The USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), the last of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, is now three years from completion and is set for launch in 2008.

The Navy expects this latest addition to its fleet to be in service for at least five decades - at least through the year 2058 - 70 years after Mr. Bush was elected president in 1988.

OFF TO ASPEN

The annual Aspen Ideas Festival, a gathering place for 100 of today's most "profound and provocative" thinkers, commenced Tuesday in Colorado's Rocky Mountains.

Among those in attendance at the event, hosted by the Aspen Institute: former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his wife, Alma, chairwoman of America's Promise; TV news personalities Jim Lehrer and Cokie Roberts; historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.; Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers; Nobel laureate Toni Morrison; and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.

"Through it, we can stimulate important and interesting discussions and give more people access to the seminars and open-minded dialogues that form the crux of what the institute has been doing since its origins in the 1950s," says Elliot Gerson, the institute's executive vice president and chief creator of the festival.

NEW ENEMY

We're told the United States and Russia will hold a first-of-its-kind joint tabletop terrorism-response exercise this October.

Word of the preparedness drill comes on the heels of President Bush late last week receiving the first progress report from a joint U.S.-Russia working group he established with President Vladimir Putin. The group's primary purpose is to deal with the threat of terrorists gaining access to nuclear material or weapons.

PRESIDENT HARRISON

The former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee has become the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's (CPB) new president and CEO.

Patricia S. Harrison, since 2001 the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, says she is "pleased to join with the board and all stakeholders in the future success of public broadcasting."

Already she has vowed to join with public broadcast leaders to restore congressional funding cuts of CPB in the president's fiscal 2006 budget.

Under Harrison's leadership, the U.S. government started the first exchange program for high school students from the Arab and Muslim world.

BAR THE STARS

Flying the American flag this Independence Day?

Not everybody was so privileged.

Alarmed to learn that some homeowners' associations and condominiums prevented Americans from flying the U.S. flag at their homes, Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, Maryland Republican, has introduced legislation that would ensure the right of an individual to display the U.S. flag on his or her residential property.

TOKE AND STROKE

There has been a great deal of response, sarcastic to humorous, to our item last week about white-collared Washingtonians flocking to country music legend Willie Nelson's inaugural golf tournament in Texas on Monday to benefit the Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"I would assume that the safest place for the gallery to stand at this event would be in the middle of the fairway," writes Charlie Blankenship of Industry, Pa. "If the golfers toke up in the clubhouse in the morning and similarly refresh themselves through the day, it could be long past dark before the last foursome finishes, leaving behind a veritable storm of empty Doritos bags, Slim-Jim wrappers and thousands of lost golf balls.

"The winners will stagger back in at the edge of dark, boasting an average round of 200 over par for each. The last place team is expected to hit triple digits and 'darn proud of it!' What a day for the sport."

TOO HOT FOR WOOL

"Do these stripes make me look like I'm warming dangerously?"

So asks global-warming skeptic Christopher C. Horner, counsel of the Cooler Heads Coalition at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington.

"Look out, world, here comes the fashion industry steaming down that runway of global salvation," warns Horner. "It was cute when crooners and drama queens demanded to be taken seriously on matters of deep scientific inquiry."

He's referring to the otherwise reclusive Italian fashion designer and philanthropist Carlo Gianconi's offer to assist world leaders, many of whom he considers friends, in reducing global warming.

Popular in Las Vegas for what one writer describes as "his flamboyant gambling and his attitude of never letting anything bother him," Gianconi says global warming bothers him enough that he's decided to do something about it.

The designer's initial efforts include the creation of a Web site and hiring an agent to assist him.

RENOUNCING TERROR

What better day than the Fourth of July for immigrants to take the oath of allegiance to become Americans?

Now, with input from former attorney general Edwin Meese III, a congressman wants the newest class of Americans to renounce terrorism in the process of being administered the oath.

Rep. Jim Ryun, Kansas Republican, has introduced legislation to amend the Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance so that it is "readable and understandable" for immigrants and ensures they "renounce any ties to a terrorist organization."

The proposed language for the new oath:

"I entirely renounce all allegiance to any foreign state or power of which I have been a subject or citizen.

"My fidelity and allegiance from this day forward are to the United States of America.

"I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and will support and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

"I will bear arms, or perform noncombatant duty or civilian service, on behalf of the United States, when required by law.

"This I solemnly swear, so help me God."

ENGLISH INSTRUCTIONS

Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of Washington-based U.S. English Inc., weighs in after a Riverside, Calif., crane operator sued the state of California claiming his rights are being violated because he is not allowed to take his safety certification in Spanish.

According to press accounts, Tom Ledesma failed his mobile crane certification test in English on May 14, and is now asking the state to cease issuing crane-operating certificates until a Spanish test is offered.

"The claim that immigrants have a constitutional right to operate heavy machinery without understanding the English language is absolutely breathtaking," says Mujica, himself an immigrant from South America. "While California may choose to offer certain services in foreign languages, that does not mean that the state has an obligation to do so, particularly where lives and limbs are at stake."

CRYING WOLF?

If you believe the latest Zogby poll, 42 percent of Americans would favor impeachment proceedings if President Bush is found to have misled the nation about his reasons for going to war in Iraq.

"The results of this Zogby poll are astonishing and reveal the depth of anger among the American people over President Bush's lies about Iraq  - even among 25 percent of Republicans," reacts one such believer, Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com.

Then again, that same John Zogby - just hours before the polls closed on Election Day 2004 - predicted a John Kerry presidential victory by a margin of 311 electoral votes to 213.

TAR AND FEATHER

What if a TV anchorman were to announce: "The president nominated George Washington for the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Sandra Day O'Connor. Democrats immediately attacked Washington for his environmental record of chopping down cherry trees."

Don't laugh, says Progress for America, a national grass-roots organization dedicated to supporting a conservative issue agenda. Continued...