Palin problems part 3.....

Sorry, I can't resist another post on Rethuglican Sarah Palin's problems. They just keep on coming.... At this point, the danger is that there are so many things that the average voter's eyes glaze over, and they just assume the press is on a vendatta. Nope, the truth is that Palin REALLY IS worse than most candidates running for national office. Not only did McCain fail to thoroughly vet her, her lack of prior national exposure means that unlike Joe Bide, who previously ran for president, she has never been thoroughly checked out by the media.

Well, here goes #3.....

1. Sarah Palin's husband Todd is being subpoenaed to testify in the troopergate probe. The subpoenas are "part of the investigation into whether the Republican vice presidential candidate abused her power in trying to get her former brother-in-law fired".

2. As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin used her local government e-mail account to send a number of political e-mails during her failed 2002 campaign for Lt. Governor of Alaska. Using government facilities or resources in a political campaign is illegal.

3. In her first, and so far only, interview since being chosen as McCain's running mate, Palin did not know what the Bush Doctrine was. (It is the doctrine that the U.S. has the right to preemptively attack countries that we think might be a threat to us....). I wish none of us had ever of the Bush Doctrine either.....because I wish it didn't exist.

4. Palin lies about her view on global warming. She told ABC News that "Show me where I have ever said that there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect -- or no effect -- on climate change," challenged Palin. "I have not said that. However, in December of 2007, she said "I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity." On August 28, 2008, she said "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made."

5. In 1998, while Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the town started a policy of billing rape victims for the cost of their rape kits. (A rape kit is an evidentiary kit used to look for the suspect's semen, hair, or fibers). This was unusual and repugnant: the Alaska legislature then passed a state law forbidding the practice. Palin's staff denies she knew about this, yet she signed a budget verification on the budget where rape kit funding was cut that she approved the budget.

6. Moderate Republicans are coming out against Palin. Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-RI, called Sen. John McCain's running mate a "cocky wacko" at an event in Washington, DC, on September 11th , the AP reports.

So many stories, so little time. Fun fun fun.....

More Palin Problems.....

As expected in my post last week, the revelations about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin keep on coming....

1. Gov. Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights (in her first 19 months in office) spent in her own home as a travel 'per diem'. Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

2. Dozens of e-mails exchanged among several government employees and Todd Palin, the husband of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who has no formal role in her administration, are not being turned over in response to an open records request in the state.

3. The extremist views of Palin's church are becoming clearer. Palin's former pastor, Tim McGraw, says that like many Pentecostal churches, some members speak in tongues, although he says he's never seen Palin do so.

4. Palin's husband, Todd, Alaska's self proclaimed 'First Dude', and the governor's daughters charged the state $43,490 to travel and many of the trips were to and from their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

5. Mayor Palin fired the librarian in her town shortly after the librarian told her she waould not agree to censor books.

6. Palin's biggest accomplishment as moyor of Wasilla was getting a hockey rink built. Palin pushed through a sales tax increase to pay for the project. Now, there continues to be a lawsuit by former land owner's seeking additional money for the land. Intertesting article in the Wall Street Journal on this project.

Sarah Palin, the gift that keeps on giving....just wait till the third party/527 ads start attacking her.

Sarah Palin? Really?

Are the Republicans stoned? They are pretending to actually LIKE John McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his Vice-President. Well, conisder the fun that we get to have looking into the following fun issues the next two months. (And these are just the ones we know about in the first week).

1. Palin at least seems to like the Alaska Independence Party. There is a dispute as to whether she was actually a member, but look at her speech to them in 2008. This group wants a vote on having Alaska secede from the United States.... Didn't we fight a civl war over secession?

2. Palin is a true right winger. She is a gun nut, favors criminalizing abortion (no exceptions even for rape or incest), and wants to drill for oil in the ANWR. She is far more conservative than John McCain. Her convention speech was excessively negative, and there was essentially no discusion of what policy differences she has with the Democrats.

3. Her family is, to be polite, colorful. Her husband has a DUI, her eldest daughter is knocked up at age 17, and she had a baby while governor at age 44. Palin apparently tried to force her daughter into a quickie marraige before the pregnancy became public....

4. Palin is under investigation for improper use of power for allegedly firing the public safety commissioner for not taking stronger action her sister's ex-husband, a highway patrolman. This patrolman sounds like a real nut job himself, so I can't blame her for wanting him fired, if he truly threatened Palin's father....Weird stuff. The investifation report is supposed to be released in October...if Palin's lawyer doesn't succeed in delaying it until after the election.

5. Did Palin have an affair with her husband's best friend? That's what the National Enquirer is reporting, so it must be true....lol.

6. Palin is a typical political hypocrite. She bragged about killing the bridge to nowhere earmark project, but previously she supported it. She was well known in her efforts to secure federal earmarks for her little town of Wasilla when she was mayor. McCain actually criticized her town's projects as examples of bad earmark spending....

7. Palin has a deeply held fundamentalist Christian viewpoint. She seems to believe that God has given the U.S. a mission to send our troops to the middle east, and according to her pastor, Ed Kalnins, '... the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq were part of a "world war" over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives.' See THIS post for details....

8. In this interview from the time of the Alaska primary, Palin seems to almost be endorsing Ron Paul for president. Why no mention of McCain? Hmmmm.

I am sure there will be more. McCain staffers have already caught hell for not vetting Palin fully. All of the Alaska sources who knew Palin have been quoted as saying nobody asked them before she was picked....amazing. This one directly hits McCain: he had six months to pick his VP, and he had only met Palin twice, and just added her to his list of finalists a couple weeks before selecting her.

Finally, here is Bill Maher on Republican VP Pick Sarah Palin.