What are those things around Bush's neck?

"Make no mistake about it, this is a war against people who profess an ideology, and they use terror as a means to achieve their objectives," he said. NYTimes photo

Okay -- so the Times reports that the Preznit has repudiated efforts by his generals to point out there is no "war on terror" on the reasonable grounds that there is no military path to safety in a world that humiliates people who will blow themselves up to hurt us. We're living the GWOT, not GSAVE (Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism), he insists. No big deal. We knew the man was a moron.

But I'm taking a photography class and so have learned the technical term for what appears in the photo above. The NYT has printed a "merger." Those protuberances from Bush' chin -- what are they? Is plastic man growing goatee-shaped black plastic tumors? Or perhaps on Bush the Pinocchio effect takes this form -- instead of a nose, each idiotic fabrication stimulates these growths. Soon they'll clamp not only his chin, but run all the way around his neck?

If you've got a guess what the black things are, leave it in the comments.