Numbers Shmumbers…
That was the claim coming from the office of Governor Sarah Palin, who likes to use the phrase “frivolous ethics complaints.” That was nine days ago.
Today, we learn that “millions of dollars” is in fact, actually $296,000, as far as ethics complaints go. Numbers shmumbers.
The complete breakdown is not yet available, but we do know this about the three spendiest ones:
$187,797 stemmed from the Troopergate investigation, a good chunk of which Palin initiated herself. We’ll get back to that.
$43,028 stemmed from a complaint by Andree McLeod which resulted in a recommendation that a state employee undergo ethics training for a series of “troubling emails.”
$29,962 most likely came from the “travel gate” investigation in which Palin reimbursed almost $10,000 for expenses billed to the state for her children’s travel expenses.
That’s the top three, none of which sound particularly “frivolous.” So once we crunch the numbers, it’s highly likely that the most expensive investigation brought about by an individual, is Palin’s investigation of herself. And let’s just review that one more time.
The Legislature found enough evidence to approve $100,000 to investigate Palin’s firing of the Commissioner of Public Safety, in light of accusations that he was dismissed for not firing her ex-brother-in-law with whom there was bad blood. They spent $75,000 of the money allocated, and the bipartisan Legislative Council (composed of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats) voted unanimously to go forward. An independent investigation by someone that they all agreed to found that Palin violated the Executive Branch Ethics Act. They unanimously voted to release that decision to the public.
As a counter-measure, and a panicked move to look good during the campaign, Palin (with the advice from the McCain cadre of lawyers headed up by Ed O’Callaghan who had no license to practice law in the State of Alaska) initiated her own ethics complaint against herself, knowing that the outcome would be decided by a friendly panel of governor-appointed people who report to her. Guess what? They found her innocent, and refused to even investigate the matter of testimony from Palin that went completely against testimony from the former commissioner. Frivolous ethics complaint? No….a calculated one that the state paid for.
What did the legislature do about their own $75,000 investigation that found the governor in violation of the Ethics Act? Nothing. So, why did we, as a state, pay that $75,000? What did we get for that money? Maybe that’s the question we should be asking.
Speaking of not knowing what you get for your money…
Palin herself reportedly has incurred over $600,000 in personal legal bills defending against complaints, although she won’t provide a breakdown of the expenses or what cases they were for. Palin friends and supporters set up a legal defense fund and are soliciting contributions for her legal bills.
I suggest you edit out the
“headed up by Ed O’Callaghan who had no license to practice law in the State of Alaska)”
It’s meaningless in the context of political advise and just dilutes or undercuts the meaningful information.
Respectfully
rjw
Because Palin thinks she’s entitled to free anything by virtue of being the Governor.
And she is certainly vindictive enough to have the barista fired. As far as preventing them from getting another job, I don’t think she’s that good. She’s that petty, but she can’t simply send out a circular with the barista’s name (which she won’t know) or picture (which she won’t have) or even description (which she wouldn’t remember even if she cared) to have the person blackballed for every job in Alaska.
As for the entitlement issue, I think this is what will come back to bite her because I think she’s been doing her IRS taxes for the last 16 years or at least since she’s been in office with this entitlement mindset. I doubt she has declared plenty of “gifts” going all the way back to when she was elected to her first position.
As for the barista…I suppose they could shout to an employee to bring their purse, then get out their wallet and make a big show of putting the money to pay for GINO’s order in the cash register saying “My treat. I make minimum wage and can certainly afford to treat you.” Snark is the only thing GINO would understand.
But it’s a lose lose situation. Let GINO go without paying. Get fired or have it taken out of your pay. Make GINO pay, get fired. Pay it yourself, you’re still out the money and may possibly be fired anyway.
Now that she’s resigned, I imagine many baristas and waitresses will heave a sigh of relief over their jobs and their paychecks.
RE: The Palin Coffee Theft…
I have to wonder why in the hell the Governor would go into a place and expect to obtain services knowing she doesn’t have any way to pay for it.
Unless she has a prior arrangement to run a tab, there is simply no reason for her to think that it would be acceptable to simply walk into an establishment thinking it is okay to obtain something without paying for it.
duct idaho palin said July 2nd, 2009 at 10:11 PM “If Sarah ever shows up at that Starbucks again they should ask her, BEFORE they start making her coffee, whether she has the money to pay for it.”
I was thinking about that yesterday.
Chances are that the barista DID ask her, since she said she never carries a wallet, that she ask “her people” (who were doubtless standing right next to her) to pay the bill — and that same barista 3 days later found him/herself out of a job, and looking for work the same way Levi Johnston did — out of state, because he/she’d been blacklisted in Alaska by the GINO.
@124 Ted
“Mark Hemingway and Bill Kristol both attempt unsuccessfully to dismiss strong suspicions that Governor Palin suffers from NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder).”
That Mr. Bill “always been wrong about absolutely every damn thing” Kristol could a.) be objective about NPD (as its biggest sufferer) and b.) not actually support Sarah Palin when he is the chief metrosexual/DC insider representative to her new neotheocon wing of the Republic(an)(‘t) party — both are ideas I find totally hilarious. You can nearly see Bill’s kool-aid mustache.
Wrong again, Bill! Keeping the streak alive, buddy! Go you!
-Laz
@89 anon blogger
Well I’m neither envious nor personally hateful, so that’s just more dissembling and attempted re-branding on their part… then again I’m male. So perhaps I’m not the ‘target audience’.
On the other side of this double headed coin is the sexualization of Sarah. The Naughty Monkey pumps. The jogging togs cheesecake shots. The skimpy bikini comic book character (and granted on this latter issue Sarah has little or no control over what third parties do with her ‘image’, or ‘iconography’ as we have all recently learned with the help of Meg “The Mouth”, the internet and graphics editing software). Or consider the excessively sexualized nature of comments made by numerous male supporters, including John Cole and Wayne Anthony Ross, both of whose public comments about Sarah’s looks were excessively creepy… yeah that doesn’t work for me either. I have never thought Sarah particularly beautiful or attractive nor have I/would I entertain inappropriate fantasies, sexual or otherwise about her. She’s a married woman with five kids, people. There is nothing in that looks/circumstance/lifestyle combo that would close the deal for me. Sorry Sarah, I’m just not that into you.
So I am further protected from their “populist sex-ray gun marketing campaign” as conducted by Republic(an)(‘t)(s) Meg, the C4Pers and AFT (her legal slush fund) by personal ethics and morals. And maybe a necklace of garlic, some holy water and a large wooden cross. Or a big ‘whacking’ shovel in case they’re actually ZOMBIES that come after my BRAAAAIIIIIINNNNNSSSS! Or a big bucket of wet beach sand from Homer to pour on the Palinbots… so yay — go me! As an Alaskan, I am prepared to be Austin Powers to her Dr. Evil. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Look it up, neotheocons (supporters of Palin).
