Truth Squad In this section, MFP explores the rhetoric and the outright prevarications being purveyed by the opposition, and reveals the truth that opposes them.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Who Draws Better Crowds?

by Garret A. Hobart

The media swoons over the junior Senator from Illinois.  They marvel at the crowds that he draws as if he were handing out fishes and loaves, but truth be known, Governor Palin draws bigger crowds.  See our MFP Truth Squad analysis below.

THE QUESTION: Who’s drawing the better crowds out on the campaign trail, Barack Obama or Sarah Palin?

OK, HERE ARE THE FACTS:

3% of St. Louis turns out for Obama

Sen. Obama recently drew a crowd estimated at 75,000 to 100,000 people in St. Louis, Missouri.  Impressive?  Well, maybe.  You see, the population of St. Louis is 2,866,517, so if Obama drew 87,500 people (splitting the difference between the 75,000 and 100,000 estimates) so, a mere 3.04% of the population of St. Louis showed up to see Sen. Obama.

79% of six small cities turn out for Palin

Gov. Sarah Palin recently drew crowds totaling 131,500 in six small cities with a total aggregate population of 165,462 people.  So, 79.47% of the population of these six small cities showed up to see Gov. Palin. 

To put it another way, even though St. Louis has 2,801,045 more people than these six cities combined, Palin still drew 131,500 people to Obama’s approximately 87,500.

Here’s the recent rundown on how Sarah Palin’s doin’ out on the campaign trail:

Gov. Palin yesterday, October 19, 2008, drew 20,000 in Roswell, New Mexico, Population 45,329.  Other estimates of he Roswell crowd ranged from 10,000 to 15,000(the day before Sen. Biden had drawn only “several hundred” people in Las Cruces, NM, population 89,732).  [See “Palin Beats Biden in the duel in the desert” on this website, an exclusive, a first-hand report from a college student who attended Governor Palin’s Roswell, NM rally and was near the front row of the estimated 20,000 who attended]

Gov. Palin drew 24,000 in Noblesville, Indiana, population 38,825.

Gov. Palin drew 6,500 to an airplane hangar Bangor, Maine, population 31,473.

Gov. Palin drew 10,000 in Salem, New Hampshire. population 29,580, the same day that Sen. Obama himself was in the same state in Londonderry, NH population 23,236 and only drew a little over 4,000.
Gov. Palin drew 11,000 in Wilmington, Ohio, population 11,922

Gov. Palin drew 60,000 in The Villages, Florida, Population 8,333

THE VERDICT:  Governor Palin wins, hands down, by a score of Palin 79 to Obama 3!  (Of course, some of these small cities may have more population in the surrounding areas, but most do not.  For example, in Roswell, NM, the city of 45,000 is surrounded by a couple of hundred miles of desert in every direction). In state after state, city after city, again and again, the pattern is consistent: when Gov. Palin goes into a small city, virtually the entire city shuts down, as 79% of the people come out to see her.  Meanwhile, only 3% of St. Louis came out for the Obama rally.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Trooper Mike Wooten:  What a Guy!

by Charles W. Fairbanks

Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten should have been fired a long time ago for multiple disciplinary problems.  The Wooten controversy has now winded its way into national politics.  As we learn more about this rogue trooper, we should be asking ourselves:  Why is Trooper Wooten still a trooper, and why hasn’t he been indicted?

Democrats in Washington, their allies in the newsmedia and their leader, Barack H. Obama just don’t seem to care with whom they associate.  There is unrepentant terrorist William Ayres.  There is “God D--- America” Rev. Wright.  There is ACORN.  Now there is Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, whose sordid history invited departmental disciplinary proceedings and sanctions against him, then caused a partisan “ethics” investigation against Governor Sarah Palin.  The investigation factually cleared Governor Palin.  Lost in the partisan report and in the media “coverage” of the case is the history of this rogue trooper.

The person in all this who has repeatedly transgressed good ethics is Wooten himself!

From what little we know about Wooten’’s employment history, he has a series of reprimands as a state trooper.  The most shocking of these is one to which he confessed:  Electrocuting his eleven year old step son with a taser (see photo above), allegedly to teach him a lesson.  Well, let’s think about that one a little more.  A taser is a weapon designed to shock grown men.  A taser is the first cousin of a cattle prod, which is used to manage large mammals such as cattle and horses.  Law enforcement officers use the taser to pacify criminal suspects by delivering electricity into the body of the subject.  Those subjects are almost always grown men, almost always dangerous, and almost always resisting a police officer lawfully performing his or her duty.

A taser is considered a dangerous weapon.  When one uses a taser on another human being for purposes other than those approved by law, one is committing not only an assualt, but an aggravated assualt.  In most jurisdictions, aggravated assault is a felony punishable by a state prison sentence. 
Many commentators have asked why is Wooten still a trooper.  Well, I am asking not only that, but why is Trooper Wooten not making license plates in the Alaska State Prison system?

But wait, there’s more!

