The Blackberry addict & former Palin aide John Bitney, host Shannyn Moore, the town crank Anne Kilkenny, and the effete young chap Andrew Halcro. Courtesy of Moore Up North

It has already been established and is well documented that former Alaska Governor and losing VP Candidate Sarah Palin has a very hard time telling the truth in her book Going Rogue.

While she’s running around the country lapping up the adoration of the teabagger crowd, many in Alaska are crawling out from under the bus, while many are still under the wheels.

Voices from the Flats – Palin Critic’s Attorney on Being “Named” in Going Rogue:

Sarah trashes Nick Carney (the Wasilla city councilman who recruited Sarah into politics), John Stein (Sarah’s predecessor as mayor of Wasilla), Anne Kilkenny (a Wasilla resident whose viral email educated the nation to Sarah’s lackluster record as mayor), an unnamed City of Wasilla librarian, Frank Murkowski (Sarah’s predecessor as Governor of Alaska), Gregg Renkes (Frank’s Attorney General), Lyda Green (the former President of the Alaska Senate), Hollis French (the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Alaska Senate), Steve Schmidt (John McCain’s campaign manager), an unnamed KTUU television cameraman, Walt Monegan (Sarah’s Commissioner of Public Safety), Randy Ruedrich (the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party with whom Sarah worked at the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission), Bill Allen (the corpulent head of the oil field services company VECO, a odious scum bag whose reputation as the bag man for Big Oil in the state capitol had been a matter of common knowledge in Alaska for a generation when Sarah went with her hand out to Bill for the campaign contributions she used to launch her statewide political career), Mike Wooten (Sarah’s ex-brother-in-law), unnamed executives of the Exxon-Mobil, British Petroleum, and Conoco-Phillips oil companies, Pete Rouse (a former Alaskan who was Senator Barack Obama’s chief of staff), Rahm Emanuel (President Barack Obama’s chief of staff), Kim Elton (a former member of the Alaska Senate who is Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s Special Assistant for Alaska), unnamed members of the McCain campaign staff who prepped Sarah for her television debate with Joe Biden, John Bitney (Governor Palin’s liaison to the Alaska Legislature), Levi Johnston (the hockey-playing, Playgirl modeling impregnator of Bristol Palin).

That’s not the complete list. There’s no index and I’m tired of typing.

Of all the individuals on the Going Rogue enemies list, the two firsts among equals are Andrew Halcro and Andree McLeod.

Halcro is a former Republican member of the Alaska House of Representatives who ran as an independent candidate against Sarah Palin in the 2006 Alaska gubernatorial election. After the election he started a website that he used to become one of Governor Palin’s most articulate and factually well-informed critics.

It was Andrew Halcro who broke the story that Governor Palin had fired Walt Monegan, her Commissioner of Public Safety, because Walt had refused to fire Mike Wooten, Sarah’s ex-brother-in-law, from his union job as an Alaska State Trooper. That news led to the Troopergate investigation of Sarah (and Todd) Palin’s misuse of the Office of the Governor. In the Troopergate report that Sarah touts as clearing her of wrong-doing, the investigator, a former prosecutor with whom (unlike the Legislature’s investigator) Sarah cooperated, implies that during his investigation either Walt Monegan committed criminal perjury or Sarah Palin committed criminal perjury. But the Legislature had no stomach during the remainder of Sarah’s tenure as Governor to determine whether she was the felon.

In Going Rogue Sarah describes Andrew Halcro as “a wealthy, effete young chap who had taken over his father’s local Avis Rent A Car, and he starred in his own car commercial. He would go on to host a short-lived local radio show while blogging throughout the day, all of which were major steps up from a previous job as our limo driver at Todd’s cousin’s wedding.”

Andree McLeod is where I come in.

Short, smart, politically committed, and tenaciously energetic, Andree McLeod is a Republican political activist of Armenian heritage who had once been a personal friend of Sarah Palin’s, who Sarah had endorsed when Andree ran in the Republican primary for a seat in the Alaska House of Representatives.

When I went to her home in east Anchorage to have my cup of coffee I found Andree sitting at her dining room table surrounded by two-foot-high stacks of paper print-outs of several thousand emails that the Office of the Governor had given to her in July in response to a request she had filed in June pursuant to the Alaska Public Records Act. The request had asked for emails that had been sent to or received by employees of the Office of the Governor who Andree suspected had been engaging in partisan – i.e., Alaska Republican Party – political activities during their public employee workdays. Andree submitted her public records request three months before anyone other than those of us in Alaska had ever heard of Sarah Palin.

The reason I had been invited to meet with Andree was that one of the things she had discovered by reading the emails was that when Governor Palin assumed office she had set up a private back-channel email system so that she and her senior staff could communicate with each other about state business without the content of their communications being “captured” by State of Alaska computer servers, and hence being available for public inspection pursuant to the Alaska Public Records Act. The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other national media would later report that story. To read more visit Alaskan site The Mudflats.

The month after the McCain-Palin ticket lost the presidential election, again representing Andree McLeod, on December 8, 2008 I filed a second lawsuit against Governor Palin when a further review of the emails that Andree had been given revealed that the Office of the Governor had given to Todd Palin, a private citizen who was an employee of British Petroleum, copies of emails that it was withholding from public inspection on the ground of deliberative process privilege.

That litigation is ongoing. The legal questions of first impression that they present for decision are important enough that my expectation is that both lawsuits will end up in the Alaska Supreme Court.

What does any of that have to do with me and Going Rogue?

Prior to me agreeing to represent her in the two lawsuits above-described, Andree McLeod had begun filing what became a series of complaints against Sarah Palin with the State Personnel Board that alleged ethical transgressions unrelated to the lawsuits. Other Alaskans did the same thing. According to Going Rogue, those ethics complaints have driven Sarah Palin flat-out full-crank nuts.

After trashing Andree McLeod at page 354 of Going Rogue Lynn Vincent aka Sarah Palin moves on to me. Here’s what Lynn and Sarah say:
We always suspected that someone was funding and directing Andree’s efforts. During the spring of 2009, she was actually still begging my administration for a job and led others to believe she hadn’t worked for a couple of years. Yet somehow she had enough time or money to turn harassment of the governor’s office into a full-time vocation. Over time, the wording of her ethics complaints became more and more sophisticated, and we later found out why: prominent liberal attorney Don Mitchell was advising her. As early as September 2008, weeks before the presidential election, Mitchell had already detailed the ethics attack strategy in an article in the Huffington Post. Later he sat with Andree as her counsel at one of her hearings.

I wish my late mother was still alive. Because I know how proud she would be that I made the Going Rogue enemies list and have been mentioned by name in a book whose first printing is 1.5 million copies. (Because he is not named, the mother of the KTUU cameraman who posed Sarah in front of the turkeys can take no such pride.)

But my number is listed in the Anchorage telephone book. If that failed, Lynn and Sarah could have googled “Donald Craig Mitchell.” And if that had failed, since Meg Stapleton, the increasingly strange combination of Sancho Panza and Odd Job who works for Sarah, and I have mutual friends, Meg could have found me quite easily.

Had Lynn Vincent, Sarah, or Meg called me before Lynn had finished writing Going Rogue, I would have told her that in a single paragraph Lynn/Sarah got almost every one of their facts about me, other than that I am an attorney, wrong.

