Undernews: State Of The Bush

Patient has regressed since last visit. Whereas previously he only sought to be sheriff of all of the U.S. and selected countries he called "the axis of evil," his grandiosity now encompasses every nation that has a non-democratic dictatorial leader. Like his psychotic desire for vengeance against Saddam Hussein of Baghdad, Iraq, this is another indication of his intolerance of competition in all its guises.

Among his rationalizations is a list of evil things alleged to have been done by Mr. Hussein. Although this list was supposed to provide support for immediate retribution, there was nothing on it fundamentally altered from the time when his father in the White House. The only thing that has really changed is the patient's mania for doing something violent about it.

Patient also displayed his sadistic impulses by becoming clearly aroused whenever his talk turned to the possible death or punishment of others. This behavior has been noted previously in his public enthusiasm in condemning fellow Texans to death. But it goes back even further that that according to one of his childhood friends, Terry Throckmorton. "We were terrible to animals," Throckmorton recalled of his adventures with the patient, and offered as an example the thousands of frogs who would come out by a small lake after a good rain: "Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them. Or we'd put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up."

Patient is still in denial as witnessed by the fact that less than one-tenth of his discourse addressed his major domestic failure: the recession and his inability to deal with it. Other failures were mentioned in one paragraph and then ignored in favor of listing the faults of somebody else. Among these failures were the inability to locate Osama bin Ladin, the total collapse of his early ten year budget predictions, the problems with a dividend tax cut too obvious for even some Republicans to ignore, and the fallout from his disastrous education program. As far as the last is concerned, it would appear that the only child not left behind by the patient's plan so far is the one occupying the White House.

Patient does have a few scattered positive thoughts. For example he mentioned in passing a hydrogen powered car and an AIDS program, although it is not clear who will be producing the former and whether the latter will be used to subsidize Christian missionary work in Africa.

The latter is of some concern given his obsession with what he calls "faith," which - like most virtues - he feels he possesses to a greater degree than most. He proposes subsidizing "faith-based" drug treatment, i.e. using federal funds to convert patients to a form of fanatical Christianity so mind-altering that some medical experts believe it to be merely a form of drug substitution rather than actual treatment. The patient - who himself was treated in this fashion - exhibits some of the characteristics of what, in popular A.A. parlance, is known as a "dry drunk," i.e. one who no longer imbibes but still has many of the undesirable behaviors apparent when he did. For example, he appears merely to have added the subject of Jesus to the others about which he was previously incoherent.

While patient is not yet legally qualified for hospitalization, he is clearly a danger to those around him, even those such as the media that have regularly served as prime enablers of his reckless actions. Will continue to work with him, but confess the patient's constant demands that his doctor cut out the gobblygook and just turn to Jesus is beginning to wear on my nerves.

- SAM SMITH

© Scoop Media