NY Times Slams Hillary Clinton's "Experience" Claims

Well, it's about time. Today's NY Times really took Senator Clinton to the woodshed over her claims of experience, accusing her of speaking in broad generalities and not specifics about her time as First Lady, and in the process damaging the view that she's the most experienced presidential candidate. A must read.

The Long Run
The Résumé Factor: Those 8 Years as First Lady

By PATRICK HEALY
As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton jaw-boned the authoritarian president of Uzbekistan to leave his car and shake hands with people. She argued with the Czech prime minister about democracy. She cajoled Roman Catholic and Protestant women to talk to one another in Northern Ireland. She traveled to 79 countries in total, little of it leisure; one meeting with mutilated Rwandan refugees so unsettled her that she threw up afterward.

But during those two terms in the White House, Mrs. Clinton did not hold a security clearance. She did not attend National Security Council meetings. She was not given a copy of the president’s daily intelligence briefing. She did not assert herself on the crises in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda.

And during one of President Bill Clinton’s major tests on terrorism, whether to bomb Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998, Mrs. Clinton was barely speaking to her husband, let alone advising him, as the Lewinsky scandal sizzled.

In seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton lays claim to two traits nearly every day: strength and experience. But as the junior senator from New York, she has few significant legislative accomplishments to her name. She has cast herself, instead, as a first lady like no other: a full partner to her husband in his administration, and, she says, all the stronger and more experienced for her “eight years with a front-row seat on history.”

Her rivals scoff at the idea that her background gives her any special qualifications for the presidency. Senator Barack Obama has especially questioned “what experiences she’s claiming” as first lady, noting that the job is not the same as being a cabinet member, much less president.

And late last week, Mr. Obama suggested that more foreign policy experts from the Clinton administration were supporting his candidacy than hers; his campaign released a list naming about 45 of them, and said that others were not ready to go public. Mrs. Clinton quickly put out a list of 80 who were supporting her, and plans to release another 75 names on Wednesday.

Mrs. Clinton’s role in her most high-profile assignment as first lady, the failed health care initiative of the early 1990s, has been well documented. Yet little has been made public about her involvement in foreign policy and national security as first lady. Documents about her work remain classified at the National Archives. Mrs. Clinton has declined to divulge the private advice she gave her husband.

An interview with Mrs. Clinton, conversations with 35 Clinton administration officials and a review of books about her White House years suggest that she was more of a sounding board than a policy maker, who learned through osmosis rather than decision-making, and who grew gradually more comfortable with the use of military power.

Her time in the White House was a period of transition in foreign policy and national security, with the cold war over and the threat of Islamic terrorism still emerging. As a result, while in the White House, she was never fully a part of either the old school that had been focused on the Soviet Union and the possibility of nuclear war or the more recent strain of national security thinking defined by issues like nonstate threats and the proliferation of nuclear technology.

Associates from that time said that she was aware of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and what her husband has in recent years characterized as his intense focus on them, but that she made no aggressive independent effort to shape policy or gather information about the threat of terrorism.

She did not wrestle directly with many of the other challenges the next president will face, including managing a large-scale deployment — or withdrawal — of troops abroad, an overhaul of the intelligence agencies or the effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons technology. Most of her exposure to the military has come since she left the White House through her seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

When it came to the regional conflicts in the Balkans, she, along with many officials, was cautious at first about supporting American military intervention, though she later backed air strikes against the Serbs and the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

Her role mostly involved what diplomats call “soft power” — converting cold war foes into friends, supporting nonprofit work and good-will endeavors, and pressing her agenda on women’s rights, human trafficking and the expanded use of microcredits, tiny loans to help individuals in poor countries start small businesses.

Asked to name three major foreign policy decisions where she played a decisive role as first lady, Mrs. Clinton responded in generalities more than specifics, describing her strategic roles on trips to Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, India, Africa and Latin America.

Asked to cite a significant foreign policy object lesson from the 1990s, Mrs. Clinton also replied with broad observations. “There are a lot of them,” she said. “The whole unfortunate experience we’ve had with the Bush administration, where they haven’t done what we’ve needed to do to reach out to the rest of the world, reinforces my experience in the 1990s that public diplomacy, showing respect and understanding of people’s different perspectives — it’s more likely to at least create the conditions where we can exercise our values and pursue our interests.”

Crisis at Home and Terror Afar

There were times, though, when Mrs. Clinton did not appear deeply involved in some of Mr. Clinton’s hardest moments on national security. He faced a major one in 1998 — the bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and subsequently whether to bomb Afghanistan and Sudan. Just days after he acknowledged to his wife, the public and a grand jury that he had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Mr. Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on targets suspected to be a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and a chemical weapons factory in Sudan.

“It was the height of Monica, and they were barely talking to each other, if at all,” said one senior national security official who spoke with both Clintons during that time.

Asked if she talked to the president about the military choices or advised him, regardless of their personal problems, Mrs. Clinton was elliptical.

“I was very proud of him, he did what he thought he was supposed to do as president based on the best intelligence he had,” she said. “And he was well aware that there would be those that would certainly criticize him for it.”

Friends of Mrs. Clinton say that she acted as adviser, analyst, devil’s advocate, problem-solver and gut check for her husband, and that she has an intuitive sense of how brutal the job can be. What is clear, she and others say, is that Mr. Clinton often consulted her, and that Mrs. Clinton gained experience that Mr. Obama, John Edwards and every other candidate lack — indeed, that most incoming presidents did not have.

“In the end, she was the last court of appeal for him when he was making a decision,” said Mickey Kantor, a close Clinton friend who served as trade representative and commerce secretary. “I would be surprised if there was any major decision he made that she didn’t weigh in on.” (Mr. Clinton declined an interview request.)

But other administration officials, as well as opponents of Mrs. Clinton, are skeptical that the couple’s conversations and her 79 trips add up to unique experience that voters should reward. She was not independently judging intelligence, for the most part, or mediating the data, egos and agendas of a national security team. And, in the end, she did not feel or process the weight of responsibility.

Susan Rice, a National Security Council senior aide and State Department official under Mr. Clinton who now advises Mr. Obama, said Mrs. Clinton was not involved in “the heavy lifting of foreign policy.” Ms. Rice also took issue with a recent comment by a Clinton campaign official that Mrs. Clinton was “the face of the administration in foreign affairs.”

“Making tough decisions, responding to crises, making the bureaucracy implement decisions that they may not want to implement — that’s the hard part of foreign policy,” Ms. Rice said. “That’s not what Mrs. Clinton was asked or expected to do as first lady.”

