Palin's "Biggest Project" As Mayor: A Hockey Rink With Legal Troubles

Wall Street Journal:

The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.

"It's too bad that the city of Wasilla didn't do their homework and secure the land before they began construction," said Kathy Wells, a longtime activist here. "She was not your ceremonial mayor; she was in charge of running the city. So it was her job to make sure things were done correctly."

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[kellygrrrl]

time to start reminding everyone to get your documents in order and help others do the same

make sure your address (esp county) is up to date on voter registration

if possible, locate or go get, your Voter Registration card

bring two forms of ID

[grata2ude]

Also, since there was stories of voter intimidation in poorer communties if possible people should have their cell phones ready to record any type of shady events at the polls.

[mcantwell]

THE PEOPLE OF ALASKA NEEDS YOUR HELP!
PLEASE TAKE A LOOK.....T­HEN FIND A WAY TO HELP!

http://www.palinsalaska.com/

[bling]

You should send send your story to barackobama.com, to thedailykos.com and to NPR

Unfortunattley the invisable poor are not getting any attention this election. The focus is on the middle class and on the middle east.

Obama says that it is time that he went to Alaska. Perhaps you could invite him to your village.

Good luck.

I will be looking forward to hearing some news about "honey bucket lake"

[YunekFlava]

Palin became a first term mayor of the town with 616 votes. WOW!

Check out this site:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008163431_palin070.html#pdf

[freemedia]

Obama became a community Organizer with zero votes. The low-income housing that he championed is dilipated and a boondoggle (Relatioship with Rezko).

[grata2ude]

Organizing and other work experience
1983-1984 Writer/Researcher for Business International Corporation. Helped companies understand overseas markets in the “Financing Foreign Operations” service and wrote for the “Business International Money Report”
1984-1985 Community Organizer for New York Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), promoting personal, community, and government reform at City College in Harlem.
1985-1988 Director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland on Chicago's South Side. While director grew the DCP staff from 1 to 13 and their budget from $70,000 to $400,000.
1992 Led Chicago's Project Vote! push. This effort resulted in a record number of voter registrations, over 600,000 in Chicago. 1)
Teaching
1993-2004 Visiting Law and Government Fellow, then Senior Lecturer, in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Taught courses on the due process and equal protection areas of constitutional law, on voting rights, and on racism and law. Helped develop a casebook on voting rights.
Law Practice
1993-2002 Worked as an associate attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Represented non-profits and private individuals in urban development projects, voting rights cases, and wrongful firings. Filed major suit that forced the state of Illinois to enforce the Motor Voter Law and successfully argued a wrongful firing case before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.


Lying again freemedia.­..........­watch you don't trip over your nose. quite long from the lies you post.

[BigSid]

OBAMA'S BIGGEST PROJECT

A house in Hyde Park with legal troubles.

[grata2ude]

Here is what Obama did in three years as a community organizer

Organizing and other work experience
1983-1984 Writer/Researcher for Business International Corporation. Helped companies understand overseas markets in the “Financing Foreign Operations” service and wrote for the “Business International Money Report”
1984-1985 Community Organizer for New York Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), promoting personal, community, and government reform at City College in Harlem.
1985-1988 Director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland on Chicago's South Side. While director grew the DCP staff from 1 to 13 and their budget from $70,000 to $400,000.
1992 Led Chicago's Project Vote! push. This effort resulted in a record number of voter registrations, over 600,000 in Chicago. 1)
Teaching
1993-2004 Visiting Law and Government Fellow, then Senior Lecturer, in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Taught courses on the due process and equal protection areas of constitutional law, on voting rights, and on racism and law. Helped develop a casebook on voting rights.
Law Practice
1993-2002 Worked as an associate attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Represented non-profits and private individuals in urban development projects, voting rights cases, and wrongful firings. Filed major suit that forced the state of Illinois to enforce the Motor Voter Law and successfully argued a wrongful firing case before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Illinois Senate 1996-2004

[KazooDan]

Looks like Sid got schooled.

[KazooDan]

There's no legal trouble with Obama's home. Just 'Guilt by Association' lies by the right wing pundit's rumor machine.

[grata2ude]

I really have to laugh. Bush and Company were kissing Abramhoff who just got sentenced the very day his buddy McCain accepted the nomination. Obama was eight years old when his so called buddy was accused but never found guilty nor do any time in jail. I suppose the McCains did criminal searches on everyone in the neighborhood or the banks they borrowed the money before they moved into all seven of their houses. Wait......­...Cindy has a criminal record. Wait......­...Keating Five leaves McCain with......­...oh hell there goes the neighborhood. If you are eight years old be very careful if you move into the McCains neighborhood.

They sure do try hard to lie though.

[Spesabsquemetu]

Listen, Karl.

Sen. Obama didn't use public funds to sqander on a hockey rink, or retain over 300 million in federal aid for a BRIDGE TO NOWHERE that Palin now claims she rejected, (after supporting it), and therefore had no intention to build it.

How is it fiscally responsible to take over 300 million in federal funds, for a bridge that you do not intend to build, while states across the nation are still struggling to get back on their feet, following collapsed bridges and fallen levees?

Palin behaved in a fiscally irresponsible manner as mayor, and it now appears she is under investigation for allegations of corrupt conduct as governor.

And THIS is supposed to be exactly what America needs?

Has John McCain had his head examined after making such an impulsive choice for America?

[drzoon]

no, it might be drafting and passing the most sweeping ethics legislation in modern history for the senate. that was the very first thing he did... and started working on it before he even got to his desk.

or... it might be writing and getting passed legislation to protect our wounded vets at walter reed and other hospitals like it (vet hospitals) because of the deplorable conditions at this hospitals.­. and the horrible treatment they received ... which included these wounded kids forced to pay their own food and phone bills to home. he stepped in and quickly stopped that horrible horrible treatment.

or... it might be teaming up with senator lugar to finally get a handle on the "loose nukes" around the world.. something that john mc cain never even brought up in his entire 26 years!

or... it could be putting together the best organized campaign in modern politics and decided to do this from the bottom up from the voters .... and do it without all the lying that comes with republicans just being republican­s.. and has held fast on that promise...­.

i think we know he knows what he's doing... and he knows how to get it done.

at this point... maybe you would be better served turning off your hate radio and television (fox "news"?) and read FOR YOURSELF what is going on out there.

good luck

[grata2ude]

Look up Keating Five......­.....Look up Cindy McCains drug abuse and her ties to the mob. Look up Abramhoff. Now look at all the legal problems facing Palin

[Veratruth]

Also a failed bank had McCain's son on the board. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24308424-36375,00.html

[jacqmac]

I have heard elsewhere-from people with family members living in ALASKA-that those oil company rebates are a form of 'hush money'. The entire state population is being paid 'hush money'. VERY FEW residents will speak up AGAINST her OR McCain. I wonder what ELSE she's going to do on her much-vaunted 'family time' this week? Have the American taxpayers already paid for PAPER SHREDDERS? But seriously, folks, we've had ALL of this played on us for the LAST EIGHT YEARS. Sports complex LOOKS good though, kinda like the former Mayor of Wasilla. Wonder if there are any 'locals kicking around soccer balls' INSIDE her head. Temperament"=pit bull. Judgement=­vindictive­. NOPE-nothing to see here, move along. SAME OLD SAME OLD. NEXT??

[hhyatt]

This money is supposed to be a "share of the oil profits" for citizens of Alaska. How do we plan to reward all citizens of the USA for drilling for our oil? Are going to retain this oil for USA use only and sell gas for 99.9 cents/gal again, or are we going to let the oil be diverted to the world market where the price would be the same as it currently is and rebate a substantial amount of the profit to US taxpayers. Do we really expect the oil companies to pay such a truly windfall profit tax?

