Easy money from Sarah Palin!

A nice money making program was brought to our attention by Ratfish. If anybody collects a reward, don't forget to send Sarah a thank you note... 1140 W Parks Hwy, Wasilla AK 99654.

The IRS has a whistleblower program, with rewards of up to 15% to people “who provide specific and credible information to the IRS if the information results in the collection of taxes, penalties, interest or other amounts from the noncompliant taxpayer.”

Click here to see how the program works.

It should be easy money for anyone interested.

If anyone needs documentation to forward to the IRS, it is here.
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Sarah Palin's tight abs

Sarah Palin thinks we are all idiots. I spent quite a considerable time looking at photos of pregnant women today. They come in all shapes and sizes, some look very pregnant early into the pregnancy, others not so much. But I noticed one thing: from 6 months onwards, they ALL looked at least a little bit pregnant. You see, the belly grows because there's a baby, placenta and amniotic fluid inside there. I selected a small sample of photos of pregnant bellies, trying to match Sarah Palin's build.

Have a look at them, and if not convinced, please search google images specifying pregnant 6 months, then 7, then 8 months and you'll be able to see thousands of pregnant ladies!


One petite, one average at 6 months


Two petite women, 7 months


One petite, one average at 8 months


Sarah at 6 months, 7 months and 5 days before Trig's birth (8 m)

Oops! It looks like Sarah forgot to strap on the fake belly until April 13, five days before Trig's birth...

She says the pregnancy didn't show because she has amazing tight abs. If she was pregnant in the first two photos, she doesn't have tight abs, she's a freak of nature!

For timeline and loads of photos, click here.
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Invite Sarah Palin (and the First Family)

State of Alaska > Governor > Invite the Governor to Meeting or Event

Please fill out the form below if you would like to invite Governor Sarah Palin to attend or participate in an event. If you have any questions regarding our scheduling process, please contact the Governor’s scheduler at (907) 465-3500.

The Governor’s scheduling office will contact you to follow up per your request. You will be notified of the Governor’s availability for the requested date.


After filling out details about who you are, what the event is about, etc, you arrive at these sections:

Is the First Family invited?: *
Yes
No

Will the media be invited?: *
Yes
No

Will there be a podium and/or microphone?: *
Yes
No

Wow! Sarah has covered all bases. She can have her blessed loving family, a photo-op and a microphone to amplify her word salad speeches all rolled into one!

Provided the people making the invitation tick the "Yes" boxes, of course...

In which case her little problem with the children's expenses will be a thing of the past. She'll never be caught out again.

All Sarah has to do is pray a lot so the IRS witches are kept away from her expenses claims forms.

To see the form in full, click here.
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Sarah Palin's church buddies

Continuing on the theme of Sarah Palin's buddies, let's leave her high school and move on to her church.

During the time Sarah Palin was mayor, her church became involved in taking over the board of the local hospital, Mat-Su Providence. The more conservative, fundamentalist churches, over a period of three or four years, were able to elect and control the operating board of the hospital. At the first meeting where they had control, they passed a resolution ending all abortions at the hospital. The Wasilla Assembly of God and its membership were a key leader in this group.

Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.

The Alaska Supreme Court held unconstitutional a state law that permitted hospitals to refuse to provide abortion services.

"The reasons a doctor and patient choose a medical procedure, so long as it is legal, must not be subject to the approval of hospital's board of directors, according to their own values."

This happened before Sarah Palin had the power to appoint her people to various positions all over the state, but surely she used her influence as mayor of Wasilla so her church could gradually take over the board of the local hospital. Now that she's the governor and can hire and fire at her pleasure, things must be a lot worse.

Luckily for the women of Mat-Su Valley, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against the hospital board of directors.

Don't forget that she has now appointed a judge who's more to her liking to the Supreme Court.

How long before this issue of banning abortions rears its ugly head again?

Image: Jaques Callot, 1630
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Sarah Palin's buddies

If Sean Parnell could no longer serve as lieutenant governor, Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt would replace him. Gov. Sarah Palin recently appointed Schmidt to fall behind Parnell in the line of succession, said Bill McAllister, her director of communications.

If anything should happen to Parnell and Sarah Palin, Schmidt would become governor.

Who is Joe Schmidt? Joe and Sarah go way back. They went to high school together in Wasilla. She appointed him to the post of Corrections Commissioner when she became governor.

In Schmidt's first year as commissioner, in 2007, there were 49 internal investigations of prison guards. Half resulted in disciplinary action, four resulted in terminations and another four people left their jobs voluntarily. He would not give details about the problems, citing personnel rules.


"We are doing the right thing. We are going to be trustworthy. And, if I have to go through this until my last day, then that's what I'm going to do," he said of his efforts to make the department more accountable to the public. "Ethics and honesty is what we are about."

In April 2008 the Alaska Correctional Officers Association voted in favor of a “no confidence” measure. In a press release from her office, Sarah Palin said “Commissioner Schmidt has my full support as he and his team continue to bring remarkable reforms to the Department of Corrections, (...) Joe has my unconditional support.”

What do the staff have to say about Joe?

"I am a female and work at Alaska’s only maximum security prison. Sarah Palin appointed a good buddy of hers to be our Commissioner of Corrections. Joe Schmidt has deliberately made management decisions that have made our jobs, as correctional officers, more life threatening.

We tried going to Sarah Palin with our concerns but she wouldn’t listen to us. We then decided to submit a ‘no confidence’ vote in Schmidt. Out of the 733 correctional officers working in the state of Alaska over 500 of us voted. Out of those less than 20 said they had confidence in Schmidt. The rest of us voted ‘no confidence’ in his leadership. This was unprecedented. At no time, before Schmidt was appointed as our commissioner, had we ever initiated a ‘no confidence’ vote in one of our commissioners.

Surely now, we thought, our governor Sarah Palin will hear and investigate our concerns regarding Joe Schmidt. That didn’t happen. Rather she publicly said that she stood by Schmidt and that 97% of Alaska’s correctional officers are just a bunch of “disgruntled employees”.

MRSA is running rampant in our institutions and we are deliberately being understaffed. Joe Schmidt is not only allowing understaffing but is actively encouraging it.

Prisoners with MRSA are being treated but not officially diagnosed with the bacterium. By not having cultures done, to determine the presence of MRSA, they are then able to be released right back out into the general prisoner population. If they were officially diagnosed then they’d have to be medically isolated. Consequently other prisoners and staff members keep contracting MRSA.

When a staff member contracts it, we’ve had two new cases in the last month and a half alone at my facility, they are told to “pin point exactly” where in the institution they contracted it. It’s a bacterium that can only be seen under an electron microscope yet we’re supposed to say exactly where we got it???

The department, under Joe Schmidt’s leadership, will not pay medical costs or reimburse leave time used, for any staff members that come down with MRSA unless they can prove that they got it at work. The very same place that contagious prisoners are being treated and then sent back home to their cells to expose every other prisoner and staff member they come into contact with.

We are also constantly under staffed. Rather than calling officers in on overtime, when we’re under manned, we’re left short handed. There are many officers willing to come in and work. All the department has to do is ask.

We also have mandatory posts that are never to be left unmanned. They are being manned by “phantom” officers. Which is to say one officer assigned to two posts. The officer’s name will be filled in, on paper, as filling in a certain post when in actuality he or she is working another one as well.

Twice, in the last year, we’ve had “man down” alarms go off in the facility and not enough officers to be able to allow anyone to respond to the emergency. By the grace of God, both times, the alarms were accidentally set off and no officer’s life was in actual jeopardy. But we may not always be so fortunate. When that happens, whether an officer loses his or her life to MRSA or a prisoner assault, we’ll be able to credit Sarah Palin and Joe Schmidt with murder."

Joe Schmidt is the perfect guy to replace Sarah Palin, should circumstances warrant it. His qualifications are impressive. Joe is Sarah Palin in trousers. He thinks like her, talks like her...

Perish the thought!

Sarah Palin has a seemingly endless stream of extremely 'competent', 'well qualified' and 'talented' people from her church and her high school to fill every important position in the state of Alaska.

Way to go, Sarah!

Member of staff account of conditions found here, in the comments section.
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Looking into Sarah Palin's mind

Long before he learned the facts about Sarah Palin, my husband remarked that there was something terrifying behind her eyes. He described them as ruthless and lacking in warmth, the kind of eyes that give you nightmares from which you wake up in a cold sweat.

Other people have pointed out that lots of her personality traits fit the definition of a narcissist, a psychopath or a sociopath.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a condition characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, need for admiration, extreme self-involvement, and lack of empathy for others. Individuals with this disorder are usually arrogantly self-assured and confident. They expect to be noticed as superior.

Psychosis is characterized by an adherence either to fixed, false beliefs outside the normal range, thinking that does not follow any rational line. False beliefs that cause a person to suffer, produce conflict with others or render a person unable to comfortably adapt to the demands of life, are delusions if they are not relinquished when the person is presented with adequate evidence to the contrary.

Symptoms of sociopathy may include an inability to tolerate boredom, feeling victimized, and a diminished capacity for intimacy.

• Glib and superficial
• Egocentric and grandiose
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Lack of empathy
• Deceitful and manipulative
• Shallow emotions
• Lack of responsibility
• Early behaviour problems

None of us can presume to diagnose Sarah Palin as suffering from a mental illness, but her behaviour certainly gives rise to speculation.

