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Abuse of Power

  • Public Topic: Everyone is invited to contribute to Abuse of Power

    • Police break parking laws proof revealed here

      How many of us have had tickets for parking offences? This picture was taken in Billingham Town centre, Cleveland. The picture clearly shows that the police van is parked on yellow Zig Zag lines. How many of us have had tickets for parking offences? This picture was taken in Billingham Town centre, Cleveland. The picture clearly... more

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      15 hours ago
    • NYPD Officer Used Authority To Sexually Assault Teen

      NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - A former police sergeant who is married to a television news anchor admitted in court Friday that he used his authority to have sexual contact with a 17-year-old girl.

      Ex-Sgt. David Rodriguez pleaded guilty to official misconduct.

      His wife, Darlene Rodriguez, did not accompany him to court, and was seen on WNBC-TV Friday morning.

      Rodriguez was among the officers who arrested the girl's boyfriend on a domestic violence charge on Feb. 8. She claimed he returned later, alone and off-duty, and raped her.

      Rodriguez replied "yes" when asked in court if he used his authority to go to the girl's home to have sexual contact with her. His attorney, Stephen Worth, told reporters afterward: "There was never intercourse."

      Rodriguez resigned from the New Rochelle force last week.

      Under the plea bargain, Rodriguez was given a one-year conditional discharge, which is similar to probation, and ordered to stay away from the teen for five years.
      NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - A former police sergeant who is married to a television news anchor admitted in court Friday that he used his aut... more

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      36 minutes ago
    • Subpoenaed Palin aides don't appear at abuse probe

      Seven of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's top aides are defying subpoenas for their testimony into possible abuse of power by the governor. Palin's Chief of Staff Mike Nizich and six other aides have failed to appear at a legislative hearing Friday into whether Palin abused her power when she fired her public safety commissioner this summer,

      Alaska Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, a Democrat, waited 30 minutes Friday before reading a statement that the witnesses could be found in contempt when the full Legislature convenes in January.

      Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg filed a lawsuit on behalf of the seven state workers Thursday challenging the subpoenas. He claims the committee has no jurisdiction to issue subpoenas in the investigation.
      Seven of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's top aides are defying subpoenas for their testimony into possible abuse of power by the govern... more

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      6 hours ago
    • Parental Alienation: Chrissy Chrzanowski: Compelling, Emotional, and True

      Chrissy Chrzanowski of SplitNTwo delivered a compelling, emotional, and true account of parental alienation before the crowds at DC FESTIVAL 2008 and now the entire Internet. Parental alienation is the mental manipulation of children, which can result in destroying a loving and warm relationship they once shared with a parent. Parental Alienation can occur in intact families, but is mostly seen in separated and divorced families. Parental Alienation is Child Abuse. Chrissy Chrzanowski of SplitNTwo delivered a compelling, emotional, and true account of parental alienation before the crowds at DC FE... more

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      11 hours ago
    • Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Divorce Cases

      Tawnya Maddox and Chrissy Chrzanowski were hosting a live talk show program on Friday August 29, 2008, known as SplitNTwo, with guest Dr. Reena Sommer. The topic was essentially how to handle false allegations of child sexual abuse in high-conflict divorce and custody cases. These issues have a significant relationship to Parental Alienation and Hostile Aggressive Parenting, where one parent attempts to sour the other parents relationship with their own children. Parental Alienation and using these tactics are also "child abuse." Tawnya Maddox and Chrissy Chrzanowski were hosting a live talk show program on Friday August 29, 2008, known as SplitNTwo, with guest ... more

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      3 days ago
    • In Memory of Minister Ronald Smith: A Moment of Silence

      Michigan and the Nation have indeed lost a true warrior and a great
      leader. We learned of this information early on Saturday morning, it took quite awhile to get over the shock of what had happened. This is another life-changing experience for me personally and we all need to take a moment and tell the ones that are important us, our friends, our family members that we love them and appreciate them. In essence, what we perceive as him leaving us, is God's way of letting us know that truly did succeed. He departs Earth to be with his son, which tells us that he has planted all the necessary seeds to change society, we all now have to act on them and see them grow in his memory. Ron... we will miss you and we all will continue to love you!
      Michigan and the Nation have indeed lost a true warrior and a great ... more

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      7 days ago
    • Chrissy Chrzanowski, Adult Survivor of Parental Alienation

      The Lee PAS Foundation Announces Participation with the Canadian Symposium for Parental Alienation Syndrome in Toronto, Canada. The event will be occurring March 27th through March 29, 2009 in the beautiful city of Toronto.

