Huh. Check this out. A so-called "White House insider" over at SA...

[BreweryYardRat]

Not sure whether he's telling the truth, or just a good bullshitter, but I found this pretty interesting.

"President Bush uses anti-depressant medication, a lot of it, at a stupendous dosage, and he is hiding it from the American public. This is the real reason he stopped drinking. Because of the dosage, he is also impotent."

"Tom Ridge carries 20 credit cards with him at all times, each one with a very low limit. I have never heard of him using one, ever, but he has them. He also wears his socks inside-out, and will flip the fuck out and walk strangely if he is forced to wear them properly, because it drives him crazy. All of his socks must be laundered right side in and then turned inside out before they are returned to him. He gave specific instructions about handling his food, and not allowing his vegetables to touch any other food item on the plate. His utensils must be steamed over boiling water. He will not eat soup which hasn't been boiled within the past 20 minutes or which he has not prepared himself. If any of these rules are violated, he flies into a rage, turns beet red, and will not eat a single thing. He has his personal attendants confirm over and over that the food is as he likes it. He also shaves his forearms and hands because he can't stand the idea of body hair on his arms. He demands that his bedsheets are bleach white and changed fresh every night and he sleeps in a separate bed in a big, tight, body-length nylon sleeve, with a fan blowing over him at full power. He is terrified of animals which have fur or hair longer than one inch, and will not go near curly hair of any kind, even on people. At one time he ran from his office and demanded that someone look under everything for a rodent which did not and could not exist, then he had the entire place wiped down with disinfectant and vacuumed twice. While this was done he couldn't even bear to look at the door, or come within 20 feet of his office. He was in hysterics."

(later in the thread-page 5, I think)
"Start thinking about around 200-300 mg of Zoloft and you're in W's ballpark."

"There's a scary fact that you learn once the first Big Thing gets contained. It's not a crisis if it stays localized. We contain all kinds of caustic shit that would cause major Incidents, just as any administration does. However, I've seen criminal stuff going on inside the WH that will eventually be uncovered as soon as the dems can capture either House or Senate. People will be going to jail."

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1845896&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

[Erika]

1. Enjoyable post. Most can see W's pitch doesn't ring true

The guy's up there quipping and smirking while our troops are dying, the deficit is building, the environment is being ruined, etc. It's like he's still the college frat boy cheerleading at some game. He has NO touch with reality.

[saltpoint]

2. If I'm Wes Craven, I'm ALL OVER that Tom Ridge biopic.

[NVMojo]

3. damn straight! this is one ghoulish control freak, this Ridge dude.

[Marie26]

26. Best quote in the thread

This part made me laugh (sorry if it's insensitive).

Of course, people like Tom Ridge can only exist in a super-insulated environment or be destroyed by news of his eccentricities. One news story about the head of homeland security rolling around in his office, screaming about rats and attacking his own legs with an Iowa paperweight, if believed, will end a career. Chertoff is a robot and is not as entertaining. :(

[tblue37]

38. If this is true,

Ridge has obsessive compulsive disorder.

[mzmolly]

51. Indeed, that's what I was thinking.

Sounds like a "severe" case.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Remarkable.

It has quite the ring of authenticity.

[Marie26]

19. The Tom Ridge thing

is classic OCD behavior. And Zoloft would explain why Bush seems so giggly & out of touch. The post says that Cheney waited a day before notifying authorities about the shooting & Whittington said that he'd been shot "Friday" instead of Saturday. Also, many ALJ's in obscure agencies have nothing to do. It does ring true. And it's a fun read, anyway.

[July]

27. Sounds like OCD to me, too. nt

[mzmolly]

55. Interesting aside, OCD is more common than diabetes.

At least according to a national expert or two. ;)

[Rocknrule]

5. So that's why he's such a macho asshole, he can't get it up

Oh, and as a side note, many school shooters took antidepressants

[Garbo 2004]

6. True, BS or not, it's fun reading the thread there. I must be punchy

because when I saw this post on pg 2 I got the silly giggles:

Martin Random posted:
As for condi sleeping in her office, I'm almost convinced she has narcolepsy. She'll work like crazy, and then BAM she's asleep on her desk for 15 minutes in the middle of the day, utterly insensible to anything, before suddenly jerking back up and animating as if driven by hidden clockwork gears.

Stealthgerbil responds: She is actually a Robot, when she does that, she is rebooting.

