Abuse of power: Palin proves she's ready!

The reports of ethical breaches and abuse of power just keep rolling in. Perhaps she's simply proving once and for all that she's ready to step into George W. Bush's shoes, should the need arise. She certainly has the 'abuse of power/ethical lapses' cred for the job.

JUNEAU, Alaska, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- An Alaska state investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin includes more ethics complaints than just those of the "Troopergate" probe, state documents show.

In the recently concluded Troopergate investigation, the Alaska state Legislature concluded that Palin, the Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee, was within her rights to fire state Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, but abused her power and violated ethics in joining her husband to push for the firing of state trooper Mike Wooten, who was once married to the governor's sister.

-- snip --

The newspaper said there are two known additional ethics complaints against the nominee. One is from an activist who says hiring practices were circumvented for a Palin supporter, and another in which the Alaska state police union claims Wooten's personnel file was illegally breached by state officials.

John Cyr, the union's executive director, told the Daily News he plans to amend the complaint to include "harassment" of Wooten as well.

Oh -- but there's more!

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose reformer image took a hit in a report concluding she abused her powers to settle a family score, has skirted state ethics rules before for personal benefit and used her office to help friends and supporters, according to an Associated Press review of records.

Palin's first try at statewide office, after six years as mayor of Wasilla, was an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2002. To raise money, she improperly used her City Hall office and equipment, city records show. A year later she would make headlines by blasting a fellow Republican for, among other things, improperly using his government position to boost his campaign.

Then, in 2006, Palin won the governor's race with a vow to reform state ethics. But in less than two years, she has repeatedly taken actions that violated her own stated standards for ethical behavior — if not state law. In the process, the Republican vice presidential nominee has become much like the old-school politicians she attacked during her rise to power.

Some examples:

_She pummeled opponents for giving oil companies and other businesses too much control of state government. Yet she appointed the founder of an engineering firm that received $6.8 million in state business as head of the transportation department.

_She has accepted dozens of gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars since taking office, including two free trips last year that she failed to report on disclosure forms, despite criticizing state legislators for the gifts they take.

_She is under another investigation, accused of misusing her office to campaign against a voter referendum calling for tighter mining regulations. Her husband, Todd, has accepted free trips from a mining company to look at their proposed new site.

_Another ethics complaint, unresolved, accuses her staff of finding a state job for a friend and campaign contributor.

Once upon a time

I haven't posted in awhile, for numerous reasons I won't go into here.

I just wanted to draw attention to this excellent New York Times editorial: about our national change in values. Ethics. Our loss of our national soul. Very well said, and worth noting.

On Torture and American Values
The New York Times | Editorial

Sunday 07 October 2007

Once upon a time, it was the United States that urged all nations to obey the letter and the spirit of international treaties and protect human rights and liberties. American leaders denounced secret prisons where people were held without charges, tortured and killed. And the people in much of the world, if not their governments, respected the United States for its values.

The Bush administration has dishonored that history and squandered that respect. As an article on this newspaper’s front page last week laid out in disturbing detail, President Bush and his aides have not only condoned torture and abuse at secret prisons, but they have conducted a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world about those policies.

After the attacks of 9/11, Mr. Bush authorized the creation of extralegal detention camps where Central Intelligence Agency operatives were told to extract information from prisoners who were captured and held in secret. Some of their methods — simulated drownings, extreme ranges of heat and cold, prolonged stress positions and isolation — had been classified as torture for decades by civilized nations. The administration clearly knew this; the C.I.A. modeled its techniques on the dungeons of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union.

The White House could never acknowledge that. So its lawyers concocted documents that redefined “torture” to neatly exclude the things American jailers were doing and hid the papers from Congress and the American people. Under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Mr. Bush’s loyal enabler, the Justice Department even declared that those acts did not violate the lower standard of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

That allowed the White House to claim that it did not condone torture, and to stampede Congress into passing laws that shielded the interrogators who abused prisoners, and the men who ordered them to do it, from any kind of legal accountability.

Mr. Bush and his aides were still clinging to their rationalizations at the end of last week. The president declared that Americans do not torture prisoners and that Congress had been fully briefed on his detention policies.

Neither statement was true — at least in what the White House once scorned as the “reality-based community” — and Senator John Rockefeller, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was right to be furious. He demanded all of the “opinions of the Justice Department analyzing the legality” of detention and interrogation policies. Lawmakers, who for too long have been bullied and intimidated by the White House, should rewrite the Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act to conform with actual American laws and values.

