Bill589, a commentor here who disappeared for awhile, reemerged December 20th and left me this message:
Hi Uffda. I’ve been away because I’m sick. Actually I’ve been sick for 15 years or so, and sort of had an ‘awakening’ over the last year. The prognosis isn’t good, but I’ll probably be alive for a while - just comatose on and off.
I’m not complaining: I’ve been a local celebrity twice in my life. First for being an expert motocross racer (589 is my racing number), and then for playing lead guitar in a locally popular rock band. Most people don’t get to be a celebrity even once.
I’m mostly grateful for a wife, who married me right before I got sick, and stayed with me even though. And I still have hope of being cured. And I still have (a little) hope that my two children will know freedom, and if they work hard, they will be able to keep what they earn, etc. - all that ‘American’ stuff I always took for granted.
Anyway, I’m involved in a local tea party group, and am ready to promote anyone Sarah endorses around here for 2010. And then Sarah in 2012. Keep up the good fight. I will.
Well, I dropped his comment off in a C4P thread and caused a minor stir because a couple people thought I was talking about myself until I clarified:)
Well, he just dropped by again, this time with some great news:
Merry Christmas
Uffda, my wife was going to respond to you, in my stead, because I’ve been having a hard time waking up, but things have just changed:
It’s a miracle. It’s as if somebody is praying for me or something. I was showing my wife how I can’t read or write comments on the C4P site. The ‘js-kit’ site still shows errors, the C4P site still says errors, but I clicked on ‘comments’ anyway . . . and they were there! It worked! It doesn’t make sense, but God works in mysterious ways, and I’m not going to argue with him.
I am so grateful for you and others’ kind words and prayers. You’ve made me very happy and help me have hope. And maybe this C4P thing is a sign that I’m being cured. God bless you, and keep up the good fight.
That is so awesome! Merry Christmas!
I posted this update on a couple C4P threads. Hope the comment sections continue to work for you, if not, seriously, it's no problem for me to get you links to the comment feeds. Just let me know. I am yours for the commanding:)
God bless you.
P.S. I don't know what kind of bike you used to ride. Sorry if I posted a pic of one you don't like:)
This article is a couple days old, but I thought it was appropriate. It's an open letter to Sarah found at Hillbuzz. Excerpts: -----------------
Grace, our Coffee Club’s Vice President, suggested I write you today to let you know that in addition to the usual Hillary Clinton Christmas ornaments we’ve been making, and the standard red-white-and-blue ones that are just generally pro-American, we’ve also taken to making Sarah Palin ornaments for people’s trees. There’re nothing too fancy, because I am the only one with any artistic talent of any merit in all of Mineral City, but we’ve got a lot of glitter and decoupaging glue and bulbs in all sizes....
Since you ran for Vice President last year, a really funny thing has happened here in Mineral City. The Ladies Guild, which is Republican women, who previously never got along with us (mainly because they hated Hillary Clinton and I was convinced many of them were vampires), started doing different activities with us as we helped try to get you elected. We’ve all found that the lot of us have more in common with each other than the crazy people who are now currently running the government from the far left.
Every day, someone from the Ladies Guild will say, “I can’t believe I’m having coffee with the Mineral City Coffee Club here in Hillaryland like this”, and I think, “I can’t believe these women are walking around in broad daylight without bursting into flames.” I even serve those cinnamon rolls with the little icing crosses on top and they eat them with no troubles at all (instead of having their mouths catch fire, which is what I would have thought would have happened just two years ago).
So, these appear to be very strange times indeed. People who never agreed on anything are agreeing with one another, because we’re looking passed our differences and accusations of vampirism to the fact that we all love this country and don’t want to see it go backwards or descend into socialism. We do not believe the current occupants of the White House are good people and we do not feel they love this country. The current president had a very clear agenda upon coming to Washington, and it was not the “Hope”, “Change”, and unicorns he promised the gullible in his campaign. We believe, and everyone in Mineral City agrees with us, that the Democrats in power now want to tank our economy, take over whatever remains at the end of the day, and deprive all of us of our freedoms....
You’re doing a fantastic job raising such wonderful kids. You work so hard to fight corruption in government and put the bad guys in their place. Our Coffee Club Secretary, Helen, is an EXPERT on the Internets and always lets us all know when you’ve made another of your Facebook posts. Oh, she prints those out and we all gather around together, really close, and Helen will read them aloud and we get so fired up. We practically want to get up and go door to door and read them to everyone in town — they are that good. I could probably write some that were better, if I tried, but that’s not a knock against you, it’s just the reality that I’m older than you and have been doing this longer and am an excellent writer, perhaps the best in all of Mineral City.
You’re pretty good too, though, and we all loved your book (except Ann Millar, of course, who insisted on reading Dreams William Ayers Told My Father Whoever He Was, or whatever that book by the current president is called, instead of participating in the Going Rogue book club we held when your book came out).