[magellan]

7. I have been reading that thread for the last half hour or so

...and got to 99.9% sure MartinRandom is an insider. Then I came across this reply from him/her:

Kid Knee Bean posted:
I don't think you answered the question about whether or not the administration thought Kerry could have won the election. Do you have any insight on this?

Everyone always takes presidential elections seriously, and anything can happen. I think Kerry actually did win, or at least would have won, but as a result of some stuff done in Ohio I won't go into, he didn't make it. This is one of the things people will go to jail over.

:wow:

I am now 100% positive this guy's the real deal. (Even if he does think McCain's great.)

[lavenderdiva]

63. I read this too, and thought the same thing!

:wow:

the OP also states somewhere in the 21 pages of the thread, that once the Dems win the House and Senate, there will be investigations, and people will go to jail over this, and other things....

[David in Canada]

8. Ridge & Food

The part about Ridge's food rules are likely OCD.

[mzmolly]

52. Most - if not all of his "symptoms" reek of OCD.

Welcome. :hi:

[linazelle]

9. Seems like yet another excuse for **. I heard on NPR about two

months ago something akin to Bush having some "health problems" and they compared him to JFK. :eyes:

I think when the shit hits the fan, then they will use the drug excuse to garner sympathy. If they did it for Rush they can/will do it for **.

[magellan]

10. Food for thought

Illustrated_Man posted:
I don't eat at chain resturaunts, I don't shop at wal mart period, I only shop at chain stores that have unions, I wish we had a decent public transportation system in this country so I didn't have to drive a car. I do everything I can to not contribute to fuck tards like the OP. I hope that one day we have a revolution and march on DC killing everyone in a suit and tie.

I don't mean to turn this into something personal, but you exemplify something I want to underline. Your strong, inflexible views make you a person who is easily manipulated into supporting or hating a particular candidate. By being such a rigid, reactionary person, you perpetuate the system we use of dividing people into irreconcilable interests and riding them into office. You may not drive a car, you may not eat beef, you may not vote, but you speak and write, I know that much, and to the extent you do this and perpetuate your inflexible extremism in others, you help divide your kind and empower us and those like us. Think about that.

[Marie26]

20. Are you implying

that DU can be like that?? ARE YOU??!!11! Yes, it is food for thought.

[magellan]

21. I think you're joking with me

I hope? But anyway, I'm not implying anything; I know for a fact many here are like that, including myself! Just thought it was an interesting take on the sort of political actions we engage in, I hadn't considered or heard that perspective before.

[Marie26]

22. Yeah, it is interesting

Sorry, I am, I should've put the little sarcasm smilie. It was an interesting perspective & thank you for posting it. I think it shows the way that our passions & reactions can be manipulated by people in power.

[magellan]

23. That's okay

I kind of got that you were kidding from your "!!11!" (which always makes me laugh, particularly "This is HUGH!!!11!" posts -- poking fun at the freeps is always a worthy pasttime IMHO!). I wasn't sure though, mostly because it suddenly seemed from other posts that the SA insider thread might be meant as satire. I still don't know what to make of it, but I'll admit, all of what the alleged insider wrote fascinated me...even the icky personal stuff I really could have done without knowing. lol

[Marie26]

25. I kind of believe it

Here's the part that made me go from agnostic to true believer. When people asked him why he doesn't report Bush Ad. corruption, he replied:

Because it is based upon a naive and incorrect conception of how Washington functions these days, that the crime, if reported, would actually be corrected. The box car thing is one of a stupendous number of sham operations going on right now in the Federal government. I've thought about doing what he's suggested, but it won't do any good in the end. The entire system will perpetuate itself until a cataclysm of public opinion sweeps through the country.

The other, not as obvious sham is the following, which happens every single day here. A lobbyist will say that their startup company's new weapons system can fly from a plane and hit any target within 3 inches, regardless of weather conditions, by the way, wink wink, we are (or are owned by, or know) a major campaign donor. Of course, the weapons system doesn't perform as advertised, or perhaps fails in the design stages, or maybe never even gets researched, and this is just a sham to get contributions. Nobody ever follows up. I die a little inside.

It's such a perfect, sad description of the state of things in Washington. Corruption is so systemic right now that there's no one left to complain to. DU has a few threads on these "sham operations", crony defense contracts & lost billions.

