Palin 451
Article courtesy of DailyKOS.
Sarah Palin: Separatist, former mayor of a village, and a wannabe book-burner:
[Former Wasilla mayor John Stein] says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.
Here's one of those news reports from 1997:
City librarian Mary Ellen Emmons [Baker] will stay, but Police Chief Irl Stambaugh is on his own, Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin announced Friday. The decision came one day after letters signed by Palin were dropped on Stambaugh's and Emmon's desks, telling them their jobs were over as of Feb. 13.[...]
Both Stambaugh and Emmons [Baker] publicly supported Palin's opponent, long-time mayor John Stein during the campaign last fall. When she was elected, Palin questioned their loyalty and initially asked for their resignations. But Stambaugh said he thought any questions had been resolved
Putting it simply, Sarah Palin's idea of executive leadership involves firing the people you perceive as non-supporters, and outright abuse of power.
If she were vice-president, would she call up librarians around the country and dictate to them? Would she invade our privacy like that? Try to equalize everyone by telling us what we can and cannot have in our libraries?
Finally, a quote. From Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451:
We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal... A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind.