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(05/01/09 3:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON — Justice David Souter has told the White House that he will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the court's term in June, a source said Thursday night.The source spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Souter.Speculation that the 69-year-old justice will be stepping down has been fueled by his failure to appoint law clerks from the fall term.National Public Radio reported that Souter will remain on the bench until a successor is confirmed.The Supreme Court declined to comment on the report.Souter's retirement would give President Barack Obama his first pick for the high court. Court watchers expect him to choose a woman to join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, currently the only woman on the Supreme Court.Souter has never made any secret of his dislike for Washington, once telling acquaintances he had "the world's best job in the world's worst city." When the court finishes its work for the summer, he quickly departs for his beloved New Hampshire.He has been on the court since 1990, when he was an obscure federal appeals court judge until President George H.w. Bush tapped him for the Supreme Court.
(02/25/09 5:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised a nation shuddering in economic crisis Tuesday night that he would lead it from a dire “day of reckoning” to a brighter future, summoning politicians and public alike to shoulder responsibility for hard choices and shared sacrifice.“The time to take charge of our future is here,” Obama declared, delivering his first address to a joint session of Congress.Offering words of reassurance to an anxious nation, he said, “Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.“We are a nation that has seen promise and peril. Now we must be that nation again.”To deal with the current crisis, deepening each day, the president said more money will be needed to rescue troubled banks beyond the $700 billion already committed last year. He said he knows that bailout billions for banks are unpopular – “I promise you, I get it,” he said – but he also insisted that was the only way to get credit moving again to households and businesses, the lifeblood of the American economy.Along with aid for banks, he also called on Congress to move quickly on legislation to overhaul outdated regulations on the nation’s financial markets.“I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary,” Obama said, “because we cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession.”Thinking longer-term, Obama said both political parties must give up favored programs while uniting behind his campaign promises to build better schools, expand health care coverage and move the nation to “greener” fuel use.Just five weeks after his inauguration, Obama addressed an ebullient Democratic congressional majority and an embattled but reinvigorated GOP minority as well as millions of anxious viewers. Despite the nation’s economic worries and the lack of support for his plans from all but a few Republican lawmakers, Obama enjoys strong approval ratings across the nation.Louisiana’s young, charismatic governor, Bobby Jindal, delivering the televised GOP response, exhorted fellow Republicans to be Obama’s “strongest partners” when they agree with him. But he signaled that won’t happen much, calling Democrats in Congress “irresponsible” for passing the $787 billion stimulus package that Republicans have criticized as excessive and wasteful.“The way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians,” Jindal said, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the Republican Party. “Who among us would ask our children for a loan, so we could spend money we do not have, on things we do not need?”Obama spoke as bad economic news continued to pile up, felt all too keenly in U.S. homes and businesses. Some 3.6 million jobs have disappeared so far in the deepening recession, which now ranks as the biggest job destroyer in the post-World War II period. Americans have lost trillions of dollars in retirement, college and savings accounts, with the stock market falling nearly half from its peak of 16 months ago.And new polls – some with his public support rising and others with it dropping – show that the political climate can be as precarious as the economic one. Aware that his and his party’s fortunes will suffer if he cannot right the economic picture, Obama sought to blend the kind of grim honesty that has become his trademark since taking office with a greater emphasis on optimism.“The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation,” he said.His hope was to begin to persuade the country that those longer-term items on his presidential agenda are as important to the nation’s economic well-being as unchoking credit and turning around unemployment numbers.“The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care, the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit,” Obama said. “That is our responsibility.”
(09/16/08 2:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>President Bush sympathized Monday with investors and employees of storied but fallen financial institutions, but said federal policy makers will focus their attention on “the health of the financial system as a whole.”“We are working to reduce disruptions and minimize the impact of these financial market developments on the broader economy,” Bush said in the Rose Garden, choosing to address the market turmoil at the top of an appearance with the visiting President of Ghana, John Kufuor. “The policy makers will focus on the health of the financial system as a whole,” Bush said.His statement seemed to serve notice that the government will not continue to bail out Wall Street, as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co. was forced to sell itself to Bank of America, and the world’s largest insurance company plans to announce major restructuring.“Adjustments in the financial markets can be painful, both for people concerned about their investments and for the employees of the affected firms,” the president said. “But in the long run I am confident that our capital markets are flexible and resilient and can deal with these adjustments.”Bush also said he was pleased with work done so far by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and major financial institutions to “promote stability” in financial markets shaken by the developments involving Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.Bush said his advisers at the White House and “throughout my administration” are focused intently on the problems and how to “promote stability in the financial system.” He said he was remaining in close touch with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and had been throughout the weekend. Paulson was to join White House officials in discussing the situation with reporters at the White House later Monday.
(03/20/08 3:47am)
WASHINGTON – Five years after launching the invasion of Iraq, President Bush strongly signaled Wednesday that he won’t order troop withdrawals beyond those already planned because he refuses to “jeopardize the hard-fought gains” of the past year.\nAs anti-war activists demonstrated around downtown Washington, the president spoke at the Pentagon to mark the anniversary of a war that has cost nearly 4,000 U.S. lives and roughly $500 billion. The president’s address was part of a series of events the White House planned around the anniversary and next month’s report from the top U.S. figures in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. That report will be the basis for Bush’s first troop-level decision in seven months.\n“The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated,” Bush said.\nBut, he added, before an audience of Pentagon brass, soldiers and diplomats: “The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory.”\nDemocrats took issue with Bush’s stay-the-course suggestion.\n“With the war in Iraq entering its sixth year, Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our nation must continue to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “Democrats will continue to push for an end to the war in Iraq and increased oversight of that war.”\nBush repeatedly and directly linked the Iraq fight to the global battle against the al-Qaida terror network. And he made some of his most expansive claims of success. He said the increase of 30,000 troops that he ordered to Iraq last year has turned “the situation in Iraq around.” He also said that “Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al-Qaida out.”\n“The surge ... has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror,” the president said. “We are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated.”\nBush appeared to be referring to recent cooperation by local Iraqis with the U.S. military against the group known as al-Qaida in Iraq, a mostly homegrown, though foreign-led, Sunni-based insurgency. Experts question how closely – \nor even whether – the group is connected to the international al-Qaida network. As for bin Laden, he is rarely heard from and is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.\nThe U.S. has about 158,000 troops in Iraq. That number is expected to drop to 140,000 by summer in drawdowns meant to erase all but about 8,000 troops from last year’s increase.\nBush, who has successfully defied efforts by the Democratic-led Congress to force larger and faster withdrawals, said they could unravel recent progress. \n“Having come so far and achieved so much, we are not going to let this happen,” he said.\nHe criticized those who “still call for retreat” in the face of what he called undeniable successes.\n“The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists’ defeat,” he said. “We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast – the terrorists and extremists step in, fill the vacuum, establish safe havens and use them to spread chaos and carnage.”\nThis sort of cautionary rhetoric is consistent with all the president’s recent statements about Iraq.\nIt has been widely believed for weeks that Bush will endorse an expected recommendation from Petraeus next month for no additional troop reductions, beyond those already scheduled, until at least September. This so-called pause in drawdowns would be designed to assess the impact of this round before allowing more.\nThe surge was meant to tamp down sectarian violence in Iraq so that the country’s leaders would have time to advance legislation considered key to reconciliation between rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities. But the gains on the battlefield have not been matched by dramatic political progress, and violence again may be increasing.\nWith just 10 months before he hands off the war to a new president, Bush is concerned about his legacy on Iraq.\nBoth Democratic candidates have said they would begin withdrawing forces quickly if elected. Only expected GOP nominee John McCain has indicated he planned to continue Bush’s strategy of bringing troops home only as conditions warrant.
(02/20/08 4:34am)
KIGALI, Rwanda – On ground haunted by one of the worst atrocities of modern times, President Bush pleaded with the global community Tuesday for decisive action to stop grisly violence in African nations like Kenya and Sudan.\n“There is evil in the world and evil must be confronted,” said Bush, shaken by his visit to a museum that tells the story of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in just 100 days by extremist Hutu militias.\nBush, who famously once wrote “not on my watch” in the margin of a report on the Rwanda massacre, decided not to send U.S. troops into Sudan, focusing instead on imposing sanctions, applying diplomatic pressure and training and transporting other nations’ soldiers for peacekeeping.\nHe has been particularly frustrated at what he sees as sluggish efforts by other nations against the atrocities that have raged in Sudan’s western Darfur region for five years. Bush has called Darfur’s situation genocide, though others have not. Hoping that his campaign for increased involvement by others would gain more weight from the scene of another genocide, the president used strong language to blast the international effort.\n“If you’re a problem solver, you put yourself at the mercy of the decisions of others, in this case, the United Nations,” Bush said. “It is – seems very bureaucratic to me, particularly with people suffering.”\nAt least 200,000 have been killed in a campaign by militias supported by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government against black African communities in Darfur. Four cease-fires have gone unheeded. And only about 9,000 of an expected 26,000-troop peacekeeping force, a joint effort by the United Nations and the African Union, have been deployed. The Sudanese government has still not agreed to non-African troops and the U.N. has not persuaded governments to supply helicopters.\nBush hoped to spur the world into action with Rwanda’s history, and also its positive example. This tiny Central African nation of lush hills and rugged mountains – about the size of Maryland – was the first to commit peacekeepers to Darfur, and still has the largest contingent there.\n“My message to other nations is: ‘Join with the president and help us get this problem solved once and for all,’” Bush said after meetings with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.\nThe U.S. has spent $600 million on peacekeeping operations in Darfur, including to train and equip peacekeepers from several nations, transport troops and equipment back and forth and operate base camps, according to the White House. On Tuesday, Bush announced that $100 million would be made available for additional training and equipment.\nBush said Rwanda’s history also should serve as a grim warning as the world now watches Kenya disintegrate, with long-simmering ethnic hatreds playing a role in bloodshed that is shockingly brutal for a country once considered among Africa’s most stable.\nForeign and local observers say the December presidential elections that returned Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to power were rigged. It unleashed weeks of fighting, much of it pitting other ethnic groups against Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe that is resented for dominating politics and business.\n“I’m not suggesting that ... anything close to what happened here is going to happen in Kenya,” Bush said. “But I am suggesting there’s some warning signs that the international community needs to pay attention to, and we’re paying attention to it.”\nThe president and his wife, Laura, spent about 40 minutes at the Kigali Memorial Centre, where a trellis-covered hilltop houses mass graves for about 250,000 victims of Rwanda’s nightmare. Bush appeared sickened by what he saw, including stark stories of child victims – their innocent lives and brutal deaths.\n“It can’t help but shake your emotions to their very foundation,” Bush said. By Kagame’s side later, he said: “I just can’t imagine what it would have been like to be a citizen who lived in such horrors, and then had to, you know, gather themselves up and try to live a hopeful life.” \nAnd at the dedication of a new $80 million U.S. embassy here, Bush used the term “holocaust museum” to refer to where he had been.\nRwanda was Bush’s third stop in Africa after Benin and Tanzania. He flew to Ghana on Tuesday and will visit Liberia on Thursday.
(11/02/07 2:01am)
President Bush compared Congress’ Democratic leaders Thursday with people who ignored the rise of Lenin and Hitler early in the last century, saying “the world paid a terrible price” then and risks similar consequences for inaction today.\nBush accused Congress of stalling important pieces of the fight to prevent new terrorist attacks by dragging out and possibly jeopardizing confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, a key part of his national security team, failing to act on a bill governing eavesdropping on terrorist suspects and moving too slowly to approve spending measures for the Iraq war, Pentagon and veterans programs.\n“Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war,” Bush said during a speech at The Heritage Foundation. “This is no time for Congress to weaken the Department of Justice by denying it a strong and effective leader. ... It’s no time for Congress to weaken our ability to intercept information from terrorists about potential attacks on the United States of America. And this is no time for Congress to hold back vital funding for our troops as they fight al-Qaida terrorists and radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq.”\nHe argued that the current debate over the Iraq war and his administration’s anti-terror methods harkens back to debates decades ago in Washington when Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin first talked about launching a communist revolution, when Adolf Hitler began moves to establish an “Aryan superstate” in Germany and when some argued that Cold War accommodation of the Soviet Union was wiser than competition.\n“Now we’re at the start of a new century, and the same debate is once again unfolding, this time regarding my policy in the Middle East,” Bush said. “Once again, voices in Washington are arguing that the watchword of the policy should be stability.”\nBush said denial that “we are at war” is dangerous.\n“History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake,” Bush said. “Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we listen?”\nCongress earned Bush’s scorn even while he offered praise because a key Senate committee has passed a new eavesdropping bill containing many provisions the president wants. “It’s an important step in the right direction,” he said.\nHe repeated earlier criticisms of a move to combine spending bills for the Defense Department and veterans programs with one for labor, health and education matters that Republicans consider bloated. Bush also lamented that his emergency spending request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still languishes.\n“When it comes to funding our troops, some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground,” Bush said, “and less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and Code \nPink protesters.”
(02/16/07 3:33am)
WASHINGTON -- Describing a country on the brink, President Bush on Thursday exhorted NATO nations to send additional troops to Afghanistan and allow their soldiers already there to fight in the violent south and under other dangerous circumstances.\n"When our commanders on the ground say to our respective countries 'We need additional help,' our NATO countries must provide it," Bush said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "As well, allies must lift restrictions on the forces they do provide so NATO commanders have the flexibility they need to defeat the enemy wherever the enemy may make its stand."\nBush said that listening to his request is not only an obligation nations make as part of NATO, but is also crucial to their own security.\n"The alliance was founded on this principle: An attack on one is an attack on all. That principle holds true whether the attack is on the home soil of a NATO nation or on allied forces deployed on a NATO mission abroad," he said. "By standing together in Afghanistan, NATO forces protect their own people."\nThe imbalance in Afghanistan has become a sore point among allies.\nTroops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have been doing most of the fighting and leaders of those countries have been lobbying the other 22 allied countries to do more. Countries such as Germany, for instance, don't allow their forces to deploy to the heart of the Taliban insurgency in the south and east.\nFighting in Afghanistan the past year was the bloodiest since the U.S.-led war started in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime. Commanders anticipate a renewed offensive this spring by Taliban fighters trying to stage a comeback and topple the elected government in Kabul.\nSeveral countries have offered recently to provide additional support to the 35,500-strong NATO force, but it remains to be seen whether coalition commanders will get the troops, equipment and rules of engagement they say they need.\nThe Pentagon announced Wednesday that about 3,000 soldiers who had been scheduled to go to Iraq would be sent to Afghanistan instead. That puts the U.S. presence there at about 27,000 with 15,000 serving as part of the NATO-led force and another 12,000 special operations forces and trainers.\nThe president is asking Congress to provide $11.8 billion over the next two years for operations, military and otherwise, in Afghanistan.\nBush said the need for others nations to step up is great as spring comes, bringing an expected new offensive by the Taliban.
