The above was the headline in the Seattle Times June 22.  The Associated press article by Robert H. Reid from Baghdad revealed the following:

"The White House said President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki discussed the talks Thursday via secured video teleconference.

"Nevertheless the two sides remain fair apart on core issues including the number of bases where the United States will have a presence and U.S. demands for immunity from Iraqi law for American soldiers and contractors.  To detain suspects, fight battles without Iraqi permission and control of the country's air space."

Quickly the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds joined together in complaining about such an arrangement which would obviously leave almost all real power in the hands of the Americans.

The above headline appears concerning former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's recent appearance at a congressional hearing.

Laurie Kellman in her Associated Press article from Washington, D.C. wrote:

"If the nation doesn't trust the Bush White House, it's the president's and Dick Cheney's own fault, Bush's former spokesman told Congress.  From life and death matters on down - the rationale for war, the leaking of classified information ... the government's top two leaders undermined their credibility by `packaging' their version of the truth, former press secretary Scott McClellan said."

The White House, whose integrity has been battered, had only this to say in response, "Friday's hearing was un-enlightening."

The saying that has been appearing and re-appearing with such regularity recently is, "This is not the America I grew up in?  What is happening?"

This was the saying stated by Bill Moyers in a recent interview.  By no coincidence, Bill Moyers has been targeted for dismissal from Public Broadcasting System for years by Bill O'Reilly for "left wing bias" and falling outside the "fair and balanced" standard he has presumably operates under at Fox News.

O'Reilly and his allies are also upset over the numerous articles criticizing the Bush-Cheney neoconservative corporate enterprise.  

The more objective alternative would be to turn the Internet over to the tender mercies of Clear Channel, which has provided the broad perspective of Rush Limbaugh on the one hand all the way across the political spectrum to O'Reilly and Sean Hannity on the other.

David McKenzie of Federal Way, Washington in his letter to the Seattle Times Editors on May 30 wrote:

"O.K., Bush supporters, this time it isn't a `liberal whacker' saying it.  It's from a longtime Bush friend and loyalist who finally got a conscience.  Straight from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, President Bush lied to the people to sell this tragic war in Iraq.  It has always been obvious to the majority, now even you have to open your eyes."

Were some American voters, along with certain members of the media brigade, complicit in the Iraq War debacle by vigorously backing Bush with their votes for Bush's second term?

Only each individual's conscience can answer.  The biblical yardstick to judge `right' and `wrong' is quite simple but all encompassing.  

Recent revelations from the upcoming book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan cite the increasing need to confront the impeachment issue immediately.

Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida has vigilantly pursued the necessity of impeachment hearings and of holding government officials, beginning with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, accountable for potential "high crimes and misdemeanors" under mandate of no less than the U.S. Constitution.

As so many continue to point out, this duty to pursue commission of high crimes and misdemeanors by those charged with upholding the U.S. Constitution violates that document and deems it necessary for them to answer such charges.  There is a duty to pursue such acts of grievous misconduct and, when the facts warrant, remove the responsible parties from their positions of power.

McClellan reveals that Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney lied about their roles in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, actions constituting an obstruction of justice.  

Robert Jackson was one of the exemplary figures in American history, not to mention one of the nation's greatest patriots and one of its greatest jurists.  

Here was the last of the great bootstrap lawyers like Clarence Darrow who did not attend law school but picked up their educations working under skilled lawyers and judges and achieved lasting greatness.

When it came time to pick someone to lead the U.S. team in prosecuting Nazi Germany at the Nuremberg Trials the ideal choice was then Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Robert Jackson.  Those were the days when we had judges who were capable of independent thought and were not hacks pushed through the Washington process by the Federalist Society.

A basic principle enunciated by Jackson at the historic Nuremberg tribunal was that individuals were responsible for their acts and could not slide by with a variation of the Flip Wilson "The devil made me do it", which the late great comic meant as a joke and not something to be emulated.

How quick George W. Bush was to use the "appeaser" label on Barack Obama for his comment about speaking to those with whom one disagrees.

As Robert Parry was quick to point out, Bush's own family history should make him one of the last people to launch such an attack, given the record of his grandfather, banker and future U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, and his banking firm's helpful funding of the pig iron building element of Adolf Hitler Third Reich war machine.

There is another element to the latest throwing stones from his own glass house in this the latest huffing and puffing episode from Bush's pathetic fantasy land where confrontation with truth and logic result in swift banishment.

Bush, Cheney, Rove, Perle, Kristol and other members of the neocon Washington machine all believed that it was essential to secure victory in the Vietnam War if we were to keep the Asian wing of the vast Communist machine from America's front door.

Bob Lander of Mercer Island, Washington wrote this Letter to the Editors posted in the May 16 Seattle Times:

"As a combat infantry veteran of World War II, I commend President Bush for his decision to give up golf (out of his respect for veterans).  It spares military families the unseemly sight of the commander in chief goofing off from his grueling wartime schedule as their loved ones suffer and die.

"It's a compassionate decision.  Gutsy.  Patriotic.  Who among us could ask for anything more?"

Indeed, who among us in a nation of mere mortals could we ask a more demanding or agonizing sacrifice than for George W. Bush to give up golf to show his abiding respect for veterans and their families?

[Posted with permission from Deep Harm at ePluribus Media/Daily Kos]
As the Bush administration enters its final six months, truthtellers in government positions should take care: government officials will be tempted to sweep their agencies clean of evidence and whistleblowers before a new administration takes over.

Already, the Bush administration has issued a new executive memo allowing government agencies to conjure up their own penalties for disclosing information covered by a new, broad and poorly defined controls on information  (thanks, smintheus). It's a bad portent of things to come.
Saving truthtellers and restoring government integrity depends on proposed legislation that would give whistleblowers badly-needed protections; legislation that is now stalled.

If you feel U.S. oil companies should receive the $16 billion tax break Bush believes they should receive then by all means vote Republican!

If you believe that U.S. oil companies' profits of $250 billion in 2007 represent a good result for America, then vote Republican.

George W. Bush does not believe that this $250 billion profit is excessive.

If you believe Social Security should be privatized, believing that investment banks and Wall Street are safer than the traditional conservative federal government approach represented to this point, then do vote Republican.

Mr. Hannity: "The Bush administration's assessment of the challenges we face from terrorists, and their state sponsors, is serious, thoughtful, and realistic. The antiwar activists of the Democratic left, on the other hand, have expressed a vision that is naïve at best, dangerously out of touch at worst." (p. 177)

My response: Serious and thoughtful the president's picture may be, but to call it realistic is utterly absurd. President Bush claims that terrorists are consumed with unconditional hatred for America and everything good it stands for, and that thus we have no choice but to wipe them off the face of the earth. In the president's mind, Islamic terrorists are portrayed as sub-human agents of the devil, and given up for hopeless because we cannot do anything to change their evil plans. This is not just unrealistic, it is defeatist.

I could have added hyperlinks to every word in this missive to provide “authenticity” for the contents.  It would transform the reading of this brief lament into a three-day marathon.  There is so much fact out there to substantiate the message that it would take a book of footnotes.  Why bother?  Those of you who are aware of the truth are, well… aware of the truth!  Those who have chosen to be enablers of evil wouldn’t bother to use references anyway or, being true to their nature, would simply dismiss them as more left wing ranting.  If you really want to check something, you know how to use a search engine don’t you?

As the right that has bellyached ad nauseum about Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his comments need to be taken in context and analyzed in a way that they will never do.  They thrive on snippets and howls with no analysis.

One thing we do know.  Jeremiah Wright is responsible for no deaths.  If even such a possibility existed the Fox Fixed News hordes would have tumbled on the information by now, whether true or not.

One thing we do know and the mainstream media has run away from this simple and unavoidable truth in the same manner that they have pounced on virtually every snippet, comment or sigh emanating from Jeremiah Wright's career in the pulpit.

The media has run and run hard from discussing the tragic fact that the neoconservative administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is currently responsible for over one million deaths in Iraq.  Add to that a figure of another 2 and a half million refugees who have fled as a result of the conflict.

The answer to that question is simple!  War preparations are big business.  It involves billions in air defense.

Take Boeing's $40 billion air tanker aircraft, allowing the aircraft tanker to refuel in the air.  When the $40 billion contract went to a French company located in Toulouse, France, the Seattle based Boeing Company was outraged and demanded congressional hearings.  

Then there are two big war business giants - Halliburton and Bechtel.  Halliburton benefited in the Iraq War debacle to the tune of billions of dollars.  Cheney, the U.S. vice president, worked for Halliburton at one time and his services provided millions for his bank account.  

There was some superficial debate regarding the "conflict of interest" factor when after being a Halliburton CEO, and then when he became vice president Halliburton was provided with governmental contracts benefited by no-bid contractual deals, to show the company's loyalty to big bucks instead of the U.S.A.  The Halliburton Company fled to Darfur to cut their U.S. tax obligations.

The burning question is whether the Bush Administration desires war or peace.

The Seattle Times answered that question in its March 12 front page story about the sudden resignation of Admiral William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, who oversaw wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The story concerning this abrupt resignation is captioned as follows:  "Fallon seen as Bush policy critic.  Admiral's resignation comes as U.S. plans course in Iraq, he urged diplomacy with Iran."

The choice is clear, diplomacy or more death, destruction and debt.  The Washington, D.C. article continued: