I really find the Anchorage Daily News very interesting.
It has vocal participants commenting in the blog and a fairly even mix of people on both sides of the Palin issue. This particular blog entry has a mix of possible vetting issues the McCain camp may have missed.
Why was the First Gent copied on Official Emails? This has to do mostly with TrooperGate (remember she had to hire a lawyer for it yesterday and the state is trying to figure out how to get her to sit down soon for an interregation from their investigator. Can't imagine how well that is going to go over in the news when it happens. But the whole TrooperGate investigation is more than just firing the commissioner. They've redacted 78 pages of emails (many copied to the First Gent) about the Troopers Union, a bill in the legislature about Parental consent for abortions, and specific issues they have/had with one particular blogger.
"As First Gentleman, the governor was telling me that, at their home in Wasilla, they are inundated with phone calls and e-mails to their personal accounts, and Todd does pass that information on to the governor. And vice versa. The governor works with a Blackberry and she forwards e-mails to Todd to print off because she likes to have a hard copy in front of her," Leighow said.
Read this blog entry and comments from: Alaska's Newspaper
This excerpt from the comments section is just too cute:
People voted him in as the First Dude, and it's not like the people expect him to live in isolation, or duck out of offices whenever a government official enters the room.
Yes I know the comments aren't vetted but in the internet age it's where most of the fresh leads are. These are all from back in June. These comments in particular bring up issues of:
Babysitting gate - requireing state paid workers to spend their time babysitting instead of working.
Intimidation - of people beyond trooper commanders and issues beyond TrooperGate
Politicizing on the job - using state equipment and time to try and influence elections in the state's Republican party.
Now none of these have been confirmed thru independent research but for all those lawyers and reporters scouring the ground in Alaska they need to be looking into this stuff too.
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Babysitting Palin's children on the job
Co-Governors Todd and Sarah are allegedly having state employees do the same for them Since co-Governor Sarah claims to have reformed state government with a strong executive branch ethics act, surely any babysitting services by Ivy and/or others must be a violation of that stringent law.
Babysitting and Conducting Republican party work on government time
Ivy Frye and Frank Bailey work for co-Governors Todd and Sarah.
They and Kris Perry were part of the original Palin Klan when Sarah began her campaign- they are the true believers. Ivy quit her job working for Lyda to work on the campaign, first as a volunteer and later as paid staff. She has bounced between the governor's office and Annette "Total Unrecall" Kreitzer's office.
Ivy allegedly performs babysitting and other childcare services for the co-governors on state time. If so, this does not comply with state law.
Frank does boards and commissions (which Ivy used to do). He apparently was responsible for checking Kopp's background. He performed incompetently. He also pressured Monegan and other AST commanders to fire Wooten.
He thinks he is smart- like when he uses personal e-mail accounts to conduct official business in an effort to shield the communication from disclosure. He will soon find out that theory doesn't hold water.
They were allegedly up to their eyeballs in doing exactly what co-Governor Sarah complained about Ruedrich doing- conducting Republican party work on state time. I've been told by multiple sources that on behalf of the co-governors they were calling delegates to the Republican convention to dump Ruedrich- and that it's common knowledge. They have never denied doing so.
Some notes on the above. Lyda is Lydia Green the senior rep of the Alaskan Republican party and currently arch-enemies with Gov. Palin. Kopp is the Trooper Commission Palin hired (and fired 2 weeks later)who had been removed from a supivisory role in his last employment for sexual harassment.
It has been well-known for some time that the friends and associates of Halcro, Ramras, and Green have also been identified and scrutinized and sometimes heckled and personally smeared by the Palin Klan. The net of executive pressure and scrutiny has extended outward to Palin operatives not included on the e-mail register. These individuals include many such as Linda Menard, Chuck Heath (Palin's father), and Janet Kincaid in the valley.
Perhaps we need to re-evaluate the unusually large powers we give our Executive branch that other states don't.
Oh! I had wondered in my other reading why she had quit the commission the former governor had apppointed her too and why the other guy who quit got fined. Here it is. Using state computers to send confidential emails.
For the record, I do think it's interesting to note the difference in coverage this email scandal has received the past four days on the pages of the ADN in comparison to Sarah's allegations back in the day when she and Randy both served as Commissioners on the Gas Regulatory board. Back then it was a constant beating of the drums on the front page and the front page of Section B (which then was the section for State news). Article after article, day after day - Randy had used his state computer during lunch break and had sent a confidential email/info to an oil company he was overseeing. The dogs weren't called off by the ADN til he resigned, and investigation commenced, and he was fined $12,000.
If the McCain camp did an internet search I wonder if they ran across any of this?