Friday Morning Sarahcuda Bites for April 16, 2010

*
Drill, Canada, Drill: Bloomberg's Joe Schneider reports that in her speech north of the lower 48 last night, Sarah Palin urged Canada to increase its oil production:

“Ramp up development,” she told an audience in Hamilton, Ontario. “There’s an inherent link between energy and security.”

Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president, campaigned with a slogan of “drill baby, drill” to urge greater U.S. oil exploration. She spoke [Thursday night] at a fundraising dinner to an audience of about 900 people who paid much as C$1,000 ($998) to attend.

Palin, 46, said American attitudes are changing ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, demonstrated by the growth of the Tea Party movement seeking less government spending and fewer programs.

“There’s a shift in American politics right now,” Palin said. The tea parties “are a blast.”

And organizers had said prior to the speech that her address wasn't supposed to be political...

The Stoney Creek News had a mostly positive write-up of the governor's speech:

Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin applauded Canada’s wartime sacrifices in Afghanistan, praised the country’s Olympic gold-medal victory in hockey and detailed her “earth-shattering” year that included adding two new babies to her family during her speech in Hamilton last night.

Palin, the former governor of Alaska who reportedly earned about $100,000 for her evening participating, entertained about 900 people at Carmen’s Banquet Hall during the tightly controlled charity event with a mix of home-spun stories, self-deprecating humour and repeated praises [of] Canada and Hamilton.

[...]

The at times rambling, 50-minute speech by Palin touched on her faith in God, her family’s difficult experiences in the public eye, and praise for the conservative Tea Party movement in the U.S., where she has repeatedly been the keynote speaker.

“This is such a melting pot,” said Palin when introduced to the crowd, who gave her a standing ovation. “I love the diversity here. There are a whole lot of people who are named Tony.”

Palin had Hamiltonians in her corner when, [she said] as she looked out from her Sheraton Hotel room where she was staying, she saw Copps Coliseum.

“That is a great place for an NHL team,” she said, as people applauded. “I’d love to be part of that. Maybe I can put a bug in the ear of (NHL president) Gary Bettman.”

Palin, a self-proclaimed hockey mother of five kids, quoting former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, said “God did not put us on Earth to be ordinary. He has given us opportunities to be productive.”

You betcha: Either the Boston Herald is taking its own Palin-Romney story too seriously, or it is impressed that some bloggers are taking it seriously. We're not sure which is the case. Some other bloggers are not convinced, but remain intrigued.

Welcome to the party, pal: From the New York Sun we learn that Obama's shabby treatment of Israel has spurred the formation of new organization, Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin:

Plans for the new group are set to be announced on Sunday...

[...]

Its aim... is to take advantage of the growing alarm within the Jewish community at what Mr. Korn, in an interview this week with the New York Sun, called an “escalation of rhetoric” criticizing the Jewish state.

[...]

He said his group was encouraged by a defense of Mrs. Palin in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by the most famous neo-conservative, Norman Podhoretz, who wrote that he would “rather be ruled by the Tea Party than by the Democratic Party” and “would rather have Sarah Palin sitting in the Oval Office than Barack Obama.”

What Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is saying, Mr. Korn said, “is that the most articulate person in the public arena today in opposition to the Obama administration’s shift in policies against Israel is Sarah Palin.”

"This is a long overdue development," says Pamela Geller. The group has already begun construction of its website.

Dude! Sarah Palin's dad Chuck Heath was a crowd-pleaser at the Veterans Park Tea Party at Veterans Park in Hoover, Alabama last night. The Birmingham News reports that he talked about how his daughter's rock star status has brought an end to the family's privacy. According to Heath, one letter was delivered to the Palin's house with the simple address of "First Dude, Alaska."

¡Adios! is too good a word: Palin-hatin' gutter comic George Lopez said on Larry King's show:

"If Sarah Palin wins and runs for president in 2012, I have a, on a reliable source, as the head of all the Latinos, we will voluntarily go back to Mexico if she becomes President of the United States."

We know some Latinos who have said rather emphatically that Lopez doesn't speak for them. And we appreciate the contributions Latinos in general have made to Texas culture. But in the specific case of Lopez, when Sarah Palin becomes president, we will personally volunteer to drive the jerk to the border crossing of his choice.

On a clear day: Best signage observed at the Boston Tea Party: "I can see November from my house."

- JP