Home > HOW BUSH DEALS WITH PROBLEMS

HOW BUSH DEALS WITH PROBLEMS

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 5 March 2006
15 comments

Governments USA Peter Fredson

HOW BUSH HANDLES PROBLEMS

By Peter Fredson

March 5, 2006

Bush-watchers over the past 5 years have noticed that he has standard responses to criticism, ways of avoiding responsibility, ways of shuffling off blame, ways of keeping the Buck from stopping at his desk and that Bush does it without blinking or hanging his head, but yet remains smug, smirking and smiling.

Denial is his first line of defense. Every statement of his is uttered with advice from his handlers for maximum deniability. The Bush people work with words, and their effect on public perception. They strive for ambiguous words, words which seem innocuous and can be adapted to any situation, but never mean what they seem to mean.

Bush often utters phrases which seem mangled beyond repair, but may be code phrases for his fundamentalist supporters to allay their fears that Bush may not be the Messiah they thought he was.

One prime rule of Bush is to never accept blame for anything. Always find someone else to blame. In fact, Bush often blames the blame game, and generously offers to share his blame with everyone, so that his share will become insignificant.

In contrast to Harry Truman, who had on his desk a plaque which said THE BLAME STOPS HERE, Bush should have signs on his office door saying: WRONG DESK or NOT ME, NOT HERE or IT NEVER HAPPENED.

As part of this paradigm Bush must never be allowed to apologize. Apologies mean that some mistake occurred, but Bush must appear to be flawless. His supporters and Republican Senators do everything in their power to prevent any blame from attaching to Bush.

Often Bush seems oblivious to problems. He refuses to recognize that anything untoward is occurring. Political scientist James Thurber said, "He is not the most subtle president in terms of leaving escape clauses in his statements about what he stands for, so he seems as if he’s digging in his heels — and then is forced to compromise.” Whether this detachment is feigned or real, the general impression is that he is carefree, careless, or deliberately ignorant of circumstances.

Iraq is a major problem for Bush to decipher. His general strategy is to frequently assert that Victory is within his grasp, and that he must “stay the course” so that eventually he will triumph over evil.

He asserted: “The Saddamists lack popular support and therefore cannot stop Iraq’s democratic progress. And over time they can be marginalized and defeated by the Iraqi people and the security forces of a free Iraq.” He can find an excuse even for his most astounding lies

One wonders at the obtuseness of Bush to ignore the rapidly rising death toll due to his intransigence, or exactly what he could possibly mean by “a free Iraq.”

He constantly shifts his assessments of time to suit daily circumstances. At first victory seemed within his grasp, practically the next day, but gradually he extended the time of victory to several more months, several more years, and lately to an indefinite future of twenty or more years and now that he is building huge permanent military bases, it seems he is prepared to use taxpayer money to stay in Iraq into a far-distant future filled with non-specific but terrorist plans.

Despite all his protestations about wanting to leave the Iraqis in control of their country, implying the withdrawal of American violent duress, he is also building a huge Embassy, out of a palace of Saddam, for the obvious purpose of dominating the entire middle east with his bullying and threatening “diplomats” like John Bolton, human curses on the earth that have ruined our status in the world and have made the Bush administration the most hated today.

Bush uses Double-Think language to allay his gradually shrinking support base. George Orwell would be amused to find that nothing Bush says means what it seems to mean. As for myself, when Bush uses the words “Sovereignty”, “Liberty”, “Democracy”, and “Freedom”, there seems to be no relationship between ordinary definitions of those words, and the remarkable reverse twist Bush has put upon those concepts.

How anyone can be “sovereign.” with a puppet regime and 200,000 Bush troops, advisors, mercenaries, proselytizers and “diplomats” holding gun muzzles at the foreheads of Iraqis, is bewildering.

How anyone can speak of "freedom
with tanks and troops knocking down houses, breaking open anything in their way, shouting like maniacs with high-powered firearms, masks, goggles, body armor, helmets, night vision goggles, is certainly beyond my comprehension. How extreme duress can possibly be “freedom” is something Bush should be forced to explain at a World Court for War Crimes.

Bush explains his intransigency by “faith.” He decides on the basis of Christian Faith, more specifically Old Testament Methodist Faith. Once Bush finds an appropriate quotation from the Bible, or appropriate counsel from a televangelist crony, nothing will move his opinion again.

He will “stay the course” as it is all he knows. The perimeter of his vision is extremely reduced. Everything is up or down, black or white, with no other options.

Bush’s thought patterns in terms of good and evil define every situation. His indoctrination from family, college friends, business cronies, and Christian fundamentalist professionals are the firm guides in Bush’s life.

He has no doubts about how to act, and he never questions those actions. He operates from religious absolutes. So he never needs to re-think his postulates.

This is why he seems intractable, stubborn to the point of stupidity, and why he will take no action until his fundamentalist base and Republican Senators vigorously let him know that they are not happy campers.

So Bush can confidently state: “Against this adversary (doesn’t matter who the adversary is) there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory.”

We have all seen the huge signs surrounding his podium, declaring VICTORY in no uncertain terms. Even knowing that he has sent nearly 3,000 of his own citizens to their early death by his lies, he continues to assert that “It is worth it.”

He gives no indication of when it will no longer be worth it, but seems fatalistically inclined to continue his unplanned course in whatever direction the Supreme Creator will impel him to go, but pretend that he had both an honorable entrance and exit strategy to follow.

Bush rarely replies to major dilemmas until forced to do so by rising political discontent from his own base. For a long time Bush stalled on letting Condi Rice go before the 9/11commission, until several Republican Senators complained. Then he allowed Condi to testify, not under oath, after preparing the way for very soft interrogation and very cunning bureaucratic waffling from Condi.

It is very interesting that the Republican Senators did not think it necessary for the Energy magnates to take an oath for testimony. It is very interesting that when Presidential arrogance was being investigated, that Senator Specter did not think it necessary to administer oaths. This pattern has been repeated several more times during other investigations.

In fact the entire credibility of any Bush investigation is not worth any time spent pretending to investigate as most of the Republican Senators will use their interrogation time in lauding the actions of the President, or in defending any allegations against him.

Their sole purpose is to obstruct any investigation of Bush, to deplore it, to deprecate the investigation, to deny that anything has occurred that needs investigation, to treat it as a fraternity prank, or simply to brush it aside as partisan bickering from opponents.

Senator John Warner made quite a splash when he pretended to investigate funds spent on suborning the media with paid propaganda giving only the Bush version of any issue. Nothing came of it, as we all expected. And nothing will come out of any other investigation as it is all deliberately planned to fail.

When the huge price increase in petroleum occurred Bush first stated it was due to normal market forces, but shortly afterwards Bush reversed course by declaring that the price hike was “disappointing” and that his administration would address the problem. He was forced into this harmless “admission” due to the statement from Senator John Kerry that Bush seemed lackadaisical in responding to OPEC countries.

Bush, to this day, has never admitted that Weapons of Mass Destruction have not been found in Iraq. He still somehow believes that they were all transported, perhaps to Iran, or buried deep in desert sands.

He may now admit that some intelligence was faulty, but will never admit that his intuition about “mushroom” clouds was erroneous, or that he and his crony cabinet manipulated the information deliberately to stampede his country into war.

Only recently, after years of denial and obfuscation, did Bush admit that his SOTU claims of aluminum tubes, yellow cake, and that Saddam Hussein was importing nuclear materials for imminent use against U.S. targets, was fake. Even then Bush let his subordinates take the blame. CIA Director George Tenant became the sacrificial lamb, and everything went back to normal for Bush.

Whistle-blowers are not welcome in the Bush administration. I could cite a dozen egregious cases where evidence against Bush cronies was tried to be presented to some responsible administrator for action, but Bush either fired or demoted or sent into some innocuous position, the whistle-blower. Bush protects his corrupt cronies.

