Sarah Palin's So Stupid...She Leaves a Budget Surplus

The gall of that woman. Doesn't Sarah Palin know that politicians are supposed to spend every dime they take in and more? Who ever heard of putting money away and forward funding for the future? What an idiot.

The ADN is reporting that in a year where most states are hurting big time, the state of Alaska is finishing out this fiscal year with 2 billion dollars worth of surplus. The state budget is built, for the most part, on oil tax revenues. The current tax platform, ACES, was put into place under Governor Palin. When oil prices were high, she socked a few billion away rather than spend it all. She explained some of her budget philosophy in July of 2008 in this interview with IBD:


From the article:

Gov. Sean Parnell had a pleasant surprise for legislators in Juneau Feb. 2: A $2.2 billion state budget surplus...That's up $700 million from $1.5 billion estimated as a surplus for the current fiscal year of 2010 that was projected two months ago by the state Department of Revenue.

Parnell proposes to tie up most of the surplus in state savings accounts, a move aimed possibly at preventing the Legislature from spending it, but he would also use $100 million to accelerate a major maintenance program on public buildings around the state, including schools.

Parnell would deposit $1.1 billion of the surplus into a state savings account that is used to "forward fund" education, and deposit $402 million into the constitutional budget reserve...The Legislature tapped the education fund last year when oil revenues sagged, and the deposit this year would bring it back to a $1 billion level.

The state overall has a healthy balance sheet, worth more than $10 billion in various reserve accounts not including the Alaska Permanent Fund with its market value of about $30 billion.

Not bad. Actually, pretty awesome considering the financial state of the country. So much for all that hoopla from lawmakers after the 2008 election that the state might run a deficit and have to dip into the Permanent Fund.

It looks like Palin's successor, Sean Parnell, is following in her footsteps by using the surplus wisely. If Palin had not been tapped for the 2008 election, the lawmakers would more than likely be praising her right now instead of Parnell. The partisanship that threatened to choke the state after she got back was ridiculous. Palin was right to resign and allow Sean to advance the same agenda without the partisan bickering so that the state could move on. But will she get any credit? Don't hold your breath.

People often rake Palin over the coals for not demonstrating a depth of policy knowledge. They complain that she doesn't sit there and wax eloquent about economics and the like. But the most effective things in life are often the simplest. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand the concept of not spending more than you're taking in.

I say that the elites who criticize Palin for spouting her common sense "talking points" are guilty of missing the forest for the veins in the tree leaves. They've got their heads so far down into the wiring of the train engine, that they fail to look up and see where the train is going.

Maybe Palin couldn't sit there and spout off a lengthy exposition of how a steam engine works, but she knows how to use it to get where we ought to be. She's a leader. She'll hire engineers to deal with the technical jargon.

In conclusion, enjoy this rant by Glenn Beck about this time last year:

Kathleen Parker's "Concern" for Trig

For the most part, I am a calm human being. Even boring. Ridiculously realistic and I tend to err on the practical side. Sarah Palin is an exception to that rule.

For some reason, the woman compels me. With a boatload of negative articles and media pundits on both sides microanalyzing her every move in a way that no one other politician has ever been microanalyzed, I still manage to find my way to the keyboard nearly every day in support of this person.

Most of the attacks have become redundant. I roll my eyes now at the charges that she's stupid, she can see Russia from her house, she's polarizing, etc... But there are still a few things that bug me.

Those of us who hang around the blogosphere long enough eventually stumble into the pits of vipers of those who post picture after picture of Sarah carrying Trig and whine and stomp and cry to high heaven that he doesn't have his socks on. Oh, no! The child's life is in grave danger!

They go on and on about how he's not getting proper therapy, blah, blah, blah. As if they know. To the normal person, Trig looks like a healthy, happy, almost two-year-old who is adored by his family. But that's not the way these perverts see it. To them, he's being exploited. Sarah's love for the child cannot possibly be genuine, she's merely using him. They complain about the way she holds him, as if they never held a child that way. I pity their children. They probably dress them up in pillows before putting them in the car, like in those Windstar commercials.

The reason I'm posting this is because of this latest article by Kathleen Parker. Kathleen tries, really tries to not sound too much like a basement-dwelling Trig Truther, but she fails in a couple of points. Aside from the misspelling that first catches your eye [the misspelling has since been corrected], there are bits of veiled "concern" for Trig and the possibility that a mother's pride could someday blend into exploitation. Most ridiculous is the charge that Trig might read Going Rogue someday and feel hurt that Sarah had some concerns about him in the beginning. That's a pretty big "might." It's also a huge crock of BS.

The first thought that comes to my mind: It's nobody's flippin' business. I don't care that Michelle Obama used her kids as an example for her child obesity program. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors; who are we to judge whether or not her daughters cared? In the same vein, I don't care if Sarah Palin uses her experiences as an example for others to learn from. As to whether or not Trig will be harmed, etc... we don't know. Nobody knows. It's all speculation, and quite frankly, it's none of our beeswax.

Maybe it's hard for me to grasp this "concern" because to me, seeing the Palins out there with their kids is the most natural thing in the world. They're a family, and they like it. Why should politics get in the way of parenthood?

Maybe it's because the Palins do it differently than most other politicians or public figures. But for them, this is the way it's always been, and I doubt they have any intention of changing things now.

