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MANDELA NOT DEAD; SIMPLE POINT NOT UNDERSTOOD

Commenter NSC asks:

Please tell me you didn’t REALLY think Bush meant Saddam killed the actual Nelson Mandella?

And leftist Grace Pettigrew replies:

Bush said “Mandela is dead”. Mandela is NOT dead. He is 89 years old.

Bush thought Mandela had died, otherwise he would not have used his name in this context.

I’ve been recording leftist stupidity for years now, and this is a new peak. This is Olympian; in fact, this is Olympian with anabolic stupoids. Mary Katherine Ham blames Jon Stewart:

Thanks to Jon Stewart and a quick edit on last night’s Daily Show, the sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome will surely jump on a comment President Bush made yesterday that “Mandela is dead” ...

Of course, Stewart and the writers at the Daily Show knew this. There’s no way they saw the “Mandela is dead” clip without seeing the context. But the facts got in the way of an easy political joke. And, Stewart has the nerve to get all self-righteous on “Crossfire?” Ha.

Stewart also must know that a certain segment of his audience - the surprisingly large Grace Pettigrew demographic - is easily fooled. He’s played ‘em for chumps, and folks like Taylor Marsh will now be repeating his lie for years. So will Kevin Burton:

Just when you think you’ve figured out how stupid Bush is he goes one step lower and proves he has the IQ of a Guinea pig. Nelson Mandela is NOT dead - and - he doesn’t even LIVE in Iraq.

Genius. The Melbourne Herald Sun’s David Gardner continues the “Bush gaffe” meme:

Even for blunder-prone George Bush, it was a gaffe of toe-curling proportions.

Journalists who attended Bush’s press conference understood there was no gaffe, as did plastic turkey doofus Ana Marie Cox, who took only one second to realise what Bush was driving at:

Favorite surreal moment of this Bush presser so far: “People ask me, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela’s DEAD! Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas.”

It took me a second to realize the exact kind of cultural analogy he was making ...

She’s quicker - who isn’t? - than Australia’s Phil Gomes, who initially posted on Bush’s “incredible dose of the stupid”, only to return nearly twelve hours later with this claim:

It should have been pretty obvious that I fully understood what Bush was on about ...

Nice try. In a beautiful Blair’s Law moment, white supremacists at Stormfront join forces with the daffy Left:

Bush really did (or does) think that Mandela is dead.

Some on the Left aren’t quite as insane. Steve Benen:

I hate to admit it, but intellectual honesty compels me to note that Bush’s comments yesterday about Mandela being “dead,” really were misconstrued.

Visit Captain’s Quarters and James Taranto for further wrap-ups on this madness. And read John Hawkins, who notes:

Liberals love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced ...

Posted by Tim B. on 09/22/2007 at 01:47 PM
  1. As I said on the earlier thread:

    Mark my words. “Mandela is dead” will take its place in history beside the plastic turkey. It will be quoted for years to “prove” George W. Bush’s stupidity. It will never die.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2007 09 22 at 02:00 PM • permalink

  2. Olympian stupidity is correct Tim . And yet, these morons will insist that Pres. Bush is the idiot. Same old , same old.

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 22 at 02:03 PM • permalink

  3. There’s no Will Weng in Iraq, either.  That’s why they don’t have crossword puzzles.

    (``What four-letter word beginning and ending in D describes Will Weng?’‘)

    Posted by rhhardin on 2007 09 22 at 02:07 PM • permalink

  4. If Bush had said Huckleberry Finn was dead, Leftards would say it meant Bush believed in a fictional character.

    Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 09 22 at 02:16 PM • permalink

  5. If you tell these people a joke, they’ll run out to the road looking for the chicken.

    Posted by Jim Treacher on 2007 09 22 at 02:25 PM • permalink

  6. I’ve been told by more than one leftist that “freedom is dead,” and I’m wondering if the same guy who killed freedom murdered Mandela.

    Oh, wait - they didn’t mean literally, did they?

    Funny how they can use a phrase one way, then complain that someone is an idiot because they used it in a similar fashion.

    Posted by cirby on 2007 09 22 at 02:26 PM • permalink

  7. This is proof that eating plastic turkey causes brain damage.

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2007 09 22 at 02:29 PM • permalink

  8. Of course, if Bush DID mean it literally, that means the rest of that comment should be treated literally, too.

    “Well, Mandela is dead. Because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.”

    This, of course, means that Saddam had a top-secret cloning experiment going on.  He started out with Nelson Mandela, for some reason (probably so he could send them to South Africa to sow dissent), and ended up with a whole lot of them, but the plan wouldn’t work because they just kept sitting in jail cells being martyrish. 

    So he decided to practice murdering people, and killed all of the Mandelas.

    Posted by cirby on 2007 09 22 at 02:34 PM • permalink

  9. Carl Rove killed both freedom and Mandela !!

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 22 at 02:36 PM • permalink

  10. Understanding metaphor requires a certain degree of abstract thought. People with IQs below, say, 70, probably cannot understand metaphor.

    So we know Bush has an IQ above that level, but we’re accumulating a large list of people who do not. Rare opportunity!

    Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2007 09 22 at 02:49 PM • permalink

  11. Liberals love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced

    I think the problem here is that synecdoche is a four syllable word.

    Posted by charlesr on 2007 09 22 at 03:15 PM • permalink

  12. Funny how they can use a phrase one way, then complain that someone is an idiot because they used it in a similar fashion.

    That’s nuance.

    Only lefties understand.

    Posted by rinardman on 2007 09 22 at 03:18 PM • permalink

  13. Stupid Bush uses a metaphor, and sophisticated Lefties take it literally.

    I love this story.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 03:18 PM • permalink

  14. I love the guy around 4:17 in that first larvatousrodeo (whatever) link that wrote “Defending George W. Bush on the intertubes on a beautiful Spring Saturday? What a sad thing to do with your time.”

    What does sitting around *reading* them make him?

    Posted by EmilyJones on 2007 09 22 at 03:24 PM • permalink

  15. These people are retarded by choice.

    Posted by TimShell on 2007 09 22 at 03:24 PM • permalink

  16. The Larval Rodeo thread is priceless. The Leftard who wrote the original post is using the Pee Wee Herman “I meant to do that” defense, claiming that he knew it was a metaphor, he just thought it was a stupid one. Riiiight.

    One of the better comments, from a Mike G:

    “In other news, Abraham Lincoln called the U.S. a single house (divided), when in fact many individual Americans own separate homes, and Franklin Roosevelt, asked where the planes in the Doolittle raid on Japan came from, cited a nonexistent country from a work of fantasy, Lost Horizon, suggesting he is in the final stages of syphilis.”

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 03:30 PM • permalink

  17. This whole inane dust-up reminds me of a little Simon and Garfunkel song.

    One of the lines from “Mrs. Robinson” is

    “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
    Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you”

    [Joe DiMaggio - very famous iconic American baseball player]

    He was still alive and well at that point in the late ‘60s, but that lyric was meant as a metaphor for a simpler time gone by, not a literal claim that Joe DiMaggio was dead or missing. Apparently old Joe did sort of take offense, though, thinking the lyric made it sound like he was dead or irrelevant.  And there was certainly controversy about it at the time and there were all kinds of people who misunderstood it.

    I guess the moral of the story is that metaphor is a dangerous weapon, and can’t be trusted in the hands of lesser men (and women) like the oh-so-nuanced Left we’re always hearing about.  It’s like handing a baby an Uzi and expecting him to be able to handle it safely.  I don’t how President Bush’s meaning could be any clearer once you read the entire paragraph.  Anybody who doesn’t understand that and insists on saying he made a “gaffe” ought to get out of the pundit business.  They just don’t have the intellectual horsepower you need to play with words.

    Posted by kcom on 2007 09 22 at 03:33 PM • permalink

  18. kcom… “Metaphor is a dangerous weapon.” I may have that made into a T shirt for some lefties I know.  Beware Metaphor ahead!! Peruse at your own risk!

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 22 at 03:42 PM • permalink

  19. Well, the Kevin Burton dork has taken the manly way out—he’s deleted his post entirely, leaving nary a trace except for mysterious links-to-nowhere in the sidebar.

    Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2007 09 22 at 04:06 PM • permalink

  20. I have it on good authority that Paco Industries, Ltd. is manufacturing a line of plastic Mandelas as we speak, and they have magnets in the bottom for mounting on the dashboard of your Prius.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 09 22 at 04:12 PM • permalink

  21. After trawling through those ghastly comments over at Larval-porpoise, I have come to the conclusion that most of the loony comments are from recent university graduates.  Plenty of teaching, but no education.

    Either that, or they have a bad case of hearing what they want to hear, rather than listening to what was really said.

    Someone tried to say that Iraq under Saddam was not South Africa.  I kind of agree.  Mandela at least got a trial in open court, with proper judges and lawyers and access to the press.  He was banged up for a long time, rather than dragged out and shot.  I presume there were appeals? 

    Journalists from around the world were permitted to stay in the country and report whatever they wanted.  Did Saddam’s victims get the same treatment?

    Idiots.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2007 09 22 at 05:10 PM • permalink

  22. #17
    “They just don’t have the intellectual horsepower you need to play with words.”
    Brings back memories of another very astute political operator, former Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen, who, much like President George W Bush, was constantly sneeringly maligned for his supposed lapses with regard to grammar and syntax.
    On one memorable occasion, with regard to the remaining amount of coal in the bunkers of a power station (Swanbank IIRC)during a strike, he stated that there was only “weeks’ supply” on hand. Union heavies immediately ripped into him triumphantly with strident accusations of deliberate lying to panic the good citizens who were consumers of the electricity, by telling everyone that there was only enough coal left for one week of operation.
    He enjoyed “feeding the chooks”, and was pretty good at it.

    Posted by galenmk on 2007 09 22 at 05:17 PM • permalink

  23. Unfortunately, Winnie Mandela is still alive.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 22 at 05:18 PM • permalink

  24. I just love this story.  Those sputtering on about this “gaffe” reek with the stench of desperation.  The irony involved in calling Bush stupid, based on that paragraph, is sweet indeed.  (I think Dan’s lawsuit falls into this category, as well.) 

    I do admit, however, that this kind of childishness is not very attractive in supposedly grown-up people.

    Posted by saltydog on 2007 09 22 at 05:18 PM • permalink

  25. Well, that was my first trip over to L.P. Very interesting. It was fun reading the Blair commenter’s reasoned replies.
    Pretty funny references to Blair’s shock troops. Orcs and flying monkeys were my favorites. Tim Blair’s Orcs, hm mm… yeah , I like it.

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 22 at 05:35 PM • permalink

  26. I wonder how many of these Lefty, self-styled ‘intellectuals’ ever consider that being able to encompass the idea that you, personally, might be wrong about a few things?  The reason they continually fall for Jesse Macbeth, the ‘plastic turkey’, and now this is that they aren’t smart enough to consider they might be wrong about something.  This sort of ignorance is really very ugly.

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 09 22 at 05:41 PM • permalink

  27. Liberals love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced…

    This idea has been a constant source of amusement for me for ages.

    1) Liberals are intellectuals. Intellectual adolescents.

    2) Show me nuance on the left and I’ll show you the Easter Bunny. The only group more rigid in its ideas is the Taliban.

    Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 09 22 at 05:53 PM • permalink

  28. #27 How about intellectual toddlers?

    Posted by greene on 2007 09 22 at 05:55 PM • permalink

  29. Blood is thicker AND stupider than water.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 22 at 05:55 PM • permalink

  30. 2) Show me nuance on the left and I’ll show you the Easter Bunny. The only group more rigid in its ideas is the Taliban.

    Naw. The left has some flexibility. The Taliban were a great example—the feminists marched for their removal until 9/11, then they marched against “war and racism”.

    Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 09 22 at 05:57 PM • permalink

  31. Oh, shit!

    Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 09 22 at 05:58 PM • permalink

  32. I dunno Jack. The Taliban had the brains to retreat from indefensible positions when about to be destroyed. Your average leftist isn’t THAT clever.

    Posted by CB on 2007 09 22 at 06:02 PM • permalink

  33. Crawford!!!!

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 06:04 PM • permalink

  34. OT: Hey, Jeff S., I tried to start a nice gun thread on the open thread and you never showed up. You better have been out shooting.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 06:05 PM • permalink

  35. I recall an incident in college. A young woman came to class one day sporting a button that read QUESTION AUTHORITY! I was in a puckish mood, so I pointed to her button and asked her a simple question: “Why?” And wouldn’t you know it, soon I was being denounced as a fascist - I suppose for questioning her authority.

    That was 30 years ago: the players change, but the game remains the same.

    Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2007 09 22 at 06:10 PM • permalink

  36. I know that my lefty rellies in Oz are going to be contacting me as soon as they wake up to say that they have definitive proof of Bush stupidity and that I should recant my neofascist ways.

    I still love my sisters.

    Posted by Jack from Montreal on 2007 09 22 at 06:21 PM • permalink

  37. All your Mandelas belong to us.

    By the way Paco Mandela’s should be sold to our friend on the left as hard drive cleaners.

    Posted by David A on 2007 09 22 at 06:24 PM • permalink

  38. But what about Paul McCartney?  He’s still dead, right?

    Posted by tabitharuth on 2007 09 22 at 06:25 PM • permalink

  39. #35
    QUESTION AUTHORITY!

    Was that an order?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 22 at 06:29 PM • permalink

  40. The Left think they’re got Bush by the Mandelas ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 22 at 06:32 PM • permalink

  41. they’ve n all ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 22 at 06:33 PM • permalink

  42. Actually, I don’t know who the speechwriter was, but “Saddam killed all the Mandelas” is a mind-bogglingly brilliant statement.

    So simple, yet so powerful!

    Who left the Mandelas alive? White Seth Efrica (obviously).  Who else did? UK (Nehru).

    Any other examples???

    Posted by Jack from Montreal on 2007 09 22 at 06:35 PM • permalink

  43. To repeat what I wrote on 2007 09 21 at 06:38 PM:
    It’s those bloody turkey and Deputy Sheriff stories all over again.

    Prepare to be beaten over the head with this one for weeks to come.

    There’s no way of stopping these stories, is there?  It’s like a gigantic ball of snow gathering momentum and size as it rolls down the hill to smash us all at the bottom ...

    As fellow Aussie Peter Finch said in Network in 1976:  “I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it anymore”!

    Posted by ann j on 2007 09 22 at 06:42 PM • permalink

  44. Thread closed for the evening, will re-open for business in the morning. Sleep beckons, good night.(Phil)

    Word on the intertubes is that Phil has been exchanging emails with Mark all night and the collective at Literal Perception has decided that the best way out of this mess is if they just ‘forget’ to reopen the thread after Phil’s ‘nap’.

    Posted by CO² max on 2007 09 22 at 06:57 PM • permalink

  45. Oh, no!!!! Ann j says a huge ball of snow is going to destroy Australia!!!! RUN, TIM, RUN!!!

    Posted by andycanuck on 2007 09 22 at 07:01 PM • permalink

  46. When did Bush kill Abe Lincoln?

    I mean THAT news is big…I call for impeachment of Abe…no no, Bush killed him…impeach Bush.

    This stupid bastards on the left, are( to use a term of Tim’s) “borderline psychotic”.

    And people wonder why I have weapons.

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 09 22 at 07:19 PM • permalink

  47. Ugh.

    The Weekend Sunrise program just ran the ‘gaffe’ narrative as well.

    [Video] Bush: “Mandela’s Dead”

    [cut to panel for their snarky response and claims Bush ‘nicely covered it up’ with a followup comment]

    Bush: Saddam killed the Mandelas

    [host] Andrew O’Keefe: What? Winnie Mandela as well?

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2007 09 22 at 07:35 PM • permalink

  48. That Reuters reporter is a real Einstein. Apologies in advance to all Germans and theoretical physicists for my embarrassing gaffe.

    Posted by Paul Zrimsek on 2007 09 22 at 07:48 PM • permalink

  49. Naomi Klein has worked up another Bizarro World, where the evil Neocons under Bushtimus Prime have wrought havoc in Iraqi Teletubbyland:

    The great historical irony of the catastrophe unfolding in Iraq is that the shock-therapy reforms that were supposed to create an economic boom that would rebuild the country have instead fueled a resistance that ultimately made reconstruction impossible.

    You see, its the dysfunctional conservative capitalists who have made Iraq a mess, not the countless and relentless destructive acts of jihadis, mahdis, and hezbollocky Iranians. Klein calls 2003 “Year Zero”, and when interviewed (this ran on ABC News Radio today) she said that the left has been made accountable for the crimes of Pol Pot and Mao, but that the right has not been made accountable for its crimes. So, this new equivalence makes the collected maddies in Iraq the same as the innocent civilians in Cambodia (or perhaps little Mandelas?), and the US conservatives are Brothers #1, #2, #3 and so on.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 09 22 at 07:53 PM • permalink

  50. #44
    I thought it interesting that the thread is closed down for the night. What are they worried will happen if they let it go all night?
    But that’s what you do when it all gets too hard. Shut it off.
    Wait and see if anyone remembers to switch it on again in the morning.

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 07:54 PM • permalink

  51. Wait. If the left really take things so literally, does this mean Bush really is Hitler?

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2007 09 22 at 07:58 PM • permalink

  52. #50 Kae
    Looks like my spies had it wrong. “The Thread” has reopened. Such fun.

    Posted by CO² max on 2007 09 22 at 08:02 PM • permalink

  53. #52
    Whip, it wasn’t open about an hour ago when I was poking around in there…
    Somewhat like you poke a dead, smelly thing with a long stick, just to see what it is. was.

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 08:05 PM • permalink

  54. #52
    Had to restock the lav paper?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 22 at 08:07 PM • permalink

  55. Those fuzzballs can laugh it up all they like. Wait till Hilary gets in, then it will be our turn.

    Posted by Nic on 2007 09 22 at 08:13 PM • permalink

  56. Never mind whether Bush thinks Mandela is dead; Columbia University thinks Hitler is alive.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 22 at 08:13 PM • permalink

  57. #54: Had to restock the lav paper?

