Sarah Palin's contradictions - and more!

Sarah Palin referred to her e-mails regarding the immunization of young girls against cervical cancer. I searched the databasa but found only some e-mails about chickenpox immunization. Sarah was against making it mandatory. In that respect, she's consistent. She doesn't like mandations...

Please click on image to enlarge

Although I couldn't find the e-mails she mentioned, I found an interesting press release from the Department of Health & Social Services on the State of Alaska website:

Press Release
State of Alaska > Health & Social Services > Press

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 4, 2007

(Juneau, Alaska) ─ The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services announced today that an increase in federal funding will make it possible for all Alaska girls ages 9 through 18 to receive Gardasil ®, the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, at no cost.

Earlier this spring, the department had said it could provide free Gardasil only to Alaska girls who met certain eligibility requirements. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided additional funds for Alaska to obtain more vaccine. This boost in federal aid will enable more Alaska girls to receive Gardasil. Distribution of this vaccine to providers is just beginning, so state health officials suggest calling providers before visiting local clinics to find out if the vaccine is available.

“We are thrilled that this unanticipated funding will allow us to provide the vaccine for all eligible girls,” said Laurel Wood, Alaska’s immunization program manager. “Although we have no guarantee that this funding will be available in future years, we hope to immunize as many Alaska girls as possible while we have this unique opportunity.”

The federal government approved Gardasil last summer to prevent certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) known to cause cervical cancer. Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine recommended today, with a retail cost of at least $360 for three shots given over six months.

The CDC recommends the vaccine for girls and women 9 through 26 years old, but the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services only has funding to cover the vaccine for those ages 9 through 18. Women ages 19 through 26 may be able to receive some coverage through Medicaid, their health insurance companies or a special financial aid program set up by Merck & Co. Inc., the vaccine’s manufacturer.

They were hoping to immunize as many girls as possible, but there's no indication that it would be compulsory, only that they were following the CDC recommendations.  The interesting bit is the funding for the immunization programme: Those terrible, terrible federal dollars!

If Sarah Palin believed that there was something up with that issue, it looks like she didn't tell the DHSS. They were merrily promoting the immunization programme.

She likes to mention herself as an example of correctness when attacking other people, but when we look into her record, there are masses of contradictions. She says that taxing the corporations is very bad because it prevents them from making further investments, but she raised the taxes for the oil companies operating in Alaska.

Now she said she knew there was something up with the issue of vaccination and Perry's own issue with it proves that she was right. She didn't make it compulsory, but didn't refuse federal money to make it widely available in Alaska. So what exactly was up with the issue? It doesn't make sense.

She's always right, she always knows everything and everybody else is wrong. Well, at least the person she's attacking at the time...

*****

After I finished the original post I received a link from reader MW. Very interesting stuff...

From the Daily Mail, UK:

Joe McGinniss' book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, due to be published on September 20, alleges Palin carried on an affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd.

The book also alleges the former Alaska governor, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice.

She is said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television.

In another blow to her chances of running in the 2012 presidential race is the allegation she took Class A drugs.

The book claims that before she was appointed governor, she and her husband both took cocaine and she was seen snorting the drug off a 55-gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends.


Now, that's exciting!

Sarah Palin, loyal friend

Attacking President Obama doesn't seem to satisfy Sarah Palin anymore...


 [Full interview HERE]

She must have read Irving Tressler's book:

In 1936 Dale Carnegie, a well known speaker and motivator, published his book on human relations entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence People." A year later, Irving Tressler followed up with a companion guide for those moving in the opposite direction: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People."

With friends like Sarah Palin, who needs enemies? I wonder what her game is...

Perhaps Chris Weigant has a point when he ponders whether Sarah Palin is going rogue again and is preparing to run as a third party candidate:

If she runs as a Republican, she must win not one but two elections -- the primaries and the general. This means not only taking on Romney, Perry, and all the rest, but it also means participating in the Republican nomination contest. She'd be expected to debate, in other words. She'd be required to stand on a stage with a pack of other Republicans, and compete on the level of answering questions from moderators. Running as an Independent would avoid all of that. The only debate stage she'd expect to appear on would be one with Barack Obama and a single Republican, next fall. Running as an Independent would mean her name would move straight to the general election battle -- with no chance her candidacy would be derailed early next year.

