A 263-page report released Friday by lawmakers in Alaska found that Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had herself exerted pressure to get Trooper Michael Wooten dismissed, as well as allowed her husband and subordinates to press for his firing, largely as a result of his temperament and past disciplinary problems.Lots of us like Sarah Palin and have high hopes for her in this election and the next, but let's resist the impulse to slough off this report. It means something.
October 11, 2008
"Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers."
The NYT reports:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
266 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 266 of 266WTF does that mean? It's habitat.
More tautological reasoning meant to shut down, not promote, discussion.
Is there anyplace on earth that isn't habitat? Your bed is habitat to millions of mites. Los Angeles is habitat. The bottom of the ocean is habitat. The earth is teeming with living things, even in the most extreme environments.
Calling ANWR habitat is no more descriptive than calling it "land."
Are there endangered species in this habitat? Then they will be protected. That's the law. Is there unique geology, climate, scenery? Then it will also be preserved. Further, any damage caused by the drilling infrastructure will have to be mitigated. That's the law, too. We do have environmental protections in this country that will apply to ANWR as well as any other open space.
Have a little faith in the environmentalists that came before you krylovite. They got a lot done and the country and the planet are far better off for it. The whole point of these protections was to use the best scientific to achieve balance between/among competing needs. There's no reason to think we would ever backtrack on those protections, because most of them are enshrined into law.
hey under the fridge is my habitat
and i don t want any stinking
oil wells there either
and you know what they make out of oil
--raid--
that s what they make out of oil
it s no good i tell you
Without knowing much of what drilling in AK is all about, I am still 100% sure that what Amy (krylovite) is saying is 100% bullshit.
Troopergate. Todd Palin is a wanker who Sarah Palin should have had the good sense to rein in at the outset. By not doing so she brought the entire mess on herself. The one person who was giving her useful information, that conversations were 'discoverable', she chose to ignore then fire. George Bush in a skirt indeed!
Todd Palin needs a job.
hmmm
there are 60 million acres of federal leased land Oil copanies ae NOT drilling
how does it feel to be so stupid GOPers?
re: sign knocked down
did you file a police compliant?
no evidence?
trevor jackson-
can you point to actual instances--now, listen carefully because they're very different--of fraud at the polls, not voter registration fraud?
Dead people voting...
Amy,
Just like I said during the VP debate....even though Joe sounds like he knows a whole lot, I have no doubt that much of it was simple nonsense....which turned out to be true. It's the same with you...I don't have to know ANYTHING about drilling in AK to know most of what you are saying is nonsense. Sorry about that kiddo.
Donn--
You know, I hadn't considered the possibility that Biden was seeing into the future.
Maybe in the future France and the USA will kick Hezbollah out out of Lebanon.
Amy:
Quack, Quack, Quack.
See, even though I know nothing about ducks, it sure is easy to spot one. Keep on quacking Amy.
Amy,
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Toodles.
Blake,
No, I hadn't considered that, but now that you mention it........
Dead people voting...
These would be McCain voters.
Convicted plagarist Michael wrote:
Here's something that should tell people about what kind of person Sarah Palin really is: yada yada...
Your recitation Frank Rich's reasoning makes it sound like a skid mark of a smear of which isn't going to leave a stain after the wash cycle.
I hope Althouse links to the original because I refuse to go look for it.
I know that Rich writes for the NYT. I used to subscribe.
Your committed plagarism several days ago on a different thread as called out by Simon. It looked bad and I and others agreed.
This is my last communication with you. Time to cook some chow for the kids.
I respect Pickens, but I also respect what he says in context.
The context being the massive subsidies he's getting for his wind project.
Yours, TDP, ml, msl, & pfpp
Are Krylovite and Michael the same person? Krylovite, you're a new commenter. I will allow you 3 comments a day until you establish yourself as a non-troll. That means you need to show that you care about the conversation and are not her to insult people.
Oh, screw it. Krylovite was a troll from Post 1. Go away. All your posts will be deleted.
Oh well, Ann, looks like your kids--I mean, your commenters--have disappointed you once again. When does "abuse of power" not mean "abuse of power"? When it happens in right-wing reality.
You can lead a horse to water, Ann...
When is "bipartisan" not "bipartisan"? When a panel with a majority of Republicans on it can't convince you nuts.
I'm just joining this conversation but if insulting people is a crime her then I have some regulars for you to ban. Of course, they're right-wingers, so...never mind!
Because near as I can tell, the Wooten issue was before she was governor at all.
The messy divorce and initial attempt to get Wooten fired occurred before Sarah Palin became governor. The attempts were renewed once she became governor, as she tried to use her clout in the fine old Chicago tradition.
But for some reason Democrats won't support drilling for energy in their own country.
When ANWR+offshore became an issue this summer, I remember reading that they constituted a total of three years' supply at the 2005 consumption rate. If their oil were available today, the price of gasoline at the pump would be reduced by 3 cents a gallon.
Personally I would save that oil for a rainy day, say when oil was $250 or $500 a gallon.
The current economic crisis has depressed the price of oil.
krylovite has posted here before, but her personal attacks are impolite to say the least.
Voter registration fraud defrauds ACORN as much as anyone else, as they paid their canvassers by the registered voter. Checking for fraudulent voter signatures (on nominating petitions) was how Obama skated to his first electoral victory, so presumably he's aware of this issue.
That was actually kind of fun, for a second, there, up around # 200, with krylovite and Michael talking to each other. For a very limited value of "fun."
Nice to see, I mean, hear from, the cockroach. How are you doing with that MacBook Air? You are still jumping on the keys, and that's good. Am I thinking conspiratorially if I note that the cockroach's many-greats grandfather's name was archy, and that the name of our occasional ghostly visitor is Archy? Gotta be coincidence, you bet.
Nick: When an oil company leases land, it does not know at the time that it takes the lease that there is any oil there. The company is speculating. Any kind of prospecting is like that: you look anywhere, but you don't start digging until you find sign. You seem to think that oil companies should drill in places where, after doing the survey work, they do not think there is oil. That's just silly.
Michael is really Luckyoldson who is blogging under a new name. If he is banned he will just make up a new name and keep pooping in the comments.
Krylovite seems to be a lot more normal, although I must admit I didn't see this post until after her stuff was deleted. She posts under her name and seems to be an ok person with a good sense of humor. She is just young. She is just hanging out with bad companions. I think she will grow out of it. I would give her a break. But that's just me.
Also, Krylovite can you go back to that avatar where you flash your cootch. Thank you.
Maybe someone else has pointed it out to Trevor, but the threat to Palin's father by Wooten was witnessed.
But the howler in all this is Obama can train ACORN workers in Saul Alinsky's intimidation techniques ("community organizing" at its finest) so they can disturb meetings and take over bank offices to force loans to unqualified people. Ans Branchflower can speculate about the "pressure" felt by Wooten.
In fact, Wooten publically stated there was no pressure. (Until he was identified as being a useful idiot for the PDS folks.)
IIRC Wooten, a part of her administration, opposed her budget cuts and attemped to undercut her authority by speaking publically against them.
Well....I'm grateful for Sarah Palin.
She has illuminated the ideological atrocity that the GOP became when James Dobson's head was grafted onto Thomas Jefferson's right shoulder.
Right now the hideous twoheaded monster staggers along....dripping pus from it's supporating wounds...but eventually one head will rot and fall off.
Palin has accelerated the process by fracturing the GOP along the intellectual fault line.
Pretty much all the rightside intelligentsia can see Palin is a demagogue....just not everyone can say it.
ACORN has help wanted ads on Craig's List every day, often in multiple categories throughout Long Beach, LA, etc. I remember first seeing the ads several months ago but the job descriptions were always so vague and the pay was, of course, minimum wage, so I never applied.
It's no surprise to me that they are having problems. They're hiring people at $8/hour who are looking for work on Craig's List, for crissakes. And I've heard that the workers get bonuses for registering more voters, so of course they make up names.
This has nothing to do with Obama, it's just that people who look for work on Craig's List have no morals. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
ZPS,
I've gotten work off Craig's List (not minimum wage) and known many fine businesses to advertise there.
Gutless.
I enjoyed Thomas Friedman's meltdown a few days ago, when he wrote...
"How in the world can conservative commentators write with a straight face that this woman should be vice president of the United States? Do these people understand what serious trouble our country is in right now?"
I'd say that was written after four beers, not three.
Each side thinks the other is barking mad.
Hector: Yes, but there's another nuance: It may be not so much that there's no oil in a particular "there," but that it's adjudged either not sufficiently profitable to retrieve it or even more trouble (read, a net loss) to retrieve it.
reader_iam: Thank you, yes. That's a better stated version of what I was getting at. The main point being, and I hope you will agree with this, that oil companies take leases on areas that look like they might be productive. After some surveying work is done, the likelihood of productivity seems to be more, or less. In the cases where the likelihood seems less, the company still has a lease, but is unwilling to commit the resources required to drill. If it seems unlikely that there's a profit to be made, there's no point in making the investment. I do believe we are in agreement on this, but I may be too clumsy a writer to say exactly what I mean.
Or to recast it: you look for change under the sofa cushions. If you don't find any, you don't disassemble the sofa, you start looking somewhere else.
Does that get it?
But what all this about oil companies' leases has to do with this self-evidently politically motivated report about Gov. Palin's efforts to remove a clearly unfit trooper from the state police force just beats me. Topics drift; but sometimes threads get sidetracked.
Lots of us like Sarah Palin and have high hopes for her in this election and the next, but let's resist the impulse to slough off this report. It means something.
It means that the maverick reformer made enemies, who now are trying to do some damage, exact some revenge.
Michael is really Luckyoldson who is blogging under a new name.
No way. Michael is merely predictable, partisan and bitter.
Luckyoldson was all that but by comparison Michael is a genius.
It would be funny, though, if they were the same person. I just complimented him by insulting him.
The main point being, and I hope you will agree with this, that oil companies take leases on areas that look like they might be productive. After some surveying work is done, the likelihood of productivity seems to be more, or less.
What's wrong with these evil oil companies? Why don't they use their x-ray vision?
The Alaska governor's office response:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/10/alaska-governors-office-responds-to-troopergate-report/
Haven't read it all, but I did find this had some interesting details:
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/pdf/IvySubpoenaResponses.pdf
Correction: jal 8:32
I meant Monegan, I typed Wooten.
Mea culpa
chickenlittle said:
Ever play Tourette's euchre?
LOL. Depends on the partner. ;-)
What's wrong with these evil oil companies? Why don't they use their x-ray vision?
One of these days, and it won't be long, if Western Civilization doesn't collapse in the meantime, we'll have a working deep radar, which will help a lot with this kind of thing.
I probably over-reacted to Amy (krylovite) but she was very rude to JS, who is one of the most reasonable commenters here, and after dealing with Michael the last few days, I wasn't in a very good mood. Usually, I can ignore most left-wing trolls who seem to show up for a day or so.
GO RAYS! Great game!!!
John Stodder:
I thought her answer made sense, although it would help me to know what question she was answering. The idea behind it makes sense.
The question was from a woman who floated some nutty notion that 75% of Alaska's oil is being exported to China.
ann--thank you for cleaning out the augean stables. much appreciated
I just want to point out that Cedarford is very wrong here:
Alpha Liberal, determined to convince others that he is stupid:
This abuse of power is illegal. Not using public office for personal gain is also one of the simplest concepts of ethical and responsible governance to grasp.
These are facts.
Despite the report saying, and Althouse noting it in her post - that no laws were broken.
The very first finding in the report states that Governor Sarah Palin violated the "Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."
A later finding says the firing of Monegan was not illegal. Using her office, or her husband and staff doing same, to pressure for her BIL's firing was ILLEGAL.
Cedarford, you are lying. You want to pretend that violating a law is not illegal. You have nothing of substance to back up this bizarre claim.
You can find the report here. Go to page 8 to see these findings. (The text cannot be copied out).
I have backed up my statement thoroughly and restrained myself from using insults in kind.
And I did say in the post above that Cedarford was lying. That implies Cedarford knows what he's talking about and is not just engaged in knee jerk denial.
So, ignorance may be a much more likely explanation. There's certainly abundant evidence to support that conclusion.
Newsweek also considers breaking a law to mean behaving illegally:
A new Alaska legislative report finding that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power and violated state ethics laws spells new trouble for the McCain campaign.
This article also shows how Palin lied about the Troopergate scandal. She is not fit to be VP.
And here you can see Chris Wallace of FoxNews clearly state that Palin acted illegally.
This notion that she was cleared by the report is a blatant lie from the McCain-Palin campaign.
'Blog Administrator': Thanks for the scrubbing. The neighborhood looks nicer now.
And, more conclusions that a completely false line is being pushed by the Republicans.
This is from ABC News, a very Republican-friendly news outfit.
ABC: "Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions That Are Flatly False"
To the false premise that the report cleared Palin of wrongdoing:
"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."
And, Cedarford said that Ann Althouse supported the notion that the report cleared Palin.
I don't think so. I was bugging her to post on this and this is the first one since the report came out.
So, I don't think Ann Althouse supports the notion that it's not illegal to break the law. Maybe she could clear that up.
Socialists everywhere will jump on this report. The Ivy League illuminati politicians will sway people away from other issues going on by this revelation. Time has proven that focusing on certain issues makes you lose focus on the important issues.
Post a Comment