Palin: Defenders of wolves
Posted: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 9:21 AM by Carrie Dann
Filed Under:
Sarah Palin
That gruesome, anti-Palin Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund ad is being expanded, the group says. "Starting this week, what had been limited to certain markets in Florida, Michigan and Ohio will now air in Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin. It also will air in Missouri in time for Thursday's vice presidential debate in St. Louis." What about the facts? "The loaded language aside, the facts of the ad are accurate, although it leaves out the motivation behind the state policy. Palin supports the aerial hunting of wolves as part of a state-sponsored predator-control program intended to increase the number of moose and caribou in several areas of Alaska. Rural residents, who rely on hunting to survive, had complained there wasn't enough game to hunt and eat."
More: "Last year, Palin's office announced the state would offer cash to kill wolves. Incentives included offering volunteer pilots and aerial gunner teams $150 for turning in the forelegs of freshly killed wolves. The state said the legs could help biologists determine a wolf's age, while the money helped hunters and aerial teams pay for gas and expenses. A Superior Court judge later blocked the payments after conservation groups argued the money amounted to an illegal bounty."
"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who touts her state's proximity to Russia as part of her foreign policy experience, has not met with Russian leaders or delegations, negotiated any Russian issues or visited the country, according to an Associated Press review of records from the governor's office. The review showed that the Republican vice presidential candidate has negotiated with only one country, Canada, and until last week had met with the leader of only one other, tiny Iceland."
How about when Putin rears his head? "The Alaska governor has no command authority over the guardians of U.S. airspace despite her recent suggestion otherwise. 'She doesn't have any role in that process,' Air Force Maj. Allen Herritage, spokesman for the Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the Daily News. .. Moscow’s bombers have skirted Alaskan airspace 20 times, though they have not violated it, during Palin's governorship, officials said. When F-15 and F-22 interceptors scrambled from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage in response, John McCain's running mate was not speed-dialed with the news."
Palin as Joe Six-pack? "Palin said if she and John McCain win, they will 'put government back on the side of the people of Joe Six-pack like me.'" But, "Palin makes $125,000 yearly as governor, and her husband makes about $90,000 a year combined from his commercial fishing business and his part-time job as a production operator on the North Slope. Palin said her husband's 401(k) retirement account lost probably $20,000 in the last week as the market dropped. According to the most recent state financial disclosure forms, filed March 10, 2008, the Palins had about $164,699 in a private investment account and $198,102 in a separate retirement account."
The Boston Globe's editorial page wants one question answered by Palin at tomorrow's debate: "[W]hy, during her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, the town started charging rape victims or their insurers for hospital emergency-room rape kits and examinations. … [T]he policy on rape kits may have had less to do with easing the burden on taxpayers and more to do with Palin's position on abortion. She has said she opposes it even in cases of rape or incest."
And: "Sarah Palin, the socially conservative GOP veep nominee, is not opposed to gay people. Heck, some of her best friends are gay. 'I am not going to judge Americans and the decisions that they make in their adult personal relationships,' Palin told CBS' Katie Couric Tuesday night when asked about churches, including Palin's, that promote conferences to convert gays into heterosexuals through prayer. 'I have one of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years who happens to be gay and I love her dearly,' Palin said, without mentioning names. 'And she is not my gay friend, she is one of my best friends who happens to have made a choice that isn't a choice that I have made.'"
