Everything I know about bush's weird physical/medical stuff....right here

[Bouncy Ball]

I've been mentioning this on DU off and on for a while now, but I thought I'd put everything I know in one place.

After bush had his first physical as president in August of 2001, the official summation was posted to the White House website. This had become SOP the last couple of years Clinton was in office.

Here is the link for that 2001 summation:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010804-2.html

There is NO OTHER SUMMARY posted for any other physical since then. All you can find is a press gaggle in which the 2003 physical is discussed:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/08/20030802-1.html

There is a brief statement that was given about the lesions he had taken off his face in late 2001:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011217-5.html

There's this June 2002 press conference about a "colorectal" screening he had:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020629-7.html

I searched over 30,000 documents on the White House website and that was literally all there was. There is NO press conference, no official summation for any kind of physical in 2002, and there is no physical summation for 2003.

In 2004, he was scheduled to have a physical in August, as was usual. It was "postponed indefintely." Vague excuses of being too busy, given the campaign, were given. No one in the press questioned it.

He finally took that physical on December 11, 2004. Here are the only references I can find:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041210-9.html#N
(this was the day before the physical)

Q Scott, tomorrow the President will undergo his physical . How will information be disseminated about that? Will it be here? Will it be a piece of paper? Can you --

MR. McCLELLAN: It will go out, like it always does, to everybody. There will be a medical summary that will be provided to everybody from his physical. The President is someone who remains in great physical shape. Anyone that doubts that can just try to go on a mountain bike ride with him and see. But this will be his annual physical tomorrow at Bethesda.

(end snippet)

I can find no press gaggle the day of or the day after his physical in December of 2004.

Daily Kos article about the missed physical in 2004 with more information:

http://the-cunctator.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/11/31811/401

(Unfortunately that link with the video footage of him debating Ann Richards in 1994 is gone. Anyone know where to find it now?)

Blog article about his missed August 2004 physical:

http://www.newshounds.us/2004/10/08/bush_misses_another_physical.php

Thanks for wading through thus far. The only real evidence we have that he ever took any physical is in 2001. That's the only one for which an official summation of findings is posted. The 2002 and 2004 (late) physicals don't even have a press gaggle.

This link has far more than I could ever type here, and has doctors who have gone on record as saying they are bothered by the droop to the left side of his face (and the box on his back) and believe he may have had a stroke or strokes:

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/35839.php

Then there are the spills/falls. I ask you--how many times have you fallen and injured your FACE when you were sober? Count. I don't mean something like a door or a baseball came out of nowhere and you had no time to react. I mean you FELL and FAILED to throw your hands out, as it is our human instinct to do. I have asked many people to count and the most I have ever heard is maybe one. And a lot of people admit to having fallen and hurt their faces when drunk or otherwise impaired. Another possibilty is falling and hurting your face when in the middle of some kind of medical emergency, which is quite probable.

His verbal/cognitive skills have deteriorated greatly over the years. FAR, far too much for a man only in his late 50s. I have lived in Texas my whole life and this is not the same man who was governor. Not at all.

The pictures continue to get worse:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1604282#1604308



And there are times when it doesn't even look much like him:



Ever wondered about the big goofy ass grin he's always putting on, even when it seems inappropriate? I think he does it to try to hide the fact that the left side of his face isn't cooperating.

You can see the drooping here, too, from August of 2004:



I'm just going to include this one because I've never seen it before and it's just BEGGING for a photoshop:



But back to business. I think one of the bigger questions here is why aren't questions being asked. Why hasn't anyone noticed there is only ONE summation of a physical on the White House website and that is for 2001? Why did no one ask more questions about why he postponed his physical in 2004? In August, even during the campaign, he was ON VACATION. He wasn't too busy, unless picking his nose just takes up an inordinate amount of his time.

Why did the media accept that as an answer? When Clinton released his 1996 physical findings, the press asked if he had an STD, and they asked it several times. Remember this was BEFORE Monica.

(Yeah, I know the answers to these questions about the media. Just wish they'd start doing their fucking jobs and stop being so biased. If Clinton had postponed a physical during a campaign it'd be headline news for nine fucking days.)

So what's wrong with bush? Well the box on his back is still a mystery. The facial problems indicate Bell's Palsy or a stroke or strokes, and I tend toward the stroke theory.

