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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1768)	1/3/2002 3:37:00 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15516

This came in my email just now.... Dear American: President Bush needs to hear that we support his efforts to set the right priorities for our country, to help America win the War on Terrorism, without outrageous budget-busting pork-barrel spending, that costs our military with every new proposal. Click below to electronically "sign" your petition of support for President Bush and budget priorities that make sense in wartime. The President is under heavy pressure to quietly go along with "pork-barrel" spending in order the get the money from Congress that is legitimately needed for defense, security, and economic recovery. It is wrong for politicians to use this crisis as an excuse to spend more money on "pork-barrel" projects. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas (who is retiring from Congress) told it like it is: "What I think we are really seeing is a feeding frenzy. We have had over $200 billion worth of spending proposals made, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with economic stimulus." Sadly, in the last few weeks, politicians added 503 projects to the federal budget, for a total of $974 million, enough for: - 21 F-17 Stealth Bombers; or - 974 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles; or - 23,583 Sidewinder Missiles. One Congressman seeks a million dollars to improve beaches in Indiana, (Beaches in Indiana?) and another lawmaker $11.6 million for lakes in his district. Perhaps the most brazen one of all called for $3 million to pay for a "digital map" to show the location of federal projects in his state-pork to create a map of pork. In the current budget, with America under attack, pork-barrel projects reached a record $18.5 billion. This includes: $5,800,000 - to study how wood is used in 9 states $4,000,000 - for a giant telescope in South America $1,500,000 - for a "Vulcan Monument" in Birmingham $550,000 - for a national memorial to Dr. Seuss $200,000 - for international asparagus competition Right now, all federal spending should be dedicated to defending America and reviving our economy, not to helping politicians get re-elected by bringing home pork. That's why President Bush needs your signed petition. The nearly ONE BILLION DOLLARS of special interest pork-barrel spending added to the budget in the last month is proof of what we are fighting. Follow the link below to electronically "sign" your petition: seniorcongress.org (If this link doesn't work, copy and paste the text into your browser's address window) Please forward this to everyone you know. We need as many names as possible to make a strong showing in support of sane fiscal priorities before we deliver this petition to President Bush. God Bless America

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1768)	1/3/2002 4:51:08 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of Mr. Clinton's, Buddy. Buddy kept Mr. and Mrs. Clinton company when they lived in The White House. He's watched over them in difficult times. I have no doubt that the Clintons will grieve over his death. Friends lost their lab last winter. He was 14-years-old. They haven't recovered from his death. No news about Mephisto. His doctor had to perform two emergency surgeries this morning, and the staff said the doctor is the only one who will talk to us so I do not expect good news.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1768)	1/3/2002 5:33:03 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Wonderful news! Mephisto has irritable bowel syndrome! So he isn't dying! His tests were okay. He has to take steroids. We will talk to the Doctor on Monday. His assistant said that we will have to talk to them quite a bit over the next little while!

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1768)	1/5/2002 2:06:20 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Farewell, Buddy New YorkTimes January 5, 2002 By JOHN POLLACK WASHINGTON -- As soon as a friend e-mailed me with the news that Buddy, former President Bill Clinton's dog, had been killed by a car in Chappaqua, N.Y., Wednesday, I went straight to the Web for news. Buddy and I were, well, buddies, from my days as a White House speechwriter. Wandering the West Wing, he had always reminded me of my own beloved dog, now many years gone. Buddy may not have been the smartest pooch in the free world, but he was full of love and loyalty. Of course, hundreds of household pets meet their end in traffic every day, their passing mourned in quiet anonymity. And Buddy wasn't even the only presidential dog to die under the wheels of an automobile. Lyndon B. Johnson's beagle Him was struck and killed by a car in 1966. A century earlier, Abraham Lincoln's dog Fido was actually stabbed to death by a man in Springfield, Ill. Word of Buddy's passing, though, flashed with uncommon speed among former Clinton staffers. That chocolate Labrador was a real presence around the White House. Unlike most White House personnel, who needed blue passes about their necks to wander the corridors, Buddy had free run of the place, including the Oval Office. But the truth is, despite these rarefied digs, Buddy liked to slum it. Whenever he could, he'd give his handlers the slip and pad on down to the basement of the West Wing, poking his nose into the wastebaskets outside Sid Blumenthal's office, rummaging for a snack. If I caught him in the act, I'd pull him away by the collar. "I don't care if you are the president's dog. No eating from the trash!" Still, most of my colleagues and I appreciated Buddy's penchant for mischief. It often provided us with comic relief. Once he even attempted to eat a copy of a presidential speech, giving rise to the proverbial excuse: "But Mr. President, the dog ate my speech." A year ago, in the closing weeks of the Clinton administration, the White House communications team drafted Buddy to star in a farewell skit we were videotaping for the president. Buddy barked right on cue, just after we recited Bill Clinton's famous line, delivered from the snows of New Hampshire during the 1992 campaign: "I'll be there for you 'til the last dog dies." In his glory days at the White House, Buddy answered bins of fan mail with a postcard bearing his own auto-paw signature. But he was never corrupted by fame or ambition. When I walked out of the Oval Office for the last time, I asked him what his post-White House plans were. Buddy didn't answer. He just rolled over for a belly-scratch. John Pollack is a communications consultant. nytimes.com