While I probably once was, I haven’t been a “prominent” attorney in Alaska in years. While I am a registered Democrat, my personal politics are hardly “liberal.” To the extent anyone cares, I am a social libertarian who is an Eisenhower era deficit hawk who agrees with Teddy and Frank Roosevelt that the principal responsibility of government is to save capitalism from itself. And while during the presidential campaign several of my ‘Governor Girl Reports’ were posted by individuals other than me on the Huffington Post and Atlantic Monthly web sites, none of those musings “detailed an ethics attack strategy.”

But most importantly, not only have I never advised Andree regarding her ethics complaints, to the best of my recollection I have never read an Andree McLeod ethics complaint. Had Lynn, Sarah, or Meg called me, I also would have told them that neither Andree McLeod nor I have been paid a nickel by anyone for anything (although if I win either of my lawsuits I intend to send the Office of the Governor a bill for my attorneys fee, which under Alaska law I am permitted to do).

It is true, however, that, as Going Rogue reports, because she asked me to, I did accompany Andree to her interview with Tim Petumenos, the former prosecutor the State Personnel Board hired to investigate both the complaint Sarah filed against herself regarding the Troopergate affair and a complaint Andree filed against Sarah and Frank Bailey, Sarah’s Director of Boards and Commissions, for violating state civil service rules in order to give one of Sarah’s campaign supporters a job for which he was not qualified. Again to the best of my recollection, I have never read either complaint. And if he is asked, I think Tim will say that during his interview with Andree I pretty much just sat there.

It also is worth mentioning that the State Personnel Board found the ethics complaint that Andree McLeod filed against Frank Bailey meritorious.

Why should anyone care about any of that? The reason they should care is that if Lynn Vincent aka Sarah Palin got as many of the facts, asserted and implied, about me in Going Rogue as wrong as she did, what does that say about the validity of the many other, much more important, “facts” in Sarah’s book?

It’s fully fine by me that billions of federal tax dollars are being spent annually to invent an AIDS vaccine. But it is just as important to someday invent a Pinocchio serum.

If the world had one, before a faux celebrity like Sarah Palin writes a book, doctors from the CDC could roll up the celebrity’s sleeve and inject him or her with a jolt of the serum. And a serum also would have other important uses.

For example, on page 214 of Going Rogue Lynn Vincent reports that when the McCain campaign vetted Sarah, she confessed to Steve Schmidt, the manager of the campaign, that “the one skeleton I’d kept hidden in my closet” (my emphasis) was that she had gotten a D in a college course.

Had Sarah been shot up with Pinocchio serum prior to the vetting, the immediate growth of the length of her nose would have tipped off Schmidt that the more truthful answer to the one skeleton in the closet question would have been, as The National Enquirer subsequently reported with no push back from Team Sarah, “cuckolding Todd when he was working on the North Slope by hooking up with Brad Hanson, Todd’s business partner in the Polaris snow machine sales business Brad and Todd owned in Wasilla.”

The Anchorage Daily News Reports today that one former Palin aide isn’t too happy about being referred to as a Blackberry Video Game Junkie who can’t seem to keep food off of his tie.

Portrayal in Palin book irritates former aide:

Former Gov. Sarah Palin’s book, “Going Rogue,” blames her first legislative director for moves early in her term that helped poison her relationship with state lawmakers. But the ex-aide, John Bitney, calls Palin’s account a fabrication and said he wishes his former boss would leave him alone.

“I’m just pilloried right and left and turned into the big bad wolf here for stuff I didn’t do,” said Bitney, who is now an aide to Valdez Republican Rep. John Harris. “It’s like I’m this fictional character that she’s decided to make me out to be this sort of incompetent slob.”

Palin’s lawyer, Tom Van Flein, responded in an e-mail that Bitney and others have been talking about “their perceptions of, and distortions about” Palin for more than a year, since after she was chosen as Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential running mate.

” ‘Going Rogue’ is Sarah Palin’s book to set the record straight. It is her right to speak about the events that occurred in her administration and neither Mr. Bitney nor anyone else has the right to stifle that speech,” Van Flein said. “The statements in ‘Going Rogue’ speak for themselves, and it is Sarah Palin’s turn to get the truth out there after a year of misrepresentations, half-truths and dissembling by her critics.”

Palin’s writing about Bitney is her most detailed description yet of incidents that helped shape her relationship with legislators. Her bad blood with top legislators of both parties began not long after she took office. By last spring, relationships with many lawmakers from both parties had soured to the point that feuds with the governor overshadowed much of the other legislative business.

Bitney joins a list of people slammed in the book who are calling it fiction, including McCain’s former campaign manager, Steve Schmidt. Bitney, though, has a far deeper relationship with Palin than the others. He was a high school classmate of Palin’s from Wasilla who played a key role as an adviser in her successful 2006 campaign for governor.

Palin’s dealings with Bitney are described on several pages of her memoir, although he is never named and there are no details of his work on her 2006 campaign. Palin refers to him as “my first legislative director” and he comes in for some of the harshest criticism of anyone in the book. That includes observations on his personal grooming, such as, “He turned out to be a BlackBerry games addict who couldn’t seem to keep his lunch off his tie.” Later, in describing one encounter to discuss the budget, Palin writes, “The fact that his shirt was buttoned one button off and his shirt tail was poking through his open fly didn’t exactly inspire confidence.” But Palin’s larger point is that Bitney bungled her relationship with legislators.

Bitney is now swinging back hard at Palin, agreeing to appear over the weekend on a television show hosted by one of the former governor’s most vocal critics in Alaska, blogger Shannyn Moore. Bitney was on a panel of others slammed in “Going Rogue” that included Palin nemesis Andrew Halcro and Anne Kilkenney, who wrote a long e-mail critical of Palin’s leadership in Wasilla that was forwarded around the country during the presidential campaign last year.

Moore asked Bitney if Palin is sane. Bitney’s response: “Is a sociopath sane?”

‘ADULT IN THE HOUSE’
One turning point between Palin and Alaska lawmakers came in 2007 after her first legislative session. Legislators complained that Palin blindsided them with the scope of her budget vetoes and she rubbed it in by saying there had to be an “adult in the house.” Legislators saw it as a slap in the face and the remark was not forgotten.

Palin writes that it was Bitney who advised her to tell lawmakers that they were in need of adult supervision. In fact, she writes, he told her, “Trust me, I know this stuff, they want to hear it.”

Palin writes that she followed his advice and had a “come-to-Jesus meeting” with legislators. But, as it turned out, that’s not what they wanted to hear. She writes that “when the fallout began after that meeting, I looked at the legislative director. He looked at the ground and shrugged as if to say ‘Wasn’t me.’ “

Bitney said in an interview that he joked with Palin in her office about how there needs to be an adult in the room when it comes to the state budget, but he said he never advised the then-governor to say it to anyone. He said Palin then made the comment in an interview with the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner editorial board — not in a “come-to-Jesus” meeting with legislators as she recounts in her book.

Bitney left the governor’s office in July 2007 in what Palin’s spokeswoman initially said was an “amicable” termination in which it was mutually agreed that he would leave his post for personal reasons. When reporters raised questions about it during the presidential campaign, the reason given by Palin’s office was “poor job performance.”