Alaskan bloggers have gotten past the sharks with frikken’ lasers, past the fembots with machine guns for nipples, past the missile launch (see recent youtube video produced by a Sarahcophant). We’re ready for the justice and just deserts part. Yeah baby, YEAH!
Now show me the public documents providing full disclosure or actually run an open and transparent government and I get all flush with excitement! 😉 You betcha! I’m just old enough to be funny that way. But I understand Sarah just isn’t all that into the representative democracy, public servant foreplay stuff.
-Laz
lazarhat Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:14 PM
@47 NY Dem
Okay Mr. “My state legislature was just taken over by a Republic(an)(’t) coup”.
These things take time and money and patience but we’re working on it, thanks. Now how about them Mets? 😉
-Laz
——————————————————————–
Oh Laz!! Snap!! We’re just tryin’ to be as entertaining on the East Coast as your Gov is on the West Coast (altho Arnie is running a really close second) otherwise we’d all be sitting around bored out of our skulls just hating and jealous of the beautiful Sarah Palin also too. Therefore and. (*snark*)
Mark Hemingway and Bill Kristol both attempt unsuccessfully to dismiss strong suspicions that Governor Palin suffers from NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder).
Specifics about the McCain-Palin campaign must see the light if Republicans and the country are to avoid the danger and inevitable crises were an NPD to achieve high office. See: John Edwards, Bill Clinton.
Palin’s documented behavior fits the description of an NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) to a tee. Palin is very probably NPD, and possibly ASPD as well. You need a shrink for an official diagnosis, but you don’t need a shrink to compare Palin to the DSM-IV’s NPD traits to make your own conclusion. A “pervasive pattern” of behavior for 5 of 9 traits is required for an NPD diagnosis — I count 8 out of 9.
Humorously, Hemingway attempts to disprove Palin’s screaming NPD with a Google search for +Palin +”Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” on HuffPo (bit.ly/AxUr2, bit.ly/Rbg0N), rather than the much more specific and direct +Palin +npd or +Palin +narcissist, which would reveal many, many people who have reached the same conclusion: Palin suffers from NPD. Here’s just one HuffPo example Hemingway misses with his (intentionally?) poorly framed search: “Diagnosing Sarah Palin” (bit.ly/dlk3J)
“Two therapists responded to my request to diagnose Sarah Palin, independently identifying her condition as Narcissistic Personality Disorder”
Based on his poorly targeted search, Hemingway concludes “a meme that gained currency among those on the far left who actively despise Palin”. More likely, nearly everyone with even a little knowledge about NPD comes to the same conclusion: Sarah Palin suffers from NPD.
Please, shine a lot more light into the campaign.
Numbers….Schmumers.
Come on, she actually said that it would help the families of Alaska if the State budget were to be reduced by around 75%, so we can add lack of basic math skills to her “I’m NOT qualified to be in charge” resume.
Wow….once again Palin’s relationship with the truth is a long distance relationship.
Does she NOT understand the concept of fact checking and that little thing called the internet?
I’m guessing that she is still living in her former days of glory when she could say whatever she wanted to, and could make any claim she wished—–and no one checked up on her.
Wow Palin, reality bites, doesn’t it?
AKM, I really love your writings; but your storytelling my favorite!
I am sure you know by now that I am not the sharpest tack. And I am simple minded; add pain for a distraction. That said, I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out Palin has abused her power. As far as I am aware, all the ethics complaints had merit. If Palin’s behavior warranted such attention in the private sector, she would have been fired during the investigation of Troopergate. When the boss found out that her husband was in her meetings and using the office phone to make calls on her behalf, calling fellow employees. Look what she’s cost the taxpayers, just another Bush. She doesn’t deserve any clout in my mind. How could the Legislature ignore thousands of emails calling for Palin’s impeachment?
So several million dollars of wasted state money turns out to be less than 300k, and the the majority of that went to three major cases. Hmmm. I wonder why they won’t break the money down by case. And these same cases cost Sarah twice as much as it did the state. I would like to see a breakdown of that 600K. Man, Van Flien must be swimming in the dough.
Or better still– let us know which Starbucks it was and people can go there and start asking for the Sarah Palin discount!
If Sarah ever shows up at that Starbucks again they should ask her, BEFORE they start making her coffee, whether she has the money to pay for it.
107 seattlefan Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Blatantly OT, but for a good cause…….(sorry to the mods for going OT, but…)
AKM’s “Accidental Secessionist” piece is on Huffpo. The more comments, the more exposure!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/the-accidental-secessioni_b_225149.html
***********buzz it up.
Blatantly OT, but for a good cause…….(sorry to the mods for going OT, but…)
AKM’s “Accidental Secessionist” piece is on Huffpo. The more comments, the more exposure!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/the-accidental-secessioni_b_225149.html
Lee323~ I think that from what we have seen from these folks there is absolutely no “separation” of church and state…it all blends together for them, and have no desire nor intention of keeping them separated from each other.
BigSlick Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:17 PM
So, the McCain campaign sent GINO the lawyers to quash the Leg investigation, they ran up a big bill but didn’t get the job done, and when the election went kerplunk for the GOP, the lawyers ran home to Texas and sent the bill to GINO, who forwarded it to the McCain campaign but it flew back like a guided boomerang and slap her in the back of the head.
___________
No, the lawyers were for the legislators who were trying to kill the original troopergate investigation. No doubt that this was engineered by the McCain folks, but Dobson got his folks up to AK to take care of the legal support.
The cost was basically free to the legislators, as the bill was never sent to them, but they found out that they had to report that amount spent, even though they didn’t actually pay the bill. They accepted services, and had to report it as “gifts”.
McCain/Dobson ate the cost of these bills. It was all a failed attempt to stop the investigation, so they wasted over 200 grand for nothing. 🙂
Canadian Neighbor at #94 “End result — this game accomplishes what?”
Well, perhaps not much – just a reminder that we are watching and noting the lies associated with the Trust. This AK Fund Trust stinks IMO, and I hold a wee bit of hope that Cole is saner than GINO and may want to distance herself from all the bad press (like Donatelli did with sarahpac). As a prominent Realtor in the Wasilla area, Cole does not need the bad press that may ensue due to her financial dealings with SP. The more people that jump the SS Palin sinking ship, the better.
@ Eye on You #86, 87
—————
Good links.
Liberty Legal Institute. The legal branch of Dobson’s empire. This whole debacle makes a person wonder about the issue of separation of church and state, eh?
Speaking of way out whacko behaviour, I’m still blown away by the GINO trotting out some Fake “Democrats” to replace Juneau Senator, Kim Elton. The audacity is seismic!
Someone should compile these to form a theme in the GINO’s unauthorized bio to compete with her book.
And here’s even more fun. Another GOP internal witch-hunt with blessing from the Pop Tart Palin and The Worst Navy Pilot ever allowed to wear wings on his uniform.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/McCain_and_Palin_approved_leak_hunt.html
By the time the GOP gets done purging itself the party’s political bulimia will kill it dead for sure.
My gawd, will the train wreck never end?
“Remind Kristan and her unscrupulous grifter pal that they are liars, cheats, and cons.” (from sandipants)
Yeah….CONS. Not Icons.
What an epic farce.
Aren’t there laws governing trust funds? What are they? If it’s proven that the folks at AFT have lied, where would you file a complaint? I’m sure there are laws about lying to solicit public donations.
Also, regarding the web site. Why is there no email address for public comments/concerns? I almost wish I had donated so I could very publicly demand my money back. Could citizens concerned with truth file an ethics complaint, based on their lies (if proven)?
Speaking of lying, I still cannot find any reference anywhere to a chairty set up by SP to help the troops visit home before/after deployment. There is a web site called Bring ‘Em Home that helps military personnel who lack the funds to go home for Christmas. Did not see Palin’s name in the list of donors.
And here’s even more fun. Another GOP internal witch-hunt with blessing from the Pop Tart Palin and The Worst Navy Pilot ever allowed to wear wings on his uniform.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2284356/posts?page=13
By the time the GOP gets done purging itself the party’s political bulimia will kill it dead for sure.
My gawd, will the train wreck never end?
And here’s even more fun. Another GOP internal witch-hunt with blessing from the Pop Tart Palin and The Worst Navy Pilot ever allowed to wear wings on his uniform.
ht tp: //theplumline.whorunsgov.com/campaigns/mccain-and-palin-personally-approved-internal-email-hunt-for-leakers-campaign-manager-says/
By the time the GOP gets done purging itself the party’s political bulimia will kill it dead for sure.
My gawd, will the train wreck never end?
And here’s even more fun. Another GOP internal witch-hunt with blessing from the Pop Tart Palin and The Worst Navy Pilot ever allowed to wear wings on his uniform.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/campaigns/mccain-and-palin-personally-approved-internal-email-hunt-for-leakers-campaign-manager-says/
By the time the GOP gets done purging itself the party’s political bulimia will kill it dead for sure.
My gawd, will the train wreck never end?
So, the McCain campaign sent GINO the lawyers to quash the Leg investigation, they ran up a big bill but didn’t get the job done, and when the election went kerplunk for the GOP, the lawyers ran home to Texas and sent the bill to GINO, who forwarded it to the McCain campaign but it flew back like a guided boomerang and slap her in the back of the head.
I bet Steve Schmidt had a sh*t-eating grin on his face when he hit the send button that sent that bill back to GINO. I can even hear the dijeridoos a-playing.
Lori in Los Angeles Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:54 PM
sandipants #55: YES!!!! Let’s put some heat on Cole and that slush fund, great idea!
======
End result — this game accomplishes what?
@47 NY Dem
Okay Mr. “My state legislature was just taken over by a Republic(an)(‘t) coup”.
These things take time and money and patience but we’re working on it, thanks. Now how about them Mets? 😉
-Laz
I’ve been thinking about it: (I’m as bad as anyone) but what if we just stopped talking about Palin? What if we just walked away from this train wreck?
She never apologizes to anyone (God knows she should), and she bitches and moans and bitches and moans and bitches and moans, but what would she have left to say if she wasn’t bitching and moaning? What’s her positive content? She doesn’t have any.
We should just shut up and stop fueling her forward momentum. Let’s wash our hands (really well) and move on.
@42 GlobalVillage
Hollis French and Les Gara, whom I’ve emailed before since they are my my downtown Anchorage representatives can be reached through the state of Alaska homepage:
http://www.alaska.gov/
or more precisely:
Senator_Hollis_French@legis.state.ak.us
and:
Representative_Les_Gara@legis.state.ak.us
But I’ve got to warn you, if you are not a constituent of theirs, I wouldn’t blame them for ignoring your emails… they represent me and my fellow Alaskans and Anchoragites and I’m sure, though I AM speculating that they have little or no time to wade through emails from people who won’t ever vote for them (as I did in both cases). I’m just sayin’… though I don’t speak for them of course.
But if experience is any guide with the well documented pissiness and vindictiveness of Representative Mike Doogan (who “outed” an anonymous blogger… umm AKM! OMFG! DOOOOOOOGAN! [shakes fists at sky while screaming!]) and who by the way can be emailed at:
Representative_Mike_Doogan@legis.state.ak.us
— well then you’re best off not pestering underpaid and overworked public servants lest they get snarky with the former fellow co-workers (Alaska Ear, Sheila Toomey) and out YOU! However that’s never happened during my dealing with Les and Hollis so perhaps they’re somehow different than Doogan. Not that anybody with a 3rd grade education couldn’t find out MY real identity. Especially since I signed my emails with my real contact info, thus proving constituency. Woot! Go me!
-Laz
ValleyIndependent ~ Thanks for the added info. I am also not surprised to see Bob Lynn’s name on that list, considering he is the one who wants the ethics violations kept quiet. 🙂
@ 86 EyeOnYou – Just a side note, but Carl Gatto and Wes Keller are both from the Valley delegation. Keller was appointed by the Republicans (using the same process Palin complained about the Democrats using to replace the Juneau senator) when Rep. Vic Kohring was forced to leave his District 14 seat. Kohring was later convicted but is now out of prison due to what appears to be more prosecutorial misconduct. It is not the least surprising that Gatto and Keller were parties to this effort to obstruct justice.
Palin got elected in a three way race. People were sick of Frank Murkowski (R) and figured he was corrupt, selling out to corporate interests in TX. The Dem on the ticket is handicapped because, it’s a red state. Sarah was largely an unknown and she ended up with slightly more than 1/3rd of the vote total.
Also keep in mind that the First Dude is not abnormal in AK. Most people hate government and don’t follow it. And the newspapers are terrible. In most elections in AK, only about 20% show up to vote.
My personal opinion, as one who lived in AK, is that Sarah is pretty normal for the Valley & Bible folk (even now).
sauerkraut Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:32 PM
re #50 and others… ordering a product from a private business and then walking out of the establishment without paying for it is considered a form of theft in most states. if she did that, then she’s also guilty of abuse of power.