Not Overstepping Her Bounds

Mrs. Clinton said in the interview that she was careful not to overstep her bounds on national security, relying instead on informal access. During the preinaugural transition, for instance, she sat in on some meetings about presidential appointments at the invitation of Warren Christopher, who directed the transition and became secretary of state in the first Clinton term. Participants recalled that she would mostly speak when Mr. Christopher called on her, and tended to make points about placing more women, minority members and allies in key jobs.

She said she did not attend National Security Council meetings, nor did she have a security clearance — though she was briefed on classified intelligence before going on some important diplomatic trips.

“I don’t recall attending anything formal like the National Security Council,” she said, “because I had direct access to all of the principals. I spent a lot of time with the national security adviser, the secretary of state, other officials on the security team for the president. I thought that was both more appropriate, but also more efficient.”

Mrs. Clinton declined to say if she ever read the President’s Daily Brief, a rundown of the latest intelligence and threats to national security provided to the president each day. “I would put that in the category of I-never-talk-about-what-I-talk-to-my-husband-about,” she said. But she indicated, and other administration officials confirmed, that Mr. Clinton would sometimes talk to her about contents of the briefing.

“Let me say generally, I’m very aware of and familiar with what the P.D.B.’s actually are, how they work, what they include,” she said. “And it wasn’t always through the Clinton administration — when I went to Bosnia, for example, I had a full briefing from the military commanders there about what the situation was like.”

Mrs. Clinton said she was “only tangentially involved” in Mr. Clinton’s first major overseas test, whether to send American soldiers after the Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid and his forces, a raid that ended in 18 American deaths. Asked if she had pressed for an invasion, she said she had acted “more as a sounding board” for Mr. Clinton.

The same was true during the military confrontation in Haiti in 1994, over restoring the exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which she favored and drew lessons from about joint command of American armed forces.

Asked about her role in Somalia and Haiti, Mr. Christopher said in an interview, “She wasn’t at any of the meetings in the Oval Office or cabinet room, and didn’t take any formal role that I saw.” Mr. Christopher is supporting Mrs. Clinton for president.

Nor was Mrs. Clinton a memorable player on Rwanda. Former White House officials say that no one — not the national security team, not the president, not the first lady — was seriously pushing for American military intervention to stop or slow the unfolding genocide there; the administration’s focus was on confronting the ethnic bloodshed in the Balkans. Mrs. Clinton declined to comment on Rwanda.

A Stand for Women’s Rights

The foreign policy achievement most often credited to Mrs. Clinton came in 1995, with her speech to the United Nations conference on women in Beijing, where she declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” She also tangled with Chinese officials, she said, and refused to bow to pressure to soften her remarks.

“She had a good balance of being firm on these issues, even if they clearly covered Chinese sins, but also understanding the need for good relations with China,” said Winston Lord, then the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, who briefed and accompanied her on the trip.

In visits to Bosnia and Kosovo after the American-led bombing of Serbia, she entered war zones before officials believed it was safe for her husband to go and acted as a spokeswoman for American interests rather than as a negotiator. Mrs. Clinton had become a champion of the bombing campaign, and many officials — including Madeleine K. Albright and Richard Holbrooke in the administration and Tony Blair, then Britain’s prime minister — turned to her at times to stiffen Mr. Clinton’s resolve to take on Serbia.

“Bill, you’re the president,” was a refrain that several administration officials said she used when Mr. Clinton was torn between his advisers.

Mrs. Clinton has disagreed with Mr. Obama’s support for presidential-level talks with leaders of nations like Iran and North Korea, but she said that the Balkans had taught her another lesson: know your enemy. She praised Gen. Wesley K. Clark, then the NATO commander, and Mr. Holbrooke, the administration’s envoy on the Balkans, for socializing and drinking with Serbia’s leader, Slobodan Milosevic, as a means of gauging his strengths.

“He’s there — you don’t learn something about him by pointing at him across the ocean,” she said. “If you do have to engage in a bombing campaign, you’re going to have a much better idea of how much pressure it’s going to take to finally break him.”

Her personal interests also drew her to Northern Ireland, where she believed she could help foster peace as a female leader bringing together women split by the sectarian divide. She played host to a memorable meeting, one of the first of its kind, of Catholic and Protestant women in Belfast. “It gave everybody a safe place to come together and start talking about what they had in common,” Mrs. Clinton said.

As she prepared to run for the Senate, Mrs. Clinton took increasing interest in Israel and Middle East peace, touchstones for Jewish voters, among others, in New York. She was not at the Camp David talks in the summer of 2000, but she did pepper the Middle East peace envoy, Dennis Ross, with questions, like whether the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat was too much the revolutionary to ever make peace, Mr. Ross recalled.

The Middle East situation led to Mrs. Clinton’s first big foreign policy-related problem as a candidate. In 1999, she sat silently, but with apparent discomfort, through an event on the West Bank as Suha Arafat, the wife of Mr. Arafat, accused Israel of poisoning Palestinian women and children with toxic gases.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, who at that point seemed likely to be her Republican opponent in the 2000 Senate race, sharply criticized Mrs. Clinton for not confronting Mrs. Arafat over her remarks and for kissing her goodbye afterward; the incident also led some Jewish groups to be critical of the first lady.

Mrs. Clinton has often said that she learned from the experience and would not make the same mistake again.

On Wearing My "Obama 08" Cap and News Media Thoughts

I made this quick video while in the Denver Airport on the way to Atlanta. I am reporting on wearing my Obama 08 Cap and some observations on how the media mis-portrays America.

Merry Christmas!

Just a Merry Christmas I'm having, and I hope you are too! And a Happy New Year's coming up!

Obama Ahead of Clinton and Edwards In Iowa Legislative Endorsements - Iowa Independent

The Iowa Independent reports that Senator Obama's ahead of Clinton and Edwards in endorsements by Iowa law-makers in the legislature, 20 to 19. Obama gained the backing of Wayne Ford on Sunday.

Roger Clemens Video Stating He Did Not Use Steroids

Roger Clemens made this video stating "No. I did not use steroids, human growth hormones, or anything". He states that he's angry and will sit down with Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes and "Do the whole thing over again."

I too am angry over the witch hunt that's taken place regarding this issue. At some point, there will be a major legal backlash.

Brian O'Neill's Crusade Against Hillary Clinton For President

Wow. There are a lot of anti-Clinton trolls out there. Here's one man by the name of Brian O'Neill, who's been spooking the Clinton website for awhile now...

