The Alaska Daily News takes Gov. Sarah Palin to task for stonewalling the TrooperGate investigation.

The paper outlines details of the investigation into allegations of Palin's, her family and staff's misuse of office and says:

She should be practicing the open and transparent, ethical and accountable government she promised when running for governor and boasts about now that she's on the national stage.

The paper reminds her that she once said she welcomed an investigation and said "Hold me accountable" but instead of complying with the independent investigation launched by the legislature, is trying to move it to an agency within the executive branch which she controls.

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It's a relatively quiet schedule in college football today. The game that will get the most attention is the renewal of the haphazardly played Florida- Miami matchup. Miami has won the last 6 times the game was played, but that has been over the course of 25 years. Today the Gators are 3 touchdown favorites in in The Swamp. Last week the Gators beat Hawaii 56-10. Miami beat Charleston Southern 52-7.

Go Gators!

This is an Open Thread.

Imam Mohammad Qatanani is fortunate that his case wasn't heard by an immigration judge selected by Monica Goodling on the basis of fealty to a right wing ideology. Alberto Riefkohl began working as an immigration judge before George Bush took office. He has a reputation for fairness. Yesterday Reifkohl denied the government's deportation request, a decision that will allow Qatanani to become a permanent resident of the United States.

Immigration authorities argued that Qatanani, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, New Jersey, failed to disclose on his residency application an arrest and conviction in Israel for assisting Hamas. Qatanani argued that he was administratively detained for three months but never convicted.

Via Crooks and Liars:

Asked in 1996, her first year in office, about her ability to “effectively run” the city, Palin claimed:

“It’s not rocket science,” Palin said, “It’s $6 million and 53 employees.”

This is an open thread.

You don't win elections with one hand tied behind your back. The Democrats need to come out swinging against Sarah Palin, the unqualified, radical right choice of John McCain to occupy the nation's second most powerful leadership position. The fact that she's under investigation for abuse of power alone should be enough to disqualify her. Tell her to come back after she's been cleared and has shown she brings something other than tokenism to the job.

The Democratic strategists and pundits who think Obama should ignore Palin and stick to debating the issues are the best example of why the Democrats lost the last two elections.

Steve Hamm, a senior writer at Business Week, worries about the nation's diminishing role as a world leader.

Over the past eight years, the United States has lost a tremendous amount of influence on the world. The Bush administration's stance on global warming, its bullying style, the war in Iraq, and lack of leadership on fair trade have left the country as an outlier in the global community of nations rather than a true leader. So one of the most important tasks of the next president will be to fix that.

Hamm views John McCain as "positively enlightened" compared to Bush. McCain talks about the need to lead "by demonstrating once again the virtues of freedom and democracy, by defending the rules of international civilized society and by creating the new international institutions necessary to advance the peace and freedoms we cherish." But Hamm quite rightly worries that McCain undermined that position by selecting a vice presidential candidate who counteracts his message. [more ...]

More than three years ago, TalkLeft asked whether Bruce Lisker, who was convicted of killing his mother, is innocent. Some of the jurors in his trial, having heard about new evidence in his case, were questioning his guilt, as was the prosecutor who tried the case.

Lisker was convicted a quarter of a century ago. Two years ago, a federal magistrate held a hearing, listened to evidence, and produced a 57 page report concluding that Lisker's evidence of actual innocence was so strong that he should be granted an exception to the one year period that inmates have to pursue federal habeas corpus after a state conviction becomes final. The magistrate decided that the evidence against Lisker was so weak that no reasonable jury, hearing all of it, would find Lisker guilty. The strongest evidence against him -- multiple confessions given by the frightened teenager during prolonged interrogations -- had little probative value. [more ...]

Politico:

Hillary Rodham Clinton has no intention of becoming a Sarah Palin attack dog — but has no qualms going after John McCain, people close to the former first lady say. “She’s not the answer when it comes to winning conservative women — she never was — and we’re not going to be anybody’s attack dog against Sarah Palin,” said a Clinton insider. “To be fair to Obama’s people, they haven’t asked us to do that.”

Slamming Palin to win back women already hostile to Obama is pointless, the insider said, because Clinton’s most loyal base is working-class voters, not women in particular. “Attacking Palin is checkers, attacking McCain on the economy is chess.” Clinton will continue to yoke McCain and Palin to President Bush on pocketbook issues.

(Emphasis supplied.) Everyone got the memo except the Left blogs it seems.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The National Jewish Democratic Council has begun an online campaign to oppose Sen. John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Senator John McCain made a poor choice in his first critical presidential decision with his vice presidential selection of Governor Sarah Palin. We, in the Jewish community, have to question McCain’s judgment for choosing a right-wing religious conservative with absolutely no foreign policy experience and a brewing scandal which is being investigated by the Alaska state legislature.

It is ironic that McCain, who turned 72 last week, has said, “The fundamental principle behind any selection of a running mate would be whether that person is fully prepared to take over.” And then McCain selected Palin???

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Sarah Palin touted her business savvy in her acceptance speech. As an example, she said she put a jet purchased by her predecessor on EBay, leaving the impression she sold it through EBay.

The plane failed to sell on EBay. It was purchased by a private entrepreneur for $300k less than the broker's price.

And, turns out, the plane was used to transport prisoners, not just for the Governor's travels.

Update: Sen. John McCain perpetuated the misleading story today, falsely saying she sold the jet on EBay for a profit. There actually was a half-million dollar loss. [More...]

Today I remembered this blogger conference call with Sen. Charles Schumer in 2005 over President Bush's judicial nominees.

Sen. Schumer was emphatic in his remarks to us. He said the hard right, both economic and religious, has decided that the only way to push their agenda through is to control the courts. If they win and gain control of the courts, both economically and socially, they will roll back America to the 1930's or the 1890's.

He said that the hard right made a deal with George Bush during the election. It would support him and "not hound him", but he had to cede control of his judicial nominations to the Federalist Society.

That's the reward (in addition to enthusiastically supporting his election) I would bet the radical right is offering John McCain. When you see reports of his campaign coffers growing due to Gov. Palin, the picture comes into closer focus. [More...]

From today's St. Petersburg Times editorial: McCain's speech failed to deliver on change

[H]is agenda promises only more of the same: tax cuts for the wealthy that the nation cannot afford, an aggressive foreign policy that cannot be sustained and an energy policy short on vision and long on oil drilling that would threaten Florida and provide no near-term relief.

Holding that losing hand, Republicans dealt themselves new cards from a very old deck. Instead of emphasizing experience, the Arizona senator who has been in Washington for more than 25 years tried to hijack Democrat Barack Obama's pitch for change. But there was no innovative thinking in his laundry list of the usual conservative proposals, from school choice to trickle-down economics to market-based health care changes that will not make medical treatment more available or affordable.

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