Sarah Palin, aspiring book banner?

Time magazine, in its reporting on John McCain's vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin, has uncovered some information that is making librarians uncomfortable.

[Former Mayor John] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Librarian Jessamyn West, who blogs at librarian.net, writes, "Usually I’m just happy to see libraries even mentioned in national level politics, but not like this."

This seems like a good time to mention Banned Books Week, beginning Sept. 27, which celebrates the freedom to read. 2007's most challenged book was "And Tango Makes Three," a children's book about a penguin with two dads; books by Mark Twain and Alice Walker appear, again, on the list. Exactly what books Palin might have wanted to ban have not been identified (other than some unsupported rumors), but it's safe to assume that she won't be joining in to celebrate the idea that no books should be banned at all.

— Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Stine]

Great, another person close to controlling our country who wants to limit freedom. Screw anybody who wants to limit freedom! That is all.

[Swing Voter]

Gosh, it's not like she proposed BURNING the books or anything.

[snoopy]

The Truth About Sarah Palin:

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,
Anne

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 lawyer 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 expansion of 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, last name redacted, 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.

Posted by: christopher | September 3, 2008 11:27 AM

[Sara]

She scares me. She says being in Iraq is "God's Will" and asked for people to pray for the pipeline that was "God's Will". Notice a trend here with the firing anyone that doesn't "support" her views. I'm counting 3 so far.

[Jim]

Here we go another rumor that's reported with no facts to support it.

Present some facts when your going to do a hit peice next time.

Call Dan Rather, he can help you out.

[Seattle Metaphysical Library Book reviewer]

As a book lover and reviewer, I am hoping that all of the presidential candidates and their potential VP selections will chime in on where they stand on book banning during Banned Books week.

Freedom of intellectual expression and the First Amendment aren't luxuries - these are the foundations of our nation. It is our obligation as Americans to protect the rights in the Constitution. When a people loose the right to intellectual freedom in their country - losing their rights to religious expression aren't far beyhind.

I hope others will be joining me in reading a banned book during Banned Book week!!

[Patmac]

Her speech was sarcastic, bitter, and divisive, a bad comedian with canned laughter from the GOP. But most importantly her words were empty of any genuine content. (Have regressives like her nothing at all to say on the economy, education, healthcare, the middle-class?)

Despite an undergrad journalism degree from Idaho (we're talkin' intellect here!), and an ability to lip sync to the words of Bush's speechwriter, Matthew Scully, she sounded like a high school student giving a class presentation. (Phonetic spellings on the teleprompter, no less ('new-clear'!) It was an embarrassment to this country.

(Not to mention that she's an anti-science radical right wing maniac who believes the world was created 5,000 yrs ago and that the Iraq war was called forth from God!)

And now the media is just drooling over her (remembering apparently that the big right wing conglomerates own their butts), merely over the fact she can pronounce her words. What a crock.

Now accustomed to Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, and American Idol, enough Americans just might be dumb enough to let her and McCain run our country even deeper into the ground. If so, look around and enjoy a superpower's dying breath. History and the world will laugh at us, with only a small amount of pity. While Jefferson, Lincoln, and JFK, are all rolling in their graves. God help us.

[crash]

Obviously you guys in LA didn't get the West Coast memo at the convention reagrding the liberal East Coast.

Burning books, banning books. This is frightening.

[Ross]

"Swing Voter" splits hairs between burning books and banning books. Pay attention Swing Voter. Ban or burn...the result is the same. Read "1984" when you get a chance. George Orwell. We have had 8 years of a retarded evangelical bumbling about. Do we really need 4 more years?

[NappyHead]

There is a process, put forth by libraries, to challenge books. Oh, and don't think that the libraries offer complete freedom... THEY control what a person has access to in their facility.

[Sammy]

While I completely understand the need to uphold the 1st amendment under all circumstances, the fact remains that some books should NOT be in a PUBLIC library. Period. I'm not talking about books like The Catcher in the Rye, which in my day was considered quite salacious, but more to the point, books that depict outright pornography in the name of art. Our children should be protected from seeing such things until they are old enough to understand and old enough to make their own informed decisions about questionable materials. Don't you agree?

Don't get me wrong, I am not a prude by any means. But children today need our protection from growing up too fast. As a mother of 5 children, and one of them about to have a child!, I'm guessing Sarah Palin, along with most mothers, feels the same way I do. It's like drinking alcohol. I don't think it should be banned, but it should remain in places where underage children can't get their hands on it. That's all. This banned book thing is most likely along the same lines.

I'm sure the bully media just hates the fact that John McCain gave them the black eye they deserve. So they're going to rant and rave and cry and moan and complain about every detail regarding his selection for VP. That's fine. Whiners are protected under the first amendment too.

[JJMK]

Library is where children goes to often. There are garbage out there in the book world that are from the darkest, lowest side of the spectrum. I don't want my kids to accidentally read them. Those should be banned, should at least not using tax payer money to buy and stock them. Anybody is free to feed his/her craving for nasty things by buying those themselves. But leave our public place clean. Just like you are not supposed to walk naked in the street, but fine if you do it in your own bedroom. Now if Gov Palin wants to ban book of science, that's another matter.

