Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate

[Plow]

As governor, Palin at times bonds church and state

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago

WASILLA, Alaska - The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God's will from the governor's office.


What she didn't tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees.

An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate's record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state.

Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show.

OK that's just idiotic, politicians are allowed to meet with and speak for people, even if they are religious people.

[Beckwin]

gosh darnit!

[Dimmauk]

OK that's just idiotic, politicians are allowed to meet with and speak for people, even if they are religious people.

And the taxpayers pay for it?

[Plow]

And the taxpayers pay for it?

Yes. Speaking to/for people is their JOB.

Political ploy or not, it makes me happy to see what McCain did there.

Agreed, I can't think of a better response than to take her mic away, say no, and move on.

[Soa]

Philli sports fans are ridiculous, they'd boo Santa Claus...

To be fair the guy who played Santa was so drunk off his ass he could barely stand, hence getting booed, but yeah Philly fans can be brutal...... very brutal.

[Dimmauk]

Yes. Speaking to/for people is their JOB.




Agreed, I can't think of a better response than to take her mic away, say no, and move on.

So it would be ok for Obama to speak at his church and have the taxpayers pay for it?

[archibaldcrane]

To be fair, they aren't paying for the "appearance" they're paying for the transportation (you need a plane to get just about anywhere in Alaska) and "away from home" per diem.

If taxpayers were paying some sort of fee for a politician to be able to speak at a church, that the church was collecting, that's something else.

[Saphirea]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or being dense, but I'll give you credit and assume the former.

Aurik, not to be a smart ass or anything but I'm asking for clarification on this one. Do you own a house? Like paying mortgage payments and stuff? I'm looking at my county tax bills for the land on my house and it's stayed the same throughout the years. Granted I just bought it, but I'm not seeing a drop at all in the land value. The tax assessment has stayed the same throughout the last 4 years. The prior owners had a massive balloon mortgage and had three families living here prior to the foreclosure and couldn't pay the massive interest rate increases yet the county tax stayed the exact same. At one time the house appraised at ownership for 404K and I bought at 240K. How can you say it has to do with land prices dropping if the prices for tax stayed the same? Maybe in Northern VA things haven't moved that much as far as land devalue, but after talking to the mortgage broker, she was telling me that people would have these interest rates all over the place. She blamed the fact that they were required to give loans to high risk people, granted, I'm no economist or anything close, but from what I'm seeing, everything seems to keep tying back more and more to the fact that people were given loans on houses they couldn't afford because they were required to by the Community Reinvestment Act.

Again, I'm not trying to be like NO U WRONG, I'm asking for how you came to this since I don't quite understand. All I know, is that getting a VA loan for 30 years at 5.3% has made me one happy camper.

[0ni0n]

From the Wall Street Journal,

McCain-Palin 2008 Statement on ‘Troopergate’ Report

McCain-Palin 2008 spokeswoman Meg Stapleton issued the following statement on today’s release of Stephen Branchflower’s report:
“Today’s report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country.”

[Plow]

So it would be ok for Obama to speak at his church and have the taxpayers pay for it?

If he has a speaking engagement in his hometown that's related to his job, and his job pays for the transportation, yes.

[Alleya]

The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country.”

Such as Obama serving on a board with a guy who was a terrorist once when Obama was 8 years old. You know. Real issues and not unfounded scare tactics like troopergate.

[Demosthenes11]

wow
McCain won a lot of my heart with that D: Too bad it's too late.
Shame his campaign advisers didn't give a fuck what he thought and ran whatever they wanted

[Elvis]

From the Wall Street Journal,

McCain-Palin 2008 Statement on ‘Troopergate’ Report

McCain-Palin 2008 spokeswoman Meg Stapleton issued the following statement on today’s release of Stephen Branchflower’s report:
“Today’s report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country.”

Wall Street Journal

Alaska Probe Says Palin Abused Her Authority
Vice-Presidential Nominee's Camp Says Governor Acted Properly and Is 'Vindicated' by Report Examining Firing of Official

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1223...gn2008_mostpop

Excerpt:

A long-awaited Alaska legislative report concluded that Republican Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her authority and broke state ethics law by trying to remove her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

But the report also concluded that the Republican governor did not unlawfully fire her public-safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who said he had been pressured to oust the trooper, Mike Wooten. The report said other factors were involved in Mr. Monegan's controversial dismissal.

The McPalin campaign is hoping people don't read the report or any of the coverage.

Some easy observations from actually reading the article AND the report:

She broke ethics law. She abused her power. 100% true.

BUT

Only 100% true with respect to firing her brother-in-law. The state trooper.

Now when it came to the public-safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, it's not 100% true. He just happened to have other qualifications to get fired. Whether or not HockeyMom kicked him out of Alaska for reasons related to her brother-in-law's firing/etc. is something the report could not distinguish.

[0ni0n]

Wall Street Journal

Alaska Probe Says Palin Abused Her Authority
Vice-Presidential Nominee's Camp Says Governor Acted Properly and Is 'Vindicated' by Report Examining Firing of Official

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1223...gn2008_mostpop

Excerpt:



The McPalin campaign is hoping people don't read the report or any of the coverage.

which is quite typical of the GOP.

[Elvis]

Yea, their response was clearly disingenuous. Clearly, they're hoping we skim over the part where the report states she abused her power and violated ethics law in the firing of her brother-in-law.

EDIT:

Oh and when they cry about it being 'partisan'?

From same article above:

The report, by investigator Stephen Branchflower, was a potential setback to Sen. McCain's lagging presidential campaign. It was released late Friday in Anchorage by the state legislative panel that commissioned it. The bipartisan panel, with two members absent, voted 12-0 to release the findings to the public.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Yeah, the panel was 10 republicans and 4 democrats iirc

[Beckwin]

blaming minority Democrat influence is the GOPs calling card lately though.

[Not Kuno]

wow
McCain won a lot of my heart with that D: Too bad it's too late.
Shame his campaign advisers didn't give a fuck what he thought and ran whatever they wanted

Gotta agree here. I don't really like the guy but it looks like he was really trying his best to recover from the shit his party has been spewing.

[Elvis]

He AND his party.*

[0ni0n]

wow
McCain won a lot of my heart with that D: Too bad it's too late.
Shame his campaign advisers didn't give a fuck what he thought and ran whatever they wanted

If he can't even control his campaign, do you really to want to entrust him with the country?