06-25-2004 

QUOTABLES:

“Bill is wistful and a little forgetful, waving an ominous cigar and reminiscing about his women, at least the ones he recalls. Al is just a guy in from the street and off his meds.” -- writes Wesley Pruden about the recent Clinton-Gore shows.

"He [Bill Clinton] says he was proud of the way that he defended the presidency, at my expense," said Monica Lewinsky.

"In the process he destroyed me, and that was the way he was going to have to do that, to get through impeachment," Lewinsky added. "I was a young girl and to hear him saying some of the things he was saying today -- it's a shame," she said.

"When the White House stationery reads president John Kerry," she crooned, "we'll be the luckiest people in the world," sang Barbra Streisand.

"People say he doesn't smile, he's not happy enough," panned Billy Crystal. "I kid him a little bit. I said, `Listen, you're the front-runner, the polls are up, you've raised $200 million. If you're having a good time, tell your face.'"

"I'm afraid that my old Democratic 'ties that bind' have become unraveled," said Zell Miller.

“One has to ask: how wide and to what extent will this [national] division go?” – writes Roger Hughes, Chairman, Iowa Presidential Watch PAC.

BUSH BEAT

School Principal defends Bush

Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota, Fla., second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack September 11. But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Mr. Bush handled himself properly.

"I don't think anyone could have handled it better," Miss Tose'-Rigell told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in an article published yesterday. "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"

President Bush told the 9/11 Commission that he remained in the classroom because he felt it was "important to project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."

Moore’s film tries to portray President Bush as a buffoon who was not in charge.

 Just POlitics

A Nation Divided

by Roger Wm. Hughes

If anyone needed any proof of how divided this nation is all they had to do was look at this week’s headlines.

This is not about Democrats referencing President Bush as the "great divider." This is about Democrats like Al Gore stating that "Indeed, Bush's consistent and careful artifice is itself evidence that he knew full well that he was telling an artful and important lie — visibly circumnavigating the truth over and over again as if he had practiced how to avoid encountering the truth."

It is about the exchange between Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Patrick Leahy. Cheney accused the Democratic senator of demagogism regarding Halliburton and purely politically calling for investigations of himself. Leahy replied that the reason for doing it was that Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they were opposed to some of President Bush's anti-abortion judges. Cheney responded with the F…. word towards Leahy on the Senate floor.

It is about the ridiculous political polemic called “Fahrenheit 9-11” and the divided reaction to it. There is also the painful reopening of the absurd Clinton Presidency and the hurt that it invokes beyond the re-trashing of Monica Lewinsky.

There is a good part of this nation that is becoming angrier than anyone ever has been since the Civil War. There are Americans who are looking at Al Gore, Michael Moore, Bill Clinton and John Kerry as "traitors" to America. It is a treason beyond John Kerry’s convenient forgetfulness that he was present in Kansas City where his vaunted group, Veterans Against Vietnam, planned to assassinate U.S. Senators.

No, this treason is against the individual liberties and belief in America’s exceptionalism. It is the treason against individual responsibility. It is the creation of the world that Michael Moore, Howard Dean, Ralph Nader, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and John Kerry would create. A world that is totally alien to the perspective of many as they see the entire history of this God fearing nation. It is the Red states versus the Blue states.

There is a word that is coming to dominate this election and that word is: fear. Fear of these individuals’ lies and traitorous dream for America. Lies that say Iraq’s sworn mission to destroy America never existed and if it existed they couldn’t do anything about it any way. Lies that say that a Lieutenant Colonel, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir of the Iraqi Fedayeen attending a planning meeting for the Sept. 11 attacks in January 2000, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia doesn’t mean anything. Lies that say if we had just left Iraq alone we would be better off. Lies that say that not finding Iraq’s WMD means that they have been accounted for. Lies that say France and Germany are our friends.

Fear -- fear of a John Kerry presidency is the reason that Kerry may not win the electoral votes needed to be President. One has to ask: how wide and to what extent will this division go? 

Cheney vs. Leahy

Reuters reports on the Vice President’s vulgarity on the Senate floor:

Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor, congressional aides said on Thursday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in a terse discussion between the two that touched on politics, religion and money, with Cheney finally telling Leahy to "f--- off" or "go f--- yourself," the aides said.

Streisand concert fails

A Hollywood concert featuring Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond fell $5 million short of the expected $10 million haul. However, $5 million isn’t chicken feed.

Billy Crystal didn’t fail to get laughs from his stand up routine. Some of the best lines came at the expense of Sen. John Kerry.

Crystal said when he met Kerry, he thought he, "could be Ed Muskie's stunt man."  

"People say he doesn't smile, he's not happy enough," panned Crystal. "I kid him a little bit. I said, `Listen, you're the front-runner, the polls are up, you've raised $200 million. If you're having a good time, tell your face,'" Crystal said.

The $5 million raised will be divided between Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. A second concert is planned for New York City on July 8. The New York concert will feature the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige, John Mellencamp, Jon Bon Jovi, Wyclef Jean, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Afghan fundraiser for Kerry

The Associated Press reports that American expatriates held a fundraiser for John Kerry in Kabul, Afghanistan. AP states that approximately 60 people, mostly nongovernment aid workers, gathered at a restaurant garden across town from the American Embassy. The organizers posted a sign declaring "Kabul for Kerry."

It seems that the biggest criticism was that the administration was moving ahead with elections in Afghanistan.

Dem Senator to address GOP convention

The Associated Press is reporting that the White House will announce today that Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, a Democrat, will speak at the Republican National Convention. According to an aide, Miller will speak on Wednesday night of the four-day Republican convention in New York City, which begins August 30th.

The AP article makes note of Miller’s keynote speech he gave for Bill Clinton in New York at the 1992 Democratic convention.

Zell Miller, now a Democrat Senator from Georgia, is a former two-term Democrat governor from Georgia. He will be retiring from politics in January.

News of Miller’s plans to speak at the Republican Convention drew a stinging stab from the head of Georgia’s congressional delegation – Dem. Rep. John Lewis – who said it was a “shame and a disgrace.”

The AP article also makes note that in May, Miller spoke at the Georgia Republican convention and described Kerry as an "out-of-touch, ultraliberal from Taxachusetts" whose foreign and domestic policies would seriously weaken the country.

"I'm afraid that my old Democratic 'ties that bind' have become unraveled," Miller said.

Gore’s Wackadoo

Al Gore continues to out-Ted Kennedy, Ted Kennedy in coming up with the most outrageous statement concerning President Bush. While Ted Kennedy has called for the President’s impeachment, Gore suggests even more maliciousness to the President.

As did the national media, Gore misappropriated the 9-11 Commission’s statement that "there had been "no collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda." Gore then offered the following, making even greater accusations of Bush wrong doing:

"Beginning very soon after the attacks of 9/11, President Bush made a decision to start mentioning Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the same breath in a cynical mantra designed to fuse them together as one in the public's mind," he said. "Indeed, Bush's consistent and careful artifice is itself evidence that he knew full well that he was telling an artful and important lie — visibly circumnavigating the truth over and over again as if he had practiced how to avoid encountering the truth."

Is Farhenheit 9-11 Changing minds?

The USA Today asks the question of whether “Fahrenheit 9-11” will change any voters minds? The paper offers this synopsis of Moore’s movie premise:

In Moore's voice-over narration about Bush's three-year record, the president is depicted as clueless and deceitful. He is so in thrall to Bush family business ties with the clan of Osama Bin Laden and other wealthy Saudis that he misdirects American reprisals for the 2001 terror attacks from Saudi financiers of terrorism to Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Hoarding military resources for a long-intended war with Iraq, he botches the Afghanistan hunt for bin Laden. He has lost the confidence of U.S. troops.

clinton comedies

Former President Bill Clinton, admits he lied on national television in a 1992 post-Super Bowl CBS interview.

Clinton appeared with his wife, Hillary, in the interview and told CBS correspondent Steve Kroft that he categorically denied having any extra-marital involvement with Gennifer Flowers. Hillary knew at the time of the interview that he was lying to Steve Kroft, lying to CBS, and lying to the world.

When asked recently by CBS 60 Minutes' Dan Rather how he managed to get Hillary to agree to appear with him in the 1992 interview -- knowing as she did, that he was going to lie and deny the Flowers affair -- Clinton replied, "Oh, she wanted to go..."

In his memoir, "My Life," Clinton writes that he was so furious at Kroft for prying into his personal life that he wanted to "slug him."

Clinton justified al Qaeda-Iraq connection

The Washington Times covers the Clinton administration certification of al Qaeda-Iraq connections. This included using the connection in the indictment of bin Laden and the use of military force:

The 1998 indictment said: "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq."

The Washington Times further reports on the fact that Clinton’s Secretary of Defense William Cohen offered further assurance of bin Laden’s connection with Iraq to the 9-11 Commission: