Pretty much all of the US ex-presidents have been 'targeted' by OFF (see http://www.snpp.com/guides/presidents.html ) but although George W Bush has been 'mentioned' a few times, he has never appeared in the show as a character. Given that other current world leaders (like Tony Blair) have featured, I wonder why this is so. Political pressure, do you think, or just convention? A shame really, because he's such a juicy target...
Paul
"Paul Bartram" <p.bartram AT OR NEAR optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:43277c2c$0$2779$[email]...
Yes, you pegged it. "The Simpson's" writers are under IMMENSE pressure from this administration. They know that if they malign the president, Karl Rove has vowed to come to each of their houses and administer nuggies personally.
As for Tony Blair, wasn't that a guest appearance? Not really a good reaming, eh?
--R Flowers ( Remove the 'T' to talk to 'me')
Or give them hot karls. ok, that was a bit too far i admit. :)
Bush is not an ex-President yet. Wait until January, 2009. Then he will be on OFF.
Aaron Space Museum
Heub wrote:
Refusing to appear on The Simpsons invokes the "nasty clause" on the Simpsons' curse. Poor Georgie!
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/bush%20turns%20down% 20simpsons
Interesting.
"Groening says, "We've now asked every living president and they've all said no. In fact they all said, 'Hell no.'" "
So I guess I should amend my original post to say "appear in caricature" (with a voice-actor) rather than providing a personal voice-over. It can't be that difficult to mimic him. Of course as soon as his term finishes, I guess all bets are off at OFF!
Paul
"Paul Bartram" <p.bartram AT OR NEAR optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:43277c2c$0$2779$[email]...
has
just
One of the writers(I think it was Tim Long) explained why they haven't done this. He said that Clinton was a comedian's dream-come-true. He said that Bush, by contrast, is a clean-living, religious guy, someone you can't really make fun of(well, not unless you want to stoop to the level of Al Franken, but I digress. . .)
As for the elder Bush, the writers always had it in for him because of those anti-Simpsons comments he made. And of course, they've had references to every presidential election that has happened since the Simpsons started.
Man, what planet do you live on?
"David Brunt" wrote in message news:dg9mls$a67$[email]...
I think he meant to say, he's the kind of guy you really can't make fun of without sanding like a left-wing nut bag.
"R Flowers" wrote in message news:qGZVe.329455$x96.207303@attbi_s72...
I think what you're trying to say is that those who value humanism and the separation of church and state are "nutbags," but fundamentalist, divisive, intolerant and sadly-behind-the-times right wing nut bags are A-okay with you. Well done.
"Stephen Dame" wrote in message
In case you haven't noticed, the left-wing nut bags are saying that George Bush can summon hurricanes to drown black people; that survivors of said hurricane have turned to eating one another, and etc. Their own hate has driven them so insane that they no longer can express their own thoughts.
Of course, I'm not talking about any of you guys. Just by posting to alt.tv.simpsons, you pretty much demonstrate that you at least have a sense of humor.
Well, maybe not Rob Wade.
Cheers!
Rob Wade carpet bombs usenet with postings to every ng. And every non-political ng considers him out of place. And a lot of the political ngs consider him a fool.
Aaron Space Museum
wrote in message news:[email]...
I've got to get out more often (to other NGs that is), but I just barely have the time to post to this one. It seems to me that there is too much crap on political NGs (like Rob Wade - if that is his real name - and flaming, etc.). Not much real discussion there. The brief politcal forays here are more constructive, and that's saying something.
R Flowers wrote:
I just *hate* guys who sand "like a left-wing nut bag"!!!
"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message news:yY_Ve.1863$[email]...
Grr!! "Sanding" - where the hell did that come from? Yep, gotta watch those sanders.
Everyone knows only turkeys have left wings
You shouldn't be so hard on Bush just because he's a little slow.
"Funky" wrote in message news:4E4We.11675$[email]...
And some turkeys have nuts, if you've stuffed their bag full of them! So then at Thanksgiving, you can have a left wing, AND a nut bag!
R Flowers wrote:
"Gay, totally gay"
President Bush SUCKS!!!!
Worse president I've obvserved in my lifetime.
Stan
""MIDIcian" (tm)" wrote in message news:dgg6mo$7e6$[email]...
I admire your incisive commentary and criticism. However, you may want to add complexity to your argument by throwing a pie in someone's face. That seems to be all the rage these days!
R Flowers wrote:
You have a problem with short, declarative sentences? Don;t tell us you're demanding nuance now!
You'll defend Bush no matter what he does, won't you?
