Bush Errs on 'Mission Accomplished' Query

[Rose Siding]

Bush Disavows 'Mission Accomplished' Banner on Ship, but White House Admits Having Sign Made
WASHINGTON Oct. 28 — Six months after he spoke on an aircraft carrier deck under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," President Bush disavowed any connection with the war message. Later, the White House changed its story and said there was a link.
The "Mission Accomplished" boast has been mocked many times since Bush's carrier speech as criticism has mounted over the failed search for weapons of mass destruction and the continuing violence in Iraq.

When it was brought up again Tuesday at a news conference, Bush said, "The `Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished."

snip>

After the news conference, a White House spokeswoman said the Lincoln's crew asked the White House to have the sign made. The White House asked a private vendor to produce the sign, and the crew put it up, said the spokeswoman. She said she did not know who paid for the sign.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20031028_2017.html

He ERRS, get it? WAY different than lying :bounce:

[Beetwasher]

1. The NEW Spin!

The crew ASKED THE WH to have it made...Oy vey :eyes:

[DarkPhenyx]

2. I was thinking the same thing.

So Bush gets backed up by his people. No surprise.

[tom_paine]

71. "The entitled are always protected by the enlisted"

I saw it on another thread (it's not my quote) but it certainly captures the Imperial Nature of Bushveik-Occupied Amerika.

[Rose Siding]

14. I'd like to read the press release

that Bill Press had in his hand. I didn't see him talk about it. Did he mention that the ship had asked the WH for the banner? (can't beleive we're getting bogged down in such nitty details- big lies, small lies- ONE of 'em's got to stick!)

[sendero]

23. this must be like...

... the 5 soldiers in Iraq who spontaneously decided to write a form letter for the folks back home.

And they called Clinton a big liar :)

[joeunderdog]

28. I've submitted my request for the WH to fly a sign, too.

"I lied. People died."

Didn't know they were doing requests.

[goforit]

37. I saw a bumper sticker that said that!!!...........

I felt like jumping out of the car and kissing that guy!!

[Terran]

59. And it just happened to appear right behind the putz

in all those news photos. Wow, how felicitous was that for Georgie?

[Dr Fate]

3. BANNERGATE

!!!!

[whyaduck]

7. LOL

That cracked me up, thanks.

[Fovea]

63. love the nick

Whyanochicken?

[Bob3]

4. They asked the White House? What Kinko's wasn't open?

:wtf:


This stuff gives drug addled gibberish a bad name.

[caledesi]

5. Excuse me, but since when did * NOT appear with slogans behind

him? I can't think of a one.

This is totally bullshit. Did the USS AL go to Kinko's and have this rather sophisticated sign made? I think not.

[jmowreader]

13. It's not all that sophisticated

In fact, it's well within the power of even the smallest desktop publisher to make this sign:

1. Start QuarkXPress, create a document of the right shape.
2. Place clip-photo of flag waving in the breeze. Stretch to fit.
3. Type and format the words "Mission Accomplished."
4. Load your electrostatic printer with signmaker's vinyl. They would have used an e-stat instead of an inkjet because of the environment the sign was destined to be used in. Inkjet runs, electrostatic doesn't.
5. Print sign.
6. Install grommets, roll up, fly out to the ship with it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

30. I want to see you get a 10' x 50' banner

out of your desktop printer. Good luck.

Yes, doing the graphics for it is no big deal. But outputting it requires a piece of equipment that costs at least $100,000.

A banner like that would easily cost about $5000 to print. (Base price = $10 sf.)

[goforit]

38. Was this part of the 87 billion?

LOL!!!!

[LiberalFighter]

76. Who paid for the sign?

The WH? = Taxpayers

The Navy? = Taxpayers

The sailors? = Not likely

Who paid for worker, design and use of computer?

Was the computer owned by the government (taxpayers)?

Was the worker a government employee paid by taxpayers?

Was the work done during work hours?

Was the work done on government property?

ILLEGAL

[KoKo]

33. OMG! You make it sound so easy from a printer! Please..........!

No way....this is easy to transfer to a banner that would stretch across a USNavy Ship and be big enought for the media to photograph in the way the Chimp would want!

[bpilgrim]

35. so it was some 'homemade' HACK and ole boats got that past rove?

i don't think so...

besides the FONTS and DROP SHADOW match up PERFECTLY :shrug:

wonder how much time he spent on his pet project ;->

peace

[Wednesdays]

58. Oh, puuuuuuleeezzze!!!!

No matter WHO made the banner, dontcha think it would have to go through all kinds of channels at the White House to get approval, hmm?

