About Sarah Palin's decision to charge victims for rape kits

It's about the reported stats, stupid!

When the GOP is in power and things are not humming in the economy, they juggle what items are considered for the reporting indexes. They leave off a lot of items you and I buy when they report what the inflation rate is. Really. Look at what they claim the rate of inflation is just before you go buy groceries. You'll get it. All that food stuff you think you need? Turns out it is HIGHLY VOLITIAL! No, it won't combust, it will just change, rapidly. The GOP never wants you to know that. They think by not including items that actually go up rapidly in price in the index to determine the actual rate of inflation, well by golly, YOU won't notice how much more you are paying to keep food on the table.

Same with unemployment stats. Change the data you consider and POOF! you have improved the employment problem. Pay no attention to the veterans who are homeless, the former IT workers flipping burgers, the masses of young people with no foot in the door to real lifetime opportunity. Just decide that after so long on the list, if a person still hasn't found full time employment, well, they just don't deserve to be counted on the list. Or something.

See, the economy is great! Inflation is low and so is unemployment! Trust the GOP to straight talk you right past reality and into the waters of that river in W's brain, de-nial. Yep, they kept herding people into that muddy river until things got so bad even their brokers went broke. THEN they race around shouting that we have to fix things now, but we don't have time to stop, think, plan well, or even read the fine print. WE GOTTA GIVE THE SMUCKS WHO MADE ALL THE BAD DECISIONS $700 BILLION. NOW!

'So, Attila, what does it have to do with rape kits?', you ask.

Palin's rape kit bill-cost-to-victim agenda is the same sort of fudging the stats that the GOP has done with inflation index and unemployment head counts.

I checked around. Wasilla does not charge victims of robberies, break-ins, bar room brawls for the cost of gathering evidence of those crimes. The great state of Alaska doesn't either. But there is a high rate of reported rapes in Alaska. And that doesn't sit well with the image of the place Sarah and her church paint. There is a problem and they won't address the root causes. They don't want to look under the rock and find so many neighbors doing some really bad shit. They want to believe all those smiling lipsticks worn in public to hide the bull shit in the pits.

The river in W's brain has jumped its banks. De-nial is flooding the last great American frontier.

But Sarah is ambitious. Not particularly accomplished, but ambitious as all get out. Don't know if it's lipstick on a pitbull so much as a pig on some sort of bender, but the woman's reach far exceedes her abilities.

Rape. Horrible crime. Says a lot of really bad things about any community where it is widespread. What to do? If you really address the problem, you admit there is much violence and sickness. If you are selling a haven for a lot of people who think they can just move to some perfect place where God will have cookies and milk waiting for the right believers, you can't admit to the high rate of violence and sickness.

Gotta lower that rate of reported rapes.

Charge the victims money! MAKE THEM PAY! Once the word gets out that complaining about being horribly violated will cost ya, only the richest will be able to afford to complain. Since they can also afford not to work dangerous hours in dangerous neighborhoods, and can afford to have their gated communities protected by hired guns, they are less likely to get raped, so not too many reports from them either.

Mission , errr, Statistic Improvement Accomplished.

It's about pretending the crime rate for that horrible crime is different from what it really is. It's about pricing the victims out of the market. Its about the reported stats, stupid! I should have figured that one out much sooner. Neocons are all about appearing to be swell. They want the rest of us to buy the crap they are selling as sugar.