//
Incurious George Part 2:
/
We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore
/

/
"How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich's evil spawn 
and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy
 is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk?"
//
/- "We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore", by Garrison Keillor, 
In These Times, Thursday 26 August 2004
//
___________________________________________
/
GOLF WARS BRING PEACE TO THE MIDDLE EAST
___________________________________________

s' Associ
"Before starting his game yesterday, Mr. Bush, his driver in his left gloved hand, took time to condemn an overnight suicide bombing 
of a bus in Israel that killed at least nine. "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers," 
Mr. Bush said on the first green of Cape Arundel, at 6:15 a.m. "Thank you. Now watch this drive." 
Without the slightest pause, Mr. Bush turned to his game - and hit his first ball into the rough." 
- New York Times, August 5, 2002
s' Associ

"I said you were a man of peace. I want you to know I took immense crap for that".
- Dubya really classing up his conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 
as reported on Jun. 3, 2003 in the Washington Post and elsewhere.
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"I understand that the unrest in the Middle East creates unrest throughout throughout
 the region."
- George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"There's nothing more deep than recognizing Israel's right to exist. 
That's the most deep thought of all. ... I can't think of anything more deep  than that right."
 - George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

"I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah."
 - George W. Bush, at a White House Menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001

/___________________________________________
/
"Boy, they were big on crematoriums, weren't they?" 
- George H. W. Bush Sr., during a tour of Auschwitz, 9/27/87
/

fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"History is a reminder of what's possible". 
- George W. Bush as he emerged from a guided tour of the gas chambers at Auschwitz, 5/31/03 
___________________________________________
/

"There's a lot of people in the Middle East who are desirous to get into the Mitchell process. And--but first things first. 
The -- these terrorist acts and, you know, the responses have got to end in order for us to get the framework 
-- the groundwork -- not framework, the groundwork to discuss a framework for peace, to lay the -- all right."
 - George W. Bush, referring to former Sen. George Mitchell's report on Middle East peace, Crawford, Texas, Aug. 13, 2001

"I show up when they need me to call people to account, to praise, or to say, wait a minute --- you told me in Jordan that you 
would do this, you haven't done it, why? How come? What is it? It's to keep the thing moving, keep the processes moving
. They've got the man on the ground that is going to -- he's just going to -- I used the expression, ride herd. 
I don't know if anybody understood the meaning. It's a little informal in diplomatic terms.
 I said, we're going to put a guy on the ground to ride herd on the process. See them all scratching their heads."
- Which of course necessitates the question (along with several others), 'Why did you use that expression, then?' 
-Talking about his meeting with Palestinian and Israeli leaders aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

"Israel has got responsibilities," Mr. Bush said. "Israel must deal with the settlements. 
Israel must make sure there's a continuous territory that Palestinians call home." 
(The White House, which late in the day produced a transcript of Mr. Bush's remarks, put the word "contiguous" 
in parentheses after "continuous," to indicate that "contiguous" was what Mr. Bush had meant.) - New York Times, 06.04.03
s' Associ
"This administration is doing everything we can to end the stalemate in an efficient way. 
We're making the right decisions to bring the solution to an end."
 - George W.Bush, April 10, 2001
White House Correspondents' Association dinner, held April 30:
"My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins here because for a century and a half now, America and 
Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific." 
- George W. Bush, who apparently forgot about a little something called World War II... , Tokyo, Feb. 18, 2002

"He [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi] said I want to make it very clear to you exactly what I intend to do 
and he talked about non-performing loans, the devaluation issue and regulatory reform and he placed equal emphasis on all three." 
- George W. Bush, who had meant to say "the deflation issue" rather than "the devaluation issue," 
and accidentally sent the Japanese Yen tumbling, Tokyo, Feb. 18, 2002

____________________________________
________________________
/
EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY 
________________________
//
"George's answer to any problem at the ranch is to cut it down with a chainsaw - 
-which I think is why he and Cheney and Rumsfeld get along so well."
- Laura Bush, White House Correspondents' Association dinner,  April 30, 2005
 

 

0tjg
"It's good to see so many friends here in the Rose Garden. This is our first event in this beautiful spot, 
and it's appropriate we talk about policy that will affect people's lives in a positive way 
in such a beautiful, beautiful part of our national - really, our national park system, my guess is you would want to call it."
 - George W. Bush, Feb. 8, 2001
White House Correspondents' Association dinner, held April 30:
"You know, Christie Todd talked about Teddy Roosevelt and I -- every morning when I go to the Oval Office I sit at the same desk he used, 
as well as Franklin Roosevelt, as well as other Presidents.... And it also amazes me that in this very park, Teddy Roosevelt used to hang out." 
- Cool, dude. Hanging with Frank and Teddy, Apr. 22, 2002
White House Correspondents' Association dinner, held April 30:
"There are some monuments where the land is so widespread, they just encompass as much as possible. And the integral part of the--
--the precious part so to speak--I guess all land is precious, but the part that the people uniformly would not want to spoil, will not be despoiled. 
But there are parts of the monument lands where we can explore without affecting the overall environment." 
- Media round table, Washington, D.C. March 13, 2001
/
"I like to tell people, Laura and I are proud to be Texas -- own a Texas ranch, and for us, every day is Earth Day"
 - George W. Bush, Wilmington, New York, Apr. 22, 2002

/White House Correspondents' Association dinner, held April 30:
FUZZY MATH

 "What's all this whining about the environment? 
They're always talking about  "stop the clearcuts." I mean, do the math people.
 If we were out of trees then we wouldn't have any clearcuts to be complaining about now would we?" 
 - George W. Bush, The National  Speculator, March 2000 
/

//
"Now, of course, he spends his days clearing brush, cutting trails, taking down trees, or, as the girls call it, 
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. George's answer to any problem at the ranch is to cut it down with a chainsaw - 
-which I think is why he and Cheney and Rumsfeld get along so well."
- Laura Bush, White House Correspondents' Association dinner,  April 30, 2005
gg//k/fk
"A tree's a tree.  How many more do you need to look at?"
- Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), quoted in the Sacramento Bee, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park,  March 3, 1966
/

