Boudica Has Returned!

I have always been intrigued by history. In studying history, we can learn an awful lot about who we are and what we can be. I was recently reminded of Boudica, the Celtic Warrier Queen who lived during the period of the Roman occupation of the Isle of Britain.

Boudica's husband controlled a wide swath of the county of Norfolk, then populated by people known as the Iceni. When Boudica's husband died, as a Roman sympathizer, he bequeathed his holdings to both the Roman empire and his family. The Romans ignored the king's wishes regarding his family and seized his entire estate. They raped his daughters and flogged his wife, Boudica.

In time, Boudica re-grouped and led a large uprising against the Roman occupiers, destroying and pillaging London in the process. Though ultimately defeated by a superior Roman military, Boudica is still revered in England, with prominent statues erected in her honor. My family, in fact, traces their lineage back to her, for her offspring lived on.

So, you say, what could this possibly have to do with Sarah Palin?

Sarah was selected as the heir imprimatur of the Republican ticket in 2008. Taking up this position as the second-in-command, she was the primary benefactor of McCain's run for President, the Boudica of her king's fortune. After having died (politically) in his run for President, Sarah was flogged (metaphorically) in the mainstream media and her daughters were raped in the left-wing blogoshere and nationally on the David Letterman show.

Sarah has now regained her strength and begun to reassert herself. She now has the opportunity to build an army to respond to her detractors and diminish those who seek to defeat her principles and ours.

One thing is different, however, that suggests an alternative fate than that suffered by Boudica. Sarah has access to the very best army imaginable: the army of conservative America. As opposed to Boudica's following, this army has NEVER faced an opponent it has not defeated. It is just waiting to be awakened and led.

(Originally posted on Generational Dysfunction September 25, 2009)

Sarah Palin: The Businessman vs. the Bureaucrat

One of the things Sarah Palin promised America was the support of solid, common sense Conservatives who would help lead this country back to prosperity and the Rule of Law. To that end, Sarah has endorsed a fine man from Pennsylvania who is running is a special election for Congress.

Meet Tim Burns:

The Businessman vs. the Bureaucrat

In a year when Americans are desperate for job growth and frustrated with the reckless spending in Washington, the candidates running in the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District epitomize the problem and the solution. It’s a race between a career Washington bureaucrat and a small business entrepreneur.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania’s beautiful 12th district, Tim Burns’ story is like that of millions of successful small business owners across the country. He started a pharmaceutical technology company out of the basement of his house and grew it to over 400 employees. He worked hard and gave back generously to his community, in part by starting a charity to help children with special needs. In his spare time, he’s a "hockey dad" coaching his sons’ team. Last year, he attended a local tea party and spoke passionately about the danger that the policies coming out of Washington pose for small business owners like him. Reflecting on that day, Tim said, "I had not considered running until after the tea parties, but I decided that I owed it to my two children, who are 14 and 12, to do something. We’re in a fight for the very life of our country."

Tim spent his professional life building a business from scratch that employed Pennsylvanians, and now he would like to bring his common sense pro-free market message to Washington. I’m proud to offer my support to Tim Burns in his campaign to bring real job creation to Pennsylvania’s 12th district. Please join me in supporting his campaign. Visit Tim’s website here, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

It’s been said many times this year that America is at a crossroads, and the decision we make in November will decide the course of our children’s future. The choice in Pennsylvania’s 12th district couldn’t be more obvious. Let’s send the job-creator to Washington to get this economy moving again.

- Sarah Palin

This are the sort of experienced, principled, common sense leader we need in Washington. Please show your support for Tim!

What is a Trailblazer?

I've been baffled as to why Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty aren't out in front of the many issues the Tea Parties are railing against. Sure, they've given speeches at "conservative-friendly" rallies like CPAC or the SRLC, but what about in the mainstream media? All three seem to be missing.

I've often wondered why they don't engage in the issues the way that Sarah Palin does. And then it hit me..they don't have to.

Sarah is running interference for them.

She is the one taking on the issues and speaking out about them. She is the one that responds to all the new Obama initiatives in real time. She is the only one that dares to opine about the latest "scandal" in Washington.

She is the trailblazer.

She is Kit Carson, she is Jim Bridger, she is Daniel Boone, she is Amelia Earhart, she is, quite simply, a trailblazer.

She is leading the charge into the belly of the beast and she is alone in her efforts. Although she knows this, she is not afraid to step out into the forefront of public opinion. She's confident, articulate and, perhaps, naive. She thinks that other prominent Republicans will follow her lead, but I see no such thing. Her Alaskan roots define her as her opponents' Eastern roots define them. She is Andrew Jackson, raised on the simplicity of life in Alaska.

