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The last of the emails that the state of Alaska could recover from Sarah Palin's brief term as governor were released on Thursday.
Editor's note: Here's a link to msnbc.com's previous coverage of a release of Sarah Palin's public records, and our database where you can read those public documents. The Associated Press was apparently the only news organization to be notified by the state that new records were available. Here is the AP's report. Others that had requested them said they had not been informed of the release. They include Mother Jones magazine (which blogged about the odd release), CNN, The Washington Post, ABC News, and the Republican political activist Andrée McLeod, who said Thursday, "The culture of corruption continues unabated."
By Becky Bohrer
The Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska—In the final months before she resigned as Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin displayed growing frustration over deteriorating relationships with state lawmakers and their perceived efforts to "lame duck" her administration, along with outrage over ethics complaints that she felt frivolously targeted her and prompted her to write: "I can't take it anymore."
The details are included in more than 17,000 records released Thursday by state officials -- nearly 3 1/2 years after citizens and news organizations, including The Associated Press, first requested Palin's emails.
By the spring of 2009, the emails show, Palin was regularly butting heads with lawmakers of both parties over her absences from the Capitol and over her picks for vacancies in the state Senate and her own cabinet. The emails she sent to staff illustrate Palin's growing suspicion that those legislators were seeking to undermine her administration by harping on how often she was away from Juneau, the state capitol.
She asked her aides to tally how many days she was out of Alaska in 2008. The staff came up with 94 days, but 10 less if you count travel days when she was in the state part of the day, The absences included all of October and most of September while she was on the campaign trail as the GOP vice presidential candidate.
"It's unacceptable, and there must be push back on their attempts to lame duck this administration," Palin wrote to her top aides on April 9. "That's only going to get worse as they try to pull more bs and capitalize on me being out of the capitol building for 36 hours," she wrote aides.
Palin also asked her aides to see if they could hold certain legislators' "feet to the fire" and hold votes on her nominees. She wrote words of encouragement to Wayne Anthony Ross, her nominee for attorney general, telling him to "stay strong."
"Those who want to turn this into a kangaroo court will soon see you confirmed as Alaska's AG," Palin wrote.
Ross was not confirmed, the first ever cabinet level candidate rejected by the Alaska Legislature. Palin traveled to an anti-abortion rally in Indiana the day he was defeated.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah Palin's political action committee, encouraged everyone to read the emails. "They show a governor hard at work for her state," he said.
The emails are the last of her emails from her time as governor, according to Alaska state officials. Citizens and news organizations, including the AP, first requested Palin's emails in September 2008, as part of her vetting as the Republican vice presidential nominee. The state released a batch of the emails last June, a lag of nearly three years that was attributed to the sheer volume of the records and the flood of requests stemming from Palin's tenure.
The 24,199 pages of emails that were released last year left off in September 2008. When it became clear that the June release would not include all the emails from Palin's tenure last June, requests were then made for the remaining emails. Thursday's release includes 17,736 records, or 34,820 pages, generally spanning from October 2008 until Palin's resignation, in July 2009. Of those, 13,791 records were released without redactions, according to the governor's office. Another 965 documents were withheld.
Several media organizations, including msnbc.com, said they were not informed of Thursday's release.
Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the current governor, Sean Parnell, said she was looking into why msnbc.com was not on the list.
Palin's frustration over a series of ethics complaints filed against her, one of the issues she cited when stepping down, emerges in a series of e-mails on March 24, 2009.
"These are the things that waste my time and money, and the state's time and money," she wrote to then-Lt. Gov. Parnell.
In an April 2009 email, she commiserated over a story indicating another ethics complaint was to be filed: "Unflippinbelievable... I'm sending this because you can relate to the bullcrap continuation of the hell these people put the family through," she wrote to Ivy Frye, an aide during the first part of her term, and to Frank Bailey.
Later that day, in an email to her husband and two top aides, on the issue, she said: "I can't take it anymore."
The first batch of emails released last June, before she announced she would not run for president, showed that Palin was angling for the vice presidential slot months before John McCain picked her to be his running mate. Those records produced no bombshells, while painting a picture of an image-conscious, driven leader, struggling with the gossip about her family and marriage, involved in the day-to-day duties of running the state and keeping tabs on the signature issues of her administration.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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"Borrowed"
This is just a History lesson. I am sending it to all regardless of party .
I bet I know who wouldn't read it -- those afraid of the truth. It is history and nothing can change it.
The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007,
the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start
of the 110th Congress.
The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the
103rd Congress in 1995.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that
everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this:
January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the House:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!
Remember that day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House
Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney ) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and
4.6% Unemployment...to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars
of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!
(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was
financially risky for the US economy). Barney blocked it and called it a "Chicken Little Philosophy"
(and the sky did fall!)
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress,
especially BARNEY!!!!
So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"
Bush may have
been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were
driving the economy into the ditch.
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from
Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.
Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.
In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on
spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.
For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing
resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they
passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.
And where was Barack Obama during this time?
He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he
signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked
like during that period:
If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the
Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit
spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama,
who voted for the budgets.
If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself. ! ! !
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is "I inherited a deficit that I voted for, and then I voted to expand
that deficit four-fold since January 20th."
There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends this information on!
"The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those
who vote for a living."
Sorry, you cannot talk about anything W did because he neglected to include the cost of those wars in any public information. It was as if the wars did not cost anything, according to Bush. Remember, Cheney famously said that deficits do not matter! THAT was the belief system and the legacy of the Bush admin.
You are so right, not sure Americans realize that. The wars were funded outside the normal budget process as were funds because of the "terror" threats!
this is a comment page not a thesis page
Dahdly,
Here is a link to explain you and people like you.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/study-suggests-low-iq-social-conservatism-and-prejudice-go-hand-in-hand/
Oh, Sarah, I can't take you anymore either!!!!!!! But please don't fade away, you and the GOP nut jobs at least until the elections, keep you crazy wacko comments coming, the more you speak the better President Obama's chances are of getting reelected. Same with the far right wackos on these forums, please don't stop your ignorant, uniformed, racist comments.
Liberals are more obsessed with Sarah Palin than any other group of people. Just mention "Sarah Palin" and these losers start frothing at the mouth.
These punks who sport "co-exist" bumper stickers and peace, love, etc. crap are the most hateful people you'll ever find. They are the most intolerant pieces of trash that walk among us... So I don't tolerate them.
I'll never hire a liberal/democrat/Marxist at my company and I've reaped huge benefits of doing do. I'll never have to worry about unionization, have fewer workers comp claims as the ones filed are actually legitimate, and fewer problems with punks who are deserving of an a$$ beating.
Your employees will probably just quietly steal you blind, because you are just that much of a jerk. Think of how many church bookkeepers get caught stealing hundreds of thousands.
WmJenkinsIII -
Yes I am one of the liberal-leaning people who "froth" at the mention of Sarah Palin's name.
This bumbling, know-nothing, family values conservative with the mouth of a sailor (sorry sailors) was the poorest excuse for a VP candidate EVER. These records prove she wasn't even capable of managing the office of Gov. of AK. Just imagine how she may have screwed up the Federal govt!?
She very full of herself and I hope she just disappears into the woods of Wasilla and stays out of politics!
ME TOO...Suzq
You never have to worry about unionization if you take care of your work force. It's the greedy mofo's who were the reasons unions got started in the 1st place. Not because they are republican.
Suzq- Records prove that she couldn't run the Governor office. What records? Once again, If you don't have facts, it's just best if you shut off your computer now. She left office because TOO many a-hoes brought up rediculous ethics lawsuits, which burned up taxpayer money investigating them. This is why the law should be changed that if you bring up charges and they are without merit, YOU pay for the investigation and court costs. THAT should shut up alot of stupid whiners.
Willey the III, I am one of the punks you speak of,I worked 35 yrs at my trade,never filed comp claims,showed up every day and didn't belong to a union.It seems to me that you are just repeating things you heard from glen beck.I also doubt that you are this big business owner,probably a truck and a couple of guys,a sophisticated businessman would not speak like you do.As for the @$^% beating you spoke of,I waited all my life for a guy like you,but they only write to you.
And this is newsworthy in 2012 for what reason... ?
A couple networks seem to be staffed by people that are a little phobic and just can't do enough to make sure Palin is discredited forever and ever.
Most people that have a life don't consider her newsworthy, and haven't for some time.
The liberal media...or I should say the State Run Media couldn't find anything in the last batch....so they are bound & determined to find something in these...what a freaking bunch of losers you liberals are...you are dispicable...horrid people...I don't know how you get out of bed in the morning....you must live a horrible life....
They are miserable people. That's why I avoid hiring them at my own company.
It hasn't always been this way. When George W. Bush got elected it was like they all got unhinged and there is no going back. I enacted a personal "determine if a potential employee is a liberal" doctrine and then I put their application in the circular file merely one year ago because I'm not putting up with them anymore.
1 year has gone by and I've had not a single employee file for workman's compensation. Productivity is up and I've given all employees raises. They're happy, I'm happy, and many of liberals we once had employed are still riding unemployment. They will never be able to get a job for the pay we offered them. I hope every last one of them loses their house/apartment and if I see them homeless on the street my heart will be warmed.
I know lots of liberals and independents who are out there every day helping people: doctors, teachers, paramedics, people who serve food in soup kitchens, musicians who donate time to worthy causes....the list is endless. While I do not agree with your opinions, I would never endeavor to say you are despicable. I am sure you have good qualities, you just don't show them when you get into an anonymous forum. You sure are one hateful human.
WmJenkinsIII -
You are an angry person and must be a real joy to work for -
Willey the III doesn't own a company,its just internet babble,no business owner would be stupid enough to put in writing that they have descrimated against employees.
Well stated from an uneducated southern backwood cracker.
It's because she's beautiful, intelligent, and UNASHAMED to be a real woman. And WHAT a woman! Michelle wishes she could be Sarah. Not saying Michelle's ugly, she is a lovely lady. But put lovely next to beautiful and lovely fades into the wall paper.
Trust me, Michelle SO does not want to be Sarah. Michelle actually has a brain and critical thinking skills.
Face it - Sarah is a PILF
Suzq- your Avatar says it all
Can't believe Jim is this stupid. You know nothing about Alaska or Sarah Palin. You must work for Obama or the libs or the MSM. You sure don't know what you are talking about. You are just on a witch hunt.
Jana, some of the libs have figured out that if they can get a conservative caught up in arguments, defending our people or our ways, then simetimes it sidetracks or distracts us from our real objective; to elect conservatives, and get rid of the dingleberries.
I don't even know you, but I like what you say. Say on, Sister!
yes we are on a witch hunt!! and we found Sarah Palin! What I know about Alaska is that most people who haven't killed themselves yet are depressed, the people who take there meds are still crazy enough to stay there, and all opinions aside, the people of Alaska voted this witch into the office of the governor.! (and then she quit after half a term). But yeah, we on a witch hunt.. and that voice.....
Is that a Wonder Woman cuff?!?!
"I can't take it anymore." - Palin.
Well, she quit, and became a Faux News commentator.
It's like being Governor - but without the responsibility. :)
There you go! Kinda like "O" pretending to be Prez, while vacationing during every disaster that comes up...yeah!
I will remember Sarah for her cross-hairs comment.
Becky, Juneau is Alaska's state CAPITAL.
A CAPITOL is a building IN the capital.
You guys DO outsource your proofreading to China, don't you?
STAY IN SCHOOL!!!
I had the misfortune to catch her while flipping channels....stayed with it for a minute, because I like to give everyone a chance. She was just babbling. I mean. REALLY babbling. Greta Von PalinFan was interviewing her, and I realized Sarah Palin cannot think on her feet. She merely repeats her tag lines, but when asked a question requiring thought and critical thinking skills, she falls back on her tag lines, but re-worded, trying to sound different, but failing to make a cohesive statement. Really, I would like to give her a chance, but she just babbles! She simply does not have the brain power to be a high level politician, as evidenced by her current situation where she sits on the sidelines and yaps, rather than diving in to running for another office where she could make a difference. She is lucky enough to be a woman men like to look at. If she was not, we would not be having this conversation.
You Libbernuts are like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed crap all day. You're an embarrassment. You're an embarrassment to your party as supporters and an embarrassment to your country as citizens. Drunk on the koolaid and so closed minded you wouldn't even think of listening or reading another news source. There's a whole lot going on out there that never even gets printed here and you consider yourselves informed. Do you even understand what the nation stands for? If Obama wins in November it's because the clueless and weak minded have become the majority and that's not a win no matter how you slice it. What a loss for the greatest nation ever created.
Two words repug cretin
Is that a banana in your pocket, or did Sarah Palin just walk into the room?
Seriously, you are taking pages out of her failed playbook. You lob insults, while having no ideas on what to do about our countries problems. Just a drooling die-hard Palin fan. I was hopeful...really hopeful to hear anything of value out of Sarah's mouth. But she just kept putting down the democrats. Even the women of her own party were not in her corner. Yes, we are a great nation. There are also other great nations. Get used to it. And we fall further and further behind due to Republican policies that do not hold education in high regard, endeavor to keep women pregnant and ignorant, and keep all the money at the top.
We tried policies that rewarded the rich. Those policies did not work, or do you not remember?
if only you know what you where talking about.
why don't u take your stockpiles of bullets and move to Alaska.. Then you can go on a hunting trip with Palin and Dick Cheney. If they aren't available there is plenty of rough terrain out there... a perfect place to go play a game of 'hide and go f*&^^ yourself"!.... d bag....
From Minnesota, hey? You voted for Michelle, hey. I think enough said. Hey, thanks for destroying my home state.
Get rid of the east and west coast and your left with a bunch of inbred corn growing uneducated voters,
which is the only reason a Republican ever has a chance of getting elected to anything other than a sanitation
collector.
Now she knows how we feel about her.
who ever listens to this jackass is a jackass.
If any of you wonder why our country is polorized read the posts on here. All of this because one group of people does not believe the same as another. I just can't believe that I or anyone else would be hated so bad by others of an opposing view. Sad, isn't is?
From my post in June of 2010:
Ms, Palin is a conservative who has to force reality to fit her ideology. Hence all the generalities with no specifics. She truly believes, as many religio-ideologues do, that the mere profession of her faith, the mere profession of conservative ideology assures that it is true and is effective at solving all the world's problems.
Therefore, in her world, she doesn't have to actually serve as Governor, an office that most certainly challenged her ideology and her capabilities, no, she just needs to get elected. Being elected proved to her that her ideology, the ideology that will save the world, won. No time to actually serve in the office, that would be a waste of time when instead she could go out and promote what is to her the salvation of the world through ideology and religion. Darn, now if she could just get everyone to agree with her generalities we would all be saved! I think this is how she truly thinks, she would be a complete disaster in any high office.
I think she would probably become an angry recluse if she actually had to govern, the hard reality and disillusionment would destroy her.
Palin is where she is because the Republican Party apparently has no one else to promote. This is a Party that has become completely devoid of leadership and its not hard to understand why. If there is a real statesman amongst them why on earth would he come forward, he would have every goody two shoes in the party vetting every thing he ever did since birth. He would not be allowed to hold any opinions of his own or prusue any policies the so'called party doesn't support 100%. They have too many social issues mixed in with too many political issues and now they can't find anyone who will run on the whole conservative platform. And to make it even more difficult for this statesman, they have a very nasty label for anyone who opposes them on any of this long list of positions. So if you vary even a hair from their program you instantly become an enemy.
The Republicans have painted themselves into a corner, they are going to attract two kinds of people as candidates, extreme right wingers who are too far right to get elected, and weakling self promoters who will do anything, say anything, to get elected.
And today in Feb. 2012 we have Romney and Santorum and the party is still not satisfied!
I find it more than strange HOW OBSESSED the "state controlled tabloid media" continues to be with a person who has not been a political candidate for anything for over 3 years.
Not only that, I have never seen or heard of "this level of OBSESSED tabloid scrutiny" over any political person beyond "Kennedy or Nixon".
Consider the "cloud of secrecy" surrounding both Bill Clinton's Presidency and BILLary's own vehement opposition regarding a movie and even political ads?
There is no question that Palin continues to remain at the very forefront of "state controlled media's obsessions".
Unfortunately for America, as other's have pointed out, WHERE is the "obsessed scrutiny" over which current political figures have manipulated our Banking, Housing and Federal Reserve systems to their own political advantage?
THAT is the "concrete information" that the "state controlled media" has "at THEIR FINGERTIPS" yet never gets so much as a single sentence in articles or on news reports.
NO, they cannot supply the public with valuable, educational and truly useful information that we need to make informed decisions about the "parasitical scum currently in office"... NO, that would make sense.
Other than being asked for comments, Palin sure doesn't seem to have much political relevance at all.
Yet that is all the LAMESTREAM MEDIA chooses to focus on...
Speedy,
I think Ms. Palin's phenomena is her irrelevance, her ineptitude, and her stupidity. The media is asking over and over again, "How can this be?" That's the whole point.
She is another "Joe the Plumber" in a skirt.
I hope Palin feels the fire in her crotch and jumps in the circus as an alternative clown to Robme and Sand-tehran. We need some more entertainment! Until then, she needs to know her role and keep her stupid ideas in Alaska. Hey, former, half-term governor of a state where VERY FEW would even consider living in: WE DON"T GIVE A S%#@ what u think!!! .. Ok, i'm getting carried away.. I guess i'm disturbed by the amount of attention this loser gets from the media... Point is, she is nothing but a joke, and if I was a republican, I would be ashamed that my party would even consider her for a VP, or Bush for president, or Robme or santorum for president. It's going to be a landslide people...
Perhaps, is an option for some of us to try our hand at writting a bill. And just maybe Washington will take note. (icanwriteausbill dotnet)
"I am not a QUITTER!"
Okay, then.
I agree,"We can't take it anymore." Please notify me when her well-deserved total obscurity begins.
It is a sad statement of our system if someone as poor a specimen as Palin is even considered for an elected position. Surely she is a natural blond.
It wouldn't be the fact that hundreds and thousands of liberal lawyers were crawling around Alaska in 08 and 09 trying to dig up dirt on her that didn't exist. I didn't think so.
just mentioning Sarah's name is enough to get the stupid libbies all riled up. Great entertainment. She holds no public office, isn't running for any office. But look. 13 pages of comments about Sarah. Like bear baiting the dumb liberals. Chain them to a tree, and keep chanting Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. LOL
If only the media had done it's job and given one millionth the scrutiny that this lady has had to put up with. Do you think Obama wouldn't have complained?
No news here, just more fanning the flames of hatred.
How about those gas prices?
How about those home prices?
How about those unemployment numbers?
How about talking about your great-great grandchildren paying for that massive black hole debt that we are currently piling up?
How about ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Must be a slow day,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Thank you Mr. Santorum