The day’s top political news:
“The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground” -- Obama
Obama agrees to substantial cuts in US Nuclear forces – including delivery systems – in his meetings with the Russians. Security experts are deeply concerned.
Accord failed regarding Georgia aggression by Russia. Agreement, but only so much.
Also failing to gain agreement is the defensive missiles for Poland and the Czech Republic – protecting those nations from potential attacks from Iran.
http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1908976,00.html?xid=rss-quotes
Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis
Al Gore has compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis.
The former US Vice President said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill by encouraging leaders to unite their nations to fight climate change.
Gore admitted that it was difficult to persuade the public that the threat from climate change was as urgent as the threat from Nazi Germany. Selling an absurd premise is never easy – and shouldn’t be. Man-made global warming is a long running Gore scam and scheme.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6658672.ece
Obama Adviser Says U.S. Should Mull Second Stimulus
The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an outside adviser to President Barack Obama.
The current plan “will have a positive effect, but the real economy is a sicker patient,” Tyson said in a speech in Singapore today. The package will have a more pronounced impact in the third and fourth quarters, she added, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not the administration.
Tyson’s comments contrast with remarks made two days ago by Vice President Joe Biden and fellow Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee, who said it was premature to discuss crafting another stimulus because the current measures have yet to fully take effect.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=ajQbZ.WrAVwQ
Opinion:
Central America placed at risk under Obama
Twenty five years ago this December, a group of us set out to help a small Central American nation and its people break free from left of center political domination.
Now Obama is headed toward undoing in Central America what we – and the people of that nation – worked so hard to achieve.
There were three of us. Debby, who later became my wife; Jim Plummer, a long time GOP activist who continues providing this web site with important input and articles, and myself.
We went to Belize – the lone English-speaking enclave surrounded by Spanish-speakers. Guatemala to the west, poses an ongoing threat – claiming Belize is theirs. We were Belize at the request of Dean Lindo – founder of an opposition party that was right of center. Reagan’s people gave us a wink and a nudge to go and do what could be done. The incumbent Belize Prime Minister, George Price, was the longest ruling head of state in the world - a member of the Queen’s Privy Council – a former priest who had run things for more than 20 years. Price had taken an oath of poverty and seemed intent on making the people of Belize join him.
As is the case in the US today, the socialists had firm control of the Belize government. But, as is also the case in the US today, they could not and did not produce on their political promises. In another parallel, a major issue was energy -- Belize has no power grid, and its largest city got its electricity from two very old diesel generators that were cast offs from the British colonial rule.
Through a well-run campaign by the United Democrat Party, Dean Lindo and his party won. It was a major and surprising victory. Those of us who worked on that campaign so hard, were more than delighted to see “the good guys” win 21 of the 23 seats in the Belize legislative body. The Prime Minister, Price, was ousted, and even lost his own constituency seat. Manuel Esquivel became Prime Minister, and Belize launched its journey into a new era.
Normal America can take hope from that victory against all odds, and bring the same dedicated effort to the 2010 elections here.
It was an important victory because it demonstrated the stifling politics of the left could be turned back. We would shortly see the Contras drive the Communists from ruling Nicaragua, and Panama was freed a few years later from its own dictatorship . Freedom was on a roll throughout Central America. Freedom was growing on the doorstep of America itself.
Today, things are different. The old party rules Belize once again, and though I have had little information in recent months, the last news was not encouraging. Now, just to the south, Honduras is in turmoil.
In 1984, Reagan’s people were providing quiet support to the forces of freedom in Belize – helping local people yearning for freedom, win. That is not the case today with the American government. Instead, the policies and actions of the Obama administratrion are supporting political policies on the side of the left. The extreme left. Dictaors such as Castro and Chavez. Such a policy shift is hardly a road to peace and prosperity for the people.
Let there be no confusion regarding Honduras. Victor Davis Hanson sums it up quite well:
“Consider: the U.S. reacted quickly and meddled unambiguously in condemning the Honduran arrest of President Zelaya. It mattered little that for the first time in memory we Americans now were on the side of autocrats like Castro, Chavez, Morales, and Ortega in showing revolutionary solidarity with Zelaya ( and of course the UN as well).
We cared little that both the Honduran Supreme Court and Parliament had acted lawfully in ordering their President’s removal on grounds that he had acted unconstitutionally, in bold, unlawful efforts to obtain a third presidential term through a likely rigged plebiscite.
(It would be analogous to an Obama or Bush demanding a third term, illegally acquiring ballots to force a plebiscite, ignoring a Congressional conviction of impeachment, and a Supreme Court edict of unconstitutionality, only to be arrested by the Joint Chiefs and escorted out of the country).”
There are several important points in all this:
First, Obzma’s policy regarding the Honduran turmoil puts us clearly on the side of the left wing dictators, and against the cause of freedom and liberty.
Second, it sends a message throughout Latin America that the US and its power, has come down on those who have long been considered enemies to freedom, decency, and the people crushed down by typical left wing policy.
Third, It opens a door to making the American southern border even more vulnerable. It reinforces the Democrats party encouragement of illegal aliens from Latin America. If the US smiles on the likes of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and Fidel Castro and his brother, to whom can freedom loving people of the region look for help and support?
Fourth, most of all, the Obama policy in Honduras, provides another window into his thinking, his political preferences, and his personal ideology. The sight through that window is not a good one – nor for freedom lovers in Central America, and not for norml Americans in our own country.
Not a lot of hope is being offered these days by the strongest nation in the hemisphere -- a nation whose interests and attention is far more concerned with Sarah Palin, the romantic problems of South Carolina’s governor, and Michael Jackson’s funeral.
The story serves as a sad illustration of where we are today. Those who are paying attention are justly worried and concerned.
Buddy
The day’s top blogs:
1.
http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/our-chrysalis-stage/2/
Our Chrysalis Stage
Victor Davis Hanson
Only Room for One Obama?
I got a lot of flak the last year for writing two or three columns suggesting the Europeans and other Leftists abroad might be careful about what they wish for in Obama: he might well leap-frog over them, leaving them all with the world they used to fantasize about, while in reality they profited from the world they demonized.
(As I wrote, a keen Frenchman whispered to me at a reception “There is room for only one to play Obama-and we are already Obama.”)
Comrade Hugo
Consider: the U.S. reacted quickly and meddled unambiguously in condemning the Honduran arrest of President Zelaya. It mattered little that for the first time in memory we Americans now were on the side of autocrats like Castro, Chavez, Morales, and Ortega in showing revolutionary solidarity with Zelaya ( and of course the UN as well).
We cared little that both the Honduran Supreme Court and Parliament had acted lawfully in ordering their President’s removal on grounds that he had acted unconstitutionally, in bold, unlawful efforts to obtain a third presidential term through a likely rigged plebiscite.
(It would be analogous to an Obama or Bush demanding a third term, illegally acquiring ballots to force a plebiscite, ignoring a Congressional conviction of impeachment, and a Supreme Court edict of unconstitutionality, only to be arrested by the Joint Chiefs and escorted out of the country).
The Real Project for the New American Century
What is our logic? Given the history of imperialism and colonialism, anytime in Latin America anyone in uniform arrests an elected president in a tie, it is a coup and must be condemned, no matter the legality or the ideology involved.
But let us not miss the forest for the trees. The larger fact is that suddenly the United States has become a sort of revolutionary force itself. At the next G-8 summit there will be no more hectoring of Europeans to stop selling sniper rifles to Iran or sophisticated machines tools used to enhance nuclear centrifuge operations.
Instead, the Europeans–”shocked” over the mayhem in the streets of Tehran, and still hurting over the kidnapping of British sailors, the jailing of Western journalists, and the arrest of Western embassy personnel–will be hectoring the Obama administration to please tighten up the old Bush sanctions.
(In the new, no-more-anti-ballistic-missile age, Frankfurt and Paris will soon be in range of the planned Iranian nukes.)
(NOTE: Ignoring the implications of leaving Berlin and Paris vulnerable to Iranian missiles, I cannot resist saying “they have no one to blame but themselves”. In their immediate past, neither Germany nor France supported the US in the Global War on terror. They forced us to go it alone, with the notable exception of Great Britain. We found who our friends were – now those nations that chose to sit on their hands, must face the reality they have wrought.)
And Americans, I think, will resist increased sanctions or embargoes. As a transracial, transnational Gandhi-like figure, Obama believes that he alone understands and empathizes with the previously demonized Third-World revolutionary leaders.
Yes, on our behalf it is his destiny to talk with them, and tame them in a manner of speaking, perhaps to stop their terrorizing, drug-running, arming, and bullying, or more likely the overt manifestation of all that. In other words, he’s our Che, a universal pop star, part Bono, part Mandela, part Michael Jackson, and part Al Gore that deflects criticism that we are all Texas oil men with twangs who talk about Gawd, Eye-Rack, and Jasus.
This metamorphosis is to be accomplished by Obama’s singular charisma and ‘empathy’: as a person of color, on his paternal side from a Muslim family, and of African heritage, Obama “knows” that he too has been on the butt-end of Western hegemony (forget the subsidized ride to prep school, Occidental, Columbia, Harvard, the mansion, etc.; we are talking of perceptions, not reality), and thus can assure an Ahmadinejad he ‘feels’ what it is like to be an Iranian leader with all sorts of globalized and Western-inspired pressures. Just as the elite Sotomayor knows what it is to be a Latina in a repressive America, so Obama knows what it is to be a leader of color in a Western-dominated global order.
Our America–nationalizing the auto industry, socializing the health care system, allowing state, local, and federal income and payroll tax to confiscate 65-70% of the wealthy’s income, gravitating to a state-run, Ministry of Information media in which ideology governs access, news dissemination and appraisal, and even the banalities of press conference questioning–is now to be not that different from previously demonized states.
We are no longer “exceptional” (Obama’s words, not mine), and merely a postnational state with no particular global interests other than “world peace” and “global fairness”. In other words, there is now no real reason why an Iran or Venezuela should have any reason to be angry with the United States.
Our President sympathizes with much of their past hurts and sensitivities; he has voiced similar criticism of the past global role of the United States; and America will now find its new role as one with those it used to isolate and bully. (The Europeans used to despise sanctimonious, moralistic and non-interventionist Jimmy Carter; but they can’t really get mad at Obama. He’s no Georgia peanut farmer, with drawl, Bible, and Billy, but a metrosexual, Europeanized one of them who will drive them absolutely crazy as he sermonizes and pontificates.)
“Democracy” is largely a neoconservative construct, definable through a myriad of narratives, none of which with any exclusive claim on a relative notion like “truth.” Who is to say that Iranian or Venezuelan democracy is any less valid than the American strain of democracy? (Again, for those who think I exaggerate or am being facetious, cf. Bill Clinton’s Davos praise of Iranian democracy in 2005).
Or who is to say that what we call aggression is not merely someone’s self-defense? Only an empathetic soul can fathom how the other sees and suffers reality, since there is no real objective reality, just what we with power used to proclaim it as.
Ironies Abound
In this brave new age, there will be ironies glories, not all of them in the short-term uncomfortable. No more European internationalists will be taking cheap shots at U.S. ‘hegemony’ as we protect them.
No, they will be more worried that (1) America has out-lefted them (much more so than in the 1930s when we did not wish to join “British imperialism” in its efforts to stop Hitler, or during the 1950s when we objected (with Russia) against Anglo-French efforts to “recolonialize” Suez.). (2) We are no longer the “bad cop”, but the divine one, who has separated ourselves from the colonial European tradition. Oh yes, Europe wanted Obama, but he is not a creature of the Sorbonne salon, but rather sees himself and his paternal family more a victim of past colonialism (cf. the fate of the Churchill bust).
I think after Afghanistan, NATO will be analogous to the International Criminal Court–a Hague-like institution that will let the Euros deal with the Russians or the Islamists on their own, while issuing all sorts of moral “grave concern” and “extremely troubled” communiqués.
Hey, What Happened to Awful America?
We won’t be giving any more lectures on “neo-liberalism” and the glories of free markets. More likely, Americans will rather offend the socialist Europeans with our gargantuan public spending, vast pressure on international banks and lending institutions, repressively high taxes, big government, slow growth, high unemployment, and protectionist, unionized economy–an equality of result culture that in good ol’ American fashion trumps their own. I don’t think the game any longer is to label George Bush’s America heartless and cruel while you ship over billions of dollars in Mercedeses, Volvos, and elegant olive oil to a wide-open, no-holds-barred, free market consumer economy-as Bush the “Decider” leers at Russians, Muslims, Eye-ranians and anyone else that might push around the Euros.
But Wait a Minute
The problem with all this is that Obama’s sleek Boeing jet, his neat helicopters, his Chicago mansion, his children’s’ upscale prep schools, the flying in of chefs or flying in for a night in New York, are all predicated on a bountiful, profit-minded capitalist system of production, in which entrepreneurs take enormous risks in search of sizable personal profits, and are left alone to profit within government’s wide parameters of fair play.
A state-of-the-art military protects the global capitalist order, ensuring both free sea lanes and communications, but also plays the theoretically ultimate enforcer of fair play on things as diverse as copyright laws to patent protection. Tamper with all that? I don’t know at what point the proverbial goose and golden egg rule applies, but it is somewhere-as we see in the messes elsewhere in most of the world.
Obama has surrounded himself with legions of ‘fixers.’ Bright men and women who have Ivy League law degrees, business school credentials, PhDs in the social sciences, and academic pedigrees in science, humanities, and engineering. Quite impressive, these Platonic Guardians of the soon to be perfect state. But most of their careers in finance, government, business, and academia have been well-paid jobs critiquing, administering, regulating, nuancing, writing about, and hectoring those who create things–builders, developers, industrialists, farmers, truckers, transportation execs, retailers, lenders and investors.
[ Reminds me of Ayn's Mouch & the 'looters' HB ]
We are being run now by film critics, not directors, book reviewers not writers, music columnists, not musicians. And it is far easier to fault than to birth, nuance rather than build.
The irony is that the muscular classes carry the regulating and talking classes on their backs. They don’t mind being whipped occasionally and even bridled, but like any good mule will suddenly stop and no longer move when they feel the rider either does not know where he is going, or is going to kill the mule with his switch, spurs, and yanking on the bit.
Yes, we are in the chrysalis stage and we will come out looking altogether different from what we were when we went in the cocoon.
2.
THE PRO-DICTATORSHIP ANTI-DEMOCRACY PRESIDENT
Jack Kelly
Manuel Zelaya, a Hugo Chavez wannabe, was elected president of Honduras in November, 2005. He wanted to serve a second term. But there was a difficulty. Under the constitution of Honduras, the president may serve only a single four year term.
Mr. Zelaya proposed to circumvent that difficulty by holding a popular referendum on whether he should be allowed to run for a second term. But there was a difficulty with that, too.
The constitution of Honduras provides only one way for the constitution to be amended. That is by a two-thirds vote of all the members of the National Congress in two consecutive regular annual sessions.
The Supreme Court of Honduras ruled the referendum was unconstitutional, and the National Congress passed a law forbidding referenda within 180 days of a national election. (Honduras' next is this November.) But Mr. Zelaya pressed on.
When the army -- acting on an order from the Supreme Court -- refused to distribute ballots for the referendum (which had been printed in Venezuela), the president fired its chief of staff. The Supreme Court unanimously declared the firing illegal, and Honduras' attorney general asked congress to oust the president.
Push came to shove on Sunday (6/28). The army, acting on a warrant issued by the Supreme Court, arrested Mr. Zelaya and sent him into exile (in his pajamas, to Costa Rica). This was described as a "coup" by the news media, and was denounced by, among others, Hugo Chavez, who threatened military action to restore Mr. Zelaya to power, and the Obama administration.
It's the Obama administration's view the coup was an "illegal and illegitimate act that cannot stand," White House officials, briefing on background, told journalists. Mr. Zelaya must be returned to power, they said.
"Knowing trouble was brewing in Honduras over several weeks, the Obama administration warned power players there, including the armed forces, that the United States and other nations in the Americas would not support or abide a coup," the AP quoted "officials" as saying. "They said Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls."
It seems more accurate to say that Mr. Zelaya, with Venezuelan help, was trying to execute a coup against the Honduran constitution than to accuse the military -- which was acting on orders from the Supreme Court and with the support of the legislature (124 of 128 deputies in the unicameral congress endorsed Mr. Zelaya's removal Sunday afternoon) -- of having done so.
Daniel Lopez Carballo, a retired Honduran general, told CNN that if the military hadn't acted, Mr. Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator, would have been running Honduras by proxy.
Typically in a coup, the military seizes control of the government. But the military quickly surrendered power to an acting president -- from Mr. Zelaya's own party -- chosen by the National Congress.
The streets of Tegucigalpa were quiet after Mr. Zelaya's removal, perhaps because not many Hondurans like him. In a Mitofsky poll taken in April, Mr. Zelaya had an approval rating of 25 percent, the lowest of 18 regional leaders.
So Mr. Obama is intervening on the wrong side. But if you take him at his word (a dangerous thing to do), the wonder is that he is intervening at all. This is the guy, you'll remember, who was so concerned about being perceived as "meddling" in Iran's internal affairs that he, alone among Western leaders, refused to denounce the blatantly stolen election in Iran, or to express support for those who protested the theft.
Mr. Obama is now doing with regard to Honduras what he has refused to do with regard to Iran: organizing an international coalition to pressure the country to reverse course.
Why threaten Honduras, but not Iran? Honduras is no threat to us. Iran is. A large majority in Iran oppose the government's brutality. Apparently, a large majority in Honduras support what the army has done.
There is a disturbing consistency to Mr. Obama's apparent inconsistency on Honduras and Iran. In both the case where he has intervened, and in the case where he hasn't, he has taken the side of anti-American dictators (in Mr. Zelaya's case, a wannabe dictator) over the vast majority of their people.
"We're getting a close look at Obama's priorities, and they are hideously out of step with democracy and the rule of law," concludes Web logger Ed Morrissey of Hot Air.
So hideous that it seems reasonable to conclude that the President of the United States is on the side of dictators instead of democracy, and that he is not on the side of America at all.
Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
3.
http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.blogspot.com/2009/07/sarah-palin-declares-her-independence.html
A Time For Choosing
Sarah Palin Declares Her Independence
Once the hunted, Sarah Palin becomes the hunter.
Sarah stunned the world Friday by doing something that isn't done. She is willfully giving up one of the most powerful positions a politician can aspire to. She is stepping down as Governor of one of the most important states in America.
The media elites were stunned. It was almost hilarious watching their reactions of disbelief. Their commentary was downright entertaining, and further proof that they don't have a clue. Even those on Fox!
And the symbolism of doing this on the 4th of July holiday, the time we celebrate our nation's birth, and our independence, was completely lost on the whole lot!
Almost universally, no one in the elite media got it. This is a huge comment on why our nation is in deep, deep trouble. One reporter on Fox, who has covered Sarah since she became Governor, went so far to say that her speech was "rambling", and "incoherent." Again, this just proves that even the media we most trust for news doesn't a clue about real Americans.
Sarah Palin sounded just like us! We, the people, understood every single word she said. This is the reason she is wildly popular in the first place. She IS one of us!
Of course, just as universally silly as the commenters are, the pundits are even more clueless. And, evidently, devoid of any and all abilities of comprehension, be it for the written word, or spoken. We'll get to the speech itself in due time, but suffice it to say, that for normal Americans, those who this speech was aimed at, this was a call to action.
Now the talking heads all agree that Sarah is done.
No chance of ever being anything again.
Certainly no chance of ever being President. Some say this was political suicide. Well, it won't be the first time Sarah has committed "political suicide."
After Mayor Sarah Palin was term limited out (why don't we have term limits for ALL elected officials?) she decided her next move would be Lt Governor. She lost. But Governor Frank Murkowski saw a talented woman with a lot of grit. He appointed her as Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. An important job. One that regulates Alaska's most important activities, oil and natural gas production.
Chairman Palin was charged with maintaining ethics as part of her job. Something that her history has shown she takes very seriously. And her talent in this area was soon to be put to good use. There were a lot of less than ethical things going on, some big, some really big.
Now one thing, Alaska is a "good old boy network" kinda state. And her agency was filled with a lot of movers and shakers in the Republican party. Including the party chair, and even a former attorney general. So as one would imagine, there was some push back when Chairman Palin sought to end some of their practices.
Now mind you, this is a high paying gig. Six figures. Something a mother of four had to be thinking about.
So, what did Sarah do? Well, she committed "political suicide" and resigned from the post. She then took her fight to the people. She also filed formal complaints.
We all know the result of this effort. Commissioner Randy Ruedrich who is also the chair of the Republican party, was forced to resign, and paid the largest fine in state history for this sort of thing, $12,000. Gregg Renkes the former attorney general was also forced to resign.
Both of these men had conflicts of interest in dealing with companies they were supposed to be regulating. And Ruedrich was also guilty of doing party business on state time. The effort to go after Renkes was bi-partisan, as Sarah joined in with democrat Eric Croft.
Oh, and one more thing, Sarah took on her former boss, Governor Frank Murkowski, and defeated him in a landslide primary election, and defeated popular former democrat Governor Tony Knowels in the general election.
So much for "political suicide."
People who have followed Sarah Palin for a long time absolutely get what she is doing.
One of the big things behind this move is to change the rules. When Sarah became Governor, she and her administration passed sweeping ethics reform. That's a good thing. But since she returned to Alaska after the presidential election, the democrat party has turned around and used these very laws she championed against her and the state of Alaska. Chicago politics at it's "finest."
I have written about Barack Obama's direct involvement in the failed "troopergate" smear, and even his payoff to former Alaska Senator Kim Elton for his efforts. I have also written extensively about Linda Kellen Biegel, the Democrat National Committee's "official blogger for Alaska."
This Biegel woman has turned her insane hate into a cottage industry, openly raising money online to fund her efforts, the legality of which is in question.
She's not alone in this, as other paid operatives, as well as screw loose crazies, have filed 15 so-called "ethics complaints" since Sarah has come home from the presidential trail!
These deals range from the silly, to the down right idiotic!
One complaint had to do with the fact Sarah was photographed holding a fish!
Some background. Sarah has worked as a commercial fisherman. She and her husband still own a commercial fishing business, and yes, when time permits, she has been known to go out and work the nets!
One complaint had to do with the fact she did an interview in her office!
She got tagged because, as Governor, she was at this year's Iron Dog race, at nearly 2000 miles, the longest most difficult snow machine race in the world.
She showed up in sub-zero weather wearing a jacket.
Oh, the humanity!
Yes, the jacket had the logo of the company that sponsors her husband, Todd, who is a multi-championship winning racer. And?
The bottom line, is these loons, and democrat operatives have managed to cripple the Governor, her staff, and grind governing to a halt. This nonsense has cost Governor Palin and her family $500,000 personally, but more importantly, to her, the state of Alaska has spent $2 million dollars, and 1000's of hours in time messing around with these complaints.
Needless to say, ALL of these complaints have been thrown out. But as I reported earlier, that means nothing to these bloggers. There were many more bogus ethics complaints planned.
This is Saul Alinsky's Rules being used relentlessly, and being sanctioned by Chicago's most famous citizen.
And with a group of dishonest democrats who will just keep filing these bogus ethics complaints, with absolutely no repercussions, she just saved the citizens of Alaska at minimum a couple of million dollars the state would have had to shell out had she completed her term.
This is pretty typical Sarah Palin. When she took office she went on a cost cutting spree. She famously put the executive jet for sale on eBay. And while it was not sold there, it was sold. It was a jet the previous Governor had purchased to travel the state. On the surface, not a bad idea. Alaska is roughly the size of the entire western United States, and many cities are only easily accessible by either air or water.
The only problem, is that jet was unable to land on most of the unimproved airfields in Alaska, and kind of useless.
Palin reassigned the "executive chef" at the Governor's mansion saying she didn't want her kids to get used to being waited on by staff. That saved the state money. She also, along with Lt Governor Sean Parnell, turned down a substantial pay increase this year. Something that just isn't done.
So by stepping down, Sarah Palin just changed the rules on these people. As a private citizen, she is not subject to the constraints of office. She doesn't have to maintain a certain decorum.
Make no mistake about it, Sarah Palin is a street fighter. What she has done is declare herself the left's worst nightmare! The paid DNC operatives, and loons, are going to look back and wish they had let sleeping dogs lie.
Case in point, one of the DNC operatives, Huffington Post blogger Shannyn Moore has already been out there spreading lies about Sarah. Moore, who earlier in the year was obsessed with what was under Sarah's skirt, is peddling a story that Palin is about to be indicted on some sort of federal charges.
Palin's attorney Thomas V Van Flein has already put Shannyn Moore, the Huffington Post, MSNBC, The New York Times, as well as the Washington Post on notice that they will be seeking actions against them for printing such lies.
Van Flein's open letter to the parties explains the facts of the story in question, which involves the Wasilla Sports Complex that came to be during Sarah's tenure as Mayor of Wasilla. Needless to say, another attempt to smear Sarah Palin knocked to the ground.
"Screw Political correctness!"
"Politically Speaking, I don't care if I live or die, I'm not going to sit down, I'm not going to shut up!" ___Sarah Palin in a June speech introducing Michael Reagan.
It seems we saw signs of Sarah's big move a while back. We just didn't know what we were looking at. Sarah made the above remarks during a speech where she introduced Michael Reagan to a crowd in Anchorage.
In her speech she also took Obama and his economic policies head on, as well as his foreign policy. She spoke at length about states rights, and how the federal government had become too big, and too controlling.
It seems that the trip to Kosovo and Germany to visit the troops may have also held clues to what was about to happen. While there, and in Sarah's tweets, she continually talked about the sacrifices of our brave soldiers, and about the greatness of America. It's obvious that while her move to change directions has been in the works for some time, her second trip to visit troops in the past two years really had a profound effect on Palin.
Of course, there are all of her detractors who are now saying she is "abandoning her job." Funny thing, she is transferring power to Lt Governor Sean Parnell. This is the same Sean Parnell who she would have transferred power to had she become Vice President.
Some say they don't buy the "lame duck" excuse. But having followed Sarah since she became Governor, having read her writings, watched her speeches, and read other's thoughts about her, people who know her, I think I understand, at least in a tiny way, how she thinks about her duty to the folks who put her in office.
Again, it's a given, the loons and DNC operatives were never ever going to stop costing the state of Alaska millions of dollars in their perverted attacks on Sarah Palin. So that obviously weighed very heavily on her mind. As soon as Sarah started speaking out. As soon as Sarah started really challenging those who would destroy America from within, the attacks would come.
Sarah recognizes what most of America now does. We are in real trouble. We have incredibly incompetent leadership in Washington. Both parties are filled with people who are more interested in power than doing their jobs. We have a Congress that spends trillions of dollars and passes insane legislation that will destroy our personal liberty, without reading a single word in these bills!
Congress passed the trillion dollar stimulus package and absolutely no one read this bill. It was rushed through by Barack Obama and his crew. Obama shouting that if the bill wasn't passed immediately the sky would fall! Then, once passed, Obama took a long weekend, while staff set up the photo op!
The stimulus package has been a disaster, so far.
The House of Representatives just passed the largest tax increase in human history, the cap and tax bill on "climate change." Here's a bill that will double or triple the cost of energy, and by default, effect the cost of every single product consumers purchase. And this bill will actually do nothing to help the climate! It would also cost millions of jobs, and send most manufacturing overseas to nations that haven't bought into the "climate change" nonsense.
Even better, most Americans understand that "global warming" is a hoax. That the planet is actually cooling. More and more scientists have come out and disputed the whole scheme.
In fact, the latest scandal surrounding this involves an internal EPA memo that disproves "global warming", that was suppressed ahead of the House vote.
Not only had no one read this incredibly huge tax bill, an additional 300 pages were slipped into the bill in the dead of night just before the vote!
This isn't just insanity, this is criminal!
This sort of thing is why Sarah felt she could no longer sit still and keep her mouth shut. This is why she has decided to travel and speak out.
Of course, as Governor, she does have the bully pulpit, but since the DNC has their operatives filing bogus ethics complaints at the drop of the hat, it would be very detrimental to Alaskans for Sarah to use her power as Governor to challenge these crooks in DC.
Better to take them on as Sarah Palin, America, than as Governor Sarah Palin.
And she did have a point about lame ducks spending the people's money while doing little of their work.
Now with the dishonest press, and the talking heads, there is a huge double standard. They think its just horrible that Sarah is "abandoning" Alaska.
On the other hand, no one in America seemed to have a problem when Barack Obama, the very inexperienced Junior Senator from Illinois, after promising the people of Illinois that he wouldn't run for President in his first term, worked a mere 143 days out of his six year Senate term, only to abandon his job completely to spend a year and a half running for President!
All the while collecting his paycheck from all of us taxpayers.
Double standard?
You bet'cha!
I prefer Sarah's way of doing things.
Now for her speech!
What a red meat patriotic speech it was. This was Sarah Palin speaking out to all of America and letting them know she's heard the call, and is ready to answer it.
In her speech Sarah talks about the need to end politics as usual. Yeah, I know, all politicians say that. But with Sarah Palin, you instinctively know that she actually means it. And frankly, has put her money where her mouth is by resigning to take those who are harming America straight on!
Sarah talks about how we need to build America up, not tear it down. She called the extreme spending spree being championed by Barack Obama "obscene" and "immoral."
Sarah, in her speech, repeatedly called on all to get involved and make a difference.
Of course, the elite media who evidently feel it's their job to tell us what to think (or spread propaganda, I can never decide which) are so sure that Sarah has had enough of all of this and is going home.
So as if to make sure there will be no doubt to her intentions, Sarah put out an Independence Day message.
The end of the message goes as follows:
"I shared with you yesterday my heartfelt and candid reasons for this change; I've never thought I needed a title before one's name to forge progress in America. I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!
God bless you! And I look forward to making a difference - with you!
Sarah"
Now to many, this is Sarah's way of announcing her intentions to be the next President of the United States, and it may very well be. But I am absolutely under the impression that this doesn't really matter to her. I firmly believe she is more interesting in changing America for the better. I firmly believe she is more interested in stopping the destruction that Barack Obama and Congress is causing our great nation.
Of course, this is WHY Sarah Palin will be President. Her millions of followers will demand it. Absolutely no one currently in politics has the vision for America that sees us returning to the principles that our founding fathers set forth.
Absolutely no one out there has the ability and desire to take on Barack Obama and Congress with no holds barred. Straight up, no quarter.
Absolutely no other political figure represents the conservative movement as defined by one of our greatest Americans, Ronald Reagan. An America where personal freedom and liberty rein. A strong America. An America that made us the envy of the world.
Both Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin see America as a shining city on a hill. God's greatest gift to mankind. The world's best hope.
Our President and Congress are doing their level best to destroy that vision of America. They are spending our grandchildren's and great grandchildren's future on their socialist schemes. They are ignoring the growing threats around the world, while passing unread legislation that threatens our personal liberties and freedom.
Sarah Palin recognizes this, and has answered the call.
The real question here is for you, the gentle reader.
Will you also answer the call? Or will you continue to just sit and complain, hoping someone else will do the heavy lifting for you?
Sarah Palin looked at her kids and asked: "Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children's future from outside the Governor's office?" She got four "yeahs" and a HELL YEAH" in response!
So again, what will your answer be? Sarah has put her entire career on the line for America.
What are you willing to do?
It's time to choose!
"In the words of General MacArthur: We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction."_____Sarah Palin
With Al Franklin being sworn the oath of office, which for a majority in either party the oath means absolutely nothing? Be assured the Democratic Libertarian leadership has a perfect storm and with a 60 member majority the other side cannot filibuster any new laws to being enacted. My major concern is an illegal immigrant the--OVERPOPULATION--invasion. Unless--THE AMERICAN PEOPLE--don't exert pressure on their Senators, Representatives, they are--SURE--to pass another AMNESTY. With no restraints it means 13 to 20 million plus, foreign workers and their large families will get a path to citizenship, even though they broke our laws. In stark addition to this, millions more will appear in America after sweeping across our border, after being advised that AMNESTY is going to be enacted.
OVERPOPULATION--will over the next 40 years propel the amount of people, living, working here to around 430 million? That's federal government statistics? Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi brought upon Americans a behemoth of a problem by trying to stall, kill or underfund E-Verify
Our country is already being swamped by foreign nations who cannot speak or write English and unable to comprehend road warning signs. Amongst the impoverished, the sick and others carry contagious diseases, comes the gang members, rapists, murders and other criminal elements. Those caught have already compromised our overcrowded penal system. Each day there is carnage on the highways to American family members. The Heritage foundation has already stated that the costs could reach $2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS, just in retirement benefits. I don't think their are any words to describe the financial impact on taxpayers, as these poor, unschooled and large extended families cannot find work, in a near 11.0 percent jobless rate for AMERICANS. There is huge unknown financial amount of money to support the illegal worker, followed by a wife and then--CHAIN MIGRATION--of sisters, brothers who are sure to come?
There is a danger to our economy so unbelievable, it cannot be emphasized enough--THAT THE PUBLIC MUST PRESSURE THEIR RELUCTANT PUBLIC SERVANTS IN WASHINGTON--NOT TO ALLOW ANY KIND OF AMNESTY? The full weight of this massive expenditure will fall on the U.S. TAXPAYER--NOT THE PARASITE EMPLOYER WHO DOES THE HIRING? A prime example at this time is payments of illegal alien households around the country. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation calculated the average low-skilled immigrant household received $30,160 in direct benefits, education, medical care and other services from all levels of government in 2004. Those same low-skilled immigrant households paid only $10,573 in taxes that year, meaning the average low-skill household had a fiscal deficit of $19,588.
The ultimate question is can Americans afford to support all these low income nationals, while the nations economy is stagnant? With millions of the US population searching for a job, with a slender possibility of passing Universal health care? We must have a uniform immigration enforcement program, that our politicians have cowardly moved away from, except for a brave few.
We need immediate transformation of E-Verification to a permanent, none voluntary for--ALL--workers, within the United States. Whether you have five employees or 50.000 everybody must be verified as legal. IT SHOULD START WITH EVERY GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTION? THEN EVERY US FEDERAL WORKER SHOULD BE VETTED, OR HAVE THE US GOVERNMENT GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE? BEING THAT FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH, IMPLEMENTED THE PILOT PROGRAM, THE GOVERNMENT MUST SET AN EXAMPLE INSTEAD OF ALL THE DELAYS?
Posted by: Brittanicus | July 07, 2009 at 06:35 PM