Pope Arrives in U.S. on "Education Day" 2008

Tuesday, April 15th 2008 was not only the day of the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the U.S., it was also "Education Day" U.S.A., the day on which the U.S. President honors the Chabad Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson on his birthday according to the Hebrew calendar (Nisan 11) each year since the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Schneerson was believed to be the Messiah by Chabad Lubavitchers during his lifetime and continues to be considered so by many of them even 14 years after his death in 1994. The Chabad Lubavitch carry on the evangelical tradition of their dead Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, drawing Judaic persons who've distanced themselves from the tyranny and superstition of Orthodox Judaism back to those dark traditions and cajoling the Goyim into accepting the Talmudic system of double-standards, the "Noahide Laws," as a replacement for their traditional, universal, one-standard-for-all based upon the Biblical 10 Commandments and Christ's Sermon on the Mount.

On "Education Day" 1991, George Bush Sr. made explicit reference to the topic of "education" that this day represents. Bush signed into law a proclamation stating that the Talmudic "Noahide Laws" are the "basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded;" the "ethical values and principles [which] have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws;" and "without these ethical values and principles the edifice of civilization stands in serious peril of returning to chaos;" and that "in tribute to this great spiritual leader, `the rebbe' [Menachem Mendel Schneerson], this, his ninetieth year will be seen as one of `education and giving', the year in which we turn to education and charity to return the world to the moral and ethical values contained in the Seven Noahide Laws;" and that "the Lubavitch movement has fostered and promoted these ethical values and principles throughout the world ..."

I highly recommend reading this Orwellian Public Law which Bush Sr. signed in 1991, Public Law 102-14, H.J. Res 104, which attempts to retroactively establish the barbaric Talmudic "Noahide Laws," rather than the Bible, as the basis of civilization, at the Library of Congress website:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c102:H.J.RES.104.ENR:

Last year, Vatican officials signed a similar statement which is documented here:

COMMISSION FOR RELIGIOUS RELATIONS WITH THE JEWS AND THE CHIEF RABBINATE OF ISRAEL'S DELEGATION FOR RELATIONS WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BILATERAL COMMISSION MEETING Jerusalem, March 11-13, 2007; Adar 21-23, 5767

With Chabad rabbis from across the world looking on, President George W. Bush signs a presidential proclamation Tuesday, April 15, 2008 in honor of "Education and Sharing Day," and highlighting the work of the Chabad Lubavitch movement. Since 1978, every president has signed an "Education and Sharing Day" proclamation. Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelick of Fort Collins is on the far left.

Local rabbi meets with president

BY ROBERT MOORE - Coloradoan

April 16, 2008

Fort Collins Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelick was among 10 Chabad rabbis from around the world chosen to meet Tuesday with President Bush in the Oval Office.

Gorelick said Bush spoke about his support of Israel, his experiences in the White House and other topics during the brief meeting ...

The president signed a proclamation marking Education and Sharing Day, an annual commemoration of the work done by the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Judaism. The commemoration is tied to the birthday of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher rebbe or spiritual leader who died in 1994,

Gorelick, 32, said he was told he was picked because he's a young leader, as exemplified by his efforts to get a menorah included in Fort Collins' official holiday display.

He presented Bush a menorah during the Oval Office visit.

"He was extremely candid and very relaxed," Gorelick said of the meeting with Bush, which came just hours before the president greeted Pope Benedict XVI on his first visit to the United States.

Bush's meeting with the rabbis coincided with former President Jimmy Carter's meetings with leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian group viewed as terrorists by the Bush administration and other U.S. leaders.

When asked if the Carter-Hamas meeting was discussed during the rabbis' visit to the White House, Gorelick said it was but he declined to elaborate.

Gorelick said he was told Friday that he'd been selected to meet with Bush but was sworn to secrecy until the meeting was over.

"I didn't even know where I was going to stay when I arrived here," he said as he prepared to leave Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080416/NEWS01/804160350/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02

Orthodox Judaism, the non-Biblical, tyrannical system of double-standards, has one preferential religious and legal system for the so-called "Jews" and a lower-tier system of tyranny for the "Goyim," which is to say, everyone else. According to the rabbis, the Goyim are forbidden to even read the Bible and should be executed for doing so. They should only concern themselves with observing the "Noahide Laws" as Maimonides states in the authoritative Mishneh Torah:

A gentile who studies Torah is liable to the death penalty. They should be involved in the study of their Seven Mitzvot ["Noahide Laws"] only. (Moses Maimonides, Hilchot Melachim 10:9, Moznaim Publishing edition)

This accounts for why the rabbis and the "secular" Pharisaic offshoots (the ADL, ACLU, SPLC, etc.) don't want Christians to have the 10 Commandments in U.S. court buildings. They will not protest the "Noahide Laws" in court buildings, however. Indeed, they're attempting to install them there.

The legal double-standard inherent to the "Noahide Laws" is laid out in the Talmud:

"A non-Jew is put to death on the basis of a decision given by one judge [no jury], and on the basis of testimony given by a single witness, and even if he was not given a proper warning prior to the commission of his offense. He is put to death on the basis of testimony and a decision given by a man but not on the basis of testimony and a decision given by a woman, and the man who testified or decided against him can even be a relative.

"A Jew can only be put to death by a court of twenty-three judges, and on the basis of the testimony of two male witnesses who are not disqualified from testifying on account of kinship, and after being properly warned against committing the transgression. But none of these rules apply in the case of a non-Jew." (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 57b, Steinsaltz edition, vol.18, page 110)

After being subjected to the above kangaroo-court proceeding, the convicted goy would be executed for "violation" of any of the "Noahide Laws."

"... violation of any one of the seven laws subjects the Noachide to capital punishment by decapitation (Sanh. 57a)."(Encyclopaedia Judaica, "Noahide Laws")

One of the seven "Noahide Laws" is a prohibition against "idolatry." According to the most authoritative of rabbinic sages and the codifier of Orthodox Judaism, Moses Maimonides, Christians are idolaters and therefore subject to execution under "Noahide Law."

From Maimonides' Mishneh Torah:

"The Christians are idolaters, and Sunday is their holiday..." (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Avodah Zorah, 9;4)

“The Christians are worshipers of Avodah Zarah [idolatry]” (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Ma'akhalot Assurot, 11:7)

"... a gentile who worships false gods is liable, [for the death penalty] provided he worships them in the accepted manner. A gentile is executed for every type of foreign worship which a Jewish court would consider worthy of capital punishment." (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 11)

Educate yourself on the tyrannical Talmudic system of double-standards, the "Noahide Laws," which the rabbis and treacherous world leaders are attempting to replace our traditional, universal moral principles with.

Papal Commission Promotes Noahide Laws

Who Says Judaism Isn't a Proselytizing System?

The REAL Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow

"Elder Brother" Rabbis: Catholicism is Idolatry, But Buddhism and Islam are Not

JPII's Noahide Jest

Chabad Rabbi to Congress: Congress Convenes to Fulfill Noahide Commandment

Benedict XVI and Hans Kung Discuss Need for "Global Ethic," not the Gospel

U.S. Public Law, "Education Day"

Sanhedrin Moves to Establish Council For Noahides

Ronald Regan and Chabad

US President George W. Bush Discusses "Road-Map to World Peace" Based on Seven Universal Ben Noah Laws

Jewish Law Comes to Washington D.C.

Jewish law institute launched in DC

Post-9-11 New York Times Article Promotes Noahide Laws as World's Only Hope

Kosher-Catholic Paulist Press Publishes Rabbi Benamozegh's "Noahide" Tome as "Classic of Western Spirituality"

Canada Identifies U.S., "Israel" as Torture States, and then Apologizes

Witness the rabbinic double-standard at play. Torture is most certainly common procedure for "Israel" and the United States military and intelligence agencies and their proxy torturers in Syria and Egypt, but to be identified and categorized for this practice with the other torture states is completely unacceptable to them, as accurate as it may be. The moral high ground is not the objective. Only the perception of such. To state the truth and damage the carefully propped up illusion is a damnable offense--a lesson in Talmudic "morality" which Canadian officials are now learning to understand in depth. The offense is not an offense. But to identify the offense and the "chosen" offender, that is an egregious offense.

Envoys given manual on `torture awareness'

Guantanamo, China, Iran, Israel listed as possible sites for abuse

Michelle Shephard
National Security Reporter

Jan 17, 2008

While Canada's foreign affairs officials publicly state they accept U.S. assurances that Toronto-born detainee Omar Khadr is being treated humanely, consular officials are being warned privately that Guantanamo Bay is a possible site of torture.

A Foreign Affairs Department training manual titled "Torture Awareness Workshop Reference Materials," gives the legal definitions of torture and instructs consular officials how to detect signs of abuse of Canadians detained abroad.

Under the heading, "Possible Torture/Abuse Cases," the manual lists Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Guantanamo Bay, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Syria and United States.

Since Khadr's capture in July 2002, the Canadian government has accepted assurances from the U.S. government that he is being treated humanely despite the international outcry over allegations of abuse at Guantanamo.

Khadr told his lawyers that he was abused during interrogations at Guantanamo and was once left shackled for hours until he urinated on himself. When the guards returned, Khadr alleged, he had cleaning solvent poured on him and was then used as a "human mop."

"It is disgraceful that Canada, well-aware that torture takes place in Guantanamo, has been silent about protecting Omar Khadr's rights," Khadr's Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, said yesterday.

"They knew that torture is alive and well."

The Canadian Press reported the manual was inadvertently released to lawyers working on a lawsuit involving abuse of Afghanistan detainees by Canadians ...

Full Article:

http://www.thestar.com/article/294899

3 days later:

Canada to take Israel off torture list

By MARK WEISS, Jerusalem Post

Jan. 20, 2008

Canada plans to remove both Israel and the US from a list drawn up by the Foreign Ministry in Ottawa of countries where prisoners risk torture and abuse.

On Saturday Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier issued a statement apologizing for the fact that the two Canadian allies were included in a training manual list on torture awareness distributed to Canadian diplomats and other organizations, including Amnesty International.

"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," the foreign minister said. "It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten. The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the government's views or positions."

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem noted that both Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Bernier in Jerusalem last week and Bernier did not raise the issue of torture and Israeli human rights policy during the discussions.

Michael Mendel, the Israeli Embassy spokesman in Ottawa, commented on Israel's initial inclusion in the list by noting that Israel's Supreme Court "is on record as expressly prohibiting any type of torture. If Israel is included in the list in question, the ambassador of Israel would expect its removal," he said.

The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department document, released Friday, singled out the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay. It also named Israel, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria as places where inmates could face torture.

The listing also drew a sharp response from the US, a key Canadian NATO ally and trading partner, which asked to be removed from the manual.

"We find it to be offensive for us to be on the same list with countries like Iran and China. Quite frankly it's absurd," US Ambassador David Wilkins said. "For us to be on a list like that is just ridiculous."

He said the US does not authorize or condone torture. "We think it should be removed and we've made that request. We have voiced our opinion very forcefully," Wilkins said.

The Canadian government inadvertently released the manual to lawyers for Amnesty International who are working on a lawsuit involving alleged abuse of Afghan detainees by local Afghan authorities, after the detainees were handed over by Canadian troops.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1200572493263

Bush Dined with Spy, Pollard's Handler in "Israel"

... [Convicted spy, Jonathan] Pollard was on the unofficial agenda throughout Bush's visit [to "Israel"]. The case "came up" during day-long meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev, who declined to provide further details.

Israel's deputy prime minister handed Bush letters from Esther Pollard and from a rabbi who heads a prominent religious party. And Bush's dinner companions included cabinet minister Rafi Eitan, Pollard's former spy handler and unindicted co-conspirator who is barred from traveling to the United States. Israeli news reports later quoted Eitan as saying there was "a chance" Pollard would soon be freed ... (Jonathan Finer, "Bush Trip Revives Israeli Push for Pardon of Spy," Washington Post, January 15, 2008)

Full article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402725.html?hpid=artslot

Racist Psychopath, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Asks Bush to Release Israeli Spy, Jonathan Pollard

Bush hears more messages from his god in "Israel."

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to Bush: You will be blessed if you free Pollard

Jan 10, 2008

Jerusalem Post

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Thursday urged US President George W. Bush to free imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

In a letter to the US president, Yosef wrote: "One of the most important mitzvot in Judaism is redeeming captives. At this opportune time, I offer my humble request on behalf of the Jews of Zion that Your Excellency release our brother, the prisoner Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a sentence for spying on behalf of the State of Israel. His health is deteriorating."

"Please answer my request affirmatively and you will be blessed from the heavens," continued the letter. "The creator of the world who has accompanied you in your struggle to achieve world peace will grant you mercy and grace for many days and years of long life."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1199964893080&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

"Who are these nations of the world? The Messiah will come and scorn them, will condemn them and with a single breath will scatter them ... In the old city of Jerusalem [Arabs are] swarming like ants. They should go to hell, and the Messiah will speed them on their way."

"It is forbidden to be merciful to [Arabs]. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable ... The Lord shall return the Arabs' deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world." ("elder brother" Rabbi Ovadia Yosef)

Israeli Chief Rabbi Thanks Bush for War On Iraq

See who benefits from "The Decider's" decisions:

Chief rabbi thanks Bush for 'war against Iraq'

By MATTHEW WAGNER, Jerusalem Post

Jan 10, 2008

During a short verbal exchange Wednesday at the Ben-Gurion Airport Terminal, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger thanked President George W. Bush for the US's military intervention in Iraq.

"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for waging a war against Iraq," Metzger told Bush, according to the chief rabbi's spokesman.

Bush reportedly answered that the chief rabbi's words "warmed his heart" ...

... Metzger was chosen as one of the 12 most influential religious figures in the world for a CBS documentary called In God's Name that appeared at the end of December ...

Full article:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517338408&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Read about warmongering "elder brother," Rabbi Yona Metzger's meeting with JPII here:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/11/heartwarming-elder-brother-tale.html

and his warmongering sermon preached from the Vatican pulpit here:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/01/editors-note-just-two-decades-ago.html

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Former Israeli chief Rabbi to "Decider" Bush: "Don't act against God’s will"

"Decider" G. W. Bush's god is talking to him.

Former chief Rabbi to Bush: Don't act against God’s will

In a letter handed to US president, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu warns him not to take action that would harm Jewish people. ‘The Jewish nation forever remembers those that inflict harm upon it’

Kobi Nahshoni
Published: 01.10.08, 08:54 / Israel Jewish Scene

In a letter handed to US President George Bush Thursday, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu admonished the US president to avoid any course of action that would harm the Jewish nation.

“The Jewish nation is eternal, and forever remembers those that have aided it throughout history, as well as those that have done it harm. Please let your name go down in history as a president who aided the Jewish nation, who worked alongside God and not against him,” wrote the rabbi.

The Rabbi furthermore urged Bush in his letter to utilize his visit to strengthen and bolster the State of Israel.

“You were granted the privilege of serving as US president. Make the best of the duties given you, and we will fulfill our task of remembering you as good and noble throughout the ages,” said the Rabbi.

Rabbi Eliyahu began his letter with greetings for President Bush and praise for his efforts to bring peace to the region. With that, he then told the American president that “his agenda for peace goes against the will of God”.

Granting the site of the Holy Temple to murderers of women and children who blaspheme God, wrote Rabbi Eliyahu, is an act against the Jewish people as well as God.

“Ever since the Jews of Gush Katif were expelled from their homes, Sdeort was bombarded with hundreds of Qassam rockets by Hamas as well as other Palestinian organizations….Hundreds of thousands of additional people will live in similar danger if we were to abide by your peace plan, and then where would we end up?” asked the Rabbi.

The Rabbi stressed that “he prays for peace, as does any individual who believes in God,” but that “anyone who accepts the bible as the word of God must keep in mind that God had promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people alone. The Ishmaelites have no part of this divine guarantee.”

Noting that God’s promise to return the Jewish people to their homeland has been coming to full fruition during the last century, the rabbi then urged President Bush to act as a vessel carrying out the divine plan. “God’s pledge to the Jewish people is carried out through people who were created in God’s image, and it their duty to carry out the divine will.”

In addition to Rabbi Eliyahu’s letter, various rabbis and right-wing activists composed an additional letter to President Bush, urging him to free Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, to support “Jewish settlement in Israel entire”, and to encourage Israeli Jews to make aliyah to Israel en masse.

Written on parchment much like a Torah scroll, the aforementioned letter will be handed to the US president by a “very prominent figure” who is scheduled to meet him. Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz, Sanhedrin President, wrote the letter, which was then translated by Rabbi Chaim Richman.

The letter was signed by members of the News Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin, and the Temple Mount Faithful Movement, the “loyal representatives of the Jewish nation in God’s name”.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3492562,00.html

Read about "elder brother" Rabbi Eliyahu’s association of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with Haman from the book of Esther here:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/09/amalek-haman-and-ahmadinejad.html

Read about "elder brother" Rabbi Eliyahu’s decree that there is absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza here:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/06/judeo-christian-tradition.html

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Bush Nominates Kol Nidre Upholding Talmudist for Attorney General

Watch this guy sail through Congress. Will he be sworn in with his hand on the lying Talmud?

President Bush nominated an Orthodox Jew to be U.S. attorney general.

Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, is a conservative who has criticized Bush administration policies that have kept detainees from consulting with lawyers.

Democrats have praised Mukasey, and his selection represents a shift from Bush's combative defense of the most recent attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who resigned last month.

Mukasey's Jewishness became an issue when a defendant in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing filed a motion to remove the judge, arguing that his allegiances to fellow Jews and Israel would create a bias against Muslim defendants. The motion was dismissed as "utterly irrelevant."

Mukasey's wife, Susan, is a former headmistress of the Ramaz Lower School, an Orthodox Jewish school in New York City.

If confirmed, Mukasey would be the second Jewish attorney general. The first, Ed Levi, served under President Ford.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/104180.html

Mukasey gave a lecture on the Kol Nidre in September of 2004:

Sun, Sep 19, 3 pm, $35

KOL NIDRE THROUGH THE AGES — Concert

This program explores the music and meaning of the holiest prayer in the Jewish liturgy, the Kol Nidre. Recited on the eve of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, observed this year on September 25), the Kol Nidre has inspired numerous musical settings and instrumental compositions ... The Honorable MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, U.S. District Court Chief Judge, provides the legal perspective ... Although it carries tremendous emotional power, the Kol Nidre is essentially a legal text that absolves Jews of promises they may have made during the previous year.

http://www.92y.org/content/celebrate_350_releases.asp

The above description of the Kol Nidre (all vows) declaration is more forthcoming than usual, but it is still not correct. The Kol Nidre also "absolves" Judaics of all future vows they will make in the upcoming year.

Americans should have serious concerns about Bush's appointee, a man whose "religion" grants him permission to take an oath that he has no intention of upholding.

If Mukasey is approved by the Congress he will be sworn into office by taking the following oath:

"I (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

But the Kol Nidre declaration that Mukasey, as a pious Orthodox Judaic, will recite on Yom Kippur this Friday evening, September 21, 2007, will "absolve" him from the responsibility of upholding his oath of office and indeed, any promise he makes at all for the entire year.

Here is the Kol Nidre declaration (in English) that Mukasey along with all of his fellow Orthodox Judaics will recite this Friday:

"All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called 'ḳonam,' 'ḳonas,' or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be reckoned vows; the obligations shall not be obligatory; nor the oaths be oaths."

Now, it is common to hear the excuse made that this declaration was created as a reaction to forced conversions in medieval Europe. This is patently false. The Encyclopedia Judaica finds the Kol Nidre existing before the eighth century:

The first reference to Kol Nidrei as a collective declaration is found in the responsa of the Babylonian geonim (beginning in the eighth century). It is stated that Kol Nidrei was familiar to them from "other lands ... (Encyclopedia Judaica, "Kol Nidrei")

However, the Talmudic precedent for the Kol Nidre dates from the early centuries A.D.:

And he who desires that none of his vows made during the year shall be valid, let him stand at the beginning of the year and declare, 'Every vow which I may make in the future shall be null.1 [HIS VOWS ARE THEN INVALID,] PROVIDING THAT HE REMEMBERS THIS AT THE TIME OF THE VOW. (Soncino Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 23b)

How does the Kol Nidre square with the oath that all federal employees must take supplied above?

How does the Kol Nidre of these "elder brothers in the faith" of the Vatican prelates square with God's law:

You shall not lie, neither shall any man deceive his neighbour. Thou shalt not swear falsely by my name ... (Leviticus 19;11,12)

The answer, quite simply, is that it doesn't. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Bush's Macabre Judeo-Masonic Jest

Skull and Bones member, George W. Bush jokes about the lie that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq:

MIA WMDs - For Bush it's a joke

Last night I was at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner. It's a formal-and-fun affair where thousands of media folks assemble at the Hilton for a fancy dinner and fab pre- and post-parties. I'm not going to denigrate such soirees. I enjoy them. While bookers and producers jiggled and jostled on the dance floor and media and political celebs dissected the news du jour (this time it was Richard Clarke's dramatic appearance before the 9/11 commission), I was able to chat with former weapons hunter David Kay and learn about some troubling developments in the intelligence community (more on that down the road). And there was free sushi.

