>>>>>Given the sort of wild and wooly culture of Alaska, I think after he tasered the kid it showed alot of restraint not to just take his piece off the board. Taser my nephew, once, and somebody pressuring your boss won't be an issue.
>>>>
>>>>Here's a link I found about the taser incident:
>>>>
>>>>http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/05/trooper-in-palin-probe-trying-to-put-mistakes-behind-him/
>>>>
>>>>The relevant part:
>>>>
>>>>Speaking Thursday to CNN's Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston, Wooten gave his account of the Taser incident but denied ever drinking while driving.
>>>>
>>>>He said that he was a new Taser instructor, and his stepson was asking him about the equipment. "I didn't shoot him with live, you know, actual live cartridge," Wooten said. Instead, he said, he hooked his stepson up to a training aid "with little clips. And you know the Taser was activated for less than a second, which would be less than what you would get if you touched an electric fence… It was as safe as I could possibly make it."
>>>>
>>>>He said his stepson was on the living room floor surrounded by pillows, and that he "was bragging about it," and that the family laughed about it.
>>>>
>>>>Asked whether it was a dumb decision, Wooten told CNN, "absolutely."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>~~Bonnie
>>>
>>>Actually, I didn't know that and that certainly does put it in a different light.
>>>
>>>Guess it is an example of how messy divorces bring out a lot of hostility and charges that don't reflect well on anyone. Thanks for the link.
>>
>>True. It was still completely inappropriate for her, her husband, and her staff to use her capacity as governor to fire one guy and try to fire another over a private matter. Is this the worst thing a politician has ever done? No, of course not. But it's bad enough, and certainly worse than anything Obama has done.
>>
>>With the race no longer in much doubt it's actually kind of amusing watching her human cannonball act. Onto abortion yesterday -- Obama is a wild eyed extremist, says Sarah. It will be interesting to see just how far they will go with the desperate attacks.
>
>Yeah, but to somebody who in their soul opposes all abortion somebody who'd vote to support partial birth abortion *is* a wild-eyed extremist. Obama never fired etc but he also has never held executive power. (Hillary, who only married it, mowed down the travel office like Bush bowling at the Justice department.)

On the other hand, so is somebody who opposes all abortion including rapes to someone who supports partial birth abortions. Six of one...

An idiot is anyone who drives slower than you, and a maniac is anyone who drives faster.

>
>I have no idea of the reality of the Alaska infighting and I would suspect most others don't either. Anyplace where you have a governor who got there by trying to throw the incumbent of her own party under the paddy wagon and is then investigated by some of his folks and a collection of avowed Obama fans, it is probably going to get ugly.
>
>I'm not terribly impressed by the accuracy of attacks on any political candidate but especially this year on attacks on Obama and Palin. Noise to signal ration extremely high.
>
>As I've said before, I think the "paling around with terrorists" stuff is nonsense and agree with Dick Morris that the Rev Wright thing shows Obama not as a Black Liberationist but as a much more typical political opportunist who probably has an elitist disdain for the proles he needs to get elected - which makes him pretty much a perfect Democratic standard bearer.
>
>And McCain is a good example of the GOP being led by "executives" who are sort of there by default as the really good Republican executives are actually exercising power in the world and not subjecting themselves to a demeaning political process.
>
>Just sort of the nature of the political system that seems to have evolved.