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]

Good morning all! My computer has been acting wacky, now I can't get to my email which is where I keep my ping list. Could one of you please use your ping list for today's thread? Thanks!!

Welcome Home mountaineer!

[Iowa Granny]

Good Morning. No ping list here,,,, that's way beyond my capablities.

Rainy, damp and cold here today. Looks like a jeans and hooded sweatshirt day ahead.

[BigWaveBetty]

Hoping that mountaineer doesn't sleep in this morning since HLL is out the door already. Well get a ping some time today, not to worry!

Mommy Weirdest

LINA Wertmuller was said to be appalled when she found out that the lead character of her 1970s movie classic, "Swept Away," had her name changed in the disastrous Guy Ritchie/Madonna version. The rich bitch played by Madonna - Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti in the original - is named Amber Leighton in the remake. MSNBC's Jeannette Walls muses: "Why, you may ask, is it so weird that the shrewish Amber Leighton gets smacked and humiliated and nearly raped in Guy Ritchie's little vanity project? Well, it just so happens that Guy Ritchie's mother is named Amber Leighton." That's a little too creepy for us.

Mountaineer, that pic of the freak show was the freakiest! I hope you didn't run into too many of those freaks o' nature over there in Europe.

[Aggie Mama]

Good Morning every one. If everyone could keep my sister in their prayers, I would greatly appreciate it. I think she is finally figuring out that her husband is a corrupt bum, but she is taking it very hard and is unwilling to come to my parents for help. I'm a little afraid for her safety. This has been a long time in coming, but I'm glad she's finally figured out what she has been married to.

Other than family crises, we're doing okay. Lots and lots of rain here, with more expected today.

[mountaineer]

Good morning everyone.

[anniegetyourgun]

Ouch. I will add her to my prayers for my own sis who is also married to a jerk.

[BigWaveBetty]

We Hear:

THAT soulful singer India.Arie is a big fan of Dr. Laura Schlessinger and Rush Limbaugh. Arie told Self magazine, "My political views don't usually mesh with theirs, but I like the way Dr. Laura thinks sometimes: If you're not supposed to do it, don't!" .Well Miss Arie, be prepared to take some heat for those opinions!

LIFE SUPPORT FOR LIZA & DAVID

VH1 hasn't canceled "Life With Liza and David" yet, but it's close. Taping was delayed by a month due to Liza Minnelli and her svengali hubby, David Gest, "rehearsing" their parts, and Gest has driven producers crazy with his micromanaging of every detail and his exorbitant demands. "VH1 has issued a third warning to David Gest to back off and let others do their jobs," said one insider. The show, originally set to debut Dec. 8, will now bow in early January, if Gest can toe the line and producers resolve the "budget issues." "Liza and David are doing all these dinners and have demanded the best of everything - china, silver, whatever. They are spending too much." Liza is spending on stylist Tina Knowles, the mother of Destiny's Child diva Beyonce Knowles. "They really hit it off over lunch a while back, and discovered they shared the same taste in clothes," says a pal of Tina. Knowles just co-authored a book with Zoe Alexander, "Destiny's Style: Bootylicious Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Secrets of Destiny's Style" (ReganBooks).

Rehearse for dinner? I guess those dolls of David's came in handy after all. Picture it, Liza and David and the dolls seated at the dining table at home with L and D practicing witty dinner banter with the dolls.

Howard Stern was invited to their first dinner taped earlier this week. He declined saying he would have to be paid 1 million dollars to dine with Liza and David.

[BigWaveBetty]

Prayers for your sister AG.

Thanks for the pings mountaineer.

[mountaineer]

I don't want to know what Gest does with those Ken dolls or whatever the heck they are.

Can you believe we just missed - by a few hours - seeing America's sweethearts (Chels 'n' Ian) at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London? Be still my heart.

[mountaineer]

A jury made up of several members of the entertainment industry, including former Sony Entertainment Pictures Chairman Peter Guber, was sworn in Friday to judge actress Winona Ryder on shoplifting charges. Lawyers on both sides accepted the eight-woman, four-man panel after questioning whether their occupations might prevent them from being fair.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos asked the them whether the fact Ryder is "pretty and rich" would prejudice her in their eyes. No one answered affirmatively.

Addressing the former Sony executive, he said: "Mr. Guber, you're not afraid of working in this town again if you get on this case, are you?" There was laughter in the courtroom as Guber answered, "No." full story

Mark Geragos is an idiot.

[BigWaveBetty]

Can you believe we just missed - by a few hours - seeing America's sweethearts

Just unlucky I guess.

Can you imagine letting someone as scary as Donnetella give you a make-over?! Have I told you lately I'm grateful we're normal?

Mark Gratuitous makes my blood boil.

[DaughterofEve]

Wow...rehearsing for dinner is a new concept and a pretty strange one.
I can already hear the clinking of fine china and crystal, see Liza's nails fluttering in the air amidst many gesticulations, and hear her husky voice saying one quick witticism after another.
Having said this, I must say she really inherited a huge musical gift via Judy.

[BigWaveBetty]

Students Asked to Test-Run Condoms

LONDON (Reuters) - British students are being recruited to test condoms, rating them for their pleasure, comfort and performance qualities.

The 100-150 successful job applicants will be paid 100 pounds ($155) per academic term as they road-test a range of condoms from German manufacturer Condomi.

"The condom testers will be asked to give a pleasure rating. They will not be asked to test quality -- that has already been done," Condomi's marketing manager in Britain Victoria Wells told Reuters on Thursday.

"Test results will be fed back to our research and development department, and we hope that the students who participate will both enjoy the testing and the money, and give us a frank response which we can use for product development," Wells said.

She said adverts had been placed in a number of student publications and will run on several student radio stations from October 25.

Would-be testers will be asked to fill in an application available online at www.condomi.co.uk.

Among the voluntary questions asked of candidates will be: how many partners they have had, how often they have sex and how long its lasts -- with the option to tick various boxes marked from "under one minute" to one marked "1.5-two hours."

****************

Good Lord, let's hope that's college students. This would explain Chelsea's Oxford career.

[BigWaveBetty]

Two Deer Burst Into D.C. McDonald's

WASHINGTON (AP) - Customers at a McDonald's in the nation's capital got a shock Friday when two deer jumped through the restaurant window.

The animals shattered the glass around 11 a.m. and ran through the fast-food restaurant, about a mile and a half north of the Capitol.

When animal control officers arrived, one deer was trapped in the restaurant. The other had jumped back through the window and was found in an adjacent field.

Peggy Keller, chief of animal disease prevention with the District of Columbia Department of Health, said authorities didn't know where the deer came from.

"There are no really heavily wooded areas" nearby, Keller said. "But the area where one deer was hiding was fully able to support them — there was lots of vegetation, there was water."

Four customers suffered minor injuries. Both deer were severely injured and had to be euthanized. Crews searched the field for other deer, but none were found.

Keller said District animal control officers usually handle about 10 calls a year concerning deer.

*************************

Big Mac attack?

[BigWaveBetty]

Minnesota Man Shot by His Dog (hate when that happens)

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (AP) - Pheasant season took an ugly turn for Michael Murray when he was shot by Sonny, his year-old English setter pup.

The puppy knew something was very wrong when Murray dropped to the ground with blood spurting from his ankle. "Sonny just laid by my side," Murray said. "He knew something was bad."

Murray, 42, was hunting in western South Dakota on the first day of the season last Saturday. He said he was lining up a photo of the seven birds his hunting party shot in the first hour.

A loaded 12-gauge shotgun lay on the ground near the frisky dog.

"He stepped on the gun and it went off," Murray said. "At first I didn't know what happened. I got that blinding flash of pain and I sat down. Blood was pumping out of my ankle."

His brother-in-law, Chuck Knutson of Woodbury, quickly tied a tourniquet above Murray's right boot. The third member of the hunting party was Murray's father, also Michael, of New Richmond, Wis.

"My dad's 75," Murray said, "He was white as a ghost."

The three men climbed into their truck and drove to a relative's house. A half-hour later, an ambulance took Murray to a nearby hospital.

After 15 stitches and a night in the hospital, Murray is on course for a complete recovery.

"It was the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me," he said.

Murray admits there is a certain amount of notoriety that goes along with getting shot by your dog.

"That's the hard part, talking to people, because you feel like such a fool," he said.

[BigWaveBetty]

The wine that thinks it's a disinfectant

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - How about a nice glass of Chardonnay to go with that sponge when cleaning the kitchen?

If food scientist Mark Daeschel is successful, you may soon find wine-based disinfectants on grocery store shelves.

Looking to build on previous anti-microbial research and anecdotal evidence, Daeschel decided to take a hard, scientific look at a centuries-old piece of advice: drinking wine with a meal helped some people avoid food poisoning.

Daeschel, a professor of food science and technology at Oregon State University in Corvalis, about 75 miles (120 km) south of Portland, found that wine, particularly white wine, kills E. coli, salmonella and other potentially deadly bacteria.

"From there, we came up with the idea of a wine-based disinfectant," Daeschel said. "There's a lot of wine out there in the world that doesn't have a home for one reason or another."

He found that the combination of white wine's high levels of malic and tartaric acids with the alcohol content attacks and kills the germs.

Oregon State has attorneys preparing a patent application for the formula once it's completed, Daeschel said. And some wineries that have gotten wind of his research are interested in licensing it as a way to get rid of their excess vin ordinaire, he said.

Daeschel said he's tweaking the formula to get the best germ-killing results and making sure it doesn't leave a sticky residue on counters or a foul odour.

Beyond an alternative to chlorine-or iodine-based disinfectants in the kitchen, the formula could also be used in other food-related areas, such as in meat processing operations to sanitise the carcasses of cattle, chickens and pigs.

So what do Daeschel and his students do with all that wine when they're done with it in the laboratory? "When the mothers ask that, we say it goes down the drain," Daeschel said.

**********************

Great! Now between FR and drinking wine while cleaning, I'll never get anything done.

[SuziQ]

Rainy, damp and cold here today.

Sounds like what we have in MA today, too! We're going to a Halloween party tonight with carve your own pumpkins and everything! It is loads of fun, this will be our third year going to this one.

When I get my picture posting skills learned, I want to post a picture of the gorgeous roses Sir SuziQ sent me last week while he was in CA. They look like velvet and the fragrance is intoxicating! Since they are a week old, they have opened completely, but are STILL gorgeous!

Y'all have a great day!

[mountaineer]

Great! Now between FR and drinking wine while cleaning, I'll never get anything done.

Wow, that's the truth. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the store for some, er, um, cleaning supplies. Yeah, that's it, cleaning supplies. Something with a nice bouquet and lingering finish, and I don't mean Pine-Sol.