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Bush Jokes as Protesters Burn His Effigy in Montreal
MONTREAL — As George W. Bush cracked jokes with a business crowd inside a hotel ballroom Thursday, hundreds of people outside the building cheered while he was being burned in effigy.
Protesters burn an effigy during a demonstration outside the Queen Elizabeth Hotel where former U.S. President George W. Bush was speaking Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 in Montreal, Canada. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz) Police in riot gear and others on horseback held back a crowd of
hundreds, including many people who tossed shoes at Montreal's historic
Queen Elizabeth Hotel in a demonstration of disdain for the man
speaking inside.
Two protesters who tried forcing their way through the line of shield- and baton-carrying police were wrestled to the ground and arrested.
Montreal police said several officers were hit by flying objects, but none were injured. Five people were arrested for mischief and disturbing the peace.
Ironically, this demonstration took place outside the same hotel where John Lennon's antiwar anthem "Give Peace a Chance" was recorded in 1969.
Chants of "George Bush terrorist" echoed in the street as some of the 300 protesters lashed out at the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal for rolling out the red carpet for him.
Many protesters said he should be arrested and charged with war crimes.
Inside the hotel, nearly 1,000 spectators paid as much as $400 to hear Bush speak during the latest stop on his Canadian tour.
He got a standing ovation when he first took the podium to address the eager audience.
"I believe in free speech -- except not today," he quipped, drawing laughs and a huge applause.
Many in the highly supportive crowd guffawed at most of Bush's jokes. The first 10 minutes of his 37-minute speech could have been mistaken for a standup routine.
In his first visit to Montreal, the former U.S. president warmed up his audience by referring to local hockey legends Maurice and Henri Richard.
"I was an avid sports fan (growing up) and I actually knew who the Rocket and the Pocket Rocket were," Bush recalled of his childhood days in the "deserts of west Texas."
Other cracks were more of the self-deprecating kind.
"Look, I hope you can understand me -- I can't understand you," Bush joked through his thick Texas accent.
"As you might remember, during my presidency some of my critics made it clear that English was not my long suit."
He praised the close trade relationship between the U.S. and Canada and thanked Canadian soldiers for their efforts in Afghanistan.
But Bush spent most of his time on stage defending his heavily criticized White House legacy, including how he handled the financial crisis, Iraq and the aftermath of 9-11.
He also brushed off his record-low public approval ratings at the end of his tumultuous presidency.
"If you chase popularity in life, you're often times going to be wrong," he said.
"The only thing that really matters is that when you look in the mirror you'll be proud of what you see."
Outside in the street, activists couldn't imagine why Bush, who spoke in Edmonton and Saskatoon earlier this week, had been invited to the Canadian cities.
"He has nothing to offer," said Helen Hannah, a colourfully dressed member of the Raging Grannies.
"He stands for modes of torture, modes of warfare and modes of lying that don't represent the way most Americans and most Canadians want to face the world -- we don't believe in those things."
Andre Gravel said Bush was a bad president who was incompetent on many levels, including his handling of the environment, the wars in the Middle East and the economy.
The conflicts Bush waged in Afghanistan and Iraq have destabilized world peace, he added.
"I am in favour of (his) right to speak," Gravel said.
"But we have the right to protest against him.
"Everything he did was negative."
Demonstrators blew horns and lobbed footwear at the front entrance of the hotel -- a symbolic act to pay homage to the Iraqi journalist who was jailed for throwing his shoes at Bush.
They also torched a life-sized dummy of the former president.
Following Bush's speech, the former president fielded questions from event moderator John Parisella, the former chief of staff to the late Quebec premier Robert Bourassa.
Parisella asked Bush about his more controversial decisions as president, including the American-led invasion of Iraq.
Bush stood up for the action he took in Iraq, even though the country's former president, Saddam Hussein, never had weapons of mass destruction.
"Had he been in power today, he'd have them," he replied in a defensive tone.
Bush contends he made calls from the Oval Office as best he could with the information he had at the time -- and he has few regrets about them.
"I'm not a hand-wringer, John -- I'm not one of these guys that go: 'Oh man, woe is me,' " he said.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Lennon's recording of "Give Peace a Chance" with wife Yoko Ono during their bed-in for peace at the Queen Elizabeth.
"It's a really sad and tragic irony," said protester Jaggi Singh.
"All we are saying is not just 'give peace a chance' ... we're saying peace comes with justice, peace comes with dignity, peace comes when people struggle for peace and for justice and for dignity."