Even if we had a fair system to rebate US taxpayers, who would be eligible? Would the people of Alaska just roll over and give up what they likely consider as their own resources? I think folks should get over this idiotic idea that drilling for oil would provide so much oil that we would substantially affect the price of oil on the world market. So we need to get our heads out of the clouds or our own posteriors and realize that drilling is no answer at all, and unless McCain gives a definitive plan on how increased oil production will lead to cheaper prices, I'll treat it for what it likely is -- political BS.

[janicegwashington]

Wa. Republicans for Obama
Bill Ruckelshaus, who served in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, will vote for Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, the Illinois senator's campaign announced Wednesday.

"While I have voted for Republicans all of my life, I am voting for Senator Obama in this election because, when it comes to the future of our country, the stakes are too high," Ruckelshaus, Seattle resident, Strategic Director of Madrona Venture Group, said in a statement. "Senator Obama has a specific plan that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, grow our economy, and tackle climate change. Senator Obama's New Energy for America Plan will invest $150 billion over the next ten years to encourage private efforts to develop clean energy technologies in a clean energy future. Not only is it Obama's intention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, but his plan should create millions of new green jobs."

Ruckelshaus is the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Nixon and Reagan.

The Obama campaign said other Republicans in Washington state who will vote for Obama include Sammamish resident and former Republican state Senate candidate and retired Boeing Executive Bob Brady and Bob Nelson of Bainbridge Island, who is the co-founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners Bob Nelson.

[Spesabsquemetu]

And don't forget Ms. Eisenhower, a highly regarded well respected Republican who clearly has a strong conscience, and a desire for CHANGE WE CAN TRUST AND BELIEVE IN!

No scientist worth their salt could support 4 more years of doctored reports as seen through the last 8. It is absolutely unconscionable for scientific reports to be altered, or changed to suit the agenda and the outcome that the Bush administration had pre-determined before the reports were completed, particularly since science pursues TRUTH, and what we got from the McBush administration, was NOT the TRUTH.

Environmental scientific studies were altered and changed.
That's downright dishonest.
No respectable scientist could support what this administration has done to children, to the environment, through the disgraceful dismantling of regulations that were put in place to PROTECT AMERICANS.

We were betrayed by elected and appointed leaders who participated in these egregious dishonorable acts of unconscionable conduct.

[justobserve]

Gallup poll: McCain is ahead 48%-45%!

Vote for issues, not beauty nor lies: AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE, WOMEN'S CHOICE, VETS BENEFITS, EQUAL PAY.

[CharlottesvilleVA]

Um...not so much. The daily tracking poll is irrelevant. The media has been "tracking" the tracking polls because they need to fill 24 hours of non-stop news. What matters is what's going on in the states, and Obama continues to have a comfortable lead in the states that matter.

But you're right about the lies. It astounds me how the Sarah and John Show (NOT the John and Sarah Show) will repeat the same tired lies that have already been debunked. I can already hear her response at the VP debate when somebody calls her on her support of the bridge to nowhere "Look, I'm not governor of the media and I'm not out to meet their needs. I meet the needs of the good people of Alaska and THEY KNOW THE TRUTH!!!! They know that we need a president who will STAND UP to the status quo, and that president is JOHN S MCCAIN!"

[janicegwashington]

Don't worry about the polls. They are completely inconclusive because they leave out numerous populations of people AND THE MEDIA KNOWS IT. We all learned that during the Obama/Clinton primaries. Not only that, the polls that you're talking about do not include the electoral college, which indicate that Barack Obama is leading 303.9 - 231.1.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

[rabprevent]

DO YOU MEAN OBAMA?

[grata2ude]

Since when is McCain even concerned for one second on those issues? Surely you mean vote for Obama.

[Veratruth]

McCain controls the polls. LIES

[Nofuzzydreams]

Can you name some Obama projects?? other than organizing with William Ayers??

