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{ 2008 09 06 }

Palin Rumors

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http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors
http://www.palinrumors.com
  1. Yes, she is Governor of Alaska. No, she’s not the Lieutenant Governor. No, she’s not currently Mayor of Wasilla. Yes, she was Mayor of Wasilla, some years ago.
  2. Yes, as Governor of Alaska, she’s the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. And yes, her professional military subordinate is quite impressed with her in that role.
  3. And yes, the New York Times says the job of Governor of Alaska is one of the harder, and more powerful, jobs in state government.
  4. Yes, there are people in Alaska who think she’s too liberal.
  5. Yes, she did giggle when someone called Lyda Green a “bitch.” Yes, Lyda Green is a cancer survivor. Yes, it was the same Lyda Green who tried to force a scheduling conflict that would make Palin miss her son’s high school graduation. Yes, this would also be the Lyda Green who complained no one had asked her about Palin during the vetting process.
  6. Yes, she did push for and approve the Wasilla Sports Center. Yes, it did cost a lot of money. (People keep saying $20 million, that article says $14.5 million, but then they also added a $1.2 million dollar food service/kitchen piece. This year, after Palin was out of office as Mayor.) Yes, the city went into debt to do it (how did you buy your house, bunkie?) and raised the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay for it. Yes, the city is paying it off early. Yes, there is an ongoing dispute about title (following a struggle with the Nature Conservancy and another buyer. And yes, at the time it was built, Wasilla had a Federal judge’s decision that they had title to the land. Here’s a place to think a little, folks: if Wasilla got a $15 million sports center, and got a mortgage for it, then the city incurred more longterm debt, you bet. It also got a capital asset. You do it with a mortgage; a city does it by setting up bonds and a tax base to service the bonds. Same thing. Whether it was wise or not is another question, but the bonds and tax increase were approved by a special election by the people in Wasilla.
  7. Yes, she did want authority to have wolves culled from the air, because they were taking too many moose and caribou. Which people hunt for food in the back country in Alaska. No, she isn’t shooting them herself. I mean, not that she couldn’t, but I’m sure she doesn’t have time. (Thanks to bluemerlin in the comments.)

