In this White House pool report, we titter inappropriately:
[Bush] wore a navy suit jacket, pale blue shit [sic and yes, we missed it the first time] and darker blue tie, waved at the press pool and the motorcade was off for a five minte ride to the Gaylords Texan Resorts and Convention Center.GAY! Ha-ha! The president went to Gay-lords. Oh, we laughed for literally seconds. Of course, the big news to come out of yesterday's speech to the "American Legislative Exchange Council" was that "struggles against extremism" are for pussies. This president likes war, this is a war, he's gonna call it a war every fucking chance he gets.
A brief recap of the speech: "We're at war," he said. Then he reminded us, "We're at war against an enemy." And in case people weren't listening, he said, "Make no mistake about it, this is a war." Then he outlined what we're going to do "to win this war on terror," explaining that "part of winning this war on terror is to remind others of what's at stake." But who is the war against? It's been 2 seconds so you may have forgotten. Ah: "This war is against killers who hide, and then they show up and kill innocent life." Feeling vengeful yet? Because "Iraq is the latest battlefield in the war on terror." Of course, there are consequences: Those "who have lost their lives...in this war on terror have died in a noble cause." Bush then revealed what he, personally, is doing for the cause: "We got a big task in Washington, D.C., and that's to remember the stakes of the war on terror."
That sort of sounds like the easy part, but if calling it a "war" helps you to remember that people are dying, well, please, by all means...
President Discusses Second Term Accomplishments and Priorities [WhiteHouse.gov]
Full pool report follows.
From: White House Press Releases
Date: August 3, 2005 3:22:13 PM EDT
Subject: POOL REPORT #1, 8/3/05
Reply-To: White House Press Releases
Pool Report #1, 8/3/05
Press pool flew from the Waco Airport in two Blackhawk helicopters and landed in a field across from the Grapevine Fire Department's administration building in time to wait for the president's Marine helicopters to land at 11:45 am.
He wore a navy suit jacket, pale blue shit and darker blue tie, waved at the press pool and the motorcade was off for a five minte ride to the Gaylords Texan Resorts and Convention Center.
He spoke to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of conservative government officials and policy makers. His remarks will arrive by transcript. The hall was very large, with walls that looked like they were made of huge sandstone blocks, adorned with enormous lanterns, and even bigger stained glass half globes on the ceiling.
Scott gaggled after the speech. There'll be a transcript for that too, but here's a preview:
Monday: The president travels to Alburquerque, NM, to tour the Sandia Laboratories and make remarks after signing the recently passed energy legislation.
Tuesday: The president meets with his economic advisors at the ranch about the state of the economy, then comments to the pool. Al Hubbard and Ben "Bernanke" (phonetic) will brief at the filing center.
Wednesday: Chicago area to sign the highway bill.
In answer to questions, Scott said:
On slow progress in the ongoing talks with North Korea, "I don't want to prejudge the talks."
On Iran saying it will restart its nuclear program, "we want to support the efforts by the European Community to solve this diplomatically.... Iran made a commitment, it's up to Iran to live by that commitment and abide by it."
On Colombian Presdent Uribe's visit tomorrow, "President Uribe is a strong and courageous leader a good friend of the president. He's committed to the spread of democracy in the hemisphere" and that President Bush supports him.
The president's helicopters took off about 2:17 pm to take him back to Crawford.
The view from the helicopter displays a panoply of living situations around this part of the country: a neighborhood of McMansions, many with backyard pools and interlaced with golf courses near Grapevine. Then homes packed together so close they look like floor tiles from 1,500 feet (our altitude, according to the pilot). Further out, trailer parks with one lot spoting eight broken down looking boats. Once out of the urban area, most of the countryside is pllowed brown and green fields, woods, occasional lagoons and farm houses.
###
Oren Dorell
USA Today