In what ways has she acted that would indicate a pattern of behaviour consistent with the symptoms described above?

• The way she treated the people who launched her political career when they were no longer needed or stood in her way.

• How she can't stand to be criticized or challenged by anyone and either fires the individuals who do so, manoeuvres them into resigning their posts , or derides and humiliates those she has no power to dismiss from their jobs.

• Her account of Trig's birth, all the deception involved, her outrage when people doubted her highly suspicious story, lashing out at anybody and everybody.

• How she used her daughter Bristol to cover up her previous deceptions and continued to use her daughter for political reasons.

• Her treatment of baby Trig as a mere prop, disregarding his welfare and needs. Trig was paraded before the cameras during the VP campaign at all hours, passed from one person to another like a doll or mascot.

• The complete lack of empathy for the people of Western Alaska during the energy crisis, later taking credit for the efforts of others.

• Her religious beliefs are quite frightening and defy rational explanation. Witches, second coming, speaking in tongues, God speaking to her.

• Lying is as natural to her as taking a breath. "I said thanks, but no thanks to the Bridge to Nowhere", "Todd lived in a village in rural Alaska but seized an opportunity upon the North Slope, returning to the village to keep his ties to that lifestyle", and on and on and on, there are too many lies to list them all.

• Portraying herself as a victim of the media, the bloggers, the RNC handlers for her shortcomings during the VP campaign, not once taking any responsibility for anything.

• Not recognizing how her conduct may be seen as unethical. There have been several occasions when her ethics were challenged, but she never, ever does anything wrong, people are after her for political reasons, or they are petty, whatever.

• Her grandiose ideas about the gas pipeline, drilling everywhere and saving Alaska and the whole country from depending on hostile foreign powers for their energy needs.

• How she seizes every opportunity to be the centre of attention.

There's a lot more, feel free to contribute to the list.

If Sarah Palin is mentally unbalanced, her behaviour may be explained as the effect that all those symptoms entail. She can't help it. In that case, she shouldn't be in a position of power and would be well advised to seek medical assistance.

If Sarah Palin is completely sane, there's no explanation for her behaviour other than unbridled ambition and complete disregard for the consequences of her actions.

Whether she's insane or just bad, it doesn't matter, Sarah Palin doesn't belong in politics.

I think it's a combination of both and I agree with my husband, her eyes are terrifying.
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Sarah Palin, too much power in the wrong hands

Three male legislators have introduced a bill that, if approved, will make it into law the requirement of parental consent for a minor to have an abortion in Alaska. Sarah Palin supports it, of course. The same Sarah Palin who would like to see Roe v Wade overturned, so all women would lose their rights to make decisions regarding reproduction.

This bill would revise the Parental Consent Act passed by the Legislature in 1997, which was overturned 3-2 by the Alaska Supreme Court in 2007. The court held that the parental consent requirement was unconstitutional because it infringed on a pregnant teenager's right to reproductive freedom.

Sarah Palin is now more confident the Supreme Court will uphold the act requiring parental consent. She has appointed a new judge to replace one of the two who cast a vote to overturn it.

I'm not going to discuss the merits of parental consent versus the reproductive freedom rights of teenage girls. Gryphen, of Immoral Minority, has already written a moving article saying everything I could have possibly said about it in a far more eloquent and compelling manner than I could ever hope to achieve.

I want to discuss Sarah Palin's almost limitless powers as governor.

According to the Constitution of Alaska, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected on a single ticket, and are the only statewide elected officials.

The governor will appoint the judges. Gubernatorial appointment, by its nature, is a political choice. In other words, Sarah Palin has the power to influence Supreme Court outcomes. Once appointed, the judge will remain in place until retirement or impeachment. Regarding the Judiciary, she may have to be patient, but eventually she gets her own way.

The Commissioner of Public Safety, the Attorney General and members of various boards and comissions also serve at the governor's pleasure.

This is a woman who, ever since attaining power, first as mayor of Wasilla and now as governor of Alaska, has consistently abused it, appointing members of her church, high school friends and other cronies to positions in every area. The boards of Mat-Su Providence Hospital, Agriculture & Conservation, the Board of Game and who knows how many more, consist solely of people with no qualifications other than religious affiliation, a love of cows, being a neighbour or a former high school mate, or sharing her passion for hunting.

Sarah Palin's firing power is legendary. Being very trigger happy, she fires at will. All members of boards are eliminated if they displease her. Anybody who dares disagree with her is summarily discarded. When issues of ethics are raised regarding a dismissal, leading the Personnel Board, whose members also serve at the Governor's pleasure, to "investigate", they decide that no ethics are ever violated. Sarah Palin always acts within her powers to hire and fire at will, it is her prerogative and she doesn't have to explain herself to anybody. As it happened in the case of Walt Monegan, of Troopergate fame.

She also fires people for personal reasons, if their conduct in their private lives conflict with her personal views or with her husband's allegiances, which was the case when John Bitney was dismissed from his job as her legislative director because he was having a relationship with the soon to be ex-wife of one of Todd's closest friends.

Sarah Palin has a very clear agenda. In her two tears as governor she has empowered her church through several appointments, she has been fighting to enable the oil industry to become less accountable and more profitable, she has undermined initiatives to promote and preserve the lifestyle and culture of Alaska Natives. The appointments she makes to boards and comissions that oversee wildlife and predator management also reflect her personal and pro-oil agendas. The same happens in the area of the environment, her "scientists" don't believe the actions of man influence environmental or climatic changes.

The other important power Sarah Palin has is the power of veto. With one stroke of her pen, whole projects bite the dust or are severely undermined. These projects tend to be in the social welfare areas. Education and health projects have suffered the effects of her cuts. People don't matter much to her.

But the people elected her, one may argue. Yes, but she ran profoundly dishonest campaigns. In Wasilla she was elected after she ran a campaign based on vicious innuendo about her opponent. Sarah's bid for the governorship was founded on an anti-corruption, "I'll take on Big Oil" platform. She was popular because she wasn't Murkowski, who was too openly pro-big oil. People believed in her because she didn't sound like the other more seasoned politicians, they believed she would conduct her administration in a non-partisan way. The whole country is now familiar with her campaigning style.

Alaskans were sadly mistaken. Sarah Palin is a power hungry politician who puts herself and her distorted agenda ahead of anything else, regardless of the cost to people, creatures or the environment. Her motivation is not to serve the people who elected her or to preserve the integrity of the state and its natural wealth for the people who depend on it.

Sarah Palin's appetite for power and the lack of constitutional boundaries to the powers of her office is a lethal combination.

I'm fond of quotations and I'll end this article with one that seems very fitting.

All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. ~Lord Acton
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Sarah Palin's Dairygate

Dairygate is a very complicated story. Researching it made me dizzy, so I'll try to keep it as concise as possible and provide links for further reading. I could be here all night and not make much sense at all. So what's new? Most of the accounts concerning Sarah's gates seem to elicit the same question, "Does this make any sense to you?"

Take a deep breath, here we go!

In 2007, the state Board of Agriculture and Conservation (BAC) considered a request for $600,000 to the state for a review of the operating expenses of the Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business. Milk prices were too high and competition from national brands was impossible to match. The Alaska Creamery Board, a sub-committee of the BAC, which oversaw the dairy and made the request, met in May and discussed privatizing or possibly closing the dairy. It subsequently voted to close it, and on June 13 the Board rejected Sarah Palin's public request that it keep the dairy open, saying it stood by its decision to close the dairy plant as of July 7.

On June 18, Palin fired the entire membership of the BAC, and replaced them with an assortment of Mat-Su Valley residents, all without any experience in running a dairy, but with family or business connections with the Valley's milk producers, which then installed itself as the Creamery Board, and voted to keep the dairy open for 90 days while reviewing options. The loan was immediately approved and payments to the milk farmers connected to the Board continued uninterrupted. On August 29, 2007, Palin announced that the business could not be made profitable and would be offered for sale. It had suffered $300,000 losses. She said that the board could use the $600,000 help with the transition to a private operator.

On December 7, with a required minimum bid of $3.35 million for the dairy, no bids were received and all dairy operations were scheduled to close later that month. Two of the Valley's dairy farmers came forward and offered to lease the equipment to start their own dairy and a further grant of $200,000 was made available to them, provided they started production at the now renamed Matanuska Creamery by the end of December. They only started operations in March 2008, but received the grant anyway. Matanuska Creamery is owned by one of the biggest milk farmers in the area, Kyle Beus, and Robert Wells, a Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman, who is also president of Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc.

On top of the two grants provided by the state, Ted Stevens arranged a $634,000 USDA grant for Beus and Wells' new venture, Matanuska Creamery, in March of 2008.

Between September and November 2008 Matanuska Creamery applied for a further loan from the state. After much wrangling over personal guarantees, which were removed in a meeting on November 21, the Board, which is comprised of Governor Palin's appointed friends and neighbours, ended up voting to give the Mat-Su Valley business a $630,000 loan. The BAC approved the unsecured operating loan fully knowing that the business did not have the cash flow to make the payments.

Matanuska Creamery didn't have a very good start. 30,000 pounds of cheese in their cold storage, which had already been sold in "cheese futures" deals without insurance, were found to be contaminated with e.coli, listeria and staph and had to be thrown away. Matanuska Creamery made a loss of $250,000.

