Beautiful minds and ugly truths

In The International Herald Tribune Frank Rich writes about Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 911 and the first paragraphs caught my eye, because I saw the footage he describes last year on German TV:

"But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? And watch him suffer." - Barbara Bush on "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003.

She needn't have worried. Her son wasn't suffering. In one of the several pieces of startling video exhibited for the first time in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," we catch a candid glimpse of President George Bush about 36 hours after his mother's breakfast TV interview - minutes before he makes his own prime-time TV address to take the nation to war in Iraq. He is sitting at his desk in the Oval Office. A makeup woman is doing his face. And Bush is having a high old time. He darts his eyes about and grins, as if he were playing a peek-a-boo game with someone just off-camera. He could be a teenager goofing with his buds to relieve the passing tedium of a haircut.

"In your wildest dreams you couldn't imagine Franklin Roosevelt behaving this way 30 seconds before declaring war, with grave decisions and their consequences at stake," said Moore in an interview before his new documentary's premiere at Cannes last Monday. "But that may be giving him credit for thinking that the decisions were grave."

The German news magazine Frontal21 aired the footage (made into a "silent movie" for the satiric clip of the show) in April 2003 and I've been sending the link to it to friends and family. It shows once more the compassionate president in action.

I don't know if people here saw the footage before, in its raw or satirized state, but here is the link to George W. Bush bereitet sich auf eine Rede vor (George W. Bush prepares for a speech)(Windows media)

Here it is for Real player

If you'd like me to translate the "silent movie" captions please let me know, but it is not really necessary to enjoy the clip.

•  thanks

  for the link, it was certainly amusing to watch. Truly the smirking chimp in action.

  by steve on Fri May 21, 2004 at 11:36:34 AM PST

•  Too Much Fun!

  Thanks for sharing this.

  I was in tears laughing at it.

  by Cory on Fri May 21, 2004 at 12:24:48 PM PST

  •  Making fun of the President

    They have some other nice clips, like
    "The President of the United States sings the world a song". Actually more sad than funny, and this was aired before the Iraq war.

    real player

    by Caipirinha on Fri May 21, 2004 at 01:18:07 PM PST

    •  Can you tell me how to find the site?

      I clicked on your links and saw the videos, but somehow no URL was displayed.

      Thanks for posting this.  

      by ScientistMom in NY on Fri May 21, 2004 at 02:36:51 PM PST

      •  Frontal21 archive

        Link to the archive of "Toll!", the show's satire section:

        http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/11/0,1872,1021451,00.html

        Most of it is about German or European politics though. Clicking on the links opens a media window giving you the choice between Media Player or Real player. I recommend the Real player file, Media Player stalls a lot.

        The clip from June 17, 2003 "Toll! Rummss! Donald Rumsfeld in 'old europe' unterwegs" has a lot of German narration, but the visuals are still funny (Rumsfeld going around old europe). Rummss is kinda like the english "Boom".

        by Caipirinha on Fri May 21, 2004 at 03:26:27 PM PST

        •  You might also mention the clip

          from March 25, 2003.
          "The President of the USA sings a song."

          by Detlef on Mon May 24, 2004 at 12:00:45 PM PST

    •  hey!

      atrios linked to your diary.  
      You're in the big time now.

      by contrapunktus on Sat May 22, 2004 at 01:03:38 PM PST

•  Has anyone seen...

  the clip where Nero gives a fist-pump and says "Yeah, feels good," either before or just after the war started?

  Or is the supposed clip just an urban myth?

  by superfly on Sat May 22, 2004 at 01:11:17 PM PST

  •  haven't seen it

    but i'm pretty sure it's not just a myth.

    by whopundit on Sat May 22, 2004 at 01:25:36 PM PST

•  Also

  I just found more pre-speech video clips here: http://news.globalfreepress.com/images/wonk/VariousMovies2/

  - Marc

  by whopundit on Sat May 22, 2004 at 01:27:18 PM PST

•  Tell me again....

  .....why this footage isn't being used in a campaign commercial as we speak?

  by Caine on Sat May 22, 2004 at 02:07:28 PM PST

•  Sweet jeebus!!

  Realplayer sucks so much!

  by Carbon on Sat May 22, 2004 at 02:19:22 PM PST

•  Gravitas

  There is a word in Germany that well describes what our President is:  shitteflingenchimpen.

  Them Germans got a word for everything...
  

  by btdenver on Sun May 23, 2004 at 12:14:09 AM PST

•  Nice

  More good knowledge to know.

  by dopies on Sat Sep 04, 2004 at 02:09:55 AM PST