The Guild 5-21-2004 Things that make you go, hmmmm

[lodwick]

Heheh - nicely done, mom.

[BigWaveBetty]

Ever notice when watching the actual Hitler film clips that many of his hand gestures are very gay? Gore AND Kerry have this same trait.

I think you're on to something pubmom.

[BigWaveBetty]

Are you listening to me?

Nope, we're laughing at you.

[BigWaveBetty]

Hmmmm, it seems clinton didn't want his book coming out to be overshadowed by the June 30th turnover in Iraq.

The much-anticipated memoirs by former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) entitled "My Life" will be released on June 22, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf said on Wednesday. Link

[BigWaveBetty]

New evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda.

[snip]
One striking bit of new evidence is that the name Ahmed Hikmat Shakir appears on three captured rosters of officers in Saddam Fedayeen, the elite paramilitary group run by Saddam's son Uday and entrusted with doing much of the regime's dirty work. Our government sources, who have seen translations of the documents, say Shakir is listed with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

This matters because if Shakir was an officer in the Fedayeen, it would establish a direct link between Iraq and the al Qaeda operatives who planned 9/11. Shakir was present at the January 2000 al Qaeda "summit" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the 9/11 attacks were planned. The U.S. has never been sure whether he was there on behalf of the Iraqi regime or whether he was an Iraqi Islamicist who hooked up with al Qaeda on his own.

[snip]
As others have reported, at the time of the summit Shakir was working at the Kuala Lumpur airport, having obtained the job through an Iraqi intelligence agent at the Iraqi embassy. The four-day al Qaeda meeting was attended by Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi, who were at the controls of American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. Also on hand were Ramzi bin al Shibh, the operational planner of the 9/11 attacks, and Tawfiz al Atash, a high-ranking Osama bin Laden lieutenant and mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. Shakir left Malaysia on January 13, four days after the summit concluded.

That's not the only connection between Shakir and al Qaeda. The Iraqi next turned up in Qatar, where he was arrested on September 17, 2001, four days after the attacks in the U.S. A search of his pockets and apartment uncovered such information as the phone numbers of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers' safe houses and contacts. Also found was information pertaining to a 1995 al Qaeda plot to blow up a dozen commercial airliners over the Pacific.

After a brief detention, our friends the Qataris inexplicably released Shakir, and on October 21 he flew to Amman, Jordan. The Jordanians promptly arrested him, but under pressure from the Iraqis (and Amnesty International, which questioned his detention) and with the acquiescence of the CIA, they let him go after three months. He was last seen heading home to Baghdad. Complete story

Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard's new book, 'The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America' out June 1, 2004.

[lodwick]

Gore goes Ga-Ga

[mountaineer]

Sheesh, Al, the wethead is dead! Save a little motor oil for the crankcase next time.

Speaking of Blubba's book, it seems he and Larry Flynt will be on book tours touting their respective volumes of crap at the same time, according to Liz Smith. Maybe they'll want to hang out together, considering they have so much in common.

With regard to Larry's book, she says, "Kirkus Review has given it a rave, and it will be published on July 4th, after Larry kicks it off at a press conference at Chicago's BookExpo America, where Bill Clinton will have made the opening remarks the night before. Larry will have a 20-city book tour, but he is already fighting to get himself heard on network TV."

[BigWaveBetty]

How unexpected! Much of the media are excluding the fact that Effin's disadvantage of accepting the nomination is his party's own doing.

[BigWaveBetty]

Sure the people who worship Mad-donna are crazy, but who knew they were algore crazy? They think Mad-donna's new show isn't raunchy enough.

BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Madonna's return to the concert stage received mixed reviews, with some suggesting the 45-year-old mother of two had erred by swapping her trademark sexuality for a new found spirituality.

"Message to Madonna: Bring back the sex. Or at least something with flesh and blood, please," said the Los Angeles Times in a particularly scathing notice on Monday's launch of the Material Girl's first major tour in three years.

"This promised to be Madonna's tour de force, a reappraisal that put her work in new and revealing contexts. But time and again she fell short of the challenge," the newspaper said.

Fans paid 200 dollars a piece for Monday's show which kicked off Madonna's "Re-Invention" world tour. Illness force her to call off the second concert Tuesday and she has also pulled out of dates in Israel because of security fears.

Under the shadow of Middle East violence and the war in Iraq, the concert had a distinctly political element.

A video backdrop showing tough images of US soldiers at war and injured children popped up during her camouflage-clad rendition of "American Life," drawing ire from some members of the audience.

Images of a Palestinian boy walking arm in arm with an Israeli were shown, along with pictures of ill or injured children as Madonna sang John Lennon's "Imagine."

"Madonna traded most of the old sexual teasing for social commentary, and she's no John Lennon, friends," the Times commented.

The New York Times was slightly more forgiving, but argued that the "re-invention" tag had proved over-ambitious as Madonna appeared to be stuck "shadowboxing" with her past.

"There were times when Madonna seemed somehow oppressed by the weight of all her old selves, times when it seemed that she just wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over, as a straightforward singer-songwriter," the newspaper said.

The Times also echoed the criticism of the "Imagine" offering, saying Madonna was "far too slippery -- and far too savvy -- for this sort of faux-naive sentimentalism."

More upbeat was USA Today which hailed an evening of "cheeky and challenging theater" complete with "sexy but age appropriate" costumes.

"This show doesn't have the degree of flesh, carnal content or shock value that past outings delivered, but this time Madonna is opting for more heart than cleavage and more personality than profanity," it said.

The tabloid New York Post, meanwhile, pretty much ignored the music altogether and offered instead a withering critique of Madonna's stage outfits in an article titled "Material Hurl."

"Madonna's blond ambition is fading to bland," said the Post, which reserved special sartorial outrage for the "frumpy, midi Scottish inspired kilt and wife-beater shirt" outfit Madonna wore for the show's finale.

"We just want her to bring back the cone bra," the newspaper said.

[MaeWest]

Who could be comfortable with that much primitive anger. Either Howard Dean has been giving screaming lessons or Al just has a natural gift for it.

Wasn't there a picture of Bill Clinton in Africa with the same expression when he felt threatened by a crowd? Can't find it now but it seems to be a common thread.......

[pubmom]

Let's call it, "The face of hate."

[BigWaveBetty]

Princess Michael of Kent found herself labelled a racist after reportedly telling a group of noisy black diners in a New York restaurant to "go back to the colonies."

A front page article in the New York Post, under the banner headline "Royal Bigot," said the princess had lost her temper with an adjoining table -- made up of five influential members of the city's African-American community -- while dining at a trendy West Village eatery on Monday night.

"You need to go back to the colonies!" she reportedly shouted at the exuberant group who had ignored a previous royal request to quiet down.

"I was stupefied," said one of the black diners, fashion TV correspondent Nicole Young. "I have never experienced anything like that in my life."

But Princess Michael's spokesman in London, Simon Astaire, said he had spoken with the princess and flatly denied Wednesday that she had made any racist remark.

"Any suggestion she made a racist comment is simply untrue. She did not make a racist comment," said Astaire.

But another of the diners involved, TV reporter A.J. Callaway, told the Post that he had also heard the "colonies" reference.

"It's sad that, in today's world, people still have that mentality," Callaway told the newspaper.

The German-born princess, who has never been a popular royal, was in the United States to attend the graduation of her daughter, Lady Gabriella Windsor, from Brown University.

She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, a cousin to Queen Elizabeth II ChinaDaily

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

(PageSix)

— her [Princess Michael] publicist, Dan Klores, dropped her as a client.

Insiders say the Czech-born royal-by-marriage wanted to become the "English Martha Stewart" in the U.S. to help raise funds for herself and her hubby Prince Michael, who will lose their free apartment in Kensington Palace in a few years.

"She and her husband are broke," an insider said. "A year ago, she went to William Morris and wanted them to set her up with a television show. The agents there said she wasn't famous enough, but noted she should write another book and get herself a U.S. 'platform,' so to speak."

Princess Michael decided to write a "historical novel," titled "The Serpent and the Moon," due out in September from Simon & Schuster.

She then sought public-relations help and tried to hire Howard Rubenstein, who helped turn Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, into a millionaire.

"Fergie has a successful career in the States and has made a lot of money over here. Howard helped Fergie a lot," the insider added. "But Howard turned Princess Michael down flat. Fergie hates her."

Princess Michael was instrumental in stripping Ferguson of her duchess title after her split with Prince Andrew, and once got Fergie and her daughters booted from first class on a flight so she and her husband could take their seats.

Rubenstein said: "Yes, I did decline to represent her. I didn't think she had a business plan that would have been appropriate for me to be involved with . . . I am delighted I did not take her on as a client."

Now, after her bigoted outburst at Da Silvano, Princess Michael might have trouble finding anyone to work with her.

"She can't make any money in England because they hate her there," our insider said. "So she thought she could pull the wool over the eyes of people here."

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

May 27, 2004 -- THE Daily News was misled on Tuesday when it reported that "Bill Clinton sat for painter William Quigley at his SoHo loft recently." In fact, the former president never posed for the publicity-hungry artist, his office reports, although Clinton has sat for Simmie Knox, who painted his official White House portrait. And he will sit for Nelson Shanks, who was chosen to paint Clinton for the National Portrait Gallery.

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

Is my computer the only one running like molasses?

[BigWaveBetty]

It's a natural fit, algore has always been angry, for some reason he and the other nitwits think it's high time he let it shine. This from Tina Brown:

When he got up to do his thing, it was a welcome transformation from Gore 2000. In the first half of the Bush presidency, when you ran into Gore toting his laptop at an airport he looked as fat and unhappy as you would expect of someone who has exchanged Air Force One for an aisle seat in business class. But something has happened in the years of psychic pain and family affirmation that no hectoring political handler could ever produce when he was on the campaign trail. Al Gore has finally broken out.

Perhaps it's his spiritual affinity with the geeky MoveOn crowd that's done it. Instead of seeing him as a spent political force, their interest makes him feel like Bob Dylan jamming with a younger band. It allows him to unleash the knowledge and the fluent passions of an authentic self he was always too politically inhibited to reveal before. "Glaciers don't care about politics," he told us happily. "They really don't. They are extremely objective. They just melt or freeze based on the world's temperature."

Over four years, Bush and Gore have oddly traded places. Now it's Bush who feels trapped in the uptight armor of his superego, not Gore. It's Bush whose Oedipal dramas haunt him with some doomed obligation to manly inflexibility. [They're so desperate they must project algore's phycosis onto GWB]

On Wednesday morning at New York University, Gore ramped up his act again with a blistering foreign policy address.

All that buoyant self-assurance, smoking anger and unused expertise are better late than never.

Maybe, after all, Gore still has a political sequel. WP

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

I recently read in an email that algore is much more like hillary than bill, the email reported that algore was horrible to his SS detail much the same way hillary was. Algore has contempt for conservatives as does hillary.

[BigWaveBetty]

The Washinton DC tell all slut has a bite for her hopes of a book and picture shoot with Playboy. This was also included in the story:

While walking and talking to us on her cell phone in Georgetown, Cutler spotted a piece of currency on the ground. "I just found a hundred-dollar bill!" she exclaimed. "It's my lucky day!" We'll say.

Y'all don't suppose James Carville was nearby, do you?

[BigWaveBetty]

More PageSix:

May 27, 2004 -- WE hate to say we told you so — but we did. More than a month ago, we broke the news that there would be no "Sex and the City" movie because Kim Cattrall was holding out for more money as well as script and director approval. HBO and Cattrall denied our story — and our subsequent follow-ups about the feud between Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker. But yesterday they finally had to admit the truth. In an announcement, Cattrall's rep, Marvett Britto, said she would not do the movie due to "scheduling conflicts." It was the same excuse Cattrall used to get out of the "Sex and the City" wrap party, a W magazine-sponsored panel discussion, and any other event that would have placed her with her "Sex" co-stars. Now that Cattrall's intransigence has effectively killed the movie, look for retribution against her in Hollywood. "A lot of people were set to make a lot of money off that movie," said one L.A. insider. "It will be interesting to see if she gets any roles after this . . . She's working on a sex documentary right now, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^but who cares about that?"

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I heard that Catrall and Parker can't stand each other.

I guess that's why they call it 'acting'.

[lodwick]

Madonna's pose is certainly spiritual...

[lodwick]

This machine's doing OK - so far.

For some reason, I do not find the Princess's comments "racist" at all.

[lodwick]

"I just found a hundred-dollar bill!" she exclaimed...leaving you three hundred shy of your daily quota - get humping there.

[BigWaveBetty]

Wasn't there a picture of Bill Clinton in Africa with the same expression when he felt threatened by a crowd? Can't find it now but it seems to be a common thread.......

I had posted that pic of clinton a few days ago so it took a bit of looking but here he is...

Mobbed by welcoming Ghanaians, Clinton yelled "Back, back" to the surging crowd

Their tempers are always boiling just under the surface.