truesee's Blog

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Two short years ago, one of the presidential tickets had the wisdom to not only acknowledge the climate crisis, but also to present credible solutions to address it.

If elected, the tandem told Americans, they intended to do what the Bush administration would not: establish "a cap-and-trade system that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions" and pursue "alternatives to carbon-based fuels." The result, they said, would be "a better future for our children."

The candidates were John McCain and Sarah Palin.

The nuances matter, but the differences between the Democratic vision on energy policy and the McCain-Palin platform are relatively minor. In fact, if the White House were prepared to open negotiations with a Republican-led House next year, President Obama could do worse than starting with the McCain-Palin plan.

With that in mind, why doesn't he do just that? What better way for a Democratic President to demonstrate a commitment to bipartisanship than by embracing specific Republican proposals?

The conventional wisdom is that Obama is in a nearly untenable position in the wake of the midterm elections. He could continue to fight for his top priorities, butt heads with GOP lawmakers intent on destroying his presidency, and run into inexorable gridlock. Or he could drift to the right, concluding that more conservative policies are better than a stagnant government, running the risk of alienating his liberal base.

But there's an alternative behind door #3: embrace the handful of Republican ideas he already likes, effectively challenging the GOP to take "yes" for an answer.

There are more such ideas than you may realize.

Energy policy is arguably the easiest area for common ground, given the McCain-Palin agenda of 2008. Obama could endorse it with relative ease. Though it's unlikely today's GOP, which has lurched far to the right, would appreciate the gesture, it would be somewhat more challenging for Republicans to characterize a plan presented by their own party's presidential ticket as some kind of communist plot.

Second, there's immigration. The White House's vision of a comprehensive reform plan is already in line with the last administration's approach on the same issue. The President can keep the bipartisanship going by endorsing the Bush-Cheney immigration proposal, almost to the letter.

Likewise, the Dream Act, intended to help children of illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship, was written in large part by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Republicans want to make cuts to government spending? No problem - several prominent GOP lawmakers, including hard-line conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), have recently endorsed trimming the enormous Pentagon budget, an idea Obama could also get behind.

Social Security judges facing more violent threats

SAM HANANEL

(11-14) 08:03 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/14/national/w061042S72.DTL#ixzz15HYvaTzE

Shuler on Pelosi: If 'she doesn't step aside, I will challenge her'

 

 

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) countered Pelosi would stay, saying she had led Democrats to the land "of milk and honey."

 

Blue Dog Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.) said on Sunday that he will run for House Democratic Leader if Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) doesn't drop her bid for the top-ranking position.

Though he said he doesn't "have the numbers to win," Shuler told CNN's Joe Johns on "State of the Union" that his caucus deserves to have a moderate candidate to vote for when the caucus elects their leaders on Wednesday.

“If it comes down to this coming week, and she doesn’t step aside, then I will challenge her," Shuler said.

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) was firm that Pelosi would not drop her bid to retain her status as the No. 1 ranked House Democrat.

"She's made the declaration ... and we all know that she will be a candidate and as Heath Shuler just said, if he were to get in the race, he would not be successful," Clyburn said on CNN following his junior colleague's interview.

Clyburn and Pelosi reached an agreement on Friday night to avert a divisive battle in the caucus when they created a new No. 3 ranking leadership position for Clyburn. Instead of serving as whip in the minority, Clyburn would take on the title of Assistant Leader.

The House's highest-ranking African-American lawmaker was locked in a fight with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for the No. 2 ranking leadership spot in the 112th Congress.

Leading up to the late-night deal brokered by Pelosi, Clyburn said that some Democrats told him they would not go to the leadership meeting if they had to choose between Clyburn and Hoyer or Clyburn and Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.).

"Some told me if a vote came up and they were in the room that they would leave the room, so what we did was look at this issue and see how we could best keep our caucus together," Clyburn said on CNN.

Shuler said that Clyburn should remain in a leadership post, but Pelosi needs to go.