You think they could have just thrown up any banner without clearance? Especially one that size?

[fizzana]

6. Tell it like it is

He didn't err, he effing lied through his teeth.

[DUreader]

8. A month later, W* Quoted , no Banner, "Mission Accomplished", he said it

Bush also made the comment in Qatar a month later. No banner - just the quote:

"I am happy to see you, an so are the long-suffering people of Iraq. America sent you on a mission to
remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.
(Applause.) "

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030605-1.html

thanks to: lefty_mcduff

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=607481

[xray s]

9. Weasels!

Rabid, lie spitting bastard weasels!

That is what resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

[cosmicdot]

10. liar liar pants on fire

a "Welcome" sign would have been safer, and less arrogant

[Lefty48197]

11. Yeah, I'm sure she doesn't know who paid for the sign

Maybe the banner was left over from when Bush Sr. went after Saddam?

[elfin]

12. It's lies like this that have more staying power

than more serious ones. Something like this even the sheeple can understand and can sense that if they go to such lengths to cover up something like "who ordered the banner?" -- what about all the other stuff??

[Cynica]

15. There Will be Lies and More Lies, [i]ad inf[/i]

bLOODY RIGHT THE LIES GET TAKEN FOR GOSPEL. And The Shrub knows that.
After all, he's been coached relentlessly by Dr. Karl Rove, that intrepid thinker and shaker. Where would George Bush be today without his mentor -- indeed, his creator? So, the whole White House raison d'etre hinges on fabrications which the hapless voters will swallow. As Dr. Rove knows full well, they will swallow almost anything the Rabid Right proclaims.

[Sparky McGruff]

26. Simple lies are easier to cover...

Interesting article in the Columbia Journalism Review about lies, and the coverage (or lack thereof) in the press.

The premise is that journalists want to appear objective, and when a lie is used as the basis of partisan policy (e.g. bald faced lies about abortion, global warming, the iraq war) they hesitate to pounce on them, as it makes them look as if they favor one party .

This lie, however, passes the test of being suitably non-partisan. There's no policy here, just a dumb pointless lie. CYA, no more, no less. Similar point with lies about the outing of the CIA agent.

[PartyPooper]

16. "To err is human...to forgive is divine."

What do ya' wanna' bet that those will be the next words coming from the lips of Scott McClellan?

:crazy:

[truthisfreedom]

18. to lie is bushian. to impeach is devine.

and certainly to keep the frigging creep from EVER being elected president would be delicious.

[calimary]

46. Time for a reminder about that TOLL FREE Capitol Hill number...

It's 1 (800) 839 - 5276.

Call it first thing in the morning and they'll transfer you to anybody's office in the House and/or Senate. Call, and make yourselves heard!

And demand a special prosecutor for Traitor-gate!

[PartyPooper]

47. Thanks, calimary! I will call first thing in the morning!

:-)

[librechik]

17. no way it was a "mistake"

he meant to put it off on the crew becasue of all the heat he's taken over it! When he came home puting yesterday and said that at least somebody was glad to see him come home. When he said all the new attacks mean we are successful...

Shrub is really losin it.

[omshanti]

61. Yes, the party of personal responsibility at work.

Gotta love it.

[Emboldened Chimp]

19. Doesn't know who paid for the sign?

WE DID, DAMMIT!

[Maddy McCall]

20. Yeah, just like the form letters from the front...soldiers volunteered to

write them and send them to hometowns in which they had not lived since birth. It couldn't be a part of Bush's new positive PR spin...no connection with the WH for sure. :eyes:

Haven't you guys noticed that he is playing the "blame it on the soldiers" game. HOW LOWLY! :mad:

[Malva Zebrina]

21. If he did not indulge in such crap in the beginning

he would not be in this embarrassing postion. Not that I am not joyful that his staged landing complete with costumes, and that entire fake set up on the USS Lincoln is coming back to haunt him. Once the fake play is is progress and continues on, then one has to defend every little inch of that play--and that is really hard to do as time goes on. Truth has a way of exposing itself. This is something the Bush despicable liar does not realize because he has virtually been bailed out and protected all of his life when the consequences of dirty deals and lies threaten to revealo his evil--you must keep up the lie and it gets harder and harder as the lie becomes involved with other facts--why he decided to lie about it all is his problem, I suspect he thought no one could or would call him on it, or perhaps he is just so crazy and dumb that he is merely repeating what other dumsheads have told him to say without being able to think it through further-- but I suspect that his numerous lies about other issues, such as invading Iraq and killing thousands of innocent people for one, have indeed corrupted and decayed his mind.

