On this occasion, Colonel Nguyen Huyen, who has been working for the general for nearly 40 years, including 20 years in charge of the general’s office, told reporters about the current situation of the legendary general.

You have just visited the general at the Army Hospital 108. Could you tell us the recent health situation of the general?

I visit the general three or four times a week. His health is stable now. He is of sound mind but we still need to conserve his health so visits are restricted.

High-ranking General Vo Nguyen Giap

Today I asked him “Do you feel painful?”, he shook his head. Several days ago, when I asked him that question, he pointed his finger to his stomach. When I came, he shook my hand and when I left, he held my hand tightly.

What were your first impressions of General Vo Nguyen Giap?

In 1975, I was assigned to work at the office of the Ministry of Defense. After that, I was appointed as an assistant to the general, in charge of news. At that time the general needed someone who collected daily local and international news.

The general was a man of work, with high intensity. That was my first impression. He always worked until midnight. His mind had no time to relax. He even worked during meals. He was always ready to work. When I started working for him, he was 65 years old already.

In the morning, the general did exercise while listening to my report. I was present at 5 or 6am to follow him to tell him the news.

There was a time the general’s office had 17 staffs, including 8 majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels who were his assistants. Each of them was in charge of one field, for instance military, economic affairs, politics, sci-tech, education and the Party and State’s tasks. Sometimes all of them focused on one task assigned by the general.

The office had to work day and night to meet the general’s requirements. Research staffs had to keep an eye on their field of research and made daily reports to assist the general to prepare for his meetings with officials, agencies, etc.

In the 1980s and 1990s I saw the general worked non-stop, even during the weekend. Once I proposed: “You should stay at home to relax this Sunday.” He immediately answered: “You think that staying at home is relaxation? I’m more tired if I do not have any new information.”

Since then I have never asked him to take a rest. And all of us were always willing to work with him on weekends.

The general always wants to get and process information. At the age of 70 to 80, he regularly paid visits to many localities, army units and agencies to learn about the real situation.

What is your second impression of General Vo Nguyen Giap?

He has a great mind. He is very intelligent. To make daily reports, I had to read many bulletins. Sometimes I had to read a bulletin twice to thoroughly understand them. But I only had to read reports once while he was doing morning exercise. When I was managed to read it again, he said “okay, I’ve got it” and he told the core of the news.

Sometimes, he was walking in his office and read for me to take notes of over 20 pages.

Before meetings or workshop, he often dashed his ideas, never prepared ready-made speeches.

How was the general’s behavior to his inferiors and his family?

As a high-ranking official, a general who led the army but he still pays attention to his inferiors. He regularly inquired after our families. When he had free time, he paid visits to our homes. We always serve him wholeheartedly, not for responsibility but for our love and respect to him.

He is an exemplary husband. The general and his wife are always interested in educating their children and grandchildren. His family is very happy. That is an important factor to facilitate the general to fulfill his missions and is long-lived.

What does the general hate most?

He hates flattering most. He does not like anyone who is obsequious and tries to please him. I still remember that once a high ranking official who had just returned from a foreign trip visited the general and said “In that country the one like you would have been cast a statue a long time ago”. He answered “What did you say? That’s their job!”

General Vo Nguyen Giap is a brilliant general. Is he strict in matters of principle?

He is very serious at work but he is flexible. He is also humorous. For example, when we were concentrated at work, I had an unexpected affair so I asked his permission to take a break for ten minutes. He told me “You can take a break for up to 11 minutes!”

In case others have different opinion from his, does the general accept and how does he accept that opinion?

He loves honesty and straightforwardness. He told us to keep our opinions if we feel them right. The general always listens to opinions of others, though he may not agree with it. That’s why wherever he visits, people want to tell him their matters.

Once I interviewed a military officer, he said that the rumor that the general hangs a “Nhan” word in his office is wrong. Could you make clear this rumor?

It is an entirely made-up story! The general does not hang that word in his office. Once, a person told me his intention to present the general with a calligraphic work which features the word “Nhan”. I said that word can be understood two ways.

The first is patience and the second is resignation. The general has never been a resigned person. I advised him to not present it to the general because others may have misunderstanding of that word.

A newspaper published a poem entitled “Nhan word” and noted that it is written by the general, but the general does have such as poem and that newspaper had to make correction. That poem has the following line “Sometimes you have to be resigned to succeed in life” but our general has never been like that.

He always takes initiative in everything. He can also stick to his opinion without causing disunity and is able to convince others.

What do you feel about yourself after many years working besides the general?

Working beside the general, my mind has been broadened. I’ve learnt a lot from the general: morals, knowledge, working method and behavior.

I’m very happy to have opportunity to work and have a strong attachment for such a long time to Mr Giap – an outstanding general of benevolence and righteousness who always gives himself to the country and the people.

source from: qdnd

President-Elect

President-Elect Obama and his family are spending the holidays in Hawaii taking a very well-earned vacation.  His life has changed forever and he knows that the paps are going to always be closely behind him.  What noone was expecting was to see just how much his body has changed in the last two years.  As you can see from the before pictures, Obama was a bit flabby before.  It seems over the last two years, changing politics isn’t the only thing he’s been working at changing.

The after picture was taken yesterday at the secluded estate and beach that he and his family are residing at for the holidays.  And we must say, he’s got to be one of the sexiest, most fittest presidents to ever reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  We have a feeling he won’t have any problem making the rest of the world fall in-line.

Source:stayinthenews.com

The former two-term New York City mayor and 2008 GOP presidential candidate is scheduled to endorse Lazio for governor Tuesday afternoon at an event in New York City, according to a press release from the Lazio campaign. Lazio, a former congressman from Long Island, announced his candidacy for governor in September.

The New York Times and New York Daily News report that Giuliani will also announce he’s decided to forgo a bid for the U.S. senate next year.

Giuliani’s public endorsement of Lazio would be a formal declaration that he is not running for governor. The New York Times reported last month that he had decided not to run, but a spokeswoman for Giuliani said he had not made up his mind. At the time, polls indicated that Giuliani had a wide lead over Lazio in a hypothetical 2010 GOP primary contest.

Lazio deferred to Guiliani in 2000 in the race for the senate against then-first lady Hillary Clinton. Giuliani dropped out of the contest five months before the election, due to his fight against prostate cancer. Lazio replaced him as the Republican candidate but lost to Clinton.

Recent polls of New York State voters suggest the race between Lazio and Democratic Gov. David Paterson is deadlocked, but the surveys indicate that Lazio is way behind in a hypothetical general election match-up against New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has stayed silent on whether he’ll challenge Paterson in the Democratic primary.

There was speculation that if Giuliani decided against a run for governor, he might consider making a bid for the Senate. Top New York Republicans reportedly urged Giuliani to run for the Senate next year.

Two recent polls indicated that Giuliani led Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand by double digits in a possible 2010 showdown. Gillibrand, a former congresswoman from upstate New York, was named Sen. Hillary Clinton’s replacement after Clinton stepped down in January to become secretary of state.

Source:politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

At a hearing Thursday, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said “the threats right now in the inappropriate interest that we are seeing is the same level as it has been for the previous two presidents at this point.”

Sullivan rejected a figure in a recently published book by Ronald Kessler, “In the President’s Secret Service.” Kessler says the threat has increased 400 percent since Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, took office.

In October, Kessler told CNN he stands by the figure even though a law enforcement source had told CNN it’s false.

“There is about 3,000 threats a year under President Bush and now there are about 12,000. Of course, most of them are not credible, but they all have to be checked out,” Kessler told CNN’s “The Situation Room” in an interview with Wolf Blitzer in October.

He said he got the figure “originally from another agency, but I went over it with the Secret Service.”

Sullivan, at a Congressional hearing about how a couple allegedly crashed a state dinner, brought up the 400 percent figure and rejected it, adding that he is “not sure where that number came from.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, in an interview with CNN earlier this week, also said he was told the presidential threat level has not gone up under Obama.

source:  politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

“I am officially an MOTB: a mother of the bride,” Clinton said Friday in an interview with CNN’s John Roberts. “And I am very excited about it”

Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, is engaged to marry Marc Mezvinsky, the son of former congressmen Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania and Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa.

“For me, [it's] particularly an extraordinary moment to see how happy my daughter is and to have a wonderful man that will become my son-in-law. But it’s daunting to try and plan a wedding.”

Related video: Clinton discusses NATO troops.

Clinton, who has been criss-crossing the globe since becoming Secretary of State, said she recently received an encouraging call from former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

“Madeline Albright called me the other night and said, ‘Well, when I was Secretary of State and had not a minute to myself, I had to plan a wedding, so if you need any advice, just call me,’” Clinton told Roberts in an interview in Brussels, where she is trying to rally European support for President Obama’s new strategy in Afghanistan. “And I said, “I’ll be calling.”

Clinton said the size of the wedding has not been determined, but noted it would be private.

source: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

It is unclear if any of the laptops contained information regarding Blagojevich’s federal corruption trial.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago had no comment on the case. The FBI is not involved in the investigation, according to FBI spokesman Ross Rice.

Chicago Police spokesman Veejay Zala said he was unable to comment in detail about the case, because it is still being investigated.

source: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Appearing on conservative radio host Rusty Humphries program, Palin said that she supports people inquiring about it.

“I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue,” Palin said in the interview with Humphries. “I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers.”

Humphries, whose radio show airs on about 300 stations across the country, went on to press Palin about whether it is “fair” game to ask such questions.

“I think it’s a fair question, just like I think past association and past voting records – all of that is fair game,” Palin responded.

She also criticized her own presidential campaign for not asking enough questions about Obama.

“The McCain-Palin campaign didn’t do a good enough job in that area,” the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate said. “We didn’t call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were and perhaps what some of their future plans were and I don’t think that was fair to voters to not have done our job as candidates.

The interview aired at 10:30 p.m. ET, and just a few hours later Palin made it clear in a posting on herFacebook page that she, personally, is not asking to see it.

“Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose,” Palin said. “I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask… which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.”

source: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Walker’s daughter, wife, Demetria, and cousin, Andrew, keep the restaurant running, and in this bad economy, times are tough. Health care coverage is out of the question.

“It’s too expensive right now,” Walker said. “We are having trouble keeping our head above water. … We had it at one time, but it was so expensive that we finally dropped it.”

With a smile, Walker continues: “I get lots of grief from my wife about it — that we don’t have health care.”

Humor aide, it is for Stanley Walker both a business decision and a huge personal risk. He has diabetes, and takes just half of his four pills a day prescription because he can’t afford the $500 a month bill for the full dose.

He knows the risks, and tries to watch his diet and closely monitor his blood pressure.

“I work by myself a lot, and I am always moving all the time. I don’t want to get somewhere and get into a coma because my sugar dropped too low,” Walker told us. “This is a situation where you actually take a gamble, but you can’t afford not to.”

Walker is keeping tabs on the health care debate in Washington when he can and hopes for a bill that lowers costs and creates a new government-run public insurance option. “If they don’t do that, then I don’t think I’d vote for them.”

It is an important statement because African American votes in places such as Pine Bluff will be critical in next year’s midterm elections, when Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces a tough re-election race.

Lincoln has said she opposes the public option and is concerned about the costs of the Democratic health care bills. But her cautious position, which she says reflects the views of fellow Arkansans, isn’t enough to scare Republican candidates away.

More than a half-dozen have expressed interest in the race, and Lincoln’s poll numbers show vulnerability even before the difficult terrain of the health care debate.

“No question, they see an opportunity here, and an opportunity to win a Senate seat doesn’t come often for Republicans in Arkansas,” says University of Arkansas at Little Rock political scientist Art English.

The pressures on Lincoln are from all sides: progressive Democrats are frustrated she isn’t fully supporting President Obama’s health care goals; but she has to also worry about conservative Democrats and independents in a state Obama lost last year by 20 points.

“It’s tough,” English said. “It’s like that show ‘Malcolm in the Middle.’ But this time, it is kind of Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the middle, in that sense it’s been tough on her.”

A visit to a Little Rock brake shop owned by Larry Levy helps illustrates the counterweight to Walker’s insistence that Lincoln support the public option and the broad Democratic health care goals.

Levy a few years back paid 100 percent of health care premiums for his four employees; he now pays 60 percent.

“It kept going up. And as my employees got older, premiums they got so high, we just couldn’t realistically afford it,” Levy told us during a break from his work.

He would love for Congress to take steps to lower health care costs, and lists tort reform among his priorities. But he sees disaster in Democratic calls for a public option, or a mandate that employers or individuals be required to buy health insurance.

“We don’t know what it is going to cost us,” Levy said. ‘We have health issues, I agree. There needs to be reform. But let’s identify the problems that we have and let’s fix those problems. Let’s just don’t throw out everything and start over.”

Levy is among the many here who just don’t believe Democratic promises to lower costs and the deficit, and limit any tax increases to those making more than $250,000 a year.

“No I don’t. I don’t buy it,” Levy said. “We middle class people, we’ll shoulder the burden. I have no question about that.”

Levy describes himself as a conservative who did not vote for Obama but does often vote for conservative Democrats here in Arkansas. But he is not a fan of Lincoln.

“She is playing games right now I think,” Levy said of Lincoln’s cautious stance on health care. “You know she is just kind of swaying back and forth. I know she’s in a tough position, but if she will listen to her constituents, we don’t want her to vote for this I think. … I think she needs to listen if she want to keep her job.”

In Levy’s case, Lincoln has already lost. Regardless of how she handles the health care debate, he says the early days of the Obama administration have him convinced his vote in the midterm elections should go to Republicans who voice the goal of putting the brakes on the Obama agenda.

Source:politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com