Palin Keeps Position Clear and Intentions Vague
By JEFF ZELENY
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Sarah Palin opened a weekend centennial celebration to Ronald Reagan by declaring that the United States was lurching toward a “road to ruin,” a nation so beleaguered by debt and out-of-control government spending that an urgent change in direction was needed in Washington.
She did not, however, provide any fresh clues as to whether she will join the Republican fight to challenge President Obama or simply offer commentary from the sidelines. She delivered a withering critique of the president’s policies, particularly his State of the Union message to “win the future” by increasing government investment to remain competitive in the world.
“We were just told that the era of big government is here to stay and you’re going to pay for it whether you want to or not,” Ms. Palin said. “But they can’t sell it to us with the old sales pitch anymore. Now it’s much worse. It’s couched in a language of national greatness.”
For Ms. Palin, a speech on Friday evening to a conservative group that gathered to pay tribute to President Reagan offered an opportunity to connect herself to the most iconic figure of the Republican Party. Yet she did not use the appearance — one of the highest-profile Republican platforms in months — to move beyond familiar criticism or attempt to prescribe a new or specific remedy for what she sees as missteps in the Obama administration.
“How we answer will be America’s glory or our shame,” Ms. Palin said, drawing applause from a dinner crowd of about 200 people. “These aren’t easy questions. Today for many, there’s a fear in the air.”
Ms. Palin, the former Alaska governor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, delivered a 30-minute speech at the Reagan Ranch Center, a museum in downtown Santa Barbara. She drew modern-day parallels to Mr. Reagan’s 1964 speech, “A Time for Choosing,” which he gave on behalf of Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate.
In her remarks, she made no mention of the crisis in Egypt or how the administration has handled it.
Before arriving here on Friday, Ms. Palin has been unusually out of public view in recent weeks, stoking curiosity about her political intentions. But to an audience of conservative leaders, along with several top-shelf Republican contributors, she did little to suggest that she is preparing for a presidential campaign.
Presidential contenders, regardless of their celebrity, are put through a gauntlet of rituals that require a delicate air of patience as they deal with their admirers. Prospective candidates, particularly if they are courting supporters, routinely sit through dinners and mingle with guests. But in her case, Ms. Palin entered the room only for her speech and left immediately after.
The appearance here was marked by tight security and rigid rules, with guests admonished to stay in their seats when she arrived. (“We’d all like to jump up and give her a high-five, but please stay at your tables,” Kate Obenshain, vice president of the foundation, announced from the dais. “There will be no book signings or autographs.”)
There is, of course, outsized curiosity surrounding Ms. Palin. And in recent weeks there has growing frustration from many Republican activists that she is not making any obvious moves toward deciding whether to run.
Even though none of the prospective presidential contenders have formally declared their candidacies, there is a robust amount of behind-the-scenes activity under way, particularly in the courtship of advisers, activists and contributors. Yet Ms. Palin stands alone in her approach, employing an unorthodox style that offers few clues as to whether she plans to enter the race.
The question for many Republicans is whether Ms. Palin is rewriting the rules of what it takes to run for president in an age of Facebook and Twitter – a world where, perhaps, there are no early visits to Iowa and New Hampshire, no need for policy speeches or press interviews – or whether this is simply part of an effort to keep herself in the public eye and to influence the Republican primary.
A series of signs have emerged that her arms-length approach to the process could be detrimental – or, at the very least, risky – if she ultimately decides to seek the Republican nomination. For weeks, many of her key supporters held out hope that she would attend the Conservative Political Action Conference this week in Washington, but at the last moment, she sent word that a scheduling conflict would keep her from attending. It was the fourth straight year she has declined to speak at the conference, which is attended by every other potential Republican candidate.
At the dinner on Friday evening, which was sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation and was unaffiliated with the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, several guests said they came to take a measure of Ms. Palin. From his seat near the front of the room, Roy Billings, a Reagan admirer and a longtime contributor to the foundation, said he liked Ms. Palin a great deal, but he hoped that she would not run for president in 2012.
“I think she’s a good person,” Mr. Billings said. “Maybe she’s got potential to be the president someday, but not now. There’s too many people who don’t relate to her.”
If you ask me Ronald Reagan was just as much of a royal Presidential tyrant as any other President we have had. But Sarah Palin wants the public to think she is another Ronald Reagan!
Why did people vote Ronald Reagan in office? Probably because he was a movie star. Why vote for Sarah Palin? Probably because she is a hot looking babe. Duh! I guess she does have the same qualifications as Ronald Reagan!
Yes Sarah Palin has some good idea. But she is also a tax and spend government tyrant who sells out to special interest groups as she did while governor of Alaska.
Sarah Palin casts herself in Reagan mold, blasts Obama administration
Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times
February 5, 2011
Reporting from Santa Barbara
As she launched a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birthday, Sarah Palin delivered a blistering critique of the expansion of government under President Obama's watch and called on like-minded Americans to fight for Reagan's principles of individual freedom and smaller government.
During a banquet at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, Palin skewered Obama's recent State of the Union address. She suggested that his call to "win the future" through innovation and new investments in clean energy and other research was simply an attempt to increase government spending.
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Not long after the November election where "the people said enough is enough," Palin said, "We were just told that no, that the era of big government — it's here to stay and you're gonna pay for it, whether you want to or not."
"They have all sorts of half-baked ideas of what to spend — I mean, invest — our hard-earned money on for their idea of national greatness. These investments include everything from solar shingles to fast train tracks," Palin said. "But as we struggle to merely service our unsustainable debt, the only thing this investment will get us is a bullet train to bankruptcy."
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee also blasted the Obama administration's healthcare program and the stimulus program: "Clearly it didn't stimulate anything but a 'tea party,'" she said to laughter.
As she flirts with a run for president in 2012, Palin, along with other Republican contenders, has sought to tie herself to the deep affection and admiration within the party for the 40th president. Palin's remarks Friday at a supper gathering of about 200 people near the harbor in Santa Barbara launched a series of panels that will examine Reagan's accomplishments and his imprint on America's political landscape.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney will close the festivities with a speech on Saturday night and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to attend.
The two-day event is being hosted by the Young America's Foundation, a nonprofit group formed in the 1960s to foster conservative ideals among college students.
The group purchased Reagan's Western White House, the 680-acre Rancho del Cielo in the Santa Ynez Mountains, in the late 1990s to preserve it. The ranch served as Reagan's escape from Washington.
Palin's starting point for her remarks was an October 1964 address by Reagan, which he delivered at a Los Angeles campaign fundraiser on behalf of then-presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
The speech was widely viewed as a moment that helped launch Reagan's political career.
Two years after the speech, which became known as "A Time for Choosing," Reagan was elected governor of California.
Palin said many of Reagan's critiques of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society in that speech have resonance now.
She reprised a line from that speech in which Reagan said the issue of the 1964 election was "whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."
Government today, she said, is "making it increasingly impossible for anyone but cronies to get ahead."
"We're told our economy is so complicated that only government can plan it for us," she said in a speech threaded with populist themes. "Though government created the problem, now government presents itself as the solution, trying to convince us that we can win the future by letting that little intellectual elite in a far distant capital win it for us.
"But President Reagan said you can't be for big government, big taxes and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy, and that's who's left out in the cold today," she said. "Big labor, big finance, they have seats at the table, the little guy doesn't, but we're the ones left holding the tab. We're paying the bill."
Palin called on her audience to continue to press for cutting spending and the size of government — including entitlement reform.
"We need to stop spending and cut government back down to size as we teach our children in our homes and in our businesses to live within our means," she said. "We must reform entitlement programs in a way that honors our current commitments while we keep faith with future generations. And we desperately need jobs. "
Palin's last major public appearance in California was two weeks before the Nov. 2 election at a Republican gathering in Anaheim, where she urged supporters to exhaust themselves to achieve a Republican victory in 2010: "We'll all be celebrating, because California will be put back on the right track, along with rest of America," she said in the October speech.
While Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives, the Republicans at the top of the California ticket, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, lost by double digits.
maeve.reston@latimes.com
Palin gets unflattering look in aide's manuscript
by Sean Cockerham and Kyle Hopkins - Feb. 19, 2011 10:41 AM
Anchorage Daily News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned.
The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday.
The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying "I hate this damn job" shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four- year term. The manuscript goes on for nearly 500 pages, a mixture of analysis, gossip and allegation.
Copies of the manuscript were forwarded around Alaska political circles on Friday. The Anchorage Daily News received copies from multiple sources, the first from author Joe McGinniss, who is working on his own Palin book. McGinniss didn't respond to a message asking where he obtained the manuscript and the reason he circulated it.
Bailey, a political insider who joined Palin's 2006 campaign for governor and became part of her inner circle, has never before told his version of the Palin story. Bailey has consistently refused requests for interviews and did so again Friday. The book was co- written with California author Ken Morris and Jeanne Devon of Anchorage, who publishes the popular anti-Palin website Mudflats.
Devon wrote on her website that the "draft manuscript" was leaked without the knowledge or permission of the authors. She said they are shocked and horrified.
Bailey wrote in the book that he and his co-authors put together the manuscript with the help of more than 60,000 e-mails he sent or received while working for Palin.
Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Palin's political action committee, said she didn't expect Palin to react. "Doubt she will respond to this kind of untruth," Pryor said in an e-mail.
The manuscript was leaked along with an e-mail from an agent touting the book, possibly to a prospective publisher. The agent, Carol Mann of the Mann Agency in New York, said none of it was supposed to be released. "It is not a finished draft and there isn't a pub date yet," Mann said in an e-mail to the Daily News.
The manuscript is titled, "In Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of our Tumultuous Years." Bailey is a former Alaska Airlines supervisor who joined Palin's campaign team at the beginning of her successful run for governor in 2006. He writes in the manuscript how he was charmed and inspired by Palin.
Bailey recounts how he was impressed when she blew the whistle on Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich for doing political work at his state job. Bailey calls himself a Fox News conservative and said he became convinced she had the principles and courage to take on the Alaska Republican political machine.
"Sarah Palin had God's blessing and people's love and faith," he wrote.
But, in Bailey's telling, the reality was nasty. Minor slights became obsessions, according to Bailey, demanding revenge and if possible destruction of the opponent's reputation.
"We set our sights and went after opponents in coordinated attacks, utilizing what we called "Fox News surrogates," friendly blogs, ghost-written op-eds, media opinion polls (that we often rigged), letters to editors, and carefully edited speeches," Bailey wrote.
One chapter asserts Palin broke election law by coordinating with the Republican Governor's Association during her 2006 campaign for governor. State candidates can't team up with soft-money groups such as the Republican Governor's Association, which paid for TV commercials and mailers in Alaska during the election in a purported "independent" effort.
At the time, the Alaska Democratic Party had accused the RGA and Palin of working together on an ad that included Palin striding from the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.
In his book, Bailey says the allegation was true. Palin and her aides marched along the block in front of the hotel again and again in order to allow a camera operator to capture footage for the ad, he said. "(Palin aide) Kris Perry, when orchestrating that nutty-parade at the hotel, was following the directions of the RGA cameraman and/or whomever he was working for," Bailey wrote.
"Far worse, Sarah conducted multiple takes and knew exactly what was happening. She had, I suddenly believed, broken the law," Bailey wrote.
Palin confidante Bailey remained a member of Palin's inner circle after she was elected governor. At one point Bailey was the subject of an ethics investigation into whether improper influence was used to win a state job for a Palin campaign supporter. Bailey had an "improper motivation" to get the supporter a job, concluded investigator Tim Petumenos, who recommended Bailey get ethics training.
Bailey was Palin's director of boards and commissions and, according to the manuscript, was a particularly close confidante of the governor's husband, Todd.
Bailey was best known publicly as a central figure in the "Troopergate" affair. Troopergate was the Legislature's investigation into why Palin dismissed Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner, and if she abused her power and pushed for Monegan to fire trooper Mike Wooten. Palin's sister and Wooten had divorced in 2006 and fought over child custody and visitation issues.
The Palin family had complained that Wooten once tasered his stepson, among other things.
Bailey wrote in his book that Todd Palin recruited him to go after Wooten, saying it's time to get it done, and it's us, Frank. You and me." Todd Palin kept feeding him information on Wooten, Bailey writes, which he passed on to troopers.
Bailey at one point called a trooper lieutenant outlining various complaints against Wooten and saying the governor and her husband were wondering why the trooper still had a job. Bailey wrote in the book that he subsequently told Todd Palin about the call, and the reaction was that it was "great stuff." Bailey wrote that Todd Palin showed his gratitude by asking him if he'd consider becoming Palin's chief of staff.
In August of 2008, after the Legislature had started its investigation, Sarah Palin released a recording of the phone call Bailey made to the lieutenant and said Bailey had acted out of bounds. The governor said the call was wrong and that she never asked it to be made.
Supreme Court pick Bailey suggests in the book that one of Palin's picks for the Supreme Court was colored by her animosity against Wooten. He wrote that District Court Judge Morgan Christen ruled in favor of Palin's sister in her custody dispute with Wooten, and that Todd Palin raved about how Christen raked Wooten over the coals.
Christen later applied for the state Supreme Court and was picked by the Alaska Judicial Council as one of the two candidates for Palin to consider appointing. Bailey wrote that he warned Palin it would be a conflict of interest, but she wasn't interested.
But a spokeswoman for the Alaska Court System said Bailey got his facts wrong. Christen was never the assigned judge in the Wooten custody case, didn't make any rulings in favor of either party, and played a "very limited role," according to Christine Johnson, administrative director for the court system.
Johnson said before applying for the Supreme Court Christen conducted a conference in the case, where both sides agreed to a settlement. Wooten and Palin's sister later had a dispute over what they'd agreed upon in the settlement and asked Christen to resolve it, Johnson said. But Christen sent it to another judge because she had applied to the Supreme Court and had a conflict.
Bailey was sympathetic to the Alaska Family Council, an anti-abortion group fighting Christen's appointment. Bailey wrote that Palin turned on Alaska Family Council head Jim Minnery, and later backed out of an event with him to promote a ballot measure aimed at making it illegal for teens to get an abortion. Bailey speculated that Palin didn't come because she was working on her book.
"When Sarah turned on Jim Minnery and his/their cause, for the sole purposes of making money and causing him embarrassment, I saw how blind I'd become. Finally, Sarah Louise Palin's petty ways and butchered priorities would set me free," Bailey wrote.
Does Sarah Palin's political future lie in Arizona?
All of a sudden, there’s a lot of speculation that Sarah Palin’s political future runs through Arizona, the home state of her 2008 presidential running mate John McCain and where her daughter Bristol Palin recently bought a house.
On Tuesday, state Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, forwarded a rumor that Palin was contemplating coming to Arizona to run for retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl’s open seat in 2012.
Farley wrote in his weekly newsletter to constituents:
“And as long as we are trading in rumors, I will leave you with an unwelcome one that I heard this afternoon from two separate reliable sources: Sarah Palin is considering moving to Bristol's new house in Maricopa in order to run for Kyl's Senate seat. Just what we need in our politics -- another politician from out of state who believes that ideology trumps jobs, the economy, and common sense. Let's hope the rumor is wrong.”
Farley on Wednesday said his sources were two Republican lobbyists whom he would not name.
AZ/DC contacted several local GOP insiders, but none had heard the Palin-running-for-Senate rumor and all were somewhat skeptical of it. Palin, who is still considered a possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate, last year had the opportunity to run for the Senate in Alaska and passed on it. But it’s not unheard of for a national political figure to relocate to a new state to run for a Senate seat, as Robert F. Kennedy and Hillary Clinton did in New York.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who spent the weekend vacationing in Alaska, said she didn't have any conversations with Palin about a possible Senate run while she was in town and that the topic never came up.
Meanwhile, Ben Smith of Politico paints a scenario that might make a little more sense. He quotes an anonymous source as saying a Palin White House campaign might be headquartered in Scottsdale.
On his blog, Smith notes that “Alaska is an extremely difficult base for national politics” and that situating her team in the Phoenix area would “hark back, perhaps not to McCain, more a Washington figure than an Arizona one, but to what now stands as the iconic campaign for many base Republican voters: Goldwater '64.”
(What would Barry say about Palin if he were around today? Hmmm.)
“And Arizona carries its own significance: Basing a campaign there would be a provocative rejection of any lingering political cost from those who connect her harsh rhetoric and Gabrielle Giffords' shooting -- a traditional refusal to retreat,” Smith wrote. “It's also the core of the politically contested, fast-growing new West.”
Arizona Republic reporters Ginger Rough and Mary Jo Pitzl contributed to this blog post. Be sure to check out their Political Insider blog.
Bristol Palin earns $262K for teen pregnancy work
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Tax documents show unwed mother Bristol Palin earned more than $262,000 for her role in helping raise awareness for teen pregnancy prevention in 2009.
The most recent data for The Candie's Foundation that's posted online by research firm GuideStar shows compensation at $262,500 for the now-20-year-old daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.
Bristol Palin was 18 when she was appointed as a teen ambassador for the New York-based foundation in 2009, months after giving birth to son, Tripp. She and the 2-year-old boy's father, Levi Johnston, are no longer together.
Palin family attorney John Tiemessen and foundation officials did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday.
Palin, who still works for the foundation, told The Associated Press last year that girls would think twice about having sex if they knew how tough it is to be a mother. She said she "wasn't prepared at all" for the dramatic changes in her life since becoming a mom.
"I don't think anyone realizes how difficult it really is until you actually have a screaming baby in your arms and you're up all night," Palin said.
When she was first named to the ambassador role, Palin said in a statement she felt she could be a living example of the consequences of teen pregnancy.
"If I can prevent even one girl from getting pregnant, I will feel a sense of accomplishment," she said at the time.
Days after Sen. John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008, Bristol Palin's pregnancy was announced. Sarah Palin has not ruled out a run from president in 2012.
The Candie's Foundation is a division of the apparel brand Candie's. It has been raising awareness about teen pregnancy since 2001.
The blog Palingates first reported the compensation figure.
Sarah Palin sued by Alaska activist over traffic
April 29, 2011 | 5:25 pm
Sarah Palin is being sued for more than $100,000 by an longtime Alaska political activist who said the hockey mom tried to railroad him while she was governor.
Theodore "Chip" Thoma of Juneau alleges Palin launched a campaign "to punish, embarrass, discredit and silence" him after he raised serious concerns about traffic in the neighborhood surrounding the governor's mansion.
Thoma's attorney, James McGowan, said that after Thoma complained about tour bus traffic on the narrow streets around Palin's place, the governor attempted to turn the tables and make it appear as if Thoma were directing "some unsavory and lunatic" campaign against the first family, the Associated Press reports.
The traffic was due, in part, to Palin's sudden national fame after she was picked by Republican Sen. John McCain to be his running mate in his failed bid for president.
Thoma is a 2010 recipient of the Celia Hunter Award for Outstanding Volunteer Contributions presented by the Alaska Conservation Foundation.
"Chip Thoma arrived in Alaska by ferry in 1971, and so began his environmental advocacy career," the blurb announcing his award states. "His volunteerism ranges from informing state officials and tourists about poor pipeline design during the Alaska pipeline build phase to working closely with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC) on wilderness protection in the Tongass."
Thoma has been an enviornmental activist in Alaska for 40 years. This is the second time he has sued an Alaska governor. In 1997, Thoma claimed Walter Hickel had engaged in a smear campaign against him over his activism. When Thoma lost that case, he was ordered to pay the governor's legal fees totaling $77,865.50.
Yea Bush would be drooling if he got to murder Osama, like Obama did!
Sarah Palin credits Bush for Osama bin Laden's death, omits Obama's name
By James Oliphant
May 3, 2011, 7:09 a.m.
Speaking at a fundraising event Monday evening, Sarah Palin credited President Bush by name for the death of Osama bin Laden but omitted the name of President Obama in her remarks.
Palin spoke to a crowd at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colo. “Yesterday was a testament to the military’s dedication in relentlessly hunting down an enemy through many years of war,” the former Alaska governor said. “And we thank our president. ... We thank President Bush for having made the right calls to set up this victory.”
The success of the military operation that snared the Al Qaeda leader has put many GOP candidates in somewhat of a box, especially those such as Palin, who in the past has called the president “dithering.” But it’s likely that it won’t hamper their efforts in the long run to criticize the president’s national-security and foreign-policy records. In fact, Palin managed to question the administration’s strategy concerning Libya later in her address.
Palin, who says she has not yet decided whether she will mount a presidential run later this year, first offered a statement on Facebook in the wake of the news of Bin Laden’s death. That didn’t mention Obama either.
Others who didn't give credit to Obama in remarks about Bin Laden's death were Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania — although Huckabee did mention the president’s name.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, ex-Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty included some gratitude to Obama in their statements.
Now, with an expected surge in Obama's approval ratings, the question for those who have stayed on the sidelines in the GOP 2012 race so far -- such as Huckabee, Huntsman and Palin -- is whether they have even less incentive to jump in.
You can check out the news articles on the Bush murder of Saddam here.
Bristol Palin Says She Had Corrective Jaw Surgery
By Associated Press
Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 12:13 PM
Bristol Palin admits her recent change in appearance was due to a procedure -- but not plastic surgery.
The 20-year-old daughter of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells Us Weekly that she underwent corrective jaw surgery in December, a month after she finished third on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." Her face now appears thinner, with higher cheekbones and an angular jaw.
The new look, complete with Palin losing 5 pounds, was unveiled April 30 at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C. [ Hmmm last time I checked she was living in either Arizona or Alaska. Why did she have press release put out from Washington D.C.? ]
"Yes, it improved the way I look, but this surgery was necessary for medical reasons," she told the magazine for its May 23 issue, which will be on newsstands Friday.
Palin said she had the procedure so her jaw and teeth could properly realign. While growing up, she wore braces and a device to help correct an overbite. But she said her dentist warned her that she'd have to have surgery one day. The Palin family's lawyer declined to comment to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Palin said she is pleased with the new look. "I look older, more mature and don't have as much of a chubby little baby face," she told the magazine.
Palin said she doesn't obsess over her face and would consider plastic surgery only in an extreme situation. "I wouldn't get plastic surgery unless I got in an accident or something terrible and got disfigured," she said.
Palin will be back on TV by the end of the year, starring in a reality series for the Bio Channel. The as-yet-untitled series will follow her move from Alaska to Los Angeles with her son, Tripp, to work at a small charity. She will live with actor brothers Kyle and Christopher Massey. Kyle Massey is a fellow "Dancing" contestant and Palin's good friend, the network said.
Palin can also soon add author to her resume. She signed with William Morrow to publish "Not Afraid of Life," to come out this summer. Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, has said the memoir would provide "an inside look at her life."
Levi Johnston, the father of her child, also is planning a tell-all book about his tumultuous relationship with the Palin family. Touchstone Publishing has a fall publication date for Johnston's book, "Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs
Why would anyone invite to the White House a Country Western singer that glorifies drinking, partying, crime and all the other things drunk cowboys do?
Opps - this is a Black guy! He sings the same type of songs but they are geared not toward cowboys, but Black kids. But Sarah doesn't like him!
Hmmm ... I wonder! Is Sarah a racist who doesn't like Blacks?
Palin says White House invite to rapper Common lacks ‘decency’
By Rachel Rose Hartman
In a Fox News appearance last night, Sarah Palin reiterated the complaints she had aired on Facebook and Twitter about the White House decision to host the rapper Common at a poetry event this week. The former Alaska governor said that Common's appearance was an affront to "class and decency."
"You know, the White House's judgment on inviting someone who would glorify cop killing during Police Memorial Week, of all times, you know, the judgment--it's just so lacking of class and decency and all that's good about America with an invite like this," the former Alaska governor said on Fox's "On the Record." "And you know, it's just so easy to assume that they're just inviting someone like me or somebody else to ask, 'Come on, Barack Obama, who are you palling around with now?' "
Palin was one of several critics earlier this week who assailed the Obama administration for including Common on the roster of performers at Wednesday's "Evening of Poetry" for students at the White House.
During her Fox appearance, Palin also noted Common's criticism of interracial relationships. "Of all the wonderful talent that's out there all over the country, why a rapper who would glorify a sense of racism and all those things that I've already named, with the inciting the violence and the cop killing--why of all people to invite--why put him on a pedestal in the White House?" she asked.
White House spokesman Jay Carney addressed the controversy earlier in the day at a press briefing, saying "the president ... opposes the kinds of lyrics that have been written about," noting that Obama has spoken out against the glorification of violence and misogyny in rap lyrics. The White House spokesman also reaffirmed Obama's support for law enforcement.
Carney defended Common--whose birth name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.--saying "within the genre of hip-hop and rap, he is what's known as a ... conscious rapper." Carney went on to explain the broader reasoning behind Common's inclusion at the event: "I think that one of the things that the president appreciates is the work that Mr. Lynn has done with children, especially in Chicago, trying to get them to focus on poetry, as opposed to some of the negative influences of life on the street."
So what did the rapper end up performing Wednesday? The piece focused on Common's life struggle and those he sees around him, as well as offering a hat tip to the president, whom the rapper has long supported.
It began: "I woke up with the sunshine. A sunshine I had never seen. There was light at the end of it. Reminded me to forever dream."
Will Sarah Palin Be the Next GOP Presidential Race Dropout?
Saul Relative
The field of potential Republican contenders running for president in 2012 is beginning to narrow down. In fact, two of the frontrunners -- former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and business tycoon Donald Trump -- announced within two days of each other that they would not seek the GOP nomination for president. Although several minor potential candidates like Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota have yet to declare, of all the major contenders, only former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is left to announce whether or not she will run.
Despite Tina Fey's satirical line on "Saturday Night Live" that Palin will run for president for the rest of her life, she just might not this time around. Her poll numbers concerning her as a preferred candidate continue to remain solidly based around 10 percent of the Republican electorate, but her electability remains questionable. Simply put, most Americans just do not believe she is qualified to be president.
And although Palin has continued to play the might/might not game in interviews, people like conservative analyst Bill Kristol has noted that he believes Palin's political instincts will kick in and she will not run in 2012. Rev. Franklin Graham also said in an interview on ABC's "This Week" in late April that he does not believe Palin will enter the fray.
There is also the matter of a couple of books that are being prepared for release. Reportedly tell-alls, the books are by individuals who were close to the former Alaska governor and her family, not to mention some of the inner workings of the Palin inner circle. There is a chance that the books could do damage to a 2012 campaign and Palin's political future.
Frank Bailey, a political adviser to Palin, is set to release his book, a supposedly unflattering account of the way Palin conducted herself and the business of the state of Alaska. Early reports have indicated that Blind Allegiance To Sarah Palin not only portrays the half-term governor as vindictive and uncompromising but also ambitious and power hungry to the point of allegedly breaking the law.
Almost son-in-law Levi Johnston also has promised a book about Sarah Palin. Perhaps even more unflattering than Bailey's tell-all, Johnston's book, entitled Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs, reportedly will be more tilted toward Sarah Palin the family woman, wife, and near mother-in-law whose life was (and possibly remains) consumed by politics.
Bailey's book is due out at the end of May. Johnston's is tentatively scheduled for autumn.
It is uncertain how Sarah Palin herself sees her chances as a Republican presidential candidate, although she once said she believed she could beat President Barack Obama in a national election. Without any major advancement in the polls (and, from a more optimistic perspective, no major declines), it would appear that she has a solid base of support among Republicans. But the question remains: Would she be able to build upon the base or would her support continue to remain only with her loyal followers? Palin has hinted that she will make her decision at the last minute and just jump in (one of the advantages of having excellent name recognition and a working political action committee) -- if she runs at all.
But with impending unsavory tell-all books and stagnant poll numbers, Palin looks to be the next in line among Republican presidential hopefuls to -- instead of announcing a candidacy -- declare that they are not running. Still, the former vice presidential candidate has been known to go rogue.
Sarah Palin buy a house in north Scottsdale?
by Dan Nowicki and Catherine Reagor - May. 21, 2011 12:36 PM
The Arizona Republic
Has Sarah Palin bought a house in north Scottsdale?
For months, rumors have circulated in Arizona political circles that the former Alaska governor and possible 2012 presidential contender either was shopping for homes in Scottsdale or had already bought one.
A just-closed deal on a secluded luxury home in far north Scottsdale might fit the bill, and talk has begun that this may be the one. It's an 8,000-square-foot, dark-brown stucco home with a guard gate that can keep unwanted visitors away. It has six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a six-car garage, a swimming pool and spa, and a full basement with a home theater, billiards room and wine cellar.
Safari Investments LLC paid $1.695 million cash for the home in a deal that appears designed to cloak the identity of a high-profile buyer.
Safari Investments is a Delaware limited liability firm formed May 12, the day before the deal for the Scottsdale home closed. No officers are listed on the Delaware filing, and that state doesn't require the names of individual associated with limited liability companies to be disclosed. High-profile people often buy homes through LLCs to maintain their privacy.
Alan Kierman, an attorney with the Phoenix law firm of Mack Drucker & Watson, is listed on property records as the contact for Safari Investments. Asked point blank by The Arizona Republic if Palin and her husband Todd Palin bought the north Scottsdale house through the company, Kierman said he had no comment.
In north Scottsdale's scenic desert, the former foreclosure house was purchased by real estate agent and investor Ian Whitmore in March 2010 for $805,000. He sold it May 13 to Safari Investments, but said he doesn't know who is behind the limited liability company. The home was half-renovated when it was taken back by the lender JP Mortgage Chase Bank in 2009.
Requests seeking comment from Palin or her aides made Friday and Saturday through her political action committee, SarahPAC, were not successful.
Confirmation of a Palin house purchase in Scottsdale likely would rekindle chatter about whether Palin might run a political campaign out of Arizona, the home state of U.S. Sen. John McCain, who plucked her from relative political obscurity in 2008 to be his vice-presidential running mate.
Palin has been rumored to be considering headquartering her 2012 White House campaign, if there is one, in Scottsdale. She also has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Palin has made multiple visits to Arizona since the night in November 2008 when, at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, McCain conceded the presidential election to Democratic rival Barack Obama. Palin's daughter, former "Dancing With the Stars" celebrity finalist Bristol Palin, last year purchased a five-bedroom house in Maricopa.
Palin's name started coming up in Arizona in March, when state Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, repeated a rumor of a possible Palin bid for the U.S. Senate in his weekly newsletter to constituents. Farley told The Republic at the time that he heard the rumor from two Republican lobbyists whom he declined to name. The same week, a Politico blogger quoted an anonymous source as saying Palin might base a potential presidential campaign in Scottsdale.
The Arizona Democratic Party's website asked, "Is Sarah Palin moving to Arizona?" and used the rumors to try to raise money.
The speculation was enough for Public Policy Polling, a Democratic company based in North Carolina, to include some questions about Palin in its most recent automated telephone survey of Arizona voters. One question asked respondents whether they would like for Palin to move to Arizona. Fifty-seven percent said no. Another 27 percent said they would like her to relocate to the state, while 16 percent were not sure.
The poll of 623 Arizona voters was conducted April 28 to May 1 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Coming soon: Sarah Palin movie
by Andy Barr - May. 25, 2011 10:23 AM
POLITICO.COM
A two-hour film promoting Sarah Palin will premiere in Iowa next month, serving as a potential launch to a presidential campaign.
RealClearPolitics first reported the details of the film. The announcement was confirmed to POLITICO.
Conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon was approached by Palin's camp last year about making a series of videos, the website reported. Bannon in turn suggested a feature-length film, titled "The Undefeated."
Bannon paid for the cost of making the film - reportedly $1 million - which is designed to help rehabilitate her image and restore her ties to hardcore constituents.
Palin has frequently turned to tightly edited video productions to get out her message. The former Alaska governor has hinted at having editing rights to the reality show she participated in last year. At other critical times - such as in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) - Palin has posted video on her site rather than sit for an interview.
The announcement is the latest in a series of moves that have revived presidential speculation around the former governor, including a prominent foreign policy speech and a revamped website for her political action committee.
Sarah Palin moves to Scottsdale?
Scottsdale residents react to Sarah Palin's likely move
by Beth Duckett, Peter Corbett and Ofelia Madrid - May. 29, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
For the past week, buzz has swirled about Sarah Palin purchasing a palatial $1.7 million home in northern Scottsdale, with speculation centered on whether she intends to base a 2012 presidential run in Arizona or seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Jon Kyl.
Azcentral.com broke a story a week ago Saturday reporting that all signs pointed to Palin as the buyer. Since then, national media have swarmed the topic - including a piece in the New York Times that offered plenty of references to things such as rattlesnakes and "cactus rustlers."
But around some of the shopping centers near the home, which is located near Hayden Road and Dynamite Boulevard, reaction Friday ranged somewhere between ho and hum.
At a Target shopping center, some hadn't heard or didn't care.
One couple outside a Starbucks were surprised to hear Palin had purchased a home a few miles away. A woman working inside a clothing boutique said she'd heard customers talking about helicopters hovering over the area in the past week. Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, who, along with the City Council has been grappling with the city budget, said the news wasn't front and center for him.
He conceded it would "make Scottsdale somewhat more noteworthy."
Scottsdale has had its fair share of well-known residents through the years, and the city is known as a whistle stop for celebrities attracted to downtown Scottsdale's nightlife.
Lane said Palin could add yet another dimension to the city's profile.
"This will definitely raise that awareness and put us in a little bit of a different spectrum on a political level," he said.
Some Scottsdale-area residents and political activists were receptive to her as a resident, but mixed on her as a candidate. Palin launched an East Coast bus tour this weekend that many analysts see as another indication she is preparing for a presidential run.
Dr. David Rabinowitz, a retired Paradise Valley pulmonologist, said he thinks Palin moved to Scottsdale to establish residency in Arizona to run next year for Kyl's seat. "I'm not a fan of Palin but she is a very attractive, very dynamic candidate," he said.
Bud Kaatz, a former Republican precinct committeeman from the Arcadia area who thinks Palin would make a strong candidate, believes Scottsdale's weather compared to Alaska's is enough of a reason for her to like it here.
"I think she's a pretty sharp gal," Kaatz said.
During several trips to the home in the past week, Republic staffers saw little in the way of activity, other than a handful of workers around the property. "No trespassing" signs are posted outside the home. The 8,000-square-foot northern Scottsdale home, which sits on more than 4 acres, has a six-car garage, large swimming pool and five bathrooms, azcentral.com reported May 21. Safari Investments LLC paid $1.695 million cash for the home in a deal that cloaked the identity of a high-profile buyer, azcentral .com reported. Palin grew familiar with Arizona during the 2008 presidential campaign, when she campaigned as Sen. John McCain's running mate, and more recently, her daughter Bristol purchased a home in Maricopa.
Scottsdale is no stranger to vice presidents.
Dan Quayle attended Scottsdale High School and lived in Paradise Valley. Democrat Thomas Marshall, vice president under Woodrow Wilson, had a winter home in Scottsdale.
Sarah Palin confirms buying home in Arizona
SourceSarah Palin confirms buying home in Arizona
by Dan Nowicki - May. 31, 2011 10:07 PM
The Arizona Republic
Sarah Palin has confirmed that she is part of a limited liability company that has purchased a home in north Scottsdale.
"No, we haven't moved from Alaska, but Safari Investments has invested in property in Arizona," the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee told Greta Van Susteren in an interview that aired Tuesday night on Van Susteren's Fox News Channel program. "You know, many, many Alaskans purchase property in Arizona, Nevada and Texas. And I think we do that because not only are we good investors, and it's a buyer's market, but we like to thaw out once in a while. Safari Investments, which we are part of, has some property in Arizona now."
Palin did not elaborate on the location of the property or reveal any other details and Van Susteren did not follow-up.
AZ/DC and azcentral.com reported May 21 on speculation that Palin and her husband Todd Palin formed Safari Investments LLC earlier this month to spend $1.695 million cash on an 8,000-square-foot, dark-brown-stucco luxury home in north Scottsdale. High-profile home buyers frequently buy homes through LLCs to protect their privacy. Safari Investments was created in Delaware, a state that doesn't require the individuals associated with limited liability companies to publicly disclose their names. Alan Kierman, the Phoenix attorney listed on property records as the contact for Safari Investments, declined to comment when asked if the Palins were affiliated with the company that bought the Scottsdale house. Multiple requests for comment made at the time through Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, at the time were not successful.
The azcentral.com report renewed national chatter that Palin may base a 2012 presidential campaign in Arizona or even seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., although the latter prospect seems much less likely.
Some photos of Sarah Palin's new Scottsdale Home.
Sarah Palin moves to Scottsdale?
Morning Poll: Do You Buy Sarah Palin's Reason for Purchasing Scottsdale Home?
By James King, Wed., Jun. 1 2011 at 7:30 AM
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has refused to answer any reporters' questions about a home she was rumored to have recently bought in Scottsdale. But Fox News' Greta Van Susteren apparently isn't any reporter.
Despite the former vice presidential candidate's recent media silence, Van Susteren scored 20 minutes with Palin last night, during which, she copped to purchasing the Scottsdale home.
The reason Palin gave she and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's mutual BFFF is as follows:
"No I haven't moved from Alaska but Safari Investments has invested in property in Arizona," she said, adding that "we are a part of" Safari Investments. The reason for the purchase? As Alaskans, she and the rest of the Palin clan "like to thaw out once in a while."
Quite a yarn.
Palin's daughter Bristol already owns a home in Arizona, so if the Palin gang was in need of a place to "thaw out," there's no reason the "fiscally Conservative" "mama grizzly" couldn't pull out the futon at her daughter's place, rather than blow $1.69 million on her own home.
In reality, and in our humble opinion, Palin's plotting something -- be it a presidential run she's rumored to be planning to base out of Arizona, or throwing her hat in the ring to run for the Senate seat getting vacated by Senator Jon Kyl.
Sarah Palin hijacks John McCain's bus?
Sure Sarah Palin may be an idiot in addition to being a lying sleeze bag politician, but in this case the reporter also seems to have screwed up his facts.
Sarah Palin struggles with the facts
Washington Post
Glenn Kessler Glenn Kessler – Fri Jun 3, 6:00 am ET
“This Sunday, May 29th, Governor Palin and the SarahPAC team will begin a trip through our nation's rich historical sites, starting from Washington, DC, and going up through New England. The ‘One Nation Tour’ is part of our new campaign to educate and energize Americans about our nation's founding principles, in order to promote the Fundamental Restoration of America.”
— Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s Web site
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has spent this week taking a high-profile bus tour up to New Hampshire, in what may or may not be a prelude to a presidential run in 2012. She spent half an hour the other day chatting with Fox News’s Greta van Susteren. The full interview is posted on Palin’s Web site, but we watched all of it so you don’t have to.
Much of the interview consisted of fluffy stuff, but every so often van Susteren diverted into asking about policy issues. Palin responded with her trademark style of making broad assertions with only a shaky command of the facts. We’ll go through the key statements in the order in which she said them, which allows us to begin and end with some absolute whoppers.
“We don’t have the $2 billion [to give to Egypt]. Where are we going to get it? From China? We are going to borrow from foreign countries to give to foreign countries. … We want to know to know where those dollars are going because we don’t have the money to be providing foreign countries, not in this day and age when we are going broke.”
Palin managed to get almost everything wrong in this comment. She clearly was not listening too closely to President Obama’s speech on the Middle East, because otherwise she would have realized that he was not talking about spending more taxpayer dollars.
Obama proposed to forgive up to $1 billion of Egypt’s $3.6 billion debt (money that was spent buying American farm products). The forgiveness, which would take several years, would take the form of a “debt swap,” in which the money saved will be invested in designated programs in Egypt.
The other $1 billion would consist of loan guarantees by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which are structured at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer. So none of this would involve new debt issued by the Treasury.
I will have to disagree with the reporter on this one. It doesn't matter is we give $2 billion to Egypt or allow Egypt to not pay $2 billion in loans or debts it owe the USA, the American taxpayers still will get screwed in the deal!
Palin appears to assume that the United States simply hands out dollars with little idea about what happens to the money. This is a common misnomer. Actually, there are often strings attached. But when you give some third world dictator a boat load of money and he says f*ck you, I am not going to do what the attached strings require there ain't much you can do to force them to obey.
Under the terms of the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel, the United States gives about $2 billion in direct aid to Egypt every year, making it one of the largest foreign-aid recipients. But most of this aid — about $1.3 billion a year — is financing to buy U.S. military hardware and services.
Egypt, for instance, has used the U.S.-supplied funds to replace aging Soviet-supplied equipment with at least 220 F-16 aircraft, 880 M1A1 tanks and 36 Apache helicopters. So Egypt ends up with weapons — but the money actually goes to U.S. firms and helps create U.S. jobs.
Palin is also wrong to assume that every dollar of foreign aid would be borrowed. The budget deficit is high, but the U.S. government still takes in substantial revenues. According to the latest Congressional Budget Office forecast, about 40 percent of the federal budget is financed through new debt — and that percentage is projected to drop significantly as the economy improves. Borrowed???? What BS! The Feds pretend to "borrow" money. In reality they don't borrow a cent, but print about 40 percent of the money they spend. A good book on this subject is "The Creature from Jekyl Island" which is a story about how the Federal Reserve was created!
Finally, while China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, foreign countries actually hold only about 28 percent of the $14 trillion debt. The latest Treasury bulletin shows that the biggest holder is the U.S. government itself (i.e., Social Security and Medicare), while U.S. pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies and state and local governments hold almost as much as foreign investors. Again this is a bunch of government double talk! The Feds collect $x billion in Social Security taxes and then give $x billion to the Defense Department to buy weapons. The Feds pretend that the Defense Department borrowed the money from Social Security. That is a bunch of BS done with smoke and mirrors in the accounting department.
“If you have more recipients than you have payers into the [Social Security] system, it is like a Ponzi scheme that’s going to be upside down in no time at all. We are going to be underwater with Social Security.”
Palin correctly identifies a potential problem for Social Security — that as the Baby Boom generation retires, there will be fewer workers paying into the system.
But she overstates the case by calling it a “Ponzi scheme,”
in which money from new investors is used to pay off old investors.
Again the reporter doesn't know what he is talking about.
Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.
The government loves to tell us, or mislead us in that
the Social Security taxes are some how invested and
used to pay Social Security benefits at some later date.
That is 100 percent BS.
Social Security taxes are collected, some of it is used
to pay off existing Social Security benefits, but most of
the taxes go to other government programs.
Congress pretends this is a loan and the money is invested,
but that is 100 percent BS!
You cannot just look at the number of workers. You also have to look at productivity and technological change — which over time has allowed the nation’s economic output to greatly exceed population growth. That’s why the system has worked so well for so long. Wrong, the system works great because it IS a Ponzi scheme!
As for being “underwater with Social Security,” the latest trustees report says that Social Security’s trust fund reserves will be exhausted in 2036; after that point, tax income would be enough to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits through 2085. That’s certainly a problem, but not an insurmountable one — and clearly not a Ponzi-like collapse. (For those who do not believe the trust funds exist, please see our previous article on this issue.)
“Look at the debt that has been accumulated over the past two years. It is more debt under this president than all those other presidents combined.”
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is sometimes described as a possible Sarah Palin rival in the presidential sweepstakes. In this case, Palin is virtually repeating a claim for which Bachmann had previously earned Pinocchios.
As we noted then, the numbers simply do not add up.
To keep it simple, we will look at the historical tables on the White House Web site, which lists the debt totals by fiscal year.
The national debt (including bonds held by U.S. government agencies) stood at just under $10 trillion a few months before Obama took office. The United States recently reached the debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion, more than two years after Obama took office. Last time we checked, $4 trillion is much less than $10 trillion.
“[Obama passed] a trillion dollars in stimulus package projects that still have resulted in record-setting unemployment, a heartbreaking number of home foreclosures, crashed markets left and right.”
Obama’s stimulus plan was actually $800 billion, not $1 trillion. The bill also included more than $200 billion in immediate tax breaks, so it is incorrect to suggest it was all spending projects.
We’re not sure one can make a direct link between the stimulus bill and home foreclosures and “crashed markets left and right,” whatever that means. But “record-setting unemployment”?
Perhaps Palin is referring to raw numbers, but given population growth, that’s a silly way to look at it. The most relevant figure is the percentage of workers who are unemployed.
During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate reached 23.6 percent in 1932. In the modern era, the rate topped 9.7 percent in 1982, when Ronald Reagan was president. It reached 9.6 percent in 2010, which is certainly pretty close, but it’s not a record.
“[Look at] the impacts of that [drilling permit] moratorium [in the Gulf of Mexico], where 97 percent of our offshore has been locked up. What we are looking at now is 150,000 barrels less per day next year, and 200,000 barrels per day less being able to be developed from the Gulf the year after. …We are going to be looking at $8 billion a day that we are going to be pouring into foreign countries in order to import that make-up fuel that we are going to need to take place of what we could have gotten out of the Gulf.”
When Palin started talking about oil — and the “drill baby drill” decal over the gas tank of her bus — she became very emphatic, slicing the air and hitting the table with one of her hands. But once again her facts were wrong.
We’re not sure where she comes up with the notion that 97 percent of the offshore area has been “locked up,” though this is a phrase she has used before. In any case, the relevant figure would seem to be the precentage of technically recoverable oil that was affected by the drilling permit moratorium, imposed by the Obama administration after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The independent Energy Information Agency (EIA) pegs the number at 20 percent (18 billion barrels), with 4 billion barrels in the Gulf of Mexico.
Palin’s figures on the production decline are not far off, but the EIA last month cited the moratorium as a secondary factor in the decline: “EIA expects production from the Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to fall by 130,000 bbl/d in 2011 and by a further 190,000 bbl/d in 2012 because of production declines from existing fields and the impact of last year's drilling moratorium and the subsequent delay in issuing new drilling permits.”
In fact, the Interior Department this week issued its 15th drilling license for the deepwater region of the Gulf of Mexico, so that 2012 figure may well improve.
Meanwhile, Palin’s claim of $8 billion a day in additional imports is absurd. That amounts to 80 million barrels a day at $100 a barrel—and the entire world's consumption is about 85 million barrels a day. If Palin took out a calculator, she would see that her own estimate of 200,000 barrels a day amounts to just $20 million a day.
Paul Revere warned the British????
SourceSarah Palin claims Paul Revere warned the British
June 3, 2011
Sarah Palin, if you haven't heard, is taking some of her family around the country, visiting historical U.S. landmarks, and talking to the media along the way.
Thursday her "One Nation" traveling road show stopped in Boston, where the former Alaska governor, her parents, her husband, and little Piper visited Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, and Bunker Hill. Palin posted photos of that leg of her trip on the SarahPAC blog.
One moment that you won't find posted on the blog is Palin's response to reporters when they asked her who Paul Revere was. Instead of saying, "Come on, everyone knows who Paul Revere, the silversmith and patriot is," she stammered while saying this:
"He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
Needless to say, the lamestream media are having a field day with that gaffe.
Politico: Palin makes Bachmann look like Longfellow
Forbes: This certainly gives us an entirely new point of view to consider when examining our nation’s founding.
Mediaite: Palin’s version wasn’t exactly the official History Channel rendition of the tale...
ABC: Perhaps this week's lesson in the annals of American history was necessary for Sarah Palin.
Fox News has the video up leading their site, but no text or commentary. Perhaps they're speechless.
All of this reminds me of a fortune cookie I once received that said, "We teach what we most need to learn." In which case, ride on, "One Nation," ride on.
Jun 03, 2011
Sarah Palin gives her account of Paul Revere's ride
Sarah Palin apparently flubbed details of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride when she visited Boston yesterday.
The former Alaska governor, who may or may not be running for the GOP presidential nomination, thought Revere was warning the British army during the Revolutionary War.
Here's the transcript, from New York magazine, of what she told reporters who were trailing her on her bus tour of historical sites:
He who warned, uh, the … the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh, by ringin' those bells and, um, by makin' sure that as he's ridin' his horse through town to send those warnin' shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free … and we were gonna be armed.
Revere was, in fact, riding from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the approaching British army.
The blogosphere is having a field day with this one. ThinkProgress is panning Palin's description of this historic event. Mediaite spotlighted this for folks.
Palin doesn't make mention of her Revere account on the travel blog on her Sarah PAC website. She posted pictures of the Old North Church, Paul Revere's house and Bunker Hill.
Palin: I'm right about Paul Revere's history
SourcePalin: I'm right about Paul Revere's history
by Laurie Kellman - Jun. 5, 2011 02:07 PM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin insisted Sunday that history was on her side when she claimed that Paul Revere's famous ride was intended to warn both British soldiers and his fellow colonists.
"You realize that you messed up about Paul Revere, don't you?" ''Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace asked the potential 2012 presidential candidate.
"I didn't mess up about Paul Revere," replied Palin, a paid contributor to the network.
"Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have," she added. "He did warn the British."
Palin, who again said she has not decided whether to run for president, was asked about the Revolutionary War hero during a stop Thursday in Boston on her East Coast bus tour.
"He who warned the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms by ringing those bells, and makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
Palin's brush with the nation's history came toward the end of her "One Nation" bus tour that generated intense interest as she traveled from Washington to New England. Along the way, she steadfastly refused "a million times" to say whether she was running for president.
"I'm publicizing Americana and our foundation and how important it is that we learn about our past and our challenges and victories throughout American history, so that we can successfully proceed forward," Palin said in the broadcast interview. "It's not a campaign tour."
And was she leaning toward or against running, Palin was asked?
"Still right there in the middle," she said.
There's no ambiguity about the interest Palin generates, a point that doesn't sit comfortably in some quarters of a party without a clear front-runner to face President Barack Obama next year.
Palin's closely watched bus trip is a key example. Its camera-ready events competed for coverage in the same week and region as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's formal entry into the race. His candidacy is perhaps the most formidable of the emerging field.
Asked Sunday whether he could envision supporting Palin for president, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former hopeful, told "Face the Nation" on CBS: "If Barack Obama was the head of the other ticket, I could."
For her part, Palin was contrite.
"I apologize if I stepped on any, any of that PR that Mitt Romney needed or wanted that day," Palin said. "I do sincerely apologize. I didn't mean to step on anybody's toes."
While she continued to insist that she wasn't competing for anything in particular, Palin said she would welcome Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, another Republican with tea party appeal, to the race.
"More competition, the better," Palin said.
For now, Palin is clearly grappling with the downside of celebrity.
Even her otherwise successful media events can leave lingering questions about Palin's grasp of -- and interest in -- history, public policy and other subjects of substance.
On Sunday, Palin insisted she was right about the purpose of Revere's famous "midnight ride."
"I know my American history," she told Wallace.
The colonists at the time of Revere's ride were British subjects, with American independence still in the future. But Revere's own writing and other historical accounts leave little doubt that secrecy was vital to his mission.
The Paul Revere House's website says that on April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren, a patriot leader in the Boston area, instructed Revere to ride to Lexington, Mass., to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching to arrest them.
In an undated letter posted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, Revere later wrote of the need to keep his activities secret and his suspicion that a member of his tight circle of planners had become a British informant. According to the letter, believed to have been written around 1798, Revere did provide some details of the plan to the soldiers that night, but after he had notified other colonists and under questioning by the Redcoats.
Intercepted and surrounded by British soldiers on his way from Lexington to Concord, Revere revealed "there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the country all the way up," he wrote.
Revere was probably bluffing the soldiers, according to Joel J. Miller, author of "The Revolutionary Paul Revere." And while he made bells, Revere would never have rung any on that famous night because the Redcoats were under orders to round up people just like him.
"He was riding off as quickly and as quietly as possible," Miller said. "Paul Revere did not want the Redcoats to know of his mission at all."
More downside for Palin: Nothing is private.
Looming in the week ahead is Alaska's release of 24,000 pages of emails sent and received by Palin during her time as governor. They will provide an inside look into her rise from obscurity to a spot on the national stage.
The emails cover a majority of her short term as governor and could provide the most insight into how she governed the nation's largest state. Her only other elected office was as a two-term mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, which has a population of about 7,000.
The emails cover the first 21 months of Palin's tenure, ending in September 2008, after GOP presidential nominee John McCain selected her to be his running mate.
Palin resigned partway through her term, in July 2009.
"Every rock in the Palin household that could ever be kicked over and uncovered anything, it's already been kicked over," Palin said, noting that a lot of the emails are between staff and family members and were not meant for public consumption. The letters, she said, "won't distract me."
___
Online:
www.paulreverehouse.org/ride/real.html
Paul Revere's account: bit.ly/jhpMMl
Palin's Paul Revere comments draw interest online
Posted 6/6/2011 10:44 PM ET
By Becky Bohrer, Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska — Sarah Palin's version of Paul Revere's ride has triggered a tug of war over the Wikipedia entry on that historic event. Dozens of changes were made to the Revere page on the Internet site Sunday and Monday after Palin claimed Revere's famous ride was intended to warn both his fellow colonists and British soldiers. The page features a padlock, which Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh said can provide a cooling-off period when there are numerous attempts to edit a site.
Actually the site has been "semi" protected since November due to what one online editor and contributor, Jeff Schneider, called excessive vandalism. Students sometimes alter pages featuring historical people or events, he said. That protection guards against edits from unregistered users, as well as edits from unconfirmed accounts or those that aren't at least four days old with at least 10 edits.
A chat area connected to the page included sections headlined "Sarah Palin's army needs to go away," although Walsh said it's difficult to tell with any certainty whether those seeking to add Palin's statements are her supporters.
While Wikipedia allows people to add information or make changes to pages, an army of dedicated users worldwide seeks to ensure the information is accurate. This is especially true for articles related to significant historical facts or people, with volunteer editors striving to keep out information that's not proven, well established or coming from a neutral point of view, Walsh said.
"This isn't a place where you bring new research," Walsh said.
Schneider said the flurry over the Revere article is very common. "When an item is in the news, it brings in the masses," he said in an email.
But Palin interview videos weren't considered "reliable sources" for updates to the site, Schneider said, adding that he was the first to "remove someone adding historic information based on Palin's interview."
Palin defended her position on Fox News Sunday, insisting she hadn't bungled her American history.
"Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have," she added. "He did warn the British."
Days earlier, during a bus tour of the East Coast, Palin said Revere warned the British "by ringing those bells, and makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
While colonists were British subjects when Revere made his ride, historical accounts indicate secrecy was critical as Revere sought to carry out his mission to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were coming to arrest them.
Sarah Palin emails: Alaska set to release new trove of documents from Palin's governorship
By Matea Gold
June 9, 2011, 2:07 p.m.
The state of Alaska is expected to release more than 24,000 pages worth of emails from Sarah Palin's tenure as governor, more than two years after they were requested by news organizations and local activists.
The Palin emails were originally sought to shed light on the then-little-known running mate of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Their release comes at a very different time -- as Palin, who enjoys near-universal name recognition, is contemplating a White House bid of her own.
The documents will be made available in Juneau in paper form. The Los Angeles Times' Data Desk will scan them and post them online, making each available in a searchable archive.
Readers will have the ability to submit comments and suggestions on the page, or by emailing The Times at documents@latimes.com.
The emails span from the beginning of Palin's term in December 2006 through Sept. 30, 2008, when media outlets originally asked for the materials. Palin remained in office until July 2009, when she abruptly quit with 18 months left in her term, citing her lame-duck status and costly challenges from critics.
The state redacted more than 2,200 pages worth of materials, citing exemptions to public records laws including the privacy provision of the Alaska Constitution, attorney-client privilege, work product privilege and executive and deliberative process privileges.
Alaskan state officials said the large number of emails and technical limitations of the state’s email system caused delays in locating and reviewing the appropriate materials.
One complicating factor: Along with her official state email account, Palin used two personal Yahoo accounts to conduct state business. Included in the release are emails from her personal accounts if they were sent from or received by official state accounts.
Another challenge: The state said it was unable to create an electronic copy of the materials and had to manually print out each email. As a computer programmer and all around computer geek that sounds like 100 percent BS!!!!!
The office of Palin's successor and former running mate, Gov. Sean Parnell, originally estimated that it could cost the state millions of dollars to identify the correct emails, subject them to review by attorneys and copy them. In the end, each requester was charged $725.97 in copying fees, at three cents a page.
The Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau submitted a public records request this spring for all emails Palin sent or received during her tenure as governor. The state has yet to respond when it will provide Palin's emails from after Sept. 30, 2008.
Check out more on the Sarah Palin emails here.
