Does Bush Take Convenient Vacations?

[goclark]

1)I am wondering what the real reasons are for his 32 day vacation in August before Sept 11th.

Did the fear of OBL have anything to do with it?

Was he in a more "secure location" for a reason?
Did he know more than they cared to tell us?
Was it because he was just so so tired from all the hard work at the WH?

2) Just before 9 11 why was he conveniently in Texas again?
Did he really care about Reading to a 2nd grade class(even though that is his readability level?}

3) When did he plan his "Spring Break?" I didn't know that President's needed to take a rest.

Is it a coincidence that his "lack of focus" needed to be addressed far away from the WH eyes and ears at his Back Drop Ranch Rehab in Crawford Texas?

There seem to be some dots to connect here.

[kixot]

1. Does a bear shit in the woods? n/t

[kskiska]

2. Here's what he did today:

I had this up in LBN, but overzealous mods filed it under Iraq casualties.

By Dana Milbank and Robin Wright

(snip)

Bush spent the morning watching national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's televised testimony to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, then toured his ranch with Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and other leaders of hunting groups and gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal. He is not scheduled to appear in public until Sunday, when he will visit nearby Fort Hood, the home base for seven soldiers recently killed in Baghdad.

Democrats criticized Bush for taking the Easter-week vacation while U.S. forces are struggling to put down an uprising in Iraq. Campaigning in Milwaukee, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, said: "I notice President Bush is taking some days off down at Crawford, Texas, and I'm told that when he takes days off, you know, he totally relaxes: He doesn't watch television, he doesn't read the newspapers, he doesn't make long-term plans, doesn't worry about the economy. I thought about that for a moment. I said, sounds to me like it's just like life in Washington, doesn't it?"

White House communications director Dan Bartlett retorted that Bush is "not skiing" in Texas, as Kerry did on a recent vacation in Idaho. He said Bush remains in contact with his military advisers and is spending Easter weekend with his family. "Most Americans will understand that," Bartlett said.

This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62524-2004Apr8?language=printer

[Lisa]

3. well, I'm glad he's "not skiing"

At least he's bright enough to know he would bruise himself up even worse than with that pretzel, if he went sliding down those snowless slopes at his "ranch". What an inane comment for Bartlett to make!

[izzie]

11. Maybe we should be happy. Look at the mess he has made.

It may be even more so if he put in maybe a 20 hours week. 15 hrs is all this country can take. What a way for the tax payers to spend their money, on one lazy guy.

[Sparkly]

13. "Not skiing" = Bush superiority?

No doubt the chimp CAN'T ski, anyway. Can't even ride a horse.

[TahitiNut]

15. "233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office"?!!

My, isn't that a funny coincidence? It was 233 days into his White House nap that 9-11 happened, too.

[Vickers]

4. I'll tellya one thing: each time he goes on vacation now...

...I call the airlines and cancel any upcoming flights.

[linazelle]

5. Is the sky blue? n/t

[coloradodem2005]

6. I want him to take a permanent vacation.

Leave Washington and never come back and let real leaders take over.

[Technowitch]

7. Convenient?

Hell, I think he simply doesn't take the job very seriously.

Except the parts where he gets to be a "war president". He clearly relishes that part... provided nobody gets to uppity as to ask him to justify himself.

As he said, "I'm the commander—see, I don't need to explain—I do not need to explain why I say things," he told Bob Woodward. "That's the interesting thing about being president."

[BillZBubb]

8. He's always on vacation

or fund raising.

[Stephanie]

9. That's not a vacation.

That's "staying out of harm's way."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During the spring as initial policy debtes in the Administration begain, I e-mailed Condi Rice and NSDC STaff colleagues that al Queda was trying to kill Americans, to have hundreds of dead in the streets of America. During the first week in July I convened the CSG and asked each agency to consider itself on full alert. I asked the CSG agencies to cancel summer vacations and official travel for the counterterrorism response staffs. Each agency should report anything unusual, even if a sparrow should fall from a tree. I asked FBI to send another warning to the 18,000 police departments, State to alert the embassies, and the Defense Department to go to Threat Condition Delta. The Navy moved ships out of Bahrain.

- Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, p. 236

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Secrets of September 11

April 30 (2003) — Even as White House political aides plot a 2004 campaign plan designed to capitalize on the emotions and issues raised by the September 11 terror attacks, administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the attacks.

<snip>

Some sources who have read the still-secret congressional report say some sections would not play quite so neatly into White House plans. One portion deals extensively with the stream of U.S. intelligence-agency reports in the summer of 2001 suggesting that Al Qaeda was planning an upcoming attack against the United States—and implicitly raises questions about how Bush and his top aides responded. One such CIA briefing, in July 2001, was particularly chilling and prophetic. It predicted that Osama bin Laden was about to launch a terrorist strike “in the coming weeks,” the congressional investigators found. The intelligence briefing went on to say: “The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning.”

The substance of that intelligence report was first disclosed at a public hearing last September by staff director Hill. But at the last minute, Hill was blocked from saying precisely who within the Bush White House got the briefing when CIA director Tenet classified the names of the recipients. (One source says the recipients of the briefing included Bush himself.) As a result, Hill was only able to say the briefing was given to “senior government officials.”

www.msnbc.com/news/907379.asp?0cv=KA01

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summer Spinning
Aug 29, 2001

<snip>

The White House had announced that Bush would stay at his 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford from Aug. 4 through Labor Day on Sept. 3, a 31-day stretch that would have broken a modern record for a presidential vacation, held by Richard M. Nixon for a 30-day trip to San Clemente, Calif., in 1969. News reports played up the record, and a Gallup Poll found that 55 percent of respondents thought Bush's vacation was too long.

The length of the trip revived old questions about Bush's work ethic, and the poll and the news coverage caused consternation in the White House. Aides said they had planned an ambitious schedule for Bush as long ago as late June, but reporters were not told about it, even after they landed here. The White House, suddenly defensive, took every opportunity to show Bush on the go and even created a "Western White House" logo for the briefing room at Crawford Elementary School. Bush revealed that his ranch had new video conferencing equipment for keeping in touch with his national security team.

www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A15957-2001

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A Working Vacation
Aug. 15, 2001

Vice President Dick Cheney took time off from his month-long working vacation Monday to outline his plans for August in Jackson Hole and to reflect on "an amazing year."

Cheney, who will live at his Teton Pines home about six miles west of Jackson until Labor Day, defended his energy policy, supported a local decision to limit drilling around the Gros Ventre Wilderness, recalled a life of service in Washington and said his health problems are not affecting his ability to fish for trout on his favorite Western waters.

www.jacksonholenews.com/Archives/NewsArchive/2001/010815-News.html

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Ashcroft Flying High
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001

(CBS) Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml

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[leftofthedial]

10. It just seems like it because

1. he takes so many long vacations

2. the bushgang is perpetually screwing things up.

[bywho4who]

12. Perpetually

When you lack intelligence as much as this guy, everyday is a vacation:freak: :shrug: :silly: :wtf: :beer:




:smoke: :hippie:

[fla nocount]

14. The Pretzel orders the "vacations"

...."out of the way boy, do you want a reminder?"

I'm continually amazed by how easily we all slide into the assumption that this clown is allowed to make any decision. It gives us a central focus to hate I suppose, maybe it's a human need.