It’s nice to see he’s got some perspective
Brandon Friedman of VetVoice is decidedly unimpressed with the Commander Guy’s wartime sacrifice:
Bush Finally Speaks to the Ultimate Wartime Sacrifice
With the ghosts of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower looking down, President Bush finally admitted today that he has been touched by the true cost of war:
For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf.
“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”
In unity and spirit with Americans who will never see a child or a parent again on account of his policies, George W. Bush made the heart-wrenching decision to take a five-year hiatus from the game. He chose to make this sacrifice several months after the invasion of Iraq.
Indeed. You can see why Jonah Goldberg was so taken with the Commander Decider all those many moons ago. In fact, I’d posit that Bush is the nation’s first-ever Doughy Pantload President. Because even though the Loadpants-in-Chief “sacrificed” playing golf, he still managed to set the all-time presidential record for vacations back in 2005. How long before some intrepid young whistle blower leaks pictures of the Prez gorging himself in Cheetos, I wonder?
UPDATE: It turns out Bush lied about giving up golf after the August bombing of the UN building:
The US president traced his decision to the August 19, 2003 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the world body’s top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
“I remember when de Mello, who was at the UN, got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life. And I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it’s just not worth it anymore to do,” said Bush.
Bush’s last round of golf as president dates back to October 13, 2003, according to meticulous records kept by CBS news.
Just another sterling achievement in the Bush Legacy.
Also, a memo to the press – it’s nice that you’ve fact-checked Bush’s golfing claims, but couldn’t you have done more along those lines for, say, his WMD-in-Iraq claims?
The fact is, golf is an enormous thing to sacrifice. It took great courage and hardship for him to not play golf. The fact is, you liberals would never sacrifice your precious hiking with granola bars.
The fact is, all of you smell like shit.
Does anyone doubt that even “giving up golf” will be revealed as just another lie?
Look, itdgy, what Bush meant to say was that he gave up golf on Wednesdays, except for the fourth Wednesday of the month, unless it isn’t raining.
Yeesh.
This is every bit as phony as all his other attempts to seem almost human.
On 1/21/09, Bush gives up Jesus, the Crawford dirt farm, clearing brush, and goes back to his real gods: coke and booze.
Ummmm… Thanks, Brad?
I really didn’t think my opinion of Dubya could get any worse, but this piece made it worse.
How does it go? The banality of evil…
Actually, that’s only half the story. Less known is that he had also sworn off sleep.
Explains a lot of his decisions over the past five years now, doesn’t it?
So on TV they’re breathlessly waiting for Hillary to come out and make her victory speech.
Which set off a little connection in my head.
So I’d like to share with you all my message to the Clinton Campaign, and Senator Clinton in particular:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2oCc_uLF1iY
Thank you.
Enjoy.
Moving on…
mikey
Jonah, quick, add this one to Bush’s legacy! Our children, our children’s children, and our children’s children’s children will undoubtedly look back and celebrate this as a shining paragon, perhaps the shiniest paragon of all shiny paragons, of presidential leadership and personal sacrifice.
No, you slow down, worddownpressorman.
I kind of wish he’d take up drinking again. Couldn’t do any worse than he is now and it might actually help.
Gary, that didn’t work out too well last time, did it? You ended up blushing and wrinkling your home-made comic Seducta the Succubus in your sweaty hands.
Now be a good boy and throw yourself under a bus, there’s a dear.
(4th try wordpress=scum)
Less known is that he had also sworn off sleep.
I read that as “sheep.”
Sleep, yeah, that’s something I need more of.
Golf War II
WordPress is messing with me. It ate the same post 5 times and finally told me I had already posted it.
I fully expect to be the only one who reads this.
WordPress sucks.
“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf”
So to be pedantic about this, Bush has not
eschewedsworn off playing golf, just playing golf in front of witnesses from the hoi polloi.Your powers are weak, WordPress. You are no match for my multiple IPs and e-addresses.
He gave up GOLF! The horror, the horror!
Words cannot express my giving of a fuck. It’s almost as if, deep within the cavernous recesses of his cranium, a vaporous film of a soul may have been mistakenly allowed to cling to one of his shriveled neurons.
Then I remember, this is Bush trying to impress Americans with the depth of his concern for all of their wartime sacrifices, and I have an overwhelming urge to take a shit.
His momma says that Dubya always sucked at golf, despite his many opportunities to improve his game. (Why, the family even went golfing the day his little sister died!) Giving up golf, assuming he’s not lying *again*, would be as much a sacrifice for George W. as giving up reading all those boring policy papers with titles like “Bin Laden determined to strike within U.S.”
“Awwright, you’ve covered yer ass — now watch this swang!”
What is the difference between George W. Bush and a bucket of shit?
The bucket.
Hey, you know what’s a really shitty thing to come across when you’ve just spent the last three hours reading Paul Reickoff’s “Chasing Ghosts?”
This, that’s what.
I hear that, in hell, the brush just grows right the fuck back as soon as you clear it. Here’s hopin’.
On 1/21/09, Bush gives up Jesus, the Crawford dirt farm, clearing brush, and goes back to his real gods: coke and booze.
He will only leave his room if he is allowed to take his Commander in Chief hat with him. Seems like that title is his favourite part of presidentalising.
