Todd Palin Dedicates His 2015 Iron Dog Run to Chris Kyle

By Marion Algier – AskMarion

Todd Palin, husband of Sarah Palin and four-time champion of the Tesoro Iron Dog, the world's longest snowmobile race, which traces the path of the Iditarod race with an extra journey of several hundred miles to Fairbanks added, has dedicated his 2015 Iron Dog run to hero Chris Kyle, as Governor Sarah Palin Reprises Her Commander-in-Chief Role and Honors Veterans at CPAC 2015 with a speech honoring veterans.

Recently, Todd Palin said of Chris Kyle:

“And then it was an honor for me and others to participate in  “Stars Earn Stripes”  with Chris and others in the military. You can have a conversation with somebody but until you’re side-by-side in the trenches with somebody, then you really know somebody. These guys, being a sniper, being out ahead of his unit and saving lives, Chris was just a good man, an expert in his field and he was one heck of a teacher.”

Palin also spoke about his own personal experience as the father of a military man.

“As father and mother, Sarah and I witnessed our son [Track] go through boot camp. It’s just an unbelievable process. You have an 18-year-old go down to boot camp and then you go down there a few months later when they graduate from boot camp and they’re just mentally strong, physically strong and have all the respect in the world for their drill sergeant because their drill sergeant is right next to you climbing up that mountain or running the five miles. But it just shows years of training, dedication and protecting freedom and liberty. That’s the motto of our military.”

Not only is Todd Palin a local hero and Iron Dog champion, but the Palins also run a mix of lead and team dogs for the Iditarod, touted as the Last Great Race on Earth.  In fact, Todd, the former first dude of Alaska and Governor Palin Generate $189 Million+ Yearly in Alaskan Tourism They motivate 44% of tourist travel to the state and the former governor’s favorable number is 21 points higher among Alaska tourists than the general public.  Wouldn’t it be great if they could generate that type of tourism to Washington, D.C.?

Breitbart’s Kevin Scholla writes (In “No Girly Men Allowed”):

While many in the contiguous 48 states will be watching the Daytona 500 and the Oscars Sunday, the eyes of Alaska focus on the Iron Dog.

The grueling snowmachine race has been going strong since 1984.  For the 22nd time, former Alaska First Gentleman Todd Palin competes.

Palin has won the race four times and he’s teaming for a second straight year with Tyler Huntington. The duo, Team 11, honors an American hero in the process. Todd Palin races in support of the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, with a snowmachine decked out in a patriotic decal that pays homage to one of the greatest snipers America has ever known.

Palin and Kyle became friends while filming the NBC show “Stars Earn Stripes”. (The Palins and Kyles became friends and the Palins honor Chris Kyle’s service… all veteran’s service.)

“It was just an honor to spend time with Chris Kyle,” Palin told The Palin Update with Kevin Scholla on Mama Grizzly Radio. “I think that the success of (American Sniper) just shows that Americans have been waiting to be able to lift that hero up. It’s been huge”

Before embarking on the 2015 Iron Dog Race  and gunning for his fifth championship. Todd and Kevin discussed the weather conditions, what it takes to win, and how Chris Kyle lives on through this grueling event. The show also included Sarah Palin showing off her comedy chops at SNL's 40th Anniversary Show and tells you why Alaskans are smiling ear to ear. There is also, a brand new segment of Liberty & Legacy with Tamara Colbert in Texas and Steel Resolve; their weekly commentary with Sarah Steelman in Missouri is showcased.

Audio:  Todd Palin Guest on Mama Grizzly - Part I

Audio:  Todd Palin Guest on Mama Grizzly - Part 2

Mama Grizzly Radio is ON DEMAND and available for DOWNLOAD anytime. Mama Grizzly Radio...hear the roar!

Bristol Palin wrote, “So proud of Dad and his desire to honor Chris. Go, Dad, go!”  

 

Also, read what Taya Kyle wrote on Chris’ Facebook page about Todd Palin here.

Chris Kyle Frog Foundation

Iron Dog Race Tracking

Updated on 03.01.15:  Faeo, Quam won the bruising Iron Dog snowmachine race in which:

• Snowmachines sunk in bay during tough Iron Dog course
• Iron Dog was off to a rough start over bare earth, open water

The runners-up were Anchorage's Aaron Bartel and Davis, of Soldotna, who finished 46 minutes later and won $35,000 for the showing. Allen Hill, of Big Lake, and McKenna, of Anchorage, claim $20,000 for the their third-place finish.

Two-time champion Tyler Huntington of Galena was the top Interior racer in the race, joining with Wasilla's four-time champion Todd Palin to take ninth place. Other Interior finishers included rookies Ryan Folsom and Tony Greene in 12th place; Fairbanks rookie Chris Carroll, who is racing with Ray Chvastasz of Wasilla, in 16th place; and Tanana's Archie Agnes and Arnold Marks in 17th place.

Quam, 44, said not many racers his age win the grueling Iron Dog, and that he relied on the energy that Faeo, 31, injected into the team. Faeo said Quam's trail savvy provided a crucial balance.

"Eric's been awesome," he said. "A guy with a lot of experience, a great rider. I've learned a ton from him this year."

Sources:

Sarah Palin’s Facebook Page

Patheos.com  -  By Bristol Palin

Newsminer.com

Breitbart.com

JustOneMorePet.com

SarahPalinInformationBlog.com

A Time For Choosing

Palin-Cruz 2016

Forum: Will You Watch The Super Bowl? Why Or Why Not?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at The Council Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question:Will You Watch The Super Bowl? Why Or Why Not?

The Razor: I gave up watching the Super Bowl or any NFL game two years ago. At the time CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy was making the news, as was the NFL channeling their inner tobacco company to deny it just as the latter denied the cancer link to smoking. I was also getting sick of seeing players laid out in the field. I was eating at some sports themed restaurant one Sunday afternoon and there were three games on at the same time, each showing players injured on the field. I felt that it was only a matter of time before someone died, and that even though I loved the sport, I couldn’t stomach it anymore.

The business of the game had also pulled at my libertarian and populist instincts. Seeing taxpayer money funneled to billionaires to pay for their stadiums as they blackmailed their host cities appalled me, a situation that my hometown of St. Louis finds itself in yet again with the owner of the Los Angeles St. Louis Rams threatening to move the team back to LA if he doesn’t get a grand stadium his team can lose games in. St. Louis has one of the best baseball teams in that sport, and even its hockey team is worthy of celebrating, but it has never had a decent football team. For some reason the NFL owners have some kind of mind control over politicians to fund their pet projects, and St. Louis is no different. They seem willing to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to keep a bad football team around.

So no I won’t watch the Super Bowl even if the New England Patriots aren’t a bunch of cheating weasels which I believe without a shadow of a doubt they are. Instead I’ll be streaming Downton Abbey or a Sons of Anarchy episode through my Roku as I gather my courage to cancel my DirecTV subscription and cut the cable once and for all. But in the meantime a pox on the Pats.

CheaterGate – Belichick vs Carroll (Getty Images)

Ask Marion :  No…NO…No…NO!!!!

My husband is a sports fanatic. He loves every sport and I’ve watched more games than I care to remember, so I really pick and choose the ones I will waste my time on these days! And this upcoming Super Bowl is not one!

I’m tired of hearing about soft and squishy balls!!

I don’t like the Patriots and I don’t like Pete Carroll!!

The Patriots have cheated before, so does anybody really believe that they didn’t this time around? Neither Tom Brady nor Bill Belichick have reasonable explanations for ‘DeflateGate’. Plus, Brady and his wife are arrogant and have severe potty mouths. None of which excites me.

Pete Carroll was definitely part of the problem that ultimately crippled the USC football program in 2010, bailed when everything hit the fan for the school and the program, deserting them for the Seahawks to line his own pockets. I can never understand why any USC fan would root for him or the Seahawks.

Perhaps the bigger question the media, who have been obsessed with the ‘deflated balls’ should be asking is: Which NFL Super Bowl XLIX (49) coach is a bigger cheater Bill Belichick or Pete Carroll?

Patriots Coach Bill Belichick:

SpyGate Scandal

In 2007, Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the New England Patriots had their 2008 first round draft pick taken away by the NFL after the Patriots had videotaped New York Jets defensive assistant coaches calling signals from the sidelines. Belichick admitted he had been taping other teams since 2000, and that he thought it was a legal practice because he did not use the tapes in the same game.

The Patriots have actually had a better overall record (75% wins verses 71%) after the taping controversy ended from 2008 to today than they did from 2000 to 2007. It’s highly questionable how much the team benefited from the tapes.