"The Spank Dance" At Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, Nevada

This is a crazy dance that's done to celebrate one's birthday at the Grand Sierra Resort Hotel in Reno, Nevada. The folks from the band Clear Blue 22 were in on the act and acting at MCs' too.



If you're wondering what I was doing here, I was on layover and on the way to Mom's for Christmas in Georgia!

Hillary Clinton Asks Iowa To Vote On Jan 14th, not Jan 3rd | BIG MISTAKE

Clinton talks about experience, but what about judgement? Whatever terrible judgement led to this big error, it's done, this is a big Iowa error. Now the Clinton people are rushing to cover it up.

Clinton urges Iowa voters to caucus on wrong day! (Reuters)

DES MOINES (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton may have shot herself in the foot trying to get Iowa voters to pledge support to her -- she is encouraging them to caucus on January 14, 11 days too late.

At a rally featuring her husband, former President Bill Clinton on Saturday, campaign workers asked supporters to sign and mail cards that said "Yes! I'm an Iowan for Hillary" with their contact information as well as other supportive friends.

One small problem. In the upper right-hand corner of the card, it says "I, _____, pledge to support Hillary Clinton at my precinct caucus on January 14, 2008."

Unfortunately, that's 11 days too late. The Iowa caucuses are January 3 and organization is key to getting voters to go to the events and support their preferred candidate.

The Politico.com, an Internet site that specializes in politics and first reported the mistake, said at Bill Clinton's second event on Saturday the cards had the wrong date crossed out and replaced with the correct date.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Todd Eastham)

"Mitt Romney Should Not Be The Next President" - Concord Monitor

Wow. This says it all. I agree, too!!

Romney should not be the next president
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Monitor staff
December 22. 2007 3:00PM


If you were building a Republican presidential candidate from a kit, imagine what pieces you might use: an athletic build, ramrod posture, Reaganesque hair, a charismatic speaking style and a crisp dark suit. You'd add a beautiful wife and family, a wildly successful business career and just enough executive government experience. You'd pour in some old GOP bromides - spending cuts and lower taxes - plus some new positions for 2008: anti-immigrant rhetoric and a focus on faith.

Add it all up and you get Mitt Romney, a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped.

Romney's main business experience is as a management consultant, a field in which smart, fast-moving specialists often advise corporations on how to reinvent themselves. His memoir is called Turnaround - the story of his successful rescue of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City - but the most stunning turnaround he has engineered is his own political career.

If you followed only his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, you might imagine Romney as a pragmatic moderate with liberal positions on numerous social issues and an ability to work well with Democrats. If you followed only his campaign for president, you'd swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you're left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core.

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1994, he boasted that he would be a stronger advocate of gay rights than his opponent, Ted Kennedy. These days, he makes a point of his opposition to gay marriage and adoption.

There was a time that he said he wanted to make contraception more available - and a time that he vetoed a bill to sell it over-the-counter.

The old Romney assured voters he was pro-choice on abortion. "You will not see me wavering on that," he said in 1994, and he cited the tragedy of a relative's botched illegal abortion as the reason to keep abortions safe and legal. These days, he describes himself as pro-life.

There was a time that he supported stem-cell research and cited his own wife's multiple sclerosis in explaining his thinking; such research, he reasoned, could help families like his. These days, he largely opposes it. As a candidate for governor, Romney dismissed an anti-tax pledge as a gimmick. In this race, he was the first to sign.

People can change, and intransigence is not necessarily a virtue. But Romney has yet to explain this particular set of turnarounds in a way that convinces voters they are based on anything other than his own ambition.

In the 2008 campaign for president, there are numerous issues on which Romney has no record, and so voters must take him at his word. On these issues, those words are often chilling. While other candidates of both parties speak of restoring America's moral leadership in the world, Romney has said he'd like to "double" the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, where inmates have been held for years without formal charge or access to the courts. He dodges the issue of torture - unable to say, simply, that waterboarding is torture and America won't do it.

When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.

Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.

Dallas Morning News Endorses Barack Obama For President

U.S. Senator Barack Obama added another high-profile endorsement to his growing list of them, this one from the Dallas Morning News. Here's what the DMN wrote today:

We Recommend: Barack Obama
Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, December 23, 2007

America is at a historic crossroads as a woman, a Hispanic and an African-American vie for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Two of those candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were finalists for our recommendation – not because of ethnicity or gender but because they most closely aligned with our positions on major domestic and international issues.

Mr. Obama is our choice because of his consistently solid judgment, poise under pressure and ability to campaign effectively without resorting to the divisive politics of the past.

Race is not an overriding factor for us. But it is undeniable that America has failed to heal its racial wounds, including here in Dallas. We need a motivated leader capable of confronting the problem, and no candidate is better equipped than Mr. Obama. His message isn't about anger and retribution. It's about moving forward.

There's been lots of noise about his lack of experience. It is a legitimate concern, considering he's a 46-year-old first-term senator. But Mr. Obama's experience in elective office matches that of Abraham Lincoln before he became president. And he has served more time on Capitol Hill than four of the past five White House occupants.

If youthful inexperience were such a liability, it has failed to resonate despite his opponents' best efforts. Mrs. Clinton, by contrast, flip-flopped over a plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Her campaign accepted donations from questionable sources. When Mr. Obama's support recently surged in early primary states, her campaign tried to smear him over drug use in his youth.

It's a tired ploy that has failed in four previous presidential elections. Bill Clinton twice won election after admitting he'd smoked (but not inhaled) marijuana. George W. Bush won despite an alcohol problem and drunken-driving conviction at age 30.

Mrs. Clinton called Mr. Obama "irresponsible" and "naive" for saying he would talk to leaders of rogue nations like Syria and Iran. Considering the current failed strategy of confrontation and diplomatic isolation, we think Mr. Obama is wise to include direct negotiations among his tools to reduce regional tensions.

Mr. Obama drew criticism for saying he would pursue terrorists, if necessary, by sending troops into Pakistan. The fact is, U.S. troops have been going into Pakistan for years in pursuit of terrorists. All Mr. Obama did, in effect, was to keep that option open for the future. To say otherwise is to declare Pakistan a sanctuary for America's enemies.

Mr. Obama, the son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father, spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

His life experience gives him a unique perspective and a greater ability to build diplomatic bridges.

We don't always agree with his positions, but we recognize his potential to unite disparate political factions and restore cooperation between the White House and Capitol Hill.

Americans are tired of divisive, hard-edged politics. Democrats would inspire a refreshingly new approach by choosing Mr. Obama as their 2008 candidate.

Barack Obama Ahead of Clinton in NH; McCain Gains On Romney in NH

Just on the heels of a poll that had Clinton ahead of Obama in New Hampshire and which I stated was misleading , USA Today / Gallup has released a new poll that reports Obama is ahead of Clinton 30 percent to 28 percent, according to the Boston Globe.

Meanwhile, John McCain is rising in the same state; he's only behind Mitt Romney by three percent, 28 percent to 25 percent.

On CNN, Jennifer Donahue Blasts Hillary Clinton For Playing "Race Card" On Obama; Clinton Advisor David Gergen Can't Stand Truth

Jennifer Donahue, who's a political pundit and Senior Advisor for Political Affairs at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, gets my award for a major act of courage.

Thursday night, on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, Jennifer Donahue blasted the Hillary Clinton campaign for using the race card against Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Race. She was on the show with Cooper, Clinton Advisor and Political Consultant David Gergen, and CNN contributor Jeffrey Toobin. Whereas Toobin and Gergen were circumspect in their way of addressing the matter, Donahue was right on.

This seemed to rankle Gergen.

Gergen tried to hide his anger at the mere mention of race and Clinton campaign strategy, but he's angry because deep down he knows they've taken a path of trying to "Willie Horton" Barack Obama. Look, Gergen's a Clinton Advisor -- something Anderson Cooper didn't mention -- and this is the second time in as many weeks he's tried to protect or soften a person's attack of a Clinton campaign tactic, beit Carl Bernstein who claimed the Clinton's were being desperate, or now.

Gergen's openly using the CNN platform to help Hillary Clinton's campaign for president. Thus, he's fair game to be denounced.

The simple fact is that with the Clinton Campaign having both volunteers and paid campaign staffers who worked to launch a race-based smear campaign against Obama, starting with planting the idea that he's Muslim -- a total lie -- they have indeed played the "race card" and Gergen knows it.

For Gergen to argue otherwise is in itself advancing a lie. For CNN to allow Gergen to do this without revealing that he's a Clinton operative is just aiding and abetting the advance of the same lie.

I noticed that no one bothered to claim that Hillary Clinton was playing the "sex card" when she said the "boys were ganging up" on her.

Geez. David, you should know -- indeed, you do know -- that people make some views of others based on racial stereotypes and that the Clintons have been playing to those stereotypes.

To the woodshed with Gergen! His assertions to the contrary are an outrage! Thankfully, the main stream media, like the Washington Post , is picking up on this terrible approach.

NY Jets WR Laveranues Coles Placed On IR - ESPN

Coles has a terrific statistical record, but needs to be on a team that knows how to employ his talent.

Ankle injury ends season two games early for Jets receiver Coles

By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com

Veteran wide receiver Laveranues Coles, who has battled through a high ankle sprain that has affected his productivity for the past month, was placed on injured reserve by the New York Jets on Saturday afternoon, ending his season with two games remaining.

One of the toughest players in the league, and blessed with a high threshold for pain, Coles nonetheless struggled after spraining his left ankle in a Nov. 18 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite a noticeable limp at times, one that forced him to miss practice time, Coles stayed in the lineup.

He aggravated the injury last week when he fell off the training table on Saturday night at the team hotel, then attempted to play against the New England Patriots. Coles lasted only one offensive snap before he was forced to the sideline.
Earlier in the season, Coles, 29, suffered a head injury against Buffalo that forced him to miss one contest, snapping a streak of 104 consecutive appearances.
In 12 games this season, Coles, who is regarded as one of the veteran leaders in the New York locker room, had 55 catches for 646 yards and six touchdowns.
A former Florida State star, Coles was selected by the Jets in the third round of the 2000 draft. He signed with Washington as a restricted free agent in 2003, but then after two seasons with the Redskins was traded back to the Jets for wide receiver Santana Moss in a 2005 blockbuster deal.
The eight-year veteran has 561 receptions for 7,245 yards and 37 touchdowns in 121 regular-season games. He has seven straight seasons of 50 catches or more and has notched four seasons with 80-plus receptions and three years with 1,000 yards or more.
Len Pasquarelli covers the NFL for ESPN.com.

Family of girl to sue CIGNA over her death- Shameful

This is a classic, yet deadly and tragic case of when greed and financial circumstances clash with life.

Associated Press

The family of a 17-year-old girl who died hours after her health insurer reversed its previous decision and said it would pay for a liver transplant planned to sue CIGNA HealthCare, their attorney said Friday.

Attorney Mark Geragos said he also plans to ask the district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against CIGNA HealthCare for the death of Nataline Sarkisyan.

The insurer "maliciously killed her" because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, Geragos said at a news conference outside his downtown Los Angeles office. He did not say when or in what court he would file the suit.

District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons declined to comment on the request for murder or manslaughter charges, saying it would be inappropriate to do so until Geragos submits evidence supporting his request.

Nataline died Thursday at about 6 p.m. at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks before she was taken off life support at 5:20 p.m. with the family's approval.

Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication, however, that caused her liver to fail.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant, saying the procedure was experimental and outside the scope of coverage.
"They took my daughter away from me," said Nataline's father, Krikor, who appeared at the news conference with his 21-year-old son, Bedros.

About 150 teenagers and nurses had protested outside CIGNA's office in Glendale on Thursday. As the protesters rallied, the company reversed its decision and said it would approve the transplant.

Despite the reversal, CIGNA said in an e-mail statement before she died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in Nataline's case.

"Our hearts go out to Nataline and her family as they endure this terrible ordeal," the company said. "CIGNA HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant."

Asked to respond to the developments at Friday's news conference, CIGNA issued another statement reiterating its sympathy.

"Their loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them," the statement said. "We deeply hope that the outpouring of concern, care and love that are being expressed for Nataline's family help them at this time."

In their letter, the UCLA doctors said patients in situations similar to Nataline's who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.

One of the doctors, Robert Venick, declined to comment on Nataline's case when reached at his office Friday.

Mitt Romney Tells Lie: Father Did Not March With Martin Luther King - "Fudging" The Truth

Gloves to cover dirty hands of one who fudges the truth

Well, the long string of mistatements, flip-flops, and now an outright lie continues. It turns out, according to The Detroit Free Press, that former Governor and now Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney lied when he said that his father marched with Martin Luther King. So now, can we -- are we free to assume that -- state that his claim that he cried when he listened to the news that the Mormon Church elected to allow Black priests is false?

