Essene

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Mon Oct-13-08 05:36 PM
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Sarah Palin Factsheet - v3 (read & share)

Edited on Mon Oct-13-08 06:35 PM by Essene

===+===+===+=== Sarah Palin Factsheet - v3 (read & share)
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Grab a cup of hot cocoa, put party loyalties aside and enjoy this read... because a lot of research & fact checking went into it...

This is an attempt to collect facts about a woman who's done about 4 interviews since becoming the GOP pick for Vice President. I make no apologies for the disturbing tone of this. For the cautious and skeptical readers, I have added citations for your own investigation.

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Mayor Sarah Palin... God's Will Be Done

Sarah Palin became Governor of Alaska less than 2 years ago. Sarah Palin claims her arctic state is a "microcosm of america" (ABC interview with Charlie Gibson). No disrespect meant to Alaska, but that's a real stretch.
As Mayor of a town of about 6000 people, Sarah Palin pulled in $27 million in federal "pork." She increased taxes. She increased the budget from $7.6 million to $13.6 million and put the town into $22 million in debt (Alaska Journal-1, AP-8, Washington Post-12).
As an ironic aside, Palin's rationale for digging her tiny town into debt to build a major sports complex (among other things) was that government should be in the business of "preventing social ills" - i.e. the proposed sports facilities would stop teens from getting into drugs, sex and crime (CBS-10, Palin's email to the Wasilla City Council-12). By the way, she began building this complex on somebody's private property which turned into a costly legal mess and the City eventually just took the property under "eminent domain" powers (Wall Street Journal-7).
Palin's beloved Wasilla federal pork was publicly attacked at least 3 different times by Senator Mccain, in years gone by (LA Times-14). We'll get to her state-level pork requests later.
When running for Mayor, she allegedly suggested that she'd be the "first Christian Mayor." The current Mayor was not an active church guy and his name was John Stein (i.e. sounded jewish). Even though he was Christian, Lutheran, the implication is that the town needed a "real" christian leader (NY Times-31). A wonderful way to rise to political power. She found strong support among the religious-right and the local Alaskan Independence Party folks (to be discussed further below).

:) Enjoy this 1995 mayoral campaign ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxDgq_XLLng
As Mayor, one of the first things she did was to spend $50,000 on redecorating her office (without city council approval). When the guy who groomed her,politics confronted her on this, she allegedly responded that "I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't." Yes folks, her own political mentor tells us this, and added: "That's Sarah. She just has no respect for rules and regulations." (Salon-23)
As Mayor, she didn't actually have the managerial duties that most Mayors do. In Alaska, due to the spread in population, there are "Borough" governments akin to County systems. They take care of planning, fire departments, ambulances, property taxes and stuff like that. Even so, Palin had to hire a city manager to keep her own mess in order. She apparently wasn't all that good at managing what little she had to manage (Salon-23), other than to spend spend spend and raise taxes.
Palin is lying about her Pentecostal background and alarming affiliations. On August 29th, when asked what church she attended she claimed: "A non-denominational Bible church. I was baptized Catholic as a newborn and then my family started going to non-denominational churches throughout our life" (Time magazine-27). Non-denominational throughout her life? This is a lie. She spent 37 years of her life in a rural Pentecostal church with views so radical that they are considered heresy by mainstream evangelicals & fundamentalists: faith healing; being possessed by the supernatural holy ghost and speaking in tongues; teaching prophecy & gnosticism; christian theocracy & dominionism, etc. While she did switch to a more non-denominational church in 2002, she maintains strong relations with the fringe Pentecostals: she attends their services when in the capital; she funnels public funds their way; her pentecostal pastor resided over her inauguration as Governor; and, she continues to make appearances at the church. She even recently participated in an anti-witchcraft ceremony they had to bless her new political career - I kid you not, see the video (Youtube-29).

