Bush Advisors Clarify His Statements On Mideast Oil

[hatrack]

They're "clarifying" his remarks already. That didn't take long!

WASHINGTON — One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting 75% of imports from there by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said yesterday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equal to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

EDIT

"This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said. He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.

Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official told Knight Ridder News Service that Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."

EDIT

It's also worth noting that less than 20% of our oil imports come from the Middle East. Funny, that didn't make it into the speech, either.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060202/NEWS02/602020405

[JuniperLea]

1. Didn't mean it literally...

Oh, you mean he lied. I get it now. Duh!

[ixion]

4. *snicker*

yep... ever known this reptile to tell the truth? :shrug:

[stepnw1f]

2. Also... Iraq Had Nothing to do with Oil

and oil had nothing to do with Iraq...:eyes:

[Toots]

3. "that Bush wanted to dramatize the issue"

Aren't those the exact words that author Frey used on Oprah to defend his LIES?

[Arkansas Granny]

14. So, should we sic Oprah on him?

[Evergreen Emerald]

40. The press won't question it

Perhaps Oprah will!

[jayfish]

5. He Needs To Dramatize...

the issue in a way he can fraking understand. Clueless...

Jay

[TahitiNut]

15. So, now it's called the "Dramatization of the Union"?? (Who knew?)

A new form of television: "Divorced From Reality TV". :puke:

[mikeytherat]

41. GW is suuuuuuuch a drama queen!

mikey_the_rat

[Virginian]

6. How long do the speech writers have to get it right the first time?

What is this SOTU06 ver 1.1?
What gets changed in 1.2?

So the televised SOTU is for the sheeple and then the revisions are released for those who were paying attention and had doubts and questions.

[mikeytherat]

10. I heard on NPR that there were 30 (!!) drafts of the SOTU speech.

And they still messed it up. Bra-vo!

mikey_the_rat

[Virginian]

30. Must have outsourced the SOTU writing

and the real meanings got mixed up in the translation.

Bush* is big on outsourcing. I wonder if the phone tapping has been outsourced or if they just brought in H-1b to do it?

[Arkansas Granny]

7. This is the part I like:

In a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."
I always take this sort of statement as meaning that this is the way that they explained it to Bush so he could understand.

[mikeytherat]

9. My fellow 'mericans: We had to lie to you, because you're so damn stupid.

That's what this says to me. We had to "dramatize" because you folks are too thick to understand reality-based examples.

I just LOVE being talked down like that!

mikey_the_rat

[savemefromdumbya]

8. Bush 'doesn't know his arse from his elbow'

[Chiyo-chichi]

11. and this will receive a lot of media play, right?

Katie Coulter is "looking into it" as we speak.

[tinrobot]

12. More proof he's just a puppet

Who says and does what he's told.

[Betsy Ross]

13. This is just not the way to start my morning.

Spewing coffee all over my computer from laughing so hard. If we didn't laugh...

[gratuitous]

16. So, when Dean says none of Abramoff's money went to the Democrats

The popular media claim he's a liar, even though what he said is "technically" true.

And when Bush says he's gonna reduce Middle East oil imports by 75%, by cracky, you're not supposed to take it "literally."

"Blessed are the Greek? Did anyone catch his name?"

[rd_kent]

17. What I mean to say is......

Fucking double talk. Why cant politicians just say what they mean and mean what they say. It infuriates me what this douchebag does, but its hard to point fingers when this kind of crap comes from both sides, everyday!!!!

[maxsolomon]

18. rd, you must admit its flowing more heavily from one side

but i feel ya

[rd_kent]

19. Absolutely, you're right.

I cant disagree with you, but I am frustrated with the jerkoffs who are SUPPOSED to be representing ME doing the same thing.

[maxsolomon]

28. do their names begin with Maria

& end with Cantwell?

[rd_kent]

32. Thats one, yes!!!

[derby378]

20. So, uh, are "we" still "addicted to oil?"

I just need to know before I convert the Camry to run on Willie Nelson's biodiesel.

[KansDem]

21. The Saudis must have got him on the phone and "set him straight"

"Keep this up, George, and we'll make the 'pretzel incident' look like a trip to the powder room!"

[underpants]

22. How CAN you clarify that? He read the teleprompter wrong???

Good lord.

[KansDem]

23. Yeah, just like all the "mis-information" from 9/11 and Iraq WMDs

We'll be told he was "mis-telepromptered"

Sad fact, it'll work with the sheeple!

[politicaholic]

24. Let me just clarify this whole fiasco really quick...President Bush was...

just being his normal pathologically deceptive incompetant self.

Why he would bring energy up in SOTU is pretty bold really because with the Iraq war, the Enron trials, Halliburton Iraq profits in the paper, and Oil industry just recording record profits, it would seem unwise for Bush to mention the 10,000 pound gorilla in the corner, i.e., his and Cheney's secret (up until now) 5 year old energy policy. It's surprising that only now that the $plan$ has come together that he's even going to ACT like he gives a shit. But to clarify...

What a prick.

[BrklynLiberal]

25. * and his speech writers just figure that most Americans are as stupid

as he is.
What a crock of crapola!!!!
Backpeddling to protect the interests of his family's Middle Eastern friends and the profits of his Big Oil Company Donater's profits.

And * talking to us about being addicted to oil is like the neighborood crack dealer talking to us about being addicted to crack!!! What a laugh. He just doesn't want us to buy it from other crack dealers, but he sure as hell isn't going to stop selling it to us!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[neuvocat]

26. I shall clarify the truth by lying to you.

Then I shall lie to you some more. Then hopefully you will be confused because you didn't pay attention well enough the first time. This may be unlikely, given that what I said in the first place was actually very clear.

That will not deter me however from trying to do so anyway. When that fails (as I am sure it will at this point) I will to my old standby.

I will act like I am frustrated that you are "stupid" and can't understand a word I am saying no matter how often I tried to explain it. Then if I have to, I will throw in a few bits about how you are a liberal who can't comprehend anything and its all your fault.

Then I'll engage in my usual tough-guy talk while walking backwards. Hopefully by then my paid bullies will take over. If that doesn't work, then I'll really, really hope that this whole thing just goes away.

[Gronk Groks]

27. Ok, let me get this straight, The most heavily vetted speech of the year..

...and they have to explain that it is not what they meant to say.

Well at least they admitted that they lied. Unlike the "yellow cake" quote which (I believe) they still haven't admitted was a lie.

How do you know shrub is lying?
He opens his mouth...

[Coastie for Truth]

29. Back to "American Blood for Foreign Oil"

Where next - Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela?

[Gronk Groks]

31. Oh, this is why he changed his mind....(NYT Article)

Diplomatically, Mr. Bush's ambitious call for the replacement of 75 percent of the United States' Mideast oil imports with ethanol and other energy sources by 2025 upset Saudi Arabia, the main American oil supplier in the Persian Gulf. In an interview on Wednesday, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said he would have to ask Mr. Bush's office "what he exactly meant by that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/02energy.html?hp&ex=1138942800&en=884f904a8b1146b8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

(Edited to include link)

[SillyGoose]

42. BINGO!! We have a winner. Our "friends", the Saudis, weren't too

happy with Junior's comments so they had to be clarified immediately.

Surprise, surprise.

[liberal N proud]

33. What is one moe lie from the regime?

At this point you can count on everything they say to be a pile of horse shit.

[DRoseDARs]

34. So you could say he was for foreign oil before he was against it...

...and now he's for it again.

Flip-flop-flapper :eyes:

[LonelyLRLiberal]

35. Your choice - he's a liar - he's incompetent - the sheeple are stupid -

[BrklynLiberal]

36. hmmmmm How about all of the above?

[ClintonTyree]

37. If you invade the countries and steal their oil.............

does that count as "not importing"? :shrug: That's what the GOP plan seems to be. I mean, why PAY for the stuff when we've got all of these bunker busters, tomahawk missiles and stuff lying around? If we don't use them that'll put a lot of people in the defense industry out of work (it seems to be the ONLY industry we WON'T outsource anymore) and the bush economic miracle :puke: will be severely damaged! As "Country Joe McDonald" says, "there's plenty good money to be made, by supplyin' the Army with the tools of the trade".....

Oh, the war in Iraq WASN'T about oil, was it. :eyes:

bush remains the biggest liar this country has ever had as president, hands down.

[Joe Chi Minh]

38. "It's also worth noting that less than 20% of our oil imports come

from the Middle East. Funny, that didn't make it into the speech, either".

Actually, I think it was his roundabout way of justifying the imperialistic grounds of the war in Iraq; elliptically acknowledging it. "Heck you people are such gas-guzzlers, you sure don't want me to let your gas supply dry up, do you".

[ucmike]

39. "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."

meaning: we didn't tell the truth because we work on perception and false realities.

truth destroys the carefully crafted perceptions we are creating. besides, the rubes wouldn't take kindly to realizing we've got them all fooled.