Maverick small-government conservative Sarah Palin charged Alaskan taxpayers $16,941 to spend 312 nights of her first 19 months as governor at her own house in Wasilla. Governor Palin has an official mansion in the capital, Juneau, but she’s happier making Alaska’s citizens pay her $54.33 a night to sleep in her own bed.
In the United States, a per diem is reimbursement money provided by your employer to stay in hotels and eat simple meals at Chili’s while you are traveling for work — Palin’s complete ridiculous reversal of this basic concept of American Business just shows what a free-thinking lunatic John McCain picked for his veep nominee.
Palin also made Alaskan citizens pay $43,490 to transport her daughters and husband between the state capital and her house in the Anchorage exurb of Wasilla. She is exactly what America needs, if America is going to fool the IRS with all these bogus “business lunches” at the corner Subway.
Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home; Taxpayers Also Funded Family’s Travel [Washington Post]
{ 81 comments }
At least she knows how many houses she has? I don’t know…I’m just lost at this point.
The per diem rates in Alaska are $60/day, broken down as 12/16/32 for breakfast/lunch/dinner. I was under the impression that the IRS determines where a person’s “tax home” is and per diem becomes taxable if paid for days not spent away from the tax home.
That’s just bullshit. This better come out in the elitist librul media.
………..4 more years…4 more years..
F. free
A. Alaska
N. now
!. !
Wha happa?
Well, she fought corruption SO HARD she figured she deserved to scrape a little something off the top. Obviously.
What was she supposed to do?
Stay at a hotel? These hotel chains
are getting too big for the American taxpayer.
All that money and they couldn’t let Bristol use $3 for condoms?
Anyone who questions the virign-Palin is probably one of them homersexuals.
Who are you to judge a GILF until you have walked a mile in her mukuluks and had sex with your own brother and then borne your own daughters boy-child? You got an answer for that? I didn’t think so you filthy monkey humper!
Is it true that Native Alaskan have over 100 words for corrupt slut?
[re=89494]facehead[/re]: Yes, and they all make me horny!
This would be the messy “practical” side of Mrs. Palin’s folksy “I fired the chef and sold the plane on eBay and commute myself to work everyday, jes like reg’lar folk.”
All of which can be translated as: I refuse to live in the state provided home that comes with my job, choosing instead to waste taxpayer time and money so I can drive myself back and forth, plus get paid to live in my own home!
Think how much more time Sarah Palin could spend say, governing the state of Alaska if she (hey pick one or any) 1) lived in the same town as her job OR 2) used the plane she sold at a loss to the state instead of a car to get around (Alaska is frankly one of the few states in the union where actually having a plane makes some crazy sense…there are towns in Alaska that one can’t actually get to by car) OR 3) let someone at a lower pay grade do her family’s cooking (assuming she doesn’t use her built in teenage workforce for that kind of thing). If time is money, Palin sure seems to spend a lot of it not governing.
I fail to see the point, I’d pay $54.33 easy to sleep in her bed. WTF she’s a GILF.
She doesn’t have big ears like Bush and Obama. And she doesn’t stumble around for words like Bush and Obama do without the teleprompter. And she sure looks good. Besides she is running against that goofus ugly Senator Biden. Talk about old, old, old. Biden is OLD. Hillary opened the door for women and Palin is going to walk through it. OH MAMA PALIN!!!!!!
I used to travel to St. Louis on business and I’d take the light rail from the airport to the Adams Mark for three bucks and then turn in a cab reciept for $40. The $75 I’d make on the round trip was the best money I’d make all year. All this proves is that even The Man likes sticking it to The Man.
Ken Layne, I would let you do whatever it is that would make you happy for this, and you can chose between the redhead without a penis or whatever. Seriously, she should fuck you for this article.
Ah, there’s no whore like a freaky fundamentalist whore.
I have a penis. Will Palin lose now?
[re=89508]dilhavarti[/re]: fortune cookie sez: “stay the curse”, FYI
I recently saw a video of Governor Palin showing an Alaskan teevee reporter around the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau.
She spoke admiringly and affectionately of the place as she showed the reporter from room to room.
She said that her hubby, Todd, had a “to-do” list of things to fix things around the home, which was built in 1912.
And now Ken Layne is telling me that this was all BULLSHIT, made up for the teevee?
I am crushed. That Sarah is a lying psychopathic snowbilly trollop-cunt.
So cheap…
Okay, okay, this must be Sarah’s argument:
If I live in the Governor’s mansion, I get free housing from the State. But since I’m living in my own home, I am not getting this perquisite. So the State should pay me the value of the perquisite, which is $16,941–the rent that I wouldn’t have paid if I had taken advantage of free housing in the Governor’s mansion.
This is a perfectly brilliant piece of snowbilly logic.
[re=89502]Sealight[/re]: What’s that you say? Palin is going to walk through Hillary’s door?
I guess I’m OK with that, but she might want to try a fist first.
Good to know her house is the equivalent of a Motel 6 in her mind. Might explain the chronic baby-makin’. I said it before and I’ll say it again: no one with that many kids/grandkid(s) is “anti-pork.”
She’s quite a reformer, that one!
Caribou-huntin’-beauty pageant-winnin’-teen pregnancy allowin’-(incest and rape pregnancy mandatin’)-book bannin’ godfucking Gubna from Alaska! She might as well be from fucking Wyoming. Or Texas.
She gives me the chills and a new begrudging respect for Hillz.
Are we reimbursing W. for his trips to the Crawford ranch? That is a price I’m willing to pay at this point to keep him away from the War Room…
if you have a couple of days she can explain it to you. women are good at that.
I live so far out of Los Angeles that I thought Per Diem was a high-ranking official in the Vietnamese government.
1. I was going to say that maybe Alaskans are paying her to stay away from her job. Maybe there was a conspiracy to get her pregnant so she would have to stay home, but she tricked them (or should I say trig-ed them) by not taking maternity leave.
2. Also, now we know that she fired the cook so she could have his/her salary and sold the plane so the could make a profit on the extra gas mileage for driving. In fact, let’s find out what happened to the money for the plane…
3. Now we know that she’s paying people to kill the wolves because she’s a good shot and wants to make some extra cash.
Does she give herself babysitting money for raising her children? This woman is a thrifty corrupt politician.
When is she going to pay us taxpayers back? Bitch, you better give us our money.
check the u tube link to learn the TRUTH ABOUT SARAH PALIN!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
you’ve been maverickrolled,
bitch!
The poor woman just wanted to give her family a home cooked meal every night and you America haters has to go and takes her to task for it?
As for taking her family on business trips well of course – didn’t you know it’s governors take your daughter to work year in Alaska – you morons!
The state pays for Todd’s travel because he’s an unregistered lobbyist. If he paid his own travel expenses while he was lobbying himself it would be a conflict of interest.
So shut up and go back to work.
[re=89486]the doctor[/re]: I like how the ‘corruption’ she fought ended up in someone paying a $10,000 fine. That’s like a couple barrels of siphoned off oil. What kind of penalty is that. I want tarring and feathering people
This is a horseshit story that I hope dies immediately. It’s a mess to explain. According to the Post, she broke no law. And, as is mentioned at the very bottom of the story: “Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski.”
Every day wasted on this story is a day spent ensuring Obama’s defeat.
[re=89492]rambone[/re]: Yeah, doesn’t the per diem also include money for “incidental expenses”? Like condoms? Or purity rings?
It’s got to be cheaper than $50/day than to maintain the governor’s mansion in juneau with that chef she fired, staff, utilities, and who knows what else she got rid of.
There’s no two bedroom apartment in san francisco for $1500/month even in the crappiest part of town.
Heck, $50/day doesn’t even pay for a motel 6 in most of california…
It’s so freakin’ weird. she was entitled to the per diem as part of her job. why wouldn’t someone claim an expense that’s supposed to be part of the job?!?!
the best way to get mccain elected is for us to pay attention going crazy on all this distracting stuff.
what. a. cunt.
[re=89547]Delicious[/re]: Your thinking is so… delicious.
Yes, but she’s spent that money maverickly.
[re=89553]dieselm[/re]: Obviously you’re not a golfer.
And this is worse than Biden ensuring Amtrak gets billions in taxpayer funding just so he can ride home everynight?
These Repugs are good. They know how to motivate the morons to go out and vote: just give them one of their own and they will follow. We owe the last eight years of disastrous policies to the millions of American Idiots who voted for Bush; twice. Now WALNUTS!, whose moronic stripes didn’t–for some unfathomable reason–convince the braindead rednecks that form the base of the Republican Party that he’s one of them, made the brilliant move of selecting a bona fide retard as his running mate. An anti-science, anti-environment religious lunatic it’s all the American Idiots need to get pumped up. Sarah Palin is just that. What a country, huh?
[re=89562]Canmon (the Inadequate)[/re]: Because railroads are EXACTLY equitable to using private transportation. Very good.
[re=89547]Delicious[/re]: I really wish that she had travelled more.
Off topic, but is Wasilla really 20 hours driving time from Juneau? It’s no wonder that she didn’t visit until H.S..
Agree. Time wasted.
On the other hand, she let hobos live in the governor’s mansion during this period, so that kept some Paultards from freezing to death.
You know, each successive story of her epic FAILS will only make the right wingers love her and support her ever more. They will come out in droves to protect her. Quit hatin’ on our National Mama! She’s resourceful. Just like Scarlett O’Hara.
Oh! And to quote Guy Forsyth:
Americans are freedom-loving people and nothing says freedom like getting away with it.
[re=89573]sanantonerose[/re]: It’s the classic winger cognitive dissonance: she hates government SO MUCH that she’s doing her part to weaken it from within by taking its money!
Seriously, I saw someone commenting on a message board last night who is a fan because “she entered politics because she hates politics so much!” Whaaa? Isn’t that like hiring a nun to perform hookery services for you?
OH MY GOD:
CNN’s Jessica Yellin looked into the church’s beliefs and reports that it practices speaking in tongues and also “teaches that Alaska will be a shelter at the end of the world.”
A video produced by the church proclaims with apocalyptic imagery that “God has a destiny for the state of Alaska!” and in another clip someone from the church affirms, “I believe that Alaska’s one of the refuge states.”
I’m…speechless.
[re=89576]NotNotLickingToads[/re]: Exactly. re: Norquist’s wet dream of drowning government in his bathtub.
At least we’re not talking about McOld.
http://volokh.com/posts/1220936107.shtml This website has another analysis of the expenses. I’m no expenses expert however. But there is at least another viewpoint.
[re=89536]facehead[/re]:
I love the fact that there are 20,000,000+ views of that video.
[re=89567]NotNotLickingToads[/re]: She could have kept the government jet. That $2.1 million will pay for a lot of days in Wasilla. Senators and members of congress also get per diems and can recover the cost of travel expenses to their homes. I’m sure Obama has taken advantage as well.
[re=89553]dieselm[/re]: I thought the chef really wasn’t fired. Just “reassigned.”
[re=89585]Canmon (the Inadequate)[/re]:
That’s because they don’t have homes provided for them in Washington, and are expected to travel from their home state to Washington for part of the year. Palin had state-provided housing in Juneau and still billed for time spent at home.
But hey, you’re trying to make the argument that federal funding for Amtrak works some sort of similar boon for Joe Biden, so I don’t know why I’m even trying to explain this to you.
[re=89500]populucious[/re]: Win.
[re=89547]Delicious[/re]: In one sense, I agree that this takes our eyes off the real issues of the campaign. And yes, on balance, she seems thrifty compared to the milking the previous Governor put the State through. However, governing from Wasilla, basically any time the legislature is not in session, is not governing. It’s telecommuting. Fine for a regular job, not so much for the Governor. The issue for me has nothing to do with how much money was spent. It’s the fact that she treats the Governorship like a seasonal occupation.
[re=89491]chaimy4life[/re]: condoms are abortion!
[re=89578]sanantonerose[/re]: I saw the church video. The minister claims that he just can’t help but think that Alaska will be a refuge during the last days. They are Rapture Ready! I don’t know that it’s really taught. He states it in a slightly hopeful way. He also claims that his relationship with God gives him psychic abilities. So maybe he can “see” the end.
It sounds like he may have run with the idea in more recent sermons.
[re=89578]sanantonerose[/re]: Soon they will spell it Al Aska.
[re=89566]kudzu[/re]: what you said.
i am v v sad.
Did Pain really want to save the State money by getting rid of her chef, or did she just need this person out of their house as the chef would see who’s pregnant and who’s not?
Bottom line: the job is in Juneau, but she only showed when she absolutely had to do so. The rest of the time, she stayed in Wasilla and used a state office in Anchorage. And charged a per diem, legit for out of town business, to stay in town.
When she DID show up in Juneau, she took the brood with her, at taxpayers’ expense.
No WONDER she got rid of the jet. She didn’t plan on showing up for work.
