Weigh this, please. BUSH announces 60-day, 60-stop tour for Soc. Security

[Bluebear]

WEDNESDAY: "The Bush administration announced Wednesday a 60-day, 60-stop barnstorming tour to promote the president's plan for overhauling Social Security."

THURSDAY: "President Bush made rare mention of Osama bin Laden on Thursday, calling efforts to block the terrorist leader's hope of attacking America again "the greatest challenge of our day. Bin Laden's message is a telling reminder that al-Qaida still hopes to attack us on our own soil," he said.

===

Hello, how can one be prancing around the country on a SIXTY-DAY tour to build one's "legacy" and reward one's rich business donors if we are under such a dire terror cloud?

[aden_nak]

1. Shouldn't he be in Washington "Presidenting" or whatever the fuck he does?

[Bluebear]

2. He has a tic, he has to vacation or campaign constantly

WTF did he take the job for if he doesn't want to do it?

[Lisa]

28. it's like a drug -- he craves the approval of handpicked people ...

He can only get his "fix" from being with family and hangers-on (in Kennebunkport or Crawford), where outsiders are kept at a safe distance ... or from carefully-screened crowds at his campaign spectacles.

Meeting foreign dignitaries, or talking to Members of Congress, just can't provide the same feeling ... he knows that some of those people might dislike him or his policies (witness the number of Cabinet members who've left and have started criticizing him in public).

[Avalux]

3. I think it's a great idea

let him barnstorm all he wants about SS and throw terror in there too to keep people confused. I have a feeling this may be his undoing.

[Bluebear]

5. The people don't like a desparate leader

This 60 city 60 day tour smells of panic, Smirk. It's not attractive.

[Avalux]

8. yes - pure desparation

and the usual screened, ticketed attendees too. Bless his vacant black heart.

[amber dog democrat]

6. Undoing ? maybe - I just know it won't help him much.

Let him knock himself out. Dick is running things behind the scenes anyway.
How stupid is this ?

[blondeatlast]

35. I see pickets outside the venues with just one sign:

Osama: Dead or Alive--with ALIVE circled in red.

[mattclearing]

4. "Free Bird!!!!"

When I hear he is going on tour, I can't help but think that in my head.

[FogerRox]

11. Misdirection watch for HR 10--and other crap coming down the pipe

Karl Rove raises his hand with the Bush Puppet on it. The Puppet talks.

Meanwhile Rove drops his pants, but the Puppet is talking about Social Security and no-one sees, that Rove has no pants or underwear.

[mattclearing]

14. Yeah.

The bankruptcy bill, the catastrophe elections thing they're debating, all kinds of madness is happening under the media radar.

[Auntie Bush]

46. Every one except Gannon...he sees and feels all!

[CoffeeCat]

32. LOL! I thought of the same thing! ...too funny.

[paineinthearse]

7. 60-day, 60-stop barnstorming tour

I didn't realize that there so many military air fields in the red states.

[tsuki]

20. That is all we have.

[EVDebs]

9. Spare me. How many more packed-houses with Gannon/Guckert lookalikes

can the public tolerate ? Please, please, please, put Kool-aid stands out in front of these auditoriums...for the ceremonial quaffing of the True Believers.

[ewagner]

10. 60 Day, 60 Stop??

Do we know where he's going?

Has a schedule been released/printed?

I said it before and I'll say it agian......

Democrats should be "dogging this dog and pony show!!

follow him everywhere he goes and arrange pro-Social Security or Save Social Security Rallies.....

[dumbshrub]

47. Coming by here tomorrow

He'll be in Westfield, NJ on Friday, 3/4. I've signed up to protest. Of course he's preaching only to those who drank theh Kool-Aid. Plan to be there with my middle finger proudly raised.




Barb

[dooner]

49. Yes! Bring it ON....

California Welcomes George!

We *LOVE* the chance to show W how we feel. Usually he avoids us, except for speeches to defense contractors and rich fundraisers.. but there's sometimes a small window of opportunity to share our thoughts.

Time to check out any clues to his schedule....

[walldude]

12. Maybe he's going with Jessica Simpson

so he can take lip syncing lessons... I love this though:
THURSDAY: "President Bush made rare mention of Osama bin Laden on Thursday, calling efforts to block the terrorist leader's hope of attacking America again "the greatest challenge of our day. Bin Laden's message is a telling reminder that al-Qaida still hopes to attack us on our own soil," he said.

So now we are back to worrying about Osama. Guess the Shrubs #'s are low enough he has to start appeasing the people who voted for him and not just his rich buddies...

[underpants]

13. Well what else is there for him to do?

All he has ever done is raise money and campaign. You can only pop bubblewrap for so long.

[Mist]

44. 60 days of non-stop "town meetings"?

* isn't used to that level of "hard work." Seriously, I think the guy will lose it, even w/surrogates giving a lot of the speeches. Look for the malapropisms and weirdness to increase 1000%!

[Avalux]

15. Reid will be visiting 4 cities in the next couple of days -

along with Durbin and Dorgan. They'll be holding Social Security Town Hall meetings New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.

I'd love to see them follow * around the country holding protest meetings.

[blondeatlast]

37. Where can I find a schedule? I gotta see him here in PHX! nt

[Avalux]

42. I'm not sure - I don't have the details -

maybe at democrats.gov or Reid's website? Good luck and I hope you get to see him. :hi:

[Roland99]

16. Bush '05 - The Propaganda Tour

I wonder how well it will compare to the upcoming U2 tour?

[Jimbo S]

29. There's a difference: Bono is a statesman, while

W. is........uh, not.

[Roland99]

57. Heck, Edge has a much better speaking capability than the Shrub!

[ComerPerro]

17. Doesn't he have a job he should be doing?

Like you said, especially considering all these "terra" alerts they have been giving us recently.

[tsuki]

18. While terrorist pour across open borders, Americans live in fear of

another attack, and our children die in a foreign war, the President of the United States barnstorms the nation to drum up business for Wall Street.

And how do we pay for his grandstanding? Huh, Republican Party? Is the Republican Party going to okay another budget increase?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

19. Are they going to sell T-Shirts?

I'm thinking something like "The Death of Social Security Tour '05". If nothing else it will help fund this asinine trip.

[kentuck]

21. Reid should assign a Senator from each state he visits to respond

to his BS. We cannot just sit back and let him tell his lies and crapola without a response each and every day. We have to keep reminding the people that SS is not in a crisis and Bush's plan does nothing to save SS - it only will make matters worse. On top of all that, he wants to borrow $2 trillion more dollars. Someone needs to remind him that money does not grow on trees. But that's something he has never had to worry about.

[Stephanie]

22. He's just a traveling salesman, a revival tent huckster

And apparently he's got nothing better to do than sell this new corporate welfare plan to the gullible. Who's running the country?

[sinkingfeeling]

23. He's sending out all of the department heads to do this....first one

today was with SOT, John Snow, at the University of Arkansas.

[paineinthearse]

25. Anyone have a connection into the WH?

I'd like to see the entire schedule. Hope Harry Reid's war room has this in its sites.

[thereismore]

24. He thinks he is a standup comedian - and he is!!! n/t

[Emboldened Chimp]

26. All on our dime, of course.

Fucking bastard uses our tax dollars to pimp a program that will put more of said tax dollars into the pockets of him and his cronies. What a shameless piece of shit this guy is.

[applegrove]

27. That will keep him out of interfering with the machinations in the WH.

Man, he was becoming a PEST what with his Christian Values talk. Now the neocons & rovbots can get down and divide up the Middle East. Make Laura go too.

[AirAmFan]

30. MSNBC says Cheney, Treas Secy Snow, & other surrogates for * will

fill out the intense schedule over the next two months.

Watch as the WH 'press corpse' obediently reconstructs reality for most Americans over the next two months, to CHANGE poll numbers that disappoint Rove, Greenspan, and the other Social Security Terminators.

Millions of Americans watch so much Fox News that, after a couple of months of organized WH propaganda, they'll think the WH is echoing their own (the voters') opinions, rather than the other way round.

WH bookers right now are organizing events and pre-screening 'town hall' invitees so that Fox will be able to broadcast Stalin-style "prolonged, stormy applause" in response to WH speeches on 'Social Security re-design'.

Of course, as former House Rethug leader Dick Armey let slip recently, the WH goal is to PHASE OUT and TERMINATE Social Security, not to 'save' or 'reform' or 're-design' it.

From http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7078410/

"The president plans visits to New Jersey and Indiana on Friday to tout Social Security re-design.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said Wednesday the administration was launching a a 60-day, 60-stop blitz of the country to raise the profile of Bush's signature second-term domestic issue. He said he, the president, Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials will be in 29 states over the next two months."

'Americans are beginning to have a good understanding the system won't be there unless we act soon', he said."

See also http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1634126

[CoffeeCat]

31. Bullshitpalooza: A steamy pile of dung dumped on a city near you!

OH, for the love of all that is holy.

Does this nimrod EVER stop?

Why can't be a big boy and function from inside the White House--like the rest of the grown-up presidents?

He can't hack it in the real world--leading, negotiating, compromising, creating, dialogging and governing with dignity, diplomacy and respect.

Instead, he'll spend 60 days hiding in a protective bubble. Again and again, he'll regurgitate his canned, seven-minute speech to hand-picked, head-nodding, never-questioning fanatics who've all signed loyalty oaths.

So he's off---on a shitstorming tour of America. Bullshitpalooza!

There goes our president, folks!

Don't it make ya proud?

[Bryn]

33. Homer Simpson is running the Country!

"President" Bush is an embarrasement! He doesn't even act like a true leader, nothing "Presidential" about him

[FogerRox]

40. LOL--step right up==get your BSP tickets now Bullshitpalooza: A steamy ---

---- pile of dung dumped on a city near you

[Az_lefty]

34. 60 make-believe townhall meetings staged for the Chimp.

:puke:

[snacker]

36. My thoughts exactly!

[Mist]

45. Even with the fake "town meetings," even with the surrogates

doing the heavy lifting, I think he'll lose it. He's not used to that level of "hard work"! Look for signs of severe stress.

[Donailin]

38. He's a fucking idiot and I hate him. n/t.

[stray cat]

39. Who in the world pays Bush to take road trips?

Oh yes - that would be us. I guess Cheney wants Bush out of the white house so the grown ups can play. "George - could you go run around the country and distract people for us"?

[Booster]

41. It's harder for the terrorists to hit a moving target - shades of

his little jaunt on Sept. 11. He's scared to stand in one place too long.

[deacon]

43. His priorities are enormously screwed up-- health care gw

health care....

[AP]

48. About two years ago, didn't he promise...

a series of speeches on something, at regular intervals, and they ended up only having one?

Should we bet on how many cities/days this thing lasts?

[proud patriot]

50. Better not be using My Tax Dollars for it the bastard

:grr:

[dave123williams]

51. No, it's traditional for Preznits to sell their wares for a month after ..

The State of the Union. Not two months, and then certainly not two months in a time of war. Duh.

That should be the motto of the administration...'Duh'.

[Bouncy Ball]

52. He's got to CONVINCE the American people

to let him fuck up Social Security!!!

It's WAY more important than any little terrorist!!!

Besides he just threw that out to scare people. BOO!

[RBHam]

53. Bait and switch, distract and distort. Don't watch the man behind the cu

BOOM!

The rapture needs another kick start...

[VPStoltz]

54. I want my money back...

If that asswipe is so intent on getting more of "my money" in my pocket (his rational for flushing the surplus down the crapper), maybe he could stop hopping around the country on that $11,000/hour plane of his and send me a check. What a dweeb!

[kodi]

55. i've heard of whistle-stop tours, but this is the first whistle-ass tour

so, he is going around the country telling americans not to trust a government he runs with their money?

george walker bush is a fucking piece of shit who should be tried for treason, convicted, sent to Gitmo and tortured like those he allowed to be tortured for the rest of his miserable life.