[Josh]

This is RUMOR RUMOR RUMOR. There is no fact here. What books did she want banned? Where is the comment from ANYONE involved directly in this?

This is a smear and wishful thinking.

Keep digging, liberal media... we know you are scared.

[Jill]

There's no difference between burning the books and banning the books - either way they are not available.

I picture those photos from Nazi Germany where the bonfires were fueled by books.

Nobody is forced to read anything. She proposes forcing us to NOT read.

She's bad news.

[Rob]

Patmac - After talking about being sarcastic and bitter maybe you should review and edit your obvious sarcasm regarding an (oh my gosh!) undergraduate degree. It is not like being degreed is really an indication of intelligence. We could site endlessly the number of business and civic leaders who are now and have excelled in this great country. A degree by itself is an indication that a person can finish a curriculum and not much else. Makes you sound like a educrat! Funny I have not heard Sara say any of the so called anti-science rhetoric the left automatically assigns to anyone who has faith in Jesus. Many Christians believe in the creation of the universe and of the earth but few I know believe the earth was created 5000 years ago. In terms of policy, I believe we will hear her views on those issues in due time. Last I checked she was not scheduled to give a policy speech.

[tallis]

The book banning story is not rumor, at least according to the local Wasilla newspaper, the Frontiersman::

In 1996, according to the Frontiersman, Wasilla's library director Mary Ellen Emmons said Palin asked her outright if she could live with censorship of library books. Emmons said, "This is different than a normal book-selection procedure or a book-challenge policy ... She was asking me how I would deal with her saying a book can't be in the library." Palin said in response, "Many issues were discussed, both rhetorical and realistic in nature." [Wasilla Frontiersman, 12/18/96]

[kb]

Cute, A nice book about a penguin with two dads. That is a perfect family for liberals!

Do they also have books to share with kids about ripping out a live fetus from its mother?

Or gee I have two mommy's that kiss and sleep together.

Whatever....

Vote for McCain/Palin

[Texas Aggie]

Sara says, "another rumor that's reported with no facts to support it. "

What exactly would you consider to be "a fact?" The person who had been the mayor testified to the FACT that she had asked about banning books. She did, in fact, fire the librarian, but had to reinstate her because of public opinion as was reported in the local paper at the time. What more do you want!?

[azkmb]

Obama, I mean Christopher, nice letter about Sarah but none of it is true. you do not live in Alaska you are a group of Obama supporters that do not know what to do with this person who will be the next VP.

Give it up...These types of hacks do not work!

[tom]

people should be very afraid. we have the oldest man on the planet running for president who says this election is NOT about issues. then he picks palin, mostly because she's a beauty pageant participant who will look hot while checking on the presidents health and attending 3rd world leader's funerals.
bad judgment, no experience.
but here is' the kicker; watching them on stage last night, we should be afraid of putting barely educated hypocritical red necks a heartbeat away from running the country. another republican that believes what they preach doesn't apply to them.

[tom]

now read these posts supporting the palin book banning and the ones that talk about how they preacher told them the world was created. observations; bad grammar, bad spelling. looks like they need a few books in their pathetic sheep like lives.

[LJ]

As a parent, what I cannot figure out is how Mrs. Palin found time in recent years to raise her kids. Seems she has been a busy politician during that time, and is now going forward with an attempt to enter the White House, even as her most recent baby needs a lot of care and her eldest daughter needs a lot of help. From their Mom.
Not to mention three more Palin children at home.
A vice presidential candidate is kept busy when selected by a presidential candidate, and more so if put in office.
That politician's business does not include raising a Down's Syndrome child (I know a parent of a child with Down's and it takes enormous dedication and time to parent such children) nor does it include helping a teen child with her own new baby.
I believe the description " 'Anything'-Mom' "is inappropriate for this candidate. Many working mothers can and do make their households and children safe and happy, that is very true, and I see that around me as well.
However politicians like Mrs.Palin, it seems to me, do not make the time to parent, the time other working mothers make.
The words 'children are not to be used in campaign rhetoric' is fine. Having the kids up for a photo shoot is fine.
However, continually billing oneself as a 'Hockey Mom' when one has NOT had time to be a Mom for some number of years is NOT fine.
The 'jury' is still out, but even a few words from a Wasilla resident carry a lot of weight, especially given in such an honest and 'I only know what I know' fashion.
I appreciate any news from Wasilla, including watching Mrs. Palin in interviews, watching her give the weather report... anything.
I am not 'scared' of all the empty though vitriolic rhetoric itself at the GOP convention. I am scared of the lack of real content in any GOP speech I've heard yet. I want to know where this team of McCain and Palin really stand on issues close to all of us.
Wish GOP speech writers would get around to that, if they are allowed to.

[srethng]

Can anyone say Nazi, some of the staunch supporters of the Republican Party cannot see beyond their missplaced loyalty.

[Halszka]

Those pro life people should understand that the only reason for Palin to have children is to brainwash them that fetus is the only one to have right to life and and is very good to send 19 year old to war for nothing.
Producing children and let others look after them is not a good mother.
Beeing proud of boys going to war for nothing is not a good mother is republican woman.

[Brian]

This ridiculous rumor has already been debunked numerous times. Apparently the in-the-tank-for-Obama media has taken a vacation from independent verification and real reporting.