Day: September 22, 2008

Conservative blogs are ablaze with a story which may or may not make the MSM.
See the National Review Online for a summary.
Here is the blog that seems to have started the story.
Bottom line, the fingers are pointing in the direction of David Axelrod, head of the Obama campaign for spreading some of the more outrageous Palin rumors. Nothing is proven and evidence is circumstance, I should hasten to add.
If you like intrigue and a political mystery, then there may be some interest here for you. I will post more on this as I get time…
UPDATE: Ethan Winner has admitted making the videos in question.

Some have asked me why I initiated and supported the Golden Rule Pledge Initiative along with the Day of Silence. Watch this video and I hope you can feel a little of the anguish that is the daily life of a child who is the target of bullying.

The song is a way of introducing the new e-book Bullycide in America: Moms speak out about the bullying’suicide connection. Full disclosure: I have some articles in this book and have done some volunteering for this group. These stories and those of kids I know have touched me in profound ways and I hope will go a long way toward creating change. There are multiple factors which inform an understanding of bullying and I hope these cases and articles will help raise awareness.

Newsday points out that Keith Olbermann of MSNBC said on September 10 that he would give a charity $100 for every lie told by Sarah Palin.

After showing a clip of Sarah Palin supporting the Alaska Bridge, which she now says she opposed, this is what Olbermann said:
“By the way, as of tomorrow, every time Senator [sic] Palin repeats one of her standard lies about the Bridge to Nowhere or the plane she sold on eBay that she didn’t sell on eBay, or the fired chef she didn’t fire, I will donate $100 to charity. It will be $300 if she somehow says she sold the chef on eBay.”

Then on September 17, he said he had decided what charity would get his money.

Twice now in two days – in Colorado, then today at Vienna, Ohio – Governor Palin has again invoked – that is the polite term – her status as the mother of a special needs child and the role of advocate she wants to play for special needs kids. Yesterday, she said, “Ever since I took the chief executive’s job up north, I’ve pushed for more funding for students with special needs.” Today the quote was, “I sought more funds for students with special needs.”
Problem: As the chief executive up north, she vetoed $275,000, crossed it out, of the state funding of the Special Olympics. She cut the Special Olympics budget in half and is campaigning as an advocate for special needs kids. That’s pretty sick. Well, at least we do know which charity I should donate that hundred bucks to every time she lies about her record: the Alaska Special Olympics.

Here and at Newsbusters, the claim that Palin cut the Special Olympics budget has been debunked. She signed a budget which gave them a 10% raise.
Olbermann apparently takes his reporting from blogs without fact checking. In fact, the ThinkProgress blog has attempted a correction but could not get that right either.
And so, if a charity gets $100 for what he perceives to be a lie, what will the charity get when he spreads false witness via his reporting? I think he should double his contribution, do you?

This article raises some important issues regarding sex development and by implication for sexual orientation.
Discuss…

This is an update on the collection of claims that Sarah Palin cut everything in sight as Alaska Governor.
Various bloggers have claimed that Palin cut funds to Catholic charities and it made at least one mainstream source as well. In a September 11 op-ed, Margaret Carlson claimed:

Palin, who said parents of special-needs children would have an advocate in the White House, cut funds for the Special Olympics, Catholic Charities and Covenant House. It would be good to know what she favors that parents need.

I have examined the Special Olympics and Covenant House claims here and found them false. The Catholic charities claim is a similar kind of claim but a bit more complex.
First, I cannot find a line-item or listing for Catholic Charities in the FY 2008 or FY 2009 Alaska budgets. In the FY 2008 budget (7/1/07-6/30/08). However, Catholic Community Services in various locations was allocated funding for several projects. Here is the FY2008 breakdown:

By my calculations, the AK legislature proposed $582,925 in four capital projects and the Palin administration left $62,925 intact. According to the Palin administration’s rationale for vetoes, the $20,000 for the freezer would have been duplicate funding (apparently another source was found) and the $500,000 would have created “new facilities and programs.” Wilda Laughlin, spokesperson for the AK Department of Health and Social Services told me that most requests for new facilities were not funded with the priority given to refurbish existing infrastructure (e.g., the parking lot).
Now look at the FY2009 budget and funding for Catholic Community Services:

The Angoon folks still didn’t get their freezer and frig but the Juneau branch received $50,000 for Hospice care and the Fairbanks branch received $150,000 that they did not have before. Again, the charge regarding a cut relates to a reduced increase, and not a cut. As a legislator, it is relatively easy to ask for money for a constituent’s project knowing that the Executive branch has to balance the budget. In summary, the legislature proposed $370,000 in three line items, with the final budget allocating $200,000 to Catholic Community Services. CCS received almost six times as much funding in FY2009 as in FY2008. I do not see how this can be considered a cut.
In fact, the Director of the Catholic Community Services was happy to get the funding, saying in this May, 2008 article,

Palin also halved funding for counseling and adoption services at Catholic Community Resources. But Camille Connelly-Terhune, the group’s executive director, said the group was “thrilled” with the $150,000 it did get.
“It gives us the option to continue our services,” she said.