Bush about cocaine use: "I haven't denied anything" - and NYT/media kill

Bush about cocaine use: "I haven't denied anything" - and NYT/media kill any reporting on the cocaine coment (see ABC/NBC/CBC/Reuters/AP - all of whom seem to find a convention of decorum or journalism that says when a GOPer is found out, we discuss the lesser evil (not the cocaine problem) -just 2 yr to life first time penalty in Texas crime of smoking dope - and kill any large mainstream media comment about the cocaine comment on the tape.

I love my liberal media.

http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-york-times-tapes-confirm-president.html

Sunday, February 20, 2005
New York Times Tapes Confirm President Bush Smoked Pot; No Word Yet on Whether He Enjoyed It
By ADVOCATE STAFF

Apologies to our nominal President, but: Sir, when a minister asks you about your denials of any past drug use, and you respond, "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried," is there any convention of decorum or journalism which prevents us from baldly stating that you smoked dope?

Is there any reason we should follow the lead of the mainstream media, which continues to write as though it has a grape and two raisins in its pocket, by saying that you simply "appear" to have lit up during your artfully-concealed wandering years?

Obviously, we weren't there in whatever poorly-lit den of iniquity you did the heinous deed, smelling of patchouli oil and listening to, we imagine, Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" or, perhaps, mid-period Country Joe & the Fish.<snip>

So, here it is: according to a tape recorded by the President's friend and confidant, Doug Wead--which tape has been authenticated by an expert hired by the New York Times--Bush is a former drug-user.<snip>

So, then, precisely which convention of decorum or professionalism prevents us from reporting that President Bush issued this goddamned suspicious response to a question from his minister friend about cocaine use: "I haven't denied anything"?

Sorry, Sir, but if you've never used smack--which, in New Hampshire at least, is a felony--why not just tell the minister that?

Or are we to simply assume you're a felon (again, with the caveat that you were never caught)?
Maybe we should throw out even that concession, given that you were apparently arrested for cocaine possession in 1972?

And pray tell, Sir, how many people are sitting in jail or prison right now for doing no more and no less than what you "haven't denied"?<snip>

But the issue of the use of illegal drugs did not stop there. On the next day, Bush upped the ante three more years when he said that he could have passed a background check on illegal drug use when his father was president, and that was when there was a 15 year limit on drug questions. This meant that Bush denied using illegal drugs since 1974 when he was 28. Next, a reporter asked Bush to clear the record since he was an adult at age 18. He refused to answer. Bush only attributed problems which he encountered in his early adult life to "youthful discretion." The Texas law was among the harshest in the nation in the 1960s and 1970s, when some people claimed that Bush engaged in illicit drugs. The sentence for the first offense of marijuana was two years to life.

Is that right?

Has the President admitted to a minister, on tape, with expert voice-authentication, that he committed a crime which was punishable at the time with life imprisonment?

.



http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7682264
New Tapes Say Bush May Have Smoked Marijuana
Sun Feb 20, 2005 03:40 PM ET
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush indicated in interviews secretly taped by a friend before he became president that he had used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example for children.

Portions of the tapes, recorded from 1998 to 2000 by author Doug Wead without Bush's knowledge, were aired on ABC News on Sunday and published by The New York Times. Their authenticity was verified by the media outlets but has not been independently checked by Reuters.

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried," Bush purportedly says on the tape.
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-bush-marijuana.html?oref=login

February 20, 2005
New Tapes Say Bush May Have Smoked Marijuana
By REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - <snip>He added: ``But you got to understand, I want to be president. I want to lead. I want to set -- Do you want your little kid say, 'Hey, Daddy, President Bush tried marijuana, I think I will?'''

In the tape, Bush mocks former Vice President Al Gore -- who fought him for the presidency in 2000 -- for admitting he smoked marijuana.

White House officials did not dispute the tapes' veracity and indicated the president was disappointed by their release.
<snip>

I still think he has onset of early dementia. His rambling gets worse under stress and at night. They put him to bed on time now. He won't completely escape his past.

"Can I do that, too, Daddy? Can I? Can I?"

:nuke:

:-(