Why the joke/WMD thing was so bad

[eileen from OH]

A lot of attention has been paid to the soldiers and fallen soldiers and how insulting the W. slide show was.

Howsabout all those people who supported the war, based on what W said, who see him joking about it now? Isn't it like saying "SUCKAH!" to them. I mean, think about all the people who defended Bush and believed in the War, because they truly bought the WMD thing. They REALLY don't like to see it joked about - it wasn't W. making fun of himself, he was making fun of THEM for being dumb enough to believe it.

If that makes any sense.

eileen from OH

[Solomon]

1. I agree. I know some people who have sheepishly admitted to me

that they were suckered and that was a while before the current spectacle. I can imagine they wouldn't take too kindly to those jokes. You're right.

[caledesi]

2. Agree, agree, agree. Bush* was being arrogant, like "ha ha

can't touch me on this." It makes me sick when you consider troops were dying as he was laughing.

For what, 6 months all we heard from these clowns was WMD, chem and biological warfare, tons of sarin, mushroom cloud....makes me sick.

:puke:

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I hear what you're saying

but actually I have no idea how it'll play with the True Believers. Mostly I suspect that they're so deep into denial and information shutdown that nothing is getting through--especially something as shaming and ego-threatening as being laughed at by the con man who took them for a ride. They'll just tune it out, misperceive it, whatever, & desperately tune in to OxyRush for more validation.

[cornfedyank]

10. some will say enough BU_ _ SH_ _.

we don't need them all right now.
beat them with his own words.

[maggrwaggr]

16. I don't care about the true believers. They're basically insane

they manifest all the symptoms of schizophrenia.

I'm not joking.

These people will vote for Bush even if he was caught live on tape hacking apart people with a machete.

[Beetwasher]

4. The Joke is On US! It' NOT Self Deprecating!

The joke is funny to HIM because he's saying "Ha Ha, I lied to all YOU SUCKERS to get MY war and I joke about it because I don't think it's a big deal and I don't care and I'm RUBBING IT IN YOUR FACES AND I'M GETTING AWAY WITH IT!! HA HA!"

[oregonjen]

5. My rw friend thinks it's okay to have a sense of humor about this

during "tough" times.:puke:

[Lisa]

15. well, the next time s/he has a gripe ...

You can say "Look on the bright side!"

[Woodstock]

6. People died or got their legs blown off looking for those

To me, that's like joking about 9/11.

And that's apart from the fact that he just used them as an excuse.

[Woodstock]

8. Would Eisenhower have joked about war?

A president who was a REAL soldier speaks of war:

"Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

[burythehatchet]

7. WMD Joke : Read My Hips

get it?

[cybildisobedience]

9. I agree in part....

But the other part to be noted is the sociopathic aspect of this behavior. It doesn't even occur to him -- and apparently the suck-ups around him -- that this appears insensitive.
You're right -- he's rubbing it in their faces. But at the same time, he doesn't seem to realize that anyone can perceive it as offensive. The Bush cabal appears to be genuinely surprised to have to even address it.
Part of that, of course, is that they've been so coddled by the media. But still....
Are they completely soul-less?

[caledesi]

11. Joking about WMDs should be in an ad ASAP.

Show people why a sick f*ck Bush* is.

[thebigidea]

12. ding!

http://www.terminalproduct.com/bushwmd.mp3

[annagull]

13. "It's like Ken Lay looking under chairs saying..

Gee, where did all that money go?" (From a post on Atrios' blog.)
I'm sure those who lost their life savings wouldn't find that funny, either.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Wasn't there a videotape at some Enron party/function

with Skilling, Fastow or someone yukking it up about "creative accounting" taking care of things? I thought it actually had something to do with the shrub family too. Can't remember though, can anyone refresh the ol' memory?

[opihimoimoi]

14. To many of our brave troopers, it was sickening. Bush might have also

looked under those tables for "Lost legs and arms" of the wounded, under the chairs for the "Lost Lives", and made jokes about that.

He is a sick man in need of a group of therapists to heal himself and that of his Cabinet.

[arewethereyet]

18. am I the only one here with a sense of humor ?

this is standard fare for that event. lighten up.

[JohnyCanuck]

19. If you had a relative that had his legs blown off in Iraq

after being sent there on Dubya's orders to chase down non-existent WMD would you still find it acceptable? I sure as hell wouldn't.

