Bush Comes Out for a Peek in Canada...

Rising like a Phoenix from his controversial two-term presidency, George W. Bush will pop up in Canada for his first post-presidency speaking engagement. According to ViveLeCanada, Bush is to speak to an anticipated audience of 1,500 at a private event in Calgary on March 17. "W" plans to talk about his take on the world since he left office a month ago.

As for W's First Lady, Laura Bush is getting her own sculpture made. San Angelo (Texas) artist, Scott Susek is creating a life-size sculpture of her to be placed on the steps of a new library near Austin, Texas. Susek was able to meet the First Lady for an hour at her and W's Crawford Ranch. From that meeting he was able to create the life-size statue from clay, sending her photos of its progress and getting feedback from her. The sculpture is essentially finished now but is in the process of being bronzed for the unveiling sometime early this summer. Look forward to those photos.

Guess who's coming to town -- at least for those who live in San Diego? Former President Bill Clinton will step back into the spotlight at the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt for a speaking engagement on Sunday, Feb. 15. But wait, he may experience some resistence. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, union officials and gay-rights activists behind a boycott of the Hyatt hotel urged Clinton to cancel his appearance before the International Franchise Association – or at least move to another location. Clinton campaigned against Proposition 8 (same sex marriages which hotel owner Doug Manchester is against) last year and said that if the hotel or owner Doug Manchester had extended the invitation – rather than the trade group – Clinton would not have accepted. But Bill is moving ahead with his speech and will definitely experience a bit of backlash during his visit to America's Finest City. We'll keep you posted and we're sure there will be plenty of video to show.

According to the New York Times, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, told CNBC in a documentary to be shown tonight (Thursday, Feb. 12) that he did not fully understand the scope of the subprime mortgage market until well into 2005 and could not make sense of the complex derivative products created out of mortgages. Greenspan acknowledged that he could have done something to avert the housing crisis, but he says his hands were tied.

“If we tried to suppress the expansion of the subprime market, do you think that would have gone over very well with the Congress?” Greenspan told CNBC. “When it looked as though we were dealing with a major increase in home ownership, which is of unquestioned value to this society — would we have been able to do that? I doubt it.”

Greenspan said that if he had taken steps to prevent the crisis, the outcome would have been painful.
Hmmm ... could it have been any more painful than what we're going through now? Enjoy your retirement, AG.

Attention: A Jimmy Carter bookstore book signing update! Yes, Jimmy is as busy as ever hawking his "how to" mideast peace book "We Can Have Peace in The Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work." Today the former president stopped in Seattle at the University of Washington Bookstore for a meet and greet - and sign a book or two. He's a busy guy. If you have 9 minutes to kill, check out the video of him in a local Seattle news interview he did during his visit.



And finally, it wouldn't be a complete ATG report without former VP Al Gore receiving an award. So we will not disappoint. The NAACP awarded Gore as an Honoree for his environmental efforts at the organization's 40th Annual NAACP Image Awards Thursday, Feb. 12. Unfortunately, there are no pics for proof, but we'll take their word for it.

That's all for now.
--atg