

BIZARRE.

Almost made me feel sorry for her sitting there while the SNL folks folded into a rap everything she has said or done that disqualifies her for national office. Embarassing, but also revealing.


But then, her story is ready made for SNL.

Sarah Palin is a joke.

---------------
The Sarah Palin Rap:

Huge Crowds!

The McCain camp has been crowing about the large, enthusiastic crowds Sarah Palin has attracted. And she has. Or mobs. Some have had more of the characteristic of a mob. But, certainly, there is no doubt that she has her fans.

The crowds are large. Even huge. Some say these may be the largest crowds any politician has attracted during a presidential campaign.

Just consider the crowd in St. Louis today. Estimates put it at 100,000.

The crowds are overwhelming.

For Obama.

From the Washington Post: Obama Draws 100,000

This one is for your enjoyment.

Click on the picture below for an interactive exercise imagining what it would be like to have Sarah Palin in the White House.

God forbid!

Palin's Joe, McCain's Joe: Who Cares?

Sarah introduced us to Joe Six Pack. Senator McCain to Joe the Plumber. Both were determined to convince us that they were champions of the "little guy." They cared. They were there for the "little guy."

Then the truth came out.

Sarah Palin cared so much for a popular sheriff that she used her muscle to get him fired. Tried to get a small town librarian fired, too, but the "little people" she claims to care so much for stood up and shouted "shame!" and she was forced to back down.

Turns out Sarah Palin does care . . . for herself.

Senator McCain tried to convince us that he was there for Joe the Plumber, this poor man who wouldn't be able to start his own business because evil Barak Obama was going to take away his hard earned money. Evil Barak Obama didn't care for the poor plumber who only made $250,000 a year.

Then we find out that: A) McCain didn't ask Joe's permission to use his name. Now the poor guy is being harrassed to death. B) McCain had no idea who Joe was. Turns out he's not anywhere near to making $250,000 nor opening his own business. Turns out, in fact, he isn't even a licensed plumber. And he owes $1,200 in back taxes. And the court has a lien on his house for failure to pay those taxes. Turns out he doesn't only not want to pay taxes on $250,000, he doesn't want to pay taxes at all!

Senator McCain was using Joe. That's how much he cares for the "little guy." Feigning a concern so he could claim a "gotcha" moment with his opponent, a man he hates so much that he'll do anything to make sure he doesn't get elected. Even use a "little guy" like Joe the Plumber.

Senator McCain cares like Sarah Palin cares . . . . for himself.

And he is still so clueless that he thinks a person who makes $250,000 a year is "middle class." But then how can he know? He doesn't even know how many houses he owns.

They don't care. That's why they're going to lose. They don't care.

Former Republican Denounces Palin's Hate Speech

When I was in high school I discovered the writing of Francis Schaeffer whose Christian commune in Switzerland attracted disenfranchised youth looking for something more solid upon which to build their lives. What Schaeffer provided was a space and place for young people to ask questions and probe issues, helping them see that Christianity might provide them with the answers they sought.

Unfortunately, like many evangelicals in the '60's Schaeffer allowed his solid evangelical ministry to get hijacked by the divisive politics of the religious right. He became, in fact, one of the early ideologues of the movement when they were finding their political voice in the early 70s.

His son, Frankie, grew up in this politically charged evangelical hothouse, which also pushed him into the politics of the Christian right, joining his father to become one of its more militant camp followers.

He's since had a change in heart, feeling that the politics of the Christian right is a betrayal of true Christianity. He's seen the hatred it engenders. He's now become one of its most outspoken critics.

Until recently Schaeffer was a strong supporter of John McCain. But he's now seen what many others have seen - the inclusion of Sarah Palin has meant a resurrection of the politics of divisiveness and hatred, once again being done in the name of Christianity.

Here's an op-ed piece he just published in the Baltimore Sun.

Yes, he's angry. And has every reason to be.

