The Blair House Project

[babylonsister]

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/11/the-blair-house-project/

The Blair House Project
By: Glenn W. Smith
Sunday January 11, 2009 9:30 am



An Iraqi newsman throws his shoes at George W. Bush. Bush throws a house, Blair House, at his successor, President-elect Barack Obama. And so goes the ignominious end of the most ridiculous and dangerous president in American history.

The Obamas wanted to move early into Blair House so their children could start school. No, no, said Bush. That room's taken. Great evils like war and enforced poverty can cause us to overlook the shallow pettiness that often marks the architects of inhuman global horrors. Bush's Blair House snub might make a future edition of "Presidential Anecdotes," but it's unlikely to stay long in the news. Still, I think it is, in its way, as revealing of Bush's character as the state torture of innocents.

The Sufi poet, Rumi, wrote, "This being human is a guest house." His point is that we should welcome as guests into the houses of our lives not just our friends, but our enemies; not just happiness, but sadness; not just joy, but meanness, too. Rumi's not writing about etiquette, not advising his readers on how to win friends or influence people. It's about "being human."

snip//

Bush is such a shadow-figure, an indistinct shadow at that. It may seem outrageous to say his slight of Obama is somehow equivalent to his atrocities (Iraq, Guantanamo, Katrina) incompetence (Iraq, Guantanamo, Katrina), and greed (the orchestrated theft of billions by his cronies while the global economy collapses). It does, however, reveal his character, and even the goofy pundits tell us that's what matters to Americans.

Obama, of course, let it go. There was no percentage in pounding on the door from outside when he'll be in charge of the guest list soon enough.

Bush was successful in a political era that swamped fundamental elements of human relationships (kindness, reciprocity, empathy) in a modern orgy of carelessness, greed, hatred, and the callous disregard of every "Other" on the planet. It's not unlike how the Little House was surrounded by modern urban sprawl and blight.

Bush's slight was, in all ways, a small thing. Like the man himself. Why not let it go the way Obama has? Isn't Bush already history? He is, but not his kind. Remember.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Big surprise........

Chimpy Fucknuts has been a model of immoral, illogical, ill-tempered, and obscene behavior. Why on earth should we expect him to be any different not? And Pickles is just as bad.

The greatest last line in all of movie history - in my opinion - is what Robert Loggia uttered to Glenn Close after he killed the man, her lover, who was trying to kill her:

"Fuck him. He was trash."

I think that pretty well sums of the tenure of Chimpy Fucknuts in OUR White House. Petty, lying, scheming, selfish, a boor. A total boor.

The sooner he's the hell out of my air space, the better I'm gonna feel.

(Oh, and to babylonsister - not long ago, you made a very nice comment about a departed DUer - that DUer was told about it and greatly appreciated it, especially coming from you.)

[babylonsister]

2. ??

PM me? I don't know who you're talking about.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

3. Good riddance to bushCo. rubbish

dateline September 20, 2011: "for the first time in more than eight months, former President George Bush was spotted by reporters at his quickly decrepifying Dallas home. For just a brief moment, the curtains ruffled, and his chimplike, unkempt face peeked out."

[babylonsister]

4. Barring prison, I do hope that's how he spends the rest of his

days, peering out from behind a curtain, in his own private hell. Poetic justice.

[mopinko]

5. +1

no matter what happens, i suspect that he will be locked in his own private hell. i suspect pickles will be no comfort, either.

[givemebackmycountry]

6. The day they attempt to name ANYTHING after this man...

Is the day I get in my car and drive there to protest and start some shit.

I would however, support the naming of a waste treatment plant after him because he's such a fucking turd.


Bush's slight was, in all ways, a small thing. Like the man himself. Why not let it go the way Obama has? Isn't Bush already history? He is, but not his kind. Remember.

Remember that indeed.

edited because I am watching the Steelers game and I am happy.

[Matilda]

7. It's a measure of John Howard's insensitivity and arrogance

that he would take up residence in Blair House rather than deferring to the President-elect and
staying in a hotel.

[OneBlueSky]

8. I often wonder what Obama REALLY thinks about George W. Bush . . .

both as a president and as a person . . .

not that he'd ever tell us, mind you . . .