Is there something fishy about Bush having a Segway?

There's something fishy about the way he rides it:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/...ekend.ap/index.html

Oops, I see you already posted that. That's what I get for
reading top down.

Is there something fishy about Bush not being able to drive a Segway?

It should be obvious to all that he intentionally took a dive. The Segway represents not just alternative fuel but alternative options for transportation and society that are diametrically opposed to the values of the current administration and the Republican Party.

Bush got his through Amazon, just like everyone else; it appeared in his Gold Box Offers one day and he paid for it with the extra money in his post-tax cut pay envelope. The other one was an early Father's Day present.

Nothing unusual going on. Move along. Nothing to see.

dick says: The Segway represents not just alternative fuel but alternative options for transportation and society that are diametrically opposed to the values of the current administration and the Republican Party.

Try to minimize the partisan propaganda. Dean Kamen IS A REPUBLICAN. Geez. And as for alternatives what is wrong with a bicycle or a scooter? Or walking for that matter. The Segway represents overkill.

This one just has to win the award for turning a Segway mishap into an anti-Bush angle de jour. Surely, SURELY that long condemnation would never have come back had that been a Democratic administration. And surely the "surprise" over "this Segway situation" can only be remedied by having an investigative panel assembled with the possiblity of eventual impeachment! Sadly, it's only what, one or two weeks at BoingBoing? Yet a supposedly bright and refreshing newcomer is already drinking the KoolAid and beginning to spout the expected agenda. Evidently there IS an admission charge to be one of the "chosen few"! When will any of the Bay Area Missionaries even start to think for themselves and be original for a string of days? One or two is not enough!

This one just has to win the award for turning a Segway mishap into an anti-Bush blah blah ditto ditto dittohead
Man, this guy is on a mission!

Actually, I think he is inferring that the dittoheads are all here, as everyone seems to be in anti-Bush lockstep, particularly the contributors. Is that not being a "dittohead", as you put it? Apparently, any independent thought that varies from the accepted "standards" of the Left Coast is not permitted.

I think you're right about a mission, but it appears to be a tad more complicated and low key (read: insidious) if you take time to read between all the lines you're being fed. Your information comes at a price! Nothing is free.

Dvorak quoted it best in another of his articles when he described the programmers in the Open Source world. They may not be in it for the money, but (in their case) there was a very big ego that had to be massaged.

In this case, the communal bathhouse pool (to use a metaphor) becomes warmer with each "buddy" who receives the proper indoctrination under the surface with the information being imparted. It's the BoingBoing version of NPR, without the soothing audible tones that are as critical in regular, dependable doses to the Liberally programmed masses which are sent forth from the ubiquitous Berkeley-styled professors in the universities as each fuel source is to Pacman in its maze.

As long as the propaganda manages to get reinforced, you will continue to think as a collective and all will be well. Repeat after me (in a calming voice): "Gore is the real president. Bush is a liar. Clinton was God. The worst Democrat in the world is better in power than the best Republican on earth."

Repeat and rinse.

Congrats Unblinded', yet again you are more rabid then I. (g)

Politics aside, I would have returned your books and kept the Segway too Dvorak.

dear ----x, if that is indeed your real name. Considering the price I'd take a Segway over a book too. So??

Edited by author 06-14-2003 06:03 AM
I thought Dick was being facetious, and I laughed. Is everybody running this blog, except Mark, really that damn humorless?? :-

Everyone has a price. W's is obviously more than $24.

Dvorak:
Segways are as low in cost as $5k not $8k as you wrongly stated. Your critizism of them is common amongst those who do not understand the innovation involved and the potential for impacting communities. (Which has been debated here at length.) Your whining about Mr.Presidents snub of your publishers cheap books, and acceptance of one of the most innovative developments in transportation seems to be yet another ironic example of self filled journalism.

(By the way it is __x not ----x.)

Here we have Dvorak displaying the sort of insight that makes his columns such interesting reading:

"The books came back from the Secret Service with a long condemnation about how the President can't accept "gifts" and this was improper and blah-blah-blah. So I was a little surprised by this Segway situation. These things are worth $8000, my book was $24 or so."

Of course it would have been too difficult to spend a few minutes at something like News.google.com and learn that,

"On Thursday, President Bush failed to flip the ''on'' switch to the scooter he had purchased for his father, so the self-balancing mechanism didn't work. The president tumbled to the ground, unhurt. And news photographers, lingering outside the compound with long lenses, picked up grainy images of a presidential spill."

You haven't been playing those horribly hyperrealistic video games again, have you John?

I can understand why the Bush I turned down the donation of books, but I am shocked(!) that the President didn't run out and buy every single one of your books to complete his library. This will certainly be a matter that will drive future historians (well, at least the ones not driven insane by playing hyperrealistic videogams) to madness trying to explain.

Oh, here is a picture of both GBs riding their Segways after George II figured out how to turn on his unit.

Edited by author 06-14-2003 07:44 PM
One last thing, John -- how did you get this,

This ABC News story floating around outlines the odd meeting between Dean Kamen and GW bush and how he ended up with a Segway Some years ago when George Sr. was in office and was making noise about computers I had my book publisher send copies of a couple Dvorak Books on the topic to the President, figuring they would be good for him.

from this

During his speech, Bush cited Kamen after he noticed him at the back of the crowd, and later the president chatted with the inventor, who told him he had a Segway downstairs. Secret Service agents quickly brought it up to the floor, and the president rode it around. He picked up how to use it right away, Kamen said.

Where in there does it say that Bush took away the Segway as a gift after riding it? And here I thought it was just us irresponsible bloggers who made such stupid gaffes. Maybe you might want to stick to writing about the family pets.

Well, it may be illegal to give the President a Segway (which he wanted as a gift for his father) but it is apparently not illegal to give one directly to his mother.

The Boston link says

Company founder Dean Kamen, a longtime friend of the elder Bush, decided to throw in a second scooter as a gift to former first lady Barbara Bush

Why am I not surprised that Bush couldn't figure out how to push the 'on' button?

Fwiw, he didn't fall down. The machine flipped, he tumbled forward and did a fast jump that landed him (awkwardly) on his feet. He may not be too bright, but he's very athletic.

these little discussion zones in blogs are really sidebar chat rooms, replete with people who want to incite flame wars. it strikes me as unacceptable behaviour to make a criticism, however accurate and also call people stupid and such here in this venue. it might be more of a "discussion" if questions/comments were posted in order to promote relevant debate vs. "you're so lame and this proves it". i visit BB because it is often fascinating, sometimes humorous and usually worthwhile. once in a while the topics are so interesting i want to see what other visitors have to say. to visit these discussion boards to find grade school-level nay saying isn't nearly as fun as visiting the main blog. i suspect i'm not alone. perhaps QUICKTOPIC can offer a user rating system akin to EBAY and there might be a way to see immediately what the "community" thinks of some message leavers. hmmm?

psyork, I suppose he didn't have Karl Rove handy to tell him how to turn it on.

Mr. Carnell, there's just one little problem with at least a couple of your messages. I think you fail by fully accepting without question the premise that the information presented at the increasingly political BoingBoing is somehow based on facts alone, rather than being colored by biased opinion, to a degree that any dog arriving to peruse these articles would leave with the spectral acuity of a bee, and would forever thereafter pee only from its left leg, toward any elephant it envied.

All manner of suggestion that corruption was at play at the Family HQ has now been paraded out among these messages, as well as the old chestnut that Bush is an unredeemable dope. Bor-ing. If we're going to be so petty, let us not forget that Mr. Bush's college test results trumped those of Mr. Gore, champion of all things fair and true. And sometimes a Father's Day is a Father's Day and not another meeting to divide up the spoils of the wretched refuse.

So, remember before you get too hot under the collar in reading the skew here that this "journalistic" vehicle is in need of some alignment to the center of the road to attain any real credibility. Once that fact is discovered and appraised (a very painful process for the drivers), the result could be both worthy and mighty. But I'm not holding my breath. It's too easy to continue the incessant claptrap at the expense of one's - and one's agenda's - own credibility.

Man, I had a dog with the spectral acuity of a bee one time, and yeah, it did piss everywhere...

Bush's government office of ethics has this to say on the subject:

http://www.results.gov/tools/ethics01.html

From what it looks like, you indeed can't accept presents over a value of $20 if you're a government official. However, first ladies and especially former first ladies, go into that murky gray area of non-appointed officials.

So the secret service was right to return the books.

This, however, doesn't mean it's ethical for the President, operating in his official capacity, to take a photo-op to promote a fellow Republican's new gizmo. (Whether or not it's a neat gizmo is beside the point.)

However, since there's a long history of presidents hanging out with inventors (Henry Ford's road trips come to mind), I wouldn't particularly sweat it. And given that family's addiction to golf carts, it seems natural.

Worldwide open secret. Solely Mr. Dec heralds the true god in the entire history of the universe. Not even in the Truth, oy vey, Pravda, is Mr. Francis E. Dec Esquire's eight-page detailed letter exposing the worldwide deadly Communist Gangster Computer God and the worst deadliest enemy of the entire human race and the entire universe and the entire history of the entire universe namely the Communist Atheist Conspiracy with all of the Deadly Gangster unbelievable sophisticated Frankenstein Controls, the Catholic Church. These facts, like the below facts, cannot be found in the Communist Gangster Computer God concocted and manipulated so-called history and news media.
Communist Gangster Computer God, unbelievably staged like Hollywood scum-on-top Tsarina alias Great Dictator Franklin D. Roosevelt, the polio paralyzed legless drug addict idiotic suicidal Tsarina fag who had his unbeatable rival Will Rogers exterminated in an exploding ball of flame by a planted bomb here in safe USA airfield shortly after take-off at the end of Will Rogers' unprecedented renowned arduous 'round-the-world good-will flying trip with Wiley Post in his beautiful electronically sophisticated luxurious ultra-modern Winnie Mae airplane. Not only all stairways had inclines added for Tsarina Roosevelt's computerized wheelchair, but a football field sized glass house type building was built in sight of the White House for his medicinal piped-in pure warmed seawater into his gigantic suicide-proof two feet deep swimming pool where he waded naked with his nurses and had sodomy affairs. Ones very near to him have written popular books about his sodomy oy vey love affairs. Already in his third term he was a helpless and useless stretcher case incapable of even appearing at his fourth term convention.

This One World Communist who married his immediate cousin Eleanor Roosevelt like his runted sickly pock-faced grandfather, propagandized as a hunter and a sportsman, Teddy Roosevelt here from Oyster Bay Long Island, the Rosenfelt family another Computer God top secret camouflage for gifted Ethiopians as a big-time kid gangster politician Computer God even raised his age for historical purposes. Teddy Roosevelt was paid off with the Vice President knew absolutely nothing farce position title.

Repeatedly Vice Presidents have successfully waited and lurked to eliminate El Presidenté oy vey. Below are a few examples. So the kiddish gangster Teddy Roosevelt lured midwestern Dope McKinley into New York for extermination like the lowly guttermouth big L.B. Johnson lured playboy sodomist eat-with-the-Mafia Jack Kennedy into his home town Dallas wide open. People say it was the three brothers Sam, Milton and Lyman Jacobsen who with the judges feloniously swindled the Governor of Texas out of the U.S. Senator election shortly before Lyman was fixed as the compromise choice for Jack Kennedy's Vice Presidential nominee.

Who ever saw a Lyndon married to a tiny runt Birdie under Computer God orders even Birdie now has changed her name for historical purposes to Lady Bird nu? And even her Ethiopian surname is now changed to Taylor. It was the scummy bum lowly gangster Lyman as Presidenté who had the gigantic Tsarina swimming pool deepened several feet to a regular swimming pool and regularly had naked sodomy swimming parties with women personnel. GANGSTER MONKEY SEE, GANGSTER MONKEY DO. Now that the Pope John in the Vatican has a similar swimming pool to share with the endless numbers of nuns to help him forget his good old days as a married man naked in bed with high holy communion sodomy.

In not that world renowned untouchable felon gangster Tricky Dick Nixon whose daughter Tricia is married to Davy Eisenshanker Junior nu? Nixon was the sure loser to the fag queer kid Bobby Kennedy until he was lured into very distant Tricky's home town Los Angeles. Did not gangster Tricky Dick Nixon do more than feloniously watch Eyesight Television of Bobby Kennedy's extermination?

Abe Lincoln's Computer God alias for Abe Lin-Cohen's law partner was Stanton. Abe and the gangster courts feloniously conspired fabricated patent infringements to swindle thousands of dollars from C. McCormick Weeper Machinery Company. As president, Abe made Stanton a Cabinet member in order to automatically become President Stanton concocted a grandiose murder scheme to murder not only Lincoln but also the Vice President and Secretary of State. Secretly, Vice President Johnson overseered it. Lincoln was murdered and Secretary of State Seward was very seriously injured.

Automatic President Harry "Shimmelman" Truman in terror, gave political concessions to Congress to enact abolishment of the automatic succession to the Presidency by Cabinet members. For cheap conspired felonious party fix Gangster Nixon gave Presidency to known felon Gerry Ford another Computer God alias the wide open life long felon bribe extortionist forgerer and check launderer Gerry Ford.

David Eisenscheimer or Eisenshanker another runted Negroidically befreckled semi-illiterate cowardly yokel kid, also Jimmy Carter who shared the sodomy drunk beds of the military academy with Niggers under secret Computer God orders upon graduation. CIA changed even his family gravestones. Camp David in Maryland was named after him, for him, and by him, including the Division of SS Secret Service troops who even tended his playboy giant golf course. Here David Eisenshanker hid in cowardly terror and watched World War Two on Eyesight TV. His historical name, Dwight Eisenhower. As president for months he was dying, in a coma, useless and helpless. Oy vay.

Sneak shameless hangman rope gangster government leaders into Frankenstein living death eternal slavery, I now go to death for your lowest deadly felony crime against me. Frankenstein Earphone Radio parroting puppet gangster slave do not dare to repeat any part of this truthful message. For like Mr. Francis E. Dec, Esquire, you too are expendable and you too can be beaten bloodily by the gangster police and dragged in chains into a windowless telephone booth type prison cell and put into maximum security insanity prison for undetectable extermination, and by the lowest gangsterism, namely, the law, character assassinated for life as an insane, criminal menace to this worse Gangster Communism. Now that your terrified, trembling delirium has subsided have your computer subdivision play out my letter, and you, reread my letter FOR YOUR ONLY HOPE FOR A FUTURE. Francis E. Dec, Esquire, 29 Maple Street, Hempstead, NY.

Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God scum-on-top staged like Hollywood with plastic pale stand-in actors with Communist Gangster Computer God speed recording, instantaneous, simultaneous edited simulated voices implanted for all TV and news media microphones in any known language. Unbelievable con artist gangsterism solely for the overall plan. Worldwide eternal Frankenstein living death slavery. Yokel felon King Jimmy Carter slime from the academies which Mr. Dec intelligently refused unsolicited acceptance to the most elite academy from here in Niggertown and even insidious con artist gangster divorcée Pope John, they both speak Spanish and even Portuguese. Solely Mr. Dec exposes False God Sodomy and Gomorrah of you Worldwide Computer God parroting puppet gangster slaves. Make copies for yourself you hangman rope gangster scum-on-top. Laugh your mad giggle now.

Dr. Bonner's soap comes to mind.

On BuzzFlash they are saying the twins gave W the Segway.

Chico, Dude, I was so like going to say that. Great all purpose soap, but I guess the rambleing conspiracy theory neotheists were the target market for the Dr.Bonner marketing team? (It was nasty when my granola mom tried to get to use it as toothpaste too.)

This is on top of the soapbox.

Dvorak is either stupid, disingenuous, or both. Dvorak admits that he knows that Bush does not accept gifts (he admits that this was explained in a letter to him) and yet, just because Bush tried out a Segway once, Dvorak now claims that Bush must have received that Segway as an inappropriate gift.

He is neither - he is clever and dishonest with that cleverness. There's an agenda to distribute. Anyway, let's review from the introduction:

"John C. Dvorak is a long-time columnist for PC Magazine and PC Magazine Online and his writings can be found in China, Croatia, Brazil, Portugal, Greece and other locales."

"Formerly a columnist with Barron's and Forbes while hosting both a TV show and a syndicated radio" blah blah blah........

Well, my God, surely we're being introduced into the presence of Greatness? I guess Greatness is in the eye of the beholder, for today, we learn from him about "bitch tits".

I think the required indoctrination into the "new" BoingBoing family involved some time between Xeni's gams. It's just too much of a challenge for these dears, individually OR collectively, to actually write about science, technology and wonder WITHOUT it being reduced to cheap shots at anything right of hard-left, or adolescent pee-pee poo-poo, titties and fuckshit. They're just not capable of it. Face it, BoingBoing has become XeniBoing, and there's no place for reality in that VR world.

Yeah, Xeni reminds me of someone retarded in my class in school - when everyone was supposed to draw something from their earlier childhood, one girl in the class kept drawing weird pornography, and just couldn't stop it, no mater how she was encouraged back "into the light" by the teacher and students. There's something really weird and dark in that background. Now her recent articles include:

- toilet rape
- an endless fixation with SARS
- voyeuristic photos at public beaches and (of course) bathhouses
- "weenie" art

Yet at the top of the page, it says: "BoingBoing - A Directory of Wonderful Things"

I DON'T think so!

I believe www.prurience.com is still available for rental. So many cyberwalls of one's own to soil there.......

...no, no, delray--we're talking about the Segway, not the segue.

Just thought I'd bring everybody's attention to the frontpage article on Segways in yesterday's USA Today. On the inside page, where the article is continued it shows a sequence of photos documenting W's plummit and rebound. Also, we are told that this was at his parents home and that the Segway belongs to the senior Bush, not W. The siblings bought it together as a gift for his birthday and father's day. So, let's discard all of the uninformed speculation being offered on various blogs.

Born to wrote: "I guess Greatness is in the eye of the beholder, for today, we learn from him about 'bitch tits'."

LOL!