nBy the Numbers: Palin’s Record

 John McCain, presumptive GOP nominee for months. He had tons (TONS) of time to research and vet a running mate suitable to be the President. Selecting Palin is not just a blow to his own campaign but to the whole party.

It appears it may have come from the greatness of the Huffington Post.  Here’s a sampling, see the whole list at the great Huffington Post website.

 

 

Sarah Palin may lie, but numbers don’t. Her record speaks for itself.   2007: the year in which Sarah Palin first obtained a passport (Source) 1.5: the approximate number of hours Palin spent on a refueling layover in Ireland, which the McCain campaign cited as part of her foreign policy experience (Source)  3: the number of times John McCain specifically criticized earmarks requested by Sarah Palin when she was mayor of Wasilla, citing them as examples of wasteful spending (Source)  $506.34: the amount of federal earmarks Alaska residents will receive per capita in 2008, the highest level of any state (Source)  312: the number of nights during her first 19 months in office that Palin charged taxpayers a “per diem” totaling $16,951 for staying in her own home — an allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business (Source)  $453 million: the total amount of earmarks Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund for Alaska projects over the past two years, despite McCain’s insistence that she hasn’t sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress (Source)  $500 to $1,200: the fee that Wasilla charged rape victims to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams, after the city cut funds during Palin’s tenure that had previously covered the exams (Source)  25: the percentage by which Palin raised the sales tax in Wasilla to pay for a sports center, despite claims that she cut taxes (Source)   0: Wasilla’s long-term debt when Palin took office in 1996 (Source)  $18.6 million: the long-term debt Palin racked up by the time she left office in 2002, amounting to about $3,000 per resident (Source)  $150: the cash payment offered by the Palin administration to hunters who turn in legs of freshly killed wolves gunned down from airplanes (Source)  500: the number of Fortune 500 companies Sarah Palin is not qualified to run, according to McCain adviser Carly Fiorina (Source) 15: The number of minutes McCain and Palin spent together during their only meeting prior to the interview in which McCain offered her the vice presidential slot (Source)  50: the number of days after Palin announced she “will fully cooperate” with an ethics investigation into the “Troopergate” scandal that the McCain campaign announced she was “unlikely to cooperate” because it had been “hijacked” by Obama operatives. The probe was unanimously authorized by a bipartisan panel of eight Alaska Republicans and four Democrats. (Source)  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-kurtzman/sarah-palin-by-the-number_b_127355.html      How Palin became VP: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6bda020b0f  (McCain cites PTA experience).   Right to Know: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/03d0f10a32   Got $5?  http://my.barackobama.com/page/contribute

On Charging Rape Victims for Their Exam

Here’s a story involving Palin and Biden:

In 2000, then-Governor Tony Knowles signed a bill in Alaska that ensured law enforcement around the state would pay for the processing of “Rape Kits” – forensics evidence collected in rape cases. Seemed common sense enough. Knowles noted, correctly, that we don’t charge robbery victims the cost of dusting for prints, so why would be charge rape victims the cost of gathering evidence to apprehend their assailant?

Except one little town objected, and had previously refused to foot the bill to solve rape cases - Wasilla, under Mayor Sarah Palin.
 - Huffington Post 09/12/08

Palin approved charging rape victims for their own exam.
Biden passed legislation requiring cities to remove this (idiotic) law.
What’s even more shocking…is that someone voted against Biden’s legislation as recently as 2007 as well as initially in 1994.  Who was it?  Watch to find out or click the links below on Biden’s legislation below. 

Biden brings legislation providing free rape kits for evidence collection: 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/11/165456/985/717/595263
http://www.jedreport.com/2008/09/mccain-voted-against-biden-law.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/11/post_156_n_125711.html

Palin charges rape victims for their own medical exams and evidence collection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nmk6BSUwEA&feature=user
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/palins-wasilla-to-rape-vi_b_125047.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/8/20552/56258/308/591588 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-10-rape-exams_N.htm

Super Weird

Palin was at a conference in Dallas, TX in April of 2008. During the conference, her water broke…1 month early.  She stayed at the conference and delivered a THIRTY minute speech. Bizarre? It gets crazier. So, water breaks, she cleans up and gives a long speech.  Next…She went to DFW and boarded an airplane bound for Anchorage, instead of going to a Dallas hospital that has a NICU (neo-natal I.C.U.).  That’s a 7 hour flight, minimum (not counting security and all that).  Airlines will let you fly late in pregnancy but not after the water has broken. 

 

OK – After arriving in Anchorage, she then drives another hour, PAST the 2 NICU’s in Anchorage – to a hospital that doesn’t have NICU.  This is a premature baby along with those risks, but its also a premature baby that was known through early testing to have Down Syndrome. 

 

What kind of decision-making process is this?? (This is a VP candidate??)

 

Some say that what happened is that and Palin was never really pregnant – and that’s not what I’m saying here.  Whatever (the speculation is that this was her 16-year old daughter’s child). Palin says it’s hers so fine, it’s hers…that’s not the issue.  The is issue is…what the hell? Either way, it’s a lot of CRAZY.

—-  Your water breaks, then, you give a 30 minute speech, then you skip all the Dallas hospitals, then you fly for 8 hours while in labor without anyone noticing, then skip past more NICU’s to drive to tiny-town hospital.  That’s friggin’ weird.   

 

 

NBC News affiliate in Anchorage: http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=8194634

Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/626/story/382864.html

 

Longest Serving GOP Senator – Indicted

Stevens - Seattle Times

NBC News

07/29/08 12:10 pm cdt
WASHINGTON – U.S. officials say the Justice Department has indicted Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on criminal charges related to a long-running investigation of business dealings in Alaska. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25916299

What did he do?  Cheated Cheated Cheated. Took bribes from energy companies so that industry could help create US law.  (See “Banning Toxins in Toys“ for another example).  Wasted millions of US Taxpayer dollars with heavy earmarking and pork barrel spending. You’ve heard of the “Bridge to Nowhere“? 

Lawmakers scuttled plans to spend $230 million to help build the “Bridge to Nowhere,” a span that would lead to an Alaskan island populated by about 50 people.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/17/MNGF5FPI7N1.DTL

He was also behind the Polar Express to Nowhere (a similar project). 

In 2006, Ted Stevens blocked legislation submitted by Barack Obama – the creation of a Federal Spending Database.  The database would be an easily-accessible Google-like database of all federal spending, which totaled $2.5 trillion last year.  This system would allow federal spending to be visible to the tax payers and Ted couldn’t have that.  (I’d love to see this database built).   
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/30/stevens-caught/ 

Now, the longest serving Republican can add criminal charges for bribery from the industries in his back pocket:

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is under scrutiny from the Justice Department for his ties to an Alaska energy services company, Veco, whose chief executive pleaded guilty in early May to a bribery scheme involving state lawmakers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001427.html

Bribery, Justice Department, FBI:

Stevens, who is famous for bringing home federal earmarks for Alaska when he was Appropriations Committee chairman, was not previously known to be linked to the Justice Department’s probe, which has uncovered evidence that more than $400,000 worth of bribes were given to state lawmakers in exchange for favorable energy legislation.

Two executives of a prominent energy company have pleaded guilty to bribery and extortion charges and are cooperating with the inquiry, which is being run by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and includes two federal prosecutors and FBI agents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602851.html