More photos and footage from Sarah Palin's disastrous CSU Stanislaus appearance - UPDATE!

Picture: David C Mills, Flickr

+++Please also read our previous post with more pictures, reports

and the open mic remarks!+++

The complete reports by Palingates about the CSU Stanislaus-Palin scandal CAN BE FOUND HERE.

+++

WOW, what a day that was yesterday! The "online party" with the live feed from Sarah Palin's speech was an amazing event here at Palingates! Thank you very much for participating, everybody, it was huge fun!

Today is one of these days when ask myself why I spend so much time investigating Sarah Palin.

Yesterday, the empress had no clothes. Not for the first time! The same happened for example when Sarah looked at the cheat notes on her hand in February 2010 in Nashville and thought that nobody would notice. That was very dumb by her. But I also questioned my judgement for a moment. This woman is nothing else than an immature and pretty mean teenage girl. She is not Presidential. Far from it. She was a lousy small-town mayor who left her town in huge debt when her second term came to an end and who had to hire a city manager because she couldn't handle her job. She is just a bag of hot air.

But there is also the "other Sarah". Backed by Rupert Murdoch and his henchmen at Fox News and Harper Collins, closely connected with the Neocons Bill Kristol and Randy Scheunemann, vindictive and unhinged as always, an unrelenting warmonger, a "political celebrity", moving full steam ahead for the Presidental run: It sounds like a story from the Twilight Zone, but it's real.

Yesterday was not her day. She was a complete mess, her speech was an incoherent ramble which included many questionable claims.

And then we had the open mic incident after the speech. Hilarious. The perfect end of this awful CSU Stanislaus affair.

Strange - didn't the day start so well?

Earlier in the day, Sarah Palin went to the hairdresser, surrounded by TV crews and about five bodyguards - she looked like a cheap version of Madonna! I bet she felt like Madonna.

But it went downhill from then, as we know.

You can watch Sarah's complete speech at the Modesto Bee HERE and witness the disaster yourself.

+++

What news do we have?

We expect to receive pictures later today which were taken by our brilliant reader honestyingov, who was boots on the ground yesterday in Turlock!

We also expect to receive a transcript of Sarah's complete speech at some point, maybe later today. One of our brilliant readers has volunteered. :-)

Please also read AnnetteK's diary on Daily Kos HERE.

We have received a short video clip which was taken by honestyingov during the protest:

Therefore I will update this post later.

+++

Our reader EyeOnYou made a sweet discovery today: Palingates actually received a large shout-out in the SF Weekly blog on May 27, 2010, and everyone missed it!

The SF Weekly referred to THIS POST on Palingates.

SF Weekly wrote:

Soon, American political journalists will someday be replaced by:

A. Newswriting software

B. Twitter

C. Anonymous European hobbyists

Readers of a story from today's Los Angeles Times have reason to believe the answer is "C."

A Thursday Times story with the headline "Paliln to receive $75,000 for Cal State Stanislaus appearance sources say" is actually a retread from a post on the website "Palingates," run by anonymous anti-Palinists living in Europe.

WOW! I am speechless.

Almost. I would like to repeat what I said in the comments earlier:

The truth is of course, as we have mentioned many times, that only Regina, Kathleen and I are Europeans.

Apart from that Palingates has to offer:

1) Several dedicated guest posters: 100% Americans
2) A highly experienced research team: 100% Americans
3) Great contacts in Alaska: 100% Americans
4) A fantastic, devoted readership: Almost 100% Americans

We are not a European blog in the full meaning of the word. We don't deal with European issues, but with American issues. We have only a handful of European readers, but thousands of regular American readers. Maybe we should be more insistent in the future regarding the "European" label, because it's misleading.

However, what I would like to point out is that we are very influenced by European style investigative journalism. It's obvious that the USA could need some fresh ideas. It seems to me that many US journalists have forgotten that soundbites and images and ghostwritten facebook posts are not the "real" news.

The real news is the truth beneath the surface.

+++

UPDATE:

Here is a clip with the excerpt from Sarah Palin's speech where she expresses her outrage about the "Dumpster Divers":

See also the article about this topic in the Huffington Post.

