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What we're following:
- Supreme Court halts killer's execution in Texas
- Libya forces storm Khaddafy strongholds
- Bees attack man in wheelchair, shut California street
And did you see...
- Netflix sees 1 million fewer customers following price hike
- Colorado men take dead buddy out for a night on the town
- 'Jersey Shore' leaves taxpayers a $420k bill
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Thank God the Libyan Rebels are victorious and the people are free. All are
in my prayers. God is great! Phyllis Kunz
Gaffafi has alot of support in the US and if he holds out the new US President could help get Gaffafi back in this position. Our current Law Makers felt President Obama should not have joined in the Nato mission and some felt Obama should be impeached. Gov. Perry and others feel the US should not get involved in matters of other countries when there is no interest to the USA.
Gov. Perry took pride in his decisions to execute prisoners regardless of weather their innocent or not. One man was found innocent but Perry refuse to gave a stay of execution. This time to make sure a man wasn't executed who might have not been given justice the lawyers had to go to the Supreme Court. What's sad is hearing people cheer at Gov. Perry's comments. What a sad socity we have become when human life means nothing.
It was sad to watch Speaker Boehner make a fool again of himself. It's clear he has to read a script that was written for him which he knows nothing about. He's afraid to disappoint the Tea Party. Just think if the Law Makers had worked with the President in Jan. 2009 we might be out of this Recession. But it's more important that the GOP make sure President Obama/USA fail.
With the low scores in education it can only get worse once the new President ends Federal Programs which includes the Education Department. With the circus clowns running for President and none of them know anything about US History, Constitution or how the Government works and each make up stories during the Debate, we really are going down hill. It seems President Obama is talking over the heads of our law makers and they aren't educated enough to understand him.
have a great weekend all
I can not believe you actually believe what you write.
You say about Rick Perry "What a sad socity we have become when human life means nothing." DEMOCRATES SUPPORT THE KILLING OF THOUSANDS OF BABYS EVERY DAY.
You say about speaker Boehner "It's clear he has to read a script that was written for him which he knows nothing about." PRESIDENT OBAMA CANNOT MAKE A 3 MINUTE SPEECH WITHOUT READING WHAT SOME BODY ELSE WRITES FROM A TELEPROMPTER.
I really have to chuckle about the line "Just think if Law Makers had worked with the President in Jan. 2009 we might be out of this Recession. HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT IN JAN. 2009, THE PRESIDENT HAD A MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE AND A SUPER MAJORITY IN THE SENATE. THE REPUBLICANS COULD NOT STOP ANY LEGISLATION BY THEMSELVES.
Finally, you bring up education and how it can only get worseonce the new President ends federal programs.If you would take those blinders off for a moment, you would see that the education system in the USA cannot get any worse. It has been going down hill ever since the creation of the Department of Education and the Federal government became involved. The education needs to be desolved and the education system turned back over to the states.
Here is a good example of how our government indoctrination centers (schools) teach our kids. Yesterday, I was at a local fair. I purchased 3 items. Two of the items cost $5.00 each and the third cost $2.50. I was being helped by a young girl about 14 or 15 years old. I gave her 3 $5.00 bills. They had no cash register that she could ring this up at and be told what the change should be. They just had a cash box. I noticed she was struggling at the cash box for some time. When she came back, she gave me back a $5.00 bill, two $1.00 bills and a quarter. I handed her back the $5.00 and told her I would trade her this $5 for a quarter and she looked at me with a blank stare like are you crazy. I finally said you gave me to much back.
If you want to see this deer in the head light look from kids, buy something at a fast food place and if the bill comes to something like $2.53, hand them the 3 cents after it is rung-up on the register. 9 times out of 10, they will just stand at the open drawer and stare at it for the longest time and quite often, they will give you the wrong change back.
Jackie, you need to get those blinders off. The democrates and republicans are leading us down the drain. No one party as an exclusive on stupid. The American people has to demand change from both parties if we want our grand children to have any chance at life like we knew it
Congratulations to Diane Sawyer. ABC announced this week that in November, Sawyer will be conducting the first sit-down interview with Congresswoman Gabby Giffords since the Tucson shooting last January. I only wish that I could have been a fly on the wall at 30 Rock when Brian Williams learned that Sawyer beat him to the Giffords interview. I'm pretty sure that Brian's head spun around, his eyes popped out of his head and smoke came out of his ears. It must have looked like a scene out of "Beetlejuice". Obviously, Brian spent a significant amount of time schmoozing Giffords' family, friends and staff in order to try to get this interview. And now Giffords went and promised the interview to Sawyer. I guess Giffords wanted to appear on a professional news broadcast like ABC World News, rather than Nightly News where her interview might be sandwiched between a story about a singing New York City construction worker and a story about the propriety of wearing flip-flops to work. Wow, Brian must be fuming. But these exclusive A-list interviews tend to balance out over time among the big networks. ABC may have gotten the Giffords interview, but on Sept. 6, Nightly News scored a major coup by snagging the first network interview with Mishka the talking dog. And as far as Brian is concerned, that's far more important than Gabby Giffords.
Of course, the $64 question is whether Brian will even acknowledge Sawyer's interview with Giffords after it airs on ABC. Like a petulant child, Brian tends to ignore major news stories when they air exclusively on another network. In July, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser broke her silence and told her story exclusively to ABC's Robin Roberts. Although Nightly News spent a significant amount of time reporting on the DSK story over a period of several months (on July 1, they devoted more than a third of the broadcast to DSK) Brian never once mentioned the fact that his accuser had finally told her story. Even when the charges against DSK were dropped, Brian still didn't report on anything his accuser had said to Roberts. So although Nightly News has reported the Gabby Giffords story extensively, it's entirely possible that Brian will ignore Giffords' interview with Sawyer because A) He's really mad that he didn't get the interview and B) He doesn't want to promote the interview on ABC World News (and the inevitable hour-long specials that ABC will create to extend the life of the interview).
But perhaps Brian and his producers can come up with some aggressive counter-programming. On the night that ABC airs Sawyer's interview with Giffords, look for Brian to conduct an exclusive Nightly News interview with Plishka the talking cat.
Here's what you may have missed on Nightly News this week:
Monday 9/12--After Robert Bazell's story on advances in treating Alzheimer's disease, Brian Williams interviewed Dr. Suzanne Craft, an Alzheimer's researcher at the University of Washington who was featured in Bazell's story. The interview ran 2:05, during which Brian spoke for 1:05 and Dr. Craft spoke for 1:00. In what sort of upside-down topsy-turvy bizarro world does the interviewer speak for longer than the interview subject? The whole point of an interview is to hear what the subject has to say. That's why she's being interviewed. But not in Brian's world. Those rules don't apply to him.
Tuesday 9/13--Viewers were treated to a story about good samaritans in Utah who lifted a burning car off of an injured motorcyclist. This story deserved about 15 seconds of airtime, but Nightly News stretched it out to 2:05. For Brian and his producers, this kind of sensationalistic happy-ending story is easier than reporting real news. And it gets better ratings, too. Also on this broadcast, we saw the third story in five days on the Jackie Kennedy interviews from 1964. For Brian and his producers, reporting eight minutes of 47-year-old news is obviously a lot easier than reporting current news. How many times do we need to hear Jackie talking about what JFK really thought of Lyndon Johnson or what J. Edgar Hoover told Robert Kennedy about Martin Luther King? Once would have been enough.
Wednesday 9/14--Brian showed us a thirty-second clip from a video of Amy Winehouse singing a duet with Tony Bennett followed by a 50-second story about the new redesign of the Easy-Bake Oven. The final story was a 2:15 piece on blue whales in California (the second blue whale story Nightly News aired this week). Who says Brian and his producers don't report hard news?
Thursday 9/15--The lead story was about the HPV virus, because Brian will report on whatever is trending on Google or Yahoo. And after the story, Brian said, "A very important story for us to do." It's crass and unprofessional for an anchor to praise his own stories. But I guess Brian felt the need to differentiate one of the few important Nightly News stories from the rest of the stories--such as "news reports" about McDonald's new restaurant renovations, a 61-year-old college placekicker, the destruction of the tree from "The Shawshank Redemption", Beyonce's pregnancy, the benefits of chocolate, college students that were born in 1993, Robert Redford's 75th birthday, Bert and Ernie not being gay, a French vending machine that dispenses baguettes, the peacock that escaped from the Central Park Zoo, Burger King firing their spokes-king, Pringles potato crisps, a penguin that is returned from New Zealand to the Antarctic, doggy date night...well, you get the idea. Obviously, I could have gone on much longer listing ridiculously trivial Nightly News stories, but I think I made my point. Note to Brian: Calling one story "important" only highlights how unimportant most Nightly News stories really are. Also on Thursday, Brian showed yet another clip from his interview with Pres. Obama, which had been taped almost a week earlier. Political interviews are like fish--they're only fresh for a day or two. After that, they begin to smell. Move on. A related story about African American support for the President included a comment from Joy-Ann Reid, managing editor of TheGrio.com. Obviously, Reid was only included in this story as a way to promote her website, which is owned by NBC. Just another shameless plug for an NBC Universal property. We then saw stories about walruses and a cat that made its way from Boulder, CO to NYC (separate stories--the walruses weren't with the cat). The final story was another two minutes on the motorcycle rider that was pulled from under a burning car. Maybe NBC should just give this guy his own TV show.
Friday 9/16--Nightly News ran a story about the death penalty in Texas just so they could show the clip of Brian asking Texas Gov. Rick Perry about the death penalty at the Republican Candidates' debate nine days earlier. Dude, that moment has totally passed. How many times are they going to show that clip? Unfortunately, a lot more times. There's nothing Brian and his producers like showing more than old clips of Brian. Look--there's Brian and Richard Engel in Cairo's Tahrir Square! Look--there's Brian with President Obama! Look--there's Brian with President Truman! I think the Nightly News producers may have seen "Forrest Gump" and "Zelig" a few too many times. Also on this broadcast we saw two pointless stories that wasted a total of five minutes. One was a "Making A Difference" piece about an elementary school program in North Carolina that promotes healthy eating for kids. Great idea for a school program. Bad idea for a news story. Not really newsworthy. The final story was about high school football in drought-and-fire-plagued Texas. This story only ran because Nightly News aggressively promotes NBC's Sunday Night Football by showing constant "news stories" about football--high school, college or pro. It's just another way to plug football on NBC. Is anyone really surprised?
Abbas and Netanyahu are going to have to do what is best for the
Middle East and stop butting heads. Neither men will dominate but
their cooperation would transform the Middle East and the World. And
it's about time! Come on, guys, each give a little. Phyllis Kunz
i am glad that kara kennedy allen did not die before the death of her father, ted. i imagine it would have broken his heart. prayers and thoughts go out to the kennedy clan with the passing of kara. what trials the children of ted kennedy have had to endure. as patrick said, she is with her father now. best, anna martina
anna martina, thanks so much for mentioning the works of Leon Uris which
reminds me of the novel "A God In Ruins", and I quote in part:
The human race has functioned from its first day on the proposition that some people are superior to others and thus empowered to rule and exploit those
people of lesser suff. Humanity is often mistaken as civility. Humans have
always been somewhat less than human. Well then, how do we score
this game? Every so often a Moral Imperative demands that we must alter
our sense of humanity or fade into the stardust of the universe.
Slavery and Our Civil war were just such a Moral Imperative. After
the Holocaust we believed, did we not, that no such event could
happen again in the family of man. But genocide by the human race
to the human race has happened over and over.
Yet the seeds of hatred are within us all. Along with unrivaled progress in
our way of life, we must face the demand of a Moral Imperative with
the goal of eradicting racism."
Which is a fundamental racism and where is the best place to address it:
the U.N.
I love the title of the book which is explained on page 509. Man is a
god in ruins. when men are innocent, life shall be longer and pass
into the immortal as gently as we awake from dream.' And surely,
the goal of immortality gives us all common ground. Phyllis Kunz
Nice segment on bridges in promotion of the Obama spending agenda. Is that really the duty of the main stream media?
Lester, Thanks so much for the coverage on carmaggedon in Kentucky, Indiana, etc.
No one can accuse President Obama as posturing because that is where the
bridge is. The Congress, on the Other hand, are clowns, and I am quoting
from Foregin Affairs, June 2008. issue:
"As it enters the twenty-first century, the United States is not fundamentally
a weak economy or a decadent society. But it has developed a highly
dysfunctional politics. The result id ceaseless, virulent debate about
trivia--politics as theater--and very little substance, compromise or
action. A can-do country is now saddled with a do-nothing Congress,
I mean do-nothing political process, designed for partisan battle
rather than problem solving." And Bozo Boehner is the worst of the
bunch with Mitch McConnell a close second. It's good that President Obama
will visit Cincinnati, and , hopefully, Louisville, Kentucky. to see the
Sherman Minton Bridge for himself; an urgent priority to those in Kentucky and
Indiana.
Have a nice evening!
Phyllis
speaking of bridges, did you ever see the movie 'a bridge too far'? it was weird that the allies would always end up right on top of the german panzer units. as if two parallel universes were collapsing into each other. the swastika is an interesting symbol. used in japan and india at temples, too. ancient. but it looks like the last of the spiral arms of a galaxy. messages from a black hole like some people believe as morgan freeman said in a short video? i was the artist of my graduating high school class, i didn't realize that i drew a blackhole with a jet stream coming out of it. 'look inward and then reach out', 'look inward' being the name of a born again christian book that alot of my classmates were carrying around campus. it would be very interesting if my little vioces from my bipolar disorder were messages from a blackhole but stranger things have happened. the mormons think that my book is aobut their book of mormon since that's when i wrote it, when i was mormon, but the energy that michaela uses to power up the cognizant spaceship is from her crown chakra, the kundalini energy, india. the mormons think that their book is about the lamanites who they postulate were native americans. it would be really funny (for me, at least) if the gold plates that joseph smith found were actually a history of what would have been india in that precession of the equinoxes. when jesus didn't die on the cross, he went to india and became issa. apparently, i am of that line. and the 'stem of jesse' in their book was probably the last of an alien people that crossed with humans to survive. symbiosis. it would make sense that the source of the gold plates was a very ancient india since down here in sonora, mexico, the cemetery is called 'el panteon municipa', pantheon, as in the greek pantheon of gods and there are egyptian pyramid remains under camelback mountain in phoenix and they had just discovered an egyptian pyramid structure complete with mummies in texas in san antonio when i was there during my manic run. i thought it was my imagination, but it wasn't. i left the mormon church because my art therapist told me that they had the highest incidents of child sexual abuse of all of the religions. quite a few of them were her clients, poor things. yuck! i couldn't go there. and, the mormon temple told me to go, she told me that she had taught me everything that she knew. besides, they are a very bad form of slavery and spiritual rape . . . . . lots of know-it-all mormons down here in little sierra vista, ugh. they preach obedience. hello, god gave us a brain so that we would use it. best, anna martina