Time to Give Obama the Three Finger Salute

My husband is a quiet but very smart man. While I sit every evening, hunched over my computer, digesting various articles and writing, he sits quietly at his computer doing his own thing. I was excited this morning when he told me he had an article for me to edit and I thought it was excellent and asked if I could post it. Here is the article from my husband, Tony Porreca:

Time to Give Obama the Three Finger Salute
- by Tony Porreca

Now I realize that this is three times what you'd like to give him, but follow along for a few lines. I've been a software geek for 30 years, and my wife tells me that it has polarized my views. She tells me that I can only see things in binary, and that is partially true, as almost everything falls into the right or wrong category. The only other state for things to fall into is that in which you don't have enough information to make a decision. This state is easily corrected with a little research. My problem is that every political issue that I look into rapidly pulls to the dark side...

So here is my analogy. The country can be likened to your computer, the government to your operating system. After running for many years, clutter accumulates. Bad programs have wasted resources that are needed by other programs. Your computer, once it has used up all of its memory (money), can borrow more in the form of a pagefile. This is where it swaps memory to its hard disk to make room for other programs. Like borrowing money, this has its drawbacks. In the case of paged memory, it will require swap time and your system will further slow down.

Lets not even visit viruses, ad ware, and other software that is supposed to make things easier for you. Remember back in the days of autoexec.bat and config.sys? That was a time when you had to know a little more about computers, but you could look at these files and determine what was running and why it started. Today, people are clicking on apps or ads on the internet to solve some irrelevant issue, installing who knows what on their systems, then complaining about performance. Sounds just like the government, doesn't it? Their browsers (lobbyists), point to some straw man problem that requires government intervention. Programs are created, which may or may not help anyone. But they continue to run because all government programs are set up with infinite loops, standard.

To further muddy the waters, computers have changed radically over the last 30 years. In the old days, you had to account for every byte you used in a file, because memory and disk space were so expensive. This, of course lead to the Y2K panic, but that’s another story. Today, you can try to cover all of the “what-ifs” in your data, because hardware has fallen in price and size isn't as critical as pretty interfaces. So, where is the wasted space (or wasted money)? There are so many layers around it, it's virtually invisible.

To compound the above issues, there is the human factor. Now, more than ever, people seem to have tunnel vision. They get so wrapped up in the issue that they are trying to solve, that their solution runs all over other issues. The only way to keep this under control is a technically savvy manager overseeing projects. If it's just a political appointee, the chances of improving the overall situation are small.

So, what is the three finger salute? You've probably already guessed it, but for those liberal leaning readers it's the old reliable “Ctr-Alt-Del” combination that resets everything. In one rapid pulse of electricity, all programs are stopped, all resources restored and all devices tested. Then comes the systematic process of restarting all legitimate programs. After only three keystrokes, all is right with your machine. Can this be applied to governments? Why not? May take more than a few minutes to reboot, but we would certainly be in better shape afterwords.

This could make for a hugely successful reality TV show, “Tap Dancing with your Legislators.” Zero based budgeting and justification for all programs and staff, I wonder if Tom Bergeron is available? Judges could be selected from citizens across the country. The only qualifications would be reasonable intelligence, record of steady employment, and willingness to activate the shock collar worn by the tap dancing legislators.

In all seriousness, businesses have to re-evaluate every year. Projects that are not working have to be scrapped. Projects that are showing a return get some leeway. If it has been a successful year, some profit may be spread on riskier projects. If it's a bad year, everyone has to cut back. Finally, history does count. People who are successful generally can transfer that success to the next project they work on. People who crash and burn, more than once, need transferred to another company.

Alaska's Republican National Committeewoman Addresses Attacks Against Trig Palin

I was approached today by Debbie Joslin, Republican National Committeewoman for the State of Alaska, and friend of mine. She is also a friend of Sarah Palin and has known her for a long time. We started discussing the recent "Wonkette" article (see here)and Debbie mentioned she was writing an article to address it. I offered to share it with our readers and she accepted. Debbie has a lot of personal experience with this subject, as you will read. I'm so pleased to share this with all our readers. Thank you, Debbie, for this heartfelt article.

