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regards croisés – 11/2009

or: Communist Chinese Leaders don’t have it as good as Ailes could

or: Ailes/Palin ’12…I’m going Canadian

or: How can you write a book when you’ve never read a book?

or: Palin’s new book…a four hundred page Highlights Magazine ripoff.

I know it is a long way off but the race for president in 2012 is shaping up to be a bloody battle of epic, and grotesquely offensive, proportion. As Obama continues to stumble through policy changes, foreign affairs, falter on domestic campaign promises, and slight an ever more frustrated gay community the GOP seems to be pulling together a possible ticket that could call for cheers from their constituents and summon nervous gulps from the White House. Sara Palin is releasing her memoirs next month, which is going to bring massive media coverage, book signing tours, and a return to a national spotlight. At the same time the CEO and President of Fox News Television, Roger Ailes, is apparently being encouraged to seek the Presidency in 2012. Ailes running for the highest seat in the free world is more than speculation and is not outlandish with his past work in politics before eventually shaping Fox which has established itself as the clear opposition camp of the Obama administration. If these two stars, Palin and Ailes, join forces 18-24 months from now it could create an alliance that would present a tough media nut for Obama to crack in order to be re-elected.

Sara Palin’s memoirs titled Going Rouge: An American Life were originally slated to come out in early 2010, but the book, which was started and finished in a mere four months, has been fast tracked to come out Nov. 17, 2009. With an initial run of a massive 1.5 million hardcovers, HarperCollins, is clearly putting a lot of faith in the sales of Palin’s first book to be astronomical. This is not entirely without merit. Sara Palin could be described as the sweetheart of the GOP and it seems that; despite her constant foibles, misinformation, and resigning as Governor with more than a year left in her first term; she can do no wrong. With Palin it seems that her fans and supporters turn a blind eye to all her faults and family issues, that run contrary to traditional Republican lines, and instead cling to her general rhetoric and get a big hard on with her ‘rogue spirit’ and libelous shots at the ‘liberal media’. Palin has been accused of hurting McCain in 2008 with her poor speeches, inexperience, and lack of general governmental common knowledge, but it seems that it has not hurt her popularity in the long run. It would not come as a shock when her book in number one on the NYTimes Best sellers list for nearly two months.

There is much you can expect from Palin in the coming months as her books sells like mad and she is plastered all over every media outlet in the country. She will have multiple appearances on Fox News, I am thinking a full round table run of O’Reilly, Fox and Friends, et al. She will be on Meet the Press as well as Larry King Live, of course, not to mention The View. You will see her face on every tabloid for a few weeks after the book release, now that Jon & Kate has settled down, and she will be making a full nation wide book signing tour including many private colleges and universities. Palin will be great fodder with all these speaking engagements for the likes of The Tonight Show and of course the pairing on Colbert and the Daily Show. I think this move back in to the spotlight will allow her to subliminally break down the White House and Democratic faults in her own special way and start setting the foundation for a now probable run at the White House in 2012 as an opponent to Roger Ailes, until she concedes to him after a few primaries and later becomes his choice for VP.

Roger Ailes is only one of many names out there right now vying for the White House in 2012, but I think he promises the biggest headache for the current administration as the mastermind of the number one news network which just happens to be the most biased opposition of the current administration out there. Ailes and to the larger extent have been critical and nothing but a media nightmare for Obama since the early campaigning when it came down to him and Hillary Clinton. Fox News, Glenn Beck specifically, organized the 912 Project. The Channel did everything short of sponsor the TEA Party Protestors, and have been at the heart of all criticism from the Birther Movement to calling the Town Hall outbursts things like ‘patriotic’ and ‘cries of freedom loving Americans’. As a retaliation the White House press Secretary has jabbed at the network and on air personalities, Axelrod has met with Ailes to end the feud to no avail, and Obama also slighted them during his Sunday morning Press blitz promoting the Health Care Reform Bill by appearing on every major network but Fox News which was a public slap in the face that was called ‘childish’ and ‘petty’ by Fox.

Ailes does have a storied history as a man that could create and market a network with his time at MSNBC, CNBC, and of course Fox News. One of the most interesting and disturbing revelations I have found about this man is his work with the likes of Reagan and H. W. Bush during their campaigns for the White House in the position as a political and media advisor. This man has ties to two of the more popular Republican Presidents in the latter half of the 20th Century which only makes him scarier to me. He has ties, as a news guru with a long career, to every single Republican in power in the country and every lobbyist group with any sway in the capitol.

What makes Ailes scary is his ability to manipulate the largest News Channel in the country to further his policies, campaign, and to control the news without being suspect. How better to get to the White House than controlling the news and being able to hold every one hostage from politicians to special interest groups by doing shady deals and bullying GOP opposition by shutting them out of the network coverage. It would be so easy for Ailes to make himself the only candidate in the public’s eye by simply swaying the coverage to his advantage. In addition to this, who in their right mind at Fox would criticize Ailes on any single topic? He would be praised to the point of sainthood and every other candidate, on either party ticket, will be destroyed. It will be the network’s soul purpose to get their man in power and further their conservative agenda.

Can you imagine the news coverage vacuum that would be created when the likes of Ailes with an iron fist of propaganda teams up with Palin and runs cart blanc over their opponents. If he were ever to get in to the White House Ailes would be able to not only do what he wanted with policies as any President does, but he would have a number one watched network mouthpiece that would not dare disagree with him. Red China has that kind of hold over the people and the news and the audacity to think this is ok, but socialized medicine is unpatriotic. In an Ailes White House he could run roughshod over anyone and anything and freeze out almost any other network and voice leaving a stark landscape of very scared and oppressed liberal outlets and groups.

When I think of the possibility of a Ailes/Palin ticket going in to November 2012 leading in the polls I think back to how Hunter S. Thompson spoke of the Nixon administration and I can’t help but compare the two. Ailes would destroy any progress made in green job markets, silence vocal opposition, repeal environmental initiatives, as well as bully and phone tap anyone who didn’t agree and pander to him. Looking at that old man I can see the gay community being sent back 30 years and the patriot act being expanded as socialized programs of many kinds disappearing all together. The Obama administration needs to prepare for this possibility as the picture of 2012 becomes clearer. I really hope that Palin won’t get on the ticket, won’t get involved, but it is unlikely. Ailes has too much to gain and nothing to lose in a run for President and has every tool at his disposal to be an undeniable force in the court of public opinion. There are others who will throw their hats in the ring and run in the GOP primaries, but on paper Ailes presents the most disconcerting possibility. If the shows on his network are any indication then he will transform this country in to something Glenn Beck refers to as the “America he grew up loving”. Beck is 45, the America he grew up in was a tumultuously violent, corrupt, drug laden, and discriminatory nation with polarized parties and protests turned riots. I don’t doubt that this is the America Beck wants back and I wouldn’t put it past Ailes to get us there if he and/or Palin were to get within a sniff of elected power. Sieg Heil!

FRIENDS PUSH AILES FOR PRESIDENT

By MIKE ALLEN | 10/23/09 9:01 AM EDT

Friends are encouraging Fox News founder Roger Ailes to run for president in 2012. | Reuters Close

Friends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political arena for real by running for president in 2012, top sources tell POLITICO.

“Ailes knows how to frame an issue better than anybody, and that’s what we need now,” says one Ailes friend who is encouraging the Fox founder, chairman and CEO to seek the Republican nomination to run against President Barack Obama.

Ailes, 69, has an aggessive, winning personality that made Fox News a huge success — and a huge target for liberal critics.

Frank Luntz, the well-known Republican pollster, said Ailes could be a force if he makes the run.

“I have known Roger Ailes for 29 years,” says Luntz. “No one knows how to win better than Roger.”

Talk of an Ailes run, which informed sources said is based on more than mere speculation, could escalate the White House war with Fox war in wildly unpredictable – and fun – ways.

via POLITICO CLICK: Friends push Ailes for president – Mike Allen.

The White House stopped providing guests to ‘Fox News Sunday’  (Last August) after Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth,assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was “something I’ve never seen a Sunday show do.”

“She criticized ‘FOX News Sunday’ last week for fact-checking –fact-checking — an administration official,” Wallace said Sunday.”They didn’t say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check.“

London Telegraph:

On Sunday, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said this on CNN:

Basically, the White House doesn’t want stories like ACORN and Van Jones – legitimate, even necessary, stories which Fox bravely pursued with immense vigour – taking hold. The media will be more compliant, it hopes, if it introduces a chill factor – “Why are you asking this impertinent question about a story which is being run on Fox, which we all know isn’t a news organisation?”

As Tom DeFrank, a veteran Washington journalist now DC bureau chief of the New York Daily News, comments:

I can never remember a White House urging news organizations to boycott other news organizations. That strikes me as unprecedented.

Whether the White House engages with Fox is a tactical political question. Whether we journalists continue to do so is an ethical one. By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations.Respectable journalists—I’m talking to you, Mara Liasson (NPR)—should stop appearing on its programs. A boycott would make Ailes too happy, so let’s try just ignoring Fox, shall we? And no, I don’t want to come on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss it.

Thankfully, there are other methods of deligitimising them.

Michael Wolf (Vanity Fair) on his blog put it this way:

Hence, Republicanism = conservatism = Fox = rabid opposition to an incredibly popular piece of legislation (Health Care Reform) = hopeless marginalization = new liberal consensus.

I think they’re really going for it and that we may all turn out to be liberals.

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.  (Saul Alinsky)

By the way, this is the same Jacob Weisberg who’s article in Newsweek was subtitled:

“Fox News isn’t just bad. It’s un-American.”

Being critical of this president is “un-American” you know

Remind you of anyone?

“Let the facts be heard,” they wrote. “These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.” – Nancy “The Public Option is the only Option” Pelosi on the administration’s view being unfairly the victim of protests in August mostly.

So protesting them on any level, by anyone, is “Un-American”.

That’s your post-partisan America that Obama promised. He just didn’t say that the reason there’d be no partisanship is because it would not be allowed because it’s Un-American.

Obama: “resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long”; that “the times are too serious, the stakes are too high” for the same old political-attack tricks; and that he alone would elevate public discourse and serve as a unifying figure for America.”

If I were to say : This whole gambit will come across to a lot of people as misguided and petty, the product of a White House that is unusually thin-skinned and somewhat paranoid – and, perhaps, as one that can’t be trusted with power.

Would I be talking about Bush/Cheney (according to the Mainstream Media and the Democrats for the last 6-8 years) or Obama for the last 9 months?

Hmmm?

Maybe it’s a “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” after all…

Those journalists sitting this one out need to ask themselves what they will do when the White House comes after them or their news organisation.

Because if Fox is allowed to be placed out of respectable bounds in this way then when the going gets tougher – as it will – the White House will simply move on to another target.

And it’s not like this administration has any tolerance for anyone who opposes them for any reason.

Poem Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

So they came for FOX and I said nothing.

Then they came for Talk Radio and I said nothing.

Then they came for the Internet (net neutrality anyone?) and I said nothing.

Then when they came for me, there was no one left.

So where will you be when they come for you?

Or me, for writing this ?

<<knock knock>>

“who’s there?”

We’re from the government and we are here to help you…

Fox News isn’t just bad. It’s un-American

Jacob Weisberg

Newsweek/Jacob Weisburg —Last week, when White House Communications Director Anita Dunn charged the Fox News Channel with right-wing bias, Fox responded the way it always does. It denied the accusation with a straight face while proceeding to confirm it with its coverage.

Consider Fox’s Web story on the episode. It quotes five people. Two of them work for Fox. All of them assert that administration officials are either wrong in substance or politically foolish to criticize the network. No one is cited supporting Dunn’s criticisms or saying that it could make sense for Obama to challenge the network’s power. It’s a textbook example of a biased journalism.

If you were watching Fox News Channel, you saw the familiar roster of platinum pundettes and anchor androids reciting the same soundbites: this was Obama’s version of Nixon’s enemies list, the rest of the news media is in Obama’s corner, Obama should get back to governing, and so on. On The O’Reilly Factor, Alan Colmes, the network’s weak, battered house liberal, mumbled semi-agreement while “Doctor” Monica Crowley and Bill O’Reilly lit up the scoreboard with these talking points.

Any news organization that took its responsibilities seriously would take pains to cover presidential criticism fairly. It would regard doing so as itself a test of integrity. At Fox, by contrast, complaints of unfairness prompt only hoots of derision and demands for “evidence” that, when presented, is brushed off and ignored.

There is no need to get bogged down in this phony debate, which itself constitutes an abuse of the fair-mindedness of the rest of the media. One glance at Fox’s Web site or five minutes’ random viewing of the channel at any hour of the day demonstrates its all-pervasive slant. The lefty documentary Outfoxed spent a lot of time mustering evidence that Fox managers order reporters to take the Republican side. But after 13 years under Roger Ailes, Fox employees skew news right as instinctively as fish swim.


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Style de photos beaucoup plus simple, en extérieur, dans la nature, sans trop de chichi !

3 thèmes : cowboy, fille de la campagne et ange noir !

A vous de juger

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fleurs blanches sur l’arbre / – et sur l’herbe

(Moret-sur-Loing, 18/4/96)

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ce matin / le lever du soleil / dans l’eau de la piscine

(19/4/96)

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déjà les fleurs de cerisiers s’envolent / – dimanche matin d’avril

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phalène au repos sur la vitre – / les branches secouées par le vent

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l’arbre / et le mur détruit / ont même pente / : photo

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couleurs chaudes / des alcools : / un souvenir de palais

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cabane des garçons / une cloche pend de l’arbre / : “pour l’alerte !”

(21/4/96, Beaujeu-en-Beaujolais)

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7 heures du matin / Les ramasseurs de détritus / encerclent le lac

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Envol d’un grand cygne blanc / tapant des ailes

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Éveil de la faune : / amorces de sirènes / sur l’île du lac

(28/4/96, lac de Vincennes)

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Paris fait toilette : / on élague les arbres / (Soleil en Seine)

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Brun-vert la Seine : / une verte brune…

(29/4/96)

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L’autre jour, j’ai lu cet article: De la cocaïne dans le Red Bull ? – lesoir.be. J’ai trouvé ça amusant. J’ai pensé à tous ces pauvres sportifs, comme Gasquet et Boonen, qui étaient pris le nez dans la poudre, ou plutôt, la poudre dans les urines, et j’ai pensé “mais c’est bien sur!!!”. Ces gens doivent boire des tonnes de cette boisson horrible lorsqu’ils vont en soirée. Le peu de traces qu’on retrouve dans leurs urines n’étant pas assez importante que pour être dues à un réel sniffage, il me semble évident que le coupable est là: c’est la boisson qui vous donne des ailes la coupable. Est-ce que Richard et Tom vont invoquer cela pour leur défense? Si non, je suis toute prête à faire un super plaidoyer pour eux…

Hop hop hop une petite note rapide, parce que en ce moment c est le salon du design a Milan et donc je passe mon temps a courrir!!!

Ailes said that he looks “forward to carrying out Mr. Murdoch’s legendary vision in the future.”

Dennis Potter…where are you when we need you?

Un oiseau saisi en plein vol, dans un mouvement figé. Il ne se détache malheureusement pas bien sur le ciel gris. J’envisage de lui faire subir un post-traitement pour le mettre en valeur mais lequel ?

Voici les Exifs :

Appareil photo :      Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposition:     0,002 sec (1/500)
Aperture:     f/16
Longueur focale:     46 mm
Vitesse ISO:     400
Flash:     non
Software:     Picasa 3.0
Date and Time (Original):     2008:10:30 12:21:09
Metering Mode:     Pattern
Focal Plane X-Resolution:     4433,295 dpi
Focal Length In 35mm Film:     74

Le traitement “subi” par l’image est le suivant

Recadrage dans Picasa 3 afin que l’oiseau (si vous savez ce que c’est comme oiseau, ça m’intéresse de le savoir) se trouve sur un des “points forts”; puis “sharpen” dans le menu “effects” afin d’améliorer la netteté de l’image.

Evidemment, Picasa ce n’est pas Photoshop, mais pour ce genre de retouches de base “vite fait bien fait”, il me donne toute satisfaction.

Avez-vous des suggestions pour améliorer cette photo d’oiseau ?