Troopergate Investigation Concludes Palin 'Unlawfully Abused Powers'

Not Just Unethical..... She Broke The Law!!!

"I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act," Branchflower wrote in the report.

The Troopergate Investigation Report has concluded that Sarah Palin, the first-term Governor of Alaska, abused the powers of her office in a vendetta against a State employee. See more from the UK's Telegraph.

The Telegraph also offers a breakdown of the major findings:

FINDING ONE
Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. That states: "Each public officer holds office as a public trust and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest though official action is a violation of that trust."

The most damaging finding. Stephen Branchflower, the investigator appointed by Alaska legislators, concluded that the Governor abused her power by conducting a campaign to have her former brother-in-law Mike Wooten fired as a state trooper, or by failing to prevent her husband Todd from doing so. He deemed this an effort to secure "a personal interest" under the Ethics Act, through her position.

FINDING TWO
Public safety commissioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Wooten was not the only reason Mrs Palin dismissed him, but was "likely a contributing factor". Nonetheless, the Governor has authority to sack executive branch department heads, and acted within that.

Technically a plus for Mrs Palin, but reveals she bears grudges. Mrs Palin can hire and fire her department chiefs as she wishes, so long as she acts "in good faith". She said she dismissed Mr Monegan because of a budget dispute but he said he believed he was sacked because he resisted pressure to oust Trooper Wooten.

FINDING THREE
A worker compensation claim by Mr Wooten was correctly handled and he received the benefits to which he was entitled.

An all clear for Mrs Palin. Her husband, Todd, had circulated pictures of the trooper driving a snowmobile while he was supposed to be on sick leave and receiving benefits for a bad back sustained at work - implying he was feigning the condition. The Palins denied interfering in his benefit claim and the inquiry did not disagree.

FINDING FOUR
Alaska's Attorney General, who was the conduit for requests for information from the executive branch, failed "to substantially comply" with the investigator's request to Mrs Palin to answer by email questions from the inquiry.

An implicit criticism of her refusal to cooperate. Gov Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying she and her staff would co-operate fully and had nothing to hide in her dismissal of Mr Monegan. But after she was chosen as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, she withdrew her co-operation, saying the investigation had become a partisan witchhunt. The legislature authorised subpoenas on several of her aides to force them to testify but did not issue one against Mrs Palin. Investigator Stephen Branchflower offered to travel anywhere in the US to meet Mrs Palin or to accept answers from her by email, but the suggestion was ignored.

See the Troopergate Investigative Report Here (pdf)

This looks like the final verdict on John McCain's judgement and fitness to be President - He does not have the judgement nor the fitness for the top job in the land. Sarah Palin could conceivably be censured or impeached for her actions, but it does not appear that any action will be taken to punish her, at least not right now.

She will argue that this investigation was a witch hunt by Democrats, but this is a bold faced lie. The investigation was already ongoing when she was chosen to be John McCain's running mate. Palin welcomed the investigation when it got started, claiming that she would be vindicated. She also promised that she would cooperate fully. As for this being a partisan witchhunt... it's a complete lie, and she knows it. The effort to launch the investigation was bi-partisan. In fact, the panel that decided to investigate had more Republicans than Democrats. It was not until she was chosen to be John McCain's running mate that she began making all of the false claims about a witch hunt, and decided not to cooperate.

She is unfit to serve as VP... I don't see how she could be allowed to even compete for the job at this point. But the McCain camp will gloss over this over the next few weeks. She was already unqualified in terms of her background... now she's morally and ethically unfit. I don't care how the McCain camp tries to sweep this under the rug.

See a more detailed breakdown of the findings from The DailyKos

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Related Links

TIME looks at the Troopergate Report from another angle

See Report from the New York Times

Palin Not Cooperating with Troopergate Probe

And Walt Monegan Says Palin Isn't Telling the Truth About His Firing

It looks like Sarah Palin has flip flopped. After saying that she would cooperate with an Alaska State ethics investigation just a few months ago, she has now decided (after becoming the Republican VP choice...and due to mounting evidence against her) that cooperation isn't such a good idea after all.

McCain & Co. are now saying that the investigation into Palin's possible abuse of power (which is a bi-partisan investigation) is politically motivated, despite the fact that the Alaska House of Representatives is overwhelmingly Republican and the State Senate has only a 2 Democrat majority. Once again, the McCain camp is misleading the American public.