Sarah was involved in small-town politics and taking her little ones to work with her long before any cameras were there to capture it. When Todd was home, he could take the kids full-time, but when he was up on the North Slope the Palin kids got used to a regimen that involved tagging along with Mom. Day care and babysitters were also utilized, but who wants their kids to be raised 100% by someone else? Why not bring the kids along? Why not share some of these experiences with your children? They were there on the local level, the state level, and now, the national level.

I, for one, find it refreshing. It opens a whole new set of doors for women who never thought about getting involved in politics because they thought it would mean becoming like a Hillary Clinton. They love their families, they love their children, and the popular feminist notion that men are pigs and babies are a burden has been a turn-off to them. I know it's been a turn-off for me. I could never relate to that kind of mentality, and no public female figures were out there breaking that mold; until now.

To see not just a woman, but a mother, on the national stage loving her husband and loving her children, has been refreshing beyond belief. And I simply cannot wrap my mind around the thinking of those who see it differently.

The Kennedy kids played under JFK's Oval Office desk and were a refreshing sight for the country. We feel the same way about the Palin kids.

And by the way, when they want to stay out of the public eye, they do. Track, for example, is known to be a private guy who doesn't like the spotlight. That's why you pretty much never see him in it. If the girls tag along, I can only draw the conclusion then that they don't have a problem with it, and even want to be there.

C'mon; if your mom was flying to New York City or doing interviews with Oprah, wouldn't you want to tag along?

It's an exciting time in their lives. Of course there are always the negative things that publicity can bring, but you can either get bogged down in the negativity, or are you can enjoy life to the fullest in spite of it and grow closer together because of it.

Bottom line: we don't know what goes on behind closed doors, and it's awfully presumptuous to think otherwise, or to assume that Trig will be hurt at some point in the distant future. If anybody's out to throw stones at Trig, it's the Leftists who insist on taking a beautiful boy and a beautiful story and twisting it into their own ugly image. Just click here to get a glimpse. If anything is going to hurt Trig, it's stuff like that.

The Palin kids strike me as an independent lot. They can take care of themselves just fine without any "concern" from anybody, thank you very much.

As for Sarah, I can just imagine that her reaction to this would be just like any mother who has ever had some nosey person come up to them and offer them free parenting advice: "Thank you for your 'concern'. Now, please excuse me as I raise my children however I see fit."

Video of Palin's Speech to the Salina Chamber of Commerce

Not the whole thing, but a nice chunk:



And here's a cool vid of the Tea Party Convention:

America's Iron Lady

This article was just too good to pass up. From the Herald in Scotland:
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The camera can be such a liar.

Sarah Palin has been mocked for having “budget cuts” and “lift American spirits” scrawled on her hand as aides memoires. Closer examination, however, has revealed the notes carried essential safety information: “Walk. Chew gum. Walk. Chew gum ...”

It’s easy to poke fun at Palin. Even the White House has been at it, with press secretary Robert Gibbs doing his own version of the “hillbilly palm pilot”. On his hand was written: “Eggs, milk, bread” – no sexism there, boys – “hope, change”.

You might think an administration presiding over a $1.3 trillion deficit would have better things to do, but there’s something about Palin that ensures she’s never far from their thoughts. Something to do with a bid for the presidency in 2012?

Palin is not the most eloquent of speakers (her catchphrase is “You betcha!”), but she can still hit the Obama administration where it hurts. “How is all that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?” is her current question to audiences.

Palin is the stuff of liberal America’s nightmares on several fronts. She’s a woman, which means she can be roughed up politically, but personally the gloves must stay on. And the woman she calls to mind among American voters is Margaret Thatcher, another big plus.

Besides her access to voters via Fox News, there’s her fearlessness. Pilloried from the moment she arrived on the McCain ticket, she keeps bouncing back. Her response to the latest White House jibe was to write “Hi Mom!” on her hand.

This isn’t a normal politician. This is Godzilla in heels.

At the back of liberal minds is the fear that Palin will slip through to the presidency. They laughed at Reagan and Bush Jr. too, remember? She has a year to brush up her act, a long time in politics. Watch that space between her ears: it’s filling up fast.

Obama a Marxis-Leninist in Occidental College

A guy who knew Obama when he was attending Occidental College talks to Breitbart tv B-cast. I normally don't post things on Obama, but this was very interesting:

Happy Belated Birthday, Sarah Palin!

Belated for me, but not for Bob and Mark. The Bob and Mark Show out of Anchorage, Alaska, called up their former Governor on February 11th to wish her a happy birthday!



Their website is here. It's a good morning show, but I'm warning you, it's rated PG-13. It's a morning show on a rock station. It starts at 5:35 AM and goes to 10:00 AM Alaska time. In the Central Time Zone the show starts around 8:35 in the morning. You can figure it out from there.

Mark leans more conservative. Bob is more of an Independent, but they're both independent-minded.

Some of Sarah's best interviews are with these guys. They're kind of friends of hers and she's known them for years. There's a playlist of other videos with Sarah and these two guys here.

More BAM stuff here.

Here's a cool vid on Palin's Perry event:

Governor Palin's Visit to Walter Reed

An awesome write-up by Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata on Gov. Palin's visit to Walter Reed in Big Government:

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After watching the state of the union speech I began to wonder if our country will ever mend its divisions. The president seemed especially partisan when angered and our Senate and House Representatives are either ideologically divided or pathologically attempting to win the next election....

But then I recalled a day last December when I escorted Sarah Palin through Walter Reed Army Medical Center in our nation’s capitol. In one weekend one of our most conservative governors and some of our most liberal entertainers separately devoted huge chunks of their time to being with our troops and their families. In short, just as 9-11 united us, so do the wounded stemming from that catastrophic event. These bold men and women are quietly serving a purpose beyond their contracts. The sum of the parts, as they say, is larger than the whole....

