Palin emerges in Asia with speech to investors

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ / Associated Press

Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, emerged in Asia on Wednesday to give a speech that could boost her credentials for a possible bid for the presidency in 2012.

In her first trip to the region, the former Alaska governor addressed an annual conference of global investors in Hong Kong and was to discuss everything from governance to economics and U.S and Asian affairs, according to the event's organizer.

Palin started off her speech — which was closed to reporters — with a light talk about the links between her state and the southern Chinese territory, then touched later on economic issues.

One attendee said she criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's massive intervention in the economy over the last year, arguing its actions only exacerbated the crisis. She also praised the conservative economic policies of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

Earlier, she talked of Alaska's salmon exports and complimented Hong Kong as a "beautiful city," according to a second attendee. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity.

Former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan have spoken in the past at the conference, hosted by brokerage and investment group CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.

"She was chosen because she's a woman of news value and presents an opinion that we feel would be of value to our fund managers," said CLSA spokeswoman Simone Wheeler.

Palin, who burst on the U.S. political scene last year when she was chosen as Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate, was ridiculed during the campaign after contending her state's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience.

"You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," she said.

Palin received her first passport in 2007, to visit Alaska National Guard members serving in Kuwait and Germany.

The Hong Kong speech marks her first major appearance since she vanished from public view after she resigned as governor in July.

Since then, she's signed with the prestigious Washington Speakers Bureau and reportedly been flooded with over a thousand offers.

Palin aides refused to disclose her fee for the appearance, which has been rumored to be in the low six figures.

While she's thought to be considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, her Hong Kong trip bore no political overtones, said Fred Malek, a friend and Palin adviser.

"You can read a lot of things into it, 'Is she trying to burnish her foreign policy credentials?' and the like. But really, it's a trip that will be beneficial to her knowledge base and will defray some legal and other bills that she has," Malek said.

CLSA requested Palin's speech be closed to reporters so she could make an "unfettered" presentation to investors, according to spokeswoman Wheeler. And Palin, whose supporters have long accused the media of bias and harsh treatment, agreed. Since resigning, Palin has ducked mainstream news outlets and communicated with supporters largely via her popular Facebook page.

Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said Tuesday the group knew little about Palin's speech.

"We're curious as to what she's willing to say in private but not in public," Sevugan said. "Are there other countries that she can see from her window that she doesn't want us to know about?"

Barack Obama A new president takes over

Today Barack Obama becomes president. The celebration has been going on for a while already, but it reaches a climax today with the swearing in, the inaugural parade and an array of inaugural balls. We, like so many people, are excited at this historic moment, as Obama becomes the first son of a black man to become president of the United States, breaking one the greatest barriers of all in this nation's civil rights struggle.

Coming one day after the celebration of the Martin Luther King Holiday, the inauguration caps a long holiday weekend of whistle-stops, speeches, tributes, concerts and rejoicing.

It all happened very quickly, as national political change goes.

Obama not only amazed the United States but the world by coming from the relative obscurity of being a first-term senator from Illinois to an underdog contender in the Democratic primaries, then to taking on the front-runner and presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton and knocking her out, and finally defeating Republican John McCain in the November election.

Obama used the standard refrains of "hope" and "change" and bipartisanship in a way that made it all sound like fresh ideas. He invigorated a bloc of new voters and millions of small contributors who built the nation's largest political war chest ever, and he wowed the nation with his commanding oratory and cool "rock star" image. While the notion of a cool image may sound silly, as much as anything Obama projected confidence, intelligence and a command of the issues, domestic and foreign.

Warnings from both his adversary Clinton and the Republicans that Obama didn't have the experience to be president and the ability to succeed on the national and international stages did not work. Too many voters had seen more experienced politicians, and they didn't want more of the same.

Obama prevailed politically with a smart, savvy campaign, organized by a brain trust that continues with him as he assumes the presidency today. He has shown he has what it takes, but in today's difficult times, let's all wish him the best.

Pregnant Heidi Klum turns heads at Emmy red carpet

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The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The firefighters working the red carpet at Sunday's 61st annual Emmy Awards were worried that at least one reality TV star might be going home with more than just a trophy.

"Hey, did you see Heidi Klum? She's like 8 months pregnant. So you be ready, you might have to deliver," fire Inspector Jim Fisher said to his colleague Craig Hancock as they and other authorities hustled Emmy VIPs into the Nokia Theatre.

A bystander asked Fisher if he knew what Klum, the host of "Project Runway," was wearing.

"Don"t ask a guy wearing polyester that kind of question," replied Fisher, dressed in a white uniform shirt and fire-resistant gray pants.

"What about me? This is wool," piped up Sgt. Pete Foster, who was wearing a wool shirt.