    Look, this is one of those that I’m tempted to categorize under “cripes, what city folks will believe.” You don’t sport hunt from the air; this isn’t some fascination with “blood sports.” This is wildlife management; the authority wasn’t general, it was for only a limited number of wolves, and it was to be done by people with state-issued permits. Here’s how this happens in the wild in a predator-prey model: the predators build up to the point that they cut the population of the prey animals dramatically. They then starve. The prey animals then build up again. Repeat. Only, in this case, the predators who would starve include Alaska’s native (and Native) human population.
  8. No, the Downs baby (Trig) isn’t Bristol’s kid, and no, the kid wasn’t born with Downs because (a) Palin flew on an airplane (b) went home to have the baby after an amniotic leak (c) because he was the result of incest between Todd Palin and Bristol.
  9. No, Track (the kid who is leaving for Iraq) didn’t join the NG because he was a drug addict. (It’s worth noting that drug addiction is a medical disqualification for service.) He may have joined the NG because he was tired of people saying his Mom was getting him into the good hockey leagues. (Yes, that one was original reporting. I’ve got sources in Wasilla.) It also wasn’t because he had been caught for some juvenile crimes (see the end of the list.) That “join the army or go to jail” thing doesn’t happen much any more, and in any case he didn’t enlist until two years after the supposed vandalism thing.
  10. No, Willow and Piper aren’t named for witches on TV. Among other things, Willow was born before Buffy came on TV, and Piper was born before Charmed was a popular girls name in 1994. In any case, try to settle on one theory, okay: she can’t both be a witch and be a crazy AoG fundamentalist, can she?
  11. Yes, Trig’s name may be misspelled. Isn’t it usually “Tryg” as in “Trygve”? In any case, I doubt he’s named for the Secretary General of the UN (1948-1952), either. But at least that was before he was born, unlike the others.(Thanks to Chris, via his blog.)
  12. Yes, it appears that she has a Big Dipper tattooed on her ankle. She lost a bet.
  13. No, she’s never been in any porn as far as anyone can find (and God knows I get enough google hits on those very topics.) I would think the Big Dipper tattoo would be a giveaway.
  14. No, no one seems to be able to even find swimsuit pictures of her from her beauty queen days; God knows I looked. The bikini pictures that are around are photoshopped, just like the Vogue cover I have up.
  15. No she wasn’t a member of the (wild-eyed libertarian) Alaska independence Party, although her husband once was
  16. No, neither the (Canadian) National Post, nor Marc Armbinder at the Atlantic have troubled themselves to issue a correction. Yes, the New York Times did finally correct their story of September 1 — on September 5. And on page 14. This was after Elizabeth Bumiller was quoted by Howard Kurtz as saying she was “completely confident about the story.” Yes, that was after the New York Times’s source retracted the story. Yes, this should embarrass the Times, Bumiller, and Howard Kurtz. No, there have been no signs of embarrassment.
  17. No, she was never a Pat Buchanan supporter; even when Buchanan claims she was, she was on the board of Steve Forbes’a campaign in Alaska. Yes, Palin was a Steve Forbes supporter in 2000.
  18. No, she’s not anti-semitic. In fact, she has an Israeli flag in her office. (Contrary to popular belief, the usual Evangelical thinks Israel has a right to exist, granted by God.)
  19. No, I don’t think she’s being “indoctrinated by Lieberman and AIPAC as we speak”; I don’t get the feeling that being indoctrinated is something that Palin does well.
  20. Yes, it seems unlikely that she’s going to be in hiding for the next two weeks seeing as she’s been in rallies twice in the last two days. Or at least it’s going to be real rough, given that she has three media interviews scheduled today (6 September) alone. Note: Since then she’s been interviewed on several occasions, and it’s still not quite two weeks.
  21. Yes, it does appear that Palin’s local pastor preached about an end time when God will judge everyone, even Wasilla, Alaska, and the United States. Duh. This is called the book of Revelation, and while I don’t believe it personally, I don’t see it as a disqualifier for the hundred million or so Baptists, Methodists, Evangelicals, Episcopalians, Catholics, Assembly of God, Presbyterian, Lutherans (traditional and Missouri Synod), African Methodist, and so on Christians in the US.
  22. Yes, I do sometimes wonder about the state of Andrew’s health. All of this is true, but it screws up the numbering. The next update will introduce a new ordering with a new numbering.
  23. No, she’s doesn’t believe that the Iraq War was directed by God. Yes, she did pray that proceeding with the war was God’s will: “they should pray ‘that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God, that’s what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God’s plan.’” (Ever hear the phrase “Not my will, but Thine, be done”?) Yes, this apparently freaks some people right out. But it’s worth mentioning that Obama has also prayed that he was acting in line with God’s will. Here’s a little hint for the confused here: if someone prays for rain, that doesn’t mean they think it’s already raining.
  24. It’s a little unclear who Buchanan supports now. At one point, he seemed to be supporting Obama. (Buchanan did think her speech was amazing, but then so do 80 percent of the people who saw it.) Buchanan did say “I stand with Obama” after Obama’s acceptance speech. Buchanan sure doesn’t like McCain though.
  25. Yes, she was apparently pregnant when she got married
  26. No, so far there’s no confirmation she had an affair while she was married, and they’ve denied it pretty strongly. No, she wouldn’t be the first Christian woman who got a little on the side, if it were true.
  27. No, she wasn’t named as a co-respondent in a divorce; there’s no evidence she had an affair with her husbands’ business partner. The partner tried to have his divorce records sealed because he was being harrassed by journalists who used them to get his phone number. The National Enquirer seems to still be pushing this one.
  28. Yes, barring immaculate conception virgin birth (whatever), Bristol appears to have had sex with her fiancee. No, Bristol didn’t receive only “abstinence-only” sex ed.
  29. Yes, I have it on reliable report that Sarah Levi’s mom has been heard screaming “Way to go Levi!” at her future son-in-law son. No, it doesn’t appear to have been when Bristol broke the news to her family.
    Note: I originally understood this story to be about Sarah, not Levi’s mom, in the context of hockey games. As such, it’s shouldn’t be in a Sarah Palin Rumors story, but I like the story too much to delete it.
  30. yes, her 17 year old daughter is pregnant; no, the baby’s father is not an eighth grader; no, having sex at 16 is not statutory rape in Alaska. And no, there’s no way that a 17 year old can be 5 months pregnant as a result of having sex before she was 16. Learn to count for God’s sakes.
  31. yes, she did fire the public safety guy, Monegan — but he said in the Anchorage paper that, for the record, she never, and no one else in her administration ever, tried to make him fire her ex-brother-in-law.
  32. and yes, the state trooper (her sister’s ex-husband) she was worried about did: tase her 10 year old nephew; drive his state patrol car while drinking or drunk; did threaten to “bring her down”; and did threaten to murder her father and sister if they dared to get an attorney to help with the divorce.
  33. yes, the state trooper was suspended when he was put under a court protective order
  34. no, the trooper wasn’t fired
  35. yes, she did fire the Wasilla Chief of Police as Mayor; yes, it was because he was lying to the City Council.
  36. Yes, she did try to cut her own salary as Mayor by $4000 a year; yes, she had voted against the $4000 a year raise while on the City Council. Yes, she did hire a city administrator; she’d tried to get that through while in the City Council, and was apparently part of her platform when she ran for mayor.
  37. No, she didn’t cut funding for unwed mothers; yes, she did increase it by “only” 354 percent instead of 454 percent, as part of a multi-year capital expenditures program. No, the Washington Post doesn’t appear to have corrected their story. Even after this was pointed out in the comments on the story.
  38. No, she didn’t cut special needs student funding; yes, she did raise it by “only” 175 percent.
  39. yes, she did try, clearly unsuccessfully, to get Bristol married off to her fiancee before the story came out
  40. yes, she did ask the librarian if some books could be withdrawn because of being offensive; no, they couldn’t; yes, it was “rhetorical”, at least as was reported contemporaneously in 1996[1] ; yes she did threaten to fire the librarian a month later; no, that wasn’t over the books thing but instead over administrative issues; no, the librarian wasn’t fired either; yes, the librarian was a big supporter of one of her political opponents; yes, the librarian was also the girlfriend of the Chief of Police mentioned above; no, this is not the first time in the history of civilization that someone has been threatened with being fired over a political dispute
  41. No the list of books she wanted to ban that’s being passed around isn’t real; among other things, it includes a number of books published after her time in office there.
  42. No, that hasn’t actually deterred people from claiming it really is true even if the list isn’t correct. For example:
    “This list might not in fact reflect the books Sarah Palin wanted banned. As more than one person in Comments has pointed out, some of them were not published when Palin was in office. It is my hope that the mainstream media will not let this story drop and that at some point an actual list will surface. The very thought of having someone who once advocated book-banning possibly occupying one of the highest offices of our land fills me with profound dread. It should fill you with dread too.”
  43. No, I don’t understand why a fake list is supposed to fill me with dread, either.
  44. no, it wasn’t won’t be [bad tense, hasn't happened yet] a shotgun wedding; Bristol and Levi been engaged for a good while according to Levi’s mother. It was either an accident or just an unconventional order.
  45. yes, she’s an was an Assembly of God Holy Roller. No, she doesn’t attend an AoG church now. Yes, she did leave the AoG because they were getting too weird for her.
  46. No, she’s not anti-Mormon. No, not all AoG churches are anti-Mormon. (AoG is even more hard-core about allowing each pastor and congregation to make their own decisions than the Baptists are.) (Thanks to AnonAmom in the comments.)
  47. No, she’s not from another planet. No, I haven’t actually heard that one yet, but you wait. Okay, I have now heard it.
  48. yes, she apparently believes in some variant of Intelligent Design.
    Note: This started an argument with my best friend, who is a Biology professor and rather more of an atheist than I manage to be. He thinks this is code for “Creationist”. But let’s look at what Palin actually said:

    In an interview Thursday, Palin said she meant only to say that discussion of alternative views should be allowed to arise in Alaska classrooms: “I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.” She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state’s required curriculum.

