Sarah Palin Video Spotlights Ted Cruz and a Mama Grizzly

sarah palin

If anyone was wondering if Sarah Palin is going to weigh in on the 2014 midterm elections, that question was answered today with a resounding yes.

In a video released Wednesday by Sarah Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, she revved up conservatives and tea party Republicans for 2014 with snippets of her Conservative Political Action Conference speech from earlier this month as well as media coverage praising the speech and her string of successful past endorsements.

Titled "Loaded for Bear," the video begins with the praise from the mainstream media she is always quick to criticize as the "lamestream media."

"Sarah Palin stole the show at this weekend's CPAC convention," the video begins. "She is a superstar and she's used that to get people elected."

"She still knows how to fire up the conservative faithful," another television anchor says.

The video's string of media praising her tenacity and endorsement record is a key part of the video and despite some of the coverage being a bit dated, it still helps push her view that she doesn't need a Fox News contract to get her point of view out there or to have the press talking about her.

RELATED: Sarah Palin Compares Obama to Bernie Madoff, Sips From a Big Gulp

The other star of the video is new conservative superstar Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who introduced Palin at CPAC.

"She is fearless, she is principled, she can pick winners," Cruz says in a clip from that introduction. "Sarah Palin jumped in early and supported Rand Paul. She supported Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, Pat Toomey, Nikki Haley, Deb Fischer, Jeff Flake and myself."

Over images of Palin at the Iowa State Fair in 2011-when speculation ran high she would enter the GOP primary-as well as footage from tea party rallies in Nevada, Palin's CPAC speech is interspersed.

"Don't let the big consultants, the big money men and the big bad media scare you off," Palin says. "They talk about re-branding the GOP instead of restoring the trust of the American people. How about re-building the middle class?"

RELATED: What's Next for Sarah Palin

The video then excerpts the part of the former Alaska governor's speech when she goes after Washington, D.C., establishment Republicans and gives a not-so-veiled dig at Karl Rove and others:

"Now is the time to furlough the consultants and tune out the pollsters. Send the focus groups home and toss the political scripts. Don't let them invalidate you," Palin says. "It's time for We the People to break up the cronyism, and that goes for finding candidates. Look into our communities, our PTAs, our service clubs, small businesses, tea party rallies and city halls for people willing to lead."

The video - made by a production company she often uses named Passcode Creative - doesn't just go after members of her own party, but the president as well.

As we hear Palin say, "We deserve better than the people who call themselves our leaders," we see an image of the president playing golf and headlines about the unemployment rate.

Interspersed with video of Palin's greeting supporters and conservative women like New Mexico's Susanna Martinez or Nebraska's Deb Fischer, she warns those watching:

"But we won't get it unless we fight and this is one fight that's worth it," Palin says. "The next election is 20 months away. The last thing we need is Washington, D.C., vetting our candidates."

The video ends with another cameo from Cruz, "I would not be in the U.S. Senate today if it were not for Governor Sarah Palin," and her signature mama grizzly roaring with a popular Palin saying, "We haven't yet begun to fight!"

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Senate hearing spotlights ongoing discord over cybersecurity bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the White House and congressional lawmakers resume talks on legislation to improve U.S. defenses against cyber-attacks, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday signaled that disagreements remain over a House cybersecurity bill, which she called insufficient.

In 2012, identical legislation passed the House of Representatives but died in Democrat-controlled Senate after President Barack Obama threatened to veto it, saying the bill did not have adequate safeguards for privacy and confidentiality, among other things.

Obama signed an executive order in February designed to make it easier for the government to warn private companies of cyberthreats and to set up a system of voluntary cybersecurity standards - a contentious subject for the industry that helped kill broader Democratic legislation last year.

House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers of Michigan reintroduced his bill last month. He recently said his team and the White House were "not that far apart" in the renewed talks about the bill, which focuses on better sharing of information among companies and the government.

The White House has sought a more comprehensive piece of legislation that would also set minimum security standards for critical companies, such as utilities, and provide better protection for private information that may be turned over to the government.

On Thursday, at a hearing on Obama's recently signed cybersecurity executive order, Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia asked Napolitano whether a bill focusing on information sharing without addressing security standards would be sufficient.

"No," Napolitano answered, further adding: "In terms of the House bill, even in the information sharing area, I think there were some deficiencies in it."

She reiterated some of the concerns the White House voiced about the House bill last year, including the information monitoring power being given to the National Security Agency, which is part of the Defense Department.

Patrick Gallagher of National Institute of Standards and Technology was tasked with setting voluntary minimum standards in the executive order. He reiterated the hope for good cooperation with the private sector in drafting such standards.

"Cybersecurity doesn't lend itself to simple solutions," he said at the joint hearing by the Senate's Homeland Security and Commerce committees. "Even with information sharing, when you're going to provide threat information to the private sector, they have to have the capacity to act on that information."

(This story is corrected to clarify the identical House of Representative measure died in the Senate, not House)

(Reporting by Deborah Charles and Alina Selyukh; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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