Environmentalist Bush

Is Bush becoming an environmentalist?

(click on pictures to enlarge)

[George W Bush says "don't buy gas if you don't need it" listen (5kb - mp3)]

On September 1, 2005, during President Bush's press briefing at the White house, he made the statement "don't buy gas if you don't need it"(source: whitehouse.gov includes video link to press briefing) .

And then, on January 31, 2006, President Bush makes a comment during his State Of The Union speech, "America is addicted to oil".(source: whitehouse.gov includes speech transcript and video links to speech)

And it has been reported in the news that he enjoys mountain bicycling and has fallen a few times and scraped up his face etc. (see picture on right)

And there is a photo of him, supposedly, riding a Trek bicycle, wearing an American flag theme bicycle helmet, apparently wearing a black kevlar bullet proof vest.(picture to the right)

(BTW, I wonder if kevlar would be useful for urban cycling wear.)

Additionally, a few years back he was reported to have fallen while learning to ride a Segway.(see picture to the right)

Also, there are reports of him doing almost daily 3 mile runs since he stopped drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, and running marathons before taking the office of the president in 2001, as reported in the Running magazine interview. Also see the BBC News Washington report
Bush reveals running secrets on this story.

And I spotted a picture of George Bush (senior) on a bicycle for a photo-op in China.(see picture on right)

Ahhh... If Bush W. retrofits the presidential vehicle fleet to run on biodiesel (and/or converts them to biodiesel electric hybrids ), and shows up to a critical mass bicycle ride, I think I will need to pinch myself to make sure I am not in a lucid dream with a wacky "Alice In Wonderland" theme.

Although, I may have a minority opinion, I welcome George Bush to ride in the Santa Monica Critical Mass. And I invite him to ring his bicycle bell first to kick off the ride if need be. And to demonstrate to the American people how they can ride a bicycle for fun and transportation.

And it would be fine with me if he brought an entourage of secret service along for the ride.

Who knows, maybe California Governor Arnold, and former LA mayor, Richard Riordan, would be inspired to come along with their bicycles, for the ride, too.

Perhaps with all these VIPS "pedal pushing" on two wheels, the Mayor of Santa Monica may have to call for an impromtu "car free zone" on the first Friday of April between 5-9pm, or so, for the good of the people.

And during the ride, we could tour some of those pesky intersection in Santa Monica with electronic traffic detection devices that are unable to detect bicycles, with a police escort.

Here are some links to some humorous mock photos of Bush on a bicycle Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

if you liked the info on this page, you might like to read the "Green Corps" page.