“I still see Sarah Palin as a more rounded politician than Trump. Trump and BHO appear similar in that there seems to be more interest in the idea of being President than the crushing actuality of the job. Sarah is relatively more mature.”- JP
Palin "was immediately enveloped by a large crowd"The former vice presidential candidate was immediately enveloped by a large crowd on a patio after making her entrance with Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren. Palin spent some time posing for pictures with both Dems and R's alike.Haddad, formerly executive producer of Chris Matthews' ratings-challenged "Hardball" program on MSPDS, started her own production company called Haddad Media after leaving the extreme left wing network in 2007. She has been hosting her annual garden brunch since 1993 at her home on the Potomac River on the day of the correspondents' dinner, but this year moved the event to a larger venue, the historic Beall-Washington house.
"Merely for the purpose of harassment"The lawsuit was filed in state court by Chip Thoma and first reported by TMZ.com.What seems to have sent Thoma around the bend was tour bus traffic on the streets in the vicinity of the governor's mansion in Juneau. If he sounds suspiciously like the same grinch who went after Gov. Palin's youngest daughter Piper for her unforgivable sin of setting up an evil capitalist lemonade stand two years ago, that's because he is.
Palin's attorney, John Tiemessen, called the complaint frivolous and said it was filed "merely for the purpose of harassment."
"The governor's actions and statements regarding this matter are a matter of public record and governed by the long standing doctrine of executive immunity from tort claims," he said in an email late Friday. "Like all of the other harassing complaints against the governor, we anticipate that Mr. Thoma's will be quickly and summarily dismissed."
The matter dates to 2009, after Palin returned to Juneau and the governor's office from her failed vice presidential bid.
"That's the bottom line," said Frances Squire, marketing director for West Hills Community College District. "We're raising funds ... and so we wanted somebody we knew would sell tickets."Meanwhile, workers have been putting in overtime to finish Golden Eagle Arena in time for the governor's appearance in the school's brand new multi-use facility. Her speech begins at 5PM local time Sunday. School officials expect an audience of just under 2,000 people to hear Sarah Plain speak.
WHCL officials say they recouped the $115,000 just a few weeks after they announced that Palin was coming to kick off the grand opening of their new Golden Eagle Arena. At this point, they've sold $180,000 to $185,000 in tickets, with more than 1,000 seats still available. All the profits from the event will go to support scholarships, programs and facilities at WHCL.
"Basically, the state is upside down economically, and we need to do everything we can to raise funds," said Don Warkentin, WHCL president.
The speaker's fee came from the West Hills College Community Foundation and didn't involve taxpayer money, Squire said.
"She should be on the cover of my book"
“You betcha! Heck yeah she did... Which is so apropos since Couric took the very first shot...”- JP
"Media: admit it, Trump forced the issue. Now, don't let the WH distract you w/the birth crt from what Bernanke says today. Stay focused, eh?"Before you answer that question, consider this item published Thursday by The DC's Matthew Boyle:
"...indirectly, Obama is benefiting from giving in to Trump as the mainstream media’s focus isn’t on the major story lines that would usually dominate the headlines, like the Federal Reserve press conference, unfavorable economic numbers and all-time-lows for Obama in polling results."Sarah called Obama's shot: Bernake in the side pocket while all eyes were on the shiny birth certificate object. And the media, despite Gov. Palin's admonition not to allow themselves to be distracted, went for the shiny object.
[...]
Former deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel told The Daily Caller that the document’s release and Obama’s appearance in the White House briefing room to talk about it only elevated the story. His appearance on Oprah shortly thereafter made the story even bigger, and then he joked about the conspiracy theory at 2012 campaign fundraisers Wednesday night.
“President Obama said he’d made this decision a couple weeks ago,” Stanzel said. “I don’t understand why it takes two weeks to produce the document. In my view, the White House generally doesn’t try to release news in a haphazard way. Having the president of the United States show up in the press briefing room like this, they had to know it would be front page news.”
New York Times pollster Nate Silver said, too, that the White House probably isn’t complaining about the boom in birther coverage since it has shielded Obama from other, more important issues. “Lots of mediocre polling and economic numbers for Obama today,” Silver tweeted. “I don’t think he’d protest if media devoted another 72 hrs to birther crap.”
If that was the White House strategy, it appears to be working. A quick sweep of the front-page headlines of major U.S. newspapers Thursday revealed little coverage of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s first-ever press conference. Also, the birth certificate release topped the Fed presser in many newspapers that gave front-page attention to it.
“WOW: Sarah Palin is a lot better looking than Julianne Moore. I wouldn’t have guessed that. What’s with those protruding teeth?”- JP
Hollywood needs to stick up for more than just the pedophilesWould you rather speak out to defend a baby with Down syndrome or sign a petition to support a pedophile? In some Hollywood circles, the answer is simple, support the pedophile.- JP
Let’s go back to 2009 when Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland. The United States asked for Polanski to be extradited to face trial for his 1977 statutory rape case. Hollywood united and Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Jonathan Demme, Tilda Swinton, Wes Anderson, Pedro Almodovar, (I can go on all day) actually took time out of their busy schedules to prepare a petition demanding Roman Polanski’s freedom. But for some reason, no one in Hollywood can take five minutes out of their day to support Sarah Palin’s “right to choose” or condemn the abusive allegations and deplorable insults hurled against her 3-year-old boy’s disability.
While I can understand why so many people want to take down Sarah Palin (actually I can’t understand it, it just seems to be the way people start every negative commentary on Sarah Palin that goes too far) I have no idea why it is acceptable to make fun of disabled babies—or any babies for that matter. Just last week Wonkette, the award winning left-wing satirical waste-of-internet-space website, posted a smear piece on Sarah Palin that sunk to a new low. One of Wonkette’s contributor’s, Jack Stuef, directed his vitriol of Palin toward the most innocent of places. Not only did Stuef insinuate that Todd Palin slept with his daughter Bristol, he took the unique and deplorable approach of making fun of her son with Down syndrome…on his birthday.
This was a great opportunity for many in Hollywood to prove that they care about something other than themselves. Instead, they kept quiet. When people suggest that politicians remove any violent words from their political discourse then can we at least ask our comedians, talk show hosts and pundits to stay away from politician’s children—even if they really, really, really don’t like the politician.
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I'm thrilled to show you the cover of my new book, "Not Afraid of Life!" You'll notice that there's a certain cute little boy on the cover. I love that photo!
I called up Mat-Su Regional Hospital, where, according to contemporary media reports, Trig Palin was born. I was patched through to the family birthing center.- JP
[...]
Why'd I call the hospital? One of the original concerns Sullivan had with the Trig Palin story -- one that's based on an absent fact, and not on innuendo -- was that Mat-Su Regional did not list Trig Palin's birth on its website. There's a portion of the web site, the baby nursery, where newborns are listed. Trig, born on April 18, 2008, is not there. And that's somewhat curious. So: Is every baby born at the hospital listed on the web site?
"No, it's not automatic," said the clerk. "Truth be told, we do take security photos of all the babies, but if the parents want their babies listed on the web site, they can request it. We're really sensitive about it, though. I think the hospital took up the policy not to publish names automatically because of possible baby kidnapping issues."
The clerk, realizing that Washington, D.C. reporters don't typically cold call her hospital, asked me if this call was about "our former governor." It was. Was Trig Palin born there?
"Oh, that's not even a question," she said... "Yes. Everybody here remembers that. Yes, this is where the Palins come -- this is their family hospital."
[...]
Is anything preventing Andrew, or one of the Daily Dish's assistants, from making that call? ... The current tone of his Trig-blogging is horribly meta -- "just asking questions," without asking questions of the people who can answer all of this stuff.
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“Read the whole thing and explain to me why Mitt Romney is a better choice.”- JP
“In the summer of 1978 I traveled to Europe. My first stop was London... I was surprised at some things I found there... But the most surprising thing to me at the time were the newspapers. It seemed that no serious newspapers remained; they were all tabloids... That type of news coverage has become commonplace in the mainstream media here, too... Journalistic standards were always far from perfect. Nevertheless, in my youth they used to be better. For example, the use of the anonymous source was rare rather than commonplace, unlike today. Gossip was published on the gossip page, and it mainly concerned Hollywood celebrities rather than rumors about politicians. In the treatment of Sarah Palin, the press has reached a new high (or low, depending on how you look at it) in the elevation of gossip and malicious rumor-mongering couched as news, or at least newsworthy speculation. I have decided to call the phenomenon ‘Palinhate.’ The sheer scope and breadth and the relentless nature of the assault has no precedent in public life, as far as I can tell, and that includes anything launched against President Bush or his predecessor...”Rick Moore at HolyCoast.com:
“What a pathetic bunch of bottom dwellers... Geez, how unhappy do you have to be in your own life to try and destroy someone else's success? These people are so jealous of her success they've lost all sense of reality.”John Ziegler at The Daily Caller:
“The bottom-line lesson of all of this is that it is nearly impossible, especially for a conservative, to get the full truth of a controversial subject into the mainstream. There are simply too many hurdles. Had ‘True Hollywood Story’ lived up to their name and told the real truth of Sarah Palin (which the producer who interviewed me clearly knew), they would have risked antagonizing the Hollywood community. Once the initial narrative on a subject is set (usually by liberals), it acts like a gravitational pull from which all future stories will be forced to fight.”Peter Ingemi at Datechguy's Blog:
“I didn’t see the Politico piece... But I’ll tell you this. Politico doesn’t write this unless that think Palin is running.”Smitty at The Other McCain:
“What dreck. Politico begins an article with two lines of slander, and then walk it back... Well, as long as you put lies in someone else’s mouth, it’s OK... Maybe some ambivalent people in the center will be turned off by the series of anti-Palin books. However, they will sell poorly, I predict. Their chief effect will be to rile up the Palinistas and improve her support. Because, sooner or later, everything the Left undertakes achieves the opposite of its intended effect.”John Nolte via Twitter:
“MSM 101 re Palin: Never allow her policies, ideas or arguments into the narrative. Too attractive. So ignore, or AMPLIFY perceived slips.”Mark A. Cohen at From the Left to the Right:
“Did you ever notice how the mainstream media (MSM), that tireless team of left wing news reporting outlets, always tries to corner Republicans, make them look bad, and tries to get them to agree there's some kind of problem within the Republican Party? No? Then perhaps you've heard them try to insinuate that the GOP is crumbling to pieces... The MSM loves weak Republican candidates like Sen. John McCain. Watch, as they will appear to support one in 2012, and they will try to promote him (or her) as the GOP front-runner. This is a strategy we've seen before, one in which they push a good-guy moderate in hopes he'll lose to the Democrat. Obviously, it was successful for them in 2008. The MSM, on the other hand, will attack strong Republican candidates like Sarah Palin.”Dr. Clark Jensen:
