What If Pete Stark is Right and George W. Bush is Just a Big Meanie?

With the usual gang of shameless Republican hypocrites being joined by the usual gang of spineless Democratic wimps in scolding Rep. Pete Stark for suggesting that George W. Bush's response to the deaths of U.S. troops is "amusement," might I suggest that maybe Stark doesn't really owe anyone an apology?

1) What animal did a pre-teen George W. Bush like to blow up with firecrackers?
a) Rabbit.
b) Frog.
c) Hamster.

2) What was the subject of then-Yale party boy George W. Bush's first nationally quoted statement?
a) A complaint about the smell of hippies.
b) An apology for his arrest for stealing a Christmas wreath from a New Haven hotel.
c) A defense of his frat's practice of branding pledges with hot wire hangers in which he pooh-poohed the resulting "insignificant" wound as "only a cigarette burn" that leaves "no scarring mark, physically or mentally."

3) What made George W. Bush chuckle during a debate with Al Gore?
a) He suddenly remembered something funny from an Austin Powers movie.
b) Gore couldn't stop saying "lockbox."
c) The moderator brought up an incident in which the lawyer for a Texas death row inmate slept through much of his client's trial.

4) What put a big smile on George W. Bush's face during a debate with Al Gore?
a) Saying of the three Texans who killed a black man by dragging him behind their truck, "Guess what's going to happen to them! They're going to be put to death!"
b) Saying, "I'm a uniter, not a divider."
c) Memories of cursing out a reporter who'd written something innocuous that he'd taken great offense at in front of the man's wife and four-year-old son, drunkenly snarling, "You no-good fucking son-of-a-bitch, I will never fucking forget what you wrote!"

5) After observing him pump his left fist and say, "I feel good!" mere seconds before going on the air to announce that the U.S. was at war with Iraq, who marveled at George W. Bush's "almost giddy readiness to kill"?
a) Chris Matthews.
b) Jack Cafferty.
c) Keith Olbermann.

6) What observation did author Mark Crispin Miller make about George W. Bush?
a) That his nicknames for people weren't really cute at all, but rather his bully-boy way of saying, "I'm not gonna call you by your name, asshole, I'm gonna call you what I wanna call you."
b) That he seemed destined to leave office generally understood to have been "the nation's worst president ever, elected or not."
c) That he's only given to malaprops like "I know how hard it is to put food on your family" when he's trying to sound caring or compassionate, but when he's talking about punishing someone or the infliction of pain, his statements are clear and concise, since spoken from the heart.

7) What was the reaction of the audience at a 2004 dinner of White House radio and TV reporters when George W. Bush accompanied a slide show of pictures of him looking under furniture and peeking behind drapes with the narration, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere ... Nope, no weapons over there. Maybe under here ..."?
a) Stunned silence, with several reporters -- though no one from Fox -- getting up and walking out to protest the aberrant unfeelingness of George W. Bush's joking about a situation he had needlessly gotten the country into in which thousands upon thousands of Americans were being killed or maimed, and that's not even mentioning the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis.
b) Howls of sycophantic laughter, or at least one hopes it was sycophantic, as genuine laughter would be even more horrific.

8) True or false? In a 1999 interview with Talk magazine reporter (and future cable clown) Tucker Carlson, George W. Bush recounted a Larry King interview with condemned and famously born-again Texas killer Karla Faye Tucker, in which "he asked her real difficult questions, like, 'What would you say to Governor Bush?'" and when Carlson asked what her response was, Bush pursed his lips in mock desperation and whimpered, "Please don't kill me" -- a grotesque enough response if it had actually happened, but breathtakingly ugly considering that transcripts prove she said no such thing.
a) False, no one could be that gratuitously cruel.
b) True, and in that light, has anything happened since this ignorant sadistic bully and his gang of droogs hijacked the presidency that can rightly be considered surprising?

ANSWERS: 1) b, 2) c, 3) c, 4) a, 5) a, 6) c, 7) b, 8) b

Paul Slansky's quizzes will be a regular feature on 23/6, the new satiric news site coming soon to a computer screen near you.

Comments

[Ramirez]

The Stark Apology Video can be viewed here:

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/7103.html

[GenXer]

Sad, never apologize when your right. Does anyone know a neuro-surgeon that has perfected the spine transplant. There is a whole political party that needs one.

[research]

Pete Stark is a Hero! Contact him and show your support!

http://www.house.gov/stark/contact/index.htm

Now we see the awful, pitiful truth about the GOP: they are incompetent, heartless, deceitfully, power mad, sociopaths. Conservatism is a miserable failure intellectually, fiscally, morally, diplomatically, and constitutionally. Yet, the GOP still thinks we care about their condemnation of congressman Pete Stark for speaking truth to Bush's sadism. Contact congress and tell them to condemn the GOP and Bush&Co now!

[gardedan41]

Paul's column says more about him then it does about GWB. what kid didn't try to do fiendish things to creatures growing up in the country... Well maybe not Paul, as I can almost picture Paul as one of those kids in junior high school who girls looked at and winced because he was blowing his nose with his sleeve. The ultimate nerd revenge against the popular kid is not to confront him, not quite brave enough or maybe too smart knowing he wouldn't stand a chance... and he's certainly not suicidal, so instead he'll get off on calling him crude names and smirk about it... So cool Paul. When will the left wingnuts in this country stand up and tell us what they really think, so we could all get really scared and vote your ilk out once and for all!!!!

[GuiltyUndertaker]

No, actually it says a lot about George W. Bush and what a sick, disturbed little spoiled rich kid he is. And he didn't grow up in the country. he didn't really "grow up" at all. I grew up in the country, and I never tortured animals.

"...get off on calling him crude names and smirk about it"? That sounds like George W. Bush to me. The leader of the most powerful military on the Earth calls the leader of Russia "pooty-poot." Yes, let's vote out those awful liberals and elect more cases of arrested development like George W. Bush.

Bush was popular in school? Doubt it, but if he was it was only because his dad was filthy rich. Anyone can be popular that way -- even you, gardedan.

[GuiltyUndertaker]

What is really scary about people like gardedan is that they think the most popular kid in the school -- you know, the one who tortures frogs -- somehow would make a good president of the U.S. Sorry, gardedan, but the presidency of the most powerful military force in world history is too important to be entrusted to the rich kid with the coolest clothes and the best marijuana. If the leftwing was ALLOWED to be heard, voters would get scared and vote Republicans out of office once and for all.

[BoulderSue]

Oh, yeah: Pete Stark just voiced what a lot of us think. It was a little impolitic, but sometimes the truth just pops out when you least expect it.

[BoulderSue]

Read "Bush on the Couch" by Justin Frank, M.D. Also "American Dynasty" by George Packer if I remember correctly. It's too bad the Constitution doesn't have some provision for removing a President from power for other than physical medical problems (but then we'd have Cheney). Maybe a mental health exam should be required right along with the Prez's annual physical. I'm not saying the Prez is certifiable, but he does really seem to have a mean streak. I'm sure future analysts will discuss his mental state in great detail. Anyway we sure know he's not a Compassionate Conservative

[deminmo]

Maybe the Bush/Chaney friendship makes sense.

Chaney looks for wars to keep Bush amused.

Bush gives Chaney anything he wants.

[swkidder]

He's a classic sociopath ... but then let's all take a moment and remember what his mother said in the Houston Astrodome ....

[Ironfox]

A very interesting post. Anyone familiar with the "Hare Psychopathy Checklist" would find it more than merely interesting. In fact, it is frightening and has been, is, and will be very dangerous.

[coloneblog]

Stark was wrong to suggest that GI's dying in Iraq was amusing to bush; bush is amused at just being president. The vicious blood thirsty criminal is Cheney, the puppeteer! The 2 of them, like their mentor Milosevec, should be tried in the international courts for "crimes against humanity."

[tdterry1999]

Did Hillary vote for the war.Throw her and alot of others in the same court.

[blankmw]

Thanks for your eye-opening and insightful post. Makes a lot of sense to me! I didn't like his daddy, but, I'd beg for George Sr. to be in office over this nincompoop. I've hated and mistrusted him since the first day I laid eyes on him and heard his nasty voice. He's obviously very disturbed and power hungry. Now, if we could just get someone in our government to see him for the brazen criminal that he is.....

[Gailhen]

Whaddya mean "What if?" :) - First thing I did is I called Stark's office and said "Don't you dare back down or apologize; you are right on the money and I would vote for you for president if you were running." And I don't even live in his district.

[notnuffsaid]

An excellent thought. I too shall call his office to support him.

[notnuffsaid]

Too late. I just tried his website and he has apparently apologized, although I couldn't download it.

[notnuffsaid]

Pete Stark should read this column into the Congressional Record. It's entirely accurate and would force enough light onto the President so as press the Republican Presidential candidates to defend Bush; a situation that they have avoided up till now. Rather than talk about Reagan and Hillary, let's hesar them discuss the current President whose policies they all seem to promote.

[WireDolly]

Pete Stark is my representative here in CA-13. I voted for him and will continue to do so. If one researches Rep. Stark they will learn that pretty much all his speeches are as spot on as the one he made this past week regarding SCHIP. What I see happening is the ReTHUGS once again projecting their own bad behaviour onto someone else when it's convenient, so they decided to make a mountain out of Stark's true-to-form comments.

What I want to know is, which Republican is going to publicly apologize to those millions of kids they just screwed out of health care? Why do we continue to allow our government to place fetuses on a pedestal to satisfy the woman-hating god inventors while millions of kids are shit on?

[ErnestineBass]

Most serial killers have a childhood history of torturing small animals.
I see that Bush's choice was a frog.

A creature lacking teeth or claws.
That should tell us all we need to know about our Commando-In-Chief.

[Kendo Nagasaki]

Apologise ?

Republicans only apologise just as they are being sentenced to a jail term. Especially Congressmen.

[blankmw]

EXACTLY! To my horror, however, I just watched a few minutes ago on television as Stark apologized publicly in Congress. I don't know who could've made him cave or what kind of "non"-torture he could've been subjected to and by whom, but, he did apologize......unfortunately.

[TankerRat]

Snicker, snicker. Great post Kendo.

[truesue]

Pete Stark is my representative as well and I'm with you WireDolly. My question is how do we get the Demowimp Party to start taking his lead. These guys are all "playing nice", with a bunch of bullies and thugs. They behave as though they think that the repugs are playing by the same rules. What they don't get is that Bush & Co. have no rules or make them up as they go along. The closest thing this administration comes to having rules is that they follow the MAFIA rule of law--My way or die. By the time the rest of the democratic party and it's leadership, figure this out, it will by much too late for the country.

[mellene]

Pete Stark is absolutely right. Bush has destroyed American as we knew it and sadly, we'll be in perpetual war for the next several decades.

[princessofnowt]

We know it's true, but what to do?

First- get him (and Cheney!(first!))out of office before WWIV and martial law here.

And- See Naomi Wolf's Huffpo blog of Oct 18th re Ron Paul's new bill (of Oct 15th) to Defend our Constitution. Sign all and distribute.

Sign and forward: "Bush is Mad- Invoke the 25th Amendment" petition:

http://elandslide.org/
elandslide/petition.cfm?campaign=madgeorge&refer=home

(Or go to www.democrats.com)

Also links on this site to other petitions and information:
impeach Bush
impeach Cheney first
paper ballots
troops out now
and more....

Sign for what you believe in, while it's still legal to do so.

And DO vote on the National Initiative for Democracy for a new system of checks and balances to prevent this from ever happening again:

www.NI4D.us

And Read & Memorize our Constitution and Bill of Rights, while they are still available. It will make you cry when you see what is already gone.

For another piece of the puzzle,see how Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush not nly was involved with Hitler, but tried to get General Smedley Butler (he refused and testified in congressional hearings) to takeover the White House and the country from Roosevelt, watch 'The Corporation'.

http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=46