For the rest of the nation, there is an immediate question: Is this really who we are?

Is this the country whose president declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and then managed the collapse of Communism with minimum bloodshed and maximum dignity in the twilight of the 20th century? Or is this a nation that tortures human beings and then concocts legal sophistries to confuse the world and avoid accountability before American voters?

Truly banning the use of torture would not jeopardize American lives; experts in these matters generally agree that torture produces false confessions. Restoring the rule of law to Guantánamo Bay would not set terrorists free; the truly guilty could be tried for their crimes in a way that does not mock American values.

Clinging to the administration’s policies will only cause further harm to America’s global image and to our legal system. It also will add immeasurably to the risk facing any man or woman captured while wearing America’s uniform or serving in its intelligence forces.

This is an easy choice.

Bravo. Tell it like it is. We used to stand for something. We may not have always achieved - risen to meet our standards. But at least we had standards... once...

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq

An open letter to the Honorable Senator Lugar of Indiana, from a constituent:

Dear Senator Lugar:

This is unbelievable. I cannot stand this anymore.

How did our government become this sociopathic? Please... do something. This isn't a partisan issue!

I'm so sick of partisan issues I could tear my hair out - that's one of the chief reasons I became an independent, and am a fervent supporter of Senator Hagel. He continually promotes bipartisan cooperation and tolerance. He is speaking out against this madness. I can't imagine how the rest of you can keep quiet!

While the House and the Senate argue 'partisan politics,' these men and women are being abused - literally abused - for their country. I thought things were bad during the Vietnam war (I grew up during that war, and it has affected me - through the vets I have known - ever since I was four years old and my best friend lost his father over there.) This is just... unfathomable. Please make this stop.

If we don't have the troops to occupy Iraq, we have to get out. This is obvious. This is logic. This is called 'the writing on the wall.' I really don't care how embarrassing it is to this administration. Or how much money the independent contractors are making over there, and how much lobbying influence they have in the White House, the House and the Senate (yes, I'm cynical -- but shouldn't I be? Really, shouldn't I be?)

This is flat out wrong, and as an American citizen I am now well beyond outraged. I'm ready to get into my car and drive to Washington, and stand on the steps of the Capitol building with an American flag... to remind you that this isn't a banana republic, this is the United States of America, formerly the greatest democracy in history.

Unfortunately, I don't think even millions of people on the Capitol steps with flags would break this Congress out of its partisan deadlock. Apparently Chuck Hagel telling you all to consider 'selling shoes' didn't get your attention. I can't decide who I am angrier with - the president for his abuse of power... or all of you for allowing it to continue. The elephant in the middle of the room is starting to knock down the walls... can you see it now?

How on earth... are we going to catch Bin Laden if we have no army? We continually hurl them on the rocks of Iraq, in a losing war. Yes, we are wasting them!! This is no 'war on terror.' This is suicide. This is madness. (We are still looking for Bin Laden... aren't we?)

And what about just plain old ethics? What about honor? Do these concepts even exist in Washington anymore?

Ethics. I'm not talking about religion. I'm talking about who we are as a people, as a country, as a democracy. Sending injured troops back into Iraq is wrong! The abandonment of New Orleans was wrong. Secret camps and torturing prisoners - and denying them Geneva rights - wrong wrong wrong. Spying on American citizens is wrong.

When will you representatives of the people join together - yes, across party lines and in the face of the lobbyists - and end this national nightmare?

I am baffled as to why you are allowing this to continue on your watch. Impeachment charges were brought against Clinton for lying about sex, and against Nixon for being paranoid (basically, and yes he broke laws too, like Bush and Cheney.) And yet... this president is getting a free ride to blast away at our rules of law, our ethical standards, our reputation as a nation and a democracy - even our Constitution. This trumps anything Nixon could have dreamed up. And it is far from over. Bush and Cheney won't even take nukes 'off the table.' They reserve the right to attack Iran without warning, and without permission from Congress. This administration scares me to death.

As I've said before, I believe you are an honorable man. There comes a time when honorable men speak out. Lincoln, who I greatly admire, said "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." I would follow Senator Hagel anywhere, because he is doing his job. Please stand with him. We need you. These troops need you. Take back your powers of oversight, sir. Your country needs you.