fayfreethinkers.com

DAR
Only one republican with the guts to step forward and speak the truth?

"Palin doesn't have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time
in your life last year? I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the
experience to be president of the United States,"
-- Chuck Hagel, Republican senator

DAR
And the truth trickles in. This just gets better and better. She's the gift that keeps on giving...

***
Sarah Palin said yes, thanks, to a road to nowhere in Alaska

While seeking votes, she told Ketchikan residents she backed the 'bridge to nowhere.' As governor, she spent the money elsewhere and moved ahead with a $26-million road to the nonexistent bridge.

The 3.2-mile-long partially paved "road to nowhere" meanders from a small international airport on Gravina Island, home to 50 people, ending in a cul-de-sac close to a beach.

Crews are working to finish it. But no one knows when anyone will need to drive it.



That's because the $26-million road was designed to connect to the $398-million Gravina Island Bridge, more infamously known as the "bridge to nowhere." Alaskan officials thought federal money would pay for the bridge, but Gov. Sarah Palin killed the project after it was ridiculed and Congress rescinded the money. Plans for the road moved forward anyway.

Some residents of Ketchikan -- a city of 8,000 on a neighboring island where the bridge was to end -- see the road as a symbol of wasteful spending that Palin could have curtailed. Some of them even accuse her of deception.

"Surely we won't have to commute on the highway if there won't be a bridge," said Jill Jacob, who has been writing and calling the governor's office for the last two years to protest the road. "It's a dead-end highway, a dead-end road."

LA TIMES

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)

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)

$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)

$150: the cash payment offered by the Palin administration to hunters who turn in legs of freshly killed wolves gunned down from airplanes (Source)

3: the number of times during her first few weeks as mayor that Palin inquired with the Wasilla librarian about banning books (Source)

3: the number of months after the censorship discussion that Palin fired the librarian (Source)

100: the approximate number of Wasilla residents who rallied to support the librarian, prompting Palin to withdraw her termination letter (Source)

0: the number of foreign heads of state Palin has met (Source)

0: the number of commands Palin has issued as head of the Alaska National Guard (Source)

2: the number of times in Palin's ABC News interview that she said the word "nucular" (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)

$50,000: the amount of city funds Palin used without authorization to redecorate the Wasilla mayor's office, including adding flocked, red wallpaper that made it look "like a bordello," according to a former Wasilla City Council member (Source)

33: the percentage by which Palin increased the budget of Wasilla during her tenure, despite billing herself as a fiscal conservative and champion of smaller government (Source)

25: the percentage by which Palin raised the local sales tax in Wasilla to pay for a sports center, despite claims that she cut taxes (Source)

$27 million: the total amount of federal earmarks Palin secured for Wasilla's town of 6,700 people while she was mayor, thanks to the help of a Washington lobbyist with ties to indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and convicted felon Jack Abramoff (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)

$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)

$506.34: the amount of federal earmarks Alaska residents will receive per capita in 2008, the highest level of any state (Source)

$223 million: the earmark secured for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" that Palin initially supported before opposing (Source)

$223 million: the amount of money designated for the "Bridge to Nowhere" that Palin ultimately used for other projects, rather than returning it to the federal government (Source)

20: the percentage of domestic energy that Palin claims Alaska produces (Source)

3.5: the actual percentage share of domestic energy Alaska produces (Source)

0: the number of people in America who know more about energy than Sarah Palin, according to John McCain (Source)

$600,000: the loss at which Palin sold the governor's jet after making a show of placing it on eBay. It was eventually sold to a Palin campaign contributor who paid $2.1 million (more than 20% less than the original $2.7 million purchase price). (Source)

1: the number of private tanning beds Palin installed in the governor's mansion after taking office (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)

0: the actual amount of time Palin spent in Iraq during a 2007 visit to the region, despite the McCain campaign's claim she had visited the Iraq battle zone. She never made it beyond the Khabari Alawazem Crossing in Kuwait. (Source)

2006: the year in which Palin declared she favors abstinence-only education and that "the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support" (Source)

2008: the year in which Palin's 17-year-old daughter was impregnated by a self-described "f***ing redneck," who wrote on his MySpace page "I don't want kids" and "ya f*** with me I'll kick ass" (Source)

9: the number of U.S. Geological Survey studies concluding that the habitat of Alaska's polar bears is threatened by global warming, which Palin discounted as "insufficent evidence" when she sued the Bush administration to overturn its decision to list polar bears under the Endangered Species Act (Source)

5: the number of colleges Palin attended over six years before graduating in 1987 from the University of Idaho with a major in journalism (Source)

500: the number of Fortune 500 companies Sarah Palin is not qualified to run, according to McCain adviser Carly Fiorina (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)

28: the number of days prior to accepting the vice presidential offer that Palin said she couldn't entertain the idea "until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day" (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)

LINK

More from the last straight talking republican left standing:

“I think it’s a stretch to, in any way, to say that she’s got the experience to be president of the United States,” Hagel said.

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’” he said. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.”
--Nebraska’s Republican Senior Senator, Chuck Hagel

To the Editor
Palin gave money away
In the editorial wherein you heaped praises upon Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, you briefly mentioned that she “reformed the whole tax structure for the oil industry.” What was missing is that Palin raised taxes, and Alaskans enjoyed the largest inflow of tax revenues ever. Beginning this month, the Palin administration will distribute $ 756 million to every Alaskan who has lived there for at least a year. That’s $ 1, 200 per head. This is on top of Alaska’s older Permanent Fund, which distributes $ 2, 069 per head to Alaskans.

Surely the numerous anti-socialists who regularly fill this letters page must ask: This is conservatism ? She takes from the producers of wealth and redistributes the bounty to each and every citizen. That’s pure socialism by any common description. You can see why Sarah is popular with Alaskan families. Given the numbers above, her family of six (not counting the son in the service ) will receive $ 19, 614 for 2008.
Yet she is not so popular with Alaskan women. A rally celebrating her triumphant return [from the GOP convention ] produced 1, 000 participants. Meanwhile, the Alaska Women Reject Palin rally attracted 1, 400.

Perhaps liberals and lefties need to reevaluate Palin. If she turns out like Vice President Dick Cheney and is able to direct policy from her office, she could entirely wipe out middle-class income taxes by redistributing corporate oil and gas profits to the whole nation. How’s that for the promised unity that George W. Bush and Cheney failed to deliver ? I say moose skinners now and moose skinners forever."
LARRY WOODALL
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sept 17, 2008

DAR
Palin's interview with Hannity condensed down to 62 seconds:

Link

This is getting confusing. There are so many scandals and lies and just plain weirdness revolving around Sarah Palin that I'm having trouble keeping track of them. We need some kind of flow chart or graph or outline or something!

Then again, why spend all the time to do that? I'm kind of sick of Sarah Palin and just ready to throw her in the recycle bin.

From New Humanist:

"Here's the video you've all been waiting for. Hollywood actor and well-known Democrat Matt Damon's not too impressed with American vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He finds the prospect of her potentially becoming president scary and would like to know if she thinks dinosaurs were around 4,000 years ago" : Link to page with video

Of course Republicans will counter that because Matt is an actor he has no authority to speak about politics (and he's not Arnold Schwarzenegger or Fred Thompson).

Tim

Or Ronald Reagan.

.


...............Unhappy Alaskans

.....Alaskans angered that Palin is off-limits

ANCHORAGE -- Jerry McCutcheon went to Sarah Palin's office here last week to request information about the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, the scandal that for weeks has threatened to overshadow the governor's role as Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate.

McCutcheon was given a phone number in Virginia to call: the national headquarters of the McCain-Palin campaign.

Why, he wanted to know, did he have to call a campaign office 4,300 miles away to find out what was going on in Alaska government? The longtime civic activist phoned his local state representative, Les Gara, who quickly filed a protest.

These days, many such queries about Monegan -- or anything else involving Palin's record as governor -- get diverted to McCain staffers. A former Justice Department prosecutor from New York flew in recently to advise the governor's lawyer and field reporters' calls about Monegan. Soon after, Palin's willingness to cooperate in the Legislature's probe of the affair ended.

A recent call to John Cramer, the head of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs -- who clashed with Palin during her years as mayor of Wasilla -- was returned by a McCain campaign operative who had just arrived from Washington, D.C. "John who?" she asked.

In stubbornly independent Alaska, the sudden intrusion of a political campaign into so many corners of state government -- not to mention Wasilla, where a dozen or more campaign researchers and lawyers have also begun overseeing the release of any information about Palin's years as mayor -- has touched a raw nerve. McCain staffers have even been assigned to answer calls for Palin's family members, who have been instructed not to talk.

Los Angles Times Sept 21 08

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DOUG
Did everyone see Sam Harris's roast of Palin in this week's Newsweek?

"When Atheists Attack"

See here.

DAR
You have got to be F-ing kidding me. This is unbelievable. Please watch a couple minutes of this video of Palin's interview today on CBS with Katie Couric:

See it here

If that link goes bad, this one has it:

LINK

I agree with this summary:

"I’m still in shock over how terrible the Palin/Couric interview was. “Train wreck” is being charitable – it was more like a train derailing on a bridge, tumbling a thousand feet into a canyon and landing on a pile of old dynamite and gas drums. And then a jumbo jet crashed into the flaming wreckage. Followed by an earthquake that caused the whole mess to slide off a cliff into the sea, where the few miraculous survivors were eaten by sharks."

This is no doubt why McCain is pretending he can't debate Friday which then bumps Palin's debate next week to some unknown time. This woman has nothing, No Thing, between the ears.

Darrel wrote:DAR
You have got to be F-ing kidding me. This is unbelievable. Please watch a couple minutes of this video of Palin's interview today on CBS with Katie Couric: ...

Wow, and she's had weeks to prepare for those questions which they should have known she'd be asked, and that's the best she could do?

Tim

Word is out after the Couric interveiw that Palin could be on her way out. She flubbed the previous interview on ABC when she
did not know the Bush Doctrine. Internets are alive with talk that she may have to step down. Recall Rev. Mike Huckabee ran
second place in the nomination race and voices are rising that he should be given second slot.






.

L.Wood wrote:...voices are rising that he should be given second slot.

DAR
Jesus, I bet the fundies wouldn't mind that at all. That's actually a good strategy.

I wouldn't want to be Palin's food taster right now.

D.

The official reason will be that she is voluntarily stepping down because she realizes the job takes too much time away from her family, who really need her especially right now. Mark my words.

.

Betsy wrote

she is voluntarily stepping down because she realizes the job takes too much time away from her family

That would make a salable excuse. However the real reason could be related to Jack Cafferty's very caustic remarks on CNN.


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DOUG
Two more Palin embarassments:

JUNEAU, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin, touted by Republican presidential nominee John McCain as a reformer when he picked her to be his running mate, will send $2,100 to three charities to account for tainted 2006 donations to her gubernatorial campaign.

Palin said Friday she approved giving back money that came from two Alaska politicians implicated in a sweeping federal corruption probe, plus money donated from the wife of one of the two men.
See here.

AND:

For months, the confrontation mounted, a face-off that arguably held in the balance the fates of two of Alaska's biggest industries. On one side were companies hoping to open Pebble Mine at a huge gold and copper reserve adjacent to one of the world's largest salmon runs, Bristol Bay. On the other side were fishermen and environmentalists pushing a referendum that would make it harder for the mine to open.

The two sides spent more than $10 million -- unprecedented for such efforts in Alaska -- and throughout it all, the state's highly popular first-term governor, Sarah Palin, held back. Alaska law forbids state officials from using state resources to advocate on ballot initiatives.

Then, six days before the Aug. 26 vote, with the race looking close, Palin broke her silence. Asked about the initiative at a news conference, she invoked "personal privilege" to give an opinion. "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop. 4 -- I vote no on that," she said. "I have all the confidence in the world that [the Department of Environmental Conservation] and our [Department of Natural Resources] have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place. We're going to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly."

Palin's comments rocked the contest. Within a day, the pro-mining coalition fighting the referendum had placed full-page ads with a picture of the governor and the word "NO." The initiative went down to defeat, with 57 percent of voters rejecting it.

Three days later, Palin was named Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate, throwing Alaska into a media frenzy. But the fallout has lingered from an episode that may stand as one of the most consequential in Palin's 21-month tenure. The state ethics panel is examining whether her comments violated the law against state advocacy on ballot measures; it had already ruled that a state Web site was improperly slanted toward mining interests.

See here.

Greg Harton is the editor of the NWA Times, a staunch republican and fundamentalist Christian who supports John McCain. But the disillusionment with Sarah Palin has trickled down to even local columnists. From his column in today's paper:

"I don't anticipate voting for Obama, folks, but McCain's actions and Letterman's questions drive home a critical point McCain's camp has to prove: Can Sarah Palin handle the job she and McCain are asking us to elect her to ? If she can't handle the rigors or the questions of a campaign, can she deal with the actual job ? McCain, who has earned a high level of respect, better figure out how to clearly demonstrate that his pick for a vice president wasn't based solely on gender but on abilities. Even among those who want the evidence to make a convincing case, the campaign's actions have failed to do that so far."

full article