Except when it’s anti-Bush. I really hate this president. I am a Canadian who loves this country, and this guy is a complete embarrassment. I absolutely believe George Bush is a war criminal. I really wish someone had the guts to put the question to him in an interview.
“Mr. President, you’ve authorized torture. Over 4,000 men and women have died in a war that most people knowwas absolutely unnecessary. It is now well known that intelligence was manipulated to get us into Iraq. Are you a war criminal? And should you be tried as one?”
I would love to hear one – just ONE – credible journalist ask him this question. We won’t though because it’s the MSM. And we all know the MSM sucks. MSM bias towards the left? Pleeeeze.
Did I mention how much I hate this president? Hate is a word I don’t use often.
Sorry. Just on a rant. I freaking hate George Bush. I feel terrible for Americans that this guy will be in your history books.
David
In the history books is OK, as long as it includes the phrase “hanged for treason.”
Stoic
“…I feel terrible for Americans that this guy will be in your history books.”
Just imagine how I feel.
So, how hard is it to become a Canadian?
GOms
Well, I have little sympathy for Americans at this point, not because I don’t like America, but because when I was professing my own beliefs and suspicions about what a cockfuck this jackass Bush was, I was being ridiculed as a conspiracy theorist and someone who had my head up my ass. I, along with millions of people around the world saw Bushfuck fro what he was: a dumbass with money. And many people protested against the war and showed disdain for his unilateral bullshit…and so…ya know what? I guess y’all’ll just have’ta suffer through the last few months…unfortunately, because political conservatives who think they know more about shit that us liberals have punished the whole fuckin’ world by voting this moronic, imbecile into office. And because of the type of campaigning you supported and helped Bush forge ahead with, people like John Jackass McCain will be able to do exactly the same fucking thing and just deny and lie throughout the whole campaign and a bunch of old, fucked-up, retarded hillbillies will get this goofball elected and he will die about 6 months after he takes office and Karl Rove will be able to invoke some article he intalled in a piece of no-name legislation in 2003 that allows him to be President.
Whine, Whine, Whine…
Wilfred
It’s not the job of the press to confront Bush on torture – they already reported it, that’s how we know about it. Instead it is the duty of elected representatives of both parties to confront these practices, and everything else that’s been done the last few years.
Nobody does.
Marshall
No need to go into details. The real question to ask is
“Mr. President, what will be your defense at The Hague ?”
It has the advantage that it can also be asked of Condi Rice and a host of others.
Person of Choler
Two minutes of hate per day was enough for the folks in George Orwell’s “1984”.
He was prophetic, but he underestimated. Folks here prove the need to rave 24/7.
Notorious P.A.T.
Marry a Canadian.
Link
Rosali
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage.
Dennis - SGMM
“My attitude is, if they’re still writing about (number) one, 43 doesn’t need to worry about it.” –George W. Bush, on his legacy, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007
KCinDC
I agree that the guy’s a war criminal, but not that there’s a First Amendment right to interrupt speeches.
Dug Jay
Canadian? I thought you lived and worked in the Atlanta area.
grendelkhan
A lot more than four thousand people have died in the Iraq War. They’re just not all Americans, but they’re certainly human beings, and they count. Iraqi corpses are exactly as dead as American corpses. Please don’t forget that.
GOms
Dug, they allow Canadians into America…with proper ID, of course!
DR
@GOms:
Yes, the allow Canadians into America. Then they arrest them, and send them to Syria to get tortured. Proper ID has nothing to do with it.
Conversely, Americans are quite welcome in Canada, and we promise not to treat you badly.
Damned at Random
So how do history textbooks (as opposed to the history adults read) treat Watergate? My admittedly vague recall of public school history is that there were only heroes in the white house. The treatment of Nixon should be a clue as to the treatment of Bush.
jrg
I agree. You have to translate “We Believe in the First Amendment here in America” from Bush to English. Bush was saying that they were not going to shoot the protesters or put them in Gitmo. I find this comforting to hear from a man who keeps his word. /sarcasm
Bush is a war criminal. To this day, he’s using the threat of military action against Iran to influence the presidential election.
If blackmailing voters into voting Republican through the threat of military action is not treason, then what is? Hundreds of thousands of people are already dead so that Bush could win in 2004, and we’re going to let this asshole kill more Americans and Iranians for the 2008 elections?
And where the fuck are the missing emails? If Bush is not a war criminal, then why was he routing email through the RNC, and why did he destroy so much of the White House correspondence that took place during the start of the war in Iraq?
Mr. Warmth
Well, here’s a cheerful thought: Walnuts has to figure out what to do with the shithead at the Republican convention. Lots of luck with that one.
Dug Jay
Michael’s post here prompted a post on another blog, together with a related comment from one of that site’s readers:
grandpa john
One thing we do know though is the the quality of Trolls here has sure gone to hell. about on the par with KLo’s lunacies
Nylund
As an American that just spent two years in Canada, I can state that they do treat you pretty well, but you will encounter a fair amount of anti-americanism. There are a lot of Canadians who think most people in the US have a southern accent and is really into Jesus. I can understand any anti-Bush feelings, but much of the anti-Americanism is very misguided and misinformed. For example, I got VERY sick of hearing about how the guy who invented basketball was Canadian, or how Alexander Graham Bell had a vacation home in Canada, and how this proved that the US stole all their ideas from Canada and won’t give them credit. And you can’t go more than a week without the War of 1812 being brought up.
liberal
Wilfred wrote,
Why isn’t that the press’ job? As opposed to, say, confronting Clinton about all sorts of scandals irrelevant to actual matters of state?
Splitting Image
This is true, but it’s mostly due to Canadians’ inability to translate properly from Bushspeak into Canadian English.
In Bushspeak, Americans are divided into Americans and un-Americans, Bush himself being one of the greatest living Americans. Canadians mostly dislike Americans, but tend to like un-Americans (which means about 80% of the country, depending on who’s talking).
Unfortunately, Canadian linguistics tends to refer to both Americans and un-Americans as simply “American”, so you get people frothing at the mouth when they use the word without acknowledging any of the important contributions that un-Americans like Thomas Jefferson or Jimmy Carter have made over the centuries. Bushspeak is actually much more descriptive than Canadian English on this point. Bushspeakers are careful to indicate whether people are American or un-American every time they refer to them.
And, yeah, Canadian textbooks try to shoehorn everyone with even a remote tie to Canada into the history books as a “Canadian”. It does work both ways though. We’ve been trying to have Celine Dion rebranded as an “American” for years.
Big E
re: “I would love to hear one – just ONE – credible journalist ask him this question. We won’t though because it’s the MSM. And we all know the MSM sucks. MSM bias towards the left? Pleeeeze.”
Bush is so far removed from reality it really wouldn’t matter what he was asked. When asked about $4.00 gas he replied that he hadn’t heard about that. Singular minded ideologues like Bush & Co. just laugh at uncomfortable questions by saying ‘you don’t understand’. The Dems are weak, afraid and will do nothing but bluster and rant. There will not be any trials or even ‘real’ investigations into what has happened the last 8 years. ‘They’ will get away with everything including bringing America to it’s knees, raiding the treasury and most importantly, needlessly wasting lives.
b-psycho
He’d probably ask what the Hague was…
More seriously, I do think we need to be careful not to act as if everything was all honest and perfect before Dubya came along — most of his crew were veterans of previous administrations, even of his father’s, after all. His innovation is not in the evil itself, but the blatantness of it. Even if by some miracle Bush & this entire crime syndicate were arrested and put on trial immediately following inauguration of his replacement, without a thorough questioning of the train of political thought that got us to this point, & an outright dismissal of “Might makes Right” & American Exceptionalism as excuse to hold the rest of the world hostage, the book would not be closed.
It needs to be more accepted to not just nibble around the edges of global dominance but openly ask “why the hell do we need a military budget that makes up half the military spending in the WORLD?”. The end of the Bush Era needs to lead to questioning the worth of hegemony itself, or there will be others after him.
David
What the hell… I’m an American and *I* have no more patience with Americans who have southern accents and are really into Jesus. I don’t know why the hell Nylund thinks Canadians should.
The Mayberry Machiavellis (cue the Souther accents) exploited the support of JesusLand to set the entire world on the rotten fucking course it’s on now. I, for one, would be more than happy for Canada’s displeasure or any other country’s — as needed — to force this one into changes it will probably never make otherwise.
J. Michael Neal
I think that it is clear that all marriages between Canadians should be annulled, and Canadians forbidden to marry each other, just to give as many of us a chance at freedom as possible.
