John Forbes Kerry Makes No Time for Terror Briefing

C'mon, TJ. You should know by now this story will be swept under the rug by the media. I'd be willing to bet Larry King changed the subject quickly after hearing that.

 

It's O.K. george He'll have plenty of time to focus his attention on terrorists when he becomes president. You only have to wait another 3 and a half months.

 

This non-story is a weak attempt even for you choo_choo. You back a sitting pResident who has taken more vacations than any other Pres. in history and you flame a guy for not having been briefed yet. Hypocritical, to say the least.

 

If the information is coming from our CIA and other intelligence services, isn't it going to be wrong anyway?

Sorry - just a comment based on the news headlines this morning.

 

Swept under the rug? He said it himself, live on tv.

 

What stats do you have on this or did is this just info from Moore's flick?

 

This is from August.


Clinton spent about 152 days on vacation during his 2 terms. If Bush were reelected, he'd shatter Reagan's 355 day record, easily. Of course, he may be able to tie it during his first term.

Bush works less than people on welfare.

 

Drudge Report



Next...

 

Does anybody here believe that Trader_J is losing his edge? He's trying really hard thesed days but nothing really seems to take, not "ho ho ho", not bold name calling, not anything. Nobody really engages him much anymore, must be a lonely twilight. All the more reason for him to disappear in November I guess.

 

I thought the bold name calling did work. It was hilarious. But he's an artiste. If he isn't satisfied, I trust something will come along that he will use.

 

further proof that kerry's just not serious. rather than be briefed on national security threats, so he could figure out for himself the validity of tom ridge's warning, he chose to go on larry king, where his wife continued the DNC practice of dropping john mccain's name at every possible opportunity. then, followed up with a trip to radio city where whoppi made jokes about george's...uh, bush. pathetic, really. i'd thought kerry was merely cynical, but after watching him last night attneding to matters most trivial, and realizing that he could have been getting briefed on matters of the utmost importance instead, if he'd just had time, makes me think he's truly only interested in looking out for number one (hundred million...).
).

 

Further proof basso is just not serious.

Deputy dawg, what important matters did Kerry miss out on, regarding this briefing about the unspecified threat, happening at an unspecified location, at an unknown time, (which is known to be before the election even though it is unknown)?

Is his Swift Boat Squadron being called up to patrol the Potomac?

 

how would kerry know? he doesn't have time to be briefed. yet plenty of time to tell larry king that he walked out of the capitol w/ mccain on 9/11, as if that was relevany to anything...

 

He could watch that ridiculous press conference on TV (not unlike last month's unknown threat at unknown time and place conference) , or read this morning's Times, or read this BBS, and then he would have the gist of the unknown attack, coming at an unknown location, at an unspecified time, and take appropriate legislative action that you urge him to take.

BTW, what is Bill Frist doing about this new unspecified security threat? I imagine he went to the briefing. Is he going to shepherd the "Hey Terrorists, You Best Not Attack Us at An Unknown Time Act of 2004" through the Senate? (which Kerry is holding up because of the lack of quorum, right)

I agree that all of the McCain deification by both sides is absurd. I'm not that impressed with him, I've seen him up close and I just don't really get it. Plus, he totally caved on the FCC-media restrictions thing for no good reason, unless special interests were involved.

 

How many of those days were weekends? Are those normally considered working days? Also, aren't some (obviously not alll) of his "vacation" days in Crawford and Camp David spent working and meeting with staff and world leaders?

 

If working Crawford vacations are only half as bad does that really make it ok, or less damaging than Kerry missing one briefing during the campaign?

Even if the Crawford vacations are 'working' vacations, he's not able to meet with heads of congressional committees. He can't go over documents and reports that are just in to Washington CIA, or other agency headquarters. Even with some members of his staff on hand at Crawford, a working vacation there isn't the same as working in Washington.

 

I know on several occasions he's taken a day or two off from his vacations to make appearances in NM.

 

Just for clarity sake, I haven't seen Moore's film, yet.

Ask Yahoo: (ya iffy source, but the numbers don't lie:

Q: How many vacation days has George W. Bush taken to date as president? How does that compare with Clinton?


A: While the president of the United States is never completely on vacation, most commanders-in-chief manage to enjoy a respite from the daily grind during their stay the White House. George W. Bush seems to have taken this to the extreme early in his tenure as president. A humorous, fake resume for Bush suggests that he set the record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history -- a bit of an exaggeration, but still cause for some teasing.

According to an August 2003 article in the Washington Post, President Bush has spent all or part of 166 days during his presidency at his Crawford, Texas, ranch or en route. Add the time spent at or en route to the presidential retreat of Camp David and at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Bush has taken 250 days off as of August 2003. That's 27% of his presidency spent on vacation. Although to be fair, much of this time is classified as a "working vacation."

Bush isn't the first president to get away from his work. George Bush Sr. took all or part of 543 vacation days at Camp David and in Kennebunkport. Ronald Reagan spent 335 days at or en route to his Santa Barbara, California, ranch during his eight years in office. Of recent presidents, Jimmy Carter took the least days off -- only 79 days, which he usually spent at his home in Georgia. That's less than three weeks a year, which is closer to the average American's paid time off of 13 days per year.

What about Clinton? As of December 1999, President Bill Clinton had spent only 152 days on holiday during his two terms, according to CBS News. A former staffer noted Clinton was such a workaholic that "it almost killed Clinton to take one-week vacations during August." In 2000, Clinton cut his summer vacation short to just three days, so he and his wife could concentrate on her Senate race and fundraising for Democrats. While we couldn't find the exact tally for Clinton's last year in office, it's reasonable to expect he didn't increase his vacation rate. And in barely three years in office, George W. Bush has already taken more vacation than Clinton did in seven years.


Different Article:

1) In August 2001, President George W. Bush received a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike In US." He then went fishing and brush clearing on a 32-day vacation on his ranch in Crawford, Texas—the longest vacation period ever recorded by a U.S. President. The next month, terrorists flew jetliners into the WTC and the Pentagon, killing thousands.


2) On April 8, 2004, Condoleezza Rice testified in front of the 9/11 Commission. Her testimony, which included much questioning about the August 2001 memo, competed for media time with a troubling escalation of violence and unrest in Iraq. During these events, President Bush was on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.


Don't you just love the symmetry of it? Granted, taking potshots at the President for his vacation time can seem like a cheap shot. Even the POTUS needs some time to unwind, right? But one look at Bush's vacation numbers shows a disturbing disconnect with the priorities of a country at war. If the president unwound any more, he would be a sweater in a Weezer song.


from the Washington Post:

This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.


Let that sink in. With the average American earning a whopping 13 days of annual vacation time, that would add up to a tidy 52 days in a four year period. President Bush has used nearly ten times the average vacation time, and his term isn't even over yet. It's astounding.


The President's people always try to put a happy face on the Washington absenteeism by claiming that he is on a "working vacation". Which has to be technically true; obviously the President has to be ready and available at all times in case of a national emergency. But no amount of whitewashing can hide the fact that "working vacation" still involves the word "vacation", and running the country isn't the sort of job that you do between nature walks with the NRA or filming a fishing show:

On Saturday, Bush and his father were to go fishing at the ranch's bass pond with a crew from the Outdoor Life Network's "Fishing with Roland Martin."

The White House approached the network about coming to film Bush, who is eager to cultivate an image as a sportsman with the millions of voters who hunt and fish.



Remember, this is the same guy who refers to himself as a "War President", and has used the seriousness of 9-11 and the Iraq conflict for political expediency. And while soldiers are off dying in the war that he created, he's hanging out at the ranch, television cameras in tow. It could be argued that the President's location didn't really matter when bullets started to fly in Fallujah. But this is one instance where impressions count. And by spending so much of his time back in Texas, Bush gives the impression that he's not taking the job as seriously as he should be. Not that anything in his history suggests that kind of behavior, of course.


The response from the Bush people? White House Communication Director Dan Bartlett tried to take a shot at John Kerry by claiming that at least Bush was "not skiing". I guess that skiing is an elitist activity nowadays, like drinking a latté or driving a Volvo. But there's a big difference here: John Kerry is not the President of the United States. George Bush is.

Enough is enough. In a normal employment relationship, the worker gets canned for not showing up to his job. Isn't it about time we set the same standards for the highest office in the land?

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