___

The Emmy trophy table has moved up in the world.

The offstage stop containing dozens of real Emmys, not the fake ones recipients are handed onstage, used to be located in a nondescript section of a parking garage. This year it's in an air-conditioned, red-carpeted section of the Nokia Theatre roof.

Emmy winners exit the theater through a back door, then head for the table, where they trade in their generic trophy for one of the real ones. A nameplate with their name and the category in which they were honored will arrive in the mail later.

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Garrido was arrested in 1972 rape case

Another allegation of sexual abuse emerged Thursday against kidnapping suspect Phillip Garrido, when Antioch police disclosed he was arrested nearly 40 years ago on suspicion of drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl.

Garrido was accused of sexually assaulting the girl at an Antioch motel in April 1972 after giving her barbiturates, Antioch police Lt. Leonard Orman said.

Garrido was set to be prosecuted in the case but the charges were dropped when the girl refused to testify, Orman said.

The girl and a friend met Garrido, then 21, and another man near the public library and joined them in a car, where they were given drugs, he said.

Details on the case were spotty because so much time had passed.

However, authorities recently reinterviewed the girl and were able to piece together that she awoke at the motel and was raped repeatedly before her parents found her, Orman said.

It was the third sexual assault linked to Garrido by authorities.

Garrido, 58, and his wife, 54-year-old Nancy Garrido, pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment in the disappearance of Jaycee Dugard 18 years ago. Both suspects are being held without bail.

Susan Gellman, Phillip Garrido's public defender in El Dorado County, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the 1972 case.

Orman said the chances of Garrido being charged again in the 1972 case were "very slim."

Police say the Garridos held Dugard captive in a backyard encampment of tents and sheds in Antioch, and Garrido fathered two children with Dugard.

He was previously convicted in the 1976 kidnapping of a casino worker in Reno, Nev., who said Garrido raped her in a storage locker before police found them. He spent about 11 years in federal prison and was paroled in 1988. Dugard was abducted in 1991 near her South Lake Tahoe home.

Earlier Thursday, Jaycee Dugard's aunt read a brief statement to reporters saying her niece remembers her family and is enjoying getting to know her younger sister, who was a baby when Dugard was kidnapped.

Tina Dugard spoke to reporters at the FBI's Los Angeles office, describing her niece's reunion with her mother and sister.

"The smile on my sister's face was as wide as the sea. Her oldest daughter is finally home," Tina Dugard said.

Tina Dugard said her niece's daughters appeared to be bright and educated, even though they did not attend school.

"Jaycee did a truly amazing job with the limited resources and education that she herself had, and we are so proud of her," Dugard said.

The family's location has been a closely guarded secret since the 29-year-old woman reappeared last week. She was 11 when she was allegedly kidnapped.

Tina Dugard said the family has been spending time in a secluded place, reconnecting and getting to know each other again.

"Not only have we laughed and cried together, but we've spent time sitting quietly, taking pleasure in each other's company," Dugard said.

Tina Dugard took no questions from reporters and did not comment on the investigation into her niece's abduction. A spokeswoman for the Dugard family, Erika Price Schulte, said they would have no further public comment for now.

The modest Riverside home of Jaycee Dugard's mother, Terry Probyn, was quiet on Thursday.

Neighbors strung pink ribbons around tree trunks up and down the street to show their support. They also spruced up Probyn's front lawn and lent a hand with gardening while she has been gone.

"When you close your doors, you have absolutely no idea the lives and struggles behind those doors," said neighbor Lisa Brown, who does not know Probyn but wanted to show her support.

Several neighbors said they didn't know about Probyn's past until media crews started showing up on the street. They said she moved into the house several months ago.

Gates says it's not time to leave Afghanistan

Facing eroding public support for the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon chief said Thursday that the Obama administration's effort in the eight-year-old conflict is "only now beginning." Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said he disagrees with people who say it's time to get out of Afghanistan.

Several recent public opinion polls have shown Americans expressing declining support for the idea of sending more troops to the conflict and falling confidence in how the campaign is going. But at a Pentagon news conference, Gates challenged the public perception that the effort is getting away from the administration.

"I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers," Gates said. "The nation has been at war for eight years. The fact that Americans would be tired of having their sons and daughters at risk and in battle is not surprising."

Gates argued that President Barack Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan hasn't even been given a chance to work.

"I think what is important to remember is the president's decisions on this strategy were only made at the very end of March; our new commander appeared on the scene in June," Gates said, adding that the extra troops Obama ordered are not even all there yet, nor is the "civilian surge" he wants on hand to help.

"So we are only now beginning to be in a position to have the assets in place and the strategy or the military approach in place to begin to implement the strategy," he said.

The new U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, on Monday delivered a classified assessment of how the war is going and is expected in the coming weeks to ask for more troops and money to turn the war around.

Obama is reading the report during the long Labor Day weekend at Camp David, his aides said.

Neither Gates nor Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen responded to a question about what the still-classified report concludes. But they repeatedly dropped references to some of McChrystal's recommendations, with Mullen calling it a "frank and candid" look at how military forces can accomplish the Afghanistan mission.

Much of the debate around Afghanistan has centered on how many additional troops are needed there, and for how long. By the end of the year, an estimated 68,000 troops will be in Afghanistan — 21,000 of which were ordered there by Obama last spring. Military commanders and State Department officials on the ground, however, say many more are needed to get the job done.

Mullen said questions of how many more troops might be sent was just a piece of the needs that the Pentagon soon will ask Congress to fulfill. "It's a piece — critical, but it's not total," Mullen said.

White House signals openness to health compromise

Even as liberals urge President Barack Obama to demand bold, far-reaching changes to the nation's health care system, the White House signaled openness Thursday to compromises that might attract moderate congressional Democrats as well as some Republicans.

Obama believes in "fundamental principles" about overhauling health care, top presidential adviser David Axelrod told The Associated Press, but "he's not dogmatic about how we get there."

Axelrod's comments did not definitively answer how hard Obama will push for the most ambitious parts of his proposal, including health insurance for virtually all Americans and a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. But his diplomatic tone was in keeping with the administration's approach of refusing to flatly demand several parts that are dear to Democratic activists who helped elect him.

Those are the type of conciliatory hints that frustrate many liberals. They fear Obama will dilute the bold health care proposals he campaigned for, even though Democrats control the House, Senate and White House. One group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, sent a mass-distributed e-mail quoting a Texas man saying he is "dropping out of political activism" because of his disillusionment with Obama over health care.

Also, former President Bill Clinton told Esquire Magazine that Obama should forge ahead with his health care proposals. "I wouldn't even worry about the Republicans," Clinton said. Obama is doing the right thing, he said, "even though he's jamming a lot of change down the system."

But many Democrats wonder if Obama really will jam a robust plan past overwhelming GOP opposition and the reservations of many centrist congressional Democrats eyeing their next election. Those Democrats will listen carefully for clues when Obama addresses a joint session of Congress next Wednesday night.

Axelrod's cautious answers Thursday might offer little comfort to those seeking forceful signs from the administration.

Asked if Obama might accept a Republican senator's idea for creating a public health insurance option only if private insurers prove unwilling or unable to meet certain affordability targets, Axelrod replied: "We need choice and competition within the pool that's created."

The plan has been floated by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. She often is seen as the most likely GOP lawmaker to support a primarily Democratic-crafted health bill. She would have nonprofit agencies offer health insurance only if private insurers could not cover 95 percent of the people in their regions with plans costing no more than about 15 percent of the person's or household's annual income.

Many Democrats want prompt creation of a government-run program to compete with private insurers, who stand to gain millions more customers if Congress mandates coverage of the nation's uninsured. Obama has often said he favors such a "public option." But he and his aides have repeatedly stopped short of saying he would sign no bill without it.

Obama's pollster Joel Benenson sent new survey findings to Democratic lawmakers Thursday in an apparent bid to reassure them that support for health care changes can be politically popular. The somewhat lukewarm support for Obama's initiatives, his memo said, is "based in large part on a lack of awareness of the details of the plan."

"When voters learn about the composition of the plan, support grows considerably," the memo said.

Liberals hope the administration's conciliatory words will eventually give way to a forceful move to enact a far-reaching bill, even if it draws no GOP votes. Some are warning Obama not to take them for granted.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, comprised of 83 liberal lawmakers, sent Obama a letter Thursday saying a health bill "without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs. We cannot vote for anything less."

But some moderate Democrats in the House and Senate are wary of a government-run insurance plan. It might amass enough leverage over doctors, drug companies and others to eventually drive private insurers out of business, they say.

The Congressional Black Caucus called on Obama Thursday to show "unwavering support" for "a strong public health option" and the full funding of health care expansions included in a pending House bill.

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday the administration is fiercely determined to get a health care overhaul, although he conceded it probably won't happen without "an awful lot of screaming and hollering."

Appearing at a Brookings Institution gathering, Biden said it will be difficult to find a consensus on remaking the health care system. But he also predicted that "we're going to get something substantial." He declared that "we're going to get there."

Meanwhile, a top Republican player in the health care debate said Americans should expect a rather modest bill from Congress this fall. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, one of three GOP negotiators seeking a bipartisan bill in the Senate Finance Committee, told Iowa radio station KMCH, "It may be a scaled-own bill. It may be kind of miniature to what we're talking about."