How Palin Beat Alaska's Establishment
September 5, 2008; Page A13

If you've read the press coverage of Sarah Palin, chances are you've heard plenty about her religious views and private family matters. If you want to know what drives Gov. Palin's politics, and has intrigued America, read this.

Martin Kozlowski

Every state has its share of crony capitalism, but Big Oil and the GOP political machine have taken that term to new heights in Alaska. The oil industry, which provides 85% of state revenues, has strived to own the government. Alaska's politicians-in particular ruling Republicans-roll in oil campaign money, lavish oil revenue on pet projects, then retire to lucrative oil jobs where they lobby for sweetheart oil deals. You can love the free market and not love this.

Alaskans have long resented this dysfunction, which has led to embarrassing corruption scandals. It has also led to a uniform belief that the political class, in hock to the oil class, fails to competently oversee Alaska's vast oil and gas wealth, the majority of which belongs to the state-or rather, Alaskan citizens.

And so it came as no surprise in 2004 when former Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski made clear he'd be working exclusively with three North Slope producers-ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP-to build a $25 billion pipeline to move natural gas to the lower 48. The trio had informed their political vassals that they alone would build this project (they weren't selling their gas to outsiders) and that they expected the state to reward them. Mr. Murkowski disappeared into smoky backrooms to work out the details. He refused to release information on the negotiations. When Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin suggested terms of the contract were illegal, he was fired.

What Mr. Murkowski did do publicly was instruct his statehouse to change the oil and gas tax structure (taxes being a primary way Alaskans realize their oil revenue). Later, citizens would discover this was groundwork for Mr. Murkowski's pipeline contract-which would lock in that oil-requested tax package for up to 40 years, provide a $4 billion state investment, and relinquish most oversight.

Enter Mrs. Palin. The former mayor of Wasilla had been appointed by Mr. Murkowski in 2003 to the state oil and gas regulatory agency. She'd had the temerity to blow the whistle on fellow GOP Commissioner Randy Ruedrich for refusing to disclose energy dealings. Mr. Murkowski and GOP Attorney General Gregg Renkes closed ranks around Mr. Ruedrich-who also chaired the state GOP. Mrs. Palin resigned. Having thus offended the entire old boy network, she challenged the governor for his seat.

Mrs. Palin ran against the secret deal, and vowed to put the pipeline back out for competitive, transparent, bidding. She railed against cozy politics. Mr. Murkowski ran on his unpopular pipeline deal. The oil industry warned the state would never get its project without his leadership. Mrs. Palin walloped him in the primary and won office in late 2006. Around this time, news broke of a federal probe that would show oil executives had bribed lawmakers to support the Murkowski tax changes.

Among Mrs. Palin's first acts was to reinstate Mr. Irwin. By February 2007 she'd released her requirements for pipeline bidding. They were stricter, and included only a $500 million state incentive. By May a cowed state house-reeling from scandal-passed her legislation.

The producers warned they would not bid, nor would anyone else. Five groups submitted proposals. A few months before the legislature awarded its license to TransCanada this July, Conoco and BP suddenly announced they'd be building their own pipeline with no state inducements whatsoever. They'd suddenly found the money.

Mrs. Palin has meanwhile passed an ethics law. She's tightened up oil oversight. She forced the legislature to rewrite the oil tax law. That new law raised taxes on the industry, for which Mrs. Palin is now taking some knocks, but the political background here is crucial.

The GOP machine has crumbled. Attorney General Renkes resigned. Mr. Ruedrich was fined $12,000. Jim Clark-Mr. Murkowski's lead pipeline negotiator-pleaded guilty to conspiring with an oil firm. At least three legislators have been convicted. Sen. Ted Stevens is under indictment for oil entanglements, while Rep. Don Young is under investigation.

Throughout it all, Mrs. Palin has stood for reform, though not populism. She thanks oil companies and says executives who "seek maximum revenue" are "simply doing their job." She says her own job is to be a "savvy" negotiator on behalf of Alaska's citizens and to provide credible oversight. It is this combination that lets her aggressively promote new energy while retaining public trust.

Today's congressional Republicans could learn from this. The party has been plagued by earmarks, scandal and corruption. Most members have embraced the machine. That has diminished voters' trust, and in the process diminished good, conservative ideas. It is no wonder 37 million people tuned in to Mrs. Palin's convention speech. They are looking for something fresh.

