6A the university daily kansan
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Bush visits NASCAR's Daytona 500
The Associated Press
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — President Bush throttled up his re-election campaign yesterday by donning a racing jacket and opening the Daytona 500, NASCAR's most prestigious event in a sport that draws a prized voter profile.
"Gentlemen, start your engines!" Bush said, squinting up from pit road to the grandstands, where some 180,000 fans roared. They were promptly drowned out by the scream of stock car engines roaring to life.
His motorcade took a slow half-lap around the flat shoulder of the track, whose banks rise so steeply that a stopped car would probably roll end-over-end down to the bottom.
Bush seemed to relish a chance to see what he called "one of America's great sporting spectacles."
With his wife, Laura, trailing him, Bush walked the pit, mingling with drivers, shaking hands with fans. He peered into car No. 16, sponsored by the National Guard, and if the car reminded him of the tempest swirling around his own service in the Texas Air National
"It would've been fun to drive up on these banks... I'd like to, but I'm afraid the agents wouldn't let me."
Bush referred to that history in an interview with NBC just before the race.
Guard, he didn't show it.
"I flew fighters when I was in the Guard, and I like speed," he said. "It would've been fun to drive up on these banks... I'd like to, but I'm afraid the agents wouldn't let me."
At the Southern 500 race in Darlington, S.C., Clinton was booed and heckled by fans, many shouting "draft dodger!" at him.
The president got a much warmer reception than Bill Clinton did when he visited a NASCAR race as a candidate in September 1992, when the question of his lack of Vietnam-era military service was dogging Clinton.
President Bush
As Bush strode through pit row, he received rock-star treatment. An extravaganza unfolded
phrase "NASCAR dads" has become political shorthand for voters who like Bush but who could be persuaded to vote Democratic if the issues and candidates were right.
A man with a rocket strapped to his back sailed into the speedway, followed, a short time later, by a bald eagle that landed on its trainer's arm. Fireworks erupted, cheerleaders danced, Leann Rimes sang R-O-C-K in the USA.
"If you've never been to a Daytona 500, it's hard for me to describe what it like to be down here with the drivers and to see the huge crowd and to feel the excitement for one of America's great sporting spectacles," Bush said.
around him.
The first couple watched the race from a suite, protected from the eardrum-shattering blast of noise, the gust of wind and the trail of flying debris that washed over the grandstands each time the 43 cars sped past. The cars reach speeds of up to 200 mph.
"This is more than an event; it's a way of life for a lot of people, and you can feel excitement when you're here," Bush said.
The race provided an irresistible opportunity for Bush to woo tens of millions of NASCAR fans_the sport claims a fan base of 75 million _watching the televised event 81/2 months before the election. The crowd in the stands was almost exclusively white and heavily male. The
It was also a plum chance to make a 19th visit to Florida, the state that decided the 2000 election.
Bush's appearance culminated his aggressive courtship of NASCAR fans, a large percentage of whom live in bedrock Bush country, the South and the Midwest.
The Bush White House has added NASCAR winners to the list of sports champions formally honored at the White House. In December, as Bush paid tribute to drivers inside the White House, seven NASCAR stock cars were parked on the South Lawn.
Underscoring the political stakes, the Republican National Committee set up camp at the speedway to register potential voters.
Bush sought to maximize his exposure to racing fans during his visit. Air Force One circled low over the speedway so the president could get a look, and to give racing fans a dramatic look at a symbol of the presidency.
Mall fire kills 53 in China
The Associated Press
BEIJING — A fire at a crowded shopping mall killed at least 53 people yesterday in China's northeast, while 39 died in a blaze in a temple in the southeast, state media said. The fires added to a string of deadly accidents despite repeated government vowes to improve public safety.
Fires, coal mine accidents and other disasters blamed on shoddy construction, indifference to safety rules and other negligence occur frequently in China, killing scores of people at a time.
President Hu Jintao and other officials have vowed to make safety for ordinary Chinese a priority. But repeated crackdowns and threats to punish negligent officials appear to be having little effect. The government says the number of people killed in industrial accidents last year jumped by 9 percent from the previous year.
