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Hail to the Doofus: President Bush is the Butt of Online Satire
From Democrats still smarting from George W. Bush's 2000 victory to Republican anti-war activists, a slew of anti-Bush websites use pointed humor to question the president's competence and credibility...

By Ryoji Yamada

"GWBush, born with a silver spoon up his nose," reads one of the many insulting bumper stickers on the GWBush.com website that ridicule the Republican Party through their poster boy, President Bush. The site portrays Bush as an ill-equipped, former drug-abusing authoritarian and overall tool of a President who takes month-long "working vacations" at his Texas ranch while conducting executive business. "Democracy was getting old anyway," says GWBush.com on a bumper sticker decorated with dollar signs, nuclear bombs, and warplanes satirizing what site founder Zack Exley perceives as the de-emphasis of civil liberties and sanctioning of an expansive military state inherent in the McCarthy-like Patriot Act. "I don't have to like Bush to love America," reads another of GWBush.com's slogans.

From the obviously partisan Democrats.com to the satirical cartoonist from TooStupidToBePresident.com to the multiparty AntiWar.com, numerous web sites are questioning the objectives of decision-makers whom they believe to be more blatantly undemocratic in their domestic and foreign policies than any other "democratically elected" administration. Despite GWBush.com's personal jabs at the President's unabashed perspectives-"shocked to learn that most Americans work all year long" in light of his month-long "working vacations"; how he "forged" his character in "the Houston Hilton [by] saying, 'yes', to more nose candy than you can possibly imagine" to only later "mature at age 40" and then be "tough on drugs" as a means to stopping terrorism; not to mention his dimwitted question, "Do you have blacks too?" posed to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso during their first conversation-the sites in question claim to have loftier goals than getting a laugh at the expense of the nation's language-mangling chief executive. "It is the policies of the President, not the President himself, that are bringing this attention," says Eric Garris, a Republican member of AntiWar.com who did not vote Bush for President.

It is this overt antagonism Bush political advisor Karl Rove set out to quiet in 1999 by making Exley's GWBush.com its example. Arguing that the site's similarities to Bush's own official website violated trademark law, Rove waged a legal attack against it by first sending cease-and-desist letters. Then, he contended, GWBush.com's attempt to politically influence its visitors defined them as their own political party, which would subject it to Federal Election Committee regulations and fees. Despite contributions and site revenue, Zack Exley would not have adequate money to pay the heavy FEC fees, which would undoubtedly force GWBush.com to shut down. As it turned out, the FEC found that the site's creator had no intention to violate election laws; the Bush administration plans no further action against the site.

Zack Exley, a union organizer and political activist, created GWBush.com intending to exploit the self-serving hypocrisy exemplified by Bush's reaction to online heat. "There ought to be limits to freedom," says George W. Bush, in a sound bite archived on the site-ironic, in light of Rove's attempt to censor the site. The specter of a government dictating what you can and cannot say conjures up Orwellian premonitions of thought police. According to Exley, the Bush administration routinely tramples on fundamental democratic ideals, such as civil liberties to advance his expedient political agenda. "Bush and Rumsfeld want people to listen to them, and accept everything they say," Garris says. "They are trying to move us into an era of total control. Most people, given the choice, are going to choose peace and they are going to choose liberty."

Texas GOP lawyer, Jonathan Snare waged a similar battle against EnronOwnstheGOP.com earlier this year. Snare, sent a "cease and desist" letter to site founder Kelly Fero, which stated that the site was "clearly" created to mock the Texas wing of the Republican party and mislead the public through its bilateral parody of the copyrighted GOP logo-the characteristic GOP elephant with the Enron E superimposed atop the Texas-state image. Snare withdrew the suit deciding the GOP had better odds in filing a complaint to the state ethics commission; but it was later dismissed. "In their zeal to shut down EnronOwnsTheGop.com, the Republican party of Texas threatened to file an unfounded federal lawsuit based on their misreading of trademark law," Fero writes on her site. "What's next, a moving violation ticket for the increased traffic on our site?"

In both Exley and Fero's cases, there was increased visitation to their respective sites due to the heightened publicity brought about by the threatened lawsuits. Realizing that their cause was self-defeating, GOP officials have made a tactical decision to forego their attempts at muzzling such sites, at least for now.

Instead, they've opted for the somewhat odd strategy of buying up many of the anti-Bush sites' Web addresses-their URLs-making them point users to President Bush's official GOP site. Thus, websurfers who attempt to go to BushSucks.com or BushBlows.com will land on GOP.com.

The volume and vociferousness of the anti-Bush rhetoric aired on sites such as TooStupidToBePresident.com, BushWatch.com, DemocraticUnderground.com and TruthOut.org is due, contend the sites' creators, to the administration's imperial arrogance, evident in domestic and foreign policy proposals that critics claim ignore Constitutional checks and balances. "GWBush.com is a natural response to the [Bush administration's] heavy-handed domestic agenda," says activist Edwin Johnston, "the ascendancy of a plutocracy, and the lock-step support by establishment media."

Michael Ewens, coordinator of student activism at AntiWar.com, feels compelled to organize and inform fellow students about what he considers the mainstream news media's "lockstep" applause for a president with high approval ratings that has in turn, inspired the creation of many anti-Bush sites.

"The commercial media have done a particularly ineffective job at questioning and examining the proposals of the Republicans, and the Democrats have not been an effective opposition," says David Lytel, founder of Democrats.com.

Copyleft courtesy of HypocriteParty.org

Citing the rampant consolidation of mass-media outlets into corporate hands-Microsoft and General Electric's ownership of NBC and MSNBC, Disney's stakes in ABC, AOL/Time-Warner's financial backing of CNN, "conservative media magnate" Rupert Murdock's ownership of Fox-David Counts asks, "Can [the] news be entirely independent of these [corporate] interests and aims?" According to Counts, former Reagan campaign manager and chief political advisor and current president of Fox News Roger Ailes was revealed to have sent secret messages to Bush offering political advice after Sep. 11. Fox News was also the first to call Florida for Bush in the 2000 election.

What about the immediate termination of Bill Maher's career due to his "politically incorrect" remark, inquires Counts. The episode shows that Maher's tenure was contingent upon the right kind of political incorrectness.

"I'm not saying it's a conspiracy," says Counts, "but when the corporate interests are so powerful and clear, how many close editorial decisions will go against those interests?"

ProjectCensored.org is an online version of a book unveiling what it deems the "top 25 censored stories of 2001." Number four on the list claims "the Bush Administration halted investigations into terrorist activities related to the bin Laden family and began planning for a war against Afghanistan before 9-11." The two authors then go into further detail about the shared business interests between the Bushes and the bin Ladens, citing this as the driving force behind said obstructions. These are potentially more than the paranoid gesticulations of conspiracy nuts. The book referenced, "Bin Laden, la verite interdite" ("Bin Laden, the forbidden truth"), is written by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, two highly involved French intelligence analysts- Brisard worked for the French secret services and made a report on the Al Qaeda network in 1997.

Given the proclaimed concept of a democratic government that protects the people despite the majority correlation between American power and money, an international war that requires domestic privacy intrusions in the name of democratic interests seems questionable and contradictory. The Homeland Security Bill authorizes the use of Internet monitoring-purchasing habits, sites visited and even e-mail-as a preventive security measure. In addition, the Freedom of Information Act was originally intended to all public access to the files being kept on them. However, the war on terrorism is used to sanction the nondisclosure of any information reasoned a danger to security.

There is an understandable fear that comes as a reaction to the governmental invasion of personal privacy. The monitoring of personal computer use immediately extends this fear into the home.

"If there is a good reason [for nondisclosure], the government should make the case and reasons clear, but I don't think we should be doing anything that requires secrecy," contests Garris.

"I am not opposed to the defense of this nation from people intent on committing heinous acts," says Johnston. "I am totally opposed to the unnecessary snooping into the lives of law-abiding people."

Counts "fears that the Freedom of Information Act will become toothless as this administration cites National Security or [the need for] Executive Privilege," referencing Bush's "executive fiat" enacted to seal Presidential records, and VP Dick Cheney's refusal to turn over documents "detailing his energy policy meetings with Ken Lay" despite repeated mandates from a Republican judge.

"The secrecy of this administration would make Nixon envious," says Counts. "The nepotism of this administration would embarrass Joe Kennedy."

Both Johnston and Garris insist on the importance of alternative news sources as a means to check big government and the expansion of executive privileges. Johnston has faith in the government's ultimate accountability to the American people-faith that shown abuse of these invasive measures, people will protest due to "our well-ingrained [concept of] basic freedoms."

"A lot of it [executive privilege] will not be used if the people won't stand for it," says Garris. "Part of life is fighting off death. Fighting off tyranny is part of freedom."

Indeed, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."

Related Links:
Anti-Bush links and the like
CommonDreams.org, a site with related articles and extensive links
ChillingEffects.org, public outreach reaction to Net censorship--a legal resource
AP article
"Getting Out the Parody Vote" by Manny Frishberg

Ryoji Yamada, student writer, Senior in C.A.S.'s Journalism Dpt.

Launched: 12.12.01. Reproduction of material from any ReadMe pages without written permission strictly prohibited. ReadMe © 2002 New York University, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, 10 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003-6636, (212) 998-7912, e-mail: readme@journalism.fas.nyu.edu