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Well one thing is for sure, MC Cain is all man and barack is all hot air and flash, I like to call him the flim flam hot air trash can man full of baloney...
He does nothing, nothing, nothing, he is all flash and he has done NADA, will do NADA, and is NADA....

Let mc cain lead the way, he has earned the right to lead with his ACTIONS, not just dreams and rhetoric...

AMERICA will be BETTER with mc cain...that is for sure...no lies, nor rhetoric and flash,
just plain digging in and doing the stuff...he doesn't need our money, he doesn't need our approval, he's already a hero, he only needs like he says, to 'serve'...something obama knows nothing about, and will never have the character and integrity of mc cain...as proven thus far....
he will line his pockets....that is what obama wants, to line his pockets with our money...
pathetic...demonstrations and presentations so far, we can all see right through him, anyone with truth in their bones and light in their eyes will vote mc cain...including me...a democrat who will not lie and wash the sins of the party under the rug...we are blessed finally after many years to have two honest, done to earth people to lead the way of americans back to the ethics and reforms of america.....

Obama Exposed

Reverend Manning on the attack in this video

DAMN BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

Investor's Business Daily

Barack Obama - Magna Cum Saudi?

Election ‘08: Does Barack Obama owe his meteoric rise to an Israeli-hating adviser to a Saudi billionaire? Why did a race-baiting mentor to the Black Panthers favor this yet unknown community organizer?

In her stunning national political debut as the Republican candidate for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin described Obama as a man who had written two memoirs but no significant laws or reforms. So how did this unaccomplished community organizer rise to fame and fortune? He had some interesting help.

We know he's a Harvard graduate and was editor of the Harvard Law Review. Less known is the story of how he got into the prestigious Ivy League university. As Newsmax's Kenneth Timmerman reports, he was helped by a letter written by Percy Sutton, former Manhattan borough president and a credible candidate for mayor of New York in 1977.

In an interview earlier this year on New York's all-news cable channel NY1, the 88-year-old Sutton made some interesting revelations about his relationship with the young Obama. He told NY1 reporter Dominic Carter on "Inside City Hall" that he was introduced to Obama by a friend raising money for him. The friend asked Sutton to write a letter in support of Obama's application to Harvard law school.

"The friend's name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas," Sutton said. "He is the principal adviser to one of the world's richest men. He told me about Obama."

Sutton recalled that al-Mansour said, "There is a young man that has applied to Harvard. I know that you have a few friends up there because you used to go up there to speak. Would you please write a letter in support of him?" Sutton did.

According to Timmerman, "At the time Percy Sutton, a former lawyer for Malcolm X and a former business partner of al-Mansour, says he (al-Mansour) was raising money for Obama's graduate school education (and) al-Mansour was representing top members of the Saudi Royal family seeking to do business and exert influence in the United States."

One of those Saudi royals was Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah. He was the Saudi prince who offered to donate $10 million to help New York rebuild after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. After the prince publicly suggested (as Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, did recently) that U.S. policies brought on the attacks, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Prince Alwaleed where he could deposit his check.

Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour, born Donald Warden, is another interesting fellow from Obama's past. He himself is a graduate of Harvard and has been a guest lecturer there. His writings and statements reveal him to be an ideological clone of the Rev. Wright, who married Barack and Michelle and baptized their children.

In his 1995 book, "The Lost Books of Africa Rediscovered," al-Monsour alleged that America was plotting genocide against black Americans. The first "genocide against the black man began 300 years ago," he said at a book-signing in Harlem, while a second "genocide" was on the way "to remove 15 million black people, considered disposable, of no relevance, value or benefit to the American society."

Al-Mansour told an audience in South Africa that "the Palestinians are treated like savages," something our worst ex-president, Jimmy Carter, as well as Wright might agree with. He has accused Israeli Jews of "stealing the land the same way the Christians stole the land from the Indians in America."

When he was known as Donald Warden, according to the Social Activism Project at the University of California at Berkeley, al-Monsour was the mentor of Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton and his associate, Bobby Seale.

California Congresswoman Barbara Lee entered an official statement of appreciation of Warden and his Black Panther colleagues for their role in founding a radical group known as the African-American Association into the Congressional Record of April 23, 2007.

What did this radical extremist see in young Barack Obama that he would seek to sponsor and perhaps finance Obama's education? Obama says he paid his way solely through student loans. How did they meet? Where did the money he raised come from? Now that we know who the father of Bristol Palin's baby is, maybe the mainstream media will have time to find out.

Let's Talk About Obama for a Change!

By Yaffa Leah Leibowitz

After watching the news on a daily basis over these past months the coverage of the primary campaigns and national conventions and all the news and speeches on television by our newly nominated presidential candidates, I cannot imagine why any intelligent person would be unable to see through the veneer of the media and the Democratic candidates and party. It is said that in these days, there will be those that will call evil good and good evil. Truth will be rare, perverted, and lies will be made to look like truths. My goodness, I thought we were smarter than this. I thought we knew the difference between truth and lies, how to discern character and behaviors!  

But perhaps too many of us have forgotten and therefore strayed so far left and away from our founding principles towards the liberal agenda that we have lost the ability to discern between right and wrong, between truth and deception? That is perhaps the only reason I can fathom to learn that so many people will vote for Barack Hussein Obama, the Obama nation, abomination.

I cannot any longer tolerate the way he so smoothly glosses over and avoids coming forth with any truth about his plans for the ‘good' of our country. polls, is that the Yes, he will promote change, that we can be sure of, that's what you will have left in your pockets if he is elected, just about enough to go by a quart of milk - not change that will empower; no, most likely changes that will destroy our quality of life as we know it today. We can no longer afford to take vacations, buy houses, work at a distance, etc. I am worried that the uninformed will be deceived by his charm. His slick tongue and the ease with which he can con, charm, say nothing, and disarm the euphoric, ‘liberated,' lunatic fringe horrifies me, doesn't it bother you?? He is expert in hiding truth and spinning webs of deception. He constantly needs time to juggle and rearrange his thoughts to appeal to the masses because he is hiding his real agenda and his incompetence. It is alarming to think that many gullible liberals will swallow his sophism. Sophistication means to take something pure and to admix it so that it becomes adulterated. It is the ability to take truth, to admix it with impurity and to spin it with clever, witty and specious argumentation; it's deceptive but plausible, fallacious argumentation! He changes his positions based on the change he means?? 

Not his economic program, or his tax plan, or his social or Marxist values will offer anything to those of us who have worked hard to get what we have. His values are NOT ours. He wants to take money from the "rich" and give it to the poor. Who are the rich? The real rich pay very little taxes, they have all kinds of attorneys that protect and find loopholes to hide and invest their money. So what he must really mean is that he will take it from the ‘middle class,' which is you and I, the "bourgeoisie" in Marxist terminology. 

It baffles me when I hear him tear down John McCain who has sacrificed for this country and who stood up for his ideals with courage and dignity when there was nothing to gain but his honor. This is the measure of a man.  While it is so obvious to me that Obama and his cronies will do anything, whatever it takes to win, this man is bought and always hangs out with shady people who support him and can buy his way. Not good qualifications for a president. He changes his opinions like his underwear and he strums to the beat of the beckoning polls. How can we possibly justify our vote for him? Its time for Americans to wake up!! 130 times he voted present because he could not make a decision. He is a former supporter of the Black Panthers, a violent black hate group, he donated time and money to the PLO causes, one of his cronies is Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist, and another is Farrakhan, who has referred to Judaism as a gutter religion, and therefore its offshoot, Christianity must be the same, he was admitted to Harvard through the influence of a billionaire Saudi Sheik, he was number 2 in contributions along with Pelosi, Chris Dodd, and other democrats who receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who have basically ripped off the American people. He also is against offshore drilling so, realistically - where will we get the gas we need to run our military and economy? His plan is to "negotiate" with Iran?! Experts know that won't happen. So what is his plan to protect us from a nuclear strike that will destroy you, your family, children, businesses and everything else in America? America will become a pile of ashes that will glow in the dark. This will be quite a change! Russia is on the move, he was told that Russia just invaded Georgia and he thought, oh my God, So. Carolina could be next! Vegetables and plants are not expected to make decisions but presidents are!

Those who follow the religion of liberalism, meaning to blindly trust and give support to a person from any background regarding race, religion, gender or -- anyone, qualified or unqualified just because of a dogma, (which is a form of racism) don't care who the person is as long as he is from a particular party, race or gender and will vote their life away for an incompetent. It's like asking for an affirmative action surgeon to perform your surgery based on your dogma, rather than one who is highly qualified, and successful, from any other background. Which one will you choose? Will you choose the affirmative action surgeon who is unskilled, the affirmative action who is skilled or the best qualified surgeon who has merit regardless of your dogma?  It's like a staunch democrat rejecting the best available surgeon to save his life simply because the surgeon happens to be a republican, how stupid!

Liberalism is to run after the current fad. This threatens you and your best interests, those of your children, family, friends, lifestyle, safety, etc. particularly the interests of the Jewish people whose country he opts to divide~! Our very existence - is up for grabs, so, don't follow the democratic herd but instead protect the self interest of you and your people. Lets face it, the next president is going to have to protect us from a very dangerous world out there, this is not on the job training, we need a veteran combat pilot who is a POW hero or do you want someone whose only combat experience is stapling posters to telephone poles as a community organizer for the Black Panthers?

He advocates dividing Jerusalem which will put snipers and missiles at the front gates of Israel, just as pre 1967 when we had snipers and other threats killing innocent civilians. His ‘mentor' of 20 years, the Reverend Wright has planted seeds of bias and hate in him with years of sermons without any disagreement or protest from Obama. In the old western movies it was common to say, I judge a man by the company he keeps; I wouldn't want to keep company with him or his friends, so take a look at Obama's friends, all of them are the fringe groups of racists, hate mongers, and people who support terrorists.  On the website of Lan Ataslemi:

"This gives us valuable insights into the mentality and development of the presidential candidate (who may well be a ‘Manchurian candidate') responsible for the words (in his Audacity of Hope, page 261) ‘I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.' He is referring, the full text makes unmistakably clear, to the Arabs and Pakistanis, that is, to the Islamic world. "Be careful who you vote for, your candidate just may win! Allan, Chapter Director ActForAmerica. 

Lan Ataslemi will not submit to Islam."

All of the above describe Obama's character and lack of it, lack of discernment, lack of judgment, lacking integrity so blatantly that I wonder again, how can any person with any intelligence be supportive of this abomination? He is an invention of the media and if you have no mind of your own you will trust the media. He will make policies that will benefit the liberal media complex, taking money from your pockets to line theirs and his, just as he has been doing all along with Resko, Freddie and Fannie Mae, etc. He has no record to stand on, he doesn't even have the character or moral fiber to compete with the likes of John McCain; so the only way he can possibly try to win this election, is to impugn both John McCain and his running mate, Sara Palin.  How pathetic it is for Americans who cannot see his (hidden) agenda and how pathetic are those who cannot see the import of this election.

Who cares about lipstick and pigs? You can put cologne on a pig and it will still stink, still be a pig. I refuse to cover a pig with cologne; you can't hide the stench, so put that stinky pig in a paper bag and toss him into the garbage! Who cares about the lipstick!  But if this is all the media is talking about, how can anyone depend on the Obama biased media for honest reporting when there are grave issues being deflected -- such as, the possible threat of world annihilation!

The Roman Empire fell because they were so lost in ego self aggrandizement that they ignored the real threats just like foolish voters will do today. Those being the numerous hoards of barbarians that are threatening to invade the gates. They allowed their fantasies to overwhelm them just like the democrats are doing now, so that they lost touch with the ever present reality cascading into the fall of Rome. That potential legacy can become our fate today if we are not aware and vigilant.

Certainly McCain is not perfect as no man is; but Mc Cain has already attained all that a qualified man can wish for and the nature of politics is that you must compromise with the distasteful realities of political agendas. Now, with that in mind, John Mc Cain has a proven record of rising above self serving agendas. Given the balance sheet, it is clear that after we consider all - there is only one man who has consistently done it for his country with integrity, so I am going to vote for John McCain for a change.

Yaffa Leibowitz is a free lance writer/journalist, tutor; lyricist/composer/harpist; poet; who is available for speaking engagements and concerts. She lives in Boca Raton and is currently working on her first memoir along with an anthology of essays and poetry.