The Most Inappropriate Bush War Smirk of 2007
Given 2008's inevitably ramped-up analysis of the Bush Legacy by the very serious traditional media, there's one aspect of the president which, staggeringly though not surprisingly, won't be covered. In fact, it's never been covered to my knowledge. The traditional media has never really challenged the president on his grotesquely inappropriate reactions to serious issues -- especially Iraq.
His uncomfortably ridiculous smirks and smiles illustrate his inadequacies as a leader: his fugacious attitude; his vacant stature; and, most strikingly, his apparent inability to grasp the reality of his decisions. It's all right there on the screen -- underlined by those tiny baby teeth.
So as a reminder to the traditional media, I'd like to present the Most Inappropriate Bush War Smirk of 2007. But first, some runners up.
The date: October 17, 2007
The place: The White House Press Briefing Room
The hilarious quote: "But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding [grinning] World War III [end grinning], it seems like you [begin giggling] ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge [end giggling] necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
The date: April 3, 2007
The place: The White House Rose Garden
The hilarious quote: "That's precisely why I sent more troops into Baghdad."
The date: January 14, 2007
The place: 60 Minutes
The hilarious quote: "There's not enough troops on the ground right now to provide security for Iraq and that's why I made the decision I made."
And now, for the historical record, The Most Inappropriate Bush War Smirk of 2007:
The date: January 16, 2007
The place: PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer
The hilarious quote: "If I didn't believe we could keep the egg from fully cracking, I wouldn't ask 21,000 kids -- additional kids to go into Iraq to reinforce those troops that are there."
Soon after this smirk, the president, as part of his euphemistically nicknamed New Way Forward, ordered an additional 21,000 soldiers into Iraq with the goal of providing military cover for a political solution to the civil war there.
During the intervening 11 months between the above smirk and today, 6,796 American soldiers were either killed or wounded under the president's hap-hap-happy command.
The political solution for which these soldiers gave their lives... never happened.
I don't know who he thinks he is or what he thinks he's grinning about, but for the Commander in Chief of the United States armed forces to smile and giggle while discussing warfare of any form or magnitude is an insult -- not just to the soldiers who followed his orders into battle, but also to basic decency and human morality. From his zany "those WMDs have to be around here somewhere" sketch to his shit-eating grin whilst comparing warfare to wacky-yet-delicious breakfast foods, this extends far beyond the necessary objective distance of a military leader and into the realms of madness.
This is the Bush Legacy, Traditional Media. Please consider this in the coming months. President Bush injected a psycho bomb into the Middle East without any real grasp of the consequences and, nearly five years into the conflict, is so affectless about these consequences as to smirk and laugh at it all.
Or maybe there's an hilarious joke in there somewhere and we're all just dumb about it.
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My first time seeing Bush do something I thought inappropriate--was when they had video of him signing the death warrant for that young woman in a Texas prison as she faced her execution--as he silently signed the warrant-that fucked up grin of his came over his face--as though he took joy in sending a person to their maker---that gave me the heebie-jeebies.
There was also something that Bush did that I thought pretty well messed up--it was when he and Laura went to the capital rotunda where Ronald Reagan's body was lying in state after his death---Bush was being very nasty to Laura that day--he was being very short and curt to her---and you could tell--Bush did not really want to be there paying respects to Ronald Reagan--it was probably because he did not like so much attention being directed at Reagan to remind conservatives how much they loved Ronnie but did not have that same degree of love for him!!
No Bob, you missed the best one when Nick Robinson asked the president if he was 'in denial' over Iraq in the White House. A question no American reporter has the balls to ask. Google 'Nick Robinson'to see the stupid reply and Bush talk 'crap' about 'prevailing'. Google 'patrick lockyer' to see my own musings about matters of interest.
That's the smirks of a puppet, though the puppet master can't control his mouth.
He had tht same obilivious smile when he was running in '99- creeped the shit out of me then- and still does (lights are on but no one is home- except DICK)
I want them (past & present admin, congressional& private industry accomplices) tried for Treason, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.And I want the maximum penalties to be issued and carried out.
NO MERCY.
"Off with their Heads!!!"
So says the Queen of Hearts
Thanks for a great column. It can't be repeated often enough (because god only knows, the media isn't going to) how jaw-droppingly crass and crude Bush's unstatesmanlike conduct is, every single time he opens his hideous mouth or massages Angela Merkel's shoulders.
He should have been impeached, NOT given yet another pass, after he leered into the camera and sneered "Bring 'em on" (to kill our soldiers) in reference to the fighting against our Shock and Awe, unilateral invasion in Iraq HE LIED to get us and our soldiers into in the first place! He deserved to be impeached for that treasonous conduct but instead, he got a complete amoral pass from the neo-con media.
This done at the same time almost, the strutting chicken-hawk dressed up in drag and landed on the aircraft carrier to claim "Mission Accomplished".
The neo-con, right-wing, Republican-sucking media never once took Bush to task even in those two super-ultra egregious instances, in a long history of nothing but ... sociopathic confabulation.
When he makes psyco comments such as "Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love...." he should
have been indignantly called upon to explain himself by a 'so-called' journalist setting in rapt attention in the front row, the journalist should ask him just what the hell he meant BY THAT crazy comment and forced HIM to account for what HE has said and done, for a change.
Instead, he has always, from the first day of his campaign for pres, in 1999, been given a fawning pass by the media.
Is it because they wanted him to win so badly, to avenge, make up to "daddy", for not winning in 1992? I think so.
Ps, I wanted to ad that your posts are my favorite, because you obsess over his inhuman-ness, same as I do. But you'd be doing us all a great favor if you could post a little sampling of his reactions to the Iraq burn and IED victims during his visit with them, widely televised, a couple of months ago. That is some seriously chill-your-blood stuff.
I have always cringed to see this man give a speech--his manner and such when speaking is nothing less than dreadful--as much as I don't care for much of their ideologies, policies, etc--each and every one of the current crop of the Republican candidates for President are far and away much better speakers than is Bush--they may be delivering the same old crap as Bush--but at least their speaking style is tolerable.
There are many things I never cared about Bush--but in this age of style being so important over substance (even in politics)---Bush's substance sure did suck---the fact that he did make it to the presidency and hold on to it for two terms is nothing less than astounding considering his profound inability to deliver a coherent sentence and that he does do those stupid facial expressions, giggles and the like when he speaks!!! Thankfully Bush will soon be exiting the stage for so many reasons, not the least of which is his horrendous public speaking style and even more importantly-- because of his disasterous policies, actions and inactions.
I have to second marignymitch's comment—why exactly is it that none of these so-called news professionals won't simply pause during a Q&A and say, "why are you laughing?" Could you imagine how you'd feel if your mother or father had said, "We're gonna need you to go down in that ditch near the Black Adder's nest and just get those tent poles we dropped, ok honey?"--accompanied by that smile or grin. You'd never get over it. You'd be in the street, thirty years later, babbling about flying saucers and conspiracies.
In movies you always see total psychosis as this inability to connect what's happening with the appropriate human response. Think Silence of the Lambs--Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill, both, have that loopy way of smiling as they flay someone.
So what's the difference between that and George "the Cannibal" Bush?
SOMEONE MENTIONED BUSH AS A "SPOILED RICH KID".. AND THAT ABOUT COVERS IT ALL BUT LETS NOT FORGET THAT HE WAS RAISED BY A WOMAN WHO THOUGHT HER MIND WAS "TOO BEAUTIFUL" TO SEE AND HONOR THE FALLEN WHEN THEIR BODIES WERE BROUGHT BACK HOME TO OUR COUNTRY.
IMPEACH = IMPEACH = IMPEACH = WHY HAS IT NOT BEEN DONE? THIS FOOL, THIS SMIRKING FOOL HAS PUT THE UNITED STATES IN A POSITION IT HAS NEVER BEEN IN BEFORE IN THE WORLD.....AND I BET THE SAME IDIOTS WOULD VOTE FOR HIM AGAIN... JUST BECAUSE HE SAID HE WAS A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN....OH, MY GOODNESS, HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?? WHY MUST SO MANY OF US SUFFER THIS FOOL BECAUSE OF NARROW MINDED IDIOTS???
You nailed it, Cesca. When he smirked and joked at the Press Club Dinner about searching for WMD's--and the members of the Propaganda Ministry laughed right along--I knew it was over. Now these same toadies will spend time crafting "Bush's legacy." What a sickening joke. The legacy of this crook, thief, liar, traitor and war criminal should be an orange jump suit and leg shackles.
What else can we expect from a complete @ss who was never qualified to lead and rather than blame GWB for his shortcomings which he can't help---- I think the credit needs to be applied to the ones who campaigned, Karl Rove and of course all of the people who voted for the jerk and voted for him TWICE !!!
This guy won't be impeached because dumb Nancy pulled that idea off the table.
Just think, we as a nation have to put up with this guy for another year. Why is this man not being impeached? Better yet he should be removed from office due to his "mental defect". I don't say this lightly either. He is F--king scary. I mean, this guy is arrogant, ignorant and stupid. Not at all a good combination. He is a pathological liar. He is still trying to drum up support to attack Iran, even after the revelation that Iran has no real nuclear weapon ambitions.
Inappropriate affect is part of alcoholism, sober or otherwise.
Bush is an unrecovered drunk and drug abuser.
His mind is scrambled from too much pickling "in his callow youth."
His parents enabled his addictions, then they enabled his rise to power.
We didn't elect him then re-elect him, both elections were stolen by means of rigged voting machines distributed by Diebold, whose owner is a die-hard Republican Bush fan.
America suffered two bloodless coup de etats, and I only wonder why more people don't realize that.
No attempts have been made on his life because the lunatics who plan such things are the same types who voted for him.
The smirk is -and always has been- Bush's way of saying 'fuck you' to the world.
That's all there is to it.
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