Posted on 10/11/2009 12:18:45 AM PDT by Neil E. Wright
Facts about Sarah Palin
by Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman
The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here.
1 - Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing "la la la la" (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar. But while you're thinking, I'll continue.
2 - Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So, she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES". Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them "don't let the door hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.
3 - The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as "pork". She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the "when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was extravagant. Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine - that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.
4 - Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.
5 - For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started. This summer, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the court house. Alaska won again.
6 - President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewables by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona. Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't be holding my breath.
By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better.
Toward FREEDOM
sounds like my kind of lady. :) Toward FREEDOM
I’m not an Alaskan Freeper, but it is all true. It’s all out there in the public domain. Just no one ever talks about it. The elite Pubs are too busy wiping each others’ backsides and worried about how to diminish her force, because she sure has one.
Been following Palin since way before she ever got the VP nod. She is probably the straightest shooter, (no pun intended,) in politics today.
I think it only gets better.
The Feds busted the corrupt folks, NOT sara.
She (and Todd) do pack, they dismissed the State Trooper that was their ‘guard’.
She did put together the ACES, jacking taxes high than Hugo Chavez Ak got a lot of money - for about a year and a half. \\And now nobody is drilling, the pipeline is less full and we have a billion dollar deficit (oops)
She DID increase welfare spending
She DID NOT do anything to try and pass anti-abortion bills.
Oh and the a$$holes she put into the DNR seem to have problems with drilling for natural gas near Anchorage — so we are facing shortages and possible rolling blackout in the dead of winter, a real plus for my family.
(see http://www.alaskadispatch.com/news/energy/2193-gas-shortage-could-leave-anchorage-dark and http://aprn.org/2009/10/01/anchorage-mayor-worried-about-gas-shortages/ for more.)
You can draw your conclusions, I think she made a mess and then quit before she cleaned up after herself.
But then, like Patton, I cannot stand quitters.
Geez...quitters, she took another path (probably good for Alaska at that - and good for her). Don’t get caught up in the Democratic jargon...
Jargon? She resigned without completing one term.
And why was that? Do you actually see any reasonable reason why she might have resign early?
Yet she is the Conservative leader.
You betcha! Love that lady - really nice to see a politician tell it like it is...no lies, just the facts mam... My lady of the night, day, and political choice..heh.
My gosh! do we really have a politician that tells the truth, damn I hope so - or my enthusiasm will be crushed.
Sarah...please stick to truth and the Constitution!...
Now, it was not stated that Mrs Palin, (whose Christian name is Sarah, not "sara"), "busted" anyone. Her actions taken did subsequently lead to those people being "busted".
Are the oil companies supposed to be able to come into AK, reap the profits of selling AK oil and not pay AK anything?
RE: AK debt, does not the state have a 'rainy day fund' and is this subtracted from the amt of any debt? (I can't presently ascertain your billion dollar figure - which I belive is erroneous - but if anyone knows of a source where the debt of AK is listed please post link)
I have drawn my conclusion and I've concluded that your post is a blend of truths and misdirection. You're not being honest about Mrs Palin's success as governor and your attempt to smear her will prove futile.
Better luck next time 'George'.
Unlike the present occupant of the White House who started running for President the day he hit Washington.
Your Patton reference is really out of context. I don’t normally use “military” terms to describe non-military issues but how about thinking about the governorship like this. Sarah withdrew from a poor position in an untenable battle to conserve her forces and is in the process of regrouping to start another battle in the larger war. Patton was pulled out several times to go somewhere else where his abilities would be better suited.
One of the better jobs I had in the army was to develop a staff ride about Patton in the breakout in France. It was a great two weeks we had retracing his movements, decisions, and steps. In more than a few ways Sarah has some of his better traits.
“If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking.” - General George Patton Jr
Moose manure!
No, she did NOT “jack taxes higher than Chavez.” Shwe raised the production tax 2.5%, while at the same time increased the exploration tax CREDIT by 10%. She had to do this because her predecessor Frank Murkowski’s sweetheart deal with the oil companies had left the state’s revenues $800 Million in the hole.
I can’t find any record of her increasing welfare spending. If she did, it certainly wasn’t by much, because Alaska was ranked 49th in welfare spending while she was governor.
While there’s not much governors can do about abortion, it IS NOT true that she didn’t do anything to try to pass anti-abortion bills. She strongly supported House Bill 35, legislation requiring parental notification. She had previously supported a parental consent bill, but the legislature would not pass it.
NO ONE in the U.S. has been a stronger advocate of increasing drilling for oil and natural gas domestically than Sarah Palin. She has done everything she can to open up ANWR for drilling and has promoted production of oil and gas on the North Slope. She has also advocated a major pipeline to send Alaskan natgas to the lower 48, as well as an in-state pipeline to move natgas from the North Slope to places like Anchorage.
The Alaska Dispatch is a leftist anti-Palin rag, and by quoting it as a source, you show your true colors.
Stop making things up!
Don’t listen to anti-Palin Mobys, people. Look it up yourself:
http://www.ontheissues.org/sarah_Palin.htm
Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui)
Why are we speaking Latin?
Neil, Dewey Whetsell is indeed a former fire chief in Alaska. He has retired from the FD, and he now has his own business, a consultancy that trains first responders and emergency personnel. It is Dewey Whetsell Emergency & Management Training, and it’s locarted in Eagle River, AK.
Whetsell is also an author and a poet, and his website is here: http://www.deweywhetsell.com/
His original post of the essay about Sarah Palin is on his blog here:
http://restlessbrainsyndrome.blogspot.com/2009/09/sarah-palins-accomplishments.html
He’s for real and so is the post.
- JP
I think point #1 is one of the reasons the dems are so determined to squash her.
If she cleaned out her own party, what will she do to them?
Something I am grappling with:
Sarah was actually sued out of office by Democrat Party activitists. There was no limit on the number of ethic complaints these harassers could file against the Governor and Gov. Palin had to pay for her own defense until the DNC broke the family bank. In addition her staff had to direct so much attention to defend against these ethic complaints, I understand that Gov. Palin felt her being in office was crippling the ability of the Gov. office to govern.
Who put into place these mindless ethic rules that permitted this kind of abuse and obstruction of the Governor and ultimately democracy? Why did not this abuse happen to other Alaska Governors?
One of the things I like most about Palin was her commitment to go after crooked politicians. Why does she not mention going after the crooked politicians in Washington - Democrat and Republican? Seems to me that this might be the central reason the Washington insiders are all circling the wagons in an effort to keep her away.
Who put into place these mindless ethic rules that permitted this kind of abuse and obstruction of the Governor and ultimately democracy? Why did not this abuse happen to other Alaska Governors?
Didn’t she tout ethics reform as something she promoted and signed early on in her short tenure? If so then the rules/regs etc came via her help/promotion. Seems I’ve read that somewhere.
Here you go. From her mouth in her acceptance speech at the GOP convention.
“I came to office promising major ethics reform, to end the culture of self-dealing. And today, that ethics reform is the law.”
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