NYT suggests Palin vetting process a disaster

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EndGame

Golden Member
Dec 28, 2002
1,276
0
0
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
Originally posted by: EndGame
Do you really want this "maverick" running the country

Sure do! Compared to the rest of the idiots running in this election she's a breath of fresh air!

You have GOT to be taking the piss!

Considering where you're from, I'll simply laugh at your response!:beer:
 
Jun 26, 2007
11,925
2
0
Originally posted by: EndGame
Originally posted by: JohnOfSheffield
Originally posted by: EndGame
Do you really want this "maverick" running the country

Sure do! Compared to the rest of the idiots running in this election she's a breath of fresh air!

You have GOT to be taking the piss!

Considering where you're from, I'll simply laugh at your response!:beer:

Considering that i don't know what you mean by that... sheit, make it a Guinness.

We do have a proper leader, one who won't jump through hoops for a wimpy little twat like GW, he's the leader of the Tories and a liberal, a conservative liberal and he'll have my vote.

Palin is the exact opposite of a liberal, i despise her and everyone like her for it.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,960
140
106
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: IGBT
..and the street agitator with 140+ days of experience would be better??
Did you know that John McCain was a POW?


..and John Kerry was in viet nam??
 

Starbuck1975

Lifer
Jan 6, 2005
14,698
1,909
126
So far Palin is working out just fine...the media is busy chasing every obscure "scandal" in Palin's path, and it has to be throwing the Obama camp off message...pounce on these media frenzies to challenge Palin's credibility, and you could have the same dynamic come into play that saved Hillary in NH.

Similarly, many of the criticisms leveled against Palin's experience also apply to Obama...so Obama better tread carefully down that path, as she arguably has more executive experience than he.

Also, Palin is rallying the evangelical base...something McCain has yet to accomplish.

Democrats should be worried that Obama's post-convention bounce was quite small.

This election will be interesting...I am looking forward to the McCain/Obama debates, and for the first time, I am also interested in watching the VP candidates go at it.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,960
140
106
Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
So far Palin is working out just fine...the media is busy chasing every obscure "scandal" in Palin's path, and it has to be throwing the Obama camp off message...pounce on these media frenzies to challenge Palin's credibility, and you could have the same dynamic come into play that saved Hillary in NH.

Similarly, many of the criticisms leveled against Palin's experience also apply to Obama...so Obama better tread carefully down that path, as she arguably has more executive experience than he.

Also, Palin is rallying the evangelical base...something McCain has yet to accomplish.

Democrats should be worried that Obama's post-convention bounce was quite small.

This election will be interesting...I am looking forward to the McCain/Obama debates, and for the first time, I am also interested in watching the VP candidates go at it.



..if she truly is the wreck the liberal blogs indicate, they would be praising her selection. But there's lots of handwringing going on among the liberals. And the only thing that could do that is a threat. All indications are, the liberals are in a cold sweat.
 
Jun 26, 2007
11,925
2
0
Originally posted by: IGBT
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: IGBT
..and the street agitator with 140+ days of experience would be better??
Did you know that John McCain was a POW?


..and John Kerry was in viet nam??

Why the fuck can't you twats just say Vietnam? Is this an ame rican thing?

John Kerry i know nothing about except that he told stories high and low that got his friends in trouble, if his words were true, they deserved it, if they were not, they did not, i'm a daft military man so i tend to believe that what he did was something he had to do to get out of some of his own shit.

But i could be oh so wrong, we'll never know, but if i'll fart in the wrong direction here, you'll know about it.
 
Jun 26, 2007
11,925
2
0
Originally posted by: IGBT
Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
So far Palin is working out just fine...the media is busy chasing every obscure "scandal" in Palin's path, and it has to be throwing the Obama camp off message...pounce on these media frenzies to challenge Palin's credibility, and you could have the same dynamic come into play that saved Hillary in NH.

Similarly, many of the criticisms leveled against Palin's experience also apply to Obama...so Obama better tread carefully down that path, as she arguably has more executive experience than he.

Also, Palin is rallying the evangelical base...something McCain has yet to accomplish.

Democrats should be worried that Obama's post-convention bounce was quite small.

This election will be interesting...I am looking forward to the McCain/Obama debates, and for the first time, I am also interested in watching the VP candidates go at it.


