Posted on 01/01/2006 5:11:30 PM PST by Wolfstar
PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: Accompanied by their daughter Barbara, the first couple and the pets arrived safely back at the White House earlier today. Before leaving Texas, the President began the new year on Sunday at the bedsides of wounded servicemen and women, and awarded nine Purple Hearts to U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The president boarded the Marine One presidential helicopter before dawn on his ranch in Crawford and flew more than an hour to Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. His motorcade drove to Brooke Army Medical Center, a 224-bed hospital at nearby Fort Sam Houston, to meet with about 50 injured members of various branches of the armed forces and their families.
"He thanks them for their service. He asks how they're doing. He is always interested in seeing if they are getting the kinds of care they need," presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, adding that not all the troops' injuries were sustained in combat.
GWB spent the past week relaxing at his ranch where he rode his bike, cleared brush and prepared for his sixth year in office. He and his wife, Laura, and her mother, Jenna Welch, stayed at the ranch on New Year's Eve and had a steak dinner.
After visiting with the troops and hospital personnel, the President spoke with reporters and strongly defended his spying program, saying it's a limited program that tracks only incoming calls to the United States. He said the fact that someone leaked information about the secret order to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists causes great harm to the nation.
"It's seems logical to me that if we know there's a phone number associated with al-Qaida or an al-Qaida affiliate, and they're making phone calls, it makes sense to find out why," the President said. "They attacked us before, they'll attack us again."
Asked how he responds to Americans worried about violations of their privacy, heh responded, "If somebody from al-Qaida is calling you, we'd like to know why." The president said that he is conscious of people's civil liberties, and went on to say, "This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America. And I repeat, [it's] limited".
THE WEEK AHEAD: The President has no public events scheduled for Monday, a federal holiday. He plans to spend the rest of his first week of 2006 focused on Iraq and the economy.
Tuesday, GWB will meeting at the White House with a group of U.S. attorneys to urge Congress to renew the Patriot Act.
Wednesday, he will be at the Pentagon making a statement about the war on terror.
Thursday, the President will host a bipartisan group of current and former secretaries of state and defense to discuss terrorism and present his case for winning the war in Iraq.
He travels on Friday to Illinois to visit the Chicago Board of Trade and make a speech on the economy.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
I have fought a good fight
I have finished my course
I have kept the faith.
-- Timothy 2:4:7
When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
-- Scene 2, Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
Less than a decade from now, those still on the planet will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, which ushered in the bloodiest century in human history. As the 20th Century drew to a close, we marked the last event in a sequence that actually began in June 1914. That last event was the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Far too many people were slaughtered -- and gave their lives in the cause of liberty -- during the 20th Century. At the dawn of this new century, our President and our troops are trying to stem the tide of an old, yet new threat. We must do all we can to support them as they attempt to prevent this from being yet another bloody century.
One of the greatest war poems ever penned was written by a Canadian Army doctor, Lt. Col. John McCrae, who died in World War I. He wrote the poem as a memorial to a young friend and former student of McCrae. Lt. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa had been killed by a shell burst on May 2, 1915. (Three years lated, McCrae would also be dead.) Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside John McCrae's field station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain. Mourning for his friend, McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields."
I post this in tribute to all our troops, and those of our allies, who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of liberty:
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Happy New Year!
86th?
Pinging you to a late New Year's Day Dose.
Thanks, Wolfstar :)
President Bush is greeted by Gen. William Looney III, Commander, Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base, Sunday Jan. 1, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas.
Evening all.
And Happy New Year!
Dose Ping!
Hey there...
This is a really nice photo of George, Laura and Barney on the steps of Air Force One.
Barbara carries Beezie as she speaks with a young aide to the President, Blake Gottesman. Hmmmm...might a friendship be brewing there? From such thin stuff are rumors born.
What a wonderful day!!!
He's cute...
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