courtesy of the Progressive Daily Beacon 

Palin appointed unqualified friends to high-paying government jobs, said scientists claimed global warming didn't threaten polar bears—emails prove she lied 

[W]hen there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency. 

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages… 

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials… 

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process. 

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show. 

“Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said… 

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends & Lashed Foes 

but wait, there’s more ….. 

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has portrayed herself as a foe of pork-barrel spending, pointing in particular to her role in killing the $398 million "Bridge to Nowhere” between Ketchikan (pop. 7,400) and its airport on Gravina Island (pop. 50).  

I "told the Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,'" she said in her speech accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination. "If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves." 

But Gov. Palin’s administration acknowledges that it is still pursuing a project that would link Ketchikan to its airport — with the help of as much as $73 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress for the original project. 

Palin Administration Still Pursuing ‘Nowhere’ Project 

but don’t forget the steak knives ….. 

A few months ago, before she was selected as the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin promised complete cooperation in the legislature's investigation into whether she improperly fired her public safety director. 

How things have changed. 

A joint legislative committee Friday voted to subpoena Palin's husband, Todd Palin, and a dozen others as part of its probe into whether the Alaska governor used her office to settle a personal score. 

Lawmakers took that step because several members of Palin's administration in recent days canceled interviews with the legislature's investigator, former prosecutor Stephen Branchflower… 

Alaska Probe Seeks Subpoenas As Palin Halts Cooperation 

but wait, there’s more ….. 

Sarah Palin's visit to Iraq in 2007 consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, the vice presidential candidate's campaign said yesterday, in the second official revision of her only trip outside North America. 

Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone. 

But in response to queries about the details of her trip, campaign aides and National Guard officials in Alaska said by telephone yesterday that she did not venture beyond the Kuwait-Iraq border when she visited Khabari Alawazem Crossing, also known as "K-Crossing," on July 25, 2007. 

Asked to clarify where she traveled in Iraq, Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, confirmed that "She visited a military outpost on the other side of the Kuwait-Iraq border." 

It was the second such clarification in as many weeks of the itinerary of what Palin has called "the trip of a lifetime." Earlier, the campaign acknowledged that Palin made only a refueling stop in Ireland… 

Palin Camp Clarifies Extent Of Iraq Trip 

and still more ...... on, and on, and on ….. 

Did you know that all the evidence seems to indicate that, as Mayor, Sarah Palin tried to fire the town librarian for refusing to ban certain books from the library? (Yahoo-AP News; September 12, 2008) 

Did you know that Sarah Palin named a police chief accused of harassment to head the state police? (Yahoo News; September 11, 2008) 

Did you know that land records and interviews showed that, as Governor, Sarah Palin approved a state job for a friend and campaign aide with whom she shared a land investment? (Yahoo News; September 11, 2008)