    No, I understand it’s a Muslim toilet.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 22 at 08:14 PM • permalink

  58. Yes, he really is Hitler.  Didn’t you read “The Boys from Brazil”?  Bush is one of those.

    Posted by kcom on 2007 09 22 at 08:15 PM • permalink

  59. o/t just got a heads up about this.

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 08:23 PM • permalink

  60. That Reuters reporter is a real Einstein.

    Great minds!

    Posted by Jim Treacher on 2007 09 22 at 08:25 PM • permalink

  61. I’ve followed this story casually. I can only conclude that Bush is speaking in Tongues, English Tongues. that’s why the left is so confused by irony.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 22 at 08:26 PM • permalink

  62. #61 ...and metaphore and analogy

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 22 at 08:27 PM • permalink

  63. and about this.
    The comment about this was “Strange that he’d be hiding it, aren’t they all touchy-feely about gays?”

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 08:27 PM • permalink

  64. #62 How come the left is soooo humourless, he said rhetorically and ironically, but not by analogy.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 22 at 08:29 PM • permalink

  65. I will beat the shit out of the first person that repeats this canard to me.

    Posted by Hanyu on 2007 09 22 at 08:31 PM • permalink

  66. OKAY LEFTIES, repeat after me:

    Someone who has captured the most powerful political position in the world cannot be stupid.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 22 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  67. #60
    Jim, I love the expression
    “No shit, Sherlock?”
    Are they saying I can’t use it any more to express my amazement at a voicing of the bleeding obvious?

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 08:35 PM • permalink

  68. #3 Hardy ol’ boy, how can you have a crossword without letters, or particularly vowels and hard consonants?

    Serious question. If someone can explain it, e-mail me.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 22 at 08:38 PM • permalink

  69. OT: Awaiting the sounds of umbrage from the left on this one:

    ENVIRONMENTAL campaigner and former US presidential candidate Al Gore has given a nod of approval to federal Labor’s environmental policies.

    In a joint press conference with federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, Mr Gore said he preferred Mr Rudd’s policies on the environment to Prime Minister John Howard’s and that would greatly affect his vote if he was an Australian.

    Posted by Nic on 2007 09 22 at 08:44 PM • permalink

  70. The left is engaging in blatant metaphornication.

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 22 at 08:45 PM • permalink

  71. #69: Mr Gore said he preferred Mr Rudd’s policies

    I am so sorry, folks; sometimes he gnaws through the restraining belts and gets out of bed in the middle of the night and wanders downstairs and pees on the coffee table. Come along, Al, let’s get you back to your room . . .

    Posted by paco on 2007 09 22 at 08:49 PM • permalink

  72. Unfortunately, Bush Derangement Syndome evacuates the mental proclivities and leaves one left-less.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 09 22 at 08:53 PM • permalink

  73. #69 Nic
    >>>>>>>>crickets chirping<<<<<<<<<<<

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 08:54 PM • permalink

  74. I’ve solved it:
    Rove’s last act was to have Mandela killed and replaced by a double who will marry another dangerously criminal Younger Woman.

    Boosh foolishly let slip this guilty knowledge. That explains it!

    Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 09 22 at 09:02 PM • permalink

  75. This post is so typical of Blair and his vile attack dogs.

    If any of the people criticised above are reading this, I would like you to know that I am on your side.

    In fact, why not email me at the link provided at my profile. I will be happy to provide details about my portfolio of bridges that I am willing to sell for a very reasonable six figure sum.

    I am sure you agree, once we control the bridges, it will enrage Blair and his pitbull poodles, whilst preventing George W Bush from carrying out his plan of fixing the next election so he gets a third term in office.

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 09 22 at 09:08 PM • permalink

  76. #75 - Of course you’re on their side! You’re a morally vacuuous intellectual adolescent, as well!

    Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 09 22 at 09:30 PM • permalink

  77. I have been watching the froth of stupidity on what seemed to me, to be a straightforward comment with incredulity.
    It wasnt hard, complicated or tricky, most lefties claim to have read Chomsky, I think they may have mixed it up with one of the “golden books” series.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 09 22 at 09:33 PM • permalink

  78. Too bad they don’t still teach English literature these days: it might have helped some of these people.  When Thomas Grey looks at a country churchyard in his Elegy and ponders the unknown souls buried there and what they might have been - some “mute, inglorious Milton”, some “Cromwell, guiltless of his country’s blood” - he’s not suffering from the delusion that Milton and Cromwell are actually buried there.

    When Shylock hails Portia as a “Daniel come to judgement”, he’s not suffering a psychotic episode in which he imagines his daughter to be the Old Testament Daniel.

    Posted by cuckoo on 2007 09 22 at 09:37 PM • permalink

  79. his daugher?

    Posted by kcom on 2007 09 22 at 09:39 PM • permalink

  80. or maybe I meant to say, his daughter?

    Posted by kcom on 2007 09 22 at 09:40 PM • permalink

  81. The Nine Network’s Robert Penfold had a report last night with awkward editing that recalled perfectly the Judge And Jury episode of Frontline in which fictional journalist Brooke Vandenberg realises a priest accused of rape sounds too convincing when he protests his innocence during an interview and she has the video editor insert a pause and cutaway shot that suggests hesitation and a guilty conscience. (The priest’s reputation is ruined though it transpires he is innocent and his accuser is mentally unbalanced.)

    On National Nine News, Penfold’s report similarly appeared to distort the timeline at the White House conference by interrupting Bush’s comment after ‘I heard somebody say, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead…’ to insert a cutaway shot of two men in the audience looking incredulous, accompanied by Penfold’s voiceover suggesting ‘even the President’s aides couldn’t believe their ears’.

    Penfold then continued (and I paraphrase) that Bush was later forced to backtrack to clarify himself and the video dropped back in on Bush speaking with the ‘Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas’ portion of what, in reality, was two short sentences spoken one immediately after the other but which had been dismantled and reconstructed to look like the ‘gaffe’ the media wanted it to be and an awkward attempt by Bush to explain himself. Absolutely by the Frontline playbook…

    It would be interesting to see the raw footage containing Penfold’s ‘incredulous aides’ cutaway. Odds are the men’s reaction is not even to that portion of the conference.

    —Nick

    Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 09 22 at 09:41 PM • permalink

  82. I guess when lefties say Bush is Hitler they actually mean Bush is a 100+ year old former German dictator who, after hiding out in South America after WWII, managed to get adopted by George HW Bush and get elected to the US Presidency.

    Nice work!

    Posted by Quentin George on 2007 09 22 at 09:52 PM • permalink

  83. It looks like all of us are not familiar with Margos Maid’s brand of dry wit. In a comment thread about the major minds of the liberal media and blogoverse not understanding a simple and straightforward statement, that’s pretty funny.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 09 22 at 09:54 PM • permalink

  84. #79 Quite right either way, Kcom (blush)

    Posted by cuckoo on 2007 09 22 at 10:03 PM • permalink

  85. #17, Kcom, I can’t believe you’d even CONSIDER giving an UZI to a BABY!

    Posted by reese on 2007 09 22 at 10:14 PM • permalink

  86. My ducas! My daugher. My ducas!! My daugher.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2007 09 22 at 10:14 PM • permalink

  87. (I left this comment on Larvae Rodeo in response to the lame defense of the original poster, phil. I’m posting it here because if past experience is any guide, I’ll either be deleted or my post will be selectively edited):

    ——————————————————-

    BTW, I’m astounded that the flying monkeys have read a quick and simple post about Bush’s poor public speaking and mangled and inarticulate use of language (hence the Miss Teen Sth Carolina linkage) as they have, it should have been pretty obvious that I fully understood what Bush was on about in my response to Tim.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA! The Pee-Wee Herman “I meant to do that” defense.

    No, phil, you thought he LITERALLY meant Nelson Mandela was killed in Iraq, and that’s why you labeled it a “gaffe.” You may (retroactively) disagree on the substance of what he said, but it certainly wasn’t “poor public speaking” or “mangled and inarticulate use of language.”

    Just admit you screwed the pooch. He used a metaphor and you took it literally. Man up. Or continue to supplement the Pee-Wee Herman Defense with the Homer Simpson Gambit - “Weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals. Except the weasel.”

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 10:16 PM • permalink

  88. The very model of a modern lefty-liberal

    I am the very model of a modern lefty-liberal
    Got the brains of a vegetable, minimal, predictable
    I know bout global warming,and I quote from Al the Goracle
    From melting ice to water-rise, in order categorical

    I’m easily confused by statements metaphorical
    misunderstand quotations, love theories conspirational
    About Bushhalliburton, I’m teeming with a lot o’ news
    And I never let the facts disabuse me of my views

    And I never let the facts disabuse me of my views
    And I never let the facts disabuse me of my views
    And I never let the facts disabuse me of my views

    I’m very good at parroting the slogans of the chomskyites
    You know where I’ll be when the choice comes down to fight or flight
    In short, in matters topical , historical, hysterical
    I am the very model of a modern lefty-liberal

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 09 22 at 10:22 PM • permalink

  89. #88 - BRAVO! Jolly good! Pip, pip! Well done, sir, well done indeed!

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 10:31 PM • permalink

  90. #71 paco

    Geeze, man, I thought those belts were made of mil-spec nylon. Did your footman get you the PACO Industries “Export” stuff by mistake?

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 09 22 at 10:33 PM • permalink

  91. #17 kcom,

    Joe Dimaggio once asked Paul Simon why the songwriter didn’t use Mickey Mantle instead of his name in Mrs. Robinson. To which Paul replied, “Because Mickey Mantle doesn’t scan.”

    Posted by mythusmage on 2007 09 22 at 10:56 PM • permalink

  92. #87
    If it’s the same comment it’s be shortened quite a lot.

    go to the site and find “I meant to do that”.
    It’s been chopped quite severely, if it’s your comment.

    Posted by kae on 2007 09 22 at 11:00 PM • permalink

  93. There’s nothing metaphorical about leftist stupidity. And it’s harder to avoid than cowshit in Calcutta: Donald “I’m so much cleverer than you” Horne in the Weekend Aus yesterday, and the bloody radio station playing “Mr President” by Pink while I’m trying to eat a civilised lunch.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 09 22 at 11:19 PM • permalink

  94. It’s been chopped quite severely, if it’s your comment.

    Nah, the Pee-Wee thing is a pretty common riff.

    My comment has yet to appear.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 11:19 PM • permalink

  95. #84. #79 Quite right either way, Kcom (blush)

    Actually I was asking a serious question, or at least a real question :).  We read “The Merchant of Venice” in, maybe, 9th grade and I don’t recall Portia being any relation to Shylock.

    #78. -
    When Shylock hails Portia as a “Daniel come to judgement”, he’s not suffering a psychotic episode in which he imagines his daughter to be the Old Testament Daniel.

    Am I remembering correctly?

    Posted by kcom on 2007 09 22 at 11:19 PM • permalink

  96. white supremacists at Stormfront join forces with the daffy Left

    That Stormfront site is mind-blowingly scary. Leftards like Larval Prophylo are mostly stupid-that-leads-to-evil, or at worst, gotta-break-a-few-eggs-evil, but those Stormfront guys are just evil-evil.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 22 at 11:26 PM • permalink

  97. #88 eeniemeenie

    Huzzah!

    Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 09 22 at 11:31 PM • permalink

  98. Dave S

    For a real treat try the sydney indymedia and stormfront side by side. The number of (in indymedias) veiled anti Jew rants as opposed to the in your face crap at SF isnt that much different.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 09 22 at 11:31 PM • permalink

  99. I have a lefty American colleague who criticises ‘that idiot’ Bush for his verbal gaffes. Recently, my colleague asked me how to spell ‘recruit’. He was unsure what came after the ‘q’.

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 09 22 at 11:41 PM • permalink

  100. In a bid to discredit Canada at the United Nations, Iran is equipping world diplomats with a 70-page booklet on Canada’s alleged human rights violations.

    Yes, Canada, the Great White North. I wonder if it is just a list of people Iran thinks Canada should have hung from a crane?

    Wimpy Canadian, if you are still alive, we will try to smuggle you out!

    Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 09 22 at 11:44 PM • permalink

  101. Dave S.

    That Stormfront site is mind-blowingly scary. Leftards like Larval Prophylo are mostly stupid-that-leads-to-evil, or at worst, gotta-break-a-few-eggs-evil, but those Stormfront guys are just evil-evil.

    Ironically, I first discovered LGF (and Tim Blair from a link Charles posted) when I saw it referred to as “a Zionist hate site” and “a Stormfront for Jews” by a couple of leftist commenters at Fark.com. I couldn’t imagine what that could possibly be…

    frollicking

    For a real treat try the sydney indymedia and stormfront side by side. The number of (in indymedias) veiled anti Jew rants as opposed to the in your face crap at SF isnt that much different.

    Very true. One of many reasons I usually refer to indymedia as NaziMedia.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 09 23 at 12:30 AM • permalink

  102. In truth, my “ironically” should’ve been “coincidentally”.

    ::rap:: goes the ruler on the knuckles…

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 09 23 at 12:31 AM • permalink

  103. Stumped by a metaphor. Goodness me, I’d hate to think of what some would make of the old message to Halsey concluding with ‘all the world wonders’...

    Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2007 09 23 at 12:38 AM • permalink

  104. #95, My bad: Jessica is Shylock’s daughter, not Portia.  But she was in disguise at the time, so you can hardly blame me.  Or as Bassanio says, “No shit, Shylock?!”

