I think I'll have to be alone for a while.

Confederate Yankee:

The Media and the Democratic Party Lied:

Palin Did Not Charge For Rape Kits

We previously debunked this smear campaign . . . but it is nice to now have Governor Palin on the record in her own words.

Flush another steaming, stinking, Associated Press-carried, Democratic Party-complicit, liberal-blogosphere- astroturfed lie down the toilet:

The entire notion of making a victim of a crime pay for anything is crazy. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. As governor, I worked in a variety of ways to tackle the problem of sexual assault and rape, including making domestic violence a priority of my administration.

A small liberal blog started the rumor, apparently after two Democratic Party researchers scoured the archives of the Frontiersman for dirt, and came up with an ambiguous story from 2000 that quickly bounced to a muckraking liberal blog.

Top Alaskan Democrats for Obama Tony Knowles (whom Palin beat in the governor's race) and Eric Croft, the sponsor of the law HB 270, both claimed in a recent press conference that Democrats falsely asserted the law was passed because Wasilla's police charged victims.

That is a demonstrable, bald-faced, and proven lie.

Read the committee minutes for yourself: Palin, Fannon, and Wasilla are never mentioned.

Three expect witnesses testified that they knew of no police agencies in Alaska that billed victims. The law was needed because hospitals occasionally exercised bad judgment and billed victims.

The media and Democratic Party should be ashamed.

Update: The New York Times-owned Boston Globe is still attempting to carry on with the smear. Perhaps you should register for a free account and let them know what you think about their editorial standards--or lack thereof.

Emphases mine.

Did we used to have real newspapers in this country, or was that just an optical illusion?

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Apparently, it is the custom of some hospitals to bill rape victims--or, rather, their insurance companies--for their emergency exams, including rape kits. Some states permit this as standard practice, since the costs are generally absorbed by insurance companies.

This had nothing to do with Sarah Palin.

The reform that occurred before she became governor was a statewide effort to try to get hospitals not to send bills to the victims of sex crimes (even if the costs would ultimately be covered by insurance) and to make it clear to the hospitals—and to these victims—that law enforcement considered the ER visits (especially, of course, the rape kits) to be part of their responsibility, as their main purpose is to gather evidence to help cops solves crimes. Even in small towns scraping by on a shoestring, forensic evidence is forensic evidence, and is the responsibility of law enforcement.

The lawmakers' hope was that a rape victim would not even see an invoice or statement (even if it were intended to be paid by the insurance company). This hyper-sensitive (and, I think, sensible) approach is not taken in every state, but it was eventually mandated in Alaska. The legislation was passed, and signed into law, before Palin became governor.

So she gets neither credit for the reform, nor blame if any insensitive hospitals did, indeed, include rape kit charges on their financial statements to the victims of sex crimes. Apparently no one has been able to establish for sure one way or the other whether such statements or bills were actually sent to sex-crime victims in Wasilla during Sarah's time as Mayor of that town. Certainly, we do not know if she was made aware of it, if it did occur.)

One hell of a hat tip to:
Confederate Yankee, on rape kits, Part I
Confederate Yankee, on rape kits, Part II

No word yet on whether Confederate Yankee (or Charlie at Explorations, for that matter) will be invoicing the mainstream news outlets who reported the story wrong, thereby compelling unpaid journalists to pick up the pieces after the hacks at CNN, US News & World Report, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press, and "dozens" of others reported the story wrong because, hey—shoeleather is expensive, and phone bills are high, and what's the harm anyway, if it might help put Obama in the White House where he belongs?

Via Twitter-Tweets from Flap.

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So the surveillance period is over: David Kernell's apartment has been searched.

Re: the 1:00 a.m. timing, all Stacy's points are well-taken. But if I were being watched by the FBI, I probably wouldn't be doing a lot of partying . . .

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Yeah. Worth linking twice:

Did Obama really mean to call Sarah Palin a pig, or at least refer to her in that sentence? In order to answer that question, people have to look at the full context of his statement here. He also said this:

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”

“You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still gonna stink.”

“We’ve had enough of the same old thing.”

Given that Palin had very publicly made the lipstick/pit bull joke during her widely-seen acceptance speech, it certainly seems that Obama intended to reference both Palin and McCain respectively in this sequence, with Palin being the pig and McCain the “old fish” wrapped in change. The crowd certainly understood what Obama meant, and roared appreciatively.

Now Obama and his team want to pretend that this sequence had no meaning whatsoever. ItÂ’s always difficult to gauge intent, but one would have to think Obama an idiot for not seeing the subtext of his own statement, especially since the crowd understood it all too well. Obama himself has cried about the supposed racist attacks of Republicans and the McCain campaign all summer long, without ever once giving any evidence of it, and certainly not a data point like this.

If Obama wants to argue subliminal racism, he has no defense against overt sexism now. This is his game, and he just proved himself incompetent at it.

Glenn's original roundup on this is excellent and extensive, despite the fact that he read the remark differently than I did; can you spot the quotation from a famous piece of children's literature in his post? (And what is it that Insty's mom blogs on, again?)

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You'll never guess where the distinction lies. Never. Guess.

Malkin:

NBC’s Meredeith Viera asserted that only blogs went after Palin’s motherhood abilities while running for veep, even as her colleague Brian Williams slyly raised feminists’ “fears or doubts that she should be able to do this, that she should be doing this.”

How would CNN’s O’Brien like the [Howard] Gutman standard applied to her? She’s been working overtime covering the presidential campaign season, anchoring daily coverage, nighttime conventions, and producing documentaries that require large chunks of time away from home. Disney’s Family Parenting website lauds her as “a modern mom balancing a thriving career as one of America’s top news anchors along with her four children” – two daughters now ages 7 and 6 and twin boys who are 4. Where are the Palin-bashers to lambaste O’Brien’s professional pursuits?

How about Katie Couric? Her husband died at 42 when her daughters were 6 and 2 years old. With two young children devastated by the loss of a father, she opted not to quit journalism. She anchored NBCÂ’s Today Show through his illness and death, continued working an intensive, time-consuming schedule as one of AmericaÂ’s most visible broadcast journalists while a single mother with two fatherless children at home, and then jumped to CBS News, where she maintains a rigorous on-air schedule, travel plans, and off-air social calendar. Where are the finger-waggers?

Also at CNN, Campbell Brown flew to Las Vegas last year to moderate a political debate while 8 ½ months’ pregnant. Fox News host and left-wing blogger Alan Colmes, last seen questioning Sarah Palin’s commitment to prenatal care because she worked and traveld late in her pregnancy, had no comment. When she initially left the Today Show in 2007, Brown said she was stepping down to devote more time to family and baby. She immediately turned around the next day and jumped ship to CNN, where she has anchored wall-to-wall CNN Election Center coverage and will launch a new nightly show in November.

And at NBC, famous balancer of work-and-motherhood Viera replaced Couric on the Today Show. She has three children at home and a husband who has battled multiple sclerosis and two bouts with colon cancer. By the Gutman standard, Viera should have left the business years ago to tend to her family in need.
As a working woman in the media for 16 years and a working mother in the media for the last eight. I know the commitment and energy it took for these women to get to the top. I’ve filed columns from hospital beds, written books while nursing, brought my toddlers to TV studios, and told bedtime stories on the cell phone while boarding planes. I’ve worked hard to strike the “balance” we all seek. I’ve made good choices and bad choices, and have no regrets about the opportunities I’ve taken and the opportunities I’ve rejected. I couldn’t have done it without a supportive husband willing to forego his own career goals – the kind of spouse that the media has ignored in Todd Palin and the kind of spouse I’m sure the Sisterhood of the Protected Female Journalist all have.

I don’t challenge the commitment these fellow working mothers in the media have to their home lives. What I challenge is their silence and complicity as the Palin-bashers impose a “Family First” double standard on conservatives. The sorority is closed to the Right.

Michelle—that is because conservatives aren't just wrong; we're bad. And stupid. And also not-good.

So the ends justify the means, no matter how sexist those means are.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are doing back-flips in their graves right now.

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"Sometimes when I'm not at the peak of my powers—if you know what I mean, and I think you do—I imagine myself playing basketball, albeit with my shirt tucked in, against that little pipsqueak of a girl, and I'm able to rise to the occasion once again.

Who says half-white men can't jump?"

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And it's benefiting both sides, apparently:

The track — played at the Republican National Convention in honor of the Vice Presidential nominee, who earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" playing high school basketball in Alaska — was pumped through the streets of Lebanon, Ohio on Tuesday morning at an outdoor rally before the GOP ticket showed up.

When the song was played after Palin's convention speech last week, the band members quickly requested that McCain and Palin pull the plug.

"Sarah Palin's views and values in no way represent us as American women," Ann and Nancy Wilson told Entertainment Weekly. "We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image."

But the McCain camp said last week that it had paid for and obtained all necessary licenses before using the song.

And the band's former guitarist, Roger Fisher, told Reuters last week that the McCain camp’s use of the song benefited both sides: Republicans get "the ingenious placement of a kick-ass song" — and Heart gets headlines and royalties. Part of that money, said Fisher, would be heading to the Arizona senator’s opponent: "With my contribution to Obama's campaign, the Republicans are now supporting Obama," he told Reuters.

I noticed that they made a point of using it as bumper music on Rush's show yesterday.

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. . . instead of charging the state for hotels.

Sigh.

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How many Piper Palin pix would Peter Piper post, if Peter Piper were putatively a Palin?

It's like eating potato chips . . . or drinking dirty martinis.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:28 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Over at PJM:

Palin Dodges Tough Questions About Existence of “Alaska”

By Elizabeth Bumiller, New York Times, Wednesday, September 3, 2008; A1

Media Bubble, Sept. 2 — Embattled former beauty queen Sarah Palin continued to wilt yesterday under the pressure of numerous fair, evenhanded media questions regarding the alleged state of “Alaska.”

Palin has claimed to be “governor” of the legendary northern land mass, which, while heretofore undiscovered by explorers, was once rumored to contain vast expanses rich with oil, gold, and “eski-mos.” Palin first made the “Alaska” claim during an Aug. 29 public appearance alongside elderly, mean-looking cancer victim John McCain.

McCain, a white man with even whiter hair, has long publicly blocked efforts by Barack Obama, a youthful black man with a certain indefinable aura about him, to move into ObamaÂ’s new house. Palin, also white-skinned, has been linked to the McCain offensive.

After four days of telling silence from the McCain camp, Palin finally deigned to reappear in public yesterday. In a followup press conference, Palin, who is a girl, lashed out at the media. “Listen to me: Alaska. Is. A. State. Seriously. The 49th state, in fact. Way up north there. What, did somebody go around your newsrooms and hide all the maps underneath the ethics manuals? Or are you idiots just completely insane?”

Shaking her head in a transparent attempt to feign exasperation, Palin — who is perhaps not as pretty as she thinks she is — then left the podium without answering followup questions regarding her plagiarism of CBS’s Northern Exposure. Internet reaction to the unfit mother’s unhinged rant was swift. Andrew Sullivan, right-wing blogger for The Atlantic, saw Palin’s comments as a major misstep. “She’s working the refs. This is what they do. Sure, blame the media. Is it their fault she’s too chicken to back up these suspicious claims? “Look, I’m willing to entertain the idea that there really is a place called ‘Alaska.’ We’ve all heard the old wives’ tales, and I’ve dreamed about such a rugged, outdoorsy paradise since I was about 13 or 14. But why is she so afraid to give us some proof? I mean, I’ve never been there, have you?”

Yukon Cornelius could not be reached for comment.

