Behind the Curtain

The more I think about the media and how they’re playing the latest Bush Open-Mic fiasco, the more outraged I get.

Everyone is playing the same “OMG HE SAID SHIT!” angle. CNN even ran a story about Bush’s history of less-than-statesmanlike behavior, narrated by their “isn’t life wacky” human-interest-story reporter, Jeanne Moos. He said “shit”….gawrsh what a cowboy.

Talk about obscuring the fucking point.

Consider these quotes from the transcript, and what they tell us about the man’s intellect and decision-making abilities:

Bush: “Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home? This is your neighborhood. It doesn’t take you long to get home. How long does it take you to get home?”

Reply is inaudible.

Bush: “Eight hours? Me too. Russia’s a big country and you’re a big country.”

At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the conversation.

Bush: “It takes him eight hours to fly home.”

He turns his attention to a server.

Bush: “No, Diet Coke, Diet Coke.”

He turns back to whomever he was talking with.

Bush: “It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia’s big and so is China.”

Is this how you talk? Is it just me, or does it sound like a child? “Russia’s big and so is China”??? What adult talks that way to other adults…..much less the Leader of the Free World speaking to other World Leaders? What kind of fucking idiot is so stupid that he thinks that is something worth saying to men who RUN THEIR COUNTRIES?

I doubt that anybody reading this post right now would talk that way to another adult….nor would you take it as a sign of confidence if your doctor, lawyer or accountant talked that way to you….and yet, the man who literally has your life and your freedom in his hands talks this way, and all we can concentrate on is that he said “shit?”

Even putting aside for a moment HOW he talks, consider what he says. In the space of moments, he goes from ridiculing Kofi Annan of the UN:

Bush : What about Kofi? That seems odd. I don’t like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically ceasefire and [then] everything else happens. You know what I’m saying?

….to then viewing him as the one who could solve the problem:

Bush : I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen.

Why Bush would think that Bashar Assad, president of Syria, would jump when the UN tells him to reign in Hezbollah, much less why Hezbollah would do it, is beyond comprehension. Regardless, rather than attempting to solve the problem with our own diplomats, Bush seems content to leave the solving of this problem to a man whose methods and motivations he holds in low regard.

What the Fuck?

Tony Blair’s comments regarding a proposed Condi Rice visit to the region is also disturbing, in what they reveal about Bush’s methods:

Blair : Well, it’s only if it’s — I mean, you know, if she’s gotta — or if she needs the ground prepared, as it were. Obviously, if she goes out, she’s got to succeed, as it were, whereas I can just go out and talk.

The US will not engage on any level without the guarantee of success. Blair recognizes this, says so flat-out….and also says that he can just “go out and talk”….but that if Bush sends Rice, that she’s “got to succeed.”

We don’t play unless it’s a done deal that we’ll win. That’s pathetic.

But hey….pay no attention to any of this. The important thing is:

OMG THE PREZ SAID SHIT LOL!!!