Palin pressured Wasilla librarian

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.

Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.

It all happened 12 years ago and the controversy long ago disappeared into musty files. Until this week. Under intense national scrutiny, the issue has returned to dog her. It has been mentioned in news stories in Time Magazine and The New York Times and is spreading like a virus through the blogosphere.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html

[slackmaster]

1. This story is two days old

Seven or eight Palin rumor frenzies have come and gone since then.

[Trajan]

3. I guess you are being sarcastic ....

This qualifies as LBN, and I am just learning of it ....

[DogPoundPup]

6. Please read this juicy article that reviews all Palin's cronyism

starting out in her political career in little Wasilla...

From Durham, N.C. paper this week edition
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1204252.html

[slackmaster]

7. No, it really is two days old but news apparently still travels slowly to Alaska

If I thought it violated the LBN rules I would simply have Alerted it.

:hi:

[DogPoundPup]

8. OK if you feel that way, but the Alaska paper is covering it in todays news and I posted in

sorry if you disagree and don't like the negative headlines on Palin being highlighted ~

[slackmaster]

9. I'd like to see the intellectual level of the discussion raised above tabloid headlines and rumors

:hi:

[DogPoundPup]

12. You like intellectual discussions...and banning books is the way that knowledge is

stifled. I like what you are saying and agree about the level of discussion and that it should be raised, but golly neds ... banning books and wanting to fire the librarian because she was opposed to Palin's demands is serious business and idicates Palin has no respect for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the rule of law. I think that is imperative for people to understand.

And ... is this little ol' story really taking up so much space? :hi:

[slackmaster]

14. I have no objection to your posting the story here - It's an important topic

My first response was the result of frustration with the overall tone of the discussion here.

Are you old enough to remember the public service ads that said "Censorship in a free society. It's a bad match."?

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Wait

are you really equating a story about a VP candidate attempting to ban books with tabloid gossip? Really?

[slackmaster]

18. The story with the bogus book list is tabloid stuff

This one is a reasonable topic. The bogus book list story is an inevitable consequence of having n00bz read this one.

So be it.

Someone should find that librarian and interview her.

[lumpy]

34. I hardly think the Anchorage Daily News would be considered

a tabloid. At any rate,Palin is fair game in this election, it is important for poltical nominees to be scrutinized regarding their use of poltical power. NO?

[jonestonesusa]

16. Big K & R!

This story deserves enough recs that it becomes common knowledge. Thanks for posting it - I had not seen any references to this in the major newspapers in my glossing of their articles. Meanwhile, there seem to be nothing but puff pieces on Palin's college freshman quality speech, even in the NY Times, supposedly the liberal rag.

[secondwind]

2. I NOTICED THIS ALSO, AND IT MADE ME THINK OF THIS...

DICK CHENEY IN A SKIRT!

[grannie4peace]

4. test of loyalty??? that creeps me out !!!!

[predfan]

5. Hey guys, take it from a small town businessperson, crazy shit goes on all the time

in these small town administrations.......and the great part is that everybody's knows. Wait till the MSM gives the trees a good shaking back in Wassilla and see what else falls out. The secret is to make sure they get examined in the MSM

[slackmaster]

10. It happens in big cities too

All the time.

Ask any librarian anywhere.

[poverlay]

21. Really? Mayors ask librarians to remove books all the time? I never knew. n/t

[slackmaster]

23. Not mayors, but community "activists", religious "leaders", etc. do

:hi:

Being mayor in a small town doesn't add up to much IMO. In really small towns, people draw straws to choose a mayor or take turns, because it's a hassle.

[panzerfaust]

24. The True Believers often just go in and steal the books

and keep stealing the replacements until the library gives up.

This also happens with movies - Monty Python and the Holy Grail never lasted long on the shelves of local video stores here in The Lone Star. At least, not where I live (which is not Austin - where all the liberal Hippy people-who-live-in-Texas-but-are-not-real-Texans live. I bet those gotless commies have got MPHG - probably even in their gotless schools)

Truly, if The Mayor cannot decide what is fit for you to read, who will? - you probably want to leave it up to the Feds? That's the trouble with you communists, always wanting the government to do what your local War Lord is responsible for.

[lumpy]

36. LOL

oh yeah

[CBHagman]

44. You're kidding me!

I would expect people to get their underpants in a twist over, say, The Life of Brian, Dogma, or The Last Temptation of Christ, but Monty Python and the Holy Grail? I guess some people just need a hobby...

[lumpy]

35. So true, what comes down in small towns is no different than

political buzz that goes on in DC or NYC.

[trthnd4jstc]

11. There is now enough people that Gov. Palin has fired or wanted to fire to make a graph.

Gov. Palin in her speech mentioned about having a corruption free government.

