George Washington and Coltons Point - George and his Great Great Grandfather Slept here!!!

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Happy 283rd Birthday President Washington

I was sitting here on my front porch last February 22 in Coltons Point, Maryland looking out on the vast Potomac River flowing past on it's way to the Chesapeake Bay.  Imagine that right here 381 years ago a couple of ships full of English pilgrims arrived to settle the area.

It is late February and the temperature is 60 degrees.

Within eyesight across the river in Virginia you can see the birthplace of our most beloved President and Father of the Country, George Washington.  He was born there 283 years ago today.

Perhaps our most least understood president, against all odds he led the nation into declaring freedom in 1776 and fighting the powerful English during the Revolution.  Then this advocate of freedom and commander in chief of our military promptly retired.  He fought for the creation of a republic, not a parliament and a king like many wanted.

So he quit the military.  Then the people drafted him to be president and he presided over the birth of the strongest democracy in history.  After serving two terms, he again retired. There was no term limit and with his popularity George could have been president until his death but that wasn't the republic he sought.

One final act by the mysterious Founding Father was in his will of 1799 when he died.  It freed all the slaves on his plantation.  This was 64 years before our next most beloved President Abraham Lincoln enforced the Emancipation Proclamation and freed all slaves.

Long before George was born two of the daughters of Dr. Thomas Gerrard, the patriarch of St. Clements Manor (located in what is now Coltons Point), the original territory given by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore, were married to George Washington's great grandfather, John Washington, who lived just across the river.

In the old days if a married woman died and she had an unmarried sister, the sister married the widower.  Thus when George's great grandpa's first wife, Anne Pope died, he married Anne Gerrard. The second Anne also died before him so he married her unmarried sister Frances Gerrard.

Because George grew up across the river and the Washington and Gerrard families were on both sides of the river it is only logical to say George Washington Slept Here and mean it.

Happy birthday Mr.President.

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George Washington Slept Here!

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Happy 280th Birthday President Washington

I'm sitting here on my front porch on February 22 in Coltons Point, Maryland looking out on the vast Potomac River flowing past on it's way to the Chesapeake Bay.  Imagine that right here 378 years ago a couple of ships full of English pilgrims arrived to settle the area.

It is late February and the temperature is 60 degrees.

Within eyesight across the river in Virginia you can see the birthplace of our most beloved President and Father of the Country, George Washington.  He was born there 280 years ago today.

Perhaps our most least understood president, against all odds he led the nation into declaring freedom in 1776 and fighting the powerful English during the Revolution.  Then this advocate of freedom and commander in chief of our military promptly retired.  He fought for the creation of a republic, not a parliament and a king like many wanted.

So he quit the military.  Then the people drafted him to be president and he presided over the birth of the strongest democracy in history.  After serving two terms, he again retired.  There was no term limit and with his popularity George could have been president until his death but that wasn't the republic he sought.

One final act by the mysterious Founding Father was in his will of 1799 when he died.  It freed all the slaves on his plantation.  This was 64 years before our next most beloved President Abraham Lincoln enforced the Emancipation Proclamation and freed all slaves.

Long before George was born two of the daughters of Dr. Thomas Gerrard, the patriarch of St. Clements Manor (located in what is now Coltons Point), the original territory given by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore, were married to George Washington's great grandfather, John Washington, who lived just across the river.

In the old days if a married woman died and she had an unmarried sister, the sister married the widower.  Thus when George's great grandpa's first wife, Anne Pope died, he married Anne Gerrard. The second Anne also died before him so he married her unmarried sister Frances Gerrard.

Because George grew up across the river and the Washington and Gerrard families were on both sides of the river it is only logical to say George Washington Slept Here and mean it.

Happy birthday Mr.President.

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Sarah Palin Crashes National Gridiron Club - Five Blocks from White House

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Sarah Palin showed no fear in entering the belly of the beast when she shocked the Washington elite and agreed to be featured co-speaker at the National Gridiron Club, home of the nation's elite journalists in our nation's capitol.

Last Saturday she traveled to Washington, DC and joined fellow co-speaker Barney Frank, yes that Barney Frank, and won raving reviews for her series of one liners. Interest in Palin by the enemy camp was so great that the attendance doubled from normal and they even agreed to waive the normal rule that the talks were off the record so the many journalists could cover the speech.

