Friday, September 19, 2008
The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law
The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law
Friday Sept. 19 - Salon.com
Bill O'Reilly, Wednesday night, calling for the arrest of Gawker's owners and managers:
The website knows the law, and says "you know -- I'm going to do it anyway. I dare you to come get me."
Associated Press today, on Todd Palin's refusal to comply with the Alaska State Senate's subpoena:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.
Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin's lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday. . . .
Ignoring a legislative subpoena is punishable by a fine up to $500 and up to six months in jail under Alaska law. But courts are reluctant to intervene in legislative matters and the full Legislature must be in session to bring contempt charges, Wielechowski said. The Legislature is not scheduled to convene until January.
It is illegal in the State of Alaska to fail to comply with legislative subpoenas. But Todd Palin has announced he will do exactly that which the law prohibits for one simple reason -- because nothing can be done about it until after the election, and even then, it's unlikely much will be done to punish him for breaking the law. Sarah Palin has similarly ordered all of her aides to refuse to comply with these subpoenas even though doing so is illegal, because she, too, doubts there will be consequences for this illegal behavior. Or, as Bill O'Reilly put it in his righteous Rule of Law tirade: "I'm going to do it anyway. I dare you to come get me."
Read the rest of the story:
The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law
Friday Sept. 19 - Salon.com
Bill O'Reilly, Wednesday night, calling for the arrest of Gawker's owners and managers:
The website knows the law, and says "you know -- I'm going to do it anyway. I dare you to come get me."
Associated Press today, on Todd Palin's refusal to comply with the Alaska State Senate's subpoena:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.
Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin's lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday. . . .
Ignoring a legislative subpoena is punishable by a fine up to $500 and up to six months in jail under Alaska law. But courts are reluctant to intervene in legislative matters and the full Legislature must be in session to bring contempt charges, Wielechowski said. The Legislature is not scheduled to convene until January.
It is illegal in the State of Alaska to fail to comply with legislative subpoenas. But Todd Palin has announced he will do exactly that which the law prohibits for one simple reason -- because nothing can be done about it until after the election, and even then, it's unlikely much will be done to punish him for breaking the law. Sarah Palin has similarly ordered all of her aides to refuse to comply with these subpoenas even though doing so is illegal, because she, too, doubts there will be consequences for this illegal behavior. Or, as Bill O'Reilly put it in his righteous Rule of Law tirade: "I'm going to do it anyway. I dare you to come get me."
Read the rest of the story:
The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law
The Aussie View of Sarah Palin
The Aussie View of Sarah Palin
To those who live Down Under, Palin is Middle America incarnate — for better and for worse.
September 19, 2008 by Arthur Chrenkoff
Native critics of Australia’s alleged foreign policy subservience to America, as well as of the prevalence and popularity of American popular culture, often refer to Australia in contempt and exasperation as the 51st state. That’s not quite accurate; should Australia join the United States (of Oceania? if you excuse the Orwellian undertone), she would add six new states to the Great Republic. Throw in Puerto Rico, and Obama would actually get his 57 states.
There’s no prospect of that (though I can’t speak for Puerto Rico). Australians are happy how and where they are, equal but separate: conflicted friends, allies and trading partners. I would hope that an average Australian knows more about America than an average Brit (though I can’t guarantee that he or she would necessarily better like what they know). Certainly a lot of Australians, particularly the globe-trotting Generation Xs and Ys, have “done” the East and West Coasts and had their pictures taken with the Statue of Liberty or the Hollywood sign in the background. However, many parts of the U.S. still remain off the beaten track and off the mental map for us here Down Under...
Read the rest of the story:
The Aussie View of Sarah Palin
To those who live Down Under, Palin is Middle America incarnate — for better and for worse.
September 19, 2008 by Arthur Chrenkoff
Native critics of Australia’s alleged foreign policy subservience to America, as well as of the prevalence and popularity of American popular culture, often refer to Australia in contempt and exasperation as the 51st state. That’s not quite accurate; should Australia join the United States (of Oceania? if you excuse the Orwellian undertone), she would add six new states to the Great Republic. Throw in Puerto Rico, and Obama would actually get his 57 states.
There’s no prospect of that (though I can’t speak for Puerto Rico). Australians are happy how and where they are, equal but separate: conflicted friends, allies and trading partners. I would hope that an average Australian knows more about America than an average Brit (though I can’t guarantee that he or she would necessarily better like what they know). Certainly a lot of Australians, particularly the globe-trotting Generation Xs and Ys, have “done” the East and West Coasts and had their pictures taken with the Statue of Liberty or the Hollywood sign in the background. However, many parts of the U.S. still remain off the beaten track and off the mental map for us here Down Under...
Read the rest of the story:
The Aussie View of Sarah Palin
Australia: Palin's husband will not testify
Palin's husband will not testify
From correspondents in Anchorage
September 19, 2008
Article from: Agence France-Presse
THE husband of the US Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in an abuse of power probe of his wife, the family's lawyer says.
Todd Palin, father of five children with John McCain's running mate, was among 13 people ordered to testify in the potentially explosive "Troopergate" investigation of his wife, who is the Alaska governor.
In a letter to independent investigator Stephen Branchflower, lawyer Thomas van Flein described the legislature's investigation into whether Palin improperly removed a commissioner for refusing to fire a state trooper who was her former brother-in-law as politically biased and lacking legal authority.
"We maintain our general objections that the legislative council investigation, besides being pursued for partisan purposes, is being conducted in violation of all accepted norms of due process," Mr van Flein wrote.
He also argued that the subpoena was "unduly burdensome" because of Todd Palin's travel schedule with his wife ahead of the election.
The probe is being overseen by the head of the Alaska state Senate judiciary committee, who is a Democrat.
But shortly after Governor Palin was tapped to join John McCain's ticket she called for a formal review of her actions by the Alaska Personnel Board, a panel which is under her authority...
Read the rest of the story:
Palin's husband will not testify
From correspondents in Anchorage
September 19, 2008
Article from: Agence France-Presse
THE husband of the US Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in an abuse of power probe of his wife, the family's lawyer says.
Todd Palin, father of five children with John McCain's running mate, was among 13 people ordered to testify in the potentially explosive "Troopergate" investigation of his wife, who is the Alaska governor.
In a letter to independent investigator Stephen Branchflower, lawyer Thomas van Flein described the legislature's investigation into whether Palin improperly removed a commissioner for refusing to fire a state trooper who was her former brother-in-law as politically biased and lacking legal authority.
"We maintain our general objections that the legislative council investigation, besides being pursued for partisan purposes, is being conducted in violation of all accepted norms of due process," Mr van Flein wrote.
He also argued that the subpoena was "unduly burdensome" because of Todd Palin's travel schedule with his wife ahead of the election.
The probe is being overseen by the head of the Alaska state Senate judiciary committee, who is a Democrat.
But shortly after Governor Palin was tapped to join John McCain's ticket she called for a formal review of her actions by the Alaska Personnel Board, a panel which is under her authority...
Read the rest of the story:
Palin's husband will not testify
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Sarah Palin's dead lake
Sarah Palin's dead lake
Salon.com
September 19, 2008
By promoting runaway development in her hometown, say locals, Palin has "fouled her own nest" -- and that goes for the lake where she lives.
Sept. 19, 2008 | WASILLA, Alaska -- Every morning she's at home here, Sarah Palin wakes up to a postcard view from her lakeside home. Out the windows of her two-story wood-framed house stretch the serene, birch-lined waters of Lake Lucille. Ducks go gliding by the red-and-white Piper Cub floatplane docked outside. With the snow-frosted Chugach and Talkeetna mountains looming in the distance, the scene seems to define the Alaska that Palin celebrates: rugged, majestic, unspoiled.
And, yet, the lake Sarah Palin lives on is dead.
"Lake Lucille is basically a dead lake -- it can't support a fish population," said Michelle Church, a Mat-Su Valley borough assembly member and environmentalist. "It's a runway for floatplanes."
Palin recently told the New Yorker magazine that Alaskans "have such a love, a respect for our environment, for our lands, for our wildlife, for our clean water and our clean air. We know what we've got up here and we want to protect that, so we're gonna make sure that our developments up here do not adversely affect that environment at all. I don't want development if there's going to be that threat to harming our environment."
But as mayor of her hometown, say many local critics, Palin showed no such stewardship.
"Sarah's legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth," said Patty Stoll, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher who once worked in the same school with Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath. "The truth is, Wasilla is just plain ugly, it's not a pleasant place to live. It's not thought out. And that's a shame.
"Sarah fouled her own nest, and I can't understand why. I hate to think it was simply greed or ambition."
Read the rest of the story:
Sarah Palin's dead lake
Salon.com
September 19, 2008
By promoting runaway development in her hometown, say locals, Palin has "fouled her own nest" -- and that goes for the lake where she lives.
Sept. 19, 2008 | WASILLA, Alaska -- Every morning she's at home here, Sarah Palin wakes up to a postcard view from her lakeside home. Out the windows of her two-story wood-framed house stretch the serene, birch-lined waters of Lake Lucille. Ducks go gliding by the red-and-white Piper Cub floatplane docked outside. With the snow-frosted Chugach and Talkeetna mountains looming in the distance, the scene seems to define the Alaska that Palin celebrates: rugged, majestic, unspoiled.
And, yet, the lake Sarah Palin lives on is dead.
"Lake Lucille is basically a dead lake -- it can't support a fish population," said Michelle Church, a Mat-Su Valley borough assembly member and environmentalist. "It's a runway for floatplanes."
Palin recently told the New Yorker magazine that Alaskans "have such a love, a respect for our environment, for our lands, for our wildlife, for our clean water and our clean air. We know what we've got up here and we want to protect that, so we're gonna make sure that our developments up here do not adversely affect that environment at all. I don't want development if there's going to be that threat to harming our environment."
But as mayor of her hometown, say many local critics, Palin showed no such stewardship.
"Sarah's legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth," said Patty Stoll, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher who once worked in the same school with Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath. "The truth is, Wasilla is just plain ugly, it's not a pleasant place to live. It's not thought out. And that's a shame.
"Sarah fouled her own nest, and I can't understand why. I hate to think it was simply greed or ambition."
Read the rest of the story:
Sarah Palin's dead lake
Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking
Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking
Andrew Sullivan.com
18 September 18, 2008
A reader writes:
"Regarding the "odd lies" of Sarah Palin. I grew up in a deeply evangelical family, and through the lens of evangelical thinking the world is magical, populated with demons and angels, devils and gods. You are taught not to believe your eyes or your senses, that the wisdom of man is foolishness to god. That belief is Truth. That belief is Truth before reality is truth. What comes out of this is what I'll call magical thinking."
"You feel the presence of God, feel Him talking to you, feel the mission of your life, the purpose the plan the direction given to you by God. So everything becomes like a mythic fairy tale. You get in the habit of fitting the day to day realities into a 'story' the life story of God's purpose in your life."
"This is how Sarah becoming Governor is destiny."
"Her memory is constantly rewriting the reality to fit her proscribed vision within an evangelical Christianity that has direct contact with god. If you see all of her 'lies' through this lens they begin to make perfect sense."
"Thought I would share: I can totally feel what she is feeling. And if you look at those leaked emails, the prayer talk, and faith talk and god talk, it completely fills your thoughts every moment of every day."
The question is simply whether this magical thinking is what we need to address the financial crisis, the terror war and the Iraq occupation. If you want a president who doesn't believe in empirical reality, you know who to vote for.
Read the rest of the story:
Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking
Andrew Sullivan.com
18 September 18, 2008
A reader writes:
"Regarding the "odd lies" of Sarah Palin. I grew up in a deeply evangelical family, and through the lens of evangelical thinking the world is magical, populated with demons and angels, devils and gods. You are taught not to believe your eyes or your senses, that the wisdom of man is foolishness to god. That belief is Truth. That belief is Truth before reality is truth. What comes out of this is what I'll call magical thinking."
"You feel the presence of God, feel Him talking to you, feel the mission of your life, the purpose the plan the direction given to you by God. So everything becomes like a mythic fairy tale. You get in the habit of fitting the day to day realities into a 'story' the life story of God's purpose in your life."
"This is how Sarah becoming Governor is destiny."
"Her memory is constantly rewriting the reality to fit her proscribed vision within an evangelical Christianity that has direct contact with god. If you see all of her 'lies' through this lens they begin to make perfect sense."
"Thought I would share: I can totally feel what she is feeling. And if you look at those leaked emails, the prayer talk, and faith talk and god talk, it completely fills your thoughts every moment of every day."
The question is simply whether this magical thinking is what we need to address the financial crisis, the terror war and the Iraq occupation. If you want a president who doesn't believe in empirical reality, you know who to vote for.
Read the rest of the story:
Sarah Palin And Magical Thinking
Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe
Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe
By MATT VOLZ – Associated Press
September 18, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.
Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin's lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday.
"The objections boil down to the fact that the Legislative Council investigation is no longer a legitimate investigation because it has been subjected to complete partisanship and does not operate with the authority that it had at the time of its initial authorization," McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said.
Sarah Palin initially welcomed the bipartisan investigation into accusations that she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. "Hold me accountable," she said.
But she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. The McCain campaign dispatched a legal team to Alaska including O'Callaghan, a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York to bolster Palin's local lawyer.
In the letter, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein lists nine objections to the Legislature's investigation into Gov. Palin. Van Flein also argues the subpoena is "unduly burdensome" because Palin has travel plans that require him to be out of the state.
Earlier this week, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said the governor, who was not subpoenaed, declined to participate in the investigation and said Palin administration employees who have been subpoenaed would not appear.
State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat, said the McCain campaign is doing all it can to prevent the Legislature from completing a report on whether the GOP's vice presidential nominee abused her power as governor.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe
By MATT VOLZ – Associated Press
September 18, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.
Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin's lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday.
"The objections boil down to the fact that the Legislative Council investigation is no longer a legitimate investigation because it has been subjected to complete partisanship and does not operate with the authority that it had at the time of its initial authorization," McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said.
Sarah Palin initially welcomed the bipartisan investigation into accusations that she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. "Hold me accountable," she said.
But she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. The McCain campaign dispatched a legal team to Alaska including O'Callaghan, a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York to bolster Palin's local lawyer.
In the letter, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein lists nine objections to the Legislature's investigation into Gov. Palin. Van Flein also argues the subpoena is "unduly burdensome" because Palin has travel plans that require him to be out of the state.
Earlier this week, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said the governor, who was not subpoenaed, declined to participate in the investigation and said Palin administration employees who have been subpoenaed would not appear.
State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat, said the McCain campaign is doing all it can to prevent the Legislature from completing a report on whether the GOP's vice presidential nominee abused her power as governor.
Read the rest of the story:
Palin's husband refuses to testify in probe
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