Watch this video of the President lying to Matt Lauer.
Now I've always hated George W. Bush. From the very beginning. A useless heir to a vast fortune and a famous name, he squandered 40 years of his life before committing himself to ruining the lives of others. Particularly the less fortunate, the irreligious and the non-American.
But he used to be able to conduct himself in a somewhat rational, sensible manner. He used to be able to get through whole sentences while speaking. He used to have a kind of affable, snarky demeanor that Americans found appealing. (Not me, so much, but I could at least discern the source of his appeal.) Rememeber, during his first election, Americans pretty much agreed that, even if he didn't seem to bright, he was an everyday, relatable kind of guy. The sort of laid-back Texan you might want to go and get a beer with, if you liked beer, Texas and doofuses. And they all do kind of go together.
The guy in this video doesn't even seem like the same man. Our President has lost his mind.
It can't be easy to lie every day for over 5 years. Maybe he's just started to lose his grip on reality. Whatever the reason, he genuinely strikes me as an insane person in this video clip with Matt Lauer.
What's going on with NBC News these days? All of the sudden, it seems like a few of them are actually developing a spine. Keith Olbermann's been on fire lately on his MSNBC show, calling out Rumsfeld and Bush. Did you guys see this on 9/11?
Holy shit, a TV anchor just kicked the shit out of the President on the very first Patriot Day! That's nice to see.
And in that first clip, notice how Lauer actually challenges an assertion made by the President. Rather than just posing a difficult question and accepting any fool answer the President can think up, he then poses a follow-up question and refuses to allow Bush to change the subject or divert attention.
This is the best encounter I have seen with George Bush that doesn't involve Helen Thomas or Stephen Colbert. Not only can't our leader handle any kind of criticism or dissent (kind of an important quality in a President), he descends into a babbling, sneering maniac when challenged.
First, Lauer asks a reasonable question - "don't secret CIA prisons violate international law?" So the President does his usual tactic, deflecting the question by repeating one of his favorite meaningless axioms. "I'm keeping you safe, Matt," as if Matt Lauer's personal security and the human rights of Arabs are mutually exclusive. As Lauer continues to press him, Bush ceases to behave rationally. He's fundamentally incapable of going off of his script and just speaking.
He stutters. He repeats himself. ("We do not torture. I'm keeping you safe. The American people want me to keep you safe. But not to torture. We don't break the law. It's my job to keep everyone safe.") I was reminded of William H. Macy's scumbag in Fargo when he's being interviewed by Frances McDormand's detective. He knows that he needs to play it cool, so puts on a big fake smile and a false affability. But as soon as his facade is challenged, as soon as the questions get to difficult, he flips out and turns angry. He and Bush even resort to the same weak evasive maneuver. "Matt, I've already answered your question!"
When people say that in an argument, that they don't want to answer because they have already answered, 99% of the time they're full of shit.
Like Jerry Lundegaard, Bush seems to get personally offended, and even turns aggressive. For some reason, he and Lauer are standing in this clip while they converse, and the entire thing starts to seem more than a little bit confrontational.
Bush in this way is like any other bully. His only defense when his authority is challenged is to puff out his chest and try to intimidate his opponent. Finally, when all else fails, he dons his signature smirk, clearly forgetting that the issue of torture isn't supposed to be amusing.
What's with the smirking? Is it an unconscious habit, the only remaining evidence of his prior existance as a professional boozy journeyman fratboy? Or does he think it helps him deflect criticism. "Bush can't be too worried about this attack on his character. Look, he's smiling! He thinks it's funny!" I don't know, but smiling while a guy presses you about the potentially innocent detainees whose torture you authorized indicates a shocking, shocking lack of human feeling. We've got to get some Democrats elected in November, and then they have to collectively grow a pair and go after these people. I despair for the future of our nation.
As a Canadian, I very strongly resent Bush's comment that "[measures he's taken] have been criticized by people outside the U.S. But you have to remember, for them September 11 was a bad day, for us it was a change in attitude." For Canadians too, it was a change in attitude. For the Brits too, I'll wager, and probably even the French and the Germans. Remember those "Ajourd'hui nous sommes tousses américains" comments? Well, on behalf of the rest of the world (the western world, at least) let me assure you that we meant them. We knew that the bulk of the offenses for which the U.S. was being attacked - some real (neglect of the developing world, rampant material decadence) and some imagined (secularism) - were offenses of which we were also guilty. You guys were just unlucky enough to be the western world's flagship.
ReplyDeleteSo why are Canadians (and others) objecting to Bush's policies? Well, precisely because the U.S. is the western world's flagship, the citizens of other countries tend to measure their own foreign policies against the U.S.'s to determine whether it's too "radical" (as in the United States, citizens of other western democracies have a strong aversion to anything characterized as "immoderate"), so we know that as the U.S. foreign policy goes, so goes the Canadian foreign policy, only perhaps a little more/less so. For example, Canadians, while assholes where foreign policy is concerned, aren't quite assholes on the level of the American government. But if the American government acts like mega-assholes, then we become concerned, because we know our government will go from merely acting like assholes to acting like huge assholes.
Insert simile about living next to the U.S. being like sleeping with an elephant.
My apologies if this was incoherent. That's the price I pay for substituting Arrested Development DVDs for sleep.
Still love the blog.
Excellent videos Lonnie. If you go back through old footage of Bush talking to the public, it really does drive home how clearly the many years he has spent trying to float his administration over its countless scandals has taken a psychic toll. Each time, they try to redefine the issue in a way that gives it some semblance of logicality or the slightest shred of moral justification. Over at least the last year, it is clear that Pres. Bush is terrified of departing in the slightest from the decided-upon terms with which he is to use when explaining his actions because of the danger that he might accidentally expose the hypocrisy of past statements.
ReplyDeleteDespite this, he can't help but contradict himself within this brief conversation. He repeatedly says that he will not discuss methods used during interrogation, and yet several times he says that his administration will not "allow the terrorists to adjust." Now, my job entails sitting in front of a computer for many hours at a time. Sometimes I lean forward; sometimes I cross my legs. Many times I rock back and forth while waiting for a video clip to render. As I shift, so does the fabric of my pants and the undergarments beneath them. The necessity of "adjusting" is one that I must deal with many times during the day, and the fact that our country is not only willing to deny this right to others, but brag about it on national television, frankly makes me sick. While I'm sure the detainees' prison garb are fitting looser after years of malnutrition (or perhaps hunger strike), this is a clear violation of their fundamental human rights. Lonnie, I challenge your (male) readers to say that denying a person's ability to "adjust" constitutes anything less than torture.
For shame, Mr. Bush, for shame. How dare you betray the name of your father thusly!