The huge response my review of her book generated, and the variety of opinions expressed therein, motivated me to reach out to her publicist on behalf of the USO to see if the governor was interested in stopping by Walter Reed when she was visiting the metro area for a book signing and the Gridiron Dinner. Within 24 hours I had a phone call saying, “Yes, the governor would absolutely like to see the troops and would prefer no publicity before the event...."

We locked in Saturday for Governor Palin’s visit. She would land Saturday morning, go directly to the hospital and spend a couple of hours with the troops, then go to her book signing an hour away in Fairfax, then back to DC for the Gridiron Dinner. A record snowstorm in the DC metro area and mechanical issues on her plane at Fort Hood, Texas, delayed her arrival. The governor made the flight the next day barely in time for the Saturday afternoon book signing and when I spoke to her in Fairfax she told me with flint in her eyes that her priority, if we could reschedule, was visiting the troops the next morning.

Military men and women are nimble, used to changed plans, and the governor is a woman who knows what is important and accordingly makes on-the-fly course corrections as well. She upended her Sunday calendar, postponing a book event in Iowa, so that she could see our wounded at Walter Reed.

She blew into the foyer at Walter Reed with her father, mother, aunt, husband and infant son, and she was quickly in Soldiers’ rooms, sitting with them, hugging the wounded, chatting with the families, holding the children, signing her books, giving away every ounce of energy she had in every room. I was impressed.

As the leader of thousands of troops in combat, I’ve been honored to visit hundreds of wounded and had the privilege of burying too many friends and fellow warriors. Accordingly, my “insincerity detector” is pretty good and I give Governor Palin high marks. She was in the moment with those Soldiers and families. All wrapped in one person, she was leader, mother, friend, grateful American, and grieving parent.

Indeed, she slipped emotionally between comments such as, “I can see my son in you,” and “I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve given to our great country.” Her son, Track, is an active duty Soldier in the combat infantry brigade in Alaska. Clearly, she could see her son in these Soldiers because he had been driving around Iraq leading the commander’s security team into the most dangerous areas, and she had been living every mother’s impossibly difficult job to pray for the best and know that the worst was possible. She has walked a mile in their shoes.

Hers were quiet words, spoken in the confines of a small hospital room with the wounded Soldier, his or her family present, and perhaps Todd Palin or Chuck Heath, the governor’s father, in the background.

At some point in time the President of the USO put her finger in my chest and said, “Tony go get your book, the troops are asking about it.” It had been some months since I had walked through the hospital and I didn’t want to latch onto the Palin event, but I tend to do what Elaine Rogers tells me to do, so I cycled back, dumped a bunch of books on the cart and went into rooms the governor had already visited.

This gave me the unique opportunity of getting feedback from the Soldiers and families as I sat with them apart from the governor’s entourage, this time signing my book and just chatting about combat, units, mutual acquaintances and so on. The feedback was universally positive about Governor Palin.

I’m a firm believer that the troops don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. The current occupant of the White House might be well advised to heed that advice, by the way.

Everyone I have ever known that has walked through Walter Reed and visited with our wounded has stood in that big foyer walking out of the front door on a high. Instead of feeling saddened at their tragedy, you are elated that you were able to spend a few minutes in the company of such men and women. You stood amongst heroes if only for a short while, but nonetheless, you were there.

And so it was with Governor Palin. She radiated energy as she left, saying, “It reminds us all of what is so important, our freedom, our great Soldiers…” She’s right, of course. Every time I visit with our wounded, I come away inspired and that day in December was no different. I was inspired by our troops, as always, and by their powerfully strong families.

But I was also inspired by Governor Palin and the fact that here we have a national politician who still has a soul and a spirit, and still cares. In my review of Going Rogue, I used the term “pioneer tough” to describe Palin and after spending a morning with her in the hospital with our wounded heroes, I think that’s a fitting description. If you read Going Rogue you get a good feel for the woman. She is as advertised: straightforward, caring, smart, quick-witted, family oriented, and very intuitive.

And, upon reflection, I was inspired by the fact that, in one weekend Jon Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, and Sarah Palin all agreed on one thing: that it is worth stopping their world and saying “thank you” to our wounded warriors and their families.

Palin in Salina, and Other Things... UPDATE: A Retraction

Short video of Salina Chamber of Commerce event:



I also just wanted to say a quick word on Michelle Obama being asked about Palin. I think that the First Lady handled it well. Most importantly, she avoided the trap of smearing Sarah Palin. Her remarks were well-put. I don't know if they were genuine, but it was the smart thing to do. An attack on Palin would have resulted in a huge backlash.

And Sean Hannity talked to John McCain last night. McCain said that the attacks on Palin hurt and baffled him and he couldn't hardly talk about it.

Okay, I'm starting to lean toward supporting John McCain's reelection. Given what I now know about Hayworth and the fact that (while I most certainly do not agree with John McCain on everything) McCain does have seniority in the Senate and is good on foreign policy, his pros may just outweigh his cons. But is he sincere in his defense of Palin? I'm still waiting to hear him publicly tell Steve Schmidt to shut his piehole.

One more thing, Gryphen and his cohorts have finally discovered this email. I saw it a days ago, but apparently, they're a little slow over there. It appears that Todd Palin (or someone using Todd's email account) replied to a letter to the Governor (from a private citizen) and signed it: "Governor Sarah Palin." Todd's email address stands for IronDogger. The "fe" is for iron and "k9" is dog. I think his license plate had a similar inscription.