..if she truly is the wreck the liberal blogs indicate, they would be praising her selection. But there's lots of handwringing going on among the liberals. And the only thing that could do that is a threat. All indications are, the liberals are in a cold sweat.

Anyone who believes in abstinence only education and no abortions for any reasons and wants to work to put this into law deserves to be shot in the face.

I said it and i mean it, i don't care who it is.

[edit] i was just reading a PM from a good friend and then flipped back, forgot where in the text i was and had to fix the quotes [/quote]
 
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
Originally posted by: IGBT

..if she truly is the wreck the liberal blogs indicate, they would be praising her selection. But there's lots of handwringing going on among the liberals. And the only thing that could do that is a threat. All indications are, the liberals are in a cold sweat.

I for one am enjoying the fallout from her selection. It reminds me of the havoc that ensued when President Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Sarah Palin is Dan Quayle with a vagina. Picking Palin without thorough vetting, after one meeting, is a sure sign of desperation by Senator McCain, and ultimately I see her as a clear liability.
 

GroundedSailor

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2001
2,502
0
76
Here's an interesting email from someone who personally knows her and lives in the same town where she was Mayor:

http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

About Sarah Palin: an e-mail from Wasilla
A suburban Anchorage homemaker and activist ? who once did battle with the Alaska governor when Palin was mayor ? recounts what she knows of Palin's history.

By Anne Kilkenny
Posted on September 2, 2008. Printed on September 2, 2008.
http://www.crosscut.com/2008-election/17341/

Editor's note: The writer is a homemaker and education advocate in Wasilla, Alaska. Late last week, Anne Kilkenny penned an e-mail for her friends about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom she personally knows, that has since circulated across comment forums and blogs nationwide. Here is her e-mail in its entirety, posted with her permission.

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Gov. Sarah Palin 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 percent 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 for vice president 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 lifestyle 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 two 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 six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent. 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 benefitted large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenue 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 more than $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. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex, which she rushed through, on a piece of property that the city didn't even have clear title to. That was still in litigation seven years 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 $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in five to seven years 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 Sarah 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 revenue: 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.

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 two 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-Gov. Frank 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 and gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job, which paid $122,400 a year, 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 Sen. 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 (ANWR). 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 protected salmon streams from pollution from mines or tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on whom you listen to). She has pushed the state's lawsuit against the Department of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as a 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 are 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 and 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, 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 and taxation two 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-1990s.

Anne Kilkenny is a homemaker and education advocate in Wasilla, Alaska.


 
Jun 26, 2007
11,925
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Originally posted by: Don Vito Corleone
Originally posted by: IGBT

..if she truly is the wreck the liberal blogs indicate, they would be praising her selection. But there's lots of handwringing going on among the liberals. And the only thing that could do that is a threat. All indications are, the liberals are in a cold sweat.

I for one am enjoying the fallout from her selection. It reminds me of the havoc that ensued when President Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Sarah Palin is Dan Quayle with a vagina. Picking Palin without thorough vetting, after one meeting, is a sure sign of desperation by Senator McCain, and ultimately I see her as a clear liability.

Brought to him by advisors who thought that Hillary supporters would take the bait.

However, since she's against all womens rights, each and every one including their rights to their own bodies (she basically says it's owned by the government), Hillaries supporters will run from her.

Now i really really have to log off from here.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
I think it's great. Better now than when he has the suitcase, isn't it? Fvcking classic.
 

shira

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
9,500
6
81
Originally posted by: quest55720
Originally posted by: Craig234
Originally posted by: loki8481
dear god... no more palin threads.

Agreed, when Palin leaves the ticket.

She is not leaving the ticket. Lets be honest if she leaves it is over for McCain there is no recovery for losing a VP to a scandal.

This is silly. Of course there's recovery. The only proviso is that McCain's replacement VP had better be rock solid. A few days after the replacement is announced, Palin will be a rapidly fading memory, and the net effect on the election might be a half percent in Obama's direction.

 

shira

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
9,500
6
81
Originally posted by: lupi
Oh look, another thread full of hacks and unsubstantiated innuendo. Bitter much cause hussein got virtually no bump from his speech?

Saddam Hussein died a couple of years ago, and I don't think dead people can run in Iraq. Guess you didn't know that. Don't get out much?
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
I hear she is going to have a book burning during inaugaration.

"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.

Maybe she could start the fire using this innapropriate shirt from her college days.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
Originally posted by: shira
Originally posted by: mshan
Karl Rove's analysis of the electoral map: http://www.newsweek.com/id/156494

My God. It's a Republican landslide! And with Karl Rove's non-partisan analysis, Obama might as well fold up his tent right now.

eh? I just glanced at it, but it doesn't seem hugely different than the 51:49 map from '04. territory maps are a little deceptive since they don't indicate for population density (ie: NJ would almost make you think it's a red state except the blue tip is very, very densely populated)
 

shira

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
9,500
6
81
Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
Here's an interesting email from someone who personally knows her and lives in the same town where she was Mayor:

http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

About Sarah Palin: an e-mail from Wasilla
A suburban Anchorage homemaker and activist ? who once did battle with the Alaska governor when Palin was mayor ? recounts what she knows of Palin's history.

By Anne Kilkenny
Posted on September 2, 2008. Printed on September 2, 2008.
http://www.crosscut.com/2008-election/17341/

Editor's note: The writer is a homemaker and education advocate in Wasilla, Alaska. Late last week, Anne Kilkenny penned an e-mail for her friends about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom she personally knows, that has since circulated across comment forums and blogs nationwide. Here is her e-mail in its entirety, posted with her permission.

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Gov. Sarah Palin 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 percent 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 for vice president 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 lifestyle 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 two 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 six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent. 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 benefitted large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenue 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 more than $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. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex, which she rushed through, on a piece of property that the city didn't even have clear title to. That was still in litigation seven years 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 $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in five to seven years 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 Sarah 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 revenue: 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.

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 two 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-Gov. Frank 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 and gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job, which paid $122,400 a year, 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 Sen. 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 (ANWR). 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 protected salmon streams from pollution from mines or tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on whom you listen to). She has pushed the state's lawsuit against the Department of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as a 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 are 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 and 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, 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 and taxation two 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-1990s.

Anne Kilkenny is a homemaker and education advocate in Wasilla, Alaska.

I hope this email gets forwarded and forwarded and forwarded and forwarded . . . .
 
Oct 30, 2004
11,442
32
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Originally posted by: Don Vito Corleone

I for one am enjoying the fallout from her selection. It reminds me of the havoc that ensued when President Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Sarah Palin is Dan Quayle with a vagina. Picking Palin without thorough vetting, after one meeting, is a sure sign of desperation by Senator McCain, and ultimately I see her as a clear liability.

I'm thinking that she's more like the Katherine Harris that was portrayed in the HBO movie Recount--a religious mystic wacko airhead.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Originally posted by: loki8481
Originally posted by: shira
Originally posted by: mshan
Karl Rove's analysis of the electoral map: http://www.newsweek.com/id/156494

My God. It's a Republican landslide! And with Karl Rove's non-partisan analysis, Obama might as well fold up his tent right now.

eh? I just glanced at it, but it doesn't seem hugely different than the 51:49 map from '04. territory maps are a little deceptive since they don't indicate for population density (ie: NJ would almost make you think it's a red state except the blue tip is very, very densely populated)

Do you really think a dumbass partisan hack would take the time to actually look at the link to realize that it's from a previous election result and the only "Rove" portion is some comments he has added to a couple states you have to click on to read. It's sooo much easier to continue typing the spoonfed crap the leftist blogs have prepeared for them.
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
This is going to be an amusing election. Palin is a joke. McCain is a joke.

They should have picked Pawlenty, at least he would have added a smidgen of "Republican" to that old-fart cold-war idiot McCain by being a budget hawk.

However, "Republicans" don't want that, they want wedge issue religious fanatics.

It's pathetic that the party has come down to picking zealots over small government and fiscal responsibility.
 

andy04

Senior member
Dec 14, 2006
999
0
71
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
This is going to be an amusing election. Palin is a joke. McCain is a joke.

They should have picked Pawlenty, at least he would have added a smidgen of "Republican" to that old-fart cold-war idiot McCain by being a budget hawk.

However, "Republicans" don't want that, they want wedge issue religious fanatics.

It's pathetic that the party has come down to picking zealots over small government and fiscal responsibility.

