This blog will recount only facts, no opinions. It will provide links to Sarah Palin's activities on a daily basis, and the news reports on those activities. As the Presidential race heats up, the activies of all Presidential candidates will also be detailed here.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

"The country that governs the least governs best," Palin said.

Frankly, that's not really true.

The country that governs the most competently governs the best.

I wouldn't mind "big government" if it were competently run.

I think we've already seen that businesses without regulation will go bankrupt - Bush wanted to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but was not allowed to, eh?

The problem is when the regulators are allowed to be in bed with the people they are regulating, corruption occurs.

Corruption seems to be an endemic human condition. And that's what government should be protecting us against.

Aug 29, 2010, Sunday. Lancaster Online

Lancaster Online: Sarah Palin's speech was a hit in Hershey

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged conservatives to continue fighting for a "culture of life, a pro-family agenda that will strengthen our country" and a drastically limited government in Washington.

She called the growing national debt a burden on families and "the greatest national security threat we face."

"We need to demand that Washington start putting our kids first and stop racking up the debt and mortgaging our futures," Palin told a sold-out crowd of some 1,100 people Friday night at Pennsylvania Family Institute's annual fundraiser at the Hershey Lodge.

Sarah Palin speaks at Hershey Lodge


"This debt is immoral because we're stealing opportunities. It's so unfair what we're going to hand to our children and our grandchildren," Palin said. "To me, it's generational theft."

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee and potential 2012 presidential candidate, spoke on the eve of her scheduled appearance at today's Restoring Honor rally, being held by radio and TV talk-show host Glenn Beck at the Lincoln Memorial.

That event is expected to draw 300,000 people.

"The country that governs the least governs best," Palin said.

In a 42-minute speech that ranged from folksy to wonky — she described camping in the Alaska wilderness and gaining 10 pounds this summer by eating Hershey chocolate — Palin said she felt at home in Pennsylvania, a state she and running mate John McCain lost in 2008.

"You're not afraid to cling to your guns and religions and your Constitution," Palin said, referring derisively to Barack Obama's controversial remarks about conservative voters here on the campaign trail two years ago.

Palin also took several shots at reporters and bloggers who have written about her family's travails in recent months.

"We are a big, loving family. We certainly aren't perfect. We're not the Waltons," Palin said. "We may be as big as the Waltons, but we're not the Waltons."

The Pennsylvania Family Institute, led by Elizabethtown resident Michael Geer, describes itself as a nonpartisan research and education organization that analyzes public policies and cultural trends for their impact on families.

The banquet and a VIP reception with Palin were closed to the media.

Reporters were permitted to cover only Palin's speech.

She did not make herself available to reporters before or after the event, though she did respond to a few questions that had been submitted beforehand dealing with who her role models were and how attendees could pray for her.

Palin was personable and made jokes during her speech but became serious when describing her discovery, when she was 12 weeks pregnant, that her son, Trig, would be born with Down syndrome.

"All through that pregnancy I was wondering, 'How in the world am I going to handle this?' " she said.

"The minute Trig was born, it was such evidence of God answering prayers. … Trig truly is the greatest blessing that ever happened to us. He puts things into perspective."

Palin went on to describe how she managed to keep the pregnancy a secret from the public for seven months at a time when she was the new governor of Alaska.

She said that because the winters are so cold there, she was able to conceal her pregnancy by piling on heavy coats and scarves — drawing laughter from the audience.

Palin also encouraged attendees to fight for a more public role for religion.

"Faith must be welcomed in the public square and be given room to flourish," she said. "Only then can we become the society that we aspire to and that we are destined to be."

The Family Institute has declined to say whether Palin was paid a speaker's fee for the event, but she has collected as much as $75,000 from similar events, including one at California State University earlier this summer.

tmurse@lnpnews.com





Read more:

Aug 29, 2010, Yahoo News, re Beck rallyl on Aug 28

Palin: Reject calls to 'fundamentally' change U.S.

WASHINGTON – Sarah Palin says the way to honor Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy is to honor those men and women in the military who protect the United States.

The potential 2012 presidential candidate says those who fought at Bunker Hill and Gettysburg protected the freedoms that allowed thousands of people gather on the National Mall in Washington on the 47th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

While broadcaster Glenn Beck's rally isn't billed as a political event, Palin says voters must reject calls to "fundamentally transform America." Instead, she says "we must restore America."

Palin, whose son served in Iraq, says the country is at a perilous moment.

Aug 29, 2010: Yahoo News: Glenn Beck rally, on Aug 28

Beck rally signals election trouble for Dems

WASHINGTON – If Democrats had doubts about the voter unrest that threatens to rob them of their majority in Congress, they needed only look from the Capitol this weekend to the opposite end of the National Mall.

It's where Ken Ratliff joined tens of thousands of other anti-government activists at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial for conservative commentator Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally.

"There's gotta' be a change, man," said Ratliff, a 55-year-old Marine veteran from Rochester, N.Y.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans can afford to ignore the antiestablishment fervor displayed Saturday during Beck's rally that took on the tone of an evangelical revival.

Billed as a nonpolitical event, it nevertheless was a clarifying moment for those curious as to what clout an anti-Washington sentiment could have on midterm congressional elections in November. The gathering was advertised as an opportunity to honor American troops. But it also illustrated voters' exasperation — and provided additional evidence that Democrats in power — as well as some incumbent Republicans — may pay the price when voters go to the polls.

The tea party is essentially a loosely organized band of anti-tax, libertarian-leaning political newcomers who are fed up with Washington and take some of their cues from Beck. While the movement drew early skepticism from establishment Republicans, these same GOP powerbrokers now watch it with a wary eye as activists have mounted successful primary campaigns against incumbents.

Click image to see photos of Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally


AP/Jacquelyn Martin
The Beck rally further demonstrated the tea party activists' growing political clout.

If the GOP is able to contain and cooperate with the tea party, and recharge its evangelical wing with Beck-style talk of faith, it spells the kind of change Ratliff and others like him are searching for.

The promise of change helped President Barack Obama win the White House in 2008, but could turn against his fellow Democrats this year. Americans' dim view of the economy has grown even more pessimistic this summer as the nation's unemployment rate stubbornly hovered near 10 percent and other troubling economic statistics have emerged on everything from housing to the economy's growth.

That's been a drag on both congressional Democrats and the president. While Obama has shelved his soaring campaign rhetoric on change, Beck has adopted it.

At Saturday's rally, the Fox News Channel personality borrowed Obama's rhetoric of individual empowerment from one of the then-candidate's favorite themes on the 2008 campaign trail.

"One man can change the world," Beck told the crowd. "That man or woman is you. You make the difference."

Or change Washington. And while Beck didn't say so, that means change the party in power.

His followers got the message.

"A lot of people want our country back," said Janice Cantor. She was raised a Massachusetts Democrat and is now a North Carolina tea party activist.

Beck's religion-laden message was a departure from most tea party events, which tend to focus on economic issues.

Beck, who speaks openly about his Christian faith on his radio and cable news shows, relied heavily on religion during his speech, perhaps offering up a playbook for tea party activists and Republicans this November.

Earlier, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged the gathering to change the course of the nation, although she said "sometimes our challenges seem insurmountable."

"Look around you," she told the crowd. "You're not alone."

Friday, August 27, 2010

Aug 27, 2010, Friday, SF Gate

Cal State Stanislaus releases Palin contract


(08-26) 21:45 PDT TURLOCK -- The contract authorizing a $75,000 payment to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for a speaking engagement at Cal State Stanislaus was made public Thursday after a judge ordered the college to produce the document.

The contract, which details everything from the type of vehicle Palin should be chauffeured in to the type of straws to place at the lectern, became a big deal when the CSU Stanislaus Foundation refused to release it or reveal how much Palin was paid to speak at the June 25 fundraiser.

<< Read the contract for Palin's speech (PDF) >>

State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who has been trying to change a state law that shields campus foundations from public scrutiny, claimed the college administration and foundation board were virtually the same and were therefore illegally hiding important information from the public. He said Thursday the entire college administration should be fired for hiding the information.

"It was never about Sarah Palin," Yee said. "It was about how foundations do business and the cozy relationships they have with public university administrations."

The released contract revealed little that wasn't already known. The college had previously released Palin's pay after it became known that university officials had played a role in managing the foundation's money.

The contract also confirmed that Palin expected to be flown first class to her destination, be put up in a "deluxe" hotel - in this case the Doubletree Hotel in Modesto - and be driven around in an SUV or, if that was unavailable, a black town car. The contract also specified that she was to have two bottled waters and bendable straws placed on a well-lit wooden lectern where she was to speak.

Most of this was first revealed after students discovered discarded pieces of the secret contract in a trash container on university grounds. That was after university officials told Yee and CalAware, an open-government group, that they didn't have any Palin-related documents.

The ensuing lawsuit by CalAware forced the release of hundreds of pages of Palin-related paperwork from the university - but not the contract. Among them were e-mails showing that Charles Reed, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, favored suppressing the contract to avoid news stories about its contents.

That e-mail, and the finding that the university did possess Palin documents, led Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Roger Beauchesne on Monday to order the Turlock campus to release Palin's contract.

Critics have long complained that university foundations have been used like secret checking accounts, allowing officials to spend lavishly and escape public scrutiny. That point was driven home, Yee said, by the fact that the Palin contract was signed by Susana Gajic-Bruyea, who is both the vice president for university advancement at Cal State Stanislaus and the executive officer of the CSU Stanislaus Foundation board.

