More on the Gibson and Palin interview

As they said on ABC’s Good Morning America, if you asked 500 current white house staffers the Bush doctrine point that Sarah Palin was asked in her interview that she is now being mocked for, most would not know the answer.

And most Americans would disagree with it, if they knew what it was and seriously thought he believed it. There is a difference between tough talk, and tough action.

As for the Google media coverage and headlines,

When I went to Google News to look, I saw a whole slew of articles.

Charles Krauthammer: Palin steals Obama’s fading spotlight

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10444672?source%253Dmost_viewed.20F88DA3D7D369F5BB70F372987EAE1F.html

ABC’s Gibson grilled Palin hard, but it may backfire

http://www.upi.com/news/issueoftheday/2008/09/12/ABCs_Gibson_grilled_Palin_hard_but_it_may_backfire/UPI-81241221234472/

Palin and Gibson re-enact ‘High Noon’ in Alaska

and others with more or less opinionated comments

Many of the articles listed are written by men, by the way, but several of the men ALSO complained about Gibson’s attitude, sexism, and ‘grilling’ behavior, and they are certainly NOT all Republican periodicals. And NOT women!

I thought she was pretty clear–why he kept asking the same question over and over again just seemed an attempt to trip her up, not elucidate anything.

Then he said she gave him a ‘blizzard of words’ which meant he clearly was NOT listening to what she had said.

Having tried to be fair to what she was saying, I do have to say that I am concerned about unsanctioned incursions into Pakistan.

The Israel question was clearly out of line on Gibson’s part, 3 times, 3 same responses, why show it in the edit, and not some other question?

However, I have to say here that any talk of war with Iran makes me nervous–nuclear power plants are the issue here, not nuclear weapons.

If we are REALLY so concerned with them enriching uranium, to the point where we think they might stumble upon weapons grade plutonium ( a huge stumble!!) , why not do what other countries have done successfully, GIVE them the technology and technicians to run it, so it is under the West’s control. We do not need another war, this time with Iran.

And we can see why Pakistan would be nervous, not to say peeved. We bolstered the military regime of Musharraf for how long? Nearly a decade–what about THEIR freedoms?

What about Benazir Bhutto–Musharraf assassinated her before she could win the election, and the USA did NOTHING. Now her widower has won. What happens next? Do we have the right to just go into any country that we don’t agree with?

Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, Iran does not either. Do we cross borders under the guise of looking for Bin Laden and Al Qaeda?

I am also worried about the idea ‘if we have “legitimate and enough intelligence” given how much we know now about how much of his supposed legitimate and enough intelligence was manufactured in recent years.

Finally, Georgia–S Ossetia and one of their provinces want to become part of Russia. Georgia does not want them to breakaway. Both sides are therefore interfering with the autonomy of the people of the region, Russia in Chechnya, Georgia in S Ossetia.

According to Wikipedia, “Virtually the only significant economic asset that South Ossetia possesses is control of the Roki Tunnel that used to link Russia and Georgia, from which the South Ossetian government reportedly obtains as much as a third of its budget by levying customs duties on freight traffic.

“In late 2006, a large international counterfeiting operation stretching from South Ossetia was revealed by U.S. Secret Service and Georgian police.”

I am going to therefore guess that it is an important transport hub and whoever controls it has the ability to move around a lot more at will-traffic goods, drugs, weapons, whatever.

North Ossetia is in Russia, BTW. So one could say the regions want to be united.

Also Wikipedia-The tunnel, completed by the Soviet authorities in 1985, is one of only a handful of routes that cross the North Caucasus Range.

Clearly it is strategically important to both sides; the lives lost are deplorable, and I have to say, I WOULD like to see us live in a world where war is NOT the first solution, but the last resort.

Good luck getting Putin to see that side of things, but I am glad Palin said it.

Gibson just dismissed her point to make one of his own.

My point-she did well all things considered, but she clearly needs to study faster and harder.

On the other hand, no one except a rare few people ever want to be Pres or VP when they grow up, and start planning it from the moment they can talk.

I think Obama IS one of those people, so he is pretty upset that, in the words of quite a few commentators, Palin is now ‘eating Obama’s lunch’

The ABC ratings are soaring, but in summarizing all i have read, Gibson actually seems to have come off the worse of the two despite her obvious missteps (which might not have been so obvious, or looked like such missteps, had the editing been different?)

I did not see the domestic policy interview, but they said she did a lot better there.

I also saw several headlines about ABC ‘planning what to do’ about the tapes–which means they are all being edited–whatever way it suits them to edit it. I used to make films and can tell you I could splice tape to a hair’s breadth. With digital media, you can make a person look or sound like they are literally saying anything.

I am not being paranoid, I am just saying, if the edits last night were anything to go by, we are definitely being given what they want us to see.

I want to hear about the issues, not what journalists think I should be allowed to hear about the issues.

