Bush Asks Americans To Forgive His Mistakes and Come Together To Support His Iraq Policy.

September 11, 2006 9:05 PM

Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball, he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please
Come together right now over me...
As the last link reports, as America mourns those lost on September 11, 2001, President Bush has used the event to ask the American public to come together and support him in his policy on Iraq.
posted by Effigy2000 (66 comments total)

I'll support him when I see Osama's head on a platter, like he promised five years ago. Until then he can go fuck himself.
posted by caution live frogs at 9:12 PM on September 11, 2006

Exactly. What an utter failure of a leader.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:15 PM on September 11, 2006

Parsing the oblique bullshit of "Come Together" is not what makes it a great song post.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:15 PM on September 11, 2006

Didn't he just say, like a week ago, that Iraq/Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11?
posted by mr.curmudgeon at 9:16 PM on September 11, 2006

Keith Olbermann's response today was great, I thought.
posted by dobbs at 9:17 PM on September 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

Oh, the symbolism.
posted by clevershark at 9:18 PM on September 11, 2006

What a disgusting excuse for a human.

Oh, the symbolism.

Wow. That was posted earlier and I thought it was photoshopped.
posted by bob sarabia at 9:22 PM on September 11, 2006

It's Bush's fault that there isn't yet a memorial at the site of the World Trade Center? Isn't that mostly being handled by New York City?

Also on Olbermann, was it a response to the president's speech? I thought his show was on before the president spoke.

I know it isn't rational, nor is it fair to Mr. Olbermann, but I just can't watch him offer his views of the world without smiling as various SportsCenter-isms run through my head. For me, he is typecast as wiseass sportsguy regardless of merit.
posted by obfusciatrist at 9:23 PM on September 11, 2006

Wanker spouts wank. Film at 11.
posted by pompomtom at 9:24 PM on September 11, 2006

He ran out of chances about 25 Dick Cheneys ago.

I used to run a crew of about a dozen guys doing blue-collar labor. Bush is one of the guys who would make it a week or two on glibness and ass-kissing, then I'd have to dump him when it became clear he wasn't prepared to do any real work.
posted by facetious at 9:25 PM on September 11, 2006

I should have linked to the original, I know.
posted by clevershark at 9:26 PM on September 11, 2006

Here's the Olbermann video on youtube.
posted by bob sarabia at 9:32 PM on September 11, 2006

I want to gay-marry Keith Olbermann.
posted by Zozo at 9:40 PM on September 11, 2006

Keith Olbermann's response today was great, I thought.
posted by dobbs

Best link of the day.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:43 PM on September 11, 2006

obfusciatrist, I meant response in general--ie, regarding using 9/11 as a platform--not response directly to Bush's speech.
posted by dobbs at 9:43 PM on September 11, 2006

Wow. That was posted earlier and I thought it was photoshopped.

Holy crap... that's real? I can't believe the Secret PR Service didn't tackle him to the ground before his foot hit the mat. You gotta be some kinda idiot to wipe your shoes on the flag of the country you're supposed to be representing.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:45 PM on September 11, 2006

It's Bush's fault that there isn't yet a memorial at the site of the World Trade Center? Isn't that mostly being handled by New York City?

I think he was expressing general outrage, I didn't hear him blame bush for there being no memorial yet.
posted by bob sarabia at 9:46 PM on September 11, 2006

Keith Olbermann's articulate outrage is the only thing worth a damn I heard today.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:47 PM on September 11, 2006

Expanding on facetious' post:

There is a definite sense of schadenfreude to Bush's last years in office. There is, quite literally, nothing productive he can do. Short of another attack (which will only serve to make him look like more of a failure) the best he can hope for is fulfilling ceremonial duties like today. And somewhere in him, he knows (or is beginning to suspect) that this will be the best outcome for the rest of his life: an endless echo of "Terror, Iraq, 9/11".

Democratic senators that leant his way are toppling. Republican politicians are distancing themselves from him as if he was radioactive, or at least keeping him very carefully at arms length (McCain).

