My sincerest apologies to the photographer of this piece. I received it in my emails today, alongside reports of Sarah’s latest ignorant rant (directed at the President of Iran and the Obama Administraion) and absolutely could not resist pairing off the two. Nature herself could not have created a more perfect union of vision and thought.
Click image to enlarge:
Wait – can an ignorant rant be called an igno-rant? Well that’s what I’m callin’ ’em from now on…
(By the way – feel free to cut and paste. I look forward to finding out who the brilliant photographer is and hope that he or she won’t mind that I wote on their awesome shot. Oz)
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Have been watching intently since my morning cuppa when I read Gryphen’s announcement @ The Immoral Minority about Joe Miller’s personnel file being released. When I saw the link to the whole .pdf file at the Alaska Dispatch I couldn’t wait to clockout. Their full report of this is a must read.
This is a file of emails so if you’re heading over there to read the lot, please scroll to the very bottom and read ‘up’. Where places appear to be out of chronological order, they’re actually not – original emails are often used to refer back to old topics by using them as replies. so a new email written in september might actually be attached to an older email wo the writer doesnt have to keep rewriting same information. Think of them as threads in a forum.
In case you can’t read a .pdf file, or in case the Alaska Dispatch servers become flooded, I’ve downloaded the entire file (I’d post it here but apparently wordpress doesn’t allow for .pdf downloads) and will try to sort out a place to put it tomorrow night. (First I need sleep – then more work. Dratted job!)
However, I did read this from cover to cover and took some screenies of a few rather confronting bits of information. The whole truth about Joe usng the office computers and the ensuing consequences comes to light between the pdf pages (not the email page numbers) 33 through 19. Most informative. i’ve circled in bright pink where the pdf page numbers can be found in the file on the first screenie
This is what Joe Miller has been trying so desperately to hide from the Alsaka voters:
This is a small portion of a five page statement made by Jill Dolan regarding finding her cache had been emptied – just after a period of time that she had left Joe lone in the office.
This is most of Joe’s confession to his superior at FNSB. What you don’t see is his enthusiastic disclaimer which threatens all but bodily harm to anyone caught disclosing this document to anyone else.
Jill Dolan’s letter to Joe Miller informing him of an official investigation and his sidelining until said investigation has been completed.
Part of the email from Rene Broker at the conclusion of an investigation outlining part of his consequences.
So here we have factual confirmation. Joe Miller tried to use government computers to stuff a ballot box at a poll he created on his own website, lied about it until he realized he was caught with no way out, was investigated and disciplined.
A bit of noteworthy info: His disciplinary action put him on a six month probation which stipulated this letter of reprimand would be deleted from his personnel file after 2 years PROVIDING no further incidents occur during said probation.
BUT Joe apparently got mad just a few months later and walked off the job in a huff, leaving his work behind and the FNSB in the lurch. So – we ultimately have his anger mismanagement to thank for these files seeing the light of day.
Good job Alaska reporters and bloggers! kudos to everyone who persevered in getting these files out in the open.
Oh wait. Saved the best for last. I have one more teensy bit of fluff to share…
Hey Joe? You do know where Cobra comes from right? I mean technically, it’s called Cobra Law. Why? Because it *is* a *law*… and where do you think *laws* come from? Yup. You got it. That pesky darned gov’mint givin’ away the farm to undeserving folks like… you!
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John Boehner is worse than a moron. He’s a boldface liar.
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Went surfing today in my pajamas, enjoying a day off from the trials of my new job. Don’t get me wrong. I love the work. It’s frustrating, exasperating, exciting, challenging and… in a climate of mass unemployment, it’s a JOB! But being able to kickback and play at my computer instead of wrestling a deadline is nice too 🙂
A person can harvest all sorts of information about other people on the internet these days. On a lark I thought I’d see what I could find out about our Alaska friend Joe Miller. Turns out if the person you’re looking into is famous enough, all the info needed to run a people search on that person can be taken right off wikipedia. Who knew!
Wait… is this going to be like that poor kid who used Sarah Palin’s wiki bio to guess her email password? I’m getting a slightly chilled feeling of Deja’vu.
(Oh good. It passed.)
This is supposedly public information, this database I’ve tapped into, and therefore fair game – especially regarding someone who is running for public office and wants to ultimately manage public money. I’m feeling better about this already.
