Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiFrom The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder
How has George Bush reacted to the hell he created in Iraq, to the thousands of lives that have been lost in the war, and to the enormous and endless suffering that the survivors of the victims -- their loved ones -- have had to endure?
I've always felt that impressions are very important in life, and other than "first impressions," they are usually right. Why? Because impressions, we know, are formed over a period of time. They are the accumulation of many words and incidents, many or most of which one has forgotten, but which are nonetheless assimilated into the observer's subconscious and thus make their mark. In other words, you forgot the incident, but it added to the impression. "How do you feel about David? Do you feel he's an honest person?" "Yeah, I do." "Why do you say that about him? Can you give me any examples that would cause you to say he's honest?" "No, not really, at least not off the top of my head. But I've known David for over ten years, and my sense is that he's an honest person."
I have a very distinct impression that with the exception of a vagrant tear that may have fallen if he was swept up, in the moment, at an emotional public ceremony for American soldiers who have died in the war, George Bush hasn't suffered at all over the monumental suffering, death, and horror he has caused by plunging this nation into the darkness of the Iraq war, probably never losing a wink of sleep over it. Sure, we often hear from Bush administration sources, or his family, or from Bush himself, about how much he suffers over the loss of American lives in Iraq. But that dog won't run. How do we just about know this is nonsense? Not only because the words he has uttered could never have escaped from his lips if he were suffering, but because no matter how many American soldiers have died on a given day in Iraq (averaging well over two every day), he is always seen with a big smile on his face that same day or the next, and is in good spirits. How would that be possible if he was suffering? For example, the November 3, 2003, morning New York Times front-page headline story was that the previous day in Fallouja, Iraq, insurgents "shot down an American helicopter just outside the city in a bold assault that killed 16 soldiers and wounded 20 others. It was the deadliest attack on American troops since the United States invaded Iraq in March." Yet later in that same day when Bush arrived for a fund-raiser in Birmingham, Alabama, he was smiling broadly, and Mike Allen of the Washington Post wrote that "the President appeared to be in a fabulous mood." This is merely one of hundreds of such observations made about Bush while the brutal war continued in Iraq.
And even when Bush is off camera, we have consistently heard from those who have observed him up close how much he seems to be enjoying himself. When Bush gave up his miles of running several times a week because of knee problems, he took up biking. "He's turned into a bike maniac," said Mark McKinnon in March of 2005, right in the middle of the war. McKinnon, a biking friend of Bush's who was Bush's chief media strategist in his 2004 reelection campaign, also told the New York Times's Elisabeth Bumiller about Bush: "He's as calm and relaxed and confident and happy as I've ever seen him." Happy? Under the horrible circumstances of the war, where Bush's own soldiers are dying violent deaths, how is that even possible?
In a time of war and suffering, Bush's smiles, joking, and good spirits stand in stark contrast to the demeanor of everyone of his predecessors and couldn't possibly be more inappropriate. Michael Moore, in his motion picture documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, captured this fact and the superficiality of Bush well with a snippet from a TV interview Bush gave on the golf course following a recent terrorist attack. Bush said, "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you." Then, without missing a single beat, he said in reference to a golf shot he was about to hit: "Now watch this drive."
Before I get into specific instances of Bush laughing and having fun throughout the entire period of the inferno he created in Iraq, I want to discuss a number of more indirect but revealing incidents that reflect he could not care less about the human suffering and carnage going on in Iraq, or anywhere.
1. The first inkling I got that Bush didn't care about the suffering or anyone, not just those dying in Iraq, was from an article in the September 22, 2001, New York Times just eleven days after 9/11. Though 3,000 Americans had been murdered and the nation was in agony and shock, the man who should have been leading the mourning was, behind the scenes, not affected in the tiniest way. The article, by Frank Bruni, said that "Mr. Bush's nonchalant, jocular demeanor remains the same. In private, say several Republicans close to the administration, he still slaps backs and uses baseball terminology, at one point promising that the terrorists were not 'going to steal home on me.' He is not staying up all night, or even most of the night. He is taking time to play with his dogs and his cat. He is working out most days." So right after several thousand Americans lost their lives in a horrible catastrophe, behind the scenes Bush is his same old backslapping self, and he's not letting the tragedy interfere in the slightest way with the daily regimen of his life that he enjoys.
In fact, he himself admitted to the magazine Runners World (August 23, 2002) that after the Afghanistan war began: "I have been running with a little more intensity . . . It helps me to clear my mind." (In other words, Bush likes to clear his mind of the things he's supposed to be thinking about.) Remarkably finding time in the most important job on earth to run six days a week, Bush added: "It's interesting that my times have become faster . . . For me, the psychological benefit [in running] is enormous. You tend to forget everything that's going on in your mind and just concentrate on the time and distance." But even this obscene indulgence after 9/11 and during wartime by the man with more responsibility than anyone in the world wasn't enough for Bush. He told the magazine: "I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency." Imagine that. Among all the things that the president of the United States could be sad about during a time of war, not being able to run longer six days a week is up there near the top of the list.
