Watching Them Squirm...

It’s fun watching the right wing squirm over the success of Michael Moore’s latest opus, Fahrenheit 9/11. Bushies who have actually taken the time and effort to see the film find themselves both surprised and disappointed at what they learn about their President.

Granted, Moore hates Bush but this film is his fairest and best to date and still does not do Bush any favors. The real fun comes in watching those who will defend Bush at all cost (and in the face of all logic) try to come up with any excuse to try and explain the various missteps of their exalted leader.

But all the rationalizations in the world cannot obscure the sad fact that Bush is a monumental screwup. Even his father, who – as both a former President and director of the Central Intelligence Agency knows a thing or two about war and intelligence – can’t bring himself to publicly endorse his son’s invasion of Iraq.

One keyboard commando’s laughable claim is that Dubya sat dumbfounded like a dazed lamb when he first learned of the attacks because the Secret Service wouldn’t let him leave the classroom where he sat before students at a Florida school.

Unlike too many of these instant Internet experts, I’ve actually worked in a Presidential administration and know a thing or two about how the Secret Service operates and this latest pseudo-excuse fails the smell test. Agents did not have to seal the room because it was sealed before Bush ever set foot on the premises. Agents have the power to forcibly remove the President from a location only if there is a clearly-identified danger and the news that a plane had struck one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York did not rate an “alpha” alert under Secret Service procedures. Until a situation reaches alpha status, the Secret Service continues to answer to the President and his Chief of Staff. Andrew Card gave Bush the news and then watched helplessly as the President of the United States lapsed into a vegative state.

Dubya sat with a dazed look on his face for one reason and one alone: He did not know what to do. White House aides in the back of the room tried desperately to get his attention and urge him to do something decisive but he was so dumb-struck he either did not see them or could not interpret their anxious signals.


Now that Bush’s inaction is out there on the big screen for all to see, the White House apologists, as they have had to do so often, scramble to come up with a plausible excuse for yet another FUBAR. That’s been standard operating procedure at 1600 Pennsylvania since January 20, 2001 and it will remain so until January 20, 2005, or January 20, 2009, depending on the decision of either the voters or the U.S. Supreme Court come November.
Jun 27, 2004, 17:44

I'm Next, Damnit!
You see, they were standing in line at Tom's Coney Cafe in Flint, Michigan, when the argument started over who was next. So both pulled guns.

By the time the argument ended a Detroit man lay dead on the floor, the victim of a gunshot wound. Seems somebody else thought they were next in line.

In all, bullets struck four -- including an innocent bystander who dove for cover under a table but got hit in the leg.
Jun 22, 2004, 11:28