What pisses me off, 5 years later

[wring]

[QUOTE=John Mace]

I’m sure you heard something on the Daily Show-- I’m not saying you’re lying. But don’t they purposely take stuff out of context to enhance the humor value?
[/QUOTE]

sure. But the quote, as quoted above, is indeed word for word. There’s no glitch in the film clip (I"ve seen it as well). TDS often has such stuff on their web site (I’m on dial up so none of them work well for me, or I’d have searched for it). This wasn’t taken out of context.

[John_Mace]

[QUOTE=Giraffe]
Absolutely. But my memory is of Bush speaking the full quote provided by RedFury. (Of course, considering what I’ve read about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, it’s going to turn out Bush said he wasn’t worried about tin watermelons and I’m going to feel like an idiot.) I’ll see if I can’t dig it up on YouTube or something later tonight.
[/QUOTE]

And you’re certain it’s not clips from different interviews that have been spliced together? Isn’t that exactly the kind of thing they do on TDS?

[Excalibre]

[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy]
Today on NPR I happened to catch parts of a speech by Joe Biden, given on September 7 to the National Press Club.

The bits I caught were compelling enough to send me in search of the full text. I recommend it as a starting point, at the very least, for a Democratic platform.

Of course, his analyses and proposals suffer from the flaws of nuance, reasoned consideration of the facts, and complexity, and wouldn’t boil down well to a soundbite, so would probably prove ineffective in a campaign against TERROR 9/11 TERROR FIGHT THEM OVER THERE OR OVER HERE TERROR 9/11 TERROR THEY HATE OUR FREEDOMS TERROR TERROR STAY THE COURSE TERROR DISSENT IS TREASON TERROR
[/QUOTE]

Why do you hate America, EddyTeddyFreddy?

COWARDS CUT AND RUN!!!

[Rubystreak]

[QUOTE=John Mace]
I’m sure you heard something on the Daily Show-- I’m not saying you’re lying. But don’t they purposely take stuff out of context to enhance the humor value?
[/QUOTE]

No, it’s not “I heard something on the Daily Show.” Jon Stewart aired the clip. He showed the undoctored, unspliced incident. Bush said it and there is no way around that.

And you know what? Your attempt to “contextualize” it away just doesn’t cut any ice whatsoever either. Osama bin Laden masterminded 9/11. That’s mass murder, and terrorism, and it fucked America up in ways that will reverberate for a long time to come. The NYPD couldn’t just “whatever” away an open murder investigation, could they? And this was an event of greater magnitude than can be adequately expressed by the word “murder.” HOW THE FUCK can the President of the United States say he doesn’t care about catching the perpetrator of this crime? How can he say it’s not important? I mean, for chrissake, if it was enough reason to invade another country, it should still be important and a priority a mere 5 years after the fact.

There is no statute of limitations on murder, only on politically valuable pandering and meaningless rhetoric. George Bush doesn’t care where Osama bin Laden is? That makes me sick, and I don’t think it’s lack of imagination on my part that prevents me from conuruing up any other possible appropriate response.

[John_Mace]

[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
No, it’s not “I heard something on the Daily Show.” Jon Stewart aired the clip. He showed the undoctored, unspliced incident. Bush said it and there is no way around that.
[/QUOTE]

I’m just asking for a cite, that’s all. I’m not sure why that bothers you. But I’ll tell you what… let’s not derail this thread on that one issue. I’ll start a GQ thread and see if someone can produce a cite.

[yojimbo]

I can find this on the White House site from the Bush press conference

And, again, I don’t know where he is. I – I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.

and later

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html

In context they aren’t as bad as the seem on thier own.

I’ve also seen the video of him saying that Bin Laden isn’t a priority but it’s late and I’m going to bed so I couldn’t be bothered searching for it.

Putting the priority thing in does seem like a misquote to be fair.

[yojimbo]

Oh also

Misquotations

* I don't know where he [Osama Bin Laden] is. I have no idea and I really don't care.
      o This misquotation is frequently attributed to a White House press conference, March 13, 2002 [76]
      o The relevant parts of the White House transcript reads:

            THE PRESIDENT: Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he's alive at all. Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is — really indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission. Terror is bigger than one person. And he's just — he's a person who's now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is — as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide — if, in fact, he's hiding at all. So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I'm more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.

George W. Bush - Wikiquote

It truly does pain me to post this stuff as I’d love to be posting links to 100% back up that he’s a bastard of the highest order but that’s what I can find. Fighting ignorance and all that
Hopefully someone will fight the good fight in the GQ thread and give you loads of links of him saying it and maybe killing a new born as well

Night all.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

[QUOTE=Excalibre]
Why do you hate America, EddyTeddyFreddy?

COWARDS CUT AND RUN!!!
[/QUOTE]
Wave that flag, man! These colors don’t run!

(Well, actually they do, if you forget to use the “Cold” wash cycle.)

[Rubystreak]

[QUOTE=John Mace]
I’m just asking for a cite, that’s all. I’m not sure why that bothers you. But I’ll tell you what… let’s not derail this thread on that one issue. I’ll start a GQ thread and see if someone can produce a cite.
[/QUOTE]

It’s not that you asked for a cite. I’m sure someone will come along presently with one, or hey, look for it yourself. My problem is the whole idea that it was taken out of context and so it wasn’t so bad. The quote yojimbo put up still comes off as pretty infuriatingly blase to me. I guess what I don’t get is how one can posit that there could be a context in which such a statement was OK. Clearly the big hunt for bin Laden was a pretext for other misadventures and the guy who did 9/11? We don’t care about getting him anymore. Let’s move on.

[GIGObuster]

[QUOTE=yojimbo]
Oh also

George W. Bush - Wikiquote

It truly does pain me to post this stuff as I’d love to be posting links to 100% back up that he’s a bastard of the highest order but that’s what I can find. Fighting ignorance and all that
Hopefully someone will fight the good fight in the GQ thread and give you loads of links of him saying it and maybe killing a new born as well

Night all.
[/QUOTE]

Wait a tick.

Are we forgetting that it was common (and I still think it is) that many times we got a big whopper from Bush on an actual recording, but when one checked the transcript it was “corrected”?

Corrected that is by the diligent white house speakers that IIRC had to make lots of calls to say to the media stuff like “what the president really wanted to say” and the media being fair :dubious: mostly complied and printed the “real” version, seeing that the transcript is coming in this case from the White House the more reason then I would suspect one more of those “corrections”, specially because before I caught the white house doing some curious corrections in the past (the original title of Operation Iraqi Liberation comes to mind, it was “corrected” later, nevermind that they did say it). I suspect we are seeing some rewriting of history here.

I have to mention though that I agree with Rubystreak, if he was misquoted, the “proper” quotes still look bad to me.

[Shayna]

Uhm, guys, I’m sure you’re all well-intentioned, but it really doesn’t do our side any good when we insist that “our memory is our cite” and don’t make the effort to back it up with evidence. Unfortunately, in this case, your memories don’t serve you well. I, too, saw The Daily Show, and the clip in question does not say what you think it says.

It can be found here, and you can (re)watch for yourself. It’s called “The President’s Phases of Grief,” which are: Denial, Anger, Anger, Anger, Hanukkah, Acceptance, Denial.

For those whose systems won’t allow them to view it, here’s how it went. . . To evidence the the ‘Acceptance’ phase, a clip is shown where Bush says, “Someone came the other day to the office and said, “Well are you worried about Mr. Bin Laden?” I said “No, I’m not too worried about him. . .””, at which point they cut the clip off. Stewart then goes into the final phase of ‘Denial’, wherein Bush is shown answering a question during one of his debates with John Kerry saying, “I don’t think I ever said I’m not worried about Osama bin Laden. It’s kinda one of those Ex-A-Ger-Ations <smirk, smirk>”.

And while the juxtaposition was indeed hilarious, it’s not even close to being “word for word” what friend RedFury posted above. Now, if there’s some other segment to which you all are referring, I’ll certainly apologize. But having seen the show myself, this is the only similar segment I recall having aired.

That said, I still contend that the blasé comments Bush has actually made about not having any interest in bin Laden are bad enough. We don’t need to make shit up to prove Bush to be an incompetent, bumbling idiot who has completely fucked up the effort to either capture bin Laden and bring him to justice, or just kill the motherfucker in the last 5 years.

[Giraffe]

[QUOTE=Giraffe]
Absolutely. But my memory is of Bush speaking the full quote provided by RedFury. (Of course, considering what I’ve read about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, it’s going to turn out Bush said he wasn’t worried about tin watermelons and I’m going to feel like an idiot.) I’ll see if I can’t dig it up on YouTube or something later tonight.
[/QUOTE]
Well, I was suprisingly prescient about my own unreliability. The 9/11/2006 Daily Show does not feature the quote provided by RedFury, much to my surprise. Instead, it is a January 22, 2002 quote of him saying he is not worried about bin Laden (followed by the 2004 debate with Kerry where he says he never said he wasn’t worried about bin Laden). When reading the quote, I thought it matched my memory exactly, which is why eyewitness evidence sucks, I suppose.

And, in my subsequent Google searches, I am now under the strong suspicion that John Mace is right, and the second quote was never said. Both quotes are often listed together and attributed with the same date, but no source is ever given for the second one. Had it been an interview as I thought, it would have been attributed somewhere. My guess is that it’s just a paraphrase of the press conference that got picked up as a quote and repeated. Until someone comes up with a cite, I retract my disagreement with his original statement that started this whole thing. Apologies, John.

[Giraffe]

I’d just like to note that Shayna’s post wasn’t there when I started. I think. I don’t know anymore.

[Shayna]

Oh yeah, suuuuure, Giraffe. We believe you. Really we do.

[Squink]

[QUOTE=GIGObuster]
Are we forgetting that it was common (and I still think it is) that many times we got a big whopper from Bush on an actual recording, but when one checked the transcript it was “corrected”?
[/QUOTE]

Come now GIGObuster, a search for [“press conference” “changed the transcript” “white house”] only returns 706 hits. How serious could the problem be? :dubious:

[delphica]

[QUOTE=GIGObuster]

I have to mention though that I agree with Rubystreak, if he was misquoted, the “proper” quotes still look bad to me.
[/QUOTE]

I agree with this completely, and with the OP. I’m still so pissed off about bin Laden remaining at large that I’m bordering on the irrational. I don’t care if he’s currently living in a cave, eating rocks, not posing any immediate threat, no longer running a country and/or terrorist network, or unable to do any of the other things that used to make up his daily routine. I will not stop being pissed off until he’s marched down 5th Avenue in chains, or better yet, put into a real life version of Escape from New York. When in control of my senses, I’m staunchly against angry mobs, but if some higher power came down and said “The bad news is that there has to be an angry mob … but the good news is that you get to the pick the circumstances,” I’m prepared with a scenario to put into motion.

Which is probably why I’m not in charge of the justice system. The fact that our president speaks about his at-largeness like it’s no big deal is an insult I’m not going to get over. Whether or not it makes good financial, political, or military sense to commit more resources to bringing him in, I expect the president of the United States to at least act as if he cares that someone who proudly takes responsibility for killing nearly 3,000 people has yet to be brought to justice.

You are “truly … not that concerned about him”? You “just don’t spend that much time on him,” you dumb cluck? Seriously, bite me.

[GIGObuster]

[QUOTE=delphica]
I agree with this completely, and with the OP. I’m still so pissed off about bin Laden remaining at large that I’m bordering on the irrational. I don’t care if he’s currently living in a cave, eating rocks, not posing any immediate threat, no longer running a country and/or terrorist network, or unable to do any of the other things that used to make up his daily routine.
[/quote]

Remember that Al-qaeda and Taliban leaders fled to Pakistan, so they are marginalized now, no? What could possible go wrong?

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/08/20/pakistani_training_alleged_in_plane_plot/

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Officials investigating the alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners say at least seven of the suspects arrested in Britain had dual citizenship and made frequent trips to Pakistan in the past three years, gaining information on how to make detonators and explosives.

…

The new details highlight Pakistan’s role as a virtual bazaar for would-be terrorists run by militant groups allied with Al Qaeda. Investigators say they still don’t know whether the suspects were being directed by militants in Pakistan or came here seeking inspiration and expertise. And while it is unclear whether they received training in making bombs, officials here say they are certain the British-based suspects at least received information on detonators and explosives.

US officials say they are concerned by intelligence suggesting Pakistan has become a place where militants and Al Qaeda operatives assist and train would-be jihadists.

The country’s role as a center of Islamic militancy has its roots in the 1980s mujahideen war against Soviet forces in neighboring Afghanistan, when the US funneled billions of dollars in covert aid and training through Pakistan to groups that then spawned anti-Western militants.

So north Pakistan is becoming a heaven for the bastard, and it is thanks in part by the two faced government of Pakistan.

We should then had pressured Pakistan or told them in no uncertain terms that since we know were their nukes are, that they should stay the hell out of the way if they are incapable of getting Bin Laden. We needed to focus with the guys that organized 9/11

But noooooooo.

We decided to go into Iraq and forget about Bin Laden instead. Bush now remembers, but just to say that now we are dealing with a Hitler. Sorry Mr. Bush, but the allies still got Hitler after 5 years of war. And the US had enough money with the taxes to beat the axis to finance the Marshall plan that prevented the defeated countries into becoming failures. 5 years after failing to capture the perpetrators of 9/11 and misplacing billions of dollars in Iraq (both by mismanagement and the fact that Iraq was not involved in 9/11), you still dare to compare yourself to Churchill? Bite me.

I will not stop being pissed off until he’s marched down 5th Avenue in chains, or better yet, put into a real life version of Escape from New York. When in control of my senses, I’m staunchly against angry mobs, but if some higher power came down and said “The bad news is that there has to be an angry mob … but the good news is that you get to the pick the circumstances,” I’m prepared with a scenario to put into motion.

Which is probably why I’m not in charge of the justice system. The fact that our president speaks about his at-largeness like it’s no big deal is an insult I’m not going to get over. Whether or not it makes good financial, political, or military sense to commit more resources to bringing him in, I expect the president of the United States to at least act as if he cares that someone who proudly takes responsibility for killing nearly 3,000 people has yet to be brought to justice.

You are “truly … not that concerned about him”? You “just don’t spend that much time on him,” you dumb cluck? Seriously, bite me.

Seriously.

[John_Mace]

[QUOTE=GIGObuster]
I have to mention though that I agree with Rubystreak, if he was misquoted, the “proper” quotes still look bad to me.
[/QUOTE]

Yep, which is exaclty what I said in my first post! Bush gives us plenty of amunition to go after him with, so there isn’t any need to tweak it so that it looks just a little bit worse.

[elucidator]

Nice going, guys! You just had to tell him he was right! You know how insufferable he’s going to be!

[Slithy_Tove]

Sure they’ll nab him. Theyr’e just saving him for right before election day 2008.

Typical liberals: your permissive parents let you eat all your Holloween candy in one night, and ever since then you expect immediate gratification.