One of the many reasons I'm voting against McCain/Palin

[torquill]

The Wasilla police chief is against new legislation that protects rape victims against being billed for their rape evidence kits.

Reading between the lines: Sarah Palin, the GOP Vice Presidential pick, was governor mayor of Wasilla, AK for several years.

Since the police chief is protesting this new law, presumably it was policy in Wasilla that rape victims could be sent a bill for the cost of the exam kit, which is quoted at $300 to $1200 apiece.

There is mention that "In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible." Where possible means that anyone who didn't have adequate health insurance (know anyone like that in this country?) would have to pay it out of pocket, and insurance companies could still charge a deductible for the remaining women.

Not only is Palin against abortion in the case of rape or incest, she's perfectly happy to have rape victims charged money for being a victim. The GOP expects to collect women's votes with the Palin pick, because obviously we're so dumb we'll go for anything with a uterus.... but that's a mighty misogynistic uterus they've put on stage.

For frosting: "Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon [says] the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases." That's a hell of a lot of sexual assault for a bucolic small town... if that number isn't a wild exaggeration (I sure hope it is) it speaks very, very poorly for the town's handling of the issue of sexual assault. But then, what do you expect from a place where the mayor advocates abstinence-only education and winds up with a pregnant teenage daughter?

Comments

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Not sure whether you've seen this..

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

I'll have to torrent it -- Firefox 3 under Ubuntu can't seem to load the video. Sigh.

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

I just watched it under Chrome but on Vista. All I gotta say is I'd want him to advise me on any campaign I ran. :-)

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. you're right.. try this:

http://foogod.livejournal.com/92704.html

(For some reason, the embed-in-other-pages flash player is less picky than the one they use on their own site, it appears..)

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

Ah, that did the trick. Thanks. :)

[foogod.livejournal.com]

It should also be pointed out, BTW, that the connection between Palin and Fallon isn't entirely circumstantial:

When Palin first became mayor of Wasilla, one of her actions was to fire a whole bunch of people and put in new ones. One of the people she fired was the police chief who had had the job since the department was founded, and the replacement she put in his place? Charlie Fallon.

So this is actually Palin's own appointee, the guy she hand-picked because "we needed people with new energy and a new vision", making these statements.