I remember a question once posed to me by a high school teacher. "How do you know a trailblazer when you see one?" I didn't know the answer. He answered by saying that some suggest that a trailblazer is the one laying in the trail, dead, with arrows in his chest. "Wow", I said, "how weird is that?" The teacher went on to explain. "Trailblazers will always be in your midst, but they may be careless and ignorant. They may die as you follow them. The true trailblazer is one that is a survivor and learns the way without taking the arrows".

He went on: "The dead trailblazer is just a pawn to the leader. He shields his master from taking the first blow, and often dies as a result. He is exalted for his heroism and often becomes an icon. The truth is that he died in the service of someone else. His sacrifice is noteworthy only as a footnote in his leader's success."

Sarah Palin is taking the arrows for the Republican Party. She is the only one responding to Obama. I have no doubt that Romney and friends consider her an "expendable" commodity. They will sit back and watch while she takes on the media and Obama administration with the hopes that she'll end up a dead icon. They think that they'll sweep in and harvest her efforts. I think otherwise.

I consider myself a leader, but I'll follow Sarah Palin anywhere. She's not only a trailblazer, she's a survivor.

She was considered dead after the 2008 election, but she lived on. She was considered a fool for resigning the governorship of Alaska, but her voice has grown stronger. She's been subjected to ridicule on countless levels, but she's the darling of the Tea Party movement.

She's a true trailblazer AND a leader. I'll follow her to the gates of Hell, because I know she is a God-fearing survivor!

Cross-posted on Generational Dysfunction

Sarah Palin Testifies In Knoxville As The FBI Details An Elaborate Coverup By Defendant In The E-Mail Hacking Case

Sarah Palin was in Knoxville Friday morning giving testimony in the trial against David Kernell, the son of longtime Tennessee democrat legislator Big Mike Kernell, who is charged with hacking into her e-mail account during the 2008 presidential campaign.

From the Associated Press:

Sarah Palin testified Friday about the disruption and hurt caused when her e-mail account was hacked during the 2008 presidential campaign and said outside court that there should be consequences for what happened.

She declined to say if she thinks conviction of the 22-year-old defendant should lead to prison or if community service would be punishment enough. "That’s up to the judge," she said when she stopped to talk to reporters outside the courthouse.

Former University of Tennessee student David Kernell, the 22-year-old son of a Democratic state lawmaker, is charged with hacking the Yahoo! e-mail account as Palin campaigned in 2008 as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Kernell faces up to 50 years in federal prison if convicted of identity theft, mail fraud and two other felony charges. His lawyer has said the case is a prank and Kernell had no criminal intent.

Asked outside the courtroom if she thought the charges against Kernell were excessive, Palin said, "I don’t know, but I do think there should be consequences for bad behavior."

As Palin walked to the witness stand, some jurors smiled at her. The first question from Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle was, "May I call you Governor Palin?"

The former Alaska governor smiled almost constantly through 30 minutes of testimony as she told jurors about the disruption the hacking caused for her family and close friends when their e-mails and phone numbers were publicized on the Internet.

The posting of family photos and e-mails on the web fueled rumors that Palin and her husband had affairs and that her youngest child, Trig, was not really her son, she said in court.

Palin's husband, Todd, sat in the courtroom as she testified. Their daughter, Bristol, told jurors earlier this week that she got harassing calls and text messages after screen shots of e-mail from the account revealed her cell phone number. A former Palin aide also described receiving vulgar e-mails.

Kernell isn't accused of the harassment, but prosecutors say he broke into Palin's e-mail account in September 2008 by correctly providing her birth date and ZIP code and correctly answering that she met her husband in Wasilla, Alaska.

Kernell's attorney, Wade Davies, argued the password was obtained using information that was publicly available, including where she met her husband.

"It wasn't a secret to me," Palin said. "I don't know if the rest of the world knew it or not."

After the e-mail was hacked, prosecutors said Kernell bragged about it in obscenity-laced Internet postings. An FBI computer forensics specialist and other witnesses testified about photos of the Palin children and a reference to Bristol as "the prego one."

You can read more and see more video here.

Sarah  talked to the media after testifying:








Stacy Drake has coverage of Sarah’s appearance with Greta Van Susteren where Sarah discusses the trial as well as the tough new Arizona law against illegal immigration. You can see that here.


Meanwhile, an FBI computer forensics expert, Agent Stephen McFall, testified before the court on Thursday about the lengths Kernell went through to cover up his crime.

The FBI probe was stymied by a series of steps authorities allege defendant David Kernell took to cover his tracks, including deleting from the computer material gleaned from Palin's account, clearing his Internet history on one web browser, uninstalling another browser and running a Windows tool designed to speed a computer up by overwriting space occupied by deleted files.

A while back we wrote there was a lot more to this case than just some dumb college kid messing around. David Kernell was most definitely looking for a political advantage he could then pass on to the Obama campaign. It must be noted that his father, again a long time Tennessee legislator, was a very active member of the Obama campaign’s Tennessee team.

