Matthews: Bush is like the cop who shoots an unarmed man
Discussing the Bush legacy yesterday, Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball came up with a good metaphor:
Matthews: I found it interesting that the president, who admitted he was wrong about WMDs as a justification for war, called it a "disappointment." If a police officer in the line of duty in the middle of the night shoots a fellow because he thinks he's got a gun, it turns out he's got a wallet, your reaction if you're a police officer is not that you're disappointed he didn't have a gun, it's shame that even if it was a technical mistake that you've made, that you've killed a guy without reason. Why does the president use the word "disappointment" when he says they didn't have the WMD to justify us going in? I think it's an odd use of the word.
It was fun watching Tony Blankley squirm as he mostly sought to evade Matthews' point. Tom Andrews of Win Without War, also on the program, clearly made him squirm even more, as he shot down Blankley's GOP talking points like Annie Oakley in a penny arcade. You could almost see him thinking: "Hey! This usually works on Fox!"
Later, in the segment following, Salon's Joan Walsh backed up Matthews' metaphor:
Walsh: And finally ... the point that you made earlier, about a cop who shoots an unarmed man, does not then regret that the guy did not have a gun. He regrets that he killed an innocent man. And he regrets that he didn't take the extra 30 seconds maybe to ascertain whether the guy was armed.
Yeah, but George the Frog Killer Bush is not your ordinary cop.
The filmed search for WMD's in the Oval Office was his disappointment.
That and not finding the Easter Eggs in plain sight on the White House Lawns.
(Secret Service Agents hidden in trees had to drop the eggs into his basket as he passed beneath them.)
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Saddam was hardly an innocent man carrying a wallet but it was the wrong fight at the wrong time based on cherry picked intelligence and lies and it's for this BushCo should be held accountable.
What this goes to is whether "pre-emptive war" is a good foreign policy. Bush's mistake was offering excuse after excuse when the invasion was completely consistent with their policy of attacking any country without a self-defence justification.
plant that metaphorical wallet in Saddam's hands in the first place?
You can make a case that he was "framed" over the course of 2 decades, with a proir US administration planting the "evidence".
Where did Saddam get the gas which he ultimately killed the Kurds with?
"Conservatives" will tell you that that was a necessary foreign policy at the time - to keep both Iran AND Iraq weak - but is that REALLY acceptable?
And then to come back 2 decades later and invade a country because of something we were complicit in in the first place?
If Jesus does exist will he eventually tell those God fearing Amurkuns that that was OK?
Actually, the only charge Saddam was tried for - Halabja - was the one atrocity he COULDN'T have perpetrated.
The CIA and the Red Cross have both agreed that those murdered at Halabja were killed by a blood agent - specifically, cyanide. The US never sold cyanide-based chemical weapons to Iraq.
The US did, however, sell cyanide-based weapons to the Shah of Iran in the 1970s. Also, those murdered at Halabja were Sunnis, the same sect as Saddam, and the Shia Iranians would have more cause to poison them than Saddam did. Don't be surprised, if the war drums against Iran continue to beat, that Iran will now be blamed for Halabja and nobody will talk about Saddam as having caused it.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?re...
Saddam Hussein was a bastard, yet for all the atrocities he was involved in, why did the George Putz misadministration demand the Iraqi courts convict him of the one he could not have done? It makes you wonder.
...isn't this beating a dead chimp?
Ba ha ha ha! Oh man, did they have to mention Joan Walsh again? Eeeeekkkk!
George Bush’s presidency is the culmination of a lifelong history of sadistic practices that he must deny in order to maintain his fragile psychological equilibrium. Since childhood, Bush was labeled a bad child, a troublemaker, and a delinquent. He stuck firecrackers into frogs and exploded them; he shot and wounded his little brothers with a b-b gun; he branded fraternity pledges at Yale with red-hot coat hangers; he mocked others and was a verbal bully, irreverent about anything serious. read more
Is it the 21st century yet?
Well that last bit sounds a bit like me.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
when I first heard his presser.
He was disappointed that they didn't have WMDs. Brewster Jennings prevented covert operatives from smuggling them in from Turkey.