No WONDER she got rid of the chef. She didn’t plan on showing up for work.
No WONDER she spent SO MUCH LESS than her predecessor. HE showed up for work.
This is turning into a pattern, what with keeping $200+ million of federal money for a bridge she never built.
Hey Sarah, my igloo needs some repairs. How’s about you DON’T do it, but send me a bill anyway?
And then you can tell me how much money you saved me compared to the guy who’d actually DO the job, OK?
Republican math is so easy compared to Democratic math, innit?
The dew is coming off the rose, folks, and each new day will bring further evidence that this inadequate Tina Fey impersonator is NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME.
Nor is the man who picked her.
[re=89585]Canmon (the Inadequate)[/re]: Hillary called, she wants you to shoot yourself in the head.
I keep thinking she’s like the obviously evil seductress in Poison Ivy (Drew Barrymore?) and that nobody will listen… not even ordinarily reasonable Tom Skerritt… to the pleadings of Sara Gilbert because LOOK YOU MADE THE PRETTY GIRL CRY.
[re=89562]Canmon (the Inadequate)[/re]: Uh, yes it is? Because Amtrack is actually a worthy recipient of taxpayer’s money, unlike Sarah Palin?
“You know, each successive story of her epic FAILS will only make the right wingers love her and support her ever more. They will come out in droves to protect her. Quit hatin’ on our National Mama! She’s resourceful. Just like Scarlett O’Hara.”
-Except Scarlett O’Hara hated kids.
[re=89585]Canmon (the Inadequate)[/re]: Yeah. Instead, she sold it to a contributor for a sweetheart deal.
You are a tool.
Did anyone else see the thing on CNN about her last night? Until 6 years ago she was a member of an Assembly of God church where… GET THIS… they speak in tongues and do that whole batshit crazy thing… She changed churches 6 years ago to a more mainstream and influential church, most likely to further her political aspirations. I bet that was around the same time she left the AIP. What a scary scary trollop-cunt.
[re=89725]grendel[/re]: Yup. Check out sanantonerose, above. Twenty years at a Pentacostal church is bound to have some influence on you. Nutty, weird influence.
She charged me $500 per night to sleep in her bed!
has anyone thought to ask her how many trailers she owns yet.. just sayin
Trig Palin is Secretary of Making Doodies, so all his expenses are state business. Try again liberal media.
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
Rod Blagojevich sees nothing wrong with this.
[re=89533]lawrenceofthedesert[/re]: I hate to break this to you then, but Kum with Sum Yung Gai is NOT a Chinese dish.
Ken Layne,
I know at this point it is hard to imagine that there were originally seven Republicans and eight Democrats that entered the race to be President of the United States. It’s even harder to believe what we are left to choose from. Only in America.
My point, if I actually have one, is that it will come down to the wire to see if America does the right thing or not. It’s not for me to decide what’s best for anyone other than me and, arguably, the cat…Maxine.
Sarah Palin is a lot of things. A reformer she is not. Her and Midge, as noted by CBS, are currently running a campaign based on resumes, not issues. The only thing in my mind she has done is added the urgency for me to vote for Obama/Biden, misgivings and all. I looked up “reformer” just to make sure it somehow wasn’t a synonym for “fraud”.
reformer:
Main Entry: re·form·er
Function: noun
Pronunciation: ri-’fo r-m&r
1 : one that works for or urges reform
2 capitalized : a leader of the Protestant Reformation
3 : an apparatus for cracking oils or gases to form specialized products
I can see her as “an apparatus for cracking oils or gases to form specialized products” as there is something non-human about her and Midge is using her…say…as an “apparatus” since he knows nothing about change except his own adult diaper.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Mr. Clark
[re=89502]Sealight[/re]: and yet 7 years younger than mccain
For those people on the Sarah Palin bandwagon im very dissappointed in you. First of all hardily anyone in the Republican party new of her a month ago nows shes this savior do you guys have common since this is all a ploy Mcain set this up so the white woman can join his side he doesnt care about the people he cares about woman it makes me sick how blind people are its not just woman either. Mcain supported bushes failed policys then when hes loosing in the polls hes a reformer and the same with Palin shes a flip flopper and a lier thats what politicians do. You know that saying the blind follow the blind right into a ditch thats what the people that are voting for Mcain and palin are doing it upsets me because I thought American were smarter than this. I blame those Americans who voted for Bush the second time for this economy America wake up you didnt see how dumb president Bush was and Republicans think there smarter than everone else people were better than this the republican party devides people can you read between the lines and there taking advantage of you guys being nieve. I hope Obama eploits Palin for who she is and thats not a reformer a liar and that will all come out when reporters dig deeper in her past just like this tax paying info came out. If I was him I would treat her like a Mcain because she came out swinging first plus if woman want the same advantages that men get they need to stop complaining and work hard because I beleieve in woman and they need to beleieve in there selves and stop complaining.
[re=89562]Canmon (the Inadequate)[/re]: Joe Biden is not actually the only American citizen who uses Amtrak, making his desire to maintain decent public transportation something less than sinister.
[re=89631]Canuckledragger[/re]: Yes! Thank you! Exactly!
I have a job, with the state, for which I both travel and occasionally telecommute. When I travel, ie-leave the city which is the site of my home and office in order to conduct business, I get reimbursed with a per diem. When I telecommute, ie- choose to conduct my work from my home instead of office, in the service of my own convenience, I don’t find it necessary to charge a “per diem”, and my ass would be fired if I tried.
[re=90136]Gregorio[/re]: For those people on the Sarah Palin bandwagon im(SP) very dissappointed(SP) in you. First of all(,) hardily(SP) anyone in the Republican party new(SP) of her a month ago nows(?) she(‘)s this savior(.) do(CAP) you guys have common since this is all a ploy Mcain set this up so the white woman can join his side(NONE OF THIS SENTENCE WORKS…PLEASE RE-READ AND EDIT). he(CAP) doesn(‘)t care about the people(;) he cares about woman(.)(WTF?) it(CAP) makes me sick how blind people are(.) it(‘)s(CAP) not just woman either(THIS SENTENCE IS ALSO STRANGE…WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?). Mc(C)ain supported bushe(‘)s(CAP) failed policys(SP) then when he(‘)s loosing(SP) in the polls he(‘)s a reformer and the same with Palin(.) she(‘)s(CAP) a flip(-) flopper and a lier(SP)(;) that(‘)s what politicians do. You know that saying(“) the blind follow the blind(“)(;) right into a ditch thats what the people that are voting for Mcain and palin are doing it upsets me because I thought American were smarter than this(RUN ON SENTENCE…PLEASE RE-WRITE. ALSO, YOU ARE MAKING VERY LITTLE SENSE. ONE MAIN THESIS AND AT LEAST THREE SUPPORTING POINTS, PEOPLE). I blame those Americans who voted for Bush the second time for this economy(.) (WELL WRITTEN AND CONCISE). America wake up you didnt see how dumb president Bush was and Republicans think there smarter than everone else people were better than this the republican party devides people can you read between the lines and there taking advantage of you guys being nieve.(OK, I WAS TRYING TO BE DIPLOMATIC…SPELLING, RUN ON SENTENCE, NO CLEAR IDEA, TOO WORDY…THIS ENTIRE MIDDLE PORTION NEEDS A SEVERE RE-WRITE. PLEASE DO NOT WASTE MY TIME WITH WRITING OF THIS CALIBER IN THE FUTURE). I hope Obama eploits Palin for who she is and thats not a reformer a liar and that will all come out when reporters dig deeper in her past just like this tax paying info came out. If I was him I would treat her like a Mcain because she came out swinging first plus if woman want the same advantages that men get they need to stop complaining and work hard because I beleieve in woman and they need to beleieve in there selves and stop complaining.
OK, I GAVE UP TRYING HALFWAY THROUGH. IF YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE AN ESSAY IN MY CLASS, YOUNG MAN, I AM GOING TO INSIST THAT YOU READ WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN BEFORE YOU HIT THE SEND BUTTON! INTRODUCTION, THESIS STATEMENT, THREE SUPPORTING PARAGRAPHS, CONCLUSION. WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT THIS? PARTS OF THIS PAPER APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN A STATE OF ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS. PLEASE SPEAK UP IF ENGLISH IS NOT YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE…WE CAN ARRANGE TO HAVE YOU TRANSFERRED TO A DIFFERENT SESSION. HOWEVER, IF YOU INSIST ON REMAINING, I EXPECT YOU TO ATTAIN A HIGHER STANDARD AND CEASE WASTING THE TIME OF YOUR EDITORS AND PEERS. GOOD DAY.
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