Dug Jay
Most of the comments in this thread support the decision of Kos to ban such morons from his site.
b-psycho
Why do you even come here if you hate it so much? Masochist?
Dug Jay
Part of the job keeping records for the government, etc.
Dave_Violence
Oh come off it, the anti-free speech meme is getting really old. So old, that it has no meaning as blogs like this an the myriad others would never be heard from again. Interrupt a speech, be it one by Bill Clinton or anyone else and you should get busted, after all, the place wasn’t rented for you to speak… And you have a lot of nerve, as a Canadian, to say anything to us Americans about free speech, bitch.
Anyway, really HATE George W, eh? HATE him, eh? A burning, FLAMING hatred, eh? I wonder how you and your kind will channel all that hate-energy come 20 January and beyond.
liberatemeiexinfernis
Its no use saying anything against Bush or the MSM. If we wanted MSM to have the cajones to ask Bush if what he did was tantamount to war crimes, then we should have held them responsible when Reagan was in power. Reagan was the real culprit, the one who exploited Pax Americana to the nth degree, the one who provided aid to all sort’s of terrorist groups like Contras, the Afghan and Arab Mujahadeen in Afghanistan (they spawned the Taliban), and cajoled, aided and abetted the growth of right wing ideology in places like Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Bush is only an extension of Reagan. If Bush had decided to actually be a real compassionate conservative the GOP and the MSM would have impeached him themselves. Trying saying anything against Reagan in the media or even in public and you will get howls of derision and blood curdling cries not only from the conservatives but also centrist Democrats like Bob Kerrey, HRC, Dianne Fienstein etc
Chris Johnson
WTF would WE know about free speech, at this point?
Props to the hecklers but mostly for this reason: there is a long standing pattern of Bush’s people organizing events to control the location and position of attendees. You have every right to come and openly protest. It’s somewhat hypothetical when the organizers corral you in an entirely separate place where nobody can see and hear you.
Kinda cuts down on that ‘free to protest or say whatever you like’ thing, doesn’t it?
If it was all private property and strictly Bushco’s business, I’d approve of their having a right to do this, but they are the same people with the power to have you dragged off, tortured and locked up indefinitely, they are the ones that committed war crimes using the money that they LEGALLY demanded from me, and that makes them responsible to answer publically for these things.
They’re not some separate private organization that should be left alone. They take my money (that’s the rules) and among other things, commit crimes with it.
I say heckle away since there is no way left to honorably protest. You only get one scream about the Hague or whatever before you’re dragged off, and hopefully you’re not beaten or imprisoned. Probably.
Let there be more protesters, more hecklers. I’d like to see lots of people spontaneously start yelling as they see protesters dragged off. Why not grab them and try to resist their being dragged off?
Those people are right on the facts, and if they had a means to legitimately and openly protest at these things they would use it. Being allowed to stand in the parking lot (or an entirely separate location) does not count. Hell, man, if people were allowed to hold signs or have protesty t-shirt slogans they wouldn’t technically need to yell. If they weren’t getting dragged off immediately, they wouldn’t need to yell sound bites as loud as possible before being dragged off and silenced…
Seriously, what the fuck guys.
Don’t give me this shit about how it’s so rude of them if you’re not honest about how few other options they’ve got.
Krista
And I don’t doubt for a second that you were one of them, Dug.
As for everybody else here, show of hands? How many of you have been banned from Kos?
Kirby
I never really read Kos much, and never commented there. However I once got myself into trouble over at Jesus General for my questioning of their use of a movie clip featuring George Allen dressed as a confederate soldier in order to prove he is a racist.
I mean, hey, if you want to go after George Allen you can find plenty of ammo to prove he’s a piece of shit. I just thought the movie clip was silly.
But I was never banned from the site (to my knowledge) but I did eventually lose interest.
This is one of the few political sites I frequent, though I don’t always agree with the guys here, I find there is enough variance of opinion to keep it thoughtful.
And I also like it when John talks about video games.
Chris Johnson
Nope. Kos is kind of too moonbatty for me. I still think there should be more and louder protesters though.
I think the fact that there were a couple people with the balls to correctly yell about war crimes is a GREAT fourth of July celebration. Way to be what this country is REALLY about guys- highfive.
And I’m glad that so far you weren’t dragged off and shot, just probably set up for extensive personal spying on you, possibly background checks to see if you could be jailed for outstanding warrants and all that jazz. We already know they’ll ratfuck you and it’s nice that they won’t just shoot you in the head where you stand. Yay, pretense of civilization, long may it wave.
Cheers for having the balls to speak truth to power knowing full well they WILL fuck with you for it.
And again, no I wasn’t banned from Kos. For God’s sake. I’m probably not liberal enough for Kos but still applaud these hecklers/protesters/whatever. More commie pinkos plz.
TenguPhule
“Mr Bush, do you believe your death by hanging will be more or less dignified then Saddam Hussian’s?”
TenguPhule
And then you morons move here and bother us.
John Cole
I must have missed that. Anyone have a link? Or is this nonsense coming from the brain trust at Protein Wisdom?
b-psycho
I don’t even have an account at Kos. Never have, never will.
As for freedom of speech & what it has to do w/ this event: Chris Johnson absolutely nailed it. According to “our” alleged system of government, we by default own the fucking ground that our politicians stand on every day while doing whatever the hell it is they do these days. They hold their positions only because we LET them, and in principle can revoke them should they prove to not deserve it. Therefore, they have no standing to prevent ANY citizen from speaking their mind. Their job is to hear us, if they see that as a problem then they should be removed, not us.
nightjar
No link of course, but they do provide quotation marks allegedly from Kos. The PW brain trust are just bored, I think. No candidate to support, the gooper brand in the shitter and their hero Bush pulling a hefty 23% polling approval and on his way out the door. What’s a wingnut to do but navel gaze, and sling a little feces.
Chris Johnson
More notably, if they expect to be exempt from rude and impolite methods of mind-speaking, they may not rule out of order all the more respectful and polite methods.
If they’re going to prohibit signs and t-shirts and such things, it becomes obligatory to escalate matters, speak aloud to them, if that won’t work yell at them and kick up a fuss.
Bush has himself photographed in front of barracks where they put a coat of fresh paint over ROT, rather than pay to house soldiers in non-rotting barracks. He’ll stand our soldiers up for hours in order to make political speeches in front of them as if they were studio flats, have them standing in disciplined rows in front of the painted rotting barracks. It’s a pattern, and it’s unAmerican. We weren’t always like this.
Bush deserves much more disrespect than just to be yelled at about war crimes. That is the LEAST he should have to face. To argue that he deserves to not even confront that is frankly obscene.
Redhand
I think this is true. To take one example, a minor scandal by Bush Administration standards is the recent disclosure by the DoJ IG that DoJ’s “Honors” and other attorney hiring probrams under both Ashcroft and Gonzo were conducted in clear violation of the Civil Service Act, because candidates were investigated, screened and de-selected on the basis of their perceived “liberal” politics.
Can anyone imagine asking Bush how this happened, and what steps he’s going to take to prosecute or punish those involved? Of course not. I guarantee he would say he “wasn’t aware of” it, and that in any event it’s a “matter for the Justice Dept.”
But why is the MSM giving him a pass? All I can figure is they know they won’t get any meaningful response from him, so why bother? It’s almost like they’re giving him an exemption for being a clueless idiot.
Thomas Jackson
Well we all know how much Canadians value free speech.
Its sad that your site has decided to plumb the depths of the derranged Left’s septic field. Really as if a bold assertion makes for a compelling argument?
I for one would like to use Lincoln’s POW diet on all detainees. Why all those Americans at Camp Douglas just had a jolly time being straved to death in numbers that exceeded Andersonville. Or perhaps we shouldn’t be using the methods we use to train our own troops on the innocent little choirboys at Gitmo.
I don’t know what happened to Canada but it is a lesson for all Americans what happens to a nation when it becomes a fascist government. People get the government they deserve.
Chris Johnson
Ok, now I’m REALLY confused. Please translate that from the original Klingon, Thomas Jackson…
GOms
As a Canadian expat in Kyoto, I often have to remind people here, that they don’t hate Americans, they hate American gov’t…in Korea it was the same thing. Canadians don’t necessarily hate Americans, but we sure hate the gov’t that has infiltrated our politics and forced us to start drug wars, etc. As many of you may not know, Marc Emery, a Canadian who has been supplying marijuana seeds to the world for more than 10 or 15 yrs was arrested in 2006 by a “joint” force of RCMP and DEA in Vancouver. He is facing extradition and a minimum of 10yrs in prison for something that he has been honestly and openly been doing and paying taxes on for yrs. This is the type of bullshit that Canadians and people around the world hate about Amerika.
