This is an interesting finding about internet claims regarding VP candidate Sarah Palin. Note of them deal with the post made on this site concerning her religious zealousness but in the interest of fairness it should posted.

John R...
______________________________________

Sliming Palin

False Internet claims and rumors fly about McCain's running mate.

By Brooks Jackson, Jess Henig, Emi Kolawole, Joe Miller and Lori Robertson | factcheck.org

Sep 8, 2008

We've been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn't cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.

She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.

She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She's been registered as a Republican since May 1982.

Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.

Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

We'll be looking into other charges in an e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.

Analysis
Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, information about Palin's past has been zipping around the Internet. Several claims are not true, and other rumors are misleading.

No Cut for "Special Needs" Kids
It's not true, as widely reported in mass e-mails, Web postings and at least one mainstream news source, that Palin slashed the special education budget in Alaska by 62 percent. CNN's Soledad O'Brien made the claim on Sept. 4 in an interview with Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign:

O'Brien, Sept. 4: One are that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I'm sure you're aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. As a woman who is now a mother to a special needs child, and I think she actually has a nephew which is autistic as well. How much of a problem is this going to be as she tries to navigate both sides of that issue?

Such a move might have made Palin look heartless or hypocritical in view of her convention-speech pledge to be an advocate for special needs children and their families. But in fact, she increased special needs funding so dramatically that a representative of local school boards described the jump as "historic."

According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. It would increase spending on what Alaska calls "intensive needs" students (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin's original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.

Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Boy, these guys are really, really good at parsing words.

Special Needs Funding:
I had not seen anything about cutting special needs education funding before reading this, but a quick check of the official State of Alaska Budget Archives - Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary - shows that this budget increased in the three years prior to Palin's being responsible for creation of the budget - 2005: $6,945,000; 2006: 7,949,000; 2007: $8,265,000. Palin's budget for this category was slashed by about 62% - 2008: $3,156,000; 2009: $3,156,000.

Now those figures are proposed budget numbers - the amount alloted to Special Schools in the Governor's proposed budgets. So on the face of it, it looks like there is some red meat in the claim. It would be interesting to see exactly how the McCain/Palin campaign is arriving at their numbers.
**********************
Banning Books
It is undisputed - it was reported in the local newspaper in 1996 - that Palin approached the librarian on 3 separate occasions and asked her if she would be alright with removing objectionable books from the library. The 2nd time that the subject was brought up was in October 1996 during a City Council meeting when Palin asked the librarian "What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?"

The librarian objected each time the question was asked and a little later got a letter asking her to resign her position. The librarian was well liked in the little town and there was some public backlash, so Palin backed off and let the librarian keep her job.

So in this case, the guys are telling the literal truth - Palin did not ban any books. But there is a very strong indication that had the librarian not stuck to her guns and then been supported by voters, Palin would have done so.
********************************
Not a member of Alaskan Independence Party
Looks to be true. Palin's husband was a member and attended the party's convention. Some members say that Palin herself attended, but there were no records to prove it one way or another. What is true is that in JUNE of this year, Palin taped a welcoming message to the AIP's 2008 covention in which she said that the party played an important role in Alaska's politics.
********************

Never Supported Buchanan
This one was started by Pat Buchanan himself. During the republican convention, Buchanan said that Palin supported him and was part of the Buchanan Brigade when he went to Alaska to campaign. Palin says that she just wore the button while Buchanan was there to be nice. You decide.
***************

Has Not Pushed Teaching Creationism
Kind of a toss up gtom my perspective - she was for it before she was sort of against it. According to the Anchorage Daily News (7 October 2006) as a candidate for governor,Palin did advocate teaching creationism during a televised debate. Apparenlty there was some push-back from the public. Palin then elaborated on her position - she thought that both creationism and evolution should be taught. She then added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum. And she apparently has not.

I visited factcheck.org I can't vouch or deny their claims in this particular article; but they seem to be non-partisan. As a matter of fact, in a quick check, I found more pieces debunking Republican canards about Obama than visa-versa. (Probably because there are more Republican canards about Obama than visa-versa.)

