TV News,
San Diego Radio,
Politics and News,
Sewing--The Sewing Herald Tribune....we need contributors, Travel....
Agree or Disagree....Please feel free to comment.....all comments appreciated and thank you for your time.....
and
food,dogs and cats......
let's sit down at this cafe, have a cup of coffee and talk about politics.
Good job--that is O'Reilly's and Hannity's favorite game--why won't you just answer the question when the premise of the question is ridiculous. I am guessing President Obama may be on to this since he is the President and pretty good with words himself. The other false premise...the folks. Remember, this is from someone who just discovered Pandora......Bill often says he is the only one looking out for the folks. Bill fails to take into consideration the folks elected President Obama twice. Could Bill's folks actually be the 500 dollar ticket payers for the meet and greet portion of his bolder and fresher gig, as it was here in San Diego. The regular tickets were about 100 dollars. I am afraid Bill may live in a slightly smaller world mentally than President Obama but he certainly does not want anyone to tell him that.
Dear President Obama: How to Survive a Bill O’Reilly Interview
You might not realize this, but ever since it was announced that Bill O’Reilly would interview you again on Super Bowl Sunday, he’s been strategizing – sometimes on air – about how best to conduct the conversation.
And while I suspect you have handlers who are charged with preparing you for these bouts, most of them probably aren’t as familiar with the tale of the tape on an unpredictable foe like O’Reilly as I am.
For starters, while this might be just another interview for you, it’s a major event for Bill, especially since this might be his last crack at you during your presidency, and almost certainly his last exposure on this sort of vast stage for several years.
Moreover, O’Reilly will relive this moment by chewing over, analyzing and running clips for days to come. (Just to make sure the reviews are good, he’ll enlist sycophants like Bernard Goldberg and Dennis Miller to reassure him how great he was.)
O’Reilly not only does this sort of thing every day, but he takes pride in presenting himself as the kind of hard-nosed reporter and surrogate for “the folks” who won’t give you a pass, unlike all those mainstream news outlets. And because he does have a way of interrupting and saying unexpected things, he can easily put even a skilled communicator off his game.
So if you want to survive an O’Reilly interview without him laying a glove on you — from the president on down to an ordinary guest — here are some steps to follow:
Flatter him.(Key phrase: “I respect what you do.”) Like a lot of news talent, O’Reilly has a healthy ego. He’s just a bigger, more exaggerated version – Papa Bear, as Stephen Colbert puts it. Getting an “atta boy” from the President of the United States can’t help but turn his head a little, even if many of his viewers see you as a socialist who is secretly trying to destroy America.
Establish rank early. (Key phrase: “Please let me finish my thought.” Repeat if necessary.) OK, this one obviously doesn’t apply to everyone. O’Reilly does a nice job keeping guests off balance by interrupting them. You’ll have to remind him – a few times, probably – that you are the President of the United States, not some professor from a liberal-arts college he booked as a straw man to slap around.
Don’t accept the way he frames issues.(Key phrase: “The premise of your question is flawed.”) O’Reilly has a way of presenting things as if they were conventional wisdom – like the fact he speaks for “the folks” – when they’re often open to debate. Knock him off stride by reframing the conversation, then asking him to defend a line of attack meant to put and keep you on the ropes.
Find common ground. (Key phrase: “You have critics, Bill. Is everything they say about you true?”) O’Reilly is terribly sensitive to criticism, which is why raising the issue of critics will put him on his heels. Bill can’t stand the fact some guy at Mediamatters.org sends out emails detailing his excesses; imagine how he’d feel if the entire Republican Party and 30 think tanks were devoted to it.
Do not joke with him. This is very important. Bill O’Reilly thinks he can be funny, but he has very little sense of humor when it comes to himself. So as much as you might see an opportunity to share a laugh, odds are he’ll see that as obfuscation or a stalling tactic. If you’re going to try to tell a joke or lighten things up, save it for the very end.
Do not lump him in with Fox News.Although he has spent 17 years living adjacent to Sean Hannity, O’Reilly considers himself a very different animal from that sort of raw partisanship. On Wednesday, for example, he endorsed President Obama’s push to increase the minimum wage — and chided Republicans for not getting behind the idea.