This is how w labels his admissible feelings. He's been coached not to admit to anger, of course. Having fallen for Chalabi's line, and counting on him, he was shown for the fool he is. You better believe he's been coached long and hard about how to keep attention off of that.
This is why we call him tweety. He's like a bird that sings the same ol song. He can't think outside D.C. An 'odd' use of words?...how much more plain can you get as bush continues to DENIY extreamly bad bad judgment and GUILT. DUH!
Undeniably DENIY is an odd choice of words.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Chris is just now figuring out that bush, is a delusional sociopath?
cheney said the "high point" of his time as vice president was 9-11!?
and "so?" when told that many American soldiers had died in Iraq.
How much more data do You need to realize the reason the country is so mess up right now, is because it has been run for the last 8 years by people who are certifiably bat shi*t crazy. If a foriegn government had wanted to sabotage the United States, destroy the economy, Good name, reputation, and Military they couldn't have hired a better crew of agents than the exiting "administration."
"Trying to make sense of a whack job"
Just lean back, enjoy it, and try not to disturb the neighbors.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
To Iran's WMD's that'll be disappointing to find don't exist.
Oh, that's right. We lowered the bar for this upcoming war. Now you just need to be thinking about WMD's in the future to justify a US invasion.
Someone explain to me why Iran/Obama is different than Iraq/Bush?
To state the obvious...the first one hasn't happened yet. There's still time for calmer and wiser heads to prevail. Let's hope Obama has a good ear.
well put Rico.
For some reason, diplomacy comes to mind. a lost art nowadays.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Jerry Springer for Ambassador to the UN!!!
Jerry...Jerry...Jerry...!!!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
1. That Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, which the IAEA and our own intelligence estimate says is not true.
2. His ear heard Ajmadinejad state that he wants to wipe Israel off the map, which is not only a mis-translation but does not reflect his intent.
I could go on, but you could have told me the same thing in 2002 about Iraq. Iraq hasn't happened yet. Lots of diplomacy going on but lots of scary intel coming out about WMD's.
I'm sorry but I remember that old joke about "how do you tell he's lying?" His lip are moving! that's how I categorize anything that little weasel Ajmadinejad says. I think Iran is building a nuclear weapon because they protest too much that they aren't. They protest we make too much of human rights violations in iran but they still occur; why would lying about nuclear weapons be such a stretch?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
...try to convince the mouth breathers that it's a bed of roses. Bush is a lying murderer Chris, and you'll never get the blood off of your hands either. The slavery as well as the cop accidentally shooting the innocent guy were idiotic analogies too...so was "We are all neocons now!" What a guilt tripping, enabling jerk.
Although it was undemphasizing the sheer number of the dead, the analogy of a cop and a robber who has a gun, or only his wallet is a good one, but I doubt it'll be convincing to the conservatives where cops can do no wrong either.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Unless you add in a bunch of other cops yelling "IT ISN'T A GUN!" and "IT'S A WALLET!" and then when he fills out the report he puts "Everyone thought he had a gun!"
Everybody thought he had WMDs.
Not everybody. Not UN inspectors. Not me. Not Europe. That postulate was tossed out by the neocons and the bush apologists ate it up.
Furthermore, even if everyone had thought there were WMDs, only one country invaded. And that country is in a world of hurt now.
and you wil get the gist of what I was saying. We do agree.
Our own CIA director knew there were no WMDs infamously on record stating it would be a "Slam Dunk" to deceive the American public about their existence, for which he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
You've seen this clip before, but this is when Bush thought his "mistake" about WMDs, that caused so much death and destruction, wasn't a disappointment but funny. Even more disturbing to me is the laughter from the press corps. Here
And boosh did have that from David Kaye, Joe Wilson, German and English intelligence.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The disappointment of a cop shooting an unarmed man isn't quite the way things were with Bush's disappointment. His preemptive war policy was actually a public announcement that he fully intended to shoot unarmed men whenever he felt like it, to prevent them from someday buying a gun and becoming a danger. That was the cop that was G.W.Bush.
You're right about the preemptive doctrine. But here's the scary part. Federal law enforcement can now investigate anyone they think is CAPABLE of committing a crime.
Who isn't?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
From the movie Minority Report.
I'm sure those crawley little robots that track you down and scan your retina are almost ready too!
