Ron Suskind: "In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush [who] told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend - but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency. The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

From Corrente: "Froomkin laid down a few dots, quoting media observers: ... The Chicago Tribune: "As Bush spoke, television screens showed a bubble of saliva on the right side of his mouth." ... The New York Times: ... Bush's "smile was askew for about half the debate, marred by a glistening light dot at the right corner of his mouth." [AmericaBlog connects the] dots: His left side of [Bush's] mouth is drooping down, it's as if he had a stroke or something. ... Numerous observers here with me, and in the chat, said they saw drool at the beginning of the debate (again, I'm serious). There's something wrong with his face tonight and he's not admitting it. Remember the theory that the Bush Bulge is a wearable defibrillator? Turns out that there's a Bush family history (41) of atrial fibrillation, which is a cause of stroke."

Salon's Katharine Mieszkowski writes, "First it was presenile dementia. Now, it's a stroke. A rash of armchair-diagnosis speculation about Bush's health, based on his faltering speech in the first debate to his drooling and drooping Wednesday night, is flying around the Web. And there's nothing to feed 'is-he-really-fit-to-lead?' grousing among Democratic partisans in the blogosphere like the fact that Bush, who was pronounced healthy at his annual check-up in August 2003, has refused to get his annual physical this year before the 2004 election. A letter by Dr. Joseph Price of Carsonville, Mich., to the Atlantic Monthly... first raised the idea that Bush's mental faculties might be in decline. But it was Bush's less-than-lucid performance in the first debate against John Kerry that sparked the creation of a short video montage juxtaposing footage from that debate with video from Bush sparring with then-Texas Governor Ann Richards, ten years ago."

Bush's wild west fantasy has taken a deadly psychotic turn. He has launched a full-scale bombing/invasion of the city of Fallujah in order to prove his machismo to one man: Al-Zarqawi. In Bush's 10-year-old mentality, one "villain" is always responsible for everything. First it was Osama, then Saddam, then Al Sadr, now al-Zarqawi. Osama was: Wanted Dead or Alive. Until Bush was bored with that. Now it's "Turn over Al-Zarqawi or we're comin' in after him" - as if Fallujah were the OK Corral instead of a city of THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND SOULS. This is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions under way to gratify one psychotic little man's perverted fantasies of dominance.

"It doesn't matter that Bush scares the hell out of me," Seymour Hersh said in a recent interview.. "What matters is that he scares the hell out of a lot of very important people in Washington who can't speak out, in the military, in the intelligence community. They know in ways that none of us know, the incredible gap between what is and what [Bush] thinks... No amount of body bags is going to dissuade [Bush]," said Hersh, despite the fact that Hersh's sources say the war in Iraq is "not winnable. It's over." As for Kerry's war plans, Hersh said he wished he could tell him to stop talking as if the senator's plan for Iraq could somehow still eke out a victory there."This is a disaster that's been going on. It's a civil war, the insurgency. There is no 'win' anymore in this war," he argued. "As somebody said, 'We're playing chess, they're playing Go.'""

ChicagoBruce blogs, "This is the footage that started the story that first appeared in the Atlantic - George Bush from ten years ago - dramatically different than the Bush you're used to. The big story - 'a striking decline in his sentence-by-sentence speaking skills.' The reason? One doctor says 'presenile dementia' a catch-all term for earlier-than-normal cognitive declines (probably 'dry-drunk syndrome'). This video intercuts footage from 10 years ago with recent footage - the difference is dramatic and disturbing. And obvious. See it yourself at http://home.comcast.net/~blogitics/BushTenYrs4MB.mov Show it to your friends who think George Bush is okay. He's not. Send it to any media people you know. Many are already suspicious that something's wrong with GWB. This proves it. You can download this video and pass it on to friends - or just forward the link."

Jerry Mazza writes, "In a letter to the editor of Atlantic Monthly, October 2004, Joseph M. Price, M.D. of Carsonville, Michigan, comments that James Fallows' July/August Atlantic article on John Kerry's debating skills ('When George Meets John'), 'was interesting, but most remarkable was Fallows's documentation of Bush's mostly overlooked changes over the past decade - specifically 'the striking decline in his sentence-by-sentence speaking skills''... [According to Dr. Price], 'Slowly developing cognitive deficits, as demonstrated so clearly by Bush, can represent only one diagnosis, and that is 'presenile dementia'! Presenile dementia is best described to nonmedical persons as a fairly typical Alzheimer's situation that develops significantly earlier in life, well before what is usually considered old age.'" Does this explain Bush's inability to debate Kerry? If you are a psychiatrist - or if you can consult one - we'd like professional opinions (http://democrats.com/contact)

New House reports that even though Israel may launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, "the US is moving ahead with the transfer to Israel of 5,000 heavy, precision-guided bombs, including 500 'earth-penetrating' 2,000-pound bombs. The [deal]went ahead after Congress took no action during its 30-day review period. 'That's an arsenal for war,' said Joseph Cirincione at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace." Any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities "would result in large-scale casualties. War games run at the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency have consistently reached a chilling conclusion: Iran would unleash a wave of terrorism against Israeli targets worldwide and against U.S. troops in the Middle East. Some 140,000 American military personnel are currently stationed adjacent to Iran in Iraq and Kuwait. An Israeli strike, and the wider war it might touch off, also could send oil prices skyrocketing and jeopardize the global economy, analysts say."

First the Bush Pentagon insures that thousands of soldiers will be stuck overseas under unbelievably stressful conditions for YEARS at a time thanks to extended tours. Now the Pentagon says that if any of these guys seek the services of a prostitute, they will be court martialed! Although trafficking in women and girls, of course, is a horrendous practice that must be stopped, expecting young soldiers trapped in a war zone for months on end not to have contact with prostitutesd is not just unrealistic - it is bucking the entirety of human history. In any case, focusing on soldiers' use of prostitutes in the face of all else that is horrendously wrong in Iraq is a bit like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titantic as it starts to go down.

Here's something we've been hollering about for a while: "Two of his recollections are similar, but factually impossible. On Dec. 4, 2001, and Jan. 5, 2002, Bush told audiences he saw the first plane hit the tower on TV before he entered the classroom. But he couldn't have seen it; nobody saw it live on TV. Between those recountings, on Dec. 20, Bush told The Washington Post that Karl Rove told him. This isn't to say the resident is a fabulist." Nah, he's just a run-of-the-mill lunatic. "The White House declined to comment." Wouldn't want to scare the children, would we? Invoke the 25th Amendment at madgeorge.us

If anyone needed further proof that Dubya and his handlers have gone completely delusional, here it is! AP: "Bush on Sunday defended the invasion of Iraq, calling it a 'catastrophic success' despite continued violence and the lack of weapons that drove the country to war. 'We did not find the stockpiles that we thought would be there,' Bush said at a rally in the northern part of West Virginia, [but added, in complete contradiction to himself] I want to remind you that Saddam Hussein had the capability of making weapons of mass destruction, and he could have passed that capability on." Incredibly, the media, led this week by AOL/Time-Warner, has pulled out the stops to shore this pathetic regime up. Time cranked out a new phony 'Bush leads' poll while printing an "apologia interview" with Bush designed to rationalize away all the evils of this empire.

And there are people out there who actually claim Bush makes them feel SAFER? Hell-Oh! We bet the troops still serving in So. Korea don't feel safer this week following Bush's pointless provocation of the North Korean government in a cheap and grossly irresponsible play for votes in Wisconsin last week. After months of diplomatic effort by others to get No. Korea into nuke talks, Bush ruined it all in an moment of idiocy by hurling arrogant, inflammatory statements at the North Korean government just so he would appear "tough" after taking heat for his pledge to remove troops from So. Korea. This is a LEADER? Remove troops, THEN make war-mongering statements? with "brilliant thinking" like this, no wonder Iraq is a mess.

"George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned. The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President's mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately... Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay. 'Keep those motherf**kers away from me,' he screamed at an aide backstage. 'If you can't, I'll find someone who can.' Bush's mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the resident's wide mood swings and obscene outbursts " Too bad the sources remain anonymous.

Barbara Ehrenreich writes, "I trace the current outbreak of droidlike conformity to the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when groupthink became the official substitute for patriotism, and we began to run out of surfaces for affixing American flags. Bill Maher lost his job for pointing out that, whatever else they were, the 9/11 terrorists weren't cowards, prompting Ari Fleischer to warn that Americans 'need to watch what they say'... One thousand coalition soldiers have died because the C.I.A. was so eager to go along with the emperor's delusion that he was actually wearing clothes. Instead of honoring groupthink resisters, we subject them to insult and abuse. Sgt. Samuel Provance III has been shunned by fellow soldiers since speaking out against the torture at Abu Ghraib, in addition to losing his security clearance and being faced with a possible court-martial... This nation was not founded by habitual groupthinkers. But it stands a fair chance of being destroyed by them."