"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message news:ab0Xe.3306$[email]...
No, I won't. Hell, if he'd done half the stuff some people accuse him of, I would want him out myself.
In the spirit of bi-partisanship, here are a few of the things on which I don't agree with the president.
1- For a conservative, he's spent money like it's going out of style. If a Democrat president did this, conservatives would complain very loudly. With Bush, very few conservatives want to complain about it. Also, is it true that he has not vetoed one bill sent to him? That may be because we have a Republican congress...
2- He seems to want to champion teaching creationism in school, judging by recent comments of his on intelligent design. That's fine if those are his private religous beliefs, but he has no business trying to get schools to teach what is basically religion in disguise.
3- It looks as though he has no concern whatsoever with illegal immigration, which a lot of conservatives see as a threat on par with terrorism.
"R Flowers" wrote in message news:4F1Xe.125474$084.38880@attbi_s22...
But he's done at least twice as much of the stuff that people have accused him of.
Stan
""MIDIcian" (tm)" wrote in message news:dglaho$jvl$[email]...
That just means he's a real go-getter.
Bush is a LOSER, just like you are. +- +- +- +- "R Flowers" wrote in message news:uaqXe.137220$084.109475@attbi_s22...
R Flowers wrote:
QED!
Slow like Ralph Wiggum. "I made Lisa in my pants."
Aaron Space Museum
of
Especially when they borrow the sander from Ned Flanders and don't return it...
Paul
"Paul Bartram" <p.bartram AT OR NEAR optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:4329150a$0$15057$[email]...
Stupid sanders!
by clean living he means smoking crack, dunk driving and misleading nations into wars. but don't worry, president coo-coo bananas will get his comeuppance, sooner or later. probably later.
maybe it has to do with voice related issues, that is to say, that one of the regular guest voices can't do bush.
"jsonitsac" wrote in message news:[email]...
Hey! I no longer drive dunk*!
-G.W. Bush
As for running the country, that seems to be a different issue.
"jsonitsac" wrote in message news:[email]...
Do you have a problem with your country? Because if you do, you can return it to Great Britain for store credit. Considering the state of things, though, you may just want to make do with what you have.
--R Flowers ( Remove the 'T' to talk to 'me')
R Flowers wrote:
I believe the Queen has said that if offered the Colonies back she'd refuse them.
"David Brunt" wrote in message news:dg9mls$a67$[email]...
The one where "Saddlesore Galactica" is considered a good episode, perhaps?
I think one of the other writers said that one reason they hadn't done much with Dubya was that the public's perception of him keeps changing. It's also possible that they think it would be redundant, since Bush is spoofed so much in other media. Of course, they took some really obvious swipes at Clinton, so I don't know. (Looking back, I think a lot of the anti-Clinton jokes appeared in episodes written by John Swartzwelder, who didn't seem to like Clinton very much.) I doubt it has much to do with Bush being clean-living, though (considering that it's not true), or that the writers actually like Bush (they've criticized him quite a bit on the DVD commentaries).
Nathan
They are politicians. Politicians lie (it's their job)!
THE END
"JohnD" wrote in message news:OvXXe.1144$[email]...
Sorry dud, they work for me and that's *NOT* their job. Certainly some (especially Republicans) lie, but that's not what I hire them for.
This is.
Stan
Bush is a hard target for personal humor. About the only thing that can be mocked is his flubbing of certain large words, and even a few smaller ones (nuclear = nucular). His father was a perfect ninny ("What kind of stew do you have today?"), and Clinton was an ideal sex maniac ("I've done it with pigs").
thewises wrote:
Whoa, what are *you* smoking???!
Bush is a clean living religious guy? Clinton was a philanderer. Bush has a drunk driving arrest record, and is an admitted recovered alcoholic and recovered cocaine user. Who is the clean living guy?
Aaron Space Museum
Bush admits to having an alchohol problem, which he's conquered. Contrary to popular belief, there's no real evidence which shows he definatley snorted coke or smoked crack.
The most amazing aspect about W, as compared to Clinton, is that it's _Clinton_ whose the proven liar. He's even been convicted of it.
If I had slept with Monica I'd lie about it too
Most of us have done far worse. But none of us was the President of the United States.
On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 12:00:58 +1200, Funky wrote:
He never slept with her, just got oral sex.
"blazing laser" <none> wrote in message news:[email]...
Smoke and Mirrors (parody of Love And Marriage (Cahn/Van Heusen) Frank Sinatra) Parody lyrics by Stan and the Sequencers
Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors Come together like impeachment hearings This I tell you sucker You don't get one without the other
Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors How can I make this any clearer? Open dictionary And it will show it's elementary
Try, try, try to separate them It's an illusion Try, try, try, and you will only come To this conclusion
Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors Come together like impeachment hearings DeLay won't tell you sucker You don't get gov. without the "brother"
On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 18:57:39 -0400, [email] (Chris �) wrote:
He wasn't able to categorically deny it. He said nobody was able to prove he did it after a certain date (I think 1975). That's not exactly a denial, is it?
Clinton was impeached by the House, which is equivalent to an indictment, not a conviction.
I don't mean to be partisan here. I'm not defending Clinton and I'm proud to be able to say I didn't vote for the guy either time. But if you think Bush has never lied, or even that he's less of a liar than Clinton, then your view of him is obviously colored by politics.
Bush insisted, more than once, that the great majority of his tax cuts went to middle-income and working people. He said the tax cuts wouldn't affect balancing the budget, which they definitely did, even before 9/11 and the wars. He led the nation into war with a series of serial justifications, coming up with a new phoney justification when the old one was debunked. He claims the new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq were democratically chosen by the people. And he still insists the war in Iraq is going well.
"blazing laser" <none> wrote in message news:[email]...
He may have been thinking of Clinton's disbarrment in front of various courts (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/19/clinton.lewinsky/), which is not exactly any kind of conviction either.
The above statements do not necessarily indicate lies on Bush's part either. Not sure about the 'tax cut' lie - can you source?
Politicians can get in trouble by saying 'will not', 'shouldn't', 'I will do this' etc. These are not lies, per se, but campaign promises that can't be fulfilled more often than not. As for the famous WMD lie, one way to look at it is that Tony Blair, along with most of the British and American government, believed the same exact thing. So is this a lie? At worst, it's a mistake. But some want to attribute it as a knowing lie to Bush, so what can you say to that?
Is the Iraq war going well? Is that a lie? Or just a too-rosy assessment?
well a lie is a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth, so yes.
see above.
"jsonitsac" wrote in message news:[email]...
OK. Suppose you tell a friend that you will meet him/her for dinner at 6:00. On the way to the restaurant, your tire blows out, and you don't make it on time. Are you a liar? After all, you told your friend 6:00, and that was obviously not the truth. You're a liar - a dirty, rotten liar. And you, sir, are worse than Hitler.
no, that's not an accurate analogy. let's say you told a friend that you wanted to have dinner with her, but it turns out you have no intention of having dinner with her. that is a lie. they knew that there were no wmds. there were cia reports before the war started saying they weren't there, but the people who wrote those kinda got fired.
"jsonitsac" wrote in message news:[email]...
You are mistaken, I think, about the CIA reports. Pretty much everyone agreed (pre-invasion) that Saddam possessed WMDs. (The Senate approved the Iraq war resolution 77-23). Even in the absence of that, however, Saddam was in violation of UN resolutions with missile programs and other violations (an example: the Al Samoud II missile : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2756987.stm).
But of course, you know that Bush lied because, in your heart, you know he lied. "they knew that there were no wmds..." - that is your opinion, not anything either one of us can prove.
Bullshit. See the Downing Street memos. Bush knew there wasn't any WMDs when he was claiming there was WMDs. Even in recent days he's still calling this the time of WMDs trying get his poll ratings up after Katrina.
Stan +- +- +- +- "R Flowers" , right-wing extremist lying-type propaganda artist -
""MIDIcian" (tm)" wrote in message news:dgo1l6$mmo$[email]...
What about the Downing Street memos? How many were there? What did they say? Can you please explain to the audience... (I'm serious, I'm not needling you).
I really have no idea what this means...
This seems to be a legit site that documents the minutes - www.downingstreetmemo.com/
You seem to have a disconnect on recent history.
Stan
R Flowers wrote:
What a perfectly stupid analogy!
Thanks for the Hitler ref, the thread's officially dead now.
"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message news:BULXe.29232$[email]...
That's what THEY want anyway, isn't it????
"Sparky Spartacus" wrote in message news:BULXe.29232
Actually, just trying to give the illusion of being on topic, alt.tv.simpsons-wise: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/5F21 [The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace, "You're a liar, honey, a dirty rotten liar"] and http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F14.html [Homer vs. Patty & Selma, "You, sir, are worse than Hitler"]
But - since you declared this thread dead, I don't expect to see a reply. Because if you did reply, then the thread is not dead, and that would make you a liar. As a matter of fact, if *anyone* adds to this thread, you're a liar. So let's all be real quiet...
Two wrongs don't make a right.
"R Flowers" , right-wing extremist lying-type propaganda artist -
What planet do you live on????
"MIDIcian" (tm) wrote:
Planet Rightwingnut
""MIDIcian" (tm)" wrote in message news:dgo06t$glc$[email]...
You get a lot of mileage out of that planet thing, eh?
"R Flowers" wrote in message news:rDMXe.139562$084.49954@attbi_s22...
With so many right-wing extremist "Know-nothing"'s talking out of their ass, of course I do.
Stan
blazing laser wrote:
I think he's laying the foundation for an insanity defense.
""Chris �"" , right-wing extremist lying-type propaganda artist -
The evidence, is that he had to skip out on his drug test @ the Texas Air Guard and head to Alabama (where he didn't take a test there either.)
Bullshit.
Stan
On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:25:57 +1000, "Paul Bartram" <p.bartram AT OR NEAR optusnet.com.au> wrote:
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Homer's 'Captain Koo-koo Bananas' remark.
Without getting into politics here, if you look at political cartoons on Yahoo or Slate, you can see there's plenty of stuff about Bush to make fun of. My guess is they don't want to rile Murdoch.
I was a little cheesed off years ago, watching the episode where Lisa goes to Wahington and sees the congressman taking the bribe at the Jefferson Memorial. Bush41 is shown in the Oval Office entertaining some official from Russia. Bush says 'My bosses will be pleased with this', then explains that his 'bosses' are the American people. But I saw this episode again recently and strongly suspected this was meant ironically. Still it wasn't nearly as strong as 'Malaise Forever!' (Carter) or 'I'm a pretty crappy president' (Clinton).
"blazing laser" <none> wrote in message news:[email]...
has
just
Yes, but didn't Murdoch recently appear with Hillary Clinton somewhere?
About that "Koo-koo Bananas" thing, that was the strongest they've ever gotten on Bush. I thought that it was a pretty silly line. Come on, we know darn well that Bush isn't going to invade Iran or North Korea.
"blazing laser" <none> wrote in message news:[email]...
There is also Homer talking about blowing smoke in his stupid monkey face. -------------------------------------
Exactly. That line ("My bosses...") was in line with how squeaky-clean everybody acted after it was found that Lisa was losing faith in the government.
True enough, they haven't picked on Bush that much, and they may just be waiting for him to be an ex-President. They have been quite anti-government/anti-American in recent seasons. Witness "Bart-Mangled Banner" where they illustrate the Simpson's being thrown in prison for not being sufficiently patriotic. Then there's the episode (whose title escapes me) where they end up singing the *Canadian* national anthem at a *baseball* game.
Then there's "Fraudcast News" which criticizes the consolidation of media ownership, and it's pretty much an indictment of Murdoch/Fox. Of course, once again in a very much ironic mode, Murdoch is called saintly or some such.
R Flowers wrote:
I thought was a "ripped from the headlines" thing - you mean it was made up?
"blazing laser" <none> wrote in message news:[email]...
So what about the blatant Fox News parody in "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington," the spoof on Murdoch's media empire in "Fraudcast News," and the fact that Dracula shows up at Republican Party meetings? Besides, Murdoch was okay with being in jail and identifying himself as a "billionaire tyrant." I get the idea that he doesn't have much say over what happens on The Simpsons, even if they go against his political views. (And why would he? The show is making him money, and Murdoch seems to be a mammonistic businessman above all else.)
Yeah, it was definitely ironic.
I think the Carter joke was also ironic, although at least one Simpsons staff member really doesn't like Carter. I thought that Clinton joke was heavy-handed and not particularly funny (and I don't care whether it was supposed to be ironic; it wouldn't be funny either way).
Nathan
"Nathan" wrote in message news:Q6MWe.64$iu5.2@trndny04...
I don't remember the 'Malaise Forever' comment - what episode? I DO remember the town unveiling a Jimmy Carter statue, and someone in the crowd refers to him as "history's greatest monster."
"R Flowers" wrote in message news:T%WWe.122689$084.23013@attbi_s22...
That was the same episode, "Marge in Chains." "Malaise Forever" was the inscription on the statue's pedestal.
Nathan
"Nathan" wrote in message news:s6pXe.5053$e_4.3549@trndny08...
You mean I have to READ the shows too?!?! Sheesh!
""MIDIcian" (tm)" wrote in message news:dgo3mt$un7$[email]...
Is this a binaries group now?
Oh, you could see the binary I posted. That means, that yes it is (if it's on-topic to the thread.)
Stan +- +- +- +- "R Flowers", right-wing extremist censor-nazi -