If had has had a stroke or strokes, he would have DEFINITELY been hospitalized. A president being hospitalized for a stroke is a BIG fucking story. Does it have anything to do with all these vacations he takes?

One thing is FOR SURE: his verbal/cognitive skills have, without a doubt, deteriorated to a great degree. Not just a slight bit, but a LOT. In 1994, he could speak rapidly and extemporaneously. He could think fairly quickly and answer quickly. He was no gifted speaker even then, but if that video were still up or if you've seen it, you know. The first time I saw that footage of the 1994 debates, back in October, I thought the tape speed was too fast. THAT'S how different it was. He was speaking VERY rapidly. He sounded like something might have actually been firing upstairs.

Now? Well, you know what he sounds like now.

If he has physical problems that are severe enough to have caused all this, don't the people of America need to know???

[Bouncy Ball]

1. Dammit, I meant to add

please post any other photos you have, I am especially looking for pictures from the debates with Kerry, which I am having a hard time finding.

Also, anything else you might know to add to this. I think the face stuff is the more minor thing--the loss of verbal/cognitive skills is the more major issue.

I am wondering where anyone can possibly find footage of bush pre-2000, preferably mid-90s or before??? Surely someone taped something on local TV in Texas back then?

[orleans]

17. watch bush flip you off

i don't know what year this was...it's the video of him getting ready for some tv news program--it's when he was younger

http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fanon.salon.speedera.net%2Fanon.salon%2Fmedia%2F2004%2F10%2FBushUncensored.mov

if the link above is too messed up, just google
bush video finger and you should find it

[bush_is_wacko]

47. Actinic Keratosis at his age is "somewhat normal." but I have to

tell you it seems a little strange to me that all these DC guys routinely have them removed. My parents are a little older that bush. They have ALWAYS been extremely active outdoors, we live in Colorado so because of our thin air and the closer proximity to the sun we have a pretty high rate of skin cancer. No member of family EVER wore sunscreen before about 1989 or so and NO member of my family including the elderly members have EVER had a case of Actinic Keritosis. I would think all these guys in DC spend far less time in the sun, just by virtue of their jobs than any member of my family and we are practically as white as ghosts. Irish, blond, EXTREMELY fair skinned.

There seem to me to be an awful lot of strange questions about the president regarding his health. Honestly, WHY would a reporter ask if he had a venereal disease?

I wouldn't even think of something like this. and the other thing on that physical that struck be as funny was the Alcohol: NONE thing. It is a known fact that he was an alcoholic and that is a SERIOUS cardiovascular risk! Even if you attempt to keep yourself in really good shape alcoholism's effects can sneak up on you. Both my husband's father and my father were alcoholics when they were very young. Despite the fact neither of them drank alcohol after about age 25 or so, they both had or have heart disease. My husbands father is dead because of it.

The fact that both bush's parents have Graves disease is a pretty good indicator that there are genetic factors that lead to autoimmune disease that add to bush's risk factor's. My family is CLEAR genetic proof of that. Almost EVERY single member of the family has been diagnosed with SOME type of autoimmune disease from Graves disease to Lupus to juvenile or type I diabetes to Crohn's disease. The list goes on and on and I am really not kidding. We are perfectly capable of functioning, but for the most part are all taking some form of lifetime medication for the various autoimmune disorders by the time we are in our mid to late twenties.

I know it is possible for theses diseases to skip a family member or two, but I find it very hard to believe two parents with Grave's disease have not passed down ANY, even minor autoimmune disease. Especially since my mother, brother, and me have been explicitly told by our mutual endocrinologists that ALL of our diseases are interrelated and most likely passed down from generation to generation and we should be aware of that fact as our children grow up. I don't panic about this fact every moment of the day but if my kids were ever to present with complaints of body aches, weight loss or gain, or general unhealthiness for any length of time I would make sure they had a VERY complete workup.

Sorry this is one big ramble, but needless to say genetic risk factors, at least in my experience, are VERY important and the president certainly has them.

[applegrove]

2. Oh relax - Wilson had secret medical problems and look what

he did! er... forget that.

[Bouncy Ball]

4. Who is Wilson?

[applegrove]

10. Woodrow Wilson the President who negotiated the Paris 1919 treaty

after WWI. He hid some medical conditions, lead the peace talks and people think that played into the structural problems in the World after the War.

