by Donna Garner
Let me get this straight: Palin was not even Governor when Trooper Wooten was brought up for disciplinary charges for illegally shooting moose, drinking alcohol while on duty in his patrol car, using a taser gun on his stepson, and threatening to kill Palin’s family members.
Gee whiz, Wooten sounds just like the kind of "responsible" policeman America needs: someone with a gun, driving around in a patrol car while drunk, not following the hunting laws himself, using his taser as a "toy" against his own stepson, and making physical threats against private citizens. No wonder Governor Palin tried to do something to get this fellow relieved of his trooper duties!
In Alaska, state troopers have very broad authority — "law enforcement, prevention of crime, pursuit and apprehension of offenders, service of civil and criminal process, prisoner transportation, central communications, and search and rescue." (wikipedia.org)
If I knew that our state’s Governor was aware of dangerous and irrational behavior on the part of a state trooper and chose to do nothing to get that person dismissed, I and other citizens would be furious.
Palin was obviously trying to do what she could within the bounds of the law to protect the good people of Alaska from an unstable and dangerous state trooper.
What the press failed to mention in Saturday’s coverage is that Democrat State Senator Hollis French headed up the Alaskan inquiry and is a big supporter of Obama’s. French bragged ahead of time that his report would deliver an "October Surprise," a political term meaning a last-minute smear job that is meant to impact the election.
I trust that French’s report does indeed impact the election. I hope it makes voters so mad at Obama and his underhanded tactics that citizens in large numbers will go into the privacy of the voting booths and send their own "October Surprise" to the Obama camp!
In the 2006 election, 68% of eligible Americans were registered to vote; but only 40% of those actually voted. The Mark Foley/congressional pages scandal had just broken, and conservatives were so sickened that most did not even bother to vote. They irrationally decided, "We’ll show the Republicans a thing or two. We just won’t vote."
The result: The House and Senate were turned over to the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Steny Hoyer, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, and other Democrats.
Rather than take the blame for their lack of leadership, the Democrats have conveniently pointed fingers of blame at the Bush administration for the financial crisis. However, it is the Democrat-controlled Congress who has been in the majority and had the votes to pass any laws they so chose. Congress writes and passes laws, not the President.
The Democrats could have prevented the financial meltdown. It was they who thwarted all efforts by Republicans in 2004 (http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs) to bring government oversight to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
This election is a chance to hold the Democrats accountable and to say that we do not want their leadership any more. We do not want Obama’s extreme leftwing ideology and his supporters to have open access to the White House. These include ACORN, Code Pink, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeremiah Wright, Terrance Bean, Tony Rezko, Jamie Gorelick, Odinga, Human Rights Campaign, Public Allies, Eli Pariser, George Soros, Louis Farrakhan, Michael Pfleger, Jim Wallis, Project Vote, Al Sharpton, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood, Sojourners, Franklin Raines, James Johnson, Rashid Khalidi, NEA, and Tim Howard.
What a dismal list! Have we ever had a Presidential candidate in the history of America who has worse alliances than does Obama?
Donna Garner is a researcher/consultant/writer who frequently publishes articles on such issues as education, politics, and social issues.