About that “last word” he’ll promise you… While Bill might say, “I’ll give you the last word,” trust me, you will not get the last word.
Bottom line: His show; his rules. And incidentally, if members of your staff didn’t come up with a list like this, then they’re not looking out for you.
SHIP TO SHORE | A view from the RMS St Helena, which travels between Cape Town, St. Helena and Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Alamy
WHEN THE CARGO liner CMA CGM Figaro comes into New York Bay, she does so with shipping containers stacked high on her deck, like enormous Lego bricks. From shore, one can only guess at what she's carrying. Electronics from Yokohama? Maybe. Clothing from Hong Kong? Possibly. A swimming pool and a few paying passengers? Very likely.
The pool is pretty much where the similarities with a traditional cruise begin and end. A mega-liner like Royal Caribbean's RCL +2.49% Oasis of the Seas can carry more than 6,000 passengers; most freighters (if they take guests) top out at about 12. There is no rock wall. No spa. Cabins, though they tend to be spacious, are utilitarian (imagine yourself on the SS IKEA). Instead of a dozen restaurants operating around the clock, cargo ships have officers' dining rooms that serve meals at appointed times.
For some, the appeal of freighter travel is the prospect for a "Fantastic Voyage"-like journey through the arteries of global commerce. Others like the idea of seeing little-known destinations, like Pago Pago in American Samoa, or relish the opportunity to read and write in near isolation. (Internet connectivity, via satellite, is limited at best.) And unlike with a traditional cruise, it is often possible to arrange passage over just a segment of a ship's route—for instance, if you wanted to get to Europe without flying.
Even the shortest leg, however, requires both time and flexibility. A 20-day voyage might come in at 19 or 22, as commerce and weather dictate. Rates start at about $130 a day. Working with a specialist travel agent is not just advised, it's pretty much mandatory.
Cargo ships travel the world without consideration of tourist season or how sandy nearby beaches are; if there is a deep port there is probably a ship to get you there. Click the mapto view a few of the more compelling trips available.
Larry King said he occasionally misses CNN, but he’s not ignoring his longtime network’s ratings woes.
“I miss it when there’s big stories but on a day-to-day basis I don’t,” King said in an interview with HuffPost Live today. The former network star also addressed their struggles: “CNN’s got problems,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“Cartoons” he joked as advice for CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker. “Put ‘Spongebob’ on CNN— 24 hours— until a big story breaks. Then we break into ‘Spongebob,’ and go to the hurricane, and then back to ‘Spongebob.’” (Speaking of big breaks, King told us about his last year.)
King also didn’t shy away from Fox News and MSNBC.
“Fox News is so successful, but obviously, ‘fair and balanced,’ cmon…who we kidding?” King said. “I like Roger (Ailes)…but they are certainly not an impartial news network.”
Answering host Marc Lamont Hill‘s question on MSNBC, King said it was pretty much as “knee jerk” as Fox, but that it doesn’t “go out and hire guys who’ve run for office on the Democratic ticket.”
It should be noted that “The Cycle” co-host Krystal Ball ran for Congress in 2010, and Fox News suspended then political contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum back in 2011 when it became likely they were running for president.
If you are interested in registering for the Fash 130 (Construction) and Fashion 199A (Lab)class being held on Saturdays this semester, you will need to use an Add Code.
Ari Fleischer, former press sec to President Bush. On Geraldo Radio today, WABC New York--right off the bat Geraldo asked his guest Ari Fleischer what he thought of the words of Rand Paul giving his thoughts on the state of the Union by President Obama and taking the opportunity to bash President Clinton. Ari said, "Bringing up President Clinton and his indiscretions is a waste of time. Our country already went through that. That kind of talk does not do anything for the progress of the republican party or win elections." Those were refreshing words, repub or dem, hate talk does not solve problems. What in the world was the purpose of those ideas of Rand Paul other than to be self serving. Ari, who is your idea for the republican candidate. Good job, Ari, and thank you for telling us your thoughts today.