Apparently, it's a Class B misdemeanor to impersonate a public servant. Whether this would qualify as that, or if there's another explanation, I don't know. Is it impersonating a public servant when a member of the Governor's staff writes up a thank you card or a letter and the Governor puts her name on it? No idea. Just a heads up.

UPDATE:

If you saw a post earlier saying that the judge granted Bristol her request for interim child support, I re-read the court documents and I noticed that the motion hasn't actually been signed, so I think I jumped the gun on that one. Sorry about that. I didn't notice the lack of signature the first time, so I took down the post.

To summarize the points that aren't gun-jumping, Bristol is asking for $1,750 a month in child support, at least for the interim until a final child support agreement is drawn up. She's also asking for retroactive child support. Levi has agreed to pay a %20 chunk of his 2009 income in one lump payment, if need be, which would probably actually exceed what Bristol's asking for.

Levi pushed back at Bristol's demand for $1,750 a month in child support, saying that he has no guarantee for the kind of big money he made last year this year. He's got a point there, but he's still trying to break into show business. His lawyer argues that Levi never made more than $10,000 a year before 2009. Well, duh. He was in high school.

He's lined up around $25,000 dollars worth for this coming year, plus some other stuff from Playgirl. But he has said he's willing to pay a 20% chunk of the 2009 income in one lump sum.

Bristol's response is here. Her request for the $1,750 a month is for interim child support, which is reasonable. She wants Tripp's due chunk of Levi's 2009 income. I'm not an expert on all the lawyer lingo, but it looks like Levi hasn't filled out certain papers on his income, so they're kind of in a limbo.

Levi's partial objections here. Bristol's response is here. Bristol's lawyer gave this exclusive statement to RadarOnline:

"Bristol is hopeful that Levi will obtain work in 2010. She is encouraged that he acknowledged in court his obligation to pay child support and that he acknowledged paying $4,400 in the last 14 months. Bristol expects to mediate a child visitation schedule with Levi that balances Tripp's need to be with his father with Levi's need to travel and seek work."

And it looks like the rumors flying around that Levi was going to play a "boy toy" on Desperate Housewives were only rumors. Access Hollywood is reporting that the Levi camp denounced it. So maybe Levi's still got a shred of self-respect.

Take Sarah Palin Seriously

Good article in the Washington Post by David Broder:
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The snows that obliterated Washington in the past week interfered with many scheduled meetings, but they did not prevent the delivery of one important political message: Take Sarah Palin seriously.

Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News' Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game -- a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself, even with notes on her palm.

This was not the first time that Palin has impressed me. I gave her high marks for her vice presidential acceptance speech in St. Paul. But then, and always throughout that campaign, she was laboring to do more than establish her own place. She was selling a ticket headed by John McCain against formidable Democratic opposition and burdened by the legacy of the Bush administration.

Blessed with an enthusiastic audience of conservative activists, Palin used the Tea Party gathering and coverage on the cable networks to display the full repertoire she possesses, touching on national security, economics, fiscal and social policy, and every other area where she could draw a contrast with Barack Obama and point up what Republicans see as vulnerabilities in Washington.

Her invocation of "conservative principles and common-sense solutions" was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

Freed of the responsibilities she carried as governor of Alaska, devoid of any official title but armed with regular gigs on Fox News Channel and more speaking invitations than she can fulfill, Palin is perhaps the most visible Republican in the land.

More important, she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has utilized when running against "the political establishment."

It doesn't always win. There are more John Edwardses and Mike Huckabees than I can count. But it wins more often than you'd guess and for a greater variety of people, especially when things are not going well for the country.

Palin's final answer to Wallace showed how perfectly she has come to inhabit that part. When he asked her what role she wants to play in the country's future, she said:

"First and foremost, I want to be a good mom, and I want to raise happy, healthy, independent children. And I want them to be good citizens of this great country.

"And then I do want to be a voice for some common-sense solutions. I'm never going to pretend like I know more than the next person. I'm not going to pretend to be an elitist. In fact, I'm going to fight the elitist, because for too often and for too long now, I think the elitists have tried to make people like me and people in the heartland of America feel like we just don't get it, and big government's just going to have to take care of us.

"I want to speak up for the American people and say: No, we really do have some good common-sense solutions. I can be a messenger for that. Don't have to have a title to do it."

This is a pitch-perfect recital of the populist message that has worked in campaigns past. There are times when the American people are looking for something more: for an Eisenhower, who liberated Europe; an FDR or a Kennedy or a Bush, all unashamed aristocrats; or an Obama, with eloquence and brains.

But in the present mood of the country, Palin is by all odds a threat to the more uptight Republican aspirants such as Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty -- and potentially, to Obama as well.

Palin did not wear well in the last campaign, especially in the suburbs where populism has a limited appeal. But when Wallace asked her about resigning the governorship with 17 months left in her term and whether she let her opponents drive her from office, she said, "Hell, no."

Those who want to stop her will need more ammunition than deriding her habit of writing on her hand. The lady is good.

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And this article, while not written by a Palin fan, is the perfect example of someone who is starting to wake up and realize that Sarah Palin is not just a joke to be dismissed:
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Let's face it. We can't get rid of Sarah Palin.

In the past 72 hours, going from the molasses south of Opryland to the macho southwest of Texas to the gambling capital of Nevada and points in between, this crazy force of nature swept through, her zigzagging path shown live and on videotape repeatedly, her words and sounds parsed, deciphered, analyzed -- even the crib notes on the palm of her hand were subject of jokes at the White House and on cable TV and newspapers, on the evening news and in the blogosphere.

For a while there, with her speech on Saturday evening at the National Tea Party convention in Nashville (televised live by all three cable news networks) and her taped interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," where she breezily revealed she would run for president in 2012 if it was right for the country and her family, we had Palin live, Palin on tape, Palin in sound bites, Palin blithering.

Her casual statement to Wallace sent a seismic tremor across the mainstream media and across party lines.

At this premature stage of the presidential race, few prospective candidates would admit plans to run. Palin's forthright admission surprised Wallace (he said so later on his program). Apparently other commentators and pundits were surprised too, and alarmed, and discussed little else on the Monday talk shows.

Liberal pundits asked, hoping, if she would run as a third party candidate (another Ross Perot, another losing campaign), but she'd already said, in Nashville and elsewhere, that she believed that the Tea Party movement would meld with the GOP, that she didn't believe in breaking away from her party.

Palin's off-the-cuff statement to Wallace should not have been a surprise. She's been doing little else with her time but building a national base and feeding off adoring crowds. But it is one thing to speculate about her political future and another thing to hear her declare her interest and intent on national television.

Suddenly, on Sunday, a Palin presidential candidacy was no longer just a pie-in-the-sky dream of Tea Partiers.

That she is the leader of the most passionate and potent grass-roots movement of the moment (think Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey), there is no doubt. That she's riding a wave, there's no doubt. That she could galvanize that growing political force, there's little doubt. With a flip of her hair, the beauty queen from Wasilla could change the political field, just like that.

Polls show Palin ahead of other potential GOP presidential candidates, which may or may not be saying too much. (A CBS News poll last month found that 71 percent of Americans don't want her to run.) She is by most accounts the most popular celebrity politician in the nation, an icon to millions.

It doesn't hurt that she's got great looks and five children to boot, and that she speaks the language of the folks out there in middle America. They love it when she says things like, "How's that hope-y, change-y thing working out for ya?"

She's got that "it" factor that pundits, columnists, political junkies, and regular people go crazy trying to figure out. Now, what is it about her? Certainly only Barack Obama beats her on charisma and crowd attraction, and maybe not by that much.

Given all that, the cable news talk shows recycled the Palin weekend clips, reviewed her performance, gauged her presidential prospects (scary to most) and weighed endlessly whether the world could survive Sarah Palin.

It's bad enough that Palin resurrected herself after a disastrous vice presidential campaign and resignation as governor of Alaska last July. Her muddled explanations for quitting the governorship made her a pariah in media and political circles, and she was exiled to the silent wilds of Alaska.

Given up for politically dead, her swift and amazing comeback as author of a No. 1 best-selling memoir, "Going Rogue," and hero of the mushrooming Tea Party movement has been a shock to the system.

So there she is now, on center stage, Sarah 2.0, taking the shots.

"She's a force to be reckoned with,'' said Diane Sawyer on "ABC World News" on Monday.

But Palin's critics are legion, loud, and come in all political shades. Even a fellow conservative Republican like Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," frowns at the thought of a Palin presidential candidacy. On MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" on Monday, he said, in part, that Palin is "not the voice of somebody who's going to take on Obama in 2012."

Other critics are not quite as sensible and even-keeled. Going for the jugular has become fair game when it comes to Palin. The New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica slashed her bloody in a Monday column in which he said that she seems to believe that "somehow she can go from being this kind of pinup girl for her Tea Party friends to the White House." He also called her a bubble-head. "You listen to her long enough and actually feel yourself getting dimmer by the minute."

Meaner and tougher Chris Mathews, the voluble host of "Hardball," makes no secret of his contempt for Sarah Palin and her followers. Agitated by the idea that Palin might dare to run for president, he dribbled a string of jabs on his shows on Monday and Tuesday, saying, among other things, "Is she a balloon-head?" and "She's got nothing going on mentally."

Really, now.

POTUS vs. TOTUS

From an article in Midwest Voices calling out Gibbs for making his boss look bad by mocking Palin:

"Palin, of course, has been ridiculed -- and rightly so -- for scrawling several words such as "tax" and "energy" on her left hand..."

I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was a crime to write on your hand.

Here's the thing about the TOTUS criticism:

It's not wrong to use teleprompters. Everybody uses them. That's not the point. The point is that Obama is over-reliant on the dumb thing, and he so obviously has no clue what the speeches are even supposed to be when the teleprompter goes down. The point is that he doesn't appear to actually have a clue about what he's talking about without the teleprompter. The appearance is that he's an actor just reading his lines. That's the criticism. It's the puppet-like nature of TOTUS, not the fact that he uses a piece of technology.

The difference with Palin writing on her hand is obvious: She wrote on her hand. She knows the words because she wrote them. She wrote down her own answer. That kind of flies in the face of the whole, "Palin doesn't know what she's talking about. Someone else writes all of her stuff" theory doesn't it? I hardly think that someone else was writing on her hand.

And here's my theory about the whole thing:

We've all seen Palin during the VP debate furiously writing things down while the moderator was asking the question. I've watched her press conferences back in Alaska, and she does the same thing there. She writes down what she wants to say and then says it. I read somewhere that the questions were pre-screened. If that's true, she probably wrote down really quick what she wanted to say on her hand.

We've all had that moment when we thought of something extra that we wanted to say and the only thing to write on was our hand. Big flippin' deal. From the way the media has lost its mind over this, you'd think she murdered somebody.

The whole point of the mocking of TOTUS isn't that Obama reads his words; it's that he doesn't appear to know what he's reading because when the thing goes down, so does his speaking ability. Sarah Palin obviously knew what she was reading because she obviously wrote it herself. So the comparison of TOTUS and POTUS (Palm of the United States) is hilarious, and completely unfounded.

The Bob and Mark Show

Bob and Sarah at the Combat Fishing Tournament

The Bob and Mark Show is a morning show in Anchorage, Alaska. They were big supporters of Palin in her campaign for Governor, and if you want to check out those audio bites, just check out my You Tube channel. Link is on the right-hand side.

Here's Bob and Mark early this morning on the Todd Palin advising his wife "scandal":


And I thought this was kinda fun too:

Vids, Vids....and More Vids

Ted Nugent rocks the Star Spangled Banner at the Palin/Perry event:



Perry makes Palin an honorary Texan:



Another vid of the Perry event:



Dennis Prager on Palin's Palm:



Beck today:



Palin's Palm Pilot:



And while I don't agree with Bush on many things, and have probably been a tad too hard on him, I like this video:

Crowder on SNL

Steven Crowder article on Big Hollywood:

SNL… They were doing so well for a while. It looked like rather than bending over for the administration, they were going to return to the irreverent brand of “take no prisoners” humor that has made them the political powerhouse that they are today. There was the infamous “Obama Deals with China” sketch, followed by a few subtle jabs at the POTUS, but it has ended there. In an attempt to remain politically relevant, SNL has decided to once again go after none other than Sarah Palin. At the very least, you have to respect them for being ballsy, right?

To the untrained eye, SNL’s recent “Rahm Emanuel Apology” sketch would seem to be poking fun at the chief-of-staff designate. To be fair, they make him look like a bit of a jerk (albeit still a smart one.) Personally I would have gone with the whole “he looks like Brad Garret on a heroin-bender” angle, but keep in mind that I’m a bi-partisan hack. The most notable part of the SNL piece had nothing to do with Emmanuel himself, but the jabs taken at Sarah Palin:

“You come after me on Facebook? What, are your fourteen? Here’s a status update: Grow the f–k up! Poke me again, and I will write s–t on your wall so obscene your computer will cry. Go back to the tundra, you f–king gimmick!”

One has to ask themselves, “Where are the jokes?” The only truthful premise for any of these punchlines is that Sarah Palin effectively used social networking tools to make a fool out of the pencil-necked Emanuel. Does that really make her immature? Most of the current administration use some form of new media (including the President himself who seems quite the twitter-fiend).

The only difference is that Palin seems to currently have more sway over public opinion and the ultimate ability to define policy (even though she holds no official). Still, I haven’t yet seen anyone address the mean-spiritedness of the SNL swipes at Palin. Maybe that’s because those attacks are only reserved to Palin herself, as seen by the reaction to a recent joke at her latest Tea Party speech.

“We really do love our trees. I named my daughter Willow. Isn’t that granola enough for them?”

Don’t expect to see Palin at your local comedy club anytime soon, but the joke can stand on its own two feet. According to the mainstream media however, it was seen as too edgy or (according to some) flat out “mean.” How can a joke with no clear-cut personal target, no true social relevancy or words of hatred be mean? Maybe I’m just a simp.

See when it comes to dealing with Palin, none of the facts matter. Much like their sentiments towards FoxNews, the media is blinded by its hatred for the woman. You’re going to see a lot more “pile-ons” when it comes to Palin in the coming months, and here’s why…

Palin’s Achilles heel was her lack of experience in dealing with the media. Much like Reagan, she decided to control her own message. She did so by hitting the road with her book and dealing directly with the American people. Unlike Reagan (who worked in the entertainment industry for years), this wasn’t going to help her where she needed it most. The only way to gain media experience is to get in front of the media.

Enter Palin’s Fox News contributorship. Palin now has an open venue where she can get her feet wet in dealing with the press, without having to worry about getting sucker-punched like a photographer adjacent to a coked-out Sean Penn.

It really is a genius move on her part, and the folks at NBC hate that. The fact that she’s incredibly hot only exacerbates their problem. While I’m not necessarily 100% sold on Palin as an 2012 candidate so far, what the media continues to do to her is criminal. I’m talking Barney Frank-level criminal. Why isn’t he in federal prison, by the way? I’d pay a nickel to see that mugshot.

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Here's a video of Steven's:

Palin: Get Motivated

Someone took some camera snippets of Palin's Get Motivated speech:

Vids and Ceremonial Bannings

First up, Tammy Bruce had a sensational program yesterday. There's five parts. They should play after each other automatically:




And here's Rush Limbaugh today talking about Palin's palm and the polls:



And now on to the fun stuff.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my first banning. I'm putting on my figurative ceremonial banning hat for this one. It's very stylish.

I was going to let the little fellow stay and have his fun, but then I thought about how cruel that really was. Here's a person who obviously has nothing better to do than hang around websites that he/she/it doesn't even like and spew meaningless Palin-hating talking points gleaned from the Underworld at someone that is small potatoes to say the least. Not much of a life. I must help this poor soul get that life he/she/it is obviously sorely lacking.

So, in the spirit of human decency, I must push this little scumbirdie out of my nest. You know who you are. From here on, all of your comments will be deleted. Your past comments have already been deleted. It is as if you never existed, at least, not in my universe. I suggest you take advantage of this opportunity to expand beyond your hatred and do something productive with your life.