Nicholas Kristof is outraged! But not because Bush lied about Iraq and so many other things, but because "the left" actually dares to call Bush a LIAR. "Mr. Bush's central problem is not that he was lying about Iraq, but that he was overzealous and self-deluded. He surrounded himself with like-minded ideologues, and they all told one another that Saddam was a mortal threat to us. They deceived themselves along with the public." Well in that case, Bush is INSANE - and so are all his top advisors. Hey Nicholas - we invite you to join us in our call to invoke the 25th Amendment, which was adopted in 1967 to deal with any situation in which the President became "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Sign our petition at MadGeorge.US and email nicholas@nytimes.com

Guardian: "Bush had every reason to believe that his attack on Kerry's image would succeed. After September 11, he was able to impose his explanations on the public almost without resistance and to taint anyone who contradicted them as somehow unpatriotic. With Congress in Republican hands, checks and balances were effectively removed. Most of the media was on the bandwagon or intimidated. Cheney himself called the president of the corporation that owned one of the networks to complain about an errant commentator. Political aides directed by Karl Rove ceaselessly called editors and producers with veiled threats about access that was not granted in any case. The press would not bite the hand that would not feed it. But Bush's projection of images can only faintly be seen on the screen, which is overwhelmed with Bush's past images of triumph unreeling in reverse. Bush's battle is [now] not with image, but with the unravelling of his reality. "

The trophy pistol from Saddam's hideout that Bush keeps in the Oval Office and trots out to show anyone who comes through is " the phallic equivalent of a scalp -- I mean that quite seriously," says Stanley Renshon. Renshon is a psychoanalyst and political scientist at the City University of New York who has just completed a book, to be published by Palgrave/Macmillan in September, called In His Father's Shadow: The Transformations of George W. Bush. Michael Sherry, a military historian at Northwestern University, sees less "psychological depths" in the pistol. "Whatever specific symbolism Bush may privately attach to this token, it does make it look to the external viewer that he sees this in very personal terms," Sherry said. In the end, he said, "I'm left feeling that it [Bush's obsession with the pistol] sounds kind of childish."

Here is a possible source of Bush's mental illness. Both Barbara and Poppy Bush have Graves disease, putting G.W. automatically at risk. One symptom of uncontrolled Graves disease is hypomania, the symptoms of which are impatience, mood swings, sometimes delusional grandiosity, exaggerated optimism, paranoia, and a marked tendency to project one's own failings onto others in a self-righteous, punitive manner. People with hypomania often self-medicate with alcohol. Was Bush self-medicating for years? And is he now in a state of progressively intensifying hypomania (it is very hard to effectively treat) that could swing into full mania? Even the pretzel incident provides evidence: Graves can cause the thyroid to swell, making it more difficult to swallow. It can also cause a redding of the bridge of the nose (Bush has this alot).

Claims that Bush is mentally disturbed can no longer be dismissed as "fantasies." The evidence is now coming from too many sources - from people who interact with Bush daily as workers, from childhood friends, from a Republican psychiatrists with no ax to grind against Bush, another prominent psychiatrist who made an intensive study of Bush (Dr. Justin Frank, author of "Bush on the Couch: Inside the President's Mind"), from taped footage of Bush at telling moments (such as his failure to show appropriate affect for nearly 10 minutes after being informed that NYC, and former Sec. of the Treasury Paul O'Neill. What will it take before someone in Washington is able to demonstrate enough concern for national security to address this issue?

Capitol Hill Blue: "Dr. Justin Frank, writing in Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, says the President has a 'lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions ... [and] pumping his fist gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad'... Dr. Frank's revelations comes on the heels of last week's Capitol Hill Blue exclusive that revealed increasing concern by White House aides over Bush's emotional stability...Other findings by Dr. Frank include "The President suffers from 'character pathology,' including 'grandiosity' and 'megalomania' -- viewing himself, America and God as interchangeable"

In his new book 'Bush on the Couch', "Justin A. Frank, a clinical professor at George Washington University Medical Center, claims Bush exhibits 'sadistic tendencies' and suffers from 'character pathology,' including 'grandiosity' and 'megalomania' - viewing himself, America and God as interchangeable... A Democrat who once headed the Washington chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Frank concludes in the book: 'Our sole treatment option - for his benefit and for ours - is to remove Bush from office ... before it is too late.'... Frank, who has practiced for 35 years, told us he began noting Bush's mannerisms in the fall of 2002. 'I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote, and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed.' In the book, he writes that Bush 'fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.'"

UPI: "A Roman Catholic newspaper says Bush asked a Vatican official to help push American bishops on certain cultural issues."Bush said, 'Not all the American bishops are with me' on the cultural issues, especially the battle against gay marriage,'" and asked for the Vatican's help in encouraging the U.S. bishops to be more outspoken," according to National Catholic Reporter. The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "It is just unprecedented for a president to ask for help from the Vatican to get re-elected, and that is exactly what this is." Any head of state who goes to the Vatican will attempt to present a case," said Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, who has served as a translator for Catholic officials with heads of state." But - "It is not an act of devotion. It is a political thing."