"The contract just gives more ammunition and more evidence to the general perception that we initially had - that the foundation and administration are literally one and the same," Yee said.

This article appeared on page C - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Aug 27, 2010, Friday, The Atlantic

Sarah Palin's Complicated Relationship with the Labor Movement

Richard Trumka gave a scathing speech to the Alaska AFL-CIO Thursday, lambasting Sarah Palin for a good chunk of it.

Palin has a complicated relationship with the labor movement--her husband, Todd, was employed in a union job until last year, and the former governor often takes issue with union "bosses" in the political realm but praises union workers--and those complications were further fleshed out in her response to Trumka, posted Thursday afternoon on her Facebook page.

She leads off with an appeal to union "brothers and sisters"--the language union people like to use:
Two years ago almost to the day, I was thrilled to meet with union members at the Alaska AFL-CIO Convention in Anchorage to sign important job-creation legislation related to the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. As a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former IBEW and later USW member, it was a great moment for all of us. Our Alaska union brothers and sisters helped build our state! Many of them risked their lives to complete our infrastructure, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline that stretches over treacherous mountain ranges from the North Slope oil fields to Valdez. By signing that job-creation bill surrounded by union members, I was paying tribute to them and acknowledging that they would be valued partners in the construction of Alaska's long awaited natural gas pipeline. I was honored that day to receive a standing ovation from them for signing a bill that provided a Project Labor Agreement to bring good jobs to these good men and women.

And after attacking Tumka as a "career union boss who's spent most of his life in DC"--Trumka, a former mine worker, rose quickly through the ranks of the United Mine Workers Association, first heading its safety committee and then serving on its international board--Palin goes on to praise the historical project of the labor movement while attacking present-day union leaders as corrupt:
In the past there were many great union leaders who courageously defended the rights of workers. Unions were founded for all the right reasons! They were to give working men and women the clout to negotiate fairly with their employers and to fight for decent pay and working conditions. The unions of old would often end up fighting big government on behalf of the little guy. Today's unions seem to be big government's most enthusiastic supporters. It's turned into some nonsense when union bosses back the government takeover of the car industry, and the mortgage industry, and the entire health care sector. And with the help of big government they aim to push through card check legislation that some characterize as being unfair to workers, and even un-American, because of its insistence on stripping workers of their right to privacy with a secret ballot. And that's not just me voicing concern over card check - ask current union members how comfortable they are with what some of their leaders are saying about the legislation.

To my hardworking, patriotic brothers and sisters in the labor movement: you don't have to put up with the scare tactics and the big government agenda of the union bosses. There is a different home for you: the commonsense conservative movement. It cares about the same things you and I care about: a government that doesn't spend beyond its means, an economy focused on creating good jobs with good wages, and a leadership that is proud of America's achievements and doesn't go around apologizing to everyone for who we are.

Palin's relationship with the labor movement is clearly more complex than support/oppose. At its core, her argument is this: union leaders in DC pursue an agenda disconnected from what union workers actually want.


Members of the labor hierarchy in DC will tell you that unions pursue a Democratic agenda because it benefits workers. The government takeover of the auto industry was conducted, in large part, to save the jobs, pensions, and health care plans of auto workers; the stimulus was undertaken to save working-class Americans from slipping into poverty; health care has been one of labor's biggest priorities at the negotiating table for years, because it costs so much, and President Obama's reforms will make it more affordable for many; the mortgage plan was designed to keep working-class people in their homes.


There is power in Palin's argument. A lot of working-class people, union members included, are socially conservative and probably oppose part, or a lot, of Obama's agenda. Trumka made a name for himself, before he became president of the AFL-CIO, by giving a string of firebrand speeches in 2008 about how union members shouldn't oppose Obama because he's black.


Just as the labor movement has tried to win over non-union working-class Americans--Working America, the AFL-CIO's community affiliate, has signed up 3 million members who think the AFL-CIO's basic political agenda is in their best interest--Palin, in her response to Trumka, seeks to peel off union members from labor's political movement by telling them that labor's agenda doesn't fit with their conservative gut leanings.


Palin's spat with Trumka is part of a broader story in working-class politics that's gone on for years: voters torn between basic conservative leanings and liberal tax and spending policies that, on their faces, quite obviously benefit lower income brackets. "White, working-class voters" were touted as the most important bloc of the 2008 elections, and the war over them is still raging.

Aug 27, 2010, Friday: Boston Herald

Experts: Sarah Palin’s shot won’t damage Scott Brown

This ain’t Alaska, Sarah!
By Hillary Chabot and Jay Fitzgerald
Friday, August 27, 2010 - Updated 3 hours ago

The rogue-vs-rogue ruckus between GOP superstars Sarah Palin and Scott Brown could be a political boon for the Massachusetts senator, according to pundits who say Palin’s jibe that he’s a bust in conservative Alaska can only burnish his upstart image in the blue Bay State.

“Scott Brown is probably doing cartwheels after Palin’s comments - they’re laughable and only bolster his appeal,” said Mike Harrington, a GOP political consultant who worked on Brown’s campaign.

Ed Morrissey, a blogger at the conservative Web site Hot Air, said Palin’s quip that Alaskans “wouldn’t stand” for Brown’s moderate votes will boost the senator’s prospects for reelection come 2012.

“To get re-elected in Massachusetts, he will have to make the case he’s not a right-wing ideologue - and she is the leading right-wing ideologue,” said Morrissey. “She’s distancing herself from Brown, and that makes his life a lot easier.”

Palin tore into Brown during a segment on Fox Business Network Wednesday when asked about his voting record. Brown has sided with Democrats during key votes such as the financial reform bill.

“Perhaps they’re not going to look for such a hard-core constitutional conservative there, and they’re going to put up with Scott Brown and some of the antics there,” Palin said of Bay State voters.

“But up here in Alaska, and so many places in the U.S. where we have a pioneering, independent spirit, and we have an expectation that our representatives in D.C. will respect the will of the people and the intelligence of the people. Well, up here, we wouldn’t stand for that.”

Brown’s communications director Gail Gitcho brushed off Palin’s barbs, but avoided confronting her head on.

“Senator Brown’s votes are based on what’s in the best interests of Massachusetts and he has made his priorities job creation, controlling spending, and reducing the deficit,” said Gitcho in a statement. “All Republicans can agree on that.”

Some Bay State Republicans privately called Palin “politically toxic” in Massachusetts - adding that Brown is better off without her. Others who spoke publicly attempted to spin Palin’s comments as proof Brown remains politically independent.

“This validates Scott’s approach,” said House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones (R-North Reading). “He’s voting an awful lot like he said he was going to vote.”

One local Tea Partier, however, thinks Palin was speaking the truth.

“I think her assessment is accurate,” said Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party. A self-described Palin fan, Varley said she still supports Brown but she’s disapproved of some of his votes.

Said Varley: “Sen. Brown might find himself behind the curve of how quickly Massachusetts is tacking right

Aug 27, 2010, Friday, Miami Herald: Sarah Palin wades into campaigns across U.S., including Florida

Sarah Palin wades into campaigns across U.S., including Florida


By ALEX LEARY
Herald/Times Tallahasse Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin, celebrity conservative, best-selling author, moose hunter, is adding kingmaker to her résumé, getting involved in dozens of political races across the country and ramping up speculation about her future as a candidate.

Two years removed from her breakout as John McCain's running mate, Palin figured heavily Thursday in her home state of Alaska, where she backed a little-known candidate for U.S. Senate now on the cusp of a major upset.

In Florida earlier this week, Palin, 46, played a role in Pam Bondi's victory in the three-way GOP primary for attorney general, offering a surprise endorsement and recording a call to voters.

``She has an electrifying effect on the Republican base,'' Bondi said Thursday as she prepared to write Palin a thank you e-mail.

So far, Palin has waded into more than 40 races in 29 states, from Iowa to New York to Wyoming and California. She is drawn to big-name midterm elections like McCain's primary battle in Arizona and down-ballot contests, often stunning the candidates.

``Ha, ha, ha,'' Bondi wrote in a text message when staff told her of the endorsement, announced Aug. 18 on Facebook. ``They responded, `No, really.' ''

There is no real pattern to whom Palin chooses to endorse and where, an unpredictable and disparate mix of establishment types and outsiders.

Of the endorsements that came before a primary, 13 candidates have won and seven have lost. Critics have latched onto high-profile defeats, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel in Georgia, as evidence of Palin's fading status.

Yet the mere attention paid to the win-loss column -- the Washington Post has an interactive ``Palin tracker'' -- confirms her status as one of the country's most recognizable, and polarizing, political figures.

This week has been big for Palin. She recorded wins in Florida (in addition to Bondi, she endorsed congressional candidate Allen West of Plantation), Arizona (McCain) and, potentially, Alaska.

Joe Miller, a lawyer backed by the tea party, retained a slight advantage Thursday over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski with thousands of absentee ballots still to be counted. The story is complex -- some Alaskans still resent how Murkowski was handed the seat eight years ago by her father, whom Palin went on to beat for governor -- but Palin's role has not gone unnoticed by Miller or the news media.

``Sarah Palin reclaims her Midas touch,'' read the crawler on CNN.

``She's clearly collected a lot of IOUs,'' said national Republican pollster Whit Ayres. ``The real question is what she wants to do with them.''

Jostling for the 2012 presidential election has already begun with Republicans Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee and others extending feelers. Endorsements are a safe way to circulate your name without seeming too obvious, and all three potential candidates have been busy doling them out. But none gain notice like Palin's.

