Denial is Not Just a River in Egypt

The Monkey Man Sounds out a New Word

David Noon at the Axis of Evel Knevel has already commented on Dubya’s press conference two days ago but I’ve got to add my own 5 cents worth. When someone challenged George about the Amnesty International report comparing the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to a Soviet-style gulag he had the following to say:

“I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that is -- promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. It's just an absurd allegation.

In terms of the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've investigated every single complaint against the detainees. It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of -- and the allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report. It just is...”

Several things occur to me following this statement.

First the sheer lying arrogance of the man. This blatant denial is just beyond the pale. Does he think Amnesty International comprises a bunch of left wing extremists with a political agenda? By definition it’s a strictly neutral organization of the highest integrity and this crude attempt to besmirch its name is quite despicable. OK, if he doesn’t like the conclusions of their report, he can always commission a fully independent body like the International Red Cross to carry out an investigation.

Second, I fail to understand why the population of the USA voted this semi-literate moron back into office. Disassemble, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, means "To come apart" or "To break up in random," as in "The unit disassembles easily" or "The spectators began to disassemble." What of course he meant to say was "dissemble," which means "To disguise or conceal behind a false appearance," "To make a false show of," "To feign," or "To disguise or conceal one's real nature, motives, or feelings behind a false appearance." His wife was once a librarian –you’d think she’d encourage him to read a bit and expand his vocabulary beyond the basic 700 words.

Third, and while we’re on the subject, let’s start pronouncing words correctly. If I hear him say “Nukuler” one more time I’m going to scream. It’s more irritating than that bloody crazy frog ringtone. And it’s not just George doing it, the whole Republican party seems to be on message; are they all obsequious sycophants and toadies? Surely his handlers can include a bit of basic elocution in their coaching? Either they are too scared to tell him or they are pandering cynically to class-stratification.