Month: November 2008

Yglesias is skeptical.

The Anchorage Daily News found the report by Personnel Board investigator Tim Petumenos "less-than-convincing". They’re right. Now comes Monegan’s lawyer’s rebuttal of the report’s findings, strongly suggesting that Palin committed perjury:

Former Commissioner Monegan testified that the Governor called him in January 2007 to talk about Trooper Wooten. Governor Palin denied that the conversation occurred. Both individuals testified under oath.

The existence of the two conflicting statements, alone, normally would suffice for a finding of probable cause, with the final determination as to which version was most credible to be by a neutral fact-finder made at a formal hearing. But there was additional evidence available on this issue, beyond the two sworn statements by Governor Palin and Commissioner Monegan.

In the last paragraph on page 31 of the report, the investigator for the Personnel Board accepts at face value the Governor’s claim that the call to Commissioner Monegan never occurred; the investigator points to Todd Palin’s testimony (also taken at face value) as confirming the fact that Mr. Palin had never talked to the Governor about his meeting with Commissioner Monegan. The investigator’s report states:

"Governor Palin, in any event, has testified under oath that she was unaware that Todd Palin made these early 2007 inquires to Commissioner Monegan. Todd Palin confirmed that he did not discuss either the Monegan meeting or Commissioner Monegan’s follow up call with the Governor at any time until the matter became the subject of scrutiny in 2008."

But in making this finding, the investigator’s report ignores an e-mail that the Governor sent to Former Commissioner Monegan on February 7, 2007, shortly after the date of the disputed phone call. In her February 7 e-mail, the Governor expressed her concern about the Wooten situation in terms that unequivocally establish: (1) the Governor’s knowledge that Commissioner Monegan already knew of her own concerns, and (2) the Governor’s knowledge that Todd Palin had already directly informed Commissioner Monegan of her family’s concerns. The Governor’s February 7 email states:

"Just my opinion – I know you know I’ve experienced a lot of frustration with this issue. I know Todd’s even expressed to you a lot of concern about our family’s safety after this trooper threatened to kill a family member – …"

If the January phone call never occurred (as the Governor claimed in her deposition testimony), how did the Governor know on February 7 (when she sent her email) that Commissioner Monegan already knew of her frustration? And if the Governor truly was unaware of any contacts between Commissioner Monegan and Todd Palin, how could she claim to know that Mr. Palin had expressed the family’s concern to Commissioner Monegan?

Even though the e-mail seriously undermines the Governor’s denial of the January phone call and directly refutes her claim that she knew nothing of Todd Palin’s communications with Former Commissioner Monegan, the report by the Personnel Board’s investigator all but ignores the e-mail’s contents. This omission and others like it raise a question whether the report reflects a careful and critical examination of all available evidence designed to discover the truth or merely a hasty review aimed at meeting an election-eve deadline.

Jeff Vail argues, counter-intuitively, that suburbanites may be more resilient than urbanites to a economic downturn and energy cost increase:

As long as suburbanites maintain their present income levels, they should be able to afford their present costs of commuting–in most cases rising gas prices won’t break the bank, and can largely be addressed through improved efficiency. However, a sharp economic downturn has the potential to dramatically reduce these income levels.

Here’s the key: a sharp economic downturn will most likely reduce urbanites’ income levels by a similar amount. So while these economic troubles may make life in suburbia much more difficult, it will also make life in urban areas much more difficult. Precisely because the issue is base cost of commuting, not variable cost, this economic impact is felt equally in suburban and urban areas. In fact, because there are so many viable (if inconvenient) options for suburbanites to reduce base commuting costs, …it may be easier for suburbanites to adapt to a sharp economic downturn than urbanites. Cutting down from two commuter cars to one could cut a suburbanite’s total expenditures by 10-20%+ per month without great change. That’s a large chunk of suburban budgets that is quite elastic, and lends a great deal of resiliency to suburbanite finances. How many urban households can cut expenses by this much merely by doing something as simple as carpooling?

"With the cable nets acting as Palin’s enablers, who will organize the intervention" – Josh Marshall.

Two words: Amy Balliett.

UNESCO recently released a map (pdf), nearly a decade in the making, on where the world’s aquifers lie. New Scientist explains the significance:

What the UNESCO map reveals is just how many aquifers cross international borders. So far, the organisation has identified 273 trans-boundary aquifers: 68 in the Americas, 38 in Africa, 155 in Eastern and Western Europe and 12 in Asia. Each trans-boundary aquifer holds the potential for international conflict – if two countries share an aquifer, pumping in one country will affect its neighbour’s water supply.

Detail shot of Africa and the Middle East after the jump:

(Hat tip: Joshua Keating)

The New Republic urges Bush-like ambition for the president-elect:

The greatest risk for Democrats is not that Obama will try to do too much, but that their terror of failure will lead them to waste an historic opportunity. This is not a Clintonian moment. It is more like the moment Lyndon Johnson inherited in 1965, or the one Franklin Roosevelt faced in 1933–a chance to reshape American government. The Democrats have it in their grasp to master the great problems of public life if they can summon their collective nerve. The only thing they have to fear is fear itself.

Listen to Ron Paul:

The Republican Congress never once stood up against the Bush/Rove machine that demanded support for unconstitutional wars, attacks on civil liberties here at home, and an economic policy based on more spending, more debt, and more inflation — while constantly preaching the flawed doctrine that deficits don’t matter as long as taxes aren’t raised.

Scott Louis Weber, a former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issues a warning:

If ever there was a time to not default to the norm — it’s now. The current state of the economy and the looming government transition creates a highly attractive atmosphere for terrorists. Our Achilles heel is exposed and waiting to be exploited. As such, corporations must continue to improve security programs, harden their assets and ensure appropriate funding to remain vigilant. This effort must include a comprehensive and ever-evolving strategy to detect, prevent and mitigate all hazards including improvised explosive devices, chemical and biological agents and cyber attacks. A cyber attack aimed at U.S. financial institutions would cause exponentially greater damage in our weakened economic state. Bottom line: corporate America must continue to invest in physical and cyber security to ensure the safety and well-being of employees, assets and customers.