Alaska Recap

An ethics complaint was filed last week against Sarah Palin regarding her work with SarahPAC.

An ethics complaint against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be filed this afternoon asserting that Palin’s involvement with SarahPAC constitutes “outside employment” and “misuse of official position.” Anchorage resident Sondra Tompkins, child disability advocate and mother of a special needs child, is filing the complaint after observing Governor Palin repeatedly display “a pattern of unethical behavior.” Sondra believes that the tipping point for her was Sarah Palin’s most recent abdication of her role as Governor and apparent conflict-of-interest when she spoke at two outside events in Indiana rather than work with the Alaska Legislature during the most critical time, the end of the session.

The complaint alleges:

a) Governor Palin has entered into a contract outside of her official duties with the donors, employees, partners and any or all other participants involved in Sarah PAC.

b) The recent partisan trip to Indiana by the Governor was purely to benefit personal interests, had no benefit for the State of Alaska and was in direct conflict with her official duties.

c) The Governor left the State to participate in these events during the most critical end-of-session Legislative activities, at a time where the legislators themselves are not permitted to leave.

You can read the full complaint here at I Eat Gravel and The Mudflats liveblogged the complaint filer’s interview on the radio. Meanwhile the governor’s office hopes the citizens of Alaska who have filed ethics complaints will face “backlash“. Nice.

Also it turns out SarahPAC started a defense fund and then days later dropped the consulting firm that was doing the fund raising reports The Mudfats.

Progessive Alaska has a great run-down about the Palinigans and her war with bloggers since January.

Between Palin’s initial complaint and this week, Alaska bloggers have helped stir interest in the food and fuel crisis in villages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, watched over her administration’s role in the North Pacific Management Council’s Bering Sea Chinook Salmon Bycatch deliberations, filed ethics complaints against the governor, and played a key role in the defeat of Wayne Anthony Ross, her nominee for Alaska Attorney General.

As Shannyn Moore writes Palin brought up an example that the blogs focused on a story about the Attorney General-nominee being involved in a “machine gun shoot”. Turns out Palin was wrong, this “machine gun shoot” was never brought up by the Alaskan blogs. Moore continues:

As a group, we’re like herding cats. But Sarah Palin is right; we made a difference. As proud as I am of my fellow Alaskan activists, we didn’t defeat her attorney general nomination. She did. Sarah Palin chose an unqualified candidate and then left him to sink his own ship.

If you have plenty of ibuprofen lying around then might I suggest watching the 9-part YouTube video of Gov. Palin’s presser courtesy of Celtic Blue Diva along with two drinking games. The first is that you have to drink every time she brings up a commisioner to answer a question for her and the seccond game is that you have to drink every time she smiles. I can not bring myself watch Palin and listen to here annoying-folksy voice again, even if drinking is involved.. Maybe you are braver than me. Or maybe you can watch just one speech, this time Gov. Palin in Kodiak posted by Shannyn Moore.

Bent Alaska writes about Alaskan high school students participating in a Day of Silence, to bring “attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools.”

It looks like Andrew Halcro is hanging up the blogging spurs and now his enertaining up with retro posts. Here is one from June 28, 2008 that is priceless.