Is Bush in a State of Denial? For me president Bush is full of Bushit
By Mario deSantis, October 3, 2006

"The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example" President George W. Bush[1]

"These bastards in Washington have no idea what they're doing" Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. commander for the Middle East[2]

I am overwhelmed by the ongoing mindbogglingly political and economic events in the United States, especially the current events of

• a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report[3] confirming the spawning of more violence in the world because of the war in Iraq,
• the resignation of US congressman Mark Foley[4] as a consequence of his lurid e-mails directed to young congressional pages,
• the release of the book “State of Denial[5]” by Bob Wodward in which the author portraits a Bush administration in denial of the atrocious realities of the war in Iraq,
• the passing of the 'unconstitutional' bill Military Commissions Act[6] with its concocted and contorted definitions of 'enemy combatant' and 'torture' along with the removal of the habeas corpus for enemy combatants,
• the House approval of a bill which would give legal status to Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.

The NIE report includes the statement that “the Iraq conflict has become the ‘cause célèbre’ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihad movement[7]”

Mark Foleys obsession with congressional pages was well known for at least the last five years and yet Foley was allowed to chair the congressional caucus on exploited children[8][9].

In the 'State of Denial' Woodward discloses that alleged War Criminal and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger[10] is an advisor to Bush and Cheney for the war in Iraq and writes “Kissinger’s fighting the Vietnam War again because, in his view, the problem in Vietnam was we lost our will.”

Bush and his neo-uber-alles friends have committed war crimes[11] in the detention of prisoners and of the so called enemy combatants and therefore they attempt to cover their assets with the Military Commission Act which unconstitutionally puts presidential power ahead of the Justice system[12][13][14].

Bush has broken the law with his spying program[15] and now he attempts to cover his assets again with a new bill which would be effective retroactively[16].

I have to say that we are in the Economy of the 'brand' and this understanding motivates me to say that what Harry Frankfurt described as our culture of 'bullshit[17]' has been elevated to the neo-uber-alles brand of 'Bushit[18].' And I must add that this culture of 'Bushit' cannot be overcome by having democrats win this upcoming election in November. In fact, realizing that even democrats are voting for unconstitutional bills, democrats are themselves full of 'bushits[19][20].”

George Lakoff is helping the democrats to 'frame[21]' their political views with a proper language as opposed to the conservative framed language of the republicans. But I disagree. Lakoff's concept of 'frame' reminds me of Senge's 'mental models[18]' and intelligent mental models are not the monopoly of any party, it is our personal and civil responsibility.

References

[1] White House "Statement by the President, United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture"; June 26, 2003  http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030626-3.html

[2] CTV.ca News "New Woodward book exposes Bush's Iraq failures"; September 29 2006 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060929/Henry_Kissinger_060929/20060929?hub=CTVNewsAt11

[3] DeYoung, Karen "Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight"; Washington Post, September 24, 2006 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092301130.html

[4] Talev, Margaret and Marisa Taylor "Foley checks into rehab as Republicans seek cover"; McClatchy Newspapers  http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15663214.htm

[5] Sanger, David E. "New Woodward Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq"; Ney York Times, September 29, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/29account.htm

[6] Editorial "Rushing off a Cliff "; New York Times, 28 September 2006 http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092806D.shtml

[7] Mackay, Neil "Two leaked reports, just one conclusion: the war on terror is fuelling terrorism"; Sunday Herald, October 1, 2006  http://www.sundayherald.com/58253

[8] Ross, Brian and Maddy Sauer "E-mails Show Foley Sought to Rendezvous with Page"; October 2, 2006 ABC News   http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/emails_show_fol.html 

[9] AMERICAblog "GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001" http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/10/gop-staff-warned-pages-about-foley-in.html

[10] Henry Kissinger, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger

[11] Davies, Nicolas J S "Bush confesses to war crimes"; Online Journal, September 11, 2006  http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1185.shtml

[12] Huq, Aziz "Sayonara to Checks and Balances?" HuffingtonPost.com. September 30, 2006 http://www.alternet.org/rights/42345/

[13] Shah, Anup "Military Commissions Act 2006—Unchecked Powers?"  Global Issues, September 30, 2006 http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/WarOnTerror/unchecked_powers.asp

[14] Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy On the Military Commissions Act, S. 3930, September 28, 2006 http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092806c.html

[15] Risen, James and Eric Lichtblau "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts"; New York Times, December 16, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?ei=5090&en=e32072d786623ac1&ex=1292389200

[16]Kellman, Laurie "House Approves Warrantless Wiretap Law"; AP, September 28, 2006  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801281_pf.html 

[17] Frankfurt, Harry G. “On Bullshit”; Princeton University Press http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7929.html

[18] deSantis, Mario “Bush's NeoConservatism: Bushels of Bushit”; Ensign, March 15, 2003 http://ensign.ftlcomm.com/desantisArticles/2002_700/desantis765/neoconserv.html

[19] Bush Watch “Is It Time To Eradicate The Democratic Party?”; September 29, 2006 http://www.bushwatch.com/bush.htm#democracy

[20] Moyers, Bill "Lincoln Weeps"; Tom Paine,  October 03, 2006 http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/03/lincoln_weeps.php

[21] Buzzflash “Inside the Frame (with George Lakoff)”; January 15, 2004 http://www.alternet.org/story/17574/

[18] Smith, Mark K. “peter senge and the learning organization”; infed, 2001 http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm