From a speech given today at a “Women in Housing and Finance” meeting.
And, er, what might he be signaling here?
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Number 9 in the series, “Everything You Need to Know About the Economy You Can Tell By the Expression on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Face.”
From a speech given today at a “Women in Housing and Finance” meeting.
And, er, what might he be signaling here?
Sometimes it’s hard to see it when you’re this close to the deal
Bush went to Iowa today to look at storm damage.
WHAT GEORGE KNOWS: “I know a lot of farmers and cattlemen are hurting right now, along with the city people.”
WHAT WE ALSO GOT TO WORRY ABOUT: “we also got to worry about the little towns. A lot of folks are wondering whether or not the government hears about them, too, and I can assure you that I know the Governor cares deeply about it, and so do we.”
BUT NOT ACTUALLY TO HELP THEM IN ANY WAY: “Paulison, who is the head of FEMA, tells me that there are 600 FEMA people moving around the state, and that ought to help the people in the smaller communities know that somebody is there to listen to them and care about them.”
HOW THEY’LL COME BACK: “You’ll come back better. Sometimes it’s hard to see it when you’re this close to the deal.”
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
You understand how hopeful the world can be when people live in free societies
Today Bush met with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev of Bulgaria.
WHAT STANISHEV UNDERSTANDS: “you understand how hopeful the world can be when people live in free societies.”
REALIZING THE BLESSINGS: “we talked about a mutual concern, and that’s energy: How do we get more energy on the market; how do we help others, our respective countries and others, realize the blessings of additional energy supply?”
HE HAS AN MBA, YOU KNOW: “I mean, we’re in a world that is -- where supply has exceeded -- where demand has exceeded supply. There’s high prices.”
WHAT GEORGE THANKED STANISHEV FOR: “Thank you for your hard work and thank you for your care about the people of your country.” Um, you’re welcome?
HE’S THE REMINDERER: “I reminded the Prime Minister that all of us have got a responsibility to deal with corruption.”
WARNING: IRONY ALERT IRONY ALERT IRONY ALERT: “When we find corrupt officials in the United States, we expect them to be, within the rule of law, be dealt with.”
WHAT STANISHEV IS, AND WHAT GEORGE IS: “You’re a good, young, strong leader, and that’s said from an old guy.”
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I see dead people
Bush and gospel singer Kurt Carr. Just once I’d like to see a black man rub Bush’s head.
And John McCain.
I thought he looked like he was seeing ghosts, and then read the AP caption: “Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaks to supporters Tuesday, June 17, 2008 in Houston.” Yup, he’s seeing ghosts all right.
Our hearts and thoughts go to those who lost life
This morning Bush spoke about the flooding in Iowa.
WHERE OUR HEARTS AND THOUGHTS GO: “Of course, our hearts and thoughts go to those who lost life.”
#5983 IN THE LIST OF THINGS BUSH “FULLY UNDERSTANDS”: “I fully understand people are upset when they lose their home.”
A CLEAR... STRATEGY: “And we want to work with state and local folks to have a clear strategy to help people find -- get back into a place that -- where they can live.”
WHAT WE’VE GOT: “We’ve got what we called a Disaster Relief Fund.”
WHAT THEY (CONGRESS) NEED TO WORRY ABOUT: “What they do need to worry about is making sure that there is enough but not too much money in the fund, so we can say we have done our job.” Well, you can say it.
WHEN YOU’VE SEEN ONE DISASTER, YOU’VE SEEN THEM ALL: “And I, unfortunately, have been to too many disasters as President.” Yeah, everywhere you go, there seems to be a disaster. Funny that.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Listening tour
In an exercise in, how you say, fair use, I present an AP picture and its caption: “Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to a reporter’s question during a press briefing at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., Monday, June 16, 2008.”
Bush in the UK: Waiting for somebody rational to show up
Bush held a press conference with Gordon Brown this morning. And, oh sure, I could illustrate this post with pictures of George Bush and Gordon Brown.
Yeah, cuz that’s so exciting. Or I could use pictures of Bush playing basketball with a bunch of little girls in Belfast. They trounced him soundly; he made zero out of four shots.
He appalled Europeans with this threat: “By the way, some are speculating this is my last trip. Let them speculate. Who knows?”
WHAT THE FIRST THING ABOUT GORDON BROWN IS: “First thing about Gordon Brown, he’s tough on terror, and I appreciate it”.
WHAT THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF HISTORY IS GOING TO LOOK BACK ON IT IS: “The fundamental question of history is going to look back on it, is did we understand the duty that we’ve been called to do, to protect ourselves and hope others?”
Incidentally, today he’s not saying that history won’t be able to judge him at all for forty years, but that “History will judge the tactics. History will judge whether or not, you know, more troops were needed earlier, troops could have been positioned here better or not. Removing Saddam Hussein was not wrong.” So, a note to historians: confine your analysis to Bush’s tactics. Last night, by the way, Brown invited some real historians to dinner with Bush: Martin Gilbert, Simon Schama and David Cannadine. The mind boggles.
TRYING TO DISTANCE THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER: “No, I know there’s a lot of discussion here in the British press about, well, you know, is there going to be enough troops, or not enough troops, and all that business; is he trying to distance this, that and the other -- it’s just typical.” Also typical: naked page three girls.
THE WHO CARES POSITION: “Hopefully the Iranian leadership will take a different position then the one they’ve taken in the past, which is basically, who cares what the free world says, we’re going to -- we’ll go our own way.” And we know how George hates unilateralism.
GEORGE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THE WORD QUALMS MEANS: “We have no qualms with the Iranian people.” (Update: Simon Hoggart thinks he was actually saying quarrels, which he pronounces “kwarls.”)
WHAT WE EXPECT: “And so my message at the G8 is: Looking forward to working with you; thanks for coming to the meeting -- just remember, there are people needlessly dying on the continent of Africa today, and we expect you to be more than pledge-makers. We expect you to be check-writers for humanitarian reasons.”
BE IN MORE CHARGE: “And so, give the Iraqis more responsibility. Let them take more -- be in more charge of their own security and their own government, and that’s what’s happening.”
WHAT THE KEY THING IS (BLITHERING INCOHERENCE, EVIDENTLY): “And so, you know, I mean -- look, the key thing for me is that I have -- you know, is that Gordon shares with me his plans. He listens to -- he talks to his commanders and he picks up the phone and says, here’s what we’re thinking. So there’s no surprises.”
WHAT HE CALLS PAKISTAN: “Pak”
SO IT WAS ALL WORTH IT: “The strategic implications of a free Iraq are significant for our future. For example, a free Iraq will make it easier to deal with the Iranian issue.”
THERE IS SOME: “there is some who say that perhaps freedom is not universal. Maybe it’s only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe it’s only, you know, white-guy Methodists who are capable of self government.” Dude, we’ve seen you play basketball...
“And it’ll bring peace to the Middle East, unless of course we become isolationist”. Increasingly, he is describing opponents of his failed foreign policy as if they are following this discredited ideology of isolationism, as if they oppose the US exercising any influence at all in the world, as opposed to exercising it in the direction of crapification.
I MEAN IN OTHER WORDS: “I mean, in other words, they [North Korea] are -- we’ll see what they disclose, but we hopefully are in the process of disabling and dismantling their plutonium manufacturing.”
IN OTHER WORDS: “you know, let’s send a focused message all aiming to create the conditions so that somebody rational shows up. In other words, people hopefully are sick of isolation in their respective countries, and they show up and say, we’re tired of this; there’s a better way forward.”
WHAT HE’D SAY IF HE WERE THE IRANIANS OR THE NORTH KOREANS: “So if I were the North Koreans and I were looking at Iran, or the Iranians looking at North Korea, I’d say, uh-oh, there are coalitions coming together that are bound tightly -- more tightly than ever in order to send us a focused message.”
Sunday, June 15, 2008
That’s one of those great hypotheticals that we didn’t know
The Bush message to Iowa flood victims: “I know there’s a lot of people hurting right now and I hope they’re able to find some strength in knowing that there is love from a higher being.” As for you atheists, just keep paddling I guess.
I now have the full transcript of Bush’s interview by the Observer, the subject of my previous post.
GEORGE INVENTS A NEW VERB TENSE: “And therefore people that -- at least governments that felt like they didn’t want to participate in the liberation of Iraq have now wanted to participate in the reconstruction of Iraq.”
WHAT MALIKI HAS MOVED: “Maliki has moved things -- Stockholm and comports himself like a leader would, and he speaks hopefully about the future.”
IN OTHER WORDS: “In other words, the agenda is varied and it’s profound.”
Asked who is really in charge of Russia now: “Putin introduced me to Medvedev. And he -- in not only his body language, but in his words to me that Medvedev is going to be in charge of foreign policy.” So that settles that.
Asked about human rights in Russia, he recounted how he once spoke to Putin on behalf of the Catholic church, how Putin owns his own orthodox church, how Bush once met some Russian Jews, and concluded “And so he is sensitive to religious liberty”. For Bush, there is really only one human right that matters.
IN OTHER WORDS: “And so my only point there is that -- and this is the point I make to our partners, is that the Iranians had adopted a different attitude during my presidency -- in other words, in the relatively near past -- and that’s not to say they can’t do it again.”
WHAT HE TELLS HIS PARTNERS: “You know, I tell my partners, we’re asking you to sanction, I know you’re sitting there saying to yourself, well, it’s easy for him to say because they’ve already sanctioned.” Oh, George, we know that nothing is easy for you to say.
WHAT THE QUESTION FACING COUNTRIES IS: “And the question facing countries is, does money trump effective diplomacy for the sake of peace and security?”
THE POST-WHAT NOW? “And the lesson learned in this post-conflict period in both Iraq and Afghanistan is you got to have security.”
BUSH MAKES A WIDDLE JOKE:
Q: Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq obviously is --They did not ask him what was disappointing about it, but did ask if he would have invaded Iraq is he’d known there were no WMDs: “Well, you know, that’s one of those great hypotheticals that we didn’t know.”
SHRUB: Still looking for them.
Q: Still looking for them, exactly. (Laughter.)
SHRUB: That was a huge disappointment.
KIND OF LIE IN AN EMPTY GRAVE: “Many, many families look at me trying to determine whether or not, one, I believed that it was necessary; and two, whether or not I’m going to let their son or daughter kind of lie in an empty grave when it comes to the sacrifice they made. They want to know whether or not the President -- if he believes it was necessary, whether or not he’s going to see this thing through, regardless of what they’re screaming on the TV sets.”
Asked about his legacy, he said, “There’s no such thing as objective short-term history.” He’s talked before about how forty years from now we’ll know how wonderful he really was, but I don’t think he’s claimed before that it’s literally impossible to form a correct judgment before then and that anything anyone says about him now can and should be completely disregarded.
ACTUALLY THEY’RE MEXICANS WHO DICK CHENEY SENDS INTO THE OVAL OFFICE EVERY MORNING AND TELLS BUSH ARE IRAQIS: “But my view is, is that when you talk to Iraqis, they’re thrilled with the idea of living in a free society. Do they like the fact that violence is still there? No. But every society reaches a level of violence that’s tolerable. And has that reached Iraq? I don’t know yet.” Tolerable? Presumably not to the recipients of that violence. That’s just a bizarre little sociological statement. And is he really saying that the level of violence in Iraq (or New York City or Sao Paulo, for that matter) is only as high as it is because the Iraqis are okay with it?
Oh wait, he goes on: “the thing that people ought to focus on is the courage of the Iraqis. They put up with a lot of violence: Muslims killing Muslims. But first of all, there have been some accidents, but nobody can claim that the United States or Great Britain are intentionally killing innocent people. We’re not. As a matter of fact, warfare has changed a lot.” After all these years, dude still thinks of war as antiseptic, even, dare I say it, humane.
