Christmas row hits White House

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday December 10, 2005
The Guardian


The White House has blundered into the latest, seasonal dispute in the culture wars: is it appropriate to mention Christmas at this time of year?

George and Laura Bush have sent out more than a million Christmas cards, each with a picture of the presidential pets playing on a snow-covered White House lawn. Inside the greeting offers "best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness" - but there is no mention of Christmas.


The omission has enraged some Christian conservative groups. "This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told the Washington Post. Tim Wildmon, of the American Family Association, said: "Sometimes it's hard to tell whether this is sinister ... or whether it's just political correctness run amok. I think in the case of the White House, it's just political correctness."

The fuss comes as Christian groups are pressuring retailers to wish shoppers Happy Christmas rather than Happy Holidays. But evangelist leader Jerry Falwell, who has mobilised his supporters to that cause, said he had no problem with the White House card, which contains a verse from Psalm 28 inside. "There's a verse from scripture in it. I don't mind that at all, as long as we don't try to pretend we're not a nation under God," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1664220,00.html

This is what happens when you embrace the lunatic fringe of the ultra-right. I couldn't be happier reading about this, myself.

him....
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,249960,00.jpg
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1917905,00.html


"The grumpy male is seen wandering round the presidential offices becoming ever more irritable as White House staffers and Cabinet members review his sister's rising poll numbers.

The first dog removes Miss Beazley's presents from under the White House Christmas tree, bringing a fatherly rebuke from the leader of the free world.

"Both of you are an important part of our family," the president says. "And you have to remember the true meaning of the holiday season. Now you two run on." Mr Bush's words do the trick and thereafter the animals play together."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/10/wbush10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/12/10/ixworld.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1917905,00.html


HAVE they edited out the bis when Barney tries to mount Miss Beazley?

By Philippe Naughton

In the week that Harold Pinter revealed the creative process behind his Nobel Prize-winning dramas, the Bush White House has gone and gotten creative too - and its Christmas movie featuring the two Bush family dogs already appears destined for cult status.

The British playwright used a video message released ahead of tomorrow's Nobel awards ceremony to explain that he likes to start with three characters, A, B and C. Then he takes a line, often obscure even to himself, and lets the story start from there.

"It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence," Pinter said.

But the White House's rival video, released by First Lady Laura Bush at a Washington children's hospital, pays homage more to Bing Crosby than to Harold Pinter. Called A Very Beazley Christmas, it takes two Scottish terriers and a big-name supporting cast to spin out a gripping tale of sibling rivalry.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1917905,00.html

on :tv: I guess they couldn't wake the twins from their booze-induced beauty sleep so they used the dogs - call the humane society!
emdee

I love it when they start eating their own. My feeling is that the neocon right decided that it could utilize the Xtian right as a blunt instrument for pushing through their agenda. In their classic ignorant and arrogant style, they didn't account for the fact that the Xtian right might have their own different agendas, and were a power base in their own right. They may turn out to be quite a Frankenstein monster, going full throttle after their own agenda, and trampling the neocon right in any area where they stand in the way.

It's very exciting to see fissures developing within the diverse coalition that makes up the extreme rt wing of the Republican party. It's sort of a silver lining to losing the election.

a mega $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$s fraud scam?

i wasn`t born when this guy david was supposed to have written it.....by the way jerry we need to have a little talk about what you`re doing in my name......




http://www.nathan.co.za/kjvbible.asp?chapter=506
KJV Bible - Psalm28

The Dre thing was just an Eminem reference, but the Kwanzaa?!

the Bushies are the ones who let all these crazies out of their cages in the first place. I hope they rip him a new asshole.