Sarah Palin Factsheet (with sources) - BUMP & SHARE

[Essene]

Feel free to triple fact-check these.

Feel free to add points. Sources referenced at the bottom. Discuss. Grab a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy this read...

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). Oh yea, and she began building this huge complex on somebody's private property which turned into a costly legal mess and the City eventually just took it 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, the implication is that the town needed a "real" christian leader (NY Times-31). A wonderful way to rise to political power.
  
  :) 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 her political mentor, the guy who selected her and groomed her, 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.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• 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 rape and incest... even as 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 right.
  
  
• Palin is lying about her fringe Pentecostal background and somewhat 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 most of her life in a fringe 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 prophesy & 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).
  
  
• Palin's fringe pentecostal community is a major player in the "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. She said the Iraq war was "god's will." She also said her proposed Alaskan pipeline was "god's will." (Youtube-21). She also said that there are signs unfolding today and implied that her rise to power in Alaska is something special, having to do with growing up in that Pentecostal church. (Youtube-29).
  
  :) Enjoy this video exploring her pentecostal roots & her sense of prophesy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrD7U-vHCD8
  
  
• Sarah Palin has had long-time affiliations with the Alaskan Independence Party (secessionists that don't see Alaska as true part of the USA). Her husband was a formal member of the Party for 7 years. They both attended conventions. Even as Governor, she openly supported the Party. There's even a nice video of her, as Governor, addressing one of their conventions (LA Times-33, Youtube-34).
  
  
• 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
  
  
• 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 about her abusing her power as Governor to seek personal vengeance. She continues to slander him in her defense, saying he's "a threat to the first family" (Charlie Gibson interview on ABC, Newsweek-43)). This is problematic, considering that the custody proceedings have yet to end.
  
  
• Palin couldn't let go of her small town grudge. Palin's own ethics adviser told her, months ago, to come clean in this investigation of abuse of power (Wall Street Journal-46). The committee running this "Trooper gate" investigation has a majority of Republicans. The Republican state representative from her home town of Wasilla cast the deciding vote to subpoena 13 affiliates of Palin on this matter (AP-44, Anchorage Daily News-42). Palin's response has been to hide behind lawyers, making contradictory claims, telling everybody not to cooperate and to generally stall the investigation (Youtube-47). The investigation has reportedly expanded into other abuses, including illegal compromise of confidential information and perhaps obstruction (AP-45).
  
  

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).
  
  
• 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 ever $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 expertise.
  
  
• 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). Makes you rethink the "rugged individualism" image, huh?
  
  
• Palin has requested over $750 million in federal pork in her mere 1.5 years in office (AP-8, Washington Post-13). 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). This doesn't count the $329 million she had hoped for to build the Bridge to Nowhere (CNN-19). 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.
  
  See her wearing a pro-"Bridge to Nowhere" shirt here:
  
  
  
• Palin lied when she claimed that she 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). Only 11 months into her first term, as Congress refused to fully fund it, did she declare 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).
  
  The "Road to Nowhere" lives on...
  
  
  
• 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). By the way, her administration is actually 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 add public 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" (Blogspot-20, Youtube-21).
  
  
• She spent $400,000 taxpayer dollars on a campaign to push aerial wolf killing even though the state had already voted the other way, twice (Anchorage Daily News-36).
  
  
• Palin requested & funneled state funds to support her old Pentecostal church's recruitment and training center (DailyKos review of sources-40). The video they had on their website stated that they teach how to engage in prophesy. They have since removed the video, but it can be found with a little digging about "third wave" and such.
  
  
• Palin opposed a shelter that serves troubled teen mothers (Washington Post-41). Sports centers to keep kids out of pregnancy trouble. Yes. Shelters for kids in trouble? 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
  

Governor Palin... 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'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. Liar liar pants on fire!!
  
  
• 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 the silly claims about how Obama never authored “a single major law or even a reform in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate." Apparently, she's so cynical that she's more concerned about the aesthetics of her statements than their voracity. It's a sad moment in American politics.
  
  
• Keep in mind that the first things a President Palin might do is redecorate, add a tanning bed to the White House and wonder if she'll have to use nuclear weapons as part of the imminent Armageddon .
  

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