Arizona Press Conference With Jan Brewer
Update: Video of Governor Brewer from the press conference:
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Secure the Border (Update: Live Feed for the Press Conference) (Update #2: Press Conference Over)
The new website launched by Governors Palin and Brewer is called "Secure The Border: Support Arizona."
Update: If you want to watch the press conference, see here.
Update #2: The press conference is now over. We will try to get the video of it up as soon as it becomes available. Governor Palin has participated in more press conferences than Barack Obama has in the past year.
Update #3: Besides checking out the "Secure the Border" website, check out the "Secure the Border" twitter feed.
Sarah Palin: Research is your friend, News Media. Try it sometime.
Governor Palin corrects the media via Facebook:
The more things change, the more they stay the same with twisted media coverage of my comments. Stories from yesterday are littered with typical inaccuracies and half truths; and in our never-ending quest to hold the press accountable, here are the points that require correction:
1) I was not “interviewed” by ABC News. I had an ABC News camera in my face while I was signing things and greeting some attendees following the Susan B. Anthony List Breakfast.
2) My remarks at the NRA Annual Meeting regarding the anti-Second Amendment sentiments of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi were as follows:
“President Obama and his allies like Nancy Pelosi have been relatively quiet on the gun control front – not because they don’t want to limit your rights, but because they’re afraid of the political consequences. Don’t doubt for a minute that if they thought they could get away with it, they would ban guns, and ban ammunition, and gut the Second Amendment.” (emphasis added)
That’s what I said. And here’s what Barack Obama himself once said: “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress.” (emphasis added)
Now, what proof do we have that he would want to limit our Second Amendment rights? Well, he made some pretzel-like equivocating statements about our individual right to keep and bear arms, and he flip-flopped on his opinion in the Heller case and then still wouldn’t come out and say that the court made the right decision. But the real proof is his terrible anti-gun record as a state senator in Illinois, where he voted repeatedly in favor of banning guns and ammunition. He even expressed his support for state legislation to “ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.” (This outrageous position was declared in a questionnaire, which candidate Obama later claimed he “never saw or approved,” despite the fact that his handwriting was on it – a fact which he did not dispute.)
As for Nancy Pelosi – she’s a San Francisco Democrat. That should be proof enough. But if you require more: She has an F rating from the NRA and supports gun bans and registration laws.
As noted in my remarks, I don’t believe that it’s politically expedient for them to attack our Second Amendment Rights. But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to do so if they had the chance.
3) Despite reporters’ claims to the contrary, Obamacare does allow for public funding of abortion in myriad ways, which is why the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (speaking as the voice of authority for the Catholic Church in America) unequivocally opposed Obamacare despite the Church’s long desire for health care reform.
4) As for the remarks I made yesterday about my beautiful son, Trig, I ask that you watch my speech here and judge for yourself my intentions.
- Sarah Palin
The Governor followed up her Facebook note with this tweet:
Spending time correcting very erroneous news stories re:speeches I made yestrday;Lamestream media spin- so predictable it's almost boring :)Read more...
Preakness Open Thread (Update: "First Dude" Finishes Second)
Governor Palin reminds us that:
Today:Armed Forces Day. We're"United in Strength"so thanks,Veterans,for protecting,securing,loving our liberty.Freedom is worth fighting for
-Governor Palin will reportedly hold a joint press conference in Phoenix with Governor Brewer "at which they will announce a new website and a national effort to 'educate America on border security and encourage support for Arizona.'" KTAR reports that the event is scheduled to take place at 4:45 PM.
-She is scheduled to speak later this evening at the Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation Annual Sportsmen's Heritage Banquet. She will discuss "Wildlife Management for Abundance."
-Here's another write-up from her speech before the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan in Benton Harbor last Thursday.
-She will reportedly endorse New Mexico GOP gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez at a rally in Albuquerque tomorrow morning.
-If you were wondering about the maritime law that Governor Palin was talking about in her interview with Greta last night, Sinistar suggests that you see here and here.
-Damien points out that Media Matters is having a meltdown.
-Drudge has four Palin links up on his front-page.
I'm pulling for the "First Dude" horse in the Preakness today. He is a longshot but he was named in honor of Todd Palin.
Update: Jan Brewer writes on her Facebook page that she's "looking forward to a joint press conference later this afternoon with Sarah Palin where we'll launch a national effort and a website to educate America on border security and to encourage support for Arizona."
Update #2: The "First Dude" horse was a heavy underdog but finished a surprising second place in the Preakness. Read more...
Stacy Drake: Palin Endorsements Are Key In Primary Season
Via Stacy Drake at the Cypress Times:
It’s primary season and Conservative candidates around the country are all hoping to get a Palin endorsement to boost their campaigns. So far it is proving to be very beneficial for the candidates that have Governor Palin’s official backing.
In Wisconsin, Sean Duffy’s campaign exploded after the governor threw her support in his direction. They successfully put enough pressure on the very powerful Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and congressional fixture, Dave Obey to plan an early retirement.
Earlier this week in West Virginia, in a race marked by one of those anxiety inducing SarahPAC targets, Representative Alan Mollohan lost his reelection bid.
Palin endorsed Rand Paul also has a comfortable lead in the Kentucky race.
Read the rest here. Read more...
Saturday Open Thread
AP: Millions of jobs that were cut won't return
Matt Welch: We Are Out of Money
The Foundry: Stimulus: Taxpayers Foot Bill for Shoddy Weatherization Work in Texas
Taylor and Van Doren: Gulf oil spill: same old arguments
IBD: Redistributing Health?
AP: Afghanistan: US Marine general says forces hurting opium trade
WSJ: Next U.S. Challenge in Iraq: Leaving
Friday, May 14, 2010
Governor Palin Reclaims True Feminism
Governor Palin spoke this morning in our nation's capital at the Susan B. Anthony List Celebration of Life Breakfast. I couldn't attend, but having watched the video and listened intently to the Governor's speech, I can unequivocally say those who were there are the better for it.
The country is well-aware that she is an unapologetically pro-life woman. For this reason some praise her and others deride her. Love her or hate her, what separates Governor Palin from others, what causes people to sit up and take notice when she talks about the life issue, is one thing: she walks the walk. That fact alone gives her credibility--which is what delights the pro-life community and disgusts the pro-abortion community.
Her words in D.C. today at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center grabbed the attention of those present in a way the words of others could not because they carry the weight of experience. Her commitment to life has been tested, and though it was a challenge, by the grace of God, she passed with flying colors.
Governor Palin called the attendees' attention to true feminism. It is unfortunate that feminism has been twisted into this pro-abortion movement that labels anyone who opposes abortion anti-woman, but the Governor told the SBA List:
You remind us that the earliest leaders of the women's rights movement...they were pro-life.
She also used the term "feminist foremothers," reminding us of the rich pro-woman, pro-life heritage we have. She declared, too, that groups like the SBA List were "returning the women's movement back to its original roots." This is especially important to me because I refused to be associated in any way, shape, or form with the word "feminism"--until Governor Palin reclaimed it.
True feminism indeed is acknowledging the value of women, the nurturing heart of women, and the strength of women to rise to the challenge, even in "less than ideal circumstances," as Governor Palin says. However, the new-fangled modern-day feminism--which is an outright perversion of true feminism--does not believe women capable of rising to these challenges. Governor Palin called these so-called pro-women's groups "hypocritical." What would you call those that say a woman can do absolutely anything--except carry the child within her when it's inconvenient?
Her personal journey of learning that Trig would be born with special needs is always moving. Today she shared how during the weeks of her pregnancy, God seemed to whisper in her ears a simple, yet all-important, question: "Are you gonna trust Me?"
With His help, she found the strength to trust, to walk the walk. In a voice born of true conviction, she shared that when Trig was born, she came to understand something in a deeper way than ever.
God does know what He's doing, and what seemed like what would be such a challenge has turned into our greatest blessing.
She continued with this statement, which was followed by a rousing standing ovation:
Trig has been the best thing that has ever happened to me and to the Palin family.
Considering that 90% of women carrying babies with Down Syndrome abort those children, that one sentence needs to be shared with the world. It's clear that Governor Palin wants others to know the blessing her family knows. To make that a reality, life must be encouraged, which is why she adds her efforts to the cause.
Not only was Governor Palin's faith tested in her own life, but she watched her daughter rise up to take on the challenge of an unplanned pregnancy--truly "less than ideal circumstances" for a seventeen year old high school student. Bristol has come to also see, however, the blessing that can come from the difficulty, and now she chooses to embrace abstinence, a personal stand for which she gets "clobbered" by some clueless people. Nonetheless, she stands by her conviction.
Through her experiences, Governor Palin said she understands why some women are tempted to have an abortion, yet her feet remain firmly planted in truth:
Choosing life may not be the easiest path, but it's always the right path. And I've had that confirmation. The timing of the circumstances may not be perfect, but God sees a way where we cannot, and He doesn't make mistakes.
Once again, Governor Palin takes a strong stand for life, and that stand elicits a response--because of her track record, because of her integrity on the issue. That record makes her a leading spokesperson for the pro-life, pro-woman movement. On this issue she speaks for the majority of Americans, for statistics show that America is predominantly a pro-life country now--and the numbers continue to grow, thank God. I, therefore, applaud Governor Palin and groups like the Susan B. Anthony List for their commitment to this important work.
As Governor Palin said:
It all comes down to life and how we're going to take a stand on protecting innocent life and deciding that nobody is beneath the protection of our laws.
That's a common sense message from a common sense citizen leader.
She ended her speech today with this word of encouragement:
We're getting the job done, sisters--one life, one activist, one election, one vote, one American dream at a time.
You betcha!
Governor Palin's message of life is worth the half hour it'll take to listen. Please watch the video here and share it with others.
(H/T The Right Scoop) Read more...
Governor Palin Talks About the Oil Spill, Greece, Women in Politics, and the Failure of the Obama Presidency with Greta
Palin Goes On the Record Open Thread
She taped an interview with Greta this morning that will be aired tonight. They talked about immigration, the oil spill, Elena Kagan, Barack Obama, Greece, the budget, and pretty much everything. Here's a cool picture of the interview.
-It seems like everyone from the right to the left thought Governor Palin gave a great address to the Susan B. Anthony List breakfast this morning. Here's Rush Limbaugh, Obama flack Marc Ambinder, far-left Washington Post hack Jonathan Capehart, Matthew Continetti, Katy Steinmetz from TIME, and Thomas Peters from American Principles Project.
-Sister Sledgehammer: Sarah Palin takes aim at Democratic women
-Aaron Blake from the Washington Post notes that "about the only major GOP figure who has yet to back a loser is former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin" and that "Palin, though, seems to know how to pick them."
-Here's the Christian Broadcasting Network video report from David Brody on Palin's morning/afternoon.
-Tim Russert's son tweets that if you had to compare Governor Palin to a quarterback, she'd be Tim Tebow. I think she would take that as a compliment considering that Tebow is one of the sport's greatest champions.
-I recommend you check out the following story about Barack Obama if you can get it. The story is extremely detailed, credible, and well-sourced. Don't shoot the messenger Obama fans. I'm just reporting the news. I'll also report that the Kos' pollster found that a plurality of Pennsylvanians have an unfavorable opinion of Obama. No Republican has won Pennsylvania in a presidential election since 1988.
The LeBron staying/going in Cleveland question will be the sports equivalent to whether Governor Palin will run for president the next forty-eight days.
Governor Palin in Columbia, SC; Update: Video Link Added
Governor Palin was in Columbia, South Carolina late this afternoon to formally endorse Nikki Haley for Governor. More from WLTX:
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Former Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters--and a few protestors--at the State House Friday afternoon, taking aim at Washington politics and endorsing a candidate for governor.
Palin arrived just before 6 p.m.
"You have a lot of right-thinking people in this great part of the country," Palin told the crowd.
She said she was disappointed that she didn't get a chance to campaign in the Palmetto State in 2008, when she ran alongside Arizona Senator John McCain as the Republican ticket.
"We missed out then on your friendly, patriotic, hard-working spirit, the spirit that is South Carolina," she said.
Palin then turned to the current political landscape, which she says is troubling.
"Our country is at a crossroads," she said. "We have an out of touch government in Washington. And the government wants to tax and spend and borrow our way out of problems."
She called programs such as the new health care law and the federal stimulus "job killers."
As part of her point about who could provide a conservative alternative, Palin endorsed Nikki Haley's bid to be South Carolina's next governor.
Read the rest here.
Update: Video of her speech in Columbia via WLTX.
Read more...
Sarah Palin on BP Oil Spill: 'We Need to Keep Drilling'
She spoke briefly with Huma Khan from ABC News this morning:
Heart and Soul of the Right
Doctor Zero has an excellent piece by that title up in Hot Air’s Green Room addressing the recent PPP poll that puts Gov. Palin fourth among 2012 contenders; his analysis is excellent, I think, especially this:
Some of the softness in Palin’s support is probably sympathetic. She’s doing great work for the conservative cause as a private citizen, and enjoying an incredibly successful career. Her quest for the White House would be a roller coaster leading into a meat grinder. There’s a quivering lunatic in a tattered lab coat hanging around the loading platform, mumbling something about discovering the real mother of her son. Is she ready to strap her family into that ride again? Would anyone blame her for deciding not to?
Personally, I hope she does. The Anchoress touches on an important reason why, in the course of expressing her reservations about Palin’s more energetic supporters:But Palin’s base needs to calm down a little, and realize that when they act like the rightwing version of gaga-eyed Obamabots, they’re not helping their candidate. There is no such thing as a “perfect” person, certainly no such thing as a “perfect” politician, and when I hear someone refer to Palin as “my Sarah,” or I get an email from someone for daring to criticize “our Sarah,” I frankly want to puke. Such emails do not convince me to “love” Sarah Palin, they actually make me distrust her political viability all the more, because I distrust emotionalism in politics.
I share her distrust for emotionalism. I’ve said before that a large government is, by definition, more emotional than rational. The problem is that dismantling such a government will require passion. The project must rest upon a sound, logical foundation, but there is simply no way to succeed without engaging Big Government on its own emotional terms.
The path to American renewal will be extremely difficult to follow. The morale of our citizens will be a serious concern. Regardless of how awful a president Barack Obama has been, the media will present his defeat in 2012 as a tragedy, bordering on a national sin. They’ll push that meme harder as his failures pile up. We need leadership that combines good cheer, fiery determination, and intelligent mastery of the issues.
Mitt Romney is cut from polished wood, and Newt Gingrich is origami folded from a thousand position papers, blotted with ugly scozzafava stains that may never come out. At this moment in time, Sarah Palin is the heart and soul of the Right. I can understand why many Republican voters might be reluctant to go into the next election with their hearts on their sleeves, but that’s the only way to win . . . and achieve the mandate necessary to do what needs to be done. If she formally declares for office, some of those reluctant Republican hearts will grow stout, and the next salt-encrusted poll from PPP might look quite a bit different.
This is true stuff, and very important. There are a lot of us out there—me very definitely included—who distrust emotionalism in politics; I think it’s critical for us to understand that that distrust is not as rational a response as we think it is. Rather, it is an emotional response to emotionalism in politics; in truth, it’s really just our particular form of emotionalism in politics, and thus a reaction which we should also distrust.
If you’ll permit me an aside here, counseling types will tell you that it’s important to learn to respond to events in a thoughtful and constructive manner rather than merely reacting to them on reflex. Such snap reactions spring from the lowest parts of the brain, just as physical reflexes do, and for the same reason: to end discomfort (whether physical or emotional) as quickly as possible. This cuts thoughtful reflection and consideration out of the loop, because it takes too long; we don’t want to live with the discomfort long enough to work it through and figure out why we’re uncomfortable, whether we ought to be, and what the real issues are. Instead, we assume all that and respond with “Ready, fire, aim.”
Now, that holds true for everybody; those of us who support Gov. Palin and have had it up to our eyeteeth with the ridiculous criticism she gets, and whose nerves are more than a little inflamed as a consequence, are as prone to this as anyone. Some of us no doubt need to take a deep breath, step back, moderate the tone, and look for other ways to deal with the doubters than just head-on.
At the same time, though, as Doc Zed points out, the fact that Gov. Palin generates powerful emotional support isn’t a bad thing—it’s a good thing. Seems to me Margaret Thatcher did, too, and it certainly didn’t do anything bad for her as PM of England. Part of the case we need to make in the Gov.’s support and defense is to point out that some of her detractors are every bit as emotional in their response as those of us they’re criticizing, and to ask them one simple question: at the end of the day, whose emotional response is more justified? Theirs or ours? Read more...
NRA Open Thread; Update: Audio Added
She's up at 2:45 PM EST. You can catch her speech on CNN Live.
Update by Doug: Audio of her NRA speech via The Right Scoop:
We'll post video when it becomes available.
Sarah Palin: Shaking it up in South Carolina with Nikki Haley
Via Facebook:
I’m very proud to add my voice to Jenny Sanford’s and others in endorsing Nikki Haley for governor of South Carolina. Nikki is a strong pro-life, pro-Second Amendment fiscal conservative who served with distinction as a state lawmaker, a reformer who fought her own party to protect the interests of the taxpayer, a proud daughter of immigrants who worked night and day to achieve the American dream, a wife of an officer in the Army National Guard, a board member at her family’s Methodist church, and – most proudly – the loving mother of two beautiful kids.Read more...
It’s my honor to join Nikki today at a rally at 5:30 pm at the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina. If you are in the area, please come by and join us.
In the meantime, Nikki needs our support in her race. She’s the scrappy underdog in a tough competitive primary. Please visit her website here, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Let’s help this tough, proud daughter of South Carolina shake things up in the Palmetto state.
- Sarah Palin
Governor Palin's SBA Speech
Via The Right Scoop:
The latter part of her speech today reminded me of what self-described "dissident feminist" Camille Paglia wrote in September 2008, shortly after Governor Palin burst on the national scene:
Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist.
[...]
The gun-toting Sarah Palin is like Annie Oakley, a brash ambassador from America's pioneer past. She immediately reminded me of the frontier women of the Western states, which first granted women the right to vote after the Civil War -- long before the federal amendment guaranteeing universal woman suffrage was passed in 1919. Frontier women faced the same harsh challenges and had to tackle the same chores as men did -- which is why men could regard them as equals, unlike the genteel, corseted ladies of the Eastern seaboard, which fought granting women the vote right to the bitter end.
[...]
I may not agree a jot with her about basic principles, but I have immensely enjoyed Palin's boffo performances at her debut and at the Republican convention, where she astonishingly dealt with multiple technical malfunctions without missing a beat. A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn't worth a warm bucket of spit.
Perhaps Palin seemed perfectly normal to me because she resembles so many women I grew up around in the snow belt of upstate New York. For example, there were the robust and hearty farm women of Oxford, a charming village where my father taught high school when I was a child. We first lived in an apartment on the top floor of a farmhouse on a working dairy farm. Our landlady, who was as physically imposing as her husband, was an all-American version of the Italian immigrant women of my grandmother's generation -- agrarian powerhouses who could do anything and whose trumpetlike voices could pierce stone walls.
Here's one episode. My father and his visiting brother, a dapper barber by trade, were standing outside having a smoke when a great noise came from the nearby barn. A calf had escaped. Our landlady yelled, "Stop her!" as the calf came careening at full speed toward my father and uncle, who both instinctively stepped back as the calf galloped through the mud between them. Irate, our landlady trudged past them to the upper pasture, cornered the calf, and carried that massive animal back to the barn in her arms. As she walked by my father and uncle, she exclaimed in amused disgust, "Men!"
Now that's the Sarah Palin brand of can-do, no-excuses, moose-hunting feminism -- a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.
[...]
Frontier women were far bolder and hardier than today's pampered, petulant bourgeois feminists, always looking to blame their complaints about life on someone else.
Update: (H/T jimr3) Ed Morrisey has a good write-up of Governor Palin's SBA Celebration of Life speech here.
Update II: More from the Politico, CNS News, and the Washington Post. Read more...
SBA Breakfast Open Thread: Update; Video Link Added
Watch Governor Palin's SBA speech live here. Be patient, she's expected to speak around 10:00 AM, give or take.
When there's a lot of stuff going on, that means more open threads.
-The Washington Post profiles Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, the pro-life organization that Governor Palin will be speaking to this morning. The Washington Times notes that "Sarah Palin's appearance on Friday at the Susan B. Anthony List's 'Celebration of Life Breakfast' has proved very popular, indeed." Matt K. Lewis will be at the event.
-Jake Tapper, Taylor Marsh, Whoopi Goldberg, and pretty much everybody agrees with Governor Palin with respect to the girls basketball/Arizona story.
-Hugh Hewitt thinks that "[t]he intervention of Sarah Palin on the side of Fiorini could break the race decisively towards Fiorini."
