At the G-8 summit, President Bush grabs German Chancellor Angela Merkel from behind and gives her a quick massage before rushing off. Chancellor Merkel is not amused.
While the Middle East burns, our fearless leader is busy with his frat boy pranks. Click here for the video. (A major hat tip to my German friend.)
UPDATED VIDEO AND COVERAGE: CNN has posted a longer, and clearer, video here. (The story is here). In the video, President Bush appears to suddenly speed up, veer right, and go in for the blitz-massage. ABC News also has a story on the incident here. Various local ABC and NBC TV affiliates are also carrying the story. Countdown with Keith Olbermann covers the story on tonight’s show (7/21/2006).
UPDATE: The LA Times reports on the incident in this article. But according to the LA Times, Chancellor Merkel "smiled". I don’t know about you, but it does not look to me like she is smiling. (Hat tip to NegSpin from Daily Kos for providing the LA Times link in a comment from my cross post there.)
UPDATE II: Watch Jon Stewart comment on the Blitz-Massage on YouTube or watch it on my post here.
UPDATE III: Will Femia of MSNBC’s Clicked has picked up on this story. He has analyzed the video and concluded that it was tantamount to a harmless hair tussle (you know, the kind girlfriends give each other! sheesh!):
I clicked a few links worked up about the President groping or feeling up the German chancellor. The still photo does give that impression, but watching the clip on Crooks and Liars, I don’t think I agree. It looks more like he gives her the equivalent of a hair tussle as he walks by. Her reaction doesn’t look like she’s being violated so much as making a somewhat awkward gesture to get him back.
But he can be forgiven for the hair tussle analysis. He does such stellar work when discussing important conflicts in the world too. Check out this bit of informed journalism from the same post:
Speaking of military equipment, "To appreciate the thorny, complex, multi-layered difficulties Israel confronts –from house to house battles to the highest levels of international diplomacy– one needs to understand the rather simple Katyusha rocket Hezbollah shoots at Haifa and other Israeli cities." It’s so weird that with each armed conflict we learn about new missiles. Remember the scud? [Emphasis added by me.]
I haven’t the heart to remind the hair tussle genius that Katyusha rockets have been around since World War II and Hezbollah’s been using them for a long long time. Katyushas may of course be new to Will but I think the rest of the world probably is a little better informed. Weird indeed! Sometimes facts never get in the way of the story.
UPDATE IV: The Blitz-Massage is creeping into mainstream media like a virus. MSNBC covers the power of YouTube in spreading the video. As usual, the blogs get cursory mention. My recollection is that this story was and is being driven by the blogs. I should know – the hits that nearly took my blog down came from the high traffic blogs who really gave the story life. Almost every blog I know is linking to Crooks & Liars for the video, if not the original Bild video.
The article does contain an interesting quote from Professor Larry Sabato:
Larry Sabato, professor of politics at the University of Virginia, agrees that today, public figures have to be more careful in “a thousand ways.” But he maintains sites like YouTube can be revealing.
“If they’re not doing something that’s embarrassing, they have nothing to worry about,” he says. “A president ought to know enough not use an expletive in a fairly open meeting, and almost any male alive today knows that you don’t offer uninvited massages to any female, much less the chancellor of Germany.”
I think I will have to agree with Professor Sabato on this one.
It’s interesting that, much like the Stephen Colbert WH Correspondence Dinner story, this story is being covered by the MSM not directly but rather as a story on the reaction of the blogs, YouTube, etc. to a Presidential embarrassment. I think this is what they call plausible deniability.
This is just about the worst thing he could have done to
1) a German person who is not an intimate friend of many years because this is completely against their cultural norms
2) another business person, in public, in a business setting
2) a world leader from another country
3) a female with whom he wasn’t intimate and with whom he was not in a private intimate setting
4) a female world leader from another country, with whom he is merely a political acquaintence, in public and in a business setting
Why must we endure this fool?
It’s bad enough that he treats the citizens of the US as if he was the plantation owner and the rest of us (who are not his ricxh plantation owner friends) as if our sole function is to work to keep him and his cronies in stacks of cash but we can’t possibly be allowed to know anything about what’s happening in our own government and country.
That he treats other world leaders, most of whom bothered to actually get an education and can claim a measureable IQ, as his personal frat club is a perpetual embarrassment and a cause of great shame.
How can “I didn’t vote for the creep” ever be enough to say in explanation when so many did?
Diana, if any one of us did this at work, we would be sitting in the HR office in a hurry.
Condi calls him “husband” when he does that. All the Bush sycophants love that kind of treatment.
They’ll photoshop Babs’ face over her?
:)>-
That was not a smile. It was, perhaps, toward the end the kind of expression one adopts when one doesn’t want one’s true feelings visible.
Bush almost looked drunk–or drugged.
Also, BushBoy did not look normal in that video; his facial muscles were flaccid, and he had a sort of vacant look, as if he was totally bored and just wanted to whatever crossed his addled mind.
What do they medicate him with?
I think he was tired of all the grown ups using big words at the meeting. So he was walking around dazed and confused. Then he felt the urge to just massage someone. Very odd behavior – especially the look in his eyes as he is doing it. @-)
What do they medicate him with?
***
Last time I checked it was Whiskey and Cocaine….:d
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What do they medicate him with?
***
He self medicated on way too many pieces of “candy” from Rush’s Dittohead Pez Dispenser.
Disgusted in St. Louis, that Pez dispenser is positively frightening! :-&
Perhaps if you were a bit more up to speed on world affairs, you’d realize that Merkel and Bush get along well and are good friends…Bush actually visited Germany prior to the G8 at the invitation of Merkel…
And, yes, she DID smile at the end of that video. But leave it to the Left to go ape$hit over nothing.
btw, I hear President Lincoln was a fan of the word “damn”…THAT’S OUTRAGEOUS!!!
TheTruth, yup, try doing that at your office and see if you aren’t fired for sexual harrassment.
Way to rationalize bad behavior. You really think a hit and run massage on a world leader is appropriate as she is talking with the Italian head of state at the G-8 summit?
Oh wait, you probably think that WMD has been found in Iraq too. :(|)
Thanks for visiting. Please return to your pod now. 8-}
yeah, sure… they’re sooooo close. that’s probably why frau merkel winced like a scared puppy when she felt his grip on her shoulders.
oh my… leave it to the Right to believe this whole “we’re good friends” bullshit.
greetings from germany, btw.
First, without even knowing the full context of Bush’s “massage”, you condemn him as if it’s equivalent to sexual harrasment…amazing. I’ve been in situations very similar if not exactly like that in informal or even office settings where that happens. There’s nothing sexual, derogatory, etc about it…I’ve seen a guy do that to another guy even in an office…there’s nothing sexual or degrading…it’s just friendly gesture. Calm the FUCK down…and get over it.
And again, Merkel and Bush are good friends and YES she did smile at the end of the video.
btw, Iraq DID have WMDs. FACT. The question was never did they have them…but rather, what did they do with them. Your history lesson is now over.
Greetings from America to you also.
I lived in Germany years ago…just prior to the Wall coming down.
And STILL the U.S. continues to maintain brutal occupation forces oppressing the peaceful people of Germany. When will the U.S. end it’s illegal military occupation of Germany??
(yes…that was sarcasm…)
TheTruth, can’t you guys go more than a couple of sentences without using expletives?
Hmm, if you think its proper diplomatic protocol to massage another head of state in the G-8 summit than you my friend are not thinking rationally.
But I already know that from your WMD comment. Your reality lesson is now over. 8-}
And if you think that leaders don’t sometimes use “colorful” language when speaking informally to one another…then you are not thinking rationally.
And as to my WMD comment…I was merely referring to the President’s own comments:
“Earlier today, I ordered America’s armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons. “
Are you taking issue with this statement?
TheTruth, do you actually think after all evidence to the contrary that Iraq had the WMDs that we went to war to destroy? Are you that obtuse? I wont comment further on the WMD issue with you. I refer you to the United States government reports on the matter. I dont have the energy to debate reality with you.
You started this conversation by claiming that I was not up to speed on world affairs, as I recall. How did you come to that conclusion?
For your edification, a meeting at the G-8 summit is not an “informal” setting. There are rather strict diplomatic protocols that apply. You may not know about them. I suggest that you read up on the subject. I am sure the State Department has a handbook on diplomatic protocol that they can mail you on request. Feel free to give them a call.
Failing all else, perhaps you should ask your female co-workers if they believe that this is appropriate behavior. You may also want to inform your HR department at your workplace that you believe that this is acceptable behavior at the office. I would love to hear their response. :-c(:|
Don’t try to debate a republitard like “thetruth”. facts don’t penetrate into a republitards head. It’s filled with god and hatred of dark skinned people.
It’s much better to plug them with a bullet really. They are a scourge on the planet and no good will ever come of them. Killing them today will prevent future world wars.
It would be nice if we could see the whole video.
How could we make it this far, including comments about “if I did this at work,” amongst a bunch of committed lefties, without uttering the name of our last impeached president, William Jefferson Clinton? How is that possible?
And yes, Bush can be clueless at times. But really, on the scale of recent diplomatic faux-paus, wouldn’t Clinton’s lobbing of a single cruise missile at an empty Al-Quaida base in Afghanistan (pre 9/11) be the one to focus on?
Jesus H. Christ. This prick first invades the wrong country for 9/11, bombs the hell out of another, then admits it was “bad intellegence,” indirectly raises the price of oil through the ceiling, makes a killing in the process, AND NOW RUBS ANGELA MERKEL’S BACK!
IMPEACHMENT IS NOW!! :((
“And again, Merkel and Bush are good friends”
He luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurves her 😡 :d
laura will kick him in the nutz when he gets home. if its any consolation….
what a boorish sick fuck you have representing you asll on thw world stage. it gets worse and worse.
(bust arm.. fast one hand typing – i’m a pianist!)
paul… must you use such vulgar language…………
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in the next election, could we please stand up and protest the fraudulent elections like our friends to the south did so the likes of bushwon’t be around to embarrass us any futher?
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Actually, the LA Times got the “she smiled” info from the German site with the video. On the right side of that page are the photos and the caption for the 6th one ends with “Merkel takes the surprising dear attack with humor, smiles.”
(Ok, that’s a Babelfish translation, so TIFWIW.)
I’m getting into this late.
Nice cross posting (C&L, etc)Mr Mash!
Mr TheTruth, In the video pictures above, please mentally remove The Great Leader and insert the previous White House occupant – Bill, Rhodes Scholar, Clinton. Would you all on the right be as willing to “Calm the FUCK down…and get over it.”? I really don’t think so.
An intimate gesture of this sort IS reserved for private settings, places where no cameras are allowed. That our President can be so tone deaf speaks volumns about his thinking. He does not understand that there is a time and place for these things. To treat a world leader as an inferior in this way is sadly typical of his behavior.
And yes , he is treating her as an inferior. From the video, does he ask if it is OK? Does he stop when she reacts badly? Are his actions distracting from her business at hand with the Italian PM? The Italian PM by secondary action is reduced in status as well since his discussions are interupted.
Diplomacy is a delicate art, not to be successfully played at by a Dandy.
Bush is fried. He’s either drinking, smoking pot, medicated, or something. His behavior is altered.
Watch his gibberish at the G8, especially the bizarre stuff about how long the plane flights to various countries are. If you take out the comments of the other leaders (because they actually sound intelligent, not like drunken bar talk) and just read what Bush says, he sounds just like someone who is more than half looped.
“Gotta go home. Gotta do sumthin tonight. Get ona plane. Go home. It’s a long flight. How long is your flight? That’s a long flight.”
This is the kind of mindless bar drivel that drunks who can’t shut up drone on with. They just keep running their mouths, totally disconnected from the social and body clues of the people around them.
Watch his body language at the table with Blair talking over his shoulder. Bush is sitting, almost slouched back in his chair, like a guy at a barbeque on his fourth or fifth beer, chomping on his food with his mouth open, and making minimal effort to intelligently keep up his end of the conversation.
Watch the body language of the other leaders and the way they react to him. They act very constrained and controlled around him, maintaining a public facade of geniality while holding back from actually being engaged with him. Meanwhile, his social modus operandi is to overuse forced jocularity and pretend intimacy to convey a relationship that does not exist.
This is typical behavior with drunks and addicts. Ever had one lean all over you and tell you what a great friend you are, etc., while they are totally oblivious to the fact that you are trying to maintain distance?
When he walked up behind the German leader and started giving her an unsolicited shoulder massage, her body tightened up and she actually winced. She wasn’t enjoying that, she was enduring it. Before that he was wandering aimlessly around the room while the rest of the grown-ups are trying to conduct business.
Watch the press conference where Bush couldn’t stop talking about the pig roast, it was the same thing. It didn’t matter what anyone asked him, he just kept saying whatever his addled brain was looping on, in this case, a pig roast. Typical stoned behavior.
It reminded me of the time he went to Canada and couldn’t get off the subject of one of the Canadian Prime Minister’s staff member’s mouth! “You’ve got a purty mouth.” Not once but several times. “You’ve sure got a purty mouth.” And, “Your mouth is prettier than my Scott’s mouth.“ (The poor guy’s name was Scott.)
This is not normal behavior. Watch him closely sometime when he’s having trouble staying coherent and you can see his eyes come in and out of focus. He does it at the table when Blair is speaking to him and he’s looking out across the room as he chomps open mouthed on his food.
This is someone who is either altered, stoned or has taken a one-way trip to crazy town.
This is a distinct change from Bush’s speech and behavior at other times. In fact, radical changes in his behavior and speech can be seen by watching him when he is unscripted. Sometimes he’s coherent, other times he looks like staying coherent long enough to get a sentence out is almost beyond him, (these are the times he gets mean-drunk angry when anyone dares to question him), and sometimes he is just off-the-wall bizarre.
The man is plastered, stoned, or medicated. This goes a long way to explaining how he is so incredibly disengaged from disasters and their destructive effects, he is too out of it to relate.
There are bizarre rumors of a personal portable toilet for Bush to use when overseas, (to prevent foreign analysis of his excrement)
http://www.rense.com/general72/fexc.htm .
Normally I would blow them off as some of the wilder of conspiracy theories, but watching Bush’s actions over the last week I can’t help but wonder, what would they do to hide it if it were true? What lengths would they go to in order to keep the appearance of functionality? Who could or would step up and do anything about it? These are not people willing to part with the power they have granted themselves, and that’s an understatement. And with Bush at the top of the chain, who is holding anybody accountable?
Hell, they’re trying to give him even more unlimited power than he’s already taken.
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Mash, lucky me, I did get ‘in’ tonight. It was inappropriate even if they are on friendly terms. Not even in a sexual way, but you’re in front of cameras, and ahm , microphones (SHIT), you know.. a little decorum goes a long way..(now if he only would not talk so much, even if he says he hates it when others do, he really ought to minimize his words, or stick with the speech!)
Ingrid
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Ok, the server is back to normal. Comments should be working just fine now. :)>-
Ingrid, sorry…your comment went into moderation. Its been a wild ride today with the server getting overwhelmed. Thanks to the rest for the comments.
I guess diplomatic protocol is not what it used to be in the Age of the Decider. :d
The hell?
I can’t understand what all the fuss is about. I’d just love George to do that to me in public. If only he would be more demonstrative with me.
Of course George can always count on me for any special needs.
…..John Howard
:-“
I have something to say to “TheTruth”. Think Bush is so great as a so-called conservative? Then why did he sign the IMBRA law that is now under restraining order from a Democrat judge? The IMBRA law says that it is a privilege and not a right for Americans to meet foreigners.
Look it up on Google.
But leftists here need to look at themselves here as well: The IMBRA law was written by the Democrats.
Oh, and the kicker? If you are incensed about the idea of Americans losing their right to meet foreigners…how about if I told you that this specific law attacks only the customers of socalled mail order bride websites?
Ahhh. You can relax now right? Those Americans shouldn’t have rights should they? Bunch of losers even if they average $60K per year.
Never mind the necessary Supreme Court decision that it is a privilege and not a right to meet foreigners (right of assembly only applies to Americans meeting each other).
Americans are stupid because they think too much and try to be so “progressive”. That is why Putin could give a boy a raspberry on the stomach in public and his poll numbers shoot through the roof where a 1 second prank by an American is considered harrassment.
Bush needs to be hounded for “sexual harrassment” in the neck massage case if only so he and Republican males recognize how mentally sick the whole idea is of making such accusations. Because the whole idea of persecuting males who use international dating websites is exactly the same thing (IMBRA law).
Now in regard to Iraq: The #1 reason for the Iraq War was to rekindle the rivalry between Shiites and Sunnis by irreversibly giving Mesopotamia back to the Shiites. The #2 reason was to take huge Iraqi oil revenues out of the hands of cocky, arrogant enemies who funded terrorists. The WMDs were reason #4 and they concerned mostly the Libyan nuke program funded by the oil mentioned in reason #2.
All the proof you want about the Saddam-funded nuke program in Libya is available. The best leftists can say is that it was only a coincidence that the Libyans surrendered the program to British negotiators 2 days after Saddam was captured. They say the capitulation was the result of 2 years of painstaking negotiations, not about Bush’s cowboy ways. Oh yes, of course.
Ladies,
Don’t you know there’s a war on.
It’s not as if he’s blown up Merkel’s country and killed 100,000 of her countrypeople.
Hillary
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This series of posts certainly proves beyond doubt that some people would defend Bush no matter what he did.
I suppose, if he pulled a pistol and fired on the protestors near his “ranch”, he’d be justified because “they were asking for it”.
I do not know if they are friends (I don’t care as it is irrelevant in this setting), but in corporate American, he would be in the HR office for counseling, receive a written reprimand, and agree to sensitivity training or resign his position. We can debate if this SHOULD be the case, but currently it is the standard corporate position following such behavior and he SHOULD REFRAIN from such behavior.
The real issue is that there is no longer public debate about politics in America; we have two screaming camps chanting empty one-liners, drowning out attempts by moderates and intellectuals from the left and right to hold public discourse.
Personally, it is 914 days and counting; perhaps then a new Congress and the new President will attempt to address the real issues we face as a nation. One of the big issues will be picking up the tab for the current administration’s (I include the Congress in this mess too) spending.
You guys are too funny.
Its just some really bizarre behavior. What freaks me out about the video is that Mr. Bush is not even smiling – he looks kind of lost.
The friends argument is kind of strange (although I give those who are trying to defend it credit for working very very hard for the cause).
I guess the issue here is one of propriety in a formal setting. Plus the sexual harrassment video we sat through at work a few weeks ago gives this specific example of a man coming up behind a woman in a meeting and giving her a massage as something not to do.
But, what do I know. Mr. Bush is our first President with an MBA. Obviously he knows all about corporate culture and how to behave in public! :-“
Each and every person dismissing and discounting this behavior needs to look at
the pictures one more time. Do you recognize fists when you see them? Do you see the fists of the Chancellor of Germany? Bush has been very fortunate that none of the people he has grabbed in public have reacted in dramatic fashion to his outrageous behavior. I expect him to start taking out his penis and shaking it at people next.
What in the world was he thinking? As a world leader – he was way out of line. I didn’t mind hin saying S**T on an open mic, but this was bizarre.
I wonder what the missus said about this one?
Phil
http://www.what-a-world.com
I think we can basically conclude that it’d be best if we all learn to keep our goddamn hands to ourselves be they at G8 or be they killing innocent people :)>-
Is the German chancellor a man or woman? It’s hard to tell!
Thanks TheTruth for setting everyone here straight. I don’t see a backrub at all, and yes, regardless of what you all think you see, the German chancellor is smiling. The “backrub” lasted all of maybe 1 second. This was merely a slightly informal “hello” from Bush to a friend.
Yes, maybe he should have just greeted her with the ever-so-popular handshake, but I find it hard to believe that nobody here has ever been greeted by someone in this manner. I suppose most of you were ok with Clinton getting a quick little BJ in the oval office from his intern. I guess that looked much more presidential to the world stage. Quit crying about abosolutely nothing, you big babies. :((:((
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