    An AP article also makes it clear that Palin hasn’t pushed the idea in Alaska schools. Here’s the point, one which the AP seems to have missed themselves. (Another rant for later is on the state of science education among journalists.) “Creationist” generally has a lot stronger meaning than simply believing in a Creator. It’s usually used for people who reject the notion of evolution at all. Palin’s strongest statement on this has been “I don’t pretend to know how all this came to be.” But pretty much anyone who believes in a Deity will end up with some kind of “intelligent design”; even a complete Cosmic Clockmaker Deist thinks of a Designer, a Grand Architect of the Universe. Both Obama and Biden are professing Christians, who believe in a personal Deity, a Creator. So what’s the difference? Only what people have made up about what they think Palin must believe.

  49. no, she didn’t try to force the schools to teach it; she said if someone brought it up, it was an appropriate subject for debate. She did, however, say it shouldn’t be part of the curriculum.
  50. No, she doesn’t believe in “abstinence only” education. Yes, she thinks abstinence is an effective way of preventing pregnancy. Duh. Yes, she believes kids should learn about condom use in schools.
  51. Yes, she did smoke marijuana, when it was legal in Alaska. Yes, she apparently did inhale.
  52. yes, she kills animals and eats them, and wears their skins
  53. yes, she was a beauty contest contestant
  54. yes, she was once a sportscaster
  55. yes, she has a college degree in Journalism, but I won’t hold that against her, as she seems to have found honest work as well
  56. yes, she sometimes wears her hair up; no that’s not a “beehive”
  57. yes, her husband is Not A White Person (he’s a Yup’ik; an Eskimo but not an Inuit as my Inuit cousins have taken some pains to explain)
  58. yes, she has on occasion, as Mayor, tried to get money from the federal government.
  59. yes, she did finally turn down the money for the bridge. Yes, that meant changing her mind about it.
  60. yes, she was vetted extensively, not just in three days — I’ve got links to press reports about people coming to Wassila on 29 May, and we had her on our Veepstakes at PJM from the first day we ran it.
  61. yes, she want to a bunch of colleges before getting a degree. No, that’s not illegal. Yes, she seems to have made something of herself anyway.
  62. no, they didn’t talk to a lot of the R’s power structure during the vetting; that probably has to do with the fact that she beat them in elections and sent a bunch of them to jail caused a couple of them to leave the government, admit wrongdoing and pay fines. (Corrected because they didn’t apparently actually go to jail. Thanks to Frank for the correction.)
  63. Yes, Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech was written by a speechwriter. Duh. No, none of Obama’s, McCain’s, nor Biden’s speeches were impromptu off the cuff things either.
  64. Yes, she did put the Governors plane on eBay. No, that’s not how it was finally sold. Yes, McCain did say it wrong. Bad McCain.
  65. No, Sarah Palin doesn’t have such control of Alaskans that people are afraid to say bad things about her. (What, are you nuts? Look at this list.) No, I don’t think it’s likely that she called Obama “Sambo”. (Good God, man, I’m ten years older than she and I barely remember “Little Black Sambo.”) Yes, it seems unlikely to me that she’s be real racist and marry a Yup’ik (or a part Yup’ik.) But yes, people are capable of amazing things. Yes, I’m sure there are people who don’t like her — I’ve talked with some myself. And no, I don’t think this waitress would have been thrilled to be called an “aboriginal”. And yes, if she called Hillary a “bitch”, I’m pretty confident is wasn’t the first time anyone in politics has said that.
  66. No, she’s not a “global warming denier”, and when the crush dies down remind me to explain why the very phrasing “global warming denier” is anti-scientific, anti-intellectual, and a clear sign of a desire to impose your beliefs by coercion. But in the mean time, while I do believe that she has expressed some skepticism that warming is wholly human-caused, the existence of the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet and the Alaska Climate Change Strategy work demonstrate that she’s considering the problem and has brought together people more expert than she to advise her.
  67. Yes, Todd Palin did have a DUI. Twenty-two years ago. Get a grip.
  68. No, Sarah Palin’s brother isn’t in jail. Yes, there was a rumor that her brother was in jail. (If he were, it would seem she was in good company with a brother in trouble, see, eg, Billy Carter and Roger Clinton.) But in fact no one seems to have a source for this except for comments posted places like CNN; many of those comments have now disappeared. (Thanks to Galynn in comments.)
  69. Yes, Sarah Palin’s pastor apparently does believe that gays can “repent” and be cured of homosexuality. No, believe it or not, even fundamentalist Christians don’t have to believe every litle thing their pastor believes. Yes, Palin seems to be more libertarian about this. In any case, according to the interview with Greta van Susteren, this isn’t something he emphasizes.
  70. Yes, contrary to press reports, Sarah Palin’s mother-in-law plans to vote for her and the R ticket (when interviewed on Inside Edition.)
  71. No, the fact that some 17 year old was arrested for malicious mischief at the right time doesn’t mean Track Palin was. One of the actual perpetrators was interviewed by the New York Daily News, and he says unequivocally that Track wasn’t involved. The National Enquirer says “unnamed judicial sources” say otherwise. You pick which you believe.
  72. No, she didn’t try to charge rape victims personally for rape kits. This is one of those complicated ones with a tiny hint of truth behind it. First, the Chief of Police in Wasilla (not Palin) did apparently have a policy of asking a victim’s health insurance to pay for the rape kit as part of the ER visit. This, it turns out, is policy in a number of states, including Missouri and North Carolina. Second, the way this became an issue was after the then-governor of Alaska signed a bill forbidding it; this law was signed before Palin was Governor and no one tried to reverse it while she was Governor. Third, what the CoP in Wasilla wanted to do was charge the perpetrator as part of restitution.
  73. Yes, she did say that she figured if “under God” was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it was good enough for her. No, in context I don’t think that means she thinks the Founding Fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
  74. No, she didn’t violate operational security when she mentioned her son was to be mobilized for iraq on 11 September. That was an announced, public departure ceremony. The way this works is you’re mobilized, then go to a US base for conditioning and final training,and then actually go overseas.
  75. Yes, she is apparently against an expansion of casino gambling in Alaska. No, she hasn’t tried to make home gambling illegal.
  76. No, Palin didn’t institute a “windfall profits” tax on the oil companies. She modified the existing severance tax, which works more or less like a sales tax on resources taken out of the ground. (A windfall profit tax, of course, is based on profits.) Just by the way, how is it she’s both “in the pocket of the oil companies” and supposedly instituting a windfall profits tax anyway?
  77. Yes, Todd Palin works for BP Oil. There is a rumor around that he was some kid of executive; it’s not true. He was originally a plant supervisor, and after the concern about conflict of interest, voluntarily was reduced to be a night shift plant operator, a regular technician job. In any case, he took leave from BP when Sarah became Governor, since she would be negotiating with BP, in order to remove the potential conflict of interests.
  78. No, British Petroleum/BP wasn’t the sole sponsor of her inaugural. It was among 20-odd sponsors. In any case, they certainly didn’t get their money’s worth if they were trying to use the inaugural to buy influence; Palin’s renegotiation of the severance tax cost them a pile of money.
  79. No, Palin didn’t eliminate or “void” the Alaskan WIC program as Newsweek claimed. Warren Throckmorton explored this in detail; the truth is that the WIC funding increased during Palin’s time in office; what was cut was a $15,840 separate line request for office supplies and literature. Based on his work, Newsweek was forced to issue a clarification.
  80. No, Trig isn’t an alien either.
  81. No, Sarah Palin doesn’t think that dinosaurs walked the earth with Adam and Eve 4000 years ago, In fact, this was a purposeful satire that comes from a post actually entitled Fake Governor Palin Quotes. This has, however, kept neither Matt Damon nor Maureen Dowd from propagating them as fact.
  82. No, Palin never said she and Todd would kill as many as 40 caribou at a time. That was from the same damn collection of fake quotes. No does it make any sense: can you imagine field-dressing 40 caribou?
  83. No, she did not cut the Special Olympics funding in a recent budget, except in the Washington sense of “didn’t increase it as much as someone wanted.” Warren Throckmorton shows is was actually a 10 percent increase over the previous year; voxitar in the comments gives a link to the previous year’s budget of $250,000.
    These have gotten sort of silly, though: she has a line-item veto power, and every last one of the cuts she made can be spun, by a political opponent, to say that she is hurting something that sounds good. She cut a new fire station building; she must be against fire departments. She cut an audio system for a grade school; she must be against education.
    But then, if she cut nothing she wouldn’t be a fiscal conservative, would she?
  84. Yes, she did bill the Alaska State Government for per diem on days when she was “home.” This is how it works: she is maintaining two households. The state law defines her official residence in Juneau as “home”, so when she’s up in Wasilla, she’s “traveling”. That’s the way the law is written, and it appears that she has documented and handled her expenses legally and appropriately, even if it seems odd. And yes, her expenses have been anywhere from a third to a fifth of the expenses of the previous Governor. The Washington Post suggests this calls into question her claim to be a fiscal conservative; personally, I think cutting expenses by 70 to 80 percent seems like a pretty good claim to the title.

