Bush to America: Happiness is Empire

[Moses]

Bush touts plan in Tennessee

By Mark Silva
Tribune national correspondent
Published February 1, 2006, 2:22 PM CST

NASHVILLE -- President Bush, attempting to confront a national anxiety about war and a changing American economy, came to the seat of country music Wednesday with a Texas-styled appeal for his promises of making America more competitive and less dependent on oil.

Yet, as much as the president wants to pivot public debate away from war and toward a new agenda of "American competitiveness," he has found it difficult, both with his State of the Union address this week and with reinforcing words on the road in Nashville, to get past the question of the war in Iraq. It took him more than hour here to dispense with war and delve into his stated new "strategic vision for our country."

"I understand there is an anxiety about a time of war," Bush said. "That's natural, it seems to me…People are changing jobs a lot, and there is competition from India and China, which creates some uncertainty… In uncertain times, it's easy for people to lose confidence in the capacity of this country to lead…. We must never lose sight of our capacity to lead this world toward peace." [We should be happy our families are poor as long as Bush et al are out spending out money on wars and hegemony for the power elite]

Launching a weeks-long campaign for the programs outlined in his State of the Union address, the president arrived first in a state that supported his re-election by a margin of 14 percentage points. Tennessee rejected its own native son, former Vice President Al Gore, for Bush's first presidential bid in 2000.

Standing on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, Bush greeted an invited audience of several thousand people that had been warmed up by country musicians.

"I can see why my buddy [Larry] Gatlin finds that extra note when he sings" here, Bush said. "I probably should have come here before I gave my speech… I thought, how cool would it have been to give the State of the Union address in a Porter Wagoner outfit?"

With musicians portraying this as God's country, the audience rose with applause when Bush declared: "I believe there is an Almighty, and I believe that freedom is the Almighty's gift to this world."

Still, for whatever attention Bush draws to his State of the Union promises of making America more competitive in a changing world, less dependent on gasoline and more generous with health care, the second-term president faces an uphill challenge to regain support among both an electorate and Congress that are sharply divided heading into a midterm congressional election year.

Bush "has governed from his base," said John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and the war in Iraq remains an impediment to Bush's prospects at home.

"The State of the Union address obviously provides him the chance to get the attention of the American public," Geer said. "But it is not going to undo the structural problem he faces. You have a situation in Iraq that is not going to get better in the short term… I see him not having a really big change in popularity."

Even here in Nashville, a corporate center for health care companies, an industry leader suggests that Bush's proposals for health care are no cure-all for an industry saddled with profiteering by the "middlemen" who stand between patients and insurance companies and governments that pay for their care.

Bush hopes to make tax-exempt health savings accounts available to more Americans, and he is calling on Congress to sharply limit the money that victims of medical malpractice can claim in lawsuits.

Savings accounts "will work for some people," said Dr. Harry Jacobson, chairman of the Nashville Health Care Council and vice chancellor at Vanderbilt's Medical Center. "But just like one size doesn't fit all when you are talking about treating people with illnesses, I don't think one size fits all when you are talking about how to finance health care… It's a step in the right direction, but not enough to have a major impact."

The president "simply is not getting at the biggest problem of all," Jacobson said. "We have a lot of profit margins embedded in all the middlemen in health care… And he can't do anything about that."

What this president can do is campaign. Several thousand party-invited people filled the orchestra and balcony seats of a storied musical theater, where the White House placed Bush's red, white and blue banners in position for the televised view of the president: "Americans Win When America Leads."

"Last night… our president spoke of a bold future for America," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) in welcoming Bush to Frist's home town.

Bush, as he is inclined to speak before a crowd such as this, spoke Texan about a sense of security that Americans felt before Sept. 11, 2001, and an anxiety over terrorism that has shaken Americans since then.

"Let me put it to you in Texan," Bush said of surveillance that he has authorized for people inside the United States communicating with suspected terrorists overseas. "If Al Qaeda is calling into the United States, we want to know… We were isolated from threats, it seemed like," before 9/11, he said.

"This country has one option, and that's victory in Iraq," he said. "… I want to describe right quick our plans for victory in Iraq."

The president's often-repeated formula requires training Iraqi forces to "stand up" before American forces "stand down… We've defined victory, and now it's up to these commanders on the ground," he said.

Bush will carry his own ground campaign to Minnesota on Thursday, visiting a 3M plant in Maplewood, Minn., to spotlight the company's innovations. Friday morning in Albuquerque he will hold a discussion with experts on competitiveness, and in Dallas later he will visit an advanced placement school that focuses on math and science education.

