The Financial Madness Must Stop

Economic Stimulus 101: Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics

Weekly Jobless Claims Rise 25,000 to 471,000

That flushing sound you just heard was a trillion dollars of stimulus money going down the toilet. Sold as a "jobs program" last year by the Obama administration, Congress passed the Economic Recovery Act along with additional earmark legislation to the tune of over one trillion dollars, an amount which could have created millions of jobs even with equal deficits had we just cut taxes and eliminated the corporate income tax.

Economists and proponents of supply side economics pressed a deaf administration last year to consider anything from a hybrid of tax cuts and bailouts to an all out tax holiday for one year. The administration didn't listen and instead took our hard earned taxpayer  dollars and gave them to poorly run states so that they could keep their bureaucrats (you know those same people who lose our paperwork or deny us our land use permits) while millions of us private sector folks filed unemployment claims.

If that doesn't piss you off, consider what Sarah Palin said yesterday on the Fox Business Channel. Individuals did not benefit from the bailout. Big banks and corporations with ties inside the beltway and lobbyists did.

We lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008 and 4 million jobs in 2009. Over 6 million jobs and one trillion dollars flushed down the drain by the Obama administration and the drunken sailor-like spending spree Congress.

The madness must stop.

Mr. President!

Get to work!

Huffington Post Hits Sarah Palin Over the Head With a Dead Body

Huffington Post writer "Shannyn Moore apparently thinks it's appropriate to dig up the corpse of [former Alaska Governor] Wally Hickel and bash Sarah Palin over the head with it," according to God, Guts and Sarah Palin in a post that was also published on Conservatives4Palin. Moore accuses Palin of "crashing the funeral" and goes on to use a disagreement between Hickel and Palin to form the basis of her irreverent hit piece. Arianna Huffington who so hypocritically criticized Roger Ailes by telling him that hate mongering stuff on her website is "not approved" must have approved of Shannyn Moore's article since it appeared on The Huffington Post yesterday.

This is the same Huffington who has allowed the smearing of Palin on her website since August 2008. Yet she attacked Glenn Beck for forcing Van Jones out of office barely two months after the Alaska bloggers and frivolous ethics complaint filers were prominently played up on her website in the days leading up to Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska. In fact, she used many of the same arguments that Palin supporters used to explain her resignation. What was good for the goose surely was not good for the gander, especially when working within intellectually dishonest confines.

This isn't the first time Shannyn Moore has been in hot water for posting hate on Huffington Post. She was singled out by Palin's attorney Thomas Van Flein for appearing on MSNBC and talking about allegations of a non-existent federal indictment which she was speculating could have been the reason for Palin's resignation. Moore, not hiding the fact that she was rooting on this rumor to be true, also wrote this on the Huffington Post at that time:

For weeks the rumors of a criminal investigation against the governor have been brewing. They are rumors, but are swirling fresh again with Palin's resignation. I'm holding my breath for the other "Naughty Monkey" to drop. Another theory for the resignation is that the Palins would have to disclose the book deal as well as other financial details as governor.

Moore is connected with a group of Alaska bloggers who started smearing Sarah Palin when Celtic Diva was named the official Alaska DNC blogger. During the 2008 presidential campaign, almost all of the misinformation about Governor Palin came from Alaska, partly from local Democrats like Kim Elton (of Troopergate fame) and from “progressive” bloggers.

Jeanne Devon championed the work of the Wasilla Project, which was a documentary series being produced by an independent film maker for the sole purpose of smearing Sarah Palin. The project sought out Wasilla's biggest malcontents and paraded them out to speak about baseless claims against Sarah Palin on vidoes posted on YouTube. All the smears put forth by the Wasilla Project were eventually debunked despite causing damage to Palin's reputation. This is the group responsible for the rape kit rumors.

Shannyn Moore connects the whole group with the Wasilla Project in her blog Sarah Palin Blames Bloggers:

Feeling like an endangered species, Alaska progressives are tight. The Alaska Bloggers are tighter. Right after the nomination of Sarah Palin for VP, Wasilla blogger, musician, professor, and all around renaissance man, Phil Munger, threw a party at his home-the first of many. Secrecies were sworn; we were not alone in front of our computers-we had each other; Mudflats, Immoral Minority,
Writing Raven, Celtic Diva, Progressive Alaska, Alaska Report, What Do I Know, and myself, Just a Girl From Homer. Documentary crews interviewed us and protected anonymous identities at the time.

