Bush sets record-longest vacation in recent history

[Professor Mouse]

Some satire from Andy Borowitz.

BUSH REFUSES TO SET TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM CRAWFORD

Early End to Vacation Would ‘Send Terrible Signal,’

President Says President George W. Bush said today that he understands and respects the views of those who are calling for him to cut short his summer vacation, but warned that an immediate withdrawal from Crawford, Texas would “send a terrible signal to the enemy.”

“The enemy would like nothing better than to see me cut short my vacation and get back to the White House,” Mr. Bush told reporters. “They hate my freedom.”

While the president said that he would withdraw from Crawford “soon,” he refused to set a timetable for his departure from the ranch, saying that much work there still needs to be done.

Mr. Bush, who has been spending much of his vacation clearing brush, said that he is making great progress in training ranch hands to take over that job for him, but cautioned that they are not yet prepared to do the job themselves.

“Once the ranch hands have shown that they are able to clear the brush on their own, I will withdraw from Crawford, but that day has not yet come,” the president said.

Mr. Bush was dismissive of polls showing that the public thinks his current vacation is becoming a quagmire, much like his August 2001 vacation.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan defended the president’s decision to remain in Crawford indefinitely: “President Bush deserves August off, especially when you consider how many summers he had to go to school.”

Elsewhere, actress Angelina Jolie denied reports that she had become a citizen of Cambodia, saying that she and Cambodia were just good friends

Borowitz did well today.

 

[Professor Mouse]

"President Bush talked tough today. He said he's not backing out, he's staying the course for as long as it takes. He's in it for the long haul. Not Iraq---his 5-week vacation."
--Jay Leno

"President Bush is at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and here's the good news: he says he will only stay until Crawford is capable of self rule."
--David Letterman

"President Bush is now in the second week of his five-week vacation down there in Crawford, Texas. He's been taking a lot of criticism for this long vacation and his aides say he has his laptop with him so he can still play Solitaire and Minesweep---so it's business as usual."
--Jay Leno

"In a radio speech this weekend Bush said, 'I will not be satisfied until every American who wants to work can find a job.' Then Bush went back to his five-week vacation."
--Conan O'Brien

"President Bush is on a five-week vacation. From what?"
--David Letterman

"And while President Bush was out of town Hillary Clinton stopped by the White House on Friday for an important meeting with her decorator."
--Jay Leno

 

[Professor Mouse]

I am somewhat surprised that no one has posted the lastest Drudge slime on Cindy Sheehan. Just to save Bet the effort, Cindy Sheehan's husband has filed for divorce. Here is Cindy's Sheehan's response. One Mother's Stand

I apparently am the sacrificial lamb of the peace movement. I don't care about myself. Putting myself in the forefront and daring to challenge the president on his lies left myself open to the attacks. Which are, of course, half truths and distortions.

When they start sliming my home life and my family, that's where I draw the line. Yes, my husband has filed for divorce and yes he filed before I left for the VFP Convention and this trip to Crawford and yes IT IS BETWEEN MY HUSBAND AND I.

Having Casey murdered in Iraq by George Bush's reckless policies has been hard enough on my family, but me setting off on my holy war to bring the troops home, my constant absences, and all of the media attention has put additional stresses on my family.

I chose my path after Casey died. The rest of the family has chosen theirs. We all still love each other and support each other in anything that we do. We didn't want Casey to join the Army, but once he made that decision, we supported him and even encouraged him through boot camp.

We are a normal American family who have had good times, bad times, and terrible times. We hope the good times will come back. We hope that we will be able to laugh with abandon together like we used to one day. We hope that the troops come home and no other families have to go through what we are going through.

It isn't about politics for us. No one asked Casey what political affiliation he was before they sent him off to die in Iraq and no one asked us who we voted for in 2000 before we were handed a folded flag from Casey's flag-draped coffin.

I am not perfect and I never even claimed to be perfect. My family isn't perfect, but we are pretty special ... especially the children. We all miss Casey so much and it is George Bush and his neocon cabal who is at fault. The people who are dragging my family through the mud need to grow up and look at themselves. The Christ said: "He who is without sin, cast the first stone."

If everyone followed Jesus's advice, the world would be a much better place.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

I am somewhat surprised that no one has posted the lastest Drudge slime on Cindy Sheehan. Just to save Bet the effort, Cindy Sheehan's husband has filed for divorce. Here is Cindy's Sheehan's response. One Mother's Stand

She's accusing our President of murder but is suprised by the reaction. Then she talks about stone casting.

The enemy killed her son. I wish the enemy would act more like Jesus.

 

[transparant]

I am somewhat surprised that no one has posted the lastest Drudge slime on Cindy Sheehan. Just to save Bet the effort, Cindy Sheehan's husband has filed for divorce. Here is Cindy's Sheehan's response. One Mother's Stand

This isn't a game Professer. It would be nice if you and everyone else on the left would stop using & exploiting Cindy Sheehan to make your case.

 

[richiebaseball]

This isn't a game Professer. It would be nice if you and everyone else on the left would stop using & exploiting Cindy Sheehan to make your case.

She's a horse to them and they'll ride her until she can't go anymore.

Richard

 

[Lebjwb]

She's a horse to them and they'll ride her until she can't go anymore.

Richard

What was your stand on Schiavo?


Still waiting for the bullet story BTW as long as we're talking about horse related themes.

 

[Professor Mouse]

This isn't a game Professer. It would be nice if you and everyone else on the left would stop using & exploiting Cindy Sheehan to make your case.

This is clearly not a game. The death of her son has destroyed her marriage as noted above. One of Bush's friendly neighbors has fired his shotgun in an attempt to run Cindy Sheehan off. Despite gunshots, mother vows to continue antiwar vigil

CRAWFORD, Texas Undaunted by counter rallies and even a neighbor's gunshot blasts into the air, a woman whose son was killed in Iraq said she would continue her antiwar demonstration near President George W. Bush's ranch here for three more weeks.

"We can't give up, no matter how hard it gets," Cindy Sheehan said Sunday, more than a week after she started the protest in memory of her 24-year-old son, Casey.

Cindy Sheehan is not letting the antics of a crazy Texan with a shotgun stop her protest. I do love this quote from the neighbor.

"I ain't threatening nobody, and I ain't pointing a gun at nobody," Mattlage said. "This is Texas"

On this thread, she has been repeatedly accused of dishonoring the memory of her son. Cindy Sheehan has been slimed by such slime artist as Rush, O'Reilly and Malkin. Here is a sample of Malkin's latest venom. A Mother And the President

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin has called the protesters "terrorist-sympathizing agitators."

Despite these and other attacks, this brave lady goes on.

Anyone who has listened to her or read any of her letters or posts can see that her grief is real. Here is a passage out the Time Magazine article posted above that hit me hard.

At her roadside uprising, Sheehan feels only muted satisfaction. Sitting in a van, momentarily insulated from followers and other reporters, she says more than once that she feels like a failure. Even if the troops came back tomorrow, it would still be too late for her son. "I really failed Casey. I really did," she says, tearing up. Throughout his childhood in California, Casey and his mother were close. An altar boy for 10 years, Casey enlisted in 2000 hoping to make a career as a military chaplain's assistant. He had decided to wait to have sex until he was married. "He took lots of heat for that in the Army. Pat and I always wondered why he would even tell anyone he was still a virgin," Sheehan wrote on TruthOut.org "but he did."

This is not a game. This is a real protest by a real mother with real grief. It is not being staged. Heck when she arrived, they did not have flashlights.

Sheehan's impulsive decision to come to Crawford--with five people, some chairs and no flashlights--has spawned a small phenomenon. A busload of counterprotesters, organized by a conservative radio personality in Dallas, arrived to sing God Bless America. A Japanese peace-activist group donated money for Porta Potties.

This is no game. Anyone who have camped in Texas during the summer in tents covered in fire ants knows that this lady is serious. Any implication that this is all a game or a manufactured protest is simply wrong.

 

[BuckNaked]

She failed her son how? By not talking him out of joining the military (twice)? By not convincing him to run off to Canada to hide?

