Sarah Palin Worked To Ban Books, According to Time, Other Sources

There is much buzz about how Alaska Governor Sarah Palin attempted to ban books from a library while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.  While there's disagreement on which books were targeted, led by conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, there seems to be no question that Governor Palin did indeed work to block books as reported in TIME Magazine:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

This has become so widespread, there is a blog called "Librarians Against Palin".




OpEdNews has more to add, also pointing to Palin's call for a gag-order on city staff:

In 1996, Palin first ran for the Office of Mayor of Wasilla. According to articles in the Alaskan newspaper, The Frontiersman, Mayor Palin asked the director of the town's free public library if she "could live with censorship of library books." Palin was not specific about which books, what topics or passages would be questionable in nature.

Rindi White reports in today's edition of the Anchorage Daily News that in December of 1996, "Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her -- starting before she was sworn in -- about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose." White goes on to further state that "Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider any kind of censorship."

In response to the firing of Emmons, the well respected former Wasilla mayor, John Stein, told local newspapers that Palin felt some voters thought the library held inappropriate books and "asked the library how she could go about banning books," Stein further stated the head librarian, Emmons, was "aghast" at Palin's question.

"The librarian, who resisted mayoral censorship, was fired shortly after Palin took office." [CBS News]

Several of the conversations between Palin and Emmons took place within a new and very radical political environment for the small town of Wasilla, one wherein Palin, during her very first days in office, asserted her newfound authority by instituting a mandate requiring all department heads obtain her direct permission before talking with any reporter on any subject at any time.

"She put a gag order on those people, something that you'd expect to find in the big city, not here." [The Frontiersman]

And writing of The Frontiersman, I happened by that paper to read the coverage of Palin.  I found a letter from a Palmer Councilman that made no sense at all and since he's a politician "under" Palin, who's governor, I discounted it. But then I saw this letter by a simple Alaska resident, Suzanne McCausland, also of Palmer, Alaska:

John McCain is pandering. By selecting an inexperienced person, he is disrespectful for the office of the President of the United States. He is acting in a vindictive and unpatriotic way. Is he senile?

 Someday maybe Sarah will be qualified, but right now she is just too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency of our country. Our country is in trouble. We have to act like adults, not for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren.

We have saddled them with a huge national debt, we have lost our jobs overseas, and now our very Constitution is being eroded along with our freedoms. Anyone remember that we are in a war based on a lie?

It is time to take our country back.

Shame on you, John McCain. 

Suzanne McCausland

Palmer

The bottom line here is that Palin is clearly conservative and opportunistic.  Nothing wrong with ambition, but such a hunger always leaves a trail of angry people.  It's only a short matter of time before more of them come out against Palin.  The question is what did she do to gain the positions she obtained?  That's not clear.  Who was her mentor?  Who backed her?  When and Why?  More questions than answers.




 

ABC Iowa Debates - Vloggercott ABC For It's Abuse Of The Community - Video

This is the video companion to my article on the ABC Debates.

2008 Presidential Election: ABC Debate Mistakes; Call Amanda Congdon!

ABC should enlist Amanda Congdon's help with videos and the debates

On August 5th, ABC will host it's 2008 Republican Debate called "The Iowa Debates." For the first time for ABC, it's allowing uploaded video questions, just as the CNN / YouTube Partnership has done.

Now you would think ABC -- in copying CNN -- would have a ton of videos by now, but not at all. So the obvious question is "Why?" The answer is basically simple, but the explaination behind it can become technical for those not in the web industry. Still, we can break it down like this: the website where videos are to be uploaded is terrible.

The first problem is that ABC failed to establish a relationship with a video distribution firm, if it ever tried to create on at all. In other words, leave the video distribution work to the specialists. Second, the website established to upload videos and respond to those already posted is faulty. One has to login to use it, which is no big deal, except the login itself doesn't work properly. Third, the upload system itself is tempermental and seems to struggle to capture your video. Now, when it does do so, it works like a charm.

The other problem is in responding to a comment on a video with a comment. When I try to do this, the system kicks me out, so I have to login again, and then get kicked out again. This has happened so much it's silly.

The other problem is that one could press the wrong link button and wind up at the ABC home page, which has no obvious link about the debate, but you can learn a lot about Grey's Anatomy!

All of this adds up to failure. ABC should have asked Amanda Congdon to help here, after all, she's on the ABC payroll and knows a thing or three about video distribution.

And the matter of Amanda brings up another grip I've got about ABC; they don't understand how to mate their online effort with their television activities. They're two separate worlds, and that's a serious mistake. Amanda should be ABC's bridge, between TV and Internet, but it's not happening, and my sense is that it's not her fault.

Who's minding the store over there at ABC? Well, here's my video on the matter...

ABC GOP 2008 Presidential Candidates Debate: ABC Has Just 27 Videos!

The CNN / YouTube Democratic Debate was a rousing success, with nearly 3,000 video submissions. None of this could have happened without a partnership with YouTube and the marketing of the event by CNN.

Supposedly not to be outdone, ABC's trying a simular effort and it's not going well. ABC to date and by my count on their website called i-CAUGHT, has just 27 videos uploaded in their system, and some of them are videos from the YouTube contest.