527's unleashed

Presidential campaign ads by liberal 527 groups have started to appear. If this ad about Palin's support of aerial wolf-hunting is any indication of what's to come, it looks like the left is bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Barack Obama said he would do this back on June 13, 2008, as reported by the New York Times:'"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."'

Sarah Palin a wildlife-hater? Release the hounds!

Palin's cruelty to women

I know that every time we mention Sarah Palin's name we are playing into Republican hands by falling for the politics of distraction. Even so, I want to put a few more facts out there for your consideration.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that quite a few non-conservative women favor Palin. What they need to know is that Palin does not favor them. Consider two cases.

1. No friend to pregnant teens
As I reported earlier, Governor Palin used Alaska's line-item veto power to slash funding for homeless pregnant teens from $5 million to $3.9 million. You can see her actual handwriting on the budget document in this article by the Washington Post.

2. No friend to rape victims
While Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, her town was apparently the only one in Alaska that charged rape victims for police rape kits. The practice only ended in 2000 when the Alaska state legislature passed a law prohibiting local governments from charging for the kits. From the Boston Herald for September 11, 2008:

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill—signed into law by [Alaska Governor Tony] Knowles—that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said

A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla’s newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.

"(But) the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests," the newspaper reported.

It also quoted Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon objecting to the law. Fannon was appointed to his position by Palin after her dismissal of the previous police chief. He said it would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year if the city had to foot the bill for rape exams.

"In the past we’ve charged the cost of exams to the victims' insurance company when possible," Fannon told the newspaper. "I just don’t want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer."

No one wants high taxes, but this really takes the Republican anti-tax dogma too far.

Here is the actual statute from the Alasaka state code:

Sec. 18.68.040. Sexual assault victim may not be required to pay for examination

A law enforcement agency, health care facility, or other entity may not require a victim of sexual assault under AS 11.41.410 -- 11.41.425 who is 16 years of age or older to pay, directly or indirectly, through health insurance or any other means, for the costs of examination of the victim necessary for

(1) collecting evidence using the sexual assault examination kit under AS 18.68.010 or otherwise; or

(2) determining whether a sexual assault has occurred.

(The law, 2000 AK. ALS 57, was signed by Governor Knowles on May 16, 2000.)

Isn't it embarassing that a state even needs a statute like this to rein in a rogue town like Palin's Wasilla that shortchanges rape victims? It would be a much bigger embarassment if John McCain and Sarah Palin win the election thanks to the support of American women.


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Update

There is new evidence today that the policy of charging rape victims for their police rape kits in Wasilla was initiated in the 1998-1999 fiscal year, i.e., during Palin's mayoralty. That rules out any possibility that the policy existed before Palin and that she simply continued it. No, she implemented it.

That means the Republican presidential ticket this year consists of a man who voted against the Violence Against Women Act, drafted by Senator Joseph Biden, and a woman who charged rape victims for rape kits. At least they're in sync on the issues.

spunk is not enough

Why have Republicans welcomed John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate? We know that he chose her after meeting her only once, in February. We know that she was mayor of a town of only 6500 people before being elected governor of Alaska, population 680,000, in 2006. We also know that her husband was a member of an Alaskan secessionist party until 2002. It is one thing to think that women are dumb enough to support Palin just because she is a woman. But many Republicans genuinely seem to like Palin and to think that somehow the rest of us will, too. What are they thinking?

Today's Republicans don't seem to care about competence, intelligence, or achievement. To them, ideology is the one and only measure of a candidate's worth. Yes, many Republicans share Palin's opposition to abortion under any and all circumstances, her refusal to believe in global warming, and her belief in creationism, but that is true of many in the party these days. Most Democrats support Barack Obama because of his Democratic agenda, but he is also an impressive individual who, by his achievements and special talents, inspires confidence. The Democratic Party generally does not run unqualified, unintelligent people for national office.

Let's look at the tale of the tape. Obama, with no connections and only one parent, graduated from Columbia and Harvard Law, where he was president of the law review. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for twelve years. He mastered the bare-knuckled politics of Chicago and served eight years in the Illinois state legislature. Joe Biden similarly made his mark on the world by his own efforts and at a young age. Elected to the U.S. Senate at the age of twenty-nine, he has distinguished himself on both the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees.

John McCain, as the son and grandson of navy admirals, relied on the affirmative action of his connections to get into the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he graduated 894th out of 899. His ignorance and embarassments in economics and international affairs are widely known. Palin has no valuable experience to speak of and professes to know nothing about Iraq or the office of the vice-president. Like McCain, she appears to have been a lackluster, uncommitted student, in her case bouncing around a number of schools without distinction. From Wikipedia:

'Palin attended Hawaii Pacific College — now known as Hawaii Pacific University — in Honolulu for a semester in 1982, majoring in Business Administration. She transferred in 1983 to North Idaho College. In 1987, Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science.'

McCain and Palin are mediocrities in every way, and mediocrities have no business leading the free world. I see voters on television and in the press speaking about how they identify with Candidate X or Y, but this is not a suitable way of choosing elected officials. We don't need the common man or woman in positions of national leadership. What we need is the uncommon man or woman. The president and vice-president should be total freaks: individuals of daunting achievement and visionary intellect. We should be in awe of their talents, not ridiculing their eloquence and intelligence.

From what I can tell, Republicans really seem to think that Americans will support Palin just because she looks like a crazed Tina Fey. One word that has been repeated a lot is 'spunk'. Here is an instance from the Los Angeles Times for September 1, 2008:

'"She's spunky," said Gail LeMay, 58, a retiree. "She really brings life to the campaign." LeMay marveled that McCain looked "to the tundra" to pick his running mate.'

We don't need a president who is spunky and we don't need a president who is funky. We need a president who is smarter than the rest of us because the problems we face will require intelligence, judgment, and skill to solve. Spunk, alas, is not enough.