/
"If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."
- President Ronald Reagan
//

/
"It would be helpful if we opened up ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). I think it's a mistake not to.
 And I would urge you all to travel up there and take a look at it, and you can make the determination as to how beautiful that country is."
 - George W. Bush, at a White House Press conference, March 29, 2001
/
"If you're worried about caribou, take a look at the arguments that were used about the pipeline.
 They'd say the caribou would be extinct. You've got to shake them away with a stick. 
They're all making love lying up against the pipeline and you got thousands of caribou up there." 
- George Bush Sr., speaking in 1991 about the Alaskan pipeline

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." 
- George W. Bush
s' Associ
"I killed a killdee...I thought it was a dove."
- "Killdee" is the colloquial form of "killdeer", a bird listed as a protected species that
 Dubya shot with a borrowed 20-gauge shotgun on the opening day of dove season, 
for which Dubya received a misdemeanor fine of $130, Houston Chronicle, Sep. 2, 1994
s' Associ
"One's dead and one's alive."
- Dubya's answer when asked to explain the difference between a killdee and a killdeer, 
Houston Chronicle, Sep. 2, 1994
s' Associ
 "I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. 
It's pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California."
 - In Los Angeles as quoted by the Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2000

"One of the interesting things to do is drink coffee and watch Barney chase armadillos. 
The armadillos are out, and they love to root in our flower bed. It's good that Barney routs them out of their rooting."
 - Describing his Texas ranch life to Judy Keen, USA Today, Aug. 22, 2001
s' Associ
"There are a couple of cows waiting for me. You know, when I first got back from Washington, 
it seemed like the cows were talking back. But now that I've spent some time in Crawford, they're just cows." 
- Revealing disturbing facts about his brain chemistry in Town Hall Forum on Economy, Ontario, California, Jan. 5, 2002 
s's' Associ Associ
"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption, encourages new technologies so our cars 
are cleaner, encourages new renewable energy sources, but at the same time encourages increase of supply
 here at home, so we're less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil." (Applause.) 
- "President Bush Calls on Congress to Act on Nation's Priorities",
 Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility Trenton, New Jersey
s' Associ

s' Associ
"Dear Ken, One of the sad things about old friends is that they seem to be getting older- - just like you! 
55 years old. Wow! That is really old. Thank goodness you have such a young, beautiful wife. 
Laura and I value our friendship with you. Best wishes to Linda, your family, and friends. 
Your younger friend, George W. Bush."
 - George W. Bush, in a letter to Kenneth Lay, Enron CEO, on his birthday in 1997,
 contradicting claims that the two were not close; reprinted in USA Today, February 26, 2002
/
"The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants 
and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants." 
- George W. Bush
/
"Laura and I are proud to call John and Michelle Engler our friends.
 I know you're proud to call him governor. What a good man the Englers are."
 - George W. Bush, Nov. 2000
/
"If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow." 
- George W. Bush, in Jan. 2000
/
"The woman who knew that I had dyslexia - I never interviewed her." 
- George W. Bush, responding to a magazine article claiming he suffered from dyslexia
/
"I think it's interesting. I'm a follower of American politics.
- Dubya's reponse when asked about Arnold Schwarzenegger running 
or governor of California, Crawford, Texas, Aug. 8, 2003
zxbvb/vb zx
"Welcome to Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts." 
- Governor George W. Bush
x/dbbv

xdbbv
"For NASA, space is still a high priority." 
- Governor George W. Bush, 9/5/93
zxbvbvb zx

xdbbv
"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system." 
- Governor George W. Bush
ouhyihl
"I do think we need for a troop to be able to house his family. That's an important part of building morale in the military."
 - George W. Bush, speaking at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, March 12, 2001
xdbbv
"There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids upon the death of their loved one.
 Others hug, but having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to hug and that's me and I know what it's like."
 - Washington, D.C., Dec. 11, 2002. ( To date, no Bush official has been to a single funeral for any of the fallen in the Iraq war. 
President Clinton was present to welcome home the coffins of soldiers killed in Kosovo,  and President Bush Sr. 
was on hand to welcome the caskets of soldiers killed in Lebanon and Panama.)
/

xd/bbv
"One of my hardest parts of my job is to console the family members who have lost their life."
- Prime Time Press Conference #3, White House, Apr. 13, 2004
xdbbv
"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you like to be liked yourself."
- George W. Bush puts an interesting twist on Jesus Christ's proverb: "Love thy neighbor." 
(Quote is from the Financial Times)
xdbbv

drshujaat@hotmail.com
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"All of us need to step back and try to figure out how to make the U.N. work better as we head into the 21st century.
 Perhaps one way will be, if we use military force, in the post-Saddam Iraq the U.N. will definitely need to have a role. 
And that way it can begin to get its legs, legs of responsibility back." 
- Azores, March 16, 2003
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"She's just trying to make sure Anthony gets a good meal - Antonio." 
- George W. Bush, on Laura Bush inviting Justice Antonin Scalia 
(perhaps theSupreme he most owes his presidency to) to dinner at the White House, Jan. 2001
xdbbv
"One of the interesting initiatives we've taken in Washington, D.C., is we've got these vampire-busting devices.
 A vampire is a - a cell deal you can plug in the wall to charge your cell phone."
 - George W. Bush, Denver, Aug. 14, 2001
fr98yf0yupfyufp0ff

fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"I did denounce it. I de- I denounced it. I denounced interracial dating. I denounced anti-Catholic bigacy... bigotry."
- Responding to attacks on his visit to ultra-conservative Bob Jones University, Virginia, February 25, 2000
fr98yf0yufpfr98yf0yufpfyufp0ffyufp0ff
"I think it's important for those of us in a position of responsibility to be firm in sharing our 
experiences, to understand that the babies out of wedlock is a very difficult chore for mom and baby alike. ...
 I believe we ought to say there is a different alternative than the culture that is proposed by people like Miss Wolf in society..
 And, you know, hopefully, condoms will work, but it hasn't worked."
 - Meet the Press, Nov. 21, 1999
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff

fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it."
- Governor George W. Bush, Jr., 5/20/96
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"I would have said yes to abortion if only it was right. I mean, yeah it's right. 
Well no it's not right that's why I said no to it."
- South Carolina, Feb. 14, 2000
fr98yf0yufpfyuf
"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies,
 but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet." 
 - Arlington Heights, Illinois, Oct. 24, 2000
 
