Well this was certainly awkward, wasn't it? I mean there was our President this week trying to instruct the British Prime Minister in the finer art of street jive handshakes ... but the poor P.M. got so flustered three of his fingers end up Bush's sleeve!
Ever polite, the Brits were extremely accomoda- ting of our POTUS's demand to never see any protestors (but you can see them in a good vid here -- and read about what the catastrophe known as George W. Bush was spared from seeing). Other shocking information contained in that link reveals that Laura Bush doesn't care for her husband's "war talk". But never fear, as Bush explains, "she thought it made it look like I like war. And I don't". Good thing he cleared that up, hunh? I'd hate to think where we'd be today if he DID like war.
Another item that same click will reveal is that Bush took the opportunity of his visit to urge Britain to (surprise!) stay the course in Iraq -- an urging with which P.M. Brown is reportably in complete agreement. The President's advice to Britain followed hints that their Ministry of Defense was drawing up plans for the withdrawal of virtually all their remaining 4,200 troops in Iraq. Mr Bush said any move by Mr Brown to bring forces home should be "based upon success". This little inside joke almost brought tears to my dry eyes, for we all know that Bush has no definition of success, never having achieved any himself. Such a kidder!
For those who missed Maureen Dowd's column of 6/18/08, I cannot resist linking it: "American President Pleads Guilty to Hopeless Idealism" wherein Ms Dowd tells of this week's unfortunate meeting of Mr Bush and Mr Brown.
A few random D.K. thoughts about Ms Dowd's description of Bush's Big British Ball (but you should really read Ms Dowd first):
OMG, he wants his final White House Xmas card to be under a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I? I guess he's really bought into that whole history-takes-a-long-time-to-be-written crapola. Too bad he never bothered to study enough history regarding what our American Revolution was all about (hint: NO MONARCHY!). Oh well, he probably just thinks The Virgin Queen was a "purdee laidee".
Ms Dowd also informs us that Bush thinks words like "warmonger and poodle" are just "words people love to toss around foolishly". hmmmm .... he probably thinks COOKED INTELLIGENCE, LYING OUR COUNTRY INTO WAR, WAR CRIMINAL, INCOMPETENCE and IMPEACHMENT are foolish words as well.
Oh and now Bush psychoanalyzes Saddam Hussein's motives for bluffing to rival neighboring nations (talkin bout you, Urrrahn) about WMD he didn't have?!? Oh the irony that Saddam's initial untruthfulness abso-friggin-lutely forced us into blowing up Urrrock ... because apparently our own foreign intelligence experts are incapable of figuring out the difference between dictator boasting and verifiable weapons inspection facts.
Finally, as Ms Dowd teased in her title, it turns out Bush thinks his only fault has been "hopeless idealism". Good gawd! I'm amazed P.M. Brown let him in the country in the first place. Who knows where his Hopeless Idealism might lead next. Perhaps he is interested in spreading U.S. freedom to Europe? However, there are no do-overs in foreign statesmanship. Once there, I was selfishly hoping the Brits could detain him a little longer. Touring castles and playing golf at St Andrews for another 6-months would've been perfect. Certainly, if he was still over there, he wouldn't be inflicting his shoulder-shrugging homilies to comfort the hard-hit flooded American Midwest here (doing the LEAST he can, as usual).
Fortunately, we are being spared photos of Bush and McCrusty guffawing together as they view the midwest flood damage today. That's because their flood disaster viewing schedules kept them 50-miles apart from each other. So near, yet so far. What, no time for a big hug or head kiss for Scrooge McDuck this trip?
37 comments:
I’ve followed this visit with some interest, because of the former Bush/Blair relationship. Blair was initially horrified when Bush won the presidency, but they eventually became friends, a friendship that in part cost Blair his leadership. Being too close to the US also cost Blair’s deputy, John Prescott his job.
Brown lacks the smooth social savvy of Blair, but even so I doubt he would want to be seen as particularly pally. I suspect he would have been showing a bit of cool British reserve. Mind you, Brown won’t last long either. While the Conservatives aren’t really firing still they are already out polling a tired Labour government.
Cart:
I guess it's good news to hear the party out of power can retake the power -- although I don't know when Labour and Conserv kind of flipped their original meanings. hmmmm, that leads me to bad thoughts about HOW the Democrats here might retake power, by simply flipping their original platforms with Repubs. Oh my, if that idea were to catch on, we could eliminate messy REAL elections & all that waste of money because mock elections would satisfy the public that a real change has taken place, when in fact it was only a name change. Whew! I'm glad that is a British phenom, non-exportable I hope!
Britain is just as guilty of War Crimes as our current administration is and one day they may also find themselves {their leaders} being tried for War Crimes as well.
Let us all pray it's so.
God Bless.
I don't know where to begin. First, doesn't this jive handshake fall into the same terrorist category as the fist bump? I mean, I am really afraid now.
And I am really confused about Laura not liking Georgie's "war talk". Doesn't she realize that his war talk makes him a manly-man, instead of a girly-man like Obama who was opposed to the Iraq war? Good god, DK, where are her priorities?
