Rules Schmools..."Sarah's Values" as they apply to the legal system

by: Celtic Diva

Wed Nov 04, 2009 at 10:43:13 AM AKST

Back in April, I did THIS POST when a then-unknown Kim Chatman joined the Juneteenth lawsuit, legitimizing it with an Alaskan resident so it could move forward in the courts.  The basis of the lawsuit:  Sarah Palin did not issue a proclamation celebrating Juneteenth in 2007, even after numerous reminders from Alaska residents.

Making this proclamation is part of Alaska law:

Juneteenth, a holiday observance which celebrates the freeing of the last remaining slaves in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, has been adopted in 29 states and was signed into law in Alaska in 2001. The bill known as HB 100 specifies that the "governor shall issue a proclamation observing the day."

Officials were also concerned that this was just part of a pattern of behavior:

In a related development, National Juneteenth Chairman Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D has requested a meeting with Governor Palin to allow her an opportunity to reconcile the conflict surrounding Juneteenth, stating that in addition to the 2007 failure, Palin "not responding to invitations to participate in the annual Alaska Juneteenth Celebration has created doubts in the minds of Alaska Juneteenth leaders about ever receiving any support for Juneteenth from the governor".

Early this morning, I received a link to this press release in my email:

Washington, DC (PRWEB) November 4, 2009 -- Former Governor Sarah Palin, in the wake of her much publicized book and upcoming interview on Oprah, has rejected a settlement offer in the 2009 Juneteenth lawsuit (Case no. 3:09-cv-00091 United States District Court of Alaska). The plaintiffs' settlement offer, made by jazz musician Gregory Charles Royal and former Palin supporter Kim Chatman, was for Palin to merely follow through on what Alaska Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh said Palin would do: issue the 2007 proclamation.

Palin has been accused by the plaintifffs and has publicly admitted that she failed to issue the 2007 Juneteenth Day Proclamation which was required under Alaska statute. Palin has also been accused by African American leaders in Alaska as being the first governor in the state not to support the holiday observance.

The Alaska Attorney General's office said that former-Governor Palin would honor the settlement.  There is no way the Asst. AG said that without corroboration with the Palin camp.

Commenting on Walsh's statement made in a July 2009 Associated Press article "that the governor is going to issue the 2007 proclamation" and that "a very big deal is being made out of a very small clerical error", Royal said: "Palin's choice, which should be clear to everybody at this point, to defy the African-American observance demonstrates exactly why we pushed in a lawsuit, what some called a trivial issue. We knew what she would do and just sat back to watch it play out. Her motivations, which as far as their racial component, we will let the public debate. Her claims that public resources have been wasted fighting ethics complaint is, well need I say more? The cost of our settlement for her to comply with the law, zero. The continuing cost to the state for her to evade issuing the proclamation, I'm sure she knows the math."

Palin's refusal to comply proves that this was no "small clerical error."  So Palin lied...again.

This doesn't surprise any of us who truly know the nature of Sarah Palin.  However, I am always flabbergasted that Palin refuses to make the logical, adult decision and instead chooses the spoiled high school cheerleader solution...blatant defiance no matter what the consequence.

But it doesn't end there.

The most interesting part of this case is the extremes Palin seems willing to go to in order to get her way...extremes that are clearly pushing the patience of the judge:

In a October 26th order, Alaska District Court judge Timothy Burgess has also ordered Palin to explain by November 4th, her claims that she has not been served the lawsuit which sparked a flurry of motions in August:

"It is unclear to the Court whether the defendant continues to contest that she was served"...."If service is still contested, the defendant must explain what steps she believes the plaintiffs must now take in order to properly serve her, and how she suggests this be accomplished." " The defendant is cautioned that so long as a party receives sufficient notice of the complaint, Rule 4 is to be liberally construed to uphold service'"......"Among other attempts at service, the plaintiffs filed an unexecuted service of summons stating that when their process server attempted to serve the defendant at the Governor's Office, her executive secretary refused to accept service."...."Sufficient service may be found where there is a good faith effort to comply with the requirements (for service) and further compliance ... is only prevented by the defendant's knowing and intentional actions to evade service."

Sarah Palin has a pattern of not only defying due process but putting her own family, friends and employees in legal jeapardy by having them do the same.  

If you think for a minute that secretary's refusal to accept the documents from the process server was NOT at the behest of the former Governor, read Andrew Halcro's tantalizing post.  He shares some newly-gleaned information from one of the co-authors of former Palin aide Frank Bailey's upcoming book, "...the book that will contain the REAL Sarah Palin story, "Renegade:  Sarah Palin's Hatchet Man."  The new information surrounds Frank Bailey's infamous call to State Trooper Rodney Dial, requesting his help to get Palin's former bro-in-law Mike Wooten fired:

Todd Palin refuted that they ever pressured Bailey into calling Dial, however this is a great example of the plausible deniability that they've become so adept at.

Minutes after Bailey's phone call to Dial in February 2008, he sent an email via his Blackberry to Ivy Frye, another one of the three close insiders to the Palin family that were hired in her administration. Just got off the phone with Rodney, Bailey wrote to Frye, I don't think he gets it.

Phone records also show that the night before Bailey's call to Dial, Todd Palin placed several phone calls to Frye leading up to Bailey's call to Dial.

So who pressured Bailey into calling Dial? It seems that Todd Palin pressured Frye into pressuring Bailey into making the call, thus Bailey's revalation to Dial that he was calling on behalf of Sarah and Todd and in doing so Todd could deny culpability.

I'm practically giddy in anticipation of THAT book!

But back to the Juneteenth case:  it seems that Palin is supposed to provide information by the end of today to explain herself.  Based on my experience with her legal manuevers, if she bothers to provide the paperwork, I don't believe it will be particularly explanatory.

