I dunno if ya’ll remember a character
I dunno if ya'll remember a character that played a memorable star media role during the invasion of Iraq. The Iraqi Information minister, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, made a name for himself by brazenly going before the cameras every day, and delivering constant glorious news about how Iraq was winning the war. He was one of a kind, really- he was only doing his job, and one can laud him for staying loyal to the bitter end, but his pronouncements became more and more bizarre and heated, as the war drew to a close.
He was the guy who was asserting that there were no invasion forces in Baghdad, while, behind him, you could see US tanks in the distance. He was the one who refused to give an inch in the media war ("My feelings - as usual - we will slaughter them all"). He was the one who created amazing, creative epithets about the invading forces ("God will roast their stomachs in hell.") He made us laugh, from time to time, with his quaint use of american slang ("They think we are retarded - they are retarded")
Long story short, Mr. al-Sahaf became somewhat of a media darling- with even Bush paying him compliments- at war's end, he surrendered to occupation forces, and was informed that he wasn't even wanted (unheard of- one of the few Iraqi senior government functionaries that escaped arrest.) He earned the nickname of "Baghdad Bob"...
But that's neither here nor there.
Bill Maher mentioned on Friday night that Bush is beginning to resemble Mr. al-Sahaf, these days- and ya know- he was dead-on- think about it- bush had a habit of going in front of the cameras, and giving statement after statement that is totally at odds with reality, sometimes going off the deep end of outright bufoonery.
For Example:
So, in commemoration of this reversal of fortunes in the media war for Iraq, I have decided to initiate the "Baghdad Bush" competition. Over the next few weeks, I'm asking everyone out there who has photoshop, and a tad of creativity to create their own versions of our commander-in-thief in his new position as Baghdad Bob's sucessor, as purveyor of nakedly erroneous information.
There are two categories:
All images submitted must be 320X240. All images must show Bush wearing the Iraqi Uniform. The background image is entirely up to you- be creative. The accompanying subtitle must be pg-13- no obscene or profane language.
And- I can't stress this enough- BE CREATIVE. An image that just shows Baghdad Bush in front of a pile of prisoners, saying "Saddam's torture chambers have been shut down" won't have a chance in hell of winning. There's a lot of insane language coming out of the white house, these days- challenge yourself, and the viewers...
Another thing that Bush and Mr. al-Saheef have in common is an ability to mangle the english language in innovative and obscure ways. Try to bring the two together in a way that creates a new frontier in the realm of verbal ineptitude.
There's a lot of material on bothsides. Click here for Bush's inept statements, and click here for Al-Sahaf's equally perplexing comments.
Again, please keep a pg-13 flavor to everything submitted.
PRIZES:
Thanks to the fine folks at I did not vote for that son of a bush, winners will recieve T-shirts, as well as cash prizes- so don't delay- the contest ends in 15 days! (10/19/04.)