Posted on 09/18/2004 6:38:54 AM PDT by MindBender26
Exerpt: NYT article on Bill Burkett;
"In it, (a letter) Mr. Burkett complained of "severe retaliation" from General James for what he said was reporting "illegal acts" within the National Guard. He also complained about the government's failure to pay for his medical care after suffering from a tropical disease after a military assignment to Panama in 1997. Before finally winning medical benefits in July 1998, he said, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for depression."
ENDIT
Nope, he is now fully qualified to be on the ticket with Howard Dean or Al Gore next time they try to run for president.
Burkett apparently was stricken with a form of meningitis. This could have caused some permanent brain damage. My impression from reading some of the things he has written is that they are very similar to some writings I have seen by a person who had severe mental illness. Burkett is not so bad off, but he sounds like he is trying hard to maintain his mental equilibrium. In the case of the waste basket incident, I wonder about the possibility that he hallucinated this and honestly believes that it took place.
My theory is - Burkett dictated the "memos" to someone at the Travis County DNC (where Robin - Rather's daughter is affiliated) - the "memos" were then given to McAwful - who gave them to Kerry - who released them to CBS through Mapes - who is a producer in Dallas.And even if you turn out to be wrong on the exact sequence of events, I'll bet my bottom dollar everyone you list in this theory of yours has their hands in it, is guiltily involved in it, and helped plan and execute it.
Welllll, my experiences and training in such matters in San Diego is 26-30 or so years old.
I did witness the 'freeing,' 'liberating' of the mental hospitals of the 'harmless' mentally ill such that they began populating the streets as homeless.
And, I was certainly trained to use such criteria as you mentioned for forcable incarcerations.
But in my experience, back then, the criteria for voluntary hospitalization was NOT THAT strict on all those criteria--certainly not at all hospitals.
Shoot, I know one Navy Commander (CDR, USN) who was hospitalized in Balboa for--I forget--2-3 weeks or so--at least 10 days--and ran through an extensive battery of tests. His problem? His shipmates found him in the parking lot on his knees with his arms raised worshipping because he saw a huge cross in the sky.
They later released him as totally sane and OK but advised him that the next time he saw the cross--to avoid kneeling down and worshipping in Balboa's parking lot. He could routinely still see the cross and had a profoundly deep spiritual awakening that changed his life for the better.
I had one patient at a Baptist counseling center--a real controlling wife and mother who was hyper manipulative, devious, blaming etc. who had been hospitalized several times. She was not usually suicidal--though she could play that game with great histrionics to get her way. And she was not homicidal nor really battering.
I don't recall what the diagnoses were--more than one DSM III category, as I recall--but her husband told me hospitals in Southern California REFUSED TO TAKE HER ANY LONGER--not because they thought she was particularly sane. And, not because they thought she would avoid being a danger to herself or others on occasion (though that was NOT a consistent problem); but because they could no longer tolerate her troublesome--no progress, outrageously manipulative, obnoxious personality. She WAS a REAL DOOZY.
Course there was the very wealthy 20 something year old son in Taiwan--who WAS a danger to others--at least when he decided on the top of one of his dad's 13 story buildings to start pushing marble furniture off the building onto the sidewalk below. As I recall, the police weren't nearby at the time and the dad wouldn't testify against his son so he was not hospitalized at all.
I realize that the professional could impute possible/probable harm based on an interview or other convincing criteria. But some people were voluntarily hospitalized for chronic depression when there was no probable suicide risk assessed as valid.
I don't really care what your training is/was or the law etc. I experienced what I experienced; observed what I observed. Perhaps times have changed, tightened up on the criteria in our litigious society.
As I recall, another criteria that could relatively easily facilitate a voluntary hospitalization was any seriously convincing evidence of psychosis--even without any signs of it being dangerous to self or others.
BTW, the woman I mentioned who's husband told me the hospitals would no longer take her--had been hosptiatlized 8 times--sometimes for months at a time. And, as I recall, my boss at the center checked the facts out and just shook his head about the case.
That "screwball" looks like a softball. Is it? The stitches don't look like a baseball. Just wondering. ;-)
I've no idea. Used google image search. :)
TT,
that tagline is a scream!
Snot
Guys, I rarely post anything on this site although I read it a lot. Normally people see the important issues here long before the old press sees them. But I think the Democrats and old press are getting by with something and nobody seems to care. If you look at the forged memos they paint a picture of Bush being treated a little different because his father is the local congressmen. That's OK I am sure Amy Carter and Moon Unit Zappa were treated differently because of their fathers, Sometimes its a good thing and sometimes it stinks. A son is always trying to get out of his fathers shadow and when your father is so prominent it can be very frustrating. But read the memo closely and think about who wrote it.
Because several people out there have said there are general truths to the memo. They are now using the words of the forger to say things like "sugar coat". But Killian never used that term, the forger did. Just because people acknowledge that Jerry Killian's job was to make sure all the very young officers under his command got their work done, and he probably didn't like it at times, it does not mean that there is anything you can take from these memos. They did not say he had a particular problem with George Bush or that anyone asked him specifically to sugar coat any particular thing. Remember the forger had a lot of hate and he wrote these to have the greatest impact.
Additionally, the main stream press is saying that George Bush did not show up for a physical and therefore disobeyed a direct written order. And even Bush admits he didn't take the physical because he was transferring out to a unit that had no planes. But the direct written order part is from the memo. We don't know if Bush talked to Killian about this to explain things. We don't know if Killian even cared about George Bush. It was his job to run around and make sure all his men got physicals and he probably hated this part of his job as well. But if Bush was transferring, did he care that Bush got a physical or did he just want to check him off his list. We don't know.
In short, when the media finally agrees that the memos are fake then they should be thrown out and no longer analyzed. They are lies written by a fraud who hates the president. If we care to find out what really happened. We need to talk to people who were really there. But whatever we do, we should not be quoting the forgeries as truth.
exactly!
Nobody here is quoting them as truth, which isn't even the point of this thread or my post about mental illness as a defense/excuse/fault, which is what you just replied to.
Others have made your points too, and they've made them to members of the press and talk tv/radio. People here know the truth about the physical and Bush's time away from TANG. They know the protocol for physicals, know that Bush wouldn't have received an order to take one because he wasn't even overdue for it. They know the assertions are fake, in whole.
And we do know what Killian thought of Bush. He told his wife that he liked him and we know from a letter the senior Bushes received that others in command felt the same way. This is hardly an unexplored issue.
Seems to me there was another unimpeachable democrat from the south-central...Sounds like Burkett is the perfect man for the Dems to start having him escalate from dog-catcher to president
I sold twice as many a night when they were dipped in ottersnot
Exactly, you don't just go visit for a few days. Not anymore. Judges won't even comitt without both criteria being met.
While I agree, Dan held forth that the source was unimpeachable. Rational people could disagree in the application of the word 'unimpeachable' to Burkett under the circumstances.
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