Most will remember this crime occurred at the same time noted Palin stalker, and cleavage monitor, Andree McLeod, was working overtime trying to get the courts to give her access to the very same e-mail account that Kernell successfully hacked. McLeod was soon joined by the "Official DNC Blogger for Alaska" and Alaska Mafia © member, Linda Kellen Biegel who, in a separate effort, used questionable methods to raise money in an scheme to gain access to the account and it’s contents.

McLeod, Biegel, and other operatives from the Obama regime alleged that Sarah was using her personal Yahoo account to conduct official state business. Despite multiple filings of bogus ethics complaints by McLeod, who continues to file, now against former Palin staff, the ethics boards and courts have all sided With Sarah. Doesn’t stop the crazies from trying though. And make no mistake about it, these are some world class crazies.

The sweet irony in all of this is the fact that Kernell, by illegally gaining access and illegally publishing the contents of Sarah’s account all over the world wide web, has made Sarah’s case for her, and proven there was nothing questionable about her personal e-mail account. No state business was conducted on her personal account, as alleged.

From Reagan to Palin:

* A forensic probe of the computer a University of Tennessee student allegedly used to illegally snoop through former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s private e-mail account presented jurors Thursday with a study in contrasts.

* David C. Kernell deleted everything he took from the account but left intact what amounted to a confession of his foray into the account.

* He posted a password on an Internet discussion site and urged others to use it but minutes later tried to block them from doing so and declared himself a "dip (expletive)" for making the password public.

*He "defragmented" the hard drive, which served to overwrite some deleted information, but never sought to reformat it, which would have effectively wiped it clean.

Jurors in the Federal courtroom on Thursday took a journey via FBI Agent Stephen McFall’s forensic autopsy through the computer activity on Kernell’s laptop in September 2008 when the then 20-year-old UT economics major allegedly managed to Google his way past Yahoo! security measures and change the password on Palin’s private account to get inside it.

At the time, Palin had been tapped as running mate to Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign, and national media were alleging Palin used the private e-mail account to keep gubernatorial business from the public’s prying eyes.

Federal prosecutors Greg Weddle and Mark Krotoski on Thursday zeroed in on one of four felony charges Kernell faces – obstruction of the FBI’s probe. They sent Kernell friend Benjamin Reed to the witness stand to recount how Kernell worried the FBI was on his trail and openly pondered the merits of reformatting his hard drive.

But the crux of their obstruction case came from testimony by McFall, a computer expert so skilled he was tapped to help organize the FBI’s elite Computer Analysis and Response Team, or CART.

McFall said his probe was stymied by a series of steps authorities allege Kernell took to cover his tracks, including deleting from the computer material gleaned from Palin’s account, clearing his Internet history on one Web browser, uninstalling another browser and running a Windows tool designed to speed a computer up by overwriting space occupied by deleted files.

"Uninstalling (software) and deleting a bunch of files and photos, then defragmenting, makes it a whole lot (tougher)" to reconstruct whatever evidence the laptop contained, he said.

But McFall did get a probe assist from an unexpected source – a nasty virus hiding on the used laptop Kernell’s aunt and uncle gave him to use in his UT studies. "It’s designed to collect a lot of different data (including) banking and finance data," he said. The "malware" created a log of much of Kernell’s Internet activity, he said. "The log file was capturing, almost like a surveillance camera, the activities that were going on," he said.

Prosecutors used McFall’s testimony to paint a portrait of a self-described "Obamacrat" bent on derailing the Republican campaign who tried to cover his tracks when the illegal access went public. But defense attorney Wade Davies used it to try to advance his contention the high-profile e-mail compromise was nothing more than a college prank spurred by curiosity and carried out by an immature student with less-than-savvy computer skills.

For instance, Davies noted in cross-examination that Kernell did not delete a draft of an Internet post in which he boasted of the ease with which he cracked the account. "I am the (discussion board) lurker who did it, and I would like to tell the story," the file read.

Davies also pointed out that minutes after Kernell posted the new password he set for the account on that same discussion board, McFall’s laptop probe shows he tried to change it again in an effort so frantic he made a series of sloppy mistakes that kept him from doing so. He also highlighted to jurors a Facebook chat with Reed in which Kernell wrote that he "posted the pass(word) like a dip (expletive)."

Make no mistake about it, what this kid has done is no less serious than the Watergate break-in. While no physical buildings were broke into, the results were the same, this kid accessed Sarah’s personal files in an attempt to derail the McCain-Palin presidential campaign.

Worse yet, thanks to the actions of this loser, many of Sarah’s staff and friends, as well has her family, had their lives disrupted, and their secrets published for the whole world to see. This was an incredible violation of Sarah’s life and the lives of those close to her. .

Kernell, if convicted is facing as many as 50 years in prison. Some may find that harsh. Let me remind you: G.Gordon Liddy was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $40,000 fine for his part in the Watergate affair, and he wasn’t even one of those who actually broke into the DNC offices.

I doubt Kernell will get 50 years, but a strong sentence is needed in a case like this to send a message to others who would attempt this sort of nonsense. It’s just sad that no one is pursuing the connection to the Obama regime. This could very well be Obama’s Watergate.

Bristol Palin ad campaign receives positive response

Bristol Palin, one of the nation’s most famous teen moms, recently made an appearance in a highly publicized public service announcement for The Candie’s Foundation. The spot, entitled “Pause Before You Play” depicts Bristol and her two-year-old toddler Tripp, showing montages of  Sarah Palin’s 2008 run as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Bristol asks the question in the ad: “What if I didn’t come from a famous family?”

Neil Cole, the founder of the Candie's Foundation says the response to the ad campaign has been positive.

"Over the past week, I have received hundreds of emails in response to the ad campaign. The people who have a personal experience with teen pregnancy - either themselves, a family member, or as part of a program - were nearly unanimous in their appreciation," said Cole. "In a typical response, one teen mom said, "I'm so glad you're getting the word out about teen pregnancy. I'm 17 years old and have a two month old. I've had to take myself out of school for months and am having trouble finding daycare so I can go back. This is definitely not how I pictured my life. Young people need to know the reality."

Cole went on to point out that although Bristol Palin is similar and different from most teen moms in this country, the ability to tap into the voice of a teen mom with a platform has propelled the issue into national dialogue with striking force.

"This ad campaign is not about politics, religion, or abstinence versus contraception. (For the record, The Candie's Foundation supports both.) It is about preventing teen pregnancy," Cole said. "Children need and deserve parents who are emotionally and financially stable. There is nothing ideological about that. Just ask a teen mom."



Read more articles by the National Sarah Palin Examiner at Examiner.com

Sarah Palin Interview: Will Pursue A Presidential Bid In 2012

Governor Sarah Palin keeps the door wide open to a White House run! In an interview The Governor said she "doesn't know politically what is next for me."  Governor Palin said she will "pursue" a 2012 presidential bid if she decides it's the best way to help the American people with their challenges.

Sarah Palin said her and her family have had an "exciting and full ride" since the 2008 Novermber election. Travels all over America have given her a glimpse of some of the struggles and the greatness of regular Americans.

"If I can help provide some encouragement, some inspiration, some hope for them to get through their battles and make good decisions and get through a challenge, because that's what we've been able to do, then I am going to stay focused on that," 

"Whether that's on a local level in my own little town of Wasilla, or in the Oval Office, if it's right, then we will pursue that."

"I do believe that it is a wise thing for us to put our lives in our Creator's hands," she said. "I put my life into God's hands and say, I'm going to do the best that I can every day to bring positive change to people that perhaps need some help. Need opportunity, too."

"That's what I'm going to do, day to day, not necessarily knowing what will bring to my family, to my country, to my life, in the next year, two years, three years down the road," she added.

Sarah Palin 2012 Response At 1:16

Sources:

CNN: Palin on 2012: 'If it's right, then we will pursue that'

Conservatives4Palin: Sneak Peak from Sarah Palin's Interview with Connie Smith

(Full Interview) Always Good News With Connie Smith

Original Post:

Citizen Palin 4 President: Sarah Palin Interview: Will Pursue A Presidential Bid In 2012

Palin reacts to Graham's dis-invite

The Army recently rescinded its invitation to Evangelist Franklin Graham for the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer service on May 6 amid complaints from Muslim members of the military about previous comments Graham made about the Islam religion.

Sarah Palin, who visited the Graham family in November during her highly publicized book tour, spoke out on Friday morning on her Facebook page.

"It’s truly a sad day when such a fine patriotic man, whose son is serving on his fourth deployment in Afghanistan to protect our freedom of speech and religion, is dis-invited from speaking at the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service," Palin said.

After the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Graham said Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion." In a later op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, Graham wrote that he did not believe Muslims were evil because of their faith, but "as a minister ... I believe it is my responsibility to speak out against the terrible deeds that are committed as a result of Islamic teaching."

Army spokesman Gary Tallman told Fox News on Wednesday that Graham's "presence at the event may be taken by some as inappropriate for a government agency."

Palin questioned, "Are we really so hyper-politically correct that we can’t abide a Christian minister who expresses his views on matters of faith? What a shame."

Palin recalled having Rev. Franklin Graham speak at her Governor's Prayer Breakfasts and said she was honored.

"His good work in Alaska’s Native villages and his charitable efforts all over the world stem from his servant’s heart," Palin added. "In my years of knowing him, I’ve never found his tempered and biblically-based comments to be offensive – in fact his words have been encouraging and full of real hope."

Read more articles by the National Sarah Palin Examiner at Examiner.com