This Is Going To Raise Some Right Wing Hackles....

For many months now, I've dangled the "psychosis" trope on my blog about Bush & Co., calling them magical children whose grasp of reality is driven by fear of inadequacies.

From out of the west in supoport of these theme comes Rosa Brooks, riding from the fires of Malibu and San Diego like Carter Slade in Ghost Rider:

Forget impeachment.

Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.

Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it's a great time to start another war.

That would be with Iran, and you'd have to be deaf not to hear the war drums. Last week, Bush remarked that "if you're interested in avoiding World War III . . . you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." On Sunday, Cheney warned of "the Iranian regime's efforts to destabilize the Middle East and to gain hegemonic power . . . [we] cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions." On Tuesday, Bush insisted on the need "to defend Europe against the emerging Iranian threat."

By the way...is that "Old Europe" or "New Europe", Mr. President? You know, like how there was New Coke and Coke Classic and everyone turned on New Coke so that Coke Classic ended up dominating our palates for decades beyond?

Of course, New Coke didn't have your marketing genius behind it, now, did it?

But I digress:

Huh? Iran is now a major threat to Europe? The Iranians are going to launch a nuclear missile (that they don't yet possess) against Europe (for reasons unknown because, as far as we know, they're not mad at anyone in Europe)? This is lunacy in action.

I want to take a few paragraphs here to delve a bit more into the probable cause of this psychosis, at least in my mind opinion.

Here we have a man of whom it was once famously quipped, "He was born on third base, thinking he'd hit a triple."

Life should have been easy for him, and it was, until he went to school. Suddenly, learnin' became hard werk. Dodging the draft became hard werk. Skipping out on the Champagne Squadron of the TANG became hard werk. Runnin' a bidness became hard werk.

And all this time, Poppy and Bar were right there to hold his little hand and march him along past all these obstacles like the good l'il soldier he was (say that in a Shirley Temple voice. It's a lot funnier.)

So here, in his immortal hubris, he's locked himself into his own worst nightmare: a job that he so desperately needs his father's help with....gee...did you ever imagine looking back at Bush the Elder nostalgically?...but who he has pushed away publicly in favor of men who would exploit his power at the drop of a hat to advance an agenda that is not only unacceptable to a free society, but is antithetical to that very foundation of freedom.

They say the Presidency is the loneliest job in the world, and given Bush's "attaboy" cheerleader attitude about his socializations, one can only imagine the depths of his soul that are aflame with fear and even terror.

But there is no Al Qaeda there. There is only a mirror and when Bush looks into it, all he sees is his own reflection and hovering over him like a wraith, Dick Cheney.

Too, Cheney himself has his own reality to deal with. This is a man who's ignorance and ego prevent him from taking even the simplest steps to preserve his own health (after all, with all those stents in his bloodstream, we should probably start thinking of him as more an Erector set and less as a human). This is a man who wouldn't consider an opposing opinion if Jesus himself came down, shook him by the shoulders and said "Listen, man!"

We all know people like Dick. He's as officious as a DMV clerk (a job more suited to his talents, anyway). It's nearly OCD how compartmentalized his thinking has become: no matter what, he must cause a war. My daughter's a lesbian mommy? Threaten war. My wife wrote a lesbian porn novel? Threaten war. I had a heart attack? Threaten war.

I can't imagine that the Founding Fathers ever had it in their heads that a small cadre of completely psychotic wackjobs would ever occupy the highest levels of government (remember, our earliest elections saw the second place finished in the Presidential election become Vice President, which forced a tamping down of ambitions. That was changed in 1803).

Since clearly both men are physically able to execute their offices, there is no recourse beyond impeachment to bring sanity back to the White House (and you'd need to impeach both and then deal with Condi Rice, about whose sanity I have some reservations.)

Ah, but our Ms. Brooks has an out:

In Washington, the appropriate statutory law is already in place: If a "court or jury finds that [a] person is mentally ill and . . . is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization."

Anyone want to file the commitment papers?

How Dumb Do They Think We Are?

There's more than a whiff of cynicism surrounding this story:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Tuesday the United States was impatient for forceful Chinese action to cut trade deficits but Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said Beijing would not yield to pressure.

"There is growing skepticism in each country about the other's intentions," Paulson said at the start of two days of talks with a top-level Chinese delegation and amid growing anger in the U.S. Congress over China's huge trade surplus.

"Unfortunately, in America this is manifesting itself as anti-China sentiment as China becomes a symbol of the real and imagined downside of global competition," Paulson said.

Who they kiddin'? "Anti-China sentiment"? Where? Did I miss the memo?

Yes, I think there's legitimate concern over our trade and currency deficit with China, but no one in their right mind is blaming China. We've all seen how this administration has borrowed, borrowed, borrowed, taking a page out of the American consumer economy, like Paris Hilton with a platinum card on Rodeo Drive. Did China take advantage of this?

Does a drug pusher give free samples?

We practically, begged them to buy our debt. We practically begged them to open their cheap labor markets to American manufacturers. And now we have to practically beg them not to call in their chips?

Ma Xiuhong, China's vice commerce minister, said a group representing more than 200 Chinese firms will have signed at least $20 billion in deals with American companies when it wraps up a two-week 24-state tour on May 24.

But even a spate of contracts was unlikely to tamp down anger in the U.S. Congress over what many see as the artificially low value of the yuan, which they argue gives an unfair price advantage to Chinese exports.

Oh, duh! Those were the price advantages that, when we were exploiting the Chinese labor market, we were happily shelling out money for. Now that "sisters are doing it for themselves", we want a piece of the action?

Don't make me laugh. Yes, China has been gracious and noble in signing $20 billion in import contracts (they've probably laid half of this off on satellite countries that will repurchase goods, like North Korea or Vietnam), but there's a limit to what they will do, and certainly, any competitor worth his salt is smelling blood in the water.

We would act no differently (in point of fact, we haven't) in China's circumstances. We ought to clean up house here and next time, we can go into these talks with more moral authority and street cred.

In the meantime, I have to laugh at our arrogance. Yet again. What is it about this administration that they can't handle simple issues, like trade negotiations or armament treaties , or niggling over whether Bin Laden is still in charge of Al Qaeda without sounding like a classroom full of third graders?

Oh. Right. Magical children...