Bush and Rove came to Washington with one grand idea...

[kentuck]

They had proven themselves in Texas by defeating the popular Governor, Ann Richards. They did it with personal attacks and innuendo. And they won! They discovered that all they needed was a good PR team and to always stay on the offensive. Never let the opponent put you on the defensive. If they did, make sure to change it quickly. They were not afraid to tell a lie if it promoted their agenda. And what was their agenda? To promote taxcuts and the business interests and to pay off whomever they needed to pay off in order to maintain power. It has worked very well for them up to this point.

[ewagner]

1. We missed a point

from Paul O'Neil's book....The Price of Loyalty which was EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

That point was that the entire Bush administration saw all issues in terms of POLITICS and not POLICY. Hence, running a war against Bin Laden, executing the war in Iraq (as illegal as it was) and acting in New Orleans after Katrina, were completely foreign concepts to these people because they saw in terms of how (if at all,) can Bush benefit from this.....

If we think about Bush in those terms, he's much easier to understand.

[kentuck]

3. Bingo!

right on the mark. It's always about politics.

[lyonn]

4. How many people have read or even know about O'Neil

And Clarke's book? And even if they did would they think it was politically slanted towards the Left? I read both and they verified what seemed to be bush's reasoning and why and how this admin had the ability to snooker the citizens.

If what happened in Afghanistan (failed to put enough troops there to protect the new govt.) and their Need to unseat Saddam when most of us knew if he had some chemicals, etc., he had been kept powerless for years, then what happened in New Orleans should have got their attention, afterall, couldn't they put themselves in the place of those citizens that were forgotten to death? That City is still a neglected City - just keep those ol' pumpers goin' out there in the gulf and the refineries refinin'.

[neoblues]

6. Yeah, Bush: Me, Me, Me, Mine, Mine, Mine, Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee...

Between that and his resentment of authority, we have a real monster. His problem with "Authority" refers to his insecurities and inferiority complex arising from always being kicked around, beaten, losing out to a wide array of others--people who were successful in business or academia, the well educated, heck--even those who just managed to make a living and manage their own affairs successfully seemed superior to poor old, always screwing up George Junior. His own dad being one of those successful types, capable, educated etc, and always showing disdain for yet another of his "bad seed", he treated poor Dubya like an idiot (well, if the foo shits...). His dominatrix like battle-ax of a mother no doubt coddled him with love, affection, understanding and support--NOT. Hence, the screw-up rebelled against everything; doing what he does best, which is being a trouble maker and screwing things up. Imagine the chills that went down papa Bush when he found out the Republican Party considered his son a viable candidate... since it would be good for the Dynasty, he certainly wouldn't even try to say no--but surely he had some idea what this would do to the country.

So George Jr. suffers from multiple personality disorders, including some psychopathological behavior--but one of them stands out in terms of understanding much of what he does...
It is "Oppositional Defiant Disorder". See the article by following the link to understand more...

I think one old insignificant example of this can be seen in the following photo of George engaging in poor sportsmanship by delivering a "Sucker-Punch"...



No doubt this attitude is expressed in many things he says and does though I'll leave it with you to consider the implications. George's mantra might be "try and stop me!", so if it seems he doesn't listen to or care about the will of the people, he doesn't--and no one can tell him what to do (so, being President, he must be as happy as a pig in shit).

[Jackpine Radical]

9. A diagnostic note--ODD is essentially a precursor of Conduct Disorder.

Both of those are juvenile disorders, & Conduct Disorder, if it persists beyond adolescence, gives way to a Dx of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Criminal psychologists, following Robert Hare, identify a subgroup of ASP's as Psychopathic Personality Disorders (although this Dx is not recognized in the current version of the DSM). The current measures of Psychopathy (particularly Hare's revised Psychopathy Checklist, or PCL-R) were developed in prison populations and tend to emphasize certain types of criminal history, so even though Bush may not meet those criteria in sufficient degree to technically warrant the Dx, this is a problem of the instrument, which was not designed to assess the psychopathology of Poor Little Rich Kids who never suffered any consequences for their lack of consciousness and empathy.

[ewagner]

10. Wow..

it's an honor to watch you work Sir :patriot:

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Thanks, ewagner.

