[nickf]

Has President Bush's current visit to Sydney rated much of a mention in mainstream US media?

Have you seen the over the top security measures our state government has put in place for the APEC meeting? How does this compare to when President Bush travels around the states. The CBD of Sydney has been fenced off with a 3m high steel perimeter and is effectively a no-go area without good reason. Attempts at peaceful demonstrations have been all but quashed.

nickf
sydney

[Gerben42]

This seems to be the normal requirement for the US president travelling abroad. On his last two visits to Germany similar measures were taken. I would suggest the governments around the world to stop wasting tax money on this and no longer invite US presidents that set such high demands, instead go and visit them ourselves, saves us many millions of euros.

[helene_t]

It was the same when he visited the Netherlands. Outrageous.

[TimG]

nickf, on Sep 5 2007, 03:27 AM, said:

Has President Bush's current visit to Sydney rated much of a mention in mainstream US media?

I didn't know Bush was in NZ, but then I'm not much for mainstream media.

[kfay]

I did know that President Bush was traveling recently. There have been articles on his visit to soldiers in the Anbar province of Iraq but no note has been made (that I've seen) of his visiting anywhere else.

As far as attention to security measures, your news is news to me. Typically footage is shown of him walking down some airplane staircase or shaking hands with some diplomat but I've never seen huge fences or anything like that, though I'm not surprised.

[hrothgar]

Comment 1: NPR has had fairly extensive coverage of Bush's trip to Oz. They covered both his (pending) visit to the trade conference and also the fact that it looks like Howard is going down in flames.

Comment 2: Here in the US, Bush lives his live in a VERY sheltered bubble. He is completely shielded from anything resembling a protest. Demostrators are rounded up and herded into so-called "Free Speach Zones". This type of activity is by no means limited to Presidential visits. A few years back when the Democratic National Convention was held here in Boston the city/state government applied the same (idiotic) restirctions.

[Gerben42]

Quote

As far as attention to security measures, your news is news to me. Typically footage is shown of him walking down some airplane staircase or shaking hands with some diplomat but I've never seen huge fences or anything like that, though I'm not surprised.

They are not SHOWN. They are so far away the president does not see them either. And he especially does not see the protesters.

[Al_U_Card]

Let's see now....at Montebello for the Amero meeting...there were 2 Mounties....but indeed we had an incident where masked police "agent provocateurs" (very à propos considering that it was held in Québec...lol) tried to incite peaceful demonstrators to throw rocks and get violent. They were outed by the organizers (THEY WERE STILL WEARING THEIR POLICE ISSUE BOOTS!!!) and cuffed and led away.....The Provincial police justified their actions as "normal" under the circumstances but there are calls for an independant inquiry into the affair.

[BebopKid]

Whenever Bill Clinton wanted to go to Hope, they closed off parts of our Interstate Highway from Little Rock to Hope (100 miles away).

I think that happened 3 times.

[cherdano]

To answer one of your questions, I don't think the security measures when Bush travels in the US are comparable, at least they didn't seem to when he came to SLC a while ago.

[pbleighton]

I found this in the Washington Post online - I found nothing in the New York Times or CNN.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7090402045.html

Peter

[skjaeran]

TimG, on Sep 5 2007, 02:57 PM, said:

I didn't know Bush was in NZ

New Zealand????
Sydney used to be in Australia.....

[joshs]

skaeran, on Sep 5 2007, 02:13 PM, said:

TimG, on Sep 5 2007, 02:57 PM, said:

I didn't know Bush was in NZ

New Zealand????
Sydney used to be in Australia.....

Maybe its the West Island of New Zealand?

[mike777]

BebopKid, on Sep 5 2007, 12:57 PM, said:

Whenever Bill Clinton wanted to go to Hope, they closed off parts of our Interstate Highway from Little Rock to Hope (100 miles away).

I think that happened 3 times.

Bill Clinton is in the building...now ...I mean right now.....

He is on the top floor for some fund raiser.

Sydney is in Aust? I thought she was here....wow she gets around.

[Al_U_Card]

BebopKid, on Sep 5 2007, 12:57 PM, said:

Whenever Bill Clinton wanted to go to Hope, they closed off parts of our Interstate Highway from Little Rock to Hope (100 miles away).

I think that happened 3 times.

He had that big a boner?

[Winstonm]

The Ministry of Truth will tell us all we need to know about the Australian trip.

[TimG]

skaeran, on Sep 5 2007, 02:13 PM, said:

TimG, on Sep 5 2007, 02:57 PM, said:

I didn't know Bush was in NZ

New Zealand????
Sydney used to be in Australia.....

I didn't know he was in Australia, either. Could have sworn the original post mentioned NZ, but probably just a stupid mistake by me.

[mike777]

Good Grief

I woke up this morning and Bill Clinton is on the front page of our local town paper.
He is surrounded by a few girls, one of them is mine.

I guess he is still a chick magnet.

[nickf]

An insight of how we locals view the absurdity of the heightened security.

We have a local politico-satircal show called The Chasers War on Everything. Yesterday they pulled a stunt masquerading as a Canadian motorcade and entered a restricted zone near GWBs hotel. They were eventually stopped by the police and arrested and charged.

See http://www.smh.com.au/ go to Video News on the right hand side and click on Chaser breach APEC security.

nickf
sydney