Molly Ivins: Is Bush a Lunatic?

[Gabi Hayes]

I hate to raise such an ugly possibility, but have you considered lunacy as an explanation? Craziness would make a certain amount of sense. I mean, you announce you are going to militarize the Mexican border, but you assure the president of Mexico you are not militarizing the border. You announce you are sending the National Guard, but then you assure everyone it's not very many soldiers and just for a little while.

.................


Both President Bush and Veep Cheney are still going around claiming if you cut taxes, your tax revenues increase. No, they don't. Now we're just in whackoville. It's not true. Their own economists tell them it's not true, but they go about claiming it is with the same desperate tenacity they clung to false tales of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. How pathetic.


Speaking of lunacy, the saddest report from Iraq is that American soldiers showing signs of psychological distress and depression are being kept on active duty, increasing the risk of suicide. The Hartford Courant reports that even soldiers who have already been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome are kept on duty. This has led to an increase in the suicide rate -- 22 soldiers in 2005. And as I have reported before, the military is unprepared to deal with the flood of head cases coming back from Iraq. How many ways can we mistreat our own soldiers, while the right makes this elaborate show of devotion to "the troops"?

The consistent pattern that runs through all these problems is the failure to distinguish fantasy from reality. Mexican immigrants keep crossing the border because they can get jobs here -- and most of those jobs are provided by companies whose CEOs support George W. Bush. That's where he can have an impact on the problem, should he choose to do so. The $70 billion tax cut is part of a continuing right-wing fantasy going back to the Laffer Curve. Of course, clinging to demonstrably false economic precepts is understandable when you benefit from them, but at some point reality does intervene.

more

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/36327/

[babylonsister]

1. Molly - - < fuck yeah he is. How anyone can color him competent is

beyond me. He's failed at every thing he's ever touched, most especially our country. When is enough enough?

[pstans]

2. Wow, Molly Ivins has more balls than any other journalist

:yourock:
:patriot:

[wordpix]

12. she DOES have more balls than most males in the field

[MADem]

3. Molly, darlin'...why HATE to raise the possibility of the OBVIOUS? nt

[Redstone]

4. Molly Ivins is a treasure.

Redstone

[Gabi Hayes]

7. I got through to her once on a talk show. Asked her if she thought

Bush looked like a chimpanzee

[Redstone]

15. Well? WELL??? What did she say?

Redstone

[Gabi Hayes]

20. Welllll....I stuck it on at the end of a stream of questions, and she

sorta blew that off, like I was cracked, or something. What a surprise, but this was early on in the 2000 campaign, and the chimp thing wasn't that established.

she also, to my disappointment, reiterated her past averral that she like the ahole personally.

sigh

that's why I didn't complete the thought originally.

not a pleasing consummation

[Redstone]

26. Ah well, at least you tried.

Redstone

[Maddy McCall]

9. Yes, she is.

:hi:

[Redstone]

16. Here's a waving smiley thingie back at ya, m'dear.

Redstone

[Ringo84]

5. "PING"

I love Molly! She is awesome!
Ringo

[wordpix]

6. short answer is YES. Hes' a dangerous lunatic moron & we need to put him

in a straightjacket and send him to the Hague.

[Maddy McCall]

8. I adore that woman. She nails it every time.

:thumbsup:

[paparush]

10. Bush has Absolutely no Grasp of Reality...

Remember when his dad couldn't prove who he was...Remember that? He didn't have a driver's license or any form of ID. Didn't some kid ask to see his license or something. I don't know what made me think of that in the context of this post, alas..

[Gabi Hayes]

11. more Bush vs. Reality, courtesy MI

"We're on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. First, we are helping Iraqis build an inclusive government, so that old resentments will be eased and the insurgency will be marginalized. Second, we're continuing reconstruction efforts and helping the Iraqi government to fight corruption and build a modern economy, so all Iraqis can experience the benefit of freedom. And, third, we're striking terrorist targets while we train Iraqi forces that are increasingly capable of defeating the enemy." -- George W. Bush

"The Iraq war has been a disaster." -- CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.


*The number of terrorist attacks per day in Iraq grew from 55 in December 2004 to 77 per day in December 2005.


*Electricity production in Iraq has not yet recovered to prewar levels, and the electricity in Baghdad is on less today than it was under Saddam Hussein. On the other hand, telephone and Internet use are up.


*While there are no hard numbers, there are repeated reports of the loss of educated, middle-class Iraqis, especially doctors, fleeing the country because of lack of security.


*Iraq today produces less oil than it did under Saddam Hussein. The current oil minister is Ahmad Chalabi, onetime darling of the neo-con set and convicted of bank fraud in Jordan.


*The majority of Iraqis favor complete American troop withdrawal, though the timeframes they prefer vary.

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/31794/

[paparush]

24. 'Clear Plan for Victory' must have been frat boy code for ...

"The Keg is empty, the little sisters have left, and the cops are at the front door..."

[Swamp Rat]

13. He an absolute and complete...

PSYCHO!!!

:yoiks:

[fooj]

14. Treasonous, crazy rat bastard!

[Gabi Hayes]

18. hey you!

I know where they got that, and I like yours better

[Swamp Rat]

25. Way'at fooj!!

:hi:

[stepnw1f]

17. He's a Bit Touched... Yes (nt)

[ConcernedCanuk]

19. YES, but he is also just a puppet for the PNACers

.
.
.

sort of a "power" junkie

like his coke habit is revisited in "power"

Bush doesn't really have any power

he is doing what he is told!

I'll betcha sumwhere in the background was a conversation between Junior and Pappa that involved sumthing like "do what you are told, or I'll kick you out of the family"

and of course GB1 would know that GB2 would never give up his extravagant lifestyle to live a DECENT life

100's of Billions of dollars to wage war on a defenseless country

while homeless and disaster victims languish on the mainland USA

don't need to be a brain surgeon to figure the USA's priorities

[Gabi Hayes]

21. true, BUT....he's the

[ConcernedCanuk]

27. Well yeah, that is not news really - Oh!, sumone should tell Tony Blair

.
.
.

Don't go hunting with Cheney

[Gabi Hayes]

28. one too many words in that Cheney sentence.

[ConcernedCanuk]

38. LOL - BAD, Bad person you . .

.
.
.

:rofl:

took me about 2 seconds to figure out WHICH word you meant

See?

All us Canuks ain't dumb . . :dunce:

[Kurovski]

22. K&R(nt)

[Bonobo]

23. Batshit crazy, yes. I truly believe so.

I believe to my soul that he really is batshit crazy and is probably on a daily cocktail of prescription drugs ranging from paxil to neurontin to who knows what else. Probably would make Elvis look like a piker with the rainbow of drugs his docs are probably feeding him.

For what it's worth. Just my opinion.

[grannylib]

29. Yeppers - brains of a gnat and sharp as a marshmallow, that's GW

in a nutshell, pun intended.

Sheer lunacy. And anyone who supports these liars and killers and thieves, oh my, should be locked up for life right along side the bastards in power.

I have a hard time believing that there is ANYONE left in this country, outside of an asylum, who DOES support this 'president' and his failed policies.

[BreweryYardRat]

33. So does that mean I can get my mom sent to jail/an nuthouse?

;)

Then again, she is going senile.

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. Well the retired couple across the street still have their bush/cheney04

stickers on their mini van, so I guess they still support the lunatic. I don't speak to them, so I couldn't say for sure.

[Arkham House]

30. Can one be "evil" and "insane" at the same time?

If Bush really is crazy--in the medical definition--doesn't this mitigate his sense of personal responsibility for his crimes? My sense is that he's quite consciously evil, enjoys causing pain, siffering and humiliation...but is certainly *not* "crazy"...

[Iowa]

32. OK - I'll take a stab at it...

I worked in the mental health field for many years.

Can one be "evil" and "insane" at the same time?

Yes. Actually, the word "insane" is a legal term, not a medical one. But one can be both evil and mentally ill at the same time. However, I have known hundreds of people with mental illness and only a very few I viewed as evil. Most are just like you and I - good people who encounter an illness. Many get better and go on with their lives intact, many improve and slog through life fairly well despite lingering problems, and some just do not respond very well to treatments available today.

If Bush really is crazy--in the medical definition--doesn't this mitigate his sense of personal responsibility for his crimes?

Bush aside... it would depend. The term "crazy" is pretty broad, but I assume you're referring to a psychosis of some type. It is certainly possible for psychosis to alter reality so completely that one might (for example) break into a neighbor's home and smash their TV because he thinks the TV can read his thoughts and communicate tormenting messages - and not be held criminally accountable. And that's as it should be. It is also true that people with psychosis do commit calculated crimes for which they should be held accountable. So how does one know what was in the mind of the patient at the time of the crime? That cannot be known with certainty. One can only make an educated guess based upon many factors.

My sense is that he's quite consciously evil, enjoys causing pain, siffering and humiliation...but is certainly *not* "crazy"...

You are absolutely correct. I have seen a great many people with psychosis over the years, and Bush is not "crazy". The very idea that insanity drives his actions is patently ridiculous. Such theories display a complete lack of understanding of what mental illness really is. (And the definition of crazy is most certainly NOT "repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result"). I've seen that repeated ad-infinitum and it has no connection with the reality of mental illness. Bush is a prick and a dullard who has had an easy life handed to him on a platter. He would probably meet some of the criteria for a couple of the personality disorders, but personality disorders aren't much more than clumsy attempts to categorize various human frailties and misbehaviors masquerading as science. Call him evil - call him incompetent - call him many things... but he's not crazy.

[gristy]

31. I can't imagine the stress on the soldiers in Iraq

It's bad enough the threat of IEDs and gunfire. But to be aware of the lies from and the crimes committed by the people who sent them there, it is clearly overwhelming for some. I know I couldn't take it.

[RedG1]

34. yeah! ...Molly for Prez...Helen Thomas for Veep

whatta ticket that'd make...whoopee!

[madokie]

35. No bush* is not a lunatic he is bat shit crazy

the many faces of gwb will be used in explaining mad in time to come.

[Lethe]

36. *yes*

? who is doubting this since like 2002 nowadays?

[Opening_Day]

39. So, why did tax revenues increase?

Should we replace the Laffer curve with the Molly shallow?