This year, my holiday wish is that you become even more of a force on the national scene next year....
If you run for President in 2012, you can count on The Mineral City Coffee Club and the Ladies Guild joining forces to campaign for you. I’ll turn my kitchen into a little campaign office, humming with activity. My son Robby loves you, and all his friends up in Chicago will work hard for you too up there. We’ll all head into Iowa on the ground for you, and will go to as many states as we can in person to canvass. We’ll phone bank like crazy for you, too, you betcha!
Just two years ago, at Christmas, we were on the ground for Hillary Clinton in Iowa, so we saw every nasty thing the current president and his surrogates did on his behalf. I wanted to write in and let you know not only what support you have, but what you will be up against. These people hate America, will stop at nothing to circumvent every rule and law we have, and will do anything imaginable to win.
The only person any of us think can stop him is you, Governor Palin.
You are our only hope.
As we make our little ornaments for our trees, and paste your face to the bulbs, adding little “Palin 2012s” to them in glitter and decorating them with moose stickers our Treasurer Annabelle found at JoAnn’s Fabrics, we mist up a little thinking about how much we want to see you in the Oval Office, and little Trig playing in his snowsuit on the White House lawn with big sister Piper starting in 2013.
We have no idea what you wish for, or what you are planning, but that’s our wish for you…and our wish for our country.
I have to let you go now, as these Christmas stockings are not going to stuff themselves, and that big CRASH! I just heard from the pantry means Earl’s gotten into Heaven knows how many cookies, so I better get back to it while I still have any cookies left at all.
But, Merry Christmas to you, Governor. Merry Christmas to all the Palins, and the Heaths, and everyone in Alaska. You will be well-represented in all the homes of Mineral City on our Christmas trees this year…and just so you know, we’re making plenty of ornaments to set aside for all the people of Iowa, should you make your run and we find ourselves going door to door in the Hawkeye State round about Christmas 2011, just like we did for Hillary.
Thank you for your service to this country, in the past, present, and FUTURE!
Patricia Melton
President-for-Life of The Mineral City Coffee Club
In case you missed it, Sarah Palin's stylist for the convention was on Joy Behar (I know, but it's actually a fairly good interview). And she debunks at least one of Levi's claims:
And I ran across a story of a woman who met Palin at the Mall of America signing here. It's sweet and tear-jerky:
I shook Sarah's hand as I got to her and asked if she would sign my shirt. She did! She signed my book and I handed her a precious feet pin and told her it was in memory of Tad (her baby lost to miscarriage). She got teary eyed and said, "That is just so precious! Thank you! God bless you! Todd, isn't that precious?" He nodded.
I told her that I loved her and she said she loved me too. I shook Todd's hand and told him it was so nice to meet him....I was interviewed by Star Tribune and someone else videotaped me yapping about Sarah Palin. Many folks took pictures of my signed shirt. I guess she is not supposed to do that. I submit that she can pretty much do whatever she wants. Her book. Her gig. Her people.
I thought that was so sweet. I know a lady who's got three kids and has also had three miscarriages. She always says that she's got six kids and that she's looking forward to meeting the three that have gone on ahead of her someday.
From "Going Rogue":
The doctor said coldly, "There's nothing alive in there."
Her bluntness shocked me. I felt sick and hollow, and burst into tears.
"You have a couple of choices about getting rid of it," she said.
"It." That's what she called our baby, whom we'd been calling Tad for three months.
She went on to explain that I could go home and let "it" pass naturally. Or I could have a D&C.
I wasn't listening. I was praying. Why, God? Why?
I was stunned and I felt so very empty.
It was my first taste of close personal tragedy, the kind that rocks a relatively untested faith....Mom came over to watch Track. A friend stopped by. But I just lay on my bed feeling like the world had stopped spinning....
A miscarriage is often dismissed as something a woman needs to shake off quickly, but it's impossible to explain the devastation and loss unless you've experienced it....
My heart ached for this baby more than for anything else. The miscarriage carved a new depth in my heart. I became a little less Pollyanna-ish, a little less naive about being invincible and in control. And I became a lot more attuned to other people's pain.
She later mentioned briefly that she had another miscarriage between Willow and Piper.
I guess you could call this a tribute.
Beautiful poem and heart-rending stories below it here.
Here's the last pic of Palin in Hawaii that I could find, for now anyway. I see that the Globe gossip rag has a story on how the trip saved the Palin's marraige. LOL! Just tabloid trash. Like how the Obama's are constantly on the verge of divorce, and then not, etc....
The Cypress Times has an awesome article on Palin's "Midnight" op-ed here.
Have you all seen the vids of Tammy Bruce at the Tucson Tea Party? I'd heard her 4th of July podcast, of course. That podcast is why I'm a Tam, but I never saw the vids until I ran across them last night. They're really good. She talks about Sarah half the time. The end of the first vid goes crazy about twenty seconds before the end, but it's awesome anyway. They're all good:
By now you've probably heard that Palin had a book signing in her hometown of Wasilla recently, and that two guys were told they couldn't be there. The event was paid for, private, and the organizers had the right to keep out or let in whomever they chose.
The two guys shown the door were Jesse Griffin and Dennis Zaki. Zaki ran a website called Alaska Report until recently, and Griffin is a blogger. Not just a blogger, but the blogger who has spewed the most vile things about Sarah Palin, including (but not limited to) perpetuating the movement that Trig is not Palin's son, that Todd and Sarah hate each other, and that Levi is the greatest thing to ever walk the face of the earth.
Where does Zaki come in? Well, Zaki was "Gryphen"'s enabler. He linked Griffin's blog on his website and ran his headlines, including the infamous one that Todd and Sarah were on the brink of divorce (which Griffin emphatically proclaimed was not a rumor, but fact.) The divorce debacle lead the Palins to think about legal action, since Griffin didn't even attempt to cover his butt by saying it was a rumor, but in the end they decided it wasn't worth the trouble.
The Palin's attorney sent a letter to Zaki and to Griffin telling them that the story was blatantly false and to correct it immediately. Both refused.
The letter was sent confidentially. Nobody in the Palin camp publicly tried to "out" Griffin, but in an attempt to make the Palins look like the bad guys (when all they were doing was defending themselves against a blatant lie which would make its way into the mainstream media through Zaki's website), Zaki posted the letter sent to Griffin online.
He blacked out Griffin's name and address, but to make the Palins look like bullies, he left in the part that gave away Griffin's occupation. Zaki admitted that he had gotten several of these letters from the Palin's attorney, but nothing had ever happened. Apparently, they were formalities, but to make the Palins look bad, he posted this one. In so doing, he outed Griffin's identity.
Then, of course, the left-wing blogs whined and cried about how the Palins had exposed Griffin, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Zaki has since moved on to other pursuits as a freelance videographer. Gryphen continues his Trig Trutherism and other Palin bile on a daily basis.
Linked to Gryphen are other blogs like Palingates, the blog whose ridiculous story on "Busgate" (the idea that Palin *GASP!* took a plane between some book tour stops instead of her bus) found its way to CBS without any help from the Palins whatsoever.
This episode debunks the idea that the Palins bring it on themselves by responding to these ridiculous accusations. "Busgate" is proof positive that the media will run with these rumors eventually whether the Palins say anything about it or not. Palingates is now attempting to prove that Track is not Todd Palin's son, but is the product of an affair between Sarah and Curtis Menard. That Tad (Palin's first miscarriage) was Curtis' child as well, and that perhaps it was not a "miscarriage" after all. I suppose next they'll be saying that Sarah sabotaged Curtis' plane, or that she was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
So, when Gryphen announced that he was going to see Sarah at the Wasilla book signing on his blog, I was concerned about Sarah's security. Now, I don't think he actually would have done anything, but the tomato-throwing incident I think gave the Palins some pause. They're being more careful now.
Not to mention the simple human factor of it all. Palin is not a politician. She owes nothing to anyone. She is a private citizen. If she doesn't want to shake your hand, guess what?
Take the political element out of this. Put yourself in Sarah's shoes. Here are people that on a daily basis stoop so low as to question your very motherhood. Forget the political aspect, as a mother, it would be everything in my power not to unleash unholy fury on these punks.
A disclaimer - Griffen and the like have every right to pop off about whatever tickles their fancy, and the Palins have never tried to shut down their blogs or anything of the sort. All of their reactions have been defensive in nature, responding to the lies and insinuations.
Gryphen isn't the problem. Palingates isn't the problem. These people can sit around in their little deranged pits and say whatever on earth they want. The problem is that the mainstream media desperately wants their accusations to be true. And in so doing, the mainstream media becomes irrelevant.
Mark my words, this will be the media's downfall. They will lose their legitimacy, and in so doing, lose their influence. And if Sarah wins the Presidency in spite of the media, she won't need the media to maintain her Presidency. Unlike Obama who is a media prop, Sarah will be truly independent. They won't be able to touch her.
Notice the media's coverage of this. They won't mention the details I've outlined here. They'll link Griffin's blog instead. Like Sarah said in her book, it's not so much what the media says, it's what they don't say. "The sin of ommission is glaring."
I can't help but think the reason these people are so ticked off is because there's nothing they can do about it. As a private citizen, Sarah is beyond their reach. They were destroying her with the system before, using her own integrity against her. They can't do that now. She has taken herself out of their gameplan, and they've never been more angry or more desperate.
One more point - Sarah Palin has standards. Unlike Obama who will kiss the shoes of our enemies and have pictures of Mao on the White House Christmas tree, Sarah refuses to shake Oliver Stone's hand and calls John Kerry an elitist loon. She draws a line at the refuse pit, and I like that. Reaganesque, that is.