‘warmonger,’ ‘religious zealot,’ ‘poodle’ - yes, three, no, I mean four words I toss around interchangeably:
Me: "Look at Dubya over there, he's such a warmonger."
My Alter Ego: "Nah, he's really a religious zealot."
My other Alter Ego: "No way. He's just a poodle."
GOD, SAVE US FROM THIS MORON.
Anony-P:
certainly Blair has a lot to answer for. Even though as Cart pointed out above, he wasn't a Bushboy at first, he sure became one quickly, even when it cost him political popularity. maybe he got a head kiss as well? I don't know if Britain has opted out of the ICC as Bush made sure we did, but if they did not, perhaps Blair will find himself there one day & those hearings could lead to trying Bush-Cheney in absentia. Like you, I live in hope.
Diva:
Yeah, but you know those fist bumps are only scary when they are performed by a black man & wife. For everyone else, they are just sporty (or in Brown's case, klutzy).
Personally, I think George's wartalk was some kind secret sex tax between him & Laura. What she was pissed about was him sharing their private turn-ons with the rest of the world. Without getting too graphic, can't you just see him telling Laura to get her poodle ready?
Ah, I see you are one of those bloggers who actually read links because you used the "religious zealot" foolish word that I omitted from my post! I confess not reading much Maureen Dowd anymore, but every once in awhile, she comes across with gems like this which help make the final Bush moments a bit more bearable.
I read, DK, because I am at work and there is fuck-all else to do today.
What Diva, no millionaires planning exotic foreign trips today? Or does it take a billion now, I forget, the dollar has fallen so low. And the Dow slipped another couple hundred points, closing down below the 12K "floor" today. Aren't you working on an exclusive w/Branson to handle his commercial moon flights (when and if)?
Diva sorry to hear business is slow!
Red
Bush is such an idiot! He could care less how stupid he sounds or looks as long as he gets his way.
It was sickening watching the fool on his European good riddance tour knowing they all want Obama and just want the fool to leave before he causes another catastrophe.
As you know Bush has been a brain dead failure his entire life. They needed a mindless fool to carry on Reagan and daddy's agenda. He needs Britain to hang in Iraq until he can get his reason for attacking Iraq to get in the middle east going and that is attacking Iran.
It looks like Israel will have that going before November then the shit will really hit the fan. Side benefit wait until you see the price of gas and food then, Can anyone say Rationing Cards?
It's Friday. Business is always slow on Friday. Zillionaires don't think on Friday, they merely have peons peel them grapes.
And I gave up Richard Branson in favor of Communist Alan Rickman. So there.
Diva Branson is the man!
Jim, Branson may be the man, and I do adore him, but I had to give up something to get sole use of Alan Rickman.
Diva, I thought you gave up a half of Russell Crowe and something like 3-days a week of Rickman in order to have access to Branson after we return from our Mars Mission? Well, maybe you're a better negotiator than I if I unwittingly gave up sole use of Rickman forever and ever. I think I was bamboozeled!
Avt Pat:
Hah, his "European good riddance tour"!!! For a man who never traveled abroad before he became prez, he sure likes to gad around now, spreading stupidity wherever he goes. I really don't think Israel will aid and abet US going into Iran (although Olmert & the hardliners might want to do it themselves, I can only hope the straight-thinking other Israelis will give them the boot).
OK, Rationing ... errr, errraa, errraashuh .... nope, just can't say it, not yet! My parents & grandparents could, though, and I've seen their ration books & heard the tales. But of course, they were being rationed due to WW2. We might be rationed today to help with, what? oh yeah, spreading "freedom" at the point of a gun!
I had some hopes for P.M. Brown. Dashed again. What's with this "stay the course" nonsense?
Bamboozeled? Never. I gave up half a Russell Crowe and ALL of Richard Branson for sole use of Alan Rickman. AND I'm giving you Aramis Ramirez in the deal too.
I'm having problems understanding giving up any of Russell Crowe merits brownie points.
He is little more than a mindless thug, but we Australians never scored points for givin up on the guy.
Cart, Russell Crowe and I were at the same black tie dinner party and believe me, he is much more than a mindless thug. He is a dead sexy mindless thug and a really good actor. And I will do what I must to keep all of Alan Rickman, who has been photographed picking his large British nose. I don't care, he's all mine.
B.E., that's just what it is -- "NONSENSE", a neocon specialty!
Diva, was that what it was? Somehow I still think I got screwed. hmmm ....
Cart:
Oh dear ... well, what can I say? Russell is a known piece of beefcake that Divajood & I amuse ourselves with from time to time. We don't care about his mindlessness in this virtual world. Besides, I thought you once said he wasn't REALLY Australian?
Diva, obviously he saves the local pubs of my region to show his 'lighter' side, the bit without the dead sexy.
DK, he is a bloody Kiwi, not that I pick on them as a national group. But he part own an Aussie 'thugby' team and likes to enjoy the facilities of our sub tropical region. Oh and have his minders beat up on people...
Mind you, I might just have a set against persons named Russell.
It's always mortifying when Bush goes abroad. I can't believe he used that handshake with Brown. Oh, right...yes I can.
Cart:
I would prefer knowing little or nothing about actors other than their body of work. Well, unless they are also political, like John Cusack and Ben Affleck and Warren Beatty and Alec Baldwin etc/etc. I still like Woody Allen's stuff even though he was shown to be an awful father and worse husband. To me, the thing about Russell is he is a wreck, a big lumbering wreck, and yet he still performs smoothly & has one of the best acting voices. In our virtual world, he can even be a nice guy ... kind of like a calendar pin-up girl that no man ever wonders, yeah but is she smart and can she cook.
Mauigirl:
It sure looked like PM Brown was taken aback! But then our prez once greeted Blair with "Yo, Tone!" so what do we expect. He must think his constant attempts at buffoonery are endearing. What's been bothering me lately is he sure isn't acting like a lame duck who is hated around the world & even in the U.S. for creating the giant shitstorm we will all be living with for decades. He's acting like a guy who thinks everything's going hunky-dory.
I know what you mean, I’m still getting over finding out Hopalong Cassidy (aka William Boyd, I found out), Gene Audrey and Roy Rogers were only pretending. I never did recover from those revelations. I blame my poor attitude toward the heroes of the silver screen on a disturbed childhood. OMG, they even had my convinced Chubby Checker was a white man…
Cart: I don't know about the others, but Roy really did have a horse named Trigger & apparently knew how to ride him. His stuffed body is now in some Las Vegas museum (Trigger's, not Roy's). But "c'mon baby and it goes like this", you thought Chubby Checker was white? Strange, but maybe not, considering most of the demo-DJ's thought Buddy Holly was black!
Of course you are right DK, vis a vis Roy Rogers. The disappointment there was when Santa actually delivered my first RR six guns. They couldn't kill a flea, never mind a black hat!
As to Chubby, well I can't really say I knew what a black man really looked like at that stage - even our own indigenes.
Cart, but maybe that was better? Maybe it would've been worse to kill more than fleas with those toy pistols? I remember Chubby very well. Not only his radio exposure, but my parents bought his album (on which every song sounded like yet another version of The Twist). He was on dancing on the cover. We were ALWAYS very aware of skin tone then, since every one lived so separately, and Vegas was extremely racist (the Sands Hotel had to drain & refill the hotel pool when Sammy Davis Jr swam in it).
Well I know it's probably the beginning of your day there, but here it is well past the time any decent person would be awake, so I am siging off ...
Oh, but Gene Autry was a cowboy for a time; he backed into acting. There's an amazing musuem in Los Angeles, the Autry Museum of the American West, which his estate funded - just an amazing place, filled with art and more art and focuses a lot on indigenous people.
I just found out that the very Right Wing John Wayne was also a feminist! What a contradiction he was.
In Palm Springs, where I lived for a few years, there was Gene Autry Road. He was a well-loved Tumbling Tumbleweed there. Of course, we also had Frank Sinatra Drive & Bob Hope Drive. It was a bit like hollywood in the desert. Saw Frank in his friend's restaurant, Gilly's, one night, surrounded by his usual 3-man deep circle of wide-shouldered bodyguards & hustled off to a private back room. Kinda creepy.
If John Wayne was a feminist, Diva, I'm sure it was that he thought that meant they should have the equal right to hand him his beer (or whiskey in his case).
I didn't mean to pick on Gene Autry, it must have been a moment of weakness.
But I was just reading about an new Genghis Khan movie where good ole Genghis is portrayed as a snag. They say having John Wayne portray him in the Hollywood version was a real macho insult.
What a sweet lovable guy that Genghis must have been.
Cart, that Genghis Khan movie, The Conquerer, was filmed not too far from where I live. We've always believed it was what killed John Wayne (and many others who worked on the movie). Here's the http because I'm such a fackin idjit I can't link in comments:
http://www.utahgothic.com/johnwayne.html
Now that is gruesome, the link was disturbing too… But to show you how it is done – so easily…
Mongol, the making of a conqueror
But, keep in mind: my link is to a non-nuclear, non-English language film. Not even any Spanish...
Got both emails. Accepted, and will keep you informed. I don't know why you don't start writing a little fiction now and then. You're damn good.
Hum! Bush, no!
Excellet posting.
Happy day
Wow, a party.
Nah, he had to come home to say this: I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House.
Hi Red
Just checking in on you so I thought I would say Yesterday I heard the chief scum say Obama would endanger all His accomplishments and McCain has to be elected to continue on the right course. Can you friggen imagine.? Yeah, distance yourself! McCain's people were saying yesterday Obama would endanger the economy. What? AAARRRGGGHHH!
I'm neither a liberal or conservative but a passionate moderate. (Yes, we do exist!) On one blog, I posted "W" doesn't always stand for "wisdom."
Hey, all ... sorry I've been AWOL. I had to push this post down ... tired of looking at Bush & Brown. Try the Damien Rice music above.
C.Marie: I don't recognize you, but agree "W" can stand for all sorts of things: worse, worst, warmongerer, waterboarder, and wrongheaded worthless wanker come to mind.
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