Bitney has told reporters he was fired after Palin was informed he was having an affair with the wife of a friend of Palin and her husband, Todd. Bitney, who has since married the woman, has said he was not forthcoming with Palin about it and understands why he had to go.

Palin’s only reference to that in her book is that “later we learned the legislative director had been too busy with his personal affairs to attend to much state business.”

‘LEAVE ME ALONE’
Bitney has influential defenders in the Legislature, including Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman, who has been critical of Palin and said he won’t read her book because she is “entertainment and not news.” Stedman said Bitney is qualified and that he did a good job dealing with the Legislature for Palin. He said he told Bitney at one point to let him know if he was ever looking for a job.

Palin writes that she told Bitney to send a letter to legislators about what sort of spending she would approve but that he didn’t do it. She said he indicated lawmakers were fine with budget vetoes that were coming but it became clear otherwise when they howled about being blindsided. “It soon became obvious just how little the legislative director had done to inform the legislature this was coming,” she writes.

Bitney said it was another staffer in the governor’s office, not him, who was requested to send the letter. The letter asked legislators for suggestions on which of their projects to cut, Bitney said, and not surprisingly they did not rush to answer Palin.

Bitney said he did meet with the four co-chairs of the state House and Senate finance committees to tell them about the coming vetoes, and reported back to Palin that three of them felt that was her prerogative and only one became angry.

But Palin staffers had only identified about $100 million worth of cuts by that point, about half of the final total. Bitney said the following day was when his “troubles” with Palin began. He said he was pulled from the governor’s budget work, and fired soon after. In the meantime, he said, Palin staffers kept cutting beyond what he had told legislators but he didn’t have authority to talk to them about it.

Palin uses Bitney in the book to illustrate a point about government. Bitney had years of experience as a legislative staffer and lobbyist before joining her team. “So much for my idea that I needed to hire an ‘insider.’ Lesson learned,” she writes.

Bitney said he tried to be fair to Palin when national media kept “crawling up my backside” over the past year to interview him about her. But the book is too much, he said.

“I’ve had it. Enough. Just enough; leave me alone,” he said.

The Wealth Effet Young Chap Andrew Halcro’s take on his mention in Going Rogue.
Monday Comment: Digging Two Graves November 16, 2009:

On Friday after they received an advance copy of Sarah Palin’s new book, the Associated Press called me to get a response from the two hundred plus words that Alaska’s former 1/2 term governor dedicated to me.

My favorite passage as read to me by Rachel D’Oro at the AP was when Palin referred to me as an “effete chap.”

An effete chap? Who am I, Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby?

And by the way, when did Palin start using 17th century Latin in her dialogue?

According to the brief excerpts I’ve heard, the book seems like it’s less about her and more about blaming everybody around her for all of her short comings. From her lack of intelligence to the word getting out about her pregnant daughter, no matter what the problem or criticism, it’s always somebody elses fault and never hers.

This in and of itself is rich in irony.

After all, how many real rogues complain about being hemmed in by the actions of others?

Isn’t that the antithesis of a rogue?

However, once the book is on the street beginning Tuesday, those throughout Palin’s 413 page pity party that suffer the wild blows of her imagination will come forward with guns blazing to refute the revisionist history Palin has penned.

From the brief passages that Palin has written about me in her book, the terms unmitigated lies, narcissistic delusions and libel came to mind first.

Obviously she never learned the timely Confucius warning:

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

Beginning Tuesday…the people whom Palin has attacked in her book will start reaching for their own shovels.

After perusing the articles on Andrew’s site I would feel confident in my assessment of what really bugs Sarah about Andrew…………….he’s smart, does his homework, works hard and cares about Alaska.

Alaskan Radio Host Shannyn Moore recently begin filming her new show Moore Up Northabout political and state issues. Moore Up North was taped before a live audience at Bernie’s Bungalow Lounge in Anchorage. Last weeks guests included: Rick Steiner, Anne Kilkenny, Andrew Halcro and John Bitney. As expected they discussed the Sarah Palin they know.

View the rest of the segments Moore Up North here.

Palin gives the kiss-off to book buying fans in Indiana.

Remember during the 2008 Presidential campaign when John McCain and Sarah Palin rolled out those commercials wherein they compared Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in an attempt to characterize the future president as a celebrity lightweight? Well, as Reverend Wright once said, “the chickens have come home to roost.” You see, Sarah Palin has now evolved into just the type of air-headed celebrity diva that she at one time criticized. Exhibit 1; she has no meaningful employment (like Paris Hilton) and is famous in the eyes of her fans for nothing other than her personality and for being famous. Exhibit 2; her personal and family life is a mess (like Britney Spears) filled with a single mother teen daughter, an unemployed husband, a criminal sister-in-law, an estranged brother-in-law and an estranged once and future son-in-law that also happens to be the father of her grandson. Exhibit 3; Sarah Palin is now on a rock star like national book-tour to promote a book that she could not even write on her own.

The book-tour itself has not gone without the type of controversy that so often surrounds celebrity divas. Take for example yesterday’s appearance at Fort Bragg where Palin was ordered by Army command to essentially “sit down and shut up”. Although the former ex-quitting governor of Alaska so often drapes herself in the flag and presents herself as an icon of and the primary supporter of our military forces, the military does not return the favor. The brass at Fort Bragg was not about to allow Palin to publicly attack their Commander in Chief, Barack Obama by means of politically grandstanding before the troops during her book signing. Consequently, she was restricted from giving a speech, taking photos and personalizing notes in the books that she signed. Also too, just thinking aloud here, but why did the patriotic, physically fit basketball player, beauty contestant never demonstrate her unfaltering support for the military by enlisting therein?

Even more entertaining however was the fiasco known as the Noblesville, Indiana Borders Books appearance. Throngs of Palin supporters endured the chillingly cold and wet weather waiting in line for up to 9 hours to buy her book and obtain a wristband which would entitle them to meet Palin and get their book signed in person on November 19th. That of course was of no concern to Sarah Palin who simply up and quit signing (sound familiar?)  in the middle of the event and promptly boarded her luxury coach to depart for places unknown. It was of no consequence to Sarah Palin that these people paid good money for her book (which enriched the former governor), skipped work (which decreased their fortunes) and suffered for hours waiting outside in the elements. Needless to say, many of those people were outraged by Palin’s callous action and vowed to return their books and cease their support for the former vice presidential candidate. Thereafter in a feeble attempt to quell the backlash against her, Palin issued this statement via Facebook,

I’ve been told that yesterday there were supporters in Noblesville who stood in long lines for hours in the cold and rain, and the book signing event ended without a chance to say hello to everyone who showed up. I am so sorry. We are working on a solution for those who were left behind. I apologize.

The best part of the half apology is that, as usual, Palin accepts no personal blame. By saying, “I’ve been told” that the terrible thing happened, Palin implies that she personally knew nothing about it and therefore cannot be held personally responsible. Problem is, before her bus was able to leave the parking lot, it was swarmed by a mass of protesting former fans. Could Palin not see them out the windows of the bus? Could she not hear them? The answer is that she could both see and hear them and that her apology simply adds to her growing list of lies. Please watch the following clip from MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann for an overview of the book signing disaster:

In honor of the troops, please remember to click on the song link below to familiarize yourselves with the tune and to have more fun singing along with today’s very topical song parody.

Please Mr. Postman song link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cxSAh-LFAM

MRS. PALIN

(sung to the Beatles version of the song “Mr. Postman”)

Wait, oh yes wait a minute Mrs. Palin
Wait, wait Mrs. Palin

Mrs. Palin can’t you see?
We camped out overnight here in Indy?
We’ve been waiting such a long time
We froze our asses off in line

You must have something to say
Why did you blow us off today?
Please Sarah Palin honestly,
Why did you treat us so egregiously?
We’ve been standing here waiting Mrs. Palin
So patiently
Why not some word, or even better
Will you just sign this damn book for me?

Please Mrs. Palin can’t you see?
We’ve paid our SarahPAC membership fees
You left us waiting in this line
“Stick your book where the sun don’t shine!”

We won’t forget you passed us by
You can kiss our support bye-bye
You didn’t stop to make us feel better
No, you left us out in the bad weather

Sarah Palin can’t you see?
We’re gonna hang out your dirty laundry
It will hang out there on that line
You stood us up for the very last time!

You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
Wait a minute, wait a minute
You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
Now you will see, you’re our enemy

You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
Wait a minute, wait a minute
Mrs. Palin
We all will remember, 19^th of November!!!

You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
Wait a minute, wait a minute
You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute
(repeat to fade)

Hey guys.. I have moved.

From here on out everything will be posted at-

www.rhettcanipe.com

See you there…

-Rhett

Senator Barrasso brings an interesting perspective to the health care debate as doctor/orthopedic surgeon. However, it is his experience as the husband of a breast cancer survivor that provided one of the most compelling moments of last Saturday’s health care debate from the Senate floor.   Senator McCain asked Senator Barrasso about how advisory boards factor into the proposed health care legislation…

Mr MCCAIN. Now that is a nice academic discussion. But I would ask-maybe Dr. Barrasso would answer it-isn’t that the kind of advisory board this legislation could put into law; that those kinds of mandates could come down, which could literally jeopardize the health and lives of Americans?

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would say to my colleague and friend from Arizona, this type of legislation would have cost my wife her life. She is a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed by a routine screening mammogram. She was in her forties when that mammogram was performed. She went through the testing and had the operation. In that age, in her forties, she already had the breast cancer spread from her breast to one of the lymph nodes. It was a screening mammogram that saved her life. She has had three operations, two bouts of chemotherapy. As a result, she is a survivor-6 years later.

But this piece of legislation says: No, no, do not worry about it. There is not going to be any denial of care. There is not going to be anything like that. But if you turn to page 1,150, it talks specifically about this preventative task force, specifically saying when they make their recommendations there is going to be money that taxpayers are going to pay to tell people what those recommendations are. Then, if you go to page 1,190, it says that if it is not approved, they will deny payment for that service-deny payment.

C-SPAN video of health care debate

What will and won’t be covered in a government-run health insurance option is no minor issue.  Two seperate panels in the last week have suggested less cancer screening, the most controversial of which stated that women in their forties don’t need mammograms.  As Senator Barrasso can attest, that could cost some women their lives.  Supporters of this bill owe the American people a better explanation of the nuts and bolts of this plan; probably more to the point, they owe the American people a better bill.

Today, Politico came out with an article on the 2010 Democratic primaries and how ugly the intraparty battles are already becoming. Now, as someone who is for not the Democratic Party nominee, this is a great thing. However, for the Democrats, this conflict is quite potentially ruinous. This quote comes from the Politico article (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29821.html):

Situations like these are best for the voters, though. Each of the candidates vets the other, exposing flaws in ideology, covered-up scandals, and even that one night in college that’s better left in the past. By the time the general election comes around, the voter has the two or three best candidates to choose from.

As a party trying to overcome the political legacies of Bush and McCain, the Republicans need to make sure that they stay away from this sort of thing. Let the vetting be done in private. Party weaknesses should be hidden under a façade of conservative ideals, positive rhetoric and virtual idealogical unity. During a time of fractures and factions present in both parties, and Congress in general, the most valuable asset that a party could have is a sense of stability and unity.

Historically, after major wars and economic troubles, people look to the parties and the government for stability. This can be seen in Great Depression-era America and post-WWII Europe. The party that is seen as the most unified and stable has traditionally been the one to win the elections. In the first case, it was the Democrats, in the second, it was the British Labor Party and its equivalents in the rest of NATO Europe.

The Republicans have a very good situation that they may choose to take advantage of. The Democrats are fighting from with themselves. All the Republicans have to do is play nice and let the Democrats rot from within. Let the Democrats be perceived as the party of negativity and disunity during the primaries. Then, during the general election, win with a promise of stability and security. And follow through. Don’t lie to the voters.

Op-ed by Frank Rich

Frank Rich/The New York Times

New York Times/Frank Rich—AT last the American right and left have one issue they unequivocally agree on: You don’t actually have to read Sarah Palin’s book to have an opinion about it. Last Sunday Liz Cheney praised “Going Rogue” as “well-written” on Fox News even though, by her own account, she had sampled only “parts” of it. On Tuesday, Ana Marie Cox, a correspondent for Air America, belittled the book in The Washington Post while confessing that she couldn’t claim to have “completely” read it.

“Going Rogue” will hardly be the first best seller embraced by millions for talismanic rather than literary ends. And I am not recommending that others follow my example and slog through its 400-plus pages, especially since its supposed revelations have been picked through 24/7 for a week. But sometimes I wonder if anyone has read all of what Palin would call the “dang” thing. Some of the book’s most illuminating tics have been mentioned barely — if at all — by either its fans or foes. Palin is far and away the most important brand in American politics after Barack Obama, and attention must be paid. Those who wishfully think her 15 minutes are up are deluding themselves.

The book’s biggest surprise is Palin’s wide-eyed infatuation with show-business celebrities. You get nearly as much face time with Tina Fey and the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in “Going Rogue” as you do with John McCain. We learn how happy Palin was to receive calls from Bono and Warren Beatty “to share ideas and insights.” We wade through star-struck lists of campaign cameos by Robert Duvall, Jon Voight (who “blew us away”), Naomi Judd, Gary Sinise and Kelsey Grammer, among many others. Then there are the acknowledgments at the book’s end, where Palin reveals that her intimacy with media stars is such that she can air-kiss them on a first-name basis, from Greta to Laura to Rush.

Equally revealing is the one boldfaced name conspicuously left unmentioned in the book: Levi Johnston, the father of Palin’s grandchild. Though Palin and McCain milked him for photo ops at the Republican convention, he is persona non grata now that he’s taking off his campaign wardrobe. Is Johnston’s fledgling porn career the problem, or is it his public threats to strip bare Palin family secrets as well? “She knows what I got on her” is how he put it. In Palin’s interview with Oprah last week, it was questioning about Johnston, not Katie Couric, that made her nervous.

The book’s most frequently dropped names, predictably enough, are the Lord and Ronald Reagan (though not necessarily in that order). Easily the most startling passage in “Going Rogue,” running more than two pages, collates extended excerpts from a prayerful letter Palin wrote to mark the birth of Trig, her child with Down syndrome. This missive’s understandable goal was to reassert Palin’s faith and trust in God. But Palin did not write her letter to God; she wrote the letter from God, assuming His role and voice herself and signing it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.” If I may say so — Oy!

