TPM: Source: Sex Assault Program Cited in Monegan Firing Targeted Child Abusers

[dkf]

By Zachary Roth - September 16, 2008, 4:58PM

So Sarah Palin's latest explanation for why she fired Walt Monegan is that he had gone over her head in seeking federal money for an initiative to combat sexual assault crimes, before she had approved the program.

But it now appears that the program in question is one that most elected officials would be wary of admitting they hadn't strongly backed. According to Peggy Brown, who heads the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Monegan wanted to use the federal money to hire retired troopers and law enforcement officials, and assign them to investigate the most egregious cases of sexual assault -- including those against children.

In other words, if Palin's new story is true, she fired Monegan for being too aggressive in going after child molesters.

ABC News reported yesterday that, although Alaska leads the nation in reported rapes per capita, Palin hasn't made the issue a priority as governor.

Monegan, however, appeared eager to change that. "He seemed to get the issue and really took it seriously," Brown told TPMmuckraker.

According to the Palin camp, too seriously.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/source_sex_assault_program_cit.php

Why doesn't the GOP take child molestation and rape seriously? They care about consensual sex and forced rape is nothing? FREAKING DISGUSTING.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. They give new and more disgusting meaning to the word "hypocrite"...

This information should be given to the public...loud and clear!!!

[anonymous171]

2. Wow. Just wow.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

3. I just posted about how much this campaign resembles a David Lynch

film and now I read this. We have entered acid (as in LSD) land. Mooselini is the gift that just keeps on giving.

Somewhere, the shade of Salvador Dali is laughing his ass off at the surrealism of Grampy and Mooselini.

[Fridays Child]

7. I know. Just take a step back and look at them.

The dumbing down of America is finally paying off, just as Karl Rove has always believed that it would: a significant percentage of the population actually believes this is a good thing for the country.

Would you like fries with that insanity?

[REP]

12. Your photos inspired me

[Kutjara]

4. There's a nasty pattern here.

She wanted to charge rape victims for rape kits. She wants rape victims to bear their rapists' babies. Now, it seems she wants to hamper the efforts of Alaska police to catch rapists.

Given that Mooselini's religion makes her a puppet of her husband's will, is there something about the "First Dude" we haven't been told?

[dmr]

11. Ah, I was just going to ask something similar

What is it in Palin's life that makes her so cold and uncaring to victims? Or why she is a manipulative bully to those she perceives as getting in her way of doing what she wants. And when she is called on her behaviors, she justifies herself by publicly ridiculing her targets.

I know there is a lot of psychology out there about these behaviors.

But, like you, I wonder. It doesn't necessarily mean Palin's a victim. She may harbor resentment against a victim that is close to her. It may also explain why she (and her family) has over-reacted, over-stepped, her bounds by continuously going after her sister's ex-husband, and his boss.

[drm604]

5. Add to this the McCain campaign's criticism of Obama's vote

to fund a program to teach children about stranger danger. A pattern begins to emerge.

[dkf]

6. I know. Its the weirdest Republican angle I've ever seen.

So much for law and order.

[drm604]

22. I wonder if there's some way to push this.

Obviously, Obama can't run ads but if we could somehow push the idea that they appear to be weak on protecting children, then they would be forced to admit that they are being dishonest about Obama's vote and that he was actually voting for a good thing.

[eshfemme]

8. This fits in nicely with McCain's pro-pedophile anti-Obama ad.

It's just a perfect storm of Republicans' own making. Cry me a fucking river, GOP.

So fucking predictable that the party that always cries, "Think of the children!" doesn't actually think of the children. It's sad that it's so expected in politics to find this level of hypocrisy which is why I'm so glad that the Democrats have fielded a candidate this year who has the wherewithal to protect our principles as Americans.

[diane in sf]

9. Makes me wonder if one of her family members is a molester.

[Kind of Blue]

21. Bingo! My sentiments exactly!

I commented to yesterdays OP at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4015877.
She's incredulous. She really, really needs to be impeached and stop this shameful vp campaign. Besides the vendetta, which is big, I wonder why she, as a mom, would knowingly stop funding for child sexual abuse that's rampant in Alaska. I understand that she is pro-life even in the case of rape or incest. But you'd think she'd know offspring from incest could result in an abnormal fetus. It's almost as if she wants to keep these kids quiet.
Now, I may be going too far but this reminds of the movie Chinatown, you know, "My sister. My daughter," because something is really creepy here.

