Cutting in between; this is still the POTUS. Leader of the largest nuclear and armed forces in the World.
As b says,…………

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 16 2006 19:42 utc | 3

I think the administration has really run out of gas this time, well, not that kind of gas, but really, this de-evolution lately in the rhetoric — a (more extreme) descent into meta-memes, like democracy happy talk being replaced by (the even more vague) freedom talk, or the islamo-fascist thing makes me wonder if they’ve finally hit bottom. Because what they’re now presenting to the public is just plain non-sensical gibberish. I guess if I were being put before a firing squad, my first thought would also be a big worry about the trauma the shooters might have to endure in shooting me. Good grief.

Posted by: anna missed | Aug 16 2006 19:54 utc | 5

I dunno I mean it’s entirely possible as his moves are frequently beyond comprehension that he didn’t forsee this outcome, but given that he is as cunning as a shithouse rat, the purpose of this ‘luncheon’ may have been totally disingenuous.
It must be penetrating shrub’s psyche that the time when he will no longer be prez is getting pretty close, which means he better have an act for that rather major phase of his life that is coming. The time when he is a ‘former prez’. The act better speak to Iraq since even he must be able to see that Iraq will be the issue his whole prezidency is judged on.
So call in the nitwits and brown noses who have made their living telling power what they want to hear about ‘the Arab in the street’, people that he would deign to listen to when a bit of reality about the ME was needed yet deliberately avoided in favor of the excuses and prevarications of this mob of assholes.
Word them up for the spin to be put on the prezidency and these blokes will know the angle they will be expected to take when the ‘official histories’ biographies and the like are going to be handed out.
Even better a self serving bunch of academic main-chancers and wannabe TV pundits such as were invited will be gossiping about this stuff as soon as they can switch their phones back on. So what if it comes off as a bit, shall we say, naive, initially. The bullshit amerikan prezidency spin factory that amerikans seem to fall for time and time again, will turn that naivety into a wholesome xtian trust and bewilderment at the duplicity and betrayal of the Arab.
Nixon, who was chased out of the whitehouse like a whipped cur for his crooked dealings, was being lionised for his foresight over ‘China’ within a couple of years.
The rise of China was as inevitable as the rise of the sun in the morning, but Nixon and Kissinger, managed to divert attention from theft in amerika and mass murder in Indochina and Latin America by fooling just the same sort of lightweight thinkers that shrub invited for lunch. Within a few months of Nixon’s ouster a few trial balloons were flown, the first being that he ‘did what had to be done’. That didn’t play at all well with the keepers of the amerikan prezident as godhead flame so the ‘china’ thing was floated and it took off like a rocket. It had synergy. This would be a way to cast corporate mendacity, as amerikan jobs were traded for profits and outsourced to china, as a ‘holy’ venture brought about by a flawed but brilliant prez!
Most of the dems who may have loathed Nixon but coveted the prezidency went right along with it as well. I mean lets get real here Nixon has gone and he’s no problem anymore so let’s not let him tarnish the mana of the best gig for trough guzzlers known to man.
So was born the myth of Nixon’s china policy. The China trip which had served as a valuable distraction from the shit going down at home, and which had to be visited since some of the ‘deals’ over the Indochina mess could only be settled with a little ‘face time’ with Mao, suddenly became a bigger deal than the rest of the ‘stuff’ which had occupied about 99% of Nixon’s time.
Signing the terms of amerika’s surrender to china was played as a ‘victory’ at home.
If shrub can engineer an ‘out’ like that it may keep the spectre of a war crimes trial at bay.
This lunch was just one of many balloons these pricks will float to see what fantasy will best distract amerikans.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 16 2006 20:12 utc | 7

At this point I’ve begun to think Bush understands that his job is to do what he’s told, and I’ll bet the bottom line he’s always understood is that he’s expendable too.

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 16 2006 20:33 utc | 9

Bush may be a clew-less moron, he is a leader and spokesman, that is his job.
The US people elected him, or did not quite, who knows, no matter, he came out on top, and everyone accepted it.
People around the world are not concerned with the details of Diebold machines, they don’t watch CNN looking for clues that the election was fixed, they don’t care about that shit, what they see is that Americans accept and idolise him, and nobody stands up and sounds the clarion, shouting the Emperor has no clothes, condemning 9/11, or Diebold, or invasions of foreign countries, or anything else.
To them Bush being president cannot be excused by the lobbying power and bucks of corporations, by the Israeli influence, by incomprehensible and obviously manipulated elections, by failed partisan politics, etc. Bitching about all that is a uniquely American, and is completely pointless.
Bush was elected twice, care of the citizens of the USA. The US cannot convincingly blather about democracy and its grandiose benefits and then have bloggers, leftists, democrats, anarchists, or its apologetic envoys to foreign parts, argue that Bush is an idiot, is not truly supported by real Americans, is not a legitimate president, etc. Free speech doesn’t quite do the job…
The life of the Iraqis was not good before the sanctions, sanctions decimated them, invasion killed them off in large numbers, post invasion care of Booted Bremer thrashed their country, industry, agriculture, small businesses; infrastructure; health care, schooling, university research, and even their access to clean water, affordable grains and fresh vegetables, basic mother/baby care, the necessities of life.
Now US soldiers grin as factions fight it out, and bodies of broken children gather flies in the streets.
Because Bush is an idiot?

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 16 2006 21:05 utc | 11

Duck, I believe you have a point there… but this is far more serious:

A high-level American military planner told me, “We have a lot of vulnerability in the region, and we’ve talked about some of the effects of an Iranian or Hezbollah attack on the Saudi regime and on the oil infrastructure.” There is special concern inside the Pentagon, he added, about the oil-producing nations north of the Strait of Hormuz. “We have to anticipate the unintended consequences,” he told me. “Will we be able to absorb a barrel of oil at one hundred dollars? There is this almost comical thinking that you can do it all from the air, even when you’re up against an irregular enemy with a dug-in capability. You’re not going to be successful unless you have a ground presence, but the political leadership never considers the worst case. These guys only want to hear the best case.”

from Seymor Hersh, in the New Yorker, Watching Lebanon

Posted by: 2nd anon | Aug 16 2006 22:06 utc | 13

Oh, Steve Gilliard didn’t miss that one, and he’s one of the few, with Billmon, to have consistently thought since day-1 that War on Iraq was an utterly stupid and suicidal endeavour.
Bush has just totally lost it. These idiots really believe their BS propaganda, and I don’t think it’s better than if they were just cyncial pupetteers.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Aug 16 2006 22:11 utc | 15

Hmm interesting thread specially Noirette and Duck of Death’s comments.
I guess one of the most potent signposts of amerika’s refusal to face reality is right here.
I have linked to a website dedicated to the proposition that corporate amerika is mean because it cancelled their favorite TV series.
We’re not talking about just a few loonies posting either. This site has had many thousands of posts and each time HBO succumbs to pressure and is made to understand that ‘freedom of speech’ doesn’t mean the freedom to say ‘just any old thing’ then cancels another ‘show’, the site goes thru a resurgence.
Thing is though no one ever talks about the huge fuckin elephant which is of course, that these shows (Carnivale, Deadwood et al) popular as they were, got cancelled because they weren’t staying ‘on message’.
No these fools have convinced themselves that some of the meanest, most self serving corporate sharks in amerika cancelled profitable shows by ‘mistake’. That they didn’t understand that they were making money out of ’em.
Still, us ‘foreigners’ are held responsible, when these HBO execs do respond to the emails, petitions and letters from congressmen, they explain that “the programs weren’t rating well enough in foreign markets”. Complete BS but none of these square eyed, slack-jawed, dribbling idiots are ever going to show enough gumption to test that statement, so it is an easy out for these assholes.
It’s pitiful really. If anyone can stomach perusing the threads, much of the 2005 early 2006 stuff was about “why won’t HBO release the dvd’s of the shows that have already been put to air?’. Once again commercial reasoning seems to be the only arguement these ppl are considering.
Yet none of them point out the obvious which is that good quality digital captures of the shows are available all over the net and have been since each episode went to air. You’d think that they’d see promoting the bootlegs could force HBO’s hand while giving them an out to explain to the moral majority.
No that would be wrong! Forget about the fact they are being played for idjits by HBO.
Don’t they understand that given the show was making money, the issue with Carnivale was far more likely to be that the show portrayed an evangelist preacher as a meglamaniacal devil worshipper ,than to be it’s ratings in a foreign market?
Oh well what can anyone expect. These people are living in a nation whose leadership is continually pushing large chunks of the rest of the planet into scorched earth conflict, and they are more concerned with getting value on their cable subscription.
A note here b4 the usual slings and arrows swing into action.
If people want to take the above rant personally as some sort of affront to their character I have no control over that whatsoever, but I would point out that at no stage did I lay the finger of blame on all amerikans. All I did was point out that to an outsider it can seem that more amerikans are concerned with what’s on TV than there are those concerned with what’s on reality.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 16 2006 22:31 utc | 17

Courtesy of Atrios and on “Max Speak You Listen” web site
Juan Cole: QUESTION: How can the international force, or the United States if necessary, prevent Iran from resupplying Hezbollah?
BUSH: The first step is — and part of the mandate in the U.N. resolution was to secure Syria’s borders. Iran is able to ship weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. . . . In other words, part of the mandate and part of the mission of the troops, the UNIFIL troops, will be to seal off the Syrian border.
http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002438.html

Posted by: Elie | Aug 16 2006 23:58 utc | 19

Well, Michael Jackson is in mothballs so we have to resurrect the dead baby beauty queen.
“dun dumbed down…” indeed.

Posted by: beq | Aug 17 2006 1:37 utc | 21

These idiots really believe their BS propaganda, and I don’t think it’s better than if they were just cyncial pupetteers.
i have serious doubts about that, bush maybe, but the rest of them…. hears a really stunning bbc piece the power of nightmares linked from a fabulous blogger most all of you will recognize.

Posted by: annie | Aug 17 2006 3:03 utc | 23

Why does the acronym UNIFIL remind me of the name of a petro station?

The best acronym of recent memory was that of the West African interventional peacekeeping coalition, ECOMOG. Which was an organization made up of underequipped and undertrained troops being led by incompetent, corrupt officers. When I note that the *best* of the ECOMOG forces were from Nigeria, that should give you an idea of the level of competence and integrity on display.
The name is derived from (deep breath) the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group. However, those in countries unfortunate enough to host an ECOMOG contingent rapidly came to realize that what it actually means is Every Car Or Moveable Object Gone.

Posted by: marquer | Aug 17 2006 5:37 utc | 25

‘Duck, I believe you have a point there… but this is far more serious:’
Oh believe me I understand the seriousness…I fully expect to be in the streets fighting for food at some point in my lifetime as our empire crumbles. I understand that an attack on Iran by the US or Israel will likely topple our house-of-cards economy. I am merely pointing out the role that the Chuck Norris infatuatated see-no-evil conservative world view is playing in our impending demise.
Debs…Man, nobody loves Deadwood more than me, I just don’t see that politics played a role in its lack of a full 4th season(and yes, I am super pissed at that). From what I have heard, David Milch just has a short attention span and he lost interest(he is currently producing a new series for HBO). I wanted to LOVE Carnivale, but I just didn’t, and this is from someone who loves David Lynch.

Posted by: Duck of Death | Aug 17 2006 5:54 utc | 27

I fully expect to be in the streets fighting for food at some point in my lifetime as our empire crumbles.
Duck, did you see that Northwestern Airlines response to employees they axed was – Go Dumpster Diving, Baby…

Posted by: jj | Aug 17 2006 6:23 utc | 29

#28. thank you, no need to wake the slumbering not so fabulous blogger. thank you for the links anybody in their right mind will watch.
uncle, i had so much trouble watching freud’s bro propaganda movies when you originally posted them. i can’t remember the name of the movies and want to check the new google videos. what are they called again? sorry.

Posted by: annie | Aug 17 2006 7:14 utc | 31