Archive for September, 2008
Banning Books from Sarah Palin blog
September 16, 2008this is from Sarah Palins new blog [ this is a joke] You can read her other posts here http://sarahpalin.typepad.com/
Wow, if it’s not one thing it’s another. Now the Main Streamed Media are talking about me banning books in Wasilla blah blah blah. Doesn’t the press have anything better to do than chase down old stories about me? Hey Nedra Pickler (cool name by the way!), how would you feel if I poked around in your past and then wrote stories about it and then published them in newspapers?!? The media and everyone are taking this whole “public servant” thing so seriously, honestly it kind of makes them look silly. Who cares what I “did” or “didn’t do” as “mayor” or “governor.” I’m not being elected the vice president of WHAT ALREADY HAPPENED, I’m being elected the vice president of the FUTURE. And the only way you can tell the future is by looking at (a) the love in my heart for Alaska/the USA/God and (b) whether my family is getting raised right.
So about that whole banning books and firing librerians thing (also: for some reason reporters never just CALL me to ask me about what happened! The campaign hired a nice girl named Becky to answer my phone, and I keep asking Becky if any reporters have called and but she says nope, none at all. I wish they would because I’d totally love to talk to them the banned book stuff, my foreign policy ideas, etc!!) But I guess since they don’t care enough to call I will just talk about the issue right here.
LIBEREL QUESTION: Did you want to ban books from Wasilla.
MY ANSWER: Of COURSE I did. Would you want to ban a Nazi from your baby’s crib? Would you want to ban a Muslim terrorist from your child’s kindergarten? Because it’s basically the same thing with these books.
LIBEREL QUESTION: Did you actually ban any books from Wasilla.
MY ANSWER: No because I knew the librarian wouldn’t let me. So some of them I had Track sneak out in his hockey bag and other ones I just hid behind the Ranger Rick display stand.
LIBEREL QUESTION: So What books did you want to ban.
MY ANSWER: Well Mr. Reporter I am so glad you asked me that because now I can warn other parents about these dangrous books.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pulman
Some people say that I banned this book because it is against religion and God. To tell you the truth I listened to the whole book on cassette like four times and I didn’t hear ANY of that anti-religion stuff! come to think of it, I also am not so sure that those Narnium books are about religion either–except for maybe on Noah’s ark I don’t remember any talking lions in the Bible. But anyway, the truth is that I banned the Golden Compass because if its completely inaccurate portrayal of Polar Bears. Polar Bears are a dangerous threat and this book made them seem honorable, etc. If I let this book be read by alaska children it could undo all the hard work I did in trying to get rid of the Polar bear menace in Alaska.
Harry Potter by Jay K. Rowling
ARGH so here is the thing: a couple years ago Piper and Willow both wanted to be Hermoany for Halloween. every day they were all whine whine blah blah blah I get to be Hermoany no I do no I do and I was all GUYS BE QUIET I AM TRYING TO BE MAYOR. Finally Willow snuck into the Tidbits Jar in the fridge, which she KNOWS is off limits, and stole a moose kidney and put it right in Piper’s cereal!! That was the last straw–todd and I were saving those for our anniversary jerky. So I took the books away from them as punishment but i figure probly lots of other Wasilla parents are dealing with the same kinds of problems, plus other parents in America, so if I was Vice President I would ban the whole book.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
One thing that’s important to know about me is that I make my decisions based on Evidence. In fact I am a lot like someone on the show History Detectives, except in the present. This time my evidence came from the neighbor of the woman who cut my hair. Annie (the woman who cuts my hair, she is FANTASTIC, if you have fine hair that also has a ton of body you should totally go to her, email me for her number) told me that her neighbor’s daughter Christine read this book her very first semester at the U of Alaska. When Christine came back for Thanksgiving she was acting really weird and finally her mother confronted her and it turned out that christine had become a Vegatarian. honestly I can’t even imagine, I know that my Bristol would never do anything like that. Even though Annie says her neighbor is a very nice woman I have to think that she also must have raised that child a little wrong if you know what I mean, but still I bet that this Leaves of Grass book had a lot to do with it. Leaves of grass are for cows/moose/etc NOT for people!!
Palin against ‘Daddy’s Roomate’ being in library
September 15, 2008Now we know at least one title that she requested be banned
Gov. Palin
While Republican vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin said she never intended to ban books, when she was a councilwoman in Wasilla, she showed her displeasure about a book explaining gay partners being in the library.
According to the New York Times, in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.
“Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.”
