Why those Bush state dinners end so early
Pumpkin Head
This John Allen Muhammad, the alleged Washington sniper, is more than just a little particular when it comes to his eats. We already knew that he wanted a vegan diet--sunflower seeds, peanut butter, salad, and dressing--while in Virginia Beach standing trial for murder. But his prison guards say what he got wasn't up to snuff. So they've given in to his latest demands: pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds and a dry salad.
Times Are Tough
Forget snipers or the occasional suicide bomber. What's really got New York Times reporters in Baghdad up in arms is--housing. Seems that they've been crammed into a five-bedroom house with only two bathrooms and no place to entertain visitors. That might be tolerable except that in the same neighborhood Washington Post reporters are living it up in spacious digs complete with a swimming pool. Not to worry, says a Times man. "We're going to get a better place than they have."
Breaking News
FBI Director Robert Mueller is apparently getting tired of learning key terrorism info from folks outside his team, like those who work for the Justice Department or Homeland Security. So he's got a warning: If his agents aren't the first to tell him what he needs to know, they'll be fired. The result, says a Justice insider: "Every little tidbit of useless information is going to headquarters from the field office, and they're getting inundated."
Clinton Vs. Clark
We're finally going to see just which Little Rock bubba the public likes more: Bill Clinton or Wes Clark. We hear that the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau is reprinting Clinton's Little Rock tour book and coming out with Wes Clark's guide to the city. Why repeat Clinton? Tourists are making the city library crazy with requests for his discontinued guide. But don't expect the address to Gennifer Flowers's apartment. It's mostly stuff like his old law firm and golf course. Clark's is just a tad more interesting, including his favorite deli and swim club.
Modern Nostradamus
It's getting a little weird being Joel Rosenberg, the New York Times bestseller of terrorism thrillers and speechwriter in Steve Forbes's 2000 presidential campaign. First, he wrote The Last Jihad about a terrorist's kamikaze attack on a U.S. city and the subsequent hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. That was well before 9/11. Now he has written The Last Days, which opens with a Palestinian attack on a U.S. convoy, just like what happened a few weeks back. And look out, Yasser Arafat: Rosenberg offs you on Page 28. "People," said Rosenberg, "are starting to think these books are ripped from tomorrow's headlines."
Pizza Party
For the U.S. soldiers and civilians stuck in Baghdad's protected "green zone," finding good takeout is tough. But in an Iraq success story that's easy to understand, that's changing. It happened when a pizza joint opened just beyond the military checkpoint. We're told that U.S. officials with the new Iraqi government helped the pizza parlor get one of the coveted American-coded cellphones so that the store could take orders from the zone. Now the restaurant, the only business with such a phone, is working overtime to fill the orders, one of which was for an amazing 160 pies.
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With Angie Cannon, Jodie T. Allen, Chitra Ragavan, Suzi Parker and Kevin Whitelaw
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