Evergreen

Obama's policy on late-term abortions seems to be shifting toward the right again, as reported by AP. Check out the story on Yahoo News. I would have posted the link here but I couldn't figure out how, exactly. Still, the article is worth reading because it points out that this new pronouncement is aimed at the religious right.

  I have to feel a little sorry and ashamed for all those millions of young people who were energized by the Obama candidacy and joined to speed the candidate along the difficult road to the Democratic nomination. Obama's message of change, and the promise that if he was elected Washington would no longer conduct business as usual, already is being shattered as the candidate begins to try to appeal to other voting blocs less liberal than the young, educated crowd.
   In just about a week, Obama has turned their world upside down by indicating he would find a place for religion in government. Now, just today he's telling us his stance on ending the war in Iraq may be shifting more to the right. Now he says he never meant for us to actually believe that he would absolutely insist on an end to American deployment there no later than 16 months from taking office. That's not exactly what I said, he says.
  Well, if that's not what he said or meant, he has been horribly misquoted in the media and even the TV interviews in which he spoke must have been doctored, because that's sure what he seems to have said.
  I suspect that by the time of the convention, the Democratic candidate will evolve into exactly the political animal he promised he wouldn't become. And that's scary. If he can't be expected to stick to his word now, what should we expect of him if and when he is elected?
  In his blog, my son, one of those fervent Obama supporters who is disillusioned with Obama's stance on the faith-based initiatives issue, said he planned to vote for his dog. I may join him in that.
  Those of us who've lived through many campaigns of lies from many candidates are frankly not surprised that this tiger is changing his stripes. But our young people, many of whom would be voting for the first time in a presidential election because they've been promised real change, are learning that much about politics is business as usual.

  The presidential campaign just got a whole lot more interesting this week -- interesting because I'm anxious to see how those Obama zealots who insist that if you don't agree with the candidate you should just shut up will react.
  This week on the campaign trail, Obama embarked on a flag-waving tour proclaiming his patriotism, which is OK, except WHY? Those who don't see him as a patriot will not jump into his corner just because of this transparent attempt to gain their support.
  But the one that really gets me is the candidate's announcement that he wishes to expand on George Bush's faith-based programs supported by the federal government. As a taxpayer, I am an ardent believer in one thing -- separation of church and state. I was offended by George Bush's pursuit of a faith-based programs agenda, but I could almost understand why he would do it, given his lack of a moral compass and his limited intelligence. The last thing I would expect from a Democratic candidate for president is more of the same. The party has always advocated principles first espoused by the founding fathers that there should be a separation between the institutions of government and religion. Bush has trampled those principles and now Obama says he will do that too.
  Pandering? You bet.
  

This was provided by my cyberfriends the Heldmans:

> 
>>> The price of Gas versus Printer Ink 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> All these examples do NOT imply that gasoline is cheap; it 
>>> just illustrates how outrageous some other prices are.... 
>>> 
>>> You will be really shocked by the last one! 
>>> (At least, I was...) 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective. 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 $10.32 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 $9.52 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 $10.17 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 $10.00 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 $33.60 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 $178.13 
>>> per gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 $123.20 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> White-Out 7 oz $1.39 $25.42 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 $84.48 per 
>>> gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Evian water 9 oz $1.49 $21.19 per 
>>> gallon! 
>>> $21.19 for WATER. and the buyers don't even know the 
>>> source! 
>>> 
>>> And this is the REAL KICKER... 
>>> 
>>> Ever wonder why printers are so cheap? 
>>> So they have you hooked for the ink. 
>>> Someone calculated the cost of the ink at............... 
>>> (you won't believe it.... but it is true........) 
>>> 
>>> Printer Ink 
>>> $5,200 a gallon 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your 
>>> car doesn't run on 
>>> water, Scope, or Whiteout, Peto Bismol, Nyquil or God 
>>> forbid, Printer 
>>> Ink! 