RFID chips anyone
With sour cream dip?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I've given up on the thoughts of justice for anybody in the upper elite of society. They can do what ever the hell they want, when they want. Proving afterwards is too late, and they know it. So the next batch of self selected do the exact same things. There is no accountability unless you are a poor unemployed schmuck.
Clearly in his mind he is always correct and therefore has nothing over which to feel any regret. Don't forget that this is a man who believes he was chosen by god to lead us in the aftermath of 9/11 (because he certainly wasn't chosen by god to lead us before 9/11, but never mind that omission) - does anybody honestly expect a man with such a delusional sense of self-importance to feel anything as humanly simple as regret?
A cop thinks a foreigner has a gun and shoots him to keep him from attacking an American.
Now, a cop knows a foreigner does not have a gun, but might be thinking about getting one, so he shoots him to protect his Israeli friend.
Actually, so there's this cop who was afraid of serving so he weasled his way into the job of Chief of Police...and then he had other cops do his dirty work.
Bush KNEW there were no WMD's in Iraq before the invasion? That he just used WMD's as an excuse while having an ulterior motive for the invasion?
The difference is a crime beyond a felony OR a tragic mistake.
WHICH ONE was it?
Of course it's fair. Remember the Downing Street Minutes?
For years it's been known they were "fixing the intelligence around the policy". Remember Iraq was about the oil and war profiteering not the lies they spun about WMD or freedom and democracy. The usual way consent is manufactured in the American Empire is to set up a bogey man to demonize and pretend to heroically save the day. Tweety must know this, he is acting as a Bush defender if he believes Dubya actually meant to do anything honorable in invading Iraq.
Is it the 21st century yet?
Actually that was Downing Street Memos.
I understand there were more than one.
Everytime they released a new one conservatards would yawn and say it was an old story.
But they were minutes of meetings.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
... has a similar analogy:
The Daily Show: Decisive Shooter sketch
"Vice President Dick Cheney believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face."
You have to look at the comment in context. Dubya and Cheney were going to invade Iraq in any case. Get it through your head, Chris. The ONLY reason they brought up WMDs was to scare us into going along with it.
He was disappointed because is excuses are falling apart around him. In his mind the invasion was a done deal and he had justified it to himself. It is plain as day that everything they said through Judith Miller and Faux News were lies to justify what they were going to do, not as a case for the necessity of invading.
Now dubya is like the guy who Matlock has just nailed with incontrovertible evidence. He's cooked. He was going to shoot the guy anyway, but now he can't argue it was self-defense.
The Bush administration didn't make unintentional mistakes. They're willfully corrupt liars.
They lied about WMDs on purpose, they didn't make an unintentional mistakes.
They didn't receive faulty intelligence that was prepared with the best of intentions. They purposefully picked the information they liked, made it up when necessary, and got rid of information and operatives that didn't fit the already decided upon course of action.
Disappointment hardly describes getting exactly what they wanted -- unnecessary wars and failed policies that enriched themselves and their friends.
That is pessimistic. That 8.8 billion that Bremer misplaced could turn up any minute.
"Why does the president use the word "disappointment" when he says they didn't have the WMD to justify us going in? I think it's an odd use of the word." There you have it. The results of the cognitive processes of highly-paid member of the US broadcasting monopoly after he has mused on the use of the word "disappointment" by a moronic, linguistically challenged C student. And this pinhead has the eyes and ears of millions via the public airwaves. The 4th estate populated by mediocre grade 7 students. Shameful.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
Speaking of the media, Roland Martin was on CNN talking about the bible and giving a brief sermon. It's too bad there weren't some broadcast rules, where religious folks could have their own networks and shows.
...and as a PA resident, I was so relieved when he "decided" not to run for the Senate in 2010. I could just hear Tweety's "HAH!!" reverberating around the Senate chamber - moron.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
When you go to war for whatever reason if you are not 100% you are at zero. They should have known this, people's live depended on it. That should be Bush's legacy.
was the argument for "defending by attacking" is nothing more than sheer BS. Israel is using the exact same reasoning for killing Palestinian women and children. "We have to stop them just in case they kill us in the future."
on the Chimperor and his Aqua Velva?