You get kinda drenched in this stuff after a decade or 2 of criminal-psych experience. I think I've made a few attorneys kinda sorry that they tried to cross-examine me. And that last line was supposed to read "lack of conscience," not "consciousness."

[neoblues]

13. Something tells me... Bush has never progressed...

beyond being a juvenile. Obviously we aren't likely to ever get the chance to put Bush through any comprehensive diagnostic analysis (and I suspect that even in person he would present considerable difficulties in terms of diagnosis and not the least for being clever and such a skilled, remorseless liar). Your point with regard to the fact that the related diagnostic instruments were based off of studies of a unique population which Bush, owing to his privileged existence would never have been able to join, despite himself, is certainly relevant. Otherwise, Bush might well have been the target for a larger number of "distance" diagnostic attempts by less professional psychiatrists.

From a non-professional, informal point of view, though, Bush definitely seems to follow the kind of behavioral patter suggested by a "Defiance Disorder". Not that this should be in any way surprising since on an individual basis, many people suffer significant long term effects on their attitudes and behaviors based on nothing more than one or more experiences from early life (generally this seems to tend to be from around the age range of 'elementary school' or before)(hence the popular wisdom from books like "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten"). Somehow I just imagine Bush was a holy terror as a kid; he certainly grew up to be one--though this may not be entirely fair; after all, in more than a small way, he's merely the representative of the advice (unwitting hood ornament) that he is given by a very twisted set of advisors (who deserve their own psychological deconstruction).

Nevertheless, somewhere in my own psyche, there seems to be an urge to try to convince others that this man is anything but Presidential (and so much worse) and is a monumentally bad choice for President, one for which we will suffer (whether we actually elected him or not). For some reason it bothers me to see all these people out there thinking this catastrophe in chief is one of our best Presidents ever and blindly supporting every misguided thing he does (and everything he does is misguided, malicious or mendacious at the very least). At least my own psychological flaws are neither particularly harmful nor if they were, would I be in a position to cause so much harm--which is why we probably need to instate a new program of psychological evaluation of every candidate for President/Vice-President. Just kidding; can you imagine how that would work and would anyone either dare run for President then or be found sufficiently sane, humane and robust enough (presuming such testing could even discriminate sufficiently). However we do it, we can scarcely afford to allow such people remain or continue to become our leaders in the future. Of course, if our Democratic constructs designed to prevent such abusive leadership hadn't successfully been subverted by the Republicans with their effective triple branch coup over the government, the standard division of powers would have saved us.

Which leads me to the last point/question. Am I wrong, or does this modern version of "conservatism" or "republicanism" not seem to have the appearance of a mass psychological disorder? Perhaps there's something to the theories about "memes" and "thought viruses", but whatever the case, this seems almost like a psychological/mental infection/epidemic that has spread among otherwise or previously, at least somewhat, sane people. But surely, there's no research on the existence of infectious psychological disorders or the communicability of such hopefully imaginary constructs. Take an anti-cognotic (anti-memeetic) and call me in the morning and be sure to wash your mind with soap after coming into contact with a Republican...

[opihimoimoi]

2. Its the LIE CHEAT STEAL M. O....short term gain, Long term LOSS

Not very Positive and in fact,,,very NEGATIVE.


BODES ILL FOR AMERICA

[texastoast]

5. And bodes ill for the children of America

Bush has created generations of enemies of America.

[opihimoimoi]

8. Its TIME to Fold, Cut the LOSS, Retreat from the BushCo Madness,

Look for Viasble/Plausible Solutions beyond the GOP ....they had their chance/opportunity...its Time they step down to let the DEMs give it go...

Vote Blue this nx 2 years and watch the Progress Advance.

Vote Red to continue the Nightmare...

Its that simple...

[liam_laddie]

7. Winning at any cost by any means

If we Dems and progressives are gonna whack the republick party,
we must jetison ethics, honesty, a social conscience..all the qualities
that make life decent and worthy. The dark side has none of these
issues, because they are total and complete non-human ASSHOLES!
Jaysus, I couldn't be more angry even if I fell in a pigshit pond.
November 7 changes everything!

[Skittles]

12. bush would have won Texas based on his name alone

that is how stupid a lot of Texans are