Romney fields questions on King
Campaign says claim not literal

December 20, 2007

BY TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he watched his father, the late Michigan Gov. George Romney, in a 1960s civil rights march in Michigan with Martin Luther King Jr.
On Wednesday, Romney's campaign said his recollections of watching his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant to be figurative.
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"He was speaking figuratively, not literally," Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the candidate.
The campaign was responding to questions raised by the Free Press and other media after a Boston publication challenged the accuracy of Mitt Romney's account.
In a major speech on faith and politics earlier this month in Texas, Mitt Romney said: "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."
He made a similar statement Sunday during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said, "You can see what I believed and what my family believed by looking at our lives. My dad marched with Martin Luther King. My mom was a tireless crusader for civil rights."
Romney's campaign cited various historical articles, as well as a 1967 book written by Stephen Hess and Washington Post political columnist David Broder, as confirmation that George Romney marched with King in Grosse Pointe in 1963.
"He has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb," Hess and Broder wrote in "The Republican Establishment: The Present and Future of the GOP."
Free Press archives, however, showed no record of King marching in Grosse Pointe in 1963 or of then-Gov. Romney taking part in King's historic march down Woodward Avenue in June of that year.
George Romney told the Free Press at the time that he didn't take part because it was on a Sunday and he avoided public appearances on the Sabbath because of his religion.
Romney did participate in a civil rights march protesting housing bias in Grosse Pointe just six days after the King march. According to the Free Press account, however, King was not there.
Broder could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
The Boston Phoenix reported Wednesday it could find no evidence that Romney and King ever marched together.
Mitt Romney's older brother, Detroit attorney Scott Romney, said he recalls his father telling him the elder Romney marched with King, possibly in 1963, but he could not remember exactly when the event took place.
Fehrnstrom called the Romney brothers' recollection and the historical materials a "pretty convincing case that George Romney did march with Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders in Michigan."
The governor's record was one of supporting civil rights. He helped create the state's first civil rights commission and marched at the head of a protest parade in Detroit days after violence against civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
Mitt Romney's campaign planned today to further research George Romney's papers for evidence of his march with King.
Free Press Library Director Alice Pepper contributed to this report.

What's "The Zeitgeist" - An Important Point

Some people ask me what Zeitgeist means. Well, it basically means "The sprit of the age" and that's what I try to capture in this blog.

At times that means the content may piss some people off. Like the whole deal with Laure Manautou and the photos -- which aren't on this site save for one tame one -- or the Debra Le Fevre Teacher / Teenager sex controversy.

But the bottom line is that those issues also tend to dominate Technorati, which is the main source I use to make decisions on what goes here -- except politics of course. In this area I'm a stauch supporter of Senator Obama for President and anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that.

But the bottom line is I'm trying to give you a balance of what's going on in the World but via my eyes. See? Hence, Zennie's Zeitgeist.

I find that people in America, my country, are far too neurotic about generally small issues. It seems that people in other countries have less hangups than we do. Perhaps New Media will cause us to relax a bit over time.

"Leave Laure Manaudou Alone" A YouTube Video Plea From chauffeurdebuzz

This YouTubeer issues a plea in French and dressed in drag for the World to leave Laure Manaudou alone:



But not to be outdone, we have Chris Croker getting into the act..Well, someone dubbed his video:



I'm not sure the World's stopped searching for her photos. Wow.

Lakota Nation Cedes From US As We Seek Laure Manaudou Nude Photos

Yep. As most of the World, it seems, is looking for Any Laure Manaudou nude photo set it can find, and we're supporitng either Barack Obama or Ron Paul for President, the Lakota Indian Nation , which is based in the United States, has annouced that it's quitting America and establishing its own nation. Before you laugh, remember that long ago Indian tribes established treaties with the U.S. Government when America was but a wee idea of a country.

Not any more.

But America's growth does not invalidate the treaties, I would think. This is a story to watch.

Lakota withdraw from treaties, declare independence from U.S.

The Lakota Sioux Indians, whose ancestors include Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from all treaties their forefathers signed with the U.S. government and have declared their independence. A delegation delivered the news to the State Department earlier this week.

Portions of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming comprise Lakota country, and the tribe says that if the federal government doesn't begin diplomatic discussions promptly, liens will be filed on property in the five-state region. Here's the news release.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," said Russell Means, a longtime Indian rights activist. "This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically Article 6 of the Constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land.

"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the U.S. and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," he added during a press conference yesterday in Washington.

The new country would issue its own passports and driver licenses, and living there would be tax-free, provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, he said, according to a report from Agence France-Presse.

The Lakota say the United States has never honored the pacts, signed with the Great Sioux Nation in 1851 and 1868 at Fort Laramie, Wyo.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," said Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977.

Means said the "annexation" of native American land had turned the Lakota into "facsimiles of white people."

In 1974, the Lakota drafted a declaration of continuing independence. Their cause got a boost in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Bush administration opposed the measure.

NY Times Says Obama Was "Present" In Illinois For Vote - But THREE PERCENT OF THE TIME

The NY TImes and by extension the Huff Post, are trying to make a big deal out of Barack Obama's Illinois record but seem almost silly doing so.

Out of over 3,000 votes he made, he was only present, but didn't cast a vote three percent of the time.

So where's the story?

No story.

Laure Manaudou Nude Photos Search Dominates Technorati - Six Of Top 15 Searches

The hunger to read about Laure Manadou and see her in the flesh is arguably a World-wide phenomenon. Today, six of the tope 15 searches on the blog directory Technorati are for Laure Manaudou , using tags that have her name spelled in different ways. The photo I included shows this tag breakdown.



What's interesting is that with all of this, U.S. Presidential Ron Paul is still one of the top searches, and I can't remember a day when his name as a tag has not appeared on Technorati. So he has something in common with the "French Mermaid."



As for Laure, I think her standing will continue at least until the matter of who posted the pictures is resolved.



Olympics Video Update:

Britney Spears 16-Year Old Sister Jamie Lynn Gets Pregnant

Wow. I wonder what happened -- well, I know what happened -- to cause this lapse in judgement where Briney Spears's sister Jamie Lynn got knocked up. The question is will she keep the baby? Also, isn't she to young for all of this at 16?

Laure Manaudou Nude Photos and Video Story - Laure Manaudou Feels "Violated" But Source Of Picts Still Not Known

The unfortunate story of Laure Manaudou and the nude photos, which have been made into several kinds of videos like the one below, continues.



It's captured the attention of Europe as people from hundreds of countries have sought online content on the matter of Laure Manaudou's photos. "The French Mermaid" -- once known to a few in Europe -- is now known to manu around the World.

