Steve....

are you suggesting that the intercepts in question were ones in which Bolton had been criticized during "tapped" conversations.... and that Bolton wanted to know exactly who was badmouthing him? (or perhaps Americans who were critical of other Bush administration officials in conversations that were "intercepted" --- such information could be quite handy, don't you think?

Paul....excuse my being so cryptic, but yes, you may have it right.

The 'Brownshirt' sobriquet that has been floating around the Hill is so appallingly close to the mark, isn't it?

As the WWII generation has died off, our honor has gone with them.

Steve, have you given much thought to which particular windmill you'll be tilting at when Bolton is done? If I may be so bold as to offer a suggestion - stay with it. I believe that following all of the threads in the Bolton conversation will be the quickest route to exposing what ails our country.

I tend to think that soon the Grand Old Party will be withering, and changing radically - I hope it's for the better. We will always need a loyal opposition - and the Democrats, in their current portrayal of that role (and despite a lack of cohesiveness), have done much better than we might have hoped.

JF

aha. very good.

On the legalities of disclosing US persons (that is, citizens and permanent residents) whose names have been picked up by NSA, Laura Rozen quotes chapter and verse from USSID 18, which is the controlling authority.

Details here:

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001952.html

Also good on the ins and out are pages 440-450 (or thereabouts, I have a UK edition) of Body of Secrets, by James Bamford.

Bush seems at real risk of making himself an early lame duck. If he presses very hard on Bolton and phasing out Social Security, Congress may declare independence and leave him out of the loop to a large extent.
I am not surprised, but I am flabbergasted to see him push so hard for eliminating Social Security.
I wonder if he feels free to try so hard to eliminate a program which means so much to so many people because it means so little to him personally. Bush's lack of empathy is pathological, and seeing him give fake smiles through his talk last night while he promised to axe SS gave me chills.
Also, it is very disturbing to see him so smiling and nonchalant about North Korea. Here is an instance where his firm resolve is truly needed; unfortunately, real danger is too scary for Bush to face.

Marky,

Perhaps Bush's inappropriate expressions and unyeilding positions are manifestations of serious emotional disorder. In my opinion, people confuse Bush's tough-guy populism with plain meanness.

According to Tucker Carlson, Bush mocked Carla Fay Tucker's final plea for her life. In addition, we know that he executed 152 people including those whose cases were compromised by unreliable evidence, disbarred or suspended defense attorneys, meager defense efforts during sentencing and dubious psychiatric testimony. And, while Bush did not know the cameras were rolling, just minutes before his solemn announcement that the US military were in action against Iraq, he vigorously pumped his fist and declared, "I feel good!"

While I am not qualified to call him a sociopath, I can easily see that he is utterly incapable of any kind of empathy. Something is very seriously wrong with him, and it should be clear to even the most casual observer that he is supremely unsuited for the job that he now holds.

It is our responsibilty to remain viligent and oppose those actions that are destructive to our nation. Again, my thanks to Steve for his efforts on our behalf.

Susan, a very likely explanation for Bush's damaged condition is his years of heavy drug and alcohol use. I understand that cocaine can seriously injure a person's affect and sensitivity---at any rate long term use causes irreversible changes to the brain. His decades of heavy drinking are probably the cause of his cognitive problems.
Bush can't keep a thought in his head for 2 minutes. How people can overlook this is beyond me.
Republicans elected a President who had dementia in the 1980's and elected another one in 2004.
Obviously competence is not important to them.

marky -- While a history of alcohol and drug abuse seriously complicates and exacerbates the situation, the traits of sociopathy have been present from the very beginning.

When Dubya was a kid, one of his favorite pastimes was to shove firecrackers into the mouths of frogs he had caught, light the firecrackers, and toss the frogs into the air to watch them explode. This was reported on during the 2000 campaign, and friends of Dubya who knew him as a boy verified the story.

Then back when he was at university (Yale), the New York Times carried a story about how Dubya was in trouble with university officials because of his practice of "branding" fraternity pledges. He fashioned a brand out of metal coat hangers, held the "brand" in the fire in the fireplace, then "branded" the blind-folded pledges. Said pledges were, of course, very upset about this. (And they still have the scars to prove it.) I read the original contemporaneous NYT article, which made the paper because of his famous political father who was a congressman then. Georgie promised to be a good boy and never do it again, but he also expressed bewilderment as to why other thought it was such a big deal.

