Les Jones

More Palin rumor-debunking: $20 million debt, book banning

Sunday, September 7th, 2008 | Misc |

“And if the first thing doesn’t stick / You’d better make up something quick.”
– Heart, “Barracuda”

Explorations is keeping a running tab of Sarah Palin allegations and rumors.

6. Yes, she did push for and approve the Wasilla Sports Center. Yes, it did cost a lot of money. (People keep saying $20 million, that article says $14.5 million, but then they also added a $1.2 million dollar food service/kitchen piece. This year, after Palin was out of office as Mayor.) Yes, the city went into debt to do it (how did you buy your house, bunkie?) and raised the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay for it. Yes, the city is paying it off early.

27. No, she wasn’t named as a co-respondent in a divorce; there’s no evidence she had an affair with her husbands’ business partner. The partner tried to have his divorce records sealed because he was being harrassed by journalists who used them to get his phone number.

40. yes, she did ask the librarian if some books could be withdrawn because of being offensive; no, they couldn’t; yes she did threaten to fire the librarian a month later; no, that wasn’t over the books thing but instead over administrative issues; no, the librarian wasn’t fired either; yes, the librarian was a big supporter of one of her political opponents; yes, the librarian was also the girlfriend of the Chief of police mentioned above; no, this is not the first time in the history of civilization that someone has been threatened with being fired over a political dispute

41. No the list of books she wanted to ban that’s being passed around isn’t real; among other things, it includes a number of books published after her time in office there.

Volokh.com has more on the bogus list of banned books. The Obama camp had promoted the banned book list, but has since deleted the post. Hat tip to Instapundit for the links.

As these bogus Palin stories get floated and shot down the legitimacy hurdle for new allegations keeps getting higher and higher.

UPDATE: Tgirsch, trying to fan the Palin flames, actually helps douse them. According to the Wall Street Journal article he links the rec center initiative was approved by a majority of voters in a referendum.

Previously:
- National Enquirer’s Palin affair bombshell is a wet dud
- Sarah Palin didn’t slash funding to teen moms

4 Comments to More Palin rumor-debunking: $20 million debt, book banning

Charlie (Colorado)
September 7, 2008

Thanks for the link. Just updated #6 btw.

Bunky
September 17, 2008

It’s, “And if the REAL thing don’t do the trick / You’d better make up something quick.”

David
October 21, 2008

who replaced Sarah’s former brother inlaw when he was fired? and was his replacement on “leave” for sexual harrassment?… just needing to discredit this silly rumor.

Leave a comment