[magellan]

28. Yeah, that one struck an honest chord with me too

He wrote a more elaborate explanation of why he doesn't report what he knows later on, did you see it? I don't want to go find it now, but I remember the analogy he gave: whistleblowing in DC nowadays is like trying to make a point about greenhouse gases by standing in front of an oncoming 18-wheeler and letting it hit you.

Ironically enough, you only have to think of Bunny Greenhouse, the official at the Army Corps of Engineers who was forced out of her job for blowing the whistle on their crooked Iraq contracts, to see what he means. I think they finally managed to fire her, and her story never got the wide coverage it deserved. But at least she can live with herself for having done the right thing.

This guy seems to have a conscience -- twice I think he related a story and commented "I die a little inside" as in what you posted. But it doesn't seem strong enough to overcome his masochistic desire to keep mixing in the political rubbish tip that is DC. The guy is walking a familiar path, selling his soul one bit at a time for the money and influence. Sad.

[tblue37]

40. But if enough "insiders" were to report such things,

that cataclysm of public opinion would sweep across the US sooner and faster.

[hopeisaplace]

11. My Curls are toxic! Whoopeeee!!!

Yes. I have the power. :evilgrin:

[magellan]

12. About terror threats

GratefulHume posted:
Being a DC native, I'm curious to know if you'd live in the DC area by choice. Do you feel safe living here or do you think its got a huge bull's eye on top of it for the next terrorist strike?

I'm not worried about terrorist strikes simply because I've seen how trumped up most of that garbage is. I am more worried about getting mugged. Way, way way more worried. I hate this city and if I had my choice I would live in quiet Arizona.

[magellan]

13. About Katrina

OUR KYLE posted:
Is there anything that you mention about opinions from the white house staff/admins on real world issues that are currently going on right now? Everything from Katrina to the middle east and terrorism?

I like to steer away from really current stuff because people here might remember particular encounters they had with me when they are more recent. To be frank, I have no idea how the fuck we dodged the Katrina bullet. They have this thing where they assemble a lot of raw information and organize it, combine it with media coverate summaries, and then show it to various people here for an assessment, and we look guilty as fuck. I can't even begin to explain how the media has not destroyed us utterly, and instead we are on just a nice, slow decline.

Aliquid posted:
Did the press pretty much get Katrina right, or could you tell us some stuff that was worse than the delays and unpreparedness that was reported?

This is the one thing I can't talk about, because all of our sphincters are clenched about it still, and we are all genuinely perplexed about why the shittastrophe has not swept through the hill. I didn't see any of the press coverage when the thing hit because I was incredibly busy with something, but I did check the clippers. I think that somehow, the existence of the hurricane was so interesting and easy to report that they totally gave up on exposing our evil negligence. It's kind of like dick cheney speeding to his lawyers to cover up a major government-wide tax evasion conspiracy and hitting someone on the way, flinging incriminating documents everywhere. They're gonna report the dead body and what the fuck paper? I have to read PAPER? THERES A DEAD BODY RIGHT THERE JESUS GET THAT ON FILM.

[foo_bar]

14. sa is a humor site

The forums too, but they don't hit you over the head like Cliff Yablonski:

After she shook hands with Putin, he sniffed his hand again and again. Her aroma is heavenly and legendary throughout the world.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=e738dcf3161edd17ac1a37d0eefe493d&threadid=1845896&perpage=40&pagenumber=13

Edit: Rumor is it is special engineered perfume from the CIA which makes her irresistable to men. (ibid)

Note the structural similarity to this thread:

I'd like to shave the fur off because it smells so bad but it's winter. It smells like a combnation of burned rubber and bad potatoes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=624815#673376

[Nostradammit]

16. I was just going to ask if this guy's uncle left him a weird pet

This totally reminded me of Oscar.

Very convincing demeanor, though, I must admit. If this IS an insider, he's spewing disinformation.

[Garbo 2004]

18. Thanks for the link to the Oscar thread!! I'm crying with laughter.

Yes, rather idiosyncratic writing style in both threads.

I'm bookmarking Oscar for sure. :D

"It has big square floppy ears like soft tortillas."

[tyler]

39. yeah, but we don't know either

Just got cross-linked here from the SA thread. Yes it's a humor site, but the thread isn't some joke we're trying to pull on other forums. Honestly, we don't know if he's for real or not either.

