From NYTimes:

The e-mails include an exchange between Ms. Palin and Alaska’s lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, as well as an associate, Amy McCorkell, who Ms. Palin appointed to a state drug and alcohol advisory board last year. Wired Magazine reported on its Internet privacy blog, Threat Level, that it obtained confirmation from Ms. McCorkell that she did, in fact, send the message to Governor Palin.

Alaskans question Palin’s e-mail secrecy

Governor routinely uses private account for state business

Moments after Gov. Sarah Palin’s first speech as Republican John McCain’s running mate, she sat with her kids backstage, thumbing one of the two BlackBerrys that are always with her. You can see them in photographs from that day on the campaign blog of one of McCain’s daughters.

The tech-savvy governor has one of the devices (which allow users to read and send e-mails) for state business and another for personal matters, but those worlds intertwine.

Palin routinely uses a private Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business. Others in the governor’s office sometimes use personal e-mail accounts, too.

The practice raises questions about backdoor secrecy in an administration that vowed during the 2006 campaign to be “open and transparent.”

Even before the McCain campaign plucked Palin from Alaska, a controversy was brewing over e-mails in the governor’s office. Was the administration trying to get around the public records law through broad exemptions or private e-mail accounts?

Activists, still fighting to obtain hundreds of e-mails that were withheld from public records requests earlier this year, say that’s what it looks like.

The governor’s Yahoo account is “the most nonsensical, inane thing I’ve ever heard of,” said Andree McLeod, who is appealing the administration’s decision to withhold e-mails.

“The governor sets the tone and the tone that has been set by this governor is beyond the pale,” McLeod said. “Common sense tells you to use an official state e-mail account for official state business.”
…
Some of her aides also routinely use Yahoo, but even messages sent from one private account to another should be public, if they concern public business, said Dave Jones, an assistant attorney general.

“The difficulty is finding out they exist,” Jones said.

It’s a new twist on an old problem: How to keep an eye on the government. And Palin’s expected absences from Alaska for the presidential campaign add urgency to the debate. Is she going to be running the state long-distance on her BlackBerry?

Some experts on open government say officials around the country escape scrutiny by either quickly deleting e-mails or using private accounts, as Palin has done.

“Where you’ve got a governor apparently using a Yahoo account for state business, that’s kind of a complete inversion of what ought to be happening in terms of public records,” said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and a Missouri journalism associate professor.

“E-mail that’s public business ought to be done on public accounts that can become public record,” he said.

Just how much of the state’s business does Palin conduct through her BlackBerrys? Her chief of staff didn’t respond to that question. But she often is glued to her devices.

Her Yahoo e-mails got the attention of political activists Zane Henning, a Wasilla resident and North Slope worker, and McLeod, a former legislative staffer and Republican who has run for state House and mayor.

In response to similar but separate public records requests, McLeod and Henning this summer received four banker boxes of e-mail and telephone records for two Palin aides: Frank Bailey and Ivy Frye. Henning was operating on behalf of the Valley group Last Frontier Foundation, which lists property rights and public records as among its core issues on its Web site.

“I think that it’s total hypocrisy from what she stood for at the beginning of her campaign,” Henning said. “Because she campaigned on open government, and she knew that using a private e-mail account would take it and basically hide stuff that people couldn’t see.”

Excerpts from:
From Juneau Empire.

Palin: ‘I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.’

AKA: “The Palin Doctrine”

Sarah Palin has been touting herself as fiscal watchdog throughout her political career. But Palin’s tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was characterized by waste, cronyism and incompetence, according to government officials in the Matanuska Valley, where she began her fairy-tale political rise.

“Executive abilities? She doesn’t have any,” said former Wasilla City Council member Nick Carney, who selected and groomed Palin for her first political race in 1992 and served with her after her election to the City Council.

Four years later, the ambitious Palin won the Wasilla mayor’s office — after scorching the “tax and spend mentality” of her incumbent opponent. But Carney, Palin’s estranged former mentor, and others in city hall were astounded when they found out about a lavish expenditure of Palin’s own after her 1996 election. According to Carney, the newly elected mayor spent more than $50,000 in city funds to redecorate her office, without the council’s authorization.

…

Carney confronted Mayor Palin at a City Council hearing, and was shocked by her response.

