Saturday, April 17, 2010

Conservative Women Are Burning the Boats Instead of Bras


A great article by Jim Kelly:
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I will be forever grateful to Senator John McCain for many things. His sacrificial service to our Republic is but one. Most recently I am thankful for his introducing to America, Sarah Palin.

Having had spent a lot of time in Alaska in the late 90’s as a representative for a premium cruise line, I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Palin on an occasion in Talkeetna Alaska. I found her intelligent and engaging but most of all I left with that funny feeling you get about people when you just know they are destined for great things in their life.

She was just as “down home” and folksy then as she is now, but get her to talk about her passion, which at that time was Alaska, and she could rattle off facts and figures to support her position like a chief financial officer on the golf course.

My interest in things military, I asked what it was like living in Alaska when the Soviet Union was only a stone’s throw from the states front porch. She replied that if it weren’t for military people willing to do isolated tours of duty in Adak, Ronald Reagan wouldn’t have been as successful in bringing the cold war to a close. That is the way I remember the conversation some 12 years ago.

Sarah Palin has brought to our table a new kind of conservative woman, the conservative activist. All over the United States, women from all walks of life who had been cowed in the work place by liberal feminist rhetoric. These women watched and listened. Now, the skills they learned about organizing, fund raising and campaign management are being used by these women to return their communities, their schools, their precincts and districts, to sanity....

I recently went to another home gathering of conservative women called “Winning with Women” founded by Leslie VanBorsumm, a long time supporter of all things Republican in Pima County and the rest of Arizona and California. Packed with candidates from Phoenix to Tucson there were only four men in attendance, one was the husband of a candidate the other two husbands of precinct committeepersons and myself. Leslie remembers campaigning for Barry Goldwater.

She is one of the more seasoned veterans of the Pima GOP but one who has embraced change in the party, the tools that we use, and stays active and on top of the issues. She uses Facebook to network with her women and it works. She took a more traditional approach working within the party. She actively sought the support of the state and national party leadership before she launched.

Her goals are much like Smart Girl Politics, issue education, reversing media stereotypes but more importantly, something SGP does not do is endorse candidates, combined and coordinated efforts on a regional level to get conservative women elected. Ms VanBorsumm is a Republican and she wants Republican women elected.

“We have to take back the country from creeping socialism. It’s going to be women that do it. We have replaced our family infrastructure that has traditionally been run by women, and given our female power over to Big Daddy government, no more....”

It is women that lead families, in every culture in the world. They have always been the field marshals of the home. It will be women that take back their leadership and push back socialism. It will be women talking to women that re-educate the lost generations.

One of my favorite scenes in the “The Postman” with Kevin Costner is when he has been all healed up from his wounds nursed by the female lead and he does not want to return to the cause he started, the woman burns down the cabin, forcing Costner to return to the fight.

Women, like the field marshals of old, you may be the ones that have to burn the boats of the fence sitting, compromising, lazy republican men and tell them “Fight or Die, there is no going back, this is for our family.”

Sarah Palin is Real and Genuine

An article in the Canada Free Press:

Canada Free Press’ (CFP’s) Judi McLeod had the honour to meet former vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd at a sold-out dinner in Hamilton last night.

American friends knowing about the event sent me messages asking me to tell Gov. Palin how much they admire her.

Noting how the former vice-presidential candidate had told the Hamilton crowd that Americans she encounters often mistake her for a Canadian because of her distinctive manner of speech, the Globe and Mail said, “People think she talks like us.”

I attended the event thinking that perhaps Gov. Palin was getting a little full of herself, but I was wrong.

Sarah Palin could be the most genuine, real politician I ever met.

If only more politicians could be more like the down to earth Sarah Palin, we’d all be better off for it.

Michigan CFP reader Hank Tinkham wanted me to convey to Sarah Palin how much he and other Americans respect and admire her, which I couldn’t do.

But Mr. Tinkham can now consider his message delivered.

Palin Speaks to 16,000+ Women...

...and at least one man. C4P commentor, Sapwolf was there fending off the ladies with his wedding ring. LOL! Hopefully Todd sensed that he wasn't completely alone in that sea of estrogen. And it was a sea:



The Courier Journal has a write-up:
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Palin told a Freedom Hall crowd of about 16,000 Friday night that she was there to inspire women in their faith, not to talk politics.

But the 2008 Republican candidate for vice president acknowledged she couldn’t help but do the latter, saying politics “courses through my veins.”

“This nation needs you,” Palin told the women. “Know the facts. Stand for what’s right. Don’t be discouraged by the mocking of those who want to claim we just cling to our religion. I’m the first to admit — yeah, I do cling to my faith. That’s all I’ve got...”

She asked for the women — who greeted her with an enthusiastic standing ovation — to provide a “prayer shield” to strengthen her against what she said was “deception” in the media...

“We thought she would be a very good fit for us,” Waldrep said. “There are a lot of women today who have special-needs children, such as with autism or Down syndrome.”
Palin said she struggled to maintain those convictions at the time, urgently praying that God would spare her child from the diagnosis. But she recalled looking out her Anchorage, Alaska, office on a snowy day and getting a doctor’s call confirming it.
“I had nowhere else to go… but prayer,” she said.

But when she held Trig after his birth, she was convinced they did the right thing. “Choosing life may not be the easiest path, but it really is the right path,” she said.

Special-needs children “make the world a better place,” Palin said. “It’s our job to make the world a more welcoming place for them...”

Last year, the event drew about 5,000, Waldrep said.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Text of Palin's Ontario Speech

Transcript of Sarah's speech in Canada last night. I edited it slightly for length, but it's still loooong. You can find the whole thing here. Keep in mind, this is a transcript, so all the little stuff made it in as well:
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I don’t know if I should Buenos Aires or Bonjour, or... this is such a melting pot. This is so beautiful. I love this diversity. Yeah. There were a whole bunch of guys named Tony in the photo line, I know that. And in the introduction too, in the instructions to you all, I got a kick out of the instruction “No heckling.” I am so used to the heckling, it’s okay! We’re used to it. They just hit you into the boards and maybe get called for a penalty or whatever, but we can handle that too....

But this reminds me of heading out on stage on the VP trail when I was getting ready to debate Joe Biden. And there were like 40 some million viewers that I knew were out there waiting to see “is she going to crash? Is she going to be able to handle herself? How’s it going to go?” Whenever we go and do something big in life, like a vice presidential debate – it’s kind of big – I like to say a prayer about it, you know. I need some divine inspiration and I need to remember what it really is all about, so that evening before the debate I remember being back stage and looking around for somebody to pray with. And looking around at the campaign staff and there’s nobody to prayer with.

But backstage there was Piper, at the time my seven year old. And I told Piper, I tried to make it easy for her to understand, I said “Piper, kay, I’m going out on stage. I’m debatin’ this guy, it’s going to be kind of tough.” I said, “So pray with me, honey.” And I grabbed her hands because that’s what we always do, we pray together. I said “Piper, just pray that I win.” Cause you know, why not?! Just pray that I do well, and oh man, try and keep it easy, I said “Just pray that God just speaks right through me.” And Piper said “God, speaking through you? That would be cheating.”

Not that I would ever think that God would speak through me, but wanting to leave you with a little bit of inspiration and encouragement and maybe on a personal level have a conversation with you about some of the things that Todd and I have been through in the last year and a half, the last couple of years, that hopefully you can learn a couple of lessons from, because we’ve been through quite a few challenges, quite a few battles and you all too, everybody goes through battles, everybody has challenges. Some are played out in the newspapers, some of ours have been. Maybe yours have not been.

But everybody has to make tough decisions and prioritize things in life and here we are tonight, given an opportunity to come together to reach out to help others, to help children, who are in need. We don’t want to squander this opportunity, we want to be inspired and encourage and remember that though we all do go through some tough challenging times, we talked at the head table tonight that we need to be able to count our blessings, not our problems....

It’s gorgeous here and you can just feel the hospitable spirit that is part of this town and I know that you are known for volunteerism and to help one another. Looking out at the landscape, I became so impressed you know with God’s country, this is gorgeous, and already having met some great people, thinking how lucky you all are. But I’m also looking out my hotel window and I’m overlooking Copps Colliseum and I’m thinking, What a great place for an NHL franchise! [applause] You’re all set up for it. I’d come in for the first face off, we’d love to be a part of it, so you know if ever I run into the president of the NHL, yeah, I’ll put a little bug in his ear, okay. We’ll do that....

My favourite quote, coach Lou Holtz from Notre Dame, and I know there are a couple of guys here who love Notre Dame, yeah. Well Coach Holtz, he had said that God did not put us on this earth to be ordinary, he expects great things from us. He’s not going to drive parked cars, either. We shouldn’t just sit around in a parked car and have him do something for us.

No, you need opportunities to get out there and be productive and to contribute and he expects us not to be boring and depressed and not productive. He didn’t put us on this earth to be ordinary. And you, being here tonight, an example of those who are extraordinary because you’re part of an event tonight that is extraordinary. It’s an opportunity to reach out and help children, and I don’t think there is anything more important in life than helping children. So meeting Carmen’s team and you all helping with this charity, it’s inspiring to me.

Very, very good though, to be in Canada, our Alaskan neighbour. I know that maybe others in the U.S. love Canada too, but who loves Canada more than your neighbour there in Alaska? We have such a great connection with you all, I think we share so much. With wildlife and resources and again with that work ethic and that pioneering spirit that just flows through Canada, that’s my state too, that’s Alaska. That’s the way we live and we’re brought up. And um, our accents too. You know how many people ask me on the campaign trail if I was Canadian? They think that we talk alike. We say ‘eh’ too, in Alaska. Never thought anything of it until some reporters...

But too, my first five years of life were spent right there on the border of Canada, right next to you all, but further away. My dad was a school teacher so he went up there to teach school so we spent time on that connection between the two countries and we would travel East often, so many times drive the Alaska-Canada highway, loving that beautiful road trip and when I got older, participating in the Klondike road race....

Relatives from Canada, too. We have the foundation of the Palin family, one grandfather was born in Manitoba, this was a farming family there. And then another one born in Saskatchewan and we were some pretty funny stories of our relatives who were bootleggers I guess. This was many, many years ago. Don’t blame me. There’s never a boring story when it comes to the Palins....

But I want to tell you, on behalf of the United States, how much we appreciate you. One thing, thank you for hosting our American athletes and athletes from all over the place in the wonderful Olympics that you did such a good job. Thank you so much. It was a beautiful event and it gave the world the opportunity to find out what Alaskans already knew that Canada is the beautiful place. It’s special and it’s a wonderful place and it’s full of some tough and talented hockey players, too. And congratulations on taking gold in hockey. [applause] It was palm worthy [holds up hand to reveal writing]. I had to remind myself on that one: Be nice about the Olympic gold. I promised that I would.

Both our countries love that tough tenacious sport. And Todd and I spent some good hockey time with kids here over the years. It’s healthy competition. Yeah, you beat us from time to time on the ice, but coming in second team USA I thought they had nothing to apologize for...

In about one year’s time span, what Todd and I have gone through...You think, wow, there could be some lessons could be learned in this. First of all I was very, very busy. I was governor of Alaska and not having been elected at a relatively young age, at the time looking back I think I was young back then when I was first elected, it seems eons ago. Being governor of the largest state to the Union and Todd was really busy.

For many years Todd has worked up on the oil fields in Crudo Bay, up on the north slope of Alaska. Many weeks up on the north slope. In fact it’s the equivalent of about six months on the north slope and then six months home, but when he’s home his job is a commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay, another tough, blue collar, hard core job. So he’s very busy with his vocations and allocations, in addition to being Alaska’s First Dude...

Todd is so cool because one of the tea parties he attended he had just come off the airplane and had tea at the White House with the first ladies including Mrs Bush. He had just gotten off the snowmobile race, he’s the four time world champion of snow-machine racing, the longest snow-machine race in the world, it’s 2,000 miles across Alaska. Very rugged. He had broken his arm with 400 miles to go in the race and had finished the race and then got it casted.

So he ripped his cast off before the tea party with Mrs. Bush and it was just cracking me up thinking, man, if only people knew, the way that we really live. But he’s pretty amazing that he’s been able to multitask like that. In fact, his commute from the governors mansion was about 1,700 miles. That’s how big Alaska is and that’s how long his commute was so that added to it.

Well, while I was younger I was busy, I was the chairman of the state’s oil and gas commission, so dealing on a national level with oil and gas issues. Having four kids, our oldest son, Track, who grew up obsessed with hockey. He too, like all of us hockey moms, he just thought he was going to be the next Wayne Gretzky. And don’t we all think our kids going to be that and we don’t want to take that dream away from them because life can suck a dream out of a kid, a mom, a dad, we shouldn’t be the one to diminish that dream, so encouraging him, travelling all over the nation and he doing really well. He just turned 18 and finally his last shoulder surgery, his injury had just, it, it, reality set in....

So, he decides on September 11 that he’s going to enlist in the United States army as an infantry man. He’s barely 18 years old and that just kind of rocked my world. And it all of a sudden, shifted in me that perspective on what was going on in the world and how important peace is and we don’t want to send our sons and our daughters to war unless there is a good purpose to this. So Track enlisted in the army and he was to deploy to Iraq in a year, in a war zone, the next September 11. And it filled in me such an appreciation for country, for patriotism, such an appreciation for understanding freedom isn’t free, and we do have to fight for our freedom and there is great sacrifice involved in that. That’s what his enlistment and then his deployment, he being gone for a year in a war zone, taught me...

I found out that I was pregnant. And here I was no spring chicken, you know? So, that was kind of another earth-shattering experience to go through, all in one year. And I’m thinking “dang it” I didn’t know what to think, it was surreal. But I’m thinking I’m 43 years old, I know what the critics are going to say, they’re going to say “there Alaska goes, they finally elect the first woman governor and she goes and gets herself pregnant.” I knew the criticism would come but I knew I could handle that. Five kids, right on, the more the merrier. Todd and I love kids. Gosh, we just live for children and for helping children.

