The McCain Conundrum

The American Thinker is the latest to jump on this "Palin supports McCain, therefore she's done" narrative.

I'm quite honestly shocked. I have never been a McCain fan, and if I lived in Arizona I wouldn't vote for him, despite Sarah's support. But anyone with a pair of ears knew this was coming. Sarah has consistently supported McCain. She campaigned with him, for Pete's sake. She said during the campaign leaks, after the campaign leaks, and just recently that she loved him and was going to support his reelection. Do I like it? No. Am I shocked? No. Period. End of story.

I knew that Palin was in danger of alienating the base if she went too far with this whole thing. Like I said earlier, if she supports Crist over Rubio, etc... she is going to have problems. Big problems. She will effectively part ways with the Tea Party movement at that point.

Let's step back and breathe for a moment, shall we? JD Hayworth hasn't even filed to challenge McCain yet. He has said just recently that he's taking steps to challenge him, but he hasn't entered the race at this point.

I was hoping that she would throw money to McCain and not actively campaign for him. By campaigning for him (even though I think it's good for her political prospects) she runs the risk of being accused of putting personal benefit over conservative principle. That's just the truth of it.

I think my main beef with it is that Sarah Palin is probably our one shot to get good people in there that are off the beaten path rather than a part of any machine. The Tea Party movement plus Palin providing the publicity could be an unstoppable force. But maybe Sarah doesn't see it that way. For me, it's a missed opportunity, not necessarily anything else.

Now, hopefully McCain is her one venture into RINO-land when it comes to campaigning. But we'll have to wait and see.

Butler's an Idiot

I'm sorry, but this just cracked me up. Levi's lawyer responds to Bristol's request for child support:

Attorney Rex Butler tells TMZ, Levi has told Bristol on several occasions he wanted her to come to his house to pick up checks for Tripp's support. Butler says Levi also told her "it would be nice" if she brought Tripp along when she picked up the checks, because Levi wanted to spend time with his son. Butler says on each occasion Bristol was a no-show.

Butler says Bristol is partly to blame for the fact that she hasn't gotten the support she wants. Butler tells TMZ on one occasion Levi was prepared to hand over $3,000 ... but Bristol never showed.

As for why Levi didn't just put the check in the mail ... Butler says, "Why should he have to do that. He's not dangerous to her."

Ha, ha, ha! Oh, that's priceless! Among the usual "caribou barbie" garbage there are some pretty good comments on the article:
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1. He's a pig. Talk about an ego "Why should I stick them in the mail?" perhaps because you want to support your kid by any means?

So what if she's driving around in something like that? I know several well to do families that have bought their child cars. (Sadly I wasn't one of them)


2. First, you send the money and show good faith, with no drama. After time, she begins to trust that you care about your son, and THEN she might even arrange to meet to pick up the checks and bring their son. Who ever said, I've got support money.....come and get it? That's not how it's done. Clearly this guy doesn't get it....any of it. If he's that immature, then he should stay on the path he's on, make as much money as possible, and move on.


3. Man up you D bag and pay support. This stupid crap about paying her if she comes over is lame. If he wanted his kid so bad he could have taken that 100k and fought her. What a fing loser. In California they would have raped him with support the min he didn't mail the check. The DA offices here can collect a fee for helping collect so the parent just needs to call them and they will be on the dead beat like the A team.

I am a single father and my ex does this crap too. She hasn't paid me anything because she only wants to pay 50 a month so because I think a college grad can make more and pay me more than 50 bucks I am going to go to file the same papers. The stupid ex won't even help pay for my girls meds when she is sick.


4. His lawyer is some stupid sled chasing loser too. Who cares what Bristol is driving it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if her mom leased it for her or Bristol got it on her own. To say thats the other reason he won't send any money for his kid is a joke and he should be dis barred.


5. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? come to my house and pick up a child support check???? Mail the check and go see your son on your own time. The two have absolutey nothing to do with each other. It's time to take on your responsibility and stop using your 5 minute fame as a teenage father to become a celebrity. Take care of your child


6. What a bunch of BS. I have been a legal assistant for over 26 years and not once in all those years have I ever heard such crap! Refusing to pay child support unless the receiving parent comes to your home to pick it up?!?! Seriously? I would love to hear that excuse fly in a courtroom where I live. If he wants to be a father, let him be a father but part of being a good parent is supporting your child, not playing ridiculous games with the other parent. Oh, and who cares what kind of car she drives?


7. How ridiculous. This male (not a man) cannot mail his support to his son? The mother has to pick up his son's support check in person? Come on! This guy is total dirt for publicly trashing his son's family, and now he is demanding his ex show up in person if she wants his financial support for his own son.

What Bristol drives is irrelevant. Her mother probably does pretty well financially with her book and her new job at FOX. At least someone is kicking in to support Bristol and the baby. I don't see how the type of vehicle Bristol drives should impact if this loser supports his son.


8. So he wants her to go to his house to pick up checks and take the kid with her so he can see it. Hey Butler it cuts both ways this little wanker can get in his car and drive over to her house to drop off a check and see his kid I haven't heard that she a threat to him either.
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On the accusation that Bristol's been driving around in an Escalade...um, so what? It might belong to her parents. And even if it doesn't, it's hardly relevant. Rich or poor, fathers have to pay child support. My dad had to pay through the nose for the kids from his first marriage. We were pretty poor until my half siblings hit eighteen. Sorry, Levi. This is just the way it goes.

Another Day, Another Headache

'There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.'

That's a phrase that's been playing over and over in my mind these days. I watch Romney and McCain flank Scott Brown, a man who ran on Palin rhetoric. I watch McCain use Palin to get reelected (no surprise, we all knew she would support him) and oh, what a shock, he's bringing in Brown too. What a pathetic, pathetic man. He knows we couldn't care less about him so he uses the young talent to get his sorry butt reelected. No matter. He's powerless now anyway.

Sarah's smart. She knows what she's doing. But that doesn't mean I like John McCain any more. Politico has a fairly fair piece on it here.

Sarah will be on Oprah this afternoon with Bristol. Should be interesting. I believe they might swing by Entertainment Tonight as well. Of course the press is criticizing it and every other move Palin makes or doesn't make, but what else is new? Palin is going to become much more mainstream as the year goes on. Tammy Bruce doesn't want Palin too get too familiar, but I think she will. As she does, she will broaden her appeal. She can either be a firecracker and have a few million people crazy about her, or she can calm her image down a little bit and have tens of millions okay with her. Then she's free to fight for the Presidency (if that's what she chooses to fight for) from there.

The March for Life is happening today too. Sarah said on Twitter that it's one of the things she will talk about on Oprah today. Sarah also reminds everyone to tune in to Glenn Beck today. It's his genocides special. Should be really good. Heh. Ironically, for me, it's on at the same time as the Oprah interview. Sorry, Glenn, I'm going to have to catch you at your rerun:)

What's going on in the Bristol/Levi custody battle? Pretty much what goes on in every custody battle, only with the media. Levi will be on the Insider sometime this week. Yay. Can't wait for that. I've actually calmed down a lot about this whole thing. It used to be that any mention of Levi's name churned my stomach. Okay, there's still a little rumbly in my tumbly about it, but for the most part, I've decided that a calm, rational approach is the best.

This week, a friend of Levi's sold some pics and a quick story to RadarOnline. He basically said that both Bristol and Levi were guilty of freaking out about nothing, they don't get along, and Sarah stays out of it for the most part. He also said that Sarah's a good person. Story here. Mercede Johnston put this up on her Facebook.

Oh, so you don't like it when people sell you out to the media, huh? Well, now you know how it feels. I seem to recall a certain teenage girl talking to Star Magazine quite a bit. Wonder who that was? Hmmmmmmm.

Bristol and Levi are 19 year-old parents. This drama happens. They've just got the world watching.

Bristol has asked for interim child support until a child support order is given. Documents here.

On to happier things.

I like this vid of a military guy commenting on Palin in September of 2008. Audio a little low. You'll have to turn it up:



And you've probably heard by now about the "scandal" that was Mayor Bloomberg holding back photos of a trip Governor Palin made to NY in 2007. I think the story came out last November. Here's Bloomberg's comments on it:



Here are the pics from the visit. Found here:

Glenn Beck on His "Feud" with Sarah Palin

Glenn Beck before his interview with Sarah Palin talking about his supposed "feud" with her:



Interview with Palin:

Sarah Palin - Marching for Life

Facebook note - Marching for a Beautiful Life:
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Tomorrow the 37th annual March for Life will occur in Washington, D.C. January is a tough month to schedule a march in Washington, but every year hundreds of thousands of everyday Americans from across our nation brave the cold weather on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision to bear a positive witness to the culture of life.

In the years following Roe, we were told that the issue was no longer open for debate and that we should get over it and move on. But we couldn’t get over the stirrings of our conscience or move on from an issue that cuts to the heart of who we are as a nation. Affirming the dignity and worth of every innocent human life and defending the defenseless are fundamental American values.

With that in mind, this peaceful, hopeful grassroots crowd of individuals, families and students comes to our capital every year to remind us that every innocent life is beautiful, precious and full of potential. These warrior souls come to show their dedication to the weakest among us: those with special needs, women without anyone to turn to, and children without a voice.

They run the helpful pregnancy resource centers, the counseling hotlines, the foster care facilities, the adoption services, and countless other outreach programs that offer compassionate assistance and friendship to women who are struggling. I know from experience the joy and blessings that come from embracing life, and I know how important their work is in helping women choose life despite less than ideal circumstances.

The pro-life movement is pro-women, and it empowers women with the message that we are strong enough and smart enough to be able to pursue education, vocations and avocations while giving life to a child. This movement is largely run by women. In fact, many of the earliest leaders of the women’s rights movement were pro-life – women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul, the author of the original Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, who said, “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”

Today, more and more young women agree with these feminist foremothers, for they know in their hearts that the culture of life empowers women by offering them real choices.

Unfortunately, rather than portray this positive message, the media often focuses on divisions among Americans on this issue. But this annual rally is not about anger and controversy; it’s about a huge grassroots effort to make our voices heard in support of women and their children.

Though I can’t be in Washington tomorrow, my heart is with the marchers. Those of us who can’t be there can still join them online at the Virtual March for Life. Please follow the link and join the tens of thousands of your fellow Americans who are already marching on line. Together we can bear witness to the beauty and blessings of the culture of life.

- Sarah Palin
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Here are her two Tweets about this (deTwitterfied) :

Hearty souls peacefully march for beautiful culture of life tomorrow in DC. 37th anniversary [of the] pro-life movement led by empowered women. See Facebook for information.

Affirming dignity and worth of every innocent human life and defending the defenseless are fundamental American values, so march peacefully and hopefully.

Two Good Articles

Two great opinion pieces. First up, a letter to the editor - The Nation Needs Sarah Palin:
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I read a lot of Letters in the Journal and sometimes disagree with them vehemently. However, I am in complete agreement with the writer of a Tuesday Letter to the Editor headlined "Sarah Palin: '24-karat character'" regarding his assessment of Sarah Palin. She is a common sense voice in a contaminated political pond. We need her. The nation needs her. We need her primarily because she seems to be the type who is reluctant to serve but will serve unselfishly if called upon to do so.

The more intellectuals bleat about her lack of intellectual prowess, the more I support her. She is the type of person we need today. We must all remember that sometimes - many times, without question - the best man for a job is a woman. Putting head and heart together is a rare commodity in this day and age. Sarah has that quality.

Perhaps the intellectual critics of Sarah should remember one important thing: People pay more attention to what we do than what we say. Few are better from the lectern than President Obama. He is a true mesmermizer. The problem is he does not always follow through with his rhetoric. He talks the talk but often fails to walk the walk. Sarah, I believe, will do both if elected.
One more important factor. Sarah believes in a higher power. She clings to it. This is the same power that made us great in the past. It can do the same thing in the future if we allow it to do so. Government without morality leads to personal and collective destruction.

Go for it, Sarah. The time is right. The time is now.

-- Ken Barker
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Next up, an article from the Patriot Post:
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A country that can sneer at Sarah Palin but take Joe Biden seriously. That's how screwed-up we are.

God save us from our precious elite. They salivate on Pavlovian cue from NPR, the New York Times, the New Yorker, New York Review of Books or whatever is today's arbiter of intellectual fashion. No class is more easily guided than our conforming nonconformists.

The result is a mass elite (more mass than elite) about as exclusive as Facebook and as distinctive as a Starbucks latte. It's as if every lemming thought of himself as a freethinker.

Sarah Heath Palin's first qualification for president of the United States? She's not intellectually fashionable. How encouraging. Neither was Ronald Reagan. Some of us can remember when he was (a) a washed-up B-movie actor, (b) just a pretty face, (c) a mole for General Electric and a capitalist tool in general, (d) a right-winger warmonger who was going to blow up the world, and (d) all of the above.

Who knew he was going to end (a) the Cold War, (b) the nuclear arms race, and (c) the decline of the West? If this Sarah Palin is anything like the Gipper, some of us will be all for her.

Then again, there are troubling signs. It was as one thing when a brilliant, pagan, playful and general intellectual hottie like Camille Paglia showed up in Sarah Palin's corner; taking the unorthodox position is her orthodoxy.

But now Stanley Fish, that old post-mod deconstructionist and very model of a modern obscurantist, has given Miss Sarah's book, "Going Rogue," a rave review in the New York Times. This is too much. It's as if H.L. Mencken had come back to say a good word for William Jennings Bryan.

Hey, what a country. Its wonders never cease. Like Sarah Palin and who'll turn out to admire her next. That's just what worries me. How long before she'll be the subject of a sympathetic portrait in Vanity Fair, or on NPR?

I still love Sarah, but when the intellectual establishment begins to defend her, that's not a good sign. One of the reasons I always liked her was the people who despised her. If they start flocking around this little lady, I'm going to be awfully conflicted.

Somebody has done a word count on our president's Nobel Address, and it clocked in at some 4100 words, or roughly eight times as long as William Faulkner's imperishable 550 in 1950. ("I decline to accept the end of man. ... I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.")

Will anyone be quoting Barack Obama's Nobel lecture half a century from now, the way we still quote Faulkner's? This president's words may be quoted when Faulkner's are forgotten -- but not till then.

The comparison is unfair. Barack Obama is only a politician, Faulkner was an artist. One cannot, should not expect as much from someone whose trade is only power, that most fleeting of phenomenal.

Let it be noted, too, that somewhere swaddled in all the time-bound, all-too-contemporary verbiage of this president's Nobel Address, along with the gratuitous attack on his predecessor that he seems to think is obligatory, at least when abroad, there was a new glimmer of understanding when it comes to the human condition:

"Evil does exist in the world," ergo "force is sometimes necessary" to combat it. And: "The United States of America has helped to underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms."

These are scarcely new insights, though they may be new to him. Our young president pronounced them with an air almost of discovery. But that he dared voice them at all in today's intellectual climate gives one hope.

Day by day, terrorist attack by terrorist attack, he learns. There is evil in the world and there is a need to combat it. But not just with words. Maybe one day he won't feel it necessary to use so many of them. ("An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows." --Dwight D. Eisenhower)

Old truths can be refreshing, especially when they come from a new source. But as welcome as these were from our ever-contemporary president, he can prove maddeningly slow. He now has told the country just how its counterterrorism system failed, unconnected dot after unconnected dot. But he didn't go to the root of the failure: his own preference for prosecuting terrorists, not waging war against them.

The latest enemy combatant captured in flagrante was being treated like any other defendant in criminal court, with all rights and privileges appertaining thereto, not promptly interrogated on a military base. The brig at Guantanamo, ideally located and designed for just such a purpose, is to be shut down. It seems our enemies object to it.

There is talk of getting this suspect -- and he is very suspect indeed -- to cooperate with our intelligence people as part of a plea bargain. It has come to this: plea-bargaining with the enemy.

Is this war or some theater of the absurd? It is neither; it is the strange world of Barack Obama, Eric Holder et al. How it must amuse those who would destroy us. They know that a civilization that won't defend itself won't be a civilization long.

Every time our lawyer president expatiates on the advantages of indicting our enemies -- rather than waging war against them -- the final scene from an old David Lean movie runs through my mind. You may remember it: "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

In the film, Alec Guinness plays the correct British colonel and prisoner of war who's completely lost touch with the larger reality, i.e., the war he's supposed to be fighting. Instead, he has concentrated his mind and efforts on the fine railway bridge he and his troops have built for their Japanese captors in the middle of the jungle. A good engineer, he's been true to his profession to the last. His is a madness inside the greater madness that is war itself.

In the end, all a stunned observer can say as he watches the colonel's proud handiwork come tumbling down is:

"Madness, madness...."

Palin Pics

Some new discoveries. New to me anyway:

Palin in October of 2007:


Palin in Michigan for a Governor's thing working on a Habitat for Humanity project. I've seen this before, but was only ever able to find a tiny pic. Finally found a bigger one. I believe that's Granholm on the other side of the siding:


I'm assuming this is when Laura went up and met Palin before she got chosen as VP:

Allen West on Islam

Allen West is awesome! Listen to this.

