The Sarah Palin Chronicles: Updated version....

[Bennyboy]

THE SARA PALIN CHRONICLES
By Bennyboy compiled from various sources, many from DU. Thanks to all who posted these.


Since her announcement as vice Presidential nominee for the Republican party we know for sure that Republican Vice Presidential Nominee has

1. Lied about not supporting the “bridge to Nowhere”’. This lie, during her announcement speech, came within a few seconds of the record for a Republican politician.

Video of the Gubernatorial debates in 2006 where she supports the bridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ttqv_0y0R4

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-31-palin- bridge_N.htm

From the UK article

Sarah Palin's record in office is facing increasing scrutiny after it emerged that she misled Republican supporters when she was presented to the nation as Senator John McCain's running mate.

The Governor of Alaska gave a misleading version of events over a controversial bridge project in her home state when she made her maiden speech as the presumptive nominee.

Mrs Palin told a cheering audience in Ohio that she had turned down an offer from the US Congress to build the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere", which would have connected Gravina Island with Ketchikan International, an airport in Alaska's southeast serving just 200,000 passengers a year. Mr McCain routinely cites the £100 million project as a symbol of wasteful central government spending.

As she introduced herself to Republicans and the American public on Friday, the virtually unknown Mrs Palin said: "I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress ... 'thanks, but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves."

However it emerged that in a 2006 interview with the Anchorage Daily News during her gubernatorial campaign, Mrs Palin had a different view of the bridge.

Asked "would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?" she replied: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now - while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

2. Lied when she said she fought corruption and Senator Ted Stevens:
She was in fact, the Director of Ted Stevens 527 group.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/palin_was_a_director_of_embatt.html

ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political organization organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a politicalboot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005,when her name was replaced on state filings.

Palin's relationship with Alaska's senior senator may be one of the more complicated aspects of her new position as Sen. John McCain's running mate; Stevens was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption.

Palin, an anti-corruption crusader in Alaska, had called on Stevens to be open about the issues behind the investigation. But she also held a joint news conference with him in July, before he was indicted, to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.

3. “Troopergate” and abuse of power.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/30/1310109.aspx
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UojMnCgqVA

The Washington Post reports, “Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is an ethics reformer under an ethics investigation that is plowing through private domestic matters. Palin is under investigation to determine whether she pressured and then fired the state police chief in July because he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law. At the time, the governor's younger sister was involved in a bitter divorce and child custody dispute with the man, a state trooper. A bipartisan committee of the state legislature voted unanimously to hire a retired prosecutor to investigate. His report is due in October.”
More: “Gov. Palin's husband, Todd Palin, met with Monegan in January 2007, a month after hiswife took office, to say that the trooper was unfit for the force. Monegan also said the governor sent him e-mails, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to the independent prosecutor. Palin initially denied that she oranyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire Wooten. She said she had raised the matter with Monegan just once, relaying the allegation that Wooten made a death threat against her father. But this summer, Palin acknowledged that a half-dozen members of her administration had made more than two dozen calls on the matter to various state officials

And now the audio tapes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14dhAK4nZpc of her aid asking to have the trooper fired.

****And now the McCain campaign has tired to delay the ruling in the trooper gate scandal until after the election http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5702697&page=1 instead of two days before.


4. Discovered that her husband, who has no role in Gov’t, has been cc’d on classified emails.
http://www.andrewhalcro.com/shadow_governor

5.Babygate.
If the official story is to be taken as fact, Palin, while in Texas at a Governors energy conference, had her water break before a speech. Instead of going to the nearest hospital in Dallas, decided to give a speech before the Governors conference, (with amniotic fluid leaking down her leg)then decided to fly on a commercial airliner to Seattle, then to Alaska, bypassing the hospital in Anchorage to have the baby at the Wasilla hospital. This is bad enough for a normal child but a difficult birth like a Downs Syndrome baby?
http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2008/04/alaskan-governo.html

Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoPK4pvOE4o

6. Supporter of and husband Todd a member of Alaskan secessionist society.

"I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." - Joe Vogler, founder of the Alaskan Independence Party"

AIP Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark reveals that:
"Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . .and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . ." "

Clips and more on KOS http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/1/84544/50180/809/58

She is nailed at 6 minutes into this http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=183191&mesg_id=183191
AIP Tied to terrorists, Al Queda and white supremacist groups
Tied to Bin Laden
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/palins-aip-connected-to-terror.php