[1songbird]

34. Very well put Marianne!

The truth will eventually come out. I just hope it's before the elections.

[Fovea]

64. Bush has become a character in a play by Jean Genet.

'The Balcony' is set in a brothel in revolution torn Havana.

The Character that Bush is living the role of is the Bishop. A paraphile who has a fetish for ecclesiastic clothing, and who masturbating in a bishops vestments onstage.

He doesn't want the job of Bishop, because he would actually have to *be* bishop. He just wants to use it as a kinky sex toy, in order to convert it to his religion, paraphilia.

It is frightening how good a fit this play is for modern America. Read it!

[louis-t]

22. Bush sure spends a lot of time...

...defending his actions. If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit. All of his crew are doing a lot of this. Rummy is reading from the dictionary to defend his use of a word in a memo that was leaked after he threatened his whole staff not to leak any more blah, blah,blah,blah......

[dicknbush]

24. CAN YOU IMAGINE IF IT WAS CLINTON OR GORE WHO HAD SAID THIS!

OH YEAH IT WASN'T US IT WAS THE UM AAAHHHHHH LET ME THINK AHHHH OH YEAH IT WAS THE SAILORS ON THE SHIP YEAH THAT'S IT THE SAILORS PUT THAT SIGN UP!!!

WHAT A PUKE THIS LITTLE RAT COWARD IS!!!

[drscm]

25. I did not have sexual relations with that sign!!!! eom

eom

[PartyPooper]

32. LOL!

:D

[LiberalFighter]

77. You never know

It might be good

In the case of republicans... they might get an orgasm just by being wrapped in the American flag... or saying "under god"

[rocktivity]

27. It doesn't matter who made it, had it made, paid for it or put it up

What matters is, THAT BANNER APPEARED BEHIND BUSH BECAUSE THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE WANTED IT TO APPEAR BEHIND BUSH! How DARE they expect us to believe, in light of all the INTENTIONAL scripting and stage managing they've done, that this was some kind of a slip-up!


rocknation

[goforit]

40. LOL!!!.....Just like his BOX-GATE episode.

Where he went to talk about providing jobs for Americans at
a Factory in St.Louis and did a photo-op with tons of
boxes made in China.

This guy just hasn't changed!!!

[trapper914]

70. Or here in Indy...

...when they stage managed the crowd, having many of the men remove their ties. Even if the banner WAS the idea of the crew, it wouldn't have remained if the Bush handlers felt it was innappropriate.

Also, after posting this on another thread yesterday, I'm already starting to see the spin. At his PC, Bush said the sailors "put it up." His defenders will say he didn't lie, because, in reality, the sailors probably DID do the grunt work of hanging the sign...which I would wager was designed and shipped by the WH, as well as printed.

[VolcanoJen]

29. What about that "ingenious advance guy who wasn't that ingenious?"

Chimpy referred to him today when questioned; in fact, he blamed the whole shenanigans on him. Now I'm really confused... can't these kids at least try to get their story straight?

:shrug:

Bush in today's press conference: The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way. But my statement was a clear statement, basically recognizing that this phase of the war for Iraq was over and there was a lot of dangerous work...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031028-2.html

[FredScuttle]

49. President Gameboy calling anyone "not that ingenious",,,

is like Boy George calling someone a sissy

[leesa]

31. Oh, I'm pretty sure WE paid for Chimpy's sign.

Just like we pay for all his campaigning.

[City Lights]

36. Of course, we pay.

I don't know the price of the "Mission Accomplished" banner, but here's a quote from an article linked below outlining *'s "image" budget.

"The president's image makers, Mr. Bartlett said, work within a budget for White House travel and events allotted by Congress, which for fiscal 2003 was $3.7 million."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. Street value of a banner like that

is between $5000 - $10,000. For the WH to have it made multiply by 5. You know they overpay whenever possible.

[osaMABUSh]

41. I have a new banner for Chimp to fly : "Mission Impossible"

He could fly it at every speech - pretty much sums up his past and future endeavors.