Remember this when you're listening to the latest re-invention of John McCain tonight in the debates.
-------------------

From the Baltimore Sun:

McCain’s Attacks Fuel Dangerous Hatred

By Frankie Schaeffer

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.
At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post- 9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.
John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.

We will hold you responsible.

The Latest Palin YouTube Videos

And now for your entertainment and edification here are the latest Palin videos available on YouTube.com

See What Sarah Hath Wrought:





Continued Questions on Palin's Ties to Seditious Alaska Independence Party



She Lies

Palin and Ayers: Clueless Again

Buried on the fifteenth page of today's Chicago Tribune is an article by Eric Zorn that needs wide exposure. Zorn, it turns out, did an extensive historical fact check on the person Sarah Palin calls a "terrorist" and found, much to the surprise of no one, that whatever Ayers may have done in the past, he can no longer by any stretch of the imagination be called a "terrorist" today.

What continues to be puzzling to many is why the press hasn't pushed the McCain camp to explain how Obama's associations with William Ayers in the 1990's has anything to do with anything except what it was always about - working with someone who is a noted expert on educational reforms. "Paling around with terrorists" (note how Palin always uses the plural - as though Ayers is representative of a whole group of shady characters Obama consorts with) suggests at the very least that Obama and Ayers were hatching plots against America. If that were the case, if Ayers was, indeed, a "terrorist" when Obama was meeting with him, well, then our law enforcement officials have fallen down on the job. He should be in jail. He isn't because he isn't.

Here's just a few of the things Zorn turned up in his research:

• The late celebrated Tribune journalist, Mike Royko, once wrote that Ayers was a jerk with a shady past. But now he ". . . is working for a good cause, improving public education. He's become a leader in the so-called school reform program."
• Other articles written in the 90's did refer to Ayer's radical past, but most didn't. In fact, only two articles out of 60 mentioned it. Most referred to the books he had published on education reform and his laudable work to get grant money for schools which landed him the honor of being recognized as Chicago's "Citizen of the Year" in 1997 (the time when Obama was "paling around" with him).
  

Noting this, Zorn says:

Today, some would say that this was an outrage. Ayers should have been shunned and marginalized, loudly criticized, not embraced, by the city's political and academic establishment.

But the record shows he just wasn't a very controversial figure. Aside from Royko's "I still think he's a jerk" column in 1990, I found only two objections to Ayer's civic rehabilitation in the decade's news archives: a 1993 letter to the Tribune and a 1999 guest editorial.

Zorn goes on to describe McCain and Palin's attempts to smear Obama with Ayers as "revisionist history" of the worst sort, particularly in their use of the "implicit present tense" as though Ayers is still a terrorist, a charge that has not been challenged as it should be by the mainstream press. He is not, says Zorn. Nor was he a terrorist when Obama met him to discuss educational reforms in the 90s, he as well as many other prominent Republicans and Democrats who care about the education of our children.

Zorn's most cutting comment cuts right to the heart of the matter when he says:

If Ayers is a terrorist, then McCain is an adulterer and I am a 6th grader.

Which brings to mind another article that is worth reading - the Rolling Stones Magazine expose on a past that John McCain is desperate to keep buried.

You can read that one by clicking on the picture below.

From the Rolling Stone Magazine:

Make-Believe Maverick

A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty

Sarah Palin's Fickle Fandango with the Press

According to an Associated Press article which appeared in the Anchorage Daily News this evening, Sarah Palin has not always distanced herself from the press. During her gubernatorial days (ah, the good old days) she couldn't get enough of them. Loved seeing her name in print and her face on the front page. Loved telling them what was on her mind. Back then she was an open book. So what's the deal now?

