Point. Click. Type.

Watch this video. Then go vote, dammit.

2008-11-03T19:31:00.001-08:00

I love Rachel Maddow. I love Barack Obama.

2008-10-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

I love this interview:

Here's the second part:

Find your polling place

2008-10-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

I'm not a fan, I'm a citizen

2008-10-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

I sent a video created by MoveOn.org to a friend the other day which I thought was pretty funny. She didn't find it very funny. She thought that "Obama fans" were becoming overzealous and "acting like the only sane and cool and acceptable view on earth is to support Obama and everyone else are idiots."

Yup. That pretty much sums up my view!

The video that started the discussion is designed for Obama supporters who for whatever reason may not make it to the polls. Here's a version I received, customized for me:

I think this video is a brilliant tactic! Millions of new voters have registered to vote and it's critical that each one of them actually go out and cast a ballot. The 2000 and 2004 elections were very close--whether you believe that illegal voter suppression happened or not, the Florida and Ohio vote counts came down to just a few thousand ballots statewide--just a handful of votes per precinct. Thus, that one voter who meant to go vote but went and did the laundry instead, actually could have had an impact the election results. The video is designed to be somewhat of an antidote to the "my vote doesn't matter, it's just a drop in the bucket" mentality that has historically plagued the American electorate.

As far as the zealotry of the Obama crowd, I for one think it's warranted. Not because Obama's so great but because this election is so important and the difference between the policies and tactics of the two sides are so great. I'm not alone in this opinion and it's not blind hero worship. Take a look at the generally sober New York Times. This is how they begin their endorsement of Obama:

Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation's future truly hangs in the balance.

This country and the world are in the throes of huge changes. The global economy and ecology are in crises. The economic crisis dominates the headlines, but the ecologic crisis is arguably even more important. Obama's policy position actually approaches solutions to both: green infrastructure building. It's not a complete solution, but it's a start. McCain proposes tax cuts for the wealthy, the same trickle down economics that have failed most of the country for the last 30 years, and "drill baby, drill." This is not a low stakes election. These candidates are not the standard tweedle dee and tweedle dum.

I'm not a fan, I'm a citizen. I take citizenship seriously and I believe that it is my responsibility as a citizen, a patriot, and as a member of the human species to act in the best interest of my country and my planet. So, I get a bit excited about these things. If we don't act individually and collectively to change the direction of our nation and the world, our kids will not be better off than us, and our grandkids may witness the end of life as it has been known by the whole of human history. I'm not exaggerating. While grossly under reported, the mainstream press is reporting on occasion that climate change is happening even faster than most scientists predicted.

Will Barack Obama save the planet? No. Not on his own. But John McCain's policies are virtually identical to George Bush's and you can see where that's gotten us. I think we could use a few more zealots. This shit is important.

Oh, and by the way If the World Could Vote, I think we'd have a lot less to worry about in terms of the impact of a single ballot. It'd be a landslide!

Naomi Klein on Disaster Capitalism

2008-10-19T10:59:00.001-07:00

Disaster Capitalism

Aya de Leon!

2008-10-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

They jigginglin' baby!
Go 'head baby!

Go Aya!

Notes on a New Asian Century

2008-10-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Christine Loh is speaking now...

Here are my notes, assembled on the fly:

The right to development is non-negotiable. China is growing fast and it has the right to grow. Yes, it is a quarter of the world, but is only a quarter of the world. A great deal of the population is in poverty and those people want and deserve a higher, more modern standard of living.

In America, we're moving from things to meaning because we already have things. Some people don't yet have things. Development is non-negotiable, but it isn't only material and can't be only about moving things around. So how do we engage in sustainable development and what does it mean? Many Chinese villages with no electricity. 90% of China has electricity (but it may not yet be affordable.) Distributed energy (solar and wind) is a must.

Water is also a primary concern. And the glaciers that supply water to all of IndoChina are at risk.

Freedom of political speech and enforcement of existing laws are still challenges.

US and China relations. We're the biggest emitters on the planet. The US is well-positioned--we're much further along on the development curve. China needs to do lots of basic things in the poorer regions of the country.

