Another Shoe About to Drop in Troopergate?

[Blue_In_AK]

From Gryphen at The Immoral Minority http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com /

Is it Possible There May be Another, Even Heavier, Shoe About to Drop in the Sarah Palin Troopergate Affair?

As we all know the Branchflower report just came out saying that even though the firing of Walt Monegan in and of itself was not an illegal act, that Palin DID abuse her powers by allowing a personal vendetta against Trooper Wooten to be conducted using state resources and access by herself and Todd Palin.

Surprisingly Palin, and her toady little spokesperson Meg Stapleton, have decided that that the report clears them of any criminality or ethics violation. Because in the fantasy world that envelopes the McCain/Palin campaign, up is down, and black is clearly white.

However there is still another pending investigation that, believe it or not, Sarah Palin launched against herself.

Here is what Newsweek magazine says about that:

McCain campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton dismissed the report as the product of "a partisan-led inquiry run by Obama supporters." But there could be more land mines ahead. Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that it alone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether she fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten, who had been involved in a messy custody battle with her sister. Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel's report could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when we went to the personnel board," said a McCain aide who asked not to be identified discussing strategy. While the McCain camp still insists Palin "has nothing to hide," it acknowledges a critical finding by Petumenos would be even harder to dismiss.

I actually had to step away from my keyboard until my I got my giggles under control. Because this report may prove to be one of the most laugh out loud funny chapters in this political farce.

That the investigation Sarah Palin launched to minimize the impact of the real investigation might end up harming her reputation and credibility even more then the Branchflower Report, would be what we usually refer to as Karma. And sometimes my friends, Karma is a bitch.



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


:rofl: :rofl: Fingers crossed.

[Happyhippychick]

1. "toady little spokesperson Meg Stapleton"

:rofl:

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I presume you saw the video

where Rep. Les Gara called her out after the hearing Friday? It's priceless.

On the right, after the "Alaska Grown" commercial. http://www.ktuu.com/

[Happyhippychick]

8. Wow, thanks for that. She was totally pwned.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

32. Hi! What does pwned mean?

[Supply Side Jesus]

34. i think it means owned....

a typo would be pwned, which is cool i suppose...

kind of like morans......hugh!!!1111......goofy typos.....i guess

[Ilsa]

35. It's some sort of internet gaming culture jargon for taunting after a humiliating defeat.nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

39. I'll have to ask my kids about that. :)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

38. lol! Thanks!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

31. What isn't mentioned here is that the "reason" for Monegan being fired is for wanting to help rape

victims.

Meanwhile, re-Toady Meg,etc...don't these people have any shame?

[Blue_In_AK]

37. Meg obviously doesn't..

The press conferences conducted by her and fellow "Truth Squad" bozo, Ed O'Callaghan, have become the stuff of legends up here over the past month and a half. They're beyond horrible. Not only do they owe Walt Monegan, Hollis French and Steve Branchflower a big apology, they owe all the rest of us one, too, for their sheer arrogance. I can't WAIT until these people are gone.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. shouldn't that be "toady wittle McSpokesperson" ? ? ? ?

[roguevalley]

28. I've heard of that lawyer. He is tough. It appears that no matter

what she does, God wants the truth out. Nice going, Sarah.

[fizzgig]

2. i read that today and lol'd quite heartily

it is karma. serves that twit right.

[napi21]

3. Not only that, but if the McNuts boys had stayed the hell out of this,

the whole thing most likely would have simply been some small Alaska incident that noone would have noticed. But NOOOOO, they couldn't do THAT! Send in the hired guns and shut everybody up! Apparently those "BOYS" didn't realize that in SOME States, people don't just cowtow to strongarm political hacks!

Sometimes you're the bear, and sometimes the bear gets YOU!

[YDogg]

5. heh

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Funny you would mention bears...

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/553676.html

<snip>

Never before had sprawling urbanization collided so visibly with Big Wild Life. Two people were mauled in the Anchorage Bowl, where no previous maulings had taken place. Another was mauled not far from downtown Eagle River. And a huge grizzly boar was struck and killed by an automobile on a Midtown street. Runners and mountain bikers were chased or confronted by grizzlies in Hillside parks.

"Who knows what this means," said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Sean Farley. "I don't have a Ouija board for bears."

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

Looks like the bears are doing the eating these days.

[napi21]

7. Alaska Department of Fish and Game doesn't know WHY?

That guy must have been hired by Sarah! Hell, I live in Ga., and I thought it was a nationally known fact that when humans invade wilelife territory, the wildlife are attracted by the garbage generated by those humans, and since they've been displaced from THEIR HOME, they stick around and especially with bear, the mix doesn't work well!

[Blue_In_AK]

11. Actually, that's not necessarily the case here

although garbage plays some role. What has happened is that over the past several years there has been a big effort to clean up and restock several of Anchorage's streams which formerly had healthy salmon runs. The effort apparently worked too well. I guess they didn't think it through that salmon = bears. The maulings that took place were in a large city park near Campbell Creek where salmon were spawning.

A little more from the article.

Some now wonder if an environmental success story -- the restoration of salmon runs in Anchorage streams -- has set the stage for an unfolding community crisis. They are wondering whether a mandate to maintain salmon runs at maximum sustainable levels will make the growing bear-human problems in the city even worse.

What garbage is to black bears, salmon are to grizzlies. Salmon lure bears into the city. The attendant problems became painfully clear this summer.

[napi21]

15. Sorry. Garbage IS the problem here, but they are black bear.

Isn't the invasion of humans into bear (or Grizzley) territory the real problem though? People building homes and establishing a city park that was the native habitat of those bear? As part of nature, the salmon is the bear's food supply! I also happen to think they wouldn't hae had to clean up the streams if the humans hadn't poluted them!!!

[Blue_In_AK]

18. True.

It seems we have some unintended consequences here of what was motivated by good intentions.

I think the trick is for the humans to stay away from the salmon streams, especially here within the Municipality, during spawning season. Seems like a no-brainer to me. This particular city park would be more like a state park in other places. It's huge and very wild.

[napi21]

24. Oh damn! There you go again! Using common sense! n/t

[dmr]

33. Re: The Animal Channel: where a previous winter, and salmon poachers

played a huge role in the bears searching for food in places they would never tread before. They were starving. This was in the Kodiak area.

The year was 1999, I think, where two men were attacked within a day of each other, but in separate attacks. One man survived, the other did not. Both were long-time, knowledgeable, veteran deer hunters. One had been hunting for 50 years.

The hunters and local hunters said there had not been a bear attack in 70 years. They said when a hunter kills a deer, the Kodiak bears will lay down 25-30 yards away and patiently watch them gut the deer. When the hunter walks away about 25-30 yards from the gut-site, the Kodiak will calmly move in to chow down on the delicious remains. The locals made it a point to point this fact out. A Kodiak bear will not move in on your fresh kill, but wait until you are done.

This year was different, of course. The investigators determined that the Kodiak bear was most likely starving and wanted the freshly killed deer and the hunters were in the way.

The Kodiak bears eats tens of pounds of berries a day. The previous winter was extra harsh and long, whereby their crop of berries was very scarce leaving the Kodiak very hungry.

The next problem that year was that commercial fishermen illegally used extra long nets to nab a bigger catch of salmon. The Kodiak bears on the other end of the run were short-changed, leaving them to even more hunger. The state tried to dismiss the poaching as a problem, but those that lived in the area were convinced it played a major role.

The hunters who were attacked were from the inland Anchorage area and had no idea that the Kodiak were starving. Had they known ....

I've read that human encroachment into the wilds are affecting all the animals. Our pollution into the wilds, streams and lakes also change their make-up, making them more prone to illnesses, and changing their behavior.

The noise of airplanes, the hum of engines and generators have a neurological and biological effect on bears. Scientists determined that polar bear attacks on humans in one of the Slavic countries were preceded by a great noise - like an airplane flying overhead. Scientists there found in one instance that when they turned on a generator to do an environmental study, a female polar bear would rip up and rip out their in-ground study enclosure and it's materials. It took them a little while to figure out she did not like the high-pitched sound. They ended up fashioning their study to cause the least disturbance, and from then on, the bear and scientists co-existed nicely.

I'll watch or read anything to do with bears. They are such beautiful creatures, with awesome and dangerous abilities. Yet as dangerous as they are, they are extremely vulnerable to the damage we humans do to our beautiful earth.

[roguevalley]

29. A lot of the tenderfeet that live in Anchorage want the moose and

bears slaughtered. I laugh at their letters to the editor. I love the wildlife and that is why I no longer hike up here. I respect the bears too much. I remember I led about 22 first graders on the last hike I ever took and ran into a gigantic cow moose. I told them calmly as I remember to turn around and walk back up the trail while I stood there to block any charge. She was licking her lips and flickering her ears before laying them back. She might have had a calf nearby. I remember walking backwards up the winding trail until I got out of her sight. I don't mind giving them what they want, space and being left alone.

[dmr]

36. WOW! What an experience!

I would do the same as you. Give them their space. There is enough room on this earth where mankind can just leave the wildlife to the wilds where they can live naturally and in peace. I wish there were more people like you.

[4lbs]

9. Yeah, the McCain campaign could have just said "it's an Alaskan matter, and we'll stay out of it...

until the full report is done."

That would have been it, and nearly everyone would have stopped thinking about it a few weeks later.

[Cha]

10. There needs to be another big shoe

dropping because of the Friday night news dump.

I'm hoping more comes out regarding palin's abuse of power and she has to answer big time to the citizens of Alaska when she gets the puck back there.

[MadrasT]

12. Got to "R" this puppy... that's just beautiful...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:kick:

[juno jones]

13. A not-so-secret secret

State employees tend to cover their asses. They know that politicians come and go, but the pencil pushers that keep this country going like to hang on to their state jobs administration after administration no matter who's in. Most will not endanger their careers with blatant partisanism for either side. Sounds like these people knew what was going down and did not want to be water carriers for Sarah 'EPIC FAIL' Palin.

Don't mess with the civil servants.

[trudyco]

14. Sounds like the Repubs in AK don't really like her either...

From what I've read she had a tendency to turn on her fellow republicans. So maybe they don't really like her and would like to see her fall on her face.

[vaberella]

23. It may not be about her...but the ever present figure that was Todd Palin.

Don't get me wrong, some of her actions while in power boggled my mind and I'm sure a lot of Repubs weren't happy about the tanning bed, or the State per Diem, or whatever else she conducted herself with. However, I think it was really Todd Palin and his executive power while he was a unvoted civilian that was the real issue.

This man had so much control it boggles my mind. To be seating in meetings and claim his wife didn't know or he wasn't aware was bad, to push this crazy vendetta against his ex brother in law, the emails of executive mail that was cced to Todd Palin through his wifes yahoo mail box; these kinds of actions talk about something insidious and frighteningly so. It also shows how much power he holds in the household and has under his finger tips. Imagine if she were, by some frightening fluke, the Veep or President...this man would wage war and any vendettas who crossed him or his wife.

[firedupdem]

17. OMG! I hope that gamble bites her right in the ass! n/t

[WheelWalker]

19. Karma Patrol. Rambo Division. Stoned Squad.

[vaberella]

20. BIAK...got a question. I remember Monegan's statement when the last report was disclosed.

Did he give you the feeling there was more that we don't know about? I remember him on Rachel Maddow show, where they actually stated that the other information made him slightly on the other end because of some close ties to a Senator who was against Palin.

Do you think this investigation might actually go one step further and disclose even more damaging information that Monegan even implied sort of that we don't know about. I remember him saying that "the whole truth will come out" so I kept feeling that there was more. And I figured due to the Branchflower case there would not be more. I wonder how much more Monegan may have and information Pet. may get against Palin.

My fingers are crossed, but I still have to shake my head when people wonder about this supposed vetting of Palin; no matter how they want to spin the news.

:kick:

[MarjorieG]

21. What happened to the interference with workman's comp, something illegal?

[Blue_In_AK]

25. Oh, that's another interesting aspect of this.

Murlene Wilkes, from Harbor Adjustment Service, is throwing a hissy fit and threatening to sue everyone who slandered her "good" name. However, if you read the comments to some of these blog posts, there are still a lot of questions. I don't think we've heard the last of this.

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/troopergate_report_harbor_adjustment_service

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/10/murlene-wilkes-sends-out-letter.html

[dennis4868]

22. I don't care how many shoes drop...

the fucking media does not give a shit....unless of course it was Biden or Obama who abused the power of their office...the media has been mostly silent today...the story is dead....McCain never should have worried about this matter...he should have known the media would have not given a fuck about it....

[gratefultobelib]

27. My feelings exactly throughout these revelations. She's getting a free

pass on pretty much everything.

[quakerboy]

26. Dumber than a stick

she would have to move up in the world to get to dumber than a post.

[Imagevision]

30. Sarah didn't like the the first report - she'll only accept the second one , which

isn't acceptable to the investigation panel. Palin's pulling a Rove, "just tell them you're only going to accept the second finding.