Medal of Freedom

[seemslikeadream]

President Bush is awarding the nation's highest civilian honor today to three men who were central to his Iraq policy. At a White House ceremony, Bush will present the Medal of Freedom to former CIA chief George Tenet, former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer and retired General Tommy Franks. Tenet left the CIA in July after seven years as director. He's been criticized for intelligence lapses leading to Nine-Eleven, but provided the president with evidence to back his case for ousting Saddam Hussein. Bremer oversaw creation of the interim Iraqi government -- and disbanding of the Iraqi army. Just yesterday Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer called the army move a mistake. Franks was the four-star Army general who commanded the US invasion force. After retiring, he endorsed Bush for re-election and campaigned on the president's behalf.
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=2689508

[ohioliberal]

1. Ok, now I'm just

:puke:

[FloridaPat]

2. The only people who should get that is every American who voted

for Kerry. Or the owners of this web site and every other web site that promotes democracy and freedom. Just more incompence being rewarded. It just boggles the mind.

[nibbana]

37. Ìåäàëè äëÿ íàõîäèòü ñðåäñòâà ìàññîâîãî ïîðàæåíèÿ

The Soviets would be proud...

[Buzz Clik]

3. PUKE!

This is an insult to the United States. George Bush is urinating on all of us and telling us to like it.

[nibbana]

40. SLAM DUNK!!!!

[Just Me]

48. Yep. Trickle-down George.

That would be our ruler.

Even the LOYAL audience was a bit stunned at "trickle-down George" when he made disgusting off-the-cuff comments about these "awards".

,...the gods make arrogant those men who must fall,...

I can't remember where I heard that,...I only know that it is true.

[underpants]

4. The sad part is that I am becoming numb to this nonsense

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2824496

What the F**K!?! The Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Good lord! Bremer? He made the single worst decision (aside from invading) of the whole Iraq war-disbanding the Iraqi Army. EVERYONE agrees that that was catastrophic and the predominant reason that the insurgency festered out of control and the troops find themselves in the situation they are in.

Tenet?-I thought he was the scapegoat for 9/11 AND the WMD's not being found. Is this medal a reward for falling on his sword so many times?

This is ....this makes NO sense. Oh I forgot this is W's world were loyalty is paramount and declaring victory in the face of defeat makes it so.

Tommy Franks-I know he has been whoring for them but I really don't have a problem with him except WHY IS HE GETTING A CIVILIAN HONOR FOR WHAT HE DID IN THE MILITARY?


Look here for the announcement of this and the past winners....like the Pope.
http://www.medaloffreedom.com /

[alfredo]

25. Franks screwed up royally. He should have known when the Iraqis

offered little resistance, collapsing into the urban areas, that they were suckering us into urban warfare. He underestimated Iraqi tactics. The Iraqis knew they couldn't fight under our rules, they had to make us fight under their rules. Franks fucked up.

Not one of those fuckers should have an award for freedom.

[KingChicken]

5. The defenders of secrets, lies, and coverups, medal of stupidity...

Just replace the word "freedom" with "fascism" when ever bush says something, it usally makes it sound much more accurate...

[jukes]

6. franks

if the medal is being awarded for services rendered in iraq, it shd be a military medal; the freedom medal is inappropriate, as it's intended to reward civilians not eligible for military awards. the highest medal available to military, as we all know, is the *congressional* medal of honor.

if it's to be awarded for stumping for AWOL, it's a pandering of the honor, and cheapens it for every1 that has received it for true accomplishment, past & future.

bush is a pimp.

[underpants]

7. I completely agree about Franks

He has been a civilian what 3 months out of the last 30 years...maybe 6 months.

[TahitiNut]

16. Absolutely! Franks should NEVER get this for military service.

The same goes for Bremer and Tenet. They've been sucking the Federal teat their entire lives. The best that could be said is that they did their fucking jobs! They were paid and promoted. That's more than enough. This honor is being thrown in the latrine by this sociopathic bastard. It should be reserved for those who, against resistance and without the support of partisan politicians, sacrificed and labored to acheive service to free people worldwide. This fucker has made this medal worth nothing more than a plastic piece of junk in a CrackerJack box.

