I'd question who produced those initial sources you read. At least some voices in Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News for example, has been calling out Palin for problematic issues in regards to ethics and her living up to her public statements. I was deluged with information, from jump, about her willingness to publicly ridicule political opponents, about "troopergate" about her insane pastor and about her involvement in Ted Stevens' 527 organisation.

__________________
Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

Buy two, get half off the third one?

(Sorry, I understand this is a serious issue and I often can't control my smart-assery. I was just absolutely blown away by a poster willing to go so far for the sake of partisanship as to basically tell women raped in small towns "tough shit - shoulda gone somewhere that there's more rape!")

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Compassionate conservatism strikes again

__________________
Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

What I read wasn't free of negative information, by any stretch. There were critiques involved - a lot of them having to do with apparently Luddite takes on "Creationism", the secessionist affiliation, etc. But, the general consensus was that she was relatively on the up and up about rooting out corruption and waste. Now, I'm wondering about the waste part. I've seen nothing so far to suggest that she is corrupt.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

I will give her this, I don't think she was that corrupt. Even her work with Ted Stevens 527 seems on the up and up. But one of her major platforms is that she will "shake up" Washington in terms of wasteful earmarks and wasteful spending. And this rape kit story kind of confuses that. Why did she lobby FOR the Bridge to Nowhere, but never lobby for this policy being changed. She HAD priorities as the mayor. She pushed for federal pork for the sports complex. But she never pushed to change this rule. If the kits were so expensive, why wasn't that part of her federal pork push. No matter how you slice it. It stinks.

__________________
Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

What's missing in all this is if it was ever a real issue to begin with? How many rape victims, if any, did this actually apply to in Wasilla? As far as I can tell, at this point, this was philosophical more than anything.

Furthermore, the USA article is incomplete and illustrates bias in the following methods used:

1. Omitting Context
3. Controlling Focus
4. Creating Myths
5. Circular Reasoning
7. Misleading Headlines

Media Bias - The Tricks and Techniques

That's just for starters. We don't know what laws were on the books in Wasilla at the time. We don't know what efforts were made to change them. We don't know how much support there was for changing them. We don't know what statements Palin may have made in other venues or articles that were conveniently omitted to create a controversy to sell newspapers. We don't know much of anything in fact.

What we have is incomplete quotes from a former political opponent.

Amanda Carpenter has this on Townhall.com:

It remains to be seen how this latest "controversy" plays out, but it's far too soon to pass judgment. Like the other so called issues, this may also be a whole bunch of nothing. Not that it will stop biased people from using it for political advantage.

__________________
Andy
Cynical Optimist

Given I'm no leftist and a large number of my close family and friends are as conservative as they come, I want to make it clear to exclude conservatives with a clue in saying that this is one of the saddest and most pathetic posts I've ever read given the level of ignorance. Wake up to life in the real world, and stop talking shit without a clue. It's embarrassing to the large number of conservatives who have common sense.

Before you make such ludicrous statements, try an easy google:

Uniform Crime Reports of Wasilla Police and Index from 1985 to 2005

Thus, rape and other serious crimes, including murder, do happen in her little hamlet--as they do anywhere. What do you think the town sheriff was saving his 5,000-17,000 per year upon?

__________________

so we are left with- what did she know and when did she know it?

How many rapes did indeed occur in wasilla during her tenure and did she in fact sppt. the policy or?

__________________

"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

I'm sorry but...what? Maybe you have a low opinion of the citizens of Wasilla, but how on earth would it have been controversial for Palin to push for this law to be changed. We know exactly the kinds of things she pushed hard for, lots of journalists have been scouring her records to see what she pushed for in order to get a sense of her values. If there was evidence that she had made ANY effort to overturn this practice, wouldn't some of the conservative-leaning media out there have found it and used it to quelch this story the SECOND it appeared on the blogs. In fact, wouldn't they have used it to add credence to their claim that the media is trying to "smear" Palin.

Her silence on the issue is deafening if you ask me. If she really had no clue that there were rapes in Wasilla and that this was a policy then I'm just a little bit concerned about her oversight ability. This was a town of 9,000. I would suspect that a rape, being a relatively rare crime, would maybe make the local news. It's also a little creepy that Wasilla was the ONLY town in Alaska that did this policy.

Seems there were 10 reported rapes from 2000-2005, there's no stats on this link from 1995-2000 for some reason. Uniform Crime Reports of Wasilla Police and Index from 1985 to 2005

__________________
Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

Why do you persist in making a mockery of your own normal, intelligent posts by posting ridiculous garbage like this?

We have a couple posters who are genuinely incapable of actual thought, so that sort of stuff is the best they can do.

You are not one of those people.

As for the thread topic, it's repugnant to me that the victim is made to pay for evidence collection in any crime. Inexcusable, IMHO.

I suspect, though, that this is not an issue that is confined to Alaska.

Matt

Out of curiosity, why is your numbered list missing numbers?

And yes, I would agree that more information would certainly be helpful in terms of understanding the full story of what the reasoning was, etc. I'm not sure how likely we are to get any up front explanation from Palin on the matter, however, as it seems like a hot potato.

One thing that occurs to me is that this law might have been on the books for a long time, and there was no specific event during her tenure to make it relevant. Still, the existence of the law is somewhat disturbing on its face.

Edit: Another thing I just thought of that is troubling is that this law absolutely discourages women from reporting rapes. So, even if no rapes were reported (which according to OSB's link, they were), we would have no way of knowing how many occurred but were not reported in order to avoid the personal expense of reporting the crime.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Why do conservatives keep asking how many rapes occured?

If there was 1 rape and that 1 victim was too poor to afford the kit are they implying that it's acceptable? I just don't understand the relevance of the question they keep asking.

__________________
Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

Amen.

And as the UCR report you linked indicates, it certainly does happen there (just like any other place in the US).

Matt

The scenario of a woman who has been assaulted in such a terrible way having to be humilliated in that manner on top of everything else is heartbreaking.

This is a case where I want to hear Palin's own reasoning for this. If it does become a major story, it could have a real impact.

It should.

That's where I'm sitting, but I doubt that we're going to hear it, for some reason.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson