Finally, CNN calls FauxNews out.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/15/tea.parties/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
My question is, cant the FCC fine or shut down FauxNews for impersonating an unbiased news agency? They really don't seem to mind being one step lower than TMZ, do they?
I was just watching footage of the tea-thing on cnn.com. Footage of the um, protest, in Washington DC, and in Austin, TX.
Maybe it's just me, but it appears that there were more people at the inauguration.
Actually, it appears that there were more people at the Easter Egg Roll at the White House yesterday.
That's the best they could do, huh?
(CNN) -- What do you do when you're NASA and comedian Stephen Colbert wins your contest to name the new wing for the International Space Station? You name an orbital exercise machine after him.
NASA will name an orbital exercise machine after comedian Stephen Colbert.
The Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT, is expected to keep astronauts in shape.
With the help of a legion of fans, Colbert got the most votes in the space agency's online poll soliciting names for Node 3, which will be called Tranquility after the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams revealed NASA's decision on "The Colbert Report," which aired on Comedy Central on Tuesday.
"Your name will be in space, in a very important place," Williams said as Colbert reacted in mock disgust to her announcement of the node's new name.
"I think a treadmill is better than a node ... because the node is just a box for the treadmill," Colbert deadpanned. "Nobody says, 'Hey, my mom bought me a Nike box.' They want the shoes that are inside."
Colbert's campaign generated welcome attention for the oft-forgotten International Space Station, but it also presented a dilemma for NASA.
The contest rules spelled out that NASA reserves the right to "ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency. ... Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names."
The runner-up name to Colbert was Serenity, which was more in line with the names of the other nodes. Harmony, the name given Node 2, was chosen by a poll of kindergartners in 2007.
The publicity caused by Colbert's interest in Node 3 turned out well for the space agency.
"This spread overall awareness of the International Space Station," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations, who has appeared on Colbert's show.
NASA changed its plan to announce the new name at the end of April at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida when Colbert's producers invited them to do it on their show, the space agency said.
Pennsylvania Congressman Chaka Fattah, who stepped in the naming fray in March, when he said Colbert had won the naming contest fair and square, called the decision a good compromise.
It's "one small step for NASA and a giant step for the Colbert nation," the congressman said, playing off Neil Armstrong's line when he first set foot on the moon in 1969.
Colbert's loyal fans have, in the past, bombarded polls to have things named after him.
In 2006, Colbert out-polled every other name in a bridge-naming contest in Hungary. The country's government later said it cannot name the bridge after the comedian because he does not speak Hungarian and is not dead.
Colbert also tried to get himself on Democratic and Republican primary ballots in his home state of South Carolina in 2007. The Democratic Party's executive council voted against his inclusion, and he did not qualify for the Republican primary because he missed the deadline.
However, ice cream maker Ben and Jerry named a new flavor in honor of him, calling it Colbert's AmeriCone Dream. Virgin America also named one of its planes Air Colbert.
My thinking was that my blog would end the day after election day, and so I stopped blogging.
I went through withdrawal for a while, but eventually got used to keeping my observations to myself.
But things are just so odd lately, so I've returned to MyBO.com to once again give my observations.
Some odds and ends...
1- It's a dog, people! Wolf Blitzer had the "Dog Whisperer" on TV, CNN had a special graphic, can't the Obama's have their dog without the entire press corps following them? Or will we have to wait for "Bo's first dump"?
2- To all the GOP idiots who are organizing tomorrow's tea-thing-or-whatever-it-is: I've got a great idea! Anyone who feels that they need to protest the direction of taxpayer dollars, just refuse to pay your taxes! It'll make both sides happy: You'll get your protest, and we'll get to remove you from society when you're arrested on tax evasion charges. Then, the rest of us can go forward with transforming the country without you.
3- Way to go John McCain to tell it like it is by snubbing Palin on late night. Palin is an embarassment to the GOP, and to the country. Actually, the longer Palin is in the forefront, the worse off the GOP is, so keep it coming.
4- Hey Minnesota, don't drag the rest of the country down with you! Give us our 59th Democratic Senator already!
5- FauxNews is still on this trip about if we should have antagonized the pirates in Somalia, by killing three of them. Some times I want to ask them what color the sky is over there. Hey FauxNews, substitute the word 'pirate' with 'terrorist', then tell us what your problem is.
Ok, that's a good start. I feel better now.
CNN is reporting that Senator Obama's grandmother has passed away.
My deepest sympathies to Senator Obama, Michelle, and the girls.
Fired up!
Ready to go!
The McCain camp- negative ads to the end:
(CNN) – With Pennsylvania's developing status as a must-win battleground for John McCain, the state GOP launched a last-minute television ad here highlighting Barack Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
"If you think you could ever vote for Barack Obama, consider this: Obama chose as his spiritual leader this man," the ad's narrator says, before clips of Wright's controversial statements are shown.
"Does that sound like someone who should be president?" the ad continues.
The party did not release the extent of the ad buy, but defended the decision to air it.
"We feel that it is necessary that the American people remember that Obama sat in a church and listened to this man preach hate for many, many years," said a statement posted on the state party's Web site. "What does that say about his judgment? Do we want the next President of the United States to have spent years listening to hateful rhetoric without having the good judgment to walk out?"
McCain has said he does not believe Obama's relationship with Wright should be an issue in the campaign — to the ire of some Republicans, who feel it raises questions about the Illinois senator's judgment.
In an interview last month, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin seemed to suggest Wright was a fair issue to raise, but that the final decision was McCain's.
"[Obama] sat in the pews for 20 years, and heard Reverend Wright say some things that most people would find a bit concerning. But again that is John McCain's call," said Palin.
-------
NEW YORK (CNN) – The Republican National Committee is using Hillary Clinton’s past criticism of Barack Obama to plant seeds of doubt in the minds of undecided voters in the final hours of the presidential campaign.
The RNC will begin an automated telephone campaign Sunday targeting millions of voters in key states that supported Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary or have a large concentration of blue collar voters, a Republican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells CNN. The official was not able to specify which states, but added: keep an eye on Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Full script:
“I am calling for John McCain and the RNC. Listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about John McCain and Barack Obama:
‘In the White House there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002. I think that is a significant difference.’
This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee at 866-558-5591 and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.”
First, there was this smackdown of the McCain idiot-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCaOCWYpPk4
But today, it got even better.
Some other McCain idiot tried to bring up Rev. Wright on CNN, as another anti-semite. Rick Sanchez was all over this guy. Every time the idiot tried to twist a quote, Sanchez had the quote, in its correct context, right at his desk. Then, he read a statement by the Anti-Defimation League that states that Wright wasn't anti-semetic.
The McCain idiot didn't know what hit him.
Senator Obama should find a spot for this guy in his administration (along with Jack Cafferty).
So, Joe the Unlicenced Plumber (who makes a living taking work away from licenced, union workers) , straight from showing us his expertise as an economic wizard (I'd love for a reporter to ask him to name one Socialist country)...
...is now, a foreign-policy expert????
See, here's the GOP's problem. McCain shouldn't be their candidate, Joe the Plumber apparently knows much more about the government and the world than McCain and Palin put together.
Over 100,000 in Denver on Oct. 26th
So, now the McCain and Palin stump speeches include more than Joe the Unlicensed Plumber, they mention Tont the Cop, Jill the Nurse, and others.
So the other day, Palin mentioned Tito the Builder.
I'm sorry, did she REALLY say Tito the Builder???
Wow.
She couldn't say Tito the Doctor, or Tito the Teacher, huh? Tito just HAS to be a Builder.
Wow. Just wow.
First, the booing at the Philadelphia vs Rangers game, now this...
Legace injured after tripping over the carpet for VP candidate Palin
The blue carpet which was rolled out for Sarah Palin's ceremonial puck drop, may have injured Blues netminder Manny Legace.Mark Buckner/NHLI via Getty Images
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Blues goalie Manny Legace left after one period Friday night with a hip injury that occurred when he slipped on the carpet placed on the ice for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Alaska governor dropped the ceremonial first puck before the Blues hosted the Los Angeles Kings. A narrow carpet walkway was placed from the gate at the Blues bench to center ice for Palin, her husband and two of her daughters. Just before the ceremony, Legace was the first player onto the ice for St. Louis. A team official pointed to the carpet. But Legace said the official moved his own foot from the carpet just as Legace stepped down, causing the carpet to slide. Legace fell, then gingerly made his way to the crease. After Legace's mishap, the official rolled up enough of the carpet so other players wouldn't have to step on it. Legace described the injury as a strained left hip flexor. He doesn't believe it is serious but said it is painful. He said he won't play Saturday when the Blues host Florida, but wasn't sure if he'd miss any additional games. "I felt a pull right away," Legace said. "I was hoping it would just go away." But after making his first save, the injury felt worse, Legace said. He played one period, giving up two goals on 12 shots. After the intermission, the team said he suffered a "lower body" injury but did not immediately elaborate. He was replaced by Ben Bishop, making his NHL debut. Legace is 4-2 with a 2.94 goals-against average in six games this season. He is 313-291 in his nine-year career. He was selected to the Western Conference All-Star team last season. It was Palin's second appearance at an NHL game this month. She also dropped the ceremonial puck at Philadelphia on Oct. 11. Legace didn't blame Palin for the injury. "She's been pretty good for our game," Legace said. "I'm starting to like her more and more. No grudge."
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Blues goalie Manny Legace left after one period Friday night with a hip injury that occurred when he slipped on the carpet placed on the ice for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The Alaska governor dropped the ceremonial first puck before the Blues hosted the Los Angeles Kings. A narrow carpet walkway was placed from the gate at the Blues bench to center ice for Palin, her husband and two of her daughters.
Just before the ceremony, Legace was the first player onto the ice for St. Louis. A team official pointed to the carpet. But Legace said the official moved his own foot from the carpet just as Legace stepped down, causing the carpet to slide.
Legace fell, then gingerly made his way to the crease.
After Legace's mishap, the official rolled up enough of the carpet so other players wouldn't have to step on it.
Legace described the injury as a strained left hip flexor. He doesn't believe it is serious but said it is painful. He said he won't play Saturday when the Blues host Florida, but wasn't sure if he'd miss any additional games.
"I felt a pull right away," Legace said. "I was hoping it would just go away."
But after making his first save, the injury felt worse, Legace said. He played one period, giving up two goals on 12 shots. After the intermission, the team said he suffered a "lower body" injury but did not immediately elaborate. He was replaced by Ben Bishop, making his NHL debut.
Legace is 4-2 with a 2.94 goals-against average in six games this season. He is 313-291 in his nine-year career. He was selected to the Western Conference All-Star team last season.
It was Palin's second appearance at an NHL game this month. She also dropped the ceremonial puck at Philadelphia on Oct. 11.
Legace didn't blame Palin for the injury.
"She's been pretty good for our game," Legace said. "I'm starting to like her more and more. No grudge."
FOXNews.com
Friday, October 24, 2008
Ashley Todd, who says she is a McCain campaign volunteer, told police she was mugged, then pinned by her assailant, who cut a "B" into her face. (College Republicans)
PITTSBURGH -- A 20-year-old volunteer for John McCain's campaign has admitted that she lied when she said she was attacked by a robber who carved a "B" into her cheek when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on her car, Pittsburgh police said Friday.
Ashley Todd, 20, of College Station, Texas, will be charged with filing a false report, a misdemeanor, police said.
"She told lie after lie, and the situation compounded to where we are right now," Lt. Kevin Kraus, head of major crimes for the Pittsburgh police, said Friday.
Todd had told police that on Wednesday night at 9 o'clock ET, a 6-foot-4 black male in dark jeans and a black tank top held her up at an ATM machine in Bloomfield, Pa. Todd said the robber put a knife to her neck and demanded money. She said she gave him $60, according to the police report.
Todd, who is white, said the robber then noticed the McCain bumper sticker on her car, punched her in the back of her head, knocked her down, and continued to punch and kick her while threatening to teach her a lesson.
"You are going to be a Barack supporter," she said the robber told her before he sat on her chest, pinned her hands down with his knees and scratched the letter "B" on the right side of her face, using what she believed to be a very dull knife. The robber then fled, Todd said in the police report.
On Friday, officials said they had found several "inconsistencies" in Todd's statements. She was brought back to police headquarters, where she finally confessed that she had made the entire story up.
"After a while, she just simply stated that she wanted to tell the truth," said Maurita Bryant, assistant chief for investigations.
Todd confessed to police that she was driving alone, looked in the mirror, saw her black eye and the B on her face, and didn't know how they got there. She assumed she could have done it herself, she said, and then she made up the story about the attacker.
When she saw the B, the first thing she thought of was "Barack," she told police.
Police suspect Todd's wounds were self-inflicted. She remained at police headquarters on Friday afternoon, and police were trying to determine whether she needed psychiatric evaluation.
"She hasn't really shown any obvious remorse," Kraus said. "She's certainly surprised that it snowballed to where it is today."
"It's been a huge waste of time and man hours," said Bryant, adding that police had been working on the story since it broke Thursday.
Police said Todd did not have a lawyer, and that her none of her family were in Pittsburgh.
Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard would not say whether police doubted Todd's story, but bank surveillance footage did not show Todd at the Citizens Bank ATM where she claimed the assault took place.
Richard told FOX News that Todd had been staying with a male friend who lives down the street from the ATM.
A woman named Liz who answered the door at the residence where Todd arrived after her purported attack told FOXNews.com that her roommate is friends with Todd, and he told Liz not to discuss any details about the incident. A Ford Taurus with a Texas license plate and a McCain-Palin sticker was parked outside.
Richard said Todd later added to her tale, saying she was groped by the robber and lost consciousness during the assault. Neither of those details was in the original report.
Richard said that after a second interview, Todd was not as definitive about the assault or the motives behind it, nor could she say for certain whether the robber took $60 from her, as she initially reported and still maintained was missing.
Todd took a polygraph test late Thursday or early Friday after police heard the inconsistencies, Richard said.
'There were major changes in her story" before and after the polygraph test, Richard said. As for the wound on her cheek, "it's very shallow, it's more of a scratch."
Before Todd's admission, Richard had said the police department was taking the report "very seriously" and considered Todd a "victim" while the investigation was ongoing.
The area at Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street where Todd had said the attack took place is heavily traveled in the daytime, full of traffic, pedestrians, restaurants and stores. On Friday, Pittsburgh detectives canvassed the area looking for witnesses.
Doug Graham, a neighbor of the residence where Todd's friend lives, told FOXNews.com it's unlikely an assault at the bank would go unnoticed.
"There ain't no way nobody saw that," said Graham, whose home -- where he has lived for a decade -- sports a Barack Obama sign. "It's always hopping up there. Something fishy, I knew the first second I saw [her story]. Something fishy."
Ethan Eilon, executive director of the College Republicans National Committee, told FOX News that Todd was volunteering as a field representative through his organization and that she had taken a year off from her studies at Blinn College to work on the campaign.
Todd received a call from the Republican presidential nominee on Thursday night. Barack Obama's local campaign team also issued well-wishes and said it hoped her assailant would be caught and brought to justice.
How does John McCain's own brother handle sitting in traffic?
He calls 911 of course.
Then he gets angry when he's told that 911 is for emergencies only.
And then he calls 911 again, to complain about that!
Out of touch. Watch the story here.
That's it. I've had it with you all.
You just motivated me to donate another $50.00 to the Obama campaign.
In just 12 more days, we won't have to deal with you anymore.
The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner | October 22, 2008 09:31 AM
At least two people have quit their jobs at call centers over scripts that accuse Barack Obama of working closely with Bill Ayers. The Charleston Gazette reports on a woman in West Virginia:
Chaylee Cole, a student at Fairmont State University, lost her part-time job in Weston last Friday after refusing to make telephone calls attacking Barack Obama. McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee were paying for the calls, according to a "work paper" handed to Cole and her co-workers at the Weston offices of 1.2.1 Direct Response, a company based in Philadelphia. "I was working at the call center," Cole said. "We got a campaign ad talking about how Obama had been part of terrorist attacks on the Capitol, the Pentagon and a judge's home and had ties with Bill Ayers. "Last Thursday, I told them I did not want to read it," Cole said. "They said, 'Either you read it or you go home.' "I told them I wasn't going to read it. They made me go home without pay for the rest of the day." ... "I talked to one of our 'coaches,' which is what our supervisors were called. I said I was unhappy with the situation and I quit," she said Tuesday.
McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee were paying for the calls, according to a "work paper" handed to Cole and her co-workers at the Weston offices of 1.2.1 Direct Response, a company based in Philadelphia.
"I was working at the call center," Cole said. "We got a campaign ad talking about how Obama had been part of terrorist attacks on the Capitol, the Pentagon and a judge's home and had ties with Bill Ayers.
"Last Thursday, I told them I did not want to read it," Cole said. "They said, 'Either you read it or you go home.'
"I told them I wasn't going to read it. They made me go home without pay for the rest of the day."
...
"I talked to one of our 'coaches,' which is what our supervisors were called. I said I was unhappy with the situation and I quit," she said Tuesday.
And WKOW finds a man in Wisconsin:
Voters in more than 13 states, including Wisconsin are getting calls from people accusing Barack Obama of having ties to terrorists. Some of those calls are made from right here in Madison. A local man made dozens of calls bashing Barack Obama, but when the campaign got ugly, he quit his job. ... Zoromski said, "This was different than I was told I was going to be saying, and [Sitel] said the script changes on a daily basis." So Zoromski quit, fed up with what he perceived as scare tactics.
A local man made dozens of calls bashing Barack Obama, but when the campaign got ugly, he quit his job.
Zoromski said, "This was different than I was told I was going to be saying, and [Sitel] said the script changes on a daily basis."
So Zoromski quit, fed up with what he perceived as scare tactics.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' plane flights.
The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.
In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. She also has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.
Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.
As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters -- Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7 -- by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor's schedule.
But some organizers of these events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend.
Several other organizers said the children merely accompanied their mother and did not participate. The trips enabled Palin, whose main state office is in the capital of Juneau, to spend more time with her children.
"She said any event she can take her kids to is an event she tries to attend," said Jennifer McCarthy, who helped organize the June 2007 Family Day Celebration picnic in Ketchikan that Piper attended with her parents.
State Finance Director Kim Garnero told The Associated Press she has not reviewed the Palins' travel expense forms, so she could not say whether the daughters' travel with their mother would meet the definition of official business.
On August 6, three weeks before Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain chose Palin as his running mate, and after Alaska reporters asked for the records, Palin ordered changes to previously filed expense reports for her daughters' travel.
In the amended reports, Palin added phrases such as "First Family attending" and "First Family invited" to explain the girls' attendance.
"The governor said, 'I want the purpose and the reason for this travel to be clear,' " said Linda Perez, state director of administrative services.
When Palin released her family's tax records as part of her vice presidential campaign, some tax experts questioned why she did not report the children's state travel reimbursements as income. Watch Palin's interview with CNN's Drew Griffin »
The Palins released a review by a Washington attorney who said state law allows the children's travel expenses to be reimbursed and not taxed when they conduct official state business.
