Friday, September 26, 2008

Rape Kits

I don't think I could imagine anything more misogynistic than this.
actually, forget misogynistic. Inhuman and disgusting.


On the lighter side, an article from the LA Times called "Palin talks to Couric-- and if she's lucky, few are listening":

But I'll let the governor speak for herself:
" . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh -- it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."

That mind-bender prompted Couric to muse, almost charitably, on "The Early Show" that Palin is "not always responsive when asked questions, and sometimes does slip back to her talking points."

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yawn

Anonymous said...

Palin is not really qualified to be Vice President due to a very lean resume, Obama is not really qualified to be President due to a very lean resume, and McCain is not qualified to be President due to his very lengthy resume and what it contains (e.g. S&L crisis censure by the Senate, big fan of the Gramm-Rudman "reform" bill that killed Glass-Steagall and spawned the present meltdown of our economy, etc.)

The sad truth is that in a nation of 300 million people facing numerous crises, we are stuck with potential leadership choices which are abysmal. Where is our generation's FDR?

Anonymous said...

Lincoln only served one term in the house... he did OK.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of vice-presidential candidates, is Obama's Joe Biden the same Joe Biden who attended Indiana University, paid someone to falsify his "C" grade point average to make it look like an "A" average, denied it when the facts came out, and then admitted it when he knew he'd been caught? Does anyone remember this but me (I also attended IU)?

Glenn Wilson said...

So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief

But what about taxes?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the name of a punk group:

http://www.236.com/video/2008/get_your_war_on_sarah_palin_an_9028.php

Glenn Wilson said...

(re the rape kit link)
When Sarah Palin insists that women pay for their own rape investigation kit is she saying that the rapists of poor women (that can not afford it) should not be prosecuted? In what other areas does she believe that poor people do not deserve justice?

Why does Sarah Palin support rapists?

Steve in TN said...

The "rape kit" issue is a bogus attempt by liberals to distract debate from legit matters. Sarah Palin never did what is alleged and those who propagate these lies should be ashamed.

Newsbusters debunks this issue:
http://tinyurl.com/4te82g

As far as experience, Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined.

Glenn Wilson said...

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests. link

WASILLA, Alaska — In 2000, Alaska lawmakers learned that rural police agencies had been billing rape victims or their insurance companies $500 to $1,200 for the costs of the forensic medical examinations used to gather evidence. They quickly passed a law prohibiting the practice.

According to the sponsor, Democrat Eric Croft, the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor. link

This was the policy for the town of Wasilla while Sarah Palin was mayor until the State passed a law making it illegal.

Anonymous said...

I hear she also strangles kittens and eats them.

Even if there is any truth to this there is a fairly big difference between stating that something was the active policy while she was mayor and saying that she instituted the policy herself. Maybe she should have known it was going on and stopped it. I don't know the details and the linked to article is rather vague on this point. Can't imagine why.

Anonymous said...

Here's another link which sheds some useful light on this controversy:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODA1YWM5ZjM2ZTU5ODliZTY2NTczMGUwZWYwNTVlMTQ=&w=MA==

Steve in TN said...

While Glenn Wilson repeats the lies that have been spread it remains a fact that he can not point to any one individual that has been billed by the Wasilla PD or any other Wasilla department for a rape kit.

That is because it has not happened.

Wilson is completely wrong when he repeats the lie that Palin charged anyone for a rape kit. He should be ashamed to repeat these prevarications and should retract them.

As pointed out by the item referenced by the previous commenter, HOSPITALS made these charges as a result of accounting practices.

Lauree Hugonin, director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, spoke at several committee meetings. She noted in response to Smith’s comment that while he had not found an instance where law enforcement has forwarded a bill, “hospitals have. It has happened in the Mat-Su Valley, on the Kenai Peninsula, and in Southeast, and that is why the bill is being brought forward.”

At another hearing, Hugonin said, “these charges occur as a result of hospital accounting procedures. The range of costs can be from between $300 and $1,000. The direct charges usually result from the accounting procedures at the hospitals and not the law enforcement agencies. She noted that there has been some difficulty in Mat-Su, Anchorage, Kenai and Sitka, and possibly in Bethel.”


This is simply a case of liberals reaching to condemn Palin on false grounds since they can not find any truthful smears to toss.

Glenn Wilson said...

Just the facts:
It was the policy of Wasilla.
She was the mayor.

From her own home town newspaper, published contemporaneously over eight years ago before all the spin:

Knowles signs sexual assault bill.

Per Lizzy's original link (New York Times) it became the policy while she was mayor:
When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the small town began billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams.

Glenn Wilson said...

It was the policy of Wasilla while she was the Mayor.

FactCheck

PolitiFact

[Palin spokeswoman] Comella would not answer other questions, including when Palin learned of Wasilla's policy or whether she tried to change it. USA Today

Steve in TN said...

What is it about the difference between a hospital and a town that you do not understand?

By your reach of logic the mayor of New York is responsible every time the New York times gets something wrong.

So... You are saying that Mayors Bloomberg and Guliani are responsible for Jayson Blair's plagiarism and fabrication of stories (since you trust the NYT so much)?

Just because the MSM says so doesn't mean they are correct. You have to check facts and in this case the NYT has it wrong according to the very people that were activists in this matter. You can repeat the lies and smears but that only means that you are repeating the lies and smears; they can gain no truth in the repeating.

There is a similarity here between how liberals are smearing Palin and the way those who opposed Polgar and Truong smeared them in 2007. If they had merely stuck to the facts they would not have elicited the level of sympathy that helped elect Polgar/Truong and aided Truong in escaping the several motions at the recent delegates' meetings.

Both sides in this election are exaggerating issues and flat out making things up about the other side. This "rape kit" nonsense is but one example. Shame on those who perpetuate it.

Glenn Wilson said...

The facts are readily available. People may draw their own conclusions from the facts.

What is it about the difference between a hospital and a town... A town can investigate and prosecute a crime.

As pointed out by the item referenced by the previous commenter, HOSPITALS made these charges .... (steve in tn)

[Gov. Knowles commenting on the new law that abolished the practice]: We would never bill the victim of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence, Knowles said. Nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies. link

[Sarah Palin's Police Chief commenting on the new law that abolished the practice]Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams. link

The town's policy was to outsource the forensic exams to a hospital and use third party hospital billing to charge the costs of the forensic exams to the victim.

The forensic exam is done for and on the behalf of the town to facilitate the investigation of a crime.

Similarly, if a town outsourced photography of a crime scene and had the photographer bill the victim it would be correct to say the town charged the victim for the crime scene photography. Hiding behind a third party does not change the facts.

Anonymous said...

Heh!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/591xzuuj.asp

Anonymous said...

Heh!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/
Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/591xzuuj.asp

Anonymous said...

I certainly do agree that any link to the nytimes.com is inhuman and disgusting.

The requirement to create an account and log in, is an Absurd Imposition.

Therefore, I refuse to follow any link to the nytimes.com.

Instead, I'll wait a few hours and read the same news item from a different source.

I hope you will consider this view in future blog posts.

Thank you for you time.

B-D

Anonymous said...

Quoting myself:

"Lincoln only served one term in the house... he did OK."

I realized this may be construed as an endorsement of Palin, it is NOT.

I believe the experience argument for or against a candidate for President, or (especially) Vice President is moot. Most Presidents are ex-Governors with little or no foreign policy experience. And, as I pointed out, Lincoln only had two years of public office behind him.

Policies are what's important, and Palin is a wack job, book-banning, creation teaching, pro-life Idiot.

IMHO.

-Matt

Anonymous said...

Slate.com, hardly a bastion of conservative thought, debunks the rape kit story once and for all:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/09/26/debunk-a-bunk.aspx

Anonymous said...

I bet that later today McCain will announce that Palin is withdrawing due to family pressures (and due to the liberal media--need to keep that conservative base), and that Mitt Romney is stepping in. What a brilliant move that would be, and would lay bare the real strategy of using Palin as a trojan horse. McCain will get all the benefit of having selected Palin, all the benefit of having the "liberal media" drive her away, and get Mitt Romney who actually knows what the economy is. Surely the party of Dick Cheney is not beyond such machinations. Surely no serious person thinks that Palin can be President anymore. Not for the alleged rape kit charges or anything specific or even for her lack of experience--but for god's sake they had to change the rules to enable her to debate JOE BIDEN. What if she had to stand up to someone of real substance! No way they let her debate. You heard it here first!

Anonymous said...

LOL!

I'm trying to imagine the response of the average reader to Soisson's post above. In my imagination it goes something like this:

Hmm. On the one hand he's attacking Palin so...that's good, right? Right???

But he's attacking Biden, too. Says he has no substance. Can he do that???

Don't know how I should react. So confused. Head exploding. Gaahhhhh!!!!

I'm Doug and I approve this message.

Anonymous said...

yo what's good doug, i like the cut of your jib. your comments have my endorsement (VERY coveted)

Glenn Wilson said...

'Heartless'