[intheflow]

10. This is crazy!

I don't think Palin even cared about what Monegan was trying to accomplish, and figured since she was up in Alaska, no one would ever really know. It's only about fucking over anyone who doesn't kiss her ass 100%. The Alaskan AG blocking state employees from testifying in the case is equally bizarre. Is Alaska still the wild west? Are there no laws up there? Even the Marshall is shady? :puke:

[symbolman]

13. Why does Sarah Palin HATE Children?

Okay, being someone who lived up there, and was close to the native situation and case workers, there's something that people need to know about the "rape" situation up there, and you're not going to like it.

The numbers are inflated due to a cultural misunderstanding. In the villages, many of the family members consider sex to be a natural thing, so natural that brothers and sisters will let the other "have" them just like serving up a meal..

Told you that you wouldn't like it, freaked the hell out of me too. I drove cab up there for a few summers while going to college and had many native friends. It's not considered Rape to some of THEM, BUT, if a case worker finds out about it, according to our culture it is reported as a "rape"..

I know it sounds strange, and I wondered if I should even mention it, but it's the reality of a very strange place, and a conjuction of many different cultures.

The Eskimos used to sleep naked in big piles, and sex would occur in that very pile. With a village being so small the partners were few, and sometimes in the mix, some of them might not even know WHO they were having sex with, and to them, it didn't matter.

I studied anthropology in college, so I wasn't too freaked out by it, but according to our culture they were having an orgy, which according to their culture was perfectly acceptable.

When in Rome, as they say. (Not to be flippant, but there it is..)

[dkf]

14. So there is a great incidence of babies from incest?

How is it the gene pool isn't all messed up?

[symbolman]

18. How do you know it isn't?

I don't know if it is or not. Do you think that every time an incest baby is born it's born with two heads or something?

I know that there are villages in the mountains up there that have as many people in them as you can count on both hands, and may never see white people their whole lives.

This ain't a place where it's far from a highway, there ARE NO ROADS.. it is WILDERNESS in the Extreme.

I spent two summers up there flying all over the North Slope, saw every square mile east, west and North of Fairbanks, from the Bering sea to the top of the land mass and lemme tell you, it's HUGE..

even crashed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a chopper... in the flat as a pool table tundra, it took them FOUR days to FIND US, and they KNEW WHERE we were...

[dkf]

15. I read from the Alaska website that it isn't brothers and sisters but fathers and daughters.

Here are some stats:

In 3 out of 4 reported cases, the victim knew the offender, the most commonly reported type of sexual abuse is a father who commits incest with his daughter--usually the eldest daughter.
As many as 4 out of 5 offenders were sexually assaulted as children.
One-third of incest victims' mothers were sexually abused as children.
Alaska's rape rate is 2.2 times the national average overall.

http://www.hss.state.ak.us/dph/ipems/injury_prevention/akfvpp/bkgnd.htm

I found this in a dkos article:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/12/19576/3667/212/596769

It would seem to no longer be acceptable if girls are reporting their fathers to the police. And since when do United States citizens condone a father raping his daughter? Does it matter if it is deemed "culturally accpetable". I think not.

[symbolman]

17. Stats are REPORTED

there's a lot more going on than that..

I knew one scumbag that picked up a native gal at a bar, took her home, later when he got up, he was going to have a cup of coffee and kick her out of his bed, when he found the whole family with their belongings sitting on his front porch. According to them, they lived THERE now.

Spear wedding?

There are villages that are NOT part of the United States, one in particular named Venetie is a Soveriegn Nation, and uphold ONLY their laws.. I know, I was almost HANGED there.

Gonna Invade them?

Look, I don't MAKE the news, I'm just reporting it, and as someone who's lived in the bush for two years I know a lot more than a lot of these case workers who might never see a village in their whole career.

Get as outraged as you want, I don't care for it either, but it just doesn't magically disappear because someone THINKS those people are US citizens.

The Oil companies also made a deal that effectively turned the whole State of Alaska into ONE Big Reservation for MANY cultures - they get 2500 bucks a month, a pittance up there, and a lot of them drink themselves to death on it in the cities, drowing in the rivers behind the bars of Fairbanks, or freezing to death in the streets. These are the REALITIES no matter how much someone might not LIKE it.

I wrote a book about my time in Alaska, and mine talks about the rampant racism from the period of the 1970's when I was there, and NO ONE wants to mention any of that. But I do.

[coyotespaw]

16. Why doesn't the Grand Old Pervert party take child molestation and rape seriously?

The same party that's smearing Obama for wanting to teach kindergarten students about what to do if they've been approached by an adult with bad intentions? The same party that covered for Mark Foley?

[BklynChick]

19. ok, what the fuck is wrong with her ?!?!?!?!

[BeyondGeography]

20. Sounds like he was trying to make Alaska less of a sexual violence hellhole

A fact about Barbie's state that I would like to see Gwen Ifill ask about at the VP debate.

I can always dream, right?