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Senator John McCain’s future in the U.S. Senate may be a little less assured than previously thought.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% of the vote, while Hayworth picks up 43%.

Former Minuteman leader Chris Simcox gets four percent (4%) support, while two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

This week some of the items that caught my attention were the “phantom districts,” the Sarah Palin book tour and media blitz, the Terrorists trial in New York, polls, healthcare, and veterans.  Of course, there’s a little sports thrown in, too.

Phantom Districts:
Sometimes you just have to laugh at some things that come from the Government.  According to the government-funded ($18 million) website (Recovery.gov) that tracks stimulus spending, Montana has 13 different congressional districts.  In reality, we only have one and that district is called At-Large (remember that for trivia).

The info is changed now, thanks to people like Congressman Denny Rehberg.

One of the funnier comments I saw on this website is that Big Sandy, Montana (home of Senator Jon Tester) used the stimulus money to save or create 4,538 jobs.  Big Sandy has a population of about 700.

The new leadership in Washington seems to really be screwing things up.

Hardly Anybody Likes Max:
Montana State University Billings released a poll done with people who have “land-line phones” showing Sen. Max Baucus’ approval ratings have dropped like a rock in a pond.  He’s lost 20 points in two years, probably due to his weak leadership when it comes to the healthcare debate.  Only 44% approve of Baucus in the poll.  62% approve of Schweitzer, which makes one wonder when Schweitzer is through with his second term as Governor if he won’t turn his attention to Baucus’ seat in the U.S. Senate.  The funniest thing is that Baucus spent a year or more working on a healthcare bill that Harry Reid flushed down the toilet and introduced his own.   The Great Falls Tribune came to Max’s defense in today’s paper.  Pathetic.

Chicken –cluck cluck:
Seeing how far Baucus has dropped in the polls has convinced Sen. Jon Tester not to say if he supports the healthcare bills currently being debated in Congress.  That’s very poor statesmanship on Tester’s part.  Luckily in the U.S. Senate, there’s not an “I don’t know” vote.  My belief is that Tester will drop right in line behind Reid, Baucus, Schumer and vote for it.

By the way, what do you do if you are afraid to have face to face town hall meetings about the healthcare bills?  You hold a telephone town hall meeting.  Tester held one the other day and interested people had to call in beforehand (to be approved?)

Terrorists on Trial:
As I mentioned last week, I believe it is ridiculous for the United States to prosecute terrorists in our civilian courts.  Attorney General Eric Holder seems like an intelligent man, but this is a very stupid decision.  Sen. Lindsey Graham schooled AG Holder on the law the other day, asking if our solders are now required to Mirandize terrorists and others captured on the battlefield.  This trial will lead to further messes down the road.

Palin:
She sure does get a lot of attention, and she sure will make a lot of money off her new book.  She’s an underdog and you know how I like underdogs!  Even the lefty networks understand that Sarah Palin is ratings gold.  The liberals are afraid of Palin and how many followers she has so they attack.

Today I received this e-mail from Barack Obama’s campaign team, which is called “Organizing for America.”
They wrote:
“Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn.
It’s dangerous.  Remember, this is the person who coined the term “Death Panels” — and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists.”

Dangerous?  Really?  Maybe the Obama team should spend a little more time on things that matter like jobs or making a decision about how many troops to send to Afghanistan, instead of worrying about Sarah Palin.  Of course, they asked me to chip in $5 to stop her.

But, with all the talk back and forth I believe that the two or three former McCain campaign staffers showing up on the news should just shut up.  Yes, shut your traps because you lost the freaking election.  You failed to prep your VP Candidate for interviews and that hurt your team.  Losers.

By the way, Palin will be in Billings later this month to sign books.  Nope, I won’t be attending.

Veterans:
Sen. Jon Tester sent me an e-mail this week about “landmark” veterans’ legislation the senate recently passed.  I thought this paragraph was interesting:

“Montana is a rural state, which means all 100,000 veterans there are rural veterans,” Tester said.  “Many of them live in frontier communities.  Sadly, that means they have a tougher time getting the health care they earned.”

He’s right, Montana is a rural state and veterans have trouble getting the healthcare they earned.  Then why doesn’t the Senator push for veterans to get healthcare in their local communities instead of spending tons of money on leases for clinics, salaries for doctors/nurses, travel costs, etc.  The VA could use that money for actual veterans’ medical care and for hiring more people to work on the record backlog of claims at the VA.  We earned it, right?  You can’t put a VA clinic in every town that has a veteran living in it, but many of the towns have local civilian clinics or hospitals just a few blocks for veterans to travel.

Montana Griz at Montana State Cats:
I am neither one, so I can honestly say that I want to see a good game.  Griz coach Bobby Hauck has it right when he said the pressure is on the Cats because the Griz have clinched the Big Sky and the automatic birth to the playoffs.  The Cats will need to win to probably get a playoff spot or they may sneak in by being very competitive.

NASCAR:
Sunday will end the most boring NASCAR season ever.  NASCAR is reminding me more and more of pro-wrestling with their changes in rules during the season, not to mention during a race.  When the leader only needs to finish 25th or better to win the championship, I imagine I will be watching something else on Sunday.

That’s it for this week’s edition.  Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!  Follow me on Twitter!

There are those within the Republican Party who are ready to anoint Sarah Palin as the chosen one for their hopes in the 2012 Presidential Election. Others are less certain than ever about her fitness to lead the country. So which group is right?

Put simply…both.

With the release of “Going Rogue”, Palin’s memoir that’s as much an attack on the McCain Campaign staff as it is a look behind the curtain at their run for the White House, many are calling into question just who’s telling the truth in this war of words. Front and center is McCain Campaign Manager Nicolle Wallace who told MSNBC in a statement, Palin’s book is “based on fabrications”.

For her part, Mrs. Palin is claiming that the campaign set her up for numerous falls, including the now infamous interview with CBS Anchor Katie Couric that she says was given to Couric by Wallace because she felt Couric needed “a career boost” due to low self esteem. Wallace denies the interview was any sort of favor and says “…Katie Couric was selected because we did evening anchors … I did not advocate an interview for anyone I am friends with.”

Palin is pictured on this week’s cover of Newsweek in shorts and an unflattering headline, a picture she says was taken for a feature article in a runner’s magazine.

The issue here seems to be one of both credibility and character as well as competence. If Palin is factual in her account of events in her book, she could easily be labeled as vindictive against members of McCain’s Campaign staff, not exactly a quality many people would say is something they want in a President.

On the other hand, if Wallace and others who have seriously questioned Palin’s accounts or claimed outright lying by the former Vice Presidential candidate and Governor are right, Palin is at best deceptive or painting a fictional portrait of the events. Also not a quality endearing to voters.

Still, Mrs. Palin WAS a candidate for the Vice Presidency and has a following that’s hard to deny. That experience takes the once green former Governor and makes her a more viable option than she was in 2008.

The current administration’s policies remain uncertain but so do the 3 years before voters go to the polls for another Presidential election. Time will tell whether this enhances or diminishes Mrs. Palin.

One thing seems certain; for now, she is a force to be reckoned with, positively or otherwise.

As I was scanning my tweeps on Twitter (that’s social media for you other twits…) (I’ve always wanted to say that – ha!) I came across a re-tweeted post from stephenkruiser about this great article in the UK Telegraph, and indeed it is a good one.  I’m posting the entire article for your reading pleasure.  Please be so kind to address whether you think BO has enough “fire in his belly” or if he should be “a bit more like Mr. Bush.” 

