I lived in Alaska for 8 years, so I should speak up about Palin
Here's my response to a question about (Republican vice-presidential candidate) Palin and her compassionate policy which includes banning abortion:
After elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996, one of Palin's first victims was Irl Stambaugh, the longtime police chief who opposed her NRA-backed plan to allow concealed guns. Then, too, he wanted to close the bars at 2 am, instead of 5 am, due to the high number of alcohol-related road accidents. But as the bar owners and NRA were among her base, Palin axed him. She then installed her own chief, who, besides following her line on bars and guns, slapped a charge of $300 to $1,200 on rape victims for medical tests for injuries and sexually transmitted diseases--fees previously covered by the city. Since medical staff at the same time also offered morning-after pills to rape victims, this was anathema to Palin's anti-abortion agenda. Outraged, then-Democratic Governor Tony Knowles pushed through a bill banning her tactics, and the tests were once again free.
Other victims are now well known, like Mary Ellen Baker, the librarian who wouldn't ban the books that offended Palin. Originally fired along with other city department heads who backed Palin's mayoral opponent, Baker (also president of Alaska's Library Association), was reinstated because several hundred residents protested the sacking. But, according to a librarian who knows Baker, Palin met with her several times, pressuring her to remove books from the shelves--among which was Pastor, I Am Gay by Howard Bess, an American Baptist minister in Wasilla. Baker finally resigned in 1999 and moved away. The librarian friend says Baker is keeping silent: "Why wouldn't she? The period was so painful that after she left her job, she had a breakdown."
Then there's Dr. Susan Lamagie, an obstetrician who practices in Wasilla and delivered Palin's first two children. She also performed abortions at what was then called Valley Hospital. While Palin was on Wasilla's City Council, members of her church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, and its minister, picketed Lamagie's office. Because the doctor held her ground, the group ousted the hospital board and installed a new one, whose first act was to ban abortions. Lamagie and Howard Bess organized a group that sued the hospital in a case that went to Alaska's Supreme Court, which ruled the hospital had to allow abortions, as before.
Palin's claims that she's a cost-cutter and corruption cop are equally crazy, since she hiked the state budget by 20 percent in the less than two years since becoming governor.
But it's not all smoke and mirrors: Palin did slash some funds. She vetoed $150,000 for the Fairbanks Catholic Community Counseling and Adoption Services, $3.5 million to build a daycare facility and student housing for unemployed Alaska Natives, $500,000 for the Safe Harbor Muldoon Housing for Homeless Families and People with Disabilities, and eliminated funds for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank.
And in a state with one of the highest drug and alcohol rates in the United States, she killed funds for a substance abuse facility and an education and prevention program for youths in a northwest Alaska village, as well as for addiction rehabilitation services.
Then there's her record on health, another alleged Palin priority. State Senator Bill Wielechowski says, "We sponsored a bill to improve children's health care, since we're forty-seventh in the US in terms of the services we offer. Had Palin supported it, the Republican-controlled House would have approved it. But she refused and the bill died."
-Quoted from "Sarah's Way--or the Highway", By Barbara Koeppel, September 17, 2008 - link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/koeppel
Is this lefty raving? Or cold, hard facts? The state with no sales tax because it is just floating on oil did what?
- axed Adoption Services? (does that answer your abortion question?)
- stopped a daycare facility? (does that answer your abortion question?)
- starved a Food Bank?
- made Homeless Families and People with Disabilities sleep out in the Alaska cold? (does that answer your abortion question?)
... and the drug problem is really, really bad there. To kill education, prevention and addiction rehabilitation services is a direct attack on the people. The people she should serve. She doesn't want abortion, but she doesn't want adoption, daycare or food and shelter for the homeless. So, let me see - bring them to term, and let the infants starve in the snow? Good policy!
She has abused her power. She chose an ice rink over a sewage plant. Hired her friends and family, and fired people who wanted safe roads and freedom of speech. Slapped a charge of $300 to $1,200 on rape victims for medical tests for injuries and sexually transmitted diseases. Tell me that this is not SICK.