I agree that they are usually quite good. And I agree that they usally catch the republicans more frequently and for exactly the reason that you said.

But I noticed on this one that the literal truth is not quite the same as the truth - at not to me in some of these cases.

Like the book banning thing - it is literally true that she did not ban any books and apparently somebody who spread this story included a list of books that was totally fraudulent. But it is also true that she wanted to remove some "objectionable" books from the library shelves and tried to get the librarian to agree to it on three different occasions. The desire was there, but it looked to me that she just thouht that the execution might be too politically costly.

And I would really like to see what they are measuring on the Special Shchools Budget question, because when I looked it up on the official Alaska State web site (they have a budget archives link), it sure looked like a major cut to me.

In regards to Factcheck.org.

I have been aware of it but just recently started looking things up. I posted a check about Obamas Birth certificate in another thread here. But the group PUMA was questioning it and actually went to Factcheck and asked them to research it. I know this because I wrote PUMA , at least that is what they told me.

However, PUMA says they did not start the rumor, I personally think it was started by the Swiftboat Idiot that came out with the book or maybe some of the Rove Stooges......

But really all in all,,a truckload of proof really isn't going to matter, is it.

"And I would really like to see what they are measuring on the Special Shchools Budget question, because when I looked it up on the official Alaska State web site (they have a budget archives link), it sure looked like a major cut to me."

Maybe this might help....

No Cut for "Special Needs" Kids

It's not true, as widely reported in mass e-mails, Web postings and at least one mainstream news source, that Palin slashed the special education budget in Alaska by 62 percent. CNN's Soledad O'Brien made the claim on Sept. 4 in an interview with Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign:

O'Brien, Sept. 4: One are that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I'm sure you're aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. As a woman who is now a mother to a special needs child, and I think she actually has a nephew which is autistic as well. How much of a problem is this going to be as she tries to navigate both sides of that issue?

Such a move might have made Palin look heartless or hypocritical in view of her convention-speech pledge to be an advocate for special needs children and their families. But in fact, she increased special needs funding so dramatically that a representative of local school boards described the jump as "historic."

According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. It would increase spending on what Alaska calls "intensive needs" students (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin's original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.

Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. ...

Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a "historic event," and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.

According to Eddy Jeans at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, funding for special needs and intensive needs students has increased every year since Palin entered office, from a total of $203 million in 2006 to a projected $276 million in 2009.

Those who claim that Palin cut special needs funding by 62 percent are looking in the wrong place and misinterpreting what they find there. They point to an apparent drop in the Department of Education and Early Development budget for special schools. But the special schools budget, despite the similar name, isn't the special needs budget. "I don’’t even consider the special schools component [part of] our special needs funding," Jeans told FactCheck.org. "The special needs funding is provided through our public school funding formula. The special schools is simply a budget component where we have funding set aside for special projects," such as the Alaska School for the Deaf and the Alaska Military Youth Academy. A different budget component, the Foundation Program, governs special needs programs in the public school system.

And in any case, the decrease in funding for special schools is illusory. Palin moved the Alaska Military Youth Academy's ChalleNGe program, a residential military school program that teaches job and life skills to students under 20, out of the budget line for "special schools" and into its own line. This resulted in an apparent drop of more than $5 million in the special schools budget with no actual decrease in funding for the programs.

Yeah, except none of that answers my question. What part of the budget did all of these numbers come from?

The Alaska budget has a section called Special Schools or Special Needs Schools and it is that budget that was cut 62%. The people who first post that number were not making it up. They may, however, have missed items that were parts of other budget items that did not display in the budget summaries online - which is why I said that I would like to see where in the budget those numbers came from.

"Yeah, except none of that answers my question. What part of the budget did all of these numbers come from?"

I don’t know for sure...but the way I interpret the last paragraph in my above post is the 62% decrease that resulted in that apparent drop of $5 million in the special schools budget got rolled into the new budget line that was created for the residential military school program....

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html