News Blog Comments
Few years back Scott Pelly from CBS news was doing an interview with Bush. I to notice those black, cold eyes on TV. Like my late mother you say.
"There's no light there."
President Flat Affect.
Some people on Kos were saying narcissist. I disagree. Either he had some idea that he was dealing with a woman who was at some level hostile to him and his policies, and so he shut her and her daughter out through body language and being curt. This is the generous view.
The other possibility is he is a psychopath.
I suppose to some degree there could be overlap between these two viewpoints.
I have often thought that all politicians and leaders must be narcissistic. Then, once they have attained their position of power, they are psychopaths. Maybe we could have a new form of government. Every time someone stand up and says, "Hey, elect me;" or "I was his son, so now I should be king;" or "...and that's why I should be CEO;" then that person would be instantly recognized as suffering from delusions of grandeur, narcissistic personality disorder or flat-out psychopathy. They would immediately be taken away to the nearest psychiatric facility for in-patient, long-term treatment. Imagine how much better the world might be.
I had the privilege of having lunch with Cindy and sharing a podium at the Oregon State Capital with her last March. She is like a sister to me and my Veterans for Peace comrades. We will have her back whenever and wherever she needs us.
Her daughter's poem
A Nation Rocked to sleep
by Carly Sheehan
Brother Casey KIA 04/04/04
Sadr City Baghdad
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done
They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
He must be brave because his boy died for another man's lies
The only grief he allows himself are long, deep sighs
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
They say that he died so that the flag will continue to wave
But I believe he died because they had oil to save
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?
The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep
But if we the people let them continue another mother will weep
Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?
Sign the VFP online impeachment petition
Australia, a long-term but very junior partner in the Global War on Terror(tm), has a Prime Minister, John Howard, who exhibits the same despicable behaviour towards the bereaved of servicemen and women as does George Bush.
The story below details John Howard's treatment of Kylie Cooper, the widow of an Australian SAS trooper, Andrew Russell, who was killed in Afghanistan. Her crime was to publicly criticise the level of support given to war widows.
The sacrifice of Andrew Russell was honoured by President Bush at a wreath laying ceremony when he visited Australia. But Kylie Russell wasn't there. She wasn't even invited.
The level of petty vindictiveness displayed by our Pime Minister, who loves to wrap himself and the flag and our war history, would have made George Bush proud.
http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archi...ton/
000395.html
no surprise here.
sociopathy.
Ugh,
that should be "Kylie Russell" in the piece above.
Post in haste. Repent at leisure. :-(
Not exactly psychopath. Textbook definition of a sociopath. No ability to place himself in another's shoes. Incapable of empathy. It's all about him, and the entire world is a means to achieve his ends-- in other words, emotional maturity of a three-year-old. What scares me most, however, is that this now seems to be characteristic of the entire Republican Party as an organization. Not all Republican voters, of course, but a huge contingent of its leaders, activists, and elected officials.
Don't generalize about age. One of my daughters was already exhibiting true compassion at the age of 3 (she's now 5). The other one, who's 7, while a wonderful kid, is still a work in progress in the compassion dept.
So he's conservative with the compassion, huh?
What would you expect from someone who's lived his entire life in the elite, raised with privilege of never having to work a day in your life?
He's a beady-eyed pimp. And my apologies in advance to any pimps who may be offended by the comparison....
Actually, these days there is acknowledged to be not that much difference between 'psychopath' and 'sociopath', or so my psychologist friend keeps telling me.
Sound like anyone you know?
http://home.datawest.net/esn-rec...rtcls/
socio.htm
Actually, these days there is acknowledged to be not that much difference between 'psychopath' and 'sociopath'
There is a fairly significant one. Sociopaths can't relate to normal people. Psychopaths don't care.
Sociopath, definately. Is that really a surprise? I remeber hearing recently a study that large % of Americans, over 50% display pretty strong sociopathic traits.
So take that for what it's worth.
very, very disheartening. Strange, too, the shrub has the "reputation", at least as projected by the MSM, of beng able to connect with people as his strength (remember all those Yale pledges whose names he had supposedly memorized). So I guess it would be fair to conclude that the value of these meetings to the shrub was nil.