[oasis]

56. "Ah have some political capital and ah intend on spendin' it"__Bush

:dunce: x 59

[Roland99]

58. Anyone have a schedule of the stops?

[Bridget Burke]

60. The schedule is pretty hard to find.

Perhaps someone else will be successful. Will be be heading back to the White House every night? Or just some nights? Will the Pig Farm be HQ for a while?

How much are we paying for all these trips on Air Force 1?

And--if he'll actually be away from DC for days on end--what's he trying to avoid? (Aside from work--that's not new. Of course, an impending terror attack would not be new, either.)

[Roland99]

61. Figures...secretive administration with secretive agendas...

but...he's trying to bolster weak GOP Reps.:

http://itemonline.com/articles/2005/03/04/ap/headlines/d88k2bcg0.txt

President Bush is trying to shore up the electoral prospects of two Republican lawmakers who are getting heat over his plan to overhaul Social Security.

Bush was to appear Friday at meetings with mostly hand-picked audiences in the districts of GOP Reps. Mike Ferguson of New Jersey and Chris Chocola of Indiana.

With both seats competitive, they are prime targets for Democrats interested in running in the midterm elections next year against Bush's plan for the partial privatization of Social Security.

Ferguson has not yet taken a position on Bush's proposal; Chocola said town meetings in his district last week left him willing to follow Bush's lead, even as he talked of the difficulty of the politics surrounding the issue.

Chocola was one of the main targets of ads shown last month by MoveOn.Org, in which Bush's Social Security plans were attacked as a steep benefit cut for retirees. The ads aired as well in the New York City media market, which includes Ferguson's northern New Jersey district.

[Bluebear]

63. Good questions all nt

[katinmn]

59. good, and we should greet him with angry protests wherever he goes

He's only preaching to the choir anyway. Those that already love the little monkey are the only ones alliowed in to the forums.

[peacebird]

62. what a collossol waste of taxpayer money. a two month junket?

[LibDemAlways]

64. Is the shithead only speaking to

"invited" - read "repukes only" - audiences? Then why bother at all?

[Bluebear]

65. Just for you

"With that thought, he traveled here Friday to appear at meetings with mostly hand-picked audiences in the districts of GOP Reps. Mike Ferguson of New Jersey and Chris Chocola of Indiana."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=1&u=/ap/20050304/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

[LibDemAlways]

67. That is exactly what I find most infuriating

about these thugs. They won't even address half the country, and the media whores go along with it, pretending like the chimp is taking his case "to the people." My God, if he had to face a genuine cross-section of Americans of all stripes, he'd be exposed as a complete fraud in about two seconds.

[Bluebear]

68. Having said that, I wish we would develop some chutzpah

People should be protesting at every stop of the 60 cities. Look at the huge protests in Europe on that monkey's last trip there. Maybe we have just resigned ourselves. :(

[LibDemAlways]

70. Think of the massive protest that greeted the

chimp in NYC on the eve of his coronation last summer. Barely got mentioned in the press. The big protests in Europe likewise. A typical American watching Peter Jennings would think Europeans like the idiot.

I'd gladly come out to protest if the moron showed up here in my neck of the Southern CA woods, but chances are I'd be relegated to some ridiculous first amendment zone out of sight and the protest would go unmentioned on local tv - which has plenty of time for car chases and Michael jackson.

[peekaloo]

66. Blitzkrieg Bop!

only good thing that will come out of this are the clips Letterman will play of this bumblin', stumblin' brain damaged arseholicus!

[Stirk]

69. We're one terrorist attack away from privatized Social Security.

His numbers are in the toilet as well, so he may just be trying to drum them up with the bogeyman talk, but I'm cynical these days. I can't help but think those bin Laden comments may be a little innoculation against an attack. Y'know, then he can say, "I told you so!", and Privatize Social Security while the sheep are shaking in fear.

[Maine-ah]

71. what states is he going through?

[moondust]

72. Taxpayers should not have to pay for any of this.

Pure politics.