Pretzels soaked in alcohol - old suspicions - new information

[Mira]

Vanity Fair Jan. 08 / Editor's letter by Graydon Carter states, after he lists a number of verbal and physical blunders recently committed by **Bush:

"I wouldn't want to draw conclusions as to the cause of this recent spate of malapropisms, but a new book by former British foreign secretary Lord Owen may supply a clue. In THE HUBRIS SYNDROME, BUSH BLAIR AND THE INTOXICATION OF POWER, Owen recalls the time in 2002 when the commander in chief collapsed while sitting on a sofa watching a football game. (Official cause he'd choked on a pretzel)

The presidential head hit a table on the way to the floor, he suffered an abrasion on the left side of his face, and a blood sample was rushed to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Owen says he was told by a British doctor who had visited Johns Hopkins that lab technicians there found that the blood contained significant amounts of alcohol - this in the body of a man who claims he hasn't had a drop in more than 20 years."

[Warpy]

1. Any health professional who has watched his continued

deterioration over the last 7 years knows he's still drinking. Oh, he's been on a short leash, but he's been managing to get stinko often enough to keep damaging his central nervous system. You can see it in his gait, in his slurred speech, in his disconjugate gaze, and everybody who has ever lived with a drunk spotted his obvious condition at the G8 in 2006.

Large doses of thiamine can stabilize and often reverse physical deterioration if a person has quit drinking. Nothing can reverse the cognitive damage that person suffers, damage apparent in his confabulation of seeing the first plane hit the WTC on 9/11 on live TV before his photo op.

I have no doubt he will eventually drink himself to death. He hasn't the type of personality that will allow him to humble himself enough to get the help he needs, that of other alcoholics who have managed to learn to live without drinking.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I am a special ed teacher and many of us are convinced

he has some very significant learning disabilities and a language disorder as well. Those disabilities cause poor decision making.

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. The blood alcohol was just a product of fermentation in a man who's rotting from the inside out. n/m

[Orangepeel]

3. Why would a blood sample be rushed to Baltimore?

and, if it was, what are the odds that the lab technician would 1) know it was bush's blood and 2) tell some British doctor what was in it? If a technician did say something like this, it was probably a joke.

I'd be shocked if bush wasn't still drinking, but this story doesn't make any sense to me.

[Mira]

4. I reported what I read and where - I never bought the choking story though

after seeing the photo of his badly scraped cheek. I don't know about the blood test either, unless it's simply our tax dollars at work giving supreme health care to the undeserving.

[Orangepeel]

10. I don't buy the choking story, either

but if there was a blood test, I don't see why it would be done at Hopkins. If the British doctor was told something like this, I still think it was a joke by a lab technician who also didn't believe the choking story.

[peacetalksforall]

5. I say 40-60 believable

There could have been a British doctor or technician there.
The story could have gotten out and around.
We do know that something is wrong with him.
We did see the bruise and the excuse.

But, the reporting of this is missing facts. Could have been pure speculation that took on a life of its own.

[Bitwit1234]

7. Why not -- it makes perfect sense

here we have a tech who wants to brag that he tested the president's blood and make no doubt they told the blabbermouth at the get go. He wanted to make an impression and so....he told.

Now this might not be correct. But it makes a good theory as well as yours. Doesn't it.

[Orangepeel]

9. I don't have a theory --

except that this story is made up by somebody who believe (most likely correctly) that the president is (still) a lush. :shrug:

The biggest thing that doesn't make sense to me is why the blood would be tested at Johns Hopkins instead of, say, Walter Reed. Baltimore isn't that far away, but there is no reason to send it there. The only reason would be to keep it hush-hush, and in that case, why would the lab technician be told whose blood it was?

[Olney Blue]

15. The pretzeldent gets his health care at Navy Medical Hospital in Bethesda.

I can't figure out why the blood was sent to Hopkins.

[Kucinich4America]

18. Maybe the Johns Hopkins lab could analyze the blood better? Or faster?

One would expect that when it's a question of a president's health (even that sorry son of a bitch) they want the most accurate results as fast as possible.

[DrBlix]

16. A picture is worth a thousand words

.

[Cobalt-60]

19. He's Doin' the Monkey!

[hisownpetard]

21. Doin' the Monkey? He *IS* the Monkey!

[bluesmail]

13. ...and WHO would declare

Off to John Hopkins with you, blood sample. You're right, doesn't make sense. Unless it's more crap to hold him in line. Gawd that must be getting nearly impossible anymore. Scary

[Snarkoleptic]

6. The headling reminds me of the "Zazoo's famous Sharks-in-a-Blanket" sketch on SNL.

George: Luckily, Condi and I bring a party with us wherever we go!

Condo: Oh, yeah! These are my own creation. Zazoo's famous Sharks-in-a-Blanket. Simply soak an everyday hot dog bun in Vodka, and enjoy!

George: To passersby, you appear to be simply eating a bag of hot dog buns.

Condi: Yeah! This near-perfect food coats your stomach as it inebriates.

[NV Whino]

11. A possible reason for a blood test...

assuming there was one, is to check for poison. Why Hopkins? Perhaps Hopkins was not the only place where it was tested.

Lots of reasons for this, but whatever the reasons, junior was looped.

[Franc_Lee]

12. So Bush doesn't drink? but I've seen him loaded getting off the helo...

[PATRICK]

14. Self-entitled jerks

who can't stop the worst manifestations of their sordid vices. The GOP is full of them. So why not the most self-entitled, biggest hypocrite, most self-entitled autocrat deny himself anything? When talking to schoolchildren about his drinking days(crudely and clumsily as is his habit) I think he gives it away by the clear appearance of a condescending lie, such as he is infamous for.

More by his psychology and sense of sneaky entitlement and pathology I expect he does whatever he wants. The more pressure the sooner we would have had him in the tank and Cheney in the battery shop. But in the niceties of the otherwise viciously amoral political world(that daily slaughters innocents by the tens of thousands in war and disaster economics) everyone protects and respects and just doesn't comment on the fit of the Emperor's new clothes.

Evidence is buried, but not logic. And logic in this case would need a lot of proof of Bush's sobriety and some explanation WHY he is not indulging based on all his past behavior.

And why we should believe him when he presents his sobriety in the forms of classic Bush lying.

[FloridaJudy]

17. This doesn't surprise me a bit.

Anyone who's ever lived with - or been - an alcoholic recognizes the symptoms: the slurred speech, the overly cautious gait, the blank gaze. All signs of someone who's been drinking to excess and is trying to hide it. I've suspected that Bu$h was back on the sauce at least from early 2006, probably longer. For heaven's sake look at his skin! That isn't sun damage, those are "gin blossoms".

The story of the blood sample does sound a bit iffy, but anyone with an ounce of sense should be able to spot a walking example of "wet brain". Whoever is supplying Georgie with his tipple has a lot to answer for.

[Apollo11]

20. I don't expect Laura to walk out on him anytime soon

Hillary already set the legally binding precendent that a First Lady should always stay loyal to a sitting President, no matter what rule he breaks. That's how most legal scholars interpret it, anyhow.