:) Enjoy this Max Blumenthal video on her church community http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixGzMhfQtV0

(Not motivated to watch that? What if i told you it had secret footage of people speaking in tongues at the Wasilla Assembly of God and people claiming that she is anointed by God to lead this nation?)
Palin's pentecostal community is a major player in the fringe "Third Wave" dominionist movement (look it up). This is the theological home of "Joel's Army" and you can see for yourself what preachers like Rodney Howard-Browne are about by a simple search for videos which include him calling to take over government and speaking in tongues. They believe the Apocalypse is very soon and that they have special insight into & role within God's plan. Palin's own home church recruits youth to learn how to prophesize (about the coming apocalypse) and how to go out into the world to do God's work. The famous video of her speaking about Iraq being "god's will" was for a graduating class of such recruits. See for yourself (youtube-29)
She believes in the ability to prophesize about God's Will. Listen to her own words. She said her proposed Alaskan pipeline was "god's will." She said the Iraq war was "God's will" (Youtube-21). She also said that there are "signs" unfolding and implied that her rise to power in Alaska is something divinely guided, having to do with growing up in that Pentecostal church. She's seen explicitly talking about learning how to prophecize and experience revelation (Youtube-29). She then had the nerve to insist she'd never dare speak for God when talking to Charlie Gibson. More lies.

:) Enjoy this video exploring her pentecostal roots & her sense of prophecy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrD7U-vHCD8
Palin does not believe climate change is caused by human behavior (ABC News-35).

:) Enjoy this 1995 video of her gum chewing, god loving Sarah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Yexjyf4Qs
As Mayor and activist, she sought to install creationists in the government and worked hard to take over a local school board (Salon-28). She also advocated for creationism as a gubernatorial candidate (LA Times-32). She also helped push initiatives to take over various institutions, including a local hospital (AP-54)
As Mayor, she told a local minister that she believes "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," some 6000 years ago (Salon-28). Hmmm.
As Mayor and activist, she pressured a public librarian on censoring books and may have fired her for challenging the notion (Anchorage Daily News-24, ABC TV report-25).
Under Palin's tenure, Wasilla rape victims were forced to pay for their own forensic evidence kits. This was such an outrage, that the state felt the need to pass a law banning the practice (Anchorage Daily News-30).
Palin strongly opposes abortion even in cases of incest and rape of children (Anchorage Daily News-26). It should be added that the next President is likely to have the opportunity to replace the 2 oldest US Supreme Court justices. Justice Stevens is age 88ish & Justice Ginsberg is age 75ish. Both are progressive. The Court already leans conservative.
A Judge had to tell Mayor Palin to stop slandering and harassing her sister's ex-husband in 2005, and that it had risen to the point of being "child abuse" during custody proceedings (Newsweek-43). That's how bad it had become. This happens to be the same guy at the center of the current investigation into her abusing her power to seek personal vengeance as Governor. She continues to slander him in her defense, saying he's "a threat to the first family" (Charlie Gibson interview on ABC, Newsweek-43). She's brought the entire nation into an episode of Jerry Springer.
Todd Palin claims he "designed" and built their $552,000 2-story home by himself and "with a couple buddies (Alaska Magazine-62, Fox News Video-63) Nobody seems to be able to recount who exactly the buddies are. At the end of her term as Mayor, a massive sports complex was being built in Wasilla. Their new home happend to be built at the same time and just around the corner. It's become clear that some if not all of the materials were donated by the fellow at the center of the Ted Stevens. Likewise, it's become clear that contractors working on the sports complex happened to be pals of the Palins and suppported her campaigns (VillageVoice-58, Mudflats-59, DailyKos-60). It's turned out that Todd Palin was certainly lying about "designing" the house. If i were a betting man, I'd wager he also couldn't be "building the house with some buddies" while campaigning around the state with his wife for Governor.

:) Take a deep breath and meet Joe Vogler. Joe died in 1993 during an attempt to buy illegal explosives (C4).
Palin and her husband have long-term, direct ties to a militant secessionist group that was supported by Iran. This is not a smear. This is not an exaggeration. Hard to swallow, I know. In fact, Todd Palin was a card carrying member of the Alaskan Independence Party until 2002. Both attended conventions of AIP, and local Wasilla members were an intergral part of both her rise to becoming Mayor as well as her policies as Mayor & Governor (Salon-51, LA Times-33, Youtube-34). Sarah Palin has continued to support AIP, even sending a formal video presentation to their recent convention (see below). Here are some quotes from Vogler (above), the founder of the Alaskan Independence Party (secessionists):
- "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."
- "I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. Our goal is ultimate independence... we're ready to die."
- "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hate for the American government and I won't be buried under their damn flag."
:) Watch Sarah Palin thank the AIP for what they are doing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI

:) Watch Mark Chryson, former AIP chairman, brag about his relationship with Sarah Palin...
http://images.salon.com/video.swf?id=w-69197-2009790

:) Watch Todd Palin "slip" and suggest that Alaskans are not Americans... on video (listen closely to "why folks love Sarah")
http://tinyurl.com/4ww4r2

Gosh... and we haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet!

