A Spork in the Drawer

The Crazy Won't Quit...

...even if Caribou Barbie has:

In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print.

“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.

Unless Mr. Van Flein obtained his JD from a box of Cap'n Crunch™ he knows that the Wasilla Whackjob has no case. Of course, the real purpose of this is to intimidate a blogger who probably can't afford to defend herself.

Also.

[Via Steve Benen.]

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Gov. Moose-For-Brains Quits Mid-Term

Weird.

BooMan: "Her speech was totally incoherent and made more odd by the loud ducks in the background."

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ADDED: She's certifiable:

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Today's Lesson: How Not To Land An Airplane

Story

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A Thin Neck

Since I remain firm in my attempts to keep this blog free of a certain dim governor of a geographically-large but population-deprived state, I'll let Maria review the holiday teevee extravaganza, A Very Special Palin Thanksgiving.

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The Begich Has Landed

Senator Tubes is gone.

That's now 58 in the Dem Senate Caucus though I'd rather it was 57.

Oh, and happy birthday to the soon-to-be former Sen. Stevens!

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Another Senate Pickup

Merkely edges Smith for the win.

Minnesota is going to do a recount, Georgia a runoff, and nobody can figure out what's going on in Alaska.

So it's over but it isn't over.

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Down The Series Of Tubes

Alaska Sen. Ted "Hulk Smash" Stevens guilty on all seven counts.

This helps Democrat Mark Begich's effort to take the Senate seat.

To say the least.

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A Heckuva Sense Of Entitlement, You Betcha!

Pallin' around with with Nieman Marcus:

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

The cash expenditures immediately raised questions among campaign finance experts about their legality under the Federal Election Commission's long-standing advisory opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use.

Pallin' around with Trig, Track, Truck, Lugnut, & Socket Wrench:

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. She also has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.

Pallin' around with investigators:

Sometime this week, "Palin and her husband will meet this week with an investigator determining whether she violated state ethics law when firing her public safety director. Thomas Van Flein, the attorney for both Sarah and Todd Palin, said Sunday the separate depositions by an attorney for the Alaska Personnel Board will be held out of state. The investigator, Timothy Petumenos, will fly to meet the Palins. Van Flein declined to say exactly when or where the interviews will be held, only that they will occur later in the week. ‘I estimate each interview will take about three hours,’ he said."

Pallin' around with the polls:

McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, is also proving to be a drag on the Republican presidential ticket. Nearly half, 49%, have an unfavorable opinion of Palin. Women under 50 years old in particular dislike Palin, with 60% holding an unfavorable view—up from 36% one month ago.

I have no doubt that DeFib Dick Cheney has used his office to make more than a few bucks but, really, his concern was power, which on some level I can respect (though not in any way condone).

Simple Sarah, on the other hand, seems more concerned with lining her pockets; that political power is about moving to Easy Street. it's not enough to keep up with the Joneses but to rub their faces in her wealth.

In short, Sarah Palin is a typical modern Republican.

Still feel good about the pick, John?

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Endangered

Sarah vs. Beluga:

The Bush administration yesterday named the beluga whale in Alaska's Cook Inlet an endangered species despite opposition to the move by Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

It's pretty obvious which one should be extinct.

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Corrupt Much?

Talk about a shakedown:

The office of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has quoted prices as high as $15 million for copies of state e-mails requested by news organizations and citizens.

That's a lot of loot. But wait, there's more!

No matter what the price, most of the e-mails of Palin, her senior staff and other state employees won't be made public until at least several weeks after the Nov. 4 presidential election, her office told msnbc.com on Thursday.

Not that Simple Sarah has anything to hide, nosiree.

Sometimes I think that Sarah just might be afraid of something:

The price quotes reveal that Palin's office has repeatedly tried to charge different news organizations the cost to reconstruct the same e-mail accounts of the governor, her senior staff and other employees. Each time an e-mail is requested, the office quotes the same cost of $960.31 for 13 hours to recover and search each employee's e-mails.

NBC's price quote for e-mails sent to Todd Palin: $15 million.

The AP's price for e-mails between state employees and the campaign headquarters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain: $15 million.

And the AP again, for e-mails between state employees and the National Park Service (on polar bears, wolves and other topics): $15 million.

It's almost as if she has something to hide...but we know that simply can't be the case as Gov. Moose for Brains is an honest, upstanding Christian woman.

Meanwhile, at a Palin rally in North Carolina, a supporter assaults a member of the media. [From TPM.]

Expect more of that.

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Putin Reared His Head...

...and Alaska's governor was completely unaware of it:

The campaign of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the Alaska governor was unaware of a visit by Russian energy officials to Anchorage on Monday.

Eight high-level officials from Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled energy conglomerate, traveled to Anchorage earlier this week to meet with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the chief executive of ConocoPhillips to discuss energy projects and the possibility of expanding into new markets.

Perhaps these Russian officials are really a scouting party in preparation for invading Gov. Moose-for-Brains' house. After all, said house is reputed to have a beautiful view of their homeland.

Imagine the irony!

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"Nice Television Station You Have Here...

...be a shame if something happened to it":

Jason Moore, a reporter with Anchorage-based KTUU-TV, just confirmed to TPMmuckraker that Megan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign in Alaska, called his home to complain about one of Moore's news reports, and accused Moore of calling Stapleton and another McCain staffer liars.

[...]

When Stapleton called his home, said Moore, she reached Moore's wife, and immediately told her: "Your husband just called two Hoyas liars." Stapleton, O'Callaghan, and Moore's wife all attended Georgetown University, whose mascot is the Hoyas.

Moore added that Stapleton had also called the news director of KTUU to complain.

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More Of This, Please

While it's only Salon it's a start:

In the Palin administration, Todd appears to have had an unusually strong role, the extent of which remains unclear. He is not on the state payroll and was never elected -- but the First Dude has crossed over from the standard-issue supportive political spouse to something far more influential, weighing in on policy and political matters in ways that few observers seem to understand. His apparent influence in his wife's administration -- some in Alaska have referred to him as the "shadow governor" -- has raised questions about whether a Sarah Palin vice-presidency would hand the same type of backstage power to Todd, and what that might mean in the running of the U.S. government.

No one has accused Todd Palin of interfering in state business for his own personal benefit -- instead, the situation has remained somewhat inscrutable, if not odd. According to local politicos and observers, he lurks around the capitol if he doesn't have anything better to do, which, since he works seasonal jobs in oil and fishing, is fairly often.

"It's sort of puzzling," says Gregg Erickson, a Juneau columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and a longtime watchdog of state government. "He obviously plays an important role ... I've seen him in the governor's office, and I know she's conducted interviews in the governor's office with him present."

Obviously, here in the 21st Century we can expect husbands and wives and partners to be involved in their significant others' professional lives. But along with that it should also be expected that scrutiny follows. We were subjected to eight years of speculation about the extent Hillary's power in the Clinton Administration, after all. Nothing wrong with that (so long as it's factually grounded) so let's a more thorough examination of Todd's place in a Palin (vice) Administration.

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Dick Cheney Without The Smarts

If this NYT article examining Sarah Palin is even half-right she has no business being a small-town mayor let alone a president-in-waiting. From obsessive secrecy to rewarding friends at the expense of competence to punishing people for the merest slight this isn't someone who can be trusted with any sort of power.

And a suggestion for the national press: Take a closer look at the husband, Todd. He seems to thing that Sarah's power is his power.

Or is he the power behind the throne?

The WaPo adds some more details including her penchant for laziness:

Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Arriving in office, Palin herself played down the demands of the job in response to residents who worried that her move to oust veteran officials would leave the town in the lurch. "It's not rocket science," Palin said, according to the town newspaper, the Frontiersman. "It's $6 million and 53 employees."

In the two weeks since Palin was named to the Republican ticket a disturbing image has emerged: She has the viciousness and power-lust of Dick Cheney combined with the intellectual laziness of George W. Bush.

Given John McCain's disinterest and ignorance of domestic affairs I suspect Palin would have a great deal of power even as VP. Or more to the point, those formally behind her (Mullah Dobson and perhaps Todd Palin) would have a great deal of power. And that McCain chose her (or, more likely, acquiesced to the demands of the Talibangelicals) shows that he shouldn't be trusted with executive power either.

This is not good, to say the least.

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Ear Form

Sarah explains the Bridge to Nowhere:

GIBSON: But you turned against it after Congress had basically pulled the plug on it; after it became apparent that the state was going to have to pay for it, not the Congress; and after it became a national embarrassment to the state of Alaska. So do you want to revise and extend your remarks.

PALIN: It has always been an embarrassment that abuse of the ear form -- earmark process has been accepted in Congress. And that's what John McCain has fought. And that's what I joined him in fighting. It's been an embarrassment, not just Alaska's projects. But McCain gives example after example after example. I mean, every state has their embarrassment.

GIBSON: But you were for it before you were against it. You were solidly for it for quite some period of time...

PALIN: I was...

GIBSON: ... until Congress pulled the plug.

PALIN: I was for infrastructure being built in the state. And it's not inappropriate for a mayor or for a governor to request and to work with their Congress and their congressmen, their congresswomen, to plug into the federal budget along with every other state a share of the federal budget for infrastructure.

Congressional ear forms earmarks are an embarrassment. Which is why she's fighting so hard for them. Or against them. Or something.

Ye gods, if anyone can parse her sentences have at it.

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First Dude Of Alaska Subpoenaed

Bad luck:

The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 today to subpoena 13 people -- including the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin -- in an investigation of whether Palin abused her power in trying to get her former brother-in-law fired.

[...]

"He's such a central figure. ... I think one should be issued for him," Branchflower said.

And now for some sweet, sweet irony:

The Senate committees granted the request. Voting for were Sens. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, and two Anchorage Democrats, Hollis French and Bill Wielechowski. [emphasis added]

I hope Sen. Huggins is prepared for what the Republicans will do to him. They don't play nice.

However, by way of Steve Benen, the attempted cover-up continues apace:

The Palin administration in Alaska is considering steps to quash today's subpoenas and delay the investigation. Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill sent a letter to the lawmakers this week suggesting the investigation is biased and should be halted.

Would that we all had the power to shut down criminal investigations of ourselves.

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Stonewalling

Troopergate:

Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.

In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.

[...]

But a top McCain campaign official acknowledged that the GOP lawyer had given the campaign a "heads up" about his letter and that the McCain campaign approved of the effort to remove French.

Reed Hundt asks the right questions:

So isn't there anyone with investigatory power, or even just lawyerly or reportorial skills, who could inquire into exactly how all these witnesses to "troopergate" happened to obtain lawyers and then all follow the exact same tactic in the same 72 hours? Who are their lawyers; who is paying their lawyers? And many other questions that follow.

After eight years of this crap do we want four or eight more? Whatever the hell is going on here it's crystal clear that McCain and Palin intend to follow the model built by BushCheney - no accountability because we are Supreme. Unless the next president puts a stop to it the Unitary Executive theory will become an undisputed fact. And the United States will be a dictatorship in all but name.

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It's Officially Official

Osmosis:

GIBSON: But as you know, the questions revolve really around foreign policy experience.

Can you honestly say you feel confident having someone who hasn't traveled outside the United States until last year, dealing with an insurgent Russia, with an Iran with nuclear ambitions, with an unstable Pakistan, not to mention the war on terror?

MCCAIN: Sure. And one of the key elements of America's national security requirements are energy. She understands the energy issues better than anybody I know in Washington, D.C., and she understands.

Alaska is right next to Russia. She understands that. Look, Sen. Obama's never visited south of our border. I mean, please.

Perhaps the stupidest talking point in the history of American politics - Alaska is next to Russia! - has been said by the candidate himself.

If America elects this addlepated jackass I'll simply stop caring.

[Via JMM.]

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Can You Say "Irony", Boys And Girls?

I knew you could!

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

Don't worry: Young Bristol will be well taken care of.

The other young mothers of Alaska? They can go to Hell just as the Baby Jesus intended it.

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Book Burner

That's our Sarah!

Honestly, the sheer volume of insanity coming out about Gov. Mooseburger is overwhelming.

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The Palins Must Be So Proud

Bristol Palin's soon-to-be hubby:

On his MySpace page, [Levi] Johnston boasts, "I'm a f - - -in' redneck" who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes.

"But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some s- - - and just f - - -in' chillin' I guess."

"Ya f - - - with me I'll kick [your] ass," he added.

He also claims to be "in a relationship," but states, "I don't want kids."

Shockingly, young Mr. Johnston's MySpace page seems to have disappeared.

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Palin Lawyers Up

Which isn't to imply that she's guilty of anything - it's the smart move - but it sure as hell doesn't look good for a just-named veep candidate.

How long before she decides she wants to spend more time with Andy Card's family?

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The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Gov. Mooseburger and Sen. Series-of-Tubes.

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GOP Self-Parody Watch

USN&WR's Michael Barone lays out the case for Gov. Mooseburger. After pointing out that Alaska is right next to Russia (do you smell an emerging meme?) Baron furthers the case for Palin by writing:

And [Alaska] is the only state with territory, in the Aleutian Islands, occupied by the enemy in World War II.

Is Barone arguing that Sarah Palin picked up a gun and fought off the dastardly Japs in 1942? He must be because otherwise the sentence is a complete non-sequitur.

On second thought, Barone is just dim.

[Via Steve Benen.]

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The Wisdom Of Sarah Palin

When the rightwing fundie Eagle Forum asked, in a questionnaire, "Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?" the esteemed Gov. Palin responded:

Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

As dayvoe rightly points out, the Pledge was written in 1892 (by a Socialist, no less!) and "under god" wasn't added until 1954 - during the Eisenhower administration.

My friends, that's change you can believe in!

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Sarah Palin

Pat Buchanan supporter.

There goes the Jewish vote.

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Experience!

Sarah Palin is an expert in foreign policy because Alaska is right next to Russia!

She's ready to lead!

"[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?

Perhaps Gov. Palin should consult the Constitution.

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The Wrong Palin

It should have been Michael but we're stuck with short-term Alaska Gov. Sarah.

As for her qualifications, she was voted Miss Congeniality in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant in 1984.

Joe Biden is going to eat her alive.

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HULK SMASH!

Alaska wingnut Sen. Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens indicted on 7 counts.

Nice tie. For a child.

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Methinks...

...local wingnut and all around factually-challenged columnist Jack Kelly has a massive crush on Alaska Republican governor Sarah Palin.

It's kinda sweet, really.

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Facts Are Stupid Things

'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first - verdict afterwards.'

'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the sentence first!'

'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.

'I won't!' said Alice.

'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

Alaska:

Alaska's state legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon — researchers just have to fill in the science part.

A $2 million program funded with little debate by the legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an "academic based" conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming. Legislators hope to undermine the public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten the polar bears' survival.

We've gone down the rabbit hole.

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Senator Series Of Tubes Has A Problem

Whoops:

The recent FBI corruption investigation has widened to include U.S. Senator Ted Stevens.

[...]

"I put out a statement, the statements there and it says I do not comment on things that are under investigation. Thank you," Stevens said.

[Via JMM.]

WaPo:

"They put me on notice to preserve some records," Stevens said in a brief interview about his legal team's discussions with the FBI. He declined to say what kinds of records were involved but confirmed that he had hired lawyers and that his son, former state Senate president Ben Stevens, "is also under investigation."

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