(01/11/07 4:08am)
WASHINGTON -- Unswayed by anti-war passions, President Bush said Wednesday he will send 21,500 additional U.S. forces to Iraq to break the cycle of violence and "hasten the day our troops begin coming home." He acknowledged making mistakes in earlier security efforts in Baghdad.\nThe troop buildup will push the American presence in Iraq toward its highest level and put Bush on a collision course with the new Democratic Congress. It also runs counter to advice from some generals.\nBush was to announce the buildup in a prime-time speech to the nation. Excerpts of his remarks were released in advance by the White House.\nThe president said Iraq must meet its responsibilities, too, but he put no deadlines on Baghdad to do so.\n"America's commitment is not open-ended," he said. "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people."\nBush readily acknowledged making mistakes in previous efforts to quell the near-anarchy in Baghdad. "There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents," the president said. "And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have."\nHe said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised that U.S. forces would have a free hand and that "political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."\nBush's approach amounts to a huge gamble on al-Maliki's willingness -- and ability -- to deliver on promises he has consistently failed to keep: to disband Shiite militias, pursue national reconciliation and make good on commitments for Iraqi forces to handle security operations in Baghdad.\nAfter nearly four years of bloody combat, the speech was perhaps Bush's last credible chance to try to present a winning strategy in Iraq and persuade Americans to change their minds about the unpopular war, which has cost the lives of more than 3,000 members of the U.S. military as well as more than $400 billion.\nBush said that "to step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government. ... Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer and confront an enemy that is even more lethal."\n"If we increase our support at this crucial moment and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home," he said.
(11/16/06 3:45am)
By Jennifer Loven\nThe Associated Press\nMOSCOW -- President Bush, eager for Russian help in ongoing nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran, tended to the sometimes frosty Washington-Moscow relationship Wednesday by paying a quick call on President Vladimir Putin.\nBush paused to visit the Russian leader for an hour and a half at an airport stopover on his way to Asia for an eight-day trip that includes stays in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. Bush has meetings scheduled with several important allies, including Putin, on the sidelines of a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Hanoi, Vietnam, later this week. But only Putin rated a social call as well.\nRussian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Alexei Gromov as saying the two presidents discussed the Iranian nuclear program, the situation in the Middle East and nuclear nonproliferation.\nGromov also confirmed that a bilateral agreement on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization was being readied for signing in Hanoi.\nNational security adviser Stephen Hadley, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One after Bush left, said the president's get-together with Putin "was a social meeting as we said it would be. This was a refueling stop."\nBut Hadley also said that they "talked a little bit about proliferation generally" with regards to Iran and North Korea. He also said that he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, about efforts to find an agreement on a new U.N. security resolution on Iran.\n"We had a good discussion about that," Hadley said. "I think basically the strategy that all of the countries who are working on this is to come up with a resolution themselves. I think the Russians think it's sound."\nWhen Bush and his wife, Laura, landed, they were greeted on a red carpet on the tarmac by Putin and his wife, Lyudmila. The Russian president presented Mrs. Bush with a bouquet of yellow, orange and red flowers and the foursome exchanged kisses.
(08/29/06 2:56am)
BILOXI, Miss. -- President Bush returned Monday to the first scene he saw a year ago of Hurricane Katrina's devastation and declared "a sense of renewal" in the region still struggling to come back from the storm's battering.\n"Amazing what the world looked like then and what it looks like now," Bush said, marveling at the air conditioning and electrical service in the newly constructed home visible behind him. "People can't imagine what the world looked like then."\nWhen Bush first saw the neighborhood, it was littered by debris of all sizes, cars were in trees and homes were battered to bits.\nBush said "there's still challenges." Other parts of the neighborhood, which is being rebuilt in patches, and a woman he consoled on a trip here last year, demonstrated just that. Sought out by the White House to meet Bush again, she said before his remarks that she has come far -- but not far enough.\nThen -- Bronwynne Bassier had returned from Alabama, clutching trash bags, to search the rubble of her former home for clothes for her young son. Sobbing uncontrollably, she told Bush she had lost everything.\nOn Monday, newly married and now Bronwynne Lesso, said her old house has been demolished to a concrete slab. She lives in a FEMA trailer with her husband and 3-year-old and is still trying to figure out how to get a job and whether she can rebuild.\n"When they take the FEMA trailers away, I don't know what I'm going to do," she said in an interview.\nStill, like many in Mississippi, where the response and rebuilding effort has gone better than in Louisiana, Lesso doesn't blame Bush.\n"One year later, he hasn't forgotten about us," she said.\nBush came to Mississippi on the first day of a two-day Gulf Coast visit to mark the one-year anniversary of the hurricane that still haunts his presidency. It was his 13th journey to the region, and his first in three months.\nHis travels were shadowed by worries that a new tropical storm could bring the first test of his promise that the botched post-Katrina response will not be repeated.\nTropical Storm Ernesto cut a path through the Caribbean and put Florida on emergency footing. Forecasters believe Ernesto will emerge with some force into the Gulf of Mexico later this week.\nWith Bush's image as a leader still tarnished by the halting federal response to Katrina, the president wants to make clear he has been fully engaged in planning for Ernesto. Aides noted he was briefed regularly over the weekend.\nBefore leaving the White House on Monday, Bush and top federal disaster officials conferred on Ernesto in a briefing led by Federal Emergency Management Agency Director R. David Paulison. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Florida had not requested federal assistance or support.\nA poll earlier this month found two-thirds of Americans still disapprove of the president's handling of Katrina. Democrats are converging on the Gulf along with Bush, intending to make the case that he and the Republican Party should be held accountable for failing storm victims.\nDemocratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Bush's promises of help for Katrina victims and changes to the federal response effort remain largely unfulfilled.\nThe president's first stop was lunch at the Biloxi Schooner Seafood Restaurant, owned by Joe Lancon, who recently reopened less than two miles from where Katrina destroyed his two other restaurants. Bush dined on fried shrimp, stuffed crab and gumbo and reassured state and local officials that the federal government would continue to help with the rebuilding.\n"I was just commenting upon how clean the beaches were," the president said at the end of lunch. "That wasn't a given a year ago. Now they speak to the hope."\nThe Mississippi coastline here is much-changed from Bush's last visit, when debris still hung from trees and was stacked in large piles. Some devastated structures remain in extreme disrepair, but the stretch of beachfront property is taken up by vacant lots where gracious antebelleum homes once stood, with a few new or being-constructed buildings and little debris in evidence.\nBush didn't bring any new aid announcements or fresh policy proposals.\nSo far, Congress has approved $110 billion in hurricane aid. The Bush administration has released $77 billion to the states, reserving the rest for future needs, but $33 billion of that has not yet been spent.\nDon Powell, Bush's federal Gulf Coast coordinator, also warned in an interview that no more money would flow to the region until there is proof that what has been approved is being spent well.\nBush's itinerary looks a lot like it did on previous trips, many of them criticized as featuring too much staged contact with supportive locals and overly dominated by meetings with officials. The White House released almost no information on where Bush was visiting until minutes before he was to arrive, in part to lessen cumbersome security needs. But the practice also has the result of further shielding him from more freely interacting with residents.\nBush also was visiting a Gulfport company that builds and repairs boats before ending in New Orleans at a dinner with state and local officials. On Wednesday, he shifts gears, and is to appear at political fundraisers in Arkansas and Tennessee.
