WP: Increasingly, Bush Escapes the Media Pack (+ info on Cheney's security

[kskiska]

Press Cuts Converge With Closed Events

Saturday, August 12, 2006; A01

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- On one of the scariest days yet in the five-year battle with terrorists, President Bush prepared to make a speech to reassure the American people. But the White House press corps was 1,000 miles away in Texas.

Bush had left his ranch vacation and jetted north for a scheduled closed-door fundraiser. No press plane accompanied him. And so when news broke that Britain had broken up a major terrorist plot, the only ones there to convey the president's reaction were a handful of local reporters and a few pool journalists who ride in the back of Air Force One.

(snip)

Bush is not the only one to find ways of escaping much public notice as he flies around the country. Vice President Cheney manages to leave Washington for days, and sometimes weeks, at a time without public announcement. Few in the capital even knew he was in Texas in February, for instance, until he accidentally shot a companion while hunting quail. And he has been in Jackson, Wyo., since July 29 without any national news media mentioning it.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide found out Cheney was there only because it spotted his plane and the radar dish that serves an anti-missile battery that protects his house when he's in town. "In the past, they've been kind of weird about it," said Thomas Dewell, the paper's co-editor. "They'd say, 'His airplane's here and the missile base is here, but we can't tell you if he's here.' " This time, he said, Cheney's office confirmed his presence when asked.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/11/AR2006081101834_pf.html

[napi21]

1. Why is Mr. I don't GAS what people Think...HIDING?

Personally, I don't care where he is. Let WY have him, and good riddance! However, I find it strange that he wants to hideout somewhere for weeks at a time.

[lgn19087]

2. My guess is

That he wants to be able to pull the strings without the media watching over him. I bet, if you searched that house, you would find all the evidence you need proving that this latest "plot" was really just a hoax. Bush is too stupid to hatch something like that, but Cheney isn't.

Hell, bin Laden himself is probably staying in that house!

[Vidar]

7. Welcome to DU.

[lgn19087]

8. Thank you!!

Been lurking for a while, but decided now was a good time to join!

[theguvnorgc]

3. Wants to?

Or NEEDS to?

[Retrograde]

14. well, he hid on 9/11

why not hide when there's a new threat?

[SpiralHawk]

4. If Dick "Five Deferments" Cheney has his own anti-missile battery, then

why didn't the Pentagon have even a pea shooter for self-defense on 9/11?

I mean, these Bush-Cheney chump appointees had an hour of warning after the second plane hit the towers in NY. Couldn't they at least have mustered a sling shot to defend themselves and the capital city of the USA?

[reprobate]

9. Downing that plane before it hit the pentagon would be counterproductive.

Then they couldn't have cried "Terror! Terror! Fear! Fear!" quite so loud as they have been.

Be careful citizen. I know you did NOT mean to imply that our government leaders INTENTIONALLY let that aircraft impact the pentagon, did you? Remember that they watch every keystroke and listen to every word.

But that's no reason to be paranoid. They just want us to be safe. And quiet.

[bluedeminredstate]

12. Same question I was going to ask,

I saw that sentence and thought about Rummy and Wolfowitz hearing about the first tower and continuing on with their meeting. No phone calls, no updates and obviously no order to scramble jets to protect the building. In fact, since it is the nerve center of our nation's defense, offense and military intelligence among other vital functions, it's beyond incredible that there was nothing in the way of defending that building already in place. I just can't get past that.

I'll never forget after seeing the second tower hit having my Dad call me over 30 minutes later to say the Pentagon had a plane fly into it. I refused to believe him. It was beyond my comprehension then and still is.

[SpiralHawk]

13. If the Pentagon had called me, I would have immediately

established a Martian Mind-Meld Psychic Force-Field Super Shield to protect the capital city of the United States of America, and our Pentagon.

It's not much, I know, but it beats the hell out what Commander AWOL Pretend Cowboy and his War Bureaucracy appointees were able to muster.

They must have all been taking orders from Dick "Five Deferments" Cheney.

[KayLaw]

5. Shudder!

Could these guys be any creepier?

[gratuitous]

6. So, media stenographers' pool

You've kowtowed, you've bowed, you've scraped, you've licked boots, you've toadied, you've totally compromised every professional principle you're supposed to have all for that precious, precious access to the White House and the corridors of power.

And you've been played, you've been suckered, you've been abused, you've been ridiculed by the very people you're supposed to cover, you've been chumped, you've been punked, you've been pawned, and now you're shut down to the teeniest, tiniest aperture of access the Bushistas think they can get away with.

What has it gotten you? What has it gotten the nation? Who has benefited by your supine coverage? We've flushed half a trillion dollars down the toilet, thousands of military dead, countless thousands of Afghanis and Iraqis dead, a nation panicked at the sight of its own shadow, and you're shut out when you need that precious, precious access the most.

How long, media stenographers? How long will the scales cover your eyes? How long will you abjectly serve a crooked administration that is recklessly stealing and killing? We who have watched this spectacle in mounting horror and loathing have waited for years for some semblance of objectivity, of balance. Is this why you became journalists? To sample the sweet, sweet cocktail parties of the overlords who barely disguise their contempt for you? When will you stand up and be menschen?

[jwirr]

10. He owns a house there.

[htuttle]

11. Anti *missile* battery?

I can see an anti-aircraft battery, but where do they think the missiles are going to come from? Missoula?

[BrotherBuzz]

15. Cheney would like you to believe the missiles might come from

the same place Hezbollah get theirs, and never mind that really angry rancher down the road that has wonderful underworld connections and an ax to grind.

[Joe Bacon]

16. What kills me is how the media STILL covers up for Bush

Those tax cuts must be quite effective to turn reporters into ass-kissing stenographers!

[hedgehog]

17. What is wrong with Bush that he treats the media like paparazzi?

He's the President of the United States and he loves nothing better than to act out fantasies that he's a secret agent or something.