“Let’s be realistic about it, there’s very few numbers of (moderates) left, the entire House is being pushed further and further apart in their different viewpoints and the moderates have to bring our country together to move our country forward. I would really hope that [Pelosi] would step aside to allow Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn -- those gentlemen-to step forward in the leadership positions that they held in the majority, to be the leader and to be whip,” Shuler said.

Shuler believes that his party didn't get the message on Election Day when voters kicked Democrats out of majority control of the House if his caucus keeps Pelosi at the top of their leadership team.

"I hope that with so many members that we need to go in a different direction, that we have to be able to recruit or get back those members of Congress that lost, and I just don’t see that path happening if she’s at the top of the Democrats,” Shuler said.

Clyburn said, however, that Pelosi led Democrats to the land "of milk and honey" back in 2006 when her party regained the majority after 12 years of GOP rule. Shuler was elected to the House in the class of 2006 -- the lawmakers who Pelosi has referred to as her "majority makers."

Officials seek to learn how retirement home resident got into walk-in freezer

The woman, 94, was hospitalized after being found in the cold storage locker at the upscale Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas. She is back 'safe and sound' and 'corrective action' has been taken against two employees, a facility official says.

Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times November 12, 2010|7:37 p.m.

http://goodmenproject.com/2010/11/08/study-of-the-day-men-can-fake-it-too/

Nancy Pelosi averted showdown between Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn by announcing she will create a new post for the latter. | AP Photo

JONATHAN ALLEN | 11/13/10 11:43 AM EST Updated: 11/13/10 7:12 PM EST 

 

House Democratic leaders maneuvered Saturday to lock down a lineup that would look exactly the same in the minority as it did in the majority, even as junior and disaffected rank-and-file lawmakers clamor for change at the top.

Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi averted a Wednesday showdown between her top two lieutenants by announcing that she will create a new post for Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was expected to lose a race for minority whip to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md. Clyburn would become "assistant leader" and would remain the third-ranking person in the Democratic leadership, Pelosi said in a letter to caucus members.

That may help Pelosi avoid a revolt from black lawmakers anxious to make sure that Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, isn't booted from the leadership or demoted in rank. Moreover, the deal does little to alleviate the frustrations of a scattered but sizable set of junior Democrats who believe Pelosi and her senior allies exercise too much control over caucus structures, including campaign, policy and committee-assignment apparatuses. Those lawmakers are working to rewrite internal rules to take power away from the septuagenarians who run the party.

"You have a bunch of senior citizens at the buffet at closing time, fighting over the last piece of meat," said one veteran Democrat who talked about the "frustration of the younger generation" of talent that's upset at the prospect of keeping "the status quo."

Both Hoyer and Clyburn endorsed the deal, but one member of the younger generation, Heath Shuler of North Carolina, told a local newspaper in his district, the Clay County Progress, this week that he would challenge Pelosi for the leadership. He had previously said he would challege her if no one else did.

Despite losing control of the House and likely more than 60 seats in all, Pelosi contends that forces beyond her control are to blame for Republicans' success at the ballot box earlier this month.

"The reason the election results are what they are is because we have 9-1/2 percent unemployment in our country. We didn't lose the election because of me," Pelosi told National Public Radio on Friday. "The reason they had to try to take me down is because I've been effective in fighting the special interests in Washington, D.C. I'm also the most significant attractor of support for the Democrats. So I'm not looking back on this. [Democratic colleagues] asked me to run. I'm running. And again, our members understand they made me target because I'm effective."

Indeed, Pelosi is a monster fundraiser, a favorite of nearly every identifiable Democratic interest group, and an indefatigable activist for her party's legislative and political goals.

It's a message that's resonating with liberals in her caucus and outside Congress, particularly those who blame the White House for failing to adequately communicate with the public about the benefits of major Democratic agenda items. And Pelosi, who has not drawn a challenger yet, appears poised to win election as minority leader in a caucus that has become more liberal because its electoral losses were heavily concentrated in centrist districts.

But she's not taking anything for granted. Pelosi won letters of support from EMILY's List, the Sierra Club and 32 House Democratic women on Friday. Her continued effort to demonstrate backing from core Democratic constituencies — and the strange late-Friday announcement of the agreement with Clyburn — led some Democratic sources to suggest she's not entirely comfortable with her standing right now. Pelosi's office put tremendous pressure on the women lawmakers to sign the letter, according to two party sources, and still didn't win the support of 18 House Democratic women.

There's a strong undercurrent of dissent building within Democratic ranks. It may not be enough to topple Pelosi or the other elected leaders — Hoyer, Clyburn, Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut and Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra of California — but Democratic insiders say diffuse calls for change could gather when lawmakers congregate in groups next week for the first time since the election.

Sources point to a handful of meetings this week that could lay the groundwork for a rebellion -— major or minor — against the existing power structure. For example, the chiefs of staff for members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition are scheduled to meet Monday, CBC members gather Monday night and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) has called for a discussion among midwesterners on Tuesday.

Kaptur and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) are authors of a letter calling on Pelosi to postpone Wednesday's party leadership elections — a proxy vote for whether Pelosi and her lieutenants have a problem on their hands.

Meanwhile, Blue Dogs are working on a series of potential rules changes that would tear away Pelosi's authority to essentially appoint the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the co-chairmen of the Steering and Policy Committee, which hands out legislative committee assignments to rank-and-file lawmakers.

Pelosi's control over campaign strategy has come under fire in the wake of the election, in part because she was demonized as a symbol of voter frustration with Washington. Her name and image were used in tens of millions of dollars of campaign ads in districts across the country, prompting some Democratic incumbents and challengers to declare they would not vote for her to lead their party in the next Congress. She is deeply unpopular with the public at large — including independents whose approval of her rests in the high single digits — though she won reelection overwhelmingly in her San Francisco-area district.

The Steering and Policy Committee, run since 2003 by Pelosi confidants George Miller (Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) despite a two-term limit, has been criticized for a perception that it rewards only Pelosi loyalists with choice committee assignments, leaving important decisions to an ideologically and politically monolithic group.

Reps. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), who have said publicly that they do not support Pelosi's effort to transition from speaker of the House to minority leader, are among those drafting proposals to loosen Pelosi's grip on party leadership structures.

Pelosi's aides have not yet said whether she might embrace any of the proposals to give more influence to the caucus in choosing who will serve in secondary leadership roles.

Chris Bosh drives past Semih Erden during the first half of the Miami Heat's game against the Boston Celtics at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. CARL JUSTE / STAFF PHOTO

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/12/1921764/miami-heat-fans-fury.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz15BwxdM3y

POST WIRE SERVICES

7:22 AM, November 13, 2010

Sometimes it pays not to listen to experts. Pays $69 million, in fact.

A British couple once brought a family curio -- an ornate Chinese vase that they owned for decades -- onto the precursor of the "Antiques Roadshow" for a little bit of history about the heirloom.

The snooty curator of "Going For a Song" declared the 16-inch-tall porcelain vase nothing more than a "very clever reproduction."

Luckily, the couple, longtime residents of the working-class London suburb of Pinner, didn't listen to the "expert" some 40 years ago, and held onto the piece.

'POT' LUCK: An expert on the forerunner of "Antiques Roadshow" dismissed this $69 million vase as merely a "clever reproduction." AP

The vase went back to a bookshelf, and later to the dusty attic of their modest home.

The couple grew old, and eventually passed away. The vase was nearly forgotten.

Then this year, their surviving relatives, the 70-year-old sister of the husband and her adult two children, were cleaning out the attic.

They were hunting for family heirlooms and items to sell at a run-of-the-mill estate auction, like furniture or carpets.

"We were clearing her brother's house after he died, and I looked at the vase and said, 'Oh, that looks nice.' It had just sat on the bookcase doing absolutely nothing," David Reay, manager of the Bainbridges auction house, told the London Evening Standard.