By assaulting a minor in his care with a dangerous weapon, Trooper Wooten may also have also the criminal offense of Endangering the Welfare of a Minor.  In most jurisdictions, Endangering is a felony punishable by a prison sentence.  It is very common under such circumstances for the child welfare authorities to become involved in a family, and either remove the child from the home (on some occasions) or seek a court order removing the offending adult from the home.  If the Alaska child welfare authorities did not become involved, then why not?  Would it be because of Trooper Wooten’s status as an Alaska State Trooper?

I am not done here.  Finally, if Trooper Wooten possessed the taser outside of his employment as a state trooper, then he might have been guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon or possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.  And yes, these might carry prison time.

That preliminary analysis comes out of only one allegation of an ethical lapse by Trooper Wooten.  There may well be answers to the questions of why he was not charged with crimes and why the Alaska child welfare authorities did not investigate him, and we must remember that the scant public information about Wooten are only allegations.  While Wooten has apparently admitted to the taser incident, there are further allegations of transsgressons.

There are allegations that (1) he drank alcohol on the job as an trooper; (2) he killed a moose illegally; and (3) that he threatened to kill Sarah Palin’s father, a retired school teacher.  Trooper Wooten denies each of these three allegations, so to be fair, we should give him the same “benefit of the doubt” that Mr. Branchflower and the news media have given Sarah Palin, why don’t we?

We don’t have to give Trooper Wooten the same benefit of the doubt relative to a five day suspension given to him in 2006, summarized as follows:  “The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable, an at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,” Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in a March 1, 2006 letter suspending Wooten for 10 days.  After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days.”

Sarah Palin is a hero, a maverick and a reformer.  She is the real deal who toppled the old boys network in Alaska, and will do so again in Washington either in 2009 or 2013.  I am reminded of the classic Dylan folk song, Ballad of Ruben Hurricane Carter.  Dylan rightfully painted Carter’s accusers as small and corrupt people trying to cover their own illegal activities.  Ruben Carter was of course a gifted and accomplished boxer.  Dylan asks lyrically:  “How can the life of such a man be in the palm of some fool’s hand?” To paraphrase the poet, how can America let its future, even for a very short time, pass through the hands of a Trooper Wooten?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Obama and ACORN:  Perfect together

by TheTruthSquad

ACORN is partially responsible for the subprime mortgage meltdown.  They are almost wholly responsible for a nationwide voter fraud consipiracy that will benefit the campaign of one Barack H. Obama.  The ties between Obama and ACORN are substantial.  The Republican National Committee has published the following list of connections between ACORN and Obama.  If Sarah Palin had the same type of ties to the Ku Klux Klan, what would American be saying?  Since she doesn’t we will never know.  Governor Palin has taken the wood to Obama and ACORN, demanding that he rein them in before they destroy our voting rights.

Listen to Sarah.  She knows the following:

Obama Directed Project Vote And Later Taught Classes For “Future Leaders Identified By ACORN And The Centers For New Horizons.” “He [Obama] says he is drawn to politics, despite its superficialities, as a means to advance his real passion and calling: community organization. ... In 1992 Obama took time off to direct Project Vote, the most successful grass-roots voter- registration campaign in recent city history. Credited with helping elect Carol Moseley-Braun to the U.S. Senate, the registration drive, aimed primarily at African-Americans, added an estimated 125,000 voters to the voter rolls—even more than were registered during Harold Washington’s mayoral campaigns. ‘It’s a power thing,’ said the brochures and radio commercials. ... Obama continues his organizing work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons on the south side.” (Hank De Zutter, Op-Ed, “What Makes Obama Run?” ChicagoReader, 12/8/95)

Obama Was Part Of Team Of Lawyers Who Represented ACORN In A Suit Against The State Of Illinois. “Obama was part of a team of attorneys who represented the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois in 1995 for failing to implement a federal law designed to make it easier for the poor and others to register as voters.” (Mike Robinson, “Obama Got Start In Civil Rights Practice,” The Associated Press, 2/20/07)

ACORN’s Political Action Committee Endorsed Obama. “[A]CORN’s political action committee endorsed Barack Obama for President. ... The endorsement reflects a belief that Obama—who worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago—understands that change must come from the ground-up, as part of a working coalition, rather than from position papers.” (Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Op-Ed, “ACORN: Obama Gets It,” The Nation, 2/23/08)

Obama’s Campaign Paid Over $800,000 To ACORN For Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts, But “Mistakenly Misrepresented” Their Work To The FEC:

Obama’s Campaign “Paid More Than $800,000” To ACORN For Get-Out-The Vote Efforts; The Campaign Originally “Misrepresented” The Group’s Work To The FEC. “U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat’s campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports. An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc.—a subsidiary of ACORN—worked in ‘get-out-the-vote’ projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary.” (David M. Brown, “Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending,” Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 8/22/08)

While Serving On The Board Of Directors Of The Woods Fund, ACORN Received Thousands Of Dollars Of Grants From The Organization:

The Chicago ACORN Received Grants Of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), And $40,000 (2002) From The Woods Fund. (Donors Forum Website, ifs.donorsforum.org, Accessed 6/10/08)—NOTE: From 1993 To 2002, Barack Obama Served On The Board Of Directors For The Woods Fund. (Tim Novak and Fran Spielman, “Obama Helped Ex-Boss Get $1 Mil. From Charity,” Chicago Sun-Times, 11/29/07) WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE?