has the Stars and Stripes ** ever** published an article critical of the current administration (whoever that may have been)? after all, as has been pointed out, the holder of the office is the C-I-C.
This only gets funnier. The participants in the Bush video were not plucked at random. Oh no, at least two have quite the track record.
The soldier at the far left of the front row is Master Sgt Corine Lombardo , a military spokesperson as seen in the link. She is in Public Affairs for the 42nd Infantry. She is also identified as a spokesperson in New York Times .
Just what is Lombardo risking her life for? Actually, she isn’t risking it at all. David Axe, of the Village Voice reports:
So one of those adoring soldiers was in fact a planted public affairs spokesperson. The others weren’t plants, right? No wait, there was another. First Lieutenant Gregg Murphy has gone on record as a Bush shill before. And another cite.
Apparently they feel the need to weed out people that say things like this:
They quite often print letters to the editor which are none too enamored of the president whoever he may be.
The Stars and Stripes isn’t making a factual claim that the performance wasn’t scripted, the article is just reporting the Pentagon’s official spin on the event. The Pentagon never tells the truth about anything.
The fact is, we have the coaching and the rehearsals caught on tape. We aren’t speculating. We also know that these soldiers were selected for their loyalty and malleability. One of them is a sycophantic, pro-Bush blogger, a couple of them are PR flacks for the military who have never seen combat. But go ahead and believe whatever the Pentagon tells you.
Apparently you noticed neither the individual’s status (retired) nor location (Heidelberg) in that particular letter. One wonders how someone can be weeded out from where that someone is not.
Here’s an anecdote - a woman at work has a brother in the Marines who just returned from Iraq. He tells her that the Marines hate Bush. She said that he returned with a t-shirt with a picture of Bush which reads “Instant Asshole - Just Add Oil.”
I suspect that he would not have made it into this random sampling of unscripted servicemen and women.
Don’t suppose you have proof of this absolutist ridiculous comment?
sure, I noticed he was retired. But certainly one could find active military with similar views. When one packs the crowd with shills, one gets nothing but gushing praise.
By the way, what is your position on the appropriateness of a military spokesperson planted among the group in question?
Come on Monty.
Surely you realise that there’s a considerable difference between printing letters critical of the president, on the one hand, and printing editorials or articles critical of him, on the other?
I mean, most of the liberal and left-wing magazines i subscribe to occasionally print letters by conservatives extremely critical of their politics, but that doesn’t mean that the opinions and ideas found in those letters will ever make it to the editorial page.
OK, having seen a clip of Bush’s “chat”, even without having viewed the video evidence of scripting and rehearsal, I find it utterly inconceivable that any sentient being witnessing this travesty could ever have thought that Mr. Bush was actually attempting to obtain information about conditions in Iraq from the soldiers, or that any of the content (aside from Mr. Bush’s, er, unique delivery of his questions) was in fact spontaneous. Just another sign of my general naivete, I guess.
article (which is what I asked about) is not the same thing as letters to the editor.
Monty
I was the poster who questioned Dubya’s being a “real military officer”. Lighten up. I was speaking figuratively. Sheesh. :rolleyes:
Yes I know the Constitution grants him the power and authority over all the armed services of the United States. It’s because of that authority he is so often seen with active members of the US Military. They don’t have the right of free speech afforded to civilians. Dubya knows damned fucking well what he is doing when it comes to “packing” an audience with shills. (In the case of the military, they are quite unwilling shills). If Private Joe Schmoe tells Dubya to go fuck himself you can be damned sure there would be serious recriminations for Private Schmoe.
If you want to be technical, Bob Kerrey, John Kerry and Dubya Bush are all Vietnam War Era Veterans one of whom never stumbled his way into Vietnam for even 1 second.
I think the analogy makes my point.
The silver lining here is the art appears to be polished only so long as The Chimp’s a happy monkey. I’ve watched the video link of the exchange, and it’s an awkward fiasco, IMO. You’ve now got Pentagon people apologizing for its incredible lameness, and the exchage between McClellan and the press afterward only underscores how easily Curious George can crack under pressure. If things ain’t just so, he’s a fidgeting, distracted, awkward stooge on camera who can turn a PR plus to a minus just with his visibly deflating charisma alone.