A New York Times article not long after 9/11 (November 5, 2001) reported that Bush had told his friends (obviously with pride) that "his runs on the Camp David trails through the Maryland woods have produced his fastest time in a decade, three miles in 21 minutes and 6 seconds." USA Today (October 29, 2001) reported that Bush used to run 3 miles in 25 minutes and now he was "boasting to friends and staffers" about his new time, and was "now running 4 miles a day."
So with his approval rating soaring to 90 percent in the wake of 9/11 -- and with his being the main person in America whose job required that he be totally engaged every waking hour in working diligently on this nation's response to 9/11 -- Bush, remarkably, was working diligently on improving his time for the mile. I ask you, what American president in history, Republican or Democrat, would have conducted himself this way?
2. One thing about Bush. He's so dense that he makes remarks an intelligent person who was as much of a scoundrel as he would never make. They'd keep their feelings, which they would know to be very shameful, to themselves. On December 21, 2001, just a few months after 9/11 -- a tragedy that shocked the nation and the world in which 3,000 Americans were consumed by fires, some choosing to jump to their deaths out of windows eighty or more stories high -- Bush, who could only have been thinking of himself, told the media: "All in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me." He said this because that is exactly the way he felt. What difference does 9/11 make? I'm president. I love it, and Laura and I are having a ball.
Indeed, on January 20, 2005, right in the midst of the hell on earth Bush created in Iraq -- when the carnage there was near its worst and American soldiers and Iraqi citizens were dying violent deaths every day -- Bush, referring to himself and his wife, told thousands of partying supporters at one of his nine inaugural balls: "We're having the time of our life." Can you even begin to imagine Roosevelt in the midst of the Second World War, Truman during the Korean War, or LBJ and Nixon during the Vietnam War, saying something like this?
3. Does it not stand to reason that if Bush were suffering over the daily killings and tragedy in Iraq, he would be working every waking hour to lessen the mounting number of casualties as well as find a way to satisfactorily end the terrible conflict? I mean, as president, that's what you'd expect of him, right? Isn't that his job? Yet we know that although Bush is still in office, he has already spent far more time on vacation than any other president in American history. For instance, by April 11, 2004 (he was inaugurated January 20, 2001), he had visited his cherished ranch in Crawford a mind-boggling thirty-three times and spent almost eight months of his presidency there.
Although the office of the presidency follows the president wherever he goes twenty-four hours a day, and at least some part of every day on vacation, no matter how small, was spent by Bush attending to his duties as president, we also know that Bush's main purpose when he goes on vacation, obviously and by definition, is to vacation, not work. CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, who travels with Bush and keeps track of such things, told me that as of January 1, 2008, in Bush's less than seven years as president, he visited his ranch in Texas an unbelievable 69 times, spending, per Knoller, "all or part of 448 days on vacation there." As amazing as this is, Bush also made, Knoller says, 132 visits to Camp David during this period, spending "all or part of 421 days there," and 10 visits to his family's vacation compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, spending "all or part of 39 days there."
So the bottom line is that of a total of approximately 2,535 days as president, most of them during a time of war, Bush spent all or a part or 908 days, an incredible 36 percent of his time, on vacation or at retreat places. Hard to believe, but true. Nine hundred and eight days is two and a half years of Bush's presidency. Two and a half years of the less than seven years of his presidency in which his main goal was to kick back and have fun. You see, the White House digs, with a pool, theater, gymnasium, etc., weren't enjoyable enough for Bush. He wanted a more enjoyable place to be during his life as president. *
My position in life is infinitely less important than Bush's, yet during the above same period of Bush's presidency, I not only worked much longer hours every day than Bush, I worked seven days a week, never took one vacation, and only took three days off to go to the desert with my wife to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. If it had not been for the anniversary, I wouldn't have even taken those three days off. I realize I take working to an extreme, living by the clock each day, always looking up to see how much time I have left, working from morning to morning (retiring usually around two in the morning and starting my day at ten in the morning). Still, it is striking to consider that in seven years, I took 3 days off and Bush, the president of the United States, took 908. Even Americans who lead a more normal life than I, even fat-cat corporate executives, haven't taken anywhere near the time away from their work that Bush has. Indeed, I think we can safely say that even though Bush has the most important and demanding job in this entire land, he has irresponsibly taken far more time off from his job to have fun during the past seven years than any worker or company executive in America!!! Is Bush, or is he not, a disgrace of the very first order?
* * *
*Remarkably, during his campaign for reelection in 2004 Bush very frequently spoke of the "hard work" he and his administration were engaging in. This was the first time I had ever heard an American president speak of the "hard work" involved in his job. I have heard them speak of the immense "burden" of the office of the presidency being responsible for the destiny and welfare of millions of people. But you see, for someone like Bush who was born on home plate and thought he had hit a home run, anything he does, any effort at all, he considers "hard work."
The above is an excerpt from the book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi Published by Vanguard Press; May 2008;$26.95US/$28.95CAN; 978-159315-481-3
Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the L.A. County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. His forthcoming book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder, is available May 27.
For more information visit www.prosecutionofbush.com
Copyright © 2008 Vincent Bugliosi
75 Comments so far
Show AllSimple minds are dangerous. The denial of complexity is the beginning of tyranny.
I concur. He behaves like an undisciplined child who expects others to bear all the responsibility for his actions. But it's worse than that. Even small children have sympathetic feelings for others who are unhappy or in pain.
A sociopath makes a very good frontman for the twisted military industrial complex. It's a disaster for everyone else.
It would seem that the behavior is consistent with antidepressant use. My old friends submit when urged by their doctors to mute their grieving when a spouse dies.
Might this explain the wormlike spines of our elected officials?
Sigh...
patrickballotintegrity: OK, OK, geez, MARTIAL law then. Are you criticizing my spelling or the relevance of martial law? It was actually expected to happen in late 2004: "One incident, one aircraft hijacked, a 'dirty nuke' set off in a small town, may well prompt the Bush regime, let's say during the election campaign of 2003-2004, to suspend national elections for a year while his government ensures stability," according to an article in BuzzFlash by Maureen Farrell. Now that the deconstruction of Bush's War is imminent if McCain isn't elected, why have an election at all, when all you have to do is manufacture another terrorist attack and declare a state of emergency, suspend habeas corpus, declare martial law, etc.
Dozy Dotes
One can only hope that the red state losers that voted this wanker into office, have all lost their jobs, and are having trouble affording gasoline.
Thanks Siouxrose.
I'm gonna get this book.
Articles such as these are why I am uncomfortable with the notion that Bush and his cohorts are just an administration of Keystone Cops. That's how many people, including those on the left, will portray Mr. Bush.
From election fraud (how the fox got into the chicken coop), to letting 9/11 happen (I still don't buy the planned demolition theory, but I don't put it past them either. Imo, how can anyone considering how corrupt these current occupants are? Talk about conspiracy theories. These past 8 years have been conspiracy applied.), to putting civil liberties in peril, to committing an international home invasion, we've seen it all and then some. 100 years from now, Bush's 2 reigns will be viewed as one of the most spectacular crimes ever hatched.
These people aren't wrongheaded. They aren't misguided. They do not hold the best interests of the world close to their breasts. They are not stupid. Bush is not a country bumpkin who just doesn't get it. Nothing these people do, none of the policies they enact are done so with good intentions.
They lead us to believe that evil is an abortion doctor or a person of a different skin tone and religion in order to distract our attention. It's one of many reasons why they are so insidious. The prime mover has always been right under our noses yet they want us to think that The Adversary is another continent.
We're all being held hostage.
Iwarrior: I agree with your analysis & assessments.
I've been saying all along that impeachment is too mild for Bush and Co. They are felons and need to be dealt with as such. Dubbya truly is The Clown Prince of Corpromilitaryindustrial Crime. Cheney might as well be the Penguin.
THIS is why I'm the way I am. This is why I believe that evil walks. This is why I can't let go of this sort of stark thinking.
I'm seeing nothing but darkness and light here. There is no dusk. It takes people like Bugliosi, people who have stared malevolence dead in the face, to bring it all home.
If Bush hadn't been born into a circle of wealth and power, he'd be a drug dealer, pimp, or gangster, and hopefully behind bars.
bush is our worst president by far. my favorite president is lincoln.
hi i hate the (beep) war.
"Is Bush, or is he not, a disgrace of the very first order?"
Well, duh. It's a no-brainer.
LambsieDivy Are you kidding me what m.. law are you talking about?
Get out your dictionary,
As for Sept 1st,2nd when Marvin Bush's Security Corporation emptied out those buildings for a weekend ( so that COMPLETE STRANGERs not from New York, who roamed the towers without any supervision for 48 hours) OVER the protests of the PORT AUTHORUTY security employee(s), janitors all with 20 years or more on the job!!
what did they do
why did WTC 7 fall @ 5pm when it stood 300ft away from WTC 1 & WTC 2?
KIVALS: Great post! and have a WONDERFUL trip! Regards to the wife! You will be missed here!
Bush is a president most Americans can be proud of because he just like them.
Siouxrose,
Your comment about scientology got me thinking about the way that individualism in the US has become so twisted that it is almost useless as a concept. It is my impression that the early emphasis on individualism in the US was due to the low population density and the ability of US residents to act independently (e.g. pioneers), building their homes and their lives on their own, in an efficient manner. But as the US population density increased and most began to live in cities, the levels of interaction were such that independent action was not consistent with improving human welfare, and communal decisions, decisions rooted in a concern for the welfare of the entire community, became more consistent with the common individual's welfare. However, the economic elites found that if they could make the decisions for the community, for their own selfish interests, they could improve their own welfare to an even greater extent, and so it was in their interests to dissuade the common people from joining together to get the power to act for the common welfare, and one argument they used was that the US was the land of individualism, implying that even in cities the individuals should reject communal action, and hiding the fact that the only individuals determining the rules and making the community decisions were self interested economic elites and their allies in politics (i.e. the elites were the only ones with the power to practice "individualism" and it only served their interests).
And in order to convince the commoners that they still could practice "individualism," they promoted the idea of the importance of individual choice in personal matters, such as in religion, appearance, lifestyle including sexual preferences, and even the significance of the choice of particular consumer items. But these choices really had little to do with quality of life, and were provided to the commoners to fool them and distract them from thinking about the big choices that were taken away from them. Out of the infinite number of issues people could be concerned about, they do seem to be mentally herded into a few topics that are of little threat to the powers that be.
Well, that's my two cents.
I am off to China for a month for probably the last time, given the rising prices of fuel and the global warming situation. I really value staying connected with people on the other side of the globe but changing conditions will probably require a new approach.
Have a nice June.
I can't think of anything to add to the shit soaked reputation of the texas twig. Neither can I imagine any evidence surfacing that would mitigate the moral imperative of frying his ass in a slow boiling kettle of lard .
mirf59 May 28th, 2008 9:27 am
Excellent post!
( Again I apologize for letting him out of Texas. He was a worse Govenor than he is a President)
Siouxrose May 28th, 2008 10:39 am
Great post.
Though on #5 I can tell you that those young men don't believe that nor would they, no matter what some delusional (blank) would tell them.
They do their duty. The fault lies with us for allowing them to be misused. Cindy Sheehan would never blame Casey or his fellows, she knows EXACTLY where the blame and fault lies. And so do we.
"There is no evidence that Bush acknowledges the humanity of our troops, other Americans, Iraqis"
Why should he? He's never really been around any of them. He was AWOL during Viet Nam, playing golf with Cheney I believe.
JOSO: Thank you for the indepth description of the sociopath personality. I look for the good in people and could easily be drawn into conversation with such a one. ("the light beholdeth the darkness and understands it not" style.) Here's something I'd like your response on if you return to the forum and care to reply. I know a very wealthy man who's into Scientology. He could tell I was not interested in pursuing it, but I liked talking to him about it, his experiences and so forth.
My "take" (not based on actual "auditing") on what he related is that scientology seems to eradicate the voice of conscience so that as per the examples you relate above (regarding sociopaths) there are no guilt-prone emotions (including perhaps basic empathy) that would put the brakes on actions taken solely for the satisfaction of PERSONAL desire(s).
I was staying in Clearwater recently (helping my daughter with a new baby) and had occasion to stop at Starbucks late one afternoon. It was situated right opposite the Scientology "church." I parked my car and noticed all these people in uniforms and I thought they might be meter guards or something, so I asked if it was OK to park where I did. Turns out they were scientologists... the women and men wear these awful uniforms that look like immitations of Ralph Cramdon, bus driver, in a 50's sit com. Absolutely devoid of sexuality: dark pants and these white shirts with the insignia of their "level" of scientology on the front pocket. WEIRD!!!!
I am all for freedom of thought, religion, expression (short of it being aimed at harming another or even the ecosystems we all rely upon), but it was so "Twilight Zone" sitting there watching the emerging congregation march out in waves, each in these little uniform outfits and I thought it seemed far more authoritarian than liberating just from this basis for observation.
MIRF59: Since you started the "list," I have to add:
1. NO Child left behind as RUINING many children's formative years with all the pressure for inane testing that does little to warrant genuine learning.
2. Leaving NO TREE behind either... since idiot-boy has taken over and given every industry a free pass, our national parks and forests everywhere are being gutted. It makes me sick to see the carnage here in N. Florida even with the knowledge of global warming, etc.
3. Relaxing the EPA standards, even if there is a hushed policy of looking the other way as the MTS of W.VA are blasted away, and our water is a cesspool of big pharma's run-off, and there may be a return to testing nuclear weapons in those "safe" skies over the southwest, etc
4. And there is a run-up to war with Iran that from a PR perspective is being done "on the cheap" in that the SAME M.O. used so successfully to hoodwink the public into the first set of calamitous acts of imperialism (occupation, not war as some have related in this forum) is now being re-fired up for its second coming.
5. And the evangelicalization of the military, starting with the air force... to seduce young men into thinking it's God's will that they drop bombs on cities/civilians making them think all this "collataral damage" is NOT about human misery or care-less suffering, or KARMA!
Some other items that fall in the same mold:
+ Bush shattered the record for putting felons to death in Texas before becoming President.
+ Bush has not made a single comment in public about the 3-4 million refugees displaced from their homes in Iraq as a result of the US occupation.
+ Bush has not offered a single word of respect or condolense to the families of the estimated 1,000,000 innocent Iraqis that have died during the occupation -- including 30% to 50% at the hands of US forces.
+ Bush, Commander-in-Chief (as he likes to remind us), sent the troops into war with inadequate body armor, inadequate vehicle armor, with no plan for what to do once Saddam's regime was toppled.
+ Iraqi veteran benefits have been slashed, and shabby facilities exposed -- all to shrugs by Bush.
+ Bush's response to the ongoing chaos, death of troops, obvious lack of progress on the ground was to ESCALATE -- double-down with a surge of more troops -- throw more meat into the grinder.
+ Bush refuses to meet with the families of the fallen, hear their grief and grievances.
+ Katrina.
One could go on and on.
There is no evidence that Bush acknowledges the humanity of our troops, other Americans, Iraqis, or anyone.
George W. Bush is a degenerate sadist. I only wonder why the power elite picked this depraved weirdo to front off their crimes. Oh right. Blame him for everything and still maintain the new fascist status quo.
mrpickwick's comment above --
Don't forget to include Abraham Lincoln who suffered from massive bouts of depression throughout the Civil War, and never took a "vacation."
So what are we to do? I've preached to the choir, I've written my congresspeople and yours too. I've held signs in front of city hall on rainy days. No one is listening. The beat goes on. So we sit and wait until his term is over, and allow our "representatives" to authorize our tax dollars to construct another Bush Library. We throw sexual deviates out of congress but just let this man ride it out.
All of us on this website saw this coming when he was campaigning in 2000. That was eight years ago people! What's wrong with us???
This country is completely disconnected in the most important way. We can't get out of our cars or off our cell phones or off the internet long enough to go shoulder-to-shoulder and actually stand for something.
Maybe that will change. When many of us are again on foot because we can't afford gasoline, and when some have lost their homes and living on the streets -- then we might as well march together.
Yada-Yada-Yada
Too bad the douche-bag Scott McClellan didn't locate his testicles before 4000 Americans were killed with tens of thousands of others for a war that Scott now says (on his book tour) wasn't necessary. In fact he says the clutch of criminals around W "had secret meetings" to get their "story straight".....What a surprise!
One he missed. When he was asked by the press why he would not take the time to see the mother of a fallen soldier,"Cindy Sheehan". His reply was, "Have to get on with my life".
Well of course George Bush is giddy with happiness. He got away with becoming president without really winning the two elections, a war for profits that was totally unnecessary, and enriching himself and his cronies from it.
Yet almost 30 percent of Americans still think
he is the greatest thing since paper cups.
We should probably feel lucky it's only 30%. One thing you can say about that 30% . . . their greatest aspirations in life are to be sociopaths, killers and pirates. The Empire will have great need of those three "talents" as the rapid decline of the USA (going forward, as they say) continues apace. And when the mediocre and the evil are done with us, they and their stolen money will move on to places like Myanmar and Zimbabwe, leaving the 30% and the rest of us in the gutter with our thumbs up our asses.
To understand someone like Bush or Cheney, sociopaths like many in this administration, this is a helpful discussion of the pathology we are dealing with.
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski.htm
"...Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.
And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.
You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.
In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.
How will you live your life?
What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)?
The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. ...
Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.
If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. [...]
Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 4 percent of the population...."
Leave the, er, man alone already.
He sacrificed sweets AND golf to show his support for the 4084 US soldiers he killed in Iraq, the 507 in Afghanistan, the thousand or so dead contractors, the more than 300,000 wounded US military personnel, the 1000 military suicides per month, and the millions of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis murdered and maimed.
How he still manages to accomplish all that "hard work" without sweets AND golf is nothing less than miraculous.
"It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
It makes perfect sense to me that Bush should be smug and cheerful ever since 9/11, since it was a victory for him and his co-conspirators — they managed to pull off the crime of the century, and his ratings actually went up to boot! What's not to be happy about? While he's too dim to understand exactly how 9/11 really happened, he knows he's getting credit from his pals like Cheney et al., and that makes him giddy. Cheney et al. know he's a sucker for praise and attaboys, so George gets the credit while the rest get the money, power, and money. Did I mention money? So it's on to Iran and Marshal Law, and so forth, just like the plan said. He can pat himself on the back for having hired so many smart people to tell him what to do, because it's all working out just like they promised.
I only wish Bush had taken more than 908 days off. Many more!
Sioux:
Email me!!
Love ya,
Abby
Good posts: MAIRS, ZAMBONI, THOMAS MORE (funny!), JADED PROLE & RUDY JO.
I'm surprised Bugliosi didn't mention that awful "comedy sketch" for the press club where Bush MOCKED his own command and reason for attacking Iraq in the form of pretending to look for weapons under the seats of those sitting there. That was outrageously obscene, a total mockery of the people who believed the fear mongering of his neo-con hit man squad, and worse, those that went to war for it... whether they themselves have been maimed (PTSD) or have maimed others. The complete lack of empathy is the mark of a sociopath, but note how seemlessly that characteristic works with a nation that has positioned itself with mostly one product: war. You can add Hollywood--which uses film to glorify violence and thus also support war; or big pharma which uses chemicals often enough to declare war on the human body, or big agri which has decided to co-opt the resources of Mother Nature and apply copyright when not mangling the ancient genetic codes to put together what Nature thought NOT to for reasons that transcend profit.
The measure of the corruption of our government is the fact that people like Vincent Bugliosi are not part of it. This is a man who wrestled with the criminal mind of Charles Manson, and yet contemplating the personality of Bush Jr, he seems to be saying "I just can't believe this! Can you believe this? This is unbelievable!"
Clinton used to "compartmentalize" in order to get by, but Bush doesn't need to because nothing seems to touch him where he lives. In the notorious "town hall" scene where a single mother tells Bush she works three jobs to make ends meet, Bush says: "Now isn't that typically American!", demonstrating how completely dysfunctional he is in the empathy area.
More than one woman who has encountered Bush in his presidential splendor has come away feeling abused, ripped off, deceived. Very likely Laura has to beat him with a stick now and then to let him know she exists.
He certainly presents like a psychopath. But that is often the case with ideologues.
I will certainly read Bugliosi's book. This Bush is one weirdly constructed human being.
Didn't anyone else watch TV when Bush cheerfully said about this country's invasion of Afghanistan, "The first war of the 21st century!!"
