Writing in Dailykos, Etaglo posted a strategy piece, How Biden Takes On Palin-- Through Cheney. This is precisely the tack to take given a review of the record, especially in light of a recent piece by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff on August 23 . Barely visible during convention week, Isikoff's piece on Cheney in Alaskan pipeline politics was noted by TPM and dairied in a good catch by DKosser SullivanSt in DOJ Covers up Cheney/Stevens Link.
Isikoff's piece though, was only published online the week before Presidential candidate John Likes-Em-Young McCain chose Alaska virgin term Governor Sarah Palin for Republican Vice Presidential running mating. It has now hit the news-stands as the GOP convention begins.
Sorry to spoil the GOP Honeymooners, but Cheney's oily hands are all over 'em both...
[Ed.Note: Warning or ABSTRACT: THIS IS A FAIRLY INVOLVED READ, an analysis asserting that John McCain's Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin was essentially hand picked or personally sanctioned by Dick Cheney for both her rise as "frontwoman" status in Alaska Republican Politics and presently in her place on the 2008 GOP Presidential Ticket.
Rejecting Excuses for the 'Public Pick-O-Palin.
I've reviewed some of the conventional wisdom offered on "McCain's" Pick-O-Palin for V.P.
I agree with those who find it simplistic and unsatisfactory to suggest Palin was chosen to "appeal to Hillary Clinton voters".She holds nothing in common with Sen. Clinton and the central Women's Issues has fought for, come what may, over her ENTIRE career. I also think it is unworkable to suggest McCain made this or any other damn decision on his own, or that the Republicans figured "What the Hell" , merely gambling on Palin for some sizzle factor, especially when it undermines their whole "youth and inexperience" "Is He Ready" smears, and coming from a Party who put up a Viagra Poster Boy.
Palin evidently was foisted upon him. By who? Where was
the famous Veep Vetting Process when Bush, er, Cheney picked Cheney...
We are to believe This was done by Faith Committee?-
We are to believe Palin is a "Maverick" / "choice"?
No, neither, The Republican Party is STILL dominated by the Oil and Gas and Defense Interests Brokered by Cheney.
There are premises at work here gathered from experience:
The Republicans are World. Class. Liars. Outrageous Deception is their SOP.
Fundamentally, It IS Cheney's Party still, and John "100 Years in Iraq" McCain is as deep in the NeoCon shit as any of them. Despite the now vaunted timeline for "WithDraw" in Iraq, it's moveable according to the Cheney McBush White House.
The Domestic Agenda of Cheney's Oil Crooks
Though certainly not the Final Stop, The Alaska Governors Office is perhaps THE crossroads of Corrupt Republican OilPolitics, It IS and already has been the focus of Dick Cheney and Halliburton clients BP, Conoco Phillips, and Exxon FOR YEARS. The Alaska Governors Office is the key to Prudhoe Bay, Drilling in ANWR, and the lidkeeping on Bribery facilitated by Cheney through the Alaska Governor's Office and Republican Senator Ted Stevens. I have to say - While aggregating and writing this piece, I couldn't help but think that Given our understanding or Overton Windows, it is hardly surprising the Cheneyites embrace of Alaska Secessionists in the Palins.
As outlandish as it seems, In a Nation where we are to believe memos have the full effect of Laws, and "Laws" can be written to PROHIBIT Judicial Review, and Cheney and the Republicans present grip on the Supreme Court: it isn't inconceivable that a "legal" case would eventually be made to effectively set up a (small "d") "democratic" Duchy of Palin up North, all but replete with a Duke of Halliburton, Exxon, and Conoco Phillips. Balk if you will, but even a yawning appearance in ConLaw 101 indicates the "Sovereign States" Argument is central in Commerce Clause Litigation to Fracture, Destroy, and De-Federalize Oversight in a "legal" Civil War that will continue well beyond what's ensued during the Bush Era.
