[Dialogue] Internat'l Clearing House articles

[Lucille Chagnon]

>From Lucille Chagnon, Wilmington, DE

Dear Colleagues:
I receive the Information Clearing House e-mail bag daily.  Very good stuff and lots of it.  The listing of articles always begins with 3-5 very powerful but brief quotes, many from the Founding Fathers, the Greeks, and, of course, George Orwell who was off by 16 years.
Yesterday, July 15, there were some zingers, two of which are totally unlike the stuff they usually carry (Dubya talks to God and Bush on the Couch), but I found substance there, despite my resistance.  The Mitt Romney piece is justs seven short paragraphs.  
Here are URLs for five of the dozens of yesterday's pieces, among which I couldn't resist copying the last two in full :  Francis  Fukuyama and Justin Frank (Huffington by-line).  Subscription is free by the way.

For those of you who may want to READ HEADLINES IN HTML FORMAT: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
ARCHIVE: http://tinyurl.com/25bpq
http://tinyurl.com/283yn

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Mitt Romney, Republican governor of Mass., criticizes his own party: 
http://tinyurl.com/3mets  or
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/07/14/republican_governor_criticizes_own_party/ 
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'Homeland Security' Beyond U.S. Borders: 
In the novel '1984' George Orwell depicts a world where powerful and secretive authorities -- "Big Brother" -- scrutinise the intimate details of citizens' personal lives. That fiction may be closer to reality than most people think.
http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/90008/1/
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Hello, God? It's Me, Dubya: 
Lord? Bush here. I'm confused. Why won't you crush Kerry and smite the heathens? Hello?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/07/14/notes071404.DTL&nl=fix
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Neo-conservative founding father Withdraws Bush Support : 
Famous academic Francis Fukuyama, one of the founding fathers of the neo-conservative movement that underlies the policies of US President George W. Bush's administration, said on July 13 that he would not vote for the incumbent in the November 2 US Presidential election.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20040714&hn=10372
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George W. Bush: Presidential or Pathological?: 
"Bush on the Couch," uncovers a man suffering from megalomania, paranoia, a false sense of omnipotence, an inability to manage his emotions, a lifelong need to defy authority, an unresolved love-hate relationship with his father, and the repercussions of a history of untreated alcohol abuse.
http://ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=722
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        From ZAMAN, the first Turkish daily newspaper online (http://www.zaman.com) since 1995, established in 1986 by Feza    Publications Inc., based in Istanbul, and among top five national daily newspapers in Turkey with an average 400.000 circulation.

Famous academic FRANCIS FUKUYAMA, one of the founding fathers of the neo-conservative movement that underlies the policies of US President George W. Bush's administration, said on July 13 that he would not vote for the incumbent in the November 2 US Presidential election. 
IN ADDITION to distancing himself from the current administration, Fukuyama told TIME magazine that his old friend, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, should resign. 

In 1997, Fukuyama together with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Jeb Bush, signed a declaration entitled 'The New American Century Project'. That declaration set the groundwork for the neo-conservative movement. 

Fukuyama began to distance himself from the administration during the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The tension between the two came to a head prior to the invasion of Iraq. Fukuyama opposed the war. 

Fukuyama is still angry at the Bush administration since they refuse to admit to the mistakes they have made. Fukuyama had warned that after the war, Iraq would be dragged into an internal conflict and would export terror to the world. 

Fukuyama said that because of those reasons he could not vote for Bush in the upcoming elections. He added that he has an important place among the right wing and could affect the outcome of the elections; however, he explained that he would not carry out any studies in that direction because he is not eager to fight with 'old friends'. 

In his well-known work of political philosophy 'The End of History and the Last Man', Fukuyama argues that history is directional and that its endpoint is capitalist liberal democracy. 

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George W. Bush: Presidential or Pathological?  

by Arianna Huffington

That is the highly provocative question being asked in "Bush on the Couch," a new book in which psychoanalyst and George Washington University professor Dr. Justin Frank uses the president's public pronouncements and behavior, along with biographical data, to craft a comprehensive psychological profile of Bush 43.

It's not a pretty picture, but it goes a long way in explaining how exactly our country got itself into the mess we are in: an intractable war, the loss of allies and international goodwill, a half-trillion-dollar deficit. 

Poking around in the presidential psyche, Frank uncovers a man suffering from megalomania, paranoia, a false sense of omnipotence, an inability to manage his emotions, a lifelong need to defy authority, an unresolved love-hate relationship with his father, and the repercussions of a history of untreated alcohol abuse.

Other than that, George Bush is the picture of psychological health.

One of the more compelling sections of the book is Frank's dissection of what he calls Bush's "almost pathological aversion to owning up to his infractions" - a mindset common to individuals Freud termed "the Exceptions," those who feel "entitled to live outside the limitations that apply to ordinary people."

Limitations like, for instance, not driving while drunk. Or the limitation of having to report for required Air National Guard duty. Or the limitation of having to adhere to international law.

And it doesn't help one outgrow this sense of entitlement when Daddy and his pals are always there to rescue you when you get in trouble - whether it's keeping you out of Vietnam by bumping you to the top of the National Guard waiting list or bailing you out of lousy business deals with cushy seats on corporate boards or making sure the votes in Florida (just another limitation) aren't properly counted. 

But you don't make it as far as W. has without some psychological defenses of your own - especially when it comes to insulating yourself against your own fears and insecurities.

Raised in a family steeped in privilege and secrecy, and prone to the intense aversion to introspection and denial of responsibility that are the hallmarks of a so-called dry drunk - one who has kicked the bottle without dealing with the root causes of the addiction - Bush has become a master of the psychological jiu-jitsu known as Freudian Projection.

For those of you who bailed on Psych 101, Freudian Projection is, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a defense mechanism in which "the individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by falsely attributing to another his or her own unacceptable feelings, impulses or thoughts." 

In layman's terms, it's the soot-stained pot calling the kettle "black." 

On the 2004 campaign trail, it's the pathologically inconsistent Bush attempting to portray John Kerry as a two-faced flip-flopper. 

It's become the Bush-Cheney campaign mantra. GOP talking points 1 through 100. The president's go-to laugh and applause line: 

"Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue," chided Bush at a spring fundraiser. "My opponent clearly has strong beliefs, they just don't last very long." Ba-da-bum! (Incidentally, how is this consistent with Bush's other contention, that Kerry is a rock-ribbed liberal?)

Or as Dick "Not Peaches and Cream" Cheney ominously put it at a Republican fundraiser: "These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds, saying one thing one day and another the next."

I couldn't f---ing agree more, Mr. Cheney. But it's your man George W. who can't seem to pick a position and stick to it. He's reversed course more times than Capt. Kirk battling Khan in the midst of the Mutara Nebula. Gone back on his word more times than Tony Blundetto. Flip-flopped more frequently than a blind gymnast with an inner-ear infection. 

The list of Bush major policy U-turns is as audacious as it is long. Among the whiplash-inducing lowlights:

In September 2001, Bush said capturing bin Laden was "our number one priority." By March 2002, he was claiming, "I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important."

In October 2001, he was dead-set against the need for a Department of Homeland Security. Seven months later, he thought it was a great idea.

In May 2002, he opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission. Four months later, he supported it.

During the 2000 campaign, he said that gay marriage was a states' rights issue: "The states can do what they want to do." During the 2004 campaign, he called for a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Dizzy yet? No? OK:

Bush supported CO2 caps, then opposed them. He opposed trade tariffs, then he didn't. Then he did again. He was against nation building, then he was OK with it. We'd found WMD, then we hadn't.  Way out.

In fact, Bush's entire Iraq misadventure has been one big costly, deadly flip-flop:

We didn't need more troops, then we did. We didn't need more money, then we did. Preemption was a great idea - on to Syria, Iran and North Korea! Then it wasn't - hello, diplomacy! Baathists were the bad guys, then Baathists were our buds. We didn't need the U.N., then we did. 

And all this from a man who, once upon a time, made "credibility" a key to his appeal. 

Now, God knows, I have no problem with changing your mind- so long as you admit that you have and can explain why. But Bush steadfastly - almost comically - refuses to admit that there's been a change, even when the entire world can plainly see otherwise. He's got his story and he's sticking to it. But that darn Kerry, he keeps shifting his positions!

At the end of his analysis, Dr. Frank offers the following prescription: "Having seen the depth and range of President Bush's psychological flaws . our sole treatment option - for his benefit and for ours - is to remove President Bush from office."

You don't need to be a psychiatrist to heartily second that opinion. 

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