From: Anne Clement:SingingStones
Subject: FW: Important for Distribution re: Palin
To: "Galeda Jones"
Date: Monday, September 8, 2008, 10:14 PM
Greetings:
this gives some clarity into the ethics and character of
this person who is running for VP
AC
--- On Mon, 9/8/08, Jim Wheeler
wrote:
From: Jim Wheeler
Subject: FW: Important for Distribution re: Palin
Subject: Important for Distribution re Palin
This came from a trusted friend: This is a
post in response to the Washington Independent article
entitled "The Reform Candidate?" [
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/3671/the-reform-candidate]
Dear friends,> > So many people have asked me
about what I know about Sarah> Palin in the > last 2
days that I decided to write something up . . . Basically,
Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in
common: their gender and their good looks.
You have my permission to forward this to your
friends/email contacts with
my name and email address attached, but please do not
post> it on any > websites, as there are too many
kooks out there . . . Thanks, Ann
++++++++ ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla , Alaska . I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows
Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a
first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite
substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law.
I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about
99% of the residents of the city. She is enormously popular; in every way she's
like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote
for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe". It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a
secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months. She
is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's > syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby. She is
energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym. She is savvy. She doesn't take
positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes
credit. Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile
racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He
arranges his work schedule> so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but
by no stretch > of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been
anything like that of native Alaskans. Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters. She's
smart. Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at > the time), and less
than 2 years as governor of a state> with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral administration
most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed
to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had
given rise to a recall campaign. Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she
increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected
by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced
progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
promoted> benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents. The
huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on
her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt,
but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow
money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city
lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports
complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title
to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The
sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the
profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could
have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing. While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated
more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city. As an oil producer,
the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska . Rather than invest this surplus in technology
that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution
of this surplus to every individual in the state. In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that
the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues:
spend today's surplus, borrow for needs. She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or
open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or
her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of > who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian
refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied
to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so
Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day. Sarah complained
about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set
of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent
on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their
power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of
pressuring the State's top cop (see below). As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because
he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska 's top cop
has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him,
but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't
fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had
to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
later> fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she
fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public
furor, she withdrew her support. She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to
her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters
when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected
Mayor. She > abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were
stunned by this ruthlessness. Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about
her. When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid.
She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid
$122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the
commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was
also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move
which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the
patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she
dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined). As
Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has
castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear
that it would be unwise not to. As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made
a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of
these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the
unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork". She is solidly Republican:
no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated
them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative. Around Wasilla there are
people who went to high school> with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her
unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated
around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team.
When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for
Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her. As Governor, she stepped outside of the
box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies
to march to the beat of her drum. Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned
"as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen
to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar
bears as threatened species. McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a
heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more
knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her
and are regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
* "Hockey mom": true for a few years
* "PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born> was in elementary school, not since
* "NRA supporter": absolutely true
* social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
* pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
* "Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
* "Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the
state of Alaska . No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a
city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
* political maverick: not at all
* gutsy: absolutely!
* open & transparent:
Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
* has a developed philosophy of public policy? No.
* "a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
* fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
* pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
* pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
* pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansionof city government in Wasilla's history.
* pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of
being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar.
For 10 years I put on student voting programs in
the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
Alaska ), you will find references to my participation
in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations. Secondly, I've always operated
in the belief that "Bad things happen when
good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings. Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I
don't belong to any organization that she can hurt.
But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and
it is likely that this will
cost me somehow in the future: that's life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was
one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support
the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything
because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to
me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla ,and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall -- they are swamped. So I
can't verify my numbers. You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for
the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city
official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I
have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the
mid-90's.
Anne Kilkenny
annekilkenny@hotmail.com August 31, 2008 = A. R. Lyons,
Ph.D. Psychological Consultant 166 East 35th
Street Suite 9E/F New York , NY 10016 U. S.
A. (T) 212-481-0273 (F) 212-447-8753
clarita karlin
> ----------------------------------------->