I secretly hope that this is precisely her plan.

Your day will come, Sarah Palin

As we follow Sarah Palin's shenanigans, it becomes very difficult to tell who's the victim when she makes allegations against others. There are at least three young men who crossed her and two of them had their lives turned upside down.


Shawn Christie doesn't appear to play with a full set of marbles and the courts in Alaska don't seem to look at the whole picture when weighing the evidence against this young man. I think this case is more complicated than the picture presented to the public, even when we take Christie's admissions into account.



Sarah Palin (and her daughter) don't stick to telling the truth and nothing but the truth when giving evidence, as seen in David Kernell's trial. Kernell is serving a prison sentence for guessing (or shall we say googling?) the answer to the security question for Sarah Palin's Yahoo government e-mail account. Sarah Palin's open and transparent government...



Apart from custody proceedings, Levi Johnston has avoided the courts. He was accused of using his son Tripp to make money and promote himself. It's all a bit strange, when the person who made the accusations has just invited the cameras into her private life with the same son, in a house she's going to share with her new best friend and his brother.

Bristol Palin, "not" exploiting her son

There are two sides to every story and while I don't condone breaking the law to inconvenience Sarah Palin, I find the authorities tend to take Sarah Palin's statements at face value, giving her very unfair advantage against young people with few resources.

I hope the day will come when Sarah Palin will finally find herself as the defendant in a courtroom. I hope the authorites will give her the same treatment these young men were given. I hope her punishment will be just as disproportionate as David Kernell's. I hope the judge and the jury will disregard any extenuating circumstances. I hope they will notice her inevitable compulsion to tell lies. I hope she gets very long sentences for each of her crimes.


I also hope her family will be banned from capitalizing on her downfall and that we will be spared an endless series of reality shows featuring this very sorry bunch of people.

Sarah Palin's downfall will bring relief to some victims, pain and shame to others

Sarah Palin's ethical challenges are legendary and Geoffrey Dunn's book, coming out on Tuesday, promises to bring a few fresh skeletons out of Sarah's closet.

We would be naive to believe that Sarah Palin is unique in her behaviour. We could compile a long list of politicians, business people, religious leaders and other prominent characters in public life who employ the very same tactics. There are opportunistic liars everywhere.

They lie about their credentials, embellish their resumes; they form useful alliances, building their personal empires on the shoulders of others, later discarding them (when they don't resort to destroying them); they claim to offer solutions and use all the available self-promotion tools at their disposal. They are very tenacious in their efforts.

These people may be famous and powerful or they may be small time opportunists. We read about the famous and sometimes we suffer the small time ones on a personal level. Ironically, victims of small time crooks suffer the most, as there's no public exposure, no vindication. It's painful to see oneself as a complete fool in silence, trying to deal with uneasy feelings all alone.

Why do some people behave like this? The short answer is that they enjoy power and money. Of course, there are ethical, honest people who enjoy these two addictive motivating factors as well. The difference lies in how their goals are achieved.

The honest high achiever will not use other people as stepping stones, he will share his accomplishments with those who help them along the way. The honest person will sense a good opportunity, but won't resort to empty flattery to get people on board just to threaten or discard them when no longer useful in the process of reaching his goals. The honest achiever doesn't believe the ends justify the means.

Sarah Palin's supporters sincerely believe she's a benign, misunderstood character in the soap opera politics has become these days. There are people, like Geoffrey Dunn, Joe McGinniss and others, who have worked to expose the tactics she employed and the casualties that litter the way of her ascent to power, money and fame.

It could well be that her fame will be her undoing. She may fall from grace very spectacularly and the people she left in her path will have the satisfaction of witnessing her fall. Her supporters will suffer with her, but there are many opportunists who will continue to behave badly, taking advantage of others with impunity. Sarah Palin is not very good at covering her tracks, but some people are. They can perform their dirty deeds, undetected, for a long, long time. Their victims may never become aware that they've been used. Con artists after power and money count on the support of people who believe they act in earnest.