Missus Cheo and I recently spent a weekend in Gatlinburg, TN, a well deserved respite from our day-to-day. We had a wonderful time, because we had time to do the things we love by ourselves. We poked around the many shops, had a couple of great meals and rode the sky tram to Ober Gatlinburg, which is an amusement area up the mountains. From there, Missus Cheo rode the ski lift chairs all the way to the top; cowardly Cheo stayed behind and watched in agony (I have a horrible fear of heights). It was a lovely time

A couple of developments in the Obama presidential campaign are troubling, primarily because they could be a harbinger of things to come as the campaign unfolds in the next few months.
First has to be the issue of the Muslim women who were kept from standing near Obama at a rally. While his supporters are arguing that the women are making a big deal out of this because they want national attention, I'm not so sure that the campaign's handling of this delicate matter is correct. No matter how you slice this one, it seems an overreaction. Yes, Obama has been dogged by rumors that he's a Muslim in secret, but the correct answer here would have been for the candidate to acknowledge and discredit the rumors and point out the absurdity of the whole thing, without making the Muslim women out to be some sort of criminals for wanting to be in his corner. It is ridiculous to say that the candidate is not responsible for what his campaign did; I have to believe that Obama is responsible for his campaign people. When other campaign people in other camps have misstepped or misspoke, Obama's people have been the first to point out that they represent the candidate and the candidate should disavow them. No, Obama mishandled this one badly.
Secondly, although it's gone virtually unreported, Obama is quietly edging away from his hard-line position in the primaries on NAFTA, an issue for which he roasted Clinton. These days, he is acknowledging that he may have misspoken about NAFTA. Huh?
Lastly comes his decision announced this week that he will not participate in public funding of his campaign, this after having vowed early on to participate. The reason is obvious: He's figured out that he can get more campaign dollars if he doesn't agree to public financing. What this shows is that Obama is no different from other candidates. He wants to win and doesn't want to be hamstrung by public financing regulations.
I've never been an Obama fan but I've been willing to seriously consider his candidacy for the sake of effecting some change in Washington. Things like this make me wonder, though.
How will Obama govern if and when he is elected?

This came to me via a reader of my column who sends me funny stuff like this ...

Idle Thoughts of a Retiree's Wandering Mind........