For instance: Ken Lay of Enron. It turns out that Bush hardly knew him. Was not involved with him. Had nothing to do with him. This despite a ton of evidence that they were good friends. Bush called Lay “Kenny Boy.”

The recent corruption scandal followed the same script. Bush hardly knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff. May have met with him several dozen times for photo-ops, but had nothing to do with him. This despite a ton of evidence that they were excellent friends.

We may expect much more of this type of denial, equivocation, or misdirection from the Bush people. It seems to work with the Bush base, which is all that Bush recognizes, so why not stick with what works?

Bush often responds to critics with a hurt look, a “he stabbed me in the back” look, and then falls back on his imperial dignity and majesty to contend that critics are mean-spirited, disgruntled or jealous foes, obstructionists, or ignorant has-beens.

One of his trump cards is to accuse critics of treason, which also is one of Dick Cheney’s trump cards. He used this ploy for several weeks after his speeches on how well he is progressing in Iraq, with Dick Cheney snarling and hurling insults in background interviews.

Bush uses “Executive Privilege” constantly to do things that even his very compliant Congress is reluctant to let him do. When VP Dick Cheney was to be interrogated about his meetings with energy executives, who then seemed that have created legislation very favorable to themselves, Bush declared this information was secret and under “Executive Privilege.”

He has used this ploy over a dozen times to keep his criminal actions from being disclosed.

When his appointments were held up, Bush simply waited until Congress went on vacation, then use an Executive Order to bull-doze his appointments to elect religious judges, John Bolton and a dozen other unsuitable people. We may expect this to continue.

Bush loves to classify any information from his administration. His “SECRET” stamp is kept hot from stamping everything remotely connected with any of his actions. In fact, when the Reagan Presidential Papers were legally declared to be public information, Bush hurriedly reclassified them so that no one could consult them. The reason, the papers contained information about his daddy which Bush did not want anyone to examine.

I have dozens of more examples of how Bush handles problems, but I will close with the BIG one.

Bush lies.

Bush lies frequently, maliciously, automatically, habitually. Lying is his way of quickly defusing any of his stupidities. He lies excellently to his fundamentalist base, that sticks to him come Hell or Apocalypse.

I have hundreds of examples of Bush lies in my computer files, as most of my blogger friends have. There are several web sites dedicated exclusively to Bush lies.

Our nation invaded Iraq exclusively because of Bush lies. He had his entire cabinet lie, practically day and night, for months urging quick and deadly military action against Iraq because Saddam Hussein was “imminently” going to attack us with nuclear and biological weapons, launched from pilotless planes, and much of our beloved nation would be utterly destroyed and lie in rubble.

The rhetoric of Bush, mainly lies, concerning aluminum tubes, yellow cake, mushroom clouds, anthrax, poison gas, went on stage at the United Nations with prestigious Secretary Colin Powell, with some mental reservations, asserted that Saddam Hussein was a dire threat to the world.

Bush’s fundamentalist friends have never acknowledged these lies. They fall back on the Christian Moral defense voiced by Bush constantly that Saddam was EVIL.

For them that was enough for their crusade against hated Muslim infidels. Up until today that is their best explanation, which is sufficient unto the day.

9/11 excuses ANY of Bush’s arrogant claims, any of his stupidities, any of his “staying the course” and “flypaper” strategy and any deaths he inflicts on our troops and upon the thousands of innocent Iraqis.

So, Bush handles any crisis by simply repeating 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror, 9/11, Terror. And will keep repeating it every time he commits any further stupidity or crime.

(That strategy, by the way, was evolved by Karl Rove as the answer to any 2006 election difficulty.)

If any blogger friend has other egregious examples of the way Bush handles problems, please comment.

Forum posts

  • Lying. It’s the Whitey American Way (tm)..

    I get it. But most of Blackies in the U.S. and much of the world’s Brownies/et al already knew that. We already have surmised that Whitey America is spooked and will absorb any and all things that enforce and justify its Spooked-ness. The lies being told by Bush are what Spooked Whitey Americans want to hear... They do not want to hear anything that will diminish their Spooked Whitey Thinking (tm).

    It would benefit the world greatly the day Brownies/Blackies/Et al, face the greater truth and look to ourselves for our needs and thoughts... But alas, that day may be far off for many, as these "many" show nothing but desire for Whitey’s America.

    • i hope you know that anyone that reads this site doesnt even bother to read the stupid replies when they see it starts with a 4. your racist attitude makes it appear that you work in the bush white house

  • U know, if Bush wanted respect and a legacy, he would come out and say I was wrong , the people I appointed were wrong, and after removing them immediately , I will step down and accept responsibility for my actions, no matter how well intentioned they were, and ask for your forgiveness. And after releasing all the information we have gathered that isn’t embarrassing to any of our citizens and putting all the chips on the table, Allow the American people to help form the newly elected government to shape our new and worldwide friendly foreign policy , We have all the resources needed to help everyone alive have the common necessities to have a fair chance.Well that’s what I would do if I were in Mr bushes shoes. Maybe someone else has a better view. In my opinion this would make our dollar stronger than ever. And people worldwide with new respect for humanity. What do you think?

    • May your hopeful words gather feet. But Bush is the very definition of "intransigent." He cannot change his course, he knows no other option. His absolutist framework will only be changed by his fundamentalist base, and there is no hint that his supporters will denounce his lies, and his invasion of Iraq in order to murder Muslim infidels. His supporters believe whole-heartedly in Bush bringing about the Rapture or Apocalypse, and will not be swayed any any rational argument or any plea of compassion. They KNOW the end is soon to come, and they are entranced at the possibility, never thinking that Heaven is already full, and that everyone is going to Hell.
      Peter Fredson

    • To: 174/252

      You know, you are a fool. Your thinking show that you could never be in power. Your focus and concentration is difussed by considering other issues and asking for forgiveness and what not. While it may appear to be an attribute of a compassionate person, it is not. It is stupidity on a level that is common and yet, historically significant as time will show.

      Collectively, some people think as you do and it becomes a "group think"; this then leads to ineffectual mental wonderings and action, such as marching and other forms protests.

      All the while the leadership enjoys the fruits of their thoughts and actions; as they think clearer and have followers who have such binary thinking.

      You can hope all you want but you will never succeed in displacing Bush, his policies nor the trends he has set, nor the future killings and suffering of billions of people...

    • THEY eat moral well meaning folks like you for dinner..they "use you and loose you" all wraped up in Mom’s Apple Pie & the American Flag.............they march us over the cliff.....SUCKERS!!!!

    • only fools and thieves would want to be us president , Thank GOD i am neither and as for you calling my views foolish, you are the real fool for you know not who i am

