1. According to Altnet: While Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, she approved a policy that allowed the police department to charge rape victims for their own rape kits, unlike the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies that have covered the costs, which are between $300 to $1,200 apiece.
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. "I just don’t want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer," Fannon said. Implicit in Fannon's comment is either a belief that most women who report rape are liars, or a genuine apathy that women are raped—because the taxpayers who suffer the "burden" of paying for rape kits have a vested interest in ensuring their community is free of rapists.
2. The Telegraph: Sarah Palin has been forced to back down from blaming supporters of the Democratic presidential ticket for spreading "misinformation and flat-out lies" about her and her family. In a fundraising email to supporters, Mrs Palin wrote: “The Obama-Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain." Challenged to name a specific attack by her opponents, the Alaska governor’s spokesman admitted that Mr Obama’s campaign was not responsible.
3. Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has triggered a potential row with John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, after apparently backing Barack Obama - breaking convention not to get involved in foreign elections. The Prime Minister heaped praise on Obama and the Democrats in a magazine article, saying they were "generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times."
4. Two Sarah Palin action dolls portraying the Republican vice-presidential nominee as an executive and an action hero have gone on sale in the United States. The executive doll is available for $27.95 from the website HeroBuilders.com. The action hero version costs two dollars more.
5. Washington Post: Sen. Barack Obama talked about the barnyard, but whether he intended an epithet was in the ear of the beholder. "John McCain says he's about change, too … the same economic policy …That's not change. You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig." Lipstick. Pig. Which candidate for national office has likened herself to a pit bull with lipstick? That would be Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The Republican National Committee staged a conference call with former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift (R), who said in high dudgeon that Obama had made "disgusting comments, comparing our vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, to a pig."
Later, it turned out that McCain himself used the phrase more than once, including last year, when he was talking about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1990s health care plan, saying "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." Speaking about opponents of President Bush's Iraq strategy last year, McCain criticized their reasoning. " You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig, in my view." Four reporters were allowed to pose questions during the conference call, and three of them were from women who asked, with obvious incredulity, whether Swift believed that Obama was referring to Palin. When one reporter asked Swift why she assumed the remarks were directed at Palin, Swift replied: "It seemed to me a gendered comment. There's only one woman in the race."
6. The Telegraph: Gov. Palin billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office. Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, received an additional $16,951 as her allowance. Her daughters and her husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, many of the trips being between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, 600 miles away.
7. John McCain wants to put Sarah Palin in charge of US oil and energy policy if he becomes president, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. The Republican presidential candidate will make his running mate the public face of the country's drive for energy independence, according to a McCain campaign official. He believes that her record of taking on oil company chiefs will help convince the public that his government would not be in the pocket of energy fat cats.
Here's a quick video summary of almost everything we know now, no thanks to Gov. Palin, compliments of MSNBC's Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow.
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