Ex-President Bush Marks Aircraft Carrier

[Snellius]

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Former President Bush printed his initials in chalk on a metal plate Saturday to literally mark the first milestone in the construction of a $4 billion aircraft carrier that will bear his name.

A welder then etched the initials into the plate with a torch during a ceremony at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard, the nation's only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

"I hereby declare the keel of this ... U.S. Navy aircraft carrier true and fairly laid," Bush, a decorated World War II Navy pilot, told the 3,000 invited guests.

Bush started to write his initials, GHWB, on the plate, then wiped them off and rewrote them in larger script. He said he thought the letters in his first effort were too small.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-bush-carrier,0,4385645.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[htuttle]

When I read the subject line..

I thought it meant that Poppy had urinated on it.

[RC]

8. Well, in a way isn't that just what poppy did?

How'd you like to serve on a ship named after jr? Everything he's touched so far has turned to shit.

[burrowowl]

15. I did too

Thought of a dog at a fire hydrant and a far pee to reach an aircraft carrier from the dock.

[FauxNewsBlues]

1. Marks it?

I would think him urinating on it, and marking it as his own possession would have been more apropos.

[IggleDoer]

14. Or ... like he "marked the Japanese Prime Minister"

... with vomit

[DavidDvorkin]

2. They've already pissed on the whole country

So what's another military vessel included in the whole!

[imax2268]

3. Who would have thought...

A ship named Bush that's full of seamen...go figure...!

[PartyPooper]

4. When does Bill Clinton get an aircraft carrier named after him?

Actually, I don't like this practice of naming ships after former presidents. Well, Lincoln and Kennedy were good ideas. But, with the good you get the bad...and, the truly undeserving, awful, and horrific, too! 'USS GHWB'...what an embarrassment and dishonour to our country!

And, I cringe to think an aircraft carrier named after Junior. And, we all KNOW that will happen sometime in the future. What a travesty that will be! Why not call it the 'USS Bunnypants'?

And, I don't like airports named after presidents, politicians, or movie stars, either! (Reagan National, John Wayne, etc., etc.!) UGH!

:-(

[lumpy]

5. You and me both

Wasn't there a sub or some other war machine named Corpus Christi that caused much public outcry since it literally means Body of Christ?

[david_vincent]

12. No, it's a great idea!

It's just that more thought needs to go into the selction process. For instance, I think it'd be wonderful to name a ship after Warren G. Harding, the first president who really handed over the keys to the country to corporate profiteers. A man of such bold vision deserves to be honored. He was way ahead of his time.

[BiggJawn]

6. "Decorated WWII Navy" CREW KILLER!!!!

He bailed out of a perfectly good (oh, OK at least still-functioning) aircraft and left his crew of 2 to die!

BTW, if any freepie-types try to tell you Poppy was a studly fighter jock, just like his boy, kindly point out to them that Poppy's mount was a TBM torpedo bomber...Not exactly a "Hellcat of the Navy"...

[PartyPooper]

7. It's disgraceful, isn't it?

Poppy has no shame. Neither does his AWOL, chickenhawk son!

[Nottingham]

9. Nothing like Humility

The Egotism is just sickening :bounce:

[Tyler Durden]

10. I have GOT to get the FUCK OUT OF HERE.

This country is behaving like a satirical article in "The Onion," except for real.

Time to go, kids. The lifeboats are filling up, and I refuse to sing "Nearer My God To Thee" with the rest of the fools who were too stupid to leave.

Sorry to be so negative. Just getting to be too much for me.

[AdrianInOcala]

11. Hell, I remember the good old days when...

They named US Navy ships after dead people. I guess that's been changed to include brain dead rethuglicans.

[losthope]

16. The republicans are desperate.

They named the last carrier for reagon. When he was president he got 245 marines killed in Lebonon, two days later he invades Granada to shift the publics attention from his screw up. The people thought he was wonderful. Daddy bush was a pilot for a torpedo plane in world warII. He got hit and he bailed out with out giving his two crewmen
a chance to get out. The crewmen never had a chance. I always thought that a pilot is like a captain on a ship, he is the last one to go after the crew. For that he was decorated. Go figure.

[tlb]

17. Far as I know it started with the USS Jimmy Carter.

I'd agree. Best to wait for them to pass on.

[IggleDoer]

13. "he thought the letters in his first effort were too small"

The same could be said for his presidency.

[Kool Kitty]

20. Exactly.

Don't forget his heart and mind, also.

[UnapologeticLiberal]

18. I love the first three words of that topic

"Ex-President Bush"...that has a nice ring to it!

http://www.collagesandmontages.com/grassrootsbanner

[pfitz59]

19. Once upon a time a politician had to be dead........

before anything could be named after him (her)! Rules change. Go around almost any city or state and you'll see shit named after living pols! There's even a GW Bush* School in California! :puke: