Open Thread – Baldy and the Swamp
5 02 2010
We’ve had a good solid four months of winter now. And thanks to the marmots who apparently hibernated right through Alaska’s official “Marmot Day” on February 2nd, the news is not good. Sleeping right through the designated shadow analysis period, it appears as though the marmots have assured us a few more months.
So, it becomes necessary for Alaskans to find ways to cope, which for me usually means that I think of the other half of the year, when there are things like chlorophyll and birds. I find myself daydreaming and planning for all the things I’ll do when summer comes. It almost doesn’t matter if I really think I’ll do them or not. It’s just nice to dream. That plus red wine, chocolate and an X-tra large steaming bowl full of denial gets me through.
The picture above was taken in Trapper Creek, Alaska – a couple hours north of Anchorage. This was a nice day to think about. The flat area with the grass is known to the residents of the immediate area as “the swamp.” Not particularly romantic, but descriptive nonetheless. The mountain in the background is known as “Baldy.” You would never imagine that a scene that could be entitled “Baldy and the Swamp” could be so lovely.
If you don’t mind, I’m going to go hang out on a reclining deck chair and catch a few rays… just as soon as I get some lemonade. You’re welcome to join me.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:20 AM
“Palin E-mails” currently #1 in “Top Stories” on Google News!
February 5th, 2010 at 11:22 AM
I see London, I see France, I see Palin’s underpants(on fire)
February 5th, 2010 at 11:26 AM
Lainey, sorry me again. Just wanted to clarify, that you didn’t say, “about bots being in denial” – I just inferred from what you said that it meant that. Am doing the word game here – didn’t want to put words in your mouth. Should have quoted your response first. Blah. Too much coffee!
February 5th, 2010 at 11:26 AM
I think the reality is that people who love her won’t think anything of this and will accuse others of being ridiculously picky. In fact, they will probably laud her for ’subjecting’ herself to her husband’s input. People who know she’s a corrupt politico will simply see this as more evidence to support their position. Meg Stapleton will come out on the offensive attacking the msm and left-wing blogs. Levi, Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt will maintain radio silence with what they know about Palin. In short, nothing will change.
How much you want to bet Scott Richter takes the fall for the tax fiasco on their shared property? The woman is Teflon as long as she inspires blind faith and has plenty of willing fall guys. What I can’t figure out is how she finds so many people to fall on their swords for her.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:31 AM
So many great links and comments!! I’m laughing and learning and am surrounded by open browser windows. There is no way desk work is being done today. I’m just hoping that the poor house I finally end up in has a wifi connection.
I have a question for those souls who managed to get through a reading of $P’s magical mystery novel – When she talks about her trip to Texas for the energy conference, ( wild ride) – Does she mention the days before going ? Does she mention anything about ” Todd and I had been looking forward to this trip” or something similar ? Thanks!
Oh no! Shannyn’s show is coming on soon. How much input can an aging brain handle before it catches fire ?
Irishgirl – I might have to join you in that cocktail soon! ( well …not IN the cocktail. that’s just crazy talk )
February 5th, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Tancredo had the balls to stand in front of Teabags and denigrate people who can’t spell? Did they throw their shoes at him? Morans.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:37 AM
At the very least, it’s over for any presidential aspirations. At least today confirmed that.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:52 AM
I read that the State of Alaska only charged NBC like $325 for ALL of this info.
Sine we KNOW how much S’carah hated ( obsessed about ) the AK bloggers you can be 99% SURE that the outrageous amount they asked Celtic Diva to pay compared to the MSNBC request can not be justified. This was PERSONAL and I am sure S’carah had directed ‘ her People ‘ to find ways to stop it.
S’carah’s PEOPLE thought that Celtic Diva would not pay that amount ( if it was large enough ) or she couldn’t. They thought the problem was solved. Silly Sarah. She always ‘ misunderstimated ‘ the ingenuity and will of the Bloggers to get the Truth out.
I think Celtic Diva has a case to be made that she get some sort of a refund.
How else could you ‘ explain ‘ it or spin their excuse.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:54 AM
Poor Scarah! Such a rough week for her, The ScarahPac, The Property Tax Evasion, and now ALL these Emails that show how manipulative and underhanded she is.
