Monday 15 June 2009

Sarah Palin, feminist?


I did a bit of digging about Sarah Palin's record on women's issues. She doesn't like personal attacks and is always urging people to look at her record.

OK, I did just that!


Wasilla

Grant Decreased to Children’s Shelter: The Dorothy Saxton Youth Shelter provides residential care and rehabilitation to endangered children, including victims of sexual abuse. Sarah Palin’s fiscal year 2000 budget decreased the Wasilla city grant to the shelter by 25%.

Rape Kit Funding Transferred to Victim’s Insurance: the line item paying for rape kits was slashed from $4,200 in FY99 to $1,000 in FY00.

Contracted Out Early-Intervention Services Eliminated: Wasilla runs a Youth Court, a program of early intervention for troubled teenagers. Some of the services (it is unclear what these services were) provided by the court were contracted out. The FY2000 budget eliminated funding for these services.

2008

Trimmed by $1.1 million funds the Alaska legislature had allocated for Covenant House Alaska this year for a capital construction project. Covenant House Alaska is a state-supported program that includes a transitional home where new teenage mothers can spend up to 18 months learning money management and parenting skills.

Palin voided $15,840 the legislature had allocated for a Women, Infants, Children (WIC) provider.

In the Troopergate fiasco, Sarah Palin fired Walt Monegan, citing insubordination for planning an unauthorized trip to Washington DC to lobby for money for a sexual assault program.

"The last straw," her lawyer (Van Flein) argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program.

The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.

But the governor's staff authorized the trip. A state travel authorization form shows that Palin's chief of staff, Mike Nizich, approved Monegan's trip to Washington, D.C.

We know that Sarah Palin fired Monegan because he would't fire Mike Wooten, her brother-in-law, but Alaska lost a strong advocate for women's safety in the process. The program never got off the ground and the governor is unlikely to pursue anything similar to what Monegan proposed.

Sarah Palin is urging feminist groups to rise up and protest against David Letterman, painting him as an enemy of women, a pedophile and pervert who contributes to the poor self-esteem of young women across the country.

As a late night comedian, not only is his influence not that great, but he doesn't have the power of veto over budgets for anti-sexual assault programs, women's safety and welfare initiatives, teen mother units or abused children's shelters.

Alaska’s reported rate of rape per capita is 2.6 times the national average.

Anchorage has the ninth highest sexual assault rate of any city in the United States, and Fairbanks is ranked first, at 4.7 times the national average.

Alaska's child abuse rate is six times higher than the national average.

The state continues to rank first or second nationally in the number of chlamydia cases, a ranking it has held since 2000. In 2006, the last year data was available from the Center for Disease control, Alaska ranked 25th in rates of gonorrhea and 28th in syphilis.

The Alaska birthrate among women ages 15-19 in 2006 was 44.3 per 1,000 teens, up 19 percent from 2005.

I think the governor has enough problems regarding women's safety and welfare in Alaska and her record shows that these problems are not a priority as far as she's concerned.

Who contributes the most to women's low self-esteem?

Sarah Palin is a feminist in name only.

Further reading:
Wasilla
2008 budget cuts
Walt Monegan
Alaska figures here, here and here
Document about Sarah Palin's record
.

24 comments:

FEDUP!!! said...

Check out this 'vetting' site that someone posted on another blog...
www.sarahpalinexposed.com/wp-content/uploads/Palin-2006-Vetting-Document/

Anonymous said...

David Letterman is the preident and primary contributor to American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming. This unlike name is the name of his foundation which has donated nearly $2.5 million dooars in a four year total to a number of organizations. Below is just a partial list of some of the causes that Letterman has supported (to be compared with Sarah Palin's record, above):

Muscular Dystrophy Family Foundation
Special Olympics of Indian
Marion County Children's Gaurdian Home
Indiana School for the Deaf
Riley Children's Foundation
University of Indianapolis Center for Aging and Community
Choteau Youth Special Olympics, in Montana and Montana Special Olympics
Michael J. Fox Foundation
Larry King Cardiac Foundation
Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp (for disabled children)
Breast Cancer Foundation
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Doctors without Borders
The actualy list is 2 full pages long!

basheert said...

So in other words, Letterman actually donates to 501c(3) organizations that help people.
And what does Missy Pee in the sea donate to?

Anonymous said...

Missy Pee is trying to do as much "damage control" as she can; last week was a disaster.

But when her fan base is filmed tomorrow protesting Letterman, it really will be hard to "spin" that.

Regina, I think you should send this info to NOW. They should put Palin on their Wall of Shame.

Virginia Voter said...

Fabulous...I emailed this to the National organization for women, and let them know I would not renew my membership or donate ever again for supporting this phony excuse for a woman. Actions speak louder than her hollow words.

Anonymous said...

As she is so fond of saying, she talks the talk, but she sure as hell doesn't walk the walk. (Will we ever be able to hear that expression again without thinking of this opportunistic moron?)

sjk from the belly of the plane said...

Whats the difference between a late nite comic and a dim wit governor? The late nite comic gets paid millons to make silly comments. The dim wit governor ASPIRES to do the same with her book.

Anonymous said...

This list is certainly an eye opener.
Thank you for doing the leg work and I agree, it should be forwarded to other sites to expose Palin's true record in regard to women and children issues.

Lisa K said...

Regina, have you thought of having a media and other email list that you send your posts like this too? I hope you consider regularly doing this. I am sure everyone here would have suggestions. I can work on a list this week. If you wanted help maybe some of could help you send this regularly. Especially great posts like this that clearly show what a hypcrite she is backed up by facts. There are a lot of journalists that cover her and we should send to the msm, and online places like Huffington, Salon, the Daily Beast and more! Also the DNC. The MSM in particular does a very poor job at showing Scarahs true record.

regina said...

Lisabeth,

HuffPo and Salon were two of the sources for this post.

You and other readers are most welcome to send my stuff to media people. I'm a bit too remote and not terribly familiar with what's what over there. All my research is internet based and I'm simply lucky finding things... I'm only as good as the sources.

Cheers,

Regina

SoCalWolfGal said...

Regina,thanks so much for researching this. I was so mad after reading Shannyn's Huff Post this morning, I sent an email to NOW advising them to take another look at Palin's records and what she has done for women and the causes that are important to them. She is as far from a feminist as you can get. This whole thing with Letterman, once again, proves how out of touch with reality this. I woman is. I. am. sick. of. her. I hope NOW gets more flack from this. How insulting to all women.

basheert said...

Somewhere - beyond the Sea
They're there
Peeing for me.....

(apologies to Bobbie Darrin)

Anonymous said...

Regina,

Thanks for this--it's exactly what I wanted NOW to know. I'll be joining others here in sending NOW a cite to your excellent blog and letting them know that it's SP who should be on their wall of shame.

Linda in Virginia

MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel said...

Let's call SP a FINO as well as a GINO!

And now that we know what charities Dave gives to, what about SP? I'm surprised this hasn't come up already!

Lisa K said...

Hi again thank you! I will start sending this out. I don't mind at all and if anyoune has suggestions of where to send it let me know. I think I'll put together a list. NOW is a great idea. It really bothers me that they would put Dave rather than Scarah! She is a complete phony and hypocrite. Thanks for your hard work Regina. The way you put it together is what is so powerful!

basheert said...

Well she's a GINO, a CINO and now a FINO.

She's also a PITA as far as most people are concerned.

I'm happy to be one of the people who scours the internet for sourcing for Regina. I am not a great writer, but I love to turn over all these delicious rocks that have all the hidden Palin treasures.

Yes, what charitable organizations does Palin financially support? Not "pay lip service to" but financially contribute to?

Some of us actually participate on private and public Foundation Boards and devote a lot of time, energy and money supporting a pet cause. I am on a Board of Directors and am Chair of a Development Committee engaged in fund raising. It's bordering on a fulltime job but is done happily.

Anonymous said...

We should compile a list of other things which insult and degrade young women and women in general for Sarah Palin to denounce:
Candies Company, as illustrated by their sexually tinged ads which show young women in degraded situations
Beauty Pageants in general, especially the skimpy bathing suit portion of the program
All those magazines with centerfolds and skimpy swimsuit editions
Everytime that Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck or any of the other conservative mouthpieces say something disgusting about women (that would be almost everyday)
Ditto for GOP politicans who make rude remarks; how about some of the nasty things that John McCain said about his own wife?
Rap lyrics, when you can understand some of them, women are objectified and slandered
I'm sure that others can add to this list. This should keep Sarah busy for quite a while and keep her away from watching late night TV. Those guys are just joking, whereas Bill, Rush, Glen and John really sound like they mean it.

KaJo said...

Terrific job, as usual, Regina, in gathering together and presenting in concise fashion FACTS and figures on Sarah Palin has perpetrated during her political career.

You can bet the C4Pers have nothing they can respond with except personal attacks on us bloggers, and changing the subject to, say, Exxon/AGIA, Palin's "Major Victory". And criticism of THAT issue is gaining legs in the media, so they'll have to find something else...

Campaigning for pre-teen-relative-groping old men like Saxby Chambliss is one more issue that should be put on the list of hypocrisies Harpy Palin, er...Sarah Palin has perpetrated.

Anonymous said...

ooooooo poor Saxby Chambliss. I guess it could be worse. It could be Lindsay Graham and then the girls would be safe.

Floyd M. Orr said...

Regina, you need to check out the latest overly extensive apology Letterman has just made to these Wasillabilly trailer trash clowns while supporters of the she-devil from hell are protesting outside the TV studio trying to get Letterman fired! The story is on the front page of The Huffington Post right now.

Anonymous said...

Floyd, no worries. They will never get Letterman fired. They have totally given him job security!

I guess they don't understand how TV works.

FEDUP!!! said...

"what charitable organizations does Palin financially support?"

Well, her church, of course! (And the one who got - what $25,000 - from the state (see 'church gate'...)

the problem child said...

Hollywood.com suggests David Letterman:

"At odds with his crusty persona, Letterman was an active philanthropist from early on in his career. In addition to his scholarship program at his alma mater Ball State, he also financed the construction of a house for his former Sigma Chi fraternity. Letterman also founded a charitable organization bearing the comic moniker The American Foundation for Grooming and Courtesy, which donated millions of dollars to charitable organizations including the Muscular Dystrophy Family Foundation, the Indiana School for the Deaf, the Special Olympics, the Nature Conservancy, the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, Doctors without Borders and the American Cancer Society."

Sarah Palin supports:

*crickets*

Anonymous said...

Why is it that you all believe Sarah is so bad? Is her record really that "bad"? Compare hers to that of other governors and see what you get.