[Egalitare]

You seem to be lost. Try again and find the relevant topic on which to comment.

[wbwbruce]

A copy and paste collage of fun facts to forward to fend off pittbulls with lipstick and creepy old hating men...(ins­ults my pittbull)

Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress.
Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become LAW since he joined the Senate in 2005.
Senator Obama has also introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted by the Senate.
His record is in fact quite impressive for a junior Senator from Illinois.
Most of his legislative effort has been in the areas of:
? Energy Efficiency and Climate Change (25 bills)
? Health care (21 bills) and public health (20 bills)
? Consumer protection/labor (14 bills)
? The needs of Veterans and the Armed Forces (13 bills)
? Congressional Ethics and Accountability (12 bills)
? Foreign Policy (10 bills)
? Voting and Elections (9 bills)
? Education (7 bills)
? Hurricane Katrina Relief (6)
? The Environment (5 bills)
? Homeland Security (4 bills)
? Discrimination (4 bills)
AND... 95% of America listen up!
If you make less than 250,000 your taxes will stay the same and NOT increase
If you make less than 150,000 your taxes will be further reduced in the form of additional tax breaks.

[janicegwashington]

Yes, Klan Member. There are many:

1. Wrote legislation THAT PASSED to OVERHAUL ETHICS REFORM IN THE CROOKED REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION
2. VOTED AGAINST THE FAKED-OUT IRAQ WAR THAT THE CRIMINAL REPUBS PROMOTED AND LIED ABOUT. THIS IS PROVEN - NOT GOSSIP
3. ADVISED AGAINST NAFTA - YOU KNOW ABOUT NAFTA - THAT HAS TAKE JOBS OUT THE OF UNITED STATES AND SENT THEM ABROAD. IT IS LIKELY THAT YOU PERSONALLY KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS LOST THEIR JOB TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY BECAUSE OF THIS TRADE AGREEMENT
4. PRESIDENT OF HARVARD LAW REVIEW
5. 13 YEARS AS A LAW PROFESSOR AT THE PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
6. AS A SENATOR, VOTED TO INCREASE MINIMUM WAGE

[CharlottesvilleVA]

Let's see...in his first two weeks in the Senate, along with Russ Feingold, Obama helped lead the Senate to pass the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act.

A few months later, working with Republican Richard Lugar, Obama led the effort to fund a new initiative to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union.

Now I have a question for you: can you give me JUST ONE example of John McCain being a "maverick" in the past 6 years.

Just one.

Take your time.

Oh - he was against torture! But then he fell in line.

Should be easy, since he's the mother of all mavericks.

No rush.

[janicegwashington]

By the way, perhaps if the RETHUGS had done some organizing themselves, rather that practicing ROUTINE DECEIT, then thousands of lives would have been saved by not engaging in a war with Iraq, but rather with Afghanisan.

Guess what? It was BArack Obama who spoke up and out about not going to war with Iraq.

Do you think that might have something to do with being organized and smart?

As far as Ayers, stop grasping at straws and trying to lean of a story that occurred with Barack Obama was EIGHT YEARS OLD!

GROW UP! ENOUGH!

[evilwhitepatriarch]

Barack Obama was a rep in the Illinois state senate when the war started, so I'm sure his opinion was influential.

[grata2ude]

Organizing and other work experience
1983-1984 Writer/Researcher for Business International Corporation. Helped companies understand overseas markets in the “Financing Foreign Operations” service and wrote for the “Business International Money Report”
1984-1985 Community Organizer for New York Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), promoting personal, community, and government reform at City College in Harlem.
1985-1988 Director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland on Chicago's South Side. While director grew the DCP staff from 1 to 13 and their budget from $70,000 to $400,000.
1992 Led Chicago's Project Vote! push. This effort resulted in a record number of voter registrations, over 600,000 in Chicago. 1)
Teaching
1993-2004 Visiting Law and Government Fellow, then Senior Lecturer, in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Taught courses on the due process and equal protection areas of constitutional law, on voting rights, and on racism and law. Helped develop a casebook on voting rights.
Law Practice
1993-2002 Worked as an associate attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Represented non-profits and private individuals in urban development projects, voting rights cases, and wrongful firings. Filed major suit that forced the state of Illinois to enforce the Motor Voter Law and successfully argued a wrongful firing case before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Illinois Senate 1996-2004