Taylor Griffin, a McCain-Palin campaign spokesman, said Palin followed state policy allowing governors to charge for their children's travel. He said the governor's office has invitations requesting the family to attend some events, but he said he did not have them to provide.
In October 2007, Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York for a women's leadership conference. Plane tickets from Anchorage to La Guardia Airport for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, records show, and mother and daughter shared a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park.
The event's organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter.
Alexis Gelber, who organized Newsweek's Third Annual Women & Leadership Conference, said she does not know how Bristol ended up attending. Gelber said invitees usually attend alone, but some ask if they can bring a relative or friend.
Griffin, the campaign spokesman, said he believes someone with the event personally sent an e-mail to Bristol inviting her, but he did not have it to provide. Records show Palin also met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs representatives and visited the New York Stock Exchange.
In January, the governor, Willow and Piper attended the Alaska Symphony of Seafood Buffet, an Anchorage gala to announce winners of an earlier seafood competition.
"She was just there," said James Browning, executive director of Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, which runs the event. Griffin said the governor's office received an invitation that was not specifically addressed to anyone.
When Palin amended her children's expense reports, she listed a role for the two girls at the function -- "to draw two separate raffle tickets."
In the original travel form, Palin listed a number of events that her children attended and said they were there "in official capacity helping." She did not identify any specific roles for the girls.
In July, the governor charged the state $2,741.26 to take Bristol and Piper to Philadelphia for a meeting of the National Governors Association. The girls had their own room for five nights at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel for $215.46 a night, expense records show.
Expense forms describe the girls' official purpose as "NGA Governor's Youth Programs and family activities." But those programs were activities designed to keep children busy, a service provided by the NGA to accommodate governors and their families, NGA spokeswoman Jodi Omear said.
In addition to the commercial flights, the children have traveled dozens of times with Palin on a state plane. For these flights, the total cost of operating the plane, at $971 an hour, was about $55,000, according to state flight logs. The cost of operating the state plane does not increase when the children join their mother.
The organizer of an American Heart Association luncheon on February 15 in Fairbanks said Palin asked to bring daughter Piper to the event, and the organizer said she was surprised when Palin showed up with daughters Willow and Bristol as well.
The three Palin daughters shared a room separate from their mother at the Princess Lodge in Fairbanks for two nights, at a cost to the state of $129 per night.
The luncheon took place before Palin's husband, Todd, finished fourth in the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, also in Fairbanks. The family greeted him at the finish line.
When Palin showed up at the luncheon with not just Piper but also Willow and Bristol, organizers had to scramble to make room at the main table, said Janet Bartels, who set up the event.
"When it's the governor, you just make it happen," she said.
The state is already reviewing nearly $17,000 in per diem payments to Palin for more than 300 nights she slept at her own home, 40 miles from her satellite office in Anchorage.
Tony Knowles, a Democratic former governor of Alaska who lost to Palin in a 2006 bid to reclaim the job, said he never charged the state for his three children's commercial flights and did not claim their travel as official state business.
Knowles, who was governor from 1994 to 2002, is the only other recent Alaska governor who had school-age children while in office.
"There was no valid reason for the children to be along on state business," said Knowles, a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. "I cannot recall any instance during my eight years as governor where it would have been appropriate to claim they performed state business."
Knowles said he brought his children to one NGA event while in office but didn't charge the state for their trip.
In February 2007, the three girls flew from Juneau to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines. Palin charged the state for the $519.30 round-trip ticket for each girl, and noted on the expense form that the daughters accompanied her to "open the start of the Iron Dog race."
The children and their mother then watched as Todd Palin and other racers started the competition, which Todd won that year. Palin later had the relevant expense forms changed to describe the girls' business as "First Family official starter for the start of the Iron Dog race."
The Palins began charging the state for commercial flights after the governor kept a 2006 campaign promise to sell a jet bought by her predecessor.
Palin put the jet up for sale on eBay, a move she later trumpeted in her speech at the Republican National Convention, and it was ultimately sold by the state at a loss.