Apparently the Republican National Committee has been aware of her not-ready-for-prime-time status from the beginning. Which begs the question as to why McCain chose her in the first place. That question can only ultimately be determined by the maze which is the mind of John McCain. But an educated guess is that she has always been more symbol than substance. McCain knew she would whip up support from the right wing of the party. He hoped she would appeal to women, and maybe give a boost to his shaky candidacy. But he and his team knew this would only happen if she could be kept as far away from the press as possible given their tendency to ask uncomfortable questions, the kind that might actually expose her for the empty gesture she is.

What needs to be challenged here is less McCain's right to choose whomever he wishes, but the fact that this person, who may be a heartbeat away from the presidency, continues to play hard to get with the press. She has done no press conferences, taken no questions except in carefully staged venues (even the Katie Couric interview was at a time and with a person of her own choosing), she has not faced what ever other candidate in every other presidential campaign has been forced to face - an inquisitive press doing what they're supposed to do -- ferret out the truth.

Clearly the time has come for the press to demand that Palin step outside the Republican zone of silence. If she refuses, then the press should refuse to give her any air time whatsoever. Let Fox News be the only venue open to her. That should force her out into the open.

Come on, reporters. Show some mettle here! Make Sarah Palin deal with you like every other candidate is forced to deal with you! Don't let her freeze you out!

-----------

Here's the story from the Anchorage Daily News:

At One Time Sarah Palin Courted the Press

By RITA BEAMISH / The Associated Press

Published: October 13th, 2008 12:31 AM
Last Modified: October 13th, 2008 12:52 AM

GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is keeping reporters at arms' length in her campaign, but she had a very different approach as Alaska's new governor: She couldn't get enough of them.

Palin cultivated interviews with local and national journalists and welcomed them from as far away as London, earning time in the spotlight even before Republican presidential candidate John McCain selected her as his running mate.

That contrasts with the restricted access the McCain team imposed after Palin joined the GOP ticket, and the tone of the campaign's current criticism of the media, which is feeding anger among her supporters. People at a Wisconsin rally last week glared at reporters, and one woman called them "a bunch of leftists." Another made an obscene gesture.

FULL ARTICLE

Press Discovers the Truth about Palin: She's a Delusional Liar

What our friends in Alaska have been saying all along about Sarah Palin is finally coming out into the open. She is a vindictive, self-aggrandizing, self-serving politician who will do anything and everything to get what she wants including lying through her teeth.

The lying part is now so clear that even the otherwise reticent mainstream press is taking note of it. Jake Tapper of ABC news makes no bones about it: Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that are flatly false is the title of a blog post he writes about her astonishing conversation with the Alaskan press (see previous blog). Among other things he writes:

"Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing," Palin said, "any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

That's just not the case.

One can make the argument, as Palin and her allies have tried to do, that this investigation -- launched by a bipartisan Republican-controlled legislative body -- was somehow a partisan Democratic witch hunt, but one cannot honestly make the argument that the report concluded that Palin was "cleared of any legal wrongdoing" or "any hint of unethical activity."

Andrew Sullivan, writing for the online Atlantic, is even more scathing about this particular trait of Palin's. He wonders if there isn't something pathological about her, the way psychologically disturbed people are unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Her lies, he says, are not just ordinary lies, they are odd lies.

[T]his is the clear pattern with Palin: she publicly denies reality, insists on repeating that denial and is unable to deal with real world the way psychologically healthy people do. That's why I called her lies "odd lies." They are not the lies of a devious politician. They are much more troubling than that. They reflect a psyche unable to process fact when it conflicts with a delusional self-image. She is even worse in this psychotic denialism than Bush. She is a politician who can only survive in a propaganda state.

And it just gets interestingner and interestinger . . . . .

Sarah Palin, Master of Doublespeak

Our favorite Alaskan blogger, AKMuckraker, has just put up a post with the deliciously surreal transcript of a phone interview Palin did with Alaskan reporters giving her take on the Troopergate scandal. Here is political doublespeak at its best - the same kind of dissembling nonsense she tried to pass off in the Katie Couric interview which did more to advance Tina Fey's career than her own.

Be sure to read the whole post as AK's comments put it all in the right perspective.

What was it that John McCain said about nailing jello to the wall? Perhaps he had his running mate in mind. I mean, this is one slick politician, so slick that leeches would have trouble sticking to her.

THE INTERVIEW

Excerpted from Through the Looking Glass with Sarah Palin by AKMudraker.


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 ya, 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.



FULL POST HERE

Is Sarah Palin Putting Obama's Life in Danger?

Frank Rich from the New York Times has now raised the question that is beginning to get traction among those who understand how dangerous incendiary political rhetoric can be. The question is: is the exagerated, inflamatory anti-Obama rhetoric of Sarah Palin encouraging the kind of rage that can turn into violence? Is Obama's life now in greater danger because of her ill-informed attacks?

Rich believes so. And I think he's right. Sarah Palin has gone from being a bad joke for late night comedians, to a dangerous demagogue whose words could incite the kind of violent rage that led to the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. It's not too much of a stretch to believe that this could be the case.

Here's how Rich puts it:

From the New York Times:


Excerpt from "The Terrorist, Barak Hussein Obama"

John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.

We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.

FULL ARTICLE

Sarah Palin: But I didn't break any laws (wink, wink)

Here's a headline from the New York Daily News:

Sarah Palin: Troopergate Probe Findings Show I didn't Break Any Law

This is Sarah Palin's defense in the face of the damning evidence of her abuse of office. "But I didn't break the law!"

What's disturbing about this is that she actually believes this exonerates her. Which only underscores a point many have made about her. She really is George Bush in a skirt. And not only because of the way she tortures the English language.

Here's the point: the Bush administration has made a fine art of skirting the edges of legality. Wire tapping? We didn't break the law. Torture? Where does it say we can't do that? Getting rid of lawyers we don't like? Can't convict us of anything here.

That, essentially, is Sarah Palin's defense. Can't convict me, so it must be OK. Never mind evidence of the abuse of power. In Palin's eyes its OK as long as she didn't "break the law."

It's George Bush in a skirt.

When Barak Obama says that John McCain means Bush redoux what he usually has in mind is the way McCain has walked in near lock step with the Bush agenda over the past eight years. We can now add another element to this. To elect a McCain/Palin ticket is to have a Bush clone a heart beat away from the presidency.

God help us if that happens.

McCain/Palin: Guilty as Charged

With the revelation of Palin's guilt in the Troopergate scandal we now know the difference between the McCain/Palin team and the Obama/Biden team.

It's guilt by association versus just plan guilt.
----------


The McCain/Palin team have done their best to smear Obama using the classic Republican tactic of "guilt by association." Obama, they say, is ill suited to be president because of the company he has kept in the past. It's what others have done rather than what he has done that convicts him, even though the ties they cite are inconsequential.

With the Republicans, on the other hand, its simply guilt.


McCain's abuse of office through unwise dealings with Savings and Loan shark, Charles Keating: Guilty.







Palin's abuse of office for a personal vendetta: Guilty.







Big difference between the two.

Sarah Barracuda: A Pattern of Guilt

Those who have followed the career of Sarah Palin in Alaska, particularly Alaskans themselves, were not at all surprised by the findings of the investigative committee determining Palin's guilt. She has been engaging in this same kind of vindictive behavior ever since she got into the mayor's office in Wasila.

Here it's good to recall the letter written by a fellow Waslilian who has watched Sarah Palin's career unfold from the beginning. Not only her career, but her life. It hasn't been a pretty sight.

Below are excerpts from a letter by Anne Kilkenny which should have indicated to the McCain staff to proceed with caution with Palin. Or were they looking for someone with a record of petty-minded vindictiveness? If so they found the right person.

The main question here is why would anyone consider this woman suitable for national office.

What were you thinking, John McCain?
----------------

From a letter by Wasila, Alaska, resident, Anne Kilkenny:

• 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.

• 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

• As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press.

• 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.

• 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.

Full text on thepresidentialcandidates.us

The Report

Once again our favorite blogger in the frozen north, AKmuckraker, has come through for us. Make sure you visit her blog to get the most detailed report of the Troopergate investigation. Here's the actual wording of the investigative report:

No doubt about it. Palin is guilty as charged:

From Mudflats:

Findings:

Finding Number One:

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

Finding Number Two:

I find that, although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

Finding Number Three:

Harbor Adjustment Service of Anchorage, and its owner Ms. Murleen Wilkes, handled Trooper Michael Wooten’s workers’ compensation claim properly and in the normal course of business like any other claim processed by Harbor Adjustment Service and Ms. Wilkes. Further, Trooper Wooten received all the workers’ compensation benefits to which he was entitled.

Finding Number Four:

The Attorney General’s office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of emails.

------------------

And if you've got stomach for legal reports (and a whole lot of time) here's the full report:

Branchflower Report on Sarah Palin Abuse of Power (pdf file)

GUILTY!

Here's the headlines from the Anchorage Daily News:

TROOPERGATE REPORT: PALIN ABUSED POWER

Here's my guess: the McCain team will immediately claim that this is pure politics and appeal it to a date long after the election. They will then use it to get their already rowdy crowd even more riled up. "Look how they persecute us!" they will say.

Then the pitchforks and torches will come out as they storm the gates of Obama's house. Since he only lives three blocks down the road from me I'll make sure I take lots of pictures :)

So the crap has hit the fan . . . . Stay tuned.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Troopergate report: Palin abused power

By DON HUNTER

Published: October 10th, 2008 04:45 PM
Last Modified: October 10th, 2008 04:52 PM

A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister.

The report by investigator Steve Branchflower was made public late this afternoon by a 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, which authorized the investigation.

Branchflower's report contains four findings. The first concludes that Palin violated the state's executive branch ethics act, which says that "each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

Branchflower was investigating whether Palin abused her power by pushing for the firing of state trooper Mike Wooten, who was involved in a nasty divorce from Palin's sister. Palin and her husband, Todd, have accused Wooten of threatening Palin's father.

FULL ARTICLE

For the video that shows the twists and Turns of Palin's Attempts to Evade Justice click on the Sarah Palin picture.

She Isn't Like You and Me: Sarah Palin's Unpatriotic Associations

A friend of mine who is a lawyer here in Chicago, just sent me a piece he did on a tie Sarah Palin has to an organization which is far more troubling than any ties Obama may have to education professor William Ayers. In this case the association can be labeled seditious. Here's what he says (note also video following).

She Isn't Like You and Me: Sarah Palin's Unpatriotic Associations

by Greg Brownfield

Sarah Palin’s most recent stump speech includes two scathing guilt-by-association riffs. First she says that Obama is “someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists (William Ayers) who attacked their own country.” Second, she suggests sedition with: “this (Obama) is a man that does not see America as you and I see America.”

Apparently Sarah wishes us to forget her association with the Alaskan Independence Party whose convention she endorsed earlier this year. The Alaskan Independence Party sees America as far worse than imperfect. It's so imperfect that their ultimate aim is to secede from the union. Which means that they do not see America as you and I see America. This is clear when you go to the introduction page on their website where you read this from the late founder of their party:

"I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."

Joe Vogler
A quick comparison of the two associations will show how much more troubling Palin's is. When Obama met Ayers the latter was a noted education reformer and professor. Should Obama have checked into his past and made judgments about working with him on that basis? Perhaps. But that's not what brought them together. It was a community organizer meeting a noted education expert. End of story.

On the other hand, when Sarah Palin gave her warm words of support to the Alaskan Independence Party she was well aware that it is what it always has been—a radical secessionist movement. And her husband was a member from 1995 until 2000 (talk about guilt by association).

