The Guild 3-8-2004 Kerry 1997:The administration-don't believe that they need the U.N.

[mountaineer]

anyone believe this?

March 15, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - First lady Laura Bush and the president's mother, Barbara Bush, are now openly "questioning" the direction of President Bush's campaign team, a stunning new report claims.

With national polls showing the once-invincible Bush in a dead heat against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the two powerful Bush women are among many White House advisers fearful that the 2004 re-election team isn't up to the task. Barbara Bush "does not want to see her family go through a '92 thing again," according to two well-connected Bush aides quoted in Time magazine.

The Time report notes a series of missteps and challenges facing the Bush-Cheney re-election team as it heads into the fall campaign season. One recent blunder came last week when Bush was excitedly preparing to appoint Nebraska millionaire Anthony Raimondo as his new national "jobs czar." But Bush had to backtrack when Kerry pointed out that the man laid off 75 U.S. workers in 2002 to build a $3 million factory in China. NY Post

[mountaineer]

DUBYA, BLOW YOUR HORN

Are the Bush folks up to it?

So far, it seems not.

Democrats don't think Bush should be permitted to talk about national security, and they've sought to shift the debate to the economy.

To hear the Dems tell it, America's economy is on its last legs.

Only one problem: It ain't true!

In fact, the economy is doing just fine in numerous areas.

And Team Bush - starting with the president himself - must shout that point at the top of his lungs.

What Bush's stewardship - particularly his tax-cut plan - has done for the economy is itself remarkable.

Consider:

* The recession, which in essence began with the popping of the high-tech bubble during President's Clinton's second term, ended relatively quickly once Bush got to the White House.

* Despite the jolt of 9/11, growth has not once since fallen into the red.

* Indeed, during Bush's tenure, America's economy grew at its fastest quarterly rate in 20 years - a positively sizzling annualized 8.2 percent.

* Manufacturing activity has risen to its highest level in nearly two decades.

* After-tax incomes soared 8.4 percent in 2001.

* Worker productivity is near a 20-year high.

* More folks own homes than ever.

* Last year, the Dow rose 20 percent; NASDAQ zoomed up 50 percent.

* Inflation, interest rates and mortgage rates are near historic lows.

* Most economists in a Wall Street Journal poll last week projected growth in '04 at a more-than-healthy 4 percent.

* That beats last year's solid 3.1 percent rate, and '02's respectable 2.2 percent.

Yes, many jobs were lost. But much of that is attributable to the Clinton-era high-tech crash, 9/11 and the rapid growth in productivity (a good thing).

Anyway, the economy today is generating jobs: Last month marked the sixth consecutive month of increased employment. And the jobless rate (5.6 percent) is actually below the average for the '70s, '80s - and '90s, Bill Clinton's days of wine and roses.

Americans can be forgiven for faulting Bush on the economy: That's all they've been hearing from the press - and Team Bush has hardly mustered a response.

With the '04 race now in full swing, Bush & Co. are going to have to work like the dickens to correct the record.

This time, it's not the economy, stupid.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/20802.htm

[mountaineer]

The NY Post is en fuego today:

March 15, 2004 -- SEN. John Kerry boasts how he "sounded the alarm on terrorism years before 9/ 11," referring to his 1997 book "The New War." Too bad he didn't blast it when it really counted - four months before the hijackings, when he was hand-delivered evidence of serious security breaches at Logan International Airport, with specific warnings that terrorists could exploit them.

Former FAA security officials say the Massachusetts senator had the power to prevent at least the Boston hijackings and save the World Trade Center and thousands of lives, yet he failed to take effective action after they gave him a prophetic warning that his state's main airport was vulnerable to multiple hijackings.

"He just did the Pontius Pilate thing and passed the buck" on back through the federal bureaucracy, said Brian Sullivan, a retired FAA special agent from the Boston area who in May 2001 personally warned Kerry that Logan was ripe for a "jihad" suicide operation possibly involving "a coordinated attack."

Rewind to May 6, 2001. That night, a Boston TV station (Fox-25) aired reporter Deborah Sherman's story on an undercover investigation at Logan that Sullivan and another retired agent helped set up. In nine of 10 tries, a crew got knives and other weapons through security checkpoints - including the very ones the 9/11 hijackers would later exploit.

The next day, Sullivan fired off a two-page letter to Kerry highlighting the systemic failures. rest of story

[mountaineer]

Michael Jackson wanted to star in a movie about a man who turns into a car that’s driven around by a little boy.

The singer — who’s facing child molestation charges — was trying to get a film called “Hot Rod” made, according to “Jersey Girl” director Kevin Smith.

“It was about Michael Jackson morphing into a car,” “Smith tells Playboy magazine in an issue just hitting newsstands. “Jackson was behind it, and he wanted it to be this story about a guy, played by himself, who hangs out with a little boy, and this little boy gets into the car and drives him around.” MSNBC

[daisyscarlett]

"And don't you want to know how someone who takes Cialis can have an erection for up to 4 days but if it lasts longer than 4 hours, you're in trouble?"

LOL, I wonder the same thing every time I see that stupid ad. The other thing that bugs me is when they list all the possible side effects and all the conditions that you if you have, you shouldn't take this wonder drug. Well, duh, totally healthy guys shouldn't need the drug, right?

[daisyscarlett]

I certainly don't believe that Laura and Barbs are saying those things and look forward to Barb's response if anyone asks her if it is true.

Why did Clinton have to mention that his trainer was German?

[mountaineer]

I'm sorry, I just can't see Blubba "working out" with anything other than a dimwitted blonde or a donut.

How desperate is CNN?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 60 people gathered Monday in Washington for a march to the White House, calling for an end to U.S. military action in Iraq. The protest, the second day of a two-day demonstration against the Bush administration, drew mostly peace activists, along with a few relatives of U.S. troops, organizers said. link

Oh my sides! A few dozen, you say? Why is it that every conservative "protest" in which I've participated, where at least that many attended, was completely ignored by the media?

[mountaineer]

Why Slick prefers Germans - or just about anyone - to PIAPS:

[Timeout]

While I was waiting in line at the bank I got to read the lead editorial in today's Wall St. Journal. (Boy, I sure wish I could still afford a subscription! What a great ed page.)

Anyway...they have a new twist on the "John Kerry says foreign leader rooting for him" controversy. In addition to questioning whether Kerry really did have these "meetings", the Journal adds its warning to Mr. Kerry that he'd better not be counseling foreign leaders to stall and oppose U.S. foreign policy while they wait for him to come along and change it.

The Journal resurrects the Rats' libelous charge that Reagan secretly arranged for Iran to hold the hostages until after Jimmuh was gone. If you have a chance, pick it up and read it.

Of course, I've been saying the Dems are coordinating with foreign leaders for MONTHS!

[Iowa Granny]

20 inches of snow in Western Iowa and it hasn't stopped yet. DM has close to a foot. Nasty driving. I'm glad to live in a Downtown Hotel.

[mountaineer]

Wow! Be careful out there, IG. It looks we may get around 6 inches tomorrow, but spring will be back this weekend.

[Timeout]

David Kay is on Hardball right now. Chris introduced him as an "NBC News Analyst". Did you know that?

I'm getting pretty squeamish about "former officials" who have such a bearing on our foreign policy, yet may feel pressure to tailor their remarks to the prevailing media winds if they know a cushy job is waiting for them.

[mountaineer]

It's a little unnerving to think Kay may have been doing nothing more than auditioning for network execs while he was supposed to be concerning himself with Iraq's weapons compliance. Gee, I hope he wasn't distracted by the lure of $$$ or anything!

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

We are getting the snow now. It's freezing and nasty and I am supposed to be at a polling site getting signatures on a petition.

I am snuggled in bed instead.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

March 16, 2004 -- John F. Kennedy Jr. wanted to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Moynihan, and was angry when Hillary Rodham Clinton began her own campaign, according to an upcoming book on the Kennedy family. "John watched with growing dismay as Hillary subtly insinuated herself into what he considered his state," Laurence Leamer writes in the new book, "Sons of Camelot," which hits bookstores today.

Kennedy had been torn between keeping his struggling magazine George alive and bagging it all and entering the Senate race in 2000. He had gone so far as to conduct polls to test his viability as a candidate.

"What better way to leave George than to run for public office," said Leamer.

The idea of entering the race was even broached with Roger Ailes, the Fox News honcho who had been a key Republican strategist. Ailes concluded that Kennedy would be "a viable candidate."

There were two stumbling blocks: how wife Carolyn would hold up in a campaign - and Clinton, who had begun to make an increasing number of stops in the state to test the political climate.

If Clinton wanted to run, Kennedy would not fight her.

"He was too much of a gentleman," said Leamer.

Still, when she declared for the seat, Leamer said Kennedy was "upset" and temporarily put his political ambitions on hold.

Leamer also says that young Kennedy failed to cover the Clinton sex scandal in George magazine in large part because of the shadow of his father, President Kennedy, who had his own sexual adventures.

When he put his political plans on hold, he was toying with the idea of going into business with Dan Samson, a college friend, to launch a media enterprise tied to the Internet.

Kennedy was killed in 1999 when his plane crashed on a flight to Martha's Vineyard.

[mountaineer]

Wow, the Clintons must be really lucky and blessed, to have obstacles to their political ambitions just disappear like that.

[mountaineer]

From Page Six, we hear ....THAT Walter Cronkite left Lynn Wasserman's dinner at Elaine's for the Women's Campaign Fund wearing a size-10 women's coat nearly identical to his own. He discovered the mistake as soon as he got home and called the restaurant to arrange the exchange . . .

We already knew Walter's mind wasn't exactly a steel trap. Speaking of dimwitted Dems, Hillary! was guest of honor at a cocktail party:

FORMER Ambassador to the Slovak Republic Karl Spielvogel and his wife, Barbaralee Diamonstein - their Park Avenue residence outdoes the Bratislava one - did cocktails for Hillary. "This is a light evening," Hillary told me. "I only have three stops."

Seventy-five people. Excepting one lady named Gail Maidman in yellow, almost every female wore black. Some so high-class it cuts down your conversation. Like I asked one elegant blonde, "So what do you do?" Said this Liz Newman: "I give away money." Former Mayor David Dinkins: "With the research this takes, that's a hard thing to do." Yeah? I'd have thought poverty was even harder, but what do I know.

Attorney General Spitzer's wife, Silda, piloting their three children: "We're meeting Eliot and heading upstate for two days." New York mag's former editor Caroline Miller: "Its new owners are excellent people with fine ideas. I like them a lot." And there was political pro Robert Zimmerman who's on so many talk shows it costs extra to get a TV set that comes without him.

Some Hillary niftyisms: "Look, I have nothing against the wealthy. Especially since my husband is now working" . . . "The current administration tried to undo everything my husband had done. It's been 'very challenging' for us" . . . "I called Kerry a serious man for a serious job and John said, 'Yes, but I'm trying to lighten up' " . . . "I know about winning and losing elections. In '92 we had a near-death experience. They said Bill's dead meat and we should get the carcass off the floor."

Added Ambassador Spielvogel: "John Kerry and [DNC chairman] Terry McAuliffe have agreed to unleash Bill in the coming campaign."

Then, exactly as Hillary mentioned our energy problems, the lights cut out for a second - as if Cheney was in the basement working the switches. At the piano in the Spielvogels' gallery, Hillary told me: "When I was 10 my mother made me take piano lessons. But I couldn't keep them up. I had to stop because of the Siamese cat. He didn't like my playing. In fact, he hated it. This cat was hard of hearing, and he sat on the piano and went crazy whenever I hit the keys. I just couldn't take that cat. When I started on 'Marche Militaire' he hissed at me."

What the hell, it's good practice for a political career. (Cindy Adams)

[mountaineer]

The mini-mystery has been solved. The woman who caught Bill Clinton's eye the other day in Paris has been identified as Dagmar Siegel. They were snapped leaving a hotel.

Relax, there's an innocent explanation, says Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy. Siegel is the girlfriend of the man behind her in the photo, Karlheinz Kogel. He's a pal of the former Prez and founder of the German Media Prize, given for furthering world peace.

They were all headed to a dinner where Clinton was a speaker. (Rush and Molloy, NY Daily News)

---

Well, of course there was an innocent explanation.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

[Endeavor]

How evil do you think Hillary is? Would she really kill JFK jr? If so, ketchup-boy better be lookin' over his shoulder.

I know JFK jr was a dem, but darn it, he was so good looking. What a loss! HIs wife would never have made it through a political campaign - I'm surprised any wife makes it through them, quite frankly.