"They told me it had been valued at just [$1,300] two months earlier. They also told me the owner had taken it on 'Going For a Song' on the BBC about 40 years ago. He was told it was a very clever reproduction."

Reay knew it was valuable, but he still had it sent to the Arts Club of London where it sat on a metal table in a busy kitchen in between public viewings.

Finally, experts evaluated the piece and estimated it could sell for over a million dollars, noting it was made around 1740 for the royal court of Qianlong, the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty -- a period when Chinese porcelain-making had reached its zenith.

The two adult children, a brother and sister, believed it was "just an ornament" that had been in the family since the 1930s, and passed down from a relative who traveled internationally.

The auction house of Peter Bainbridge -- a tiny business with just three full-time employees -- went ahead with the auction on Thursday.

The vase had attracted worldwide attention, particularly from China's nascent but growing cadre of wealthy art collectors.

Bainbridge's modest auction house was packed.

"The room was crackling with excitement. The couple were down in the middle of the audience, but no one knew," said Bainbridge staffer Peggy Bates.

Then the bidding began.

Bainbridge, whose big gest sale to that point had been $160,000, kept his cool as bids pushed the price past $10 million, then $30 million, then $50 million, to finally close at $69.5 million after 30 minutes of in tense bidding.

"There was a si lence that wrapped it self around the sale as the figure grew slowly but surely up to the sky," Bainbridge said.

"I'm an auctioneer, so at that point, I'm just doing the professional job I'm paid to do. But once the hammer's down, you do take stock slightly, and think, Oh, wow, that's really rather a lot of money."

The couple had to run out of the room to catch their breath.

And Bainbridge himself had to pause to realize he'll collect a $13 million premium on top of the closing sale price.

Once Britain's value-added tax was tacked on, the final price was $85.9 million, won by an anonymous buyer in China who phoned in the bid.

The brother and sister were utterly stunned.

"She told me she wished it happened 30 years ago," Reay, the Bainbridge manager, said.

Bainbridge himself called it a "fairy tale" for an "utterly normal" family.

The couple, like the buyer, insisted on remaining anonymous.

Their sale was the most expensive piece of Chinese artwork ever. .

Little is known about the vase, but it was likely looted from a Peking imperial palace by British and French soldiers during the Second Opium War, some 150 years ago.

British troops were given free rein to loot Emperor Xianfeng's Summer Palace of Gold.

They then torched the place and marched away laden with tons of booty.

China's booming economy means new collectors are joining the market all the time, and wealthy buyers are keen to repatriate treasures from their heritage.

LINK TO VASE:

  http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/attic_curio_finally_urns_respect_wGuepWOHbm0DKcyIegeiZK#ixzz15Avur8Vc

NPR says it's 'imperative' that its federal funding not be cut

Crystal Simmons, founding principal of the Academy for Social Action, turned to officials for help after her former lover, Candy Jones, threatened to murder her, according to a report.

A beloved Harlem principal was yanked from her post after she had a two-year lesbian romance with a female assistant principal then gave her a lousy review, investigators said.

Crystal Simmons, founding principal of the Academy for Social Action, turned to officials for help after her former lover, Candy Jones, threatened to murder her, according to a report released Friday by the city Education Department.

"We are currently seeking to terminate both Principal Simmons and Assistant Principal Jones," said Department of Education spokeswoman Barbara Morgan. "In a setting where the focus is supposed to be on student learning, conduct like this is simply unacceptable."

During the investigation, Simmons fessed up to the dalliance with her subordinate.

Jones is accused of threatening to kill Simmons after being asked to resign, telling another school employee that "it was easy to purchase a gun down south" and that her father "had already purchased one," the report says.
Jones told investigators that she was only joking about an article involving a female corrections officer who gunned down her female lover, comparing her situation to that one.

She also claimed her relationship with Simmons became strained only after she vacationed with another woman, upsetting Simmons, according to the report.

Simmons told investigators she gave Jones an "unsatisfactory" rating after Jones' work ethic declined once the relationship fell apart.

Attempts to reach the two were not immediately successful.

A 17-year-old senior was one of dozens of students who attended a protest Friday to demand the return of their principal, whom she compared as "a second mother."

The teen described herself as "shocked" after learning of the sex scandal.

"I don't really know what to say. My God, I don't know what think," she said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/11/12/2010-11-12_manhattan_high_school_principal_assistant_principal_may_be_fired_for_lesbian_aff.html#ixzz158DoEOyO

The eight-episode series Sarah Palin's Alaska is part documentary, part travelogue and part reality television. Photos by Gilles Mingasson, Getty Images, via TLC   Palin is in her element in TV's 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' Updated 5h 46m ago  E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |

For Palin, with her youngest son, Trig, the series "is a way to show what our family is all about."

Gary Strauss

USA TODAY

WASILLA, Alaska — Sarah Palin may be able to see Russia from her house. Come Sunday, you'll be able to get an extended look at her from your living room. 

With the state's stunning scenery as a backdrop, TLC's Sarah Palin's Alaska (9 p.m. ET/PT) offers the most telling look yet at the private life of 2012's highest-profile potential contender for president, mostly through a politics-free lens. 

A hybrid of adventure travel, documentary — and, despite Palin's protests, reality TV — the eight-episode series follows Mama Grizzly encountering brown bears, Sarah Barracuda hauling in freshly caught halibut, and Caribou Barbie mingling with moose, bison and, yes, caribou. 

"This is not Housewives of Alaska," Palin said in a rare interview at home on the shores of postcard-worthy Lake Lucille.   "This is about the uniqueness of Alaska, the special place it is, and showing the rest of America why we are here and what we have to offer. 

"Launching at a time when Palin has helped energize the grass-roots Tea Party movement and backed dozens of Republicans with mixed success in statewide, Senate and House races during the midterm elections, Alaska and its family-friendly tone could be an image-shaping public-relations bonanza. 

For Palin, 46, the show represents a chance to begin redefining a shoot-from-the-hip reputation shaped by sharp anti-Washington rhetoric that has won her support among conservatives nationwide but raised questions about her qualifications and motives — and inspired parodies by Tina Fey on NBC's Saturday Night Live. 

It's unclear whether Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, will make a run at the White House in 2012.   But if that's her plan, is an entertainment-oriented cable TV show an appropriate platform for a presidential contender?   Skeptics, notably prominent Republicans such as strategist Karl Rove, have said Palin's TV foray is decidedly unpresidential.  "For many Americans, it's hard to take her seriously, politically," says Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the rothenbergpoliticalreport.com.   "She doesn't do many things to demonstrate depth, seriousness and substance.   She's not going that route with this TV show.  "Even so, Rothenberg says, Alaska could help soften Palin's nails-tough, polarizing reputation and broaden her appeal beyond core conservatives. 

 "She's a celebrity, a brand and a phenomenon — much bigger than she was as a vice presidential candidate," he says.   "But this isn't really about politics. It's about pop culture.   And this could show a dimension that could make her appealing to people who think she's just snarky and opinionated. 

"Joining TLC's slate of featherweight reality, lifestyle and cooking shows such as Kate Plus Eight , What Not to Wear and Cake Boss doesn't seem politically risky to Palin, a multitasking mother of five.   After Rove's criticism last month, Palin noted on a Fox News show that former president Ronald Reagan — whose portrait hangs above the fireplace in the great room that doubles as Palin's pulpit for remote Fox satellite feeds — was a film and TV actor. 

Palin spurned offers for TV gigs outside her role as a Fox News pundit until Mark Burnett, producer of Survivor and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, sold Palin and her husband, Todd, on an adventure-centric family exploration of Alaska's pristine outback and diverse cultures.  "Basically, the other shows were all about following a day in the life of Sarah Palin, only it would be extended for days on end," she says.   "How boring."Alaska "is a way to undo a lot of the untruths, inaccuracies and lies about our family," she says.   "This is a way to show — as we're showcasing Alaska — what our family is all about.