DeflateGate Football Scandal

After the Patriots beat (could be said clobbered) the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7, in the AFC Championship game for the 2014 season, 11 of the 12 footballs the Patriots used in the game were found to have less air pressure in them than required by NFL rules.

The footballs in question clearly played little in the outcome of the game, something the Colts players themselves have said, so it remains to be seen what sanctions will be imposed. But looking at the Patriot’s history the sanctions and penalties should be tough.

Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll:

USC NCAA Sanctions

On June 10, 2010, the NCAA imposed a two-year bowl ban, the elimination of 30 football scholarships and the forfeiture of many wins from the 2004 to 2006 seasons on the USC Trojans college football team due to the rules that USC broke over the time frame. Pete Carroll was USC head football coach during the time the rules were broken and he had victories removed from his college coaching record.

Some would say the sanctions were overdone considering the allegations primarily focused on Reggie Bush getting improper gifts like a house for his family to temporarily live in.

NFL Fines and Penalties for Illegal Practices

In August of 2014, the Seattle Seahawks and Pete Carroll were fined $300,000 by the NFL for holding contact practices during training camps when it was forbidden by the rules during the offseason. Carroll was found to be a repeat offender for the offense over many years and the Seahawks are being further penalized by not being allowed to hold a few practices in the upcoming 2015 mini-camp season. Seahawks players will still be paid for those now missing practices.

Drug Suspensions

Since 2010, when Pete Carroll left USC to take over the coaching job, at least eight Seattle Seahawks players have been suspended nine times by the NFL for drug violations. The Seahawks players suspended were LenDale White (played for Carroll at USC), Brandon Browner (twice), Leroy Hill, John Moffitt, Allen Barbre, Winston Guy, Bruce Irvin, and Walter Thurmond.

I would say it’s a toss-up which coach has been the bigger cheater. So no thank you… I will not be watching the upcoming CheaterGate Super Bowl.

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD: I reckon I’ll watch the ads and the haff time entertainment yet sports on TV knocks me out faster than the Golf Channel or Canadian Parliament…

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason: Being a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan, if they are not in the Super Bowl I don’t have much interest in the outcome. However, it is a big day and our extended families get together for lots of food and fun. The game will be on for the guys, while the girls will be catching up on family events. And of course, we will be watching the commercials and half-time show.

The Independent Sentinel : I’m going to watch it because it’s the game of the year. Ballgazi doesn’t affect it. I won’t stop watching baseball because Whitey Ford is in the Hall of Fame even though he cheated and threw a spitball.

The Glittering Eye:  I don’t plan to watch the SuperBowl next weekend. I rarely watch it–only when I’m out of town and the people I’m visiting are watching it.

I’m just not particularly interested in professional athletics and I’ve always found the half-time show lame.

The only reason to watch it would be the ads and if I were that interested I’d could catch those on YouTube.

Well, there you have it!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks’ nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

Game On… NFL wants pat-downs from ankles up at all stadiums

First the airport, and most experts say that is a waste of time, and now Football games. Tomorrow it will be school, the market and every public building. 

Time to scream STOP!!

The NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety.

Under the new "enhanced" pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.

The stricter physical screening policy impacts the 16.6 million fans expected to attend live regular season NFL games this season. The more thorough searches will spell longer lines for ticket-holding fans seeking entry to games. It's sure to raise the ire of some fans who consider it an invasion of privacy.

The NFL recommended the new guidelines before the kickoff of the 2011 season which coincided with the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The league hopes fans will be "patient," says spokesman Brian McCarthy, and arrive earlier to games to avoid long, punishing lines.

"The enhanced security procedures recommended by our office before the start of the season will further increase the safety of fans but will require some additional time," McCarthy told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday. "We encourage fans to come early, enjoy their tailgating tradition, and be patient as they enter the stadium."

The NFL suffered damage to its family-friendly image when a South Carolina man was arrested for using an illegal stun gun on other fans at a New York Jets-Dallas Cowboys game Sunday night.

VOTE: Agree or disagree with NFL's head-to-toe patdowns?

THE HUDDLE: Brady tells Pats fans to start drinking early

The NFL predicts its live gate will be equal this year to last season's overall regular season attendance of 16,569,514.

The Buffalo Bills have announced the changes for fans attending this Sunday's home game against the Oakland Raiders at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Bills' announcement reads in part:

The Buffalo Bills will be implementing an enhanced pat-down procedure starting with this Sunday's game and the organization wants to communicate this new process to all fans attending the game. The new procedure is a recommendation from the NFL in accordance with the league's Best Practices policies. Specifically, the enhanced portion of the pat-down is for the area from the knees to the ankles. Bills officials have long recommended that fans arrive early to the gates and continue to do so, especially with the enhanced pat-down now part of the security measures taken at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

UPDATE: The Indianapolis Colts also issued a statement Thursday announcing stricter security screenings for fans entering Lucas Oil Stadium:

At the direction of the NFL, fans attending this Sunday's Colts vs. Browns game, and future NFL games, will be subject to an enhanced personal security screening prior to entering Lucas Oil Stadium. The screening will include physical pat-down (above the waist as well as below the knees) and inspection of all items. The enhanced personal security screening is in addition to the process guests have typically experienced at NFL games since 2001. In order to accommodate this security enhancement, guests are asked to arrive earlier than normal to avoid longer security lines at the checkpoints. Guests may refuse inspections; however, management reserves the right to refuse entry.

The idea of being physically searched by strangers while attending NFL games has been controversial for years. Several fans have filed lawsuits across the U.S., challenging the league's physical screenings in court. But the NFL's policies were upheld in court.

Source:  USAToday

“Those who trade liberty (freedom) for security generally get nor deserve either!!”  … Benjamin Franklin

Related: 

To Whom It May Concern

From Mike Adams at Natural News:

These police-state pat-downs, you see, are going to be expanded to the point where you have to show your papers on demand at every government building, sporting event and even shopping malls and movie theaters. America's descent into a total communist-style police state has begun.

Alex Jones, by the way, has announced a boycott of the NFL and their sponsors; urges all NFL ticket holders to demand refunds, not attend games and boycott purchases of NFL and sponsor’s products.  Here's Natural News: article

Video: Alex Jones Calls for NFL Boycott!!: TSA Report – Article

This will be the NFL Fan’s big chance to show their patriotism as well as stand up for their own rights.  If they, the macho representation of manhood that they present themselves as, rollover for this America has a much bigger problem than we ever imagined. So the Onus is on you… will you allow yourself, your wives, girlfriends and kids to be patted down and humiliated, like the TSA does to us at the airport, or will you stand for liberty, freedom and freedom over football?

Football Ring Lost 40-Years Ago in Hawaii Will Be Returned to Owner

The Essence of the American Spirit

If US can't love soccer after this, it never will

My husband is a sports fanatic.  Our daughter was a great goalie when she played soccer as a kid.  And if I can go to the field, arena or ball park on a nice day for a game (of most anything)… I’m up for it.  But, soccer and sports are not at the top of list, especially these days!  However, I happened to get up from my computer and head to the kitchen for a coffee refill earlier today when my husband hollered, “You really gotta come watch this!”  It was the Women’s World Cup Soccer quarter finals between the U.S. (favored to take it all) and Brazil.  I figured fine… I’ll watch for 5-minutes and will head back to what I was doing.  An hour later, I was still sitting there.  In the end the game gave me more hope than I had had for a long time… it was the embodiment of the American Spirit played out on a soccer field in Germany…. with the world cheering USA, USA, USA!!!  As Coach Pia Sundhage, a Swede, put it: "It's something about the American attitude, and finding a way to win," she said, slowly shaking her head. "Unbelievable."

Not that the American team isn’t ready, prepared and able to win and go all the way… but they were fighting a battle against a great opponent, with questionable shenanigans if not down right cheating going on from both the Brazilian team as well as the referees. So the fact that they clawed and fought like champs to the end and the tougher it got and the closer to the end of the game they came, the harder they fought… to come out victorious in the end, it gave me a feeling deep inside that I haven’t had for awhile.  And the stands, filled with people who aren’t always on our side, were cheering wildly.  It gave me hope for America, Americans and our Republic.  Sometimes we wait to the last minute, but it always seems as the Marine Corps motto says “When the going gets tough the tough get going!!  And in the end we win with the people of the world cheering us on.

God Bless America, God Bless Freedom and God Bless Our U.S. Women’s Soccer Team for reminding us what we are made of! 

And if you missed the game, see if you can find a replay.  It is worth the watch!!  Marion~

If Americans don't fall in love with soccer after this, well, maybe they never will…

Yes, the epic quarterfinal win by the U.S. women over Brazil featured nearly everything their countrymen hate about the "beautiful game."

They faced off against a team with better individual skills, plus an imagination and intuition about how to play that develops only over decades. They were handcuffed by lousy calls—with no chance of appeal—then mocked by dives and fake injuries cynically designed to steal their momentum and the little time that remained on the clock.

To top it off, after hard work and a last-gasp equalizer erased all that, their fortunes still hinged on those notoriously fickle penalty kicks.

But oh, oh, oh, that ending.

Oh, so just, if not exactly swift.

"I really don't know what to say," veteran Abby Wambach began seconds after the United States won the penalty-kick contest 5-3.

But it didn't take her long to come up with something.

"That is a perfect example of what this country is about, what the history of this team has always been," Wambach added. "We never give up."

If only this once, even the haters back in the States should be able to appreciate why the rest of the world believes there's no greater drama in sports than watching a team trying to validate its national character in a World Cup. And for a nation wearied by a fluttering economy and political paralysis, it could hardly come at a better time.

Highlights of the game were shown between innings on the large video board in Yankee Stadium, and a crowd half a world away from Dresden, Germany, erupted as if it was there. A stream of luminaries as diverse as LeBron James and GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman rushed to Twitter to pass along congratulations—humbled, one hopes, by a display of grit and teamwork that has become increasingly rare back home.

So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that U.S. coach Pia Sundhage, a Swede, summed it up as eloquently as anyone else.

"It's something about the American attitude, and finding a way to win," she said, slowly shaking her head. "Unbelievable."

As fate would have it, the win Sunday came a dozen years to the day of the previously most famous moment in U.S. soccer history, men or women, when Brandi Chastain put her penalty kick past China's Gao Hong to win the 1999 Women's World Cup and then stripped down to her sports bra. But that moment really said more about a paradigm shift in the culture of all sports in America than it did about the culture of soccer here.

Empowered by Title IX, the women on that team had grown up as girls determined to claim their share of the ball fields and resources that were always available to boys. And with opportunities and support for female athletes advancing faster here than anywhere else, plus a talented and photogenic superstar in Mia Hamm, the U.S. women were the class of the field when international play began in earnest in 1991.

They've managed to keep their place near the top of the game, coming into this cup ranked No. 1. But the small advantages they enjoyed over a handful of rivals are gone, and the even larger ones they held over the rest of the world are drying up fast. The simple truth is that even the best U.S. players, women and men, still don't know how to play what we stubbornly insist on calling soccer and what everyone else has called football for more than 150 years.

What you won't see in the highlights from Sunday's game was how much more talented just about every Brazilian was than her American counterpart, or how they instinctively moved without the ball to create space and string together short, intricate passes to play their way out of tight spots or create chances close to the goal.

More than a style, what the Brazilians and every other power shares is a common purpose and identity, a swiftness of thought that comes from generation after generation playing one game—and only that game—a certain way and then passing those lessons down, in this case from fathers to daughters instead of just sons.

Here, the world game is still an afterthought. It hasn't made a deep enough dent in the sporting psyche to rank alongside football, basketball and baseball, let alone be deemed enough a priority to develop an institutional memory. The U.S. women, at least, have benefited from having access to the best athletes a rich nation of almost 300 million can produce, something that's never been true for the men's team.

Even so, whatever breakthroughs U.S. soccer teams achieved over the last few decades have been almost entirely the result of a supreme effort by a dedicated corps of players who refused to be daunted by the odds. So it was one more time Sunday, by a women's squad that was forced to play short-handed for all but a few minutes of the final hour and never gave up.

"It was a hard way to win, a hard way to lose," Wambach said finally.

"You want the better team to always win and I think the better team did win. But sometimes," she added. "it doesn't always go that way."

———

By Jim Litke,  a national sports columnist for The Associated Press, posted at MercuryNews.com

This is the Brazilian flag… it says:  "ORDEM E PROGRESSO," which means "order and progress" in Portuguese.

Sounds an awful lot like social order or socialism and progressivism to me!!

Old Glory with her stars and stripes that stands for liberty and (individual) freedoms sounds a whole lot better to me!  M~

Video:  USA Vs Brazil Video Winning Goal @ FIFA 2011 Women's World Cup Quarter Finals (2:19 mins)

Video:  USA vs BRAZIL Women's World Cup ~ 2-2 ~ EXTRA TIME ~ USA DEFEATS BRAZIL 5 - 3 in PENALTY (5:38 mins)

If you can find a replay of the game… catch it if you can!!