The bottom line is that it’s clear that there is a radical anti-American candidate in this race. But it’s not Obama. In the well-traveled words of Shakespeare, “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Someone Like Me!!

I saw a woman being interviewed today on CNN who was ga-ga over Sarah Palin. Ever since she first laid eyes on her she was head over heels.

This, according to the reporter, is an indication that Palin speaks to a certain demographic, in this case middle aged blue collar women; evangelical middle aged blue collar women. That's been her appeal all along. Not that she's qualified for this office. Not that she has the kind of knowledge and experience we usually demand in a vice presidential candidate. No, it's because "she's just like me."

I understand this. I want a candidate who is like me, as well. Which means first of all a "he," not a "she." That's what I am. I'm a "he."

He also has to be well educated and well traveled; have midwestern roots and like to listen to NPR. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me will be his favorite show. His musical tastes should run to new age (instrumental only) for background music while reading, classic rock when he wants to kick back and let loose, the Waifs to get into a zone.

He has to be a Christian. Evangelical, but leaning more left than right. Politically progressive.

As for tastes in food and clothing, well, I'm a blue jeans kind of guy. He should be too. And pizza. He has to like pizza. Lot's of pizza. And Indian curry. The hotter the better.

That's the person I'm looking for. Someone who meets most if not all of those criteria.

If, perchance, I can't find someone like that, well, then I just won't vote. That'll show em. It'll show those Republicans and Democrats that next time they go to all the expense of running a big national campaign, they need to keep my kind of person in mind.

Experience in working with congress? Doesn't matter. Proven leadership abilities? Not important. Broad knowledge of national and international affairs. Who cares? The only thing that matters is that it be someone like me. I will only vote for someone like me . . .

Sarah Palin: Updates

I started this blog as a way of ferreting out information about an unknown candidate for vice president whose qualifications for office were questionable at best. Now that we're only a few weeks from the election it may be good to review what we know so far.

Who is Sarah Palin?

• It's now clear that despite her perky demeanor and ability to read cue cards like a pro, Sarah Palin is, as some have labeled her, George Bush in a skirt. Her curiosity about and knowledge of world affairs is dismal.

Comedians love her. But after eight years of putting up with bad (and good!) George Bush jokes its time we moved on to something more serious. Paula Poundstone's response to the question, "What will comedians do when Bush is gone?" on an NPR, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me segment is most apropos here:

"We'll get over it!"

• As those who were familiar with her modus operatum in Alaska warned, she is mean spirited and vindictive. The red meat Republican crowd loves it. So do the racists and bigots who are now coming out in droves to her rallies. From shaking their fists and booing at the mention of Obama's name to racial epitats hurled at African American cameramen to screaming: "terrorist!" and "kill him!" she's bringing out the best in people.
  Which makes her ever-present beauty queen smile seem more sinister than sincere.
• Despite the best efforts of the McCain team to erase her past, the scandals from Palin's time as mayor and governor won't go away.

These include (among other things): 1) troopergate 2) attempts to fire a small town librarian for not agreeing to ban books 3) a mis-use of state per diem funds 4) the worst kind of cronyism in the hiring of under qualified friends for political purposes.

In all this it may be good to recall what AKMuckraker wrote about Palin back in 2006 when she was running for governor. She wasn't qualified then. She isn't qualified now.

FACTS ABOUT SARAH PALIN
from http://mudflats.wordpress.com

Palin Says She’s a Change from The Scandal-Plaued Republicans, But She’s More of

the Same.

Palin built her reputation on criticizing state Republicans for ethics questions, but Palin has
questions of her own, as she used city resources when she campaigned for Lt. Governor; Palin chaired the campaign of another candidate in a race dominated by resource issues when she was on the oil and gas commission and said that she saw no conflict of interest. For years, Palin supported Murkowski, campaigning for him across the state, and he supported her campaigns as well.

Palin Touts Fiscal Conservatism, But She Increased Spending Tremendously and supported Tax Increases

FULL DOCUMENT