[symbolman]

42. Here's the real LIE - it was never MAJOR COMBAT operations

It was COMBAT Operations -- it's been SCRUBBED on the WHITE HOUSE site and others since then.. revised just like in the Ministry of Truth

Check it out, we caught this back in August but even the media wants to use the term MAJOR..

it was NEVER in the wording of any titles until soldiers died like flies since then..

here's the link:

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/whitehouselies.html

[bpilgrim]

43. "President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended " state.gov

http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rm/20203.htm

btw: when are we gonna do a banner/link exchange :shrug:
please DU me :hi:

peace

[UpInArms]

57. gosh! If "Combat Operations" have "ended"

why the hell are our soldiers still there at all?

That would indicate that there is absolutely no need for a military presence in any way!

So are they now saying that it's time to bring 'em home????

[haymaker]

44. Pathological. They're fuckin pathological.

They got so many lies going there is no way to keep up.

Another whopper. Another howler. Another beauty.

This ought to be a sit-com. Can you see them all sitting around thinking of what to make the idiot say to cover up for what the idiot just said without shedding light upon the bullshit they wove last week? It'd be a hoot.

[Bake]

45. Olbermann nailing Smirk on it on MSGOP

Says that the Navy/crew suggested it to the White House, the White House kicked it around and LOVED the idea, HAD THE BANNER PRODUCED, AND THE WHITE HOUSE PAID FOR IT.

Lying fucks! All of them. Lying sacks of shit.

Bake

[not systems]

48. Lying an impeachable offence!!!

Forget about everything else this is cause for celebration.

Why even a trained monkey can see this is "huge".

You could tell Forest Gump this one and he would get it.

[JetJaguar]

50. The slogan was chosen

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A10976-2003May3¬Found=true


An Unfinished Mission

Sunday, May 4, 2003; Page B06


THE VICTORY celebration held aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday was well-deserved, both for President Bush and for the servicemen who cheered him. Thanks to those who gathered on the carrier's deck and their comrades in arms, Saddam Hussein's homicidal hold on Iraq was broken in three weeks, with relatively small, if painful, losses of Iraqi and American lives. None of the disasters feared before the war has come to pass: neither burning oil fields nor bloody street-to-street battles; neither Arab revolutions nor armed interventions by Iraq's neighbors. Mr. Bush acknowledged before the war that these risks were real, but argued that they were outweighed by the risks of not acting: So far, he has been proved right. Nor can there now be any doubt that most Iraqis welcomed the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of his apparatus of terror. When the horrors of the Baathist regime -- now being confirmed in terrible but necessary detail -- are set against even the destruction and deaths of the war, it's impossible not to conclude that the United States and its allies have performed a great service for Iraq's 23 million people.



Still, it's also impossible to agree with the banner that was draped near Mr. Bush on the carrier deck, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished." Aides say the slogan was chosen in part to mark a presidential turn toward domestic affairs as his campaign for reelection approaches. But neither Mr. Bush nor the American public can afford to put Iraq on the back burner. There is much to be done; the greatest tests and risks still lie in the future. Perhaps Mr. Bush understands that reality; yet his reluctance to fully explain it to Americans or to work for the support he will need is troubling.

Remarkably, Mr. Bush described the Iraqi victory mainly as an episode in the war on terrorism, focusing on purported connections among Iraq, al Qaeda, and the attacks of 9/11 that have yet to be firmly established. He failed to mention Saddam Hussein and devoted only one sentence of 22 words to weapons of mass destruction -- which the United States presented to the United Nations and the world as the decisive reason for military action. Odds are that the dictator will eventually be found, and evidence that has surfaced so far strongly suggests that illegal weapons or weapons programs will be uncovered as well. But the Bush administration should not treat the matter as an afterthought: The weapons could still prove deadly to Americans if they are not secured, and American credibility will be seriously damaged if proof of chemical, biological or nuclear arms is not eventually produced and certified by U.N. inspectors or other independent experts.

...


(Aides say the darndest things.)

[jeff101967]

51. CNN Article

CNN has a great background piece that BuzzFlash has linked to:

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

And yet here again, we have another documented lie by George Bush.

[stlsaxman]

52. NEWS FLASH! Bush Tells THE TRUTH! (for once)

Yes, Our Fearless Leader thold the truth when he said the men of the AL
put up that banner- they were ordered to- after which they reported back to
thier commanding officers "saying Mission Accomplished"....

what a lying sack of excrement that man is....

[dbt]

53. A wise and ugly man once explained it to me this way:

"If you have to go to too much trouble to cover it up, it's probably wrong."

:evilgrin:
dbt

[underpants]

54. NCBC'Navy asked for it, WH provided it & regret if wrong impression made'

Last night and htis morning on the Today Show.

[Dhalgren]

55. I would like to see the communications between the WH

and the "crew". A "crew" doesn't make a request of anyone. Some one had to have contacted the WH (yeah,right) and asked that the WH pay for a sign for the boat. This communication needs to be made public and we can put all this to rest. This isn't a case of "erring", this is just another in the long line of lies, big and small, that the administration tells on a daily basis. What inept fools we have in the WH.

[ZenLefty]

56. I know who paid for the sign

We did. :grr:

[Festivito]

60. Sounds like he flew on board and didn't inhale.

If not to say the mission was accomplished, then why did he delay their return home by another day. Those soldiers had already been out longer than any other soldiers.

And for his now reasonless photo-op they were forced to circle within sight of home, put on color coordinated clothes, AND PUT UP THAT BANNER.

Bush's faithful will give Bush that his overly ingenious underling made the banner, and that he said Iraq was still dangerous, but, they too will be a little breathless.

[Bandit]

62. They lie then lie about the lie then lie about the cover-up lie.

:crazy: and America goes on about their business without a clue over any of it. America is deserving of Bush* because of apathy. No one cares about anything any more. :shrug: Clinton Lowered the Bar so now it is okay for everyone. I actually read that in the current Newsweek.

[Lisa]

65. He made his bed -- and now he can "lie" in it!

You know, if the sailors really had come up with the idea for the banner, and spray-painted one on canvas by themselves -- it could seen as their own private "welcome home" celebration, and not as an official announcement that the hostilities were concluded.

But Bush just HAD to crash the party -- prance around in that flight suit -- and make his speech with a White-House-sponsored, expensively-made banner behind him.

What's more, he doesn't even have the guts to take responsibility for the mess. Or to refrain from blaming his staff, and the sailors.

[ProfessorGAC]

66. Get It? He's Not A Liar, He's An Idiot!

Now, see how simple that is?
The Professor

[Spazito]

67. Here is the newest headline on this, gotta LOVE this!

Bush remarks on "mission accomplished" banner embarrass White House

<snip>

At a news conference Tuesday, Bush remarked that "the 'Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way."


The remarks drew some questions about the term "mission accomplished," which at the time was interpreted in some quarters as closing the entire war in Iraq which started in march and brought the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April.


Asked if Bush had misled people by appearing in front of the banner, McClellan said "the Navy put it up and it was the Navy at the -- asked us to take care of the production of the banner. And we said that yesterday."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=13&u=/afp/us_bush_iraq_mission

(rate this, if only for the headline!)

[R Hickey]

68. And for Holloween, the ship will have a giant Jolly Roger flying...

The mutanious sailors who made up the 'Mission Accomplished' Banner should be court martialed and forced to walk the plank.

I was never in the navy, but maybe every aircraft carrier, when it comes into port, always makes a huge banner like that, irregardless of whether or not the president flies in for a visit.

[robbedvoter]

69. Why it had to be "Mishun Accomplished" (not victory):

From my archives, May 1, 2003:
__Bush to Declare End to Combat; US Troops Again Fire into Crowd of
Protesters

CBS News reports: "Bush will announce that 'major combat operations' in
Iraq are over in a speech Thursday night from the aircraft carrier
U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln at sea in the Pacific... The president will stop
short of declaring victory or saying the war is over, spokesman Ari
Fleischer said Wednesday. Such declarations could trigger international
provisions requiring the speedy release of prisoners of war and limit
efforts to go after defeated Iraqi leaders. While major combat may be
over, Iraq remains a battleground, reports CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml

[phoebe]

72. on a slightly different note..Veteran's Day is coming up fast..

the banner issue will be "disappeared" along with all the other "disgruntled military" issues unless....

[Thor_MN]

73. I wonder if the banner was flown to the ship on a helo or a jet?

???

[DoYouEverWonder]

74. They probably packed it

with W's change of cloths.

[Stephanie]

75. Probably UPS - they were just offshore of San Diego...

You're right - we, as taxpayers, should demand an audit of outrageous WH expenditures such as this. Where is the accountability.

And yes, if a helicopter was able to deliver the banner, but bush pretended the ship was only accessible by jet, then the story's even more delicious.