Americablog: Issues Bush Didn't Rush Back To D.C. For...

This has been touched on in other threads, but I like how Michael at americablog sums it up:

"http://americablog.org

Bush Rushes Back To DC! Ends Vacation!
by Michael in New York - 3/21/2005 01:46:00 AM

Yes, as you already know, Bush ended his vacation early -- a virtually unprecendented act for a President who spends a LOT of time on vacation -- and rushed back to DC so he could score political points on the painful private decision surrounding Terri Schiavo. Obviously, this took hours and hours of time when the papers he went to sign could have been flown to him in Texas without much difference. But this issue was too important and he wanted to spend hours flying there to emphasize to the far right how he had come through for them.

Now let's think about the many other times when Bush couldn't be bothered to spend an hour or two on an issue and decide if any of them were more important.

1. The tsunami victims -- More than 100,000 people died in the worst natural disaster of our lifetime. Millions were left homeless. It happened just after Christmas and hit hard our staunch ally, Thailand. (Many, many Muslims were devastated by this disaster.) Bush couldn't be bothered to step outside for FIVE minutes and offer his heartfelt sympathy to an event that had the rest of the world riveted and shocked. It took Bush DAYS to do anything, even after his aides had bungled our first offer of aid.

2. Investigating 9/11 with Congress -- Bush spent months hemming and hawing and avoiding having to meet with the bipartisan panel trying to look into the worst attack on US soil in history. He finally, grudgingly, spent a few hours but insisted he appear with Cheney by his side, cause they were busy and needed to get this over with.

3. Heck, 9/11 itself -- On the day of the worst attack on US soil in our history, Bush spent hours and hours flying around the country when he could have just spent a few minutes to get in front of a camera and reassure the nation that he was in charge and we'd get through this.

4. Military funerals -- Bush is the first President in US history during wartime (and presumably peacetime as well) who has refused to attend a SINGLE military funeral to honor one of our fallen soldiers. It's not just the couple of hours he can't be bothered to spend; Bush thinks it would be bad politics to remind people that young men and women die in war, so why bother honoring them? They can take a hit on the battlefield, but Bush won't risk taking a hit in the polls. And if things are going so swimmingly in Iraq, why does he STILL refuse to honor our military?

Got any examples of your own?"

By the way, I know I have a dangling participle in my subject line, but it just sounds more dramatic that way. Also, I inadvertently posted this in Latest Breaking News. I meant to put it in General Discussion: Politics.

The bill he signed in Texas will though.

I am so depressed by this shit. Just when you think it couldn't possibly get worse so quickly, this hits the fan, and we get shit blown all over us. He remains rosy and clean, his followers and believers lapping it up like pigs in slop.

edited for sleepy spelling...

It was read to him on the morning of August 6. He went fishing. And golfing. And brush-cutting. He stayed in Crawford until after Labor Day, despite the warnings of imminent terror attacks in the U.S.

Remember the title of that PDB - "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the US"? Remember the descriptions of George Tenet with his hair on fire over that one? And he couldn't be bothered to move his ass out of his precious golf cart, no less climb on Air Force One and come home to check into it a little more.

...What's the difference between bin Laden and John Kerry?


















Bush will cut his vacation short to attack John Kerry.

this whole circus is repulsive.........

"After receiving a Minute issued by a priggish civil servant, objecting to the ending of a sentence with a preposition and the use of a dangling participle in official documents, Churchill red pencilled in the margin: "This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put."

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Start wars? Create huge deficits? Condone Torture? Be more specific, freeper.

was president? Two days out of every five? That's the bush rate so far - at leats 40 percent of his time since he's been pResident has been spent on vacation somewhere. Worse even than Reagan's record.

He's got Clinton beat all to hell on that one. The Big Dog actually THINKS.

Clinton isn't president. We will never know what he would have done in all the above mentioned scenarios, because they didn't happen on his watch. Let me be the first to say, see ya. You are most likely a bush sympathizer and probably won't last long around here.

