Bush Offers Sympathy at Boy Scout Jamboree

[deminks]

BOWLING GREEN, Va. (AP) - Succeeding on his third try to visit them, President Bush comforted thousands of Boy Scouts on Sunday at a national jamboree marred by the electrocutions of four leaders and stifling heat that sickened 300. "The men you lost were models of good citizenship," Bush told the estimated 50,000 Scouts, leaders and visitors attending the event near Bowling Green, Va., where boys yelled "Boy Scouts Rock!"

Bush's speech was about patriotism and community and military service to the nation, but he also recalled how his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, was the den mother of his Scouting troop. "It's about the time her hair turned white," he joked.

Before Bush arrived on stage, an Army band performed and a man wearing an Army T-shirt led groups of Scouts in chants of "OO-rah" and "U.S.A." Tall pines provided a backdrop for blue, red and black hot air balloons emblazoned with military and Scouting emblems.

A military helicopter carrying several photographers made an emergency landing at the Jamboree after its engine failed Sunday afternoon, said Jamboree spokeswoman Renee Fairrer.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0705/248198.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. OO'rah?? since when are the scouts a paramilitary organization? n/t

[PunkPop]

12. Is that the Marine chant

Or is that something different?

Surely they're not chanting like Marines. Right?

[Benhurst]

2. Grotesque. NT

[Postman]

3. Hitler Youth: American Style

Boy Scouts? Let's just call them what they will become....grist for the Iraq Mill.

[Disturbed]

5. Does this Prez have any shame?

Do Sociopaths have any shame?

Yes, it is a trick question.

[Mr. Peanut]

21. Sign the online petition

"Asking President Bush to Step Down" as honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America (Scouting For All—No Child Left Behind).

http://www.scoutingforall.org/nochildleftbehind.shtml

[mbperrin]

4. So basically the * misadministration is unable to coordinate

a visit to a Boy Scout camp on US soil in less than three tries and without hundreds wounded and some dying.

DAMN. No WONDER we can't get out of Iraq!

[Vickers]

14. Holy shit you just provided my fuck-with-RWers talking point for next week

:yourock:

[jimshoes]

6. We never did oo-rah's

when I was in the Boy Scouts. What's up with that? What the heck are they teaching them these days?

[Kerrytravelers]

7. Recruiting a bit younger, are they?

Gotta look somewhere when recruitment numbers are down over 40% or more each month.

Perhaps they should stand outside a Toys 'R' Us and pass out recruitment fliers. The younger they are, the easier they are to fool.

[ewagner]

8. My worst fears

are coming to pass....


I was always worried about what the Boy Scouts COULD become and now they are becoming a training ground for the military.

I was a scout leader for 6 years. I'm sorry I was.

[Nite Owl]

9. More than a bit creepy

it sounds like wartime Germany. These are young boys not recruits.

[NYC]

10. It seems the Boy Scouts are having a run of bad luck.

In addition to a pole hitting an electric wire, lightning striking, and many boy scouts suffering hyperthermia waiting for Bush, now this:

A military helicopter carrying several photographers made an emergency landing at the Jamboree after its engine failed Sunday afternoon, said Jamboree spokeswoman Renee Fairrer.

[tblue37]

15. Do you remember when

planes carrying Blair and, I believe, Cheney were struck by lightning just before or right about the time of the Iraq invasion? And then of course there are all of those hurricanes that keep getting thrown at Florida. Seems their God is smiting as hard as He can, but they just aren't paying attention.

Looks like He is gonna have to just take a two-by-four and whack Junior upside the head before anyone gets the message.

[Rose Siding]

11. "I appreciate the rain check," Bush said.???

What, was that like a "joke". He's a fiend :(

[belle]

16. Ugh, he's such a passive-aggressive little smarmbot.

[Bluerthanblue]

19. his 'jokes' aren't even 'his'-

note how "laura" beat him to the 'punch line'-

Remarks by Mrs. Bush
Girl Scouts 90th Anniversary Gala
March 12, 2002

Remarks by Mrs. Bush at the Girl Scouts 90th Anniversary Gala

As delivered.

Thank you, Deborah (Roberts), and thank you girls.

When I meet young people like these girls I am optimistic. These Scouts are learning the qualities of future leaders, and that brings everyone great hope.

President Bush and I were both Scouts when we were young. President Bush's mother, Barbara Bush, was the den mother for his Cub Scout troop. Some say that's when her hair turned white.





http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020312-21.html

[deminks]

20. Good catch!

I knew I had heard that line before. :eyes:

[Ian David]

13. He still hasn't been to the funeral of a single soldier.

But Boyscouts have pledged to believe in Gawd!

[symbolman]

17. Where's

Lightning when you really need it?

[liveoaktx]

18. From his speech-WHAT is the highest form of patriotism?

Thousands of Scouts have shown the highest form of patriotism, by
going on to wear the uniform of the United States military.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/07-31-2005/0004078857&EDATE=

**If I had a kid in scouts, I'd pull him out.

[goclark]

22. That's it! I'm moving to Canada!

How can he have the nerve to say exactly what he doesn't mean!

He didn't serve his country - oh, it's just too much.

[The Night Owl]

23. Ever notice that misfortune seems to precede and follow Bush?

Ever notice that misfortune seems to precede and follow Bush? The odd thing is that the misfortune Bush brings never seems to rub off on him.

[Bridget Burke]

24. My brother was a Boy Scout....

I read the Manual & Boy's Life--since I ready everything that came into the house.

They were patriotic, but NOT paramilitary. Things have changed in a bad way.

[Romulus]

25. we had a laugh this morning

when NPR played the clip of sHrub at the jamboree, stating that "the Boy Scouts help make America strong."

What's next, Krispy Kreme/McDonalds/earthworms "help make America strong?" :eyes:

As an aside, the old Soviet Union considered the Boy Scouts to be a "paramilitary organization," similar to their Young Pioneers, etc.

As a former Marine and former Cub Scout, I was disturbed to hear of the "ooh rah" stuff this morning. There's a big difference between earning the Showman merit badge and learning how to field strip a light machine gun . . .