"The president has gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
> "The president has gone from mission accomplished to
mission miscalculated
> to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil Singer, a spokesman > for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
back to mission possible today. Flip flop flip flop flip flop.
And for the record, I went to work today. (block from the Garden) Not a goddamned thing going on down there except hundreds of overweight cops standing around doing nothing. No tourists, no shoppers, no money coming in. So all this fear-mongering made New York, Boston and Athens ghost towns.
> "cugina" <lamogliepr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:BD5A722F.DE10%lamoglieprima@yahoo.com... > > "The president has gone from mission accomplished to > mission miscalculated > > to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil > Singer, a spokesman > > for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
> back to mission possible today. > Flip flop flip flop flip flop.
> And for the record, I went to work today. (block from the > Garden) Not a goddamned thing going on down there except > hundreds of overweight cops standing around doing nothing. > No tourists, no shoppers, no money coming in. So all this > fear-mongering made New York, Boston and Athens ghost towns.
> Talk about agendas.
Such as supporting the local police...(who will probably vacation here on the Left Coast with all their overtime money...)
> "cugina" <lamogliepr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:BD5A722F.DE10%lamoglieprima@yahoo.com... > > "The president has gone from mission accomplished to > mission miscalculated > > to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil > Singer, a spokesman > > for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
> back to mission possible today. > Flip flop flip flop flip flop.
> And for the record, I went to work today. (block from the > Garden) Not a goddamned thing going on down there except > hundreds of overweight cops standing around doing nothing. > No tourists, no shoppers, no money coming in. So all this > fear-mongering made New York, Boston and Athens ghost towns.
> Talk about agendas.
How about the cute female cop that was standing by your son.
ATHENS, Greece - In less than four days, the party will end. The fountains at the bright new stadiums will turn off, the metal detectors will be packed away and the banners will come down. But businesses in Athens hope that even though the Olympics will soon finish, the coming months will be the beginning of a new era in tourism.
“Next year will be better,” said Maralena Klitsa, who works in the A+A Gallery in Athens oldest neighborhood. The store sells work by Greek artists and opened only two months ago hoping to cash in on the influx of Olympics visitors.
“We don’t know, we just hope. It happened in other places and we think it will happen here too,” she said.
Greece’s tourism industry is also upbeat about the prospects of a post-Games boom.
“The Games are running smoothly, everything is going smoothly, this has given Greece a good image," Yiannis Evangelou, head of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies, told Reuters.
That “good image," seen on television screens around the world, is what travel agencies credit for a recent surge in tour bookings.
“We had a spike in reservations in the days after the opening ceremonies, and it is continuing to increase every day in terms of requests for next year,” said John Klados, vice president of sales and marketing for Homeric Travel, an American agency specializing in tours to Greece.
Still, the Olympics hasn't been all good for tourism. Down-to-the-wire construction, bad publicity, terrorism fears -- some local Athens businesses fear the bad press has impacted the start of the tourist season this year. They report banking on a spike in tourism at the beginning of the summer, but were severely disappointed by a slump in June and July.
“Last year was much better,” said Stelios Theoharidis, the manager of Leather Corner, an Athens shoe store filled with shelves piled high with leather sandals and embroidered slippers. “Sales were down 30 to 40 percent in July.”
The success of the opening ceremony, last-minute travel deals and available tickets to sporting events helped convince many travelers to catch the end of the Olympics and locals say those dreary days at the start of the summer are long forgotten.
At the Swatch store, which opened only for August, business during the Games has been better than expected. The Olympic sponsor painted the street outside like a track and set up outdoor art exhibitions, helping contribute to the festive atmosphere in the city. Their work paid off. The store is almost always packed in the evenings and the temporary branch was selling around 150 watches a day.
On Saturday the Swatch store will move out, and on Monday the crowds that now fill the streets will begin to fill the airport. But permanent shops in the area deflect any negative talk that once the crowds leave the cash will leave with them.
“I try to keep my nerves calm,” Theoharidis said. “If the Greek government advertises and makes people want to come then it will be ok.”
Visitors find way to Mass.: Tourism industry rebounds
Strong hotel bookings into next year and rising room rates have Massachusetts tourism insiders declaring that the good times are starting to roll again for the Bay State's $11 billion visitor industry. After hitting highs in 2000, occupancy and room rates fell sharply in 2001 amid an economic downturn that was exacerbated by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But room prices and occupancy rates appear to be rising. ``We might actually be out of that tunnel,'' Art Canter, president of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, said at the annual industry forecast meeting yesterday.
The occupancy rate at Boston and Cambridge hotels averaged 67.2 percent through May, compared with 63 percent in the same period last year. While still well off the peak average of $200 in 2000, average daily room rates in Boston and Cambridge jumped 4 percent, to nearly $150, through May of this year, compared with $145 through the first five months of last year, figures from the Boston-based Pinnacle Advisory Group show.
Pinnacle forecasts that average room rates will hit $166 next year, while occupancy rates will climb to 75 percent. ``It certainly picked up beginning in March,'' said Rick Colangelo, general manager with the 18-month-old Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge. ``May was tremendous. June's been great. Obviously July's going to be great.''
Tens of thousands of delegates, press and hangers-on are expected to descend on the Hub next week as the Democratic National Convention comes to town at the end of the month, promising to keep the area's hotels jammed. Looking further ahead, economist Adam Clayton-Matthews said local visitor industry employment should grow by 8 percent to 10 percent in the next two years, bringing it closer to pre-2001 levels. As of 2002, the state's visitor industry employed 224,200 people, according to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.
Matthews noted that business travel is the most important piece of the state's visitor economy. ``When business in Massachusetts is booming, the visitor industry does well,'' he said. Matt Arrants, managing partner with Pinnacle, said bookings at Boston's six largest hotels for next year have been strong and should surpass this year's level. Citywide convention bookings for next year are on par with this year, with 18 big meetings booked so far.
