What and Where in the World is the Coltons Point Times?

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It is a question I get occasionally and since there are so many new readers I want to address it. We are the only newspaper in the oldest continuously lived in chartered settlement in the colonial United States. Yes, older than Jamestown, older than Plymouth and older than St. Mary's City, places most people think of as the oldest. If you are not familiar with US history, the three places I mentioned all ceased to exist by the 1690's. That means we existed 142 years before our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and went to war with England.


St. Clements Island just offshore from Coltons Point was the landing site for 321 colonists on two tiny ships, the Ark and the Dove, in 1634 and the area has been lived in ever since. It is also the first place in the world with religious freedom as the first English charter guaranteed religious toleration. We are also the site of the first landing of Roman Catholics, first Mass performed in the colonies, first Jesuit priests and the first colony to live peacefully with the Native Americans. If that isn't enough we are the site where the first relic from the True Cross of Jesus came to America and miracles were performed with it.


We are a quiet village of about 250 people on the Potomac River just before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay where the Potomac is seven miles wide. Though we are only 60 miles from Washington, DC there are no governments, no police, no traffic lights, no street lights, no sidewalks, no water, no sewer, no gas lines, no churches, no city hall, no fire department, no sirens, no bureaucrats of any kind and not much of anything in the way of commercial development. We value freedom and independence above all else. This year we celebrated our 375th anniversary although there was no ceremony.


None of that has anything to do with the Coltons Point Times (CPT) except I happen to live here. Before I found myself in Coltons Point about eight years ago I had lived in Iowa, Arizona, Nebraska, California, Washington, DC, Virginia, New Jersey and Kentucky. In addition I had worked several years in New York City and Nashville.


I've done so many things my resume defies belief including newspaper reporting, NYC advertising, politics (32 federal, state and local campaigns), working for presidents, governors, senators, congressmen, mayors, inventing green energy products in the 1970's (or before Gore), working for Democrats, Republicans and Independents, in computer security, writing (newspaper, books and songs), recording music and cancer research to name a few things.


Perhaps that is why the CPT seems to cover a lot of national and international issues. It may also explain why an online newspaper in one of the smallest villages in the USA has had over 110,000 readers this year. The last time I checked we had readers from 96 different nations, all 50 states and Washington, DC.


In the United States after Maryland our top 25 states by rank include California, Texas, New York, Florida, Virginia, Louisiana, Washington, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Tennessee, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Indiana.


International CPT readers by rank are the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, India, Spain, Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, Brazil, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Turkey, Norway, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Malaysia and South Africa along with 71 other nations.


The top cities where we are read outside of Maryland include St. Catharine's, Ontario Canada #1, Mountain View, CA (Silicon Valley), Washington, DC, London, England, NYC, Alexandria, VA, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Houston, Bridgeport, CT, Nashville, Chicago and Paris, France.


Our mission is to tell the truth, be an independent voice, share interesting material with our readers and help keep you informed with the inside information on government, politics, science, health, housing, music and a whole bunch of other stuff. When the world stage gets boring we offer a little history and local color that may be of interest. We want to keep the news makers from politicians to news media, Wall Street to the Middle East honest and that has been a lot of work lately.


You may have noticed we are about the last newspaper on the internet to NOT allow those frustrating ads, banners, pop ups, video ads and all the other things created to track and annoy you. We do not require you to register because you have enough people already spying on you. I encourage you to check through our online archives as many stories are updated over time such as the House of Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and personalities like Obama.


Our national and international news distribution service reports that CPT articles hold the top three spots for most popular political stories of the year, four of the top ten political stories, seven of the top 20 political stories, and one CPT article on the Rothschilds and international finance is the 14th most viewed article of all time in all categories. They distribute hundreds of articles a day.


Reader comments are encouraged and responses will be given if needed. You can even ask me to email you privately in your comment and I will not post your email for the world to see. I have responded in numerous languages although the translations might be a little rough.


Since we do not accept advertising or do our own advertising people find us through searches for issues and images as we often have pretty entertaining photos and cartoons with our stories. You can set up an RSS news feed to your home page to get the latest headlines on articles I post.


Word of mouth is our strongest means of exposure and we would greatly appreciate it if you would tell your friends, family and associates about us and give them the site. Most search engines like Google can easily locate us by searching for the Coltons Point Times or you can click on: http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/ to directly connect.


