Here is an excellent piece from American Thinker taking apart all 51 of Kos's lines of attack. Some of the nuggets, but I urge you to check out the whole article:
#22 Sarah Palin, Buchanite - Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 2000, a fact which may alienate certain Florida voters. Hat tip to misslotus: No, no, a thousand times no! A thinly disguised anti-Semite attack by DailyKos, the media, and the Obama campaign. As a Republican Mayor, she once greeted Pat Buchanan when he stopped in Alaska in 1999, and wore a Buchanan button while doing so. But published contemporary articles prove that she never supported him. Again - and I can't say this strongly enough - this is a pathetic attempt by the media, Democrats, and the Obama campaign to create a Jewish problem for McCain-Palin. The facts are this - Sarah Palin wrote a letter to the Anchorage Daily News in 1999 after Buchanan's visit correcting any possible misconception, stating the following about a picture and article published showing her wearing Buchanan's campaign button:
As mayor of Wasilla, I am proud to welcome all presidential candidates to our city. This is true regardless of their party, or the latest odds of their winning. When presidential candidates visit our community, I am always happy to meet them. I'll even put on their button when handed one as a polite gesture of respect.
Though no reporter interviewed me for the Associated Press article on the recent visit by a presidential candidate (Metro, July 17), the article may have left your readers with the perception that I am endorsing this candidate, as opposed to welcoming his visit to Wasilla. As mayor, I will welcome all the candidates in Wasilla.
Later that year, the Associated Press ran a story announcing Sarah Palin as the co-chair of Steve Forbes 2000 campaign in Alaska. Thus, the Palin-Buchanan story is a bald-faced and easily disproven lie being distributed by DailyKos and the Obama campaign to the major media outlets, many of who are buying it wholesale without doing even a little bit of homework on their own.
This particular and cutely worded DailyKos attack ("a fact which may alienate certain Florida voters") is much more insidious than just promoting a false story. As this piece at the "Volokh Conspiracy" proves, this is part of a blatant and false attempt by many, including the Obama campaign itself, to allege that Sarah Palin is, of all things, a Nazi sympathizer - in order to scare away Jewish voters:
"Palin was a supporter of [MSNBC analyst] Pat Buchanan, a right-winger or as many Jews call him: a Nazi sympathizer," Obama spokesman Mark Bubriski wrote in an email.
These people know what they're doing, and it's evil. And they don't care.
I thought Obama would fire anyone who engaged in such lies and deception. Mark Bubriski is still on the Obama payroll. But wait, there is more:
"Palin has no experience": (Also Daily Kos attack #32) The first line of attack was, as expected, one on Palin's experience. The media has declared that her "lack" of experience now immunizes the attacks on Barack Obama's lack of experience. In fact, it does the opposite. The Obama campaign, by publicly comparing Democrat Presidential nominee Obama's experience to Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Palin's, tacitly concedes the experience issue to the Republican Presidential nominee John McCain. Memo to the Obama campaign Part 1 - it doesn't help your image when you spend time trying to argue, unsuccessfully, that your Presidential candidate has more executive experience than your opposition's Vice-Presidential candidate. Palin still has more executive experience that either Obama or Joe Biden. Obama is left having to claim that running his Presidential campaign is executive experience, which is ridiculous. Memo to the Obama campaign Part 2 - as you well know, David Plouffe runs Obama's campaign and David Axelrod writes most of Obama's words. All Obama has to do is show up. That's how Presidential campaign run. Stop suggesting otherwise.
"Palin's part of the corrupt GOP establishment in Alaska": (Also Daily Kos attack point #1, #16, #39) The thrust of the Democrats' complaints seem to be based on the fact that Sarah Palin belongs to the same political party as Republicans now either under investigation or indictment for ethical and criminal misdeeds. When faced with evidence of wrongdoing, Governor Palin went after the wrongdoers in her own party. She publicly opposed top Alaskan GOP establishment figures involved in nepotism and possible malfeasance - including Lisa Murkowski, Frank Murkowski, Don Young and Ted Stevens - and actively supported their GOP primary opponents once issues were raised (in Frank Murkowski's case, she was his primary opponent, and beat him). DailyKos' alleged "Abramoff" problem (#1) is just plain silly - a mailer supportive of Palin was sent out by an outside group associated with Jack Abramoff during her successful gubernatorial run. That's a tenuous link, at best.
Furthermore, this line of attack by the Democrats and the media sheds light on one of the main differences between the Republican ticket and the Democratic ticket. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin have aggressively gone after and investigated corrupt figures in their own party. Name one corrupt Democrat that either Barack Obama or Joe Biden has investigated during their long careers. The answer to that is simple - none.
As for the Obama campaign's suggestion that Sarah Palin is corrupt because she hired lobbyists to represent her city when she was Mayor? That attack shows the breathtaking ignorance of how municipalities and states actually run. Cities need representatives that show up at the state capital to represent the city's interests. States need those same types of representatives in Washington. To not do so would be irresponsible to the taxpayers. Forget about the elected representatives who are supposed to be filling that role - they have their own interests at stake. There are two ways for cities and states to accomplish this. The first is by having an office in either the state capitol or Washington staffed by locals. But many cities and states can't afford such an undertaking, much less staff it with effective people, so they hire professional lobbyists to do the job - because it's more often than not less expensive and more effective.
As for Palin's "deep" connections to the "Bridge to Nowhere", which both the Obama campaign and the DailyKos (#13) call into question? As another post at DailyKos clearly states: "Palin reported to the crowd in Dayton, Ohio. 'If our state wanted a bridge, I said, we'd build it ourselves.'". So she's in favor of the idea of the bridge, but opposed to the method of funding - a secret earmark bestowed in the middle of the night.
Her real "sin" in the eyes of the Democrats is that Alaska kept the money for the "Bridge to Nowhere", but allocated it elsewhere. No Governor in their right mind would refuse a check from Washington of over $300 million that can be used for any project that the state desires - again it would be irresponsible to the state's residents to send it back.
The rhetoric from the left on this issue conveniently masks the real issue over earmarks. Earmark opponents are not suggesting that all earmark projects are either bad or unnecessary. They're objecting to the way the money is surreptitiously inserted into the legislative process - in the dead of night, with no debate over the merits of each item. Individuals like McCain and Palin say go ahead and propose these projects - just do it in a fashion that allows each spending measure to be publicly vetted and debated. Submit such a project as the "Bridge to Nowhere" to the appropriations process. And allow earmarks only in very rare and emergency circumstances.
The latest memes out there are being refuted. They are:
1. She is a hypocrite in terms of special needs because she is slashing funding. NOT TRUE!!!! Here is the complete coverage by Michelle Malkin, below are some excerpts:
The Kossified media strikes again.
And now, via Brian Faughnan, there’s this new smear using liberal math to decry Palin’s alleged “slashing” of special-needs funds. They’re so screamingly desperate:
I just watched CNN’s Soledad O’Brien sandbag former White House Communications Director Nicole Wallace by asking her how Sarah Palin can claim to be a defender of special needs children when she cut the budget for that Alaska office by 62 percent. Wallace wasn’t familiar with the charge — which isn’t surprising, since it’s only being made on DailyKos and another liberal site. (Tip for Ms. O’Brien: DailyKos is not a reliable news site.)
This charge is based on looking at the budget for Alaska’s Special Education Service Agency for 2007-2009. In fact, the December 2006 budget document that they cite would have been prepared by the outgoing administration — that of Republican Frank Murkowski, whom Palin defeated.
What’s gone unmentioned is that the Palin signed into law a dramatic reform of the state’s education financing system that equalizes aid to rural and urban districts, while significantly increasing funding for special needs students.
There’s more to the story than an honest mistake by CBS.
In FY 07, before Palin worked on the budget, the state of Alaska had four distinct programs funded under it’s special education management budget: something called SESA, a psychiatric program, a school for the deaf, and the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy. In FY 08, the first Palin year, the first three programs - SESA, the psychiatric program, and the school for the deaf - were still in the special education management budget and their funding was approximately the same as it was in FY 07. But the Alaska Challenge Youth Program isn’t listed and it’s omission accounts for what appears to be a huge drop in funding for special education services.
I wondered why the program was dropped and googled the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy. Guess what? In FY 08 the academy was moved out of special education management and became it’s own program. And it’s funding was increased by about $2.8 million (to $8,234,000 in FY 08from $5,449,300 in FY07). Here’s a link to the program’s FY 08 budget http://gov.state.ak.us/omb/08_OMB/bu…D/comp2837.pdf
CBS, CNN and the other reporters could have discovered this had they simply read the 5, yes 5, page reports.
So, the media lies again. Typical. But wait, here is the other meme:
2. She hates teen mothers and slashed funding for teen pregnancy programs. Wrong again, again, from Malkin:
The Kossified MSM has completely lost its marbles.
The Washington Post rushes out with a story that GOP Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “slashed” funding for teen moms.
Oh, the inhumanity!
Oh, the hypocrisy!
Oh, the conservative callousness!
One little problem, pointed out by non-deranged blogger Lonewacko:
“Covenant House’s IRS Form 990 (link) shows the funds that Paul Kane describes as “slashed” was over a threefold increase from the government funds they received from all sources in 2006 (FY2006 ending 12/31/06).”
Wait a minute. State funding for the teen pregnancy program increased? Well, that doesn’t fit the Christofascist hypocrite/Fertilla the Huntress narrative!
Gosh, I thought the Dems got over fuzzy math, that they may have learned from alGore's fuzzy math in 2000. It all goes back to the liberal press motto:
Never let the facts and truth get in the way of a smear on a conservative.
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
UPDATE 9/5/08
from the comments section, yet another MSM story debunked by truth:
Despite some press reports to the contrary, our operating budget was not reduced. Our $3.9 million appropriation is directed toward a multi-year capital project and it is our understanding that the state simply opted to phase in its support for this project over several years, rather than all at once in the current budget year.”