As for my blog, consider yourself blacklisted, extinct, banished, barred, disallowed, excluded, or (my personal favorite) gone poof. It was nice knowin' ya.

Not.

Palin's Team, Meghan McCain, and Sickos

An interesting article in the New York Times found here. Excerpts:
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Ms. Palin is quietly assembling the infrastructure of an expanding political operation. In addition to her longtime spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, Ms. Palin’s closest aides include members of her former running mate’s staff. Her current operations chief, Jason Recher, was a loyal lieutenant on Ms. Palin’s campaign plane — loyal to a point where some top McCain aides believed he was encouraging Ms. Palin’s “rogue” behavior. (According to internal campaign e-mail messages provided by a former top McCain aide, campaign officials considered firing Mr. Recher in October 2008 over “unacceptable” and “unprofessional” conduct during a rough swing through New Hampshire and Maine.)

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a badge of honor to be thought of negatively by some of these people,” Mr. Recher said. “But the bottom line is, I was incredibly proud to serve John McCain, and I couldn’t be happier to be part of Sarah Palin’s world now.”

People with knowledge of the daily briefings say they are conducted by phone or e-mail. They typically include information on the day’s news, material that could be relevant to an upcoming speech, or guidance about a candidate Ms. Palin might endorse. Mr. Scheunemann in particular is known as a conservative hawk on foreign affairs, in keeping with what many Palin-watchers have viewed as her steady shift to the right.

“She used to be a moderate Republican in Alaska, but I think all of these attacks have hardened her and made her absolutely more conservative,” said John Coale, a Washington lawyer and longtime Democratic fund-raiser who helped Ms. Palin set up her political action committee.

Mr. Coale, the husband of the Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, said the crowds that swarmed Ms. Palin’s campaign and book events have provided comfort amid so much criticism.

“I think there have been times during all the attacks when she thought, ‘This is just too much,’ ” Mr. Coale said. “But now I think it all makes her more determined. Whatever she’s doing now, it feels like a calling to her.”

Along with her paid advisers, Ms. Palin has been in regular contact with a kitchen cabinet of Washington power brokers: Mr. Barnett, a Democrat, on business and media decisions, and Fred Malek, an aide to Presidents Richard M. Nixon and the elder George Bush, on political matters.

When asked by The New York Times for others to speak to about Ms. Palin, her spokeswoman, Ms. Stapleton, mentioned the Republican media adviser Mary Matalin (who has been in sporadic contact with Ms. Palin’s camp) and Dana Perino, the former White House press secretary for George W. Bush (who seemed barely to know her)....

“I think if Sarah has a passion, it’s that she really believes that there is a silent majority out there that she wants the folks in Washington to know about,” said Kristan Cole, a friend in Wasilla.
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Not sure how reliable the New York Times is, but I think the parts by Jason Recher and John Coale are interesting.

And Meghan McCain is an idiot. From her gross misunderstanding of Palin's remarks on Iran to Chris Wallace, to saying that the Tea Parties are due to an innate racism, Meghan is more of a pain in the butt than her father will ever be. As for Rush Limbaugh, see my post below. It's so stupid.

And can the Left do anything without sexual innunendo? First teabaggers and now hand jobs. Some people can't think about anything without making it about sex. No wonder the Palin-haters are obsessed with her legs.

And a note on the teleprompter: It's okay to use one. Yes, that's right. No one is saying that you should never use a teleprompter. But relying on it to such an extent that people doubt you can go to the bathroom unless it tells you to, is a tad extreme.

The Latest from Levi

Well, the Johnstons went on ET last night. Go to the ET website and scroll down for story and (if you can stomach it) video. It's Tripp's first birthday party video at the Johnston's house. I didn't watch it with the sound up, because, quite frankly, I didn't want to retch. The video looks like it's almost an exact copy of the Palin's birthday party. Cake, sink, and all. I thought the Palins weren't letting Levi see Tripp. Huh.

Listen, I absolutely hate that Levi turned scumbag. But I am forever and always a believer in redemption. And while I have vented on Levi from time to time, there is no doubt in my mind that he loves his son. How could you not love your son? I also assume that he will get joint custody. For one thing, Alaska law favors it. For another, I hold out hope that Levi will grow up. It's a slim hope, but it's still there. And if he does grow up, he should be a part of Tripp's life. Well, to be fair he would be part of his life whether he got joint custody or not, but you know what I mean. Emotions run high in these kinds of situations, and invariably, both sides think that they're right.

But Levi will also have to pay child support. Sucks, I know. My dad never made more than 20-25 thousand dollars a year while I was growing up. He logged for a couple years and only made around 10,000. He has three kids from a previous marriage, and he had to pay child support on all three of them. The judge looked right at my mom and me (I was a baby) and told my dad that he didn't care if we had a roof over our heads, the first kids got paid for first.

Is it always fair? Probably not. But it's life. Suck it up.

And I believe that child support is based on income, hence the high amount demanded by Bristol so far. That's what you get for posing nude in magazines.

Media

Videos on Palin's TPNC speech, among other things. First up, my favorite of the day, Sean Hannity:




Mark Levin. I posted this once already, but that was through Blogger because You Tube was being dumb:



Here's Laura, who, in some ways, still doesn't get it. But it's pretty good:



And finally, here's Glenn Beck on Palin's endorsement of Rand Paul:



I don't agree with Glenn on this one. I don't agree with Rand on everything, but he's solid on most things, and he's not as radical as his father is on defense. Read his defense platform here. Video there too.

Also, the nation will probably be passing some kind of health care reform, whether it's Obama's or someone else's. Rand Paul's background in medicine could be a huge asset to that debate. And Glenn, not all of the founding fathers believed the same thing. A few of the founders actually had feuds with each other. Alexander Hamilton practically favored a monarchy, for Pete's sake. Methinks your view of American history is too simplistic, Glenn. I tend to side with Mark Levin over you on some of these issues these days. For more on the founders, see my previous post here.

A Few Good Pics

Just wanted to post some of my favorite Palin pics from the last couple days:

Palin vs. Limbaugh

Forget Rush, Sarah Palin should call out herself. After all, she said the "R" word in her interview with Chris Wallace:

"I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with "F-ing retards."

Aha! She said it! She should call out herself!

Rush Limbaugh was obviously mocking Rahm Emanuel. Media: "But he said the "R" word..." Yeah, and so did most of you in reporting this story. Should Palin call you all out?

It's absurd. I don't like anyone using the word in any context, but there's a clear difference between the usages.

The media doesn't actually care about any of this. If they did, they'd rake everyone over the coals who has used this word and not just Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh was using satire. Satire is cutting and often shocking. That's the whole point. All the media wants to do is create a controversy between Palin and Rush, and neither one of them is going to step into that trap.

Mark Levin on Palin's TPNC Speech

Fox and Friends and TOTUS Falls for POTUS

Here's the F&F gang talking about Palin's Tea Party speech and the writing on her hand:



And here's a great piece in the American Thinker. TOTUS falls in love with POTUS (Palm of the United States):
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From: TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States)

To: Sarah Palin's Hand

Subject: Memorandum

I hope you will not think this too forward of me but I noticed your picture in this article and must say I was instantly and deeply smitten. I assure you I am not in the habit of writing passionate missives to strange hands but I feel instantly we have so much in common.

First, I must begin with an explanation of who I am and what I do.

I work, as you might have heard for the President. I tell him everything he needs to say, whether it is to a handful of reporters in a kids' classroom or a speech before thousands. It's true that now and then he ignores me. But every time he does, he runs into big problems. Like the time he told a swank crowd in San Francisco that those Americans who didn't live in such rich places were clinging bitterly to their guns and God. Or something. (I really try not to pay attention to his many goofs when he's away from me because it makes me sad, knowing what pitfalls my presence could have avoided.)

Do I always rescue him when he remembers to pack me, you might wonder? Well, no. I mean I also phonetically spell out any word I think might be problematic, but who the hell supposed that the president of the Harvard Law Review wouldn't know that corpsman is not pronounced "corpseman"? And then -- the nerve -- he tried to blame me for that.

It is apparent that you play a much smaller role in Palin's life than I do in Obama's. I mean she only wrote a couple of words on you and they were simply memory aids not speeches. I say this not to denigrate your position nor to suggest how much more important I am than you are, but really, it seems to me in any long term relationship one of the partners has to have more time to devote to the everyday things, and, my dear Palin's hand, it seems to me that of the two of us, that's you.

Of course, you have to accompany her and I have to accompany him, which means we may not get to spend a great deal of time together. You'll be mostly in Wasilla and I'll be mostly on Air Force One traveling from one failed Hail Mary trip to another -- Copenhagen, Copenhagen, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts... well you get the picture.

But absence makes the heart grow fonder they say.

If you have any interest in me, could you just give me a wave the next time she's speaking? I'll know what you mean and I'll try to respond as soon as he gives me a breather.
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Poor TOTUS. Methinks he will welcome a new master in 2012. In the meantime, we must sympathize with the poor, lonely piece of technology, gazing from afar upon its unrequited love.

I'm Baaaaack

Wow. What a week. Should I even try to catch up?

I watched the Tea Party Convention on C-SPAN last night. I enjoyed the panel before Palin's speech as well. Good stuff. Everybody hyped up the TPNC speech, making it out to be the next RNC speech, but I doubted it. This was not for a campaign.

Apparently, there's some controversy over Palin writing on her hand. I kid you not. Some say that the pics of the writing are faked. I don't know. I don't really care. It's a stupid non-issue. But I'm lovin' this:



"Hi, Mom!" She has way too much fun.

As for the Todd Palin emails, all I can say is, thank you anklebiters. I have enjoyed the inside look at the Palin administration with the previous email dumps, and I'm enjoying this one. And Todd's role is highly overrated, but I'll have more on that later.


Haven't seen the Chris Wallace interview yet; I'm still in Super Bowl mode.

Here's some Tammy Bruce. A few days old, but still good:




My take on the Palin vs. Rahm thing is pretty much the same as Sean Hannity's:



Great articles in Hillbuzz. One on how "polarizing" Palin is here. And this one is my favorite:

Today is Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday.

Next year is his centennial.

We believe one year from today Sarah Palin will officially declare her bid for the presidency, with the Reagan family at her side.

There’s a chance she’ll do this in Tampica, Illinois and not Wasilla, Alaska.

Governor Palin, if you ever read this, we hope you know you’ve got a ground team ready and willing to start hitting Iowa for you. You need to start early and not wait too long to get on top of the Caucus. Learn from the mistakes we all made on the Clinton ‘08 campaign.

You can and will be the 45th president if you want it, Governor. We will do everything we can to help you.

One year from today, when you announce, we hope to be there in person to cheer you on.

Go, Sarah, Go!

Okay, I'll leave you alone for now. Good night Bill589, wherever you are!