Isn't that a breath of fresh air? (breathing deeply)

I doubt that Sarah is aware of these things or if she would fully agree with them if she heard them, but I sure hope she supports Allen West. That's all I have to say about it.

Legislative Session About to Kick Off in Juneau

The Alaska Dispatch (caution: lawmakers slamming Palin) highlights the upcoming legislative session in Juneau, Parnell's first as Governor.

We'll see how it goes. I got a comment on my oil taxes post that Parnell wasn't doing enough fast enough to incentivize exploration. Well, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure there's not much he can do all by himself. He's got to kinda wait for the legislature.

Whether or not he'll be able to cut it, I don't know. Parnell seems to be enjoying the same kind of honeymoon Palin did when she first got in. Lawmakers are swooning over the fact that he's "open" and actually calls them, just like they did when Palin first got in. Kinda makes your stomach turn, but at least the state is moving on.

An election year is upon them, so politics will be involved, of course. But it's ten times less than if Palin were there. If she were still in office, I can pretty much guarantee that the partisanship would be so thick absolutely nothing would get done.

I guess what burns me is that the legislators complain about how Palin didn't call them as much after the election was over, and yet seem to have no comprehension that it was they who had the power to free up her administration from the red tape of the ethics complaints and the FOIA requests so that Palin would have had more time to actually do her job, and yet they sat on it and did nothing.

Politics sucks.

Oh, well. Go Alaska.

SP Video Sunday

Gonna go for some fluff today. I need it.

First up, here's a ten minute feature that a foreign tv station did with Sarah Palin's parents and friends during the election:

Sarah Palin feature story from Chris on Vimeo.

Here's a brief vid of the "Elite Six" talking about their friendship with Sarah. Some whacky photos:

Link:

Sarah and Todd at the Wasilla Inaugural Ball:

Sarah Palin - Inagural Ball - Palmer, AK from Kris Riley on Vimeo.

(sigh) 2012.

Citizens of Asheville,NC speak up for Governor Sarah Palin from richard bernier on Vimeo.

Palin Visits Colorado Springs - Nov. 3 from Josh Taber on Vimeo.

Tired Yet?

There are days that I think "tired" is an understatement.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, did you know that Michael Steele and Sarah Palin are the biggest money-grubbers on the planet? I didn't hear all of these complaints when Al Gore started getting rich off of global warming.

I'm no fan of Michael Steele, I'm rather indifferent towards the man, but even he doesn't deserve the money-grubbing label that the NYT tried to give him in its latest hit piece on the GOP and Palin. And the GOP getting less money isn't all of his fault either. People are fed up all-around, and that includes with the GOP. Funds would have gone down regardless.

Now the American Thinker has come out with three articles on Palin's Fox debut. One declares her to be Dan Qualye and says we should just forget all about her. There's no hope for her. The other two nitpick her performance and are generally critical.

Meanwhile, the media continues to holler and shout that Palin is getting money for magazine covers (according to "sources") and is being (gasp!) paid to speak at the TPC. It's times like this that you just want to vomit.

Oh, and John McCain says that he's pretty sure Palin will campaign for him in Arizona. Palin, being the faithful friend and having a general blindspot for the old back-stabber probably will. More vomit.

It's downright discouraging sometimes. No wonder Palin doesn't seem too keen on running for President. After a couple of years of this stuff, can you honestly say that you would want to put yourself through more?

No one in their right mind, or who has really thought about it, wants to be President. It's a horrible, thankless job. In Palin's case, it's horrible just to be a potential President. I'm waiting to see Romney or Huckabee get near the amount of criticism. After all, Huck has a TV show and Romney is out with his new book. Complaints? Comments?

Didn't think so.

I hope the Palins get filthy rich.

I think that these stories and themes are nothing more than an attempt to divide and conquer. They see that the Tea Party movement is a success. There's a TPC and there's money - Aha! a chance to spread doubt and division.

Now is time for that Washington figure to emerge. Someone needs to say, "Look, we don't all get along. We don't even all believe the same things. But we've got to come together and do this, or we're doomed."

C'mon, Sarah.

America Rising Pt. 2 - Letter to Republicans

While many in the Tea Party movement love Sarah Palin and some want her to lead the movement, I don't believe that is necessary. We the People are the Tea Party movement. Sarah has applauded it and encourages it, but we lead it.

Sarah may prove to be the force that is able to bridge the gap between the establishment and the grassroots though. She may end up being that George Washington figure after all, because she is the one person that We the People trust.