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Back in the fast lane

Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 4:33 PM by Sam Singal

By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

It seems like just yesterday General Motors was teetering on the brink of collapse. Actually it was 40 days, and 50-billion-dollars ago, and now the slim-downed auto giant is emergency from bankruptcy and it's leaders are talking about a bright future. That would be good news to taxpayers. We'll be reporting tonight on why the company now believes it can start re-paying the government ahead of schedule.

There is a lot more to report on that shameful desecration of graves at a Chicago area cemetery. We'll have that, plus the diminishing worth of some of those I.O.U. notices cash strapped California has been doling out.

I hope to see you later for the Friday edition of NBC Nightly News.

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"...and now the slim-downed auto giant is emergency from bankruptcy and it's leaders are talking about a bright future."
The word "emergency" should be "emerging" and "it's" should be "its."
Good Evening Mr.Holt, Nice to see you filling in for Mr.Williams. Another fine broadcast this evening. First of all the report by Mr.Todd from Rome on President Obama's visit for the G-8 Summit. The final gathering of the G-8 Summit was quite impressive with two dozen leaders there to discuss many major issues such as Iran, climate change, economic stimulus and increased food aid to countries in Africa. It was nice to see President Obama meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican and then later joined by the rest of the family. Now on to Ghana with much anticipation and excitment for President Obama's arrival.

The report by Mara Schiavocampo from Ghana certainly showed the citizens are so excited for the arrival of President Obama. Chanting his name, playing music and the feeling of him being an inspiration to them is really nice to see. They appear to be coming from all over to see him and hopefully they will all have a chance.
The report by Mr.Tibbles concerning the desecration of the graves at the Chicago area cemetery showed how the outrage over families not being able to locate loved ones is just horrible. Seeing the casket of the Emmett Till at the back of the garage all ruined is awful. As the investigation continues I hope more answers are found and the families who are having to  grieve all over again will find their loved ones. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families.

The "Making A Difference" segment by Chris Jansing about the volunteers at the golf club helping the wounded veterans was really wonderful. All of the wounded veterans having suffered great injuries are able to build a bond with people who can understand what they are going through. Giving them hope and better health is a great thing.
Thank You for the broadcast Mr.Golt! See you on the weekend for Today and Nightly News. Peace to You and to All!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie,Stephanie,Claudia,Celine,Anna,Lori,Cary and Matt!
Be Well Always!
Great to See Richard in the Nightly News Studio with Mr.Williams last evening!! Always Wonderful to See You Richard!! Stay Extra Safe and Well Richard! Great Reporting! Great to See you the The Rachel Maddow Show last evening too!
(I really,really hope my post from last night shows up because of Richard's excellent reporting!) Mr.Arouzi too!
XOXO
Hi Lester,

It's good to see you and I hope you've had a nice week.

I enjoyed seeing Pres. Obama meet the Pope. They seem to have connected. But then it seems as if the President connects with most people. He's always willing to meet people half way. It was also nice to see the Ghanan peolple very excited about Pres. Obama's visit.

It's disturbing enough about the desecrations taking place in Chicago. But to know that Emmett Til's original coffin had been disturbed and thrown aside is so assaulting on the senses. Of all people in the world, he should been allowed to rest in peace.

I'm glad that Sen. Arlen Spector is calling for an investigation into the Valley Club incident. Those people should be fired. In fact, they should close the place down. That kind of behavior is unacceptable.

The "Making a Difference" segment was great as always. The vets and volunteers are wonderful interacting with each other at the golf course. Chris Jansing has always done a nice job in reporting. I really miss her on MSNBC.
Speaking of which, I'll be watching you on "Why Airplanes Crash", Sun. night on MSNBC. I know you're an aviation buff. I could see your eyes light up during the promo in the plane.

In the meantime, I'll try to watch you and Amy tommorrow morning and then you on the nightly news.
Lester, I hope you get a nap in on Sat. and Sun.
Your suit and tie were beautiful as always.

Have a great evening and weekend.

Vicki  

In reference to the report on veterans tonight... the reporter was at American Lake VA Hospital in Lakewood, WA. Not American Lakes in Lakeland, WA.

Hospital: http://www1.va.gov/pugetsound/page.cfm?pg=13

Golf: http://alvetsgolfcourse.com/
GM has not changed...I have a 2005 Chevy Uplander, recently the passenger sliding door opened on it's own while I was driving down the road with my 2 year old son in the car.  When I took the van in they acted completely clueless to this problem and I have dealt with customer relations from corporate only to get no where.  I explained to them that I understand that things break, but even so, one should never have a door open when driving on it's own no matter the mileage of the car.  I have looked online and see that this is an ongoing problem that GM refuses to find serious enough for a recall. They made a defective door and they know it yet they refuse to take ownership.  Had my son fallen out, would they have cared???? given the lack of concern I have gotten when talking them everyday for a week, I highly doubt it... as of tomorrow the car is getting traded in as corporate told me today, that even if they fix the door ( they finally offered to pay half of the repair) that I may have the same problem occur in the future and if I did, they would not help me.   I will never own another GM product... they don't stand behind their product when they have a design flaw and to me that's just bad bussiness!  
Lester:  "It's" only takes an apostrophe when being used as a contraction for "it is" or "it has".  The "it's" in your second sentence is a possessive and thus should be spelled "its"--without the apostrophe.
For some reason, Brian Williams felt that the recently released Nixon tapes deserved nearly four minutes of air time on the June 23 Nightly News.  I guess it's easier to air 40-year-old news than to report on current news.  Here's another excerpt from the Nixon tapes that was reported in the June 24 New York Times (from a Feb. 21, 1973 phone conversation between Pres. Nixon and Billy Graham):

(Pres. Nixon speaking): "Anti-Semitism is stronger than we think.  You know, it's unfortunate.  But this has happened to the Jews.  It happened in Spain, it happened in Germany, it's happening--and now it's going to happen in America if these people don't start behaving....It may be they have a death wish.  You know that's been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries."

Now here's an excerpt from a speech that Brian Williams gave last month at the Nantucket Film Festival (as reported on the June 22 bostonherald.com website):

"Welcome to the Nantucket Film Festival--where Jews come to be honored.  Nantucket is actually a Yiddish word meaning where the WASPS live."

Let's try an experiment.  Let's substitute the word "African-Americans" for "Jews" and the word "Swahili" for "Yiddish".  Would Brian consider those comments to be acceptable?  In this age of political correctness, most people seem to understand that it's inappropriate to make derogatory comments based on a person's skin color.  Yet many of those same people think it's okay to insult people of the Jewish faith.  Nixon believed that he would be able to invoke presidential privilege to keep his tapes from being released.  Maybe Brian thought he could invoke anchor's privilege to keep his comments from being heard.  Apparently not.  Brian owes an apology to his viewers (and everyone else) for his insensitive remarks.


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