Political irony to be used........
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 19:03.
It is ironic that Palin used the indictments and investigations in masterful manipulation to get in office and then pillage a third party, the oil company shareholders, when they were not even involved. The resulting punitive tax increase and this AGIA nonsense now threatens our economic future. Hopefully the legislators will use this "family affair" and the unfortunate firing of Mr. Monigan, which will surely and rapidly decrease Palin's popularity, as an opportunity to show a little backbone and shove this half billion dollar dead end called AGIA back in her face. The irony will be complete.....a factually unrelated event determining an outcome. Reminds me of Spitzer in New York with his self righteous, arrogant, my way or the highway attitude. Enough already....time for a little political poetic justice.
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Impeachment sounds good!
Submitted by Trooper wife (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 18:48.
Thank you so much for writing this Andrew. We were unhappy to hear of Walt being, let go. He was finally the "light at the end of the tunnel". Now allot of AST families feel unsure about their futures. I guess Sarah could really careless about all of us, It shows in the bad decisions she is making. Sarah, You should be ashamed of your self! YOU are hurting so many people.

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See a pattern?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 18:41.
Palin has appointed two highly challenged men, both apparently abusive to women. The first was Andrew Niemiec, a DOT executive who was arrested on the Parks Highway in late 2006, highly intoxicated (blew .22 hours after the arrest!), but more importantly assaulted the female state trooper on the scene by kicking her in the groin, and calling her a foul female specific expletive. All documented in the Fairbanks paper. But a few months after this arrest, which resulted in his dismissal by the Murkowski administration, he was hired by Palin to be executive director of the Knik Arm Bridge authority! Hard to believe but TRUE. Now Mr. Kopp, who begins his state career defending the indefensible. But here is the common thread. Both are younger men, her generation, and both are well above average in the looks department. In other words, in her mind, age and looks trump other faults. Palin herself is a looker and works hard to maintain it. It obviously motivates her. One last observation. Her policy on letting retired state employees, fill badly needed vacancies is growing increasingly hostile. No matter the value, and the difficulty filling posts from the normal recruitment pools, the answer is now generally no to such requests. She is openly hostile to people older than herself. Some agencies simply can no longer find viable candidates. This doesn't matter, to Palin who continues to squash every attempt to retain departing employees and the skills and knowledge they can continue to provide.