``Mrs. Palin is using what she has at the moment,'' said Janis Edwards, a University of Alabama communications professor who has written about Palin in the context of gender politics.

``What makes it especially interesting is the attention she's drawing to women candidates,'' Edwards said of Palin's ``mama grizzlies.''

``Until now most of the attention on women in politics has derived from a more liberal outlook,'' Edwards said. ``Sarah Palin is appropriating the liberal feminism to further conservative interests.''


Palin's personal motivations are cloudy.

Last year, she quit her job as governor of Alaska to pursue an array of other interests, including work as a Fox News contributor and a TLC series called ``Sarah Palin's Alaska.'' She continues to travel the country on a speaking tour that garners big fees.

During a stop in Jacksonville on Thursday evening, Palin criticized President Barack Obama and Gov. Charlie Crist, who campaigned with her and McCain in 2008, for their stance on abortion. Slow ticket sales ($100 and $50) forced organizers to move the event, a fundraiser for a group that helps pregnant women get support, from a 2,900-seat theater to a 600-seat one.

At the event, Palin called Obama the most pro-abortion president ever and mocked Crist for claiming to be pro-life after vetoing a bill that would have required women to get ultrasounds before having the procedure.

``Your governor, he decided to veto this pro-life bill,'' she said before drawing laughs by sarcastically pointing out that Crist still calls himself pro-life. ``He forgot that when it comes protecting the sanctity of life, actions speak louder than words.''

Crist didn't immediately return a message left on his cellphone seeking comment.

Palin spoke to a crowd of about 500 at a fundraiser for Heroic Media, a group that uses billboards, television ads and the Internet to try direct women to crisis pregnancy centers instead of opting for abortions. The event raised about $50,000.

Palin has endured highs and lows in the past two years. She burst onto the scene in 2008 as a fresh-faced, charismatic conservative who often outshined McCain. By the end of the campaign, she had become a caricature, ridiculed as a lightweight on ``Saturday Night Live.''

Defying critics and the news media -- the ``lamestream media,'' she calls it -- Palin got a second wind through the tea party movement.

Her endorsements cultivate the image of a leader.

``She's clearly trying to play a role within the Republican Party and this is certainly one way to be engaged,'' said GOP pollster David Winston.

``What she has not done yet,'' he added, ``is define at a policy level who she wants to be and what direction she wants to go. That is central to her if she has any future ambition.''

Kellyanne Conway, another prominent Republican pollster, knows what she would do.

``If I were Sarah Palin, I would not run for president,'' Conway said. ``I'd have to give up too much power, too much money and too much fun.''

Times researcher Caryn Baird and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Aug 26, 2010, Thursday. Yahoo News, Levi Johnston

Levi Johnston takes back his apology to Palin

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson, says he wishes he hadn't apologized for telling lies about the former Alaska governor because he's "never lied about anything."

Johnston said in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show" to air Friday that he wishes that he hadn't issued the apology to Palin.

"I don't really regret anything," Johnston said, who has appeared nude on the cover of Playgirl. "But the only thing I wish I wouldn't have done is put out that apology 'cause it kind of makes me sound like a liar. And I've never lied about anything. So that's probably the only thing. The rest of the stuff I can live with."

CBS said the interview was taped Thursday in Los Angeles.

Johnston is the two-time fiance of Palin's eldest daughter, Bristol, and the father of Bristol's son Tripp. Bristol Palin's teen pregnancy thrusted the couple into the national spotlight during Sarah Palin's run as the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 2008.

Johnston has expressed an interest in politics, filing papers last week to run for office in his hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, next year.

While he has not officially declared which political office he aspires to, his manager, Tank Jones, has said Johnston is interested in a run for mayor or city council. Earlier this month, Jones confirmed the 20-year-old Johnston planned to run for office as part of a reality TV show.

Wasilla is where Palin got her political start, first as a council member and then as mayor.

Johnston said he hopes he could be a better mayor of Wasilla than Palin. "I can't guarantee or promise you anything but I'm gonna try... That's the goal," he said.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Aug 26, 2010, Thursday, TPM DC (Talking Points Memo)

From Grizzlies To Goatees, Sarah Palin Becomes 2010 Kingmaker

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has used her Facebook page and Twitter feed to pluck lesser-known candidates from obscurity and rocket them to contender status.

The three most prominent examples are Nikki Haley in South Carolina, Karen Handel in Georgia and Joe Miller in Alaska. Each benefited from national media attention after Palin declared them the better Republican candidate using chirpy verbiage as only she can. Others, such as Carly Fiorina in California and Rick Perry in Texas, were more straightforward, and the candidates were likely to win anyway.

It seemed like Miller was cruisin' for a bruisin' on Tuesday, but he's leading Sen. Lisa Murkowski by 1,668 votes with absentee ballots still outstanding. Palin recorded a last-minute robo-call for him, and the Fairbanks lawyer seems poised to be the nominee. He's never held office.

Does this make Palin the breakout kingmaker for the GOP, and what sort of weight might that carry come 2012 if she decides to mount a presidential bid? Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) makes endorsements all the time and they rarely get much traction in the press, but when Palin declared that Kelly Ayotte was a strong "Mama Grizzly," it became an entire hoopla.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also endorsed Miller in Alaska, but did anyone notice or credit him with Miller's surprising come-from-behind (probable) victory? Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney backed Haley in the spring, but Palin's endorsement moved the needle amid allegations from a blogger claiming he'd slept with Haley.

And after all, Palin has waded into the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary where other contenders fear to tread. On July 19 Palin endorsed Kelly Ayotte while Pawlenty and Romney are remaining neutral in the 4-way primary. "Kelly is the strongest commonsense conservative who can win in the fall," Palin wrote on Facebook.

Palin took a gamble on Minnesota gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer, giving him a boost that allowed him to win over conservatives at the state party convention in May. Pawlenty only endorsed Emmer as his replacement after the convention. And Haley's backing in the critical early presidential state of South Carolina would likely be a huge boost for Palin come 2012.

Don't forget Rand Paul, the GOP nominee in Kentucky who Palin embraced early on over Washington's favored candidate Trey Grayson. Paul took the Palin endorsement and ran with it, heaping praise on her and gaining tea party attention. The same goes for Sharron Angle, who defeated the strong favorite Sue Lowden earlier this summer thanks in part to Palin.

Of course, it's even a little ironic, given that Sen. John McCain elevated Palin to rock star political status by picking her for his running mate in 2008. (Palin also endorsed McCain, who just won his primary on Tuesday.)

As the former governor declared at the Tea Party Nation convention in Nashville this winter, she finds tough primaries to be "beautiful."

This year, there are going to be tough primaries. And I think that's good. Competition in these primaries is good. Competition makes us work harder and be more efficient and produce more. I hope you will get out there and work hard for the candidates who reflect your values, your priorities, because despite what the pundits want you to think, contested primaries aren't civil war. They're democracy at work and that's beautiful.

It's not clear if there's a method to Palin's Mama Grizzly strategy, what with Politico reporting earlier this summer that her endorsement came as a shock to Wyoming's state auditor Rita Meyer. (Meyer lost the gubernatorial primary anyway.) Handel, on the other hand, courted Palin, and the endorsement and subsequent joint rally was a big factor in her prevailing in that competitive primary and runoff election.

According to the Washington Post's nifty Sarah Palin endorsement tracker, 20 of her favored candidates have won primaries and only 10 have lost so far this cycle. Of her other endorsements, 12 are undecided before an upcoming primary or are general election candidates in the fall elections. As Fox declared in June, she's "still got it."

Aug 26, 2010, Thursday: The Atlantic, Politics

Richard Trumka's Tough Words for Sarah Palin

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is giving a speech to the Alaska AFL-CIO in Anchorage today, and he's got some strong words about the state's former governor in his prepared speech:

What is this crazy magnet that's pulling people to the right? I mean, look at your former governor....

Who is she, anyway?

Sarah Palin?

She used to have a job, your governor.... You knew her.... Or thought you did.... I know I thought I did. She seemed like a decent person, an outdoorswoman. Her husband's a steelworker. She seemed to take some OK stands for working families.

And then things got weird. After she tied herself to John McCain and they lost, she blew off Alaska. I guess she figured she'd trade up...shoot for a national stage. Alaska was too far from the FOX TV spotlight.

I bet most of you, on a clear day, can see her hypocrisy from your house.

I think Sarah Palin quit so she wouldn't have to be accountable... so she wouldn't have a record that could be scrutinized...

Instead, she's hanging out on cable TV, almost a parody of herself, coming out with conspiracy theories about Obama and his "death panels...."
Talking about "the real America." Talking about building schools in "our neighboring country of Afghanistan." Writing speech notes to herself on her hands.

Sometimes - about Sarah Palin - you just have to laugh.... But it's not really funny. In this charged political environment, her kind of talk gets dangerous. "Don't retreat... reload" may seem clever, the kind of bull you hear all the time, but put it in context. She's using crosshairs to illustrate targeted legislators. She's on the wrong side of the line there. She's getting close to calling for violence. And some of her fans take that stuff seriously. We've got legislators in America who have been living with death threats since the health care votes.

And down in Tyler, Texas, she's talking about--and I quote-- "union thugs."
What? Her husband's a union man. Is she calling him a thug? Sarah Palin ought to know what union men and women are.

Oh, she goes to great pains to talk differently about unions and the working people who belong to them, knowing full well we're one and the same.

But using the term "union thug." That's poisonous. There's history behind that rhetoric.

That's how bosses and politicians in decades past justified the terrorizing of workers, the murdering of organizers....

To me, it just doesn't seem OK to go where she's going.... It sits wrong with me.... The Mama Grizzlies, Sarah Palin says, just sense when something's not right. Well... I wonder if those Mama Grizzlies can sense something's just not right with her.

Quite frankly, America works because lots of people contribute lots of ideas--that's good--even when some of them are just plain wrong. But people need to come to the table in good faith. That's not Sarah Palin.
She'll go down in history like McCarthy. Palinism will become an ugly
word.

Who is this woman, anyway? What happened to her?
Palin, meanwhile, holds a curious relationship with the labor movement. Todd Palin worked as a union member before resigning from his oil-company job in October 2009, and in a recent Facebook note responding to President Obama's speech to the AFL-CIO this month, Sarah Palin mentioned "our good union brothers and sisters" in the same breath as "union bosses" and "hard working Americans who happen to be union members."

Aug 26, 2010, Thursday, CBS News: Political Hotsheet

CBS News: Sarah Palin Will "Go Down in History like McCarthy," Says Labor Leader

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is calling Sarah Palin "almost a parody of herself" who will "go down in history like McCarthy" in a speech in Alaska today.


When it comes to Palin, he plans to say, according to prepared remarks released this morning, "you just have to laugh -- but it's not really funny."


"In this charged political environment, her kind of talk gets dangerous," Trumka will say at the Alaska AFL-CIO Biennial Convention. "'Don't retreat... reload' may seem clever, the kind of bull you hear all the time, but put it in context. She's using crosshairs to illustrate targeted legislators. She's on the wrong side of the line there. She's getting close to calling for violence. And some of her fans take that stuff seriously. We've got legislators in America who have been living with death threats since the health care votes."


Trumka complains about Palin railing against "union thugs" despite the fact that her husband is in a union. He asks: "Is she calling him a thug?"


The term, he argues, is "poisonous."


"There's history behind that rhetoric," Trumka will say. "That's how bosses and politicians in decades past justified the terrorizing of workers, the murdering of organizers."


"Quite frankly, America works because lots of people contribute lots of ideas--that's good--even when some of them are just plain wrong," he will add. "But people need to come to the table in good faith. That's not Sarah Palin. She'll go down in history like McCarthy. Palinism will become an ugly word."


Trumka will make the speech to about 300 delegates and guests at the convention, which has the theme "Defending the Union Way of Life." In addition to Palin, he criticizes Remington Hotel Corporation (which owns and operates Sheraton, Hilton, and other hotel chains) as "one of the biggest union-busters around."


Trumka also plans to go after Sen. Lisa Murkowski, which to some extent suggests the speech was written before Tuesday's shocking primary results that have Tea Party-backed Joe Miller leading the incumbent with only absentee ballots left to be counted. Miller is closely aligned with Palin, who endorsed him in the primary race.


"You've got to get Sen. Murkowski loose from Palin's crazy magnet," he plans to say. "You don't want her to get that far out, too."

Aug 26, 2010, Thursday, Los Angeles Times: LA Now

Sarah Palin speech documents should be public, judge rules

The contract and other documents related to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fundraising appearance at a Cal State campus should have been made public, and officials violated the state's open-records law when they refused to release the information, a judge has ruled.

Cal State Stanislaus and a foundation affiliated with the campus were sued in April after failing to disclose details of Palin's contract, including her speaking fee. Officials argued that the nonprofit foundation that hosted the former Republican vice presidential candidate was not subject to the state's Public Records Act.

They also argued that the contract with the Washington Speakers Bureau, which represented Palin, was confidential.

Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Roger M. Beauchesne ordered Cal State Stanislaus officials to release the contract as well as other documents related to the use of university facilities, personnel and services surrounding the June 25 fund-raising gala.

Beauchesne agreed that the foundation was not subject to the open-records law. But he found that the university failed to follow correct procedures and that Cal State Chancellor Charles B. Reed "used" the contract to the university's advantage.


"The reasonable inference from the evidence produced is that the university, in its official capacity, has 'used' the contract between the Washington Speakers Bureau in the conduct of the public's business; therefore, said contract is also a public record and should have been produced to petitioner," Beauchesne wrote in the opinion filed Monday.

After the suit was filed, the university released hundreds of documents, mostly e-mails, relating to Palin's appearance but not her contract. In one of the e-mails, Reed addressed the controversy over Palin's fee with an official from the speakers bureau.

In July, the foundation confirmed that it had paid Palin $75,000 for her appearance.

Attorneys for Californians Aware, the government watchdog group that filed the lawsuit, issued a statement saying they were pleased with the decision.

-- Carla Rivera

Aug 26, 2010, Thursday, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal: Palin Ally Upends Politics In Alaska

By JIM CARLTON And JONATHAN WEISMAN
A little-known favorite of the tea-party movement appeared close Wednesday to ousting Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the scion of a political dynasty in Alaska, leaving former Gov. Sarah Palin poised to draw more blood in a long-running feud with the Murkowski family.

Former state and federal judge Joe Miller, who is 43 years old and Ms. Palin's candidate, clung to a slim lead of 1,668 votes. Mr. Miller had 50.9% of the vote to Ms. Murkowski's 49.1%.

Final results in the primary aren't expected for as long as two weeks, and Alaska state-election officials said they didn't know the number of absentee GOP ballots yet to be counted.

Pollster Dave Dittman of Anchorage put the number at about 5,000.

Still, political observers said the senator would have a difficult time erasing Mr. Miller's lead. Ms. Murkowski would have to win about 70% of the remaining absentee ballots to take back the lead, according to Mr. Dittman. "It would be difficult for her to close that gap," he said.

Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party in Anchorage, said she had already begun plotting a fall campaign between Mr. Miller and the little-known Democratic nominee, Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams.

If Mr. Miller prevails in the primary, Alaskans will be the latest voters to side with an outsider candidate over an establishment figure. But in Alaska, that narrative comes with a twist. In 2006, Ms. Palin ran an insurgent candidacy against Ms. Murkowski's father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, whom she labeled a corrupt politician, beating him in the Republican primary.

Ms. Palin had clashed with the governor after he appointed her to the commission that oversees the petroleum industry in Alaska and then named the state Republican Party chairman to the same body.

Ms. Palin, who considered the latter appointment an ethical conflict, resigned in protest over that and other issues. She later credited the episode with helping to put her on the road to higher office.

"It was confirmation for me that governing was more than just being a good administrator," Ms. Palin said in a 2006 interview, when she was running for governor. "It was confirmation that state government needed to be cleaned up."

Ms. Murkowski, 53, remained Ms. Palin's foe. When Ms. Palin resigned as governor in 2009, Ms. Murkowski said she had chosen to "abandon the state and her constituents." Ms. Palin then backed Mr. Miller this summer in his long-shot campaign against the senator.

Mr. Miller, a West Point graduate who earned a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, has assailed Ms. Murkowski for being "one of the go-to senators for a Republican swing-vote on liberal issues," accusing the senator of failing to join other Republican senators in backing repeal of President Barack Obama's national health-care plan soon after it was passed in December 2009.

Ms. Murkowski has denied that and other accusations, saying she has backed a repeal from early on.

Mr. Miller also calls himself pro-life and opposes the TARP banking bailout and a cap-and-trade energy policy, arguing that his positions set him apart from those of Ms. Murkowski.

Ms. Murkowski campaigned on a record of what she calls fiscal conservatism while taking actions to protect oil and gas, fisheries and other Alaskan industries. She has also gone to pains to distance herself from her unpopular father, using campaign signs showing her first name much more prominently than her last.

In Washington, Ms. Murkowski holds seats on the appropriations committee and energy and natural resources committee, both of which are key for Alaska.

But Ms. Palin cast the role differently, writing on her Facebook page in June: "Unfortunately, Lisa Murkowski and much of the political establishment have recently evolved into being a bigger part of the big-government problem in Washington, and they've strayed from the principles upon which they had espoused."

That criticism entangled the Palin-Murkowski feud with the larger political narrative of 2010, which Ms. Palin has helped to drive on a national level.

If Mr. Miller is victorious, it will mark the seventh establishment-backed candidate this primary season to lose. In addition to Sen. Murkowski, the GOP Senate campaign committee backed Florida Gov. Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio, only to see Mr. Crist defect and declare himself an independent once Mr. Rubio, the more conservative candidate, built a large lead in the polls.

The GOP committee backed Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson over libertarian ophthalmologist Rand Paul; former Nevada State Republican Party chairwoman Sue Lowden over Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle; former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton over Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck; Utah Sen. Robert Bennett over insurgent lawyer Mike Lee; and former Connecticut Rep. Rob Simmons over wrestling executive Linda McMahon. In each case, the committee's favored candidate lost.

Republican victors appear to be tapping the mood of an electorate that has repeatedly rejected the pleas of veterans such as Ms. Murkowski, who have told voters they helped secure funding for home states and who argued they were best suited to win the general election.

Of the seven sitting lawmakers who have been unseated in primaries, five have sat on the House or Senate appropriations committees, positions coveted because they allow lawmakers to bring "earmark" largesse home, noted Steve Ellis, vice president of policy at the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The question remains whether the dissatisfaction of Republican primary voters will be reflected in the larger electorate this fall. Several contests that early in the year seemed primed for Republican victories, such as the Senate contests in Kentucky, Nevada and Colorado, now are neck and neck.