Capitol Hill Blue: "George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader's state of mind. In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as 'enemies of the state'... In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be 'God's will' and then tells aides to 'f*ck over' anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration."

Bob Herbert writes, "At least 10 more American soldiers died yesterday in George W. Bush's senseless war in Iraq. They died for a pipe dream, which ... originally referred to the fantasies induced by smoking a pipe of opium. The folks who led us into this hideous madness in Iraq, against the wishes of most of the world, sure seem to have been smoking something. Bush and Cheney... are still clinging to the hope that WMD's will be found in Iraq. Reality was the first casualty of Iraq. This was a war that would be won on the cheap, we were told, with few American casualties. The costs of reconstruction would be more than covered by Iraqi oil revenues. The Iraqi people, giddy with their first taste of freedom, would toss petals in the path of their liberators. And democracy, successfully rooted in Iraq, would soon spread like the flowers of spring throughout the Middle East. Oh, they must have been passing the pipe around."

Experts say Bush's sweeping scheme for a new Department of Homeland Security laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland would violate the international ban on biological weapons and could touch off a global biological arms race. The 'research plan' includes laboratory studies of genetically engineered germs and methods to disseminate them as an aerosol spray. 'If any other country presented this list of tasks, US intelligence would say it's an offensive programme, says biowarfare expert Milton Leitenberg, Such programmes are prohibited by the international Biological Weapons Convention, which the US ratified in 1975. Leitenberg and other critics warn there will be a constant danger that newly engineered pathogens could escape from the lab. A recent example of the danger: The SARS outbreak was set off by an infected lab worker. Experts say there would be no way to ensure that a disgruntled worker might not use high-tech germs or techniques developed at the lab to launch an attack.

Weak, selfish authoritarian leaders traditionally refuse to admit they are wrong, and will keep compounding the wrong in their efforts to "validate" their position. It has been done over and over throughout history, costing untold millions of lives over time. Bush is following in the bloody footsteps of countless weak, selfish leaders, willing to sacrifice the lives of others to validate his own indefensible position. In Fallujah, even his advisors say his choices are "dismal." But Bush is sticking to the same tired, empty line: "America will never be run out of Iraq by a bunch of thugs and killers." Nope, better to stay and fight to the last man...who, of course, will not be Bush or any of the chickenhawks promoting the prolongation of this illegal war.

"Despite repeated assurances to the nation that he does not see the war on terror as a 'religious war,' deep inside President Bush recognizes the enemy wants to kill Christians, says a new book on his family...'George sees this as a religious war. He doesn't have a p.c. view of this war. His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we as the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know... Cousin Elsie Walker said she believes Bush believed a tragedy was coming before Sept. 11 -- and that he was called to be president because of it."

"The weekend after September 11, George Bush's former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, sat in a leather armchair at Camp David, the presidential retreat, devouring a pile of intelligence documents on al-Qaeda handed out by the CIA boss, George Tenet. A two-day crisis meeting of Mr Bush's senior advisers had finally wound up. The President had gone to bed. Across the room, the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was singing hymns, accompanied on the piano by... fundamentalist Attorney-General, John Ashcroft. Leafing through the CIA documents, Mr O'Neill was astonished to read plans for covert assassinations around the globe designed to remove opponents of the US Government. The plans had virtually no civilian checks and balances. 'What I was thinking is, 'I hope the President really reads this carefully', Mr O'Neill said. 'It's kind of his job. You can't forfeit this much responsibility to unelected individuals. But I knew he wouldn't.'" But Bush IS an unelected official!

Ya' better clip and save this one folks, because it ain't likely to happen again for a long time: the editors of the Washington Post actually criticized Bush (gasp!). We could hardly believe our eyes, either. But apparently Bush's idiotic "Hey, let's go to Mars!" scheme, coming right as the economy (for 90% of us anyway) slides downhill and the casualty rate in Iraq climbs again, was too much even for the Bush groupies at the Post. The editor concludes: "After President George H.W. Bush proposed a return to the moon as a way station for Mars, sticker shock soon ended the moon talk, and no doubt the same may happen again. In which case the current President Bush will have floated an unserious proposal, succeeding merely in sounding big and capturing newspaper headlines."

Cheryl Seal writes: "Bush, the man who has driven the US into near-bankruptcy and the dollar into an international collapse, while overextending US resources to the breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan, the man who couldn't successfully engineer a manned mission to eat Turkey in Baghdad, now wants to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a grandiose scheme to conquer the moon and Mars. Why? Here are eleven reasons I can think off just offhand: 1. If he can divert the public's attention into space, maybe they won't notice how badly he has f-cked everything up on Earth. 2. In his never-ending quest to be likened to a real president (he's tried parallels to everyone from Lincoln to FDR to Reagan), Bush is hoping maybe someone will imagine he is like JFK, who inspired the US to set their sights for the moon. Of course that was back when America had the money to spend on such projects. And the only similarity between Bush and JFK is that they both had ruthless fathers."

At a recent fundraiser in New Jersey, Bush "highlighted the accomplishments of his administration, including eliminating the terrorism threat from Afghanistan and weapons of mass destruction from Iraq and ensuring that Medicare will remain solvent." Bush claims he ELIMINATED WMD's from Iraq??? Among the innumerable Bush lies, this ranks at the very top - along with his claim that "we gave [Saddam] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." Either Bush is drinking again, or Karl Rove has him drugged. Bush is Mad! Invoke the 25th Amendment (http://madgeorge.us)

"THE Queen is furious with Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace," reports Terry O'Hanlon. "Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry as when she saw how her perfectly-maintained lawns had been churned up after being turned into helipads with three giant H landing markings for the Bush visit. The rotors of the Marine Force One helicopter and 2 support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria's reign. And Bush's army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants. The Queen's own flock of flamingoes are thought to be so traumatised after being taken to a 'place of safety' that they might never return home. The Palace's head gardener was reported to be in tears when he saw the scale of the damage." Hey, Queen Elizabeth, ya' laid down with dogs...so why are you so surprised now that they left you with a bad case of fleas?

WashPost: "Powell described his killer schedule in an interview Thursday with Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, a reporter for a London-based Saudi newspaper. 'So do you use sleeping tablets to organize yourself?' Al-Rashed asked. 'Yes. Well, I wouldn't call them that,' Powell said. 'They're a wonderful medication -- not medication. How would you call it? They're called Ambien, which is very good. You don't use Ambien? Everybody here uses Ambien.'" How bad is Ambien? Here's a primer [http://www.drug-rehabs.org/faqs/FAQ-ambien.php]: "Ambien addiction is a very serious and sometimes life threatening dilemma. Not only is it difficult for the addict, it is extremely hard on those around them who care about them... Research studies show that residential treatment programs of at least 3 months in duration have the best success rates." Just what does 'Everyone Here' mean? Everyone in the US? Or in the White House?

The Guardian (UK) reports, "The US-led 'war on terror' has caused a worsening of human rights in Yemen, with the authorities there holding almost 200 people without trial in an effort to placate the Americans, says a report published today. After 9-11, Yemen's government was pressed by Washington to crack down on extremists, or face military intervention... Kate Allen, Amnesty's UK director, said: 'The Yemeni authorities have tried to defend the indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial of nearly 200 people as unavoidable in its efforts to stave off US pressure. The US's role in Yemen has been deeply questionable, with the FBI allegedly involved in mass arrests, the CIA conducting illegal killings with a 'drone' last year, and US authorities blocking trials of suspects in the sinking of the USS Cole three years ago.'... Children - the youngest was 12 - have been rounded up in the mass arrests in Yemen, the report says."

Hurricane Isabel has provided stunning proof that G.W. Bush is not only a failure as a pResident, he is utterly out of touch with reality. On Sept. 20, following one of the most damaging storm disasters in the history of the Mid-Atlantic - one that left 3.5 million of Bush's Maryland, DC and VA. neighbors sans power and, in some cases (Alexandria), even drinkable water, Bush's national radio address is a speech about TAX RELIEF. In short, Bush, who rode out the storm hiding out at Camp David, sees this tragedy, which has now killed over two dozen people and left thousands homeless, as a chance to pitch his tax plan!

On 7-14-03, Bush declared "We gave [Saddam] a chance to allow inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in ... [so] we decided to remove him from power." John Whitbeck writes, "Explanation 1: [Bush] believed what he said. In this case, he is so dim-witted and/or totally divorced from reality as to be mentally unfit to hold his current job - or, indeed, any job - and should be taken into medical care. Explanation 2: [Bush] did not believe what he said but, rather, believes that the vast majority of the American people are so dim-witted and/or uninformed and the vast majority of the American media is so sycophantic and/or terrified of being branded 'unpatriotic' that he can now tell any lie, no matter how obvious and outrageous, and get away with it. In this case, he is morally unfit to hold his current job and should, by constitutional means, be forced to relinquish it as soon as possible. Either explanation should scare the wits out of anyone who is not comatose." Visit MadGeorge.us

Jeannette Walls writes: "Is the Bush administration turning to a televangelist doomsayer for political predictions? Apocalyptic preacher Jack Van Impe is claiming that he was contacted by Condoleezza Rice's office and the White House Office of Public Liaison for an 'outline' of his take on world events. Van Impe is the author of such books as 'Israel's Final Holocaust' and 'The Great Escape: Preparing for the Rapture, the Next Event on God's Prophetic Clock.' He has predicted that the end of the world will strike somewhere between 2003 and 2012 and one reviewer has called his TV preaching show with wife Rexella 'a fantastically loopy apocalyptic take on the week's news.'" There have already been indications that Bush is religiously delusional. On 6-24-03, Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper quoted Bush as telling Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did."