Well, about 12 weeks along in the pregnancy, Todd was in Canada, a vo-tech school in Edmonton. I went to the doctor and he said well we’ve got some test results for you and you need to sit down and just be prepared. And I thought, I’ve never been sick a day in my life, everything’s going to be fine. And she told me the baby’s going to be born with Down syndrome. So that’s another thing that just sort of, wow, shattered my world for a minute, because I was scared to death. I said “wait a minute God, I didn’t order this.” How in the world am I going to handle this? Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would be in that situation.

And my sister has a child with autism and one of my thought’s was, “God, my sister is the one who is compassionate and she has more time and she’s kind of wired to deal with a child with special needs. I don’t think I am. And unless you change my heart, God, I don’t think I’m going to be able to handle this one.” But having to hold onto faith that I had always talked about and preached about and thought I believed in, that God wouldn’t give us something we couldn’t handle. For Todd, when he returned from Canada, I said Todd, aren’t you thinking ‘Why us?” And he said “Why not us?” And that shifted perspective right off the bat too, again thinking we are privileged and we are blessed....

I didn’t tell anybody I was pregnant until I was seven months along and I knew people thought I was getting chubby but they were too nice to say anything. There we are in February, March, in Alaska and I’m just wearing more layers. They’re just thinking I’m cold all the time and I’m pregnant seven months. And then Trig came five weeks early so people thought I was only pregnant for like three weeks. And to this day some people still don’t think that the baby is my own, believe it or not.

He’s got this heart of gold. Here is the lesson that I learned from Trig, besides being more compassionate and really wanting to reach out and help those who have challenges and maybe are less privileged or have less ability than others. Oh my gosh. But this is the lesson we all can learn from Trig and I do know that he’ll be teaching us more than we’re ever going to be able to teach him. One thing he teaches us, he wakes up in the morning, he kind of looks around and rubs his sleepy little eyes, and he starts applauding. And I think “Oh my goodness, we should all have that perspective.” So I watch this little boy and I learn so much from him: he applauds the day! He’s just a blast, he’s so much fun.

So that all happened in one year’s time. And in that year, just a few weeks after Trig was born, my teenage daughter, my perfect teenage daughter, great athlete, great student, hard working girl, just in case you never read it in the tabloids, I’ll break the news to ya: My teenage daughter comes to us, to Todd and me, and she says, “what’s the worst thing you can think of?” And of course, lots of bad things popped into my mind. She was smart to say it that way, because by the time she told us she was pregnant it was like, oh, okay.

The governor’s daughter tells us she’s pregnant and that rocked our world, because you’re selfishly thinking “no, you’re not the one who’s supposed to be pregnant, maybe one of your friends, but not you Bristol.” Wow, when it rains it pours. What are you preparing us for? What are you trying to teach us? I think what he was whispering in my ear was “are you going to walk the walk, or are you just going to talk the talk?”

Now she’s got the most beautiful little baby and I still can’t believe I’m a grandma! And I’m kind of glad Tripp doesn’t talk yet because I’m not sure what he’s going to call me. But it’s teaching me to be less judgmental. She knows she did something she wishes she wouldn’t have done for ten years from now, because these are less than ideal circumstances. It’s very tough on a teenage mom who’s trying to make it on her own. A huge percentage of teenage girls do not have the resources that Bristol has, but she’s taken responsibility and a lot of other people take responsibility. It’s less than ideal but you make the right choice and then it does work out.

But all of these "life happens" events all in one year. I’m thinking, I don’t know what’s around the next corner, but nothing can be bigger than what we just went through. And then I get the call from John McCain and he asks if I want to run for vice president of the United States of America. Just another little thing that happens in a year...

Every day of that campaign I learned more and more about purpose and handling situations that seem less than ideal, but having to have faith that nothing is an accident and that everything that happens in our lives is to put us on a path that we were created to do, and we never know the outcome, no idea, no guarantees, no promises of where things will end up. But what an interesting year that he had, certainly teaching me too, as Plato had said: Be nice to everyone, because everyone has a challenge, a battle...But just know that everyone has a situation where there’s something going on in their life where they could use a touch, they could use a positive, a reaffirming word and action to let them know that you care.

Some of the days we’ve had over the last year or two, we’ve had to just say to each other, Man, just hold on because morning is coming and we have to believe that there is a brighter day ahead. And we’re living that out. There have been very bright days. Getting to be here today. Somebody asked me tonight, How do you take the mocking and the political potshots and the kind of constant criticism? And I said, because look where I am today! I’m in Hamilton with the most wonderful people, with their heart in the right place, wanting to help others. I’ll take all that other stuff because I know we’re on the right path.

Some of these media saying things about me, I know what the truth is. And I will take that, if that’s kind of the price that has to be paid to be in a position where I can help others. So again, just being so extremely grateful for the situations we have gone through, though at the time, seeming less than ideal not knowing if I would ever get to a point of being really grateful. We certainly are grateful now.

In seriousness, too, I want to talk about what I’ve learned as an American, and what I see as a relationship building opportunity that we have between America and Canada, because I think as nations we’re getting closer together. We all will be given even more opportunities to help those who are in need, who have less privilege than many of us have. I’m very grateful for the strong bond between our two countries. Ronald Regan once remarked that Canada and the United States share more than a common border, we share a democratic tradition and hopes and dreams and aspirations of a free people. And he said that hope has made a difference in our lives.

That’s why we’re here tonight. And remember that bond of hope and that love of freedom between our countries has withstood the test of time. Today we’re proud to work with you culturally and economically as partners, and as a trading partner and security ally in NATO. I want to tell you that we’re thankful to have our young men and women in uniform too, serving along side your young men and women, your sons and daughters. I don’t know if you hear it enough from the US, how much we appreciate you, your sons, your daughters, who are fighting terrorists, who want to bring peace on earth, and it is peace through strength that’s needed right now, but the sacrifices made by the country of Canada, as so many of your families making such sacrifice to allow this service in the war on terror.

Especially your 142 warriors who have paid the ultimate sacrifice who have come from Canada, our hearts go out to those families and words can not suffice, but we appreciate this. Certainly as a mom of a son having recently returned from his year-long deployment in Iraq too, with the army, I thank you for your efforts and for our relationship there. I know that that one isn’t easy, again with words not being able to suffice. Except to say thank you.

But our country really does appreciate our neighbour. In the lower 48 states, they say to the north. In Alaska, we say just right next door. We appreciate our neighbours. A recent poll had asked Americans, which country do you like best? Other than America. Where would you go? And 90 per cent picked Canada. [applause] We do have so much in common. We both love good hunting and fishing and that great outdoors. And we love the amazing creation that is the north. The true north strong and free, as you all say. And we respect too, the talent and creativity of Canadians.

I get a kick out of telling. First, our unusual cultures really have benefited from the contributions and the arts and the sports coming from Canada. In fact, recently, I was in one of Canada’s most populous cities: which is Los Angeles, believe it or not. LA, population wise, is one of your top 15 most Canadian populated areas in the whole world. And you send us your celebrities and your screen writers, and your film makers, and every four years our celebrities start saying ‘come election time, I’m moving to Canada if the election results don’t come out the way that I want them.” You can imagine there were many celebrities saying that the last time around with John McCain and I were running. But they didn’t have to move, their team won.

