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Isn't it ironic that as the Republican primaries were gearing up four years ago, Democrats and the media began their refrain that George W. Bush was not presidential material because he lacked "gravitas"? Today, Bush is overflowing with the stuff, and not one of the Democratic presidential contenders can rise above "dwarf" status. But in 2000, there were so many allusions to Bush's dearth of gravitas that it's difficult to narrow a Nexis search to find fewer than 1,000 entries on it. In January 2000, Chris Matthews asked George Pataki, "And you have to ask about George W. Bush, is...

After his courageous whirlwind 30 hour trip to Baghdad International Airport to have Thanksgiving dinner with the troops, share the support of the American people with them, and offer encouragement, President Bush returned to his Prairie Chapel Ranch to spend time with his family this Thanksgiving weekend. There are a few new pictures from his incredible trip, and inspiring visit with the troops in Baghdad, and some from his arrival home. Enjoy your Daily Dose of Dubya!!

BERLIN (Reuters) - The heatwave sweeping Germany claimed an unlikely victim when a man sleeping on a roof to escape the high temperatures rolled off, suffering fatal injuries, Berlin police said Wednesday. A tenant of the building found the 28-year-old still alive after his 70-foot fall, but he later died in hospital. The man had bedded down with two friends as temperatures neared 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in the German capital. The friends only learned of the man's fate after being awakened and informed by police. "The man must have ended up on the steep part of the roof...

At 4:15am EST a strange thing happened on the Internet. Two Freepers were posting pictures and communicating with each other, one in Spain and the other in Florida. Suddenly all logos and pictures filed to appear on the separate sites although the text did. Up to that time the refresh time was two to three seconds. A single server going down or a photographic site disabled is common and would not be a cause for concern. But when servers in two different countries are affected at precisely the same time with only graphics involved then we have a very unusual...

All pictures and logos on the world wideweb disappeared at 4:15 easter until 4:20 EST. I check France, Spain, Germany, America, and Japan. American contacts confirmed this also.

<p>Since my last vanity announcement on keywords went so swimmingly (it ended up with something like 5000 keywords added to it) I thought a great idea would be to throw some propane on some other fires with a vanity.</p> <p>Breaking news is being abused again, big time. This goes in cycles, with sometimes people being responsible, but other times people not being very responsible.</p> <p>We are in one of the not-very time periods.</p>

As expected, President Bush made a statement regarding racial quotas at the University of Michigan, and strongly condemned the policy as 'fundamentally flawed.' Bush also stated that he would file a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that Michigan's admission policy is unconstitutional. The President also made a videotaped statement regarding the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which will be aired as the AGOA forum. In lighter news, Bush met with members of the NASA Space Shuttle and International Space Station crew. Enjoy your daily dose of Dubya!

His foreign policy style, marked by decisiveness, prompts a more serious respect for US power. By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON – Washington types like to play a parlor game that might be called "What If?" Here's one round: What if Bill Clinton had still been president on Sept. 11? The former chief executive himself has almost complained that he led the nation in dull times, deprived of an opportunity for greatness. Indeed, says presidential scholar Fred Greenstein of Princeton University, there would be great similarity between Presidents Clinton and Bush - or almost-President...

<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Close friends and advisers say U.S. Sen. John Edwards will almost certainly run for president in 2004, The Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday.</p> <p>Eight close associates told said they expect Edwards, D-N.C., to join the race. He is expected to take the first formal step soon by announcing an exploratory committee, supporters said.</p>

Headline says it all. Developing...

Gravitas alert: Non-Latinists lack auctoritas by Greg Swann The Latin word 'gravitas' is leaking back into the news. As you can see in my discussion of Roman virtues, it is being used incorrectly. This is a piece of email I wrote two years ago. It in turn incorporates an historical narrative by Kent Polk. (We're nested like Russian cups!) As Rush Limbaugh and others have been pointing out, the press is leaning all over the word gravitas, even though they seem to not know what it means. They use it as though it means weight or heaviness, when actually it means...

<p>October 12, 2002 -- If voters got a second chance to pick between George W. Bush and Al Gore, it would be a Bush blowout by 59 to 34 percent, according to a new nationwide Marist College poll.</p> <p>There could well be a Bush-Gore rematch, because Gore remains the top 2004 presidential pick among Democrats. Meanwhile, Gore's spokesman yesterday said Gore would have voted against the Iraq resolution, putting him at odds with all potential Democratic presidential candidates in the House and Senate.</p>

Al Gore. State election officials ultimately declared George W. Bush the winner by a margin of 537 votes, but during and after the election dispute, questions remained about the uncounted ballots of 175,010 voters, ballots that had been rejected by error-prone tabulating machines employed in many Florida counties. Confusion and conflict, much of it generated by partisan intrigue, prevented these ballots from being counted during the election controversy. However, in 2001 every uncounted ballot was carefully examined in a scientific study by the University of Chicago, which concluded that when all the votes were counted, more votes had been cast...