[Vision2020] Factchecking Palin

[Love America]

I jsut thought I should add a few comments to these so called fact
checkers....

First thought I want to lay a bit of ground work.  Sarah had a lot of vetos
that would make those who do not understand (or those who want to distort
the record) cringe.   Yes, she vetoed money for special needs kids within
the major spending bills of the state...but she made it clear that the
school districts of the state should continue to pick up these costs as they
traditionally have done.  This is true for text books, wages, etc.  In both
the FY07 and FY08 budget, the Municipality of Anchorage, under the direction
of Mayor Mark Begich, included in their budget requests for the state items
such as special needs kids funding, text books, computers, play fields,
running tracks, football fields, and so forth in an attempt to transfer
their school district costs to the state.  Gov. Palin vetoed all of those
requests.  Begich has tried to make political hay of it but has gone
nowhere.  The Palin administration had sent a memo out to all of us in
government who put funding requests together telling us before hand what
will be vetoed and what wouldn't be.  Add to this tension between organized
school districts and the unorganized areas of the state (not included in
boroughs) that the state pays 100% of the education costs for all items, and
that Anchorage is sick of this funding method and they wanted to make a
point you get the list of vetos she made.

The bridge to nowhere is a political mess that has its roots in the funding
formulas that the federal department of transportation sets for distribution
of highway funds.  She, like most citizens were for the two bridges to no
where.  First, the Garvina Island bridge in Ketchikan was to be built to
connect the city airport (on one island) to the city, another island.  Why,
because at the time Homeland Security was thinking of not allowing the
Alaska Cruise industry to sail through Canadian waters.  Hence, Ketchikan
would have been the southern departure point for around 12,000 people a day
who cruise Alaskan waters.  Thankfully Homeland Security did not have there
way and there became no need for expanding Ketchikan's airport to handle
that many tourists.   The Knik Arm bridge was a boondoggle to begin with as
former Governors Murkowski and Hinkle had lots of land holdings on the other
side.  (As did Ted Stevens) and once that was exposed the bridge died.  So
now you have two unneeded projects but if the state turned the money back to
the feds, by fedeal law, the state's other transporatation formula funds
would have been drastically cut.  If Alaska had returned the money, we would
have gotten next to nothing for the next 5 years so the state kept it.

The Obama tax stuff I am going to leave to you all...

In other postings on V2020 I have seen attacks for Sarah cutting funds to
Covenant house and other non-profits.  What you don't know is that in FY07
the governor decided to restructure how community non-profits were to
receive state funds.  Before they just received earmarks from the state with
no real accounting procedures in place to justify expenditure.  Gov. Palin
issued an order halting that practice.  All community non-profits were to
apply for grants with ample documentation demonstrating accountability for
all funds.  No more give aways, each group must justify their expenditure,
track it and be audited.  Community non-profits run most of the homeless
shelters, DV shelters, youth programs, sex education, and so forth in this
state as local governments (under the state's consitiution) simply do not
have the government powers to perform such operations.  Long and short,
Covenant House, the 13 DV shelters, the 10 homeless shelters, and so forth
had their earmarks vetoed by Gov. Palin, but through a competitive, open,
and accountable grant process they did get their funds.  The fact checkers
won't go out of their way to provide context because want headlines....

One other thing, Alaska Republicans, unlike Idaho Republicans, are very
libertarian.