[foo_bar]

53. there is a fine line between satire and a world gone mad

The rumor is that this is either some KGB perfume or something the CIA cooked up to make her irresistable. Maids comment on it. Cooks comment on it the kitchen staff and sniffs her used napkins. Everyone is in on this thing except for her. We all know everyone else is doing it. It is the most massive government conspiracy I have yet known, and I suspect it goes all the way to the top.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=e738dcf3161edd17ac1a37d0eefe493d&threadid=1845896&perpage=40&pagenumber=13

But I think that line was crossed right around the liquid-cooled codpieces.

[Garbo 2004]

60. Ah, but I rather liked Rummy's squeaky "thinking voice." ;-) n/t

[drm604]

15. Big block of cheese

There is a sealed room in the whitehouse which once held a half-ton block of cheese for about 30 years.

There does, at least, seem to be some truth to this particular claim. http://tinyurl.com/m88lh

I do have to say, though, that I can see no good reason to believe that this guy is for real. It is an enjoyable read.

[autorank]

17. So, what did JeffK say about all of this?

I've enjoyed SomethingAwful.Com for years. "Low Tax", the site owner, is brilliant and he's turned it into one of the 'l33t places on the internet.

I have no idea if this is true. I do love the Ridge story, it's so odd, especially the way he walks if the socks are worn as intended.

Great find.

[drm604]

46. That seems like one of the weak points in the story.

How would this guy know how Ridge walks if forced to wear his socks right-side out? Did someone at the White House during the workday force him to wear them properly?

[The Witch]

24. I take 200 mg of Zoloft and I'm fine.

Don't assume because someone's on a high dosage of antidepressants that they're psycho.

Assume it because they want to nuke Iran, though. :evilgrin:

[monarch]

30. The massive dose of antidepressants was a tip off to me that

it was satire. I don't think that there is such a thing as a stupendous dose. An antidepressant either works or it doesn't. His doctors would either keep switching medications or conclude that his problems are not susceptible to medication. I vote for the latter.

[seabeyond]

34. is that high. 150 welbutrin to stop smoking, i felt nothing. 300

this month and still i am not feeling any different. certainly not helping me quit, and i am not depressed and was already happy, but there are two dosages 150 and 300.

now i think it is significant if the man is taking the stuff for depression period. regardless of dosage. and what else is he taking iwth it, or jsut one perscription??

i hear he is taking two pills a day. and powell says they are all taking a sleeping pill, dont remember the name

[tblue37]

43. Ambien, which causes some people

to have blackouts during which the sleep walk (or sleep drive) and do really weird things which they don't have any memory of later.

[seabeyond]

44. yep yep yep. that was the one during campaign we were told about

no one took it further. but twice a day??? what at night and morning. isnt he waking in the morning. or going back to sleep?, who is to know. but the guy appears to be drugged up. am curious on what

[chat_noir]

29. O-H-I-O

Everyone always takes presidential elections seriously, and anything can happen. I think Kerry actually did win, or at least would have won, but as a result of some stuff done in Ohio I won't go into, he didn't make it. This is one of the things people will go to jail over.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=8cf2627fed56d914d0f21d3a2ae848c4&threadid=1845896&perpage=40&pagenumber=11

[malaise]

31. Fascinating read n/t

[Heidi]

32. Other less-than-credible websites have reported this.

I consider taking medication for a mental condition no different than taking meds for a physical condition. I don't know (and it's none of my business) what meds my beloved Dems are taking, and I don't want to give the right any reason to call out Democrats on the basis of their medical histories. When this sort of thing comes around, and we progressives jump on the bandwagon, it surely will come back to bite our Democratic leaders and candidates on the behind. Why give conservatives that sort of ammunition, particularly when medical privacy is something we progressives should hold dear?

[mwb970]

33. Impotent!? How are we supposed to impeach him with no sex!? (n/t)

[KnaveRupe]

35. I can speak directly to the Ridge stuff.

From 1990-1996, I worked in a Chi-Chi's restaurant in Erie, PA, Tom Ridge's hometown, and part of the PA-3 congressional district he represented before he ran for governor of PA.

Every year, Ridge would personally take his Erie staff out for their annual office Christmas party at our restaurant. I waited on them for at least 2 of those parties.

I do not recall any kind of bizarro instructions or weirdness associated with Ridge or his staff - no oddball food requirements or anything of the sort. It was simply an average office Xmas party. I might add that Ridge also tipped very well.

