You know, the overblown security bubble in which our president lives is not only disruptive, it’s expensive. Check this out:
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s No. 2 airline, may seek redress for cancellations and delays from German authorities who temporarily brought the Frankfurt area to a standstill yesterday for a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, damaging business for local companies.
Lufthansa had to cancel 92 flights, affecting 5,730 passengers, as a consequence of air traffic restrictions, said spokesman Thomas Jachnow in a telephone interview. Delays to another 330 flights totaled around 300 hours. Jachnow said losses went “well into the millions,” though he declined to elaborate.
Bush’s eight-hour trip to Mainz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Frankfurt, for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, led the authorities to halt river traffic on the Rhine, Europe’s busiest waterway, suspend takeoffs and landings at Frankfurt airport, Europe’s second biggest, and close four motorways for periods of up to four hours. Much of Mainz city center was cordoned off, damaging business in local stores.
And remember, he went there to “mend fences.” Good job, eh?
Not sure if I agree with your complaint about this one. We’re talking about Germany here… not exactly the safest place in the world, what with being the world’s extremest capital and all.
Anyway, I wonder what would be said if something had happened to the President. Perhaps the list of ‘stuff gone wrong’ and ‘things we didn’t do’ would have read quite parallel to this list.
So there was some ‘damage’ to local businesses. Big deal! Like him or not, we are talking about the security of our President and I for one would very much not like to see him offed because we don’t want to ‘damage’ a few businesses for a few hours.
I suppose they’ll just have to learn to goose-step over that.
This article reads a lot like cry-baby bitching than ‘news’- much like FoxNews does on the other end.
God I love being a moderate…
Gene, I do agree with your complaint.
And read it in a completely different way than The Amazing Kirk-A-Go-Go.
“This article reads a lot like cry-baby bitching than ‘news’”
Is correct and the companies and cities complaining about the needed security for a US President only underscores how unpopular Bush really is. If they liked Bush they wouldn’t complain at all. After all Germany welcomed Kennedy with open arms.
That and Bush does have a tendency to over do things. (Bringing 6 Chefs to Buckingham Palace because the Queen’s chef wasn’t good enough was a bit unnecessary.)
But I read your post in a different light than the article. The header says it all. “At least he didn’t get a hair cut.” It was the Republicans that pissed and moaned and bitched to all that would listen because Clinton got a hair cut and closed one runway at LAX and spent a shocking $200! How could he, they cried! Well now that one of their own is in the Presidency I guess it’s not quite as shocking to close airports and spend thousands if not millions of dollars on presidential security. Just one more example where if a Democrat does it it’s a shocking waste of taxpayer money but if a Republican does it it’s in the interest of National Security! That’s what I read.
I won’t say much on this, ’cause I don’t wanna make it into some big thing….
But-
Bloomberg.com, now there’s a hotbed of un-objective reporting.
Of course the Germans were glad to see Kennedy, he was bringing the starving Berlinians food (which is why he actually said “I’m a jelly donut” by mistake and not “I am a Berlinian”, no kidding- but that’s a whole ‘nother story). I bet if Bush came armed with monotone techno music they’d like him a lot better as well. I wonder how history world would be if a few local stores in Dallas around 1:00pm were cordoned off.
And I do agree with you on the chef thing (however anyone who has tasted British cuisine may see that action as a defensive mechanism) but let’s not compare the haircut to security. I really do wonder if the statistics for a Clinton visit were generally the same.
BTW Tim Who? I like a whole lot of your posts.