Usually when a tragedy strikes like a cyclone or a hurricane, one would think that Laura Bush would flash the face of being compassionate to all the suffering people instead of an attack dog politician. Wouldn’t there have been a better time to criticize the government?
When a country run by a despotic and isolationist regime is laid low by a massive natural disaster, the diplomatic thing to do is to respond with a show of compassion. Not kick ‘em when they’re down.
More than 22,000 people have died in the staggering devastation caused by this weekend’s cyclone in Burma. But when First Lady Laura Bush made her first-ever visit to the White House briefing room yesterday, to talk about what’s going on in that country, it was not to deliver a message of goodwill.
Rather than announce the launch of a massive relief effort that could take advantage of a rare diplomatic opening, the first lady instead tossed insults at Burma’s leaders, blamed them for the high death toll, and lashed out at their decision to move forward with a constitutional referendum scheduled for this Saturday.
The traditionally issue-averse first lady’s concerns about the Burmese junta and its abuses of human rights date back several years, and she’s been particularly outspoken since last fall.
But why respond to a catastrophe with such hostility? The awkward timing, as it turns out, may have had something to do with an event entirely unrelated to the cyclone.
“I’m going to leave tomorrow for Crawford, for Jenna’s wedding, and I wanted to be able to make a statement about Burma before I left,” the first lady told reporters.
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Guess Jenna won’t be honeymooning in Myanmar after all.
ms. bush married him…that is all that need be said
Yeah Pickles. They were third world slum dwellers anyway, so this cyclone will work out well for them.
marko @ 2:
And Barbara Bush is her mother - in- law - “the fruit does not fall far from the tree”
Of course, the US always responds to natural disasters with the utmost efficiency and concern for human life…
Those assholes (Bush and Co) did a great job on New Orleans, so they can afford to be critical. I can’t wait till these white trash fucking pukes are out of office.
She’s brain-damaged from Bush’s rancid seed.
More “Compassionate Conservatism”, “now watch this drive”.
I don’t remember them marching Laura out in the Katrina aftermath. Or do they think that since she got on camera today and pleaded for a good cause his poll ratings will shoot up? And is new son in law Henry planning on serving a year in Afghanistan or Iraq to show his support for the war has new daddy in law started? Just a thought.
“I’m going to leave tomorrow for Crawford, for Jenna’s wedding…”
Keep an eye out for stop signs, Madam First Lady. You know how you sometimes “overlook” those.
Shocking! You mean she’s an arsehole too?
Don’t you people get it? What the people of Myanmar need right now is a reading initiative! And who better to fire that up than the First Librarian?
YEESH!
one word: KATRINA…..or as old laura referred to it at the time “KARINA”
is it 1/20/09 yet?
This group will never let up on us.
They will be causing us pain until the day the moving trucks haul
their sorry asses out of the White House.
They have no class whatsoever.
Why the world didn’t get together and “obliterate” our obnoxious selves
for electing so incompetent a leader is something to be grateful for.
Why did Laura make this speech instead of bush? Who the fu*k is she to criticize the way another country handles a disaster? This might have been a good time to STFU.
I heard today we are sending something like a whopping two hundred million in aid. Before we got into the habit of invading non-threatening countries, the world used to look to us to provide all sorts of amazing aid at a time like this.
I’ve often wondered why this poor woman has really spoke up in these eight miserable years, now I understand why….she sounds dumber than her husband.
Wow, she criticized a regime’s failure to respond to it’s people in time of need… like KATRINA!!
Laura Bush…reinforcing religious justification for keeping women quiet and pregnant.
She basically said, this disaster was a bummer and could have been handled better. Now that I have have said the required bull shit that is expected at a time like this, I’m outta here and off to fun times in Crawford.
So quick to assign blame, and so slow to take responsibility.
Albatross @ 17:
No doubt our astute MSM will be quick to make that same comparison!!!
I don’t think anyone anticipated this breach of diplomatic etiquette.
You’re either part of the solution, part of the problem or part of the landscape.
What complete ‘TARDs. Their clueless mentality never ceases to amaze. Slackjawed bornagain’s in charge of the store gets you this FIASCO. I guess the USA truly has earned it’s representative government. Fucking morons voted for these assholes TWICE. Enjoy the recession.
Who cares about 22,500 dead peasants, she needed to get her talking points out.
These people do not give a damn about anyone with a net worth less than $10 million.
What was unspoken but very much part of the core beliefs of Laura Bush and her family, is that GOD punished those poor suffering bastards in Myanmar. That’s why she felt it appropriate to lash out in hostility during a humanitarian emergency - because her GOD lashed out to smite the heathens. It’s par for the course with these cold, inhuman Bushs - remember Babs and her “beautiful mind” and how the blacks in the Astrodome were really better off there? Subhumans, the lot of them.
Pat J @ 9:
Laua called it hurricane Corina.And a definite,maybe(not) to the question of Henry doing a stint in the Middle East.
how can anyone miss the parallel with Katrina?
Bush held back Army rescue for three days to use as leverage in his petty power spat with the Governor over who was in charge. while people died.
now he/she is holding back Burma relief as leverage with the Junta for whatever reason. while people die.
human lives are just pawns in the power game for the Bushies. 9/11, Irag, you name it. hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of innocent lives lost, just so they can get leverage and power.
what monsters.
She has a hell of a lot of nerve to criticize the government of any other country. Look at the mess her very own husband made with Katrina.
Hypocrite thy name is Laura Bush.
maybe we’ll wake up sunday morning to the news of a natural disaster* having hit crawford, texas. a man can dream, can’t he?
*not to be confused with the man-made disaster of another bush procreating in the future.
Liberal AND Proud @ 18:
OH GOD NO! Not pregnant! I sure as hell don’t want these people to breed anymore!
Why do we need to pay Perino? Let Laura handle the bullshitting of the Bush administration press office. She’s perfect for it.
projection. the ultimate form of irony.
Her husband is responsible for the deaths of 1 million Iraqi human beings, and shes up there criticizing another countries government.
Trust me, The whole world is laughing their asses off at this repressed, pathetic woman’s hypocrisy.
litmus @ 30:
She wakes up to a natural disaster every day! LOL! He’s lying next to her.
Heck of a job, Barbie!
Perhaps Laura Bush is waiting till after the wedding of her daughter to announce which of her daughters will be joining the army in order to support their father’s less than noble cause by fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
I always thought it would be kind of neat to see Lewis Black be the press spokesman for the Bush WH. Naw, his head would explode after the first 10 minutes of trying to keep his lies straight.
and now we know why the daughters are such wh@res.
the father and now the mother are social and political retards.
laura was a teacher? what did she teach?
arrogance laced with ignorance?
Someone made pickles in the bed.
What the hell is wrong with these people? Is the irony of Katrina completely lost? I can only assuage my confusion by imagining some speechwriter somewhere, who is actually a foe of Bush, devising these things to make him and his coterie look as horrible as possible. There is no other explanation. It is not possible to be this outrageously stupid and blinkered unless you’re doing it deliberately.
How is it even possible that this bitch Laura doesn’t remember the complete inaction of her own husband regarding Katrina?
Every single thing this vacant eyed cow says could and should be directed right back at her soulless eyes and her deadbeat, ever vacationing husband.
remember when she didn’t know the name of Hurricane Katrina? http://prisonplanet.com/Pages/.....05wife.htm
George bush’s track record is intact. He didn’t show up to speak at the podium after Katrina happened either. Seems it took him a day or so to show up after 9-11 too.
You know, that reason why she was the one to talk to the press yesterday… because she had to leave and wouldn’t be there for the congressional gold medal ceremony because of Jenna’s wedding prep? Well, gee, who was standing behind W today during said ceremony?
While Bush will likely go down in history as this country’s worst president ever, Laura will be utterly forgotten. And for good reason. She is — generously — an absolute zero.
It’s great to see the Bush administration demonstrating all it has learned about diplomacy over the past seven plus years.
The great diplomat, at a time of tragedy, always uses the opportunity to kick his opponent. How, better to show off the virtues of compassionate conservatism than to preface aid with a laundry list of self-serving criticism?
i too thought this was totally bizzare…but then, as i was watching her my mind was substututing hurricane katrina and she could have been saying the same thing about her lil’ georgie….
Besides the obvious hypocrisy from these residents of the white house and Katrina , what is going on attacking and criticizing the country in the middle of a catastrophe and declaring how they should react . There’s got to another agenda at play , because we know the bush regime is one of the most blood thirsty and predatory regimes ever and nothing is said or done with out some desired outcome .
Do they have OIL ?
Are they refusing World Bank policies ?
Because it’s not like we hate doing business with Military Dictatorships , we did in El Salvador, Guatemala , Iraq , Iran , the Congo , Kenya , Haiti , Libya etc etc .
Don’t you think they sent Laura out because Bush scolding another leader for inaction during a natural disaster would have been absurd? That’s got to be it. But how sad is it when the country that should be a moral leader in the world doesn’t have a moral leader to send out to scold military dictatorships? how far we have fallen.
Is it just me or does this cold hearted snob of an excuse for a woman look like Jack Nicholson when he played the Joker in Batman…..
The makeup puts here in her place.
When I first read about this I had to laugh. If her husbands response to Katrina is any indication. She needs to shut the f*ck up and get to Crawford before causing any more noise about other countries supporting disasters. After 8 years the Bush’s are suddenly caring about humanitarian issues? Please…give me a break.
[snark]
Just think, in 2016 she will be running for President because of all of the experience she has learned over the past 8 years of being in the White House. Remember, being the First Lady qualifies you for running for the highest elected position in the US.
[/snark]
ugh.
I guess the government of Myanmar was planning a GAY PRIDE PARADE that WHITE JESUS didn’t approve of. Anyone see if GODHATESMYANMAR is up over at Westboro Baptist?
Pete @ 41, I couldn’t have said it better. These people are creeps of the highest order. ‘I’m off to a wedding let them eat cake’.
And the basic rule is vindicated yet again. Republicans condemn those activities of which they are the world’s most ardent practitioners. To wit, another idiot Bush speaks:
Katrina, you fucking bitch!
Katrina, you fucking bitch!
No Child’s Behind Left. S-CHIP. Fuck you!
What’s our once-wealthy nation done lately, Laura? What do we produce besides war?
Like your husband’s evil priorities, you fucking bitch!
Like Florida 2000, and all the subsequent gay-bashing, and orchestrated anti–gay marriage amendments to state constitutions, used as a wedge issue for the 2004 election. Like the elections in Iraq.
Routine Bushian practices.
Much better that the regime simply fire the military officials if they won’t act like a dictatorial junta, right?
Florida 2000; voter purges happening right now; forcing elderly people to show id’s they won’t have in time, if they can get them at all; routine bullying of minorities.
Free speech zoning; people arrested for wearing T-shirts; inability to attend Bush “town meetings” without being a Bush sycophant.
Seigleman; Sheehan; and on the flip side, Scooter.
But when the entire fucking world hates us for killing people all over the entire fucking world, we shouldn’t take our cues from the interna