Theodore's World

Congress: Democrats oppose extracting 10 billion barrels of oil from ANWR because it won’t affect prices, but want to tap our strategic reserve of 700 million because it will. Come again?
Investors Business Daily
At a hearing last week before the House Committee on Global Warming, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said he didn’t understand why President Bush wasn’t releasing oil from the nation’s reserves stored in underground salt domes in Texas and Louisiana.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman tried to explain that the stockpile “is meant to deal with . . . the physical interruption of the flow of oil to this country. We don’t have that issue today.”
We might, however, in the event of a conflict with, say, Iran. And for that reason, we believe the SPR should remain — what’s the word? — “pristine” and filled to the brim.
But we not only need the SPR; we need more reserves — from the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to shale oil in the Rockies to the outer continental shelf.
Instead, we have the likes of Rep. Markey, who last year introduced H.R. 39, legislation that would make the 1.2-million-acre coastal plain of ANWR a permanently protected wilderness.
Oil development would affect only 2,000 acres, yet Markey et al. seek to end forever efforts to develop its energy resources to benefit Americans.
Never mind that off the coast of Louisiana, not far from our strategic reserve, there are 3,200 offshore oil platforms that survived Hurricane Katrina without leaking a drop of crude.
Also never mind that Louisiana produces a third of America’s commercial fisheries; fish thrive amid the platforms. Yet we are barred from more offshore exploration because of fears of spills and imaginary threats to marine life.
In our world, 10 billion is a lot bigger than 700 million. It’s bigger in Bodman’s world as well. The biggest factor affecting prices, he said, is that beginning in 2005 “there has been no change in global production” and “demand has outstripped supply.”
The Energy Information Administration says the U.S. by itself will need 19% more energy in 2030. Add in the rest of the world and the growing economies of China and India, and you’re talking 55% more energy demand. Despite our best efforts, more than 60% of that demand will be for oil and natural gas.
As President Bush said at a recent press conference, the Department of Energy has estimated that ANWR development, vetoed by Hillary Clinton’s husband in 1995, would add a million barrels of oil to our daily supply.
That, he said, “translates to about 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel every day.” And that, he continued, “would be about a 20% increase of oil . . . and likely mean lower gas prices.”
In last week’s annual scapegoating of Big Oil, John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., told his Senate inquisitors: “This persistent denial of access is costing American consumers right out of their pocketbooks.”
ANWR is only the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended. The outer continental shelf holds an estimated 115 billion barrels of oil and 635 trillion feet of natural gas. If allowed to develop these resources in Alaska, the shelf and elsewhere, U.S. reserves would increase by a factor of five, and we’d jump from 11th to fourth in the world in the size of our proven reserves.
Enough, in other words, to make OPEC blink — and gas prices drop.

Las Vegas Sun

The Democrats continue their efforts to blame the rising prices of gasoline and fuel oil on the Republicans and, in particular, the Bush administration. There is no bigger lie to be foisted upon the American public.

Since 1980, almost 29 years ago, the Democrats began their refusal to allow offshore drilling, Alaskan oil drilling, the construction of nuclear power plants and wind farms off the coast of New England. Their claims, however foolish, were designed to protect the interests of their political contributors, not the pocketbooks of the American citizenry.

Now the Democrats want to blame the Republican Party for failure to levy fines for “price gouging” by Big Oil. Never mind the fact that they, the Democrats, ran on the promise to keep gasoline prices low and punish Big Oil for price gouging.

The Democrat spokesmen all say that if we were to allow drilling offshore, in Alaska, and that if we were to allow nuclear power plants, it would be at least 10 years before we would realize anything in production. That may be true, but if we had begun to act in 1980, 29 years ago, the “10 year” claim would be a moot point! We would have had energy prices under control, and facts are facts!

U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
CLICK to see the States with Nuclear Power
Nuclear Energy Institute


Wild Thing’s comment………
Every time someone complains to me about these “outrageous gas prices,” I tell them, “Blame the Democrats who have kept us from drilling for more oil the last 30 years.”
This makes me so angry. These people that have done this to our country over the years, the enviro mentally ill human pieces of flesh which are also democrats, and the democrats that sit on their non working butts and do nothing for this country and the rino’s that go along with this crap……should be put in prison in some third world country and never let out into society again.
I am so sick of these enviro’s controlling our country the way they have done. Sick of this enemy within we have that do this kind of thing, the same people that do NOT support our troops, the same people that want socialism/ communism for the United States of America.