Is the thrill gone?
had so many red M&Ms that now he wants green ones?
has stopped shaving her legs and now uses Aqua Velva. It has brought them so much closer together.
I put Aqua Velva in the same category as High Karate, something from my lost youth.
Now I prefer Pinaud's Fleur de France.
Unfortumately they don't make it anymore, so I'm gonna have to make my last six bottles last.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
It's called Flower of Freedom and sold in the House gift shop.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
What kind of cologne does Obama use, CK?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I'd suspect he uses Boss.
De Linguist?
This is the result of Bushco enabling terror tactics.
safe (no gore or apparent death) photo just horrific in its reality and nearness to the WP coming down on a UN (school !) building.
http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/fosfo...
kill them, just in case in the future, you know, they just might kill you. It's a great idea. Maybe arresting kids will be next, cuz hey, they might grow up to be rapists and murderous thugs.
That could be an argument for Pro-Choice.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
How much clearer a picture does one need to see the illegal use of WP? Where is the utter outrage from the UN and the world?
A few days before Bush is out of office, now Tweety criticises him. Tweety is hoping we'll forget his man-love crush on Bush and his enabling of his policies for the last 8 years.
Poor old Blankley. Remember when he was humiliated on Hardball by Matthews and Al Franken a while back. He should stick to Fox News...
Actually Tweety is only half correct. Bush is like the cop who not only killed an unarmed man, but looted and destroyed his house and killed his family in the process of looking for the non-existent gun.
reverse his conviction because he found the shoes the guy's cousin threw at him when he was searching for something else later.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Nope. Matthews missed it and still gave Bush the out that he made an "honest mistake" by invading Iraq even though Iraq had no WMD and so on. So did Olbermann with his "Eight years in eight minutes".
The analogy isn't of a cop shooting a man because he mistook a wallet for a gun.
Since the international inspectors were reporting weeks before Bush invaded that they were not finding WMD, the capability to manufacture them or that Iraq posed a threat to our national security or that of its neighbors in the region, the BETTER analogy is that a cop shoots a man after other cops FRISKED the man and TOLD that cop that the man didn't have a gun but only a wallet.
I'm puzzled why these mainstream mediots continue to forget that there were international inspectors, including our own State Department team, REPORTING that they were not finding the criteria on which Bush was authorized to use military force in Iraq weeks before he invaded anyway.
station. He has yet to face arraignment.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
They work for the MSM - owned by giant conglomerates, part of the M-I complex. There's big bucks for all in a little war, ya' know.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
suicided almost certainly.
UN Weapons expert and WMD hunter/inspector
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_David_Kelly
that because of blogs like C&L and other sites on the Internet, like youtube, his lies are finally being exposed to a much wider group of Americans - and that might result in a real investigation, and possible indictment.
Poor George is also kinda' disappointed that he appears to be the one getting all of the hate and criticism. After all, this neo-con, PNAC "let's go invade countries" stuff wasn't dreamed up by him.
For my money, Cheney is the real culprit, he and Rummy ,and Wolfowitz, and Perle, Feith, Kristol, etc. Georgie was just too stupid (and arrogant, and sociopathic) not to realize what kind of trouble he could eventually be in if he went along and played with the Big Boys. If Georgie gets nailed and goes to jail - they should all be marched along right beside him.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
After Bush issues pardons on Monday, the only justice will be if Obama signs back on with the Interational Criminal Court and allows the extradition of Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle, Feith, Pelosi, and Kissinger and everyone else they want. A bit unlikely?
You're about four years late and a dollar short
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
Matthews isn't doing an "about face", he's moonwalking. He's still part of the same inept direction in US policy, but trying to pretend he was never a part of it.
COWARD!
Bush: I sucked so bad that America elected a black guy with an Arab name...
back when I still watched Chrissy, he practically spooged over Dubya.
/and Tom Delay
//and Fred Thompson
///Aqua Velva for the win.
eh, it's just business;
nothing personal.
..they will be selling oil for pennies because we moved away from "OIL" for fuel. It will bankrupt the Middle East oil nations as well as nations like Venezuela and Russia who will be calling for international aid because of the low price of oil.
Sorry, no Bush legacy in the Middle East. Just another round of failed attempts at making oil and water mix.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
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