Bloodless President Barack Obama makes Americans wistful for George W Bush

Barack Obama’s reaction to bad news is to play it so cool that Americans yearn for a bit more drama – and some even for his predecessor, writes Toby Harnden in Washington.

Miss Bush Yet?!: http://wp.me/pzfHB-kh 

I would wake up in the morning and put on my uniform (tank top and track pants) and lace up my combat boots (fuzzy flip-flop slippers). Go downstairs and put on my war paint (my makeup). March (waddle. Okay probably not waddled because I was only two months pregnant, so more like strutted my newly pregnant bod) over the battle area (living room). Look through the gun’s scope (monitor) and start firing off bullets (words). I’ve always been very opinionated and passionate, but the hormones made me an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Healthy debate had turned into an all out war. Over my dead body would Palin be our Vise President and to have a Bush-like person in office. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t really like Obama either, unfortunately my candidate didn’t make it that far (Ron Paul). My blog turned into a war zone where my Republican friends were defending their beliefs, while I ignorantly belittled them. Some of my friendships have been weakened by the elections, sadly. Friends who knew me really well, knowing I wasn’t that way beforehand forgave me because though passionate I was always tolerant (though I can’t say that I was the same way to my husband like any normal wife (haha)). Everyone has their own point of views, and even though I have every right to stand up for what I believe in, I now remember so does everyone else. Though I hope I’m not pregnant come next elections!

Cindy McCain’s hobbies: Definitely not the average 54-yr old. From ESPN.com E:60 … McCain Cindy drift car Japan drifting publicity stunt espn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncPJMUdwbzo&hl=en

Tags : http://sportswear.fernstudiumde.com/ http://astore.amazon.com/buffaloblog-20 http://imacgame.blogspot.com/

I just read an article at American Thinker about why the Left fears Sarah Palin…..and they do.

Sarah Palin has been persecuted by the Obama-loving media, the so-called print media, and left-wing attack groups since her arrival on the national stage last year.

From American Thinker, excerpts (my emphasis):

Have you ever seen so much hatred for, and vitriolic criticism of, someone who had only a brief stint on the national political stage? More than a year after the presidential election in which Sarah Palin, as the GOP nominee for Vice-President, campaigned for about three months, she is still being pilloried by the left-wing loons as though she had been elected and were actively engaged in dismantling the liberal establishment. Not a day goes by in which we don’t hear or read vicious attacks on a woman who represents the wholesome conservative values of Middle America — values that have been insidiously and incrementally eroded during the last few decades.

….What this country needs is a strong conservative leader with the courage of her convictions. Sensing those qualities in Sarah Palin, the liberal left is becoming frantic because they can’t seem to halt her popularity. The reason they’re panicking is because they’re afraid of her connection with regular folks who work for a living, pay their taxes, attend a religious worship service regularly, and believe that our country has lost the moral fiber that once united us.

……I could illustrate hundreds of other examples of rampant corruption by people in elective office. Pointing to government decay is the job of the free press. But are they hounding any of the power-hungry scoundrels that masquerade as symbols of decency and honor? No, they’re engaged in a continuous merciless attack on a woman who has led the way in the fight against the very corruption being overlooked by those who have become blinded by ideology.

Sarah Palin is a threat because she symbolizes decency in a country taken hostage by moral degenerates. If she isn’t stopped, this country might end up reclaiming some of the values that made us the envy of the world.

This is exactly what is happening in the attempts to bring Sarah Palin down.  

Frankly, I really don’t know if she could win the Presidency or if that is her desire.  What I do know is that her brand of conservatism and love of America is a threat to those who view America as evil and who apologize for America.  And I believe that she has a perspective unlike just about anyone else on the national stage right now. 

Sarah Palin embodies the experiences of a wide cross-section of Americans.  She is the exact opposite in her beliefs and experiences than what the liberals and media elites believe is “correct” in a popular politician.    She is pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-American, pro-Capitalist, pro-free market, pro-family, pro-national security, pro-Constitution, and a devout, unapologetic Christian.    And did I say she is wildly popular?  Her book*, Going Rogue, was an unprecedented best seller before it hit the shelves this week. 

Thus, you see the Left’s urgency in attempting to bring Sarah Palin down politically and personally.

My own personal opinion on her popularity and also the source of the vitriol from the Left is that Sarah Palin can relate to different aspects of many American lives…and vice versa. 

This is in stark contrast to many of the “professional politicians” leading our country who have attended elite schools, have made leaching from the government their life’s career, and are smothered in the snobbery of thinking they know better than everyday Americans.

Sarah Palin hits a chord with many different groups and types of Americans, thus the huge interest in her.  Many politicians and those in the public eye can voice opinions on issues such as conservation, outdoor sports, hunting, guns, abortion, motherhood, war, babies, special needs children, and more.  But few of those politicians and figures have ever truly experienced or embodied the actual values they espouse in those areas.  Or, at least, many don’t have the list of experiences in those areas that Sarah Palin possesses. 

What experiences and with whom does she seem to so naturally connect?

Average ordinary Americans - Sarah Palin wasn’t born with a silver spoon, she attended a “regular” college in Idaho, she married her high school sweetheart.  She wears a $35 wedding band. She eloped with Todd at the age of 23.  She grew up in the same manner as the vast majority of Americans  in a middle-income household with two parents who love her and taught her many of life’s lessons.  She didn’t attend Harvard or Yale, she didn’t need “affirmative action” to take the place of real credentials, and she didn’t set out to be a career politician.  She’s not a lawyer and she doesn’t have labor unions in her back pocket (or the other way around.)

Hunters, Outdoorsmen (and women), and True Conservationists -   Sarah Palin learned to hunt and respect the land she lived upon from a young age.  Where she was raised in the state of Alaska, many people engage in hunting and live with a respect for the balance between wildlife, land, resources, and human needs.   Like many older and rural Americans, Sarah Palin understood and has lived this balance long before the “green religion” was thrust upon us.  She is the complete opposite of the fat, meat-eating, jet-flying, carbon generating, false “green” prophet, hypocritical Al Gore. 

Gun Owners - Palin is an advocate of gun ownership.  She believes in, defends and exerts her Second Amendment rights.  She actually owns firearms…and she knows how to use them!  (Wonder how many of the anti-gun lobbyists and politicians have actually owned a gun, much less shot one?)

Mothers – Sarah Palin is the mother of five children.   Mothers, stay-at-home mothers, mothers of special-needs children, single mothers….all have a role model in Sarah Palin.  Mothers who’ve sent their sons off to war have a role model in Sarah Palin.   Mothers with teenage daughters can relate to Sarah Palin (especially those with daughters who have found themselves as unwed mothers at an early age).    Mothers relate to other mothers…especially those who have: remained married to the father (Todd), taken the responsibility for raising their own children, made parental mistakes, forgiven their children’s mistakes, and faced the ups and downs of parenthood with grace.  She has a happy, traditional family.  Unbeknownst to many liberals, that still resonates in America.

Men – Let’s face it.  Even aside from Palin’s experience, knowledge and “essence of ordinary” — she’s is considered hot!  (Of course, unfortunately, that can also work against her professionally)

Women – Educated and career-oriented women have a role model in Sarah Palin.   Young women can see the potential in themselves by studying the life and career of Sarah Palin.   Older women can respect the traditional life and values of Sarah Palin.   Self-made women can relate to and admire Sarah Palin since she went from  housewife to holding local office, to mayor, to governor to VP  of the USA candidate.  Doesn’t get much more “self-made” than that.

Pro-lifers – Sarah Palin, while faced with an unexpected pregnancy AND impending birth of a Down Syndrome baby, chose to keep the life that God created.  It probably wasn’t much of a “choice” since she believes all life is sacred, but it resonates BIG with those in America who also believe all life is sacred.    Sarah Palin also encouraged and supported her own unwed, teenage daughter to keep her child when she discovered the teenage pregnancy.

Parents of Special Needs children – Sarah and Todd Palin are the poster parents for embracing the love and special place that these children bring to a family.  These children are not mistakes and parents of these children know it experience God’s little blessing everyday.  These children bring many lessons, much love, patience, and enjoyment to the families for which they belong.   Parents of special needs children have a connection and bond that other parents do not.  And Sarah Palin has stated that one of her passions is elevating the understanding of and the place for these children in our world.

Americans with loved-ones in the military and fighting in the War on Terror – Sarah’s own son just returned earlier this year from a one-year tour in Iraq.  Sarah Palin proudly displays a blue star mother flag and lapel pin.  Patriotic, proud Americans with loved ones in the military know that Sarah Palin understands their plight like only those who’ve sent loved ones to the War Zone can.  Not only that, Sarah Palin is unabashed in your support and love for those who have chosen to serve our country….and it is sincere. 

The list is long and the areas I’ve mentioned are life areas and not particularly political or policy areas in and of themselves.  If you include Sarah Palin’s policy and professional experience you would have to list among those curious and intrigued by her as those involved in energy, security, local governing, state governing, and other business arenas.

All I can say is God Bless Sarah Palin and I hope she succeeds in promoting her Reaganesque conservatism to the masses …..in whatever form that may take.

(*I am awaiting the arrival of her book, Going  Rogue,  that I pre-ordered weeks ago on Amazon–can’t wait to read it.)

Thus far it seems that the overall feeling on Palin’s book is that it is a weakly voiced, whiny 400-pages of buck passing and finger pointing for her follies and short comings in the run for vice president as well as a self-flagellating recount of her life and family. I have not read it, probably never will unless it is lent to me by someone because I refuse to support her financially and idealistically. I have read a half dozen book reviews and heard her claims on the Newsweek’s ‘sexist’ cover that ran a photo of her taken for a shoot for a running magazine. In a time where she is presumably setting herself up to run for office in 2012 she has penned, or most likely ghost-written, an apparently petty and scathing editorial on those around her for her failings instead of taking responsibility for her lack of basic governing common knowledge and being ill-prepared for the investigative light that comes with the campaign for the high office that she sought.

In many reviews it is said that the book lacks the voice of a ‘leader’. The words are devoid of an overall message of power, strength, conviction, and accountability. She often slams the ‘liberal media’, though she has never shunned the coverage, and her secret desire to get one reporting team ‘slimy’ and dirty, which didn’t happen during a photo op fishing trip she went on with the crew. She felt slighted by those that made her over, and controlled her during the campaign, though this is what campaign managers and PR people get paid to do. She points out many short falls in the campaign in her eyes and speaks at length about the Katie Couric interview debacle that she wasn’t ready for. (That question on ‘what books do you read’ was a serious doozy for her I am sure.) She claims she was misinformed on Couric’s interviewing prowess. Misinformed? It’s Katie Couric, if you have owned a TV in the last 15 years then you should know that that chick swings for the fences in an ‘exclusive interview’ event like yours. Grow a pair, you are mildly educated on the topics you should know so much about, and Couric shoveled her way past your thin vail of a hockey-mom persona to find that there was little behind the mask. You got nailed, as Colbert would say, deal with it.

Whatever the book may be to those that read it, it seems that all is coming to fruition that I predicted so long ago. It will be a best seller, no question, and it will make her a media starlet again, for good or ill. Palin will take the place of the Jon&Kate fiasco on the tabloids, get serious interviews, like the one she had with Oprah pre-book release. She is doing her book tour, which will be a soft pedaling affair where most talk will be of how great her hardcore fans think she is, and how the media is so mean, when it should be her chance to push policy and talk shop, instilling confidence in her as a potential leader. Though this tour and public appearances would be a great chance for her to further her political career and talk policy and begin campaigning as a candidate for 2012 it will probably turn in to a whiny bitch session from stop to stop and TV appearance to TV appearance. Little will be spoken of that isn’t juicy, salacious, and an excuse for her performance and recent activities and this will be a huge mistake on her part if this isn’t taken advantage of as a chance to rally the ‘rogues’ out there that love her no matter what she says.

Sarah is all over the place, and one place she is not happy with being is on the cover of Newsweek. Sure enough, here comes the liberal media with it’s ‘sexist’ cover photo of her in thigh long running shorts, stockings, running shoes, and a long sleeve fleece zipped all the way up. Yes this ‘sexist’ cover showing less skin than a 1940’s ladies one piece bathing suit is a take from a shoot she did for some running magazine with the tag line ‘how do you fix a problem like Sara Palin’, or something to that effect. She claims that this photo is offensive and is sexist. Yes, this photo (a poorly lit and shot photo, the shadows behind her are an egregious slap in the face of exposure compensation and lighting proficiency, a flat lighting ratio, et al, a bad photo) that she volunteered to be in for a running magazine is now sexist on the cover of Newsweek. I don’t see how it wasn’t sexist in one magazine and then sexist in another. Apparently it objectifies her as a sexy woman and this takes away from her as a political figure somehow, as if the McCain team didn’t play her attractive looks and the republicans didn’t get a hard on with her as a poster child, gimme a break. How can you pose for a photo and then complain when a magazine legally obtains the rights to it for publication? It is such a cliched, poorly shot photo, do you see the American flag she leaning on? She prostitutes the word and idea of ‘American’ and ‘patriot’ to the point that the whole concept loses is power and meaning, so really the only thing the photo can be accused of, besides being bad, is that it is a tasteless pander to prostituting the honor and respect we should have for America and truly patriotic people, not those that whore the word out for political gain.

So what is next? Well, she should appear on Larry King Live soon, before he dies. I would say Letterman, but she probably won’t do that after his whole blackmail/affair debacle a while back, so I am betting the Jay Leno Show would like to ‘get’ her. She will make a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live, possibly this week. I would love to see her on The Daily Show, but that won’t happen, maybe Colbert, but unlikely, and I think she might make a Meet The Press appearance. Palin will hammer the media as they cover her and blast her critics who say she needs to come to terms with her delusions of grandeur and get back in to small politics if she wants to ever make a run at the highest office. There are those that feel she is just not ready for the big show, maybe in 20 years, when age softens her looks as well as hopefully gives her wisdom, she can come in and take a more measured and experienced approach; that is, if she gets back in to smaller state offices now. Her proponents will trumpet the same old line of how great she is, how strong, how smart, and ignore every fact that points to the contrary; and this is who this book is written for, those that she the world through a Palin-made filter.

Sara Palin’s first book should have been a trumpet to call her troops and instill the thrill of victory in to their hearts for 2012. The book cover to cover could have a clarification and idealogical manifesto for the new Republican Party that needed to emerge for victory and a better America. She could have silenced all her critics with a el written and tough out socially conscious piece, and like a Phoenix she could have rose from the ashes of her shortfalls and very public embarrassments. She could have spun a tale of love and devotion in her family, explained away the pregnancy and all that stuff about marital problems, et al. It should have been a speech like something out of 300 that gave you goosebumps and made you just want to kick a door in to see how it felt. Her words, or someone else carefully shaping her words, should have cut to the core of her constituents and should have shed a light on the system she was going so ‘rogue’ from, creating a firestorm of support that would rocket her to near mythical proportions in the coming years. Instead she penned 400-pages of her boring, quaint life growing up and came to the summation that: A) Katie Couric is a bitch; B) Washington D.C. is a cross between ‘sodom and the frozen circle of hell’; and C) that her wardrobe stylist, Lisa A. Kline, was the torpedo that sank the McCain dreamboat to the White House and ruined her beyond repair. Yeah, it was the stylist’s fault. Bra-fucking-vo, Palin, your legacy is intact.

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From JohnMcCain.com sponsored email…

Taxpayers simply cannot afford this government takeover of our health care system and this is our opportunity to put an end to it.

That’s why I urge you to add your name to this petition showing your opposition to government-run health care.

We still have an opportunity to stop the Democrats’ public option from becoming law, but I need to know you stand with us in opposition to a government takeover of health care – so, please sign this petition immediately.

The wasteful spending ways of Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress must be put to an end. Americans are angry and I share your frustration with our current leadership in Washington.

In less than one year, Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have increased our nation’s spending by more than 80%. Our national debt has reached $9 trillion and will only go higher if the President signs a health care bill with provisions for a government-run option. Last month, unemployment surpassed 10%, the highest rate in over 20 years

Recent polls show clearly that Americans are against the health care takeover by Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress. And these same polls show that Americans understand and are infuriated by policies that are mortgaging our children’s and grandchildren’s future. It must be stopped. We must act now to show our continued opposition to the direction the Democratic leadership is taking our country.

McCain Health Care Petition Against Government Run Health Care.

US President Barack Obama admitted today for the first time that Guantanamo Bay prison couldn’t be closed in January 2010 as planned.

The reason is that the government still doesn’t know how to deal with the 215 detainees held in the prison.

Mr. Obama said he was “not disappointed” that the deadline had slipped.

Well, he might have thought about that when he signed the executive order to close the prison early this year.

John McCain,  his presidential campaign component, already spotted the problem in 22 January when Mr. Obama signed the order.

Thursday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” McCain said he thinks the new president may have been hasty in the decision and should have taken the time to consider everything associated with closing the camp before forcing himself into a timetable.

Specifically, McCain said he thought Obama needed to consider what would happen to the prisoners held at Guantanamo before ordering the facility to be closed.

Mr. Obama was acclaimed for “breaking up” with the old universally criticised Bush government. Signing orders to shut down the notorious prison was one of his first moves to this direction.

His action proved then that it was wrong to say that US president never honored their promises they gave during their presidential election campaigns. He said “change”, and he did bring changes. Good man!

However, how things turned out disappointed many.  Mr. Obama is still too young in the political arena.

Still, he can lead his supporters to chant “yes, we can”–meaning “yes, we can make changes as many times as we want”.

In grand gesture of foolishness, Senator Lindsey Graham was censured last week by the Republican leadership in South Carolina for working with Democrats, specifically on a climate change bill. This is the same state whose Republican governor tried to sneak off to Argentina to have an affair. Hopefully his mistress wasn’t a Democrat, or Governor Sanford could find himself in a heap of trouble with the party leadership. When polled time and time again Americans say they don’t like the partisan divide in Washington, and want the parties to work together. But really, who cares what the American people want? South Carolina Republicans want purity. Not of the moral sort, but more specifically a narrowness of thought. Clearly they have all the answers, and just need to bonk enough Democrats over the head to get them to vote their way. The irony is that their own party’s presidential nominee, who won the primary in South Carolina, supported climate change legislation (though he is not in favor of the current climate change legislation).

Senator Graham is hardly a lefty. What he is, is smart and effective. During the latest recess from Congress he served in Afghanistan as a JAG, and he has served in the military since 1982. He has been a prominent member of both the judiciary and armed services committee. Certainly people and parties alike can find issues to disagree with the Senator, but censuring a member for having “weakened the Republican brand” while having done nothing wrong/questionable/immoral is foolish and incredibly myopic considering the current state of the Republican Party.

Wow…
This is really some interesting stuff…  It has been a minute since I have been encouraged to write but (big I’m back but in the room) I’m Back…  
So let’s get right at it…
Check it…
Aint this some stuff that the news media  has there “panties in a wedgie” over how far The Pres bent over to greet the Japanese Emperor… 
What is that about???
If I were a comedian I would say something like:

“If you are hated for “bowing” ,as custom, to the Japanese Emperor in his own country…  Chances are you are a “Black man!!!” ”
“If  you are hated for  inheriting  the worst economy in modern history, tackle it with the vigor of a genius, and have kept this country afloat…  Chances are you are a “Black man!!!”"”
“If you are hated for not making a haste decision with the use of force in foreign wars you did not start…  Chances are you a “Black Man…”"

Wow…
Aint that some stuff…  Check it…  George Bush was one of the most arrogant presidents this country has known since Truman…   Culturally Speaking, Pres. Obama came into the office with two stricks against him already…  I am sure you can figure both of them out on your own…  Inspite of this, he has reestablished our respect around the world and stopped the bleeding of a “comatose economy…” 
So to the News Media (not just Fox News); “Give – him – a – Break!!!”

Wow…
That felt good…  I needed to get that of my chest… 
So to the other story that is hawking the news –

Wow…
That is some deep stuff…  So here is what the “Grape Vine” is saying about “Little Ms Davis;” “How could the father return that little girl to those horrific conditions if he knew that DSS had already been involved in that household???”  Now that is a question for “Nancy (Amazing) Grace” to ask…  Hummmmmmm???
And now DSS is trying to figure out where the ball was dropped, but (big fat I heard the new director on the radio a while back but in the room) the new the director aint no joke…  Believe me the “sista-girl” is not going to let this “stuff” fall back in her lap without some explainations…  DSS has the responsibility, outside of the police dept, to do their own thorough investigation…  Knowing her, “Amazing Grace” get ready, there is a bombshell coming…  It is going to be one of those – “Oh Sh_t!!!”
I will keep you posted from the grapevine…  Fayetteville is a very small bedroom community in which the military mentality is the strongest…  Prior military never see the obvious but (great big whooooa but in the room) are already looking for the roadside - minefield - boobytrap that can “blow-up” in your face… 

Wow…
“Why you ain’t got a man,” by Prof. Miller Lucky Jr.  is out and the talk…  Essense stated a few issues back that black women have less that a 33% chance of marrying ever  in life…  That is a scary stat, especially if  you are one of those women and want to marry…  Prof. Lucky says, the reason for this is because Black Women are asking the wrong people for advise…  Themselves…  The answer has to be with “Black Men…” 

Wow…
To be continued
To be continued… 

Wow…