-You know you are doing something right when Keith Olbermann names you his "worst person in the world."
-Nikki Haley will stump with Jenny Sanford earlier on Friday prior to her event with Governor Palin.
-Laura Bush sold 147,003 copies of her memoir in the first week of its release.
* Bumped
Lloyd Marcus: Media Demands, 'Take Us To Your Leader, Sarah Palin!'
Lloyd Marcus has an interesting piece in today's American Thinker. He discusses the media's continuing inability to grasp the concept that the Tea Party movement doesn't have or need a formal, self-anointed "leader", and that the media's understanding of Governor Palin's enormous appeal among Tea Party patriots is as far from reality as, for example, Obama is from fiscal responsibility:
Is Sarah Palin the leader of the Tea Party Movement? This is asked as a "gotcha" question by the liberal mainstream media of every spokesperson of the Tea Party Movement. The liberal mainstream media is so far out of touch with the majority of Americans, their rationale is: if they can get tea partiers to say a wacko like Palin is their leader, it will confirm that the movement is nothing more than a bunch of extremist fringe loonies.
In their arrogant, elitist Bicoastal, ACLU-joining, New York Times-reading and "smarter than common Americans" minds, the liberal mainstream media can not grasp the concept that Sarah Palin is the voice of most Americans. Thus, Tea Party patriot's great love and admiration for her. Palin is the conservative voice America has been waiting for.
Palin boldly speaks out against political correctness and stands up for conservative principles and values. Not since Ronald Reagan has a politician unapologetically so championed conservatism. With all due respect to her femininity and beauty, Sarah Palin is the, long awaited, John Wayne of the Conservative movement. If only more of our "walk on eggs, careful not to offend and pandering to political correctness" male conservative politicians would take a cue from this extraordinary woman.
No, Palin is not the leader of the Tea Party Movement. But, not because she is unqualified. Sarah is extremely qualified. Palin is not the leader of the Tea Party Movement because it does not require a leader at this time. Self appointed leaders are frauds. True leaders are selected by the people. If, or when the Tea Party movement demands a leader, Palin is a very strong contender.
I witnessed firsthand the power of Palin's presence and the emotional effect she has on patriots. I toured nationally on Tea Party Express. Sarah Palin spoke at our Boston rally.
Our 30 member team was positioned on the side of our Tea Party Express bus. The plan was for Palin to pose for a picture in front of our team after her speech.
Talk about the best laid plans gone awry. When Palin came down from the stage, all heck broke loose. Paparazzi were jockeying for position to take pictures. People swarmed to Palin like bees to honey. They were screaming for Sarah to look in their direction and autograph things. While the police did not have a problem controlling the crowd, the patriots' excitement level bordered on frenzy. They loved her.
Read the entire article here. Read more...
International Community to Greece: If You Want Bailout, Privatize Health Care
Unbelievable. Via Investor's Business Daily:
Greece was told that if it wanted a bailout, it needed to consider privatizing its government health care system. So tell us again why the U.S. is following Europe's welfare state model.
The requirement, part of a deal arranged by the IMF, the European Union and the European Central bank, is a tacit admission that national health care programs are unsustainable. Along with transportation and energy, the bailout group, according to the New York Times, wants the Greek government to remove "the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors."
This is not some cranky or politically motivated demand. It is a condition based on the ugly reality of government medicine. The Times reports that economists - not right-wingers opposed to health care who want to blow up Times Square - say liberalizing "the health care industry would help bring down prices in these areas, which are among the highest in Europe."
[...]
At what point will this nation realize that ObamaCare, lumped onto the pile of entitlements that are already headed into a financial abyss, is an expense that the nation cannot afford?
Already we've seen government agencies tell us that the initial estimates for the Democrats' health care overhaul were too low. We've watched as patients have suffered in Britain and Canada because the large demand placed on their "free" health care systems caused them to be overloaded.
We've stood in awe as Washington, refusing to hear the strong message from voters, forced on the American people a new health care system that most clearly did not want.
What more do we need to see?
Life provides us with an infinite number of situations that can teach us valuable lessons. The problems in Greece are teaching us one of those right now. If we don't learn from this history lesson, we are bound to repeat it.
More here. It's rare for me to read something that leaves me utterly speechless. This is one of those times. Read more...
Friday Open Thread
Ross Douthat: The Costs of Obamacare
Big Government: How Donald Berwick Will Run Your Health Care
Glenn Reynolds: Bureaucracy and Tyranny
Veronique de Rugy: In-the-Red State
VDH: Is Anyone Sane in Washington?
The Hill: Higher unemployment on horizon
AP: Senate panel takes up war funding measure
Hamida Ghafour: Afghanistan: A tale of two bases
WSJ: Poppy Blight Hurts Farmers, but Taliban Could Gain
Houston Chronicle: Soldiers reunite to give war hero final salute
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Governor Palin's NRA Speech on CNN Live/Palin Talks to Greta Tomorrow/Karl Rove: Palin's Good Common Sense Idea
You can catch her speech at the NRA convention on CNN Live tomorrow afternoon. It appears she will speak at the convention at around 2:45 PM EST before heading down to South Carolina to campaign for Nikki Haley.
She'll also speak with Greta tomorrow evening.
Check out PalinTV for video of Karl Rove saying that Governor Palin has a "good common sense idea."
Palin: ‘Michigan is where I went rogue’ (Update)
The Niles Star reports on the speech that Governor Palin gave this evening in Benton Harbor for the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan.
“Michigan is where I went rogue,” former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin said Thursday night, referring to the 2008 campaign trail when one Fox News reporter characterized her as such. “Michigan is America… Yes, we will endure, because it’s what we always do. We’re Americans.”
More than 3,000 people gathered at Lake Michigan College to hear the 2008 vice presidential nominee speak.
The most highly requested speaker this year said the state had always been good to her and her family...
Referring back to the 2008 campaign trail, when she was asked about Michigan “closing up shop and moving out,” she said her crew “took it pretty hard we couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to leave…
“The campaign’s decision to give up on Michigan was almost symbolic of a bigger problem,” Palin said, adding that people shouldn’t give up on any place in America.
The “genesis of economic challenges here seem to have a lot to do with the unsustainable costs with doing business in Michigan,” she said.
Saying she isn’t anti-union, Palin said some union bosses created costs that led business to other states.
Palin compared Michigan to New Jersey and the $10 billion deficit its governor recently inherited.
“Of course the economy here can be fixed, but it’s going to take tough decisions,” Palin said. “Change can happen.
“A lot of Michigan folks provide the great example though of what the rest of the nation is fighting for, and it’s why we should never give up,” she said.
“America is keeping its eye on this state,” Palin said, adding that she knows many small business owners are struggling to keep doors open and some workers are carrying the burden of even more than one job.
“Washington’s way is not the right way” she said to get the country’s problems resolved. “It’s out of touch, it’s out of date and those running the show, I think, are running out of time.”
Government is growing, “breaking faith with the people it’s supposed to be serving,” she said.
She attacked President Obama’s stimulus bill, which, she said, “put us on track to quadrupling our deficit.”
Palin said the left is setting up future generations to be “left with the bill” which she said was virtual “generational theft.”
She also described Obama’s healthcare bill as “Obamacare” and said it was a European style bill that would lead to more problems than it would create.
“In Europe it seems as though in some cases work has become almost an option,” Palin said European practices as a “socialist paradise” and a “utopia for it’s people” has resulted in a bill that it seemed America might be left to clean up and she said there was a threat that America could be on the same road.
Touching on the financial crisis currently facing Greece, Palin said some leaders in American “think they’re marching us toward a utopia but they’re marching us toward the edge of a cliff,” Palin said. “We need to learn a lesson from what we see.
“The debt is not just a domestic concern you guys,” she said. “Without an economically strong America able to fight and take a predominant position in the world, where will we be?”
Turning to national security, Palin criticized the Obama administration for making a point to read Miranda rights to Faisal Shahzad, who attempted a deadly terrorist attack in Times Square in New York.
“The terrorist that attack us, yes they’re certainly violent but they are certainly motivated by a radical” belief in Islam.
“We are in a war and we must be in it to win,” she said.
A new type of terrorist has emerged, Palin said, saying Americans have seen evidence of that in the Times Square bomber.
“If an American citizen either born here or naturalized chooses” to fight with terrorists against America “who want to fight this country because they hate this country, should we questions their rights?”
Doing so, Palin said, “is in my opinion what you call treason.”
The economy can’t be grown by growing government, Palin said, but rather by one small business, one entrepreneur at a time.
“Washington needs to lower taxes for small business,” she said, and support innovation and a strong work ethic.
You can read the entire article here.
Update: WSJM has more on the event. Read more...
Governor Palin Endorses Nikki Haley in GOP South Carolina Gubernatorial Primary (Update)
The Haley for Governor campaign has issued the following press release
Columbia, SC - Today, the Haley for Governor campaign is proud to announce that former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be joining Representative Nikki Haley in Columbia tomorrow evening, Friday, May 14th, in support of her candidacy for Governor.
In response to Governor Palin's endorsement, Nikki Haley said "It is a tremendous honor to receive Governor Palin's endorsement. Sarah Palin has energized the conservative movement like few others in our generation. She has helped millions of Americans find the power of their voice. I am extremely proud that she has offered her support to my candidacy."
Nikki Haley, state representative from Lexington, has been an advocate for fiscal responsibility, transparency in government, and conservative values since her first day as a state legislator in 2005.
Governor Palin and Representative Haley will appear together at a public event at 5:30 pm in Columbia tomorrow evening. Details on location will follow.
Update: Marc Ambinder writes:
Nikki Haley's gubernatorial campaign in South Carolina will get its biggest boost yet: Sarah Palin plans to endorse her tomorrow in Columbia. Palin is in DC in the morning, and then at the National Rifle Association meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina later in the day.
Peter Hamby notes that it is Palin's first stop in South Carolina and hears that the event will be held at the South Carolina Statehouse.
Erick Erickson will be at the event tomorrow. Read more...
Palin in Benton Harbor Open Thread
She is speaking in Benton Harbor tonight for the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan. The Niles Daily Star reports that "Lake Michigan College Mendel Center [is] packed with guests awaiting speech from Alaska's former governor Sarah Palin."
-Tomorrow will be a packed day for the governor. She starts off the morning in Washington, DC "to headline a sold out fundraiser for an anti-abortion group, the Susan B. Anthony List at the Ronald Reagan Building, down the street from the White House." Also on Friday, she will headline a just-announced event for South Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley in Columbia and speak at the NRA convention in Charlotte. It's unclear whether she's speaking at the NRA event first and then heading to South Carolina or vice-versa.
-Cubachi thinks Obama's comment that Europe is a country is a Freudian slip on his part rather than another sign of how ignorant Obama is without a teleprompter delivering his remarks to him word for word.
-Former Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate and grassroots favorite Adam Andrzejewski was at the Illinois Republican Party fundraiser that Governor Palin headlined yesterday and he writes about it on his Facebook page.
-Ben Smith finds Palin's political instincts "pretty hard to fault" with her push on the Arizona/girl's basketball story.
-Here's more information on the Freedom Fest event that she is scheduled to headline in June in Norfolk.
-R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., the founder and editor-in-chief of the American Spectator, says that Governor Palin is one of the conservative movement's most promising leaders.
-The Nevada Senate GOP primary has become extremely close.
What's going on? Will tonight be LeBron's final game in a Cavs uniform?
Sarah Palin: Hey Girls, Play Ball!
A new Facebook Note from Gov. Palin.
This has-been ball player/Wasilla Warrior would like to send a shout out of support to the Highland Park High School Giants Girls Basketball Team in Illinois. These girls have been working, having bake sales, and saving money for months in order play in a hoop tournament in Arizona. They’ve won their school’s first conference title in 26 years, but now because a school bureaucrat – an assistant superintendent – wants to play politics, they’re not allowed to play ball.Read more...
Keeping girls off the court for political reasons? As I said last night in Illinois: “Them’s fightin’ words.”
The assistant superintendent claims that a trip to Arizona “would not be aligned with our beliefs and values.” But apparently the school has no problem sending kids on trips to China, which has a population control policy that is anti-girl in practice – contributing to female infanticide and abandonment and sex-selective abortions. So, is China – with its many serious human rights violations (too many to list here) – “aligned” with the “values and beliefs” of the school? But our sister-state of Arizona is not? Really? This is ridiculous and totally unfair to the girls who just want to play ball. Going to Arizona to play in a tournament will not endanger them, and the ban sure doesn’t solve the problem of unsecured borders.
These boycotts of Arizona will not help the state or lead to positive change. Economic and political boycotts of our nation’s 48th state will hurt all Arizonans – including all members of the Hispanic community. If people really want to help, they should tell President Obama to do his job: secure the border. If he were to do his job, the good people of Arizona, who have been overwhelmed by violence on their border, would not feel compelled to do it for him.
In the meantime, let’s help the girls “go rogue” and go play ball. Please take a look at this Facebook page set up on their behalf.
Let’s have our own bake sale! Let the girls play ball!
- Sarah Palin
Governor Palin on Fox News With Megyn Kelly
Earlier today, Damian posted on the Governor Palin's reaction to the surreal ruling by the Highland Park, IL High School administration to prevent their girl's basketball team from competing in a tournament in Arizona. Today Governor Palin phoned in to Fox News to discuss this bizarre case of political correctness gone wild with Megyn Kelly:
The decision was apparently made by Assistant Superintendent Suzan Hebson because she felt the Arizona law “would not be aligned” with the school's “beliefs and values”. Huh? This of course causes one to wonder what the schools beliefs and values are. Lawlessness? I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's glad their kids don't go to school in Highland Park.
Shocker: ObamaCare Isn't a Deficit Reduction Plan After All
As recently as two weeks ago, Obama was still making the absurd claim that ObamaCare "represents the biggest deficit reduction plan since the 1990s". This claim was based on a conscious effort by Pelosi, Reid, and Obama to provide the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) with data which was either phony, incomplete, or both in order to get an artificially low price tag for ObamaCare. This was done to convince wavering lawmakers who claimed to care about the debt an excuse to support the plan. We documented this accounting chicanery extensively during the ObamaCare debate. For example, go here and here. Tuesday the CBO threw cold water on this bogus deficit reduction claim when they revised the projected cost of ObamaCare upwards by another $115 billion. Via Jake Tapper:
The director of the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the health care reform legislation would cost, over the next ten years, $115 billion more than previously thought, bringing the total cost to more than $1 trillion.
The revised figure is due to estimated costs to federal agencies to implement the new health care reform bill – such as administrative expenses for the Internal Revenue Services and the Department of Health and Human Services -- and the costs for a "variety of grant and other program spending for which specified funding levels for one or more years are provided in the act."
Again, this comes as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention (which apparently excludes most of the mainstream media). With Governor Palin and others sounding the alarm about ObamaCare's unsustainability, it's difficult to imagine Obama and his Democrat cronies thought they could hide the true costs forever. Expect the price tag to continually be revised upward since the actual ten-year cost of the massive new entitlement is closer to $2.5 trillion, and even that's probably conservative when all the unintended consequences become clear. This latest news on Obama's fiscal insanity gives me an excuse to post a video Sinistar emailed me a few days ago from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P). This video looks at the dangerous fiscal path on which Obama has placed this country with his catastrophic spending. (Note: Mel also posted this video in this morning's open thread.)
I'll close with a few quick points. The narrator in the video refers to the fact that our debt to GDP ratio is expected to hit 90% in ten years. As discussed in an earlier post, I believe that even this alarming number is understated. The narrator also correctly points out that the only way to avert a fiscal crisis like that being experienced in Greece is to reduce spending, not raise taxes. It's clear, however, that Obama will go the latter route. The only reason he established the so-called "debt commission" is to provide political cover so he can break his campaign pledge to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000.
Peter Orszag, Obama's Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), began backtracking on this pledge yesterday, changing it from a "pledge" to a "preference". A tax increase will do nothing to reduce the deficit, as the narrator noted in the above video. Further tax increases will only result in slower economic growth. Slower growth will necessitate higher transfer payments, less tax revenue, and larger deficits. This is something Europe in general, and Greece in particular, is discovering with disastrous fiscal ramifications. Speaking of Greece, the moronic quote of the day has to go to OMB Director Orszag:
"We want to make sure we never wind up facing the sorts of choices that Greece now faces," White House budget director Peter Orszag told Reuters Insider in an interview.
Dude! If your goal is to avoid a fiscal situation like that which Greece is currently facing, do you really think ramming a massive and unaffordable new entitlement program down our throats is the correct way to go about it? Just asking.
(H/T Sinistar) Read more...
Governor Palin Takes on Highland Park High School's Arizona Boycott
Those of you who read Sheya's post about Governor Palin's speech at Wednesday's Rosemont, Illinois fundraiser already know of her disgust at Highland Park High School's refusing to allow their girls' basketball team to play in a tournament in Arizona due to the newly-passed immigration law:
"Them are fighting words when you say a girl can't play in the basketball tournament, so were going to see about that," she said. Noting that the girls had bake sales to pay their way to the national finals for the first time in 26 years, Palin suggested conservatives could get the girls to Arizona despite the school board which opposes Arizona's strict new laws against illegal aliens.Palin noted the school is still sponsoring a trip to China."You know how they treat girls in China?" Palin said. "It makes no sense. Even if they have to do this on our own... If the kids have to 'Go Rogue' girls."
Why is Highland Park High School cancelling the girls' trip? Read on:
Parents in Illinois are outraged over a move by a local high school to scrap its girls basketball team's trip to Arizona over the Grand Canyon State’s new immigration law.The Highland Park High School varsity basketball team has been selling cookies for months to raise money for a tournament in Arizona..Now, after winning their first conference title in 26 years, the girls are being denied the opportunity to play in the tournament over safety concerns and because the trip “would not be aligned” with the school's “beliefs and values,” Assistant Superintendent Suzan Hebson told the Chicago Tribune.Hebson said Arizona is off-limits, at least until it’s more clear how the state’s new law, which makes it a crime to be in the country illegally, will be enforced."We would want to ensure that all of our students had the opportunity to be included and be safe and be able to enjoy the experience," Hebson told the Tribune about the tournament. "We wouldn't necessarily be able to guarantee that."Parents said there was no vote or consultation regarding the decision, which they called confusing, especially since they say no players on the team are illegal immigrants.
The piece goes on to quote one parent, who also noted the China trip is still on the table.
Palin's not letting this issue go. Later that night, she tweeted (with link about event added):
How does Arizona boycott help secure US borders?It doesn't, so let Highland Park girls basketball team travel there. We'll be in AZ Saturday
And this:
Highland Park says ok 4 student trip 2 CHINA,but not r sister state-Arizona-bc they fear AZ's"not aligned w/r beliefs&values" And CHINA is?
This is not the first time Governor Palin has addressed China's lacklustre human rights record. In her speech to the CLSA in Hong Kong last year, she addressed human rights and democracy in China:
Read more...It is very much in our interest and the interest of regional stability that China work out its own contradictions – between a dynamic and entrepreneurial private sector on the one hand and a one party state unwilling or unable to adjust to its own society’s growing needs and desires and demands, including a human being’s innate desire for freedom.I do not cite these issues out of any hostility toward China. Quite the contrary, I and all Americans of good faith hope for the Chinese people’s success. We welcome the rise that can be so good for all mankind. We simply urge China to rise responsibly. I simply believe we cannot ignore areas of disagreement as we seek to move forward on areas of agreement. Believe me, China does not hesitate to tell us when it thinks we are in the wrong.I mentioned China’s internal contradictions. They should concern us all. We hear many Chinese voices throughout that great country calling out for more freedom, and for greater justice. Twenty years ago, many believed that as China liberalized its economy, greater political freedom would naturally follow. Unfortunately that has not come to pass.Ummm, in fact, it seems China has taken great pains to learn what it sees as “the lesson” of the fall on the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union: any easing of political constraints can inevitably spin out of control. But, in many ways, it is the essence of China’s political system that leads to concerns about its rise.Think about it. How many books and articles have been written about the dangers of India’s rise? Almost as large as China – and soon to be more populous – virtually no one worries about the security implications of India becoming a great power – just as a century ago the then-preeminent power, Great Britain, worried little about the rise of America to great power status. My point is that the more politically open and just China is, the more Chinese citizens of every ethnicity will settle disputes in courts rather than on the streets. The more open it is, the less we will be concerned about its military build-up and intentions. The more transparent China is, the more likely it is they we will find a true and lasting friendship based on shared values as well as interests.I am not talking about some U.S.-led “democracy crusade.” We cannot impose our values on other counties. Nor should we seek to. But the ideas of freedom, liberty and respect for human rights are not U.S. ideas, they are much more than that. They are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many other international covenants and treaties. They apply to citizens in Shanghai as much as they do to citizens in Johannesburg or Jakarta. And demands for liberty in China are Chinese, not American, demands. Just last year, many brave Chinese signed Charter 08, a Chinese document modeled on the great Czech statesman Vlacav Havel’s Charter 77. Charter 08 would not be unfamiliar to our Founding Fathers and was endorsed by Havel himself. No, we need not convince the Chinese people that they have inalienable rights. They are calling for those rights themselves. But we do have to worry about a China where the government suppresses the liberties its people hold dear.[...]I see a bright future for America in Asia. One based on the alliances that have gotten us this far, one based on free and open markets, one that integrates democratic India into East Asia’s political life and one in which China decides to be a responsible member of the international community and gives its people the liberty – the freedom – they so desperately want.
Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois — and so was Sarah Palin’s 2012 presidential campaign. Our analysis of Palin’s Rosemont and Washington speeches.
Today we are privileged to have another guest submission by Kevin DuJan, Founder & Editor of HillBuzz.org. Kevin attended Governor Palin's speech last night in Chicago, as well as her speech a few weeks ago in Washington, IL. He and his team at HillBuzz worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential run, then started Democrats for McCain in Illinois and helped a Republican candidate for the first time ever in that race. He and the guys at HillBuzz lobbied hard for McCain to pick Governor Palin as his running mate in 2008, and are proud to be committed Palin supporters living and writing in Boystown in Chicago. It is their mission to teach Palin supporters all they can about the DNC and media efforts to attack Governor Palin, so what was done to Hillary in 2008 is not done to the Governor, using that same Alinsky playbook against a strong female candidate the Left intends to destroy. Kevin has been quite busy lately and is still planning on joining C4P as a regular contributor to do everything he can to help Governor Palin in her efforts to stand up for America.
We’ve spotted Todd Palin a half dozen times now at events we’ve attended where Governor Palin has spoken, both on the 2008 Vice Presidential campaign trail in cities like St. Louis and Indianapolis, and in the years since, most recently in Rosemont and Washington, Illinois.
Todd’s there, in a sharp suit with colorful tie, standing behind dark, heavy curtains. He’s off to the side, out of the way backstage, watching his wife fire up the awesome on all cylinders before enthusiastic crowds hanging on her every word. There’s a twinkle in his husky blue eyes and the first twitch of a smile on a crisply-goateed impish face straining desperately to remain serious, surrounded as he is by burly men in suits with ear pieces, cell phones, iPads, and itineraries aplenty. Though the Palins are very much in the national big time now, and will be for the rest of their lives, Todd’s seemingly still very much “just Todd” — a regular, huntin’, fishin’, snowmachinin’, g’-droppin’, dude from Wasilla, married to an incredible woman he still can’t believe he was lucky enough to sweep off her feet. That smile’s a “I can’t believe we’re doing this” smile, married perfectly to a “What did I ever do to deserve a woman as awesome as this?” grin. It’s a match as natural, easy-going, and honest as the Palins themselves.
Todd’s a husband filled to bursting with pride in his wife and — like the rest of the people in whatever room in which she’s speaking — he’s simultaneously a proud American watching the 45th President of the United States taking the first steps of her nascent presidential campaign. There’s something about the way he looks at her when she’s speaking that tells us Todd’s not the least bit surprised by any of this, either. He’s always believed in her. He knew her determination and personal strength back when he watched her smoke her competition on the basketball court, when he was sitting in the bleachers marveling at the skills and prowess of the dynamo he’d soon marry. The woman who would grow up to be president — when America needed her most.
All these years later, that high school “Saracuda” is off the court and on the national stage, but she’s very much the Thrilla from Wasilla when her team — now expanded exponentially to the entire nation — is looking for its leader.
Twice in the last month we’ve had the sincere and unbelievable privilege of watching the Palins up close as the Governor delivered two important addresses in our home state of Illinois.
In both speeches, Palin cited President Ronald Reagan as a driving influence in her life and political career, drawing great attention to the fact Reagan was born and educated in Illinois — the state in which we believe Palin will officially launch her 2012 presidential bid on February 6th, 2011…Reagan’s 100th birthday. She’ll do it – we betcha – in either Tampico or Eureka, two cities in our state intimately connected to Reagan. And she’ll do it in the face of all the naysayers and talking heads in the Lamestream Media who obsessively strive every day to destroy her, to ridicule her, to mock her, and to tear her down. Because the media wants Barack Obama to win a second term, and they know Sarah Palin is the only thing that can stop that.
As supporters of Hillary Clinton, who worked tirelessly for her for two years until she suspended her presidential campaign in June of 2008, we know what it’s like to watch someone we respect and admire — someone we know would make an excellent president — come under constant and unrelenting attack from the Left and its propaganda arm (the paid spokespeople like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Anderson Cooper, and Rachel Maddow in the agenda-driven media). We see, clearly, the Left thumbing through the Alinsky Methods playbook it employed against Hillary in 2008, desperately trying to sink Palin early, to hobble her, to take her out of contention so the media can install a losing, mayonnaise-and-cucumbers milquetoast sandwich “it’s his turn” Republican like Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty as the Republicans’ 2012 nominee — to further the media’s pursuit of handing Barack Obama a second term.
But, in speech after speech, we see Sarah Heath Palin smacking back — HARD — as she lays the foundation for her presidential campaign in soon-to-be-historic addresses delivered in Obama’s own adoptive backyard of Illinois.
When she comes to places like Rosemont and Washington, she comes to speak, but not in the droning tone of professorial Obama descended from styrofoam-pillored Olympus with his edicts of the day, acolytes scattering lotus flowers at his feet and pouring sweet nectar of Lethe into poisoned chalices for the ignorant to drink. No, Palin’s not a pretender, a poser, not someone who spent countless hours listening to tapes of Jeremiah Wright’s fiery speeches to learn the cadences he’d need to sell his snake oil with maximum theatrics. Palin is not Obama the Lightbringer, the ethereal and magical being whom Oprah crowned “The One” and legions of cultish admirers paint astride unicorns in twisted fan art and hero worship. And that’s just the Nobel Prize committee.
Thursday Open Thread
James Pethokoukis: How to Pay Down the Debt
Hot Air: Mortgage applications drop 9.5% after end of tax credit
Kathryn Nix: Obamacare: A Hard Pill to Swallow for Physicians
NRO: Will Any of Us Be Able to Keep Our Current Plans?
IBD: So Much For ObamaCare's Savings
AP: Budget office clarifies ObamaCare costs update
Reuters: Senate Preserves Central Bank's Power
USA Today: Don't use oil spill as excuse to deep-six domestic drilling
Ernest Istook: Insiders Cash In, Consumers Pay Under New Energy Bill
AP: No solid framework to tackle Iran nuke threat: ex-White House official
Barack Obama Says that Europe Is a Country
Uffda found the following video:
Unlike any of the allegations leveled against Governor Palin, this video is definitive proof against Barack Obama. Without his teleprompter feeding his remarks to him word for word, Barack Obama clearly says "countries like Europe" at around the ten-second mark of this video. Is there any reason to believe that Barack Obama knows that Europe is a continent, rather than a country, when he cannot read the words off his safety net? Is any liberal really prepared to argue that video is not superior evidence to unnamed sources?
Governor Palin in Chicago: "You Win By Letting the Middle Move to You"
At around the 7:30 mark of Part III (courtesy of PalinTV), she says that instead of moving to the middle to win elections, Republicans need to move the middle towards them.
A Message from Sarah Palin
If you are a donor to SarahPAC, you would have received the following message in the mail:
I am inspired by the American patriots across our nation who want to bring Congress back to the ideas of our Founding Fathers.
The White House and Congress need to hear that Americans don't want cradle-to-grave government control of our lives. We don't want government bureaucrats deciding what kind of light bulbs we should use, what kind of cars we should drive, and which doctors can and can't care for us and our families.
Republicans recently took victory away from liberals in three states and sent a message to Congress and the White House that Americans are fed up with politicians trying to impose more big-government policies on our nation.
Now I'm asking for your help to carry that momentum across the country.
What Americans want is a return to the values our Founding Fathers fought and died for. Government should get out of our way so we can raise our families, run our businesses, and keep more of our hard-earned money.
So many people have asked me what can we do to save our country from politicians who want to take away our basic rights. What we can do...is join the effort and help send pro-family, pro-America patriots who share our beliefs to Congress.
If you're ready to join the movement, please use the enclosed reply form to send your best gift possible to SarahPAC today. We'll use it to change our nation back to the ideas that matter to all of us. Thank you for joining me to keep America the country we know and love.
With an Alaskan Heart,
Sarah Palin
If you didn't get the letter, you can donate here. Read more...
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Governor Palin Takes On Obama in Rosemont (Update: Hillbuzz weighs in)
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin brought 4,000 Chicago-area fans to their feet Wednesday night, attacking President Obama, corrupt Illinois politicians and a Highland Park school that told its girl's basketball team it could not go to the play-offs in Arizona.
"Them are fighting words when you say a girl can't play in the basketball tournament, so were going to see about that," she said. Noting that the girls had bake sales to pay their way to the national finals for the first time in 26 years, Palin suggested conservatives could get the girls to Arizona despite the school board which opposes Arizona's strict new laws against illegal aliens.
Palin noted the school is still sponsoring a trip to China.
"You know how they treat girls in China?" Palin said. "It makes no sense. Even if they have to do this on our own... If the kids have to 'Go Rogue' girls."
Palin led off by saying, "I'm really glad to be here on the president's home turf... The eyes of America are on this state, watching what will come out of th political process and the 2012 elections: If it can be done in Illinois, it can be done anywhere."
She thanked Illinois for giving the world Ronald Reagan and the Tea Party movement.
"The 21st Century Tea Party movement, it starts right here in Chicago," Palin said to cheers. "This is where it starts. So Illinois, your place in the history of this grass movement has been instrumental.
Also from the Associated Press:
Sarah Palin aimed a few zingers at President Barack Obama during a speech in a Chicago suburb.
Palin said Wednesday evening that what she called the nation's "recent hookup with hope and change" is not a long-term relationship.
The former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee addressed a sold-out crowd of about 4,300 people in Rosemont.
She said Obama buffaloed people to win by trying to sound more conservative than he really was.
Palin said Obama and the Democrats wrongly think Americans should be grateful for what they've done - including passing a massive health care overhaul.
She said Americans will show how grateful they are in November by voting people out of office.
More Here, Here and Here
Update: Here's the Bloomberg article.
Update #2: Hillbuzz was in attendance and thought it "was very much a presidential campaign speech by Palin."
Update #3: The Chicago Daily Herald has a write-up. Read more...
Chicago Sun Times: Sarah Palin impresses top GOPs at Ill. fund-raiser
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Former GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin impressed Illinois’ top Republicans willing to spend $500 to $25,000 at a fund-raiser for the state party Wednesday.Read more...
“We talked about the situation in Illinois — the deficit, the high taxes, job creation,” said the party’s nominee for governor, State Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington. “I told her, ‘Your being here is helping rally the troops and get the message out.’”
Brady and his lieutenant governor candidate, Jason Plummer, both made last-minute decisions to attend the party fund-raiser. But GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk, who has tried to cultivate a more moderate image, said his congressional voting obligations would keep him in Washington, D.C. Wednesday night.
“She came in and was gracious enough to help us raise money,” said state Sen. Jim Durkin. “It was very low-key, no speeches. She just met with people and talked with them. She said we have the chance to win many seats. People were very eager to take out their check books.”
Durkin brought a picture he took with Palin, himself and Mike Ditka at a Latrobe, Pa., rally a week before the 2008 election, which Palin signed for him.
“She said this could be a good year for Republicans,” State GOP Chairman Patrick Brady said.
“It was a moving experience,” said former GOP candidate for governor Adam Andrzejewski. “She was very personable. She was encouraging us to keep up the fight for reform in Illinois.”
Some 4,000 Sarah Palin fans paid the more reasonable but still-steep $56 to spend “An Evening with Sarah Palin” at the Rosemont Theater, scheduled to start later Wednesday.
Chicago Open Thread (Update: Palin sells out Rosemont GOP fundraiser)
Governor Palin is speaking in Chicago tonight at a fundraiser for the Illinois Republican Party and then at an event for AM WIND-560 titled "An Evening With Sarah Palin." Hotair's Ed Morrissey and Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady will be in attendance. Until then, here's what I've got:
-An interview that she did with Fox News about education will air this Saturday in a special hosted by Tucker Carlson.
-Governor Palin is speaking at the NRA convention this Friday night in Queen City. The event is expected to be "Charlotte's biggest-ever convention."
-Longtime Democrat Party hack Allan Boyd will likely go down this November. He trails his Republican opponent by double-digits in Florida's second congressional district. He was one of Governor Palin's targets.
-Democrat Party criminal Alexi Giannoulias has made an ad about Palin and Mark Kirk. I actually don't think Kirk is Alexi's real opponent in this race. Alexi's real opponent in the Justice Department.
-The 2012 Republican National Convention will be held in Tampa.
-"The RNC is likely to make radical changes to its presidential selection process at this summer's semi-annual meeting, pushing back the date on which the first states can hold their nominating contests." I think the rule change has pros and cons for Palin but overall, it's good news.
-The Pew Research Center found that "[t]he public broadly supports a new Arizona law aimed at dealing with illegal immigration and the law’s provisions giving police increased powers to stop and detain people who are suspected of being in the country illegally."
What's going on today?
Update: Here's a sample of what she talked to Fox News about for its education special:
Update #2: Holly Bailey for Yahoo! News responds to Ben Smith's insinuation yesterday about what the release date for Governor Palin's new book meant for a prospective presidential run.
Also, Rand Paul appears to have his primary battle sown-up with Trey Grayson.
Update #3: ABC7 reports that "Palin sells out Rosemont GOP fundraiser" and that "[m]ore than 4,000 people are paying between $99 and $299 to see the author and 2008 vice presidential candidate."
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