"It has been [12 days] since the Washington Post ran a page one story quoting U.S. resident George W. Bush as saying that the reason the U.S., 'along with other nations,'' invaded Iraq was because its brutal vicious dictator would not permit any weapons inspections... 'And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in.' So yes kids! We were all hallucinating when we watched news footage of reporters chasing U.N. weapons inspectors around Iraq last winter. Those were but voices in our collective head when we heard pleas from the likes of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former weapons inspector Scott Ritter to allow the digging around to continue. And we must have all swallowed a giant tab of yellowcake when we read the news of U.N. weapons inspectors scrambling to beat a path out of Baghdad on the eve of the Shock & Awe bombing campaign. So ask yourself: How come the commander-in-chief shoots from the lip once again and nobody is talking about it?"

"How can Bush say Saddam 'wouldn't let [UN inspectors] in' when everyone in the world knows this is not true? Bush's statement - delivered with utter seriousness with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his side - cannot be excused as a misstatement... If George W. Bush now believes Saddam 'wouldn't let [UN inspectors] in,' then it is self-evident that he has simply lost touch with reality. In plain English, Bush has gone mad... We, the undersigned, believe George W. Bush is demonstrably insane. Since the Nation continues to be at war, with soldiers fighting and dying each day in Iraq, we call upon him to once again invoke the 25th Amendment. If he fails to do so, we call upon Dick Cheney and the Cabinet to do so for the sake of the Nation." Sign the petition!

Harley Sorenson writes: "Why should our duly elected president concern himself with global warming when God Himself has said, 'Don't worry, be happy'? Do you see how it works? With God in your corner, it matters not what you do, because God will protect you. OK, I've been shilly-shallying around here, hesitant to come right out and say what I think, but I'm becoming convinced that our president, the man with his finger on the nuclear trigger, is a bona fide nutcase. I really do. For him to say God told him to strike al-Qaida is just nutso. For him to say God told him to strike at Saddam, ditto. This guy is not dealing with a full deck."

W. David Jenkins III writes: "All right already, that is more than enough! What the hell were you thinking? Were you thinking? Have you completely lost your mind? Is there anybody out there keeping an eye on you, kid? I really hate to rant but I just can't let this go."

While George Bush was on Goree Island reading somebody else's words condemning slavery, the island's residents were rounded up, herded into a football stadium, and kept confined until Bush departed. U.S. security agents patrolled the shore and a U.S. gunship stood off the coast, protecting Bush from the souvenir vendors and other dangerous denizens. This paranoia is a stark contrast to President Clinton's visit in 1998, according to former Mayor Urbain Alexandre Diagne: "When Clinton came, he shook hands, people danced."

From Reuters: "Retiring U.S. General Tommy Franks says U.S. troop levels are sufficient in Iraq and he has repeated a taunt made by President [sic] George W. Bush for Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces to 'bring them on'." Obviously, Franks cares more about saving face for Bush than for his troops' safety. Maybe he's planning on a cushy sinecure at the Carlyle Group? Bet Franks can't wait to get on the lecture circuit -- and start raking it in like Colin did.

From a Philly Inquirer editorial: "'Bring 'em on'? U.S. soldiers are dying and dodging guerrilla bullets in a hot and hostile country and their commander-in-chief says, 'Bring 'em on'? Mr. pResident, do you live in a play house or the White House? No matter how Ari Fleischer tries to spin it, childish taunts such as that are not the calibrated words demanded of the United States resident at this turn of history's wheel... The Resident's macho quip rankles in particular because American troops have been put at greater risk by the awful U.S. planning for Iraq post-Saddam... Cheney, ... Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz assured America before the war that Iraqis would gladly welcome U.S. troops... They predicted a smooth transition to democracy requiring no help from individual nations or the United Nations... The reality evolving on the ground is vastly different from that gauzy picture. Yet those officials still seem loathe to admit any mistakes."

Tony Philip writes for the National Post (Canada.com): "A day after George W. Bush declared that coalition forces in Iraq are strong enough to deal with any threat, U.S. troops came under fire again yesterday, with 10 soldiers wounded in three separate incidents as attacks on U.S. forces become bolder and more frequent. The attacks, which appeared to answer the U.S. pResident's challenge to Iraqis planning assaults on U.S. troops to 'bring them on,' suggest the urban warfare that had worried military planners before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime is beginning to materialize."

Ira Chernus writes: "Did God tell George W. Bush to strike at Al-Qaeda and Iraq? God only knows. Did Bush SAY that God told him to strike? We don't know yet, for sure. But we damn well better find out. Because if George W. said it, he-and all of us-could be in for some big trouble. Here is what we know for sure, so far. Journalist Arnon Regular wrote, in the June 26 edition of Ha'aretz (Israel's most reputable newspaper), that he has minutes of a meeting among top-level Palestinian leaders, including Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas... The last paragraph of the article reads: 'According to Abbas, Bush said: 'God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.''"

CNN reports: "The White House found itself on the defensive Thursday for a comment Resident Bush made a day earlier that some Democrats say amounted to a dare for militants to attack U.S. troops in Iraq. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush was only expressing his faith in the strength and capability of U.S. forces when, talking about militant attacks, he declared, 'Bring 'em on.' The resident expressed it, said it, because he views it as a way to express confidence in the forces,' Fleischer told reporters. Privately, more than one White House official acknowledged that, at a minimum, the Bush line was open to misinterpretation. Democrats took a more critical view."

"Bush on Wednesday had a tough message for Iraqi militants attacking U.S. troops -- 'Bring them on' -- and said the U.S. military presence was sufficient to deal with the attackers. Bush spoke in the face of increasing American concern about the rising casualty toll among U.S. troops. At least 23 American servicemen have been killed by hostile fire since Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1. 'There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there,' Bush told reporters at the White House. 'My answer is: Bring them on. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation.' New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg sharply criticized Bush for the 'bring them on' comment. 'I am shaking my head in disbelief. When I served in the army in Europe during World War II, I never heard any military commander -- let alone the commander in chief -- invite enemies to attack U.S. troops,' said Lautenberg in a statement."

Bush "is taking some heat for his 'Bring them on' challenge to Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, who he said were tough enough to take it. Even some aides winced at Bush's words, which Democrats pounced on as an invitation to Iraqi militants to fire on U.S. troops already the subject of hit-and-run attacks by Saddam Hussein loyalists and others. 'These men and women are risking their lives every day, and the president who sent them on this mission showed tremendous insensitivity to the dangers they face,' said Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean... Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, condemned the comment, saying, 'The deteriorating situation in Iraq requires less swagger and more thoughtfulness and statesmanship.'" This is an outrage! Call or fax your Representatives (contact info at www.makethemaccountable.com/links.htm) to demand an apology from Bush! What's worse -- this chest-pounding buffoon is a coward who deserted his National Guard post (see awolbush.com).

"There can be no doubt that Bush believes literally in the divine character of his mission [and that whatever 'decision' forms in his brain] has been planted there, whole and perfected, by God Almighty. [That's] why Bush acts with such serenity and ruthlessness. Nothing he does can be challenged on moral grounds, however unethical or evil it might appear, because all of his actions are directed by God. He can twist the truth, oppress the poor, exalt the rich, despoil the Earth, ignore the law -- and murder children -- without the slightest compunction, the briefest moment of doubt or self-reflection, because he believes, he truly believes, that God squats in his brainpan and tells him what to do... That's why Bush can always 'do whatever it takes' to achieve his goals. [He also puts] his election in 2004 above all other concerns, even the endless bloodshed in the Middle East. So what new crimes will the Lord have to countenance to keep His appointed servant in power?"

"According to [Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: 'God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.'" There have been previous accounts claiming that Bush is religiously delusional. Would God really pick as his messenger the grandson of a Nazi Financier, who profited from Auschwitz slave labor? Would God pick the scion of a CIA-Gangster family, whose patriarch had armed Hussein AND Iran during the Iran-Iraq War -- to strike at Hussein's Iraq? Would God pick Bush, whose parents have been paid up to $10 million by Reverend Moon, the cult leader who claims he has replaced Jesus Christ as the savior? (Enter keywords like 'moon', 'nazi' or 'iraqgate' in our search engine for details)

John Doyle writes for the Toronto Globe and Mail: "The really interesting aspect of 24 this season has been the use of the 25th Amendment as a plot device. It became even more interesting when, last Wednesday, the 25th Amendment was also used as a key plot device on the season finale of The West Wing. The 25th Amendment, which allows the president to lose his power to function as president, but does not remove him from office, has rarely been used in reality and rarely talked about, but now it's everywhere on TV. There's something happening here, and what it is has become clear... For the same obscure amendment to be used twice in prime-time TV shows is more than an interesting coincidence... Now, both shows suggest that a sitting president can lose his power lickety-split." Dubya is incompetent, maniacal and has lied to the Country about there being Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. We say it's time to dust off the 25th Amendment.

