This is the best argument I have heard to date for liking this man. I HATE unnecessary and perfunctory formality and fuss, and if I ever had the opportunity to dine with the queen, I would probably not like the experience. I wish I had the kind of balls it would take to wear those boots for the event, though.
Bad ASS!
LC
Come on, you know that’s cool. I still hate the guy, but you gotta admit…
Yeah, I wanted to comment on that, too, Beagle. Somehow I forgot.
This strikes me as an overly optimistic attitude. You may not have a “gun culture” (whatever the fuck that means), but there are certainly guns, and/or the means to smuggle one, available to any suitably motivated individual. Or organization. I don’t think any reasonable person, especially one that’s hated so much, should rely on the relative prevalance of firearms in order to promote his safety. This strikes me as naive to the point of stupidity.
If he hates state visits and formality, why this trip? What is the reason for his going to the heart of the country whose monarchy perfected the art? Is it something that’s simply de rigueur for US Presidents?
At any rate, the protests are going to make the news, not the Buck House dinner, and his handlers must know that by now. We’ve all seen and been bored by stock footage of carriages going down the Mall, but an original photo op like a Bush statue being pulled down in Trafalgar Square (there’s a pedestal available, isn’t there?) has a good chance of leading on every network but Fox.
Oh no, it will lead on Fox too. Something about the president standing up to a European mob, I’m sure, accompanied by lots of photos of burning flags and oversized caricature masks.
** Lucki Chaarms** - Make a protest, do something to make your point, but cowboy boots with ‘God Save the Queen’ on, and embarrass your parents. Maybe when you’re 20 or something, but at 45 years old ? How fucking small town hick is this guy ?
Anyway . . . blimey, they’re a lot more organised than we used to be. Looks like a week of celebrations:
This is what he’ll likely be wearing in Trafalgar Square - warning pdf file
Either that or he’s secretly a Sex Pistols fan.
minty, dammit, you’re right.
I love the anti-nuclear protesters with the really scary beyond-Goth makeup back in the 1980s. Thank goodness we kept building those things. We don’t want a mine shaft gap either. 
I am not a fan of Bush, but I will note that security measures as an excuse to stifle free speech is nothing new. Seattle closed down a good chunk of downtown to protests during the WTO. You could go in for business, you just couldn’t carry a sign (or button, in one case) opposing the WTO.
At a Gore campaign speech in 2000, protesters outside the event were told that they could not be in a direct line of sight to Gore. People inside were told they could not carry signs at all (for “security” reasons!), unless the Gore folks provided them. It was the Secret Service, stumping for Gore, on the pretense of “security.”
As an aside, I strongly doubt the discussion of sniping was a plot to kill protesters. One fewer protester is not likely to be worth the huge negative pr effect of killing an unarmed person on live television. If the snipers are part of a nefarious plot at all (which seems unlikely), the only way I could see it working is if were for intimidation. Around here, police will send out guys with large rifles to intimidate people. Nothing says “move along” like a line of large men with AR-15s. But of course, it is all for security, not for its chilling effects or to make the protesters look dangerous and violent for TV.
In short, it is wrong but it’s not new.
Har! I’ll admit nothing of the sort. If we wanted a prez who eschewed decorum, we would have sent Randee of the Redwoods there.
Okay, you Brits! Go with your “We love Bush” signs. Then as his motorcade passes down the mall, place your signs face down on the ground, and stand silently with you back to the President. At least it would be different.
That was my decent suggestion.
The other one involves mooning.
Y’know, even though we had pretty strong differences when I first came onto the boards, you’re definately one of my favourite posters now. Even when the boards are running slower than glass I always try to take the time to read your threads.
Don’t worry about the protests. The Stop the War coalition has organised a public demonstration in Trafalgar square on the 20th and will most likely receive a high turnout. As for the signs, I found several great ones at the forum on http://www.mykeru.com (anyone remember him?). I’ve already got mine ready.
Check out the stop the war coalition at http://www.stopthewar.co.uk
And the pictures at Mykeru.com in this thread
It’s a pretty offensive site (especially if you’re a Republican) but you gotta admit, the guy has a knack for photoshopping.
Anyway…um, carry on.
[quote]
Originally posted by Ben Hicks
Y’know, even though we had pretty strong differences when I first came onto the boards, you’re definately one of my favourite posters now. Even when the boards are running slower than glass I always try to take the time to read your threads.
Thanks, Ben. I remember your first post. I’m still smarting from it. I was actually kind of surprised to see that I ended up agreeing with most everything else you posted.
Thanks for the links and the reassurances. Give our guy relentless, red-ass hell for me. 
Hell, haven’t most assasins in crowds usually been caught? Gavrilo Princip was arrested almost right away and the man who killed King Alexander of Yugoslavia and the French foreign minister Louis Barthou was grabbed and beaten to death within minutes of offing his target.
Hmmmm. Well, that depends. Are thier butts as ugly as thier teeth?
(No offense, you understand, just trying to gauge the impact…)
This is generally a sign you’re on the right track.
Zoe, there’s probably going to be enough trouble without adding Weapons of Ass Destruction to the mix.
The guy’s a former frat boy – he’d probably take it as a compliment.
Y’know, I seriously thought the esteemed mr London_Calling was talking out of his arse when he relayed the story about George jr. wearing cowboy boots when the Queen came to visit daddy at the big White House.
I really did.
Then Luckii Charms (initials also LC, as it happens) responded to it in a serious manner. So I googled it.
That really happened? He really wore fuckin’ cowboy boots when the Queen stopped by for tea?
Un-fucking-believable. Almost as un-fucking-believable as calling UncleBeer a notorious Bush-hater, blinded and all. Heh.
Well, I dunno. This isn’t a Bush thing, it’s a US “our way or the highway” thing.
During Clinton’s visit to Ireland, I went to see him give a speech, and there were snipers clearly visible on all the rooftops around College Green. They may have been Irish, but I doubt it. All the buildings around the square where he was appearing had been cleared at 5 am. I met a student who had been turfed out of her room in Trinity College, she claimed by an American. There were armed Secret Servicemen very obvious in the crowd (keeping yourself “secret” is kinda difficult in Dublin when you’re built like a brick shit-house, well-groomed in a suit with a suspicious bulge in the breast pocket, wearing shades and an earpiece, six inches taller than everyone else, and black). The presidential cavalcade had been delivered a day earlier by USAF planes, and according to newspaper reports at the time, at least one of the big limos was carrying SAMs.
So yeah, by being allowed to pack that much heat in a foreign country, I suspect that they’d have free reign to shoot who they “needed” to. Sure, there’d be repercussions, but that doesn’t prevent them from imposing their own criteria.
Anyway, as regards Bush’s visit, Aro wrote about what the UK government did in Northern Ireland while Bush was there - total lockdown. Nobody could get anywhere near him. Now, I know there are some misguided individuals on this board who claim that Bush isn’t unpopular in the UK… but I really doubt the US or the UK would risk Bush being within even shouting distance of the protesters, who are likely to be many. There’s little or no threat of assassination, but the magnitude of his unpopularity - or at least the popularity of his foreign policy WRT Iraq, which inspired the largest protest in the history of the United Kingdom - is also something I suspect both Bush’s handlers (or should that be wranglers?) and Blair would want to protect him from.
Finally, I quite like the cowboy boots story. It’s doubled my respect for GWB , from 0.01% to 0.02%.
I’ve seen some very, very fine boots, some that probably cost more than one of my kidneys. Those “God Save The Queen” boots would have been a custom job, of course, and I bet they cost in the multiple thousands of dollars. In some areas of the country, cowboy boots are acceptable for any occasion and men own several grades of boot for different levels of formality. For example, my uncle wore a nice pair, freshly shined, for my grandfather’s funeral and no one batted an eye.
That said, cowboy boots at a black tie affair outside of Texas and/or in the presence of visiting royalty are a fashion don’t likely to land you on Mr. Blackwell’s “Must Kill” list.
Or maybe you are the blind reactionary and so when three people including one conservative criticize Bush, you accuse them of blind hatred and prejudice.
Anything rather than admit they have a rational point.