Is McClatchy Fairly Reporting New Palin Smear? Not Really

From what my research suggests, McClatchy is wrong on at least a couple counts with this latest Palin smear:

While some of their complaints (about Palin) have already been aired, Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter's question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

True, Knowles said.

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said.

To start with, it isn't new ground - it goes back days ago to this Liberal blog eventually picked up by TPM. And you have to click multiple links to get to a story that never mentions Palin and indicates what the police chief wanted to do was bill the offenders when appropriate - though some charges did go to insurance companies of victims. But Palin's name doesn't even appear in the article.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

In the past weve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

Ultimately it is the criminal who should bear the burden of the added costs, Fannon said.

The forensic exam is just one part of the equation. Id like to see the courts make these people pay restitution for these things, Fannon said.

Fannon said he intends to include the cost of exams required to collect evidence in a restitution request as a part of a criminals sentencing.

Comments

[jaime]

"I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer,"

Classy. Real Classy. I don't know about you, but where I'm from, the Police Chief answers to the mayor and not the other way around. The mayor sets the budget and any non-fundamentalist psychopath mayor would actively seek to take the burden OFF the woman in those cases.

"Ultimately it is the criminal who should bear the burden of the added costs, Fannon said."

But until then, "Show me the money!!!!" Of course, no mention of what to do if they never catch or convict the rapist. Hey, at least that rape baby will turn into a bundle of joy in Sarah Palin's America.

"Isn't he beautiful? He's got the eyes of the guy who beat me and left me to die in a ditch. I'm glad I carried the reminder of my rape around with me for 9 months."

[Lala]

What role does Alaska's Crime Victims Compensation Board play in this? How big is the police force for this small town of 9000 and what is their budget? How much does a DNA test cost? They used to cost in the thousands of dollars.

[Sara]

How many rapes were there in Wasilla during her tenure there? I read the number is ZERO. I doubt a policy mandated by state law was on anyone's radar.

[Spartan112]

She touts being mayor as executive experience but now it's the police chiefs job to create policy? The more we take the lipstick off this pig the less attractive she looks.

[SacTownMan]

McClatchy is one of the latest liberal news monopolies. They got their start right here in Sacramento with the Sacramento Bee. A few years ago they went on a newspaper buying binge and picked up lots of big market papers.

This local based news rag is in major trouble. In todays Sacramento Bee is a story titled:
"Bee to trim work force by another 7% through buyouts"
This comes after a previous round in June that eliminated another 8%.
The article also says,
"Advertising has fallen by 22% at California papers."

This comes just after they completely changed the layout and look of the paper a month ago. Smaller and with fewer pages this shows the problems with these leftist rags that include the LA Slimes, NY Slimes, Washington Compost and others.

And they just continue down the same path as if they are oblivious to the world around them. The more these rags throw the monkey poop and hype the god king Xerxes they show their readers that it is a waste of money to buy their propaganda.

For me this is a defining moment as I just called them and canceled my subscription that I've had for almost 30 years! The paper has always had a Democratic slant but I simply left it to living in the great troll state.

The print media in this country no longer exists other than to spew Soro's talking points.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Wow, this is going to be such a surprise to you PDS victims......but the practice of charging victims or insurance companies.....and even states for evidence collection kits has been around for years n years. It is quite likely that Palin didn't even know about it. Be that as it may and playing grown up for you. In 1996, Joe "plugs" Biden sponsored legislation to prohibit hospitals from charging victims for these kits. I don't know if it ever passed unfortunately, should have, but maybe some googler will actually do some research when their knees quit jerking.

[templar knight]

Wow, the liberal trolls have no shame. And yes, mayor is executive experience, "community organizer" is nothing more than an ACORN rep signing up illegal voters using crack cocaine and ripple as bait. Change Obama can believe in.

jaime, has Palin said she opposes abortion for rape victims, or did you just make that shit up?

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"has Palin said she opposes abortion for rape victims?"
TK, I haven't looked hard but what I've found indicates that on a personal level she makes no exception for rape/incest. Again that is as a personal belief (in other words she would have the kid), not legislative. I would like to hear her answer the question...not some dumbass with a computer. As a dad with daughters, I could *NEVER* support anyone who would force a victim to carry this burden regardless of how few such cases there are.

[Fred Beloit]

The American majority has become well aware of the bias of most of its major newspapers, and they are unsubscribing in droves. These babbling and bubbling-at-the-lips troolls and their malignant and ham-fisted propaganda tactics are also doing their part to sink Obama's ship of fools and foils. Keep it up, folks. Keep showing us your fangs and fur so it will be easy for all to see your true nature.

[seekeornos]

So saith Jamie:

"--- Isn't he beautiful? He's got the eyes of the guy who beat me and left me to die in a ditch. I'm glad I carried the reminder of my rape around with me for 9 months. ---"

Indeed! It's entirely the baby's fault, for which his skull should be crushed, his brains and innards suctioned out, and his rotten, unwanted carcass torn limb from limb just because he once was an unwanted and uninvited sperm.

What love you truly have for an innocent human life, whose only mistake was to be conceived - for which he must be DESTROYED!

Indeed, your god-king Obama-bin-Xerxes relishes the sacrifice of unborn infants in his name, much like the abominable and detestable idol Molech once feasted upon infants tossed into his brazen maw in order to keep the crops coming in ancient Canaan.

Ask yourself this question, Jamie: are you thankful that your mother chose not to summarily slaughter you before you left her womb?

Is not our willing participation in the GENOCIDE of over 40 million unborn lives building up a terrible store of Righteous Wrath, which only the merciful forbearance of the Living and True God keeps from ending this nation in a disaster from which we could never recover from?

Repent, O baby-killers, for your hateful wickedness is bringing judgment upon our nation.

[Lala]

Sorry I took so long but here it is - and Illinois is one of the states that charge for rape kits.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-health-and-money/2008/2/21/rape-victims-can-be-hurt-financially-too.html

excerpt

"Turns out experts on sexual assault are all too familiar with the issue. "It's been a problem for a long time," says Ilse Knecht, deputy director of public policy at the National Center for Victims of Crime. "We've heard so many stories of victims paying for their exams, or not being able to and then creditors coming after them." In order to qualify for federal grants under the Violence Against Women Act, states have to assume the full out-of-pocket costs for forensic medical exams, as the rape kits are called. But according to a 2004 bulletin published by the NCVC, "[F]eedback from the field indicates that sexual assault victims are still being billed." Knecht says she's recently heard from caseworkers in Illinois, Georgia, and Arkansas reporting that rape victims continue to be charged for their forensic exams."

[Lala]

Hmmm, North Carolina charges rape victims - now whose state is that?

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/941202.html

excerpt

N.C. hospitals bill rape victims
Advocates say the state should shoulder the cost of rape kits, which are needed to help put suspects behind bars

Rape victims across the state are paying for their ill fortune in the most tangible of ways: a bill for the evidence kit needed to lock up the rapist.

The vast majority of the 3,000 or so emergency room patients examined for sexual assaults each year shoulder some of the cost of a rape kit test, according to state records and victim advocates. For some, it's as little as a $50 insurance co-payment. For those without insurance, it's hundreds of dollars left when a state program designed to help reaches its limit.

Advocates want the state to spare rape victims and fully pay the cost of the examinations, which collect biological evidence that an attacker may have left behind.

[Lala]

Missouri

http://www.joplinindependent.com/display_article.php/admin21179504908

excerpt

"Gibbons said he also was shocked to learn that rape victims many times are forced to pay for the rape kit and collection of evidence used in the prosecution of their case.

“The women who fall prey to these horrible crimes should not be further victimized by the process that is supposed to bring justice in their case,” Gibbons said. “You would be appalled if your home was broken into and the police handed you a bill for dusting for fingerprints.”

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"Hmmm, North Carolina charges rape victims - now whose state is that?"

Well that'd be my little piece of heaven and I knew that. Lala, I spent most of my adult life in fire/EMS services. I've taken victims to the hospital and I know two women personally who were raped. I am totally against this outrage and have lobbied our demonrat run state government to change it. Again, as a father of girls. I would also never tolerate anyone advocating they or anyone elses child be forced to bear some rapist's offspring and in the case of other people's daughters...I consider incest to be rape.

