No Time for Trivia

A pattern of abuse, secrecy, deceit and taking advantage of the system.  In other words, a perfectly good Republican candidate.  The AP reports:

Palin Tax Returns For 2005 And 2007 Released

Sarah Palin is the breadwinner and husband Todd is, well — he takes a lot of deductions for his fishing and snowmachine racing careers, according to 2007 and 2006 federal tax returns released Friday.

Sarah Palin makes $125,000 a year as Alaska governor. Plus, since she took the job in December 2006, she hasn’t paid taxes on the more than $17,000 she received in controversial per diem payments for working out of the family’s lakeside home in Wasilla — some 575 miles from the capital of Juneau.

For the 2007 tax year, Todd Palin’s self-employment brought him $66,893 in gross receipts — $49,893 from fishing and $17,000 from snowmachine racing. But, the returns show, he claimed so many deductions that he reported only $15,513 net profit from the fishing operation and claimed a $9,639 loss from his racing, leaving him with an overall net income of only $5,874.

Those deductions enabled the Palins, who have four dependent children, to enjoy a 15 percent tax rate for 2007 and a rate of less than 10 percent for 2006. Todd Palin also deducted for the business use of their home in Wasilla. A fifth child was born to the couple this year.

You betcha.  Another little tax deduction.

“This is a lady who screams about everyone in federal government taking advantage, and she’s taking every advantage she can,” said Sheldon Cohen, IRS commissioner in the Johnson administration. “They are milking every possible deduction. They have a right to, if it’s legitimate. The question is, is he in the racing business or is it a hobby?”

I don’t know…we all try to get as many deductions as possible but for someone who is on a platform of Country First it sure seems as if she is trying to keep from giving that country as much as she possibly can.  And it looks like this secrecy and executive privilege meme is being carried by her as well:

Activist Slaps Palin With Lawsuit Over Private Emails

A Republican activist has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Sarah Palin in an attempt to access official correspondences sent with Palin’s private e-mail accounts, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

The activist, Andree McLeod, filed the suit in Alaska Superior Court and publicized it with a press release that criticized the Republican vice presidential candidate.

“Rather than using her state e-mail account, throughout her two-year tenure as Governor of Alaska, defendant Sarah Palin, as a matter of routine, has used, and, on information and belief, continues to use, (at least) two private e-mail accounts… to conduct official business of the State of Alaska,” the suit alleges.

McLeod received four boxes of redacted e-mails after filing an open record request that was initially rejected by the governor.

And what reason would one think that she gives?

But Palin withheld 1,100 other e-mails from private accounts, claiming the information was subject to executive privilege.

It seems as if our lil’ reformer needs to go to reform school.

McLeod said she believes Palin and her staff nurtured a “culture of corruption” where no one in her administration was held accountable to rules of transparency in government.

“The extent of the use of these private e-mail accounts demonstrates the extent of deception that the governor is operating under,” McLeod said. “The process is corrupt. The overall question now becomes, how did it become so broken that nobody could tell her, ‘Don’t do that.’ That’s why I’m going to the courts.”

Never a dull moment with Sarah Palin.  It seems like it might get more interesting soon, too:

7 Palin Aides To Testify In Abuse-Of-Power Probe

- Seven aides to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin have reversed course and agreed to testify in an investigation into whether the Republican vice presidential nominee abused her powers by firing a commissioner who refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law.

There is no indication, however, that Palin or her husband will now agree to testify in the legislative inquiry, which has dogged her for the past several months and could hurt John McCain in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Accountability…its for other people.  Anyway…another week closer to the elections.  Another wild week of politics, I would bet.  The stakes are high.  Let’s see what it brings.