What’s that dang old George W. Bush up to these days? People used to talk about him all the time. Now? It’s like we can’t even remember what the deal was, with that guy. The main thing is that he is very scared of flying baseballs and scary baseball catcher-men. We would be scared, too!
Thanks also to Philadelphia Will Do, we can link to this fabulous animated picture of the moments before and after the picture you see here. Look at this crazy thing, just look at it:
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Bring it on.
I mean, AHHHHHHH! MOMMY!
I wonder if he buys them giant pretzels when he goes to the ballgame, for the visceral "cheating death" thrill.
For him it's like autoerotic asphyxiation, eating pretzels.
No baseball; he was looking at the list of Republican potential candidates for president.
That's the same look I had all weekend when I thought the Wonkette was going away.
Fuck. A swing and a miss.
He does much better with shoes.
Segways and pretzels, no so much.
And doors.
Doors: the mortal enemy of Republicans. Also, logic. Also.
Oh good lord, that was just embarrassing.
I would like to think that, if this thing had a soundtrack, we would hear a little scream, too.
Once a cheerleader…
As I seem to recall, he's skeert of horsies too – even though he was always spending time on his Potemkin Dude Ranch clearing brush or whatever.
Yeah, I "cleared brush" in my day too. Then I smoked it.
He's only a cowboy when it comes to diplomacy.
GW Bush is an f'ing goat roper, down to his core.
"goat roper"
Never heard this expression, though it's clearly not a compliment.
Translate for the benefit of us city slickers?
What it sounds like. He owns the cowboy outfit, has adopted the slang, but lacks the actual cowboy skills or experience. A western pretender. Lassos goats, rather than cattle.
When I first talked about attending a large livestock and engineering oriented university (not naming names) in Texas, an old friend told me the whole school was nothing but "goat ropers and prom queens". I didn't understand the reference until I walked on campus that first day. All of a sudden, I knew what those terms meant and sadly my friend was 100% correct.
Were you interested in the agricultural or mechanical bits?
Also, is there a particular Texas decoding for "prom queen", or do we already got that?
All hat, no cattle.
The ranch Rove told him to buy and he sold before he got off Air Force 1 coming back to Dallas. Not to be confused with the giant Pampas enclave Poppy supposedly owns.
If I was as dumb as an apple, I'd be scared of horses, too.
i totally read that as Pokemon Dude Ranch. wishful thinking, maybe.
What do baseballs, shoes, and drafts have in common? W. dodges them all.
BOOOYAAHH!
Responsibility, also.
Kowtows while backing out of the room.
Also, the consequences of invading the wrong country (but not credit for "the surge")
ZING!
You win the entire world.
So add baseballs to shoes and pretzels on the list of inanimate objects that are among W's archenemies.
And Chinese doors.
And the English language.
And the American People.
Add facts to the list. Oh, and questions of any kind.
and literacy.
I have a bad feeling about history, too.
They obviously misunderestimated his dodging skills.
My guess is that he bathed in sanitizer after the incident.
And when the sanitizer hit his naughty bits, I'm certain he did a funny little dance. Don't ask me how I know.
Jeez, Chet!
*cringes*
I thought I was shamed and sickened from 2000-2008, and you managed to top even that!
And me.
And Kanye West.
Vid is blocked at work, but my guess is that he was simply concerned about potential damage to that nice Patek Phillipe he's sporting.
Now be fair. He looks pretty much like we all looked when he was "elected" two times.
The math is not strong in this one. He was "elected" zero times, occupied the Oval Office two times.
He's bolder when it comes to dodging shoes. And the Constitution, also.
~
That's his "Cheney just walked into the room with a paddle and a strap-on" look.
It just dawned on me…I should have made it Laura and not Dick. I mean really…why would Cheney need a strap on?
His heart doesn't work; why would the stuff further south work?
He's more machine than man now.
Such devotion to his Kraft.
Star Wars FTW
But if he wore a strap-on, he'd get no pleasure…unless he got his kicks from hurting Georgie in that special way.
Ok…never mind. I get it. I'll leave it with Dick. Besides, the image of Laura walking around wearing a strap-on made me throw up a little.
I thought maybe you meant Liz.
"why would Cheney need a strap on?"
