Review (Guest): America by Heart–Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag

11 Society, 5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Civil Society, Civil Society, Congress (Failure, Reform), Consciousness & Social IQ, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Culture, Research, Democracy, Economics, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Public), Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Priorities, Reform, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)
Amazon Page

Sarah Palin Book ‘America By Heart' Hits Obama, Defends Actions (ADVANCE EXCERPTS)

Sam Stein and Lisa Shapiro, Huffington Post

19 November 2010

In her newest book, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin sharply criticizes the record of President Barack Obama while defending her own, in the process offering an unapologetic vision of conservative politics that strongly suggests a forthcoming presidential run.

“America by Heart,” which will be officially released on Tuesday (The Huffington Post obtained an advance copy), exhibits Palin in a variety of roles: culture warrior, presidential critic, committed mother and political provocateur. Clocking in at roughly 270 pages, it reads, at times, like an episode of Glenn Beck's Fox News show. Lengthy quotes and historical research is threaded, often, around contemporary political debates. In the mind's eye of the former governor, the founders, were they alive today, would be nothing short of Palin devotees — and they would certainly be shocked by Obama.

The president makes infrequent appearances in Palin's book, but when he does surface it is in an unflattering light.

“There is a narcissism in our leaders in Washington today,” Palin writes. “There's a quasi-religious feeling to the message coming from them. They are trying to convince us that not only are they our saviors, but that we are our saviors… as candidate Obama proclaimed on Super Tuesday 2008, ‘We are the ones we've been waiting for, we are the change that we seek.'”

Obama, as Palin posits, is neither providing the change that was sought nor fulfilling the role of savior he supposedly promised. Instead, he is cast as a wealth re-distributor, a sly practitioner, and, above all else, a politician with policies antithetical to American values. This is true, she argues, on matters large and small.

View Book Page at Amazon

Read Original Article at Huffington Post

Balance of Article Below the Line (Safety Copy)

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Journal: Right on the Left and Left on the Right

09 Justice, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process
Incoherence Left and Right
Obama, Palin, and Paul

Phi Beta Iota: The incoherent insanity of BOTH the left and the right, of both those in power and those without power, is cresting.  While the Obama Administration does everything it can to emulate and extend the Constitutional violations of the Cheney-Bush regime, the far right is losing its mind completely.  Below are two items, just a taste of what happens when gerbils learn to read and write.

What Is Sarah Palin?

It seems that Palin– the attractive, outdoors-loving “hockey mom”-is popular solely because of her personality, not any specific policy positions. Notes columnist Steve Chapman “Who needs policy? In her world – and the world of legions of conservatives who revere her – the persona is the policy. Palin is beloved because she’s (supposedly) just like ordinary people, which (supposedly) gives her a profound understanding of their needs.” When dissecting political cults of personality, it would seem that Palin has become the Republicans’ Obama–handsome, charming and a human comfort blanket for partisans.

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Review: Going Rogue–An American Life

4 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Biography & Memoirs, Censorship & Denial of Access, Culture, Research, Politics, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution
Amazon Page
Amazon Page
4.0 out of 5 stars No Index But a Proven Player in American Heartland
November 17, 2009
Sarah Palin
EDIT of 20 Nov 09. This is my final review.

The book consists of five parts.

Part I: Life up to the call from John McCain. The book I read and appreciated earlier, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down was instrumental in her selection, along with the heroic work of a band of bloggers, covers most of this ground so the first half will be old hat to those who followed Palin before she became VP. Stuff better told here includes Todd being the Big Man on Campus (BMOC) with TWO “rides” when others had none; beauty contests paid for college; eloped, terrible pain of pregancy, lost second child, Exxon Valdez killed fish prices down 65%, lost some bids for office, and very meaningful for me, with respect to Downes syndrome, she asked “why us” and Todd responded “why not us.”

Part II: Photos, very disappointing for pre-campaign, better for campaign but over-all TERRIBLE.

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Journal: Sarah Palin Cover Girl

Cultural Intelligence, Media
Patronizing Assholes
Sexist or Patronizing?

Phi Beta Iota: Poor Newsweek.  First they can't afford a photographer of their own, then they develop a cover and story that is patronizing in the extreme, rather than sexist.  And then to make it worse, their cover story is so badly ranked beneath stories about the story that they are inviisble.  Great photo.  Memorable.  Newsweek, on the other hand, is NOT memorable.

Journal: Sarah Palin Loses the Lipstick

05 Civil War, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Full Story Online & Video
Full Story Online & Video

A guide to who gets whacked

Andy Barr, Jonathan Martin Tue Nov 17

Sarah Palin may claim to scorn elites, but her new book will ring familiar to its Beltway readership.

Getting even with those who crossed her, praising her allies and generally putting a self-serving sheen on last year’s presidential campaign, “Going Rogue” is typical of the political memoir genre of recent vintage. It’s the sort of book that will send the political class scurrying to bookstores, eager to see how they fared in what’s known as “the Washington read.”

With no index, though, Palin’s book has made that ritual more difficult.

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

So POLITICO, having obtained a copy of the book before its Tuesday release, has created a reader’s guide to “Going Rogue,” grouping the many characters into three categories: Friends, Foes, In Between.

Below the Fold we provide a commentary and links to a number of books about the prospects for honest independent government in 2012 and beyond.

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