A day in the life of President Bush (1/28/06): photos

White House & Yahoo News Photos ^ | 1/28/06

[Wolfstar]

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President Bush previewed three domestic themes of his upcoming State of the Union address — tax cuts, energy prices and the rising cost of health care — in his weekly radio broadcast Saturday. Yesterday, two significant presidential nominations were announced. The President nominated Randy Kroszner and Kevin Warsh to be members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kroszner is a professor of economics in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He was previously a member of the Council of Economic Advisors. Mr. Warsh is a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House. He previously served as Executive Director and Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley.

This is a charming story about how an 11-year-old girl earned a trip to the White House to meet the First Lady.

White House lauds historical program
By Thomas Hargrove, Scripps Howard News Service
January 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - Pretending to be a ghost last year so she could describe the life, culture and conditions in the Old West won 11-year- old Destiney Scott, of Denver, a trip to the White House and a handshake from first lady Laura Bush.

"This is so exciting. I never thought I'd get this opportunity," Destiney said Wednesday through chattering teeth on the frigid north lawn of the White House 15 minutes after her appearance in the historic East Room.

Destiney and two other Coloradans were invited to Washington to receive the White House's "Coming Up Taller" Award, which this year honors 17 youth arts and humanities programs around the nation. Each award includes a $10,000 prize.

The Colorado Historical Society was selected for its "Old Stories, New Voices" program, which brings children to historic Fort Garland in south-central Colorado for a weeklong program to learn about buffalo soldiers, Hispanic artisans, frontier farmers and Great Plains Indians.

Mrs. Bush praised the Colorado program, developed in partnership with the National Park Service, for giving "boys and girls a deeper understanding of how people of past generations and diverse cultures lived in the American West."

Destiney recalls that her week at Fort Garland was "just so much fun."

"At the end, we went camping in the dunes and did a play about what we'd learned," she said. "Ours was about ghosts. There's a room inside the fort that's known to have a ghost."

Denver program counselor Cheryl Simpson, 26, praised "Old Stories, New Voices" for breathing life into the sometimes stilted subject of history.

"You don't see a lot of programs that do that. And the kids absorb this like sponges. It's just amazing," she said.

THE WEEK AHEAD: The following is from various news reports.

Monday, President Bush will participate in a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Colorado AFL-CIO at the Colorado Education Assocation. A miner, a United Airlines employee, a teacher, a federal worker, a communications union worker, a mother of six and a seniors' advocate are scheduled to participate in the group.

Tuesday the President will deliver his annual State of the Union address.

Wednesday the President travels to Nashville, TN, to deliver a speech at the historic Grand Ole Opry House. Local business leaders have received invitations from the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce to the speech, scheduled for Wednesday morning.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: From the Presidential Radio Address, January 28, 2006;

This past week, Judge Alito gained the endorsement of Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor, Ed Rendell. Governor Rendell said he was not pleased with the partisan way some of his fellow Democrats have handled Sam Alito's nomination. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia announced he was voting for Judge Alito. And he said that many people in his state were calling the treatment of Judge Alito by some Democrats "an outrage and a disgrace." Another Democratic Senator expressed concern that the Senate confirmation process in recent years has become "overly politicized, to the detriment of the rule of law."

The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to hold an up-or-down vote on Judge Alito's nomination. Throughout its 216-year history, the Senate has held an up-or-down vote on every Supreme Court nominee with majority Senate support. Judge Alito has demonstrated that he is eminently qualified to serve on our nation's highest court, and America is fortunate to have a man of his integrity and intellect willing to serve.

I'm grateful to Judge Alito, his wife Martha, and the Alito children for their patience and dignity during the process. And I look forward to the Senate voting to confirm Judge Sam Alito as the 110th justice of the Supreme Court.

[Wolfstar]

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) called for a filibuster of Samuel Alito's nomination Thursday while attending a world economic conference at a Swiss resort. Asked Friday if the administration was taking Kerry's call seriously, White House press secretary Scott McClellan chuckled and said:

"It was a pretty historic day. This was the first time ever that a senator has called for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland. I think even for a senator, it takes some pretty serious yodeling to call for a filibuster from a five-star ski resort in the Swiss Alps."

[Wolfstar]

Pinging you to the Saturday Evening Dose.

[Wolfstar]

IMAGE OF THE DAY: President George Washington's actions in office set so many of our presidential traditions, but delivering a State of the Union speech before Congress almost died with Washington. The Constitution does not require the State of the Union to be given in person. A mere written report would suffice. However, President Washington rode on a carriage driven by six horses from his house on Cherry Street to Federal Hall in New York to deliver his first annual message in person.

Federal Hall in New York City as it appeared in President Washington's time.

When he became president, Thomas Jefferson thought Washington's oral presentation was too kingly for the new republic. Likewise, Congress's practice of giving a courteous reply in person at the president's residence was too formal. Jefferson detailed his priorities in his first annual message in 1801 and sent copies of the written message to each house of Congress. The president's annual message, as it was then called, was not delivered orally by a president for the next 112 years. The message was often printed in full or as excerpts in newspapers for the American public to read.

The first president to revive Washington's spoken precedent was Woodrow Wilson in 1913. With the advent of radio and television, the president's annual message has become not only a conversation between the president and Congress, but also an opportunity for the president to communicate with the American people at the same time. Calvin Coolidge's 1923 speech was the first annual message broadcast on radio. Franklin Roosevelt began using the phrase "State of the Union" in 1935, which became the common name of the annual message. Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman, also set a precedent in 1947 when his State of the Union speech became the first to be broadcast on television.

[ilovew]

hi

[Momaw Nadon]

Good Evening!

[RobFromGa]

bump

[Wolfstar]

PHOTO OF THE DAY: You folks in the White House press corps give new meaning to the word dense.

[Wolfstar]

Barney has a word for it. Grrrrrrrr...

I C thru your BS, Roberts.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Whoopee!! one?

[Wolfstar]

OK, Helen, let's get your diatribe -- er, question -- over with.

I'm gonna start cracking a whip in this press room.

[Wolfstar]

What kind of a question was that?!

O...kay. Same dumb question asked for the 167th time. Are you sure we need a First Amendment? (Just kidding, guys n'gals.)

[snugs]

Good evening thanks for the dose

[Wolfstar]

It really only takes a teeny, weeny bit of brain power to figure this out, folks. Now stick with me, here, while I 'splain it again.

If you move to the right, things might be less fuzzy for y'all. Try it. You might find you like it.

Now hold on a minute, there.

[ilovew]

LOL! I love your captions :)

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Oh well, top five's cool. What a pic of Bush!! He looks like he's about to tell a snotty reporter something in Texan. (But he won't because his good character will kick in).

[Wolfstar]

The MSM hyenas in full cry.

Helen Thomas and John Roberts (CBS; gray hair, red tie) are seated in the center, first row.

[OldFriend]

Evening all.

[Wolfstar]

Ehehehehehehehe...I just love making fools outta y'all.

Only three more years to go, then I'm outta here.

[Wolfstar]

Vice President Cheney watches during a meeting between President Bush and Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri in the Oval Office, January 27, 2006. Also pictured are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hariri's advisor Amal Modalali, and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.

The Vice President and Secretary of State in the Oval Office.

[Wolfstar]

The VP meets with Lebanese Parliament member Saad Hariri. Earlier in the day Mr. Hariri met President Bush and discussed the pursuit of democratic freedom and economic revitalization in Lebanon.