Still, the insensitivity is jarring. Very corporate, very bullying, but jarring.
the exile:
I think you nailed it. I noticed it last year when everytime he met with the surviving family, Bush always 1)said the same phony line: I can't imagine losing a loved one and 2)How it always came back to him. The relatives comforted HIM. Telling him he made the right decision and they will continue to pray FOR him.
He's balmy.
Holy shit. Didn't know anybody's names? He does when he wants to.
Compare and contrast:
At one point, the subject of the best catchers in the National League came up. "I blanked on who catches for the Phillies," Tavares said. "I asked the commissioner. He didn't know. The president said, '[Mike] Lieberthal' "
If Tavares was shocked, Eischen was stunned by his presidential moment. Long before the game, Eischen mentioned he'd played in the Rangers' organization when Bush was a managing general partner. "I was a 19-year-old punk kid in A ball," Eischen said. "He didn't want to meet me. I wasn't even on the big club's roster."
By midseason, Eischen was traded as an insignificant minor league throw-in as part of a deal for Oil Can Boyd.
Afterward, Eischen said: "The president came in before the game and shook hands with everybody. I said my name. Later we had pictures taken. He looked at me and said, 'Eischen, right?' I said, 'Yes, sir.' He said, 'Oil Can Boyd. Bad trade.' "
Washington Nationals, Opening Day.
Brian Bell had an excellent argument.
Why in the name of Bleeding Jesus should we elect anyone who actually WANTS the job? Between narcissists and psychopaths, we might be better served if we track down and arm-wrestle some poor slob kicking and screaming into the Oval Office. Once there, he'd have to do a good job so he could get time off for good behavior.
Our Caligua. Always remember Virginia's state motto: Thus ever to tyrannts.
This story doesn't fit with some of the stories we hear from the White House about aWol crying in the presence of the war families. Could it be that he has mood swings?
Again I am reminded of who raised this individual. She must be one piece of work!
Bush *likes* killing people, he despises apologizing for it.
It was bad enough that this woman lost her son. But then they added insult to irreparable injury by forcing her to spend time in a room alone with Bush.
This would probably violate the Geneva Convention if this administration recognized its application to parents of US military personnel.
O think Mark Crispin Miller first call GWB a sociopath back in 2001 while discussing his book THE BUSH DYSLEXICON, Let's give credit where credit is due. And lets wonder at all the media types that keep telling us what a regular guy this naked emperor is who would be a peachy keen barbique mste?
Empathy is Clinton's greatest political gift. He feels your pain. Even Ronnie was able to project empathy.
It can't be an easy thing to do, but Bush bought the ticket. Now he has to go on the ride.
Personally I don't really place much stock in the capability for empathy of any politician, right or left, Democratic or Republican.
But what I do think is important is the ability to fake it, or, rather, the willingness to fake it.
I would expect any liberal Democratic to be at least able to fake empathy with a couple of wingnut parents who's son was killed in Iraq. It's a way of saying "let's put aside politics when it comes to something like this. In the end, we're all just Americans."
It should go the other way. Cindy Sheehan's pretty well known as a critic of Bush and I'm sure Bush can't stand her (check out FreeRepublic if you want to see what the right thinks of her) but Bush shouldn't act like a poster on FreeRepublic. He should put aside his dislike of this woman and fake some sort of empathy.
It looks to me as if he didn't in this case, or as if his handlers didn't.
Empathy is Clinton's greatest political gift. He feels your pain. Even Ronnie was able to project empathy.
Christ, even Nixon could have acted like he cared.
Oh how I wish that Bush could have become Baseball Commissioner in 1992 That's all he really wanted. That's what the Presidency is the warm-up for.
All this misery could have been avoided.
Damn you, Bud Selig!
It's hard to read your site when the articles are so sloppy and slapped together with no editting whatsoever. It really makes me mad how polished the right winger sites are, but the democratic liberal sites look like a 4 year old write the articles. Get a fucking editor already, you can't spell or write for shit.
Jesse,
This entire post was quoted material.
