Inaugural Sound And Fury: The Stuff Of Captions

[displacedtexan]

Michael Gerson's inaugural address, as read by George W. yesterday, was full of it of sound and fury.

Your scrivener now presents highlights from Mr. Gerson's speech, accompanied by corresponding images from yesterday's American Coronation:

There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.

From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth.

My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve, and have found it firm.

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself - and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character.

When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.

Poor Michael Gerson!

Michael Gerson, President Bush's 40-year-old speechwriter, had a mild heart attack in mid-December that put him in intensive care for two days. The timing could not have been worse for Mr. Gerson: it was the height of speechwriting season, and Mr. Bush's second Inaugural Address and 2005 State of the Union address were menacingly close.

So two short weeks later, Mr. Gerson was back in the office full time to deal with a boss who has never taken a hands-off approach to his speechwriters' prose.

As recently as late last week, Mr. Gerson said, the president was making significant revisions almost daily to final drafts of the Inaugural Address. Mr. Bush does not write large portions of his speeches himself, but he does like to aggressively prune and to second- and third-guess.

"He reads it in the evening and he'll usually have changes the next day," Mr. Gerson said in an interview on his cellphone on Friday as he paced the halls in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House. "He will take out whole sentences that he thinks are repetitive or interrupt the flow when he's reading it aloud. And then he'll want some explanatory material added."

"Explanatory material," Mr. Gerson?

... a poor player,
That struts and frets upon the
stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a
tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury,
Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare
Macbeth, act 5, scene 5

Heavy, heavy sigh.

Note:
Links to the speech & the info on Gerson are posted on my blog:
http://ascrivenerslament.blogspot.com/

[LostInAnomie]

1. God Damn I Hate Bush

eom

[remfan]

2. Very nicely done!

:thumbsup:

[displacedtexan]

3. Thanks!

I'm just so freeping mad today!

It's the blatant freeping hypocrisy!

[ClintonTyree]

4. very, VERY Nice!

A fitting tribute to a man that doesn't even read a newspaper in the morning, or PDBs evidently, but considers himself a speechwriter of the highest order.
Another testament to his ego, his blind, raging thoughts of his own image in History.
History will demand it's own account of this self centered, dimwitted spoiled little rich white boy. I'm sure History will not be as kind as he would wish.

[blondeatlast]

5. Nice work, but depressing.

This belongs on the homepage.

Sigh...

[Inland]

6. Is the irony of the Bush speech obvious to Bush supporters?

Fact is that freedom and liberty have always taken a back seat to alleged "security" in Bush's actions. Currently both American citizens and foreigners are held permanently without trial, for security reasons; the actions of the Bush administration are secret, for security reasons; Iraq is full of checkpoints, no-go zones, and a destroyed city or two, for security reasons; we buddy up to countries that range from large prisons to the merely repressive, for security reasons.

Fact is that only after the real reason for attacking Saddam, security, turned out to be idiotic and false, did Bush make the freedom and liberty of others a talking point. He didn't mean it then, and he didn't mean it now.

Bush takes words that better men have used for good, and applies them to whatever actions he takes. Only people of no values or morals could be so pathological to speak, or listen, to 22 minutes of a call to sacrifce all for freedom and liberty.

[displacedtexan]

7. Brilliantly stated, Inland!

Bush takes words that better men have used for good, and applies them to whatever actions he takes.

That's the BEST description of George W.'s motives that I've ever read!

[Inland]

12. I have my moments. Feel free to use it. nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Well-done. You ought to make it into a webpage :^)

---------------------------------------------------------
"We the people" have no voice in the USA!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[displacedtexan]

9. Try this link.

http://www.ascrivenerslament.blogspot.com/

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Doh! Missed that.. No coffee in me yet. *g* Thanks!

---------------------------------------------------------
"We the people" have no voice in the USA!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[katinmn]

10. great juxtaposition!

I like the insight on the speech writer, too.

We can see from Bush's delivery that he is just mouthing the words. There's never any emotion or understanding of the words.

[spotbird]

13. Were the girls raised by wolves?

Cover your mouth when you yawn.

[Stockholm]

14. Big coronation kick n/t

[displacedtexan]

15. Thanks, Stockholm!

DU is moving very quickly this morning.