Now Palingates and Celtic Diva are screaming about a lady who went to the book signing in a "Sarah Palin - LIAR!" shirt and was looked down on by the folks attending there. What did they expect? Palin fans to give her a big ole' hug? Tit for tat, Palingates. You insult us, we'll insult you.
It's the same attitude they use with Levi. They act like the Palins should give him a big bear hug every time they see him. People with integrity don't take kindly to treacherous and lowlife behavior, and they're not going to say it's okay. Nobody ripped the shirt off of that lady, and nobody's going to hurt Levi. That's called "tolerance." We might scream and holler, but that's our freedom of speech.
And here's what I don't understand about the whole protesting thing: yes, you have a right to protest, but you should also have a shred of common decency. I don't agree with Obama's policies, at all. But I would never go disrupt one of his rallies. That's his rally; that's his turf. If his supporters want to go there and fawn over him, whatever. I'm not going to get in their faces about it.
Liberals don't operate that way though. They are provacative. If you don't agree with Palin, why on earth go to a book signing? Yes, you have the right to, but that doesn't mean it's good sense. It's just ignorant to disrupt other people's good time.
The strategy is one of liberal agitation and victimhood. They provoke in order to get a response which they then scream is persecution or someone's attempt to take away their free speech.
It's like the terrorists lobbing rockets into Israel and then crying because Israel hits back. And the media is sympathetic to the terrorists, which is why the terrorists use that strategy. It's good for propaganda purposes.
I swear, it's like the annoying kid in your school that had every right to hover his finger an inch away from your face because "he wasn't touching you," but it took everything in your power not to punch him right in the face.
Just because you have the right, doesn't mean you should. And if you do, don't be surprised by retaliation.
Watch this vid. A group of protestors during the campaign try to block Palin's bus. They run out into the streets, and when the police try to counter them, they scream "Police brutality! The whole world's watching!"
Just because the mainstream media isn't talking about it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Countless articles screaming that Sarah Palin has no substance don't make her Facebook posts that reach over a million people disappear. Here's the latest from the LOTUS: -------------
Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C.
No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs on the backs of patients – also known as rationing. Apparently Reid and friends have changed the rules of the Senate so that the section of the bill dealing with this board can’t be repealed or amended without a 2/3 supermajority vote. Senator DeMint said:
“This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law. I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates. I mean, we want to bind future congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future congresses.”
In other words, Democrats are protecting this rationing “death panel” from future change with a procedural hurdle. You have to ask why they’re so concerned about protecting this particular provision. Could it be because bureaucratic rationing is one important way Democrats want to “bend the cost curve” and keep health care spending down?
The Congressional Budget Office seems to think that such rationing has something to do with cost. In a letter to Harry Reidlast week, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted (with a number of caveats) that the bill’s calculations call for a reduction in Medicare’s spending rate by about 2 percent in the next two decades, but then he writes the kicker:
“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”
Though Nancy Pelosi and friends have tried to call “death panels” the “lie of the year,” this type of rationing – what the CBO calls “reduc[ed] access to care” and “diminish[ed] quality of care” – is precisely what I meant when I used that metaphor.
This health care bill is one of the most far-reaching and expensive expansions of the role of government into our lives. We’re talking about putting one-seventh of our economy under the government’s thumb. We’re also talking about something as intimate to our personal well-being as medical care.
This bill is so unpopular that people on the right and the left hate it. So why go through with it? The Senate is planning to vote on this on Christmas Eve. Why the rush? Though we will begin paying for this bill immediately, we will see no benefits for years. (That’s the trick that allowed the CBO to state that the bill won’t grow the deficit for the next ten years.)
The administration’s promises of transparency and bipartisanship have been broken one by one. This entire process has been defined by midnight votes on weekends, closed-door meetings with industry lobbyists, and payoffs to politicians willing to sell their principles for sweetheart deals. Is it any wonder that Americans are so disillusioned with their leaders in Washington?
This is about politics, not health care. Americans don’t want this bill. Americans don’t like this bill. Washington has stopped listening to us. But we’re paying attention, and 2010 is coming.
About a 1,000 people showed up. Article in the ADN: ----------
Sarah Palin was treated like homecoming queen when she brought her national book tour to Wasilla on Tuesday....Many people talked about "Sarah" like she's a member of the family.
"It's her hometown and remember, everybody is her friend, everybody is her parents' friend and we're all friends of the family," said Lyn Carden, executive director of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce.
Many of the people waiting in lines on the sports center's indoor turf floor said they live in the Valley. Several said they knew Palin or her family personally.
Elsie O'Bryan, a former Houston city councilor, served in local politics with her.
Angelina Klapperich -- 15, and a beauty pageant contestant -- attends Colony High School with one of Palin's daughters.
It's a wonder retired teacher Nancy Taylor had to wait in line at all, given her connections. Palin babysat Taylor's kids as a teenager. Taylor taught in the Mat-Su School District with Palin's father, Chuck Heath. . And it was Taylor's niece who beat out Palin for the Miss Alaska crown in 1984.
At the time, Palin jokingly said something like, " 'Shucks ... almost,' " Taylor remembered. "I was so impressed with her attitude. She could have been so negative."
-----------
Oh, and Griffin got his butt kicked out! I love it! He seems to be taking it in stride, along with his usual cheap shots.
So, yeah. If you click on Palin vids or articles about the Wasilla book-signing and see junk about Palin banning people from the event and suing her for banning people, they most likely are Underworlders. The truth of the matter is that it was a private event - they could keep out anybody on earth they wanted to. From the ADN article:
Not every attendee was welcome. Dennis Zaki, an Anchorage photographer and videographer who until recently ran the Web site Alaska Report, checked in at the media table and was told by Wasilla Recreation and Cultural Services Manager James Hastings that he wasn't welcome. Also turned away was blogger Jesse Griffin.
"He said because this is a paid event, they can ban anybody they want," Zaki said. "We didn't fight it, we just walked out and laughed all the way home."
Zaki said he was told that he and Alaska blogger/commentator Shannyn Moore were on the list, with photos to identify them. Moore said she didn't go.
Hastings said Zaki was right -- the signing was a private event paid for by Palin's publisher, Harper Collins, and that Zaki, Griffin, Moore and at least one other person whom Hastings did not name, were not invited.
Good. I didn't want that scum Griffin or Zaki anywhere near Sarah.
I was reading one media outlet's version of events - "There is no language in the bill setting up death panels..."
I swear, it's like beating your head against a brick wall. That's like if they came out after Churchill's Iron Curtain comments and said, "That's just ridiculous. There is no thousand mile curtain made of iron blocking off the Soviets from the rest of the world. What a liar!"
Grrrrrrrrrrrr.....I mean she put it quotation marks, for Pete's sake....(mumble, grumble).
How do you even respond to such ignorance? Can these people not think beyond the end of their noses? I can't even address it anymore. To borrow a Glenn Beck phrase, blood shoots out of my eyes. So I'll let Levin and Rush do the talking for me. These clips are flashbacks from when this issue was still hot:
And while we're on the subject of lies, how about the idea that this health care bill will reduce the deficit? How about any number of times that the actual President of the United States has lied right through his teleprompter-teeth?
The public option as such isn't in the current version of the bill anymore, but the system they've got set up to replace it is arguably worse. Oh, well. Let's ignore that and bash Sarah Palin, shall we?
How about a few gaffes to leave us all on a happy, fun note:
Got some good pieces for you today. Topics include Palin media bias, the death panel controversy, and a very insightful article on the Canadian fundraiser conniption fit and the Canadian health system in general (and where our health system is headed). Let's start out with this article in Big Hollywood: ---------
The entertainment media’s treatment of Sarah Palin and her family has been abhorrent....
Since the end of the 2008 campaign, some of the most glaring examples of the entertainment media’s obsession with anti-Palin coverage have centered on Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol Palin’s baby. Levi, a guy who would be better suited to appear on Tool Academy than he would on any legitimate hard or entertainment news program, has been reaping the benefits from his connection to Palin. In addition to his highly-publicized Playgirl shoot, Levi has been circulating entertainment shows in an attempt to pass off his melba-esque persona as something less than bland.....
This begs the question: Since when is Sarah Palin “Hollywood?” One could argue that it all started with Kathy Griffin’s antics. In what commenced as yet another plea for attention, Griffin brought Levi to The 2009 Teen Choice Awards. Clearly, this was little more than a publicity stunt for Griffin, who would likely sell her left kidney if it yielded a decent photo-op. However, in the grander scheme, this was a clear statement to young people: Go ahead and laugh at Sarah Palin. Hollywood’s doing it, so you should too!....
“Dressed in a pinstripe suit and pink striped tie, the Alaskan teen and father of Sarah Palin’s grandson Tripp arrived hand-in-hand with Griffin, planted a kiss on her cheek for the cameras and did some solo posing as well.”
Gag me.
Anyway, let’s move back to 2009 champion of idiocy: The Insider. This fall, the show decided to reunite Levi and Griffin. During what host Lara Spencer probably mistook as a very riveting and thought-provoking interview, she asked Levi fair-minded questions in the vein of, “Is Sarah Palin really Trig’s mother?” and “Why do you think Sarah Palin is afraid of you?” Following the liberally-driven wingnuttery that ensued during the 2008 presidential campaign, the question about Trig’s birth is breathtakingly cruel and sense-retardant. Spencer’s questioning screamed ratings desperation and showed just how far entertainment media will go to make Palin look idiotic while turning a profit.....
These would be the same journalists who did such an excellent job researching the man who currently leads the free world. Insane.....Who can ignore Behar’s detached-from-reality commentary about people who favor Sarah Palin:
“Well her people are evil and nasty. They are not nice people. They send me nasty mail and everybody else who talks about it. Anything negative about Sarah Palin, they get hit with this stuff. You know.”
Ironic that Behar wouldn’t consider her own nastiness as a potential catalyst for negative feedback.
Behar has openly called Palin stupid, among other nasally-delivered complements. And the list goes on and on. The entertainment media (which, by my calculation, includes the now theoretically deficient Andrew Sullivan) are intent on making Palin out to be: stupid, evil, incompetent, a mere “Barbie” and insolent, in no particular order.
Get over it, Hollywood. Sarah Palin doesn’t share your values. She’s pro-life, pro-capitalism and pro-rationality. Rather than wasting all of your time lambasting her, promoting Levi and attempting to debunk her very existence, why not divert even a portion of your energy towards examining the man you’ve placed America’s very existence in the hands of. We’ve all got personal dirt. Since you’ll never let up, why not shovel a little less of Palin’s and a little more of Obama’s? ---------------------
Now, on to this, "Lie of the Year" business. Article here:
Here’s the thing: Palin wasn’t lying.
Sure, “death panel” is a little over the top rhetorically speaking, but consider the recent controversy over a government panel declaring that mammograms for women under 50, not to mention at-home self breast exams, were worthless despite longstanding guidelines from the American Cancer Society, among others.
That panel’s recommendations, despite Obama administration instructions to ignore it, has resulted in funding for mammograms being cut in no fewer than 20 states.
Now, consider that the health care bill (both the House and Senate versions) contains legislation that creates health care exchanges that will be run by the government. All Americans buying health insurance once those exchanges are put in place would be only be able to choose from among plans offered on those exchanges. And the government defines what those plans will and will not cover.
So if, under this health care “reform” being pushed by Democrats, some government decides that a certain procedure or a certain drug isn’t good you may not be able to get coverage for that procedure or that drug.
[My insert - there's a difference between rationing and lack of coverage. Palin's death panels statement was given in the context of rationing.
Lack of coverage does not mean unavailability of treatment, it simply means you're going to have to find some way to pay for the treatment. The problem isn't lack of coverage so much as the system being overwhelmed by these new measures which could lead to a health care shortage, hence rationing.
Rationing means you're not getting it, whether you can afford it or not. Neither situation is ideal, but I'd rather have the former. At least you have a chance. So I disagree with this guy's premise that lack of coverage equals death panel in the context of Palin's original statement.]
Now, for some people, access to that coverage may be a life or death thing. Thus, the government decisions about that coverage are life and death. Thus, death panel.
Now, the liberals would rather you not think like that. They’d rather you just sit back, stop thinking and trust that the decisions the government is making for you are the best ones. But, in reality, death panels are more truth than fiction in these health care “reform” efforts.
Here's my vid on the "death panel" lie thing. There is much to say about this debate - I thought Palin's mistake was responding with just a specific portion of the bill after she was questioned on her statement. The death panel argument was much larger than end-of-life counseling:
Now, on to a great article in the Canada Free Press on this whole Palin hospital fundraiser thing. It's long, so I won't blockquote it. Excerpts: ----------
A fundraising gala, set for April 15 in Hamilton Ontario, was initially to be held to benefit two local hospitals; the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter’s Hospital were to be the recipients of the funds raised. The organizers thought that they had struck gold when they booked former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the main speaker.
They should have known. Shortly after Palin’s presence but made public, Hamilton Health Services began to receive nasty telephone calls and emails. Some people who contacted the organization described themselves as donors and indicated that they would never ever donate again if Palin was to speak. While most of the disgruntled gave the fact that Palin had criticized Canada’s healthcare system as the reason, some people suggested that Palin should not be present in an area where many of the elected officials are members of the socialist NDP.
The angry response that Palin’s coming to Hamilton to raise money for local hospitals says more about Canadians than it does about Sarah Palin. Many Canadians view our system of healthcare as what defines Canada as a country. Practicalities such as funding and maximizing healthcare delivery are not as important as ideology. Canada is defined by many on the left, not by what the country is but what it isn’t. Andmany Canadians think that Canada’s defining feature is that it is not the United States. And at least for now, socialized medicine is one of the major differences between the two countries.....
Government run healthcare is considered a religion like Catholicism, Islam and global warming. Liberals, of course are not interested in debate or hearing what the other side has to say. This is the main objection to Sarah Palin’s presence at the gala; were she a lesser known Canadian who championed at least more private involvement in the healthcare system she would have been shunned for that. Those who consider themselves good liberal Canadians are not interested in anything that Sarah Palin has to say on the matter of healthcare. Too many Canadians are close minded when it comes to funding healthcare and are perfectly content to define sacrificing their lives for their country as dying on a waiting list. In the end, the money that the two hospitals undoubtedly need is not as important as ideology and political correctness.