The alcohol and drugs were just the icing on the cake.

You guys are just scratching the surface.
Paul Krugman stated in a NYT editorial before the election that the Republicans couldn't afford to lose because the country would find out what they had really been up to.
I can just imagine what we would be hearing if Kerry was president.

"Susan, a very likely explanation for Bush's damaged condition is his years of heavy drug and alcohol use."

I agree with you, but the lack of empathy strikes me as something more complex than the problems related to substance abuse.

I read that as a child Bush abused animals. Children who do such things are usually cowards and seek to achieve importance by having a form of "power" over someone or something that is weaker. As adults they have a higher tendency toward violence. In addition, they rarely express remorse for their abusive behavior.

In thinking about empathy and human suffering, perhaps the hellish conditions of Abu Gharib and Guantanamo that most of us find so deeply abhorrent, don't bother our president much at all.

I understand that Bush has a lack of empathy, but I'm not sure how many voters that would sway.
It's his obvious mental incompetence that's just staggering. When he talks about complex topics like Social Security in detail, his sentences come out meaningless and garbled, with jargon thrown about like word salad. He just doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, and it's very obvious.

Marky, I especially like this one (obviously he's way more empathetic than I thought):

"It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way." G.W.Bush 4/29/05

Marky -- I suppose it's a moot point, since Bush is BOTH sociopathic and incompetent, but I have to believe that you are putting the cart before the horse here.

Suppose we could fix just ONE of those gigantic flaws of Dubya's. Just one.

Now, if you made him competent rather than stupid-as-dirt but left him sociopathic, he would wreak havoc and horror and destroy all that is good and civilized -- IN A COMPETENT WAY! Egads.

Now, if you could give him a real soul, cure him of his sociopathy, thus making him experience empathy for the suffering of others, but leave him without competence -- at least he would be doing what he is NOW, in terms of surrounding himself with advisors and aides to execute his intent. But that intent would be for the good of humanity! And if his advisors and aides proved inept or corrupt, he would note that they failed to solve problems in that "promote the general welfare" arena. And he would care about that and perhaps fire those working against his agenda of decency.

I think the sociopathic streak is the most serious problem. Whether voters see this now is actually irrelevant to whether or not it is TRUE.

I don't know, I wonder why it's so surprising that that government regularly spies on its own citizens in domestic areas and violates many rules and procedures to do so.

Mrs. K8,

You probably know that roughly 90% of all children who abuse animals are abused themselves.

Can't speculate here, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were more going on in that Kennebunkport compound than fishing and horseshoes.

susan -- No, I didn't know that, but I suppose it shouldn't be surprising.

I remember hearing about ten years ago that researchers had compiled a list of warning signs (in childhood) of future sociopaths (and hence possible serial killers). Torturing/killing animals was high on the list. IIRC, setting fires was, to a lesser degree, another future indicator.

Now, what I'm unaware of is whether or not there is a body of research on children who torture/kill animals with a breakdown on those who do NOT become sociopaths, but are "simply" deeply disturbed in other significant ways.

And I also haven't kept up on the latest in sociopathy research. Is it always (or almost always) true that sociopaths had abusive parents? Sociopathy, I think, is considered part of the larger family of "personality disorders" (including narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc.) These are not like other mental illnesses, like straightforward depression, or bipolar disorder. They seem to be next to impossible to treat. The last time I read about it, the research was suggesting that personality disorders do not have as much of an "environmental" or poor socialization cause, that it was somewhat of a mystery, perhaps some sort of organic problem. Creepily, those who are highly "functional" sociopaths (not actual serial killers whose crimes accelerate and get them caught), are drawn to fields like POLITICS and high-level executive positions in BUSINESS, where they then do a disproportionate amount of damage in society. This makes research in this area very important, IMHO.

If you or anyone else here knows more about the current state of research on sociopathy, I'd love to hear about it.

Of course, from everything we know about the Bush family, it seems deeply dysfunctional. The way the death of Bush's little sister was handled (or rather, NOT handled) is a prime example.

Perhaps someday future historians will be able to consider the question of torture as a policy and its relationship to sociopathic policy makers.

Mrs. K8

I'm not an expert in psychology, but, like most people, I am interested in human behavior. Here is something that I recently read that supports and enlarges on your comments:

"Sociopathy can be recognized early in an individual. Before the age of around 15 - 16 years, a child showing sociopathic traits is titled with conduct disorder. Signs of this early stage of sociopathy might include immunity to parental punishment and pain. Other signs may be the torturing of animals, fire setting, vandalism, consistent lying, theft, or aggression towards others. Nothing usually works in trying to change the behavior of this type of child. Therefore, the parent(s) usually give up, making the situation worse. But it must be noted that many children with conduct disorder do not progress on to sociopaths. After the age of 15 - 16, those who continue to show sociopathic signs are then labeled as having sociopathy or antisocial personality disorder (Carter & Golant, 1998; Sabbatini, 1998).

Sociopaths are very egocentric individuals that lack a sense of personal responsibility and morality. They may be impulsive, manipulative, reckless, quarrelsome, and consistent liars. Sociopaths are usually unable to sustain relationships and have a total lack of remorse for their actions. The sociopath may also be very prone to aggressive, hostile, and sometimes violent behavior. This aggression may or may not lead to criminal behavior and often takes the form of domestic violence. Along with these other actions, sociopaths often engage in self-destructive behavior such as alcoholism or addiction to drugs. This, of course, usually worsens many aspects of the sociopathic behavior. Despite these previous symptoms, the sociopath may be an excellent actor, always appearing charming, calm, and collected. They usually have a normal or above normal intelligence level and good verbal fluency. It is these qualities that sometimes place the sociopath in leadership positions within their social groups and often make it hard to spot their "black side".

According to Dr. Robert Hare, there are three main categories of psychopaths. Primary psychopaths/sociopaths are considered to be the true sociopath. This is the sociopath who appears to be very normal, calm, and educated on the exterior, but on the interior, they are incapable of experiencing any form of emotional content. They rarely come in contact with the law, but when they do, they are often able to talk themselves out of trouble using their verbal skills. Despite this verbal eloquence, the words often have no real emotional meaning for the sociopath. When the primary sociopath does commit crimes, they are usually petty, meaningless, and without logic, such as daredevil acts and disturbing the peace. It is believed that a constant state of boredom and the lack of ability to truly feel deep emotion are what lead to this random misbehavior or thrill seeking. This form of psychopaths "can basically be thought of as emotional shells; the surface is all there, but there is no substance" (Culwell, 1998, p.7).

The second category is the secondary, or neurotic, psychopath/sociopath. This type of individual has much more severe and noticeable emotional problems. According to Dr. Curt Bartol, they are sometimes referred to as "acting-out neurotics" (as cited in Culwell, 1998, p.8). This individual displays much greater antisocial behavior and is much more likely to come into contact with the law (repeatedly). They are at a much greater risk of imprisonment.

The third type of psychopath/sociopath is the dyssocial psychopath. "Dyssocial psychopaths can be said to have come about primarily due to Bandura's Social Learning Theory and his model for observational learning. They were effectively made antisocial by their environment" (Culwell, 1998, p.8). This category of sociopathy is much rarer and therefore has been researched much less.

The causes of this sociopathic disorder have been narrowed to several factors through research. One of the primary causes of sociopathic behavior is believed to be neurological abnormalities mainly in the frontal lobe of the brain. This area of the brain is responsible for "self-control, planning, judgment, the balance of individual versus social needs, and many other essential functions underlying effective social intercourse" (Sabbatini, 1998, p.7). This area is also related to fear conditioning. The abnormal anatomy or chemical activity within this area of the brain may be caused by abnormal growth (possibly genetic), brain disease, or injury. This theory has been supported by much research using positron emission tomography (PET) which visually shows the metabolic activity of neurons within the brain (Sabbatini, 1998). A second factor believed to be partially responsible for the sociopathic disorder in some cases is the primary socialization of individuals within dysfunctional environments, such as abusive, poorly educated, or poverty stricken homes. For years, this was thought to be the primary cause of sociopathy. But as knowledge has increased in the area of neuroscience, it has been realized that this is possibly only a secondary cause. Therefore, it can be said that the type of brain the sociopath was born with and/or the environment in which it was nourished forms the sociopath (Andreasen, 1984).

