Saturday, October 11, 2008

Les Gara takes on Meg Stapleton

I went down to the Legislative office yesterday after work with my camera hoping to get some footage of the media circus that was down there. I didn't even think about the Palin "Truth" Squad showing up to talk to the news crews. When Meg Stapleton finished a couple of interviews with reporters, Les Gara had a couple questions for her...

and I have to apologize for the compression in the video. It's been a while since I used youtube, and am trying to figure out the best way to encode stuff.

Les Gara takes on Meg Stapleton part 2

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Todd Palin's Depostion

I just finished reading Todd Palin's 25 page deposition to the special investigator looking into the Troopergate scandal, and there were a few things in there that I thought needed to be written about. That was when I remembered I had this blog, and figured it was as good a place as any for what I wanted to say.

After wading through the first 5 pages of everything bad about Wooten, and the next 5 which contain the 17 objections that Palin and his lawyers have to answering, the first dude started answering the questions from Branchflower. So much for the Governor's original claims that no one in her administration or family pressured anyone to get rid of Wooten.

Todd details dozens of contacts with what seems like anyone who would listen about what a bad dude Wooten is. Maybe he didn't tell anyone fire him or Sarah will fire you, but if he didn't realize he was applying pressure then there is something wrong with him.

There were a few portions of the deposition that I thought were especially interesting and especially indicative of the mindset that the Palins operate in. They are always right in everything that they do, and it is also made pretty clear that they are petty and vindictive people.

from page 12 - "We were concerned that the Department of Public Safety was retaliating against Sarah for selling the Murkowski jet that Department of Public Safety employees enjoyed using."

They were concerned that the DPS was retaliating against them? Did the DPS officials in her administration use the jet, weren't we told that it was sitting in a hangar waiting to be sold after she took office? I also thought that the DPS was against the purchase of the jet when Murkowski floated the idea of buying it originally, I don't know why a few months later they would be spiteful towards the person who got rid of it.

I think that it is just proof of his frame of mind. If someone took something away from him, he would do whatever he could to retaliate against them. So he assumes that everyone else operates in the same way

from page 13 - Monnegan sent Sarah an email telling her that he had heard a rumor that she was driving Trig in her car without a car seat and said it could create an awkward situation. "This odd and offensive email was forwarded to me...She was not happy with Monnegan's false accusation or his implied threat it was 'awkward' as if he now needed to issue a citation. Sarah has always been a good mother and to accuse her of something like that was very offensive. Sarah responded that, 'I've never driven Trig anywhere without a new approved car seat. I want to know who said otherwise - pls provide me that info now.' I'm not sure Monegan ever responded to the Governor's direct order."

This just further illustrates the Palin's victim mentality. Their first thought is not to address the substance of the complaint, but instead the attack the people they see as accusing them. They claim that Monnegan is falsely accusing them, when in fact he is informing her of a complaint made to him by a legislator.

Palin's lawyers made the mistake of including a copy of the email as an addendum to the statement, and in the email Monnegan says "Via a soon-to-be-retiring legislator, we have received a complaint that had you driving with Trig not in an approved infant car seat; if so this would be awkward in many way. Please know that I am trying to help, Walt"

Doesn't really sound like he is accusing her of anything or threatening her in any way. It really hardly seems "odd and offensive." And doesn't he basically tell her who the complaint came from. It seemed like he couldn't really say who it was, but he gave her a pretty big clue in the email.

from page 12 again - Concerning the Troopers annual report, which showed that crime was on the rise under Palin governorship. "I was aware that Sarah was not happy with the report. Sarah was having difficulty finding out who had authored it and who was going to take responsibility for it."

Why are they always looking for someone else to take the blame for everything. They did not want to release the report because it was going to potentially do some amount of damage to the Governor's popularity, but if they could find someone in the DPS to take the blame they would release it right away. She is the chief executive, ultimately she should be willing to take some blame or at least a small hit in the polls (and with something like this it would be minuscule). But she is the Governor, she is never wrong and everything is always someone else's fault.

from page 18 - Answering the question about what contact he had had with John Glass, the Wasilla Police Chief, about Wooten. When Todd tried to talk to him in the Capitol in March or April of 2008, Glass said "I'm telling you as a friend, I love the governor, but I am telling you, stay away from this Wooten situation." Todd says in the deposition, "I felt it was more of the same with the Troopers protecting a 'brother' officer."

Could it not have been Glass warning Todd that what he was doing was improper? Todd repeatedly says that nobody ever told him he was doing anything wrong or that they felt like he was applying pressure. This quote from Glass looks to me like just that, but Todd either didn't get it or chose to ignore it. But it is pretty obvious that if someone says something that the Palins disagree with it is an attack on them. The world is out to get them, even their old friends from the Iron Dog like John Glass.

and probably my personal favorite quote from the entire deposition comes from page 24 where Todd answers a question about if he has any other information about the termination of Walt Monnegan. "Walt Monnegan was, to the best of my knowledge, not terminated. He was offered a reassignment and resigned rather than accept the reassignment. I am also in possession of the publicly available information about the termination of Walt Monnegan."

So in the first sentence it is asserted that Walt was "not terminated," but in the very next sentence Todd says he has "information about the termination of Walt Monnegan." How can you have info about the termination of someone who wasn't terminated? And didn't the truth squad admit recently that he was fired, because he was grossly insubordinate or some other lie? These people can't even keep their stories straight in a single paragraph that was probably vetted by a whole team of lawyers paid for by the people of Alaska. Why should we believe anything else they have to say?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

First Post

I have had a couple of blogs in the past, just for personal use and for various movies that I was working on. I always want to write about issues in the news, but never thought my friends would care too much, and didn't think it would fit in on a blog about a zombie movie.

I'm going to try to shoot videos at events around Anchorage, or anywhere else in the state I happen to be and post them here. Hopefully I will be able to do that a lot, if the real job doesn't get in the way. I will also try to write on here a couple times a week if there are things to write about, and if I have time.

A little about me: I have lived in AK since I was 8, graduated from UAA, produced a few no budget movies, and that is pretty much it. I'm a news junkie, a political junkie, and spend most of my day at work listening to talk radio (although not as much now that KUDO is swirling the bowl). When I first registered to vote the day I turned 18 I registered as a Republican because that's what my dad was. I quickly realized that I pretty much disagreed with everything the R's stand for and changed to a Democrat. I don't agree with them on everything, they are a little far to the right for my tastes, but it is closer than the GOP. I consider myself a liberal, and I really don't like the term "progressive." I think that pretty much sums it up.