Posts Made By: Jim E. Gleason

She focuses on blacks who are, 'forging a bold new path to political power'

At the 1st sign of bias............ :S

An Excerpt,

"The moderator of Thursday's vice-presidential debate is writing a book to come out about the time the next president takes the oath of office that aims to "shed new light" on Democratic candidate Barack Obama and other "emerging young African American politicians" who are "forging a bold new path to political power."

Gwen Ifill of the Public Broadcasting Service program "Washington Week" is promoting "The Breakthrough," in which she argues the "black political structure" of the civil rights movement is giving way to men and women who have benefited from the struggles over racial equality.

Ifill declined to return a WND telephone message asking for a comment about her book project and whether its success would be expected should Obama lose. But she has faced criticism previously for not treating candidates of both major parties the same.

During a vice-presidential candidate debate she moderated in 2004 – when Democrat John Edwards attacked Republican Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton – the vice president said, "I can respond, Gwen, but it's going to take more than 30 seconds."

"Well, that's all you've got," she told Cheney.

Ifill told the Associated Press Democrats were delighted with her answer, because they "thought I was being snippy to Cheney." She explained that wasn't her intent.

But she also was cited in complaints PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler said he received after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin delivered her nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., earlier this month.

Some viewers complained of a "dismissive" look by Ifill during her report on Palin's speech. According to Getler, some also said she wore a look of "disgust" while reporting on the Republican candidate.

At that time she said, "I assume there will always be critics and just shut out the noise. It is surprisingly easy."

Ifill, who also works with her network's "NewsHour," is making preparations to moderate this week's debate between the two candidates for vice president, Palin and Democratic Sen. Joe Biden.. She told BlackAmericaWeb.com she thinks debates "are the best opportunity most voters have to see the candidates speaking to issues."

She said she is concerned only about getting straight answers from candidates.

"You do your best to get candidates to answer your question. But I also trust the viewers to understand when questions are not answered and reach their own conclusions," Ifill told BlackAmericaWeb.

"Four years ago, when neither John Edwards nor Dick Cheney proved capable of answering a question about the domestic epidemic of AIDS among African-American women, viewers flooded me with reaction," she said.

She said she will make her own decisions about what questions to ask, adding "the big questions matter."

In the Amazon.com promotion for her book, Ifill is described as "drawing on interviews with power brokers," such as Obama and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In an online video promoting her book, she is enthusiastic about "taking the story of Barack Obama and extending it."

It focuses on four people, "one of them Barack Obama of course," she said.

"They are changing our politics and changing our nation," she said.

On Amazon.com, Ifill is praised for her "incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama."

"Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history," the review says.

She told AP her view of Obama: "I still don't know if he'll be a good president."

She also describes how she met him at the 2004 Democratic convention and since then has interviewed the Illinois senator and his family.

She also boasted that by the time of the debate, "I'll be a complete expert on both" Palin and Biden.

The debate will be held at Washington University in St. Louis, which has posted information about the evening's events online.

Ifill's profile there describes her as a longtime correspondent and moderator for national news programs and includes her service as moderator of the 2004 debate between Edwards and Cheney.

However, there's no mention of her upcoming book. Nor does the website for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is organizing the meetings of the candidates, mention her book."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76645

I will not waste my time here anymore trying to change the minds of those who at 1st appeared to be on the fence. Seeing how most here on the Left had their minds made up a long time ago and would be supporting Mickey Mouse, (they just about are, anyway), if he were the D nom., I will no longer attack my fellow astronomers who simply have not seen BO in action behind the scenes enough like we Conservative/Hillary Dems have! Therefore, since you`ve never had such bad experiences, there`s no way I`m ever going to get thru to you!

But you just continue on and attack each other. Attack me some more. But I will not attack back anymore from this moment forward!

It`s clear out and I was out earlier getting excellent views of Jupiter. What awesome sights they were too! I could look at Jup all night! I might even post my sketch.

In closing, I hope Jim Babcock gets well real soon and gets back here before Nov. to present the view from the Right again, as only he can!

I think we can all agree that what happen to Jim puts all the rest of this stuff into it`s proper perspective!

Now I got a job to do. BO will not be our next President!!!

It looks like CNN has run out of kool-aid temporarily. BO`s connection is a little deeper than he would have us believe!

The only thing missing is how Obama/Ayers tried to fund education which would teach kids to be good little Radicals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvROBLortBQ

Of course, none of this matters. I read why Herb`s switching to B...I mean Barack and I agree with all his reasons. Who cares that he isn`t a terrorist - just hangs out with 27 of them! It`s irrelevant. None of it matters. GW proved that character does not matter.

Hey, if I don`t have to pay taxes, etc., and all the rest to pay for all Barack`s expensive programs, that`s just more for astronomy! Count me in!

I can`t wait to send the kids to Obama camps to sing songs about the 'One' What fun!

He`ll save the world!!!

Heil Obama!

Obama Now and Forever 08, 12, 16, 20, 24, etc...

This shows what Barack might do for the US if elected. This is a video of his Chicago District! YAAAYYYYY Obama!!!

Feel free to blog, email it, use it however you like. We must elect Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efpAG7s4420

Obama 08, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, etc...

At least McCain has proposed a detailed plan to get us out of this economic mess:

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/a3b8b00b-6d18-49e3-b911-89c97909016d.htm

Senator McCain last night announced his initiative, the McCain Resurgence Plan, that has four very straightforward goals. Goal number one is to provide direct help to struggling homeowners, making sure they can stay in their homes with a manageable mortgage, avoid foreclosures and the damaging impact that has on neighborhoods and property values in that area. It would also, in the process of refinancing, help them with their financial situation, and as a result, give some stability to the household spending in the overall economy." -- Doug Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Adviser

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, the McCain-Palin campaign held a press conference call with Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain-Palin senior policy adviser, to discuss John McCain's American Homeownership Resurgence Plan:

Doug Holtz-Eakin: "Senator McCain last night announced his initiative, the McCain Resurgence Plan, that has four very straightforward goals. Goal number one is to provide direct help to struggling homeowners making sure they can stay in their homes with a manageable mortgage, avoid foreclosures and the damaging impact that has on neighborhoods and property values in that area. It would also, in the process of refinancing, help them with their financial situation and, as a result, give some stability to the household spending in the overall economy.

"Second thing is it would provide, to the mortgage market, lower interest rates. If history was a guide, we'd see a spread of about 160 basis points above government interest rates to the mortgage market. That would put interest rates in the low five percent. Mortgage rates are above that right now. Providing this kind of financing would stabilize housing values and obviously take some stress off the pressures downward in the economy. Having a stabilized housing market would, in turn, combine with the purchase of these mortgages to stabilize the values that are underneath mortgage-backed securities and all the housing-related derivatives that have been plaguing the valuation of balance sheets in the financial sector. And so by starting with the homeowner and working up you accomplish some of the objectives of the financial stabilization plans that we've seen come out of Congress and proposed by the administration in recent weeks. Senator McCain beli eves this is exactly the right kind of policy: provide direct help to homeowners and, at the same time, support the financial markets and keep them from further damaging the availability of credit to Main Street America, one of the real threats to the economy at this point it time.

"The initiative would rely on authorities that have been provided in recent months by the Congress. There's $300 billion worth of refinance capacity at the FHA at this point. That can be combined with the statutory capacity at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now owned by the federal government for all practical purposes, to purchase mortgages. If Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bought 80% of the mortgage, you could leverage that $300 billion in financing tremendously. And there's also the $700 billion that was provided to the Treasury by the Congress. There's direct purchase authority in there that would allow to augment these as well, although, it may be useful to reserve that for other purposes.

"Mechanically the initiative is very simple. A homeowner would initiate the process by calling a mortgage broker or other originator and basically saying 'I'd like to refinance my home.' They would start the underwriting process, verify incomes, this is an opportunity as well to make sure the program has in it appropriate checks to make sure that government money is not being given to folks who are not primary homeowners, who don't have adequate income, or otherwise, in the initial purchase of their home didn't provide valid information. These authorities could then be used to retire the existing loan. The FHA would issue a guaranteed thirty year fixed-rate mortgage at a manageable interest rate. The homeowner would stay in the home, their financial burden would be relieved, the valuation of the existing loan would be resolved, there would no longer be a threat of default or diminished capacity to repay. That would stabilize financial markets, and t he taxpayers' contribution would be, in some cases the difference between the values of those two loans, something which would be the necessity for taxpayer contribution.

"Senator McCain thinks this is the best way to go forward. He's obviously been personally very concerned about the problems facing the economy. He has participated, as I think everyone on this call knows, extensively in the process of taking the initial proposal by the administration to directly purchase Wall Street securities shaping it in a way that it was both possible to get it through Congress in a bi-partisan fashion, and also had it augmented with the adequate taxpayer protections, some oversight and transparency. This would take the authorities that have now come through and further target them in a way that he thinks would accomplish the purposes of financial stabilization but also to provide some relief to homeowners, near-term stimulus to the overall economy, and lay out a path where he can then turn to his initiatives in taxes, in energy, healthcare, trade to provide job creation in the American economy and a path forward out of this ter rible crisis."

Uh Oh, Obama! - Part 2

Please say it ain`t so, BO! 8) The net is closing fast around BO. Looks like McCain got all that info we sent him afterall. He must have then forwarded it to the FBI, etc!

The investigationS continue.

"Tonight we talked to someone who works in the federal courts here in Chicago.

The buzz in those corridors is that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been leading a team of FBI investigators in 10 states working on a RICO case.

Today, it was announced that ACORN is being investigated in 10 states.

That’s one Hell of a coincidence.

We asked why Fitzgerald would be involved in this, because he’s the prosecutor on the Tony Rezko case and we aren’t aware of ACORN being investigated in Illinois.

We were told that ACORN was investigated in Illinois years ago, and it was a Fitzgerald case then. This means ACORN’s activities today, involving a conspiracy to commit multi-state voter fraud on SoetorObama’s behalf, are an extension of that previous ACORN case.

Our source in federal courts said, “Any crime that involves more than two people and is carried out across state lines qualifies as a corrupt organization. The fact that those “Goodwill” donations were made in Texas and received at Obama headquarters in Chicago or Washington means it qualifies for RICO.”

The “Goodwill donations” referred to above are the $228 million in undocumented, unverified campaign contributions the SoetorObama camp has received — which the McCain campaigned filed a complaint to the FEC on this past Monday.

We’ve also heard that the Clinton campaign filed complaints to the FBI and other federal agencies over SoetorObama’s fraud in the Iowa, Texas and other caucuses: voter intimidation, registration fraud, and other illegal activities.

The last thing we were told tonight in regards to all of this was that “the meme here is a tying together of all these various threads. That’s what you will see in the last weeks of the campaign: all things being tied together”.

If everything here is true, it looks like David Axelrod, Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, SoetorObama himself, and possibly even Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were all involved, together, in massive RICO violations, and thus federal fraud, if the DNC and party leadership knew what the SoetorObama campaign and ACORN were up to and allowed it to proceed. Knowledge of federal crimes being committed makes all parties accessories to those crimes — and part of the conspiracy to defraud the public.

THAT would certainly be one Hell of a shock tomorrow morning."

http://hillbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/great-merciful-zeus-tomorrow-could-be-the-start-of-fitzmas-rumor-in-chicago-is-patrick-fitzgerald-is-investigating-acorn-and-soetorobama-campaign-for-rico-violations/

ON EDIT: The McCain camp stated that there will be news in the morning!

On what, they won’t say.

"We’ll have something to talk about," is all a campaign aide would allow.

And I so wanted to cast my vote for hope and change, no taxes, and the man who will save the world! Oh, but I`ll still most likely get to. But one never knows.

Obama 08, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, forever...even if he`s running the country from a prison cell! 8O

Now that`s change I can Believe in! GOOOOOOOOOOOO Barry! 8)

UH OH, OBAMA 3

Election Fraud scandal spreads from ACORN to Obama’s Campaign-Intimidation of Hillary Democrats!

Hillary Clinton’s campaign accused Obama’s campaign of Fraud and Voter
Intimidation in Nevada and Texas

Here is an optical character recognition transcription of the Clinton campaign’s letter to the Nevada State Democratic Party.

http://www.stentorian.com/Obama/clinton_complaint.pdf

"Barack Obama can try all he wants to distance himself from ACORN, even though it is a matter of proven record that he worked closely with the organization. A Google search on "Lyn Utrecht" (Hillary Clinton’s campaign counsel) and "Obama" reveals equally serious and very credible allegations of voter intimidation and election fraud against Barack Obama’s own campaign.

