Apparently Syria and Hezbollah are not the only ones full of shit. I feel I can use this word because my President also uses it. With is mouth full no less. One has to wonder what the esteemed Blair said in response. Hopefully (also with his mouth full) he reminded George that his mike was on, and to please pass the pork chops.

Mouth full or not, for once Bush is right. Anyone who doesn't think this was a coordinated attack (Hamas/Hezbollah/Syria/Iran) is full of it themselves. I voted against Bush twice, opposed the Iraq and still think it's a disaster, but anybody who doesn't think the power-greedy, Jew hating Islamofascists don't mean to bring down Israel first, then any power that doesn't acquiesce in their bullshit, must have dipped long and hard into poor old late Syd Barrett's psychedelic medicine chest.

This actually has unlimited, nay, universal application - just fill in the blanks:

What they(we) need to do is get ___________ to get __________ to stop doing this shit and it's over.

E.G. Somalia / warlords

Afghanistan/Taliban

Pakistan/bin Laden

Steinbrunner/the Yankees

Jackson/Kobe

Laura/Asshole

does he mean by "they"?

This goes to show you how fucking incredibly stupid this man really is, and how his world is in black and white. All we have to do is stop Hezbollah from doing this shit? Wow... that's an incredible insight, Shrub. Too bad you're fucking clueless as to how to go about it.

As to the comments of mackb... so I'm supposed to believe that you voted against Bush twice, think he's a shitty president, yet you use the term 'islamofascist', like a good little Dittomonkey. The only fascists you should worry about are the ones on Pennsylvania Ave.

Big f**king deal. The president said, "sh*t" instead of "stuff." It's not like he called Nasrallah a muddah huckah. What do the rest of us say when we think nobody's listening? What do we do when we think nobody's looking?

My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to tell you today that I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

-- Ronald Reagan

Mackb is right. Also, I hate Bush too. He is the worst president ever.

Bush's comments show how remarkably short-sighted, partisan and ignorant the man is. Hezbollah and Israel are doing the tango, and as we all know, it takes two (see Rami G. Khouri's recent article in Salon). And I suppose somewhere someone (Bashar al-Assad say) could just as easily say (perhaps with his mouth full, and perhaps more truthfully): "What they need to do is get the US to get Israel to stop doing this shit and it's over."

Tim, I have to chide you a bit for going for the easy prey on this one. The transcript (copied below from CNN.com) is fasincating, and it says a lot (between the lines) about how Bush and Blair see things. I almost get the sense Bush and Blair are having two different conversations, with each of them hearing what they want to hear (or resigned to the fact that the other won't change):

Bush: What about Kofi Annan? I don't like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically cease-fire and everything else happens.

Blair: I think the thing that is really difficult is you can't stop this unless you get this international presence agreed.

Bush: She's going. I think Condi's (U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) going to go pretty soon.

Blair: Well that's all that matters. If you see, it will take some time to get out of there. But at least it gives people....

Bush: It's a process I agree. I told her your offer too.

Blair: Well it's only or if she's gonna or if she needs the ground prepared as it were. See, if she goes out she's got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk.

Bush: See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over.

Blair: Cause I think this is all part of the same thing. What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if he gets a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way, he's done it. That's what this whole things about. It's the same with Iran.

Bush: I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen. We're not blaming Israel and we're not blaming the Lebanese government.

That's news that the networks can't report with an airing of the word, unless they're prepared to pay the FCC fine. Sheesh!

Here's how NYTimes Jim Rutenberg quotes Bush in his overheard conversation with Blair:

“I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” he said to Mr. Blair, referring to Syria’s president, Bashir Assad.

A transcript featured on Adam Boulton's blog

http://adamboulton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/bush_blair_unpl.html

gives a slightly different version:

Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Bashad [Bashir Assad](9a and make something happen

Blair: Yeah

"Bashad"?!? If he really said that, am I pedantic for being bothered by the NYT's word cosmetics aimed at sparing Bush additional embarrassment? Shouldn't the public know that Bush obviously doesn't know the name of one of the key players in the region? Or is it just his "funny" nick name for the guy? Bhagdad, bashad, whatever.

It takes some real journalistic effort to make that exchange between Bush and Blair sound like more than an exchange on Jerry Springer, as someone on Boulton's blog called it. "Yo Blair, how are you doing."

These people rule the world. Wow.

As "orbitboy" pointed out, it's fascinating that Bush chose to phrase his comment this way:

"...what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop..."

Who IS this "they" that he mentions? And then add this Dubya comment:

"I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen."

TELLING? He thinks HE can TELL Kofi Annan to act, separate from the U.N. itself?

It makes one long for the scenario in the 1951 science fiction movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" -- oh, if ONLY we had a disinterested third party who had the power and will to make the stupid humans stop our age-old butchery. If only Klaatu and Gort were real -- not pure sci-fi.

*sigh*

Of course, it's still up to US, as it always has been. Too bad we have a president without enough interest or savvy to step up and do what needs to be done...