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This morning vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave her first policy speech. She used this time to urge the federal government to fully fund Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), saying that, "Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference."



She then went on to say that the amount that Congress spends on earmarks “is more than the shortfall to fully fund IDEA.” And followed that up by ridiculing the projects saying that they, "really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."



The problem is that she is totally unaware that scientific research done on fruit flies has led to important discoveries that have boosted autism research. This was seen at a study conducted at he University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, which by the way Mr. Palin is not in Paris, have shown that, "a protein called neurexin is required for..nerve cell connections to form and function correctly. The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism."



The study of fruit flies has also been used in other forms of research and, according to ScienceDaily, has "revolutionized" the way birth defects are studied and identified.



This just goes to show how out of touch Ms. Palin really is. She has a child with autism yet publicly criticizes the people and funds that go towards bettering the lives of developmentally disabled people - I kid you not.