[ExI] story: "What happened to Bush's Cadillac 1?"

[Amara Graps]

Hi,

I collected the pieces from here (extropy-chat) and other places
and wove them into a story. Not being a blogger, myself, I'm seeing 
if the bloggers I know want to pick it up. You are free to 
distribute..

Ciao,
Amara

---------------------------------------------------------------------

What happened to Bush's Cadillac 1?

As recorded by a viewer of the motorcade and posted to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzJoRGTKuOE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbackpacking%2Esplinder%2Ecom%2F

It apparently sputtered to a stop. It broke down, right there, on via
del Tritone (near the Trevi fountain) in Rome, in the middle of the
motorcade. He was ripe picking for a sharp shooter too; no wonder the
police were pushing people further back, off of the street. It looks
like the solution was to switch limos, because he got out of the limo
with Mrs. Bush and climbed into another one.

This is a very special car (1).  If it is a mechanical failure, then the
manufacturers have a lot of explaining to do. His visit to Rome had been
preceded by a large security operation (2).  The Tiber was dragged. The
sewers were searched. Squares were cleared and roofs occupied. The
presidential motorcade along its route was preceded by a swarm of more
than a dozen motorcycles, scooters and even motorized three-wheelers
carrying tough-looking armed police.

Yet, it sputtered and stalled.  As noted by others (3), this particular
car is under guard 24/7.  Modern engines are highly reliable. When is
the last time one saw the Presidential Limo fail to proceed?

One _could_ dismiss this as a grand Roman comedy of which Alberto
Sordi (4) could be proud. After the limo-switch, Bush's new limo then did
not fit into the secondary gate of the American Embassy (via Lucullo),
it was apparently too long to enter. This is Rome is, after all, a city
where tragedies and comedies are amplified 100 times. Witness the latest
spectacle by the Italian politicians, the highest-paid in Europe, who
want ice-cream in the Parliament (5).

Yet, the White House is spinning the story (6):

"Bush's limousine stalled between the Vatican and the U.S. embassy,
White House counselor Dan Bartlett said. It took about two minutes for
the motorcade to get going again. He said Bush did not get out of the
car during the stop and resumed his ride in the same limousine. The
president's entourage passed a mechanic working under the hood of one of
the presidential limousines as it left the embassy later."

The large press have just begun to pick up the story. I suggest to look
for it, and follow it scattered in blogs, here and there (7).



(1) President's Limousine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_President's_limousine

(2) Security operation:
http://wealthyfrenchman.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-president-said-to-his-holy-father.html

with some inconsistencies:
http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2007/06/hello-from-warsaw.html#c2703205959213144699

(3) Round-the-clock care of the Limousine
http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/2007-June/036164.html

(4) Beloved Italian Comedian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Sordi

(5) Beppe Grillo's news: (another beloved Italian comedian)
http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2007/06/buttiglioneflavoured_ice_cream.html

(6) White House Spinning
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6696808,00.html

(7) Look for the Limo Story
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&client=news&q=Bush+limo+Rome&btnG=Search+Blogs

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Associate Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute (PSI), Tucson
INAF Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Roma, Italia