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Andrew Niemiec
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-18 11:30.
I too could not believe that Niemiec was given another position by Palin. But there is even more to that story than you gave. Niemiec was the Northern Region Director of DOT under Murkowski. This incident took place shortly after Palin was elected but prior to her being sworn in and word was that Niemiec was Palin's choice for Commissioner of DOT. Niemiec was driving from Anchorage to Fairbanks. He was driving erratically and almost collided head on with oncoming traffic. Niemiec then struck a (DOT maintained) guardrail and went off of the road. A male Trooper responded from Fairbanks and contacted Niemiec and a witness. The Trooper determined that Niemiec was obviously intoxicated after he failed Field Sobriety Tests. The Trooper attempted to place Niemiec under arrest. Niemiec refused to comply with the Trooper's orders and elbowed the Trooper in the face. The Trooper and Niemiec ended up in a ground fight in the middle of no where on the Parks Highway in well below freezing weather. Niemiec attempted to get his arm around the Trooper's neck a number of times and repeatedly knee'd the Trooper in the ribs. The Trooper and two bystanders ended up fighting with Niemiec. The male Trooper got the handcuffs on Niemiec at which time Niemiec became very obscene and screamed that he works for the Governor and he was going to have the Trooper fired. The female Trooper then showed up and was assaulted by Niemiec as she was helping put him in the patrol car. Niemiec was charged with DUI,Resisting Arrest, and 2 counts of Assaulting a Trooper. Of course the District Attorney dropped the assault charges because assault on a police officer carries a minimum of 60 days in jail on each count. Niemiec was allowed to resign and then was give the new position by Palin. Where is the Governor's support of her Troopers there? Palin is all about her cronies and not about integrity.
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Not to mention her ethics czar!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 20:02.
Do not forget that Wev Shea, her ethics czar, had a sexual harassment complaint that resulted in the Feds paying at least one settlement. Some qualification for ethics czar.
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Firing of the DPS Commissioner
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 18:24.
Jail guards hate their commissioner so much, they did an overwhelming vote of "No Confidence". Does Governor Palin do anything about it? No. Troopers admired and respected their commissioner tremendously and what does the Governor do? Fires him. Go figure.
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Whatt's her power over people?
Submitted by lowandslow (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 18:18.
Allow me (non Alaskan) to ramble on for a minute. After Palin's name started being tossed around the blogisphere I did what every informed citizen does, I googled her name to get a little background on her. What I found was a little puzzling, first I came across the Alaskan oil production tax rate story and thought, "well that's kind of the opposite of political conservatism?". A little more research got me reading about the dairy fiasco then AGIA (which lead me to this blog) and I came to the conclusion that she wasn't really a viable candidate for VP. That took all of an hour I guess. Yet I wondered "why is she so popular?" I could see how her tax bill oil policies would be a popular position in the state but not as big as her numbers were. That's when I realized she must possess something in her personality that she has that much power over people. As timed passed and her name came up more frequently on the blogs the mindless cheerleading for her was (and still is) ludicrous so I started offering some criticism on her actual polices, nothing personal mind you, and I was and still get just ripped apart. These are people that know absolutely nothing about her politics yet would go to any length to defend her. What's with that? How does she do that? What is it with her and this power she has over some people? Which brings us to this post. After reading about the Wooten's I have to wonder how much power Palin has over even her sister. I've had a sister that went through a divorce, most people have had someone close to them go though it and there's always bitterness and a reaction to get revenge but most people do their best to discourage those instincts in someone you care about as they're nothing but destructive to everyone involved. Granted I know nothing about anyone involved but it seems to me Palin did just the opposite, she didn't help her sister, she's done nothing but exasperate the pain in the Wooten family. Again, I believe it comes back to the power this woman has over people, this time her family. The damage this woman leaves in her wake is astounding yet people will jump to her defense. Mind boggling the power she has over people.

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Power and family
Submitted by scott (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 19:49.
I have thought about not reponding to this, but since you comment on her power over her family, I must say the following (from personal experience); The Governors sister is much the same as the Governor without the position of power. She too, is vindictive and seemingly stuck in high school drama land. I will not comment on the divorce, as I was not there, but if her interactions with those she associates herself with are any indication, her ex-husband, (Officer Wooten) got out for good reason. Unfortunately for him, the Governor is in a position to "stick it to him" and he now has to defend his honor and his family in the public spotlight. This is as bad an abuse of power and pattern of abuse as there is in this type of venue, and it is unfortunate Wooten has to go to battle again, but I hope he knows he has friends and being sided with Walt Monegan is a great place to be.
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molly mccann is nothing more
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-18 09:26.
molly mccann is nothing more than a free nanny to the palins, how sad for the palin kids to not only not have parents to raise them but to be being raised by someone that does not even see the value of being a decent parent and human being themselves. These poor children are screwed. I do not know how many people in the valley or even around the state have heard Molly McMcann say " DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, I AM THE GOVERNORS SISTER " OR " THIS IS THE GOVERNORS NEPHEW " Yeah and SO who cares, nothing like living on a shirts tail.
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Palin - Wooten
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 17:53.
Andrew, if any of this is true, then Palin should be empeached, unless she resigns. If you are making this up then you should remove yourself from the public eye. You appear to have evidence. It should be given to the appropriate body and either criminal charges (if appropriate) or empeachment charges should be brought against her. If these charges are true, then what she has done makes what Randy Rudrick did look like a jay walking ticket vs a hit and run.

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AS 39.52.120. Misuse of Official Position.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 17:49.
Misuse of Official Position. (b) A public officer may not (4) take or withhold official action in order to affect a matter in which the public officer has a personal or financial interest; (5) attempt to benefit a personal or financial interest through coercion of a subordinate or require another public officer to perform services for the private benefit of the public officer at any time

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