Palin emails let old media test new media methods
Posted 6/12/2011 8:08 PM ET
By Mike Baker, Associated Press
The analysis of Sarah Palin's emails over the past few days may end up teaching us more about the future of journalism than about the former Alaska governor's past.
Drawing on methods used by both Wikileaks and social networks, traditional news organizations such as The New York Times and The Washington Post used the Palin email dump as an experiment in new media techniques. They sought collaboration from readers and posted massive volumes of documents online before reporters even had a chance to read most of the papers.
That sort of public coordination -- often called "crowdsourcing" -- has drawn increasing interest from many journalists. David Lauter, chief of Tribune Co.'s Washington bureau, said he and his colleagues have wondered whether it would be a more productive way of analyzing data.
"It's a concept that we'd been looking at," Lauter said. "This seemed like a great opportunity to test to see how it might work."
Tribune dispatched two journalists equipped with portable scanners to Juneau to pick up the thousands of Palin emails and begin digitizing them for online readers. Lauter said the first batch was posted on the Los Angeles Times website about 30 minutes after the documents were released Friday.
The New York Times, using a similar strategy, assigned a team to put all the documents online as soon as possible. It took 14 hours to post all of them.
Technologically, the project seemed to succeed. Several outlets organized the files chronologically and made the documents searchable. The Associated Press made electronic scans available to members around the country.
Neither the crowdsourcing nor the traditional analysis by reporters produced any bombshells, but enlisting the public did help engage readers. The New York Times received more than 2,000 emails, about half of which were substantive responses. Most of the annotations attached to Palin's emails came from readers, not reporters.
Jim Roberts, an assistant managing editor at the paper, said the paper still considers crowdsourcing experimental, but the public responses were clearly useful.
"The readers are augmenting the work of our journalists, not taking their place," Roberts said in an email. "We're not doing anything that we wouldn't otherwise do. The readers are just an extra, and valuable, resource."
Steve Doig, a journalism professor at Arizona State University who specializes in computer-assisted reporting, said the crowdsourcing approach was clever -- and one he hopes to see more of in the future.
"You don't have to be a professional reporter to be able to recognize statements that might be newsworthy," Doig said. "So, having lots and lots of eyeballs looking through it -- whether it's professional reporter or just somebody who's looking for their own interest or amusement -- you can more quickly find something newsworthy."
With an increased focus to share documents online, media outlets have been seeking out new ways to compile and analyze information. A few months ago, the AP internally assessed thousands of emails sent to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and raised questions about his claim that most people who contacted him wanted to eliminate nearly all union rights for state workers.
In 2009, The New York Times publicly posted hundreds of pages from the calendar of Timothy Geithner -- now President Barack Obama's treasury secretary -- from his time at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Journalists and observers said the conditions were ripe for using crowdsourcing with the Palin emails because the documents were so voluminous. And they were released to many media outlets at the same time, meaning there was no reason to horde them in hopes of identifying an exclusive.
Reporters had been seeking the Palin emails for nearly three years -- ever since she was selected as John McCain's running mate in 2008. Alaska public records law requires agencies to respond within 10 working days, but it took the state far longer to compile, review and release Palin's correspondence.
Palin's use of private email addresses to conduct state business made the job more complicated and stirred interest in the messages.
As the release date grew closer, Palin continued to be the focus of speculation about a potential 2012 White House bid. And the number of news organizations seeking the emails also grew. That led to a scrum of reporters arriving Friday in Juneau to pick up boxes containing 24,000 documents and hurry them off to be digitized.
The documents offered a glimpse into Palin's methods as governor, showing her engaged in day-to-day duties, concerned about her image and protective of her family. It also captured the speed of her rise to the center of national politics.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Palin's political action committee, encouraged everyone to read the emails and said they showed a governor hard at work. Meanwhile, other Palin supporters questioned whether the news media were unfairly targeting her in a massive rush to analyze the documents.
Stacy Drake, an editor and contributor at the pro-Palin website Conservatives4Palin, said the email databases were clearly a fishing expedition and could potentially be called a witch hunt. She thought it was ridiculous to post emails from every aspect of Palin's time in office, as opposed to investigating a specific issue or topic and posting documents related to that.
"You have to sit back and ask: 'Who else are they doing this with?'" Drake said. "I think if she were a Democrat, her treatment would be different."
Doig disagreed but said he'd like to see such scrutiny for all public candidates and hopes it becomes commonplace.
Mike Oreskes, AP's senior managing editor for U.S. news, noted AP filed more than 1,000 records requests in each of the past two years, including many related to other governors and the Obama administration. He said the news cooperative plans to continue pressing to obtain the records of other presidential contenders.
"Palin is one of many office holders whose public record and leadership the AP has sought to illuminate by obtaining emails, memos and other documents," Oreskes said.
___
Mike Baker can be reached at twitter.com/MikeBakerAP
Anybody want to rent a home in Maricopa?
SourceBristol Palin's Arizona home in Maricopa for rent
by Catherine Reagor - Jun. 15, 2011 12:00 PM
Arizona Republic
MARICOPA - Bristol Palin's Phoenix-area home is for rent. Asking price: $1,400 a month.
The daughter of Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, purchased the Pinal County home for $172,000 earlier this year.
Bristol Palin's mother bought a Scottsdale home for nearly $1.7 million in May with a nicer kitchen and a swimming pool. Speculation is that Bristol Palin plans to spend more time at her mom's house.
Bristol Palin's home has 2-1/2 bathrooms, five bedrooms, and a three-car garage but no swimming pool. It was built in 2005.
Daughter Palin, well-known for her stint on "Dancing with the Stars," has her home listed on the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.
No animals are allowed in the rental unless they are assisting for handicapped individuals.
Bristol Palin calls ex a 'gnat'
SourceBristol Palin calls ex a 'gnat' in new book
Jun. 17, 2011 05:42 PM
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Bristol Palin writes of losing her virginity to boyfriend Levi (LEE'-vy) Johnston on a camping trip after getting drunk for the first time.
Later, she got pregnant while on birth control pills she took to control cramping.
Palin is the daughter of former Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and is a 20-year-old single mother. She tells a story of "deception and disappointment" in her new book, "Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far."
Her book is scheduled for publication next week. It covers growing up with her family and the excitement of her mother's political life.
But the main theme is her now-estranged relationship with Johnston, the father of her son. She calls him "the gnat."
Johnston has promised to set the record straight in his own book, "Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs."
Palin in memoir: Lost virginity while drunk
SourcePalin in memoir: Lost virginity while drunk
By Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY
Single mom and reality star Bristol Palin airs all of her dirty laundry in her upcoming memoir, Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book, which is set for release next week, and has published some key details from the tome.
Among her more candid admissions: she was drunk when she lost her virginity to baby daddy Levi Johnston on a camping trip. In the book, she says she'd had too many wine coolers and awoke alone in a tent after their encounter, listening as Johnston "talked with his friends on the other side of the canvas."
She continues, saying that although she had vowed to her parents, Todd and Sarah Palin, to remain a virgin until marriage, she and Johnston had repeated sexual encounters and after she became pregnant with their son Tripp, now 2, she took eight pregnancy tests because she was in such shock.
Palin doesn't have many kind words for Johnston, whom she calls a "gnat" who is "constantly spreading false accusations against our family." She also accuses him of cheating "on me about as frequently as he sharpened his hockey skates."
Johnston's memoir, Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs, is due this fall.
Palin documentary a conservative nod to the politician
SourcePalin documentary a conservative nod to the politician
By Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times
June 20, 2011
Reporting from New York— It's almost impossible to watch the first few minutes of a new documentary about Sarah Palin and not flinch a little at the bile unleashed on an elected official who was a virtual unknown until Sen. John McCain plucked her from obscurity in 2008.
Madonna, onstage at Madison Square Garden, describes Palin with an epithet. Pamela Anderson, on a red carpet, says, "I can't stand her," and follows up with a vulgarity. A group of men wear T-shirts describing Palin with a vile four-letter word.
The vituperation is similar to what Hillary Rodham Clinton experienced when she sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, and earlier. But sexism is not the topic, only the entry point, of "The Undefeated."
It is a two-hour encomium to Palin, a zero-warts version of her trajectory from Wasilla mayor to Alaska governor. It will be screened this summer at large conservative gatherings, and is to open theatrically July 15 in small and medium markets such as Denver, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. The filmmaker, Stephen K. Bannon of Laguna Beach, hopes it will also appeal to moderates — and perhaps even liberals — curious about the rise of one of the country's most polarizing political figures.
"The American people are fair and decent," Bannon said in an interview after a recent screening near Times Square. "She's the most media-saturated woman in the world, but her story is hiding in plain sight."
Interest in Palin is acute on both sides of the political divide. Acclaimed documentarian Nick Broomfield is finishing up a Palin film that is expected to be a counterpoint to the hagiographic tone of "The Undefeated."
Incorporating previously unseen footage from her childhood and early years as an elected official, "The Undefeated" focuses on Palin's rise to prominence in Alaska as a Republican operating outside the party's traditional men's club power structure.
Once she became governor, she worked across party lines to renegotiate deals with oil companies, bringing in billions of dollars of new revenue for the state. She pushed through legislation for a natural gas pipeline that was hailed at the time as a major breakthrough (though it has yet to materialize, and may never be built). The film portrays her as leading an effort to force Exxon Mobil to drill an oil field it had leased from the state for 30 years. All those achievements have mixed legacies, but the film does not explore them.
"It's a uniquely American story," Bannon said. "But it's not tied to whether she runs for president or not. It's a bio-pic."
The film does not mention the ethics investigation into whether Palin acted improperly when she fired her public safety commissioner. (She was within her rights to fire the commissioner, the ethics panel found, but had abused her power as governor by trying to get him to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper.) Bannon said he steered clear of the issue because it has already been covered at length in the national media.
The last part of the film focuses on Palin as a "tea party" hero, with comments from conservative agitators like Andrew Breitbart, who questions the manhood of GOP leaders for not defending Palin after the 2008 election.
The movie's release comes on the heels of Palin's "One Nation" bus tour, which ended in New Hampshire when Palin attended a clambake on the same day Mitt Romney declared his presidential candidacy a few miles away.
Though Bannon has shown the movie to many political journalists and pundits, he has screened it for only one mainstream film critic, Kyle Smith of the New York Post, who trashed it.
"Its tone is an excruciating combination of bombast and whining," Smith wrote. "It's so outlandishly partisan that it makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln."
Bannon said he was unfazed. "We didn't panic," he said. "I am not worried about its merits as a movie."
Yet Bannon is a businessman, and insists the movie is a commercial venture. Chairman of IMI Exchange, the largest trader of virtual currency for video games, he is a Harvard-trained former Goldman Sachs banker.
He is a bearish, bearded former naval officer, and his daughter, Maureen, a West Point graduate, is serving in Iraq.
Bannon has become well-known to tea party conservatives as the director of last year's "Fire from the Heartland," which chronicled the role of women in the rise of the conservative movement. His "Generation Zero," also released in 2010, told the tale of the economic meltdown from the conservative point of view.
For both movies, he collaborated with Citizens United, the conservative advocacy group whose effort to show an anti-Hillary Clinton film prompted a landmark Supreme Court ruling that barred limits on corporate or union funding of independent political broadcasts.
Last year, after the midterm election, Bannon said, he was approached by Palin aides Rebecca Mansour and Tim Crawford, who wanted to know whether he was interested in making YouTube videos about Palin and her Alaska record.
"I said, 'I have a better idea,' " Bannon said. If Palin would cooperate — providing new biographical material such as home video, as well as access to her inner circle of Alaska aides — he and his producing partner, Glenn Bracken Evans, would put up $1 million to make the film.
Except for archival and news footage, Palin does not appear in "The Undefeated," but narrates some portions of the film, reading from her 2009 biography, "Going Rogue." She told reporters during her bus tour that she had seen it and was "blown away."
Palin supporters are looking forward to seeing "The Undefeated."
"It's targeted at undecided folks who have a sense of disquiet about what's going on in the country and are not really sure what's at stake," said Peter Singleton, a California lawyer who has spent the last several months quietly building contacts for Palin in Iowa, where the first nominating contest of the 2012 presidential campaign will take place.
As to whether Republicans will be offended at the movie's critical portrayal of the party establishment, Singleton replied: "I don't think it will upset a whole lot of people. Most of the base feels that way."
robin.abcarian@latimes.com
Coverage of Palin emails draws shrugs and accusations
SourceCoverage of Palin emails draws shrugs and accusations
June 15, 2011 | 3:28 pm
On Friday, the state of Alaska released more than 24,000 pages of emails sent and received by Sarah Palin during her term as governor. The Times published those emails in a database, Sarah Palin emails: The Alaska Archive.
The Times has come under criticism for publishing the emails, as have other major news organizations that received the government documents under a public records request made in 2008 after Palin was named John McCain's vice presidential running mate.
Some readers, like Marcia Goodman of Long Beach, just weren't interested in the documents. "Why does anyone care what a former governor and never-will-be presidential candidate said several years ago?" Goodman wrote to The Times.
Edward Golden of Northridge called the exercise much ado about nothing. "Fifty-three inches of space on a non-story about Palin's mundane emails," Golden wrote. "And your point is?"
And William deLorimier of San Gabriel saw a double standard by The Times. "I really question your journalistic standards when you show so much glee in the release of Sarah Palin's emails while she was governor of Alaska," deLorimier emailed. "I wish you people would show more journalistic tenacity in retrieving the current president's transcripts from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School." Other critics revived a controversy from the 2008 presidential race, in which The Times was criticized for its refusal to release a videotape of a 2003 party for Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi attended by Barack Obama. The Times reported on the contents of tape in an April 2008 article about Obama's ties to Israel and Palestine. A week before the 2008 presidential election, McCain’s campaign accused the paper of "intentionally suppressing" the videotape, which The Times said was given to the paper on the condition it not be made public.
Greg Johnson of Milton, Wash., emailed, "The fact that the LA Times won't release the Obama-Khalidi tape but you ask citizens to help go through the 24,000 Sarah Palin emails looking for gotchas is beyond contemptible."
"The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it," Editor Russ Stanton said at the time. "The Times keeps its promises to sources."
-- Deirdre Edgar
An announcement from Michele Bachmann
What wrong with making up stuff that "should be true" to get help you get elected? You know the answer to that questions! But I didn't ask it to you! The question is to the politicians who make this stuff up!FACT CHECK: Bachmann bomblets raising eyebrows
Posted 6/28/2011 12:59 PM ET
By Calvin Woodward And Jim Drinkard, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Michele Bachmann's claim that she has "never gotten a penny" from a family farm that's been subsidized by the government is at odds with her financial disclosure statements. They show tens of thousands in personal income from the operation.
And, on a less substantive note, she flubbed her hometown history when declaring "John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa," and "that's the kind of spirit that I have, too," in running for president.
The actor was born nearly 150 miles away. It was the serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr. who lived, for a time, in Waterloo.
Those were among the latest examples of how the Minnesota congresswoman has become one to watch -- for inaccuracies as well as rising support -- in the Republican presidential race.
Bachmann's wildly off-base assertion last month that a NATO airstrike might have killed as many as 30,000 Libyan civilians, her misrepresentations of the health care law, misfires on other aspects of President Barack Obama's record and historical inaccuracies have saddled her with a reputation for uttering populist jibes that don't hold up. On Tuesday, she erred in describing John Quincy Adams as a Founding Father.
She announced her candidacy Monday in Iowa with a speech typical for someone joining the campaign. It laid out the broad themes of her candidacy and mostly avoided the Bachmann bomblets that have grabbed attention -- and often fizzled under scrutiny -- in the long lead-up.
The more the political season heats up, the more that exaggerations and sound-bite oversimplifications emanate from the Republicans going after Obama -- and from the Democrats playing defense. Still, Bachmann's record on this score is distinct.
Examining 24 of her statements, Politifact.com, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking service of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, found just one to be fully true and 17 to be false (seven of them "pants on fire" false). No other Republican candidate whose statements have been vigorously vetted matched that record of inaccuracy.
A look at some of her recent statements and how they compare with the facts:
BACHMANN: "The farm is my father-in-law's farm. It's not my husband and my farm. It's my father-in-law's farm. And my husband and I have never gotten a penny of money from the farm." -- On "Fox News Sunday."
THE FACTS: In personal financial disclosure reports required annually from members of Congress, Bachmann reported that she holds an interest in a family farm in Independence, Wis., with her share worth between $100,000 and $250,000.
The farm, which was owned by her father-in-law, produced income for Bachmann of at least $32,500 and as much as $105,000 from 2006 through 2009, according to the reports she filed for that period. The farm also received federal crop and disaster subsidies, according to a database maintained by the Environmental Working Group. From 1995 through 2010, the farm got $259,332 in federal payments.
When asked about the subsidies and her income from the farm late last year, a spokesman for Bachmann said only that she wasn't involved in decisions about the running of the farm.
Bachmann told The Associated Press on Monday that her husband became a trustee of the farm because his father had dementia before he died two years ago, and "oversees the legal entity."
"Everything we do with those forms is in an abundance of caution," she said, insisting she and her husband receive no farm income despite the forms reporting it.
___
BACHMANN: "If you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that's absolutely true. He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father's secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery." -- On ABC's "Good Morning America."
THE FACTS: John Quincy Adams was not a Founding Father. He was 9 when the Declaration of Independence was made and 20 when the Constitution was adopted. His father, John Adams, was the Revolutionary War figure and an architect of the declaration -- and therefore a Founding Father. Both father and son became president. Bachmann was defending her earlier, inaccurate remark that the Founding Fathers had devoted themselves to ending slavery.
John Quincy Adams, president from 1825 to 1829, privately called slavery a "great and foul stain" but largely sidestepped the issue in office, according to "The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency." He tried to avoid antagonizing the South while reasoning that his push for a stronger central government would hasten slavery's end over time.
___
BACHMANN: "Well what I want them to know is, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the kind of spirit that I have, too." -- Speaking to Fox News on Sunday.
Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, nearly three hours away, and moved to California in his childhood. John Wayne Gacy, convicted of killing 33 men and boys, was born in Chicago, moved to Waterloo to work in his father-in-law's chicken restaurants and first ran afoul of the law there, sentenced to 10 years for sodomy. He began his killing spree after his release, and his return to Illinois.
Bachmann told CNN on Tuesday her comments "were just misspeaking" and that her main intent was to show she identified with Wayne's patriotism.
___
BACHMANN: "Overnight we are hearing that potentially 10 to 30,000 people could have been killed in the strike." -- Criticizing Obama in May for the "foolish" U.S. intervention in Libya, and citing what she said were reports of a civilian death toll from a NATO strike as high as 30,000.
THE FACTS: The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz, said in late April that U.S. officials have seen reports that 10,000 to 30,000 people may have died in Moammar Gadhafi's crackdown on protesters and the fighting between rebels and pro-government forces, but it is hard to know if that is true. He was speaking about all casualties of the conflict; no one has attributed such a death toll to NATO bombing alone, much less to a single strike.
