Official Bushconference Word Parsing Thread

[BurtWorm]

The transcript is up here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091500794_pf.html

Here's an odd little quote from right near the beginning:

This week our nation paused to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It was a tough day for a lot of our citizens. I was so honored to meet with family members and first responders, workers at the Pentagon, all who still had heaviness in their heart.

But they asked me a question. They kept asking me, "What do you think the level of determination for this country is in order to protect ourselves?" That's what they wanted to know.

Does anyone believe that even one of those family members asked him that question? Raise your hand if you do.


PS: Here's a Fruedian slip of a typo by the transcriber in the sentence right after the above:

You know, for me, it was a reminder about how I felt right after 9/11. I felt a sense of determination and conviction about doing everything that is necessary to project the people.

[liberal N proud]

1. What they probably were asking was

What the country was going to do for their illness caused by the debris. But bu$h heard it from the KKKarl Rove translation

[BurtWorm]

5. Here Bush tries to hint that torture works, without owning up

to authorizing it:

The bill would also provide clear rules for our personnel involved in detaining and questioning captured terrorists.

BUSH: The information that the Central Intelligence Agency has obtained by questioning men like Khalid Sheik Mohammed has provided valuable information and has helped disrupt terrorist plots, including strikes within the United States.

For example, Khalid Sheik Mohammed described the design of plane attacks on building inside the U.S. and how operatives were directed to carry them out. That is valuable information for those of us who have the responsibility to protect the American people.

He told us the operatives had been instructed to ensure that the explosives went off at a point that was high enough to prevent people trapped above from escaping.

He gave us information that helped uncover Al Qaida cells' efforts to obtain biological weapons.

We've also learned information from the CIA program that has helped stop other plots, including attacks on the U.S. Marine base in East Africa, our American consulate in Pakistan, or Britain's Heathrow Airport.

BUSH: This program has been one of the most vital tools in our efforts to protect this country. It's been invaluable to our country, and it's invaluable to our allies.

Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that Al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland.

By giving us information about terrorist plans we couldn't get anywhere else, this program has saved innocent lives. In other words, it's vital.

That's why I asked Congress to pass legislation so that our professionals can go forward doing the duty we expect them to do.

[Bob3]

2. That question doesn't even make any sense.

It's like "do you walk to work or do you take your lunch?"

God he is so full of it.

[BurtWorm]

3. See "president" explain. Explain, "president," explain.

The first bill will allow us to use military commissions to try suspected terrorists for war crimes. We need the legislation because the Supreme Court recently ruled that military commissions must be explicitly authorized by Congress.

So we're working with Congress. The Supreme Court said, "You must work with Congress," we are working with Congress to get a good piece of legislation out.

The bill I have proposed will ensure that suspected terrorists will receive full and fair trials without revealing to them our nation's sensitive intelligence secrets.

As soon as Congress acts on this bill, the men our intelligence believed helped orchestrate the 9/11 attacks can face justice.


Bush is trying to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time--as usual, of course. Trying to say, "We'll be fair," and at the same time trying to say, "We'll smite the bastards."

[Bluebear]

4. 'The Supreme Court said, "You must work with Congress,"

He didn't know that until the Supreme Court told him?

[BurtWorm]

6. "I have one test for this legislation."

I'm going to ask one question, as this legislation proceeds, and it's this: The intelligence community must be able to tell me that the bill Congress sends to my desk will allow this vital program to continue. That's what I'm going to ask.


What bullshit! He doesn't give a shit what the "intelligence community" thinks of this legislation, and I doubt the IC gives a shit what his idea of a "vital program" is.

[rhiannon55]

9. That's not a question, you moron!

That's a demand that you be allowed to do what you want, and you're PRETENDING that it's a question.

Asshole. You must think that everyone else is as stupid as you are. :banghead:

[rhiannon55]

10. Hey Burtworm, I'm addressing Bush

NOT you, just to be clear. :blush:

[BurtWorm]

12. Don't worry. It was crystal clear.

;)

[BurtWorm]

7. Q: Why are you personally an idiot? Bush: I can't accept that Americans

are idiots.

That is something very much like the exchange below:


QUESTION: Mr. President, former Secretary of State Colin Powell says, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." If a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former secretary of state feels this way, don't you think that Americans and the rest of the world are beginning to wonder whether you're following a flawed strategy?

BUSH: If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic.

BUSH: It's just -- I simply can't accept that.

It's unacceptable to think that there's any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective.

[Marie26]

8. "The Program."

He never actually says what the program is. The undisclosed torture program?

[BurtWorm]

13. Here is a clue that that is precisely what he means

BUSH: This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court's ruling that said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

BUSH: And that Common Article 3 says that, you know, "There will be no outrages upon human dignity." It's like -- it's very vague. What does that mean, "outrages upon human dignity"? That's a statement that is wide open to interpretation.

And what I'm proposing is that there be clarity in the law so that our professionals will have no doubt that that which they're doing is legal.

You know, it's a -- and so the piece of legislation I sent up there provides our professionals that which is needed to go forward.

The first question that we've got to ask is: Do we need the program?

I believe we do need the program. And I detained in a speech in the East Room what the program has yielded; in other words, the kind of information we get when we interrogate people within the law.

You see, sometimes you can pick up information on the battlefield, sometimes you can pick it up, you know, through letters, but sometimes you actually have to question the people who know the strategy and plans of the enemy.

BUSH: And in this case, we questioned people like Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who we believe ordered the attacks on 9/11, or Ramzi Binalshibh or Abu Zubaida, cold-blooded killers who were part of planning the attack that killed 3,000 people.

And we need to be able to question them, because it helps yield information, information necessary for us to be able to do our job.

[Vadem]

11. When I heard him say that in the opening statement of the...

press conference, I said BULLSH*T, just like you. I know those grieving people did not speak those words to him--it is only another speechwriter's bon mot(he thinks).

[BurtWorm]

14. Listen to how Bush turns the word "clarity" into a synonym for "license"

Now, the court said that you've got to live under Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. And the standards are so vague that our professionals won't be able to carry forward the program, because they don't want to be tried as war criminals. They don't want to break the law.

These are decent, honorable citizens who are on the front line of protecting the American people. And they expect our government to give them clarity about what is right and what is wrong in the law. And that's what we have asked to do.

And we believe a good way to go is to use the amendment that we worked with John McCain on, called the Detainee Treatment Act, as the basis for clarity for people we would ask to question the enemy.

In other words, it is a way to bring U.S. law into play. It provides more clarity for our professionals.

:puke:

[BurtWorm]

15. Bush's sexual putdown of "Dave" (Gregory, I presume?)

"I must say, having gone through those gyrations, you're looking beautiful today, Dave."

Alpha male trying to turn sub-male into a female?