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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Direct quotes from the linked video:
(in a helicopter) "The White House is really neat..."
...
(on the economy:) "When the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over, y'know, a decade or so -- before I arrived as president, during I arrived as president."
"I'm sorry it's happening, of course, obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs or being worried about their 401-K's. On the other hand the American people gotta know that, uh, we will safeguard the system, I mean, we're in, and if we need to be in more, we will." [???]
"When you have the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Fed, say 'If we don't act boldly, we could be in a depression greater than the Great Depression,' that's an 'uh-oh' moment. But the question is, Is it worth it to save the system, to safeguard the system? And I came to the conclusion, along with other smart people, that it is."
...
"Yeah, I've been around politics a long time. Now remember, I was the guy in 2000 who campaigned for change. I campaigned for change when I ran for Governor of Texas. The only time I really didn't campaign for change is when I was running for re-election."
...
"Well, I think I was unprepared for war. In other words I didn't campaign and said, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle a, uh, an attack.' In other words I didn't anticipate war. Presidents... One of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."
...
(on being joyful) "Oh yeah. I don't want people to misconstrue, it's not, I don't feel joyful when somebody loses their life, nor do I feel joyful from somebody loses their job -- that concerns me. And, uh, y'know, a president ends up carrying a lot of people's grief in his soul. But the idea of being able to serve a nation you love, uh, is, is, uh, has been joyful. In other words, my spirits have never been down. I have been sad....but the spirits are up."
I didn't watch the whole interview until just now. You really have to see the whole thing.
Go to this page and then click on the video called "Bush Highlights Term Highs and Lows."
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Politics/Story?id=6354012&page=2
It is very uncomfortable to watch, as there is palpable shame hanging in the air even as Bush tries to put on his best "I stayed true to my principles" face. It is the sort of statement that is completely contradicted by his demeanor and body language.
The part where he discusses the intelligence about WMD is really just....stunning. And I mean that in the most kick-in-the-gut kind of way. Charles Gibson asks Bush whether there would have been a war if it had been known that Saddam Hussein did not have WMD. Bush can't even bring himself to say there would not have. He mutters something about there not being any "do-overs," and his eyes become furtive and sad.
You really have to see it. Words do not do it justice.
Not only are Bush's claims about weapons inspectors lies, but his "regret" that he was unprepared for war is utter horsepuckey as well.
His former ghost writer, Mickey Hershkowitz, said that Bush told him in 1999 (well before the election:
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade·.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
link: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1028-01.htm
He HAS no soul. The man is a golem.
In particular, Cheney's golem.
The buck once upon a time used to stop with Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower,..., John F. Kennedy and even Lyndon Baines Johnson. (They did not generally pass the bucks on).
That changed of course with Tricky Dick who had Henry Kissinger (a Nobel Prize winner, no less!) to field the buck for him and also General Alexander Haig, but at some point both Kissinger and haig gave up the unequal struggle, I understand.
Then there came Gerald Ford who all things considered actually did a fair job of fielding the buck considering that Lyndon Baines Johnson did not believe he was capable of farting and chewing gum simultaneously.
Jimmy Carter is not considered a great President, but he was no buck passer; he certainly held on to the buck when it came to him in the form of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Teheran and the subsequent Iran hostage crisis.
Then came Ronald Reagan, who was by no means a great President - but he was not a buck passer (IMHO).
Bush I was no genius but he did not seem to be a buck passer either.
Clinton apparently had some difficulty keeping his fly zipped when in the presence of nubile interns - but he passed no bucks anywhere (so far as I know).
GW Bush, War Criminal, is the liar, scoundrel, thief AND buck-passer non-pareil - the ace buck-passer & buck-juggler of all time.
Clad in his dinky little yellow-and-black pilot suit, GW Bush took the controls of a plane (except during takeoff and landing) to fly the awesome distance of 2.5 miles to the aircraft carrier, so that he could boast "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!". It turned out, of course, that there was no Mission and nothing really was accomplished except to destroy Iraq, and to dig an economic hole for the US and for the world (costing some $ 3 TRILLION!) which we shall now take decades to dig ourselves out of. This buck has been duly passed to the next President, Obama, and to at least 3 presidents to come after Obama!!
Also notable is GW Bush's trip to Baghdad during Thanksgiving 2003, where he 'fed' his troops there some phony plastic Thanksgiving turkey all tricked up to look good on TV. (I don't know to whom he passed this particular buck when the ploy did not work - but the Independent, London, brilliantly headlined the occasion as: "The Turkey Has Landed!" (check out: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1128-01.htm to read that superb report).
And then there was Katrina, where GW Bush duly congratulated his pet FEMA Director, Michael D. Brown, for the disasters he piled onto New Orleans in addition to the damage done by Katrina. "Doin' a GREAT job, Brownie!" Just weeks later, "Brownie" resigned/was sacked for the incompetent job he had done.
GW Bush also knows how to give a mean massage, so we could also give him the title World Master Masseur-in-Chief: we should probably honour him for his achievements in these very diverse fields!
GW Bush
-- POTUS
-- War Criminal
-- Heroic Pilot of War Planes (who evaded his Vietnam posting despite being highly pro-war)
-- Phony Turkey
-- Masseur-in-Chief
GSC
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