Anyone who sees a new rumor, leave it in a comment.

Footnotes:
  1. and thanks to Cecil Turner@ Just One Minute for this [↩]
Posted by Charlie on Saturday, September 6, 2008, at 07:52 (@661). Filed under In Passing, Politics. Tagged . Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

{ 274 } Comments

  1. Charlie | 2008-Sep-05 at 20:16 (@177) | Permalink

    Dried Frog Pills?

  2. John_VS | 2008-Sep-05 at 22:01 (@250) | Permalink

    Here’s one I think you missed that was caught by David Freddoso:

    A radio interview with Palin surfaced in which she discussed a petty, last-minute attempt by Lyda Green — the Republican state Senate leader and Palin’s political enemy — to change the time of this year’s state of the state address. The schedule had been set well in advance, but Green cited a transparently bogus scheduling conflict in an attempt to force the speech to a time that would have prevented Palin from attending her son’s graduation. In that context, Palin let loose a small giggle when the radio host called Green a “bitch.”

    So that one’s true, though it was being presented as “Palin snickers as cancer survivor called B##&H!”

  3. DaveCal | 2008-Sep-06 at 01:28 (@395) | Permalink

    Great list. Can you also include whether the lies are on mainstream media (or just radical blogs) since Olberman and Matthews claim its not happening. And, maybe more importantly, can you include whether the Obama website perpetuates the rumors/lies? At some point it needs to be emailed to FOX and then MSM, see if it gets ANY play, see if there’s ANY integrity left…

  4. cjbreisch | 2008-Sep-06 at 05:41 (@570) | Permalink

    I have my own list. See http://chrisofrights.blogspot.com/2008/09/vetting-sarah-palin.html

  5. James Beam | 2008-Sep-06 at 07:31 (@646) | Permalink

    She’s a sitting Governor, not mayor as both Obama and Biden said, and promulgated through the blogs and media.

  6. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 07:32 (@647) | Permalink

    Thanks for the links, everyone!

    Dave, I haven’t been keeping track, but if you hve any of that leve it in comments and I’ll include it.

  7. saint | 2008-Sep-06 at 07:41 (@653) | Permalink

    Re 31: Not quite true -she’s been at an independent non-pentecostal church for the past few years. Despite this news report, one of Palin’s former churches (Wasilla AOG) has a nice sensible statement on its website. Let her speak for herself.

    Re 39: not quite true. AFIK Todd’s mother is 1/4 Yu’pik so he would be 1/8th Yu’pik. Palin’s own words at the RNC speech is to refer to his Yu’pik “ancestry”

    etc etc.

    I suggest you link to sources for all your corrections…and triple check.

  8. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 07:51 (@661) | Permalink

    Saint — thanks! I’ll try to track down the church info; as I’ve been hearing it, she’s been going to an AoG church in Juneau and this non-denom church in Wasilla. On the Yup’ik thing, I don’t know how they handle it; I’m a similar amount Choctaw and Cherokee, and the Choctaw Mation as well as the Cherokee Nation treat it as a boolean: you are or you’re not. But I’ll pursue it.

    Luckily I have Inuit in the family, so I should be able to find out fairly directly.

  9. bluemerlin | 2008-Sep-06 at 10:04 (@753) | Permalink

    There’s the rumor that she shoots wolves from airplanes or helicopters. From reading her various communications as Governor (at votesmart.org) I believe she has in fact made it possible for FISH & GAME officers to cull wolf packs by shooting them from the air, but she has NOT allowed any kind of sport hunting of wolves from the air nor has she participated in sport hunting of wolves from the air.

  10. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 10:09 (@756) | Permalink

    Thanks, that’s a good one. I’ll add it.

  11. elHombre | 2008-Sep-06 at 10:21 (@765) | Permalink

    The National Enquirer consistently characterizes the affair story as “incredible.” Check it out. I assume this is their way of publishing sleaze and avoiding a lawsuit.

    Hollis French, the guy ramrodding the “ethics investigation” is a Democrat and an Obama spokesman. See, e.g: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/
    emilybokar/gGxsmH

    His “Special Investigator” and his wife are long time associates of the replaced DPS Commissioner dating to when he was with the Anchorage PD.

    I’m an old prosecutor myself and this deal stinks!

  12. AnonAmom | 2008-Sep-06 at 10:24 (@767) | Permalink

    The Utah Democratic Party tried to suggest that Sarah Palin was a member of a Church that is anti-Mormon and therefore Mormons shouldn’t vote for Palin. They have since backed off that position - while some Assembly of God congregations have been actively opposed to the Latter-day Saint religion, the churches Palin has attended have no such agenda.

  13. liberalbyGod | 2008-Sep-06 at 10:51 (@785) | Permalink

    You people are pathetic. Way to keep the conservative media on track to railroad the American people into voting for your candidate once again. Book length posts could have been written about the conservative media’s lies about Hilary Clinton, but I’m sure you were busy contributing to those lies, not railing against them. But then again, consistency and therefore trustworthiness have never been a hallmark of conservatives and your mass market media. Maybe if Sarah Palin, ineffective mayor of a village and governor of the 47th largest state in population, had achieved anything of note that would contribute to her abilities to be vicepresident, we would have something to talk about besides the lies about your lies.

  14. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 11:20 (@806) | Permalink

    Way to keep the conservative media on track to railroad the American people into voting for your candidate once again.

    Golly, I hope so.

  15. Chevy64 | 2008-Sep-06 at 12:43 (@863) | Permalink

    Yes, she also had prior knowledge of 9/11. Ever since Nov. 1963 when she was seen in Dallas on standing on the Grassy Knoll.

  16. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 12:46 (@865) | Permalink

    Heh.

    I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t add that one. Jim Fetzer might pick it up.

  17. AnthonyJ | 2008-Sep-06 at 12:49 (@867) | Permalink

    It doesn’t seem like Buchanan is supporting Obama from this article:

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27992

  18. anon | 2008-Sep-06 at 12:56 (@872) | Permalink

    Are you sure about 41? “At first they had me in a bunch of furs,” she said of the December photo shoot. “Yeah, I have furs on my wall, but I don’t wear furs. I had to show them my bunny boots and North Face clothing.”

    http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/NEWS15/808300362/1009/NEWS07

  19. Andrew | 2008-Sep-06 at 13:04 (@878) | Permalink

    Two more to verify or debunk, from the editorial page of the Providence Journal from Providence RI…

    Governor Palin didn’t mention that she’s a global-warming denier [and] that she opposes stem-cell research

  20. sallyvee | 2008-Sep-06 at 13:10 (@882) | Permalink

    Please watch the CNN interview at the link below. Another northern star is born… by the name of Meg Stapleton, a former aid of Gov. Palin’s. She does a tremendously competent job refuting the charges and rumors about her former boss.

    Click below then locate the report titled
    Ex-aide defends Palin | 8:19

    http://tinyurl.com/59ck97

  21. Bird Dog | 2008-Sep-06 at 13:29 (@895) | Permalink

    Great list, Charles. Looks like you beat me to that sneering LA Progressive article.

    Keep up the great work!

  22. sallyvee | 2008-Sep-06 at 13:50 (@910) | Permalink

    #8 - Photos of Sarah in bikini photos…

    You know what I really want to see? I want to see 18 year old Barack wearing puka shell necklaces while attending Occidental college.

    [SNIP] Mitchell remembers that Obama wore puka shell necklaces all the time, though they were not in style, and that “we let it slide because he spent a lot of time growing up in Hawaii.”

    See:
    Old friends recall Obama’s years in LA, NY
    http://tinyurl.com/5h4ocw

  23. docweasel | 2008-Sep-06 at 14:57 (@956) | Permalink

    I wish non-Catholics would quit bandying about the phrase “Immaculate Conception”. It doesn’t mean what you think it does, and I highly doubt Bristol Palin’s situation has a thing to do with the Immaculate Conception, even in jest.

    It’s also kind of a veiled form of ridicule of Catholic beliefs, but it more clearly shows the ignorance of people like you who misuse the phrase thinking it means “virgin birth”. It doesn’t, ok?

  24. Patrick_Lasswell | 2008-Sep-06 at 14:57 (@956) | Permalink

    Newly invented:

    No, Sarah Palin did not have a torrid love affair with GEN Petraeus while she was in Kuwait visiting AKNG troops.

    No, Sarah Palin did not pull Saddam out of his spider hole while she was in Kuwait visiting AKNG troops.

    No, Sarah Palin did not offer mooseburger (or Moosebrugger DD-980) to Kuwaiti sheiks while she was visiting AKNG troops.

    No, Sarah Palin did not offer her services as a “dance hall girl” during the Klondike gold rush or the building of the Alaska pipeline.

    No, Sarah Palin did not set any out of favor members of the Wasilla or Alaska government adrift on an ice floe to preserve the remainder of the tribe. (She might have thought about it from time to time.)

    No, Sarah Palin is not Cher’s new stage name.

    I’m sure there’s a lot more out there.

  25. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 14:59 (@957) | Permalink

    Anthony@36, I watched him explaining on TV how Obama’s foreign policy was better and how McCain was in the grip of the evil neocons. But I’ll link that as well.

    Anon@37, I’ve got pictures on this site of her wearing furs — and consorting with Vikings, by the way. See also the picture of her in her office, with the grizzly bear draped over the love seat.

    I doubt she wears furs as a regular thing, though, as a ski suit is more practical.

  26. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 15:03 (@960) | Permalink

    Docweasel, I promise you that if I’d have meant to make fun of Catholic beliefs you wouldn’t have to be looking that hard to find it.

    In the mean time, I wonder if you could offer us an example of a virgin birth without an immaculate conception?

  27. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 15:04 (@961) | Permalink

    Patrick, I love them, but Ace is the one keeping the joke list.

    I mean the purposeful joke list.

  28. docweasel | 2008-Sep-06 at 15:09 (@965) | Permalink

    You are conflating 2 different dogma, and I don’t even know what your point is. You clearly misused the term in your post, and I see ignorant people do it all the time, and as a Catholic, it’s annoying to see the tenets of your church used as a punchline, and incorrectly to boot.

    Do yourself a favor, look it up on Wikipedia or some easy-to-understand simplified version like that and edify yourself.

    You obviously thought it meant Virgin Birth, a common lunkhead’s mistake. It’s like making a joke based on mixing up a Bar Mitzvah with a Bris. It has no validity in the context in which you used it.

  29. Rightwingnut | 2008-Sep-06 at 15:49 (@992) | Permalink

    Two points:

    First, is that the term “global warming denier” is meant to evoke an analogy to “Holocaust denier”, so it is a loaded term. In the US, it means you are a bigoted lout; In Iran, it means you are the President; In Europe, it is actually a crime. That’s something we have a hard time with in the US because of our strong Free Speech traditions, but in Europe, where it actually happened, it is a much more sensitive issue. Of course it fits in perfectly with the viewpoint of the global warming jihadists who want to criminalize any dissent from global warming orthodoxy.

    My second point is that as a Catholic, Docweasal is right in that the Immaculate Conception refers not to the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, but the Conception of His Mother, the Virgin Mary, who unlike the rest of us, was conceived/born WITHOUT the stain of original sin. Most Catholics don’t understand that, and I had forgotten it myself before Docweasal brought it up. That said, I didn’t get as offended by it as Docweasal did. I am more put off by “Ardent Practicing Catholic” Nancy Pelosi trying to rewrite Catholic Dogma to fit her Pro Choice Political Agenda

  30. Steve | 2008-Sep-06 at 16:06 (@004) | Permalink

    The real Sarah Palin — What the Republican Party has tried to pass off on us is both frightening and insulting.

    I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99 percent of the residents of the city.
    She is enormously popular; in every way, she is like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and will not vote for her cannot quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe”. It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months. She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
    She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym. She is savvy. She does not take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit. Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans. Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters. She is smart.
    Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings, which had given rise to a recall campaign.
    Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33 percent. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38 percent. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents. The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration were not enough to fund everything on her wish list though; borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked or a new library? No. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing. While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

    As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state. In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.
    She is not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that were not generated by her or her staff. Ideas were not evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them. While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla, she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
    Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
    As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every leg al right to fire him, but it is pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he would not fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
    She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City administrator; even people who did not like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness. Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.
    When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job, which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, and the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job s he hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).
    As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to. As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, and then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant, she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
    She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative. Around Wasilla, there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
    As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum. Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.
    McCain is the oldest person ever to run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there are a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.
    WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
    First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years, I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you Google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
    Secondly, I have always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
    Third, I am just a housewife. I do not have a job she can bump me out of. I do not belong to any organization that she can hurt. Nevertheless, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that is life.
    Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.
    Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because t hey were somehow vulnerable.

    P.S. - I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I cannot recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? For population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are swamped. Therefore, I cannot verify my numbers.

    You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

  31. elHombre | 2008-Sep-06 at 16:39 (@027) | Permalink

    liberalbygod wrote: “Book length posts could have been written about the conservative media’s lies about Hilary Clinton.”

    And you think the pro-Obama liberal media didn’t sink Hillary with lies about her and coverups about him.

    Pretty pathetic!

  32. vivi | 2008-Sep-06 at 17:43 (@071) | Permalink

    thanks for the list.
    FYI, “Immaculate Conception” refers to the dogma that Mary, Mother of Christ, was conceived without original sin. “Virgin birth” would be a technically proper description but would still be using an important tenet of a major religion as a punchline.
    Please keep up this list. You are doing important work. thanks again.

  33. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 17:48 (@075) | Permalink

    Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had seven comments, much less 70.

    Anne, thanks for your note. As I say, I’ve got family and friends in Wasilla and Fairbanks myself; I wouldn’t in a million years claim they were uniformly in Palin’s favor. I will note that googling your name leads almost instantly to a New York Times article that makes it clear you’re both Palin’s political opponent in local politics and a member of the opposing party, and that she was (according to the Times) re-elected 826-255 in 1999.

    For all that, it sure sounds like you’ve listed some good — or potentially good — things she’s done.

  34. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 18:56 (@122) | Permalink

    Oh, Steve? I’m not clear why Anne’s text from the circulated email has been pasted in by Steve without attribution.

    In any case, now we’ve got an attribution.

  35. Perceptor II | 2008-Sep-06 at 19:30 (@146) | Permalink

    Gotta a couple more for you, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan, who is growing more unhinged by the day:

    1. Sarah Palin is “safely indoctrinated by Joe Liebermanand AIPAC as we speak”…presumably in some Zionist conspiracy? A strangely anti-Semitic statement from someone who claims to be against anti-Semitism.

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/double-down.html

    2. That Sarah Palin has gone into hiding and will stay in hiding for two weeks…hasn’t she been to a couple of rallies since the convention?

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/in-hiding-for-t.html

    3. Palin’s current pastor said that God will strike out his hand against America. The actual context: the pastor was apparently preaching about Revelations and how God will judge the entire world (a mainstream Christian belief shared by evangelicals, mainline Protestants and Catholics) and was making the point that people in Wasilla, Alaska and the U.S.A. shouldn’t expect to be spared.

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/god-is-gonna-st.html

  36. fsteele | 2008-Sep-06 at 19:58 (@165) | Permalink

    This is great! Pls make it a heavy duty ongoing site!

    Here’s more detail on the jet plane Ebay project from the Anchorage Daily News, who knows the whole story and background.
    http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/203814.html

    The background is fun, but here’s the bottom line: the Ebay listing/s were serious, just didn’t bring in quite as good offers as the state wanted, so they finally got a better offer through a conventional broker.

  37. schenk | 2008-Sep-06 at 20:06 (@171) | Permalink

    Here is one you missed: Why do Sarah Palin’s kids have witch names?

    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=1653178
    and
    http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjlhNDRjNmI2NmVlOTk5ZTZlMzU1MjkyMzc3ZjZiN2E=

    Also:
    Does Sarah Palin have an ankle tattoo of the Big Dipper?

    http://www.halfsigma.com/2008/09/does-sarah-palin-have-an-ankle-tattoo-of-the-big-dipper.html

  38. bugdrivel | 2008-Sep-06 at 20:26 (@185) | Permalink

    I’ve been looking for a list of the Palin lies… thanks for all the hard work. :0)

    The Left is getting old, desperate and smelly.

  39. mhkidd | 2008-Sep-06 at 20:37 (@192) | Permalink

    Palin left behind over $18 million in long-term debt as mayor of Wasilla, compared to none before her tenure.

  40. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 20:58 (@207) | Permalink

    mhkidd, that would be #3.

  41. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 21:19 (@221) | Permalink

    Sorry, that’s #4 now.

  42. Ronsonic | 2008-Sep-06 at 21:45 (@239) | Permalink

    Sarah Palin says that she did inhale, but only back when it was legal.

  43. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 21:53 (@245) | Permalink

    Thanks, Ron, got it.

  44. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 21:53 (@245) | Permalink

    And yes, the numbers are changing as I add new ones. I should have just added them on the bottom, but it’s too late not.

  45. Charlie | 2008-Sep-06 at 21:54 (@245) | Permalink

    uh, now.

    Bedtime.

  46. Perceptor II | 2008-Sep-06 at 22:04 (@252) | Permalink

    One correction: Piper Palin was actually born in 2001, which was during Charmed’s run. But Willow was indeed born in 1995, two years before Buffy started its run. That and just the claim that Sarah Palin is a witch…you just can’t parody some of this stuff.

  47. katieo | 2008-Sep-06 at 22:45 (@281) | Permalink

    http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/06/sarah-palin-and-me/

    Another libelous bit of tripe. Especially good is that this “journalist” claims to preserve the anonymity of his source “Lucille” by not revealing her surname. Apparently there are dozens of 50-60 year-old waitresses named “Lucille” who work at this cafe. I can see the Palin people right now, cursing that they can’t discover a last name, demanding a list of all the “Lucilles” who work there. For anyone who has yet to read his previous post (to which he refers in the link above) it, too, is worth a look. I especially liked the ring of “authenticity” he gives to an Idaho businessman by having him describe McCain’s eyes as “rheumy.”

  48. Patrick_Lasswell | 2008-Sep-06 at 22:50 (@285) | Permalink

    Steve@59,

    I was taking you seriously right up to the point where you insisted that the state of Alaska should invest the surplus in developing energy technology that would make us energy independent and more efficient.