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Debbie Ford is a hypocrite

I just got this in my email box this morning.

http://www.debbiefordnewsletter.com/message.asp?msgid=222

I was so offended by it, I wrote a reply and unsubscribed.

Here is my reply:

I am writing about today’s newsletter entry here because your mailbox there is full, no doubt with other fairminded men and women equally appalled at your post.

Your post is not written with love,as you claim, but nasty accusations of Palin being self-serving, when eldest her son is going to Iraq to serve TODAY, hence the reason for the interview now, she has been spending time with him and getting her governor affairs in order.

I am an H. Clinton Democrat and can’t abide women attacking other women. She has REFUSED to do so on the campaign trail, and Women Count is actually supporting her to try to remove the disgusting sexism from this campaign.

As for her ‘riding roughshod’ over us, polticians need to have a mandate from us and the House and Senate offer checks and balances, so all this talk about abortion is just obscuring the REAL issues and suffering in this country, when there is so much WORK to do, not endless whining and attacking.

You say “use what we see not to beat them up but to find a bigger voice, a voice for true change, a voice for moving forward instead of backward, a voice that respects women, all women, and all their choices.”

and yet in this post you beat her up for being a self-serving beauty queen, and worse still, you beat HER up for her choices, even having a Down’s syndrome child, just like all the MEN in the media who have been attacking her.

What, you think having a disabled child is a media ploy? You have the nerve to say her daughter’s pregnancy is a sign Sarah Palin is a bad mother, rather than that the daughter TOO is FREE TO CHOOSE, the very topic of your message? What a hypocrite you are.

You think OBAMA is that respectful VOICE you speak of? He sure is a voice, all right, but with no substance behind it, so little in fact that all of his best stump speeches these days are ones that H Clinton already gave about the things that REALLY count, health, education, social welfare and so forth.

No one asks Obama if HE can manage to be a good parent and political leader at the same time.

Your hypocrisy in this entire email is breathtaking, and nauseating.

I will be unsubscribing and leave you to deal with your own obvious knee jerk shadows.

–And I have to say it is irresponsible of all these media people with TV shows, lists and so on to be ramming their own personal political opinions down our throats. So much for OUR right to choose! We have the right to choose to agree with them, or else.

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Gibson’s interview of Palin appalling

As a lifelong Democrat, I found Gibson’s actions last night interviewing Sarah Palin totally deplorable, and your edit of the interview not much better.

 

The Bush doctrine has been defined in several ways since Charles Krauthammer first used in in 2001, and by your own journalists. It was a trick question. She gave the right answer the first time.

 

Exact words–nope. We saw the actual video.

 

Your edits–why keep the same Israel question 3 times–you asked, she answered. Trying to make her seem like she is being evasive, “were you,”you just came off as rude and so determined not to listen to a word she said that all you heard was yourself pontificating.

 

Combine that with tone, body language and facial expression, and I have never seen a worse performance from a supposed media professional.

 

Hats off to Palin for not uncrossing her legs and ‘accidentally’ kicking him!

 

I have given up on any hope of any rationality in this election and you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

 

Give us REAL issues, not what YOU or Gibson think they should be.  You may have won the ratings war, because people genuinely want to see what she has to say, but you have lost viewers!

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Oprah shuns Sarah Palin

According to the Blog MommyLife:

http://mommylife.net/

Oprah shuns Sarah Palin

“There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.”

Oprah, who has endorsed Obama wholeheartedly, has hosted Obama twice — in January, 2005 and again in October, 2006.”

This is complete hypocrisy.

I lost my respect for Oprah when she publicly endorsed him before anyone even knew who he was and made him a media rock star. It is ironic that they are now scrambling to hog as much media air time as they can to make sure she does not get any airplay. Even more amusing is the fact that his own advisors have said they can’t let Sarah Palin ‘steal his story’ of humble origins to meteoric rise.

She has been on the national stage for 4 days. Obama for months. He never would have got where he did without Oprah and he knows it. So to have Sarah Palin on would be to risk undoing all the damage to the little darling.

As Sarah Palin said, this is a man who has written two memoirs, but never AUTHORED a single piece of important legislation.

As John McCain said, Obama is a person who is running for president because a-he wants to WIN; b-he thinks it is HIS time and place in history, not that he wants to govern and lead and serve this country. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Obama has proven he will say or do anything to get elected.

His supposedly magnificent speech was everying HILLARY CLINTON argued for when she was running, education, health care. In fact, she has spent her whole life working for those things. Not just paying lip service to them.

No, it is not enough to say that it just shows they are both Democrats. It shows that SHE was the one who would have been able to lead from day one.

Obama may well have 300 foreign policy advisors. Perhaps they flip, he flops? Or is he just cynically manipulating the American people to get what HE wants? He changes position so often watching him is like watching a tennis match.