Country music artist Wynonna Judd performs with the U.S. Army Band at the Wagner Sports Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2008. The concert for staff and patients was held in conjunction with a Morale, Welfare and Recreation picnic that featured a local blues band, barbecue and steaks. Defense Dept. photo by Fred W. Baker III

Wynonna Rocks Inspirational Performance at Walter Reed
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
DOD
WASHINGTON, May 23, 2008 – When country music star Wynonna Judd stepped on stage in the Wagner Sports Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here yesterday, it was all about the love.

Over a year ago, she said, ‘What can I do for the Army, and in particular what can I do for Walter Reed?’” said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody as he was introducing the megastar known across the industry as simply “Wynonna.”

“I said, ‘Just come up and tell them you love them,’” he said.

And so she did, in song and in speech.
Half the songs Wynonna performed had the word ‘love’ penned in their titles. In the others, love was a staple of their prose.

“Out of all the flags I’ve flown, one flies high and stands alone,” sang the Grammy-award-winning artist. “Only love.”

She spent the hours before the concert meeting with staff and wounded warriors. Then to the hundreds who packed into the auditorium, Wynonna belted out in powerful, bluesy vocals, “I Want to Know What Love Is,” and proclaimed “Love Can Build a Bridge,” and later transformed into a “Hunk of Hunk of Burning Love.”
It was just the inspirational ticket the appreciative audience was looking for. The staff of the hospital has spent more than a year in the nation’s hot spotlight after reports surfaced of poor outpatient conditions at the center. Morale also has suffered as the closing of the historical hospital also nears under the base realignment and closure plan, and many staff members are uncertain about their future. And the wounded warriors there spend days, months and even years recovering from horrific wounds rendered by the hands of hate.

“Thanks to you all, … my mother and my sister, we live on a farm together and we sleep at night [because] we know that you all are putting your butts on the line for us,” Wynonna told the crowd. “And I just want you to know that today is just a very small composite of how I feel about you.

“We love you, and we support you,” she said.

And the crowd loved her back.

“We love you too, Wynonna,” they screamed repeatedly between songs amid the whistling and cheers.

Some, however, less familiar with the star, couldn’t get her name right.

“You talking to me?” Wynonna called out to Army Spc. Chauncy Clayton, a patient administrator.

The star summoned him to the stage to correct his misplaced syllable. He had improperly put the emphasis on “nona.”

“It’s WHY-nona,” the star playfully chastised in her country accent, drawing a roar of laughter and applause from the crowd.

In Wynonna’s 24-year career that started with a string of hits she performed with her mother as The Judds, she has garnered more than 21 No. 1 hits, sold 20 million records, six of which turned to platinum and four to gold. She’s won five Grammy awards, nine Country Music Association awards. She has sung for the pope, four presidents and before millions at the Super Bowl.
But yesterday, it was a free tribute to Walter Reed’s staff and patients, with the U.S. Army band serving as her orchestra. Admittedly, though, it was not her typical concert crowd.

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen a show of mine before,” Wynonna requested of the audience.

Only a few hands shot up.
Wynonna feigned a shocked look.

“What have you been doing?” she asked and laughed.

But once the show started, the star’s familiar tunes such as “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Old Days)” warmed the crowd.
Wynonna dedicated her classic “Mama He’s Crazy,” to Cody, who she called a father figure. She met the general during his command at Fort Campbell, Ky. He introduced her to the Army and its soldiers.

“Every artist who ever gets a record deal should have to do community service for the Army. It’s sort of my philosophy these days,” Wynonna said.

This met with several enthusiastic “hooahs.”

“Yeah, hooah,” she responded.

Now, Wynonna calls herself an ambassador for the military.

“There are a lot of us, especially in the country music community, who absolutely support you, and everywhere we go we give the message loud and clear that freedom ain’t free,” she said.

Wynonna gave credit to her mother for raising her with a grateful attitude. Her mother raised Wynonna and her sister, actor Ashley Judd, while living on welfare. But even in the early years of the stars’ rise to fame, she sang with her mother, alongside Bob Hope as part of the USO.