John Brand writes: "How does one explain a government claiming to bring democracy to Iraq while imposing the Patriot Act on its own people? How does the Chief Executive justify repetition of a failed program, the tax cut, to stimulate the economy? How does Kenneth Lay rationalize sale of his own stock while prohibiting his employees from selling theirs? How can a Pat Robertson claim to preach the message of the Prince of Peace while spouting hatred and venom? In other words, what causes seemingly normal people to act like a bunch of fruitcakes?"

Harvey Wasserman writes: "Tied together by the internet, with deepened commitments to non-violence, the Superpower of Peace may indeed have achieved unprecedented global strength. But it must now come to grips with the realities of sectarian psychosis, starting with the White House. George W. Bush's initial characterization of his war posture as a 'crusade' against 'evil' may prove to be all too accurate - and its fundamentalist Christian roots are now almost certain to elicit a horrific response from fundamentalist Islam. Bush has already made it clear he will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons wherever his whims might take him. Richard Nixon contemplated using them in Vietnam, but was deterred by the peace movement. But Bush's statements give clear indication that the people now running the United States may lack Nixon's political compass."

"It's time to say the obvious: The Bushites are insane. From George W on down, their behavior toward the world, toward our basic liberties, and toward the real needs of America - is delusional and maniacal. Start with George's war. He's lost in a fantasy of Messianic Mission and no reality can penetrate it. Forget what liberals, Democrats, and millions of peace protestors say - people in his own party and the wiser heads from his father's presidency also think the boy has slipped into the weird. Bush doesn't merely think he's right, he thinks he's righteous and that only God and he see the righteousness of his war wrath. He's not thinking victory - he's thinking Mt. Rushmore...or higher!"

Bob Fitrakis writes, "It's time for U.S. citizens to demand that Bush's cabinet invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment and remove him from office. By a majority vote of the cabinet and the Vice President, transmitted in writing to both the [House and Senate], the President may be declared 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.' Increasingly, journalists are willing to admit that the cognitively-impaired Bush may indeed be mentally ill. What would drive a man who lost an election by over half a million votes to attack the arch-enemy of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, rather than to pursue the 9-11 terrorists in the Al Qaeda network? What would cause Bush to ignore his generals, his own intelligence agencies, the major religious leaders of the world and the vast majority of the world's people in pursuing an unnecessary and destabilizing war that is likely to plunge the world into chaos for the next hundred years?" It's the 'Madness of King George'.

London Independent columnist Mary Dejevsky writes about George W. Bush's declaration of war: "Mr Bush has confused the specific threat that may be presented by Iraq and the general, post-11 September threat of terrorism.... Mr Bush came across as inhabiting the nightmare world of a paranoiac who sees mortal danger around every corner. Wherever you look, he implied, there are threats to America and Americans." We are being led into war by a man who sees nothing but danger and evil throughout the world, and who is determined to destroy evil wherever he finds it. Bush's behavior may indeed be a symptom of paranoia. As to the rest of the world's concerns about Bush's behavior: "It isn't paranoia if they really are out to get you."

Mike Hersh writes, "Bush's obsession with Saddam is based on a bizarre notion that Jesus wants him to bomb and kill 10,000s if not 100,000s of innocent Iraqis to rid the world of one man. The media overlooks or even encourages this alarming condition, which frightens some of those closest to Bush. Ultimately, this delusion should disqualify Bush from occupying the most powerful office on the planet... Why won't the media report on it? Why are Cheney, Rice, Powell and others close to Bush enabling this madness? Because Bush's bizarre divine tragedy finds support in Karl Rove's cynical calculations. More than a year ago, Rove determined that Republicans need war to distract voters who are losing jobs. This gambit worked in 2002, staving off Republican losses, but at what cost to the US? Underwriting it all, as always, we find the billionaire Bush backers known as 'the Pioneers'. Their sheer greed and lust for oil is boundless."

Farai Chideya writes, "Depression. You can't out-nice a flesh-eating virus. And that's pretty much the spiritual equivalent of where America is right now. God/Goddess/God-us, not to mention the flag and Uncle Sam, have pretty much been appropriated as corporate logos of the Bush Administration. Yet most Americans do not support policies that will gut their schools, turn their cities and towns into economic dust bowls, and send their friends and families to their deaths. What goes? I have a theory. Niceness=death... Like many people around me, I have tried being extremely nice in the face of flying hunks of bu-shit. Like the Administration's statements that fighting Iraq will bring peace to the Middle East. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will free us from oil problems. Giving rich people money will allow working moms to spend time with their kids. Whap. Wait a second, I read a policy report that...Whap."