Geri Spieler
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Investigative journalist, research director, research analyst and award-winning speaker Geri Spieler is author of Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman who Shot at Gerald Ford. Published by Palgrave-Macmillan, in bookstores on January 12, 2009.

Spieler has written articles for the Los Angeles Times, was a featured correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, and was published in Westways magazine and Forbes. She founded and edited Electronic Commerce News, a technology journal published by Phillips Business Information, which led to a six-year assignment as a Research Director and Analyst for the Gartner Group, an international technology advising company.

Spieler hosts a live Webinar, "Super Sleuthing: Internet Research Skills Everyone Should Know." http://www.gerispieler.com/Reviews.html

Blog Entries by Geri Spieler

We Don't Know What We Don't Know

Comments | Posted April 30, 2012 | 3:22 PM

As a former newspaper reporter, occasionally I was assigned to report on a subject I didn't know well.

I learned that if I don't know what questions to ask. Otherwise I was at a huge disadvantage and at risk for being misled.

When these assignments...

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Opposition Research Revealed

Comments | Posted January 30, 2012 | 3:24 PM

In politics, hubris abounds. It is truly amazing that politicians think they can keep secrets.

After reading, We're with Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics, by Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian, there is no question--there are no secrets.

The scenarios of secrets revealed are played out...

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New York Times -- The Saga Continues

Comments | Posted July 12, 2011 | 1:32 PM

Can print journalists be objective about the future of news? Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism attempts to answer this question in 17 essays and interviews with respected and well-known writers from various positions in newspaper and public affairs worldwide.

David Folkenflik, NPR's award-winning...

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The Genius of Design -- Frederick Law Olmsted

(5) Comments | Posted June 5, 2011 | 10:22 PM

Genius of Place, The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin

Da Capo Press

The gift of artistic vision on the large stage of life is rare. When witnessed it is so overwhelming few can appreciate its impact for years to come.

Such was the man, Frederick Law...

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Beyond Google: The Art of Time-Effective Information Gathering

Comments | Posted April 2, 2011 | 12:13 AM

Conducting Internet research is a challenge. It's time consuming, often confusing and who ever thought too much information could be a problem? The Internet has opened up the world of information gathering to the extent that it can be overwhelming and therefore problematic. Google searches can be conflicting, redundant...

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San Francisco Values: Who Will Be Sorry Now?

(10) Comments | Posted March 23, 2011 | 12:30 PM

The GOP is in knee jerk reaction mode in an attempt to reduce spending to mend the debt created by the past administration.

What are these senators and congress people thinking? Cutting education spending by penalizing teachers is such a bad decision it defies reason. Why do we want...

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What Makes San Francisco San Francisco?

(8) Comments | Posted February 6, 2011 | 11:34 AM

With all the hullabaloo about "San Francisco Values," I decided to add some facts to the subject.

Many people who throw this phrase around know nothing of the history of the region and what makes a San Francisco native behave they way they do. With all due respects, the...

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Oliver Sipple: It's Time to Recognize His Heroism

(1) Comments | Posted January 5, 2011 | 12:47 PM

Oliver Sipple, the Marine who saved Pres. Ford's life on Sept. 22, 1975, is no longer "just a bystander."

Because of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by Pres. Obama and Congress, Sipple is now a well-known hero. A Marine hero, a Gay Marine hero.

The woman...

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Is San Francisco Anti-military? The Right Has it Wrong

Comments | Posted December 16, 2010 | 8:35 AM

Specialist Tammy K. scoots around a throng of patients, visitors and staff in the wide hallways of the VA hospital in Palo Alto. Her should length blonde hair swings as her slim figure maneuvers expertly between wheelchairs and gurneys on her way to her job in the rehabilitation unit.

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For Those Who Love to Hate the New York Times

(5) Comments | Posted November 18, 2010 | 4:04 PM

2010-11-18-huh.jpgGray Lady Down: What the Decline and Fall of the New York Times Means for America
By William McGowan
Encounter Books


It is difficult to sort out how much of Gray Lady Down is personal...

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The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction

(4) Comments | Posted October 19, 2010 | 7:09 AM


If there were a "Watchman" to protect us from danger he would be shaking his rattle vigorously right now. We are in danger of becoming extinct as the signs of the collapse of our civilization are obvious, according to Rebecca Costa's excellent and thought provoking new book, The...

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Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister

Comments | Posted October 4, 2010 | 12:29 PM

Geri Spieler's review appeared first in the New York Journal of Books, www.nyjournalofbooks.com

In Big Girls Don't Cry, Rebecca Traister follows key women involved in the 2008 presidential election, to tell the story "about the country and its culture, how we all reacted to the arrival of these surprising...

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The Obama Backlash: Taking on the Radicals

(42) Comments | Posted September 2, 2010 | 6:15 PM

Book Review-- The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politicsin the Age of Obama by Will Bunch

It would be easy to write an Obama-backlash book using buzzwords with cliché' ridden accounts of the right-wing talk show blather-babblers.

Fortunately, Will Bunch does not resort to such pedestrian...

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In Defense of San Francisco Values

(17) Comments | Posted August 25, 2010 | 1:07 PM

Well, the Republicans are doing what they do best: Obfuscate the issues, blame, complain, point fingers and make up stuff up instead of offering real solutions about real problems. Some things just never change.

Talk about "Content Free" presentations that are designed to mislead, take Lt. Gov....

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San Francisco Values Clarified

(7) Comments | Posted August 4, 2010 | 1:05 PM

The buzz these days is that "San Francisco Values" are the three dirtiest words in politics.

The term dates back at least to 1996, when California Conservative Rep. Frank Riggs attacked his Democratic rival Michela Alioto over her "San Francisco Values." More than a dozen years later, the phrase...

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Look Who Was at the Gate? Pat Nixon and the US/Mexico Border

(2) Comments | Posted July 8, 2010 | 10:10 AM

Operation Gatekeeper and Beyond: The War on "Illegals" and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary by Joseph Nevins (Routledge, February 22, 2010)


As the debate rolls on about Immigration Reform in the United States, as Congress considers President Obama's vision to design a "Path to...

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Mexican Migration: A South of the Border View

Comments | Posted June 8, 2010 | 11:28 AM

Mexican Migration and the U.S. Economic Crisis: A Transnational Perspective, Edited by Wayne A. Cornelius, David Fitzgerald, Pedro Lewin Fisher, and Leah Muse-Orlinoff

(Center for Comparative Immigration, February 2010)

As with any social phenomena, an attempt to corral the scope of the issue into a single pen will leave many...

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Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration

(1) Comments | Posted May 14, 2010 | 1:12 PM

Jeffrey Kaye's timely book, Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration, focuses on the impact of immigration worldwide. The author uses the term "migrant" to describe immigration labor both legal as well as illegal.

His book describes the interdependency countries have with cheap labor to support the worldwide...

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Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol

(3) Comments | Posted May 5, 2010 | 1:47 PM

What could be a more contentious issue today than the conflict surrounding our border with Mexico?

Some would argue that the history of the border patrol is irrelevant to our problems today, but they would be wrong. Everything about the 2000 miles that connects us with Mexico--including...

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Arizona is Targeting the Wrong Criminal

(7) Comments | Posted April 30, 2010 | 4:47 PM

Last week Arizona passed Senate Bill 1070 that mandates Arizona law enforcement officials to ask anyone they deem are in the U.S. illegally for proof of U.S. citizenship.

The bill hopes to reduce the numbers of undocumented workers in the state and discourage others from coming in.

Increasing...

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