The Guild 3-3-2004 Political Ghost Story

Post Gazette ^ | Dennis Roddy

[BigWaveBetty]

It happened at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner of the Allegheny County Republican Party, March 20, 1991, at the William Penn Hotel.

At the time the first George Bush was still flush with victory in the Persian Gulf, and dinnergoers chortled over a videotaped presentation of assorted senate Democrats backpedaling in the wake of a war they'd opposed. Ted Kennedy was shown. News clips were shown. But for Kerry, the speaker simply read the two letters, to everyone's amazement.

[mountaineer]

The organizer (or, at least, biggest mouth) of the bunch complaining about the Bush ads has a Clinton connection (big surprise), thread here.

[Timeout]

It took me about 75 minutes to dig all that up using Google. How long would it have taken the large news organizations with their Lexis/Nexis....maybe 5 minutes?

Oh yeah. These are the same reporters who called us "Clinton Haters". Bah! The bias is as bad as I've ever seen it....must be an election year.

[Iowa Granny]

I'll be in and out tomorrow, but will check my freepmail when I'm here.

[BigWaveBetty]

I saw two women on Hardball speaking out about the ad. Debra Burlingame lost her brother, who was the pilot on American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. And Monica Gabrielle lost her husband at the World Trade Center on September 11.

Debra was understanding and thought there should be a reminder in the president's messages.

Monica groaned on about how ironic GWB would use images of 9/11 considering he was in a classroom reading to children.

GWB has yet to answer to the 9/11 commission.

Neither he nor Vice President Cheney have agreed to meet with the commission, the entire commission to give under oath testimony about what they knew on and before 9/11 regarding the state of national security.

Gabreille goes on for quite a time repeating Bush/Cheney are ignoring the commission. The commission, the commission, the commission.

Then Monica Gabriel messes up....

MATTHEWS: So just to try to help the audience understand, your complaint here, it‘s not at the ads, that he‘s using 9/11 in the ads. Your complaint is he won‘t—he hasn‘t been forthcoming as to the details of what his policy was before 9/11 and his preparedness.

GABRIELLE: I disagree. I also find the ads tasteless. I don‘t want to see 9/11 used in a political forum as a platform for the Republicans to promote.

But WAIT! There's more.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you—Let me ask you a tough question. Are you a Democrat or a Republican?

GABRIELLE: Politics doesn‘t have anything to do with it.

MATTHEWS: What are you?

GABRIELLE: Independent. I don‘t...

MATTHEWS: Did you vote for Bush in 2000?

GABRIELLE: You know what? To be honest with you, I don‘t even recall.

I very well might have. But that‘s not the issue here.

Monica doesn't remember who she voted for in the first presidential election in history that lasted for over a month. Riiiight.

[BigWaveBetty]

Kerry thinks McAwful is just a fine tirelessly effective man and poo-pooes the rumor they're breaking up.

Kerry Expresses Confidence in Party Chief

[BigWaveBetty]

Don't worry Pepe, it'll all be over in eight months, then you can crawl back into your hole.

Puhleeeeze can I have another 5 bucks Teresa? I put on that color of lipstick you like!

[BigWaveBetty]

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) drives Mexico's President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) in his truck upon his arrival at Bush's ranch Friday, March 5, 2004 in Crawford, Texas. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

[Timeout]

Monica Gabrielle. Thanks, I didn't have the names of those who appeared on TV.

Here's Monica Gabrielle's letter to the editor in the NY Times last August 3rd:

Echoes of 9/11 are with me every day as I try to deal not only with the murder of my husband, Rich, but also with ensuring that the truth about that day is revealed and that accountability is achieved at the city, state and federal levels.

Lest we forget, the responsibility of our leaders is to protect our citizens from harm. On Sept. 11, 2001, our leaders failed miserably. The reason for the failures has yet to be fully determined.

Our recovery will not be enhanced simply because the Republican Convention will be held near ground zero. Whatever President Bush and his administration may think, the one important point to remember is this: Since 9/11, they have stonewalled and prevented a transparent investigation of that horrific day.

This is the echo that should be reverberating throughout our country.

MONICA GABRIELLE

Amazing Chrissy Matthews couldn't find this...it took me all of 3 minutes.