Documentary crews? There was only one documentary crew covering Sarah Palin during the campaign and that was The Wasilla Project. The below is quoted from The Wasilla Project website which is no longer online:

We've been featured on some major alternative blogs: Huffington Post, Alternet, Crooks and Liars, Wreck and Salvage among others. And we've also featured on blogs from our good friends in Alaska: Mudflats, Progressive Alaska, Shannyn Moore. Some highlights for us during the project were being on the front page of Huffington Post once and on the front page of Salon for 3 days.

And we had kind of creepy coverage in the (Anchorage) Daily News.

Ah, but the real hate mongering of today is happening in The Huffington Post where the leftovers of the Palin smear campaign have gone to continue their evil work.

Billoreilly.com explains more:

Internet sleuth Amanda Carpenter reported that left-wing blogs are gleefully attacking Bristol and Sarah Palin. "If you go to a site like the Huffington Post," Carpenter said, "they smear Bristol Palin to make a political point about her mother. They use her as a prop. Arianna Huffington permits this kind of speech to take place on her web site, she wants people on there commenting." The Factor expressed disgust at the Huffington Post and its proprietress. "Arianna Huffington is the darling of the mainstream media, but she promotes and revels in hateful comments. Huffington can make a ton of money trafficking in this kind of stuff, and it says we are just not an honest country any longer."

The Huffington Post hypocrisy is glaringly obvious considering its connections with the Alaska bloggers, the group which is also linked to the frivolous ethics complaints, whether they filed them or cheerled them on their blogs. These "supposedly independent" Alaskans who filed these ethics complaints provided the fodder that eventually ground the Alaskan state government to a hault. Then they turned around and claimed Palin was a quitter or that she was involved in some wrong doing to explain her resignation. They did all of this to get rid of Palin. So when she finally did resign, what did the hypocrites do? They complained about her resigning. Now they're whining because she's big time nationally and free to make and raise a log of money. 

Which brings me back to the damned if you, damned if you don't scenario that hypocrites like Huffington and her minions create so they leave open both arguments eliminating the need for facts. Uffda explains this tactic best:

Wow. How hateful. I can totally see why Shannyn felt the need to use Hickel's funeral to further her own political agenda.

Remember when Sarah sent out a tweet for Hickel and Moore's partner-in-obsession Geoffrey Dunn was like, "What, that's it? Just a tweet?"

Trust me, if Sarah had not attended or had said nothing at all about Hickel yesterday, Shannyn would be screaming, "See how horrible she is! An icon, a founding father of Alaska died and she doesn't care! She's a horrible witch!"

Remember the name Geoffrey Dunn, another Huffington Post hate mongerer. You will be seeing it a lot when fair minded people debunk all of his lies about The Lies of Sarah Palin when it is released.

Ah, they stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast!

Quote of the Day 05/19/10 - Alaska Trash Blogger Hits New Low

From God, Guts, & Sarah Palin:

The Sarah Palin [Shannyn Moore] hates doesn't even exist. She fears a Palin of her own mental making. And she trashes that mental image because without it she'd be nothing.

I've referred to it before as "creating your own monster." Listen to the Bob and Mark Show clip. Every rung of that leader is spelled S-A-R-A-H  P-A-L-I-N.

It's sad that Ms. Moore would stoop so low as to use a funeral and quote a dead man to trash Sarah Palin.

They're out of ammo I guess.

(Update: Huffington Post prints Shannyn Moore Hate Piece)

Quote of the Day 05/18/10 & Election Coverage On Hannity Tonight

Josh Painter of Texas for Palin introduces Sarah Palin's Facebook Note of today like this:

Tuesday morning on her Facebook Notes page, Sarah Palin gutted the Obama Administration like a red salmon for its endliess apologies to China and preposterous pandering to opponents of the popular Arizona immigration law...

And in 2012 she'll field dress him like a moose, too!

Also, FYI, Sarah Palin will be on Hannity tonight. - h/t Conservatives4Palin

Today's Comments 5/17/10

Rather than compose an article on a particular subject, I prefer to jump around today because there is a lot of nonsense going on in Liberalia.

