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:

Does the U.S. Constitution hold any meaning at all in today's Bush-Cheney neoconservative Washington?

The answer that the politically alert are well aware of is that the answer is a loud and highly resounding "No"!

Why does the Constitution hold no current meaning?  That answer is simple to those who have been paying attention.  The Constitution holds no meaning because it has been replaced by Washington's speedy new way of doing business.

For those who have not been paying attention the Constitution has been scrapped for executive decrees, so many of which are imposed by George W. Bush signing statements.  Who cares what the letter and the spirit of legislation involves.  

In response to a February 18 Seattle Times editorial column where Kate Riley had concluded "nation's two-party vice leads to needless frustration."

Dick Schwartz of Bellevue, Washington had this rather startling response in his letter to the Seattle Times Editors on May 1:

"Americans are stupid.  If they weren't why would so many of them be so deeply in debt?  Why would they give our politicians such low approval ratings but then just keep re-electing the same people year after year?  Why would so many be obese?  Why would they keep driving one person to a car regardless of the fact it creates gridlock?  Why are they unable to locate foreign places on a map?"

But perhaps the most frightening declaration makes is simply this:

This statement was made by none other than John McCain, the Republican running for the Republican nomination for president.

Is history repeating itself?  From 1337 to 1453 historians in the "Encyclopedia of World History" provide details of this era of perpetual war, labeled the Hundred Years War.  

It began when Mohammed bin Tughlak, Sultan of Delhi, punished his subjects for threatening to revolt.  The Sultan forced Delhi residents to move south to Daulatabad, the Hundred Years War between England and France started with rumors a French fleet had been sighted that was preparing to leave for Scotland.

War continued all over Europe.  The Black Plague spread across Europe in 1348.  First it was in Florence, Italy in 1348 during April, spreading to France in June and to England in July.  Jews were blamed for spreading the Black Death by poisoning wells.

Did I get my Andy Warhol-allotted 15 minutes of fame when I was singled out by a veteran Los Angeles Times political reporter?

It was a dubious mention and one that we will see was delivered by someone who might well take offense to the article I wrote that resulted in my brief moment in the big time of political journalism by being singled out by Robert Salladay, then Sacramento Capitol reporter who covered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger along with other assignments, including the 2000 presidential recount and the 2003 California recount that brought Schwarzenegger to power.

I happened to stumble on Salladay's mention of me as well as a particular column I wrote for the Political Cortex site during a routine Google search.  The mention and reference to my column appeared in the October 11, 2006 edition of Salladay's Internet column Political Muscle.

Salladay was presumably miffed by my October 6 column 5 days earlier, referring to it as "screed" or shorthand relating to a long rant or diatribe.  The only paragraph Salladay quoted related to Karl Rove's alleged involvement in the 2003 recall of California's Governor Gray Davis and the installation of Schwarzenegger.

The ad for the new movie In Bruges, which is debuting in theatres throughout America this weekend, reads:

"This weekend take a trip to Bruges.  America's new hit comedy."

This ad appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Saturday, February 23.

The ad was for the movie playing at Seattle's Capitol Hill theatre, The Egyptian, and at Lincoln Square Cinemas in nearby Bellevue.

When William Kristol's column called the Republican Party "the party of real- world responsibility over the last 40 years" there was an immediate response to such an absurdity.

Jonathan Maskit of Granville, Ohio in a letter to the editors of the New York Times on February 20 wrote:

"Richard M. Nixon prolonged a pointless conflict in Vietnam, spied on his political adversaries, presided over a scandal-ridden administration and resigned in disgrace.  Ronald Reagan pushed the government deep into debt on the basis of a dream-world economic theory, slashed social services and deeply eroded Americans' confidence in the very idea of government."

Maskit went on to point out the colossal failures of George W. Bush, the U.S. president with the lowest public poll rating in history, which now stands at an abysmal 19%.

Vermont has always been a state where citizens valued freedom and independent thought.

A compelling belief in freedom and the importance of following the U.S. Constitution have served as motivations for the citizens of Brattleboro, Vermont.  

A new proposal in the township of Brattleboro to authorize local law enforcement to arrest Bush and Cheney will be voted on in the coming weeks at a town hall meeting.

Yesterday, February 20, the New Hampshire State House held an impeachment hearing, which was flooded by activists and community members insisting that their state legislature take action.

Senator McCain, while you criticize Barack Obama as too "inexperienced" to become America's commander in chief we notice of what you have been doing.  You have taken the baton from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and are using terrorism at every turn to attempt to frighten the electorate with steady 9/11 exhortations.

We noticed you singing with supreme gusto "Bomb Iran" with the kind of zeal indicative of someone serious about what he is singing.

Senator McCain, according to that reliable barometer, our National Debt Clock in Times Square, we currently stand ever closer to the at one time unimagined precipice of $9.3 trillion en route to a staggering $10 trillion figure.  

First, do you intend to launch a McCain Administration in the manner that ardent neoconservatives such as the "military expert" team of Norman Podhoretz, Bill Kristol, George Will, Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry would urge by launching a military attack against Iran?

With the Bush Administration's chamber of horrors track record, desperate Republican strategists resurrect the Reagan reign of error.

Ronald Reagan boasted about balancing the budget.  Sadly, he wound up tripling the U.S. budget deficit.  Then to salvage his administration's track record, they named the Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan - Reagan National Airport.

If plunging the nation into deep dept with credit card type budget spending is the criterion, George Bush should definitely have EVERY airport named after him and with good reason.  The so-called conservatives, falsely, of course, the Republican-led Bush Administration has plunged the U.S.A. into a $10 trillion debt.  

So isn't it only logical that if the Republicans honored a president like Reagan who tripled the national debt to be so honored to have an airport named after him, shouldn't Bush with the biggest national debt, greater than all prior debts combined, have EVERY U.S. airport named after him?  

Thank you, U.S. Senate for your latest cave in to the Bush-Cheney ongoing dictatorship!

It isn't enough to endorse wire tapping.  

Let's go ahead and render the huge corporations that do it an invulnerable status.  Why should they be subjected to troublesome lawsuits for following the old John McCain maxim of "We are at war"! meaning perpetual war for perpetual peace?

If we intend to be at war in Iraq for at least 100 years then it makes logical sense to snoop on citizens in the very country whose symbol of freedom you have guaranteed to export all over the world!

In the Seattle Times February 4, 2008 edition Carol D. Leonnig had a headlined story from the Washington Post:

"Alphonso Jackson, a longtime friend of President Bush, is under investigation by HUD's Inspector General and the Justice Department for ... alleged acts of favoritism and interference.  Jackson's office last week said he could not comment."

The article dealt with Bush's Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson demanding that the Philadelphia Housing Authority transfer a $2 million public property to a developer at a big discount.

In a lawsuit by Carl Greene, a court affidavit given by Greene revealed that Alphonso Jackson phoned the Mayor of Philadelphia in 2006, demanding the transfer of this property to a former soul music songwriter and personal friend, Kenny Gamble.  

It is interesting, Senator McCain, how you, in an effort to get more Republicans aboard  your presidential ship, how you push two buttons you hope will achieve immediate success:  1) accusing the Democrats of "surrender"; 2) invoking the name of Ronald Reagan as you proclaim yourself to have been an early foot soldier in the "Reagan Revolution."

Since you brought up the subject of surrender, let us explore it with you and Reagan.  Beginning with yourself, what about that disgraceful 2000 Republican primary campaign in South Carolina when the forces of George W. Bush.

Led by Karl Rove, the ruthless neocons attacked your wife as a harlot, attacked your mental stability, and used stereotypical racism by alleging that you had a "black" daughter, meaning the little girl you adopted from Bangladesh?

Many of us attacked this shameful scorched earth style of savage and thoroughly repugnant campaigning.  At one debate with Larry King moderating you demanded that Bush not even touch you.

John McCain is all for continuing the war n Iraq.  John McCain, Republican warrior, said the U.S. should stay in Iraq a hundred years if necessary.  Mitt Romney is all for consigning more U.S. service personnel to Iraq, as long as his own sons are left behind, while Bush has insisted that American troops remain in the Middle East nation "until the job is done."

What is this job being done that Bush boasts about accomplishing?

Dare we ask, "Is it getting Iraqis agreeing to the U.S. backed oil distribution contract granting long term oil lease rights to 63 of Iraq's 80 oil wells, leaving Iraq in control of only 17 of their own oil wells."

Maybe Romney a businessman likes that generous oil agreement contract.  Being a billionaire himself boosted by plenty of venture capital, he can rapidly calculate how many billions the oil companies could latch onto.

Diogenes, in Greek mythology, searched in vain, with his lantern for one honest man in Ancient Greece.

I understand how Diogenes felt when I launched my search for one U.S. citizen who knew what the terms of the Iraq oil distribution contract are that the U.S. has been fighting to get the Iraqi government to sign.

Not one person I asked out of dozens over many weeks could tell me terms of this contract that is not being signed by Iraqis.  When I told these individuals the terms of this distribution Iraqi oil deal were, to a person they were disgusted, calling it totally unfair and unjust.  But they simply said they hadn't heard a thing about that contract Iraqis refuse to sign.

In the New York Times on Tuesday, March 13, 2007, these exact terms were presented in detail.  The war rages on and people are dying or wounded almost every day.  Why hasn't NBC's Brian William or CBS' Katie Kouric or ABC's Charles Gibson or CNN's Wolf Blitzer revealed this oil deal that so displeases the Iraq is that they won't sign it?  Could it be that blood is being spilled for oil?