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So, Sarah Palin is out as Governor of Alaska.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made a surprise announcement Friday that she is resigning from office at the end of the month without explaining why she plans to step down, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate hastily called a news conference Friday morning at her home in suburban Wasilla, giving such short notice that only a few reporters actually made it to the announcement. State troopers blocked late-arriving media outside her home, and her spokesman, Dave Murrow, finally emerged to confirm that Palin will step down July 26. He refused to give details about the governor’s future plans.

“Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional Lame Duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose,” Palin said in a statement released by her office.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the governor’s picnic in Fairbanks at the end of the month, Murrow said.

A shrewd political move or is Sarah Palin bidding farewell to political life? And, for how long?

On Twitter, Sarah Palin tweeted:”We’ll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election … this is in Alaska’s best interest, my family’s happy … it is good. Stay tuned”

Flap’s take:

Sarah Palin is fed up with political life and will step back for now in holding public office. She will take her celebrity and do the following:

• Raise money for the GOP on the banquet circuit
• Host a talk radio show
• Host or co-host a television show
• Write books with the concomitant tours
• And, most importantly – raise her children and spend time with her husband, Todd.

Then, and only then will she entertain running for office again – if she ever does.

Now, Colin Powell, the turncoat Republican In Name Only (RINO) who endorsed Barack Obama over John McCain is now expressing skepticism over Obama’s “Big Government Agenda.”

Colin Powell, one of President Obama’s most prominent Republican supporters, expressed concern Friday that the president’s ambitious blitz of costly initiatives may be enlarging the size of government and the federal debt too much.

“I’m concerned at the number of programs that are being presented, the bills associated with these programs and the additional government that will be needed to execute them,” Mr. Powell said in an excerpt of an interview with CNN’s John King, released by the network Friday morning.

Mr. Powell, a retired U.S. army general who rose to political prominence after a long and accomplished military career, said that health care reform and many of Mr. Obama’s other initiatives are “important” to Americans.

But, he said, “one of the cautions that has to be given to the president — and I’ve talked to some of his people about this — is that you can’t have so many things on the table that you can’t absorb it all.”

“And we can’t pay for it all,” said Mr. Powell, who was the first African-American to serve as secretary of state, under former President George W. Bush. He was also national security adviser to President Reagan, and was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993.

Guess Obama did not deliver a plum appointment for Colin and now he feels free to lecture the President.

But, we all know what a fair weather friend Colin is, now don’t we?

Wow!

What a story.

When Martin Jones met his wife four years ago he never imagined that one day he would get to see what she looked like.

The 42-year-old builder was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago.

But a remarkable operation – which implants part of his tooth in his eye -  has now pierced his world of darkness.

The procedure, performed less than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin.

‘The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her,’ he said today.

‘She’s wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.’

Congrats to this chap and to the eye surgeons who have perfected this procedure.

Oops, somebody miscalculated here.

With concerns rising about a possible North Korean long-range missile test this weekend, two independent scientists say the regime may be using an old Soviet ballistic missile to boost a rocket capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States.

North Korea is not known to have nuclear warheads and faces years of research and testing before building such a reliable weapon.

But the scientists say that if North Korea does have such a Russian-made ballistic missile in its arsenal, it could modify the rocket into a two-stage missile that could reach Seattle, Wash., carrying a 900-kilogram warhead, or San Francisco carrying a 700-kilogram charge.

The design of a long-range missile tested by North Korea last April “represents a very significant advance in rocket technology,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Ted Postol and Union of Concerned Scientists’ David Wright in a June 29 assessment published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Using data and imagery from North Korea’s April 4 launch, Postol and Wright calculated that the second stage of the North Korean rocket had the external dimensions, engine power and key features of an SS-N 6, a Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile first deployed in 1968.

Their theory is at odds with U.S. officials’ skepticism of the recent North Korean long-range missile launch, dismissed as a failure.

Missile expert and former U.N. arms inspector Mike Elleman cautioned against assuming that the similarities between the external dimensions of the North Korean second stage and the SS-N 6 mean that the two are the same technology.

But Elleman added that the coincidence is hard to explain.

Geoffrey Forden, another missile expert with MIT, sees merit in the Russian missile theory and believes North Korea may have its own production line for SS-N 6 missile components.

Guess President Obama might reverse his cuts in the National Missile Defense Program now, eh?

Stay tuned…….

Normally I like Jonah Goldberg’s work but today he resumes the “in the tank” mentality for Mitt Romney at National Review in this piece.

The subhead says it all:

A Letter to Sarah Palin

Stay home and do your job and your homework.

Please Jonah and National Review. Why don’t you just tell this “unqualified” Alaska Governor woman to just stay home and bake cookies.

Sure, you guys want Mitt Romney – and why that is – is due to the fact he has pumped money into your fledgling magazine and your careers, but sheesh. If Palin wants to run now or later – let her do it her way – even with all of the carping from the LEFT and Romney right.

I was disappointed in the National Review during the 2008 GOP Presidential season and continue to be. As a conservative voice of reason you have lost your way.

Of course, Chris, Obama has a ready supply of Che and Mao shirts. They sit in his closet next to the hamper with all of the RED diapers as remembrances from his Administration staff.

This coziness with the world-wide LEFT gives me pause. What is Obama selling?

And, is he selling out America?

Time will tell.

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