If he were catching rather than pitching.
Now I've actually grossed myself out.
Notice too that Laura was more or less oblivious to the commotion around her. It's the only way to survive being married to Chimpy.
It looks like she's covering her head. From shame, no doubt. But could be 'cause of the baseball.
These days, I imagine most of Laura's days are spent with her hands covering her head.
That was Nolan Ryan's wife covering her head. Laura did, in fact, remain oblivious.
What else is new? Drugs can do wonderful thins.
He told the catcher "no way thats a touchdown you didn't even catch it".
Baseball been berry berry scary to me.
For a born-again
drunkChristian, he sure doesn't seem to have any confidence that his god will protect him!I still fucking hate Bush.
Catch it with your head, George! Catch it with your head!!
Too late — if he hasn't gotten any use out of that thing by now, he's not gonna.
What a shocker that a man who always loved to strut about and swagger and act as if he's a tough and traditionally manly cowboy type would actually be a coward who cowers at the slightest threat.
He's a Republican.
And it's not as if baseball should be unfamiliar, threatening territory for him, either. He used to pretend to be a part-owner of a baseball team.
It's occasions like this that make him glad he always wears his protective codpiece.
Protecting his neuticals?
First no rapture and now this. What a terrible week.
Is that a fucking pink shirt? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Where was the Secret Service agent who was supposed to throw himself in front of Bush and "take the baseball?"
Face it. The Farrelly Brothers have been off their game for years.
Mission accomplished, almost.
"I will not wait on events while dangers gather. I will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."
– George W. Bush, "State of the Union Address", January 29, 2002.
And who's the woman in red? Ready to sacrifice herself to cover Laura and Dubya with her body. Too bad, Dubya can't award her with a Medal of Freedom like he did for Tenet, et al.
I love how she keeps her head covered long after the ball is caught… her terror color never goes below orange.
That's pretty much how I react to any thrown object, ever.
(I was not popular in gym class)
"Hey… I'm sittin' here! Don't you know who I am?!? Uh… me neither… Whatchya eatin'? Heh heh heh…"
He didn't even try to catch it. Steve Bartman FAIL!
With a little bit of cropping and cutting (Andrew Breitbart take note) you could make that look like the lady in red is giving him head.
It's Bush, not Newt.
That's what Harriet Myers is for.
Is that woman in red trying to get her body between W and the decending ball? Must be Karen Hughes.
He looks drunk.
Not quite Beijing Olympics drunk, but still.
"Looks"?
Please, he's been drunk off his ass since the last six months of his second stolen term.
What were we going to do, impeach him?
Just what I was thinking!
He catches like a girl. I mean, a male cheerleader. Talk about something following you around FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, eh Georgie?
You say that as if he has a sense of shame.
Other people don't look stupid at a baseball game. Bush does. I just hate that moran.
You're okay! HUZZAH.
So glad to see you posting!
"Miss me yet"?
No.Fuck no.Well, the bean ball missed, it seems.
Hey, who the fuck is that in the picture with A.J. Pierzynski?
Since it was "Take Your Family to the Ballpark Day," I hope he didn't spill his little fetus jar brother's fetus jar.
You, sir or madame, have won the morning.
Back to the bunker.
Bush is such a shining example of American Exceptionalism!
He's proof that anyone can become Pres. of the US!
Wonkette Jr. is showing some real promise here, amirite?
He/she/they is/are doing well; although I am missing the multi-story morning roundups.
Wonkette Jr: Nothing would make us happier than to see you give up evil psychology for a rewarding career in evil blogging.
ha ha, I'm not the mystery blogger, just the evil psychologist. Evil blogging does sound like more fun.
I'd expect better from a man who dodged the draft while supporting the war in Vietnam, and who, on 9/11 when danger reared it's ugly head, bravely turned around and fled.
He's a latter-day Sir Robin!
Go change your armor.
He told us if we didn't fight the terrorists over there, we would have to dodge baseballs over here.
No Special Olympics medal for W.
(I can say this because my nephew, Shane has Down's Syndrome) Shane would have dove over chairs to catch that ball. (preemptive "no, she didn't go there" strike)
No, you didn't go there!??!
My son Noah has Down syndrome and he would have found the person who caught the ball and looked at him fetchingly,
I'd cover Noah's face in kisses so sweet.
Shane and I had a vacation last year at the beach in N.C. I got his mom a b-day cake and asked, "Shane, would you like some cake, or some ice cream or both?' He pressed his forehead into mine and said, "Barb, you already have my answer."
Instant love.
Cool kid.
What a sweet kid, and articulate. How old is he?
That. Is. Awesome.
Awwww…
My son has autism and he wouldn't have flinched. He wouldn't have gone after the ball, either (or even looked up), unless a Yu-gi-oh card was strapped to it, but he wouldn't have flinched.
Berkeley, that would be a classic Youtube hit!
You all can indulge yourselves in all the tard love you want, but Jack's not coming back.
You lie! I left a trail of bread crumbs for him and he will be back. Not so much "bread crumbs" as they were Jell-o shots, made with tequila.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Don't hate me. But looking at the video, it appears that Shrub was going for the ball and then got surprised by the catcher. It could have surprised anyone.
Hey now…settle down. I was just, you know pointing out something. Put down those pitchforks! Wait…wait! Here:
LOL…what a bastard. He was going to steal the ball just like he and his cronies stole everything in this country.
It looks like he's asking the catcher for a date afterwards. I always figured bush for a catcher.
Why did A.J. Pierzynski scare W.? Did the Prez forget about Poland being our friend?
Win!
Bush is the reason I always root for the Rangers to lose.
Yep. I always like to picture Bush's sad face, (actual tears for the World Series), when they lose, and it makes me feel warm all over.
(As a Yankees fan, I have to endure seeing Rudy & Judy at the games sometimes, however, Derek Jeter's um, physique, erases that pain.)
You should root for them to be in a division that isn't made up of comparably mediocre teams. Half a game above .500 and leading the division! Break up the Rangers!
I hate the Rangers too. But the fact that they play in DFW area is almost as much a factor as the Bush connection. Xenophobic chauvinism looms large in the big cities of Texas.
Being in A) Texas and B) a league that refuses to play real baseball isn't enough?
Funny, you'd think he'd be used to being around "catchers" from his Yale days….
He fears flying objects made of leather (shoes, baseballs) and people smarter than he is (everyone).
What you don't see in that clip is that Dick Cheney is the one who hit the ball.
Thanks. The only things scarier than an angry mob is an angry mob made up of your friends.
Not interested in this unless it's a picture of Georgie getting hit really really hard by the baseball.
Or an asteroid.
Baseball or asteroid, either will do.
That pic, and the accompanying gif, just screams "Pussy." And by "pussy," I mean "shriveled up rat-dicked sniveling coward."
This is the sort of gratuitous cruelty that I've come to expect from LIEberals. How dare you mock and deride one of God's precious angels like this? Clearly none of you monsters have ever had a special needs president in your family. So much for LIEberal "compassion"!
Man, he's avoiding that thing like it's a summons from the International Criminal Court.
Cheney would have shot the ball like it was a skeet shoot. Actually he would have run crying into the bunker (presumably with the fat bitch in red who is running around like Chicken Little).
He might have shot at it, but he would have hit Pierzynski in the face.
So much win in this thread!
You know all those billboards that some dickfuck put up after Obama had been in office for a couple of months that featured W's mug and the words "Miss me yet?" or something equally stupid? I'm looking at this guy, and comparing him the current crop of GOP idiocy, and he does look good by comparison. I don't MISS him per se, but I have to admit that I never imagined that it could get any worse than him.
And then it did.
It just looks that way for now because Big Christ Christly hasn't made his move yet. At that size, it takes a while to get moving.
Maybe he'll attack Des Moines in response to this threat.
Now watch this drive.
Line drive?
Oh to be that catcher, and be the guy who could have very well tackled W to get that ball.
Richard Bruce " Big Dick" Cheney would have shot that baseball right in the face. And waterboarded the catcher.
Oh my. Clean up on Aisle W.
Also: anyone notice Bush seems to be growing his hair out now that he's out of office? Shaggy ass long hair hippie!
also: no jacket. this is an insult to the office.
Needz moar Mulletz.
