hightail with the chief

* "But now it turns out that Mr. Bush may not spend a single night in (nyc for gopconcon)" hmmm. reasons offered: 1. "he not be seen as taking advantage of the deaths of 3,000 people." (altho "That doesn't mean Mr. Bush and other convention speakers won't mention it, and often, from the podium.") 2. "New York was not a swing state" 3. "Bush was also likely to alienate the city by lingering and tying up traffic, blocking streets" 4. "It's a statement that he's going to work." - all of these 'reasons' sound false - so why bother with the story? 1 - without saying. 2. true - but so what? its a national convention. 3. why care abuot alienating a state the wont vote for him anyway? and as if he has ever been concerned about tying up traffic? lol - ask the irish or londoners - and the city will be jammed anyways 4. the most hollidayed president ever? nyt herself recently told of a 'fight' with karl where 43 lost and is only getting 2 weeks hols, not the 4 that he wanted.
the whole piece seems to be an excuse piece - and that concerns me somewhat (wrt my recent comments about Jeb). im still not sure what it means - if anything. presumably theres no reason to telegraph him leaving thurs unless there is an attack *after* the thurs speech (presumably primetime?) - but then you've gotta wonder why any errorist would wait till after the speech if they were gonna make a mess. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/national/23letter.html

i dont have any perspective about the journo - altho a quick google:
* in fact, it was bumiller who 'broke' the aforementioned '2weeks holiday' story. http://www.timeswatch.org/topicindex/B/bumiller_elisabeth/welcome.asp

*and then theres the "Elisabeth Bumiller Award for Chihuahua Journalism" (turns out she's the one who demanded of jfk "ARE YOU A LIBERAL?" and "Really quick, is God on America's side?" http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=117

*and she also is referred to as an equal to judymiller!!! from my quick search, bumiller isnt complicit in mass-murder like judy. yet.
http://wilsonhellie.typepad.com/for_the_record/2004/03/miller_bumiller.html

*and so it goes - which makes me a lot less comfortable than 10 mins ago when i didnt know who she was.

if we see everyone also leaving gopcon before the end of the thurs speech then i suggest others might also look for exits - rudy, arnie, dick, laura et al

(i think they need to lose 100 congresspeeps before the 'continuity (sic) of govt' regs kick in - so there needs to be some serious carnage.)

* itll be interesting to see whether this story gets any traction - can those of u in nyc let me know if it becomes widely-known that he wont be there for long? (can u also lemme know if u hear anything about the schedules of the other usual suspects? eg a cheney breakfast on the friday with jenna would be good news) if it does get widely reported, then itll be harder for them to justify blowing up the city after he has left. and if it doesnt, then their purported reasons become specious. and scary. if they were gonna blow up the city, they'd ideally a) have it on record that he was planning to leave, and b) be able to plausibly explain why the errorists didnt know he wasnt gonna be there. given that bush is the target of much ire, and that nyc is just days away from riots, its the sort of story that ought get a lot of attention - if for no other reason than trying to assuage the madding crowd (note the appearance of ambiguity in bumillers article)

grrrrrr
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four more tears. four more tears.
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