The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

The Rogue

The router at my remote office appears to have a cold, poor thing, which means only my phone and not my laptop can connect to the Intertubes right now. So after finishing this post (in Notepad), I'll go back to reading Joe McGinniss's The Rogue.

Now, I never thought Sarah Palin qualified for any office, let alone U.S. vice president, but even I'm stunned. So, I imagine, is John McCain, who has made unexpectedly reasoned and clear statements that make me think he was abducted by aliens from 2007 to 2009.

Confining myself only to the bits about her incompetence, and skipping all her other objectionable qualities (religious extremism, pettiness, meanness, and general display of narcissistic personality disorder), here's an excerpt from pages 129-130:

In April [2002] the city council had to approve a $14.7 million bond issue to pay for [the new sports complex]. Unfortunately, in her eagerness, Sarah [Palin] authorized construction of the facility on land the city did not own. ...

Her handpicked city attorney, Ken Jacobus, adviced the council to approve construction despite an ongoing court fight over title to the land. ... A parcel of land Wasilla could have bought for $125,000 eventually cost the city more than $1.5 million in judgments and legal fees. ...

Sarah took a city that had no debt and $4 million in cash reserves and in six years turned it into one that had piled up almost $20 million in long-term debt. During her tenure, the cost of debt service increased by 69 percent. She increased the sales tax from 2 to 2.5 percent to pay for the sports arena. While Wasilla's population grew by 37 percent during her tenure, total government expenditures rose by 63 percent, spending on salaries for city employees by 67 percent, money spent on office furniture and equipment by 117 percent, and administration spending on outside professional services by 932 percent.

I can't wait for the movie...

Comments are closed