An estimated 3% of all adult males have this sociopathic disorder. (The antisocial personality disorder is uncommon among women.) Only a small fraction of this percentage actually develop into violent criminals. Most sociopathic individuals are able to control their disorder within the boundaries of social tolerability (Silver & Yudofsky, 1992; Sabbatini, 1998).

They are considered only 'socially obnoxious' or hateful personalities, and every one of us knows of someone who fits the description. Corrupt and callous politicians, social or career fast climbers, authoritarian leaders, abusing and aggressive persons, etc., are among them. A common characteristic is that they engage systematically in deception and manipulation of others for personal gain. In fact, many successful and adapted non-violent sociopaths can be found in our society. An NIMH epidemiologic study reported that only 47% of those who met the SPD criteria had a significant arrest record. The most relevant events for these persons occur in the area of job problems, domestic violence, traffic offenses, and severe marital difficulties. (Sabbatini, 1998, p.2-3)

More easily recognized and studied are the sociopathic individuals with histories of violent criminal behavior. As much as 15-25% of society's inmate population show many traits of this disorder (Hare, 1995,- Sabbatini, 1998). It is these incarcerated individuals as well as individuals in mental institutions on which most of the research on antisocial personality disorder is based.

As can be seen, sociopaths can exist in many different forms and to many different degrees. They can also be found in all races, cultures, and socioeconomic levels. The sociopath could be the intelligent and very successful businessman that goes home each night and abuses his family. He could be the temperamental man that visits the bar regularly and who often gets into brawls. The sociopath could be the prison inmate who was just released last month, and who is already back in prison or the hateful man that lives on the block that no one seems to be able to get along with. He could be that career-climbing businessman or politician that doesn't care who they destroy in the process. It could even be that man that can't seem to get enough of adrenaline-pumping adventures like bungee jumping, skydiving, and motorcycle racing. Or, he could be that quiet, polite man that no one ever suspected was a serial killer.

The terms sociopath or psychopath often bring to mind images of sadistically violent individuals such as Ted Bundy or the fictional character of Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in the book and movie The Silence of the Lambs. But I believe the defining characteristic traits of sociopaths actually cover a much broader spectrum of individuals than most of us would ever imagine. The sociopath is that truly self-absorbed individual with no conscience or feeling for others and for whom social rules have no meaning. I believe that most all of us know or have come in contact with sociopathic individuals without even knowing it."

susan -- I'm very grateful you took the time to post this information. I initially became interested in the topic in the early to mid nineties -- because of someone I had dated who fit the description to a tee. After successfully extricating myself from this guy (who I had come to consider a "pathological" liar, one who lies even when it's not useful or "necessary"), I came across articles on sociopathy and realized I'd escaped a serious danger. The destruction and chaos these people generate is astonishing.

What I never expected was that this syndrome would one day play such a significant question in the future of this nation as a thriving, democratic, constitutional Republic.

I vaguely remember reading about a researcher who became interested in Bush-as-sociopath when he began working on a book on Dubya's malapropisms and other linguistic gaffes. In preparation for the book he watched as many Bush tapes as he could get his hands on. Slowly, he began to notice something which chilled him to the bone. There are times when Bush speaks very effectively and without stumbling -- and those times are when he speaks about killing (such as execution), warfare, vengeance, punishment, etc. It's on those other occasions when he must speak on anything related to "compassion" (education, poverty, health care, etc.) that he stumbles badly. This made the researcher instantly see the sociopath in Bush. Wish I could remember his name.

In any event, it's interesting that the one part of the description of the sociopath you provided which DOES NOT MATCH Bush (verbal skill, eloquence) is the one area where Marky's assessment of alcohol- and drug-related brain damage comes into play. And it's true that if we look at tapes of Bush in his early gubernatorial years, we find a much, much more articulate person. In fact, looking at two tapes consecutively (the early years vs. now) is a shocking experience.

Thanks again. I think I'll cut and paste your post and print it out, so that I can mull over the typology later. Wouldn't it be great if we could just devote academic interest to the topic? And not feel like the possible fate of the nation is tied up in it?

Mrs. K8,

You are most welcome. Now, we must turn our attention back to Mr. Bolton and do what we can to ensure that his slippery fingers never again touch the levers of power.