A letter from a Palin neighbor

[Bob78164]

Here is a letter that purports to have been written by Anne Kilkenny, a long-time neighbor of Sarah Palin. Some of the statements are (or claim to be) factual -- others are clearly opinion. The author is frank that she does not like Palin and opposed her efforts to fire the town librarian.

Based solely on its tone and level of detail, I believe the letter to be genuine, but I can't vouch for either the authenticity of the letter or its accuracy. Does anyone know whether Snopes has weighed in on it? If it was not in fact written by Kilkenny, then I'll remove this post. --Bob

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Here is a letter that purports to have been written by Anne Kilkenny, a long-time neighbor of Sarah Palin. Some of the statements are (or claim to be) factual -- others are clearly opinion. The author is frank that she does not like Palin and opposed her efforts to fire the town librarian.

Based solely on its tone and level of detail, I believe the letter to be genuine, but I can't vouch for either the authenticity of the letter or its accuracy. Does anyone know whether Snopes has weighed in on it? If it was not in fact written by Kilkenny, then I'll remove this post. --Bob

When did you get the idea they were neighbors?

[SportsFan68]

The person I got it from yesterday believed it was genuine; at that time it had not hit Snopes, and it still hasn't.

What worries me is that even if the original version is real, which I'm guessing it is, that some people will take it upon themselves to edit for effect and forward the new version.

We'll see -- it'll probably hit Snopes in a day or two as true or false.

[MarleysGh0st]

Here is a letter that purports to have been written by Anne Kilkenny, a long-time neighbor of Sarah Palin. Some of the statements are (or claim to be) factual -- others are clearly opinion. The author is frank that she does not like Palin and opposed her efforts to fire the town librarian.

Based solely on its tone and level of detail, I believe the letter to be genuine, but I can't vouch for either the authenticity of the letter or its accuracy. Does anyone know whether Snopes has weighed in on it? If it was not in fact written by Kilkenny, then I'll remove this post. --Bob

Snopes has not weighed in.

The New York Times did quote Ms. Kilkenny in an article on Wednesday, in which the library censorship charge is repeated, but it does not address whether this letter is hers or not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/po ... silla.html

Then there seem to be a ton of blogs and other web pages referencing this letter, but I don't want to wade through all of those...

[Bob78164]

Here is a letter that purports to have been written by Anne Kilkenny, a long-time neighbor of Sarah Palin. Some of the statements are (or claim to be) factual -- others are clearly opinion. The author is frank that she does not like Palin and opposed her efforts to fire the town librarian.

Based solely on its tone and level of detail, I believe the letter to be genuine, but I can't vouch for either the authenticity of the letter or its accuracy. Does anyone know whether Snopes has weighed in on it? If it was not in fact written by Kilkenny, then I'll remove this post. --Bob

When did you get the idea they were neighbors?

Wasilla is a small town, and I couldn't think of a better word. The concept I'm trying to convey is that, if genuine, the author is in position to have the knowledge she claims. --Bob

[MarleysGh0st]

The person I got it from yesterday believed it was genuine; at that time it had not hit Snopes, and it still hasn't.

What worries me is that even if the original version is real, which I'm guessing it is, that some people will take it upon themselves to edit for effect and forward the new version.

We'll see -- it'll probably hit Snopes in a day or two as true or false.

Yes, that's the same issue of chain e-mail campaigning we were discussing yesterday. If this truly is her letter, it's easy enough to post them online somewhere--perhaps as a guest on some reasonably well-known blog--where the host of the site can verify its source. Once something starts getting passed around as e-mail, it's out of control.

BTW, I first saw this yesterday on Andrew Tobias's web page. He's treasurer of the DNC and he also believes it to be genuine.

[VAdame]

I saw it on Rebecca Walker's Blog "Seeds" yesterday -- no word on whether she was able to verify it.

[BackInTex]

What a truly pathetic thread.

[SportsFan68]

What a truly pathetic thread.

Thanks, BiT!!

Lovely to see you here in it!

[MarleysGh0st]

What a truly pathetic thread.

Excuse me, BiT, I understand that you might have some strong disagreements with the content of that letter, but what is it in this thread that's pathetic? Most of our discussion has been an attempt to ascertain whether the author of that letter is who she says she is or not.

Is that pathetic?





(Sorry, christie, I snuck out of the Lounge while you were refilling the pitcher of margaritas.)

[tlynn78]

lol - seriously.


t.

[silverscreenselect]

I received a similar absolutely genuine email from the foreign minister of Nigeria informing me of a fortune there that I might help him recover. I looked up his name on Wikipedia and he actually is the foreign minister of Nigeria.

I can't talk now; I've got to find my check book and put up the escrow funds he needs.

[silverscreenselect]

Here's a deconstruction of the email from an anti-Obama web site.

http://tinyurl.com/6havty

When I saw the name, it sounded familiar, and if you look at the Anchorage News article I posted yesterday about the library squabble, you will see that the article referenced Ann Kilkenny, saying:

When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.

Like many Alaskans, Kilkenny calls the governor by her first name.

"Sarah said to Mary Ellen, 'What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?" Kilkenny said.

"I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, 'The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books.'"

Palin didn't mention specific books at that meeting, Kilkenny said.

Palin herself, questioned at the time, called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion with a department head "about understanding and following administration agendas," according to the Frontiersman article.

Now if you will look at the "Kilkenny" email, the author makes a big point of mentioning "she" calls Palin by her first name, just as the ADN article did. Other things in the email have been mentioned in other Anchorage News articles about Palin.

Plus, if you look at the detail and the information about the email, it sure doesn't sound like it was written by an "average" housewife, but more like a political staffer. Moreover, it seems like a number of the "authentic" local details could have easily been gleaned with an hour or two of decent Internet research.

Even if the "real" Ann Kilkenny wrote this email, what would it prove? That one person in a town of 9000 didn't like the mayor. Anyone who has been around small town politics knows that any mayor generates some opposition and some of it very bitter and personal due to the small size of the town and the fact that these people see each other all the time.

My question of the New York Times is did they actually send a reporter to Alaska to do any sort of checking on what people there think about her? You don't get an 80% approval rating by offending everyone in sight.

[Bob Juch]

Here is a letter that purports to have been written by Anne Kilkenny, a long-time neighbor of Sarah Palin. Some of the statements are (or claim to be) factual -- others are clearly opinion. The author is frank that she does not like Palin and opposed her efforts to fire the town librarian.

Based solely on its tone and level of detail, I believe the letter to be genuine, but I can't vouch for either the authenticity of the letter or its accuracy. Does anyone know whether Snopes has weighed in on it? If it was not in fact written by Kilkenny, then I'll remove this post. --Bob

Snopes has not weighed in.

The New York Times did quote Ms. Kilkenny in an article on Wednesday, in which the library censorship charge is repeated, but it does not address whether this letter is hers or not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/po ... silla.html

Then there seem to be a ton of blogs and other web pages referencing this letter, but I don't want to wade through all of those...

It's been on Snopes since 11 AM EDT.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp

[silverscreenselect]

I hope that in the interest of fairness, that every email critical of Barack Obama from a "concerned citizen" gets an equal amount of press coverage.

[SportsFan68]

I hope that in the interest of fairness, that every email critical of Barack Obama from a "concerned citizen" gets an equal amount of press coverage.

And I hope that for the sake of fairness, everybody who said "Thanks but no thanks" to federal money actually turned it down.

Oops, too late.

[Bob78164]

Plus, if you look at the detail and the information about the email, it sure doesn't sound like it was written by an "average" housewife . . . .

You must not have a very good opinion of the average housewife's writing ability. --Bob

[tlynn78]

She is enormously popular;

In spite of all her shenanigans, backbiting, etc.??

She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

just laughable.

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

That BITCH

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.

Also known as getting a feel for what her constituency's priorities are?

People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

oooh, she has an enemies list?

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help.

And yet, remains "enormously popular" - hmmmm. How DOES she do it?

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

Off with their heads!

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.

"Princess Sarah" just doesn't have the same ring on the basketball court, now does it?

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

Slept with the coach? Broke the kneecaps of her rivals, perhaps?


I've seem some utterly ridiculous rot posted about this woman, but OMG, could this woman be more bitter or pathetic? And people actually give this credence? Unbelievable.

t.

[silverscreenselect]

Plus, if you look at the detail and the information about the email, it sure doesn't sound like it was written by an "average" housewife . . . .

You must not have a very good opinion of the average housewife's writing ability. --Bob

Again, assuming that Anne Kilkenny really wrote this, what does it prove?

That one person in a town of 9000 has a grudge against the former mayor.

It certainly gives her no specific expertise regarding the Palin, it doesn't make her opinion more valuable or valid than any of the other 8999 people who lived in Wasilla who didn't "write" an email, and it doesn't prove or disprove any of the "facts" in the email.

Politicians have enemies. Politicians who step on a lot of toes make a lot of enemies. Relatively speaking, Palin couldn't have made that many enemies and maintained an 80% approval rating.

http://www.haysresearch.com/oc072508.htm

In the same poll, Congressman Don Young, who is embroiled in some of Alaska's corruption scandals has a 41% approval rating.

In the previous Hayes poll, taken before the "Troopergate" scandal, Palin's approval rating was even higher at 86%, while Young's was at 37% and not-yet-indicted Senator Ted Stevens at 53%.

In 2006, after all the "problems" Palin had, she won a three-way gubernatorial primary 51-30-19 (with the 19 being the incumbent governor).

Again, tossing out the same handful of people who don't like her (mostly people she's beaten in various political offices), while ignoring the 80% who do like her produces a highly biased "story."

[Bob78164]

Again, assuming that Anne Kilkenny really wrote this, what does it prove?

Even without the confirmation from Snopes, it's gotten enough play that if she hadn't written it, she'd have denied it by now.

As I pointed out, although some of the statements are clearly untestable opinion, others are testable facts. To name a few: Did she leave Wasilla millions of dollars in debt? Did she pay surplus money to Alaska citizens while simultaneously causing Alaska to borrow money to meet infrastructure needs? In other words, are her economic policies any different from those of George W. Bush? --Bob

[tlynn78]

In other words, are her economic policies any different from those of George W. Bush

Who cares? She apparently slept her way to point guard.


t.

[Bob78164]

In other words, are her economic policies any different from those of George W. Bush?

Who cares? She apparently slept her way to point guard.

I dunno anything about that, but I'm fairly sure that she slept her way to motherhood. --Bob

[tlynn78]

I'm fairly sure that she slept her way to motherhood

Exactly! The ho!




t.

[DevilKitty100]

I'm fairly sure that she slept her way to motherhood

Exactly! The ho!




t.

The letter is now on Snopes. True.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp

Ho's.

[Beebs52]

It's amazing. It has just been proven that Ms. Kilkenny wrote a letter! Whoo hooo!

Bless her heart. She probably got voted down as PTA Vice President.