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff

pfr98yf0yufpfyuffyufp0ff
"Do as I say and not as I did."
-  When governor of Texas, Dubya proposed a $9 million initiative to persuade young Texans to 
hold off on sex until marriage. This was Dubya's answer when asked whether 
he had abstained from pre-marital sex. Rolling Stone, Aug. 5, 1999

____________________________________
_____
 "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted."

- Groucho Marx
/____________________________________

/
"My mom often used to say, "The trouble with W" -- although she didn't put that to words."
- I guess she was telepathic, White House, Apr. 3, 2002
/
"I thought how proud I am to be standing up beside my dad. 
Never did it occur to me that he would become the gist for cartoonists."
 - Newsweek, Feb. 28, 2000
/

/
"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected."
 - George W. Bush, Los Angeles, Sept. 27, 2000
/
"If I answer questions every time you ask one, expectations would be high. 
And as you know, I like to keep expectations low."
- Well, at least he's honest, I guess, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2002
/
"I'm the master of low expectations."
- You said it, Dubya, aboard Air Force One, Jun. 4, 2003
/
"They misunderestimated me."
 -George W. Bush, Nov. 2000
/

/
"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating."
 - George W. Bush, US News & World Report, April 3, 2000
/
"They have miscalculated me as a leader."
 - George W. Bush, Westminster, Calif., Sept. 13, 2000
/
"There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I'll never see it."
 - George W. Bush, speaking to Catholic leaders at the White House, Jan. 31, 2001

"Tell them I have learned from mistakes I may or may not have made."
 - George W. Bush
/
"We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the
mistakes we may or may not have made."
- Governor George W. Bush
/

/
"The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that George Bush may or may not make."
- Governor George W. Bush
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0f
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
 - Governor George W. Bush to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/93
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff
"You know, I could run for governor, but I'm basically a media creation.
 I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business.
 But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office."
-  Dubya in 1989, quoted in"Fortunate Son" by Steven Hatfield 
/
 "I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics 
a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's."
 - Mark Twain, "Mark Twain in Eruption"
/ real
/ar
/ really 
"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history." 
- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/28/88
//
"This is not a normal world."
- Batman 
//
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses."
 - George W. Bush, Financial Times, Jan. 14, 2000
/
/"If a person doesn't have the capacity that we all want that person to have,
 I suspect hope is in the far distant future, if at all."
  - George W. Bush, May 22, 2001
/
/

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, 
and some of the people all of the time, 
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
/
- Abraham Lincoln 

"There's an old ... saying in Tennessee ... 
I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says,
 Fool me once ...
 (3 second pause) ... 
... Shame on ...
 (4 second pause) ... 
Shame on you .... 
(6 second pause)
 ... Fool me ... 
/
... Can't get fooled again."
/
 - George W. Bush to Nashville, Tennessee audience,
 Sept. 17, 2002.
/
/

/

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans --
 -- unless they have  too much education and vote Democratic,
 which proves there can be too much of a good thing" 
/
- Karl Rove , senior advisor for George W. Bush,
"The Daily Texan",  March 19, 2001 
fr98yf0yufpfyufp0ff

AKA "Turd Blossom"
(Bush's nickname for Rove)

http://www.shrubbish.com

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
COLLEGE: I graduated from Yale University. I was a cheerleader. I also graduated from Harvard with "C" averages in both schools.

LAW ENFORCEMENT:
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license 
suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.

MILITARY:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:
I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.
I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
With the help of my father and our right-wing friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected Governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR:
I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.
I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
I set the record for the most executions by any Governor in American history.
With the help of my brother, the Governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:
I am the first president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
I appointed more convicted criminals to the administration than any president in U.S. history.
I set the record for least number of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one year period.

After taking-off the entire month of August, 2001, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury, totaling over a trillion dollars.
I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
In my first year in office over 2-million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. president.
I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active military personnel
I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people) shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
I've broken more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest in history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
I am the first president in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.

In my State Of The Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed the lies on our British friends.
I am the first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.
I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war" detainees) and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
I am the first president in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receipt of corporate campaign donations.
My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history. My political party used the Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution, allowing them time to shred documents, etc. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.
I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
I am first president in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security
I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I resisted the formation of any investigation into the 911 commission, tried to appoint master coverup artist Henry Kissinger to head it, then stonewalled the commission at every turn. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

My administration outed a CIA operative, and thus destroyed a whole covert CIA network that was protecting America from weapons of mass destruction.

My administration broke the Geneva convention, and destroyed U.S credibility and respect in the eyes of the world.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:
All records of my tenure as Governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed, and unavailable for public view.
All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

Please consider my experience when voting in 2004

(For a more complete resume, visit http://www.wage-slave.org/scorecard.html )

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3500-plus Americans killed, more than 25,000 seriously wounded
/
Caused the deaths of more than 600,000 Iraqi civilians, mostly children; many thousands more wounded

Increased cancers and birth defects tenfold from depleted uranium exposure (both for Iraqis and coalition forces)
//
Destroyed Iraqi's infrastructure; museums and hospitals looted, water supplies polluted, electricity and medical care diminished
//
Destroyed Iraq's economy, causing job loss, hunger, crime, anarchy and more death
//
htnDestroyed Iraq's security apparatus, opening the floodgates to anarchy and civil war
////
Created millions of Iraqi refugees 
/
Allowed systematic looting of munitions stockpiles after the war, which were later employed against our troops 
/
Increased opium production in Afghanistan from near non-existence to record crop yields
/
Drastically diminished Emergency Preparedness at home by depleting  National Guard forces 
/
Increased recruitment tenfold for alQaeda and other terrorist groups
/
Diverted energy and funds from the battle with alQaeda
.//Engendered the hatred of most of the world
///
Destroyed US credibility
/
"Lost" $9 billion 
/
Squandered more than $2 trillion
///
Turned a record surplus into a record deficit
///
Enriched Halliburton, Exxon, Bechtel, the Carlisle Group, etc.

