Nov. 30th, 2003

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The more we learn about Our Fearless Leader's trip to Iraq, the more it looks as if Our Fearless Leader has managed to snatch ignominy from the jaws of doing the right thing.

Adam Felber explains:
It wasn't exactly "Hail to the Chief." It was more "He Came in Through the Bathroom Window." [And yes, he was, as always, protected by a silver spoon...]

He had to sneak into a country that he "conquered" half a year ago. The cover of night and ultra-high security and secrecy were needed to make this surprise visit possible. And now it turns out that President Bush didn't wanna go.

That's a pretty sad way to effect what his aides are calling "a public-relations coup" and everyone else is calling "weird and vaguely creepy." Thanksgiving surprises like this happen all the time - but usually they're made by divorced deadbeat dads without visitation rights who show up at the back door for a quick, drunken "How ya doin'?" while Mom's off stuffing the turkey. The kids may be happy to see Daddy, but it's a sad and fleeting pleasure. A visit that doesn't take responsibility for itself is little more than a furtive prank.

I myself was impressed by this
White House communications Director Dan Bartlett allowed five print reporters, a three-person TV crew and five photographers to ride along.

He warned them, "If this breaks while we're in the air, we're turning around."

With U.S. forces under daily attack, the need to have Bush's plane land in Baghdad without notice was key.

Even the president himself underscored the importance of keeping the trip a secret when, standing at the top of his plane's steps at Andrews, he ordered reporters not to break telephone silence.

He held his thumb and little finger to his face as if talking on the phone, and mouthed the words, "No calls, got it?"

For emphasis, he slashed his hand in front of his throat. "No calls," he hissed again.

Crew aboard Air Force One instructed passengers to keep the plane's window blinds closed throughout the flight and dropped the customary "Air Force One" call sign.

That caused an anxious moment on the way to Iraq, when a British Airways plane flew by the presidential 747.

"Did I just see Air Force One?" the British pilot radioed.

Bush's pilot replied: "Gulfstream five" - a call signal for a much smaller plane.

The British pilot - seeming to realize he was in on a secret - replied: "Oh."

The airport in Baghdad was blacked out for the landing about 9:30 a.m. eastern time yesterday. Ground crews there weren't told of Bush's arrival.

The jet - equipped with anti-missile defenses - evaded ground attackers by spiralling in to the runway.

"I even went up to the cockpit, watched [Air Force One pilot Col. Mark] Tilman bring it in," Bush said. "Had security been broken, that would have been a time when we would have been most vulnerable."

I hope Col. Tilman brought a set of wings to pin on Our Fearless Leader for being such a brave little airman.

Oh, wait, he used to have a set of those, didn't he?
sisyphusshrugged: (Default)
Remember how it was all unamerican and disrespectful of the process for George Soros to inject himself in the presidential race by putting up money to register voters?
President Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004.

Bush's campaign website already has signed up 6 million supporters, 10 times the number that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has, and the Bush operation is in the middle of an unprecedented drive to register 3 million new Republican voters. The campaign has set county vote targets in some states and has begun training thousands of volunteers who will recruit an army of door-to-door canvassers for the final days of the election next November.

The entire project, which includes complementary efforts by the Republican National Committee and state Republican parties, is designed to tip the balance in 18 states that both sides believe will determine the winner in 2004.

"I've never seen grass roots like this," said a veteran GOP operative in one of the battleground states.

See, if a presidential campaign does it with their contributions from interested parties, it's a "grassroots effort."

Of course, closer to the ground, when grassroots assembled somewhere else and planted on your lawn, it's called "laying sod"

I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge that the operatives of the Republican party are more experienced sods than we are.

Hey, looka here, both articles were written for the very same paper.
sisyphusshrugged: (Default)
The rich _are_ different from you and me.

They need more money.

Note: I'm linking to a different site than I'm quoting. I'm sure it would be just as easy for you folks to find this woman's address, e-mail information and phone number as it was for me (although she uses a different name), but I don't think it's right to be handing out contact information to a home with a child in it.
A Darien woman allegedly accepted more than $70,000 in state and federal benefits over 3 1/2 years even though she earned more than $450,000 during that time.

Mary Kathryn Miller, 55, of [address], Darien, was arrested Nov. 20 by state police and charged with first-degree larceny.

She was released on $1,000 bond.

The case is one of the more "egregious" discovered by the state Department of Social Services, according to David Dearborn, a spokesman for the department.

"This was a major investigation and this was a sizable amount of public benefits," Dearborn said. "We will make every effort to recoup the benefits on behalf of the taxpayer."

According to the Oct. 6 arrest warrant obtained by The Advocate, Miller applied for benefits on behalf of her son, [son's name], in May 1994, claiming that her savings totaled less than $2,000 and that she had no income other than federal cash assistance.

From 1997 to last year, Miller received cash assistance from the federal Social Security Administration of $36,796.57 and food stamps, Medicaid and temporary family assistance worth $35,025.38, a total of $71,821.95, according to the warrant.

However, during this time, Miller allegedly earned $456,922.50 -- an average yearly income of $90,000 or $7,500 a month -- as a free-lance computer consultant for CT Consulting and Training LLC., Robkat Inc. of Norwalk and ISC of Westport, the warrant said.

According to checking account records, she spent thousands of dollars a month at stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, J Crew, Anthropologie and Starbucks using debit cards that she never disclosed to the state, the document said.

It took these people three years to realize that a woman in Darien wasn't living on 30k/year?

I guess that's not where they look for their welfare queens.

People in Darien get their money in rebates, generally.

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