But There IS one thing that can bring the systemic, Relentless, Republican deception of the American Public, and that is The unfettered exposure of their Culture of Corruption, and for THAT, Here and Now at least, they DO NEED a Blessed Mother tending goal....
Someone just like they pretend Sarah The Pushover Palin to be, as we shall see...
After examining many pieces of the puzzle, Palin's Pick is hardly inexplicable, It is my conclusion that the function of Governor Sarah Palin and her appointed Attorney General Talis Colberg's activities in Alaska are to cover up pervasive Bribery, Racketeering and Corruption that reach into the highest echelons of the Republican Party, particularly, Vice President Cheney himself. Skip ahead if you like, thanks in advance to those who read in entirety while I "Bring It". Much of it YOU DO already know- Bob Davies]
Before we dig in here and while hopefully YOU dig further into the Palin Story,
Think about THIS CENTRAL Question:
How and Why did Sarah Palin
rise to the top of
the UBER - Hierachical Republican Party?
Okay. So Let's begin by reviewing a few things
about the Rise of so - called "Reformer" Sarah Palin
in the Uber-Hierarchal Republican Party before getting to
the Proof in Cheney's Pudding...
The Corrupt Bastards Club
Republican Corruption Blowback in Alaska 2004-06
- VECO Scandal: Alaska GOP Swimmin in Big Oil Slick of Bribe $$$
- Reaches Alaska GOP Governor Frank Murkowski,
- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens,
- and threatened Cheney Cronies' Pipeline Project
Declining Republican Prospects in 2006 Election
- GOP Governor Frank Murkowski Going Down if not Thrown Under the Bus Beforehand
- Stevens Next
- Cheney's Relationship to Murkowski and Stevens
- Cheney & Prospective 2006 Dem Control of Congress
The Need for yet another "Reformer" - with no RESULTS
- A "Good Cop" To appear from the Republican "GrassRoots"
- -- Wholesome Outdoorsy EnviroFriendly Fluff A+
- Insulate State Repubicans
- Deflect Attention from Sen. Stevens, National GOP, Oil Interests, CHENEY
So we have The Usual Suspects, via NYT:
2 Oil Firms Plan Alaska Gas Pipeline
By JAD MOUAWAD and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: April 9, 2008
....When Governor Palin took office in late 2006, she interrupted pipeline negotiations that her predecessor, Frank H. Murkowski, had been pursuing with the North Slope oil operators, BP, Conoco and Exxon Mobil.
Interupted Pipeline Investigations?? Au Contraire.
Why? Three Reasons need to be explained
in as straight a line as possible in a Criminal Conspiracy and Cover-Up.
1.) Cheney's Involvement
2.) His Knowledge beforehand Regarding Murkowski and Stevens
And Finally, Despite The Now-Desperate Bald-Faced Republican LIES,
3.) Sarah Palin's Demonstrable, ATROCIOUS Record as
just another one of Cheney's Oil Whores:
REASON # 1: Cheney's Involvement
Cheney Charted Course with Palin Predecessor Gov. Murkowski, Alaska Sen. Stevens
Cheney had long been working on the Alaskan LNG Pipeline Project
plowing into the Alaska Legislature for Big Time Haliburton clients BP, Connoco, and Exxon. Cheney's "Energy" (Oil and Gas) Task Force buds.
It is well known that Palin's fellow Republican and predecessor Governor Murkowski took orders from Cheney going back well before the Energy "Task Force" days in 2001, when then Sen. Murkowski Chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Cheney and Murkowski target energy supply side
Human Events
by Michael Catanzaro
Feb 19, 2001
...Senate Republicans, in conjunction with the Bush Administration....In what would be a sharp break with the policy pursued by the Clinton Administration over the last eight years, Murkowski has proposed creating a legal bias against locking up energy-rich land. He wants to require agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department...
Despite intense criticism from environmentalists, both Cheney and Murkowski favor drilling for oil and natural gas in a tiny section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)
But things didn't work out so well for Cheney's Task Force Plan in Alaska while the clock was ticking on Murkowski's gubernatorial reign. In 2005, Democrats DID successfully manage to prevent drilling in the Arctic NAtional Wildlife Reserve(ANWR).
The fierce fight over drilling capped a day of drama in the Senate-- starting with Vice President Dick Cheney's vote to break a 50-50 tie on a budget bill that cuts $40 billion in federal spending, and ending with an agreement to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act for six months.
The vote on the Arctic refuge was also a personal defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican who has been crusading for the last 25 years to open the refuge to oil development. Stevens pushed the strategy of tying drilling to the defense spending bill, hoping to put lawmakers who oppose drilling in the tough position of casting a vote against funding for U.S. troops in combat.
But many senators, including some Republicans, chafed at the tactic. Democrats accused Stevens of holding the $453 billion defense appropriations bill hostage to the drilling plan.
So BP's, Conoco's, and Exxon's ANWR plans were blocked - frankly by the then-too-desperate Stevens, who was foolish enough to tie it to the Defense Appropriations Bill for Iraq,
the veritable MotherLoad of Cheney's Oil and War Graft, the Political Third Rail for all on The Hill who would never be seen "DeFunding" "the Troops".
Consequently, Cheney sold Stevens' ass like a cheap piece of meat in a Remote Village Square, holding on to the Persian Gulf War Lube, all the while retaining his domestic Jackboot Powers and the font of Competitive and Political Intelligence Gathering flowing out of the Patriot Act.
I wonder what Vice Pimp words of comfort he had for Stevens? To "bide his time"?
That he'd "make it up to him"? I wonder if Stevens ever really got the picture how bad Cheney and ultimately the Administration's DOJ was going to fuck him in the end...
As things turned out, crinkly old Ted got Thrown Under The Bus® (Diesel no less) by the White House. Sure, the skinny prick is guilty, but now the crooked little weasel is on Political Life Support just when A New Day Has Dawned in Alaska Republican Politics. Sarah Palin! But I digress, as does Palin's record.
Backtracking Up North in Alaska to 2005-2006, Murkowski was still in, Midterms for Congress and Senate Approaching, the game was twofold: The legislature was to enact legislation on its own for drilling and pipelines, and have the State sue the Administration, all ruse and welcome move precipitated by Cheney, to decertify Polar Bears as "endangered" , thus removing the endangered species "obstacle" to the Oil and GasMan's plunder.
Murkowski Goes Down, Stevens Ultimately Gets Dick
But on Our Way to Sarah Sit-On-Her-Hands Palin's Debut,
First Enjoy the Fraud, the Conspiracy,
and a Letter from Bad Heart-
Ironically in the Alaska legislature; Cheney, Stevens, and Murkowski's Task Force Plans were held up as much by corrupt Republican State Hack Legislators looking for money as it was by Alaska Democrats and Environmental groups. But in the middle of this very effort- A Conspiracy, no less- and this ain't no THEORY here, as reported in the New York Times
Murkowski's Chief of Staff James Clark --->Plead Guilty to Fraud last March in the scheme...
'Tis True, What a Cheap Whore Clark is --- 68 Grand in Just the Tip of The Alaska Graft Iceberg,
selling Billion Dollar Deals for roughly the cost of an SUV and a Snowmobile? LOL.
Yet In the middle of this Conspiracy to ramrod a pipeline through,
via Bribery of the Alaska Republican Legislature, by circumventing Clean Government and the appropriate legal review process,
-FBI
WASHINGTON—Victor H. Kohring, a former elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives, has been sentenced to 42 months in prison, ....
On Nov. 1, 2007, a federal jury in Anchorage convicted Kohring of bribery, attempted extortion, and conspiracy for corruptly soliciting and receiving financial benefits from VECO Corporation, a major Alaska oil services company, in exchange for performing official acts in the Alaska State Legislature on the company's behalf.