Oh dear, I don’t think honest law abiding Christians or fans or Republicans are going to view this too favorably. No siree, those who were on the fence will be off and those already against her will use all this to point out she is not who the Repubs should back.
Romney and Huck fans will be pouring through these emails to find dirt, and gosh there is so much dirt when you look closely, eh?
Can’t happen quick enough for me. Stop this crazy lady and the hate groups.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:08 PM
Shannyn is on.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:13 PM
Wonder how this will affect the campaigning for McCain and Perry. Will they still want her support. How will they get out of this dilemna. Wonder what Steve Schmidt is thinking?
Buffalo Gal is right. Here too, I can almost smelling the smoke coming out of my ears.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Poor Scarah! Such a rough week for her, The ScarahPac, The Property Tax Evasion, and now ALL these Emails that show how manipulative and underhanded she is, it also shows how incapable she is on her own, and oh dear, her ethics are showing.
No doubt the sticky or illegal docs were withheld or redac’d. And hopefully they will not be or are not destroyed. At this point that would fall under Parnell and his administrations responsibility, I wonder if he’s willing to take that risk, I guess he would if he had to cover his own butt too.
And isn’t the recent AK Supreme (?) Court Judge settlement in favor of the gov using private email accounts coming at a convenient time, bet that Judge knew MSNBC was getting these emails. Did Toad help appoint him? or were Toad and Scarah influential in keeping him in his seat after his drunk driving arrests, that brought cries of “disbar and that he should step down”, so he could be a useful tool down the road.
I don’t think honest law abiding Christians or Republicans are going to view this too favorably. No siree, those who were on the fence will be off and those already against her will use all this to point out she is not who the Repubs should back.
Romney and Huck fans will be pouring through these emails to find mud worthy of slinging, and gosh there is so much dirt when you look closely, eh?
Can’t happen quick enough for me. Stop this crazy lady and the hate groups.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:19 PM
161 rebekkah,
Read this morning that Brown is going to stump for McCain so he may toss his “queen” to the curb as Brown is the “golden boy” now
February 5th, 2010 at 12:26 PM
lol, sorry for double post, it didn’t want to go through the first time and I added to it the second try.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Irishgirl Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 10:32 AM
Rob in CA, I think that is right. I am annoyed as I contributed to Celtic Diva. Let me hasten to add that I am not annoyed with CD, but the people who charged her so much.
————-
Not sure that the cheque has actually been sent (I think that number was their initial quote designed to scare her off). But if she has paid, CD should ask for a refund!
February 5th, 2010 at 12:37 PM
LOL! http://www.williamkwolfrum.com/2010/02/05/e-mails-reveal-piper-palin-ran-alaska-in-2008/
E-mails reveal Piper Palin ran Alaska in 2008
February 5, 2010 by William K. Wolfrum
[snip]
“If we pay one cent. One cent in taxes, I will poop myself,” Piper Palin wrote to the family attorney from her Yahoo e-mail account – Barracuda2@yahoo.com. “Do you hear me Poop!”
While many political observers question whether it was proper for a child to have such power in the oil-rich state, one anonymous Republican said that it was normal operating procedure.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Shannyn is rocking!
February 5th, 2010 at 12:38 PM
166 @The Problem Child
Made my day!
February 5th, 2010 at 12:53 PM
If you don’t want to d/l Silver whatever Gates’ software to hear Shannyn’s show:
http://lightningstream.surfernetwork.com/Media/player/view/kudo4.asp?call=kudo&title=ListenLive&skin=KUDO
February 5th, 2010 at 1:00 PM
jojobo1–the spouse LOVES telling people about Centralia.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:01 PM
So many e-mails, so little time… I love the “Backstory” portion of the MSNBC story (page 2):
“State officials said they could not figure out how to electronically search or distribute the e-mails. But such work is the bread and butter of firms like Crivella West, a Pittsburgh company which offered to do that work for the state for free. After the state ignored its offer, msnbc.com contacted the company, which agreed to scan in the photocopies to turn them back into searchable text, and to set up the documents in a public archive.”
So, Crivella gets the publicity of a lifetime. I hope they are good corporate citizens
February 5th, 2010 at 1:12 PM
After reading more of the Palin emails, one thing that really stands out is the sheery amount of @$$-kissing performed by Ivy Frye. It is off the charts and sickening, really.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Don’t know why ya alls are getting so excited about some media outlet finally covering the Todd Palin email crap… those of us who are regular readers of AKM’s and Shannyn’s and IM and Diva and a bunch of others knew about that garbage a year and a half ago. Wtf took the media so long? Did they only discover this week that a number of the AK bloggers have a high level of credibility??
February 5th, 2010 at 1:44 PM
68 ds55 Says: February 5th, 2010 at 8:24 AM
Just one of those emails is enough to land her in jail.
Trying to hide the cost of hooking up her tanning bed as part of legitimate government expenses. What idiot writes an email about that?!
——
ummmm… hahahaa!… ummm… s’error palin d’idiot?
February 5th, 2010 at 1:48 PM
there are no boundaries with those zombie-like people…in their hateful, incited feeding frenzy against ‘the man’…I pray that these new email & tax stories, that are hitting all the airwaves, are on some unstoppable runaway train and at the end of the line diminishes and destroys her power in a huge way!
February 5th, 2010 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been to Centralia… Paula, too, perhaps. Smokey and stinky on Rt 61.
For those concerned about faux’ lack of coverage, I will give them credit for covering the bullying death in western MA. Maybe they can convince s’error to head on up to South Hadley and conduct the investigation that the school district seems unwilling to do… would keep her out of trouble!
February 5th, 2010 at 1:56 PM
Wonder what my sorry ass Gov. Perry thinks about a tax cheat coming to campaign for him this Sunday ??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4tWZNxnABk
February 5th, 2010 at 1:57 PM
I’m hoping folks like Andree McLeod and Andrew Halcro will be file some suits about BP, travelgate, and committee appointments that are revealed in the emails.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:14 PM
Celtic Diva talking to Shannyn right now.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Not one word on the Ocean of Urine site about Cabingate or Shadow Governor emails.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:30 PM
LiladyNY–awww, are they upset or something? Are they not having a good week? Maybe we should send them a plate of cookies or something…! /snark
February 5th, 2010 at 2:31 PM
Celtic is ripping on the State. She tucked away the refund she got (she still paid thousands to MSNBC’s $300 and change) from the State pending a ruling on privilege claimed on some of the e-mails. That’s what I guessed she was up to. (see my post on the cabin thread in response to RRH).
February 5th, 2010 at 2:34 PM
From NBC: A broader request by msnbc.com and other news organizations for all e-mails sent and received by the governor and about 50 top officials — about 25,000 in all — is still pending. Last week, Sarah Palin’s former staff, now working for Gov. Sean Parnell, requested additional time, as required by the public records law, to respond.
This is only the TIP of the iceberg!
February 5th, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Shannyn h/t to Mudflats again for the break cabingate
February 5th, 2010 at 2:39 PM
#181 @ InJuneau Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 2:30 PM
LiladyNY–awww, are they upset or something? Are they not having a good week? Maybe we should send them a plate of cookies or something…! /snark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Based on my last post at #183, I think they’re gonna need a big ol’ sheet cake of mandation!
Holy Hoosegow Batman!
Can you say fraud, ethics violations, State of Alaska Constitutional violations, tax fraud, violation of Employee Confidentiality Agreements, conflict of interest, collusion? I’m sure an attorney can put it all into perspective for us.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:40 PM
About now, I bet Sarah is wishing she would have “blinked” when John McCain knocked on her door.
Do you think this all would have come out if she had said NO. Before August 2008, no one in the Lower 48 had any idea who Sarah Palin was; she’d probably still be Governor, and getting away with anything she wanted.
Thank heavens she said “YES” to McCain.
I lived through the whole Watergate saga back in the 70’s, and this story is following the exact same path. Started out small, and continualy grew bigger and bigger until Nixon resigned.
I wonder who they’ll get to play Todd and Sarah in the movie ? Who will play Meg ? And who will play AKM ?
February 5th, 2010 at 2:40 PM
Oh. my. goodness.
What a busy day here on the Mudflats and also too throughout the tubes! Only halfway through comments but must jump in:
R’ipley @60
Good one! As a third generation door-slammer (reformed), there’s something deeply satisfying about this image.
aussigal77 @ 97
I, also, too. What you said.
