Palin Asked About Censoring Books With Wasilla Librarian

Boston Herald ^ | 9/4/08 | Rindi White

[steve-b]

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....

[FredZarguna]

Reexamination of Zapruder Film Locates Palin on Grassy Knoll

A careful, frame-by-frame reexamination reveals Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was in Dealy Plaza on November 22, 1963, armed with a high-powered rife on the Grassy Knoll, site where many eye-witnesses and conspiracy buffs place the real shooter in the Kennedy assassination, the Boston Herald can now reveal.

"The film is very grainy and difficult to make out," said noted film analyst, Dan Rather, testifying exclusively for the Herald. "We'll let the American People judge for themselves."

"We cannot yet reconcile how Palin, who would not be born for several months appears as a fully grown adult in this picture," added Mary Mapes, a special consultant to Mr. Rather's newly formed film analysis company, "however, we believe whatever factual inconsistencies may exist, the story is 'essentially true.'"

You be the judge:

[BoneHead]

Perfect. Except she was still a gleam in her father’s eyes.

[Jack Wilson]

Sounds like the old Clarence Thomas treatment. Make up a claim that can’t be proven or disproven one way or another against a conservative and the accuser gets the benefit of the doubt.

[FredZarguna]

If you read the story, you'll see this will be a non-issue.

[BoneHead]

OOps. I see you included that. NeverMind!

[IncPen]

It takes a village to raise a child, which, in some cases means an angry mom goes into the public library and says, ‘Not in my town. Not for my children’.

Yawn.

[lonevoice]

Whoa. Nicely done!

[farmer18th]

The librarian was just doing her job.

Some librarians have been "doing their job" by making sure the library PCs have no porn-filters, because some of the libary guilds are full of Code Pink Bolsheviks. I would have no problem with a conservative community deciding it was not going to use public funds to buy copies of "Heather has two Mommies."

In other words, if Sarah made the town deviants pay for their own "literature," it would be fine with me.

[weegee]

If it is the Saudi funded Islamic supremacists textbook that calls Jews and Christians the offspring of pigs and monkeys, you are right. Depends on the content and intended audience.

[lonevoice]

LOL. Steve, you are nothing if not predictible. Carrying the MSM's dirty water is a job you seem all too comfortable with.

It's been impossible not to notice steve-b lately, yet I am confused about the agenda. On one thread, I saw him labeled a Ron Paul supporter, and on another a Romney supporter. From the recent and profuse posting history, I find it improbable to credit either of those theories. So, what's the deal, steve-b? Who pissed in your wheaties?

[crazyhorse691]

LOL, the art of yellow journalism has not only been reborn, but, it has brought all it’s family to help. The article is nothing more than a calculated distortion and creation of events presented solely to attack Sarah Palin.

[Little Ray]

If Palin were a Democrat, the folks would re-title this “Fired Librarian advocated unlimited access to porn in stacks and over Internet!”

That is assuming, of course, a “journalist” knows what the stacks are...

[Fiji Hill]

Dirty books! Chaucer! Rabelais! Balzac!

A few years ago, there was an eatery near the public library where I work called Cafe Balzac, which specialized in Mediterranean cuisine. On a couple of occasions, its owners invited the library staff over to eat, and so we made sure that we had the works of Honore de Balzac in our collection.

[ravingnutter]

Did she ever ban the books? No. Did she even ask her to ban the books? No. She asked her if she would. She has already explained it was a rhetorical exercise. She was the new mayor and was checking out the librarian's loyalty.

Also:

During the election, the city department heads lined up in favor of [incumbent Mayor] Stein. When Stein was defeated, Palin took no prisoners. Shortly after taking office, she requested that the police chief, public works director, finance director and library director resign as an act of loyalty. The director of the city museum had already resigned a few weeks earlier. Palin, in one of her first moves as mayor, eliminated his position.

Palin then proceeded to fire the police chief and library director. The city museum, now without its director, also faced an additional $32,000 in cuts. The three remaining employees, elderly and generally nonpolitical women, knew that at least one of them had to go. Refusing to choose among themselves, they protested by resigning en masse.

The change was a little too much for the townspeople of little Wasilla. A group of about 60, calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Wasilla, organized for the recall of the new mayor. At this point, Palin had been in office for four months. However, the group held off on the recall, asking Palin to explain herself first.

At that point, Palin backed down a bit. The library director could remain, but Palin was adamant that the police chief, Irl Stambaugh, be dismissed. Stambaugh responded with a lawsuit accusing the mayor of contract violation, wrongful termination and gender discrimination. The lawsuit did not do Stambaugh any good as he was replaced. The recall fires slowly smoldered away. Palin survived the crisis that could have ended her political career.

Source

She ran on reform...she reformed. You got a problem with that?

Sheesh...why don't you just change your moniker to Obama Troll already?

[weegee]

Jesse Jackson wanted to borrow Barack Obama's Balzac.

[sbhitchc]

Do people still go to libraries or do we just send our money to them?

[Bryan24]

Buried deep in the article....

"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."

[Royal Wulff]

I wanna which really came first, the allegation or the attempted firing?

[21twelve]

I wonder what might have happened if President Bush had been more aggressive at weeding out the leftovers from Clinton’s administration.

[ari-freedom]

that’s what an executive does: make tough controversial decisions that some people may not like. Not voting present.