Picture of the Day: July 28, 2009

Bristol and Tripp attend goodbye picnic

Quote of the Day: July 28, 2009

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

- William Shakespeare, Henry V

Pity a Poor Barbarian

A step of faith

I must admit, yesterday I relived portions of July 3rd. That good ole' knot had found its way back into the pit of my stomach.

Here was my frame of mind yesterday:
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Sarah, take a moment to pity a poor barbarian. I'm with ya girl, but you're giving me butterflies.

Sarah's about to take a huge leap off a 300 thousand foot cliff with a whole herd of ordinary Americans strapped to her back who don't know if they're gonna make it, but they know they're goin' with her. For us, she's the only game in town. Sink or swim, we're in this for keeps.

Simply put, no one else is worth supporting. I'm with Dennis Miller.

When Palin was first picked, Miller said, "I like this pick, I think it's going to result in a victory. If it doesn't, I'm willing to go down swinging with a dame like that."

Me too, Miller. Me too.

I've never been one for rollercoasters, but I'm on one now. I feel like that moment in Indiana Jones where he has to step out into the chasm and can't see the bridge. Only Sarah doesn't tentatively step; she runs like a bullet train and jumps for all she's worth. And yep, we're right behind her. I can't see the bridge, maybe there isn't one, but here we go!

Doesn't mean I'm not going to squeeze my eyes shut and hold my breath for the first few minutes, but I'm still jumpin'. Hold on tight gang. When it comes to Sarah, the regular rules don't apply. I have no idea what's in store, but I know this: we're in for one unforgettable ride.

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Anyway, that was my mindset yesterday. Today, the butterflies have flown away, and a new attitude has taken firm hold.

The look back I posted below was going to be much longer. I had a whole post ready for Sarah and Sean's history too, but I then realized that there's no time. We don't have the luxury of living in the past. Our country is at stake.

Sarah Palin served Alaskans for just two and a half years. I believe those years were her boot camp, her training ground for the battle that was coming up over the horizon. And boy did her training ramp up this last year.

There's a battle to be fought, a general who needs to lead the charge, and now is no time to dwell on the past. The Governorship of Alaska was not an end in and of itself; it was her preparation. A time to hone her skills and a time to be tested.

Would it have been nice to have a few extra weeks of boot camp, just to be sure you're ready? Perhaps. But when the enemy is pressing in upon you at such a rate that to wait any longer would be to surely lose, you don't have that luxury.

So, boot camp has been survived; graduation day is here. The troops are ready now. But they won't be going back to safe bunkers tonight. No, now they go to war. Prepared, heartened, and committed, they see with a laser focus the duty that must be done.

Freedom must be spared. Somewhere on this planet there must remain a piece of land where men can be free to live as they were meant to. Free to worship and speak and think and work according to the dictates of their own conscience, so long as their freedom does not infringe on another's.

The spirit of liberty that found a home in 1776 is looking for a home again now. It's been kicked out of Washington D.C. and is on the march. All of a sudden I hear a distant fife and drum, and my foot begins to tap.

There will come a day when the forces of evil snuff out liberty until God Himself brings it back, never to be lost again. There will come a time when the good will grow weary of fighting and will slip into a slumber from which they will not wake until the very angels must trumpet them back to their feet. Make no mistake; evil will have its day.

Today is not that day.

Today we fight. And if we fail, surely others will take up our cause, build upon our blood (figuratively speaking) and march on.

Thanks for the Memories

A brief look back....

Alaska didn't know what it was in for when a former mayor and hockey mom from Wasilla decided to run for Governor.

Despite being an outcast of the party establishment, she defeated the incumbent governor in the Republican primaries.
And moved on to the general election.
She ran a hard-fought and underdog campaign.

And in the end, it paid off.

The new Gov's first order of business - Get rid of that jet!

Next up, let's get that pipeline! She led the way with AGIA and ACES.

She embraced her role as workin' mama.
She stayed in touch with her constituents.



And she went fishing now and then.

She showed continuous love and support for the Alaska National Guard.


And in April, 2008, the Palins welcomed a new little one into the world


When she got tapped to run for VP, her hometown cheered her on.

And after the campaign, her staff welcomed her back to her office...

And the workin' Mama kept on truckin'!

The state finally awarded the AGIA license to TransCanada.

The Gov stood toe to toe with some new critics...

And took the time to lend a helping hand.

On July 26, 2009, after nine months watching state resources go down the drain because of personal political attacks, Sarah handed the reins over to Sean Parnell.

All in all, it's been a good journey.

And maybe a Palin will sit behind the Governor's desk again someday...

Ya never know!

Sarah Puts Down the Baby and Passes the Ball

"Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me - sports. Basketball. I use it because you're naive if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now." - from Governor Palin's resignation announcement.

I want to post a few things, although I'll probably only get through one today. First, an explanation and a some analogies of Sarah Palin's decision to take this step. Second, a tribute to the door that's being closed. Third, a look to the door that's being opened.

1. THE DECISION.

A "full court press" was coming down on Sarah Palin, I believe, from higher up the food chain. Her continuous references to "The Thumpin'" and her knowledge of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" shows that she too believes it was coming from higher up.

After the election she went back to be the Governor of Alaska and at the same time expected to be able to exercise her right to free speech to weigh in on the issues now and then. When she got home, the legislature had turned on her and the local press was arguably worse than the national press. The entire game had changed. But she's tough; she could deal with that.

Then, she did an interview in her office with Greta van Susteren, and she got slapped with an ethics complaint. It was dismissed, but she shelled out a few thousand dollars to defend herself. Ethics complaints soon started coming out of the woodwork.

Every time she opened her mouth or tried to go somewhere she risked paying tens of thousands of dollars for the ethics complaints that were surely coming.

It was about getting her to not do anything on the national stage that could be a threat to Obama and it was an attempt to break her financially. Within the system, there was nothing she could do about it. Like she said, there's no penalty or cost for them to waste time and money. They're going to just keep on doing it.

She was getting the business of Alaska done the best she could, but much of her time and her staff's time was taken up with frivolous lawsuits and FOIA requests.

And by the way, the FOIA requests weren't all for a day or a specific communique between two individuals, some of them were for all emails sent for a period of months. That's alot of emails. Not to mention you probably have to have them all read and reviewed to make sure nothing in there is confidential.

They had her cornered and her staff was feeling the wear and tear probably more than she was. And every time she wanted to travel, she practically had to crawl on her hands and knees for permission, and then she got slapped with ethics complaints for traveling anyway.

Before she did or said anything she had to consider her pocketbook first: "I could go here and do this, but it will probably cost me $20,000." She's not rich. She's middle class with five kids and one grandkid. There's alot of expenses there.

Personally, the expenses didn't matter so much though. Through the legal defense fund and other avenues (like her book) she could have dealt with the debt. But it was ridiculous that the state should have to suffer for really what boiled down to people having a problem with her. There was an agenda against her from a foe that she could not fight from behind the Governor's desk, and the people of Alaska were getting hurt in the process.

Not to mention Governor Palin's obvious desire to see somebody take up the mantle of defending what Obama is destroying was being frustrated since nobody seemed willing to do it. So, she finally decided that she was just going to have to do it herself.

Governor Palin did not promise to serve any certain amount of time. She promised to serve. When it became impossible for her to do so, she "passed the ball" to Parnell because she was rendered ineffective by forces she could not fight from where she was at the time. She can serve better now in another capacity.

2. TWO ANALOGIES: THE POINT GUARD AND THE MAMA GRIZZLY

One analogy to explain Sarah's decision is that of a Mama Grizzly. In her Inauguration speech, Palin said that she would look out for the state like a Mama Grizzly protecting her young.

Think of it like this: She's holding and taking care of a baby called "Alaska," and some thug comes up and starts picking on her. The thug doesn't care about the baby, he wants to mess with her. The attacks get more and more fierce, but she can't fight back because she's holding the baby, and the baby is in danger of getting hurt.

What's the best course of action? Keep holding onto and shielding the baby as best she can, knowing that inevitably the attacks will get her and harm the child in the process? Or should she hand the baby to someone else who is equally as concerned for the child's welfare, pick up a brick instead, and bean the thug on the side of his head? I'd vote for the latter.

She had to put down the baby before she could pick up the sword. She is now taking the fight to its source.

The analogy that Sarah herself used is that of a Point Guard.

Imagine Palin on the court with the ball and every member of the opposing team surrounding her trying to get the ball away from her. She can still hold on to the ball because she's good at this game, but there's no way she can make any forward progress down the court.

Meanwhile, she's got a teammate named Sean Parnell who's standing under the basket wide open. Which would you rather she do: Hold on to the ball to the bitter end, even if it means missing the shot and Alaska losing the game? Or would you rather she pass the ball to someone else who has a clear shot? In an interview on July 17th, Palin said this:

"I love Alaska too much to scratch and claw my way to hold onto the title of governor when I know it is best to continue to make progress with the same Cabinet members and the same agenda, but under the leadership of (Lt. Gov.) Sean Parnell."

Now, you can agree or disagree that she could have still gotten stuff done, but we can't see behind the closed doors of the daily business of governing to know how her staff and those around her were or weren't coping with the ridiculous FOIA requests and extra stupid work they had to do in addition to trying to get work done for the state.

She loves Alaska. She wouldn't have done this if she didn't think it was the right thing to do for the state and for America. After her announcement, she said this in her Facebook letter:

"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country."

Sarah Palin is thinking about the team, not herself. She has also stated that she believes every politician to be replaceable. So much for the narcissistic Palin many in the media would like us to buy into. The point isn't that Sarah Palin makes the shot, but that the shot gets made. She puts the mission over her own personal gain. She concludes her basketball analogy:

"A good point guard drives through a full-court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket...and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win. And I'm doing that - keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities - smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory."

Here Sean!

Catch!

Larry Kudlow, July 4th, 2009:

Picture of the Day: July 26, 2009

Simply adorable