SECTION TWO
sm
COLUMN
109,
SEPTEMBER 1, 2004
(Copyright © 2004 The Blacklisted Journalist)
HAS BUSH GONE LOONY TUNES?--SOURCES SAY HE'S USING DRUGS TO CURB DEPRESSION AND HIS ERRATIC BEHAVIOR
BENT OUT OF SHAPE?
[The following report from Capitol Hill Blue was brought to our attention via an email from Al Heisler at aheisler@worldnet.att.net ]
By TERESA HAMPTON - Editor, Capitol Hill Blue
July 28, 2004, 08:09
President 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.
"It's a double-edged sword," says one aide. "We can't have him flying off the handle at the slightest
provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally."
Angry Bush walked away from reporter's questions.
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 motherfuckers 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 President's wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.
Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports as anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George
Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book, Bush on the Couch:
Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a
Bush used
firecrackers
to explode frogs
"paranoid meglomaniac" and "untreated alcoholic"
whose "lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating
over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad" showcase Bush's instabilities.
"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," Dr. Frank said. "He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but
not treated."
Dr. Frank's conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA
Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.
The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical
dependency.
Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a
younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.
"President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies," Dr. Frank adds.
The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.
Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are
"powerful medications" designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the
President's annual physical, details of the President's health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and
are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.
Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush's health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald
Reagan's second term when aides managed to conceal the President's increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught
of Alzheimer's Disease.
It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon's final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to
portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn't emerge until after Nixon left office.
One long-time GOP political consultant who---for obvious reasons---asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican
Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.
"We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes," he says sadly. "That's not good for
my candidates, it's not good for the party and it's certainly not good for the country."
(c) Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue ##
FOR AS LONG AS PEOPLE KEEP LISTENING TO BOB DYLAN AND THE BEATLES, PEOPLE WILL WANT THIS BOOK
"A masterpiece!" --- SALLY GROSSMAN, widow of Bob Dylan's brilliant original manager, Albert Grossman.
"This book is a must-read for all rock 'n roll aficionados!"---EAR CANDY
"An essential reference for demystifying what the author refers to as: 'one of the most self-destructive binges of creativity in cultural history.'"---HAMMOND GUTHRIE, COUNTERPUNCH MAGAZINE
"Required Reading for anyone and everyone who considers themselves fans, followers, students, or those just plain curious of the Golden Age of Popular Music"---GARY PIG GOLD, FUFKIN.COM.
"I love the book. I love the way you can open it to any page and start reading and it keeps you reading. The book is just fun to read." --LEVON HELM, Drummer of THE BAND from Big Pink.
"Ellis Paul and I love your book."---RALPH JACCODINE, Ralph Jaccodine Management.
". . .perfect for our times."---WOODSTOCK TIMES
"Adam
Duritz (he's the lead singer and writer for the famed
". . .a must read for anyone who loves, music, loves life, loves rock and roll."---TSAURAH LITZKY, author of The Motion of the Ocean, Baby on the Water, and Goodbye Beautiful Mother.
"I recommend it."---DOUGLAS HOLDER, IBBETSON STREET PRESS.
".
. .It is a fasinating, insightful read. You are such a wonderful
writer."---STEPHANIE LEDGIN, Music
Journalist.
"I could not put this book of yours down for a minute."---ED GALING, POET LAUREATE OF HATBORO, PA.
"Quite simply, Al Aronowitz is a living legend"---JOHN FORTUNATO, THE AQUARIAN.
"Every student and fan of The Beat Generation, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones will want to read this book"---RON WHITEHEAD, POET
"Volume One Of The Blacklisted Journalist is the kinda tome what a fella can dip into at any given point and find oneself hooked within a couple paragraphs"---DUKE DE MONDO, BLOGCRITICS.ORG.
"BOB
DYLAN AND THE BEATLES: Volume One Of The Best Of The Blacklisted Journalist is a
golden stash box of Al's You-Are-There history of two thirds of rock's Holy
Troika"---MICHAEL SIMMONS, LA WEEKLY.
IN
THIS 615-PAGE
PAPERBACK, AL ARONOWITZ, ACCLAIMED AS THE "GODFATHER OF ROCK
JOURNALISM," TELLS YOU MORE ABOUT BOB DYLAN AND THE BEATLES THAN ANY OTHER
WRITER CAN TELL YOU BECAUSE
NO OTHER WRITER WAS THERE AT THE TIME. AS THE MAN WHO INTRODUCED ALLEN GINSBERG
TO BOB DYLAN, BOB DYLAN TO THE BEATLES AND THE BEATLES TO MARIJUANA, ARONOWITZ
BOASTS, "THE '60S WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THE SAME WITHOUT ME."
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN 109
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