This is an extremely simplified account of all the shenanigans that went on in the transition from state owned MatMaid to privately owned Matanuska Creamery.

The cost of privatizing MatMaid cost the state of Alaska more than $1,4 million so far. Add the $634,000 in federal grants and the costs are astronomical, considering that it was seen as a failed operation as far back as April 2007.

Hey, it's only taxpayers money and it keeps Sarah's pals in Wasilla and Palmer in business, so what seems to be the problem?

For further reading, click here.
If you want to read loads of posts about it, go to Andrew Halcro's blog and search Mat Maid or Matanuska Creamery.
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Truancy gate

I received another comment that deserves to be turned into a post.

How about truancy-gate?

Sarah Palin's children miss out on a lot of their schooling. Judging by the volume of travel expenses claims, Sarah's own statement about spending time with them and the VP campaign, when the children were with her all the time, their school attendance is indeed poor. How does that fit in with current legislation?

Among other things, federal funding under No Child Left Behind can be put in peril for school districts with parents who do not comply with state truancy laws and do not permit the school district properly to account for minor children's extended absences.

In Alaska the compulsory attendance laws certainly apply to the governor's minor children. Failure to comply can endanger funding for other people's children:

Title 14, Chapter 14.30. PUPILS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR PUPILS
Article 01. COMPULSORY EDUCATION

Sec. 14.30.010. When attendance compulsory.

(a) Every child between seven and 16 years of age shall attend school at the public school in the district in which the child resides during each school term. Every parent, guardian or other person having the responsibility for or control of a child between seven and 16 years of age shall maintain the child in attendance at a public school in the district in which the child resides during the entire school term, except as provided in (b) of this section.

(b) This section does not apply if a child

(1) is provided an academic education comparable to that offered by the public schools in the area, either by

(A) attendance at a private school in which the teachers are certificated according to AS 14.20.020 ;
(B) tutoring by personnel certificated according to AS 14.20.020 ; or
(C) attendance at an educational program operated in compliance with AS 14.45.100 - 14.45.200 by a religious or other private school;

(2) attends a school operated by the federal government;

(3) has a physical or mental condition that a competent medical authority determines will make attendance impractical;

(4) is in the custody of a court or law enforcement authorities;

(5) is temporarily ill or injured;

(6) has been suspended or expelled under AS 14.03.160 or suspended or denied admittance under AS 14.30.045 ;

(7) resides more than two miles from either a public school or a route on which transportation is provided by the school authorities, except that this paragraph does not apply if the child resides within two miles of a federal or private school that the child is eligible and able to attend;

(8) is excused by action of the school board of the district at a regular meeting or by the district superintendent subject to approval by the school board of the district at the next regular meeting;

(9) has completed the 12th grade;

(10) is enrolled in

(A) a state boarding school established under AS 14.16; or
(B) a full-time program of correspondence study approved by the department; in those school districts providing an approved correspondence study program, a student may be enrolled either in the district correspondence program or in the centralized correspondence study program;

(11) is equally well-served by an educational experience approved by the school board as serving the child's educational interests despite an absence from school, and the request for excuse is made in writing by the child's parents or guardian and approved by the principal or administrator of the school that the child attends;

(12) is being educated in the child's home by a parent or legal guardian.

These are my own questions and thoughts about this issue:

Did a tutor travel with the Palins during the campaign? I would think not. Piper told Matt Lauer that she was finding it difficult to catch up with school work after the campaign was over.

Are they being educated at home by a parent? Naaah! Can you imagine being educated by Sarah or Todd? It could be possible, but only if the curriculum consisted of 1001 ways of dressing a moose, shooting wolves from a helicopter, driving a snowmobile or tending nets for catching fish.

I honestly can't see how any of the above apply to the Palins.

The only possible conclusion is that they do not place much value on formal education and don't care about the law. Their attitude to education jeopardizes the federal funding that could be available to provide for the children of other parents, who happen to value it.

One way or another, there are losers. And some would find it impossible to get these precious years and opportunities back.

Thanks for the information, Anonymous.
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Sarah Palin is not a state employee

Sec. 39.20.060. Exclusion of governor and lieutenant governor from personnel laws.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, the governor and lieutenant governor are not considered employees of the state for the purpose of state personnel laws relating to hours of employment, annual leave, sick leave, overtime, compensatory time, and travel allowances. This section does not deprive the governor and lieutenant governor of the right to participate in the state retirement system or in state group insurance plans.

There is a very big contradiction regarding this statute.

The governor is not considered an employee of the state. In which case the entitlement to collection of per diem and travel allowances as detailed in the Alaska Administrative Manual - Accounting Travel does not apply to her. The whole manual refers to the entitlement and rules for state employees or approved travellers on state business.

