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J U L Y 2 0 0 4
by Alex Miller-Mignone
During the recent passing and state funeral of Ronald Reagan, the "Great Communicator," Republican operatives attempted to paint George W. Bush as his ideological heir and wrap their fumble-tongued leader in the Reagan mantle. In this, as in so much, the Administration has failed, for obvious reasons. One can no more make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, than one can make a great orator out of a malapropism-ridden mental midget.
An entire industry has grown up based on George W. Bush’s mis-speak, and a term, "Bushisms," has been coined just for his utterances. Catalogued in the hundreds, these fill three volumes of books, numerous websites, even desktop calendars devoted, not to commentary about Bush’s inability to speak articulately, but merely to chronicling these miscommunications.
The chief culprit plaguing the Commander-in-Thief is his Mercury, which is dead center on the singularity of Black Hole Cernunnos at 9 Leo, and further conjoined by Pluto at 10 Leo and the Ascendant at 7. Mercury tied to a Black Hole can indicate many things. Some of history’s most effective orators have shared this aspect, including Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Adolf Hitler.
But in Mr. Bush’s case, the effect is somewhat less stimulating. After all, even galactic points are only as good as their material, and Bush was a straight C student who was admitted to higher academia on family connections rather than merit, and scored the lowest possible passing grade on his flight training admittance test. Some observers have suggested undiagnosed dyslexia as the root of Bush’s difficulties, and point to both his mother’s and his wife’s very strong, almost personal, support for reading and literacy programs, perhaps a sign that their lives have been touched by this issue.
Dyslexia is certainly consistent with a Black Hole Mercury gone wrong, but it is not the only possibility. Bush’s tongue-tied, halting, almost stammering manner is classic negative Black Hole Mercury, just as Stephen Hawking’s brilliant theoretical physics work is classic positive Black Hole Mercury (Hawking’s subsequent loss of speech is also a classic negative Black Hole Mercury manifestation). It is as if the words will simply not form themselves in an appropriate manner in Bush’s brain, or that, having done so, they are lost in the translation to his tongue. He often sounds, in short, like a complete idiot.
Bush is also unfortunate in the celestial pairings with Mercury in his nativity. His power and prestige, both Plutonian areas of interest, are undercut by the obvious nature of his language inadequacies, as represented by Mercury’s close conjunction with the Ascendant. It is impossible for him to hide this defect, though possible for partisan adherents to ignore it.
Unable for whatever reason to realize the depth of intellectual understanding promised by Pluto/Mercury, he has manifested this energy as the constant misleading, the purposeful exaggeration, and the outright lying, for which his Administration is fast becoming famous (Bush’s National Guard service, Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, the Saddam-al Qaeda link, the true cost of the Medicare subscription drug plan, to name but a few). The extreme secrecy of the White House and its almost rabid defense of privacy disguised as executive privilege can also be attributed to this pairing. Again, Pluto/Mercury’s close contact to the Ascendant says this subterfuge cannot forever endure—it will be made obvious through Bush’s own actions.
Additionally, Mercury is exactly semisextile Bush’s natal Mars, itself exactly conjunct Black Hole Apsu at 9 Virgo. The semisextile aspect is not one of great power, but as an exact aspect, it exerts an influence. It can probably best be seen in the way Bush tends to almost blurt out responses on occasion; the sudden stops and starts with which he punctuates his speech. There is an almost coltish quality to the chops and changes he makes mid-statement, as if he is unable to prevent the next thought from intruding on the current sentence. Mars/Mercury is also evident in the bulldog tenacity with which he fixes on an idea or an opinion to the exclusion of all alternate interpretation or evidence to the contrary.
Recently while trolling through the "Complete Bushisms" website, I was struck by the many ways in which Mr. Bush mis-speaks, and curious as to why so many in the "liberal" media have given, and continue to give, so little attention to this obvious handicap (could it be their conservative, corporate masters?). I was also struck by how seamlessly some of the quotes fit together to create an almost coherent narrative of Bush’s incoherency, might, in fact, properly compiled, serve as a fitting political epitaph to one of America’s most failed presidencies, and faulty presidents.
What follows is such a compilation, which may stand as a record of Mr. Bush’s pronouncements on the nature of terrorism and foreign policy at the dawn of the 21st century. Nothing has been added to the Bushism quotes, nothing deleted; the only alteration I have made has been in the arrangement of the quotations.
