this author knows sarah palin

this is an email, forwarded from a friend.

--

> >> 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
> >> *'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.

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