So far, fewer hotel rooms are expected to be used next year, but factoring out the DNC impact, convention-related hotel bookings are expected to be up next year. Still, Canter and others cautioned that world and economic events can quickly turn the tourism tide, as happened with Sept. 11, 2001, and the Iraq war. ``Obviously hearing the concerns being raised about a terrorist action taking place in the United States, those kinds of things are the things that close the spigot on tourism,'' he said. ``That's why I'm cautiously optimistic.''
> > So all this > > fear-mongering made New York, Boston and Athens ghost towns.
> > Talk about agendas.
You can find all the links you want. My family is in Boston. They saw it and felt it. I'm in New York. I see it and feel it. And we all saw the empty stands in Athens. Fake terrorist threats sent everyone out of town this week. And kept people from coming in.
What you're reading is public relations, not news.
Hyfler/Rosner wrote: > "The Kentucky Wizard" <KentuckyWiz...@NOSPAMwalla.com> wrote > in message news:GraZc.94428$Fg5.80563@attbi_s53... >> Hyfler/Rosner wrote:
>>> So all this >>> fear-mongering made New York, Boston and Athens ghost towns.
>>> Talk about agendas.
> You can find all the links you want. My family is in > Boston. They saw it and felt it. I'm in New York. I see > it and feel it. And we all saw the empty stands in Athens. > Fake terrorist threats sent everyone out of town this week. > And kept people from coming in.
> What you're reading is public relations, not news.
And, what you're stating is not news, but rather an opinion.
> >And, what you're stating is not news, but rather an opinion.
> Bingo wiz. Lefties can never differentiate between the facts and their > opinions.
Well, here's some news, boys. I just ran into Mayor Bloomberg on the street and got to tell him what I think of the police state he's created here thanks to his collusion with the RNC. (at last count, over 2000 people penned up on a pier on the Hudson River, many of them arrested for doing nothing more than walking down the street, or coming up out of the subway, or just exercising their right to speak freely. Imagine that. Someone wanted to hold up a banner at the New York Public Library. The nerve.)
I just wanted him to know he had lost my vote and probably many, many more.
His bodyguards moved to their weapons. This being NYC, those were cell phones.
I didn't hang around to see what would happen next. I'm not as brave as my son..
A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet asked me to comment on camera about the difference between elephants and donkeys. I declined.
In Central Park, the traffic is closed for the convention. But there was a steady stream of RNC buses going through the Park.
NOT STOPPING AT A SINGLE RED LIGHT.
But then, bicyclists are the real threat to civilization.
> Well, here's some news, boys. I just ran into Mayor > Bloomberg on the street and got to tell him what I think of > the police state he's created here thanks to his collusion > with the RNC. (at last count, over 2000 people penned up on > a pier on the Hudson River, many of them arrested for doing > nothing more than walking down the street, or coming up out > of the subway, or just exercising their right to speak > freely. Imagine that. Someone wanted to hold up a banner > at the New York Public Library. The nerve.)
I admire your courage, Amelia. You're one gutsy broad and a true patriot.
What worries me is that this is just a dim reflection of what is to come if Bush and his cabal of thugs are reelected.
>From: "Hyfler/Rosner" >Well, here's some news, boys. I just ran into Mayor >Bloomberg on the street and got to tell him what I think of >the police state he's created here thanks to his collusion >with the RNC.
Cue the Twilight Zone theme.
Democrats will risk the country for the election. Republicans will risk the election for the country.
> A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet asked me > to comment on camera about the difference between elephants > and donkeys. I declined.
in article zfsZc.107611$mD.19610@attbi_s02, The Kentucky Wizard at KentuckyWiz...@NOSPAMwalla.com wrote on 9/1/04 5:42 PM:
> Hyfler/Rosner wrote:
>> A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet asked me >> to comment on camera about the difference between elephants >> and donkeys. I declined.
> *LOL*
Their cugunas (or cajones) are both about the same size this year...
> > A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet asked me > > to comment on camera about the difference between elephants > > and donkeys. I declined.
Hyfler/Rosner wrote: > "The Kentucky Wizard" <KentuckyWiz...@NOSPAMwalla.com> wrote > in message news:zfsZc.107611$mD.19610@attbi_s02... >> Hyfler/Rosner wrote:
>>> A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet asked me >>> to comment on camera about the difference between elephants >>> and donkeys. I declined.
>> *LOL*
> I know. You can't make this stuff up.
What in the world was Animal Planet doing in downtown New York? Don't they have something better to do, like filming alligators fighting or studying the mating habits of the common beetle?
> Hyfler/Rosner wrote: > > "The Kentucky Wizard" <KentuckyWiz...@NOSPAMwalla.com> wrote > > in message news:zfsZc.107611$mD.19610@attbi_s02... > >> Hyfler/Rosner wrote:
> >>> A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet asked me > >>> to comment on camera about the difference between elephants > >>> and donkeys. I declined.
> >> *LOL*
> > I know. You can't make this stuff up.
> What in the world was Animal Planet doing in downtown New York? Don't > they have something better to do, like filming alligators fighting or > studying the mating habits of the common beetle?
> > > A few minutes later, a film crew from Animal Planet > asked me > > > to comment on camera about the difference between > elephants > > > and donkeys. I declined.
> > *LOL*
> I know. You can't make this stuff up.
You're 15 minutes. I would have loved to see that interview.
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message <news:41350a47$0$19725$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>... > "cugina" <lamogliepr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:BD5A722F.DE10%lamoglieprima@yahoo.com... > > "The president has gone from mission accomplished to > mission miscalculated > > to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil > Singer, a spokesman > > for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
