Obama Re-Introduces the Human Element to the Giffords Tragedy

Reaching across cultural boundries here Sparky... "To take no action is an action" And while silence may be golden, there are times when "What you don't say, says volumes more than what you did say." Nope not reading anything into what you said, just got a bit of a chuckle out of it and thought I would share it. However, what I do have to say is this: I am not the Government­, I am a citizen; I am also an advocate of the Freedom of Speech. Having said all of that, I also firmly believe that we are all responsibl­e for our actions and the knowledge that there is a cause and effect that is very relative to speech. Personally I don't care who you are in the grand scheme of things, however the fact is that you choose to put yourself out there (even those of us who choose to be here on this particular network) in front of an audience, be responsibl­e for your words before you say them. Because back-peddl­ing for damage control rarely fixes anything - not completely­.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Sarah Palin's Alaska' NOT Renewed For Second Season: Report

I can articulate a lot when it comes to her. If you are truly interested in my response (probably not) you can read the full text on my blog because it is too long to post here. http://vjb­uchanan.bl­ogspot.com­/
About Bristol Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Why I do not not like or trust Sarah Palin

There isn’t enough room on this board for me to provide the litany of totally documented reasons that I neither like nor do I trust Sarah Palin; the only real question being your ability to actually comprehend the full scope of what I’m saying.

I do not deny that Sarah Palin is a force to be reckoned with; unfortunately she can be likened to the destructive forces of a tsunami.  I will not deny that in the beginning when she was first thrust upon the national political scene in 2008; there were many reporters, critics and political pundits that had a field day with her complete and obvious naivety.  Unfortunately for her, American politics is one of the most brutal arenas in the world.

Even with her own TLC show, her approval rating within the State of Alaska currently stands at only 33%.  Those are essentially voters that have held those same beliefs since her early Governorship.

Sarah Palin has not been a friend to the people of the State of Alaska.  In 2007 as a means of appropriating funds and approval for building a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope, Sarah presented what became known as the Alaska Gasline Act (AIGA).  It was signed into law in June of that year.  Subsequently, in early January of 2008 Palin secured a contract with a Canadian Company, Transcanada Corp verses an American Company.

It was also during this time that her husband Todd Palin resigned from his management position with PB LLC Oil Company the first time.  Although it was presented as official as he was unpaid, Mr. Palin sat in on many of the interviews related to the Alaska Gasline.  There were a about 1,200 emails, totaling approximately 3000 pages that were exchanged between Todd Palin and Alaska state officials, these emails were turned over to an MSNBC reporter named Bill Dedmen.  There were however 250 emails that were withheld by the state under a claim that executive privilege extends to Palin as an unpaid advisor to the government.

The contents of the emails revealed that Palin was involved in discussing a wide range of activities such as potential board appointees, constituent complaints, use of the state jet, oil and gas production, marine regulation, gas pipeline bids, wildfires, native Alaskan issues, the states efforts to save the Matanuska Maid Dairy, budget planning, potential budget vetos, oil shale leasing, “strategy for responding to media allegations,” staffing at the mansion, pier diem payments to the governor for travel, “strategy for responding to questions about pregnancy,” potential cuts to the governor’s staff, “confidentiality issues,” Bureau of Land Management land transfers and trespass issues and requests to the U. S. transportation secretary

In response to high oil and gas prices and the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskan monthly energy debit cards worth $100.00.  Additionally she proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce consumer rates.  Nothing came to pass with this proposition.  Also, the energy debit cards never came about, the proposal was dropped in place to sending each Alaskan $1,200.00 directly.  The funds were never approved and it fell by the wayside.

On a more personal note here, while living in the state of Alaska myself from August 1983 trough September of 1987, there was already in place a State Oil Dividend Check that was sent out to every resident of the state of Alaska.  This ‘wonderful concept’ was not the brainchild of Sarah Palin; rather it was the product of the NANA Corporation and was in effect when Sarah Palin was still in high school.

The Matanuska Valley has long been the agricultural mecca for the state of Alaska.  It was also home the Matanuska Maid Dairy, which was a state-owned business.  The Alaska Dairy Board recommended closing the business as unprofitable.  Rather than accept the boards recommendation, Sarah’s response was simply to fire everyone on the Board and appointed her long-time associates from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.  The members included an influential real estate businesswoman Kristan Cole who is a childhood friend of Sarah Palin.

