Download | Play 
Download | Play YouTube (h/t Heather)
Far more scary than the nuclear threat presented by Iran, the NIE report released this week reveals a more domestic threat to the republic:
We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.
Transcripts below the fold
Finally, as promised, a Special Comment about the President’s cataclysmic deception about Iran.
There are few choices more terrifying than the one Mr. Bush has left us with tonight.
We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.
After Ms Perino’s announcement from the White House late last night, the timeline is inescapable and clear now.
In August, the President was told by his hand-picked Major Domo of intelligence, Mike McConnell, a flinty, high-strung-looking, worrying-warrior who will always see more clouds than silver linings, that what “everybody thought” about Iran might be, in essence, crap.
Yet on October 17th the President said of Iran and its president, Ahmadinejad:
“I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge to make a nuclear weapon.”
And as he said that, Mr. Bush knew that at bare minimum there was a strong chance that his rhetoric was nothing more than words with which to scare the Iranians.
Or was it, sir, to scare the Americans?
Does Iran not really fit into the equation here? Have you just scribbled it into the fill-in-the-blank on the same template you used to scare us about Iraq?
In August, any commander-in-chief still able-minded or uncorrupted or both, sir, would have invoked the quality the job most requires: mental flexibility.
A bright man, or an honest man, would have realized no later than the McConnell briefing that the only true danger about Iran was the damage that could be done by an unhinged, irrational Chicken Little of a president, shooting his mouth off, backed up by only his own hysteria and his own delusions of omniscience.
Not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr Bush.
The Chicken Little of presidents is the one, sir, that you see in the mirror.
And the mind reels at the thought of a Vice President fully briefed on the revised intel as long as two weeks ago — briefed on the fact that Iran abandoned its pursuit of this imminent threat four years ago — who never bothered to mention it to his boss.
It is nearly forgotten today, but throughout much of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, it was widely believed that he was little more than a front-man for some never-viewed, behind-the-scenes string-puller.
Today, as evidenced by this latest remarkable, historic malfeasance, it is inescapable, that Dick Cheney is either this president’s evil ventriloquist, or he thinks he is.
What servant of any of the 42 previous presidents could possibly withhold information of this urgency and this gravity, and wind up back at his desk the next morning, instead of winding up before a Congressional investigation — or a criminal one?
Mr Bush — if you can still hear us — if you did not previously agree to this scenario in which Dick Cheney is the actual detective and you’re the Remington Steele — you must disenthrall yourself: Mr Cheney has usurped your constitutional powers, cut you out of the information loop, and led you down the path to an unprecedented presidency in which the facts have become optional, the intel is valued less than the hunch, and the assistant runs the store.
The problem is, sir, your assistant is robbing you — and your country — blind.
Not merely in monetary terms, Mr. Bush, but more importantly, robbing you of the traditions and righteousness for which we have stood, at great risk, for centuries: Honesty, Law, Moral Force.
Mr. Cheney has helped, sir, to make your administration into the kind our ancestors saw in the 1860’s and 1870’s and 1880’s — the ones that abandoned Reconstruction, and sent this country marching backwards into the pit of American Apartheid.
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland…
Presidents who will be remembered only in a blur of failure, Mr. Bush.
Presidents who will be remembered as functions only of those who opposed them — the opponents whom history proved right.
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland… Bush.
Would that we could let this President off the hook by seeing him only as marionette or moron.
But a study of the mutation of his language about Iran proves that though he may not be very good at it, he is, himself, still a manipulative, Machiavellian, snake-oil salesman.
The Bushian etymology was tracked by Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post’s website.
It is staggering.
March 31st: “Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon…”
June 5th: Iran’s “pursuit of nuclear weapons…”
June 19th: “consequences to the Iranian government if they continue to pursue a nuclear weapon…”
July 12th: “the same regime in Iran that is pursuing nuclear weapons…”
August 6th: “this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon…”
Notice a pattern?
Trying to develop, build or pursue a nuclear weapon.
Then, sometime between August 6th and August 9th, those terms are suddenly swapped out, so subtly that only in retrospect can we see that somebody has warned the President, not only that he has gone out too far on the limb of terror — but there may not even be a tree there…
McConnell, or someone, must have briefed him then.
August 9th: “They have expressed their desire to be able to enrich uranium, which we believe is a step toward having a nuclear weapons program…”
August 28th: “Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons…”
October 4th: “you should not have the know-how on how to make a (nuclear) weapon…”
October 17th: “until they suspend and/or make it clear that they, that their statements aren’t real, yeah, I believe they want to have the capacity, the knowledge, in order to make a nuclear weapon.”
Before August 9th, it’s: “Trying to develop, build or pursue a nuclear weapon.”
After August 9th, it’s: “Desire, pursuit, want… knowledge, technology, know-how to enrich uranium.”
And we are to believe, Mr. Bush, that the National Intelligence Estimate this week talks of the Iranians suspending their nuclear weapons program in 2003…And you talked of the Iranians suspending their nuclear weapons program on October 17th…
And that term suspending is just a coincidence?
And we are to believe, Mr. Bush, that nobody told you any of this until last week?
Your insistence that you were not briefed on the NIE until last week might be legally true — something like “what the definition of ‘is’ is” — but with the subject matter being not interns but the threat of nuclear war.
Legally, it might save you from some war crimes trial… but ethically, it is a lie.
It is indefensible.
You have been yelling threats into a phone for nearly four months, after the guy on the other end had already hung up.
You, Mr. Bush, are a bald-faced liar.
And more over, you must have realized that John Bolton, and Norman Podhoretz, and the Wall Street Journal Editorial board, are also bald-faced liars.
We are to believe that the Intel Community, or maybe the State Department, cooked the raw intelligence about Iran, falsely diminished the Iranian nuclear threat, to make you look bad?
And you proceeded to let them make you look bad?
You not only knew all of this about Iran, in early August, but you also knew it was all accurate.
And instead of sharing this good news with the people you have obviously forgotten you represent, you merely fine-tuned your terrorizing of those people, to legally cover your own backside, while you filled the factual gap with sadistic visions of — as you phrased it on August 28th: a quote “nuclear holocaust” — and, as you phrased it on October 17th, quote: “World War III.”
My comments, Mr. Bush, are often dismissed as simple repetitions of the phrase “George Bush has no business being president.”
Well, guess what?
Tonight: hanged by your own words and convicted by your own deliberate lies…
You, sir, have no business being president.
Good night, and good luck.
Filed Under: Countdown/Keith Olbermann, George W. Bush, Government Policy, Intelligence Gathering, Iran, Middle East, Special Comment
No Trackbacks To “Countdown Special Comment: The NIE Reflects An “Unhinged, Irrational Chicken Little Of A President”“
idiot in chief,moron and outright liar?????whoaaaaa……..nailed the nitwit down.
Another KO knock out comment by my hero. No sugar coating..”Mr.Bush you are a LIAR”
nice work Keith.
Hey K.O., how do you really feel about those two sacks of shit?
hehehehe…fristilicous
Olbermann is fantastic! Spot on!
Yeah, what KO said!
lets see…..any moment now the trolls will be showing up……4,..3…2…..1
This is the best grilling of the fox noise presidency and I heard all his SC’s.
KO delivers another KO!!
I love all of Keith’s “Special Comments” but tonight’s was the best of them all. Olbermann is the best..period…
This evil regime is headed by a man that once had a dream involving a nuculer missile.
This whole issue on Iran….is the straw that broke the camels back…..NOW…..it’s going to start.
KEITH OLBERMANN 2008!!!!!!!!! I love this man!
Look out NBC, et. al., they won’t take this one laying down. ‘They’ll’ be coming after the network and KO with everything they’ve got. The guy’s got a set on him, that’s for sure - and I don’t mean geedubyabush.
Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rove/Rumsfield and a whole bunch of others need to be, in my view, put on trial for war crimes during the year 2009 at the Hague, which can adjudicate the matter at Nuremburg.
These people are criminals.
Would I were able, I would handcuff the entire cabinet and inner circle of Bushies, including Cheney and George himself, and force them to watch this commentary on prime time national television. And then, instead of a debate, someone mutually respected by both parties would cross examine this administration of liars and do some old fashioned truth seeking. All while the country watched. To quote my grandmother while she watched the Watergate hearings: “Shame on him. Shame on them all.”
Keith Olbermann’s special comments always bring a tear to my eye. He is so spot on. This is right up there with his July 3rd Special Comment — and that one was terrific.
For K O to say those things takes some REAL BALLS! I can’t see anyone with an iota of common sense still thinking that the Preznit is on the up and up
… and he kicked him in the ding-ding.
OT. Hannity has North in Iraq saying that some rockets came from Iran. They showed pictures of the rockets and they had markings of: Date. December, 2006. When did the Iranians start using English as their official language?
What??? No trolls! I guess their still recovering from the mental trauma.
I keep thinking KO’s last special comment was a grand slam, and then he does it again.
Meanwhile, the current maladministration continues to provide plenty of good material.
Suggestion - stop calling him “sir”. Even this level of respect is unwarranted. May I suggest “defendant” instead?
The silence from Congress and the candidatesis ear splitting.
Trying to get us into another war based on threats of “Mushroom clouds”. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, get your lying ass in the Hague.
Our entire office (well over 60 people) were cheering and screaming in support of Keith.
He speaks for hundreds of million embarrassed Americans and billions of people around the world shocked & awed that the role model democracy is nothing but a front for fascists with bloated bank accounts fed by their bloodlust.
Never forget, the WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING our Peter cries Wolf President ramp up apoleptic armageddon whenever there is oil for his campaign donors who need yet another mansion or yacht.
It is no joke that as big as the danger was in starting yet another war bombing 2000 communities of people just one generation up from hunter/gatherers — the biggest danger to our nation is the men in our White House and cabinets that had Russia and China dusting off those nukes in silos.
Ron @ 20:
There was also something on the news today about more missing equipment in Iraq. Little things like rocket launchers and stuff. No worries.
Dood @ 23:
BAWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!…THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG….sheeeeeesh……………..LOL what a maroon…Care to provide some evidence contradicting KO’s statement.
To the Site Monitor… I really appreciate this site and thanks for taking out the negative trash which is hurtful and does not contribute to our efforts.
Keith is amazing, just like a national treasure.
The truth will set us free!
That dumbass almost led the country into another frickin war,just because he felt like it.STUPID!
Stay safe, Keith. Don’t get ‘disappeared’.
CIA at it again.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....videotapes
Well, I guess those brilliant, far-sighted, almost-omniscient founders of ours were lacking in the ability to imagine the horrific future in which we are now emerged:
An idiot, demented, mentally-irresponsible president, backed up by an idiot, demented, mentally-irresponsible vice-president, who are both war-mongering, whether stupidly irresponsibly, in the case of the president, or purposefully mendaciously, in the case of the vice-president, raising the question, what to do?
It seems to me we have two choices, impeach them immediately, both for past and current crimes and misdemeanors, or appeal to another nation or group of nations to take over the US. Perhaps Cuba and Venezuela could be convinced to form a coalition and manage our affairs on a temporary basis, until the ‘08 election. Goodness knows, Chavez has much more honest elections than we have had for ages, if ever. And Castro certainly has much more compassion for his people than either of our two current idiots has ever demonstrated.
Perhaps France and Germany would like to take a shot at it. But we must do something shortly, before, in our names, the world is thrown into world-wide conflict by these madmen.
It’s been over a year since we elected a ‘new slate’ of pols to remedy the apparent problem. But it’s grown worse, since the impotent, incompetent, replacement asses we elected have not corrected the problem, but instead, become part of it, enablers for the idiots they were supposed to eliminate, curb, or correct.
A pox on all these putzes!
IMPEACH, NOW!
mudshark @ 27:
>>>>>>>
First of all, a person calling HIMSELF dude let alone spelling it DOOD has no business online w/o your mommy and daddy to supervise.
SECONDLY: this is not the KOS website you posted on.
THIRDLY: Why are YOU so upset someone isn’t planning on nuking YOU? Are you incapable of hearing good news or are you that addicted to your bloodlust that you are happier to think your nation citizens would be dead in the hundreds of thousands?
Where. The. Hell. Is. Congress????
Hello, MRS PELOSI??? REID????
I know you’re both a pair of gutless losers, but would you both kindly GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND IMPEACH THIS FOOL???
And his evil ventriloquist?
Just do it. We can get it over with in a matter of weeks, a few months at most. Let Chimpy “fire” Cheney, then select a new VP that everyone can comfortably pillory, and then go after Bushboy.
Finish the job.
Bush/Cheney are not normal people!!! They ARE sick, mentally unstable. I bet Bush spoke to his mother when he was a kid just the same way he is speaking to us. I bet he got away with that crap. He is a madman, like Nero. A madman with a trigger finger on our Nukes. We must remove him before he does even more damage. Have them declared mentally incompetent and replace both of them. I think that Keith was far too kind. Bush makes our worst presidents look good.
Once again, in nine minutes, Keith succinctly states what any thinking person knows in his or her heart to be true - that Bush is either an inveterate liar or a moron. And both scenarios are terrifying and unacceptable. I know that in terms of time left, that impeachment may not be a real possibility, but for God’s sake (and especially for OUR sake!), Congress needs to grow a pair at least half as big as KO’s and start saying “NO” to anything this administration proposes.
The best “journalists” in America today are a former sports-caster and an economics professor. What a sorry state for our Fourth Estate, eh?
KO = Brilliant and bold. Most important = TRUTH, as we’ve never heard it, in the last 7 years, from the rest of the ‘no balls’ media.
Janet @ 26:
About time … I have been waiting for this very thing to be said for years.
Thank you again Keith… Kucinich-Olberman -’08.
Lets hope he maintains the fire and lays his gaze upon whom ever it is that “wins” the election in 2008..
The price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance!
#37 — Add to the journalists the Court Jesters of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. More accurate info comes from their programs than ever does from Fox and the likes of O’Reilly.
If only Olbermann would inform his colleague Dan Abrams that he, too, should tone down the rhetoric. On his program yesterday, while discussing this topic with a Republican strategist, Rachael Maddow, and Pat Buchanan, Abrams kept insisting that Iran is “dangerous” and a “threat”. A threat to the United States, which has approximately 10,000 nuclear weapons at its disposal? Or perhaps Iran poses a danger to Israel, which has about 200 nuclear weapons while Iran, at the present time, has none. Iran has consistently stated that it wishes to develop a nuclear weapons facility in order to promote its energy program. As Jonathan Schell, one of the foremost experts on nuclear weapons has pointed out in his numerous books on the subject, as well as his latest book The Seventh Decade, nations that decide to obtain nuclear weapons do so not to use them but as a deterrent against other countries which have them, such as the U.S. and Israel. But of course the so-called liberal media have never raised the question of why other countries should not be entitled to acquire or build a nuclear bomb since the United States has so many of these devices that it can destroy this planet many times over. Apparently the United States believes that it has the hypocritical right to lecture other countries regarding the application of nuclear weapons, despite the fact that America is the only country to have used not one but two nuclear devices to incinerate two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I’ll tell ya why there is no trolls on this one…..cause they don’t have a leg to stand on.”IF” they show up at all….is just because thier full of hate…nothing more,nothing less
Dan Abrams followed Olbermann and kept up the the pressure on Bush’s lies.
Even more amazing… Tony Blakeley and Pat Robertson were there and they agreed that Bush was lying to the American people.
There aren’t enough adjectives to describe this piece but brillia