meta-roj

george and laura bush were recently interviewed by larry king. larry is a great interviewer, and early in the interview, the question of the presidents opponents came up…

larry king live, with george and laura bush [august 15, 2004 airdate]

KING: You don’t have your opponent[s], though?

G. BUSH: Not at all. Listen…

L. BUSH: No, of course not.

G. BUSH: There’s a chattering class of kind of, you know, professional politicians who get on the airwaves and they kind of feel like it’s their duty to stir things up. But the American people are — they’re focused on their families, and they’re focused on their work. And they’re interested in, you know, how government can help secure this country during these dangerous times. But I just don’t see it. When I travel the country, and I’ve been traveling a lot, there are thousands of people who come out and wave, and they are — you know, they respect the presidency. Sometimes they like the president, but I have this — I don’t have a sense that there’s a lot of anger.

i’m just feeling a bit compelled to emphasize this bit… opponents? bush just doesn’t see it.

the easy angle on this is that bush travels in a criticism free zone – a truth -free zone, sheltered from uncomfortable facts on the ground with his opponents (the ones he doesn’t see) kept at a safe distance in designated free speech zones, even when he’s visiting our allies. he simply doesn’t realize he has opposition, because even the t-shirts are screened to protect his view of reality.

we could blame the security and political apparatus that support this president for protecting him from any realization that some americans don’t support his policies. that could be enough to do it. i’m reminded of a story about an emperor and a pair of tailors.

“Besides being invisible, your Highness, this cloth will be woven in colors and patterns created especially for you.” The emperor gave the two men a bag of gold coins in exchange for their promise to begin working on the fabric immediately.

why do i feel like i have a few coins in that bag? oh yeah. this empire is a democratic republic. that’d do it.

on the other hand, the righteous know no opposition.

the bush re-election campaign is doing good work converting the “undecided” votes with their hear no dissent, see no dissent, speak no dissent campaign rules.

Family booted over T-shirts [michigan live, august 9, 2004]

“They obviously were searching for us,” said Marvin, 53, also a Dow chemist. “And they came for us.

“I was probably voting for Kerry before. Now I’m 100 percent sure. Maybe I’ll start campaigning for him. Maybe I’ll start fund-raising.”

He said the person who took his wife’s T-shirt told them, “We don’t accept any pro-choice, non-Republican paraphernalia.”

he’s only your president if you’re with him. everyone else can wait outside.

[the meta-roj blog has t-shirts available to anyone that wants to get kicked out of a bush rally – just see the links on the front page]

in a moment of what is, perhaps, freudian clarity, president bush announced to top pentagon officials:

president george w. bush, august 5, 2004

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we

update: the white house press release.

following his presentation of a gore speech, bruce has made it personal and official.

in an editorial in the new york times, and available on his site, bruce explains his position, and why it’s important to get political now.

A nation’s artists and musicians have a particular place in its social and political life. Over the years I’ve tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I’ve tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.

These questions are at the heart of this election: who we are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out.

go read the whole thing. don’t sit this one out.

bruce will be on the vote for change tour.

this article just needs to be experienced.

you can come back here and comment, or leave your thoughts there.

“Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” – flannery o’conner

as with most of america, it seems the military is split on the presidential race… in this corner, you have the swift vets that think kerry is unfit as a commander in chief. in the other corner, there’s retired air force general tony mcpeak, a former dole and bush 2000 campaigner, who stepped up to deliver the democratic radio address this past weekend.

Retired general: Bush foreign policy a ‘national disaster’ [cnn, july 31, 2004]

“We built the team that won World War II. We put together the great team that won the Cold War. That’s why what has happened over the last three years is such a tragedy, such a national disaster. Rebuilding the team won’t be easy.”

i guess someone will have to hack together a website comparing the military medals lined up behind each of the presidential candidates now. i’ll see your rear admiral with my general and raise you a captain and three purple hearts, two green clovers, a yellow moon and six blue diamonds. i just hope they break out the data by state so we can do some electoral college analysis.

president bush as reported in Kerry seeks ‘urgency’ against terrorists [msnbc, august 2, 2004]

“Knowing what I know today we still would have gone on into Iraq”

de-spun, does this mean “i was taking you into iraq one way or another, so suck it up and get off my back”?

in june, i talked vaguely about the coming surprises. even earlier, in may, others were talking about july surprises. it seems that while the chain of command in iraq is questionable, afghanistan knows how to deliver on a request.

but that’s just random bloggers talking about wild “left wing conspiracy theories.” is there substance? let’s turn to some “real” journalists (john b. judis, spencer ackerman & massoud ansari)….

July Surprise? [new republic, july 19, 2004 / updated july 29, 2004]

But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT [high value targets] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

well, afghanistan almost delivered – instead of the 26-28th of july window, they missed by a day, putting it on kerry nomination acceptance day. but you can’t control the timing of these things. the war on terror is an ongoing effort, operations are continuous, and the capture of crafty terrorist leaders is always a priority.

how you interpret this, of course is going to depend a lot on your personal political leanings. some call it a straw man and even rush had to poke at it – any success in the war on terror is a political move. but then they’ll have to face the question about this person being captured on the 25th, but the capture not announced until the 29th. and that announcement did make interesting news.

in contrast, the saddam capture (that’s another hvt), was reported by fox and announced by the president himself within hours of the capture.

is pakistan supporting the bush administration by delivering a high-value target on schedule, or is pakistan supporting the opposition by playing into a pre-sold conspiracy theory? or is it really just all a coincidence?

sadly, there’s a long trail of breadcrumbs… so i’m pretty sure i didn’t make this whole thing up as some strange dystopian movie script… you couldn’t sell that sort of conspiracy theory to hollywood.

in his own words [quicktime or realmedia].

the words of president george w. bush from the 2003 state of the union. change the state of the union.

everything is on the record. the people have the tools. perspectives will be available.

[via metafilter]

update: if you like that, you might also like this, which we did here a while ago.

i woulda re-arranged the speech a bit to end on that note, tho.