Monday, July 25, 2011

"Undefeated" mini-review


Loved Stephen Bannon's Undefeated. Loved the way the story was told with chapters quietly announced by snow falling through what apparently was the dark Alaskan winter. Beautiful. A lot of quietly expressive use of sound and slow-motion home-movie imagery. Will have to watch it again when it opens in Chicago commercially. The wonder of Alaska was developed verbally and in mysterious visual ways. Surprisingly moving for me.

Also the conflict between Mrs. Palin and Murkowski was unexpectedly intimate. Murkowski's watery eyes and pasty complexion gave a close-up feel to his sensibility and physical presence. I was kept on the edge of my seat in all the footage of election night. Loved the touch about her "refusal to embrace the establishment".

Also sometimes when Mrs Palin is on FNC she gives such interesting answers that they get me thinking long after. But just as often I find myself distracted by her sense of freedom and I don't know maybe subtle hints regarding her frustrations and hopes going forward. I guess for me she is fascinating to watch, charisma-wise, so much so that I sometimes find it difficult to really listen to her careful answers. For that reason, the use of the Going Rogue audio book really nailed it for me. It allowed me to hear her and to follow the narrative. Great movie! Better than I expected and I was expecting a lot!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Friday, July 8, 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

VA prohibiting religious behavior at VA funerals


Friday, June 17, 2011

A must watch.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

Comments with Greta From Bus Tour of Northeast

Friday, May 6, 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Excellent: Ret Army Vet defends Palin: She is fighting mulitmillion dollar left wing media companies every @#$ day of her life

From the Comments over at RedState:

“She is “divisive” because the conservative movement is full of cowards who bend over because they are afraid of the left and the media. Why not fight against the smears? Why not fight for the truth? Instead conservatives run and hide and then wonder why even after 8 years of BUSH the country moved to the left!!!!!!!
While Governor, her state was one of 2 out of 50 that created net jobs. I COULD WRITE FOR HOURS ABOUT HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS, but it would not do a damn thing for people like Krauthammer and other fraud cowardly so called conservatives. How come the other intellectual governors that Krauthammer praises could not eke out some job gains? Odd huh?

WAKE UP!!!! Do you want to know why the jobs are gone? Do you want to to know why your nation is turning into a shit hole? IT IS BECAUSE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. We let it happen. WE CONSERVATIVES LET IT HAPPEN BECAUSE WE SAT ON OUR FUCKING ASSES AND REFUSED TO FIGHT the left for the last 20+ years. Now Sarah is ready to fight, and most of us just let her go out there with no backup, no nothing. She is used as a human shield for LESSER MEN. She is fighting multibillion dollar left wing media companies and two hack political parties every fucking day of her life, and we cannot even muster a defense with the exception of a few websites and the OCCASIONAL defense on talk radio. PATHETIC.

I served in Korea and Vietnam in combat. When I say combat, I mean COMBAT. After that, I worked for the government “unofficially” (use your imagination.) I killed with my bare hands for this country and it makes me sick that even most of my fellow conservatives will not lift a finger to help her. If I was younger and still serving I would be honored to have her as my commander in chief. You can keep the phony tough guy men that get trotted out as candidates. I saw REAL leadership up close and I know what it looks like. Sarah Palin has “IT.” I saw men blown to pieces and other men who still ran forward with the entrails of their best friends still on them. My oh my, how far we have fallen. Those boys had integrity and valor. Today’s conservative movement by and large is not fit to shine their fucking shoes.

The state of our conservative movement today sickens me. It is full of frauds and cowards. We cower in fear because the media is too mean and unfair to Sarah Palin, so we should just throw her over the fucking side because ITS TOO HARD to fight back. AWWWW, poor babies. It would be so much easier to just nominate another fraud republican who can sell us down the river for a few pieces of silver as the country continues to move left as we descend into European Socialism.

As far as coward Charles Krauthammer goes….The day I take advice on conservatism from a guy who worked for Mondale and Carter is the day I put a loaded .357 in my mouth and pull the fucking trigger! That clear enough or should I use more big words to be on the same “intellectual stage” as the media elites?

These cowards remind of the guys in battle who said “we can’t win,” and then NEVER LIFTED A FINGER TO HELP US when the battle began. Well yeah no thanks to you!
Please commence the flogging of me. Call me every name in the book. When you have been through what I have, there is nothing anyone can ever do to harm me. I pray you young people wake up because the cold hard truth is that you have more than likely already lost your nation to a secular decline that is irreversible. There is a chance for you to save it, but from the looks of it, you don’t have the mental fortitude to make it happen.