- Posted in
78 Comments so far
Show AllObama's nation without justice is also without hope
this is correct.
the only essential difference between bush and obama is this:
Bush was the "bad prodigal son" - undisciplined, careless, derring-do, sophomoric, - who true to nature, and understandably so, enable the USA to
open its can of worms for all the world to see..and made PUBLIC< made DECLARED and demonstrable public policy - the things that previously were only or mainly "covert" or "out of sigh" ....
Torture, Pure Lying, Unabashed, unapologetic practice of outright landgrabbing, and thievery and naked aggression.
ONCE these were produced OPENLY, to be specific, and the public had gotten over the initial "shock" of "new normal"
OBAMA comes in to the "rescue" as the
"GOOD SON" t0 "wash away the filth and sins"......
EXCEPT that he NOW merely has to silently continue the "new normal"..through distracting rhetoric and actions and ambiguities and "promises" of the "glorious future"..
while doing what Bush was simply too OBVIOUS to be allowed to do:
SQUEEZE, SQUEEZE, SQUEEZE some more until every last drop of blood from americans is "washed away"..and the USA is left like a dessicated cadaver...deprived of anything worth saving.
and long before any new "nation" or even culture worthy of the name -many decades from now even if this "USA" survives it through its utter depravity -
future historians will point to the "USA" as it was - as it is today or has become -
in words similar to these, like from Rudyard Kipling:
"THERE LAY the body of that nation that tried to Hustle the World".
Bush's actions and rhetoric were the real face of America and Obama is the face the US wants the world to believe it is even though both are doing the same things...just in different ways minus the war mongering from Obama.... oh wait. The right wing media, which 'dominates' media like all authoritarians do or want to do, keeps their constituents confused, pissed off and emotionally driven and the left wing media keeps their constituents believing that 'their guy' is all good and no bad and it will just 'take more time'....till another republican gets in office..then rinse, repeat sequences.
I can see him standing in front of the mirror admiring himself!!!!
It will be the mirror that the bloodthirsty psychopath is admiring; there will be no image.
Bush, you have to be one of the most self-righteous,ego maniacs in the history of world leaders. You, Cheney and the rest of your fascist clique NEVER EVER DO ANY WRONG! YOU GUYS ARE IN COMPLETE DENIAL! From the above remarks by Bush, it is plain that he, Cheney and the rest of their fascist cabal needs to be tried for war crimes. Obama is just as guilty as he is now an accessory to the fact and reminds me of someone that just witnessed a thug rob and kill his whole family and tells the police I am not going to press charges because that is all in the past and I want to look forward!
Here's my favorite Bush joke, told at the Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner, a fundraiser for Catholic charities hosted by the Archbishop of New York (and seen in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11):
"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores...Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."
All he ever did was fill their pockets with more and more money. No wonder they love him.
And, talking jackass that he was, he did understand that one guy with a million bucks is way more important than a million guys with one buck.
"The only thing that really matters is that when you look in the mirror you'll be proud of what you see."
Spoken like a true Narcissist. Cretien was dead right..What a moron.
Speaking next week...."Idi Amin: Do these pants make me look fat?"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
How many protesters had nooses?
Enquiring minds want to know.
Muntadar al Zeidi's shoes are still flying. And that's good news! As for George Wanker Bush . . . what is there left to say about The Great Amoeba? When you die, I'm going to throw one of the largest celebrations in the history of the Shiblikov family.
I read a while back that the shoe thrower was killed by American troops.
Anyone else read this.
alive and well.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/10/19-3
bless his sole.
He's fine. He was let out of prison early. He has written pieces for alternet.org and for counterpunch.org, maybe here, too, I'm not sure.
Partial quote from Bush 43:
"I'm not one of these guys that go: 'Oh man, woe is me,' " he said."
Yep, way too many syllables to handle. Just point at what you want and grunt, Georgie. Daddy'll get it for you.
It's heartwarming to see an ex-President continuing his dedication to civil service and the betterment of mankind.
Just cannot wait to pick up a copy of his book, which hopefully will be on sale in the gift shop of his nearly built Freedom Institute for the Study of Freedom and Stuff.
And I soooo miss 'the ownership society'...
Or perhaps you can pick it up for free at the George W. Bush Library.
Canadian elites were his biggest supporters. How sad to fill this speaking engagement in support of such a despicable human being. Good on those protesters too but their political establishment has fallen to such low levels it is embarrassing. What happened to Canada? This is simply awful! Bush is free to spout on in his world of criminal glory while Obama looks forward.
Demoks need Repuks to do the stomp while Repuks need Demoks to hold the fort.
