Common Sense Conservatism

Here's the text of the speech from Sarah Palin given in Hong Kong on September 23, 2009. Great, great stuff!

David Letterman Sincerely Apologizes

David Letterman finally did the right thing. Here's the full transcript of his apology:

All right, here - I've been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week - it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don't know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke.

There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended.

The next day, people are outraged. They're angry at me because they said, "How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?" And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani…And I really should have made the joke about Rudy…

But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, "Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business," and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she's now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I'm wondering, "Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?" I've never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years, and you can't really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.

And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer 'Newshour' - this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, "Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent." It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke. And I'm certainly - (audience applause) - thank you. Well, my responsibility - I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood.

So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much.

More on the Letterman Debacle

Incidentally, I responded to this comment as follows:

UtahWoman, you wrote: "I do not see this as a left or right issue. I see it as a male vs female issue."

I agree with you that it's not a Left vs. Right issue. But it is NOT a Male vs. Female issue.

I've just spent quite a bit of time arguing with a woman from Saskatchewan named Janice who fully supports David Letterman and deeply criticizes anyone who considers it any more than a "joke". She went on to justify the smearing of any of the Palin daughters as somehow Palin's fault. I never understood her logic but it seems akin to blaming a woman for being raped. Finally, when I asked her how she would feel if the same sort of jokes were leveled at the Obama daughters she said, "they don't have anything to do with this."

That kind of limited thinking is not much different from Joy Behar's, as shown here. Listen to her words but also carefully watch her body language. Then listen to the list of all the women's groups and magazines that refuse to criticize Letterman in any way, shape or form.

A Canadian radio show host, Roy Green, asked a very interesting question today: "How come Don Imus lost his job over derogatory remarks he made about a women's basketball team yet not a thing has happened to David Letterman?" Answer that question and you'll get a sense of how rotten the core of the mainstream media has become.

I go back to Reagan's comment that I referred to earlier: "This is not a Left or Right issue, but an Up or Down one." More precisely, it's about those who believe in those archaic concepts known as "Honor" and "Decency" and those who don't.

Incidentally, a woman has created a Facebook group to demand a REAL apology from Letterman. Think about joining it.

Finally, please know that my outrage would be precisely the same had similar "jokes" been made about Malia or Natasha Obama.

The Letterman Debacle: Some Positive Signs

As this day draws to a close I'm pleased to be able to report that some semblance of unity is occurring between the Left and the Right in America over a mutual disgust of David Letterman's recent attacks on Sarah Palin and her daughters.

Starting with the Right, Michelle Malkin and Don Surber have provided some pretty stinging indictments.

But also on the Left, I was stunned, in a positive way, to see this condemnation by NOW, which is generally regarded as a fairly Far Left organization. Sure, they balanced it with a criticism of an old Rush Limbaugh crack but fair is fair.

I was perhaps most impressed of all though by the over 200 comments on Uppity Woman's blog. In case you're not aware, she was a big time Hillary Clinton supporter and in no way a Republican. In one of the comments she wrote this:

Rape is rape. And disrespect of women is moving toward rampant in this country, PARTICULARLY among the far far left Democrats. They are the very pigs they have called the republicans all these years. They are caught up in their own irony and have become what they said they despise. They no longer represent the women of America and perhaps they never did, but just pretended so that they could get votes. This kind of behavior against women is growing in leaps and bounds and the young women in this country had better get the point before they find they must start all over again gaining rights they thought were Forever.

How would Dave Letterman like a nice joke about his fugly five year old? I’ll be that’s off limits to him because it’s his kid. Thank GOD he doesn’t have a daughter is all I can say.

Intelligent, decent people have quickly realized that a very scary line has been crossed here. It's not healthy for political discourse or for a country. Absolutely no repercussions have occurred to Letterman yet. I still think he should donate a large sum of money to a Rape Crisis Center or similar organization and even volunteer there for a dozen hours. It would do him a lot of good.

