....LMB: "Missiledick"....

May 01, 2003

My feelings towards George W. Bush usually hold steady at a cold, sullen anger, but today's brass-balled manipulation have fanned it to a clenched-jawed fury. I hate lies, I hate exploitation, and I hate it when people let themselves fall for both the former. But since Bush's heart pumps deceit like others' pump blood, American lives are condemned to gullibility, repressed rage, or outright violence for the duration of his presidency.

The bullshit got an early start here in San Diego, where I've spent most of my days lately (long story, don't ask). Regular TV programming cut off a little after 10am. "Oh, this must be the Bush speech I'd been hearing about," I thought. Not so. The local networks felt that it was of vital importance that they show footage of Bush's plane, Air Force One, landing at a San Diego airport, eight hours before he was scheduled to give his speech. And it wasn't even good footage, just some cameraman on a beach a dozen miles away, aiming his lens at distant, blurry jetliner. A number of people were gathered on this beach, I guess to see the plane land from their best available vantage point (or possibly in hopes that if they stood near the TV cameras long enough, that they might get their picture in the news).

I was pleased when the TV reporter initially chose the wrong person to interview.

"Sir, why are you here today?" she asked, clearly hoping for an effusive display.

"I was out running," he replied, "and I stopped to see why all these people were here."

"So now that you've seen it, what do you think?" she asked, a bit breathlessly.

"Well, it's just a plane being flown by your average airline pilot. No big deal, really."

Thank you good sir.

But of course, the reporter did manage to track someone down to talk about how exciting it was to watch a plane land.

What followed was so much manipulative drivel I can barely stand it.

President Bush was going to give a speech to announce that major combat in Iraq was over. A pretty unnecessary thing to do, as anyone who's turned on the TV or read a newspaper in the past two weeks knows that. Perhaps Bush was giving this speech to boost his popularity? Nah.

But it didn't stop there. Bush decided to give this speech ON AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER. As you are aware, most presidential speeches are given behind desks or lecterns in various buildings around Washington DC, and not on the decks of nuclear-powered waterborne fortresses. But, if he gave his speech there, he would be surrounded by soldiers and weapons and look properly manly and imperial.

But it went two steps further. First, BUSH ARRIVED ON THE CARRIER IN A FIGHTER JET. He could've taken a helicopter or boat to the aircraft carrier, but instead chose to be flown there by a soldier in a combat aircraft. And, as you can see in the picture in the blog entry below, instead of simply being flown there in his usual suit and tie, Bush wore a military flight suit.

Bush got to look as though he was an actual fucking soldier who won the fucking war, even though all he did was sit in his office and say "go kill the bastards!" He got to look like a war hero even though he apparently deserted the National Guard back in the 1970s. What a fucking prick. His arrogance gland is going to run out of arrogance fluid, and he's going to need a replacement, that he'll probably take from the corpse of some veteran who's benefits Bush cut.

And to cap it all off, the perfect ending to a miserable day, was Bush's speech. It pretty much said what you'd expect, praising the brave men and women who risked Iraqi lives so that the Iraqis could live freely under American military occupation, with liberty and justice for oil. Saddam is bad, democracy is good, and America is even better.

But the icing on this cake of shit:

The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.

GAAAAHHHH!!!!!

HE'S STILL CLAIMING THAT IRAQ WAS WORKING WITH AL QAEDA!!!!

But now that he's here in sunny California, it seems that Bush is going to go speak to his constituents out here, American military contractors. According to AP, this is part of a re-election strategy to "[bridge] the seemingly disparate themes of the economy and national security." Of course, the message that sends me is that the only thing keeping the national economy afloat is massive government purchases of high tech weaponry that we've been frightened into thinking we need to protect us from the terrorist hordes abroad. But that could just be my formidable understanding of politics and economics talking.

I will go now, because it's late, and I still have to bang my head against a wall several hundred times before going to bed.