“If Sarah Palin was crucified by the liberal media for her lack of experience even though she served as the governor of Alaska, what do you think the press would do to Trump if he was the Republican nominee?”Bookworm at Bookworm Room:
“In about one second, any doofus can summon up myriad posts Sullivan did about Palin and Trig, or can find conservative comments castigating him for his lunatic monomania... The same holds true for Sullivan’s hysterical screeds about Tucson. But someone who wrote an entire article about Sullivan for the glossy Harvard Magazine was not only unable to find evidence of his quixotic little obsessions in the first place, but also was either unable to do so (or couldn’t be bothered to do so) in the second instance, when someone brought those facts to his attention. You’d think that a Harvard grad... could do better than that.”Thomas Sowell at Townhall.com:
“What electrified so many Republicans about Sarah Palin in the 2008 election campaign was that she was such a contrast to the usual mealy-mouth talk that was more common among other Republican candidates, including Senator John McCain. Whether you agreed or disagreed with her position on the issues, you didn't have to wave your hand in front of her eyes to see if she was awake.”Karen Townsend at Pondering Penguin:
“Here's the thing about social media, Twitter in particular. Why is Twitter proving to be such a powerful tool for online activism, especially for conservatives? It is powerful because once conservatives come together with a mission - like a buycott - there is no predicting the speed and effectiveness until it all plays out. As long as the dinosaur network media and the liberal cable networks continue to skew their agendas towards liberal politics then we aren't going anywhere. We are aware that if it doesn't fit their agenda, they ignore the story. Every time a story is ignored it is easy to turn it around and ask, what would have happened if a conservative did that? So, what would have happened if a conservative cruelly and viciously mocked a liberal's handicapped child? We all know. There is no blurring of the lines. The liberals can relax about that. Conservatives do not condone personal attacks on the children of politicians. It is wrong from either side of the aisle and decent people everywhere know that. We are all Mama Grizzlies now.”PJTV:
“Dana Loesch, Alexis Garcia and Tony Katz discuss Wonkette's recent attack on Sarah Palin's special needs child. Palin is not alone. S.E. Cupp was attacked by Keith Olbermann too. Are conservative women held to a different standard?”Paul Mitchell at RedState.com:
“It’s easy to see that the left hates Sarah Palin with the hot, hot fire of a thousand suns. And the real reason for this hatred is Trig. They hate Trig with every fiber of their being. They hate him with a passion beyond description. Murder would not satisfy their hatred of Trig, because they hate most of all the fact that this baby was ever born. If Sarah Palin had aborted Trig, she would be a hero to the left. But she kept him, she loves him, Down Syndrome and all. And they hate that.”Ace at Ace of Spades HQ:
“Levi Johnston To Affix Name To Book To Be Written By Author To Be Unnamed Later...”Jim Treacher at The DC Trawler:
“Levi Johnston still putting off getting a job... ‘According to Us Weekly, the revealing book will be titled Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs and will hit bookstores this fall, published by Touchstone Publishing.’ ‘Crosshairs,’ get it? Because of the thing. Putting his name on the cover of a book is the inevitable next step in Levi Johnston’s dazzling career. He’s going to do for literature what he did for pistachios... Well, at least this will give Ken Layne and Wonkette something to laugh at besides disabled toddlers. Go get ‘im, smart fellers!”- JP
Sahl dashes to the defense of Sarah Palin, the liberals' favorite chew toy. "She doesn't bother me. To this [liberal] crowd, she's the lady that comes over and does the laundry. They think she's not entitled. But she's not the enemy. Who's sending us to war? It's the third term of George Bush."h/t: Bob Belvedere
Sahl prefers Sarah Palin to Tina Fey. "One is a dame and the other is ambitious. I think Sarah Palin is a girl" — his highest compliment for a woman; "I like women who are girls first." He adds, "This whole thing with Palin, among comedians, is class discrimination. ‘How dare she raise her voice?’ It’s not what Palin says. It’s that she doesn’t qualify — they qualify. It shows the desperation of liberals to single her out. She’s not the enemy but they divert you with their disdain of Palin." He snorts, "The female liberationists won but they didn’t get anything they wanted."
Assuming current economic trends continue (and barring discovery of cold fusion in the next six months, there’s no reason to think that they won’t) Republicans could simply bootleg James Carville’s “it’s the economy, stupid” messaging strategy from the 1992 Clinton Campaign. With the Obama Campaign touting their fundraising prowess (expected to top out around $1 billion), the GOP should have no trouble lampooning the Democrat’s backwards thinking on the intersection of money and government.We have made rather the same point, although we did so in the context of a Palin victory over the Big-Spender-In-Chief. Ms. Jacobi Jephson would like to see Mitch Daniels as Obama's GOP challenger, and we "strenuously object," to quote a character in "A Few Good Men." But that's the fodder for another post. Though we have a different messenger in mind, we have no argument with the lion's share of her op-ed's title:
With values voters currently more concerned about the possibility of $8 gas and double-digit unemployment than gay marriage and guns, the GOP needs to be all business.
It's (still) the economy, stupid: GOP has the message to beat Obama...The more wild-eyed among the birthers and troofers will not be convinced by any evidence, no matter how compelling. As Stacy McCain observes:
David Frum refers to Birtherism as “the racialist aspect of the anti-Obama movement,” which is rather a large leap. I always compared it to the various strange conspiracy theories about Mena Airport and/or Vince Foster that flourished during Bill Clinton’s first term.Here's a novel idea: How about we refuse to allow the more imaginatively deranged among us to define the national debate and get on with the discussion that is most likely to help deny Obama a second term? And pay no attention to the Obama foot-washers who would have you believe that the economy is significantly improving. It isn't, and it will not, as long as Obama pursues his destructive statist agenda. Ignore those who wish to distract and their shiny objects. Let's get back to economic and fiscal issues with a real debate, for a change. It's a win-win for our side.