All war criminals are welcome to Canada. When you snobbery bastards are ejected from your countries for war crimes come to Canada and Georgieboy Bush will assign you a berth Remember the more crimes you do the more you will be welcomed there. Just think, there are a lot of sicko's living there and you criminals will feel at home.
A quick Google search of the coverage of the story about the raucous Montreal demonstration against former president George W. Bush's speech reveals the following:
Only Bloomberg, of all the mainstream US media, appears to have covered the event at all up to this point in time, focusing upon a part of Bush's speech in which he urged the Obama administration to sell back the US government's bailout stake in Chrysler and GM. The demonstration and arrests did get a brief mention mid-way through the article.
There is a short UPI report based upon Canadian news sources that mentions the burning in effigy part of the demonstration, but does not mention the protesters' creative tactic of throwing shoes at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel while Bush spoke.
The Vancouver Sun account of Bush's speech reports yet another classic gaffe. George W. told his Montreal Trade Board luncheon audience that he regretted being televised in front of a "Mission Impossible" banner on the US aircraft carrier deck five years ago while taking his victory lap. This Freudian misspeak was not, apparently, part of the stand up comedy routine.
I will be interested to see if any of this is reported this evening on Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, or even on MSNBC. The fact that over 300 people turned out, burned Bush in effigy, threw shoes at the hotel where the ex-president was speaking, and that he misquoted the "Mission Accomplished" photo op banner will not, I suspect, be considered newsworthy by the mainstream US media. The Canadians, however, clearly thought Bush's appearance in Montreal was both an insult and a hoot.
Bill from Saginaw
"he regretted being televised in front of a 'Mission Impossible' banner on the US aircraft carrier deck five years ago"
gosh - it seems more like six.
Didn't it say "Mission Accomplished"?
I think that is part of the irony here....
it should have read "ADmission impossible"
fool me once . . .
Isn't funny how that 'misson accomplished' episode is the only 'regret' he has? 1.3 million innocent people brutally massacred and that is his only 'regret' - the bastard doesn't even have the balls to call it a mistake but a 'regret' - The gallows are too good for this bastard!
Good observations.
I should have stopped being amazed how even the most titillating and funny - and extremely newsworthy - events fail to make it through the corporate media's ideological filters.
Who has the right to judge us? Every nation has skeletons in its closet.
In the war crimes trials against Nazi Germant in 1946, every time a prosecutor from the US, UK or France accused a German defendant of committing war crimes, he simply pointed to the prosecutors from the USSR and said something like "So did they.".
It is not we who need judging. We did not elect Bush---neither time! Fraud and corruption in our political system put that war criminal in office.
You are right KeLeMi,
That many governments murder, torture, and abuse individuals in a secret way. But few make it widespread official policy like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, and AshCroft did.
If we are to survive as a respected nation,
The "commander-in-chimp", aka the bushmonkey, must be sacrificed to redeem and heal the nation. Instead of burning an effigy, I recommend the real thing in the public square. Way to Go, Canadians with the footware! I just love it! Ben Franklin said it best: "Death to All Tyrants"
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Who has the right to not judge, in a sense?
Who has the right to not exercise judgement?
Need one be without sin to try to stop the first stone?
At the Montreal speech Bush was proud to say he had never sold his soul while in office.
He's right.
He never had one in the first place.
Well put. He was, and is, just a hired puppet.
I would make a list of everyone who went to see him and be on the alert for their thuggery and theivery in the Canadian Government. They are the worst people you have.
I could make a safe bet it was members of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. Along with high ranking members of the Conservative and Liberal parties. And BC premier Gordon Campbell has been junketing in the rough area, so he probably snuck in a back door.
hey georgie bush - get your ass over here.
got somethin to tell you, you gotta hear.
ain't nothin but lies when you say you do good.
if killin was right then kill you I would.
but I know that death is not mine to give.
I cannot give life - I can only live.
and come the time, when we're dead and gone,
your lies will have died but my truth will live on.
Ironically, this demonstration took place outside the same hotel where John Lennon's antiwar anthem "Give Peace a Chance" was recorded in 1969.
___________________________________________
♪ Instant Karma's gonna get you,
Gonna knock you right on the head,
You better get yourself together,
Pretty soon you're gonna be dead,
What in the world you thinking of,
Laughing in the face of love,
What on earth you tryin' to do,
It's up to you, yeah you. ♪
· Yr Obd't Servant
Brave Canadians still know how to take democracy to the streets, unlike the cowardly, complacent Americans...
Yes, all 300 of them...
While inside, 1,000 paid $400 to adore him...
The 'law of Karma/the Universe/whatever' sure as hell is screwed up!
To wring one's hands one needs a conscience, remorse.
Poor W, the densest man alive needs access to facts and sensitivity, two factors no doubt missing in his inner makeup. These mental "gaps" made W a natural and easy choice to become a figure-head "front" for corporatism, much like Ronnie Reagan, another clueless individual.
Woe to our republic.
Bush and his gang of thugs will not go free. I don't know if they are familiar with the universal law of Karma, but they cannot escape it. Just think of all the crimes that they have committed. All the butchery, all the raping and stealing and destroying that they are responsible for. Believe me, these monsters will never know a moment's peace for the rest of their lives, and this will be carried into future lives. But it is also true that the American people must accept their share of Karma. Most of us sat back and did nothing to stop this insane admin. Most of us believed the crap that they were handing out. And because of this widespread apathy, a small country and its people were destroyed, and we must face that very stubborn, very unpalatable fact.
At $400 per plate to hear him spew filfth out of his pie hole, I'd say Karma is looking the other way or fast asleep at the wheel...
The 2000 election was kind of a milestone in our history, wasn't it? I don't know that it was the first time an election was stolen, but it certainly was the most blatant example I can remember in my 59 years. Not everyone was fooled by Bush, especially Floridians, after all, we had Jeb as Governor at the time...what a boon for the Bushes and all their glorious family and friends, especially the ones with the "beautiful" minds.
If you will recall, Floridians in general were ridiculed for their ineptitude at voting. Oh, please...Floridians may not know how to drive, but they know how to fill out a ballot. Al Gore won that election...we all know it.
I suggest we all follow the example of the Canadians. How you choose to accomplish that is your prerogative. I suggest a new round of e-mails to WhiteHouse.gov.
Who cares if Bush stole the election? Bush or Gore, McCain or Obama, what difference does it make?
Elections in America are a charade designed to make people believe they have a choice. They don't. Only candidates hand-picked by the corporate masters are allowed to get to the very top. Why do you think Wall Street preferred Obama over McCain? Goldman Sachs was Obama's top contributor. Because they knew he would deliver to them.
When candidates remotely interested in really helping the people become candidates, like Nader or McKinney, they are viciously and mercilessly attacked by the corporate media. Voting is useless.
Amen, Uncle Charlie! The only way that we can stop this is by not voting anymore. If nobody pushes that lever, they can't rig anything. I stopped back in the 90s and haven't gone back ever since. And the added bonus is that I don't have to serve in jury duty, that other grand travesty perpetrated on the public thru the American Injustice System.
I'm ashamed that Canadians paid and gave him a standing ovation. What and which kind of Canadians paid to see this war criminal? Please name these people and which Canadian political party they support.
The reason the Canadian "elite" welcome such lowlifes to Canada is these elites do not feel they are appreciated enough in Canada.
All of these "elites" have dreams of having been born in the USA where their "acumen", their "sacrifice", their "character" would be more clearly recognized and praised by the O reillys the Dobbs and the Limbaughs.
See the elites in Canada are just not appreciated. GW Bush appreciates them. The elites in Canada envy their kind in the US where their every word hung on to as gospel and where Newspapers and Televison stations and news organziations always seek out their great insight.
Turn on the CBC and who do they Interview? David Suzuki!
That is because Suzuki doesn't challenge the established order in any way. That is the type that the CBC chooses to interview and only that type.
"Five people were arrested for mischief and disturbing the peace."
Who should be arrested for mischief and disturbing the peace? How about the monster itself? This nation never had the baggage it has now. Many USans are still working to make the nation a cradle for monsters to be coddled, under the pretext of liberty. That this monster continues to roam free is the central legacy of the Demok party, that wrote blank checks to the monster for years to "earn" themselves the oval orifice for today.
Note to Genierae above: For a true understanding of those things that you so detest about the Bush group -- I assure you, they won't ever lose a minute's sleep over ---- they are true psychopaths. Decent people usually assume that others are like themselves---- it is not so. Ten minutes spent at the address I am about to post will almost certainly turn into the most informative hour or so of your life.
http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath.htm
Please, have a look at this.dh
Yes, That is an enlightening web site. It not only profiles GWB but all of his sidekicks.
So, here's one of the worst war criminals of all time, single-handledly responsible for the bloody massacre of at least 1.3 million innocent women and children and the destruction of not just one but 3 countries (yes, the US included) joking about it. If that doesn't tell you why the US is in the state of chaos and moral bankruptcy it's in, nothing will. In Bush, the United States got exactly what it deserves!
What is the name of that psychiatric diagnosis that applies to people who respond inappropriately to various stimuli? George's got it.