The fact is, it wasn’t a pretzel that he choked on while hammered – it was a Cheeto.
Speaking of that damned weed farm of his in Texas, I didn’t know until those pics of his daughter’s wedding that he actually has a big fucking stone CROSS on his stage set in Crawford. I mean, how gauche and shameless.
He’s a fucking sociopath.
Not that we didn’t know that already.
I’m sure his giving up golf had nothing to do with the insistence of handlers who pointed out repeatedly what a jackass he made of himself while golfing.
intrepid young whistle blower leaks pictures of the Prez gorging himself
yeah, I’m pretty sure once Gannon the Cut Manwhore runs through the hush money, we’ll be seein’ pictures of some gorged ‘whistle’ blowers.
{Wordpress gorges on a big bag of dicks}
[Worddownpressorman]
…actually it is a family of sociopaths, let’s not forget Babs with her, ‘why trouble my beautiful mind over body bags’ comment and let’s not forget Neil Bush either…
the whole Bush Crime Family, from Prescott the Nazi financier to W to Neil, sociopaths and wastes of skin one and all. I’ll exempt Babs Jr and Jenna because we don’t know much about them, they seem decent if a bit vapid and are probably closet Dems.
Jennifer said,
May 14, 2008 at 3:28
Speaking of that damned weed farm of his in Texas, I didn’t know until those pics of his daughter’s wedding that he actually has a big fucking stone CROSS on his stage set in Crawford. I mean, how gauche and shameless.
It’s a pig farm, Jennifer.
I’m totally surprised that Dave Broder and the gang don’t mention this more often.
Blllleeeccchhh……my soul just threw up.
remember he gave up sweets for awhile too.
“People who know Bush well say the strain of war is palpable. He rarely jokes with staffers these days and occasionally startles them with sarcastic putdowns. He’s being hard on himself; he gave up sweets just before the war began.”
my soul just threw up.
Ohhhh, I LOVE that! It’s just sooo evocative! I’m going to use that again and again, if I may?
This is another one of those things that’s just beyond parody.
I hate that motherfucker so. so. much.
Once I gave up playing chess for Lent. Of course, I was 12 years old.
You know what I bet this is? Someone finally told him that the “Now watch this drive” comment made him look like a self-absorbed callous bastard, and this is the lesson he took away from that. Not to stop being a self-absorbed callous bastard, but to stop playing golf.
Not to stop being a self-absorbed callous bastard, but to stop playing golf.
Which he had already done, because he sucked at it.
“And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal…”
What is it with Bush and his obsession with “sending signals”?
I’ve never seen any man as obsessed with signals he may be sending since Liberace went with the mother-of-pearl cufflinks instead of the pink cravate.
Can someone tell Bush that a real man either wins the damn war or cuts his damn losses, and he doesn’t care what signal that sends.
[…] Shit like this is why I spend lots and lots of time (inordinate amounts, if you ask some) head-down in writing non-linear stories about people that love each other (more or less) and are trying to make their worlds better… Or at least not actively working to destroy it. Stories where the government is either benevolent or at least neutral (i.e. not engaged in wholesale destruction Because We Can); stories where even if things are not going well at first, they end well enough (see in particular Kelvath/Avrath). And why when I’m not writing, or drawing, I’m playing games where the end aim is to either win against yourself (TrackMania Nations), win your freedom (Portal), or save the world (Final Fantasy: Any Iteration; Titan Quest/TQ: Immortal Throne). Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment […]
Now watch this drive!
I think I read somebody sent that especially for the wedding. So I guess giant cross was a decoration. Too bad they’re not Catholic, because what could be more appropriate than a giant crucifix at the wedding: a bleeding Arab man, sacrificed for Empire.
my soul just threw up™®©
…..no
Here’s the thing.
You can give up golf. You can stand in the bright sunshine and spew platitudes and justifications.
But just as it comes to those of us who did the killing, three aye emm will come for you, Mr. President.
Oh, I know, you don’t think so. Frankly, many of your most fervent opponents think you don’t have the capacity for that kind of suffering.
But you and I? We know different, don’t we Bush? We know they come to haunt you already, and that’s will all the crimes and games and stories still in play. You’re already starting to get it. Get the pain, the horror, the guilt. You kind of understand, in a fuzzy way, that you’ve got a lot to process in your remaining years. That those nights are long and dark, and they just get longer and darker.
Some night, in a few years, you’re going to be pacing the house, angry, scared, sweating, gripping saddam’s pistol in your hand, knowing the lies were lies and the lives were wasted.
I killed, Mr. President, at my country’s behest. In large numbers. A few nights I took more lives than you did as governer. And I pay for it, over and over again, in spite of the awards and rewards of my “grateful nation”.
My family suffered for my damage. My country suffered for my crimes, as I was unable to stop fighting a war that never ended.
You know these pains, Mr. President. You recognize the haunting guilt, the things you did, the things you could have done, the things you didn’t do. And every crime is so much greater in your case. You never held the line. You never fought to hold a perimeter, you never killed at eyeball range to keep from dying, to keep from losing your friends, to get one more goddam hour when you are nineteen years old and you just know you don’t fucking want to die.
Oh no. You owe the devil so much more. The lives you through into the grinder, american lives, iraqi lives, american families, iraqi families, widows, orphans, amputees, those that died quick and those that died hard and slow.
There are those who say only you know why. But you and I know the real thruth, don’t we. That there is no why. You did it because you could, and you wanted to. You can never offer up a justification because you know that ultimately, there is none. All this blood. All this horror.
Go into your dotage in peace, Mr. President. The ghouls and the souls of the dead will not allow you to sleep in peace.
And that is, I suppose, as it should be. At last, you are a veteran…
mikey
What is it with Bush and his obsession with “sending signals”?
Narcissism. A colossal, calamitous, incurable case of it.
W’s sacrifice reflects a long presidential tradition. Lincoln gave up cribbage during the Civil War. And I think Garfield gave up Parcheesi after he was shot.
What is it with Bush and his obsession with “sending signals”?
That’s the hallmark of a deeply insecure person.
That’s the hallmark of a deeply insecure person.
He’s got good reason to be insecure.
Frankly, I don’t believe shrub does anything his puppetmasters don’t tell him to do.
What is it with Bush and his obsession with “sending signals”?
You usually hear “sending messages” instead. It’s a common politician thing among those who are trying do defend really stupid shit.
Fuck me, Mr President. Go back to playing golf. I suspect the families of the Iraqis and US servicepeople you haven’t killed yet would prefer it to your substitute hobby of playing with the toy soldiers.
NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
What is it with Bush and his obsession with “sending signals”?
Men his age, it’s the culture they grew up in. You know- blue bandana in the right back pocket sends one signal, red bandana in the left back pocket sends another signal.
You got to signalfy.
his obsession with “sending signals”
Is that a Very flare in your pocket, or are you pleased to see me?
mikey – From a fellow veteran, very well said. I’ve often had the same thoughts but couldn’t put them into words.
Golf is a game played by Presbyterian poofters. Its about damn time he gave it up. Its about time everyone gave it up. Now I can have fodder for my mule.
please fix wordpress.
I hope that you’re right, Mikey. I want that bastard to clearly see hell coming long before he gets there.
Mikey, I’ll take your word for it all, though I’m one of those who think Bush doesn’t have it in him to care about his dead.
What the hapless President has realized too late in the day is that it doesn’t look good for a “war president” to be out and about in his K-Mart casual wear having fun while young men are dying, losing body parts, and having their tours of duty extended and repeated ad nauseum. But GOLF? Well sure. Why not? You don’t expect Doofus to give up drinking do you? On the bright side, this so-called sacrifice fits nicely with his other practice of avoiding the funerals of fallen soldiers and posing with wounded vets for photo ops.
Ahem. As I was TRYING to say, should I pick out places near downtown or in some other particular neighborhood? I live in NW just minutes from the New Old Lompoc which brews some fine stuff and teh food’s not bad either.
There’s Kell’s, which is a slightly glossy Irish Pub. Nothing markedly pdxish about it, just a good pub with good food and a cigar bar. (I think I still have some Cuban cigars here somewhere…) It’s also mere steps from Voodoo Donut.
Then too, Portland is the new foodie heaven. The apricot cornbread with bacon and maple syrup ice cream at Le Pigeon is exemplary.
There’s lots of more funky places as well. Merely tell me where thy inclinations lie.
Also, I dunno about the Californi run but I do know that PDX-Seattle by Amtrak is only about $25. And the drive is soooo boring.
“…he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”
Oh Fuck you George, we all know it became too dangerous for you to step one foot into a large empty clearing…
When this guy heard Sergio de Mello died his only thought was who would take over styling Laura’s hair. Then someone filled him in and he realized his “Mission Accomplished” stunt was cheap, unearned, the sign of being entitled and spoiled– just like his accomplishments prior to taking office. He knew, deep down, de Mello was a person doing the hard work, the real work. So Bush needed to “cowboy up,” cuz no Your-Oh-peein was going to be more macho than he was. He needed a sacrifice, a real test of character.
Yes. He would have to stop playing golf.
He gave up candy too:
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_05_11_archive.html#85048237775094810
I dunno mikey….like a true sociopath, I’m not sure that he’ll lose much sleep over all of it.
Vieira de Mello was Brazilian.
My heart is broken and the tears are flowing down my face. How could I have thought this president didn’t love and respect our troops. And to show my solidarity with the president and our troops, I am going to give up playing on the swings until all our boys are safely home.
http://www.goodriddance.org/
I would have added “bad trash”, but I happen to have some respect for bad trash.
Um, am I the one who will have to google “George Bush+golf” Images to prove the lie?
Atrios also had the quote where, in October 2003 Bush says he gave up candy for the troops, followed by a press quote from October 2003 that described him as eating lots of butterscotch candies.
“I think playing golf during the war just sends the wrong signal.”
My scepticism is in full bloom before he gets to the 3rd word.
In this case, I think the turd has been laying in the sun much much too long for a shot of cheap perfume to make much of a difference.
Hell is R&R, gbear.
Hell is DEROS.
Because the REAL hell is the nights alone, trying to not see the images, trying to not talk to, not EXPLAIN to the people you killed oh so long ago that you didn’t mean it, and you don’t want them to be dead, and you just wish…
Think about the regrets and the sorrows and the horrors for the man who started it on a whim, who could have just NOT….