And the weakness left the Germans open to a sociopath (someone who wouldn't make them face a tough reality - but juiced them in patriotism until they invaded everybody or tried to kill them: WWII)

[Bouncy Ball]

11. LOL, I thought you meant Joseph Wilson!

[applegrove]

15. LOL

[PurityOfEssence]

41. Don't blame Woodrow

For all his faults--and he was a racist--he sincerely wanted to bring a fair settlement to the world's ills. Remember: he grew up during the Civil War in the Confederacy.

His attempts to force this country into some sort of stance of global responsibility were met with steadfast Republican resistance. The League of Nations should have been a major force for peace, but the usual suspects kept us from signing on to the world forum he wanted to exist. This, more than anything, contributed to his physical problems.

Once again, the Republican forces of selfishness refused to give a damn about the rest of the world, and the League of Nations was doomed from the beginning. Major American business interests also saw many opportunities in the prostrate post-war Germany, and they helped Hitler to power. Among the many entities investing in Germany at the time, Prescott Bush, the Harrimans and the Thyssen empire backed Hitler, along with the momentum of Standard Oil, Ford Motor Company and ITT. Germany was the perfect investment opportunity after World War I, and many American corporations sleazed in to take advantage.

Wilson, for all his faults, was no part of this. He sincerely wanted to end the dynamic of world conflicts, and the complexities of reining in the vindictive Allies, along with drawing lines for new nations after the implosion of the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires proved too much for him. We're paying for this to this day, as Iraq is proof.

World War I wasn't about anything, it was a series of imperial land-grabs, and to blame it on Germany was a farce. The terms of the Versailles Treaty had Germany paying reparations until 1980, and this punitive retaliation was the tinder for the nationalistic madness to come.

[applegrove]

66. Yes - but many have wished that Wilson was at the top of his game

Now Bush - I think I can speak for all of us when I say thank god he can only process so much in the course of a day. God knows where the planet will be when he leaves. But the more time they spend covering up his illness (/), robotness, etc. the less time there is to SET THE WORLD ON FIRE AND ENCOURAGE HIS ENEMIES TO FORM TIGHLY KNIT & CLOSED GROUPINGS TO PROTECT FROM THIS IDIOT, HIS PROPAGANDA MACHINE & HIS UTOPIAN NUTCAKE PALS

[alarimer]

46. He had a stroke

It was pretty debilitating.

[norml]

42. Wilson was Tom Hanks friend on that island.

And should've gotten the Oscar for best supporting actor.

[davepc]

54. Woodrow Wilson had a MAJOR stroke while in office at the end of his term

but it was sucessfully covered up. His wife ran the country for well over a year.

[InvisibleTouch]

3. About that box on his back...

Slightly off-topic, and not meaning to drag your thread in another direction (it's fascinating stuff), but I was thinking about the mysterious box just the other day. If it was a transmitting device to feed the Chimp answers during the debate, you'd think it could have been hidden in a less conspicuous location on his person, couldn't it? If it was some sort of neurological stimulator, for health reasons, again, why put it on his back where it might be seen and speculated about? I don't doubt that something was there that shouldn't have been, but who was so stupid as to put it there?

[Bouncy Ball]

5. My theory?

Well, I do NOT believe it was put there to feed him answers.

There are FAR smaller devices for that that would not have been detected.

I do tend to believe it is medical. It has nothing to do with wearing a bullet-proof vest, as was theorized (it's completely off for that, anyway) and it's not to feed him answers. And it certainly wasn't a "pooch" or "sag" in his jacket, as was also thrown out.

It's medical. And apparently doesn't come in a less conspicuous size.

That also explains the placement. Only something medically important would have forced them to have to place it somewhere it is slightly visible. Otherwise they would have gone all out to make sure it couldn't be detected. But if a doctor/team of doctors said "it HAS to go here" then that's that.

[InvisibleTouch]

12. Interesting. Thank you.

Do we have any health care professionals here, who might know what kind of device it could have been, and why it had to be in the middle of his back to be effective? Something that had to zap the spinal cord at the point of the thoracic vertebrae, perhaps?

