Palin's speech in Johnstown: With Update

Three generations (me, my daughter, and my granddaughter) went to hear Palin in Johnstown. Here's the only online footage of the speech I can find:

C-Span

If you listen carefully, when she mentions Obama voting against the BAIPA, you can hear me yell "Four times!"

Notice the huge cheers she got when she spoke of the value of kids with special needs. (Though I have to wonder about the idea of just throwing more money to their education. That tends to build up a Special Needs Industry, which I don't want to see. I want to see organic community support that requires less professional, government-sponsored intervention. It's better for the kids as well as cheaper, and it spreads the blessings and joys outside the sphere of those paid to be involved.)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And -- Here's PIPER!



UPDATE: The Tribune Democrat coverage wasn't bad, though they insisted on having a spokesperson for the Obama campaign comment on everything Palin said. I don't know if they do this when Obama speaks.

On one occasion, though, this did help Palin and hurt Obama:

“Every child has something to contribute to the world if we give them that chance,” she said.

From there, she referenced a comment Obama made earlier this year at Greater Johnstown High School during a campaign stop.

“He said that a woman shouldn’t be, quote, ‘punished with a baby,’ ” Palin said.

“And ladies and gentlemen, he said that right here in Johnstown. It’s about time that we called him on it.”

....

It is an issue that could cause trouble for Obama in this area, where some socially conservative Democrats remain staunchly opposed to legalized abortion.

The Obama campaign did not backpedal on the issue Saturday, with senior adviser Anita Dunn saying Palin’s comments show that “the right to choose hangs in the balance” in the upcoming election.

...

The campaign also objected to Palin’s use of the “punished with a baby” quote.

While Obama was responding to a question about abortion during the March 29 rally in Johnstown, the campaign contends he was speaking in the context of sex education.

Obama representatives on Saturday issued the full text of the Democratic candidate’s Johnstown quote:

“Look, I’ve got two daughters – 9 years old and 6 years old,” Obama said at the time. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

Thanks, Obama spokesperson, and thanks, Tribune Democrat for reminding the conservative Democrats of Johnstown that Obama not only considers a baby "punishment" but likens babies to STDs!

Laziness pays off now

"Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now." Thus sayeth the find demotivational poster at Despair.com.

And laziness is a way of life, it seems, for Palin detractors (including CNN's Soledad O'Brien), who evidently figure that taking some tiny piece of information that they don't even understand and trying to turn it into a huge scandal is journalism.

I'll let The Raving Atheist take them to the woodshed:

Emily,

Do you ever, ever, EVER do any fact-checking? The other day, you repeated the Washington Post claim that Palin slashed funds for pregnant teens, when in fact she TRIPLED the funding from $1.2 million to $3.9 million. [It was funding for all manner of troubled teens, BTW, not necessarily for pregnant or parenting teens. -- ed.] And today, you repeated the thoroughly debunked lie that specials needs funding has been "slashed".

In fact, the funding is set to INCREASE 12% from 2008 to 2009. The erroneous reports of a 62% decrease are attributable to a misreading of the budget, which moved the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy out of the special needs category and into its own program. Furthermore, Palin worked to overhaul the special needs funding system so that per student spending is set to increase from $26,900 per student to $73,840 by 2011.

I just need to add one point that TRA missed. It wasn't even pregnant or parenting teens in the first place -- it was funding for a capital project for an organization that also provides housing to parenting teens.

Covenant House Alaska executive director, Deirdre Cronin, explained it this way in a September 4 statement:

Despite some press reports to the contrary, our operating budget was not reduced. Our $3.9 million appropriation is directed toward a multi-year capital project and it is our understanding that the state simply opted to phase in its support for this project over several years, rather than all at once in the current budget year.

But will these "journalists" who have been passing on malicious and/or ignorant lies make retractions? I've said it before -- when that bear in Governor Palin's office gets up and starts dancing.

I do note, however, that the blog, "RH Reality Check", where TRA posted his scolding, did post a correction. Well done!