We need to redefine development, quality of life, and prosperity.

Ok, I'm done with note taking--I'm just going to listen.

Looking for answers...what can we do?

2008-10-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

So what's the solution?

Basically, don't buy or use furniture.

At least furniture made in California. Or made to California standards. (See my previous post on toxic furniture.)

Ok, that's impossible.

Sandra Steingraber says early puberty doesn't only mean higher risk of cancer. Anxiety, suicide, depression, unintended pregnancy are also risks for early maturation of girls. Early maturing boys tends to accrue benefits like leadership and good grades. We have the longest childhood of any mammal. As young children we have a great deal of cognitive plasticity. We are designed to learn, particularly before puberty. Abstract thinking comes later, but mind body learning happens before puberty. So what does it mean for girls when childhoods are shortened? We're hijacking the well-being of our girls. Now toss some race and class on that little nugget. You get the picture, and yes, it's pretty depressing.

So what can consumers and producers actually do?

MBDC has a green chemical database which labels a long list of chemical inputs into industrial manufacturing with red, yellow, or green environmental rating. This Cradle to Cradle Design Protocol would be really useful if it were used broadly by furniture manufacturers. At the GSB, I worked with 3 classmates on a project to examine the impact of changing the chemical ingredients in a chair manufactured by Herman Miller. The bottom line of that study was that the switch to safer inpu saved the company money, fostered innovation, added to the marketability of the chair.

There's lots of information out there for consumers on this topic. It's pretty tough to avoid the toxic chemical ingredients, but at least we can educate ourselves.

Read Mark Shapiro's book Exposed to learn more.

Take a look this site, for a list of actions consumers can take:

Womens Health and Environment

Peggy Shepard of Columbia University has done some great work around environmental justice and the intersections of race and class and environmental toxicity. There are differential impacts on the accumulation of toxins and harms across race and class. Duh.

An audience member mentioned heavy metal chelation therapy as something to learn about if you've had a heavy metal exposure.

Basically, we have to change the rules.

More stuff that sucks

2008-10-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

Asthma, brain cancer, autism, mental retardation, early onset puberty and more nasty things we don't want our kids to suffer from are on the rise.

The legally acceptable levels of lead and mercury have changed of the years. And, as the science gets better, we're learning that for some chemicals there is no safe threshold.

Here's some stuff that sucks that we should get out of economic circulation immediately:

Lindane
Mercury
PBDEs
bisphenol-A

Learn more here:
The Collaborative on Health and the Environment
The Institute for Children's Environmental Health

And now the lawyer...

2008-10-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

The premise of the Toxic Substances Control Act is that most chemicals are safe.

Health and safety data are not required before a chemical goes on the market.
The burden of proof is on the government--they have to prove that a chemical is unsafe.

The science is beginning to show that most chemicals are unsafe. Chemicals are designed to do something. In fact, they are useful because they do something. They are reactive, not inert. So they probably do something when they interact with living systems.

The rules need to change:

Prove things are safe before they go on the market
Put the burden of proof on industry

Kid Safe Chemicals Act does both of these things and will be before Congress in 2009. The
Green Chemistry Initiative from California EPA is also a good thing. DTSC authorization is before the California legislature. It's a comprehensive approach rather than a chemical by chemical approach.

Yes we can and may it be so!

Furniture and Toxicity

2008-10-18T17:02:00.001-07:00

Dr. Lipsett gave a talk which went something like this.

PBDEs are similar to PCBs and PBBs (which are banned) and dioxins.

PBDEs were in wide use in the 1980's and not since (?), but they've been doubling in human tissues every 3 to 5 years. (Ok, I'm totally unsure of this point. I'll circle back to it later.)

PBDE's are hormone disruptors. They're bad. And they aren't tested as carcinogens. California Technical Bulletin 117 requires the furniture pass a flame retardance test--the filler can't ignite after 12 seconds of open flame. Guess what. The flame retardant is toxic. And it bioaccumulates. In breast milk.

The amount of this stuff found in fat tissues of women in California were literally off the charts. Horrifying. The data compared California girls to girls in Ohio and they were 2 to 3 times as high. And about 200 times kids in Germany. Holy crap.

I'll finds some links to real data and add them here.

Toxics and Human Health

2008-10-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Vulnerable means being susceptible to physical injury or assault. The most vulnerable are children and the unborn. They aren't just small adults. They physiologically and culturally different. They lick stuff. They run around, and get winded. They'll touch anything and eat most things. And the science is beginning to show that today's babies will have shorter lifespans than today's adults. Obesity is a huge factor. Toxics include junk food!

Sandra Steingraber: Living Downstream, and Having Faith
Dr. Michael Lipsett: Air quality standards
Joe Booth: Legal Director of xxxx, and a biochemist
Elise Miller: Initiative for Children's Environmental Health

Is the average age of puberty for US girls declining? The earlier puberty starts, the higher the risk for breast cancer as an adult. Sandra Steingraber did a huge review of the literature and it's available on breastcancer.org. The answer, is yes. The 1970 median age for onset of breast development was 11.5 for breasts and menstruation at 12.8 years. Now it's 10 years old for white girls and 8.9 years for black girls. Menarche is about the same. Thus the start point s earlier and the pace of puberty (time til first ovulation) is slower. Estrogen without progesterone for a longer period of time is basically what happens.

Why? Obesity. Chubbier girls go into puberty sooner than lean girls. But lean girls are also going into puberty sooner than they used to. Why? Psycho-social stress is also a trigger. TV, breastfeeding in infancy? Chemical exposures? All are factors bt causility is still unclear. Chubby girls watch more TV and breastfed infants grow up leaner.

Neroendocrinology. The hypothalamus and GRH are at the heart of hormonal orchestration of sexual maturation. This process has to be elastic and maleable--lots of bodily and environmental signals are involved. Here's an interesting one: light at night, as in light from the TV screen my be impactful! Yikes!

The Design Charette

2008-10-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

350.org is all about branding the number 350 into the minds of people. Reminder: 350 is the number parts per million of CO2 which can exist in the atmosphere. Currently, to our peril, we're at 387. They're getting churches to ring 350 bells, ride 350 blocks on 350 bikes, and oodles of other stuff. Check out the site.

What are the ideas from the audience?

Plasma spark plug (look for it on Youtube) water-based tesla spark effect--like a steam engine
"Green at home" yard signs--make conservation visible
Give CFLs instead of bottles of wine when you visit folks
Price signals--low and middle class folks can't be made to b ear the burdening
Climate All-stars Conference
Solar Richmond
Measure T in Richmond--use oil company profits to create green jobs and clean energy
If People in Atlanta
Climate Interactive to teach people about climate the way it works and why to save it

What motivates you individually. Me? I want a green clean planet for my kids. Remember what motivates you, and get back to work! We can't compromise, so we have to create the political pressure to change local and global policy. We have no choice.

Presidents Climate Action Plan--David Orr

2008-10-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Orr and team outline what thenext president must do in the first 100 and first 1000 days of his administration. The first thing to do is push energy efficiency. The presidential powers in this regard are specific and enumerated. Somewhere. In the mean time, three things to note:

The news will get worse before it gets better.
Obama will need a constituency to push him to be something new (not move to the center.) We must be CITIZENS, perhaps for the first time.
We have to battle for policy in Washington while we simultaneously make real and measurable change at the hyperlocal level.

This challenge is the heroic work of the human species. This is our finest hour.

Changing the Political Climate

2008-10-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Large scale climate initiatives. How can we make change happen fast enough?

The conversation will be in design charette format, with a panel of speakers:

David Orr, Oberlin University
Gilian Callwell, Liz Butler: 1SKY
Billy Parrish

One of the panelists just quoted my friend Holmes Hummel. "It's time to stop, drop, and roll." Take a look at the video below and go to http://www.1sky.org

Greg Watson: 12 degrees of freedom

2008-10-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

Greg Watson discussed "Twelve Degrees of Freedom," Buckminster Fuller's concept that nature works omni-directionally and we always have twelve options at every choice point.

Linear thinking is not what Bucky was talking about. He was talking about whole systems wisdom:

Closed systems
Feedback loops
Synergy: emergent properties
Interconnectedness
Complementary
Cradle to cradle design. There is no "away" to throw anything

Bucky talked about the trimtab factor. Use leverage--a small trimtab turns a bigger rudder which turns a large ocea going vessel. Watson gave some really great examples of using trimtabs for social change. An early farmer's market in Massechusettes and the Dudley Street project which transformed a neighbor b using immenent domain (!) to allow community residents to rebuild their community with their own vision of sustainable development.

Then my battery died and I had to go analog. I'll transcribe my notes later later later.

Stop thinking. Do Something.

2008-10-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the number you need to know. 350. 350 parts per million of CO2 is all we can tolerate as a planet. Currently we're at 387. This is an emergency. RIGHT NOW.

Take action:

Text : "INVITE" to 69866

Respond with your email address.

This is a test of the Bioneers Emergency Broadcast system.

Sign up and get Obama (or McCain, should he win), to go to Poland engage in global treaty-making to curb worldwide carbon emissions in December of 2009.

Hopefully David Orr will be in Obama's Cabinet

2008-10-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

But just in case he's not, maybe Barack Obama is reading my blog!

The human condition is pretty funny, the way David Orr puts it initially, put then it starts to look pretty grim again. According to a source I can't cite, but David did, we have about 7 years to start the deflection of CO2 in the atmosphere downward. We've got to move quickly from 22 tons to 2 tons of CO2 per person in the United States.

It's all documented online. Mr. Obama, please read this today:
http://climateactionproject.com/

Mr. Future President, climate and energy policy are security, economy, health, and equity policy. We need a Green New Deal right now. If you and Congress start on January 20, 2009 and use your entire first term to green our infrastructure, you just might have time to save us from ourselves. Ask Van Jones if you're not sure how to get started.

A few things from David Orr to note:

Clean coal is bullshit.
Carbon sequestration is bullshit.
The best way to sequester carbon is to leave the coal underground!
Don't take the tops off of mountains, but windmills up there instead.
Nuclear power is a very expensive way to boil water. And it's ridiculously dangerous.

And Barack, you've been a lecturer in Constitutional Law, so you probably know this. The rights of posterity are protected by the Constitution. Maybe you could put a few advocates the seventh generation on the Supreme Court!

Oil shockwave?

2008-10-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

Holy crap.

If scarcity is the model rather than abundance, things look pretty grim.

Read about a nightmare scenario in the paper of record.

I hope David Orr has something more uplifting to say!

Shark skin, butterflies, and biomimetic genius

2008-10-18T09:36:00.002-07:00

"Quieting our human cleverness...respecting nature's guidance"

Janine Benyus is a brilliant scientist and evangelist of biomimetic and beautiful design ...and she just walked on stage with an iPhone. :)

Ok, back to the substance of things.

She notes that as the market falls, the old paradigm is falling. She was flying over Iceland (literally, in a plane) as it was going bankrupt. But she looked down from the window of the plane and saw an abundant land. Nature is abundant. Nature is abundance.

Western industrial culture is catching on and using the designs offered by nature. And the Biomimicry Guild is writing a new book listing 2100 great ways to mimic nature to solve some of the world's most pressing problems. Thank goodness! Here are just a few:

Dyesol: Leaf inspired thin-film solar
Whalepower: Wind turbines with better turbulence management
BioPower: Learning how to harness wave energy the way kelp does
Scientists at Yale are working on eel-inspired electricity
Shark inspired thermoelectric effects
Bioluminescence inspired by jellyfish
ARUP: Termite inspired cooling for buildings
Regen Energy: Bee inspired energy management
Cornell: Root inspired water distribution for buildings
The Land Institute: Ecosystem inspired agriculture
Ecosystem inspired economy: Learn from the food webs of a mature forest--who eats who? Nothing is lost.

And so many more examples! Life is hugely abundant! We are not bankrupt yet!

How to be a biomimic:

Quiet human cleverness.
Listen to nature.
Emulate nature.
Say thank you. Save the habitats that inspire.

"Life's most innovative design is that it creates conditions conducive to life."

And there's a really awesome web site forthcoming from Benyus and E.O. Wilson: www.asknature.com. Check it out in November.

And tuck in your kiwi.

"Thank you for being well"

2008-10-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Chief Oren Lyons offered an opening blessing to the conference and reminded us of the value of unity, the power of the good minds, and that the Iroquois Nation's champion lacrosse team is really really good. He asked us to know who we are, know that we share blood, and know that we should vote for Obama.

Interim thoughts on thinking...

2008-10-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for the first speaker, Janine Benyus to take the stage...

In the mean time, here are some thoughts on thinking that I thought the last time I came to Bioneers. Tell me what you think in the comments!

First, a quote from my favorite book, to frame my comments:

"The central insight of the Santiago Theory is the identification of cognition, the process of knowing, with the process of life. Cognition, according to Maturana and Varela, is the activity involved in the self-generation and self-perpetuation of living networks. In other words, cogintion is the very process of life. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity. The interactions of a living organism--plant, animal, or human--with its environment are cognitive interactions. Thus life and cognition are inseparably connected. Mind--or more accurately, mental activity--is immanent in matter at all levels of life.

This is a radical expansion of the concept of cognition and, implicitly, the concept of mind. In this view, cognition involves the entire process of life--including perception, emotion , and behavior--and does not neccessarily even require a brain or a nervous system."

---The Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra, pg. 34

Of course I woke up thinking about this and I think that what Capra and those other guys are saying is that the fractal dimensions, form expressing function, in the structure of proteins, are an epistemology in their own right. A way knowing. One could argue that the mind is an emergent property of the brain, but why limit the nervous system to just the brain? My friend Falco, and I agree that the body knows more when the body is in motion. That is, we have conscious access to more information--"I'm hungry. I want to eat arugula with pecans, apple, and avocado"--when we're healthy, active and stimulating the entire body and not just the the brain.

So, extend that out a bit. The mind is emergent of the entire body--the brain, central nervous system, the peripheral nervous system, the musculature, the bones, the breath, and even the environmental context of the breathing. Taking it further still, the mind emerges in non-human primates, mammals, and vertebrates clearly. All of these creatures have a demonstrable capacity to seek that which they need to survive and to "know" on some level or another how to get it. The also have a demonstrable capacity to suffer and I find it interesting that what I know of Western philosophy is that the moral ought is defined by the capacity to suffer rather than the capacity to survive and thrive. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I think it's fairly easy to extend the mind to all motile creates. But what about the lettuce in my salad? Does it know? "If broccoli screams in the forest, but no one hears its cry...." I think that by broadening the definition of cognition, of knowing, to mean capacity to survive, thrive, live, grow, in a dynamic environment, then the anwer is yes, my lettuce knows and broccoli screams. And all life is an act of cognition. Capra goes on about self-generating and self perpetuating networks, you should definitely read the first four chapters of the Hidden Connections to get that.

Live! From Bioneers!

2008-10-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

I'm posting from the Main Tent of the Bioneers conference. I opted for the cheap seats so I'm sitting in front of a large screen where the action from the conference center is being projected. That puts you at least two levels of abstraction away from the action, but no matter, truth resonates.

On Sarah Palin and White Privilege

2008-09-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

Tim Wise unpacks Sarah Palin's invisible knapsack of white privilege:

"White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay."

Check out the full post on Redroom.com

Wasilla's own emails details of Palin politics

2008-09-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

I received a link to this post from a friend. (Hi Tyrus!) I'm re-posting it here without permission. It's an informative and thoughtful email sent by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, Alaska -- a politically active stay-at-home mom with lots of first hand knowledge of Sarah Palin's political history. Palin has been largely sequestered from the press by her handlers. American citizens need to know who she is and how she operates. This is the most detailed information that I've seen to date. I have no confirmation of the veracity of any of it. Maybe the professional journalists will step up to their duty and sort out the info below but in the mean time, behold the power of the blogosphere.

