Posted on 07/11/2004 6:34:52 AM PDT by Hillary's Lovely Legs
If your dealers are like ours here, it is like the Home Depot, where you can go in, a year later, with a dead plant, and say, "I want a new plant, this one's dead."
No problem, new plant, new car.
Hoping that it's the same for you guys.
Still catching up here and found this suh-weet nugget from 7/13 on Kedwards' (new best of the web name) taxes. If you all haven't seen it do read it for a short and sweet sketch of how the two America's live and who's living where. Some snippets:
In embracing John Edwards, John Kerry has also endorsed his populist "two Americas" rhetoric and has put tax increases at the center of the election campaign. So it's fair to ask the two Democrats: How much of those tax increases will actually hit the super-rich like yourselves,
For an answer, let's look at what the two Senators have themselves been paying in taxes. It turns out that the Kerrys and Edwards have exploited plenty of tax loopholes over the years. ...the complex tax code benefits the wealthy, who can afford tax attorneys and complicated schemes to skirt the law. And high marginal rates give them plenty of incentive to do so.
Senator Edwards talks about the need to provide health care for all, but that didn't stop him from using a clever tax dodge to avoid paying $591,000 into the Medicare system. While making his fortune as a trial lawyer in 1995, he formed what is known as a "subchapter S" corporation, with himself as the sole shareholder.
Instead of taking his $26.9 million in earnings directly in the following four years, he paid himself a salary of $360,000 a year and took the rest as corporate dividends. Since salary is subject to 2.9% Medicare tax but dividends aren't, that meant he shielded more than 90% of his income. That's not necessarily illegal, but dodging such a large chunk of employment tax skates perilously close to the line.
And now a bit about the character of the man who wants to be president.
During a tough election for the Senate in 1996, Mr. Kerry sidestepped a gentleman's agreement with opponent William Weld to limit the spending of personal wealth on either side to $500,000 by having his campaign borrow $1.7 million from his wife. complete story
If you're Steve Earle, she is. The rebel cowboy professes his love for Rice in the song "Condi, Condi" on his new CD "The Revolution Starts...Now" in what might just be the first love song to a national security adviser.
"You be the flower and I'll be the bumblebee/Oh she loves me; oops, she loves me not/
People say you're cold, but I think you're hot."
The country singer also croons:
"They say you're too uptight, I say you're not/Dance around me spinnin' like a top/Oh, Condi, Condi, don't ever stop."
While cynics may see the song as satire, Earle sincerely believes her power is an aphrodisiac. He recently told a skeptical writer for the music magazine Ice, "Well, don't you think she's kind of hot?"
A White House spokeswoman for Rice, herself a classical pianist, told us: "I don't think we'll be commenting on that."
Mr. Earle
ESPN likes him but he seems a tad strange to me.
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A big reason Ben Affleck turned down the role of Texas basketball coach Don Haskins is that he wants to do a full-court press for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.
A pal of the actor tells us he nixed the starring role in Walt Disney's "Glory Road," about the first coach to win an NCAA championship with five African-American starters in 1966, because the studio wanted to start production next month, three months before the election.
"His priority right now is John Kerry," an Affleck friend told us. "Ben's going to be very visible at the [Democratic] convention and afterward. He's been studying the issues and he's going to travel with Kerry."
Ben's been learnin' the pro-noun-sa-tions ah words and them issue things! Bless his heart.
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Just like a dem, wanting something for nothing:
If there's one person who deserved a free copy of the now-historic New York Post blooper of trumpeting Rep. Dick Gephardt as John Kerry's vice president pick, it was Gephardt.
Indeed, one of New York's top lawyers told The News' Lore Croghan that when the congressman's office contacted the flubbing tabloid for a copy, the request was refused. They offered to pay, but that, too, was denied. So the lawyer sent his assistant out to buy one - for $5 - and sent it to Gephardt for his scrapbook.
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The final weekend of "Raisin in the Sun" had Broadway enthusiasts and Sean (P. Diddy) Combs fans camping outside the box office to try to buy cancellation tickets. The last three shows were completely sold out, although a few boldface names - including Sen. Hillary Clinton and rapper 50 Cent - were able to score seats...
Gosh, I hope hilly and 50 Cent were able to sit together! all from NYDailyNews
Good Morning! Great stuff you left here late last night.
That would be UTEP; the University of Texas at El Paso, as it is now known. Totally screwed up Dr. Wooden's run with UCLA.
Morning cheers, all.
I read the terrorist flight story - I've been out of town for the week and away from the computer and don't know if this was published on FR other than your link in The Guild. If it hasn't been put on the front page of FR, could you do that? I don't know how and I think it is a story that should get widespread distribution and attention.
Thank you, J, for posting it.
Glad you guys had a great time at the beach. Sounds like a blast! Glad the kids had fun, too. And I can totally relate to that vodka tonic fix -- E
The flight story is being widely distributed on the web through bloggers and sites like FR. The WashPost has supposedly been sitting on the story for several days. The writer has been on a couple of radio talk shows and I've heard NBC Nightly News will be picking up the story Monday night.
Until then, I've heard Ambassador Joe Wilson will be on Wolf Blitzer's "Late Edition" at noon tomorrow on CNN. I hope Wolf's done his homework....silly me.
If only he read the Guild he'd know to wear Revlon's ColorStay.
Finally, something Teresa and sane people everywhere can agree on.
Swifty the donkey and John Kerry walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face?" Swifty says, "Because this doofus is the best the Dems can come up with this year."
Hee Haw!
Somebody had to stay up all night to let the dog out every 30 minutes. She's on antibiotics for a staph infection and they don't seem to be agreeing with her system, poor thing.
I am currently on that star in the map. I am on Monte Cristo Island which is a small island in the Teirra Verdea Keys.
I am visiting my father, whom I hadn't seen for 25 years. It's been interesting to say the least.
Why do they call this place the Sunshine State? I haven't seen the sun since I landed on Thursday. It's been high winds and rain. Yesterday it rained 2" and I just walked outside and it's raining. Today we are supposed to go sailing and I am really excited about it, but, if it rains we can't go out. Heck, I might have to stay more days because I want to get out on that ocean.
My father's home is on the Gulf of Mexico and yesterday I watched 4 dolphins playing off of the dock. That was pretty neat.
The pelicans come in the morning and sit on the posts, and there have been egrets, some pink bird that's not a flamingo, parakeets, and I chased a giant blue heron out of the jacuzzi so he wouldn't poop in it.
I have seen De Soto (sp) Beach, which was rated the second best beach in America, the world's largest private winecellar at Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa, The Salvador Dali Museum, the Saint Petersburg Yacht Club and a lot of Fox News because sometimes we are stuck in the house due to rain and there is not a lot to if you can't go out and play.
Oh yeah, I have also been driving a very cool sports car which has really been fun.
So here I am at 5 am, giddy with anticipation to go sailing, and it's bloody raining.
I haven't taken any photos yet, but I will try to take some today if we go sailing, and of course if it isn't raining.
Miss you all, sorry I haven't been around, but I am on my rain tour of Florida.
Outstanding.
Have a ball, C.
Sorry about all the rain, it's not looking much better up here by O-Ville either.
I hope the weather turns around for you soon. Have fun!
In other news:
.... What's amazing about the spat over whether Hillary would get a primetime convention speech was how quickly Kerry retreated. No sooner had his aides insulted Clinton by saying, first, she hadn't asked for a role and second, the convention was about the "future" then they caved and asked her to speak. Begged would be more accurate. Kerry's the king all right, but Clinton's the unchallenged Queen of Democrats - and the King better not forget it again. Her supporters rejoiced at her triumph, but Republicans must be delighted, too, for the embarrassing incident reveals a weak spot in the Democratic nominee. John Kerry is a man who can be rolled. Quickly and often. Rest of Michael Goodwin column
Speaking of the flip-flopper, here's that he-man John Kerry showing us - once again - how much he has in common with us common folk:
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry kite surfs 17 July 2004 off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
WASHINGTON - A secret intelligence report prepared for President Clinton in December 1998 reported on a suspected plot by Osama bin Laden to hijack a U.S. airliner in an effort to force the United States to release conspirators imprisoned for the 1993 World Trade Center attack.
The one-page declassified version of the president's daily brief dated Dec. 4, 1998, contains chilling information the CIA had gleaned from several sources indicating that al Qaeda was working with U.S.-based operatives of its deadly ally, the Egyptian group Gama at al-Islamiyya, in the purported hijack plot.
The brief shows that the intelligence community and the White House were aware of al Qaeda's interest in hijacking U.S. airliners long before 9-11. The day the brief was prepared, then-CIA Director George Tenet said in a memo to the intelligence community that "we are at war" and that no resources should be spared to defeat the terrorists.
Rest of story: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/9184194.htm?1c
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Bad news for Michael Moore, at any rate.
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