Like a Roller Coaster

Lots of ups and downs this week.

Down- I took Tasha to the vet on Tuesday (my ol' lady Pug- 11 but still spunky) because she had suddenly become incontinent. I had mentioned to Martin this summer that she was drinking a lot of water, but shrugged it off as a result of it being so hot and dry. One two-hour office visit and a smoking checkbook later, we went home with a diagnosis of doggie diabetes and a toolkit to care for her. So now I'm giving my poor girl two shots a day, watching her diet and worrying about coming home and finding her in a diabetic coma, though I've been prepped to deal with that too. If managed well, it shouldn't affect her lifespan, but she is likely to go blind from cataracts and we'll certainly be spending a lot of time at the vet's office. Upside: I have mastered the shots after much dread in the anticipation, and it wasn't so bad. She doesn't even notice the needle going in and is eating her new food.

Up - Got a 98% on my first test in physiology class. Woo hoo! Downside: 3 people in the class got a higher score than me (!) and that makes me crazy.

Down - My grandma who was recently diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's disease continues to deteriorate, though she still has better social life than me.

Up - My patience levels have reached a new high this week, and I am trying to be strict but still make time at home with the boys really fun. I'm choosing my battles better, and they are getting old enough not to need correction at every turn. And I've played UNO at least 1000 times in the last 3 days.

Ok, 1 More Cent

You can read more about Palin at this link: (curiously, the first link was pulled, or maybe the server just crashed) http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/a-letter-about-sarah-palin-from-anne-kilkenny/ or keep reading below. I'll talk about why I think it would be ludicrous to teach creationism in shools in another post. So much for keeping it nice, but you all knew my gloves would come out at some point, they always do.

This letter is written by someone who knows Sarah Palin, lives in Wasilla, and has city council lurker cred. (There ought to be a badge for that.) I think that babygate is on the way out of the news cycle, and the next aspect of her life to come under scrutiny will be her tenure as mayor. This is a good place to start. And thanks to Anne Kilkenny for speaking out. Wasilla is a small town. It takes a certain amount of conviction and downright bravery to lay it all out there like this. So a hat tip and a big sweeping bow to Anne.
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. Herf ather 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 becauseshe 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 orso 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 over33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by theCity increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased aregressive 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 thecommunity but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed itwould 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 fromthe 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 withdrewher 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 forMayor, 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 topcop 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 investigationfor 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 shelater 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 reprimandedf or 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 inhelp. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Councilbecame 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 gotthe best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: oneof 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 greatjob 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, thestructured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of thisCommission (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 budgetguidelines, 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 unobservants he had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State partyleaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliatedthem. Other members of the party object to her self-description as afiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition andpredatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be madepoint 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 WildlifeRefuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a statei nitiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams frompollution 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’slawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polarbears 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 moreknowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and areregretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementaryschool, not since•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a billthat 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 topromote it.•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-lifelegislation•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla hasresidents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-onsupervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a cityadministrator 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 storesand 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 citywithout a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Builtstreets to early 20th century standards.•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden onresidents•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of citygovernment in Wasilla’s history.•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works uniondoesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claimthat she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informedvoter. 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 localgovernment, 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 becausefew 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 ofWasilla, 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 ares wamped. 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 thecurrent 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 to2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.
Anne Kilkenny

My 2 Cents on Sarah Palin

Someone recently asked me, "being a young woman, a student, a mother of two, and a wife, what do you think about Palin?" It made me think a little about whether I thought she was a good pick (my knee jerk reaction was " that crazy gun-slinging Republican, of course not!") searched my soul around to an admission that I had to say I kind of admire her a little, then I responded as follows.
Ohhhh, well, I have to say, something about her does appeal to me- I like that she seems to be doing it all- the kind of woman who can be a mother, pretty, smart, driven and still likeable. That being said, I don't believe that anyone who believes in creationism or thinks it should be taught in schools has enough reasoning or common sense to be running our country and she seems to have a "my way or the highway" Bush-like approach to governing. Her right-wing, frontierland views might be fine for Alaska but don't represent the majority of the country, and do I need to use her daughter as an example that abstinence-only sex ed doesn't work?

There it is. My 2 cents.

Red Tide

Does anyone have experience with Moon Sand? I should have known when the nice lady at preschool said it was too messy for their art table. I thought, if they keep it outside, how messy could it be? It is now embedded in the mortar between the bricks of my front porch. It has replaced the sand in between the pavers of my back patio. It is the devil's candy. Damn you moon sand!!

The Greatest Show on Earth

We went to the Barnum and Bailey Circus in San Jose yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and we managed to get out of there without buying a 20 dollar souvenir. They had snowcones in a split clowns head which reminded us a little too much of Indiana Jones sampling "chilled monkey brains", so we avoided those. Speaking of circuses, I was able to get my class at Contra Costa college, so I am officially a physiology student. How great is it to get these rusty gears in my head going- I think I can actually feel the cobwebs blowing in there...

I've got a friend in the class with me, a fellow mom of two kids who I know from my gig with PRAM and have met another mom of two kids, both who are around my age and trying to get into nursing school. I actually look forward now to opening the book and learning the material- what a difference a decade makes!

Giddy as a Schoolgirl

Tomorrow I officially take the first step on my journey to the next stage in my life. Do I finally know what I want to be when I grow up, besides a mommy? Quite possibly. I am going to try to get into Samuel Merritt college for their Doctor of Physical Therapy program. No, like all previous successful ventures in my life, I'm just going to say that's what I'm going to do and do it. So here goes- this year, I will complete the few prerequisites that I am missing, my volunteer hospital hours, take the GRE and earn and obtain several fine letters of recommendation. Next Fall, I will apply to Samuel Merritt where I will begin the following Fall. So Sam Merritt, class of 2013, here I come!

Tomorrow's task at hand is to get into a physiology class at West Contra Cost College, where I will attempt to crash two, possibly three, sections in order to fulfill this simple requirement. I have purchased a notebook, a folder and two comfy pens which took me way too long to choose at Target. I admit there was some thought of buying a High School Musical notebook and/or Hello Kitty notebook, but I settled for a canary yellow folder and blue notebook. I'm a little out of practice though, because when I got home I realized that I bought the wide rule dammit! Maybe Jackson can use it for his school.

I'm jumping in with both feet- I'm going to show my boys that I can do more than cook and laundry, and myself that I can do it.

Bears, Boys and Blackberries

Ok, so there were no bears. But there was a whole lot of hiking on Saturday at Wildcat Canyon park. The whole family walked up and over the hill, then down the dry river bed where we discovered a motherlode of berries and a whole lot of baby newts. (We didn't eat those!) We went home with purple fingers, and happy bellies.

PB&J's gave everyone enough energy to go on.