Sarah Palin Fights Back

Watch good old boy, Matt Lauer, trying to defend his bud, David Letterman. But Sarah Palin won't have any of it. Good for her!

More on David Letterman's Disgraceful Behavior

Brilliant Sarcasm from the Texas Gents

Shooting Down the Mistruths About Sarah Palin - Episode #87,431

I've been having a debate of sorts with a fellow from the UK. He left a rather nasty comment on a video of mine, taking some rather egregious shots at Sarah Palin. I knew the statements he was making to be absolutely false, so I decided to show him the error of his ways. It's not my intention to reshape his political views but hopefully he'll learn a small lesson about backing up one's statements with facts. Shown below is what I wrote him.

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You're in the UK? I frequently listen to BBC London. Based on what I hear from the many callers - their words, not mine - your country is doomed unless it dramatically changes it's walk down the socialist garden path.

Ditto for California by the way. And in case you're going to tell me that Schwarzenegger is a Republican, in fact he's a RINO and is very much governing like a UK Labour Party minister.

Let's go through your points:

1. You stated that Palin thought Africa was a country. In fact, it was a McCain policy advisor named Martin Eisenstadt, who leaked out this Palin comment. There's one problem though: Mr. Eisenstadt doesn't exist. Please read this.
   
   
2. You stated that Palin pretended to know what the Bush Doctrine was. I saw the interview with Charlie Gibson. That's not precisely what happened, was it? In fact, what transpired was that Palin was seeking clarification from Gibson about what he meant by the term "Bush Doctrine". You think that makes her an idiot? The originator of that term was Charles Krauthammer. Here's what he had to say about the Gibson-Palin discussion.
   

Do you now admit that you were wrong in both cases?

I assure you that it's not my intention to ridicule you. But I'm an engineer and build software for a living. Plus I'm half-German. So forming my opinions based on facts is part of my DNA. And when I draw conclusions based on false facts, I admit I was wrong and apologize.

As for Jon Stewart, you're convinced that he attacks both sides with his humour? Sorry, can't agree with you there. Like most of the American media and Hollywood glitterati, he has never and I predict will never take any substantive shot at Barack Obama.

Like you, I am far from religious. BUT I am absolutely fed up with people thinking they can use Christians as their new preferred kick dog. As I've said to several ex-friends, who I've lost over this issue, "You would never say such things about Blacks or Asians or Jews or Muslims. But because they're Christians, you somehow think they're fair game. I have some dear old friends who are devout Christians and so when you make such jokes I view you as personally attacking them and their beliefs."

Anyway amigo, as I stated earlier, it was not my intention to ridicule you. But I do hope you take the time to FULLY research your statements before you make them in the future.

In the same way that I listen to the BBC through the Internet, I hope I can make two recommendations to you:

• http://DennisMillerRadio.com
• http://DennisPrager.townhall.com

I don't agree entirely with what either man says all the time, but I do find them both to be interesting most of the time. Listening to them may provide you with a little balance over the Left leaning media you seem inclined to solely follow.

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Incidentally, I currently don't have much confidence that Sarah Palin will be able to get past the "stupid white trash moron" moniker that the MSM very deliberately gave her. I don't agree with this assessment, of course, but I don't deny that it is present in the minds of many.

To demonstrate how incredibly corrupt the MSM has become, Katie Couric is actually getting an award for her attempts to destroy Sarah Palin's character. Of course, that's not the way it's being portrayed but that is precisely what occurred. John Ziegler has further thoughts here. Apparently he attended the "ceremonies" today and was arrested! It's my understanding that he'll be appearing on Dennis Miller's show tomorrow.

Sarah Palin Speaks Out About The Corrupt MSM

In an interview for the forthcoming documentary "Media Malpractice" Governor Sarah Palin, for the first time at length, takes on the media coverage of her and the 2008 campaign. Historians will look back at the 2008 American Election Campaign and note it as a low point in the once great history of journalism.

Sarah Palin's Clothes vs. Barack Obama's Pork

Has anyone else noticed that the same MSM that was obsessed with Sarah Palin's wardrobe budget (estimated to be upwards of $150,000) has absolutely no curiosity whatsoever for how the so-called stimulus funds are going to be spent?

Barack Obama's current "stimulus" package (aka "PorkFest") is sitting at $820,000,000,000. That is Five Million, Four Hundred and Sixty Six Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty Seven (5,466,667) times more money . . . and yet the the vast majority of the MSM chooses to not question how any of it will be spent.

And those same members of the MSM have the audacity to tell us that they have no particular political bias!

Glenn Beck Interviews Sarah Palin

P.S. And sadly, here is Canada's current most preeminent female political leader. :-(

The Truth about Sarah Palin, Not the MSM's Narrative

Good on Sarah Palin for not paying any attention to the views of the MSM in the U.S. Apparently she played a major role in securing victory for Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss in yesterday's runoff vote.

It has not escaped my attention that the Canadian media has been using some very similar tactics in order to bring their much hated Stephen Harper down. I hope he pays them no attention either. The don't deserve it.

Analysis of the Sarah Palin Hoax

Camille Paglia on Barack Obama, The Weather Underground, and Sarah Palin

Ms. Paglia has written a very interesting and diverse article here. She has some very positive things to say about Barack Obama and how he will likely strive to be a centrist president. She also touches upon the despicable Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,

But the most interesting part she left for last: Sarah Palin. Here's a snippet:

Reporters have been too busy playing mini-badminton with every random spitball about Sarah Palin, who has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamation merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don't know their asses from their elbows.

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

Dennis Miller on the O'Reilly Factor

Further Evidence of Why "Professional Journalist" Has Become an Oxymoron

Read this.

Elizabeth Hasselbeck at a Sarah Palin Rally

ObamaMedia Prediction

Can anyone deny this plausible scenario:

So, Sarah Palin's advisors decide that it is time for her to meet a bunch of serious world leaders. They head to Europe, where, first up, she has an appointment with the Pope. The Pope and some of his Cardinals invite her for a boat ride on the Tiber. As they are sitting in the gondola talking, a wind starts up and blows the Pope's hat into the water. Palin looks around and realizes that no one is going to do anything about it, so she calmy rises, takes off her her high heels, and steps off the side of the boat. Instead of diving into the water, however, she walks across it, to the hat, picks it up and walks back across the water to the boat. She climbs in, hands the Pope his hat and continues discussing whatever it was they had been talking about. The Cardinals are open mouthed in astonishment at what they have just seen.

The news media, in nearby boats are busy discussing among themselves how to report it. Headlines the next day at the New York Times, The Washington Post and the networks all blare: New Revelation: Sarah Palin Can't Swim.

Dennis Miller on the O'Reilly Factor

Hatin' Palin

Here's an important article to pass onto all those you know who H-A-T-E Sarah Palin. I know plenty of them and am embarrassed for each & every one of them.


Charles Krauthammer, besides being a gifted writer, feels that these haters are actually experiencing a phenomenon of self-loathing:

What's remarkable about the reaction to Palin is not only the unfavorable. It's the loathing, the absolute hatred that you hear, especially from intellectuals, feminists, sort of east coast, west coast, pointy headed [elites]. ... In Palin's case, I think what adds to it is her decision at her age with four other children to have a down syndrome child. This, too, as Joseph Epstein wrote, in feminist circles if abortion is not about this, what's it about?

And they look at her as sort of a back room — a backwater hick, who, for religious reasons, went ahead and had a child that they would never have.

Underneath it, I think, deep underneath it, I think it's a self-loathing on the part of these feminists, knowing that what she did is virtuous and a generous act that they would have never have undertaken. And her having undertaken it is an affront to them, a silent rebuke.