I love to hear about other people’s tips on how/where they save money. Even thought I am a full time grad student, I still love working and putting money into my savings account. I would love to expand that amount even more though, so please share with me your tips and tricks for saving.

So far I shop with coupons, check for sales (and combine with coupons), buy used, turn off lights, use redbox (with free movie codes) for entertainment, and cook at home (instead of eating out). I still find myself buying little luxuries now and then though (like a bottle of wine) but hey a girl needs a break once in a while right?

Thanks and start sharing those tips!!!
Oh I also brew my own coffee and bring my own reusable water bottle to class and work.

I have a rather strange set of mental issues that basically prevent me psychologically from spending money. I am 26, and graduated college 3 years ago, and have a take home pay from my job of ,000 per year plus about ,000 bonus. My problem is that i’ve refused to spend any more money than is absolutely necessary.

I keep my rent low, which is about 0/mo. I own a Honda Civic, never go out to eat (because it is too expensive) and always buy food on sale in bulk and go to Costco. Basically my living costs are between -26,000 per year, and I invest the rest.

At my age I’ve accumulated nearly 0,000 in non retirement savings (CDs and stocks) – - and I am constantly obsessed with investing as much as possible, while spending as little as possible and using as much money as I can to buy new stocks or treasury bills/ CDs. The problem though is that this is really controllling my life and preventing me from being happy as i refuse any luxuries- and my Girlfriend thinks im crazy..

They feel nice story, let me answer your comment, and alas the title is: happiness?

Prologue
I’m Jeremiah Sanobra Ignacio Diaz (Ignaje Sanodi).
Today I am a renowned writer, my pen is my letter and my charisma how to love me (could be vice versa).
I lived in a huge house, with many cars, women everywhere (prostitutes, the most beautiful and lovely), a fully bonded, five cooks, two stewards, three outfielders, four cleaners, two guards, two drivers and three guards security. Wonder how far have cost me the luxury class. And answer honestly, it took me to happiness.
Spend and spend. He had all the money in the world, thanks to sales of my books celebrities, they had given me what I always wanted, riches (happiness). But today, finally I realized that long greed had led me astray, making me believe that happiness is in the joy, when in fact this charity: charity of love, friendship and respect.
I said earlier, I lived, because the past has been responsible for giving a different route to my destination that matters twisted … But go back in time and mull over some things that made me come to desire the impossible. For that’s what I always wanted, insanely, eternal life.
He goes back to the age of six years, exactly to the 11 September 1998, the day when my father died.

I
The last time I saw my father was a cloudy afternoon in July. I remember I was playing with land near the entrance of the small estate where we lived, he emerged smiling across the gate. I kept playing. Seeing it was the least of all the time looking. Every evening appeared on the front gate … smile … sometimes angry … other most serious … that could have been that unusual arrival … continued playing.
I saw his shadow just behind me, the sun shone on the horizon, the sun prevented the leave of me. He stroked my head boldly ruffled his hair. Even I did not understand why so much happiness. Then put both hands under my armpits and a strong impulse I rushed to the air … what the hell was going on?
He put on the ground, bent down and continued to scorch as it had never done … I said nothing. I drop tears on my back … not understand the situation, such an action, such an explosion of feelings.
- I love you son. … I will always try to be a great pers …
Ran out of guts, he could not continue, put his face drooping, he felt ashamed that I had seen him mourn, download the lust of an inevitable misfortune. Unfortunately that still to me it was not important.
That was the last time I saw him. The next day he left very early, at the first signs of the day. My mother went with him, because waking was not feeling at home. He never returned.
To my mother, watching her every day away from the corridor, going who knows where. And each time she left, her eyes clouded his withered soul saddening, but I never found out why. Being so young I learn prevented such obvious things as pain and suffering and this was detrimental to my healthy development, no one explained what happened: he knew what was felt pain? I do not know. I knew I suffered from something, the atmosphere it whisper me, but beyond this life (my life) was normal.
For some strange reason my family symptoms experienced in the last two months, on 11 September 1998, reached the climax of despair, my mother called aloud for a powerful return to happiness, my sisters embraced her quiet, but with their hearts bursting with anguish. I could not do anything and still not understanding the origins of such declamations, I walked in silence to join the unusual meeting. In the afternoon a huge box of very huge size … much more than anyone here, was carried by four men.
It is the original text. The true is written in Spanish.

Ok, here’s the deal…
I would like to repatriate to Canada (I was born there but moved to Europe when I was a kid) I haven’t experienced the Canadian life, so I would like some honest and optimistic advice from people living in Ontario. My wife and I would like to move there next year. We don’t have children yet, so we figured now would be the right time to relocate. My only concern is finding work… this really worries me. I told my wife that I would go alone first, as I could lodge with my relatives while I find work, and a place to rent. She would then follow with our two dogs. We’ll have ,000 for backup. We’re hoping we won’t need to use that money as we were saving for a down payment towards our own home. I work as a computer technician/systems administrator for a company of 30 users. I have CompTIA A+ and MCSA (No formal education, except high school, and some college) Would I be able to find work in this field in Toronto or surrounding areas? I don’t think my wife would have a problem finding a job. She would do something in sales, or work as a receptionist. We’re both eager to work… Where we live now, we go from paycheque to paycheque, with very little money left at the end of the month. How are the living expenses in the GTA? Do you think we could get by with our salaries? I would need to get a car, and I know car insurance is expensive for new drivers. We don’t expect to start off with a luxury car and a four bedroom house. We will most likely rent for a year until we get the feel of thing’s. After that, I guess we would like to buy a 2-3 bedroom bungalow. It would make this whole process easier if I secured a job before moving there, but don’t companies prefer to take the easier route of hiring people who are within driving distance, and not a plane ride away? Where are the best places to search for work in this instance? What tips could you give me to ensure our success in Canada? We don’t want to set ourselves up for failure. I know many people that have moved abroad without doing research, and act alarmed when they see thing’s weren’t how they imagined them to be. We have vacationed in Canada several times, and loved the climate, and people etc.
I would appreciate any advice you can give me.

I was looking for a house to buy. A friend had a house for sale that seemed pretty nice and the friend was struggling financially. We worked it out that I would try to buy the house for a certain price to keep my friend from getting into further financial trouble. The price was below what he owed so I had to work it out with the bank. In the meantime to help him out with the payment, I moved in and paid rent every month. He did not keep up on the payments, he spent the money on everything but the mortgage payment. While I was in the process of negotiations with the broker and mortgage company I found out that the house was going through foreclosure. The bank would not budge on their asking price. I was concerned that I would not be able to come to an agreed upon price for the house, the place would be foreclosed on and I would be out of a place to live so I looked around for other places to buy because it did not look like anything was going to happen with this deal. I found a place that was almost the same as my friend’s place. There was no negotiation with this house. It was nearby and had the most of same things that I was looking for in a house, some things were even nicer than my current place. The market was good, interest rates down, and I made an offer that they accepted. I told my friend and he immediately became mad at me because he said that I had agreed to buy his house and that would keep him from destroying his credit. He became really upset with me and our 15+ year friendship was on the rocks. He decided that he did not even want me around and stopped emailing me and did not call me anymore. He did not invite me to his son’s christening, his son and daughter are my God children!

I am very worked up about this. We have mutual friends and have been friends for a long time. I was only trying to help out a friend but when things were not looking promising, I had to take advantage of the market and what was in front of me.

Do you think that I am wrong to consider this person my friend when he won’t even allow me at his home or children’s events because I did not buy his house?

How can I communicate with him without apologizing? I don’t feel that I did anything wrong.

He keeps saying that we were supposed to be friends and that he can’t understand how I could go and buy something else when he is a friend and going through a hard time. He has a huge house, beautifully furnished, three kids, new cars, toys, trips. He cannot afford the second house because he does not take care of his current financial obligations before taking on luxuries. I just feel that the blame is being placed squarely on my shoulders when I am just a tiny fraction of the entire equation? Am I wrong?