Readers of SWHT and NEXUS are aware that they present some pretty tightly focused scenarios for both the JFK conspiracy and the coverup; with SWHT being more detailed on the coverup and NEXUS on the origins, nature and individuals involved in the actual Dallas attack itself. Unfortunately because of the size (and depth I suppose) of SWHT, certain key things get missed even by repeat readers. Bill Simpich and I had a discussion of that the other day. Bill is wrapping up the final chapter of his new boolork - hopefully everyone is following it chapter by chapter on the Mary Ferrell web site. One of the things he called me about was to discuss what we both feel is a "smoking gun" event that further points the figure at some of the key figures involved in the Kennedy assassination.
If you have SWHT, I'd refer you to Chapter 9, page 126 which starts a discussion of "A political H bomb". This is in the chapter on John Roselli and it begins in 1966, years after the murder of the president, with Roselli himself still under FBI surveillance and with Hoover still putting on pressure to deport him as an illegal alien. Its probably safe to say that at that point the last thing in the world Roselli should or would want is to raise his profile with any government agency. Yet what it does, beginning in December of 1966 is to expose himself as a major potential political problem to a host of figures involving not only the FBI and CIA but President Johnson and ultimately the public via Jack Anderson and Drew Pearson.
What he does is detailed in the book, but essentially its to offer concrete information that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy, that the conspiracy involved CIA trained Cuban exiles who had been prepared and were being used by the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro inside Cuba. Given that Roselli was personally involved in multiple assassination efforts, using Cuban exiles, for several years, that would seem to give him a good deal of credibility on the subject - indeed Johnson took it seriously enough to call in the CIA Director and force him to spill the details on the assassination project, something Nixon himself attempted without success during his administration.
Of course Roselli did put just a bit of spin on the story, claiming that the Cuban exiles had been captured inside Cuba and sent back by Castro to kill Kennedy under his direction - now exactly how Roselli would know that is a good question, how Castro would control them another and what happened to them afterwards an equally good question. Strangely, nobody seems to have asked Roselli such questions - not then and apparently not even later during his congressional committee interviews. Well at least when I wrote SWHT it seemed nobody had; more recently new research suggests that following his effort to promote the story, the CIA took Johnny into a safehouse in Maryland and held a chat with him that lasted some two weeks.
But even more interesting than that, is that Bill Simpich has turned up the point that Jack Anderson and Pearson eventually received corroboration of the Roselli story - from none other than William Harvey, the man who worked with Roselli on the assassination projects. Roselli and Harvey had become close, much to the dismay of the CIA but for Harvey to actually confirm the assassination story is a really big deal; we can only wonder what the CIA thought about that.
Now - to the even larger question, the smoking gun - why in the world would first Roselli and then William Harvey, bring such a story to Earl Warren, the Secret Service, the FBI, the White House and the press (all of which other than the press showed no interest at all). And why in the late winter of 1966. The answer is that the Garrison investigation was just getting into swing but was very closely held at that point. The only outsider who knew about it, and who would later blow it to the press, was Bernardo de Torres, the private investigator Garrison's people were referred to in Miami to chase down exile leads to the assassination.
What stimulated John Roselli to a very risky outreach, what led William Harvey to back him up in a preemptive strike supporting conspiracy, but a very special "Castro used CIA trained Cuban exiles" to kill JFK scenario. I'd suggest the two were warned by their gatekeepers in Miami and decided they had best move to take control of the situation by getting ahead of Garrison and also by making key folks in Washington extremely nervous. The details of how they did that and exactly how nervous Johnson became are in SWHT. My point is that in this case, rather than constantly looking for the "smoking gun" in the TSBD, taking a broader view of the assassination can be very useful.
Alan Dale and I are doing some further work on this matter and hopefully before too long we may be able to record a discussion of the Roselli/Harvey/Angleton connection and explore Roselli's very strange public outreach on conspiracy in much more detail.
-- Larry
copied from the website of Larry Hancock and the title is added by the ronnie re.