___
BACHMANN: "It's ironic and sad that the president released all of the oil from the strategic oil reserve. ... There's only a limited amount of oil that we have in the strategic oil reserve. It's there for emergencies." -- On CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
THE FACTS: Obama did not empty all the oil from the strategic reserve, as Bachmann said. He approved the release of 30 million barrels, about 4 percent of the 727 million barrels stored in salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. It's true that the U.S. normally taps the reserve for more dire emergencies than exist today, and that exposes Obama to criticism that he acted for political gain. But the reserve has never been fuller; it held 707 million barrels when last tapped, after 2008 hurricanes.
___
BACHMANN: "One. That's the number of new drilling permits under the Obama administration since they came into office." -- Comment to a conservative conference in Iowa in March.
THE FACTS: The Obama administration issued more than 200 new drilling permits before the Gulf oil spill alone. Over the past year, since new safety standards were imposed, the administration has issued more than 60 shallow-water drilling permits. Since the deep water moratorium was lifted in October, nine new wells have been approved.
___
Associated Press writers Brian Bakst in Waterloo, Iowa, and Dina Cappiello in Washington contributed to this report.
Sarah Palin ain't as bad as she looks
SourceColumn: The vicious cycle of Sarah Palin
By Michael Medved
Hysterical hype surrounding the national rollout of the movie The Undefeated (celebrating the career and values of Sarah Palin) continues the nation's ferocious fascination with the former Alaska governor — a fascination increasingly difficult to comprehend or defend. Hysterical hype surrounding the national rollout of the movie The Undefeated (celebrating the career and values of Sarah Palin) continues the nation's ferocious fascination with the former Alaska governor — a fascination increasingly difficult to comprehend or defend.
Few political observers believe she will run for president, and even fewer suggest she could win if she did, so honest appraisals suggest she doesn't deserve either caustic ridicule from her determined detractors or the fanatical adulation of her most devoted followers. The embarrassing overreaction on one side feeds feverish responses on the other: If she weren't regularly mocked and mauled by the nation's most prestigious commentators, she'd never be taken seriously as presidential timber by Tea Party conservatives, and if she weren't trumpeted as Ronald Reagan's second coming by right-wing true believers, she wouldn't absorb overwrought abuse from establishment voices in the news media.
Few political observers believe she will run for president, and even fewer suggest she could win if she did, so honest appraisals suggest she doesn't deserve either caustic ridicule from her determined detractors or the fanatical adulation of her most devoted followers. The embarrassing overreaction on one side feeds feverish responses on the other: If she weren't regularly mocked and mauled by the nation's most prestigious commentators, she'd never be taken seriously as presidential timber by Tea Party conservatives, and if she weren't trumpeted as Ronald Reagan's second coming by right-wing true believers, she wouldn't absorb overwrought abuse from establishment voices in the news media.
Enthralled absorption with Palin stems from her combination of glamour and middle-class unpretentiousness. This mix leads scoffers to suggest she hasn't earned her celebrity status, while fans insist her unexceptional, all-American virtues demonstrate she's worthy of much more.
Enthralled absorption with Palin stems from her combination of glamour and middle-class unpretentiousness. This mix leads scoffers to suggest she hasn't earned her celebrity status, while fans insist her unexceptional, all-American virtues demonstrate she's worthy of much more.
The British aren’t coming
The great Paul Revere debate constitutes an egregious example of excess on both sides: Of course, she badly bungled an attempt to summarize the Midnight Ride, erroneously suggesting that Revere's prime purpose involved warning the British, not rousing Colonial Minutemen. But her clumsy handling of history hardly constituted an unprecedented gaffe for prominent politicians: in 1992, vice presidential nominee Al Gore strode into Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, gestured at busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and blankly asked a guide, "Who are these people?" Meanwhile, another candidate for vice president, Joe Biden, suggested in 2008 that FDR rallied the country during the Depression with masterful performances on TV — a major feat given that the television medium didn't arrive in American homes until after Roosevelt's death.
The great Paul Revere debate constitutes an egregious example of excess on both sides: Of course, she badly bungled an attempt to summarize the Midnight Ride, erroneously suggesting that Revere's prime purpose involved warning the British, not rousing Colonial Minutemen. But her clumsy handling of history hardly constituted an unprecedented gaffe for prominent politicians: In 1992, vice presidential nominee Al Gore strode into Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, gestured at busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and blankly asked a guide, "Who are these people?" Meanwhile, another candidate for vice president, Joe Biden, suggested in 2008 that FDR rallied the country during the Depression with masterful performances on TV — a major feat given that the television medium didn't arrive in American homes until after Roosevelt's death.
With these other high-profile gaffes, neither the politicians in question nor their apologists sought to defend their mistakes or to insist that mangled comments demonstrated deeper understanding of the nation's past. With Palin's Midnight Ride stumble, however, she refused to retreat, galloping straight ahead to claim that her muddled description counted as more accurate than textbook accounts.
With these other high-profile gaffes, neither the politicians in question nor their apologists sought to defend their mistakes or to insist that mangled comments demonstrated deeper understanding of the nation's past. With Palin's Midnight Ride stumble, however, she refused to retreat, galloping straight ahead to claim that her muddled description counted as more accurate than textbook accounts.
Once this silly dispute began to fade, obsessive focus on her 24,000 pages of gubernatorial e-mails again demonstrated hype feeding hatred (and vice versa) with the former Alaskan leader. Her foes combed records in search of humiliating lapses while her fans pursued nuggets of inspiration and flashes of brilliance. Both sides came away disappointed, finding little evidence of either incompetence or genius, but plentiful indication of tedious hard work by a conscientious plugger.
Once this silly dispute began to fade, obsessive focus on her 24,000 pages of gubernatorial e-mails again demonstrated hype feeding hatred (and vice versa) with the former Alaskan leader. Her foes combed records in search of humiliating lapses while her fans pursued nuggets of inspiration and flashes of brilliance. Both sides came away disappointed, finding little evidence of either incompetence or genius, but plentiful indication of tedious hard work by a conscientious plugger.
The ordinary nature of these records proved paradoxically polarizing. To her defenders the mundane material proved she didn't warrant derision, while to her critics the ho-hum details showed she hardly qualified for world leadership.
The ordinary nature of these records proved paradoxically polarizing. To her defenders the mundane material proved she didn't warrant derision, while to her critics the ho-hum details showed she hardly qualified for world leadership.
Well-publicized aspects of her personal life produce similarly contrasting reactions. To loyal conservatives, the Palins represent a refreshing break from domination of national politics by well-heeled families bristling with Ivy League connections. Skeptics compare her unfavorably with other national nominees, finding scant evidence of excellence or achievement.
Well-publicized aspects of her personal life produce similarly contrasting reactions. To loyal conservatives, the Palins represent a refreshing break from domination of national politics by well-heeled families bristling with Ivy League connections. Skeptics compare her unfavorably with other national nominees, finding scant evidence of excellence or achievement.
But her sudden elevation to prominence as John McCain's surprise vice presidential choice introduced the confounding element of sex appeal.
But her sudden elevation to prominence as John McCain's surprise vice presidential choice introduced the confounding element of sex appeal.
Women previously ran for president (like GOP Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in 1964, Democratic Rep. Shirley Chisholm in 1972, Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2000) and vice president (Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984), but none displayed Palin's telegenic good looks. No previous national candidate had participated in beauty contests (as "Miss Alaska" runner-up), or inspired lewd comments by TV comedians combining lust with contempt.
Women previously ran for president (like GOP Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in 1964, Democratic Rep. Shirley Chisholm in 1972, Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2000) and vice president (Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984), but none displayed Palin's telegenic good looks. No previous national candidate had participated in beauty contests (as "Miss Alaska" runner-up), or inspired lewd comments by TV comedians combining lust with contempt.
Do looks matter? Yes.
Since her emergence on the national stage, both sides have accused opponents of undue attention to the governor's looks. Democrats suggest Republicans have been so transfixed by Palin's dazzling smile and trim, athletic figure that they can't see the airhead beneath the surface; conservatives claim that liberals concentrate so much envious resentment on the leader's sleek appearance that they remain blind to the substance of her appeal. To Democrats, personal attractiveness represents the only notable asset for a public figure who is otherwise painfully ordinary; for many Republicans, that very ordinariness represents her most appealing feature.
Since her emergence on the national stage, both sides have accused opponents of undue attention to the governor's looks. Democrats suggest Republicans have been so transfixed by Palin's dazzling smile and trim, athletic figure that they can't see the airhead beneath the surface; conservatives claim that liberals concentrate so much envious resentment on the leader's sleek appearance that they remain blind to the substance of her appeal. To Democrats, personal attractiveness represents the only notable asset for a public figure who is otherwise painfully ordinary; for many Republicans, that very ordinariness represents her most appealing feature.
If Palin decisively steps back from White House aspirations, her decision could help restore balanced views of a public figure whose initial allure centered on her down-to-earth, unassuming personality. There's nothing modest or unaffected about self-promotion as a prospective president. But when this possibility dissipates (at least for 2012), it may terminate the current dysfunctional cycle of unwarranted hostility feeding unjustified support, clearing our muddied political culture by placing Sarah Palin in proper perspective.
If Palin decisively steps back from White House aspirations, her decision could help restore balanced views of a public figure whose initial allure centered on her down-to-earth, unassuming personality. There's nothing modest or unaffected about self-promotion as a prospective president. But when this possibility dissipates (at least for 2012), it may terminate the current dysfunctional cycle of unwarranted hostility feeding unjustified support, clearing our muddied political culture by placing Sarah Palin in proper perspective.
Michael Medved, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, hosts a daily, syndicated radio talk show and is author of The 5 Big Lies about American Business and The Shadow Presidents.
Michael Medved, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, hosts a daily, syndicated radio talk show and is author of The 5 Big Lies about American Business and The Shadow Presidents.
Palin's PAC spent $14,000 on bus trip
SourcePalin's PAC spent $14,000 on bus trip
by Amy Gardner - Jul. 15, 2011 12:00 AM
Washington Post
Sarah Palin's political action committee spent tens of thousands of dollars covering the costs of the former Alaska governor's "One Nation" East Coast bus tour this spring - a trip that Palin has repeatedly characterized as a "family vacation."
According to a list of itemized expenditures filed by SarahPAC to the Federal Elections Committee and published Thursday, Palin's committee spent nearly $14,000 on the "bus wrap" that festooned the family's tour bus with images of the Liberty Bell, Constitution and American flag. The committee spent $10,000 on "logistical trip consulting," $3,600 to the bus driver and at least $7,000 on lodging.
But the total for the trip is likely much more, because many bills came in after the June 30 filing deadline, Sarah PAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in an interview. In addition, many other expenses associated with the trip, such as photography, videography, Internet fundraising and airfare, are more difficult to account for. One item in the report describes $6,999 paid to an air-charter company called Republican Presidential Travel on June 9, at the tail end of "One Nation."
The details of the Palin committee's expenditures for the first six months of the year came out on the same day that the National Park Service issued an official reply to Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who had written Park Service Director John Jarvis in early June for an accounting of whether the Palins received special treatment or whether taxpayer resources were spent to accommodate them.
In his response, Jarvis said that the Palins were not asked to obtain permits to their visits to the national parks because the stops "were personal, family visits."
The debt limit was originally crafted to make life easier for Congress. Before World War I, Congress literally had to cast a vote every time Treasury borrowed money to make purchases authorized by Congress (such as tanks). In 1917, Congress decided to do away with the cumbersome procedure and simply gave blanket approval for most types of borrowing. [Probably so there would not be a record of them voting to spend more of our money on pork]
In this case, Congress has already authorized the expenditures for fiscal year 2011. In many cases, the products, so to speak, have already been purchased, and now the bills are coming due. If the United States government does not pay for these items.
In other words, the money has been spent, but an arbitrary ceiling has been set for how much can be paid.
As the Government Accountability Office puts it:
“The debt limit does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deficits or incur obligations. Rather, it is a limit on the ability to pay obligations already incurred.
Sarah Palin and the debt limit debate
By Glenn Kessler
(BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS) “There are departments that can be revamped and some bills that can wait. And, again, it's our president's job, as the leader of the executive branch, to prioritize and administer those dollars that Congress has allocated. And our president obviously isn't capable of doing that, because he has no plan that he can even put forward to say here are my priorities.”
--Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R)
Potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin popped up on the Sean Hannity Show on Wednesday night, making a series of somewhat contradictory statements about the battle over the national debt ceiling.
“If I were in Congress, I would not vote to incur more debt,” she asserted. But she also said, “We cannot default.” But then she also said: “We cannot afford to retreat right now.”
Eventually, she got around to making the point above, saying the president simply has to prioritize what bills he is going to pay, “revamp” some departments and so forth. She made it sound all so very easy.
As we have written, there is substantial debate over what the Obama administration can or cannot do once the putative Aug. 2 deadline is reached, especially regarding the disbursement of Social Security checks. The most impressive analysis thus far was published by The Bipartisan Policy Center, a report written Jay Powell, a former top Treasury official in the George H.W. Bush administration. He makes it clear this would be uncharted and very difficult territory.
But Palin’s statement also suggests she has a fundamental misunderstanding of the debt limit, which we will explore.
The Facts
The debt limit was originally crafted to make life easier for Congress. Before World War I, Congress literally had to cast a vote every time Treasury borrowed money to make purchases authorized by Congress (such as tanks). In 1917, Congress decided to do away with the cumbersome procedure and simply gave blanket approval for most types of borrowing. To keep a check on the executive branch, Congress established a limit.
But this is not the same as a credit card limit, a frequently used analogy. A credit card limit prevents someone from making more purchases. You may want to buy that $1,000 refrigerator but if you only have $500 left on your credit card, tough luck—unless you round up some cash.
In this case, Congress has already authorized the expenditures for fiscal year 2011. In many cases, the products, so to speak, have already been purchased, and now the bills are coming due. If the United States government does not pay for these items (which includes interest on the national debt), then it goes in default.
We have had trouble coming up with a real-life equivalent, but here’s stab at it. Suppose the son of a millionaire was told he could spend $100,000 in a year, and not only that, but he was told exactly how he needed to spend the money. (That’s the fiscal year appropriations bills passed by Congress.). At the same time, the parent told the son the bills would not be paid after a certain date unless he got additional permission to pay them. (That’s the debt limit.)
In other words, the money has been spent, but an arbitrary ceiling has been set for how much can be paid. If it doesn’t make much sense, it is not supposed to. But it is the exact opposite of a credit card limit or any such similar analogy.
As the Government Accountability Office puts it in its useful primer on government debt:
“The debt limit does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deficits or incur obligations. Rather, it is a limit on the ability to pay obligations already incurred. While debates surrounding the debt limit may raise awareness about the federal government's current debt trajectory and may also provide Congress with an opportunity to debate the fiscal policy decisions driving that trajectory, the ability to have an immediate effect on debt levels is limited.”
Palin further confuses matters when she says, “it's our president's job, as the leader of the executive branch, to prioritize and administer those dollars that Congress has allocated.” Under the Constitution, the executive branch cannot spend money that has not been appropriated by Congress. But with the debt ceiling, Congress has allocated no more dollars for payments, even though it has appropriated the money to be spent.
Palin also said, “there are departments that can be revamped and some bills that can wait.” Actually, it takes time—and the approval of Congress—to “revamp” departments. As for delaying some bills, we guess she means that the United States has to stiff a few creditors. The technical term for that is “default.”
Much as politicians like to compare the government’s budget to the family budget, this is going too far. In tough economic times, some families do indeed delay paying some bills in order to make payments deemed more important, such as the mortgage. Eventually that can harm the family’s credit rating, which the current impasse threatens to do to the prized AAA rating now held by the United States.
The Pinocchio Test
We concede that American politicians have a long history of playing politics with the debt rating. Given his current rhetoric, President Obama, in particular, should feel ashamed at his posturing on the debt limit in 2006, when he voted not to raise the debt limit. (He since has said such “a political vote” was a mistake.)
As then Sen. Obama put it, in words that seem to echo Palin’s language today: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills.”
(An aside: Obama also noted “it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $1 trillion of foreign-held debt. This [Bush] administration did more than that in just five years.” The debt has risen under Obama by nearly $4 trillion in less than three years. Oops.)
But past rhetoric by other politicians, even the president, is no excuse for continuing to mischaracterize the debt limit. Palin either has a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue or she purposely is being misleading.
Three Pinocchios
Sarah Palin's Documentary is the biggest Flop of the Year (DUH!)
Sarah Palin’s ego-mercial “The Undefeated” is officially dead in the water. After two weeks of release, the documentary has failed to break even the $100,000 mark. A little perspective here:the film was estimated to cost a cool million dollars to produce. Not exactly a rosy return on investment.
The film, a positive look at the former governor’s tenure in Alaska politics, opened in ten theaters on July 15 and grossed a modest $65,000. Last weekend, distribution was increased to include four new theaters, but ticket sales dropped to about $24,000, according to Box Office Mojo.
Like so many Bring It On sequels, The Undefeated is headed straight to pay-per-view, and then maybe Sunday afternoon matinees on TBS if Palin is lucky. I’m no betting man, but I would put good money on the argument that people just don’t want to pay money to have to watch Sarah Palin. Especially not when Tina Fey does a better Sarah Palin for free.
“Given the strong audience reaction, we have determined there is overwhelming demand to get this film out broadly enough to cover the entire nation in September and October,” he said.
While yes, vomiting certainly is a strong audience reaction, I’m not sure that means people actually want to watch this drivel.
As of Sept. 1, the film will be available on pay-per-view and On Demand services through cable providers such as DirecTV, DISH Network and Time Warner Cable, according to a press release. The DVD will also be made available on Oct. 4, both online and in stores. (The DVD has already been released to those who have contributed $100 or more to Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, according to the press release.)
For the record, the film received a score of ZERO out of a possible 100 on popular movie review site Rottentomatoes.com, and the LA Times refused to even call it a film, choosing instead to use the word “infomercial.”
Sarah Palin doc 'The Undefeated' will try its luck on TV
July 25, 2011 | 1:03 pm
By now, the Sarah Palin documentary "The Undefeated" is a veritable flop, barely eking out $100,000 in two weeks of theatrical release. But the company releasing it believes it could find an audience on the small screen.
Undefeatedpa The film's distributor, ARC Entertainment, has announced that it will make the movie available as an on-demand title via satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network as well as cable company Time Warner beginning on Sept. 1. Director Stephen Bannon initially told 24 Frames of the on-demand plans last month.
ARC, which estimates the deal will make the movie available in about 75 million homes, also announced that a DVD will follow via retailers on Oct. 4. A "special edition" with unspecified original content will be sold only through Wal-Mart.
Most theatrical films take several months to come to television, though independent releases and documentaries often debut day-and-date with theatrical releases, or shortly after. The hope for "Undefeated" is that audiences who have decided not to go out and pay to see the professional rise of Sarah Palin will be more willing to order it at a lower cost in their homes.
For once Sarah Palin gets it right
When Sarah Palin said she predicted this I thought she was making it up like most of our lying politicians do.But in this case Sarah Palin is actually telling the truth.
Here it is from here Facebook page of December 17, 2010
Omnibus Defeat Is a Victory for Realityby Sarah Palin on Friday, December 17, 2010 at 5:09pm
The following statement I wrote regarding the defeat of the omnibus spending bill was posted at National Review Online's The Corner:
I’m glad the Senate came to its senses and killed the omnibus spending monstrosity. That outrageous trillion-dollar pork buffet was an outright slap in the face to the American public’s expressed wishes in the last election. It was as if Congress was earning its historically low 13 percent approval rating before our very eyes. I applaud senators like Jim DeMint, John McCain, and others who fought this and stopped it.
However, the very fact that some lawmakers on Capitol Hill thought such reckless spending was even remotely acceptable is disturbing. We’re facing trillion-dollar deficits and a record national debt, but some people still want to continue spending like there’s no tomorrow. If the European debt crisis teaches us anything, it’s that tomorrow always comes. Sooner or later, the markets will expect us to settle the bill for the enormous Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending binge. We’ve already been warned by the credit ratings agency Moody’s that unless we get serious about reducing our deficit, we may face a downgrade of our credit rating. Even the lamest of lame ducks can’t ignore this reality.
- Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin via Joe McGinniss: cocaine, infidelity and anonymity
Who needs the stinking truth. The truth doesn't sell books. On the other hand Sarah Palin is a nut job and you never know what she is going to come up with.Book Review: Sarah Palin via Joe McGinniss: cocaine, infidelity and anonymity
By David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Book Critic
September 15, 2011, 8:41 a.m.
There's a not-so-subtle agenda underpinning Joe McGinniss' "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin," although it's never made explicit until late in the book. "The time has come to strike the tent," McGinniss begins the closing chapter. "[N]o matter how much my book sales might benefit from a Palin presidential campaign in 2012, I sincerely hope that the whole extravaganza, which has been unblushingly underwritten by a mainstream media willing to gamble the nation's future in exchange for the cheap thrill of watching a clown in high heels on a flying trapeze, is nearing the end of its run."
If you're a Palin supporter, this will only give you ammunition to dismiss "The Rogue" as one more piece of liberal propaganda, yet another "lamestream media" smear campaign. If you agree with McGinniss, you may wonder why it took so long to get to the point.
Either way, the statement offers an unintended glimpse of the difficulties inherent in the project — both because it risks undermining what appear to be damning revelations about Palin and her husband Todd, and also because of what it suggests about the futility of trying to outguess a public figure as mercurial, or unfocused, as the former Alaska governor. When McGinniss wrote those lines earlier this year, Palin was still considered a likely candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination; now, her moment may have passed. This is the problem with instant history, that events have a way of outstripping us, that it's hard to tell a story before it ends.
For McGinniss, the contrivance of closure, or at least of a constrained timeline, is woven into the fiber of the text. It's not that he doesn't know the material: In the 1970s, he lived in Alaska to write the book "Going to Extremes" and he covered Palin for the Daily Beast and Portfolio. Nonetheless, there's a sketchy quality to "The Rogue," especially the present-tense sections, which detail his experiences during the summer of 2010, when he moved in next door to the Palins in Wasilla, Alaska; much of his research was completed in his 3-1/2 months there.
The controversy over this decision — McGinniss was excoriated by the far right, called a Peeping Tom and a stalker, and threatened with violence — provides a frame to his narrative, which slips back and forth between the events of the summer and an impressionistic portrait of Palin's life and career. But it also makes the story seem conditional, too much about McGinniss, which pulls focus from the disclosures that are, or should be, at the heart of the book.
As for these disclosures, McGinniss claims that Palin snorted cocaine off an overturned 55-gallon drum during a snowmobile excursion, slept with college (and later NBA) basketball star Glenn Rice when she was an unmarried 23-year-old sports reporter (McGinniss talked to Rice for the book and he confirmed the relationship) and had an affair with Brad Hanson, Todd Palin's business partner, apparently as payback for her husband's infidelities. (Both Palin and Hanson, he notes, have denied the affair.)
Such indiscretions have already seized the public conversation, but what's striking is how tame they are. McGinniss could be describing anyone of Palin's generation — or anyone as unhappily married as he indicates the Palins are.
"By November 2001," he writes, "… Sarah's domestic life was in tatters.… Time with friends — not that there were many friends — would degenerate into marital squabbles, raised voices, and frequent threats of divorce. A recurring cause of conflict was Sarah's inability or refusal to act as mother to her children."
This is a far more troubling allegation, suggesting that Palin's "hockey mom" image is the most stage-managed sort of lie. "Friends recall," McGinniss observes, "that when Todd was working on the North Slope, the children literally would have a hard time finding enough to eat. 'Those kids had to fend for themselves,' one says. 'I'd walk into that kitchen and Bristol and Willow would be sitting there with a burnt pot of Kraft mac and cheese on the stove … and Sarah would be up in her bedroom with the door closed saying she didn't want to be disturbed.'"
As worrisome as that is, it also suggests a significant flaw in "The Rogue," which is McGinniss' reliance on unnamed sources. Throughout the book, only a handful of people — including Gary Wheeler, Palin's onetime head of security, and Walt Monegan, whom she fired as Alaska's director of public safety — are willing to go on the record; everyone else is frightened of reprisals.
Certainly, their fear seems valid: When Catherine Taylor, the Palins' next-door neighbor, squawks about their decision to cut a road across her property, "Todd told her, very plainly, that Sarah was mayor and they could do whatever they wanted, and it would be a mistake for her to try to stop them," while a man named Dewey Taylor (no relationship to Catherine Taylor) has his truck window shot out after delivering chairs to McGinniss' house.
"Name one thing she's done — just one — that reflects a truly caring Christian heart," says Zane Henning, a religious conservative who filed ethics complaints against Palin when she was governor. "She's never volunteered for charity. Habitat for Humanity? The United Way? Even Christian-sponsored charities.… And her so-called family values? After the way she's neglected her own kids?"
What McGinniss is getting at is hypocrisy, even outright manipulation — a strategy of deception over Palin and what she represents. This is important, especially when it comes to her religious agenda, which, he argues, is defined by Third Wave/New Apostolic ideology and the desire to tear down the walls between church and state.
And yet, in his conversations with Henning and others, there is an edge of personal animus, of gossip more than policy. Such an issue comes up repeatedly in "The Rogue" — most uncomfortably in the chapter on Palin's young son, Trig, whom, it has been conjectured, might not really be her child — and it gets back to the problem of instant history and the agenda at the center of the book.
I have no doubt that McGinniss' view of Palin is accurate: that she is narcissistic, undisciplined and unqualified for public life. Still, I want more than innuendo to make the point.
"Sarah Palin practices politics as lap dance," he writes, "and we're the suckers who pay the price." True enough, perhaps, but like too much of "The Rogue," this is its own sort of come-on: titillating her detractors while allowing her supporters to disregard everything McGinniss has to say.
david.ulin@latimes.com
The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin
If you ask me lying reporters that make up stuff are almost as bad as politicians who lie to us. Of course these lying reporters don't steal our money, while the lying politicians do steal our money.‘The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin,’ by Joe McGinniss
By Nick Gillespie, Friday, September 16, 8:13 AM
In an America where a whopping 66 percent of adults holds an unfavorable view of 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (according to a recent Bloomberg Poll), author Joe McGinniss has done something truly remarkable. He actually makes the short-serving former Alaska governor and widely panned reality TV star a slightly more sympathetic character, at least for the regrettable time one wastes reading his sketchily sourced compendium of low blows and inconsistent accusations.
McGinniss, who came to prominence 40 years ago with his groundbreaking study of political marketing, “The Selling of the President 1968,” serves up any and all rumors and calumnies about Palin, the more salacious the better. His hope, he admits, is to cut short whatever is left of Palin’s political life, a spectacle he likens to “the cheap thrill of watching a clown in high heels on a flying trapeze.”
As readers of The Washington Post may recall, I’m no Palin fan myself and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with unapologetic political bias. But all-consuming hatred and contempt rarely make for good journalism. Despite his intensely close proximity to his subject — McGinniss famously rented the house adjacent the Palin home while researching his book — he consistently fails to sift through competing versions of the same story for something approximating truth. For instance, McGinniss writes that in 1987, “whether in her professional capacity as a sports reporter or simply as a basketball groupie who’d begun to find black men attractive, Sarah linked up” with University of Michigan player Glen Rice during a college tournament held in Anchorage. One unnamed “friend” (the book is jam-packed with them) says, “I can’t say I know they had sex,” while a different “friend” proclaims, “The thing that people remember is her freak-out, how completely crazy she got: I [expletive] a black man! She was just horrified.” To his slight credit, McGinniss gave Rice a call to check these claims, but he fails to record a point-blank answer to the straightforward question of whether the player and Palin slept together. Instead, McGinniss asks, “So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?” to which Rice politely answers, “No, no, no, nothing like that. . . . I think the utmost of her.”
More important, and beyond basic questions of facts, McGinniss fails to specify the significance of Sarah Palin’s pre-marital sexual history (one wonders if and when male politicians will be subjected to the same examination).
McGinniss leaves no ambiguity, though, about the import of what he calls “the unanswered question” of Trig, Palin’s son with Down syndrome who was born in 2008. Untroubled by a lack of actual evidence, a small but unbowed band of Palin critics have long wondered aloud whether she is the boy’s biological mother. Like all conspiracists, they insist that they are only asking questions that could be readily answered by nothing more out of the ordinary than a full data dump of Palin’s obstetrical records. McGinniss approvingly quotes blogger Andrew Sullivan, who has insisted that “if Palin has lied about [giving birth to Trig], it’s the most staggering, appalling deception in the history of American politics.”
What exactly McGinniss thinks is “unanswered” about Trig’s birth is unclear since he avers that, unlike Sullivan and other gynecological obsessives, he absolutely believes Palin is Trig’s mother: “It seemed outlandish, even indecent, to suppose that Trig might not be Sarah’s child. I did not, and I don’t.” And then he proceeds to devote more than a dozen pages to rehashing every conceivable theory — and some inconceivable ones — that she faked the birth.
McGinniss suggests that “it would be more than unreasonable to assume” that Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain “told her that the only thing that would make her a more appealing choice [as a running mate] would be if she could somehow give birth to a Down syndrome baby before the Republican convention in September. Yet . . . later Sarah announced that that’s exactly what she expected to do.”
McGinniss closes out his unmoored theorizing by asserting that “perhaps the most blistering assessment” of Palin is that even if she is telling the truth about being Trig’s mother, many people who lived in her home town of Wasilla thought she was “eminently capable” of perpetuating such a sick ruse. Of course, that’s not at all a blistering assessment of Palin, even as it speaks volumes about McGinniss, who elsewhere chides the ex-governor for “spewing vitriolic condemnation of anyone who challenges her” and for having “no sense of proportion, no ability to modulate her response.”
Rumors abound that Palin, whose summer bus tour fizzled every bit as much as Charlie Sheen’s, will be announcing by month’s end whether she intends to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. As her genuinely awful poll numbers suggest, Palin the office-seeker will face far bigger problems than the publication of “The Rogue,” which may have the perverse outcome of at least momentarily expanding her fan base.
Despite the buzz and hoopla she first generated when entering the national stage, Palin was a less-than-stellar vice-presidential candidate and in a YouTube world, Katie Couric interviews are forever. Her quick retreat from the Alaska governor’s mansion, which she quit after barely serving half a term, was punctuated by the most bizarre and self-pitying exit speech since Richard Nixon promised we wouldn’t have him around to kick anymore in 1962. Widely discussed lapses in judgment, including a push to fire her former brother-in-law who was a state trooper and her disturbingly narcissistic reaction to the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords raise serious questions about her capacity to govern effectively. All these and more will weigh far heavier on her aspirations than anything Joe McGinniss fantasized about while living next door to her in Wasilla.
That’s exactly as it should be.
Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason.com and Reason.tv and the coauthor of “The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America.”
I'll get my butt kicked if I run in 2012!!!!
SourceSarah Palin says she will not run for president
Oct. 5, 2011 04:22 PM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday she will not run for president, leaving little doubt that the eventual Republican nominee will come from the current field of contenders.
After months of leaving her fans guessing, Palin said in a statement that she and her husband Todd "devote ourselves to God, family and country." She said her decision maintains that order.
Palin sent the statement to supporters. She told conservative radio host Mark Levin that she would not consider a third party candidacy because it would assure President Barack Obama's reelection.
Sen. John McCain plucked Palin from relative obscurity in 2008 by naming her as his running mate. She electrified Republican activists for a while, delivering a well-received speech at the GOP national convention. But Palin later seemed overwhelmed by the national spotlight, faltering at times in televised interviews even when asked straightforward questions.
Palin's announcement Wednesday was much anticipated but not greatly surprising. Her popularity had plummeted in polls lately, even though she remained a darling to many hard-core conservatives. Some Republicans felt she waited and teased too long about a presidential candidacy. Some remained perplexed by her decision to quit her job as governor with more than a year left in her single term.
Palin also angered some Americans with a defensive speech shortly after a Democratic congresswoman was gravely wounded in an Arizona shooting in January that killed six people.
Palin's announcement came one day after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he would not run. Republican insiders say the field is set.
It includes former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom party insiders see as the strongest contenders. Libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul of Texas continues to draw a devoted following and former pizza company executive Herman Cain has gained in recent polls.
Voting in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary will start in about three months.
Cartoonists world wide are devastated by Palin's decision!
Sarah Palin: Hang Penn State's 'perverted former assistant coach'
Hang him from the highest tree. I’ll bring the rope.”Source
Sarah Palin: Hang Penn State's 'perverted former assistant coach'
November 16, 2011 | 9:09 am
Sarah Palin didn't mince words about her feelings toward Jerry Sandusky, Penn State's "perverted former assistant coach."
Palin, frequently outspoken, didn't stray from that tendency when speaking emotionally on the Penn State child-sex-abuse scandal with Sandusky at its center. The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate was interviewed by Greta van Susteren on Tuesday night on Fox News' "On the Record."
“It’s not the players’ fault that they have a perverted former assistant coach ..." she said.
Sandusky has been charged with abusing eight boys over a 15-year period. He denies the charges, but the scandal has forced the ouster of the university's president and legendary football coach Joe Paterno, among others.
Palin continued: “As for the perp and perps that allowed the sinfulness to go on as they had allowed in the past, you know, I say about this assistant coach Sandusky: Hang him from the highest tree. I’ll bring the rope.”
When Van Susteren reminded Palin about the need to be found guilty in a court of law before being punished, Palin toned it down to say she would "bring the rope if he is guilty of what has been alleged."
“If he abused these young children and ruined their lives, unless they get a lot of help, Greta, in order to deal with the victimization that they are now suffering from, he needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law if he is truly guilty.”
Palin's words caused a stir on Twitter on Wednesday morning with both sides represented -- "HANGINGS 2 GOOD 4 HIM!" and "I agree" as well as "She's a lyncher" and "Must insert herself."
Sarah thinks that Gingrich the crook is a great guy!!!
Hey, if McCain the crook from the Keating 5 scandal can can get the Republican ticket in 2008, then Gingrich another scum bag Republican crook can certainly take the Republican 2012 ticket.Maybe we should rename this country "The United States of Crooks". How about that Sarah! What do you think?
Sarah Palin says she won't endorse before Iowa, praises Gingrich
By Michael A. Memoli
December 7, 2011, 3:14 p.m.
Sarah Palin -- remember her? -- says she won't make an endorsement in the GOP race just yet. But it sounds like there's one candidate who could earn her support: Newt Gingrich.
The former Alaska governor, who waited until October to announce she would not be a candidate in the 2012 race, told Fox Business Network that Gingrich has "been a bit more successful" than Mitt Romney in courting party activists.
"He has been engaged in that movement most recently in order for them to hear his solutions and there's been some forgiveness then on the part of Tea Party Patriots for some of the things in Gingrich's past," she said, according to an advanced transcript of the interview provided by the network. "Romney and others need to reach out and convince Tea Party Patriots and constitutional conservatives that he truly believes in smaller, smarter government."
Gingrich, she acknowledged, can't sell himself as an outsider. But she said that during his time in Washington "some of the things he's done have been good."
"He helped balance the budget under Bill Clinton. That is what we need today," she said.
Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics reported last month that Gingrich appeared to be best-positioned to win Palin's support, according to close advisors.
"They speak very favorably of Newt and what they see as his credentials as compared to [Rick] Perry and Romney," one member of her "inner circle" told the website.
As for an endorsement, she said that the Iowa caucuses are just "the beginning of the road" toward the GOP nomination. She also criticized Romney for not agreeing to participate in a Newsmax debate moderated by Donald Trump.
"We can't just be preaching to the choir," she said. "Trump is going to attract people who haven't been just necessarily conservative, right-wing listeners and viewers of media. I think Romney could and should still change his mind and Huntsman too and jump in there and participate."
Congress, it's time to stop lining your pockets
Congress and government are corrupt to the core. I really don't think the system is fixable.Interestingly this article was written by Sarah Palin, who seems to have done a few of the same things she is complaining about when she was governor of Alaska.
Palin: Congress, it's time to stop lining your pockets
By Sarah Palin
Thanks to the solid new research and recent revelations in Peter Schweizer's book Throw Them All Out and the subsequent coverage on 60 Minutes, we have concrete proof to explain how members of Congress accumulate wealth at a rate astonishingly faster than the rest of Americans and have stock portfolios that outperform even the best hedge-fund managers'. (Full disclosure: Schweizer is employed by my political action committee as a foreign policy adviser.)
From sweetheart land deals to initial public offering (IPO) stock gifts to insider trading with non-public government information, the methods of unethical wealth accumulation for our permanent political class are endless. The reaction from the Beltway establishment to the revelations concerning insider trading among members of Congress was predictable. First they denied it, then they dismissed the problem as much ado about nothing. Some said there was no need for new laws or action because the Securities and Exchange Commission could prosecute members of Congress under existing laws against insider trading.
But under current law, there is no way the SEC will ever go after a powerful congressman or senator. The SEC never has, even though insider trading prohibitions have existed since the 1930s. Here's why: Congress sets the SEC's budget, and senators approve the head of the SEC. Congress uses its power of the purse strings to threaten federal agencies that get in their way.
For example, in 2006 the FBI got a search warrant from a federal judge to comb former congressman William Jefferson's office. The FBI already had evidence that Jefferson was taking bribes. Congress was furious that the FBI would dare search a fellow member's office. Members claimed the search was unconstitutional. They even threatened to cut the Justice Department's budget in retaliation. All this despite the fact that 86% of Americans supported the FBI raid.
A hands-off SEC
Does anyone really think the SEC under current law will have the courage to investigate the insider trading in Congress? Remember that this corruption (and failure to deal with it) encompasses both sides of the aisle. We fool ourselves thinking we can trust an agency dependent on Congress for its budget to investigate Congress.
I hate the idea of more laws, but because our politicians have shown a failure of ethical leadership, we must reassert the rule of law through strong new legislation that holds Congress accountable and prevents retaliation against whistle-blowers and regulatory agencies investigating corruption. Legislation has been put forward, but there are serious concerns that these bills contain major loopholes in stopping congressional insider trading and the gifting of IPO stocks from companies seeking to influence policy. In fact, Robert Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, testified that the bills as written only make stock transactions related to pending or prospective legislation illegal, not any other insider information trading; and they only cover stock transactions, not options trades, exchange traded funds or mutual funds.
The bills by Sens. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., are particularly weak. Members of Congress should disclose all trading activities immediately, not after 90 days as their bills propose. More immediate disclosure deadlines (similar to the strict deadlines corporate executives adhere to when trading certain amounts of stock) are imperative for real transparency.
Members of Congress must be required to put their assets into blind and "deaf" trusts. Deaf because we must make it illegal both to trade on non-public government information and to pass on such information. It does no good to set up a blind trust run by a friend, family member, or acquaintance and then casually pass on information to that person. Technically, members of Congress can claim they weren't actually making the trade or ordering another person to make the trade; they were simply "having a conversation" concerning information any competent trader would know what to do with.
The House bill by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., is a step in the right direction because it calls for every member of Congress to either establish a blind trust or abide by a three-day disclosure deadline for all trades. (Personally, I'd like to see even stricter deadlines like the ones for corporate executives.) We should insist on tougher provisions to close all insider trading loopholes and IPO stock gifts, and to protect whistle-blowers and regulators against congressional retaliation.
Other congressional ailments
Also, remember that insider trading isn't the only corruption problem in Congress. Crony capitalism has run rampant for too long and is bankrupting our country. We need conflict of interest provisions on earmarks and other legislation to stop sweetheart land and construction deals.
Our permanent political class relies on an apathetic and uninformed public to get away with this stuff. But if there is one issue that unites Americans across the political spectrum, it's absolute disgust with the corruption of our elected leaders. Congress and the White House need to earn the American people's trust again. We the people are not going to give up until we get the sudden and relentless reform we deserve or, as the book says, "we throw them all out" in 2012.
Sarah Palin is the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008.
Petty Sarah Palin doesn't like Obama's Christmas card
I could care less what his Christmas card says.
But petty Sarah Palin is busy bitching about Obama's Christmas card.
Jesus, Sarah, don't you have any real issues to address????
Sarah Palin says Obama's holiday card inconsistent with American Christmas values of 'family, faith and freedom'
By Michael Zennie
Last updated at 3:02 PM on 22nd December 2011
The Obama family's holiday card, which focuses on the 'first dog' Bo sleeping by a fireplace, is not consistent with traditional American values of Christmas, says Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate.
The card makes no mention of Christmas and instead wishes: 'From our family to yours, may your holidays shine with the light of the season.'
There is no Christmas tree in the scene, which was painted by Los Angles artist Mark Matuszak. Instead, the card's festive nod to the season includes a poinsettia with packages beneath it and an evergreen garland with red bows draped over the fireplace.
Obama holiday card
No mention of Christmas: The Obamas' holiday says: 'From our family to yours, may your holidays shine with the light of the season'
Mrs Palin told Fox News, where she is a paid commentator, that she found the card 'odd.'
She questioned why the card would focus on a dog, rather than representations of traditional values like, 'family, faith and freedom.'
She also pointed to an ornament on the Obamas' 2009 Christmas tree that included the face of Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong.
'People had to ask that it be removed because it was offensive,' the former governor of Alaska told the Fox News and Commentary program. Sarah Palin
'Faith, freedom and family': Sarah Palin, the former governor or Alaska, says Americans want to see traditional values on Christmas cards
She suggested that instead of what the Obamas' card offers this year, people want to see 'American foundational values illustrated and displayed on Christmas cards and on a Christmas tree.'
Mr Matuszak told the Los Angeles Times he designed the card centered around Bo, the Obama family's dog, after he was contacted by the White House social secretary about painting a card based on a home setting.
President Barack Obama isn't the first Commander-in-Chief not to mention Christmas in his Christmas cards. Bo and Obama
Family fixture: Bo, the 'first dog,' is the focus of the holiday card for the Obama family this year
President George W. Bush usually didn't say 'Merry Christmas' directly. The cards did, however, usually include a Biblical verse.
Presidential Bill Clinton typically kept his Christmastime cards secular.
In 1995, the family holiday card did not mention Christmas but it did feature a Christmas tree.
Sarah Palin criticizes Obama holiday card -- and the dog
SourceSarah Palin criticizes Obama holiday card -- and the dog
December 21, 2011 | 2:28 pm
So much for the holiday spirit. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is once again targeting the Obama administration, leveling a critical glare at the official White House holiday greeting card for not emphasizing Christmas.
The card, seen above, was created for the Obama family by L.A. artist and designer Mark Matuszak. It features an image of Bo, the Obama family dog, in front of a fireplace in the White House library with a poinsettia and other decorations. The card, which makes no direct mention of Christmas and doesn't feature a Christmas tree, states: "From our family to yours, may your holidays shine with the light of the season."
Palin told Fox News that she found it "odd" that the card emphasizes the dog instead of traditions like "family, faith and freedom." She also said that Americans are able to appreciate "American foundational values illustrated and displayed on Christmas cards and on a Christmas tree."
In the past, White House cards have varied in terms of a secular versus a Christian approach. The George W. Bush administration tended toward the religious. In 2008, the White House card made no direct reference to Christmas but featured a quote from the Gospel of Matthew. In 2005, the Bush family's card featured a quote from the book of Psalms.
The Bill Clinton administration took a more secular tack. The family's 1995 card used the word "holiday" but featured an image of a Christmas tree.
The Obama family has also preferred a more secular approach. Last year's holiday card featured an image of a White House covered with snow, with the following greeting: "May your holiday be filled with all the simple gifts of the season, and may your new year be blessed with health and happiness."
Matuszak said in a phone interview last week that he was contacted a few months ago by the White House social secretary, who asked him to create this year's holiday card.
"They wanted to do an inside shot, something home related," said Matuszak. One idea was to focus on Bo, the Obama family dog. "So we thought, let's put Bo in front of a fireplace."
Republicans Running Out of Things to Criticize, Attack Obama's Christmas Card
SourceRepublicans Running Out of Things to Criticize, Attack Obama's Christmas Card
December 22, 2011 09:25 AM EST
Sarah Palin and other Republicans attacked President Obama's annual holiday card, saying that it didn't emphasize Christmas enough, and that it put too much focus on the family's dog rather than "family, faith and freedom."
Republicans took issue with the design of the card, which had no tree, and used the dreaded H-word: "holidays." The text on the card says, "From our family to yours, may your holidays shine with the light of the season." Americans across the country have heard the rhetoric that Christianity is under attack in this country, so this must prove it. Obviously Obama is just perpetuating the anti-Christian sentiments with this cheerful holiday... Christmas card, rather.
The battle against Christianity in America is a war that only remains relevant by the commendably persistent efforts of Christians, primarily in the right wing media, to convince everyone else that it actually exists. With a lack of actual evidence to support these claims, things occasionally need to be made up to support them, but only when it fits partisan efforts. Considering the long list of un-Christmast-y cards that have been sent out from previous administrations (Bush and Reagan included), it's a wonder the design choices of Christmas cards hasn't been in the spotlight more often.
In a country where Obama is a socialist Marxist un-Christian anti-American non-citizen, it's only fitting that his choice of Christmas card designs would come under attack. However, this effort to create something out of nothing probably won't get very far. With tax increases looming, the controversial NDAA provision being signed, SOPA threatening to ruin the internet and an economy to fix, Americans have more important things to worry about than a dog in front of a fireplace.
I'm for Newt, but I'm Not for Newt
SourceSarah Palin: I'm for Newt, but I'm Not for Newt
By K.C. Dermody | Yahoo! Contributor Network
COMMENTARY | Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has made it clear that she feels Republicans should vote for Newt Gingrich and, on Tuesday according to Politico.com, she said that if she was a caucus-goer in Nevada, she would vote for the former House speaker, but she won't go as far as endorsing the man for the GOP presidential nomination.
Palin told Fox News, "We need somebody who is engaged in sudden and relentless reform and isn't afraid to shake it up. Shake up that establishment. So, if for no other reason, to rage against the machine. Vote for Newt, annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going."
This sounds all too familiar yet slightly disturbing as well. The whiny ex-governor already does a good job at annoying liberals with just the sound of her voice. Does anyone really take what she has to say all that seriously? To list that as one of the reasons to vote for Gingrich sounds, frankly, a little immature, but her dancing back and forth between telling people to vote for him yet not endorsing him seems a little infantile as well.
Could it be that Palin is afraid that if Gingrich doesn't get the nomination she'll look foolish once again? Palin should make up her mind. The wishy-washiness really doesn't help her reputation any, and she might as well back up her strong opinion with an endorsement if she wants to have a chance to being taken seriously.
The former vice presidential nominee also criticized the Gingrich attack ads in Florida, stating they promoted "false narratives" and that "a lot of negativity sure didn't paint the party and the cause in very attractive colors."
Has Palin heard any of Gingrich's hateful attacks? Either she's been on the moon lately herself, or she conveniently forgot about all of the negativity that comes out of the mouth of the former speaker of the house.
Gingrich has attacked Mitt Romney's income tax rate of 15 percent as well as his various bank accounts, but nothing the former Massachusetts governor did was illegal, and he wasn't involved in writing the tax code in any way.
Romney's return attacks only came about in response to Gingrich, but Palin would have you believe that it is Romney who is the negative one. I think it's time that Palin kept quiet and stayed completely out of the GOP race. If anything, she adds more ridiculousness to the already sad state of the political arena.
Sara, if you can't take the heat, don't run for the job!!!
Well if you can't hack doing the job, you should not have run for office.If you want to work in the private sector and keep everything you do secret that isn't a problem. But as soon as you become a government employee, you should expect that everything you do at work will be a matter of public record.
Palin before resignation: I can't take it anymore
By BECKY BOHRER | Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — In the final months before she resigned as Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin displayed growing frustration over deteriorating relationships with state lawmakers and outrage over ethics complaints that she felt frivolously targeted her and prompted her to write: "I can't take it anymore."
The details are included in more than 17,000 records released Thursday by state officials — nearly 3 1/2 years after citizens and news organizations, including The Associated Press, first requested Palin's emails. The emails, most from Palin's final 10 months in office, illustrate what Palin has said all along: The intense scrutiny of her family and work was a financial and emotional drain that forced her to step down as governor. [Well Sarah, nobody FORCED you to run for governor!]
In a March 19, 2009, email to spokeswoman Sharon Leighow and aide Kris Perry, she complained that more than 150 freedom of information requests had cost the state more than $1 million, adding: "and who knows what all the bogus ethics charges have cost the state." [Too bad, FOIA request are something the government has to do! Live with it or get another job]
She expressed anger at having to pay for her own defense, with a bill that at that point totaled more than $500,000, saying her husband had to go back to work on the North Slope because of it. [Sarah, if you had not made a lot of bad decisions you would not have to defend your actions in court! Too bad!]
"We've all had to pay for our OWN legal defense in this political bloodsport — it's horrendous — why do you think Todd is on the slope today?" Palin wrote. "I am paying to defend in my capacity as GOVERNOR — actions taken in my official position. This is unheard of anywhere else." [Sarah, you are not the King of Alaska, you are an elected official!]
She added that she had been the target of "many frivolous suits and charges since the DAY I became VP candidate. I can't afford this job." [Well then why did you run for governor if you could not afford the job???]
Palin expressed frustration with the media in an April 11, 2009, email: "If there were any other way I could speak to Alaskans without going through some of these reporters, I sure would." Palin currently works as a commentator for Fox News. [Sorry Sarah, when you use the private sector to get free publicity for your government job, you have to do it on THEIR terms! If your not willing to accept their terms, then don't expect them to give you free publicity!]
By the spring of 2009, the emails show, Palin was regularly butting heads with lawmakers of both parties over her absences from the Capitol. She asked her aides to tally how many days she was out of Alaska in 2008. The staff came up with 94 days, but 10 less if you count travel days when she was in the state part of the day, The absences included all of October and most of September while she was on the campaign trail as the GOP vice presidential candidate. [Look Sarah, if I missed 94 days of work which is 18 weeks or 4 and a half months of work in my private sector job I would have been fired!]
"It's unacceptable, and there must be push back on their attempts to lame duck this administration," Palin wrote to her top aides on April 9.
Citizens and news organizations, including the AP, first requested Palin's emails in September 2008, as part of her vetting as the Republican vice presidential nominee. The state released a batch of the emails last June, a lag of nearly three years that was attributed to the sheer volume of the records and the flood of requests stemming from Palin's tenure. [Yea, sure! I suspect most of it was delayed intentionally by the government rulers of Alaska]
The 24,199 pages of emails that were released last year ended in September 2008, as she was campaigning with GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Thursday's release includes 17,736 records, or 34,820 pages, generally spanning from October 2008 until Palin's resignation as Alaska governor, in July 2009.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah Palin's political action committee, on Thursday encouraged everyone to read the emails. "They show a governor hard at work for her state," he said.
Several media organizations, including msnbc.com, said they were not informed of Thursday's release.
Leighow, now a spokeswoman for the current governor, Sean Parnell, said records in the governor's office indicated that msnbc.com did not request the second group of emails but she said a CD containing the documents was being sent to their offices because it contained emails inadvertently omitted from the first release.
Palin's frustration over a series of ethics complaints filed against her, one of the issues she cited when stepping down, emerges in an April 2009 email in which she commiserated over a story indicating another ethics complaint was to be filed: "Unflippinbelievable... I'm sending this because you can relate to the bullcrap continuation of the hell these people put the family through," she wrote to aides Ivy Frye and Frank Bailey. [Look Sarah, if you can't stand the publicity that comes with being an elected official you should never have ran for office!]
Later that day, in an email to her husband and two top aides, on the issue, she said: "I can't take it anymore."
Earlier, after a Feb. 18, 2009, Washington Post story titled, "Back Home in Alaska, Palin finds cold comfort," was pointed out to her, she emailed her husband. "Would you pray for our strength. And for God to totally turn things around... Enough is enough. May we see victories and feel His hand of mercy and grace." He replies, "I did."
In a Sept. 26, 2007, email to Perry and her husband Todd, titled "Marital Problems," Palin writes: "So speaking of... If we, er, when we get a divorce, does that quell "conflict of interest" accusations about BP?" Her husband was a former BP employee on the North Slope.
Rogue, Rube or G.O.P. Star: Portraying Palin
SourceRogue, Rube or G.O.P. Star: Portraying Palin
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: March 4, 2012
“Game Change” the book is an authoritative 448-page retelling of all 500 or more days of the 2008 presidential campaign. “Game Change” the film, to be shown by HBO on Saturday night, is a reconstruction of the two months when Sarah Palin was running for vice president on John McCain’s ticket.
The difference between the two has sparked conspiracy theories among conservative allies of Ms. Palin, who comes across in both the book and the film as woefully unprepared for the campaign and for the vice presidency. The film, they assert, was conceived by Hollywood liberals to undermine a future run for president by Ms. Palin, who has pre-emptively attacked the film as a work of fiction, though she says she has not seen it.
Others also have questioned the focus on Ms. Palin, among them the conservative columnist Byron York, who wrote last month, “Why did Hollywood focus on only one-half of ‘Game Change’? The other half would have made a great movie.”
The answers are numerous — and probably disappointing to conspiratorialists. “There were a number of films in the book,” said Len Amato, the president of HBO Films. “Our job was to zero in on the best one.”
HBO at first tried to translate the hard-fought primary campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton into movie form, but the script for it was unwieldy (and the prospect of casting an actor to play a sitting president was noxious to some people involved). On the other hand, the selection of Ms. Palin, then governor of Alaska, as a vice presidential candidate was compact enough for a two-hour movie.
“From a storyteller’s standpoint this was doable,” said John Heilemann, who, with Mark Halperin, wrote the book and were extensively consulted on the film.
It’s not unusual for a book adaptation to assume a life of its own on film. But HBO’s “Game Change” sits right at the intersection of politics and storytelling, so it faces an unusual amount of scrutiny, just as the book did upon its release two years ago.
Julianne Moore plays Ms. Palin and Woody Harrelson plays the campaign manager Steve Schmidt in the film, which was written by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach. In some scenes Ms. Palin is depicted as a inspirational leader who impressed campaign staffers with her Republican National Convention speech; in many other scenes she is portrayed as unable to answer basic political questions.
In the film, while Ms. Palin prepares for her first television interview, Mr. Schmidt asks her, “Governor, do you know what the Fed is?” and she stares blankly at him. When he asks, “Governor, do you know why we’re in Iraq?,” she says, incorrectly, “Because Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11.” Then Mr. Schmidt says to a senior adviser to Ms. Palin, Nicolle Wallace, “Well, she’s a great actress, right?” Ms. Wallace answers, “The best,” and he says, “Why don’t we just give her some lines?”
Discussing the depiction of Ms. Palin, Richard Plepler, a co-president of HBO, said in an interview last week: “Danny, Jay and Julianne did a brilliant job in conveying what made her compelling, empathetic and interesting to a certain part of the citizenry. I think they also made it clear how far over her head she really was. I don’t think the most loyal Republican would disagree with that.”
Mr. Plepler and Mr. Amato denied that the film had a political agenda or that its release during the 2012 Republican primaries had any strategic purpose. Although no evidence exists to suggest otherwise, they know the accusations will be made. In a Fox News interview on Saturday, Ms. Palin cast the film as a product of a “pro-leftist, pro-Barack Obama machine,” and added, “Hollywood lies are Hollywood lies.”
Mr. Strong’s rebuttal is simple: “The film’s true.” He said he supplemented the book with 25 of his own interviews. Because more time had passed since the election, he said: “Some people who weren’t comfortable talking right after the election were now ready to talk about it. And, boy, did they talk.”
The film feels like an update to the book’s Palin chapters. For instance it plays up Ms. Palin’s preoccupation during the campaign about her standing in Alaska. “In my interviews it just kept coming up,” Mr. Strong said.
Ms. Palin’s own memoir, “Going Rogue,” was also a source for the screenplay. “The whole movie was informed by having her point of view read out loud to us in her voice,” Mr. Roach said.
Mr. Roach first suggested dramatizing the McCain-Palin campaign on Sept. 27, 2008, while schmoozing at HBO’s lavish party celebrating its Emmy Award wins. Mr. Roach had just received an Emmy for directing the film “Recount,” about the disputed 2000 election, for HBO.
“I’m fascinated by the rooms where political strategy is worked out,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Roach was interested in the campaign that year, and in Ms. Palin in particular, because she was a surprise pick for vice president and was seen as a fix for a flailing Republican Party. Unbeknownst to him Mr. Halperin and Mr. Heilemann had already pitched their book to HBO executives with the hope that the network would buy the movie rights.
HBO did, and had an Obama-Clinton script commissioned, but it did not satisfy the people involved. “I found it to be very interesting, compelling, but it just seemed like it needed a mini-series to cover it all,” Mr. Roach said.
In the spring of 2010 at another HBO party — this time for its film “The Special Relationship,” about Bill Clinton as president and Tony Blair as the British prime minister — Mr. Roach talked with executives about pivoting toward the McCain-Palin chapters of the book.
Then he called his friend Mr. Strong. When screenwriters like Mr. Strong read books, they naturally imagine how they would rewrite the scenes as a movie or TV show; when he first read “Game Change,” months before Mr. Roach’s call, he doubted that repetitive Democratic and Republican primaries would work well on screen. “You’re having the same sequence over and over again, and that’s the death of a screenplay,” he said.
Furthermore, he thought, the tension between Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton was just as evident in public as it was in private, spoiling some of the thrill for viewers who had already watched the campaign play out on television. But in the Palin chapters, he said, “what was happening behind the scenes was 10 times more amazing than what was happening in the public eye.” When he reread the chapters after Mr. Roach’s call, “I was amazed by how beautifully it was going to beat out as a movie.”
And so the writing commenced, then the casting and producing, and “Game Change” became, in Mr. York’s words, “a Palin biopic.”
To Mr. Roach, at least, it makes perfect sense. “No one,” he said, “changed the game more than Sarah Palin.”
Sarah Palin backs Gingrich
SourcePalin backs Gingrich, leaves door open for herself
AFP By Jason Lamb
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin threw her weight behind Newt Gingrich as Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday -- but coyly left open the door for her own White House run if need be.
The controversial former 2008 vice-presidential nominee said she voted for Gingrich in Alaska's poll to choose a Republican candidate, one of 10 states to cast ballots on so-called "Super Tuesday."
"I will tell you who I voted for tonight... the cheerful one, it's Newt Gingrich," she told Fox News, referring to the one-word description the former House Speaker gave of himself at a debate last week.
"I have appreciated what he has stood for, stood boldly for," she said. "He has been the underdog in many of these primary races and these caucuses and I've respected what he has stood for."
She was speaking as long-time frontrunner Mitt Romney edged out rival Rick Santorum as he tightened his grip on the 2012 Republican presidential nomination with a string of six Super Tuesday wins, including in Alaska, where CNN projected Romney winning with 33 percent of the vote.
But Gingrich won resoundingly in his home state of Georgia, giving him an outside chance of rebooting his bid if he can gain some momentum in a clutch of upcoming battles in the conservative Deep South.
Palin conceded that the race between Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and libertarian Ron Paul lacks excitement, but predicted it would heat up once Republicans choose a nominee -- and launched a swipe at Romney in that regard.
"There will be that zip-a-dee-doo-dah after the nominee is chosen. I guarantee there will be that enthusiasm," she said.
"But to be brutally honest -- and I say this with all due respect to governor Romney, who is obviously the frontrunner .. he's not garnering a lot of that enthusiasm right now."
Palin, a darling of the ultraconservative Tea Party movement but lampooned and vilified by the left, flirted for months last year with running for the Republican ticket, eventually deciding against it in October.
But with the Republican race showing no sign of being wrapped up anytime soon -- unusually for a party which traditionally chooses its candidate rapidly -- Palin admitted that there could still be a role for her.
Although it would be an unlikely scenario, Palin said she might consider throwing her hat into the ring if pressed.
She was asked specifically what she would do if the Republican party faced an open convention this August -- meaning none of the current candidates would have sewn up the nomination by then -- and someone asked her to stand.
"Anything is possible. I don't close any doors that perhaps would be open out there, so no, I wouldn't close that door. My plan is to be at that convention," she told CNN in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
The Republican party's 2008 presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, picked Palin as his running mate before losing to Democrat Barack Obama.
She was ridiculed abroad, notably for foreign policy gaffes, but became a Tea Party leading light and media pundit, lashing out at big government and the "lamestream" media as she and her family basked in the celebrity spotlight.
In Anchorage on Tuesday night there seemed little enthusiasm for any of the frontrunners -- a trend noticed throughout the race, which has seen a succession of rivals leapfrogging into the lead over Romney, before fading.
Voter Andy Kriner said that he had switched allegiance in recent months: "I started with Herman Cain, then I went to Newt Gingrich, and now Romney is probably the guy who will get the nomination.
"He seems like a good guy. I'm not passionate about him, but I'm more passionate about him than I am (about) Obama."
Asked if any of the Republican candidates could win against the incumbent president, he said: "If I had to bet on it, I'd say it would be hard for anybody to beat Obama."
Adviser Says 'Game Change' Was 'True Enough to Make Me Squirm
SourceFormer Sarah Palin Adviser Says 'Game Change' Was 'True Enough to Make Me Squirm'
By George Stephanopoulos
ABC OTUS News
While Sarah Palin has denounced the HBO docudrama "Game Change" about her rise to national stardom during the 2008 presidential campaign as a "false narrative," one of Palin's top advisers said today that the film was actually "true enough to make me squirm."
Nicolle Wallace, a Republican strategist and senior adviser to the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign, was one of Palin's main handlers during that whirlwind presidential campaign four years ago. She is played by Sarah Paulson in the 30-minute HBO film.
"This is a movie about the vast gray area where 99 percent of our politics actually takes place," Wallace said today on "This Week." "You're just feeling your way though a gray area and doing your best and that campaign was one of those instances for me."
Many of Palin's other aides, including the treasurer of the pro-Palin Super PAC, have condemned the film, calling it everything from a "false narrative" to "sinful." To counter that "false narrative," Sarah PAC put out a video that juxtaposes scenes from "Game Change" with actual clips from the 2008 campaign.
Prior to the film's debut Saturday night, Palin told Fox News that she was "not concerned about an HBO movie based on a false narrative when there are so many other things to be concerned about."
The former Alaska governor told ABC News that the film does not matter to her. "I believe my family has the right priorities and knows what really matters," Palin said in an email. "For instance, our son called from Afghanistan yesterday and he sounded good, and that's what matters. Being in the good graces of Hollywood's 'Team Obama' isn't top of my list."
This is not the first public clash of opinions between Palin and former adviser Wallace, who have had a rather high-profile feud since the campaign ended.
Wallace said in October that she based the mentally ill vice-presidential character in her fictional book, "It's Classified," off Palin. She told ABC News' Top Line in October that Palin "seemed deeply troubled" at times during the campaign and that some of her behaviors "concerned me."
"They concerned a lot of people, and we did have discussions about whether it would be appropriate from someone who seemed to swing from so high to so low, when the pressure of the campaign as placed on her shoulders, would it be appropriate for somebody like that to have to endure the burdens of the vice presidency?" Wallace said in the October interview.
Picking Sarah Palin was a dumb game change
Picking Sarah Palin was a dumb game change
By David Horsey
March 12, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
The HBO movie “Game Change” may not be the whole story, but it is a true story about Sarah Palin and the power of ineptitude in American politics.
Palin and her partisans have trashed the movie for one very good reason: no matter how sympathetic to Palin’s personal predicament the film may be, the central plot point is that John McCain and his campaign team picked a shockingly unprepared person to be his running mate.
Steve Schmidt, McCain’s senior political advisor, and other top campaign operatives were primary sources for the book on which “Game Change” was based. They have attested to the accuracy of the details in the film and I have little doubt that what shows up on the screen reflects what really happened. Still, perception of reality being a very individual thing, I’m also sure Sarah Palin may have experienced the same events in a different way.
For example, at the end of the movie, Schmidt, played by Woody Harrelson, and Palin, entirely inhabited by Julianne Moore, have a confrontation over Palin’s demand to deliver an election night concession speech. The script gives Schmidt the kind of heroic lines that we all wish we could come up with at dramatic moments and the effect is to make Palin’s speech idea seem insane. Obviously, Palin, then and now, would not agree.
Still, having observed the 2008 presidential race with obsessive fascination, I found “Game Change” entirely on target and the complaints of the Palinistas quite obviously self-serving. Palin may never accept that her notoriously bad interview with Katie Couric went awry because of her answers, not because of Couric’s “gotcha questions,” but her perception does not alter the truth of what everyone witnessed: a candidate for vice president who was ignorant about very elementary facts of foreign policy and government.
Almost any man-on-the-street interview will reveal a similarly huge gap in the knowledge of average Americans. Like candidate Palin, average citizens may not know what the Fed is or who runs the British government. They might find it hard to name the news magazines or newspapers they have read lately because, like her, they don’t actually read them. This is both disturbing and understandable. Most people aren’t paid to pay attention, unlike professional pundits and politicians. The political game goes on above their heads and they feel estranged from the process.
In 2008, Sarah Palin’s life experience was far closer to that of the people than to the professionals. While the pros were appalled that she had no command of the facts, the folks out on the rope lines recognized someone who had come from among them. They saw an attractive mother of five, beset by insiders and media elites, who was battling back and expressing gut feelings that were the same as theirs.
That appeal was what made Palin an overnight political phenomenon. As the movie shows, Palin understood the power of her persona and came to believe she could save McCain’s campaign by ignoring Schmidt and the political experts. She may well have believed herself to be a Ronald Reagan-like figure for whom destiny had greatness in store.
Perhaps she could have become a female Reagan, but Reagan did not become Reagan overnight. He honed his stagecraft for decades; Palin had a short stint as a local TV sports reporter. Reagan served eight years as the governor of the nation’s most populous state; Palin had worked less than two years as governor of big, empty Alaska. Even when he was president, there were still unsettling moments in press conferences when Reagan seemed as baffled and inarticulate as Palin was with Couric. But, by then, Reagan had years of experience on the big stage and could finesse his way through. Palin had just a few days of frantic coaching on the basics before she was thrown into the media maelstrom.
Sarah Palin had political smarts but no knowledge. She did not know how much she didn’t know. When asked to join the Republican ticket, she immediately said yes with the utter confidence of the clueless. And who can blame her? The blame for this reckless choice lies with the smart guys, like Steve Schmidt, who thought they were clever enough to transform the presidential campaign. The biggest lesson of “Game Change” is not that Sarah Palin is dumb, it is that all the wise guys who manipulate the chutes and ladders of the American political system only flatter themselves when they think they are so much smarter than everyone else.
Sarah Palin to co-host NBC's 'Today' on Tuesday
SourceSarah Palin to co-host NBC's 'Today' on Tuesday
Apr. 2, 2012 08:07 AM
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- NBC's "Today" show is bringing Sarah Palin on board as a co-host -- for one morning, this Tuesday.
The announcement was posted Sunday on NBC's website. It says the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate will "reveal a different side" than viewers have seen before.
The booking is clearly an attempt to blunt the impact of "Today" alumna Katie Couric's weeklong return to morning TV as a guest host on ABC's "Good Morning America." Couric joined ABC last year and was co-host of longtime ratings leader "Today" for 15 years before leaving for CBS in 2006.
Besides Palin's surprise star turn on "Today," Tuesday's edition will also include "a big NBC announcement" by Ryan Seacrest. That's according to a Twitter posting by NBC on Sunday night.
Secret Service agents think Sarah Palin is one hot babe!!!
Does this mean our Secret Service agents would like to know Sarah in a Biblical sense???Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, weighed in after pictures from ousted Secret Service supervisor David Chaney's Facebook profile emerged.SourceHe joked about "really checking her out" after a friend comment on a picture of Palin, with Chaney standing in the background during the 2008 campaign.
Obama briefed as Secret Service scandal unfolds
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL and KEN THOMAS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A week after a Secret Service prostitution scandal began unfolding in the hallway of a Colombian hotel, six agents have lost their jobs and hundreds of people have been interviewed.
The agency said Friday that three officers had resigned, days after two supervisors and another officer were forced out. Director Mark Sullivan briefed President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on the latest developments.
It all started when an argument over payment between a Secret Service agent and a Colombian prostitute spilled into the hallway of the Hotel Caribe, where a contingent of agents and military personnel were staying as part of a security detail in advance of the president's arrival for last weekend's the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.
A government official briefed on the investigation said more than 200 people have been interviewed so far. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation.
Late Friday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urged a broader investigation, including checking hotel records for White House advance staff and communications personnel who were in Cartagena for the summit.
In a letter to Sullivan and the inspector general at the Homeland Security Department, Grassley asked whether hotel records for the White House staffers had been pulled as part of the investigations.
The scandal, which now includes 12 Secret Service employees and 11 military members, has become a political issue.
Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, weighed in after pictures from ousted Secret Service supervisor David Chaney's Facebook profile emerged.
He joked about "really checking her out" after a friend comment on a picture of Palin, with Chaney standing in the background during the 2008 campaign.
Palin told Fox News that joke was on Chaney. "Well, check this out, buddy — you're fired!" Palin said. She later said the scandal was a sign of "government run amok."
Obama's spokesman has said it is "preposterous to politicize" the situation and has said Obama would be angry if allegations published so far proved to be true.
The incident in Colombia involved at least some Secret Service personnel bringing prostitutes to their hotel rooms.
News of the incident, which involves at least 20 Colombian women, broke a week ago after a fight over payment between a prostitute and a Secret Service agent spilled into the hotel hallway. A 24-year-old Colombian prostitute told The New York Times that the agent agreed to pay her $800 for a night of sex but the next morning offered her only $30. She eventually left the hotel, she told the newspaper, after she was paid $225.
All of the agents being investigated have had their top-secret clearances revoked.
Col. Scott Malcom, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command, said the six soldiers, two Marines, two Navy personnel, and one Air Force airman have been sent home to their home duty stations. The soldiers are all from the 7th Special Forces Group, Airborne. The Marines and Navy personnel are from San Diego, and the Air Force member is from Charleston, S.C.
Maclom said the troops aren't under any specific restrictions but have been required to stay at their home stations while the investigation continues. Malcom added that military investigators could return from Colombia as soon as this weekend.
The lawyer for Chaney and fellow supervisor Greg Stokes said Obama's safety was never at risk, and criticized leaks of internal government investigations in the case, signaling a possible strategy for an upcoming legal defense.
Chaney and Stokes were forced out Wednesday. A third agent, who has not been identified and was not a supervisor, resigned.
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Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan, Laurie Kellman, Robert Burns, Larry Margasak, Julie Pace, Anne Gearan in Washington, Nomaan Merchant in Dallas and Frank Bajak in Cartagena, Colombia, contributed to this report.
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Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/acaldwellap
Sarah Palin thanks God and Supreme Court for healthcare ruling
SourceSarah Palin thanks God and Supreme Court for healthcare ruling
By Robin Abcarian
June 28, 2012, 1:34 p.m.
Sarah Palin thanked the Supreme Court and the Almighty this morning after the high court ruled in favor of President Obama’s healthcare reform law.
Why the contrarian reaction from a conservative who has railed against the law, and even pushed the long-debunked claim that bureaucratic “death panels” will make life-and-death decisions about the elderly and the disabled?
The former Alaska governor is making an entirely political calculation that the survival of the healthcare reform law will spell doom for Democrats in November.
“Thank you, SCOTUS,” wrote Palin on her Facebook page. “This Obamacare ruling fires up the troops as America’s eyes are opened. Thank God.”
Palin, who has not held office for three years but regularly appears on Fox News as a political commentator and is a favorite of tea party groups, seized on the Supreme Court’s decision as proof that the Obama administration has curtailed personal liberty. Like many Obamacare opponents, she focused on the court’s rationale for upholding the law as a constitutional exercise of Congress’ power to tax. That, she claimed, proves the president has broken his campaign promises not to raise taxes on the middle class.
“Obama promised the American people this wasn’t a tax and that he’d never raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000,” wrote Palin. “We now see that this is the largest tax increase in history. It will slam every business owner and every one of the 50% of Americans who currently pay their taxes. The other 50% are being deceived if they think they’re going to get a free ride – because Medicaid is broke. Recipients of Obama’s 'free health care' will have fewer choices and less accessibility. Trust me – this much more expensive health care WILL be rationed; to claim otherwise defies all economic and common sense.”
Actually, the law calls for a tax penalty only on those who choose that option by refusing to buy insurance. The tax penalty would not apply to those who cannot afford health insurance and will not be applied to anyone who purchases health insurance. Only those who can afford health insurance and refuse to buy it are subject to the tax penalty, the rationale being that those people will inevitably need healthcare and those costs otherwise would be passed on to the insured in the form of higher premiums. Obama has argued that people who behave responsibly should not be forced to pay the healthcare bills of those who do not.
Still, Palin called upon Congress to “act immediately to repeal this terrible new tax on the American people.... We the People did not ask for this tax, we do not want this tax, and we can’t afford this tax. This is not an answer to America’s health care challenges.”
Palin did not offer any solutions to the problem of rising healthcare costs, nor any ideas about how to provide health insurance for the millions of Americans who lack it.
Instead, as she often does, she employed the rhetoric of battle. “We will not retreat on this,” she wrote. “A newly elected legislative branch is key to defending our Republic and fundamentally restoring all that is good in America.”
Echoing the sentiment of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney earlier in the day, she urged supporters to take their frustration to the ballot box.
“It’s time, again, for patriotic Americans to rise up to protest this obvious infringement on our economic and personal freedom,” wrote Palin. “November is just around the corner. Today, the Supreme Court issued their ruling on Obamacare. In November, We the People will issue ours.”
robin.abcarian@latimes.com
GOP Clowns????
How come the artist left out the Democratic clowns.They are just as amusing as the Republican clowns.
Susan Rice not so bright - Remember Sarah Palin
SourceRemember Sarah Palin?
Nov. 16, 2012 12:00 AM
Sen. John McCain is quoted as saying Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is "not qualified" to become secretary of State. He also made some reference to her being "not so bright."
Has the esteemed senator forgotten that he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? Need the senator be reminded that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks?
-- Eugene English, Laveen
Fox News fires Sarah Palin???
From this article it sounds like Fox News has fired Sarah Palin from her news job.Fox News, Sarah Palin cutting ties
Associated Press Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:42 PM
NEW YORK — Sarah Palin is out as a Fox News Channel contributor.
The network said Friday that it is parting ways with the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.
Bill Shine, executive vice president at Fox News, said the network has enjoyed its association with Palin and wishes her the best. There was no immediate comment from the former Alaska governor.
A person familiar with discussions between Fox and Palin described the parting as amicable, saying that Fox and Palin had discussed renewing her contract but she decided to do other things. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
Palin debuted as a Fox contributor in January 2010.
Fox News Fires Sarah Palin
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So in that sense Sarah Palin had all the
toolslooks she needed to get the job done.