Since the media were incapable of giving a full review of the speech, as the left leaners could not allow themselves to say too many nice things about Sarah, I am reprinting the entire text of her talk.

It was a new, confident and self assured Sarah Palin who stood before the gang who once said she was afraid to confront the major media of America. Enjoy...



Text of Remarks by ex-Gov. Sarah Palin to the Gridiron Club, Dec. 5, 2009:

Good evening. It’s great to be in Washington and I am loving the weather.

I braved the elements and went out for a jog! Or, as Newsweek calls it, a cover-shoot.

It’s a privilege to be here tonight at the Washington DC Barnes & Noble. Tonight, I'll be reading excerpts from my new book. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? “Going Rogue”

Yukon wasn’t sure if I’d go with that title and somebody suggested I follow the East Coast selfhelp trend and go with, “How To Look Like A Million Bucks…For Only 150 Grand.”

Todd liked, “The Audacity of North Slope.”

Hey, I considered not having a title at all.



I’ve said it before, but you Beltway types just don’t seem to get it. You don’t need a title to make an impact. But anyway, let’s get started. I’ll begin my first reading on Page 209.

It was pitch black when we touched down in Arizona late on August 27, 2008. The next morning we drove to John McCain’s ranch in Sedona. John was waiting on the porch. Before he can say a word, I tell him, I'm quoting now:

I know why I’m here, and I’m ready. But, I'm worried. The cost of credit protection for the largest U.S. banks is rising precipitously. Have you given any thought to the run on the entities in the parallel banking system? Do you realize the vulnerability created when these institutions borrow short term in liquid markets to invest long
term in illiquid assets?

John said, “You betcha!”

I thought, “You betcha?”

Who talks that way?

Well, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. When you don’t, you end up in places like this.

Who would have guessed that I’d be palling around with this group? At least now I can put a face to all the newspapers I read.

It is good to be here and in front of this audience of leading journalists and intellectuals. Or, as I call it, a death panel.

To be honest, I had some serious reservations about coming to visit your cozy little club. The Gridiron still hasn’t offered membership to anyone from my hometown paper in Wasilla, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley Frontiersman.

And my dad thought it was just a plain bad idea to leave the book tour for some football game. He might have a point!

I’ve been touring this great, great land of ours over the last few weeks. I have to say, the view is much better from inside the bus, than under it!

But really, I am thrilled to be with you. And I’d like to thank the Gridiron for the invitation and Dick Cooper for his introduction.

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, this has to be the most extraordinary collection of people who have gathered to viciously attack me since the last corporate gathering at CBS.

Despite what you have read, or more likely, despite what you have written, I do feel a real bond with all of you. I studied journalism, earned a communications degree and for a time only wanted to be a journalist. I was even a television sportscaster back home.

I’m guessing some of you probably got your start the exact same way… once there was television.

Let me get back to the book. I know that many of you are still upset because I wouldn’t play that silly Washington game. You know, the one where all of you read a book in its entirety, from the first page of the index to the last.

But think about it, because you actually had to read the whole book in the vein hope of finding your name, you now know all about Denali, mom, dad, ungulate eyeballs, slaying salmon on the Nushagak and Ugashik near Alegnigak, where we make AGOOTAK and moose chili! You’re welcome.

Still, I want to do something very special for this audience of Washington elite. So, I’ll read from the index--which I chose not to include in the hardback. Would you believe me if I said I didn’t include it because we wanted to save trees?

Under A we have…

Alaska, media not understanding. Pages 1-432.

Under B…

Biased media. Pages 1-432

And under C…

Conservative media. See acknowledgments.

I’ll stop there.



I know this can be a long night, and as I understand it, we’re going to break with a Gridiron tradition. Normally, the Democrat speaker would deliver a speech after me. But instead, John McCain’s campaign staff asked if they could use that time for a rebuttal.

A lot has been made of a few campaign relationships. The closeness. The warm fuzzy feelings. John and I both agree all those staffers should just move past it. It’s history.

Let’s just say, if I ever need a bald campaign manager, it appears all I’m left with is James Carville.

I don’t want to say that I’ve burned a bridge, but I know all about cancelling a bridge to nowhere.

That Democrat speaker I referred to is, of course, the one-and-only Barney Frank.

And I’m the controversial one?

Barney, the nation owes you and the government a debt. A huge, historic, unbelievable debt. But, it’s good to be here with you, Mr. Chairman.

Because by Chairman, I don’t just mean the House Financial Services Committee. As far as I can tell, Barney’s also the Chair of AIG, CITI, and the Bank of America.

I don’t want to say that the U.S. Government is taking over the role of the private sector, but I have to admit, on the flight here, thumbing through a magazine and looking at a photo of President Obama with the President of China, the person next to me pointed at it and said, “Hu’s a communist.”

I thought they were asking a question.

Still, when I see this administration in action, I can’t help think of what might have been. I could be the Vice President overseeing the signing of bailout checks. And Joe Biden would be on the road, selling his new book, "Going Rogaine."

Speaking of books….

Did I mention mine? “Going Rogue”

Makes a great stocking stuffer. Available now at a bookstore near you.

Hey, I have to pay for my campaign vetting bill somehow.

Really, the response has been great. So I’ll close by reading a final passage. Page 403:

I’ve been asked a lot lately, “Where are you going next?’

Good question!

Wherever I go I know that, as with anyone in the public eye, I’ll continue to have my share of disagreements with those in the media. Maybe even more than my share. It will come as no surprise that I don’t think I was always treated fairly, or equally.

But despite that, I respect the media very much. It’s important. A free press allows for vigorous debate! And that debate is absolutely vital for our democracy.

So as hard as it can sometimes be, we must all look past personal grievances. We must move beyond petty politics. And we must allow these incredibly talented and hard-working women and men to ask the hard questions and hold us, and our government, accountable.

Because their mission is as true as the sun rising over the Talkeetna and Susitna Mountains. OK – so none of that is actually in the book. Not a word. But I do believe it!

And I believe we live in a beautiful country blessed with so many different people who want the best for their children, families and for our great nation. I’m so proud to be an American.

And that is what I’ll be talking about when I travel to, really where I’m headed. No better place than here to announce where I’m going. I’m going to Iowa!

I’ll be there tomorrow from noon to 3:00 pm at the Barnes & Noble on Sergeant Road in Sioux City. Come early. Long lines are expected.

Thank you everyone. God Bless the U.S.A!




NEWS COVERAGE HIGHLIGHTS

THE WASHINGTON POST
TODAY'S NEWSPAPER

Sarah Palin in the belly of the beast: Washington

By Steve Holland
Reuters
Sunday, December 6, 2009; 1:07 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican firebrand Sarah Palin invaded the city she loves to hate on Saturday and rubbed shoulders with the herd of journalists she usually holds in disdain.

Palin was the guest speaker at the annual winter dinner of the Gridiron Club of leading Washington journalists -- a venue at which many potential presidential candidates have made an appearance, including Barack Obama a few years ago.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Sarah Palin: What she said at Gridiron dinner
By Dave Cook | 12.06.09

Sarah Palin served up 11-1/2 minutes of gentle gibes aimed at Democrats, the media, the McCain campaign, and herself during an appearance at Saturday evening’s Gridiron12 dinner in Washington.

Ms. Palin’s powerful impact as a cultural figure and potential future presidential candidate was much in evidence at the black tie event. The club’s winter dinner is usually a low key, off-the-record affair. This year’s dinner, featuring Palin and liberal Rep. Barney Frank (D) of Massachusetts as speakers, drew 190 journalists and spouses, an increase of 17.3 percent from the number who attended last year. The Gridiron Club’s members are veteran reporters and bureau chiefs.

In a nod to the intense media interest in Palin, the Gridiron Club’s board dropped a 100 year old rule – often violated – that comments made at the dinner were off the record and could not be reported. Instead, twittering was allowed, although not during speeches or songs. Palin tweets herself and noted in her dinner remarks that she had “the Twitter thing going.”

It's the way she tells them: Sarah Palin jokes with journalists

Former Alaksa governor mocks her reputation for foreign policy naivety at Washington dinner


THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Comedy Duo of Palin and Frank
By JACKIE CALMES

Sarah Palin may have some ‘splainin’ to do with the conservative fans on her book tour as word spreads of her partying Saturday night with the elites of the dread Mainstream Media. In her featured “roast,” the media types even got off easier than her former associates on the McCain campaign.

Sometimes you’ve got “to trust your instincts,” she told the group. “And when you don’t, you end up in a place like this.”

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate stopped in Washington to be the Republican speaker at the annual white-tie winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, the 124-year-old assemblage of veteran Washington reporters. She gamely appeared opposite Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, one of the capital’s funniest people.


THE GUARDIAN UK

Andrew Clark in New York
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 December 2009 15.20 GMT

The former Alaska governor Sarah Palin revealed a hitherto hidden capacity for self-parody when she delivered a string of quips at a dinner for journalists in Washington on Saturday, likening the event to appearing before a "death panel".

Palin – who became a deeply divisive figure in the US while campaigning as John McCain's vice-presidential running mate – joked to a gathering of the Gridiron Club about her reputation for foreign policy naivety.

"I came down from my hotel room and I could see the Russian embassy," she said – a play on a much-mocked election attempt to shore up her foreign policy expertise by remarking that Russia was visible from parts of Alaska.


THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

BY Andrew Malcolm

POLITICS AND COMMENTARY, COAST TO COAST, FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Sarah Palin speech: The view's better from inside the bus than under it
December 5, 2009 | 8:08 pm

The lines began forming Saturday morning outside the Sioux Falls Barnes & Noble bookstore, fully 35 hours before former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was to arrive there to sign her new book, "Going Rogue."

But the mother of five was far from South Dakota tonight. In fact, she was only about a half-dozen blocks from the White House that she didn't help John McCain win.

Palin appeared in a brand-new role for the possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate -- joke-teller as the GOP's representative at the annual winter Gridiron Dinner, a 124-year-old group of Washington writers and guests who hold such regular opportunities for political writers to mingle with the power people who really matter.

Speakers there -- past ones have included someone named Barack Obama -- are intentionally funny -- or trying to be, anyway -- and usually off the record.

But an exception allowing news coverage was made tonight given the intense interest in Palin, who attracted about twice the usual dinner crowd.

And she appeared to succeed better than her Democratic counterpart, Rep. Barney Frank. It was a refreshingly different look at Palin, who's more often quoted as a media scold and harsh critic of what's-his-name in the White House.

Palin, whose intelligence has been widely challenged by many in her audience, said she....
...was pleased to appear before an elite audience of intellectual heavyweights: "Or as I like to call it, a death panel."


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Thanksgiving 2009 - When Did This American Tradition Start?

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a national holiday, yet many people have no idea of the history of the holiday. Those of you living around Coltons Point should know this history as it began around the colonial days, exactly 155 years after the colonists landed here, the oldest continuous settlement in the original thirteen colonies.



Now not to overlook the Spaniards, they did hold some form of Thanksgiving celebrations in Saint Augustine in 1565, then San Elceario (near today's El Paso) but neither was part of the original colonies. In 1619 Virginia colonists held such a feast and in 1621 the Plymouth, Massachusetts colonists held such a feast but this was before the founding of the nation and they were not annual traditions.



After the founding of the United States the first holiday was declared by President George Washington, a religious feast to thank the "providence of Almighty God" for his help. Still, it was not designated a national holiday but states were encouraged to participate.



Of course George was born directly across the river from Coltons Point and when younger he walked this area as a surveyor.



George Washington

As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the following proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.



The national holiday came during the darkest hours of the Civil War when Lincoln was president. The year was 1863, and it was the bloodiest days of the Civil War. It followed the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg and Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg to honor the most soldiers killed in one battle in our history, Lincoln, heartbroken by what he had seen at Gettysburg, may have used Thanksgiving as a time to give the people to reflect and hope. He was not a publicly religious man, but he used his Thanksgiving proclamation to find humility and gratitude, and to remember how richly blessed we as a nation really were despite everything. His proclamation was one of the first times he used strong religious overtones in his public speech.



Abraham Lincoln

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.



I hope you all join me in Thanksgiving, honoring the Almighty God as Washington and Lincoln told us, and honoring our sons and daughters around the world defending our right to be free.



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