Palin skipped paying property taxes on cabins, records show

Hypocrisy alert, but what's new?  I thought that Christians were supposed to be honest.  Seems like its ok to cheat, as long as it's your government that you are cheating...local, state, federal...cheat away.  Jesus saves.  Even if you were the Chief Executive Officer of a State! ~Deb

Palin skipped paying property taxes on cabins, records show

By The Associated Press
Thursday, February 4th, 2010 -- 9:01 pm

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Records show that Sarah Palin hasn't paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.
It's unclear how long ago the structures were built, but records show that there are no tax assessments for the workshop, sauna and house-sized cabins spotted Thursday in an aerial survey.
Property taxes totaling $156.13 were paid on the land in 2009 — but that bill did not include anything for the structures because the local assessor didn't know about the new construction nearly 100 miles north of Anchorage.
The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted a scheduled aerial survey of the properties on Thursday. The area is accessible only by floatplane, snowmobile or four-wheeler.
Dave Dunivan, the assessor for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, said such a survey had not been done in five years, before construction started on the cabins.

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Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.

"It is the borough's job," he said in an e-mail. "The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent."

Dunivan, however, said owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments. Often, the borough learns of new structures in remote areas when neighbors report them. Dunivan said no one has called the borough on the Palin lots, among many in the region to add structures, the flyover survey found.
 
"Typically, if there are errors, we hear from owners," he said. "If there are omissions, we don't. Every once in a while we do have someone call us about omissions, but not often."

The properties are located along Safari Lake — an undeveloped area located near Denali State Park — and owned by Palin, her husband Todd and a family friend, Scott Richter. According to borough records, the tax assessments are sent to Richter's post office box in Big Lake.
There is no phone listing in Alaska for Richter and he could not be reached Thursday.
The matter first appeared Wednesday on an Alaska political blog site, Mudflats, which has been critical of Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.
Palin resigned as governor last summer and has since written a best-selling memoir. She signed on as a Fox News commentator last month.
Dunivan said a photo of a large cabin posted on the site — and later reported on the Huffington Post Web site — is one of the structures spotted in the flyover.
"This is another blatant attempt to manufacture a story about the Palins following more defamatory swipes," Palin's spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Van Flein said work is still being done on the cabins, but both are usable. He said construction began on one of the cabins in 2006, but he didn't know when construction started on the second one.
The two parcels of land, separated by one lot, total 25 acres and had a combined value of $30,000 in 2007 through 2009, according to assessment records. Dunivan said the data collected in Thursday's survey will be calculated into 2010 assessment notices being mailed out at the end of the month.
It's too soon to estimate how much the structures will increase the taxes due, Dunivan said.
The cabins are the size of large homes rather than the average backcountry cabin, but square footage estimates were not immediately available.
Local real estate broker, Claus Steigler, said most cabins in the area are closer to the 500-square-foot range. Because they are in a hard to reach area, they generally sell for only $40,000 to $60,000, including the land.
One large log cabin reachable by road is listed at $229,000, but it's still on the market after two years, Steigler said.

Palin cabins not noted in tax assessments

Cabins on Palin properties not noted in borough tax assessments

RACHEL D'ORO
AP News

Feb 04, 2010 22:14 EST

Records show that Sarah Palin hasn't paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.

It's unclear how long ago the structures were built, but records show that there are no tax assessments for the workshop, sauna and house-sized cabins spotted Thursday in an aerial survey.
Property taxes totaling $156.13 were paid on the land in 2009 — but that bill did not include anything for the structures because the local assessor didn't know about the new construction nearly 100 miles north of Anchorage.
The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted a scheduled aerial survey of the properties on Thursday. The area is accessible only by floatplane, snowmobile or four-wheeler.
Dave Dunivan, the assessor for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, said such a survey had not been done in five years, before construction started on the cabins.
Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.
"It is the borough's job," he said in an e-mail. "The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent."
Dunivan, however, said owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments. Often, the borough learns of new structures in remote areas when neighbors report them. Dunivan said no one has called the borough on the Palin lots, among many in the region to add structures, the flyover survey found.
"Typically, if there are errors, we hear from owners," he said. "If there are omissions, we don't. Every once in a while we do have someone call us about omissions, but not often."
The properties are located along Safari Lake — an undeveloped area located near Denali State Park — and owned by Palin, her husband Todd and a family friend, Scott Richter. According to borough records, the tax assessments are sent to Richter's post office box in Big Lake.
There is no phone listing in Alaska for Richter and he could not be reached Thursday.
The matter first appeared Wednesday on an Alaska political blog site, Mudflats, which has been critical of Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.
Palin resigned as governor last summer and has since written a best-selling memoir. She signed on as a Fox News commentator last month.
Dunivan said a photo of a large cabin posted on the site — and later reported on the Huffington Post Web site — is one of the structures spotted in the flyover.
"This is another blatant attempt to manufacture a story about the Palins following more defamatory swipes," Palin's spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Van Flein said work is still being done on the cabins, but both are usable. He said construction began on one of the cabins in 2006, but he didn't know when construction started on the second one.
The two parcels of land, separated by one lot, total 25 acres and had a combined value of $30,000 in 2007 through 2009, according to assessment records. Dunivan said the data collected in Thursday's survey will be calculated into 2010 assessment notices being mailed out at the end of the month.
It's too soon to estimate how much the structures will increase the taxes due, Dunivan said.
The cabins are the size of large homes rather than the average backcountry cabin, but square footage estimates were not immediately available.
Local real estate broker, Claus Steigler, said most cabins in the area are closer to the 500-square-foot range. Because they are in a hard to reach area, they generally sell for only $40,000 to $60,000, including the land.
One large log cabin reachable by road is listed at $229,000, but it's still on the market after two years, Steigler said.

