Absolutely Fabulous!

click yourself one of...

1/15/02 - Most people would describe 2001 as shitty, horrible, that it sucked, was the weirdest or saddest ever. In sharp contrast, the man 's'elected to represent the American people said of 2001, "But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me".

And 2002 is going to be a fabulous year for America!

Is Bush being insensitive? Yes. Does he know he's being insensitive? Doubtful. It's simply a reflection of his limited vocabulary. Things are good, great, or fabulous, otherwise, they are evil. As a side note, as of this writing, the tally was 109 instances of 'fabulous' in Bush speeches, and 259 instances of 'evil'.

The fabulous folks that maintain the whitehouse.gov website are keeping track of everything he says, word for word. As we have found, the word 'fabulous' is thrown out as nonchalantly as 'evil', used to qualify places, things, and people, from New York City, to a postage stamp, to Tommy Thompson (of all people, and numerous times even! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

What follows is a sampling of other things the Dubya finds fabulous:

His job, his Oval Office, walking into his Oval Office, the White House, his administration, his Cabinet, his National Security Team, his team in general, the people, and the citizens, our values (twice) and America in general, at least 20 times: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)

Then there's his wife, on various occasions (1, 2, 3), his ranch, and the guy who build his house, The Record of George Pataki, Ted Kennedy, Maine, Alaska (twice), the last two seasons by the Lakers, the 2001 World Series, Little League Baseball, Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, working in 2002 with Speaker Denny Hastert and Senator Trent Lott, a "group of citizens from around the nation representing groups that are -- have made the decision to do something about drug use", the marketing job done by Harley Davidson, the curriculum for reading at Merritt Elementary School, Washington, D.C., and, of course, the military, on, a, few, occasions.

Sometimes, it doesn't make any sense at all, as in: "Everybody in Crawford says hello -- (laughter) -- starting with Laura. (Applause.) She is doing a fabulous day."

But most often, rather than describe an individual as being fabulous, it's the job being done by someone, or some group, that is or are fabulous.

The men and women of the police and fire and rescue units and the Port Authority of New York City of course, but also Secretary Rumsfeld, Dick Myers, Chairman Boehner, Chairman Greenspan, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, Jim Connaughton, Senator Mineta, Dick Cheney, Lynne Cheney, Rudy Guiliana, America's Promise, [University of Oklahoma Softball] Coach Patricia Gasso, Tony Fauci of the NIH, his brother Jeb, Bill Young, Bernadette Peters, The Chairman of the Republican Party, Rick Perry, Colin Powell, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, National Parks Director Fran Mainella, Connecticut Congressman Rob Simmons, Iowa's Senators, Alaska's Senators, Michigan Governor John Engler, Knoxville Mayor Ashe, former Mayor of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith, Diane Natalisio, Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of HUD Mel Martinez, and, without further ado, Laura Bush, a few more times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

One final note about 'fabulous'. Although Bush seemingly interchanges 'fabulous' to mean something 'good', the actual meaning of the word, due to its origin, is a little more complex. 'Fabulous' came from 'fable'. In Webster's 1828 dictionary, something fabulous meant "feigned, as a story; devised; fictitious; as a fabulous story; a fabulous description." Some online dictionaries call fabulous "barely credible; astonishing". In the 60s, "the word fabulous was so closely identified with the Beatles, "the fab four", to use it, even in the most sincere and accurate sense, was to be perceived as having a rather limited vocabulary." In other words, don't believe a word the man says.

Next up, we count the 'evil's. Is any one entity 'evil', or just evildoers in general that are evil? Will we all be around long enough to find out? Stay tuned...