Bush has a back-up or two for his jumbo

5:00AM Wednesday September 05, 2007
By Doug Conway

Ever feel guilty about over-packing on your travels? George Bush will make you feel better.

The United States President, who arrived in Sydney last night, brought not one Jumbo jet, but three, as well as another two aircraft that carry aircraft. The President's Jumbo has a back-up, and the back-up has a back-up.

Air Force One can jam enemy radar, and radar-guided missiles, and is equipped with flares to avoid heat-seeking missiles.

The Jumbos are carrying 700 of the President's closest friends, including a doctor, nurse, personal chef and four cooks.

They are also carrying advisers, and it is clear the President will not be short of advice.

His entourage includes 50 White House political aides, 150 national security advisers and 200 specialists from other government departments.

POTUS, as he is known in Secret Service jargon (President Of The United States), is getting by with a mere 250 protective agents.

That doubtless would have been more if the First Lady was here too, but Laura Bush is back at home nursing a pinched nerve in her neck, a casualty of a hiking trip four months ago.

The President's Jumbos look small alongside his gargantuan C17 Globemaster III air transports.

They carry the presidential chopper Marine One and a Black Hawk surveillance helicopter.

They are also bearing a fleet of cars that would do credit to a decent-sized business.

It is an understatement to say the President's limo, Cadillac One, is bullet-proof. Its 12cm ballistic armour makes it anti-tank-grenade-proof.

It is sealed against chemical and biological attacks, too, which means it should just about block out the stench from Sydney's Pyrmont fish markets.

The President's men are believed to be bringing their own sniffer dogs.

They are bringing their own guns and bullets, too, believed to be the only delegation to get special dispensation.

That should shave a few dollars off Apec's A$169 million security budget.

- AAP

that this is how despised Emperors have always traveled.

He came here earlier in his presidency. He had all of that plus F15 fighter cap and what looked like two squadrons of CH47's flying around. All air traffic was grounded during his stay because of the fighter cap.

The strangest thing was that a forest fire broke out in two places at once near Camp Sherman where he was supposed to give his so called Healthy Forests Initiative speech. Healthy forests is synonymous with cutting down the old growth to save the forest from fire and salvage log fire areas. The fires ran out of control because the fire bombers were grounded. The fire ended up consuming over 100k acres of pristine wilderness. Bush had to change the venue, now on fire, for his speech to the local county fair grounds. Eventually, it was announced that lightening strikes, 21 days before the fire started, simultaneously started the two fires. The fires started in an area cordoned off by the Secret Service during the prior week to the visit. The fire became known as the Presidential fire. Bush did get in an excellent round of golf at Sunriver.

Total must be higher, these are just the passengers on the 747s -- How many pilots, aircrew, servicing personnel, etc?

I'm curious just how much money this ridiculous envoy is worth.

Unless they do it differently for International travel, they are undercounting by at least four helicopters.

Let's face it, providing Secret Service protection to the President and other members of the Federal government has backfired. Such airtight protection makes the politicians feel impervious to the ire of the citizenry. The time has arrived to remove such protection. Let Bush and Cheney face the anger of the votes directly without their praetorian guard running interference.

For those who are concerned about assassination threats, permit me to provide three names: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy. We still haven't learned how these individuals were truly killed, after all these years. Secret Service protection worked for JFK and RFK, no? Hell, the Republicans couldn't even protect their own and permitted Ford and Reagan to be assaulted. That should have been the first tip-off that the Republicans had no intention of making government work. If the Secret Service can't protect their charges, why spend the money to allow those charges to just hide from the citizenry. The time has come to make our elected officials available to all the citizens and not just those who have bought access.

than the Saudi representative legion.
Bush is scared about everything.
He is at the bottom of representing a country.
He has no support of his country.
Bull is his only option.
He has lost that too.

_{repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness & inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.}

Certainly not the United States, which is running deficits at the federal, state, and municipal government level, not counting any debts in the private sector. There is an absurdity of waste and misspent priorities afoot in America, and the only saving grace of this ridiculous entourage of the president's is that it typifies this extravagance for the whole world to see.

It is also fitting that the New Zealand Herald has to run this story. American newspapers can't be bothered.

Didn't Augustus have about 9,000 troops in his Praetorian Guard? Georgius Bushius is way behind...

in my crippled computer hard drive I have this nifty video about Chimpy's visit to Mainz Germany. The preparations lasted for days and inconvienienced the Germans so much it became a very large local story. They even welded the manhole covers shut along the planned travel route. The "entourage" is met with most audible booing everywhere they went.

but these numbers don't really strike me as that strange. 700 seems like a bit much, but perhaps only by a factor of 2, certainly not by a factor of 10. It is, after all, the President of the United States (for better or for worse). Does anyone really expect him to fly commercial with a couple of advisers, a handful of body guards and stay at the Sydney Hyatt?

Think about it this way: on the grand scale of government expenditures, and security/military expenses, this isn't even a blip. As for the security, realize that if someone gets lucky and tags Bush, Cheney becomes POTUS. Not that I'm a fan of Bush, but I think that's worth the couple of cents this is costing each tax payer.