The GOP candidate for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, may be facing yet another ethics investigation back in her home state of Alaska. An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal.
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archiv...04/1347737.aspx
Full Version: Alaska police union files complaint against Palin
Wait, wait, WAIT a friggin' minute!!!!
A UNION is after her?
Why, just last night she was gushingly proud over her husband being a union man.
I saw it with my own eyes.
This can't be right.
A UNION is after her?
Why, just last night she was gushingly proud over her husband being a union man.
I saw it with my own eyes.
This can't be right.
QUOTE (shoeshoe @ Sep 4 2008, 08:20 PM) 
The GOP candidate for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, may be facing yet another ethics investigation back in her home state of Alaska. An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal.
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archiv...04/1347737.aspx
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archiv...04/1347737.aspx
Good! Maybe we can send this pit bull back to the pound. Here's a link to the complaint with a transcript of the infamous phone call.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections...oncomplaint.pdf
QUOTE (martsmart @ Sep 4 2008, 08:24 PM)
Wait, wait, WAIT a friggin' minute!!!!
A UNION is after her?
Why, just last night she was gushingly proud over her husband being a union man.
I saw it with my own eyes.
This can't be right.
A UNION is after her?
Why, just last night she was gushingly proud over her husband being a union man.
I saw it with my own eyes.
This can't be right.
When it rains...
I've changed my mind, I hope she stays on the ticket. More laughs that way.
QUOTE (shoeshoe @ Sep 4 2008, 05:20 PM)
The GOP candidate for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, may be facing yet another ethics investigation back in her home state of Alaska. An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed Wednesday by the police officers union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper Mike Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law of Palin who is at the center of the "Troopergate" scandal.
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archiv...04/1347737.aspx
The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archiv...04/1347737.aspx
lets see, An Alaska state trooper who used a stungun on a 10 year old boy is suing the Governor for firing him. That will help Palin, not hurt her.
QUOTE (SickupandFed @ Sep 4 2008, 05:27 PM)
When it rains...
I've changed my mind, I hope she stays on the ticket. More laughs that way.
I've changed my mind, I hope she stays on the ticket. More laughs that way.
True.
And she will continue to help our side.
We CAN have it all!!!
QUOTE (middleoftheroad @ Sep 4 2008, 05:29 PM)
lets see, An Alaska state trooper who used a stungun on a 10 year old boy is suing the Governor for firing him. That will help Palin, not hurt her.
Not if she broke the law. Two wrongs don't make a right ... and the trooper isn't running for v.p., is he?
Not to mention that if the child was stun-gunned, it was several years ago and before the divorce even started ... why didn't she come forward then?
QUOTE (NoYards @ Sep 4 2008, 05:55 PM)
Not to mention that if the child was stun-gunned, it was several years ago and before the divorce even started ... why didn't she come forward then?
Stop asking such hard questions.
These are simple, small-town folk.
QUOTE (Matrix1984 @ Sep 4 2008, 08:26 PM)
Good! Maybe we can send this pit bull back to the pound. Here's a link to the complaint with a transcript of the infamous phone call.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections...oncomplaint.pdf
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections...oncomplaint.pdf
It's really not fair to defame pit bulls that way. Pit bulls are wonderful dogs and make great pets as long as you know what you're doing.
I'm not sure the same can be said of Sarah.
QUOTE (middleoftheroad @ Sep 4 2008, 08:29 PM)
lets see, An Alaska state trooper who used a stungun on a 10 year old boy is suing the Governor for firing him. That will help Palin, not hurt her.
You raise an interesting point, MOTR.
This 10-year-old, or 11-year-old, depending on who you read, is not 17 years old. So at the time of the alleged tasering, the man was still married to her sister.
Which means that Sarah was aware of the event 6 years ago.
When it happened.
And...let me get this straight, doesn't report it?
Lets a handful of years go by, as many as 3 by my count, and this doesn't get reported until a custody hearing? A heinous, and possibly illegal, situation?
