Sarahcuda's on the move

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made her own declaration of independence yesterday by announcing that she's resigning as governor of Alaska. It was another gutsy and smart move on her part that has confounded the experts and has many writing her political obituary. I believe it's just wishful thinking on their part and these folks have no clue what just hit them.

Since Sen. John McCain chose her to run as his vice-president she, her family, and her staff have been through the wringer as opponents have turned over every rock in hopes of taking her down. Every time she sneezed a FOIA request was filed demanding to know what kind of facial tissue she used, where it was disposed, a doctor's report on her health and who else was in the room that might become infected. Tennessee's own Rep. Mike Kernell's (D-Memphis) son David, entered into the battle by pulling the boneheaded move of hacking into Palin's email account. In this battle nothing was off limits. Absolutely, nothing. 15 ethics complaints were filed...all were eventually dismissed. The attack dogs had the deep financial pockets of various organizations and entities. The Palin's had their household income and a few friends to pay off $500,000 in lawyer fees. Politics saw a new level of dirty. Some made it their life goal to grind this family below ground.

The only thing that could be done to stop this most nasty warfare was to leave the political fishbowl that provided so much fodder for her enemies to cull through. Now that Palin's life is private she has the freedom to do a great deal. She has very effectively cut off that distracting and resource sucking nonsense. Hopefully, she'll quickly hit the speaker's circuit and bring in more than enough cash to pay off those lawyer fees. Then she can earn a tidy sum to care for the family. The best revenge, they say, is living well.

In the meantime she's making more and more friends and creating even more supporters across the nation. She'll be priming the conservative pump that will begin gushing and overfilling the pots that will steep all this TEA that's being brewed across the nation. Her enemies may have pushed her out of office but the result will be a stronger, freer and even more effective Sarahcuda.

2008-12-15 Roundup

Nail in the NOW coffin: Women outearn men at top business jobs.

A Carnegie Mellon University study has concluded that women executives out-earn their male counterparts.

The study, which examined 16,000 executives over 14 years, found that women at the top of the business world bring in a bit more than men and are promoted at the same rate, countering the popular notion that women earn less than men for the same work. (snip)

The largest empirical analysis of the top echelons of publicly traded companies determined that women earned about $100,000 more per year than men of the same age, educational background and experience.Via Post Gazette

Mayor Deans calls for obeying Open Records Laws: Well, that's not the headline in the Tennessean but it should have been. Ben Cunningham points out that the new 'rules' Dean set for open records request are minimal and he could, and should, go much further if he really wants to do the job right. Since Dean is also acting as Superintendent of Schools I'll add to Ben's list "ditto for MNPS". Prosperity Project has more. One of Ben's suggestions is:

- Assign staff to review each department's records and determine if important records can be digitized for easy online access by citizens.

For me, getting the full MNPS BOE agenda packet online didn't happen until I talked with the Board Secretary and we realized that the photocopier she was already using to copy the agenda to create the Board's hard copies (being delivered by courier, btw) could also create pdf documents. I suspect there are very few documents that couldn't be digitized. The question will be how to get the system into the habit of doing so. This is where the clerical staff can be our friends.

I'll add to the list that I'd like to see proposed budget documents released in Excel format also so that others can move the numbers around during the discussion of where the money should go.

Did the mayor bring an interpreter or was that Crafton? Rex also comments on the recent celebration of the Japanese emperor's birthday where Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Councilman Eric Crafton met. Rex found it ironic considering they are on opposite sides of the English as Official Language charter amendment. Rex should have mentioned that of the two gentlemen only Crafton could express best wishes of the day to their Japanese hosts in fluent Japanese.

Goose/Gander: Can someone explain to me how the Faith Leaders for All of Us (Really? ALL of us?) can use The Bible to influence public policy but Two Rivers Baptist or Cornerstone Church can't? What's the difference? Oh, that's right...they're not LEFT-wing fundys.

And one more on left-wing fundys unable to MoveOn: Someone torched Gov. Sarah Palin's church over the weekend. Let's hope they were unaware that the church was occupied at the time or else let's call this attempted murder and lock 'em away for their lives. Donations can be mailed to: Wasilla Bible Church, 1651 W. Nicola Avenue, Wasilla Alaska 99654

Palin trumps O'Biden

I rushed home from a neighborhood meeting and joined The Debate about 10 minutes into it.

I'm sure the left is tremendously disappointed that Gov. Sarah Palin didn't crash and burn. I believe many were certain she'd do herself and McCain in last night. It didn't happen. Didn't even come close to happening. From my seat on the couch she won because she held her own while being toe to toe with a 36 year veteran of political bloviating of the highest order.

Gov. Palin started out slowly but it didn't take her long to find her groove and get her and Senator John McCain's message in front of the television viewers. Her delivery was animated and passionate and she saved it from being the boring droning session these debates usually are. So confident was she that at the end she was giving a shout out to her brother's 3rd grade class as if it were a small townhall meeting instead of a high stakes debate. She succeeded in making it clear that while Obama and O'Biden may say 'middle class' in their speeches, Palin and her family are middle class and really do understand what the struggles are for those Americans.

She hammered home the point that government is more often a hindrance to getting things done. She belabored the greed on Wall Street line and I wished she'd pushed stronger on Congress' part in our current debacle. Thankfully, she mentioned personal responsibility in all this which is an important element that shouldn't be glossed over.

I loved it that she sees the VP job is being more than hanging out wait for the President to die and breaking tie votes. I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops. Biden disagreed at that moment but later said he'd be in on all the meetings/decisions with Obama...sounds much broader than his version of the Constitutional job description and only served to point out Obama's need to have more experence in the room.

Her absolute support for Israel, including putting our embassy in Jerusalem, was terrific! I was very glad to hear her strong statements, once again, in support of this nation.

She's right, Obama isn't ready to be Commander in Chief. That's clear from their insistence that they'll pull out on a timetable that the enemy can use to schedule their next attack.

Another strong statement: Marriage is between one man and one woman.

We howled with laughter when Palin mistakenly called Senator Joe Biden "O'Biden". I think that's going to stick.

Glad she put it to the media for filtering her comments. Apparently ABC, after getting burned with cut and paste job they did with the Gibson interview, was listening as on their Good Morning America broadcast this morning they emphasized that the entire speech was available on their website for viewing. An excellent hopeful and upbeat ending.

O'Biden's Cheshire Cat smile was creepy and condescending. It came across to me as saying 'We'll let the little woman talk but we know it doesn't really mean anything." The children wondered what was up with his Vulcan-like forehead. I wondered how a lawyer and head of the Judicial Committee in the Senate wasn't able to succinctly describe Chapters 7 and 13 of the bankruptcy code. Why on Earth would he give those judges the right to amend the principal amount on a loan??? I got tired of hearing Biden say 'it's fair'. His statement that he'd be in all the meetings with Obama only confirmed to me that was going to happen because Obama wasn't experienced enough to run things on his own. His emotional moment at the end may have started sincerely, but I do believe that he realized it could be useful and went with it. Very Clintonesque.

I'm betting Biden is glad there is only one vice-presidential debate. I suspect Obama is glad he doesn't have to debate her either.

Palin's ABC interview III

From Friday night through Sunday I got to hear Charlie Gibson's interview with Governor Sarah Palin several more times. Each ABC broadcast, on TV and their radio affiliate, varied slightly from the other broadcasts. I've come to the conclusion that the original tape has been so sliced and spliced that I doubt my mother and her aging peers at the elderly high rise, all extraordinary jigsaw puzzlers, could put this thing back in its original form. So, it's my opinion the interview is now only worthwhile in pointing out the hubris of ABC news and its Charlie Gibson and demonstrating the grace under fire that Palin possesses. America is seeing for itself that despite being subjected to such low-life tactics and intense and unfair interrogation Gov. Palin hasn't resorted to whining or complaining but instead has proven that she's a feminist of the best kind. She has taken it like a strong, confident woman and demonstrated she has what it takes to play with the big boys.

The whining is only coming from the left who insist that they haven't done anything wrong and it is necessary to vet her for the job of president (never mind she's running for VICE-President). Sunday's Tennessean editorial by their Mark Silverman called the complaints "Hogwash".

Yet as soon as national reporters began introducing Gov. Palin to the American people, the uproar began: The press is out to destroy her. What's more, the critics charged, there is a liberal conspiracy to discredit a conservative woman.

Hogwash.

The grilling and the consistent repeating of less than the truth as well as Kos rumors is not mere introduction it's a hit job intended to take her out of contention. Most likely because she's the wrong kind of woman in their eyes and they're in panic mode at the thought of someone who has actually earned her position making their affirmative action candidate look bad.

Further, Silverman encourages his diminishing readership:

"My advice is that you use as many different news sources as possible."

His advice is exactly correct. You won't get the whole story from the Tennessean to be sure. And his admission points out that it's a new era, one where you can no longer trust your hometown paper to provide accurate and in depth coverage of substance. Call it the Gannettization of news delivery--all the news that is flashy, easy to obtain and fits within the editorial bias and budget. Thankfully, Internet users have readily available options at hand to put the lie to print outlets such as Silverman's. I suggest folks start with http://Lucianne.com which is a site I read long before getting around to reading the Tennessean.

Palin's ABC interview II

This morning's Good Morning America segments with Governor Palin's were more helpful than last night's hatchet job. However, Gibson's down-the-nose-over-the-glasses-condescension was even more irritating the second time through. I've seen him do interviews before. I don't recall him being so severe and patronizing.

And then came Jake Tapper's "Fact check" on what Gov. Palin said. However, Tapper needs some fact checking himself.

1. Palin said if you go back in history there are probably lots of VP's who never met a world leader. So Tapper goes a mere 32 years back into history to discover that no living VP has not met world leaders before becoming VP and stamps her statement with a big red FALSE! They went all the way back to Nelson Rockefeller who was appointed in 1974 (that's 34 years, Jake) and is conveniently dead. They stopped there. Maybe because that's where VP's who've met heads of state pretty much ends?

Please. Osama Bin Laden quotes from the Balfour Declaration and we're going to judge someone's worthiness to be VICE-president on a convenient 32 year example? We're going to deal with the Chinese who remember and frame their policy based on thousands of years of history and we can't be bothered to go back through our mere 232 years? This during a time when it's never been easier to research any world leader with a few clicks on the computer by viewing video, text and comments from around the world. Is a mere meeting more valuable than knowing about them?

2. In a desperate effort to put flip-flops on Palin Tapper stamps her statement that man may have an impact on the environment as FALSE because she said last year she's not a Gorebot saying:

"I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity."

Really, folks, anyone who spends any time in nature, like a woman who hunts and fishes for a living, realizes that man has an impact on our environment but that's a long way from taking all the blame. She, like lots of people, isn't convinced they're not cyclical changes we're currently observing. So, because she fails to worship at the alter of global warming (and prays in a church for God's will to be done) she's not qualified to be Vice-President?

Her opponents are coming across as tremendously desperate which, I believe is good news for the country. Desperate people make mistakes and the Obama campaign cannot afford many more mistakes. It won't take much more before they've alienated more than enough normal Americans to lose the election.

Palin's ABC interview

I got to see the ABC exclusive interview with Alaska Governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin. Two things:

1. Charlie Gibson pressed really hard to get Palin to admit that she isn't qualified to be VP, let alone President. She didn't. She stood firm and said she didn't hesitate to accept McCain's offer.

2. I don't think I've EVER seen such a choppy editing job. Over and over again the audio was removed from the video while they made a transition to the next sound bite. Clearly, she hadn't completed her thought but ABC had heard enough and thought we had too. I'd really like to see a fuller copy of the interview so I can judge for myself what gatekeeping ABC cut out.

She's a winner!

VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin was fabulous last night. The women of the Brooks' household were so excited to see this strong woman, mom and wife. I was so thankful my children got to see what was possible. I was thankful that it's going to be a conservative woman who makes it to the White House first and it won't be because she was married to a former president while wedded to the wrong headed feminists of yesteryear but because she'd worked hard at serving her communities and that hard work was noticed. Her road started by volunteering to help in her children's school and may very well include being the very first female president of this great nation before her political journey ends.

From my point of view I was excited to finally see Palin begin to put the lie to much of the nasty elements of the left have offered over and over that she wasn't ready and didn't have the experience necessary. Obviously, they were stunned she'd done so well last night after the week they'd given her. They expected a mouse of a woman and she roared! She strode onto that stage a confident woman ready accept the job of vice-president with full knowledge, by then, that she wasn't going to be coddled because she was a girl. No pantsuits for her. Her hair was done up and her heels were on. She was the sort of feminist I'm proud to vote for, dressed for battle as only a woman can be.

Last night she pushed back at the nastiest, most hateful, most despicable tactics I've seen in my lifetime which came from the bottom feeders of the political arena. Former presidental candidate Mike Huckabee was right when he called the media and left wing attacks on Palin as "Tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert." Seriously, what hope is there for the Democrat Party when these forces are driving their policy?

The more the Democrats and their Daily Kos and MoveOn handlers demean small town people (who vote), their mayors (who vote), mothers (who vote), women (who vote) and parents who suddenly find themselves grandparents (who vote) who is going to be left to vote for them? We may be clinging to God and guns but they are clinging to a view of America that Rudy Guiliani acknowledged last night which discounts most of America because it isn't as comopolitian or flashy as they think it should be. Because we're on the right side of the political world we're unsophisticated rubes. One female talking head the other day said that the women supporting Palin weren't like the college educated women supporting Hillary Clinton. She was right, we're not like them but that doesn't make us uneducated as well as unsophisticated! Is there no end to their ability to insult voters?

How is it that Palin's daughter's mistake is a deal breaker in their eyes, but Bill Clinton's conduct isn't? How is it that a man who has spent more time writing about himself and campaigning for president is considered more qualified to run this nation than any mother of five? The sound bites from Obama this week have regularly referred to her as a small town mayor and completely ignored her two years as governor of Alaska in a desperate effort to make her less than what she is because he is less than what he says.

And while it's been frustrating to see the obvious hatchet job the media and their Democrat friends are doing on Palin it was great to see her zing them last night. She wasn't hateful or angry, though I've no doubt her opposition will say she was. I found it charming that she leaned into the podium, made that mom face that says "You should know better" because they should. I'm looking forward to her being the Speaker of the Senate and giving them that same look. This is a woman used to getting things done and I'm looking forward to her getting things done in Washington DC.