I fell it will be interesting even after the elections are over. After the "jokes" loose, it will be interesting to see how a corrupt black muslim leader turns this country into a joke
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
Originally posted by: andy04
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
This is going to be an amusing election. Palin is a joke. McCain is a joke.

They should have picked Pawlenty, at least he would have added a smidgen of "Republican" to that old-fart cold-war idiot McCain by being a budget hawk.

However, "Republicans" don't want that, they want wedge issue religious fanatics.

It's pathetic that the party has come down to picking zealots over small government and fiscal responsibility.

I fell it will be interesting even after the elections are over. After the "jokes" loose, it will be interesting to see how a corrupt black muslim leader turns this country into a joke

Certainly a lesser joke than the zealous "born again" frat boy failed businessman lead by a bunch of cold war idiots who wanted a unified executive and a sandbox to play in. Meanwhile, those same idiots increased our debt by 80%, despite being "Republicans" (what a fucking joke, Jefferson (small government, no debt), is rolling in his grave). They've nearly bankrupted the country and destroyed our international good will. They've destroyed rights and took us from the bastion of freedom and free speech, to the laughing stock of the world when it comes to espousing righteous moral highground.

Even if he were a muslim, so what? Since when did that ban anybody from leading a country? Ohhh wait, only to bigots it does.

However, he isn't a muslim and there isn't one shred of proof that he is.

Drape yourself in the flag while hating diverse people and opinions, bigot, because that's exactly what your masters want.
 

shira

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
9,500
6
81
Originally posted by: lupi
Originally posted by: loki8481
Originally posted by: shira
Originally posted by: mshan
Karl Rove's analysis of the electoral map: http://www.newsweek.com/id/156494

My God. It's a Republican landslide! And with Karl Rove's non-partisan analysis, Obama might as well fold up his tent right now.

eh? I just glanced at it, but it doesn't seem hugely different than the 51:49 map from '04. territory maps are a little deceptive since they don't indicate for population density (ie: NJ would almost make you think it's a red state except the blue tip is very, very densely populated)

Do you really think a dumbass partisan hack would take the time to actually look at the link to realize that it's from a previous election result and the only "Rove" portion is some comments he has added to a couple states you have to click on to read. It's sooo much easier to continue typing the spoonfed crap the leftist blogs have prepeared for them.
Well, you're correct that this map is for the 2004 election results. But are you REALLY surprised that someone looking at this map would be confused when the headline, in 26-pt type, is "Swing States in the Land of Rove" and the description that this map is of "2004 Presidential Election Results by county" is in 8-pt type, especially with that sea of red? What makes this even more absurd is: Why would we be shown a map of 2004 results when the analysis is for the 2008 election? This page is HIGHLY misleading. Blame the ambiguity firmly on Newsweek.
 

RKDaley

Senior member
Oct 27, 2007
392
0
0
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: andy04
Originally posted by: LegendKiller
This is going to be an amusing election. Palin is a joke. McCain is a joke.

They should have picked Pawlenty, at least he would have added a smidgen of "Republican" to that old-fart cold-war idiot McCain by being a budget hawk.

However, "Republicans" don't want that, they want wedge issue religious fanatics.

It's pathetic that the party has come down to picking zealots over small government and fiscal responsibility.

I fell it will be interesting even after the elections are over. After the "jokes" loose, it will be interesting to see how a corrupt black muslim leader turns this country into a joke

Certainly a lesser joke than the zealous "born again" frat boy failed businessman lead by a bunch of cold war idiots who wanted a unified executive and a sandbox to play in. Meanwhile, those same idiots increased our debt by 80%, despite being "Republicans" (what a fucking joke, Jefferson (small government, no debt), is rolling in his grave). They've nearly bankrupted the country and destroyed our international good will. They've destroyed rights and took us from the bastion of freedom and free speech, to the laughing stock of the world when it comes to espousing righteous moral highground.

Even if he were a muslim, so what? Since when did that ban anybody from leading a country? Ohhh wait, only to bigots it does.

However, he isn't a muslim and there isn't one shred of proof that he is.

Drape yourself in the flag while hating diverse people and opinions, bigot, because that's exactly what your masters want.


Well said, LegendKiller. :thumbsup: