Fear And Retribution: Palin’s Pattern Of Governance by Geoffrey Dunn

[Douglas Carpenter]

Fear And Retribution: Palin’s Pattern Of Governance

http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=4835

While the national press is apparently giving Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin a free pass regarding the many and varied skeletons in her closet during her short, yet checkered, political career as a small-town mayor and small-state governor, an extensive pattern of administrative misconduct and political grandstanding by Palin is slowly emerging from the small, often insulated communities of the so-called “Last Frontier.”

It does not a pretty picture make.

Ever since she was first elected to her hometown Wasilla city council in 1992, Palin’s political career has been marked by controversy and petty political infighting.

Currently under a state ethics investigation for the firing of Alaska state police chief Walt Monegan—a process in which Palin has clearly lied and attempted an extensive administrative cover-up—Palin has a record of controversial dismissals dating back to her days as mayor of Wasilla and for which she faced a political recall. One of those controversies surrounded the firing of Wasilla police chief Irl Stambaugh.

Reached at a remote cabin in Alaska, Stambaugh, 59, a lifelong police officer with a distinguished 30-year career, described Palin’s administrative style as being based on “fear and retribution. That’s how she operates.”

snip:" When Palin was elected as Wasilla’s mayor in 1996, Stambaugh immediately found himself at odds with the ambitious, often self-aggrandizing Palin. Indeed, Palin, who was photographed carrying a sign declaring “Law Enforcement for McCain” when she was introduced to the nation this past week in Ohio, actually has a lengthy record of opposing law enforcement officials in Alaska.

When the Alaska legislature proposed expanding Alaska’s already liberal laws to include carrying concealed weapons in schools, banks and bars, Stambaugh and several other Alaska police chiefs opposed the legislation. “We were simply applying common sense to the use of guns,” Stambaugh noted. “Even in the Old West, you left your guns at the door. Guns and booze don’t mix.”

But Palin saw the opportunity to placate extremists in the National Rifle Association supporting the expansion into schools, banks and bars, and publicly supported the legislation. When then governor, Tony Knowles, sided with law enforcement officials and vetoed the NRA-sponsored legislation, Palin came to Stambaugh and let him know that she didn’t think it was his right to oppose her on political issues.
Once Palin was elected Mayor of Wasilla, she dropped the hammer on Stambaugh.

While to Stambaugh’s face she told him that he was doing “a wonderful job” and assured the police chief that she “was not going to fire him,” two weeks after the last assurance Stambaugh came into his office and found a letter telling him not to come back the next day.

So, too, did Wasilla Librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, who recoiled against Palin’s attempts at censoring books on the library’s shelves.

She also asked for the resignation of Wasilla’s Public Works Director, John Felton, who was replaced by Palin with her political crony Cindy Roberts, who had no engineering background but had extensive Republican Party connections.

By all accounts, these were professional and dedicated public servants who had simply refused to kowtow to Palin’s extremist right-wing dictates.


snip: "Even Palin’s own mother-in-law, Faye Palin, said that she doesn’t agree with Sarah on anything and that the only reason McCain selected her is because she’s a woman,” Stambaugh noted. “I think that pretty much says it all. I certainly wouldn’t want her to have the nuclear codes to our country’s defense system.” "

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Black Star News political columnist Geoffrey Dunn, Ph. D., is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist; he is the former recipient of both a John L. Senior Fellowship to the Cornell University Graduate School of Government and a National Newspaper Association Award for Investigative Journalism. His most recent film is Calypso Dreams.




link to full article:

http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=4835

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[Douglas Carpenter]

1. Huffington Post now has a special page for Sarah Palin...lots of great research and stuff

link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/sarah-palin

[depakid]

2. Amother real journo putting corporate media sycophants to shame

Jounalism never really left the United States- it just got coopted by media consolidation and the culture of fear, retribution and rewards.

Would that Tim Russert had lived to see real journalists at work once again.

[JBear]

3. This book censorship thing is a big one...

I really would like to see the censorship issue get raised here. I lived through some interesting times at my high school where they were attempting to censor what was in the collection. As a reaction, a class that I was involved in began a "banned books" unit where we read things like "Catcher in the Rye," "Catch 22," "Slaughterhouse 5," and "Fahrenheit 451." We obtained permission slips to be able to read them!!

So do we have any idea what she was banning?

Sometime back (around when this book banning was really heightening), I believe CBS did an after school special on banning books. It had a Librarian, similar to the one in this news story, standing up to the school board over books that had to be removed from the shelves. She stood up in the school board meeting and informed them that they had overlooked one book. It included a scene where a traveling couple were accosted by a band of thugs. The robbers wanted to then rape, not the woman, but the man. Scenes of outraged parents insued and finally she told them that this was in the Bible. It was a very well written piece.

It truly amazes me how close we are coming to having the Mini-True telling us what "really" happened and what we are allowed to read! Oh yeah, "1984" was another of those books!

:bounce:

[screembloodymurder]

4. A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun

I can spot these people by the look in their eyes ... it's calculating and compassion-less. Palin has the eyes of a predator ... merciless, pitiless, soulless pits of fire ... like windows unto hell. They are the eyes of the unforgiving come to prey upon the young and the weak.

She must not be elected.

[NoFederales]

7. I call it "the Look", far too typical in fundy types. nt

NoFederales

[Ilsa]

5. What about churches? How about some guns in AoG churches?

I could go for that. "And the spirit moved me to shoot you in the face, Brother Stambaugh."

Now we have evidence of censorship of books in a public library? This woman is totally screwed up in the head. This needs to make prime-time. Send it to KO and Matthews.

[jonestonesusa]

6. What a great article...

I wish it had gone higher on the list. I'm going to bookmark it. Thanks for the post!