This is just one more legal issue to put on the list of "cases to watch."

What's ahead for our friend Andrew Halcro?

by: Celtic Diva

Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 02:11:42 AM AKDT

Andrew Halcro -- Alaskan businessman, former candidate for Governor, blogmeister of one of the most informative blogs in the State (with some of the best sources), breaker of the news about Troopergate and radio guy on KENI has indicated in his latest post that he'll be quitting blogging "for awhile."

In a post titled "The End is Near," Halcro indicates that he'll be making some announcements about his future.

Looking ahead, next Monday and Tuesday will be my last original blogs for awhile.  

Don't miss them.

In the comments, friends and admirers speculate on what that future may be...on whether there is, well, a little Gubernatorial tinge to things?

If that's true, it could only be good for the State of Alaska!!!!  I'm not sure how he would do it, though...if he would run in the primary as a Republican or if he would run again as a third-party candidate.  Either way, it would make one heck-of-a race!

What is YOUR speculation?

(P.S. Andrew would make an excellent candidate!  However, on a more personal note, it would be SOOOOOOO worth it just to watch the Palinbots heads explode!!!!!)

Palin's Padded 2009 Budget

by: Syrin

Wed Jan 14, 2009 at 09:22:42 AM AKST

In December of 2007, Palin rolled out her second budget and this time told Alaskans that her budget held government operating growth to 4%. But when the legislature's budget intelligentsia reviewed the governor's proposal, they stated that the increase in the operating budget was actually closer to 14% with all of the side funds that the administration had created for without counting them as spending.

This adminiatration, another year, another proposed budget that was nothing more than a poker game.

Claiming that her budget will decrease general fund spending by 7% and that the state would enjoy a $338 million surplus, Palin's budget is relying on an unrealistic, perverted projection of the price of oil to make her budget float. Will this help her appear less reckless? In addition, as her administration has done in the previous year, they're spending money - this time $238 million from the Alaska Housing fund - but not accounting for it in their budget calculations.

The administration is basing its 2010 budget on the hope that the price of oil will average $74.41 beginning next July and through the fiscal year. Taxes on oil represent ninety cents out of every dollar the state collects.

The problem is that their forecast is incredibly off balance with what other groups and agencies are predicting. The Federal governments Energy Information Agency is predicting $51 per barrel and many oil & gas consulting firms are predicting nothing higher than $54 per barrel over the next year.

And while the Department of Revenue has said that forecasting is just a guess that has to be made, it's clear that the guess is designed to pad the revenue picture to avoid the governor from having to explain deficit spending.  

FACE-OFF?

by: Celtic Diva

Sun Jan 11, 2009 at 17:30:30 PM AKST

The Democrats in Anchorage had their Legislative send-off Friday night at Café del Mundo in midtown.   As a blogger who spent a lot of time with my fellow Democrats during the Convention in Denver as well as during the campaigns, it was nice to see a lot of folks that I hadn't seen in awhile.

While I heard and participated in many conversations, the one that piqued my curiosity the most came from several legislators who preferred to remain anonymous.  It seems that they had been unable to get a list from the Governor of the state infrastructure projects she was going to put forward as requested by President-elect Obama.  She even refused to give the information to the legislators in person, saying they were "confidential," yet she stated she was sharing them with Senator Begich's Administration.

So why couldn't she share them with her State Legislature?

You may remember that economic consultant Gregg Erickson's Dec. 20th Op-Ed piece in the ADN first alluded to these items on the "infrastructure list":

"Gov. Sarah Palin also caught the spoor of massive federal project handouts, but -- to the chagrin of road builders at the state Dept. of Transportation and Public Facilities -- she directed officials to focus all the state's efforts on getting a massive federal subsidy for the TransCanada gas pipeline"

Andrew Halcro's blog picked up this story through emails from his incredibly accurate network of sources:

"...unlike other states,  the governor is limiting requests for federal economic stimulus funds, in our case to a few transportation projects which are directly related to the gasline.

I have heard also that DOT has been told not to submit a number of projects (including some that might be supported by legislators and their constituent communities) because they are non-gasline-related.".

The concerns here, according to Halcro's post, are that Alaska would miss out on a valuable opportunity to gain much-needed infrastructure improvements (important, for Alaska's Rural communities) plus Alaska would lose our share of some very important federal funding at the same time that our state revenue is on the decline (and, I would add, at the same time that the Alaska "brand" has been seriously damaged in Congress).

These concerns were very much reflected in the discussion with the anonymous legislators, who have been stymied at every turn by the Palin Administration in their quest to get information.  I vowed to call the Begich office on Monday to find out more.

Clearly, Senator Begich is carrying his 24-7 policy into his D.C. Administration, as KTVA's Matt Simons got this story from them Saturday:

(more after the fold)

Hats off to Andrew Halcro!!! (I also stole a comment from his blog!)

by: Celtic Diva

Sat Oct 11, 2008 at 12:06:06 PM AKDT

Anyway, I found this comment today that made me terribly proud of all of us!

Hooray, Alaskans!

Submitted by Buckeye (not verified) on Sat, 2008-10-11 05:15.

There's no doubt in my mind that, had this taken place in my home state of Ohio, an investigation would not have happened. My legislature would've caved to political pressure and tried to sweep it under the rug. I think Sarah & Todd Palin underestimated the independence of the Alaskan people and their love for Walt Monegan. I want to thank you all for your dedication to truth. I shudder to think of how Sarah Palin would've behaved as VP. I shudder to think of how Todd Palin would've behaved with Sarah as VP. Here's hoping Sarah Palin slides into obscurity and becomes a small footnote in American history. We don't deserve such people in politics, and neither does Alaska.