    Posted by cuckoo on 2007 09 23 at 01:04 AM • permalink

  105. #88 - Nice one ennie: W.S. Gilbert could not have put it better.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 09 23 at 01:24 AM • permalink

  106. I heard Bush’s comments, and it did take a second for the analogy to sink in because of the way it was delivered.  Although I wondered for a split second how old Mendela might be or if maybe he’d died, that wasn’t my dominant thought.  It was, Oh my God, he’s right.  Everyone who spoke against the government was killed.  How horrible to live in that kind of fear.

    I’m sure the journalists who are honest had similar thoughts at the time.  But it’s hard to reconcile the shock value of Bush’s assessment of life under the Saddam regime with the Bush Lied People Died mentality.  So, the lefties intentionally changed his comments to fit their template.

    Changing the focus of Bush’s speech allows lefties to avoid discussing serious issues with those inconvenient and icky facts.  We can just go back to laughing about how stupid Bush is.

    Posted by RK on 2007 09 23 at 01:36 AM • permalink

  107. Howard gazumps Gorebot & Ruddborg:

    PM announces national clean energy target

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 23 at 01:40 AM • permalink

  108. #107
    Ball’s in your court, Mini me Kevin howRudd ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 09 23 at 01:44 AM • permalink

  109. Anyone need a fantastic laugh?

    (Warning: Link to Lav Prodeo)

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 09 23 at 02:36 AM • permalink

  110. #83 - Or someone was continuing a theme!

    Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 09 23 at 02:59 AM • permalink

  111. those bastards at the Lavatory Rodeo have oppressed me! I left a comment and it was there, moderated, and now it’s not.

    “But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
    It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

    how stooopid was that Shakespeare guy?

    fancy not knowing that teenage girls from Verona are not and never have been massive balls of superheated plasma

    so much for this so called playwright!”

    surely taking the piss out of a   conservative middle class dead white male should have pleased them?

    I’m a victim boo hoo hoo and so on

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 09 23 at 03:24 AM • permalink

  112. Did I really hear on tonight’s SBS news, Rudd refer to his RM Williams boots as his “R & Ds”?

    Posted by Hobbes on 2007 09 23 at 05:22 AM • permalink

  113. OT. ABC news says that Marcel Marceau has died. I wonder what his last words were?

    Posted by Penguin on 2007 09 23 at 05:26 AM • permalink

  114. Marcel Marceau’s last words:

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 09 23 at 06:10 AM • permalink

  115. #111 That’s right, eenie. And I mean all the guy did anyway was string together a bunch of famous quotes.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2007 09 23 at 09:59 AM • permalink

  116. those bastards at the Lavatory Rodeo have oppressed me! I left a comment and it was there, moderated, and now it’s not.

    Same here. Down the memory hole.

    Remember, they despise censorship!

    Posted by Dave S. on 2007 09 23 at 11:03 AM • permalink

  117. The Larval Rodeo motto: Free speach for me, but not for thee.

    The same can be said for every other left-wing web forum I’ve ever been to.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 09 23 at 02:35 PM • permalink

  118. I prefer to look at the glass is half-full side of this.  This should swamp the platic turkey ambit by lots.  I think the Tim Tammer needs to hire 1.618 to help him record every instance of this.  This is just too big for one man alone.  This should provide laughs for years to come. 

    Maybe we can take bets on when this first appears in a school textbook as a direct quote.  Internet pools anyone?

    Posted by yojimbo on 2007 09 23 at 09:18 PM • permalink

  119. #75, “...Blair and his pitbull poodles…”

    I had no idea that attending this blog with such occasional regularity would let me in for this kind of low-rent invenctive.

    Hmm, pitbull poodle…that would make me a PITBOODLE!

    I can hack that.

    Posted by carpefraise on 2007 09 24 at 12:03 AM • permalink

  120. OK, scrap the “n” from “invenctive” and the actual word shines through.

    Invective, invective, low-rent invective…


    Actually I’ll bet Bush’s speechwriter is either tearing his hair out at all this misunderstanding or sighing resignedly as he researches future metaphorical excesses.
    I thought it was rather good myself.

    Posted by carpefraise on 2007 09 24 at 12:06 AM • permalink

  121. #** LOVE IT.

    Posted by carpefraise on 2007 09 24 at 12:44 AM • permalink

  122. Yes, it’s all true:
    Saddam killed Mandela.
    Andvideo killed the radio star.
    And God is dead.

    I read it on the Internet, so it must be true!

    Posted by Mary in LA on 2007 09 24 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  123. It was fun to stand back and watch this one. I hope everybody got the correction memo, though, because I’m not sure I have the energy for Fake Turkey v.5.08.

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 09 24 at 11:05 PM • permalink

  124. Page 1 of 1 pages

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