Bush Doublethink

When George W. Bush speaks, he is sometimes pretty funny, misspeaking at his own expense, utterly oblivious, and all the while maintaining that earnest Presidential swagger. Often what he says is a dead give-away to what he is thinking but really doesn't want to say. He will say the opposite of what he wants to say because he knows that what he wants to say is the opposite of the truth, and he accidently tells the truth because that is what he is thinking but really does not want to say. It's all rather humorously complex, but I think you get it.

Here is Bush at his press conference on May 31, 2005:


"I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation.
The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way.
It's just an absurd allegation.
In terms of, you know, the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've investigated every single complaint against the detainees.
It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of and the allegations by people that were held in detention, people who hate America, people that have been trained in some instances to disassemble, that means not tell the truth.
BUSH: And so it was an absurd report. It just is."

First of all, Bush meant to say dissemble which is precisely what he is doing but he slipped and said disassemble which is precisely what the Amnesty International report is doing to his pack of lies. It's really quite funny that he then defines the word disassemble for the press corps, incorrectly.

He claims that all investigations about all allegations have been conducted and completed in a "transparent way." As far as I know Congress is still waiting for reports of hundreds of allegations, and is still ignorant of why 200 detainees have died in US run camps.

He also says that "we" have investigated every complaint against the detainees. Well if that is true then shouldn't we know whether they should be freed or prosecuted? Of course, that's not what he meant.

And finally, he gives the Amnesty International report the Bill O'Reilly treatment. If you can tar and feather an allegation as absurd and link it to "people who hate America", you have pretty much dealt with that one. Can't you just picture the image in his mind: George whips out his six-gun and shoots the rattlesnake dead. Another varmint sent to hell where it belongs!

So much for the Amnesty International Report.