This video conference was a wonderful thing, IMO. Yeah, it was cynical, scripted dog-and-pony show, but the world isn’t. Bush’s Fortress of Ineptitude isn’t so impenetrable that eventually real-life concerns don’t seep in like greywater from a backed-up leechfield. Standing in his own shit, it suddenly dawns on Bush All Is Not Right in his world, and he loses it. The passion of the converted finally hits the clue fan and befuddlement is painfully (for him, not ME) obvious.
Fucker. I hope he has many more scripted events, each lamer than the last. The press can be lead around by a hook in their taints for the duration for all I care, as they’re essentially useless as interpreters anyway. You just have to show someone making his own fuckups. If they can just do that, just press for access enough so that BuchCo can’t hide forever behind the usual wall of bullshit, the remainder takes care of itself. You’ll never go broke betting against the collective intellect of the electorate, but there’s a limit to everything. The current Repugnican regime may be reaching that limit. That is my fervent hope.
You know, I watched the clip and really didn’t think it was all that bad.
Of course, I’m a SAHM with toddlers, so all I ever see is Elmo interacting with his good friend, Mr. Noodle. So my standards aren’t all that high.
But if you recognize Bush’s actions for what they are, it actually makes sense. Even the rehearsing, and the leaking of the rehearsing; even the hand-picked audiences at his various rallies.
If Bush were the president of a democracy, you’d expect him to carry on an open dialogue with his citizens. Government would be accountable for its actions, and The People would expect the truth.
But Bush isn’t the president of a democracy. He’s a fascist dictator. So of course it’s “his game”, “his people”, “his questions”, “his reality”. There is no “truth”. It’s completely beside the point.
And just to keep the citizenry from freaking out, we’re also frequently reminded that this particular fascist dictator is also a buffoon. He’s incoherent, stumbles, makes inappropriate facial responses. Shit, the man can’t even keep the earpiece in his ear. How scary can he be - he’s an idiot! That’s the amazing sleight of hand. If he weren’t so childlike and stupid, he’d be terrifying.
I think you need to get rid of your last sentence. Because you make a great point. He’s the leader of this great country, with great power and authority, but, Look! No need to worry about him abusing that power, because he’s a buffoon!
Craftiest ass buffoon I ever saw. He’s lulled everyone into thinking he’s “childlike and stupid.” He’s not. He’s smart, he’s surrounded himself with smart people, and he knows how to play his audience. I don’t think the buffoon thing is an act; I think he really does flub things sometimes. But I do think that the media likes to play it that he’s buffoonish. (Not real capable of nuanced thinking, is our media.) Bottom line, he really does mispronounce words and stumble and drop things, but smart as a whip is our George. Stubborn, too.
I dunno. People keep trying to convince me that Bush really has brains and that he’s not as really stupid as he seems. But where is the evidence? What things has he done or said that betray a brilliant mind residing behind his doofy facade? I mean, we can speculate all day that the Emperor really has clothes on and the reason we can’t see them is because they are extremely sheer and form fitting. But to me it is more reasonable to conclude that the man is just buck ass naked.
I too find the “It’s all an act to disarm you!” argument tough to swallow. I’ll readily concede he’s not as stupid as some people say he is, but that’s only because those people think plankton could best him in a game of Scrabble. Nobody with a functioning brain is as stupid as some claim Bush is, so whenever he shows glimmers of intelligence, and we juxtapose such evidence with some estimates of his IQ, our perception of his abilities can be inflated to the same degree he’s derided in pop culture.
He’s certainly capitalized on this somewhat paradoxical aspect of low expectations, but that’s not to say he’s shown much real evidence of a keen mind. No, he’s not a complete moron…but all that’s saying is, well, he’s not a complete moron.
He is neither dumb nor smart. He’s a tool. He was put in by the wealthy to gut the treasury and give out no bid contracts to the favored. In return, he gets to play president and got to fulfill his conqueror fantasy. Like the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain is nothing special indeed.