[saigon68]

44. THEY ARE FILTHY PIGS

With their SNOUTS in the "Public Trough"


Their whole lives--- paid by our tax dollars.

[ElectroPrincess]

19. no Tommy Boy's getting this medal for his bald faced lying

during the run up to the Presidential election to make John Kerry sound like a liar.

"What? We were not certain where exactly Bin Ladin was when we stuck Afghanistan. Tora Bora, oh that was merely one of MANY places he could have been at that time. We were not at all certain."

We all knew that it was published as specifically the area of Tora Bora. But good old Tommy - being the budding partisan hack, looked into the camera and lied his a** off to Wolfy.

Yeah, honorable ... NOT!

[comsymp]

33. Think your Mil/Civ argument may be a nonstarter

F'rinstance:

2000 - http://www.medaloffreedom.com/WesleyClark.htm

2000 - http://www.medaloffreedom.com/WilliamCrowe.htm

1998 - http://www.medaloffreedom.com/ElmoRZumwaltJr.htm

1997 - http://www.medaloffreedom.com/JohnShalikashvili.htm

1991 - http://www.medaloffreedom.com/NormanSchwarzkopf.htm

1991 & 1993(!) - http://www.medaloffreedom.com/ColinPowell.htm


... you get the picture....

And if you really want a chuckle, check out some of the OTHER past recipients:
http://starr1210.com/about_the_presidential_medal_of_.htm

(teaser:)

Presented by Bush I
Ball, Lucille
Brinkley, David
Buckley, William F., Jr.
Carson, Johnny
Cheney, Richard B.
Petty, Richard Lee
Reagan, Ronald*
Thatcher, Margaret

[sattahipdeep]

53. Tried and found guilty

After the Gulf War, in 1991, Clark initiated a war-crimes
tribunal, which tried and found guilty President George
Bush and Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf,
among others. Clark went on to write a book, The Fire
This Time (Thunder's Mouth Press), describing the crimes
he says were committed by U.S. and NATO forces during
the Gulf War. When asked why he focuses on the crimes
of his own country, instead of those committed by Iraq,
Clark says that we, as citizens, need to announce our
principles and "force our government to adhere to them.
When you see your government violating those principles,
you have the highest obligation to correct what your
government does, not point the finger at someone else."

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/bully.html

When I picture a high-ranking government official, I think
of someone who is corrupt. I think of a corporate shill. I
think of someone who is not a friend to the people of this
country. I think of Lord Acton's famous line about power
corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely. I
think of the disdain with which so many Americans have
viewed so many of their leaders for so many years.

Former attorney general Ramsey Clark.

[emad]

8. Nominations please! Poodle, Pinochet, Jonathan Idema and

the Afghani mercenaries; Mark Thatcher, Simon Mann and Ex-President Moto of Equatorial Guinea; Dov Zakheim, Jonathan Bush and the current CEO of the PNC Bank.....

Maybe DU should start its own Roll of Honor for the Bush Administration Medal of Freedom 2004?

[ashling]

45. what about Lindie England?

and don't forget Tobie Keith
:puke:

[emad]

57. Special Colonel Ollie North commendation for active service?

[calico1]

9. What?

He left Ken Lay out?

[Tiberius]

38. Wait a minute!

He forgot Poland!

[Nightjock]

10. He is using one of our nations highest honors

to gift wrap a big pile of turd!

bush*...no matter what you do to disguise it, you are a war mongering murdering, thieving, facist son of a bitch!!!!!

I look foward to your election fraud -watergate like- impeachment in a year or so.

[sattahipdeep]

11. Gary Webb Pulitzer Prize winning reporter: Black water?

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/121304_gary_webb.shtml

Webb reminds us that the Reagan-approved contra program attracted lowlifes and thugs the way
manure draws flies. He guides the reader through a netherworld of dope-dealers, gunrunners, and
freelance security consultants, which on occasion overlapped with the U.S. government. He
entertainingly details the honor, dishonor and deals among thieves. (Sometimes the book reads
like a hard-to-follow Russian novel, with a large cast of characters in a series of intricate
episodes.) All in all, it's a disgraceful picture -- one that should permanently taint the happy-face
hues of the Reagan years.

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2066

"When you open that can of worms, as Goldstein pointed out to me, how do you
stop it? How do you stop where those worms are going to go? And pretty soon, if
you keep opening that can of worms, the American people are going to start to
be told the great big truths, that no one in Washington, neither side of the aisle,
no politician wants them to be told; that, in fact, the CIA has long trafficked in
narcotics, that there does exist a military-industrial complex, which was
specifically put together to support a right-wing political cabal and to foster this
cabal within the Republican Party, that there has been countless trillions of
dollars of public monies defrauded by a very small group of people in the
post-war era.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=43&contentid=1519&page=2

Bremer's bread and butter issue is terrorism.
Reagan Administration-sponsored "low intensity" wars in Central America and Africa.
Although Bremer co-chaired the Operations Sub-Group at the National Security Council along
with Oliver North, according to Malcolm Byrne of the National Security Archive, Bremer was
on the "periphery" of the Iran/Contra Scandal.

http://www.alternet.org/story/15864

Open for business

Baghdad Year Zero
Written By
Klein, Naomi

The tone of Bremer’s tenure was set with his first major act on the job:
he fired 500,000 state workers, most of them soldiers, but also doctors,
nurses, teachers, publishers, and printers. Next, he flung open the
country’s borders to absolutely unrestricted imports: no tariffs, no duties,
no inspections, no taxes. Iraq, Bremer declared two weeks after he
arrived, was “open for business.”

U.S. and Britain must “comply fully with their
obligations under international law including in
particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and
the Hague Regulations of 1907.”


But Bremer didn’t give up. International law prohibits occupiers from
selling state assets themselves, but it doesn’t say anything about the
puppet governments they appoint. Originally, Bremer had pledged to
hand over power to a directly elected Iraqi government, but in early
November he went to Washington for a private meeting with President
Bush and came back with a Plan B.
http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

[mb7588a]

12. Franks is wearing cowboy boots.

Bush sounds like he's drunk..

[maddezmom]

13. buying loyalty??

[BernieBear]

17. The Art of the War

Keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer.........

Bush is just making sure these guys don't go and do smething 'they'll be sorry for'.......

[genieroze]

14. ???

:wtf:

[Guarionex]

15. Yes...

here you go...a medal for you...for taking the "fall" for my neocons office of special plans bad intelligence....

here you go...a medal for you...for consistently acting arrogantly and implementing my cowboy way of handling things in Iraq for me...

and here you go....for not seeing how the Iraqis might, gulp, you know...not just throw flowers on us and actually resist.

[BernieBear]

18. Bush is in payback mode

He's going through and neutralizing all those who think they are "owed" something for their 911/Iraq work.....

[CoffeeCat]

20. I watched 2 mins of this coverage...that was quite enough.

I was disgusted watching these megalomaniacs celebrate and reward each other for their ridiculous failures.

Bush mentioned that Bremer and Franks brought "peace and freedom" to Iraq. Bush also said that Iraq "is now free."

Here stands our president, comfortable and secure--behind a beautiful Christmas tree--extolling the wondrous "peace and freedom" that his henchmen have foisted upon the suffering Iraqi people. Meanwhile, the Iraqi people are starving, in desperate need of medical attention and are mourning the thousands of loved ones they've lost to our "shock and awe."

Just how free are you if you need a retinal scan to access your city? Just how secure are you, if you're one of 100,000 innocent citizens who have been murdered by our military? How peaceful is your world when you risk being murdered if you dare to travel to the nearest bakery or coffee shop?

