Just when you thought 'trooper-gate' couldn't get any better - it just happened. That's right - now the republicans want to SUE to stop the BI-PARTISAN investigation made up for 3 REPUBLICANS and 2 DEMOCRATS from investigating Sarah Palin any further. The woman who 'welcomed' the investigation and can prove they did nothing wrong - is suing...? Did I just miss something? If you have nothing to hide - can prove everything you did was within the letter of the law - why try and stop an investigation? Just makes you look guilty. Kinda like - having your ex wife and a male friend of hers getting brutally murdered - then you hopping in a white bronco and fleeing your house and having the police chasing you - but not stopping. You may or may not be guilty - but it certainly doesn't look good.
Why run from the police and refuse to stop if you are innocent?

Sarah - if you have nothing to hide - answer the questions of the investigators. Here is another interesting part - the suit says that they want to either wait until after the election or - remove the democrats!! And then what? Put in her friends? If you have nothing to hide - what difference does it make if its now or later? And if its supposed to be a non-partisan group - don't you think that they'll probably want to look into it because you were so adamant about them not looking...

Since I am a fan of Shakespeare (hence the Puck name) -sometimes a line or two comes to mind that is appropriate - so, the line from Hamlet came to mind : "The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
"

http://ap. google. com/article/ALeqM5jOTk11gvqDAgD0cY3i4WjI_2YOxwD93814FO0

August 28th, 2008

In naming her as his vice presidential running mate Friday, Sen. John McCain hailed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as “someone who has fought against corruption.” But Palin is under two ethics investigations springing from accusations that she abused her office to pursue a personal grudge.



Palin has said she welcomes the investigations: “Hold me accountable.

”

The investigations are reviewing the same accusation: that she dismissed the state’s top law enforcement official because of his refusal to fire a state trooper in a dispute that predated her election in 2006.



****However, she has changed her tune 2 weeks later*****
September 15th, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.



McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.



The campaign insists the investigation has been hijacked by Democrats. It says it can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues -- not because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.





****I guess she thinks its tainted because there are some democrats on the panel. Nevermind the fact that the investigation is being handled by a bi-partisan group. Made up of **2** democrats and **3**Republicans. Yes, MORE republicans than Democrats? So, in order to be fair to her - it needs to be all republicans? If she has nothing to hide - answer the questions. Do what you said you could do - prove he was fired because of insubordination. If there isn't a problem proving it and you did nothing wrong -- why refuse to answer questions? They are holding you accountable! Just like you asked...what happens when congress or the senate or another world leader has questions that are tough? Are you going to complain that they aren't being fair?

This is why the Daily Show is one of my favorite shows on TV. Not only is it funny - its dead accurate.

...Only if you are super rich will it matter. For the 'average' american - those that are in the bottom 3 earning brackets (which includes me and nearly everyone I know) will see very little under McCain's plan...except he would give those Millionaires the biggest cut...4.4% for the richest of rich. I stole this graphic and story from a friend of mine who put this on his journal. Its a depection of how the tax cuts break down - and yes, Obama will raise taxes - but only for the top 1.1% of americans - so, for 98.9% of Americans - they will see a tax DECREASE that actually MEANS something. The average tax DECREASE under McCain would be anywhere from 19 dollars to 319 dollars. Nice. Under Obama - the tax decrease would from $567 to $1042 (again, we are talking about where 60% of America earns - the largest group in the country). So, while it wasn't a lie that McCain will lower taxes for everyone and Obama will raise taxes - its not exactly accurate.


Today the Washington Post reports:

According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama's plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy.


For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, the difference between the two plans is stark. While McCain offers a $269,364 tax cut, Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $701,885 - a difference of nearly $1 million.



So, I guess McCain/Palin weren't really lying, it is true. You can truthfully say that 'Obama will raise your taxes" if the 'your' in question is the wealthy americans. And looking around the convention, that might be the target audience.


So, 60% of taxpayers would get $150 average in McCain's plan, and $833 in Obama's plan? The main difference is similar - McCain wants to cut everybody's taxes, especially the wealthy. Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich and lower them on the poor. From a fiscal conservative standpoint, you'd have to worry about a tax plan that cuts taxes everywhere - the government needs money to run, especially with SS falling apart and the national debt rising. A raise of 11.5% in taxes for the 2.87 million+ earners is a very big hike, but progressive income tax is where we are at.

Sarah Palin and the republicans talk about kicking out all the corrupt people - but it just came out that Palin took money from the same fundraising scheme that brought down Senator Ted Stevens. She also supported the effort to have Alaska break off the United States. She even wished them good luck - the Alaskan Independence Party - this is the group of people who want to not be part of the US anymore. They would still take money from the US - just not have any of the rules that go along with being a state. How many Vice Presidential candidates do you know of that have supported states succession from the US? Isn't that unpatriotic? To not want to have the state you live in be part of the country anymore? If she truly loved her country wouldn't she want to keep her state part of it? I guess not. What happened to "Country First" -- Palin want's "Alaska First" it seems.


FAQ's for the Alaskan Independence Party: http://www.akip.org/faqs.html

Ms Palin wishing them good luck with their meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI


Campaign money hurts Palin's outsider image

The Associated Press - Published: September 3, 2008

WASHINGTON: GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a public corruption scandal that led to the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens.


The contributions, made during Palin's failed 2002 bid to become Alaska's lieutenant governor, were not illegal for her to accept. But they show how Palin, a self-proclaimed reformer who has bucked Stevens and his allies, is nonetheless a product of a political system in Alaska now under the cloud of an ongoing FBI investigation.


It's the latest in a string of revelations that have forced John McCain's campaign to defend his choice and the thoroughness of the background check of Palin, 44, a little-known governor who is new to the national stage. Palin stunned delegates at the GOP convention Monday when she announced through the McCain campaign that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.


With the convention still abuzz, the list of potentially embarrassing details grew Tuesday:

_Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.


_Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting secession from the United States.


_A private attorney has been authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.


_She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.


And this: Bristol Palin's boyfriend, Levi Johnston, plans to join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention, the boy's mother said. He left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family in St. Paul, Minn.


Defending his choice and the team that helped pick her, McCain said Tuesday that "the vetting process was completely thorough." Campaign advisers at the convention in St. Paul, Minn.
, said Palin filled out a survey with 70 questions, including: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?

McCain's aides maintained that Palin was a finalist from the start

But a senior Republican familiar with the search, who requested anonymity when speaking without authorization, said Palin had all but fallen from the radar until late in the summer when McCain — apparently unsatisfied with his working list — asked for more alternatives. Suddenly, she was a finalist.


When she was introduced as McCain's running mate last week, Palin portrayed herself as a political maverick in McCain's mold: "I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies and the 'good old boy' network,'" she said.


But Alaska's first female governor has at times benefited from Alaska's entrenched political system.


As Palin campaigned unsuccessfully in 2002 to become lieutenant governor, she received contributions from executives at VECO Corp., a powerful Alaska oil field services company. Company founder Bill Allen has admitted the company steers its donations through a "special bonus program" in which executives received money and the company instructed them to donate it to favored politicians.


Allen pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges. He admitted the program violated federal tax laws and said it was used to keep his political allies flush with cash.


"If they're working with the oil industry, I'd like to help with their campaigns," Allen testified last year in the corruption trial of a former state lawmaker.


Steve Schmidt, senior adviser to the McCain campaign, dismissed the idea that a few campaign contributions years ago in any way diminished Palin's record as a reformer. "Gov. Palin's record fighting corruption and taking on these issues in Alaska speaks for itself," he said Tuesday.


Since Palin's nomination last week, these issues also are raising eyebrows:

_In her earlier career as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to help the tiny town secure at least 14 earmarks, worth $27 million between 2000-2003. McCain has touted Palin as a force in his long battle against earmarks.


_Her husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin herself never registered as a member of the party, according to state officials, though party members said she attended a 1994 convention with her husband.


_The state legislature is investigating whether she had Alaska's public safety commissioner fired after he refused to dismiss a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister. Lawyer Thomas Van Flein said he is representing Palin both personally and in her official capacity as governor. He can bill the state up to $95,000.


_Palin opposed the U.S. government's listing of a variety of animals as endangered, including the polar bear and the beluga whale, both of which inhabit areas also rich in oil and natural gas.


_Palin previously acknowledged she smoked marijuana but said in a 2006 interview she no longer used the drug. "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," she said.