First of all, it looks the Miss USA Pageant made another politically correct move this year in crowning Miss Michigan Rima Fakih over Miss Oklahoma Elizabeth Woolard who supported Arizona's immigration law during her question and answer session. Woolard becomes this year's Carrie Prejean.

Keith Olbermann proves once again what a nasty, snarling and foaming at the mouth, rabid psychotic he is in a tirade he unleashed at Sarah Palin as he named her Worst Person in the World on his show, Countdown. Oh and by the way Keith, if Palin does have to show up with her army we'll be there.

The Great "O"pologizer has done it again. President Obama apologized to China for the Arizona immigration law. Apparently we can't send a girl's basketball team to Arizona but we can send our bungling, bowing president to China.

Given the way Elena Kagan once gushed over Barack Obama, it's not a stretch to assume that she is ideologically aligned with the statist liberal views of the president. What would any logically thinking person think about me if there were any questions about me having a conservative view in line with Ronald Reagan's philosophy if they read my Ronald Reagan page? Come on Ms. Kagan, just be honest with us and tell us what a god you think Barack Obama is during the confirmation hearings, okay?

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig. John Kerry plans to unveil a repackaged cap and tax bill and have us believe it's something different. So when the vacuum salesman comes back a second time and tells you "well this is an upright electric broom, not a vacuum cleaner," just let him know it still sucks.

Let's help our younger friends understand history and recognize the parallels. Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter. Mahmoud Aminejad is Leonid Brezhnev. Our lack of effective policy on Iranian nuclear plans is similar to our lack of effective policy in containing the Soviet Union during the late 1970's. We are taxing and spending at an unprecedented rate. Unemployment is up and inflation worries loom on the horizon. Been there, done that. Guess who Ronald Reagan is?

I want you all to think hard about this one. Passion, excitement and unbridled patriotism led America out of the decline of the 1970's. It will take the same kind of exuberance to get it done again as we dig ourselves out of the Obama mess. Who best can lead us and who best can elicit that type of response from the people?

Be not afraid fellow Republicans and conservatives. Together we can build an army. They can't do anything to Sarah Palin if we all band together.

She's Running

Why would she do all this work? Don't just listen to me. Listen to Texas for Palin which quotes The Right Guy. Look at how strong Sarah Palin has been in her interviews and in her speeches. A friend of mine who hadn't followed or seen any Palin stuff in the last four months was impressed with her interview with Greta. He made the point that she has gotten even better than she was when she ran for vice president.

Exactly.

If anyone read any of my posts during the period between the 2008 election and the release of Going Rogue: An American Life, I specifically made it a point to focus readers on the fact that if you think she's big now, wait until 2012 when she will be a political behemoth.

She's only half way there.

The fact that Palin has refused to accept her media role as a snapshot in time and fade away as asked by left wing press proves this blogger's point that Sarah Palin has always been an evolving candidate pushing aside adversity and moving forward with all eyes on the future. In my observations, I have always felt (and still do) that she even outshines and exceeds my political expectations. It's why she's such an exciting candidate to follow.

One of the principles of success I studied when I was involved in another business back in the 1990's was that of compressing time frames. This explains why instead of cashing in on $100,000 a week income by giving one speech a week - more than enough money to live on - Palin is giving speech after speech, interview after interview and shooting out Facebook post after Facebook post.

I'm not the shapest knife in the drawer; but I would think if you were running for president you'd need more than a few million dollars to do it given how big the war chests of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are. Sarah Palin knows she only has less than 2 1/2 years left to get into position to take down President Obama. And she's capably squeezing eight years of work into that time frame.

That's why I know she's running.

You will also notice that the criticisms of her being too shallow, not intellectually curious and uninformed on the substance of issues are quickly being swept away not because she's whining about them but because she's doing something about it. No longer surrounded by the idiots who helped orchestrate John McCain's electoral loss in 2008, Palin is building a staff of advisers and engaging herself with politicos across the country. While this is still a work in progress, it is a fine work in progress which will look beautiful on the canvas of Palin's political life once the picture is fully painted.

Hang on folks. The ride only gets wilder from here.

The Palin Blitzkrieg (Updated)

I'm exhausted. You'd think I just gave five speeches and two interviews in 48 hours. Keeping up with Sarah Palin is harder than going to a NASCAR race. I thought keeping up with 43 cars over 500 laps was a tough job even with the new scoreboard they have at Richmond International Raceway. But this Palin thing is ridiculous. She's an energy burst the likes I've never seen before.

When I got my book signed in Fairfax, VA, I noticed one thing about Sarah Palin. She is hyper. She radiates an excitement along with an organized but fast paced way of doing things. I'm from New York originally. It's normal there to run into "time is money" fast paced people. But, who is this lady from Alaska? In today's America, it is more the exception than the norm that you find someone who can get the most bang for their buck out of the one commodity that is more important than money - time. 

We are dealing with a woman who has to compress time frames. Ronald Reagan hit the scene in 1964 and was not elected until 1980. Sarah Palin doesn't have 16 years to prep herself to become president. She only has two and a half years left. I argue this with Gingrich and Romney supporters all the time who tell me they like Sarah but that their guy is older and she will still be here in eight years at which time they will gladly support her for president.

Under most conditions, I'd say they're right. But there are two mitigating factors here. We have the most radical president ever elected in our nation's history running us into financial ruin while he weakens our defense status in front of the world (even if you concede all liberal arguments except for the one about how we are perceived) and who is growing an incredibly cumbersome if not over-controlling government with bureaucracies that threaten our liberties even if unintentionally (I won't argue motive here simply for the sake of the expediency of my argument) at the same time. And we have the political rarity of a Reaganesque figure right here right now that can stop him. She is ready to go forward with a set of principles, values and a work ethic that only such a national emergency like the destruction our national fiber can require immediately.

There are some in the Republican Party and some in the Tea Party movement who may be willing to support Palin down the road but who are too leery right now to make that commitment because they're afraid that we might get our "best monster" killed in battle because she's too young or she's too new. There are some who would be willing to wait until she got into her late fifties or even early sixties before supporting her especially after the wet behind the ears youngster we have occupying the oval office right now. But when a baseball team needs pitching and you have someone that just came up from the minor leagues with one of the best fastballs you've ever seen, you got to put them in and have faith they don't throw their arm out. We're probably going to lose  if we don't. If we do, we got a shot.

Bringing in a time tested veteran right now is only going to slow down the process of returning America to greatness. There are good quality politicians with good ideas who share our Constitutional values. Don't get me wrong. But they move at a politician's pace.

How long does it take Palin to give an hour and a half speech in Chicago? Forty minutes.

If her delivery was too fast let's just hope she can govern that way. We'll be at the shining city on a hill in no time.

Don't worry about what the media says. Replace Reagan's age issue with Palin's sex issue and both candidates have the same strengths and perceived weaknesses at the same time in their pre-electoral histories at similarly historic crossroads. And the media basically says the same things about them. That should give you your answer right there.

Wednesday night, Palin spoke in Chicago. Yesterday she did a phone interview with Megyn Kelly. Then she wrote a Facebook note. Then she spoke in Michigan. This morning she spoke in Washington, DC, but that was only after getting up early and doing an interview with Greta Van Susteren. She is currently snarling traffic at a speech in North Carolina after which she will go to South Carolina to stump for Nikki Haley. At some point this morning she also squeezed in some time for another Facebook note.

(UPDATE: Sarah Palin also appeared with AZ Governor Jan Brewer on Saturday 5/15/10 and will be appearing with New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez on Sunday 5/16/10. She also wrote another Facebook note. I on the other hand got a lttle work done in my business and got my ex-wife's lawn cut and my lawn cut. I am now enjoying a product of the working class whose best friend floats at the bottom of a glass. I am so not worthy.)

(UPDATE 2: I can't update fast enough. A new Facebook note and another appearance at 9 am tomorrow morning - it's 1:27 am EDT as I write this. "I’m also excited to join Susana at the 9:00 am rally tomorrow, Sunday, May 16th, at the Albuquerque Marriott Grand Ballroom, located at 2101 Louisiana Blvd. NE. Space is limited, so please click here to RSVP if you can swing by and join us.")

I'm not one to give Sarah Palin advice or write something that might be taken out of context by the lamestream media, but as a strong supporter of Sarah who is a mere mortal that may not have the capability of understanding, I ask her to please eat a high calorie meal and take a deep breath. She has been saying a lot (and its all substance folks) quickly and she's not looking like she's going to fail Michelle Obama's BMI test (and she's all gorgeous folks). But if she can't slow down and throw on a couple of pounds for herself at least do it for me. I'm about ready to pass out.