+++

Finally, here are pictures taken by our reader "honestyingov", who was at the protest in Turlock and also had a lot of work with preparations for this day, making signs etc.! A big shout-out to honestyingov! :-)

The "dumpster divers" Alicia Lewis and Ashli Briggs are prominently featured in the photos.

We will be eternally grateful to Alicia and Ashli, because without their initiative, all these revelations during the CSU Stanislaus scandal would not have happened. These two young women managed expose the real character of the Quitter Queen: Greedy, manipulative, unhinged, vindictive - and they made the half-term-Governor REALLY mad. ;-)

More pictures taken by honestyingov in my flickr album.

Click on pictures to get to the larger version.

Ashli Briggs, on the left - Alicia Lewis, on the right

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Sarah Palin's speech tonight at CSU Stanislaus - Photos, video, and new revelations - UPDATE! Full open mic remarks after Sarah Palin's speech!

The complete reports by Palingates about the CSU Stanislaus-Palin scandal CAN BE FOUND HERE.

+++

Read the full transcript of the speech HERE - plus video. Palin's factual mistakes exposed!

+++

UPDATE:

The clip with the complete embarassing open microphone remarks by the journalists and technicians after Sarah Palin's speech in Turlock, who slammed her!

NEW, IMPROVED AUDIO CLIP UPLOADED:

ALTERNATIVE CLIP (HIGHER VOLUME, BUT QUALITY IS WORSE):

"Now I know the dumbness doesn't come from just soundbites." 

This is one of our favorite quotes of all times. ;-)

+++

TRANSCRIPT OF THE OPEN MIC REMARKS:

What’s your problem?
Oh my god I feel like I just stepped off of a roller coaster! Go round and round and up and down and shit flying out of everywhere and standing. Remember when you had to write a report as a college student and you just tried to jam in as many quotes as possible? You know, from as many random things you could get, you know, that’s what I got.
I got she didn’t ever finish a statement.
Right.
(?)
Did she make a statement? Cause I didn’t catch that either.
I think she said, “Hi” and “Thanks”.
To think she could even quote Kennedy.
Twice.
Hey, I’m really sorry the cam, the feed died.
No, no, yeah. Pfft.
Yeah, after 8 hours.
It just shut off.
You guys have a tough job; I don’t know how you’re going to make a story out of that.
Well… that’s the story.

I mean, the story of the story.

(??)
Thanks.
All right guys.
Now I know the dumbness doesn't come from just soundbites.

I saw the whole thing.
(???)learn a whole new (??)
Well____, you weren’t the only one who had problems.
I'm going to go send this text to my conservative friend.
(???) speech therapy.
Tech talk.
The end.

+++

Please read also the story by Sarah Jones on politicususa regarding these remarks.

+++

Today is a big day for Turlock and CSU Stanislaus! "Political celebrity" Sarah Palin is in town!

Here is an overview of the main CSUS/Palin-related scandals which happened since Sarah Palin was announced as a speaker for the 50th Anniversy Gala of CSU Stanislaus.

We have boots on the ground today in Turlock and expect to receive more reports, photos and video footage during the next hours.

Here are some impressions of the situation at CSU Stanislaus today- a large part of the CSU Stanislaus campus is fenced in (pictures published with permission):

Here is a new clip from today with footage from the inside.

Thanks to California Watch, we already know what the speech will look like!

This is the menu for evening.

A live feed from the speech will be broadcast on Fox40 at 7pm CA time.

UPDATE: Sarah Palin is late, the speech will now apparently start at 9.00.

Here is the embedded player for the live stream, hope it works:


Many thanks to our friends at www.politicususa.com for providing us with the correct link to the live stream! Alternative link at politicususa HERE.

Another option:

TurlockCityNews will have a live broadcast!

+++

SFWeekly reports:

With Sarah Palin due to speak at CSU-Stanislaus today, students at the Turlock campus tell SF Weekly that they're essentially being barred from their school.

"They've fenced in our campus. Students and faculty are not welcome on our own campus," said Ashli Briggs, a senior and vocal critic of Stanislaus bringing the former Republican vice presidential candidate to campus -- for $93,000 -- to celebrate the school's 50th anniversary. Yellow-shirted private security officers "have told students to keep moving. You're not allowed to loiter."

+++

Rich Ibarra, reporter at TV-station KCRA, has twittered:

"$450,000 raised in cash and in kind donations...$200,000 net cleared...and one-third of that will go toward scholarships, the rest to univ."

However, we will have some surprises soon regarding the identity of some of the donors! :-)

+++

Modesto Bee reporter Patty Guerra writes:

Just returned from a press conference at which CSUS Foundation President Matt Swanson announced tonight's fund-raiser has brought in $200,000 net for the university. It's the most ever raised at a single event on campus - donations for buildings and the like notwithstanding. The following figures are estimates: $450,000 gross income, $50,000 in in-kind contributions (things such as drinks and supplies), less than $200,000 in costs. The next-highest fund-raiser, a concert by Gary Sinise's band, grossed $200,000, Mr. Swanson said. Fencing has been erected around the interior of the university; I and other media representatives had to go through a couple of checkpoints. One protester, so far: A man with signs that read "Teabag Leland" and "Run Sarah Run" on the corner of Monte Vista and Geer.

+++

Interesting twitter message - news from the hairdressers! ;-)

+++

I have promised you new juicy revelations "Palingates-style" - here we go!

Take a look at the names of the Board Members of the CSU Stanislaus Foundation:

Guess who donated large sums for this event with Sarah Palin?

CSU Stanislaus alumni Michael R. Leaveck, a Vietnam Veteran who returned in protest his alumni of the year award from 1990 because of Sarah Palin's appearance today, received some inside information about some of the donors.

May I present donor No 1:

Bill Ahlem, co-founder and co-owner of Hilmar Cheese Co.: $ 10,000 donated

See the list of board members above...also for the following names.

Donor No 2:

Paula Zagaris Leffler, owner of PMZ Real Estate: $ 10,000 donated

The next donor is a really interesting one:

Donor No 3: Gemperle Farms - President: Steve Gemperle: $ 10,000 donated

"Modesto Bee" reported in May 2008:

NO GEMPERLE EGGS FOR TRADER JOE'S: Trader Joe's announced Thursday that it will stop carrying eggs from Gemperle Farms, a Turlock-based producer, because of allegations that some of its laying hens were abused. The announcement came two days after Mercy for Animals, a Chicago-based group, released an undercover video showing what it claimed were abuses at egg farms near Hilmar and Delhi. Gemperle Farms representatives could not be reached for comment about the Trader Joe's announcement. Earlier this week, company President Steve Gemperle said it "doesn't tolerate the abuse of animals." He also questioned whether the video was shot at his operation. Trader Joe's spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki says the chain decided it doesn't want to carry eggs from Gemperle Farms because "it is of utmost importance that all of our vendors abide by industry-established animal care practices."

Lastly (although there may be updates) we come to the last known donor - and this one is a real heavyweight!

The name of the company: Associated Feed (feed manufacturing and service).

This company was incredibly generous and gave $ 50,000!

What is their interest? Well, it's quite simple:

The President of Associated Feed is none other than the President of the CSU Stanislaus Foundation himself: Matt Swanson!

Therefore with this $ 50,000 donation by Matt Swanson himself, Republican Matt Swanson made sure that his high-profile event with Sarah Palin wouldn't be a failure!

Therefore these known contributions by board members for this event already amount to $ 80,000 - and these are certainly not all board members who donated for this event!

But there is even more:

According to Michael R. Leaveck, the real scandal, well hidden from public view is the fact that for example a donor like Gemperle Enterprises (Farms) was once a sponsor of CSU Stanislaus "Presidential Scholarships," a program that has been discontinued as of this year due to economic hard times. Instead, this year, Gemperle Farms is a $10,000 sponsor of the 50th Anniversary Black Tie Gala, featuring Sarah Palin!

Therefore it's a fact that this Palin fundraiser is just a show and a scam - the Foundation would have most likely raised this money even without Sarah Palin.

But Matt Swanson & Co. ensured that they would have a big political show as well - and Sarah Palin can now wrongly credit herself with having raised a large amount of money for the Foundation.

Brave new Palin world!

+++

Update on the protests:

About 100 demonstrators are at California State University, Stanislaus, protesting tonight's fund-raising speech by Sarah Palin. "What's for dinner? Polar bear!" the protesters are shouting near the Vasche Library.

About a dozen campus police officers are watching the scene.

Fred Herman, former chairman of the Stanislaus County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, helped organize the protest.

+++

Here are some pictures of the interior for the event with Sarah Palin - fascinating!

Picture credits: Modesto Bee

Fake tree with fake golden leaves! Beautiful!

And Republican red for the tables, naturally!

According to Michael R. Leaveck, the Foundation paid $ 35,000 for the interior, to the company "Infinite Creations".

I would like to stress that Kathleen is in touch with Michael and got these details confirmed.

+++

CSU Professor Patrick Kelly, one of the "heart and souls" behind the protests against the appearance of Sarah Palin, left a message on facebook:

Please follow the link below, and this Facebook page and other sources (Palingates) to keep in touch with what is going on in Turlock this evening.

That is what I am doing from Montana and I wish I could be in Turlock in solidarity with the students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have been so deeply offended by the "TERRIBLE CHOICE" of a small group of people in the CSU Stanislaus Foundation and university administration to select Sarah Palin as being in some way representative of academic excellence by selecting her as KEYNOTE SPEAKER and GUEST OF HONOR for this evening's 50th Anniversary Gala.

This is more than a joke. It is a deep insult to most who care about the university and it flies in the face of what a university should be about. Our university administration and its partners in this terrible enterprise have done a grave disservice to the institution they supposedly serve.

I now look forward to a complete audit of ALL expenses associated with hosting this political sideshow. If a true accounting is produced, I will be surprised to see it making any profit.

+++

Boots-on-the-ground twitter message by Vadon McIlwain, Associate Director of admissions at CSU Stanislaus:

UPDATE ON THE TWEET AND ON OUR PREVIOUS CORRECTION: The author of the tweet wanted to express that no student journalists were given access to the event, which is true. However, the editor of the "Signal" was given access, who is not a student.

+++

Excellent new clip by CBS 13 about the security measures - "over one mile of fence" - CLICK HERE!

Screenshots:

I love this screenshot! ;-)

+++

First pictures of the protests:

+++

Please read also the updates in the Modesto Bee!

+++

More pictures - courtesy of the Modesto Bee:

.

Sarah Palin's executive style did not serve the interests of Alaskans - New ethics complaint

As we're having an "ethics feast", I must say that we have more to reveal about Andrée McLeod's adventures in Alaska. Until not that long ago, she and Sarah Palin were political allies.

Sarah Palin has no qualms about throwing former political allies under the bus. Compare these quotes (just a few examples from a number of e-mails sent by Sarah Palin to Andrée McLeod between 2002 and 2005) to Thomas Van Flein's description of the same person in a recent note on Palin's Facebook page.

Sarah Palin:

"Did you hear us talking about you on the Mike Pocaro show Monday evening?! It was a hoot! He was impressed with your efforts on the VanEten issue & I called in to say "Kudos to Andree... she's obviously got tireless energy and desire to keep government and government officials accountable to Alaskans... we need more "Andrees" in this state... etc..." And then that gal, "Michelle" (who calls in a lot) called right after I did to say, "Sarah Palin just needs to stay out of Anchorage politics... blah blah blah..." and the show went on with you as the highlight for callers! It was awesome. Ya' done good again!!!"

"You will be thanked for summing up for others what many believe: that there's nothing wrong with healthy debate and challenges to the status quo when something is wrong & it can easily be fixed!"

"Holy Moly you are powerful regarding getting the word out to the press about questionable activity!"

Thomas Van Flein, referring to the mounting number of ethics complaints against his client, the excuse given for quitting as governor of Alaska (reference to Andrée in bold) :

"The past year has confirmed that Governor Palin was right. The number of false claims, records requests, mendacious accusations and ridiculous posturing by the left and street corner ethicists dropped dramatically – at least as applied to the mechanics of state government."

Andrée McLeod is still interested in the mechanics of state government. We have received more communications that highlight Sarah Palin's "executive" experience and how the present administration continues to employ the same tactics as the former governor.

Sarah Palin with Bill McAllister

As the CEO of Alaska, as Sarah likes to put it, she didn't reward her minions with golden parachutes (no room for parachutes under the bus...). Bill McAllister was rewarded at the start of his stint as Sarah Palin's spokesperson in clear violation of Alaska's ethics rules and personnel rules. Andrée has filed a complaint which has received no attention at all from the Alaska media. Surprise, surprise!

June 7, 2010

Anchorage, Alaska: An ethics complaint has been filed with the attorney general’s office by Alaska resident Andrée McLeod charging Department of Law spokesman and former Palin Communications Director Bill McAllister with misuse of official position and receipt of improper gifts. Also named in the complaint for violations of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act are the Palin/Parnell governor’s chief of staff Mike Nizich and governor’s office administrative director Linda Perez.

The attached complaint relates to McAllister’s abrupt absence from his job upon being hired by Sarah Palin on July 21, 2008. “Unless there was some official state of Alaska business in Sweden that simply couldn’t wait, it would seem McAllister was handsomely rewarded by Palin with a paid vacation when he was first hired in July of 2008,” McLeod said.

McAllister went on a family vacation overseas although state laws and regulations forbid it. “State employees know, especially long-time employees Nizich and Perez, that leave can’t be taken within the first 30 days of employment,” McLeod said. “Yet, McAllister was authorized to fly out of the country without having any leave slips or travel authorizations on file. How long was he gone? I don’t know as Palin/Parnell’s chief of staff and his staff refuse to admit he was even gone…even though email records clearly show they knew he was staying at a cabin in Sweden.”

McLeod said, “This is akin to stealing from the state. This blatant breach of the public’s trust was avoidable had Palin and staffers put McAllister on the payroll three weeks later as she implied in an August 12, 2008 press release. What was the rush and why lie about it afterwards? These people knew what they were doing, and knew it was wrong.”

Since McAllister only started handing in leave slips in March of 2010, after McLeod started asking questions, McLeod also asked the attorney general to investigate McAllister’s other nonattendance, including the period while he was gravely ill during 2008 and 2009. Records show that although McAllister had not submitted leave slips before March 2010, he did cash out over 125 hours of leave worth more that $6,600 in 2009 alone.

On the same note: the state’s personnel board adopted an amendment to 2 AAC 08.065 on Friday, June 4, 2010 and voted to eliminate the restriction on the number of leave cash-ins an employee may be granted in a leave year.

Download the full ethics complaint HERE.

Mike Nizich makes another appearance in Sarah Palin's irregular practices, as detailed below. This is the same Mike Nizich who made this statement regarding the piling ethics complaints against Sarah Palin: "I hope that the publicity-seekers will face a backlash from Alaskans who have a sense of fair play and proportion."

Sarah Palin with Mike Nizich

But Andrée McLeod doesn't give up, even when faced with a backlash. She told us:

This is a very important issue that speaks to the integrity of a state board…the Aerospace Development Corporation.

Per AS 14.40.826, there is only one public member on that board. But governor chief of staff Mike Nizich has occupied that since December 2006. The governor basically had a seat at the table and took the place of a public member. Nizich was appointed to the seat on December 4, 2006, two days before Sarah Palin started her half term as governor. He was then deputy chief of staff, appointed by Frank Murkowski. Palin should have removed Nizich from the board when she decided to keep him on as deputy chief of staff. But she didn’t.

Michael A. Nizich
Public
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811-0001

Mike Nizich became acting chief of staff on the resignation of Mike Tibbles in May 2008 and officially appointed to the post in August 2008. And Palin still didn’t remove him.

Andrée continues:

That is not right…and it definitely doesn’t square nor look favorably on her pronouncements of being on the people’s side looking out for their interests…SHE LET HER OFFICE TAKE UP THE ONLY PUBLIC MEMBER SEAT.

This board oversees MILLIONS of dollars… and no public oversight….

As CEO of the State of Alaska…Palin violated AS 4.40.826 by keeping her deputy chief of staff on the board.

Just imagine the possibilities… of what Palin would do as commander in chief of the American military… when she won’t even follow the rule of law when it comes to this public entity under her watch and would not allow public oversight nor allow a member of the public to be on this board… but rather, kept her chief of staff on it, rendering public oversight inoperative.

The issue is still not resolved and, in true Alaska fashion, anybody who asks questions is stonewalled until the questions are rendered irrelevant. Mike Nizich's stint on the board expires on July 1, 2010.

Here's a letter Andrée wrote to Gov Parnell on June 18, 2010:

Dear Governor Parnell Sean,

Still no response to the question I asked you on back in March. Why have you not removed your chief of staff from the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation? Why have you kept Mike Nizich on the Alaska Aerospace Corporation as he occupies the ONLY one allotted public member slot on that board…which violates AS 14.40.826. The gov’s office doesn’t have a seat on the board. When are you going to give a real, bona fide and genuine member of the public a chance to serve on the AADC as is set forth in Alaska statute?

Documents received from your office show that citizen Nizich did not take leave for his Aerospace Development Corp. activities…and that chief of staff Nizich attended those meetings. Minutes also reflect that he represents the gov’s office as he clearly states that he would report back to the governor…and not the people of Alaska.

This is a HUGE conflict of interest as there is ONLY one allotted public member slot on that board, per AS 14.40.826. This board oversees a huge amount of public dollars funneled to the private sector. The presence of high-priced lobbyists at these meetings clearly demonstrates the significance of $$ that relates to this board. Where is the public oversight???? The chief of staff's continued presence on that board in the ONLY public member slot violates Sec. 14.40.826 and renders public oversight inoperative.

The board's integrity is disabled and its mandate is compromised by the chief of staff taking up the ONLY public member position on the board. So, when will you enable the AADC board to be above-board, remove your chief of staff, and appoint a real, genuine and bona fide member of the public to the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, per AS 14.40.826?

Sincerely,
Andrée McLeod

Andrée made this observation:

The thing about the AADC (Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation) is that, through a quick review of their minutes for the last four years, there are high-powered lawyers and lobbyists in attendance as guests… which means they are chasing the large amounts of FED $$$. And Palin just continued the politics as usual…

We all know that Sarah Palin has a very strange relationship with ethics: as mayor of Wasilla, as governor of Alaska and as a private citizen.


Sarah Palin's readiness to depart from the ethics rules upon stepping into her governorship, a practice which continued throughout her aborted term in that office and beyond, involving multitude* of irregularities, gives us a glimpse into what kind of "CEO" she would make if given the chance to run the whole country.

(* Dairygate, Troopergate, children's travel, per diems, Alaska Fund Trust, property taxes, Big Oil, Pebble Mine... the list is very long. Please refer to "The Palingates" on the sidebar.)
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Investigator Tim Petumenos rules: Sarah Palin's "Alaska Fund Trust" (Legal Defense Fund) was illegal - UPDATE: THE SCANDAL CONTINUES!

Tim Petumenos

AP reports:

"An investigator for the Alaska Personnel Board says a legal defense fund set up for Sarah Palin when she was governor was illegal.

Investigator Timothy Petumenos said Thursday the Alaska Fund Trust inappropriately used the word "official" on its website, wrongly implying Palin's endorsement as governor.

Palin's attorney says she will return the funds.

Petumenos, however, found the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee acted in good faith and relied on the advice of lawyers when setting up the fund.

A preliminary, confidential report also implicating Palin was issued last July, less than two weeks after she announced she was resigning. In announcing her resignation, Palin cited the toll of the ethics probes as one of the reasons she was stepping down."

+++

So, the ethics complaint which was filed by Kim Chatman in 2009 was successful, which is good news. But, not surprisingly, Sarah just get's a slap on the wrist: Such an innocent looking woman could NOT possibly act in BAD faith, could she? Now she is a victim of the evil lawyers who did everything wrong.

Under Meg Stapleton's name a long post has already been published on Sarah's facebook.

The spin is unbelievable!

"Ultimately, the Alaska Fund Trust was borne, and within a day or two, a complaint was filed against it challenging its legality. (And like everything else, the public knew because someone – likely the complainant – violated the law and publicly released the accusation.) And so started another prolonged legal battle – this time to determine if the legal fund created to defend Governor Palin against frivolous ethics complaints was itself ethical. Quite a circle really. We made it clear that no money would be paid out on until the matter had been resolved.

Thus, to this very moment, the money received was frozen and no one, not the Palins, not the Palins’ attorney, no one ever received a penny from the Trust on the Palins’ behalf.

The Personnel Board initially appointed an “independent” investigator. That investigator, we later learned, had connections with, and was associated with President Obama. The Personnel Board had hired President Obama’s personal law firm as an “independent” investigator to review whether a fund created to raise money to eliminate a debt incurred as a result of Governor Palin’s opposition to President Obama was appropriate. We objected to both the illegal leak and the blatant political influence, and a new investigator was appointed.

The new investigator spent considerable time reviewing the old information and collecting new, but I think it proved to be too difficult to reverse an already-public decision. He concluded that the Trust fund violated Alaska law in two respects. His biggest heartburn was that we used the word “official” on the website. And he was distressed that we turned down an offer from a former White House Special Counsel to serve as trustee and instead chose an Alaskan whom Alaskans would recognize – Kristan Cole."

Also, a BRAND NEW Legal Defense Fund has been started for the multi-millionaire Sarah Palin, as is proudly announced in this facebook post.

Milk the sheeple as long as you can, Sarah!

+++

Download the full Petumenos Alaska Fund Trust Report HERE.

+++

UPDATE - THE SCANDAL CONTINUES:

Sarah's shiny new Legal Defense is just announced today, and already we can prove that the people who run this new Defense Fund are LIARS!

On the website of this new Defense Fund, it says:

"Is this site officially sanctioned by Sarah Palin?
Yes, the legal defense fund is sactioned by Sarah Palin. However, this website and fund are not associated with SarahPAC or other entities. Governor Palin is not the trustee of the fund. She has sanctioned the use of her name and image for the website and trust to help raise funds for her legal defense."

So, who is behind her new Legal Defense Fund? Nobody knows, and not even the name of the Trustee is mentioned. The only contact details on the website of the new Legal Defense Fund are an email address and postbox in Anchorage:

However, somebody forget to cover his tracks.

Look at the registration details and administrative contact information of the website for the new Legal Defense Fund:

HERE (another link HERE and HERE):

The registrant of the website is:

Registrant Contact Information:
Name: T C
Organization: Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund
Address 1: P.O. Box 7711
City: Arlington
State: VA
Zip: 22207
Country: US
Phone: +1.12027471812
Email: @raisedigital.com

Now guess what the contact details of SarahPAC are?

Screenshot from their website:

The new "Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund", which officially has absolutely nothing do to with SarahPAC, Sarah Palin's political action committee, shares the same address and phone number with SarahPAC!

And I would eat my hat if "TC", who is the registrant and the administrator of the new website, doesn't stand for "Timothy Crawford", the treasurer of SarahPAC (see our post about Timothy Crawford).

Sarah, you are so BUSTED! ;-)

You might fool some investigators, but you won't fool us.

+++

UPDATE 2:

The Petumenos AFT (download here) report contains several real bombshells and exposes several lies of Sarah Palin and her devoted Palinbots.

We learn for the first time ever that the State of Alaska was actually prepared to pay for the costs of Sarah Palin's legal defense against the ethics complaints, for "up to $ 100,000 at public expense" - but Sarah Palin turned it down, with a moronic explanation:

So, nobody was about to bankrupt poor Sarah! The State of Alaska wanted to pay for her!

But it was Sarah herself who declined!

In addition, we learn also for the first time that it was no "grassroots effort" which led to the creation of the Alaska Fund Trust - it was Meg Stapleton and Sarah Palin herself who organized everything!

The extent of the lies is just incredible.

See the lengthy statement of AFT trustee Kristan Cole which Sarah Palin published on her facebook on July 22, 2009:

"I want to be clear on a point that has been misrepresented: The Governor is not and was not involved with the Trust. The Governor has never worked on or with the Trust. The Governor has not even accepted or requested one penny from the Trust or quite frankly anything of me. And I have never expected anything from her. Really it’s quite the contrary; as I, and many other caring folks across the country have only sought to help with this legal burden.

The first and only time I have spoken with the Governor about the Trust was yesterday to alert her that I was responding to this violation of the law and leak of preliminary and confidential materials from the complainant.

There is a loophole in Alaska law. Alaskans can file frivolous complaints against the Governor - violate the law and alert the media they are doing so, all the complaints can be dismissed and yet the Governor has to personally pay for representation. Legislators covered themselves with a law that warrants automatic dismissal of a complaint if it is leaked to the public.

It has been quite obvious to me, and to other every day citizens like me, that over the last several months that something needed to be done to help the Palins with the overwhelming crush of frivolous ethics complaints.

In their own humble way, the Palins never asked for help. The Governor never even asked anyone to contribute to this legal expense fund. This trust, and the thousands and thousands of dollars raised, were the results of hard working Americans and their outpouring of support. It is disgraceful that anyone would assume that the thousands of people who sent in $5, $10 or $50 intended to "influence" the governor's official actions in Alaska! And this in a state where a half dozen legislators have been convicted of corruption as well as the previous governor's chief of staff. Not one ethics complaint was filed against these individuals who were convicted, but this governor is harassed for having her picture taken with a fish, wearing a jacket, answering press questions and giving a speech."

I do hope that the MSM will notice the lies as well.

Sarah Palin, how does it feel to be a gangsta?

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Please read the extremely interesting report about the press conference today in Anchorage with Tim Petumenos and Thomas Van Flein in Anchorage on Alaska Dispatch.

It's sickening to see the warped messages that new Defense Fund has been sending out already, according to Alaska Dispatch:

Some supporters of Palin have already begun to argue the same of the ethics settlement.

"Sarah Palin's enemies have scored another victory in their vicious campaign to smear, bankrupt, and force this dedicated public servant and conservative leader out of politics!" the Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund said.

Even as Petumenos was calling the ex-governor's old trust fund illegal, the new fund was being set up and e-mails were being sent out soliciting funds. The e-mail was labeled "Defend Sarah,'' and asked people to send money to "pay the legal fees to rebut these relentless, frivolous lawsuits."

"This ruling is nothing but a political hatchet job designed to embarrass Governor Palin, destroy her financially, and smear her good name. But YOU can help restore her good name!"

A copy of this new begging email by the "Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund" can be found on this website.

Another excerpt:

"As you know, Governor Palin made the painful decision to resign last summer rather than waste the good people of Alaska’s time responding to the more than 27 frivolous lawsuits filed against her and her family by left-wing extremists.

Now her enemies say she’s not even allowed to defend herself.

---, will you stand with me and The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund today as we fight to defend Governor Palin from this latest attack?

Alaska is perhaps the only state in the U.S. where the Attorney General does not routinely represent the governor when accusations and complaints are filed against the governor under the operative ethics statutes. This means that the governor has to personally pay for her or his own defense."

That means not only was Sarah Palin required by law to respond to each and every frivolous lawsuit filed against her by left-wing activists, but she also had to personally foot millions of dollars in legal bills to defend herself from this massive witch hunt.

My friend, that’s money Governor Palin simply didn’t have on a state salary.

So some of Sarah’s closest friends decided to put together a trust fund to help her pay the legal fees to rebut these relentless, frivolous lawsuits.

They called it the Alaska Fund Trust, the “official legal fund” for Governor Palin.

There are so many lies in this short excerpt, it's hard to count.

As it was stated in the Petumenos report, the State of Alaska was prepared to spend $ 100,000 of public money so that Sarah Palin could defend herself.

Left-wing extremists filed the complaints? No - actually, many were Republicans, including Zane Hennings (2 complaints) and Andrée McLeod (several complaints).

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Websites which linked to this post:

Alaska Dispatch

Qewz.com

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