October 06, 2004

Is Bush using an earpiece? (via boing boing). And I'll take this one step further...

Bush's behavior at the debate was as if he had an earpiece that malfunctioned at particularly critical junctures leaving him to ad-lib out of it on his own. I don't think it takes a great imagination to guess that he would try to use an earpiece (if I had the CIA and FBI at my disposal, I'd try to use some of their toys, too) but take it one step further. Anything that works wirelessly can also be effectively interfered with. Imagine someone listening and sabotaging the President's cheat - letting it work just often enough that he would continue to rely on it. It's not like he could publicly complain about it!

posted by mecurious 20 years ago
  • I don't think he was using one. Having some familiarity with in-ear foldback, I find it unlikely. It's very hard to 'interfere' with them these days, certainly not sophisticated ones used by the highest in the land. The bulge in his jacket likely a kevlar vest. Bush's behaviour in the debate was as if he had a brain that malfunctioned at critical junctures, leaving him to vamp on tired, facile and illogical party doctrine. I think people are just having a hard time believing that he is *that* fucking incompetent, but the truth is - he is. Let's not feed the Rethugs with more ammunition to posit their opposition as crazy conspiracy theorists. There is better material to use for that.
  • Agreed. It's an entertaining theory, but when one applies Occam's Razor the most obvious answer is tha Bush is just kind of dim.
  • I think it is hard to dismiss the voice over satellite evidence that Bush uses a wire. (Did anybody read the link?) I also think it is a no-brainer that if I saw how bad Bush is at thinking on his feet and being articulate, I would try to give him any help I could, as a Bush advisor. I don't think that makes me a conspiracy theorist and I don't think it discounts the fact that Bush is a dim bulb.
  • A more interesting question to ponder would be: Do you think any Bush voters are likely to reconsider if they knew he was using an earpiece?
  • Nal: A lot of them are incapable of reconsidering. It would destroy their happy, little world such that they might actually have to consider gays, blacks, Muslims, the uninsured, wounded soldiers, the homeless, drug addicts, non-Christians, anyone who believes that America might get it wrong once in a while, or, heaven forbid, the poor. /rant All happy and peaceful now. Well, sort of. OK, not.
  • If he is wearing one, can't someone jam it? Please?
  • Knowing how daft Bush is, I would bet that Cheney would have insisted that he have some sort of help. You cannot have him standing out there all alone to think on his feet when it has been proven time and time again that he is incapable of doing so effectively. There is far too much to risk. As for the poor showing he made; well that just proves that even with help, he's painfully ill-equipped to handle public debate. I say this not having read the link yet, which I will do, but it seems to me Bush wearing a wire is a very likely possibility .
  • Bah! This is all a cover for the fact that Bush has a fake hairpiece. My ridiculous conspiracy duties are done here
  • The Presidential debates were previously taped in an unmarked warehouse studio (the same studio used to broadcast the fake moon landing). It is the New World Order taking over in which Bush and Kerry are complicit. WAY O/T from whack conspiricies: I semi-frequently wear a hearing aid. My gut says Bush didn't respond like a person wearing a listening device/receiver would.
  • The real Bush choked on a pretzel years ago. Since then, his double has been forced to impersonate him. The thing in his ear injects cyanide if he attempts to escape or gets out of line. All he can do is try to lose the election without making it too obvious to his controllers that that's what he's doing. That's a conspiracy theory
  • just play the tape with the other voice. Until then: theory. What would it change anyway? If Kerry broke the debate rules by laying a hellacious smackdown on the Fucktard Kid would he get sued? censured? Would Cheney tell him to go fuck himself? Nothing matters and what if it did. oh yeah, and GO VOTE. *victory sign* thank you.
  • the Fucktard Kid Hey!
  • No, this fits perfectly. Remember after the election, when everyone was worried Cheney was going to die? It was not a question of "if," but "when." Then 911 went down, Cheney disappeared into a bunker for two months, then reappears with no apparent health problems, going full strength ever since. Our vice president is a CYBORG! ALL HAIL CHENEYBOT! This way Dubya can be plugged in directly...
  • "I think it is hard to dismiss the voice over satellite evidence that Bush uses a wire." I think it's easy to dismiss it as it's by satellite, and there are frequently huge delays between feeds. Even the signal flow thru' the mixing desk in the tv studio can add many milliseconds of delay to audio channels, and in such situations there are often separate feeds of announcers reciting the speech for translators, wire feeds etc. (although I admit it seems a bit weird and may be something sus.)
  • Wonder if this'll get any play in the wider media.
  • (hmunc's last link, that is)
  • Veddddy interesting.
  • Geez, you think they woulda told him to hold his shoulders back and not slouch so much. Dufus.
  • Wolof, homunculus: My theory is that there's so much frenzy, so much noise in terms of the news from now until Tuesday that this won't make much of a dent in people's consciousness even if the mainstream press does report it.
  • People, people - listen to me . . . Bush supporters DON'T CARE about ANYTHING - not reason, not facts, not consequences, not history, not the complete and utter destruction of the Constitution or our representative democracy - NOTHING. THEY WANT BUSH. That is all.