Post by flinchy is orange on Sept 7, 2008 0:36:26 GMT
I Know I shouldnt copy and paste from wikipedia but its better than tonnes of links to various newspaper articles and stuff about her... anways...
Heres a story about her trying to get the state librarian fired because she wouldnt ban certains books that Palin didnt feel were acceptable
I will add more as I find it.
Abortion and sex education
Palin is pro-life; she is opposed to abortion in all cases (including rape and incest) except when necessary to save the life of the mother.
The Anchorage Daily News referred to her as supportive of contraception in a 2006 article on the then-gubernatorial candidates. She has been a member of Feminists for Life since 2006.
Gay unions
Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998. Whilst campaigning for election as Governor of Alaska in 2006, Palin declared that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment, although she said she has good friends who are gay and does not wish to judge gay people.
In December 2006, following long-running litigation and a 2005 ruling, the Supreme Court of Alaska ordered the state to begin paying health and retiree benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees. Declaring that there were "no more judicial options to pursue" to avoid paying the benefits, Palin agreed to comply with the ruling. At the same time, in her first legislative act, Palin signed a bill ordering a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny the benefits.
Gun rights
Palin is a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, and supports gun-safety education for children. Palin is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, and is popular among gun rights activists. Sandra Froman, a member of the NRA Board of Directors, described McCain's selection of Palin as "outstanding
Global warming
On August 29, 2008, Palin stated in an interview: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."
Endangered species
In January 2008, Palin wrote an opinion column for The New York Times in which she opposed the listing of polar bears as an endangered species, claiming that she had based her position on a comprehensive review of expert scientific opinion. State biologists have disagreed that such support exists.
In May 2008, she threatened to sue the federal government over their decision to list the bears. She again questioned the scientific basis for the listing, and warned that it would adversely affect energy development in Alaska.
Palin also opposes strengthening protections for beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet, where oil and gas development has been proposed, on economic grounds
Israel
In a meeting on September 2, 2008 with leaders of the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC, Palin reportedly told them that she would "work to expand and deepen the strategic partnership between U.S. and Israel."
Theres loads of stuff i've left out, but those are the ones that annoyed me the most heres the link en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Sarah_Palin#Abortion_and_sex_education
Heres a story about her trying to get the state librarian fired because she wouldnt ban certains books that Palin didnt feel were acceptable
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.
The stories are all suggestive, but facts are hard to come by. Did Palin actually ban books at the Wasilla Public Library?
CONFRONTATION WITH PALIN
In December 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.
Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider any kind of censorship. Emmons, now Mary Ellen Baker, is on vacation from her current job in Fairbanks and did not return e-mail or telephone messages left for her Wednesday.
When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.
Like many Alaskans, Kilkenny calls the governor by her first name.
"Sarah said to Mary Ellen, 'What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?" Kilkenny said.
"I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, 'The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books.'"
Palin didn't mention specific books at that meeting, Kilkenny said.
Palin herself, questioned at the time, called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion with a department head "about understanding and following administration agendas," according to the Frontiersman article.
TEST OF LOYALTY
Were any books censored banned? June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed.
Pinell-Stephens also had no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then. Emmons was president of the Alaska Library Association at the time.Books may not have been pulled from library shelves, but there were other repercussions for Emmons.
Four days before the exchange at the City Council, Emmons got a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters went to police chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton and finance director Duane Dvorak. John Cooper, a fifth director, resigned after Palin eliminated his job overseeing the city museum.
Palin told the Daily News back then the letters were just a test of loyalty as she took on the mayor's job, which she'd won from three-term mayor John Stein in a hard-fought election. Stein had hired many of the department heads. Both Emmons and Stambaugh had publicly supported him against Palin.
Emmons survived the loyalty test and a second one a few months later. She resigned in August 1999, two months before Palin was voted in for a second mayoral term.
Palin might have become a household name in the last week, but Kilkenny, who is not a Palin fan, is on her own small path to Internet fame. She sent out an e-mail earlier this week to friends and family answering, from her perspective, the question Outsiders are asking any Alaskan they know: "Who is this Sarah Palin?"
Kilkenny's e-mail got bounced through cyberspace and ended up on news blogs. Now the small-town mom and housewife is scheduling interviews with national news media and got her name on the front page of The New York Times, even if it was misspelled
I will add more as I find it.
