Bush’s Doctors Kept Lyme Disease Secret for a Year; Is the Condition Why His Mind is Degenerating?

We’ve all seen the video, and if not, you really can’t watch it enough: George Bush when he was governor of Texas, using big words and whole sentences, making sense and not embarrassing anyone. It’s a marvel!

“Brain fog” involves episodes of cognitive dysfunction or confused thinking and is associated with forgetfulness, losing one’s train of thought, depersonalization, and the inability to remember the correct words when speaking or writing

But Bush now is a whole different animal, leading many to wonder if it’s Alzheimers, if he’s back on the sauce, or if Dick Cheney is slipping something into his fried quail.

An even better explanation is Lyme disease. Although doctors one year ago treated him for what they now claim was early stage Lyme disease, who knows when he got it? And dementia is one of the main manifestations of undiagnosed Lyme disease.

Bush was treated for what his doctors described as “early, localized Lyme disease” last August after developing the characteristic bullseye rash. The doctors said he has had no recurrence.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the disease was not disclosed earlier because it happened after he had his last physical, on Aug. 1, 2006.

Right. So why bring it up until now? After all, it’s not like we ever hear about any of the other Bush health problems, like hangovers — whoops, I mean stomach flu — at global summits.

The president’s main form of exercise and recreational activity is biking. His doctors advised him to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts and use bug spray when in risk-prone areas, such as Maine, where the president is spending a long weekend starting Thursday at his parents’ summer home on the coast.

Bush has had a lifetime of opportunities to contract Lyme disease, if you can get it from mountain biking in Maine. But the curious circumstances of his recent annual exam have really got me wondering what gives.

Last year’s presidential physical was conducted as usual on a visit to the National Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland. This year’s took place in a series of exams at the White House starting July 17 and ending Tuesday night. The exams were not revealed until Wednesday…

A total of 11 doctors were involved in the exams, overseen by White House physician Richard Tubb and Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the president of The Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. The group included skin, hearing, heart, eye, neurological and sports medicine specialists.

Each signed a statement saying that “within the scope of my specialty” he found Bush “fit for duty” with the expectation that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency.

It’s all kind of odd, don’t you think? It seems like presidents always have their exams at Bethesda. I wasn’t aware the White House kept the equipment on hand that you’d need for 11 different specialists to perform tests.

But listen to what happens when, instead of the early stage Lyme disease the White House claims Bush had, you don’t know you have it and it goes untreated too long. Symptom types include:

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FOX Called on Compact Fluorescent Hatchet Job

The Sierra Club’s “Mr. Green” rebuts the FOX News (motto: “Don’t ask me, I watch FOX News”) slam against compact fluorescent bulbs. FOX’s own “Junk Science” columnist says the bulbs, which contain mercury, require hazardous materials clean-up if broken and that mandating their use denies consumers choice. After all, if people want to burn up scarce resources we might have to invade other countries to secure, it’s their own business.

Mr. Green corrects the misinformation.

The people at Fox News are either brain-damaged from huffing mercury (they do seem to have a fondness for the highly toxic) or they have unscrupulously cherry-picked their facts…

Imagine that all 4 billion residential lightbulbs have become CFLs. Even in the incredibly unlikely scenario that every single dead bulb were smashed and its contents released into the environment, switching to CFLs would yield a maximum 3.1 tons of mercury each year. Coal-burning power plants emit 50 tons.

This classic example of enviro-bashing is full of flaws. First, the Fox writer trots out one report of one environmental bureaucrat’s overreaction to a bulb breakage to make it sound like a busted CFL will turn a house into a Superfund site. The fact is, CFLs do contain mercury, but nowhere near enough to provoke panic or evacuation. If you break a bulb, you can do the cleanup yourself, without renting a moon suit or contacting authorities.

The EPA advises the following treatment:

1. Open a window and leave the room for at least 15 minutes (to let the mercury vaporize).

2. Remove all materials (i.e., the pieces of the broken bulb) without using a vacuum cleaner. You don’t want even a small amount of mercury lurking in your vacuum. To do so:

* Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available. (Never touch the bulb pieces with your bare hands.)
* Carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard (you don’t want the stuff to get on your broom or dustpan either).
* Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipe. Sticky tape, such as duct tape (yet another use for the versatile material!), can be used to pick up small pieces and powder.

3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it. If your state permits you to put used or broken CFLs in the garbage, seal the CFL in two plastic bags and put into the outside trash (if no other disposal or recycling options are available). If your state doesn’t allow this, consult the local hazardous-waste authority for safe-recycling information. Some hardware stores will also accept old bulbs; to find a recycler near you, try Earth 911, or (800) CLEAN-UP…

4. Wash your hands after disposing of the bag.

5. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash…for normal disposal.

So much for that part of Fox’s story, but I’m not quite done with calling them on their hokum.

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