Dateline Wasilla, 2000

Today I came across a story I hadn’t heard about since McCain’s announcement of Palin as his running mate. Many others have spoken about it online, but once I found the original article from the local newspaper from Wasilla, Alaska from 2000 - I felt an overwhelming desire to have my say as well.

Unlike many of the other stories about Gov. Palin, this one includes hard numbers claimed by her administration when she was Mayor of Wasilla. This one is straight out of the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So please check out the actual article (linked below) before continuing.

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt

I’ll address Palin’s culpability later. First, let’s do a little math.

The article states that the tests cost between $300 and $1200 apiece. The mean (average) of these numbers is 750, so let’s use that as our estimated cost.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon claims in the article that the (then) new law would cost Wasilla between $5,000 and $14,000 per year. The mean (average) of these numbers is 9.5, so let’s say the average yearly cost to Wasilla would be about $9,500.

By dividing 9,500 by 750 we arrive at 12.66666... So let’s call it 12.7. This is the average number of investigated rapes in Wasilla per year, according to the Chief of Police.

According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape#Statistics), the per-capita incidence of rape is around 0.4 per 1000 people over the age of 12.

I’ve heard the population of Wasilla variously reported as being anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000. Apparently, some of this discrepancy is due mostly to rapid growth during the ’90s. Let’s continue to use the mean (average) number for our calculations: in this case, we’ll call the population of Wasilla 6,000.

Using wikipedia’s numbers, the average annual number of rapes in a city the size of Wasilla should come in somewhere around 2.4. And that’s assuming that every person living in Wasilla in 2000 was over the age of 12!!

According to it’s Chief of Police, in 2000 the small town of Wasilla, Alaska was experiencing incidents of rape almost 5.3 times higher than the national average. Even higher if you factor out children under the age of 12.

Now add to that the fact that “only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to police” and it would appear that Wasilla had a very serious problem with rape and sexual assault 8 years ago, during Palin’s 1st term as Mayor.

Whoa!

So what to make of all this? Seems pretty clear to me that one way or another, Sarah Palin was demonstrably ineffective on at least this one issue during her tenure as Mayor.

Why do I say that, you might ask. After all, it wasn’t Palin who made the claims quoted in the article - it was the Police Chief.

Who do you suppose the Chief of Police is subordinate to? Who does he report to? Who is his boss?

The Mayor, that’s who.

So either Palin was behind the policy of charging rape victims for their examinations to save the paltry amount of money claimed by Fannon for such a service - which strengthens the claims that she is a ruthless, money-hungry , cold-hearted bitch . Or she wasn’t even aware of it., which confirms other contentions that she was an ineffective (if not damaging) presence in local politics during her 2 terms as Mayor.

To those Palin supporters who want to write this issue off as “aww… you can’t blame her, she must not have known.” I say: You are the people directly responsible for the state of government in this country. Stop buying the rhetoric on face-value. Do some research.

So either she was the force behind the policy, or she simply knew about it and did nothing to change it, or even worse - she was totally clueless.

None of these scenarios supports the claim that she was an effective Executive at even the level of small-town Mayor. Let alone Governor. And surely not as 2nd in command of the United States of America.

All it points to if McCain/Palin wins this election is more obfuscation, deception and cronyism.

In other words - more of the same from the GOP in DC.

If that’s what you’re looking for, we have nothing to talk about. However, if you are one of the millions buying into McCain’s new-found claim to be an advocate for real change in Washington because it’s what you truly want - I implore you to keep reading. Keep googling. Seek out people who are able to speak about the candidates honestly - warts and all.

If you come across someone who claims that their candidate is perfect… walk, no RUN away.

Do the same if you find someone who is placing a vote AGAINST a candidate.

If you truly want to learn which candidate is right for you, YOU must do the leg-work. Don’t let the media or the pundits do it for you.

Visit websites like www.snopes.com, and www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.com to find truly non-partisan parsing of the facts. Be aware that in doing so you will learn things about your candidate that you might not like, but with enough searching and stumbling, you’ll eventually begin to form your own true opinion.

Further searching will land you on blogs like mine. Some you will agree with wholeheartedly.

Others you will wish could be wiped off the face of the earth (the GOP might actually help you with that… just remember that if they can ban the ones you disagree with, they can do the same to the ones you like).

Regardless of where you go or what you find - if you keep yourself open to hearing differing perspectives - you WILL learn something.

About yourself, about our government, and about how you really feel about the future of this great nation.

I encourage everyone to do this, knowing that by doing so I am risking the possibility that some “fence-riders” might be influenced by a position I disagree with and turn to the Dark Side. If you do so of your own accord, with actual facts and personal opinion to back you up - I’m okay with that.

Just don’t walk into the voting booth with the voices of politicians or pundits echoing in your head. Do it truly of your own free will.

And if I meet you in a bar - be prepared to explain your decision without using party-line rhetoric. Use your own words and give me real-world examples of how your candidate is going to benefit you during his time in the White House.

That way, when 2012 rolls around… one of us will be able to say “I told you so.”

And actually mean it.