In Alaska, Democrats insist a Miller victory would give them an opportunity in the fall. "It's a totally different race against a high-ranking Republican incumbent" from a race between two relative unknowns, said Ms. Higgins. Republicans scoffed. "As we await the final outcome of the Republican primary in Alaska, one thing is clear: This seat will remain in Republican hands this November," said National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Aug 22, 2010, Sunday, Los Angeles Times: Latest Setback for Sarah

Palin an interested spectator in Alaska primary
The ex-governor supports a political unknown campaigning against Sen. Lisa Murkowski. A Murkowski win would be the latest in a string of setbacks for Palin.

Surely the news should be about Senator Lisa Murkowsi and the challenger, Joe Miller, whom Palin endorses.

But the news is all about Palin.

Reporting from Washington — After a string of her candidates fell short in recent election primaries, Sarah Palin takes a trackside seat in her own state Tuesday as her choice for Alaska's U.S. Senate post takes on the incumbent.

Palin's pick, attorney and political unknown Joe Miller, seems to have gained little traction against Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, according to political experts in the state.

If Miller loses, it would be the latest setback for Palin's effort this year to propel candidates nationwide through her endorsements. Candidates she backed in Washington and Wyoming lost in last week's primaries, and a Palin favorite in Georgia was defeated the week before.



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The Alaska primary is one of four across the country Tuesday, in the last big package of partisan contests before Labor Day. Voters in Florida, Arizona and Vermont also will cast ballots.

Palin has developed an unrivaled ability to draw political attention with a single Twitter message or Facebook post. But the mixed record of the dozens of candidates she has endorsed reflects her uneven influence across the country, as well as her willingness to back underdogs in primary elections.

Murkowski was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, who vacated the seat to become Alaska's governor. Palin beat the elder Murkowski for governor in 2006.

Many expect Lisa Murkowski to be favored in a state where voters seem to value seniority. Her father was elected to the Senate four times, and the late Sen. Ted Stevens served 40 years. The state's sole House member, Republican Rep. Don Young, is cruising to his 20th term.

"There are some that may not like her position on things — she's seen by some as 'Liberal Lisa' — but they will swallow that," said David Dittman, a former Stevens staffer and Republican consultant. "There's not much that's more important than [seniority] to Alaska."

Palin has limited her personal involvement in the Alaska race, and Miller noted that he had received backing from other prominent Republicans, including onetime presidential contender Mike Huckabee.

"We've got lots of endorsements during the campaign," Miller said in an interview. "It certainly moved us to the national spotlight."

In Arizona, Palin has backed Sen. John McCain, who faces a challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. Two years ago, Palin and McCain were running mates on the Republican presidential ticket.

McCain, who has shed his label as a party maverick and hewed more closely to conservative orthodoxy to hold off Hayworth, is widely expected to survive Tuesday's primary.

Also in Arizona, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is riding a tide of popularity stemming from her role in the debate over illegal immigration as she campaigns for a first full term. Once considered vulnerable, Brewer saw her two main Republican opponents pull out of the race as her standing among conservatives skyrocketed.

She will face state Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard, running unopposed for the Democratic nomination, in November.

The lack of suspense in the West contrasts with rich storylines in Florida, a state that has grown accustomed to political drama. What was once a marquee race for the Republican Senate nomination is now a formality, months after Gov. Charlie Crist abandoned the party to run as an independent candidate.

Instead it is the Democratic contest generating attention. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek battles the self-financed candidacy of Jeff Greene, a billionaire real estate investor, for the right to challenge Crist and Republican Marco Rubio in November.

Similarly, billionaire candidate Rick Scott is challenging state Atty. Gen. Bill McCollum in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Scott surged ahead of McCollum shortly after entering the race and blanketing the airwaves in April. But a Quinnipiac University poll showed McCollum has regained an advantage.

The winner of the Republican nomination will face Democrat Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer, as well as independent candidate Bud Chiles, son of the state's last Democratic governor.

Friday, August 20, 2010

August 20, 2010, Friday: Newsweek

Sarah Palin Should Be Able to Call Herself a Feminist

Or Why Mama Grizzlies Would Be Pro-Choice)

The fact that Sarah Palin wants to call herself a feminist is astonishing. It’s not that she is conservative—there have been plenty of conservative, eccentric, and outlier feminists in history. It’s that it has been such an unloved, if proud, term for so long that it is odd to watch it being fought over, as though it were a political asset and not something women used to have to pretend not to be so they didn’t upset any voters.

Yet the sight of the pro-life Sister Sarah has outraged many pro-choice women, or those who disagree with her politically. Emily’s List has been running a campaign called “Sarah Doesn’t Speak for Me.” When Palin called her feminist critics a “cackle of rads” who had hijacked the word “feminist” because they “want to crucify other women w/ whom they disagree on a singular issue” (abortion), her phrasing was instantly leapt upon as evidence of her ignorance. It’s a gaggle, not a cackle, some cried, even though this word is usually used for geese. But this phrase may have revealed a certain cleverness: it was a wonderfully visual, condescending putdown, reminiscent of scheming, ugly witches.


Sarah Palin's Most Controversial Tweets
Sarah Palin's Controversial Tweets: 'Don't Retreat, Reload' (Again)

Even if feminists are just those who seek a better life for all women. Palin clearly delights in needling leftist women—but her intent is serious: she wants female votes. And this is why the question remains: can Sarah Palin call herself a feminist? Here’s six reasons I think she should be able to:

1. Because, let’s be honest, feminism is a broad church. The history of feminism is a history of conflict, often vitriolic debate, and decades-long feuds over who can wear the mantle of true believer. A brief glance at history shows us that there are many different kinds of feminism—from traditionalists to radical extremists—even though American feminism has been dominated for three decades by the divisive, bitter question of reproductive rights. Yes, the right to control your own body is a key, crucial plank of feminist thought today, underpinned by the independence, autonomy, and rights of women. But it is not the only plank.

2. Because it will force us to properly scrutinize the Mama Grizzlies, the term Palin uses for politically active Republican women, which connotes fierceness, strength, danger—and size. It’s another of her very clever taglines, like pitbulls or hockey moms. As Palin and her supporters continually remind us, these women—and bears—are proudly pro-life. Big, brown female bears, rearing on their hind legs to protect their young, have become symbols for the anger and might of Republican women, ready to crush lily-livered liberals in the midterm elections.

But let’s test this idea against the facts. First, there are many more female Democratic candidates running in the midterm elections than Republican. Of the 20 women candidates for the U.S. Senate, 14 are Democrats; 67 Republican women are running for the house, compared with 101 female Democrats. Only six Republican women have filed for any of the 37 gubernatorial races. It’s not quite the “stampede of pink elephants” Palin has threatened. Second, Republican women hold only 4 percent of the seats in Congress, an appallingly low number. Third, polls show the Tea Party movement is increasingly dominated by middle-aged white men. And fourth, on a technical matter, female grizzly bears are, in fact, models of carefully managed reproduction. Sure, they’ll let a male try to impregnate them—but they won’t have any cubs until the time is right. Once a female grizzly has mated, a fertilized egg can wander in her womb for months until the conditions are right for growing the fetus—usually during hibernation. It’s called delayed implantation. Mama Grizzlies, then, could almost be pinups for (naturally) planned parenthood.

Video muted: click volume for sound

Politics, Porn, and ... Palin?

Artist Jonathan Yeo discusses why former Alaska governor and ex-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a great subject for a portrait made out of cut-up pieces of pornography. The portrait was listed for $50,000 and sold in early August
3. Because isn’t it just a little bit cool that suddenly people want to be feminists again?

4. Because Palin is kicking some goals. Yes, many of her policies are dubious, her vision of America is troubling, and her defense of Laura Schlessigner’s use of the N word was inexcusable. Still, can’t we get even a glimmer of satisfaction from the fact that the unapologetic Palin is outshining most of the men in her party, with guts and charisma, if not political depth? How quickly we forget that for decades, women fought the idea that female candidates that were not electable—that men would get more votes simply for being men. Being a mother was considered a liability. In mid-2008 a Pew survey found only one in five Republicans would support a mother of school-age children as a candidate. In 2007, 53 percent of Republicans thought mothers of young kids working outside the home was bad for society. Yes, more than half. And yet Palin, a mother of five, presents being a working mother as a strength: “moms just know when there’s something wrong.” You may disagree with what these moms want to put right, but at least they are skewering outdated views about working moms.

5. Because we are thinking about what feminism is again—and abortion, in the lead up to midterm elections where, according to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, a record number of candidates hold extreme pro-life positions. Maddow called the anti-abortion-rights positions of Republican Senate candidates—such as Nevada’s Sharron Angle, Rand Paul in Kentucky, and Ken Buck in Colorado—the “sleeper issue” in this year’s campaigns. (The official GOP platform is that abortion not be allowed even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.) Few think Roe v. Wade is under threat, but perhaps this might make some more vigilant.

6. Because Democrats need to lift their game. The challenge for Democrats is to stop ridiculing Palin and start trying to outsmart her with their own rhetoric. A recent Harris Poll found that 63 percent of Americans think the U.S. has a long way to go before reaching equality. Seven in 10 believe women are paid less than men for equal work. How will Democrats brand their own hordes of politically active women? How will they get more of them elected, and convince female voters they are best equipped to tackle the remaining obstacles to equality? Or the economy? An examination of the way women have voted over the past century tells us they may cheer on female candidates, but when it comes to the ballot box, they’ll be thinking of the economy.

Love or loathe her, Palin has unleashed this debate, so let’s have it—“cackles of rads,” Mama Grizzlies—all those who claim to support the equality of women, not just the appearance of it. Game on.

Baird is a deputy editor of NEWSWEEK. Follow her on Twitter.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Aug 19, 2010: Thursday, Hot List Green Room: EMILY’s List Ewoks Get An Epic Fail-Sarah Palin Wins Again!

EMILY’s List Ewoks Get An Epic Fail-Sarah Palin Wins Again!

Originally posted at David Horowitz’s Newsreal:
Sarah Palin has had the femisogynists hopping over the past year. The media tried to destroy her in 2008 and failed. Since then, she’s become a force to be reckoned with.
She’s been sweeping the country, becoming influential in elections, writing a best-selling book, and becoming a Fox News contributor. Lefties were furious that they couldn’t keep this woman down. But nothing got the feminazis’ panties more in a bunch than when Sarah Palin called herself a feminist.

She has been empowering conservative women to get involved, calling for all of the “mama grizzlies” to rise up and defend the future of their country for their children. Furious that someone else was speaking for women other than Feminazi Approved Womyn, the leftist EMILY’s List decided to make a video trying to hijack the term mama grizzlies from Sarah Palin.

This plan radically backfired, and they’ve been the laughingstock of the blogosphere ever since. After all, who had the idea that dressing up like Ewoks to diss Sarah Palin would be a good one?

EMILY’s List is a pro-abortion group, and their number one beef with Sarah Palin, like most femisogynists, is likely that she’s pro-life. On top of that, she doesn’t like government run health care! Egads! Apparently, these are the things that “real” mama grizzlies — i.e., lefty mama grizzlies — care about. How could little bear cubs survive without knowing they can have an abortion when they’re 16 while their mothers proudly look on?

One of the biggest problems with lefty women trying to co-opt the phrase mama grizzlies is that … well, come on — who would ever see one of them as a mama grizzly? When you think of a pit bull or a grizzly bear, you think of strength, independence, ferocity.

I’d love to name one of today’s so-called liberals that could be described as strong, independent, and fierce, but there aren’t any. When attacked, lefties automatically go into whine mode. When in doubt, accuse someone of being a racist and scream that IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!. Then they’ll demand that the government step in to right the injustice, because the notion of handling your own problems for yourself is an idea that lefties just can’t understand.

When you need a nanny state government to take care of you cradle to grave, you can’t exactly then turn around and label yourself as a strong, independent, capable American, can you? People have been laughing at this, because who would ever describe today’s femisogynists as strong, kick-ass women? They probably don’t even understand why people are laughing at them.

A lefty feminazi attack when her cubs are threatened? Ha! Their version of “attacking” would involve a rally for NOW and whining for President Obama to do something.

But that’s only scratching the surface. The EMILY’s List ewoks got an epic fail for more reasons than just unintentional hilarity.

Let’s consider the creepiness of wanting to fight for the right of your daughter to choose. Think about that. They want their daughters to be able to have abortions. There’s something inherently twisted about that.

How could a mother want her daughter to have an abortion, to kill her future grandchild? Abortion is inherently anti-woman. There’s not much more harmful to women than the glorifying of abortion. Abortion actually is in fact harmful. Yet these women see taking away abortion as the number one threat to their daughters? That’s twisted and sick.

On top of that, the hyperbole is disturbing. They claim that if Sarah Palin had her way, health care wouldn’t exist in America … because, you know, before Obamacare was passed, no one had health care in the United States.

They’re for some reason mum on the fact that the Obama administration is trying to decertify Avastin, a breast cancer treatment drug, for cost reasons. But hey, Sarah Palin wants to take away ALL HEALTH CARE. Obama is God, and Sarah Palin is the devil.
Oh, and Sarah Palin (and most conservatives) doesn’t want to take away unemployment benefits. We just don’t want bloat those benefits by putting even more debt onto the shoulders of not only our cubs, but our grandcubs and our great-grandcubs.

Despite all of this, the truth is that yes, Sarah Palin doesn’t speak for these women. Sarah Palin is a pro-life conservative Republican. These women are pro-abortion lefty femisogynists. The major difference? Sarah Palin wouldn’t likely tell these women that they can’t call themselves feminists or that they aren’t true women.
Yet that’s exactly what’s happened to Sarah Palin!

Sarah Palin was told that she wasn’t a real feminist because she wasn’t pro-life. Women who voted Republican were told that they weren’t real women.

The original feminists, like Susan B. Anthony, were pro-life. They didn’t advocated feminist litmus tests or demand that voting women only vote a certain way. Today’s femisogynists couldn’t be further away from what feminists actually stood for, yet they’ve hijacked the movement and sought to silence strong conservative women.

When that didn’t work, they tried to hijack Sarah Palin’s massively successful mama grizzly campaign. Even the XX Factor, Slate’s so-called feminist blog, called this a win for Sarah Palin. Even people on their own team saw this for what it was: an epic fail for the EMILY’s List ewoks.

Aug 18, 2010, Wednesday: Huff Po, Palin's defense of Dr. Laura

Sarah Palin Supports Dr. Laura Via Twitter: 'don't retreat ... reload!'

Sarah Palin has used Twitter to share some advice with Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the talk radio host who apologized and decided to retire from her highly-rated program after using the N-word on the air 11 times in 5 minutes.

Palin's advice: "don't retreat...reload!"

It's a breathtakingly tone-deaf bit of provocation -- even by Palin's standards.

Dr. Laura, as she's known on her radio program, quickly came under fire for her remarks of a week ago. She immediately acknowledged the mistake and soon announced that she would end the show once her contract expires later this year. She currently commands the largest audience of any woman in syndicated talk radio and overall her ratings are among the top five hosts in the nation.

Palin, once the governor of Alaska and Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, has been using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to push her messages in recent months. She fired out two messages about Dr. Laura on Wednesday night, the first reading:

Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")
That was quickly followed by:

Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!

Aug 19, 2010, Thursday: Washington Post, Breaking News Blog

Beck/Palin rally permit approved

The National Park Service said Thursday that it has approved the permit for the Aug. 28 Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

Park Service spokesman Bill Line said the permit indicates that organizers expect 300,000 people to attend. Line said it is a "fixed rally" without a march. The rally will go from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The park service is processing a permit request for a counter demonstration and rally by the Rev. Al Sharpton on the same day along Independence Avenue, south of the memorial. Line said the Sharpton rally organizers list 3,000 expected attendees on their permit request.

August 19, 2010, Thursday: AP article - Palin's endorsees losing

Primary losses blunt Palin's 'mama grizzly' claws

WASHINGTON — It's been a summer of setbacks for Sarah Palin. Candidate "cubs" endorsed by the Mama Grizzly in Chief have been suffering a recent string of primary election losses.

The Republicans' 2008 vice presidential nominee promised a pack of "mama grizzly" candidates would rise up and defeat Democrats in this November's elections. But office-seekers she supported in Kansas, Wyoming and Washington state lost their primaries despite her high-profile endorsements. And Karen Handel lost her runoff contest for Georgia governor a day after sharing an Atlanta stage with Palin.

Now, Alaska's Senate primary on Tuesday is shaping up as an embarrassing defeat in her own backyard. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is expected to dispatch the challenger Palin has endorsed in the Republican contest.

Palin says it isn't about picking winners.

"Regardless of whether the many candidates I've had the honor of endorsing win or lose this time around, I support them because they boldly shake things up in their primary races," she said in a Facebook message.

Her choices have included a mix of tea party favorites and other antiestablishment figures.

_ She backed former Super Bowl champion Clint Didier over establishment-recruited Dino Rossi in Washington state's GOP Senate primary. Didier lost on Tuesday.

_ She supported staunchly conservative Rep. Todd Tiahrt in the Kansas GOP Senate primary. He was defeated by Rep. Jerry Moran on Aug. 3.

_ In Wyoming, Palin-endorsed candidate Rita Meyer — whom Palin described as "a unique blend of steel magnolia and mama grizzly" — lost a squeaker of a gubernatorial primary to Matt Mead.

_ And she's going with former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte over wealthy businessmen Bill Binnie and Jim Bender in the state's Sept. 14 Senate primary — a move that drew a page one rebuke in the state's largest newspaper.

"The race will be won by the candidate who impresses New Hampshire voters, and New Hampshire voters are rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say," wrote New Hampshire Union Leader publisher Joseph McQuaid.

Indeed, frustration with Palin has seemed to be growing, as she has waded into state races and challenged the national party's preferred candidates. She has defied Republican campaign committees' picks in favor of longshots, such as investor Brian Murphy in Maryland. Murphy is running against former Gov. Bob Ehrlich in the Sept. 14 primary.

Ehrlich publicly brushed off that surprise endorsement, saying it was "not terribly relevant to anything that we've planned to do or are going to do."

Palin remains a unifying figure — for Democrats.

She is a favorite target of mockery for her messages on Twitter using colorful language such as "cackle of rads" and "refudiate."

EMILY's List, a political organization that aims to elect women who back abortion rights, this week launched a "Sarah Doesn't Speak for Me" campaign in the hopes of building its membership as well as painting Palin's candidates as extremists.

"We didn't want Sarah Palin's voice to go unchallenged," said Stephanie Schriock, the organization's president.

The group recorded a Web video of women dressed as bears who repeated similar themes.

Palin responded — by Facebook, of course — with the folksy sarcasm that her supporters find refreshing and her detractors find grating.

"First, ladies, it's hard to take a critic seriously when they lecture you wearing a bear suit," Palin said, following that with a putdown invoking two of her five children.

"I'd love to know where you got those get-ups. Halloween is just around the corner, and Piper and Trig would look adorable as little grizzly bears."

