PALAST: BUSH Is - "Like A Little Boy Who Knows He's Fibbing-Like A Snake Licking A Rat"

[kpete]

Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union
January 24th, 2007
by Greg Palast
Tuesday, 23 January, 2006

There was that tongue again. When the President lies he’s got this weird nervous tick: He sticks the tip of his tongue out between his lips. Like a little boy who knows he’s fibbing. Like a snake licking a rat.
In his State of the Union tonight the President did his tongue thing 124 times — my kids kept count.

......................

Most pundits concentrated on Iraq and wacky health insurance stuff. But that’s just bubbles and blather. The real agenda is in the small stuff. The little razors in the policy apple, the nasty little pieces of policy shrapnel that whiz by between the appearances of the Presidential tongue.

First, there was the announcement the regime will, “give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers.” In case you missed that one, the President is talking about creating a federal citizen profile database.

There’s a problem with that idea. It’s against the law. The law in question is the United States Constitution. The Founding Fathers thought the government had no right to keep track on a citizen unless there is evidence they have committed, or planned to commit, a crime.

more at:
http://www.gregpalast.com/off-the-rails-big-oil-big-brother-win-big-in-the-state-of-the-union/#more-1570

[mod mom]

1. Gotta love Palast-telling it like it is!

[enough]

2. Thanks for the post. Here's another snip:

snip>

There were several other little IEDs (improvised execrable policy devices) planted in the State of the Union. Did you catch the one about doubling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? If you’re unfamiliar with the SPR, it is supposed to be the stash of oil we keep in case the price of crude gets too high.

Well, the price of oil has been horribly high but Dick Cheney, the official who sits on the Reserve’s spigots, has refused to release the oil into the market.

Instead of unleashing the Reserve and busting Big Oil’s price gouging Bush will double the Reserve, which will require buying three-quarters of a billion barrels of oil. This is a nice $40 billion pay-out to Big Oil from the US Treasury. Compare this to the President’s health insurance plan which will be “revenue neutral” — that is, have a net investment of zero.

But the $40 billion in loot the oilmen will get from us taxpayers for doubling the Reserve is nothing compared to the boost in the worldwide price of crude caused by this massive, mad purchase. While the Congressional audience didn’t even bother polite applause for the reserve purchase plan, there’s no doubt they were whooping it up in Saudi Arabia. Clearly, the state of the Saudi-Bush union is still pretty good.

snip>

[WinkyDink]

10. Bandar Bush. Hand-holding with Faisal. The Purloined Letter.

[indepat]

3. Only 124 times?

[caseycoon]

7. That's what I was wondering...

:shrug:
Seems like he said an awful lot to only have lied 124 times.
Maybe he just sticks his tongue out for the bigger ones....

[stellanoir]

4. Palast is amazing with his intrepid clarity.

Thanks for posting.

K & R'd

[snappyturtle]

5. K&R.......well we should have known * would help big oil after

what the House did last week. He's NOT going to allow his friends in big oil be cheated!

[Marie26]

6. I thought of Palast

when Bush mentioned filling up the "strategic oil reserves". That must have driven him crazy!

[Javaman]

8. His new speech coach gives him a few pointers...

Posted by Javaman in General Discussion (01/01/06 through 01/22/2007)
Tue Jan 09th 2007, 05:04 PM

coach: okay mr. p. try this...

moron*: mr. p? heh heh heh, I like that. Pee pee, heh heh heh...

The coach coughs.

coach: right. Anywho, now when you say, I am full of resolve and plan to support the surge, give the idea that you mean it, okay?

moron*: mean it? Hmmm, okay, I'll do my best.

moron* licks his lips.

moron: I am full of...

coach: wait, you licked your lips...

moron*: no I didn't

coach: yes you did...

moron*: are you going to argue with mr. p? heh heh heh...

coach: ah hmm, okay try again...

moron* licks his lips again.

moron*: I am full of....

coach: there you go again!

moron*: what?

coach: you licked your lips!

moron*: so what if I licked my fucking lips!

coach: it will be perceived as insincerity.

moron*: what the fuck are you talking about??

coach: studies have show that people who lick their lips prior to a speech mean they don't believe what they are saying...

moron*: So I can't lick my lips because some egghead with a high forehead says I'm, me, mr. p! is insincere??? Well fuck him!

coach: remember, you are trying to improve your image and project sincerity...

moron*: christ in a hand basket, argg, okay.

coach: thank you, now try again.

moron* pauses for a moment, the tip of his tongue poised just below his upper lip. Beads of sweat form oh his brow. His mouth quivers. Finally, he licks his lips.

Moron*: damn shit piss!!! I can't do it. I'm sincere and stuff damn it! I mean, I feel bad when bodies come home, regardless if I go to their funerals or not! And those Iraqi twits, yeah, I gave to order to bomb them back to the stone age, but I still feel something for them! but this licking of the lips shit, what the fuck is with that. sigh...

morons* assistant comes in.

assistant: mr. president the first lady wants to chat with you.

moron* rolls his eyes, sure let her in.

pickles: georgie, I just wanted to tell you that I know you work hard and I appreciate and love you.

moron* looks back at her, his eye begins to twitch, finally out shoots his tongue and he licks his lips.

moron*: I love you to.

[Rob H.]

9. He did that snake tongue thing in Louisiana, too

He flew down to give a speech after the Katrina debacle and I watched it with the sound off to see how many times he would do his hula jaw thing only to notice that he wasn't doing the hula jaw. He was sticking his tongue out over. and over. and over again.


On edit: Here's the thread from September, 2005: Bush's Swiv-O-Mandible™ on the wane, but another tic emerges. My final tally was actually 11 instances of hula jaw but 40+ instances of lizard tongue, which I started counting after about 10 minutes into the speech.

[Recursion]

11. Hmm... that's never been his tell for me

though maybe he means the same thing as I do; to me W's tell is when he puts all of his articulation forward of his teeth, it's like he makes a little mini-mouth between his teeth and his lips and articulates the sounds there. It's the main reason he gets called a chimp. But I've always found it a good tell for reading him.

[DemReadingDU]

12. tongue thing?

next time I will watch Bush for this oddity :)

[midnight]

13. Greg is such a phenomenal journalist. This country owes so much

for his wisdom and ability to say it like it is.