THE UNFEELING PRESIDENT

[fooj]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3443


The Unfeeling President

By E.L. Doctorow / East Hampton Star

I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be.

<snip>

:cry: How do you reason with a man devoid of any human emotions?
Peace.

[NYCGirl]

1. You should hear the recording of Doctorow reading this...

it's shattering. Marty Kaplan played it on Air America a long time ago.

[fooj]

2. Really? Think we could find a link?

Thanks for the info...

[NYCGirl]

6. Looks like there's an MP3 recording on this page:

http://evilqueen.demesnes.net/archives/2004/10/the_unfeeling_p.php

[fooj]

13. It doesn't work. I appreciate you trying...I tried a few links---

and they don't work, either. I wonder what's up?

Peace.

[hiley]

17. Take Back the Media

Stranger talks about anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's 'bizarre and surreal' meeting with George W. Bush, 2 months after losing her son in Iraq.

Read the interview with Cindy Sheehan here.
http://www.tbtmradio.com/geeklog/public_html/index.php
Download the MP3 | RSS Feed

http://worldcantwait.org/

[fooj]

18. Thanks, hiley. Do you think you could help me find the audio for

this essay...

You're the "link" guru!!!:hi:

I've come up empty handed.

Peace.

[hiley]

19. NY Indymedia has the audio of this essay

however their site is down.
The New York City Indymedia website is currently down for a period of time, and you are invited to visit one of the other 120+ Indymedia sites in the interim (see below). The outage is due to a compromise (crack, but not hack) of the server which hosts the NYC IMC, on Saturday, July 16, 2005. This was due to an exploit of a vulnerability of another site hosted on the server, unrelated to IMC, running the drupal cms software.

snip---

http://nyc.indymedia.org/

Fooj,
I am still looking,too
Hiley

[evilqueen]

23. Corrected!

That's my blog and I have the mp3 of the file. The link in the entry was wrong due to moving my blog in January, but the link is now fixed and it works now.

Doctorow's speech text is here:
http://evilqueen.demesnes.net/archives/2004/10/the_unfeeling_p.php

And the mp3 file is here:
http://evilqueen.demesnes.net/mp3/e_l_doctorow.mp3

[fooj]

25. Right on! Thanks for that! Audio in the house!

Peace.:hi:

[fooj]

26. AUDIO- The Unfeeling President - mp3

Thanks to evilqueen for bringing us the audio! Very powerful.
***************************************************************
Doctorow's speech text is here:
http://evilqueen.demesnes.net/archives/2004/10/the_unfe...

And the mp3 file is here:
http://evilqueen.demesnes.net/mp3/e_l_doctorow.mp3

***************************************************************

Peace.:patriot:

[hiley]

28. evilqueen

Thank you so!
I am listening now !
Hiley:applause:

[LiberalVoice]

4. Off subject...

But I love your pic of dean! :D

[NYCGirl]

7. Thanks. That's a REAL Newsweek cover that was scheduled to be on the

newstands the week Saddam was found in his spiderhole. Needless to say, Dean's cover was bumped and never appeared.

[hiley]

29. Evilqueen's post has the mp3 working!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1956177&mesg_id=1957200

Thank you evilqueen!

[chelsea0011]

3. A well rehearsed play is what you call it...it's not a Presidency

[Lisa]

42. not even well-rehearsed sometimes ...

And when they do get spontaneous, there's a lot of flailing around. Real actors know what to do when something goes wrong onstage. The amateur Shakespeare group in my town cheerfully ad-libbed through a scene when someone missed an entrance. Judging by how the White House's "lead" froze up when he pretended to read a prop book -- W couldn't hack it as a spear-carrier in "Troilus and Cressida", let alone in a presidential role.

[Kerrytravelers]

5. This man is a war criminal. He and all his little pals.

They are not human. They can not be. What human could do so much destruction and still not care?

[AuntiBush]

11. A "Sub-Human." That's what kind.

One that is self-serving, spoiled, total self-arrogance, void of any feelings for others. One must feel compassion and other's pain in order to be anything but... what does that tell you.

And we wonder why he does not get it. It's because he's self-conscionable, above all law because his daddy was Mr. CIA/Mr. Pres and he can do no wrong. Have you seen this site: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/bushco/bush_crime_family.htm and http://www.evilgopbastards.com/

Very telling... :puke:

Bastard is ruining, no... he has already ruined our country!

[T Town Jake]

27. A "Sub-Human"? Methinks you've washed up in the wrong place...

...this is DU, a liberal, progressive website: take that "Sub-Human" talk over to where it belongs, Freeperland or perhaps Stormfront.
It has no place here.

[hiley]

31. Okay, can you explain ?

Bush is sub human an evil, asshole blood thirsty bastard.
Hiley

[AuntiBush]

33. Thank you So Much, "hiley."

You hear... thank you "hiley" so very much. You know, I honestly have some nights when I can not sleep. Oh, I go from up to down depending on the what's going on with our gov't. But when I found this place, by pure accident after the Nov. 04 elections, I knew I had found a wonderful common ground; a place I felt welcomed to share my good moments, and the down times, too.

But as "hiley" states, I too feel Bush is sub human, evil, and yes... a blood thirsty bastard. It's an opinion I share with Hiley whom came to my aide.

:hi: <--- Hiley!

Last time I checked, our freedom of speech and dissent verbally was still intact, less I missed something today.

[hiley]

37. Your welcome AuntiBush and thank you for all of

your great posts here.
Bush is sub human, I mean really it is an easy call.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4200519&mesg_id=4200519

C-SPAN's BookTV has informed 9/11 CitizensWatch that they will
broadcast the Beyond Downing Street Town Hall meeting featuring Nafeez M.
Ahmed, author of The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of
Terrorism, on Saturday, July 30 at 8PM EST, Sunday, July 31 at 1PM EST
and 1:15AM Monday, August 1st (late Sunday night).

This presentation by eminent researcher Ahmed was recorded at the
American University during the Washington, D.C. Emergency Truth Convergence
<www.truthemergency.us > last Saturday, July 23 from 4-5:30PM.

For more information about The War on Truth visit:
http://www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksW/war_on_truth.html

MORE GOOD NEWS: This past Sunday, Ahmed was a featured guest with
Fareed Zacharias, host on the PBS show, Foriegn Exhange.

“On the subject ‘How and Why America was Attacked on 11 September, 2001,’ the best, most balanced report, thus far, is by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed...”

—Gore Vidal, in The Observer
http://www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksW/war_on_truth.html

[AuntiBush]

32. Awww... I'm Confused.

Freeperland? You're kidding, right. I'm a proud liberal. Need I say this? Sorry if my post did not agree with you.

And what/where is Stormfront, respectfully? Are you saying I'm not welcomed here any longer? Freeper? I'm here feeling pretty glum at times, but this just makes my heart sink even more so, as I felt so welcomed here - thought I found solace w/like-minded diverse individuals.

[T Town Jake]

36. "Awww... I'm confused."

Doesn't surprise me in the least.

"I'm a proud liberal"

With talk about "Sub-Humans"? Coulda fooled me.

[hiley]

38. I repeat Bush is Sub-Human

Guess you have never read how Bush treated Cindy Sheenan and the other Mothers from Gold Star Families.

Have you heard about all of the deaths of our Soldiers for NO good reason ?

Have you heard about the Iraqi Civilians being murdered ?

What about the condoning of Torture ?

Cluster Bombs ?

DU weapons ?


Hello....


T Town Jake
there is no reason for your statement to AuntiBush we are not at freerepublic are we ?
Hiley

Global Eye

Dark Waters

By Chris Floyd
Published: July 8, 2005

Last Friday, the former physician of ex-President George H.W. Bush wrote a guest column for The Washington Post. Two days later, the attorney general appointed by current President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad. These seemingly unrelated events are not only inextricably linked; together they form a portrait of a nation gone wretchedly astray, hurtling into a moral void from which there may be no return.There was nothing unusual about the physician, Dr. Burton Lee III, doing a piece for the Post, of course; the paper is the house organ of the U.S. political elite, and a whole troop of loyal Bush Family retainers make regular appearances in its editorial pages, lauding the son who has now ascended the throne. What is remarkable is that Lee came not to praise the younger Bush, but to bury him -- with hard truths about the torture regime he has installed in his "terror war" gulag.

Lee, a former military doctor, denounced Bush's use of military medical personnel to help "set the conditions for interrogation": withholding treatment from tortured prisoners, breaking medical confidence to tell interrogators of prisoners' physical and psychological weak spots, and other heinous practices approved by the White House and codified in Pentagon directives for military medical staff.

The good doctor is right to be shocked: The shadow of Josef Mengele hovers over these deliberate perversions of medical ethics. Yet Bush has not only countenanced these crimes against humanity -- he has commanded that medical personnel commit them. This level of open, legalized barbarity has not been seen in the U.S. government since the days of slavery and the Indian wars.

Lee also shredded the big lie that the noble "terror war" had only been temporarily tainted by a few "bad apples," now removed from the wholesome barrel. In denouncing the "systematic, government-sanctioned torture and excessive abuse of prisoners in the war on terror," Lee noted the true extent of the criminality -- and those who bear the ultimate responsibility for it. He wrote:

"The widespread reports of torture and ill-treatment -- frequently based on military and government documents -- defy the claim that this abusive behavior is limited to a few noncommissioned officers at Abu Ghraib or isolated incidents at Guantanamo Bay. When it comes to torture, the military's traditional leadership and discipline have been severely compromised up and down the chain of command. Why? I fear it is because the military has bowed to errant civilian leadership."

Here Lee cited the literally thousands of pages of evidence produced by the Army's own investigators detailing systematic torture and murder throughout Bush's world-engulfing gulag. In a separate interview that followed his column, Lee pointed readers to the new report by Physicians for Human Rights, or PHR, titled "Break Them Down: The Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by U.S. Forces." As Lee explained, psychological torture can be even more damaging and long-lasting than a bout of physical abuse -- something he learned firsthand from treating the victims of French torture in Algeria.

snip---http://context.themoscowtimes.com/print.php?aid=143810

[hiley]

40. I give you the sub human bush...

click on this link and it is only part of what Bush has done..
WARNING.
IT IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC

The REAL Iraq War
http://www.awitness.org/journal/real_iraq_war.html

[hiley]

30. AuntiBush

correct.
Thanks for those links.
Hiley

[marylanddem]

8. Thank you for posting this

it expresses/exposes so well this shameless freak of a President

[AuntiBush]

12. Yup...

A shameless freak, is right. You left off "of nature."

[indepat]

9. Seem to recall W feeling OPEC's pain as oil prices spiraled upward

during his early days in the WH, so he definitely feels some pain should my memory serve me correctly.

[AuntiBush]

34. You're Right "indepat!" For O.I.L. & $$$

Good call! :)

:hi:

[ironman202]

10. an empty suit

Conservatives lionize a President who speaks of “freedom,” as he enacts a program which threatens civil liberties here at home on the most fundamental level, and who speaks of “progress” in Iraq as that country descends further into bloody chaos with each day that passes. Bush is a man for whom concepts mean precisely nothing. The phrases he employs to justify his actions are devoid of content, and they refer to no specifics at all. And almost all his actions lead to results in reality which contradict the “ideas” he says he supports in utterly disastrous ways. FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT HAS THIS "CONSERVATIVE" PRESIDENT CONSERVED? THERE IS ZERO CONSERVATION IN HIS TERMS. THE TERM IS WITHOUT MEANING TO HIM.

This is much deeper, and much worse, than mere hypocrisy, which is almost clean in intellectual terms by comparison. When someone is hypocritical, there is at least the hope of reaching him if we are able to make him see and acknowledge how his words are contradicted by his actions (and/or by other words). If someone alters his behavior after understanding his error, it is because he acknowledges at least to some extent the connection between words and particulars.

But if someone uses words and concepts in a manner which consistently reveals that those words mean absolutely nothing to him, it is not possible to reach him at all. There is nothing to reach—in the sense that there is no mind there capable of understanding what you are saying. On the most basic level, such people do not know how to think. When someone functions in this way—that is, when he is not capable of thinking in the most rudimentary manner—there is one method of survival that tends to overshadow all the others: membership in a group, or tribe, which he hopes will protect him.

[fooj]

14. Thanks for your post. Welcome to DU!!!

Peace.

[hiley]

15. Thank you fooj

In the last analysis we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe. We are as we behave - with a very small margin of credit for our unmanifested vision of how we might behave if we could take the trouble.

~Geoffrey L. Rudd, The British Vegetarian,
September/October
1962

[understandinglife]

16. "But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of

... people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war.

ibid; http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3443

I remember reading it the day after it was published. And, the words "The president we get is the country we get." caused me, then, to wonder if we would ever actually elect a President, again.

We know now that it is unlikely we will ever have a valid election as long as Bush and the neoconsters continue to control the vote-counting.

WATCH IT; SPREAD IT http://www.bushflash.com/right.html

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. Did you see the faux brain scans and news article that DistressedAmerican

put together? You should:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4185966
Thread title: BREAKING: Brain Scans Confirm Damage To The President's "Morality Center"

Great faux graphics - and in a real sense, all too true.

[BamaBecky]

21. "of such moral vacancy "

How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.

soooooooo true
Bama

[hiley]

22. needs a boost

:9

[AuntiBush]

35. Cheer-Up, BamaBecky...

We're all here for one another, through the good and bad moments.

:hi:

[lumpy]

24. Many thanks

Excellent!

[Swamp Rat]

39. IT cannot be reasoned with.

[hiley]

41. Swamp Rat I have a link for

you that my friend found today.
Be warned it is extremely GRAPHIC.
The Real Iraq WAR

http://www.awitness.org/journal/real_iraq_war.html