Prommie, I am the 8th child of 9 in an Irish Catholic family. LOL
Wait, that makes Nancy number 7.
I am 6th and last, but fortunately have the normal complement of chromosomes; I betcha the odds were not good for the miscarried fetus that came after me, though. I almost didn't make it, myself, see below.
Will chopsticks work as well?
Verily…for if I don't, I'll be forked.
Good luck. Happy Birthday! I am at work but will drink an extra in honor of you.
Ditto
Uh oh…I'm the last child born to a menopausal catholic woman.
I am the "Oh Jaysus, not another one" baby as well. Every sperm is sacred.
Lol, yep. My mom had two miscarriages right before she calved me. She was sick as a dog the whole time she was pregnant so they thought I was just going to be a replay. But Lo! I popped out into the world on Easter Sunday to bring my special brand of torment to the world.
True story, I was 2 months premature and a breach birth delivered by emergency c-section. And this was back before anesthesia and antibiotics (almost). It was back when they would still ask a father "who should we save, the mother or the child," because if they were Catholic they were supposed to save the child. And they actually asked my father who to save, and he tells the story that he answered "I already have five kids, save my wife." Thanks, Dad!
and people ask me why I left the Church. I'm glad you both made it.
Husband and I were both premature back in the day. We joke that back then, putting you into an "incubator" was a carboard box, filled with straw, under a light bulb.
Women: the disposable gender! Die for fecundity, ladies, go straight to heaven! Growing up an orphan never hurt anybody. Brings you to Jeesus! Or to a convent-run slave labor institution, worked by abandoned children.
Happy Birthday!
I love how you're starting your day with nutritious OJ.
No one could have anticipated a baseball being hit into the box seats at a baseball game.
what's amazing is that Richard Clarke warned everybody about this before the game, yet they didn't even bring any fishing nets or gloves
Cheers proudgrampa! Actual drunks are so much nicer than dry ones I think.
Any significance to the fact that the only person, other than the catcher who really just wants to bitch slap W with his mitt, going after the ball is the black security guy? Looks like he's going after it back-handed, just to be really cool.
We're hosting a birthday party for a co-worker this afternoon, so will hoist a margarita in your honor. Before ducking under a table in anticipation of the hellacious weather headed our way (thanks for motherfucking nothing, Dr. Greg Forbes).
The fear and revulsion on GWB's face is an exact replica of how he looked when he first saw Laura's naughty bits.
Bush went after that pop up the way he went after Osama bin Laden
(When a ball is in the stands you are allowed–and if the team you are rooting for is batting, you are freakin' supposed–to fight a player for it.)
Shouldn't Paula bring Fetus-Jar Bush to these games? He might like to get out once in a while. I was going to say "might like some fresh air," but that's probably not a good idea at this point.
Actually, that looked like the most honest and real response to a situation Bushie ever had.
Knocked the souffle right outta his mouth.
But this ain't getting us nowhere.
It was a muslin baseball.
Sam Khalifa's not here, man.
Mere possession of opposable thumbs will not free us from the fear of horsehide-covered spherical objects, it would appear.
Opposable thumbs? You're giving bush a lot of credit.
Dubya: "Whut's this "intellectural" property you speak of there?"
well congrats and i hope you do not have to work today.
god this guy.
it's good to be reminded how bad that administration was…
To be fair, the Fucking Bitchass got his mantis tendrils yanked up all sissy-like to avoid the blonde who was preparing to go down on him.
There's a Zapruder film quality to this.
Back, and to the left.
Back, and to the left.
Back, and to the left.
Nixon, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II were four of the worst presidents in the history of the United States, and the Nixon, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II presidential administrations were among the four worst presidential administrations in the history of the United States, and most of the Cabinet secretaries, administrators, White House officials, Defense and Justice officials, and military officials in the Nixon, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II administrations were literally, factually, among the very worst federal government officials ever to hold federal offices in the history of the United States.
shoot bush? shoot him with their votes, you mean.
Was the lady in red his secret service agent….trying to take a baseball bullet for W? We probably shouldn't forget this assclown, or we'll elect another.
Unlike the last time at a baseball game, Dubya didn't have his flak jacket on…
Did you know the ball hits the ground at the same velocity with which it leaves the bat? I'm a little wistful that an excellent opportunity to test the endurance of the human skull went just slightly awry.
Quick, George! Make a glove out of your souffle!
If the catcher had been of the negrazoid or muslin persuasion, it could have gone very differently.
"Are you sure ah cain't be extradited from this ballpark? 'Cause there's a heap of our Mexican friends out there."
This is better than your slow-mo links.
Happy Birthday, elder statesman wonketeer!
"George Bush is a Dick, also" would be kickass on a birthday cake instead of the usual sentiments.
Osama Bin Laden strkes from the Grave!
Do you not know where you are?
His "wuh happen?" expression at the end makes it glow.
My ex-husband's grandmother was the same kind of horrible old witch, (which probably explains why his mother was such a beast who was nasty to her own husband and kids, but that's another subject for another day).
When we went to visit her in the old folks' home, she felt that it was necessary to mention, several times, that I'd put on weight (in my defense, I'd quit a pack a day smoking habit). I was so stunned that I was actually at a loss for words.
Ex just stood there like a bump on a damn log, without saying, "Hey, Grandma, how about you lay off my beautiful wife who has sex with me whenever I want it", or "You ain't no supermodel yourself", or looking around the room and saying, "Funny, I don't see any of your skinny family members here visiting you".
I realize that it can't have been pleasant for him to be caught between me and his family, but crap like that is one of the reasons we're no longer married.
My mother used to tell me, "That little bee is way more afraid of you than you are of him".
That was a big fib.
I don't believe that proudgrampa has had his birthday spanking yet.
Anyone?
Go back to Kos, you humorless hack.
I don't read Kos, but thanks for the suggestion, as well as the name-calling.
"This is Fox News-style pettiness. People are often pretty apprehensive when a baseball is flying at them, and for good reason. …
If this had been footage of Obama and Fox News was mocking him for being apprehensive, everyone here who is loving this moment would have been pissed at Fox News for doing the same thing."
OK, you make a fair point about how nobody actually wants to get hit in the face with a baseball, and it can actually do a lot of damage, etc., and since you phrased your comment politely, I'll try to respond politely.
For eight years, we all had to endure the media (not limited to Fox by any means) fellating big tough bush and his stuffed package flight suit, and never once holding him accountable for squandering the surplus, bankrupting the economy, letting 9/11 happen on his watch, starting two wars, approving torture, etc. etc. etc. As a friend of mine said, "America almost died".
What's done is done. Bush will probably never face any consequences for any of his wrongdoings. The mess he created will take decades, if not generations, to fix — if it *ever* gets fixed — and the regular folks like us will suffer the worst of it.
Is making fun of bush for being a giant puss instead of the hot shit cowboy that the media couldn't stop telling us he was a cheap shot? Sure it is; it's also about the least consequence humanly possible. In the absence of prosecuting him as the war criminal he is or fixing the damage he's done, I think we should at least be able to tell the truth about this scumbag, for ONCE in his miserable life.
Thank you–I try to keep my comments even-toned and calm, even in controversial topics. I appreciate the tone of your response
.
I don't really see these things in terms of what he did during his presidency, because both sides will make claims about how the other side's person was so damn terrible and totally deserves to be mocked. I find it petty on both sides. I'm not even a Bush supporter, but I do find myself becoming increasingly less tolerant of these kinds of attacks on him. It happened all the time during his eight years in office, and it's still happening. I didn't really expect it to stop, but I suppose my threshold has been met.
I guess my big thing is that I find it unfair, in general, to target someone for something like this incident because of their politics. The funny thing is I don't mind it if I think the comments would be made regardless of who the person was (as in, if I thought this would have been written here if it had been Obama instead of Bush in that picture), but this kind of stuff is one of the things liberals complain about with conservative media.
I don't want to delve into the war criminal thing because that's an entirely different conversation, but I don't see this as "telling the truth" about him any more than it is telling the truth about anyone who may not want to be hit in the face with a baseball. And, in all honesty, I saw his look more as a look of surprise mixed with apprehension rather than something cowardly, which I think is what's being implied here for absolutely ridiculous reasons (in my opinion).
Again, thanks for your response
.
Fucking A Right!
Also, can I just point out that when liberals sink to the level of conservatives, we're petty, hateful, etc. etc., and when we take the high road, we're weak and cowardly? In a perfect world, we'd all be held to the same standard; my observation is that it doesn't work that way in practice.
I don't actually think that liberals are weak or cowardly when taking the high road. I think there are ways to pick your battles and use a little bit of barb to fight back if needed (Anthony Weiner often does this pretty effectively, in my opinion). But I don't reserve the label of "petty" or "hateful" for liberals for "sinking to the level of conservatives," as I don't think that all conservatives are like that nor do I think that is a necessity of conservative media, albeit an extremely popular trend. I consider this sort of stuff to be petty on both sides.
I will admit, though, that using the blanket label of "Fox News" was inappropriate, as that unfairly groups every single person on Fox News into the same category in terms of behaviour, and that is not appropriate. There are actually a couple or even a few people on Fox News who do not engage in such tactics (or, at least, no more often than any non-commentary personalities on CNN or MSNBC), so it was unfair of me to use "Fox News" as a blanket label for certain behaviours.
"If this had been footage of Obama and Fox News was mocking him for being apprehensive, everyone here who is loving this moment would have been pissed at Fox News for doing the same thing."
Your comparison is, to coin a phrase, apples and oranges.
The reason why I would object to (for example) Fox making fun of President Obama for flinching at a thrown baseball is that Fox already picks on everything Obama does. In contrast, the mainstream media was totally ass-kissy and codependent in their coverage of bush, so our making fun of him here could be construed as restoring a certain (ahem) fairness and balance.
"I don't actually think that liberals are weak or cowardly when taking the high road."
The fact remains that corporations control most of the media that most Americans have access to; therefore, when the Left takes the high road, they are invariably labeled weak, and when they use tactics identical to those of their opponents, they are labeled hateful — regardless of whether or not you, personally, apply those labels — or suppressed in other, less palatable ways.
To cite one example of many:
During the 2004 presidential campaign, the right falsely suggested that John Kerry's three purple hearts were faked somehow, because, um… they didn't like him. This was covered exhaustively in the media, and not as an ad hominem attack by a few cranks, or the opposition playing dirty — it was actually taken seriously. This is the sort of attack that you seem to be describing as "petty", and you're quite right in saying that it's less substantive than a criticism of what a particular person did or didn't do.
At right around the same time, the left truthfully raised the issue that Bush had pulled strings to get a cushy assignment in the Texas Air National Guard, thereby dodging the draft, and then didn't bother to even show up for that. In contrast, this issue was marginalized, and when it was pursued further, Dan Rather, who had been a respected news anchor for decades, was hounded out of his job because the memo he referred to was on the wrong type of paper, according to his detractors.
The end result of false ad hominem attacks vs. truthful accounts of what actually happened? The draft dodger impugned the patriotism and service record of the guy with three purple hearts — and not only got away with it, but was rewarded for it.
Satire and ridicule have been forms of dissent against the powerful at least since the days of the court jesters. While I agree that people should be judged by, and held accountable for, their actions, we tried that during the Bush era — nobody listened, the media fawned over those in power to a sickening extent, and "those who are not with us are against us".
Sure, in a perfect world, everyone would play fair and be judged on their actions. Given the imbalance of power, and the Right's shamelessness in smearing their opponents and remarkable ability to evade accountability for their actions, I'm not sure what, exactly, you're advocating that we do.
That's one way to get off the Bush detail.
sure looks like an emaciated drunk
Frightened By 911 Whistle-blowers
Frightened By 911 Leaks
So close…
This is a new make and model of baseballs. It's the new MLB-approved stupid-seeking ball.
Needz moar Benny Hill music.
Frightened? Delirium tremens . . .
Alt Caption: "Eeeeek!"
Surely noone could have foreseen that fly-ball.
Darn shame it didn't whack him in the head & caused him to confess to his war crimes…. ooops…never mind. He already did that.
Makes the kid think he's the Baby Jesus.
Many of the preemies that survived back in the day like this were likely also stressed by the antenatal conditions that contributed to the prematurity, so had relatively mature lungs and could survive without a NICU. Also might have been intrauterine growth restricted (small for gestational age).
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