Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

It's not that I'd expected Bush to shape up in the waning days of his presidency - fuckwits like him never see the light - but I certainly hadn't expected quite this level of breathtaking stupidity:

Yesterday, after an Iraqi journalist used “[t]wo of the worst insults in Islam” against him, an unfazed President Bush sat down with ABC’s Martha Raddatz for an exit interview in Iraq. When Raddatz asked Bush about his legacy, Bush first boasted about “52 months of uninterrupted job growth.” (There have been 1.9 million jobs lost in 2008 alone.)
Bush then turned to Iraq, and justified the war there by suggesting it had been al Qaeda’s home base. When Raddatz corrected him, Bush dismissively replied, “So what?“:

BUSH: One of the major theaters against al Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq. This is where al Qaeda said they were going to take their stand. This is where al Qaeda was hoping to take–

RADDATZ: But not until after the U.S. invaded.

BUSH: Yeah, that’s right. So what? The point is that al Qaeda said they’re going to take a stand. Well, first of all in the post-9/11 environment Saddam Hussein posed a threat. And then upon removal, al Qaeda decides to take a stand.

So what? So al Qaeda didn't fucking exist in Iraq until we put them there. So we turned Iraq into the prime al Qaeda recruiting and testing ground. So the only thing Sadaam Hussein had going for him was that he fucking despised al Qaeda and wouldn't let them come within miles of Iraq. So we opened the floodgates, killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of civillians for a lie, destabilized the Middle East, empowered al Qaeda beyond their wildest dreams, and ruined every bit of international goodwill we had chasing an enemy that wasn't there until you put them there. That's fucking what, you shit-for-brains fucking imbecile.

But that's not all in the Breathtaking Bush Incomprehension news. There's also his reaction to nearly getting beaned by a shoe by one pissed-off Iraqi:

Yesterday, Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President Bush and shouted, “This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” Bush said that he was unfazed by the incident.

Afterward, Bush continued to dismiss the incident to reporters aboard Air Force One. He said that Zaidi’s actions were “bizarre” and had no larger significance:

Q Well, not to belabor the point too much, on this man, but I have a serious question about it. Obviously he’s expressing a vein of anger that exists in Iraq, and —

BUSH: How do you know? I mean, how do we know what he’s expressing?

How do we know? How do we know? How about this little clue:

Zaidi’s actions were not “bizarre” or “amusing.” In fact, they were “[t]wo of the worst insults in Islam.” Additionally, Zaidi is not a lone protester with his own radical “Baathist” agenda. Since the incident, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to demand the release of Zaidi, who is now being interrogated by Iraqi authorities. These protesters include Shiites in Sadr City, who “are fed up with U.S. policy in the region” and calling Zaidi a “hero.” NPR reported that every single person they interviewed in Baghdad had “nothing but praise” for Zaidi.

So. Aside from what Zaidi himself shouted - that it was for the widow, orphans and people killed - we have thousands of Iraqi protestors reinforcing the message.

Unfortunately for them, our shit-for-brains president is the most clueless son of a bitch on the planet.

He's also a dishonest piece of shit who, when given a millimeter, is more than happy to take a megaparsec, especially if it includes a big fat "Fuck you" to taxpayers:

When lawmakers considered the $700 billion bailout package a few months ago, they argued with the Bush White House over restrictions on executive compensation. Democrats insisted that firms accepting bailout funds could not, in turn, lavish their top executives with multi-million dollar salaries and/or "golden parachute" severance pay. The president wanted no such restrictions.

At first glance, it was a fight Democrats appeared to win, and strict limits were included in the final legislation. Indeed, there was even an IRS mechanism that mandated a close review of executive compensation, and tax penalties for companies that failed to comply.

Apparently, lawmakers neglected to read Bush's fine-print.

[A]t the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.

Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.

Great. Just fucking great. Not only do we get saddled with tons of debt due to Bush's insane economic policies, we get to pay the execs who ran their companies into the ground enormous bonuses for fucking everyone over. That's just fucking fantastic.

Of course, with friends like Cheney, it's no wonder he has an extremely warped view of truth, honor and reality:

Today, Vice President Cheney continued the Bush administration’s legacy tour by appearing on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. Limbaugh’s hard-hitting questions included, “What are you most proud of?” and praise such as, “Over the years when I’ve spoken to you, you have purposely avoided any partisanship, because I know that this has been a policy of the administration.

At one point, Limbaugh mocked President-elect Obama’s promise to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Cheney agreed and defended Guantanamo, saying that it has been “very well run”:

CHENEY: I think so. I think Guantanamo has been very well run. I think if you look at it from the perspective of the requirements we had, once you go out and capture a bunch of terrorists, as we did in Afghanistan and elsewhere, then you’ve got to have some place to put them. If you bring them here to the U.S. and put them in our local court system, then they are entitled to all kinds of rights that we extend only to American citizens. […]

"Very well run," huh? Well, I suppose if your goal was to torture people, flush America's reputation away, and provide a recruitment talking point for al Qaeda, it was very well run indeed.

No wonder the Iraqis aren't prosecuting al-Zaidi for hurling a shoe at Bush, but rapping his knuckles for nearly whacking the Prime Minister instead:

CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware reports that Muntader al-Zaidi — the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush yesterday during a press conference — “is being investigated for possible charges not connected to assaulting President Bush, but for doing it in front of the Iraqi Prime Minister and hurling the shoes in the Prime Minister’s general direction rather than at President Bush’s head.”

They know what the real crime was: piss-poor aim.