Sarah Palin

As is everyone in the United States, and the World, I’m stunned at McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.  To this end, I am tabulating a list of facts that are pertinent to the election as well as some questions that I want to answer as we learn more about her background.

Questions

• Has she ever traveled outside of North America, and does she have a current passport?
  Answer:  Yes, she received a passport in July, 2007 before she visited members of the Alaska National Guard in Kuwait.  She also traveled to Germany on the same trip.
• Censorship (aka book burning) – does she believe government (local, state, or federal) has the right to restrict any book, for any reason, from public libraries?
• Medical – both Sarah Palin and John McCain should release their medical records for public review.  This would address legitimate questions about McCain’s general health (POW, ex-smoker, survivor of multiple cancers) as well as resolve unanswered questions about Palin’s last pregnancy.
• Creationism – does she also believe students should debate issues surrounding Mathematics, Geography, etc? 
  • Does she believe that pi is a transcendental number, or does she round it up to 3?
  • Does she believe Earth is 6000 years old? 

Facts

• Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska for 20 months.
• In 2006, the state of Alaska had a population of 670,053
• In the rest of the country, we call a population of 670K a city, not a state.  I live 15 miles from Philadelphia, and neighbors commute to NYC, and Washington, DC.  
• Sarah Palin was on the city council and mayor of Wasilla, AK.  At this time Obama was an IL state senator, not a community organizer (as stated in her speech on 9/3/2008).  The Republicans appear to just make up things and turn them into ‘facts’.  A full timeline of Obama and Palin’s professional live is below.
• In 2004, the city of Wasilla, AK had a population of under 6000
• In 2005, the enrollment in our regional high school was 7500
• Our local high school had a larger budget and more construction projects than Wasilla, AK.
• Sarah Palin is not related to Michael Palin.
• She promotes teaching creationism in public schools.
• She has a BA in Journalism from the University of Idaho.
• The University of Idaho is considered a third tier college.
• All public Universities in NJ are ranked tier 1.   The only other tier 3/4 school I know is Regent University, where the Bush DoJ staff received law degrees.

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