So when Canadians talk about 1812 or Bell, etc, it is more of a knee-jerk reaction to the seemingly ubiquitous American attitude that everything is, or should be Americanized…Manifest Destiny and all that bullcrap!
GOms
Oh my fuck, I just read TJ’s comment…damn, and I just got this nice new Japanese yukata for my birthday and now its got pee on it!
Canada is on the cusp of diving into the septic world of Bushist policies. You have the largest population of prisoners in the world. You have one of the largest gaps in rich and poor in the world. You have the stupidest person to ever be elected, yes, elected into office at the helm, and you are calling Canada fascist!? Fuck, put on the H-E-double hockeysticks skates, Satan’s bestest are ready to take the ice…
Mike D.
Surprise #4 about Canada is the lack of free speech, indeed, the balls-out prior restraint censorship.
I still recall the smell of Sharpies along the border when the “Druuna” issue of _Heavy Metal_ hit the stands in New York back in the 80’s. How long does it take the RCMP to black out 700,000 cartoon nipples, like they’re fucking Nips or something, the chick goes thirsty unless she gets a load to swallow but her nipples must be redacted with fat black markers? What the fuck? Fortunately the Soviets were falling apart at the seams and so the RCMP didn’t have to take time out from nipple-blackening to make the traditional full report to Moscow, which would have made the grotesque exercise even more time consuming.
Richard Bottoms
Hmmm. I seem to recall you joining this board as a Republican supporting conservative. So even though you can’t vote in the US, your previous efforts were at least rhetorically in support of the GOP. That being the case, stick your pain where the sun don’t shine.
Same to any other Republican who voted for George Bush in 2006 and only now think that might have been a bad idea.
Piss off.
YellowJournalism
Marry a Canadian? The paperwork to become a permanent resident is tiresome. Took me two years(!) to get it, but it’s worth it. As of November, I’ll be able to apply for citizenship in two years. (You have to wait three after getting your permanent residency.)
I love it here, and I don’t think I could ever be as happy living back in the United States, especially if I went back to the area I was born and raised in. I’m still getting the hang of the national and local politics, but it’s got its fair share of sex scandals, outrageous policies, ineffective party members, and general assholes. You even have the public versus private health care debates! (Thank god, though, that the public health care is the norm, though.)
I have only two beefs with this country, though. The first is that I can’t sing the damn ABC song to my son without having to ruin the flow by saying “zed” at the end. The second has to do with what everyone has mentioned above, how it bothers me that the first thing out of many peoples’ mouths when I mention that I’m an American is that my country’s government sucks the big one. Like I need the reminder, right? Even worse is when the person who mentions it tries to act superior, as if the Canadian government has no probs whatsoever.
Except when it’s my husband. Then he’s just doing it to get me all mad at him so we can make up later on. ; )
toujoursdan
Canada, like most of the world, has hate speech laws, but they really function in the same way obscenity laws function in the U.S.
You can say anything you want to anyone you want, but you can’t use the mass media (radio, TV, newspapers, billboards etc.) to broadcast hate to groups of people. I think the limitation on broadcast is reasonable given that hate radio played a huge role in the genocides in Germany and Rwanda, and hate speech leads to hate crimes all too often in western countries like the U.S. In Canadian law, the right of theatre patrons to be safe overrides your free speech right to shout fire in a crowded theatre.
I believe hate speech should remain illegal but think some of the provincial Human Rights Commissions sometimes go too far. I expect someone will launch a Charter challenge to them and the Canadian Supreme Court will end up limiting their power or getting rid of them altogether at some point. Their role is controversial in Canada and it likely to change.
The FCC heavily fines people who say obscene words and phrases on US radio and TV; that is what sent Howard Stern to satellite radio and cost CBS a million dollars in total fines for its wardrobe malfunction. So freedom of speech over the airwaves isn’t absolute in the U.S. either.
And if you are a degreed professional under 50 years old, getting into Canada is easy. Otherwise, you’d have to marry a Canadian.