Bush: Note To Self, Thank Austr(al)ians

Amid Presidential Gaffes, Missteps And Protests, APEC Summit Draws Toward Conclusion

(CBS/AP)  Friday may have ended on a positive note for the APEC Summit, but it was a bad day for President George W. Bush.

Following his awkward on-camera meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, during which Roh chided Mr. Bush on "not being clearer" about his negotiations with North Korea, Mr. Bush gave a speech to business leaders at a sidebar event of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

His appearance at the Sydney Opera House began inauspiciously: Mr. Bush started 10 minutes late, to allow APEC workers to hustle people out of the theater's balcony to fill empty portions of the orchestra section below that were visible on camera.

Once on stage, he'd only reached the third sentence when he committed his first gaffe:

"Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Mr. Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Unfortunate in that he was addressing attendees at APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.

Mr. Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking that the confusion was because Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (though neither Australia nor the United States is an OPEC member).

The president's next goof went uncorrected, at least immediately. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Mr. Bush referred to them as "Austrian troops" - though the official text released by the White House and posted on whitehouse.gov fixed it to "Australian."

After his speech, Mr. Bush confidently headed out - the wrong way.

He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others saved him, redirecting the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.

The audience remained quiet throughout the president's remarks, applauding only when he was finished.

The summit was conducive to at least a preliminary agreement on a declaration to fight climate change, overcoming squabbling between rich and poor nations about targets on emissions.

The draft statement calls for the need "to slow, stop and then reverse" climate change.

It sets a target to reduce energy intensity 25 percent by 2030 — a demand by Australia, backed by the United States.

It also affirmed that climate change negotiations should take place under United Nations' auspices, a demand of China and other developing nations.

The joint statement, drafted by officials over four days, now goes to the 21-member nations' leaders on Saturday, who must give their approval.

If Mr. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao and the 19 other leaders agree to the draft statement, it would mark a victory for Australia and the U.S., which have tried to persuade China and other developing nations to agree to commit to firmer goals to tackle climate change.

"Everybody cannot get everything, but everybody did not lose too much," said Salman Al-Farisi, an Indonesian official involved in the talks.

APEC includes four of the largest emitters of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming - the U.S., China, Russia and Japan. So an agreement among APEC could potentially affect the wider international debate on fighting climate change.

That the leaders will strike an agreement is almost certain, because the stakes were too high to walk away with nothing, officials said earlier this week. But it was uncertain whether the drafters' compromise would be acceptable to the leaders.

To strike the accord, negotiators agreed to set a target to reduce "energy intensity" - the amount of energy needed to produce economic growth, said Indonesia's Al-Farisi.

Howard has previously called for reducing energy intensity 25 percent by 2030 - a goal a Southeast Asian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said was included in the draft.

In return for the reduction target, Al-Farisi said, the statement would call for "common but differentiated responsibilities." The phrase means richer nations will have to bear more of the financial and other costs in cutting the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, confirmed that agreement had been reached among officials, and the final draft was ready to be handed to the leaders.

Aside from climate change, leaders were also expected to issue a statement urging renewed efforts to conclude the foundering Doha round of global trade talks.

The Summit will end on a more raucous note Saturday, as a major demonstration - at least 20,000 people are expected - will be held against Mr. Bush, the Iraq War and corporate interests. About 1,000 protestors got an early start Friday, scuffling with police near a hotel where some summit delegates are staying.

One group of protestors looking for exposure had little to hide in Sydney's Hyde Park. "Bums not bombs" ("bum" in this part of the world meaning rear end) staged a cheeky protest, dropping trousers to reveal the words "No" and "War" painted on adjoining buttocks.

Other demonstrators protested nuclear power, a uranium deal signed between Australia and Russia, the government in Myanmar and China's record on human rights.

[Jean Standish]

The fact that George W. Bush was elected for two terms as president is a devastating statement about the citizens of this country. We, the people of the United States, have only ourselves to blame for the havoc wreaked upon the welfare of this nation.

"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
Benjamin Franklin

"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."
John F. Kennedy

[waynabq]

Wow, CBS jumping all over every single error Bush makes, and ignoring all his accomplishments? What a shocker!!!! Once again, this is the single most biased network in news today. I''''m starting to think CBS and Moveon.org are run by one and same team.
Posted by robertkjjj at 06:44 PM : Sep 07, 2007

You''re a fU*king clown buddy and that''s an understatement. Accomplishments of Bush? Name some. He lied about WMDs to start a war that''s literally killed a million people, made New Orleans look like a freakin'' third world country, doubled our national debt to the tune of 9 Trillion dollars. Housing foreclosures are at an all time high. Oil prices are an all time high and the Middle Class is shrinking every day this clown is in office.

Its the millions of clueless idiots like you that put this sorry excuse for a human being in office.

[waynabq]

"Hey as*shole! Shut up! It''''s not funny anymore and you''''re killing people you fu*cking dic*khead!" He''''s the worst nightmare this country has ever seen and you are desperate to just wake up from it!
Posted by SgtRDS at 01:27 AM : Sep 08, 2007
+ report abuse

Why 30% of this country still support the biggest f*&kup I''ve ever seen in public or private life is way, way beyond me. This imbecile lied to invade Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks and has literally killed a million people doing it and has bankrupted the U.S. treasury in the process. Meanwhile, Osama Bin Ladin is fu*king making videos mocking him and the United States. What a sorry state of affairs. And you''ve still got morons and millions more like him following and supporting this guy. Freakin'' UNBELIEVABLE.

[waynabq]

Bush was thanking the Austrians at the OPEC meeting he was attending. OMG, there are still tens of millions of idiots, like that lars008 guy that still support this clown.

You would have to conclude, 30% of the U.S. population is composed of morons, idiots and imbeciles.

[lars008-2009]

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. Robert E. Lee

A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war. Simone Weil

If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Thomas Paine

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill

One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill

[sgtrds]

He''s such a fu*cking clown and an embarrassment! It''s like watching a bad actor in a dark comedy about what the world would be like if the biggest moron in America got elected president! I keep hoping some network somewhere will cancel the comedy that has turned into a nightmare for the hundreds of thousands of human beings that, in his staggeringly dumbfounding raw stupidity, he has killed! I keep waiting for someone to step in front of him and say "Hey as*shole! Shut up! It''s not funny anymore and you''re killing people you fu*cking dic*khead!" He''s the worst nightmare this country has ever seen and you are desperate to just wake up from it!

[lars008-2009]

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. Ben Franklin

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin

We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war. John F. Kennedy

There''s a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn''t a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature. Barbara Kingsolver

They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace. Dorothy Thompson

There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy. George Washington

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams

[lars008-2009]

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger. (1894) Theodore Roosevelt

To sit home, read one''s favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men''s doing. - The Outlook December 21, 1895 Theodore Roosevelt

[j-whitman]

Bush still won''t follow other leaders,, when leaving the stage he headed the wrong way again.

[j-whitman]

Bush thinks it''s called Austrailigan