Prolly, he knows something about what the real risks are in what he did with his stepson.

I’m not saying it’s a good idea, I’m just saying it’s not a big evil fucking deal that the press and apparently the Palins are trying to make him for. And for what reason? Because it’s a divorce, that’s why.

As for the moose shooting, it’s fucking ridiculous. No, it wasn’t legal and probably he knows it wasn’t legal. But how annoying is it when your idiot wife gets a coveted Mat-Su lottery tag for shooting a cow moose, then basically chickens out of it. At the last moment, she is with you on the last day of the hunt, and you’re thinking just shoot the moose dammit, but she doesn’t want to. So you shoot the fucking moose yourself. Later, your wife makes this out to big some big fucking issue related to your divorce and your sister in law tries to use it to so that you lose your fucking job? What a bunch of fucking bitches, that’s all I can say.

The drinking in the patrol car is a bit of a greater issue, but here again, the initial investigation found lack of evidence, it appears that only under additional pressure from Palin’s office that this decision was somehow reversed, which is supposedly a rather extraordinary outcome.

Wikipedia has information on it, and it links to a more detailed article from the Anchorage Daily News, also the Memorandum of findings from the investigation of Wooten brought about by the claims from his ex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Public_Safety_Commissioner_dismissal

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html

http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/07/25/20/Memo_of_findings_10-29-05.source.prod_affiliate.7.pdf

I’m not saying Palin did anything illegal, I’m just saying it doesn’t speak well for her character that she got involved in this when many of the allegations were clearly overblown in their significance and designed to produce an emotional rather than reasoned response to Wooten’s actions in the context of a divorce proceeding.

Walter Monegan obviously has no recourse as he serves as Public Safety Commissioner at the governor’s pleasure so she did nothing wrong by firing him. But Wooten has rights that extend beyond this and may have grounds to sue under some interpretation of the law. Who knows, maybe he will sue once the divorce is settled. I’m kinda hoping he does, and that he wins for something out of this affair.

Anyway, I have seen little of talkingpointsmemo (first time has been blog comments on this subject) and what I have seen smacks of bias and rumor mongering – don’t know if that’s the whole story, but it’s not something I’d be willing to treat as a reliable source. Even moreso, your other sources are just discussion forum comments.

How should we react re: State Trooper Wooten thought he was hunting on his wife’s hunting permit? If you mean he’s that confused about state law, then one must wonder how he got the job in the first place.

Actually, the cop, Mike Wooten, who divorced Palin’s sister may not be such a bad guy, and he may have a case. It looks like a typical matriarchal court divorce scenario, where the females begin clucking about trying to dredge up whatever transgressions real or imagined (or greatly exaggerated) that are alleged to occur over decades and try to use that to gain sympathy with the court, usually in prepartion for making a grab for the kids. You know, the typical nymphotropism bullshit that women rely on all the time. Palin does not appear to be above this and it looks like a bad sign. She sounds rather anti-father.

For more details, read the following:

http://www.zimbio.com/pilot?ID=yqaSgKrBM_-&ZURL=/Molly+McCann/news&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fangrybear.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fon-those-allegations-against-mike.html

If this source is right, then:

(1) Allegedly Wooten is said to have tasered his stepson. What is not emphasized in the smears against him, is that the stepson apparently *asked* the stepfather Wooten to taser him, ostensibly to see what that is like. Sounds like they were goofing around. FYI, people do this shit all the time, and many cops who undergo training to use taser devices actually are encouraged to submit themselves to tasering to understand how it works. It can be very education (as well as corny). Click here for some examples http://my.break.com/Content/Search/Search.aspx?s=taser&SearchType=Main&SEARCH1=Search .

2) The Palin’s have made a fuss claiming that Wooten shot a moose without a hunting license. What the smears to *not* tell you, is that Wooten’s wife (the divorcee and Palin’s sister) was *with* him at the time he shot the moose, and at the time this happened, she had a valid license to hunt moose. Wooten felt he was just shooting moose on his wife’s permit at the time. Perhaps not legal, but a big deal.

The fact that Palin is willing to throw in with this useless mishmash of matriarchal henpecking is concerning in itself. That she takes it to her job, even worse.

More info here:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/211769.php