"Change it or lose it" is the operative phrase regarding planet earth.  If dramatic changes are not made to combat the severe impact on global warming international authority is in broad agreement that the response will be calamitous.

Bob Herbert of the New York Times in a luminously scathing critique of the Bush years on appropriately the last day of 2008, the final year of Bush's shameful custodianship, that it is not enough to let him pass quietly from the Washington scene.  Herbert stated that loud demonstrations outside the White House replete with bullhorns would be appropriate.

Bush and Cheney have marched in unfailing lockstep with the most reactionary elements of a ruthless corporate establishment bolstered by an unrelenting New World Order and full speed profits ahead and damn the consequences entities such as Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and Kissinger and Associates.

Not only has war been perpetrated on a tissue of lies predicated on non-existent weapons of mass destruction; not only has torture been meted out with crass and destructive indifference at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, replete with waterboarding; the savagery of a global profit motive bereft of conscience has challenged survival of the planet.

The former author and former Roosevelt justice department member Thurman Arnold formulated a truism that impressed many of us who have read it, and that I will attempt to pass along by paraphrase.

In referring to numerous statutes on the books condemning various living room and bedroom moral practices abhorred in certain biblical passages as well as what passed as "polite society" Thurmond noted that citizens insist that such passages be enacted since it makes us feel moral but openly shun them because of an insistence that we will do what we please.

Frank Rich's column last Sunday in the New York Times on the swiftness of condemnations of Illinois Governor Rod Bagojevich alongside the corruption of pillory and destruction of U.S. democracy and the Constitution makes the Illinoisan look comparatively like a naughty choir boy grabbing some spare change from a collection plate.

Take those meetings of the leading nations of the New World Order in Cheney's office along, including his own company of Halliburton, the no-bid contracts that ensued culminating with death, destruction and occupation in Iraq to set the super rich of the corporate world in power and Blagojevich's activities shrink all the more.

Look in any dictionary and you will find that the word "stimulus" is connected to stimulate, meaning the act of generating a form of positive assistance.

This is the type of action that, by acting in a shrewd, timely manner, can prevent a negative response.  It makes one think of that old saying, "A stitch in time saves nine."

Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, speaking in Ottawa, is apparently working on a different operational definition where stimulus and the act of stimulation are concerned.  While Canada is headed for a likely recession, Flaherty said that he had no plans to introduce an economic stimulus package before next spring's budget.

"We've made dramatic tax cuts already," Flaherty explained.  He later added, "We're not in a recession right now."  While conceding that Canada is "not in a recession right now" he concedes that it is "reasonable" that the nation will be in a "technical recession," which is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, by the first quarter of 2009.

It would be amusing but not for the tragedies involved and cumulative suffering of Americans who have been victimized by eight years of Bush-Cheney policies, but here they are, seeking now to squeeze off the hook by blaming those they ardently supported who followed policies that their ardent right wing preachers blessed and to which they vigorously assented.

The new interview of the moment Republican, Governor Sarah Palin, loudly lamented this week that last week's election victory by Barack Obama and extended majorities of Democrats in the Senate and House occurred through no fault of theirs.  It was that man Bush and his cohorts that she and John McCain were eagerly running away from who was at fault.

The reason why Bush was singled out after the election is that the preposterous tactic of seeking to blame Democrats for the meltdown and overall economic calamity the nation currently confronts.  Many of us have seen that patented right wing Republican "fact sheet" that has been distributed all over the internet.

That "fact sheet" lists all the economic tragedies that occurred in the past two years and concludes with, "What will it be like if the Democrats can continue to control the House and Senate while adding the presidency?" or words to that effect.

One of Dick Cheney's most preposterous comments amid a long political career of defying credibility and reality came before Donald Rumsfeld's "shock and awe" attacks were unleashed and American forces occupied Iraq.

"Our troops will be greeted as liberators!" Cheney confidently proclaimed.

Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of Arab history knows that its people do not want to be occupied by outside forces.  

This was what confronted Turkey's Ottoman Empire when stern Arab resistance during World War One prompted one of history's leading figures in understanding the Arab mind, T.E. Lawrence, known as "the crown prince of Arabia" to achieve unity among warring tribes for the objective of freeing the Arabs from outside influence.

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 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.

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.  

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.

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 topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as The Wild Wild Left, the Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.

Most Americans are eager to turn the page on the Bush years. Yet even as we elect a new president we're still coming to terms with an era that has both tarnished America's reputation and diminished its influence.

Fred Kaplan chronicles the folly of the Bush years in his new book, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power (John Wiley & Sons).

Kaplan writes that,

"Nearly all of America's blunders in war and peace these past few years stem from a single grand misconception: that the world changed after 9/11, when in fact it didn't.

Certainly, things about the world changed, not least Americans' sudden awareness that they were vulnerable. But the way the world works - the nature of power, warfare, and politics among nations - remained essentially the same."

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.

The Republican attack machine has long featured the big lie technique that Joseph Goebbels used during the reign of terror of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

Under the Lee Atwater and latterly Karl Rove technique words, as exemplified in George Orwell's prescient masterwork "1984", are instruments to be used for selfish political gain.  Their meanings are essentially irrelevant but for their sword-like thrust in making political points.

For instance, while Senator John McCain becomes demagogue of the moment for the Republican Party attack machine in asserting that Democratic candidates seeking the presidency are advocating "surrender in the Iraq War" the first point to encounter is the definition of the word "surrender."  

In fact, McCain has asserted that America should remain in Iraq for perhaps "one hundred years" if necessary to complete its mission.

Is there any area of our government, over the span of the last seven years, any area, in domestic or foreign policy, national defense, public welfare, the economy, name it, where the average, reasonably informed American might point to success, to signs of progress, of improvement, something, anything, to point to with satisfaction, with pride?

Yesterday I read an article by Steve Benin on the resignation of Karen Hughes from her post as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, a mouthful there, and a job for which she was as ill suited and unqualified as the man who appointed her and in which, during her two year tenure, she accomplished little, if anything.

In truth, she accomplished nothing, unless you want to count convincing large portions of the world that all Americans must be as out of touch with reality, as clueless and unthinking as their current Commander in Chief, and at that she excelled, as anyone might, having been dispatched to the Middle East with the rank of Ambassador, but without knowledge of the language, culture, history, religions, and general pet peeves of the various states and peoples of the region.

But Karen Hughes was tapped for her office for the same reasons as all Bush appointees are chosen, not for expertise or experience, not for performance or integrity in public service but for loyalty, for unwavering belief in the Messianic delusions of neo conservatism, and a willingness to march in lockstep, nah, goose step, against all who might disagree or dissent.