Interesting set of ethics there. She allegedly personally knew of a case of child abuse, and did nothing to prevent it from happening again? Basically, covered it up by not saying anything until 2 to 3 years later?
Oh, by the way, here's the detail of that portion of the investigation against him, per the 482-page file that was released and portions of it reported in the Anchorage Daily News:
QUOTE
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.
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.
QUOTE (middleoftheroad @ Sep 4 2008, 07:29 PM)
lets see, An Alaska state trooper who used a stungun on a 10 year old boy is suing the Governor for firing him. That will help Palin, not hurt her.
Yeah, well, I don't like it either but facts are the boy wanted to be tazed again (it was turned on low) and Palin and the sister didn't complain about the tazing until 3 years after the incident following the divorce during a custody battle. It's my understanding the boy now lives with the father.
QUOTE (middleoftheroad)
lets see, An Alaska state trooper who used a stungun on a 10 year old boy is suing the Governor for firing him. That will help Palin, not hurt her.
The alleged incident was said to have happened in 2002, but did not come up until the custody trial, three years later.
WTF is up with that?
p.s. He is also accused of "shooting a cow moose out of season," and "going bankrupt then buying a truck." Take twenty-five minutes and listen to the recording. If your b.s. detector doesn't set off an alarm, you are either deluded or dishonest.
And then of course, there's this....
link
Palin's Reformer Image Tainted by History of Ethical Lapses
By Jason Leopold
The Public Record
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
When John McCain trotted out Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, his campaign and much of the U.S. news media depicted the Alaska governor as an ethics “reformer” whose meteoric political rise came from her confronting corruption within her own state Republican Party.
But a closer look at Palin's short political career reveals that she committed some of the same ethical lapses that she has attacked, especially during her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002. She also has shown herself to be a thin-skinned politician quick to see herself as the target of conspiracies.
In 2002, Palin – still mayor of Wasilla with a population of about 6,700 – ran much of her campaign for lieutenant governor out of Wasilla City Hall on city time, according to documents first obtained in July 2006 by an editor for Voice of the Times newspaper in Anchorage. (I obtained some of those documents from former Wasilla city officials this week.)
The documents show that Palin used city computers to manage her campaign and billed taxpayers for mailings, phone calls and literature. Palin also had her city secretary, Mary Bixby, print 75 thank-you notes to campaign donors and book a campaign related trip Ketchikan in May 2002 while on city time.
Former city officials said Palin and her campaign staff worked upwards of 10 hours a day using Wasilla City Hall as her campaign headquarters where campaign faxes were sent and received, and campaign staffers used city phones to solicit donations.
On Palin’s lieutenant governor candidate registration form with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, she used the e-mail the city gave her — sarah@ci.wasilla.ak.us — for “campaign chairperson” contact information and the Wasilla City Hall fax telephone number for "candidate information.”
Palin’s mayoral schedule for June 12, 2002 showed that she met with Herold Advertising Products in her office at City Hall. Soon after, the company faxed the city’s deputy administrator, John Cramer, "Sarah Palin Lieutenant Governor" artwork and an invoice for the work.
Former city officials said they were unaware whether Palin reimbursed the city for funds she used to promote her campaign. Neither spokesmen at the governor’s office in Alaska nor McCain-Palin campaign representatives returned telephone calls and e-mails for comment.
Building the Myth
Working at her city computer, Palin also sent three e-mails to Randy Ruedrich, the state’s Republican Party chairman, complaining about several endorsements she did not receive.
Ironically, as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin reported Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner, to Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration, accusing him of an ethics breach for conducting work for the state GOP on government time.
To obtain evidence of Ruedrich’s alleged malfeasance, Palin hacked into his computer, an ethical lapse in its own right. In January 2004, she resigned from the commission in protest over what she billed as corrupt practices.
Palin’s ethics complaint against Ruedrich gave her a reputation as an anti-establishment reformer at a time when the Alaskan Republican hierarchy was coming under scrutiny for corruption. Reudrich paid a $12,000 fine after an investigation revealed he had violated state ethics rules.
But in July 2006, Paul Jenkins, an editor for the conservative Voice of the Times, confronted Palin about her own apparent ethical breaches four years earlier. Her response was to insist, without explanation, that her situation was different than Reudrich's.
“I asked how her using a city computer for her campaign business was any different than Ruedrich's use of a state computer at the AOGCC to do Republican Party business,” Jenkins wrote in a column on July 7, 2006. “Not the same, she said, simply not the same.
“Then, she shifted gears and asked, ‘Is this what they've got to destroy my campaign? E-mails from 4 1/2 years ago?’ We had barely hung up — and I was wondering if there was any story in all this — when her campaign fired off a ‘news’ release headlined: ‘Palin Campaign Sees First Signs of Rumored Smear Campaign.’ Good grief. Frankly...I've never seen a politician come unhinged so quickly as Palin when asked a few straightforward questions.”
Jenkins excoriated his Alaska media colleagues for lapping up Palin’s “reformer” talking points. He said her “campaign [was] rooted in one thing: the perception that Palin somehow wears a halo and is not your average, run-of-the-mill politician.”
This editor for Voice of the Times, which bills itself as “A Conservative Voice for Alaska,” concluded with a reality check that could very well apply to the GOP talking points being used today to sell Palin to the American electorate.
“When her goody-two-shoes act starts to crumble — and going nuts because of a few obvious questions seems a first crack — folks may see her for the rank politician she is, and not necessarily a good one at that,” Jenkins wrote.
link
Palin's Reformer Image Tainted by History of Ethical Lapses
By Jason Leopold
The Public Record
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
When John McCain trotted out Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, his campaign and much of the U.S. news media depicted the Alaska governor as an ethics “reformer” whose meteoric political rise came from her confronting corruption within her own state Republican Party.
But a closer look at Palin's short political career reveals that she committed some of the same ethical lapses that she has attacked, especially during her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002. She also has shown herself to be a thin-skinned politician quick to see herself as the target of conspiracies.
In 2002, Palin – still mayor of Wasilla with a population of about 6,700 – ran much of her campaign for lieutenant governor out of Wasilla City Hall on city time, according to documents first obtained in July 2006 by an editor for Voice of the Times newspaper in Anchorage. (I obtained some of those documents from former Wasilla city officials this week.)
The documents show that Palin used city computers to manage her campaign and billed taxpayers for mailings, phone calls and literature. Palin also had her city secretary, Mary Bixby, print 75 thank-you notes to campaign donors and book a campaign related trip Ketchikan in May 2002 while on city time.
Former city officials said Palin and her campaign staff worked upwards of 10 hours a day using Wasilla City Hall as her campaign headquarters where campaign faxes were sent and received, and campaign staffers used city phones to solicit donations.
On Palin’s lieutenant governor candidate registration form with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, she used the e-mail the city gave her — sarah@ci.wasilla.ak.us — for “campaign chairperson” contact information and the Wasilla City Hall fax telephone number for "candidate information.”
Palin’s mayoral schedule for June 12, 2002 showed that she met with Herold Advertising Products in her office at City Hall. Soon after, the company faxed the city’s deputy administrator, John Cramer, "Sarah Palin Lieutenant Governor" artwork and an invoice for the work.
Former city officials said they were unaware whether Palin reimbursed the city for funds she used to promote her campaign. Neither spokesmen at the governor’s office in Alaska nor McCain-Palin campaign representatives returned telephone calls and e-mails for comment.
Building the Myth
Working at her city computer, Palin also sent three e-mails to Randy Ruedrich, the state’s Republican Party chairman, complaining about several endorsements she did not receive.
Ironically, as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin reported Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner, to Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration, accusing him of an ethics breach for conducting work for the state GOP on government time.
To obtain evidence of Ruedrich’s alleged malfeasance, Palin hacked into his computer, an ethical lapse in its own right. In January 2004, she resigned from the commission in protest over what she billed as corrupt practices.
Palin’s ethics complaint against Ruedrich gave her a reputation as an anti-establishment reformer at a time when the Alaskan Republican hierarchy was coming under scrutiny for corruption. Reudrich paid a $12,000 fine after an investigation revealed he had violated state ethics rules.
But in July 2006, Paul Jenkins, an editor for the conservative Voice of the Times, confronted Palin about her own apparent ethical breaches four years earlier. Her response was to insist, without explanation, that her situation was different than Reudrich's.
“I asked how her using a city computer for her campaign business was any different than Ruedrich's use of a state computer at the AOGCC to do Republican Party business,” Jenkins wrote in a column on July 7, 2006. “Not the same, she said, simply not the same.
“Then, she shifted gears and asked, ‘Is this what they've got to destroy my campaign? E-mails from 4 1/2 years ago?’ We had barely hung up — and I was wondering if there was any story in all this — when her campaign fired off a ‘news’ release headlined: ‘Palin Campaign Sees First Signs of Rumored Smear Campaign.’ Good grief. Frankly...I've never seen a politician come unhinged so quickly as Palin when asked a few straightforward questions.”
Jenkins excoriated his Alaska media colleagues for lapping up Palin’s “reformer” talking points. He said her “campaign [was] rooted in one thing: the perception that Palin somehow wears a halo and is not your average, run-of-the-mill politician.”
This editor for Voice of the Times, which bills itself as “A Conservative Voice for Alaska,” concluded with a reality check that could very well apply to the GOP talking points being used today to sell Palin to the American electorate.
“When her goody-two-shoes act starts to crumble — and going nuts because of a few obvious questions seems a first crack — folks may see her for the rank politician she is, and not necessarily a good one at that,” Jenkins wrote.
QUOTE (toptier @ Sep 4 2008, 06:08 PM)
You raise an interesting point, MOTR.
This 10-year-old, or 11-year-old, depending on who you read, is not 17 years old. So at the time of the alleged tasering, the man was still married to her sister.
Which means that Sarah was aware of the event 6 years ago.
When it happened.
And...let me get this straight, doesn't report it?
Lets a handful of years go by, as many as 3 by my count, and this doesn't get reported until a custody hearing? A heinous, and possibly illegal, situation?
Interesting set of ethics there. She allegedly personally knew of a case of child abuse, and did nothing to prevent it from happening again? Basically, covered it up by not saying anything until 2 to 3 years later?
Oh, by the way, here's the detail of that portion of the investigation against him, per the 482-page file that was released and portions of it reported in the Anchorage Daily News:
This 10-year-old, or 11-year-old, depending on who you read, is not 17 years old. So at the time of the alleged tasering, the man was still married to her sister.
Which means that Sarah was aware of the event 6 years ago.
When it happened.
And...let me get this straight, doesn't report it?
Lets a handful of years go by, as many as 3 by my count, and this doesn't get reported until a custody hearing? A heinous, and possibly illegal, situation?
Interesting set of ethics there. She allegedly personally knew of a case of child abuse, and did nothing to prevent it from happening again? Basically, covered it up by not saying anything until 2 to 3 years later?
Oh, by the way, here's the detail of that portion of the investigation against him, per the 482-page file that was released and portions of it reported in the Anchorage Daily News:
Tasing a child was just white trash family fun until a divorce ensued.
She will claim executive privilage now.
QUOTE (middleoftheroad @ Sep 4 2008, 06:29 PM)
lets see, An Alaska state trooper who used a stungun on a 10 year old boy is suing the Governor for firing him. That will help Palin, not hurt her.
Got link?
Republics are pro-tasering, only us "wimpy liberals" cry foul when children are tasered.
As long as it's not an abortion, they don't care. And if they do get upset, we'll have to remind them about how they cheered for "don't taze me bro".
As long as it's not an abortion, they don't care. And if they do get upset, we'll have to remind them about how they cheered for "don't taze me bro".
a in fight is brewing in the palin family : this will be the stories next week the x brother in laws family going to start talking ; the son who was tazzzzzerd : lives with the father he is now 17
I'll admit I listened to the tape about Wooten having had filed Bankruptcy, driving drunk, tazering his son (BTW which was when his son, age 11, wanted to feel what it was like), and him Killing a Cow Moose whatever the fuck that is ... sounds like a female moose. And other things, sounds like breaking the law regarding personnel files privacy rights.
Hhhmmm ... GUILTY !!!
Outside of the bounds of policy ... sounds about right.
She's fucked on that grounds. This was a staffer to the Commisioner of police. Outside Policy.
Goes to show how Repiggy's don't give a rat's ass about privacy.
Hhhmmm ... GUILTY !!!
Outside of the bounds of policy ... sounds about right.
She's fucked on that grounds. This was a staffer to the Commisioner of police. Outside Policy.
Goes to show how Repiggy's don't give a rat's ass about privacy.
The union argues that recordings of a phone conversation involving Palin-aide Frank Bailey -- released last month as part of the Attorney General's own Trooper-Gate probe -- suggested that Wooten's records were accessed improperly.
In response, the McCain-Palin campaign told NBC News that the files were not protected, and that Wooten himself had signed a waiver allowing a divorce lawyer to gain access to his personnel records. They added that Todd Palin, the governor's husband, was the source of information for Bailey, and that the information came from Wooten's divorce proceedings.
In other words, the McCain campaign is saying that Todd Palin gathered damaging information on Mike Wooten by looking through his divorce proceedings, then passed it on to an aide to the governor, who later used it to try to have Wooten fired. That may or may not be legal, but it doesn't exactly sound like the kind of ethical, reformist approach to government that Governor Palin claims to stand for.
------------------------------------------------------------
(I Think she'll be guilty b/c Todd Palin is her husband and they are considered one. They can't testify against each other in court. Because they are married they are both guilty.) They released it to the lawyers. That lawer had his personal info and it's supposed to remain personnal. What Palin's sister shared with her and Todd is fine as long as it remained private.
I THINK IT'S CLEAR CUT ... The Palin's Definately used thier position to influence the outcome. Those records became public and the Palin's are liable.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/...st_palin_on.php
In response, the McCain-Palin campaign told NBC News that the files were not protected, and that Wooten himself had signed a waiver allowing a divorce lawyer to gain access to his personnel records. They added that Todd Palin, the governor's husband, was the source of information for Bailey, and that the information came from Wooten's divorce proceedings.
In other words, the McCain campaign is saying that Todd Palin gathered damaging information on Mike Wooten by looking through his divorce proceedings, then passed it on to an aide to the governor, who later used it to try to have Wooten fired. That may or may not be legal, but it doesn't exactly sound like the kind of ethical, reformist approach to government that Governor Palin claims to stand for.
------------------------------------------------------------
(I Think she'll be guilty b/c Todd Palin is her husband and they are considered one. They can't testify against each other in court. Because they are married they are both guilty.) They released it to the lawyers. That lawer had his personal info and it's supposed to remain personnal. What Palin's sister shared with her and Todd is fine as long as it remained private.
I THINK IT'S CLEAR CUT ... The Palin's Definately used thier position to influence the outcome. Those records became public and the Palin's are liable.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/...st_palin_on.php
QUOTE (shorebird @ Sep 4 2008, 07:54 PM)
Tasing a child was just white trash family fun until a divorce ensued.
Well shoot - in Redneckland it ain't a party until someone gets tazed!
What are you cpomplaining about his son wanted it done. It's not like there was an argument and he went to his car and just TAZED his 11 year old ass. At eleven I may have asked to feel what it was like. Any way the kid lives with his dad. Momma just visits.
I used to have a novelty electric shock book. It was fun. (much less current though).
I used to have a novelty electric shock book. It was fun. (much less current though).
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