WP, pg A03: Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.
....
Sometimes this activity is the only official news to come out of what aides call the Western White House. For five straight days since Monday, when Bush retreated to the ranch for his Christmas sojourn, a spokesman has announced that the president, in between intelligence briefings, calls to advisers and bicycling, has spent much of his day clearing brush.
....
For Bush, who is known to spend early-morning hours hacking at unwanted mesquite, cocklebur weeds, hanging limbs and underbrush only to go back for more after lunch, it borders on obsession.

Aides are corralled to help, although Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a frequent guest, has escaped brush duty. "The tradecraft she uses to get out of it is highly confidential, and I can't discuss it," said national security adviser Steven J. Hadley. To date, no visiting foreign leaders have been conscripted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001326.html


I miss her.

180

a little unbalanced???

And I'd say unbalanced is being generous. He comes across as pure batshit crazy.

That, too :evilgrin:

Veterans for Peace holiday vigil in Crawford to ask: "Who would Jesus bomb?"
http://crawfordpeace.nfshost.com/node/2278
We got this notice from Veterans for Peace.

"WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?" Is Theme for Vigils at Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas Beginning December 24, 2005

Christmas and New Year’s Actions Will Call For Bush to Bring the Troops Home in 2006

Crawford, TX –A new chapter of Veterans For Peace was formed in Crawford, Texas over the Thanksgiving holiday. According to Ann Wright, a retired US Army Colonel and a former Deputy Ambassador who was elected President of the new chapter, over 40 members were signed up during Thanksgiving week at Camp Casey II.

Cindy Sheehan, whose trip to Crawford, Texas in August to talk to the president about the "noble cause" for which her son Casey died in the Iraq War turned into a month-long anti-war vigil, was named an Honorary Member of the new Camp Casey Chapter of Veterans For Peace.

"The main objective of this Camp Casey Chapter of Veterans For Peace is to bring veterans and peace activists from around the country to Crawford, Texas to protest the Iraq War whenever George W. Bush is at his ranch," reported Carl Rising-Moore, an anti-war activist from Indiana who is the Field Organizer for the chapter. "This is not meant to be a mass demonstration. It will involve just a few people, but it will be on-going. When Cindy returns to Crawford at Easter, we expect larger numbers of activists to join her."

Starting at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve, members and supporters of Veterans For Peace will stand in the bar ditches at the Secret Service checkpoints leading to the Bush ranch holding banners with the message: "WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?"

Peace activists who supported Cindy Sheehan and came to Crawford at Thanksgiving displayed similar banners to friends of President Bush who were arriving to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Bush family.

After Christmas, the theme will change to: OUT OF IRAQ IN 2006. Veterans For Peace will demand an immediate cease-fire in Iraq by our government and an orderly withdrawal of American troops in the early months of 2006.

Twelve protestors were arrested in November as they challenged the new McLennan County laws that prevented people from "living in the ditches" along roads leading to the Bush ranch. Both Ann Wright and Carl Rising-Moore were among the so-called "Prairie Chapel 12" arrestees, which included Daniel Ellsberg and DeDe Miller, Cindy Sheehan’s sister.

"That action was intended to assert our Constitutional rights under the First Amendment," said Rising-Moore.

"It is not illegal to stand in the ditches and hold signs and banners, so we do not anticipate any arrests during the Christmas and New Years’ actions. However, President Bush will not be able to ignore our presence and our message. Over 2100 US troops have died in Iraq. Enough is enough. Not one more!"

Why is this a reasonable use of time for the president of the United States of America?

Is he going to build something, or farm something?

Or is this busy work, for the world's most powerful man?


While a grieving mother asks, unheeded, for a reason her son died for something other than protecting his country.


Shame.

fresh cedar, mom natures own hydro

You really are a big tough rootin tootin cowboy not the wimpass draft dodgin mama's boy people have called you behind your back all these years. Now give the fuckin cedar trees a break will you? (Unless you pretend they're democrats as you chop them down).

that would be W's only contribution to mankind. If only he would dedicate more of his life to extinguishing that nuisance plant, we'd all breathe freer--in more ways than one. Let's urge him to resign and focus on the real enemy, cedar fever.

A NYT piece weighs which Supreme Court justice is funniest

So, Guy Walks Up to the Bar, and Scalia Says...

Justice Antonin Scalia's wit is widely admired, and now it has been quantified. He is, a new study concludes, 19 times as funny as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.....

http://nytimes.com/2005/12/31/politics/31mirth.html?hp&ex=1136091600&en=b2a0536a19e4bf28&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Reagan rode a horse and chopped wood. Bush rides a bike and chops underbrush.

hacking away at it 5 years later?

My late husband, rest his soul, used to say that Jr had an obsessive compulsive disorder and needed a shrink because he kept yammering on and on about how Saddam tried to kill his father. It really annoyed the hell out of Mr. Silly Goose.

You do realize that he has taken one full year off in vacation time now. Ain't that a kick in the pants. One full year of vacation in 5 years of the presidency.

the whole state of Texas doesn't have that much brush for him to cut in the first place! the place would be bare by now.

He makes himself appear to be an obsessive. Enough already with the brush. Go slop some hogs or something. Sheesh, no wonder Laura likes the xanax.

vacation on my damn dime!!!!!!! Lazy POS!

Shouldn't there be some sort of award given? Or at least an official announcement? Bush has now spent one year out of his 5 or so in office farting around on his vanity ranch?

If only al Qaeda played as much hooky as the First Lawn Boy.

One solid fugging year.

since Bush came to power!

oh, he gets paid? never mind. my bad.

first president to clear 10,000 miles of brush?
OK YOU WINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN already!

For every swing, there's probably a name muttered under his
breath too...and this one's for ____ and this one's for ____
them motherfreakin' commies :nuke: It's therapy. Therapist says,
no no no you can't nuke California George, go clear some brush.

...beats running around the WH, drunk on scotch, talking to Lincoln's ghost and yelling at Kennedy's portrait.

Lil shrub is cracking. Keep throwing those balls, people! :)

a chain saw. I don't think he even knows which end to hold.

For example ...