What is the most stupid thing the Government has ever said. One item per post please. I will start

One of the best all time comments on the rhetoric of politics, never more applicable than in the last two administrations in the US, is George Constanza's (from the TV program Seinfeld) famous,

"It's not a lie if you believe it."

It is staggering how many officials actually believe their own baloney.

I'm sure it's been posted it's famous as all hell, especially since I Pet Goat:

''There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.''

—President George W. Bush, Sept. 17, 2002

My vote goes to Obama for this:

I have already visited 57 states during my campaign.

A close second is this by Joe (where am I) Biden:

When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.

Originally posted by HabiruThorstein
"We have to pass the bill so we can find out what's in it"
-Pelosi

This is pretty high on my list for stupidest thing said by a government official. Thanks for sharing it Habiru.

Does anybody remember this?



It was originally called "The War Against Terror" or T.W.A.T from what I remember before they changed it to what it is referred to now as "The War on Terror". Which was pretty hilarious.

"You should cover your windows and doors with plastic and duck tape" - Tom Ridge, director of Homeland Security in response to the Anthrax scare following 911.

Originally posted by Cherry0

Originally posted by HabiruThorstein
"We have to pass the bill so we can find out what's in it"
-Pelosi

This is pretty high on my list for stupidest thing said by a government official. Thanks for sharing it Habiru.

Does anybody remember this?

It was originally called "The War Against Terror" or T.W.A.T from what I remember before they changed it to what it is referred to now as "The War on Terror". Which was pretty hilarious.

Ok, I'm about to get banhammered for this, I hope I can stop before I hit enter but....

as far as T.W.A.T goes, I'd like to penetrate it's deeper secrets before issue.....

aw man, I'm dead.....

An entertaining thread, for sure.

I take exception to the very first example, "Duck and Cover". Although this might be useless for a nearby atomic blast, it would be useful if the blast occurred three or five miles away, which is a pretty big area where death might be mitigated.

A lot of these statements are not stupid. What people are mainly listing here (not entirely of course, but many) are honest and altruistic statements that have been demonstrated to be broken promises, hypocritical statements, and just vexing in general. Rather than stupid, they are mainly irritating, only because they set the bar fairly high, beyond what reality showed it should be.

Maybe I am not feeling cynical enough today.

Originally posted by new_here

Originally posted by OperationIraqiFailure

Originally posted by new_here
And finally...

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... uh... uhh... we won't get fooled again."

(yup... another Bushism)

Looks like you combined half of a Bush-ism with some lyrics from The Who, friend! Nice!

Lima-1, out.

"YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Oh no... he did it all by himself...

It's funny because, usually, when I'm talking about politics, I have a more level-headed approach but when Bush comes up (or Bushisms), I lose my composure and just start laughing. It's got to be the twang in his voice mixed together with words he's clearly never used before.

"Mr. President, if you could summarize your campaign in one word, what would that word be?"
"Strategery."

Thank you, Will Farrell.

Lima-1, out.

reply to post by ipsedixit


thats because his G father, father and himself have been trying to undermine this country since ww2 and hand it back over to the nazi's

I don't know if it has been said already.

"Saddam has weapons of mass destruction..."

-SAP-

Originally posted by OperationIraqiFailure

It's funny because, usually, when I'm talking about politics, I have a more level-headed approach but when Bush comes up (or Bushisms), I lose my composure and just start laughing. It's got to be the twang in his voice mixed together with words he's clearly never used before.

"Mr. President, if you could summarize your campaign in one word, what would that word be?"
"Strategery."

Thank you, Will Farrell.

Lima-1, out.

I hear ya!
I could never understand WHY he could not say nuclear. He ALWAYS pronounced it "new-cue-ler"
As in, Iran might get a new-cue-ler weapon. What the heck is that???

Originally posted by SloAnPainful
I don't know if it has been said already.

"Saddam has weapons of mass destruction..."

-SAP-

Yeah.... in those "Mobile Labs" ...NOT.

reply to post by OperationIraqiFailure


Here... since you love to laugh at Bushisms...
(There's a little duplication among them, but I just couldn't choose which one to post!

" it was a weather balloon".....

reply to post by pheonix358


Hi I was school age when this was going on. They didnt say if you see a flash. We did however have regular drills like the fire drills they have today. We would have to leave the classroom and enter the interior hallway sit agains the wall and cover our heads. It was stupid as no one was going to survive a nuclear blast by covering their heads. I guess the government needed to do something to show the people it wanted them to survive. Something they've apparently gotten away from recently to read the posts on this site. Back then they werent the NWO or the Illuminati, they were just the government and they still cared about us. At least enough to try and save our a$$es from a nuclear blast.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
"In god we trust."

one of the dumbest things anyone has ever said.

To that statement we always add, all others must pay cash.

reply to post by Hefficide


No he did not ! Really? Thats too funny. Sounds more like a Yogi ism to me. Its deja vu all over again.

Originally posted by RoScoLaz
"There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know.”

—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

I find that statement rather profound. What is stupid about it to you? It certainly is true. Right now at this moment I am sure there are things that we dont know about and we dont know we dont know about them because we've not had the experience yet. A man in the 1300's didnt know that he didnt know about the moons of Uranus because the thought had not occured yet.

"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

Obama attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009