"Peace and freedom" my arse.

To witness Bush and these thugs congratulate themselves, in some kind of warped, mutual-masturbation fest, is sickening. These people are absurd.

Like rats feeding off of their own feces, they appear to be totally unaware of how bizarre they appear to anyone who doesn't exist in their Twilight Zone.

[Kitsune]

21. This was the first thing I heard on the radio when my alarm went off

And since I was listening to Air America I seriously wondered if it was satire, because the notion of awarding those three medals is just fucking ridiculous.

My dreams last night made more sense than this, and they involved DeLoreans with flamethrowers strapped on them being used to fight biker zombies. Or something.

[Chimpanzee]

22. Let's see...

Tenent provided the bad 'intelligence' that got us into an illegal war (quagmire). Tommy Franks botched up the capture of Bin Laden and the number of troops needed for the war and occupation. Bremer dismantled the Iraqi Army and fired all people, teachers, government employees that were in the Baath party (they all were required to be).

I guess it really pays to be a fuckup in this administration.

This is criminal! The Medal of Freedom is the nation's 'HIGHEST CIVILIAN HONOR'!!!!!! Bush just rubbed Americas nose in his vile shit again! :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[tabasco]

23. Franks is the idiot that left 400 tons of HE unsecured.

The same high explosive that is being used to kill our troops.

Of course, the Bush cabal awards incompetence.

Unbelieveable.

[Swamp Rat]

24. The Medal of Freedom is worthless now

[gmoney]

26. It's meaningless apparently... (past recipients)

Estee Lauder? Julia Child? MacArthur? Robert McNamera? Edward Teller (father of the atomic bomb)? Henry Fucking Kissinger?

Lots of noble, worthy people have received the award, too, but there seem to be plenty of questionable characters who have as well... especially recently. Hmmm... it sure ain't no peace prize.

(In case you were wondering, Colin Powell got his in 1993.)

http://www.medaloffreedom.com/

http://www.medaloffreedom.com/MedalListSince1993.htm

[maddezmom]

27. NYT- Bush Honors 3 Ex-Officials Instrumental to Iraq Policy

~snip~
General Franks campaigned for President Bush last year and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention.

Although the invasion of Iraq that General Franks led was notably swift and successful in its ouster of the Hussein regime, he has since become part of the debate over troop levels in Iraq, and whether higher levels might have deterred or diminished the insurgency that is now roiling much of the country.

~snip~
But Mr. Tenet's final months in office were marked by criticism. The special commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks concluded that the intelligence bureaucracy had reacted too slowly to clues that the attacks were coming. And the Senate Intelligence Committee criticized the C.I.A. and Mr. Tenet for his assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destructions.

~snip~

Mr. Bremer, a career diplomat, caused a moment of embarrassment for the Bush administration last fall, when he suggested that the United States did not have enough troops in Iraq for effective peacekeeping. But he emphasized that he supported President Bush's overall strategy in Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/politics/14cnd-meda.html?ex=1103691600&en=85e8ea9987175035&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1

[Endangered Specie]

28. I thought he was gonna give one to himself...

glad to see I was mistaken :eyes:

[Massachusetts]

29. Infuriating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :nuke:

[nibbana]

30. The bodies are not even cold yet and * is passing out medals?

Bush has no honor....

[Stinky The Clown]

31. And in a closely related story

Topps, the famous chewing gum and sports card manufacturer, announced it would launch a new business involving old fashioned gum ball machines. Packaged with each of the company's cherry flavored gum balls would be genuine, official United States Medals of Freedom. Company board chairman, Dewey Chewem was quoted as saying: "It is Topps' goal to allow every man, woman, and child in the country to have one of these formerly prized tokens of their government's gratitude. We have it on good authority direct from the highest levels of our Government that they are considering privatizing the award of this now widely available symbol of the New American Patriotism. Our plans call for the acquisition of a company, ideally located in China, who can manufacture magnetic yellow ribbons ..... "

[rodeodance]

32. Tenet, Franks & Bremner--my god!!!!!!

[AzDar]

39. LOL.....and jeeebus don't I need it!!! n/t

[ChiciB1]

34. Pompous ASS

The Little Lord and his minions! The Repukes make me PUKE!
Unfortunately we didn't get to see the palms being greased!

[AngryOldDem]

35. George TENET?

Just when you think you've heard it all...

[JMac]

36. Other criminals who have received the MOF

Cheney-Rumsfeld-Powell. It was a worthless honor before today.

[whalerider55]

41. got it wrong

the medals given out today by * were an entirely different category

they were the Morans, Obstructionsts and Flea-fuckers Medal

well earned and generously awarded, I might add. DOn't confuse them with the real Medals of Freedom.

whalerider55

[corbett]

42. 11th-Hour Pardons Redux

Are the medals hush money? Sure! But I also firmly believe that their timing is not a coincidence. The shrub knows that he is in the last weeks of his presidency and if he waits to award the medals until after the BIG election challenge has been filed by a dozen different groups, the medals will look like a scramble.

Do you remember in January 2001 how the Repukes were all upset because Slick Willy pardoned a handful of people during the last few weeks of his presidency? Now I know how they felt. These medals are a disgrace and I hope that somebody with a big name calls them for what they are!

[Generator]

43. I'm revising my opinion of Bush

I used to think he was just an idiot stand in.

Now I saw part of this ceremony on Countdwown, and he had such a twinkle in his eye.

It's all a mockery and he damn well knows it. We really are being punked-basically the "commander in chief" is taking a giant dump all over us and laughing.

I almost heard him hum, neener neener neener. Or the adult version, "I got away with every damn lie,and there ain't a thing you can do about it..watch my loyal press salivate."

[anitar1]

47. Revising My Opinion Of Bush

This utter fool really believes his word is THE word. After all, GOD speaks to him directly. Sociopaths always know that they are Right.

[bobthedrummer]

46. "FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH" n/t

[Dem2theMax]

49. * 'I'll give ya a medal if you promise not to write a book about me.'

:puke:

[Pachamama]

50. WOW! Imagine what one gets if one actually is successful in this admin!

Incompetency prevails again...

"Presidential Medal of Freedom"? How about "Presidential Seal of Silence"?

:eyes:

[this_side_up]

51. How tall is Tenet? He and

the moron look to be the same height.

How tall is Jeb?

[American Tragedy]

52. Reminds me of nothing so much as when Johnson presented the Medal

to Defense Secretary McNamara shortly after firing him.

[sattahipdeep]

54. November 17, 1987 Caspar Weinberger: awarded by reagan

(14) Caspar W. Weinberger: charged with four counts of false statements
and perjury; pardoned before trial by President Bush.

[mbperrin]

55. I didn't even know there WAS an award called

"The Mettle of Three Dumb"! I found them lacking!

[DoYouEverWonder]

56. W just loves to rub his arrogance in our faces

He broke every rule in the book awarding this band of criminals any award, no less the Medal of Freedom.

W's comments during the presentation were nothing but a mockery of the whole process. I can't believe these assholes stood there grinning like they really deserved this honor. They should be shamed and shunned for what they've done. There wasn't an ounce of honor in the whole group.



The Presidential Medal of Freedom is America's highest civilian award and, among all American honors, it ranks second to only the Congressional Medal of Honor the nation's highest military award. This great honor is reserved for individuals the President deems to have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. Though it may be awarded for singular acts of momentous import, it is generally conferred only for a lifetime of service or at the conclusion of a distinguished career.

The award is "given only after careful thought, always sparingly so as not to debase its currency." In the thirty years from the award's creation by President Kennedy through the close of the Bush administration, three hundred recipients were accorded this high honor. Of these three hundred recipients, only Ellsworth Bunker was twice awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Since then, Colin Powell (who received the award from President Bush) was awarded a second Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.