Palin! Palin! Palin!
I know, you thought this place was dead, right? Well, thanks to my crack team of news junkies on LJ for making it hard for me to just go back to reading/being on SL ...
Lots of play on whether or not Sarah Palin was interested in engaging in book censorship and whether it ties to her attempt to fire Wasilla's now-former head librarian. (Thanks, Jessamyn!) There's more here from the Anchorage Daily News.
(3 times? She asked 3 times, including at a City Counsel meeting? Was this precipitated by more than 'complaints over inappropriate language' and did a cock crow after the 3rd question? And just what does "about understanding and following administration agendas" mean in this instance?)
I freely admit that, as a librarian, First Amendment geek, and former ACLU intern, information censorship is a huge button for me -- a red flag in front of a bull, as it were (only that turns out to be false ... nice going, eliminating a perfect analogy for wantonly provoking a dangerous response, Mythbusters!). So, let's take a step and look at something less intense but also informative as to the VP nominee's take on public educational institutions.
And according to these people, using the power of the line-item veto when approving the 2008 State Budget, Palin left in $500,000 (50% funding reduction) for a sports field, and removed some school funding -- approximately $500K. Actually, doing a quick search in the budget vetoes, a lot more than half a mil was taken from various school districts ... but focusing on just infrastructure maintenance and repair items, as well as the materials and tech items (books, laptops, wireless, etc.) ... the authors tote up about $500,000 in what a lot of people would consider mission-critical items for an educational institution in the 21st Century.
Doesn't answer any questions, but boy, wouldn't it be nice if someone could do some digging and ask some really in-depth, pointed questions along these lines? No, don't look at me, I'm busy learning about how to invalidate wills this semester ...