She's joined another presidential prospect, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in backing Joe Miller's longshot challenge to Republican Sen. Murkowski in Tuesday's Alaska primary. Miller is also endorsed by the Tea Party Express, a California-based group that's been hitting the airwaves and holding rallies. That group claims at least partial credit for upset wins in other states — Sharron Angle in Nevada and Mike Lee in Utah.

In Alaska, the tea party group has drawn smaller crowds. And Palin, too, who abruptly resigned the governor's office in 2009, enjoys limited reach in her home state. A Dittman Research poll in April found just 46 percent of Alaskans with favorable opinions of Palin.

"I would expect Sarah's going to be very embarrassed by the results Tuesday," said Republican pollster Marc Hellenthal, who is not involved in the primary. "She's been delivering everybody else's state but she won't be able to deliver her own."

Palin's endorsements apparently did help South Carolina's Nikki Haley capture her gubernatorial nomination in June and Rand Paul capture Kentucky's Senate nomination in May. And her backing has proved helpful to Republican candidates trying to assure voters they are sufficiently conservative: former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina who is challenging Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in California, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry who turned back a primary challenge from GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

She also has appeared with Sen. John McCain, whose presidential bid elevated her to the national stage and whose re-election bid drew tea party favorite J.D. Hayworth to Tuesday's Arizona primary.

But Palin has seen victory in just two competitive Republican primaries this month: John Koster's U.S. House bid in Washington state and Tom Emmer's "hockey dad" bid for Minnesota governor.

Her star power wasn't enough to help Colorado lawyer Bob McConnell earn the nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. John Salazar, nor did it give a win to Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state who was vying to become her state's first female governor.

"Are you ready to elect a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, commonsense constitutional conservative, who will fight like a mama grizzly for you and the values that you hold dear?" Palin asked a cheering crowd in a hotel ballroom on the eve of the Aug. 10 runoff.

"The eyes of the nation are on you, Georgia, to see if you get rid of that good ol' boy network," Palin said.

Handel — and Palin, by proxy — fell short to former Rep. Nathan Deal.

Associated Press writers Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Aug 18, 2010, Wednesday: AP - endorsements

Palin endorses NC congressional hopeful Ellmers
(AP)

DUNN, N.C. — Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is endorsing North Carolina congressional candidate Renee Ellmers.

Palin said in a statement Wednesday that the Republican Ellmers has an "uphill battle against a truly out of touch incumbent." Ellmers is challenging Democratic Rep. Bob Etheridge, who kept his seat with two-thirds of the vote in 2008.

Ellmers said both she and Palin are concerned about the direction of the country.

Etheridge responded by saying that it is Palin and Ellmers who are out of touch with mainstream North Carolinian values, calling their agenda "far right."

The 2nd District seat covers the southern Raleigh area and a swath of central North Carolina.

Aug 18, 2010, Wednesday: The Miami Hereald

Sarah Palin backs Pam Bondi for Florida attorney general

Pam Bondi, who is running for Florida attorney general, was endorsed by former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

TALLAHASSEE -- Sarah Palin endorsed former Hillsborough prosecutor Pam Bondi for attorney general Wednesday, and Bondi didn't even know it was coming.

Palin's surprise endorsement in the three-way Republican primary surfaced on Facebook, and Bondi rushed to spread the word ahead of Tuesday's primary.

Palin -- the former vice-presidential candidate and ex-Alaska governor who's expected to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 -- threw her support to other candidates, all women, in state and local contests in Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, and North Carolina.

Palin called Bondi and an attorney-general candidate in Iowa ``bold, sharp, selfless women who will respect our Constitution, defend their states, protect our rights and push back against any over-reach of the federal government.''

Palin said the timing of the endorsements was meant to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

``I'm so very proud to be endorsed by such a strong Christian woman who loves her family and her country and is a true role model,'' Bondi said.

Bondi said she met Palin a few months ago at a breakfast in Washington hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List, which supports female candidates who oppose abortion rights. Bondi said the two women discussed their experiences with Down Syndrome, which affects Palin's son and Bondi's 6-year-old niece.

Bondi, a first-time candidate and Tampa native, is facing Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and Holly Benson, a former state representative and head of two state agencies, The winner will face one of two Democratic state senators, Dave Aronberg or Miami Beach's Dan Gelber, in November.

In a tight race that has not attracted widespread attention, the GOP hopefuls have been seeking to outdo each other in endorsements. Kottkamp recently won the support of conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, while Benson on Tuesday backed Bill McCollum for governor.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Aug 17, 2010, Tuesday: US News and World Report Blog

Palin’s Unpresidential 'Ground Zero Mosque' Comments

In Sarah Palin’s opposition to the construction of a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan, she has revealed, once more, why she must never serve as president of the United States.

We are a nation at war. And the president is the commander-in-chief, a job that requires cold--sometimes cruel--calculation of the national interest, and a rigid sense of discipline. The United States is a superpower, with economic and military interests that govern the future of millions of lives, and fortunes. The decisions made in the Oval Office are truly momentous. They demand the strongest character.

Especially in wartime--and we will soon enter the 10th year of the war that began at ground zero--reason must overrule self-indulgent emotionalism, and the lure of following one’s “feelings.”

But Palin is nothing if not about “feeling.” She appeals not to logic, but emotion. To the gut, not the brain. She is one self-indulgent and excitable woman. And in her histrionics over the construction of an Islamic cultural center, two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks, she has demonstrated, once again, why she is unsuited for high office.

“Doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland?” Palin asked those fellow Americans who pause at her readiness to blame all of Islam for the act of a relatively few crazed extremists.

No, it doesn’t. I have lived a long life in the company of Iranian-Americans and Turkish-Americans and Egyptian-Americans and other U.S. Muslims, whose right to build a community center, including a mosque, in Manhattan was ably guaranteed by guys named Madison and Jefferson and Washington in the Bill of Rights. I have an intellect, and can make the distinction between Osama bin Laden and the rest of Islam.

It may feeeel good to Palin and her followers to focus hate and resentment against the Muslim world. But to kiss off freedom of religion for America’s Muslims is to kiss off freedom of religion for evangelical Christians, Jews, Catholics, and other believers. And once you start down that road, folks, you can kiss off your right to bear arms, to a free press, and to trial by jury as well. Because so many, many times, the difficult applications of these rights doesn’t feeeel good.

Palin’s politics of grievance is especially ill-suited for wartime. Wars are won by cruel and calculating bastards like FDR who, if he was around today, would tell us that we will win this war against Muslim terrorists by isolating them, and by enlisting the help of the more-than-a-billion other Muslims in the world who don’t share such hateful beliefs. Presidents Bush and Obama recognized this immediately. Do you think our drones would have such success against al Qaeda leaders in southwest Asia without the help of the Pakistani military, intelligence services, and their sources?

But Palin suggests that we take a feel-good route--painting all Muslims as hateful extremists--that guarantees we lose this war. She seems intent on demonstrating that we Americans are the clueless and oppressive cultural, military, and economic imperialists that al Qaeda says we are.

Sarah Palin cannot make the distinction between feeeeling good, and thinking smart. Or maybe she knows the difference and is undermining the war effort for her own selfish ambitions. Either way, she must never be president.

Aug 17, 2010, Tuesday: Huffington Post. Palin endorses Sharron Angle

Sarah Palin Endorses Sharron Angle In Nevada Race: 'She's Got GUTS'


Ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is endorsing Republican Sharron Angle in her fight to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, the Daily Caller reports.

Chuck Heath, the brother of Palin, signaled to the news site that his sister intends to "actively help" the Tea Party-backed contender in her electoral fight.

The Daily Caller writes:

"She's got GUTS and is putting up with more crap than she deserves because the libs don't know what to do with her and the support she has," Palin said in a email provided to TheDC by Heath.
While Palin has not yet formally endorsed Angle in public before now, she said her support was offered to the Angle campaign when she recently made a donation to her.

According to a Washington Post project tracking endorsements made by Palin this election season, Angle is the fifteenth female candidate running for office the one-time Alaska leader has thrown her support behind to date.

While Palin has not yet formally announced her backing of Angle's campaign, news of the endorsement should come as welcome news for the Senate hopeful.

Since winning the Republican nomination to take on Reid, Angle's political operation has hit a fair number of speed bumps, which include repeated media-related gaffes and flare-ups related to her controversial views.

While it can be expected that Angle will seek to leverage Palin's conservative cred to score points with voters, it seems likely that Reid's camp could also aim to capitalize off of the ex-Governor's seal of approval.

The latest poll numbers out on Nevada's Senate race reveal the election fight to be developing into an extremely heated match-up.

Aug 17, 2010, Tuesday. Wall Street Journal. Emily's List

EMILY’s List Targets Sarah Palin’s ‘Mama Grizzlies’

The Democratic group EMILY’s List is targeting Sarah Palin and the 49 candidates she has endorsed so far in the 2010 midterms with the launch of a new campaign, www.SarahDoesntSpeakForMe.com.

“We didn’t want Sarah Palin’s voice to go unchallenged,” said EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock at a news conference today. EMILY’s List is a veteran Democratic advocacy group that works to elect women who support abortion rights to federal and state office.

The battle over women voters has intensified this year as Palin trumpets and endorses conservative Republican women she has dubbed “mama grizzlies.” Palin also advocated for women candidates in a recent “Mama Grizzlies” video released through her political action committee, SarahPAC.

The site launched today with a parody video of women dressed up as grizzly bears discussing their opposition to Palin’s agenda. “But believe me, there are plenty of mama grizzlies out there who would disagree with you. So you’re right, you don’t want to mess with mama grizzlies. Don’t mess with us,” the women state in the video.

Schriock declined to comment when asked about how much money her group intended to put behind the new campaign. She said that it would serve as a get-out-the-vote effort and help organize Emily’s List supporters to vote this November.

She cited three races that are prime targets for warring Mama Grizzlies, in which EMILY’s List supports the Democrat and Sarah Palin has endorsed the Republican. They include the California Senate race between Sen. Barbara Boxer and former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina; a Minnesota House race that pits GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann against Democrat Tarryl Clark and the New Mexico governor’s race between Republican Susana Martinez and Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

A spokesman for Palin did not respond to a request for comment on the launch of SarahDoesntSpeakForMe.com, but the conservative group, the Susan B. Anthony List criticized the effort as out of step with the electorate this election year.

“EMILY’s List is running scared—and it shows,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement. “Clearly, in this ‘Year of the Pro-Life Woman,’ which Sarah Palin helped make possible, women have found their political voices. Pro-life ‘Mama Grizzlies’ represent the majority of women across the country.”

EMILY’s List, founded in 1985, boasts their role in electing 80 female House members, 15 senators, and nine governors. The Susan B. Anthony List, founded in 1992, boasts their role in electing 75 female House members, seven senators and seven more to “other statewide offices.”

Monday, August 16, 2010

August 16, 2010: Monday, ABC: Good Morning America

Bristol Palin Gets Primary Custody of Tripp, Levi Johnston Gets Twice-Weekly Visits

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston have had a rocky relationship under the harsh glare of the public eye, but a new agreement that gives Palin primary custody of the pair's son, Tripp, also prohibits either party from talking trash about the other.

Sarah Palin's daughter hammers out a complicated deal with her ex-fiance. Twice engaged and twice split, the couple's relationship has been embarrassingly public and, at times, ugly. But they've agreed on one thing: custody of their 1-year-old son, Tripp.

Under the terms, Palin, 19, will have primary custody of the toddler, while Johnston, 20, will have just two days a week to visit his son. According to the agreement, his Saturday visits must be between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and his Wednesday visits can start at noon and go no later than 6 p.m.

Johnston will pay child custody calculated from his current salary, which is estimated at about $72,000 a year, according to court documents.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Aug 10, 2010: Tuesday. a whole host of media

There's at least six more articles today that mention Sarah Palin, mostly in the gossip blogs, no news, so I won't share them here.

Aug 10, 2010. Tuesday: The Wall Street Journal

Gordon Gekko Follows Sarah Palin to Investor Forum

Michael Douglas, famous for playing the unscrupulous takeover artist Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street,” will appear at CLSA’s investor conference in Hong Kong this September.


Associated Press
Michael Douglas Douglas follows in the footsteps of other celebrities who have appeared at the brokerage house’s annual get-together. In 2009, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin made her international debut at the forum, where she spoke about the Federal Reserve’s role in the financial crisis.

Other previous speakers include former U.S. president Bill Clinton, his vice-president Al Gore, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Douglas won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as the avaricious corporate titan in the original “Wall Street,” released in 1987. Gekko’s famous line, “greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” came to embody the money-obsessed 1980s, replete with its leveraged buyouts and corrupt bankers.

Douglas will speak Sept. 15 on “topics ranging from filmmaking to nuclear abolition and the prevention of small arms proliferation,” according to a news release. More than 30 other speakers will also appear, including contrarian investor Marc Faber.

CLSA, owned by French bank Crédit Agricole, will also host the Asia premiere of Gordon Gekko’s comeback flick, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” You’ll have to be a CLSA client to attend.

Oliver Stone directed the original and the sequel. In the sequel, it’s 2008 and Gekko is just out of prison. He warns about the forthcoming market crash and economic meltdown. Of course, nobody will listen.

Aug 10, 2010. Tuesday: Politico: Huckabee backs Palin's Senate pick

Huckabee backs Palin's Senate pick

Mike Huckabee ventured onto Sarah Palin’s home turf Monday by backing her preferred Senate candidate in her native Alaska.

It’s fairly uncommon territory for Huckabee and Palin, who often endorse opposing candidates in GOP primaries. Nonetheless, the former Arkansas governor announced Monday that he’s also backing Republican attorney Joe Miller, who is waging an uphill campaign to defeat Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Aug. 24 GOP primary.

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“A former State Magistrate and Federal Judge, Joe possesses a deep understanding of the law, but more importantly understands its impact on the people,” said Huckabee in a statement. “It is clear that Joe Miller has the right kind of experience, expertise and values to make a great Senator.”

Huckabee’s endorsement comes the same time that he and Palin are campaigning for dueling candidates in the GOP run-off in Georgia. Palin is backing former Secretary of State Karen Handel, while Huckabee has endorsed former Rep. Nathan Deal in the Aug. 10 contest.

In addition to Georgia, Palin and Huckabee backed opposing candidates in GOP primaries in the California Senate race and the Iowa gubernatorial contest.

But in the Alaska Senate race, Palin has not only endorsed Miller, her family has also taken a special interest in the race. Her husband, Todd Palin, has headlined a couple events for Miller.

Palin announced in early June that she supported Miller, after having previously supported Murkowski. She announced early in the cycle that she was backing the senator and even cut a check to Murkowski’s campaign, but later changed course and endorsed Miller, proclaiming “competition's good” in her endorsement of him on her Facebook page.

Unlike some of the other candidates whom either Palin or Huckabee has endorsed, public polls show Miller is a long-shot to unseat Murkowski. In an Ivan Moore Research poll taken in mid-July, Murkowski lead Miller, 62 percent to 30 percent.

Aug 10, 2010, Tuesday. CBS News: Political Hotsheet

Palin Brushes Off Criticism of Confrontation with Teacher



Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is once again berating what she calls the "LSM" ("lamestream media") for the reaction to an Internet video showing a confrontation Palin had with an Alaskan teacher.


While filming her upcoming television series in Homer, Alaska recently, Palin was confronted with a large banner that read "Worst governor ever." Local resident and teacher Kathleen Gustafson was holding the sign when Palin approached her.


"You swore on your precious Bible that you would uphold the interests of this state, and then when cash was waved in front of your face, you quit," Gustafson told Palin.


"Oh, you wanted me to be your governor," Palin responded, sarcastically. "I'm honored! Thank you!"


"I wanted you to honor your responsibilities," Gustafson said.


Video of the incident was promoted on Huffington Post and gained traction across the web yesterday. Some media outlets noted that Palin appeared to roll her eyes after Gustafson informed her she is a teacher.


Palin wrote in a Facebook note yesterday that "the media is now trying to turn my eyebrow movements into story lines."

The former governor contends she would not condescend to a teacher because she comes "from a family of teachers." She lists in the Facebook note her many relatives who are teachers.


While she castigated media coverage of the incident, Palin said the video itself was worth watching because "it helps to remind people once again that Alaska is a great state full of independent-minded people."


The incident, she said, amounted to "what makes our politics so uniquely democratic: two people discussing the things they care about, even though they respectfully disagree about just about everything."

Aug 10, 2010, Tuesday, CNN Entertainment: News about Levi Johnston

CNN Entertainment, The Marquee Blog: Levi Johnston wants Sarah Palin's old job... and a reality show

Levi Johnston wants to run for Sarah Palin's former job – with cameras watching his every step.

Stone & Company Entertainment confirms to CNN that they are actively shopping a show that will feature Johnston seeking his former mother-in-law's old post as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

The show, to be called "Loving Levi: The Road to the Mayor's Office," will feature the trials and tribulations of America's most famous teen dad as he enters the world of politics while continuing to dabble in Hollywood, Stone also confirmed.

First reported by Variety, the company confirms they are already shooting the pilot and are shopping it to several networks. When the show was first floated to Johnston – who recently broke off his engagement to Palin's eldest daughter, Bristol, for the second time – he wasn't thrilled with the idea of following in the former Alaska governor's footsteps.

"But the more I think about it and look into it, I think there's a possibility we can make it happen," Johnston told Variety.

That it might: The former mayor of Wasilla, Verne E. Rupright, won in a 2008 runoff election with a total of 466 votes. The next mayoral election won't be held until 2012, but Johnston may run for city council in the meantime.

Johnston also told Variety he hopes the show exposes his true character. "It's hard to figure me out," he said. "You've got to follow me around. I'm very different. I lead a crazy life. But it will basically be both worlds, my life in Hollywood and back home, the real country boy that I am."

Monday, August 9, 2010

August 9, 2010, Monday: Baltimore Sun - Palin endorsing Murphy

Palin endorsement in Maryland no surprise

Unlike many observers, I was not at all surprised by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement of Brian Murphy for governor ("Palin steps into Maryland politics, backing Murphy," Aug. 5) It was the logical thing for her to do.

During his four years as governor, Bob Ehrlich increased state spending by 33 percent. This is the opposite of what tea partiers want -- they want smaller government.

Mr. Ehrlich is also pro-choice on abortion, while Ms. Palin is pro-life. And he is not very good on gun rights, which is a top tea party issue. For Ms. Palin, Mr. Murphy is better on every one of these issues. So why would she endorse Mr. Ehrlich?

If Mr. Ehrlich wins the primary as expected, then tea partiers will face the difficult choice of either voting for him in November, or voting for the Libertarian or Constitution Party nominees, who are much more in line with their views.

And as I like to say, if we don't start voting for what we want, then we're never going to get it.

Doug McNeil

The writer is the Libertarian Party's nominee for Lt. Governor of Maryland.