NYT: A Presidential Passage Through India, Quickly

[kskiska]

President Bush is planning a two-day wind sprint across India this week, when he will meet with political leaders, chat up high-tech millionaires and give a speech at a 16th-century fort. But to the consternation of the Indians, he will not see the country's most famous monument, the Taj Mahal, a decision that Mr. Bush said was made by an omnipotent scheduler.

"Look, if I were the scheduler, perhaps I'd be doing things differently," Mr. Bush said last week, when he was asked in an interview with Indian reporters at the White House why he was skipping the Taj. "I'll be the president, we've got the scheduler being the scheduler. I'm going to miss a lot of the really interesting parts of your great country. I know that."

Mr. Bush has never been a sightseer, and his planned two days in India and one in Pakistan are typical of a president who visited the Great Wall of China in 30 minutes flat. For the most part, the president's India is one of strategic calculations — a hoped-for nuclear deal, a booming market for American goods, an Asian powerhouse to counterbalance China.

(snip)

"The part of international travel he likes the best, and the part he's best at, is meeting with other leaders," said Mr. Green, who is now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "He'll make a lot of time for that, and he'll spend a lot of time preparing for it. That for him is the high value for travel."

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/politics/27letter.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[babylonsister]

1. Expend as little effort as possible, that's our blivet! Why bother

going? :eyes:
His high value of travel is to meet w/other leaders, so they too can see how incompetent he is? :rofl:

[seafan]

18. But wait! "* to work from mini White House in India"

All this for *just a quick fly-by* to India. This guy must REALLY be paranoid.



New Delhi, February 25: It will be a 'mini White House' functioning from posh Maurya Sheraton hotel in Delhi, with an entire floor redone to create a 'makeshift Oval Office' for US President George W Bush during his upcoming visit to India.

The American President and First Lady Laura Bush will stay in the 'super suite' at the Maurya Sheraton hotel in high-security Chanakyapuri area, sources said.

Bush will be occupying the same suite, where his predecessor Bill Clinton had stayed during his visit to India in 2000. Clinton had stayed at the 'chandragupta Maurya Suite', which was rechristened as "Clinton suite".

snip

An entire floor is being redone to suit the needs of Bush and the accompanying delegation and it is being converted into a makeshift Oval office complete with a boardroom and a Presidential Secretariat.

No stone is being left unturned to ensure maximum security for Bush and the hotel staff that would be dealing with the US delegation have undergone routine check and briefing by American as well as Indian security agencies.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=63417



Bush visit turns a hotel in ‘Mini White House’

New Delhi, February 26: A multi-layered security ring comprising US Security officials, Paramilitary Commandoes and Delhi Police personnel will protect US President George W. Bush when he visits the national capital from Wednesday.

A team of US Secret Service agents and officials from the homeland security would form the proximate ring along with commandos drawn from the Special Protection Group and National Security Guards.

snip

Officials from the US homeland security department had taken charge of three floors at the Maurya Sheraton hotel, which would be home to the President and his delegation for three days, about two months ago.

Hi-tech electronic gadgets, including Jammers, explosive detectors, an elaborate communications suite have been installed at the hotel, which would be a "Mini White House' during the visit.

The presidential suite 'Chandragupta Maurya' where the President is going to put up as also the hotel premises have been sanitised by the US secret service agents.

The hi-tech gadgetry installed at the hotel would keep a close watch on every movement of President Bush in the capital.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=63503

[kster]

2. Someone call India and tell them

to leave all the doors unlocked, so * doesn't make an ass out of himself again.

[OhioChick]

17. Thanks............

My keyboard now contains coffee.......:rofl:

[xxqqqzme]

3. '...a booming market for American goods...'

what exactly do we manufacture? American goods are made in China from TVs 2 refrigerators. What American goods?

[norml]

7. They mean India is a market for American goods that go boom.

Arms Dealers Fight It Out for Sales in Booming Asia

With Pentagon buying likely to slow, firms show off hardware at a Singapore bazaar.


By Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
9:41 PM PST,February 26 2006


SINGAPORE — Stayne Hoff was stuck in a corner booth at the Singapore air show, but his tiny, unmanned spy planes attracted plenty of traffic.

His Simi Valley firm, AV Inc., was a popular stop because its remote-controlled planes were on display. The Raven, a model with a 5-foot wingspan, weighs just 4 pounds yet is equipped with an infrared camera and can transmit live images from six miles away. The $35,000 aircraft is used by the U.S. Army in Iraq on reconnaissance missions and has generated lots of buzz in aerospace circles.

Hoff had already talked to arms dealers, who boasted of government connections, but one visitor in a red and green military uniform stood out. He kept quizzing Hoff about the range and flight time of the robotic aircraft.

Finally, an exasperated Hoff told him: "Sorry sir, but we can't export to China, and we can't answer any questions." The Chinese army officer quickly retreated into the sprawling exhibit hall filled with displays of tanks, fighter jets and antiaircraft missiles.

The Singapore air show, which ended Sunday, is one of the world's largest arms bazaars. It's a hot spot for foreign countries looking to buy American-made fighters, drones such as those made by AV and other military equipment. The biggest U.S. defense contractors entertained generals here and cultivated contacts from nations on the Pentagon's approved buyers list. They were competing with defense firms from France, Britain, Russia and Sweden who chase the same market.


snip


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-armsbazaar27feb27,0,3718373.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Judi Lynn]

11. We've got those dandy Hallmark greeting cards! Cowboy hats! n/t

[Drum]

4. What a dumb f#$%

I spent my 30s traveling the world as a modern dancer, having never before been out of my North American, Eastern time zone. The travel taught me almost every valuable thing that I think I know (about people, especially) and focused my feelings about my being an American more than the three decades before. My company and I spent a month in India, in early 1997 (I watched Clinton's 2nd inauguration from there) and beyond all of my other destinations India was truly profound and beautiful.

That this "president" can be indifferent to these things confounds and angers me. Bush may be dumb, but his willful ignorance REALLY pisses me off.

[babylonsister]

8. "willful ignorance'" confounds me. I think the blivet is afraid of

just about everyone at this point.
I've been to Indonesia many times, so I get where you're coming from. To me, a different culture is a good thing, and knowledge I embrace.
He doesn't know what he's missing, to everyones' deficit.

BTW, I'm a LIslandER, though live in Houston now.

[murielm99]

13. I understand what you mean.

My father, who is eighty, has had an eventful life.

He was a very young man when he went to war. He was a Merrill's Marauder, if you know about that part of World War II. Later, he acted as an MP in Burma and China.

My dad did not get much education. But he spent as much time as he could learning about the areas where he had served. He was awed by India, and talked about it often. He went back there on his own, just to see things he had missed. He loved the Taj Mahal.

My dad did not have the opportunities that stupid * has. But he had the sensitivity to respect the things he saw.

[tenshi816]

15. I've travelled through India too

and agree with what you said. India is such a complex country that there's no way to get a feel for the place in only two days. Two days! That's all the little shit is giving it, two days!

Like you, I learned a lot more about myself as an American during my time in India than I had ever known before. For one thing, I realized how much I had taken the prosperity of the Western world for granted throughout my life, and how pampered and spoiled I was, used to instant consumer gratification and soft living. I'll never complain about my life again.

It never ceases to astound me what an incurious President we have. I honestly don't know why he's undertaking this trip because he obviously has no interest in visiting the country itself. It would probably be cheaper for the taxpayers to fly the Indians over to the White House.

It also pisses me off that Little Boots is blaming the scheduler for his not being able to visit the Taj Mahal. He's certainly wasted no time recently in drumming it into our heads that he's the President and can do whatever he likes, whenever he likes. If he really wanted to visit the Taj Mahal or anywhere else, the scheduler would say "Yes sir, Mr. President, I'll get on it right away", because no one says you can't to the mighty George W. Bush.

[dweller]

5. pResidentin is hard work!

"I'll be the president, we've got the scheduler being the scheduler. I'm going to miss a lot of the really interesting parts
of your great country. I know that."

what a maroon.
dp

[Kokonoe]

6. OMNIPOTENT scheduler

One having unlimited power or authority (meaning more than the president?) Have another drink and go back to sleep Mr.Resident :+

[CJCRANE]

9. Clever scheduler...

Bush in front of a huge Islamic dome wouldn't go down too well with the base, after the flap over this ports deal.

(Would be second only to picture of him kissing the Saudi leader in terms of symbolism).

[grasswire]

10. will he ride an elephant as did Bill Clinton?

The photos of Bill Clinton in India are still available on the Internet. They're beautiful. It will be fascinating to compare Bush's experience with that of the Big Dog.

[fujiyama]

12. Clinton is still loved

by many in India.

Hell, he's loved by many around the world. I miss those days. The photos are great:

[radfringe]

14. when the president seemed to remember him so easily.

----snip---

Mr. Agrawal first met Mr. Bush when he was running a second time for governor, and said he had raised as much as $100,000 among Indian friends for Mr. Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. He was a guest at the state dinner for the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, last July, and said he was stunned when the president seemed to remember him so easily.

"All of us claim to know the president very well, but we wonder if he really knows us," Mr. Agrawal said. "But he introduced me to the prime minister of India as 'my good friend from Texas.' I was totally taken by that. I tell people about it all the time."

---------

yeah, bush* "remembers" Mr. Agrawal so easily -- that is unless Mr. Agrawal gets named in a scandal -- then bush* doesn't know him....

[wickerwoman]

16. May he be damned to a hell

full of poor brown people who begin every sentence with "Look..."

Honestly, could he be a more arrogant jackass?