Fired desperately needed Arab translators because they were gayn
htshsnndnnd////fgndgfgndgh
Established a precedent for 'pre-emptive' wars for other countries to follow
htshsnndnndfgndgfgndgh
Made US exempt from the International Criminal Court and broke the Geneva convention
////
Removed fundamental American liberties, including Habeus Corpus and the Bill of Rights
/dgsh
Destroyed an entire covert CIA network protecting us from weapons of mass destruction
htshsnndfgndgh
Made the entire world  far, far less safe.

 The Real Issue: Bush is Incompetent
  By Richard Reeves 
  International Herald Tribune
  Saturday 28 August 2004

Not up to the job.

  NEW YORK President George W. Bush is coming to town. You better watch out, you better not shout - unless you're a certified delegate inside Madison Square Garden. With protesters somewhere out of sight, the Republican National Convention will be a celebration of the ideology, values and interests served by this second Bush presidency.

  Whether you agree or disagree with the words pouring from the podium over Americans who see reflections of themselves in George W. Bush, the real issue of this election will not be mentioned. The core issue is this: America's president is incompetent. He is not a good president.

  Let me count the ways:

  1. He has divided the country; we Americans are all part of a vicious little hissing match. We were united and humbled on Sept. 12, 2001. We are divided and humiliated now, telling lies about each other.

  2. He has divided the world."We are all Americans now" headlined Le Monde on that Sept. 12. Now there are days when it seems as if they are all anti-Americans.

  3. He is leaving no child or grandchild without debt. He has taken the government from surplus into deficit in the name of national security and increased private investment. We can pay the debt in two ways: with more government revenues (taxation) or by borrowing - against the sweat and income of new generations. The president has chosen to borrow.

  4. He campaigns as a champion of smaller government but is greatly increasing the size and role of government. Ideological conservatism, it turns out, costs just as much, or more, than ideological liberalism. Conservative and liberal politicians are both for increasing the reach and power of government. The difference between them is which parts and functions of the state are to be empowered and financed. The choice is between military measures and order, or more redistribution of income. Money is power.

  5. He is diminishing the military of which he is so proud now as commander in chief. The invasion and occupation of Iraq have obviously not worked out the way he imagined - naked torture was not the goal. But the far greater problem for the future is that America's proud commander has revealed the hollowness behind unilateral superpower. From the top down, we have not been able to win Iraq, much less the world. And going into Iraq has compromised or crippled the war on terror he declared himself.

  6. He is diminishing scientific progress, the great engine of the 20th century. Only the truly ignorant can believe that the proper role of government is to hinder medical research and environmental study in the name of God.

  7. He is diminishing the Constitution of the United States. Cheesy tricks like amending the great text of freedom to attack homosexuality can be dismissed as wedge politics. But it is worse to preach against an activist judiciary while appointing more activist judges who happen to hold different beliefs, particularly the idea that civil liberties are the enemies of patriotism, security and freedom itself.

  8. He has surrounded himself with other incompetents. The secretary of state is presiding over the rape of diplomacy and its alliances. The secretary of defense has sent our young men and women into situations that were never meant or trained to handle, and now they are being ordered into battle by an appointed sheik in a far land. The national security adviser does not seem to know that her job description includes coordinating defense and diplomacy. And then there was our $340,000 a month local hire, Ahmad Chalabi, sitting in the gallery of our House .

  9. He has been unable or unwilling to deal with declining employment and the rising medical costs of becoming an older nation.

  10. He is, as if by design, destroying the credibility of America as a force for peace in the world - an honest broker - particularly in the Middle East.

  The list is longer, miscalculation after miscalculation. President Bush has not been able to function effectively at this pay grade. He may mean well, but this has been a difficult time, and he is in over his head. We and our kids will pay the price for his blundering, blunderbuss adventure in Washington. He has been tested in a difficult time -- and, unhappily for all of us and the world, he has not been up to the job.

b.

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(actual product)

http://www.talkingpresidents.com/products-af-bush-fs.shtmlproducts-af-bush-fs.shtml


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DISHONEST DUBYA
 An interactive animation, using Dubya's own wo
CLICK HERE

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- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from a letter Eisenhower wrote to his brother Edgar on November 8, 1954
//

fnbsnfCDnf



fb///bdbd
LUCKY GEORGE and the TRIFECTA
fb///bdbd
"I remember -- I remember campaigning in Chicago, and one of the reporters said, would you ever deficit spend?
 I said only -- only in times of war, in times of economic insecurity as a result of a recession,
 or in times of national emergency. Never did I dream we'd have a trifecta! (Laughter.)" 
- George W. Bush, June 7, 2002. The "comassionate conservative" 
 repeated this sick 'joke' on no less than 15 different occasions  ( see all quotes ).
/

"When I first reported this remark, angry readers accused me of inventing it. Mr. Bush, they said, is a decent man
 who would never imply that the nation's woes had taken him off the hook, let alone make a joke out of it." 
- Paul Krugman, "The Memory Hole",  New York Times, August 6 , 2002  ( full article )

DV

"Making a joke once about death, war and national catastrophe could be chalked up
 to nothing more than a rhetorical misfire by a man famous for mangling his scripts.
 Fifteen repetitions, however, makes it a standing part of his routine. 
The fact that this joke is used while he is asking for money makes it all the more unseemly. 
How can a man with honor and integrity use the deaths of thousands of Americans, a wounded economy 
and a frightening state of war as a punch line to earn laughs and money for the GOP?"
- William Rivers Pitt, "Behold, A Child Shall Lead Them", t r u t h o u t,  June 27, 2002
ccbc vbabv sa?
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The Incredibly, Unbelievably, Stupendously, Incurious George Bush
/
by Cenk Uygur      
Huffington Post
December 8, 2006 

Cenk Uygur is co-host of The Young Turks, the new morning show for Air America Radio, 6-9AM ET. GO TO ORIGINAL

Never has there been a public official more unequipped to be President of the United States of America than George W. Bush. The man is simply not up to the job. Even if he really wanted to be or cared to be an effective president, he ... could ... not ... do ... it.

