Travelgate summary

While Governor of Alaska Sarah charged the state 40 times for travel expenses for her children. 

From Mudflats

Governor Sarah Palin yesterday agreed to pay an estimated $6800 for what she charged the state for her children’s travel expenses and related costs since assuming her role as governor.

This all came about as the result of an ethics complaint filed against Palin by Frank Gwartney, a retired electrical lineman who had had enough of Palin’s hypocrisy regarding cleaning up government, and stopping abuses. The complaint, which was filed in October after new information came out about her state paid family travel, was sent to the Personnel Board and investigator…..(wait for it)…..Tim Petumenos. You remember him. He’s the one that said (despite the Legislative Investigation into the Troopergate ethics scandal, and their finding that Palin was guilty of abuse of power under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act) that Palin was innocent of any wrongdoing. And the fact that there was contradictory testimony from Palin and Walt Monegan? Well….that just wasn’t worth pursuing in his humble opinion.

So now, after looking at FORTY examples of the state paying for Palin’s children to travel with her, he’s come up with 9 instances where he found the personal benefit outweighed the benefit to the state, and Palin has agreed to pay for these 9 occasions in exchange for getting to say “I did nothing wrong!” and for Petumenos agreeing  not to file a formal accusation or take the case to a hearing. Not a bad deal.  Palin get’s to pay a small amount in order to stop an investigation, and also gets to claim, according to her attorney that she was “exhonorated.”

The charges at issue include the cost of airfare and one meal when daughter Bristol to accompanied Palin to New York City in 2007 for a women’s leadership conference, according to the settlement agreement. State travel forms put that cost at about $1,400.

There’s also airfare and hotel costs for daughters Bristol and Piper to travel with their mother to the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia last July. State travel forms say the flights and hotel room at the Ritz Carlton cost more than $2,500.
Other questioned trips were in Alaska, including one last year to the start of the Tesoro Iron Dog snowmachine race, in which Palin’s husband, Todd, was one of the contenders.

So, what were the other 31 trips, where the presence of the Palin children had more benefit to the state than to them, or the governor personally?  I’d like to hear what compelling reasons Mr. Petumenos found, that would make me feel good enough about the benefit to the state of Alaska that I’ll pony up money to send her kids along on the trip.

And what did Palin have to say about this?  What is her justification?

“This is a big state, and I am obligated to — and intend to — keep Alaskans informed and meet with them as much as I can, from Barrow to Marshall to Ketchikan,” Palin said in a written statement. “At the same time, I am blessed to have a large and loving family, and the discharge of my duties should not prevent me from spending time with them.”

So, she thinks that her job as governor shouldn’t prevent her from spending time with her family.  And it shouldn’t keep her from living in Wasilla, rather than the state capital, Juneau. And it shouldn’t prevent her from taking per diem payments to live there and work in Anchorage.   And it shouldn’t mean she has to pay taxes on that per diem, and her state vehicle, and on and on.

Nothing works out like it should for the governor, does it?

The policy found on the official state web site says that travel expenses by a state employee’s spouse, children or companions “are not reimbursable.”  But somehow when applied to the governor, the rules become “dizzying and circular” according to Petumenos.  And the other side agrees as well that things need to be “clarified”.

Palin keeps saying she did nothing wrong.  But when one governor’s actions constantly tiptoe over the line, meaning that ethics rules need to be “clarified” and reevaluated at every turn, and when public opinion sees the obvious lack of ethics that went into the decision making process, then it means they did do something wrong.  Whatever leads a governor to say “It’s OK to charge the state to live and eat in my own home” and

“Sure, the state should pay for my huge family to travel with me everywhere because I shouldn’t have to give anything up like other people do”  shows a basic disconnect, hubris, and a sense that the person feels that they are owed something.

Sarah Palin ignored Jeremy Morlock's plea to be brought home from overseas under a "compassionate reassignment." Update!

Here is the e-mail that Morlock sent to his Governor, and family friend, on August 23, 2007:

Web mail from: Mr. Jeremy Morlock
address: 2 bn 1st inf reg bct Ft. Lewis WA 98433
706-662-7266

MESSAGE:

Mrs. Sarah Palin rnrnSarah I wish I knew of a better way of getting in contact with you and I know your busy having a whole state to run but, I was writing because I had a question to ask. I guess I'll start off by letting you know where im at with things, being in the Army as an lower enslisted man its hard to get things done, I've been looking in to a regulation we have called a 'compassionate reassignment (AR 614-100).' It stipulates under certian circumstances a soldier can request to move duty stations to help care for family in need . I know you have known my family for some time and I think of you all as friends and you know my mother is now taking care of all the girls by herself while trying to keep a job. I'm not asking for pity for my family or myself, I'm just asking if there is anything you could do to help me with my process of getting home to Alaska to help. My direct chain of comand (team, squad leader) have been trying there best to help with out causeing! problems for them selves but, the fact is that my Unit is not really supporting me and trying to coax me to stay. I appreciate your time in reading this and any help you can offer.rnrn sincerely,rnPFC Morlock, Jeremyrn2/1 INF 5 SBCT

morlock-93@hotmail.com

This was the response Track's good friend, and son of Todd's schoolmate received from the Governor's office.

From: Governor Sarah Palin (GOV sponsored) [governor@alaska.gov]
Sent : Friday, August 24, 2007 8:30 AM

To: morlock 93@hotmail.com

Subject : RE: Military_and_Veterans_Affairs
Thank you for writing to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The concerns, opinions, and/or information you have sent are important and valuable to the Governor. Although she is unable to respond to each and every email herself, your message has been received and is being reviewed by the appropriate staff person in this office who can best address your need, suggestion, or comment.

We all know what happened to Jeremy Morlock after that brush off from Palin's office. 

Just imagine how his life might have been changed if only the mother of his sister's best friends would have taken the time to listen to his plea. And you know she really could have helped him, after all she had little trouble keeping her son Track out of harm's way during HIS time in the military.

Update: Nobody is making excuses for what Jeremy Morlock did, he has to take responsibility for his own actions. But this young man entered the military to impress his father who then died in a boating accident in July of 2007.  A month later, while still grieving that loss,and after hearing from his mother how difficult things were for the family, he reached  out to his best friend's mother, who happened to be the Governor of his state, and asked for help getting back home to help them.

And for those efforts he did not even receive a personal response from the woman who he believed was a personal friend to his family

Somebody suggested that the Morlocks and Palins are still friends, but that is not true.  Yes the girls are still friends with Bristol and Willow, but the mother has absolutely no use for Sarah and Todd.

After all it was THEIR house that Willow broke into back in December 2009, and after the Palins refused to pay for the damages, and then arranged for their daughter and her friends to get off while throwing the rest of the kids to the wolves, that pretty much severed any ties between the parents.

In fact Jeremy's mother, Audrey Morlock, has been doing every thing she can to hold her family together with absolutely NO help from her "friends" the Palins.

NOW do you understand how disgusting it was that Palin did nothing to respond to this young man's pleas for help?

This is Palin's plan for fighting back against the truth. A two hour movie filled with Palin mythology and misinformation. Update!

Courtesy of Real Clear Politics:

Shortly after Republicans swept last November to a historic victory in which Sarah Palin was credited with playing a central role, the former Alaska governor pulled aside her close aide, Rebecca Mansour, to discuss a hush-hush assignment: Reach out to conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon with a request. Ask him if he would make a series of videos extolling Palin's governorship and laying to rest lingering questions about her controversial decision to resign from office with a year-and-a-half left in her first term. It was this abdication, Palin knew, that had made her damaged goods in the eyes of some Republicans who once were eager to get behind her potential 2012 presidential campaign.

The response was more positive than Palin could have hoped for. He'd make a feature-length movie, Bannon told Mansour, and he insisted upon taking complete control and financing it himself -- to the tune of $1 million.

The fruits of that initial conversation are now complete. The result is a two-hour-long, sweeping epic, a rough cut of which Bannon screened privately for Sarah and Todd Palin last Wednesday in Arizona, where Alaska's most famous couple has been rumored to have purchased a new home. When it premieres in Iowa next month, the film is poised to serve as a galvanizing prelude to Palin's prospective presidential campaign -- an unconventional reintroduction to the nation that she and her political team have spent months eagerly anticipating, even as Beltway Republicans have largely concluded that she won't run

Obviously this is a movie, much like Palin's books, that will really ONLY play to those people who already worship Sarah Palin. 

I seriously doubt it will create any new converts. Not this late in the game.

However it completely puts to rest ANY question of whether she is running or not.  She most definitely is!

Perhaps we could get Frank Bailey to watch the movie and review it for us. He could easily see through the bullshit and tell all of us what was REALLY happening behind the scenes. Now THAT would be a great post!

Update: Is anybody really going to buy this?

Bannon dramatizes the theme of Palin's persecution at the hands of her enemies in the media and both political parties, a notion the former governor has long embraced. Images of lions killing a zebra and a dead medieval soldier with an arrow sticking in his back dramatize the ethics complaints filed by obscure Alaskan citizens, which Palin has cited as the primary reason for her sudden resignation in July of 2009.

Palin is the victim of her own stupidity, and arrogance, and no paltry one million dollar film is going to be able to change the fact that more and more people are learning that reality every single day.

And by the way, this is not something that is widely known, but there is ANOTHER movie being made about Palin (No not Game Change) that will be much more truthful, and much less helpful to the Grizzled Mama's political aspirations.  It is also worth noting that the film certainly cost more to make than a measly one millions dollars! (I think porn costs more than that to film these days. Though come to think of it, this might very well be considered the soft core version of Nailin Paylin.)

That's right, the forces of truth and justice are capable of creating both books AND movies