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March 28, 2007

War You Say?

Lauraso

(click for original version)

Laura-Uso

I love how the White House photo gallery offered Laura Bush as the picture of innocence at Tuesday night’s USO dinner in D.C.  In her speech (in recognition of her receipt of the 2007 USO Service Award), Mrs. Bush patronized American troops wounded in Iraq, and even managed to highlight the IED reference and a plug for Walter Reed. used the USO as a foil to defend the treatment of war wounded at military hospitals, such as Walter Reed, and also reinforce the deadliness of (those supposedly Iranian-made) IED’s.

With the Administration on the verge of confrontation with Iran, however, this harder-edged A.P. shot seemed to more closely approximate the current mood.

(Revised for content.  6:27 pm EST)



(image 1: Shealah Craighead/White House.  March 27, 2007. Arlington, Va. whitehouse.gov.  image 2: Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP via YahooNews.)

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  • Sharoney

    I wish I knew enough about Photoshop to make laser beams come out of those hard, hostile eyes.
    But I’ll settle for a big, wet, forked tongue, instead.

  • ummabdulla

    Who picked that necklace? It looks like she’s wearing some kind of a collar for prisoners.
    I don’t really keep up with Laura’s activities; did she actually do anything for the USO?

  • http://www.barakyedidia.com Barak

    What did she say that was patronizing? I just read the speech and didn’t see it.

  • PTate in FR

    People can’t help the way they look, but it looks to me like the real Laura has been replaced with robot Laura. The necklace may hide where the head is bolted to the body.
    Marriage is a complex thing. Was it Oliver Wendell Holmes who commented that “Washington is full of powerful men and the wives they married when they were young.” I look at Laura, and I just wonder what is going on behind those blank eyes. Does she ever look happy? At least Pat Nixon got pity points for being married to RMN–she was admired for her suffering. But Laura??? Our construct of marriage has changed. The marriage vow is now subordinate to the happiness of the individual–if Laura is still with GWB, it must be because she wants to be. And since that is impossible to imagine, she must be drugged, eh?

  • tina

    those piles of black and white stones heaped around her throat are really something. She looks weighted down, undoubtedly they are valuable, but they give the word “choker” new meaning.
    Similarly every member of this administration is going to find itself with a few millstones around his/her neck come 2008, and it couldn’t happen to a bunch of nicer people :^/
    the contrasting expressions are priceless. She always seems to look like a Stepford wife and when she doesn’t, she’s a scold. Very schoolmarmy in the worst possible way.

  • putnam

    Clearly drugged.
    Is she really sleeping elsewhere than the White House? Persistent rumor.

  • Mad_nVT

    Does she help her President by reading his horoscope to him? Like Nancy Reagan.
    Why doesn’t she have any gray hair?
    Why no lines on her forehead? Has doubt never creased her brow?
    Is that ring of rocks some kind of chastity belt?

  • http://windingroad.typepad.com Jaye

    I like the cropped photo with “SO” behind her.

  • Dave Mc

    Looks like one of those aliens from ‘V’, tear off the fake skin and theres a green scaly lizard beneath. Tee hee hee..

  • http://tekel.wordpress.com smiley

    I’ve never seen a picture of this woman where she doesn’t look completely, totally insane. This one still ain’t it.
    I’m reminded of this old chestnut

  • http://tekel.wordpress.com smiley

    PTate: -if Laura is still with GWB, it must be because she wants to be.
    Or becuase his mother has threatened to have her killed. I think that’s more likely, don’t you?

  • http://molly.douthett.net lowly grunt

    Laura once lost her marbles and now wears them around her neck for safe keeping.
    I suppose political wives stay with their politician husbands that are known only to them; we’ll never really know why Hilary stayed with Bill.

  • PTate in FR

    lowly grunt:“we’ll never really know why Hilary stayed with Bill.”
    Can’t know for sure, of course, but I’ve always assumed the deal was that Hilary stayed with Bill and, in exchange, she could run for President in 2008.
    smiley: “Or because his mother has threatened to have her killed”
    That has never occured to me, but gosh, yes, it does seem possible.

  • 14All

    Oh my GOD what is that awful thing around her neck? It looks like a black-and-white boa constrictor!

  • Patrick

    Well at least she is not behind the wheel of an automobile. A few martini’s, a box of wine, two packs of menthol Kool 100’s and a fistful of downs this chick will say anything.
    Whatever happened to that boyfriend of hers? Oh yeah! He ended up as a grease stain somewhere off State Route 59 South.

  • Patrick

    Well at least she is not behind the wheel of an automobile. A few martini’s, a box of wine, two packs of menthol Kool 100’s and a fistful of downs this chick will say anything.
    Whatever happened to that boyfriend of hers? Oh yeah! He ended up as a grease stain somewhere off State Route 59 South.

  • Jim

    Much as I despise her husband, I have to agree with Barack, who didn’t see anything patronizing in the speech. Certainly, it would be nicer for us if Mrs. Bush maintained stony silence and refused to participate in or support the war crimes, even by implication, but she is married to the guy, and the necklace rather indicates the level of taste to be expected. Actually, that last was a low blow.
    We’re all furious at the criminals, and let’s act to take it out on them, not on Laura for her taste (or lack thereof) or for making “feel good” speeches to an oragnization dedicated to making the lives of our servicemen a little less miserable.