Posted on 05/19/2008 5:24:12 PM PDT by snugs
This weekend the President drew his visit to the middle east to close and flew back to Washington with the First Lady.
See Daisyscarlett's weekend threads for further details and photos.
Today the President met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the Oval Office to discuss the economy.
Pray for President Bush -- Day 2804
The White House issued information on "Setting the Record Straight: President Bush's Interview With Richard Engel of NBC News"click here to see a copy of the letter from Counselor to the President Ed Gillespie to NBC News President Steve Capus
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos today at the State Department.
Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island
QUOTE OF THE DAY
President Bush Meets with the Secretary of the Treasury Oval Office
11:15 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Paulson, thanks for coming. And I just got back from the Middle East, and the Secretary came over to talk about the economy and how he sees it. And we're working through tough times, and I appreciate the leadership you're providing
. He did assure me that the refund checks are heading out, people getting that money. And that's good. It should help our economy, and more importantly, help people pay their bills. And we hope people use that money and take care of their families and shop.
I also asked him how he was doing in helping people stay in their homes. We spent time talking about the housing industry. And one of the really impressive programs has been the HOPE NOW program. Secretary Paulson has taken the lead in -- to help people refinance and help people get the financial help necessary to stay in homes. And that help comes in all different kinds of ways, but generally it just means that the lending institutions are -- help a creditworthy person stay in their home, and that's what we want to have happen.
Since the program started, 1.4 million people got mortgage relief so they can stay in their home. And in the first quarter of this year, 500,000 households, 500,000 families were helped.
And I appreciate your leadership on that, Hank. It's been -- our policy in this administration is we -- laws shouldn't bail out lenders, laws shouldn't help speculators, the government ought to be helping creditworthy people stay in their homes. And one way we can do that -- and Congress is making progress on this -- is the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That reform will come with a strong, independent regulator.
The Secretary is briefing me on the progress being made on the Hill on this very important subject. Our fellow citizens have got to know that these major players in the mortgage markets, if reformed properly by Congress, will really help stabilize the markets and make it easier for people to stay in their homes.
And we look forward to working with Congress to get a good piece of legislation to my desk that helps our fellow citizens, and helps us get through this housing issue.
So, Mr. Secretary, thank you for your briefing. I appreciate very much your leadership on the issue.
END 11:18 A.M. EDT
PHOTO OF THE DAY
President George W. Bush is joined by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Monday morning, May 19, 2008, in the Oval Office, where President Bush told reporters he looks forward to working with Congress to get a good piece of legislation to help creditworthy people to stay in their homes. White House photo by Eric Draper
Dose going up please wait for the all clear before posting or reposting any photos or graphics in the spirit of this thread.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson watches as President Bush speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 19, 2008
President Bush, accompanied by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, speaks to reporters about the economy, Monday, May 19,2008
President George W. Bush and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson talk together during their meeting on economic issues Monday morning, May 19, 2008, in the Oval Office. White House photo by Eric Draper
Hi
Again? Hi!
Nice photos, snugs!
Hi
Hi! Thanks for the ping.
So sorry for the double post!
Congratulation
Thank you, you are so kind :)
Congratulations - joint toaster winners today.
swmobuffalo do you have a choice for your Sunday toaster as well as today’s
Thanks
My pleasure
No problems it happens :o)
This one for yesterday please. Thanks for making all these toasters for us dosers!
Congratulations on your Toaster! Hope all is well with you and yours:)
Thank you and congrats to you too! We’re doing pretty good. The tests all came back clear, so we can go back to concentrating on hubby finishing his recovery from heart surgery!
Thank you for todays Dose! I am so thankful that President Bush and Laura are home safe.
That is great news !!!!!!!!!
snugs: Thank you for posting the DOSE tonight — great job!
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MUST READ . . .
The following is a LETTER FROM COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT ED GILLESPIE TO NBC NEWS PRESIDENT STEVE CAPUS:
Mr. Capus:
This e-mail is to formally request that NBC Nightly News and The Today Show air for their viewers President Bush’s actual answer to correspondent Richard Engel’s question about Iran policy and “appeasement,” rather than the deceptively edited version of the President’s answer that was aired last night on the Nightly News and this morning on The Today Show.
. . . This deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible and I hereby request in the interest of fairness and accuracy that the network air the President’s responses to both initial questions in full on the two programs that used the excerpts.
As long as I am making this formal request, please allow me to take this opportunity to ask if your network has reconsidered its position that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war, especially in light of the fact that the unity government in Baghdad recently rooted out illegal, extremist groups in Basra and reclaimed the port there for the people of Iraq, among other significant signs of progress.
. . . I noticed that around September of 2007, your network quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as a “civil war.” Is it still NBC News’s carefully deliberated opinion that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war? If not, will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?
Lastly, when the Commerce Department on April 30 released the GDP numbers for the first quarter of 2007, Brian Williams reported it this way: “If you go by the government number, the figure that came out today stops just short of the official declaration of a recession.”
The GDP estimate was a positive 0.6% for the first quarter. Slow growth, but growth nonetheless. This followed a slow but growing fourth quarter in 2007. Consequently, even if the first quarter GDP estimate had been negative, it still would not have signaled a recession – neither by the unofficial rule-of-thumb of two consecutive quarters of negative growth, nor the more robust definition by the National Bureau of Economic Research (the group that officially marks the beginnings and ends of business cycles).
Furthermore, never in our nation’s history have we characterized economic conditions as a “recession” with unemployment so low – in fact, when this rate of unemployment was eventually reached in the 1990s, it was hailed as the sign of a strong economy. This rate of unemployment is lower than the average of the past three decades.
. . . Mr. Capus, I’m sure you don’t want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the “news” as reported on NBC and the “opinion” as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines. I welcome your response to this letter, and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network’s viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC don’t hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division.
You can read the entire letter here (a link to NBC’s interview with President Bush is included — Engel was an ARROGANT b*st*rd!)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080519-4.html
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BASHERS BEWARE
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
The Presidency: It takes little courage — or brains — to join the mob vilifying President Bush. But the Democrats (and Republicans, too) depicting him as villain will one day regret it.
You can read the entire editorial here:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=296089399926740
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CALL TO ACTION
Last week, Davis called the President “radioactive” and advised Republican candidates to distance themselves from him. We can NOT let this stand. [THE PRESIDENT IS FIGHTING BACK AND WE MUST HELP HIM!]
I encourage ALL DOSERs to call the Republican leadership and remind them that had they had the courage (and foresight) to SUPPORT and DEFEND the President over the last four years, neither they nor he would be in this circumstance. But now that they are, they should remember the following:
1.) According to RealClearPolitics, the President’s NET job approval rating is 20 POINTS HIGHER than the job approval rating for Congress (and this despite the fact that pollsters are grossly oversampling Democrats/Democrat-leaning Independents). It’s not the President who is “radioactive”, it’s CONGRESS!
2.) According to Ed Goaes (the BatteGround Poll), the President’s PERSONAL APPROVAL rating is still approximately 60% (the suppposedly ‘popular’ Bill Clinton never got above the 40th percentile on this measure). So stop repeating the MSM meme that President Bush is unpopular — read your own polling data for a change!
3.) The RNC is out fundraising the DNC for one reason: President Bush. President Bush is singlehandedly outraising both the DNC and John McCain combined. Recognizing his inability to raise large sums of money, McCain has already announced that he will rely on the RNC’s fundraising efforts (i.e., President Bush) . . . And McCain’s the ‘popular’ one?! — yea right!
[NOTE: As I explained to Boehner’s assistant this morning, my husband and I contribute to the RNC only and then only at the behest of President Bush during local fundraising efforts. We do NOT contribute to Republican house or senate fundraising efforts because these Repubicans have consistently refused support President Bush.]
Bottom Line: Republicans MUST hang together or they will certainly all hang separately (as many did in 2006)!
JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH)
Republican Leader of the House
800.582.1001 or 202.225.6205
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY)
Republican Leader of the Senate
202.224.2541
Applause!
I posted the IBD editorial. You should have seen the typical Bush bashers crawling out from under their rocks
Thank you, snugs, for all you do!
I just posted a comment on your thread . . . yep, the usual suspects posted their predictable nonsense; fortunately, several Bush supporters challenged them for a change!
Hi snugs. Thanks for the Dose and for making all those toasters for the winners. I have won one so far and I just love it.
And Kaslin, even though there are a lot of bushbashers on your thread, there are many more lurkers who are giving it consideration, I am sure. I mean, FGS, who can deny that W keeping us safe for 7+ years is not a remarkable accomplishment.
Thank you! Two of my favorite colors, Peach and Gold. Bless you ;)
Great pictures, Snugs! I will bet this president is SO tired
of trying to explain the obvious to a press corps who could
care less if he’s right. They will just spin it to make him
look bad no matter what the evidence shows to the contrary!
I like the way you coordinate the toaster colors with the pictures!
Exactly, but the Bush bashers have forgotten that he has kept us save. If, God forbid, Obama gets elected it’ll be over for this great Nation
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