Sarah Palin

[Selena_Kitt]

I wonder what Palin thinks about this letter circulated by someone from her community in Wasilla?

Someone else just got added to her "enemies forever" list, methinks...

 

[sweetness6280]

In her speech, Palin said, "I signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education even better."

Facts: Her focus on public education in Wasilla really paid off when she was mayor: during her tenure researchers at Johns Hopkins deemed Wasilla High School "a dropout factory." Apparently 60% or fewer freshman who start off at Wasilla High go on to graduate.

******
Palin: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

Facts: In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

******
Former Aarkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

Facts: Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

******
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

Facts: Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

******
Palin: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

Facts: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. On the other hand, McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

******

Palin tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation.

She is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax.

Palin wants to eliminate reproductive choice in this country, yet says that "Bristol made the decision on her own to keep the baby," implying that Bristol had a choice about whether or not to continue her pregnancy. She wouldn't under the proposed administration of her mother and John McCain, both of whom oppose abortion rights and say that they would work to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The fact that anyone of at least average intelligence supports these folks is just astounding.

And the truth will set you free.

 

[sweetness6280]

I wonder what Palin thinks about this letter circulated by someone from her community in Wasilla?

Someone else just got added to her "enemies forever" list, methinks...

Wow. (I wanted to type just that one word, but apparently it must be 5 characters)

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Wow. (I wanted to type just that one word, but apparently it must be 5 characters)

The biggest red flag for me (besides the librarian/book burning thing):

She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

 

[Misty_Morning]

The biggest red flag for me (besides the librarian/book burning thing):

She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

deleted

 

[Guest]

The biggest red flag for me (besides the librarian/book burning thing):

She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

Yes.

Horrifying.

 

[Belegon]

Yes.

Horrifying.

And that was after she raised the sales tax by 25% to help fund a sports center. (from 2% to 2.5%)

She also put a gag order on city department heads, telling them they weren't allowed to speak to the media.

Well, McCain is "excusing" her back to Alaska for awhile. Speculation is that it is time to get her up to speed on his policies and the answers he wants her to give as well as time to get her state set up for her absences while campaigning.

I heard a conservative talk show (Glenn Beck maybe?)call her the one person of the four they wanted to vote for and compare her to a 1976 Ronald Reagan.

She sure riled up the conservative shocktroops.

 

[amicus]

Oh, my, the hatchet jobs begin...good luck ladies, do you cluck while you gossip?

Inquiring minds want to know.

amicabubbleous

 

[Pure]

http://www.slate.com/id/2199357/

Sarah Palin, Hypocrite:

Why she shouldn't complain about big government wasting taxpayer money.

By Timothy Noah

Posted Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, at 3:57 PM ET

As I predicted last night, well before Sarah Palin gave her speech accepting the Republican nomination for vice president (click here for the video), commentators fell all over themselves praising it. I couldn't bring myself to watch the TV blather, but here's a handy roundup from U.S. News & World Report's online "Political Bulletin":
[...]

What interests me today about Palin's speech, however, isn't its predictable reception. Rather, it's the cognitive dissonance of the following passage:

"[W]hen the cloud of rhetoric has passed; when the roar of the crowd fades away; when the stadium lights go out, and those styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot—what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger—take more of your money—give you more orders from Washington …"


The woman who made this complaint about big government taking your money is the governor of Alaska. Please take a moment to look at this U.S. Census chart showing federal-government expenditures, per capita, in the 50 states.

You will observe that Alaska receives about $14,000 per citizen from the federal government. That's more than any other state, and a good $4,000 more than every other state except Virginia, Maryland, New Mexico, and North Dakota. The chart is from the Census Bureau's Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2005. I skipped over the 2006 report, the most recent one available, because Hurricane Katrina put Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Alaska that year. But that's an anomaly. Alaska held the per-capita record for sucking on the federal teat in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000.

According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Alaska gets back $1.84 for every dollar it pays into the U.S. Treasury—even though Alaska enjoys a higher per-capita income than 34 of the 50 states. This is a state that preaches right-wing libertarianism while it practices middle-class socialism.

Palin has not bucked this venerable tradition. It's been widely reported that even though Palin came out against the federally-funded, $223 million "bridge to nowhere," a wasteful Alaska earmark (and one she'd supported before it created an uproar in Congress), Alaska ended up receiving the same amount of federal money as transportation funds to be spent at the state's own discretion.

When Palin was mayor of Wasilla, she hired the former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Stevens, the recently indicted dean of the Alaska congressional delegation, to lobby for the town (pop. 6,700)—which, as a result, wound up receiving nearly $27 million in federal earmarks over four years.

As governor, Palin just this past February sent Stevens a memo outlining $200 million in new funding requests. Granted, Palin enjoys inexplicably warm relations with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, whose founder's anti-Americanism, Rosa Brooks points out in the Los Angeles Times, puts Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the shade. ("The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," he told an interviewer in 1991—a year when Republicans controlled the White House and

U.S. troops went into battle to free Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.) But there's little real danger that Alaska would ever choose to secede from the Lower 48. Independence would cost it too much in lost federal revenue.


A pit bull with lipstick? I'd describe Palin as a hog who recommends diet books while feeding at the trough

 

[Stella_Omega]

And the truth will set you free.

I quote; "Those people are telling horrible lies about Sara Palin!"

so, nope.

 

[rgraham666]

Paul Krugman wrote a a column a few years ago pointing out how the reality of 'the red states' is very different from the hype.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Paul Krugman wrote a a column a few years ago pointing out how the reality of 'the red states' is very different from the hype.

Yeah, but he's just another of those goddamn intellecksul liberals that want to shoot down free speech.

So it's all a lie.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

We seem to be recycling old arguments.

Palin's city's lobbyist

It would be fiscal malpractice for a local government offiicial to not try to maximize the amount of money taken by the federal government that gets returned to the city.

Even Ayn Rand said that if welfare is offered it is moral to take it.

 

[cloudy]

We seem to be recycling old arguments.

Palin's city's lobbyist

It would be fiscal malpractice for a local government offiicial to not try to maximize the amount of money taken by the federal government that gets returned to the city.

Even Ayn Rand said that if welfare is offered it is moral to take it.

So, it's "moral" to take $1.84 for every $1.00 that was paid in?

I don't see how even you can put a positive spin on that.

(btw: quoting Ayn Rand puts you in the category with amicus...i.e. laughable)

 

[Stella_Omega]

The point, Roxy, isn't whether it's moral to take handouts-- The point is that these people who talk about their Rugged Individual Self Sufficiency have no more of those qualities than the city folk they affect to despise.

That's the point.

 

[rgraham666]

And that was after she raised the sales tax by 25% to help fund a sports center. (from 2% to 2.5%)

I just noticed this.

Cities can levy sales taxes in the States. Wow.

The cities here in Ontario have been asking for that power for a decade.

It was because of a dirty trick pulled by the provincial government at the time. Back then we were run by a party and person not too dissimilar to the Republicans and Bush. One day they told the cities "Here, you're now responsible for welfare."

The cities asked "You're also giving us the money to pay out and for administration, we assume?"

"No," was the answer. "You're on your own."

The Progressive Conservatives were trying to pare down the budget, smaller government and all that.

The cities are still struggling to pay since their only sources of revenue is property taxes and licensing fees. The Liberals promised to help and they lied.

 

[DesertPirate]

7 lies about Sara Palin

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/05/top-7-myths-lies-and-untruths-about-sarah-palin/

 

[Guest]

7 lies about Sara Palin

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/05/top-7-myths-lies-and-untruths-about-sarah-palin/

It needs to come from an unbiased source, though.

Snopes.com or FactCheck.org rather than FOX News.

 

[sr71plt]

7 lies about Sara Palin

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/05/top-7-myths-lies-and-untruths-about-sarah-palin/

Sounds like sort of a "depends on what 'is' means" defense to me. And Fox News is suuucch an independent source.

I'm not a Palin basher, but this sort of stuff seems pretty petty.

 

[epiphany65]

It needs to come from an unbiased source, though.

Snopes.com or FactCheck.org rather than FOX News.

Well, he does cite his sources like AP, Snopes and the Anchorage Daily News...

 

[Guest]

Well, he does cite his sources like AP, Snopes and the Anchorage Daily News...

Truly?

I read the first quote, saw the FOX ticker and then didn't bother.

I shall go back and read it again.



Edited to add: The only one from snopes is that picture. I'd never even seen that picture! Silly.

The others are from her hometown newspapers and yahoo news. I'll still pass until a more unbiased source is available.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Cloudy Facts:[/B] Her focus on public education in Wasilla really paid off when she was mayor: during her tenure researchers at Johns Hopkins deemed Wasilla High School "a dropout factory." Apparently 60% or fewer freshman who start off at Wasilla High go on to graduate.

Real Facts: Mayors don't run school districts.


Cloudy Facts: In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation.

Real Facts:
1. Per my earlier post, it is the duty of a state or local government official to work to have as many of the tax dollars taken from their citiezens returned to their citizens.
2. The statement says nothing about how much her predecessor requested (although I would say that No. 1 governs in this instance).

Cloudy Facts: Former Aarkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States." Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

Real Fact: Hucklebee is a fruitcake. (Actually Cloudy would probably concur.)

Cloudy Facts: Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years.

Real Fact: Bush is not running for office.

Cloudy Facts: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually.

Real Facts: The Center projects that his plan would raise taxes by $627 billion over 10 years. However, it's all nonsense anyway because it's based on static analyses and countless other methodological flaws. Here's what is real fact: Dems will control Congress next term, and will pass many bills to increase taxes. Obama is likely to sign many more of them than McCain.

That's enough. It's all a game. The candidates have different attitudes, different philosophies of government, different understandings of human nature, and much more. Everyone knows pretty well what they are, and will make their decision on that basis, plus their judements of character, termperment, trustworthyness, etc., not on a bunch of policy spin from both sides.

 

[Stella_Omega]

You will have heard that Sarah Palin, in her convention speech, sneered at Obama for having been a community organizer. Well, this very eloquent one-line rejoinder has been making the rounds...

"Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community
organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor."

 

[Guest]

You will have heard that Sarah Palin, in her convention speech, sneered at Obama for having been a community organizer. Well, this very eloquent one-line rejoinder has been making the rounds...

"Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community
organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Nice.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I wonder what Palin thinks about this letter circulated by someone from her community in Wasilla?

Someone else just got added to her "enemies forever" list, methinks...

And I thought that I was vindictive!