The allegations include, among other things, interference with the basic civil right to vote without fear of intimidation or loss of one’s job--a Federal crime if proven in a court of law. The allegations are in fact similar to those against ACORN itself, along with ACORN’s proven election fraud as shown by guilty pleas by numerous ACORN personnel. What we have is a well-established pattern of behavior that shows Barack Obama to be, not a reformer or idealist, but a common would-be dictator like Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, or Robert Mugabe, all of whom share Obama’s, Boss Tweed’s, and Joseph Stalin’s position that "Those who cast the votes, they decide nothing. Those who count the votes, they decide everything."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2103267/posts

http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/showthread.php?t=36110


Jill Derby, Chair Nevada State Democratic Party 1210 South Valley View Road Suite 114 Las Vegas, NV 89102

Dear Chair Derby:

I write on behalf of Hillary Clinton for President (”the Committee”) in regard to the January 19, 2008 Nevada Democ-ratic Caucus. The Committee is aware of a letter addressed to you today from the Obama for America campaign requesting an inquiry into the conduct of the caucuses. The Committee shares the Obama campaign’s concern that full participation in the democratic process may have been compromised by the substantial number of irregularities occurring at the caucuses, and we fully support a complete inquiry by the Nevada State Democratic Party (the ”Party”) into all caucus improprieties.

This letter is not intended as a response to the Obama campaign’s letter. However, in the interest of a complete record, and in contrast to the alleged minor procedural problems noted by the Obama campaign, the Committee wishes to bring to your attention information we have received evidencing a premeditated and predesigned plan by the Obama campaign to engage in systematic corruption of the Party’s caucus procedures. Compounding this blatant distortion of the caucus rules was an egregious effort by the Obama campaign to manipulate the voter registration process in its own favor, thereby disenfranchising countless voters. Finally, the Committee has received a vast number of reliable reports of voter suppression and intimidation by the Obama campaign or its allies.

The Committee had 30 phone lines on Saturday to receive calls in its Las Vegas offices. These lines rang continuously from early morning until well after the caucuses concluded with reports from people who were victimized and who observed irregularities. The phone lines were so over-whelmed that many callers resorted to calling individual Committee staff cell phones to report that they could not get through. The Committee also received many similar calls at its national headquarters.

The Committee is confident that any investigation into the conduct of the caucuses will be thorough, fair and in the interest of insuring that future Party caucuses will be as open and democratic as possible.

Systematic Corruption of the Party’s Caucus Procedures

The Committee received substantially similar reports of improprieties of such a number as to leave no conclusion but that the Obama campaign and its allies and supporters engaged in a planned effort to subvert the Party’s caucus procedures to its advantage. For example:

þ Preference cards were premarked for Obama.

þ Clinton supporters were denied preference cards on the basis that none were left, while Obama supporters at the same caucus sites were given preference cards.

þ Caucus chairs obviously supporting Obama:
o Deliberately miscounted votes to favor Senator Obama.
o Deliberately counted unregistered persons as Obama votes.
o Deliberately counted young children as Obama votes.
o Refused to accept preference cards from Clinton supporters who were at the caucus site by noon on the ground that the cards were not filled out fast enough.
o Told Clinton supporters to leave prior to electing delegates.

þ Clinton supporters who arrived late were turned away from the caucus, while late Obama supporters were admitted to the caucus.

Manipulation of the Voter Registration Process

Numerous reports received by the Committee demonstrate a concerted effort on the part of the Obama campaign and its supporters to prevent eligible voters supporting a candidate other than Senator Obama from caucusing. The Obama supporters complained of were acting in positions of authority at the caucus sites. Some of these reports are as follows:

þ Obama supporters wrongly informed Clinton supporters that they were not allowed to participate in the caucus if their names were not on the voter rolls. However, Obama supporters whose names did not appear on the voter rolls were permitted to register at the caucus site.

þ Obama supporters falsely informed Clinton supporters that no registration forms were available for them to register to vote at the caucus site.

þ Obama supporters wrongly told Clinton supporters who were attempting to caucus at the wrong precinct that they could not caucus at that site, while simultaneously permitting Obama supporters at the wrong precinct to participate.

þ Obama supporters were allowed to move to the front of the registration and sign-in line.

Voter Suppression and Intimidation

The Committee received a substantial number of disturbing reports from voters that they had been subject to harassment, intimidation or efforts to prevent them from voting. Some of the most egregious of these complaints are described below:

þ Voters at at-large caucus sites were informed that those sites were for Obama supporters only.

þ Clinton supporters at at-large caucus sites were told that their managers would be watching them while they caucused.

þ Workers were informed that their supervisors kept lists of Clinton and Obama supporters, and were told that they could not caucus unless their name was on the list of Obama supporters.

þ Many Clinton supporters were threatened with employment termination or other discipline if they caucused for Senator Clinton.

þ Workers were required to sign a pledge card to support Obama if they wanted time off to participate in the caucus.
þ Workers at one casino were offered a lavish lunch and permitted to attend and register to vote only if they agree to support Obama.

The complaints summarized above represent only a small sample of the complaints received by the Committee. With respect to each of these complaints and many more, the Committee has the names and phone numbers of those reporting these incidents and the specific precinct numbers where the incidents occurred. Upon request the Committee will share these with the Party with appropriate safeguards to protect these individuals from reprisal. On the whole, these reports show a troubling effort by the Obama campaign and its allies and supporters to advance their own campaign at the expense of the right of all Nevada Democrats to participate in the democratic process in a free, fair and open manner.

Senator Clinton and the Committee are wholly committed to ensuring that every eligible voter has his or her vote cast and counted. There is no place in the American electoral process for the types of voter suppression, intimidation and harassment systematically engaged in by the Obama campaign, its allies and supporters.
Sincerely,
/v
Lyn Utrecht Counsel Hillary Clinton for President

The Investigations continue!

Walter Wozniak said:

Hello all,

Well, I just received an Orion 80mm f/7.5 ED Refractor (#9895 optical tube assembly). Everything I read about it online referred to it as an apochromatic. However, the instruction manual for it refers to it as an achromatic. Which is it? I went back a reread most of the articles looking to see if perhaps they said "APO-like", which I've seen elsewhere, but they say APO. Of course the skies are overcast and it is snowing, supposedly all night. Can anyone ease my mind as I can't see for myself right at the moment Walter

based on modern definitions of apos given by several optical experts, a 3" refractor at f/7.5 and using S-FPL53/proper mating element fits most to all their modern criteria for being an apo.

btw, whether the scope`s an apo or not...or good for AP or not...doesn`t depend on whether it`s a doublet/triplet...as much as what ED glass/proper mating element is/are being used combined with aperture and f-ratio/focal length...

for ex., a 3" f/5 triplet Apo using the same ED element, S-FPL53 in this case, and proper mating elements...will have approximately the same performance/color-correction as a 3" S-FPL53 f/7.5 apo doublet...all else =...

careful inspection of this shows that by simply increasing the focal length of the 3" doublet past the triplet`s 400mm and up to 600mm...causes the apo doublet to be about = to the apo triplet in performance/color-correction...

i`m sure some readers already see the relationship here...that is, an apo triplet the same aperture/f-ratio using the same ED element/proper mating elements will have about 1.5x better color-correction than an apo doublet...all else =...so, given this, it means that the doublet`s f-ratio/focal length should be approximately 1.5x that of the triplet`s to get about the same color-correction, etc...all else =...

hope this helps, 8)

Jim

Alan French said:

I am surprised not to find any reports here of observations of TU24 as it zipped by Earth. Sue and I observed it Monday night around 9:00 PM in her Traveler. Did anyone else get out and see it? Perhaps it simply didn't catch observer's interest, but I enjoyed seeing it moving against the starry background.

I did see some photos and a couple of reports elsewhere.

Clear skies, Alan

Hello Alan,

i wondered about this too...until i saw some reports/images in the solar system imaging forum here.

Jim

Lee Spain said:

Soooo, if the Patriots win the superbowl, should their glory be diminished by an asterisk? What are the chances that they have more videographers, Chinese spy satellites, and parabolic microphones in their equipment room?

i heard somewhere that all NFL teams do these kinds of things...the Pats were just dumb enough to get caught! 8O 8)

Belicheck and Co. have had a chip on their shoulders ever since...like they`re out to prove something...one more win and they prove something alright!

so i say no asterisk...and, besides, they got penalized for it already.

8)

Jim