FLASH NEWS: Bush invades BG
Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 11:52 am 
picking, originally uploaded by toune.
President Bush landed in Sofia last night to end his European tour in Bulgaria. I was not invited to meet with him to discuss ideas to bolster foreign investment in the country. I was not invited to raise the issue of lifting of visa requirements for Bulgarians traveling to the US. I was not expecting any of this. Bush is the second sitting President to visit Bulgaria, the first being President Clinton in 1999.
Everyone was expecting a nightmare commute this morning, in fact, the mayor of Sofia asked for it to be declared a holiday as the city center would be virtually shut down and blocked from traffic. I think the hype scared everyone into walking to work, or simply staying home. I made the distance by car that usually takes me 30 minutes in less than 15, because the streets empty.
I’ve seen a lot of interesting “street art” in the last few days relating to Bush, like the photo above. Maybe I’ll have time this week to get out and document some more of it. I remember seeing a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” type stencil appearing in spray paint yesterday which was quite amusing.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Dude- the same thing happend when I was in Berlin in 04- there were all of these posters of Bush everywhere that said “Dead or Alive,” with him in an Old West style, mugshot-type posters, and a lot of Hitler moustaches.
God, street art is cool. It gives you a very different perspective on the way people see American politics- or any, for that matter.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Sometimes the authorities in the countries where he goes are overenthusiastic and gather huge numbers of people like in the old regime. Think of his visit to Albania and Romania (or was it Clinton then? sorry I cannot remember)