Yours for the Truth
After elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996, one of Palin's first victims was Irl Stambaugh, the longtime police chief who opposed her NRA-backed plan to allow concealed guns. Then, too, he wanted to close the bars at 2 am, instead of 5 am, due to the high number of alcohol-related road accidents. But as the bar owners and NRA were among her base, Palin axed him. She then installed her own chief, who, besides following her line on bars and guns, slapped a charge of $300 to $1,200 on rape victims for medical tests for injuries and sexually transmitted diseases--fees previously covered by the city. Since medical staff at the same time also offered morning-after pills to rape victims, this was anathema to Palin's anti-abortion agenda. Outraged, then-Democratic Governor Tony Knowles pushed through a bill banning her tactics, and the tests were once again free.
Other victims are now well known, like Mary Ellen Baker, the librarian who wouldn't ban the books that offended Palin. Originally fired along with other city department heads who backed Palin's mayoral opponent, Baker (also president of Alaska's Library Association), was reinstated because several hundred residents protested the sacking. But, according to a librarian who knows Baker, Palin met with her several times, pressuring her to remove books from the shelves--among which was Pastor, I Am Gay by Howard Bess, an American Baptist minister in Wasilla. Baker finally resigned in 1999 and moved away. The librarian friend says Baker is keeping silent: "Why wouldn't she? The period was so painful that after she left her job, she had a breakdown."
Then there's Dr. Susan Lamagie, an obstetrician who practices in Wasilla and delivered Palin's first two children. She also performed abortions at what was then called Valley Hospital. While Palin was on Wasilla's City Council, members of her church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, and its minister, picketed Lamagie's office. Because the doctor held her ground, the group ousted the hospital board and installed a new one, whose first act was to ban abortions. Lamagie and Howard Bess organized a group that sued the hospital in a case that went to Alaska's Supreme Court, which ruled the hospital had to allow abortions, as before.
Palin's claims that she's a cost-cutter and corruption cop are equally crazy, since she hiked the state budget by 20 percent in the less than two years since becoming governor.
But it's not all smoke and mirrors: Palin did slash some funds. She vetoed $150,000 for the Fairbanks Catholic Community Counseling and Adoption Services, $3.5 million to build a daycare facility and student housing for unemployed Alaska Natives, $500,000 for the Safe Harbor Muldoon Housing for Homeless Families and People with Disabilities, and eliminated funds for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank.
And in a state with one of the highest drug and alcohol rates in the United States, she killed funds for a substance abuse facility and an education and prevention program for youths in a northwest Alaska village, as well as for addiction rehabilitation services.
Then there's her record on health, another alleged Palin priority. State Senator Bill Wielechowski says, "We sponsored a bill to improve children's health care, since we're forty-seventh in the US in terms of the services we offer. Had Palin supported it, the Republican-controlled House would have approved it. But she refused and the bill died."
-Quoted from "Sarah's Way--or the Highway", By Barbara Koeppel, September 17, 2008 - link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/koeppel
Is this lefty raving? Or cold, hard facts? The state with no sales tax because it is just floating on oil did what?
- axed Adoption Services? (does that answer your abortion question?)
- stopped a daycare facility? (does that answer your abortion question?)
- starved a Food Bank?
- made Homeless Families and People with Disabilities sleep out in the Alaska cold? (does that answer your abortion question?)
... and the drug problem is really, really bad there. To kill education, prevention and addiction rehabilitation services is a direct attack on the people. The people she should serve. She doesn't want abortion, but she doesn't want adoption, daycare or food and shelter for the homeless. So, let me see - bring them to term, and let the infants starve in the snow? Good policy!
She has abused her power. She chose an ice rink over a sewage plant. Hired her friends and family, and fired people who wanted safe roads and freedom of speech. Slapped a charge of $300 to $1,200 on rape victims for medical tests for injuries and sexually transmitted diseases. Tell me that this is not SICK.
Yours for the Truth