The only unusual thing that ever happened was one year, Ridge's credit card was denied, so he whipped out a different one. The denied card was, if I recall correctly, from a "Tom Ridge for Governor" account, rather than a personal credit card.

If Ridge DOES display those kinds of eccentricities, he picked them up later. But a lot of people in Erie know Ridge, and I suspect that if he had gone all "Howard Hughes-y" the rumor mill around the city would have been clued in at some point. I currently work in city government, and I hear a lot of stuff about local and locally-connected politicos, and I've never heard anything like this.

For what it's worth.

Ridge was a pretty good congresscritter, a decent governor, and a godawful Director of Homeland Security. At least, until you compare him to Chertoff, at which point even his DHS stint wasn't so bad. Ridge was a moderate Repub, a decorated Vietnam Vet, a pro-choice Catholic, and given the current state of God's Own Party, it's no wonder he's out of government altogether now.

[KoKo]

49. Thanks for the reality check.....

:thumbsup:

[peace_on_earth]

56. If Ridge left office in 12/04, then why still talk about him?

In fact, the bulk of the first post was about Ridge, and he's been gone more than a year.

Just curious...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/30/ridge/

[radio4progressives]

58. And a Co-Conspirator of the Lynching of Mumia Abu Jamal

Mumia is an innoncent manned framed and sitting on Death Row because of Tom Ridge sitting on the evidence that would free Mumia if ever released to the public.

[peekaloo]

36. Does Ridge have a color code for Jeri-Curls?

:rofl:

Jeri-Curl alert!

[Notoverit]

37. Se non e vero, ma e ben trovato - if not true, it's well made up

As for W's impotence, I always assumed it - but coming form years of drugs and alcoolism. My assumption became certainty when, 2 years ago I think, in a Crawford ego massage by the press, he actually bragged about getting it on with the wifey one morning. It must've been eventful enough to him to...er..alert the media!

[populistdriven]

41. Those geeks over at SA rock! I just signed up for an account! :)

[gollygee]

42. If it isn't true, whoever wrote it is good at creating a character

and should become a novelist. Very good character study.

[crispini]

45. Wow. Fascinating thread.

May be complete BS but some of his analysis does ring true:

Democracy as a government relies upon the ability of factions to compromise on divisive issues through rational debate instead of violence. The current political power brokers have figured out how to short circuit this process by focusing national attention on issues which are based on differences of non-negotiable, irrational moral sentiment, and are thus not subject to resolution through rational reconciliation. They've broken democracy.

[Richard Steele]

47. Fun to read, but no way in hell it's genuine.

No "White House Insider" would actually post such things;
and if one actually DID, the DictatorTot's secret police
would have tracked the mesages back and had him on a plane
for Gitmo inside 24 hours...

Still fun to read though.

[tuvor]

48. "Everybody here uses ambien." --Colin Powell

Powell needs medication to sleep nights
by Al Kamen, Washington Post

Nov. 10, 2003

Secretary of State Colin 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."

Really? Some folks across the river may conclude that explains a lot.

http://www.unknownnews.net/031114ambien.html

[Neil Lisst]

50. I don't know what he's on, but it's powerful stuff.

My guess is they have to keep adding to it, altering it, enhancing it - to keep him going.

[LunaC]

54. Did anyone else catch the reference to elections and OHIO?

Everyone always takes presidential elections seriously, and anything can happen. I think Kerry actually did win, or at least would have won, but as a result of some stuff done in Ohio I won't go into, he didn't make it. This is one of the things people will go to jail over.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=01bc7ca0fa2e3e5df34ca44235da9073&threadid=1845896&perpage=40&pagenumber=10

I think this was on p. 10 of that incredibly long thread. I took a screen shot to save it for posterity just in case someone decides to "wipe" the comments clean.

[1monster]

57. Sounds like serious Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I'm sure

it must be miserable for those who work for/with him, but it must be even more miserable to suffer from this disorder. There are prescription drugs now that can help...

[Seen the light]

59. I hope the reason 12 people recommended it was because of its humor

If they recommended thinking that because a random person on the SA forums posted something, it must somehow be true, I have to wonder about the sanity of those people. :)

[womanofthehills]

61. Remember the saliva in corners of Bush's mouth

During the 3rd presidental debate - obviously, from some drug affecting his certral nervous system.

[Iris]

62. Perhaps W should give 100-150 mgs of his Zoloft to Tom Ridge.