Ok let’s see what happens when we type this info in the fields and press the [Search] key… Well right off, that’s a huge letdown. There should be sound effects like whirring noises and clanging bells, buzzers or clicking and maybe a couple small greyish puffs of smoke. Nothing.
Just this:
Ok I’m confused. Joe’s worked seven years as a magistrate, then quits to open his own law practice – he touts himself as a successful lawyer and land-owner and somewhere on some form has claimed he makes an ample annual income of between $60k and $100k and he… rents?
Really Joe? You can’t manage a mortgage? As a former magistrate and successful attorney? Can’t even build on your own property? You know, that land you used to cheat the federal government out of money by falsely claiming to be a farmer?
Joe – are you related to Christine O’Donnell or is it just that a highly contagious case of stupid has overcome the Republican party…
I’ve passed the link to access to military records on to our Alaska friends. Here’s hoping they can use it to make difference.
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Evidently, a statement made by me in this post describing the men involved in Joe Miller’s security team was not accurate.
According to Mr. Dropzone:
1. Mouse is not a current employee of Dropzone @ 29 Spenard Rd Anchorage AK but an outside contractor who has not been ‘active’ for more than a year.
2. No firearms are or have ever been sold on the premises of Dropzone @ 29 Spenard Rd Anchorage AK
This is the statement which elicited the above comment by Mr. Dropzone:
Meet Mouse. Mouse is one of the Drop Zone Security Guards who may or may not be personally assigned to Miller, but he is part of the security team so it’s likely (if he wasn’t actually on today’s detail) he’ll pull a shift with the candidate… …This is Mouse at work. When he’s not on private detail, or armed and working as a bounty hunter for the Drop Zone, or selling guns to other war vets at the Drop Zone’s run-down survivalist shack, he’s a part-time bouncer at a strip club in Anchorge. Nothing wrong with that.
First, let me assure you my integrity is just fine, thanks for voicing your concern. Second, it was Mouse’s own words which led me to believe he was currently employed at the business Dropzone @ 29 Spenard Rd Anchorage AK:
Third and finally, Mr. William Dropzone Bill Fulton, is your incontrovertible association with the Alaska Citizens Militia, a group for whom you host meetings on the property located @ 29 Spenard Rd. Anchorge AK.
It is common knowledge that militia groups are armed, that arms are routinely traded, sold and bartered for amongst militia members, and I would bet the farm that this has occurred on your property at least once if not routinely on your watch – under your supervision – or at the very least with your full knowledge.
I am happy to concede that the person ‘Mouse’ reportedly does not sell firearms over the counter at or under the business name of either Dropzone Security Services or Dropzone Sporting Goods to licensed gun owners. As for the rest… you’ll have to prove it.
Alaska WTF has a video of Sarah Palin defiling the American Flag at a rally. Full video and AWTF comments here. Full details by the nice Brits covering the story here.
There’s going to be a lot of specultion as to what was possibly going through Sarah’s mind at the time. I mean besides the constant whooshing of air…
Here’s my take:
Get that Darned flag out of my face! Can’t you see I’m trying to sign books and smile pretty for the camera?
I mean it! Git that thing outta my way pronto! (Now you did it mister… went and made me say a racist word. Pronto! Great. Now they’ll all say I’m poking fun at them Mexicans again.)
Fine! If you won’t move it I’ll just reach up and…
…TAKE IT!
There! Finally! Now the cameras can focus on ME again. Ok now what the heck was I doin’ before? Oh yuh… signin’ stuff. I better sign this flag before the cry-baby thinks I tried to steal it from him…
Here. Now skeedaddle before I git Joe’s boys over here and they arrest yer ornery butt!
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Despite vocal criticism of the federal stimulus package and a re-election campaign that trades heavily on her opposition to it, Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann sought stimulus funding on at least seven occasions last year.
The requests, which came in August and September of 2009, were released Sunday by the investigative journalism site Center for Public Integrity.
They include a request for funding for a $150 million expansion of the Northstar commuter rail line to St. Cloud — something Bachmann had declined to back just months earlier.
The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan Washington-based group, said Bachmann was among almost 2,000 GOP and Democratic stimulus opponents who wrote behind-the-scenes letters requesting funds for projects.
Bachmann defended her request for money from the $787 billion stimulus package, even though in her latest ads she refers to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as “the failed (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi trillion-dollar stimulus.”
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The ADN posted an article here regarding Joe Miller’s confessional appearance on CNN. How bizzare is it that a candidate for the U.S. Senate prefers to be interviewed by a national news conglomerate rather than his own, local media.
That’s ok. At least Joe’s reluctance to trust his own constituency garnered some carefully thought out comments and helped some Alaska Republicans see the light.
Like umm… this guy:
(click to enlarge)
Shh….
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I was trying to stay out of this. Honest. I am from California, not Alaska. I don’t even vote in Alaska. Joe Miller is a headache, but he’s not my headache. I got enough problems with Carly so what if I almost bankrupted one of California’s biggest computer companies, vote for me so I can play with YOUR money too! Fiorina.
But then all the stories erupted about Joe’s security team arresting a reporter at a public event and the dog in me woke up and started sniffing.
(click each image to enlarge)
Meet Mouse. Mouse is one of the Drop Zone Security Guards who may or may not be personally assigned to Miller, but he is part of the security team so it’s likely (if he wasn’t actually on today’s detail) he’ll pull a shift with the candidate.
Mouse is an ex-marine with an attitude. He’s got self-inflicted holes in his head into which he sticks little sparkly bits of metal, and drawings on his arms from having encouraged some stranger to attack him with pointy needles, most likely the result of a bored or drunken stupor while stationed overseas.
Mouse owns at least two hats that display the word SKIN in artsy-fartsybubble letters. I’m thinking he’s a skinhead wannabe but can’t bring himself to actually shave his head like the big boys. On the other hand, it could just be a pun about where he works on the weekends.
This is Mouse at work. When he’s not on private detail, or armed and working as a bounty hunter for the Drop Zone, or selling guns to other war vets at the Drop Zone’s run-down survivalist shack, he’s a part-time bouncer at a strip club in Anchorge. Nothing wrong with that. Strippers have to eat too. I tended bar in a strip club once. Rough crowds. Nice girls though. They deserve the peace of mind given by a bouncer’s presence.
But this… this is the picture I want you to see. I especially want you to read the caption. It’s from Mouse himself. It’s how he thinks of the enemy. It’s how all militia think of the enemy. And quite frankly, in a military setting it’s appropriate.
But.
Being part of a security detail assigned to babysit a political wannabe in a state that has fewer citizens than the smallest state in America and on American soil – it’s not appropriate at all. And I have a problem, while looking at the tats and piercings and hand-jive cryp signals, thinking this kid or any of the Drop Zone ex-military crew assigned to Joe Miller at the townhall meeting on Sunday is mature enough to mentally distinguish an armed enemy from a loud civilian.
And then I wonder if maybe, just maybe, the camera held by the Alaska Dispatch reporter served as a visual trigger for these militia-minded security guards who seem to always have one foot back in an armed conflict and if they – all of them – reacted to the metal Tony hopfinger was carrying today as if it had been a bazooka and not a camera at all.
There are reasons, good, valid reasons why reputable security companies and law enforcement agencies go to great lengths to carefully scrutinize their applicants and try to filter out those ex-military personnel who either wouldn’t or just couldn’t put a war behind them.
So tonight, I don’t care if you’re a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent or worship goats in the woods – Joe Miller is a clear and present danger to all Americans. His incessant need to exercise poor judgement on every aspect of his campaign, including today’s choice of militia-minded bruisers to act as ‘bodyguards’ at a local town meeting – should be viewed as a blueprint for the complete disaster this man will unleash on the good citizen’s of Alaska, should he be elected to U.S. Senate.
Don’t elect him. I beg you.
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The ADN’s (Anchorage Daily News) comprehensive listing of all ethics complaints filed against Sarah Palin between 2008 and 2009 is archived here.
According to a statement by the Alaska State Personnel Board, Ethics Violations Complaints that reach their offices do not require a legal defense on the part of the state worker named in the complaint until and unless the board determines a violation has been made. (I apologize for not being able to recover the link to this past quote. It is out there, though, and I would ask the author of the newspaper article to please verify the accuracy of this information.)
Of 18 complaints filed and cited in the article above, fourteen were dismissed outright (many within just a few days of filing), one was settled with the ex-Governor agreeing to reimburse the state for her children’s travel expenses on ten state-paid trips and two findings (as of the date of the ADN article) are still pending.
