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Prime David Thompson Goes To Washington To Meet President George Bush

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President Bush will welcome Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of The Bahamas, Prime Minister David Thompson of Barbados, and Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize to the White House on March 20, 2008. The Bahamas, Barbados, and Belize are longstanding friends of the United States and countries with whom we share deep social and familial ties as well as the values of democracy and respect for human rights. The President looks forward to discussing a range of issues–including strengthening democracy in the region, increasing social and trade ties, cooperating on security and crime, and improving the lives of the region’s citizens–with these new Caribbean leaders, all of whom have been democratically elected within the past year.

Source: The White House

Imagine our surprise while we were checking our news feeds this afternoon to come across the news item quoted above. Usually a favourable disposition is created when our Caribbean leaders are invited to Washington to meet the person regarded as occupying the most important job in the world. No doubt for Prime Minister David Thompson the opportunity to visit the White House is a boyhood dream soon to be realized. A warm feeling of Barbadian pride was soon quelled when the realization hit us that Prime Minister George Bush is a lame duck President!

We have to ask you the big question Prime Minister Thompson. WHO IS PAYING FOR THE TRIP?!!!

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20 responses to “Prime David Thompson Goes To Washington To Meet President George Bush”

  1. Tony Hall Avatar
    Tony Hall

    You guys really have nothing to write about? What is wrong with Thompson or any Prime Minister going to the White House? Whether he is a lame duck President or not Bush is still the President

  2. David Avatar
    David

    We have alot to write about indeed.

    What earth shattering policy initiatives can he commit USA to that will bring some benefit to the Caribbean? He can’t even manage the US economy and the GOP nominee does not want to be seen in public with him.

    Can you tell us Tony Hall what GWB is able to bring to the table?

  3. threatened Avatar
    threatened

    “boyhood dream” reminds me of:-

    Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?

  4. Getting it off my chest.... Avatar
    Getting it off my chest….

    Who is paying?

    CLICO of course 😀

    We’ll have that private jet again shall we?

  5. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    George Bush, what a sorry spectacle that goofball is. Check out the reaction by some Americans to George’s latest musing on the “romance” of war and how if he were younger he would like nothing better than to join the fight for freedom on the front lines in Afghanistan:

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3005012&mesg_id=3005012

    Of course when young George did have a chance to step up to the plate and directly participate in the “romance” that was the Viet Nam war he preferred instead to let his influential, well-connected, CIA daddy make a few phone calls and pull some strings to jump him to the head of the queue for a safe berth stateside in the Texas Air National Guard. Evidently this still didn’t provide whatever “romance” young George was seeking at the time so he went AWOL from his ANG duties in an ANG “champagne” unit to work on a few Republican political campaigns in between snorting coke and partying it up with his friends.

    At the time Bush applied to the National Guard, there were 100,000 other young men in line before him, stalled on a crowded waiting list hoping their number would be called before they were sucked up by the draft and dropped onto the killing fields of the Mekong Delta. In Texas alone, there were 500 applicants frantically vying for only four open slots for fighter pilot-training in the Air National Guard.

    At first blush, Bush didn’t seem to have much of a shot at landing one of those choice positions. First, he flunked his medical test. Then he flunked his dental exam. And finally, as Ian Williams reveals in Deserter, his merciless indictment of Bush’s disappearing act in the National Guard, he scores a rock-bottom 25 percent on his pilot aptitude examination. That’s one out of four correct answers, a ratio that is not even a credible mark in cluster-bombing class. To put this achievement in perspective, the average score of applicants taking the pilot aptitude test was 77 percent, a whopping fifty-two percentage points higher than the proud product of the Yale ancestral admissions program. More than 95 percent of the testers scored higher than Bush, the Ivy Leaguer.

    Aptitude for piloting a fighter jet

    notwithstanding, on May 27, 1968, just nervy twelve days before the expiration of his student deferment, Bush the Younger was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard. On his application form under the heading “Background Qualifications,” Bush declares in a refreshing spurt of honesty “None.”

    http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair08122004.html

  6. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    You guys really have nothing to write about? What is wrong with Thompson or any Prime Minister going to the White House? Whether he is a lame duck President or not Bush is still the President
    ………………………………………………………………..
    Don’t be caught-up with President Bush inviting the three B’s to Washington, namely, Barbados, Belize and the Bahamas. This is no ordinary, come and socialize with me. This is pure marketing on behalf of the US economy which is showing weakness against the Euro, against the Canadian dollar etc.

    The real truth is America is now scrambling to get these countries to ignore the Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe (EPA) and remain trading with the US dollar. So please, don’t let the Bush Administration blind you that this invitation is based on ‘we being family oriented” language. That is pure ‘White House’ rhetoric.

    By the way, President Bush is in the departure hall of US politics, or should I use BU’s terminology ‘lameduck President’ .

    Next time we will be speaking of President Obama.

  7. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    Can you tell us Tony Hall what GWB is able to bring to the table?
    ……………………………………………………………………..
    Might be lobbying for an ‘advisor’ job with Caricom.

    Or maybe, since he will not be able to travel free on US taxpayers, he will be making as many friends with our leaders for his future vacations.

  8. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    Yes, Prime Ministers David Thompson of Barbados, Hubert Ingram of the Bahamas, and Dean Barrow of Belize will be going to the White House of the USA on the 20th of March to meet with President Bush. However, what must be presently said by PDC is that the significance of these three CARICOM leaders meeting with Mr. Bush yet remains pretty unclear and abstract, and thus what it may be is that such a meeting at this time of Barbados/CARICOM/USA relations may even be as unnecessary as the shadow politicking that it will be.

    Nevertheless, what is quite demonstrably clear and obvious at this stage is that both the Barbados economy and the USA economy are significantly underperforming in their own respective ways as well as they have been badly mismanaged by the former Owen Arthur-led Administration and the Bush Administration, respectively. Whereas, the Barbados economy is saddled with too much debt and is tending toward serious disequilibrium, the USA economy is suffering from serious stagflation and is in the throes of serious financial/currency instability. Against that backdrop, it must mean that Barbados must achieve long term substantial redefinition and transformation in the political, social, material and financial relationships that it has with the USA, even though at this point in time the USA is among Barbados’ biggest trading and investment partners. Barbados must ever in its own national strategic interest secure increased trading and investment relations with certain other non-traditional trading countries of this world!!

    Finally, we restate our positions that whenever a PDC Government is formed in this country that we will make sure that ALL TAXATION is Abolished in Barbados; that ALL Exchange Rate Parities with the Barbados dollar are Abolished; that Imports of Goods and Services into Barbados are Zero-“priced” at all points of entry; and that Exports of goods and services from Barbados are paid for in Local Currency/”Prices”.

    PDC

  9. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    David don’t like Bush and the republicans, and he refuses to be objective in his assesment as a result.

    David respond to Notes from the Margin comments below. What says you?

    We have to recall the Clinton presidency (That’s Bill if you are confused) Bill Clinton was one of the most “human” US Presidents in living memory. Former President Clinton was enormously popular in the Caribbean, mostly on his personal charisma. However when you look at the effects the Clinton presidency had on the Caribbean, Bill Clinton did more damage to us than any hurricane that has struck the island chain. Why do we say this?

    1. Dole/Chiquita Bananas and the WTO. This action destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of Caribbean farmers basically to repay a campaign contributor.

    2. The Ship Rider Controversy. Remember the pressure that was brought to bear on Barbados when it resisted?

    3. The OECD “Harmful Taxation” initiative. Despite the BLP’s efforts to say that it fell apart because of Owen Arthur, we really know that it fell apart because when Bush came to power the US was no longer interested in backing the initiative.

    This isn’t meant to be a US bashing post, but the fact is the Caribbean has ALWAYS done better under a Republican in the White House than a Democrat. We can see the echoes of similar policies in Mr. Obama’s current political career. With rhetoric against NAFTA (Ironically which was enacted by Clinton) and action in sponsoring the “Tax Haven Abuse Act”.

    If we lived in the US we would probably vote for Mr. Obama, but the fact is that we don’t live in the US. Rather than get caught up in the euphoria that surrounds his campaign we are forced to apply the same logic that we do to our local politicians “Judge them not by what they say, but by what they do” and when judged on that scale (from a Caribbean perspective anyway) Mr. Obama is found to be less than an ideal candidate.

    Marginal

    http://notesfromthemargin.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/why-we-dont-want-obama-to-win-or-clinton-for-that-matter/

  10. Sam Gamgee Avatar
    Sam Gamgee

    Has Bush not been meeting with other leaders since he became a lameduck president? Or is he on an extended vacation up at Camp David?

    Boy oh boy. The boyhood dream thing come out in this article too. And who paying for the trip too. LOL. Is this what B’dos has come to now? Seems the PM is going to start having to ask for permission to use the bathroom.
    I have concluded that because the stuff you probably research and figure the public should respond to does not gather any high number of comments, you bring the unimportant stuff like hair, and this one.
    I am sure you know that the USA has one approach to the rest of the world, regardless of whether Democrat or Republican is in office. I am really trying hard to get the importance of this article. I guess I may need to read it again.

    BTW, you ain’t shame trying to start another thread on hair? You don’t think it is a case of ‘enough already’? Didn’t read it, not interested but I saw the heading there.

  11. Nonsense Avatar
    Nonsense

    Rubbish and crap.

    I would rather read BFP today than the nonsense you have been spewing out over the past few weeks.

  12. Donald Duck, Esq Avatar
    Donald Duck, Esq

    Bush must have the “B”s on his mind i.e

    Barbados
    Belize
    Bahamas

  13. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    I have concluded that because the stuff you probably research and figure the public should respond to does not gather any high number of comments,….
    ……………………………………………………………………..
    It is plain and simple. Commenters find difficulty in commenting on certain issues that will implicate this government. I said already, that if it is a blog about Ms. Mottley, Mr. Arthur or Mr. Mascoll, the political wood ants would be in great abundance. I call it plain hypocrisy with political bias.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Tell me Why this is our observation as well. For sometime now it has become obvious to us that the DLP people are more active in the blogosphere. They used it with telling affect leading uo to the elections just done. It is something our dear Leader of the Opposition will have to address.

    We are sure that the DLP have slowed their activity in the online world to dull the activity of the BLPites. We hope that they will sniff the coffee shortly.

  15. Kadri Avatar
    Kadri

    will they get red carpet treatment too? it bothers me not to see such for our so called leaders and they give the us presidents “golden” carpet royalty whenever they come here.

  16. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    Current statements and observations by many esp. small black business persons conducting business in Bridgetown about the general mood and confidence of Bridgetown shoppers, about the levels of particular types of business activity in our capital, and about the short to medium term business and commercial outlook of many businesses in Bridgetown, are very negative and ominous, indeed.

    The commercial and trading experiences of these persons in a commercial Bridgetown that is becoming more and more unnecesarily cluttered with Indian and Middle Eastern traders and investors are such that they have recognized that trade and commerce for them is getting generally worse and worse, year after year. They have sensed that NOT even the recent change in government is enough to halt the serious slide in their business and commercial activity. Many of these business people have recognized too that the former Owen Arthur-led BLP Government is primarily responsible for their current commercial and trading woes.

    For them, Mr. Arthur and the former BLP Government had been so grossly and recklessly mismanaging the economy that many, many of the ill-effects of such misrule and mismanagement are still being felt by them. Not to exclude mention of the fact that Mr. Owen Arthur and his BLP Government were so openly and muchly in favour of these said Indian and Middle Eastern traders when it came to certain matters and affairs, far more than the said small black businesses were favoured by Arthur and the BLP. Only yesterday (Friday), the police were called in by the Indian owners of Satjay Bridgetown Centre on Victoria Street, to simply remove a small business person from outside their unfinished stores area. Those brutes did not even have the courtesy to approach the small business person and politely ask him to quit. Such is the contempt and disregard that they have for such persons, and which has been helped cultivated by the former BLP Government.

    And, so these small black business persons in Bridgetown will continue to do their trade and business inspired with little hope and confidence of there being a brighter and better tomorrow, and esp. seeing that this DLP Government does NOT even have a clue as to how to arrest the even great slide in business and commercial activity throughout Barbados.

    PDC

  17. Baje@Foreign Avatar
    Baje@Foreign

    I have to agree with the 2 or 3 commentators who have questioned the relevance of this particular discussion. Of all the issues that could be raised regarding the visit of three ‘new’ Caribbean leaders to the White House, the ‘big’ question that BU is asking is who is paying for PM Thompson’s trip?

    Gimme a break BU! Let me declare that I am neither B nor D before you accuse me of being either one of them as you usually do when criticised.

    Find some information that the public needs to know about and report it. But if you cant add any value with a clear and useful analysis, just leave it as it is.

    Who is paying?! Please! You need to be thinking about the motives of the White House in all of this!!

  18. Tony Hall Avatar
    Tony Hall

    What is the problem with PM David Thompson travelling on a private jet? He did not wait until he became PM to be travelling on a corporate jet, neither is he hand-to-mouth. There are more important things to write about. Are you trying to infer that he is doing something nefarious by travelling on a corporate jet? COME ON!!

  19. David Avatar
    David

    Hopefully PM Thompson will be able to update us on what the discussions referred to by President Bush were all about.

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