I just want to know what to email him without apologizing. I am not sorry that I was taking care of myself and my family first.
Thanks,
Sandford

I would like to have some tips on searching for some good luxury home … would appreciate if anyone could pass on relevant information on luxury homes and point me to some place which could be on sale

My name is Chritopher Gardner. I am rich,a millionaire. In my brokerage firm, I have recently sold a minority share in a multimilion dollars deal. To become what I am now, I had to go through many difficult stages.
Stages Of my life that I have never forgotten and I shall never forget, because they are deeply carved in my memory.
It all began when I attainted manhood and my mother introduced me to a man who,she said, was my father.
How could that man be so, as he had never lived with us?!
All I remember about my childhood was that my mother had always been working and struggling to make a living and preserve my safety and stablity.
She was determined to raise my social status as an American citizen.
Sometimes, I asked her why I did not have a father like all other children; but she never accepted to speak tht thruth.
However,shortly after I had met my father for the first time, she told me eerything.
She said that my father had deserted us because he had been jobless; and when he had reached a state utter despair to provide for us , he had decided to leave us behind.
At that very moment, I decided to obliterate mypast as a desrted child and made up my mond that if I had children, I would givethem a safe and prosperous life. That was the first Part of my life.
The second part began when linda and I got married.
Ayear afterwards, we had our son, Christopher.
We all lived in San Fransisco and our life was rather peaceful. In 1981, I invested our entire lefe saving in buying a new medical device.
That was a portable bone-density scanners, a revolutionary machine which, I had throught, would give us too much money and would make us lead aa better life.
I bought many scanners of which I had to sell at least two per a month for the rent, the living necessities and our son’s day care.
Unfortunately, doctors and hospitals considered that scanner as unnecessary and expensive luxury.
Besides that device gave a slightly denser picture than an x-ray the price; the reason why I could not sell all my scanners easily.
So, I could not pay tje tax-bills, I could not pay the months of rent we owed and I could not even pay off all of those tickets under my windshield wiper.
For my taxes, I had to fike extra extensions; which meant more interests and penalties.
Every evening, when i was back home, Linda and I had bitter quarrels over that.
I usually begged her to relax and trust me.
I even promised her to find a job so as to overcome our hardships.
But she didn’t care, and said that she was no longer happy with me.
One day, as I was walking along the streets with my scanner in my hand, to do my daily sales calls, I came across a friend of mine.
He was well-off and had a brand new Ferrari.
I asked him what he did and how he did to have all that; he said that he was stockbroker.
Tomy delight, he said that one needed to be good with numbers and good with people.
I still remember I couldn’t sleep that night as I couldn’t help thinking of that job, a stockbroker!
Why not me?! I felt that I had the right abilities and the strong will necessary to succeed in that career.
The morning after, while Linda and I were getting ready to go out, i Told her about that promissing job.
She simply laughed at me and ironically asked if I would not bean astronaut.
I didn’t care about her and I filled an application form for an internship.
I went to Dean Witter Reynolds firm to drop my application off personally and to make acquaintance with the Witter Resource head, Jay wistle.
In fact, I wanted to show him thar I was good with numbers and good with people, but at that moment he was bound to take a taxi .
Deliberately I shared the same taxi with him.
While i was telling him about my intersts and abilities, Jay Wistle was handling a puzzle cube which was called the gift sensation of 1981.
He was twisting and turning the cube to get the same color on each side, but unsuccessfully I asked him to let me try, but he said that I would not do it because nobody had done it before.
You can’t imagine how astonished he was when I put the cube right on every side; and in no time at all.
I am sure, I succeeded to convince him of my intelligence.
When I got back home, was disappointed as I found out that my wife had taken all her things and had left home.
What made me more furious was that she had taken Christopher with her.
In in deed, I was at aloss,but i decided to get my son back as soon as possible. While i was thinking about that, the telephone rang. It was Jay wistle from dean witter who asked me to be in the firm as quickly as possible to sit for an interview.
The following day, a series of misfortunes coincided to ovrerturn my life. After I had got christopher back, I wore some shabby clothes and began painting my apartment while I was doing that,the land lord knock at the door to tell me that I did not pay for the four months of rent I owed, he would kick me out. Shortly afterwards, two policemen came and arrested me for failure to pay off the parking tickets. I had to spend the night at the police station because they did not believe me when I gave them a check with the sun of money I owned,they said they had to give a call to linda to take care of christopher. The following morning, just as they had done their verification, I left the police station .
It was exactly quarter to ten, and I had to run all the way to Dean Witter where I had to take an Interview at quarter past ten, of course all in m shabby clothes full of paint.
To convince the interviewers of the reason why I was dressed like that I spoke, nothing but the thruth.
They laugheda bit, but they admired my frankness, earnestness and diligence.
I was accepted as a trainee and they gave me a sheet where all the program was explained.
In fact the program took every six mouths, and only one intern was hired at the end of the program from a pool of twenty.
However, if you weren’t that lucky one, you could not even apply for the six mouths training to another brokerage.
Although they didn’t give salaries to trainees, I was firmly determined to go ahead, as I had developped a strong ambition about that career.
The only resource I had for the six months were my six scanners ,which I still tried to sell.
Meanwhile, my son and I moved to a motel because I could not pay for the rent.
I also had to look after my christopher since the moment his mother had left us and had gone to New york to seek a better life.
At dean Witter, we were twenty interns we were asked to call the maximum of companies and convince them to be potential clients.
We had to use all our abilities to familiarize them with our packages .
We had to match their needs and goals to one of firm’s many financial plans.
In other words as the number of calls increases, the number of dollars in the firm’s pocket also increases.
So, who ever brought in the most money after six mouths was usually hired .
All the interns worked till seven , but I had to leave at four to pck up Christopher .
So, I ha to do in six hours what they had to do in nine.
In order not to waste any time I was not hanging up the phone inn between calls and I realized that by doing that I gained another ten minutes a day.
Besides, I didn’t drink any water so I didn’t waste anytime in the bathroom.
During four months, every thing seemed to go as we wished.
Everyday, I took Christopher to the daycare before I went tomy internship.
At four, I picked him up and we both did our daily sales calls of the scanners till we sold them all.
Sometimes, I took Christopher to play basketball, and all the time I gave him such advices as one should have a strong will and should struggle to achieve one’s goal in life.
Actually, we were happy as father and son.
As I had said before, everything seemed to go fine till one day, that day when a letter brought me back to earth.
It was about taxes I had to pay, and if I didn’t pay them the governement would stick their hands into my bank account and take all my money.
What a disaster! The governement took all the money that I had.
I still remember That day, there was only twenty one dollars and thirty tree cents left in my bank account, Iwas completly broke.
Consequencly, I was unable to pay for the motel, so we had to leave it and we became homless.
Christopher and I were once forced to spend a night in a public bathroom. We tried other places such as Glide Memorial, a church where we had to share a dormitory with hundreds of homless persons.
So,I learned to finish my work quickly if I wanted to find a spot at glide where to spend the night.
I even went to a blood center and sold my blood for twenty six dollars.
I bought a light bulb which was needed to repair the scanner I had once lost and luckily found with tramp who took it for a time machine.
I sold the scanner for two hundred and fifty dollars which meant four weeks of oxygen.
We spent that night at a hotel instead of going back to the church place.
Two days afterwards, while I was working as usual, I was called to the chairman’s office.
There he announced the most exciting news I had ever heard in my life: I was the one they had chosen for the job.
Yes, I was the who had it.
I shall never forget that moment when I burst into tears, tears Of happiness I had been pursuing for a long time.
My life began to change positively since the moment I took that job.
During all the years I was working in Dean Witter, I was devoting my income to the upkeep and improvement of my career.
In 1987, I founded the investment firm Gardner Rich, My own brokeragefirm where my winning are now exceeding millions of dollars.

1. When you pay a bill in full, you are _____. (1 point)
paying it off
defaulting
maximizing profit
zeroing
2. APR stands for _____. (1 point)
annual partial rate
amortized percentage rate
annual percentage rate
amortized partial rate
3. When calculating interest accrued, you should ____. (1 point)
multiply the principal by the APR
multiply the principal by the APR and number of months
multiply the principal by the APR and number of months, then divide by the total number of months in the year
multiply the principal by the APR and the number of months in the year, then divide by the number of months earning interest
4. _____ are used to take money directly from your account. (1 point)
Charge cards
Debit cards
Credit cards
Cash cards
5. A pack of gum would be considered a(n) _____. (1 point)
luxury item
small ticket item
unaccountable expense
necessity
6. Interest rates on used cars are usually ____ when compared to new cars. (1 point)
higher
lower
the same
depending on the used car
7. Interest rates on mortgages are lower because the home is _____. (1 point)
used
secured
collateral
stable
Note: The question below was entered in error. You will receive credit for ANY answer.
8. You have two credit cards. Both have a balance of ,356.00 with one having an interest rate of 6.25% APR and the other a rate of 9.25% APR. What is the difference in the accrued interest after 2 months if you do not pay anything toward the principal? (1 point)
.68
.25
.45
.60
9. You have a mortgage of 5,600.00 at a 4.95% APR. You make a payment of ,500.00 each month. What is your principal balance at the beginning of the third month? (1 point)
2,600.00
3,632.15
3,636.20
2,654.30
Note: The question below was entered in error. You will receive credit for ANY answer.