He can't do it on a boat, he can't do it with a (pet) goat. He can't do it in the Green Zone, he can't do it back at home. This man cannot be a good president, Sam-I-Am.

He flat out does not have the intellectual capacity to carry out the requirements of the job. This is not some mean-spirited speculation as to the level of his intelligence. The facts are in. There is nothing left to speculate on. And today we have yet another example of his sheer inability to form a cognitive thought.

Lawrence Eagleburger is a Republican. He was the Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and was a prominent figure in the Reagan administration. He is a party stalwart and one of the bastions of the Republican establishment. This man obviously wants George W. Bush to succeed. When he met with President Bush, along with all of the members of the Iraq Study Group, he said that after they presented their findings - Bush asked no questions.
Eagleburger remarked, "I don't recall, seriously, that he asked any questions."

Stop. Think about that for a second. There are 79 recommendations made by the group. They took nine months and talked to everyone involved about the situation in Iraq. They have interesting, sometimes controversial positions, some of which Bush theoretically agrees and disagrees with - and he asked absolutely no questions. Not one.

That is beyond unbelievable. You would have to be stupendously stupid, mentally stultified and intellectually inoperative not to be able to come up with one question to this group who has presented the most important report of your presidency to you.

No one can be that callous. Forget his legacy, there are people dying on the ground every day. Even if you don't care at all about your own presidency and don't care about the thousands of Iraqis dying every month, you have to care about the American servicemen and women you sent in to die in Iraq. You'd have to be inhuman not to care about that. No one could be callous enough to receive incredibly important recommendations on how to rescue this mission and not ask a single question.

You know why he didn't ask anything? Because he's stupid. He is afraid that he is going to ask a dumb question, or it's possible that he doesn't even have the capacity to formulate one in his tiny, little mind. So, instead he sits there like a bump on a log. The ISG members must have been at a loss for what to do. I can't imagine any of them anticipated that there would be no interaction with the president. That he would just sit there with a dumb look on his face and not make one comment or have one question.

That might explain some of their harsh comments about the president afterward. Former Republican Senator Alan Simpson intimidated that Bush is so stubborn that he stinks of it. The dude is clearly aggravated.

Later Bush actually bragged about reading the report. He said that most reports don't get read by anyone in Washington, but that he went through the trouble of reading this one. Would you like cracker, Mr. President?

(

M.O.W. editorial insert)

Bush often brags about doing the simplest things related to his job, like meeting with the commanders. He is often fond of saying that he has met with his commanders and his advisers. Of course!!! That's what you're supposed to do. Everyone, except you apparently, already knew that. That is the beginning of the job, not the end.

If this was just one incident, you could rightfully say I might be blowing it out of proportion, but this is part of a very clear pattern in most of the important moments in George Bush's presidency.

Remember the famous meeting before Hurricane Katrina where federal officials warned that the levees might not hold. His response? Not one question.

Remember what Paul O'Neill, the former Treasury Secretary, said about him during their first one-on-one meeting. After O'Neill spoke for an hour about all of the important budgetary and domestic issues in the country, he turned to the president. His response? Not one question.

Remember when he received the Presidential Daily Briefing warning "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." His response? Not one question. But in this case, to rub salt into the wounds, he added to the CIA official giving the dire warnings, "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

Wow.

His contempt for and ignorance of the necessities of the job are stunning. At first when Michael Moore made a big deal about how President Bush read "My Pet Goat" for seven minutes after he was told the nation was under attack, I thought he was being a bit unfair.

(M.O.W. editorial insert)

I thought at the time that Bush was thinking about what to do and didn't want to freak out the kids by rushing out of the room. But now the weight of experience leads me to realize that it was no such thing. The tiny wheels inside that vacuous mind were turning and churning, and in the end he had nothing to show for it. Zip. He had no idea what to do.

He didn't ask Andy Card who attacked us? What hit the buildings? What precautions we should take? What actions and reactions we should engage in immediately? How do we go about defending ourselves? What's happening on the ground in New York?

When he was told we were under attack on 9/11, what was his response?

Not one question.

Cenk Uygur is co-host of The Young Turks, the new morning show for Air America Radio, 6-9AM ET.

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George W. Bush is renowned for saying things like "It's not the way American is all about." His gaffes include "Desert Storm. We sold a lot of tickets" and "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm dictator." So if Bush has a way with words it's for twit-like wit and malapropian fluency. Last year he told the Los Angeles Times, "One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected." And on the campaign trail he shared with the New York Times: "I don't care what the polls say. I don't. I'm doing what I think what's wrong."

Mark Crispin Miller, the author of The Bush Dyslexicon: The Sayings of President Dubya, sees more in these verbal tics and grammatical bungles than just plain idiocy. In fact, the professor of media ecology at New York University credits Bush for speaking a language television producers and talk show hosts can understand: one of superfice and shallowness, of one-liners and aw-shucks answers. As Miller argues in his introduction:

"This book is meant to shed some light on the propaganda of our time. The Dyslexicon attempts to give the lie to that enormous wave of propaganda -- a joint production of the GOP and the major media -- whereby George W. Bush was forced on us as President, then, after his inauguration, hailed nearly universally for his amazing charm, his democratic ease, his rare ability to be all things to all Americans, and so on. Our experience of this transparent coup has been disorienting from the start."

AlterNet spoke with Miller about his book and why, and how, the disorientation continues...

Don Hazen: Why do this book?

Mark Crispin Miller: It may sound grandiose, but my purpose was to help inspire the scattered and demoralized opposition to the Bush cabal, which was un-democratically installed and whose aims are wholly, dangerously anti-democratic. I try to do this mainly by reminding readers of George W. Bush's absolute unfitness for the presidency -- a fact that television always made quite clear to most of us (including many Bush supporters), even as "the liberal media" worked hard to play it down.

I'd like to add that, while I see Gore's "defeat" as a grotesque miscarriage of democratic procedure, the book is not intended as especially pro-Gore. While it takes a very dim view of the House of Bush and the far right, The Dyslexicon is also critical of both Gore and his party. The book suggests that both parties, and the corporate media, have much to answer for.

Nevertheless, Gore won. His fate, effected jointly by the GOP and the major media, was an appalling setback for American democracy.

DH: What's the biggest misperception the public has of Dubya?

That he's a moron -- and a benign moron at that. Although Bush is indeed illiterate, bone-ignorant and generally illogical, he's not a cretin. At the nastier kind of politics, he is extraordinarily shrewd. In this he is a lot like Richard Nixon, who, as I argue, is his spiritual father. Bush only benefits from his wide comic reputation as a genial idiot (he's neither genial nor an idiot). So we "misunderestimate" him at our peril.

DH: How does Bush's style work for him?

MCM: He is adept at the sort of "self-effacing humor" that lets people see him as a regular guy. Through this pose, first of all, he turns his major weakness -- his enormous ignorance -- into a seeming strength. Anyone who calls him on his lack of education can be dismissed as stuck-up and elitist, like the Stevenson supporters who would jeer at Ike's weak syntax. (That confusing syntax was deliberate on Ike's part. He was incomparably more literate, and better-educated, than this Bush.)

And while clearing him of all charges of under-education, his tactical self-mockery also helps to cloud the basic issue of his privilege. In fact, Bush was, and is, a spoiled and lazy child of wealth -- great wealth, far greater than Al Gore's. His proud ignorance is actually a shameless exhibition of his having blithely squandered an extremely costly education. By seeming to goad on himself, however, he gives us the misimpression that he's "just folks."

DH: What is the media's role in Bush's success?

MCM: They've been utterly complicit in his rise. They've played such a large role in his elevation that they should share credit for it with Karl Rove. As the Brookings Institution demonstrated last fall, the major media's pro-Bush bias was pretty obvious. While they dumped all over Gore for such trivialities as his too-orange make-up and loud sighs, they gave Bush a pass, despite his enormous weaknesses. They then compounded that original sin by loudly calling on Gore to throw in the towel just after Election Day -- as if that was their decision to make, and not the people's.

DH: Evaluate the legitimacy question now, six months out. Any legs to the anger?

MCM: Absolutely. Millions of Americans are now so sickened by what happened that they've simply given up -- on both the political system and the major media. Roughly 52 percent of the electorate voted against the right -- and, if we factor in Buchanan's margin-dwellers, some 53 percent voted against George Bush. It's hard to believe that all those people took their votes so lightly that they'd now jump on the Bush bandwagon -- which is what the networks' polls would have us think. In fact, those who could clearly see that Bush was lacking, and then voted fervently against him, are today's "Silent Majority." Their turn -- that is to say, our turn -- will come again; and then the small network of rightists who've been calling all the shots will be in trouble. The turn seems lately to have started, what with the remarkable defection of Jim Jeffords -- a move that has poked giant holes in the great myth of Bush's "likeability" and talent for uniting not dividing.

DH:What was most disturbing to you about the election?

Most shocking of all, this "election" was a massive violation of the civil rights of millions of Americans, mainly African Americans. Those voters have been screwed before, of course -- but never as baldly, or in such numbers, as in this unprecedented case. This entailed the systematic and illegal purging of the voters' rolls in Florida; the illegal disenfranchisement of Florida residents who had served their time for felonies in other states; widespread state chicanery -- arbitrary shuttering of polling places, incomplete or incorrect voting lists, intimidation by police, etc. -- not only in Florida but also in (as AlterNet has now reported) Tennessee; and, of course, the Supreme Court's perverse and indefensible misuse of the Constitution's equal protection clause to stop the counting of the vote in Florida.

All of this was aimed primarily at African American voters -- and where was the so-called "liberal media" through all of this? Where were the investigations into those abuses? Where was the coverage of the NAACP's important hearings into the whole matter? Those same intrepid "journalists" who always can be counted on to bow down at the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., and who would also gladly pester Bush about, say, his failure to condemn the South Carolina government for flying the Confederate flag, were in this instance nowhere to be found. Black Americans have every right to feel abandoned and betrayed -- both by the mainstream media and by the Democratic Party.

© 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

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/

Click here for lyrics from Roger Waters' (founder of Pink Floyd) album  Amused To Death
written after Gulf War I (1992)

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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/04/09/bush/index.htmlProdigal son

April 9, 1999 | Philadelphia -- Here in the host city of the 2000 Republican National Convention, it's official: Texas Gov. George W. Bush is the Republican to beat. Not only has Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge endorsed him, but on March 31, 10 Pennsylvania party activists and major donors flew to Austin to sup with the man who would be president. Alongside 20 other power brokers and fat cats from California, the Keystone State Republicans sat down for lunch at the upscale Shoreline Grill, next to the Austin Four Seasons, and Bush began his serenade.

"He started with the salad and went right on through," says candy magnate Bob Asher, one of Pennsylvania's two Republican National Committee members. "He spoke and answered questions -- and there were some very pointed questions. I went down there to see what he was all about, and I was impressed. I liked the fire; I liked the honesty. I've been involved in politics since Dewey-Truman, and I'm used to getting a lot of manure. But you didn't get that with him." That afternoon, Asher, his RNC counterpart and the state chairman all endorsed Bush's exploratory committee. Now, Pennsylvania Republicans like Asher are charged with raising major cash for the Bush campaign -- $1 million in the next two months, by one estimate.

But even at the lovefest at the Shoreline Grill, Asher admits, there was an awkward moment when Bush had to answer the "pointed questions" about his allegedly hard-partying past.

"I'm paraphrasing here," Asher says, "but he said something like, 'We're baby boomers, and I've made mistakes in my life that I'm not always happy about, but I'm going to move forward.'" The group didn't press the questions any further. "With 30 people you don't bring it up. You'd probably pull him aside and say something like, 'Wait -- how the hell you going to address this thing?' But it's out there and all of us know it's out there. We're not going into the thing blind."

What rumors are out there? About what you'd expect from a Texas Good Ol' Boy who went to Yale in the 1960s and made some money in Texas in the '80s -- drinking and drugs and diddling around. Texas columnist Molly Ivins, a liberal who normally skewers George W. (in fact, she nicknamed him "Shrub" in 1992) confessed this week she feels a little sorry for her frequent adversary, now that there are so many reporters skulking around Texas, looking into Bush's past. "I offer to explain how Bush flubbed the tax reform proposals last session -- couldn't even get his own party to go along -- and the visiting journalists want to know if he ever used drugs," Ivins complained. Already, Bush's advisors and top Republican strategists are brainstorming about how to handle the character questions that are likely to dog the GOP front-runner.

And front-runner he certainly is. The Bush money machine is chugging along strong: With less than a year to go until the New Hampshire primary, the Bush campaign has already snagged $6 million, three times as much cash as his closest financial rival for the GOP nomination -- his dad's former No. 2, ex-Vice President Dan Quayle. On Wednesday, Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire announced he was endorsing Bush, giving him an incredible organizational boost in that key primary state. Now, with the unprecedented official outpouring of support for Bush -- at last count, 13 governors (including Ridge), six senators and 87 members of the House -- the pending primaries and caucuses almost seem a trifle.

In 1979, by contrast, then-Reps. Gerry Solomon and Trent Lott tried to muster congressional endorsements for Ronald Reagan, but they were only able to garner 15 supporters. Solomon, now CEO of a lobbying and consulting firm, is conducting a similar task for Bush, and he's finding it a snap. In just his first meeting to drum up support at the Capitol Hill Club in late February, Solomon was able to get 55 members of Congress to sign up. He anticipates reaching 100 by the end of next week.

"Look at the list of endorsements," says a thoroughly juiced Solomon, proudly pointing out that Bush's support ranges from liberal Republican Reps. Connie Morella of Maryland and Jim Leach of Iowa to uberconservative Reps. David Dreier of California and Phil Crane of Illinois. Bush "has proven that conservatism can be compassionate. That's why he has such breadth of support among women and minorities. It's uncanny, his support."

But don't order tickets for the Bush coronation just yet. Conservative activists are already wary of the self-described "compassionate conservative." Says Focus on the Family's James Dobson: "We don't know what he believes." Political insiders wonder aloud if revelations about a personal life more befitting a Democrat than a GOP standard-bearer could derail the Bush train.

Like father, like son?

Gov. Bush himself has acknowledged some trouble in his past. In statements recalling then-Gov. Clinton's admission to have "caused pain" in his marriage, Bush has said that he did "some irresponsible things when I was young and irresponsible," but that's been about as specific as he's gotten lately. He wasn't always so circumspect about his reputation for womanizing. Ten years ago, at the 1988 Republican Convention, Hartford Courant associate editor David Fink struck up a conversation with George W. "When you're not talking politics," Fink asked the vice president's son, "what do you and [your father] talk about?"

"Pussy," George W. replied.

Bush has also acknowledged that he used to drink to excess, though he's insisted that he hasn't touched a drop since his 40th birthday celebration 12 years ago. (He won't admit to alcoholism, however.) But he abjectly refuses to comment on his rumored use of other, less legal, self-medicatons -- like the use of marijuana or (cue the thunderclap) cocaine. When interviewed by WMUR-TV in New Hampshire, and asked if "drugs, marijuana, cocaine" had ever found their way into his bloodstream, Bush replied: "I'm not going to talk about what I did as a child. What I am going to talk about -- and I am going to say this consistently -- [is that] it is irrelevant what I did 20 to 30 years ago. What's relevant is that I have learned from any mistakes I made. I do not want to send signals to anybody that what Gov. Bush did 30 years ago is cool to try."

Bush's Clintonian statements aren't helping to put the issue to bed. "If I had done anything in the past that would have disqualified me for being in public office, you'd have found it," Bush said to reporters when asked about the whispers about his past. "When I put my hand on the Bible and was sworn to uphold the laws of the land, of the state, I also implicitly said I'd uphold the dignity of the office I was elected to, and I have done so." If there exists anyone out there who couldn't teach Parsing 101 after watching our president's weaselly ways this past year, let's be clear what Bush is denying in the above statement: absolutely nothing.

"There are rumors that he might have danced on a bar in the nude when he was in college, that's one thing," ardent supporter Gerry Solomon admits. "But you're not breaking any laws there. And whatever he did in his 30s, he was not an alcoholic. In the environment he was working in -- which was the high rollers in Texas in the '80s -- there might have been situations that were not exemplary. But since that time I don't think there was anything, and he hasn't broken the law. He's said that he drank too much, but since he straightened himself out, he's led an exemplary life."

Democratic and Republican campaign operatives say that the persistent rumors are something that Bush will have to deal with more candidly if he wants to hold the most powerful job in the world. But so far, the Bush campaign disagrees.

"The rumors are ridiculous and we're not going to dignify them with responses," says Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes.

