Ignoring substantial parts of her record, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush — a package she seemed to support at the time.

A look at some of her statements in "Going Rogue," obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Tuesday:

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PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.

THE FACTS: Although she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) for a five-hour women's leadership conference in New York in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000.

___

PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations and turned back large checks if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC.

Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.

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PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, "you'll have to be brave enough to fail."

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring Obama's stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that President George W. Bush signed.

Palin's views on bailouts appeared to evolve as John McCain's vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said "taxpayers cannot be looked to" to bail out Wall Street.

The next month, she praised McCain for being "instrumental in bringing folks together" to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said "it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in."

___

PALIN: Criticizes an aide to her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, for a conflict of interest because the aide represented the state in negotiations over a gas pipeline and then left to work as a handsomely paid lobbyist for ExxonMobil. Palin asserts her administration ended all such arrangements, shoving a wedge in the revolving door between special interests and the state capital.

THE FACTS: Palin ignores her own "revolving door" issue in office; the leader of her own pipeline team was a former lobbyist for a subsidiary of TransCanada, the company that ended up winning the rights to build the pipeline.

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PALIN: Welcomes last year's Supreme Court decision deciding punitive damages for victims of the nation's largest oil spill tragedy, the Exxon Valdez disaster, stating it had taken 20 years to achieve victory. As governor, she says, she'd had the state argue in favor of the victims, and she says the court's ruling went "in favor of the people."

THE FACTS: That response is at odds with her reaction at the time to the ruling, which resolved the case by reducing punitive damages for victims to $500 million from $2.5 billion. Palin said then she was "extremely disappointed" and it was "tragic" so many fishermen and families put their lives on hold waiting for the decision.

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PALIN: "Was it ambition? I didn't think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons." Throughout the book, Palin cites altruistic reasons for running for office, and for leaving early as Alaska governor.

THE FACTS: Few politicians own up to wanting high office for the power and prestige of it, and in this respect, Palin fits the conventional mold. But "Going Rogue" has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto, the requisite autobiography of the future candidate.

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AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this report.

Black belt grandma still kicking

By JOY HAMPTON

Claremore Daily Progress

CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) - Owasso resident Jeannie "Mamaw'' O'Connor is 74-years-old and has seven great grandchildren. She also holds a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and teaches a white belt class at Beavens Martial Arts in Claremore.

"I saw a picture of Bruce Lee,'' she said, "and I thought maybe that could help my grandson.''

O'Connor said her grandson was struggling, and she was praying for answers. She called her daughter, Cookie Sinor, and suggested all three of them sign up for classes. When she opened the phone book, Beavens Martial Arts in Claremore was the first entry she saw.

"I didn't even think about my age,'' said O'Connor. "I was 68 then. I signed all of us up.''

Her grandson lasted a month. She and her daughter stayed.

O'Connor has lived in Owasso for the past 28 years and still lives in the same house. She has watched the little community grow over the years. Retired from Boeing now, she spends a lot of time practicing and teaching martial arts. She also attends weight training classes at Beavens.

She said cancer runs in her family. She has battled skin cancer. Two years ago, cancer took her son, Steve O'Connor, known to friends as Mountain Man.

"He had a long white beard,'' she said. "He was a beautiful, beautiful man.''

Losing a child broke her heart, but O'Connor keeps on kicking. She has made the determination to stay fit and active for as long as she can.

"I just love the forms and the kicking,'' said O'Connor. "It's like a big happy family at Beavens. Everybody cares about everybody.''

Martial arts offers more than just exercise.

"I like the discipline,'' said O'Connor. "And attaining something.''

O'Connor said she had no sports outlet growing up. She thinks she would have liked to be active in something competitive when she was younger, but the opportunity just never presented itself.

"I like the competitiveness of martial arts,'' she said.

In the early years she attended a few tournaments and competed. Her daughter still competes, she said. Mostly, O'Connor competes with herself, always pushing to the next belt level, moving past former limits.

Martial arts also provides a community of extended family for which she is grateful. O'Connor said she enjoys the "all for one and one for all'' attitude found inside the dojo walls.

"We want everybody to succeed,'' she said.

The great grandmother has learned to be tough. When her daughter accidentally tripped her and O'Connor broke her wrist a few years back, she didn't skip a beat. Though she missed a couple of weeks of classes, O'Connor said she was close to attaining the next belt. She continued with her training and attained the rank despite the injury.

"I got an F-minus for falling at that time,'' she said. "It was so quick. Of course, I didn't know it was coming.''

How to fall without breaking anything is only one of many lessons O'Connor has learned over the years.

"Patience,'' she said. "The five tenets of martial arts are patience, integrity, self-control, courtesy and indomitable spirit. It's inside you. It keeps you going, that indomitable spirit.''

Courtesy and caring for others are important aspects of her Tae Kwon Do experience.

"Other people count,'' she said. "We laugh with each other. We never laugh at anyone. It's a fun thing. You never make fun of anybody.''

O'Connnor said she especially enjoys the hugs she gets from her youngest students in the white belt class. She's the unofficial grandmother of the dojo.

"They all call me Mamaw,'' she said. "I'm everybody's Mamaw. Even the older people call me Mamaw. Very few know my name.''

Keys to her success have been regular and consistent class attendance and learning the forms of Tae Kwon Do.

"Concentration and self-control are the two most important things in Tae Kwon Do,'' she said.

Classes are about defense and counterattack. So far, she's never had to use her skills to defend herself, though when older women were having their purses snatched last year at Woodland Mall she wanted to fill an old purse with rocks and take a walk at the mall to see if any aggressor was foolish enough to try his luck snatching her purse.

"I pity the first person who tries,'' she said.

O'Connor throws an elbow and chuckles.

"We take Tae Kwon Do so we don't ever have to fight,'' she said. "The kia (yell) is important. I'm one of the loudest here.''

She said the traditional kia, or yell, is meant to be intimidating and put an attacker off-balance.

"You have a second to get them off guard,'' she said. "Kick the crotch, elbow them, whatever. But the kia is very important. They're not expecting some old woman to be yelling at them, and while they're thinking, they get an elbow right here.'' She points to the jaw.

Team work is also an element of the martial arts dojo. Encouragement and pulling together help everyone move forward, she said.

"Everybody can do something good,'' said Mamaw. "Put us all together and you can't beat us.''

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Information from: Claremore Daily Progress,

http://www.claremoreprogress.com

Group worries about violence against women on TV

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - A group that monitors violence in prime-time television says it's concerned about women being more frequent targets.

The Parents Television Council released its report Wednesday. It says it counted more than 400 violent acts against women in prime time on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox shows in February and May this year. There were just under 200 during those months in 2004.

The council notes that acts against women are a small percentage of violence in prime time.

The report shows there were more than 3,900 total violent acts in prime-time during those two months this year, a 2 percent increase from five years ago.

Council president Tim Winter says he worries that violence on TV encourages violence in real life.

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