For fans of President Bush – look away now! In this tongue-in-cheek ‘translation’ of President Bush’s State of the Union speech from Mexico’s La Jornada, the author does his best to give his Spanish-speaking audience an ‘uncensored’ version of the American president’s last report to Congress. It’s biting …
“This financial-corporate elite is my base. They are few in number, but have all the money in the world. This is why I remain unconcerned that tonight my approval rating stands at only 34 percent. … From this rostrum I can assure that I harbor no grudges against that evil mob of ingrates that disapproves of my administration.”
By Alejandro Nadal
Translated By Paula van de Werken
January 30, 2008
Mexico – La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
George W. Bush has delivered his eighth and final Presidential report to Congress. It was surprising to see the number of interruptions for applause during the speech. And it seemed that Bush was a decent orator, capable of stringing together ideas and completing a sentence. Without a doubt, technology can perform miracles: The teleprompter gave that impression. But, unfortunately, they still don’t provide subtitles in Spanish. So in order to fill gap, we offer this uncensored translation of his report.
Honorable Congress of the Union: This is my last report as President of this great nation. I deeply regret that I must deliver it when things are not well. The American economy remains the world’s largest, but growth has slowed. We are moving toward a recession that will have negative consequences for our friends in the financial and banking sectors. But they know that we are exerting ourselves to quickly get them out of trouble. I have asked Ben Bernake to look into the matter, and since then the Fed has been working aggressively to rescue them.
This financial-corporate elite is my base. They are few in number, but have all the money in the world. This is why I remain unconcerned that tonight my approval rating stands at only 34 percent. In addition, I’m not perturbed because I’m on my way out and have achieved almost everything Dick Cheney and his cabal has proposed. They can rest easy: From this rostrum I can assure that I harbor no grudges against that evil mob of ingrates that disapproves of my administration.
As evidence of this, I am sending Congress a package of tax incentives of $150 billion. As always, it’s a pinch of oxygen for the hard-hit middle class and of great benefit to the wealthy. We expect tremendous results from this package: It will serve to mitigate the recession we are entering, and most importantly, it will deny ammunition to the Democratic candidates during this election.
Some people might wonder what ever happened to the war against terrorism. Let me inform them about our achievements. Let’s begin with Afghanistan. That country has reclaimed its place in the global economy and today, thanks to their comparative good fortune, it is now the leading opium producer in the world. Moreover, the Taliban are now more popular now than when they were in power. The border with Pakistan is increasingly unstable, which gives us the perfect excuse to perpetuate our presence in that region.
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