The shopping center fire broke out at about 11:20 a.m. on the second floor of the five-story Zhongbai Building in Jilin, a city about
590 miles northeast of Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said the blaze apparently began in a storeroom next to a boiler room.
About 70 people also were injured, Xinhua said.
"It was an especially large fire," said Fang Wanyou, a city government spokesman reached by telephone in Jilin. "The cause is still being investigated."
The building was crowded with weekend shopers, Xinhua said. It said it took about 260 firefighters more than four hours to extinguish the blaze.
Many of the dead were sales clerks, and firefighters were among the injured, Fang said. He said it wasn't clear why the fire spread so fast.
The temple fire broke out at about 2:15 p.m. in Wufeng, a village in Zhejiang province, Xinhua said. It said firefighters put out the blaze about 30 minutes later. The cause was under investigation.
The village is about 60 miles southwest of Shanghai.
The report didn't say whether the temple was Buddhist or of
China's indigenous Taoist faith.
China has suffered a string of incidents in recent weeks that have killed scores of people. Less than two weeks ago, 37 people were killed in a stampede in Beijing during a festival celebrating the last night of the Lunar New Year holiday. Also during the holiday, a bus crash in China's southeast killed 24 people.
In December, a gas well blowout in the country's west killed 243 people leaving entire villages strewn with bodies.
Hu, who took power last year in a generational leadership change, says he wants to create a "well-off society" that pays attention to quality of life as well as economic growth.
In Jilin, state television showed smoke billowing from the shopping mall, with flames visible through its broken windows and its rooftop sign completely charred.
The building's upper floors had a bathhouse, a billiard parlor and a disco. Xinhua said, although the fire began in the shopping area.
Fang said there also were restaurants in the building.
Ban on gas additive shelved
the Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration quietly shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million Republicans.
The Environmental Protection Agency's decision had its origin in the early days of President Bush's tenure when his administration decided not to move ahead with a Clinton-era regulatory effort to ban the cleanair additive MBTE.
It said the environmental harm of the additive leaching into ground water overshadowed its beneficial effects to the air.
The Bush administration decided to leave the issue to Congress, where it has bogged down over a proposal to shield the industry from some lawsuits.
The producers of MBTE are Texas-based Lyondell Chemical and Valero Energy and the Huntsman companies of Salt Lake City.
The three contributed $338,000 to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, the
Republican Party and Republican candidates in 1999 and 2000.
That is twice what they gave Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Since then, the three producers have given just over $1 million to Republicans.
Huntsman spokesman Don Olsen, echoing comments by other MTNBE producers, said, "We are not a huge campaign contributor and this has absolutely nothing to do with campaign donations. It has to do with good public policy."
The industry says it has become a victim in a Washington power struggle.
Couples line up for same-sex marriages
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Demand for same-sex marriage licenses has been so great that yesterday officials turned away hundreds of gay and lesbian couples lined up outside City Hall, saying they simply didn't have the time or resources to meet all the requests.
San Francisco authorities calculated they could process 400 licenses during special weekend hours, but on Saturday they granted 600 licenses and performed 270 weddings by late afternoon. Then officials gave numbers to 320 couples securing them places in line yesterday.
After quickly distributing another 80 numbers yesterday morning, disappointed couples lined up around the block were asked to return today.
"We're at capacity right now," said Mabel Teng, the official who oversees marriage licenses for city government. "We normally do about 20-30 couples a day. We're doing about 50-60 an hour."
The decision prompted two conservative groups to press for court intervention. But on Friday a judge allowed the weddings to continue through the weekend.
In a challenge to both legal and social convention, San Francisco officials began issuing same-sex licenses and officiating marriages at City Hall on Thursday.
The issue returns to court tomorrow, when judges will hear separate requests from advocates of traditional marriage to void the licenses and order the city to stop giving them out.
Seventeenth Annual James E. Seaver Lecture ON CONTINUING ISSUES IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
THOMASTUOZZO
Love and Death in Ancient Philosophy
February 17,2004 8:00 p.m.
Associate Professor of Philosophy The University of Kansas
Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union Reception following, Malott Room
Sponsored by the KU Humanities and Western Civilization Program