But an awful you're-all-alone moment came during George W. Bush's comments that followed the sit-down dinner. The current president is often the honored guest at this annual affair, and the audience toasts him in what is supposed to be a sign of communal and nonpartisan spirit. And, the tradition is, that the president has to be funny; he has to provide us with an amusing speech that pokes fun at himself and his political foes. After all, political journalists love to see politicians engage in self-deprecating humor. Bill Clinton was quite good at these performances. Bush seems to enjoy them less. Rather than do straight standup, he sometimes relies on a humorous slide show, and that was how he chose to entertain the media throng this time.

It's standard fare humor. Bush says he is preparing for a tough election fight; then on the large video screens a picture flashes showing him wearing a boxing robe while sitting at his desk. Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. There were funny bits about Skull and Bones, his mother, and Dick Cheney. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."

The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.

Disapproval must have registered upon my face, for one of my tablemates said, "Come on, David, this is funny." I wanted to reply, Over 500 Americans and literally countless Iraqis are dead because of a war that was supposedly fought to find weapons of mass destruction, and Bush is joking about it. Instead, I took a long drink of the lovely white wine that had come with our dinner. It's not as if I was in the middle of a talk-show debate and had to respond. This was certainly one of those occasions in which you either get it or don't. And I wasn't getting it. Or maybe my neighbor wasn't.

At the end of the slide show, Bush displayed two pictures of himself with troops and noted these were his favorites. The final photograph was a shot of special forces soldiers--with their faces blurred to protect their identities--who were posing in Afghanistan where they had buried a piece of 9/11 debris in a spot that had once been an al Qaeda camp. Bush spoke about the prayer the commander had said during the burial ceremony and noted he had this photograph hanging in his private study.

So what's wrong with this picture? Bush was somber about the sacrifice being made by U.S. troops overseas. But he obviously considered it fine to make fun of the reason he cited for sending Americans to war and to death. What an act of audacious spin. One poll recently showed that most Americans believe he either lied about Iraq's WMDs or deliberately exaggerated the case to justify the war. And it is undeniable that in seeking public support for the war he made many false assertions that went beyond quoting intelligence that turned out to be wrong. (I've written about this in many other places. If you still don't believe Bush mugged the truth, check out this short guide.) As the crowd was digesting the delicious surf-and-turf meal, Bush was transforming serious scandal into rim-shot comedy.

Few seemed to mind. His WMD gags did not prompt a how-can-you silence from the gathering. At the after-parties, I heard no complaints. Was I being too sensitive? I wondered what the spouse, child or parent of a soldier killed in Iraq would have felt if they had been watching C-SPAN and saw the commander-in-chief mocking the supposed justification for the war that claimed their loved ones. Bush told the nation that lives had to be sacrificed because Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be used (by terrorists) against the United States. That was not true. (And as Kay pointed out, the evidence so far shows these weapons were not there in the first place, not that they were hidden, destroyed or spirited away.) But rather than acknowledge he misinformed the public, Bush jokes about the absence of such weapons.

Even if Bush does not believe he lied to or misled the public, how can he make fun of the rationale for a war that has killed and maimed thousands? Imagine if Lyndon Johnson had joked about the trumped-up Gulf of Tonkin incident that he deceitfully used as a rationale for U.S. military action in Vietnam: "Who knew that fish had torpedoes?" Or if Ronald Reagan appeared at a correspondents event following the truck-bombing at the Marines barracks in Beirut--which killed over 200 American servicemen--and said, "Guess we forgot to put in a stop light." Or if Clinton had come out after the bombing of Serbia--during which U.S. bombs errantly destroyed the Chinese embassy and killed several people there--and said, "The problem is, those embassies--they all look alike."
Yet there was Bush--apparently having a laugh at his own expense, but actually doing so on the graves of thousands. This was a callous and arrogant display. For Bush, the misinformation--or disinformation--he peddled before the war was no more than material for yucks. As the audience laughed along, he smiled. The false statements (or lies) that had launched a war had become merely another punchline in the nation's capital. 

Also refer to the audio lecture, "The Masqueraders Jest" by Michael A. Hoffman