The Guild 10-26-2002 President Bush Saves The Day!

The White House ^

[BigWaveBetty]

President Takes Action to Protect Pensions and Retirement Security for All Americans

Presidential Action

President Bush believes that economic freedom is essential to individual success and prosperity. The President's economic agenda invests in individuals by creating jobs, expanding opportunities to save and invest, providing a good education, and helping each American own part of the American dream.

An important component of the President's economic security agenda is providing American workers and retirees new tools to protect their pensions, investments, and retirement security.

In his radio address, the President will announce the implementation of rules that require workers to receive a 30-day notification before any "blackout" restrictions are placed on their 401(k) plans.

On October 21, 2002, the Department of Labor will issue regulations implementing the new notice provisions, providing important protections to workers and retirees with investments in 401(k) plans. The regulations provide both interim-final rules and a model notice to assist plans in carrying out their responsibilities. Under the new rules:

Workers will receive notice 30 days before any restrictions are placed on their ability to direct investments, take loans, or obtain distributions from their 401(k) plans.

Companies with employer stock in their 401(k) plan will receive the same notice so corporate insiders will know they cannot sell stock in the company or exercise stock options when the workers in the 401(k) plan are restricted from doing so.

The notice to employees must include the reasons for the blackout period; its beginning and ending date; and, if the ability to direct investments is suspended, a statement that participants should evaluate their current investments in light of their inability to direct or diversify assets during the blackout period.

Failure or refusal to provide the required notice will result in a civil penalty.

The rule will be effective on the earliest possible date under the statute, January 26, 2003 (180 days after enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation). The Securities and Exchange Commission is also working on a new rule scheduled to take effect early next year that will bar corporate executives from trading their stock when their rank and file workers are prevented from selling theirs.

Unfinished Business

The President has proposed other important, commonsense proposals to help protect the retirement savings of American workers:

Allowing workers to diversify their investments in employer stock after three years.

Providing workers quarterly benefit statements that explain the value of diversified investments.

Giving workers better access to much-needed investment advice from professional advisers acting in the workers' best interest. These remaining provisions passed the House of Representatives on April 11, 2002. Unfortunately, the Senate has failed to act on these important initiatives.

To learn more about the President's comprehensive economic security and corporate accountability agenda please visit www.whitehouse.gov

President Bush Saves the Day!

Click link to see GOP response to dim Social Security cartoon.

[BigWaveBetty]

Practicing to wear a Burka?

Protesters dressed as ghosts take part in a demonstration against a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, near the Washington Monument, October 26, 2002. Protesters hope as many as 100,000 people will converge on the U.S. capital for the anti-war message. (Eliana Aponte/Reuters)

These silly Spaniards can't spell. He forgot the S!

An unidentified couple march during an anti war demonstration in Madrid, Spain Sunday Oct. 27, 2002. Some three thousand people marched through Madrid to protest against the possible U.S. attack on Iraq. Banner on man's head reads 'Peace'. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Thousands of protesters against a U.S. war on Iraq plan to meet in the U.S. capital on Oct. 26, arriving in 250 buses from states as far afield as Texas, Vermont and Florida. Georgetown University students hold a 'die-in' protest against the possibility of the United States going to war with Iraq, October 23, 2002 on campus in Washington. Photo by Jim Bourg/Reuters

A 'die-in'? Drugs have completely eviscerated any imagination these loons might have had.

[Iowa Granny]

Good Morning. Fox news reporting a Russian passenger plane has been hijacked.

Life is NUTZ here. Congressman Leach's numbers are rising, and we're feeling a little better about that race. It appears we will not be able to throttle Harkin.

[BigWaveBetty]

Good news about Leach, too bad about Harkin.

I wonder if muslim terrorist are responsible for that hi-jacking. If so, hoping it helps Putin to see the light and quit messin' around with the UN resolution.

How about a little beef cake to spice up your morning?

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) jogs with U.S. Secret Service agents during the APEC (news - web sites) Leader's annual meetings in Los Cabos, Mexico, October 27, 2002. The president will return to the U.S. later today to continue campaigning for GOP candidates ahead of the November elections. REUTERS/Larry Downing

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) jogs with U.S. Secret Service agents during the APEC (news - web sites) Leader's annual meetings in Los Cabos, Mexico, October 27, 2002. The president will return to the U.S. ater today to continue campaigning for GOP candidates ahead of the November elections. REUTERS/Larry Downing

[Iowa Granny]

Thanx for the "Eye Candy".

I hope I will be able to have a computer when I enter "the Home"... I wonder what little old ladies at "the Home" consider to be Eye Candy? I suppose I'll find out in about 20 years.

[BigWaveBetty]

Hate to be a drag so early on a Monday morning but...

Al Qaeda nukes are reality, intelligence says Washington Times

Paul Rogers, professor and head of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in Britain, said: "There were unconfirmed reports that one or two Soviet-era tactical nuclear weapons had got to Iran a few years ago. Apart from that, I do not have any evidence that al Qaeda has access to such weapons."

However, one senior Western intelligence contact is adamant that the terrorists do have a number of these weapons — nine, to be precise. The price on the deal is put at $30 million, plus 2 tons of opium per nuke.

"Reliable sources report that not only atomic munitions were sold by the Russian underworld and smuggled into [Central Asia] during the conflict between the U.S. and the Taliban, but that several Russian nuclear technicians were hired by the Islamic fundamentalists to try and make the weapons operational," the Western source said.

Thank God President Bush is in the White House or we might not get to experience "the Home".

[lodwick]

I love the pic of all those spontaneous nappers - thanks.

Good morning everyone.

Eight more days Gran - hang in there.

[lodwick]

Stud Muffins = Eye Candy

[BigWaveBetty]

This is the best dims can come up with?! LOL They're toast.

Newsweek: Hillary Clinton to Crowd at Fund-Raiser in Los Angeles: Bush Was 'Selected' President, Not Elected; Says Bush's Machine Has Raised Far More Money to 'Ruin the Reputations of Our Candidates'

Bush Dispatching Money and Lawyers to Help with Brother Jeb's Florida Governor
Campaign; Former President Bush Got Updates from Jeb's Campaign Manager During Debate with Opponent Bill Mcbride, Then Relayed Them to Washington

NEW YORK, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- At a private fund-raiser in Los Angeles for Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told the crowd that President Bush merely had been "selected" president, not elected, Newsweek reports in the current issue. "You know, I'm a fan of Clintonomics," she told the crowd while standing from a perch on the staircase of movie producer Alan Horn's art-filled Bel Air home, "and this administration is destroying in months our eight years of economic progress." [snip]

And Gore Vidal rears his very ugly head:

Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11

[snip] Vidal's highly controversial 7000 word polemic titled 'The Enemy Within' - published in the print edition of The Observer today - argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used the terrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda to invade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties at home.

Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it is fairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not only to much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheney junta.'

Vidal argues that the real motive for the Afghanistan war was to control the gateway to Eurasia and Central Asia's energy riches. He quotes extensively from a 1997 analysis of the region by Zgibniew Brzezinski, formerly national security adviser to President Carter, in support of this theory. But, Vidal argues, US administrations, both Democrat and Republican, were aware that the American public would resist any war in Afghanistan without a truly massive and widely perceived external threat. [snip]

[BigWaveBetty]

MMmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm!

Good thing you weren't in a tie and jacket while glocking, I would have been reduced to a puddle. ;-)

[Iowa Granny]

Stud Muffins = Eye Candy

Be still, my heart!

[mountaineer]

Just wanted to remind everyone that a pic of Timeout and me in Paris is up; link is at post 59, above. The scanner took me forever to figure out, but now that I have, I'll try to put up a few more pix (although this week is hectic, due to GOP mtg tonight, Dubya coming to WV Thursday, etc.)

[BigWaveBetty]

Bad news. ABC and CNN talking again.

ABC-CNN Talks Could Leave CBS the Odd Network Out

Within the next few weeks, executives of ABC News and CNN expect to renew discussions about forming a joint news operation, executives with knowledge of the talks said on Friday.

Although both sides say the odds that an agreement will be reached are no higher than 50-50, executives from the two organizations said their desire to merge has only grown since news of the talks broke last month. Given CNN's vast, international reach and ABC's broadcast network and big-name stars, they realize, the end result would be a news organization of unrivaled size.

[mountaineer]

A FIRE alarm caught Chelsea Clinton in a compromising position. The former First Daughter was spending quality time with boyfriend Ian Klaus in his Jesus College dorm at Oxford when a late-night alarm forced the place to be evacuated. Chelsea could be seen looking "very agitated" as she stood in the cold night in just a set of men's pajamas. The frustrated Clinton - who dorms in nearby University College - wants to get an off-campus lovenest with her boy, but Bill Clinton and his security advisers have put the kibosh on the idea, reports the London Mirror. Page Six

Also from Page Six:

WHICH lawmaker finally had to give up his powerful seat in Washington when word spread he'd been seeing a married congresswoman? .

[BigWaveBetty]

Looking forward to more pics. Since you're busy today I'll try to scrape up some good gossip. First up, that wascally Waksal.

IMCLONE SAM'S LEAKING ROOF

TWO men who bought an $8 million Tribeca penthouse from scandal-plagued ImClone founder Sam Waksal say they're going to sue him if he doesn't compensate them for the lavish pad's shoddy construction.

Ed Bazinet, the mega-rich, Minnesota-based founder of Department 56, a publicly-traded giftware company, and his partner Wouter Deruiter bought the 10,000 square-foot unfinished quadruplex space atop the old Munitions Building at 60 Warren St. a year ago. The building is just one of a number of old Tribeca properties that Waksal, his brother Harlan, his daughter Elana, and son-in-law Jarett Posner have bought and converted into luxury apartments through a company called BDB Development.

The "ImClone Clan," as they're known, built the four-story penthouse despite fierce protest from preservationists. For a time it was known as the most controversial building in Tribeca because of the addition. [snip]

Elana Waksal and her husband first moved to the building so that she could run for City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed's seat, but lost the election despite spending big bucks and getting a gushing endorsement from Hillary Clinton. Posner is the grandson of the late corporate raider Victor Posner, who along with Jarrett's father, Steven, was accused of cooking up a fraudulent takeover scheme with Ivan Boesky and Mike Milken.

Mr. Ashcroft, time to dig deeper into hilly's financial records.

[mountaineer]

From Cindy Adams:

First former lady Barbara Bush: "I've had a wonderful life. Two presidents, five children, 15 grandchildren and only two dress sizes."
In other news, Chelsea Clinton now starring in her own show on Nickelodeon:

[lodwick]

There's something about a tux
that seems to work.

[mountaineer]

Wretching, heaving, gut-ripping barf alert:

MILFORD, Conn. -- A politician and local historian believe that a beach house on the Milford shore where former President Bill Clinton lived while attending Yale Law School deserves a historic site marker. Clinton lived at house, located at 889 East Broadway in area once known as "Keg Row" because of college parties, during his first year at the law school in 1970 and 1971. full story

[BigWaveBetty]

Dang! Even when you're busy you get better gossip than me! I want pictures of that scary scene.

WHICH lawmaker finally had to give up his powerful seat in Washington when word spread he'd been seeing a married congresswoman?

I don't know!!! Who?!! :-)

[lodwick]

bentmember's only lasting memorial

[mountaineer]

Giuliani in the news:

America's Mayor has become such a folk hero, some people seem to have for gotten he's a Republican. He recently received an invitation to tomorrow's fund-raiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Sens. Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Jon Corzine are due to join Caroline Kennedy, Karenna Gore Schiff and others at the "Art Exit," where works by major painters will be auctioned to help the party. Maybe somebody figured Rudy and galpal Judith Nathan needed a Warhol to hang in their new multimillion dollar East side apartment. NY Daily News

I certainly hope he has enough sense not to go.