There is no spoon...

Chris, you’re totally right to highlight this increasingly terrifying idiocy that is being committed in the Oval Office.

When I read the quote about SH not letting the inspectors in to my spouse this morning, out of the W. Post, he (the spouse) said, “he said whaaat???” It did seem so unbelievably, well, unbelievable.

We had already remarked that W’s body language, in the video clips taken during that photo op w/ Kofi Annan, made it look as though he was either (a) doing his neck-relaxation exercizes on-camera (NOT a good idea…), or (b) acting out of a place of great discomfort or perhaps, actually, incipient barking lunacy.

Nothing surprise me about this guy.

To me,he’s the century 21 version of Hitler,(but more drunk).

Of course the press corps caught it. I caught it as soon as I saw the clip and also said “Did he really just say that?”

Either the great steam ship of journalistic criticism has still not completed its slow turn back toward reality, or the press group is now cutting Bush some extra slack because he is back to making major mis-statements when he is flustered. Incidentally he does seem to be flustered now.. more and more often. Look for another major photo op excursion sometime soon to try to offset these mis-steps.

Who am I?

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

I ran for congress and lost.

I produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.

I bought an oil company, but couldn’t find any oil in Texas; company went

bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land

using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White

Sox.

With my father’s help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most

polluted state in the Union.

I replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America.

Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in

borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American

history.

I became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with

the help of my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

I attacked and took over two countries.

I spent the U.S. surplus and bankrupted the treasury.

I shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month

period.

I set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.

I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal

record.

I am the first year in office set the all-time record for most days on

vacation by any president in US history.

After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over

the worst security failure in US history.

I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other

president in US history.

In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.

I cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any

president in US history.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any

president in US history.

I set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any

president since the advent of television.

I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any

president in US history.

I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to

intervene when corruption was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use

the national reserves as past presidents have.

I cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.

I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take

to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for

protest against any person in the history of mankind

(http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches ).

I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.

I’ve made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US

history.

Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history.

(The ‘poorest’ multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker

named after her).

I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union

simultaneously go bankrupt.

I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in

any country in the history of the world.

I am the first president in US history to order a US attack and military

occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the

United Nations and the world community.

I created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of

the United States.

I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more

than any president in US history.

I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the

US from the human rights commission.

I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the

US from the elections monitoring board.

I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of

congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.

I rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.

I withdrew from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default

no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.

I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election

inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).

I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign

donations.

My biggest lifetime campaign contributor, who is also one of my best

friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in

world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).

I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US

history.

I am the first president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and

then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1).

I am the first US president to establish a secret shadow government.

I took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a

year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the

biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).

I, with a policy of ‘disengagement’ created the most hostile

Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.

I am the first US president in history to have a majority of the people of

Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and

stability.

I am the first US president in history to have the people of South Korea

more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.

I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government

contracts.

I set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated

US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for

government contracts.

I failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden ‘dead or alive’.

I failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of

our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no

leads and zero suspects.

In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any

public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the

United States.

I removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other

president in US history.

I have destroyed more environmental gains than any other president in US

history.

In a little over two years I created the most divided country in decades,

possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.

I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than

two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES

I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving

record has been erased and is not available).

I was AWOL from National Guard and deserted the military during a time of

war.

I refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my

fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt

companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are

sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public

energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

PERSONAL REFERENCES

For personal references, please speak to my dad or uncle James Baker.

Final Note: Less than 50% of the US voters voted for me in the 2000

election; yet the polls now show a 70% (or better) approval rate for my term

in office. Who am I?

Hussein had, in fact, admitted the inspectors and Bush had opposed extending their work because he did not believe them effective

And he didn’t believe them to be effective because they were unable to find WMD. Hell, though he may not have said so in so many words, Bush implied they were not just ineffective, but incompetent.

Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle. Mr. Kettle, meet Mr. Pot.

dollars to donuts the guy who interrupted was a plant.

The whole North Korea issue is being used to distract the public from the events of the last week.

Don’t get me wrong. Of COURSE No Korea is a serious issue. It’s just quite the coincidence that it gets run up the flag pole by the administration now.

It must be time to create another crisis. Here’s one:

In 25 words or less: US creates plan to instigate war against North Korea through airspace violations and simulated assaults.

Sorry, URL didn’t come through. Here it is.

And they accused Clinton of waging the dog…

This is no joke; has anyone considered the possibility that all that drinkin and drugin Bush did PERMANENTLY destroyed much his cognitive abilities and that he’s pretty much just a figure head?!? Remember, back in the ’80s, the country was effectively being run by Nancy Reagan when hubby began to lose his battle with Alzheimer’s.

So if anyone’s thinkin of killin the duffas to stop the madness, you should think twice and go after Chainy, Rummy, Wolfy etc. By the way that was a joke! You watch, Big Bro is probably gonna start watching me now.