"'We've been burned so many times' Lambasted by mainstream news media for lacking gravitas and for stepping down as governor after just two years as she parlayed political notoriety into celebritydom and wealth (Forbes recently pegged her net worth at $10 million), Palin's distrust of most news media — which she has called "limp, gutless and impotent" and "corrupt <snip>s" — runs deep.  The University of Idaho journalism graduate says she's shocked at how she and her family have been portrayed.   "We've been burned so many times.   How else can they kick us?   Can they keep saying Trig (her 2½-year-old son) is not really my child?   That Track (her eldest son, 21 ) had to join the Army to avoid jail?   That Todd and I are in the middle of a $20 million divorce? 

"Alaska may provide National Geographic-style moments of Palin and her family fishing, camping, panning for gold and watching critters, but it's also a Family Circle-type platform to showcase Palin on her terms, warts and all.   "This allows us to get the truth out there," says Palin, who prefers sending her message to the masses via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. 

On Sunday's Alaska premiere, Palin gets to express some barely hidden contempt for author Joe McGinniss, whose pixilated image is seen from the home he rented next door while researching a Palin book due in 2011.   "It's none of his flippin' business. ... It's an intrusion and an invasion of our privacy," Palin tells viewers.   "If some dude you knew was out to get you, 15 feet away from your kids, how would you feel?"  (McGinniss asked TLC to remove his likeness from the show.) 

In her living room earlier in the episode, a tongue-in-cheek Palin makes sure that teen interloper "Andy" knows a safety gate blocking a staircase isn't just meant for Trig's protection but to block Andy's private time with Palin's 16-year-old daughter, Willow.   "No boys upstairs.   She'll be downstairs in a minute. You can text her," Palin tells the kid.   He sneaks upstairs anyway.  Other touches of family life are sprinkled through the series.   Daughter Piper, 9, relishes a fishing trip to Big River Lake, as much for the adventure as the remote locale that could disconnect Mom from her ever-present BlackBerry. 

And on an excursion near Denali National Park, the steely Palin's vulnerability is exposed as the young grandmother nervously crosses crevassed ice fields and fights fatigue and frustration scaling a mountainside. 

Future episodes feature poignant moments with Palin ruminating about Trig's future after seeing an older child who, like Trig, has Down syndrome.  TLC chief Eileen O'Neill says plotting out the series was a collaborative effort with the Palins.  "There was no list of anything off-limits.   Knowing she is certainly controversial, we weren't going to produce a controversial show," O'Neill says. "I think this will be really good television and storytelling about an amazing state and a charming family. 

"Burnett, who has dealt with outsized egos of celebrities such as The Apprentice's Donald Trump, says he was surprised by the Palins' casual nature.  "If you knew nothing about the political world, they're like any other relatable family," Burnett says.   "They're genuine, fun and, if there's one thing people can take from the show, normal.   They didn't take themselves too seriously, which is a nice quality and makes for an authentic show.  "Palin says she's pleased with the series.  "Critics are going to say what they're going to say," she says. 

"I think the show is amazing and the scenery spectacular.   It shows a real family with the same challenges and joys as any other.   There's no made-up drama.   What I didn't want to do is sit around talking about feelings and that kind of stuff. That's not our real life.'

'Who knows  what she'll do?' Palin's campaign efforts on behalf of Fairbanks lawyer Joe Miller may not have panned out in Alaska's U.S. Senate race, but her backing of scores of Tea Party candidates helped them win five Senate, 15 House and six gubernatorial races, Politico says.  "Lots of candidates (who) pundits said had no chance of winning — all the more reason for their messages to be heard," Palin says. 

Potentially headed for political obscurity after the 2008 election and her abrupt resignation as Alaska governor in July 2009, Palin has become a force within the Republican Party.   

A pre-election cover story in New York magazine suggested Palin could win the 2012 presidential race as a third-party candidate.  The Daily Beast, a left-leaning website, weighed in with an opinion piece headlined "How to Derail Palin."  Politico reports that mainstream Republicans are mounting a "Stop Sarah" campaign, fearful that her appeal, while strong among the party's most conservative members, isn't broad enough to win nationwide.Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, would prefer Palin to remain a private citizen.   "I don't see why she needs to do this," says Chuck, 72, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher."She has so much to offer," Sally says.  "But I say don't do it.   It's too painful."  "Who knows what she'll do?" says Todd, a soft-spoken snow machine racer, commercial fisherman and outdoorsman who was sought for ABC's Dancing With the Stars show before daughter Bristol agreed to sign up for this season.   "He's my Captain America," Sarah says. 

Palin, who says she'll run if "there's nobody else to do it," remains coy about 2012 and beyond while promoting Alaska through a few media outlets — including People magazine and Entertainment Tonight, whose fawning co-host, Mary Hart, presents an eye-rolling Palin with a "Palin for President 2012" T-shirt at the end of a lengthy autumn afternoon schmooze.  "If it came down to raising money and fighting the political machine, it sure won't be me," Palin says of seeking the GOP nomination. 

What about running as a third-party candidate?Palin pauses.   "If people are tired of what they get out of big money and big machines running campaigns and candidates who have to compromise, then the American electorate would look to someone like me. 

"Running for office, however, would mean leaving money on the table.  Palin pulled in about $5 million from her 2009 best seller, Going Rogue: An American Life.    She could make as much or more from the release Nov. 23 of America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.   The new book, parts of which she says were composed in the family RV and on her back patio, is "a compilation on historic and present-day writings and some pop culture, things that have influenced me to be an American," she says. 

Palin also is in demand on the lecture circuit, where she draws up to $100,000 an appearance.   She's also being paid for Alaska but says it's nothing close to the widely reported $2 million.   

"As it pencils out, it's not even half of that," she says.  "All these things are lucrative, but for Todd and me, money is the last thing that drives us," Palin says.   "Being raised by a schoolteacher in a big household, we had to work hard for everything we had.  Todd's never stopped working.   We were fulfilled when we were living paycheck to paycheck.  "Palin says she will continue to speak her mind, "callin' it like I see it — and bringing to life issues that should be part of the national debate." 

This week she blasted Ben Bernanke, urging the Federal Reserve chairman to "cease and desist" a $600 billion economic stimulus plan."  I haven't played it safe," Palin says before a short SUV hop to Finger Lake Elementary School, where she catches Piper's basketball game before retrieving Trig from a dental procedure.   "I don't play that game.   I'm not wired that way."

Debt Plan Ideas Draw Scorn of Liberals and Tea Party

Jackie Calmes

November 11, 2010

WASHINGTON — By putting deep spending cuts and substantial tax increases on the table, President Obama’s bipartisan debt-reduction commission has exposed fissures in both parties, underscoring the volatile nature and long odds of any attempt to address the nation’s long-term budget problems.

Among Democrats, liberals are in near revolt against the White House over the issue, even as substantive and political forces push Mr. Obama to attack chronic deficits in a serious way. At the same time, Republicans face intense pressure from their conservative base and the Tea Party movement to reject any deal that includes tax increases, leaving their leaders with little room to maneuver in any negotiation and at risk of being blamed by voters for not doing their part.

Mr. Obama, on a diplomatic tour of Asia in which the fiscal condition of the United States has been a recurring backdrop, maintained his silence on Thursday about the particulars of the draft deficit-reduction plan the commission chairmen had released the day before.

“The only way to make those tough choices historically has been if both parties are willing to move forward together,” he said at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea. “And so before anybody starts shooting down proposals, I think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts. I think we have to be straight with the American people.”

Mr. Obama’s stance was at the request of the chairmen, Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican Senate leader, and Erskine B. Bowles, a White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, who wanted to avoid any statements that might prejudice the panel’s deliberations before its Dec. 1 deadline. But it was also a response to the outcry from both conservatives against taxes and from Mr. Obama’s liberal base against the plan’s proposed long-term cuts in domestic programs across the board, including Social Security and Medicare.

The liberals are already frustrated with the White House on issues like the Afghanistan war and what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire Dec. 31, and are increasingly uncertain about Mr. Obama’s willingness to fight for long-held party priorities. That question loomed over a meeting at the White House on Thursday between progressive activists and administration aides about strategy for dealing with the Bush tax cuts in the Congressional lame-duck session that begins next week.

Several activists who attended said in interviews that they sought reassurance after a report Thursday suggesting that the White House was prepared to acquiesce in extending the tax cuts for income above $250,000, as Republicans have demanded.

While David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior strategist, subsequently denied that the White House position had shifted, the immediate suspicion among liberals that the administration was abandoning them reflected broader insecurity among the president’s allies on the left that he would move to center for the rest of his term.

“Dealing seriously with these things is fraught with political peril for both parties, but at some point not dealing with these issues is also fraught with political peril,” Mr. Axelrod said in an interview.

So riled are some liberals about the Bowles-Simpson plan that, privately, several suggested that if Mr. Obama were to embrace its major parts, he would invite a primary challenge in 2012.

Republican Congressional leaders, three of whom are on the commission, similarly remained neutral about the draft, even as conservative groups condemned its proposals to raise revenues.

To these groups, the plan’s call to drastically lower income tax rates for individuals and corporations holds no appeal. That is because the reductions are tied to proposals to restrict or repeal tax breaks for investors and corporations, with additional tens of billions of dollars in revenue left over to reduce deficits.

The Web site of Americans for Tax Reform, which is led by the influential antitax activist Grover Norquist, warned Republicans bluntly, “Support for the commission chair plan would be a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which over 235 congressmen and 41 senators have made to their constituents.”

Republicans would also be looking over their shoulders at the growing ranks of the Tea Party. Ryan Hecker, from the Houston chapter, said it would be “a big mistake” for Republicans to go along with tax increases. “I think that is something that would not sit well with members of the Tea Party,” he said.

Emboldened by their victories, Tea Party members are mobilizing for 2012 to work against any Republican who shows signs of compromising. Among Republicans who may well face rivals in the 2012 party primaries are Senators Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah.

Mr. Lugar, who began his long Senate career as indisputably conservative but is now seen by many as a moderate as the party has turned further right, said the Tea Party was no “irresponsible fringe” in an essay this week for a publication of the Ripon Society, a moderate Republican group. But, he added, Republicans must not reflexively oppose everything Democrats propose.

“Opposing unsound administration policies remains important,” Mr. Lugar wrote, adding, “But simple, unadorned ‘opposition’ is mistaken, from both the policy and political perspectives.”

With Republicans taking charge of the House, they face pressure to go beyond campaign claims and produce a budget with cuts that live up to their promises.

“There is a ton of postelection survey evidence that the American people are fed up with rejectionism, and want the parties to work harder to find common ground,” said William A. Galston, a former adviser to Mr. Clinton. “But there’s a caveat, and this is critical: While a majority of independents, Democrats and swing voters are for compromise over standing on principle, a majority of Republican voters are against compromise and for standing on principle.”

Certainly Mr. Obama’s inclination, before the election drubbing, was to turn to major long-term reductions in projected annual deficits and to make changes that would ensure Social Security’s solvency until the end of this century. But if he chooses a path like that, he must take time to educate the public about the tradeoffs, said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster and strategist.

“What he did in health care was he engaged Washington without first trying to engage America,” Mr. Garin said. “And on deficit reduction it has to work the other way around. For the next two years, who he is as president is as important as what he does as president.”

Steele foes maneuvering to block second term as Republican chairman

May dangle alternate party post as inducement to leave

Paul West

The Baltimore Sun

7:46 p.m. EST

November 11, 2010

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3222927/Heel-of-a-shoe-goes-on-sale.html