Posted on 06/16/2004 7:20:18 AM PDT by Timeout
It's been raining for 5 days straight here on the Gulf Coast. 6 inches Monday and another 6 on Tuesday. Computer blipping off and on. Lighting r-r-r-r-r-rips the sky. Constant thunder renders kitty to a helpless blob, head "hiding" in her armpit for hours at a time.
Nothing discourages the young cardinal couple with their nest in the azalea at the end of the drive. Heedless of the downpour, they show up on schedule for their morning ration of bread crumbs. The bread turns to instant mush, but somehow they fill their beaks and return to the nest.
I've loved thunderstorms all my life. As children, we spent those rainy days with toys never touched when the sun was shining...Sugarland, Scrabble, paper dolls, usually played in a "fort" made with blankets thrown over the dining room table. And cooking. When rain kept us indoors for days on end, my mother started cooking...and cooking...and cooking. Casseroles, cookies, pies, shelling peas, soups...you name it, we cooked it. To this day, when it pours, I cook. Soggy therapy, I guess.
In California, a thunderstorm was a rare event. We rarely saw lightning or woke to the rumble of thunder. For me it was like an amputation, going through summer with no flashbang. In later years, my job required me to drive across the Mojave Desert frequently. There was always a thunderstorm in the late afternoon. Now THAT was a lightning show!
Former President Bill Clinton reveals his marriage was on life support for a year after he came clean about his dirty dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Hillary Clinton needed time to decide whether she wanted a divorce, the 42nd President tells CBS' "60 Minutes" in a shockingly candid interview.
"We'd take a day a week, and we did - a whole day a week every week for a year, maybe a little more - and did counseling," Bill Clinton tells Dan Rather in the hour-long sitdown timed to the release next week of his memoir, "My Life."
And daughter Chelsea, who was feeling increasingly alienated, joined in the shrink sessions, the former President added.
"We did it together. We did it individually," said Clinton, admitting he was "in the doghouse" for a long time. "We did family work."
Clinton also confesses he has no rational explanation for cheating on his wife and risking his legacy as President. "I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could," he says. "That's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything."
Clinton - embarking on a national tour to promote his long-awaited life story, which is already a best seller via advance sales - does not shy away from the Lewinsky affair in his book, either, said Rather, one of the few to have read the tome.
"I lied to everybody," Clinton admits at one point. ...
On other issues:
Clinton calls charges his administration had terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden in its grasp but let him go long before 9/11 absolute "bull."
He avoids any direct comment about his former vice president, Al Gore, because, Rather said, Clinton didn't want to be seen as "piling on."
Clinton generally supports President Bush's decision to take out Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "People will be surprised at how supportive he is," said Rather, "considering he's a Democratic former President."
Clinton views his stewardship of the American economy as his greatest accomplishment.
"I kept score, how many people's lives were better off," Clinton said. "I think the fact that we were able to have 22 million jobs and record homeownership and lower interest rates ... people actually had the ability to do more things than ever before."
There were many days he counts as his best - but one in particular stands out: The day the U.S. Army helped the people of Kosovo rid the world of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
"The day that Kosovar war ended and I knew Milosevic's days were numbered was a great day," Clinton said. "I had a lot of great days."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/203741p-175820c.html
It would be nice if some enterprising reporterette would ask the Toon what impact he thinks he had on sexual harrasment law in general.
I bombed an aspirin factory just because I could.
I raped Juanita Broaddrick just because I could.
I rejected Sudan's offer of OBL on a silver platter just because I could.
I made no response whatsoever to Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in 1993 just because I could.
I sexually harassed Paula Jones just because I could.
I accepted illegal campaign contributions from the Chinese just because I could.
I lied and lied and lied just because I could.
I introduced "spin" and "politics of personal destruction" into American politics, just because I could.
Me, too.
Earlier this week, as the White House unveiled the official portraits of Clinton and his wife Hillary, their daughter Chelsea took Mesnier aside with a special request. She asked if he would bake her favorite, a cobbler -- a classic American deep-dish fruit pie covered with a thick top crust of biscuit dough and served hot with whipped cream -- on the occasion of her wedding.
"She didn't give me a date, but there could be something in the air," Mesnier said in an interview. ... link to story .
_________________
Wedding cobbler? Lovely.
Just checking in. I think the sun is finally supposed to peak through tomorrow. My kids' swim lessons were canceled 3 days this week due to rain and thunder!
Zachary (the baby) turns 1 tomorrow! I can't believe how quickly the year has gone. Sigh. I know that he is my last, so this birthday seems to be hitting especially hard.
I wish I could upload some pictures, but my poor computer is so slow, I think it would crash for good if I tried to load anything from the digital camera. =(
The house hunting is taking an unexpected turn. We might end up building a house instead of buying a pre-existing one. Has anyone ever built from the ground up? If we build, we can get a bigger home on a bigger lot, but we'll have to commute 20 minutes to the older kids' school every day. It's really stressful trying to make the right decision!
I've taken a break from all cable news after Reagan's death. It feels great not yelling at the tv every day. I think I'm going to keep the tv off for a long while.
Great job with the thread - thanks for the showers and light show.
I fear my grandchildren will grow webs between their toes. And the younger ones have probably forgotten what the sun looks like.
***
Perfect.
It's great to be home.
"I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could," he says. "That's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything."