      Chrissy Chrzanowski will be introducing at least one speaker and providing an account of her experience as an adult survivor of Parental Alienation. She will be joining the ranks of doctors, lawyers, and other mental health professionals that are well-known in the Parental Alienation Community.
      The Lee PAS Foundation Announces Participation with the Canadian Symposium for Parental Alienation Syndrome in Toronto, Canada. The ev... more

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      5 days ago
    • Nixon Dirty Trickster on McCain Team by Jon Weiner - YOKO ONO MySpace Blog

      The man John McCain appointed to head his transition team, William E.
      Timmons, played a central role in the Nixon Administration's campaign to
      deport John Lennon in 1972.

      Timmons is known today mostly as a lobbyist for the oil companies, but
      in 1972 he worked in the Nixon White House as Assistant to the President
      for Legislative Affairs. Strom Thurmond, the segregationist senator from
      South Carolina, sent a letter to Timmons in February, 1972, as the Nixon
      White House was gearing up for the President's re-election campaign. The
      letter informed Timmons that Lennon and his friends were "strong
      advocates" of a program to "dump Nixon," and that Lennon was planning
      "to hold rock concerts in various primary election states." The purpose
      of the concerts was political: "to stimulate 18-year-old registration"
      and to urge people to demonstrate against Nixon at the Republican
      National Convention. Thurmond's memo to Timmons concluded, "if Lennon's
      visa is terminated it would be a strategy counter-measure."

      At the time--spring of 1972--the war in Vietnam was going strong, Lennon
      was living in New York City and had become a prominent antiwar voice,
      singing Give Peace a Chance and Imagine at antiwar rallies and concerts.

      Timmons wrote back to Thurmond a few weeks later. The "Dear Strom"
      letter reported that "the Immigration and Naturalization Service has
      served notice" on Lennon "that he is to leave this country no later than
      March 15." It was signed by Timmons "with warm regards."[more]
      The man John McCain appointed to head his transition team, William E. ... more

      Enjoy_Cannabis

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      9 days ago
    • Incredible documentary footage of mass arrest in St. Paul

      Newly released footage, which was buried to avoid confiscation, shows riot cops arresting and abusing a giant group of people for nothing.

      Now that we've had a few weeks to settle, a look back at Labor Day in the Twin Cities. Labor Day was of course also Day One of the Republican National Convention. Video was released today of an apparent mass arrest of utterly peaceful concert goers at the SEIU Labor Day concert.

      My personal favorite moment in the tape is an off-camera exchange. Police in riot gear have surrounded loungers in a waterfront park. They announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, You're Under Arrest" and you hear one young woman say incredulously "Are you serious?"

      Yep, I'm afraid they are.

      Here's the press release that came with the video, from the Glass Bead Collective:

      BURIED TAPE REVEALS USE OF FORCE AND AN UNWARRANTED MASS ARREST OF BYSTANDERS DURING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

      ST. PAUL, Minnesota (September 18, 2008) Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.

      More than eight hundred people were arrested in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. This video shows that at least twenty percent of the eight hundred plus arrested were seized without due cause.
      Newly released footage, which was buried to avoid confiscation, shows riot cops arresting and abusing a giant group of people for noth... more

      goldenways

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      7 hours ago
    • Palin Inquiry Showing Signs of Distress

      A bipartisan panel may meet to discuss delaying the investigation into whether the Alaska governor dismissed a top official because he would not fire a state trooper who was divorcing her sister.

      The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new legal maneuvering and heightened Republican pressure to delay the inquiry until after election day.

      Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying, "Hold me accountable," but she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate.

      In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he might convene the committee that is conducting the investigation on whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner because he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister.

      Some Republican members of the committee have asked for such a meeting to consider delaying the inquiry or to replace Democratic state Sen. Hollis French as its manager. The investigation's conclusions are supposed to be released by Oct. 10.

      The Legislative Council, made up of 10 Republicans and four Democrats, had unanimously approved launching the inquiry.

      A lawyer for five Alaska Republican legislators suing for a delay of the investigation said he would wait to see what the Legislative Council did before asking a judge for an injunction.

      The council chairman, Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton, said he would poll other council members on whether to meet. In a letter Wednesday to House Speaker John Harris, Elton said the situation had become so politicized it was difficult to imagine it could get worse.

      Elton also sent a letter to state Atty. Gen. Talis J. Colberg, a Republican appointed by Palin, who said Tuesday he would refuse to allow 10 subpoenaed state employees to testify despite assurances from Colberg's staff last week that they would testify if certain interpretations of state law were agreed upon.

      The McCain campaign said Monday that Palin, who was not subpoenaed, was unlikely to cooperate.

      One of the witnesses summoned last week, former Palin legislative director John Bitney, said he testified Tuesday.

      Bitney said he felt he didn't have a choice. "If I had a publicly funded attorney telling me I didn't have to honor the subpoena, it might have been different," he said.
      A bipartisan panel may meet to discuss delaying the investigation into whether the Alaska governor dismissed a top official because he... more

      aswift1

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      8 hours ago
    • Troopergate probe appears to be unraveling

      The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new legal maneuvering and heightened Republican pressure to delay the probe until after Election Day.

      Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying "hold me accountable," but she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his vice presidential running mate.

      In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he may convene the committee that is conducting the investigation into whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner when he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with her sister.
      The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new... more

      starr111

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      15 days ago
    • Wall Street Socialists

      The financial crisis gripping the U.S. has the largest banks and insurance companies begging for massive government bailouts. The banking, investment, finance and insurance industries, long the foes of taxation, now need money from working-class taxpayers to stay alive. Taxpayers should be in the driver’s seat now. Instead, decisions that will cost people for decades are being made behind closed doors, by the wealthy, by the regulators and by those they have failed to regulate.

      Tuesday, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to a massive, $85-billion bailout of AIG, the insurance giant. This follows the abrupt bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old investment bank; the distressed sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America; the bailout of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the collapse of retail bank IndyMac; and the federally guaranteed buyout of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase. AIG was deemed “too big to fail,” with 103,000 employees and more than $1 trillion in assets. According to regulators, an unruly collapse could cause global financial turmoil. U.S. taxpayers now own close to 80 percent of AIG, so the orderly sale of AIG will allow the taxpayers to recoup their money, the theory goes.

      It’s not so easy.

      The financial crisis will most likely deepen. More banks and giant financial institutions could collapse. Millions of people bought houses with shady subprime mortgages and have already lost or will soon lose their homes. The financiers packaged these mortgages into complex “mortgage-backed securities” and other derivative investment schemes. Investors went hog-wild, buying these derivatives with more and more borrowed money.

      Nomi Prins used to run the European analytics group at Bear Stearns and also worked at Lehman Brothers. “AIG was acting not simply as an insurance company,” she told me. “It was acting as a speculative investment bank/hedge fund, as was Bear Stearns, as was Lehman Brothers, as is what will become Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. So you have a situation where it’s [the U.S. government] ... taking on the risk of items it cannot even begin to understand.”

      She went on: “It’s about taking on too much leverage and borrowing to take on the risk and borrowing again and borrowing again, 25 to 30 times the amount of capital. ... They had to basically back the borrowing that they were doing. ... There was no transparency to the Fed, to the SEC, to the Treasury, to anyone who would have even bothered to look as to how much of a catastrophe was being created, so that when anything fell, whether it was the subprime mortgage or whether it was a credit complex security, it was all below a pile of immense interlocked, incestuous borrowing, and that’s what is bringing down the entire banking system.”

      As these high-rolling gamblers are losing all their banks’ money, it comes to the taxpayer to bail them out. A better use of the money, says Michael Hudson, professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and an economic adviser to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, would be to “save these 4 million homeowners from defaulting and being kicked out of their houses. Now they’re going to be kicked out of the houses. The houses will be vacant. The cities are going to [lose] property taxes, they’re going to have to cut back local expenditures, local infrastructure. The economy is being sacrificed to pay the gamblers.”

      Prins elaborated: “You’re nationalizing the worst portion of the banking system. ... You’re taking on risk you won’t be able to understand. So it’s even more dangerous.” I asked Prins, in light of all this nationalization, to comment on the prospect of nationalizing health care into a single-payer system. She responded, “You could actually put some money into something that pre-empts a problem happening and helps people get health care.”
      The financial crisis gripping the U.S. has the largest banks and insurance companies begging for massive government bailouts. The bank... more

      synclaire

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      1 day ago
    • Sarah Palin's History of Indifference to Sexual Assault

      Finding out that Sarah Palin charged Wasilla rape victims to pay for their own rape kits was quite a shock. How much of a shock is another question, but the very idea of making victims pay up to $1200 to gather medical evidence against their attacker seems surprising even for the most conservative of folk.

      Well, apparently Palin's history of apathy towards victims of sexual assault doesn't end there.

      Shakesville put it all together after finding the details behind Troopergate. While Palin fired her Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan after he failed to reopen an investigation into her sister's ex-husband, her failure to address the epidemic of sex crimes in Alaska led him to plan a trip to Washington to seek federal funding to address the problem, in which he was stopped short in his tracks:

      The last straw, the McCain campaign said, was in July, when Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases -- one of the state's most intractable crime problems.
      In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: The governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request was "out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. (Ted) Stevens."

      Four days later, Monegan was fired. He said he had kept others in the administration fully apprised of his plans to go to Washington.

      Not only did Palin drive her Public Safety Commissioner to Washington due to her failure to address sexual assault in her state, but didn't allow him seeking federal funds because of a fear of mucking a relationship with a senator later indicted for corruption. And then subsequently fired him. Melissa says:

      And even if it were true, it still means that Palin is shockingly indifferent to rape and domestic violence in her own state and contemptuous of the people who don't share her indifference--and, weirdly, the McCain campaign appears to believe that's somehow more palatable than Palin having simply fired Monegan for insubordination because she wasn't getting what she wanted from a public servant on her personal family matter.
      That's quite an amazing calculation.

      Yes it is. It has become painfully clear that not only is Sarah Palin not an advocate for rape victims, she is not an advocate for women. But Palin doesn't hate women; she just doesn't care about them.
      Finding out that Sarah Palin charged Wasilla rape victims to pay for their own rape kits was quite a shock. How much of a shock is ano... more

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      9 hours ago
    • McCain operatives clamps down on questioning of Palin

      JUNEAU, Alaska - GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska's governor to John McCain's political campaign, part of an ambitious Republican strategy to limit any embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country.

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      Republican efforts include dispatching a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York, Ed O'Callaghan, to assist Palin's personal lawyer working to derail or delay a pending ethics investigation in Alaska. The probe, known as "Troopergate," is examining whether the governor abused her power by trying to remove her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.

      O'Callaghan is just part of a cadre of high-powered operatives patrolling Alaska as reporters and Democrats scrutinize every detail of Palin's tenure in government, plus her family and friends. One strategy: Carefully coordinate any information that's released. The McCain campaign is demanding that it becomes the de facto source for answers about the operations of Alaska's government during the past 20 months.

      Palin's normal press secretary, for example, now turns away inquiries from any reporter who isn't permanently based in Alaska, referring questions to the presidential campaign. Trouble is, some of McCain operatives only recently have arrived in Alaska and struggle to explain Palin's positions on arcane state issues.

      When a reporter for The Associated Press asked the state's Department of Health and Social Services about lawsuits involving state health policies, he was directed to call Meg Stapleton, a former spokeswoman for Palin now working for McCain.

      "In general the state is sending media inquiries this way because we're just inundated with hundreds and hundreds of phone calls," Stapleton said. "It provides for the most expeditious channel to get stuff out there."

      O'Callaghan, who helped prosecute terrorism and national security cases for the Justice Department until a few weeks ago, was sent to Alaska to handle "legal issues that are affecting the political dynamic of the campaign," said Taylor Griffin, a former Treasury Department spokesman in the Bush administration. O'Callaghan is expected to leave after this week.

      Translation: O'Callaghan is helping ratchet up the heat on the Troopergate investigation, a probe with which Palin once promised to cooperate. O'Callaghan was the one who threw down the gauntlet during a news conference this week: Palin herself was unlikely to talk to the Alaska Legislature's investigator.

      McCain's campaign has sent at least one dozen researchers and lawyers to Alaska to pore over Palin's background, ready to respond to questions about her tenure as governor and mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. Griffin has been leading the team in Alaska, which includes operatives of the Republican National Committee.

      Republicans are rebutting what they describe as smears against Palin. Last week, McCain's campaign formed a "truth squad," which includes current and former GOP politicians who agree to speak with reporters. Heading up the effort from Arlington, Va., are Mark Paoletta and O'Callaghan, both Republican lawyers, and Brian Jones, a former communications director for McCain.

      Democrats, meanwhile, are relying on Palin's homegrown critics in Alaska. They call themselves "Alaska Mythbusters," a nod to the popular television show. The team is made up mostly of elected officials who have opposed or know Palin and who criticize her work, such as the mayor of tiny Ketchikan, Bob Weinstein. Ketchikan was involved in Alaska's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," a construction project that Palin initially supported but now says she opposed as an example of wasteful spending.
      JUNEAU, Alaska - GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska's g... more

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      12 days ago
    • For Palin, It's a (Christian) Man's World

      Sarah Palin may be a governor and a vice presidential candidate, but in the hyper-masculine world of the Christian right, she is subservient to a male hierarchy that claims to speak for God.

      A cult of masculinity defines the Wasilla Assembly of God church and the Juneau Christian Centre where she worshipped. This cult propagates a vision of the world where believers are warriors. They are taught to ready themselves to engage in a final cataclysmic clash with the forces of Satan. This cosmic struggle, infused with the language of war, death and violence, leads inevitably to the slaughter by the righteous of all non-Christians. The photos of Palin hunched over dead animals she has shot are not simply images of a woman who is a member of the National Rifle Association. They are images of a woman who believes violence against nonbelievers is ultimately part of her religious life.

      The cult of masculinity is used to banish ambiguity, especially sexual ambiguity. It fosters a world of binary opposites: God and man, the saved and the unsaved, the church and the world, Christianity and secular humanism, and male and female. All in life is rigidly defined. Disorder and chaos are banished. Reality, when it is defined in these absolutes, is predictable and understandable, something deeply comforting to believers who have often had trouble coping with the messiness of human existence.

      All configurations of human life that do not conform to the rigid Christian model, such as homosexuality, are forms of disorder, tools of Satan, and must be abolished. This is why Palin opposes gay marriage and calls for gays to be cured. A world that can be predicted and understood, a world that has clear markers, can be made rational. It can be managed and controlled. The petrified, binary world of fixed, immutable and established roles is a world where people, many of them damaged by bouts with failure and despair, can bury their chaotic and fragmented personalities. They can live with the illusion that they are strong, whole and protected. Those who do not fit into these narrow definitions must be proselytized and converted.

      The decline of America is ascribed to the decline of male prowess. This decline has led to weakness and moral decay. It has resulted in a bewildering human and social complexity that, often seen as feminine, is the work of Satan. This is why Palin consistently celebrates "male" values.

      James Dobson, one of Palin's most ardent supporters, has built his career on perpetuating these rigid male stereotypes. On his Family.org Web site he discusses "the countless physiological and emotional differences between the sexes." The article "Gender Gap?" on the Web site lists the physical distinctions between man and woman, including strength, size, red blood cell count and metabolism. For a woman, Dobson writes, love is her most important experience: Love gives woman her "zest," it makes up her "life-blood," it is her primary "psychological need." Love holds less meaning in a man's life than a woman's -- though a man can appreciate love, he does not "need" it.

      "Genesis tells us that the Creator made two sexes, not one, and that He designed each gender for a specific purpose," Dobson goes on. And these differences mean different roles: They mean the man is the master and the woman must obey.

      "One masculine need comes to mind that wives should not fail to heed. It reflects what men want most in their homes. A survey was taken a few years ago to determine what men care about most and what they hope their wives will understand. The results were surprising. ... What [men] wanted most was tranquility at home. Competition is so fierce in the workplace today, and the stresses of pleasing a boss and surviving professionally are so severe, that the home needs to be a haven to which a man can return. It is a smart woman who tries to make her home what her husband needs it to be."
      Sarah Palin may be a governor and a vice presidential candidate, but in the hyper-masculine world of the Christian right, she is subse... more

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      6 days ago
    • Palin won't meet with 'Troopergate' investigator

      ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

      McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.

      The campaign insists the investigation has been hijacked by Democrats. It says it can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues — not because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.


      The hubris of these people!
      ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look... more

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      1 day ago
    • Gold Braid and Maritime Law

      Washington DC and the Federal courts are using Maritime Law, which is statutory law, not the Common Law of our nations constitution.

      We've been lied too and have been under Emergency Maritime law since 1934.
      No wonder the system is broke.[more]
      Washington DC and the Federal courts are using Maritime Law, which is statutory law, not the Common Law of our nations constitution. ... more

      Enjoy_Cannabis

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      23 hours ago
    • In office, Palin hired friends and hit 'haters'

      WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

      So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.

      Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

      When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

      And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

      “You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”
      But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.

      Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.
      WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal. ... more

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      5 hours ago
    • Daily Show on Republican hypocrisy

      The Daily Show has a segment with video clips of Dick Morris, Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, and others complaining about the media's unfair treatment of Sarah Palin, along with earlier video clips of these folks dishing out the same garbage about other women, including Hillary Clinton. (Thanks, Kirk!)

      This video clip says it all
      The Daily Show has a segment with video clips of Dick Morris, Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, and others complaining about the media�... more

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      2 days ago
    • Gordon Brown And Jacqui Smith Are Liars

      British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith are big fat liars.[more]

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      6 days ago
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Abuse of Power

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