At first, her now ex-lover Luca Martin claimed that the apperance of the photos was not his doing, and that may be, but Canada.com has an account that would certainly seem to set the scene for that kind of behavior on his part:

Italian swimmer Luca Marin has denied putting explicit pictures of his former lover Laure Manaudou on the Internet following their spat at the European short-course swimming championships in Hungary. France's Manaudou, who took gold in the 100m backstroke and 400 metres freestyle in Debrecen, threw away a ring given to her by Marin before arguing with him in front of other swimmers and the camera in the changing rooms on Sunday.
Nude photos and a video of Manaudou have now appeared on the web.

And dontmiss.fr has this translated account:

More is known today about the big clash, which took place between Laure Manaudou and her ex-boyfriend Luca Marin this weekend in Hungary at the European Championships. This one would not have appreciated how Laure would have returned the engagement ring he had given with much love a few weeks ago ... So, Luca has burst into the call room where Laure Manaudou patientait before disputing his women's 200 meters freestyle, in the morning. "He verbally assaulted. She returned," said Patricia Quint, coach of the French national team women.

In other words, Laure Manaudou embarassed Luca Martin in front of "other swimmers" (read: friends) in the changing rooms last Sunday -- just before the photos surfaced online.

But it appears that Luca Martin may not be the only person with an axe to grind against Laure Manaudou. Look at this bio of Laure I got over at RightFielders Women Sports Celebrities:

Laure Manaudou Biography

As a biography, Laure Manaudou was born on October 9, 1986 in Villeurbanne. She has had a stellar career in swimming, which started in the 400 m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she won the gold medal. She became a hero in her native France, as it was the first time France had ever won a gold medal in women’s swimming. Manaudou also won the silver medal in the women’s 800 m freestyle and a bronze in the women’s 100 m backstroke while at Athens as well.

During the 2005 World Aquatics Championship in Montreal, Canada, Manaudou won the women’s 400 m freestyle.

While at the 2006 European Swimming Championship in Budapest, she would win the 800 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, and the 200 m medley.

During the 2007 World Championship in Melbourne, she took the gold in the 400 m freestyle, silver in 800 m freestyle and 100 m backstroke, and a bronze in the 200 m medley.

She had been coached by Philippe Lucas from 2001 through 2007, and announced in May 2007 that she was leaving him to train with Lapresse Nuoto, a swim club in Turin, Italy. She did state that she would still swim for France.

In August 2007, she was kicked off Lapresse Nuoto and it was rumored that Manaudou and chief executive of LaPresse Nuoto club, Paola Penso, had a falling out. Evidently he did not like Manaudou’s attitude during training.

So it seems Paola Penso may also have a reason to spready nude photos of Laure around, but if true that opens up a new can of worms, like how did he get them?

At this point, it's hard, ir not impossble to find more information on Penso as connected with Laure, but it's not a stretch to think they had a relationship that could have gone toward the romantic. But first is first and he was a coach who considered her "difficult."

Here's what other news outlets are reporting:

Swimming star Laure Manaudou says she feels ‘violated’ by online ... Times Online, UK - 1 hour ago France rushed to defend Laure Manaudou, a swimming star and national heroine, yesterday after Italian rivals were blamed for circulating sexually explicit ...

Rocky romance means stormy waters for French swim siren AFP - 2 hours ago PARIS (AFP) — With Beijing on the horizon, she could become one of the greatest Olympic swimmers of all time but French siren Laure Manaudou spent the year ...

Laure Manaudou's heartbreak at nude photos betrayal NEWS.com.au, Australia - 14 hours ago By Amy Dale THE Beijing Olympic preparations of France's gold medallist Laure Manaudou are in disarray with the swimming beauty an emotional wreck after ...

In roles not always best suited or served Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 20 hours ago NOW we know what Laure Manaudou's buttocks look like. If you're interested you can see her naked in the shower. Mark it up as another victory for the ...

Manaudou images posted on internet NEWS.com.au, Australia - Dec 18, 2007 NUDE photos and a video of Olympic and world championship gold medallist Laure Manaudou of France have been posted on the internet. ...

Nude photos posted of swimming glamour girl The Australian, Australia - Dec 18, 2007 NUDE photos of of international swimming's glamour girl Laure Manaudou and her ex-boyfriend Italian swimmer Luca Marin, is accused of posting them. ...

French swimmer in nude pics NEWS.com.au, Australia - Dec 18, 2007 Her Italian swimmer former boyfriend Luca Marin is accused of posting video and pictures of Manaudou, who is the Olympic and world 400m world champion. ...

Former lover Marin denies trying to discredit Manaudou Guardian Unlimited, UK - Dec 18, 2007 MILAN, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Italian swimmer Luca Marin has denied putting explicit pictures of his former lover Laure Manaudou on the internet following their ...

Lillhage stuns Manaudou in 200m freestyle final Malaysia Star, Malaysia - Dec 17, 2007 DEBRECEN (Hungary): Sweden’s Josefin Lillhage scored a surprise victory over France’s Laure Manaudou in the 200m freestyle at the European short course ...

Nude photos shatter swim star Ninemsn, Australia - 10 hours ago By WWOS staff The Olympic preparations of French gold medallist Laure Manaudou have been upset by the release of explicit photos of the champion swimmer. ...

Sports Ticker The Province, Canada - 23 hours ago MOSCOW -- Russia tennis player Anna Chakvetadze escaped unharmed after several men broke into her house in Moscow Tuesday. "Five to six unknown people ...

Clinton Power Lust - Presidential Run Not First Time Hillary Clinton's Copied Bill; She Considered Arkansas Governor, Too

If you check Clinton's Wikipedia listing at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton

You'll find that she considered running for Governor when Bill Clinton didn't -- but the polling tests were not in her favor. Point? It's not the first time she's tried to basically copy and follow Bill: first as governor and now president, with the Senate as a stepping stone. This is certainly a power-hungry couple. The point is, are they really running to improve the country or satisfy a mutual lust for power? I think it's 3 of the first, and 6 of the last.

That's a blog post to write.

I just did.

NH Poll With Clinton Ahead Is Misleading - Only 417 Surveyed and All Older Voters Via Landline Phone

CNN's jumping all over itself to report that Hillary Clinton's ahead of Barack Obama in New Hamshire with this poll. But if you look at the poll, there are two problems: first, it surveys "likely Democratic Voters" which is another way of saying people who have voted before, which is another way of saying older voters.

Second, only 417 people were surveyed, which is not a large sample at all. Over 1,000 people would be better.

Third, it was a phone survey, which means no cell phones were called, just landlines.

I could tell you without looking that Clinton would come out on top here, but even with this, the poll data shows that Obama's ahead of Clinton in undecided voters, and if things go any way like that Fox News focus group were the people were behind Clinton at first, then picked Barack Obama after the last debate, Clinton's in trouble.

Barack Obama Ahead Of Clinton in Iowa 33 to 29; Edwards at 20 In ABC News Poll

ABC reports that Barack Obama's ahead of Hillary Clinton 33 to 29 in Iowa, with John Edwards at 20 percent. But what's interesting and smelly to me is that the Huffington Post didn't report that, electing to go with a more obscure poll that shows John Edwards out in front, instead of reporting on both polls.

That's not right.

Here's the news the Huff Post doesn't want you to see:

Currently, among likely Democratic caucus-goers in this ABC News/Washington Post poll, 33 percent support Obama, 29 percent Clinton and 20 percent Edwards, with single-digit support for the other Democratic candidates

Yep. He's in front, and in of all places an ABC Poll, which is certainly giving them fits, as they've been trying to bury him in subtle ways for months. Not again.

ABC and CNN and Huff Post should deal with the fact that no one trusts them and their attempts to manipulate public opinion are seen as distrespectful of the voting process and of Americans.

Fomer President Bush Dunks Bill Clinton's Foreign Policy Tour Assertion

Stating that he was never aware of such an idea and will not accept the idea, Former President George Bush issued a fast and stern reply to Bill Clinton's comment that the elder Bush would go with him and fly around the World basically undoing the work his son did.

Wow, what a blow.

And the National Review jumped all over him:

Bill Clinton Outdoes Himself
Ladies and gentlemen, one more piece of evidence that Bill Clinton is no longer the least bit careful about what he says, and is used to getting away with little white lies on a regular basis. We've seen him claim to have opposed the Iraq war from the start. We've seen him suggest that the media isn't interested in covering his wife fairly. We've seen him suggest that Barack Obama as president would be "a crapshoot."

And now, he's suggested that former President George H.W. Bush is eager to help his wife repair America's image in the world and undo the image of America created by his own son.

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.

"Well, the first thing she intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again," Clinton said in response to a question from a supporter about what his wife's "number one priority" would be as president.

Bill Clinton: He's a 1992 media-loves-me-and-doesn't-check-my-facts kind of guy in a 2007-2008 world.

Ron Paul Raises $6 Million And Hits Back At Huckabee Using Term Facist

Wow. Ron Paul certainly tells it like it is. But before we get to that, Ron Paul raised $6 million from 55,000 donors. Wow. That's a lot to get in one day. Paul talks about this, and about Mike Huckabee's attempt to bring Christianity into the race.



Paul Campaign Statement Following $6 Million Fundraising Day (12/17/07)

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - Following its historic fundraising day on December 16th, Ron Paul campaign chairman Kent Snyder issued the following statement:

"There is an unprecedented outpouring of grassroots support for Dr. Paul. The message of freedom is powerful and uniting people across America. And, Dr. Paul is the only candidate offering real solutions to the issues Americans care about, with the record to back it up.

"Americans are sick and tired of our broken borders and they know the other candidates are not serious about illegal immigration. Dr. Paul has proposed serious and substentative legislation to fix our immigration problems once and for all.

The $6 million one-day total means the campaign has raised over $18 million this quarter, far exceeding its goal of $12 million.

"Finally, as Americans see the value of their dollar plummet, they know Dr. Paul has devoted his political career to stopping the inflation that makes it impossible for middle-class families to get ahead. Only Dr. Paul has a plan to cut spending, balance budgets and take care of people who have become dependent on government programs.

"Americans spoke loud and clear on December 16th. They want Dr. Paul's solutions."

Media Matters Exposes Wash Posts Dana Milbank As Bad Journalist For Misrepresenting Obama's Heath Care Record

The Washinton Post has a Barack Obama problem. From the untrue Muslim smear article to misquotes, it's clear the Washington Post so badly wants Barack Obama to lose -- and may be working under racist fears -- that it gives displays of bad and unethical journalism in the process.

Consider Dana Milbank.

Dana Milbank is the Washington Post writer who misrepresented Obama's Illinois Health Care record. Media Matters reports..

"Summary: The Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote that Sen. Barack Obama's "signature legislation as a state senator, the Health Care Justice Act, merely set up a panel to craft a plan," not, as Obama claimed, "expanded health care in Illinois by bringing Democrats and Republicans together, by taking on the insurance industry." In fact, Obama sponsored a bill that expanded health insurance programs for low-income families in Illinois. Following that bill's passage, more than 150,000 additional people reportedly received health insurance through the programs."

Whether it be for old-fashioned racism or lobbyist involvement, or both, The Washington Post is developing a terrible, race-based record of opposition to the Obama campaign. They're afraid, it seems, to give the Senator a fair shake in coverage because they know he can win.

Laure Manaudou Nude Photos - More On Unfolding Story

Laure Manadou UPDATE

CLICK TO SEE NEW OLYMPICS VIDEO HERE

My French isn't what it used to be but I'm diving into this anyway. There's more on the matter of Laure Manaudou's nude photos being spread on the Internet. Reportedly there are 20 photos now. But even more, it seems that her ex-lover Luca Marin was not the person who spread the photos. Timedfinals reports...



Clearly not meant for the general public, when news of the pictures came out all eyes immediately turned to her former beau, Italian World Champs medalist Luca Marin, as the source. This was a natural conclusion, particularly since the French and Italian gossip columns were filled with stories of Marin and Manaudou’s verbal altercation at the European Short Course Championships. Apparently the fight was about Manaudou throwing away a ring that Marin had given her.







Marin responded almost immediately to these accusations, however, and told the Gazzetta della Sport, “I have never seen these photos. I saw these images of Laure with great pain on the Italian websites. People are saying that it was me that put them up. This isn’t true…If these absurd insinuations continue I will be forced to act to preserve my reputation.”



For her part, this just turns photogs back to the photogenic Manaudou, who earlier this year expressed her exasperation with the media: "I’ve decided not to talk about my personal life anymore, it doesn’t concern journalists. I would prefer to keep silent about this point."



But with these photos, they'll just keep asking.



And what of this video? What's up with the hotel? Does anyone know enough French to translate? It's time for me to brush up big time!

The Dark Knight Trailer w/ Heath Ledger - Simply One Of The Best Ever Made

In my opinion, this movie trailer you're about to see is one of the best I've ever seen in my life. As a movie of its onw, it's a hit and it in a way places high expectations on what to expect from "The Dark Knight" movie in Summer of 2008 (no specific release date yet.)

This introduces us to a real, dark, Joker, expertly played by Heath Ledger (or is it Heath Leadger?)



UPDATE: As of this writing, Heath Ledger passed away. Click here for more information.

Tired Of Fox and CNN Covered Bias - Well FCC Let's Them Own Newspapers Now

The FCC changed a 32-year-old ban on broadcasters -- who mine the TV airwaves -- from owning newspapers, opening the door to a major round of media consolidation. I personally think this is a terrible blow to the power of New Media to give the "little gal" a voice, as it allows big media to get, well, bigger. The only solace I take is that many employees of large broadcasters and newspapers still don't know what they're doing when it comes to New Media.

Here's the rest of the story from the SF Chronicle:

(12-18) 10:58 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The Federal Communications Commission, overturning a 32-year-old ban, voted Tuesday to allow broadcasters in the nation's 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was joined by his two Republican colleagues in favor of the proposal, while the commission's two Democrats voted against it.
Martin pushed the vote through despite intense pressure from House and Senate members on Capitol Hill to delay it. The chairman, however, has the support of the White House, which has pledged to turn back any congressional action that seeks to undo the agency vote.
At Tuesday's meeting, the chairman described the media ownership proceeding as "the most contentious and divisive issue" to come before him.
That proved true as the two Democrats in the commission blasted the proposal in unusually strong language for the normally sedate agency.
Martin, noting the steady decline in revenue for newspapers, said his proposal "strikes a balance" between the changing media marketplace and the need to protect diversity and competition.
The Democrats blasted the chairman for making changes to the proposal "in the dead of night" and just before the meeting that created new ownership loopholes instead of closing them, as he pledged during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.
"Anybody who thinks our processes are open, thoughtful or deliberative should think twice in light of these nocturnal escapades," said Democrat Jonathan Adelstein.
The Democrat said Martin's proposal "will allow for waivers for six new newspaper-broadcast combinations and 36 grandfathered stations."
Copps described the commission's action as a "terrible decision."
"In the final analysis, the real winners today are businesses that are in many cases quite healthy, and the real losers are going to be all of us who depend on the news media to learn what's happening in our communities and to keep an eye on local government," he said.
Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate described the process as "transparent and thorough." She said the changes proposed are narrow, and hinted she was in favor of a greater liberalization of the media ownership rules.
Fellow Republican Commission Robert McDowell also defended the proposal noted the explosion of new media in the modern marketplace and denied the proposal was "pockmarked with loopholes" as claimed by the Democrats.
Martin, addressing the comment about the new markets, said the great majority were existing combinations that predated the 1975 ownership ban. The others are apparently for stations that are operating under existing waivers.
The cross-ownership ban was approved by the FCC in 1975 to serve "the twin goals of diversity of viewpoints and economic competition." The FCC at the time noted that "it is unrealistic to expect true diversity from a commonly owned station-newspaper combination."
Opponents of the ban say in the past decade there has been an explosion of news outlets thanks to cable television and the Internet and that such restrictions are no longer necessary. Ban supporters say there may be additional outlets, but there has been no corresponding increase in news gatherers and producers, especially at the local level.
On Monday, 25 senators, including four Republicans, sent Martin a letter threatening that if he goes ahead with the vote, they will move legislation to revoke the rule and nullify the commission's action.
But a letter that surfaced late Monday makes it clear the chairman has the full support of the White House. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez wrote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Dec. 4 opposing a Senate bill that would have delayed the vote, "or any other attempt to delay or overturn these revised rules by legislative means."
The agency first tried to loosen the ban in 2003, but the move was rejected by a federal appeals court. Since then, the commissioners have been trying to craft a new set of rules that will survive judicial scrutiny.
Under Martin's proposal, one entity would be permitted to own a newspaper and one broadcast station in the same market.
But it must be among the 20 largest in the nation and following the transaction, at least eight independently owned-and-operated media voices must remain. In addition, the television station may not be among the top four in the market.

Proof Hillary Clinton Will Have Bush BACK In The White House

I'm not kidding here. Look at this CNN article just posted. Man. Just as we're all talking about being rid of the Bush regime, Bill Clinton wants to bring President Bush's dad back to undo the foreign policy errors committed by his son. But look, if that's the case, then you know Bush 1 is not going anywhere without Bush 2, so we'll have President Bush all over again,

My question is this: has Bill Clinton lost it? It's also more proof that Barack Obama's the only real "change" candidate.

Read:

Bill Clinton: George H.W. Bush will help President Hillary

Bill Clinton said former president George H.W. Bush will help fix damage done to America's reputation by his son, George W. Bush.

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.

"Well, the first thing she intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again," Clinton said in response to a question from a supporter about what his wife's "number one priority" would be as president.

A spokesman for the George H.W. Bush was not immediately available to comment on whether the former president would chip in some diplomatic help after his son leaves office next year.

Clinton and the elder Bush, rivals in the 1992 presidential election, have grown chummy in recent years, often traveling and appearing at public events together. In 2005, they started a charity to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Karen Weatherby "Looking At Boobs Is Good For You" Research Is A Hoax

Yep. The "big find" of a Dr. Karen Weatherby stating that "Looking At Boobs Is Good For You" is a hoax. Period. It's not real and doesn't exist at all.

So there's nothing to the idea that looking at a well-endowed woman will make you live longer.

RATS! But I'm a leg man, anyway. Someone should do a study on that one.

Laure Manaudou Nude Photos Posted Days After She Took Gold in 400M Freestyle

CLICK TO SEE VIDEO HERE

Laure Manaudou's a 20-year-old World Class swimmer from France who's so famous she's been knighted, and who took the 400 metres freestyle in Europe last weekend. But rather than bask in the sun of a victory Laure Manaudou has to deal with how nude pictures of her surfaced on the Internet.



Personally, I think the photos are from her ex-future husband Luca Martin, who was dumped by Laure Manaudou for Friench swimmer Benjamin Stasiulis. All of the accounts are in Italian, French, and Spanish, not English, so it takes some digging to determine if this is so.



But I think so. Look, Luca's about 20 years old, so it's not like he' used to getting dumped on a regular basis over decades. He's still new to the game. So I think he's scorned and this is his way of striking back.



More on the story here.



Olympics Video Update: