Well, that's the rub. I'd imagine that anyone who was raped and couldn't afford it (i.e. didn't have insurance) just get the rape to herself. The only way you might hear about something like that is if an uninsured woman didn't know that she would wind up being billed. Then you'd probably have an incident report with the woman declining to press charges.

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"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

In a hyperpartisan political environment I like to look at all the facts. It's curious that this particular web page says:

And
But...

There are 57 comments total but not a single one until:

I smell a rat, but lets let this story develop further before we make judgments.

And to reiterate, these are statements from someone besides Palin. Let's see what others dig up.

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Andy
Cynical Optimist

As Matt is certainly a fascinating person.....................

The topic of the thread is sexual assault victims paying for their forensic tests.

Is it possible for you to actually stay on topic? You may not think this topic of paying for sexual assault tests is more important than commenting on Matt's person.

FWIW, I think it was a while after 2000 (with the advent of web 2.0) that "comments" became standard fare for any and every web page you might possibly find. This is probably related to disk space as maintaining a comments log requires a dedicated database whereas simply posting news clips or stories does not.

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"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

Yes, but it's curious even so.

The point is, this story has been reported from only one side. There are a lot of assumptions being made about Palin's position on this based on statements other people have made.

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Andy
Cynical Optimist

I'm really trying to find some way that this is justifiable. Even if she says she didn't know about it, that reflects poorly on her mayoral skills. If it's not true, that is the only way I can think that one could, forgive me, put lipstick on this pig*.



*pig means the issue, not her.

I'm with Si Modo. I'm trying to conceive of a way that the best case scenario here isn't obliviousness/cluelessness. That's certainly not as distressing, but it isn't exactly a positive.

Though, I am/would be curious to hear her side of it.

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"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

Updated the quote before you responded I think. I don't usually comment on persons, but if it is related to their posting habits, I might just do that (as Matt has done which I usually have no objection). I usually read through comments before I post about the actual topic. I like to stay up to date just incase I post something that would seem pointless or ridiculous if say there was an update worthy of noting.

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"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." -fortune cookie

YOUR REPLY FROM A LIFELONG SMALL TOWN AMERICAN CITIZEN

It's totally obvious that the left wing of the democrat party such as yourself have never seen the workings of government in a very small town.

First of all--will you site just exactly how many rapes over the last 20 or so years occurred in the township of Wasilla?

Since, I am politically involved with my small town here, here is my answer to your ridiculous response:

Within the city council of a small town & at town meetings the conversation centers around infracstructure of the town, & some of how can we fix drainage from running onto private party, along with a couple steady eddie's that show up to complain about Barney Fifes cat getting into their garden. "I know." I haved lived in a small town all my life.

Small town budgets are done yearly--they do not allocate (or set aside) money for things they do not need.

Setting money aside for rape kits in a small town that virtually has no violence would be the equivalent of setting aside money for the protection of tropical palm trees in downtown Wasilla. Of course, Palm trees do not or cannot exist in Wasilla, Alaska.

Once more, in small towns we DO actually take care of our own. Our churches get involved, our neighbors get involved, & we would dole out much more money to a victim of a crime, (typically burgalary) than $300 to $1200 in support. We don't need laws to tell us to do that.

You smear blogger attack liberals are acting like Wasilla, Alaska is the rape captial of the United States. It's another bogus attack on Sarah Palin, based on a remark from a small town policeman or simply put--based on ZERO, NOTHING, NADA.

I think we will. I can't imagine her not having to comment on this. And now that she is doing interviews, perhaps we will get to hear her side soon.

Personally, I don't think this will be a huge issue with the public in its current state. If it is manipulated by the Obama camp so the story is more simple than it actually is, then I think it would might cause the McCain camp some problems. In its current state, I don't think it will be a problem. IMO the only way to make people concerned is to make an honest story into something dishonest.

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"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." -fortune cookie

OK first of all, your whole post on this topic is over the top, could you chill?

Second that's been addressed by numerous posts in this topic, links have been provided and stats are readily available within them. It's no one's fault if you are unable/unwilling to click on the link and read the information. It seems about 30 rapes were reported over the 20 year period.

1. If we're going to assume that this level of banality is what takes up the time of a "small town" mayor, doesn't that cut a little bit into her "major executive experience."
2. If these concerns are so small, wouldn't that mean something like the way the police treats rape victims likely to be more important. It seems you want us to believe that small towns aren't that busy and yet also don't make time for these things because it's not "important"? I honestly am confused.

This is where your "argument" begins to unravel. It took me exactly two seconds to click on a link that told me there was a pretty consistent number of rapes in Wasilla every year Palin was mayor, between 3-6 generally. Can we assume the mayor is briefed on these kinds of rape statistics? If that's not the case...um why aren't mayors briefed on the crime statistics in their towns. However if mayors ARE briefed on these things setting aside money for rape kits wouldn't be setting aside money for something they "didn't need" because there was a consistent, if small, number of rapes which occured every year. Again, you seem to be saying because there were under 10 rapes a year that these kits were not "needed." Again, I would LOVE for you to say as such to a victim of sexual assault in person.

So your argument is that if Sarah Palin knew about this that she merely relied on the other citizens in town to take care of it. And she never took it upon herself to make it a mayoral issue. Um...OK. If that's small town life, then it's small town life. But that convinces me even more that she's not prepared for office. Things don't just "work themselves out" in the big leagues.

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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

If there are so few rapes in small towns, then why would allocating money to investigating them be a problem? After all, they do happen - it is not the equivilent of protecting palm trees in Alaska. That's just offensive. A crime has taken place. The victims deserve justice.

The piece of this that is not clear to me is whether the issue ever came up during Palin's time as mayor. Was it policy, but, not enforced? Were any victims actually charged for the kit? I'm not defending the policy by any means. It's ridiculous. But, how much blame, if any, rests on Palin?

And... 10 rapes in a town of about 8000??? WOW! There are serious problems with that.

Anyway, this still would not cause me to vote for Obama. I had problems with McCain before he brought Palin into the fray. I have some problems with some things that have occurred with regard to Palin. But, none of those match my problems with Obama. Lesser of 2 (4?) evils? Yup, absolutely.

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"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." -Thomas Jefferson

I agree. I live in a small town, even smaller than Wasilla, AK. Our town budget is approved in a very, old fashioned, small town manner in which each line in the budget is read, debated and voted in a town meeting. Every citizen in town votes on every line in the budget. Every line in the budget is open for debate in which any town citizen can express concerns, ask questions and even submit changes to the line.

As stated by Hafke, it would not be difficult to approve a budget item for $15,000 for such things. If the funds are not used, they are simply carried over to the next budget.

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"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." -Thomas Jefferson