Jesse S is just trolling with stale bait. I'd even wager that he had written that comment before he had even looked at the site.
Don't feed the troll. Thank you.
Um, he can't imagine losing a loved one?
He did. His sister, to cancer.
That daughter that his parents didn't know how to mourn in a way that included him? The one after whose funeral H.W. and Bar went golfing?
He lost a loved one, when he was a child. And he can't imagine what it feels like, now.
We are living in the psychic ruins of a bad family, people, and there's no social services agency to pull us out of it.
I have often thought that all politicians and leaders must be narcissistic. Then, once they have attained their position of power, they are psychopaths.
IIRC, this was why in ancient Athens, many leadership positions were filled by casting lots rather than by election. They felt that if anyone was egotistical enough to actually run for a position, and had a big enough claque that he felt he could win a vote on it, he would be a danger to democracy. The only elected position, IIRC, was general, where you had to have someone with specific skills.
Of course they only had a few thousand eligible voters, but it's a thought. Maybe we should choose our representatives by lottery, like juries.
The boy-king's about to find out that the Iraqi gummint he's installed isn't going to let him use Iraq as a staging area for invading Iran:
http://www.juancole.com/2005/07/...all-for-
us.html
I have a small paperback that claims to be the first metastudy(although the word wasn't used 30+ years ago, AFAIK) of psycopathology.
One of the distinguishing characteristics cited is the inability to learn from one's own mistakes.
Sounds familiar?
sagesourse;
That reminded me that the Spartans had a system whereby their administrators (ephors, I think) were appointed for a limited term, either a year or two. After the term was up, they were obliged to undergo a sort of trial, to answer for all their actions. Wonderful idea.
The sick thing about it is he doen't have to imagine losing a loved one, he lost a sister when he was a child. He was so damaged by this experience and the way his parents dealt with it, by playing golf and not letting the children grieve, that he has spent his whole life blocking out any feelings of grief or loss. I think he has contempt for any person that shows genuine feeling.
Louise: 
And Jesse: "How polished the rightwing sites are..."
WTF???
Yeah, go to LGF.
Bunch of fucking pulitizer nominees, they are...
I've always been sure that W. is little more than a vacuous, mean-spirited rich-kid creep, but this account just left me utterly gobsmacked. And these days, with all the outrage-burnout which is part and parcel of living in the Age of BushCo, that's sayin' somethin'.
Now that the Shia elements in the Iraqi government are exchanging high level visits with the Iranians, I can't help but wonder what they're talking about.
Iran: "How's it goin' Abdul? You guys hangin' in?
Iraq: "Yeah, we're helping 'em with the Sunni hunt...need to do that, but we're a little concerned that when we get a handle on THAT, and it's settled down, the incentive for them to leave will be gone."
Iran: "not a problem, we'll just slip a couple of pickup truck loads of shoulder-mounteds in there, and it'll be back to square one.
So, you got all the women in the southern provinces barefoot and pregnant?"
Iraq: "Well, we're sho'nuff working on it. The Badr boys are riding around beating up male doctors who treat females, and threatening barbers who give stylish haircuts, and we're closing the video-rental places, but it's like the "war on terrr", itself; takes time, takes time..."
Iran: "I'm hip. How's Chalabi doin'?"
Iraq: "Oh, he's cool. Never seen a guy who can play both ends against the middle like that. Are all bankers that way? Sheesh! Those americans! We gave him the oil ministry, as part of the "government" deal, and he's playing it right, periodically publicly growling at bushCo, while finagling to make sure that the benefits from all the dinosaurs don't make it to street level, where they might interfere with bushCo and our policy of not offering the men any survival option other than coming to work for the "security forces"...Chalabi knows how to play the game."
Iran: "Yeah, he's a slimeball, but he's OUR slimeball!
Stay in touch, y'hear?"
But what she encountered was an arrogant man with eyes lacking the slightest bit of compassion, a President totally "detached from humanity" and a man who didn't even bother to remember her son's name when they were first introduced.
