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Fine Whine Friday

Friday, March 29, 2002

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From HBO Headquarters
New York, NY
• First of all, let me say that HBO is at the most perfect location of any major corporate headquarters in the world. Forget about the address - on the corner of 6th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. That's not the best part. The best part is: It is located above a Starbucks AND a Radio Shack.

• Are you kidding me? Get a caffeine buzz on from a triple-shot grande mocha then walk right next door and get on a semi-conductor buzz buying transistors, resisters, Twisted-Sisters and who knows what-all, having convinced yourself you are going to build a zillion gigabyte supercomputer from scratch in your garage!

• Alas, I am merely visiting the Mullmeister's favorite cousin, Lisa Heller, who happens to be HBO's VP of original programming.

• On to this Friday's edition of "A Fine Whine."

• The President signed the Campaign Finance Reform bill on Wednesday. The AP's David Espo's lead was, "President Bush grudgingly signed landmark legislation �"

• The bill was signed at about eight in the morning. Without a ceremony. Without Senators and Congressmen elbowing each other in the ribs as they crowded into the frame to look on approvingly. And, without � John McCain.

• But President Bush DID sign it. Senator McCain, on the Imus in the Morning show on MSNBC yesterday, said that had President Bush vetoed the bill he didn't think there were enough votes to override it.

• Civics Review: Overriding a Presidential veto requires a two-thirds vote in each the House and the Senate.

• The Washington Post's Mike Allen reported that McCain's "advisors were livid at what they considered a petty snub and said the White House's handling of McCain's long-awaited moment of triumph would set back a gradual warming in relations between the two men."

• McCain's "advisors" can't wait to get on the phone and start speed dialing every political reporter in town to announce their lividity over just about anything that happens in Washington which doesn't begin with the phrase "President John McCain today �"

• A piece by Samia Nakhoul of Reuters on the end of the Arab summit in Beirut provides a peek into the tent (so to speak) as to why the Saudis have suddenly become peace brokers.

• It seems the final statement was delayed for nearly three hours over the wording regarding where Palestinians can - and cannot - live. According to Nakhoul's report, "Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud [demanded the statement] mention that his country's constitution rejects any settlement of Palestinian refugees on its territory."

• Here's what the Egyptians, the Saudis and the others want to avoid: The Palestinians waking up one morning and saying, "Hey. You know what? There's all this land over here in Egypt. And all this oil money over there in Saudi Arabia. And that Jordan looks like a pretty nice place. Let's move in!"

• From the BBC's Chronology of Key Events in Lebanon:

  June 1967 - Lebanon plays no active role in the [1967] Arab-Israeli war but is to be affected by its aftermath when Palestinians use Lebanon as a base for activities against Israel.

• From the point that Yasir Arafat and (what became) the PLO moved in until May 2000, the history of Lebanon was one of guerrilla actions, foreign occupations, failed peace-keeping missions, civil wars, assassinations, and the total destruction of Beirut which was once a jewel of the Middle East.

• The doctrine is: Keep the Palestinians where they are and they remain Israel's problem. Let them out and they become OUR problem.

• Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post's media maven, pointed us to a column by Joe Klein (Primary Colors, etc.) on the Slate.com site in which Klein discusses another run by Al Gore:

  "Despite winning a bare majority of the popular vote [Gore] was a dreadful candidate in 2000, who somehow managed to turn eight years of peace and prosperity into an electoral burden. He is a smug, stubborn, and aloof human being. He will clutter the race in 2004, suck money from other candidates, force some interesting possibilities from the field, run another awkward, tired, faux-populist campaign and, if nominated, he will lose, more decisively this time, to George W. Bush."

• Klein then goes on, "Democrats should nurture [Gore's] ambition and cherish his ineptitude."

• That's just what I was going to say!
  --END --
  Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

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