Update: After consultation with the Association of American Geographers and several DC-area kindergarten students, the Times can now report that many current world maps contain a small area in the northwest corner of North America labeled “Alaska.” Palin’s relationship with the mapmaking industry is currently under investigation.

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Via Hot Air. Right here.

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Quindlen announces that the GOP has just discovered sexism. Well, no: we've known about sexism all along. Which you might realize if you interacted with real Republicans, and not just the far-right fringe and those little cartoons inside your head, Ms. Quindlen.

When Democrat James Carville said he found the choice of Palin perplexing on the merits, Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said she found that "offensive to American women." I found her offense offensive to American women . . .

Well, I'm offended by your offense to her offense. So I win, right? Apparently, the prize goes to the most offended . . . For the time being, I've got you outflanked.

. . .since at its core was the notion that Governor Palin should not and could not be judged by the same standards as her male counterparts.

No; at its core was the old adage that, to be considered equal to a man, a woman has to be twice as qualified. (Usually answered by some wag-ette with the line "luckily, this is not difficult.")

Governor Palin has more executive experience than any of the men on this ticket, including Senator McCain, but the Hard Left is twisting itself into pretzels trying to discount that experience under any gossamer-thin pretext it can find.

In fact, all the cries of sexism suggested that, yet again, the Republicans had underestimated the ability of women to lead; when the governor finally took center stage, it was clear that she needed no protections or excuses. If she is as sharp and self-assured as her convention speech, the first thing she will do, in the parlance of the sport she played under the nickname "Sarah Barracuda," is to slam-dunk the notion that she can't take an elbow. She certainly knows how to give one.

That was, in fact, what she did. But that doesn't mean that it was warranted to attack her family. In her article, Ms. Quindlen brings up the passions that the Clintons inflamed during the years Bill Clinton occupied the White House. They were certainly high—but the efforts to "slime" the Clintons were not conducted by the mainstream press. And—more significantly—no attacks were directed at Chelsea Clinton, either before she turned 18—or 21—or afterward. In fact, Chelsea Clinton never endured what the Bush twins have gone through for the past eight years, either. As long as we're talking about double-standards.

John McCain has been no advocate for women; when asked during the primaries, on the subject of Senator Clinton, "How do we beat the bitch?" he responded, "Excellent question." (Note to the GOP: that IS sexist.)

Nope. First of all, Senator McCain expressed disapproval of the phrasing before he answered the question. Secondly, the word "bitch" was used by a woman, so if it's a slur, it was used by a member of the group in question (which brings us back to the "nigger" debate, I suppose). Third, it's no more sexist to call a woman a "bitch" than it is to call a man a "prick." Fourth, the "Feminist" left is applying that exact word to Governor Palin. One can now buy anti-Palin T-shirts from Cafe Press with the legend "a pit bull in lipstick is still a bitch."

Ms. Quindlen, you represent old feminism. There is a new feminism out there that allows women religious and ideological freedom, as well as reproductive freedom. You might want to look into it.

Via a tweet from ConBelle.

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For those who haven't seen it yet, Charlie Martin of Explorations has the Definitive List of Palin Rumors, with the status of each.

("Yes, she does have a tattoo of the Big Dipper on one ankle; she lost a bet." [Though I think she might be covering that with makeup for the durations of the campaign; we know she isn't wearing hose, and we have concluded that she must have be best spray-tan product in the world, or she's getting it in one of those fake-tan booths. All the better to show off her signature high heels. But in all the footwear shots people keep forwarding to me, I have yet to spot the Dipper. I'll bet she stops with the ankle-makeup once she moves into the Vice Presidential mansion. Of course, it's so cold in D.C. that she'll have to wear hose, or maybe tights.])

h/t: Everyone.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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That video of Piper smoothing her brother's hair, which was everyone's second-favorite moment from Palin's acceptance speech the other night. (The first one being when Sarah kicked the Dems' asses. Oh, wait: that was the whole speech.)

Via Rachel Lucas.

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