I can't believe people are falling for the "Bush was wired" story.

Yeah, there's a bulge on his back, but I'm sorry, it can't have been a wire. If it was, the person on the other end was as stupid as the Shrub. I refuse to believe anyone else could be that stupid. Case closed.

C'mon people, leave this alone. It's a red herring, a dead end. Time is better spent elsewhere.

and maybe someone can come up with a good explanation for me but I can't see why they would make it so obvious and slap it on his back where it would be so noticable. Why not around his waist or in his pocket where it would be better left out of site?

Once we're busy focusing on the "wire," then we get distracted from what actually happened, or some excuse it as faulty communication, or others just get fed up with yet another conspiracy theory and tune out.

...FratBoy's back distracting us from anything, much less our primary goal in November?

If you personally don't want to think about it, why are you responding to a thread on the subject?

By my count, we're going on two weeks of increasing focus on it, to the point that "the wire" has become the bigger topic.

Look around. Even on DU there are fewer "Bush was total moron" during the debates threads than there are "Bush was wired" ones. That is what is on the news now, not the fact that Bush was a raving lunatic.

OnEdit: I explained in my original reply why I responded to a thread about it.

...for a total of 30 seconds.

Why don't you "look around"...I doubt seriously that ANYONE on DU has obssessed on this issue for as long as you think they have.

And outside of DU, I don't see ANYONE discussing this topic for more than a few minutes at best.

...but why CREATE a thread about it? If you don't go for it, fine, but there is no harm in others continuing to raise the issue. It's a Rovian tactic, and it WORKS. Ask Al Gore. Ask John McCain. They'll tell you.

"George, I want you to wear this pad on your back for the debate. Scotty, make sure we get good video stills from Fox. We'll start seeding the story right after the debates over."

That, and the "mysterious" audio feeds.

how many "conspiracy theories" that surfaced then have since been proven to be facts?
halliburton?
carlyle group?
the diversion-war of Iraq?
articles of the Patriot Act?

Earpiece or not.

Heck, he planned 9/11 using holographic planes - and the people bought it. He made an explosion occur at pentagon which most believe was a plane. He got a lot of votes from both sides on the iraqi war thing and patriot act.

Ok, so some serious sarcasm in all that ;) If * is the idiot we all see him as, and IF the above scenarios are true with regard to 9/11 - then someone else is pulling his strings....

Personally, I just see him as an idiot - which is damning enough. Terrorists did pull off 9/11, no wmd were found, and that is all this Du'er needs to vote him out (not that other things don't help shore up that thought train).

Hammer home the basic points to the people - economy, war, 9/11 - I don't care if he had rove stuck in his ass during the debates with super ky-jelly-glue, the facts are all I need of what he has done.

that makes me proud to be a liberal >

I don't care if he had rove stuck in his ass during the debates with super ky-jelly-glue, the facts are all I need of what he has done.

:D

This is one of the bigger non-stories of the debates so far.

If he was wired, what does this prove? That even his handlers are idiots? Well, who knew.

I'm so uninterested in this I've avoided all threads on it except this one, and I only peeked at this one because I detected a note of the same thoughts I had.

Focusing on the bulge distracts people from the real problems, the real failures. In fact, I would not be entirely surprised were I to learn this story originated with Rove and Company themselves.

http://www.kgo.com

tune in
and know

Who cares? Kerry's going to win. And it's not going to be because some swing voter somewhere is brow beaten into believing that Shrub had a hidden transmitter strapped to his back in some debate.

Yawn to you too, buddy.

Kerry: <pat>
The voice in Boosh's ear: <STATIC!>
Boosh: <deer-in-headlights expression and many long pauses
as he struggles to hear>

They repaired it for debate #2.

as the man who invaded Iraq with an ill-equipped, hastily prepared National Guard? as the man who has killed every enterprise in which he has ever been involved?

there are many pieces to any puzzle and puzzles are best solved by a united group of friends.

spend your good time wherever you choose in the struggle,but please consider allowing others to follow their own paths, as long as you are in no way injured or disrespected.

what matters.

I think most of them know it's not a wire.

The vest idea is more popular now.

But they want to push it because they think whatever it is, they're not telling and that's a way to score points.

I say if it's the vest, they won't tell anyway...EVER.

I see it as a distraction...a waste of time. On Friday morning I tried to make the issue of stem cell research a focal point for discussion because there had been a BREAKTHROUGH in the research on Thursday night.
Kerry never mentioned the breakthrough.....would he if it had gotton more play here? Some say Kerry operatives check in here....who knows.

Point is the stem cell thing was beaten down by wire conspiracy threads.

They should have thier own area.

I actually felt Bush had a bit more command of facts and figures than he would on a normal occasion. Yes, his demeanor was horrid and he screamed, stammered, mumbled. But his thoughts sometimes made sense. This is something that rarely happens in an unscripted moment with him.

I love the story because what if it IS true...and they do make sure they don't have electronics on them for 3rd debate and Bush performs a total meltdown?!

Tell me why it is a NEGATIVE to focus on this. Really. Can we not process his lies AND his ineptness possibly propped up by cheating?

Can we not deplore his horrendous policies while at the same time guffawing at the idea of BUsh listening to a prompter on the other end of a wire and still sounding like a drunken sailor shouting his stories in a bar?

NEED SOME WOOD?

I would find it funny as hell, if an unprovable probably nothing bulge turned some moranic "undecided" against *, after proof of chronic incompetence is completely ignored.

think about it. Gore lost heavy points for wearing "orange" face makeup, ad libbing about some lady taking dog medicine because she couldn't afford it, sighing heavily, rolling eyes, lecturing like an English Lit professor.....

hey, if we can get things back on track with a similarly superficial item....more power to us.

if, in fact, this "bulge" is something that matters after all

whether true or not, it gets people talking about how low the Bush Admin might go to win.

Next, sadly, this is the sort of thing that gets covered in the electronic media - in other words, this is what the short attention span American voters focus on. They don't care about truth or complex reasoning, if they did, Gore wouldn't have had to keep explaining the Internet comment, Love Canal and all that other stupid stuff.

Really, let's be honest with ourselves - Americans are too damned chicken to want a debate on real issues. They just want cheap gas to peddle their lazy asses to Walmart to buy the cheapest China goods that they can find so they can zip back home to watch the idiotic shows on TV.

it was either not working or it had been jammed.

Any other American President would be able to debate, speak extemporainously, and hold his own in conversation. Can you evan imagine the question coming up under LBJ or Richard Nixon or FDR ? That goes for Reagan, and Bush the first.

The Chimp is to intellectually feeble minded that his mistatements give creedence to the suggestion that he can't talk in public without Karen Hughes trainingwheels.

But what IS that sqauare shape between his shoulder blades ?

but yeah, it could be ... for all i know.

Descreet but stylish travelling case, the D.I. Case is the handiest carrying case available for transporting your insulin and syringes.

Never mind, I dont think George is diabetic. sigh .. back to the receiver theory I guess ..

thorazine.

we need a lot of little things to show how dishonest he is...at least if we can't prove it we have to make people wonder.

I can tell you this...there is a video of chimp where audio was before he was speaking saying what he was saying, its getting about 10,000 downloads a day since this came up....keep it rolling ;)

I realized, after seeing the film, that Bush is not stupid.. he's simple minded. It's like asking the guy who sweeps up at McDonald's to manage the world's largest Superpower. Doesn't mean that guy is dumb.. but unprepared, uneducated, and uninterested.

Yes.. Bush was wired. He is often. You can tell.. that's why he comes up with those strange outburts of thoughts.

The point IS, that if he was.. he cheated.

If anyone for Bush gets a bee in their bonnet about how Chimpy may have cheated (it certainbly is believeable), the work is done.

It's called playing hard ball. And Chimpy prolly wuz wired.

...and several miles farther than that. Last time I looked, we lived in a right-wing dominated, relatively dimwitted media universe. What's your point? That we should stay above this sort of thing? It's so declasse, so tawdry, beneath us as Intellectuals of the Left?

Give me an effing break. Here's what we got:

1. There's SOMETHING on his back. I don't give shit one what it is, there's SOMETHING there.

All of which would be neither here nor there except for point

2) They've DENIED it. That means they're lying. That means "questions have been raised." Maybe it's a backbrace. Who knows? Who CARES?

What we're talking about here is an opportunity for low-level harrassment, distraction, and off-message irritation for their side. Maybe he's got a health problem he doesn't want to admit. Cool. Let 'em squrim about it. MAKE 'em squirm about it. Low level harassment can turn into high level harassment if it turns out that some substantive issue is involved. "Why didn't he take his health exam this year? Is it something to do with the backbrace or whatever it is that's showing up in those debate photographs all over the web?" "Questions have been raised"--isn't that the line? Stupider things have caused big problems for better presidents.

And even if it doesn't rise to that level, low-level harrassment is FINE. What's your problem with it? That's what I don't get. In case you haven't noticed, this is a really UGLY, shitty, sleazy race this time around, and WE'RE not the ones who made it that way.

I say use ANYTHING that comes along, and stick to it like a demented doberman as long as you can, then grab something else and bite down HARD.

"Questions have been raised" ... Classic!

Yeah, pretty much throw anything we got at them at this point -- and try to make it distracting, at the least.

...

There sure looks to be something under his jacket. And there could be a serious health issue here. -- Enquiring minds wish to know.

Poor Neil, what must it be like to go through life known as the dumbest Bush spawn?

and that is the worst sin. worse than being dumb like George. worse than being evil like vacuous like Jeb or evil and crusty like the parents.

I have experience in this. During the mid-to-late '90s I wore a wire almost every day, actually a two-way transmitter with earpiece. Two friends and I pooled resources and started a three-man sports betting group in Las Vegas, to compete with much larger groups that had 8-50 members. There was a huge giveaway in progress among several crooked/ignorant sportsbooks managers, and everyone wanted a piece of the profits. The sportsbooks eventually got beat so badly the sportsbook managers were fired and the Nevada gaming commission cracked down on communicaton devices and messenger betting. Now you see tourists confronted in sportsbooks when they innocently pull out cell phones, unaware it's illegal.

We shelled out maybe $1500 apiece for the best equipment, similar to the other groups' strategy. We had thin walkie talkies strapped around our chest and tiny earpieces. That was the key. A few years earlier the groups who were wired featured bulky earpieces that were easily detectable.You could push a button to talk. I kept the button so that I had access by reaching into my left pocket. No one could tell we were wired other than people who were doing the same thing. I would push the transmit button and talk to my partners while making it look like I was speaking to a member of another group, seated next to me. Everyone did that. Even in the mid '90s with comparatively primitive equipment to today, there was no such thing as an obvious bulge or hump.

All Bush needed was a receiver, not a transmitter. Now it's a wireless era. This is pure hogwash.

...Kerry's going to win anyway, so if folks want to piddle around with silliness it's fine by me.

He is the President. He should be wearing a wire. This is either a failure of Homeland Security or Bush is a liar. Which one is it?

Jay

along the lines of "Do you still beat your wife?"

Jay

and the White House refuses to say what it is. If not a wire, what is it that could embarrass the Bushies?

I'm starting to like this theory.

If he has an irregular heartbeat, he might need the monitor.

This would explain the falling down/bruises and the postponed physical, as well as his team's not wanting to admit something's there.

I think a HM is usually placed on the chest, but he wouldn't have wanted something in the front during a debate.

What do the rest of you think?

Your theory is certainly plausible. I myself would be willing to accept it as being a back-brace. The key to this whole issue is that the White House is maintaining a strict "no comment" line; their silence proves that, whatever it is, the truth would cause Bush embarrassment.

Another thread discusses Bush's "geeking" (the pseudo-jaw-grinding) during the second debate. This is apparently proof of cocaine abuse or psychotropic drugs administration. If Bush has been returning to cocaine or he's on psychotropic drugs, and if either of those (or the effects of their past use) can cause an irregular heartbeat, we're starting to build a plausible and horrifying picture of Bush.

Read this thread for a real issue....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1040295

Anon doc (but credible hypothesis and backed up by observations of those "familiar" with coke addicts) says W exhibiting involuntary muscle movement "geeking" associated with prior coke addicts, and which can be triggered by using again, OR by treatment with major psych drugs, even scarier.

I link this with the postponement of the physical---any questions?
Have to go out for a bit -- any fact-checkers, please help out on that thread.