But for Alaska and Canada having so much in common, and having worked together on some of the most important infrastructure projects in the world. And one of those is the Al-Can highway. Every time my kids and my Todd, we’ve driven the Alaska-Canada highway, which is our link to the rest of the world really, it reminds my kids that highway isn’t just a road, it really is a lifeline. And it was one of the most ambitious projects ever. Certainly the most ambitious project taken at the time of World War II, in terms of infrastructure. The Al-Can highway went from just a thought on paper to, within 26 days, being able to start ramming through that road....

In less than a year, with 10,000 American troops and Canadian troops and civilians they carved a road out of the wilderness that has been a lifeline. They worked seven days a week, around the clock, in frigid temperatures, with swarms of mosquitoes. It was perseverance, it was that work ethic back then. And when it was done, we finally had a key piece of infrastructure that helped secure and defend the North American continent, really, certainly Alaska.

The highway represents that special kinship between our countries and today that bond continues with another enormous project that’s going on right now, and that’s an Alaskan gasline. And Alaska and Canada both understand the importance of developing both of our area’s energy resources responsibly and safely, to keep our part of the world safe and secure and free so that we’re not relying on dangerous foreign sources of energy. And that’s why, after I served on the Wasilla city council, then I served as a mayor, a city manager, and then an oil and gas state commissioner, and then finally as the elected governor of Alaska.

One of the pillars of my platform all the way through that was to ramp up production, to ramp up industry with our energy resources. And that included getting that pipeline underway, to finally get it off the diving board. It had talked about it for fifty years. Getting it off so it can finally bring an energy resource to hungry markets, and there are trillions of cubic feet of natural gas line in tact in these areas that will be developed, and geologists saying that there are hundreds of trillions more undiscovered both on shore and off shore. Just piles of energy in that part of North America that again can be tapped responsibly and make us all secure and make us more prosperous and make us more free.

So we opened up the process while I was the governor with great transparency. And this is on the heels of eliminating a lot of corruption in our state government. It all had to do with oil and gas. A lot of the big wigs in Alaska’s political circles and some business community members they ended up going to jail because of those being purchased and just some untoward actions with oil and gas development and we cleaned up corruption and I think I’m a busy mom as governor, I just didn’t have time for all the things that were on the periphery that maybe some politicians want to get involved in. No, I just wanted to get the job done. No time for the drama in all the power plays, just get from point A to point B, get the job done and clean up the corruption.

Through this transparent process, we wanted to get out there on the world market and essentially have the world, who would be the best pipe line builder in the world to tap resources and allow them to flow into hungry markets? And through this process, an exclusive basis went to TransCanada was chosen, out of everybody in the world, it was TransCanada!

There’s still lots of work to be done, but it’s going to help production, it’s going to help industry and it will provide all of us a better, healthier way of life and it is still in the works. We would not have come this far after 50 years of hoping for it, had it not been for Canadian ingenuity and that work ethic that proved in a competitive process that this company, from Calgary, had known what was best to tap resources. So I thank you for that. It is a mutually beneficial project.

The project is just one example of what we can do in terms of economic recovery. And America must really start concentrating on economic recovery and creating jobs because there are major economic woes in our country right now and certainly that adversely affects Canada too. It is time to re-tap our abundant domestic resources and send them to hungry markets at home and share competitively in the marketplace with our friends and allies. And doing so will make us less beholden to dangerous foreign regimes that could cut off energy supply at any time that they wanted.

It’s amazing to consider what’s here in Canada too, untapped, and your tar sands, and the richness, the vastness, that you have in terms of amounts of energy that can still be tapped. There’s more energy here than really there is in Saudi Arabia when you consider what’s in the tar sands. And you guys have great potential here. You have the skill. You have great workers. You have everything in place to ramp up development and allow more job creation and allowance. Energy is so important.

I know Canadians understand this, but there is an inherent link between energy and prosperity and energy and security, and energy and freedom. And development isn’t the only part of the equation. As governor I had to advocate the three point approach to meeting energy needs with conservation and responsible resource development and promotion of renewable energy sources. But as we do this together, it will give us more opportunity for a better life, a healthier life, a more prosperous life. And then we can voluntarily share that better life with others who are in need. Tonight being a picture of opportunity to share with others....

One of the things I’ve been able to do is attend these Tea Parties across the US events. It’s just been invigorating and energizing and some of them are just a hoot. Some of the signs we read out there in the rallies. One of them I saw yesterday said “I can see freedom from my house.” I think they were quoting Tina Fey on that one. The other one said “the voters are coming, the voters are coming.” And that was exclusive to Boston. The hecklers are funnier than heck too. Usually if there’s a bad poster out there I pretend I don’t even see it. But yesterday I could not miss it. They were these life-size pictures of naked people. I was like, okay, that one is effective – I can’t... they caught me off guard on that one.

Other than that, and the stuff that goes on on the periphery. These Tea Parties have been an amazing manifestation of America’s pioneering spirit, where we’re saying we don’t want government to make us work for them, we want our government to work for us, we want them back on our side.

The Tea Party are an important gathering of Americans who are really part of this grassroots people’s movement, it’s a conservative movement, but those involved in it, are parties, from independents. Like Todd’s not even registered in the party and people tell me I am the worst recruiter of the Republican Party if I can’t even get my own husband to join.

But more power to him. He’s an independent. But this movement that’s sweeping the nation, getting to be a part of that is really awesome. I wanted to talk to and here from those whom natural resources and freedom and work ethic are so important. And what’s going on in our country we can’t wait even another day just being complacent and think that everything’s just going to magically work out for us, because they won’t. We’re spending too much money, we’ve got too much debt and we’ve got to start ramping up industry and reigning in the spending.

In our cities and in our towns, citizens understand this and they’re standing up and they’re speaking out on behalf of commonsense conservative solutions. Not really difficult things. Ronald Regan had said, there are no easy answers but there are simple answers. We just need the courage to do what we know is morally right....

Relying on major foreign regimes to meet our energy needs makes no sense, because it makes all of us less secure. And it costs us hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars every year asking the Saudis or Chavez to ramp up production so that we can purchase from them. We say no more. When it comes to something this important, we have to give it our all. And that’s a focus of mine as I go forward. And then we look at Canada, and we being so impressed with how you too have embraced the renewables, the alternatives, you’ve investing in real science and real projects that can be reliable and economic to keep our environment clean, to reduce emissions. The US can look at what Canada is doing and take a strong steps forward in this arena....

There are areas where we disagree, no doubt, and when disagreements arise thankfully we get to talk openly as allies, as friends, as neighbours, we can talk about these things openly as good friends do. And we’re always looking out for one another, seeking ways to help one another and seeking common ground. The heart of the friendship is created really an unbreakable bond between us. And I think former US president John F. Kennedy, he put it best, when he had said, “American and Canada, geography made us neighbours, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.”

