Bush+Financial Crisis+Viceroy Paulson+Treasury Department = Bush + (Viceroy Paul Bremer+CPA) x 1000 - Iraq = lost and wasted $700,000,000,000.

Why does the thought of giving another Bush Appointee boatloads of cash, unlimited authority, and virtually no oversight seem like one of the very worst ideas, in an unprecedented eight year history of very bad ideas?

Or better yet — how can this NOT seem like a horrible idea to everyone with any say on the subject, other than Bush, the inevitable Bush cronies who will profit if BushCo is given $700 billion without strings, and ViceRoy Paulson?

Via Balloon Juice.

Okay, we already have the pregnant teenage daughter, the book banning/librarian-firing, the pork barrelling, Troopergate, and the links to the nutty secessionists — this after two week day news cycles.

Now there’s the former police chief of Wasilla accusing Palin of corruption, of firing him for enforcing the law against her campaign contributors.

Gov. Sarah Palin is already facing ethical questions over her firing of the Alaska public safety commissioner, and now she faces questions over the firing of a longtime local police chief.

After taking over as Mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Palin fired the longtime local police chief. The former police chief, Irl Stambaugh says he was fired because he stepped on the toes of Palin’s campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.

Stambaugh’s lawyer, William Jermain, says the chief tried to move up the closing hours of local bars from 5 a.m. to two a.m. after a spurt of drunk driving accidents and arrests.

“His crackdown on that practice by the bars was not appreciated by her and that was one reason she terminated Irl,” said Jermain.

In his 1997 lawsuit, Stambaugh also alleged that his stand on restricting concealed weapons upset the NRA.

His suit was dismissed when a judge ruled that as mayor Palin could fire the police chief for any reason she wanted. (or properly stated, he didn’t need a reason at all)

Oddly enough, these allegations mirror fairly closely those of the current troopergate investigation — an accusation that Palin used public political power for personal ends.

And this is exactly the kind of thing which turns up if you actually talk to local people who worked with your candidate as part of a background check. Hell, Stambaugh’s accusations were a matter of public record. Maybe it will all turn out to be nothing, but the number of apparent skeletons falling out of the closet of Palin’s fairly short political career is pretty astonishing.

Gird yourselves for another round of Wingnut — and so-called Straight-talking Johnny — whining about the press reporting facts and stuff. For some reason McCain thinks the press should treat his candidacy and his clusterfornication of a decision-making process with the kind of Pravda-like deference our Press Corpse acceded to the Decider prior to the Iraq debacle. And, of course, you can expect the usual refrain about disgruntled former employees.

In the meantime, anyone know what Brownie is up to these days?

McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin for Vice President took place after his operatives nixed Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman and after a rushed, half-assed vetting process which the McCain camp is now trying to correct:

A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.

~~~

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.

It seems that McCain is trying to emulate the Bush information-free decision making process. The Decider II. And of course, under the Bush method, you follow the fuck up with the lies:

Mr. McCain’s advisers said repeatedly on Monday that Ms. Palin was “thoroughly vetted,” a process that would have included a review of all financial and legal records as well as a criminal background check. A McCain aide said the campaign was well aware of the ethics investigation and had looked into it.

How thoroughly vetted was she? Judge for yourself:

“They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.

Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.

“I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.”

The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Ms. Palin’s background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.

State Senator Hollis French, a Democrat who is directing the ethics investigation, said that no one asked him about the allegations. “I heard not a word, not a single contact,” he said.

And per today’s Los Angeles Times, Sarah Palin was a member of a secessionist political party which has for years attempted to obtain a plebescite which would allow Alaska to become an independent country:

Palin could face questions in on other facets of her past, such as her 1990s membership in the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that has pushed for more than 30 years to give Alaskans a vote on whether to secede from the union.

From the Alaskan Independence Party’s web site:

The Alaskan Independence Party’s goal is the vote we were entitled to in 1958, one choice from among the following four alternatives:

1) Remain a Territory.
2) Become a separate and Independent Nation.
3) Accept Commonwealth status.
4) Become a State.

The call for this vote is in furtherance of the dream of the Alaskan Independence Party’s founding father, Joe Vogler, which was for Alaskans to achieve independence under a minimal government, fully responsive to the people, promoting a peaceful and lawful means of resolving differences.

A quote from Joe Vogler, the AIP’s self-described ‘founding father’: “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”

Nice friends [add: and husband] ya got there, Sarah.

McCain picked an inexperienced politician who wants creationism taught in schools, who once aspired to have Alaska leave the very Union which, as Vice President, she would have to swear an oath to protect. This is clearly not the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln.

McCain’s campaign is claiming that its hands were tied because of the need for secrecy — which is pretty obvious spin and bullshit. Obama managed to vet several possible choices for Vice President. It seems Johnny McFuckup was more interested in keeping his selection a surprise than insuring his selection was wise. No doubt he will point out he went 5 and a half years without a maid, let alone a vice presidential candidate.

Ineptitude, thy name is John McCain.