___________
It is called “Theft of Services” and it is illegal in AK as well as all other states.
AS 11.46.200. Theft of Services.
(a) A person commits theft of services if
(1) the person obtains services, known by that person to be available only for compensation, by deception, force, threat, or other means to avoid payment for the services;
(2) having control over the disposition of services of others to which the person is not entitled, the person knowingly diverts those services to the person’s own benefit or to the benefit of another not entitled to them; or
(3) the person obtains the use of computer time, a computer system, a computer program, a computer network, or any part of a computer system or network, with reckless disregard that the use by that person is unauthorized.
(b) Absconding without paying for hotel, restaurant, or other services for which compensation is customarily paid immediately upon the receiving of them is prima facie evidence that the services were obtained by deception.
http://touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/Statutes/Title11/Chapter46/Section200.htm
sandipants #55: YES!!!! Let’s put some heat on Cole and that slush fund, great idea!
For the record – I know the “extremist” Palin wanted to appoint to her seat. He’s passionate about issues, he’s colorful, and he’s a long-time city watchdog who often brings things to light that should be brought to light. He’s not intimidating in the least, and some of the media comments made about him during the campaign really stretched the truth. He really didn’t like the museum director though….
The courts combined into a single case Colberg’s attempt to quash the subpoenas and the Liberty Legal lawsuit to stop the investigation. Michalski dismissed the case, saying much of the argument against the investigation is not for the courts to decide, but is rather “business to be left to the legislative branch.”
http://www.adn.com/troopergate/story/544566.html
Lee323~
New state gift disclosures show it cost Liberty Legal Institute and the two law firms working with it $185,000 to represent six Alaska legislators in an unsuccessful lawsuit to halt their colleagues’ “troopergate” investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin acted improperly in firing the state’s public safety director.
Anchorage attorney Kevin Clarkson represented the six legislators in the case as well, and turned to Liberty Legal for its constitutional expertise. The lawmakers reported a $40,000 gift of services from Clarkson’s firm.
The six legislators who filed the suit are Wes Keller, Mike Kelly, Fred Dyson, Tom Wagoner, Carl Gatto and Bob Lynn. All are Republicans.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/61746.html
@33 phobe
LOL
We have this short little thing called “SUMMER” here in Alaska when the legislature is out of session… &tc. A lot and I do mean A LOT of Alaskans are out of town camping, fishing and hunting. Or hiking, running, biking, gardening… &tc. — the perfect vacuum for Sarah and Meg to be ‘tweeting’ and ‘crowing’ and well, basically lying (see the Emmonak story breaking on Alaskan progressive blogs). &tc., also, too.
-Laz
re #50 and others… ordering a product from a private business and then walking out of the establishment without paying for it is considered a form of theft in most states. if she did that, then she’s also guilty of abuse of power.
Great work, AKM, as usual! And wes-ben #60, thanks for the info.
There is a new strategy…a guy on HuffPost, Mr. MacKinnon (former press secretary to Bob Dole) has an article on HuffPost. Key words, envy hate. And I saw at Gryphen’s blog that Seefourpee folks are using the same words, envy hate. Seems women envy and hate Palin for her looks. Yep. So a doctor friend of his said.
A strategy to belittle or shut up women. That’s my take on it.
@27 rebekkah
Frankly as somebody who works in litigation support here’s the bottom line:
Around $300,000 for the State of Alaska Personnel Board to hire “independent counsel” from amongst the local pool of lawyers… hired and paid for by the executive branch by an executive branch board and paid for by the executive branch. Open and transparent? You decide.
So NOT Millions of dollars as claimed by her and her supporters. If she can refute or prove otherwise I’ve certainly invited her to do so on my blog and Celtic Diva’s. Cough up the full accounting or rely on the media to speculate, her choice and there’s no way to spin it. Claiming Attorney-Client privilege as she did with the settlement over ‘Travelgate’ isn’t open, transparent or even defensible as she ran on a platform of superior ethics to our previous Governor. “Hold me accountable.”, said Sarah. Thank you Governor, I will.
The other aspect is she has wracked up supposedly close to $600,000 in her own personal legal defense fees if we are to believe her own unbelievable and as yet uncorrected and sickeningly named “Alaska Fund Trust” legal defense fund website. This is HER private debt to HER lawyers.
The majority of the amount, as is similar to the costs revealed earlier today by the SOAPB for their half of the grievance, is no doubt for the payment of her own self-disclosure investigation by the Personnel Board into ‘Troopergate’.
If she or anyone else has a problem with the legal fees associated with any of this circus, I suggest the proper venue for ethics or fee grievances is the Alaska Bar Association. 😉
-Laz
I don’t really wanna go back and look but is that a petard Palin was wearing in the RW article? Looks like she’s getting hoisted by her own after reading this column about the costs.
Perhaps it is time for Alaskans to ask Palin to reimburse them for all the frivolity she’s involved in.
thanks Lee323! Those suckers…although since Dobson chose her in the first place, I guess it follows.
Wolfpack…good points. Perhaps the church is the root of her narcissism or borderline personality issues…according to theory, before the disorder develops, a trauma of abuse or neglect a during childhood occurs. Maybe the true Sarah was killed off during one of those freaky sermons…or speaking in tongues…or being told that she caused jesus to be hung on a cross. OK, I’m done with my five cent analysis 🙂
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:22 PM “Is it true that the huge legal bills from Troopergate are a result of a very expensive legal team in Texas that was “given” to Palin during the campaign…and then suddenly submitted a bill after the wardrobe fiasco?”
—————————————-
My understanding is that the legal team from Texas (legal branch of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family) was engaged by the McCain campaign to help throw Troopergate off the rails. The $187,000 of legal work billed by this team was paid for by the Dobson foundation. Thus, Palin did not have to add it to her own legal expenses. Apparently, all of the alleged $600,000 of her legal expenses still to be paid are above and beyond that “free” work done by the Texas legal team.
If there has been a change to the above information…..I’m not aware of it.
I have read about Palin as the mayor of Wassila, and I suppose I was wondering more about whether that is a case of looking back in hindsight. Why didn’t this stuff about her mayoral career come out in the Governors election or did it? She wasn’t on my radar until her nomination.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Palin is as wacky and narcissistic as they come, but it’s an interesting perspective and so I wondered if it was true or not.
If you read about SP as mayor of Wassila, you’ll find she was always a wackadoodle. Indoctrinated into the church of the witch doctor at the age of 13.
75 pacos_gal Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:55 PM
I just saw this article in the Christian Science Montior about how Alaskans feel about their Governor.