Hockey Mom for Obama

Spendthrift Sarah

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/2008/view/2008_10_26_Sarah_Palin_spends__50G_on_remodel_jobs/srvc=home&position=also

Sarah Palin spends $50G on remodel jobs


By Laura Crimaldi
Sunday, October 26, 2008
http://www.bostonherald.com
2008 Campaign

GOP vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin spent more than $51,000 in taxpayer funds to remodel the governor’s Anchorage office suite and spruce up her mansion and office in Juneau, a Herald review of expense records shows.

Palin spent most of the funds, $45,137, in April to build and furnish three offices inside her suite at the Robert B. Atwood Building in Anchorage, records show.

In June 2007, Palin spent $5,380 for labor and materials on a 72-inch wooden display case in her Juneau office. The case houses a football and basketball signed by players from championship high school teams, native artwork, a Klondike Trail mug and other items, said gubernatorial spokesman William D. McAllister.

Another $1,205 was spent in February 2007 on blinds for an arched window and stairwell at the governor’s mansion in Juneau.

The McCain-Palin campaign said it would characterize the remodeling expenses as “routine.”

“Gov. Palin has a long record of cutting wasteful spending, using her veto pen to eliminate nearly a half-billion dollars from the budget,” said Jeff Grappone, New England communications director. “She sold the state’s luxury jet, scrapped the governor’s personal chef and got rid of the personal driver.”  ( She kept the chef and the personal driver.  She vetoed such things as funds that help unwed mothers to independence. -ed.)

On the campaign trail, Palin has touted that record.

“I came to office promising to control spending by request if possible and by veto if necessary,” she said in her convention address.

The money spent for remodeling has not been previously publicized. Alaska government watchdogs said it did not change their opinion of the governor, who is well-regarded in a state infamous for its profligate pols.

“The lady’s literally done a good job up here,” said Donna Gilbert, president of the Interior Taxpayers’ Association in Fairbanks, who noted a mayor in Fairbanks once spent $50,000 on a bathroom.

However, state Sen. President Lyda Green - a Republican who has clashed with Palin over policy - said the cost to remodel the Anchorage offices was “extravagant.”

“As far as I am concerned, that’s excessive to spend that much on four cubby holes,” Green said.

The work on the Anchorage site created new offices for Kelly Goode, Palin’s legislative director, and Roseanne Hughes, director of external communications, McAllister said. The third office is reserved for “traveling staff,” who divide their time between Anchorage and Juneau, which are located 571 miles apart, McAllister said.

A Palin staffer said the Juneau mansion’s new blinds were installed to provide privacy.

“The residence manager determined that the blinds were necessary to prevent observation from the street of the family members,” administrative director Linda J. Perez said in an e-mail.

Mike McBride, past president of the Alaska Voters Organization, did not take issue with the expenses. “It’s not a tremendous amount of money. Things in Alaska cost substantially more than they do in other parts of the country,” McBride said. “It’s not an unreasonable number.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1127815

McCain campaign says Palin is a diva

http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/8FA457D4F9DE5612652574EE002519B8?OpenDocument

New York, Oct 26 (PTI) With US Presidential elections barely 9 days away, long brewing tensions between key advisers of Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin have escalated so much that they have spilled out in public.


With McCain trailing behind his Democrat opponent Obama in the polls as per the recent surveys, recrimations have started between his key advisers and Palin. The Cable News Network (CNN) here quoted at least one adviser suggesting that Palin has gone 'rogue.' Another McCain source claimed that she appears to be looking out for herself more than the campaign, according to the CNN, playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party.

"She's no longer playing for 2008; she's playing 2012," Democratic pollster Peter Hart said. "And the difficulty is, when she went on 'Saturday Night Live,' (a satirical TV show) she became a reinforcement of her caricature.... And at the end of the day, voters turned against her both in terms of qualifications and personally." Several McCain advisers were quoted by the CNN as saying they are becoming increasingly frustrated, but an associate of Palin told the network that she is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll out.

Pointing towards the Alaska Governor's recent spate of disregarding the orders from the advisers, a McCain source cited an instance in which she labelled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use.

Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said a McCain adviser. PTI

Anchorage Daily News: Obama for President

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/567867.html


Obama for president

Palin's rise captivates us but nation needs a steady hand
(10/25/08 19:37:58)

Alaska enters its 50th-anniversary year in the glow of an improbable and highly memorable event: the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate. For the first time ever, an Alaskan is making a serious bid for national office, and in doing so she brings broad attention and recognition not only to herself, but also to the state she leads.

Alaska's founders were optimistic people, but even the most farsighted might have been stretched to imagine this scenario. No matter the outcome in November, this election will mark a signal moment in the history of the 49th state. Many Alaskans are proud to see their governor, and their state, so prominent on the national stage.

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

Since his early acknowledgement that economic policy is not his strong suit, Sen. McCain has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged. He declared that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" at 9 a.m. one day and by 11 a.m. was describing an economy in crisis. He is both a longtime advocate of less market regulation and a supporter of the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. His behavior in this crisis -- erratic is a kind description -- shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery.

Sen. Obama warned regulators and the nation 19 months ago that the subprime lending crisis was a disaster in the making. Sen. McCain backed tighter rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but didn't do much to advance that legislation. Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it. It is easy to look at Sen. Obama and see a return to the smart, bipartisan economic policies of the last Democratic administration in Washington, which left the country with the momentum of growth and a budget surplus that President George Bush has squandered.
On the most important issue of the day, Sen. Obama is a clear choice.

Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn't show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.

It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl Rove. And while Sen. McCain points to the fragile success of the troop surge in stabilizing conditions in Iraq, it is also plain that he was fundamentally wrong about the more crucial early decisions. Contrary to his assurances, we were not greeted as liberators; it was not a short, easy war; and Americans -- not Iraqi oil -- have had to pay for it. It was Sen. Obama who more clearly saw the danger ahead.

The unqualified endorsement of Sen. Obama by a seasoned, respected soldier and diplomat like Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican icon, should reassure all Americans that the Democratic candidate will pass muster as commander in chief.

On a matter of parochial interest, Sen. Obama opposes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but so does Sen. McCain. We think both are wrong, and hope a President Obama can be convinced to support environmentally responsible development of that resource.

Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she's a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

Copyright © Sun Oct 26 12:02:29 PDT 20081900 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com)

Charles Manson-Obama linked at Republican rally

Setting:


Duluth Sportsmen for Coleman political rally

Cast of characters:

Norm Coleman, U.S. Senator from Minnesota

Todd Palin, husband of Sarah Palin, Republican candidate for Vice President

Props:

Hand-lettered sign reading "Charles Manson Was a Community Organizer"

I thought at first that the First Dude was holding this sign.  But it was a member of the audience. 

You say, well it wasn't Todd.  I say I am sorry for making that mistake. 

However, entry to Republican events is TIGHTLY CONTROLLED to a degree that surprises most people.  That sign could not have made it to the front of the rally unless those in power wanted it there. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, John McCain shouldn't be held responsible for the outrageous behavior of his supporters-- hey, wait a minute...

Palin's fans speak

Having been around since the first SNL broadcast. Just like some old rock bands cannot capture the mood of the old days, SNL writers just don't get that more than 50% of their stuff does not cut it. I would have hoped Sarah Palin would not of waist her time on the show. Take all the liberal shows and biased comedy hours and you realize - black and white, cats and dogs, men and women, mars and venous. Likw night and day - polorized !! There is an extreme lack of communication between liberals and us conservatives that I wish could improve. Maybe McCain should have said, when I am president I will have you on my cabinet, just like Hilary said Obama could be her VP. Now that would prove McCain is the better moderate. That would shake it up and probably be what you needed to change the voting polls. Something other than attack attack attack for someone who is such a moderate. What ever happened to revers psychology.

McCain is the little tug that could.
 
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to rick4484: spoken like a true elitist. Don't choke on your latte. The truth about Obama may just burn your mouth. Obama's true social agenda has its roots in eugenics. Sounds like you're in that mix. If the Republicans win the election it will be the will of the majority of the people. Obama wants a redistribution of wealth. That IS socialism. Most Americans don't want that. What is the failed experiment, democracy or capitalism? My identity as an American does not rest on who is in the White House or what other countries think about us. If, heaven forbid, Obama wins we will all be no less Americans at least initially but we may become a French colony.
 
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Obama's made a fool out of himself more than a few times also, but I'll just link to the YouTube vid in the interest of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap2Cg_FDRy4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5R6kVry4_c

Frankly, I love liberals who say what Bill Ayers did in the 60s doesn't matter because BO was only eight years old...LOL If Palin had her political coming out party in the home of a radical right winger who had bombed abortion clinics when she was a little girl the liberals at CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC wouldn't shut up about it.

I can't wait till you libs count the votes and see that the Acorn's fraud didn't overcome the Bradley effect and the chosen one and the human gaffe machine have failed. Next time, vote for Hillary Clinton, at least she'd have a real shot.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE49G6ZE20081019?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10112&sp=true

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I think I get the whole Sarah Palin fan base now.  None of them can finish sentences, and neither can Sarah.