The irony of all this is that our “Canadian-style” healthcare system is not be all that different from where American healthcare is headed.
While the far left in the United States is outraged that the public option has been dropped from the Senate bill, not having a public option will probably hasten what Obama and the far left really want – a single payer system.
What remains in the proposed legislation is that insurers will not be able to refuse coverage to those people with pre-existing medical conditions or who otherwise are poor risks. A public option would have at least allowed the government to insure those who could not get insurance anywhere else. With no public option private insurers will be forced to cover bad risks, which will in turn hasten the end of private insurance in the United States. Then American healthcare will be just like Canada’s. How will Canadians define their country then?
The April 15 gala is going ahead and Sarah Palin is still set to speak. But instead of the two Hamilton area hospitals being the beneficiaries of the funds raised, the money will go to The Charity of Hope, a children’s charity.
So far none of the children who will benefit from the funds raised by The Charity of Hope have complained about Sarah Palin. -----------------------
In other news, there's a good letter to the editor here:
In response to the letter written by Walt Hill concerning Sarah Palin; he is correct on one point and one point only. He states that "until the big money guys can control and manipulate her, they are not going to support her in 2012." To me, this means that she is a politician who cannot be "bought." Personally, I feel that is a rare and valuable quality.
I find that the best way to determine how a politician will govern is to look at their past history (something no one did with Obama). When she resigned from Alaska, it was with a heavy heart.
However, she didn't want the state of Alaska to continue shelling out hard earned tax payer dollars to defend her against unending frivolous law suits. I feel this is a person who could have the country's best interests at heart.
Whether Sarah Palin chooses to run is her decision. If she does, I will support her.
Here's a great first-hand account of someone who felt drawn to Palin's Montana book-signing: ---------
Not being a fan or groupie of anyone or anything, I was surprised how compelled I felt to see Sarah Palin at her Billings book signing this week. It must be the newshound in me that had me RSVP to that event.
I braved the cold weather, and even worse, the crowd, to get her picture and an up close and personal look at this now-national personality. I didn’t, however, stand outside and wait in line to get an autograph. I see the collector value in that, but didn’t have hours to spend waiting for the signature.
Easily admitted to the store because I didn’t need that autographed copy, I soon found one of her many staff. Knowing she wasn’t taking questions or interviews, I flashed press credentials and a business card, asking for a photo op.
The “aide,” as he called himself, quickly lifted the burgundy curtain and admitted my camera into the book signing area. Sitting behind a square table was an animated and delightful Sarah Palin. She shook hands with everyone, looked each person in the eye and spoke to them in her now recognizable brogue, signing her signature without watching what she was doing. Sitting beside her, husband Todd shook everyone’s hand also and talked to every kid — as did she.
Todd Palin later milled through the receptive crowd, talking with them and with his father-in-law and mother-in-law. The “first dude,” smartly dressed in a tough-enough-to-wear-pink button down, isn’t as big as he appears on TV.
He’s about the size of a professional bronc rider — and like them, moves quietly and freely— greeting many of Sarah’s supporters. Many with camera phones and digitals were also enamored with Sarah’s family members and took their pictures.
One wondered if the Palins and Heaths enjoyed Montana’s Alaska-like weather.
What happened on this public side of the curtain was even more interesting than the other side and not at all how it was portrayed on the local TV stations.
For the most part, there was no crying or rapping. This was a quintessential Montana crowd with cowboy hats and Carhartts amid the ties and business suits. Cowboy boots mixed with Mucklucks and fashion boots were the dress code of the day.
Patient but chilled, this crowd wound their way through book shelves and politely waited their turn to shake hands with the former Alaska governor, who took on Big Oil and her own Republican party to correct the wrongs of the fat cats who take advantage of their positions.
Many in the crowd believe this woman can do the same with this nation.
Now for just a couple vids. First off, Merry Christmas:
Michelle Malkin would have named Palin Person of the Year:
And here's some colorful commentary on the whole viser thing. Language warning:
It doesn't surprise me that Palin is going to support McCain for reelection. Everyone has their blindspots, and McCain is one of hers. Doesn't mean I'm not going to do all I can to make sure he doesn't get reelected.
Here's the thing with RINO's: they're fine as long as a conservative is in charge. If a conservative is the centerpole around which the big tent can gather, than it's all good. But if a moderate (like Bush) is in the White House, RINO's are our death knell. So if Palin or some other true Reaganite gets in there, I don't really care if McCain is there, but we have no guarantee that's going to happen. So I will not support McCain no matter what Palin has to say about it.
Hey, conservatives are cats. We've got minds of our own:)
Much remains to be done before the Health Care bill passes the full Congress, but it feels as though the Rubicon has been crossed. If they want revolution, we'll give it to them.
Very interesting "review" of Going Rogue found here.
Sarah Palin's Book: ---------
I'm still in the midst of reading Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue. I have been angry for more than a year now about the way she has been, and continues to be, savaged by the liberal media. She has done nothing to warrant this treatment. If she had been a Democrat with the identical record of achievements, she would be celebrated as one of the heroes of the left.
Her only crime was that when she was chosen as McCain's running mate, their poll numbers shot up fast and far enough that the left realized she might actually be the thing that beat Obama! Therefore she had to be destroyed.
And having once treated her with such gross unfairness and indecency (if you view their records dispassionately, there was nothing wrong with her, like inexperience or ignorance, that was not wronger with Obama!), the left has to keep proving that their victim somehow deserved the vicious, snarling, tearing attacks on her.
So ever since her book came out, we have seen it reviewed as if it had been scrawled on toilet paper by a child. Many have reviewed the book as if its author were well known for her stupidity, though in fact nothing is clearer than her vivid intelligence – she is far smarter than any of the people I have heard call her stupid. For one thing, they are so stupid they call someone stupid without actually checking to see if she really is. That's stupidity.
And yet, there remains this: I disagree with her on at least half the issues that matter to her. After all, even though I'm a moral conservative, I am a Democrat and for good reason, as long as you define "Democrat" the way it was defined in 1977.
She is not my dream candidate for president. I'm hoping for somebody better. So I don't enter her book as a partisan of hers. She has my sympathy as a victim, but not my support as a candidate or my agreement on any but a handful of issues.
So I'm not going to review her book. Instead, I'm going to refer you to a review written by someone I had assumed would despise her.
Before I do, though, I want to tell you a little teeny story. Many years ago, when Rush Limbaugh's first book was newly in the stores, I was curious and bought his book on tape – read by him. I had never heard his radio program, but he was clearly making waves and I wanted to find out what he had to say.
As with Palin, I disagreed with at least half of Limbaugh's views – but I found him enormously entertaining and I saw why he was a hit on the radio. He was very good at what he did. And sometimes I did agree with him, and then it was a pleasure to hear what he had to say. Heck, it was a pleasure to listen to him even when I disagreed!
It happened that the book was in my car as I provided a ride to two friends of mine, professors at a university. When they got in my car and saw the cover of Limbaugh's book, you'd have thought it was the bloody corpse of a tortured cat, they reacted with such horror. They could not believe that I would read something by such a rabid right-winger.
At that moment I realized that even though these men thought of themselves as intellectuals, they were not. They were deliberately stupid with the stupidity of self-inflicted ignorance. I asked: Have you ever listened to him? No, they said. Then how did they know they hated him? Because everyone they knew said ...
Yes, stupid. I said to them, "I can't possibly know what I think about someone until I make some effort to find out who they are, how they think, what they're actually doing." I did not say: I just learned a lot more about you than you will ever know about Rush Limbaugh.
Right now, Palin's book is accomplishing exactly the same thing that Limbaugh's book did back in the day: You can find out who the stupid bigots are by seeing who hates and despises and ridicules the book without having read it.
I'm reading it. I'm not finished. And I'm not going to review it. Because a friend of mine pointed out a review of Going Rogue written by a genuine intellectual and man of the left, Stanley Fish.
His review says everything I would say about her book, and says it better than I could say it. In addition, he brings his own experience with the bigots into his review. So I urge you: Get online and read Stanley Fish's review, if you want a fair-minded treatment of the book by someone who strongly disagrees with at least some of Palin's ideas and beliefs. There is not one word of Fish's review that is, in my opinion, wrong.
But having read my words here, and Fish's words from The New York Times online, you still have to read Going Rogue and find out for yourself what the book means and who Sarah Palin is, before you're qualified to talk about it.
My really bad attempt at a video. Mark Levin said this, I believe last week. I thought it was appropriate considering that Palin's death panel comments have been dubbed the lie of the year:
God: Judeo-Christian principles and, yes, how they have applied to our system of government. Guts: Those intrinsic things that we feel down in our inner-most being; the things we know are right, and the courage to defend them. Sarah Palin: The name speaks for itself.
"It requires a terrible effort to remain a civilized man." - Woolf
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Disclaimers seem to be fashionable these days, so here's mine:
If you think that anything on this blog is in any way connected to Governor Palin herself, you're nuts. These are all my own stupid opinions. Palin probably doesn't even know I exist, nor does she care.
There, that should do it.
Oh, and don't assume that my posts from a year ago reflect the exact same opinion I hold now. I don't have time to go back and update every time I change my mind for the one or two people who are going to click on that post in the future.
Bill589, a commentor here who disappeared for awhile, reemerged December 20th and left me this message:
