Helen Thomas: Almost done with bizarre Bushisms

[babylonsister]

Thomas: Almost done with bizarre Bushisms

By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS


WASHINGTON -- Outgoing President Bush admits to some "disappointments" during his eight White House years but he hesitates to call them "mistakes."

At his last news conference as president, Bush cited Abu Ghraib --the notorious Iraq prison where U.S. soldiers abused and tortured prisoners -- as a "huge disappointment," even though he had approved of harsh interrogation techniques.

"I don't know if you want to call those mistakes or not," Bush told reporters "but there were things that didn't go according to plan."

Here's a bizarre Bushism. In one of his strangest statements as president, Bush said that Iraq's "not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment."

Wait a minute. The absence of those weapons should have been good news.

But it was a huge disappointment for Bush because he had had staked his public rationale for attacking Iraq on the existence of those alleged weapons. When none were found, it became a disappointment for Bush because it meant that he had committed U.S. military forces to invade Iraq in 2003 on either erroneous information or a lie.

More than 4,000 Americans have been killed in Iraq since then. Imagine the disappointment of their families and loved ones.

To this day, Bush has not given a credible explanation for his war that also has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Well, a mea culpa was too much to expect. Reporters who have covered Bush day by day found him in denial, defensive and self-righteous in his farewell news conference, just a few days before turning over power to Barack Obama.

more...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/396041_thomasonline15.html

[HelenWheels]

1. Gotta love Helen

I hope she is the first one Obama calls on at his first press conference.

[Demeter]

2. Beware the Man Who Lies to Himself

[DCKit]

4. And twice the guy who fails to call on Helen Thomas at the pressers.

She ain't done with him yet.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

3. Weighing in with a huge Rec

Helen really cuts to the chase - every time.

[pipi_k]

5. When he says he's "disappointed" and

that "things didn't go according to plan", I suspect he really means that he's disappointed that the seamier parts of his plans were discovered by John Q Public.


Just like a serial killer without a conscience. Not sorry he did it...sorry he got caught.

[MessiahRp]

6. Helen is awesome... if only the rest of the media had her scruples...

Rp

[rurallib]

7. I though that WMD remark was really strange also

Glad HT commented on it.
What kind of an idiot leader would march his troops into certain death? Death by chemicals, biological weapons or even nuclear would have met our troops if Saddam had any weapons. Yet junior marched them right on in.

[enuegii]

13. One of the many things that has bothered me...

about the Bush fiasco is the fact that if Bush and Rummy et al truly believed that Iraq had WMD, whether because of faulty intelligence or not, why would they have insisted on sending in a minimal amount of troops?
Weapons of mass destruction = massive casualties; it would seem logical to anyone with the least bit of sense to send in extra troops, just in case.
Not even Bush and friends are that stupid-- they knew there were no WMD.
He's a pathological liar, and not even a good one... yet apparently one out of three Americans approve of his performance over the last eight years.

[1776Forever]

8. More on Helen - Did you know this?

Calling Helen Thomas

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200602/calling.helen.thomas.htm


United Press International correspondent Helen Thomas interviewing US President-elect John F. Kennedy
at Georgetown University Hospital in 1960. BETTMAN/CORBIS picture

Written and photographed by David Chambers

How many Arab–American journalists are there in the United States? The National Arab American Journalists Association reached almost 150 members in its first three years, according to its founder, nationally syndicated columnist Ray Hanania. About half of them work in mainstream, non-Arab–American media. In comparison, the national Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has some 9000 members.

If pressed to name a single Arab–American journalist, most people could probably only reply, “Helen Thomas.” Now a senior columnist, Thomas has been a White House reporter since President John F. Kennedy’s day. She was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, first woman president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, first woman member of the Gridiron Club and, for decades, entitled to ask the first or second question during presidential press conferences. In 2000, the SPJ created an annual Lifetime Achievement Award—and named it after Thomas.

.......

For those who didn't know Helen's parents were Lebanese Christian immigrants. Helen sets the bar high for all reporters! She is one of my heroines!

:loveya:

[Mad_Dem_X]

9. Helen is a national treasure!

God bless her.

[Usrename]

10. That's EXACTLY what I was thinking.

:fistbump:

[Baby Snooks]

11. One of many "Freudian slips"

Few caught it because few cared to watch his final press conference just as few cared to watch his "farewell address" this evening.

It was a slip of the tongue and a "Freudian" one at that because it was a disappointment. One that should have resulted in his impeachment. One that should have resulted in his being tried for war crimes. And yet there will be no trial, no accountability, just an endless recitation of "successes" that he believes are real. All filled with slips of the tongue. All "Freudian" slips. History will make note of those slips of the tongue as did Helen Thomas. And history will provide our Nuremberg. We will all be judged. We were such good Germans.

As for his justification for Iraq the justification is as it always has been that we liberated the Iraqi people.

History will note that we plunged the Iraqi people in the Dark Ages of Islam. Just as we did the people of Iran. We. The people. The Bushes. Who decided for us. Who hopefully will never decide for us again.

[yellowcanine]

12. "not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment."

Yeah that one sends the irony meter off the scale.

[olegramps]

14. Helen Thomas condemned her fellow members of the press.

She called her fellow reporters lapdogs of the Bush administration rather than watchdogs for the American public. Rather than question the Bush-Cheney PNAC neo-cons determination to bring war to the Middle East, they gave it their rousing approval.

There was amble evidence to the contrary not to mention the fact that they had stated in published documents their intention to invade Iraq. Hell, the very people who dominated Bush's administration had even sent a letter to Clinton urging his to invade which he dismissed as the rantings of a radical element.

This is why I wouldn't support Hillary. How in the hell did she vote for giving Bush the authority for the invasion when she had to be aware of their intentions. She didn't have the guts to vote against it for fear of being labeled an anti-war liberal unpatriotic appeaser.

Helen was the only member of the Washington Press Corps to speak out and she was blacklisted while her fellow correspondents failed to come to her aid. Nothing but a pack of chickenshits. David Gregory is the epitome of these trash and rather than being condemned for his bootlicking has been rewarded for his silence. He makes want to vomit.

[olegramps]

15. I want to add

Bush doesn't have any regrets because he doesn't have a correctly formed conscience.

This is not uncommon among those who have been raised as little more than privileged obnoxious brats. A proper conscience is formed by being compelled to acknowledging your mistakes. A right conscience is not something that we are born with but something that is developed through proper guidance. This is the crux of the matter. Young people of privilege, such as Bush and I would also include McCain, were allowed to satisfy the selfish desires with little or no consequences for their actions.

Far too many of the privileged class are never made to answer for their so-called mistakes. Position and money can shield these people from answering for a host of indiscretions leading these young people to actually believe that they are not culpable for any of their wrong doings. That is why Bush can say he was disappointed, rather than being deeply troubled with his horrible mistake that has cost the life's of tens of thousands of people. He has a very malformed conscience that is conspicuous of those who are product of unrestricted privilege.

I would like recall that Thomas Jefferson feared that a new aristocracy could emerge of a moneyed class of people who through no efforts of their own could inherit wealth and power. He warned that the concentration of wealth could develop a class that could be as despotic as the aristocracy they had overthrown. Wasn't this indeed the case that faced FDR and now once again faces the average American worker?