Sarah

Breaking news from Erick Erckson, Red State,

Halfway through Sarah Palin’s speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text.According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. The malfunction also occurred during Rudy Giuliani’s speech, explaining his significant deviations from his speech.

Unfazed, Governor Palin continued, from memory, to deliver her speech without the teleprompter cued to the appropriate point in her speech.

Contrast this to Barack Obama who, when last his teleprompter malfunctioned, was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved.

Sarah Palin. Winner.

One sign a campaign is losing is when their talking points a lame.   The BO campaign talking points have gone limp. Mark Hemmingway, National Review:

Immediately after Palin’s speech I saw a panelist on MSNBC harrumphing that Palin didn’t write her speech — she had one of George W. Bush’s speechwriters. You don’t say… 

It was an extraordinarily petty and desperate attempt to devalue her remarkable speech — speechwriters or not, the speech was an accurate reflection of who she is and she obviously contributed to the writing of it in significant ways. For instance, the pitbull/lipstick line was all hers. 

However, Ace notes that “Palin didn’t write her speech” is a talking point being pushed by the Obama/Biden campaign. Which is ridiculous. Obama is an undeniably talented writer, and yet you better believe he has speechwriters. But what’s most unbelievable is that surrogates of Joe Biden are questioning the provenance of a political opponent’s speech.

Obviously any campaign with Joe Biden on the ticket can ill afford to talk about who writes a canidate’s speech.

Loser:  Barack Obama.

How long before Obama medical condition comes to the fore and he forced to step aside for Mrs. Clinton?

In case you’re curious, the transcript of Palin’s speech is availble here.

I have the habit of noting small, perhaps indicative things that some others might not notice. While the speech was great,  and we’ll be going over it repeatedly here and around the ‘sphere, there are quiet pictures that stay with you, and decide things for you.  Minutiae, some might call it, but usually it ends up being of greater import than many will admit. Pictures, as the saying goes, are worth a thousand words. As an example:

One of the things that I noted last night, was Palin’s youngest daughter, holding the baby… the one with Down’s syndrome… I forget his name.  I noticed, and was touched by two seperate occasions of this. In one random shot, we see the girl… of what, about 9 to 12 years old?…(She’s the one sitting next to her father, here) … wetting her fingers and smoothing the baby’s hair, and talking to him. Later, we see the same girl, still holding the baby, and looking directly into his eyes and talking to him, drawing him in to an interaction, and smiling.

Now, we’ve seen an awful lot of supposedly leftists, supposedly feminists asking if Palin has the time to be a power broker and a good mom.  Leaving aside the question of whether or not a man running for the office would ever have been asked this stuff, my conclusion based on the observations of that young girl and her brother, is yes, she clearly does have the time to do both. I suggest to you that in the in the scenes I’ve just decribed to you, the girl is exhibiting learned behavior. Her mother obviously took the time to teach her these things.

So much for that argument, even absent the discussion about who is watching Sally Quinn’s kids.

Sarah Palin

It’s remarkable, the lack of reaction from the left to last night’s speech. Take a look for yourself at 7am Eastern time today at the lack coverage of it. Particularly, take note of how few leftie blogs utter a word about the speech.

By contrast, take a look at the rumor chasing the left was doing.. and how many of them were showing up on Memeorandum… at the same time on 9/2

If we’re to take the reaction as indication, apparently, the speech we all saw last night, never occurred. And so, I suspect, they’d like to believe.

And by the way; A logical question in all of this is how much of this bias is being fed us by Memeorandum. I’ve seen a lot of commentary on the speech last night from various places, all of it postive, Q&O (Here, too) and OTB to name two places quickly)  and yet Memeorandum hasn’t touched the topic.

I wonder why? I doubt that kind of shift of direction could be automated, it had to be a counsious decision by a human running the show, there.

Well, she hit this one out of the park.

When I saw the early release stuff coming down, this morning, I knew it was going to be a barnstormer, and I hoped her delivery was going to be up to her writing. In my professional opinion, it was. Further, I was a bit concerned about her following Rudy, who has m made a reputation as an accomplished speaker. How would she hold up? She did well, even in that august company.

And yes, there was content, too… more than we were led to think based on the early releases and certainly more than the talking heads in the dinosaur media suggested would be there.  We were told she’d be holding back. Lemme tell ya, gang… if that’s holding back, it’s no WONDER the Democrat party is in full panic mode… When she finally goes full stream it’ll be devastating to the Democrats and one gets the impression they know it, too.

It’ll be interesting to see how they spin this stuff, and we surely know they will. I’ll be looking at this in the monring. But at the moment, I can’t help but think that any response from the Democrats at this point would only make Palin’s case for her.