I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
~~~
I had amnesia once -- or twice.
~~~
I went to San Francisco . I found someone's heart. Now what?
~~~
Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.
~~~
All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
~~~
If the world were a logical place, men would be the ones who ride side saddle.
~~~
What is a 'free' gift? Aren't all gifts free?
~~~
Someone told me I was gullible and I believed them.
~~~
Teach a child to be polite and courteous and, when he grows up, he'll never
be able to merge his car onto the freeway.
~~~
Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
~~~
One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.
~~~
My weight is perfect for my height -- which varies.
~~~
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
~~~
The high cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
~~~
How can there be self-help 'groups'?
~~~
If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?
~~~
Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man
who can't get his pants off.
~~~
Is it just me--or do buffalo wings really taste like chicken?

Just got back from a couple of days of R&R. Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel, which we'd visited for a couple of hours once before, must have really liked us because they invited us to their hotel for a free night. Because my beloved doesn't like casinos much (she says they're boring), I went up by myself.
I'll get back to getting there afterward. But now, here's what happens. I get there and check in, and the place looks pretty darned nice. So I ask to the front-desk clerk whether I could book another day if things were going really well. I said I'd be happy to prepay the second day. She then says to me, that'll be no problem, Mr. Cheo, . Well, I said, I tried to check on availability on line and it said there were no rooms available for that second day. So she says to me that I shouldn't worry at all, that I could keep my room a second day if I wanted it. She said she was reserving it for me right then and there, and if I didn't want it, I should just let the front desk know whenever.
But then, here's the kicker. I asked her what the rate would be for the second day and she said it was complimentary -- no charge. After I picked myself up off the floor, I went and checked out my room, which I figured would be somewhere in the bowels of the place, next to a giant ice-maker. Well, not quite. It was in fact, on the fifth floor in a great spot, facing the avenue, and let me tell you, it was a huge room. It had a king bed, a settee and coffee table, a small breakfast table and chairs, loads of closet space, a huge TV and best of all, a gigantic bathroom complete with a whilrpool bath.
The hotel itself is great. Nicely laid out in a rustic outdoorsy theme, it is nestled right on the Great Smokey Mountains, with a creek that runs right through the property where you can go fishing. There are several good restaurants in all price ranges, a few shops and some of the nicest, most courteous staff I've ever encountered in a casino hotel (and I've been to many, from Vegas to Atlantic City and in between). The casino is huge, heavy on slots of all types and with some table games that run electronically though they use chips and a live dealer. There are hourly drawings for free cash, and their total rewards program is unbeatable. In the short time I was there I accumulated enough "points" to pay for my entire food costs, which means essentially that I got a free vacation out of it. I did OK in the casino and I obviously had a lot of money in play to earn so many points.
It was a great experience and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't been to this casino in North Carolina, right in the heart of Cherokee country.
NOw, as to the ride. I took 441 south from Knoxville pretty much all the way, through Sevierville, Pigeon Forge (home of Dolly and her twins) and Gatlinburg, which I love anyway. Once you leave Gatllinburg, you begin to climb through the Smokeys to cross over into North Carolina. It's a  long but beautiful drive with spectacular vistas and lots of pull-outs along the way to help you see and enjoy. This is some mountain range, heavily forested and full of wildlife. I'ts very well maintained and there are plenty of hiking trails, nature study centers and even a wildlife museum. When you descend into the North Carolina side, you get directly to the town of Cherokee on the reservation, which is something out of a picture book. There are, of course, lots of touristy stores and eateries, but even with that, the town is well worth a visit.
This weekend, Missus Cheo and I are headed to Gatlinburg for Father's Day. We won't visit the aquarium there, a very respectable marine showcase, because we've both visited before. But we'll probably take the sky ride up to Ober Gatlinburg high up in the mountains, just for the views. And we'll have Father's Day dinner Saturday night up there. The missus has been through a lot of change in the past year and she really needs this R&R, so we're really going to kick back up there.
The Great Smokies, though they may not get as much publicity as the Canyon and Yellowstone, are among the greatest natural treasures. If you love nature and enjoy hiking through some of the coolest forest lands you'll ever find, take a trip there and revel in beautiful wildneress  at its best.

It's all over now except for 5 long months of campaigning. Even though Barack Obama won't be chosen as the Democratic Party's candidate for president until the Dems' convention, the media have crowned him the candidate. And, as far as the numbers go, he will be the Democratic presidential candidate who will be tangling with John McCain for the Big Job. I concur: Obama is the Democrats' presidential candidate, even before he attends his coronation in denver.
Now it's time for the next step. Obama, pack your bags, kiss the kids and the wife and hit the road if you hope to take the prize. But wait: There's just one more thing. Pick a running mate.
Everybody is weighing on this one, and there already are two petitions out there seeking to convince Obama that Hillary should be on the ticket alongside him. The argument, it seems, is that only by putting Hillary on the ticket will Obama have a chance at getting Hillary's supporters and unifying the party for November, after such a bruising campaign that underscored some of the most base differences among us.
Personally, though I supported Clinton in this race, I think I could support an Obama-Clinton ticket, in the hopes that she would be allowed to become a standard-bearer for issues like health care.
On the other hand, if I were Obama, I'd be wary of bringing her on to the ticket, because that would anger many of his supporters who want wholesale change WITHOUT the Clintons.
My hope is that Clinton sits this one out and returns to her Senate seat to do the job of representing New York residents. After all is said and done, Obama, who more than once insulted the voters who supported Clinton, should have to win their respect the hard way, by his actions and not just words.
Is the party going to come together for November? Who knows? But once again, against a candidate like McCain, it's their election to lose.

There is an interesting assessment in Editor and Publisher magazine of the media's reaction to Scott McClellan's book about the selling of the war in Iraq. Did I say interesting? Actually, it's frightening.  Try this link:

 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003809535

Cut and paste the URL to your browser. Editor and Publisher is the industry's most important, and credible?, trade publication. Here are some excerpts from the article by Greg Mitchell, editor of E&P and author of a book on the selling of the war:

"NEW YORK Debate continues today over charges by former White House spokesman Scott McClellan, in a new book and on TV, that his former boss "hoodwinked" the media, and the public, into going along with the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003. Today, a CNN correspondent, Jessica Yellin, revealed that the MSNBC network, where she once worked, had discouraged, or killed, negative pieces at the behest of the White House. Then she softened her claim.

Other reporters, such as NBC's David Gregory, are actively defending their performance.

So it's worth looking back at what I called, last year, the "most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq." The program appeared on April 25, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marked the return of "Bill Moyers Journal."

I included my review in my new book "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq." An excerpt is published below.

...

At the close, Moyers mentions some of the chief proponents of the war who refused to speak to him for this program, including Thomas Friedman, Bill Kristol, Roger Ailes, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller, and William Safire.

But Dan Rather, the former CBS anchor, admits, "I don't think there is any excuse for, you know, my performance and the performance of the press in general in the roll up to the war…We didn't dig enough. And we shouldn't have been fooled in this way." Bob Simon, who had strong doubts about evidence for war, was asked by Moyers if he pushed any of the top brass at CBS to "dig deeper," and he replies, "No, in all honesty, with a thousand mea culpas. ... nope, I don't think we followed up on this."

Instead he covered the marketing of the war in a "softer" way, explaining to Moyers: "I think we all felt from the beginning that to deal with a subject as explosive as this, we should keep it, in a way, almost light – if that doesn't seem ridiculous."

Moyers replies: "Going to war, almost light."

Walter Isaacson is pushed hard by Moyers and finally admits, "We didn't question our sources enough." But why? Isaacson notes there was "almost a patriotism police" after 9/11 and when the network showed civilian casualties it would get phone calls from advertisers and the administration and "big people in corporations were calling up and saying, 'You're being anti-American here.'"

Moyers then mentions that Isaacson had sent a memo to staff, leaked to the Washington Post, in which he declared, "It seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan" and ordered them to balance any such images with reminders of 9/11. Moyers also asserts that editors at the Panama City (Fla.) News-Herald received an order from above, "Do not use photos on Page 1A showing civilian casualties. Our sister paper has done so and received hundreds and hundreds of threatening emails."
...
Phil Donahue recalls that he was told he could not feature war dissenters alone on his MSNBC talk show and always had to have "two conservatives for every liberal." Moyers resurrects a leaked NBC memo about Donahue's firing that claimed he "presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

Moyers also throws some stats around: In the year before the invasion William Safire (who predicted a "quick war" with Iraqis cheering their liberators) wrote "a total of 27 opinion pieces fanning the sparks of war." The Washington Post carried at least 140 front-page stories in that same period making the administration's case for attack. In the six months leading to the invasion the Post would "editorialize in favor of the war at least 27 times."

Of the 414 Iraq stories broadcast on NBC, ABC and CBS nightly news in the six months before the war, almost all could be traced back to sources solely in the White House, Pentagon or State Dept., Moyers tells Russert, who offers no coherent reply."

As a former journalist, I am ashamed at how easily the media was manipulated. This is especially damaging because it paints the entire profession with the same dirty brush. It is no wonder that media credibility is almost non-existent. Thank you NBC, CNN and all the other tag-alongs for singlehandedly bringing down the Fourth Estate.