On Saturday (Aug 13), Peter Fredson posted an intriguing piece on the Bellacaio site, wherein he admits he shares the same problem with George Bush that most thinking people have -- there is no doubt that Bush is a shallow, unlearned, idiotic bully; yet he maintains an eerie control over the entire government.

Fredson writes:

"We must give them credit for manufacturing pretexts to take an entire nation to war, to fool an entire Congress, and most of the media, although the public seems easy enough to fool any time. We must give Bush credit for coalescing his entire cabinet, and administrative people, into a protective claque that applauds any stupidity he pronounces.

"He was able to cause every man and women in his cabinet to back up any lie, any misinformation, any deception, and do it perpetually, in public, and do his war dance loudly, enthusiastically, energetically, in such grand high-stepping fashion that any Indian tribe must be jealous of their histrionics, rhetoric, war-drum-beating, shouting, and dancing ability, with modern Tomahawks, cruise missiles, helicopter horses, and obedient braves with rattling sabers to do the bidding of the big chief. Demagoguery reached great heights then. Even Julius Caesar would be jealous of the Bushite ability to stir people to shed blood for fat-head politicians.

"We must applaud the determination of Bushites to coalesce the powers, (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) into a single unit of sycophants that have not hesitated to deliver their country to the highest lobbyist consortiums for maximum profitability and dominion. Vetos are hardly necessary when compliance is absolute. We stand in amazement at the smooth transition of a fairly good democracy into a semi-fascist imperialistic plutocracy where prayer substitutes for care, profit for credibility, and deception becomes the cloak of invisibility behind which scoundrels lurk to profit from human misery.

"Bushites are masters of exploitation. They have brilliantly suckered masses of True Believers by the story that God appointed Bush as a sort of junior savior to deliver the world from EVIL. That story alone convinced millions of simple-minded Christians into backing a shallow swaggering exploiter."

Like Fredson, I can understand the agendae of those who cluster around the one man they believe will grant their wishes -- make their dreams come true. And, like Fredson, I can only scratch my head in bewilderment. What is it about Bush, who is an appallingly crude and ignorant former falling-down-drunk -- a cowardly deserter who chucked his uniform and abandoned his post during a time of war -- enchanting enough to hold educated and experienced citizens in thrall, en masse?

Fredson nailed it at the very beginning of his piece when he spoke of "...the complexities of the collective mind of George W. Bush." I truly believe that is exactly what we have -- a cacophony of divergent ideologies that soar into his ear, and merge into a single incomprehensible mass before spilling, unedited, out of his mouth.

The problem is unsolvable. Neither Bush nor those of us who listen to him have any idea of what he’s talking about. Unfortunately, we will never know what was on Bush's mind at any given point. Because Bush is merely a portal wherein competing views rush in and out, much like the realm described so aptly by Edgar Allen Poe in his "Haunted Palace" in The Fall of the House of Usher. . .

And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh -- but smile no more.