Brilliante Weblog Premior 2008 Award

I would like to thank ......

It is always great to get complements and awards. Thanks to Political Rants from the Right for awarding me the Brilliante Weblog Premior 2008 Award.

Here are the rules for the next recipients of the Brilliante Weblog Premio 2008 Award, established in 2005:

1. The award may be displayed on a winner’s blog.

2. Add a link to the person who you received the award from.

3. Nominate up to seven other blogs.

4. Then add their links to your blog.

5. Add a message to each person that you have passed the award on to in the comments section of their blog.

I am passing this on to the following bloggers (in no particular order):

Vulcan’s Hammer, “meditations on liberty and free markets”

Blanca Debree Blog. This blogger is witty, irreverent, maddening and clever.

Copious Dissent, “your daily dose of liberty”

Matt-Speak. An insightful blog from a common sense conservative.

The BoBo Files, “Driving the loony left loonier”

Regarding Liberty, “fiscally nuts, socially insane” This teen blogger is a common sense, moderate conservative, sharp, insightful ,and smart, wise beyond his years.

Hillbilly Savants, “This blog is about our Appalachia - the real one, not the Hollywood-stereotype nor the third-world nation-esque stereotype being sold by do-gooders, or even the neo-Romantic sylvan stereotype that Rousseau would probably buy into.” This is the non-political blog I am passing the award on to. I do have interest other than politics. Being originally from east Tennessee, I love this blog. It has lots of photos of the beauty of the area and covers history, current events, music and art.

More Gibson Doctrine

Don't Spread Lies Like the "Obama's 50 Lies"

If you visit lots of chat groups and blogs like I do, you have probably come across the widely circulated list of "Obama's 50 lies." With this being the season of extreme partisanship, it is easy to believe the worst about your opponent. I researched the list to see if it was something I wanted to repost. I discovered the list is simply not true. In some cases, the person who compiled the list claims Obama said things that there is no record of him ever saying. In other cases, what is claimed to be a lie is in fact true. In some cases the items on the list may be open to alternative interpretations of events, or be opinions, or simply harmless slight exaggerations.

As an example of one of the lies, the list says the following:
"Father was a goat herder- Liar, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government."

Snopes points out that these attributes are not mutually exclusive and Obama's father was all three of these things at one time. Obama's biography states the his father was the son of a prominent farmer and an elder in his tribe and as a youth he herded goats. But it also says that he won a scholarship to study in Nairobi and then he was selected to attend a university in America. There is nothing to this supposed lie.

The internet is a great thing. It has put more information in the hands of more people than anytime in history. It has changed the political landscape and lessened the influence of the liberal mainstream press. Unfortunately, however, lies and rumors spread like wildfire in the blogosphere. Please, before you pass along something you read in a chat group or something someone emails you, check it out. It is not that hard to do. Here are four sources for verifying almost any thing:
Urban Legends http://urbanlegends.about.com/
Snopes http://www.snopes.com/
Hoax Busters http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBUrbanMyths.shtml
Fact check http://www.factcheck.org/

Please save these as a "favorites" and use them to verify before you pass along a rumor.

I certainly do not want to see Barack Obama elected President, but the truth matters. I think Obama's relationship with 60's radical William Ayers and his radical pastor Jeremiah Wright should be exposed. There is enough to expose about Obama without making stuff up. Just as the left has spread vicious lies about Sarah Palin and her banning of books and other non-sense, some on our side of the political divide have been guilty of spreading lies about Obama. Unfortunately, it seems there have been more liars on our side than on the other side. Both group of liars are to be condemned. Please before you pass on something you get in an email or read in a chat group, check it out. All is not fair in love and war and politics; the truth is important.

The Gibson Doctrine

When a member of the mainstream press interviews a Democrat, the interviewer will only ask questions that allow the interviewee to present himself or herself in a favorable light. The objective of the interview is to edify. The interviewer should ask a lot of general and open-ended questions. The interview should be conducted as if two good friends are having a friendly chat but the interviewer should show deference to the interviewee. When a member of the mainstream press is interviewing a Republican, the interviewer should ask questions that will present the interviewee in an unfavorable light. The objective of the interview is to showcase the weaknesses or flaws in the interviewee or to embarrass or rattle the interviewee. The interviewer should ask a lot of questions that require detailed answers or close-ended questions. The interview should be conducted in a friendly manner but in structure it should resemble an attorney cross-examining a witness. ~ The Gibson Doctrine

Below are a list of question Charlie Gibson asked Barack Obama in an interview;
How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to "win"?
How does your family feel about your “winning,” breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your Clinton's speech?

Below are the questions Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin.
Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking?
Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Questions about foreign policy: territorial integrity of Georgia, allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO, NATO treaty, Iranian nuclear threat, what to do if Israel attacks Iran, Al Qaeda motivations, the Bush Doctrine, attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan.
Is America fighting a holy war?

The transcript of the Gibson/Obama interview is here:
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5000184

The transcript of the Gibson/Palin interview is here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=5795641&page=2

Other than the way in which Gibson asked the "Bush Doctrine" question to make it appear Palin did not know what it was, when in fact there is no single definition of the Bush Doctrine, I do not think the interview was improper or unfair. I want candidates to be asked hard questions. What I object to is the uneven treatment. The Democrats get asked the easy questions and are allowed to weasel out of an answer while the Republicans are nailed to the wall. It is my observation that this is generally true of most main stream journalist. They find it difficult to be objective. The late Tim Russert, I thought, was an exception and was fair and even handed despite being liberal. Most journalist miserably fail in hiding their liberal bias.

Disclaimer: While I would like to take credit for it, this post is not a result of original research. I first came across this information on a couple different chat groups and then traced it to three different blogs. I have read the above transcripts and the lists of questions are accurate. I have included the links to those interviews if you would like to read them for yourself. I formulated the Gibson Doctrine based on my observations.