And so, without further ado, George W. Bush, in his own words:
"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating.1 This is historic times.2
"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were…. It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they’re there.3 This is still a dangerous world. It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mential [sic] losses.4
"But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the—that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans.5
"I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to the level commiserate [sic] with keeping the peace.6
"We cannot let terriers [sic] and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.7
"The folks who conducted an act on our country on September 11 made a big mistake. They underestimated America. They underestimated our resolve, our determination, our love for freedom. They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too.8
"See, we love—we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love.9 Let me put it to you this way, I’m not a revengeful person.10 I'm the master of low expectations.11
"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction.12
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself.13 Nothing he has done has convinced me—I'm confident the Secretary of Defense—that he is the kind of fellow that is willing to forgo weapons of mass destruction, is willing to be a peaceful neighbor, that is—will honor the people—the Iraqi people of all stripes, will—values human life. He hasn't convinced me, nor has he convinced my administration.14
"Justice was being delivered to a man who defied that gift from the Almighty to the people of Iraq.15 When Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried, and persecuted [sic] as a war criminal.16 The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the—the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice.17
"I have said that the sanction regime is like Swiss cheese—that meant that they weren't very effective.18 I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose: you disarm, or we will.19
"Any time we've got any kind of inkling that somebody is thinking about doing something to an American and something to our homeland, you've just got to know we're moving on it, to protect the United Nations Constitution, and at the same time, we're protecting you.20 I need to be able to move the right people to the right place at the right time to protect you, and I'm not going to accept a lousy bill out of the United Nations Senate.21
"The law I sign today directs new funds and new focus to the task of collecting vital intelligence on terrorist threats and on weapons of mass production [sic].22 There is no such thing necessarily in a dictatorial regime of iron-clad absolutely solid evidence. The evidence I had was the best possible evidence that he had a weapon. We've got hundreds of sites to exploit, looking for the chemical and biological weapons that we know Saddam Hussein had prior to our entrance into Iraq.23
"There's no cave deep enough for America, or dark enough to hide.24 The best way to find these terrorists who hide in holes is to get people coming forth to describe the location of the hole. These people don't have tanks. They don't have ships. They hide in caves. They send suiciders out.25 The suicide bombings have increased. There's too many of them.26
"In my judgment, when the United States says there will be serious consequences, and if there isn't serious consequences, it creates adverse consequences. We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure.27 You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order—order out of chaos. But we will.28
"Perhaps one way will be, if we use military force, in the post-Saddam Iraq the U.N. will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can begin to get its legs, legs of responsibility back.29
"I understand that the unrest in the Middle East creates unrest throughout the region.30 My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the – in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen.31 Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment.32
"I want to remind you all that in order to fight and win the war, it requires an expenditure of money that is commiserate [sic] with keeping a promise to our troops to make sure that they're well-paid, well-trained, well-equipped.
"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you.33 Whether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be called themselves.34
"The true strength of America happens when a neighbor loves a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves.35 We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you like to be liked yourself.36
"My job is to do my job.37 My job is to, like, think beyond the immediate.38 I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe—I believe what I believe is right.39 And there’s no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail.40
"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating.41"
1. Aas quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002
2. New York, N.Y., April 20, 2004
3. Iowa Western Community College, 21 Jan 2000
4. Financial Times, 14 Jan 2000
5. Media roundtable, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2001
6. Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 23, 2000
7. Des Moines, Iowa, 21 Aug 2000
8. Langley, Va., 26 Sept 2001
9. Oklahoma City, Ok., Aug. 29, 2002
10. Time magazine, 25 Dec 2000
11. Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
12. Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003
13. Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003
14. Crawford, Texas, Aug. 21, 2002
15. Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
16. Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 2003
17. Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003
18. White House press conference, Washington, D.C., Feb. 22, 2001
19. Speaking about Saddam Hussein, Manchester, N.H., Oct. 5, 2002
20. Aberdeen, S.D., November 1, 2002
21. South Bend, Ind., Oct. 31, 2002
22. Washington, D.C., Nov. 27, 2002
23. Santa Clara, Calif., May 2, 2003
24. Oklahoma City, Ok., Aug. 29, 2002
25. Speaking about terrorists, Portsmouth, N.H., Nov. 1, 2002
26. Albuquerque, N.M., Aug. 15, 2001
27. Crawford, Texas, May 3, 2003
28. Washington, D.C., April 13, 2003
29. the Azores, Portugal, March 16, 2003
30. Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002
31. Crawford, TX, 13 Aug 2001
32. Interview with the New York Times, Jan. 14, 2001
33. Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002
34. Washington, D.C., Oct. 8, 2003
35. Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003
36. Financial Times, 14 Jan 2002
37.Radio and Television Ireland interview, June 24, 2004
38. Washington, D.C., April 21, 2004
39. Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001
40. Washington, D.C., 4 Oct 2001
41. U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000
 Alex Miller-Mignone is a professional writer and astrologer, author of The Black Hole Book and The Urban Wicca, former editor of "The Galactic Calendar," and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society.
His pioneering work with Black Holes in astrological interpretation began in 1991, when his progressed Sun unwittingly fell into one. Alex can be reached for comment or services at Alixilamirorim@aol.com.
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