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/07/02/in-alaska-many-pine-for-the-old-palin/
============================
I don’t think it’s true at all. Palin’s true nature was coming out with the troopergate fiasco shortly before McCain fingered her, I mean picked her for VP.
Palin’s true colors were going to shine through to Alaskans, with or without her VP nomination.
60 wes_ben Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:47 PM
WOW……….flippin’ wow! I can just see the battles for the republican nomination now……………..Palin….palin’ around with Traitors.
Just because Obama wouldn’t qualify her with that (smart move on his part, no attention paid to her at all was perrrfect), doesn’t mean that Romney, Pawlenty and god knows who else by then, would not use this in a heartbeat!
lily f Says: July 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 PM
I know one of the commenters recounted a story about Palin ordering coffee drinks and then not payng the barista “because I don’t carry a wallet.” It made me thing that she must have a different understanding of paying for goods and services.
***
I can’t help but noting that President Obama pulls out the cash from his pocket to pay for EVERYTHING…
@25 Ripley in CT:
How can you tell when Sarah Palin is lying?
Her lipstick encrusted hockey mom lips move.
-Laz
I just saw this article in the Christian Science Montior about how Alaskans feel about their Governor.
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/07/02/in-alaska-many-pine-for-the-old-palin/
It basically makes a comparison between how things were before she was nominated for VP vs after she was nominated. Her position on issues are wildly different once she embraces the hard core conservative positions, which she did not seem to have prior. In fact I would say that the person who was Governor prior wasn’t a bad Governor. She was in fact more of a centrist according to this article.
I’d like to here what Alaskans think of this article.
In my opinion it just goes to show what can happen when power and greed over come a persons normal morals and beliefs. It’s sad really and we have all seen it happen to many who are exposed to the world of the powerful.
Would most of these ethics complaints have happened if she had remained the person who was voted into office and not this other person that Alaskans now can’t recognize as the one they voted for originally?
13 Lori in Los Angeles Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:25 PM
I have always wondered WHY, since SP WAS found GUILTY OF ABUSE OF POWER by the Legislators, that no punishment (not even a slap on the wrist) was meted. I agree AKM – why spend the $75,000 if there are zero repercussions for the guilty finding? Why don’t the Legislators impeach? What are they afraid of?
GUILTY of abuse of power, GUILTY of taking $ for children’s travels and having to pay some of it back, GUILTY of abuse of per diems – and NOTHING is done about all of this? Did Alaskans for Truth confront the Legs on the WHY of allowing GINO’s abuses without consequences????
“The issue lacks the political will.” There were a few legislators who would have been willing to pursue consequences, but the majority of them were not. AKM
==============================================
What about the will of the people? They are who elect the legislators after all.
It is obvious that the legislators have no intestinal fortitude whatsoever and the citizens of Alaska have paid a MUCH higher price than the $75,000 in a wasted investigation.
They are responsible for all of Palin’s shenanigans from that time forward.
Every dirty deed Palin does, weighs as much on their shoulders as hers.
They were the ONLY ones able to stop her, on behalf of the citizens of Alaska.
Instead they sniveled into their sleeves, slightly fearful of McCain’s political machine, but for the most part LAZY.
It takes rolling up your sleeves and getting down to it, a little dirt and sweat.
How the hell else do you accomplish anything worth while, without great effort?
Can you tell they disgust me?
When Palin did not wan to accept the stimulus funds, who was it that came on this blog, suggesting to kiss Palin’s a$$, in order to convince her to take it?
What did the legislators in other states do?
If the Alaska legislators put in HALF the effort and caring that AKM, and the list of AK bloggers too long to mention, do……..Alaska would be paradise north.
@21 Wolfpack
Their salary for a 90 day session and pretty much having to be a legislator 24/7 the rest of the year even when working their own separate non-governmental jobs was something like $25K a year and less per diem than the Governor WHO ALSO GAVE HERSELF A RAISE gets $125K a year from the state. Thus you have guys like former legislator Vic Koring who was documented as spending A LOT of time sleeping on his office couch as opposed to actually living somewhere while working in Juneau, caught on camera begging for a couple thousand bucks of survival money from Veco’s Bill Allen.
-Laz
Lol, lynnrockets, I should have known I could count on you!
There’s strength in numbers, Alaskans!
@ nswfm CA #63
I second that emotion.
The two top State Health Officials quit because they refused to obey SP and say her proposal is safe and in the best public health interest. Her proposal is to make it a law that girls younger than 18 have to get parental consent for an abortion.
Also on ADN is article on SP’s attempt to by-pass the legislature and put parental consent for abortion of girls younger than 18 yrs old on the ballot for voters to decide.
The AK Supreme Court has previously found such a law (denying medical care and evasion of privacy) illegal.
I second that about bashing Alaskans…its just their misfortune she is the gino, she doesn’t represent them.
Is it true that the huge legal bills from Troopergate are a result of a very expensive legal team in Texas that was “given” to Palin during the campaign…and then suddenly submitted a bill after the wardrobe fiasco?
Her latest tweets:
# AKns deserve opportunity to be heard on this important family issue. Read more @ http://bit.ly/12NpZrabout 3 hours ago from web
#
Sign me up: LG’s office certified Parent Notification initiative. I’m ready to be 1st in line to sign petition supporting AK’s families.
Perhaps her clearing out of two women in the Department of Health area had to do with this? Reduce the number of people in opposition so she looks like she is leading a united front? We can’t forget those numbers- all the people she’s thrown under the very crowded bus.
Don’t bash Alaskans. It’s not nice. Thank you!
Maybe GINO’s legal expense went up b/c all the time van Flea has been doing CYA on eddie smurkes show???
Do you think he’s doing it for free? And he HAS been on there quite a bit.
tsk,tsk,tsk… lalalalalalalalalala she doesn’t care…just like the free coffee the grifter know the idiots of rabid rats 4 piss will pay!
I think FX channel, should bring back the Riches, but change alittle to “The Palins” the “grifters”
It would be huge!
To all the barristas out there….make the Queen pay for her coffee! She can afford it. Who the H-E-double toothpick does she thinks she is? She charges us per diem to sleep in her own house cuz she won’t move to Juneau where she belongs and now she is bumming coffee off everyone? Sickening……
I second that! Perhaps we should approach them with the idea 😉
Please someone explain why GINO has incurred personal attorney fees amounting to almost $600,000 to defend against ethics complaints that were deemed ‘frivolous’? If the personnel board has dismissed complaints….(an aside; each time I try to type “complaint” it comes out compalin.. first)…..then why can I not assume that no personal attorney’s time was needed? Surely her attys did not sit in on Board meetings–and clock billable hours– to persuade them to dismiss complaints before they were investigated. Surely nothing like that might have happened……….(snark). In the case of Travelgate, where GINO agreed to pay $8000ish back, I can perhaps see why her atty got involved to work out the deal, but, then, doesn’t that show that it WASN’T frivolous compalining (he he he) and it’s not the public’s fault that a complaint was legitimate and she needed her atty to make a deal? In fact, doesn’t it show that the public was doing an excellent job of making her keep her campaign promise of clean/transparent govt??
