The story I put up here on Sept. 12 about Sarah Palin's effort to censor books in the Wasilla public library, and to fire the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, when she refused to cooperate, attracted this comment from "Joey Shabadoo", who has the IP address 71.39.189.186:
"I think you need to take a look at FactCheck.org's examinations of some of the accusations you are repeating regarding Palin."
Well, I did exactly that. Here's what it says there: "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."
Does this in any way contradict what I wrote? No, it doesn't. And the authors of the FactCheck.org story were disingenuous in writing that "the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term." They didn't mention that Palin tried to fire Ms. Emmons, and was unsuccessful.
This is from a story by Garance Burke published by the Associated Press on Sept. 12:
"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."
"Palin notified Emmons she would be fired in January 1997 because the mayor didn‘t feel she had the librarian’s 'full support.' Emmons was reinstated the next day after public outcry, according to newspaper reports at the time."
So, note that even the McCain campaign acknowledged that Palin discussed banning books with Ms. Emmons.
You've been outed as just another Republican liar, Joey Shabadoo, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Not just for lying, but for defending a candidate for federal office who would not likely honour her oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
