The recent Labour Party experience in council elections was reminiscent of the Republican Party with Nixon and the Watergate Scandal.

In the earlier case elder statesman Barry Goldwater, seeing Republicans lose congressional off year, or what the British would term by-elections, House seats that the party had held since the Civil War, visited the White House and told Richard Nixon that he had no support in any prospective impeachment trial.

Goldwater stressed that Nixon needed to immediately resign for the sake of his party and the nation.

Based on media disclosures, it appeared as if the earlier American example was emulated when a significant segment of Labour MP's during its party conference declared that Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had promised earlier to resign before his current term ended, needed to take that act sooner rather than later.
 

Early in her presidential effort Hillary Clinton made it abundantly clear that husband Bill would play a major role in her administration should she be elected to lead America.  This should come as no surprise and would double the danger potential of progressives seeking change.

Media snake oil effort has been at work to push the propaganda line that Hillary is a true voice of experience and has communicated her message professionally on the debate trail.  Meanwhile Bill stands ready to provide his voice and effort.

One of the pivotal Bill Clinton appearances came not in America but in England, when he attended a Labour Party conference.  After the British people had made a strong statement by mounting the most impressive grassroots demonstration I ever saw, a massive demonstration at Hyde Park involving people coming from all around the United Kingdom, Labourites took notice.

At an historic party conference where the members resisted Tony Blair's effort to continue longer in office, Labour members closed tightly around him, left no breathing space, and dictated his early departure.  

David McClain of Seattle in the June 6 Seattle Times had this to say in a letter to the editors:

"Keeping the military machine in the Middle East is not in our best interest, as it radicalizes those who perceive us as an aggressive imperial force, serving no defensive purpose.

"If we want to wager perpetual war for perpetual peace, then by all means let's charge abroad and impose ourselves upon every corner of the globe.

"We'll go broke in the process and will be on high terror alert every day of our lives."

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.

This is directed at anybody who thinks that their vote will not be important in the next election for whatever reason. It doesn't matter whether you are a Green disgusted at what you see as a lack of spine by the Democrats or a former Hackett supporter disgusted at what you see as an insular establishment who determines the candidates for Senate in smoke-filled backrooms. You are missing the key point as to why it is so important that you go to the polls and vote for a Democrat. You forget that a vote for a Democrat for Senate or the House is a vote for John Conyers as chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

As the anti-war campaign heats up, at last truth has a chance to triumph over lies and deception!

In the Miami Herald on August 27, 2005, columnist George Will claims anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is a negative force because of the adjectives she uses describing George Bush.  George Will claims, without when or where, Cindy used the following words describing George Bush, allegedly calling him a "filth spewer", "lying bastard", "evil maniac", and "the world's biggest terrorist".

Having lost her son in the Iraq War, the question must be asked exactly how you would react if you had lost your loved one in the now proven phony reason for going to war - non-existent weapons of mass destruction.  

For one moment just imagine what kind of adjectives you would use in describing George Bush, who led this nation swiftly into the Iraq War on a tissue of lies.

Tony Blair suffered his first defeat ever in Parliament this afternoon. He has said in the past that he would step down as Prime Minister if he lost a vote in the Commons, and during the last week as this highly contentious vote over the Terror Bill loomed, commentators have raised that prospect repeatedly. At the moment, it does not look like Blair will allow this vote to force him to resign. Yet the politics of this situation have been developing rapidly during the last week, and the fallout probably will continue.

There are many reasons why Blair's fate matters a good deal to the US. His political defeat today bodes ill for George Bush.

Tony Blair is facing a series of "revolts" among Labour MPs, and the most dazzling yet is taking shape now...a Parliamentary investigation of Blair's government during the run-up to the Iraq War. The implications for George Bush are dire, as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is being forced to open its long delayed investigation into the manipulation of intel on this side of the pond.

Michael Smith (who published the Downing Street Memo and other leaked documents) has an important story in the Sunday Times, MPs unite for inquiry into Blair's conduct over Iraq. I hate to insist, but it is a must read.

TONY BLAIR is set to face an unprecedented parliamentary inquiry into his conduct in the run-up to the Iraq war.

A coalition of Tory and Labour MPs is to table a motion to set up a Commons committee to examine "the conduct of ministers" both before and after the war. They believe they need the support of about 30 Labour rebels to succeed.

A Miami Herald columnist suggests that George Bush is "delusional."  I would suggest that George Bush is simply recognizing that by calling the unnecessary Iraq War at this point the war on terror, he smoothly makes the transition.  Bush demands the power of a president using the word war to give him the ultimate war powers in every aspect of our lives.  

Cagily substituting a war on terror for the defensive war against those non-existent weapons of mass destruction, apparently makes Bush and the entire Republican administration fantasize everyone will forget his original claim.  It stated that the U.S. was compelled to go to war to protect us against Saddam Hussein, who was ready to strike us with those weapons of mass destruction that the world now knows were non-existent.