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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (6972)	6/15/2003 12:16:39 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Bush Golfs, Fishes, Tumbles on Holiday Weekend Fri Jun 13, 3:49 PM ET story.news.yahoo.com Add Politics to My Yahoo! By Patricia Wilson KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - For a U.S. president, taking vacation can be risky business. Pictures of George W. Bush tumbling off a personal scooter, hooking a golf drive and tossing back a fish had at least one Democrat baiting the White House on Friday. "Hard at work during the Mideast crisis, health care crisis and jobs crisis," read the headline on a news release from the office of Democratic Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin. But a long weekend at the six-acre, stone-and-shingle family compound perched on a promontory stretching into the Atlantic Ocean isn't all play and no work for Bush. He still has his daily intelligence and national security briefings, attends to paperwork and makes phone calls. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president consulted by telephone with his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, , on developments in the Middle East and Iraq Rice's deputy, Stephen Hadley, and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin are with him at Walker's Point in the seaside village of Kennebunkport, the Bush clan's traditional summer getaway for more than 100 years. Just after dawn, the president and his father, former President George Bush, who turned 79 on Thursday, drove up to the first tee at the Cape Arundel Golf Club with a cheery "Good morning, everybody!" After a couple of warm up drives -- the current president's first effort was a left hook into the mud flats of the Kennebunk River -- the duo headed off, father at the wheel, son's feet up on the dashboard, ignoring a shouted question about the prospects for his Middle East peace "road map." A little more than two hours later, they were at the 18th green where Bush tried to will his last putt into the hole. It missed. Presidential scores are traditionally classified, but as they left, the senior Bush was overheard to remark: "It's not all about winning." The Bushes, who treat relaxation as if it were a competitive sport, soon headed out in their Fidelity II power boat, stopping briefly at several spots along the rocky coastline to fish. The son, nattily attired in a leather jacket accessorized with blue-tinted reflective sunglasses, caught at least one fish that he returned to the water. Shortly after arriving at the family home on Thursday, Bush shed his suit and tie for shorts and a tee-shirt. He was photographed trying out a Segway, a stand-up electric scooter with gyroscopes to help keep vehicle and passenger upright. When the machine toppled over, Bush stayed on his feet and was unhurt. "I thought he made a particularly excellent rebound," Fleischer said. "He looked very athletic as he emerged." Bush will stay in Kennebunkport through Father's Day on Sunday. On Monday he will stop in Orange, New Jersey, to talk about tax breaks for small business owners on his way back to Washington. Email Story

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (6972)	6/15/2003 12:18:34 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Bush fails the Segway test George W Bush has fallen off a Segway - a new stand-on scooter designed to make motorised travel user-friendly. news.bbc.co.uk The machine went down when he stepped onto it at his family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, but he managed to leap to safety, landing on his feet. The US president managed to master his lawnmower-like steed, developed by BAE Systems in Plymouth, Devon, at the second attempt and cruised around the driveway with his father George Bush Senior following closely on a second Segway. A safety manual warns the Segway user to wear a helmet and "get a friend to act as your spotter" but Mr Bush was wearing only his tennis clothes and clutching his racket, while the nearest he had to a "spotter" appeared to be the family dog, Spot. "If you try your first ride without a spotter, you are at greater risk of injury and you probably won't enjoy the experience as much," the manual notes. The president was not available to comment on the incident, which was caught on film, or confirm whether he had tried out the Segway before. His foray on the new scooter follows Vice President Dick Cheney's use of a Segway to ride around his Washington office when his Achilles tendon was playing up. The machine's creator, Dean Kamen, wants to see US Special Forces troops eventually ride Segways into battle. But machines in use around the world at present have been mostly confined to gentle tasks such as traversing car parks or airport check-in halls. BBC News Online journalists are currently seeing if they can triumph where President Bush failed, by taking a pair of the two-wheeled transporters out for a test ride. See how they fared (or perhaps fell) in a report next week. E-mail this to a friend