PHOTOS: Merry CHRISTMAS, Laura Bush

Ballerina Juile Kent from the American Ballet is hoisted up in front of a portrait of George Washington as they perform for President Bush and first lady Laura Bush during a holiday reception and performance in the East Room of the White House.

Valerie Thomas, of New Orleans, walks with her niece Shante Fletcher, 6, as she views the destruction of Valerie's brother's home after returning to it for the first time since hurricane Katrina in the Ninth Ward section of New Orleans Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005.

U.S. first lady Laura Bush walks pass the official White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room as she gives the media a tour of the holiday decor at the White House.

An Iraqi fisherman complains to Cpl. Zane Metin of San Jose, California, about a lack of jobs in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Dec. 10, 2005, as U.S. soldiers handed out leaflets offering rewards for tips about insurgent bombmakers in the area.

First lady Laura Bush introduces White House executive pastry chef Thaddeus DuBois, whose gingerbread White House graces the State Dining Room. The President and First Lady will host 26 Christmas parties at the White House during December.

A view of the General Motors Lansing Metals Plant in Lansing Township, Michigan November 21, 2005. Job cuts at General Motors Corp. will shake consumer confidence across the U.S. and ripple through the auto parts industry, but the impact on the economy as a whole will be slight, economists said on Monday. The plan to slash 30,000 jobs and close 12 North America plants is the largest single U.S. layoff announcement in nearly three years -- and just more bad news for consumers already weighed down by high energy prices. The GM Lansing Metals Plant pictured here is expected to close in mid-2006.

In a humorous holiday :wow: video shown Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005 by first lady Laura Bush during a program at the Children's National Medical Center, President Bush confronts his Scottish terrier Barney who has been displaying some jealousy of his more popular sister, Miss Beazley, in Washington. After scolding Barney for playing hide and seek with Miss Beazley's gifts, President Bush chides a contrite Miss Beazley, saying, 'I understand you've been a media hound.'

"All in all it's been another fabulous year for Laura and me..."

:( How can anyone be so happy this time of the year?

what is really important in Life.

Do you love?
Do you care?
Do you give?
Do you refrain from false vanity?
Do you place people above things?
Do you not hate? (hard sometimes,I know)

С Новым годом

:hippie:

Awesome work, Swamp Rat! I love it!

Peace.:hug:

by the current misadministration!:kick:

and very sad...

Ostentatious celebrations during a time of war, poverty, destruction and death.

----------------

Welcome back, Bluebear. You were missed. :hi:

I despair for my beloved country and only wonder what 2006 is going to bring.

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!!!

The psychos squatting in the WH have NO morals.

How these soulless people can go on with Christmas celebrations as if all the suffering they have caused in the world didn't exist amazes me.

Good job on putting it all in perspective.

:thumbsup:

Another fabulous year - I hate that fucker.

There are two Americas. One is the elitist lives W and his cronies live. One of privilege, wealth, and the best schools.

The other America faces the status of a third world nation as W does away with the middle class.

My neighbor received his natural gas bill. There will be no money for Xmas presents.

W's America.

why does it have to be this way? peace and revolution

Poet Sharon Olds Refuses White House Invitation

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/olds


I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House.

In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in terms of the desire that poetry serve its constituents--all of us who need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.

And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear to my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school of a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers. Over the years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women's prison, several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for children. Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically challenged, has been running now for twenty years, creating along the way lasting friendships between young MFA candidates and their students--long-term residents at the hospital who, in their humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.

When you have witnessed someone nonspeaking and almost nonmoving spell out, with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his new poem, you have experienced, close up, the passion and essentialness of writing. When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a writer who is completely nonspeaking and nonmoving (except for the eyes), and pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to the first letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she has been composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when that letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the human drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit--and the importance of writing, which celebrates the value of each person's unique story and song.

So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I thought of the chance to sell some books, sign some books and meet some of the citizens of Washington, DC. I thought that I could try to find a way, even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to invade another culture and another country--with the resultant loss of life and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain--did not come out of our democracy but was instead a decision made "at the top" and forced on the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism--the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to.

I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear witness--as an American who loves her country and its principles and its writing--against this undeclared and devastating war.

But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.

What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of permitting "extraordinary rendition": flying people to other countries where they will be tortured for us.

So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.

Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS

:mad:

that said "Happy Holidays."....This after all the fuss they have made about the politically correct people that won't mention Christmas!....LOL

of America.

Less greed = equals more security for everybody!!

I live about 3 miles from that plant... :-(

not to mention I grew up in Flint, about 5-10 minutes from the Delphi plant...

Sure, some Americans say they'd like to have a beer with the Chimp. The bigger question is, would he like to have a beer with them???

Whose desk is that? The King of France?

:crazy:

..the "Have MORES"...and the "HAVE IT ALLS". That's all that matters to these White House squatters.

We could use some gladiators.

right now and then.

This whole country should be looking at itself and asking honest questions about who and what "we" are.

...then what will?

I hope they burn in hell for being the cold hearted trashy greedy people that they are.All the suffering going on in this country and they live like kings.The thought never crosses their minds of how they can HELP someone in need.....hell no,they could care less as long as their needs are met. What a selfish empty headed couple of MORONS chimpy and mrs. stepford are. They make me want to puke buckets. :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

Thanks for the contrast between reality and DUH-byaville.

The redneck fools who wanted to have a beer with Bush can just watch to see how well connected this lot is with what most of us have to deal with...