7. Didn’t even have a passport until 2007
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/decision08

8.Was almost recalled as mayor of Wasilla (pop 6500)over abuse of power allegations http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/palin-almost-recalled-as_b_122769.html

Source: ABC online - By BRIAN ROSS and JOSEPH RHEE

Gov. Sarah Palin is already facing ethical questions over her firing of the Alaska public safety commissioner, and now she faces questions over the firing of a longtime local police chief.
...
The former police chief, Irl Stambaugh says he was fired because he stepped on the toes of Palin's campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.
...
the chief tried to move up the closing hours of local bars from 5 a.m. to two a.m. after a spurt of drunk driving accidents and arrests.
...
Stambaugh also alleged that his stand on restricting concealed weapons upset the NRA.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5713866&page=1


9.Ran her town (pop 5400) 20 million dollars in the red http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12987.html


10. Begged for earmarks in Congress:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-earmarks1- 2008sep01,0,6108885.story

But under her leadership, the state of Alaska has requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next year's federal budget, according to the website of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

And that leads to a direct connection to convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramhoff. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palin-lobbyist-worked-for_n_123255.html

Source: LA Times

Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate.


WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.

Now, McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has chosen Palin as his running mate, touting her as a reformer just like him.

McCain has made opposition to pork-barrel spending a central theme of his 2008 campaign. "Earmarking deprives federal agencies of scarce resources, at the whim of individual members of Congress," McCain has said.

But records show that Palin -- first as mayor of Wasilla and recently as governor of Alaska -- was far from shy about pursuing tens of millions in earmarks for her town, her region and her state.
Read More: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,6145252.story

John McCain on earmarks for Wasilla
Source: CNN

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized two of his future running mate's hometown projects in broadsides in 2001 against congressional "pork-barrel" spending, records from the Arizona senator's office show.

McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have criticized such spending as a central part of their campaign for the White House. McCain has made pork-busting a centerpiece of his maverick pitch for years.

But when Palin served as mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, outside Anchorage, she obtained about $27 million in federal "earmarks" during her last four years in office, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

In a 2001 statement opposing a transportation spending bill McCain singled out for criticism about $3 million worth of those projects. McCain's list of "objectionable" spending included a $2.5 million road project for the town that then had a population of 5,500, as well as a $450,000 appropriation for an agricultural processing plant there.

McCain's campaign responded Wednesday by saying the record on pork-barrel spending "is one we are eager to discuss."

"As mayor of Wasilla, Gov. Palin was forced to work within the current system to obtain critical funding for a growing city," the campaign said in a statement. By comparison, it said, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama "has consciously attempted to manipulate the system by requesting nearly $1 million every working day he has been in the Senate."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/palin.earmarks


11. Many of her colleagues in Alaska are stunned and say she is not ready to be mayor of Wasilla let alone the Vice President of the United States: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/30/gop-alaska-state-senator_n_122664.html

The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that many of Palin's local colleagues, even Republican, were rather stunned by her being chosen as McCain's vice president. State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"


12. And although teenage pregnancy is something that happens to people of all persuasions and stripes, when it happens to someone that is so strongly anti-birth control and sex education, it is somehow more ironic..

Source: AP

McCain fought money on teen pregnancy programs

WASHINGTON – Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement Monday about her daughter, Bristol, was aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's. Palin said her daughter intends to raise her child and marry the baby's father, who was identified only by his first name, Levi. The baby is due in late December.

Palin herself said she opposes funding sexual-education programs in Alaska.

"The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," she wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/story//ap/20080902/ap_on_el_pr/cv...


Source: Washington Post

ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."

Earlier today the Associated Press reported that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, opposed funding to prevent teen pregnancies, a position that Palin also took as governor. "The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," she wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates.
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/tombstone.html




My personal comment: Just the simple facts that she is allowing her children and the babies father to be the center of this story for career advancement shows something much worse than her daughter having a baby out of wedlock.


13. Has religious views that support “headship”. Which means, if McCain dies while in office, Todd Palin, would become the de facto President of the United States.

If you don't believe me, ask anybody in the religious right.

There's lots of material about this, it's no secret, but here's two sources I found in just looking quickly...

