Bush Visits Calgary, Canada

"This is my maiden voyage. My first speech since I was the president of the United States and I couldn't think of a better place to give it than Calgary, Canada."—As reported by the Associated Press, Calgary, Canada, March 17, 2009

Dinner footwear may be optional
By Bill Kaufmann / February 19, 2009

I really hope he shows up in the flight suit.

He can also, in good conscience, bring along that banner he once courageously blamed on sailors because this time, his mission really is accomplished.

It's hard being a stranger to those accomplishments -- international law and a nation's image disemboweled, untold billions cast to the winds, cronies rewarded and the rest be damned.

Civilians incinerated by liberty bombs while it's others who are the terrorists.

Like 9/11 with its many warnings, failure a successful ingredient for the ensuing narrative.

Where does it end? It's like capping carp in a tub.

But his biggest accomplishment may unfold next month and Calgary's his chosen stage.

While legal peril swirls around George W. Bush's White House lawyers for their role in empowering torturers, Bush will cross an international border -- possibly for the first time -- as a free and private citizen.

It's only a couple of months since a Senate committee fingered Bush and Dick Cheney for torture, meaning U.S. law enforcement is obligated to indict them.

Almost the day word came of his Calgary date, unredacted U.S. government documents detailed how their interrogators in Iraq and Afghanistan battered their victims to death.

You mean they weren't just lingerie parties?

Up in the land of leaky tailing ponds, far from a cynical D.C. Beltway, there's an unwitting acknowledgement of the power reality. "He's a free man -- he can travel to any country he wants," said Ed Stelmach.

Pity that -- and two-tiered justice, even under new management in Washington.

So thank goodness for tiny indignities. While Bush's Rasputin, Karl Rove, commanded $500 a head for his city appearance last fall, the Calgary stop on Bush's misunderestimation tour will settle for $400.

It could be recognition that enduring Bush's war with the English language has always been its own "enhanced interrogation."

Paying to hear Dubya weighing in on world challenges he made considerably more dire is like Dick Cheney charging for safe hunting tips.

Could it be that Rove recommended GOP-friendly, oily Calgary to his old boss?

Bush may have been a dud as an oilman but his credentials in sticking his neck out to secure petroleum supplies are solid.

Footwear at dinner could even be optional.

It's likely lending Dubya's level of curiosity undue credit, but it's remotely possible he'd know his pal Stephen Harper's a Calgarian.

With briefing, he might even be aware that, among Canadians, Calgarians were weirdly enthusiastic over his Iraq bloodfest.

And fake cowboy Bush, who tired abruptly of clearing brush last month and sold the ranch, will enjoy communing with the drugstore spur spinners up north.

To its neighbours, Calgary's fast becoming Canada's receptacle of infamy.

They're just waiting for Dick Cheney to hit our red carpet.

Ottawa gets Obama, Calgary gets Bush -- naturally.

It must be a sturdy thing, our western hospitality -- patient and forgiving.

Allowing its exploitation is nothing new, with those white hats handed out so unscrupulously.

But 400 bucks is pretty princely rubber-necking, even for prime disaster porno.

Maybe a ringside seat to the ascent and normalization of lawlessness really is worth the price of admission.

If Calgarians are lucky, a few new Bushisms will be coined for posterity.

And those he'd even deliver under oath.

Source / Calgary Sun



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Published on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 by The Canadian Press
Rage on the Streets in Calgary as Bush Visits

by Bill Graveland and Shannon Montgomery

CALGARY - The rage on the man's face was evident as he berated police officers preventing him from entering the building where former U.S. president George W. Bush was making a speech Tuesday.

‘‘There is a war criminal upstairs that has committed murder,'' screamed the man, who identified himself only as Splits the Sky. ‘‘If I try to get in there you will arrest me. What is wrong with you?

‘‘I am going in there and make a citizen's arrest,'' he said as he attempt to push past police. ‘‘Arrest George Bush. Arrest George Bush.''

A few minutes later he was handcuffed and hustled past a long line of Calgary's business elite waiting to get inside the Telus Convention Centre.

Protest organizers say at least four demonstrators were arrested at Tuesday's event.

About 60 Calgary police officers were on duty outside to control between 200 and 300 people carrying signs that read ‘‘No to U.S. Crimes Against Humanity,'' ‘‘Indict Bush For War Crimes'' and ‘‘Canada Is Not Bush Country.''

Another sign read ‘‘Shoe Him The Door'' - a reference to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in December.

Two Calgary men showed up at the demonstration to support the former U.S. president. Their signs read ‘‘The World Is Safer Because of George W. Bush.''

‘‘Thank you, George Bush. Thank you, George Bush,'' they chanted.

‘‘He doesn't sit down and negotiate with terrorists,'' shouted one of the men, who identified himself as Merle.

‘‘Try doing this in Cuba,'' he said as he pointed to the jeering protesters.

There were shoes everywhere during the protest. A young woman wearing a hood, orange jumpsuit and a name tag that said ‘‘Club Gitmo'' was pulling a shoe cannon along with a target festooned with pictures of Bush.

An obviously amused police officer told her to leave.

Some of those opposed to Bush's visit have said he should be arrested as a war criminal because of alleged torture at military prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

Tuesday's speech was one of the first public appearances Bush has made since leaving the presidency in January with a dismal approval rating and much of the blame for his country's collapsing economy. The speech was closed to the media.

‘‘It's not too late to turn back. Walk away,'' the demonstrators yelled to some of the 1,500 guests invited to hear Bush speak to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

A couple of hundred people lined up early to go through a special security screening room before entering the hall where Bush was speaking.

A few said the former president has to take some of the responsibility for what has happened in the United States, but also has the right to talk about his administration.

2009 The Candadian Press

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Bushism of the day:
"I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened."—On what he hopes to accomplish with his memoir, as reported by the Associated Press, Calgary, Canada, March 17, 2009