[Bouncy Ball]

14. Here's a link I gave above

which goes into it in more detail than I've seen:

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/35839.php

We do have doctors and health care professionals here, but as you can imagine, they are usually loathe to comment on such things without having examined the person themselves.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. I remember

on a show on AAR, can't remember which one now, but they were saying how the NY Times had this story and they were told to pull it. They had a professional who had a store in NYC and he helped people with wiring's with artist's and whatnot and according to him it was definitley something there. I still remember during the debate he was replying to something and out of nowhere he said "let me finish" and nobody was talking. I believe Kerry gave him a weird look. I'll have to go back sometime and watch.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Re: the box on B's back:

Remember that the Reps made a rule that forbade any cameras behind B! But the rule was ignored, and the box showed. It was very stupid of the Reps to think that they could have gotten away with that; they really underestimate us!

[FreedomAngel82]

6. It is interesting

and I wonder myself because he has changed a lot. I think it was the PBS documentary they had on Bush/Kerry and showed him debating in 2000 and the governor race and he has changed. I do remember hearing after the election he had the physical but never heard anything about it besides the reports that said he was in fine physical shape. :shrug:

[Bouncy Ball]

7. Yes, if you could compare

the 1994 debate with Ann Richards, then the 2000 debates with Al Gore (where he is not as good as 1994, but FAR better than now) and the 2004 debates with Kerry, it would be as plain as the nose on your face. SOMETHING has gone very wrong with him.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Most definietly

Usually don't people get better with debating with years? Look at Kerry.

[Bouncy Ball]

13. Yes

in 2000, I remember some tiny little blurb in a Texas paper commenting on how he seemed much worse than he was in debate in 1994, but then several letter writers wrote, all pissed off and repugnant, saying that bush isn't USED to PRESIDENTIAL debates and that's a whole new level and he was just NERVOUS.

They protested very much, yes they did.

But then in 2004, of course, we all remember what a train wreck he was. It was almost painful to watch.

[jojo54]

16. Is this why he's always stammering....

like a blubbering idiot? I feel bad for all who have had a stroke or heart attack, but they don't lie everyday to make themselves seem like they've got it all together.

[Bouncy Ball]

18. I wish that footage was still up of 1994

there was NO stammering, and he spoke faster than you could believe, especially if you are only used to hearing him the way he is now.

None of the "eehhh" and "ummmmm" and "uhhhhhh" he does now.

He didn't repeat himself over and over. He didn't blank out for long moments of time.

No spittle in the corner of his mouth, either.

[Bouncy Ball]

19. Here's a video compilation from the 2004 debates

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bushvideos/v/bushdebatevideo.htm

And here's one where Jon Stewart compares bush of 2000 to bush of 2004:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bushvideos/v/bushvsbush.htm

[kk897]

31. BB, I've seen that footage and I know exactly what you mean.

He was energetic, he had spark, even a kind of charisma. You could see why people might vote for the man back then. Why they would now...beyond me. But the point remains, he could *think* then and express those thoughts fluidly.

You ever see that Saturday Night Live sketch where Ronald Reagan is a doddering old man for press ops, but once the doors to the Oval Office close, watch out! he's hell on wheels, barking out commands, analyzing world events, making tough decisions... then a Girl Scout has to come in to have her picture taken with silly old Uncle Ronnie and it's like a switch is flipped.

Now, of course, we know he was suffering from Alzheimers, but joke as we might, it was well covered up at the time.

[Benbow]

52. Stammering associated with dementia

A well-respected psychoanalyst has written a psychological profile of the president, called "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President" (ISBN: 0060736704).

Justin A. Frank, M.D., is a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center. Since 1980 he has been a teaching analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. He is past president of the Greater Washington Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Frank lives and practices psychoanalysis in Washington, D.C.

Among the problems Dr. Frank found in Mr. Bush are megalomania, characterized by a Manichaean worldview, delusions of persecution and omnipotence, and an "anal/sadistic" indifference to others’ pain. The Manichaean tradition is a defunct religion with a "good cop/bad cop" theology.

The book follows Mr. Bush from childhood to now and analyzes the drinking problem, the bellicose rhetoric, the verbal flailings and misstatements of fact, the religiosity and exercise routines, the hints of dyslexia and hyperactivity, the youthful cruelty to animals and schoolmates

Below are some of the problems associated with dementias, including vascular and alcoholic (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome). Some of the things in this list were observed by Dr. Franks in Mr. Bush. Other items exist further along in the progression of the disease.

- progressive loss of memory
- inability to concentrate
- decrease in problem-solving skills and judgement capability
- persistence in failed problem-solving modes, "staying the course" at all costs (perseveration)
- confusion
- hallucination, delusions
- altered sensation or perception
- impaired recognition (agnosia) of familiar objects or persons
- altered sleep patterns
- MOTOR SYSTEM IMPAIRMENT
-----gait changes
-----inappropriate movements
-----other impairments of motor system
- disorientation
- inability to generalize, learn, think abstractly, or perform calculations
- MEMORY DEFICIT
----- short term (can't remember new things)
----- long term (can't remember past) Persons with this may make up stories to cover up nothing but the memory lapse itself. (confabulation)
- IMPAIRED LANGUAGE ABILITY
----- inability to comprehend speech
----- inability to read (alexia)
----- inability to write (agraphia)
----- inability to find words (aphasiia)
----- inability to repeat a phrase
----- persistent repetition of phrases or words (Much has been made of President Bush's use of the word "fabulous.")
- PERSONALITY PROBLEMS
----- irritability
----- poor temper management
----- anxiety
----- depression
----- indecisiveness
----- self-centeredness
----- inflexibility
----- no observable mood (flat affect)
----- inappropriate mood or behavior
----- withdrawal from social interaction
----- inability to function in social or personal situations

[Bouncy Ball]

20. This is interesting:

he has an IMDB entry and it lists everything he has appeared in:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124133/

One or two go back to the early 90s. Hmmmm.

[jojo54]

22. Thanks for all the links

I'll be checking these out. Wouldn't it be something if it came out that he's really UNFIT for "command"??

Oh, no, scratch that last comment. On second thought, Dicky would be in command!! OOOhhhhh nnnnnoooooo

[FreedomAngel82]

25. I think

Dicky is in command and Bush just agrees.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. FOUND IT!!!!!!

I found the comparison video! Right here!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1019.htm

[jojo54]

23. Damn!

He actually sounded like a real Republican 10 yrs ago! Now he just sounds like the puppet that he is! No wonder he was wearing that wire in the debates!

[FreedomAngel82]

26. Of course

And the video is so hilarious and also pathetic at the same time. He just did a total 180 from the 2000 debates. Just look also at the facial expressions. One is calm and sure of themself and the other's eyes are popping out or something. :shrug: Oh and I love the Al Gore thing. What a wonderful intelligent person he (Gore) is. *sigh*

[jojo54]

27. Great smilie BTW

it looks just like him! LOL

[bush_is_wacko]

48. You know I have a VERY hard time with this explanation

Both my husband's father and my father were alcoholics and gave it up in their twenties and thirties. My father is MUCH older than bush and shows NO sign whatsoever of ANY type of mental degeneration or dementia. Granted my father wasn't addicted to cocaine.

My husbands father is dead of heart disease, but he was INCREDIBLY brilliant up until the day he died. A self-taught GENIUS as far as I'm concerned. He DID dabble in drugs from what he said. I'm not really sure of the extent.

bush's dementia could be just as easily connected to his genetic pre-disposition to inherited autoimmune disorders.

As for his deterioration... take a look at Jimmy Carter from the beginning to the end of HIS presidency. THAT man aged a thousand years! Clinton was one of the few presidents besides the seemingly embalmed Reagan, that seemed to age rather gracefully during his terms as president.

I don't really see bush's physical age deterioration as much as the mental deterioration that has been mentioned.

[Benbow]

51. GWB's father had Graves' disease

In the January 2002 pretzel-choking episode, according to President Bush, the period of unconsciousness was brief -- a few seconds. When fainting begins and ends suddenly, the cause of fainting usually is not what his doctors reported (vaso-vagal syncope) but instead is an abnormal heart rhythm such as atrial fibrillation (AF). Chronic AF is consistent with Mr. Bush's requirement for constant monitoring and immediate access to defibrillation. ... The LifeVest the president wears terminates ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia (overspeed) to prevent sudden cardiac death. This may be the reason the president wore the device during the debates, even though he risked exposing his vulnerability, especially if the device alarm sounded.

According to the Framingham Offspring study of AF, a person whose parent had AF is 50 percent more likely to have it than the general population. President Bush's father had it during his presidency. While jogging at Camp David on a Saturday afternoon (May 4, 1991), Bush Sr developed shortness of breath, chest tightness, and a general feeling of fatigue. A White House physician discovered Bush had a rapid irregular heartbeat, ultimately diagnosed as atrial fibrillation caused by Graves' disease, a form of hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid).

[bush_is_wacko]

53. Both his mother and father have Grave's disease. They were both

diagnosed within months of each other. His mother actually has the bulging eyes associated with the sever forms of this disease. My mother has the same severe form. She has had bouts of thyroid storm and had to have the radioactive iodine treatment to shut it down. I have the opposite, sort of, disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis. I can and do go either way, but mostly tend hypo-thyroid, underactive. I think Babs was diagnosed FIRST.

[bush_is_wacko]

55. Weird! i just did a google search and with over 14,000 results

every darn site I went to that mentioned her, the dog Millie, and GHWB's thyroid connection didn't seem to have word one about it! Even so there were a whole lot of results that mentioned it. If you are interested. I forgot to mention the DOG also was diagnosed with thyroid disease around the same time.

[Benbow]

56. The Lexis Nexis effect?

See other contemporaneous thread(s).

[bush_is_wacko]

60. Can you give me a definition at least? I think I get it

but not sure. It does looks as if it's been placed in a "lock box" as has some of the Gannon/Guckert material.

I guess that gives me some reason to believe it might be the right direction.

[Benbow]

63. Of which - Lexis Nexis?

I can't search on DU because I am not yet a donor (have to get another freelance contract, first, before I can start spending money again) but there is a discussion sometime today about how the news archive organisation Lexis Nexis may now be in the control of the Republicans and so controlling what appears in searches on certain, er, newsworthy subjects. Allowing a certain slant to come through.

[bush_is_wacko]

64. Got it! that is what I thought. you were implying. I am never sure

anymore unless details are posted. I agree search engines seem to be being manipulated immensely these days. Gannon/Guckert is coming up with a lot of missing information. DU is even guilty of removing threads with the implication's of political prostitution. I just saw it happen.

This story is being shut down. Perhaps our politicians are getting a little upset?

BTW, how much do you need for a star? I really should be nice and donate some money and I already have one.

[Benbow]

65. You are very kind

| how much do you need for a star?

I don't feel that I have earned it yet! :-)

[Bouncy Ball]

24. This is for the same comparison footage

but has some more information:

http://www.archive.org/movies/movies-details-db.php?collection=election_2004&collectionid=BrainTenYrs&from=BA

[No Exit]

28. Very, very interesting! Thanks for all your research...

...this is a topic that I am really curious about.

On the subject of whether people often fall on their faces: the answer is NO. As you said, people put their hands out! Or they bend their knee so that they don't land flat. My father (totally sober) once broke his thumb. How? He was rushing through a room, and slipped on a throw rug. Even as he was rapidly falling to the floor, he managed to put his hand out towards a large piece of furniture. That's when his thumb got pulled back--as he ALMOST caught himself. (And of course he didn't land on his face--he landed in a sitting position.)

OTOH, another person I know got dead drunk at a Rolling Stones concert. In the crowd, leaving, he lost the people he was with. He stumbled out of the stadium onto the pavement, and fell flat on his face, causing his upper lip to swell up.

People who are sober do not fall w/o putting their hands out or bending their knee--unless they are very, very weak or sick from something, such as fainting or a stroke. And if * is fainting or having strokes, WE should KNOW about it! He's supposed to be working for us.

[Lexingtonian]

29. oh, c'mon

We've been over this literally a thousand times. Dubya is an epileptic.

The "box" was exactly the right size for one of those epileptic seizure-triggered defibrillators. His docs didn't want him going into seizure on the debate podium and kicking the bucket. Plus, they undermedicated him during the first debate with Kerry and overmedicated him the second time.

Woodward's book says that Dubya takes two prescription meds that the public isn't permitted to know about. One of them fits the standard regimen for Topamax.

Here's the dope on 'Dopamax'/'Stupamax'-
http://www.crazymeds.org/topamax.html

Doesn't he fit that, almost comprehensively?

Topamax is the top-of-the-line med prescribed to treat epilepsy focussed on temporal lobes. We do know all these 'fell from the bike' and 'choked on a pretzel' episodes, and aides have been heard saying stuff like 'he might have a seizure over this'. And there's the exercise regimen that he follows religiously.

Speaking of religion- it's the mark of temporal lobe epileptics to undergo personality change and become 'religious'. Sounds like what Dubya did in the early Eighties, that the Christian Right considers so wonderful.

And a lot of epileptics mask and conceal symptoms- that could well explain his alcohol and cocaine days.

Lastly, it explains his wierd confidence and bizarre humility- he's duping people about his condition every day of the week, which is his great accomplishment in life, and has convinced him that the world is full of dupes. At the same time the disease drags him down privately- it makes keeping the mask intact the running game of his life.

Together, all these things reflect two or three things. One, Dubya is full of himself and deathly scared every f'ing day- it makes him a perfect accomplice and stooge and salesman and empty suit. And puppet, willing to play a very constrained role in return for a share in the glory.

In the end it all only reveals the diseasedness of the Right and its constituent groups in this country. They've given us a manic paranoiac (Nixon), a depressive (Ford), an amnesiac (Reagan), a catatonic (Bush Sr.), a stroke personality (Dole) (well, include McCain), and now an unstable/deteriorating epileptic as the most desirable reflections of themselves and their "values" since 1968. The ideal next Republican candidate in the series would be a suicidal paranoid schizophrenic....

HTH. :-)

[jojo54]

33. You know, you could be right

Epilepsy eventually killed my mother 33 years ago when I was 17. It was awful, and BTW I'm giving away my age!! Oops. Anyway, now that I think about it, the anomalies are there. My mom was on Dilantin (I know that's not the med of choice now) and the docs had to keep upping her dosage 'cause her body would constantly adjust. Her seizures would then become very unpredictable. Ya think that maybe that's why * hardly ever has a press conference anymore???

[mwb970]

36. "deathly scared every day"

That phrase in your post really caught my eye. I've seen * on the tube quite a bit (too much, really) over the last few weeks and every time I see him and look in his eyes I see the same thing: this guy looks scared.

[Bouncy Ball]

38. Oh I've thought that for a LONG time.

That deer in the headlights look? That isn't just ignorance about the topics at hand, that's pure-D piss in your pants fear. And he had it going on during the campaign so hard and so much I could practically smell it through my TV screen. He was TERRIFIED.

[bush_is_wacko]

49. He DOES look scared. But I think there are plenty of political

implications that he damn well should be scared. The Nixon impeachment was really a "peoples movement" and from what I understand the Congress interprets impeachment in that very manner. The fact that Clinton's impeachment really went AGAINST that philosophy makes bush's impeachment EVEN more likely. The number of citizen signatures on the impeachment petitions is a likely indicator of when those proceedings may be announced. But due to the ethics rule change not a word must be uttered publicly by ANY official with the power to start impeachment proceedings within any branch of the federal government until all the evidence is in place. Otherwise they have two months to investigate fully and indict.

I think the secret get together's have been going on for a while now and I'm sure with all these little leaks we are getting hold of there is quite a bit of evidence in the hands of politicians in DC.

[No Exit]

30. Another thing--about speaking ability:

I have a friend who is an epileptic, having been diagnosed when she was in her teens. Now, over 40 years later, she has had some seizures from time to time. In the 14 years I have known her, I think she has had maybe one or two grand mal seizures, and some more numerous petit mal seizures.

These seizures have happened in spite of the medication. (She very occasionally forgets to take it; she also drinks on a regular basis, which I think can interfere with it.)

Now, the way I understand it, the principle reason for doctors' trying to keep epileptics from having ANY seizures is that they know that a seizure can cause brain damage. So my friend does have some brain damage, since she has not had 100% of her seizures prevented.

Guess what: in a conversation with her, oftentimes it happens that she will forget a word. She will clearly be struggling to remember a word she knows, and finally it reaches the point where I have to fill in the word for her.

Doesn't that sound like Bush? Except, when he forgets a word, his tactic is not to wait for the other people to supply the forgotten word--his tactic is to use whatever word he CAN remember.

I am NOT SAYING I THINK BUSH HAS EPILEPSY. What I am saying is that I think Bush has some permanent brain damage which affects his speech (and may affect other things.) I assume the brain damage came from some cause other than epilepsy... perhaps from his years of hard drinking (which affects different people in different ways), or from his having had small strokes.

[bush_is_wacko]

57. Same thing happens in thyroid storm!

I have experienced it and it is MOST unpleasant. I even develop dyslexia when this happens. Drooling is not abnormal either. Heart palpitations are common and can lead to an arrhythmia so bad that stroke is a possibility. Both his parents have Graves disease which is even worse than the form of thyroid disease I have (Hashimoto's thyroiditis, I can swing wildly in either direction hypo-underactive or hyper-oveactive.) My mother has Graves disease and most my family has some form of autoimmune disease by the time they are in their twenties.

You can function quite normally with the disease or you can have rapid degradation at times. sometimes it's reversible, sometimes it isn't. Bulging eyes (Epitheliums) like Barbara Bush are one of the indicators of severe Graves disease but not everyone will get that.

I hate to say it but his symptoms are synonymous with a GREAT many disease processes and drug addiction or with drawl is ALSO one of those. I have speculated along with others on this for as long as he's been in office but I tend to go with the thyroid connection because I am one of 5 family members with it.

A lot of doctors are unwilling to make the connection to heredity but my families mutual endocrinologist has NO PROBLEM stating as a matter of fact that my family has a genetic pre-disposition for autoimmune disease. We have other autoimmune disease too. Lupus, type I diabetes, Crohn's disease, some of the others are so rare I honestly can't remember their names and have no idea how to spell them anyway.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[orleans]

34. did you see this?

The Emperor's New Hump
The New York Times killed a story that could have changed the election—because it could have changed the election

by Dave Lindorff

february 5 2005 in common dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0205-28.htm

[Carolab]

35. OMG! Bulgegate was REAL! He WAS wearing a listening device!

"I was able to identify the object Nelson highlighted definitively as a magnetic cueing device that uses a wire yoke around the neck to communicate with a hidden earpiece—the kind of thing that is used routinely now by music performers, actors, reporters—and by politicians."


He adds, "The Times reporters called me repeatedly. They were absolutely going after this story aggressively, though at one point they told me they were concerned that their editors were going to kill it."

[Bouncy Ball]

37. Interesting, I hadn't read that article before.

I just assumed it WAS a medical device. I mean, in 2004, can't they get a less obvious transmitting device?

[orleans]

39. i look at it this way:

regarding
"can't they get a less obvious transmitting device?"

no--because they're all part of the ship of fools.
they have "jeff gannon" in there with his asinine "questions" and look how obvious that was? didn't we really know he was a stooge all along? it just took us this long to get pissed off about it and start doing research on him to prove it.

the funny/sad thing about that listening device is that they still managed to lose all three debates. they suck even when they cheat!

and i bet that was why karen hughes was so sweaty, hot & bothered after that first debate, searching for her water bottle and looking like shit, and being totally flustered. she needed a break from feeding his answers to him before she was interviewed so we could all hear her spin as to how she thought she did in the debate!

[Benbow]

50. LifeVest wearable defibrillator, it seems more likely to me

Which might link in with the reported shortfall in medical reports on the President.

http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/20372.php

The pictures here certainly convince me that the thing sticking out was the "shocking electrode" on a LifeVest wearable defibrillator.

[bush_is_wacko]

59. I've seen those pictures before and the device does certainly coincide

the one they compare. I've never seen that device in real life though so I kind of wonder about it's authenticity.

Go back to that link though and look at the middle picture. Does it look like he is trying to sneak a neck kiss in on Kerry? LOL, just a funny observation!

[cthrumatrix]

44. but but there is a "liberal media"

[rumpel]

40. We all know he's certainly ailing...

[Maine-ah]

43. I doubt bells palsy

I had it. He wouldn't have been able to move one whole side of his face at all. When he spoke only one side of his mouth would move, his eye would tear. I was lucky and have about 98% of my face normal. One side does sit a little lower than the other, but usually I'm the only one who notices, and I don't have 100% of feeling, but pretty darn close. If he ever did have it, it was some time ago, and not in the public eye. It's not Bells. I say stroke, or injury.

[TexasLawyer]

45. kick

[XemaSab]

58. I've had that thought about CHENEY

That he's had a stroke and that explains the fact that the two sides of his face rarely, if ever, agree. He looks so nasty and snarly because one side of his mouth is sagging badly.

[bush_is_wacko]

61. Gosh I kind of thought it was the opposite. His sneer looks like

that Batman character the Joker. He creeps me out. I have seen a quick shot of Condi with that same over pronounced sneer! I swear these people are animated characters at times!

[XemaSab]

62. Condi reminds me of nothing more...

...than my Himalayan cat getting a bath.