Sarah Palin finally is on Rush.

See: Allen West for Congress 2010

Lt. Col. Allen West Stands With Gov. Palin: Sen. Obama Is “Not One of Us”

In response to the inflammatory racial statements made by Congressmen Meeks D-NY, Towns D-NY, and Jackson D-Ill. in the Jason Horowitz New York Observer article, “Black Congressmen Declare Racism in Palin’s Rhetoric,” (Ret.) Lt. Col. Allen West, congressional candidate for Florida’s district 22, wrote the following:

“I have just finished reading an article written by Jason Horowitz in the New York Observer, “Black Congressmen Declare Racism in Palin’s Rhetoric,” and I am absolutely appalled. I refute the inflammatory comments of Rep. Meeks, Towns, and Jackson and I challenge them to debate me on the issue of race. Yes, I am a black conservative congressional candidate from district 22 in South Florida. This is a congressional district that is approximately 92% white. The tremendous support I’ve received in district 22, and throughout the country, doesn’t jibe with Rep. Towns’ claim that, “racism is alive and well in this country.”

With that said, I reiterate the comment made by Governor Palin: Senator Obama is “not one of us”. We are freedom loving Americans that believe in the Constitution, and shun marxist/socialist dogma. Sen. Obama’s political and social allegiance with William Ayers proves he is, “not one of us.” Let me bring to mind a simple maxim that my mom and dad taught me growing up in Georgia, “folks will know you by the company you keep.” And as a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel I shall share a simple point: because of Senator Obama’s associations, he would not be able to pass a background investigation in order to receive a security clearance. Yet, he seeks to be the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces?

It has become apparent that any person taking a stand against Sen. Obama’s campaign will face the “Brown Shirt” intimidation tactics of individuals seeking to stoke racial fires.

I am sick and tired of the 21st century version of plantation overseers that pass themselves off as black leaders but only keep the black community hostage. When I win this congressional race it will be interesting to see if the Congressional Black Caucus will open their doors to me. I suggest that the door be opened, but then again, would they be racist for not allowing me membership?”

Best Regards,

Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Retired) Candidate, Florida’s US Congressional District 22

Allen West For Congress

Via Gateway Pundit

Read this. Send it to all your friends. Send it to your enemies and even strangers. This is the absolute truth about the Congress. No bull.

Steve Schippert posts at Wizbang:

We are witnessing a failure in government. Our Congress cannot work together to provide an immediate fix to a problem it created in the first place: forcing the American financial sector to extend mortgages to those who were high risk borrowers in order to champion to the American people that more minorities own homes than ever. That worked well under a booming economy. But when the natural cycle of economics turned downward, fear dismissed became reality unavoidable. The house of cards came tumbling down.

And even still, amid all the haggling and fighting going on in Congress over how to shore up the financial cash crisis, not a word is mentioned about changing the counter-intuitive practices forced upon mortgage lenders in the first place. In this respect, it’s not unlike how Congress and the White House chose to address illegal immigration: by trying to deal with those already here first rather than initially addressing the cause: the influx of illegals that continues to flow unabated.

Make no mistake, if we wake to Black Monday this week, the responsibility lies squarely upon Congress and the electorate which has put them there, not our banks. Our banks’ hands were forced by mandates from Washington, not their boardrooms.

And here we are. With a Congress so polarized that they are incapable of working together.

We elected them. We pay their salaries. If they mess this up, each and every one ought to be voted out of office in November. Complete turnover. Fire their asses. You and I both know that if we were even half this bad at our own jobs, we would have lost them a long time ago.

Fire Congress!

The press has inundated Alaska with reporters and will have shortly interviewed every single person belonging to the 20% that do not rate Sarah Palin highly. Many of the reporters have flocked to the state capital of Juneau. Yes, Alaska has a state capital and it is Juneau.

Shocking, well, shocked reports are hitting the press about the inner workings of the Alaskan state government. No one should be shocked, however, since it is obvious that the Alaskan government operates pretty much like every other state government in the nation. Spend some time learning about your state government if you do not believe me.

The problem with state governments is called “Washington Syndrome“. It is highly contagious, infecting 90% or more of those exposed. It can also be genetically inherited.

The symptoms of “Washington Syndrome” are as follows:

• At the time the city was designated the capital, it made geographic or commercial sense. The location has not made sense, however, for a long time.
• The major industry of the capital city is government. The people of the metro area either work for the government or for businesses that support governmental operations like bars, law firms or caterers.
• The government of the city where the capital is located is treated as the red-headed stepchild. It is assumed that the sole purpose of the city government is to support the functions of the capital.
• Many of those who work in the capital maintain personal residences in other places. They have developed mechanisms that compensate them for traveling to and from their legal residences.
• Many of those who work in the capital maintain residences in and around the capital city’s metro area. They have developed mechanisms that compensate them for living away from their legal residences. Many of these same people spend more time in the capital than they do at their legal residences.
• Activities and beliefs that are normal, popular, seen as virtuous and desirable outside the capital are seen as abnormal, repulsive and criminal in the capital.
• Activities and beliefs that are abnormal, criminal, repulsive and unpopular outside the capital are seen as normal, virtuous and desirable in the capital.
• Those who work in the capital are willing to gossip, spread rumor and innuendo, and lie regardless of who they support. The capital functions on the ability to betray or avoid betrayal.
• The capital’s city is often charming in its own right but tourism is focused on the capital itself.
• The capital is the center of the universe and anything that happens outside the capital is viewed solely as to its effects on the capital.

There are many more symptoms than can be listed here. Diagnosis is easy since self-importance and delusions of grandeur are often so pronounced that the ordinary voter can distinguish them. The condition weakens in some cases after exposure to the capital ceases but other cases remain quite active for decades after.

I am not a Second Amendment blogger. I do not own a firearm or hunt. No objection to either but was not brought up that way.

Palin hunts. It seems that her hunting goes for food. Good. She eats what she kills. I approve.

Politico

Democrat Joe Biden, in what he intended as self-deprecating remark, observed, “There’s a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent.” …

What do you suppose he said the difference was? Energy policy, executive experience, age?

“She’s good looking.”

That’s the gigantic difference between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

Joe, I know what you meant to say, and I don’t think it’s going to turn out to be gigantic at all. [/sarcasm]

A collection of remarks on Twitter from right after her speech.

• Little known fact: Sarah Palin is weak sauce indeed. All she did was regurgitate std GOP blather. Not a single new idea in the whole speech.
• i dont like sarah palin. she has no more experience than obama, and she would suck as prez, which she will be cause mccain’s gonna die soon.
• Initial reactions to Sarah Palin’s speech: this woman’s bitterness and her scowl indicates, I think, that she has never had an orgasm
• Bottom line: I do not want to live in Sarah Palin’s America.
• That’s… if you write fan fiction, please write me some of that. I’d love to read Sarah Palin/Cindy McCain femslash.
• 1st impression of Sarah Palin is that’s she’s a prime bitch. Good thing I had no plans to vote Republican anyway.
• is disgusted by what Sarah palin has to say and her horrid way she sounds.
• Currently trying to resist the urge to vomit after listening to sarah palin’s speech.
• Rude sarcasm, that sums up Sarah Palin’s speech in two words and does it justice.
• Sarah Palin’s “speech”? Just a string of cheap shots, nothing more. What an amateur!

Time is getting a lot of press over its revelation that Sarah Palin, as mayor, tried to ban some books from the local library and threatened to fire the librarian.

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving “full support” to the mayor.

Stein is, curiously, the LOSER that Palin beat in the mayor’s race. Nothing from the librarian and no cites for the “news reports from the time”.

Just a fact free diatribe from a LOSER and Time presents it as fact.

Palin would not have been the first mayor to be approached by voters and asked about the books that the library stocked. I suspect you could find hundreds if not thousands of similar stories. Even state governments and [gasp] Congress have fallen into that trap. No books were banned.

A small town mayor responded to the concerns of her fellow villagers. Just like mayors all over the world do every single day.

She did not fire the librarian. We do not know what was going on since the “news reports from the time” are not quoted or cited and the librarian was not found for comment.

This isn’t journalism. It’s tabloid trash.

People dismiss the women who participate in beauty pageants as mindless drones enslaved to makeup and plastic surgery.

I beg to differ. I would suggest that the fact that Sarah Palin participated in beauty pageants enhances her qualifications for the office of Vice President.

It’s called a competition for a reason. The girls and women compete. That takes a certain amount of training and “game day” preparation.

You don’t just decide to compete and walk on. You have to study, learn what is expected, and learn how to present yourself in the way the judges expect. And every pageant is different.

It takes drive and determination. It takes adaptability and an ability to think on your feet. You learn a set of skills, practice them and then present them in a public forum where you are judged on that presentation.

I have flatly stated here and in other venues that the things that make a woman successful in beauty pageants are those qualities and traits that make them successful in the military. I have devoted an entire category of posts to those women I have discovered have been both beauty pageant participants and have served in the military.

Several of these women have been awarded medals for their courage under fire. Facing beauty pageant judges might be very similar to surviving an al-Qaeda ambush.

Please do not underestimate Sarah Palin on the basis of her participation in beauty pageants. The character traits she developed during those experiences are exactly those we ought to have in our Vice President and President.

A must read: McCainBlogette.com Meghan McCain and two pals write a blog that is light, thoughtful and chock full of great photos.

Meghan writes:

The first political convention I ever attended was when my mom was pregnant with me in 1984 and the Republican Party nominated Ronald Reagan for a second term as President. I have been on political stages and in campaigns since before I could walk or talk. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that it is difficult to establish your identity and independence as the son or daughter of a politician. When I was 14 years old, a reporter questioned my father about me having a hypothetical abortion, had I been pregnant at 14. This reporter’s question single-handedly changed my life. This story comes up in almost every profile written about me and in almost every interview. It’s a rough go being the son or daughter of a politician. I have not known Bristol Palin very long, but there is a certain kinship I feel to her as I do other political daughters such as Chelsea Clinton, Jenna and Barbara Bush and Mary Cheney. You can’t fully understand it unless you have lived it. So I just wanted to let it be known that I support Bristol and the entire Palin family.

Jay Rosen pointed me to this Talking Points Memo.

Marshall makes a couple of points:

1. Mark Halperin quotes George Stephanopoulos as saying that McCain has sent 10 people to Alaska to do more background work on Sarah Palin. He also says “Democrats say… the McCain campaign didn’t even go through Gov. Palin’s local newspapers.”
2. ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper reports that folks with the Alaskan Independence Party claim Palin was a member in 1994. Tapper describes the party as a “fringe” party even though it managed to get Walter Hickel elected governor in 1990.

Well, let’s see. Noted liberals Marshall, Halperin and Stephanopoulos, as well as “Democrats” have intimate knowledge of the working of the McCain campaign. Sure. [/sarcasm]

And, Palin may have belonged to a political party that was strong enough in Alaska to elect a governor.

Out of all that, one charge that amounts to balderdash, belonging to a political party with some power in her home state. God forbid, she might have joined the Democratic Party.

As for the supposed team of crack McCain operatives sent to Alaska, [giggle]. No, really [giggle].

More content free prose from the left.

Here’s some of the questions the left is raising about Sarah Palin:

Inexperience: What would she do about the War on Terror if President? Could she handle the job? This is just a way of slyly pointing out that Sarah Palin is a woman. And, you know, women can’t fight wars. Other than Margaret Thatcher and Golda Mier. And lots of other patriotic, educated, thoughtful women.

Motherhood: How can she be a good mother and President? Shouldn’t she be home taking care of her baby? Was John Kennedy a good father? He had small children. Another sly reference to Palin’s sex, and denigrating the abilities of working moms.

Foreign policy: She has no foreign policy experience. Just because she’s Governor of a state that borders two foreign countries, she can’t know anything. Barry Obama knows less. He’s never governed a state, or anything for that matter, and he thinks borders is a bookstore. Joe Biden has never governed anything and he favors breaking up sovereign nations without their permission. We have a State Department and a Defense Department for a reason. Sarah Palin is smart enough to look to the experts when she needs to.

If you are easily shocked, cover your eyes. Sarah Palin does not have a penis. That is the sum total of the left’s criticism of her. At 44, she is not a girl but a woman. She is self-made, a wife and mother, comfortable in the outdoors and in the conference room. She represents everything that the left has been battling for with women’s rights for the last forty years. She is success on that issue.

So, since she does not believe as they do, they attack her as a woman, as weak, inexperienced, as incapable of handling the tough job of President. Just as Clarence Thomas is not black, Sarah Palin cannot be a a “real” woman because she is not a man.

The selection of Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin, to be the Republican Vice Presidential candidate has created a firestorm in political circles. It demonstrates the speed at which news and opinion proliferate in the electronic world we live in.

Many commentators on the right and left will have their say about Governor Palin. Much pontificating will be voiced about her qualifications or lack thereof for the office.

Perhaps it would be useful to look at some past Vice Presidents, and history, to establish a frame of reference for the discussion.

The Founding Fathers, bless their souls, never anticipated a problem when they created the process for electing the President. The electors were allowed to vote for two candidates. The one with the majority of the votes would become President and the second place vote getter become the Vice President.

That was a way to truly assure that the offices were held by those that the voters chose. The top two candidates in electoral voting got the jobs.

As party politics developed, it became clear that having a President with one set of beliefs and a Vice President with another was a recipe for confusion if not disaster.

The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, in 1804, solved that problem but it made the office of Vice President far less important, because the officeholder no longer was the second place candidate. It ensured that the same political party would control both offices and set the stage for the monolithic Executive Branch we have today.

Our fourth Vice President was George Clinton. He liked the job so much, and couldn’t get elected President on his own, that he served under both Madison and Jefferson as Vice President. He was also the longest serving Governor of New York. He died while VP.

Number five was Elbridge Gerry, a former Governor of Massachusetts. He also died while VP. James Madison was tough on his Vice Presidents.

Daniel D. Tompkins was number six, also a former Governor of New York. He died less than three months after leaving office.

John C. Calhoun was a Congressman and then Secretary of War before serving under two Presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He is also the first Vice President to resign. He became a U.S. Senator and went on to much more fame in that position.

Martin Van Buren served in New York State government, was Governor for a year and then became Secretary of State. He is the first Vice President to also be elected President on his own.

Richard Mentor Johnson is VP number nine. From Kentucky, he serve in their legislature and in the U.S. Senate before election, under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment by the U.S. Senate. His slate failed in re-election.

John Tyler became President upon the death of William Henry Harrison. Career politician from Virginia, Congressman, Governor and U.S. Senator. Also elected to the Confederate Congress.

George Mifflin Dallas served in the U.S. Senate and as Minister to Russia before his election. Ambassador to Great Britain after leaving office.

Number twelve was Millard Fillmore. He was a Congressman from New York, served in the N.Y. government and became President when Taylor died. Failed in re-election and became a community leader in Buffalo, New York until his death.

William Rufus King served in the U.S. Senate and in various diplomatic posts. Only VP inaugurated outside the United States, in Cuba. Died in office before serving.

John C. Breckinridge was the youngest Vice President. Served in the Kentucky legislature and in Congress. Served in the U.S. Senate before being expelled for treason. Also served in the Confederate Army and as Confederate Secretary of War.

Hannibal Hamlin was a Congressman, Senator and Governor of Maine. Lincoln’s first Vice President.

There you have most of the first fifteen Vice Presidents. It is likely you will have never heard of most of them. The office of Vice President does not serve as a conduit to fame, nor necessarily to future political success.

So, why Sarah Palin? How does she measure when placed with the august first fifteen?

Hamlin was from Maine, perhaps the Alaska of his day. Several others were governors, as she is. While she has never served in the diplomatic service, she has traveled abroad on official business and gone places that others in the current race did not.

Clinton, number four, was one of the movers behind the construction of the Erie Canal. Sarah Palin knows a little something about the necessity for opening up the wilderness for development.

Almost every one of the men above served in their state government and many in local government. That was a sound path to the Vice Presidency and, for Sarah Palin, will be today.

Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President. Her public service is of a kind with those who served in that office in the past. Let us move beyond qualifications and on to issues.

• Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Palin: “She has executive experience, and as I said before, Senator Obama has not.”
• Gov. Haley Barbour: “She is very well versed in energy policy, which is one of the biggest economic issues facing the country.”
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whose father lost to Palin in 2006: “Gov. Palin has risen to every challenge she’s faced.”
• Rep. Dave Reichert on Palin: “This sets exactly the right example for our young women, who we must continually empower.”
• DeMint on Palin: “[She] cut wasteful spending, opposed earmarks and shown courage in taking on corruption.”
• Rep. Bachmann: “Palin knows that lowering energy costs is the number one issue facing our nation’s families.”
• Gov. Mark Sanford: “She has been a fearless advocate for good government … and has consistently kept her eyes out for taxpayers.”
• Gov. Linda Lingle: “Palin represents the true American spirit, as a wife, ‘hockey mom’ of five, a skilled hunter…”
• Trace Gallagher: governors make more decisions in one week than senators do in a year
• Gov. Sonny Perdue: “Republicans have two candidates with a proven record of working across the aisle to deliver real results.”

Sarah Palin for Vice President.

Everything we could want in a candidate.