We appreciate having you in our family and hope you check in for the latest news often. Thank you.

Jim Putnam, Publisher

Al Gore versus Sarah Palin - The Great Hot Air Debate

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America's most prominent conservationists squared off this week over Climategate and the future of global warming as Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, yes that same paper who made it a goal of wrecking her career, about the flaws with global warming and in particular the new disclosures that key scientists were making up statistics to prove humans cause global warming.

Of course Al Gore is the celebrated former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has continued to fool the news media as even today Andrea Mitchell, the NBC reporter who seems to think Gore can do no wrong and Palin no right, admiringly referred to Gore in an interview as former vice president and current environmentalist.



Has Andrea even read the flurry of articles about how Gore hijacked the global warming movement along with Goldman Sachs and turned it into a cash cow for lining his own pockets? Just this week Gore was booed out of a meeting in Ohio when he began pontificating about the cap and trade bill that will make him a billionaire. He's already a multi-millionaire as he made $100 million since losing the presidential race a couple of elections ago.

Fact is Mr. Gore may be the biggest loser ever for president as he converted his loss into being the $100 million environmental king to the liberals of the world. Did he tell the environmentalists and conservationists out on the front lines that he created a couple of investment funds that control the stock of most emerging green companies and stands to make billions of dollars if Obama can get the cap and trade bill through congress?



Seems the Jolly Green Giant didn't like Sarah Palin taking aim at his cherished movement and the lying scientists who made him rich so thanks to Andrea Mitchell who never misses a chance to make Palin look bad, she reported Gore blasted back calling Palin a "Denier" and claiming evidence over the past 20 years proves the Earth is warming.



The new Sarah Palin has a grasp of issues heretofore unknown to leftist liberals like Mr. Gore, she actually stands up for what she believes and has no intention of taking it from opportunists like Big Al. Politico's Andy Barr reported her response this morning.

From Politico

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hit back at former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday for calling her a global warming “denier.”

Speaking to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday, Gore criticized an op-ed Palin wrote for the Washington Post calling on President Barack Obama to boycott the global climate change conference in Copenhagen.

“The deniers are persisting in an era of unreality. The entire North Polar ice cap is disappearing before our eyes,” Gore said. “What do they think is happening?”

“It's a principle in physics,” Gore said of climate change. “It's like gravity, it exists.”



Palin took to her Facebook page late Wednesday to respond to Gore.

“Perhaps he’s right. Climate change is like gravity – a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it,” Palin wrote. “However, he’s wrong in calling me a ‘denier.’ As I noted in my op-ed above and in my original Facebook post on Climategate, I have never denied the existence of climate change. I just don’t think we can primarily blame man’s activities for the earth’s cyclical weather changes.”

Palin then turned her response to the so-called “Climategate” story as evidence that scientific findings are “flawed, falsified, or inconclusive.”



“Former Vice President Gore also claimed today that the scientific community has worked on this issue for 20 years, and therefore it is settled science,” Palin wrote. “Well, the Climategate scandal involves the leading experts in this field, and if Climategate is proof of the larger method used over the past 20 years, then Vice President Gore seriously needs to consider that their findings are flawed, falsified, or inconclusive.”

“Vice President Gore, the Climategate scandal exists,” she added. “You might even say that it’s sort of like gravity: you simply can’t deny it.”

End of Politico article.



Since when did Al Gore find it necessary to attack Sarah Palin. Well, did you know Andrea Mitchell's environmentalist also owns his own television network? Did you know he also flies a private jet wherever he goes? A private jet, some environmentalist.

Gore's TV network has been viciously attacking Sarah Palin since going on the air recently as it seems she stands as a threat to expose his secret Wall Street partnerships and his Fat Cat status. They even have a cartoon about Palin called "The Stupid Virus".

In the Al Gore cartoon about Palin they call Sarah a Twilf, to demonstrate how Gore has a grasp of the Urban Dictionary texting age. What does it mean you might ask? Well probably not what you might expect from our former vice president and presidential hopeful.

According to the Urban Dictionary, Twift mean "one who farts in the bathtub and bites the bubbles." Other Internet sources claim it means a "disgraceful, sexually-charged epithet". That is the mindset of our former VP and nation's environmentalist.

When the liberal media complains about the hostile and downright nasty political environment in current politics they must be talking about the Al Gore's of the world and their juvenile, even mean spirited attacks on people like Sarah Palin who are just trying to defend the people with no voice in Washington.

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Liberals Choke on Own Words as Sarah Palin Catches Obama in Polls

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For well over a year the liberal media has been trying to complete the destruction of Sarah Palin in the eyes of the public with one of the meanest, most vicious attempts at political assassination ever undertaken in America. In spite of this, Sarah has steadily moved up to a 46% national approval rating while Obama has collapsed from 68% to 46-48% national approval in various polls this week.



It seems every couple of months they believe they have finally put her to rest for good. First it was after the Kate Couric interview, then when her daughter became pregnant, and once more when McCain lost the election. To make sure she was finished they had a bunch of ethics charges brought against her in Alaska even after the election.



Then they smeared her through Levi Johnston, the father of her grandchild. When Palin resigned as governor the media thought she was finally six feet under. But this gun toting mother from the back woods of Alaska has more lives than Felix, Garfield, Sylvester and Morris combined.



Sarah needed money to fight back, or reload as her father described it, and reload she did as her recent book tour once again established her as the pre-eminent people's choice to oppose the liberal or socialist agenda of Barack Obama.



This time, when the media turned on the book, the public sent a message loud and clear to the citadels of elitist journalism by making Sarah the runaway best selling political writer in history with over 1 million book sales the first week and a remarkable climb in the national approval polls.



Today one of the most amazing resurrection acts in centuries was completed when Sarah caught up in the favorable polls with the President of the United States, the poster boy for the extreme liberals, The Chosen One for the elitist media, Barack Obama.



As Obama continues his 22 point collapse in the polls Palin continues her 8 point rise in the polls and waves as she watches him pass by. Every day Palin wipes out more of the memories of the media pasting she took during the campaign, a slaughter that could have been prevented if McCain aides would have come to her rescue and let her lead the defense.



Instead they silenced her, kept her away from the media, and refused to let her appear on national shows except for the highly rated appearance on Saturday Night Live where she was a solid hit. Now Palin does not have a campaign gagging her and fight back she is demonstrating once and for all that she is a viable representative and spokesperson for a huge number of Americans.



Contrary to what the elitist media would have you believe, she is smart on the issues, charming with the press and tuned into the hearts of America. If anyone had a right to run against the media it was Palin but she forgave them. Being a journalism graduate and journalist herself, she knows the importance of being able to reach people through the media.



Sarah embraced the very people who expended every ounce of energy in their being to destroy her career. She appeared on Oprah, with Barbara Walters, and gave numerous interviews to people she had not been allowed to speak with during the campaign. This past weekend she even went into the "belly of the beast" according to the Los Angeles Times and gave a hilarious speech before the Gridiron Club in Washington, DC, the more than century old club of the most influential journalists in America. An op-ed piece by Palin appeared in the Washington Post this week. Even MSNBC has defended her lately.



Slowly but surely, as her poll numbers continue to move up the stories about Palin have become increasingly fair and unbiased. Only an industry insider would understand how to bring about such a radical change in the highly charged political atmosphere that exists. Make no mistake, she is a media pro and with three years to go before the next election, she stands once again as a monumental problem for the Obama gang whose propensity for demeaning, distorting and destroying opponents seems to have backfired with Sarah.



The Chicago thugs seem to have met their match with the gun toting, corruption fighting, people's pick from Alaska who never wavers from her core beliefs of religion, life, liberty, family values and populism, and does not run from the fight of her life, taking on the old boys network and establishment in our nation's capitol and on Wall Street.

Obama the Wizard of Washington - A Master Illusionist

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Since Obama just came to the realization that while he pursues the agenda of Wall Street payoffs, of international adulation, and of institutional socialism, the people of America now know he is totally out of touch with Main Street. A year after being elected he finally realized that jobs, the economy and the deficit are the people's priorities if not his.

This week he made a feeble effort to show his concern for the economy but before the week had ended he showed his true colors when was off to Oslo to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize then off to Copenhagen to commit America to global warming initiatives designed more to pad liberal pockets than benefit the people.

Obama is the first person in history to win the Peace Prize the same time he was ordering a massive expansion in the War in Afghanistan. This is the same president who consistently blasted former President Bush for the war in Iraq, then Obama declared Iraq stabilized and withdrew American troops from the front lines. This week over 131 people were killed in five bombings within the supposedly secure Bagdad capitol.

Since the Obama troop withdraw from populated areas ordered by Obama on June 30 the Iraqi people have been faced with a bloodbath. In the entire war 94,500 Iraqi citizens have been killed, over 1243 in Bagdad alone this year. The US military has suffered about 4,367 total deaths in Iraq. As of this writing there are still about 124,000 troops in Iraq.



That it a precursor of the illusion being proffered by the Obama gang to bury the truth in a fog making it impossible to know what is really being done. When it comes to the economy and jobs, the truth is far more limited and self-serving than one might expect of the president of all the people.

Several types of people seem to dominate the Obama White House and work for the Chicago gang. There are the academic intellectuals, the social activists, the special interests and the Wall Street protectors. In terms of experience and understanding of the economy, those that do understand it have an agenda far removed from the public interest. The activists and special interests, on the other hand, seem only concerned with expanding their base, power and control of resources at the expense of everyone else.

Take for example his team of economic advisors. They have several decades of experience manipulating the American economy and regulation of the economy to benefit the banks and bank executives, using the environmental "green" advocates not because of the benefits to humanity but because they represent the most lucrative market for return on investment, the labor unions who have already benefitted from multiple Obama executive orders to force labor wages on all government work at the federal and state levels, and the socialists who often hate the very institution (US government) paying their inflated salaries.

No small businessmen, people with experience creating jobs in the public and private sector, nor people who believe we are spending ourselves into a cycle of self-destruction are part of the Obama team. They would be a roadblock to the socialist agenda of the Obama gang.



Yesterday Obama said he would take a couple of hundred billion dollars not being used in the TARP program and spend it on his new jobs initiatives. At the same time he pledged to attack the problem of reducing the spiraling deficit.

Okay, the TARP money is all deficit financed. If he takes the money paid back by the banks and applies it to the deficit that is nice. If he takes the money not spent yet and uses it to finance the feeble jobs program that is not saving money, it is still adding to the deficit.



The economic logic of the White House seems very similar to the logic of the Nobel Peace Prize committee in awarding Obama's huge troop build up in Afghanistan with the Peace prize. It is the Wizard at work with his illusionist routine but it might as well be Alice in Wonderland where nothing is as it seems.

Here is some basic logic that does work. First, infrastructure projects can only create temporary jobs and even then the labor cost of infrastructure projects is generally a very small percent of the total cost. Since Obama already signed executive orders that will increase the labor costs significantly to union wage levels when many projects were going to be non-union, even fewer jobs can be created. These projects never meet timetables because of the permit process, the public bidding process, extensive environmental regulations and other requirements.

Green jobs are also nonsense as there is not yet a market for the often over-priced green products and services. Obama must be too young to remember the oil crises in the 1970's and 1980's, back when he was a community organizer, self-avowed pot smoker and before he graduated from Harvard in 1991. If he was paying attention he would know oil prices spiraled, gas shortages were prevalent, and "green" technology was supposed to lead us out of the dark.



Alternative fuel, solar heating and cooling and energy conservation were all seen as saviors from the global crisis. We are now 20-30 years later and they still have not saved us from anything. The only element of a rapidly expanding green industry at this time that would be a direct benefit to people would be energy conservation, which was the most successful initiative back in the oil crisis days. However, it was paid for by the utilities, not the federal government.

Also back in the Reagan days there were excess profit taxes, price controls and other legislative actions that saved billions of dollars in consumer costs. The money recovered from oil company overcharges went directly to the states who faced the same budget deficits then they face today. Again, the federal government was not the source of the money but the source of the action that generated the money.



Why doesn't Obama suggest excess profit taxes on Wall Street? How about oil price controls? How about prosecuting some corporate offenders for misuse of our financial system? Billions of dollars in fines should be paid by the white collar crooks for the economic catastrophe they caused.

When evaluating jobs program options one must decide if they are to be temporary or permanent. So far the Obama stimulus program jobs being created are costing over $500,000 each. We would be better off paying the entire cost of a college education for anyone in their last two years of undergraduate and graduate programs in fields leading to professional employment.

I say wait until the last two years so they have demonstrated a commitment to getting the education. Besides, we would be keeping college age people, 20-26, out of the labor force freeing up jobs to reduce the unemployment rolls while lowering the cost of unemployment benefits. At the same time we would be helping the cash strapped colleges and universities while upgrading the quality of the future labor pool in America so we can compete with the Chinese and Indians of the world.

Fields of math, engineering and medical would all be preparing our future labor pool for competition or meeting top priorities such as the need for health industry professionals. If health care were expanded to all Americans tomorrow there are not enough health care people to meet the huge increase in demand. We would be well advised to help train doctors, nurses and specialists for the upcoming surge in health care enrollment.

As for the "green" jobs, I already mentioned the energy conservation (weatherization) was already a huge success through the utility companies. Let the existing utilities generate the jobs where possible and finance the program from utility companies. That way the people benefiting from the program pay for it. Until alternative energy options are viable and thoroughly tested, we need a combination program of conventional and alternative energy.



Natural gas is cleaner than coal and oil heating systems. Oil and coal plants can be much more efficient with reduced carbon emissions so we should adopt the energy independence initiative and drill for domestic, Canadian and Mexican (the North American Independence Initiative) oil and gas reserves that will significantly reduce our foreign oil dependence. I believe a production tax on new oil and gas reserves should be used to finance the completion of alternative energy technologies and the testing and production engineering necessary to make them a viable long term source of energy.

Likewise, a couple of cents per gallon tax on gasoline could be used to finance fleets of electric cars for the government which would help with development of new battery technologies, help auto companies to offset the development costs of these vehicles, and hopefully help reduce the cost of true alternative energy cars to affordable prices which they are not achieving now.



So far none of my proposals costs the federal government anything. However, there are some costs that must be incurred. Infrastructure projects, which Congress and the President like, probably because they reward the labor unions more than anyone, need to have some parameters.

For example, projects that are labor intensive (where more than 50% of the cost is labor) would be given first funding priority. Second priority would be given to projects with 25-50% labor costs. Major infrastructure projects should be funded through a multi-billion dollar government bond program thus avoiding adding to the deficit. Right now the banks are not loaning money nor helping the consumer. Require the banks receiving money from the Federal Reserve or other sources to contribute a significant part of their money to the bond program since they will not loan to small business or people.

As for the private sector, a multi-tiered program should be launched. Small businesses prepared to add to their employment base (perhaps businesses up to 2500 employees) would be given a substantial tax credit for three years for every new employee hired as long as the position is retained during the three years.



Anyone wanting to establish or expand manufacturing capacity in America would be given free use of surplus government facilities, i.e. military bases, airports, warehouses, etc. for as long as they remain in business and retain the jobs. A loan fund at minimum interest would be made available to them to make improvements to the facilities with the facility serving as the collateral for the loans. In addition they would be eligible for tax credits for new positions created for the facility.

A substantial effort will be made to find private companies to produce government developed materials for commercial use. This public-private partnership has been attempted in the past but was dominated by the engineering and research fields when marketing and production engineering resources were needed to make it successful. There are hundreds if not thousands of products developed by the military, NASA, the intelligence agencies and other government bodies that are no longer classified but would be of great value in the marketplace. Companies offering the full range of resource staff would be given preferred treatment.



America once dominated the world in terms of manufacturing and product innovation and there is no reason it cannot do this again. Two things are necessary to move us in the right direction. Innovative companies are hampered by the lack of capital but small business loans should alleviate that problem. The tremendous increase in the cost of testing and patent work has become a barrier to innovation for small businesses.

The Small Business Administration should develop the necessary resources to offer free product testing and patent work to anyone attempting to develop and market innovative ideas in America. This will offset two of the greatest barriers to innovation by small business and individuals and SBA will be in a position to finance the product implementation once the testing and patent work is complete.

These are just the ideas of one person on how to address the jobs needs of America without bankrupting the nation in the process. Ideas such as these also protect us from committing billions of dollars that will not generate meaningful numbers of jobs and will not contribute significantly to the deficit. Okay President Obama, you said you would listen to ideas from anyone on how to create more jobs. Are you really listening?

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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