They Saved Reagan's Brain...Yo!

"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."- HL Mencken.

Those of us (I guess that I speak for not just myself) who think that the current President of the United States is several sandwiches short of a full picnic were given rather a lot of ammunition by The Chimp's behaviour at the recent G8 Summit in Russia. The whole "Yo Blair!" routine was beyond embarrassing. In previous ages I'm sure wars were declared for less.

All the stuff below is taken from The Konformist. Quite arguably, all very unfair, but life's not fair is it? Otherwise, how could Bush possibly become President?

The Ugly Truth About the President
By Cenk Uygur, HuffingtonPost.com
Posted on July 19, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/39164/

You know it, I know it and the American people know it. But everyone
is afraid to say it. They say it privately, but people are afraid of
saying it publicly because you will be branded as a liberal, elite,
intellectual snob. But believe me, you don't have to be an
intellectual to see how painfully stupid our president is.

Just look at the conversation he is having with world leaders at the
G-8 summit. Mikes picked up the casual talk between the world
leaders. Forget that Bush appears to have three sandwiches in his
mouth while talking. Forget that he calls out to the Prime Minister
of Britain as if he is Flounder in "Animal House." Forget that he
uses profanity. I don't give a shit about those things.

I thought it was ridiculous that people made fun of George H. W,
Bush for vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister. What was he going
to do? He had to puke, so he puked. It happens to the best of us,
and more importantly, has nothing to do with his intelligence or how
capable he is as a leader.

But his son's verbal vomit does have a lot to do with his ability to
lead this country and the world. What I found to be the most damning
is the least quoted part of Bush's comments. As you read this
transcript, remember that this is not a small child talking, but the
President of the United States of America:

The camera is focused elsewhere and it is not clear whom Bush is
talking to, but possibly Chinese President Hu Jintao, a guest at the
summit.

Bush: "Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the
airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are
you going? Home?

Bush: "This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get
home. How long does it take you to get home?"

Reply is inaudible.

Bush: "Eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big
country."

At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the
conversation.

Bush: "It takes him eight hours to fly home."

He turns his attention to a server.

Bush: "No, Diet Coke, Diet Coke."

He turns back to whomever he was talking with.

Bush: "It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia's
big and so is China."

Russia's big and so is China??????? This guys sounds like a third
grader. Do you know anyone who would have a conversation like this
with their neighbor, let alone a business associate, let alone a
world leader? Who's proud to know that Russia is big and so is China?

Can anyone now credibly claim that Bush is secretly working on a
master plan behind the scenes and that he's just playing cowboy for
the cameras? I hope the master plan doesn't involve figuring out how
long it takes to get to China.

If someone is this ignorant, they're usually embarrassed and try not
to talk much. But this guy is so dumb he has no idea how dumb he is.
This sounds like a conversation you might have with a child, a
mentally challenged child. Johnny, do you know how big Russia is?
How about China?

This would all be unfortunate if George was your dentist, or worse
yet, your accountant. But he is the leader of the free world. This
man makes life or death decisions every day. If you say you're not
scared about that, you're lying.

Would you let him do the books for your business? Would you trust
your company in his hands for eight years? (No matter how Republican
you are, you know you just said no to that question.) Would you
trust him to be your kids' guidance counselor and take his advice
seriously? If your kids were in the Army and he was their field
commander, would you feel good about putting their lives in his
hands?

Come on, no one is crazy enough to say yes to that. Yet, he has all
of our lives in his hands. The emperor has no clothes. The emperor
has no clothes. It's about time someone in the mainstream media said
it.

In the old empires, there would be a lot of marriages between the
royal families. And from time to time, these inter-family marriages
would produce a mentally challenged son who would inherit the
throne. This would set the empire back for hundreds of years. I'm
not saying anything, I'm just saying. Russia is big and so is China.

The Democrats for a long time have felt embarrassed about pointing
out the obvious. The emperor has no brain. This is what I can't
understand about the Democrats, they're always playing patty cakes
while the Republicans are ripping their face off. John Kerry should
have stood at the lectern during the debates and pointed to George
Bush and said, "The leader of this country has to be the best and
the brightest. If any of you think that he is the best and the
brightest America has to offer, go ahead and vote for him!"

The theory is that people would be turned off by that. The theory
assumes that people are also idiots and they love their cohorts.
That is simply not true. Everyone understands that they have a
friend they'd like to go fishing with and a friend they can trust to
look after their affairs - and they're not necessarily the same guy.
And that your fishing buddy might not be a great choice for
President of the United States of America.

Kerry should have embarrassed Bush, made people feel sorry for him.
It would have hurt in the short run and given him a temporary
downward blip in the numbers, but in the end, when people went into
that voting booth, they would have felt pity for Bush - in that
scenario, Kerry wins easily. Nobody votes for someone they pity.

Unfortunately, right now we are in the position of being pitied by
the rest of the world. We have third grader for a President. And
worse yet, the Vice President has him convinced he is the second
coming of Winston Churchill. Scared yet?

Cenk Uygur is co-host of The Young Turks, the first liberal radio
show to air nationwide.

*****

Hughes for America
Our dumb president
By Joseph Hughes
Jul 18, 2006
http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/joseph_hughes

You know, every time the president's intelligence comes up for
debate, the right wing is quick to tell everyone that, in fact,
President Bush isn't an ignorant moron. What's more, not only is he
not an ignorant moron, but he's also not an arrogant boor, his
behavior on the world stage not a cause for embarrassment. He's a
Yale man, after all, with a Harvard MBA to boot! Well today, I'm
calling "bullshit" on the right wing. The president is all of those
things ... and more.

The ignorance, the boorishness, the embarrassing behavior were all
on display at this year's G8 Summit, which concluded Monday. Between
the president's stuffing a roll in his mouth to his use of "shit" in
an exchange with Tony Blair to his witless banter with world leaders
to his more-than-awkward surprise "massage" of German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, our dumb president has never been dumber or more
embarrassing. Or, for that matter, more AWOL when the world needs
our leadership most. But that's alright, his defenders will say,
he's just being himself, being authentic. Great. Our president is an
authentic jackass.

It was the "shit" heard 'round the world. In fact, it drew top
billing with many news outlets at a time when the world appears to
be unravelling as we speak. Bush, who, like Blair, didn't know their
conversation was being recorded, called the British prime minister
over at the luncheon that closed the summit. "Blair," Bush
asked, "what are you doing? You leaving?" When Blair shifted the
conversation to trade negotiations, Bush shifted it back, thanking
Blair for a sweater he gave the president as a gift, most likely for
his recent birthday. Then, the conversation shifted to the Middle
East. After a brief exchange, and while continuing to talk with his
mouth full of what appeared to be a roll, the president said, "See,
the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to
stop doing this shit, and it's over."

While using profanity and speaking with your mouth full are by no
means nothing new - just ask my girlfriend, who could tell you both
have been a part of my daily repertoire for years - I'm not the
president. I'm not this nation's top ambassador to the rest of the
planet. I'm not the public face of the United States of America. I'm
just an average American and a blogger. I write things about people
ranging from morons like Brad Stine and Ann Coulter to role models
like Edward R. Murrow and Al Gore. I don't have my finger on the
nuclear (or the "nucular") trigger. I don't travel in Air Force One,
nor do I have a Secret Service detail. And I don't attend summits
where I'm expected to, at the bare minimum, act like I've been there
before. But Bush is all of these things; I'd just love to be able to
dress him up and take him out without him embarrassing himself - or
us.

So the president said "shit" and couldn't hold a conversation
without stuffing his face. We've all done it. But what's as
concerning to me, if not more, was the manner by which the president
spoke with his fellow world leaders in an unguarded moment caught on
tape. Hint: Like an idiot. When asked by someone, most likely an
aide, something about whether or not the president wanted a prepared
statement to close the meeting, Bush replied, "No. Just gonna make
it up. I'm not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.
Some of these guys talk too long." Then, the president shifted his
conversation to, quite likely though the exchange wasn't on camera,
Chinese President Hu Jintao. "Gotta go home," Bush said. "Got
something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and
go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home?" Continuing, Bush
added, "This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get
home. How long does it take you to get home?"

Though the reply was inaudible, Bush then said, "Eight hours? Me
too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country." As the
Washington Post indicates, it's at this point that the president
apparently brought someone else into the exchange. "It takes him
eight hours to fly home," Bush said, telling a server that he wanted
a Diet Coke. "It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours.
Russia's big and so is China." Russia's big and so is China? Just
gonna make it up? Is he, as Cenk Uygur said, a third grader? Do you
feel a lot safer knowing that you voted for a man whose idea of
tableside conversation is asking world leaders how long their ride
home is and marveling at the size of their countries?

When he wasn't showing his grasp of global geography, the president
was busy doing things that would normally trigger a workplace sexual
harassment workshop. Cameras captured the president walking behind
Merkel and giving her an impromptu shoulder massage. Her look, which
mirrors the look of any unsuspecting female in a bar when a drunk
gets touchy-feely, was priceless. Bush's look, coincidentally,
matched the look of that drunk. I mean, what the fuck? Somehow, I
don't see former presidents Bush or Clinton doing this with Helmut
Kohl. Nor, also, do I see either Bush or Clinton asking their
secretary of state for permission to use the restroom, as this
president has in the past. But a massage? Seriously? I know these
summits can be tiring, tedious affairs, but does that fact warrant
our president acting like the office letch? I doubt it.

Let's face facts: Our president is dumb. He doesn't know what he's
talking about. He doesn't know how to act in public. And it's always
been that way. It's been more than 70 years since "... the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself". More than 40 since "... ask
not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your
country." And, in that time, we've gone from the measured words of
true statesmen to "Russia's big and so is China." Let me be the
latest to ask: What the hell happened? When did flipping pancakes,
taking hunting trips or throwing a football become more important
for our presidential candidates than knowing what the hell they were
doing? More specifically, when did we, as Americans, decide that
that was what we wanted out of our presidents?

I'd sure like to know, because, as I've said before, "Isn't it a tad
insane that we care more about whether we can have a beer with our
president than whether we think he can save us from a fucking
disaster or actually knows the difference between his asshole and a
hole in the ground when it comes to foreign policy?" Who cares if
the president would be a great guy to have a drink with? Hell, this
one isn't even supposed to have a drink. Or, maybe he's not supposed
to but he has, which would go a long way to explaining Bush's
behavior at the G8 Summit. Either way, he was an embarrassment. And
he always has been.

***

Bush - Stoned? Drunk? Medicated? Retarded? Presidential Tester for
the Pharmaceutical Industry? You Decide........
Wed, 07/19/2006
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Ruth Lopez

Bush is fried. He's either drinking, smoking pot, medicated, or some
combination of all of them. Either that or the man has taken a one-
way trip to crazy town.

Watch his gibberish at the G8, especially the bizarre stuff about
how long the plane flights to various countries are. If you take out
the comments of the other leaders (because they actually sound
intelligent and not like drunken bar talk) and just read what Bush
says, he sounds just like someone who is more than half looped.

"Gotta go home. Gotta do sumthin tonight. Get ona plane. Go home.
It's a long flight. How long is your flight? That's a long flight.
Your country is big. His country is big too." Retarded or stoned,
you decide.

This is the kind of mindless bar drivel that drunks who can't shut
up drone on with. They just keep running their mouths, totally
disconnected from the non-verbal clues of the people around them.

Watch the press conference where Bush couldn't stop talking about
the pig roast. It didn't matter what anyone asked him, he just kept
saying whatever his addled brain was looping on, in this case, the
pig. Typical stoned behavior. It reminded me of the time Bush went
to Canada and couldn't get off the subject of the mouth one of the
Canadian Prime Minister's staff members! "You've got a purty mouth."
Not once but several times. "You've sure got a purty mouth."
And, "Your mouth is prettier than my Scott's mouth." (The poor guy's
name was Scott.) Who does this? Outside of bars or institutions, I
mean.

Watch Bush's body language at the table with Blair talking over his
shoulder. Bush is sitting, almost slouched back in his chair, like a
guy at a barbeque on his second or third 6 pack, chomping on his
food with his mouth open, and making minimal effort to intelligently
keep up his end of the conversation by occasionally throwing in
something he mistakenly thinks is sufficient.

Watch the body language of the other leaders and the way they react
to him. With the exception of Blair, they act very restrained and
controlled around Bush, maintaining a public facade of geniality
while holding back from actually being engaged with him. What seems
to be obsequiousness from Blair may actually be him simply trying to
get through the fog around Bush's brain to penetrate with a little
reality without setting him off. Meanwhile, Bush's social modus
operandi with everyone, including other world leaders, is to overuse
forced jocularity and pretend intimacy to convey a relationship that
does not exist.

When he walked up behind the German leader and started giving her an
unsolicited shoulder massage, her body tightened up and she actually
grimaced. She wasn't enjoying that, she was enduring it. Before that
Bush can be seen wandering aimlessly around the room while the rest
of the grown-ups were conducting the business they were there for.

This is not normal behavior. Watch him closely sometime when he's
having trouble staying coherent and you can see his eyes come in and
out of focus. He does it at the table when Blair is speaking to him
and he's looking out across the room as he chomps open-mouthed on
his food. This is a distinct change from Bush's speech and behavior
at other times. In fact, radical variations in his behavior and
speech can be seen by watching him when he is unscripted. Sometimes
he's coherent, other times he looks like staying coherent long
enough to get a sentence out is almost beyond him, (these are the
times he seems to get mean-drunk angry when anyone dares to question
him), and sometimes he is just off-the-wall bizarre.

I'll say it again; the man is plastered, stoned, or medicated. This
goes a long way to explaining how he is so incredibly disengaged
from war, disasters and their destructive effects: he is too out of
it to relate. Drunks and addicts are incapable of empathy,
everything is about them and their next high. When Cheney shot that
guy, Bush acted like he had just found out about it days after it
happened. Same with New Orleans. Bodies were rotting in the ruins of
the city, when Bush had been warned that it could, and likely would
happen, happen, and Bush's response was to reminisce about partying.

There are bizarre internet rumors of a personal portable toilet for
Bush to use when overseas, (to prevent foreign analysis of his
excrement) http://www.rense.com/general72/fexc.htm. Normally I would
blow them off as some of the wilder of conspiracy theories, but
watching Bush's actions over the last week, I can't help but wonder,
to what lengths would they go to hide it if it were true? If he is
too incapacitated?

What would they do to keep up the appearance of his functionality?
Who could or would step up and do anything about it if he is unfit
to serve? The people around him are not people willing to part with
the power they have granted themselves, and that's an
understatement. And with Bush at the top of the chain and out of the
loop, or just plain looped, who is holding anybody below him
accountable? His staff? Congress and the Media have abdicated their
responsibilities, who will do it?

Hell, they're all trying to give him, and therefore themselves, even
more unlimited power than they have already taken. As long as they
can keep up the illusion that he's functioning.........you decide.