Everything in his life has been given to him. The cause of his wretchedness has been due his own failings (impossible for him to see) or that of his family. In the past, if something bored him, he moved on to something else. If he failed, political operatives cleaned up after him.

But he can't step away from this (short of a resignation, which is unthinkable). He has another two years left on the clock to run out. His base - the idle rich, far-rights and the evangelicals - aren't large enough to turn his political fortunes around. Gay marriage is played out. So are stem cells. Steroids in sports wasn't enough. There's simply nothing left.

If the Democrats take back government, he is in serious trouble, and knows it. If they don't, he still has two years of a lame-duck presidency to go. It's like watching Reagan when the Alzheimers was obvious during the last years of his term. He's loved by his core constituents, but lost inside.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:56 PM on September 11, 2006 [5 favorites]

I got one last ceremony Bush should perform.

Sepuku.
posted by tkchrist at 10:19 PM on September 11, 2006

Clevershark, I've seen that image a handful of times today without context, and I thought it was some sort of art installation. Maybe it is, after all, but the author corrupts his own message, - for snicks, it seems.
posted by maryh at 10:19 PM on September 11, 2006

Those are great lyrics, there...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:27 AM on September 12, 2006

Washington Post: Five Years after 9/11, Bush's Capacity to Move Public Is Weakened.
posted by ericb at 8:31 AM on September 12, 2006

The Rove Campaign

"Next week, I'm informed via troubled White House sources, will see the full unveiling of Karl Rove's fall election strategy. He's intending to line up 9/11 families to accuse McCain, Warner and Graham of delaying justice for the perpetrators of that atrocity, because they want to uphold the ancient judicial traditions of the U.S. military and abide by the Constitution. He will use the families as an argument for legalizing torture, setting up kangaroo courts for military prisoners, and giving war crime impunity for his own aides and cronies. This is his 'Hail Mary' move for November; it's brutally exploitative of 9/11; it's pure partisanship; and it's designed to enable an untrammeled executive. Decent Republicans, Independents and Democrats must do all they can to expose and resist this latest descent into political thuggery. If you need proof that this administration's first priority is not a humane and effective counter-terror strategy, but a brutal, exploitative path to retaining power at any price, you just got it."

[Andrew Sullivan | September 10, 2006]

posted by ericb at 8:32 AM on September 12, 2006

The last link in the post was to ABC, the outfit bring us the revisionist history of 9/11, blaming Clinton for everything but elm tree disease
posted by Postroad at 8:34 AM on September 12, 2006

I want to straight-marry Richard Engel (NBC Beirut Bureau Chief, four years in Iraq). He's super dreamy and was on the Chris Mattews Show (transcript here) last Sunday. His depressing albeit not-suprising analysis:

MATTHEWS: Richard, four years on the ground in Iraq. That's your record. What's your gut tell you? Is it getting better over there for us or worse?

Mr. ENGEL: I think it's getting worse, unfortunately. I think there is a civil war that has been on the ground for about a year that'll probably be another nine or 10 years of civil war, maybe 250,000 people dead before this is over. I think, eventually, they're going to have a situation that they could've reached when the Iraqis were putting together their constitution, a loose federal state and, unfortunately, it's going to--where those federal lines are divided is going to take a lot of bloodshed, and the Americans are just there to try and hold it together.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 8:34 AM on September 12, 2006

But he can't step away from this (short of a resignation, which is unthinkable)

No, it's very thinkable
posted by amberglow at 8:35 AM on September 12, 2006

Do your fucking job Bush.
Shut the fuck up and produce some fucking RESULTS !!!
posted by stevejensen at 8:37 AM on September 12, 2006

Keith Olbermann is a class act.

