The Nation 3/25 - "MIA WMDs - For Bush It's a Joke"

[swag]

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1336

Excerpt:

It's standard fare humor. Bush says he is preparing for a tough election fight; then on the large video screens a picture flashes showing him wearing a boxing robe while sitting at his desk. Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. There were funny bits about Skull and Bones, his mother, and Dick Cheney. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."

The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.

Disapproval must have registered upon my face, for one of my tablemates said, "Come on, David, this is funny." I wanted to reply, Over 500 Americans and literally countless Iraqis are dead because of a war that was supposedly fought to find weapons of mass destruction, and Bush is joking about it. Instead, I took a long drink of the lovely white wine that had come with our dinner. It's not as if I was in the middle of a talk-show debate and had to respond. This was certainly one of those occasions in which you either get it or don't. And I wasn't getting it. Or maybe my neighbor wasn't.

[indepat]

1. Wonder if the jokes were told with a straight face or maybe a smirk?

[HFishbine]

2. You can see it

on the CNN main page www.cnn.com

[kskiska]

3. This clip says it all

Even if Bush does not believe he lied to or misled the public, how can he make fun of the rationale for a war that has killed and maimed thousands? Imagine if Lyndon Johnson had joked about the trumped-up Gulf of Tonkin incident that he deceitfully used as a rationale for U.S. military action in Vietnam: "Who knew that fish had torpedoes?" Or if Ronald Reagan appeared at a correspondents event following the truck-bombing at the Marines barracks in Beirut--which killed over 200 American servicemen--and said, "Guess we forgot to put in a stop light." Or if Clinton had come out after the bombing of Serbia--during which U.S. bombs errantly destroyed the Chinese embassy and killed several people there--and said, "The problem is, those embassies--they all look alike."

[Lisa]

4. didn't Reagan say something along the lines of ...

"You know when you're doing home renovations, and it always takes longer than you think it will" -- I recall Mark Russell and other comics skewering him for that.



Does anyone else think it's weird (and rather sinister) that he would stage those "looking for WMDs" photos IN HIS OWN OFFICE? As if he's hiding something? Given, he probably couldn't photoshop WMDs into the Mars Rover shots because that would imply that he really had been totally wrong (and besides he doesn't have the technical skill). But still. It seems it's part of his twisted sense of humor to give "double meanings" and dare people to call him out, e.g. those "dictatorship" quotes.

[WLKjr]

5. I posted about this same topic

it's still utterly disgusting. I couldn't believe it myself when I wathched it just before going to work, that someone could make fun of WMD like it was a big joke and that well over 500 servicemen and women have died for his one-liner moronic joke. I think we all "get it" now......


maybe the Dem's should run this into the ground a few weeks before the election and make it a commercial or bring it up in a debate and question him on it.


I can see the comercials now and hear rush trying to defend the comment, ah that would make for some great tv and radio!!! :)

[Tactical Progressive]

6. That really is a good idea for a campaign commercial

Republicans will find it funny and it will make other people think.