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Governor Palin... loves Moose but prefers Pork

(you may want to refresh your cup of hot cocoa)

Sarah Palin was Governor of Alaska (population 680k) for about 1.5 years before becoming the VP Candidate. Palin has called Alaska a "microcosm" of America. Alaska's entire population (#47) is on par with the cities of Austin, Memphis and Columbus (Ohio). By comparison, the New York City school system has 1.1 million children in it and feeds/transports about the entire population of Alaska every day. Yes, that's right, there are school systems with bigger budgets than the State of Alaska. The 2nd largest city in Alaska has a population of 30,000 people. There are 125 football stadiums in America bigger than that (wikipedia ftw).
One of the first things Palin did as Governor was to install an expensive tanning bed (LA Times-37). And for the record, this cannot be used for treating depression from low northern light exposure, as her defenders have claimed. That's a different band of EV radiation (look it up).
Palin couldn't let go of her small town grudge against her former Brother-in-Law. As Governor, she went after this guy and the first investigation into this matter reported that she broke State Ethics Law in abusing her powers (Anchorage Daily News-52). This first investigation was run by a Republican controlled legislative committee, with the Republican representative from her home town casting the deciding vote to subpoena 13 of her affiliates on this matter (Wall Street Journal-46, AP-44, Anchorage Daily News-42). The Mccain campaign's response to these serious matters has been to call the investigation partisan and to simply deny the findings. A new investigation with real legal teeth has now started (Newsweek-53). There has also been a Court Order for Palin to come forward with all her private email accounts (Anchorage Daily News-64). Place your bets.
Her big "success" so far in Alaska was to increase taxes & regulation on oil, driving up prices for the rest of America. A true maverick. 14% of America's domestic oil comes from Alaska (EIA-16). On top of other hefty fees and taxes, Palin increased the windfall tax rate to 25% on all Oil coming out of Alaska (Anchorage Daily News-4) and has brought in $11 billion in revenue this year alone (Bloomberg-17, LA Times-15). Industry experts have stated that for every barrel of american oil coming out of Alaska, she's taking about $.75 cents of every $1 as taxes and fees (Seattle Times-39). I wonder if the Republicans consider this a "model" in fiscal conservative government?
Palin has repeatedly claimed that Alaska makes up 20% of America's domestic energy supply. She was off by 600%. It's only about 3.5% of America's domestic energy supply (Factcheck.org-38). That's how little she understands her own state's economy and the general energy politics in America. Off by 600% while talking on national television about her supposed expertise. Even more sad is that she claims this is her top national security credential as well.
Alaska has a $5 billion budget SURPLUS because of her aggressive energy taxation (Bloomberg-17, LA Times-15) and is giving residents checks for $3200 this fall. That's approximately $13000 for a family of four (LA Times-15). Alaska has no state income, property or sales tax so these residents are literally being paid royalties to live there - because of high gas prices. Chew on that a bit.
Under Palin, 1/3rd of Alaska's jobs depend on Federal funds (The Economist-18). Rugged individualism.
Palin has requested over $750 million in federal pork in her mere 1.5 years in office (AP-8, Washington Post-13). This doesn't count the $329 million she had hoped for to build the Bridge to Nowhere (CNN-19). Remember that $5 billion surplus from taxing energy? Well, she's still requesting hundreds of millions from the rest of us... even after we pay more at the pump.
Under Palin, Alaska has the highest pork-per-person ratio in the nation (Washington Post-13, AP-9). Alaska is 71% above the national average in pork requests (The Economist-18). She did cut down her pork requests to a mere $200 million so far in 2008, but mainly at the request of the President and because Congress cut her off. Even after her cuts in pork, Alaska remains at the top of the list of pork states. Her maverick story is a myth.

See her flaunting a pro-"Bridge to Nowhere" shirt here:
Palin lied when she told this story: "I said thanks but no thanks, and i told Congress to keep the money" pertaining the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. In truth, Palin supported the project while running for Governor and mocked those who didn't understand Alaska's infrastructure needs (Anchorage Daily News-3). In fact, she supported using STATE funds for it in addition to the federal pork (Anchorage Daily News-2). After 11 months into her first term, as Congress refused to fully fund it, she declared the program dead. She simply refused to make good on her promise to use state funds. Her official press release blamed Congress (Press Release-5). But there are two punch lines, folks...

The "Road to Nowhere" lives on...
(A) Palin never returned the funds. She went ahead and spent the left-over $36 million in federal funds for the "bridge to nowhere" on the "road to nowhere" (NY Post-6, Press Release-5). And (B), her administration is still pursuing the Bridge to Nowhere project according to folks in her administration (Propublica-22).
Palin claims to have cut spending, but Alaska's operating budget actually increased (Bloomberg-17). Her cuts were primarily on local Capital expenses - cutting $231 million in local infrastructure projects including "hydropower projects to ball fields, roads and bridges to police cars" (Anchorage Daily News-4). She also line-item vetoed funds for family counseling and adoption programs, a shelter for homeless, repairing sidewalks for elementary schools, replacing fire stations, etc. (Bloomberg-17).

(Having a $5 billion budget surplus and $750 million federal pork sure drives one to make hard decisions!)
She did manage to request & funnel state funding for her Pentecostal church's evangelical outreach & training program where folks may learn to speak in tongues, experience the Holy Spirit, learn to divine prophecy from God, and learn to go out into public life in God's name - the same church where she told practitioners that her proposal for a new pipeline was "God's will" (DailyKos review of sources-40, Blogspot-20, Youtube-21). They literally teach "prophecy" there, which may explain why Sarah Palin has been recorded talking about how she knows God's Will on so many things.
Palin also used at least $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at over 10 religious events and meetings, including the now famous ones. She's been blessed, de-witched and chilled out with Billy Graham's son all on taxpayer dollars (AP-54). She submitted expenses to visit her own church to talk about how her pipeline was God's will.
She spent $400,000 taxpayer dollars on a campaign to push aeriel wolf killing even though the people of Alaska had already voted the other way, twice (Anchorage Daily News-36).
Palin opposed a shelter that serves troubled teen mothers (Washington Post-41). Extremely expensive sports centers to keep rural kids out of pregnancy trouble. Yes. Shelters for troubled pregnant kids? No. How very christian of her.
They lied when they claimed that she "put the governor's jet on ebay and sold it for a profit," and she "fired the governor's chef." Real maverick stuff. The truth is that she failed to sell the jet on ebay and had to sell it through a contractor for a loss (CBS-11). And in fairness, the state is nearly the length of the entire USA so the state having a small $2.5m plane isn't exactly extravagant. Similarly, she didn't actually fire the chef. She merely gave her another job in the state government (AP-9).

See a map of Alaska compared to the rest of the USA to realize how a small plane isn't a big expense
Did I mention that Gidget's got her own plane? Or that she decided to work out of her home rather than the capital, and then took $17,000 in "per diem" which she never paid taxes on (Anchorage Daily News-49)? Sarah Palin was paid extra to work from home (600 miles from the Capital), and thenn didn't pay taxes on it. That's not counting all the more than $150,000 in travel and other expenses she's charged the taxpayers for her, her daughters and her husband (Anchorage Daily News-50).

What a maverick! What a true fiscal conservative...

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Winky Mooselini... Commander Pants on Fire

To review: she's lied about her religious background. She's lied about her state's role in domestic energy production. She lied about her abuse of power and ethics violations. She's lied about her record on taxes, spending and pork. Everything from the bridge to nowhere, to the jet on ebay, to the fired chef... all lies. Almost her entire story is genuine myth making.
Palin likes to insult the media these days. However, her hometown newspaper likes to remind her that she courted a love affair with the national and international media before becoming the VP pick. In those 20 months, she scheduled more than 300 interviews and press conferences. Since becoming the VP pick? About 4 very controlled interviews filled with blunders (Anchorage Daily News-61).
As VP hopeful, she's shown about as much political tact as a hungry baboon. Here's one charming example. As a self-professed "hockey mom" and hockey authority, she showed up in Philadelphia wearing a New York Rangers jersey (Forbes-55). A week later, she had the nerve to show up at a Philly Flyer's event. She apparently knew there could be trouble, and joked beforehand that she'd be using her adorable 9 year old daughter as a shield of cuteness. She went out there and promptly got boo'd so loudly that they had to turn the music to max, just to cover it (foxnews-57, Youtube-56). This might be funny if it hadn't probably traumatized that poor little girl for life.