Coyotebreath, you have a point. Perhaps Bush had two jobs to do, instead of just one, but it doesn't matter. He did them both well. Unfortunately our system is set up so that those two jobs that Bush did so well are what our Big Corporations and Mainstream Media elect our political leaders to do.
A crazy man was put into power and then tricked into doing what our system wanted him to do, which is trick us into "electing" him so he could start a war to enrich his buddies and to keep his political party in power. And he appears to never have felt any remorse for what he was tricked into tricking us into letting him do.
But the real crazy man isn't Bush. Instead it's our whole political system and our media, which are simply vehicles of propaganda that have been manipulating us for years. And we're crazy, too, because we've been buying this for years. It's just Madison Avenue marketing, and what has been marketed to us for years is war.
The bottom line is that most people judge politicians by how their personal pocketbook is doing. Let's not kid ourselves that the precious "people" give two shits about killing, war, environmental destruction or other large issues. Americans are clearly too dumb and distracted by their material desires (cleverly portrayed as "aspirations" or "dreams of a better life") to seriously gauge the qualifications or personal attributes of politicians, especially presidential candidates. They see their cherished right to vote as another game show -- put in the flashiest, crudest contestant who is "just like me" a beer-drinking, philandering jackass who gushes cliches and patriotic nonsense.
We did elect Bush, even with fraud and cheating, no good argument can be made for near-50% votes for this psychopath.
Now that most of us are broke or near-broke maybe some reflection is in order. But I don't look for it.
ticonderoga:
I disagree. Bush's real job was enriching his in-group and buddies, whose financial interests transcend national boundaries.
He was, is, and shall be very successful by that metric for years to come.
Bugliosi's compilation of observations is chilling, but in fact this sort of observation has been made about evil persons in power before (and much more eloquently, I might add). Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil gives us a picture of a powerful individual just as unconcerned about the violence and mayhem conducted under his orders as GWB.
Yes, you hint at it Vincent, but the contrast with other wartime leaders is stunning. Churchill, Roosevelt and Australia's Curtin were so weighed down by the Second World war that they aged dramatically, and both Roosevelt and Curtin died before the war ended, such was the emotional and mental strain of their young men dying as a result of their decisions. Johnson was clearly also weighed down and eventually destroyed by the Vietnam War. Nixon I think was less concerned about consequences, more concerned about how history would judge him if he failed to "win". But Bush is astonishing. I can't think of any leader anywhere at any time in history who has laughed and joked and jogged and vacationed his way through a war like Bush.
An old police detective with whom I worked in the past told me that over the years he had encountered a number of criminals about whom he could say that they had absolutely no conscience, no moral compass whatsoever. These are utterly amoral humans. Whatever happened to them, or whatever series of choices they had made in life, had rendered them without the normal faculties that 99.9% of people possessed.
No extent of communication, influence, persuasion or actual exposure to the plight of others has any effect on them. The best action, it seems, is to separate them from anyone to whom they could do harm, and to remove any tools that they could potentially use against others.
Bugliosi, you bring up many valid points. One question I ask of not only Congress but of the citizens of this country is the following. If Bill Clinton can be impeached for lying about having an affair with Monica, why can't Bush/Cheney be impeached for Mass murder? I wanted to believe that this country had intelligent people but this question begs to differ. I know there are many intelligent people in this country but they are not running this country. God help us all if McCain gets elected. We will go to WWIII if he is elected and then we are all truly fucked.
It appears the criminality started before Bush even arrived in the
WH:
Mob Rule Wins for W
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/112400a.html
Transporting people across state lines to block a vote recount? Seems like a felony.
I want to see him tried for murder, convicted, and executed. Then I want to hammer down a six pack of cheap brewskis from the Circle K and take a three minute whiz on his grave. Only then will I have peace of mind.
Mr. Bugliosi.
Nice research on this topic. You make a compelling case. Congress, now it's your turn. Actually fulfill the oaths you took.
Mudman,"The people got what they voted for". In both 2000 and 2004, there are many questions about
whether the people actually voted for bush. A 5-4 vote by the court is not being elected by the people. In 2004 there were questions of ballot tampering in Ohio and Florida.
My impression, based on much experience, is that Bush has what's known as Antisocial Personalty Disorder. He is really incapable of feeling remorse and lacks what most of us call a conscience. Science has discovered that most of us and even our nearest cousins the apes, have a physical moral center in our brains. Some, a very few, are born without this or with a malfunction in this area of the brain. These are very dangerous individuals capable of great cruelty. This does not take away from their responsibility as they are capable of knowing full well what they are doing. That we have allowed a monstrously sick individual to have such great power is terrible enough. That we have allowed him to continue on a violent rampage of historic proportions and still remain in power shows how sick and corrupted our system has become. Almost everyone in Congress and many in the corporate media share the guilt for aiding and abetting this criminally insanity.
George W. Bush is the most hated person on the planet.
Bush has been doing a fine job, until very recently. Many people doubt this, but it's true. The reason why many people doubt this is because they don't realize what Bush's job actually is, which is to keep himself in the White House and his political party in power. And if it takes a war and the threat of another war to do this, that's just fine with him.