The same man who signed death warrents in texas like they were Christmans cards. The same man who mocked death row inmate Karla Fay Tucker in front of a reporter. You had to know what he was well before he strong armed his way into the oval office. He's missing that piece most of us have that connect us to one another in the most basic of ways. And he's spent his life trying to compensate in various ways, trying this way and that to affect that basic human sympthy that he'll never Know first hand. You could almost pity the poor runt, if he wasn't so damn dangerous.
Typical Addict's arrested development.
Laura's the supreme enabler due to her murderous guilt. Sheesh
What gets me is not the reactions (dirty looks and such), because those could be misconstrued. What gets me is that it seems like he was in back-slappin', glad-handin', nickname-givin' mode for the occasion. "Who we-all honorin' here today?" and calling the grieving mother "Ma" or "Mom" shows a terrible disregard for the gravity of the situation. It's the mode that serves him well in locker rooms and pep rallies, but it should *not* be the one he takes up for meeting war-torn families.
John Howard, Tony Blair, George Bush -- the Iraq stupidity really required all three of them.
Without Australia and Great Britain giving him cover, Bush probably wouldn't have been able to push it to actual war.
Howard seems to be as nuts as Bush, and Blair -- well, Blair was just a fool. He thought he could make a deal with the Devil -- bargain Iraq for some of the things Britain wants out of the US. More fool he.
what are these powerful right wing sites people are writing about?? i have never seen one? The only one i know is anncoulterīs site ?
The story about the grieving mother is sickening, i hope lots of bush voters read it.
Remember the Bush campaign commercial that featured the daughter of a man killed at the WTC on 9/11/2001? Apparently the girl was part of a selected crowd and when told of the girl's father's fate, GWB swept the girl into his arms, while looking hard-eyed into the cameras pointed at him, all of which was incorporated into the first part of the commercial.
In the second part, the girl, clearly shell-shocked, says "He's the most powerful man in the world, and all he wants is to keep me safe."
No, baby, all he wants to do is exploit you and your ruined soul for his own aggrandizement. That's the kind of amoral monster he is.
I think Megtran nailed it above; little George was made to treat his sister's death as an inconvenience. And today American soldiers and Iraqi civilians pay for that callous indifference with their lives.
Victoria in Mass.
Thanks Infoshaman. That site you gave the link for, is absolutely fascinating.
Those who want to study the phenomenon of psychopathy/sociopathy must read Dr. Robert O'Hare's book Without Conscience if you can find it. Robert O'Hare is the only acknowledged expert on psychopathy, and his book is out of print ! What he talks about is so scary people just don't want to know.
As for Bush being a psychopath...What took you so long? He has all the traits: glibness, lack of affect and empathy, easily bored, cruelty to animals,(remember the exploding frogs?), lack of conscience, complete self absorbtion, and attempts at self medication,(booze, coke, and pot), refusal to admit mistakes. As for what can be done about him? There is no cure for psycopathy; That's the real scary part. Psychopathy can't be "fixed, it can only, just barely, be controlled. But Bush is the president of the United States, and he's surrounded by enablers.
And don't forget Rove. Two peas in a pod, him and Bush. Both of them have what social scientists call "duping delight", a genuine pleasure in lying and deceiving. I'm not surprised that Rove hooked onto Bush early in their careers. Like attracts like.
Read "Bush On the Couch" if you want to know how our President works.
He has to be the First President that merited a psychoanalysis of him through a written book.
Slightly OT, but could someone do me a favor? I've been trying to track down exactly where Judy Miller acquired the moniker "Queen of All Iraq" but I never found it. Who referred to her this way? Chalabi?
Could someone help me here, either by responding here or sending me an email?
Thanks,
Chuck
I despise Bush, his policies, and his family as much as anyone else on the Left, but I do have to explain about the golf business and Robin's death.
According to the Kitty Kelley book, (certainly NO white-wash of the Bush family), the parents spent day and night at Robin's bedside and throughout her treatments. The golf they played the day she died was, I assume, just "release".
Also, back in the '50's, the grieving process for siblings was not recognized. My ex-husband, a few years younger, also lost a younger sister to leukemia in the late '50's, and he has suffered from the loss all his life. He was never told how sick his sister was and never saw her before her death. If grief-management therapy had been available, I'm sure my in-laws would have done it for their son.