Nope.
I’m not recomending empathy or some kind of forgiveness.
Just realize that no human can carry that kind of stain and not suffer endlessly, shivering and sweating and crying out in the night. And believe me – there is no comfort to be found…
mikey
I’d like to see him give up drinking.
Of course, he could REALLY do something to show solidarity and give up being Pres’nt for the duration of his mad war.
THAT would be a sporting sacrifice. (And an appropriate one).
well mikey, there but for the grace of god go I.
mikey-
it’s the difference between a man with a soul, and one who never had one.
I leave to the trolls the exercise to figure out which one is which.
to echo someone else’s words, the depths of my loathing for the creature constantly surprises me.
I think he needs to take a long, relaxing vacation to his Crawford ranch. Until January 2009 should do it.
Vieira de Mello era brasileiro – my favorite bush/brasil urban legend is that W said to Pres FHC ‘Oh you have blacks too?…”
wot a fucknozzle…
You know, just yesterday I went to a funeral of a 16 year old who had no reason to be dead.
George Bush has caused the deaths of umpteen numbers of 16 year olds and young who also had no reason to be dead.
He should fucking choke on a goddamn 5-iron. Motherfucker.
Well……like his momma once famously said, I’m sure it won’t bother his “beautiful mind” much.
True sociopaths do not feel any emotional connection to others at all. So if Bush really were one he would never feel the slightest twinge of guilt. It would be utterly beyond his ability. Personally I think Bush has Narcissistic Personality disorder, Cheney is the true sociopath I believe.
I don’t want either of them to pay in some fantasy afterlife. I want them to pay now. My ideal punishment for them both would be for us to close Guantanamo to all but out two very special guests. Let them never even see the guards nor a single human again. Let them rot.
though I think ‘poppy’ cries himself to sleep most nights.
Waterboard the motherfuckers
my soul just threw up™®©
…..no
Damn you! Well, you’ll see! I plan on thwarting you! How?~ Well I will never WRITE those words, but I will use them in day to day conversation! So, I will thwart you..ORALLY! That’s right, I’m thwarting you orally!
How does THAT make you feel?
noen, I think you’re right, basically; but I think Bush actually IS a sociopath, and Cheney a full-goose psychopath. He LIKES blowing up little birdies.
Punishment doesn’t register with these sorts; unfortunately, all it does is bring the punisher down to their level. Which will, of course, be lost on the sociopath since he is unable to contemplate any other person as existing outside of his consciousness, and actually PLEASE the psychopath, since degradation is what they like.
No, the best thing we can do (and it pains me to say this) is to rise above our basest nature as exemplified by the Republicans and the Bush/Cheney Administration; if they ever have to face the facts of their crimes, it has to be done like Nuremburg, in an unimpeachable process, and they have to be treated more humanely than they themselves ever imagined treating anybody else….
Or else we aren’t all that much better.
Frank Burns eats worms.
Hokay, well, most of you guys are smarter than me, so I’ll defer to your knowledge.
I just know this. I’ve known some savage motherfuckers, stone killers, throat cutters, up close and personal life takers, light up a villiage and laugh kinda fuckers did things I never even thought about.
I’ve met them then, and I know them now. Nobody. I say again NOBODY gets out clean. You pay your demons, maybe not every night, but the bill comes due again and again, like the cable bill.
They come at night, when you’re scared and alone, and they ask you “why”. Why they only have half a face? Why you killed them? What it was all for. They simply demand answers to the most simple questions.
Answers you don’t have.
If you wanna believe bush and cheney and rice and rumsfelf and feith and wolfowitz somehow are exempt from a price that’s been charged for thousands of years, if they are, in your mind, some kind of special creature, fine, you’ll get no real debate from me. Hell. What do I know.
But I submit they are just another war criminal, doomed to spend their latter years suffering the torment of monumental guilt and horror. As they all, ultimately do.
And as they should….
mikey
Nice to meet you maryc (and if you hadn’t had the ‘y’ in your nick, it might have made me feel a little ‘hawt’ 😉
don’t self yourself mikey, from the posts I’ve read, you’re smarter than most I know.
sell yourself short I mean.
and WordPress is being a real c-nt tonight
Y’know what would’ve been nice?
If he’d given up being a smirking figurehead jackass and resigned.
Shit, even now if he’d simply resign he could still salvage some kind of legacy.
President Cheney would be impeached in about 15 minutes and would vanish with a couple billion, but it’d be worth it.
I actually find the other part of the interview more depressing. The one where he talks about how this whole WMD was an honest intelligence mistake.
Yep! Someone’s been practicing his testimony. Not sure if it’s gonna work.
What IS gonna work is the Americans’ long-standing tradition of forward looking optimism. I don’t think we’ll be wasting time prosecuting these bastards. Justice will not be served, but at least we’ll move forward. Hope that works for the moms, orphans and widows…
one thing I’ll agree with mikey about, even though I don’t think the war deaths will bother him that much. I imagine there’ll be a certain justice. He will, like Nixon, probably stay sequestered at his ‘ranch’, feeling sorry for himself and lamenting that they ‘won’t have him to kick around’ for the rest of his dreary days.