But seriously, this woman is working like a dog (and its all pitbull folks) to save her country. Her work ethic is beyond incredible. If this is not an example of unbridled leadership, I don't know what else is. And she's doing this for us. I feel guilty that she's killing herself like this for my vision of America and I haven't even been able to get the lawn cut yet.

The liberals can say all they want about her from the couches where they watch Countdown eating Bon Bons, the basements where they spew out their blogs or the sugar powder and donut crumb laden desks over at the New York Times or CBS news where they work on their hit peices. But they can't say she's not outworking them.

I know we Palinistas get harrassed for worshipping Sarah. After listening to Elena Kagan gush on about Barack Obama, I can understand how some folks might want to puke if I turn on the rhetorical sweet talk. But the truth of the matter is she deserves it. She's earned it.

I remember cutting a picture out of the paper of Nancy Reagan looking up adoringly at Ronnie giving a speech and putting it in my high school underground newspaper where I wrote a caption underneath it: "Ronnie, you're a god." I read an article yesterday where the writer caught Todd looking at Sarah that same way during one of her speeches. I saw the look in people's eyes at Reagan speeches. I see that same look again now at Palin speeches.

While she's one of us and we should normally never put people on pedestals because thats from where they can fall, she deserves our admiration and she deserves to be called our leader because of what she is doing to help us take back our country.

Lloyd Marcus wrote:

Palin is not the leader of the Tea Party Movement because it does not require a leader at this time. Self appointed leaders are frauds. True leaders are selected by the people. If, or when the Tea Party movement demands a leader, Palin is a very strong contender.

While some self appointed leaders form a community which they want to organize, this community will someday organize to select its leader.

Listen. You hear it yet? It's getting louder.

Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!

Purism, Pragmatism and Going It Alone

I hope you all find my Townhall blog post Balancing Purism and Pragmatism to be an interesting read. It seems there is a bit of a tug between the Tea Party movement and the Republican party when it comes to candidates. I take a political science approach to the subject because I think it's not an "either or" situation.

As a business owner, I find that the purist ideals of our mission statement sometimes run into the hard realities of life. And while we should never take shortcuts, compromise our integrity or lose focus on our main objectives and future vision of our company, it is always important to remember that you sometimes have to pick and choose your battles and be flexible, decisive and pragmatic in addressing problems. It may not always look like the right answer at the moment. But when you look down the line at the probable outcome, if you get to your goal it's well worth it when you can kick back and say "now that was leadership!"

Sarah Palin is beholden to no one. She is beholden to the American ideal. She is a servant who is willing to take the slings and arrows of political misfortune if necessary in order to do what she feels must be done to win our country back. As it is with running a business or a family, you sometimes make decisions that are not understood or not well taken. But eventually the family or your business associates come back later and thank you for being a good mother or a good leader.

Activists need to back the “best conservatives we can elect,” Palin told the crowd in Chicago last night, and said that activists have to have some pragmatism about electability.

Warner Todd Huston explains this pragmatism:

This is a perfect echo of the old William F. Buckley principle that, in Palin's words, "the conservative with the best shot of winning" will get her support. Buckely is famous for having supported the most conservative candidate that had a chance of winning election as opposed to simply the most conservative candidate. Apparently, Palin is taking this page from Buckley's playbook.

Sometimes leaders go it alone for the good of the group, but they don't always have to.



Read more on Sarah Palin Information Blog. Gary P, who has been an invaluable asset to the Palin cause, writes another excellent piece that incorporates Karen Allen's video above.


Great read: Conservative. But Also Republican. This describes me perfectly.

Good Palin reads:
Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois — and so was Sarah Palin’s 2012 presidential campaign.
Packed house roars with cheers for Sarah Palin in Obama country (Updated)
Sun-Times: Sarah Palin impresses top Republicans at Illinois fundraiser

This tweet by Sarah Palin got over 100 retweets:

Highland Park says ok 4 student trip 2 CHINA,but not r sister state-Arizona-bc they fear AZ's"not aligned w/r beliefs&values" And CHINA is?

VIDEO: Sarah Palin draws hundreds to Rainbow Omega fundraiser

NBC13 coverage of speech at Rainbow Omega Fundraiser Tuesday night in Birmingham

Press conference after the speech: