Posted on 02/05/2010 8:10:31 PM PST by Bigtigermike
SALINA Before a crowd of 6,000 cheering fans, Sarah Palin received rock star treatment Friday night in Salina.
The former vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, drew a sell-out crowd to the Bicentennial Center for the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting an event that routinely draws big names to Salina. Past speakers have included Colin Powell, George H.W. Bush, Bob Costas, Margaret Thatcher and Cal Ripkin Jr.
"We've had great speakers in the past," said Todd Davidson, of the Chamber. "No one has generated this amount of interest even President George H.W. Bush, who came here when he was a sitting president, did not drive this kind of a response."
Even Palin couldn't ignore the excitement her appearance generated. Back stage, she said, a chamber member told her, " 'Man, this is like a Van Halen concert.' I said, 'Man, I wish.' "
In her speech, Palin sounded off on national security, government bailouts and limited government ideals. And she offered lots of praise for the hometown crowd.
"In a time when folks so fear that much is going wrong, your town is an example of how to get it right and how to soar," said Palin, who was joined in Salina by her daughter, Piper. "Shoot, your state's motto even has it right: to the stars through difficulties."
Palin began by relating her experiences as a city councilwoman and mayor in Wasilla, Alaska. What worked there, she said, was cutting taxes, focusing on a few core services and spending responsibly. As governor, she said she learned to take tough stances.
"I'd have to butt heads with my own party officials and the other party, of course too, and the media," said Palin, who didn't meet with reporters on her trip to Salina. "Some things never change. It wasn't always the easy path, but it was the right path."
Telling the crowd she was going to "call is like I see it," she said Washington, D.C., politicians need to "back off." While Americans have lost jobs and learned to live with less, she charged that government has become more bloated.
"Over the past year, Washington has replaced private irresponsibility with public irresponsibility," she said.
The country, she said, needs health reform "not backroom deals." She suggested measures like allowing insurance purchases across state lines and tort reform.
Also, she said the country needs to pursue "all of the above approach to energy." She said increased drilling for oil must be pursued.
"Drill here and drill now and tap our own plentiful energy supplies," she said.
The Obama administration, she said, has lost its way on foreign policy. She said people wonder if the United States is still a "beacon of hope" for freedom.
"We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America's friends from her enemies and recognizes the true nature of these threats that we are facing," Palin said.
In the end, her speech brought the crowd to its feet.
Earlier in the night, Verlene and Joyce Jackson, of Chapman, said they hope to see Palin as president someday and like that she hasn't "always been in that ivory tower."
"She has a fresh outlook," Verlene Jackson said. "She speaks for us. She's a down home girl. I feel like personally, I think she would do a good job representing us."
DeVee Smalley drove in from Superior, Neb., to join her two daughters for Palin's speech.
"I think she is somebody who is trying to reach out to the heartland of America," Smalley said.
Palin will be back in Kansas May 2 to speak in Wichita at a fundraiser for a Christian school.
All too true! But where is a case of a strong nation whose leaders are bowing to Islam at every turn while fighting them overseas? And even in Afghanistan Gen McChrystal allows our soldiers to be killed or wounded rather than the enemy; same with Mullen, same with Casey, the despicable POS. Gates sees nothing wrong with these insane ROE. It goes all the way to the top—Barry, and before him, GB; Bill Klinton, & GHWB. How many of our best & brightest are in the brig because they killed the enemy before he killed them? In the case of a Navy SEAL, he is accused of slapping a prisoner (one of those who horrendously murdered the 4 contractors in Iraq.) This SEAL now may even be tried in an International Court! Tell me this isn’t madness, and try to find another country who has ever so insanely eaten its own. And continues to tear our country apart here at home.
His recent posts are posts made by an angry individual who not only belittles Sarah, but also insults her supporters with the same sickening and misguided passion of the Sarah haters.
If this is the same poster who only a few weeks ago was part of the Palin Fringe (as he calls us now), and throws insults our way, insisting we are not very smart or really knowledgeable and are ill-mannered, uncouth, mental slobs, I have no respect for him because he doesn't have credibility. He accuses us of the same ill-manner that he is afflicted with insulting Palin supporters with such contempt demonstrates that he isn't very smart himself, and certainly not a gentleman.
He has gone from being a Sarah fanatic to being a Sarah basher. Sarah hasn't done anything to merit such hostility from anyone in the so called ex-Palin fringe. Though I don't agree with Palin's endorsement of McCain, nor her decision to campaign for him, I don't believe in Jla's insistence that she is being hypocritical, but rather that she is doing it out of loyalty - something Jla has demonstrated that he knows nothing about it.
I guess he will soon be joining the chorus of trash-flappers in his denunciation of Sarah and her family - though I warn you Jla, I'm not afraid, and I usually reply in kind.
Yes, that would be the very same jla...!
I think the question is, if Alaska is so flus with oil and gas revenues that they can afford to send this kind of money to EACH AND EVERY resident of the state, then why are ANY taxes paid by residents of the other 49 states going to it?
I thought the gas taxes you pay were state and federal. The taxes you pay stay in your state or go to the general fund. They don’t go to Alaska.
The gas and oil tax revenue collected from oil companies and paid into Alaska coffers were mandated by state Constitution to revenue share with the people of Alaska when the pipeline was proposed.
Alaska takes care of their own. The lower 49 could probably do the same thing with their state resources but for some reason choose not to.
I guess I don’t understand the question.
You can believe that, it's you're right, but I don't buy it at all.
It's your right to disagree, as you pointed out, but it's a little hard not to buy it: it's a tautology. Nobody's "presidential" before he's president. Beforehand, he's a fine fellow, he's a candidate, good wood, etc. -- but it is the decision of the People that makes him "president" and gives him the chance to show he's "presidential". Some of the examples I gave, like Harry Truman (and I'd add Chester Arthur to that list), were of people whom the voters would not have elected even a few years before their inauguration, who "grew into" the office.
With all the others, we're just guessing and so are vulnerable to disappointment. As with George W. Bush.
I'm reading a biography of Julius Caesar. His dealings with the Gauls were rather sterner stuff than we've seen out of any U.S. administration.
His purposes aren't ours, of course, but there is a way to deal with people who are fanatically dedicated to killing you that doesn't involve kissing the ring of an Arabian king.
Sure there are ways. But our dhimmi leaders cringe at the thought of using them. They can’t even protect our borders.
My main point: approaching this as if it's something new or unheard of is a mistake. It feels new because it's the first time it's happened to us.
The first time this really hit home for me was when I read a book by Taylor Caldwell called "A Pillar of Iron." It's about Marcus Tulius Cicero and the decay of the Roman Empire. It's historical fiction, and Caldwell researched her history thoroughly, so historically, it is accurate. I first read it about 30 years ago. The cultural parallels between Rome and the U.S. were mind-boggling. It was an eye-opener for me as a young person (in my early 20s). In my ignorance, I'd thought what was happening in the U.S. was new. It wasn't. It wasn't then, and it isn't now. To approach it as if it was is a mistake.
I might have read "Pillor of Iron", if not, then I will. Oh, and "Captains and Kings"--loosely based on the Kennedy dynasty (or would-be dynasty)...starting with the patriarch as a boy, coming to the land of the free. Quite a story.
But people turning on their fellow Americans of course is nothing new; what I wonder is if any other country in the world ever allowed an invasion of foreigners to the point where the natives were displaced and outnumbered, bankrupting the treasuries, and at the same time allowing the sworn enemy (terrorists & their supporters) to influence every aspect of our laws & culture. Helping to cut our throats, so to speak. I have heard a radio talker say no nation on earth has ever done this , because it amounts to national suicide.
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