April 28, 2004

• That's one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. Who wipes their glasses on someone else's shirt?! Still, I'm not sure that's worth voting him out. There are other issues you could raise that are far more substantial.
• That glass wipe thing is funny in the sense that someone made it into a reason to vote him out. I haven't finished reading the second link, so I feel qualified to comment on it. Is the press the voice of the people? I don't think so. After the last press conference where GWDouche answered no questions Tavis Smiley or Kojo Nambie had some reporters who were there & who asked questions and a caller said something like "you are suppose to be representing the people" and the reporters basically said that is not and never was true, they are there to check facts. even if they are a "check on power" they are not working for we the people.
• f8x- See, I don't think that wiping his glasses on her shirt, specifically, is a good reason to vote Mr. Bush out, but it *is* a good, light, clear indicator of just how little he thinks before acting, and how out of touch he is. Those, along with the more "substantial" issues you mentioned (which hardly need belaboring) are very good reasons indeed to vote him out.
• Has anyone seen the minute that precedes this? Any chance he looked down, thought, "Crap, my glasses are dirty" and asked the women if he could use her sweater to give them a quick cleaning? I'd just like to see the whole thing in context. This little snippet does look weird.
• The wiping his glasses on someone else's shirt was rude and tacky and just shows his contempt for the "common people." It's the wiping his arse with the Constitution that really bothers me.
• The glasses thing was so odd. Who does that? I wished I could have seen the moments before that film started -- maybe he asked or something (on preview: like leviathan). And when was Bush on Letterman? Letterman mocks him so much it's tough to imagine him appearing there. That would have been a show to watch!
• What is the context of this clip? That hasn't been made clear anywhere. Maybe he was supposed to do this as a gag?
• I'm very skeptical of the authenticity of this video--but, frankly, I don't care, because I really don't care where W wipes his glasses. What will affect my vote is the incompetence his administration has demonstrated in long-term geopolitical strategic planning; we live in too complex and dangerous a world for a president who (in his own words) "doesn't do nuance." If you want a good reason to vote against W, there's a very long article here that details how many chances the administration had (and missed) to plan properly for post-war Iraq. A much shorter essay on similar themes, written by a former support of the Iraq war, is here
• f8x I strongly disagree. Glasses-wiping is the pre-eminent issue of this election year. How can you just sit there complacently?! ;) But I agree babies, the press doesn't represent the public any more than it represents business or any other classification of society including themselves (both public and business). I just thought it was interesting how previous administrations had made varying degrees of attempts to work either with or against the press and this current one seems to just bypass the press altogether. If the press is negative, they'll spin it themselves, otherwise the press is doing the administration's work nicely. (insert comment about iraq-wounded/dead photographs/stores). rolypolyman this looks consistent with the "between-advertisement" scenes on Letterman - the assistant comes out to give notes, while others mill around the set. I don't know what happened beforehand but I seriously doubt it was planned or considered as something that migh show up as a clip on a website.
• I looked, and looked, and looked, and couldn't find anything that said the clip was anything other than genuine. That said... did you guys notice him looking around while he was doing it, like he wanted everyone to see & laugh or something. What an egomaniac that guy is! I agree with everyone - no, it's not a big issue, but it's the little things like this that show how his true feelings about regular Americans.
• I am by no means a fan of the President, but HOLY SHIT, that's hilarious. I think he's a terrible, terrible leader, but I don't discount the possibility that he's a genuinely funny man (I'm never sure what percentage of the humor is intentional, but it doesn't change the entertainment value. I only wish he'd be funny without killing us all).
• lighten up, people! it's not like he blew his nose with the shirt! and besides, who knows where that shirt has been? would you borrow someones toothbrush?
• You know what I think? I think the President is accustomed to wiping his glasses on people's clothes, and he just did it absent-mindedly. Think about it: all day long, he's surrounded by secret service guys who are sworn to DIE for him if necesary. But in between dying for him, they handle every little thing the President needs - including clean glasses. I think that the President cleans his glasses on the shirts (or whatever) of his secret service guys and admin assistants all the time, to the point where it has become a routine behavior. He was sitting there, not even thinking about it, and his hands did what they always do, except this time it was on-camera and not a secret service person. Whoops. I mean, as the president, he's catered to constantly. Why should it surprise us that he takes that level of personal service unthinkingly for granted?
• This is not an entirely unheard-of level of personal service in the corporate world, either. I've given my boss my suit-jacket before he went into a meeting; another time, I stripped off my tie and gave it to a different boss, same sort of thing (I have so far drawn the line at pants, for those of you wondering). I've taken the blame in front of clients for mistakes my boss has made (think Smails' scene with Danny in Caddyshack when he throws the putter and it beans the old lady on the patio). Pens constantly - I carry a half-dozen pens on me, if I know I'm going to be around bosses. Handkerchiefs, too. A glasses cleaning is familiar and a little gross, but people do this kind of thing all the time.
• first, my terribly crippled memory insists i have seen this before. second, i seem to recall something along the lines of him actually asking for something to wipe his glasses with and her telling him to use her jacket. (but then again, i seem to recall being a slave chained belowdeck lying in my own filth for months in a former life. so, don't go by me.) bush looks awfully young in that clip. when was he on letterman? as governor? during the campaign? itchy monkeys wanna know!
• aha! this happened back before the world changed into a dark, dangerous terror-infested place.
• oh, and logically, this proves reincarnation. cool!
• Fes- I've had jobs like that- my first job out of college I worked as an assistant to a senior executive on Wall Street. If he spilled something on his tie at lunch, and happened to have a meeting with the CEO in the afternoon, he'd hand me a handful of cash and ask me to go buy him some new ties at Century 21. And, the first time I saw this Bush video, it reminded me of something I saw during my first week on that job- I was delivering papers for the CEO's signature to his fleet of executive assistants (he has four of them) and just after clearing the extra round of security on the executive office floor, the CEO's private elevator opened and he came out with his entourage. I followed them into his office area, and saw the CEO, while walking, take off his suit jacket and allow it to drop behind him, because he knew that someone was behind him to catch it before it hit the floor. And indeed, someone did. I just stood there, astonished.
• he wore realtor ties?
• *hands quonset a bar of Ivory and a warshrag
• Fes, ambrosia: You people all live in a different world. Wierd. I'm used to seeing a certain amount of arse kissing when it comes to the nominally important, and something like loaning a tie wouldn't be out of the bound of imagination, but picking up after the boss? Possibly if you're a PA, but if the CEO of INL in NZ had wandered around dropping his stuff, the staff probably would have trod on it.
• every realtor needs one
• werd, that's some freaky office culture. I'd like to think I could say something bitingly clever and shocking as I walked out.
• It's not so freaky. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I take a certain measure of pride in being the guy who can take care of emergencies, who can put out fires. And it's not like it a master-slave kind of thing, more like feudal lord<->villein serf. It's a two way street. I am loyal (to a point) to the company and act in the company's best interest (and the company's best interest is often best served by my doing my job to the extent of my abilities and serving my boss similarly) because it is in my best interest to do so. However, think of this like the serf's relationship to the kingdom, in that it's hazardous to him personally for the kingdom to fall. At the same time, I as a villein am loyal to my local lord boss personally for several reasons. For one, he is my boss, and thereby has been authorized to command my services in those ways he sees fit. That's baseline loyalty, that of duty. But further, though I have a responsibility to act upon my boss's command, I also have a responsibility to act in his interest, for his interests and mine coincide at the point of employment. He, in turn, has a responsibility to me - to protect me from the predations of those other bosses who would co-opt me and eat my soul; to not drive me crazy with his micromanagement, irascibility overwork and eccentricity; to promote the growth of my skills and compensation, so I will be a deft and comfortable servant acting to the best of my abilities; to give me choice perquisites from his stash so that I will return his generousity in kind; and to be a wise commander, so that as his condottiere in the corporate world, his samurai, he does not waste my strength and sword on pyrrhic victories and insane quests, but instead allows me to garner him victories and glory, and by doing so bring glory to myself.
• For as the Samurai Master hath writ: I have no talent; I make Ready Wit my Talent I have no friends; I make my Mind my Friend. I have no enemy; I make Incautiousness my Enemy. I have no armor; I make Benevolence my Armor. I have no castle; I make the Immovable Mind my Castle. I have no sword; I make No Mind my Sword.
• Fes has, as usual, put it well. My wife used to me a corporate daimyo of no small puissance. Her most loyal henchmen had that sort of relationship with her: she trusted them with with her back, and in turn they faithfully defended and protected her at public events and on site visits. They operated as a selfless unit, and were as a result quite effective. My wife's samurai knew that they were playing a role. It didn't bother them: it was their job, just like picking through stack traces was my job. We had a running gag about "the empress." On preview - yeah, same metaphor, Fes.
• After reading all these stories it's really made me realize how grateful I am that I have never worked in a traditional corporate environment. Props to all you samurai. And thank God I'm a ronin.
• Whoa. I'm with you de Carabas. Do you think we ought to take all these poor Monkeys out and, like, DEPROGRAM them or something?
• yeah that's seriously ummm. . y'know . . feudal. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Well, wrong for me. /flings water balloons at de Carabas and BlueHorse
• Let'em be BlueHorse. Unlikely as it may be it's a personal choice and some people are happy that way.
• Man, now I want a transcript. All I can really find that's relevant to "a post 9-11 world" is this link. So Letterman then asked Bush about the terrorist murder of 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen. Seriously. "If I find out who it was, they'd pay a serious price," Bush said of the bombing. "I mean a serious price." "Now, what does that mean?" Letterman asked, a follow-up Bush doesn't often get when he's asked about such bravado. "That means they're not going to like what happened to them," Bush said, and the crowd went wild. "Now are you talking about retaliation or due process of law?" Letterman asked. "Heh-heh," Bush said. "I'm talking about gettin' the facts and lettin' them know we don't appreciate it and there's a serious consequence ... And I'll decide what that consequence is." Now, I remember hearing about Osama being responsible for the Cole bombing. I imagine someone that's going to be president would hear a lot more detail. I'm sure this can be spun in a bunch of different directions, but it at least shows the guy was aware of Al Qaeda and, at least rhetorically, thought we should take some serious action. Well, where's the follow through? Why did we wait until 9-11 to freak out? He's obviously aware of the gravity of the situation. Did a briefing saying "As you're aware, these mugfugs bombed the Cole. We believe they're going to try this again, but on American soil and on a larger scale" not freak this dude out? I'm trying to think of a way to spin this in the other direction, but I'm tired and blinded by my outrage over his arrogant spectacle wiping. Or something.