Evidence at trial, including more than 25 recordings of conversations involving Kohring and former VECO executives, showed that Kohring solicited bribes from, and took action to benefit the financial interests of, VECO while serving as a member in the state legislature. Kohring repeatedly agreed to lobby his colleagues and, if needed, cast votes in VECO's favor on a key petroleum production tax proposal pending before the Alaska legislature. In exchange, Kohring received multiple cash payments and solicited a $17,000 payment.
Kohring's case is part of an ongoing investigation into public corruption in the State of Alaska. The VECO executives who testified at trial, former Chief Executive Officer Bill J. Allen and former Vice President of Community Affairs and Government Relations Richard L. Smith, pleaded guilty in May 2007 to providing more than $400,000 in corrupt payments to public officials from the state of Alaska.
To date, there have been seven criminal convictions arising out of the investigation...
via Bribery of Republican Governor Murkowski's COS,
via Bribery of Alaska's Senior Republican U.S. Senator Ted Stevens,
This is What We Now Know from Isikoffs piece in Newsweek Linking Cheney to Stevens:
A two-year-old letter by Vice President Dick Cheney that pushed a controversial Alaska natural-gas pipeline bill is getting renewed scrutiny because of recently disclosed evidence in the Justice Department's corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens.
In a conversation secretly tape-recorded by the FBI
on June 25, 2006,
Stevens discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits. According to a Justice motion,
Stevens told Allen, "I'm gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, 'Look ... you gotta get this done'."
Two days later, Cheney wrote a letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to "promptly enact" a bill to build the pipeline. The letter was considered unusual because the White House rarely contacts state lawmakers about pending legislative matters. It also angered state Democrats, who accused Cheney of pushing oil-company interests. The former executive director of Cheney's energy task force had gone to work as a lobbyist for British Petroleum, one of three firms slated to build the pipeline.
LET's REPEAT THAT
The former executive director of Cheney's energy task force had gone to work as a lobbyist for British Petroleum, one of three firms slated to build the pipeline.
From the actual letter to the Alaska Legislature, Cheney urged
Your early action is necessary to move the project forward.
Enactment of legislation now will allow the Federal agencies
to commence immediately a process to comply with Federal laws to initiate construction of the Alaska Pipelines project and to work with our Canadian counterparts to secure their cooperation to complete this pipeline through their nation.
Time is of the essence in this process.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Dick Cheney June 27, 2006
Hmmm. June 27, 2006. And note Cheney's urgency.
Wow, Ole Bad Heart apparently can move pretty quickly when he needs to...
What possible leverage - or shared interests - could Hot Potato Ted Stevens have had with Cheney? Must be something, because Cheney was on it within 48 Hours.
A few questions to ponder before returning to the telling signs of Cheney's M.O. , Palin's sudden rise in the heirarchical GOP and the other, main reason why Sarah Palin is Cheney's girl.
Why would that Epitome of Ethics Personified, our venerable Vice President Cheney
suddenly find himself in the middle of Alaska's political sewer with Stevens and then GOP Alaska Guv Murkowski?
Is it plausible to think Cheney had no knowledge of DOJ corruption probes regarding Republican Senator Stevens and Governor Frank Murkowski?
REASON # 2: Cheney Already There, Saw It Coming
Anyone wanna contend Maybe Cheney didn't see this coming?
Cheney out of the loop in the (cough, cough) Impartial, Public Serving Bush Justice Department?
Cheney living under a Political Rock then?
When, Just a few weeks before from:
The Hotline
June 07, 2006
The Big Number: 73
Today's big number is 73. That's the percentage of Alaskans who view Gov. Frank Murkowski (R) unfavorably, according to an Ivan Moore Research survey. And, if you'll pardon the pun, when it comes to bad news, that's just the tip of the iceberg. While 20% of AKans view Murkowski favorably, he can't catch a break in his own party: He's currently running third in the GOP primary, trailing '02 LG candidate/ex-Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin (R) and ex-State Sen. John Binkley (R), with 18% to Palin's 44% and Binkley's 27%.
Ya think Cheney might have been looking forward to anything happening in the Fall of 2006?
Maybe a fall for his boy Murkowski's political fortunes in Alaska based on the VECO Investigation?
Oh I dunno, maybe a little sumpin' bigger Like losing Republican Control of both Houses of Congress?
No, Cheney knew damn well that Murkowski was definitely going down as a result of,
literally, the Corrupt Bastards Club in Alaska. It was plain as day. The Anchorage Daily News had reported extensively on illegal Big Oil Money flowing through the VECO Corporation to Alaska Republicans during the Spring and Summer of 2006.
REASON # 3: The "Proof in Cheney's Pudding Putting
ABSOLUTELY NO RESULTS FROM "REFORMER" PALIN
In Her Role as "Ethics" Commissioner
Palin, a conservative Republican, was the ethics commissioner of the Alaska Gas and Oil Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 and has a reputation for integrity and fighting corruption. ~Grist
Really???
A "reputation" for "Integrity"? You don't say...
So WHAT"S CHANGED?
Crooks Pushing a Pipeline through Bribery Stopped?
Corrupt Republican State Party Officials Ousted?
State Investigations Ensue?
(other than on estraged Family Members?)
As Governor
- She pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling
- Build a natural- gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope,
- Sued the Interior Department over its decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species.
- Proposed eliminating Alaska's gas tax
- Opposed a statewide ballot initiative to prohibit or restrict new mining operations that could affect salmon in the state's streams and rivers, even though she's an avid angler and hunter herself.~Grist
As a "Reform" Republican Party "Leader"
{...Oh, LOL! -- Ahem, (cough) Sorry, I almost got my way through this whole piece of very serious business without Laughing My Ass Off. Republican + "Reform" seems to get me every time...}
Alaska GOP Chair Survives Ouster Attempt
By DAN JOLING
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Alaska's Republican Party chairman survived an ouster attempt Saturday night as the state's GOP wrapped up its annual convention.
Just before adjournment, delegates voted 167-133 to table a resolution calling for Randy Ruedrich to resign a resolution the chairman said he would have ignored.
"Based on the fact that you asked me to serve for four years last year, I will reject that resolution and plan to stay and work with all you folks," Ruedrich said as delegates cast votes.
Republicans including Gov. Sarah Palin have called for - blah blah blah -
new leadership as part of a solution to sanitize a party tainted by the convictions last year of three former Republican state representatives.
Officials of VECO Corp., a former oil field services company, pleaded guilty to bribing two of them and also testified they paid former state Senate President Ben Stevens consulting fees of nearly a quarter million dollars for legislative work. Stevens has not been charged.....
Well no shit Stevens Hadn't been Charged
as of this Past Spring during Patsy-The-Pushover Palin's
"valient struggle" for "Reform" within the Alaska GOP.
Under such an Aggressive "Reformer" as Governor Palin
WHO , UH, APPOINTED THE STATE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL
Governor Sarah Palinappointed Talis J. Colberg as the state’s twentieth Attorney General on December 13, 2006.
For All of Palin's HYPE...
As "GrassRoots" "Reform" Republican "Ready to Lead"???
PUSHOVER PALIN, CHENEY'S COVER GIRL SAT ON HER HANDS
State on sidelines of FBI investigation into Veco
Attorney general's office won't interfere with the federal investigation.
The Anchorage Daily News
By SEAN COCKERHAM
Published: September 27, 2007
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said his office assigned lawyers to closely watch former-state Rep. Pete Kott's trial in federal court over the past two weeks as it revealed other possible criminal acts by politicians and Veco Corp. executives.
Colberg said the attorney general's office isn't ignoring the revelations. But he said the state has to proceed carefully before pursuing its own criminal charges. The broad federal investigation into corruption in Alaska politics doesn't appear to be close to finished.
The feds don't want interference from the state, according to Colberg.
[Ed.Note: He at least meant Gonzales Justice Department "Feds" at the Time. Gonzales resignation was official on Sept. 27th of 2007, the day the ADN article was published and the VECO case was under way.]
"They've made it clear enough that they appreciate us not stepping into the middle of something that's ongoing," Colberg said.
<FONT SIZE="+1">So Who are THEY? - These "Feds" who "made it clear"</FONT SIZE="+1">
To BACK OFF what should ostensibly ALSO HAVE BEEN an independent Alaska Attorney General and State Police Investigation? Afterall, Governor Palin had a Brother-in-Law on the State Police who could help, no? Heh.
Whose juice is strong enough in the Federal Government to plow right into a supposedly Conservative, States Right's Republican Administration of Governor Palin in Alaska and tell them to back off?
Look no further for who is synonymous with the Federal Government than the Insignia and first line of the Letter to the Alaska Legislature below.
Cheney IS the Federal Government.
It all is such classic Cheney,
as fixer and master of GOP minions large and small.
From the crooked Alaska Senator Stevens on the line,
to the Libbyesque fall-guy and Governor Frank Murkowski,
to the very lightweight Alaska Governor Sarah "Pushover" Palin...
Right down to the Hood of "Justice" rationalized by the State's Legal Waterboy,
another Republicrook Attorney General, Alaska's Talis Colberg.
Colberg has all the pliability of Disgraced Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and a resume that reads like Monica Good-Underlings, 'cept with boxer shorts and having the distinction of graduating during the Reagan Era from the Dunce Cap Standard of Right Wingery in Law Schools, Pepperdine:
Colberg, age 50, is a life-long Alaskan. He received his high school degree from Palmer High School in 1976. He graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 1979 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Oriental History. In 1983 Colberg received his JD degree from Pepperdine University School of Law.
Yeh, no NeoCon Idealogue There, a Reagan-era Pepperdine grad at the Helm of what is Nominally Palin's Attorney General's Office serving Alaska.
I thought this was funny in a Gonzales-esque way:
Colberg serves
as the legal advisor for the governor and other state officers,
[Ed.Note: Ya mean Like all those indicted Republican ones???]
prosecutes all violations of state criminal law
[Ed.Note: Apparently NOT]
represents the state in all civil lawsuits and administrative proceedings to which the state is a party,
[Ed.Note: Um like declassifying Polar Bears so Bribers can receive the illegally obtained permissions they PAID for??]
enforces the consumer protection and unfair trade practices laws,
[Ed.Note: Uh Like collusion in a Three Way Joint Venture Between BP, ConocPhillips and Exxon??]
and protects rate payers in proceedings before the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA), the state agency that regulates utilities
[Ed.Note: Ya mean like Oil and GAS Companies??]
Oh, I'm quite sure Dick Cheney
likes very, VERY much
what he sees in Sarah Palin.
Afterall, The Republicans Say
She is quite the catch, no?
But more than a few questions
need to be answered before
the Republican Fish Stories
about her are to be believed...
...Beginning with her APPOINTED Attorney General, Colberg, and why they covered for Stevens and Oil Company Bribes.
What WAS going on in her own Appointed Attorney General's Office?
How could she possibly pose as a "Reformer" or a Leader"?
When it is clear the Empress has no clothes,
when it is clear the only transparent Political Cloth she is covered in
is that of Naked Greed, tailored for her--
by the likes of Cheney,
Murkowski, Stevens,
and the Bribery of Big Oil companies?
Most of all, Why DID she lay down with, and for,
ole Dick "the GOP Lube Man" Cheney???
Who knows, maybe Cheney's just in it for the Fish-Oil for his heart..
Ya think??
Again, sorry to ruin the GOP Honeymooners' Bliss.
But As John McCain likes to say, "Politics ain't Bean-Bag."
Sooooo.....
What DID "Reformer" Palin DO About FOR Dick-OIL-and-His-Buddies?