    Here’s the thing: giving money away is a better investment than constructing an institutional fraud. You are asking the state of Alaska to fund an institutional fraud. We already have technology that would help us make the US energy independent and more efficient it is called nuclear power. It’s clean, it’s safe, it’s carbon neutral, and it is not composed of pixie dust and fairy tales.

    Wind, geothermal, solar, wave action, biomass, and “efficiency” sources give us possibly 10% of our current (not planned) energy requirements. That is if we turn our country into a nasty mess of turbines, solar panels, coastal wave dams, fermentation swamps, and other low efficiency energy sources.

    Take out a sharpie and write this backwards on your forehead so you will remember it for a while: Low density power sources are inefficient and cause massive destructive externalities. Too much for your noggin? Try this: “Alternative energy is fraud.”

    Doubt me? Look hard at what the Enron power traders who didn’t go to jail are doing: Green Power! You are being lied to because power at your outlet is untraceable. When people pay more for “green” power, they have no way of knowing if it is from a windmill or a diesel generator three blocks away.

    Get off Sarah for not investing in institutional fraud.

  49. tlintx | 2008-Sep-06 at 23:47 (@324) | Permalink

    Newsbusters
    Rumor That Palin Called Obama ‘Sambo’ Spreading Across Internet.
    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/terry-trippany/2008/09/06/rumor-palin-called-obama-sambo-spreading-across-internet

    Here comes the race card again!!! Article states Palin said, ““So Sambo beat the bitch!” Referring to Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton.
    http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/05/alaskans-speak-in-a-frightened-whisper-palin-is-%E2%80%9Cracist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean%E2%80%9D/

    The article was written by Charley James. He has an article, “Sarah Palin and Me” on his blogspot at:
    http://thepoliticalcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/

  50. Shezan | 2008-Sep-07 at 00:02 (@335) | Permalink

    Thank you for this. You ROCK!

  51. kgdennis | 2008-Sep-07 at 00:51 (@368) | Permalink

    What is the deal with her saying the Pledge of Allegiance is from the founding fathers? If it is true, it should be addressed. I don’t think it is a big deal, but fair is fair.

  52. devilj | 2008-Sep-07 at 01:48 (@408) | Permalink

    Rumor has it Sarah Palin shot that Bigfoot that was frozen in that guy’s freezer. Why on earth would this woman set back cryptozoology like that. SEE MUST BE STOPPED!!!!!!!!!!!

  53. ytba | 2008-Sep-07 at 02:06 (@421) | Permalink

    “(Ever hear the phrase “Not my will, but Thine, be done”?) Yes, this apparently freaks some people right out.”

    Except when O’Bumbler uses it (or equivalent)….
    “and make me an instrument of your will”. And, no, Sarah Palin didn’t steal the note, and I doubt anyone else did, least of all a G-d fearing Yeshivah student.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave his prayer to the newspaper for publication, and put an empty note in the Wall. Maybe that’s why the MSM is trying so hard to answer the ObaMasiah’s prayer themselves?

  54. ytba | 2008-Sep-07 at 02:16 (@428) | Permalink

    Steve | 06-Sep-08 at 4:06 pm

    Uh, if you compare Obama’s ABYSMAL, and possibly even criminal, performance as state senator, even the worst things you wrote about Palin are laughably insignificant.

  55. mhkidd | 2008-Sep-07 at 08:54 (@704) | Permalink

    mhkidd | 06-Sep-08 at 8:37 pm | Permalink

    Palin left behind over $18 million in long-term debt as mayor of Wasilla, compared to none before her tenure.

    Charlie | 06-Sep-08 at 9:19 pm | Permalink

    Sorry, that’s #4 now. (Yes, there are people in Alaska who think she’s too liberal. )

    Sorry, Charlie, but that dog don’t hunt. Being too liberal is a perception that can arise from a whole set of nebulous criteria, whether justified or not. Palin’s gross fiscal irresponsibility as mayor of Wasilla is a fact. You can’t blame facts on perceptions, though that is, of course, the only strategy the GOP has for winning elections these days. Keep blowing.

  56. Charlie | 2008-Sep-07 at 09:19 (@721) | Permalink

    mhkidd, sorry, that’s my fault. As I said above, I’m now going to only add new rumors at the bottom so the numbers will stabilize. What I called #4 is now #6, and includes the sentence “Yes, the city went into debt to do it.”

    Whether it’s “gross fiscal irresponsibility” is observer-dependent. For me, on the one hand it sounds like — since she was re-elected after the sports center etc were developed — the people of Wasilla in general didn’t agree with you. On the other hand, I’m libertarian enough to wonder, philosophically, if this is something a government should be doing. But then, continuing around the octopus, on the third hand if a government is going to do it, doing it with an explicit tax increase and bonds strikes me as the fiscally responsible way to do it.

    If you want to make that into a big deal about the GOP etc, I suggest you take that down the hall; this isn’t the arguments department.

  57. galynn | 2008-Sep-07 at 10:07 (@755) | Permalink

    Another rumor found on CNN blog! Check the comments on this blog: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/05/exclusive-the-trooper+-behind-trooper-gate/#more-8006

    Commenter #3 calling herself “Linda” says, “…Also did you know she has brothers in jail? check it out!!”

  58. del | 2008-Sep-07 at 10:43 (@780) | Permalink

    I saw this in Anderson Cooper’s blog comments. true or False?

    “As a life long Alaskan, there was a lot of sneaky things that she did in order to win the election for governor. I will be so glad when she is exposed for the fake lier that she is. Also did you know she has brothers in jail?”

  59. Charlie | 2008-Sep-07 at 10:54 (@788) | Permalink

    Del, the brother one is now #68. I’ve read a number of complaints about her campaigns in Wasilla, always from people she beat like a livery stable mule. I’ve got contacts up there though, so will keep looking.

  60. Perceptor II | 2008-Sep-07 at 12:02 (@834)