WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday he presumed a Justice Department leak investigation was underway into who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation.
"My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war," Bush told a news conference at which he was questioned repeatedly about the controversial operation disclosed on Friday by The new York Times.
What can you say about this rotten, rotten guy?
First, he basically ignores a year or more's worth of intelligence which, if it didn’t outright let September 11th happen, it sure didn’t do much to stop it.
Then, he lets bin Laden go, for reasons known only to the Bush administration. Though, I assume it was because the capture or killing of bin Laden would lessen the fear and anxiety of Americans, which the Bush administration was goosing to hysterical proportions. And that would undermine the public support for invading Iraq.
Then, he secretly and illegally diverts money from the war in Afghanistan, the war Congress approved, the war to get bin Laden, the war the American people wanted, to Iraq. Where he didn't even have a stupid and unconstitutional "resolution" to do anything yet.
While at the same time, "forgetting" to appropriate a single penny for the reconstruction of Afghanistan to prevent al Qaeda and the Taliban from returning to their safe bases from which they blew up the fucking Trade Towers.
Not a cent. Not one penny. Bush was so intent on doing any and everything necessary to protect the American people from terrorism that he completely forgot to rebuild Afghanistan. Where al Qaeda is.
Then, he lets Zarqawi go because it would undermine the rationale for invading Iraq.
Then, he fudges the intelligence regarding Iraq. Repeatedly.
Then, he screws up the reconstruction of Iraq so badly that a war that we were told would take less than six months, and require a handfull of American soldiers, would cost little, and would pay for itself has dragged on and on for nearly three years, with over 2000 Americans killed, over 15000 seriously wounded, and a price tag of well over 200 billion dollars.
Then, one of his senior administration officials gets indicted for maliciously revealing and compromising an intelligence asset.
At least one other of his administration officials is still under investigation for doing the same.
All the while, the Preznit is intentionally breaking the law, for no reason at all, since getting a FISA warrant is about as tough as a legacy getting into Yale. Shit, you can even get them retro-actively.
Then Bush lies about it. On TV, to the American people, and even on the White House freaking web page.
And what were some of the "credible threats" that were so pressing that Bush couldn't possible take the three and a half minutes to comply with the law and get a warrant for?
Gay people! They're about to attack Christmas!
And, after all this, this depressing, expensive, embarrassing, shameful episode of American history known as the Bush administration, what does the Chimp in Chief say is “shameful”?
That someone caught him. That someone told on him.
No, leaking this highly illegal—and unnecessarily illegal—program did not compromise national security. FISA has been on the books for decades. And, no, leaking this highly—and unnecessarily so—illegal program did not put government wiretaps on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
Authorizing these wiretaps without warrants did. Breaking the law put a very useful investigative tool on the nightly news. If the Bush administration had followed the extremely minimal requirements of FISA, they probably would have gotten nearly every single warrant they wanted.
And it would have been lawful.
And it would never, ever, ever, ever, ever have been news at all.
But the Bush administration is so lazy, and so incompetent, and so contemptuous of the Constitution, they just didn’t want to. They just didn’t think that some stupid piece of paper and a bunch of laws, written by and for the rabble that stupid piece of paper calls “the People” should stop them from doing what they want to do, when they want to do it, how they want to do it.
They make reality, goddammit. You have to learn to accept it. They make the rules. And rules are for suckers. They expect you to follow them.
It’s their world, suckers. They just let you live in it.
They’re so awful and so dishonest that Congressmen, who sit on intelligence committees, feel the need to make copies of their correspondence and lock it, sealed, in secure locations, lest the Bush administration destroys the evidence and out and out lies about it.
Which might seem paranoid, if it weren't for the fact that, right from the get go, Bush got on television and did lie about it. Bush told the American people he had appraised Congress of this program, as if they were well informed about the scope and legality of it and here we have a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, forced to handwrite a letter because he can't even discuss the matter with his staff--never mind other Senators--saying, "I'm super fucking troubled by this thing! I question its legality and, absent more information, I have no idea what you're doing or whether you can even do it at all! Also, you guys are creeping me out so much, I'm keeping a copy of this letter."
And no one ever responded to him.
Bush told Americans that that was appraising Congress. That that constituted Congressional approval of his completely illegal actions.
And then, realizing just how serious this was, Bush assembled his incredibly insane, incompetent clown posse to come up with something so stupid that only people who voted for him could believe: that a stupid Congressional resolution to use force in Afghanistan entitled the Preznit to do anything he felt was necessary to battle al Qaeda.
How can anyone believe this? Does anyone really believe that Bush could shut down the free press, pursuant to the Afghan resolution? Does anyone really believe that Bush could disband Congress pursuant to the Afghan resolution? It's a resolution allowing Bush to do whatever it takes in Afghanistan to battle al Qaeda.
It was not a resolution suspending the Bill Of Rights and the United States Code.
Sure, sure, it could have been better worded. Since when Congress authorized Bush to do whatever he wanted in Afghanistan to get bin Laden, the Bush administration failed to understand that they were supposed to actually try to fucking get bin Laden.
But you just can not read that thing and think it's a suspension of the Bill of Rights. And even if it did read that way, guess what? Not even Congress can do that. Not with a stupid, non-binding resolution.
It takes some kind of world class liar to make that argument.
I started out just being kind of amused by this guy. I didn't feel one way or the other about him. I thought he was a bit of a joke and a PR creation. He seemed like some kind of golfing president--he wouldn't do anything worthwhile during his time in the White House, but he probably wouldn't do anything too terrible. After all, he didn't stand for anything. His whole life and being was so bereft of any kind of conviction or belief that he couldn't possibly have an agenda. Other than wanting to be Preznit. And cutting his own taxes.
Five years later, I can barely stand to look at the man. His voice, alone, makes me grind my teeth. He's not only the Worst Preznit Evah, but, because of The Worst Congress Evah, he may be, all by himself, the Worst Thing That's Evah Happened To The United States Of America.
He's a one man wrecking Chimp.
He's no longer just a drunken danger to himself, a threat to world peace, a national embarrassment, a Hazelwood at the helm of our ship of state, an Imelda Marcos with our national checkbook, a belligerent boozer at the bar of international diplomacy, he's a fucking threat to our Republic.
He's so awful that you can't be irrational, unreasonable, or shrill when you talk about the guy. It isn't possible.
I have never, in my life, seen a Preznit, have to get on television as often as Bush and be "candid" about shit he's been on television lying about. In eight years, Clinton lied about his crappy marriage. In five years, Bush has lied about his job, as President, about three dozen times.
And each time is worse and more disturbing than the last.
And, people, remember, this is the most disciplined, secretive White House in the history of our nation. Lying about intelligence, lying about wars, lying about torture and kidnapping, lying about domestic spying are only the things we've heard about. These things are not the other shoe.
Christ Almighty, what do you think these bastards are really keeping secret?
Again, with Clinton, it was, "How many girlfriends do you think he really had?"
With Bush? What is it? What could be worse than what he's already done? I'm not even sure I, as a person who's grown to despise the man, want to know.
But the worst thing that this accidental President has done, no matter what awful things he's done, is not something you can see or hear or read about. It isn't war or torture, or election fraud, or executive lawlessness. The worst thing this clown and his simpering courtiers have done is done. And it can't be undone. Ever.
What he and Karl Rove have done is prove to the people who hate you and hold you in contempt, and who view democracy as a joke and an obstacle to their desires, rather than the greatest form of government in the history of mankind, that democracy is a joke. Even the Great American Democracy. It's toothless. If you've got the money and the will, and the shameless ruthlessness.
Congress will roll over. The press can be cowed. The people can be manipulated to believe anything--even a War On Christmas--they're so damned dumb.
Republics are fragile things, no matter how powerful your republic is. They rely on everyone playing by the rules and believing in the rules. That's why our Constitution keeps mentioning "due process" every couple of pages or so.
Once some prick proves that rules are for suckers, once some ratfucker proves you can break the rules and benefit from it, once some asshole shows that if you break the rules nothing happens, Republics fail.
We like to say we're governed by consent. That those who govern do so at our consent. But really? Those that govern have all the money and the tanks and soldiers. Just like in any government in the world. Even the worst ones, like China or Cuba.
We're governed by decency.
Those in power believe in the principles of democracy. And once those in power show absolute contempt for decency, once those, like in the Bush administration, stop believing in democracy, once they show emphatically that there is no penalty for a government to disregard the Constitution, once government finds out that even if 60% of The People disapprove of what you're doing and they still can't stop you, well, your Republic fails.
It only takes one shithead, who cares so little about any and everything that he's willing to do it, to bring the whole thing down.
Your comment about how you first thought he was just going to be "some kind of golfing presidents" was classic, isn't it funny how power can corrupt absolutely, to think that the leader of our "repubic" is willing to use every form of unacceptable behavior to reach "necessary" ends, my personal favorite has been the reports coming out of the post and others that his approval ratings are soaring again, yeah, right, they've been in the can since about the second day of this term, it's scary, good post.
Posted by: OCB | December 20, 2005 at 10:42 PM
I remember clearly that awful November night in 2000 when the networks called the election for Bush. After overcoming my feeling that I had to puke, I turned to my wife and said I wanted to go on record as saying "this asshole will go down in history as the worst president EVER." Not one day has gone by since then that I have felt differently. I truly believe he will destroy the country, and perhaps the world.
On the bright side, I think this rant is the best I've read on the Internets on the whole issue of Bush fucking over the Constitution and eavesdropping on ALL OF US.
Posted by: Rob_in_Hawaii | December 21, 2005 at 12:33 AM
Thanks for the dose RATIONAL Bush hatred. Sort of makes my day, albeit in a way that makes me want to sob for our country. But at least someone else sees what's going on. My wife and I just took a 3-year move to London for work, and we don't want to go back to the States. It just seems so sane here in comparison.
Posted by: PartisanJ | December 21, 2005 at 03:20 AM
I think you should stop holding back, Ricky, and give it to him with both barrels.
Posted by: Neil Shakespeare | December 21, 2005 at 04:27 AM
Yep. That about sums it up. The next link in the chain to get hacked off is the Supreme Court. If this thing gets there and Bush wins, we might as well take down the flags; surrender our children and give up. Super post.
Posted by: Mary Florida | December 21, 2005 at 07:28 AM
Ricky. You RULE.
Posted by: jo | December 21, 2005 at 10:10 AM
"Don't use the rules.
They're not for you - they're for the fools.
And you're a fool if you don't know that -
So use the rules you stupid fool."
lyrics to Cheat, by The Clash
or maybe an excerpt from the Republican platform...
Posted by: ScottH | December 21, 2005 at 10:34 AM
Frickin awesome post. Good work.
Posted by: Luke | December 21, 2005 at 11:14 AM
I have to go home to my blog. I think I'm going to cry. He's such an ass.
Posted by: Ellen | December 21, 2005 at 08:22 PM
Don't cry Ellen, just drink. Heavily. And continuously. For the next three years.
Posted by: cookie | December 21, 2005 at 10:04 PM
Yeah but does he presume its as shameful an act as every other kind of leak involving national security? Lets ask Karl Rove how quickly we should get to the bottom of security breaches, shall we?
Posted by: Scott | December 22, 2005 at 06:21 AM
bush is just the frontman, cheney and rumsfeld where the warmongers behind the cold war then too on non existent intelligence based on this rational:
" Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know " — February 12, 2002, from a Department of Defense news briefing
but if only it were that simple too, for they are just the whores of the zionist media and corporate machines that control every aspect of your lives
tell you how to think, who "the enemy" is ... ever seen a movie where a middle eastern guy wasnt a terrorist? who makes those films? why? how long have you been being conditioned to hate the east?
the real problem is not the jewish people, it is the inner circle who dominate every facet of western lives
now they want to demonize the internet because it has become a bastion for free speech and people researching their own thoughts instead of just swallowing the tripe fed to us from controlled media and state interests
take your country back america
Posted by: the word | January 04, 2006 at 12:17 AM
You, along with so many of us, were completely right about this bozo. Good-by looser.
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