Clinton did not ignore security briefings or hopscotch all over the country like a yellow coward on 9/11. Clinton faced problems head on and he didn't need to stack the crowd with friendly people because he could discuss all questions intelligently and completely. King Chimpy can be anywhere he wants for stuff when he needs to pander to his sheeple but conveniently ignores real problems. He'll take a vacation while Medicare goes broke, 46 million people don't have health care, jobs are being shipped overseas, the government is going broke but he'll hurry back to DC (wonder how much that little plane trip cost us?) to sign a blatantly partisan pandering for one woman to appease the neocons.

left tons of information on BinLaden and Al-Quida and Bush and company ignored it. They also ignored Richard Clarke just because he worked with Clinton. :grr:

For an illiterate.

I know that Clinton got to NYC before Bush did after 9/11. And he had been in Australia.

Of course, he worked hard to ensure that the "minor" attack on the WTC (that happened early in his first term) was not repeated. His successor is the one who allowed 3,000 people to die.

Okay, I have to admit that I didn't like him all that much, but at least I had to respect his results.

When he took us to war in Bosnia (which I was against), he didn't go on vacation. When our soldiers died there and in Somalia and all, he went to their funerals.

Why is it that people keep giving Bush chance after chance after chance? Oh, he's working hard, 'cause it's such hard work--well, he wanted the job and should've known better than almost anyone (his dad having had it and all) just how freakin' hard it is! Give me a break!

But Shrub Could Give A Crap About The "Whole" Nation...He's A Half Wit Doing A Half Assed Job For Half The Country...

like he said in the first debate: I"'m working so hard...nights and weekends."

The man had to be AWAKENED to sign this bill. He probably didn't even know what he signed. :evilfrown:

I mean, that seems so contrived. It fits the wholesome, hard work ethic, cowboy image that he's been trying to manufacture and not the party-boy image he's had for years. It smacks of spin and image control, not reality to me.

The Big Dog made time for compassion, because he is a truly compassionate human being.

busholini only makes time for political expediency. He's NEVER ANYWHERE FOR ANYTHING except to do the bidding of his powere elite overlords.

real emergencies like a real president, took a lot less time pandering around when it was important. I had problems with Clinton, but at least he did a good job overall.

Oh, welcome to DU, dissenting opinions are welcome as long as they remain polite.

when the Atlanta bombing happened he was right on that right away. Not like Bush and flew around Air Force One for two hours while real hero's did the work and he flew down and took the victory claim. :argh:

Pass the buck off of your fucking schumck!

This is about Bush and you pass it off on Clinton?

Don't you have a rock to crawl back under?

n/t

Too bad they can't expend this level of energy and concern over healthy Americans dying in Iraq.

This really big show is being performed to divert the media attention from the second anniversary of Bush's War and the anniversary protests.
It is also orchestrated to take the heat off of ethically challenged Tom DeLay. That is why he is one of the main entertainers. He wants this grandstanding to stick in the minds of his constituents and not the trials of his co-conspirators against democracy.

This was such a staged reaction on his part!!

Wasn't he and poppy on a fishing trip? and he didn't even come home then. If I remember correctly. I mean, family values and all.

Is this a case of a President who values life soooo much, that he would (que patriotic music) Cut short his vacation and valiantly fly back to Washington to save Terry Shiavo's life? Or is this a case of (cue Dueling banjo's from Deliverance)a pandering opportunistic little weasel, showing the right-wing losers that he's one of them. I choose to believe the latter. Bush does not give 2 craps about this lady. But he'll use her case to further his warped and twisted right to life agenda. Shameful.

while in office? Anybody know for sure?

during his 1st term he was in Washington 60% of the time. The rest was spent at Camp David, Kennebunkport, or the pig farm in Crawford.
If had a 40% absenteeism rate when I was working, I'd have been bounced out the door within 6 months. bush.........was reselected.



