What is growing out of Bush's back??

[nakedfrog]

Is anyone else reminded of Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters?"

 

[PatboyX]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Is anyone else reminded of Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters?"

oh man!
now that you mention it...
the red lights/states!!!!

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

This is certainly irregular. On the bright side, since the article makes it clear these kinds of transmissions can be intercepted, it's safe to presume some intrepid journalist at tonight's debate will sneak in a scanner to try to snag the signal if there is one. I have no idea whether there's anything to this, but President Bush's performance in the first debate was frankly strange, whether he was being prompted or not.

 

[CptObvious]

Here's the entire article:

Bush's mystery bulge
The rumor is flying around the globe. Was the president wired during the first debate?

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Dave Lindorff

Oct. 8, 2004 | Was President Bush literally channeling Karl Rove in his first debate with John Kerry? That's the latest rumor flooding the Internet, unleashed last week in the wake of an image caught by a television camera during the Miami debate. The image shows a large solid object between Bush's shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer.

The president is not known to wear a back brace, and it's safe to say he wasn't packing. So was the bulge under his well-tailored jacket a hidden receiver, picking up transmissions from someone offstage feeding the president answers through a hidden earpiece? Did the device explain why the normally ramrod-straight president seemed hunched over during much of the debate?

Bloggers are burning up their keyboards with speculation. Check out the president's peculiar behavior during the debate, they say. On several occasions, the president simply stopped speaking for an uncomfortably long time and stared ahead with an odd expression on his face. Was he listening to someone helping him with his response to a question? Even weirder was the president's strange outburst. In a peeved rejoinder to Kerry, he said, "As the politics change, his positions change. And that's not how a commander in chief acts. I, I, uh -- Let me finish -- The intelligence I looked at was the same intelligence my opponent looked at." It must be said that Bush pointed toward Lehrer as he declared "Let me finish." The green warning light was lit, signaling he had 30 seconds to, well, finish.

Hot on the conspiracy trail, I tried to track down the source of the photo. None of the Bush-is-wired bloggers, however, seemed to know where the photo came from. Was it possible the bulge had been Photoshopped onto Bush's back by a lone conspiracy buff? It turns out that all of the video of the debate was recorded and sent out by Fox News, the pool broadcaster for the event. Fox sent feeds from multiple cameras to the other networks, which did their own on-air presentations and editing.

To watch the debate again, I ventured to the Web site of the most sober network I could think of: C-SPAN. And sure enough, at minute 23 on the video of the debate, you can clearly see the bulge between the president's shoulder blades.

Bloggers stoke the conspiracy with the claim that the Bush administration insisted on a condition that no cameras be placed behind the candidates. An official for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which set up the lecterns and microphones on the Miami stage, said the condition was indeed real, the result of negotiations by both campaigns. Yet that didn't stop Fox from setting up cameras behind Bush and Kerry. The official said that "microphones were mounted on lecterns, and the commission put no electronic devices on the president or Senator Kerry." When asked about the bulge on Bush's back, the official said, "I don't know what that was."

So what was it? Jacob McKenna, a spyware expert and the owner of the Spy Store, a high-tech surveillance shop in Spokane, Wash., looked at the Bush image on his computer monitor. "There's certainly something on his back, and it appears to be electronic," he said. McKenna said that, given its shape, the bulge could be the inductor portion of a two-way push-to-talk system. McKenna noted that such a system makes use of a tiny microchip-based earplug radio that is pushed way down into the ear canal, where it is virtually invisible. He also said a weak signal could be scrambled and be undetected by another broadcaster.

Mystery-bulge bloggers argue that the president may have begun using such technology earlier in his term. Because Bush is famously prone to malapropisms and reportedly dyslexic, which could make successful use of a teleprompter problematic, they say the president and his handlers may have turned to a technique often used by television reporters on remote stand-ups. A reporter tapes a story and, while on camera, plays it back into an earpiece, repeating lines just after hearing them, managing to sound spontaneous and error free.

Suggestions that Bush may have using this technique stem from a D-day event in France, when a CNN broadcast appeared to pick up -- and broadcast to surprised viewers -- the sound of another voice seemingly reading Bush his lines, after which Bush repeated them. Danny Schechter, who operates the news site MediaChannel.org, and who has been doing some investigating into the wired-Bush rumors himself, said the Bush campaign has been worried of late about others picking up their radio frequencies -- notably during the Republican Convention on the day of Bush's appearance. "They had a frequency specialist stop me and ask about the frequency of my camera," Schechter said. "The Democrats weren't doing that at their convention."

Repeated calls to the White House and the Bush national campaign office over a period of three days, inquiring about what the president may have been wearing on his back during the debate, and whether he had used an audio device at other events, went unreturned. So far the Kerry campaign is staying clear of this story. When called for a comment, a press officer at the Democratic National Committee claimed on Tuesday that it was "the first time" they'd ever heard of the issue. A spokeswoman at the press office of Kerry headquarters refused to permit me to talk with anyone in the campaign's research office. Several other requests for comment to the Kerry campaign's press office went unanswered.

As for whether we really do have a Milli Vanilli president, the answer at this point has to be, God only knows.

salon.com

 

[Pliablemoose]

Christ, what's the big deal?

I duct tape my PDA's to the small of my back all the time, same thing here.

 

[charrison]

Most likely body armor.

Given his less than steller performance, I think we can rule out him getting outside help.

 

[Shelly21]

It's probably the same big bulge that appears on certain type of pants that guys wear when they sit. Causes disapointment when it turns out to be just air inside.

But seriously, even if it turns out to be some sort of device, it certainly didn't help him any. We'll see tonight. People will definately pay more attentions to every shot.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Next time I'll remember to put the potato in the FRONT.

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: charrison
Most likely body armor.

Given his less than steller performance, I think we can rule out him getting outside help.

Why does it rule it out?? With strict time limits, there would be no chance at feeding complete sentences, but throwing term or subjsts to Bush via an ear piece is not that hard to phantom. People also noticed his note taking did not appear to be in sync with anything Kerry said, so he could have been taking notes from an ear piece.

No body armor has a brick in the middle back, that has been shot down. Was it a backup mic? Why in the middle back?

 

[cmdavid]

yeah im sure the bush campaign would be dumb enough to put the wire in the middle of his back where anybody's suit pull tight when you lean forward...
think about it.. if his team were trying to do something illegal don't you think they would make it a little bit less conspicuous?

 

[kage69]

Suggestions that Bush may have using this technique stem from a D-day event in France, when a CNN broadcast appeared to pick up -- and broadcast to surprised viewers -- the sound of another voice seemingly reading Bush his lines, after which Bush repeated them. Danny Schechter, who operates the news site MediaChannel.org, and who has been doing some investigating into the wired-Bush rumors himself, said the Bush campaign has been worried of late about others picking up their radio frequencies -- notably during the Republican Convention on the day of Bush's appearance. "They had a frequency specialist stop me and ask about the frequency of my camera," Schechter said. "The Democrats weren't doing that at their convention."

Wow. I don't think the presence of a earplug/receiver would automatically ensure Bush being able to sound informed and intelligent. I don't think that's body armor at all either. The SS had access to the location for week prior to the debate, it wasn't exactly like Bush making a open-air speech in a foreign country, or walking out to the mound at a baseball game. It's not a stretch to imagine Bush having difficulty listening to the mediator, opposition, and Rove all at the same time and appearing confused and distracted, which is certainly what happened.

You repugs must be so proud. :disgust:

This man insults the integrity of his station by virtue of being a puppet. Finally it seems people are starting to realize this - I think we're gonna drop him like a bad habit come Nov. 2.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Our police @ work wear body armor, some of the stuff has velcro/elastic straps, they get twisted sometimes or catch on clothes, leave strange lumps all over. They also make you look a little hunched over.

I would like to know for sure though. If he had a device on to help him, I'd sure hate to see him without one.

<---wonders how many pics of GWB's back there'll be on the net tonight

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: charrison
Most likely body armor.

Given his less than steller performance, I think we can rule out him getting outside help.

If there was a threat which required body armor, the Secret Service would've had Kerry outfitted as well.

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Link

This one was done by the guy at electoral-vote.com

Kinda just looks like his back to me. I would hope that anyone trying to wire the President would have enough sense to put a box in a more sneaky location, like HIS FRONT JACKET POCKET!

 

[Infohawk]

Hey can someone explain to me the D-Day thing?

I watched the video and the ENTIRE thing appeared to be out of synch, including the part where the reporters were speaking. It seemed to explain why it sounded like he was being fed lines. What am missing?

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: BDawg

Originally posted by: charrison
Most likely body armor.

Given his less than steller performance, I think we can rule out him getting outside help.

If there was a threat which required body armor, the Secret Service would've had Kerry outfitted as well.

There are a lot of different brands/types of body armor, and the folks who wear it have personal preferences.

Not that we'll ever know for sure one way or another.

 

[Chunkee]

its his stash for after the debate

 

[Infohawk]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
its his stash for after the debate

Or a tube is secretly feeding him through the darth vader cyborg back of his since he turned to the darkside. Apparently he's depressed. If this is true he needs to self-medicate during his thrashing of the debate.

Sometimes I actually feel sorry for Bush, unlike Cheney who is pure, unadulterated evil.

 

[raildogg]

lol wtf? it could be anything

 

[Infohawk]

Originally posted by: raildogg
lol wtf? it could be anything

Okay. Like what?

I think it's a receiver for the earpiece that's been seen on tv...

 

[Kntx]

It can't be a reciever. If you want to hide something you put it next to your balls, that is most definatly not next to his balls.

 

[Infohawk]

Originally posted by: Kntx
It can't be a reciever. If you want to hide something you put it next to your balls, that is most definatly not next to his balls.

I don't think that shows it can't be his receiver. Maybe they put it back there because they didn't think the cameras would have his back? Look at the pic there's definitely something there unless he's become a hunched gollem like his partner Cheney.

 

[Kntx]

Originally posted by: Infohawk

Originally posted by: Kntx
It can't be a reciever. If you want to hide something you put it next to your balls, that is most definatly not next to his balls.

I don't think that shows it can't be his receiver. Maybe they put it back there because they didn't think the cameras would have his back? Look at the pic there's definitely something there unless he's become a hunched gollem like his partner Cheney.

Yes but, they might think that the cameras won't have a shot at his back. But they are definatly not going to have a shot at his balls.

Anyways, all I'm saying if they really wanted to pull it off I think they'd be able to do a better job than to have some giant rectangle thing on his back.

 

[BDawg]

The only thing some people are missing is that one of the agreements would be no back shots. Fox broke the "rules" when they took that one.

 

[Infohawk]

Originally posted by: Kntx

Originally posted by: Infohawk

Originally posted by: Kntx
It can't be a reciever. If you want to hide something you put it next to your balls, that is most definatly not next to his balls.

I don't think that shows it can't be his receiver. Maybe they put it back there because they didn't think the cameras would have his back? Look at the pic there's definitely something there unless he's become a hunched gollem like his partner Cheney.

Yes but, they might think that the cameras won't have a shot at his back. But they are definatly not going to have a shot at his balls.

Anyways, all I'm saying if they really wanted to pull it off I think they'd be able to do a better job than to have some giant rectangle thing on his back.

Okay so how do you explain the giant rectangle? :/