Meanwhile, Walt Monegan has come out again to say that Palin is not telling the truth about his removal. Monegan is the former State Public Safety Commissioner dismissed by Palin for not carrying out her illegal scheme to fire Alaska State trooper Mike Wooten.

According to an ABC interview of Palin:

Palin told ABC's Charles Gibson she dismissed Monegan for poor job performance and that neither she nor her husband pressured Monegan to fire State Trooper Wooten. "We never did. I never pressured him to hire or fire anybody," Palin said.

But according to Monegan:

he resisted pressure by the First Couple to re-open an old case against a state trooper, who was in a hotly contested divorce and custody battle with the Governor's sister Molly.

"I was called to her Anchorage formal Governor's office to talk with Todd Palin about an issue that was a private family matter," recounted Monegan. Todd became "upset," Monegan recalled, when told the allegations had already been investigated and the case would not be re-opened.

"When Sarah later called to tell me the same thing, I thought to myself, 'I may not be long for this job.'" But, Monegan said, he stood by his position. "I held the public trust. As Chief, I was responsible."

So now the reason Palin gives for Monegan's firing is "poor job performance". Where have we heard this excuse before? Remember the Federal Prosecutors who were removed by the Bush Administration for so-called "poor job performance". It looks like there won't be much difference between McCain/Palin and Bush/Cheney, except that McCain/Palin will likely tell even more lies.

Just a few months before Monegan was removed for "poor job performance", Palin is seen on tape praising the work of the Public Safety Chief.

Sarah Palin - Is She A Racist?

The Field Negro is having a discussion regarding more revelations about Palin...and her alleged use of racist and sexist slurs.

He has another great posting regarding race in general... titled "Race Matters".

Considering her current religious affiliations and the connections to right wing anti-government fringe groups.... the fact that she may be a bigot wouldn't surprise me at all.


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Todd Palin's AIP Sympathetic To White Supremacist Group

AIP Vice Chairman Dexter Clark didn’t think of the League of the South — a neo-Confederate group that promotes the Confederate flag and seeks an independent Southern republic — as a strange ally for the Alaskan Independents, the third largest political party in the northernmost state.

Alaska Independence Party has no problem rubbing shoulders with White Supremacists groups. In fact Clark, who went to the 2007 Second North American Secessionist Convention, went out of his way to legitimize groups like the League of the South when interviewed by the Anchorage Press:

“We’re not talking about a bunch of Klans-people walking around with white sheets and pointed hats,” Dexter said. “These are some pretty legitimate people with some legitimate concerns about our government.”

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AIP Official On Tape Saying Sarah Palin Was A Member

Vice Chairman of the AIP (Alaskan Independence Party) Dexter Clark is seen on video at a 2007 Convention mentioning Sarah Palin as a member.

"the Governor" was a member "before she ran for the Mayor" of Wasilla...and he goes on to mention that she is still "sympathetic" to the AIP.

(toward middle-end of the video)




Witnesses are beginning to come forward saying that Palin attended an AIP Convention as far back as 1994.


It has already been confirmed that Sarah Palin's husband, Todd Palin, was in fact a member of the AIP, a fringe anti-American separatist group. But his wife's membership paperwork has mysteriously come up missing.


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Related Posts and Articles

Palin Connected to Right Wing anti-American Fringe Group

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If Sarah Palin Were Black....

It appears that Sarah Palin has a Church problem, and a problem with extremist affiliations, on top of everything else.

According to Andrew Sullivan, Palin was in Church (The Wasilla Bible Church) just two weeks ago during a sermon from visiting preacher David Brickner, where he stated the following:

Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

Palin was in church that day, according to her Pastor Larry Kroon.

So who is David Brickner? He is the leader of an organization called "Jews for Jesus"... a group that has been denounced by Jewish groups around the World. Learn more here, and here.

Palin has also been affiliated with another ultra Conservative evangelical church - The Wasilla Assembly of God. This is the Church where Palin's view of the World and view of God were formed during her childhood. But some might see the church as too radically evangelical. During the 2004 Presidential race, Wasilla Assembly of God pastor Ed Kalnins warned his followers that whoever voted for John Kerry would not get into Heaven. This is really bizarre stuff.

During another more recent event in the Church, Palin herself describes the War in Iraq as God's mission....(like a Christian Crusade).

These revelations, combined with Palin's affiliations with a fringe Anti-American secessionist group, raise questions about whether she is the right person to deal with the complexities of leading the nation.

But why has the media allowed Palin to slide on these questions? Barack Obama certainly didn't get a break from the Jeremiah Wright controversy. When I went to bed at night... Jeremiah Wright was being shoved down my throat. When I woke up the next day, Jeremiah Wright was being shoved down my throat.

It is clear that the media has somewhat of a double standard when it comes to who gets scrutinized and who does not... and it's a racial double standard. Race is the primary factor behind the media's lack of diligence. The media has shown its cowardice on a number of occasions when it comes to who is covered and why. The bottom line is... we all know that if Sarah Palin were Black, the coverage would be completely different, just as it has been for Barack and Michelle Obama. It's as if Blacks are inherently saddled with this constant doubt about their Patriotism....so the media almost felt obligated to dig under every Rock in Obama's background to see if they could help the Swiftboaters in any way possible. It's as though scrutinizing Barack Obama was the media's duty.... yet the same standard just doesn't exist when the subject of discussion isn't Black. The same inherent duty just isn't there. All of a sudden, grassroots bloggers have to beg the big media to do more coverage. When it was Barack Obama.... no one had to beg... the media gave us more Jeremiah Wright than we could take... long after we had enough... they saw fit to give us more and more. I doubt if the Britney Spears of politics Sarah Palin will have to deal with the same questions about her Patriotism that Michelle Obama faced....even if such questions are actually legitimate this time. If you recall.... the firestorm over Michelle's patriotism started from an innocent comment Michelle made during a stump speech for her husband where she mentioned that her husbands journey made her feel more proud about her Country and that she didn't always have as much pride for a nation scared by racism and injustice. Folks took her comments completely out of context.

But here you have a woman connected with all sorts of characters who are out of step with the American mainstream...folks who have made extremist, anti-American comments. Yet, no scrutiny. Will Palin be branded as a Terrorist, be made into an AK-47 wielding caricature and placed on National magazine covers? Not likely... because she's white. it's easier to do these things to Blacks because, well... Blacks seem to fit these images so much better (at least in the minds of Whites).... and quite frankly, the pundits, the cartoonists, the newspaper and magazine editors, and radio commentators can get away with it. Not so with Sarah Palin.

The Race Card? Being White and enjoying the White Privilege that comes with it is the most powerful race card of all. We are seeing the power of White Privilege in action right now...as the media demonstrates its double standard.

Or will someone in the mainstream media find enough courage to at least raise these questions...or perhaps do a little investigative reporting? I know this is hard for cowards... but certainly there are one or two brave souls somewhere in the world of American journalism. But i'm not going to hold my breath waiting for them to do their jobs.

Palin Connected to Anti-American Fringe Group

More on Palin's Ties to The Secessionist AIP or Alaska Independence Party (also known as the AKIP).

The Alaska Independence Party is a fringe Party that is interested in seeing Alaska secede from the Union, to become an independent Country.

Quotes from AIP Founder Joe Vogler, courtesy of TPM:

The founder of the Alaska Independence Party -- a group that has been courted over the years by Sarah Palin, and one her husband was a member of for roughly seven years -- once professed his "hatred for the American government" and cursed the American flag as a "damn flag."

The AIP founder, Joe Vogler, made the comments in 1991, in an interview that's now housed at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

"And I won't be buried under their damn flag," Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. "I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."

Sources investigating this story have not been able to find documents that would confirm Palin's actual membership in the organization. However, Palin has been associated with the group for 15 years and has taken part in a number of AIP events. While confirmation of her membership has not been found, it has been confirmed that her husband, Todd Palin, was in fact a member of the AIP for several years....as recently as 2002. It's interesting that Todd Palin cleaned up his membership in the group only when his wife decided to run for State-wide office.

The McCain camp has been scrambling to try to put water on this fire by attempting to downplay Palin's connections to the group. But the connections with the AIP cannot be denied by McCain, despite earlier attempts to make the story go away.

According to the LA Times:

The Alaskan Independence Party, founded in 1978, initially promoted "the Alaskan independence movement." But now, according to its website, "its primary goal is merely a vote on secession."

The McCain camp is currently involved in an effort to clean up Palin's past. Videos showing AIP meetings where Palin was mentioned are now being removed from Youtube. Don't you just love Democracy?

Another quote from Vogler from the AIP website (a quote that has now been removed) states:

“I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”

Why isn't Palin being challenged about her Patriotism at every turn? Why isn't she being hounded by the media about why she hates America?

This is what happens when someone isn't properly vetted for such an important position. We now know that Palin was not vetted at all by McCain's people.


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Related Links

Sarah Palin's Not-so-hidden extremism

See Coverage from The Jed Report