Sep 10 2008
Its “Dirtgate” not “Troopergate”
The media is in a tizzy over all things ‘Palin’.
Goodness gracious, they need to come up for air.
One of their complaints is that she strong armed the firing of her former sister-in-law’s husband, a state trooper. Now that is a very serious allegation.
Apparently, the trooper in question needed to be fired. He used his taser on his nephew - in a training capacity. That is completely inappropriate conduct.
Here is the disciplinary letter that the Alaska State Troopers in March 1, 2006.
Link to Wooten’s Suspension Letter
The Senator in charge of the trooper gate investigation is Senator Hollis French (D). Here he is in a picture attending an Obama ‘08 rally! So he clearly is NOT impartial and should be replaced.
Apparently, Rep John Coghill (R) asked the Alaska Legislative Council to remove him from the probe. This request was denied by the head of the legislative council, Senator Kim Elton (D). Senator Elton also attended the same rally for Obama. So he is also clearly not impartial.
Apparently these democrats have scheduled to release their report in late October just 4 days before the election. Early enough to get maximum exposure and effect on the election, but with insufficient time for any lies, slander or misrepresentations to be cleared up.
So the actual scandal here is ‘Dirtgate’. It is certain corrupt legislators and their friends in the media trying to influence an election through the misrepresentation of facts.
Give it a rest already.
This slanderous, scandalous behavior by the media needs to stop.
Nick
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From a friend in Anchorage
Trooper-Gate isn’t exactly a “political corruption scandal” of epic proportions. The trooper was/is an abusive drinker who tasered a 13 year old to teach him a lesson. That is probably why Palin’s favorable opinion rating is still over 80% (many of those people have to be democrats, by the way). It is still unclear whether S. Palin was involved in the pressure put on public safety chief by her administration; if so, how much involved; or if that is even the reason he was fired. As an aside, besides the taser incident, the one other thing the trooper was officially reprimanded for was for poaching a moose.
What does this have to do with changing the game in Baton Rouge? I thought this site was to organize citizens of Louisiana to stand up to the fat cats in the state legislature. I guess this whole effort was really just a bridge to nowhere.
Thanks for the input Bradford.
The State Police did also discipline him for one of his instances of drinking on duty and while driving in the March 2006 5 day suspension.
The letter also indicates 5 disciplinary actions against him in 2005. One of bad driving; 1 of being AWOL; 1 of personal phone use; 1 a suspension for violation of an unnamed traffic law; and a letter of expections on work hours.
Hopefully he has cleaned himself up since then and is not just being covered for by his friends.
Here is an interesting document from Gov. Palin’s lawyer on the issue:
http://hotair.cachefly.net/images/2008-09/palin-response.pdf
Apparently Monegan, the fired employee, stated a press conference on Dec. 6, 2007 with Sen Hollis French, the person leading the investigation against Gov. Palin, to push his budget plan for DPS.
He then allegedly started working outside of the formal budgeting process.
In Feb 2008, he released a letter to the Governor supporting a $1.8 million increase in the state budget fr the Anchorage Community Land Trust - a line item the governor had previously vetoed. A letter for which he got admonished by Ms. Rehfeld.
So what does your friend say about Sen Hollis French; Monegan and the VPSO Task Force they were both on?
http://www.aksenate.org/?vpso=view
Final report 1/28/2008.
1) Pay increase of $4.5/hour from $16.55 to $21.
2) Increase in VPSO by 60 over 4 years.
3) A $1,000 stipend per VPSO for each community.
http://www.aksenate.org/25th/vpso/012808_VPSO_final_report.pdf
It appears that there are currently between 90 to 100 VPSO’s. So an increase of 60 officers would be a significant increase in force size - 60% increase if we assume 100 officers.
Assuming 100 officers at $16.55/hour * 52 weeks/year and 40 hours/week the budget would be $3.4 million for this program.
Increasing the pay to $21/hour for the same force size would cost an additional $0.9 million. A 27% increase.
Increasing the force to 160 and increasing the pay to $21/hour would cost $7.0 million - essentially doubling the budget for this program.
Quote:
What is a Village Public Safety Officer?
Village Public Safety Officers (VPSO’s) are dedicated concerned citizens living in rural areas within Alaska who assist their villages in all aspects of public safety. VPSOs do not carry firearms, although they are trained with non lethal weapons, such as pepper spray and expandable batons. VPSO’s are generally the first to respond to calls for help from community members; hence their motto:
“First Responders - Last Frontier”
http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/rlinks/lawenforcement/ak_vpso.html
“What does this have to do with Baton Rouge?”
Not a thing. I am on a hurricane Dolly, Gustav, Ike break.
“I thought this site was to organize citizens of Louisiana to stand up to the fat cats in the state legislature?”
That is correct.
But when some fat cats in the Alaskan legislature show their (redacted), how can I resist the target.
“I guess this whole effort was really just a bridge to nowhere?”
LOL. That is a very cute Alaska joke.
Perhaps so.
At least we scored one TD in the game - the vetoing of the pay raise.
The vetoing of the pay raise did take a lot of momentum out of the game.
Most of us are still recovering from Gustav and Ike. Hope you did okay during the storm.
Jindal has done a great job in cleaning up the problems at DSS.
So what would you like for us to fuss at right now? Baton Rouge wise that is?
So we win a battle and assume we win the war? These bums in the legislature are still there. Jefferson and Vitter are still “representing” us in Washington.
Besides. Some of the pay raise voters have attended McCain rallies. Some have attended Obama rallies. I do not hold McCain accountable for Tim Burns, nor do I hold Obama responsable for Karen Carter. Excuse me if I may have suspected that this bi-partisan “Clean up the State House” movement has turned into a “McCain Good/Obama Bad” front.
Um, this is “Hollis French Bad”. McCain and Obama are not involved.
Interesting. The FBI raided a Knoxville apartment Saturday. Looks like they are moving on the hacker that entered and posted Palin’s private emails on the web.
Meanwhile Saturday Night Live is catching flack for airing a skit mocking the Times for making up and spreading stories about the Palin’s.
As for Obama, they seem to have moved on from sliming him since that period from the South Carolina to when the primary race ended.
Hollis French isn’t in BR. John LaBruzzo is.
The man who felt we should use our tax dollars to give him a pay raise and pulled the copout “I regret my vote” schtick now says wants to pay poor people to get steralized. Seems like a cheap scapegoat plan to me since he felt that he himself was entitled to your money.
If you are going to get mad at LaBruzzo, get mad for the right reason. You only mentioned 1/2 of his hair brained proposal.
The other part was: “He also suggested paying poor men to get vasectomies and creating tax incentives for college-educated, affluent couples to have more children.”
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1222320817198970.xml&coll=1
Now who fits into the category of ‘college-educated, affluent couples’?
I wonder if there is a booster clause if that couple also happens to be involved in public service - like say the legislature.
ROFLOL. That’s right, it is another attempt at a sneak pay raise…
I’d rather fuss at Senator Quinn and SB543.
Palin found responsable for abuse of power. I’m glad Monegan was able to clear his name. Three cheers for justice! Hip Hip..
Good to know that we’re not the only state run by crooks. Hopefully we 86 Dollar Bill while they kick Stevens to the curb.
Your response is inappropriate. Did you bother to read the report?