Enjoy the beautiful day,
Chris
On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 9:43 AM, Sunil Ramalingam <
sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Roger,
>
> Speaking only for myself, I'm not scared silly by Palin, not at all.
> Really.
>
> And I don't think there's a good reason to be scared of her.  I understand
> your view is different, but I haven't talked to anyone who agrees with my
> politics who is scared of her either.  Puzzled by her selection, yes, but
> not scared.
>
> Sunil
>
> > Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 10:22:12 -0700
> > From: lfalen at turbonet.com
> > To: idahotom at hotmail.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
> > Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Factchecking Palin
>
> >
> > Tom
> > I think you guys are scared silly of Sarah Palin and with good reason. As
> to any misstatements she might have made an even longer list could be made
> for the Democrats if one were so inclined.
> >
> > Roger
> > -----Original message-----
> > From: Tom Hansen idahotom at hotmail.com
> > Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:56:15 -0700
> > To: Vision 2020 vision2020 at moscow.com
> > Subject: [Vision2020] Factchecking Palin
> >
> > >
> > > Fact checking Palin's speech. You may need to close a few applications
> to load the whole thing.
> > >
> > > >From CBS News at:
> > >
> > > http://tinyurl.com/5k4pgo
> > >
> > > ---------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Factchecking Palin
> > > By Hilzoy
> > >
> > > I thought Palin's speech was quite good: well-written, well delivered.
> And, as I said earlier, I think she's a genuinely engaging person, and comes
> across very well. There were just a couple of problems. One, which I have
> seen people notice, but which I suspect won't be a big deal for a lot of
> voters, is that it had very little substance. The other, which the
> commenters I saw on TV for some reason neglected to mention, was that she
> told a lot of lies. A few that stood out for me, or that I spotted in my
> quick run-through of some blogs:
> > > Palin: "To the families of special-needs children all across this
> country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more
> welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are
> elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."
> > > Sarah Palin might have changed her mind on this one recently. However,
> a comment here notes that Palin actually slashed funding for schools for
> special needs kids by 62%. Budgets: FY 2007 (pre-Palin), 2008, 2009 (all
> pdfs).
> > > Palin: "As for my running mate, you can be certain that wherever he
> goes, and whoever is listening, John McCain is the same man."
> > > Steve's list of McCain flip-flops is here. See for yourself whether
> constancy is, in fact, John McCain's middle name.
> > > Palin: "I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to
> Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves."
> > > Just to reiterate what others have said: Congress' requirement that
> funds be spent on that bridge (aka the 'earmark') were removed before Sarah
> Palin became governor. She was therefore in no position to tell Congress
> anything about the bridge, one way or the other. During her campaign, she
> said she supported funding for the bridge. Brad Plumer, citing the Anchorage
> Dialy News via Nexis:
> > > "5. Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and
> Gravina Island bridges?Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure
> projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our
> congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."
> > > Later, she accepted the money -- now not restricted by an earmark --
> and used it for other infrastructure projects. Here's her statement about
> why she wasn't building the bridge (also via Plumer.) Decide for yourselves
> what role a principled opposition to earmark funding plays in it. Hint:
> here's what residents of Ketchikan AK said when they heard her recent
> remarks:
> > > "In the city Ketchikan, the planned site of the so-called "Bridge to
> Nowhere," political leaders of both parties said the claim was false and a
> betrayal of their community, because she had supported the bridge and the
> earmark for it secured by Alaska's Congressional delegation during her run
> for governor. (..)"People are learning that she pandered to us by saying,
> I'm for this' ... and then when she found it was politically advantageous
> for her nationally, abruptly she starts using the very term that she said
> was insulting," Weinstein said."
> > >
> > > Palin: "But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a
> man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not
> even in the state senate."
> > > Ha, ha, ha. I gave a rundown of Obama's accomplishments in the Senate
> here. They include the Lugar-Obama bill on nonproliferation, and an ethics
> reform package that the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics
> legislation to emerge from Congress yet." Ruth Marcus summarizes his record
> on reform:
> > > "He helped pass a far-reaching ethics and campaign finance bill in the
> Illinois state Senate and made the issue a priority on arriving in
> Washington. Much to the displeasure of his colleagues, Obama promoted an
> outside commission to handle Senate ethics complaints. He co-authored the
> lobbying reform bill awaiting President Bush's signature and pushed -- again
> to the dismay of some colleagues -- to include a provision requiring
> lawmakers to report the names of their lobbyist-bundlers. He has
> co-sponsored bills to overhaul the presidential public financing system and
> public financing of Senate campaigns."
> > > Not a single major law or reform, indeed.And I wasn't aware that
> writing memoirs was something to be ashamed of. Obama has, in fact, written
> only one. McCain (with Mark Salter) has written at least two.
> > > Palin: "America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing
> it."
> > > No -- he plans to develop a lot more energy than John McCain does. It's
> just that a lot of it is renewable, not carbon-based. Moreover, Obama hasn't
> skipped the last eight votes on renewable energy.
> > > Palin: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise
> income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ...
> raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden
> on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather
> and her husband have just built a service station that's now opened for
> business - like millions of others who run small businesses. How are they
> going to be any better off if taxes go up?"
> > > Well, it all depends whose taxes go up, doesn't it? If Heather and her
> husband make less than $250,000, their taxes will not go up. Most Americans
> will pay less in taxes under Obama's plan than under McCain's. So they might
> well be better off.Those are just the falsehoods that leapt to mind. I'm
> sure there are others. Whether or not Sarah Palin's engaging personality
> matters more than the fact that she tells lies depends a lot on the media,
> and whether they allow her to say that she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere, or
> that Obama has neer authored a major law or reform, without calling her on
> it. I hope they do. But I'm not holding my breath.
> > >
> > > ---------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Seeya at Farmers' Market, Moscow.
> > >
> > > Tom Hansen
> > > Moscow, Idaho
> > >
> > >
> >
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