But Bugliosi is right, of course: Bush, if he were sane, would have suffered agonies of remorse over what has happened to Afghanistan, Iraq and the US because of his policies. Most sane men suffer agonies of remorse if they yell at their wives for trivial reasons or miss one day of work a year because they had a hangover.
Good God, surely there is someone here that could say something I could disagree with. Surely someone?
AH-HA!
Ahuramazda May 27th, 2008 4:20 pm
Thank you! You have insulted Adolph!
George W. Bush...whew! He is bad to the bone I tell ya. George W. Bush is arguably the most dangerous man to humankind on earth right now. What makes this even more scary is that he is not alone. It is his cabinet that play a role as well. Never in USA History has there been a collection of Americans with the primary purpose of commiting harm to THE USA ITSELF! Seriously...George W Bush and his cabinet have already done more harm to USA society than any "Islamofascist terrorist" ever could.
Hell gas prices doubled and food prices tripled under the Presidency of George W. Bush when compared to Bill Clinton. Not only that, the USA national debt (roughly 30 years old at the time George W. Bush took office) rose by ONE-THIRD under George W. Bush alone! Think about that...
I even hear people compare George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler sometimes. Besides both being leaders of their respective nations, white males, and invading sovereign nations; no other comparisons need to be made. In fact, it is insulting to History in comparing both these men.
Yet almost 30 percent of Americans still think
he is the greatest thing since paper cups. Go
figure.... Have they watched American Idol until their brains turned to mush?
"The invasion of Iraq by Britain and the US has trebled the price of oil, according to a leading expert, costing the world a staggering $6 trillion in higher energy prices alone."
Plus the $3 trillion borrowed. After repairs and reparations we won't have a country left.
It is not necessary to see bush's 'reaction' to the war. His will be the same as all others that have gone before him to wage war and death.
His genuine attitude will be indifference. Outwardly he will put on his mask of regret and quote some religious scripture. Crocodile tears may show.
Cheney summed it up best with his: So?
Only the heartless and greedy wage war. They do not have the capacity to understand human suffering and will always be indifferent to it. bush is no exception.
Then Budget Director Mitch Daniels reported that shortly after 9/11, while discussing the recession, the war, and 9/11, Bush turned to him and said, "Lucky me! I hit the trifecta."
Q.E.D.
And what has the ***Democratic Party*** done to stop the War, Mr. Bugliosi?
If you were a defending attorney in a war crimes trial and the Democratic Party was in the dock, you'd no doubt tell your client to plead guilty and hope for mercy.
Perhaps the tens of millions of people murdered, wounded, displaced, made refugees and impoverished by US foreign policy over the years -- under Democratic as well as Republican administrations! -- would find it in their hearts to forgive your clients.
But I wouldn't bet on it, counselor.
"Blaming Bush" is a convenient way of not acknowledging the complicity of the Democratic Party in the Iraq War.
As for Iran, you'll recall that the Democrats in Congress, weeks ago, signed off on that one. They agreed that if Bush wants to attack Iran, they won't stop him.
So who's to blame? Just Bush? Just the Republicans? ... The Democrats are just as responsible.
Quoting from the following article -- "Meeting Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez" http://www.swans.com/library/art14/ga251.html
"The Democrats keep saying that they don't have the vote to stop war appropriations for Afghanistan and Iraq -- only 50, at most 51 votes -- and therefore have to reluctantly and pragmatically accept the status quo.
"They then, of course, say (as they said in 2006) that things will change in 2009 when a Democrat is in the White House and they have a bigger majority in Congress.
"But Matt, fully cognizant of the arcane rules of the Senate, convincingly argued that all the Democrats needed was to secure 41 votes to block any legislation.
"Indeed, if a two-thirds majority in each house is required to overcome a presidential veto, only 41 Senate votes are needed to block a bill from being sent to the Oval Office.
"In other words, the wars can be defunded by 41 resolute senators. Matt throws an almost mischievous smile at the company, his sparkling eyes beaming all over the room as though he wanted to ask the assembly: So, are they really against the war?
"Is that the "change" that Clinton and Obama are advocating for 2009? You know the answer to these two questions. Instead he went on to introduce a man who truly needs no introduction, Ralph Nader."
See also the following -- "True to form, the Goodmans provide a fig leaf for the Democrats in Standing Up to the Madness"
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/good-m27.shtml
George is a puppet and like Howdy Doody his smiley good time Charlie face is carved in wood. Open the curtain and you will see a jumbled pile of wooden pieces and string, totally useless without the puppet masters.
Oh Jerry....; http://ag.ca.gov/
I did not understand until 2000 that many powerful people are incapable of empathy. I fantasize doing a letter writing campaign to Iraqi mothers and fathers whose kids we killed, to Iraqi kids who we have orphaned. I always wondered about Laura, why she did NOTHING humanitarian re Iraq, N.O., Afghanistan. But she is as dead as is George.