10. You are purchasing a TV for 5.00 plus 5% sales tax. Your credit card rewards program pays 1% cash back and the debit card rewards program pays 5% cash back. The credit card has a 12.25% APR. How much is your savings if you purchase the TV with your credit card? (1 point)
.85
.34
.25
.74

My name is Chritopher Gardner. I am rich,a millionaire. In my brokerage firm, I have recently sold a minority share in a multimilion dollars deal. To become what I am now, I had to go through many difficult stages.
Stages Of my life that I have never forgotten and I shall never forget, because they are deeply carved in my memory.
It all began when I attainted manhood and my mother introduced me to a man who,she said, was my father.
How could that man be so, as he had never lived with us?!
All I remember about my childhood was that my mother had always been working and struggling to make a living and preserve my safety and stablity.
She was determined to raise my social status as an American citizen.
Sometimes, I asked her why I did not have a father like all other children; but she never accepted to speak tht thruth.
However,shortly after I had met my father for the first time, she told me eerything.
She said that my father had deserted us because he had been jobless; and when he had reached a state utter despair to provide for us , he had decided to leave us behind.
At that very moment, I decided to obliterate mypast as a desrted child and made up my mond that if I had children, I would givethem a safe and prosperous life. That was the first Part of my life.
The second part began when linda and I got married.
Ayear afterwards, we had our son, Christopher.
We all lived in San Fransisco and our life was rather peaceful. In 1981, I invested our entire lefe saving in buying a new medical device.
That was a portable bone-density scanners, a revolutionary machine which, I had throught, would give us too much money and would make us lead aa better life.
I bought many scanners of which I had to sell at least two per a month for the rent, the living necessities and our son’s day care.
Unfortunately, doctors and hospitals considered that scanner as unnecessary and expensive luxury.
Besides that device gave a slightly denser picture than an x-ray the price; the reason why I could not sell all my scanners easily.
So, I could not pay tje tax-bills, I could not pay the months of rent we owed and I could not even pay off all of those tickets under my windshield wiper.
For my taxes, I had to fike extra extensions; which meant more interests and penalties.
Every evening, when i was back home, Linda and I had bitter quarrels over that.
I usually begged her to relax and trust me.
I even promised her to find a job so as to overcome our hardships.
But she didn’t care, and said that she was no longer happy with me.
One day, as I was walking along the streets with my scanner in my hand, to do my daily sales calls, I came across a friend of mine.
He was well-off and had a brand new Ferrari.
I asked him what he did and how he did to have all that; he said that he was stockbroker.
Tomy delight, he said that one needed to be good with numbers and good with people.
I still remember I couldn’t sleep that night as I couldn’t help thinking of that job, a stockbroker!
Why not me?! I felt that I had the right abilities and the strong will necessary to succeed in that career.
The morning after, while Linda and I were getting ready to go out, i Told her about that promissing job.
She simply laughed at me and ironically asked if I would not bean astronaut.
I didn’t care about her and I filled an application form for an internship.
I went to Dean Witter Reynolds firm to drop my application off personally and to make acquaintance with the Witter Resource head, Jay wistle.
In fact, I wanted to show him thar I was good with numbers and good with people, but at that moment he was bound to take a taxi .
Deliberately I shared the same taxi with him.
While i was telling him about my intersts and abilities, Jay Wistle was handling a puzzle cube which was called the gift sensation of 1981.
He was twisting and turning the cube to get the same color on each side, but unsuccessfully I asked him to let me try, but he said that I would not do it because nobody had done it before.
You can’t imagine how astonished he was when I put the cube right on every side; and in no time at all.
I am sure, I succeeded to convince him of my intelligence.
When I got back home, was disappointed as I found out that my wife had taken all her things and had left home.
What made me more furious was that she had taken Christopher with her.
In in deed, I was at aloss,but i decided to get my son back as soon as possible. While i was thinking about that, the telephone rang. It was Jay wistle from dean witter who asked me to be in the firm as quickly as possible to sit for an interview.
The following day, a series of misfortunes coincided to ovrerturn my life. After I had got christopher back, I wore some shabby clothes and began painting my apartment while I was doing that,the land lord knock at the door to tell me that I did not pay for the four months of rent I owed, he would kick me out. Shortly afterwards, two policemen came and arrested me for failure to pay off the parking tickets. I had to spend the night at the police station because they did not believe me when I gave them a check with the sun of money I owned,they said they had to give a call to linda to take care of christopher. The following morning, just as they had done their verification, I left the police station .
It was exactly quarter to ten, and I had to run all the way to Dean Witter where I had to take an Interview at quarter past ten, of course all in m shabby clothes full of paint.
To convince the interviewers of the reason why I was dressed like that I spoke, nothing but the thruth.
They laugheda bit, but they admired my frankness, earnestness and diligence.
I was accepted as a trainee and they gave me a sheet where all the program was explained.
In fact the program took every six mouths, and only one intern was hired at the end of the program from a pool of twenty.
However, if you weren’t that lucky one, you could not even apply for the six mouths training to another brokerage.
Although they didn’t give salaries to trainees, I was firmly determined to go ahead, as I had developped a strong ambition about that career.
The only resource I had for the six months were my six scanners ,which I still tried to sell.
Meanwhile, my son and I moved to a motel because I could not pay for the rent.
I also had to look after my christopher since the moment his mother had left us and had gone to New york to seek a better life.
At dean Witter, we were twenty interns we were asked to call the maximum of companies and convince them to be potential clients.
We had to use all our abilities to familiarize them with our packages .
We had to match their needs and goals to one of firm’s many financial plans.
In other words as the number of calls increases, the number of dollars in the firm’s pocket also increases.
So, who ever brought in the most money after six mouths was usually hired .
All the interns worked till seven , but I had to leave at four to pck up Christopher .
So, I ha to do in six hours what they had to do in nine.
In order not to waste any time I was not hanging up the phone inn between calls and I realized that by doing that I gained another ten minutes a day.
Besides, I didn’t drink any water so I didn’t waste anytime in the bathroom.
During four months, every thing seemed to go as we wished.
Everyday, I took Christopher to the daycare before I went tomy internship.
At four, I picked him up and we both did our daily sales calls of the scanners till we sold them all.
Sometimes, I took Christopher to play basketball, and all the time I gave him such advices as one should have a strong will and should struggle to achieve one’s goal in life.
Actually, we were happy as father and son.
As I had said before, everything seemed to go fine till one day, that day when a letter brought me back to earth.
It was about taxes I had to pay, and if I didn’t pay them the governement would stick their hands into my bank account and take all my money.
What a disaster! The governement took all the money that I had.
I still remember That day, there was only twenty one dollars and thirty tree cents left in my bank account, Iwas completly broke.
Consequencly, I was unable to pay for the motel, so we had to leave it and we became homless.
Christopher and I were once forced to spend a night in a public bathroom. We tried other places such as Glide Memorial, a church where we had to share a dormitory with hundreds of homless persons.
So,I learned to finish my work quickly if I wanted to find a spot at glide where to spend the night.
I even went to a blood center and sold my blood for twenty six dollars.
I bought a light bulb which was needed to repair the scanner I had once lost and luckily found with tramp who took it for a time machine.
I sold the scanner for two hundred and fifty dollars which meant four weeks of oxygen.
We spent that night at a hotel instead of going back to the church place.
Two days afterwards, while I was working as usual, I was called to the chairman’s office.
There he announced the most exciting news I had ever heard in my life: I was the one they had chosen for the job.
Yes, I was the who had it.
I shall never forget that moment when I burst into tears, tears Of happiness I had been pursuing for a long time.
My life began to change positively since the moment I took that job.
During all the years I was working in Dean Witter, I was devoting my income to the upkeep and improvement of my career.
In 1987, I founded the investment firm Gardner Rich, My own brokeragefirm where my winning are now exceeding millions of dollars.

Email me for details on how to overcome this and other left-wing bias . There is a plan !!

My dictionary defines “moderator” as “the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting.” On Thursday, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. The stakes are high. The Commission on Presidential Debates, with the assent of the two campaigns, decided not to impose any guidelines on her duties or questions.

But there is nothing “moderate” about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She’s so far in the tank for the Democrat presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out.

In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate. She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell the national audience that she has a book coming out on January 20, 2009 – a date that just happens to coincide with the inauguration of the next president of the United States.

The title of Ifill’s book? “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” Nonpartisan my foot.

Ifill’s publisher, Random House, is already busy hyping the book with YouTube clips of Ifill heaping praise on her subjects, including Obama and Obama-endorsing Mass. Governor Deval Patrick. The official promo for the book gushes:

“In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power…Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Senator Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict and the ‘black enough’ conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.”

Ifill and her publisher are banking on an Obama/Biden win to buoy her book sales. The moderator expected to treat both sides fairly has grandiosely declared this the “Age of Obama.” Can you imagine a right-leaning journalist writing a book about the “stunning” McCain campaign and its “bold” path to reform timed for release on Inauguration Day – and then expecting a slot as a moderator for the nation’s sole vice presidential debate?

Yeah, I just registered 6.4 on the Snicker Richter Scale, too.

Despite the protestations of her colleagues that she will be fair, Ifill has appeared on numerous radio and TV talk shows over the past several months to cash in on her access to the Obama campaign. She recently penned a fawning cover story on the Obamas for Essence magazine that earned much buzz. The title? “The Obamas: Portrait of an American Family.” A sample of Ifill’s hard-hitting investigative journalism, illustrated with Kennedyesque photos of the Obamas and children posing at home on the backporch and by the piano:

“Barack Obama is sitting in the back of his rented luxury campaign bus with its granite counters and two flat-screen TVs. The Illinois senator’s arms are wrapped around his wife, Michelle, whom he doesn’t get to see much these days. At this very moment he is, of all things, singing.”

During the Democratic National Convention, Ifill offered her neutral analysis before Michelle Obama’s speech on NBC News: “A lot of people have never seen anything that looks like a Michelle Obama before. She’s educated, she’s beautiful, she’s tall, she tells you what she thinks and they hope that she can tell a story about Barack Obama and about herself…”

During the Republican National Convention, the PBS ombudsman fielded numerous complaints about Ifill’s coverage of Sarah Palin’s speech. Wrote Brian Meyers of Granby, Ct.:

“I was appalled by Gwen Ifill’s commentary directly following Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech. Her attitude was dismissive and the look on her face was one of disgust. Clearly, she was agitated by what most critics view as a well-delivered speech. It is quite obvious that Ms. Ifill supports Obama as she struggled to say anything redemptive about Gov. Palin’s performance. I am disappointed in Ms. Ifill’s complete disregard for journalistic objectivity.”

Like Obama, Ifill, who is black, is quick to play the race card at the first sign of criticism. In an interview with the Washington Post a few weeks ago, she carped: “[N]o one’s ever assumed a white reporter can’t cover a white candidate.”

It’s not the color of your skin, sweetie. It’s the color of your politics. Perhaps Ifill will be able to conceal it this week. But if the “stunning” “Breakthrough” she’s rooting for comes to pass on January 20, 2009, nobody will be fooled.

Posted online by Michelle Malkin
If you’re sick of this and you want it to stop, then email me for details .