I don't care that there's still nothing in the 'hole' where the WTC was. But god damn is he spot-on regarding the actions of our government since then. I have never heard those sentiments expressed more articulately.
posted by ninjew at 8:39 AM on September 12, 2006

So, he's invoking 3000 killed in the Sept. 11 attacks to try to drum up support for the invasion of Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

He's a ghoulish douchebag. No news at 11.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 8:44 AM on September 12, 2006

No fan of Bush, but the picture of him stepping on the flag. That's a Ray Caeser digital art piece. Is Reuters in trouble again?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:46 AM on September 12, 2006

fuck bush.
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 8:47 AM on September 12, 2006

Excellent post. And marvelously snarky/truly angry comments, starting with the first one.
posted by etaoin at 8:49 AM on September 12, 2006

He got Jew Jew eyeball, surely?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:53 AM on September 12, 2006

NYC and Albany are to blame, too. Everyone's trying to cash in on the project without making seem like they're trying to cash in on it. It's a PR nightmare.
posted by wfc123 at 8:54 AM on September 12, 2006

... Most of all, they do not trust the American people and that will be their downfall. They are not kings, but men elected by and accountable to the people. No matter how many laws they break or mud they toss, will that ever change. They rule as the weak rule, by fear, fiat and suspicion. And the weak will fail, because those who live in fear can never truly gain the trust and respect of those they attempt to lead. ...
posted by amberglow at 8:55 AM on September 12, 2006

If they only would fix things instead of trying to sell us lies over and over, things would be different. We're not buying any of it.
posted by amberglow at 8:57 AM on September 12, 2006

dances - the BoingBoing article is from January, and the picture has nothing to do with any of the actual Ray Caeser art in the linked article. I betcha someone just put that picture into that article.
posted by yhbc at 9:03 AM on September 12, 2006

Okay. I can buy that, but. . . it is in the Boing Boing archive for January with that photo which suggests some hacking (at a minimum). A sophisticated subterfuge for what reason? If it is not Ray Caeser's works (which do look different but he may have changed over what he has on his website) then why say it is? If it were someone trying to say this is faked (when it isn't) it can easily be disproved by contacting Ray Caeser. Or maybe it was just some whimsical hack?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:11 AM on September 12, 2006

Did you look at Ray Caesar's art, dances_with_sneetches? The Bush stomping-on-the-flag-thing is obviously not a work by him.
posted by interrobang at 9:20 AM on September 12, 2006

Yes, I did, interrobang. This was not on his website. I guess it was being in the middle of the January Boing-Boing archive that made me think either someone appropriated his work or else they jiggered with Boing-Boing.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:25 AM on September 12, 2006

The Olbermann link was excellent, thanks dobbs. Yesterday I re-read What Liberal Media? and, though much of the book is now dated, I've now remembered to be incredibly angry about the 2000 election all over again. For me, it was a revelation: there's so much to be angry about that I can't keep it straight anymore.
posted by Kwine at 9:30 AM on September 12, 2006

Americans Say White House Politicizing Terror: "It Is The Only Card They Got."
posted by ericb at 9:37 AM on September 12, 2006

“Look, let me explain: I thought - the cop - was a hooker.” - Homer Simpson.

How can one forgive a mistake and in so doing support that same mistake? I’m sorry I’m screwing your wife, just give me a condom sorta thing.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:38 AM on September 12, 2006

"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out the terrorists would leave us alone," the President said.

Whoops! Did we just tacitly-and-in-passing admit to mistakes in Iraq? W, did you clear that sentence with Messrs. Rove, Cheney & Rumsfeld, or was it a slip of the tongue?

I love how he admits that 9/11 and Saddam had nothing to do with each other, yet he can't resist mentioning both Iraq and terrorists in the same breath.
posted by pax digita at 9:53 AM on September 12, 2006

Ericb: The Rove Campaign

"Next week, I'm informed via troubled White House sources, will see the full unveiling of Karl Rove's fall election strategy. He's intending to line up 9/11 families to accuse McCain, Warner and Graham of delaying justice for the perpetrators of that atrocity,

You know there's an even more desperate ploy available to regalvinize, reterrorify and re-911-ize the country. It makes my blood run cold, yet after all we've seen from these people, I would not discount it.
posted by Skygazer at 9:55 AM on September 12, 2006

posted by prostyle at 9:58 AM on September 12, 2006

facetious, here in white-collar land, we'd have to start keeping a "Pearl Harbor file," with a complete set of copies sent to the HR director, for everything damning he did and said (or failed to do or say), prior to sh*tcanning his @$$. That file would be interestingly thick after six years, I bet.

On preview:

Skygazer, sure. Nuke San Francisco or Berkeley and blame it on Ahmadinejad.
posted by pax digita at 9:59 AM on September 12, 2006

Keith Olbermann's response today was great, I thought.

Where do I go to vote for him?
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:00 AM on September 12, 2006

Why is the debate about which party can make America safer, and not about which party (or what actions) can be taken to make Americans more free and prosperous?

Accepting the basis for the debate is halfway to loss.
posted by jet_silver at 10:00 AM on September 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

You know there's an even more desperate ploy available to regalvinize, reterrorify and re-911-ize the country.

They have the tools at their disposal. For instance, the Department of Homeland Security is nothing more than the political version of Star Trek's Commander Riker: "Shields up, red alert!" But this administration is probably better compared to Lost in Space.
posted by peeedro at 10:03 AM on September 12, 2006

Zahira Zahir (third FPP link) was Milt Pitts's "understudy" back in the '80's, when Pitts was famous for being Reagan's barber.

She cut my hair a several times back then too, at Pitts's barber shop, while Milt cut my dad's. The shop was in the basement of the Sheraton-Carlton, in downtown DC, and scores of autographed pictures of just about every Republican politician or appointee or fixer you'd ever heard of (some with Pitts standing next to the pol, some the pols' standard head-shot) crammed together on the walls, covering them from edge to edge. For all Milt's fame, the haircuts were only slightly more than you'd pay anywhere else in DC, $25 or $30 in the '80s, as I recall.
posted by orthogonality at 10:03 AM on September 12, 2006

> Leaving services Sunday morning at Faith Bible Chapel, an evangelical megachurch, Jim McBride, a pilot who served in Vietnam, said he was not happy with President Bush’s handling of Iraq. And he displayed little inclination to rethink his position despite the White House’s new push to focus this year’s Congressional elections on which party will keep the nation safer.

“I do have a bit of mistrust,” said Mr. McBride, who said that he twice voted for Mr. Bush but that he is now disappointed — a sentiment he said is shared by many in his Bible study group. “The whole thing about W.M.D. and that Iraq is somehow tied to 9/11, I just don’t believe it.”

I don't know whether to cheer or weep tears of despair.
posted by jokeefe at 10:09 AM on September 12, 2006

sure. Nuke San Francisco or Berkeley and blame it on Ahmadinejad.
posted by pax digita at 12:59 PM EST on September 12 [+] [!]

It wouldn't have to be THAT insane, a couple of subway bombs or another round of anthrax mailings. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. I guess they thought we'd be hit again sooner.
posted by Skygazer at 10:11 AM on September 12, 2006

But what if Bush's plans go awry? What if it takes a member of the 'Axis of Evil' to straighten things out?
posted by NationalKato at 10:22 AM on September 12, 2006

“I do have a bit of mistrust,” said Mr. McBride, who said that he twice voted for Mr. Bush but that he is now disappointed — a sentiment he said is shared by many in his Bible study group. “The whole thing about W.M.D. and that Iraq is somehow tied to 9/11, I just don't believe it.”

Of course it really doesn't matter if McBride believes it or not now, he believed it back then and he and his bible studies group friends and others like them gave tacit approval to this administration to do the terrible things they have done.

I empathize with his buyers remorse, but at the end of the day, it's still (in a small way) his fault.

Though it brings me some small measure of joy to think that if there are enough people like him, people who have changed their views, that at some point in the future, those responsible in the administration will be held accountable.

Or more succinctly, what jokeefe said.
posted by quin at 10:38 AM on September 12, 2006

Pataki's grandstading, the NYPD's probably pointless and unrealistic secuity demands, the Port Authority's bureaucratic ineptitude, the LMDC's bullshit giveaways, Larry Silverstein's greed, and David Childs' obsequiousness are probably the more relevant reasons for the big non-rebuilding. But I have no problem calling it a Republican fiasco: if BushCo had one whit of actual, genuine interest in NYC, shit coulda got addressed a long, long time ago.
posted by DenOfSizer at 10:46 AM on September 12, 2006

Cool post, and the Olbermann thing is kinda amazing. The fact that he can actually speak his mind like that (albeit on basic cable) and not get shit-canned or worse is a good thing. Right up there with Will Ferrell's "baby Jesus" bit in Talladega Nights. There's still hope...