“I braced her about it,” he said. “I told her it was against the law to make such a large expenditure without the council taking a vote. She said, ‘I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.’”

“I’ll never forget it — it’s one of the few times in my life I’ve been speechless,” Carney added. “It would have been easier for her to finesse it. She had the votes on the council by then, she controlled it. But she just pushed forward. That’s Sarah. She just has no respect for rules and regulations.”

 

 

Without a doubt one of the most troubling statements made by Palin.  We’ll soon see if this applies to Public Records of Emails / Troopergate:

Alaskans question Palin’s e-mail secrecy

Governor routinely uses private account for state business

Moments after Gov. Sarah Palin’s first speech as Republican John McCain’s running mate, she sat with her kids backstage, thumbing one of the two BlackBerrys that are always with her. You can see them in photographs from that day on the campaign blog of one of McCain’s daughters.

The tech-savvy governor has one of the devices (which allow users to read and send e-mails) for state business and another for personal matters, but those worlds intertwine.

Palin routinely uses a private Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business. Others in the governor’s office sometimes use personal e-mail accounts, too.

The practice raises questions about backdoor secrecy in an administration that vowed during the 2006 campaign to be “open and transparent.”

Even before the McCain campaign plucked Palin from Alaska, a controversy was brewing over e-mails in the governor’s office. Was the administration trying to get around the public records law through broad exemptions or private e-mail accounts?

Activists, still fighting to obtain hundreds of e-mails that were withheld from public records requests earlier this year, say that’s what it looks like.

The governor’s Yahoo account is “the most nonsensical, inane thing I’ve ever heard of,” said Andree McLeod, who is appealing the administration’s decision to withhold e-mails.

“The governor sets the tone and the tone that has been set by this governor is beyond the pale,” McLeod said. “Common sense tells you to use an official state e-mail account for official state business.”
…
Some of her aides also routinely use Yahoo, but even messages sent from one private account to another should be public, if they concern public business, said Dave Jones, an assistant attorney general.

“The difficulty is finding out they exist,” Jones said.

It’s a new twist on an old problem: How to keep an eye on the government. And Palin’s expected absences from Alaska for the presidential campaign add urgency to the debate. Is she going to be running the state long-distance on her BlackBerry?

Some experts on open government say officials around the country escape scrutiny by either quickly deleting e-mails or using private accounts, as Palin has done.

“Where you’ve got a governor apparently using a Yahoo account for state business, that’s kind of a complete inversion of what ought to be happening in terms of public records,” said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and a Missouri journalism associate professor.

“E-mail that’s public business ought to be done on public accounts that can become public record,” he said.

Just how much of the state’s business does Palin conduct through her BlackBerrys? Her chief of staff didn’t respond to that question. But she often is glued to her devices.

Her Yahoo e-mails got the attention of political activists Zane Henning, a Wasilla resident and North Slope worker, and McLeod, a former legislative staffer and Republican who has run for state House and mayor.

In response to similar but separate public records requests, McLeod and Henning this summer received four banker boxes of e-mail and telephone records for two Palin aides: Frank Bailey and Ivy Frye. Henning was operating on behalf of the Valley group Last Frontier Foundation, which lists property rights and public records as among its core issues on its Web site.

“I think that it’s total hypocrisy from what she stood for at the beginning of her campaign,” Henning said. “Because she campaigned on open government, and she knew that using a private e-mail account would take it and basically hide stuff that people couldn’t see.”

Excerpts from:
From Salon.
From Juneau Empire.

Seems Palin & GOP actually like Pork…

while McCain actually despises it?;
… but not so much that he won’t put a Pork-barrel-guzzling governor on the Ticket.

From TIME:

It turns out that John McCain, while crusading against wasteful spending, specifically objected to three earmarks Sarah Palin had requested as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, including a dubious agricultural processing facility designed to promote local produce. In fact, Palin has a consistent record of chasing the bacon that McCain has fought for years. She pulled in $27 million in earmarks as mayor, requested $450 million in earmarks as governor, and even supported the state’s notorious Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it. There isn’t enough lipstick in Alaska to cover all that pork.