The Washington press corps COULD lead a steady line of questioning and get some REAL answers if only they all agreed to be unified. The problem is in the choreography: The whitehouse understands that the press corps is a fragmented bunch at best. It capitalizes on the fact that each reporter wants to out-do his coleague in addressing the ‘important’ issue. Therefore, when press secretary starts to feel the heat he simply turns to another reporter “next..!” and the line of questioning begins at z-e-r-o.

EXACTLY. I think there was one time, when Ron Fournier of the AP, was able to keep digging because everyone in the room refused to ask a question until Ron was done. Ari didn’t like that at all. I think that was the only time that’s happened under Bush, though.

The problem is that Team Bush gives the reporters so much to work on. There are a lot of stories to cover all at once: Iraq, North Korea, the economy, uranium, etc. Covering the myriad screwups of the Bush Administration would keep the largest press corps busy.

Sad to say, more would be accomplished if there were only one reporter in the room.

The press corps is, ultimately, a collection of American individuals. The Pulitzer Prize looms large in the psyche of these people - consequently, outdo your fellow reporter. We are still suffering from the madness of Joseph McCarthy - collective action by a group with common interests doesn’t exist within the press corps at the moment. What’s that statement about hanging together or hanging separately?

Lets also not forget, in order to ASK a question you must be CALLED UPON. It is not in the press agents best interests to make the administration uncomfortable.

Also keep in mind that these press conferences are dog and pony shows, televised for your infotainment. The real information is doled out by the administration ‘off the record’ and you only get these ‘off the record’ calls if the administration is happy with you.

So, this illusion of a free white house press corp is just that, a magnificent illusion. They are really all there to toe the party line, make the administration happy and hope to be the first one to get the ‘background sources say’ phone call from ‘someone in the administration’.

I just ran across the transcript of a speech Bush gave on March 26, 2003, at MacDill Air Force Base.

http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/speeches/03.26.03.html

His remarks included the following:

“It has been six days since the major ground war began. It’s been five days since the major air war began. And every day has brought us closer to our objective. At the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Special Forces helped to secure air fields and bridges and oil fields, to clear the way for our forces and to prevent sabotage and environmental catastrophe. Our pilots and Cruise missiles have struck vital military targets with lethal precision.

”WE’VE DESTROYED THE BASE OF A TERRORIST GROUP IN NORTHERN IRAQ THAT SOUGHT TO ATTACK AMERICA AND EUROPE WITH DEADLY POISONS.” (emphasis added)

“We have moved over 200 miles to the north, toward Iraq’s capital, in the last three days. (Applause.) And the dictator’s major Republican Guard units are now under direct and intense attack. (Applause.) Day by day, Saddam Hussein is losing his grip on Iraq; day by day, the Iraqi people are closer to freedom.” (Applause.)

Regarding the highlighted sentence, I had never heard of any such thing. Does anyone know what he was talking about? It seems stranger than the statement about Saddam not letting the inspectors into Iraq.

So what? This is President Bush speaking! There are like a million weird things he has said, he always says something funny. He is not a talker, he always stutters and pauses. And that is normal.

I thought BacktoIraq.com was going to hiatus?

The highlighted statement refers to Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish affiliate of Al Qaeda with a camp near the border of Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan. Details are vague but it seems that an Al Qaeda guy called Abu Musab Zarqawi tried to build a network in Europe using Algerian Islamists, who would have used poisons like ricin in a series of chemical attacks. This was all touched on in Colin Powell’s Security Council testimony. I also saw one article alleging a Canadian outpost of the network; that’s all I can think of in the way of attacks on America.

Open www.google.com,

Enter “weapons of mass destruction”, hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button.

I was just reading through the posts here and would like to let Martha know that i highly enjoyed hers. It amazes me though, and angers me as well, just how few people in America seem to understand that Bush is a huge crackpot. He just sits there and spews rhetoric with some heavy dabling in terrible religious moral theory. Even then he does all his spewing very poorly, without even the ability to anunciate the bull shit that he is saying. How could this man achieve any aproval rating what so ever? I guess the answer lies in the complacency of the people that has allowed the government become nothing more than a puppet of the ruling corprate powers. I’m sure bowing and GE are making a killing off this Bush started war bonanza. At least one sector of the economy is doing well. To bad its the one that soley exists to kill people. As a final word on this rant of mine, keep up the good work Chris and the same to all those who visit this sight and others like it. The voice of disent needs all the help it can get.

Regarding Bush’s rather bizarre statement, the lack of immediate major headlines about it make me wonder just how much freedom of press there really is in the US.. I don’t for a moment believe all those journalists just failed to pick up on it. I also have to wonder who is really ‘pulling the strings’ in this country.. they must’ve been cringing when Bush blurted that one out.