That fucker won’t lament anything. He’ll petulantly and blindly demand that everyone pay reverence to the revisionist history that the rightwingers are going to circle-jerk each other with for the next four to eight years as they try to regroup as a political party.
Does he have a soul? Will any of this haunt him as he journeys toward his mortal end? None of us will ever know. One thing is for sure, he is one shallow, narcissistic sicko. If he ever talks about it, whatever he says, it has to be a lie.
Off to bed. Vodka kicking in. Will check in with this thread in the morning. Night.
Cheney should have followed his lead by giving up sliding his putter up Bush’s pooter, as it obviously disturbs Dubya’s cerebral lobe.
Fore!
Bush is a triple bogey on a twelve par asshole.
I suspect that Mikey underestimates the human capacity for self-justification and self-exculpation. If we don’t actually have blood on our hands and memories too vivid to be left on the floor of our mental cutting-room — if we merely gave the orders and someone else did the dirty work — then we can edit our autobiographies and think of ourselves as saints.
He gave up GOLF????
I had to check the link to make sure it wasn’t “The Onion.”
Funnily enough, this has been going through my head all night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcjzoydyQIY&feature=related
Take from it what you will.
I don’t like the armchair psychology too much, but read this:
I mean… in this case “added to their suffering and problems” often means “killed their family with stray bombs”.
He’s essentially saying, “I really think you need to wait a while to see if my transforming your child into a red mist was worth it. That’s not just something you can make a snap judgement on.”
It’s hard for me not to wonder if he is some sort of sociopath.
On some level he is massively tone-deaf about what it’s like for other people, that’s for sure. Maybe his soul isn’t any deader then any other politician’s, and he’s just worse at looking normal.
via.
But golf is such a big part of W.
We all remember the sight of our president greeting foreign leaders in this…
.
But golf is such a big part of W.
We all remember the sight of our president greeting foreign leaders in this…
What does it mean to “articulate a state?”
It’s like articulating a skeleton — that is, you hold the bones together with wire at the joints.
Speaking of that damned weed farm of his in Texas, I didn’t know until those pics of his daughter’s wedding that he actually has a big fucking stone CROSS on his stage set in Crawford. I mean, how gauche and shameless.
Isn’t it amazing what they can do with plastic these days?
“And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal…”
Of course tooling around Camp David in an effin’ golf cart with world leaders while other people’s kids are dying in the War for Oil Profits is the acme of patriotism. . . . What a prick!
Clinton won West Virginia.
I guess that proves Obama is unelectable.
But what doesn’t?
I think “Golf Cart One” is pretty damn representative of W’s legacy.
Doughy pantload president driving around in Golf Cart One – it doesn’t get any better than Sadlyno!!!!! Rave on Chippers!!!
I can tell you, from second-hand info, that Doug Feith is paying his own little price – or at least a karmic debt – for the last 7 years.
Damn.
re: Update,
I think you must have misunderstood. W gave up golf not golfing. Much like how,as a recovering alcoholic, he has giving up drink not drinking.
Hey, where’s The Truth this fine morning? His absence wouldn’t have anything to do with yet another GOP election loss, or the Obama-or-Hillary-beats-McCain projections, would it?
Heh indoozle!
The fact is, George W. Bush is a hero to Average Americans, who look upon his reverent sacrifice with awe. The President’s steady leadership and courage is an inspiration for the Heartland, which I am fully versed in, being a man of Average American pedigree myself. I’m so awesome at journalism!
Additionally, did Dean Dorkus (and Michael Baroney, who did the same thing) ever explain that whole “Bush will have a surge of popularity in ’06! er, ’07!” bull he kept whipping out a couple of years ago? Even friggin attempt to explain it? It sounded like complete horse hockey then, and sure enough, it was. You’d think our Very Serious Pundits would at least like to attempt to commence to try to reason out how they could be so definitive facking wrong.
No one suffers more than the President…
I heard some lady say that a while back.
Can you imagine if Barack Obama gave up golf because of the war?
Would that be anti-American or elitist? Or both?
Now that Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic nomination with her stunning victory in West Virginia do you think Obama will accept her offer to appoint him official White House greeter?
Yes, Mr. President. But when are you going to stop hiding flasks of Goldschlagger around the White House? In the car? Around Airforce One? At the ranch? On the boat? In the golf cart?
Idaho
Obama 79%
Clinton 17%
Obama +62%
Alaska
Obama 75%
Clinton 25%
Obama +50%
Washington
Obama 68%
Clinton 31%
Obama +37%
Georgia Obama 67%
Clinton 31%
Obama +36%
Colorado
Obama 67%
Clinton 32%
Obama +35%
Minnesota
Obama 66%
Clinton 32%
Obama +34%
Does Hillary Clinton have a problem with white voters?
Also, a memo to the press – it’s nice that you’ve fact-checked Bush’s golfing claims, but couldn’t you have done more along those lines for, say, his WMD-in-Iraq claims?
Teh press will get right back to you on those WMD claims, as soon as they check with their Pentagon paid experts.
They’ve come a long way since my day.
I linked to Mikey’s comment. Mikey makes me weep. Mikey is the shit.
UPDATE: It turns out Bush lied about giving up golf after the August bombing of the UN building:
=====
The US president traced his decision to the August 19, 2003 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the world body’s top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
…
Bush’s last round of golf as president dates back to October 13, 2003, according to meticulous records kept by CBS news.
=====
C’mon, Gary, your public awaits. Just say it: “The fact is, October 13 *is* after August.”
Just in case Troofie shows up (I know it won’t):
Your boys just lost a seat in one of the reddest districts in the country in Misissippi yesterday. Governor Huckleberry and Vice President Dick campaigned hard for the losing GOPer. That’s 3 in a row.
Thoughts, Princess Troofie?
Legalize,
Schlager with those metal flakes in it is an elitist drink. Dear leader is a Man of the People, a Jager-man.
Jager, Jager on a boat.
Which he drinks while reading The Pet Goat.
He Jagers up with his friend McCain
Who drinks them first-class on a train.
Jager in the dark! Jager in a tree!
Jager in a car! Jager drinks he.
Jager before interviews on the box
That he does with his Friends at Fox.
Jager in his office in the White House.
Jager until he’s completely soused.
He throws ’em back, here and there.
Jagermeister’s good ANYWHERE!
Has anyone worked out how many times Bush refers to himself as “Commander in Chief” versus how many times other presidents have done it? Because it sure seems like he does it ALL THE TIME. I don’t remember a real wartime president, like FDR, doing any such thing.
(I should point out that what I mean by “real wartime” is twofold: Bush started two wars of choice that have both gone badly & it’s like it doesn’t touch anyone in the US except those who have loved ones actually serving. It’s barbaric. Well, I suppose it’s touched Bush, since he’s had to give up golf. Poor baby.)
real wartime president
Also, only Congress has the power to declare war and they haven’t. Constitutionally speaking, WWII was the last “real war.”
Gee he gave up golf, big whoop, now if only he’d give up dancing…
The fact is, liberals: neither of your candidates will be President. Either there will be a terrorist attack, and people will vote GOP as they always do, or there will be a terrorist attack, and there will be marital law and Bush and Cheney will be installed until the danger is past. I prefer the latter myself.
That’s because you’re a traitor, Gary.
pedestrian:
You’re such a bitch sometimes.
and there will be marital law and Bush and Cheney
You’re proposing legalizing gay marriage, Gary?
Gaaah, I forgot WordPress eats <cite> tags.
Rooting for the terrorists
classy
I don’t think I can say anything meaningful about what w feels, or will feel. Shame? Horror? I dunno. Did the ones who stood trial in Nuremburg feel the terror of what had been done? Who can say what a person feels in their deepest places?
But the difference I see to the men mikey knew is that those men lived through the horrors they had to bear.
W and Cheney have never had to get their hands dirty.
Does that make a difference? I would guess, but who can tell. Cheney has never showed any remorse for his prior work as Nixon’s henchman; Bush has never showed an ounce of remorse for any of his previous actions. Remember his mockery of Karla Faye Tucker? And how he has been the most killingest governor in recent history? As long as, you know, HE actually didn’t have to do it. The executioners who did his bidding, I would guess THEY have nightmares.
But do Bush and Cheney have the basic human function of empathy? Haven’t seen evidence of it yet. I’ll take mikey’s word about the bad motherfuckers he’s known because mikey seems to be a forthright sort. But there are such things as sociopaths, and my feeling is that right now two of them hold the highest offices in our country.
If they have to pay the psychic toll later in life, so be it and it could be considered justice of a sort.
But I really don’t think they will.
Oh, and I suspect Bush really gave up golf because he got tired of seeing how bad he was at it on National TV.
gbear said,
“I hope that you’re right, Mikey. I want that bastard to clearly see hell coming long before he gets there.”
Isn’t it pretty to think so. I hope he’s right, too, but I doubt it. Bush’s entire personality has constructed itself around denial, repression, and megalomania. He’d have to have a full-bore olde-fashioned Nervous Breakdown before he’d be susceptible to such pangs of conscience.
It’s possible, of course, and maybe he’ll divorce Laura (or, rather, she’ll divorce him), and he’ll find himself in a new system that doesn’t necessarily provide the support this one does. But he’ll have the money and the retired-Preznit clout to surround himself even more with sycophants and yea-sayers. So why should, and how could, he change?
I think he’ll go to his grave in his current haze of un-knowing. I vote otherwise, of course–as much as anyone here I want to see him suffer–but I’m not optimistic.
Hey.
Over at Digby’s they got a post about Karen Bass, an African American woman ascending to speaker of the Assembly in California. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-face-of-california-by-dday.html
In the most populous state of the country. A VERY good thing
African American. Woman. Sound a little familiar, Gary-Truth? Be afraid, be very afraid. Old white men can’t count on exclusive access to power anymore, and that’s a thing to party for.
And taken with the other election news, it’s gotta be scaring the HELL out of the party built on racism, sexism, and white privilege.
The times, they are a-changin’. Again.
pedestrian:
You’re such a bitch sometimes.
I hear it’s the new black. With Barry X Africa Hussein seizing power, white boys can’t be too safe.
I think Mickey’s right. When you repress something, it is pushed out of mind, but not out of the subconscious, where it grows stronger. There will be little leaks, like his flashes of anger, sarcasm, and impatience. But Bush is a busy man, and doesn’t have a lot of time for thought.
Later, when he is alone except for paid assistants and his nightmare of a family, the pressure will become tremendous. Security will always have to be tight to allay his fears, and after a couple of years he might not even have many public appearances anymore.
We can only hope. Let’s all say a little prayer to the baby jesus.
How can he get a pie to the face if he isn’t out in public?
and hey pedestrian!
remember this guy?
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/entry/kleeb200.jpg
Well, I don’t know if you know this but he was running in the Dem primary in Nebraska to for Chuck Hagel’s senate seat……and he won the primary yesterday!!!……YAYS!!!!
Bush will never feel guilt about his decisions. He’s entirely superficial.
A war vet in a hospital is a photo op for him. If he felt a smidgen of responsibility or sorrow he’d visit vets without the cameras in tow, he’d attend a few funerals…no. Fuck that. He wouldn’t have started this stupid war in the first place. He’d have stuck to his guns in Afghanistan and gone after bin Laden and lamented the lives that were sacrificed to nail that son of a bitch. But he didn’t even care about bin Laden and said as much a couple of years past 9/11. George Bush is a sociopath. Sociopaths aren’t bothered by the evil they do.
How can he get a pie to the face if he isn’t out in public?
We’ll have to work fast. I’ll go warm up the oven.
I saw that. I had mixed feelings about Kleeb, to be honest. He doesn’t run as a Democrat, he was kind of for the war before he was against it, and he waffles quite a bit on abortion and gay rights. Also, as much as I love a pretty face, I don’t want someone who is just a pretty face. But, he is running in Nebraska and his opponent was a self-funded Republican who only changed parties because he didn’t think he could win the Republican primary, so yay!
He also won points with his “Brand Scott Kleeb” push, where you could vote for his logo, several of which featured a branding iron. I made a naughty joke about branding his bum on his DKos diary and he recommended me. OMIGOD he recommended me. [swoons]
The only good thing about George W. Bush is that he may have killed the Republican Party.
I don’t care what his platforms are! I’m like so totally going to stalk campaign for him! (kidding actually, I didn’t know much about him and some of what you’ve posted here disappoints me but hey, he’s running in Nebraska so he certainly can’t campaign as a ‘creative elite’. And hey! Any senate seat we can pick up is another seat closer to being able to tell that sanctimonious prick Lieberman to go ‘fuckbum’ himself!)
tontocal–
Normally, I’d be the first one to pile on the Cornhuskers, but I personally know some very creative people (who also drink latte’s and even play golf) that either live in Nebraska or were born there.
Don’t be dissin’ the Heartlanders, mister.
Oh great. Now that Bush has “signaled” that golfing is a shameful passtime, revenues from from greens fees around the country will plummet, causing the golf courses to lay off workers. No doubt his base will realize that their other favored passtimes like yachting, polo, deep sea fishing and shooting neighbors in the face also “send the wrong signal”. Within a few months the entire sporting goods industry will be plagued by layoffs and bankruptcy filings.
Thanks a lot, Chief. You just caused a recession.
Giving up golf is a start. Now if he’d only give up eating, drinking and breathing until he’s brought all our troops home from Iraq …
It’s a trait he shares with many Republicans; Larry Craig springs immediately to mind.
Tell the truth about 9/11! We can’t let…
Oops, sorry, wrong thread.
Hawkeye:
No, no, NO! Please, don’t get me wrong…I LOVE the midwest. I always roll my eyes a bit when New York and Washington media ‘talking heads’ wax poetic about the ‘heartland’ (like they’re really ‘down’ with those folks) but everytime I’ve ever been in the ‘grasslands’, I’m always so impressed at how many ‘gentlemen and gentleladies’ I meet. It never fails to remind me that there are truly good ‘common courtesy’ people still left in the world.
If Bush had ever actually fought in a war, like McCain, or like his father, or like John Kerry, for chrissakes, then I would agree with Mikey that he would pay a price eventually for his crimes. But he has never, ever been confronted with the consequences of any of his actions. He never has had to wash the blood off his own hands. He simply gave the orders, and thousands perished.
Do you think he feels a tinge of sadness about the people who died in New Orleans? Or any regret about strummin’ on that guitar while the city was drowning? I doubt it. Anyone who can mock a woman’s pleas to be allowed to live, the way he did to Karla Faye Tucker, can’t really be considered to have normal human feelings.
So, will George W. Bush ever have to pay a price for the stupid and bad things he’s done as President? Sadly, no.
But do Bush and Cheney have the basic human function of empathy? Haven’t seen evidence of it yet.
For some reason when I think of their last days, I think of the scene in “Angels in America” where Roy Cohn is in the hospital being attended by a black male nurse.
It was Sandstone.
And if there is any justice left in the world, the spectre of Pat Tillman wil be at his bedside as well.
Mikey–Well said, man, well said.
It is my fervent hope that all those [insert expletive here; I just can’t come up with anything strong enough to truly express my disgust with those scum] spend the rest of their nights in sleepless cold sweat and terror.
They probably won’t–but they should. Thanks for the post, and thanks to Brad for the original post. (I hope the fucker chokes on his 9-iron…)
…bc…
I think he’ll go to his grave in his current haze of un-knowing. I vote otherwise, of course–as much as anyone here I want to see him suffer–but I’m not optimistic.
