Depressing. The EU's television news is getting just as shitty as ours. And guess what? It's for the same reason: money.
Stunted
Mannion takes on Bush’s obvious behavior issues and suggests that our petulant president may have undiagnosed learning disabilities. One of his readers, Anne Laurie, suspects that ADD, along with alcoholism, runs in the Bush family. I certainly don’t intend to contradict any of the possibilities they have posited, although any analysis (amateur though it may be) of Bush’s childhood issues is surely incomplete without an acknowledgement of that which plagues many children, conceivably those from wealthy and/or powerful families more than most—being excessively, and damagingly, spoiled.
Spoiling a child in the extreme can, much like learning disabilities or chemical dependencies, have the effect of emotionally stunting the indulged child. Bush and his siblings may or may not have been spoiled with “things,” but clearly all of them were spoiled with reassurances about their future successes, spoiled with often undeserved opportunity, and, in W’s case, this immoderation clearly continued into his adulthood, as his mistakes (Air Force antics, DUI, etc.) were handled by others on his behalf, as much as they could be. Whether Bush suffers from depression, untreated learning disabilities, addiction, we can only speculate from the sidelines, but there is undeniable evidence that he has been irreparably spoiled.
The traits of a spoiled child and indulged adult run throughout Mannion’s piece:
Who would tell him? And it's not as though he goes out of his way to find out what people think.—Indeed, he endeavors to do the opposite, surrounding himself with yes-men and blind loyalists; in effect, spoiling himself, as he shields himself from criticism and complaint.
an angry, volatile, mean-spirited, unhappy man—A man who acts angry, volatile, mean-spirited, and unhappy most evidently when he does not get his way (ref. his debates with Kerry, during which, as Mannion notes, “I sometimes thought he was going to start crying out of frustration and fear”). I don’t believe it’s a stretch to suggest that, for many of us, his ill-tempered displays at such times have evoked the image of a child’s temper tantrum.
when he should be acting most Presidential he will seem to be in his own, rather childish world—The center of his own universe. He will even seem to be completely unaware that other people can see him.—Completely unaware, or, perhaps, completely unconcerned. Witness his rude and obnoxious behavior during his interview with an Irish journalist, using a condescending tone that seems to be dripping with the sentiment that he runs the goddamned show, dammit. He doesn’t consider his behavior unacceptable, specifically because he has the expectation that it will be categorically accepted, by anyone in his presence.
There are other times when I think that he is emotionally and even intellectually retarded. Think about it. Doesn't he often come across like Tom Hanks in Big, like a 12 year old boy trying to pretend to be a grown-up?—Yes. His communications with colleagues are ridiculously immature, he insists on making up asinine nicknames for his associates and reporters and even other world leaders, he loves to play dress-up, and he makes inappropriate jokes—always casting himself as the star (hunting for missing WMDs, partying in NOLA when he was younger). He’s never grown up, because he’s never been forced to do so.
George Bush did not have patient parents.—It is often the least patient parents who are the most likely to spoil their children, the parents who find it easier to give in to junior’s whims than put a foot down firmly and draw the line, even if it means whining, howling, and crying. It’s not difficult to surmise that Bush learned this tactic early, considering he still employs it today—those in his circle who dare to oppose him are quickly dispatched to nowhere, while his devoted indulgers are promoted to their vacated positions.
The young George Bush undoubtedly had an insular childhood, while his parents refused to sully their beautiful minds worrying about the troubles of others, and in his adulthood, he has recreated that insular world. The only construct he knows, and the only one in which he feels comfortable, is that in which he is the star—the good ol’ boy jokester, the fearless leader, the #1 muckity-muck whose wisdom cannot be questioned or denied. In President Pan, where I first addressed my consternation with Bush’s habitual spoiled childishness, I wrote:
I remember being young and foolish, thinking that I knew more, knew better, than all the adults around me. I was smarter than they were, the unbearably dull old fools. Rejecting the counsel of those wiser, sensing the years in which that wisdom was earned create a seemingly untraversable distance, are familiar marks of youth, one that falls away as we ourselves age.Well, it’s not really hard to imagine at all, is it?
But imagine if someone spent his entire life never recognizing the folly of declining guidance, never learning to defer to the advice or judgment of others, always believing that he knew more, knew better, than everyone else, and so had no use for curiosity or counsel. Imagine if he were handed the power of an empire. Imagine if the boy who refused to grow up became the most important man in the world.
Update: Pam's got more on the spoiled brat in the White House.
Infuriating
If you can get through this whole video clip of Matt Lauer interviewing George & Laura, without screaming, cursing, or turning the thing off, I applaud you.
AMERICAblog has an amusing post on Bush's body language during the interview here.
