this is an amazing read!

Ben Smith at Politico.com brings us this diatribe against Palin:

I have seen a number of disturbing reports about the VP pick of the republican party but this is so thorough, thoughtful and complete that it is really just staggering. Here's ben describing his vetting of the letter:

've received some 50 copies of a long e-mail from a woman named Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, and it may be the most potent attack on Sarah Palin out there, bouncing around the Internet at the viral speed of an Obama-Muslim rumor.

The Anchorage Daily News confirms its authenticity and describes her as a "stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer and longtime watcher of [Mat-Su] Valley politics" who has been deluged with e-mail as she become's Palin's leading local critic.

She says she clashed with Palin over her 1996 "attempt at censorship," a reported suggested to ban books at a local library, which Palin later said wasn't a serious proposal.

The letter mostly contains undisputed facts, and while it's occasionally positive — "she's smart" — it offers a bit of an alternate, and mostly hostile, history to the campaign biography.

The letter itself is truly a masterwork. It is very detailed and seen from a total insiders view. Palin has always made me think that she had some fishy ideas about managing people and institutions but this puts a lot of truth to the "feelings" To wit:

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved!

There's more! Oh yes, there is so much more.... Read it here...