NOTE:
This was confirmed by Snopes' Urban
The Reform Candidate? On The
Washington Independent
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
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
o "Hockey mom": true
for a few years
o "PTA mom": true years
ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
o "NRA supporter":
absolutely true
o 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).
o pro-creationism: mixed.
Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
o "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.
o "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.
o political maverick: not at all
o gutsy: absolutely!
o open & transparent: ???
Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining
actions.
o has a developed philosophy of
public policy: no
o "a Greenie": no.
Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box
stores and disconnected parking lots. Is
pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
o fiscal conservative: not by my
definition!
o 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.
o pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes
for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents.
o pro-small government: No.
Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in
Wasilla's history.
o 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.
