In our best interest

Well, once again the GOP is going after the "liberal media." How dare the press ask questions about Sarah Palin? I mean, just because she's going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, with a 72 year old President with a history of recurring cancer, they seem to think that the American public should know something about this VP candidate! Never mind that Palin has asked "what is it exactly that the VP does every day?" Never mind that Palin admits "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." Never mind that some voters actually think that they need to learn more about her views than what was contained in a convention speech written by others. Rick Davis, McCain campaign strategist, obviously doesn't think the American people need to know any more. Here's his opinion on the matter, as expressed to Joe Scarborough on MSNBC:

SCARBOROUGH: Yesterday Nicole Wallace suggested that she was sitting right
there and told Jay Carney of Time magazine ‘Sarah Palin doesn’t have to talk to
you, she doesn’t’ have to talk to the press.’ … Can we expect Sarah Palin on
Meet the Press and other one on one interviews throughout the course of this
campaign?
DAVIS: We’re going to do whatever we think is the best to win. We
have 60 days left and if we think it’s a good idea to go out there and do those
shows, we’ll do them.
SCARBOROUGH: Can you avoid it? Meet the
Press?
DAVIS: We can afford anything we want to do. … We’re going to do what
we think is in our best interest. If that means access to the press, we’ll give
it to you.

Did you get that? OUR best interest? Forget "Country First"...now it's "Campaign First."

So the McCain campaign obviously doesn't think we need to know anything about the person McCain picked to be VP. Heck, I guess they think if they didn't ask these questions themselves when they vetted her for all of a day, we shouldn't be interested, either. After all, she passed what is apparently John McCain's primary qualification for any female in his life: she was a former beauty queen.

So, if McCain didn't really find out much about her and won't let her talk to the media, apparently we have to look elsewhere for information about Palin. A good place to start is an email from a longtime Wasilla resident, Anne Kilkenny, who has followed local politics closely for many years.

The Anne Kilkenny Email: 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 Councilbecame 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 initiative 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 centurystandards.
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 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’sAnne KilkennyAugust 31, 2008

Stop! I want to get off!

I remember when I was a kid and I’d go to a playground on a sunny fall day. Now this was in the days before fancy “playscapes” and lawsuits. Every playground featured pretty much the same four pieces of equipment. There were swings on which you could swing so high you thought you might defy gravity and go completely over the top bar, and you wondered if centrifugal force would keep you in your seat. There were rickety teeter-totters, on which you quickly became a fair judge of balance, mass, and fulcrums, after either landing with a spine jarring thud or being stuck up in the air, feet dangling. There was the tall metal slide, surrounded by earth so compacted by years of play that it was hard as concrete; we first went down on a sheet of waxed paper a few times to make it slicker and quicker. And then there was the merry-go-round…

Ahhh, the merry-go-round…an instrument of both delight and torture. Over time I learned that it was better to ride it when I was at the playground with kids I knew and somewhat trusted, like my Girl Scout troop. I came to know who pushed the fastest, but could be trusted to stop the spinning madness either to let a newcomer on or to let someone off before they threw up or fell off. But occasionally I made the mistake of getting on a merry-go-round with kids I didn’t know, and, invariably, there would be some older boy who took over the job of pushing. At first, it was thrilling to be spinning so fast with someone else doing all the work, but within minutes, we realized we were caught in a vortex of madness. The older boy’s face took on a demonic cast. When kids screamed for him to slow down, he only speeded up, laughing. Kids on the edge were hanging on for dear life. One or two might be turning green.

Spin. It’s no wonder the word has come to mean “a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation.” I’ve been watching a lot of political coverage since January, which of course is becoming even more intense as we enter the phase of the conventions and then the fall campaign. And I’m beginning to feel like I did when I was caught on that merry-go-round as a kid. When you watch a lot of political programming, the spin is dizzying. I suppose the spinners intend that people just watch a snippet, so that they only get a freeze frame, a moment in time, and can’t detect the spinning motion.

One aspect of spin that is really getting on my nerves is the use of “talking points.” I know the campaigns feel that they have to stay “on message,” but this is ridiculous! If you watch a few hours of political coverage, the network might have 4 or 5 spokesmen from the McCain or Obama campaigns or each party, and each will say the same thing, obviously working from the day’s talking points memo. No matter what question is posed by the interviewer, the spokesperson will manage to steer his or her comments right back to the talking points, whether or not it has anything to do with the question. Heaven forbid that a person should actually think about the question and his answer! After the Saddleback forum, Obama was roundly criticized for giving long-winded, thoughtful answers, while McCain was praised for giving direct, snappy answers, which actually were little more than snippets of his stump speeches.

Another thing that is driving me absolutely nuts is the Pot-Kettle Approach. I admit to a certain bias here, but the McCain folks seem to be using this approach much more than the Obama folks. Basically, the McCain people take a fault of McCain’s and accuse Obama of it. Several examples come to mind. The McCain campaign accuses Obama of being elitist, while in fact McCain is the one who owns at least 8 expensive residences and makes condescending jokes about public housing and says that everyone who earns up to $5 million is “middle class.” The McCain folks tried to play upon the bitter feelings of Clinton’s supporters, talking up Hillary as if they were ready to pick her for McCain’s VP and saying that Obama didn‘t give her respect…never mind that McCain has in the past made cruel, crude jokes about Clinton being a lesbian and about how ugly Chelsea was, and that he laughed when a supporter called Hillary the “bitch.“ Yesterday on MSNBC’s coverage of the DNC, a McCain spokesperson had the unmitigated gall to say that Obama has engaged in the nastiest, most negative campaigning. Say WHAT? If that isn’t the pot talking about the kettle…

STOP! I want to get off!