• I find it interesting that the press is so busy bashing Sarah Palin’s 17 year old kid for a pregnancy, when it spent over two years hiding from sight the story of John Edwards ‘love child’, don’t you?
• The left has it’s diapers twisted over a comment Phil Graham made at the RNC last night;
  

  “If you’re sitting here today, you’re not economically illiterate and you’re not a whiner, so I’m not worried about who you’re going to vote for.”

  So, the Democrats have a screaming headline saying… “If you’re not for John McCain you’re economically illiterate.” Amazing how close they come to the truth sometimes, isn’t it? Who but the economically illiterate would support Obama’s crippling tax policy? (BBCT: Boortz, who has more)

• You bet your buns I’ll be watching when Sarah Palin walks out on that stage tonight. Somehow I suspect the spinning will be somewhat muted after tonight.
• You watch… what’s left of Gustav will be up here this weekend… about the time I’d planned on taking the trailer out for the weekend.  You’ll recall the LAST time I took it out, it rained all weekend, too. Not been much of a summer for camping for us this year. I guess it’s a price I pay for owning the rig, my choice. Just like it’s the price paid for the chocies made by the folks more directly affected by the storm.
• Did you see this about a cat going for a 70 mile run under his owner’s truck?  Yikes…
• So Google has a new browser? (Yawn) We’ve all seen them come and go, Sorry, I can’t get excited about a version one of much of anything, particularly that injects itself soe completely between myself and my basic interndat daily travels.  And in any event, I have problems taking Popular Mechanics seriously on much of anything, and I certainly won’t take them at their word anymore.. After their political moves a while ago, they have a long, long way to make up the creds needed for that. But FWIW,they do offer a ‘report’ I’ll stick with foxpro, thanks. A much more developed and solid bit of work, from a group of folks I trust.
• I see the self-labeled anarchists were discussing kidnapping delegates. Oh, speaking of which, I wish I’d seen this; Mrs Bit tells me that Steve Ducey’s kid, playing intern for Fox News, went out and started showing pictures of Sarah Palin, John Mccain, and some of the other Republican brass to the anarchists and asking them to identify who it was in the pcitures. THey had no clue about how they were seeing. Ah, yes, it’s informed opinion drives these folks, huh? Guess we’d better listen to ’em. (Not)
• In watching Joe Leiberman last night, one recognized almost at once that he sees himself walking a fine line. He knows he’s going to ctahc hell for last night. Watch for Reid to remove his committee positions in retaliation. I’d have to say that as a result of that caution, the speech wasn’t as rousing as it might have been… certaily not as well as Lieberman had obviously hoped. And, I guess it didn’t help that Thompson was on freakin’ FIRE last night.  (Even though Mickey didn’t think so, I have to ask…(Where the heck was that Fred Thompson a year ago?)  There’s a lot of folks on the leftside blogs complaining that Liberman will end up with a Cabinet post as a result of ‘selling out’.  well, first of all, selling out WHAT, specifically? Country? Or just party?  Secondly, I would think that someone who leans so far to the left being part of a Republican administration’s cabinet would thrill them.  can’t please some folks, I guess. And third, I’m not convinced Liberman would accept such a post, and forth, I’ve no positive indication it would even be offered. But let’s not let mere facts dampen a great leftie rant, OK? I guess I should qualify that by saying he’d make an ideal ambassador to Israel… it’d counter the notion that McCain would be bad for Israel… and it’d also tend to counter some of the other rumors the left is stirring just now.
• The comment about how Lieberman’s involvement in a McCain administration should outright thrill the left, brings to mind a comment heard at work over lunch today, from someone who’s never struck me as the smartest political analyst I’d ever heard… He says; “Well, if Palin is such an idiot, why would they be trying to knock her off the McCain ticket? Don’t they want McCain to lose? If she’;s that dumb, wouldn’t McCain lose with her ON the ticket?” I’m going to have to re-evaluate this guy, he’s got a real point, here. The fact is, Palins got them in panic mode, like they’ve not been in a generation.
• Huge amounts of traffic on the Alaska Investigation thing I posted this morning. A nod of thanks to Conservative Grapevine, and all the others who linked up.
• Seems there’s some question now about the vetting process for… wait for it… Joe Biden. Yeah, that guy. Oh, and yes, I mean besides what questions we’ve been asking here at BitsBlog… in last night’s Ramble for example.
• Bringing new meaning to the phrase “Skeletons in the closet”… or perhaps returning us to the old one.
• As we predicted here when the WSJ was bought up, it appears Murdoch is looking at buying up the New York Times. Can’t happen soon enough, in my view. No word from Pinch, yet, though.