I am not in anyway exusing the Bush family for it's heinous actions, but I'm willing to cut them a little slack in how they handled Robin's death.
It is not an anomaly or freakish variant that such a murderous cipher should emerge out of whole cloth. On the contrary, it is entirely thematic of a deeply homicidal culture.
And out of the brackish cess...the death wish incarnation...
"I just couldn't believe this was happening. It was so surreal and bizarre. " Not really.
God bless America!
I noticed the same thing FlipYrWig did -- he had completely the wrong tone for the entire occasion. What kind of man could walk into a room filled with grieving family members and ask "Who we-all honorin' here today?" like he was issuing a Good Citizenship Award to an elementary schooler or something. Has he read so much fawning from the press over his folksiness that he thinks absolutely everyone will fall for it now? How could his supposedly brilliant advisors have let him do that?
It reminds me of Dick Cheney wearing the ski parka and toque to Auschwitz. I guess they've decided that certain people are not worthy of their respect, alive or dead. It chills me to think of the message their contempt for ANYONE who isn't a total sycophant is sending.
W could take a lesson from Steve Jobs.
Remember that Bush right after 9/11 referred to the hijackers as "those folks". Yup, "those folks" a-sitting on the porch who jes decided to mosey along and fly planes into buildings. His handlers have obviously drilled that folksy crap into his tiny little head until he uses it when it is very inappropriate.
What was extremely telling to me about the pResident was his actions, and behavior, immediately after 9/11.
One of the most telling that I noted occurred during the time slot of CNN propogandists Darryn Kagan and Leon Harris (it can't have been over a week after the attack), there was a segment showing Bush in the oval office, during an interview with some reporters, expressing his "sympathy" and "moral outrage" at what happened.
It was one of those "news" items that passes with nary a thought on the part of most people (especially given the larger circumstances) but I for one will never forget it.
I did not see a man overcome with emotion or anger--rather a completely befuddled man struggling to MUSTER a show of emotion or anger; one who had no clue as to how to do it. His brow was furrowed, the muscles of his face were taut, but there was not a single spark, of anything, in those eyes of his. He could not even FAKE it, even though he was attempting to with all of his might.
What was almost as disgusting was that Darryn Kagan, after the segment turned immediately to Leon Harris and said breathlessly, to the effect, "a lot of emotion on the part of the President, huh?" Harris nodded, and agreed with an eagerness that nearly matched Kagan's.
I was utterly disgusted at the time, and only later reflected on how frightening the episode was.
Still, I think you nailed it.
He's a strange man. I think the arrogance of growing up rich (and stupid) has a lot to do with it.
If you could graft that personality onto someone who was poor, and not in the media spotlight, they could be capable of anything; any cruelty...utterly selfish. And so, I think, is bush.
Someone once said of Nixon: "He's not immoral. He's amoral...no morals, good OR bad..."
ADS | Bush *likes* killing people, he despises apologizing for it.
Compare the emptiness in his eyes when talking to a greiving mother to the sheer joy expressed when he announced that the murderers of John Bird where going to be executed.
That whole Them boys is gownna die!! YEEE-HAW!!! thing really freaked me out.
Darth
The other occasion which really showed his glee over killing was the third State of the Union speech where he said "Let's just say the're not being a problem any more"
Yea, that mimiking"I don't wanna die" line and his weak Gary Cooper impression are wearing thin...at least Bob Novack is safe!
None of you knows the history of psychiatry as I do. LOL.
My two cents worth: Bush does seem like a detached, remorseless piece of work. I wonder if he really understands the bad consequences of his fuck-ups. Why do Rethugs think Bush is so affable?
At the end of Woodward's first book about Bush, he asks him what he thinks the verdict of history on his administration will be, and Bush says (quoting from memory here): "Who knows? We'll all be dead."
Think about that. "Who knows?" Fair enough -- we don't know. Even if we were going to live forever, we wouldn't know now what the verdict of the future would be. But "We'll all be dead." What has that got to do with it? What it means is: we'll all be dead, so it doesn't matter.
He is a moral cripple.
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