So, what does it all come down to, Sarah?
I guess you have a pretty low opinion of “community organizers”.
Could it be that be that “community organizers tried to oust your corrupt mayoral regime? Could it be that those “community organizers” out there fighting for basic rights and decency get in the way of the desires of your fat cat buddies and neocon handlers?
Sarah Palin, you are a liar and an opportunist. It means you fit right in with the new Republican Party, but we don’t need another vice president of your vile ilk.
Could it be that “community organizers” don’t like paying the massive public debt and clearing up the legal problems you leave in your wake?
By the way, since you admit you don’t know what a vice president does, shooting people in the face is not part of the vice president’s job.
Sorry.
You can find the “Jesus was a community organizer” t-shirts and more at the What’s Driving You Crazy? Shop.
Thanks for looking.
Buy a guy a beer?
This is a combination of excerpts from two stories, and I recommend a full read of both. The first is Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”. Yes, it sheds a new light on Sarah Palin. The second is “Sarah Palin and Me“. This is a background story on writing the first report and it will shed light on how the process works.
We begin with background story as it sets the tone for the actual, and first story.
by Charley James –
Anonymous sources are the bane of a reporter’s existence, and have been at least since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein used them extensively to unmask Watergate and topple Richard Nixon.
Frankly, writing as someone who has been covering news since the late 1960s for everything from local newspapers to major market TV and radio stations to a major business newsweekly, journalists don’t like citing anonymous sources any more than much of the public likes reading pieces that quote people without attribution. Alas, more often than not, the reality is that in a highly-explosive story such as my piece about Sarah Palin published here on Friday, granting anonymity may be the only way to get a source to agree to be interviewed.
That leads us to the beginning of the first piece.
by Charley James –
“So Sambo beat the bitch!”
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.”
Now to background. How does one find a “Lucille”? Does one simply make her up?
When Palin’s name began leaking out the morning of Aug. 30, I sent an e-mail to an old friend from childhood who has been teaching in Alaska since he finished far too much graduate school, basically asking, “Who is Sarah Palin when it’s not raining and what was she before?”
He wrote back with not just a lengthy, invective-filled diatribe against her and the horse she rode in on but also a link to a 63-page vetting report on Palin he said was done up some time ago by Alaska Democrats. After reading it – information in the dossier goes all the way back to 2002 – I wrote again asking if he knew people I could contact for a possible article. A short list of names was provided, including Lucille the Waitress, the much-discussed and oft-doubted woman who seems to have drawn the largest number of questions from commentators on the article.
And how does he know her? Well, like many people living on minimum wage and tips, Lucille holds a second job which, in this case, includes cleaning my friend’s family home every other week.
Lucille was the first person I interviewed. In her late 50s or early 60s, she was nervous even though I provided her with my friend’s name and suggested she call him first to verify who I am. She decided to proceed with the interview, which lasted about 10 minutes. Assuming she knew nothing about having to put an interview “off the record” or on a “not for attribution” basis before the interview starts. I asked Lucille if I could use her name in my article. She let me use her first name but not her last because she said she was afraid she might be fired.
I called my friend after the interview and, relating what’d said, asked if she was trustworthy. I was assured that, “It’d be easier for Lucille to hunt bears bare handed than to tell a lie.”
So, you keep asking questions.
Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.
No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one.
Tough Getting People Who Know Her to Talk
It’s not easy getting people in the 49th state to speak critically about Palin – especially people in Wasilla, where she was mayor. For one thing, with every journalist in the world calling, phone lines into Alaska have been mostly jammed since Friday; as often as not, a recording told me that “all circuits are busy” or numbers just wouldn’t ring. I should think a state that’s been made richer than God by oil could afford telephone lines and cell towers for everyone.
On a more practical level, many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.
“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”
“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.”
You find those people with more footwork.
Starting with the small handful of other possible sources provided to me, I began dialling. Some people would talk, others wouldn’t; some would refer me on to other possible interview subjects, others told me to go forth, be fruitful and multiply, in much coarser language before slamming the phone in my ear.
In other words, I relied on what reporters have always relied upon to unearth a story: Legwork, or what it was called about a hundred lifetimes ago when I was first starting out. More accurately, I used my phone. To answer one person who penned a comment to the original piece, this is how someone who grew up in Middle America, visited Alaska once in his life and now lives in Canada could do reporting on a story based up there. Flat rate long distance plans have worked wonders for journalism.
I don’t want anyone to think I am leaving things out. Depending on the publication, one can drift into hyperbole a little (in this case admittedly).
Like most other people interviewed, he didn’t want his name used out of fear of retribution. Maybe it’s the long winter nights where you don’t see the sun for months that makes people feel as if they’re under constant danger from “the authorities.” As I interviewed residents it began sounding as if living in Alaska controlled by the state Republican Party is like living in the old Soviet Union: See nothing that’s happening, say nothing offensive, and the political commissars leave you alone. But speak out and you get disappeared into a gulag north of the Arctic Circle for who-knows-how-long.
Alright, that’s an exaggeration brought on by my getting too little sleep and building too much anger as I worked this article. But there’s ample evidence of Palin’s vindictive willingness to destroy people she sees as opponents. Just ask the Wasilla town administrator she hired before firing him because he rebelled against the way Palin demanded he do his job, or the town librarian who refused to hold the book burning Walpurgisnach Mayor Palin demanded.
Now, here’s a name those of you who have been following the case will remember - Anne Kilkenny. Yes, she is real and, yes, she did write that email.
Ironically, Palin was pushed into hiring the administrator by the party poobahs who helped get her elected after she got herself into trouble over a number of precipitous firings which gave rise to a recall campaign.
“People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day,” states Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident and one of the few Alaskans willing to speak on-the-record, for attribution, about Palin. In fact, Kilkenny actually circulated an e-mail letter about Palin that was verified and printed by The Nation.
For good measure, Palin booted the Wasilla police chief from office because, she told a local newspaper, he “intimidated” her.
. . .
According to Kilkenny and others in Wasilla as well as Juneau, Palin reduced progressive property taxes for businesses while mayor and increased a regressive sales tax which even hits necessities such as food. The tax cuts she promoted in her St. Paul speech actually benefited large corporate property owners far more than they benefited residents. Indeed, Kilkenny insists that many Wasilla home owners actually saw their tax bill skyrocket to make up for the shortfall. Two other Wasillian’s with whom I spoke said property taxes on their modest, three bedroom homes rose during the Palin regime.
To an outsider, it would seem hard to do, but an oil-rich town with zero debt on the day she was inaugurated mayor was left saddled with $22 million of debt by the time she moved away to become governor – especially since nothing was spent on things such as improving the city’s infrastructure or building a much-needed sewage treatment plant. So what did Mayor Palin spend the taxpayer’s money on, if not fixing streets and scrubbing sewage?
For starters, she remodelled her office. Several times over, as a matter of fact.
Then Palin spent $1 million on an unnecessary, new park that no one other than the contractors and Palin seemed to want. Next, Sarah doled out more than $15 million of taxpayer money for a sports complex that she shoved through even though the city did not own clear title to the land; now, seven years later, the matter is still in litigation and lawyer fees are said to be close to at least half of the original estimated price of the facility.
There are plenty more examples of arbitrary decisions, bad fiscal policy and intemperate behavior. That’s why I recommend reading both of the stories.
To sum up the initial article:
“She’s a bigot, a racist, and a liar,” is the more blunt assessment of Arnold Gerstheimer who lived in Alaska until two years ago and is now a businessman in Idaho.
“Juneau is a small town; everybody knows everyone else,” he adds. “These stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white and good looking actually, were around long before she became a glint in John McCain’s rheumy eyes. Why do I know they’re true? Because everyone who isn’t aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way.”
“Sambo beat the bitch” may be everyday language up in the bush. Whether it – and the outlook, politics and worldview Palin reflects when she says such things in public – should be part of a presidential campaign is another thing altogether. The comment says as much about McCain as it does about Palin, and it says a lot of things about Americans who overlook such statements (as well as her record) and vote anyway for McCain.
In finishing his background piece of the story, Mr. James concludes.
As I’ve been doing for 40 years, when I’d finish interviewing one source I’d ask them if they knew anyone else I might call. Thus, one source frequently begat a second which, often, begat a third. Thus, a picture of Sarah Palin began to emerge and the result was Alaskans Speak.
Do I wish more people would have spoken to me on the record and for attribution? Absolutely. Do I regret writing a piece that relied upon so many anonymous sources? Not one bit.
by Charley James
Buy a guy a beer?
Most of the lies about Sarah Palin’s record had been discovered she made her acceptance speech. Yet, she repeated them, along with a misleading truth. It seems the idea is why let a little fact get in the way of an applause line.
The truth was known about her bridge to nowhere stand. She was for it. The truth was known that she only cancelled the bridge out of political expediency when funding had been cut and it endangered other “earmark” pork barrel spending for Alaska. It was known she did not send the money back.
However, in her acceptance speech, what did she say?
I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere.
If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged — directly to the people of Alaska.
More indirectly to the people of Alaska, as it went into other projects, not in a check to its citizens.
Then, we get the jet line. You know, she had a good story there. She identified a piece of wasteful spending in a poweful symbol. She campaigned against it, and got rid of it when elected, saving the taxpayers money. She coyly hedged her statement there and allowed the McCain campaign, the nominee included, to do the actual lying.
That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.
Yes, she put it on eBay. It didn’t work. The Republican speaker of the house stepped in, found a broker and sold the plan at a minimal loss to a Republican backer (who now says the state owes him $50,000 for maintenance fees he had to incur). There is no mention of a public bidding process to sell the surplus state property, but this is a Republican administration and no-bid contracts for friends simply follows the national example.
Her statement left the impression the plane sold on eBay, but it was strictly true. Of course, one was led to believe that by the GOP background video that played before her speech, which came out and said it.
It befell to her hero John McCain, who she did not support in 2000, to do the actual lying about the plane’s sale.
“You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay — and made a profit!” McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop on Friday.
As a mayor and as governor, Palin has relentlessly pursued, not fought federal “earmark” spending, even hiring a crony of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R), who is under federal indictment for corruption charges.
This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended earmarking as a vital part of the legislative system. “The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship,” she wrote in a newspaper column.
Wasilla received $11.9 million in earmarks from 2000 to 2003. The results of this spending are very apparent today. (The town also benefited from $15 million in federal funds to promote regional rail transportation.)
Palin, he [McCain] said, was “disgusted” that small towns like hers were dependent on earmarks.
Public records paint a different picture:
Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor. She actively sought federal funds — a campaign that began to pay off only after she hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) [emphasis added - ed], who long controlled federal spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark.
As mayor, she used federal funds and borrowing to get a city of about 5,000 - 7,000 into $22 million in debt, and ended her term as she began with a city that had no water treatment plant. As mayor, she did lower property taxes, but raised sales taxes. Those who owned property got a break, part of which was consumed by the sales tax. Those who did not own property got an overall tax hike.
Then, there was the community sports center, for which Ms. Palin pushed through a sales tax hike.
The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing
utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land.
The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in
extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be
Ms. Palin’s legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to
plague Wasilla.
“It’s too bad that the city of Wasilla didn’t do their homework and
secure the land before they began construction,” said Kathy Wells, a
longtime activist here. “She was not your ceremonial mayor; she was in
charge of running the city. So it was her job to make sure things were
done correctly.”
It also appears she has ruled city and state government alike, insisting on total loyalty for continued employment or favor. That must rate high with her Bush handlers.
She even comes equipped with her own, built-in ethics scandal. No one will have to start one for her.
That is the record of someone fighting for fiscal responsibility and reform?
As for the snide attacks and lies about the Democrats in her acceptance speech. That’s really not her fault. The speech wasn’t written by or even for her.
