Crawford TX no longer the place for Bush sightings...

[Punkingal]

http://kdhnews.com/news/crawford-no-longer-the-place-for-bush-sightings/article_c394781a-160f-11e4-b97e-001a4bcf6878.html

snip

"There is no reason to come to Crawford” for those seeking Bush lore, said Marilyn Judy, a volunteer who answers the phone for the town’s inactive chamber of commerce.

If you are looking for Bush’s birthplace, go to New Haven, Conn. If you want to visit his boyhood home, go to Midland. If you are curious to see his current residence or want to browse mementos at his presidential library, head for Dallas.

George W. doesn’t live in Crawford any more. Never did, really."

Did anyone seriously believe that was a real home for them, besides the cool-aid drinkers? It was just a Reagan imitation ranch, phony, like everything else about that war criminal.

[dsc]

1. actually didn't Reagan retire to his ranch?

I admit to not knowing for sure, but I thought he did.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. I think the point is Reagan actually was a rancher (kinda sorta)

Rove just thought it was a good image for the dry drunk to imitate.

[amandabeech]

8. Yes, he had owned the property for some time.

I don't know how much ranching he did, but he genuinely seemed to like the place.

[tclambert]

20. At least Reagan rode horses.

At George W's Sans Cattle Ranch he rode around in a pickup truck and cleared brush. Big animals? Not so much.

[swimboy]

26. GW couldn't even stay on a segway

if I recall correctly.

[amandabeech]

33. President Goofus, in every way imaginable. n/t

[dsc]

9. Now I get it

if the order of Reagan and imitation had been reversed I would have seen it sooner.

[Punkingal]

14. No, they retired to a mansion in Bel Aire....

But I think unlike Bush the Reagans actually loved their ranch.

[tularetom]

2. The only difference was that Reagan actually rode horses instead of cowering in fear of them

[truebluegreen]

3. Purchased in 1999,

1500 acres (a "hobby" ranch by Texas standards) and stocked with--I believe--about 10 cows.

"Brush clearing" was the only kind of "ranch work" he could do with his city boy background....he was afraid of horses.

[niyad]

13. I remember reading that they actually trucked in the "brush" that he was always so buys clearing.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. He became afraid of Segways, too

[HooptieWagon]

17. Pretzels, too.

[Javaman]

56. and bikes...

Bush falls on bike ride
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/22/bush.fall/

drinking heavily and doing anything, really isn't a good combination.

[NBachers]

36. Christ, he was probably afraid of cows

[Punkingal]

37. LOL....

Bullies are usually afraid of everything, so no doubt he was.

[CTyankee]

4. I thought "everyone" knew that Bush's "ranch" was a fake...was I mistaken?

[gratuitous]

22. If by "everyone" you mean . . .

If by "everyone" you mean anyone outside the popular media bubble, then yes. But the media worked overtime and did a herculean job of passing off the ersatz as reality. They knew that failure to report what the administration wanted was to be "noted in the building" in the chilling phrase of Ari Fleischer. Access to the lying toadies in the Bush administration was an overpriced commodity. Even pet rocks were worth more.

[kskiska]

48. Whenever the media reported "from the ranch"

they were at a staged location 10 miles away. They stood among hay bales to give the impression they were at the "ranch." The media was definitely complicit in perpetuating the myth of Dubya as a rancher.

[Kingofalldems]

25. Sad thing is the media knew it was fake but played along.

Career minded asses who didn't want to lose access.

[BillZBubb]

5. Image is everything. The suckers lapped it up.

[HooptieWagon]

7. It was a pig farm when he bought it, iirc. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. I just remember that big roll of hay on the trailer thinking where the fuck did..

... THAT come from?

The press always got placed in front of the hay and old out building. IIRC, no film was allowed in front of the new modern house.

[HooptieWagon]

12. Stage prop, like the rest of it.

Except the house itself is pretty cool. Geo-thermal heated and cooled, passive solar, water cisterns for collecting rain and wastewater- used for irrigation. Conservatives would be pissed if they knew how green the house was. Probably has CFLs, too... haha.

[LittleGirl]

19. haha

didn't know that.

[OldRedneck]

27. Yes, but . . .

The house was very green, as you pointed out. However, it was not designed or built by the Bushes . . . he bought it from the original owner who had it built that way.

[HooptieWagon]

42. Completely incorrect.

Several hog barns were torn down, and the house built, when the Bush's bought the property. House designed by a U of T Austin professor of Architecture.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Chapel_Ranch

Not to praise Bush in any manner.... the pig farm was nothing but a stage prop... but just recognizing that the house itself is pretty cool. Might be a good thing to bring up next time a conservative friend starts bashing building green.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

44. I've seen conservatives hold this place up against Al Gore's home as an example....

.... of Gore's hypocrisy and Bush's environmentalism.

So they are aware of it.

[cordelia]

15. That's what I thought. A gussied up hog parlor.

[spanone]

11. it was all props....the weed whacking....all bullshit and the media played it like a stradivarius

[Blue Owl]

18. Order a few pizzas and strike the set

n/t

[Eleanors38]

21. I wish he'd let us SS recipients go dove-hunting there.

Maybe deer in late Fall.

[zonkers]

23. It was a place to put him on ice -- away from the press.

[defacto7]

24. I wonder what he's going to do with that huge chunk of land

he bought in Brazil? I think it was Brazil???. He bought land in South America just after leaving office.

Tin hats anyone?

[Buns_of_Fire]

54. Paraguay. And it sits atop South America's largest aquifer.

This is where "drill, baby, drill" takes on a whole new meaning...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022473474

[Ilsa]

28. Oh yeah, but the shrub-lovers passed around those pix

of him driving Miss Laura around the ranch in a white pickup while he wore a cowboy hat.

Bush didn't have the strength to be a real cowboy. It was all fakery. Laura had no intention of spending her golden years there.

[LibDemAlways]

29. The media tried to pass off a modest ranch

house on the property as Bush's house. As if. The actual house was sleek and modern with a lavish swimming pool. Never really understood the ridiculous hiding of the place. The Bushes are wealthy people. No one expects them to live in a middle class dwelling.

[Punkingal]

32. They always wanted to pretend to be an "average American family"......

I heard them all say it at one time or another...the old hag Barbara and Jeb and the sister. Ha! They also always tried to pretend Poppy made all his money on his own. Ha! I suppose some people believed that, too.

[OldRedneck]

30. President of Mexico says Bush afraid of horses

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1563773/George-Bush-the-Texan-is-scared-of-horses.html

President Bush may like to be seen as a swaggering tough guy with a penchant for manly outdoor pursuits, but in a new book one of his closest allies has said he is afraid of horses.

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a "windshield cowboy" – a cowboy who prefers to drive – and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".

He recalled a meeting in Mexico shortly after both men had been elected when Mr Fox offered Mr Bush a ride on a "big palomino" horse.

Mr Fox, who left office in December, recalled Mr Bush "backing away" from the animal.

''A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion," he said, according to the Washington Post.

Mr Bush has spoken of his fondness for shooting doves and cutting brush on his Crawford ranch in Texas, which he bought in 1999.

The property reportedly has no horses and only five cattle.

--------------------

As for the details of the "ranch" - - -

http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=6687

[senseandsensibility]

38. Shooting doves?

Irony alert. I can still hear his spokeswoman Karen something bragging about *'s relations with Vincente Fox in her insufferable faux Spanish accent. And all the time, Fox was laughing at him? Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe it.

[SoCalDem]

41. more cool photos here

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/bush-ranch/bush-ranch.htm

Notice how they posed for pics in front of the smaller original house...not the mansion with the huge wraparound porch

[kskiska]

51. I remember Fox saying that Bush walked like he had two watermelons under his arms. n/t

[Punkingal]

53. Or a stick up his ass.

I wish!

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. And no horses

The man did not like them, feared them.

[sabrina 1]

34. Crawford was a prop. The cThe owboy hat and boots are gone too. Cheney dug out HIS old

cowboy hat recently hoping I guess to revive that old phony cowboy image.

How ANYONE fell for that phony act is beyond me. Bush is what his supporters despise the most which is definitely NOT a cowboy.

Allhatnocattle! Lol, I loved that description of Bush.

[lpbk2713]

35. Shrublet was as phony as they come.

All hat, no cattle.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

39. I doubt that you could get rid of the,

evil spirits!

[Major Hogwash]

40. I'm surprised that Bush stayed in Texas.

You would have thought that he had done enough damage to that state already.

[Punkingal]

50. No other state would have him.

[trumad]

43. Fake from day one.

[tanyev]

45. Oh no! They must be completely taken over by brush now!

[n2doc]

46. I thought they had moved on, but then I saw this last month:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/celebrity-homes/2014/laura-and-george-w-bush-prairie-chapel-ranch-texas-article

Puke-inducing article on how their pig farm has become an architectural wonder.....an excerpt

Central Texas, especially that sweet spot halfway between Dallas and Austin where small swaths of the legendary old prairies remain, is an earthly paradise. Blowsy live oaks spread their heavy limbs beneath cloud-spattered skies, while creeks and rivers—most prominently the meandering Brazos—ripple alongside gently rolling pastures gilded with waving grasses. These natural glories are precisely what led Laura and George W. Bush to choose the area for their Prairie Chapel Ranch, the retreat they completed in 2001, just after he became the 43rd president of the United States. Occupying some 1,600 acres near the flyspeck town of Crawford, about 25 miles west of Waco, the property is anchored by a strong but relatively modest home that quietly honors its location.

During the eight years Mr. Bush was in office, the ranch served as the Western White House and welcomed numerous heads of state—from Russian president Vladimir Putin to Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz—some of whom were coaxed to join the leader of the free world as he raced along the property’s 40-mile network of bike trails. And, of course, there are the well-known stories of the president spending his vacations clearing brush, often in searing heat, sometimes encouraging aides to join him.

These days the Bushes live in Dallas, also home to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which opened last year on the campus of Southern Methodist University. But they regularly make the trip south to Crawford, where the former president is just as likely to be found handling a fishing rod or paintbrush as he is a chain saw. The ranch remains an essential getaway for the couple, a place to unwind and spend time with their daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, as well as Jenna’s family, and to entertain close friends like Deedie and Rusty Rose, prominent cultural leaders in Dallas.

[Punkingal]

49. Good grief....that article was nothing short of worshipful.

And I don't know how anything could be "serene" with him around. They sure are going all out to rehabilitate his sorry image. I tend to believe the Chamber of Commerce lady...they aren't there.

[3catwoman3]

55. "...earthly paradise"?

Somebody's been smoking something.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

47. Can't let a thread like this go by without a link to Will Ferrell as Bush out at the ranch.

[PoliticAverse]

52. Time to update the documentary...

Crawford (2008) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_%28film%29

Watch the whole documentary film free: http://www.hulu.com/watch/37906

[themaguffin]

57. He bought ranch in 99, sold it just before leaving off #prop

[3catwoman3]

58. I'd like him to be...

...sighted in The Hague.