:wtf:

Remember Cheney calling John Edwards "Senator Gone" when he criticized Edwards' attendance?

Hypocrite!!!

Sad really. Bunch of jackasses. Does anybody have a record of how many times Edwards has been missing?

This guy is a simp and a chump and a chimp and a sump-pump... he's a mystery wrapped up in an enigma hidden within an idiot grin... and I find it interesting that the only time he seems to want to prolong a life is if it horribly wretched and hideous and pain-filled and pointless...
This is Bush's transparent government; we get to see right into the night-dark soul of soullessness itself...
Poor Terri Schiavo, to be used in this fashion, and to have no voice to tell these opportunistic bacteria that are our "leaders" to go fuck themselves!
Well, I'm here to say it for her...

but din't want to leave Florida without finishing "My Pet Goat."

Maybe someone can help me with this - how difficult would it be to consider some kind of online petition drive demanding that Congress adhere to the separation of powers and refrain from the type of constitutional meddling we witnessed this weekend?

Is it possible for a group...like us. . .or anyone else, to inexpensive construct and write a petition text to gather signatures protesting Congress? I have this feeling that we could get lots of signatures - it seems like many people are upset that Congress did this at all.

A relative Republican tried to bait me about Shaivo. I did not take the bait and said "I do not have time to worry about this, no matter who wins someone loses." He was in such shock he totally shut up.

I doubt if the average repug is really concerned about this. Bush is playing for the choir and I do not think they are listening to him. Let him waste his time, while he uses more of our tax money to whip up support for something no one really wants to hear.

People (usually Americans) always say "more than 100 000" when referring to the number of people died during the tsunami disaster.

Last I heard the number was more than 270.000, but this wasn't a two-day story in Europe, of course. Was that elitist and too harsh? Sorry if it was.

Anyway, more than 115.000 died in Indonesia alone.

Can a monkey cop a break here? He had reasons for the incidents you cited, but you obviously refuse to look beyond liberal rhetoric. I'm going to shame you DUers with the truth:

1. The damned teleprompter was on the blink....

2. Yes, he resisted going before the 9/11 Commission. As you say, it was bipartisan and he feared his presence would suggest bias.
As for Cheney's presence, apparently most are unaware of the executive order Bush signed that very morning, oddly enough, declaring "Follow Your Boss Day" across America.

3. We didn't need reassurance. We knew that, like God, our President does his best work behind the scenes and out of sight. Besides, the most tuned-in, perceptive Christians were already well aware why we were attacked that day. It's them damned gays!

4. And, finally, his attitude concerning our lost soldiers? Visitors to the White House have reported hearing the phrase "Monkey on the floor!" and, with that, everyone knew not to bother the President as he was face down on the floor in the private residence weeping before God about our lost soldiers in Iraq. He has no desire to be perceived as a great, John Wayne-type, war hero/resolute commander-in-chief/pilot extraordinaire President.
He just wants our soldiers safe. Sniff.

LOL! --- That is a good one!

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/03/bush-rushes-back-to-dc-ends-vacation.html

That way, people who access this thread weeks, months, years from now will be able to access the original article.

he IS the president and should act like one. He is a retard. He has absolutely NO power. Everyday I believe that more and more. #3 in the original post, for example. If you read the 9-11 diary, Cheney wouldn't let him back to DC. Cheney called the shots on taking the last errant plane down. Bush doesn't have a friggin clue what's going on because he is intellectually lazy. Just like Terry's husband said, he left for Washington knowing nothing and he has never even met her. And the fact that someone told him to sign legislation in TX, as governor, to pull plugs on poor people, and more recently cap medical malpractice and cut Medicaid benefits (the opposite being the two reasons she is even still alive) just shows he has no moral compass whatsoever. Just proves he is being fed what to say and what to believe. If you have a cabal running the show - each member has their own agenda to feed him -- thus the gross hypocrisy and inconsistency.