GOP downplays Palin book-banning inquiry (McCain campaign says it happened!)

[brooklynite]

Source: AP

WASILLA, Alaska - The McCain campaign is defending Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-criticized inquiry into banning books at her hometown library, saying her questions were only hypothetical.

Shortly after taking office in 1996 as mayor of Wasilla, a city of about 7,000 people, Palin asked the city's head librarian about banning books. Later, the librarian was notified by Palin that she was being fired, although Palin backed off under pressure.

Palin alleged attempt at book-banning has been a matter of intense interest since Republican presidential nominee John McCain named her as his running mate last month.

Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said Thursday that Palin asked the head librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, on three occasions how she would react to attempts at banning books. He said the questions, in the fall of 1996, were hypothetical and entirely appropriate. He said a patron had asked the library to remove a title the year before and the mayor wanted to understand how such disputes were handled.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/09/12/20080912palin-librarian12-on.html

---

Let's be emphatic on this point -- this is not a made-up story, and the McCain campaign agrees. Let them try to defend "hypothetical".

[BOSSHOG]

1. What if your abstinence trained daughter got pregnant - just a hypothetical question

What if a DNA test will be needed to determine the father?? Just a hypothetical.

[orbitalman]

30. An Excellent Question.

An excellent comback. Damn HYPOcrits.

[FreakinDJ]

2. Firing the librarian makes it look real

but lets face facts folks - if there is not a piece of paper with Palin's name signed to it ordering the books be removed from the library the Ratpublicans can spin this any way they want

I know its real
I know it happened

But at the end of the day when we have spent all this effort trying to bring this to light to the American voter and especially "Swing Voters", we have missed the point

They can deny this - they can't deny the state of the economy and the effects on the working class

[AndyTiedye]

14. A Wrongful Firing is Real Enough, Even if She Backed Down a Day Later

[howmad1]

37. What "swing" voters?

If these asshole undecided voters haven't made up their minds by now, they shouldn't be allowed to vote. In all probability these schmucks will get in to a voting booth and decide, "I ain't voting for no black dude".

[GOPNotForMe]

3. Must see that this gets national attention.

Book banning is un-American. So is insulting the rule of law and the Constitution but Porky Palin did that too in her acceptance speech... PATTERN!

[FreakinDJ]

10. If that was true....

Then how do you explain the Telecom Amnesty bill which was passed

Most of this stuff is WAY Over the Heads of the average voter

[orbitalman]

31. True but...

We're not taking into account the sabotaging of our democracy by the MSM. When did you read the nitty-gritty of the Telecom bill and what to do about it for the average voter in a magazine or newapaper?

[stlsaxman]

4. right- as hypothetical as the firing threat of Mary Ellen Emmons?

should be spelled "hy-PATHETIC-al".

[Hugin]

7. Emmons was actually hypothetically fired...

and then hypothetically allowed to return after a hypothetical protest by 100 hypothetical local residents.

Link available.

[liberal N proud]

5. Banning books goes to her lack of knowledge of the Constitution

Of course that means nothing to the GOP, the tread all over the document anyway.

Hypothetical or not, it goes to show that she had intent to abuse the Constitution.

[xyouth]

6. According to Factcheck.org

The librarian was fired, but was rehired the next day under pressure.

[sasha031]

8. this morning on CNN with dingbat Robin

she claimed the book burning and banning is a lie.:puke:

[ptolle]

29. lies

If anyone would have firsthand knowledge of the limitations of lying as political strategy it would be Caribou Barbie who is getting hoisted from her very own bridge.IMO there's just too much persistence in this story for it to have been totally false. were that true it would have died a while ago.This woman is a serial liar,serial power abuser, and incipient tyrant.

[OilemFirchen]

9. THEY'VE rewritten the story

Some reactionary websters posted a silly list of banned books, but the story was, is, and is now confimed, that Goody Palin fired the librarian because she wouldn't consent to banning books. That no books were banned is utterly irrelevant. Palin asked a hypothetical rhetorical question and then fired the librarian. Let the puggies parse the implications all they want, Occam's Razor sez she was fired cause she said no.

[FreakinDJ]

12. If you feel so strongly about this issue then why not write the editor

of FactCheck.org and demonstrate he is wrong and his reputation as the "Go To" source is now questionable.

Preaching to the Choir is great if you need affirmation but if you want to bring about change you'll have to engage in some activism

[progressivebydesign]

11. Bullshit. "How she would REACT" is not what she asked.

It was "How you you go about removing books?" That was a given in ALL of the previous stories.

My god.. those people are liars. Every fucking word out of their mouths are lies, and sadly.. the media was SUPPOSED to be the people that protected Americans from lying governmental officials... the media was created to PROTECT people, and they are failing miserably. Once the press became no longer "free"

[CitizenPatriot]

13. I just had this discussion

with a gopper.

I said here are the facts; you make of it what you will.

she asked librarian about banning books several times. Librarian tells her there is a process to determine books for library and she would NOT ban books. palin calls librarian into her office after she is elected and asks her again. Palin says it is rhetorical question. Librarian says she felt pressured to ban books.

2 weeks later, librarian is fired for vague reason of not supporting palin.

citizens of Wasilla rally to defend librarian who had been around a long time. Taken along with other recent Palin firings for general "you don't support me" accusations, citizens initiate a recall action.

Librarian is reinstated and recall is dropped.

Now, that may well have been a rhetorical question, but there were clear consequences to the answer the librarian gave.

Is it reasonable to take from these facts that Palin did not intend to ban books, when we know her belief system wants her ban books, and in fact, librarian mentioned two books which were brought up, one of which was a book for gay people?

If a person can read the facts of this story and not be concerned, they are not paying attention.

couple this with the further red flags of similar behavior in troopergate and a judge warning her to stop abusing her sister's children by slandering and harassing their father, and it looks to a reasonable person like there are some ethical failings on Palin's aprt and that she does not understand how to separate her own personal agenda from her responsibility as a public servant in a democracy.

[FreakinDJ]

15. You all have sound arguements but if you don't engage the source

Factcheck.org as to the legitamacy of their determination then Ratpublicans will continue to beat Dems about the head and shoulders with this issue

[CitizenPatriot]

27. very true --

I think it's over-simplified clearly, the way they say "she did not ban books."

any suggestions or facts you know about factcheck? I have gotten mixed reviews from people.

[fascisthunter]

16. Palin has much more in Common with Totalitarians than ...

our forefathers who helped create this Democratic Republic. Maybe it's time we told her and her right wing cult to leave this country.

[msedano]

17. Bibliocaust - History of Book Burning

Here's a fascinating review of a similarly fascinating book that examines book destruction together with analysis of who commits this vicious crime:

http://labloga.blogspot.com/2008/09/bibliocaust.html

The news splash of that almost-forgotten episode in the life of the person who may well end up only a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, as the morning talk show hosts like to say, instigated within me a thought-process that eventually led to Fernando Báez's Universal History of the Destruction of Books. It started with trying to put myself in the place of the small-town mayor who thought that a priority after winning the election was to worry about the subversive, dangerous and evil books in the city library. It ended with reading Báez's catalog of the incessant war against writers, ideas, history and identity.

Báez writes about much more than banning books, of course. His subject is the story of the obsessive violence committed by humans against books since books were first invented. He writes about the burning of books, about bibliocaust, which he defines as the destruction of books in "an attempt to annihilate a memory considered to be a direct or indirect threat to another memory thought superior."

recommended.

mvs

[central scrutinizer]

18. also read this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7040834

The Rev. Howard Bess, a liberal Christian preacher in the nearby town of Palmer, said the church Palin and her family attended until 2002, the Wasilla Assembly of God, was pushing to remove his book from local bookstores.

Emmons told him that year that several copies of "Pastor I Am Gay" had disappeared from the library shelves, Bess said.

"Sarah brought pressure on the library about things she didn't like," Bess said. "To believe that my book was not targeted in this is a joke."

[Betsy Ross]

19. 3 TIMES!

Thats more than hypothetical or rhetorical. Or else she is so dumb she can't remember her actions from day to day. Oh right. She can't. But really folks, 3 times?

[Overseas]

20. Just hypothetical inquiries THREE TIMES. /nt

[pepperbear]

21. no one cares about that she asked the "hypothetical" question....

the thing to do is to push the next fact about the incident; the librarian almost lost her job because she said she would not ban books and the town intervened.

[emilyg]

22. From factcheck.com

that will triple per-pupil funding over three years for special needs students with high-cost requirements.
She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.

She was never a member

[truthisfreedom]

23. "He said the questions, in the fall of 1996, were hypothetical and entirely appropriate. " Yeah,

about as appropriate as a lesbian come-on. "Hypothetically, as the Mayor, if I wanted to hook up with you, how would you react to that?"

2nd day: "So, have you been thinking about that question I asked you yesterday? Have an answer for me yet?"

3rd day: "You know, cooperation between the Mayor and the city's staff is pretty much at the top of my list for keeping people 'on my team', if you know what I mean. Do you have an answer for me yet, or are you fired, bitch?"

Asking a US Librarian 3 times how she would react to banning books is akin to asking a Supreme Court Justice 3 times how she'd react to rewording the Constitution.

[Kurt Remarque]

24. this woman is scary!

maybe she'll be calling the national archives and the library of congress to rid us of harmful literature like the contitution

[styersc]

25. The right wing recently circulated a falsified list of titles that could

be easily refuted as bogus- some of the titles post date Palin's term as Mayor. The reason that they circulated the bogus list (the list made it on to this forum) was so it could be knocked down and the Limbaughs and Hannitys could then chortle, "that's already been proven to be false". The right wing audience is not very bright or discerning.

[2Design]

26. only hypothetical - what a crock - spin spin spin and the rw will vote for this nt/

[katandmoon]

28. If a patron had asked to remove a title the YEAR BEFORE, then the question was NOT hypothetical

The question to the librarian would not then be "how WOULD you act" about it, the question would be "how DID you act"?

I mean, wouldn't it?

[Ignis]

32. "Hypothetically," Palin asked, "could we build Gas Chambers?"

:rofl:

Please, please let them keep digging their own hole deeper. It's hilarious to watch.

[Piewhacket]

33. May I suggest...

Repukes give response of obvious spin and appeal to ignorance (hiding the emails).
Palin is an unqualified, ignorant, bigoted whackup. That much is clear.
Some people don't care, but some people don't know.

Get the actual emails or quotes, if you can. Interview the librarian, or get quotes.
Put it together.

All crimes can be termed (by criminals) as "hypothetical" until they are "actually" committed.
Were they "hypothetical"? Or did her words and actions constitute an attempt or solicitation
to commit a crime (eg 18 USC 242). Did she illegally "force out" the librarian by creating
a hostile environment? (ie coerce a "voluntary" resignation)

Maybe what McCain really means is "forgive her, she was too &&^%$ stupid and bigoted to know
what she was doing was illegal, but anyway she's not sorry she did it and is prepared
to do it again."

Public librarians throughout the US have taken the general view that their job is to
provide access to materials which their patrons wish to read. They are not censors or
content police.

Where I live, children are issued personal library cards and permitted access
to ANY materials in the public library. Parents are told that it is THEIR
responsibility to supervise their children and what they read, and that is not
the LIBRARY or LIBRARIAN'S responsibility. (I might personally add
"Get it now, stupid?", but that would be unprofessional and a librarian
wouldn't say it, not even to her idiot boss.)

Anyway, nearly all public libraries have children areas with age appropriate
material - usually selected by trained children librarians - but not based on content -
eg might have "Uncle Bobby's Wedding" addressing issue of (incidentally gay) marriage of
favorite Uncle from perspective of child Ages 2-5)

Public librarians are keenly aware, and professionally trained to know, that
censorship in a public library which is not based on legality (eg actual obscenity,
child porn, and such) but is otherwise based on content would be illegal anywhere
in the US. Palin was probably told this but apparently fired or attempted the fire
or force out the librarian because Palin disagreed with that view and the librarian
refused to aid, abet, or otherwise commit a blatantly illegal act.

The statute of limitations on a crime has run out, but PALIN's character
is a MEGA-ISSUE. Get the facts. Put it together.
Lets get this &^%$ PotatoEhead Robertson whackjob toasted before Novemeber.

52 days. GO! GO! GO!



see : American Library , Sept 8-10, 2008 "Critics Revisit Library Incident
That Paints Palin As Censor".
see : Sitka Sentinel, Sitka Alaska, Oct 28, 1996.
see: Librarians Against Palin ( http://librariansagainstpalin.wordpress.com/ )

[ann_american2004]

34. I'm glad the media aren't letting

them get away with lame excuses (read LIES).
The article shows both versions of the stories and counters McCain/Palin's lame excuses (read LIES) with facts and comments by locals and experts.

[APPLE_PIE]

35. How do you get hypothetically fired?

I guess I need to find a republican liar and see if they can explain it.

If you read the link you'll note she was terminated for one day and then reinstated. That's no hypothetical firing. I was terminated myself one time and I know what hypothetical firing isn't.



APPLE_PIE

[Divine Discontent]

36. it's a story on yahoo now... love it!

MORE AT www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[EndElectoral]

38. I can't wait for the interview with this librarian.