In politics, some people are always more interested in throwing out spooky charges of criminality or fraud than in arguing over policy. You saw this during the Bush administration, with the stuff about Halliburton and Iraq, the claims of rigged voting machines in Ohio, the “Plamegate” controversy and all those wild fantasies about Karl Rove getting indicted.
Okay — the chief one is the present lull before the oncoming storm: Food and gas prices are consistent now with hyperinflation, which seems to be spreading to the general consumer price index — at a time of slow growth, a depression-like housing industry, a pathetic dollar, and high unemployment. It’s hard to see any upside there, inasmuch as in the old days inflation was associated with an overheated economy and, conversely, high unemployment and slow growth at least meant low prices for essentials. Instead, we seem to be entering a 1970s-like stagflationary cycle, whose remedies — higher interest rates, massive energy exploration, entitlement reform, strict budgetary discipline — will seem to this administration the proverbial medicine that is worse than the disease.- JP
Add all this to a new America in which half the population pays no federal income tax and half receives some sort of government check, and we are starting to resemble southern Europe, where the dismal statistics are not so much globally or politically driven but increasingly a reflection of stubborn cultural attitudes about entitlement, work, and consumption in the era of globalization.
"Media: admit it, Trump forced the issue. Now, don't let the WH distract you w/the birth crt from what Bernanke says today. Stay focused, eh?"- JP
“There was no vetting of Sarah Palin? The vetting started the minute McCain said ‘Here she is, folks,’ and it hasn’t stopped for one second. I don’t remember any other politician in my lifetime being so relentlessly scrutinized. Is Andrew Sullivan lying, insane, or merely brain-damaged? I suppose all three are possible. If he keeps going on and on about how crazy Sarah Palin is, his next job will be at IMAX as a projector.”- JP
9PM Central Time/10PM Eastern"SarahPalinUSA has some harsh words for Pres Obama on his handling of Libya...tonight she goes ON THE RECORD at 10pm/ET to tell us more!"- JP
Now, you talk about, "Where is our big conservative leader?" You see what happens to them in Sarah Palin. Now, there are any number of explanations for what has happened to Sarah Palin. Remember the story we had yesterday from Politico in which I said I don't think I have ever seen a more purposeful, willful effort to destroy, impugn, degrade, everything else, a person's character, reputation, and life, as though it was a game. It happens every day in the leftist media, but that story yesterday and the eagerness with which the left is looking toward the destruction of Palin. Now, imagine, folks, none of this stuff happens in a vacuum and I'm not offering excuses for anybody. I'm just trying to explain. People ask questions, I'm trying to explain. Suppose you are a Republican candidate, and you see that? Let me ask any of you, how would you like to have that kind of press coverage of your life? The constant investigation, the lies, paparazzi constantly following, reporters buying the house next door to where you live.- JP
As much as anything, this takedown of Sarah Palin is a warning to anybody else who's thinking about trying it. We can get you, too. Don't think they don't think that. Now you might understand why they speak through the PC machine or try to keep a close vest as to what their real intentions are. I'm guessing here, folks, I don't have answers here with ontological certitude, but you ask yourself these questions, and I know that there is paranoia on the Republican side about being seen as friends of Big Oil. People on our side think the media is setting a trap every time they ask about Big Oil. That's why our guys will say, "Big Oil needs to be paying their fair share." It's just the path of least resistance. It's easier. Sarah Palin, "Drill, baby, drill." Look at what they've done to those three words, drill, baby, drill. They have built an entire policy around destroying that whole concept, even though it's the epitome of common sense and logic. Drill, baby, drill.
The left is a formidable bunch and there aren't a whole lot of people who want to take them on in politics. There just aren't a whole lot of people who want to take them on. It's a scary thing for a lot of people. Meanwhile, here's Obama shaking down BP. Remember that $20 billion slush fund he got from BP, and he hadn't spent it? It was ostensibly to make people whole who had lost all in the BP spill. But no, they only spent $3.8 billion of it. Interesting, isn't it? And, meanwhile, it's the GOP that's in the back pocket of Big Oil. Big Oil is donating all this money to Obama. Obama shakes a finger at 'em, BP says, "How much you want? How much you want?" and they write a check for $20 billion. There's genuine fear of these people. Ask Scooter Libby. Ask Robert Bork. Ask Clarence Thomas. Look at what happens. Again, I'm just throwing out possible answers. You're gonna call here and you're gonna ask me things. I'm gonna do my best to answer the question.
The left hates Sarah Palin because she reminds them of why they hate themselves. You have to understand who you're dealing with on the left, the self-loathing and the self-hatred on the left. We're not dealing with happy people.
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“A notorious trick used by newspaper reporters--and allowed to be used by like-minded editors-- is that of reporting a false story published by another outlet and harmful to a political opponent as if it were fact. The malicious reporter doesn't need to actually say the story is true, but by discussing various possible conclusions and logical aspects... the reader is left with the clear impression that the story is fact. Case in point: During the '08 campaign a story surfaced that when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had tried to ban some books in the local library. The story helpfully included a list of the titles. The ‘story’ was quickly picked up by the MSM/ liberal/Dem media. Just one tiny problem: The story was a hoax from the get-go. One tipoff was that several of the books on the list were published after Palin was no longer mayor. The one nugget of fact was that a constituent had asked the mayor if it was possible to get offensive books removed from the town's library. The mayor relayed the question to the library staff, but never sought to ban any books... one of the many ways the media accomplish hatchet-jobs on people they hate. And of course they never retract the scurrilous stories, let alone apologize.”Bryan Preston at The PJ Tatler:
“For a silly hick snowbilly who doesn’t know anything, whom loving and tolerant liberals call a ‘special needs case’ in honor of the new civility, Sarah Palin is establishing a track record on the issues that is, over the past year or two, without equal.”Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters:
“A day before the liberal website Wonkette posted a truly disgraceful piece about Sarah Palin's Down's syndrome son Trig, the Los Angeles Times published an article calling the former Alaska governor a ‘special-needs case.’ Columnist Meghan Daum's ‘Why Sarah Palin Doesn't Get What She Deserves’ was just another in a long line of hit pieces on the woman from Wasilla the elite media love to hate... Since she first hit the national stage on August 29, 2008, Sarah Palin has brought out the worst in just about every liberal media member in this country.”Nice Deb:
“If ‘thoughtful writers’ are ‘too easy’ on Palin because of her ‘special needs’ status, what’s their excuse for the sycophantic way they cover Dear Reader?”Christopher Chantrill at Road to the Middle Class:
“Way back when, in 2009, Palin put up a note on her Facebook page about ‘death panels’ in President Obama's ObamaCare package. Now it's the law and the president is optimistically talking about his ‘independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers’ that will be cutting Medicare reimbursement rates. Sarah Palin has always been solid on the need to develop conventional energy resources and hold back from wasteful subsidies on ‘green energy.’ She has sneered at President Obama's ‘very fast trains’ and now the Chinese are slowing theirs. Sarah Palin went to Wisconsin and told the teachers that their pensions were sacred and Gov. Walker was working to save them. And now as experts are starting to agree that the Federal Reserve's ‘quantitative easing’ or inflation hasn't boosted the economy as much as it has boosted food and energy prices, we are reminded that Sarah Palin spoke out against QE2 months ago... Gov. Palin is rock solid and consistent as a common-sense constitutional conservative. So why do the pundits think she's a flake?”Freedom Fighter at Joshuapundit:
“Once again, a certain housewife from Wasilla has proved that she's a few steps ahead of the game. Tell me again how she's not qualified to be president!”Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail :
“Mrs. Palin: ‘When Germany, a country that knows a thing or two about the dangers of inflation, warns us to think again, maybe it’s time for Chairman Bernanke to cease and desist. We don’t want temporary, artificial economic growth bought at the expense of permanently higher inflation which will erode the value of our incomes and our savings.’ She referred of course to the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic days of Germany in the 1920s — which collapsed and paved the way for Hitler and Nazi Germany... How did she know? She has real world knowledge. She has run a business. She has been a governor. She actually ran something other than her mouth.”John Hayward at Human Events:
“The secret to Palin’s remarkable gift of prophecy about Obama economic policy is simple. She understands that prosperity can never return while the private sector is growing smaller.”William A. Jacobson at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion:
“Politico's Cheapest Shot Yet... I'm not a fan of Politico's news operation. Today's feature article, ‘Mission for anti-Palin movement: Expose her,’ is a prime example of how the MSM will go after Republican candidates or potential candidates. Under the guise of reporting on the anti-Palin movement, Politico manages to dredge up almost every crank accusation against Palin. The fourth word in the first sentence of the article just happens to be ‘promiscuous.’ How nice. In the course of the article, Politico manages to compare Palin to Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Hitler, and Father Coughlin, but only because such people were controversial and celebrities, of course. And Politico did not make the connection itself, it merely quoted someone making the connection, that's how real reporters do it, right?”Greg Krehbiel at Crowhill Weblog:
“The lamestream media at it again... Any time Palin is not in the room, the liberal mean streak comes out with zeal. But… to her face? No, they can’t do that.”David Weigel at liberal website Slate:
“Good news, everyone! We have survived the latest flare-up of the conspiracy theory generally known as ‘Trig Trutherism’ — the discredited hypothesis that Sarah Palin's youngest son is not hers. Last week, ‘The Lies of Sarah Palin’ author Geoffrey Dunn published a lengthy piece — spiked by the Huffington Post, then acquired by the traffic-hungrier Business Insider — going over the same turf. His argument was blown to smithereens by Justin Elliott at Salon as well as by other reporters who sighed and decided to engage with one of the duller conspiracy theories of all time. (A serious conspiracy theory should seem less like a General Hospital subplot.)”Mark Whittington at Yahoo! News:
“There is something crassly personal about the campaign against Palin, of how the attacks tend to be about her personal life rather than her politics. What is it about a telegenic, athletic, religious, conservative woman that causes certain people to lose all reason and leap the length of their chains? The answer likely wanders out of the realm of politics and into abnormal psychiatry.”Doug Fletcher at Let's Make Obama Resign:
“I think that if Sarah Palin chooses to run, the other candidates and their allies in the party establishment will have a difficult time defeating her. If she does manage to win the nomination, it will have been after a fierce fight, and she will come out of the nominating convention looking very strong indeed. The White House will of course attempt to make her an object of ridicule, but I doubt they'll have much luck at that, and what they'll have on their hands instead is a serious battle in which Palin won't feel any of the reservations against attacking Obama that plagued the McCain campaign in 2008.”Daria at Conservative Diva:
“Where was Trump in the run-up to the 2010 midterms when Sarah Palin and the grassroots were rolling up their sleeves and putting money, time and effort into electing Tea Party Republican candidates?”Bill S at RedState.com:
“I am inclined to support a candidate who is most likely to make the Democrats squirm and who is most likely to expose the Left’s true colors of hate and divisiveness. Who might that be? Which candidate can do the most damage to the Left? Sarah Palin... As an opponent to Obama, Palin can be expected to fight - hard... We need a candidate that can connect with common people…that doesn’t happen by asking voters if they know what Whole Foods charges for arugula or by babbling incessantly about windmills or by condescendingly suggesting that potential voters should sell their minivans to buy a non-existent hybrid van. No, connecting with people happens by distilling complex issues into words that people understand and relate to. Palin’s speeches, and even her essays on Facebook, connect with people... Can Palin win? At this point she would likely fare as well as anyone else in the field, and she most certainly can make the Left and their media sycophants look horrible. If she were to win, would she be an effective President? I don’t know - but I do know that we were asking very similar questions when a certain governor and ex-actor ran for POTUS in 1980.”- JP
America Deserves Libya ExplanationThe governor's opinion piece is cross-posted at SarahPAC.
Please make up your mind, Mr. President. You can’t vacillate when spending America’s human and fiscal resources in yet another foreign country without good reason. You said that Libyan leader Gaddafi has got to go. Many of us heard that as your call to action and agreed, “Okay, you’re right. He’s an evil dictator who kills his own innocent people, so enforce a no-fly zone so he can’t continue an aerial slaughter.” But then you said our mission in Libya isn’t to oust Gaddafi after all. (Or vice versa on the order or your statements. Between you and your advisers the public has been given so many conflicting statements on why we’re intervening in Libya that I apologize if I can’t keep up with the timing and rationale of your murky foreign policy positions.)
At this point, to avoid further mission creep and involvement in a third war – one we certainly can’t afford – you need to step up and justify our Libyan involvement, or Americans are going to demand you pull out. Simply put, what are we doing there? You’ve put us in a strategic no man’s land. If Gaddafi’s got to go, then tell NATO our continued participation hinges on this: We strike hard and Gaddafi will be gone. If, as you and your spokesmen suggest, we’re not to tell Libya what to do when it comes to that country’s leadership, and if you can’t explain to Americans why we’re willing to protect Libyan resources and civilians but not Syria’s, Yemen’s, Bahrain’s, Egypt’s, Israel’s, etc., then there is no justification for U.S. human and fiscal resources to be spent.
I would also ask you to better explain your thinking on Libya. We can’t afford any actions that don’t take care of crucial U.S. needs and meet our own interests at this point. You are the Commander in Chief, so please explain what you believe is our “interest” there and not elsewhere.
Mr. President, your hesitation and vacillation in the Middle East breed uncertainty. It’s symptomatic of the puzzling way you govern. See, uncertainty is one of the factors over which you have control, and I would think you’d want to eliminate that additional element that helps breed problems like higher oil prices. Higher oil means exorbitant gas prices weighing down our economy. Consistency and strength – and greater domestic energy production – will help fix higher gas prices and help heal the economy. But only with leadership. These sorts of problems don’t fix themselves.
It’s unbelievable to me that you spent last week in campaign mode, gallivanting around the country to start raising the billion dollars for your reelection bid that is still 19 months away “while Rome burns.” Our economy is in the tank; jobs are as scarce as ever; you’re asking Congress to let you incur even more unsustainable, immoral, freedom-stealing government debt; and many of our brave men and women in uniform are shaking their heads in disbelief over your befuddled military directions. Yet instead of working with Congress and a wise multitude of advisers to fix some problems, you choose all this campaigning, already? As was recently asked: When do you ever just “roll up your sleeves, unplug the teleprompter” and do the job of governing and administrating for which voters hired you?
I know, I know, granted you will be even busier very soon. After all, golf season kicks into high gear shortly. NBA and NHL brackets await. Summer vacations and that all-consuming campaign whistle stop tour will no doubt slam you. But I would ask, while the rest of us are also busy working, saving, planning ahead, fighting to protect our Constitution, and trying to keep up with where and why you’re spending our Department of Defense funds – I’d ask that you find time to tell Americans the truth about the state of our union and what you are doing to find solutions to our challenges. Please start with explaining Libya.
- Sarah Palin
"Vicious, nasty, hateful attacks" 
“Let’s bottom line it: Sarah Palin is a leader, the current occupant of the White House is not. Trump talk and current Polls not withstanding I’m going to make the following prediction conventional wisdom not withstanding: Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012. And she is going to win!”- JP
I've always said they will tell us who they fear. But, now, folks, this has gone beyond rational. I mean, actually it went beyond rational a long time ago... How would I compare this to the hatred of Reagan? I'm racking my brain, and I want to be... I'm tempted to say, "I don't recall. I don't recall such a coordinated effort for so long to destroy anybody."- JP
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But in the case of a story like this, I don't think I've ever read a piece of reporting like this where the reporter is writing about it as fun. I mean, there is an ongoing effort to destroy this woman. Forget anything about Sarah Palin other than she's a person. The left always talks to us about compassion. She's a human being. She has kids. She's got a family. Yeah, she sought public office, but there's no sense of proportion to any of this. No sense of proportion whatsoever to any of this. I'm wracking my brain trying to think of a period of time with anybody else other than Nixon, where there has been anything like this.
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That doesn't even compare to what they're doing to Sarah Palin. Ah, what they've done to me doesn't compare to what they're trying to do here to Sarah Palin. We have a vast conspiracy here to destroy a political figure. This is not the imagined fantasy from Hillary Clinton who said that the Monica Lewinsky claims were made up by "a vast right-wing conspiracy" to discredit Bill. This is a genuine, real, existing, right-in-front-of-our-eyes conspiracy. Now, Reagan was attacked by Republicans, too, and hard. People forget that he was an outsider who threatened the establishment GOP base. The Democrats on the left attacked him, too.