Is there a separate manual for the governor? If she is not a state employee for the purpose of travel allowances, she falls outside the scope for collecting the said allowances. In other words, she should not be entitled to collect per diems or charge the state for travel expenses. By the same token, her family should not be entitled to reimbursements because they are not state employees or approved travellers either.

Sarah Palin can't have it both ways. The statute excludes her from the provisions detailed in the manual, but she claims expenses according to the manual?

Obviously there is a possible get-out clause.

The statute may be interpreted as exempting the governor from complying with the rules in the manual, but retaining entitlement. So there should be a separate set of rules that applies to her regarding travel and other expenses.

If there are not clearly stated rules covering these expenses, does the statute mean that the governor is simply not accountable?

Why did the Personnel Board go through the pretense of investigating the ethics complaint filed by Frank Gwartney against the governor when they could have quoted the statute and end the matter there and then?

None of this makes any sense!

To read article by Lisa Demer and access links to statute, manual and other bits, click here.
The image is my little joke, any rule book is better than none...
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Sarah Palin blessed with large, loving family

Dear friends over the pond, do you believe Sarah Palin's expenses for herself and her family appear to be a bit dodgy? Do you think she's entitled to charge the state $60 for a phone call from the comfort of her own home? Or to be reimbursed for her children's travel because she is blessed with a big, loving family and wants to spend time with them? Do you consider her children to be state officials, conducting state business on these trips?

No?

Would you like some tax experts to have a good look at all her expenses claims since she took office? Tim Petumenos, on behalf Personnel Board, did go through forty out of seventy-two of Sarah Palin's claims and found that in only nine instances the children were not really serving the interests of the state of Alaska. Have they been appointed by the governor to perform specific state duties? Maybe Mr Petumenos is not as knowledgeable as the guys from the IRS and decided to cut a deal and put the matter to bed because he was out of his depth and it would be too much hard work to take it any further, who knows?

The press release from the Governor's office regarding this matter is quite interesting, here is a fine justification offered by Sarah Palin:

“This is a big state, and I am obligated to — and intend to — keep Alaskans informed and meet with them as much as I can, from Barrow to Marshall to Ketchikan,” Palin said in a written statement. “At the same time, I am blessed to have a large and loving family, and the discharge of my duties should not prevent me from spending time with them.”

So they're not state officials, they're just loving children? The state has to pay for travel so they can be together? Something is not right...

To find out exactly what is legitimate and what isn't, once and for all, ask the experts!

If you suspect or know of an individual or company that is not complying with the tax laws, you may report this activity by completing Form 3949-A. You may fill out Form 3949-A online, print it and mail it to: Internal Revenue Service Fresno, CA 93888 If you do not wish to use Form 3949-A, you may send a letter to the address above. Please include the following information, if available:

• Name and address of the person you are reporting.

Sarah Palin, 1140 W Parks Hwy, Wasilla AK 99654

• The taxpayer identification number social security number for an individual or employer identification number for a business. (Not known)
  
• A brief description of the alleged violation, including how you became aware of or obtained the information. (Describe the best way you can)
  
• The years involved. (From December 2006)
  
• The estimated dollar amount of any unreported income. (In excess of $22,000)
  

Your name, address and daytime telephone number. Although you are not required to identify yourself, it is helpful to do so. Your identity can be kept confidential.


Simple, uh? If a lot of people do it, they're bound to take an interest. Go on... do it. The worst that could happen is for the IRS to agree with Sarah Palin and decide that it's OK for people to charge their employers for their children's travel so they can perform their duties and have their large, loving, blessed families with them, everywhere. Hey, that would be good news for working parents!

Changing the subject a little bit, the Palin children must have an abysmal school attendance record, don't you think?

To go to the IRS page, click here.
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Sarah Palin is a liar (part 3)

Yes, yes, there's more...

Here's a highlight from Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC, where it raised enthusiastic cheers from the crowd:

"And Todd is a world champion snow machine racer. Throw in his Yup'ik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for quite a package. And we met in high school, and two decades and five children later, he's still my guy."

Sarah is very proud of her truly native husband.

I found the following in an article about his background when interest in Sarah Palin grew during the vice presidential campaign. It was published in October 2008.

Todd does not take part in Native organizations or tribal politics. He grew up in Glennallen and Wasilla. His Native roots can be seen in his dividends from the Bristol Bay Native Corporation and boyhood visits with his grandma, where he learned to tend fish nets along the Nushagak River.

So our native Todd managed to qualify for dividends from a native corporation on the strength of his 1/8 Yup'ik genetic inheritance and gained so many practical skills he could put to good use upon the North Slope because he spent summers with his grandmother when he was a boy! The grandmother in question grew up in the mixed racial region of Bristol Bay, not an isolated Native village.