The Troopergate case is so in a league of it’s own that it hardly seems fair to lump it in with the others. Obviously it had merit and obviously it needed to be investigated and obviously she was in need of making it go away once she was selected VP candidate, so to blame any of Troopergate on the pesty public and to lump it in with other citizen complaints that she claimed were frivolous is ridiculous.
If not, I’m nominating her. Anyone care to second it?
Is SP the new Crooks and Liars Mascot?
I think it is a given that when someone doesn’t think facts and truth matter, they project that attitude onto everyone else. I’m guessing that she just assumes that whatever she says will be taken to be true.
Perhaps that works with her “base” but the rest of the intelligent universe will call her on it. She must be shocked about now how many thoughtful, reasonable and intelligent people “out there” are paying attention to her nonsense.
Interesting post on Crooks & Liars by the guy who started the secessionist thing on CNN (David Neiwert). Remember how Schmidt said no one had contacted Palin’s office? Turns out, he did and, surprise, he never got a response.
http://crooksandliars.com/node/29344
Excerpt:
UPDATE: You’ll note that Palin’s staff appears to be claiming that they received no inquiries about this matter. Schmidt’s memo observes: “According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews.”
Well, it’s true that we didn’t communicate directly with Palin’s staff, but that’s mainly because we could only contact them through the McCain/Palin campaign at the time. I phoned them as the story neared completion and asked them for comment, and was told that I needed to send an e-mail to the main press address for the campaign. So here’s the e-mail I sent to the McCain campaign people on Oct. 9:
To: press@mccain
From: David Neiwert
My name is David Neiwert; I’m a freelance journalist based in Seattle. Max Blumenthal and I spent some time in Alaska the past few weeks going through public records and talking to local residents in Wasilla and elsewhere about Gov. Palin. We’ve put together a report that will be published shortly at Salon.com.
We wanted to know if the McCain campaign cared to comment on our findings so we could include that in the story. I called your press office at headquarters this morning and they suggested I send an e-mail.
Essentially here’s what we found:
* That Gov. Palin, when a Wasilla city council member, formed an alliance with some of the more radical far-right citizens in Wasilla and vicinity, particularly members of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party who were allied with local John Birch Society activists. These activists played an important role in her election as Wasilla mayor in 1996.
* Once mayor, one of Mrs. Palin’s first acts was to attempt to appoint one of these extremists (a man named Steve Stoll) to her own seat on the city council. This was a man with a history of disrupting city council meetings with intimidating behavior. She was blocked by a single city council member.
* Afterward, Mrs. Palin fired the city’s museum director at the behest of this faction.
* She fomented an ultimately successful effort to derail a piece of local gun-control legislation which would simply have prohibited the open carry of firearms into schools, liquor stores, libraries, courthouses and the like. The people recruited to shout this ordinance down included these same figures, notably the local AIP representative (who became the AIP’s chairman that same year).
* She remained associated politically with the local AIP/Birch faction throughout her tenure as mayor on other issues, particularly a successful effort to amend the Alaska Constitution to prohibit local governments from issuing any local gun-control ordinances.
In general, we found that not only did Mrs. Palin have numerous associations with these extremists, she actively sought to empower them locally and to enact their agendas both locally and on a state level.
We’d like to know if you have any comment on these findings. We hope to hear from you soon.
David Neiwert
Seattle
I received no response to this e-mail whatsoever.
If your story about not paying for coffee is true– and I certainly have seen plenty of pictures of Sarah holding her Starbucks cup– why don’t they just send her a bill, with the notation that it will be turned over to a collection agency if not paid by a certain time. When we saw President Obama and Vice President Biden out for lunch eating hamburgers, I recall seeing the President pay for lunch. He even left a $5. tip. It looks nicer to be the big sport and pay, rather than stiff some hard working barista for a freebie.
Not Quiet on the Arctic Front
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#31716580
@ sandipants #55
I’m in. My email is on the way.
NY Dem, its not that simple. If a recall was started now, her term would be up before it would be completed. At this point only the legislature can do anything, and as AKM pointed out, they lack the will to impeach.
We said “Enough” to Murkowski and spanked him out of office. Crossover votes that went to Palin as a new face on the political scene will never go her way again.
And she barely beat Knowles even with those votes. Had Andrew Halcro not been in the race, his votes would have gone to Tony and she would have lost.
It may come to another pubic spanking should she run again in the primary. Those that changed party to ensure Murkowski lost the nomination are very likely to do the same and take Palin down.
Here’s a suggestion – let’s all send an email to the “media inquiries” email at Alaska Fund Trust, which goes to Kristan Cole. Let her know that the statement on the home page of their website “These baseless accusations have cost Alaska more than $1 million in public monies to defend, and Governor Palin has incurred more than half a million dollars in personal debt defending her official actions as Governor.”, are way off. Oh, about 70% off. Let them know we’re looking forward to seeing their updates on the home page, apologizing for such a gross error. Let them also know that we all assume the “half million” Palin owes is probably overstated by 70% as well. Flood the email box. Remind Kristan and her unscrupulous grifter pal that they are liars, cheats, and cons.
Ethics, schmethics….
I can just imagine the self-pity Palin is seething with over the failure of her cee peers to raise money for the Queen. Never will she reflect upon her own actions, nor appreciate what the cee peers have done for her thus far.
And as we see all of the time with these types of narcissists, the cee peers will simply try harder to please the Queen. It’s truly sad, but I almost can’t blame them. We’ve all been taken in a time or two. I just can’t understand how they can be so taken in by this sham of a “reformer”, who lies almost every time she opens her mouth.
It seems to me that Little Miss Sunshine does not allow actual facts to interfere with the story/message as she wants it to be told. If she wants the story to be that that state paid millions of dollars then so be it. This is much like her ignoring the fact that the full name of the A.I.P. appeared on the voter registration filing document so that she could falsely claim that First Dude intended to register as an Independent. We could go on and on with many other examples of this behavior on her part.
@NY Dem #47
you and me, both…I just don’t understand.
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/070209/sta_458205028.shtml
VERY telling article!!!!
lily f Says: July 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 PM
I know one of the commenters recounted a story about Palin ordering coffee drinks and then not payng the barista “because I don’t carry a wallet.” It made me thing that she must have a different understanding of paying for goods and services.
I saw that too…forget which thread it was. But whoever it was, tell your family member to make sure that every time SP does this, that a time/date stamped photo/video is done.
a) These freebies could be considered gifts….depending on AK law, one or two won’t be a problem (low $$$), but tons of them? Same for IRS.
b) A few of these pix/videos running around might just shame her into paying for her stuff…not just at that one store, because if she’s doing it there, I would imagine there are probably a dozen or more other places with the same “problem”, and who knows what those places are giving away.
c) As a former state gov’t (not AK) tax auditor, under certain situations, “free/complimentary” food/beverage items are subject to use tax. That is, the sales tax rate in effect where the ‘sale’ took place, but charged against the cost price of the item(s) (ex: coffee grinds, cups, etc), not what would have been the sales price received.
I hooked many a restaurant/bar/beverage place on use taxes for “free” items that met my state’s specific law.
palin is no different from a jerry falwell or jim bakker…she’s a liar, out of touch, and uses the kool-aid drinkers for their money and to push her agenda.
…a pathetic excuse for a human being.
It truly amazes me that any of us think that our words (or deeds) are private anymore, especially if we are at all in the public eye. We e-mail, blog, video, twitter, use our cell phones to text and take pictures, book trips using our cc, use our library card and our Kroger card. We can all run, but none of us can hide anymore (at least not for long).
Which makes sarah’s and sanford’s justifications all that more pathetic (and funny).
I can’t believe Palin is still in office in Alaska with all the BS she has pulled.
I’m starting to lose respect for the people of Alaska for just sitting back and letting her continue to make all of you a laughing stock.
Day after day goes by, and we in the Lower 48 are all STILL waiting for the shoe to drop, and something substantial to stick to her once and for all.
When are the good people of Alaska going to rise up and say “ENOUGH” !
The only time the State of Alaska spends millions of dollars on lawyering is when they’re suing the federal government.
A shout-out to the silent but hard-working Sullivan the Younger . . . . .
Numbers Shmumbers.
Facts Schmacts.
Palin’s quote in the Vanity Fair article: “Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I’m amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, Does any of this really matter?”
Apparently not….at least not in the grand plot of the self-produced “The Prime of Miss Sarah Heath Palin” fantasy version of reality.
lily f,
sounds like my x you are describing!
The relative small amount of money and time the State paid to investigate the so called “frivilous” complaints versus the Troopergate investigation, could shows how little importance the ethics committee gave to these complaints. Their decision may have been already decided before they even began their “investigation”. A committee of individuals appointed by the legislature and independent from the govenor is needed to help insure the investigations are unbiased. The committee should be comprised of 5 to 7 individuals appointed for life. The firing for “cause” can always be trump up charges the governor creates with evidence supported by her staff.
OK then. Do we have Hollis French’s email address? Let’s all ask him.
I picture Palin’s relationship with the legislature like one where there is an extremely uptight, vindictive, screamy partner and then a soft-spoken, appeasing nurturing partner. Whenever it seems like they should call her out and just say, “enough”, she probably gives them some sort of nonverbal cue and they just cower and say, “yes dear.”
Rumor has it that Trig’s grandmother, Sarah (gino the grifter) is looking to hire a few good people to assist in lugging around all the excess baggage!
You Betcha!
Wink Wink!
Oink Oink!
Martha UAYS, “ACK” is a perfectly acceptable word. Just ask Bill the Cat. It just implies that you have a hairball stuck in your throat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_the_Cat
Her penchant for dissembling, distorting and outright lying actually seems to work. She throws enough curveballs to keep lots of people from believing the truth. This is very scary, this dynamic, that would-be servant leaders can chronically dissemble and lots of people don’t care.
It is really scary to see her continue to behave the way she does. I would have thought that her exposure to the national limelight would have at least taught her to be more disciplined in her lies.
Or maybe she has learned that the saying ‘all publicity if good publicity’ is true. She keeps getting away with her lying and no one, thus far, has managed to hold her accountable. Your state legislature declined to do anything about her abuse of power in Troopergate. And people donate money to her legal defense funds so those people ‘believe’ in her.
it is so very hard for me to believe she seems to keep getting supporters.
ACK! How can you believe ANYTHING she says? ACK isn’t even a word, but thinking about my governor makes me say ACK anyway. That’s what she does – she is so dumb that she just boggles the mind. Clever, but DUMB. Makes one make up words one has never heard or seen before…
Some time ago I asked Hollis French if anyone advocated Palin more than he did. He didn’t take kindly to my question and he characterized me. I told him thanks a lot. I think he was her strongest advocate for a while.
Democrats blew it during the first year or two of Palin’s administration. I couldn’t believe it. They provided her with her self promoting fuel.
As far as numbers go, Palin claimed the State had spent millions of dollars on ethics complaints. Huh? What kind of math did they teach in Wasilla?
frivolous smivolous, Bible Spice should have to pay, and she is the frivolous one. Makes me laugh that her complaint is the ones that stuck. And don’t forget about travel-gate, she got hit with that one too.
MSM should be reporting the frivolity of Bible Spice. She’s such a knucklebutt, and her followers still think she’s just swell.
I so hope this thread goes viral. =)
Thank you AKM for keeping up with your guvernor’s daily antics.
Maybe Palin’s attorney told her the cost was millions of dollars in order to justify his legal fees.
I think it’s interesting that the repubs who want “the Lover” out as Gov. of SC were psychoanalyzing him & calling for his resignation. They think he’s mentally ill & narcissistic…..why of why haven’t the politicians in Alaska been able to see the serious flaws in their governor. I agree with Bubbles…I think it’s meltdown time.
and the text teaser beneath videos of her: “Not quiet on the Arctic Front”
topic right now on Countdown: Palin’s war on truth.
rebekkah,
I asked the same question in my post at PA about this, when her original twitter came out.
So… it looks like roughly speaking by just glancing at those 3 complaints that were Hers. GINO’s 3 complaints were 250K out of the 296 K total.
What percentage was HER complaints.? Has someone done the math..? about 85%..?
With about 46K left…And if you average that amount by about 10 complaints, that is about $4,600 each.
OK… WHO is wasting the taxpayer money…?
Bob Poe has written guest posts here. Les Gara has too. Why don’t we encourage Hollis French to come to the Mudflats and explain why the legislature couldn’t get squat together this past session to rein in this nutty jogger. It would make some interesting reading. I surely intend to ask Hollis questions along that line when he start showing up at Democratic Party events.
