30.12.05 4.00pm

By Arthur Spiegelman

Call it the wrong phrase at the wrong time but "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" was today named as US President George W Bush's most memorable gaffe of 2005.

The ill-timed praise of a now disgraced agency head became a national punch line for countless jokes and pointed comments about the administration's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and added to the president's reputation for verbal gaffes and clumsy turns of phrase.

Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors language use, says Bush's statement in support of the then-director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency may be remembered for years to come.

"The 'Brownie' quote leads our 2005 list of Bushisms -- memorable phrases or new words coined by the president," Payack said, adding that Bush may be the foremost White House creator of new words, citing such past efforts as "misunderestimate" (to seriously underestimate) and "embetter" (to make emotionally better).

Ten days after Bush verbally patted Michael Brown on the back before the TV cameras, Brown resigned amid a public uproar over his qualifications and the administration's failure to get aid to New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Although the president did not originate any new words this year, he had several notable statements, Payack said, citing the following:

- "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda," Bush said in explaining his communications strategy last May.

- "I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" Bush asked in a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a UN Security Council meeting in September.

- "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table," Bush said in Brussels last February.

- "In terms of timetables, as quickly as possible -- whatever that means," the president said of his timeframe for passing Social Security legislation in March.

- "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law," Bush said in describing illegal immigrants in Tucson, Arizona, last month.

Global Language Monitor uses an algorithm to track words and phrases in print, electronic media and the internet. The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

And while we are on the subject of Bush....

Austria to pull Chirac-Queen-Bush sex posters

30.12.05 1.00pm

The sponsors of spoof posters depicting The Queen having sex with the US and French presidents have decided to remove them from Vienna's streets to quiet an outcry ahead of Austria's EU presidency, APA news agency said today.

The images on electronic rolling billboards showed two naked female models wearing masks of President George W Bush and The Queen, and a male model with a President Jacques Chirac mask, positioned as if engaged in a sex act.

APA, the Austrian news agency, said the project's organisers together with artists Carlos Aires from Spain and Tanja Ostojic from Serbia opted to pull the images after a public furore that embarrassed the Vienna government.

Part of a series of 150 images called "euroPART", the posters were meant to "reflect on the different social, historical and political developments in Europe", said art project 25peaces, which commissioned the posters.

APA quoted Aires and Ostojic, who created an image of a woman sprawled in knickers emblazoned with the EU circle of stars emblem, as saying they felt it was better that their works should not divert attention from all the others.

Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel had appealed to the artists to withdraw the posters after opposition leaders and the media protested that they demeaned women and damaged the reputation of Austria as it prepares to take over the EU presidency on January 1.

"We regret this development that totally distorted the image of the entire project," 25 peaces said in a statement quoted by APA.

Poject 25peaces received 1 million euros ($1.78 million) of public funding for the works. Only three of the 150 images displayed on hundreds of billboards in prominent places across the Austrian capital had sexual overtones.

The poster series is to be shown until the end of January.

How disgusting and inappropriate!!

The male model should not have been involved at all!!!

Yep...just more Dubya-bashing.

What with the success of the latest Iraq elections etc., the booger-eatin' left-wing Moonbat Moh-rons got to find something with which to bash the West...

Yep...just more Dubya-bashing.

What with the success of the latest Iraq elections etc., the booger-eatin' left-wing Moonbat Moh-rons got to find something with which to bash the West...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Absolutley..ain't t grand!

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," he said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Washington, D.C. 08.05.04