Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.
“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”
Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.
The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.
“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” Dr. Frank adds.
The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.
Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are “powerful medications” designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President’s annual physical, details of the President’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.
Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush’s health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald Reagan’s second term when aides managed to conceal the President’s increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of Alzheimer’s Disease.
It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon’s final days when the soon-to-resign President wondered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn’t emerge until after Nixon left office.
One long-time GOP political consultant who – for obvious reasons – asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.
“We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes,” he says sadly. “That’s not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it’s certainly not good for the country.”
© Copyright 2004 by Capitol Hill Blue
http://www.capitolhillblue.com
Bush Leagues
Sullen, Depressed President Retreats Into Private, Paranoid World
By TERESA HAMPTON & WILLIAM D. McTAVISH
Capitol Hill Blue Staff
A sullen President George W. Bush is withdrawing more and more from
aides and
senior staff, retreating into a private, paranoid world where only the
ardent
loyalists are welcome.
Cabinet officials, senior White House aides and leaders on Capitol Hill
complain privately about the increasing lack of “face time” with the
President
and campaign advisors are worried the depressed President may not be up
to the
rigors of a tough re-election campaign.
“Yes, there are concerns,” a top Republican political advisor admitted
privately Wednesday. “The George W. Bush we see today is not the same,
gregarious, back-slapping President of old. He’s moody, distrustful and
withdrawn.”
Bush Walks Alone
Bush’s erratic behavior and sharp mood swings led White House physician
Col.
Richard J. Tubb to put the President on powerful anti-depressant drugs
after he
stormed off stage rather than answer reporters' questions about his
relationship with indicted Enron executive Richard J. Lay, but White
House
insiders say the strong, prescription medications seem to increase
Bush’s
sullen behavior towards those around him.
“This is a President known for his ability to charm people one-on-one,”
says a
staff member to House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert. “Not any more.”
White House aides say Bush has retreated into a tightly-controlled
environment
where only top political advisors like Karl Rove and Karen Hughes are
allowed.
Even White House chief of staff Andrew Card complains he has less and
less
access to the President.
Among cabinet members, only Attorney General John Ashcroft, a
fundamentalist
who shares many of Bush’s strict religious convictions, remains part of
the
inner circle. White House aides call Bush and Ashcroft the “Blue
Brothers”
because, like the mythical movie characters, “both believe they are on
a
mission from God.”
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, the man most responsible for
waging
America’s war on terrorism, complains to staff that he gets very little
time
with the President and gets most of his marching orders lately from
Ashcroft.
Some on Ridge’s staff gripe privately that Ashcroft is “Bush’s
Himmler,” a
reference to Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS (the German Police)
under Adolph
Hitler.
“Too many make the mistake of thinking Dick Cheney is the real power in
the
Bush administration,” says one senior Homeland Security aide. “They’re
wrong.
It’s Ashcroft and that is reason enough for all of us to be very, very
afraid.”
While Vice President Cheney remains part of Bush’s tight, inner circle,
Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has fallen out of favor and tells his staff
that “no
matter what happens in November, I’m outta here.”
White House aides say the West Wing has been overtaken by a “siege
mentality,”
where phone calls and emails are monitored and everyone is under
suspicion for
“disloyalty to the crown.”
“I was questioned about an email I sent out on my personal email
account from
home,” says one staffer. “When I asked how they got access to my
personal email
account, I was told that when I came to work at the White House I gave
up any
rights to privacy.”
Another staffer was questioned on why she once dated a registered
Democrat.
“He voted for Bush in 2000,” she said, “but that didn’t seem to matter.
Mary
Matalin is married to James Carville and that’s all right but suddenly
my
loyalty is questioned because a former boyfriend was a Democrat?”
Matalin, a
Republican political operative and advisor to the Bush campaign, is the
wife of
former Bill Clinton political strategist James Carville.
Psychiatrists say the increasing paranoia at the White House is
symptomatic of
Bush’s “paranoid, delusional personality.”
Dr. Justin Frank, a prominent Washington psychiatrist and author of the
book,
Bush on the Couch, Inside the Mind of the President, says the President
suffers
from “character pathology,” including “grandiosity” and “megalomania” –
viewing
himself, America and God as interchangeable.
Dr. Frank also concludes that Bush’s years of heavy drinking “may have
affected
his brain function – and his decision to quit drinking without the help
of a
12-step programs puts him at a far higher risk of relapse.”
Whatever the cause for the President’s increasing paranoia and
delusions,
veteran White House watchers see a strong parallel with another
Republican
president from 30 years ago.
“From what people who work there now tell me, this White House looks
more and
more like the White House of Richard M. Nixon,” says retired political
science
professor George Harleigh, who worked in the Nixon White House. “It may
be 2004
but it is starting to seem more like 1974 (the year Nixon resigned in
disgrace).”
© Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue
Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
By DOUG THOMPSON & TERESA HAMPTON
Capitol Hill Blue
President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood
swings
has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately
express
growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.
In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President
goes
from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the
media,
Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.”
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge,
increasingly
wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no
longer
trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.
“It reminds me of the Nixon days,” says a longtime GOP political
consultant
with contacts in the White House. “Everybody is an enemy; everybody is
out to
get him. That’s the mood over there.”
In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to
talk
off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged,
led by
a man who declares his decisions to be “God’s will” and then tells
aides to
“fuck over” anyone they consider to be an opponent of the
administration.
“We’re at war, there’s no doubt about it. What I don’t know anymore is
just who
the enemy might be,” says one troubled White House aide. “We seem to
spend more
time trying to destroy John Kerry than al Qaeda and our enemies list
just keeps
growing and growing.”
Aides say the President gets “hung up on minor details,” micromanaging
to the
extreme while ignoring the bigger picture. He will spend hours
personally
reviewing and approving every attack ad against his Democratic opponent
and
then kiss off a meeting on economic issues.
“This is what is killing us on Iraq,” one aide says. “We lost focus.
The
President got hung up on the weapons of mass destruction and an
unproven link
to al Qaeda. We could have found other justifiable reasons for the war
but the
President insisted the focus stay on those two, tenuous items.”
Aides who raise questions quickly find themselves shut out of access to
the
President or other top advisors. Among top officials, Bush’s inner
circle is
shrinking. Secretary of State Colin Powell has fallen out of favor
because of
his growing doubts about the administration’s war against Iraq.
The President's abrupt dismissal of CIA Directory George Tenet
Wednesday night
is, aides say, an example of how he works.
"Tenet wanted to quit last year but the President got his back up and
wouldn't
hear of it," says an aide. "That would have been the opportune time to
make a
change, not in the middle of an election campaign but when the director
challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President
cut him
off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your
resignation and I want it now."
Tenet was allowed to resign "voluntarily" and Bush informed his shocked
staff
of the decision Thursday morning. One aide says the President actually
described the decision as "God's will."
God may also be the reason Attorney General John Ashcroft, the
administration’s
lightning rod because of his questionable actions that critics argue
threatens
freedoms granted by the Constitution, remains part of the power elite.
West
Wing staffers call Bush and Ashcroft “the Blues Brothers” because
“they’re on a
mission from God.”
“The Attorney General is tight with the President because of religion,”
says
one aide. “They both believe any action is justifiable in the name of
God.”
But the President who says he rules at the behest of God can also
tongue-lash
those he perceives as disloyal, calling them “fucking assholes” in
front of
other staff, berating one cabinet official in front of others and
labeling
anyone who disagrees with him “unpatriotic” or “anti-American.”
“The mood here is that we’re under siege, there’s no doubt about it,”
says one
troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. “In this
administration, you don’t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an
enemy
of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the
President.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the record.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
*** is waging war on American Muslims. This huy hits the nail in the head,
it's
baby Jesus vs Allah all over again....and the reason "Patriot" Act and
all the
detention was supported was because muslims were the target - at least
that's
what Mullah Ashcroft suggested... ***
Ayatollah Ashcroft's Law
How U.S. Attorney-General, a Christian Evangelist With Anti-Islamic Views On Record,
Is Waging War On American Muslims
by Haroon Siddiqui
The Toronto Star
In the days following 9/11, George W. Bush provided exemplary
leadership. He
was calm yet resolute. He was patient when most people wanted him to go
hit
someone, anyone. He warned Americans not to ascribe collective guilt to
Arabs
or Muslims for the actions of 19 terrorists.
"Unfortunately, the government's actions over the past 20 months are in
sharp
contrast to its words," says Anthony Romero, executive director of the
American
Civil Liberties Union.
"The war on terror quickly turned into a war on immigrants."
A report last week by the Justice department's own internal watchdog
skewered
the government's harsh treatment of 762 illegal immigrants as part of
its
post-9/11 "absconder initiative." But the Bush administration is doing
more
than selectively rounding up Muslims violating immigration rules.
It is routinely ignoring due process, in violation of the Fifth
Amendment that
applies to all residents of the U.S. It is jailing asylum seekers,
against
international norms. It is fingerprinting and questioning legal
residents.
To see the full scope of Attorney-General John Ashcroft's trashing of
democratic traditions, you have to wade through his many initiatives,
details
of which are shrouded in a veil of secrecy:
Registering Muslim Men
The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System affects two sets
of
people.
1) Non-citizens and non-green card holders from 25 nations. This was a
general
cattle call, with no individual notification to the hundreds of
thousands on
student, business or visitor visas. Yet non-compliance could make one
"permanently inadmissible."
About 83,000 people responded, including many illegals hoping to win
leniency.
They didn't. About 13,000 have been marked for deportation. Rather than
risk
arrest, thousands of others fled. About 15,000 Pakistanis alone
returned home
or sought refuge in Europe or Canada, with 2,600 coming here.
The program caused particular havoc in Brooklyn's Pakistani community
of
120,000, which has been nearly halved.
"These people were not terrorists," says Romero. "They came to the
United
States for the same reason previous generations of immigrants did ...
grateful
to be in a country where they could achieve a better life and live in
freedom."
2) Also fingerprinted and questioned were those arriving from, or
associated
with, Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq and Sudan.
"You may not even have visited those places," says Marshall Fitz of the
American Immigration Lawyers Association, from Washington, D.C.
"Inspectors at ports of entry have wide latitude" in deciding whom to
haul in.
About 47,000 people are thought to have been detained.
Between the two programs, how many terrorists have been unearthed?
Eleven people were suspected of possible terrorist links. Yet none was
charged,
or even detained.
Change of address
Millions of non-citizens, including legal permanent residents, were
ordered to
notify the INS of any change of address.
When hundreds of thousands did, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service
could not cope.
One office alone has 200,000 unprocessed forms.
"Each one of those 200,000 law-abiding immigrants is at risk of
deportation
because of sloppy INS record-keeping and a draconian enforcement
mindset," says
Romero.
Worse, says Fitz, the INS is yet to match address forms to immigration
records.
Many can thus be charged for not complying with the new law when, in
fact, they
may have.
Operation tarmac
A security sweep of sensitive workplaces, including airports — an
eminently
justifiable measure — was extended to private firms supplying goods and
services to airports and airlines.
"People who had never set foot near an airport were dragged in," says
Fitz.
How many terrorists were found in the mass arrests? None.
"Voluntary" interviews.
In "highly coercive" encounters, says Romero, people are asked about
bank
accounts, mosque attendance and opinion about the U.S., in violation of
their
constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religion.
Initially, 5,000 people between 18 and 33 were identified by the FBI
for
questioning. In March last year, another 3,000 were called up.
Fewer than 20 were arrested. How many terrorists? None.
Mandatory detention of asylum seekers
Operation Liberty Shield was designed to protect America from
terrorists during
the war on Iraq.
It authorized detention of anyone seeking asylum from 33 unnamed
nations.
The program has since morphed into a new one. Anyone arriving from
Haiti, and
not necessarily just from there, is being jailed.
Ashcroft's argument is not that they pose a danger but that such
arrests send a
signal to would-be asylum seekers not to come, thus freeing the Coast
Guard for
terrorist interdiction work.
To sum up: Ayatollah Ashcroft, a Christian evangelist with anti-Islamic
views
on record, is waging war on American Muslims, rather than engaging in
an
effective battle against terrorism.
Fritz: "It's not as if the government has made us any safer. Instead of
targeting terrorists, they are targeting immigrants. And they are
making the
pile so big it's making it that much more difficult to find a terrorist
in that huge haystack."
Dalia Hashad of the American Civil Liberties Union: "Selective law enforcement, religious, ethnic and racial profiling, holding people incommunicado and conducting closed hearings should never happen in the U.S."
Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus.
AMERIKKKA
Mediocre times produce the very worst that the world has to offer:
Reagan, Bin
Laden, Bush, Hussein, Sharon, and Blair. None but the feeble minded
could draw
inspiration from such a ghastly lineup of "leaders".
Turn Off TV and Turn On Quantum
Mind
Humanity's most valuable possessions are Clean Water, Clean air, and Trees
|
MUST SEE FILM!!
