365 solid days of brush clearing.

[JohnnyRingo]

Since he enjoys it so much, can't we arrange an early retirement so he can work with his obsessions?

Now here's the Washington Post with everything you always wanted to know about brush clearing. They claim it can cost $200 per hour, so I guess us taxpayers are helping him save money by paying him to do it.

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush
Bush Conscripts Aides in Tireless Pursuit of Clearing Ground

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.

If the soil is moist enough, he will light a match and burn the wood. If it is parched, as it is across Texas now, the wood will sit in piles scattered over the 1,600-acre spread until it is safe for a ranch hand to torch -- or until the president can come home and do the honors himself.

<snip>
Then again, there will be times when the president drives around his property and "will see a stand of cedar trees and say 'Let's clear those,' " said Joseph Hagin, Bush's deputy chief of staff, who has been cutting brush with his boss all week. They do not talk a lot of policy over the sound of their chain saws, he said.

Professional brush removal can cost up to $200 an hour. The irony is that many working ranchers cannot afford it in these days of declining profits. Surely, the president could afford to hire professionals. The White House declined to make the ranch manager available to a reporter to explain who, if anyone, clears brush when Bush returns to Washington

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001326.html

It seems he uses the same random discernment in brush clearing AND foreign policy decisions.

[Spinzonner]

1. No, it's faith-based

God tell him which stands of living things to kill and destroy.

Hmm, maybe you're right it is the same as his foreign policy decisions.

[DRoseDARs]

2. Wait, why is he burning down trees? They protect against soil erosion...

I mean besides, "He's an idiot." ;)

[doodadem]

3. One year of vacation??!!!

One solid freakin' YEAR of vacation? How many other jobs out there can you get by with that?

As for the brush clearing, we do plenty of that on our little ranch during the rainy season, so that it's not a fire hazard during summer fire season. Our place is heavily wooded, and we also heat our home totally with wood, with an 80% efficiency rated insert. However, in our 4 years here, we have yet to take down a live tree that wasn't diseased, or a problem in some way. We are still cutting and burning trees that fell during our first winter here in a freak blizzard.

Sounds as if Georgie is using his chainsaw as a phallic substitute...............

[JohnnyRingo]

4. The chainsaw is for when he's on the ranch

In DC the US armed forces is his phallic extention.

I like it better when he's in Texas

[robbedvoter]

5. Got sum wood?

[Lisa]

6. I'll bet it's costing the US taxpayers at least $200/hour ...

Bush's salary is $400,000 per year plus expenses. He has to have regular transportation to Crawford from the White House (by Air Force One, and then by helicopter or motorcade from Waco). Plus his aides also are being put to work on the brush-cutting (somehow I don't think they are volunteering on their free time!) and Bush has to have medics and Secret Service people standing by so he doesn't hurt himself. In particular, the Secret Service are highly-trained professionals who are now obliged to deflect falling branches so they don't land on the protectee!

[smirkymonkey]

7. Now that's hard work!

But wait, isn't he supposed to be the f**ing president or something?? Or is that just something he does in his spare time?

[chicagiana]

8. As usual they forget the relevant question ....

WHY?????

Why is Bush so concerned about invasive species on his non-working ranch (one with no livestock) when he unconcerned about this across the entire nation.

I think Bush just plain hates trees and he wants to kill as many as possible.

[leftchick]

9. I don't think he really does it...

just a few minutes for the cameras then back to the Jack...

[Earth_First]

10. You wanna bet he whines when they won't let him torch the piles?

"Get Dick on the phone, he let's me play with fire!"