Debbie Joslin
National Committeewoman for Alaska
Republican National Committee
April 22, 2011

The recent attacks on Trig Palin remind me of something my brother frequently says: “People who call names aren’t very smart.” My brother Danny is 50 years old and in many ways is like a child; he is developmentally disabled. He grew up with neighborhood bullies calling him a “retard” and other such names. When I was a kid, I stood up for my brother against those bullies.

Today I have a few words for the “progressive elitists” who are treating Trig Palin the same way Danny was treated. These juvenile diatribes may be aimed at Trig Palin, but many of us take them personally. These attacks against Trig are a slam against everyone who has a developmental disability and those who love them. If you disagree with something Sarah Palin says, attack her ideas, not her toddler.

I feel like I know Trig a little; I held him as an infant, and I know his mom. Sarah Palin sent me an encouraging note after my own son, Isaiah, died at one month old from complications of Trisomy 13 (Patua Syndrome). Children with Trisomy 13 are profoundly disabled; learning to speak and to walk are huge achievements. So, between my brother, Danny, and my son, Isaiah, I have license to speak on this subject.

As an adult, I have been with my brother in public and had “grownup” men in expensive suits say rude things and act disgusted at having to sit close to my brother on an airplane. I have had people who were certainly old enough to know better treat my brother with contempt. I have experienced the loathing the left has for those who are developmentally disabled. In 1999, doctors urged me to abort my disabled son or leave him to die after birth.

I was at the Republican National Convention in 2008 when Sarah Palin’s family joined her on the stage. I might add that John McCain’s family was on that stage too. Barack Obama also had his family on the stage of the Democratic Convention. Out of all that, Trig is a “prop”? I cried that night when I saw Trig being held by his parents. I cried for my brother and my own son and for all of the other people (yes, they ARE people!) who have been treated like second class citizens in this country. I cried because my own parents were ashamed of my brother. I was –and still am- so happy for Trig because he has parents who cherish him and recognize his worth. I cried because I felt hope that the days when people were judged to have worth only if their IQ was socially acceptable, seemed to be coming to an end.

Was I wrong? Is it still cool to call someone a retard? I hope not. But, in case I am wrong, remember what my (very smart) brother says: “People who call names aren’t very smart.”

Leftist Attacks 3-Year Old on His Birthday

It was a beautiful spring day in Alaska. I had decided to take it easy today and catch up on some reading on-line and on social networks. The blogosphere was on fire with an article from a site I’ve never heard of before today called Wonkette. Everyone was chatting about the feature written by Jack Stuef regarding Trig Palin. I checked it out and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so vile in my entire life. This article spewed hatred towards children with disabilities and went on to accuse Todd Palin of fathering Trig with his daughter Bristol. (Enter if you dare.)

What was more unbelievable to me was the initial vicious collaboration in the comments section. Many folks took to Twitter, the 140 character or less social media outlet, to encourage businesses who advertise on "Wonkette" to pull their advertising. Using the hashtag #TrigsCrew, individuals far and wide messaged these advertisers and soon, we started to hear from their representatives that they were just as appalled as the rest of us. (See here and here.) Most of the negative comments dropped like dead flies once advertisers started pulling their support. Since last night, more companies have pulled their advertising as those on Twitter, including Conservative Radio Talk Show Host Tammy Bruce, have continued the call for sanity in advertising. Good! Hopefully, this trash and the site that promoted this will fade away and never see the light of day again. We encourage you to contact the companies who are still advertising on "Wonkette" and let them know how you feel. Also, here is a list of companies who have pulled their advertising. We encourage you to thank them, as we have.