(01/11/06 5:36am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush warned Democratic critics of his Iraq policy on Tuesday to watch what they say or risk giving "comfort to our adversaries" and suffering at the ballot box in November. Democrats said Bush should take his own advice.\nThere are still 10 months left before congressional elections in which the president's Republican Party could lose its dominance of Capitol Hill; a recent Associated Press poll found Americans prefer Democratic control over a continued GOP majority by 49 percent to 36 percent. But Bush is wasting no time engaging the battle. In his first speech of 2006 on the road, last week in Chicago, he aggressively challenged Democrats on the economy.\nTuesday's equally sharp message represented an attempt by the president to neutralize Democrats' ability to use Iraq -- where violence is surging in the wake of December parliamentary elections and messy negotiations to form a new coalition government -- as an election-year cudgel against Republicans.\nBush acknowledged deep differences over Iraq among casualty-weary Americans, just 39 percent of whom approve of his handling of the war, according to the poll. Without specifically mentioning Democrats, the president urged campaigning politicians to "conduct this debate responsibly."\nHe said he welcomed "honest critics" who question the way the war is being conducted and the "loyal opposition" that points out what is wrong with his administration's approach.\nBut he termed irresponsible the "partisan critics who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil or because of Israel or because we misled the American people," as well as "defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right." With that description, Bush lumped the many Democrats who have accused him of twisting prewar intelligence with the few people, mostly outside the mainstream, who have raised the issues of oil and Israel.\nBush argued that irresponsible discussion harms the morale of troops overseas, emboldens the insurgents they are fighting and sets a bad example for Iraqis trying to establish a democratic government.\n"In a free society, there's only one check on political speech and that's the judgment of the American people," the president said to sustained applause from a friendly audience, a gathering of Veterans of Foreign Wars. "So I ask all Americans to hold their elected leaders to account and demand a debate that brings credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries."\nWhite House press secretary Scott McClellan would not say who Bush believes has been irresponsible, other than Democratic Party chief Howard Dean, who said last month that "the idea that we're going to win this war ... is just plain wrong." In the past, the White House has also singled out, among others, Rep. John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who became a leading advocate for a quick troop pullout, and other Democrats who say Bush has no strategy.
(09/12/05 4:47am)
NEW ORLEANS -- President Bush, eager to show hands-on leadership in the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery effort, joined commanders working from a military ship docked in this flooded city Sunday.\nThe president visited firefighters who have been battling the blazes that persistently erupt across the city, then was sleeping on the USS Iwo Jima. The amphibious assault ship is serving as a control center in the relief efforts.\nOn Monday, he planned to tour the New Orleans area and Gulfport, Miss., in his third and longest visit to the region in the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding struck.\nBush began the day in recognition of the fourth anniversary of the other tragedy that has marked his presidency -- the Sept. 11 attacks. As he has every year since 2001, the president observed a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. EDT, the exact minute when hijackers smashed the first passenger jet into the World Trade Center.\nHe left the White House in the afternoon for New Orleans, where he was greeted by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Bush shed his sports coat before boarding a helicopter for a brief flight to the ship docked in the Mississippi River in front of the convention center, where thousands of people waited in squalor for several days before being rescued.\nUpon arrival on the flight deck of the ship, Bush was greeted by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, commander of the New Orleans relief efforts, and Army Lt. Russel Honore, who is coordinating military relief efforts along the Gulf Coast. He then posed for photos with the flight deck crew that has guided rescue flights and the Marine One helicopter that carried Bush onto the ship.\nLess than an hour after arriving, Bush left for the Algiers neighborhood where firefighters from across the country have turned the campus of Our Lady of Holy Cross College into what they call "tent city," a staging ground for firefighting operations in the city.\nHe greeted a group of firefighters from New York City who were giving back a rig that the New Orleans Fire Department donated to their department after the 2001 terror attacks. He then went to the mess hall, where he mingled and got a standing ovation as he walked into one dining tent.\nThe president made no public comments during any of Sunday's events.\nOn Monday, Bush was to get a briefing aboard the ship from Allen and Honore. The president planned to tour New Orleans in a military truck and then get an aerial tour of some outlying areas by helicopter before visiting Mississippi.\nHurricane Katrina has been a low point in Bush's presidency, with his job approval dipping to a record 39 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll last week. Just over half of respondents said he is at fault for the slow response to the hurricane.\nDemocrats piled on the blame. Party leader Howard Dean on Sunday questioned why the federal government was not better prepared for Katrina after the experience of responding to the terrorist attacks.\n"Sadly, the federal government's lack of preparation followed by its inept response had deadly consequences for far too many Americans in Katrina's path," Dean said in a statement. "The American people are counting on their leaders in Washington, D.C., to do better."\nAs Sunday's anniversary approached, Bush has linked the experience of Sept. 11 and Katrina in his speeches and his weekly radio address.\nBush's initial response to the attacks, including a grim address to the nation the same evening, boosted his job approval ratings and came in contrast to a slower recognition of the fallout from Katrina.\nBush and other administration officials marked the Sept. 11 anniversary with a simple ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.
