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."

The Alaska Mythbusters--teleconference with Gov. Tony Knowles and Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein

by: Celtic Diva

Wed Sep 10, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM AKDT

Today, the Obama Campaign launched "Alaska Mythbusters," a group of Alaskans who have followed Governor Palin's career and will set the record straight about whether Palin has what it takes to bring the change that's needed in Washington, DC. Former AK Governor Tony Knowles and Mayor Bob Weinstein of Ketchikan, the city of the "Bridge to Nowhere," headlined a press conference call this morning on Palin's Alaska Record.

Gov. Knowles started by saying that as a former governor, normally he "was reluctant to critique sitting governor." However, in this situation it is not just a sitting governor, it is a candidate for VP just "one heartbeat from the Presidency."

He then went on to discuss the "serious concerns" he had about her qualifications--the fact that McCain chose her with a "serious investigation going on," -citizens said needed to be one to "clear the air." Said Knowles, "It's more important now that the results should be known to the American people."

"Troopergate"

Gov. Knowles discussed the history leading up to the entire "Troopergate" scandal, covered as it became public (and even before it was public) on this blog.

He emphasized that two rarely-covered facts about the investigation are that 1) it was a Legislative-initiated investigation which hasn't happened before in the history of the State and 2) it is also a Republican-controlled investigation as the Judiciary Committee has a Republican majority.

Gov. Knowles also pointed out that this was a "very serious charge" which was asking the question: can a governor interfere with the results of this case and by means of a personal vendetta extract further punishment from Officer Wooten?