The saddest part of this article is that it only paints Bush as the uncaring one. When in reality we all all uncaring when it comes to the 'troops'. They come home to a country, not just a president, that doesn't really care. This is where the problems for returning vets begin. They are coming home, probably with screaming contradictions in their heads, and trying to fit back into a society whose definition of a veteran comes from Hollywood. We don't go to war with our soldiers anymore. Since WW2 our wars have been political so the government has preferred to fight these wars without much public input. And now with the media as part of the military-industrial complex, it makes it easier for the government to hide its true intentions in regard to foreign policy. The fact that we allow our soldiers to be used to fight political wars is shameful. But most Americans don't believe their government would abuse its own citizens, and put them in harm's way for political or economic gain. As our empire is dying we are being fed worthless pablum via the media.
War is a Racket by Smedley Butler, if promoted the the media today would end the war overnight.
Hoa binh
Yes, Bush is a lying, stinking sack of shit. And I applaud Bugliosi's excerpt here and this book. I sincerely hope it will make enough influential people--lawyers, legislators, and power players GET GOING AND PROSECUTE THIS M*THERF*CKER FOR MASS MURDER.
....that said, does anybody actually think Bush is running this country? Is he the brains behind all we have witnessed over the past 8 years? No, he is not. He is a dumb-shit puppet with a low I.Q. Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Addington, and Rove are the true perpetrators, the people who really need to be VIGOROUSLY PROSECUTED for the massive list of felonies and war crimes they have committed.
Mr. Bugliosi: you say you work very hard and that you are an accomplished prosecutor? I sincerely urge you to publish a book titled 'The Prosecution of Dick Cheney for Murder', and then Sir I IMPLORE you to put your case together and NAIL DICK CHENEY ONCE AND FOR ALL: convict him for murder. While I'm normally against the death penalty, in this instance I'll make an exception.
I was reading an old book the other day that contained a verbatum translation of the speech Hitler gave to the Reichsstag the day he ordered the wehrmacht into Poland.
I was transfixed. Bush's speech upon ordering the invasion of Iraq was almost identical!!!! Really!!!! People think he was joking at the start of his first term when he said how much easier it would be if he were a dictator. I don't think he was joking at all.
> It helps me to clear my mind." (In other words, Bush likes to clear his mind of the things
> he's supposed to be thinking about.)
I don't hold it against him that he exercises. I don't care if he clears his mind by running, tea ceremony or yoga. I do care that he doesn't seem to do anything with his mind after he clears it. Then again, if the Iraq war is an example what happens when he does something with his mind, then perhaps we're fortunate he runs so much and takes so many vacations.
Go Vince! Thanks for sharing this section of the Book.
Who's going to send a copy to AG Jerry Brown?
Calling bush a hollow man is insulting to those who are hollow. Psychopathic is a term that barely fits, he's beyond the usual evil seen in that sort of human. If JKR hadn't started her Potter books long before bush took office, I'd say the man was her inspiration for the character of Voldemort.
Most of us love people who are happy, smiling and joking like Bush and Reagan. People who like having fun. Conservative's obsession with positivism belies the fact that they like to gloat and show off. To give the example of a fun life is probably one of the most important things an autocrat can do if he wants people's votes even while setting the beast loose on the world.
Bush, Cheney and thier ilk are monsters. Just as monsterous as Pol Pot, Pinochet, Hitler, Stalin, etc, etc, etc... The face of hatred never changes just get a new suit every now and again. Powerful and absolutely corrupt.
Bush is a pathological personality -- that as defined by Kurt Vonnegut. That does not excuse his crimes -- in fact, it makes him all the more culpable. Impeach, try, execute.
During that one debate with Gore, when Bush mentioned the two men on death row in Texas and said, we're going to kill 'em! he brightened up visibly, this strange gleam in his eyes, an avid, eager, self-satisfied smile curling the corner of his lips. That gave me the chills at the time. I knew we were in for it then if he became president. I knew it.
Then watching him interviewed after he came out of a room of the parents of killed American soldiers where he had a face to face meeting with them, he had that strange look on his face again. It looked to me as if he was in awe of his own power, in awe of the fact that he could make people die for him and cause their parents to abase themselves in front of him. He looked like a narcissist fully loaded up on whatever it is that narcissists and sociopaths want the most.
Bush is a psychopath.
Events from earlier in his life prove that:
Cruelty to animals (exploding frogs with fireworks).
Cruelty to humans (torturing frat pledges by burning them with lit cigarettes)
(Most executions of a sitting Texas governor)
Mocking the suffering of others (Karla Fae Tucker as she was on her way to her execution)
Lack of empathy ('Heck of a job, Brownie!')
(telling the US public to go shopping while standing on the smoldering ruins of the WTC)
Demonstrations of perceived superiority (repeated demonstration of contempt for the law)
Should I go on?
I have great respect for Mr. Bugliosi but I think he is being a little tough on our pretend president. Bush lied about giving up golf as a sacrifice to our troops. Two months later he was back on the golf course clowning around. Maybe he forgot what his great sacrifice was.
The American people got what they voted for: an incompetent clown. Let's not make the same mistake again because there is a more serious one waiting in the wings to continue the Bush corporate mischief.
Ditto, all around
Right from the beginning one could see that this is a hollow man. Nothing has been written or shown on TV to change that assessment.
The author does a clever job of chronicling what most of us have simply taken as obvious: Bush sees the Iraq War as a business opportunity for his supporters and little else.
jj