comments on Palin from Wasilla
Sep. 4th, 2008 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitouthttp://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341
This is a really neat letter, that matches fairly well with what I've been piecing together elsewhere. In particular, I'd like to draw attention to the population of Wasilla at the time she was elected mayor: about 5000. She was mayor from 1996-2002. The 2000 census, according to wikipedia, has the population at 5469, and the town was growing pretty fast through the 1990s (about 30% over the course of the decade according to Wasilla's town website). So 5000 is not a lowball estimate.
I'd like to draw attention to the fact that the teeny tiny little town in New England that I live in is almost exactly the same size. We are a -town- not a city. We don't have a Mayor. We have a Board of Selectmen and a Town Meeting. The closest parallel I can think of to Palin's job in town, as near as I can tell by squinting really hard, would be R., who is secretary to the Board of Selectmen. I'm always impressed by R.'s competence, grit, etc. I've been known to refer to her as Queen of Brookline, because if you want something done around here, she's definitely the person who knows how to get it done and you really don't want her opposing you. The idea of R. as Governor of New Hampshire? Probably do a reasonable job. As vice-president? Really? That's pushing it just a bit too far.
The letter describes Palin's efforts to fire the town librarian because the librarian wouldn't go along with her efforts to ban some books. I'll give you a minute to recover from that; it's a bit of a heart stopper, I know. Having been involved in local town politics involving a librarian who isn't the librarian any more, I can certainly understand that disputes over a library can really cause lasting ill feeling. I can further imagine that in some situations, there'd be retribution, altho I can't really say I experienced any personally (I didn't win election as a trustee, but I'm fully prepared to chalk that up to me being newer in town than any of the other candidates and less well-connected in general).
I'd really like to at least be able to _respect_ a woman candidate for vice-president, even if she violates what I refer to as my "single issue" (choice).
But I can't say that I do. I do think we should fear her. She's a capable political fighter. Worry about her.
This is a really neat letter, that matches fairly well with what I've been piecing together elsewhere. In particular, I'd like to draw attention to the population of Wasilla at the time she was elected mayor: about 5000. She was mayor from 1996-2002. The 2000 census, according to wikipedia, has the population at 5469, and the town was growing pretty fast through the 1990s (about 30% over the course of the decade according to Wasilla's town website). So 5000 is not a lowball estimate.
I'd like to draw attention to the fact that the teeny tiny little town in New England that I live in is almost exactly the same size. We are a -town- not a city. We don't have a Mayor. We have a Board of Selectmen and a Town Meeting. The closest parallel I can think of to Palin's job in town, as near as I can tell by squinting really hard, would be R., who is secretary to the Board of Selectmen. I'm always impressed by R.'s competence, grit, etc. I've been known to refer to her as Queen of Brookline, because if you want something done around here, she's definitely the person who knows how to get it done and you really don't want her opposing you. The idea of R. as Governor of New Hampshire? Probably do a reasonable job. As vice-president? Really? That's pushing it just a bit too far.
The letter describes Palin's efforts to fire the town librarian because the librarian wouldn't go along with her efforts to ban some books. I'll give you a minute to recover from that; it's a bit of a heart stopper, I know. Having been involved in local town politics involving a librarian who isn't the librarian any more, I can certainly understand that disputes over a library can really cause lasting ill feeling. I can further imagine that in some situations, there'd be retribution, altho I can't really say I experienced any personally (I didn't win election as a trustee, but I'm fully prepared to chalk that up to me being newer in town than any of the other candidates and less well-connected in general).
I'd really like to at least be able to _respect_ a woman candidate for vice-president, even if she violates what I refer to as my "single issue" (choice).
But I can't say that I do. I do think we should fear her. She's a capable political fighter. Worry about her.
banned books, redux and character
Date: 2008-09-12 03:27 pm (UTC)http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp
In the detailed-list-of-what-was-to-be-banned form, this rumor is false.
In the, did Palin ask about how to remove books from the library sense, the story remains true. I'm still very unclear on the trying-to-get-the-librarian-gone front.
I see several ways to think about this.
(1) Palin was trying to understand how this stuff works. Which is pretty sad, because anybody who is anybody knows that banning books is bad.
(2) Palin was trying to rep her constituents. This is sorta good -- my people want to get rid of this stuff, how do I serve them. But it's still really bad, because you aren't _just_ supposed to rep the people who voted for you. Contrary to how Bush thinks of things. In a lot of ways, I'd summarize this interpretation as, Palin has no moral compass.
(3) Palin actually wanted to get some of those books gone on her own account, because of her own value system. Under this interpretation, Palin _has_ a moral compass, but I don't approve of it.
I don't see any way to interpret these questions in a favorable light. I just don't.
As for the rest of the rumor mill surrounding the Palin family? Well, let's tick them off. The Downs baby is actually granddaughter not daughter is just dumb; odds are way better on getting a Downs baby from a 44 year old mother than a teenage mother. I'm not even getting into the whole judgment call on flying back to a tiny hospital in Alaska to have a baby after starting to leak fluid. You can leak fluid during your whole damn pregnancy and not have any particular problem (well, other than going through a lot of pads). Amniotic fluid replenishes. Really. And I don't like it when people get all over other people for where and how and who with they decide to have their baby. That said, I can't say I'm overly surprised to see some nurses and other medical personnel express some shock and horror about her judgment.
The rest of the rumor mill appears to still be in the process of sifting through the actual facts on the ground. I find it more than a little disturbing that Fox News has attempted to discredit the vandalism rumor by quoting the kid's friends saying, basically, dude, he wasn't there. The kid has good friends who pull shit on _that_ scale? That wasn't tossing a pumpkin at a police car kind of prank. Who knows if we'll ever find out whether the drug addiction rumors are true, but given how many previous presidents had immediate family members (or our current fearful leader's own problems with substance abuse) who abused drugs, and given Cindy McCain's known past problems with prescription drugs, I don't know that this would make any difference if proven true.
I mean, if Laura could kill someone with her car, and Cindy could steal drugs from her own non-profit, and we still treat them with some kind of respect (and re-elect their husbands), how is this rumor going to hurt anyone? Is it worse to be a parent with kids who make mistakes than a bad human being?
And speaking of bad human beings, McCain dumped his disabled first wife in favor of Cindy anyway. What does _that_ say?
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/laura.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/carol.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/cindy.asp
I didn't see the Gibson interviews, but I did see some summaries. I'd worry a whole helluva lot more about McCain becoming unable to serve as president and Palin stepping up from VP and doing something Really Stupid and Unrecoverable (like launching against Russia or Iran or something) on the world stage, than on whatever antics her kids get up to in or out of the White House, or the VP's residence.
That said, it is never-ending fun to make fun of the preacher's kids, isn't it? Not that either Palin parent is a preacher, but she's being put up as a role model on that scale, and my whole upbringing as a JW led me to expect the worst of children of Super-Righteous parents: lying, sneaking, sexxoring, drugging, drinking, smoking, making up untrue shit about other people and generally being Nasty Bad. I was not surprised to learn in my college years that this isn't limited to JW kids, but is, apparently, a universal phenomenon.