Dear Gov. Palin, what is not corrupt about wanting to fire people that you personally do not like, or that hold different views other than your own? Also, Gov. Palin, I find one of the funniest, and scariest things is the Queen in Alice in Wonderland who has the "Off with your head response" to anyone that disturbs the queen. You may want to watch that again, and then get some therapy.

Sincerely,
Truth and Justice

[JDPriestly]

28. She's angry, but at what?

Science??? She has five children. They all seem to be doing well, thanks to modern science, things like vaccines and antibiotics, things that exist because scientists understand the theory of genetics which is based on the theory of evolution.

Book-larnin'??? Her kids do not seem to be college bound and she certainly was no scholar. Does she understand that guys like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and many of our Founding Fathers were intellectuals just like Barack Obama? Jefferson helped start the University of Virginia and made sure that land in the states of the Louisiana Purchase were required to set aside land for universities.

Community organizers??? So, again, what does she think guys like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Paul Revere did? They were community organizers. Benjamin Franklin as a matter of fact began one of the earliest non-profit community organizations. It founded a library and sponsored community projects including projects that were funded in part by the government. As I recall, Benjamin Franklin also actively supported a school for African-American children. All this, although Franklin himself had only a small opportunity to attend a formal school. Lack of educational opportunities is no excuse for Ms. Palin's ignorance about our country.

(Franklin) launched various civic improvement schemes, such as a lending library, college, volunteer fire corps, insurance association, and matching grant fund-raiser. . . . In foreign policy, he created an approach that wove together idealism with balance-of-power realism. And in politics, he proposed seminal plans for uniting the colonies and creating a federal model for a national government.
http://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-Franklin-American-Walter-Isaacson/dp/0684807610

from a review of a biography of Franklin. I personally highly recommend the book.

Ms. Palin needs to go back to the books and learn about American history before she claims to be ready to lead the nation.

[LisaL]

13. WTF is it with this woman and her firing people because

those people don't fully support her?
WTF?

[kiranon]

17. Very authoritarian, insecure personality with no boundaries.

I imagine she expects total support and agreement with her down to the level of the dogcatcher. How ignorant to go after a librarian. Thank heavens for librarians.

[Ranting_Wacko]

19. As a librarian...

... this would be enough to turn me off of Palin by itself.

[KansDem]

22. I'm a librarian, and I agree...

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Sophree]

42. Library Student here!

One of my classmates alerted me to this story- had to check out what was being said about it here on DU. If Palin tried to get a librarian fired for not being willing to ban books, well, she's now on MY "enemies" list.

Grrr. :mad:

[kwolf68]

29. And as a book reader

ME TOO.

In fact, this is one of her most damning problems with me. Banning books is dare I say UN-AMERICAN. Or is 'freedom' just a code word used by certain segmants of our society to entrench themselves into power? Naaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

[Forrest Greene]

20. How Many Americans

...really care enough about books to be bothered if any are banned? Or burned?

[hedgehog]

25. That's why it's important to find out which books she wanted banned.

I've heard a reference to "inappropriate language", but that could be anything from Harry Potter to Catcher in the Rye. Whatever she wanted to ban, it must be someone's favorite book!

[Buenaventura]

26. It's the standard list - no surprises & nothing she's actually read.

[JonLP24]

38. My best guess is among others is evolutional theory,

scientific theory, etc.. Anything religious is my best guess as well as other books.

I can't believe the right wing can pull a radical and get away with it. I can't imagine if a progressive, a Kucinich, was on the ticket, the media would cast him as a liberal wacko.

[kwolf68]

39. You will sure as hell find out

WHEN YOU START BANNING THEM.

[Posteritatis]

27. I'm stunned she had the nerve to ask a *librarian* to ban books (nt)

[Sewsojm]

30. Its what Pit Bulls do!

[Stuart G]

31. This is like going back to the Salem Witch Trials

She is frightening..Let's burn her in hell. Or better yet, let us burn her in a pile of her speeches in front of the state capital...Remember how they burned the books in l937?

[XanaDUer]

32. Librarian here...

Fuck Sarah Palin.

[krkaufman]

33. Fahrenheit 99811 n/t

[mooseandsquirrel]

37. Librarians Against Palin

Join me and my fellow librarians who agree with the person who created this blog by spreading the word. Thanks.

m&s

http://librariansagainstpalin.wordpress.com/

[MountainLaurel]

40. Rock on!

Librarian-not-currently-working-as-a-librarian here.

[LostinVA]

43. Me too!

[dchill]

41. It's part of her alternative energy plan...

If you're going to ban them, you might as well burn them!