CNN Right Now - Palin's Ex-Brother Speaks

[TeamJordan23]

On Now.

[MadrasT]

1. "Ex-Brother"??? What's an "Ex-Brother" ???

[Kerrytravelers]

2. I think the OP meant ex-brother-in law.

[MadrasT]

6. Oh, the trooper, Wooten...

[redwitch]

31. all sentient beings want to disown her.

:-)

[DB1]

3. A brother who REALLY got on your bad side.

[tularetom]

4. How can anyone have an "ex-brother"?

He's either her brother or he ain't. But whatever he is he's that for life.

[book_worm]

7. I believe the OP meant ex-brother-in-law which makes sense.

[AspenRose]

5. What's he saying?

[skooooo]

8. yeah tell us what he says!

[book_worm]

9. Well, why start the thread if you won't let us know what he is saying?

[Zenmaster]

10. Its not bad for Palin. Not good for us.

He didn't say much. But he admits to tazering his 11 year old son. This will get no negative results on Palin, regardless of if she abused her power or not just for that simple fact.

[justiceischeap]

11. It could be good for us if the matter was deemed concluded (which it was I think)

And then she pushed it further and fired Monegan.

I could be wrong in my recollection but I think his actions were investigated and then he was suspended. Palin didn't think suspension was enough and wanted him fired... this is where she comes into the matter as the governor.

[Greg K]

13. if she abused her office of governor to put undo pressure to fire someone over a family matter..

that is relevant.

And impeachable.

Whether Governor or VP.

[Zenmaster]

14. I think its probably an abuse of power. But nobody will care.

The undecided people and republicans don't think like you or I do. They will just see it as her trying to protect an 11 year old kid. She will get no negative reaction from this, unfortunately, even though it is clearly an abuse of power and, therefore, a very dangerous person to put into power.

Honestly, if you can seperate the two issues rationally, and are concerned about abuse of power issues, you aren't undecided, or voting for McCain, based on the last 8 years of our government. This issue just doesn't help us.

[book_worm]

12. but that's not the issue. The issue is if she abused her power, no matter what.

by going into private records or whatever. It doesn't mean he's a good guy, but people still have to go about these things legally.

[Tansy_Gold]

16. But it IS the issue to "them."

Do not expect "those people" to respond to logical arguments. They can't process them. They are psychologically incapable of setting aside emotional responses in favor of rational evidence to the contrary.

Therefore, a person who tasers his 11-year-old son or step-son or nephew or whatever can NEVER be right on ANY issue. That act negates any harm that can be done to the perpetrator and innoculates his enemies against any wrong or immoral or illegal thing that they do to him.

DO NOT try to reason with these people. It will NOT work.



Tansy Gold, who has tried far too often

[renie408]

21. I don't *think* I am one of 'those people', but I have a hard time getting

excited about her pressuring to have a state trooper who tasered his 11 year old kid fired...whether he was her brother in law or not.

[Tansy_Gold]

25. As horrible as this is gonna sound and as horrible as I expect to be

flamed over it, I'm gonna say it anyway.


Tasering a child is a horrible thing to do. I personally can't imagine any reason anyone could come up with to justify it. I personally think it should be classified as a form of extreme child abuse and the perpetrator should be charged with a crime. I also certainly believe no one who has committed such a horrible "crime" should be serving in law enforcement.

Mike Wooten may be a perfectly reprehensible character. The Alaska state police department may be riddled with cronyism and mutual codes of protective silence and all that other stuff.

But Sarah Pain didn't lobby against Wooten's continued employment on that basis. She utilized, if what we're seeing in the media and leaked and other information, surrogates to put pressure on his boss to fire him.

She could have, if she were a reformer, launched an investigation into corruption in the state police. She could have done a lot of things to rein in this kind of behavior, either in the individual Mike Wooten or in the ranks of the state police. She did not do that.

Instead, she engaged in personal vendetta, apparently. And that is wrong. It is also counter-productive, since it leaves the social infrastructure in place. The state police remains a self-policing (pun intended) organization.

Remember, too, that after Pain fired Monegan, she replaced him with someone who had ethics problems. Had she truly been interested in "reform," wouldn't she have tried to find someone who would be a true reformer? Was she merely incompetent in her search for a replacement, or did she have ulterior motives, meaning, something along the lines of "I'll keep quiet about the sexual harassment charges against you if you'll fire my ex-brother-in-law." We don't know.

These are, of course, rational arguments. Some people won't be able to look beyond "MY GOD HE TASERED AN 11 YEAR OLD KID!" That's the emotional reaction. And while the emotional reaction may be valid and justified and important, the RATIONAL individual will look beyond that.

Unfortunately, many many voters are NOT able to set themselves outside the emotional standpoint. Many DUers are that way. What we have to understand, IMHO of course, is that many conservatives, many moderates too, will not be able to get past the emotional. ALL OUR ARGUMENTS will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.

Mike Wooten probably shouldn't be serving in law enforcement anywhere. He probably should have been fired a long time ago. But Sarah Pain should not have used unethical means to effect his firing. She was looking out only for what she perceived as the "best" for her family and not for the wider community of Alaska, and certainly not for the even wider community of the US.

But I don't have her supreme arrogance. I don't consider my words to be the final comment on an issue. So I simply sign off as


Tansy Gold

[cyndensco]

15. Damn, how does someone admit to tasering his 11-year-old?

Then again, how does someone taser his 11-year-old? :shrug:

[Bucky]

17. Step one: be a dick. Step two: be a Republican

Step three: be a cop.

[cyndensco]

18. That about sums it up - especially step 3.

:D

[Caribou Barbie]

19. If somebody tasered my child

there would be hell to pay! Nobody could stop me from protecting my child, my niece or nephew, my grand child... family is one of the few things worth dying for.

[Critters2]

23. But not worth taking more than 3 days of maternity leave for.

Or giving up the Governor's Mansion so you can give your 16 yo guidance and education to help prevent an accidental preganancy.

Apparently, Gov. Palin doesn't believe family is worth dying for. Or even paying attention to.

[tabatha]

24. The child asked to be tasered to see what it felt like.

Bad judgment for Wooten - but it was not for any nefarious reason.

[Bucky]

26. It would be safer to lick your finger and stick it in a light socket.

I've done that by the way. You survive it, but it's a lot less deadly than tasering.

[chatnoir]

20. I never realized AK was such an 'out there' state

No offense to any AK DUers but damn, that place is a bit beyond the pale.

[Chan790]

22. This is the strangest story I've ever heard (from newsarticle citing the official report)

the kid asked him to...to demonstrate it to Bristol Palin, of all people.

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html

TASING THE STEPSON

One day -- maybe a year or two before the investigation -- Wooten showed his stepson his Taser. He had just been to Taser instructor school. Wooten told Sgt. Wall that the boy was fascinated and pleaded to be tased.

"So we went in our living room and I had him get down on his knees so he wouldn't fall. And I taped the probes to him and turned the Taser on for like a second, turned it off. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world, wanted to do it again," Wooten told the investigator. The boy flinched but nothing more, he said. The boy was about 11 at the time.

In his interview with troopers, the stepson said it hurt for about a second, according to Wall's report. The boy said he wanted to be tased to show his cousin, Palin's daughter Bristol, that he wasn't a mama's boy. The probe left a welt on his arm, he said. His mother was upstairs yelling at them not to do it, the boy said.

As Bristol remembered it, the jolt knocked the boy backward, the trooper report says. She said she was afraid.

The probes are attached by thin wires to the Taser cartridge. In the field, an officer fires the probes into a suspect's skin or clothing and the suspect receives a jolt of electricity for five seconds, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, which makes the devices. They are only incapacitated during that time. In demos, the probes might be taped to a person so that they don't accidentally strike an eye or injure the volunteer, he said. If the Taser is fired for just a second, it would feel like your funny bone was hit but the quick jolt wouldn't knock you over, Tuttle said.

So Tpr. Wooten is an idiot, not a malevolent soul. He showed the sort of poor judgment that is supposed to be below an adult that McCain shows frequently.

edit: I forgot the link.

[Marsala]

28. He may be a malevolent soul for other reasons

He threatened his ex-father-in-law and has supposedly acted like an enormous jerk. Not a nice guy. But that doesn't excuse the abuse of power.

[Whisp]

29. that's quite the different story than on first read on this.

I thought the big galoot tazed the kid in a fit of anger, not saying what he did was the brightest thing but it's no where close to how the story of it first broke out.

[regnaD kciN]

32. From what I read, the kid asked to see what it felt like...

...and the device was set to "test," meaning a much lower charge than would be used on a real perp.

[the Sundance Kid]

27. no matter what he did, she is not allowed to use her authority to punish him

[sfam]

34. Nobody felt angry at the prisoners that killed Jeffrey Dahmer...I doubt they care here either..but..

Yes, its an extreme example, but while this form of vigilante justice is wrong, I don't know that people look down on someone who engages in it. Now whether they want someone who does this to be President is another matter...

[the Sundance Kid]

38. except for in this case a good cop got canned because he was unwilling to carry out Palin's vendetta

His Brother Cops have already filed suit.

[sfam]

30. Agreed. If the guy tasered his child, nobody will care that she abused her power...including...

me. Bottom line, that story's going nowhere REALLY fast.

[regnaD kciN]

37. You're missing the main point...

...which is, not that she got this guy fired (actually, she didn't), but that 1) she fired the well-respected Commissioner of Public Safety for refusing to go along with her demands, and 2) she then lied about it, saying that she never put any pressure on him, until evidence showed that she had.

Even if you believe the trooper was a jerk who should be fired, that doesn't mean condoning that one should fire anyone in the government, particularly someone with a long, exemplary record, who insisted on making personnel decisions according to the rules, and not according to a superior's desire to settle scores.

[Alhena]

33. The religious nutjob angle is the damaging one- forget about Troopergate

[sfam]

35. Agreed. Going to Iraq on God's orders is just....wow...nt

[Zenmaster]

36. LISTEN. To EVERYONE WHO KEEPS SAYING ITS AN ABUSE OF POWER.

Everybody here understands that. You are preaching to the choir. Its completely beside the point though. We just aren't going to win over any UNDECIDED voters with this issue, because he admits to tasering an 11 year old...period.

YES. Its a clear abuse of power. If he strangled a 2 year old toddler to death and raped her grandmother, it would still be an abuse of power, if he'd already been punished by the appropriate means. It doesn't matter what he did, its still an abuse of power on her part.

Furthermore, because she's using her "executive" authority to intimidate, and pursue her personal vendettas she's a VERY dangerous person to be putting into high office.

Everybody here understands that.

But use your heads for a second and think about our current government and the last 8 years. ANYBODY (and I mean ANYBODY) who is capable of rationally distinguishing between the acts that this person committed and the illegal use of Power than Palin exhibited, and is the least bit concerned about it, IS NOT an undecided, or McCain, voter.

NOBODY that worries about those kinds of abuses of power would even consider letting the Republicans back into the White House right now.

This just isn't an issue thats going to lose her any voter support.

[DCBob]

39. Abuse of power is an impeachable offence. Palin is toast if true.

You protest too much.