(09/06/05 4:43am)
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Like estranged in-laws at a holiday gathering, President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco kept their distance as both toured a relief center for storm victims Monday. At their next stop, the Republican president kissed the Democratic governor on the cheek, but it wasn't clear whether they had made up.\nState and federal officials are all facing public criticism for a slow response to the Katrina crisis. Behind the scenes, each suggests the other is to blame.\nIn front of the cameras during Bush's visit to the Gulf Coast states Monday, the president and Blanco said little to each other, focusing instead on thanking relief workers.\n"I know I don't need to make any other introduction other than 'Mr. President,'" Blanco said tersely, turning the microphone over to Bush after praising emergency management officials during a stop with Bush at an emergency operations center.\n"This is one of these disasters that will test our soul and test our spirit, but we're going to show the world once again that not only can we survive but we will be stronger and better for it," Bush said after taking the microphone.\nBush echoed Blanco's praise for rescue workers. \n"I hope that makes you feel good to know you have saved lives," he said, promising state, local and federal officials that he would fix anything that isn't going right. "This is just the beginning of a huge effort."\nThe president, looking choked up as he finished his brief remarks, nodded at Blanco and kissed her on the cheek. She nodded back and both left the podium, headed for separate spots in the crowd.\nBlanco has refused to sign over control of the National Guard to the federal government and has turned to a Clinton administration official, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt, to help run relief efforts.\nBlanco was not told when Bush would visit the state, nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him. Blanco's office didn't know Bush was coming until told by reporters. Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House reached out to Blanco's office Sunday, but didn't hear back. White House staff in Louisiana spoke with Blanco early Monday, he said.\nMaking his third visit to the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged states, the president stopped first at the Bethany World Prayer Center, a huge hall half covered with pallets and half filled with dining tables. Blanco visited at the same time, but she and Bush kept apart as they walked around talking to people.\nDuring his stop at Bethany, several people ran up to meet Bush and get autographs as he and first lady Laura Bush wandered around the room. But just as many hung back and looked on.\n"I need answers," said Mildred Brown, who has been there since Tuesday with her husband, mother-in-law and cousin. "I'm not interested in handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a lot of money."\nA week after the storm, a definitive death toll remained elusive. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin warned on NBC's "Today" that "it wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000" dead.\nDespite the grim estimate, he was more upbeat than in previous days, when he railed against the federal government and broke down sobbing during a radio interview.\n"We're making great progress now, the momentum has picked up. I'm starting to see some critical tasks being completed," he told NBC. "The 17th Street canal is about, or was about, 84 percent closed in yesterday afternoon. We have more troops arriving, so we're starting to make the kind of progress that I kind of expected earlier."\nBush hasn't gone a day without a public event devoted to the storm and its aftermath. But none of those trips so far, nor appearances by several Cabinet members in the region, has quieted complaints that Washington's response to the disaster has been sluggish. Congress already plans hearings on the response.\nIt took several days for food and water to reach the tens of thousands of desperate New Orleans residents who took shelter in the increasingly squalid and deadly Superdome and city convention center. Outlying areas suffered some of the same problems.\nAt least 155,000 people have been evacuated from the stricken areas, most of them now housed in some 560 shelters. More than 60,000 civilian and military personnel are assisting.\nHundreds of federal health officers and nearly 100 tons of medical supplies were sent to try to head off disease, feared because of hot weather, mosquitoes and standing water holding human waste, corpses and other contaminants.\nElsewhere in Louisiana, miles-long lines of vehicles crawled into suburban Jefferson Parish Monday as residents were allowed to return to salvage what was left of their homes.\nA curfew was set for 6 p.m. \nAssociated Press reporter Doug Simpson contributed to this report from \nMetairie, La.
(09/06/05 4:37am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts, Jr., to succeed William H. Rehnquist as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court early Monday. \nBush called on the Senate to confirm Roberts -- a 50-year-old appellate court judge originally nominated by Bush in July to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- before the Court opens its fall term Oct. 3. \nThe Senate is expected to begin Roberts' confirmation hearings as chief justice either Thursday or next Monday.\nThe opening of his previously scheduled confirmation hearings for the position of associate justice, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was moved to Wednesday because of Rehnquist's funeral.\nThe swift move would also ensure a full nine-member court, because O'Connor has said she will remain on the job until her replacement is confirmed.\n"I am honored and humbled by the confidence the president has shown in me," Roberts said, standing alongside Bush in the Oval Office. "I am very much aware that if I am confirmed I would succeed a man I deeply respect and admire, a man who has been very kind to me for 25 years."\nIn his announcement, the president called Roberts "a man of integrity and fairness" who has "inspired the respect and loyalty of others."\n"John Roberts built a record of excellence and achievement and reputation for goodwill and decency toward others in his extraordinary career," Bush said.\nThe selection of Roberts -- a former law clerk for Rehnquist -- helps Bush avoid new political problems when he already is under fire for the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina and his approval ratings in the polls are at the lowest point of his presidency.\nSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he still expects Roberts to be confirmed before the new court session begins the first Monday of October.\n"The president has made an excellent choice," Frist said Monday. "Mr. Roberts is one of the most well-qualified candidates to come before the Senate. He will be an excellent chief."\nDemocrats said Roberts will now be held to a higher standard, although they had found little in his record to suggest they would thwart his nomination as associate justice.\n"Now that the president has said he will nominate Judge Roberts as chief justice, the stakes are higher and the Senate's advice and consent responsibility is even more important," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday in a statement. "The Senate must be vigilant."\nThe president met with Roberts in the private residence of the White House for about 35 to 40 minutes Sunday evening, then officially offered him the job at 7:15 a.m. Monday when Roberts arrived at the Oval Office.\n"This had been something that had been in the president's thinking for some time -- in case the chief justice retired or that there otherwise was a vacancy," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. "The president, when he met with him, knew he was a natural born leader. The president knew Judge Roberts had the qualities to lead the court."\nMcClellan said Bush called O'Connor from Air Force One en route to Louisiana Monday to talk with her about his decision and told her he would move quickly to find her replacement as well. Talking to reporters, spokeswoman Dana Perino was unable to say whether O'Connor reiterated her earlier promise, however.\nGetting a new chief justice of Bush's choosing in place quickly also avoids the scenario of having Justice John Paul Stevens making the decisions about whom to assign cases to and making other decisions that could influence court deliberations. As the court's senior justice, Stevens would take over Rehnquist's administrative duties until a new chief is confirmed.\n"The passing of Chief Justice William Rehnquist leaves the center chair empty, just four weeks left before the Supreme Court reconvenes," Bush said. "It's in the interest of the court and the country to have a chief justice on the bench on the first full day of the fall term."\nRehnquist, 80 at his death, served on the Supreme Court for 33 years and was its leader for 19 years. He died Saturday at his home after a long-time struggle with thyroid cancer.\nRehnquist's body will lie in repose in the marble Great Hall of the Supreme Court building Tuesday and Wednesday mornings with the public invited to pay its respects.
(09/05/05 6:06pm)
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday nominated John Roberts to succeed William H. Rehnquist as chief justice and called on the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court opens its fall term on Oct. 3. Just 50 years old, Roberts could shape the court for decades to come.\nThe Senate is expected to begin his confirmation hearings as chief justice either Thursday or next Monday. The opening of Roberts' previously scheduled confirmation hearings, for the position of associate justice, initially was to be Tuesday, but that was canceled until after Rehnquist's funeral on Wednesday.\nThe swift move would promote to the Supreme Court's top job a newcomer who currently is being considered as one of eight associate justices. It would also ensure a full 9-member court, because retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has said she will remain on the job until her replacement is confirmed.\n"I am honored and humbled by the confidence the president has shown in me," Roberts said, standing alongside Bush in the Oval Office. "I am very much aware that if I am confirmed I would succeed a man I deeply respect and admire, a man who has been very kind to me for 25 years."\n"He's a man of integrity and fairness and throughout his life he's inspired the respect and loyalty of others," Bush said. "John Roberts built a record of excellence and achievement and reputation for goodwill and decency toward others in his extraordinary career."\nThe selection of Roberts -- Rehnquist's former Supreme Court clerk -- helps Bush avoid new political problems when he already is under fire for the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina and his approval ratings in the polls are at the lowest point of his presidency.\nA brief delay in confirmation hearings for Roberts, which had been set to start Tuesday, was likely in light of his new nomination and Rehnquist's funeral this week.\nSenate officials are considering two options: starting the confirmation hearing on Thursday or starting the confirmation hearing on Monday, the scenario considered to be the most likely.\nSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he still expects Roberts to be confirmed before the new court session begins on October 3.\n"The president has made an excellent choice," Frist said Monday. "Mr. Roberts is one of the most well qualified candidates to come before the Senate. He will be an excellent chief."\nDemocrats said Roberts will now be held to a higher standard, although they had found little in his record to suggest they would thwart his nomination as associate justice.\n"Now that the president has said he will nominate Judge Roberts as chief justice, the stakes are higher and the Senate's advice and consent responsibility is even more important," Democratic leader Harry Reid said Monday in a statement. "The Senate must be vigilant."\nRalph Neas, president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, a major lobbying force in the judicial-selection process, said his group opposes Bush's decision to nominate Roberts for chief justice. "The death of chief justice Rehnquist and the president's nomination of John Roberts raises the stakes for the court and the American people exponentially," he said.\nThe president met with Roberts in the private residence of the White House for about 35 to 40 minutes on Sunday evening, then officially offered him the job at 7:15 a.m. Monday when Roberts arrived at the Oval Office.\n"This had been something that had been in the president's thinking for some time -- in case the chief justice retired or that there otherwise was a vacancy," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "The president when he met with him, knew he was a natural born leader. The president knew Judge Roberts had the qualities to lead the court."\nMcClellan said the White House is confident that Roberts can be confirmed by the Senate by Oct. 3. Bush still has to pick a successor for Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, although she said at the time of her retirement announcement that she would remain until a replacement were seated.\nMcClellan said Bush called O'Connor from Air Force One en route to Louisiana Monday to talk with her about his decision and told her he would move quickly to find her replacement as well. Talking to reporters, spokeswoman Dana Perino was unable to say whether O'Connor reiterated her earlier promise, however.\nGetting a new chief justice of Bush's choosing in place quickly also avoids the scenario of having liberal Justice John Paul Stevens making the decisions about whom to assign cases to and making other decisions that could influence court deliberations. As the court's senior justice, Stevens would take over Rehnquist's administrative duties until a new chief is confirmed.\n"The passing of Chief Justice William Rehnquist leaves the center chair empty, just four weeks left before the Supreme Court reconvenes," Bush said. "It's in the interest of the court and the country to have a chief justice on the bench on the first full day of the fall term."\nBush said Roberts has been closely scrutinized since he was nominated as an associate justice and that Americans "like what they see. He is a gentleman. He is a man of integrity and fairness." He said Roberts has unusual experience, having argued 39 cases as a lawyer before the Supreme Court. Bush also said Roberts was a natural leader.\nThe move was engineered to have all nine seats on the high court filled when the court opens its fall term.\nThe White House is not opposed to a delay in Roberts' confirmation hearings as long as senators vote on the confirmation before the court session begins on the first Monday of October. Bush already had nominated Roberts to take O'Connor's place. It requires just a little paper shuffling to change the nomination for Rehnquist's seat.\nWhite House chief of staff Andy Card informed members of Congress, calling Frist and Reid. He also called Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the committee; and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.\nThe White House counsel's office notified the Supreme Court through Justice John Paul Stevens, the senior-most member of the court.\nSen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the judiciary panel, said the nomination "raises the stakes" in making sure that the American people and the Senate knows Roberts' views.\n"Judge Roberts has a clear obligation to make his views known fully and completely at the hearings and we look forward to them," Schumer said.\nLiberal groups have expressed opposition to Roberts because of his conservative writings as an attorney for the Reagan administration and his rulings as an appeals court judge. However, it does not appear that his opponents have enough votes to block Roberts' confirmation.\nThat alone might have been impetus for Bush to rename Roberts for chief justice. Bush, with low standing in the polls, might not have the political capital he would need to win a Senate battle over a conservative ideologue who would draw intense opposition.\nRehnquist, 80 at his death, served on the Supreme Court for 33 years and was its leader for 19 years.\nRehnquist, a World War II Army Air Corps veteran, will be buried in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his wife, who died in 1991, following a funeral that morning at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington. He died Saturday at his home.\nHis body will lie in repose in the marble Great Hall of the Supreme Court building on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning with the public invited to pay its respects.\nFive members of the court have lain in repose there: Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren Burger, and Justices Thurgood Marshall, William Brennan and Harry Blackmun.
(09/05/05 6:50am)
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration kept its Hurricane Katrina response and its public relations campaign in overdrive Sunday, even as first confirmation came from Washington of a dreaded statistic -- that the storm probably killed thousands of people.\nResponding to accusations of racial insensitivity, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race."\nRice, who was sent to her native Alabama, was among four Cabinet secretaries and other high-ranking administration officials who fanned who out across the storm-ravaged region Sunday. President Bush was planning to return to the area Monday, three days after an initial visit, with appearances in Baton Rouge, La., and Poplarville, Miss.\nSix days after Katrina lashed much of the Gulf Coast into oblivion, and five days after levee breaks drowned New Orleans and turned it into a place of lawless misery, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said military personnel and National Guard troops have secured the city and ensured those still stranded can be moved out.\nBut he said significant challenges remain, including how to care for the people being relocated.\n"We are still in the middle of the emergency," Chertoff said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We are moving the city of New Orleans to other parts of the country."\nUnderscoring the strain of the disaster, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., lashed out at federal officials who she said have denigrated local efforts to deal with the catastrophe.\n"If one person criticizes them or says one more thing, including the president of the United States, he will hear from me," she said on the ABC's "This Week." "One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally."\nThe National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, at the government's request, announced a hot line and Web site dedicated to reuniting family members separated by the storm. By noon Monday, people will be able to get help at 1-888-544-5475 or at http://www.missingkids.com, where they can post or look through photographs, lists of names and physical descriptions.\nThere also were warnings of new dangers. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said he had received a report from Biloxi, Miss., of dysentery -- a painful, sometimes-fatal intestinal disease that causes dehydration. With hot weather, mosquitoes and standing water holding human waste, corpses and other contaminants, diseases such as West Nile virus, hepatitis A, salmonella and E. coli bacteria infections also are a concern, he said on CNN.\n"We have the ingredients for a bad situation there," Leavitt said.\nHundreds of federal health officers and nearly 100 tons of medical supplies and antibiotics were being delivered to the Gulf Coast to try to head off the problem.\nLocal officials had predicted the death toll would reach into the thousands, and federal officials agreed Sunday.\n"I think it's evident it's in the thousands," Leavitt said.\nChertoff said an untold number probably will be found dead in swamped homes, temporary shelters where many went for days without food or clean water, or even in the streets once the water is drained from New Orleans, which could take a month or more.\n"I think we need to prepare the country for what's coming," Chertoff said on "Fox News Sunday." "It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine."\nNew Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told NBC News that the situation has been "a tragedy, a disgrace."\nThe Bush administration continued scrambling to counter criticism that Bush and his administration didn't move aggressively enough right after the hurricane swept through.\nThe White House quickly arranged another trip by Bush to the Gulf Coast Monday, while the president and first lady Laura Bush paid a thank-you call on the Red Cross' disaster operations center and announced a White House blood drive.\n"The world saw this tidal wave of disaster" hit the Gulf Coast, Bush said at the Red Cross center. "Now they're going to see a tidal wave of compassion."\nBesides Rice, Chertoff and Leavitt, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers also traveled to the region Sunday.\n"It's going to take many, many, many months and into years for this area to recover," said Rumsfeld, who took a helicopter tour of New Orleans, met with military personnel conducting search-and-rescue missions and visited a concourse where evacuated patients were being treated.\nRice -- the administration's highest-ranking black official -- became its chief defender against charges that help, particularly to the disproportionately black and poor victims in New Orleans, came too slowly. \n"Americans don't want to see Americans suffer," she said in Alabama.\nOn television, Chertoff was omnipresent, dispatched by the administration to appear on all five Sunday news shows after FEMA Director Michael Brown's damage-control efforts met with little success last week.\nChertoff echoed the White House line, saying the time to place blame will come later, but he also said federal officials had trouble getting information from local officials on what was going on. For instance, he said, they hadn't been told by Thursday of the violence and horrible conditions at the New Orleans convention center.
(05/09/05 7:29pm)
MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands -- As a chilly rain soaked thousands of white crosses marking American war dead, President Bush paid homage Sunday to the "terrible price" paid by World War II soldiers who never came home from their fight against tyranny.\n"On this peaceful May morning, we commemorate a great victory for liberty," Bush said at Europe's third-largest cemetery for American veterans near here in Margraten. "We come to this ground to remember the cause for which these soldiers fought and triumphed."\nBush marked the 60th anniversary of the May 1945 signing of the Berlin armistice that ended the war in Europe in a solemn remembrance at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, where 8,301 U.S. veterans are buried.\nBefore his brief, 13-minute remarks, members of the White House delegation donned orange plastic raincoats against the cold and drizzle as Bush and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands laid wreaths of tribute, a bugler played taps and military aircraft streaked above the graveyard's sweeping arcs of headstones. First lady Laura Bush laid flowers at the grave of a Medal of Honor winner who was in the 104th Division, in which her late father served during the war.\n"Our debt of gratitude is too great to express in words," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said of the American liberation of the Netherlands from the Nazis. "They gave us the most precious gift _ freedom. Today, I salute them."\nFrom the ceremony, Bush flew to Moscow where he and dozens of other world leaders are continuing the V-E Day celebrations at a Red Square military parade that Russian President Vladimir Putin is staging on Monday, the day regarded there as the anniversary.\nSunday night, Bush and Putin meet privately amid an escalating fight over U.S. pressure on Russia to own up to its wartime past. In Russia, victory in the "Great Patriot War" is treasured as an unvarnished triumph, while many of its Eastern European neighbors regard the Red Army's success also as the start of 50 years of brutal Soviet oppression.\nAnger over that unacknowledged history remains particularly potent in the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and won independence just 14 years ago. Bush's meeting in Latvia with the leaders of the three countries on the way to Russia was meant to help temper his attendance at the Moscow ceremony that offers only a one-sided version of the Soviet Union's war legacy.\nBush has promised that such matters, part of Washington's broader concerns about Putin's commitment to democracy, will come up when the two meet -- first formally, then over dinner with their wives -- at the Russian leader's dacha.\nPutin said the United States has little business criticizing Russia's internal affairs because the U.S. system of electing presidents, including the Electoral College, has its own flaws. "But," Putin said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" to be aired Sunday, "we're not going to poke our noses into your democratic system, because that's up to the American people."\nThere are a host of other items on the agenda for the leaders whose cooperation is crucial: stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons materials, ending the nuclear pursuits of nations such as Iran and North Korea and securing a Mideast peace. The relationship also has soured of late amid U.S. unhappiness with Russian missile sales to Syria and crackdowns on business and Moscow's complaints of American meddling in its traditional sphere of influence.\nIn socially liberal Holland, Bush is widely unpopular. But in the region around the cemetery graveyard, within walking distance of the German and Belgian borders, Americans are fondly remembered for their wartime rescue. In honor of the deaths incurred by U.S. forces as they set off from near here for the deadly but successful blitz toward Berlin, many local Dutch still bring flowers.\nBush thanked them for that gesture that comforts their loved ones.\n"Each man or woman buried here is more than a headstone and a serial number," he said before thousands of locals and about 100 aging Dutch and American WWII veterans. As Bush wrapped up his remarks, the drizzle stopped and the sun began to emerge from behind the clouds.\nThe losses incurred during World War II, the president said, should be honored by a constant pursuit of freedom in places where it still doesn't exist.\n"On this day, we celebrate the victory they won and we recommit ourselves to the great truth that they defended: that freedom is the birthright of all of mankind," Bush said.\nBeforehand, veterans reflected amid the gravestones adorned with U.S. and Dutch flags.\n"This will probably be the last hurrah for most of us," said Dee Eberhart of Ellensburg, Wash., who was among the liberators of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.\nThe event was one in a series of ceremonies worldwide on milestones in the conflict that drew in 61 countries and claimed 55 million lives, including 405,000 Americans. Last year, Bush went to France for the 60th anniversary of the pivotal D-Day landing by American soldiers at Normandy. In January, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Poland to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz and Birkenau Nazi concentration camps.
(04/28/05 5:04am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush was rushed to a secure underground White House bunker and Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked outside the compound Wednesday because of a "radar anomaly" -- perhaps a flock of birds or pocket of rain -- that was mistaken for a plane flying in restricted airspace.\nThe late morning scare, apparently the first time Bush had been taken to the secure area since Sept. 11, 2001, was determined within minutes to be a false alarm, and business quickly returned to normal.\nThere have been similar alarms before, sparked by a blip on a radar screen that looks like an aircraft venturing into the area around the White House that is off-limits to aircrafts.\nIn November 2003, the White House was briefly evacuated while Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to investigate a tripped radar alert that triggered fears -- also groundless -- of an airspace violation. Bush was in Britain at the time.\nThis time, though, Bush was in the Oval Office when the radar picked up something. Helicopters were sent to check it out and found there was no errant aircraft, said Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland Security Department spokesman.\nBefore that could be confirmed, though, the Secret Service leapt into action.\nThey moved the president and vice president out of danger. Officers toting shotguns raced around the compound taking up positions. A surface-to-air missile battery recently installed on the roof of a nearby building was raised to fire position. Some White House staff members were evacuated from the West Wing. Tour groups were hustled out of the executive mansion and a park across the street from the White House was cleared.\nSome parts of the compound, such as the area where the press is housed, were not notified of the threat or moved.\nThere are a few security incidents at the White House each year, and many of those involve the threat of a plane in restricted airspace. At least a half-dozen such threats have occurred during Bush's presidency, either at the White House, Camp David or events outside Washington.\nIn 1994, when Bill Clinton was president, a Maryland man stole a light plane and crashed it into the south side of the presidential mansion in the middle of the night, killing himself but injuring no one else. In 1974, an Army private landed a stolen helicopter on the South Lawn. He suffered shotgun wounds and was taken away for psychiatric examination.\nThere are other types of attempted security breaches as well, including suspicious packages and "gate-jumpers" who try to force their way onto the White House grounds. In February 2001, a man fired several shots outside the White House fence and was shot in the leg by authorities. In 1976, a man tried unsuccessfully to ram his pickup truck through the White House gate.\nWednesday was the first time the president was known to have been taken to the bunker -- a super-secure, super-secret facility built in case of emergency for the president, his family and a small number of staff deemed essential to running the government -- since the night of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. After flying from the Florida classroom where he learned of the attacks to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and then to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Bush returned to Washington only to be awakened by Secret Service agents who hurried him and his wife, Laura, underground -- also because of a false alarm about an unidentified plane.\nOn Wednesday, Bush was in the shelter for only "a very short amount of time," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.\nCheney's movement out of the White House and to a secure undisclosed location couldn't have taken him far. His limousine was seen re-entering the compound gates immediately after the situation was resolved.\nIt wasn't known what caused the radar anomaly, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Greg Marting.\n"We appreciate the precautionary steps that the Secret Service took," McClellan said.
(04/27/05 5:29am)
GALVESTON, Texas -- President Bush gave embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay a high-profile, in-person show of support Tuesday, warmly thanking the Texas Republican, who is facing allegations of ethical improprieties, for his leadership in Congress.\nBush traveled to Galveston to pitch his proposal to add private investment accounts to Social Security. DeLay didn't participate in the public discussion and sat several rows back in the audience.\nThe presence of the man seen by the White House as crucial to pushing Bush's plans through Congress was no accident.\nDeLay was included in the event held near his congressional district to show that "the president appreciates his leadership in the House," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.\nBush said just that in his remarks. "I appreciate the leadership of Congressman Tom DeLay in working on important issues that matter to the country," he said.\nThe president also took care to note that he had talked privately backstage with DeLay, "who kindly joined us today."\nProtesters showed their disdain for Bush's Social Security agenda, but one lone sign targeted DeLay: "Save America without DeLay."\nDeLay is facing questions about the source of funding for some of his foreign trips, political fund raising for Texas elections and his ties to a lobbyist under federal criminal investigation. He repeatedly has denied wrongdoing.\nThe Democratic Party said Bush should be denouncing DeLay, not rewarding him.\n"It's time for George Bush to stop giving Tom DeLay a free ride," said Karen Finney, Democratic National Committee spokeswoman.\nThe attitude was much different inside the hall, where a mini pep rally broke out before Bush arrived. As a clutch of photographers scurried to focus their lenses on the majority leader, one woman shouted, "We love you, Tom!" That prompted DeLay to stand up and wave, which earned him a loud standing ovation and a second shout of support. "Keep up the good work," another woman yelled.\nFar from trying to distance Bush from DeLay's troubles, the White House repeatedly has responded to criticism from Democrats with steadfast support for the majority leader. Asked Tuesday by reporters how strongly Bush was backing DeLay, McClellan said, "Strongly as he ever has, which is strongly."\nPart of the reason is pragmatic. One of the most influential and productive conservatives on Capitol Hill, the man known as the "Hammer" is regarded by the White House as someone who gets things done.\nBush counselor Dan Bartlett pointed to DeLay's role in the House's passage of a Bush-backed energy bill.\n"I think actions speak louder than words," Bartlett said in an interview. "The House leadership, and specifically Tom DeLay, have not changed. He is a very effective leader."\nBush's stop here came near the end of a 60-day nationwide blitz aimed at building support for his private accounts proposal and on the same day as the Senate Finance Committee's hearing on Social Security.\nA Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Tuesday that despite all of Bush's efforts, nearly two-thirds now disapprove of his performance on Social Security, and public support has declined for his plan to allow younger workers to put a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes into the stock market.\nBush chose Galveston because of county employees' decision 25 years ago to opt out of Social Security in favor of private retirement accounts. Two neighboring counties later adopted the same approach.\nAbout 5 million Americans in government jobs across the country rely on retirement plans other than Social Security.\nGoing to such places allows Bush to illustrate and sell his own proposal as one that encourages more individual control and offers the prospect of better returns. What he doesn't say is that those better returns are not guaranteed.\n"What's important here is the philosophy behind what Galveston County is doing," Bush said. "You can own your own asset and watch it grow ... but also you get a better rate of return, and you trust people"
(04/26/05 4:33am)
CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush, meeting Monday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, was pressing that Mideast nation to pump more crude oil to ease gas prices in America.\n"The crown prince understands that it is very important ... to make sure that prices are reasonable," Bush told reporters before the Saudi leader arrived at his Texas ranch. "High oil prices will damage markets. He knows that. We'll talk about his country's capacity."\nBut the president then pivoted to the domestic situation. He said Congress needs to pass a comprehensive energy strategy. "Now is the time for something to happen," Bush said.\nBush and Vice President Dick Cheney walked down a path at the ranch to greet Abdullah and his small entourage, which was nearly a half hour late to the meeting. The president gave Abdullah a warm embrace and they kissed on both cheeks.\nBush held Abdullah's hand to guide him into an office at the ranch, the president chatting about bluebonnets growing around the building. Meeting the group at the office door were White House chief of staff Andy Card, Bush's homeland security adviser Fran Townsend and National Security Adviser Steve Hadley. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also joined the group.\nBush's goal of spreading democracy across the Arab world also faces a difficult test with Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally ruled by absolute monarchy. Traditionally Bush holds news conferences with visiting foreign leaders, but there will be none during this visit because Abdullah rarely talks with reporters.\nMonday's meeting marks another step in a quickening pace of U.S. involvement in the Mideast. Two weeks ago Bush met at the ranch with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and said Israel should abandon plans for new construction of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories. The Saudis believe the administration's strong support for Israel harms prospects for Middle East peace.\nDespite the difficult matters, Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the stage is set for a much friendlier meeting Monday than three years ago when Abdullah first visited the ranch. For one thing, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a polarizing figure, is now gone -- replaced by an elected president of the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas will have his own meeting with Bush in the next few weeks.\nTo lay the groundwork for Monday's meeting, Cheney talked with Abdullah over lunch Sunday in a Dallas hotel.\nJordan noted that Saudi officials also have played an instrumental role in persuading Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. They have been supportive of increasing oil production at crucial times. And Abdullah has taken some initial steps toward introducing democracy to Saudi Arabia by holding elections for municipal councils, even though women's rights remain severely restricted, political parties are banned and press freedoms are limited.\nLikely to be on Abdullah's mind is a Saudi proposal that would give Israel normal relations with Arab nations only in exchange for its return to its borders before it captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. \nAlthough Arab leaders last month endorsed that approach, Jordan said Abdullah -- well aware of Bush's position that the "new realties on the ground" of Jewish settlements make a full Israeli withdrawal unrealistic -- is unlikely to come in "with some flat demand"