State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life — taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom — are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.

The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements.

No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In the meantime, frail and vulnerable Alaskans who desperately need the help are struggling. One elderly woman is stuck in a nursing home, for lack of care at home. Another woman, suffering from chronic pain and fatigue, said she’s so weak, she often can’t even pop dinner into the microwave.

The moratorium is expected to last four or five months. State officials estimate about 1,000 Alaskans will be affected.

A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.

And get this. The federal auditors notified Alaska officials on June 26, nearly three weeks ago. And there had already been half dozen lawsuits filed before that. But we didn’t hear a peep out of Governor Sarah Palin about this scandal while she was explaining why she’s bailing out or going fishing.

Lisa Derrick:  The toupee is stunning, surely Bush would have remembered him for that alone.

The Snow Fairy:   Heh – I’m waiting for the "I never met the man" remarks – remember Bush’s claims about Abramoff?

Phoenix Woman:  Maybe it was such a traumatic experience he blocked out all conscious memory of it?

The Voice Floating Over From The Other Cubicle:  Presumes facts not in evidence, i.e., that Bush was conscious at any time in the past 8 years.

Lisa Derrick:  "Nice to meet you Mr. Toupee, uh Toussie."

For Bristol’s baby? Oh, I don’t know. [There's] all kinds of gifts laying around the place — all kinds of baby stuff. I’m in a room right now just full of baby stuff — more than she’ll ever use …[From] all over the world. I’d say a half-dozen foreign countries. In Sarah’s mailroom, there’s 87 boxes — big boxes of mail that haven’t even been opened. I’ve been answering letters all day, all week. We figure there’s over a hundred thousand pieces here. And we’ll never get it done. We’re just inundated.

Great-gramps-to-be reveals that Bristol’s having a boy, but that his granddaughter hasn’t decided on a name yet:

Oscar, she said. No, I’m just kidding. They don’t have a name for it yet.

Maybe Sarah can donate all the clothes and toys Bristol can’t use for "it" to a rummage sale to help rebuild the Wasilla Bible Church’s multi-million dollar architectural monstrosity. The Alaska ATF investigators are calling "arson" on the fire and  Sarah "Mirror, mirror on the wall" Palin seemed to feel the blaze was started by People Who Don’t Like Her.

Watertiger:  From Mother Jones blog:  Governor’s office charges $10K for copies of her emails.

Thers: What, are they printed out on her panties?

Watertiger: A Freedom of Lingerie Act request…

bmaz: I am sure they are brief(s); don’t worry about a thong….

Thers: It will take a determined effort to unweave this tangled lace of corruption.

bmaz: It could be a bust.

Watertiger: Well, investigators won’t be strapped for time.

bmaz: We will force them to stand two abreast.

Pass the Pepto-Bismol, there’s one more reason to feel queasy at Thanksgiving, the holiday that’s all the agony of Xmas, but without the presents:

OurCountryDeservesBetterPAC has assembled a treacly commercial thanking Sarah for her:

passionate, hopeful, articulate advocacy of common-sense conservative values

It’s not a parody, though it does verge on the absurd, like when a woman thanks Palin for teaching Track the honor and valor of serving in the armed forces.  Because really, combat duty in Iraq looks a lot better than being hooked on Oxycontin in the middle of Alaska. Maybe.

As the conservative PAC shills for donations to air this crack-pot Thanksgiving commercial, we’re reminded that the country, and the world, do deserve better than Gov GILF and her theocratic, wingnut ilk.

And indeed, we are so very, very thankful she and McCranky won’t be taking oaths of office on January 20, 2009.

PR man Hal Lifson–who might just be spinning his own straw in gold–told the Post that CAA, ICM, William Morris, Paradigm and other agencies "smell books, talk shows and commentary for Fox and CNN" as possibilities for the Alaska governor.

However, Gov GILF needs to mind her piehole, advises another PR king, only he was way more tactful and didn’t say "piehole." Howard Rubestein commented:

She’s poised to make a ton of money.  She ought to keep an eye on what her goals are for 2012. If she plays a game and looks foolish, if she sounds like she doesn’t know what she’s talking about–like saying Africa is a country–she may talk herself out of a political job.

Hmmm…maybe show biz would be a good future for her. And for our country. I’d rather her watch her on Fox than see her in office.

I declare this to the principalities and powers who have been agents of Satan to obstruct this transfer of wealth: Your time is up! Your evil powers are broken! By the blood of Jesus Christ, I declare that your wicked powers are demolished!…God has declared through His prophets that the wealth of the wicked will be released to the Kingdom of God..I declare that this wealth will be distributed for the extension of the Kingdom of God by the apostles that God has set in the church, I decree that vast amounts of wealth will be released supernaturally, even from godless and pagan sources… The enemy’s camp will be plundered… Resistance will be impossible. Jesus will put all things under His feet.

Yet  she complains about Obama’s "redistribution of wealth" !?!

Before anointing Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, New Apostolic Reformation Bishop Thomas Muthee, spoke on the the need for "God’s Kingdom" to "infiltrate" what NAR calls the Seven Mountains–business and finance, schools and education, media and entertainment, politics and government.

Palin rails about  the need to reform government, to change America. And it’s clear how she plans to do it: By using her theocratic ideology.

 Talk2action‘s in depth report on Palin’s faith and its implications for America and the world is a must read for anyone interested in the intersection of faith, politics and culture; for atheists, for agnostics; and for believers (especially because the NAR theology is really wonky as well as terrifying).

Gov. Palin was like, ‘Oh, did Alice go home? Oh, ’cause Bristol woulda babysat.’ She offered Bristol Palin to babysit Alice.  And it was Bristol’s birthday, too. I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what 17-year-old Bristol Palin wants to do at SNL–babysit the toddler of the lady that goofs on her mom.’

Sarah loves to give "thumbs-up" to the men at her rallies who think she’s HOT, but the men in her own life aren’t nearly so happy about the male attention she’s garnered.

While the GOP veepster nominee thinks it’s all harmless, a source high up in the McCain campaign tells me that’s not the case as far as her husband and father are concerned. ”Todd [Palin] is increasingly irritated by it all. He’s a very possessive guy and totally old-fashioned and traditional when it comes to his relationship with his wife, whom he adores,” said my source in John McCain-Palin campaign. ”

At a rally in Pennsylvania the other day, he left the stage right before Sarah’s speech — ostensibly to deal with an issue regarding their baby,” said the source. ”But actually, he was P.O.’ed about a couple of T-shirts and signs he saw in the crowd.”

Reportedly, Alaska’s ”First Dude” told a campaign aide, ”She’s running for vice president of the United States. … Even though these guys are in our corner, don’t they see this belittles her?”

• • As for Gov. Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, his displeasure about the racy T-shirts was nothing compared to his reaction when someone made the mistake of showing Heath one of the sexy videos (featuring a faux Palin) on YouTube.

”He hit the roof,” said my source. ”And frankly, you can’t blame him. After all, this is his little girl — no matter what.”

Showing any woman’s father a video that mocks his daughter in a sexual way is pretty low, but I guess they have different standards around the Heath friend-circle. "Hey, Chuck, look at this youtube!" doesn’t strike me as a way of being supportive of your friend whose family has been thrust into the white-hot spotlight of media and public scrutiny, with all the sick undertow that entails.

But, Todd, buddy? You do understand why the old fighter jock picked her, right? I didn’t hear you complain when McCain used to twist his wedding ring whenever they were onstage together. Which, by the way, we see less and less of nowadays.

Oh, and Sarah? Please lose the polar bear pin, lady.  It’s just insulting to all of us who know better, and reminds some who don’t that you think the bears are not endangered. 

{h/t KayInMaine} 

It is claimed Ms Palin contacted her office after being selected as John McCain’s running mate in September and told staff to amend her expenses so that it appeared her daughters were on official business when they accompanied her. 

In the amended reports, she added phrases such as ‘First Family attending’ and ‘First Family invited’ to explain the girls’ presence.’…

So, who spotted yet another looming ethics problem on abuse of power and alerted Palin to it from Team McCain? Who came up with the idea for expense form amendments?  Or did Palin know she had an appearance of impropriety all along and thought no one in Alaska would bother looking? Devil’s in the details…