Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.

By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.

Disclosure of the heavily Democratic contributions by influential employees of the three major broadcast networks follows on the heels of controversy last week when it was learned that media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.

Based on this thought process, I think a rough and somewhat objective rubric can be established for when to sell: based on your plan, how long will reality take to catch up with the hope? Time is an important measure of risk in that startup visibility rarely stretches beyond 12 months. When an offer, based on reasonable multiples, is compensating a company for the past year’s performance, selling is about liquidating the asset. When a company is being paid a standard multiple against a high confidence next year plan, selling is still largely about liquidity but does offset a year of risk in the plan. When that multiple is applied to the next two years of risk, the board should be giving very strong consideration to selling. At three years, I think it really is a no brainer.

Hard to know, but I’d guess that the Patzer Problem was more about VC interests than whether it was a no brainer for shareholders, on a dilution adjusted basis, to sell Mint for $170 million. I wonder how many years of Mint’s plan they were being compensated ahead of. Probably they were at a peak of hope. If so, it was a good time to sell.

“If we are not here there’s a possibility of them being thrown into the river, buried alive or stabbed to death,” Sam said.

He tries to persuade their mother and a crowd of villagers that the three children are not witches - but no one believes him. And so, putting the children in his white pick-up, he drives away to his orphanage and safety.

Sam runs Child’s Rights & Rehabilitation Network, or CRARN — an orphanage that supports nearly 200 children. All of them were accused of witchcraft and cast out by their families, often after being tortured. The orphanage provides security, healthcare, nutrition and counseling.

Two days after the operation, the recovering mum decided she was ready to go home. ”That was when the midwife said I had one final task to perform. Then she went and got a big white laundry bag and asked me to clean out the room and the bed where I had lain,” she told the newspaper.

Two midwives at the Sundsvall maternity ward admitted that Elin Andersson painted an accurate picture of their workplace.

”She describes precisely those bits that we don’t have time for,” said Gunnel Westerlund. ”Medical safety always comes first and you can’t leave a mother while she’s giving birth. It’s true that we sometimes need to make use of the parents and that doesn’t feel good at all.”