Vet/Palin '08

Palin and her Bridge to Nowhere t-shirt

The real Sarah Palin is the exact opposite of the new politics/reformer she tried to present to the world at the Republican convention.

First, she lied her ass off in her convention speech. Not only did she not tell the feds to "give back" the Bridge to Nowhere, she supported it (even wearing a "Bridge to Nowhere" t-shirt) and kept the money anyway.

Against earmarks? Again, a bald-faced lie. Even the Wall Street Journal has concluded that this was false, and brazenly so: As governor of Alaska, she requested more money in earmarks per capita than any other governor in the nation. She was the #1 earmark seeker in DC. Against earmarks. Hogwash.

Today's hogwash:

- She paid herself to live at home, billing the state thousands of dollars for 312 nights she spent in her own home during her 19 months in office.

She billed the state for working on Thanksgiving Day, because she "had" to go to the Great Alaska Shootout basketball tournament. Governoring is hard work, as Chimpy might say.

She billed the state for "information gathering" by her husband.

She charged the state over $2,000 for a three-night stay at a $707 per night hotel room in New York City.

She doesn't know the basic economic fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are private companies (that the taxpayers spent nothing on until we bought them this weekend.)

Now for the final, most disgusting public policy decision at a local level that I have ever seen. While Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the official town policy was to make rape victims pay for their own rape kits. Rape victims were forced to pay for the forensic investigation of the very crime they had just suffered through. Just despicable. ari at Edge of the American West says it best:

And yet, [] around that same time, Palin oversaw the construction of a massive taxpayer-funded boondoggle white elephant sports complex for her hometown. I’d like to make a joke here. I really would. But words fail me. What is there to say about a politician who believes that government should be big enough to provide people with hockey rinks but small enough that citizens in their darkest hour must spring for the cost of investigating the crimes committed against them?