I applaud Papa John’s, Huggies, Holland America Cruises, Nordstrom, Colonial Williamsburg, The Texas Education Agency, State Farm, Bob Evans Foods, Reliant Energy, DealSwarm, Starkist, Coldwell Banker, and Vanguard Group for doing the humane thing and pulling their ads. I will be watching this site vigilantly now to ensure I do not support businesses that support utter lies and degrading comments about disabled children. I noticed earlier in the day, there were sponsors advertising on the same page as this smear, advertisers like Amazon.com, Ford, Hewlett Packard, and Dish Network to name a few. I hope I see news that they have pulled their support soon, real soon. At last look, the article is still there, but with a shallow false apology. I will be watching to see what companies will associate themselves with this garbage and whenever I see them, I’ll be sure to remind the public about this article and announce the businesses by name.

Something wonderful did come of all this though, as Weaselzippers pointed out. A hero bought the domain name JackStuef.com (author of the article) and redirected it to a site that supports children with disabilities! I pray that a disabled child is never unfortunate enough to be fathered by a callous man like Jack Stuef.


(photo courtesy of PalinTwibe)

Please, again, take a few minutes to contact those still advertising on the site and let them know what you think about this article and their continued support. If you find a company that agrees with Wonkette, post a comment on this blog to let other readers know. Spend your money and your time wisely.

Newsflash: Poorly Conducted Alaskan Poll Produces Poor Results

The Dittman Research & Communications Corporation, let out a doosie today.

In a poll of 400 "public-at-large" (and not Alaska residents as Amanda Coyne of the Alaska Dispatch claimed), Murkowski was determined to be well loved across the state and Palin was determined to be unliked.

The views of Alaskans, which encompass a diverse population of over 700,000 residents covering over 550,000 square miles of vast terrain, were somehow easily summarized by 400 "public at large" who answered their phone between March 3rd and March 17th, 2011. The survey, as is customary for this organization, fails to identify likely voters or registered voters. It fails to show sample size of republicans, democrats, and independents represented.

During the 2010 elections, this same organization took significant flack from conservative websites and continues to be often linked to by Alaskan liberal websites. They have also been quite wrong at times.

It is also interesting that this "research organization" is still trying to tie Joe Miller to Sarah Palin. Palin did endorse Miller in the 2010 primary season, but Miller is no longer running for office, so why this organization feels compelled to continue asking polling questions about him appears desperate.

Dittman has worked over the years for almost all establishment Republicans across the state and worked in the early seventies as a communications aide for Republican Ted Stevens. The same Ted Stevens who died shortly after making an endorsement video for Lisa Murkowski. Lisa Murkowski initially decided not to use this video in her campaign, but once desperation set in, she used it anyway. Those who are not familiar with Palin's interactions throughout her decade long political battle with establishment Alaskan Republicans such as Randy Ruedrich and the Murkowski family should do themselves a favor and do a little research.

This week Governor Palin was in Wisconsin presenting a scathing speech of establishment Republican leadership and our current President. She also launched a new website for her PAC, showing considerable internal organization.

The new meme: "Palin=bad. Murkowski=good." But please don't ask difficult questions. We called 400 people who said they were in Alaska and that's what they said, so it must be true. We don't know anything about them, but we're sure we're right."

Ahh... the corruption of Alaska politics.

Happy Birthday Trig!

On April 18, 2008, Gov. Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin at Matsu Regional Hospital in Alaska. We at Alaskans4Palin would like to congratulate parents Todd and Sarah Palin as they celebrate Trig's third birthday along with brother Track and sisters Bristol, Willow, and Piper and the rest of the family. Check out these photos to see how much he's grown. Happy Birthday little man!


Official photo released with proud parents Todd and Sarah Palin after Trig's birth


Who could forget Piper fixing Trig's hair at the RNC convention? A little Piper hair gel goes a long way!


I work with Steven, the man pictured here with Sarah Palin and her son Trig. He is an amazing individual, as I know Trig will grow to be.
(Photo credit - unknown)


Myself, Sarah and Trig at the 2009 Iron Dog snowmachine race - he was there to see off his daddy Todd
(Photo courtesy Tracey Porreca)


Sister Willow and Trig at the Governor's picnic in Fairbanks, August 2009.
(Photo courtesy Tracey Porreca)


Daddy Todd with his little man
(Photo from "Sarah Palin's Alaska")