Take 'em apart

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 31 May 2005 13:12:37 -0700, Peter A. McGraw <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>
wrote:

>I can't resist being the first to share this latest example of
>"Bushonics" with the list.
>
>During my commute this morning, "Morning Edition" cut to live coverage of
>Bush's news conference, and I heard the latest zinger, live.  Answering a
>question about the amnesty international report that blasts the U.S. for
>human rights violations, he said that some of the people who have made
>charges of prisoner abuse "are trained as disassemblers (that means not
>telling the truth)."

Almost... here's the official transcript:

-----
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050531.html
In terms of the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've
investigated every single complaint against the detainees. It seemed like
to me they based some of their decisions on the word of -- and the
allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate
America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble --
that means not tell the truth.
-----

I love how the official transcribers are under no obligation to dissemble
*or* disassemble when it comes to Bush's slips.  Here's one of my favorite
incoherencies, from a 2001 visit to the Jefferson Memorial:

-----
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/07/20010702-12.html
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the
President during the 4th of July of this country.  It means
what these words say, for starters.  The great inalienable
rights of our country.  We're blessed with such values in
America.  And I -- it's -- I'm a proud man to be the nation
based upon such wonderful values.  [etc.]
-----


--Ben Zimmer