[WOWTXWOMEN]

And this is the person that would be a heart beat away from being President. She is not capable of making a decision on a building without causing legal issues how can she make a decision about a whole country...­.

This is so crazy, but what can we expect from someone who has zero experience to do any thing.

she lies and lies all the time,

no way, now how, no mcclain/plain

[LeeCalif]

Hmmm.... Litigation. That seems to be a Republican mantra. After all, it's only the taxpayer's money.

[MaeScott]

Deficits

Palin and George Bush have governed the same when it comes to deficits. Actully, the last 4 republican presidents have had a penchant for leaving the national debt higher when they left office, than how they found it.

She came into power in Wasilla with a surplus and left office with Wasilla in debt over $20,000,000.

George Bush came into office with a $500,000,000 surplus, and turned it into $500,000,000 deficit. Probably closer to a trillion when you add in the Iraq War.

Ronald Reagan and Bush I left us with deficits that Bill Clinton and the democrats had to cleanup. It will take another democrat to straighten out the mess the republicans have gotten us into. I think the Wasilla debt and Bush debt- side by side- would make an effective ad. Something about learning at the feet of the master, or is seems republicans always like to spend money they don't have no matter where they are. Or look what Gov Palin did as mayor, just imagine what she could do with the national debt. Watch out George, your record might not hold.

[MaeScott]

Earmarks
Alaska is No. 1 in the country in earmarks per capita. Even with her budget almost doubled by oil revenues, Palin put in for more earmarks per capita than any other state in the nation in her 2009 budget, while giving Alaskans a rebate from the oil revenues.

Apparently, she has no qualms about living off of the American taxpayer. Maybe, a case of Alaska First, country second?

This same willingness to let the American taxpayer pay for her hometown's wants and needs, comes thru when she was mayor and hired a lobbyist to collect $26,000,000 in earmarks for Wasilla, a town of 5,000 people at the time.
John McCain's pet peeve is earmarks. But he chooses the governor of the state that gets the most earmarks per capita in the nation for his running mate, and praises her budgeting skills. Is John McCain changing his mind about earmarks? Or maybe, he just didn't know.

[cdub1991]

The republicans are relying on American's poor math skills and most folks not knowing what per capita means.

[ThePublicRecord]

http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/299-documents-suggest-palin-obsessed-over-retaliating-against-ex-brother-in-law.html

Documents are available for download at the bottom of the story.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s vendetta against the state trooper who divorced her sister may have spilled over into a broader retaliation against Alaska’s police with more than $2 million slashed from their budget as well as the elimination of temporary staff positions and the firing of the public safety commissioner, according to police representatives.

[RedneckDem]

Is anyone else picking on the fact that this woman has, as a political short-timer, shown a serious propensity for corruption and bad decision making? I'm not talking small, petty concessions, we're talking about issues that affect peoples lives and livlihood. Debt, vindictiveness, retaliation, major flip-flopp­ing... and the band played on...

[Quaoar]

To be fair, based on the Congressmen and Senators that Alaska has sent to Washington, corruption and bad decision making are pretty much par for the course as far as that state's politicians go. I wouldn't say she was more corrupt than Ted Stevens, for example.

Of course, she's still a long way from being morally and ethically suited for the VP job, let alone the Presidency.

[redheaded1]

So, being a mayor means actual responsibilities?

Like, say......f­ollowing the legal process for acquiring easements and property?

Did someone not teach M c B A R B I E this in her 'communications' course?