Bush's busy day
President Bush had a busy August 5th.
He signed the Defense Appropriations Act for FY 2005, which commits $391 billion for DoD (which is probably about $390+ billion more than Iraq spent on defense from 1992 to 2003). And just in case people in the audience didn't know what was going on, there was a helpful sign explaining the significance of the event (see photo above).
The President also attended an "ask President Bush" event in Columbus, Ohio, where he gave a speech and then answered questions.
My favorite "Wag the Dog" moment of the speech:
I'll tell you an interesting story, and it's one that touched my heart. Seven people came to the Oval Office, seven Iraqi men. Walking in that Oval Office, by the way, is a pretty interesting experience -- the kind of place people say outside and say, when I get in I'm going to tell him what-for. And they walk in, they get overwhelmed by the Oval Office, say, many, you're looking good, Mr. President. (Laughter.)
These people came in and they said, liberator. I said, you don't need to thank me, you need to thank the American people. You need to thank the mothers and fathers of those, and the husbands and wives of those who served to free you. (Applause.) They had something in common besides being Iraqi men -- all of them had their right hands cut off by Saddam Hussein. That's the society that we've liberated. You know why? Because his currency had devalued and he needed a scapegoat. So he found seven small businessmen. For example, one of them was a jeweler and he told me, he said, I sold dinars to buy -- I think he said euros -- to buy gold so I could make a watch. And so what they were looking for, the authority, Saddam and his thugs were looking for people who sold dinars that caused the currency to be devalued at that particular moment. They put them in prison, and he cut off their right hands and burned an X in their forehead. So in come seven guys who have got an X in their forehead. The good news is that they had been discovered by an American named Marvin Zindler, from Houston, and he had a foundation to help people from around the world. They flew them into Houston. These seven guys had new hands, new prosthesis. (Applause.)
A guy took my Sharpee, wrapped his new fingers and wrote, "God bless America," in Arabic. (Applause.) What a contrast, what a contrast in societies -- on the one hand, a society that was so brutalized by a dictator that he could just say, I'm going to cut off their hands; to a society which says, we want to heal you, no matter who you are, no matter your religion, no matter where you're from. We believe in human dignity and human rights in the United States of America. (Applause.)
Did you notice that they were small businessmen (a principal theme in Bush's comments later in the session)?
And there were seven of them? I'm sure that's some veiled biblical reference.
At any rate, here is my favorite 1984 moment:
The world is changing. This is an historic times. Freedom equals peace. Listen, we've done the hard work, and there's more hard work to do. But I want you to know that we're headed for a peaceful world. That's my hope. My hope is that young children can grow up in a peaceful world.
After his speech, the President took questions from the audience. Judging by their challenging tone, it was clear that the event was open to the public and that there was no screening of questioners.
Here are some of the questions asked:
- [A long question about the President's faith-based initiative.]
- "Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Andre Porter, I'm a 24-year-old law student here in Columbus, and a proud member of FBA. We sang a song for you today before you got here ... We sang two songs. The second song was about anti-violence and anti-drugs. And we grow up in an era right now where the culture is so centered on violence and drugs, and so our group -- the song that we wrote, these gentlemen here, FBA, we wanted to know what you have planned for our generation to stop violence and increase the goodness of our culture?"
- [A question from a Columbian about Columbia, which gave the President a chance to show off his Espanol.]
- "Hello. I just want to say that, being a young Christian, it's been very encouraging to me to see you as our country's leader, being so open about your faith. (Applause.) And I was just wondering, do you feel that your faith has been beneficial to your decision-making process? And if so, how?"
- "Mr. President, thank you for your stance on the sanctity of marriage between men and women. (Applause.) What can we do -- what can we do to keep judges who find in favor of relationships between homosexuals?"
- "Mr. President, I don't have a question, I have three thank yous. One, thank you for your availability to serve. Two, your candle is burning brightly. And three, thanks for accepting the call and answering the call to work for what's right in the country and in the world."
What our press corps could learn from these people!
1:48:22 AM 
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