But Palin seems to be in a class of her own, and it just keeps ratcheting up. It just keeps becoming even more intense. The attacks on her daughters and her Down Syndrome child is beyond anything I've ever seen...
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“Come on all you Palin-hating lefties, don't you ever give up? You guys declared Defcon 50 after Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention, and you've been dropping Daisy Cutters on her ever since. You need to face the fact that you can't make her quit, and you're starting to look unhinged in he process... You go into a frenzy when Palin's daughter pushes back a lock of her hair. You seize upon made-up ‘satire’ pieces like a drowning person seizes a life-preserver and present them, unvetted, as truth. You go ballistic when she writes notes to herself on her palm. You melt down when she correctly refers to the year of the Boston Tea Party or washes her hands in a Haitian cholera colony. To put it bluntly, you're making asses out of yourselves.”William A. Jacobson at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion:
“Wonkette didn't start it. And hasn't even been the most high profile voice (although perhaps the most crude). It has been there since the moment Sarah Palin was nominated for V.P., in the ‘high-end’ liberal websites not just the bowels of the internet... Nothing has changed. Because they haven't changed.”Falcon7204 at Dan's Space:
“This world is more than a little upside-down. If you get your information from a source other than the evening news or the newspaper, you see evidence that the inmates not only run the asylum, but they’re spreading their disease to the rest of the world... Apparently, there are those on the lunatic left who believe that Trig is actually Bristol Palin’s son, a theory that has been thoroughly debunked eight ways from Sunday – but that doesn’t stop the left, because facts don’t get in the way of a good story... Attacking a defenseless child because you’re suffering from Palin Derangement Syndrome? That’s ‘comedy?’ No, that’s reprehensible, it’s disgusting, it’s sub-human, and it’s another example of how the left is truly unhinged.”Ron James:
“Now I can’t wait for NBC’s David Gregory to badger Obama, Harry Reid, and/or Nancy Pelosi to renounce Democratic ‘extremists’ and Palin-obsessives who push ‘Trig-trutherism’ like Gregory badgered John Boehner over ‘birtherism.’ I won’t hold my breath.”Midwest Conservative Journal:
“Andrew Sullivan hits bottom, keeps digging, strikes bedrock and dynamites his way through to molten lava... ‘I deeply admire and respect Palin for doing what she has done in giving this child a home and a life.’ No you don’t, freakshow. Cuz if you did, you wouldn’t have used the phrase ‘this child.’ You would have said ‘her child.’ Trig’s not some kind of exotic pet that the Palins decided to buy, Sully. And women in this country didn’t used to have to prove that their children were their own to the satisfaction of hostile British gay ‘conservatives.’ Cut back on the ganja, Sully.”Pejman Yousefzadeh at A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days:
“Those familiar with Sullivan know well enough that he is not the type to let a stupid conspiracy theory go so long as the stupid conspiracy theory in question is meant to make a Republican look bad. And lo and behold, he doesn’t.”Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters:
“It appears Sullivan has recently changed his opinion on free speech, for almost exactly a year ago, he was on ‘The Chris Matthews Show’ claiming Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck were guilty of sedition for expressing views in opposition to President Obama... A year before that, Sullivan blamed Fox News for the shooting deaths of three Pittsburgh police officers... Now, twelve and 24 months later, he's worried about ‘the chilling effect’ an advertising boycott of Wonkette ‘will have on an already cowed and defensive MSM when covering the truly tough stuff about Palin’... This so-called former conservative should be deeply ashamed of himself.”Roger Ebert, longtime Palin critic, via Twitter:
“Yes, Sarah Palin is Trig's mother. Case closed: http://bit.ly/gN9yUV”Frank J. at IMAO:
“Something we also have to recognize is how much Trig scares the left... One of the few things known about her early on was that she brought a Down Syndrome child to term, and you could see the panic in the left. This wasn’t just someone whose rhetoric clashed with them on abortion; this was someone whose action was a condemnation of the policy they support that results in 90% of children like Trig being aborted. A lie the left like to tell themselves is that all conservatives are hypocrites and would make the same craven choices in the same situation, but they couldn’t tell themselves that with Palin... And it’s not so much that they fear other people being convinced on abortion as they fear themselves being moved. Who wants to come to terms with how horrible the policy is they’ve enthusiastically supported? That’s why they like the term ‘choice’ instead of saying ‘abortion’; they never want to stare it directly in the face for fear of what they’d see.”Jerry Fuhrman at From On High:
“What Kind Of Person Makes Fun of a Down's Syndrome Baby? A ‘progressive,’ naturally. If there is a hell...”Tommy Christopher at Mediaite:
“In the wake of last week’s Wonkette/Trig Palin controversy, people keep sending me updates, related stories, and new slights against the special needs population, the latest of these being a Los Angeles Times editorial that calls Sarah Palin a ‘special-needs case.’ ... First, to the LAT piece, by Meghan Daum. Here’s the offending section: ‘Even (Rebecca) Traister, an unabashed liberal and feminist who writes for the left-leaning online magazine Salon, is evidence of the way thoughtful writers treat Palin as a special-needs case.’ This is the kind of offhanded reference to people with special needs that crops up from time to time, even in polite company. Daum probably thinks she’s insulting Sarah Palin here, but what she’s really doing is using special needs people as insults themselves.”Rudy Carrera:
“There was a time when if someone made fun of another’s child, they would have their face kicked in. That time may be returning very soon if a measure of self-control isn’t achieved by wretches like this.”Marjorie Haun at Technorati:
“First the partisan blogger, Wonkette, made extremely offensive, and stupid remarks about Trig. Next, the not-funny comic, CK Louis makes an obscene, gut-churning rant about Trig and his beleaguered mom, Sarah Palin... There seems to be an agreed-upon rule among these hacks that it is okay to disparage a child and his disability simply because his mother is a controversial political figure. It is the selective political correctness that colors all modern political debate. If you are conservative, or the innocent child of a conservative, you have a target on your back and it is open season on every personal and sensitive aspect of your life. You can't shoot back, and you certainly can't use politically incorrect tactics to make fun of Liberals, because they will howl, gnash their teeth, and ensure that you are labeled a racist, sexist, homophobic, abusive, uneducated, inbred, Nazi, hater. The truth is that most public figures on the ‘left’ are so insecure in themselves and their political beliefs that they recoil at the slightest intonation that they might be plain wrong.”Patterico at Patterico's Pontifications:
“Hey Layne — did you figure out how many children you have yet? Cretin.”Rachelle Friberg at Conservative Girl With a Voice:
“One of the reasons I admire Sarah Palin so much is because she chose life for her sweet baby boy. In giving sweet Trig life, Sarah demonstrated her belief in life and her belief that every life has a purpose. I will never forget when my family sent little Trig an embroidered jacket shortly after the 2008 campaign. A couple weeks after sending Trig the gift, I got a note from Sarah thanking my family and I for the gift, telling us how much it meant to them and Trig. This is the kind of woman Sarah Palin is. She is the kind of woman who puts her family and God above all else. Trig is the pride and joy of both her and Todd's lives. This little boy deserves the same respect that any other child receives. It is time that people realize that individuals with special needs are humans too! To those who enjoy making fun of a child with special needs I say ‘Shame on you!’ And to precious Trig and his family, I say ‘Thank you’ for showing me and the rest of the world just how amazing unconditional love can be.”- JP
The point is to push a gaggle of new anti-Palin booksIsn’t it amazing how this supposedly stupid, moronic, lite-weight non-factor of a politician and presidential candidate garners so much press, loathing, and fear? Not just from those on the Left, but some of the wishy washy Republicans?It's bad enough that many of the lies these Hater-Ade drinkers crank out on their blog are routinely picked up and published by lamestream major media outlets, but now Politico has decided to act as their PR agent.
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Notice that none of the opinions are truly about her policies, but about her personally. Promiscuous? She’s had 5 children with the same man she has been married to. Petty? These same people love President “I won.” Unintelligent? If so, why do these mostly lefties focus on her so much?
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Sounds more like they are scared of her mostly Conservative policies. Also, this is a form of Clinton’s old “policy of personal destruction” at work, though one that just skips destroying a politician/pundits policy ideas. And the Politico has joined the party:A number of forthcoming books promise to delve deeply into – and, they believe, give mainstream credibility to – some of the more salacious Palin rumors and conspiracy theories that have sprouted in the anti-Palin blogosphere and on supermarket tabloid stands, but have mostly been rejected by the mainstream media.So, there was a point for the story, and that’s pushing all the anti-Palin books that are coming out. Interesting that there are so many, considering how this woman is supposedly done in national politics.
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Something most all Palin detractors, and not a few people who are ambivalent about her, rail against is what they perceive as a cultish adoration of her by her devotees, one where not even a whiff of criticism is tolerated. I can’t and won’t deny this element exists. However, it does not define all who hold her in high esteem. In fact, it is a very small portion of her supporters. The vast majority of us support Palin because, as Peter’s post states, she is right on the major issues confronting our nation.Those who demonize Gov. Palin by attacking her character and/or her family, have either never met her or through their interaction with her, have demonstrated to the lady that it is their character flaws which are beyond redemption.
That said, there is a fortunate group among us who have an additional reason for belonging to the Palin posse.
We’ve learned firsthand she is a wonderful person.
As long as there’s hope she will in the very near future be our President, there is hope indeed.
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Best of all, and contrary to Andrew Sullivan feeling all “queasy,” this was not a “Palinista” uprising. (Heads up: When it comes to Trig Palin, Sullivan is nothing more than Wonkette with professorial elbow patches.) Decent people of all political stripes, including some in the media, put partisan politics aside over this — and it was a beautiful thing to behold. Better still, organized under their hash tag, a group of citizen activists discovered the small “d” democratic wonder of Twitter and effectively learned how to politely, firmly, and publicly fight for something they believed in.Some extreme hate sites which don't depend on ad revenue will, of course, continue their despicable attacks on innocent children, but those websites are self-marginalizing, and this form of depravity amounts to little more than preaching to the
Personally, I’m not a boycott person, but that’s my right. Others have a right to boycott, and brother, did Trig’s Crew put on a boycott. All on their own, they organized a list of Wonkette advertisers, tweeted them directly with a request that they pull their ads, and kept track of those who did and didn’t. Within hours, it was obvious a tidal wave was brewing and by the next day it was just as obvious that it had hit. As of this writing, over 30 advertisers [forty-six, as of this Monday morning - JP] agreed with Trig’s Crew and pulled their ads from Wonkette. Seemingly, and in record time, the dismantling of a fairly mainstream, left-wing snark-site seemed probable.
Like the Tea Party, Trig’s Crew has represented the very best of mainstream America as they engaged in an inspiring First Amendment online debate with dignity and decency.
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