Apparently there was at least one man in Alaska that the McCain/Palin “elves” (for some background on the old elves of yore, go here) didn’t get to, as they have been busily shredding and coercing witnesses to ignore subpoeanas, and it turns out he was pretty important. Meet Judge Peter Michalski, who is probably due for a full-on counter-top inspection:
Alaska Republican lawmakers and the state attorney general lost their bid to block a legislative investigation of Governor Sarah Palin’s firing of the state police chief.
In his ruling yesterday, issued minutes before the start of the vice-presidential debate, Alaska state court Judge Peter Michalski said the Alaska Legislative Council can move ahead with its investigation, including having the state Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena Palin aides to testify.
“It is legitimately within the scope of the Legislature’s investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the termination of a public officer,” Michalski wrote in his ruling.
Michalski was appointed by Democratic Governor Bill Sheffield in the 80’s, so I am sure this will be spun as clear proof of perfidy. At any rate, this just got more interesting
Comrade Jake
Palin will soon hold a press conference to diffuse all the attention the media is giving this story.
Or not.
jake
Well doggone it, there you go again Judge, pointing fingers backwards to the past also though. But!
Yeah, I saw that last night and wondered if part of her DitHL look might stem from hearing that little tid-bit of news in the green room.
(Will this bastard eat my post?)
(No, but it was close.)
Gay Veteran
Rule of law? We don’t need no stinking Rule of Law!
Gay Veteran
Rule of law? We don’t need no stinking Rule of Law!
greynoldsct00
Hee, good timing. Just when McCain was thinking the "economy" pressure would be off his campaign due to the bailout being passed, a new frog in teh punchbowl…
Dennis - SGMM
Judge Peter Michalski is in the tank for Obama. Anyone who says he isn’t just wants to run up the white flag of surrender.
Comrade Kevin
Did The Pork Chop Express just get another flat tire?
mantis
So what stunt will McCain pull next weekend to distract from the investigator’s report (assuming that it reflects poorly on Palin)? Suspending himself in a glass box for the rest of the campaign? Streaking through a football game? Putting a bin Laden costume on Steve Schmidt and making a video saying Hussein Obama Hussein is the greatest?
Common Sense
Merrily marching off topic:
I had an idea for increasing our volunteer military. I’m wondering what holes everyone might find.
What if we were to offer our veterans tax exempt status? Since I frankly have no idea how much it would cost to give every vet no taxes for life (but it’s probably too much) two possible restrictions. Have a cap set at some amount (100k or 150k perhaps). Also in order to encourage retention we could offer, say, two years of tax exempt status for every year served.
How dumb an idea is this?
Comrade Face
This could have been mentioned elsewhere, but TPM is reporting that Palin discovered that her own runnin’ mate dropped out of Michigan……………………….by reading it in the newspaper.
They didn’t even tell her about this change of plan. Game….set….matc
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Yeah, but which newspaper?
SGEW
I just realized: After watching the debate last night (and seeing no real game changer), lookin’ at th’ polls, and readin’ th’ news, the great black shroud of agita that’s been on my shoulders since I jumped on the Hope Train* is really starting to ease.
McCain can’t win. Yes, I know, keep up the pressure, stay on the ground game**, bring home as big a land slide as possible (eat it, Mondale!) . . . but doesn’t it feel good to just kind of, you know, assume that we’re going to have an Obama administration?
My word, what an extraordinary sensation.
Of course, this means that we’re going to go into full-on batshit Shakespearean territory next to prove me wrong and crush my spirit. Kind of like the Bundy Curse.***
*Ye gods, 2006 feels like a long, long, long time ago.
**I’m goin’ to PA again this weekend w/ a bunch of great older folks. I’m their "non-threatening and polite minority" representative, I suspect.
***I have no idea why I pulled this out of my head. I hate that show.
Dennis - SGMM
Palin reads all of the newspapers.
Dennis - SGMM
It would be hell if the Snowbilly Daisy Duke turned out to be the Snowbilly Boss Hogg.
Svensker
I don’t really have anything to say, but since there’s no Black Cone of Invisibility yet (like there usually is nowadays when I get here to start a-readin’ doncha know), thought I’d post something just for the heck of it. Or maybe the goshdarn of it.
David Hunt
Wow. coercion is bad enough, but shredding witnesses?!! That’s harsh.