It's an age old game.

Of course, those in the political arena are the ones capable of causing damage to the greatest number of people.

Palingates watches Sarah Palin. I hope there's somebody out there watching the others...

Sarah Palin, still not acting her age

Today is Sarah Palin's 47th birthday. We often refer to her as a vindictive 15-year-old high school girl with petty grievances and scores to settle. I believe it's more serious than that. She IS a very vindictive woman and never misses an opportunity to have a dig at people she feels deserve one. Her past and present attacks and actions range from very damaging to very silly and childish. But let's not forget the damage she inflicted on many when she was in power.

When she held office in Alaska, she actually had power and misused it regularly to exact revenge on her foes or in some cases, to dispose of former allies who were no longer useful to her. Here's a far from a comprehensive list of her old victims:

John Stein - Helped launch Sarah's political career, helping her to get elected for Wasilla's City Council in 1992. In 1996 she ran for mayor against Stein. Her campaign began circulating the word that she would be "Wasilla's first Christian mayor", implying that Stein was Jewish. He's a Lutheran. They also started another vicious whisper campaign, spreading the word that Stein and his wife - who had chosen to keep her own last name when they were married - were not legally wed. "We actually had to produce our marriage certificate," recalled Stein, whose wife died of breast cancer in 2005 without ever reconciling with Palin.

John Bitney - Mr. Bitney was a key aide in Sarah Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. She had known him since high school. When she took office, she gave Mr. Bitney a job as her legislative director, and a few months later stood beside him at a news conference and praised his work. Seven weeks later she fired Mr. Bitney for what her spokeswoman described as "poor job performance." What really happened? Governor Palin got a call from another old friend, Scott Richter, informing her that his wife, Debbie Richter, and Mr. Bitney were having an affair. Scott and Sarah's husband Todd are great friends. In her book "Going Rogue," Sarah Palin gave this description of Bitney: "He turned out to be a BlackBerry games addict who couldn't seem to keep his lunch off his tie."

Walt Monegan - The Commissioner of Public Safety was fired when he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, from his state trooper job. The whole fiasco became what's known as Troopergate.

Lyda Green - Palin was a guest on the right-wing Bob and Mark Show. Bob Lester, the conservative shock jock who hosts the show repeatedly called State Senator Lyda Green a “cancer” and a “bitch”. How did Sarah Palin react to all this? She laughed along and said she would be “honored” to have Lester with her when she gives her State of the State address. Sarah Palin said quite recently that if she announces her candidacy for president in 2012, she will do it on Bob and Mark's show.

Mike Wooten - Sarah and Todd Palin pursued a long drawn-out vendetta against her former brother-in-law, the aforementioned state trooper, which culminated in Troopergate. Todd Palin was heavily involved in the efforts to have Wooten fired.

Mary Ellen Emmons - Wasilla's former city librarian, who was fired, reinstated following public outcry and finally resigned. The start of Ms Emmons misfortune started after Sarah inquired on the procedures to have books removed from the library. Ms Emmons wouldn't entertain the idea of removing any books.

Irl Stambaugh - Sarah fired the popular Police Chief of Wasilla stating that she did not feel he fully supported her efforts to govern the city. Apparently he "intimidated" her.

Andree McLeod - Between 2002 and 2005, Sarah was a great fan of Andree, a republican political watchdog. Some snippets of e-mails Sarah sent to Andree during that period: "That was a great letter to the ed. this week Andree. I haven't had time to call but wanted to tell you it was, again, insightful & educational & good writing."; "Ugh! I know you must get so frustrated because you’re all about accountability! Thanks for working to instill public trust in all this Andree!"; " I'm proud to know you!!!". There were many more, all very friendly. In 2008 Andree requested copies of e-mails from the Governor's private e-mail accounts used for state communications to clarify some ethics issues. Sarah Palin reacted: "This is the same Andree McLeod that follows us around at public events and camps herself out in our waiting area and hounds us for a job..." referring to Andree as the "falafel lady." Andree continues to challenge the ethical lapses of those in power in Alaska. Her attempts to keep the quitter governor in check were not motivated by personal grudges, but by her embarassement and dismay about the state of politics in Alaska.

Sarah Palin assumed the role of attack dog in McCain's campaign, the lipstick wearing pit bull. Her attacks on then Sen. Obama are well documented.

After her run for VP, Sarah Palin attacked or mocked bloggers, Katie Couric, Tina Fey, campaign aides, Andrea Friedman, Rahm Emanuel, Dave Letterman, Levi Johnston and many others. She also encouraged a backlash against the citizens of Alaska who had the temerity to question her unethical practices.

Since quitting the office of governor to become a celebrity talking head, Sarah Palin has expanded the list of "enemies" considerably. Joe McGinniss, Michele and Barack Obama, Kate Gosselin, a teacher in Homer, a man with a camera at the airport in Valdez, she had some choice words for most of them, just to mention a few examples. Without naming any particular foes, Sarah Palin has the "lamestream media" as the source of her most profound resentment and doesn't spare this large group whenever she encounters a keyboard or a microphone.

I gave more detailed examples of her actions against her perceived enemies when she actually held office and had more power to damage them. That's part of her record as a politician.

We don't know for sure if Sarah Palin will pursue a future political career, but we have noticed that not only her behaviour has not changed, but her need to react to criticism and constantly attack or ridicule people she considers her enemies has become urgent and uncontrollable.

Sarah Palin's immature rantings make her look and sound like a caricature of a mean spirited 15-year-old hig school girl, vaguely understandable in a person aged 15, but coming from a 47-year-old woman with political aspirations, they make her look and sound utterly ridiculous.

AFTERTHOUGHT

I came to the conclusion that Sarah Palin poses a lesser risk to all when she behaves like a difficult adolescent. When she does act her age and uses a certain rhetoric in her public speech, her victims face a much greater risk. Ask Gabby Giffords...

Previous posts on Palingates about Sarah Palin's victims.
Tina Dupuy's "Sarah Palin's Enemies List"

Why Are People In Alaska Afraid To Talk About "Babygate“? – See What Verne Rupright, The Mayor of Wasilla, Has To Say…

Guestpost by Patrick
patrick12344@yahoo.com

In the comments to my previous blogposts here on “palingates”, many commenters wondered why the people in Alaska are so afraid to talk about “babygate” and to “spill the beans”. After all, what do they have to lose, now that Palin has gone?

It is not easy to find the right answer to this question. But it is clear to us that a number of people in Alaska know at least parts of Sarah Palin’s “secret”, including leading politicians of the Republican party in Alaska and other people in higher political circles, as I explained in my first guestpost.

In addition, several people especially in Wasilla most likely know the truth or parts of it, too. From all we have heard, there is a close-knit society there in that little town. Everybody seems to know everybody. And there is certainly no shortage of rumors in Alaska concerning Trig’s parentage. For example, a reporter of the “New Yorker”, who visited Alaska in September 2008 to investigate Sarah Palin’s home state, remarked about the faked-pregnancy rumors:

"This Faulknerian story had been making the rounds in Alaska for months—I heard versions of it in Anchorage and Juneau within twenty-four hours of arriving in each city—and it derived from the peculiar circumstances surrounding Trig’s birth."

So, are people beginning to talk now?

Well, they might…but then we have people like Verne Rupright. He has been the mayor of Wasilla since November 3, 2008, having been voted into office with the impressive amount of 466 votes.

Verne Rupright seems to be very concerned about Sarah Palin and her family. How concerned, we learn through an article by the London Times Online which was published in August 2009. This article shines more light on the question as to why people in Alaska and Wasilla might be afraid to talk. The Times writes:

A friend of Bristol recalls dodging press photographers on high school graduation day. “I love Sarah and the people who know her understand why she resigned. It’s hard putting your family through that much.”

But the local people have also learnt to be wary, and the list of those who won’t talk to journalists is long. Verne Rupright, the mayor, understands this protective spirit. “This is a hard place and that makes people a bit more bound together. People like Sarah came up that way,” he says.

As he points out where Mrs Palin shot her first rabbit, he notes that those who threaten her family should remember the local tendency to carry guns.

So there you have it. Her family is apparently “threatened”. By whom, with what? We don’t know. Threatened by the truth? Could be!