"Control Freaks and the Women Who Love Them"
http://www.newmanmag.com/display.php?id=818

"Christianity and Domestic Violence"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_domestic_...

The Religious Right can't run away from this because all of the well-known leaders endorse this concept. Two quotes from Pat Robertson, but this one's the money-quote:

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period..." (Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, January 8, 1992).
"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

16. Owned a car wash. Forgot to disclose holdings, forgot to pay fees, closed by the Government
Source: Washington Post
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_scrubbing_car_wash.html

ST. PAUL -- In addition to being a mayor and raising four children, Sarah Palin found time for another venture in her Wasilla years -- she was part-owner of an Anchorage car wash.

Palin and husband Todd each held a 20 percent stake in Anchorage Car Wash LLC, according to state corporation records filed in 2004.

A review of Palin's gubernatorial disclosure filings indicates that she failed to report her stake in the company on the form that requires candidates for governor to disclose any interest in a non-publicly traded company.

The car wash venture was not entirely smooth sailing. State records show the business ran into trouble with Alaska's division of corporations business and professional licensing after Palin became governor of the state in 2006.

A Feb. 11, 2007 letter to the governor's business partner advises that the car wash had "not filed its biennial report and/or paid its biennial fees," which were more than a year overdue.


17. Her pastor is whacked out.

From the age of 12 and for most of her adult life, Sarah Palin attended the Wasilla Assembly of God. Apparently, Sarah Palin's God was a vengeful God -- one that made Himself helpful to the Bush administration from time to time by damning critics of the president, Democrats and other irredeemable sinners. The Huffington Post writes that the church's preacher, Ed Kalinins:… preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."
Kalinins also offered a nuanced view of foreign policy, preaching that 9/11 and the Iraq war were part of a greater struggle over Christianity, with Jesus playing an important role as a very exacting general:

"What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. … We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die“

It can't necessarily be assumed that Palin agrees wholeheartedly with her former pastor. But in an address to the church three months ago, Palin also used disconcertingly religious language to frame the conflict in Iraq:
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending (U.S. soldiers) out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

Considering how much flak Obama got for the statements of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, this is an issue Palin needs to address.

Sarah Palin speaking at her church http://cgi.fark.com/cgi/fark/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=3845739


And 2 weeks ago a visiting preacher spoke at her church wile Sarah Palin ws in attendance:. Two weeks ago. The karma in all this is just amazing:

Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/anti-jewish-ter.html


18. Is in Favor of banning Books and again, abuse of power

says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor." http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1837918,00.html
ABC News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZII0GjcJMus


19. Depleted Alaska National Guard
Source: CBS News/AP

CBS/AP) The Alaska National Guard, which Republicans are pointing to as an important national-security credential for vice presidential choice Sarah Palin, has personnel shortages that make its aviation units the most poorly staffed in the nation.

Just six months ago, Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the Alaska Guard's top officer, warned in an internal memo that "missions are at risk." The lack of qualified airmen, Campbell said, "has reached a crisis level."

The situation has improved since the March 1 memo was written, Campbell said Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press - but not enough to eliminate his concern that shortages will result in the "burnout" of troops the Guard already has. That could result in missions and equipment being moved out of Alaska.

Campbell installed a new policy that could stop officers from advancing unless they show success at bringing in new members and retaining existing troops.

Campbell is due to receive a third star on Sunday - a promotion approved by Palin, who has authority over the Alaska National Guard. He described Palin as very supportive of the Guard, but said she gives him latitude to manage the force. Governors typically do not have a direct role in day-to-day operations.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/04/national/main...



20. Against any abortions including cases of rape and incest

21. Lied about the pipeline:

by Libby Spencer on Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 8:15 PM
http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/politicsblog/ind...

For me, a person who lies by implication is the worst kind of liar because they use a germ of truth to cover their culpability with the deliberate intention to deceive. But in deference to my critics who insist on literal definitions, I'm going to adopt the Anchorage Daily News language and call this stretching the truth, almost beyond recognition. From Palin's acceptance speech:

PALIN : "I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.

THE FACTS: Palin implies that construction has begun on a major natural gas pipeline from the top of Alaska into Canada. That is not correct.

In fact, no building has begun and actual construction is years away, if it ever happens. This summer the Alaska Legislature, at Palin's request, passed a bill under which the state will issue a "license" to a Canadian energy company, TransCanada Corp., and pay it up to $500 million as an incentive to someday build this enormous project, which Alaska politicians have long sought with little success. The license is not a construction contract, and federal energy regulators have not yet approved the project.

I'm focusing on this issue specifically, because we had a rousing debate in the comment section on a earlier post of mine on the same subject. I would also note her careful language about our dependence on dangerous foreign powers because the pipeline that Palin's agreement has locked Alaska into would in fact run this line through Canada, so our energy supply is still controlled by a foreign country, just not a dangerous one. Not exactly the same as having sole control over the delivery. If Canada got mad at us, they could cut off the supply.



21. Supports aerial hunting of wolves http://www.alternet.org/election08/97207/sarah_palin%E2%80%99s_big%2C_sleazy_safari

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpSjSeM6w0w (do not watch this if you are the slightest bit queasy about wolves being viciously killed)

22. Bristol Palin and underage drinking and guns http://www.tmz.com/2008/09/02/palin-daughter-puts-the-party-in-gop/

http://photos.tmz.com/galleries/vice_presidents_daughter

And yes I know that kids are supposed to be off limits. But Sarah Palin has decided to use her children for political gain, it is only fair that I do too.

This goes to show how she is at parenting. These were captured off her myspace page, somewhere every parent should check regularly.

.
TIME Magazine article about a lot of the things mentioned above. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1837918,00.html

And a lot of things about her past governance while mayor and governor:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003845449

Source: Editor & Publisher

NEW YORK The McCain team may not have vetted Sarah Palin with boots on the ground in Alaska, but the Democrats sure did -- two years ago when she ran for governor. The oppo-research, compiled in a 62-page document with countless summaries or direct quotes, largely from local newspapers, covers all of the important issues you would expect to see, from her views on abortion and abstinence to tangled oil pipeline questions.

*snip*

USED PUBLIC FUNDS FOR POLITICAL GAIN

In her 2002 Lt. Governor bid, Mayor Palin used city employees, telephones, computers, fax machines for campaign fundraising and literature. On her candidate registration form, she used her City Hall fax number, and her mayoral e-mail address. Records show that Wasilla city property was used to contact supporters, donors, media contacts, and media purchasing.

*snip*

GENDER CARD

Stambaugh Sued for Gender Discrimination After Palin Said She Was Intimidated by His Size. After Palin fired Irl Stambaugh, the police chief, he sued the city in part based on gender discrimination. The Frontiersman wrote, "The gender discrimination issues stem from statements Palin allegedly made to others that she was intimidated by Stambaugh's size. He stands over 6-feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds, which, the lawsuit said, is attributed to his gender."

*snip*

LYING

Palin Exaggerated Work Experience for Mayoral Campaign. In 1997, Frontiersman columnist Paul Stuart wrote that after Palin had criticized her opponent for using City Hall resources for political gain, "when Palin was asked back then (by me) why the lodge where she claimed, in her campaign, to have gained her management experience, had no record of a borough business license or of paying any bed tax, she paused and said it might have been because the place had no clients for a year or so." In an article describing the possibility of recalling Palin, the Frontiersman wrote the "reasons include Palin's alleged falsification of her credentials during the campaign last fall."

Frontiersman Editorial Said Palin Made Statements That Were "Patently Untrue," Said She Had Shown "Unrepentant Backpedaling and Incessant Whining." A Frontiersman editorial wrote, "Wasilla residents have been subjected to attempts to unlawfully appoint council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedaling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of former Mayor John Stein."



Joe LIEberman on Palin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoMit0e9S0M



Fact check for Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the DNC
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check



By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press WriterWed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

[speedoo]

1. K&R. Thanks for posting this. Must read. nt

[Changenow]

2. The TMZ photo isn't of Bristol

And she fired her legislative liaison because he dated the ex wife of Todd's partner.

http://ww.andrewhalcro.com/shadow_governor

[Bennyboy]

3. Good, thanks. I wanna be sure I get everything right.....

That is why I posted, so that we could get more facts, more videos etc.....

[MadinMo]

4. Don't forget to add the Jet allegedly sold on Ebay.

EBAY!!! The wonderfully All American pasttime of selling things -- another one of those things that makes Miss Sarah just like Ma & Pa Public.

At least NBC reported that the jet was put up for sale on Ebay but then withdrawn before it sold. Another LIE they keep alive.