Here’s a link to the trailer of the new Oliver Stone joint, “W.” which apparently gives George W. Bush the biopic treatment he deserves --- contemptuous and mocking.
www.wthefilm.com
I heard Oliver Stone talking on Bill Maher's show about this movie. Crazed, loony liberal that he is, Stone said that he did not make shit up for this movie. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but that he didn't need to. The information and quotes on the public record about Bush were more dramatic and theatrical than he could have fabricated himself.
I believe that.
Stone also alluded to the fact that GWB is a mystery. I really believe that, too. Here we are, 8 years later and as much as we --- or at least, I --- like to belittle the man, I don't know anyone who has a real sense of what he's made out of or what makes him tick. I certainly don't.
It's easy to dismiss him with pejoratives that capture an element of his persona --- chimp, frat-boy, asshole, bully, etc... --- but he's more than just that one (or even all) of those things.
I just can't figure the guy out at all.
For instance... I don't even know if he's smart or dumb. Honestly.
I know it's easy to call him a moron for all the obvious, visible reasons he gives us. But, hold on, this is a guy who got to do pretty much every thing he ever wanted to do in his life by his 60th birthday. Without even starting to try until after he was 40. And who has manipulated supposedly brilliant guys like Tony Blair and Colin Powell and then flushed them away like used toilet paper afterwards. There's something sharp and pointed in there someplace, but I don't know what it is exactly.
In a similar manner, I can't really fathom what pleasure he has gotten out of the Presidency. Clinton clearly reveled in the pomp and attention and chance to be the biggest mover in the world's most powerful country. I don't sense that in W, though. It's like he's kind of going through the motions so much of the time... cramped and sulky and reluctant. And other times --- usually inappropriate --- he's loosey-goosey and near manic with high-spirited nicknames and jigs and personal teasing pokes at reporters and foreign dignitaries.
Also, is he a dickhead or not? Yeah, he mocked a woman about to get lethally injected. But he seems to be a genuinely loving and decent dad to his daughters.
Some other things I don't know for certain:
Is he really all that religious? Is he really not drinking? What happened with that “pretzel” passing out incident? Is he really so intellectually incurious as he appears? Does he really not follow events at all? What really motivated him to shoot for the highest office in the land? Of all the things he did the last 8 years, which did he really want and which were thrust on us by the scum-circle around him?
In short, just who is this guy that's been running the show since January of 2000?
I've read the books, I've watched the news, I've combed the blogs. And he's still a mystery to me even, as he's getting ready to pack his bags.
I think that's bizarre. This last eight years has been tumultuous and wrenching and exhilarating beyond any eight years I've ever lived through in my life. 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, the Bush Boom, the Financial Meltdown. The Bailout.
In other words, W and I have been been through some shit together.
Whether I agree or disagree with the decisions he's made. I should have a sense of some kind of understanding --- at least knowing at an emotional level --- why he's made the decisions he's made. Like some die-hard 1930's Republican might hate the New Deal, but at least understand why FDR was pushing it out there.
Or --- here’s a better analogy --- how some hippy might not like Nixon, but at least understand why a paranoid, fascist, rotten-hearted creep like him would do the things he did.
I honestly don’t have that with Bush.
Bush's intellectual and emotional core has been hidden behind multiple, light-proof, airtight seals and chambers --- the Republican Party aristocracy, the emotionally deformed Bush Family, the ultra-secretive White House lockdown, and his own impermeable smirking facade --- for so long, I've given up on ever glimpsing his psyche. What's more, I haven't read any credible accounts from people who have. For all his folksy informality, he's one of those sphinxes --- like the iconic Reagan --- who leave even their closest associates (never friends, these people never have real friends) scratching their heads about what's really behind the affable shell.
Maybe this film will help illuminate this psyche.
I kind of doubt it. This biographical information has been out there long enough and hasn't really shed any usable light yet. For whatever mysterious reasons, George W. Bush has been a complete, unalloyed, toxic, flaming, radioactive, crashing disaster of a Chief Executive. He's combined awful ideas with even worse executions. He's weakened or destroyed everyone who supported him and strengthened everyone who opposed him. Everything that he has touched has turned into liquid, poisonous shit. Everything that he has ignored has festered into oozing, gangrenous sores.
Clearly, as a President, he is the Very Worst Ever.
Frankly --- at this point --- I've kind of lost interest in finding out exactly why.
I guess there is a sort of taxonomic value to understanding the nature of the GWB beast. If we can identify what kind of creature it is, then we can better build defenses against future incarnations of it. Or better yet, learn to crush potential Georgies in their immature stage --- while they are running redneck states, crappy baseball teams and failing companies.
Other than that, what's the use of putting that proven loser under a microscope?
Focusing on his personal failings is beside the point.
As tempting as it is to pin everything that happens on his incompetent and deserving back, we are all to blame really.
George W Bush was a mistake that all of America made.
Some of us made it bigger and more passionately than others, but we all made it.
We all thought that America was inherently awesome enough that we could put someone who was clearly substandard in charge of it --- and then let him freely and obviously fuck things up --- without any serious consequences. That nation-wide mistake is the only explanation for why Bush didn't receive the kind of real resistance that would have made it impossible to continue doing his visible and blatant fucking up of this country, without pause or slowdown, to this very day.
I'm not just talking to the dumbasses who have ever applied a "W" bumper sticker to the back of their bloated and shoddily-constructed SUV. Though those people make a satisfying herd of scapegoats, they are so emotionally and mentally subnormal that we really couldn't expect anything more than jingoistic, moronic hate-echoes from them anyway.
I'm talking to the rest of us. “Oh well,” we shrugged, watching an election stolen, a stupid war started, the budget balanced wrecked, a city drowned, the Constitution shredded, and the economy metastasize into a giant Ponzi scheme ready to collape, “there’s always 2004-slash-2008.”
With that kind of stupidity, apathy, arrogance, entitlement and laziness so ingrained and widespread through this nation --- and yes, this writer --- clearly we were headed for some sort of disaster no matter who had been in charge all this time.
Bush just sped it up and made it more painful than it otherwise would have been. So while this movie all-so-deservedly kicks Bush while he is down, I hope it has the honesty to aim a few boots at the rest of us as well.
We've earned them.
Showing posts with label George W Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George W Bush. Show all posts
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
OsamaWatch:2555 Days and Counting
Today marks the seventh anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, one that killed almost 3,000 Americans.
Though the fbomber knows how many distractions this nation has right now --- Look! A Presidential candidate with really curly hair! Wow! A chick Vice-Presidential candidate with sexy rimless glasses! --- he wonders if anyone, anywhere, in any official U.S. Government capacity is actively trying to catch the motherfucker who reportedly planned and directed that attack.
Here’s a refresher: His name is Osama Bin Laden. It’s understandable if you’ve forgotten the name, since the only time you hear the word “Osama” anymore is when Republicans deliberately mispronounce Barrack Obama’s name to make some childish, retarded, bullshit point that only childish, retarded, bullshit people can even understand.
Osama --- the real Osama --- is a Saudi national. He’s about 6 foot 5 inches, with a long stringy beard, livery-looking lips and big, soulful, puppy-dog eyes --- kind of like Paul McCartney’s if Paul McCartney were a fanatical killer motivated by a perverted interpretation of an already violent religion.
U.S. forces last spotted him in the hills of Tora Bora back in December of 2001 --- way back when we were actually winning the war in Afghanistan --- but he somehow slipped away. Various reports have him in the mountainous, wild, lawless Waziristan region of Pakistan* or maybe even dead.
I think it’s outrageous that it’s 2008 and we don’t even know for sure if he’s still breathing or not. And what’s more, nobody seems to care. Networks haven't broken into our regularly scheduled programming to tell us about the latest Osama sighting since I don't know when. The CIA unit tasked with finding him was disbanded in 2005.
Oddly, America --- a nation which remains fascinated beyond all reason with sluts and drug addicts who peaked a half-century ago ---seems to have lost interest completely in this mass murderer after only seven years.
Why are we letting this killer off the hook? Were his victims not blond or pretty enough to merit continued interest?
Shouldn’t the War on Terror include at least a couple of shots at those who actually commit acts of terror against us? If nothing else, those legitimate uses of force could at least act as a sort of fig leaf to cover whatever other bloody, expensive, misguided, illegal side-projects this nation chooses to lump into that category as well.
Don’t we want revenge? This is --- after all --- the nation which gave the world “Death Wish,” “Kill Bill” and, er, “Kill Bill II.” Don’t we want some payback? What's holding us back?
We certainly have no compunction about indulging in all our other baser instincts of lust, greed, jealousy, rage and violence --- usually in a single hour of FOX prime time programming --- so why are we drawing the line at a desire for retribution?
Personally, I don’t care if it’s seven years, seventeen or seventy. I want Osama caught. If he’s alive, I want him in an orange jumpsuit in Rikers Island, being sodomized in the showers. If he’s dead, I want him dug up and brought here for a ritual corpse defilement, also consisting of sodomization in a shower.
Finally, weren’t we --- as an angry and grieving nation --- promised that this asshole would be brought to justice? Shortly after the attacks, I seem to remember our President solemnly intoning on national television that Osama would be captured, “dead or alive.”**
Though Bush failed to keep most of his other promises --- especially his vow to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” --- I always kind of hoped that he would meet this one. After all, it didn’t really require any thought or work on his part. Just an order for one person to kill another person, his specialty.***
It looks like it’s not going to happen though. Bush has already been quoted as saying that “he doesn’t think about” Bin Laden.**** That’s too bad. Because after seven years of Bush not thinking about Bin Laden, the trail has grown colder than the underground crypt Dick Cheney goes into to hide from sunlight.
What a shame. I just wish that the Republicans had showed as much energy chasing Osama as they did the blue dress Bill Clinton jizzed on.
---
* The fbomber finds it comical --- in a choking, sickening way --- that this country’s multi-billion dollar surveillance satellites, predator drones, communications-interceptions networks, information-processing hardware and intelligence agencies are apparently rendered useless by caves. Caves. How much more low-tech can you get than that? That’s like having your F-16 shot down by a flint-tipped spear.
** Perhaps when Bush said that, he had already decided on “dead” and chosen the world’s top assassin --- old age --- to carry out the hit.
*** Texas: 154 Executed while Governor
Iraq: 4155 U.S. Dead, 150,000 to 1 million Iraqi dead.
Afghanistan: 586 U.S. Dead, up to 14,000 Afghanis dead.
**** Luckily, he stopped there. If he had given a complete list of all the things that he does not think about, he would probably still be talking now, and I am --- frankly --- sick of his voice.
Though the fbomber knows how many distractions this nation has right now --- Look! A Presidential candidate with really curly hair! Wow! A chick Vice-Presidential candidate with sexy rimless glasses! --- he wonders if anyone, anywhere, in any official U.S. Government capacity is actively trying to catch the motherfucker who reportedly planned and directed that attack.
Here’s a refresher: His name is Osama Bin Laden. It’s understandable if you’ve forgotten the name, since the only time you hear the word “Osama” anymore is when Republicans deliberately mispronounce Barrack Obama’s name to make some childish, retarded, bullshit point that only childish, retarded, bullshit people can even understand.
Osama --- the real Osama --- is a Saudi national. He’s about 6 foot 5 inches, with a long stringy beard, livery-looking lips and big, soulful, puppy-dog eyes --- kind of like Paul McCartney’s if Paul McCartney were a fanatical killer motivated by a perverted interpretation of an already violent religion.
U.S. forces last spotted him in the hills of Tora Bora back in December of 2001 --- way back when we were actually winning the war in Afghanistan --- but he somehow slipped away. Various reports have him in the mountainous, wild, lawless Waziristan region of Pakistan* or maybe even dead.
I think it’s outrageous that it’s 2008 and we don’t even know for sure if he’s still breathing or not. And what’s more, nobody seems to care. Networks haven't broken into our regularly scheduled programming to tell us about the latest Osama sighting since I don't know when. The CIA unit tasked with finding him was disbanded in 2005.
Oddly, America --- a nation which remains fascinated beyond all reason with sluts and drug addicts who peaked a half-century ago ---seems to have lost interest completely in this mass murderer after only seven years.
Why are we letting this killer off the hook? Were his victims not blond or pretty enough to merit continued interest?
Shouldn’t the War on Terror include at least a couple of shots at those who actually commit acts of terror against us? If nothing else, those legitimate uses of force could at least act as a sort of fig leaf to cover whatever other bloody, expensive, misguided, illegal side-projects this nation chooses to lump into that category as well.
Don’t we want revenge? This is --- after all --- the nation which gave the world “Death Wish,” “Kill Bill” and, er, “Kill Bill II.” Don’t we want some payback? What's holding us back?
We certainly have no compunction about indulging in all our other baser instincts of lust, greed, jealousy, rage and violence --- usually in a single hour of FOX prime time programming --- so why are we drawing the line at a desire for retribution?
Personally, I don’t care if it’s seven years, seventeen or seventy. I want Osama caught. If he’s alive, I want him in an orange jumpsuit in Rikers Island, being sodomized in the showers. If he’s dead, I want him dug up and brought here for a ritual corpse defilement, also consisting of sodomization in a shower.
Finally, weren’t we --- as an angry and grieving nation --- promised that this asshole would be brought to justice? Shortly after the attacks, I seem to remember our President solemnly intoning on national television that Osama would be captured, “dead or alive.”**
Though Bush failed to keep most of his other promises --- especially his vow to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” --- I always kind of hoped that he would meet this one. After all, it didn’t really require any thought or work on his part. Just an order for one person to kill another person, his specialty.***
It looks like it’s not going to happen though. Bush has already been quoted as saying that “he doesn’t think about” Bin Laden.**** That’s too bad. Because after seven years of Bush not thinking about Bin Laden, the trail has grown colder than the underground crypt Dick Cheney goes into to hide from sunlight.
What a shame. I just wish that the Republicans had showed as much energy chasing Osama as they did the blue dress Bill Clinton jizzed on.
---
* The fbomber finds it comical --- in a choking, sickening way --- that this country’s multi-billion dollar surveillance satellites, predator drones, communications-interceptions networks, information-processing hardware and intelligence agencies are apparently rendered useless by caves. Caves. How much more low-tech can you get than that? That’s like having your F-16 shot down by a flint-tipped spear.
** Perhaps when Bush said that, he had already decided on “dead” and chosen the world’s top assassin --- old age --- to carry out the hit.
*** Texas: 154 Executed while Governor
Iraq: 4155 U.S. Dead, 150,000 to 1 million Iraqi dead.
Afghanistan: 586 U.S. Dead, up to 14,000 Afghanis dead.
**** Luckily, he stopped there. If he had given a complete list of all the things that he does not think about, he would probably still be talking now, and I am --- frankly --- sick of his voice.
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