Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Bush Acting Out at G8

Because Generalissimo Katrina a/k/a Warrantless Wiretapper a/k/a Torturer Semierectus a/k/a Emperor WMDecider a/k/a Pretzelcoatl a/k/a George W. provides something to cause equal measures of exasperation and despair on a daily basis, I decided a few months ago not to mention him or his administration for a while. Yesterday we learned about his boorish, simplistic comments at the Meeting of the Overlords, also known as the G8. A small taste of his impressively presidential rhetoric, courtesy of the W-friendly Washington Post:

Bush : Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home?

Bush : This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get home. How long does it take you to get home?

Reply is inaudible.

Bush : "Eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country."

At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the conversation.

Bush : It takes him eight hours to fly home.

He turns his attention to a server.

Bush : No, Diet Coke, Diet Coke.

He turns back to whomever he was talking with.

Bush : It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia's big and so is China.


Today, yet another display made it into the international newspapers. I am posting this sequence of photos, from Bild.de via AmericaBlog, because they illustrate perfectly what sort of idiot we have at the head of our government. They say more than 1,000 words of critique can, and no one should be surprised to learn how little respect this man has for the female leader of an ally nation of 80 million people. Maybe he's so used to doing this with Condi and Harriet and other women and men on his staff that he didn't realize it was totally inappropriate, but then again, look what he's done to the United States, to Iraq, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to our longstanding relationship with our allies....

The images, with my translations of the German below (the video is online at Bild):

Bush and Merkel

"Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks directly with Italian PM Romano Prodi--here comes George W."

"Merkel consults with her neighbor at the table, doesn't notice, as Bush approaches"

"...begins his Texan One-Second-Massage"

"...suddenly the US President lays both hands on Merkel's shoulders"

"The Chancellor, frightened, twitches her shoulders together, raises her hands high, doesn't know who's grabbed her from the rear..."

[Corrected German--thanks, Bill!]

8 comments:

  1. Ditto, Bernie, ditto...M and I have decided to tell people we're Canadian. From JFK to GWB in 45 years...

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  2. Good Lord, he's like a baby with a gun, except the baby doesn't know any better and can eventually put the gun down. Bush's weapon of mass destruction would seem to be a permanent appendage: his brain.

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  3. Remember, his father puked on the Japanese PM, so.... I don't mind saying I'm from the US; that is, the 50% and then 48% that actually voted in 2000 and 2004 respectively and didn't vote for him. Unfortunately, we can't impeach him and Cheney, because we'd be stuck with Hastert, Ted Stevens....

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  4. It still be-hoos me how he got into offic.We put him in the driving seat and have ourself to blame the good thing is his time is almost up and then NO MORE BUSH.

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  5. At least we aren't privy to the full body massages he bestows upon Condi when the lights are low in the oval office...

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  6. Ooooh! Ooooh! Ooooh!

    Eileen.

    That is a not a rosey picture . . . Infact, I just had a flash of Do The Right Thing. Rosie Perez could be Condi and W could play Mookie with an ice bucket and a little love child named Hector (or maybe Condi could have named him Henry Kissinger). . . lol . . . and no air conditioning in the oval office because of an energy crisis.

    But seriously, J, Bild Zeitung is like a cross between USA Today and the Sun in London. Every middle class person reads it, but claims not too. But all working class people read it with little shame. It is tongue in cheek for all, because the language is much different than Die Zeit, the paper for the upper crust.

    Germans invent all these words in pop culture and much of it comes from Bild I think (and the fact you can stick any word(s) together and people will understand it). There is something very high school renegade newspaper about Bild.

    But it is embarrasing. Especially since Germans have a real, real, real issue concerning personal space and formality. Crossing boundaries in a professional space and deviating from the task at hand is viewed almost as criminal. Erster Arbeit, dann Vergnügen -- First Work, then Pleasure (and they can get down real dirty). There is no exception to this rule and any realm of public life. The easiest way to get bumped out of an interview is to interject a joke at the wrong time.

    PS
    Bild is neuter (das), and for the newspaper no one uses the definite article . . . when refering to the paper say simply Bild or Bild Zeitung (newspaper). This rule does not apply to other publications.

    Not that I am being German-- but I think I have f-ed up and become a real Kraut. Sorry John, have pedantic linguistic reflux disease.

    And that word where you printed "transcript(?)" It looks like Tischnachbar -- literally "Table Neighbor". We might just say Neighbor.

    I got the Deutsch down, but I am still trying to catch up with you. Keep writing the good stuff.

    Ciao.

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  7. David, I hear you, but keep in mind, if Giuliani or McCain or another Republican is elected, it'll be more of the same. I keep picking up that lots of people out there don't realize this. Bush wouldn't have gotten where he is without being constantly enabled by this parliamentary-style, influence-corrupted, do nothing-but-right wing-symbolic crap, GOP-run Congress. And if another Republican reaches the White House right after him....

    Eileen, the thought leaves me "erschrocken"!!!

    Bill, thanks for the clarifications. I couldn't figure out "Tischnachbar" without the "nach" part. I should have know "das Bild, die Bilder"--isn't that right? It's been a while, though, and I've never had an opportunity to use any of the German I learned...so this was a treat!

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  8. Glad to help. I am willing to go in on a Tandem. I will help you with your German if you help me with my Portuguese. I am terrible, but I need to get the basics down. Pronunciation is easy, but a little help with basic grammar would be appreciated. And some reading. Song lyrics from MPB is all I go on, and have been going on since senior year of high school. Singing away in the shower . . . cut up bits of the music.

    And yes, all plurals are feminine "die"

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