_ Palin's management style has come under scrutiny. When taking over as mayor of Wasilla, she asked top officials to submit resignation letters, resulting in several departures, including that of the police chief. The chief claimed it was because he supported her opponent in the mayor's race.


_Under her leadership this year, Alaska asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from Stevens, one of McCain's top adversaries. That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress.


Palin has had her share of run-ins with Stevens, including a dustup earlier this year in which Stevens accused Palin of not being enthusiastic enough about his efforts to bring federal earmark money to Alaska. She has also called on Stevens' son, Ben, to resign as national committeeman for the state party.


She was among the first Alaska Republicans to urge Stevens to answer questions about the FBI investigation.


In the fundraising corruption probe, VECO founder Allen is cooperating with an FBI investigation that has already sent several state political figures to prison. He is expected to be the Justice Department's star witness at Stevens' trial later this month when he testifies about home renovations and other gifts he provided the longtime senator — gifts Stevens is charged with concealing on Senate documents.


Palin received $500, the maximum amount allowed by law, from Allen and VECO vice president Rick Smith. Several other VECO managers, including Pete Leathard, who came up with the idea for the special bonus program, also donated the maximum. Allen's son, a VECO employee, also donated $500. All the checks were donated the same day, except for Leathard's, which was dated two days after the rest.


John Cramer, one of Palin's treasurers for her 2002 campaign, said he doesn't remember any indications that the money came from a special company program.


The donations aren't evidence of corruption, and Palin is not among the lawmakers under investigation in the VECO case. But they undermine arguments that Palin has broken from Alaska's Republican machine, including Stevens.


"If you can take on Ted Stevens and that crowd in Alaska, you can handle the Russians," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, told ABC News this week.


But Palin didn't reach the governor's office picking fights with the Senate's longest-serving Republican. She was a director for a nonprofit group Stevens set up to increase the number of Republican women in government. Stevens also campaigned for Palin in 2006 and appeared in a political advertisement for her.


Palin has had her share of run-ins with Stevens, including a dustup earlier this year in which Stevens accused Palin of not being enthusiastic enough about his efforts to bring federal earmark money to Alaska. She has also called on Stevens' son, Ben, to resign as national committeeman for the state party.


She was among the first Alaska Republicans to urge Stevens to answer questions about the FBI investigation. But she did not urge him to resign after his indictment, as she did after a state lawmaker was indicted. She said Stevens "has dedicated his life to the betterment of the state.
"

She was his third or fourth choice. But, again, McCain caved to everyone around him and didn't do what he wanted to do. He bows to political pressure at every turn...he basically doesn't even know who she is - he picked her because he was told to. Another puppet president following in the shoes of Bush.



A rushed pick?
Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could name as his running mate a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.


But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.


Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.


With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later.


“They didn’t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before,” said a Republican close to the campaign. “This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.
”

Mr. McCain’s advisers said repeatedly on Monday that Ms. Palin was “thoroughly vetted,” a process that would have included a review of all financial and legal records as well as a criminal background check. A McCain aide said that the campaign was well aware of the ethics investigation and that it had looked into it.


People familiar with the process said Ms. Palin had responded to a standard form with more than 70 questions.


“It was obviously something that anybody Googling Sarah Palin knew was in the news and there was a very thorough vetting done on that and also on the daughter,” the aide said.


Locals say no one talked to them

Mark Salter, Mr. McCain’s closest adviser, said in an e-mail message that Ms. Palin had been interviewed by Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., a veteran Washington lawyer in charge of the vice-presidential vetting process for Mr. McCain, as well as by other lawyers who worked for Mr. Culvahouse. Mr. Salter did not respond to an e-mail message asking if Ms. Palin had told Mr. Culvahouse and his lawyers that her daughter was pregnant.


In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the announcement of her selection, Although campaigns are typically discreet when they make inquiries into potential running mates, officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration.


“They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.


Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.


“I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.
”

The Democrats haven't stood up nearly enough for themselves. I have decided to create this blog in an effort to help combat the lies coming out of the republican party.

That's why I called this the donkey punchers - a reference to the donkey logo of the democratic party - and us fighting back.

Lets do it. We can't afford 8 more years of republican rule.