And anyone who's ever actually stood and looked at that friggin' hole in the ground -- as I've done at least once a year since 9/11-- can't help but be incensed at the fact that we still haven't gotten the "folks" who made it. Here's a big, fat, murder scene, and no one's out there looking for the murderer. Amazing. (And since we've re-defined 9/11 not as a crime, but a small battle in the larger war on terror, we'll probably never see the dude in court.) That kind of clarity re: Iraq, Pakistan, etc., isn't a conservative or liberal thing -- it's just obvious when you're standing there. A child would understand it.

And speaking of kids... While I don't mind the Orange Alert that'll drop on or around October 23, it's what happens after the Dems win the House (or the presidency in '08) that I'm genuinely worried about. Hardcore right-wingers (e.g., Rove & Co.) are like spoiled children, and when they don't get what they want, kids are huge on the cutting-off-nose-to-spite-face thing.
posted by turducken at 11:38 AM on September 12, 2006

Until we actually have him behind bars, the Democrats should just start asking "why haven't we caught Osama" any time they need a rebuttal.
posted by bshort at 11:47 AM on September 12, 2006

How bad is he?
posted by homunculus at 11:54 AM on September 12, 2006

I went to "the hole" in early 2002. It was overwhelming to stand there and try and grok the scale of it all.

And like others who stood in line to pay our respects, I think most of us just kind of assumed that we lived in a great country that would put up some sort of permanent memorial. (I thought the place should be made into a park/memorial, fwiw.)

But no. Still a big hole. And no, Bush isn't singularly responsible, but if he's going to try and take credit for non-event big bad Ay-rabs not flying more planes into our buildings, he also needs to be held responsible for not taking some leadership on so many other issues the inability to help out Nola after Katrina is even more reprehensible. (Think Houston would have been treated the same way?)

So, I'm thankful that we have, at least, a former sports journalist and two comedians doing the only worthy news coverage around. It's really gottten to be that bad. What the hell do they teach in J-school these days anyways? Certainly not principles.
posted by bardic at 11:56 AM on September 12, 2006

It’s hard to figure out how to build consensus when the men in charge embrace a series of myths. Vice President Dick Cheney suggested last weekend that the White House is even more delusional than Mr. Bush’s rhetoric suggests. The vice president volunteered to NBC’s Tim Russert that not only was the Iraq invasion the right thing to do, “if we had it to do over again, we’d do exactly the same thing.”

It is a breathtaking thought. If we could return to Sept. 12, 2001, knowing all we have seen since, Mr. Cheney and the president would march right out and “do exactly the same thing” all over again. It will be hard to hear the phrase “lessons of Sept. 11” again without contemplating that statement.

President Bush's Reality -- NYT editorial 9/12/2006
posted by edverb at 12:02 PM on September 12, 2006

I will unite behind President Bush when:

1. his people stop accusing me of aiding the terrorists
2. he states that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake
4. he agrees that the U.S. Bill of Rights – written while a large percentage of proto-Americans were in daily danger of being murdered, raped and scalped by Native American terrorists – does not need to be gutted for our safety, and that we do not need to make of our President a King.
posted by sacre_bleu at 12:09 PM on September 12, 2006

"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. [Brandishes a golf club.] Now, watch this drive." -- GWB, 9/10/01
posted by neuron at 12:12 PM on September 12, 2006

The piece abou Bush's barber made me think of that episode of Get Smart where the guy who guts all the DC bigwigs' hair is actually a KAOS agent. Let's hope the terrorists aren't TVLand watchers.
posted by jonmc at 12:16 PM on September 12, 2006

If they only would fix things instead of trying to sell us lies over and over

I agree with that statement amberglow. And I think it is the primary reason I dislike all politicians.
posted by a3matrix at 12:28 PM on September 12, 2006