[thebigidea]

20. thousands of people dead for a lie isn't particularly funny.

epecially when he rubs the lie in our faces and the compliant press that helped him sell it chortles along with him.

Lighten up?

The hell?

This is a prime fuckup to go after Bush on - they would NEVER let it slide if Clinton did such a tacky thing.

[arewethereyet]

21. before you get too condemming, remember who established it all

hint, it was not Bush. additional hint, it was not Blair.

inellegence bad ? perhaps but it was all we had left.

[thebigidea]

22. remember who initiated it. Blair was a mere errand-boy.

"inellegence bad ? perhaps but it was all we had left."

they knew perfectly well it was a lie and shoved it down our throats regardless.

[arewethereyet]

24. Bill Clinton believed it to be true

still does last I heard.

[thebigidea]

25. is Bill up for re-election? Who the fuck cares.

I believed Scott Ritter.

As did the most of the world, apparently.

To bad George didn't listen.

Why are you shifting the blame from Bush to Blair and Clinton?

[arewethereyet]

26. I didn't shift anything to Blair

and the intel was formed by Clinton, the UN and others. nothing changed to invalidate it.

[thebigidea]

27. the intel was formed, shaped, and disseminated by the OSP

cooked up by Chalabi, spell-checked by Perle, whined by Wolfowitz, espoused by Rumsfeld, and obligingly propagated by Judith Miller.

Bill Clinton didn't beg Bush for this damn war.

[arewethereyet]

28. I don't recall saying he did

just trying to be even handed. Its obvious to the populace when this is not taking place. Its all about winning the election isn't it ?

Useless sniping will win nothing. A better plan will. The choice is ours.

[thebigidea]

30. evenhanded? These bastards don't extend such niceties in return.

"Useless sniping will win nothing. A better plan will. The choice is ours."

The first step in this better plan would consist of blaming Blair and Clinton exclusively for the Iraq war, and a strong Liebermanesque statement praising Bush for his handling of this glorious liberation.

Perhaps we could get the JOEMENTUM going again!

All this WMD/Clarke stuff is just so divisive - how I wish we could be more bipartisan, more willing to accomodate the swell fellows in the Bush administration.

"Its all about winning the election isn't it?"

Its all about freedom, and preserving it even though we have to take it away from those that don't appreciate it enough.

God Bless Paul Bremer!

[TiredTexan]

23. I just kept thinking about two things.........

when I saw this: that little Iraqi boy that had his arms and legs blown off, and Bush's "trifecta" speech. Remember when he joked about deficit spending by claiming that he'd said deficit spending was acceptable if we had either an economic downturn, a war or a national emergency, but he'd never anticipated hitting the "trifecta"? This turned out to be Gore's position on when it was acceptable to run a deficit, but he still uses the trifecta line in speeches all over. In spite of it being repeatedly debunked.

He lies at our expense, monetarily and with lives and blood, and he makes up jokes and laughs about it. It's really weird and sick. I'm surprised you don't see it.

I have a very low threshold for humor. But I've lost my humor with this guy. I'm so disgusted with him, I can't find anything he does funny, especially when I think of the relatives of the dead soldiers and Iraqis seeing this thoughtless ridicule of the painful way we got here.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

29. The difference is, that it's a war, and a war the shrubco started

and conceived from the get go. That's why it's off limits for them to joke about it as it should be. And shrub making this joke just betrays how much of an ass he really is, whether consciously or not, rubbing America's face in it.

"I got you to go along with my war! And I don't even care if you all know the reasons were bogus! Haw Haw!"

This goes along with the spoiled brat we know him to be. Smirking during SOTU addresses. Giving out demeaning nicknames to his elders (Paul O'Neill etc.). Talking about "I flew fighter jets, I like speed." at Nascar right after the height of AWOL frenzy. A spoiled rich kid who has never known failure and never had to fight for anything in his life, everything he's had ever given to him on a silver platter whether it's Andover, Yale, Harvard B-School (even Yalies don't get in there with a C average unless it's a BOOSH), 2 businesses, and the Gov and Presidency. Most American presidents have had to endure some measure of defeat and struggle in their careers, interesting to study the lives of Lincoln, Nixon, even Clinton. The defeats go a long way towards forming character, even a warped one like Nixon's. This pres has no character.