You would think she would find honor in the fact that her son honored his committments, rather than shame in the fact that she couldn't convince him to dishonor them.

 

[inaminute]

I feel sorry for the woman. I really do.

When this is all over--when her 15 minutes is over--then what? What does she have left? She is allowing herself to be viewed as a victim. And for what? A meeting with the President? If he does meet with her, then what? How will her life be changed? What will a meeting with the President accomplish? Will it bring her son back? Will it cause her husband to decide he really doesn't want a divorce? Will she feel better? Will it make anything better?

I have no doubt that Cindy is grieving her son. However, I believe she IS doing him a disservice. In the future, when his name is mentioned, the responses will be something along the lines of "Oh yeah, wasn't he the kid of that woman who wanted to meet with the President and camped outside his property for five weeks?"

Cindy has managed to turn her son's sacrifice into a story about HER. He has become just her poor dead son. SHE has become the story. HIS story is lost.

What a sad end for this noble young man.

 

[Charade]

(while on "vacation")


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8941525/site/newsweek/?nav=slate

Aug. 22, 2005 issue - The grieving room was arranged like a doctor's office. The families and loved ones of 33 soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan were summoned to a large waiting area at Fort Bragg, N.C. For three hours, they were rotated through five private rooms, where they met with President George W. Bush, accompanied by two Secret Service men and a photographer. Because the walls were thin, the families awaiting their turn could hear the crying inside.


President Bush was wearing "a huge smile," but his eyes were red and he looked drained by the time he got to the last widow, Crystal Owen, a third-grade schoolteacher who had lost her husband in Iraq. "Tell me about Mike," he said immediately. "I don't want my husband's death to be in vain," she told him. The president apologized repeatedly for her husband's death. When Owen began to cry, Bush grabbed her hands. "Don't worry, don't worry," he said, though his choking voice suggested that he had worries of his own. The president and the widow hugged. "It felt like he could have been my dad," Owen recalled to NEWSWEEK. "It was like we were old friends. It almost makes me sad. In a way, I wish he weren't the president, just so I could talk to him all the time."

Bush likes to play the resolute War Leader, and he has never been known for admitting mistakes or regret. But that does not mean that he is free of doubt. For the past three years, Bush has been living in two worlds—unwavering and confident in public, but sometimes stricken in private. Bush's meetings with widows like Crystal Owen offer a rare look inside that inner, private world.

Last week, at his ranch in Texas, he took his usual line on Iraq, telling reporters that the United States would not pull out its troops until Iraq was able to defend itself. While he said he "sympathized" with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, he refused to visit her peace vigil, set up in a tent in a drainage ditch outside the ranch, and sent two of his aides to talk to her instead.

Privately, Bush has met with about 900 family members of some 270 soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The conversations are closed to the press, and Bush does not like to talk about what goes on in these grieving sessions, though there have been hints. An hour after he met with the families at Fort Bragg in June, he gave a hard-line speech on national TV. When he mentioned the sacrifice of military families, his lips visibly quivered.
All war presidents find ways to deal with the strain of sending soldiers off to die. During the Vietnam War, LBJ used to pray after midnight with Roman Catholic monks. Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, prayed with the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church on the eve of the first gulf war. For George W. Bush, these private audiences with the families of dead soldiers and Marines seem to be an outlet of sorts. (They are perhaps harder for Laura, who sometimes accompanies Bush and looks devastated afterward.) Family members interviewed by NEWSWEEK say they have been taken aback by the president's emotionalism and his sincerity. More complicated is the question of whether Bush's suffering is essentially sympathetic, or whether he is agonizing over the war that he chose to start.


Bush routinely asks to see the families of the fallen when he visits military bases, which he does about 10 times a year. It does not appear that the White House or the military makes any effort to screen out dissenters or embittered families, though some families decline the invitation to meet with Bush. Most families encourage the president to stay the course in Iraq. "To oppose something my husband lost his life for would be a betrayal," says Inge Colton, whose husband, Shane, died in April 2004 when his Apache helicopter was shot down over Baghdad. Bush does, however, hear plenty of complaints. He has been asked about missing medals on the returned uniform of a loved one, about financial assistance for a child going to college and about how soldiers really died when the Pentagon claimed the details were classified.

