Who Is the "Wasilla Project"?

[Blue_In_AK]

From the Anchorage Daily News Political Blog
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/132441

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage -

Earlier this week, a polished, four-minute video appeared on a Web site called www.wasillaproject.com titled "Sarah Palin: The rape kit controversy."

The clip includes interviews with former Anchorage Rep. Eric Croft, Wasilla council woman Dianne Woodruff and others.

<VIDEO HERE>

So who made it?

Paul Lundahl, a San Francsico/Bay area filmmaker said he and a group of friends and co-workers spent about four days in the Valley late last month shooting the clip. They also interviewed Sen. Lyda Green, Anne Kilkenny and Palmer pastor/community activist Howard Bess, and plan to produce three more videos.

"If we didn't do this and McCain's elected on Nov. 4 and we felt like ... people didn't know who Sarah Palin was, it would feel really bad," Lundahl said.

The obvious question: Does the group have any connection to the Obama campaign?

"Absolutely none," Lundahl says.

He is a Democrat, as are most of the other Wasilla Project members.

"The campaigns didn't know about what we were doing ... We knew the production values of videos we were producing would make people wonder: 'Who's behind this?'"

Lundahl owns a production company in Sausalito. Some of the Wasilla Project crew work there too, but not all of them. They used their own gear, donated their time and raised about $7,000 to buy airline tickets and rental cabins, he said.

"It was very, very indie style."

A friend, who Lundahl didn't name, hosted a fund-raiser in her home to help pay the bills, he said.

He said the goal was to make videos that aren't insulting or heavy-handed. The rape kit clip is up to about 18,000 hits on YouTube. Originally, they thought about creating a kind of video version of Kilkenny's widely read letter-from-Wasilla.

The group plans to post the next video soon - this one on Palin's history as a social conservative. Look for talk about her abortion stance, and maybe her views on creationism, Lundahl said.

[lurky]

1. Like the Arkansas Project, but with actual facts?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Our bloggers have been trying to get the ADN

to cover this issue for a month and a half now. If it takes a video made by some outsiders to get them to pay attention, it's all good.

See this at Progressive Alaska http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/10/saradise-lost-chapter-one-hundred_08.html

[louis-t]

2. Who's the real Sarah Palin?

[tosh]

3. This is so well done. K&R.

I wish these could air on prime time telly.

[marco86]

5. Sarcasm ---she was trying to deal with a problem-----Sarcasm!!

The reported rapes in Wasilla were out of contol. It was both a P.R. nightmare and an expense to the city. So Palin was renewing her car insurance and the agent said to her "We have been encouraging people to go with a higher deductible. It reduces reported incidents and keeps premiums down" She was inspired
Hmmm if women have to pay for rape kits, it will keep our costs down and reduce (reported) crime. Two birds with one stone.

Now, seriously,

The whole troopergate thing - Monegan wanted to have a sex crimes unit to tackle the rape problem, so he sought a federal grant. I read somewhere that Palin's concern was how much it would cost the state to hold/rehap all the rapists. Does anyone have a cite for that.

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Alaska used to have a very intensive rehabilitation program

in place in the state correctional system for sex offenders back in the early '80s. I know because I was a CO/counselor at the correctional facility that was dedicated for that purpose in Eagle River. We had some inmates in for standard crimes, but by far the majority of the people I worked with were child molesters and rapists. We had group sessions every morning, one-on-one counseling, a clinical psychologist on staff, and a psychiatrist who specialized in sex offenses who came in every week to run groups.

From what I understand, this has all fallen by the wayside, which I think is criminal in itself, given the budget surpluses this state has. This is an extremely serious problem in our state, and Walt Monegan was absolutely justified in his concern. I don't understand Sarah's position on this at all.