The first complaint to be aired nationally (although I’m not at all certain it was the first complaint registered) was split into two decisions. The first finding determined that one-half of the complaint, the half concerning the alleged improper firing of an employee, was not improper under the guidelines of the governor’s office. The second half of the complaint, the half concerning the alleged improper use of her authority as, and office of governor of Alaska, was determined to show Sarah Palin had in fact abused her power as Governor of the State of Alaska.
When Ms. Palin did not get a complete dismissal on this complaint, she personally hired a second set of legal eagles to give her the ruling she was after. That attained, she went on national television (literally hours before the 2008 national election of which she was a candidate) to thank the personnel board for finding in her favour (even though they hadn’t) and to wave the flag of ‘see I told you I didn’t do anything wrong’ in front of media cameras.
Evidently, and according to state lawyers, (including, coincidentally, the then State Attorney Joe Miller who is rumoured to have contributed to this ruling), abuse of power on the part of their governor isn’t even a misdemeanour in Alaska. But I digress.
Fourteen cases dismissed outright. One retried by the accused to get a favourable dismissal. One settled without dispute or penalty. Two still pending judgement by the Personnel Board. The same Personnel Board, (also coincidentally), personally hand-picked and hired by none other than Sarah Palin herself.
Where are the “millions of dollars in legal defense costs” so generated by these ethics violations complaints that a woman worth more than $20,000,000 needs to accept and continue to fundraise for reimbursement of said costs?
How many times, and by how many different organizations and private citizensmust these same costs be repaid to the Palin family?
Sarah PAC, in their quarterly financial disclosures in 2009 and 2010 have listed reimbursement of these costs to the Palins and their lawyers. (In fact, Attorney Van Flein is listed as a paid expense on more than one line of more than one SarahPAC quarterly report. Are we to believe his services need to be paid by a public PAC when his client earns in excess of 10 million USD per year?)
A Texas millionaire who said he felt sorry for Sarah has claimed to have reimbursed her for these same costs.
Two websites were created to raise funds to pay these costs so Sarah wouldn’t have to – both still exist online and at least one continues to collect public donations to pay for these costs.
And now – The RNC has recently claimed, in a financial disclosure that a portion of their payment to Sarah Palin was specifically for covering these same legal costs.
I don’t believe these costs actually exist. Any legal costs incurred by Sarah Palin have been derived from her own paranoia, not from any actual necessity to set up a proper legal defense. Why should the public or publicly collected funds such as those that come from PACs, Republican Committees or online fundraising websites be responsible for legal fees incurred by someone who didn’t need them in the first place?
How many times are the Palins to be paid for the same set of fees – fees they need not have incurred according to the Personnel Board’s own statements regarding the procedure for handling ethics violation complaints in the state of Alaska, and fees which (albeit I’m no mathematical genius) have never actually been tallied on any public document?
Please, please note: There have been no decisions made by the Alaska State Personnel Board against Sarah to prompt launching a legal defense at all. One-half of one complaint plus a settled disagreement does not equal hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in legal defense.
The final, real troubling aspect of these supposed legal fees incurred by the Palins caused by so-called frivilous complaints is this: The dollar amount of these fees keeps morphing. According to the Personnel Board’s own estimate, a legal defense on any complaint found to have substance should have cost no more than around $10k.
This same set of legal fees has been reported by Sarah Palin to have cost her and Todd personally $50k, $250k, $500k and $2 million +
It’s my humble experience that the truth is a constant. Oh wait. I forgot. We’re talking about Sarah my son was born two weeks premature in Wasilla – scratch that I mean a month premature in Anchorage Palin.
I’d like to see the original, actual, itemized bills for these Ethics Violations Complaints incurred legal fees.
I’d like to see a corresponding list of all the people – slash – public entities who have donated to, fundraised for and/or have claimed payment of these fees on public financial reports and federal income tax returns.
And then I’d like to see the Anchorage Daily News finally do its job.
* * * * *
My thanks to all the contributors who helped with this post:
Sarah: I quit Alaska
Rocky in Texas
Lori in Los Angeles
SME131
AKRNC
To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “The Great Grifter .02 Show Me The Money” and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud
Am so stretched for time these days but in keeping up with the blogs a nagging thought keeps running through my head that I need to share with all of you. It’s a question, actually, and it goes like this:
How many organizations/donation drives/PACs have paid for Sarah Palin’s legal fees incurred through her defense of the ethics violation complaints in 2008-09?