"I have known Sarah since 1992..." (Updated, 9/9)
Posted by Alaska_Politics
Posted: September 4, 2008 - 12:11 pm
We'd appended an update from Kilkenny at the end of her original post.

From David Hulen in Anchorage --

The e-mail below has been bouncing around the Internet since Sunday. It was written by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla - stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer and longtime watcher of Valley politics. She's a registered Democrat. She was one of the delegates to the Conference of Alaskans in Fairbanks back in 2004. Her bio from the conference is here.

She e-mailed this letter over the weekend to family and friends Outside, and (despite her request not to post it) it went viral on the Internet very quickly, showing up on blogs and Web sites all over. Since then, Kilkenny has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails. She said she stayed up until 3 a.m. last night answering e-mails, and found nearly 400 new ones waiting when she logged on this morning.

It's posted here with her permission.

***

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
*"Hockey mom": true for a few years.

*"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.

*"NRA supporter": absolutely true

*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).

*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

*"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

*"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

*political maverick: not at all

*gutsy: absolutely!

*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

*"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

*pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.

*pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

***

Dear Readers,

As I write, it has been more than a week since the email I wrote to friends and family about Sarah Palin began to ping-pong around the country. In that time I’ve received over 9,600 emails. I’ve lost track of the number of journalists--maybe 3 dozen?-- who have challenged me to provide sources to substantiate all that I mentioned in it. I have cooperated fully with everyone, providing all the information anyone has requested, and offering all the help I could.

It is a strange thing to have your words echo back to you from around the world. If I were to write my email today, I would make the following changes.

1) If I could change one word, it would be the word “hate”. I said Sarah Palin hated me. That was inappropriate. I should have said that Sarah knows that she lost my support when she sought to remove books that she didn’t like from the library.

One of the great things that America has given the world is the tradition of irenic debate: the understanding that we can agree to disagree, that there is a difference between disagreeing and disliking. I failed to demonstrate that important concept when I used the word “hate”. Sarah has always been polite and gracious to me in public. I don’t know how she feels about me, and it was inappropriate for me to use that ugly word to describe her feelings.

2) I wrote: “While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed.”

I should NOT have written “. . . because the Librarian refused . . . “ . I should have written “ . . . .after the Librarian refused. . . . “

3) If I were to write my email today I would add that I have no recollection of what specific book titles Mayor Palin wanted removed from the library, or if she even named any. There is a list of books out there; I know nothing about that list! It looks bogus to me.

4) I wrote: ““PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since”.

This appears to have been a somewhat inaccurate statement. Sarah Palin has referred to herself as a “PTA mom” for so long that I just assumed it was true. Having been active in PTA since 1996, I assumed that she was an officer before that. Even McCain, when announcing her as his running mate, referred to her executive experience in PTA. But the Alaska State PTA office says it has no record of Sarah Palin ever having been a PTA board member; they do record that she paid dues.

5) I wrote: “Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.”

I should have capitalized “native”, as in: Eskimo, Inupiat, Athabascan, etc.

For your information, I do not have a website, and I don’t blog. So if you see my name out there attached to anything besides my original email and this, it’s somebody else trying to smear me.

The response to my email has been totally unexpected and amazing. I am SO impressed and heartened! My inbox is full of story after story of generous, courageous, everyday people who have made personal sacrifices for the common good: stories of quiet courage. We are a nation of unsung heroes!

And ours is truly a Christian country. It is obvious to me that people are really trying hard to practice the Christian faith that they profess. I am so pleased by the thoughtful, respectful arguments that people have put forward for why they have chosen one ticket or the other. The vast majority of the people out there reject the Karl Rovian politics of personal destruction and wish that campaigns could be free of “spin” and “image”.

I am pleased to know that the overwhelming majority of the readers of my email found the information helpful.

Dozens of journalists have researched what I have said. They have found nothing else to be inaccurate.

Anne Kilkenny
September 9, 2008