Friday, October 10, 2008

Legislative panel: Palin abused authority

Legislative panel: Palin abused authority
AP - October 11, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state's public safety commissioner.

The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn't the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.

The Republican vice presidential nominee has been accused of firing a commissioner to settle a family dispute. Palin supporters have called the investigation politically motivated.

Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska lawmakers have emerged from a private session in Anchorage where they spent more than six hours discussing a politically charged ethics report into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her state public safety commissioner.

The legislative panel began its public session by discussing whether to release the report's findings. The investigation was examining whether Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, fired a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. The report was also expected to touch on whether Palin's husband meddled in state affairs and whether her administration inappropriately accessed employee medical records.

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Legislative panel: Palin abused authority

Palin Violated Ethics Laws in Trooper Case, Report Concludes

Palin Violated Ethics Laws in Trooper Case, Report Concludes
By JIM CARLTON

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin violated ethics rules by trying to remove her former brother in law from his job as a state trooper, a highly-anticipated legislative report into the matter has concluded. But she didn't break any laws in firing her public safety commissioner, who said he had been pressured to fire the trooper, the report found.
[Photo] Associated Press

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, signed autographs after a rally in Allentown, Pa., Wednesday.

The inquiry, approved by a legislative committee's bipartisan vote, began The report by investigator Stephen Branchflower was released late today in Anchorage by the state legislative panel that commissioned it. The bi-partisan panel voted 12-0 to release the findings to the public. Legislators said they would have to consider later what, if anything, to do now.

The so-called "Troopergate" inquiry was launched in July after Gov. Palin -- now on the Republican presidential ticket -- removed her public safety commissioner, and he later said he had been pressured by the governor, her husband and her staff to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten.

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Palin Violated Ethics Laws in Trooper Case, Report Concludes

McCain Campaign Now Attacks Michelle Obama Over Ayers

McCain Campaign Now Attacks Michelle Obama Over Ayers
By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - October 10, 2008

The McCain campaign is now broadening their attack on Obama's past association with William Ayers to include Michelle Obama -- even though McCain has repeatedly said spouses should be off limits during the campaign.

The attack? Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers' wife and fellow former Weatherman, went to work in 1984 for the major Chicago-based national law firm of Sidley & Austin, and three years later, Michelle joined the mega-firm as well.

That's the entire attack. We wish we were joking. But we aren't.

In launching this latest, McCain is ditching yet another formerly-claimed principle as he faces the growing likelihood of defeat. In a statement back in June, the McCain campaign said: "Senator McCain agrees with Senator Obama that spouses should not be an issue in this campaign, and he has stated that position frequently."

The attack on Michelle came on a McCain conference call with reporters this afternoon featuring John Murtagh, who has been hitting Obama over the Weather Underground's attack on his family's home back in 1970. Murtagh noted that Dohrn and Michelle Obama had both worked at the firm starting in the late 1980s.

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McCain Campaign Now Attacks Michelle Obama Over Ayers

Kerry Condemns "Hate-Filled" Language At McCain-Palin Rallies

Kerry Condemns "Hate-Filled" Language At McCain-Palin Rallies
Posted by Brian Montopoli| October 10, 2008

The Obama campaign has thus far largely stayed away from reports about the increasingly angry rhetoric coming from some attendees of McCain-Palin rallies. (The candidate did make an indirect reference to the rallies this morning, saying, "it's not hard to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division.") 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, however, directly addresses the issue in a fundraising appeal today.

"The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin," Kerry writes. "Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out 'Kill Him!' and 'Off With His Head,' and yell 'treason' when Senator Obama's name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled."

Kerry also put the comments on his "anti-"smear" site. And he added in the fundraising appeal: "According to reports, every ad paid for by the John McCain campaign is now a negative ad - every single one! McCain allows his running mate to make outrageous charges that only a few years ago would have disqualified someone from serious consideration for national office."

The Obama campaign is in a somewhat difficult position when it comes to handling reports of offensive behavior at McCain-Palin events. On the one hand, it's in Obama's best interest to spotlight extreme rhetoric that surfaces at GOP rallies. On the other, the Obama campaign has accused the McCain camp of trying to distract the American people instead of addressing real issues. And that's a tough case to make if they start talking about these sorts of ugly sideshows.

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Kerry Condemns "Hate-Filled" Language At McCain-Palin Rallies

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McCain and Palin's lynch-mob tactics

McCain and Palin's lynch-mob tactics
Oct 10, 2008 - Tod Robberson
Dallas Morning View

It's increasingly worrying that John McCain and Sarah Palin are embracing the acceptability of campaign tactics that play to the most racist and intolerant tendencies among their supporters. John McCain knows that Barack Obama has no links whatsoever to terrorism, and yet he's doing everything he can to create that linkage. And he's unleashing Sarah Palin to do his dirty work while McCain claims to be above this condemnable form of negative campaigning.



This is unconscionable, and it shows how desperate John McCain has become. He promised repeatedly that he wouldn't campaign this way. And he said that when politicians campaign that way, it shows how little vision they have of the future. But most dangerous in this form of campaigning is that he and Sarah Palin are standing by, with smiles on their faces, while their supporters yell things like, "Kill him!" in reference to Obama. They have done nothing to calm down this lynch-mob mentality. Instead, they are doing everything they can to promote it. John McCain must make a full-court, public push to stop this "kill him" mentality now.

I'm not the only one who's worried. David Gergen told CNN's Anderson Cooper earlier this week: "The issue has been what's been going on at Sarah Palin's rallies. That's where the real trouble is because it's...it's the combination of her rhetoric -- which is whipping up these crowds -- and these ugly scenes that have occurred at these rallies. When Obama's name came up, has been used it not only brought these boos but, you know we have reports now of somebody yelling out "terrorist!" about Obama. At another rally, someone yelling out "kill him, kill him". And at another rally the...you have people shouting racial epithets.

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McCain and Palin's lynch-mob tactics

Sarah Palin's Alaskan Wasteland

Sarah Palin's Alaskan Wasteland
The New Republic: A Look At Governor Palin's Environmental Record
Oct. 10, 2008 - Sheila Kaplan and Marilyn Berlin Snell.

There's no reason to doubt Sarah Palin's sincerity when she talks about her commitment to family and--more specifically--special-needs kids. When she introduced her son, who has Down syndrome, to the audience at the Republican convention, the family tableau drew cheers. And she issued a promise. "To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you," she told the crowd. "For years, you've sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters, and I pledge to you that, if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

Unfortunately, as governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids. It's true that Alaska's top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. But, instead of correcting this problem, she's compounded it. Peer into her environmental record, and Palin ends up looking a lot like George W. Bush.

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Sarah Palin's Alaskan Wasteland

Hope or Hate...You Decide

12 New Stomach-Turning Revelations About Sarah Palin

12 New Stomach-Turning Revelations About Sarah Palin
By AlterNet Staff, AlterNet. Posted October 10, 2008.

Palin has taken to smearing Obama. But it's her own record that continues to yield alarming information, undermining her skills and credibility.

Sarah Palin has had a lot of ups and downs in her time in the national spotlight. When she was first nominated, the Alaska governor exceeded expectations by successfully reading from a teleprompter at the Republican National Convention. Then, she sat down with CBS's Katie Couric to disastrous results -- disastrous, hilarious or downright frightening, given your point of view. Any way you look at it, Palin's awful interview with Couric set the bar so low that her embarrassing performance at the vice presidential debate, where she refused to answer the questions and flirtatiously winked at the camera, was deemed a success by many commentators in the corporate media. At least she didn't vomit on stage, seemed to be the general consensus.

Since the debate, though, Sarah Palin has dropped to new lows. She has maliciously gone after Barack Obama, using hate speech, dog whistles and every inexcusable attack in the book.

But no matter how ridiculous or sensational Palin's attacks on Obama are, her venomous words cannot hide all the skeletons that keep pouring out of her unvetted closet. And these are the things that should give the American public cause for concern.

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12 New Stomach-Turning Revelations About Sarah Palin

ACORN Rallies Its Troops

ACORN Rallies Its Troops
The Atlantic - 09 Oct 2008
Marc Ambinder

Republicans v ACORN has become a perennial early October antagonism, and tensions this year are particularly acute, with Republicans from the McCain campaign all the way down to House Republicans accusing the left-leaning community organizing group of a national conspiracy to flood secretaries of state with fraudulent voter registrations.

It's true, as Ben Smith notes, that Bugs Bunny and other imaginary voters can't imaginably show up at polling precincts and vote, but Republican complaints, to the extent that they are legitimate, are different. It's the rush of voter registrations at the end of the cycle, a rush which leaves election supervisors in the untenable position of having to very quickly decide whether applications are valid or not. Often, bad applications get through. Critics of ACORN wonder: why are fraudulent applications submitted in the first place? It's the system; you pay people to turn in as many voter registration cards as possible, you invite people who want more money to submit false forms. Critics also wonder: why aren't more people -- read the media -- covering this? After all, incidences of fraud are rampant, with official investigations launched in 12 states. Now -- "rampant" might not be the best adjective. Voter registration cards aren't the property of ACORN or any other group, and ACORN is required by law to turn in every completed form -- even if they're obviously fraudulent. ACORN insists it has procedures in place to flag these forms, but you can't blame supervisors of elections from throwing up their hands when they come in.

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ACORN Rallies Its Troops