Seek: Jaime was talking about a rape victim being forced to carry a baby and even more scars from a hateful, criminal act. She had a repugnant way of putting it.....but I agree with her.

[seekeronos]

WW, I would still have problems will terminating the life of an unborn baby - even a rapist's child.

That child did no wrong, beyond his father's DNA finding the DNA of mother that was raped.

At the very least, an effort should be made to locate an adoptive family, or perhaps if early enough in term, the fetus surgically removed and implanted into another receptive woman - perhaps a barren woman who might not otherwise conceive?

While rape is in my opinion, a capital crime, the person who pays for that crime with his (or her) life should not be an innocent child!!

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Seek: we will have to agree to disagree. This first time I looked into a victim/patient's eyes as she told a female officer what had happened to her and knew she would carry that horror the rest of her life. Sorry man, just couldn't put anyone through that memory with the extra weight of carry a baby to term.

[jaime]

"for which his skull should be crushed"

http://www.iscr.ed.ac.uk/outreach/images/Human-blastocyst.gif

Show me a skull.

Fundies consider the morning after pill abortion. That's why they make women pay for their rape kits.

[jaime]

"and Illinois is one of the states that charge for rape kits."

Nope.

2001

Illinois, House Bill 1814 (HB1814)Amends the Crime Victims Compensation Act to permit emergency awards; to extend the statute of limitations for filing for compensation from one year to 2 years; and to revise subrogation provisions to require deposits into a special fund for costs related to recovery efforts by the Attorney General. Provides that if the Comptroller offsets a claim, the individual or entity receiving the funds must credit the applicant's or victim's account and may not pursue payment from the applicant or victim for the amount. Amends the Court of Claims Act to permit emergency awards to be approved by the decision of one judge.

The bill was co-sponsored by Obama.

[Lala]

That bill is for the Crime Victims Compensation Act. Alaska also had a Crime Victims Compensation Act that would have covered a victims expenses. Where does this say "rape kit"? It coversr "costs of ER treatment"?
Also, the victim has to file the claim to get reimbursed. Why?

I see you got this from Kos, just like I did.

"According to the Sexual Assault Emergency Treatment Act, the Illinois Department of Public Aid will reimburse the costs of ER treatment if you do not have public aid or private medical insurance. Under the Illinois Crime Victim’s Compensation Act, if you report the assault to the police within 72 hours of the crime and if you file a claim application within two years of the date of the crime, you can be reimbursed for out-of-pocket medical expenses, loss of earnings, psychological counseling, and loss of support income due to the crime. Reimbursement can be up to $27,000."

[Lala]

What was Illinois doing before 2001? Alaska changed their law 8 years ago.

[seekeronos]

"--- Show me a skull. ---"

It's that otherwise empty thing on top of your neck, between your shoulders.

Oh, you meant from the Blastocyst? I'd say it is the upper left cluster of biggish cells. Of course, at that point they are stem cells, for which you evil, cannibalist, murdering gits would love to harvest.

"--- Fundies consider the morning after pill abortion. ---"

If it actually kills a fertilised egg - a human zygote which could eventually become an adult human if left to his or her God-designed course, then yes: it is murder.

"--- That's why they make women pay for their rape kits. ---"

Well, I can't say I agree with that either. For my part, I think that the state should not be impeded in quickly bringing the rapist to trial and if guilty, to execute stern justice upon him. It is the responsibility of the people (the state) to possess the means to execute justice upon sinners and criminals.

And if the little one simply must die, because no one is able to receive the embryo or adopt the infant once it is born, then there should be a MANDATORY death sentence upon the head of the rapist upon conviction.

[Lala]

All he did was amend the time from one year to two years to claim compensation from the Crime Victims Board. See it here

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/legisnet92/hbgroups/hb/920HB1814LV.html

[Lala]

Obama's voting record in Illinois

Mr. Obama was the only member of the state Senate to vote against a bill to prohibit the early release of convicted criminal sexual abusers; and was among only four who voted against bills to toughen criminal sentences, increase penalties for criminals whose offenses were committed in the furtherance of gang activities, and increase penalties for the delivery of Ecstasy and other designer drugs.