A friend sent me a reprint of an article on Sarah Palin. It was written by Melinda Donahey, who is a political investigative reporter, I’m assuming for the democrats. I read through it, and also checked web a little, came up with a few sources and a lot of interesting stuff. Also read a letter by Ann Kilkenny, a resident of Wasilla. From all of that, there were a few interesting items I’ll mention below:
Although she did not ban any library books, she did ask the Wasilla librarian about the possibility of removing books from the library. The librarian balked, and perhaps coincidentally was fired in 1997, only to be re-instated after public outcry.
Lipstick and a pit bull might be a good description of Palin. Apparently she holds grudges big time.
Rather than a fighter against pork and big government, Palin lined up at the pork trough regularly as both a mayor and as a governor. Her city budget expenditures and taxation both increased 36 to 38% during her tenure as mayor. Spending did not go toward better streets or a sewage treatment plant, or even towards the high school to reduce its 60% failure rate. Rather, over 15 million was spent trying to develop a sports rink on land the city did not own, resulting in past, current, and future expenditures.
She fired a bunch of people when she became mayor, and the furor almost resulted in a recall. The Republican political bosses had her hire an administrator who ended up running quite a bit. From what I’ve gathered, she fired people that were fairly respected, not just a bunch of dead wood.
The governor’s jet that she boasted about selling on ebay was actually sold by the government through an aircraft dealer. And contrary to John McCain’s claim she made money on it, the plane was sold through an airplane broker at a $600,000 loss. The article mentions that selling the plane was part of a government program that started three years before she became governor. It’s hard to verify that, as she did mention the plane during her election for governor.
Part of the reason she quit one of her jobs and exposed corruption was that she hated the job (structured hours, long commute, etc), even though it paid $122K per year.
She is fairly popular in Alaska because they have no state income or sales tax, and got an additional $1200 back from the state this year. Alaska also benefits from getting a lot of federal government spending. For every $1 that Alaska gives the US it gets back $1.84.
Link to Sarah Palin article and Melinda Donahey article:
Sarah PalinLink to copy of Ann Kilkenny’s letter, verified to be true, on snopes.com:
Ann Kilkenny