Cut all the bullshit and ask yourself this honest question. DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS NATION WILL BE SAVED AND PUT BACK ON THE COURSE OF TRUTH, JUSTICE, and OPPORTUNITY by electing the same tired old political hacks that our media betters APPROVE OF? DO YOU REALLY? How has that worked out for you these past 20 years or so? More debt, more joblessness, more danger. WOW SIGN ME UP! SIGH. But yeah, let’s not even fight for a true conservative. It’s too hard.

Bobby, US ARMY ret

Bobby, US Army Ret.: On taking advice from some guy (Krauthamr) who worked for Mondale & Carter

From the Comments over at RedState:

“She is “divisive” because the conservative movement is full of cowards who bend over because they are afraid of the left and the media. Why not fight against the smears? Why not fight for the truth? Instead conservatives run and hide and then wonder why even after 8 years of BUSH the country moved to the left!!!!!!!
While Governor, her state was one of 2 out of 50 that created net jobs. I COULD WRITE FOR HOURS ABOUT HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS, but it would not do a damn thing for people like Krauthammer and other fraud cowardly so called conservatives. How come the other intellectual governors that Krauthammer praises could not eke out some job gains? Odd huh?

WAKE UP!!!! Do you want to know why the jobs are gone? Do you want to to know why your nation is turning into a shit hole? IT IS BECAUSE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. We let it happen. WE CONSERVATIVES LET IT HAPPEN BECAUSE WE SAT ON OUR FUCKING ASSES AND REFUSED TO FIGHT the left for the last 20+ years. Now Sarah is ready to fight, and most of us just let her go out there with no backup, no nothing. She is used as a human shield for LESSER MEN. She is fighting multibillion dollar left wing media companies and two hack political parties every fucking day of her life, and we cannot even muster a defense with the exception of a few websites and the OCCASIONAL defense on talk radio. PATHETIC.

I served in Korea and Vietnam in combat. When I say combat, I mean COMBAT. After that, I worked for the government “unofficially” (use your imagination.) I killed with my bare hands for this country and it makes me sick that even most of my fellow conservatives will not lift a finger to help her. If I was younger and still serving I would be honored to have her as my commander in chief. You can keep the phony tough guy men that get trotted out as candidates. I saw REAL leadership up close and I know what it looks like. Sarah Palin has “IT.” I saw men blown to pieces and other men who still ran forward with the entrails of their best friends still on them. My oh my, how far we have fallen. Those boys had integrity and valor. Today’s conservative movement by and large is not fit to shine their fucking shoes.

The state of our conservative movement today sickens me. It is full of frauds and cowards. We cower in fear because the media is too mean and unfair to Sarah Palin, so we should just throw her over the fucking side because ITS TOO HARD to fight back. AWWWW, poor babies. It would be so much easier to just nominate another fraud republican who can sell us down the river for a few pieces of silver as the country continues to move left as we descend into European Socialism.

As far as coward Charles Krauthammer goes….The day I take advice on conservatism from a guy who worked for Mondale and Carter is the day I put a loaded .357 in my mouth and pull the fucking trigger! That clear enough or should I use more big words to be on the same “intellectual stage” as the media elites?

These cowards remind of the guys in battle who said “we can’t win,” and then NEVER LIFTED A FINGER TO HELP US when the battle began. Well yeah no thanks to you!
Please commence the flogging of me. Call me every name in the book. When you have been through what I have, there is nothing anyone can ever do to harm me. I pray you young people wake up because the cold hard truth is that you have more than likely already lost your nation to a secular decline that is irreversible. There is a chance for you to save it, but from the looks of it, you don’t have the mental fortitude to make it happen.

Cut all the bullshit and ask yourself this honest question. DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS NATION WILL BE SAVED AND PUT BACK ON THE COURSE OF TRUTH, JUSTICE, and OPPORTUNITY by electing the same tired old political hacks that our media betters APPROVE OF? DO YOU REALLY? How has that worked out for you these past 20 years or so? More debt, more joblessness, more danger. WOW SIGN ME UP! SIGH. But yeah, let’s not even fight for a true conservative. It’s too hard.

Bobby, US ARMY ret

Friday, February 11, 2011

Video of panel on Sen. Dole with Michael Glassner, Palin's new COS

PLS2010Dole2.wmv (video/x-ms-asf Object)

Glassner discusses something interesting at about the 27 min mark. He describes how Sen. Dole's "exit from the Senate" was particularly graceful as he became the party's nominee. He remarks that more recently (John) Kerry and (John) McCain's returning to the Senate [after their losses] made for less grace, and presented a whole host of awkward moments that was avoided by Dole's more graceful exit. [And getting awkwarder, in McCain's case.] Interesting for someone who worked in the McCain-Palin Campaign, suggesting a clear-eyed view of that campaign.

He also [at about the 60 min mark] describes how Dole as senator and on the campaign trail went to an unusual number of town hall meetings and how at these local meetings Dole would often ask the veterens to stand and be publicly recognized. Glassner observes that the recognition may have been the only time that neighbors and friends would learn that these Kansans were veterans and the only time they were publicly recognized before their neighbors and friends.

Glassner sounds like a guy with unusual attention focus on big issues and to detail.

Gov Christie in bed with the enemy

Governor Christie's Hamas Pick for Superior Judgeship - Atlas Shrugs

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Mama Grizzly and the Gipper - HUMAN EVENTS

The Mama Grizzly and the Gipper - HUMAN EVENTS

Liberterian Const. Law Professor at Georgetown calls Palin speech Reaganesque http://ow.ly/3R1fu

Instapundit blogs:

I DIDN’T SEE SARAH PALIN’S SPEECH LAST NIGHT, but Randy Barnett saw it, and emailed:

“I must admit it was an impressive speech. The first I have heard her give since she accepted the VP nomination, only much better. Reaganesque even.”
When Sarah Palin is getting that kind of praise from Georgetown law professors, it suggests that there’s something missing from the narrative.



h/t C4P's Ian Lazaran and Glenn Reynolds

Byron York on Exceptional Palin Speech

Invoking Reagan, Palin says 'this is a time for choosing again' | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

James Taranto on "Death Panels"

Excerpt from Taranto's excellent Best of the Web column today:

"Government takeover," like "death panel," is a true description of ObamaCare's essence. These phrases are "inaccurate" only in that they cut through formal distinctions designed to deceive the public. (We wish we could use a barnyard vulgarity in place of the unwieldy clause "formal distinctions designed to deceive the public," but The Wall Street Journal is a family newspaper.)

"Death panel" was especially effective at cutting through the hockey. Lots of people warned about rationing, but, as PolitiFact grudgingly acknowledged, it was Palin's vivid language that "launched the health care debate into overdrive. The term was mentioned in news reports approximately 6,000 times in August and September, according to the Nexis database. By October, it was still being mentioned 150 to 300 times a week."
Many of these media mentions were disparaging, "raising issues," as PolitiFact prissily puts it, about "the bounds of acceptable political discussion." In other words, Palin's statement was widely propagated by journalists who thought it "unacceptable." Americans recognized the essential truth of Palin's words and strongly opposed ObamaCare.

Palin got the truth out with the help of journalists determined to bolster the deceptions at the heart of ObamaCare. She was instrumental in winning the political argument that looks increasingly likely to render ObamaCare's legislative victory a Pyrrhic one. Sarah Palin outsmarted the formerly mainstream media simply by being blunt and honest. That is why they burn with a mindless rage against her.

geoff [and others] are confused by Sarah's smile... [UPDATE]

I've long felt that much of the underestimation of Sarah Palin--given her impressive record as an executive as governor of Alaska--is really more about her deep personal happiness (blared out by the elated smile that serves as its public avatar) than about how she tackles policy. In our diminished postmodern world, a smile is a yellow warning light to many. 

So for geoff and others suffering from any of the above why don't we cut to the chase regarding questions of policy and check out this excerpt from Cashman and Nelson's Sarah Takes On Big Oil [STOBO].  Since the question isn't really is Palin smart or even is she secretly, beneath the freakin vernacular, a policy wonk, but is she an effective executive?  And this book answers that question.

Cashman and Nelson offer a slightly technical and politically detailed report from their vantage point as oil industry newspaper editors and in doing so show Palin's unusual gift for grasping a complicated, gordian knot type issue and slicing into it by recruiting and assembling uniquely insightful experts that are willing (that's the rub, since most experts are invested in outcomes, some legit some less so) to actually solve a politically calcified problem.

Cashman and Nelson are senior editors at Petroleum News, an Anchorage oil industry newspaper whose subsidiary published their book.  Petroleum News has an interesting website that explains its philosophy:


Petroleum News' editorial objective is to provide readers with solid, trustworthy and timely information about the oil and gas industry. The news bulletin service and Petroleum News are frequently the first publications to break significant stories from Alaska and northern Canada.
Our news staff does not rely on press releases for information. Rather, we keep abreast of permit filings, lease reports and interactions with government agencies that often prove to be the forerunner of major happenings.

So geoff, go at it. Invest in a copy of STOBO.  The link is to the publisher, who's electronic version is cheaper than the Kindle version of the book.  Or at least read the 9 page excerpt.

h/t Conservatives4Palin

UPDATE:
Must see video from the 2008 campaign, featuring a Lloyd Marcus cover of Sarah Smile: