Outrage overload continues
You have to give George W. Bush credit, in a “My, that leech certainly sucks blood well,” sort of way. Just when you think he can’t get any lower, he proves you wrong.
Every single time.
Before yesterday, I would have happily sworn on a first edition copy of Darwin's On the Origin of the Species that Bush simply couldn’t act any more despicably in playing the “terrorism” card than he already has. Surely, I foolishly believed, there must be a saturation point for such things -- a low that’s so low that it simply can’t be outdone.
Consider, after all, the dreary parade of his past dishonor.
Manipulating public fear of terrorism for political gain?
Been there, done that.
Falsely besmirching the patriotism of political opponents?
Oh, please! That’s just so 2002!
Using terrorism alerts to scare people when it’s politically helpful?
Just another day at the office.
Arguing that Americans must surrender their sacred freedoms in order to be safe from attack?
Does the phrase standard operating procedure mean anything to you?
Using the fear of terrorism to perpetrate a fraud on the nation leading to a disastrous war in Iraq?
Hey, whatever works.
Abusing claims of national security to justify obsessive governmental secrecy?
What part of I don’t care what you think do you not understand?
But clearly I had underestimated the ingenuity of the Bush White House when it comes to finding new and even more pathetic forms of disgraceful conduct.
(AP) Democrats outraged by Bush "appeasement" remark
Democrats erupted in outrage on Thursday after President George W. Bush suggested a pledge by the party's presidential front-runner Barack Obama to meet Iran's leader was akin to appeasement of Nazi Germany. Bush's comments, made in Jerusalem to the Israeli parliament during celebrations for Israel's 60th anniversary, stirred up the campaign for the November election and prompted Obama to accuse him of engaging in "the politics of fear." "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said. Without mentioning Obama by name, Bush compared "this foolish delusion" to the prelude to World War Two. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history," he said.Yup, he’s done it: he’s found a way to sink even lower. He appeared before the parliament of a foreign nation, where partisan politics isn’t supposed to follow, and used the opportunity to accuse his political opponents of wanting to make love to terrorists. Pathetic. Simply pathetic. You’ll have to forgive me, however, if I can’t quite summon up the energy required for the sort of no-holds-barred outraged response this clearly calls for: seven plus years of the Bush presidency has drained it out of me. So Bush said something offensive, moronic and disgusting. Well, I guess then this must be Thursday -- or Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday or Wednesday. As I’ve mentioned before, right wing nutcase, William Bennett, once wrote a stupid book about the Lewinsky affair titled The Death of Outrage. Basically, the theme was that it pissed off Bennett that people weren’t more pissed off than they were about the “scandal.” Bennett was wrong, of course. The Lewinsky dustup wasn’t proof of the death of outrage: it was proof that the common sense of the American people had once again overpowered one of Bennett and his friends’ repeated attempts to bring down an American president through any means possible (which isn’t to suggest Clinton didn’t act in a stupid and dishonest way in the Lewinsky matter itself). But as I look back now, I have to wonder whether Bennett may actually have been a prophet before his time (assuming a pompous ignoramus can qualify as a prophet). Because right now, for a lot of us anyway, I think outrage may actually be dead. To a significant extent it’s dead in me. George W. Bush killed it. He drove it to an early grave through overwork.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Does anyone remember what happened when the Dixie Chicks spoke against him in front of a foreign audience? And that wasn’t even an official speech in front of another nation’s governing body….
May 16th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
“You have to give George W. Bush credit, in a “My, that leech certainly sucks blood well,†sort of way. Just when you think he can’t get any lower, he proves you wrong.”
GWB really is an amazing president. I knew things were going to bad when he was selected, but he has so far passed my expectations of suckage that it would really be hard to believe if it wasn’t true .
May 17th, 2008 at 1:18 am
When it comes to this administration and its sycophants, there are not words enough in the dictionary to adequately describe how repulsive they are. However, it does give me a twinge of pleasure to describe them. They are bloated, arrogant pipspqeaks. They pretend to be patriots, which is so blatantly outrageous that it boggles the mind. These barbaric baboons havent the slightest understanding of true patriotism. They send thousands to their deaths without the least bit of hesitation. They have done so based on lies, misrepresentations and fearmongering. Their depraved indifference to suffering and destruction is criminal and insane. Warprofiteering gives them endless orgasms of joy. As the average citizen struggles to make ends meet, these thugs, these thieves, these greedy gangsters cheer on the FAT CAT OIL COMPANIES to steal and gouge at will. Why not? Their own offshore bank accounts are bulging with ill-gotten gain. Never have such corrupt and callous, evil and ugly imitation humanoids ruled this country. Their stench will last for years. Slime and dung has more honor than Bush and his cabal. They are disgusting and diseased. May they rot in the offal of their own making.
I may not be able to march and demonstrate anymore, but, as God is my witness, I can and will continue to express my loathing and outrage at Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al. Even sewer pipes are cleaner than such malignant monsters.
May 17th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Unfortunately( for my friends and family and cats and dogs), I STILL GET OUTRAGED. I am mostly outraged that I have to be outraged so damn often.
I have been sick at heart since the moron-in-chief let the whole world know that we will torture anyone we please, at any time, for any reason and the American people yawned. I wrote a poem about torture, I’m surprised it didn’t blister the paper….or maybe it did, because I can’t find it anywhere. It’s probably for the best. Sometimes, I need to say things and do say things that are harsh and painful and sometimes, it’s best to just say them or write them and then let them go.
marmstrong makes a good point, the Dixie chicks were demonized for saying just such things on foreign soil, but hey, …it’s not torture when they do it, right?
Am I surprised that the idiotic commander guy found a new low? Hardly.
Am I outraged? Hell yes I am.
May 17th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Everybody: read today’s Dahr Jamail’s dispatch.