*waiting with aussigal*
*er, also too going to finish the comments and follow some links*
February 5th, 2010 at 2:44 PM
sauerkraut Says:
February 5th, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Don’t know why ya alls are getting so excited about some media outlet finally covering the Todd Palin email crap… those of us who are regular readers of AKM’s and Shannyn’s and IM and Diva and a bunch of others knew about that garbage a year and a half ago. Wtf took the media so long? Did they only discover this week that a number of the AK bloggers have a high level of credibility??
*************************************************************************
my thoughts exactly. we must be spirit twins.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Of course cofp site would say nothing, why tell any members who did not read or hear about it an idea of what is going on or how corrupt palin seems to be
February 5th, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Other spouses may contribute to discussions at home or like Bill Clinton did appoint Hillary but none had their spouse do illegal things like looking up police records ect like palin seems to have done.police officers who do things like that can be fired with cause. No one wants a twofer IMO thats one reason Hillary lost.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:55 PM
Before the recession, I was employed in a job that required confidentiality. I got information all the time I couldn’t share or talk about. My husband was in the same boat several years ago. Neither one of us ever talked about confidential information. Neither of us asked the other for advice in confidential matters. We’d occasionally talk about laws or ethics, but never ever a specific case. Ever.
This is like a speeding ticket. Yes, others have done it and not been caught. But the Palins have been caught, so they’re the ones that get a ticket.
February 5th, 2010 at 3:22 PM
Not politically relevant, but another example of the spinning hamster wheel that is the Grifter’s brain: In one email (June 7, 2008) she entreats her staff to make sure “lots of fresh fruit and veggies-no processed foods” are available for the kids- then in the very next sentence wants to set up a tab at El Sombrero. Although Mexican food is delicious, Crunch Wrap Supreme is usually not connected with “healthy eating”. Reviews of El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant (Juneau) mention blandness, but recommend the Halibut Fajitas.
February 5th, 2010 at 3:40 PM
BuffaloGal @109
I’ll join you around that campfire. “Tales of Granny Grifter” sounds spectacularly spooky/scary. I may have to polish one up, myself. (Must finish polishing a curious marble from Lee323 first, though.)
txindygirl @128 Amen, sister!
Moose Pucky @ 129
T in T-party also, Too: cheaT and depraviTy
and sTinkeroo (that one’s from my cousin Sally, of blessed memory)
and @ 136 “If the Republicans are the party of “No”, maybe the Tea Party is the party of “Taint”?”
Too True. tuttuttut
Almost dark here in my forest. I’m a speedy speller, but a terribly slow typist. peck…peckpeck… peck… so I need to wrap this up and sign off for tonight.
For $arah PAYlin and her minions, I offer the Rabbi’s prayer for the Czar: God bless you and keep you…Far Away from me (and the Mudpuppy Nation, also, too)!
To all of the Mudpuppy Nation, Shalom Bayit, Peace in Your Home.
*flying off to light the candles, break bread, drink some wine, and enjoy the progressing of the weekend*
February 5th, 2010 at 3:50 PM
If she had said no to mccain, and thats a big if, she would’ve been a multi-term governor and robbed the AK people left and right! BUT that would’ve been their problem, not mine.
February 5th, 2010 at 4:14 PM
As we dig through the infamous e-mails, don’t forget to share what you find! We are discussing this in the Forum as well- join in
February 5th, 2010 at 4:15 PM
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,9350.msg100629/topicseen.html#new
This link will get you right intoo the forum.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:18 PM
@ # 162 Say No
“And isn’t the recent AK Supreme (?) Court Judge settlement in favor of the gov using private email accounts coming at a convenient time…”
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Judge McKay, whose decision you are referring to, is not on the Alaskan Supreme Court. Andree McLeod has filed a Reconsideration motion with McKay. If he refuses to change his decision, then it may be reviewed by the Alaskan Supreme Court. See AKM’s most recent post on “Dude, Who’s My Governor?” Near the bottom of that post, she has a link for the Reconsideration motion.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:25 PM
Mudflatters!!!
Congrats to AKM and themudflats.net!
Shoutout from Keith Olbermann tonight when he showed the “cabin” picture and credited themudflats!
February 5th, 2010 at 11:23 PM
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10037/1033996-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml
Fox paying for TV studio in sarah’s home
February 6th, 2010 at 11:24 AM
Tawdry, Tortured, Tainted T-Party.