[e-mail]

[Moses]

www.rctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060203/MTCN0505/302030027/1320/MTCN0305

By Bonnie Owen
Staff Writer


....Now, I proudly admit to being a super-avid Bush fan; and I was thrilled when I learned that my husband had arranged for us to be in the audience at the Opry House to see the President. However, as a senior citizen (those words are so hard for me to say or write) with grown children and grandchildren, the President’s message means more to me than ever before because I want their lives and their future to be, above all, safe and free.
We spent the night at Opryland Hotel to make sure traffic wouldn’t be a problem. Clearing the security checks, we found our seats - front row, side balcony. Not bad. For the next hour or so, we were entertained by several of Country Music’s finest, all gathered on that “famous stage,” as Bush would describe it in his comments. Larry Gatlin introduced the stars including 85-year-old Little Jimmy Dickens wearing a big, black cowboy hat that must have inched him closer to at least five-feet tall.
The Oak Ridge Boys performed several numbers including “Elvira,” inviting the audience to sing along. And when Lee Greenwood belted out the last line of his famous, patriotic tune, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” cheers went up as Air force One appeared on a big screen to the side of the stage.
Moments later, the silence was deafening as the Presidential Seal was attached to the podium and the speech placed appropriately. More silence. Finally, “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States!” The crowd erupted with cheers as the President and the First Lady waved and took their places.
“I was thinking last night about coming to Nashville today, and I thought how cool it would be to give the State of the Union Address in a Porter Waggoner suit,” the President said, his shoulders shaking in that familiar way he has of laughing at himself.
He made his “thank yous,” and then he told us, just as relaxed as if he were talking across the kitchen table, what he wanted us to know and why it is important.
Some of his ideas weren’t new to me, but his manner of speaking was - so different from the TV George Bush. No stuttering mispronunciations. He was confidant, relaxed and spoke passionately about his goals for our country, which included keeping ourselves fit by exercising and eating right. Something I need to work on, and I hoped my husband had taken note, as well.
I had to dry my eyes a second time when the President recognized and praised the troops in the audience; my first eye dabbing occurred at the end of Greenwood’s song. (I cry at the flyovers at the Titan’s games, too.) The troops drew the longest standing ovation and deservedly so.
“I believe there is an Almighty, and I believe the Almighty intends for all the people on Earth to be free,” Bush said with what I thought revealed the strongest passion in his speech.
I left the Opry House proud of our Country Music performers, proud of our President, proud to be an American, and vowing to start going back to church,
Yes sir! The man sounds like he means what he says, and I believe him.

[Moses]

www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16048582&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6


Bush spoke today from the stage of the jam packed Grand Ole Opry House. Country music stars including Barbara Mandrell, Larry Gatlin, Lee Greenwood, Lorrie Morgan and the Oak Ridge Boys warmed up the crowd under a sign that said "Americans Win When America Leads."

Bush joked to the enthusiastic crowd that he should have given the State of the Union there. "How cool would it have been to give a State of the Union speech in a Porter Wagoner outfit?" he said, referring to the flashy country music star.

Outside, more than 100 protesters held up their own signs that said "No Confidence" and "No warrant, no wiretap, no W." That was a reference to Bush's much-debated secret program of eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails in an attempt to sniff out terrorist plots, which he vigorously defended in his State of the Union address.

In Tuesday's speech, the president declared that America must break its long dependence on Mideast oil and rebuked critics of his stay-the-course strategy for the unpopular war in Iraq.

Rejecting calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, he said, "There is no peace in retreat." He also slapped at those who complain he took the country to war on the erroneous grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"Hindsight alone is not wisdom," Bush said. "And second-guessing is not a strategy."

He pledged to maintain "a civil tone" in disputes with those in Congress who oppose his policies, like the nation's involvement in Iraq. But Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., complained today that "he says that all the time, and then his administration, through the vice president and the secretary of defense and others, says that anyone who criticizes the war, they imply they're not patriotic."

"I hope we're beyond that," Biden said on CBS's "The Early Show." "I think the president is in enough trouble politically and understands that it's time to really reach out."

Bush declared "the state of our union is strong and together we will make it stronger." But Democrats said Bush was living in a fantasyland.

"Our country is ready for change and a new direction," Democratic Party head Howard Dean said.

Three-fourths of the people who watched the speech said they approve of the proposals made by Bush, according to a CBS News poll Tuesday night of 734 viewers. Those who watched the speech were more likely to be Republican, but only a third who saw the speech thought the president will be able to achieve the goals he mentioned.

The partisan mood in the packed House chamber was evident as Bush turned, over halfway through his remarks, to Social Security, the subject of his signature initiative from last year's address that was indefinitely cast aside after even Republicans balked.

Bipartisanship erupted briefly as the president went on to make his modest call for the creation of a commission, made up of members from both parties, to examine the impact of the retirement of the baby boomer generation on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

[karpomrx]

A Nuremburg rally with hominy grits and Jesus.

[Moses]

Yes I thought so too! This granny who loves Bush & gets teary eyed at military fly-overs-- her complete lack of thought or concern for the consequences of war to actual human beings-- their willingness to stand up and cheer at some meaningless, nonsense slogan -- about the "Almighty" and "Freedom-- aren't these the same people we saw in newsreels at the Hitler rallies?