I do believe that if he was here to look down us on today and see us here in Hamilton, I think he’s pleased to see that bond of friendship, it endures, and it can manifest itself in opportunity to provide for others in need. Now then, we can each do our part and set up to preserve what we have already started for the rest generation.

We North Americans we come from the stock of our ancestors. My husband, he’s Alaskan native. He’s Eskimo. And then my Idaho roots. And I look out here and man, this melting pot and I recognize all our diverse backgrounds. And North America and our countries together, it’s playing a role in history of all of us, and we share the ideals of freedom and prosperity and sharing with others. It’s great places like Hamilton that make up the fabric of our nations. So knowing that there are many challenges in the years to come, through strength and perserverance, we’re going to continue to hold the global stage and our responsibility to stand up for what’s right.

This is our charge. This is our responsibility. This is part of our destiny and it’s why we’re all here tonight. It’s not coincidental. There’s purpose. We’ve been given a responsibility by our forefathers to carry the torch, to protect our core principals. We have to hold that torch in each of our own hearts, of generosity and kindness and helping children and never letting anyone tell you to sit down and shut up and tell you that you can’t do it.

Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin - UPDATE

UPDATE: The website is already up - Jews for Sarah.

From the NY Sun:

President Obama’s recent demarche designed to increase pressure on Israel is having one immediate impact in the Jewish community — it is hastening the formation of an organization called Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin.

Plans for the new group are set to be announced on Sunday by a Philadelphia-based journalist and activist named Binyamin Korn, a former executive director of the Zionist Organization of America. The announcement is unlikely to make big news, as the group is embryonic, with an advisory committee of several journalists and academics.

Its aim, however, is to take advantage of the growing alarm within the Jewish community at what Mr. Korn, in an interview this week with the New York Sun, called an “escalation of rhetoric” criticizing the Jewish state. The group also hopes to counter suggestions — by, among others, such opposite figures as the widely read Atlantic magazine blogger Jeffrey Goldberg and the left-of-center, anti-Israel publication Counterpunch — that Mrs. Palin’s support for Israel is animated by “end of days” theology that believes an in-gathering in Israel will precede the apocalypse and the destruction of the Jews.

Mr. Korn dismisses such talk, saying that there is “a wide range of views about religion within the Jewish Community and an even wider range of views about religion in the Christian community” and that “whatever motives Governor Palin may have or may be imputed to her are entirely within the mainstream of American discourse . . .” He said his group was encouraged by a defense of Mrs. Palin in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by the most famous neo-conservative, Norman Podhoretz, who wrote that he would “rather be ruled by the Tea Party than by the Democratic Party” and “would rather have Sarah Palin sitting in the Oval Office than Barack Obama.”

What Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is saying, Mr. Korn said, “is that the most articulate person in the public arena today in opposition to the Obama administration’s shift in policies against Israel is Sarah Palin.” He called her “very direct,” particularly on the controversy of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, on terrorism policies, and on the emerging Obama doctrine.

Mr. Korn said his organization, which has not yet been incorporated, has had “no contact with Governor Palin or her campaign” and has no relation to her political action committee, known as SarahPAC. “We would be gratified if Governor Palin considers this a contribution to her efforts to influence American life,” Mr. Korn said. “We hope that she will feel we are supporting her, even though she is clearly not a candidate for any office at this time.”

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Vids - Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, and Tammy Bruce

Glenn Beck on Palin being a diva for demanding bottled water:



Mark Levin rips Romney for saying we should commend Obama when he's right and praises Palin as being a real leader:



And Tammy Bruce talks about ABC's headline a couple days ago:

Bristol's Message

Bristol Palin sat down for an interview with MTV earlier this week, the most recent in a string of appearances to promote her new PSA aimed at encouraging teenagers to stop and think about the consequences of sex.

Before I jump into the PSA itself, I want to address the "She's promoting abstinence-only! Abstinence-only doesn't work!" issue that still has some people's pants in a bunch.

Bristol has made it pretty clear that abstinence is a choice she has now made for herself. She encourages others to make that same decision since it's the one way you can 100% guarantee you won't end up being a teen parent, but that does not equal some push demanding that abstinence-only programs be taught in all high schools. Is she not allowed to make a personal choice and encourage others to consider the same?

It mirrors the panic over the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad. An inspiring story that might in some remote way persuade women to choose life is taken as an immediate threat to abortion rights everywhere.

Honestly, Lefties. Overreaction, much?

In the MTV interview excerpt below, Bristol gives her take on the slogan "pause before you play." -
Pause before you play can mean anything to anybody. It could be pause and get a condom, or it could be pause and think about your future.
Yeah. She's definitely telling everyone to be abstinent with those condoms. (eye roll)

By the way, the idea that Sarah Palin is a staunch advocate of abstinence-only education is yet another media-driven myth:
Some reporters insisted that I favored abstinence-only sex education in public schools. "And see?" they said. "It didn't even work for her own daughter."

The media got that wrong too. The only time I had commented on sex education was in answer to a gubernatorial candidate question asking whether I supported abstinence education versus "explicit" sex education in public schools...

Given the choice, I answered that I would support abstinence education over "explicit" sex ed. I never said I didn't support contraception; I did. I also explained about being a longtime subscriber to the philosophy of Feminists for Life, a group of pro-life feminists who do not oppose contraception.

- Going Rogue, 237-238
I have seen others take Bristol's PSA to mean that it's only not okay to be a pregnant teenager if you're poor. I can see how the PSA could be misconstrued, but the message to me is obvious.

One criticism of Bristol's situation came from the early hand-wringing of the Left that a high-profile teen mom would in some way "glamorize" teen pregnancy. I mean, come on, Bristol seems like a strong, independent young woman who's part of a successful family and has an adorable little boy who usually seems to fall into an angelic sleep just in time for the cameras to capture him. How hard can it be, right?

So the PSA's message is, "Okay, what if I wasn't famous?" (as most teenagers are not). "Do you really think the life of teen moms is 'glamorous'? Do you think my life is glamorous? This is the reality: it's a ton of hard work. Don't get caught up in the image or the fantasy TV version of what it might be like."
"I hope that other young girls and even young guys see that having a child isn't glamorous at all, that it shouldn't be glorified. I think that other TV shows do glamorize sex and make it seem like there are no consequences to it, but there's tremendous consequences, and people need to start talking about those consequences."
Bristol is in a better situation than most teen moms, and she knows it. This also means she's in a position to do more good from that position than most, and she's doing a fantastic job of wielding that "double-edged sword":

Bristol was criticized from all sides as a hypocrite because she took up the cause of helping prevent teen pregnancy. Critics couldn't understand how she could love her precious son, Tripp, with all her heart, and still wish that he had been born ten years later.

She wanted teens to know that though they had choices to make about contraception, the only surefire way of preventing pregnancy is to not have sex. This pragmatic position was attacked by both the right and the left - the left because abstinence seems to be a dirty word and the right because even mentioning the word "contraception" "sends a mixed message."

Bristol wasn't trying to draft a national sex-ed policy. She just wanted to help her peers. She simply told teens what she has told her sisters: "Don't make the same mistake I did. Wait."