:)
JGabriel
John Cole:
They’re shredding witnesses now? Those bastards!
My god, is there nothing they won’t stoop to?
Those poor, defenseless, shredded witnesses.
.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@jake: DitHL ?
SGEW
It is, after all, the Fargo election.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
Palin’s accent isn’t the only idea they ripped off from Fargo.
EDIT: damn it, SGEW.
Deer in the Headlights, dontcha know.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Comrade Kevin:
"The check is in the mail."
-Jack Burton
Punchy
Can someone interpret the title of this post for me? I can’t read Geek very well.
TIA.
liberal
SGEW wrote,
Not fairly. But between keeping voters from the polls and outright theft via hacking electronic voting machines, who knows?
greynoldsct00
@Comrade Scrutinizer: Deer In The Headlights
sfHeath
@ Scrutinizer: DitHL = Deer in the HeadLights, I assume. Nice, jake.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@greynoldsct00: Ah.
Thanks.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Punchy:
I assume "Big Trouble in Little China" (awesome movie) jammed up against Sitka, AK.
liberal
What about the Alaska supreme court?
liberal
Common Sense wrote,
I respect folks who serve in the military, but from a cost/benefit point of view, IMHO the effect of making the military larger would be to get us into more wars.
What we need to do is heed George Washington and John Quincy Adams, bring all our troops home, drastically shrink the military until it’s a size appropriate to a country that has no enemies on its borders (and no real reason to have geopolitical enemies, were the ship of state guided correctly), and bank the difference.
Punchy
Recalled using time-warp status around the beginning of October, 2004.
These fuckers will do ANYTHING to win; therefore I aint having any good feelings until Nov. 5, and even then, it’s short-lived, cuz I have a fucking dentist appt. that morning.
SGEW
Cue this week’s This Modern World.
Atanarjuat
Liberalism and treason go hand in hand, so the leftist judge’s decision in Alaska is not at all surprising. Peter Michalski’s decision will certainly be taken into account once Vice President Sarah Palin is able to put the election behind her and she’s able to focus on her hate-filled detractors.
Face it, you limp-wristed leftists: Sarah Palin is Gulliver. All of you are like the Lilliputians vainly trying to hold her down with your pitiful lies and smears. Remember this well when the day of reckoning comes.
Country First.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Watching CNBC.
Why do they keep fellating Warren Buffet? Is he like, Odin or something to these people?
SGEW
Yeah, but I never assumed that Kerry was going to win. I hoped for it, and worked my ass off (in my weird way, at the time – probably didn’t help much, now that I think of it), and begged the country for it, but I never ever assumed that Mr. "Face Droops With Joy" could win against a sitting wartime president.
Face it. Kerry never had this sort of rampaging advantage.
Chris Johnson
It’s a bit late to not have geopolitical enemies, isn’t it?
And my concern is more along the lines of, how many rightwingers will end up feeling entirely okay with openly cheating the election and/or just plain calling it off and openly attempting a coup. I’m really disappointed with how many of these psychos there are, and hope we’ll also see a backlash, because even some of the rightwingers won’t go along with nonsense that’s too extreme.
SGEW
Is it just me, or are the McCain talking points getting a bit more, um, threatening?
Even if it’s spoof, it’s still kinda scary.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Atanarjuat: Not bad. Liked the bit about Gulliver, even though it was a dead giveaway.
Throw in some misspellings and grammatical errors, ditch the sly metaphors, and you’ve got spoof gold!
liberal
Chris Johnson wrote,
Nah. We get the hell out of there, and those folks will leave us alone.
Examples:
(1) Korea: sign a peace treaty with N Korea (nominally, we’re still in a state of war), and then pull everything out of S Korea. (Not overnight, of course, but…)
(2) Iran: sign a treaty along the lines of what Iran proposed to us (in 2003, I think?)
mapaghimagsik
Unfortunately, as McCain-Palin starts to suck more and more, the MSM is going to pick up on a "comeback" theme.
Sucks, but its coming.
liberal
SGEW wrote,
Not really.
Have you ever seen those videos of right-wing militia nutjobs? What a bunch of losers.
liberal
SGEW wrote,
How do we know he didn’t win? Wasn’t it 2004 when all the exit polls said he was going to pull it out?
mapaghimagsik
@liberal:
No kidding. At this point, even if Obama wins, I’d be looking for McCain to tap wifey’s millions to hire an "accident"
jake
Although maybe MitHL would be more apt.
Or MitXH.
(Moose in the cross hairs)
SGEW
Again, even if Kerry did win (I think he did, IMHO, based on Ohio – Kerry won the electoral (barely) while Bush won the popular (barely)), my point was that I never reached a stage where I could assume that he would win. It was a nail biter up to the end. But now . . . I feel some kind of weird "hope" sensation. It’s curious.
Have you ever read the comments at WND (especially the threads following Mr. Norris’ extraordinary insights)? I am aware of all right-wing militia nutjobs traditions. I haven’t really seen this kind of thing from the McCain machine yet, and I’m wondering when it’ll start to really ramp up.
When can we expect the "Barack Hussein Osama is a Raping Terrorist Negro who is also the AntiChrist, probably" "I’m John McCain and I approve this message gabba gabba hey wow ga!" ads to start running?
Roonieroo
@liberal: That is my big fear. But with the way the polls are going, if McCain does win, that will pretty much confirm that our election system is all fraud at this point.
I’m just holding onto the shred of belief I have left that somehow things are not that broken.
liberal
SGEW wrote,
Not sure I follow…World Net Daily? Chuck Norris?
Anyhoo…that’s just a bunch of big-headed right-wing geeks who are masturbating onto their keyboards.
I hear you on that one. Given McThug’s behavior and lack of honor, if he doesn’t start to close the gap, I predict it will get much worse.
Which won’t upset me; animal are animals, thugs are thugs. What will upset me is (a) Obama/Dems (possibly) not responding strongly enough, (b) media running the ads (AFAICT, they don’t have to run the ads), (c) the big business and banking sectors not making valiant attempts to ensure McNutjob isn’t elected, despite the $700 Xmas gift the House Dems just gave them.
liberal
Rooniero wrote,
The problem is that there would be little we could do about it. Even if we kept Congress, the Dems are too spineless to hand out the necessary subpoenas.
jake
Camp McPOW would never run such an ad. There’s too much risk Das Base would hear "Barack Hussein Obama is a terrist raping negro" and vote for him.
DonnaInMichigan
I’m so proud of my state..
We kicked the McCain campaign the hell outta here…
Go Michiganians!!!!
Now onto Ohio…………git er done!
jake
Soon the illiterati of the right will spew forth many a blog post and comment in which they will convince themselves that the entire state of Michigan is really several hundred miles of Detroit. (So it is only natural that it went to Obama.)
Comrade Grand Panjandrum
Ladies and Gentleman you can stick a fork in this one. Now is the time for all good MUP worshipers to ensure that he runs up the score on Johnny Drama and Bible Spice.
I now live in another swing state (we moved away from our Well Fortified Compound in the High Desert of New Mexico) AKA the Undisclosed Location in New England. This place was a guaranteed R until about 4 years ago. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the voting booth: the people of this Great State realized that voting for a fake Texan was NOT in their best interest. The more urban areas have trended D for some time and generally are doing very well economically. Sadly, the more rural areas (and usually quite Red) are hard hit by the downturn in the economy. You can’t eat Jesus for breakfast and the Flag won’t pay the rent. It’s sufficient to say that this state will go in the Blue column.
The Obama campaign has one hell of a ground game going on here. Recall the primary season where Obama out maneuvered Clinton in amassing Delegates? He’s doing the same thing with Electoral Votes. Don’t be surprised if Nate and the gang at 538 are very close in their prediction of how many votes Obama gets.
Obama will be 44.
Pooh
I have the proud honor to have been Judge Michalski’s law clerk a few years back. Never ever ever been prouder of that than I am today…
JSC
Judge Michalski has been a judge with a keen understanding of constitutional law. He was the trial judge in Brause v. State, the landmark case in Alaska about same sex marriage that was the second same sex marriage case to be litigated in the country, after the Hawaiian case. Although considered a conservative jurist, in 1998 he issued an outstanding, bellweather decision on summary judgment that included the strong affirmation of the right to marry under the Alaska Constitution’s equal rights and privacy protections. See http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/legal/alaska/brause-v-alaska
Unfortunately, the decision resulted in the Legislature referring out to the voters a proposed constitutional amendment that defined marriage to preclude same sex marriage. The amendment passed but, ironically, by a smaller margin in conservative Alaska than a similar amendment passed in liberal Hawaii.
Jim Crane