I'm not with stupid

Last night, as I was brushing my teeth, I listened to BBC world news. The one great thing about radio is that since their audience (particularly public radio’s) is so small, there is less pressure to be snappy and ratings grabby like CNN's constant drone of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson (whatever happened to Scott Peterson or Martha Stewart...oh that’s right I don’t give a rat's a**) so they can do longer clips from press conferences and give more in depth analysis.

Anyway, back to what I heard. When George W. Bush went to the Pentagon yesterday to meet with Rumsfeld and company in the E-Ring for an hour, he was only shown a few selected photos and videos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners. That means there must be a lot more nasty stuff coming down the pike. But when Bush got out to speak before reporters, that's when he gave us yet another clue that he is not in charge. His speech was not that of a man trying to find the most palatable words, but one who was trying to remember his lines.

At this, my fiancée shouted, "What an idiot!" with disgust. And that got me thinking (ironically) A) this is why I am going to law school in a few months and B) boy that article was spot on.

Slate's Jacob Weisberg, the author of Bushisms (a book which is a collections of "the accidental wit and witticisms of George W. Bush") has an article pointing out that Bush isn’t dumb, he’s something far scarier: someone who works hard at seeming and being dumb for his personal benefit.

Bush is in fact a very smart man; he is a shrewd evaluator of politics knows how to seem like a simple man when he is actually just as aristocratic as John Forbes Kerry and Albert Gore, Jr.

Until he was 40, Bush acted out the classic rebellious teenager of a rich daddy routine: getting out of anything he wanted, coasting by in school, becoming borderline alcoholic, and so on. After recovering from a nasty hangover on his 40th birthday, Dubya decided his “youthful intercessions” must end, and gave up liquor cold turkey. He “found Jesus” thanks to Reverend Billy Graham and was reborn a God-fearing Christian.

Soon there after, Bush got to be the pretty face for the MLB's Texas Rangers and then got to revenge his father's embarrassment (via her speach at the 1992 Democratic Convention) by defeating Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994. In all the sadness among Democrats after the loss of the US Congress, few noticed that man that would make things even worse for them in the 21st century. (My Dad did: "And the worst of it is, George Bush's son won in Texas; watch out for him." -1994)

But all this seems like a history lesson you say, why do I care? Well because the man who used stupidity to get back at his dad for never being there continues use stupidity to defeat the opposition who "misunderestimated" him. Bush’s willful ignorance comes at a price, along with not having to worry one’s pretty head with policy matters and details, comes the need to ignore things that don’t fit into ones paradigm.

The result? A war whose premise was sought for and falsified, whose execution was excellent but whose ensuing occupation was an instruction manual for "How not to occupy an Arab country." The prisoner abuse scandal is yet another example of this. Bush didn't know about this because he didn't want to know, lower level people didn't want to bother the president and his cabinet with unpleasant facts because those that do get yelled at.

From an administration (read Cheney) that says Fox News is the gospel truth, its not surprising that they have trouble hearing the other side. Sure, I will be among the first to admit that I have trouble watching/listening to right wing newscasts, but I at least am highly skeptical of the Times, the Post, and the Journal, and other media outlets, as well as campaign sources.

Bush has proven repeatedly that he doesn’t have the desire to learn from his mistakes and evolve his policy to fit the facts on the ground. He hasn't made sound judgments from day one. Woodward tells us the military and intelligence segment had to convince Bush et al to go into Afghanistan, seemingly on the promise that Iraq would be next.

Dubya needs to be driven out of office. If we want any home of fixing Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and reduce our risk to terror, removing the 43rd president is our best bet. Let me translate this into Limbaugh: Bush wins re-election, the terrorists win.