- Going Rogue, 371

Charita Goshay offers the following perspective:

Bristol Palin is arguably the world’s most famous teen mother, so her willingness to use her experience to educate others about the difficulties of unexpected parenthood has merit...

Avoiding sex and unplanned parenthood is not something kids will necessarily hear when their parents preach it — Palin herself is proof of that — but the message might get through when it comes from someone who’s been there, doing that.

In one public service announcement, Palin states: “It could mean pause and go get a condom, or pause and think about your life. And it could even be pause and wait for marriage.” That may not be exactly what abstinence-only advocates want to hear, but it’s realistic for a generation that has been weaned on sexual imagery....

If Bristol Palin can make just one teen stop and think long enough about the lifelong consequences of an irresponsible moment, her effort is worth it.

Bristol could have chosen to stay out of the spotlight after the election. It certainly would have meant less criticism. But she decided to put herself out there at the risk of being mocked by tolerant Leftists who have led entirely perfect lives and whose own morals leave absolutely nothing to be desired. All in the hopes that a few other teenagers might stop and think of the consequences.

And you gotta admire that.

You can view Bristol's PSA, as well as some behind-the-scenes footage and interview here.

Another MTV clip here.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Michael Graham: Let the Party Begin!


By Michael Graham in the Boston Herald:
---------------

Hey, I can see Palin Derangement Syndrome from my house!

You’ll see it too if you come to Boston Common tomorrow morning when Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express roll into town. I’ll be broadcasting my radio show live during the event and I’ve been asked to be part of the program as well. But what I’m really looking forward to is seeing the gathering of hate-spewing, anger-crazed lunatics.

Or as they’re more commonly known, “Massachusetts liberals.”

What - you think the Tea Partiers are angry? You obviously haven’t picked up the latest copy of the Weekly Dig, a local “progressive” publication that invited readers to design signage to welcome Palin and push back against Tea Party hate speech.

Among the signs published are several featuring a word very similar to “witch,” a couple of swastikas, a Hitler mustache and - in an odd move by anti-Second-Amendment liberals - one with an American flag, a bleeding tea bag and numerous bullet holes.

Stay classy, Boston liberals!

The problem with Palin is that, as everyone knows, she’s stupid. For example, she didn’t support President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus (actual price tag: $860 billion and rising) which has created so many great jobs . . .

She ignorantly opposed the Obama administration’s decision to try Kalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 terrorists in Manhattan . . .

She made the idiotic claim that Obamacare would raise taxes on people earning less than $200,000 . . .

Anyway, Palin and the Tea Party movement are nothing but name-calling dolts, and so the only responsible, progressive thing to do when they come to Boston is to show up at their rally, wave idiotic signs and call them names.

No, really. According to several “progressive” Web sites, local libs are organizing to do just that on the Common tomorrow. “Nitwit central is headed our way, Boston,” warns one left-wing site bemoaning the “hatred being generated” by Tea Party protests. The Web site is urging followers to make their own signs parroting the “extremism” liberals expect to find there. So if you see a wildly offensive racist sign in downtown Boston - thank a liberal!

Why don’t supporters of Obamacare, the stimulus and other failed policies just have their own rally supporting their ideas? Other than because, well, they haven’t actually worked, I mean?

Because that’s not good enough for our irate liberals. Palin is “bringing her big hair . . . and legion of racist militia members to Boston,” complains bostonist.com. Another online site screams “We can’t allow Sarah to take a big Alaskan Husky dump in our back yard!”

Like I said, “classy.”

The goal here, as it’s been from the beginning of Team Obama’s assault on the Tea Party movement, is to intimidate concerned citizens into silence. But it’s not going to work - other than the glaring exception of Sen. Scott Brown, that is.

Voters and taxpayers are going to show up tomorrow and keep doing what we’ve been doing for a year now: Make arguments and ask questions. How do the economics of Obamacare make sense? Who’s going to pay the $3 trillion in new debt? Why should we tell our enemies in advance when we will or won’t use nukes?

And the left will keep responding with insults instead of answers. But at least they’re entertaining. There’s nothing funnier than a liberal protesting right-wing hate by waving a “Palin Is A Nazi B**ch” sign.


BendyStrawGate!

"Rogue" elephant bendy-straw

Continuing the narrative of the Leftist media spending its time on things that are insignificant in the extreme, the latest Palin "scandal" has hit the fan. A copy of her supposed contract with the WSB was supposedly found in a dumpster.

Allapundit smacks some of it down here:

So she’ll fly commercial unless you want to hook her up with a particular private jet. In fact, she’ll actually fly coach, which ABC doesn’t tell you, under certain circumstances: Read the rider and you’ll see that it’s only for flights to or from Anchorage that first-class is mandatory. If she’s traveling within the lower 48, riding in the back with the hoi polloi is fine. (For international flights to the lower 48, she asks for business class.)

Actually, there’s no ironclad proof that the contract is even hers: Her name is never mentioned, but given where it was found, the fact that it comes from her speaker bureau, and the fact that it refers to travel from Alaska, the inference is made.

Frankly, I’m amazed that she’s willing to fly commercial at all. Considering the intense loathing she inspires in some quarters, I assumed she’d long since passed the point of needing a security detail when she’s out in public. Is it really just her and Todd (or an assistant) crammed back there in coach among lefties who feel queasy at the thought of her? Good lord.


Oh, something else: Hotline claims that the rider demands that all questions, whether from the audience or from the moderator, be pre-screened, but I can’t find that passage. I see that there’s a pre-screen provision in the section on “Satellite Events,” but there’s nothing about it in “Audience Q&A.” I probably just missed it in my haste of skimming the document. Let me know and I’ll update the post.
If you must read the alleged contract itself, you can download it here.

I simply must paste some of the comments I’ve read over at C4P. It’s a tad long, but good:

yogi41 - BendyStrawGate!

And not just any water…. UNOPENED water! Why not use a water hose, Sarah, like the good little “hick” that you are? / extreme sarc

New User - Can someone find me the famous “Kill all the rich people” speech Palin gave? I must have missed that one.

RINO-Hunter – She has a schedule to maintain. When somebody pays six figures for her to speak, she has to show up on time. First class = you don’t get bumped and put on standby if the flight is overbooked. And the first class clause only applies on the Anchorage to Seattle leg. Once she’s in the lower 48 and there are more travel options, she flies coach. At least according to this “document” they dug up, which may or may not even be authentic.

As far as the water and straws go, she specifies that the water be unopened because some Obama-worshipping libturd would poison it if it weren’t, and who the hell cares what kind of straw she uses? I don’t think it’s “elitist” to aks for water and a straw while giving a speech.

Allie – I used to fly round trip from Alaska to the East Coast about once a year and everytime I flew first class. It is a very long flight and uncomfortable otherwise. When my husband went to Alaska as a consultant for various companies his contract also stated First Class Travel for the same reason. As a matter of fact, whenever he travels as a consultant anywhere his contract states that he gets paid for ten hours per day that he is away from home (flight time is also included as a day away) unless there is a flat fee that was previously negotiated. That is standard. If the flight is less than four hours, then a coach fare is fine.

I wish these people would get some sort of life and if they are going to be so scrupulous in reporting their news then they should report everyone’s flight arrangements and/or speaking requests. I honestly do not blame her for requesting unopened bottles of water since I can just imagine someone putting ipecac or something in the water to embarrass her during her speech.

Lipstick AKA Speedchick – Well, I couldn’t help it so I am reading the contract. I am half way through and I hate to burst all of our bubbles but Palin has the GALL to request if she is seated on stage at a table that the table be skirted. Also, if there is a book signing, the table must be skirted. I don’t know about you but I think that is TOO much.

Come on Guv, your in a dress in front of an audience and you are MODEST enough to DEMAND tha table be skirted???

Get over yourself! /sarc

(I might add – Good thinking on the Gov’s part. Her skirts usually go to her knees, which means she’s got to sit with her legs together constantly. All it would take is for her to forget for a second and someone to snap a picture. Yikes!)

Lipstick AKA Speedchick – Hmmmmm. On page four it says for international events the Speaker reserves the right to visit privately with the host government’s Head Of State, Head of Government, Ministerial Officials and US Embassy.

I really see nothing in it that is a big deal at all. Actually I bet it is a standard type document that WSB uses for all its clients. They just put in a few details, I bet even the water and straws are standard. I teach school and I need to have a drink available in case I need it while talking a lot that day, if you are giving a speech I would say this is mandatory.

Also, I imagine the flight needs are standard too, but I bet many speakers are not willing to fly commericial as she is or even coach on certain occassions.

Much of the contract seems to be a no brainer to me, but you HAVE to put everything in writing or someone would book you flying stand by and send their teenager to the airport in the drifter car to pick you up and book you at the Easy Night Motel and leave you to walk next door to Chicken Express for dinner.

Besides, we are getting a fence soon. We may put it up ourselves but we are getting bids to have it turn key. If we have it done we will sign a contract, it is a private contract between someone providing us a service that we willingly want. Just like the guv.

Paddy Hugh of Oz – This is standard terms by any agency. I suspect “students rifling through dumpsters” is actually lefty-speak for “anklebiters downloaded a standard WSB terms pdf on the interweb”.

A funny thing among many, many other funny things throughout this, is that lefties actually boast about spending time in very large garbage bins.

yogi41 – Well, she certainly has to have some fun with this “scandal”. I hope tomorrow, while she’s speaking, she makes a point to take a long sip of water through a bendy straw.

RINO-Hunter – At her next speaking engagement, just to stir the pot, she should drink Cristal from the bottle through one of those twisty crazy-straws.

(A “Rogue” elephant bendy straw here.)

Jerry Brown - Solidifying California's Image as the Land of the Fruits and Nuts

Don Surber takes down Jerry Brown's call to prosecute the sponsor of Sarah Palin's speech at CSU:
-------------

The latest lefty attack on Sarah Palin is to attack those who would dare to bring her to a college campus.

Like many speaker, she has a nondisclosure clause in her contract.

A private foundation is financing her appearance in June. Lefties want the contract disclosed. Someone retrieved a copy from the trash. Now Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Brown, is going ballistic — threatening the foundation with some sort of prosecution/litigation for daring to contract with Palin.

Apparently his campaign theme will be “we’re hopelessly broke, but I will fight to keep Sarah Palin out of California.”

Brown said in a prepared statement: “This is not about Sarah Palin. The issues are public disclosure and financial accountability in organizations embedded in state-run universities.”

Bull. Then Brown should post the contract of every paid speaker to a California college in the last 10 years.

It is harassment wrapped in the self-righteous cry of open government.

It is all about Palin.
---------


"Harassment wrapped in the self-righteous cry of open government."

How did Dan Surber know about Andree McLeod?

With California drowning in debt, don't you think Jerry Brown and Yee could find something more profitable to do with their taxpayer-funded time than trying to find out how much Sarah Palin makes for a speech? Oh, that's right, they're from California. Never mind...

The Boston Tea Party

You hear that? It's a bunch of patriots getting read to make some tea, on a Boston Harbor scale:


Mark Levin talks about the Boston Tea Party:


A great informative video from PJTV here.

All I can say is, I wish I could be there in body, but I'll have to be there in spirit:

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Scott, Sarah, and the Boston Tea Party

I, for one, couldn't care less about anything Scott Brown does or doesn't do. He's about as interesting to me as a toenail. I'm glad he won. Beyond that, eh. But some people are a little upset that he's not going to the Boston Tea Party.

From the Boston Herald:
----------------

Boston’s right-wing radio helped propel U.S. Sen. Scott Brown into office, but some of his devoted on-air loyalists are ripping him for turning his back on tomorrow’s Tea Party rally starring Sarah Palin.

“Scott Brown belongs there,” said WTKK-FM (96.9) midday host Michael Graham, one of the featured speakers at the Boston Common event. “The most important thing that’s happening in America right now is this big fight between Team Government vs. Team the People....”

Graham, an op-ed Herald columnist, said the Wrentham Republican makes a great point when he says he has a job to do in the U.S. Senate and committee hearings but said “this is where the fight is.”

“It would have been very difficult for Sen. Brown to win without the energy and the self-organization that the people called the Tea Party did for him,” Graham said.

Yesterday, Brown called into Graham’s radio show after hearing the host criticize his snub. “The members of the Tea Party and the constituents in Massachusetts sent me down there to do a job and that’s what I’m doing,” Brown said.

Jeff Katz, the morning-drive host on the newly launched conservative station WXKS-AM (1200), said there’s going to be a lot of people “scratching their heads wondering where Scott Brown is.”

Katz said he plans to attend the rally and Brown should, too. “It’s easy enough to hop on a plane,” Katz said. “Realistically, these are the people that not only voted for him, but went out and worked really hard to elect him.”

Not every radio yakker bashed Brown’s decision to skip the 10 a.m. rally. WRKO-AM (680) gabster Todd Feinburg, who is also scheduled to speak tomorrow, said he wouldn’t attend if he were Brown.

“This is a grassroots movement and there’s a lot of unpredictability there,” Feinburg said. “If anything gets said or happens that’s not carefully crafted politically - whoever’s face is there will get linked up to it.”

Katz called Palin courageous for coming to Massachusetts - the bluest state in the country.

“I like Sarah. It’s pretty courageous and gutsy of her,” Katz said. “She’s certainly coming into the proverbial belly of the beast.”

A Few Thoughts

Howdy. I know I haven't been posting here as often as I usually do. I'm kind of busy with a couple other projects, but I hope to have them done with soon so I can get back into the swing of things. Here's some complete randomness...

So I hear that Congress may have cut themselves off from their federal health program before the health insurance exchanges that they're supposed to go buy insurance from are up and running. Bwahahahahahahahaha! Poetic justice. I guess Nancy knows what's in the bill now.

Will they actually drop their insurance? Don't hold your breath. This is Congress. They don't have to follow the rules like the rest of us.

And orange paint with glitter for a baby boy's room. Seriously? Ew. (If you don't know what that means, don't sweat it.)

I feel bad for Tammy Bruce. She was invited to the Boston Tea Party, but couldn't go because of a prior committment.

Tammy and Sarah, ships passing and passing and passing and passing in the night...

What are you willing to bet that the Lefties of today were the Tories of yesterday?

North Korea doesn't like Obama's nuclear program because he doesn't promise not to nuke them. They're using that as an excuse to build their own nukes. Of course, the North Koreans would use a cold dinner as an excuse to build more nukes.

Obama's going around bowing to all the dictators and snubbing all of our allies. Sometimes I get the feeling that with us palling around with the bad guys, the US is on the fast track to becoming one of the bad guys. Doesn't Obama seem more at ease with the Russians than the Israelis?

And why didn't we do anything to help the Iranian Revolution oust Imadinnerjacket last year? Golden opportunity gone. Why? So we can play footsie with a dictator to the chagrin of the Iranian freedom fighters.

Great. Just what I always wanted America to be. A cowardly nation, more interested in "peace" than freedom as it begs the bullies of the world to play nice.

Monday, April 12, 2010

RobRoy Meets Sarah Palin

RobRoy shared his meeting with Sarah Palin on a Free Republic comment thread. The following are his comments and his replies to some others:
---------

My wife and I met Sarah the night before last. The three of us had a great discussion of life, kids, politics, etc. for a little under 45 minutes.

She is so personable that almost instantly I felt like I was talking to an old friend. And it just got better from there.

It was so weird. I saw my wife standing in the doorway to a medium sized conference room and she said, “would you like to meet Sarah Palin? I walked through the doorway and there she was! She got up and introduced herself as we shook hands and we just started talking about stuff. In the conversation she got a text from Sean Hannity and we were cracking up about it.

What was weird is, and I cannot emphasize this enough, it was like starting a conversation with someone while you wait in line for a movie or something, and the give and take just went on and on and got more and more interesting, and then you exchange info as the movie doors open.

She mentioned a lot of stuff about the campaign that was fascinating, but there is no way I would share it. Not that it is “secret stuff”, but it is stuff that, if they want the general public to know, they’ll share publicly.

>>She’s just as genuine and sweet in person as we think she is, isn’t she?<<

More so. Seriously. I swear that we could have gone home and she and Mrs. Robroy could have baked an incredible salmon dinner (while I tossed the salad) while we all talked about international politics and our country’s internal problems and solutions - and grandkids.

I am not trying to get into details, but I’ve been around a lot of famous people and there are only two others that I could call that sincerely friendly. Some are friendly in a “let’s be nice and sound ‘interested’ to the little people” sort of way. She was simply gregarious. She asked the typical questions, but also answered questions.

At one point I had a senior moment and lost track of what I was talking about. She backtracked the conversation to put me back on track. That one thing was very telling. All I am really trying to say is, she seems genuinely nice and sincere, with not a hint of saccharin.

Even if she were a “nobody”, she exudes a quality that would cause you to think she would still be a great friend, and someone you could trust on a personal level.

>>Hey Rob, I hope you told her that she’s got a very strong, very dedicated following on this forum and that we’re going to the mat for her.<<

Interesting you brought that up. That is exactly what I told her. I also told her that I did not care whether or not she ran for President in 2012 because she has made it clear that she can make a difference in or out of office. I also mentioned that being in office could actually bind her a bit. She had a lot of responses to those remarks, all of which I enjoyed a great deal, but that is as far as I comfortably can go discussing her side of the conversation, if you get my drift.

Mrs. Robroy and I both really liked her. One thing she said that I feel I can say: She appreciated and strongly encouraged the activity, regarding those of us on the internet. The internet is the new “water cooler” (my words).

>>A leader<<

Exactly. She has the qualities. It is quite clear when you meet her.

>>Okay, that part about not caring if she ran for Pres. or not... Arrrrrgggggghhhhhhh! Care! Care!<<

I used it as a conversation starter. ;) I really wish I could share her response. I will say I loved her general thought process on the issue. Loved it! Mrs. Robroy and I have been married 12 years. I’m anxious to see if anything changes if the honeymoon phase ever ends. She is the most incredible woman I have ever had the pleasure to meet. No offense to Sarah. She’s nice too. :)
------------

Just one thing, dude, now I'm curious. Now I really want to know all of that "secret" stuff. Ugh! ;)

Sunday, April 11, 2010

SNL

Tina Fey was on SNL last night.

My thoughts?

Well, to be honest I thought it was kinda funny. But not "rolling in the aisles" funny. More like, "light chuckle" funny.

The only parts I didn't really care for were the Bristol shots, but they weren't nearly as bad as some I've seen. And Bristol has chosen to put herself out there. That's not an excuse to be downright nasty, but I didn't think the jokes were nasty. I cringed for a second, but I wasn't left with a seething anger.

What I don't understand is why some Palin people are critizing it. Okay, yeah, it's fun to take potshots at Tina Fey because, well, among other things she cannot pull off that leather jacket, but I for one am just thankful for a comedy routine that was halfway human.

I appreciate the opinion of folks like Hillbuzz:

This all irks us because of how nice the Palins have always been towards Fey. When the Governor graciously appeared on the show few realize remains on the air, Palin met Fey and was very kind to her.

It was Fey’s birthday (60th, we think), and she was complaining about having a baby and not being able to hit the town and get sloppy drunk and wake up in cabs with strangers as she’s wont to do on a Saturday night after the show, so Palin volunteered young Willow to babysit Fey’s child for her — because the Governor knew that in that scenario, at least the little tyke would be in good responsible hands, for at least one evening that week.

Fey made fun of this on talk shows later.

“Can you believe that? She just volunteered her daughter to babysit, Willow or whoever, and she said she would love to do it. Who are these people? Where’s my scotch?”.

Of course Willow would have been thrilled to babysit. Piper would have helped. Lil’ Trig would have kept baby Fey company and been a play pal. If Track was home from the Army, he would have cleaned out Fey’s gutters and helped her put up storm windows. Bristol would have probably cooked a half dozen casseroles and froze them in Fey’s kitchen so that her family would have good, nutritious food to eat for at least a week or two while Fey continued to be herself and got up to whatever it is she does with her time when the Palins aren’t around to assist her.

So, continue to make fun of the most decent American family we’ve seen in a while, Lefties.

I'm pretty sure it was Bristol that was volunteered to do the babysitting, but oh, well.

It could irk me too, but I guess I'm picking my battles. I'll let this one slide.

The Governor is a public figure. As such, she is comedic fair game. I have no problem with the comedy so long as it stays within the bounds of simple human decency. And I think that the Governor would concur. You can poke fun without suggesting that you want to push Sarah Palin down the stairs, and I thought we saw that last night.

The most legitimate gripe is probably the comedic double standard. Come on, can you imagine if Palin had said "corpseman"?

The jokes were not as biting as they could have been, but I'm not complaining! That's good news, isn't it?

So yeah, I could launch into a tirade about how the jokes were kind of stale, etc... But why? I'm just thankful SNL didn't wish Palin dead. Kinda sad that it's come to that...


Oh, and, I gotta say, I thought the Michael Steele shot was funny.