“I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can find out more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy’s_Roommate
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000“. ALA. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
Fake banned book list
September 11, 2008
Of course you probably have recieved the fake list of books Sarah Plain tried to ban while Mayor. The first clue is that some of the books hadn’t even been published at the time – and it seems to be a general list of challenged books.
Snopes has it debunked here http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp
If you receive this email remember to promote banned book week
Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 27–October 4, 2008
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the
last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event
reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This
year, 2008, marks BBW’s 27th anniversary (September 27 through October 4).
BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion
even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses
the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular
viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can
exist only where these two essential conditions are met.
BBW is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American
Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association,
American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers,
National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Center for the
Book in the Library of Congress.
Purchase BBW promotional items—such as the BBW Kit—through the ALA Store.
Explore Banned Books Week further through these resources:
Bush backer endorses Obama, calling Palin ’scary’
September 9, 2008http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_backer_endorses_Obama_calling_Palin_0909.html
Bush backer endorses Obama, calling Palin ’scary’
RAW STORY Published: Tuesday September 9, 2008
A former Democratic New York mayor who backed George W. Bush for President in 2004 has now labeled Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “scary” and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).
Politico asked Koch “what prompted the move.”"The designation of Palin to be vice president,” he replied. “She’s scary.”"Any time someone goes to the library and says, ‘I want to ban books,’ and the librarian says ‘no,’ and she threatens to fire them — that’s scary,” he said.
As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin inquired about banning a slew of
“controversial books,” including those by Stephen King and Wiliam Faulkner. The McCain campaign says “she was just inquiring about the library’s policy on banning books, with no aim of actually banning any. ‘It was a rhetorical question — nothing more,’ the McCain-Palin campaign said in a memo yesterday.’”
In his endorsement statement, he termed Palin “a plucky, exciting candidate.” But he added that “when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.”
Notes the LA Times: “Koch, true to his New York roots, had backed Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. But in 2004, he gained a lot of ink when he stumped for President Bush’s reelection. And previously, he had
supported Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg in their successful runs for mayor of the city over which he once presided. And, at the statewide level in New York, he backed former GOP Sen. Al D’Amato
and former GOP Gov. George Pataki.”
Library Blog Blasts Palin LSJ
September 7, 2008
By Debra Lau Whelan — School Library Journal, 9/4/2008 5:26:00 PM
Mary Ellen Baker, the librarian at the center of the Sarah Palin book-banning controversy, may not be talking to the press, but librarians around the country are voicing their concerns about having an alleged censor on the Republican ticket—through a blog called Librarians Against Sarah Palin!
Launched on September 3, the blog has interesting information (some speculative)—and lots of questions—about what exactly happened in 1996 between Palin, then mayor of Wasilla, AL, just outside of Anchorage, and Baker, former director of the Wasilla Public Library.
“[Palin] essentially forced Mary Ellen out,” says June Pinnell-Stephens, chair of the Alaska Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee and a friend of Baker’s. “She all but fired her.”
Press reports ranging from the New York Times and Time magazine to the local Frontiersman and the Anchorage Daily News say that the newly-elected Mayor Palin asked Baker (whose name was Mary Ellen Emmons at the time) about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose. Baker refused to consider any kind of censorship and replied, “This is different than a normal book-selection procedure or a book-challenge policy,” reports the Frontiersman.
A few months later, the librarian received a letter from Palin saying she would be fired, without any mention of the censorship issue. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin told Baker that she appreciated her service but felt it was time for a change. ”I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment,”’ the letter said.
But after a public outcry in support of Baker, Palin eventually reversed her decision and let the librarian keep her job.
It doesn’t appear, however, that any books were actually banned, says Pinnell-Stephens, who documents book challenges in the state but couldn’t find any evidence in her files and doesn’t remember any conversations with Baker about the subject.
Although Pinnell-Stephens hasn’t had personal contact with Palin, she doesn’t think the Republican vice presidential nominee is up to the job. “There are many, many issues of which she has no understanding at all [like] the role of libraries in a democracy,” she says. “I certainly have no reason to believe she’s ever been a strong supporter of libraries, partly because she [forced out] a very competent and wonderful director.”
Those voicing their opinions on Librarians Against Palin! have similar views. “I am a public librarian who is concerned about having Sarah Palin in the White House,” writes the author of the blog. “I do not want a book banner in the White house!”
The blog is for “library staff, library lovers, and anyone who cares about public libraries and freedom to read!” says the site.