Oh well, and her defenders might be “carrying guns”. Enough said, right?

In many other places in the USA, such a comment by a mayor would probably cause an outrage. But in Wasilla? Very unlikely, in my opinion.

I can understand why “ordinary citizens” in Alaska are afraid to go on the record about babygate. But there are not just ordinary citizens in Alaska, but also for example people in the “upper echelons” of society who know the truth about babygate. It is understandable to a certain extent that the people in Alaska have lost interest in Sarah Palin – they are just glad that they got rid of that crazy woman.

One of my contacts in Alaska recently told me that it’s unlikely that the Alaska media would be interested in babygate at this point, and added: “Honestly, since Palin's resignation, she doesn't make the news much locally anymore.”

However, in my opinion, Alaskans have a certain responsibility, if they like it or not. Sarah Palin is “their” product – and every person in Alaska who is in a position to do so should not hesitate to tell the public the truth about babygate, in order to prevent this unfit person causing further damage to the rest of the USA and possibly the world. Sarah Palin is a fraud, and she needs to be exposed as such – so that the ordinary American voter can be in no doubt that Sarah Palin is not a serious option and has no business to be in politics.
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Sarah Palin's rainbows

The ugliness going on this past week around some right wing blogs is quite disturbing. $arah Palin talked about the politics of personal destruction. She should know. There are many casualties of personal destruction lining the path of her own political career.

We've seen recent examples of how it works: she raises the bait, then lets her supporters run the show. Letterman, Linda Kellen Biegel, Gryphen... who's next? We saw a late night joke become a major issue involving statutory rape, a silly photoshop turned into the desecration of an iconic image and a mention of a possible split between the quitter governor and her husband is now a hanging offense.

As her fans are the ones asking for people's heads, she can be all innocent, claiming to have no connections to any of these lunatics. She's the victim. Always.

While people are distracted by these hyperbolic witch hunts, not much attention is being paid to the real issues. She who farts rainbows is facing serious charges: failure to disclose gifts, quoting the wrong statute to get away with the Arctic Cat financial disclosure, an unethical "legal fund" and now allegations of bribery in connection with a court case.

Those rainbow farts don't really smell of roses, do they?
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Sarah Palin's smokescreens

ADN on August 4, 2009:

The Alaska Public Offices Commission has refused Palin's request to keep secret the discounts that come from her husband's Arctic Cat sponsorship. APOC also said Palin needs to disclose all the gifts she received last year, rejecting her interpretation that she doesn't need to until after she gets around to actually opening the gifts.

Palin has told APOC "there are boxes of unopened mail at this point, even mail that was delivered in 2008."

APOC is giving Palin until Aug. 17 to make public "information related to the dollar amount of the discounts from Arctic Cat," as well as any gifts received in 2008 that she has not reported, said Holly Hill, the agency's director. Hill found that the state law Palin cited in arguing for an exemption from the Arctic Cat disclosure "only protects information submitted under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, and does not apply in this matter."

Palin's lawyer, Tom Van Flein, did not respond this week to questions about APOC's decision.

There are so many issues regarding $arah Palin clouded by smoke and mirrors... the latest brouhaha about suing Gryphen for mentioning a split between the quitter governor and her husband comes across as a tactic to divert the public's attention from more serious matters.

The hysteria seems to be widespread, with Bill O'Reilly saying Gryphen's post was a vicious attack on $arah Palin. How does a reference to a possible marital split qualify as an attack? What's vicious about it?

$arah Palin's supporters are blowing a trivial matter out of all proportion.

Are they going to report on APOC's deadline? Are they going to point out that $arah Palin is nearly one year late reporting the gifts? APOC have already cut her some slack, asking her to simply amend her financial disclosure even though gifts have to be reported within a certain period. Less than a month, if I remember it correctly.

Thomas Van Flein was very quick off the mark in his threats to Gryphen, but can't be bothered to send a reply to APOC.

While everybody is going nuts over a divorce that Gryphen didn't mention at all, $arah Palin's lack of ethics remains in the background, almost ignored...
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Sarah Palin attacks!

Martha, a long term mudpuppy, sent me a list of Sarah Palin's attacks on a number of different people. I added a few others I could remember. Feel free to add your own. Attackgate?

• Bloggers (multiple hits)
• Lyda Green - most notably laughing at her being called a bitch on radio show
• Walter Monegan - Troopergate
• Andrew Halcro (multiple hits)
• President Obama (multiple hits)
  
• Andree McLeod - supposedly turned on SP when not granted a job: "falafel lady"
  
• All other ethic's complaint filers
• Katie Couric - the world doesn't revolve around you
• Tina Fey - "job security"
• Ashley Judd on aerial wolf hunting - "extreme fringe group" using AK and her administration to raise funds
  
• Hillary Clinton - called her a whiner
• Media (multiple hits)
• Caroline Kennedy & the media
• Kim Elton - when he took the Interior Dept position
• Beth Kerttula (democratic representative for Juneau) over the Kim Elton Senate post
• Senate Democrats - secret meetings - rejecting Senate picks
• Juneau Democrats - for backing Senate Democrats
• Bob Poe (democratic gubernatorial candidate) - "political grandstanding"
• Whoever and everyone for "bad mouthing" WAR - AG candidate
• Levi Johnston - preemptive strike
• David Letterman - dumb joke
• Celtic Diva - photoshopping an iconic image
• Dennis Zaki - preemptive strike over trip to Emmonak (DZ's Alaska Report posted upcoming ethics complaints and IRS/embezzlement problems)

Most politicians don't react to jokes and certainly don't resort to slanging matches with their constituents on their official websites. But this is Sarah Palin...

Sarah Palin's style is incredibly negative, reactive and divisive.

In addition to attacking all and sundry, other things she's fond of doing are: misquoting the Founding Fathers, misinterpreting the Constitution and borrowing material from other people.

Sarah borrowed a joke from David Letterman (the "perverted pedophile", a major threat to ALL young women) to get back at John Kerry during a speech to the troops in Kosovo.

In 2004, John Kerry made a joke about GW and it backfired. Letterman said this at the time:

"To his credit, John Kerry was very, very upset about the joke and he apologized. ... As a matter of fact, all day long, he's been walking around with a long face."

Oh, the irony...

While photoshopping is a hot topic, check this out.
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Sarah Palin's offensive behaviour

Which is worse, president Obama making a self-deprecating remark about the Special Olympics and apologizing before the program was aired (and not attempting to have the remark supressed, by the way) or this?

Sarah's victims

Here's a (partial, I suspect) list of people who found themselves on the wrong side of Sarah Palin:

John Stein - Helped launch Sarah's political career, helping her to get elected for Wasilla's City Council in 1992. In 1996 she ran for mayor against Stein. Her campaign began circulating the word that she would be "Wasilla's first Christian mayor", implying that Stein was Jewish. He's a Presbytarian. They also started another vicious whisper campaign, spreading the word that Stein and his wife - who had chosen to keep her own last name when they were married - were not legally wed. "We actually had to produce our marriage certificate," recalled Stein, whose wife died of breast cancer in 2005 without ever reconciling with Palin.

Randy Ruedrich - Sarah was appointed in 2003 by the then Governor, Frank Murkowski, to the state oil and gas regulatory agency. She blew the whistle on fellow GOP Commissioner Randy Ruedrich for using his office for party politics. She hacked into his computer, printed batches of documents and filed an ethics complaint against him. Ruedrich resigned. She wanted more documents and e-mails made public. Sarah later resigned herself, saying "I'm forced to withhold information from Alaskans, and that goes against what I believe in as a public servant." (She had used Wasilla's mayoral office facilities to run her lieutenant governor campaign in 2002...)

John Bitney - Mr. Bitney was a key aide in Sarah Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. When she took office, she gave Mr. Bitney a job as her legislative director, and a few months later stood beside him at a news conference and praised his work. Seven weeks later she fired Mr. Bitney for what her spokeswoman described as "poor job performance." What really happened? Governor Palin got a call from another old friend, Scott Richter, informing her that his wife, Debbie Richter, and Mr. Bitney were having an affair. Scott and Sarah's husband Todd are great friends.

Walt Monegan - The Commissioner of Public Safety was fired when he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, from his state trooper job. The whole fiasco became what's known as Troopergate.

Talis Colberg - Had to resign due to his poor performance as Attorney General during Troopergate. He challenged the validity of the subpoenas issued to witnesses by the state legislature in court. It appears he put his loyalty to the Governor above his duties as attorney general. After a grilling by Alaska's lawmakers, he resigned. (Pushed?)

Lyda Green - Palin was a guest on the right-wing Bob and Mark Show. Bob Lester, the conservative shock jock who hosts the show repeatedly called State Senator Lyda Green a “cancer” and a “bitch”. How did Sarah Palin react to all this? She laughed along and said she would be “honored” to have Lester with her when she gives her State of the State address.

Mike Wooten - Sarah and Todd Palin pursued a long drawn-out vendetta against the state trooper former brother-in-law, which culminated in Troopergate. Todd Palin was heavily involved in the efforts to have Wooten fired.

Mary Ellen Emmons - Wasilla's former city librarian, who was fired, reinstated following public outcry and finally resigned. The start of Ms Emmons misfortune started after Sarah inquired on the procedures to have books removed from the library. Ms Emmons wouldn't entertain the idea of removing any books.

Irl Stambaugh - Sarah fired the popular Police Chief of Wasilla stating that she did not feel he fully supported her efforts to govern the city. Apparently he "intimidated" her.

Andree McLeod - Between 2002 and 2005, Sarah was a great fan of Andree, a republican political watchdog. Some snippets of e-mails Sarah sent to Andree during that period: "That was a great letter to the ed. this week Andree. I haven't had time to call but wanted to tell you it was, again, insightful & educational & good writing."; "Ugh! I know you must get so frustrated because you’re all about accountability! Thanks for working to instill public trust in all this Andree!"; " I'm proud to know you!!!". There were many more, all very friendly. In 2008 Andree requested copies of e-mails from the Governor's private e-mail accounts used for state communications to clarify some ethics issues. Sarah Palin now: "This is the same Andree McLeod that follows us around at public events and camps herself out in our waiting area and hounds us for a job..." referring to Andree as the "falafel lady".

These are some of the people who were once on good terms with Sarah Palin. Some were summarily fired, some were forced to resign and other were tossed aside or set upon when they had served their purpose and were no longer useful to her.

Sarah Palin doesn't place any limits on how far she's prepared to go to fulfil her political ambitions. If it is within her power to fire those who stand in her way, she will. If they once mentored her but are no longer part of her scheme to achieve her ends, she doesn't hesitate to discredit them. If they dare ask awkward questions or look too closely into her "transparent" administration, she'll smear and ridicule them.

This is her attitude in the political arena. There are other victims, but on a personal level. We'll look at them in a future post.
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Don't come near me... Please...?

We know what happens to people who cross Sarah Palin. We know what happens to the people she casts out after they served their purpose and are no longer useful to her. But there is another way of landing in trouble.

Her kindness is almost as dangerous!

A few weeks back she rang a magazine to put the record straight regarding reports that Levi was a high school dropout. No, she said, he was working his butt off parenting new baby Tripp (where's Tripp?), finishing high school through a correspondence program and working at the same time. Levi lost his job as an apprentice electrician in the North Slope because one of the requirements to qualify for that apprenticeship is a high school diploma, which, according to helpful Sarah, he didn't have.

Today it was reported that her favourite consigment store in Anchorage will start trading under a new name after being served with a cease-and-desist letter by a Los Angeles-based chain of thrift stores with the same name, Out of the Closet, which was trademarked. The owner of the Anchorage boutique, Ellen Arvold, is changing its name to Second Run.

In an interview with Fox News in October, Sarah Palin said she was a frugal shopper and her favourite shop was "a consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska, called Out of the Closet."

Ged Kenslea, spokesman for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the owner and operator of the California Out of the Closet thrift store chain, said if it weren't for Palin, the duplicative name "wouldn't have landed on the radar."

Mmmmmm....

At least the owner of the Anchorage store is getting a second run. Others were not so lucky...

Out of the Closet, now Second Run
Out of the Closet, California
Full report.
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