I don’t have the time to go back and peruse even my own blogs but if any of you have links to this information I would be delighted to post it all as you send it in.
Seems to me, just after Sarah quit as Governor of Alaska, there were articles written describing how the complaint process worked and that the governor wasn’t meant to incur any legal fees at all. This is why her quitter-speech (reflecting the claimed number of hours wasted by her staff on addressing the complaints and her claim of owing millions of dollars to attorneys) had been so widely criticized in the media as a complete exaggeration of the true costs.
My memory can be shakey but – I’m remembering a cost projected (by the Personnel Board I think) of less than $50k if she were to address all of them – less than that if she only addressed the few of which they found her guilty. Then Sarah posted an amount of $250k but I forget where or why.
Then we saw SarahPAC financial statements both in 2009 and 2010 which reflected their having paid her legal fees (again, purportedly due to costs directly linked to her legal defense of the ethics complaints).
Then there was the Alaska Fund Trust which was created expressly to pay for these legal fees – and when that was declared unethical, a second, supposedly legal online fund was created to cover her attorney fees (from the ethics complaints).
Now we hear that the RNC has paid for these same legal costs?
How many groups/funds/drives/PACs have paid for the same set of legal fees – fees which should not have been incurred to begin with as the Personnel Board fully explained in 2009 that she did NOT need to respond to each and every one, only those which they felt were in fact, true violations – which they hardly ever did – so…
Would someone who has the time and ability to research this please look into it? Because this just smells funny. And I don’t mean funny in a ha ha way either. I’m thinking it’s entirely possible that Van Flein is the bigger crook here, accepting payment from more than one source for a single set of attorney fees.
And then – on top of this, when you look through Palinbot comments on other blogs/articles, you see quite often her followers talking about having just sent in my $5 because poor Sarah shouldn’t have to pay for all those legal fees from those phoney ethics complaints…
Just how many times and from how many different sources are Sarah and Van Flein collecting money to cover her past ‘legal fees’?
And… why are so many people still sending this multi-millionairess $5 donations anyway? Does no one outside of Alaska realize yet just how wealthy she’s become on the bogus back of public sympathy?
To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “The Great Grift” and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud.
Sorry for the long absences – my father-in-law’s physical and mental health has been on a downward spiral that’s proved to be literally all-time-consuming. I do read my list of blogs every day, though, and have occasionally left a comment.
I’ve also gone back to work after a decade of retirement and don’t quite have my sea-legs yet so I’m wafting in and out of ‘overwhelm’ at the moment.
Please consider this an OPEN THREAD and drop me notes when you can about how your corner of the world is faring… OzMud
PS – Went looking for a correct spelling (father’s-in-law versus father-in-law’s) and stumbled over this… It’s interesting on so many levels:
And before I was sidetracked with the above PS, this post’s title was meant for:
This from my mailbox:
Dear OzMud –
After months of watching the GOP’s extreme candidates say one offensive thing after another, I thought I was done being shocked.
Then I saw new footage of Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharon Angle attacking laws that require insurance companies to cover those with autism.
“You’re paying for things that you don’t even need,” she said. “They just passed the latest one, is everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under ‘autism’.”
She put “autism” in air quotes — like she doesn’t believe it exists.
If this is what she’s saying on the campaign trail, imagine what she’ll say in the Senate.
We’re hitting back against ideologues like Sharron Angle with ads on the air and messaging on the ground. We’re making sure voters understand the choice they have in this election.
Angle isn’t alone.
In Delaware, Christine O’Donnell has attacked the “horror” of health reform.
In Colorado, Ken Buck has called Social Security “horrible policy.”
In Alaska, Joe Miller has said that Congress must have “courage to shut down the government,” to stop the President’s agenda.
These ideologues — in states across the country — think they have all the momentum. And their supporters are pouring their energy into the campaigns.
But this is why we’ve built a national program. It’s why we have organizers on the ground in every state.
We just need the resources to finish strong — and continue to show voters what Ken Buck, Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Joe Miller and a host of other Republicans keep saying.
Jen O’Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
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Oz Mudflats 
