Anti-gang initiative highlights first lady's more active, visible role

[Rose Siding]

LOS ANGELES - Laura Bush looked around the table of heavily tattooed former gang members and felons and asked a question that cut to the point of her visit this week to a warehouse in a grimy industrial part of town.

"When you were a child and you went and chose the path to go to a gang, do you think there was anything anyone could have done at that point in your life that would have directed you another way?" she asked members of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program.

....

"I have more of a forum because people know me better than they did when I started," Bush told reporters aboard her Air Force jet, called "Brightstar." "People are more interested in what I have to say than when we started. I mean, I really wasn't on the radar screen, I think, until after September 11."

....

While few are ready to call her the next Eleanor Roosevelt or even Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush is becoming more of a mover and shaker in the White House, starting with her own office.

With a new chief of staff, press secretary, social secretary and speechwriter, Bush has turned over about half her major staff positions.....

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11526288.htm

[LdyGuique]

1. The question is a good and valid one, but will not bring true answers

We all claim that hindsight is 20/20; however, the decisions that one makes as a child aren't "decisions" based on concrete choices. Any of us might speculate on what we might have done when we already know a whole lot more due to time and grade, but it doesn't return us to that moment in time when we were generally ignorant. Hero worship is a major factor of gang joining and one cannot remove that from the equation. Also, generalized expectations that "this is what one does" cannot be minimalized. Unless these children are removed from the community where gang activity is rampant, they don't really have a choice as they are within the social community. A social community passes on its expectations to its children.

Just as Hillary pointed out, "It takes a village . . ." this is an inherent truth. If the village is riddled with gangs, older siblings and cousins are in gangs, there is an expectation to be "just like them."

[Kenergy]

13. True n/t

[ClintonTyree]

2. Whaaaa!

I haven't seen the Stepford Wife doing anything out of the ordinary, that being staring into space blankly.

I'm sure Laura will have an enormous impact on gang related crime. :eyes: My god, the woman's a human dynamo! And just like her ignorant hubby, is using 9-11 for her own personal ego boost.

"I have more of a forum because people know me better than they did when I started," Bush told reporters aboard her Air Force jet, called "Brightstar." "People are more interested in what I have to say than when we started. I mean, I really wasn't on the radar screen, I think, until after September 11."

"On the radar screen"...good one Laura! :rofl: You're a fucking laugh a minute! Are people REALLY interested in what you have to say, or is it more of a curiosity thing, like the two headed calf at the County Fair. I'm betting on the latter. They've never seen anything quite like you and aren't sure whether you're animal, vegetable or mineral.

[Cha]

3. Fuck laura bushmonkey and her

insipid reference to 9/11 which never would have happened if her dimwit twit of a spouse didn't have his head up his ass and on permanment vacation in the months leading up to 9/11!

[Pinboy]

19. Almost makes you wish for an Anti-First Lady Initiative. n/t

[NYC Liberal]

4. Mind asking your hubby why he cut anti-gang funds by 44 percent, Pickles?

Thanks!

[Kenergy]

14. Yeah Pickles, explain that to us n/t

[pinniped]

5. This dumbass is associated with the biggest gangster around.

.

[KoKo]

6. She has her own plane called "Brightstar?" Odd...wasn't Condi's nickname

given her by her father "Little Star?" At least that's what Diane Feinstein said on the Senate Panel when she sponsored Condi to be Secretary of State.

Does this mean the Chimp has named the plane for the other woman in his life? "Bright Star" and "Littel Star?" What does he call Karen Huge is she "Big Foot Star?" :shrug:

[NYC]

7. September 11th?

Does the entire universe revolve around September 11th?

..."People are more interested in what I have to say than when we started. I mean, I really wasn't on the radar screen, I think, until after September 11."

[Dr Fate]

8. I'm sure Homegirl Laura be represent'n.

;)

[diamond14]

9. lol.. .too funny ...laura PHOTO from Bartcop.......... .LOL... .hahahaha

yes, this is about what laura is good for....a true stepford wife....all drugged up on prescriptions mixed with hard-core liquor...

[Erika]

10. Astounding.

It even relieves her from charges of running a stop sign and killing her boyfriend as the rest of us would have faced and probably done time. Yeah, I'm truly touched by her utterances. She so profoundly identifies with us as does W. (let's lean over to barf now).

[Kenergy]

12. LOL!!!! n/t

[Robworld]

11. What a joke!

The minute Bush mentioned that his wife was going to head a anti-gang initiative, I almost fell off my sofa laughing. In the end what could she possibly offer as a solution to stop gangs? Its a big giant joke (and a massive waste of "your" money) because most of the Bush administration's actions have most likely escalated the amount of gangs, and gang violence in America. She'll probably tell them all to eat cake, and worship Jesus.

http://www.dumdumgoestothecircus.com/

[xxqqqzme]

17. no shit.....what's

she gonna do, I asked myself - tell 'em just say no? jeebus, look @ what she raised - I don't call those 2 trust sluts a successful parenting story.

[eridani]

20. Even more ridiculous than Nancy Reagan

"Just say no!"

[Kenergy]

15. I don't know who is dumber... Laura or George

Is there a circus in town? Where do these clowns come from?

[dArKeR]

16. Yahoo right now there are 6 articles on Laura. None mention murder

she did on her boyfriend!

http://www.childbutcher.com/laura_bush.htm

What about abortions? Has a reporter ever asked her?

[MontageOfFreedom]

18. How much dollars did you spend getting out unscathed?

You must have bribed those huge gang members not to beat you up, either that or staged the entire event as well as used armed guards to pretend to talk in front of the board members.

Let me guess, this is another fundie crusade gone wild? Gangs don't have to exist if they submit to the god of the crazy, solar system based fundamentalists!