10 Things You (and the McCain Camp) May Not Have Known About GOP VP Pick Sarah Palin...

until this week (that have nothing to do with her family or her being a woman):

1. Before she was against "the bridge to nowhere," a term Palin once called "insulting," she was for it -- and the $223 million earmarked for it. (So if Republicans want to give her a pass on lying and flip-flopping, they should extend the same courtesy to Democrats.)

2. "Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of 'objectionable' spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin," according to an article in the September 3 Los Angeles Times. Additionally, Palin hired lobbyists to secure funds for pet projects in her home town of Wasilla, including $15 million for a railroad from her town to that of Senator Ted Stevens, who she had once supported and is now under indictment for failing to report gifts. (And before you jump in, I know that Palin reduced the number of earmarks requested for 2008 and that just about all politicians, Democrats and Republicans, have pet projects. My point is that only one of the politicians cited by McCain, Palin, is on the ticket with him.)

3. Governor Palin believes in abstinence-only sex education, as does John McCain, which we can clearly see really works. (Btw, while I think the notion of abstaining until marriage is nice, it is totally unrealistic to think that a majority of teenagers will do so. And I much rather have a safe, healthy sexually active teen than a sick or unhappily pregnant one.)

4. Palin cut funding to help teenage mothers. While Palin believes teenagers, no matter their circumstances, should, if they become pregnant (despite supposedly abstaining from sex), have and raise their children, she apparently doesn't believe in providing sufficient funding to programs that will give these girls and their babies a good, safe headstart.

5. In a speech last June to her former church in Wasilla, Ms. Palin said the war in Iraq was “a task that is from God," which apparently also applies to building a $30 billion gas pipeline in Alaska.

6. When I last looked at it, the First Amendment (of the U.S. Constitution) provided for the separation of -- a wall between -- Church and State. However, Gov. Palin hasn't let a little thing like the Constitution get in the way of her, God, and her fellow Republican's (at least the ones who take her side -- woe to those who don't) plans or invoking God in government addresses or at schools. Btw, her Wasilla Assembly of God church pastor, Ed Kalnins, makes Jeremiah Wright look like an altar boy.

7. Along similar lines... "As a candidate for governor, Sarah Palin called for teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools," according to the Associated Press and many other reports (though she hasn't forced the issue -- yet).

8. Governor Palin doesn't believe that human activities have contributed to global warming (though McCain was an early proponent of capping emissions).

9. Palin is not known as a consensus builder and is used to getting her own way. John McCain take note!

10. Palin favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and offshore. McCain is (or was) opposed to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

(Btw, on an unrelated note, who is and has been taking care of those five kids? Does Palin have help? Is Todd the primary caregiver? Just curious...)

JUST ADDED 9/4: 11. Palin has been in favor of and supported raising (at least some) taxes. Palin supported a sales tax increase in Wasilla and also, as Governor of Alaska, higher taxes on energy companies, which McCain has said he opposes. (For the record, the money raised by the sales tax went to some good causes, like a new ice rink and sports complex* and increased public safety, which probably would not have been funded or possible otherwise. In case anyone forgot, providing for our safety, security, education, health and well being is largely what taxes are for. And we pay far less than Canadians or citizens in most, if not all, European countries.)

ADDED 5:40 P.M.: Be sure to also check out this fact-checking article from ABC News. Just trying to set the record straight...

ADDED 1:00 P.M. ON 9/5: I've been hemming and hawing all morning about whether to include Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny's letter to some friends that was posted as a comment to an article in the Washington Independent on Sarah Palin. But after verifying that she is, indeed, a real person and legit (having now been vetted by at least one professional journalist), I am adding this additional information. Although Ms. Kilkenny is just one person/one opinion, other folks who have or do live in Wasilla, who know or have interacted with Palin have since chimed in and corroborated much (if not all) of what Ms. Kilkenny wrote.

*IMPORTANT SPORTS COMPLEX UPDATE: According to a report in the September 6 issue of the Conservative Wall Street Journal, the indoor sports complex project, the largest project Palin ever undertook, was mismanaged from the get-go -- and "led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla."

Is there ANYTHING this woman hasn't fibbed about? Did the McCain camp talk to ANYONE in Wasilla about Sarah Palin before selecting her to be on the ticket? Apparently not.