“I’m just wanting you to know today that you are really loved. Not just because of what you do, but because of who you are,” she said. “If you all ever need a parade waiver, you know who to call.”

Wynonna joked with the crowd about their motives for coming to the concert.

“I know it got some of you out of work. And that’s a good thing,” she said, and her words were met by the cheers of the crowd.

But for others it was therapy.

“It got some of you out of bed, and that’s a good thing,” she said. “For those of you who I didn’t get to meet today, I’ll be back.”

During a powerful performance of the religious hit “I Can Only Imagine,” in which the singer imagines her response to meeting Jesus, photos of soldiers on their knees praying in combat zones flashed on the large screen on stage.
At the end, the typically fiery redhead had to break. She turned from the crowd, grabbed a tissue, and after a few moments, faced them again, attempting to recompose.
Wynonna talked of taking chances, and risks, and life’s trials. She referred to her own past, spotted with troubles and heartaches.

“You learn so much about yourself when you go to hell and back. You really do,” she told the crowd. “People don’t understand while they’re sitting at home on their … butts complaining about the state of the union. I’m like, ‘Well then get off your butt and go do something about it.’”

For more than an hour, Wynonna commanded the stage, singing, joking and paying tribute to those who serve, both in and out of uniform. She said she felt connected to the crowd.

“I love you,” she told the audience at the end of what should have been her last song.

But the roar of the cheers and a standing ovation brought her back to the stage one more time.

“No One Can Love Me Like You,” Wynonna sang in her encore.

And the crowd believed it.

A tearful Army retiree, now working as a health technician, Christine Engle said the concert was a shot in the arm for the staff and patients there.

“I think it’s great that she’s … out here, with all the things that have happened here at Walter Reed in the past year,” she said. “The care is excellent here, and the [media] have given it such a bad name. With her coming here, it just shows that she appreciates what these soldiers have done … and the staff that works at the hospital. It’s positive thing, and it’s very important.

“It’s a great day,” Engle said.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus was established in the U.S. House of Representatives in the early 1990s. It reflects the diversity and strength of the American people, and we seek to give voice to the needs and aspirations of all Americans and to build a more just and humane society. The Co-Chairwomen of the 72-Member Congressional Progressive Caucus, U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, welcome your interest in the growing Progressive Caucus.

DSA Logo

Describing itself as “the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International,” the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the United States.

“We are socialists,” reads the organization’s boilerplate, “because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit, alienated labor, race and gender discrimination, environmental destruction, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.”

“To achieve a more just society,” adds DSA, “many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed. … Democracy and socialism go hand in hand. All over the world, wherever the idea of democracy has taken root, the vision of socialism has taken root as well—everywhere but in the United States.”

Formed in 1983 during the Cold War by merging splinter factions of the Socialist movement, DSA brought together what it calls “former Socialists and Communists, former old leftists and new leftists, and many who had never been leftists at all.” In its early years, DSA supported the Soviet-backed nuclear freeze program that would have consolidated Soviet nuclear superiority in Europe – under the banner of promoting “peace.”
DSA summarizes its philosophy as follows:

“Today … resources are used to make money for capitalists rather than to meet human needs. We believe that the workers and consumers who are affected by economic institutions should own and control them. Social ownership could take many forms, such as worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. Democratic Socialists favor as much decentralization as possible. … While we believe that democratic planning can shape major social investments like mass transit, housing, and energy, market mechanisms are needed to determine the demand for many consumer goods.”

DSA seeks to increase its political influence not by establishing its own party, but rather by working closely with the Democratic Party to promote leftist agendas.

“Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious, and community organizing movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party,” says DSA. “We work with those movements to strengthen the party’s left wing, represented by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. … Maybe sometime in the future … an alternative national party will be viable. For now, we will continue to support progressives who have a real chance at winning elections, which usually means left-wing Democrats.”

Until 1999, DSA hosted the website of the Progressive Caucus. Following a subsequent expose of the link between the two entities, the Progressive Caucus established its own website under the auspices of Congress. But DSA and the Progressive Caucus remain intimately linked. All 58 Progressive Caucus members also belong to DSA. In addition to these members of Congress, other prominent DSA members include Noam Chomsky, Ed Asner, Gloria Steinem, and Cornel West, who serves as the organization’s honorary Chair.
In the wake of 9/11, DSA characterized the terror attacks as acts of retaliation for American-perpetrated global injustices.

“We live in a world,” said DSA, “organized so that the greatest benefits go to a small fraction of the world’s population while the vast majority experiences injustice, poverty, and often hopelessness. Only by eliminating the political, social, and economic conditions that lead people to these small extremist groups can we be truly secure.”

Strongly opposed to the U.S. War on Terror and America’s post-9/11 military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, DSA is a member organization of the United For Peace and Justice anti-war coalition led by Leslie Cagan, a longtime committed socialist who aligns her politics with those of Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba.

LEFTWING MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB
One of the great myths of the left is that socialism is a movement of the people, the working classes, or the poor. In fact — as Frederick Hayek pointed out long ago — all socialist movements are the creation of intellectual elites, liberally pollinated by millionaires. Karl Marx was the kept intellectual of factory owner Frederick Engels; Bill Ayers, a leader of the terrorist cult called the Weatherman, was a scion of the American upper class; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, is a multi-millionairess; Michael Moore, leftwing propagandist, is a multi-millionaire who has profited handsomely from the “struggle.” The Leftwing Millionaires Club is a very incomplete list designed to illustrate this point and to serve as a reminder that everything is not always what it appears.
This must be an old list because some of these people are dead. If you go to THIS LINK you can click on each or any of these names and read what they say about the war and other things.
Anagnos, Aris
Arafat, Yasser
Belafonte, Harry
Benjamin, Medea
Bing, Stephen
Castro, Fidel
Chomsky, Noam
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Couric, Katie
Donahue, Phil
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Evans, Jodie
Farrakhan, Louis
Farrell, Mike
Fonda, Jane
Friedan, Betty
Glover, Danny
Goodman, Amy
Gore, Al
Hayden, Tom
Jackson, Jesse
Jennings, Peter
Jong, Erica
Kennedy, Edward (Ted)
Kennedy, Jr., Robert F.
Kerry, John
Kerry, Teresa Heinz
Kirsch, Steven
Kirsch, Michele
Leno, Jay
Lewis, Peter
MacArthur, John R.
Maher, Bill
Mailer, Norman
Moore, Michael
Moyers, Bill
Navasky, Victor
Penn, Sean
Pot, Pol
Raitt, Bonnie
Rather, Dan
Redgrave, Vanessa
Reiner, Rob
Robbins, Tim
Rockefeller, Wendy Gordon
Sarandon, Susan
Scheer, Robert
Seeger, Pete
Sheen, Martin
Smiley, Tavis
Sontag, Susan
Soros, George
Springsteen, Bruce
Stone, Oliver
Streisand, Barbra
Turner, Ted
vanden Heuvel, Katrina
Vidal, Gore
West, Cornel
Zinn, Howard

Now what does all of this have to do with B. Hussein Obama.
The Marxists of Chicago Democratic Socialists of America helped launch Obama’s political career and have supported him ever since.
In 1988 Obama left Chicago to study at Harvard Law School.
He returned in 1992 and in 1996 he ran for Illinois State Senate with the endorsement of DSA.
Barack Obama’s connections to a number of notable individuals and organizations. In some cases, these affiliates are notable for the leftist views and objectives they share with Obama. In other cases, they are notable for their collaboration with Obama in a variety of unethical activities. In all cases, they offer a window into Barack Obama’s values and priorities.
Individuals:
Saul Alinsky
David Axelrod
Nadhmi Auchi
Bill Ayers
Robert Blackwell, Jr.
Carl Davidson
Frank Marshall Davis
Bernardine Dohrn
Louis Farrakhan
Rashid Khalidi
Rev. Joseph Lowery
Robert Malley
Rev. Otis Moss
Michelle Obama
Eli Pariser
Rev. Michael Pfleger
Tony Rezko
Al Sharpton
George Soros
Dorothy Tillman
Rev. Jeremiah Wright
Groups:
ACORN
Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C.
Democratic Socialists of America
Gamaliel Foundation
International Crisis Group
MoveOn
New Party
Project Vote
Socialist Scholars Conference
Foundations:
Woods Fund of Chicago
You can go to this page and click on any of the above names listed to read about them.
Here is a list of the names of the Caucus Member List
source
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
Steny Hoyer
Office of the Majority Leader
Jim Clyburn
Office of the Majority Whip
Rahm Emanuel
Democratic Caucus Chair
Co-Chairs
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-6)
Hon. Barbara Lee (CA-9)
Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5)
Hon. Hilda Solis (CA-32)
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-2)
Hon. Phil Hare (IL-17)
Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)
House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-1)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-2)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo (GU-AL)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-1)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-3)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-8)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay (MO-1)
Hon. Steve Cohen (TN-9)
Hon. John Conyers (MI-14)
Hon. Elijah Cummings (MD-7)
Hon. Danny Davis (IL-7)
Hon. Peter DeFazio (OR-4)
Hon. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3)
Hon. Keith Ellison (MN-5)
Hon. Sam Farr (CA-17)
Hon. Chaka Fattah (PA-2)
Hon. Bob Filner (CA-51)
Hon. Barney Frank (MA-4)
Hon. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4)
Hon. John Hall (NY-19)
Hon. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Hon. Michael Honda (CA-15)
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hon. Hank Johnson (GA-4)
Hon. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11)
Hon. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9)
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Hon. John Lewis (GA-5)
Hon. David Loebsack (IA-2)
Hon. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
Hon. Ed Markey (MA-7)
Hon. Jim McDermott (WA-7)
Hon. James McGovern (MA-3)
Hon. George Miller (CA-7)
Hon. Gwen Moore (WI-4)
Hon. Jerrold Nadler (NY-8)
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC-AL)
Hon. John Olver (MA-1)
Hon. Ed Pastor (AZ-4)
Hon. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Hon. Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Hon. Laura Richardson (CA-37)
Hon. Bobby Rush (IL-1)
Hon. Linda Sanchez (CA-47)
Hon. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9)
Hon. Jose Serrano (NY-16)
Hon. Louise Slaughter (NY-28)
Hon. Pete Stark (CA-13)
Hon. Bennie Thompson (MS-2)
Hon. John Tierney (MA-6)
Hon. Tom Udall (NM-3)
Hon. Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Hon. Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Hon. Mel Watt (NC-12)
Hon. Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Hon. Peter Welch (VT-AL)
Hon. Robert Wexler (FL-19)

For future reference this post will be listed in Traitors To America in the sidebar

HILLARY RAISES ASSASSINATION ISSUE
NY Post
Hillary Clinton today brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama.
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

UPDATE:The kind of sort of not really apology Clinton style.
Clinton apologizes for RFK assassination comment
CNN
BRANDON, South Dakota (CNN) – Hillary Clinton said Friday she regretted comments that evoked the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as part of her explanation for why she was staying in the presidential race late into the primary season.
“Earlier today, I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June in 1992 and 1968, and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nominating primary contests that go into June. That’s an historic fact,” she told reporters.
“The Kennedys have been much on my mind in the last days because of Senator [Ted] Kennedy, and I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever,” she added.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Obama would definitely need a waffle taster if she is on the ticket with him.
Vince Foster to Obama…… stay out of the park.
Wonder if the DNC will be publishing the “Clinton Death List,” and handing them out at their convention.

* Stop the ACLU ….thank you for the video

Yesterday, General Petraeus was back on Capitol Hill to testify before Congress. Senator Barack Obama was there too, but not for long. He stayed in the committee meeting long enough to ask one question, before ducking out to head back to the campaign trail. This wouldn’t normally be a big deal, except …
Senator Obama has never sat down, one-on-one, with General Petraeus. Even worse, he hasn’t visited Iraq, and our brave troops on the ground, in over two years. And on April 8, when two-dozen Illinois veterans went to his office for a meeting, Senator Obama was unwilling to meet with them. He was in his office, just wouldn’t come out.
CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO BY SGT. ANDERSON.
Sergeant Anderson was one of the 12 veterans denied a meeting with Senator Obama. And like his fellow veterans, Sergeant Anderson would like to ask Senator Obama a few questions: Why hasn’t he met with General Petraeus? And why won’t he visit Iraq? And why would Senator Obama rather talk about meeting—unconditionally—with Iran, instead of meeting with veterans and commanders? America deserves to know.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Weak, cowardly, terrorist lover, classless, American hater Hussein Mohammad Obama is why the term POS was invented.

Adolf Hitler at a Nazi rally shortly after being elected Chancellor

……Thank you RAC for sending this video. LOL It is amazing how they have the words to the music match so perfectly to the video.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s Newest Star
Fox News
JUNEAU, Alaska
The wipeout in the 2006 election left Republicans in such a state of dejection that they’ve overlooked the one shining victory in which a Republican star was born.
The triumph came in Alaska where Sarah Palin, a politician of eye-popping integrity, was elected governor. She is now the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating in the 90s, and probably the most popular public official in any state.
Her rise is a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle–especially to transparency and accountability in government–can produce political success. And by the way, Palin is a conservative who only last month vetoed 13 percent of the state’s proposed budget for capital projects. The cuts, the Anchorage Daily News said, “may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history.”
As recently as last year, Palin (pronounced pale-in) was a political outcast. She resigned in January 2004 as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after complaining to the office of Governor Frank Murkowski and to state Attorney General Gregg Renkes about ethical violations by another commissioner, Randy Ruedrich, who was also Republican state chairman.
State law barred Palin from speaking out publicly about ethical violations and corruption. But she was vindicated later in 2004 when Ruedrich, who’d been reconfirmed as state chairman, agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking state ethics laws. She became a hero in the eyes of the public and the press, and the bane of Republican leaders.
In 2005, she continued to take on the Republican establishment by joining Eric Croft, a Democrat, in lodging an ethics complaint against Renkes, who was not only attorney general but also a long-time adviser and campaign manager for Murkowski. The governor reprimanded Renkes and said the case was closed. It wasn’t. Renkes resigned a few weeks later, and Palin was again hailed as a hero.
Palin, 43, the mother of four, passed up a chance to challenge Republican senator Lisa Murkowski, the then-governor’s daughter, in 2004. She endorsed another candidate in the primary, but Murkowski won and was reelected. Palin said then that her 14-year-old son talked her out of running, though it’s doubtful that was the sole reason.
In 2006, she didn’t hesitate.

She ran against Gov. Murkowski, who was seeking a second term despite sagging poll ratings, in the Republican primary. In a three-way race, Palin captured 51 percent and won in a landslide. She defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election, 49 percent to 41 percent. She was one of the few Republicans anywhere in the country to perform above expectations in 2006, an overwhelmingly Democratic year. Palin is unabashedly pro life.

With her emphasis on ethics and openness in government, “it turned out Palin caught the temper of the times perfectly,” wrote Tom Kizzia of the Anchorage Daily News. She was also lucky. News broke of an FBI investigation of corruption by legislators between the primary and general elections. So far, three legislators have been indicted.

In the roughly three years since she quit as the state’s chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the “body count” of Palin’s rivals.

“The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah,” says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called “Voice of the Times,” which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.

One of her first acts as governor was to fire the Alaska Board of Agriculture. Her ultimate target was the state Creamery Board, which has been marketing the products of Alaska dairy farmers for 71 years and wanted to close down after receiving $600,000 from the state. “You don’t just close your doors and walk away,” Palin told me. She discovered she lacked the power to fire the Creamery Board. Only the board of agriculture had that authority. So Palin replaced the agriculture board, which appointed a new creamery board, which has rescinded the plan to shut down.

In preserving support for dairy farmers, Palin exhibited a kind of Alaskan chauvinism. She came to the state as an infant, making her practically a native. And she is eager to keep Alaska free from domination by oil companies or from reliance on cruise lines whose ships bring thousands of tourists to the state.

“She’s as Alaskan as you can get,” says Dan Fagan, an Anchorage radio talk show host. “She’s a hockey mom, she lives on a lake, she ice fishes, she snowmobiles, she hunts, she’s an NRA member, she has a float plane, and her husband works for BP on the North Slope,” Fagan says. Todd Palin, her high school sweetheart, is a three-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks. It’s the world’s longest snowmobile race.

Gov. Palin grew up in Wasilla, where as star of her high school basketball team she got the nickname “Sarah Barracuda”

Some more about Sarah Palin:

She beats awful Condi Rice out of the ballpark too.
Check this poll out:Who would be a better VP runningmate for John McCain?

Palin says Alaska will sue over polar bear listing
STORY HERE

The State of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday.
She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state’s northern and northwestern coasts.

Sarah and her husband and their precious baby.
Source:Breitbart
Alaska governor sees ‘perfection’ in son with Down syndrome
The results of Gov. Sarah Palin’s prenatal testing were in, and the doctor’s tone was ominous: “You need to come to the office so we can talk about it.”

Palin, known for a resolve that quickly launched her from suburban hockey mom to a player on the national political stage, said, “No, go ahead and tell me over the phone.”

The physician replied, “Down syndrome,” stunning the Republican governor, who had just completed what many political analysts called a startling first year in office.

The doctor’s announcement in December, when Palin was four months pregnant, presented her with a possible life- and career-changing development.
“I’ve never had problems with my other pregnancies, so I was shocked,” said Palin, a mother of four other children.

Once her husband got the news, he told her: “We shouldn’t be asking, ‘Why us?’ We should be saying, ‘Well, why not us?'”

There was never any doubt the Palins would have the child, and on April 18 she gave birth to Trig Paxon Van Palin.

“We’ve both been very vocal about being pro-life,” Palin said. “We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential.”

Wild Thing’s comment………
Just looking to see what conservatives are out there if McCain would even pick one.
I got this in an email from a Nam Vet Max, a few months ago that lives in Alaska, it is intersting:

“Speaking as an Alaskan – and someone who actually knows Sarah through my job – don’t take her away! lol
Yes, she is a conservative, but an Alaskan conservative, which means that she has her own mind about some things. Up here, conservative leans toward libertarian… and even the Democrats run for office on a pro-gun, pro-hunting platform. I’d like to see her stay a term or two and continue to do what she’s doing. Then she can run for president.”

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.

Obama Delegate Yusuf Yee or James J. Yee….When returning from duty at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, he was arrested on September 10, 2003, in Jacksonville, Florida, when a U.S. Customs agent found a list of Guantanamo detainees and interrogators among his belongings. He was charged with five offenses: sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order. These charges were later reduced to mishandling classified

Ex-Army chaplain cleared in Gitmo spy case is Obama delegate
komoTV
OLYMPIA, Wash.
A former Army Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was cleared of spy accusations is now a Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Sen. Barack Obama.
Former Capt. James J. Yee was among the delegates who were elected by precinct representatives Saturday at the party’s 9th Congressional District convention at North Thurston High School.
Others chosen at the gathering were Zach Smith, a former supporter of ex-Sen. John Edwards who is now pledged to Clinton, and Natalie Stevens, an alternate pledged to Obama.

Yee, a West Point graduate, was accused in 2003 of being part of a spy ring at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay. He spent 76 days in solitary confinement before being exonerated and later resigned from the Army, receiving an honorable discharge.

Yee now lives with his wife and daughter in Olympia, south of Fort Lewis, where he was assigned before and after his ordeal.

The experience left him as “living proof that civil liberties have been eroded since 9/11,” Yee told The Olympian newspaper on Monday.

He said that during the gathering Saturday, “I came out and basically reiterated that Sen. Obama is really the only candidate that consistently campaigns on rejecting torture without exception, on closing Guantanamo Bay, restoring habeas (corpus) and adhering to the Geneva Conventions.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Obama is a magnet for every enemy of America. He was found working for the ENEMY, with classified info that never should have left Guantanamo, but he slithers away with an honorable discharge and is now another leftist hack for Obama?? What a screwed up country!
Notice the Muslim scull cap, beard and phony, hypocritical American flag pin. Outrageous.
If you can’t be tried for treason and sedition in this country we are doomed.
When will we start to fight back and stop these traitors?

….Thank you Jack for sending this to me.

Soldier’s are at check point and they decide to make the Iraqi’s dance while the other soldier searched their car for explosives.
LMAO part way through the Video our soldiers must have laid the camera down in their Humvee so the Iraqi’s didn’t know they were being taped because the tape is sideways. But even so it is so funny and well worth watching. This had me laughing so hard at how our soldiers had them dancing and copying their gestures for fear of doing something wrong. heh heh

From Les, thank you for taking these photos. These were taken from the Jersey side of the Hudson River and the ships were passing close to the New York side.
And this from Les……

“I was standing next to a
proud couple whose son was flying the lead F-18 in the fly over. He
is career Navy with 18 years of service including tours in Bosnia,
Afghanistan, and Iraq as well as being a top gun instructor.”