But the campaign's refusal to "dignify" rumors is inconsistent. Hughes will address the gossip about Bush's alleged womanizing, for example, insisting that her boss has been faithful to his wife. (And lest we forget, it was George W. who in 1987 was handed the unseemly task of telling the world that his father had never strayed from his mother: "The answer to 'the Big A' is N-O," he said.) So it seems that the younger Bush is only unwilling to dignify media intrusions into his personal life when the subject involves the use of illegal narcotics -- arguably a personal tidbit far more relevant than infidelity for someone aspiring to be what Republicans during impeachment termed the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States.

Ironically, Bush is counting on impeachment fatigue -- fed up voters tired of tales of soiled dresses, spelunking cigars and the like -- to make opponents' efforts to bring up his past backfire. The questions are "an unpleasant fact of political life, and one of the reasons people are so disgusted with politics," says Hughes. "He has admitted that as a younger man he has made mistakes, but he is not going to itemize them. Everyone has to decide on their own how they're going to answer these kinds of irrelevant questions. Gov. Bush has decided how he's going to handle it."

That approach is flying with some politicos. One expert New Hampshire political observer says that Bush is riding high in the polls there right now and probably won't have to address any tawdry allegations unless tangible proof of wrongdoing materializes. "If George W. just says, 'Quite frankly, I'm not answering that; you'll have to take me as I am,' I think he'll be fine," says New Hampshire State Sen. Pat Krueger. "If this were four years ago, it might be different. But now, we've just been so inundated with this stuff the only ones asking the questions are reporters, not Joe Schmo."

Dee Stewart, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa, goes so far as to say that by refusing to delve into his past mistakes, Bush is setting a proud example. "So many things today celebrate all the wrong things about people's lives and in a way, it's irresponsible," Stewart says. The culture war has never been about eradicating immoral behaviors, Stewart says, it's been about not wanting to celebrate them. "When you look at an opinion leader like Bill Clinton who bragged that he used marijuana and laughed about it -- and over the next six years there was a rise in the use of marijuana by 140 percent -- it's clear that the statements that leaders make do affect society. What Bush is saying by not getting into it is, 'Hey, we don't bring out the best in our children by celebrating the mistakes that we may have made in our past.'"

But a Gallup poll conducted in February for CNN/USA Today indicates that 72 percent of Republicans believe that the public has a right to know if a presidential candidate "had used drugs in the past." And even some of Bush's most ardent supporters think the sandbags can't hold indefinitely. "I think he will [address the rumors] in due course," says former Rep. Solomon. "I think he will answer all questions in due course. But I don't think anything he's done can compare to Bill Clinton."

Republican National Committeeman Asher agrees. "At the appropriate time, the governor will have to address whatever rumors are out there."

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Who would have thought 1988 would prove so relevant to the Y2K presidential election? In recent weeks the media and candidate George W. Bush have cited a memo written that year by an aide to Al Gore, advising the senator and presidential hopeful to choose his words on the campaign trail with care. Today the memo is regarded as proof that even Gore's own staff believed he stretched and bent the truth.

Arlie Schardt, who was Gore's press secretary in 1988, penned the infamous memo. Though not involved in the current campaign, Schardt has condemned the media's misuse of his words. He told a reporter for TomPaine.com that his memo "is being blown astronomically out of proportion. I certainly didn't write it because I believed Al exaggerated or misrepresented things. That was the farthest thing from my mind."

Gore's credibility problem is based on much more than an old memo mangled by the media. But in an atmosphere where many talking heads are so stupid or partisan as to accuse him of "lying" when he joked to a labor group that the song "Look For the Union Label" served as his lullaby, it's only fair to parse each exaggeration allegation. Robert Parry (Washington Monthly), Sean Wilentz (American Prospect) and Mollie Dickenson (TomPaine.com) have shown in several cases that it is Gore's accusers -- including campaign reporters at the Washington Post and New York Times -- who can't separate fact from fiction.

Schardt's memo is not the only controversial 1988 communication that reflects on the values of a Y2K presidential contender. George W., at the time a key operative on his father's campaign staff, said a mouthful with a single word.

As reported by Jake Tapper in the April 9, 1999 edition of Salon.com, at the 1988 Republican Convention, Hartford Courant associate editor David Fink asked W. this question: "When you're not talking politics, what do you and [your father] talk about?" "Pussy," he replied.

(M.O.W. editorial insert)

Yes, George W., as late as 1988, enjoyed talking with his soon-to-be-president father about the same thing that Vernon Jordan and President Clinton talk about on the golf course. (On the Feb. 15, 1998 edition of 60 Minutes, Jordan revealed to Mike Wallace what he and the president chat about on the links.)

Twelve years is a long time to wait to ask follow-up questions, but here are several worth posing to the Republican candidate:

· That 1988 conversation with the Courant editor took place two years after Billy Graham helped you recommit your life to Christ. Would Jesus approve of two devout Christian married men -- a vice president and his son, no less -- talking about "pussy"?

· What exactly do you mean by "pussy"? Do you and your dad actually talk about female genitalia? Or do you talk about women, who by definition are equipped with female genitalia?

· If the latter is the case, does your definition of "pussy" incorporate all women?

· If it doesn't incorporate all women, what makes some of them "pussy" and others not? Appearance? Attitude? Marital status? Do soccer moms qualify? How about female members of your family?

· If appearance is a factor, do you have a special term for those females who lack the "pussy" look? One of your supporters, talk-radio superstar Rush Limbaugh, has described women and girls (including pubescent daughters of presidents) who don't measure up to his exacting standards of beauty as "dogs." Do you ever use that term?

· Define "dehumanization."

· When your wife and your mother are not talking politics, do they talk about "dick"? If Laura told a newspaper editor that she and Bar did indeed "talk dick," how would you feel?

· Define "objectification."

Dennis Hans is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, National Post (Canada) and online at TomPaine.com, MediaChannel.org and The Black World Today (tbwt.com), among other outlets. He can be reached at HANS_D@popmail.firn.edu  
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and interviews with 
SMART PEOPLE
on our Dire Situation:
/
Kurt Vonnegut Speaks 
/
Bill Moyers Rallies
/
Gore Vidal Rants
/
Mark Twain Sings
_____________//
...

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