WHAT IT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE SITTING AFAR TO SAY: “Freedom trumps tyranny every time. And it’s hard for people to see that. It’s hard for people sitting afar to say, isn’t that beautiful, somebody lives in a free society?”
One revelation: he has never watched “The West Wing.” “I don’t watch network TV. I read.”
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Some irritated guys making some moves
Bush was interviewed by the Observer (London).
HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: “When you go to the Middle East and you sit in my seat and listen, yes, there’s concern about the Palestinian state. But the dialogue has shifted dramatically from ‘solve the Palestinian state and you’ve solved the problems in the Middle East’ to, now, ‘solve the Iranian issue and you solve the problems in the Middle East’.” So who is it, besides the Israelis, calling for the US to attack Iran? We want names.
WHAT GEORGE FEELS: (ON IRAQ): “I feel a sense of pain for death. I feel a sense of pain for the families of our troops.”
BUST A MOVE: “We’re in a war. A lot of people hoped this wasn’t a war - they just kind of dismiss it as, oh, there’s some irritated guys making some moves.”
HE HAS AN MBA, YOU KNOW: “I talked to King Abdullah about increasing the supply of oil, on the theory that if you harm your consumers with high prices they will find other ways to power their economies - and that he should not want to see the kind of worldwide contraction as a result of consumers spending money on energy that ends up overseas, as opposed to spending money on opportunities in their respective economies.” Yes, he certainly wouldn’t want to see consumers spending money on energy that ends up overseas... although, actually, isn’t he in the business of selling energy and isn’t he located, you know, overseas?
(Update: more from this interview in the next post.)
Bush in Paris: Difficulty should not cause people to do the right thing
Jargon alert: in a NYT article about the National Guards patrolling the border with Mexico, we are treated to this quote from an officer in the Virginia Guard: “At first we were constantly catching clients.” The paper explains that “clients” is what the Border Patrol calls illegal immigrants.
This morning Bush held a press conference with French President Sarkozy, enjoying the rare experience of not being the goofiest-looking guy in the room.
HE’S THE REMINDERER: “Yesterday I reminded the world, really, Nicolas, that America’s first friend was France.”
AND WITH A SLIP OF THE TONGUE, HE LETS FRANCE OFF THE HOOK: “And frankly, we wouldn’t be where we are today with the French support early in our revolution.”
WHAT NICKY SARKOZY IS FULL OF: “I really enjoy being with President Sarkozy. He’s an interesting guy. (Laughter.) He is full of energy. He’s full of wisdom.”
THE SUPPORTER: “thank you very much for supporting the Paris support conference”.
SUPPORTING THE YOUNG DEMOCRATS: “And I do thank the people of France for supporting the women and children and the young democrats in Afghanistan.”
WHAT HIS MESSAGE WOULD BE: Asked what demands he’d like to make of Syrian President Assad, he said, “Well, my message would be, stop fooling around with the Iranians and stop harboring terrorists”.
BUT HE ISN’T, SO WE WON’T: “Olivier, if I were a betting man, we’ll reach an agreement with the Iraqis.”
WE REQUEST THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY. BYOSAW (BRING YOUR OWN SHOCK AND AWE): “You know, of course we’re there at their invitation; this is a sovereign nation.”
WHAT IS INTERESTING: “And it’s interesting to be working with a democracy where, you know, people are trying to prepare the ground to get something passed in the parliament, for example, or the free press is vibrant.”
IN OTHER WORDS: “Most Palestinians want to coexist in peace with Israel. And that peace must be in a state that is clearly visible, well defined, and in actuality is a state. And so in other words, the concept -- and by the way, this is newly arrived; I’m actually the first President ever to have articulated a two-state solution, two democracies living side by side with peace -- in peace. And during my time as President I’ve seen a notable shift amongst folks in the Middle East that recognize the importance of having that state.” Does he actually believe that no one thought a Palestinian state was a good idea before he brought up the subject?
HE’S THE REMINDERER: “And therefore our diplomacy is to remind all the parties involved that they have now an opportunity to get a state negotiated.”
