Dr. Condoleezza Rice, esteemed former professor at Stanford University and board member of Chevron, has unwittingly provided the laugh of the day with a statement so riddled with paranoia that under normal circumstances it would defy explanation.

The reason why Dr. Rice's whopper no longer defies explanation is simple.  In the world of government by schizophrenia run by the neoconservatives with Dick Cheney, Rice and others as water carriers and George W. Bush as buffoon spokesperson in residence, nothing is startling any longer.

Condoleezza delivered another one of those off the charts comments that drives the word credibility out of the dictionary while visiting Russia.  It is necessary for her to provide meaningful tips on how to run governments considering that she plays a major role in the superbly functioning governmental machine known as the Bush Administration.

After meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia the esteemed Dr. Rice said with a straight face no less that she is worried about the steady concentration of power into the Russian leader's hands.  Such a practice can bring about tragic results.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the horrifying mistakes made in the Bush Administration's awful reign of error is Bush's refusal to recognize his vast mistakes.

Of all the Ten Commandments, perhaps the most imperative one is "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

After World War One, President Woodrow Wilson worked vigorously for the League of Nations to insure there would never be another world war.  After World War Two, international statesmen recognized the necessity of the United Nations.

Having seen what the 50 million death toll of World War Two had brought about, it was glaringly apparent that the maniacs who brought this debacle about must not be allowed to plunge the world into such hell ever again.  

George Bush has lost all his political capital.  The mid-term election glaringly revealed that.  But Bush fantasizes that he is a torchbearer for delivering democracy and freedom to the Middle East.  Is that the delusion?  Or is that the public relations strategy to continuing the hope to control Iraqi oil?  These are questions that must be answered.

In the Seattle Times November 4 edition, Bush's abysmal failed policies are exposed.  Under the caption, "Mideast Allies Express Fears over U.S. Policies" a moment of reality is revealed.

The article then states, "Mideast leaders expressed soaring concern over upheavals across the region that the United States helped ignite through its invasion of Iraq and push for democracy - and fear that the Bush Administration may make things worse."

With civil war raging in Iraq, it is worse, much worse.  The same article then states, "The only regional leader to voice unqualified support for the Bush Administration has been Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has gone so far as to say that the Iraq invasion contributed to regional stability."

 Analyzing the real reason behind Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just completed MidEast trip, the BBC News asks, Why did Condoleezza Rice come to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week?

And concludes:

. . .military action against Iran is now being very seriously considered in Washington.

[This article originally appeared in it's essential form as a diary at DailyKos .]

For some reason, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thought that it would be a good idea to set up diplomatic outposts manned by one person around the world to help US diplomacy.

When Donald Rumsfeld warns, as he did in his speech at the American Legion Convention in Salt Lake City last week, about "a new type of fascism" he is correct, but in the opposite manner from the intent of his explosive remarks.

When Democrats fight back by flailing at Rumsfeld and stating that he should leave for advocating the wrong policies regarding the Iraq War the question that remains is:  If Rumsfeld leaves before sundown what kind of replacement will surface?  After that the corollary question should be asked of, "Will a definitive policy change be made?"

The most cursory look at the Cheney-Bush playbook provides one resounding answer - there will be no change.  The reason is that the game plan for global empire established when Bush's father was in office and declared the dawning of a New World Order is looming ever larger with breakneck rapidity.

Rumsfeld is one of the "good old boys" of the Project for the New American Century.  This is the gang that invoked a New Pearl Harbor in a famous position paper as it sought to mold the world in accordance with its image.  

In the film "To Kill a Mockingbird," Atticus Finch says, "You never really understand a person until ... you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

When the Palestinian people were driven from what had been their home for centuries, approximately a quarter of a million of them resettled in Southern Lebanon.  Ex-President Jimmy Carter's book "The Blood of Abraham" said a mouthful with its title.  The Israelis and Arabs are blood brothers.  The Israeli-Arab conflict might be labeled "a family feud" as they are indeed blood brothers, lest they forget.

To absorb the displaced Palestinians was not an easy task, and what made it all the more difficult is that in Jerusalem both Arabs and Jews had religious sites they considered equally sacred.

This famous family feud began to extend far beyond the borders of the Middle East.  At one strategic point along this path to ousting Palestinians was the challenge to avoid an all-out war to create Israel, as a fulfillment to some Jews of what they claim is a biblical prophecy.

Breaking news: USA Today, August 18, 2006, under the headline "Officials: U.S. blocked missiles to Hezbollah, Syria bound Iranian plane had to turn back, they say"

The John Diamond story contained the following:

"The United States blocked an Iranian cargo plane's flight to Syria last month after intelligence analysts concluded it was carrying sophisticated missiles and launchers to resupply Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, two U.S. intelligence officials say.

"Eight days after Hezbollah's war with Israel began, U.S. diplomats persuade Turkey and Iraq to deny the plane permission to cross their territory to Damascus."

Sabrina Tavernise, writing in The New York Times' August 13 edition, provided an eyewitness account of Israeli fighting tactics in Lebanon three days before the cease-fire was to take effect.

Residents in Southern Lebanon had been advised to flee by Israel.  Their villages were slated for demolition to destroy any possible Hezbollah rocket launching sites or arms caches.  In the descriptive words of Sabrina Tavernise:

"The cars set off down the narrow mountain road a few hours before sunset.  They were trying to leave villages the Israeli Army occupied two days before, moving with what they thought was permission to pass.

"But then the missiles came.  Shortly after nightfall Israeli aircraft fired into the convoy, containing more than a thousand Lebanese villagers."

By a twist of fate I was caught on the tragic Seattle street scene Friday afternoon, July 28.  The sniper-shooting spectacle began at 4 p.m.  I was taking a downtown bus to meet a visiting friend from Los Angeles, a man I had worked with in L.A. when we were both college students.  

I had visited him a couple days earlier and had said so long.  He was slated to go to San Francisco en route to L.A.  But early Friday he phoned to tell me he never got farther than Portland on the train on which he was riding.  He explained that 33 freight cars had derailed in Oregon and his passenger train could not proceed on to San Francisco.

All of the passengers were compelled to disembark.  After a wait of 3 hours they were sent on a train back to Seattle.  Space from Seattle to San Francisco was not available until Tuesday.  So I suggested we get together for dinner.  We agreed to meet at the Hotel Moore lobby between 5 and 6.

I took a bus from the Queen Anne area of Seattle, where I live.  Mysteriously there was a long wait.  I thought nothing of it until the bus finally came, but was flagged down at nearby Seattle Center, where the 1962 Seattle World's Fair was held.  I had attended that fair with this same friend I was meeting.

Writing in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 18, guest columnist John T. McBride summed up the current war in the Middle East succinctly and wisely:

"Food is primary.  Air is really primary.  Water.  Shelter.  Procreation.  Sleep.  Recreation.  Not religion.  So, in the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial ages we poison the air, pollute the water, work too long hours, don't get enough rest or exercise, and eat questionable diets.  But we kill each other over religion.  By the millions we kill each other."

How can you make sense out of the horrifying death, destruction, and billons spent on killing people, indeed of helping them?  Pollution generates greenhouse gases, which heat up oceans, spawn hurricanes, melt the Alaskan icebergs, and send temperatures skyrocketing over 100 degrees.

All the while people are suffering.  But the polluters are delighted.  The Bush Republican Administration does nothing while Americans sizzle.  

Condoleezza Rice appears on the controversial cover of August's Harper's Bazaar


New York (APE) - Teen idol Britney Spears threatened the publishers of Harper's Bazaar with a multi-million dollar lawsuit today when it was revealed that her controversial pregnant nude cover and spread was being bumped by a similar pictorial of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Harper's stated that it had never made a firm commitment to Spears and that the magazine had exercised its editorial rights to bring a story that would be of more interest to its readers.

"This is our fall shopping review issue," stated a Harper's editor, who wished to remain anonymous for legal reasons, "we felt that Ms. Rice would be a far better tie in with this theme. Condi had a much better story to tell, as well."

Reacting to an article in the June 21 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that was headlined, "Killing of GI's Barbaric," reader David Hooper of Seattle wrote an interesting letter to the editors that ran in response to this assertion:

"Indeed, Iraqi insurgents brag about their barbaric deeds.  Americans in contrast, torture and kill suspects in secret prisons, then lie about it.  We bomb babies and cover it up.  We've invaded a little country to get its oil, all the while pretending to bring freedom and democracy.

"We are all barbaric.  Who is better, the braggart or the liar?"

That blunt viewpoint might send a stirring message if the Republican Administration has the courage and fairness to honestly and objectively to stop think about what David Hooper wrote.

No other cliché fits what George Bush has done to America during his reign of incredible error than this time-worn but timely cliché: The road to hell is paved with alleged good intentions.

There is nothing any world leader can do that is worse than to wage a war minus clear and convincing proof that the nation he represents is under immediate attack.

That is precisely what George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld, did, using the infamous forged document that Colin Powell read in lambasting Iraq at the UN to scare everyone into the Iraq War.

Remember when Republicans and Democrats made such a sick spectacle of themselves, carrying on as if they were saving the entire world by launching the war against Iraq?

Remember when the Republicans and Democrats hugged and patted Bush on the back as he walked so proudly down the red carpet that fateful day when he declared war on Iraq?

Bush's hot face flushed with delight, observing that he had such universal accord on his march to war!  Vice-President Cheney was smiling, as the other robots Powell, Rice, Wolfowitz and Perle were all thrilling to this momentous moment in this historical march to bring freedom and democracy to the entire Middle East.  

Wow!  All that was lacking was a hallelujah chorus of the right wing sycophants.  After all, this could lead to the much-anticipated Armageddon, Hosanna!

But the rest of the world watched in horror and awe as these self-appointed saviors of freedom and democracy for the entire world marched in lockstep to the war machine's tune without a single shred of legitimate proof that Iraq posed a direct threat to the U.S.  Iraq's leadership was stunned.