Monday, January 23, 2006

Bush to Take Unscripted Audience Questions

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Over, Oprah.

President Bush is making himself into television's newest talk show host by making audience participation a feature of his appearances.

Bush has been taking questions from audience members in recent speeches, and the White House says none has been prescreened. (Yeah, right. We will need  much more proof than that W.H. say so. Sorry, but given this administration's past whoppers, first amendment zones, arresting Americans at Bush and Cheney campaign events, etc,. we doubt everything they say, unless proven conclusively true.)) a throwback to the folksy style on the campaign trail that helped him win re-election and a departure from the heavily scripted speeches that were the norm last year.

During which he lied like a rug and the media bought it.

And his answers have resulted in some revelations — both personal and political.

The White House has grown so comfortable with the format that most of his appearance Monday at Kansas State University scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET was reserved for Q-and-A with the audience.

We will believe it when it is proven, that there were no plants, whose "questions" seemed to not be questions at all, but rather statements which proclaimed Junior as the second coming.

And unlike the more intimate settings where the president has taken questions before, this appearance was set in front of a coliseum full of several thousands, including students, soldiers from nearby Fort Riley and invited guests.

Bush has taken a wide variety of questions in three appearances during the last six weeks. Many of the people he has called on have fawned over him, thanking him for his wartime leadership, saying they pray for him and bringing best wishes from other fans in their family who couldn't be there.

So, how across the board are these "questioners," really?

"It's always good to have a plant in every audience," Bush joked last week in Sterling, Va., after a woman rose and said she was proud of him.

But he has gotten some tough questions, too, such as the one from a woman in Philadelphia last month who challenged the administration's linkage of the Iraq war to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bush said Saddam Hussein was a threat and at the time was widely believed to have weapons of mass destruction — which later proved false.

BULLSHIT!

In response to another question in Philadelphia, he estimated 30,000 Iraqis had died in the war, the first time he publicly put a number on Iraqi deaths. In Louisville, Ky., he signaled that after initial reservations, he was resigned to congressional hearings into his domestic spying program as long as they don't aid the enemy.

30,000 dead Iraqis is a very conservative estimate!

Aid the enemy? Oh, puleeze!

Is Junior really dumb enough to believe that Al Qaeda operatives in the U.S, if there are any, no matter how small potatoes they are, don't know they are being spied on?

He has spoken about one of the worst things about being president — exposing his daughters to public scrutiny — and one of the best — impressing his childhood friends with dinner at the White House.

Excuse us, but what an idiot!

"It's a great honor, pretty awe-inspiring deal," Bush said in Virginia. "They walk in there and, kind of (say), `What are you doing here, Bush?'"

We bet that is exactly what they say. We wonder the same thing and we have only known you a short time.

He also ruled out any future run for office by his wife, Laura, in response to a plea from a fan who called her "one of the best first ladies we've ever had." And he disclosed that Mrs. Bush designed the rug in the Oval Office.

Oh, who cares? Laura isn't going to run for many reasons; not the least of which is that Bush women do not work.

"I said, I want it to say `optimistic person comes here to work every day,'" the president said. "It was the strategic thought for the rug. She figured out the colors. And it looks like a sun, with nice, open colors."

What in the hell is he talking about?

Bush was opening Monday's event in Manhattan, Kan. by talking about the war on terror and making a point of defending his secret domestic eavesdropping program. It's part of a new administration effort to convince Americans that the National Security Agency's communications spying program is necessary to fight terrorism.

You can defend it till the cows come home, but you are sunk on this one, Bushie.

The public relations campaign comes two weeks before congressional hearings to examine the top-secret program, disclosed last month by The New York Times, are set to begin. Critics have said the president broke the law by authorizing the eavesdropping without a judge's approval and by failing to fully consult with Congress.

As part of that campaign, presidential adviser Dan Bartlett made a pitch for the surveillance program Monday morning on network television news shows.

Pitch until you are blue in the face, Bartlett. The fact is that you all broke the law, without even a request to congress for changes in the law you deemed necessary. If you are going to spy on the American people, let the congress pass new laws and make the American public aware. The Al Qaeda types, already knew.

"The very reason to do this is that the dots weren't connected before 9/11, to make sure we know if plans or operations are under way to attack our country again," he said on CBS's "The Early Show."

Bull shit! The extraordinary spying began, initiated by Cheney, in early 2001, not after 9/11.

Bartlett insisted that Bush was "not bypassing the law. In fact, we're interpreting the law correctly."

Poppycock!

"It would be our choice to not to have to talk about this at all," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

I bet! I wouldn't want to talk about it either. Bu you were caught, so you must.

While the president was heading for Kansas, anti-abortion activists were gathering in Washington and elsewhere to protest the 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. As he has in past years, Bush planned to call in his support rather than attend in person.

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On the Net:

http://www.whitehouse.gov

LINK-

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