***
Speechless...
I may have to take the rest of the day off.
After a particularly tragic "updating of the house" experience last year, Mrs.L and I have decided that building a dwelling for ourselves is not in our future.
The best of luck with it, AM.
NEW EVENING CLASSES FOR MEN!!! ALL ARE WELCOME! OPEN TO MEN ONLY!
Evening classes for men. Starting this month! Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty of their contents, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants each.
Topic 1. How to fill ice-cube trays. Step by step with slide presentation.
Topic 2. Lavatory paper rolls: do they grow on the holders? Round-table discussion.
Topic 3: Differences between the laundry basket and the floor. Pictures and explanatory graphics.
Topic 4. The after-dinner dishes and silverware: can they levitate and fly into the kitchen sink? Examples on video.
Topic 5. Loss of identity: losing the remote to your significant other.Helpline and support groups.
Topic 6. Learning how to find things, starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming. Open forum.
Topic 7. Health watch: bringing her flowers is not harmful to your health. Graphics and audio tape.
Topic 8. Real men ask for directions when lost. Real-life testimonials.
Topic 9. Is it genetically impossible to sit quietly as she parallel parks? Driving simulation.
Topic 10. Learning to live: basic differences between mother and wife. Online class and role playing.
Topic 11. How to be the ideal shopping companion. Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques.
Topic 12. How to fight cerebral atrophy: remembering Birthdays, anniversaries, other important dates and calling when you're going to be late. Cerebral shock therapy sessions and full lobotomies offered.
It's beyond ridiculous how they slid smoothly from funeral coverage to Bush-bashing over the non-issue of stem cell research and now, the phoney baloney 9/11 Commission. The lunacy just never ends. Arrggghh.
FADING pop footnote Justin Timberlake should consider hiring professional bodyguards for a change. One of the gargantuan goons he can't live without threatened to kill a photographer in Sydney, Australia, the other day. The girlish Timberlake was all scowls as he ignored fans while strolling through the city with alleged girlfriend Cameron Diaz, flanked by their two blubbery bodyguards, reports the Daily Telegraph. When they arrived at Harbour Bridge, one of the hysterical sides of beef shrieked at a shutterbug, "I'm not from this country. I will kill you if you get in my way!" (Page Six)
Cindy Adams reports:
Boston, next month, Democratic convention. Bill speaks opening day, Monday. Candidate Kerry speaks closing day, Thursday. There will be no Hillary. That's too much Clinton. Also, Kerryites know they don't have to have her. She's no past president, it ain't her state, she has no official convention role and they do not want her upstaging their man.
One-third of those responding actually believe Clinton would have responded best. Right - he'd acted so decisively after all previous terrorist attacks! Speaking of the 'toon:
Bill Clinton used his favorite joke at NYU Wednesday night to explain why the right wing went after him. "There was a guy walking along the Grand Canyon and he slips," he said. "Falling to certain death, he grabbed a twig. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the roots started to come out. He cried out, 'God, I've been a good man! Why me?' And a thunderous voice boomed, 'Son, there's just something about you I don't like.'"
The 42nd President spoke to a glittering crowd at NYU after The Week magazine's showing of his pal Harry Thomason's powerful new documentary, "The Hunting of the President." It's based on the book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons about Kenneth Starr's investigation into Whitewater and Monicagate.
Clinton introduced Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, who went to prison for two years rather than cooperate with Starr, as "one of my heroes." In the film, McDougal recounts how male prisoners urinated on her, while guards stood by and did nothing. And worse. But this was Clinton's night. The ex-Chief Exec looked svelte and he called Starr a tool of "the perpetual right ... which seeks to consolidate power and wealth in their own hands."
"When the Berlin Wall fell, the perpetual right in America, which always needs an enemy, didn't have an enemy anymore. So I had to serve as the next best thing." [What was I saying the other day about paranoia?]
Still, Clinton was conciliatory. "I don't think we have to say they're bad people. We have to say we think we're right and they're wrong and here's why. It's a very different argument.
"I never had any money till I left the White House [Liar] and they were pretty mean to me, and then all of a sudden I became the most important person in the world to them once I got a little money."
Clinton, whose 950-page memoir "My Life" will hit bookstores Tuesday, was optimistic about the future. But he warned: "The election of 2000 was 50/50. Now, all the polls say our nominee for President has a 50% chance and is even ahead. ... You can't afford to let us make the wrong decision." Asked about John Kerry afterward, Clinton told us, "I think he's doing just fine." source
Rumors abound that sKerry will announce his Veep pick this weekend. (Trying to upstage the Toon is a dangerous thing.)
I'll go out on a limb and predict Harold Ford, D-Tenn. MediaCrats love him. He's the most well-spoken, reasonable African-American in Dem politics in a long time. It would be a huge surprise. And he might deliver Tennessee. Kerry will relish the media's gasping...Bush may get Florida, but how audacious it would be for Kerry to get Algore's home state back in the fold!
Best of all, since he's black, the media can NEVER ask him hostile questions or level any criticism against him.
Just a thought.
...the phoney baloney 9/11 Commission. The lunacy just never ends.
***
Amazing that they reported the lack of connection between Iraq and OBL.
Clinton introduced Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, who went to prison for two years rather than cooperate with Starr, as "one of my heroes."
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Nominated as the Understatement of the Year.
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