Author: Trish

“The goal of the modern conservative movement, as embodied by George W. Bush, is not just a simple majority of conservative thought – rather, it is the elimination of everything but conservative thought.” – Oliver Willis

He was living proof that there’s a lot of good in a bad example.

I just watched the entire episode of This Week with George Stephanopoulos, thinking it would be the best shot for hearing SOMETHING about the Jeff Gannon story on a broadcast network. Instead, their big news item was the “secret” George Bush tapes, which I can’t help but notice show W in the most flattering light. It was noted that only a few minutes were being released, with the other nearly nine hours to be shipped to the Bush Library.

I am tired of saying, “If this were Bill Clinton…” I am tired of waiting for a negative Bush White House story the MSM will deem big enough to cover. I’m saying now it can’t be done. If the Jeff Gannon thing can be ignored, I give up. There is no way to penetrate the wall of protection around this president.

We’re screwed.

But I hope someone will disagree with me.

Florida is looking into the money behind the fight to keep Terri Schiavo on life support. Her parents’ Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation is receiving funding from big right to life groups, but what it’s doing with that money isn’t clear.

According to a story in the Palm Beach Post, donations are being solicited at terrisfight.org to, “offset some of the expenses associated with protecting Terri.”

“While the Web site says the donations help offset legal expenses, the majority of the Schindlers’ representation during the protracted legal struggle with their daughter’s husband, Michael Schiavo, has been paid for by two anti-abortion groups — the Life Legal Defense Foundation and the Alliance Defense Fund — according to the Schindlers’ current attorney, Barbara Weller.”

The California-based groups promote the usual hot button, right-wing agendas.

“Alliance Defense Fund ‘is funding litigation that is going on to confront and challenge the radical legal agenda advocating homosexual behavior, defending parental rights, and to restore the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise of religion,’ IRS documents read. “

Schiavo’s parents never filed state paperwork to solicit donations, and the money does not seem to be paying the legal bills.

“…attorneys for the Schindlers offered conflicting statements of how much they have been paid and how much has been spent fighting on behalf of Terri. “

Jeb Bush jumped in to “save” Terri’s life when her husband attempted to unhook her in 2003. He exerted his power with the Florida legislature, getting them to pass a law that Republican Senate President Jim King later called one of the worst decisions of his life.

The law was rejected by the Florida Supreme Court, and despite being argued by Ken Connor, the former head of the Family Research Council, the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear the case, letting the lower court decision stand. But Jeb continues to interfere in the matter, vowing to force Terri to remain on a feeding tube and entertaining suggestions he actually take her into “protective custody.”

Don’t know if this story is getting much play outside the advertising community, but it should, for comic relief if nothing else. The huge firm Ogilvy & Mather is defending itself against charges it overbilled the Clinton Administration’s White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

According to Ad Age online, an O&M exec sought in late 1999 to hide problems with the company’s financials by shifting billing time from other accounts to the government.

Testifying in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the FBI’s John Sardone presented a set of timesheets for Rosalinde Rago, Ogilvy’s former director of research and planning who died last year. He told the jury that the handwriting on written orders on the timesheets telling Ms. Rago to “Put Huggies and Wings time on ONDCP” matched handwriting samples provided to prosecutors by Ms. Seifert.

For all the clients who ever suspected they were being overcharged, this case provides plenty to worry about. As for O&M, it’s going to take a lot of Huggies and Wings to soak up all the hot water they’re in.

Interesting story in the in the St. Petersburg Times. Evidently the dying act of the chair of Amway, Jay Van Andel, was to give the largest contribution by an individual to a state party in Florida. And guess which party it was?

” Records show that starting July 27, he made 10 $100,000 donations to the Florida Republican Party. The money began flowing in at a time when many observers saw Florida as a tossup state that could decide whether President Bush or John Kerry won the election.

The money helped pay for a massive get-out-the-vote effort in a state Bush needed to win.

Van Andel had Parkinson’s disease and nearly missed seeing his generosity to the Florida GOP pay off. He died just over a month after President Bush won Florida and re-election – and a week after the Florida GOP deposited his 10th $100,000 check. He was 80.”

Oh well, what’s a million these days? That’s no doubt why Van Andel and the family of his business partner, Richard DeVos, “also each gave $2-million to Progress for America, an independent group that paid for TV ads aimed at re-electing Bush.”

So let’s see, that’s $1 million, then another $2 million each, so that’s $5 million, plus another $515,000 from the DeVos family to the state GOP…Yep, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

Amazing there are still people (like my mother) out there who fall for the staged performances of the Bush crowd.

A story in the St. Petersburg Times exposes the process for how “ordinary folks” are recruited for presidential appearances. Bush speaks in Tampa, across the bay from St. Pete, Friday.

Let’s see, who would definitely support putting Social Security money in the stock market? How about securities traders?

” Susan Hartman, a Raymond James financial planning consultant, who belongs to the Securities Industry Association, sent out the e-mail searching for volunteers Monday.”

There was no question about what the President wanted to hear.

“Recipients of the e-mail sent out to employees at Raymond James were asked to explain how they wanted Social Security changed – not if they wanted it changed.”

Yes, just folks, like you and me and Grandma.

“Are they ordinary American citizens? Yes and no,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The White House “will look through the pool for people who say the magic words they want to hear.”

The White House does not deny this.

“When the president travels outside Washington to participate in a conversation on a particular subject, we would look at individuals who have a vested interest in a particular subject or have an important story to tell,” said Taylor Gross, a White House spokesman.

Why should they deny it? It’s working for them great.

Hurry, time’s running out! Go here now to be ready to enjoy the State of the Union address the only way you can stand to – heavily inebriated and distracted.

It�s good to see Florida Attorney General and 2006 Republican candidate for governor Charlie Crist defending our right to privacy. Charlie jumped to protect Rush Limbaugh, and all the rest of us, no doubt, from overzealous prosecutors.

According to stories in the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post, Crist’s brief before the Florida Supreme Court supports a lame compromise where they would have, “�a judge review all seized medical records in chambers to decide which ones are pertinent to a criminal investigation before releasing them to prosecutors.”

So have a judge read over all the records first, figure out which parts support or deflate a case, hand the evidence to the lawyers, and then sit back and hear it. Is it me, or is there a flaw here somewhere? Why not just have the judge plead the case too?

Gymnastic reasoning aside, one wonders about Crist’s objectivity. As the Post pointed out,

“Often, the attorney general fights for criminal investigators and on the side of the prosecution. But the office of Crist, a Republican, has refused to help Democratic State Attorney Barry Krischer in this case. “

Apparently Crist just doesn’t want anyone getting carried away. He stated in his brief, quoted in the Sentinel:

“Florida’s constitutional right of privacy guarantees citizens freedom from unwarranted observation of, and interference in, any aspect of their medical records. “

I don’t know about you but I’m about up to here (gestures toward neck) with every single news story and pundit using “Doctor” on second reference to Condoleeza Rice. What is she, the first person ever in government to hold a frickin’ Ph.D.? O.K., I admit she does stand pretty much alone among Bush appointees as having completed some post-graduate work but come on, her official bio says she got her doctorate at the University of Denver! Which I’m sure is a fine state school BTW.

The point is, it’s not like she ever won a Nobel prize, and there are some actual medical doctors out there (paging Gov. Dr. Howard Dean) that are never referred to in the press as “Dr.” Seems like yet another example of the press doing as they’re told by the White House without question.