Oprah said it was not about race, that she was not that small and petty. Well, honey, it sure seems like you ARE small now by not welcoming Sarah Palin on your show to tell her story. Or John McCain. Or Cindy McCain. Or Hillary Clinton.They are certainly a lot more interesting that Obama. Why? Because it is all about HIM. With H. Clinton, Palin and the two McCains, it is all about helping OTHERS.

You talk about giving back? How about just giving fairly?

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Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital Elph Camera

 

The Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital Elph camera has been touted for its

contemporary design and versatility.  Unlike other digital cameras with smaller

LCD displays, the Canon PowerShot offers a wide range of features including its

“face detection” capability to ensure exquisite results.

Other aspects of this camera that consumers are raving about are the compact

design, ease of use, and video components.  In fact, if you are an eBay seller

the Canon PowerShot digital camera affords you the opportunity to display

pictures that are clear and crisp.  Providing pictures with the utmost clarity

can make all the difference when selling items on eBay.

The Canon PowerShot SD1000 offers the following features:

* 7.1-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 15 x 20-inch

prints

* DIGIC III Image Processor; Face Detection Technology and Red-eye Correction

* Vivid, high-resolution 2.5-inch PureColor LCD

* 17 Shooting modes, including 8 Special Scene modes

* ISO 1600 and High ISO Auto settings

* Type of camera: Compact digital still camera with built-in flash, 3x

optical/4x digital zooms

* Digital zoom: 4x

* Focusing range: Normal: 1.0 feet/30 centimeters to infinity; macro: 1.2

inches to 1.6 feet/3 to 50 centimeters (wide), 1.0 to 1.6 feet/30 to 50

centimeters (telephoto); digital macro: 1.2 to 3.9 inches/3 to 10 centimeters

(wide)

* Autofocus system: TTL autofocus

* Viewfinder: Real-image optical zoom viewfinder

* LCD monitor: 2.5-inch low-temperature

polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD

brightness adjustment: 15 levels

* LCD pixels: Approximately 230,000 pixels

* White Balance control: Auto, Preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent,

Fluorescent H), Custom

* Built-in flash: Auto, Auto w/ Red-eye Reduction, Auto w/ Slow Synchro, Flash

On, Flash On w/ Red-eye Reduction, Flash On w/ Slow Synchro, Flash Off

* Shooting modes: Auto, Camera M, Portrait, Special Scene (Foliage, Snow,

Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, Indoor, Kids and Pets), Night Snapshot,

Color Accent, Color Swap, Digital Macro, Stitch Assist, Movie

* Continuous shooting: Approximately 1.7 frames per second (fps)

* Storage media: SD memory card, SDHC memory card, MultiMediaCard

* JPEG compression mode: Still image: Exif 2.2 (JPEG); movie: AVI (image:

Motion JPEG; audio: WAVE (monaural))

* Playback modes File: Still image: Single, Magnification (approximately 2x to

10x), Jump, Auto Rotate, Rotate, Resume, My Category, Histogram, Index (9

thumbnails), Sound Memos, Sound Recorder, Slide Show, Red-eye Correction; Movie:

Normal Playback, Special Playback, Auto Rotate, Resume

* Video out: NTSC/PAL

* Power source: 1. rechargeable lithium battery NB-4L; 2. AC adapter kit

ACK-DC10

* What’s in the box: Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital camera, lithium battery

pack NB-4L, battery charger CB-2LV, SD memory card SDC-32M, wrist strap WS-DC2,

Digital Camera Solution CD-ROM, USB interface cable IFC-400PCU, AV cable

AVC-DC300

* Compatible with Windows Vista

In addition, taking videos on the Canon PowerShot allows you to utilize three

different resolutions which can also be edited and you can add your own

commentary as well.  Or, if you prefer, you can create a slide show for family

and friends.  With June just around the corner, the Canon PowerShot is perfect

for graduation ceremonies, weddings, and for just about any occasion.

Pictures are worth a thousand words.  It’s no wonder that consumers have

touted the Canon PowerShot as the best digital camera available to date.

 

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Lessons in Asset management

Asset management is a concept that people are oftentimes wary of. Although they do want their hard earned money to beget huge yields and interests, people are not always comfortable with the idea of other people managing their money. Add to these doubts the number of stories circulating of investors losing their money because of companies that have folded during the dot.com boom.

But asset management need not be something that you have to be afraid of. In fact, it can be pretty rewarding financially as you are able to spread your money across different investment products. This is better than putting your money in banks where the yield is not even enough to combat the inflation rates of the currency and the rising costs of living. When done the right way, your money can serve you until your retirement. The trick is to find the right asset investment manager and to get involved in the investing.

Below are some lessons on how to start and survive asset management. Read on before you get into the program.

1. Choose your manager wisely

When hiring an asset management person make sure that you know him or her. If you donít know anybody who can do it for you, ask for people to recommend managers that are good. Start asking your families and friends as they will give you more personalized choices. When asking for recommendations and referrals, do a little background check first. Ask how many years the person is working for the one who made the recommendation. Ask for his accomplishment and his track record over the years. A good performance for one person may not be good for another.

Do not just be contented with one referral. Get a lot and then compare each one to the other. That way, you can select the person that you feel is the best among the best. When evaluating their expertise, look both on the paper and in person. Remember that these people are very good with charming their clients. So itís good to base your decisions also on something that is really concrete.

2. Have a say

A common mistake of most people who hire asset management people is once they get someone, they wash their hands of the entire thing. Donít. Show the guy or gal that you want to take an active part in managing your assets. This will prevent any hanky-panky because they know that you are monitoring your money.

Do not give the full control to the manager when it comes to making investment decisions. The final say should always be yours. So before investing in something, the person you hire should first present you with the background of the investment and if possible show other possible investments that are similar to it so that you will have the chance to compare.

Set a general guideline for all investing. An expample of this would be, “I can’t afford to get into anything that has share prices that can vary. Steady income with no risk to my principle is a must.” There is a big difference, for instance, between investing in Bonds and getting into a Bond Fund. The Bond will have a predictable return with no risk to your principle. A Bond Fund will have shares with share prices that can go up or down. In an actual case with such a Bond Fund the interest was $1000 per month and there was a quarterly capital gain of $1000, but the share prices were dropping and the actual value of the fund was static. No actual gain was being made.

3. Learn the biz

It is not enough that you know what the goings on of the asset management are. You also need to understand it. Some people may not give full control to their managers but will sign anything that these managers give them without really understanding what the papers are saying.

Remember that although you have worked with the same person for years or a friend of yours knows him personally, he or she can still rob you of your money. A common occurrance is, the manager needs money for some reason. An unexpected expense, a new house or car, etc. So they call clients and try to get them to move investments from one family of funds to another, getting commissions for each move. Asset management is a risky and cruel business. Make sure that you are prepared to stand guard over your investments.

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Unfair attacks on Sarah Palin

 

I am appalled. This woman showed up at work 3 DAYS after giving birth to show she had no intention of neglecting her child, or hiding it away because it is less than perfect. Now we have men attacking her for supposed future neglect, or even for having the child in the first place?

 

Cherie Blair, Tony Blair’s wife, went through the same issue shortly after he was elected Prime Minister of the UK; no one attacked her as irresponsible.  We know that more downs syndrome babies are born to older moms, but I know two women,  a 21 and a 23 year old, who both ended up in the same situation, so it DOES happen and indeed can happen to anyone.

 

As for neglect, who the hell is any man to talk?  If the child is sick and has to stay home from school, who usually does it. Who is generally earning 70% less wages than a man? Who is often the first to suggest abortion as a way to get rid of an unwanted ‘problem’?

 

She is a Christian who stuck to her principles. She didn’t ditch them just because it was easy. And she certainly has not neglected her son. Rumor mongering about her and her family is as low as anyone has gone here, and let’s just call it what it is , the same blatant SEXISM that pervaded the media and caused Hillary Clinton  to lose what was REALLY the historic bid here, the first woman to make a run for the White House.

 

Jesse Jackson ran for president 24 years ago. Old news, Obama. Sorry. Lyndon Johnson was the one who worked for civil rights legislation and had it put into effect in 1964, long before the ‘movement’. H  Clinton pointed that out, you screamed racism. It was acutally a simple fact.

 

Sarah Palin for VEEP. Old news, sorry, even if on a Republican ticket is a change.

 

But a woman for president? THAT is what has all these guys panicking,”John McCain is quite senior, will he last 4 years? THAT is what this is REALLY all about.

 

I don’t see anyone attacking Obama’s decision to sire 2 kids and potentially pass along any genetic health issues to THEM! Or attacking Palin’s husband for impregnating her! They are upset at her choice,”these are the very people who claim they stand for a woman’s right to choose. Hypocrites, the whole lot of them.

 

It is NO man’s place to criticise any woman for being a mother or even grandmother unless he can be sure he has 100% unimpeachable credentials as a father.  To paraphrase Obama, much as I disagree with him about most other things, any fool can impregnate a woman. It’s what the man is prepared to face by way of responsibility after that fact that makes him a father, or simply a sperm donor.

 

And attacking a teenager is pointless. Even if it WERE true, she would not be the first grannie who ever had to raise a child as their own. It is no one’s business except her family’s, and does not bear in any way upon her ability to do her job, since she has clearly been doing it effectively in Alaska, unlike Obama, who turned up for only 130 votes in 3 YEARS.

 

It is time to get this campaign out of the gutter. I am not and never have been a Republican, and never will be. But can we please stop talking about background nonsense and deal with real issues?

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