At her meeting with the president at Fort Hood, Texas, last spring, Colton says she lit into Bush for "stingy" military benefits. Her complaints caught Bush "a little off guard," she recalls. "He tried to argue with me a little bit, but he promised he would have someone look into it." The next day she got a call from White House chief of staff Andrew Card, who said the White House would follow up. "My main goal was to have him look at my son, look him in the eyes and apologize," says Colton. "I wanted him to know, to really understand who he has hurt." She says Bush was "attentive, though not in a fake way," and sometimes at a loss for words. "He didn't try to overcompensate," she says.

The most telling—and moving—picture of Bush grieving with the families of the dead was provided by Rachel Ascione, who met with him last summer. Her older brother, Ron Payne, was a Marine who had been killed in Afghanistan only a few weeks before Ascione was invited to meet with Bush at MacDill Air Force Base, near Tampa, Fla.

Ascione wasn't sure she could restrain herself with the president. She was feeling "raw." "I wanted him to look me in the eye and tell me why my brother was never coming back, and I wanted him to know it was his fault that my heart was broken," she recalls. The president was coming to Florida, a key swing state, in the middle of his re-election campaign. Ascione was worried that her family would be "exploited" by a "phony effort to make good with people in order to get votes."

Ascione and her family were gathered with 18 other families in a large room on the air base. The president entered with some Secret Service agents, a military entourage and a White House photographer. "I'm here for you, and I will take as much time as you need," Bush said. He began moving from family to family. Ascione watched as mothers confronted him: "How could you let this happen? Why is my son gone?" one asked. Ascione couldn't hear his answer, but soon "she began to sob, and he began crying, too. And then he just hugged her tight, and they cried together for what seemed like forever."

Ascione's family was one of the last Bush approached. Ascione still planned to confront him, but Bush disarmed her in an almost uncanny way. Ascione is just over five feet; her late brother was 6 feet 7. "My whole life, he used to put his hand on the top of my head and just hold it there, and it drove me crazy," she says. When Bush saw that she was crying, he leaned over and put his hand on the top of her head and drew her to him. "It was just like my brother used to do," she says, beginning to cry at the memory.

Before Bush left the meeting, he paused in the middle of the room and said to the families, "I will never feel the same level of pain and loss you do. I didn't lose anyone close to me, a member of my family or someone that I love. But I want you to know that I didn't go into this lightly. This was a decision that I struggle with every day."

As he spoke, Ascione could see the grief rising through the president's body. His shoulder slumped and his face turned ashen. He began to cry and his voice choked. He paused, tried to regain his composure and looked around the room. "I am sorry, I'm so sorry," he said.

With Richard Wolffe

 

[bcvillastwo]

Yep, just checking--same normal politics around here. Gee it sounds vaguely familiar to the way it sounded when WJC was President but wait, yep it's the other side being a bunch of cry babies.

So what if GWB is taking a 5 week vacation. You people have entirely too much time on your hands (as I do). If you had an ounce of objectivity in you you would at least admit that GWB is completely and totally hooked up to the rest of the world as have most of the President's before him going back to FDR. Do any of you really think that the President is just sitting on the back porch sipping tea. Come on folks you are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[minniepumpernickel]

I feel sorry for the woman. I really do.

When this is all over--when her 15 minutes is over--then what? What does she have left? She is allowing herself to be viewed as a victim. And for what? A meeting with the President? If he does meet with her, then what? How will her life be changed? What will a meeting with the President accomplish? Will it bring her son back? Will it cause her husband to decide he really doesn't want a divorce? Will she feel better? Will it make anything better?

I have no doubt that Cindy is grieving her son. However, I believe she IS doing him a disservice. In the future, when his name is mentioned, the responses will be something along the lines of "Oh yeah, wasn't he the kid of that woman who wanted to meet with the President and camped outside his property for five weeks?"

Cindy has managed to turn her son's sacrifice into a story about HER. He has become just her poor dead son. SHE has become the story. HIS story is lost.

What a sad end for this noble young man.

No one would have ever given this noble young man a second thought if it hadn't been for his mom.

I like Cindy, atleast she speaks out for what she believes in and doesn't hide behind tired, old rhetoric. Take off the rose colored glasses and think for yourself.

 

[Charade]

No one would have ever given this noble young man a second thought if it hadn't been for his mom.

No one???? Doubtful.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

No one???? Doubtful.

Well none of us would have known about him. Is there supposed to be a limit on how many people can feel bad about a soldiers death?

 

[dcentity2000]

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War is something that I despise
For it means destruction of innocent lives
For it means tears in thousands of mothers' eyes
When their sons go out to fight to give their lives

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

War
It's nothing but a heartbreaker
War
Friend only to the undertaker
War is the enemy of all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
Handed down from generation to generation
Induction destruction
Who wants to die

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

War has shattered many young men's dreams
Made them disabled bitter and meanLife is too precious to be fighting wars
each day
War can't give life it can only take it away

War
It's nothing but a heartbreaker
War
Friend only to the undertaker
Peace love and understanding
There must be some place for these things today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord there's gotta be a better way
That's better than
War

War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing

Love that track!



Rich::

 

[Tigger_Magic]

No one would have ever given this noble young man a second thought if it hadn't been for his mom.

This is absurd. A number of major newspapers regularly print articles about Americans who are killed in Iraq. Many that do not do that at least print pictures and some basic details about those killed in action in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These are not just obituaries either. Those who died serving their country in this war are remembered and their sacrifice is made known to many people who never knew them.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

This is absurd. A number of major newspapers regularly print articles about Americans who are killed in Iraq. Many that do not do that at least print pictures and some basic details about those killed in action in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These are not just obituaries either. Those who died serving their country in this war are remembered and their sacrifice is made known to many people who never knew them.

Wow, so he gets one newspaper article. Does that mean that he still shouldn't be highlighted by national news? I'm not following you. I'm one of those people that reads the obits every night, and reads the paper from cover to cover. Who are we to tell a greiving mother that she can't say what she wants about her sons death? Isn't that kind of arrogant?

 

[Charade]

Well none of us would have known about him.

Not necessarily. I'm sure his name has been published around the time of his death. All my local papers write about local soliders that have been killed. I'm sure that many many people were aware (even if strangers) of his death.

But there will be many that will remain unknown by name to most of the rest of the country but that certainly doesn't diminish the sacrifices they made. I mourn for them all, not just the ones with their names published that I read about in the news.

Is there supposed to be a limit on how many people can feel bad about a soldiers death?

Of course not. As stated above, I feel bad for all their deaths even if I don't know their names.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

Wow, so he gets one newspaper article. Does that mean that he still shouldn't be highlighted by national news? I'm not following you. I'm one of those people that reads the obits every night, and reads the paper from cover to cover. Who are we to tell a greiving mother that she can't say what she wants about her sons death? Isn't that kind of arrogant?

It all depends on what one means by "highlighted". The media rarely mentions Ms. Sheehan's son by name. I wonder how many people actually know her son's first name, much less what he did or where he was stationed in Iraq. How many people know how he died or what his unit was doing when he was killed? Does anyone know how old he was, what his rank was, the unit he was assigned to or how long he had been in Iraq? Do you know the names of his siblings or even how many siblings he left behind? (Without using Google to look it up first... )

Very little of that has ever been mentioned by the media and if it is mentioned, it is done in passing.

What is highlighted is Ms. Sheehan and her increasingly outrageous rhetoric (now summed up by "Get out of Iraq, get out of Palestine, I'm not paying any taxes!"). Her son is just barely a footnote on the story.

I've read much of what Ms. Sheehan has written and much of what is written about her protest. She can say anything she wants about her son's death. Odd thing is... she doesn't say that much about it either. It's almost like his death is just a footnote to her political agenda.

This whole story grows sadder and sadder every day.