Baker, who is on vacation this week and didn’t respond to telephone and email requests for an interview, is currently the public services manager in charge of the reference department, youth services, and circulation for the Noel Wien Library in Fairbanks.
« Back | Print
© 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
We now have multiple groups against SP!
September 7, 2008There are two wordpress blogs about librarians and Sarah Palin
Mine is the one with the books graphic – both the oped article and SLJ article refer to a blog called “librarians against Sarah Palin” ( the oped page actually linked to it yesterday morning). When i went to the link i found a notice from WordPress saying ” this name is available would you like to create a blog ”
So of course , I did !
I have now found the blog they are refering to and its actually ” librarians against Palin ” (Note* no Sarah)
I hope we have a third soon and thanks for your comments
Nancy
Ours here at http://librariansagainstsarahpalin.wordpress.com/
and this one http://librariansagainstpalin.wordpress.com/
Palin: Library censorship inquiries ‘Rhetorical’
September 7, 2008
| FROM THE ARCHIVE: Palin: Library censorship inquiries ‘Rhetorical’By PAUL STUARTEditor’s note: This story first ran in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Dec. 18, 1996. It has been typeset and posted here to accommodate numerous requests for the story from media worldwide and curious individuals. Please note that not at any time were any books ever banned from the Wasilla city library.
WASILLA — In the wake of strong reactions from the city’s library director to inquiries about censorship, Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin on Monday was taking pains to explain her questions about censoring library material were rhetorical. Library Director Mary Ellen Emmons last week said Palin broached the subject with her on two occasions in October – once Palin was elected mayor Oct. 1 but before she took office on Oct. 14, and again in more detail on Monday, Oct. 28. Besides heading the Wasilla City Library, Emmons is also president of the Alaska Library Association. The issue became public last Wednesday, when Palin brought it up during an interview about the now-defunct Liquor task Force. Palin used the library topic as an example of discussions with her department heads about understanding and following administration agendas. Palin said she asked Emmons how she would respond to censorship. Emmons drew a clear distinction Saturday between the nature of Palin’s inquiries and an established book-challenge policy in place in Wasilla, and in most public libraries. “I’m not trying to suppress anyone’s views, Emmons said. But I told her (Palin) clearly, I will fight anyone who tries to dictate what books can go on the library shelves. Palin said Monday she had no particular books or other material in mind when she posed the questions to Emmons. Emmons said in the first conversation, before being sworn in as mayor, Palin briefly touched on the subject of censorship. But on Monday, Oct. 28, Emmons said Palin asked her outright if she could live with censorship of library books. This was during a weak when Palin was requesting resignations from all the city’s department heads as a way of expressing loyalty. “This is different than a normal book-selection procedure or a book-challenge policy, Emmons stressed Saturday. She was asking me how I would deal with her saying a book can’t be in the library.†Monday Palin said in a written statement she was only trying to get aquatinted with her staff at the time. Many issues were discussed, both rhetorical and realistic in nature, Palin added. Emmons recalled that the Oct. 28 conversation she pulled no punches with her response to the mayor. She asked me if I would object to censorship, and I replied ‘Yup’, Emmons recounted Saturday. And I told her it would not be just me. This was a constitutional question, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would get involved, too. Emmons said Palin asked her on Oct. 28 if she would object to censorship, even if people were circling the library in protest about a book. I told her it would definitely be a problem the ACLU would take on then, Emmons said Asked who she thought might picket the library, Palin said Monday, Had no one in mind … again, the issue was discussed in the context of a professional question being asked in regards to library policy. All questions posed to Wasilla’s library director were asked in the context of professionalism regarding the library policy that is in place in our city. Obviously the issue of censorship is a library question… you ask a library director that type of question, Palin said “Palin also said Monday censorship issues would not involve any departments other than the library. Emmons said she has been offered help if it is ever needed on censorship issues from the state library association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and the National Freedom to Read Foundation. Palin called Emmons into her office Monday to discuss the censorship questions again. Palin also attended Friday’s staff meeting at the library, but without mentioning censorship , Emmons said. I’m hoping it was just a trial balloon, Emmons said, because the free exchange of information is my main job, and I’ll fight anyone who tries to interfere with that. The timing of the issue comes at a time when Emmons is trying to get the book-challenge policies of the Wasilla Library and of the Palmer City Library in line with the Mat-Su Borough policy, revised in December of last year. Emmons described the new borough policy as â very good one. It is a step-by-step blueprint of procedures for anyone wanting to challenge the selection and availability of library material, Emmons explained. “it is a good process, and almost all public libraries have one. The borough’s policy was revised mainly to replace the borough manager as the final decision maker with a formal Reconsideration Committee Mat-Su Borough Manager Don Moore said Saturday that changes were made, with the blessings, after a dispute that was resolved about two years ago involving a challenged book at the Big Lake Library. Emmons said the current Wasilla policy, which she described as written in more general terms than the borough’s, also worked procedurally in a book-challenge case last year. Emmons said then-council-woman Palin was distressed about the issue when it came up, indicating she was aware of the city’s book-challenge policy. Emmons said in the conversations with now-Mayor Palin in October, she reminded her again that the city has a policy in place. But it seamed clear to me that wasn’t really what she was talking about anyhow, Emmons added. I just hope it doesn’t come up again. Meanwhile, Emmons said she is working with borough libraries boss Bruce Urban and Palmer Library Director Janice Sanford, in the hope of getting the cities to adopt a book-challenge policy identical to the borough’s.
|
LIBRARIANS AGAINST SARAH PALIN FOUNDER A MYSTERY
September 6, 2008The identify of the founder of Librarians Against Sarah Palin as of September 4, 2008 is still unknown to the general public and the majority of librarians. The new LASP site may simply be a blog, a grassroots effort, the latest 527 group on the political scene or just one part of a wider movement that will not only teach Sarah Palin a thing or two about democracy, but may well cost her the election come November if the Librarians Against Sarah Palin group does what they set out to do. My money is on the latter.
The identity, age and gender of this unknown librarian upset with Sarah Palin’s treatment of Mary Ellen Emmons and the Wasilla Public Library is a mystery. Logic tells us the founder of Librarians Against Sarah Palin lives in the United States and may be someone well known nationally or simply our next door neighbor. We do not know how large the membership of Librarians Against Sarah Palin is or will be prior to our next election, but the group is sure to generate interest among librarians, parents and voters in general whether they are Republican or Democrat, whether they are well read or illiterate.
Other than bits and pieces of information, we are clueless as to the mystery surrounding the the founder of LASP. Well, not a total mystery and not totally clueless as much information is readily available about who this person may be.
The first clue is found in what the mysterious founder had to say in the About Section of the Librarians Against Sarah Palin website:
“I am a public librarian who is concerned about having Sarah Palin in the White House. While mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin attempted to ban some books from the city library. When the chief librarian would not ban books without going through the formal book challenging process, Sarah Palin attempted to terminate the librarian’s employment. Only after public outcry was the termination withdrawn.
I do not want a book banner in the White house!”
http://www.librariansagainstsarahpalin.wordpress.com/about/
We know for a fact this group is involved in the world’s oldest profession.
No, not that one, the other one. Information Processing.
It’s becoming apparent that librarians other than the LASP founder are upset as well. This was posted shortly after the site went up:
Librarian Lucy’s September 4th post:
“have worked in Alaskan libraries for 20 years and can assure you that the story about Mary Ellen Emmons is true. After Palin was elected she did her darndest to work with her but the pressure to censor materials got to be too much and Mary Ellen resigned and moved across the state where she rebuilt her life and continues to work in a library. She is reluctant to bring up that part of her past. We all wish she would make a statement to the press, but you forget that Palin is still our Governor and she is one mean, small minded woman and we may need her support for our libraries in the future. There is SB119 waiting for funding right now, which would provide matching funds for new library construction and $$$ for our school libraries, for instance. Once you cross Ms. Sarah, she keeps you on her list for life.”
What else do we know?
We know the founder of Librarians Against Sarah Palin attended one of only 47 institutions in the US and Canada who offer a Master’s degree in Library Science (MLS). This degree, known by other designations as well, requires between 36 and 72 credits depending on your course of study.
Chris Hinson, PhD, explains the library degree a bit further:
“I have never been a librarian nor have I ever wished to be a librarian…I research and teach federal information policy, more specifically information policy departures (not related to libraries, except when the Nat’l Archivist violates the Federal Records Act). HOWEVER, Florida State University’s College of Information just awarded me a PhD in (you guessed it) Library and Information Studies. If you are surprised you may be more surprised to find out this is my second graduate degree in Library and Information Studies awarded by FSU. I was awarded a Masters of Science from the Department of Information Studies in 2002. I have never taken a single course directly related to libraries or librarianship from FSU or any other university. So, buyer beware…when recruiting from FSU.”
read on here
http://www.opednews.com/articles/LIBRARIANS-AGAINST-MCCAIN-by-Judy-Swindler-080905-443.html