[BigWaveBetty]

Like I wrote to Chris, I used to have respect for his reporting. He knew what Monica's background was but put her on the show anyway. I would dare to say that many of the 'I'm shocked the prez would use 9/11' are the same bunch that have been angry at the president since the beginning.

Burlingame was articulate and a stark contrast to the hate that was all over Monica's face.

[Timeout]

I just wrote this email to the Washington Post ombudsman:

I became curious about these 9/11 victims criticizing Bush's ads. So I spent all of one hour on Google and found out quite a lot about their politics...information that was never mentioned in articles and interviews. Surely your reporters have better search resources than I do.

Paul Fahri's WashPost article sympathetically quoted Rita Lazar and Kelly Campbell. Would readers have been interested to know that both women were arrested, with other 9/11 family members, at an anti-war, anti-Bush rally in Washington in March,'03? The Post reported their arrests.

Lazar appears on a website called "Republicans Not Welcome" whose purpose is to organize protests at the RNC convention in New York. Both women are active in "Peaceful Tomorrows", a politically active 9/11 group with funding ties to the Heinz Foundation through the Tides Center for Western Pennsylvania.

Lastly, in Paul Fahri's article he described the political button the 9/11 families wore at last year's protest: "They wear U.N.-blue peace-sign buttons with the vertical line of the peace symbol rendered as the twin towers".

An unbiased press might at least have been curious enough to do the basic research I did. Especially when the info is in its own archives.

I know he reads his email....wait-and-see time.

[BigWaveBetty]

Excellent, I look forward to the answer.

Just posted:

The Threat of Global Terrorism by Tony Blair

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1092024/posts?page=2

[mountaineer]

This is the echo that should be reverberating throughout our country.

What's reverberating throughout this country is the hypocrisy and lies of the left. Someone tell these idiots that the attacks of 9/11/01 wouldn't have happened had Bill Clinton bothered to lift a finger against terrorists sometime between 1993-2001. Too busy torching American citizens in Texas and forcibly repatriating Cuban refugees, apparently.

[mountaineer]

Oops, the Dems haven't succeeded in keeping all blacks on the dependency plantation:

U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige - in hot water for calling the National Education Association a "terrorist" organization last month - received a standing ovation yesterday from nearly 1,000 members of the Black Alliance for Education Options in Milwaukee. The Black Alliance - which supports charter schools, home schooling and other educational reforms aimed at helping black youth - remained on its feet for five minutes after Paige was introduced, one participant told Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker, adding, "Everyone I talked to agreed with him that the NEA is an obstacle to education reform. So when a man tells the truth, he needs to be supported." (PageSix)

And in other news:

Rosie O'Donnell was seeing red yesterday after the conviction of her pal Martha Stewart. "This is unbelievable," O'Donnell said in a statement. "I am outraged and beside myself. [Yikes, does that mean she's twice as wide?] This is a travesty. Shame on the federal government." [For enforcing the laws? Now if only a few states would enforce those marriage laws ...]

O'Donnell was one of a string of celebrities who dropped in on Stewart's seven-week trial. She even jokingly offered a prosecutor a bag of M&M's as a bribe to drop the charges. rest of story

[Timeout]

Yeeeaaah! Stewart opened with an eagle on the first hole!
Tied for 5th.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

George looks like he's put on some weight, but what's up with Fox's belt buckle? Never trust a man who puts his name on his belt buckle.

[Endeavor]

What channel is it on? I am only finding college bball on all my sports channels.

[Endeavor]

I think Paige was right on the money calling the NEA a terrorist organization. They are.

[Endeavor]

I thought Bush looked like he'd put on weight, too. Maybe it is just bad photo angles. Or maybe he's eating too many PBJ's or burgers. Laura won't be too happy.

[NYpeanut]

My dad told me never to date a man with a belt buckle bigger than his head. That advice has served me well.

[Timeout]

It's on NBC, but Stewart's finished now. Sorry it took me so long to answer.

I've thought Dubya looked like he'd "put on weight" back when they said he couldn't run anymore. Not necessarily pounds, I think it's just that the weight shifts if one's been used to running as much as he was. He should substitute swimming.