[Vision2020] Fw: (Fwd) Fw: A voice from Alaska

[Jeff Harkins]

News Flash,

Guess what - Anne Kilkenny is a democrat!  Would you think she has an 
ax to grind???  Doesn't seem to jive with Gov. Palin's approval rating.

At 09:16 PM 9/10/2008, you wrote:
>Wow! thanks, Sue. I am printing this and passing it on to the College
>Democrats, the Pro-Choice groups, and the Coalition for Women Students.
>
>My question is: How did the Republican Machine not vet this person more
>thouroughly? They usually cover (or cover up) every base. Are they suicidal?
>Just running out of smarts? The democrats generally have difficulty getting
>together on anything (not just herding cats, they have been herding canaries
>until this political cycle), but the Republicans usually march in lockstep.
>What happened? Sarah Palin is a liability, and Republicans usually don't
>have those until say, maybe, 8 years later....Can only hope the electorate
>"gets it", but with the dumbing down of the US populace, who the heck knows?
>
>The more things change....
>
>Debi R-S
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Sue Hovey" <suehovey at moscow.com>
>To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 8:32 AM
>Subject: [Vision2020] Fw: (Fwd) Fw: A voice from Alaska
>
>
> >> I received this last night.  It does speak to her attempted banning of
> >> library books, but does not mention the books in the email.
> >
> > Sue Hovey
> >
> >
> >> Sent: Saturday, September 6, 2008 12:26:06 PM
> >> Subject: A voice from Alaska
> >>
> >>>
> >>> http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html
> >>>
> >>> ( Updates on general history are below Anne Kilkenny's letter. )
> >>>
> >>> A note to all by Anne Kilkenny
> >>>
> >>> 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
> >>>
> >>> [ Note by webadmin: This was already posted on Washington
> >>> Independent comments area and was meant by the author to be read by
> >>> many, but readers need sourcing. The NY Times has talked with Anne
> >>> since. ]
> >>>
> >>> 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 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's.
> >>>
> >>> Anne Kilkenny
> >>> August 31, 2008
> >>>
> >>> =======
> >>>
> >>> UPDATES (relevant articles):
> >>> Palin's Start in Alaska: Not Politics as Usual - NY Times, 9/3/08.
> >>> Documents detail Palin's political life - Politico, 9/2/08. The
> >>> Unusual Challenges Palin Faced in Alaska - NY Times, 9/4/08
> >>>
> >>> REFERENCE:
> >>> On the Issues - with quotes
> >>> Books and videos
> >>>
> >>> ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
> >>> Palin's Hometown Friends Enjoy the Show - NY Times 9/4/08 - a fun
> >>> read. A funny send-up of convention speeches - NY Times 9/4/08, Gail
> >>> Collins
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> To Home page
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >> Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with
> >> Windows Live. See Now
> >> ------- End of forwarded message -------
> >>
> >
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