The President Needs a Padded Room

[seemslikeadream]

But facts don't matter to this megalomaniac.


http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff02152007.html

By DAVE LINDORFF

It's time to simply admit the obvious: The president of the United States is crazy as a loon, and the Congress and the media are functioning as co-dependents as he runs the country off a cliff.

Bush says in his latest press conference that he is "certain" that Iran is providing "technically sophisticated" roadside bomb weapons to Iraqi insurgent forces to help them to kill Americans.

He probably is "certain." But nobody else of consequence in the government is, and the evidence to support his claim is simply not there.

Shaped charges are not sophisticated. They can be made in a garage. The technology was invented in 1888 by a Navy engineer. It was widely used in World War I and II, as well as in Vietnam, and was even provided to by the British to the IRA in a botched sting operation that led to its being disseminated around the world to every conceivable resistance and terror organization. Instructions on how to do make these weapons are available on the web. A highschool student could do it in shop if the teacher wasn't looking.

On top of that, the people who are primarily responsible for killing Americans in Iraq are Sunnis, who are certainly not the beneficiaries of Iranian government assistance, since Sunnis are killing Shias, who are the ones that Iran is close to.

None of this matters to Bush.

Why? Because he's crazy. Reality and Bush are wholly different worlds, people.

[butterfly77]

1. I can agree with that...

and so does his vice and his wife...

[w8liftinglady]

2. he is too much of a coward to hurt himself...

[Drops_not_Dope]

3. Forget the fucking pads

in the room.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. .............and the oxygen

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Sometimes I think he is not crazy - just dumb.

I can't figure that guy out at all. His body language and his facial expressions are just wierd.

I would think a crazy person would at least be able to see that he is running himself (as well as everybody else) off the cliff and at least try to do what makes himself look good.

But Bush just seems to get mad and throws a big fit and then just says "fuck you" to everyone and does it his way.

That is more like a four year old than a crazy person. He really reminds me of a four year old. He can't concentrate for more than a few minutes. He makes faces. He laughs in all the wrong places.

But he also just seems to think that everyone else is dumb and he has to bring everything down to their level. I find that very odd.

[Sal Minella]

8. "The Mairken People HAVE to UNDERSTAND......"

is the line that gets me. Like nobody outside the White House has a functioning brain.

I cringed while listening to what Hillary said about permission from Congress being necessary before the U.S. could attack Iran.

I can't imagine a statement that would be more of a red flag waving in front of a none-too-bright but bad-tempered bull.

[Rob H.]

21. That line annoys me, too

Nothing quite so excruciating as being talked down to by a guy who just doesn't get it, is there? Hell, Bush admits he doesn't read newspapers or watch TV (although I imagine he watches FauxNews every chance he gets) and yet he thinks he has to explain things to those of us who do! :mad:

[renate]

23. I can't stand it when he 'splains things to us

... especially since he can only squeeze out about four or five words at a time. And then he smirks as if to say "It's so obvious."

Oh, and also because his explanations are 1) stupid and 2) wrong. That really bugs me too.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

11. I'm starting to think that . . .

. . . he's a Manchurian Candidate. MK-Ultra style brainwashing/indoctrination.

His behavior is absolutely bizarre.

Strangest shit this cat's ever seen...

[leftyladyfrommo]

18. I know what you mean. It is bizarre.

I have run into sociopaths before and he really doesn't act like the lone's I have known. But he certainly isn't "normal."

Why would he think people out here are stupid. Most of us have way more education than he does. Most of us are way more thoughtful than he is.

Maybe it is just pure old spoiled rotten rich kid that we are seeing.

Cheney, I think, is a whole different can of worms. He is just plain arrogant and doesn't give a rats ass about anything or anybody - just his purely selfish agenda. And his behavior lately has been beyond bizarre, too. He seems to be caught in an alternative universe.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

20. The both of them are hard to figure.

There's more abnormal psychology there than could fit in a dozen textbooks.

* talking to the NATO leaders yesterday, like they were a bunch of second-graders. How delusional would he have to be to not understand that they were sitting there despising him?

That may be the strangest of all. His inability to understand that the WHOLE WORLD hates him. That realization would stop most people dead in their tracks. . .

But he keeps right on going. Very, very bizarre.

[demnan]

6. Which is why we need to Impeach both Bush and Cheney

n/t

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. Impeaching takes too long. And causes too much disruption.

We need to force them to resign.

[Mr. Ected]

7. Not Crazy. Not Dumb.

Just a power-hungry, greedy, condescending underachiever son of a rich American political family, unaccustomed to accountability, lacking the common sense of the common man. In short, the OPPOSITE of a leader.

Why did your neighbors vote for this man? TWICE??!!

[npincus]

10. oh, he is "crazy" (mentally unfit for his position)

http://www.amazon.com/Bush-Couch-Inside-Mind-President/dp/0060736704

"Bush on The Couch" by Justin Frank

From Publishers Weekly

Bush Administration policies are not only a "great catastrophe" but the products of a disturbed mind, according to this provocative blend of psychological case-study and partisan polemic. Psychoanalyst Frank sifts through family memoirs, the writings of critics like Al Franken and David Corn and the public record of Bush’s personal idiosyncrasies for clues to the President’s character, interpreting the evidence in the rigidly Freudian framework of child psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. He finds that Bush, psychically scarred by an absentee father and a cold, authoritarian mother, has developed a galloping case of megalomania, characterized by a Manichaean worldview, delusions of persecution and omnipotence and an "anal/sadistic" indifference to others’ pain, with removal from office the only "treatment option." The author’s exegesis of Bush’s personality traits-the drinking problem, the bellicose rhetoric, the verbal flailings and misstatements of fact, the religiosity and exercise routines, the hints of dyslexia and hyperactivity, the youthful cruelty to animals and schoolmates, the smirk-paints an intriguing, if exaggerated and contemptuous, portrait of a possibly troubled public figure. But Frank’s attempts to translate psychoanalysis into political analysis are unconvincing. Indeed, if Bush’s reneging on campaign promises is a form of clinical "sadism," and his budget deficits an "unconscious attack on his own parents," then Karl Rove, the Cabinet, and both houses of Congress belong in group therapy with him.


Book Description

A renowned Washington, DC-based psychoanalyst examines George W. Bush's public persona-and asks serious questions about whether he is fit for the office he holds.

In Bush On the Couch, Dr. Justin Frank, a renowned Washington, DC-based psychoanalyst, assembles a comprehensive psychological profile of President George W. Bush. Using the principles of Applied Psychoanalysis, the discipline of psychoanalysing public and historical figure pioneered by Freud, Frank fearlessly builds his case, which concludes with a most disturbing diagnosis. With an eye for the subtleties of human behaviour sharpened through thirty years of clinical practice, Dr. Frank traces the development of Bush's character from childhood to present day, identifying and analysing Bush's patterns of thought, behaviour and communication. A thorough and authoritative examination of Bush's public appearances and speeches, along with historical, biographical, and journalistic records, Bush On the Couch is a compelling portrait of George W. Bush, filled with controversial and disturbing revelations about our nation's leader:

. the scion of a powerful family that failed to nurture its first-born son even as it instilled within him a false sense of omnipotence
. an individual in the grip of anxieties that require a monumental effort to manage
. an untreated alcoholic supported by a nation of enablers
. a rigid thinker with a perilously simplistic worldview
. and a megalomaniacal leader driven to invent adversaries so he can destroy them


Insightful and accessible, courageous and controversial, Bush On the Couch sheds startling new light on the Bush psyche and its impact on the way he governs, tackling head-on the question no one seems willing to ask: Is the president psychologically fit to run the country?

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. That's george too a tee!

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. Mad as a Hatter and the rest of your description are not mutually exclusive.

In fact...."underachieving son of a rich American political family unaccustomed to accountability" could offer a very good explanation of how his pathology originated.

[Ganja Ninja]

9. His lecturing of our NATO allies yesterday was embarrassing

and exasperating at the same time. Does he think they're as stupid as FOX watchers? He's the one that fucked up in Afghanistan and now he wants them to commit more troops to the war we should have been fighting all along. Does he really think they are blind to his intentions in Iran? The man needs to be removed for that speech alone.

[dogday]

12. Padding is too good for him

I don't mind if he bounces off hard concrete walls...... :shrug:

[tabasco]

14. Facts don't matter to 30% of this Nation.

The people who still support Bush don't care about America. They would happily shred the Constitution and install a dictatorship as long as the dictator had an (R) next to his name. I am not optimistic about our future because of the millions of stupid citizens.

[Ganja Ninja]

15. And the problem is worse then that.

Besides the 30% you speak of there's another 10% or 15% that don't support Bush because he's not crazy right wing enough.

[Pacifist Patriot]

17. Cool. I get a chance to say it yet again.

Bush is fucking insane!

NPD / APD is my armchair diagnosis.

[SIMPLYB1980]

22. Sounds like someone we know doesn't it.

A hypomanic episode is not a disorder in itself, but rather is a description of a part of a type of bipolar disorder.

A hypomanic episode is characterized by a distinct period of persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting throughout at least 4 days, that is clearly different from the person's usual mood.

During the period of mood disturbance, 3 or more of the following symptoms have persisted (4 if the mood is only irritable) and have been present to a significant degree:

* Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
* Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
* More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
* Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
* Distractibility (e.g., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)
* Increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
* Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., the person engages in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

A hypomanic episode is associated with a change in functioning that is uncharacteristic of the person. For example, the individual may be far more productive or outgoing and socialable than they usually are. This change in functioning and in mood are not subtle -- the change is directly noticeable by others (usually friends or family members) during a hypomanic episode.

A hypomanic episode is also not severe enough to cause serious impairment in social or occupational functioning, or to necessitate hospitalization, and there are no psychotic features. The observable symptoms of a hypomanic episode must not be due to substance use or abuse (e.g., alcohol, drugs, medications) or caused by a general medical condition (e.g., hyperthyroidism or diabetes).

People who experience a hypomanic episode are often diagnosed with a type of bipolar disorder.
http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx21.htm

[Hubert Flottz]

24. I think I can explain Bush's "VISIONS" that he has for everything...

Delirium tremens

snip...

Mental status changes

Mood changes rapidly
Restlessness, excitement
Increased activity
Decreased attention span
Excitement
Fear
Confusion, disorientation
Agitation, irritability
Hallucinations (visual hallucinations such as seeing things that are not present are most common)
Sensory hyperacuity (highly sensitive to light, sound, touch)
Delirium (severe, acute loss of mental functions)
Decreased mental status
Stupor, sleepiness, lethargy
Deep sleep that persists for a day or longer
Usually occurs after acute symptoms

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000766.htm

[fooj]

25. How about a firing squad? I like that idea better.