George Bush is the ultimate alpha male cardboard cutout. He always needs framing, whether it be by a bevy of flags, a pile of rubble or a pack of lies because there simply isn’t much there. Because of some grand conversation he had with his maker, he somehow determined he was being tapped on the shoulder for a messiahship to not only run this country but change the world. And now, with Iraq and most other foreign policies bogged down in quagmire and his domestic charades backfiring, he is a most frightened little boy asking how can this be happening when he got the nod from God? Look at the ways he compensates for his emptiness and vapidity in his recent ‘discussion’ with Matt Lauer:
From the May 13, 2006 TODAY show.
…George W. Bush: You can’t expect me, and people in this government, to do what we need to do to protect you and your family if we don’t have the tools that we think are necessary to do it.
(Me: fear, fear and more fear is always the ace in the hole for Bush, it’s ‘let me do what I want with no discussion, thank you, or your gonna die, not only that but your family will also die.’ His attitude reminds me of the line from “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” spoken by the Mexican bandit: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”)
Matt Lauer: And you said “within the law.”
George W. Bush: Yeah.
Matt Lauer: And yet you said there were these CIA secret facilities.
George W. Bush: So what? Why is that not within the law?
(Me: don’t you just love the ‘so what’ response? How presidential! That takes me back to the fifth grade)
Matt Lauer: The head of Amnesty International says secret sites are against international law.
George W. Bush: We, we disagree, disagree with him. And plus, my job is to protect you. And most American people if I said I had the, what we think is, the mastermind of the 9/11, they’d say, “Why don’t you see if you can get information out of him without torturing him. Which is what we did.
(Me: a blatant lie here)
Matt Lauer: Were you made personally…
George W. Bush: My job is to protect this country, Matt. And, uh, I’m going to, within the law. I get second-guessed all the time by people who don’t live in the United States, but let me remind you: September the 11 for them was a bad day. For us, it was a change of attitude.
(Me: more fear, fear, fear and he did indeed break the law since he knew torture was illegal but opted for it’s implementation anyway)
Matt Lauer: These, these “alternative methods” that you talked about in terms of extracting information from these suspected terrorists: were you made personally aware of all of the techniques that were used, for example, against Khalid Sheik Mohammed? And did you approve all of those techniques?
George W. Bush: I, I, I told our people, “Get information without torture,” and was assured by our justice department that we were not torturing.
(Me: THIS is the archetype underlying the design of the Bush Administration–always leave the President ‘plausible deniability)
Matt Lauer: But it’s been reported that with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he was what they call “waterboarded.”
George W. Bush: Um, I’m not going to talk about techniques that we use on people. One reason why is that we don’t want the enemy to adjust. The American people need to know we are using techniques within the law to protect `em.
(Me: How Lauer didn’t laugh here is beyond me. ‘We don’t want the enemy to adjust’ is textbook speciousness, as if the enemy doesn’t know. And just how are they going to adjust? He ends with another blatant lie underlined by more fear, fear, fear)
[louder] You said to me, you said to me, how can we be sure you’re doing everything it takes to protect the American people, and I’m saying to you, we’re listening to Al Qaeda if they’re calling in this country, and some people want to get rid of that program. We’d got walls that did not allow criminal investigators and intelligence forces to talk to one another, and we’ve eliminated that, eliminated the laws. [louder] Let me finish. And, but, one, but, the best source according to those who are on the front lines protecting the American people, is when we pick up somebody off of the battlefield, who we interrogate them within the law, to get data, [shouting] and I would strongly urge people looking at that speech I gave, because I declassified classified information to show how important the information we got, from whom we think is the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks!
(Me: as the old syaing goes, the louder the preacher, the bigger HIS sins)
Matt Lauer: I don’t want let this “within the law” issue slip, though. I mean, if in fact there was waterboarding used with Khalid Sheik Mohammed for the viewers, that’s basically you strap someone to a board and you make them feel as if they’re going to drown, you put them under water. If that was legal and within the law, why couldn’t you do it at Guantanamo? Why do you have to go to a secret location around the world?
George W. Bush: I, I, I’m not going to talk about techniques, and I’m not going to explain to the enemy what we’re doing. All I’m telling you is, you asked me whether we’re doing things to protect the American people, and I want the American people to know we are doing so.
(Me: George is very careful here, careful not to answer the question but to invoke more fear, fear, fear)
Matt Lauer: At some point, Mr. President, if these techniques, these “alternative procedures”…
George W. Bush: I, I’m not going to talk about it.
Matt Lauer: I’m not going to ask you to specifically say anything about it. But if they are used, are you at all concerned at some point, even if you get results, there’s a blurring of the lines between ourselves and the people we’re trying to protect ourselves against?
George W. Bush: Uh, Matt, I’m just telling you, what this government has done is to take steps to protect you and your family.
(Me: more of the same, not answering the question, just more and more fear factor. Lauer should attempt a followup — yeah, good luck on that — and ask Bush about Maher Arar, a Canadian who was kidnapped at Kennedy Airport in New York and transported to Syria for torturing until he was determined innocent and released. George Bush, where’s your apology to Maher Arar? George Bush, why Syria, a country you condemn as evil and consider an enemy? Is it because you share the same barbaric values as Bashar al-Assad?)
If you wish to ‘enjoy’ the arc of George W. Bush’s ‘arrested development’ when someone asks him a question or disagrees with his loopiness, go here –
http://tinyurl.com/kycqk – for a very clear picture of a seriously troubled young man, one who to this day has never faced his troubles head-on and remains entangled in a web of fear and self-hatred.