Fitzgerald Puts on his Asskickin’ Boots
It’s looking more and more like Fitzgerald is in hot pursuit of a conspiracy:
The New York Times reporter who went to jail to avoid testifying in the CIA leak case was quizzed by the special prosecutor again yesterday and has agreed to return to the grand jury today.A moment to offer some blogprops: True Blue Liberal suggested back in July that the White House Iraq Group was the key to this whole thing, as the Big Brass Alliance attempted to continue to keep the issue in the news by tying the Downing Street Memos to Plamegate.
Judith Miller's additional testimony comes as the endgame is intensifying in the legal chess match that threatens to damage the Bush administration.
There are signs that prosecutors now are looking into contacts between administration officials and journalists that took place much earlier than previously thought. Earlier conversations are potentially significant, because that suggests the special prosecutor leading the investigation is exploring whether there was an effort within the administration at an early stage to develop and disseminate confidential information to the press that could undercut former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame.
[…]
Ms. Miller, the Times reporter, was interviewed again yesterday to discuss conversations she had with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. She testified on Sept. 30 before a grand jury about conversations she had with Mr. Libby in July 2003.
[…]
Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims.
The key to understanding what is the great success—and what may well be the ultimate downfall—of this administration was summed up beautifully by Mr. Shakes not so long ago: "The problem is that this administration is incompetent at absolutely everything except politics, at which they are extraordinarily good." It may have won them two elections, but I’m not convinced, for the first time, that they’ll be able to spin their way out of this one.
Tease
Stop playing with me, you cheeky devil!
Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again.We might need to do a collective Jedi mind trick on Mr. Gore, Shakers.
"I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again," said Gore, who lost the 2000 election to President Bush.
However, Gore did not completely shut the door to political endeavors.
"I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that," he said during a visit to Sweden.
Sour Grapes
Oh, Tom, Tom, Tom. You may be good at strongarming and arm twisting, but subtlety was never your forté.
DeLay's Lawyers Subpoena His Prosecutor
Okay, time for the obligatory "can you imagine if Clinton did this?" comment.
Can you imagine if Clinton had tried this?
Okay, I feel better.
WASHINGTON - Indicted Rep. Tom DeLay
Wait, wait just a second, I just love seeing that in print.
WASHINGTON - Indicted Rep. Tom DeLay
*Sigh* Just brings a big smile to my face. Okay, on with it:
WASHINGTON - Indicted Rep. Tom DeLay's attorneys turned the tables on a Texas prosecutor Tuesday, delivering a subpoena to compel his testimony about his conduct with grand jurors.
Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, who contends there was misconduct by prosecutors, said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle refused the subpoena at his Austin office when he declined to sign a paper acknowledging its delivery. Earle said he had voluntarily accepted the subpoena.
Nyyyeah, nyeah, nyeah. Jesus; we're governed by children.
The subpoena is part of the defense tactic to have charges dismissed before trial against DeLay, R-Texas, who was obligated to temporarily step aside as House majority leader when charged with conspiracy and money laundering in a state campaign finance investigation. DeLay has denied any wrongdoing.
So in other words, it's compolete Bullshit. And of course he's denied wrongdoing. He's given us every reason to believe him, hasn't he?
DeGuerin wants Earle to answer 12 questions about conversations he had with grand jurors, including whether the prosecutor became angry when a grand jury decided against an indictment of DeLay and why that decision was not publicly released.
He also wants to know the details of Earle's conversation with William Gibson, foreman of a grand jury that indicted DeLay on conspiracy charges, whose term has since ended.
"If you did nothing improper, you should not be concerned about answering these questions," DeGuerin said in his letter to Earle.
Ahem. Heh. Haha. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Damn you, kettle! I'm the pot, and I say you're BLACK!
The first grand jury indicted DeLay on conspiracy charges, the second failed to indict and the third indicted him on an allegation of money laundering. DeLay has said he is innocent of wrongdoing.
AWK! AWK!! Innocent of wrongdoing! *whistle* Man, they're parroting that enough, aren't they? Gee, for someone who's innocent of wrongdoing... he's awfully concerned about answering some questions, isn't he?
In a motion filed last week, the defense team said that from Sept. 29 through Oct. 3, Earle and his staff "unlawfully participated in grand jury deliberations and attempted to browbeat and coerce" the grand jury that refused to indict DeLay.
The motion said Earle then attempted to cover up and delay public disclosure of the refusal, and also "incited" the foreman of the first grand jury to violate grand jury secrecy by talking publicly about the case — in an effort to influence grand jurors still sitting.
The foreman, William Gibson, gave media interviews after the grand jury finished its work but told The Associated Press that Earle did not ask him to discuss the case.
"That's a bunch of (expletive) there," Gibson said. "That man did not talk to me."
I suddenly really like William Gibson.
Both indictments of DeLay focused on an alleged scheme to move money around and conceal the use of corporate contributions to support Texas Republican legislative candidates. State law prohibits use of corporate donations to support or oppose state candidates, allowing the money to go only for administrative expenses.
DeGuerin is asking for all documents, notes, telephone records and other relevant materials from Earle's staff.
"I am determined to put on record the steps taken by you and your staff to obtain a replacement indictment against my client, Tom DeLay," DeGuerin said in a letter to the prosecutor.
This is blatant misdirection, and I don't think they're fooling anyone. It just goes to show the shamelessness and cowardice of DeLay. They all know that they're hiding behind a very delicate house of cards, and here come the other kids to knock them down.
DeLay broke the law, he's been caught, and now he has to face the music. But like any good Republican, he can't go down without whining the whole way and pointing his finger at the Democrats. Take the pipe, bitch. Hey, "Hammer," I think Rush and Rove have room for you in the playpen.
Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!
UPDATE: As always, The Green Knight has more. And it's better than what I wrote, damn him!
(All Bolds mine. Hush, little cross-post, don't say a word... Bushy's gonna buy you a blossom on a turd...)
Halloween Wingnuttia Continued: Carman and the Monsters
Yesterday, I shared with you the first of two books my nephew got as Halloween “treats” last year. Though “Satan, Bite the Dust!” is clearly a helpful guide to rendering the devil dead, how many of us really come face to face with Satan on a daily basis? (No fair answering, Scooter—it’s no fair if he’s your boss.) On the other hand, we’re all a little more likely to run into monsters, so “No Monsters” is obviously the more important of the two volumes. It’s also autobiographical, as Carman shares his childhood experiences dealing with monsters, which gives us a little more insight into our tour guide to salvation.
A Storybook for Kids
Our story begins with Young Carman watching a scary movie, all alone…
His parents are, inexplicably, nowhere to be found, so he only has the crazy lunatic on the teevee to keep him company.
Carman gets it in his head that the crazy lunatic is after him!
In spite of his disturbing relationship with horror movies, Carman continues to watch them…
…including one about an alligator man…
…devouring the peaceful family’s child!
Carman gets very scared when he goes to bed…
and he sees an evil spirit float by his bed, but…
Carman’s Christianity takes care of the imaginary demon once and for all, and he finally gets a good night sleep. Or so one imagines. The book ends there. Maybe the monsters killed him. Who knows? Kind of anti-climactic, to be honest. I’d have liked to see Carman’s parents giving him a good ass-whupping for watching scary movies on his own and then waking them up by screaming about being the temple of the Holy Ghost.
The one good thing about No Monsters, though, is this:
An order form right in the back! I can order music, videos, more books—and I just might, so I can keep educating all you filthy heretics and hopefully save your eternal souls from, uh, alligator men.
Happy Halloween!
Hackett Update
Even though the DSCC, as has been widely reported, is denying that its chair, Chuck Schumer, is pressuring Hackett to get out of the race, Mannion called Schumer’s office and was told that it is indeed true. So I’ve got no clue what’s going on, aside from the fact that the Dems have their heads up their asses. Again.
Impeachment Poll Results
Damn. It’s not a huge margin, but it’s wider than I thought, with a higher number supporting impeachment than I expected.
By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans say that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.Follow the link to read more, including a large section on how support for impeachment is a major underreported story.
The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October 8-9.
The poll found that 50% agreed with the statement:
"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him."
[…]
Both the Ipsos and Zogby polls asked about support for impeachment if Bush lied about the reasons for war, rather than asking simply about support for impeachment. Pollsters predict that asking simply about impeachment without any context would produce a large number of "I don't know" responses. However, this may understate the percentage of Americans who favor Bush's impeachment for other reasons, such as his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, his policy on torture, soaring gasoline prices, or other concerns.
Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact lie about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll found 52% of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately misled the public before the war," and 57% say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons."
Ohhhhh…Laura Says So…
Someone explain to me to whom, exactly, it makes a sliver of shit worth of difference that Laura Bush is offering reassurances that Miers will make a dandy Supreme Court Justice?
President Bush and his wife, Laura, offered a double-barreled defense of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers on Tuesday while the White House worked to dampen opposition from the right and win confirmation for the president's pick.Fanfuckingtastic. Because the Supreme Court has been a regular Animal House for years, so the most pertinent qualification in a new appointee should be dignity.
[…]
"She won't change," Bush said. "I mean, the person I know is not the kind of person that is going to change her philosophy and her philosophy is, is that she is not going to legislate from the bench."
Bush said Miers is the most qualified candidate for the job, and Mrs. Bush agreed: "Absolutely. Absolutely."
"She's very deliberate and thoughtful and will bring dignity to wherever she goes, but certainly to the Supreme Court," Mrs. Bush said. "She'll be really excellent."
What are these two smoking? Only someone who is high could say with a straight face that a woman who is a former Catholic Democrat, and who contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is “not the kind of person that is going to change her philosophy.” Only someone with a drug-addled mind could suggest that any member of the Supreme Court won’t “legislate from the bench,” with total disregard for the fact that sometimes when the highest court in the land simply interprets existing law on a new issue, it has the de facto effect of creating new law. Only someone through whose veins is coursing near-lethal levels of illicit substances could sputter that being “deliberate and thoughtful” are somehow among the most significant attributes required of a Supreme Court Justice. I’m sure Jeffrey Dahmer was single-mindedly deliberate and thoughtful in his pursuit of a victim to turn into a lobotomized sex zombie and delicious midnight snack, but I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t want him deciding important court cases. Honestly—just shut up and go away already, you idiotic lunatics.
Typepad, What Up?
You're supposed to be better than Blogger, remember?
I don't know what's going on with Typepad, but I'm able to get into fewer and fewer sites over the course of the day. Their whole network seems to be collapsing like flan in a cupboard.
Megachurches
Slate has an interesting photo essay of megachurches worth checking out. Generally, I find them truly hideous displays of everything wrong with modern architecture, which is why I’m strangely fascinated by them. This is my favorite all-time example of a megachurch:
Yowza.
Blah Blah Sputter Garble Blather Blahbiddy Blah Blah
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE TRAVEL POOLThe President was then whisked away by the Secret Service before his desire to celebrate such spectaculous schoolosity with the students by passing out cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon could be realized.
Delisle Elementary School Pass Christian, Mississippi
10:54 A.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, first I want to thank the Superintendent. We're delighted to see that the schools of pass Christian are blue ribbon schools. They have been blue ribbon schools before and they'll be blue ribbon schools in the future. Part of the health of a community is to have a school system that's vibrant and alive. And in spite of the fact that a lot of equipment was damaged and homes destroyed and teachers without places to live and -- this school district is strong, and it's coming back. And it's a sign that out of the rubble here on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi is a rebuilding, is a spirit of rebuilding.
And thank you all for having us. I want to thank the principals and teachers for understanding the quality of education -- the quality of the education in a community helps define the nature of the community. And one of the things that's interesting is the high school principal told Laura and me that the -- and Madam Secretary -- that the high school was deemed to be a blue ribbon high school after Katrina hit. And yet a lot of the students don't know that yet. And so when the high school comes back next Monday, the first thing the principal is going to tell them is that the school that they go to, even though the building is different -- the buildings are different -- is a blue ribbon high school.
And the Superintendent says, blue ribbon high school last year, this year, and next year. And I appreciate your spirit. Thanks for letting us come by.
Thank you all. Bye-bye.
(Hat tip Catherine.)
I Agree
…with Oliver:
My current thinking goes that if the GOP really reacts harshly to the Miers pick (missing their big “F-U” to the left) and the promise unfilled of the Bush administration, they could pick one of the crazies - Roy Moore, Tom Tancredo, etc. Which would mean they would lose big. The pragmatic choice for the GOP would be John McCain, who’s also the candidate who would siphon off the most independent and Democratic voters, but they increasingly seem less likely to pick him - at least among the base, mainstream Republicans know better.The problem (for us) with McCain is that making clear what a disingenuous, opportunistic, bootlicking, useless hack he really is requires that his Democratic opponent have the balls to point out loudly and repeatedly that a two-faced, arrogant shit doesn’t even deserve the nomination for the presidency, no less the office itself. Is there anyone among the field of possible candidates on the Left who can (and will) do it? I’m hard-pressed to imagine any of them not suffering an acute case of sphincter-tightening at the mere thought of having to go negative on a war hero, no matter how deservedly.
On the Democratic side, I do also think that someone outside of the DC Dems may have a leg up - including the usual look at governors, as well as Al Gore and John Edwards who are no longer “inside the beltway”.
Question of the Day
There’s an article in Salon today about men who own Real Dolls, which are lifelike replicas of women designed for fucking (and, for many owners, companionship). It’s an interesting, if at times disturbing, article.
Without going too much into an analysis of the story, one of the things which most bothered me was that among the dollmaker’s list of requests he refused to fulfill was armpit hair. It’s strange and unsettling to think that particular standards of beauty are enforced even upon fake women.
Anyway, one of the things mentioned in the piece is that Real Dolls often serve as stop gap measures for men between relationships, and I was curious about what people thought of a potential partner who had engaged in relations with a Real Doll. (At this point, the primary market is female dolls for men, but there are some women who buy them, and there is one male doll on the market, too—so this question is open to everyone, regardless of sex or sexuality.) Would you be bothered if you found out your partner had a Real Doll? Would it make a difference if they continued to use the Real Doll while in a relationship?
