Like our own Buzzed Lightyear, taking English where its never gone before.

"To split infinitives and beyond."

In her latest column, Maureen Dowd also covers the President and ponders why George seems so upbeat and happy right now. She settles on crazy when the real reason is that the President is actually quite sane but twisted. See, the mainstream press never looked hard enough at the psyche of this war criminal. Maureen got caught up in the father-son drama, but the real clue is in the love of torture - the enjoyment in inflicting pain. Our President is a sociopath - he doesn't experience the normal range of human emotions. On some level he knows it, so he hides behind other traits - namely the religious bit. It's a great fit for him. He loves the obnoxious arrogance that comes with thinking God is acting through you. But it hasn't been enough fun for the President lately. George has relished having power over Americans and delights at talking about freedom while he destroys ours. That's the ego at work - thinking he's putting something over on us. George has always been stupid enough to believe he was the brilliant one - the rest of us just didn't get it. But what good is having that power if you can't inflict some pain? Enter the economy. George is walking on air right now because this economy finally gives him a chance to inflict great suffering on normal Americans, too. Who needs to torture someone in a prison in another country, when you can drive Americans from their homes and crush the Middle Class? He's always wanted to hurt us badly - not just for revenge or anything - but because for him it's fun. And now the hour has arrived. Good times in the White House. Good times.

Even better than blowing up frogs with firecrackers. W has said that his experience as president has been "joyful" -- a concept that seems twisted to most of us in the context of the death and destruction he's wrought. But Bill McDonald's theory of sociopathy is compelling.

OK, Bush doesn't have a clue.

My biggest worry is I don't think McCain/Hillary/Obama have much of a clue either on the financial system, at least one they have been willing to elucidate.

So Obama/Hillary keep taking potshots at who is the purer candidate while McCain keeps talking like someone is really listening to him.

This is getting depressing.

Good grief Bill,

I could ponder your "theory" but I'm too stupid to notice what freedoms of mine have been destroyed.
Is it that your freedoms and not mine have been destroyed or am I missing something?
I've got a different set of critisisms for Pres. Bush but I don't pretend to mind read the guy.
How do you know "George has always been stupid enough to believe he was the brilliant one"?
I hear this mind reading all the time on Air America and wonder how democrats got so clairvoyant.

"George is walking on air right now because this economy finally gives him a chance to inflict great suffering on normal Americans"?

?

I'm not trying to argue with you but where do you get this sort of insight?

How is the President Bush driving Americans from their homes and crushing the Middle Class?

And "He's always wanted to hurt us badly -because for him it's fun." ?

Next you'll be saying he likes to blow up buildings for good times.

This is getting depressing.

Getting depressing??--it has been non-stop depressing for the last 6 1/2 yrs.

So, Howard, what do you think explains W's apparent good humor of late?

I mean, when you see behavior that ordinary people would consider grossly inappropriate to the circumstances, aren't there just about two choices: insanity and sociopathy?

"So, Howard, what do you think explains W's apparent good humor of late?"

Well for starters I see no horns growing out of his head.
But I can speculate without pretending I know what he is thinking.

Perhaps it is partially that he is not having to go through the experience of re-election campaign demands.

What ever your perception is of GW's current good humor, turning it into dancing on people's graves is like Randy Leonard asking why some hate children.

Come on.

And what freedoms of mine have been destroyed? "Destroyed" is pretty strong so it should be easy to describe or demonstrate.

Better start from scratch though. Because I can't think of a single freedom I've lost. Other than at the airport,, :),,,where I can no longer access planes like before.

One column I read described George visiting Walter Reed or another military hospital. There was a soldier with a bad wound involving one of the eyes, and George wanted to see it. He asked to see it and the soldier ended up lifting the dressing so the President could look at it.
It was a perfect example of the media's soft treatment because the columnist went on to swoon about how George was merely taking responsibility for what he had done.
I saw it as sicker than that.
As far as freedoms that have been destroyed, they include the right to privacy. We have a government that reads our mail, listens to our calls, and monitors our financial records.
We have a President who signs laws - remember the Consent of the Governed - but then decides to ignore them if he wants. That's not our system of government.
That's a monarchy.

I recently purchased and watched the terrific (and terrible) film "The Lives of Others", winner of the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I heard Daniel Ellsberg recommend it during a talk I saw on C-SPAN.

The film is about a group of East German artists being spied upon, arrested and tortured by agents of the Stasi in the 1980's before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It is an object lesson for us in America in the early 21st century, before the curtain falls on us.

To wit: In the 1980's, it took a relatively large number of Stasi agents and informants to keep tabs on the liberals who resisted the dictatorship in East Germany.

Here in the 21st century all of our most intimate personal facts, thoughts, activities and communications are collected en masse by a giant digital vacuum that is connected directly to the state. When Bush says he is only interested in tapping calls from terrorists to other terrorists, he is lying. It's ALL being collected and scrutinized. (Other evidence that Bush is lying include the fact that his mouth is open and words are coming out of it.)

If you don't believe your rights have been curtailed, try this simple experiment:

Put on a t-shirt with a peace sign on it or carry a sign that says something negative toward the US occupation of Iraq. Attend the March 19 peace rally in Portland marking the 5th anniversary of a great crime. Step out of the bounds of the pre-approved parade permit in the vicinity of a Portland police officer (or put your toe off the curb while a Do Not Walk sign flashes). You will quickly learn what it means to have several of your constitutional rights repealed.

And if you resist going to jail in any way, you will also learn that you have a new right to get your ass kicked by Portland's "finest".

Howard,
If you had gone to ANY Cheney or Bush event with an anti Iraq or anti war statement on it in recent years you would have been roughed up and thrown out. Of course that assumes you might have somehow got in in the first place. Let me emphasize you would not have had to make ANY kind of disturbance or vocal protest in order to be roughed up and tossed. Ot would have happened because of what your shirt said. Thbis happened in Eugene at a Cheney rally. Or in the case of Bush...he was eating dinner at a place in Jacksonville in 2004 and didn't like war protestors outside so he ordered the SS (Secret Service) to "clear the streets." which they did. I believe there are several lawsuits in connection with the brutality inflicted on those people (which included high school aged kids along with parents and grandparents).
And Howard about your telephone...........................

Bill,
You say the government reads OUR mail, listens to our calls, and monitors our financial records?

Are they doing that to you?
Do you know anyone else who has?

Oh Howard, yeah they're doing that to us. Ask Spitzer if they did that to him. The problem is we only know it happens and not how pervasive. The reason we are ignorant as to the extent of the eavesdropping is big bro hides behind "National Security" to avoid disclosing the truth to us. You included Howard.

Howard, have you been following the telecom immunity issue at all? Do you think they want immunity for things they didn't do?

Just to lighten the mood a bit...I suggest you all watch a few episodes of "Li'l Bush".

Sorry but there's way to much presumption here.

No, I don't think they want immunity so they can read OUR mail, listens to OUR calls, and monitor OUR financial records?

It's big leap to go from doing it to suspected terrorists and their associates to doing it to "our" citizens (us) at large.

I realize you dislike the Bush Administration but the things you accuse them of and attribute to them is running wild.
Is it necessary to exagerate everything?

Here's something that is undeniably true: Hundreds of times Congress has passed laws that President Bush has signed. He then does a signing statement in which he declares his right to ignore the law. If a President can decide to ignore a law, that means he is the law and that is not the America that achieved greatness. It is no coincidence that America is showing signs of decay right now. If we had stuck to the system - including fair elections - we would have had much better results. We didn't and we're really just beginning to pay. Many of us warned about the consequences of letting President Bush damage America this badly, but we're past that warning phase now. The consequences have begun to arrive.

Is it necessary to exagerate everything?

Not really. The war cost, the deficit, the national debt, the trade balance, the record of torture and murder of innocent, defenseless prisoners, the "discovery" of misconduct by political opponents through interception of communications, the pressure for telecom immunity (with retroactive effect), the veto of anti-torture legislation, the signing statements, the refusal to release documents or allow testimony from staff and former staff about the justice department, the alteration of scientific reports on the environment, pollution, endangered species and climate change, the weakening of environmental regulations and the president's inappropriately goofy behavior and incoherent statements all pretty much speak for themselves without the need for exaggeration.

is "Howard" a jerk-kneed apologists for the
Rethuglicans? His lack of serious knowledge
makes me wonder where he's been these past
8 years and what type of "media" he gets his
so-called "news" from.
Indeed, this very serious business we all
are confront with, and last thing needed is
rank apologists to mudding the waters for
those wishing to see clearly what the hell
is really going on! Come on! Let's get a
clue here...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
you folks must get a grip. The real tragedy
of the day is that Portland State has to play Kansas! Hoo boy.

As far as freedoms that have been destroyed, they include the right to privacy.

Care to show us where that is listed in the Bill of Rights?

Frankly, it gets a bit weird when everything that somebody, somewhere wants is referred to as a "right".

People often tend to forget that while they have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - they are not guarantees.

If you are unhappy, it is not because you have been denied some fundamental right - it is because the choices that you made during the pursuit of happiness have not borne fruit.

You have a right to life and liberty - but if you take away someone else's life, yours may be ended. And if you unduly interfere with the liberty of another (say, by mugging them), then you forfeit your own liberty.

There is no "right to privacy" - and if you disbelieve me, then go ask anybody who lives under the Portland Tram (rim shot).

Care to show us where that is listed in the Bill of Rights?

Zesty. Care to show us where it says all our rights are in the Bill of Rights?

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

"If a President can decide to ignore a law, that means he is the law and that is not the America that achieved greatness."

Hate to break it to you, but that is gobt from top to bottom these day. Just watch the Portland City Council exempt themselves from all kinds of rules they make for "other" people.

Sammy will perfect this art.