    • Peter thank you for the complement, as for your views of what these flat out murdering thieves are doing to the world i share your complete views, i however with out getting into details can honestly tell you that Jesus Christ is real and is no more happier with George bush lying and using his name than you or i are about bushes rotten murderous policies. I live in what the divisionist bush has labeled as a red state, around a fairly big banking industry community , even these prominent bankers do not support bush anymore, and this is supposedly bush country, the only place you can find a bush supporter is on the internet or one reaping the spoils from their thievery. 34% approval rating , no way in hell, maybe 0.34% real Americans love our country and would love to help the people around the world all we can , bush is making this impossible by selling us down the river , please forgive the people and help us get these satanic weasels out of power. HELP US, i can see why you are disheartened with all the havoc bush has caused us all. But maybe something to think about is that the same God that gives the wild aborigines hope could reveal himself to them just as he may to Muslims , Native American Indians , Buddhists , Christians , or any other non satanic religion, there is a reason why we are all different and in my beliefs we are all presented with choices in our lives that determine if our souls are worthy, after we peoclaim our love for jesus and accept that he died for our sins so we can move onto heaven where there will be no bushes who want want want but souls who want to bring good things to everyone, I was enlightened through Jesus Christ during a summer camp , i remember telling him he could use me any way that he saw fit to and i would love him forever and help try to spread his word with his help, over the years i was no saint , yet i tried to always think of others feelings and do what i could to help others in need. then one night as i was out , i had a gang of men who for what reason i do not know all came charging at me, they looked like the size of a professional football team, and i am probably a little smaller than average size. I thought it was curtains, and out of nowhere the sky lit up so undescribably bright the 12 guys who were almost on top of me were instantaneously knocked to the ground as if they were bowling pins as i was whisked what felt like around 20 feet in the air and sat down next to my truck , as i got into the truck it was as if my mind were flashing the most vivid colorful memory of making that oath before God when as a 12 year old I asked Jesus Christ to save me, he reminded me through the pictures in my mind of how I told God that he could use me anyway he saw fit, and told me that Christ would return in my lifetime unless man learns how to live with one another , i am now 9 years older than this first time incidentally it happened at ooops before the brittany spears song came out, closing in on 50 now , worked hard my whole life until bush was elected and i refuse to work and pay taxes after i found out about all the atrocities these fools are doing in the united states citizens names, just my small part to say i dont approve, and that i should try and help spread the gospel, there were no specific instructions , this was the gist of the images imprinted in my mind , but the light was so undescribeably bright ,and yes for all you naysayers this was with sober eyes. i have no agenda other than to express to the people who read this to consider asking christ with a sincere desire and belief that he will respond into your heart and accept your soul into heaven since he suffered for your sins, tell him i sent you , you might be surprised at the change in your life, do not ask him if you are not sincere, and believe that he will answer, but just something to consider. almost a year later sometime around the 1st of july 1999 i was in palm springs on vacation, i had arrived maybe an hour and a half earlier , checked into my hotel and cleaned up , went to get something to eat,and as i started walking towards a restaurant that was open around 10 pm, a fairly pleasant looking and nice dressed 50 ish looking black man came up to me and initiated conversation, basically there were no one on the street , he was very nice at first as we talked trivially , then he pulled out a very large knife and wanted me to touch it , i refused , complemented him on a nice looking knife and told him after he asked if i would buy it for 20 dollars that i only had 5 and was hungry looking for a restaurant, i try never to lie , i had several thousand dollars on me because i was on vacation and 2200 miles from home and not really scared , but i could tell he was agitated , and then out of the bushes came another man , he called himself tupac and apeared to me to be around 25 , he started talkng to the man who called himself broderick, about the last time he had seen him in the pen, i backed up a step and the young mexican man lunged at me , i thought curtains again, but this time there was no light and no message other than the mexican as he lunged was as if frozen not literally cold but could not move , the street was still bare and broderick just started screaming that God must love me because he was going to slash my throat.i turned and walked away and got dinner as they were there one frozen , one screaming that God must love me, i know this sounds lucid , but i honestly swear this is what happened in both instances. 3 days later , i am in san francisco, when i arrive and check in the news is on and they are looking for a mexican man who they said had killed 2 teenaged girls in the bay area in april 99, as they showed his picture , i immediately recognized him and went downstairs walked out into the street and looked for a policeman, it wasnt long before i saw 2 walking, i told them what had happened 3 days earlier without telling them about the incident where God saved my life again. they acted as if they hadnt heard about this news story, and basically ignored me, later that night i was watching the evening news and tupac his alias had been caught there in san fran , the news described him as being in a very dazed state and offered no resistance after officers spotted him sitting around the wharf area, i know why he was dazed, anyway peter i hope this helps you , i have no agenda other than to try and help other good souls, i will however swear that this is entirely true, may God have mercy on us all and love your brothers sister and hopefully your saviour Jesus Christ, sincerely your friend , gary lineberger

    • Being unable to change your mind, regardless of reality, is one of the symptoms of psychosis. But then, we have known for a long time, that Bush is criminally insane...

  • Consider this—since Bush has been in office, the following has happened:

    The environmental protection laws have been co-written by the polluters.
    The bankruptcy laws have been co-written by the credit card companies.
    The energy laws have been co-written by the energy companies.
    The prescription drug laws have been co-written by the pharmaceutical companies.

    As far as corruption, favoritism, and cronyism, it’s really difficult to get any worse.

    Jokefully, I wonder if the next steps will be:

    New laws surrounding religious freedom getting co-written by Babtists and Catholics.
    New laws concerning how much unhealthy material can be in products getting co-written by the companies that benefit the most from putting cheap unhealthy filler in our food and consumables.
    New laws concerning agriculture and pesticide use getting co-written by the companies that make pesticides.
    And while we’re at it, why not loosen up the amount of radiation that electronic products can emit, and remove caps put on the prices of all products, and then give an additional 75% tax break to anyone making over $200,000 and remove taxes completely for stocks.

    Hey, and while we’re at that, why not make the current minimum wage "permanent".

    • 71: Unfortunately you are not joking. All that has already come to pass. All safety regulations altered downward, all environmental restrictions altered downward, all health and safety regulations revised downward, medical permits withheld for religious reasons, huge acreages of national forest given to corporations, religious judges now firmly in place to interpret by Bible quotations any legislation, legislators in place to legislate bible quotations and replant them into our Constitution, whistle blowers firmly quelched permanently, war crimes commited daily, our Constitution spat upon by the Chief Executive who sword to uphold, protect, and defend it. Our senators turning a blind eye to any Constitutional question and letting Bush exert his claim of Unitary Executive by disdaining any civil rights, any laws, by simply signing a statement that he was above all that. Bush is the very worst chief executive this country has ever had, including Richard Nixon. His word means nothing. He has no more credibility. HIs reputation as a liar far exceeds that of being a good executive.
      Peter Fredson

  • All of the posters after my first reply and bracketed by my reply here are still clueless as to the depth of the problem. They are focused on a personality and his administration and worry about its policies. None appears to be aware of Whitey America’s recent (or earlier) history, nor the functioning of their government, nor the mindet of the public.

    Alas, perhaps you will see in your lifetimes what it is I am say; but most certainly your realizations will come too late.

    • I appreciate your trying to get to the truth, but the whole "whitey" comments could be specified a little more. Your posts in their current form somewhat take the form of anti-establishment rap music.

      The whole "ownership society" thing that Bush speaks of is part of the problem you talk about. This country was founded by snake oil salesmen, religious fanatics, and slave owners. Neo-conservatives or "whiteys" as you call them, want to do their best to make sure that those running the country are still snake oil salesmen, religious fanatics, and slave owners. It definately is a real problem.

      In 2004, the "conservatives" or "whiteys" tried to implement a horrible piece of legislation improperly entitled "the constitutional restoration act of 2004". This act would have turned the U.S. in to a whitey-based-theocracy—it would have not only allowed all laws to be based on the bible, would allow police and judges to throw people in jail for doing something that goes against biblical principals, it would allow for slavery to come back again—all in the name of "constitutional restoration" and "defending Christian heritage".

      The neocons (or "whiteys") are definately trying to bring this country back to its ugly roots. It’s strange how so many people claim to be so proud of this country, yet fail to see the truth in how ugly it started. Killing natives, slavery, snake oil salesmen, religious persecution. If enough people refuse to see the patterns of our past, we will be destined to repeat those patterns.

  • My personal favorite bullshit line used by people like the Bushistas is :"we haven’t found ______yet but it’s just a matter of time"...WELL,..IF _______ dosen’t exist or is no longer in existence then this could go on forever!!Perfect excuse to prolong ANYTHING!!
    The best BULLSHIT line in the "after the fact" category is one that I get every day from American dullards. When mentioning the fact that the original reasons for beginning the War have been shown to be outright LIES& that the Bushistas should be tried for TREASON and WAR CRIMES, the fools will say"Let’s not get into why Bush started the war, what are you liberal pinko’s suggesting that we do now,quit???That’s unAmerican!!!"
    ......just goes to show "you can’t converse logically with an illogical idiot"
    THE ORDER OF THE DAY IS: PLAUSIBLE DENIALABILITY