Just wondering about Palin’s mention of a two-year period, and the Personnel Board Commission’s only mentionning expenses of a 1 year period. SP claims that it was in the millions for ethics complaints, etc. in the last two years, while the Personnel Board reveals expenses for 1 year. Could the 2-year time frame that Palin speaks include some unmentioned legal investigations and lawsuits that Alaskans aren’t aware of?
hi everbody. it seems to me that the inmates are not only running the asylum: they have succeeded in conquering the world. if it weren’t for akm and fellow bloggers and the mudflats community. i would be seriously chagrined. ms. palin is in terrible turmoil now. her reality is crumbling and the reality that most of the rest of us share keeps intruding into her world. that is not good in her terms. we are also seeing narcissistic meltdowns all over the united states. time to take a good long look at the people we send to represent us in the corridors of power…b
I read about this somewhere yesterday. Did she really think that nobody would find out she was lying? Come ON.
#3 Say No
“alaskaunderthebus”
Yes, instead vindictive actions against groups & people, she now throwing the whole darn state under the bus. I would think even conservative Alaskans would be getting the picture.
The shnumbers I want to see are the latest polls in AK.
Queenie Scarah …Feels that she is entitled to do whatever she wants, and to hell with everyone else..Iv’e seen this in so many people…Never a good outcome..
The Legislators did nothing and Palin doubled their salaries. Sounds like they got paid off.
Only slightly off-topic:
“Two top Alaska health officials leave posts.
From the article –
(Public Health Division Director Bev) Wooley sent an e-mail to her staff saying her departure was “per Governor Palin’s request.”
Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow, however, denied the governor was involved in Wooley’s departure…
Hmmm… someone here isn’t giving the press the straight scoop.
Based on past experience, which person (Wooley or Palin) do you think is “bending the truth” a little?
@0whole1 #5: 🙂
@Dr. Patois #8: EXACTLY!
L in LA,
Because the legislature was and still is totally spinelessly afraid of Sarah Palin. Unlike AKM, CD, Shannyn, Andree, Frank Gwartney, and a few others.
I’ve felt all along that Doogan outed AKM as much to suck up to Palin, as he did as payback for the brilliant Mudflats article on Christmas Eve about Doogan’s pathetic dealings with his constituents.
I wish there was a way to compel Palin’s attorney to give a breakdown of what her expenses have cost her in that realm.
Alaska, may have a few good legislators, but the rest may be cut from the mold of Stevens and Young.
#5 Owhole1, you so right! (love Pratchett) Maybe she got confused by the zeros, thought that $296, 000 = 296 MILLION dollars….or she’s just a liar…
Good question, Lori. Why nothing?
I know one of the commenters recounted a story about Palin ordering coffee drinks and then not payng the barista “because I don’t carry a wallet.” It made me thing that she must have a different understanding of paying for goods and services. I wonder how one just tells one’s admirers, “I have x-amount of legal bills…can you help me pay them?” I have to say, I wouldn’t trust someone unless they could show me how much debt they had. Can she prove how much money she owes? What can be proven from her history of taking clothing from the McCain campaign (as one Newsweek reporter said, just one step away from stealing) and enjoying perks from her husband’s snow machine “career” by taking equipment and outfits, is that she seems to feel entitled to “help” from others. I think if I amassed a legal debt, the person paying that would be…me.
I have always wondered WHY, since SP WAS found GUILTY OF ABUSE OF POWER by the Legislators, that no punishment (not even a slap on the wrist) was meted. I agree AKM – why spend the $75,000 if there are zero repercussions for the guilty finding? Why don’t the Legislators impeach? What are they afraid of?
GUILTY of abuse of power, GUILTY of taking $ for children’s travels and having to pay some of it back, GUILTY of abuse of per diems – and NOTHING is done about all of this? Did Alaskans for Truth confront the Legs on the WHY of allowing GINO’s abuses without consequences????
“The issue lacks the political will.” There were a few legislators who would have been willing to pursue consequences, but the majority of them were not. AKM
ds55 Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:07 PM
“The state charges a fee for public records requests, so it’s not an expense. Heck, with the high fees they charge it should be counted as income.”
Keep in mind…we don’t know that they always charge the fee! They may only charge when it is records they don’t want released. I think the fee system is very much in question in terms of reasonableness and in terms of fairness. We will know a little more about all that when Celtic Diva gets the records she is requesting, though!
It’s just part and parcel of her lying about any damn thing, if the lie makes for a better story.
“The ethics complaints cost a lot of money.”
“HOW MUCH WAS IT?”
“It was so much, I had to start writing IOUs for my IOUs…”
Also too, she has the moon in her pocket.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy49Yea3iZc
I wouldn’t believe *anything* that comes out of her office without 3 forms of documentation and a lie detector test transcript. I wouldn’t believe her say-so if she told me her name.
the first paragraph is Scarah at work, and that’s why women dislike her, we can see through her BS.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/07/palin-and-secrecy.html
“As Palin’s first Juneau press conference as governor was breaking up, she called my wife and me aside. With apparent sincerity she asked us why we had had so much trouble getting public records from previous governors: “Why wouldn’t they want you to have the full story about what they were doing?” It struck me at the time as both naive and refreshing.
Two weeks later I discovered a memorandum from a senior state attorney revealing that a top Palin aide had instructed him to keep documents secret from our newsletter even if the legal basis for doing so was weak or problematic.
A few weeks after that, Meghan Stapleton, Palin’s then-press secretary, told me they were keeping the documents secret because the public might misunderstand them.”
Palin’s never-ending, look-at-me, “everybody hates me/ I’m a victim” campaign has finally attracted some deserved recognition;
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists chose Gov. Sarah Palin last week as the winner of its annual Sitting Duck Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor that pokes fun at “the crème de la crème of the most ridiculed newsmakers in America.”
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/070209/sta_458205398.shtml
Please note that the costs listed for the supposed “frivolous” complaints cost much less than an FOIA request for a few emails.
Great comments John, once again the Alaskan people got screwed again!!
At least the next leg session won’t be a cake walk like her first……they got her number now.
Palin counts like a Discworld troll: One. Two. Many. Lots. Many-one. Many-two. Many-Many. Many-Lots…..
The state charges a fee for public records requests, so it’s not an expense. Heck, with the high fees they charge it should be counted as income.
Alaskaunderthebusgate……..wake up everyone.
What did we get for our $75,000? We learned that the Governor and her husband were jointly running the state. We learned about personal e-mail accounts used to avoid public records act disclosures. We learned about vindictiveness. The learned that our Governor really doesn’t understand that there are boundaries between personal issues and state business. While the legislature didn’t try to impeach her, I do think we got our money’s worth.
Gino is a fraud.