Maybe once he’s retired he’ll try his hand at the internets. Maybe he’ll google his own name for the fun of it. Wouldn’t it be fun to be there….
geez, gbear, Doughbob and Medved can’t manage to work teh Great Gazoogle and you expect Chimpy to?
Although I would love to be there if he was ever looking for pictures of chimps….
Try Bush’s bad knee.
Excellent find, Batocchio.
Batocchio scores! Blue Girl, Red State scores!
Check out the link above.
Bush is actually more craven than we already think he is.
Is that even possible?
In memory of the Death of Conservatism and the Republic Party I hereby renounce brussels sprouts for the remainder of
Cakewalk CheneyBush the Junior’s spectacularly disastrous presidency.It was a tough decision, but I slept on it, and am confident it is the right thing to do.
“I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them…
…so I’ll be spending time on my ranch clearing scrub, just like military familes do when they’ve become too prominent to hire Mexicans.
In memory of the Death of Conservatism and the Republic Party I hereby renounce brussels sprouts for the remainder of Cakewalk Cheney Bush the Junior’s spectacularly disastrous presidency.
Back when I was a practising Catholic and not a godless atheist I used to always give up something I wouldn’t miss for Lent, like B-sprouts. I guess I wasn’t getting into the whole sacrificial spirit of the thing.
I’m in kind of a hurry and only gave the comments above a quick scan so someone else may have mentioned this but:
NARAL has endorsed Obama and so has John Edwards.
What FuriousGeorge said,
May 14, 2008 at 22:51
Thanks for the hilarious Onion thread George. It almost makes up for the case of encephalitis I’ve contracted from reading most of this interminable thread. Now, excuse me while I kneel and say my (thrice daily) prayers to our Great and Beneficent OverLords™ to beg and besiege them for healing of this now grave affliction.
ahem….sorry….wrong thread…..
..we were wondering…
I hear that, in hell, the brush just grows right the fuck back as soon as you clear it.
I thought the pubic-shaving thread was last week.
WordPress is a very malevolent entity!!
God, mikey, I feel for you. It’s little enough… but empathy is all we have sometimes.
In an effort to be charitable, I wish on Bush… self awareness.
I think he is truly as clueless as he seems to be on television. A true sociopath would be much more attuned to what other people think, and they effortlessly project the “right” image whenever it pleases them to do so.
There are cases of sociopaths doing this for years in prison; getting religion, saying the right things in therapy, even saving people from prison riots or other imminent dangers. Then they get out, and go right back to pillaging again. Because it’s all an act. Everything they do is an act. There’s no there there.
Bush, then, I don’t think is a sociopath, because then he’d be better at it.
How then, to explain him?
He’s an inadequate personality. This is a terrible pain that doesn’t go away, but has to be papered over with sadistic power fantasies, vain attempts at communication (like groping heads of state) and complete avoidance of the truth. Living in this way has its own psychic pain (which I feel is the main reason behind drug use of all kinds.)
He gave up drinking for running, then for bicycling. It’s all a frantic attempt to stay ahead of the reality lurking around his consciousness. Typically, when one is young and strong, it’s easier. Then crutches appear. Then, when ill health or poverty removes the crutches, it gets really ugly.
So I feel confident that karma will catch up with him. We often don’t realize that such people are already in their own hells. It’s why they drag other people into them; so at least they won’t be alone there.
Bush will have plenty of that sort of company, I’m sure.
….”In memory of the Death of Conservatism and the Republic Party I hereby renounce brussels sprouts”….
It’s about time. Your consumption of les petits choux was almost callous, dude. Some panicky wingnut’s mom was getting wrong signals.
Iris was raised by a pack of wordpresses.
If Tiger Woods had any respect for our troops he’d quit the game right now.
It’s a pig farm, Jennifer.
What was that line from “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels”? Something like, “Never trust a man who keeps pigs” followed by a lengthy description of how quickly a pig can make a corpse disappear?
noen said,
True sociopaths do not feel any emotional connection to others at all. So if Bush really were one he would never feel the slightest twinge of guilt. It would be utterly beyond his ability. Personally I think Bush has Narcissistic Personality disorder, Cheney is the true sociopath I believe.
I’m not sure that sociopathy and narcissism are exclusive of each other. I am pretty sure that a true sociopath, while incapable of feeling emotional connection is nevertheless aware that he is supposed to appear as if he does. They get to be consummate fakers of empathy. They’re constantly aware, in other words, of what signals they’re sending.
Mikey, that’s beautiful and powerful as always. And I agree with the fond desire to see this man suffer for the evil he’s done, as any decent and sane man would. But I don’t think he is either. He’ll tell himself for the rest of his days that he was right, or it wasn’t his fault, and he’ll believe it.
Oh, and WordPress sings funny songs about bombing Iran.
I hear that, in hell, the brush just grows right the fuck back as soon as you clear it.
That’s how it works in South Florida. Hmmm…
followed by a lengthy description of how quickly a pig can make a corpse disappear
RobW seems to be suggest that crucial scenes from ‘Hannibal’ should have been set in Crawford.
MMPI 66: WordPress sees things or animals or people around it that others do not see.
(from WaPo)
You know you’re a schmuck when even a Dalek is getting on your case about faux-sympathy.
Huh? You sure they’re not related?
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