Bit is on top of the BO;s campaign attempt to smear Sarah Palin.  The MSM simply can not be trusted to report the news.  Brian Ross, and Len Tepper, reporting this as if it were legitimate straight news:

“It’s likely to be damaging to the Governor’s administration,” said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

The resources of the Swamp Stomper’s New Bureau are truly meager.  If Bit can find out that Hollis French is a mere partisan hack, then so too should ABC News.    ABC News should be able to do much better, but I do not expect them to do so.   Do you?

Edit:  (David L)

ABC’s Jake Tapper is reporting this morning another Democrat Point has been exposed as a lie:

Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, tells ABC News that regardless of the impression given to members of the Alaskan Independence Party, “Gov. Sarah Palin first registered to vote in the state in May 1982 as a Republican, and she has not changed her party affiliate with the Division of Elections since that time.”

Another one btes the dust.

How does this keep happening to the Democrats, I wonder?

An increasing desperate, or as Fred would say panic driven,  Barack Obama campaign has resorted to telling outright lies about John McCain, Politico:

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Barack Obama has launched a broadside against John McCain’s opposition to abortion rights and moved one of the most divisive issues in modern American politics to the airwaves on a large scale for the first time in this presidential campaign.

Obama’s new radio ad, airing widely in at least seven swing states, tells voters McCain “will make abortion illegal.” It’s airing as McCain courts female voters with the addition of the staunchly anti-abortion governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, to his ticket.

The Obama campaign claims that Obama taught Constitutional Law.   Yet the President has no power to change the Constitution.   In fact the amendment process by-passes the President.   Constitutional amendments are proposed by Congress and ratified by the States.   The President is not involved at all in the process.

So why does a person who claims to have taught the Constitution lie about what the Constitution allows?   Dare i say the audacity of panic?

This one’s been making the rounds.

EFFECTIVE AUGUST 1, 2008

NEW OFFICE POLICY

Dress Code:
1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.
2) If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.
3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.
4) If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days:
We will no longer accept a doctor’s statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:
Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays & Sundays.

Bereavement Leave:
This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend the funeral arrangements in your place. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.

Bathroom Breaks:
Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the ‘Chronic Offenders’ category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company’s mental health policy.

Lunch Break:
* Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy.
* Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.
* Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that’s all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints,
frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.

Here’s a look at your new office. As usual, drill each pic once, and then once again, when that resolves, for a better view.

I questioned the timing of the way things ramped up on the Palin thing in Alaska, a couple days ago. Turns out, I was right, again… the guy supposedly investigating her is Hollis French, who is listed on the Obama website as an Obama supporter. (BBCT: Dan Rheil)

The following Alaska elected officials are supporting Senator Obama’s campaign for president:

State Senators (8)
Bettye Davis, Anchorage
Johnny Ellis, Anchorage
Kim Elton, Juneau
Hollis French, Anchorage
Lyman Hoffman, Bethel
Albert Kookesh, Angoon
Joe Thomas, Fairbanks
Bill Wielechowski, Anchorage

Sen. Hollis French:

“Senator Biden is one of America’s leading voices on national security. With decades of foreign policy experience and a son headed to Iraq, he will help make the right decisions that allow America to defeat terrorism, keep our country strong, and ensure that our veterans are honored for their service.”

“Senator Obama has a plan to end our dependence on foreign oil and reduce skyrocketing energy prices,” said Senator Hollis French of Anchorage, a former oil rig worker.  “Having worked in the oil business in Alaska for twelve years, I know firsthand the importance of oil and natural gas to Alaska.  Senator Obama will not only invest in renewable fuels and increase car fuel efficiency standards, he strongly supports construction of an Alaska natural gas pipeline and accelerated drilling in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve which will provide affordable energy to Alaska and our country and good jobs for Alaskans.”

Gee, can you possibly imagine why this trooper thing would have all gotten going the moment McCain named Palin as his VP,  but not before?

Oh, and watch this; ABC news is now waving phrases like “October Suprise’ around in relation to the “investigation”. No duh, ABC.  And BTW, thank God for Brian Ross, else the whole ABC org would be nigh on useless.

Meanwhile, what’s this I see about the Democrats releasing Palin’s Social Security Number?

Yep… looks like Alaska Democrats are in on this one, too. And since the report is incidental to the suppsoed Alaska “investigation”, I suspect we  have Obama operatives at the bottom of this one, too, possibly the self-same Mr French.

It appears the Democrats have sunk to a new low here… though I can’t say it’s anything but expected.

A feast for Fredheads.

Hat tips:  Newsbusters, Red State.

Don LaFontaine...

Don LaFontaine, whose name you likey don’t know, but whose voice you can’t help but recognize, has died, says Wired:

Don LaFontaine, the man whose resonant voice read the trailers of thousands of movies over the past three decades, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 68.

LaFontaine, who did voiceover work in more than 5,000 trailers during his 33-year career, turned the “In a world where …” opening line into an industry standard for studios promoting movies and TV shows.

 I can recall years ago in my radio days, laughingly calling Don ET… as in, the ‘Extra testicle” and wishing, as I suspect many radio and TV types have always done,  I had that vocal ability.

• Rumor has it that Amy Winehouse is dain bramaged after a 36 hours pot marathon. Of course that was the rumor BEFORE that, too. And look, I know, OK, so don’t start with me. But when someone is that determined to screw themselves up, so she can be the next Janis Joplin,  there’s only so seriously one can take it.  Clearly, her family and her keepers weren’t doing much about the problem, either.
• Don’t ask ME about the guy with the sign. He just kinda showed up.
• I can think of a lot better places to get married.
• Honorable Mention at OTB’s caption contest for da boss.
• As to the protests up in the Twins just now, perhaps the protestors should remember there was some risks involved. And yes, I think it’s gonna happen.
• Speaking of which; Why aren’t the police opening fire on these idiots? And yes, I’m quite serious….and I’d say the same if they were attacking leftists… which, interestingly , they were not. Kinda gives us an idea who might be supporting Obama, huh?
• Does anyone think this is a good idea? Eric Blair, call your office.
• Hey, Joe Biden… you may want to avoid altogether discussions of energy policy with Sarah Palin. The girl’s gonna chew you up and spit you out. Can’t say I’ll be sorry to see it. Oh… and the subject will come up… trust me on this one.  The Republicans have identified this as the major issue for the America people… and the pollsters appear to agree.
• A group of people who are trying to prevent such a confrontation, apparently sensing the outcome, though are the leftie blogs. Memeorandum was just chocked with the leftie spin at 7 this morning. They’re involved in an all-out effort to derail Palin… as if they’re afraid to face her.
• And you know for all of the hollering and screaming going on about how Palin’s vetting process wasn’t all it should have been… a questionable argument on its face… what shall we say of Biden’s vetting proceess? Apparently, if you’re a leftie blog, you say as little as possible and hope that nobody notices.
• Thannk God Gustav turned out to be less of a problem than we feared. The reviews of the cable news coverage of Gustav don’t seem overly enthused… particularly hard hit in the reviews was CNN and MS-NBC. Suits me.  Over hyped, though? Well, I’m not so sure. As I described last night I consider this a victory for the right, and a non-dependence on an all powerful federal government. And I wonder if that isn’t the reason the coverage is now being panned… THe left had hoped that it would be another stick in the eye of the Republicans… and as it turned out the locals actually stepped up to the plate… All hail Bobby Jindal for his leadership, and Kudos as well to Ray Nagin, who it appears actually did his job this time.
• Speaking of Gustav, word was floating around that the biggest seller prior to the storm arriving was guns. Like I said… a non-dependence on an all powerful federal government.
• So, let me understand this. If Don Fowler was wrong to suggest that Gutav was a good thing and proved God was on the side of the Democrats,  and was forced to apologize, how it is that in Fowler’s publicly stated view,  the guy who caught him saying it, is a ‘right wing nut case? No, Don, just a citizen. And it seems to me you should be forced into another apology. And by the way, where is the apology from the Great Rotundo, who said pretty much the same thing?
• Newly rich doesn’t always work. Which, by extension, is why Democrat tax hikes never solve deficits. Do the math, people.
• I said a while ago… and I can’t find the link just now… that if Obama lost, watch for a race war.  Apparently the left is now calling for such a race war 
• Seems schools in Atlanta aren’t so good. One can only hope this is a trend, and that we’ll be forced to remove the government and the teachers unions fro the mix once and for all.
• Not sure what this is about, but I don’t care for the way this is being handled by the RNC.
• Why are we considering letting people move back into NOLA, with another storm on the heels of Gutsav, likely to cause exactly the same issues?
• I mentioned last night about Jon Voight and how Hollywood is annoyed with him? Wouldn’t it be interesting if that movie was the one to drag Hollywood’s financial backside out of the coals?
• Oil will likely be at or near $100/bbl by the time you read this.

Jerry Reed 1937-2008

CMT is reporting sad news:

Jerry Reed, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor whose No. 1 country hits include “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” “Lord, Mr. Ford” and “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft),” died Tuesday (Sept. 2). He had been diagnosed with emphysema and was in hospice care.

I always liked him, even back in his early recording days. Jerry Reed was the man. He did it all, bringing his cajun way of thinking and living to movies, radio, TV, Music, (playing and writing) and had fun through it all, and made that fun infectious. 

I met him once, briefly, back in the late 70’s. I found him every bit  the guy you saw on tv and in film… that wasn’t a ‘public persona’ he pasted on for our benefit. The man was about as real is it gets.  

Jerry Reed was 71.