The new Board quickly approved price hikes for milk products offered by the dairy in an attempt to conceal and control fiscal losses.  This action was taken in spite of the fact that milk from the state of Washington was already being offered and sold at a lower price.  In the end they were forced to close the dairy, terminating employment for many Alaskans of the Valley.  The state tried to sell the assets to pay off it debit and cover losses, however there were no bids received and it is still unclear as to the ownership of the dairy.

I think everyone is aware of what was dubbed as “Troopergate” when then Governor Palin fired the Commissioner of Public Safety, Walt Monegan.  According to the Commissioner, he was terminated due to his reluctance to fire an Alaska State Trooper who was at that time involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister.  This was given merit since Palin herself found no fault with Monegan’s performance, citing that he was terminated so that the “Department could head in a new direction.”  Alaska House Speaker John Harris disputed that claim, stating there is “no different direction here.”

The state legislature approved $100,000.00 for the cost of the investigation and hired Branchflower to lead the investigation.  The twelve member Legislative Council unanimously released without endorsing the Branchflower Investigative Report, which found that Palin had violated ethics laws covering executive employee’s.  Palin’s attorney successfully got the case transferred to the State Personnel Board, the majority of it’s member’s also long-time friends of both Sarah and Todd Palin. Their finds were that there were no ethics violations, nothing new there.  All of this has been provided as a “Reader’s Digest” presentation in the interest of keeping this relatively short.

 Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Dismissal

Even while she was the Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin used her position for personal and financial gain, at the cost of the Alaskan taxpayer.  Although publicity was not quite as obvious regarding the Seward Building Supplies Scandal as it was with Troopergate, Sarah Palin’s decision to resign from her Governorship mid-term speaks volumes as to the validity of much of the information that had been successfully obtained by Federal Investigators.

Seizing paperwork from Seward Building Suppplies, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on Lake Lucille in 2002.  Construction on the home had been completed just two months before Palin began campaigning for Governor, a job which would have put her in a favorable position of enhanced power to grant building contract throughout the entire state.

Seward Building Supplies has well known ties to the Palin family.  The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, but according the Wayne Barrett of “The Village Voice” it has also hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

Although Todd Palin stated to Fox News that he built the Lucille Lake House himself with the help of a few ‘buddies’, public records revealed that the supplies came from Seward Building Supplies.  While still serving as the Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits-thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.  Then within months before leaving City Hall, Sarah Palin awarded a contract to Seward Building Supplies to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex.  This was the most expensive building project is Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into long-term debt.  For Seward Building Supplies, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

During her partial term as Governor, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska’s history as well, $6.6 billion dollars.  While at the same time using her veto power to the second largest cuts in the construction budget in the state’s history.  The $237 million dollars in cuts represented over 300 local projects that were never completed.

Because it’s long and rather complicated and would surly not want to be accused of falsely presenting the fact even by the omission of the smallest detail; I have provided a link to where you can read about it.  Sarah Palin is just as guilty of having “right wing” and “unfavorable characters” support her into office as so many like to pint out about President Obama.  Read the story if you care to hear the truth.

Meet Sarah Palin's Radical Right-Wing Pals

On the personal side of things I do not care for Sarah Palin because of some of her own comments.  At various times and in different settings she has stated that we need to support the war in Iraq because that is what God wants us to do.  Sorry, I do not believe that.  I support the troops but not the war.  Not to mention, who is she that she would know this is what God wants?  Does he talk to her?  I don’t think so.  At other times she has stood upon the stage at her Church and declared that they must support the building of the Gasline because that is what God want her to do.  Come on give me a break!!  God does not care about that for one and I still don’t believe that she would be a chosen one of God to speak to anyone through.

I’m going to cut this off now, however please feel free to engage this conversation again in the future as ‘digging up dirt’ on that family is a peculiar hobby of mine.  Also note, the greater majority of the information that I have provided here has been from articles that I have read and save from here (Huffington Post), the New York Times and the Washington Post.  I will do my best to articulate to your understanding.