Greetings from the Land of Enchantment

Who's Afraid of Sarah Palin?

Just got this off the wires and thought I'd share it here. Friends of mine have been traveling throughout the west on their way home the past few days and have been hearing mixed reviews about the Republican Party's VP pick. . . .some ecstatic, some not so. My earlier post gave you a summary of my take on the situation; but for those who want more information, I give you this from Anne Kilkenny, resident of Wasilla, AK and fellow voter and citizen:

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

posted by Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa @ 2:43 PM