Some Simple Questions For Palin

[prole]

Do you really think the Iraq War is a mission from God?

 

Why did you try to have library books banned after you were elected mayor of Wasilla?

 

Is God's work on earth really to build oil pipelines, as you've suggested?

 

Why do you think John McCain picked you over much more qualified candidates? Over more qualified female candidates?

 

Do you think having a pregnant 17 year old daughter and a down-syndrome baby has helped John McCain's campaign?

 

Do you support some evangelicals' calls for a Christian based environmentalism? Why not?

 

Why did you think Alaska should secede form the US?

 

 

 

 

[Mal_Con]

By the time of the first interview she will have carefully worked out answers for all such question. They will have tested the answers before selected focus groups to see which sells best. Everyone will be amazed at how well she does after deleberiate reduction of expectations.

[tvashtarkatena]

Question from Howard Stern:

 

Who installed your breasts?

[rmncwrtr]

Why not check some of the bipartisan sites on the internet to get the skinny on candidates? Most news outlets have their own slant and stuff is flying about candidates from both parties.

 

Here's one factchecker and there's got to be more out there. A few of the things being posted here are discussed on it such as the special needs funding:

 

No Cut for "Special Needs" Kids

 

It's not true, as widely reported in mass e-mails, Web postings and at least one mainstream news source, that Palin slashed the special education budget in Alaska by 62 percent. CNN's Soledad O'Brien made the claim on Sept. 4 in an interview with Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign:

O'Brien, Sept. 4: One are that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I'm sure you're aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. As a woman who is now a mother to a special needs child, and I think she actually has a nephew which is autistic as well. How much of a problem is this going to be as she tries to navigate both sides of that issue?

Such a move might have made Palin look heartless or hypocritical in view of her convention-speech pledge to be an advocate for special needs children and their families. But in fact, she increased special needs funding so dramatically that a representative of local school boards described the jump as "historic."

 

According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. It would increase spending on what Alaska calls "intensive needs" students (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin's original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.

Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

 

Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. ...

 

Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a "historic event," and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.

According to Eddy Jeans at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, funding for special needs and intensive needs students has increased every year since Palin entered office, from a total of $203 million in 2006 to a projected $276 million in 2009.

 

Those who claim that Palin cut special needs funding by 62 percent are looking in the wrong place and misinterpreting what they find there. They point to an apparent drop in the Department of Education and Early Development budget for special schools. But the special schools budget, despite the similar name, isn't the special needs budget. "I don’t even consider the special schools component [part of] our special needs funding," Jeans told FactCheck.org. "The special needs funding is provided through our public school funding formula. The special schools is simply a budget component where we have funding set aside for special projects," such as the Alaska School for the Deaf and the Alaska Military Youth Academy. A different budget component, the Foundation Program, governs special needs programs in the public school system.

 

And in any case, the decrease in funding for special schools is illusory. Palin moved the Alaska Military Youth Academy's ChalleNGe program, a residential military school program that teaches job and life skills to students under 20, out of the budget line for "special schools" and into its own line. This resulted in an apparent drop of more than $5 million in the special schools budget with no actual decrease in funding for the programs.

[rmncwrtr]

Oops I think I posted this in the wrong thread. Sorry. I was trying to do too many things at once. But the book banning is discussed on the fact checker link as well.

[Fairweather]

Why not check some of the bipartisan sites on the internet to get the skinny on candidates? Most news outlets have their own slant and stuff is flying about candidates from both parties.

 

Here's one factchecker and there's got to be more out there. A few of the things being posted here are discussed on it such as the special needs funding:

 

No Cut for "Special Needs" Kids

 

It's not true, as widely reported in mass e-mails, Web postings and at least one mainstream news source, that Palin slashed the special education budget in Alaska by 62 percent. CNN's Soledad O'Brien made the claim on Sept. 4 in an interview with Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign:

O'Brien, Sept. 4: One are that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I'm sure you're aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. As a woman who is now a mother to a special needs child, and I think she actually has a nephew which is autistic as well. How much of a problem is this going to be as she tries to navigate both sides of that issue?

Such a move might have made Palin look heartless or hypocritical in view of her convention-speech pledge to be an advocate for special needs children and their families. But in fact, she increased special needs funding so dramatically that a representative of local school boards described the jump as "historic."

 

According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. It would increase spending on what Alaska calls "intensive needs" students (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin's original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.

Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

 

Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. ...

 

Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a "historic event," and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.

According to Eddy Jeans at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, funding for special needs and intensive needs students has increased every year since Palin entered office, from a total of $203 million in 2006 to a projected $276 million in 2009.

 

Those who claim that Palin cut special needs funding by 62 percent are looking in the wrong place and misinterpreting what they find there. They point to an apparent drop in the Department of Education and Early Development budget for special schools. But the special schools budget, despite the similar name, isn't the special needs budget. "I don’t even consider the special schools component [part of] our special needs funding," Jeans told FactCheck.org. "The special needs funding is provided through our public school funding formula. The special schools is simply a budget component where we have funding set aside for special projects," such as the Alaska School for the Deaf and the Alaska Military Youth Academy. A different budget component, the Foundation Program, governs special needs programs in the public school system.

 

And in any case, the decrease in funding for special schools is illusory. Palin moved the Alaska Military Youth Academy's ChalleNGe program, a residential military school program that teaches job and life skills to students under 20, out of the budget line for "special schools" and into its own line. This resulted in an apparent drop of more than $5 million in the special schools budget with no actual decrease in funding for the programs.

 

Don't pester TTK and the angry left with facts. They don't like that.

[prole]

Don't pester TTK and the angry left with facts. They don't like that.

 

Is there a "happy left"? Are you on the "happy right right wing"? What is all this talk of "change" coming from your side of the aisle? Here you and others have been vehemently defending the policies that have brought us to this point. And now McCain wants to "change" everything. Do you feel betrayed? What exactly is wrong that need to be changed? I was under the impression from you guys that everything was fine, that my ilk and I were the problem. Despite the bluster about reform and anti-corruption, I'm not hearing much about at whom these initiatives will be targeted mostly just celebrity rhetoric they've accused Obama of employing. What's the deal?

[tvashtarkatena]

Don't pester TTK and the angry left with facts. They don't like that.

 

Is there a "happy left"? Are you on the "happy right right wing"? What is all this talk of "change" coming from your side of the aisle? Here you and others have been vehemently defending the policies that have brought us to this point. And now McCain wants to "change" everything. Do you feel betrayed? What exactly is wrong that need to be changed? I was under the impression from you guys that everything was fine, that my ilk and I were the problem. Despite the bluster about reform and anti-corruption, I'm not hearing much about at whom these initiatives will be targeted mostly just celebrity rhetoric they've accused Obama of employing. What's the deal?

 

Actually, FW is stating that there is an "Angry Left" and myself; two different entities, and he is correct in that a) I'm not really ever angry and b) I'm certainly not left in my politics by any stretch.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Is there a "happy left"?

 

NO!

[Phil K]

No, I'm not happy about this country being systematically raped by the Rethugs, thanks very much. But we were discussing questions for Ms. Palin,, were we not?

 

How about:

 

Do you think it's OK to collect thousands of taxpayer dollars in per-diem reimbursements, intended to cover expenses when your official duties required you to travel, while you were staying in your own home?

 

Just what is so funny about a promising intelligent young man spending a few years between undergrad and law school working to improve the lives of people in need as a "community organizer?"

 

Can you PLEASE try to talk without that annoying whiny accent? (OK, that was a cheap shot.)

[Mal_Con]

Alaska is the most socialist state in the union they heavily tax the oil companies and pay all the citizens the money. Palin was popular because she increased the taxes and the payments. Do you righties really want to elect a RED.

[prole]

Alaska: America's Arctic Oil Sheikdom

[marylou]

You're all being sexist.

[ClipStick]

I would ask what her plan is to cut the estimated $400 billion dollar deficit......Perhaps a cap on per/capita earmark spending per state to start...

[Hugh Conway]

Alaska is the most socialist state in the union they heavily tax the oil companies and pay all the citizens the money. Palin was popular because she increased the taxes and the payments. Do you righties really want to elect a RED.

 

Not to mention rob the rests of the states of Federal Funds.

[olyclimber]

Dear Palin,

 

What is gonna happen when they run that Super Collider thingy? Is it gonna mess with God's plans for us? Or while it permit us to teleport the oil out of the ground and into our cars? Science scares the hell out of me. Also, which books are OK for me to read? And why do they call you Barracuda? Do you have powerful jaws and fang like teeth?

 

Thanks,

 

A Concerned Citizen

[marylou]

Hey Sare,

 

How come you won't talk to the media or say anything unscripted?

 

--a very concerned citizen

[Choada_Boy]

Spit or swallow?

[tvashtarkatena]

Do evangelicals go for anal? This might help prevent future, um, inconveniently timed pregnancies...for the whole family.

[prole]

Hi Sarah,

If by some anti-miracle you're elected, would you make saying that someone had "country dough face" a hate-crime?

 

--Just Wondering in Bellingham

Edited September 9, 2008 by prole

[Mal_Con]

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

 

As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.

 

[Dechristo]

Did you invent the Klondyke Bar?

[olyclimber]

They are tasty!

[bstach]

What would you do for a Klondyke Bar?

[Off_White]

Excuse me? Where is the restroom?