
Just like children, catch phrases continue to age long after they quit being cute. And so it was with “Mission Accomplished,” a banal phrase on a banner strung up behind old what’s-his-name on that day, six years ago, when he dressed up like a space-pilot action figure and was flown in a little plane which landed on a big boat. We’ve all learned a lot since then, maybe.
Three kinds of Americans were revealed on that day: the ones who looked upon these images with a simple patriotic pride, the ones who were all Oh jesus christ, stage-manage much?, and the vast unwashed MySpace masses who sort of missed the whole “Iraq Invasion” news but could tell you exact directions to every Taco Bell in the tri-county area.
Then, a few weeks after Bush Junior was trotted out on an aircraft carrier to announce the end of a terrible, stupid war which is still probably decades away from over, a fourth group of Americans revealed themselves: They were the ones who would say, in a sneering manner, “Mission Accomplished” in response to anything involving Bush or his administration or Republicans or, finally, things that didn’t even have to do with politics or war at all.
It is these people who ruined America, after the other people (Republicans) ruined the other part of America.
And it was about this time, six years ago, when the little trade magazine with the newspaper job ads in the back somehow turned into a liberal website featuring liberal usage of the “Mission Accomplished” slogan, in ironic tones, forever.
A 6th Anniversary Look Back at Media Coverage of ‘Mission Accomplished’ [Editor & Publisher]











Re your post: Mission accomplished.
If Bush was seeking to completely eff up the country, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Maybe he can get an honerery doktorite at Har-vard.
That picture is disturbing. I realize it’s a shameful part of American history, but really, it’s too much.
All by herself, Elizabeth Bumiller is enough to make you hate the NYT.
Too self-absorbed/didn’t read (ts-a/dr)
a mind is a terrible thing to waste
Mission Accomplished: Now everyone hates George W. Bush!
“Quel enfoiré!” (French for “I told you so”)
Just remember John Hodgman’s 8 Keys to Success (Power System for Success).
Who’s the guy in the picture? He seems familiar, but I can’t place him.
DangerousLiberal:
Sadly, he already has an MBA from Harvard. I hear the value of that particular year’s MBA class took a serious blow in its credibility because of W. These are undoubtedly the same people who caused the current economic armageddon and still have the temerity to stand in line, cup in hand, at the government trough while screaming “free markets” at the top of their privileged lungs.
Happy Birthday, Disaster Accomplished! I think Bernie Madoff turned 71 yesterday, wasn’t it also Hitler’s Birthday yesterday? Haaaaaaaaaaa! Maybe Madoff can get out in 30 yrs with good behavior, & not being alive.
Nerdalicious: Hitler’s birthday is April 20. All the hippies smoke up on that day to celebrate.
Canmon (the Inadequate):
Oh, thanks, I knew it was in the vicinity. Bernie will have his own name emblazened in infimiy too.
Nerdalicious: Hitler’s death day, actually. May W be remembered in the same way.
The graphic design of that banner encapsulates not only everything wrong with the Bush administration, but also with the world.
Nerdalicious: Sorry, but Hitler, Napoleon and my daughter(explains a lot), were born on April 20th.
Never forget!!1! - as if Olbermann would let us.
DemmeFatale: That’s Napoleon III (April 20, 1808), a rather innocuous figure compared to AH, Napoleon Bonaparte (b. August 15, 1769) and perhaps even your daughter’s.
I can still remember that walk from the plane in his fighter plane outfit to the podium, looking like he personally strafed an entire Al Queda outpost all by himself while simultaneously fighting off 20 Imperial Tie Fighters. Just the thought of it makes me want to go look at those White House photos of the Obama family playing with Bo to fight off the nausea.
Yah, if you’re trying to make me feel guilty for being one of those libtards who love to sneer that catchphrase, just dripping with vindictive sarcasm, then mission not accomplished.
It still feels theraputic to say it.
testing
Oh, I thought I was banned for making fun of the Overlords he he. BTW, stellar performances Bravo!
I prefer “Heck of a good job, Brownie.”
“Are yoo ‘avin’ a larf? Is ee ‘avin’ a larf?”
Oh man, I will never forget the Presidential package. Junk we can’t believe in?
Mission accomplished! Now watch this drive.
Geez, he looked ancient even then.
I think the catch phrase that has stuck the worst in modern parlance is ‘The Internets.’ Which, post-Ted Stevens’ input, became ‘The Intertubes.’
Lets Go Vertigo: Not only ancient, but that expression harkens back to little Bush’s 2nd grade classroom, sitting in the back row, squinting desperately at the blackboard, hoping to figure out what all the squiggles really meant.
KEN W. LAYNE IS DEMONSTRATING REAL LEADERSHIP!!1!
Pass it on
No image is more inspiring than video of W walking, chest puffed out, arms dangling like a gorilla’s, the way a 2nd-grade bully walks cuz he thinks it makes him look badass & scary. This wannbe bully/pussy would shit himself if…oh wait, this pussy did shit himself, on 9/11, flying all over the country, frantically calling that other big tough badass, Dick Cheney, who was buried 30 stories below ground, you know, just to be safe. Two useless cowards, the equivalent of all the tough, badass Nazis who killed themselves rather than take responsibility for all that shit they were so proud of, as long as they had someone to hide behind.
You know, no matter how shitfaced one could get Obama, say, at a party, I don’t believe you could ever get an expression this stupid on his face.
Pissing accomplished.
bitchincamaro: I hope you typed that with the wig on.
hobospacejunkie: Yes, and all the repubtard, neocons bought the look and repeated the lies as W & Cheney destroyed their party, American values, the military, the banking system, all of which Republicans claimed, and still claim, Dems can’t be trusted to manage.
More Dylan? Sure!
Tweedle-dee Dee is a lowdown, sorry old man
Tweedle-dee Dum, he’ll stab you where you stand
“I’ve had too much of your company,”
Says, Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee
Formerly Preferred: HA!!
2009 version:
“Me, shunned. Accomplished.”
Coincidentally, Cher had her ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ video filmed on a naval vessel.
If only Jamacaine flew King George aboard the carrier.
vespula maculata:
Jack Davis couldn’t draw a face that stupid. Every single aspect of his meaningless existence must look like differential equations through his eyes.
Q. Why does George Dubya have world-class bad body odor?
A. So that blind people can hate him too.
Mission Failed.
Fission Mailed!
I don’t mind the phrase too much. I do mind that the guy who thought it up, Turd Blossom, still has a job, gives his opinion as if it matters, and is at liberty.
Servo: That speech would’ve been a lot better delivered while straddling a cannon, surrounded by whooping seamen.
Has Obama appointed his ambassador to Armenia yet?
Wow, that recap was painful to read — where are all those Bush fawners now? Oh yeah — they’ve still got jobs and good reputations as professional journalists. Except for Martin Deppe of Chicago, who is the only person there who deserves one.
I prefer Bush, “giving his love to his OBYN”.
and somehow, someway, this turd fail of loser whose best part slid down the crack of Barb “Grandma Evil” Pierce* Bush’s asscrack** still beat an actual veteran***, french John Kerry.
*of the New England Pierces.
**stolen from Full Metal Jacket.
***Two veterans if you count the Mexican Juan McCain, and you should; and three veterans if you count that other faggish pussy Vietnam vet Al Gore, and you should. All three suckers when the option of getting stoned, laid & otherwise failing in Texas is on the table.
“He [fmr. Sen. Frist, June 05 Douche of the Month] married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.”
I prefer Hopey at the auto bail-out festival with the “Michigan Accomplished” banner.
Three kinds of Americans were revealed on that day: the ones who looked upon these images with a simple patriotic pride, the ones who were all Oh jesus christ, stage-manage much?, and the vast unwashed MySpace masses who sort of missed the whole “Iraq Invasion” news but could tell you exact directions to every Taco Bell in the tri-county area.
Ken, you nailed it.
Formerly Preferred: George the Plumber???
Formerly Preferred: Oh, wait - that’s the Maytag repairman. Must be a broken washing machine on that aircraft carrier.
Six years ago was also the very last time Peggy Noonan creamed up her panties. Chris Matthews, in comparison, has had no problem with erections over the past half dozen years. Hey, I’ve got an idea! Those two should meet!
While it is an annoying Libtard catch phrase, it’s also the dumbed down, Bush Era equivalent of the Nixon tapes. While Nixon left behind an extensive record of what a mean minded snake he really was, “Mission Accomplished” is the unintended punchline of Bush’s legacy.
would something like that banner ever end up in the Smithsonian?
like, say, in a collection called “Spectacular Failures” with Custer’s battle plans, the Apollo 1 space craft, the Extended Range Interceptor (ERINT) and a wax figure of James Buchanan?
Canmon (the Inadequate): Same b-day as my ex-wife. One thinks that might have given me some pause. You live and learn.
The truth is that the crew of the Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, having completed its mission and returned to the states, had placed the banner on the ship’s superstructure to celebrate the fact that their mission was indeed accomplished. Bush’s stunt was meant to be a tribute to the crew. However, the incident was lept upon by the entertainment outlets that the illiterate masses depend on for their news. Nothing in his speech claimed that the war was over, and it is a fact that the invasion operation was completed. The insurgency was not expected to require the coordination of all of the services and global logistics that the invasion did, and it did not, as gruelling as that phase turned out to be. Did George W. Bush really think that the war was over? Of course not, but he personally never had a flare for PR, and Karl Rove apparently could not get to him in time to save him from handing a hostile media a free chunk of his ass.