:) Take a deep breath & enjoy the Sarah Palin Yoga routine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFlfOtwRf0I
While two of her best skills seem to be being cute and lying about herself, she's clearly even better at lying about her political opposition. I won't go into depth on this, but just remember that she's going around the nation saying her opponent is "palling around with terrorists." Meanwhile, the country may be heading into a great depression and we're getting this kind of non-sense. Needless to say, the folks showing up for such hate fests are pretty riled up. See for yourself...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E
Keep in mind that the first things a President Palin might do is redecorate & add a tanning bed to the White House. She'd next wonder if she'll have to use nuclear weapons as part of the imminent Armageddon. If caught abusing power or criticized by the media, she'll simply deny all facts and insult the media. A real maverick...

SOURCES

1 http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/091408/hom_20080914003.shtml
2 http://www.adn.com/sarahpalin/story/510378.html
3 http://www.adn.com/sarahpalin/story/511471.html
4 http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/story/9090623p-9006670c.html
5 http://www.dot.state.ak.us/comm/pressbox/arch_2007/PR_0921_GravinaAccessProjRed.pdf
6 http://www.nypost.com/seven/09062008/news/nationalnews/obama_rebukes_palin_on_earmarks_127806.htm
7 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065537792905483.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
8 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ici5RhMkh6-9V07yckpLBEEjzf6QD932MU100
9 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE2JCSH5p9r2GBkQWS9TWAMzmuvQD9346HCG0
10 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/cbsnews_investigates/main4427776.shtml?source=mostpop_story
11 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/06/politics/animal/main4422397.shtml
12 http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/palin_planning.pdf
13 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090202257.html
14 http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,2482434.story
15 http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-surplus5-2008sep05,0,2756085.story
16 http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/sep_prod/P2/PDF/P2.pdf
17 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYdZoyTvFrTc&refer=home
18 http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12060464
19 http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/bush.budget/index.html
20 http://guthriesguitar.blogspot.com/2008/09/palins-push-for-grants-for-jcc.html
21 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS_VduCWhzM
22 http://www.propublica.org/article/palin-administration-still-pursuing-nowhere-project-913
23 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/17/palin_mayor/
24 http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html
25 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZII0GjcJMus
26 http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1118416&srvc=2008campaign&position=5
27 http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1837536,00.html
28 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/print.html
29 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrD7U-vHCD8
30 http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1118416&srvc=2008campaign&position=9
31 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/politics/03wasilla.html?_r%202%20hp%20oref%20slogin&oref=slogin#06633472965822018978
32 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-palinreligion28-2008sep28,0,1440865.story
33 http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-aip3-2008sep03,0,6399468.story
34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI
35 http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/palin-global-wa.html
36 http://dwb.adn.com/front/story/9253882p-9168881c.html
37 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2008/09/sarah-palins-pi.html
38 http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/energetically_wrong.html
39 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html
40 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/4/12289/69937/415/586412
41 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_help.html
42 http://www.adn.com/palin/story/524038.html
43 http://www.newsweek.com/id/158140
44 http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1470073&nid=213
45 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOTk11gvqDAgD0cY3i4WjI_2YOxwD934A0C80
46 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109403841221751.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
47 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPTMcs8wpHc
48 http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/07/palins_unamerican/
49 http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/549095.html
50 http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/521329.html
51 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/index.html
52 http://www.adn.com/palin/story/552393.html
53 http://www.newsweek.com/id/163465
54 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_el_pr/palin_church_and_state
55 http://blogs.forbes.com/trailwatch/2008/10/extra-extra-pal.html
56 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TgDanmWkg
57 http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/11/palin-drops-puck-at-flyers-game-receives-mixed-reaction
58 http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-08/news/the-book-of-sarah/1
59 http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/house-gate/
60 http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/11/111018/34/47/627460
61 http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/554387.html
62 http://www.alaskamagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=876&Itemid=141
63 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcNpFShO5k0
64 http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/552784.html