WHAT SHOULD NOT CAUSE PEOPLE TO DO THE RIGHT THING: “I understand how difficult it is, but difficulty should not cause people to do the right thing.”
Friday, June 13, 2008
Bush in France, standing against moral relativism
Bush gave a speech in Paris to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Written for him, so not worth spending much time on, although he did add his own distinctive touches, by which I mean fuck-ups, saying that the US and France “stood united” during the Civil War when he meant Cold War;
thinking that the head of the Soviet Union was called a secretary-general; and in one memorable sentence referring both to a Broader Middle East and North America Initiative (actually the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative) and to a Forum for Freedom (actually the Forum for the Future).
He said that “We should stand against the moral relativism that views all forms of government as equally acceptable.” Name someone who’s ever said that, George. Anyone.
Speaking of equally acceptable forms of government, in the morning he dropped in on a theocratic state.
CAPTION CONTEST: What are they looking at?He brought the pope a gift.
Just what he always wanted, I’m sure.
Then it was on to France.
Boumediene v. Bush
Some quotes from the dissents in Boumediene v. Bush (pdf), the case extending Habeas Corpus to Guantanamo prisoners. First, Roberts’ dissent:
“The dangerous mission assigned to our forces abroad is to fight terrorists, not serve subpoenas.”
“One cannot help but think, after surveying the modest practical results of the majority’s ambitious opinion, that this decision is not really about the detainees at all, but about control of federal policy regarding enemy combatants.”
“So who has won? ... Not the Great Writ, whose majesty is hardly enhanced by its extension to a jurisdictionally quirky outpost... Not the rule of law, unless by that is meant the rule of lawyers... And certainly not the American people, who today lose a bit more control over the conduct of this Nation’s foreign policy to unelected, politically unaccountable judges.” It’s true, I feel so much less in control over the conduct of this nation’s foreign policy now.
(Addendum: Roberts describes current rules as “the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.” The word “generous” is telling, indicating that he does not believe that the detainees have rights that must be respected, that whatever version of due process they get is entire within our gift, subject only to our “generosity,” to grant or not, according to our whim.)
From Scalia’s dissent: “America is at war with radical Islamists.” So Scalia is signing on to Bush’s hazy and ill-defined definition of The War Against Terror (TWAT). He goes on to use that definition to argue that Guantanamo detainees should have no more rights than POWs seized on the battlefield during armed conflict between nations.
More, he cites reactions to a perceived threat as if they were logical proof of the seriousness of that threat: “one need only walk about buttressed and barricaded Washington, or board a plane anywhere in the country, to know that the threat is a serious one.”
He says the majority decision “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” He then cites the cases of released detainees who have subsequently done bad things. When a judge argues for locking people up based on what they might do in the future, you gotta wonder.
Like Roberts, Scalia insists that the majority is not really interested in habeas corpus rights or in any principle, but is making a raw, naked power grab: “What drives today’s decision is neither the meaning of the Suspension Clause, nor the principles of our precedents, but rather an inflated notion of judicial supremacy. ... The gap between rationale and rule leads me to conclude that the Court’s ultimate, unexpressed goal is to preserve the power to review the confinement of enemy prisoners held by the Executive anywhere in the world.” And if there’s one thing Scalia hates, it’s an abuse of power like that.
He concludes, “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.”
And today, John McCain added his voice, calling the ruling “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country”, which will subject us to “so-called, quote, Habeas Corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate, because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases.” Hey, stupid, the whole point of Habeas Corpus is to require that these cases be adjudicated.
Then he announced that in order to be consistent, he will be returning to Vietnam to spend the rest of his life in a tiger cage.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Bush in Italy: A little fatter and a little more enculturated
Today Bush held a not-very-entertaining press conference with Silvio Berlusconi. He said of his visit to Italy, “I always leave with a little extra culture -- and a little fatter.” He gave the rest of the press conference in the form of operatic verse.
HE’S THE REMINDERER: “Now, I remind the Prime Minister our objective is to get nations like China and India to sign up to the goal, and that we’ll develop our own strategies that will be firm strategies within the U.N. framework.”
On the Supreme Court’s depressingly narrow 5-4 decision that Guantanamo prisoners have the right of habeas corpus, he said, “we’ll abide by the Court’s decision.” Isn’t that nice of him?
He went on, pissily, “That doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. It’s a deeply divided Court, and I strongly agree with those who dissented, and their dissent was based upon their serious concerns about U.S. national security.” Unlike the five traitors.
THEY CALL HIM... THE IRANIAN: “Foreign Minister Solana is going to see the Iranian here very shortly”.
Berlusconi, asked who he supported in the American presidential race, said McCain, just so he wouldn’t be the oldest person at the G8 conference.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Bush in Germany: It’s all kinds of noise in their system and our system
This morning Bush held a press conference with Angela Merkel, who informed us, “Yesterday we had very intensive talks over dinner. We had intensive talks this morning.” There are few things as testicle-shrivelingly scary as a German using the phrase “intensive talks.”
Although Angela probably finds most scary Bush’s proclamation that “Our relationship is strong and our relationship is active.”
Going in for the inappropriate touching....
Going in....
Score!
NO GEORGE, WHAT THEY ACTUALLY SAID WAS THAT YOU ARE AS DUMB AS ASPARAGUS: “For those in the German press who thought I didn’t like asparagus, you’re wrong. The German asparagus are fabulous.”
WHAT THE IRANIAN PEOPLE DESERVE BETTER THAN: “The Iranian people deserve better than being isolated from the world. They deserve better from having, you know, their government held up as, you know, unsafe and not trustworthy.” Yeah, it must be terrible to have your government held up as, you know, unsafe and not trustworthy.
WHAT THERE’S A LOT OF IN THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCENE THESE DAYS: “A lot of protectionism in the American political scene these days.”
THANKING THE MESSAGE: “And I want to thank the message that came out of the EU meeting yesterday, which is that if they choose to be -- continue to be obstinate, there will be additional sanctions.”
Following up on the London Times interview, he says that of course he would still have invaded Iraq: “I don’t regret it at all. .... But I could have used better rhetoric to indicate that one, we tried to exhaust the diplomacy in Iraq; two, that I don’t like war.”
IT’S ALL KINDS OF NOISE: “First of all, I think we’ll end up with a strategic agreement with Iraq. You know, it’s all kinds of noise in their system and our system. What eventually will win out is the truth. For example, you read stories perhaps in your newspaper that the U.S. is planning all kinds of permanent bases in Iraq. That’s an erroneous story. The Iraqis know -- will learn it’s erroneous, too. We’re there at the invitation of the sovereign government of Iraq.”
HE SURE KNOWS HOW TO SELL A DEAL: “And I strongly support the agreement because I think it helps send a clear message to the people of Iraq that, you know, that security you’re now seeing will continue.”
ALL SAYING “FUCK OFF,” BUT STILL, YOU KNOW, A MYRIAD: “You know, as to -- look, Eggen, you can find any voice you want in the Iraqi political scene and quote them, which is interesting, isn’t it, because in the past you could only find one voice, and now you can find a myriad of voices.” So the fact that most Iraqis are vehemently against the status-of-forces agreement is just another sign of our success in bringing democracy to Iraq. But you’ve also gotta love how this myriad of voices is cited as a reason you can safely ignore what those voices are saying, because “you can find any voice you want.” Freedom, ain’t it grand.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
You know, not a man of peace
The Knesset is in the process of passing a law immunizing Israel from having to pay compensation for any damages caused by military actions in “enemy territories.” It will be retroactive to 2006, and adds that if a court ignores the law and rules in favor of compensation anyway, that compensation will be scaled down in accordance with the lesser living standards of Palestinians.
Bush tells the London Times that such phrases as “bring em on” and “dead or alive” might possibly, conceivably have given people the entirely erroneous impression “that I was, you know, not a man of peace”. I’m so glad he cleared that up.
While I attempt to peal my back off this chair, some pictures for your captioning pleasure:
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