Posted on 09/03/2008 8:33:27 AM PDT by STARWISE
I used to subscribe to Us Weekly - it was my guilty pleasure on weekends. I stopped my subscription last year. Today I wrote to them about how disgusting their cover was, as well as to my local Publix to please remove the magazine from their shelves. What surprised me is that their editor, Janice Min, consistently writes columns about her life as a “working mom” and has always seemed like a very likeable, even-handed woman. I wonder whose idea this was — they should be fired. The whole thing is just disgraceful. I will NEVER buy this magazine again.
I think the case can be made that the supervisor clearly was not doing their job.
The supervisor was doing his job properly. Trooper Wooten had already admitted he used the taser on his stepson and he was properly disciplined by his department. All of this occurred several years ago. Monegan would have no legal right to discipline Wooten a second time for something that had been previously handled.
The ALLEGED threat against Mr. Heath (Palin's father) is just that...an alleged threat. More than 40 of those kinds of accusations were filed against Wooten in the last 3 years and ALL of them came from the Palin's or the Heath's or Ms. McCann (Palin's little sister). They are the ONLY people to have formally accused Wooten of wrong doing.
A family court judge investigated the complaints in 2005 and found all the accusations to be unsubstantiated or plain out false. The judge in 2005 admonished Molly McCann that if Trooper Wooten lost his job the court would hold Molly McCann and her family accountable. So once again Monegan had NO legitimate reason to fire Trooper Wooten. The judge's remark along with the finalization of the divorce cooled the Palins and Heaths behavior for awhile.
In early 2008 custody was reopened by the court regarding Wooten's and Molly McCann's children. At that time the complaints, etc. on the part of the Heath's and Palin's resumed but this time there was a difference. Now Palin was governor of the state and had a lot more power and leverage. Charges were made that she used those and THAT is what is the abuse of power she is under investigation for doing. Whether Wooten tasered his stepson isn't an issue NOW. That was addressed, the fool admitted he did it and he was punished already.
The issue now at hand is, this all was a family court (or possibly even criminal court) matter. It was for judges and police officers and the state troopers office and the union to take care of. Governor Palin had no business getting involved and especially not using her office or staff to do so. Palin should have stayed out of it and let the other authorities do their job. The charges against her say she didn't do that.
Do some web searches, read the ADN (Anchorage Daily News), read some local Alaska blogs. You will find a wealth of good information on this matter -- some for Palin and some against but the truth is somewhere in the middle. The investigations (there are 2 of them going now) on Palin are due to be completed on October 31. That's 4 days before the election. If the investigations aren't in Palin's favor, it will be hard to counter it in the press in only 4 days. McCain should have vetted her. I mean for real not just saying he did.
Palin just called for an independent ethics investigation on herself in this matter, unlike the Dem-led witch hunt in the legislature, and the findings of the tasering and the threats were not by Palin but by the people who investigate these matters in Alaska.
Please stick to the facts next time.
Wooten recently gave his union permission to release the entire investigative file, all 482 pages and hours of recorded interviews.
...
"The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession," Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days.
She warned that if he messed up again, he'd be fired.
"This discipline is meant to be a last chance to take corrective action," Grimes wrote. "You are hereby given notice that any further occurrences of these types of behaviors or incidents will not be tolerated and will result in your termination."
It's nearly impossible to know whether other complaints have come in about Wooten in the last two years. His personnel file is confidential. But the fact he remains on the force is an indication that he hasn't had the sort of trouble that Grimes warned against.
Grimes declined to comment, as did various troopers involved in the investigation.
'... NOT WITHOUT A BLEMISH'
As the investigation got under way in 2005, Wooten was in the midst of a bitter divorce from Palin's sister, Molly McCann. The couple was fighting over custody of their two young children. Accusations flew from both sides.
Troopers eventually investigated 13 issues and found four in which Wooten violated policy or broke the law or both:
• Wooten used a Taser on his stepson.
• He illegally shot a moose.
• He drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion.
• He told others his father-in-law would "eat a f'ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce.
Beyond the investigation sparked by the family, trooper commanders saw cause to discipline or give written instructions to correct Wooten seven times since he joined the force, according to Grimes' letter to Wooten.
http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html
The troopers conducted the investigation, found what they found, and all you tell me to do is to investigate further without any evidence to support your claims. Give me some links that absolve Wooten of tasering the child. Or are you accusing the state troopers of lying about these findings?
Mods, we have a plant on our hands. Palin is so powerful that she convinced the state troopers to find against Wooten before she was even elected governor.
Palin did not "just" call for an independent ethics investigation. She did that some time ago and if IIRC it was after the state's Legislative Council (a bipartisan panel of senators and representatives), authorized their own official investigation last month. At the same time they approved a budget of $100,000 to fund the investigation. A special prosecutor by the name of Steven Blanchflower (a retired state prosecutor) has been named to head the investigation which he began doing on August 21, 2008.
http://www.adn.com/monegan/v-printer/story/513137.html
I stick very closely to the facts as much as I can. I make a concerted effort to do so. Previously I suggested reading the ADN and Alaskan blogs. The people in Alaska are in a better position to report on this than you or I am. As for your last snotty comment to me, I suggest you take your own advice.
Seriously, it is unfortunate that you are so emotional on the topic that you cannot accurately read what I wrote. I never claimed no one else said Wooten tasered the stepson. Never. As I said before, that foolish event on Wooten's part happened several YEARS ago.
What I said is that out of the 40 or some recent complaints or accusations in Wooten's employee file, all of them were made by Heath's or Palin's or Ms. McCann. See the difference yet?
Since everything I wrote has been reported in the ADN or Alaskan blogs none of it is MY lies. Get it?
Your personal insults (that I'm lying and polluting this forum for example) are uncalled for and just show that you are getting closer to the liberals in your intolerance of opposing opinion. You want to discuss, then discuss like an adult. You want to insult, take it up with someone else. I'm not interested.
It's the cheeks look puffier, the lighting under her eyes and her left eye turned in that looks different from any other picture I've seen.
CALL THIS PHONE NUMBER AND CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TO US WEEKLY, WHETHER YOU ARE A SUBSCRIBER OR NOT.
1-800-283-3956
I spent about 5 minutes and it is a good use of time to send a message. Plus they have to pay for the call.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.