“The Blacklist” is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma shrouded in mystery. My job is to help all of you unravel the mystery and one way to do that is to highlight the most thought-provoking posts of the week in the comment section.
Last week, a poster named Chris brought up a great idea when he said that Tom may have had his memory wiped. On the one hand, lots of nefarious folks seem to be focused on Tom, but Tom’s actions thus far have appeared to be anything but those of a secretive spy. Chris says the Lucy Brooks/Jolene character we met last week may be trying to trigger Tom’s old memories. Great idea, Chris! Keep ‘em coming! Plenty of posters are focused in on Lucy Brooks/Jolene. Many think she may be an older version of the young woman in the photo Red took from The Stewmaker’s book of victims. I am not so sure about that, as the Stewmaker seem to kill all his victims and Jolene is certainly still alive. Still, Red’s interest in Lucy Brooks is one of the main mysteries being explored on the show right now.
A quick reminder that last week’s episode left off with Red confronting Meera Malik because he had discovered she was the mole. I must admit, this revelation left me a little bit confused. What kind of mole is she supposed to be? Everyone knows she is a CIA agent who has been placed at the FBI to be a part of the team investigating Red’s Blacklist members. Is the implication that Malik is working for Fitch (Alan Alda)? I don’t really get what kind of mole she is supposed to be… but maybe she and Red will talk about it and make it more clear. Anyway, let’s see what is happening tonight on the show.
A woman who appears to be an escapee from a hospital, or a mental ward, is walking down the street. She is mumbling, “They took my baby.” A police officer approaches her just as a man comes up, claiming to be her husband. The “husband” has a thick mustache. The officers wants to figure out what is going on but mustache man shoots him. Handlebar then turns around and shoots the woman too.
Tom and Liz are looking at a 3D sonogram of their baby. They are a little freaked out but will soon be parents. Liz has decided she wants to take some time off from work to be with the baby when they get it. Quite a change from her attitude last week. I guess looking at the sonogram has changed her. Sorta sweet.
She meets with Red, who tells her about an evil organization known as the Cypress Adoption Agency. Liz doesn’t believe it is a coincidence that Red is asking her to investigate an adoption agency just as she is about to adopt. He tells her that Cypress offers the promise of perfection. The parents-to-be tells Cypress exactly what they want and Cypress actually abducts the child who perfectly fits the bill. The CEO is a man named Mallory. The agency’s lawyer is a man named Caldwell. Red gives Liz the identity of the child who will be abducted next.
She goes to visit the Rowlands, the couple who were going to adopt the baby. She gets them to work undercover and they go meet with the lawyer, Caldwell. The Rowlands ask too many questions and the lawyer gets nervous. He walks outside and Liz approaches him. He gets very agitated and mumbles, “I’m already dead.” He runs out in the street. As he is about to tell Liz something about The Cpress Agency, a bus slams into him and he is instantly killed. This is muuuch more than just a story about adoption.
Red goes to see Malik, who it appears he is holding in some warehouse. A man who interrogated her says she is clean and telling the truth. She tells Red that someone higher up authorized her to give up information on the blacksite, information that led to Red’s abduction at the hands of Anslo Garrick. She tells Red she wants to know who was behind it as much as he does. She offers to work with Red on the investigation.
At The Cypress Agency, the FBI is raiding everything. CEO Mallory is there and says he knows nothing about illegal adoptions. He seems like he is fully cooperating.
Meanwhile, Liz wants to talk to Dir. Cooper about taking some time off, but she gets the impression that he will not take kindly to it.
The FBI investigation is thus far turning up nothing. The FBI cannot verify any of the details of any of the adoptions by Cypress in the past year, but they cannot prove the adoptions were illegal either. Red gives Liz some advice – don’t just look at the DNA of the children, look into the parents. When the FBI does that, they find that 5 woman are the mothers of many of the Cypress babies… and all the women are listed as missing persons.
All the missing women are attractive, smart women who were students at top universities. The FBI figures out that Cypress is grabbing the women and then getting them pregnant. That’s sick!
Malik steals Dir. Cooper’s ID and uses it to hack into some secret FBI files and copy them.
The FBI figures out that a Georgetown student named Charlotte is Cypress’ next target to be kidapped and turned into a mommy. We see handlebar mustache man stalking her. Ressler and Liz arrive moments too late to stop handlebar from grabbing her, but they get his license plate.
Handlebar takes the woman to Mallory, who is upset. Mallory says the Agency was supposed to go silent. Mallory pulls a gun and kills handlebar.
Mallory goes to a fertility clinic called Galatea. He tells the doctor there to shut everything down.
The FBI finds the dead body of one of the women who tried to escape from Cypress. An autopsy reveals that she had been sedated for the past three years… but she has given birth multiple times in that time. Wow, Cypress doesn’t just farm babies from these women, it keeps the women unconscious the whole time. Super sick!
Malik gives Red the intel she got from Cooper’s computer. He examines it and says, “Our business is done, Agent Malik.” Red now knows who betrayed him. I am sure we will soon find out.
The FBI delves deeper into Mallory’s background. He came from the foster care system and had deep psychological problems. He had to take some strong drugs just to maintain his sanity. The FBI tracks Mallory to the Galatea fertility clinic by tracking the drug he takes. Ressler ends up having to shoot the lead doctor at the clinic. Liz chases Mallory and ends up finding all the sedated women who are pregnant. She and Mallory get into a fight but Ressler saves the day when he shoots Mallory in the arm.
One final cherry on top of the Cypress Agency sickness. Liz finds out that Mallory is the father of all the children the agency put up for adoption. He stole women, but he was the only father.
Liz goes home and tells Tom she just cannot go through with the adoption. She tells him she does not think they are ready for this. “Something’s not right,” she tells him. I think Red’s constant mantra that Tom is not who he claims to be has broken Liz’s trust in her husband.
Red goes to the home of FBI Director Dianne Fowler. It is nighttime and she is in her nightgown. He tells her he knows she is the one who betrayed him and gave up the plans for the blacksite. He pulls a gun on her. She starts talking about how Fitch (Alan Alda) will protect her. “Shut up,” Red says and he shots her in the belly. He tells her that he and Fitch have an agreement. They each go about their business and don’t get in each other’s way. “You and I don’t have an agreement,” he tells her. She tells Red that she knows the truth about “that night” and what happened to his family. She asks him if he wants to know the truth. He tells her he does, “But, if you know the truth then somebody else also does.” With that, he pumps several more bullets into her.
We see Tom being comforted about Liz’s decision not to adopt by his new friend, Jolene/Lucy. The episode closes with Red’s “clean up expert,” the old lady named Mr. Kaplan, cleaning up Dianne Fowler’s body.
And the episode is over!
Strong episode! The Cypress story was so creepy and sick that it held my attention more than the susual weekly blacklister does. And thank goodness Liz and Tom have decided not to adopt. Getting a child in the middle of all this would have been really messy! I think this allows the show to still turn Tom Bond into a bad guy, if they want, and not leave Liz stuck with a child she must care for. I love that Red got revenge on Fowler and that we learned at least a little tiny bit more about what Red wants (to know the fate of his family) as well as more talk about his relationship with Fitch.
Now it is your turn. Let all of us know your thoughts and theories about the show by posting something in the comment section. As always, I’ll be highlighting the most thought-provoking posts in my recap next week. It is worth noting that Blacklist Executive Producer Jon Bokenkamp told me when I interviewed him that he and his staff read this blog and the comment section to see what we all think and even to get ideas, so don’t be surprised if your crazy idea ends up actually happening on the show!
If you want to read more of Jason Evans’ commentary on the Movie and TV industry, follow him on Twitter @TVFilmTalk and be sure to check our Speakeasy every Monday and Wednesday for his recaps of The Blacklist and Arrow.
copied from wsj....speakeasy.....jason evans
So, Jason Evans comes out with his Blacklist update on Monday evening before the show--First, I read Jason, then I watch the show, then I read Jason and the comments.............I think Fitch is from outer space and wants to take over the world and Red was forced to work for him and Tom is in on it--clearly........what do you think?