There are those who are complacent and those who are sheep, the sheep are the worsed. It seems to me there are to many sheep out there ready to defend the indefensible crap from this admin. using the administration’s own rhetoric. It seems that the admin. thinks that if they say something enough times it will become true in peoples mind; sad thing is it works most of the time. A good example is the anonymous response to Tom Doyle’s comment on one of the president’s many weird and fantastic statements:

“So what? This is President Bush speaking! There are like a million weird things he has said, he always says something funny. He is not a talker, he always stutters and pauses. And that is normal.”

“I thought BacktoIraq.com was going to hiatus?”

It’s almost like these people are fed posthypnotic suggestions that are triggered when anyone speaks against the admin. I for one want an intelligent and, at LEAST, relatively articulate president who can CLEARLY communicate what s/he is planning to do in the world in OUR name. I must admit though, it seems easier for a babbling fool to lie, if only because people come to expect nonsense from him.

On a side note, ever wonder how a dim bulb like Bush could be hailed as such a good politician? It’s been my experience that substance abusers are great manipulators; hence his mastery at political manipulation. He’s probably had a lot of time to hone his “political” skills during his many days of haze to keep himself out of trouble and well medicated. And they were all outraged that Clinton tried pot!!!

Yep, Bush does seem to be living in some kind of self-made fantasy world most of the time, which wouldn’t be so bad, I guess, if he didn’t happen to be the President of the United States(!)—not that he was actually elected to the position, mind you.

I, too, wrote about this bit of historical spin in my own blog:

So, who’s a ‘revisionist historian’ now?

http://margarethill.typepad.com/blog/2003/07/sowhosa_revis.html

“For a man who has been bitterly complaining in recent weeks about critics’ attempts to rewrite history, President Bush sure pulled a fast one yesterday with his following claim…”

However, unlike Dana Priest and Dana Milbank in that Washington Post article, my response wasn’t quite as marvelously understated (oops):

“Excuse me, Mr. President, but Saddam Hussein did allow the weapons inspectors into Iraq. In fact, you and Tony Blair had to request that the inspectors leave Iraq on 17 March because you were in a such a big hurry to bomb the hell out of it before the inspectors had a chance to complete their work….”

Now for a truly understated statement:

I’m not exactly the biggest fan of President Bush and his Administration.

Thank you, Mr President, for although Iraq did physically let them in, as you pointed out, Iraq did NOT let the inspectors IN to inspect, or to find, or to reveal, or to know…

Your grasp of reality is firm, and we respect your ability to remind us of that uncomfortable reality. Bush-bashing is easy, and pointless, like preaching to the choir.

Accepting that Iraq physically let inspectors in and let them inspect, while leading them on elaborate goose-chases and not letting them IN on the actual knowledge… requires character and integrity.

Thank you SharpShooter for an informed post. Unfortunately, most people are unable to get past the semantics of what Bush said, and his intended meaning was lost/ignored. If he had said, “And we gave him a chance to cooperate with inspectors, and he actively deceived them,” there would be no misunderstanding. The fact is that Iraq pretended to cooperate with UN inspections, but in reality worked hard to deceive them and to conceal the truth abouth their weapons programs.

“To justify the absence of required data or documents, they offered stories that were the equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework,’” recounts (UN) weapons inspector Richard Butler. “One actual example: The wicked girlfriend of one of our workers tore up documents in anger. Another: A wandering psychopath cut some wires to the chemical-plant monitoring camera. It seems he hadn’t received his medicine - because of UN sanctions.” On other occasions, in plain view of UNSCOM teams waiting to enter a weapons site, Iraqi trucks ferried incriminating documents in and out of the compound. In another, a weapons inspector seized a briefcase from Iraqi officials running out the back door of a laboratory - and found it contained test materials for anthrax and botulinim toxin. And, were it not for the 1995 defection of senior Iraqis, UNSCOM would never have made it’s most significant discoveries: that Iraq had manufactured and equipped weapons with the deadly chemical nerve agent VX and had an extensive biological warfare program. Nor were these isolated instances of Iraqi malfeasance. According to UN documents, “The highest level of concealment-related decisions are made by a small comittee of high ranking officials. The comittee directs the activities of a unit which is responsible for moving, hiding, and securing the items which are being concealed from the Commission.” - from ‘The War Over Iraq’(Kaplan & Kristol, 2003)

Bush maybe not be a cunning linguist, but that is irrelevant to whether or not Iraq had an active WMD program, or the atrocities he and his sons committed against his own people to crush dissent.

I don’t recall Bush lifting a finger against the 15 million that protested the war in the US.

Anyway, that’s my bit on WMD. Chris, I disagree with you on several points re: Iraq, but it is good to see that there is depth to your argument against the war, and that you don’t just form your opinions on autopilot. Unfortunately, there are many on both sides that don’t read past the headlines and always watch the same channels, read the same editorials, etc. I have found that reading from a wide range of sources has helped me to form my understanding of the situation, and I find it is especially relevant to seek out the experts - people with actual experience relating to the topic.

As I am writing this, I am reading some other articles on your site, and I feel the need to comment further. On your assertion that the war was not about WMD or an evil tyrant but about realpolitik plans to project American power into the Middle East, I must agree to an extent. A Stalin-loving tyrant with WMD and a deplorable human rights record does warrant very real concern, and the UN had failed to deal with him after 12 years…but the American goal does lie beyond his removal from power. Unlike many who have nothing but distrust for a country as powerful as the United States, I am optimistic that Bush et al. have studied and learned from the mistakes and failures of past administrations, and that they saw that Reagan and Clinton were very effective in some areas where a narrow realism proved too narrow. Bush may make mistakes, but they won’t be the same as his father’s.

Prior to 9/11, it was clear that the Middle East was a volatile and violent region. There is not a single democracy in an area ruled by clerics and tyrants. The sting of Vietnam had largely curbed the appetite of the US to help/meddle with other countries, but the US was so afraid of the Soviets that they helped train and arm the Afghanis to ensure that communism would not spread to the Middle East. Little did they know they were strengthening and protecting the future Taliban. Then Khomeni in Iran started publicly calling for suicide attacks against Americans, and the US was so freaked they joined forces with…you guessed it, Saddam! Of course, these mistakes did not go unnoticed, but the States decided to just back off before it got worse - the Middle East was no longer any of their business.

9/11 proved that putting your head in the sand was no longer an adequate defence against fanatics who would plan for years in secret, establish false identities, undergo paramilitary training, and then murder thousands of innocents in daring suicide missions coordinated and financed by an inernational network of terrorism.

It was glaringly obvious that the turmoil in the Middle East was now inescapable and had to be dealt with.

If democracy is achieved in Iraq (and we must give it several years) and peace is achieved in Isreal/Palestine (Bush has made more progress here than Clinton ever did), then there is a hope that democracy will spread throughout the Middle East and bring social stability and economic prosperity. If the Middle East is politically stable the US will certainly benefit from increased trade as well as security from the poverty and unrest that leads to violence. Oil production will be more stable and reliable and likely less expensive due to increased production from US technology. Therefore, there IS something in it for the US: increased trade and national security, cheaper oil and revenue from the rebuilding and expansion of infrastructure and modernisation. But the plan is mutually beneficial - Trade works both ways, the US will pay for whatever they buy, and provide whatever they sell. Iraq gets democracy, freedom of speech, freedom from torture, etc., increased trade, modern infrastructure and internal peace. Iraqis deserve the same Freedom that we do, and although dominated by violent men, for the most part they want peace just as much as we take it for granted every day.

For those who argue you can’t force democracy on someone - you are absolutely right - if you don’t wish to take part, you can stay home and not vote. Unfortunately, when you don’t live in a democracy you can’t kick the asshole out every 4 years if you don’t like what they are doing. Democracy can’t prevent the wrong people from getting into power, but it ensures that they can’t stay longer than 4 years.

Anyway, I went on a huge tear there, but I’m done…for now. Again, congratulations on a great site, I’ll be back.

I’ve just got to comment on that last bit. I honestly feel sorry for individuals with this level of naivete. Of COURSE Saddam tried to mislead the inspectors. A country having forced U.N. inspectors is ALWAYS going to try to mislead them. Well trained inspectors know this and also know that the point is to stay one step ahead of them in the game. Is your argument really that…Gee they didn’t give the inspectors the red carpet treatment…they only “appeared” to cooperate therefore we’d better attack? That is complete and utter nonsense. The ASSUMPTION is always that the country in question is NOT cooperating, which is why inspections are necessary. They were intrusive, unnannounced and DID catch the Iraqis when they were not cooperating. The point is, they were looking exactly where they should have been looking and NOT finding anything, which, as we know know, is precisely because there was nothing to find!

The sad and sick irony of this is that Blix, et.al., were BEGGING the administration to share the “intelligence” it supposedly had concerning Iraq’s deception and real WMD so that it could uncover them (BTW, Iraq was doing nothing to impede the inspectors movements…so if “not cooperating” meant not handing stuff over to them…then your expectations for “cooperation” of hostile powers are ludicrous and we might as well go ahead now and attack any country that we feel is hostile and might not be “cooperating”). But again, as we now know, such intelligence DID NOT EXIST…and there is no compelling evidence that it ever did.

I’m sorry to inform you that your president is not only unscrupulous and mendacious, but a positive danger to every American and to world peace. This America LOVING “liberal” thus pledges to oppose him in every peaceable way possible.

You’re all ghey…