In the video posted in Sarah Palin is a liar (part 2), she says Todd grew up and lived in Dillingham, Western Alaska. In fact, he was born there but moved away and used to visit his grandma in the summer. Glennallen, where he spent the long Alaskan winters, is 160 miles east of Wasilla and not very rural at all. Glennallen is the business hub of the Copper River region. Local businesses serve area communities and Glenn Highway traffic, providing gasoline, supplies and services, four schools and medical care. Offices of the federal Bureau of Land Management, the state Department of Transportation, Alaska State Troopers and the state Department of Fish and Game are there.

He must have moved to Wasilla when he was a teenager, because, as Sarah said in her speech, that's where they met, in high school.

As somebody pointed out in a comment on part 2: "Yeah - I thought I REMEMBERED THAT. So, basically Sarah lied. So what else is new? Why should she lie about something that could be googled?"

Tut tut...

Map: Dillingham = 1 Wasilla = 2 Glennallen = 3
Sources: ADN
For more on Dillingham, click here
For more about Glennallen, click here.
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Proverbial pause

I'm having another attack of Palin fatigue. So I put together a little collection of old sayings that apply to the lady in question. This way there's something to read but I don't have to write about her. Time to have a break and recharge my batteries... enjoy!

As you make your bed so must you lie on it

He who pays the piper calls the tune

Don't bite the hand that feeds you

Don't burn your bridges behind you

If you can't be good, be careful

Empty vessels make the most noise

Oil and water don't mix

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

Pride comes before a fall

Let them eat cake

The ends justify the means

There's no smoke without fire

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it

Two wrongs don't make a right

You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear

Honesty is the best policy

A bad workman always blames his tools

The last straw that broke the camel's back

A leopard cannot change its spots

Bite off more than one can chew

You can't have your cake and eat it

The buck stops here

Cut off your nose to spite your face

There are none so blind as those that will not see

The truth will out

Uneasy is the head that wears the crown

A luxury once enjoyed becomes a necessity.

Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them

A sharp tongue and a dull mind are usually found in the same head
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When is fraud not fraud?

Something has been bugging me about Sarah Palin giving part of her children's travel expenses back to the state. It bugged me since I wrote the previous post about a pretend slap on the wrist.

ADN updated their report to include the following:


"Nothing in this agreement constitutes an admission of wrongdoing, and none has been found," the document said.

Palin's lawyer, Thoman Van Flein, took it a step further.

"The governor has been exonerated of all wrongdoing in this ethics act complaint. There is no finding of wrongdoing and there is no ethics violation," Van Flein said in a news conference.

As Petumenos described it, the governor agreed not to contest certain charges. He agreed not to file a formal accusation or take the case to a hearing.


Let's put this whole business in a clearer context, starting with a quote from Sarah Palin:

"I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't." Now she's the Governor. She charges $60 per diem to make a phone call from her own home.

1. Sarah Palin filed expenses claims that included the cost of her children's travel to several events, when the children were clearly not attending them on state business.
2. Charges were challenged by reporters.
3. The governor had forms amended, changing the language to make it clear that the children were invited to events as part of First Family.
4. Ethics complaint filed.
5. Complaint investigated by the Personnel Board. All members of the board are appointed by the governor.
   
6. The same person who "investigated" Troopergate on behalf of the Personnel Board is asked to look into the claims.
7. They come to an arrangement where she pays "x" amount back and no further questions will be asked and no charges brought against the Governor.
   

If the reporters had not asked some questions, if the ethics complaint had not been filed, she wouldn't have to reimburse the state for anything. She would have kept the money for at least nine of the children's trips. Sarah Palin was aware that the expenses claims were fishy and deliberately had them amended so she could keep the money. The simple fact that she has been asked or offered to pay the money back shows that the claims were false.

Where I come from, this is called fraud. When an employee, any employee, files inaccurate expenses claims from their employers, gets the expenses reimbursed, have them challenged in some way, proceeds to amend the claims to try and validate them, the claims are investigated and this person is asked to pay the money back, the employee doesn't just pay the employer back, the employee gets fired and possibly faces criminal charges for fraud. No deals.

What makes this case any different? The claims were false, money was paid, claims were deliberately amended, claims were found to be indeed inaccurate and money has to be returned.

I believe it's about time Sarah Palin's ethics violations were investigated by an independent body, people a bit higher up who won't make any deals on terms dictated by Sarah Palin herself. She has to be investigated by an authority that won't validate fraud.

Updated report: ADN
Image: FBI logo
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Sarah Palin is a liar (part 2)

Listen carefully to what Sarah Palin says one minute into this video: "Todd grew up in Dillingham... after high school he realised that he had to leave that village... capitalised on an opportunity upon the North Slope... using the skills he learned growing up in rural Alaska...Todd left the village, he has been working upon the slope... it was a win win situation for him... he would come back to the village... blah blah..."




Sarah Palin and Todd Palin both attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla. That's the picture from his yearbook up there.

Was Wasilla called Dillingham back then? Was it a native village in rural Alaska?

No?

Sarah is lying... AGAIN!
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Sarah Palin gets a (pretend) slap on the wrist

Sarah Palin has agreed to reimburse the state for the costs of nine trips for her children. An agreement announced today settles an ethics complaint filed in October.

The settlement was signed by Palin and Anchorage lawyer Tim Petumenos, who was hired by the state Personnel Board to investigate the complaint.

The settlement doesn't specify how much Palin will repay the state, but Petumenos said he was given an estimate from the governor's staff of about $7,000.

The vast majority of trips that included the Palin children appeared appropriate, Petumenos said. He said he examined more than 40 trips.

When Alaska reporters began asking for the records, before she joined McCain's ticket, Palin had her staff amend records to state clearly that the first family had been invited.

When Petumenos was asked to examine the complaint in October, he was also investigating "Troopergate". Petumenos found that Palin didn't violate the law or abuse her power in that case.

Sarah Palin received reimbursements totaling $43,500 for travel and lodging for her family in connection with state business. Of that total, around $22,000 was for her children’s travel and the rest was for her husband Todd.


What a lovely and generous gesture in the part of our Sarah!

This time Petumenos was cautious enough to find a little bit wrong and they settled at $7,000.

Otherwise people might start thinking that Petumenos and the Personnel Board are in Sarah Palin's pocket...

Full report: ADN
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About time!

The chairman of the New York Post, Rupert Murdoch, personally apologized today for an editorial cartoon published by the newspaper that drew charges of racism.

Considering that Murdoch is the owner of Fox News, that's really big of him!

Report from CNN
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Sarah Palin spins

Palin Communications Director Bill McAllister compared Sarah Palin's expenses to those of former Gov. Frank Murkowski during a press conference held in Anchorage.

"She has been unfairly attacked for a comparatively minor amount of per diem." McAllister said.

He presented charts showing that Palin had spent less money on travel than did the former governor, but repeatedly said that what was not an attack on Murkowski.

Did Murkowski take the whole family, right down to the family parrot, on trips to events they were not invited to, then later amended official forms stating that the First Family were invited to draw raffle tickets?

Sarah Palin swept to an easy victory over Murkowski, in part because of the Murkowski administration's controversial purchase of a jet. Sarah campaigned against the jet, and then sold it after she became governor.

Sarah herself was heard telling Franklin Graham that she sold the Murkowski jet because it couldn't land on gravel.

Spin, baby, spin!

Full report on Juneau Empire
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Abstinence, a family trend?

Bristol Palin became a mother outside wedlock. Sarah Palin gave birth to her eldest son seven and half months after getting married to Todd. Sarah's mother, Sally Heath, gave birth to her first child, Chuck Jr, possibly less than eight months into wedlock.

It looks like at least three generations of this family found it extremely difficult to abstain from sex before marriage!

Maybe Willow will manage to get married nine months before giving birth and Piper might even go for ten and really buck the family trend.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not passing judgement on couples who can't wait to be married before they have sex. But I'm not the one telling the world that abstinence only is the best method of contraception or that sex outside marriage is a sin...
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Sarah Palin, as toxic as ever

Sarah Palin's view of the world is very limited. In her eyes, Alaska exists only to be exploited and serve the interests of the big oil and mining companies, regardless of the cost to the environment or the people who depend on the environment for their survival. She does not see any relation between the actions of man and the resulting disastrous changes affecting the whole planet. Why worry about the future when she can can provide fat profits for her masters now?

Sarah Palin doesn't see the big picture at all. She doesn't see the smaller picture either. Even if we put global impacts to one side and concentrate on Alaska alone, on what is already happening there, it still doesn't matter to her. If the people of the great state of Alaska eat contaminated fish, so what? If their children are born with defects and have health problems for the rest of their lives, so what? If the ground becomes barren or poisonous, so what? If entire species of animals disappear forever, so what?

Did she really take on Big Oil? The taxes they pay are small fry compared to the profits they stand to make. The tough Governor looks good on paper, but in reality she bends at their bidding. With her at the helm, the whole of Alaska is theirs to do as they please. Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, ANWR are all there to be exploited or to be used as dumping grounds for the by-products of their toxic industries.

People, environment, wildlife... they all stand in the way of progress. They all stand between Sarah Palin's pals and the big fat dollars they lust after.

Sarah Palin is dangerous on so many levels! Alaska is not safe in her hands.

Nothing is safe in Alaska as long as she is in power.

Read this article for more on this subject.
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