And:

But as awkward as it was to watch Palin try to explain to ABC’s Charlie Gibson why taxpayers should pay to study the mating habits of Alaskan crabs, voters probably won’t mind that Palin doesn’t really hate pork as long as it’s hers. What could be a real problem for the GOP ticket would be voters recognizing that McCain really does hate pork — not only when it’s Palin’s, but when it’s theirs.

And:

McCain’s current economic plan would explode the deficit, mainly by making permanent the Bush tax cuts he once opposed. The Brookings Institution has estimated that it would add $5 trillion to the national debt by 2018; meanwhile, it would eliminate only $18 billion in earmarks, and much less if McCain truly intends to preserve aid to Israel and other worthy programs.

CNN Takes the lead in Debunking McCain / Palin Lies in Back-to-back reports:

Obama wants to teach sex to kindergarteners? Lie.

Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere? Lie.

Palin hasn’t taken earmarks as Governor? Lie.

Alaska produces 20% of America’s energy? Lie.

Palin visited Iraq and Ireland? Lie.

From Darrel West:

Despite these historical precedents, the 2008 campaign has reached all-time lows in the use of misleading and inaccurate political appeals. Even Karl Rove, the architect of negative ads in previous campaigns, has complained about the tenor of this year’s campaign.

And:

And:

This imbalance has caused some soul-searching and second-guessing in newsrooms as reporters realize they are being successfully manipulated by the McCain campaign. “Stop the madness,” said TIME’s own Mark Halperin in an appearance on CNN to discuss the controversy. “I think this is the press just absolutely playing into the McCain campaign’s crocodile tears.”

By the weekend, many news organizations had mounted a backlash of their own, running prominent pieces accusing the self-branded “straight-talking” McCain of deceiving voters. “The ‘Straight-Talk Express’ has detoured into doublespeak,” announced the Associated Press, while the New York Times blared, “McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions.”

And:

The backlash has not yet had an impact on voters’ perceptions of McCain’s credibility, though with the press emboldened, that could change.

And from CNN’s Report on this morning’s Palin-POW-wow in Ohio:

Palin’s claims aren’t exactly accurate: Obama would maintain the Bush tax cuts and offer tax breaks to individuals making under $250,000 a year. According to the non-partisan Center for Tax Policy, Obama’s tax plan would offer greater tax relief than McCain’s for low and middle-income earners, but McCain’s plan would lower the tax burden more across the board.

And this from TIME:

In the heat of a campaign, Schmidt understood that outrage could cut through the news clutter like a buzz saw. It didn’t matter much if the outrage was fueled by fact — better if it was fueled by emotion, which would tweak the fury of his base, leading to exciting exchanges on cable television and fresh chatter around the watercooler. Unlike health care or foreign policy, the emotional charge of outrage has a magnetic effect; voters are forced to take sides and respond, shifting the debate.

Now, four years later, Schmidt and the McCain campaign have returned to outrage, and there is little doubt that the tactic is again having the desired effect.

MSNBC Lets McCain off the Hook

Reporters forgo their journalistic responsibilities to have a POW-wow with Mike Murphy and John McCain:

“t.F.o.o.E.a.S.’ - say it 16 times after me!

Now, cross your fingers, and hope it comes true!

NYTimes Caucus Blog continues to focus on Puff Pieces while Economy Reels, and Elected Leaders Get Let Off the Hook

Biggest Economic Melt Down Since the Great Depression:

Meanwhile - let’s see what the NYTimes Politics Caucus Blog is covering:

NYTimes’ Caucus Blog has a long history of putting Puff at the top of the Page fold:

And:

‘Without the help, A.I.G. was expected to be forced to file for bankruptcy protection.’

In return, the Fed will receive warrants, which give it an ownership stake. All of A.I.G.’s assets will be pledged to secure the loan, these people said.

The Fed’s action was disclosed after Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson and Ben S. Bernanke, president of the Federal Reserve, went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening to meet with House and Senate leaders. Mr. Paulson called the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, about 5 p.m. and asked for a meeting in the Senate leader’s office, which began about 6:30 p.m.

The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase had been trying to arrange a $75 billion loan for A.I.G. to stave off the financial crisis caused by complex debt securities and credit default swaps. The Federal Reserve stepped in after it became clear Tuesday afternoon that the banking consortium would not be able to complete the deal.

Without the help, A.I.G. was expected to be forced to file for bankruptcy protection.