In the meantime, she already had been given an old Bush Campaign handler to tell her what to do. If she truly objected to any of the things she said in the speech, she did not have the courage to stand up and defend her stand.
What’s the difference from a true reformer and an opportunistic pretender? The truth.
In the end, she keeps on lying. Her supporters lap it up, despite the facts they are shown to prove her falsehoods.
It is not a disease that is unique to the Republican Party, wanting to believe something so much that truth only gets in the way. It just seems the disease has grown to epidemic proportions in the GOP over the past eight years.
Sadly, McCain, who once fought back nobly, now is suffering from a terminal case, and those who slimed him and lied about him and his family now embrace and defend him.
The “Maverick” is now a steer and has ring in his nose.
Tags: Alaska | Bush | republican | cheney | lies | corruption | Rove | World | McCain | Wasilla | Troopergate | Palin | bridge to nowhere
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The woman Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed to succed her as mayor of Wasilla now has ethics problems of her own.
GOP vice presidential candidate Palin had endorsed Dianne Keller to take her place as mayor.
the Alaska governor backed a rival when her pro-abortion mother-in-law ran to replace her as mayor in 2002. All still live within a few miles of each other.
Now, Ms. Keller has her own troubles.
Facing Extreme Opposition Wasilla Mayor Refuses To Resign Jamey Kirk
Story Created: Jul 2, 2008 at 9:54 PM AKDT
Story Updated: Jul 2, 2008 at 9:54 PM AKDT
Despite a 4-1 vote by the Wasilla city council on Monday night, Mayor Dianne Keller said she has “absolutely no intention” of resigning. The vote was a non-binding resolution which asked the mayor to step down for her handling of a proposed Parks Highway shopping development.
Although Keller’s mishandlings did not meet any of the precedents for ousting her from her position, four members of the city’s council members present Monday said the mayor’s actions had tarnished the city’s credibility.
The fight is over whether Ms. Keller and city staff gave Meritage Development Group unfair backing as it sought to build two shopping centers on Wasilla’s Parks Highway. The city already has hired a law firm to investigate the claims.
At issue are the letters that were sent to the owners of 6 Robblees’ and Windbreak Cafe, which neighbor the Meritage property. These letters contained a threat to use eminent domain proceedings if the two companies didn’t agree to cooperate on a frontage road that would run between the businesses and the parking lots.
Casey Reynolds, Wasilla’s economic development planner, wrote the letter and said it was only meant to catalyze talks between the city and business owners.
With the expected 10,000 cars per day generated by the addition of the Meritage property, the current frontage road would become overwhelmed with traffic. Making the road safer was cited by Keller as part of her reasoning.
The threat of eminent domain was not as upsetting as the city’s failure to decided on whether it would force a plan to split their properties, said Windbreak co-owner Annette Andres. According to Andres and 6 Robblees’ president Thomas Ogren the city repeatedly told the two that road plans had been canceled, while city actions indicated otherwise.
Councilwoman Stephanie Massie said an apology would have gone a long way to smooth the issue, which the council’s vote reflected.
Following Monday’s meeting Keller made a somewhat indirect apology saying she was sorry, “if people’s feelings were hurt. If people misconstrued the intent, I apologize.” However it was Keller who attacked Andres during the meeting, with comments that made audience members gasp. The mayor went so far as to say that she had once been a patron of the cafe and had stopped visiting the Windbreak due to what she felt were personal attacks against her.
The mayor failed to exercise any sense of composure as she issued further threats by stating, “What I have done is denied myself the opportunity to have the best bacon-cheeseburger in Alaska since November. If I was truly the woman you have said, I would have directed the Wasilla police department to sit up at your bar and blow (alcohol test) all your patrons. But I didn’t do that.”
Councilman Marty Metiva stated that such comments gave him reason to cast a vote against Keller.
According to Keller, the comments were meant to illustrate the kind of person she was not.
Tags: parks | shopping | mayor | Highway | World | opposition | city | TO | Resolution | down | Council | step | keller | Asked | resign | proposed | handling | refuses | said | Wasilla | Akdt
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