BU$HCO - NO "SUCKER" FOR THE LAW!

University of Tennessee Law Professor - Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, channeling a Hugh Hewitt (you're slumming Counselor!) "interview" with a legal immigrant, doesn't think it right to change the law after the crime. Almost European isn't it! Glenn wonders if "Laws are for Suckers?" on MSNBC. I don't think so either Instapundit! So when are you going to scold Bu$h (or have you scolded him yet?) for violating FISA Professor? I'd personally hold The President, even this moron, and his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to a higher standard than poor folks from Mexico and other nations in Latin America and ... I also feel that way about businesses that hire these undocumented workers. We all know Bu$hCo is all about the business don't we? This dog won't hunt, not even up on Rocky Top! Peace ... or War!

Rove & Rubber Stamp Roberts Stall Truth

Murray Waas is a tremendous "old school" investigative reporter. He has generated great work with Plamegate and the Bu$h administration in general.

His Nation Journal piece from today might be the end of the debate! Karl Rove had built W up as THE WAR PRESIDENT - COMMANDER IN CHIEF yet once the gaming of the intelligence was being revealed by Ambassador Richard Wilson (Mr. Valerie Plame) and others the Bu$hCo cabal had to crush him (and the TRUTH) before the 2004 election. CIA Director Tenet was willing to take one for the team up to a point but the reality is that Rove believes in dirt and delay more than deflect. Today's Wass article begins,

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews.

Wass further writes in part,

The President's Summary was only one of several high-level warnings given to Bush and other senior administration officials that serious doubts existed about the intended use of the tubes, according to government records and interviews with former and current officials. In mid-September 2002, two weeks before Bush received the October 2002 President's Summary, Tenet informed him that both State and Energy had doubts about the aluminum tubes and that even some within the CIA weren't certain that the tubes were meant for nuclear weapons, according to government records and interviews with two former senior officials. Official records and interviews with current and former officials also reveal that the president was told that even then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had doubts that the tubes might be used for nuclear weapons. ...

In the end, the White House's damage control was largely successful, because the public did not learn until after the 2004 elections the full extent of the president's knowledge that the assessment linking the aluminum tubes to a nuclear weapons program might not be true. The most crucial information was kept under wraps until long after Bush's re-election. ...

The pre-election damage-control effort in response to Wilson's allegations and the broader issue of whether the Bush administration might have misrepresented intelligence information to make the case for war had three major components, according to government records and interviews with current and former officials: blame the CIA for the use of the Niger information in the president's State of the Union address; discredit and undermine Wilson; and make sure that the public did not learn that the president had been personally warned that the intelligence assessments he was citing about the aluminum tubes might be wrong. ...

Of course we've also got the Rubber Stamp Congress, best exemplified by Kansas Senator Pat Roberts delaying Phase II of the intelligence hearings. Just on part of Congress going to the Democrats in 2006 will have the Bu$h cabal will make Nixon's White House look like a bunch of choir boys. They know it so look for Rove to roll out all his dirty tricks! Worst administration ever! Peace ... or War!

Progressives Have A Third Way on Immigration

Thom Hartmann, via Common Dreams, gives us "Today's Immigration Battle - Corporatists vs. Racists (and Labor is Left Behind)" that makes tons of sense to this Progressive. He is citing Caesar Chávez and writing with his heart and mind. Except maybe that the "racists" label in the title is a bit too global for me. I do think many "law and order" types are motivated by "racism" or "nativism" or other nasty thinking yet perhaps not all. Mr. Hartmann argues,

Every nation has an obligation to limit immigration to a number that will not dilute its workforce, but will maintain a stable middle class - if it wants to have a stable democracy. This has nothing to do with race, national origin, or language (visit Switzerland with it's ethnic- and language-dived areas!), and everything to do with economics.

Without a middle class, any democracy is doomed. And without labor having -through control of labor availability - power in relative balance to capital/management, no middle class can emerge. America's early labor leaders did not die to increase the labor pool for the Robber Barons or the Walton family - they died fighting to give control of it to the workers of their era and in the hopes that we would continue to hold it - and infect other nations with the same idea of democracy and a stable middle class.

The simple way to do this today is to require that all non-refugee immigrants go through the same process to become American citizens or legal workers in this country (no amnesties, no "guest workers," no "legalizations") regardless of how they got here; to confront employers who hire illegals with draconian financial and criminal penalties; and to affirm that while health care (and the right to provide humanitarian care to all humans) is an absolute right for all people within our boundaries regardless of status, a paycheck, education, or subsidy is not.

There's a middle ground maybe yet I think this is more of a third way. I'm doubtful the DC crowd will have the wisdom and courage to try this approach but we can try. More to follow on immigration! Peace ... or War!

Iraq's Pollyanna Pundits - Three Years Later

Fairness in Accuracy in Media (FAIR) sends us back to the days three years ago when President Bu$h was actually viewed as a worthy Commander in Chief. Tons of Faux News and there's Tweety Matthews and Regular Joe and ... Peace ... or War!

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry GOP?

I posted at Captain Jimi on Ellis Weiner Dogging out the Religious Reich with news of "The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006" conference. The Hammer's troubles apparently are referenced in Revelations! "And in the 109th Congress the indictments of the GOP's House Majority Leader for money laundering shall ..." Tip of the Tam to Salon for the post title! Peace ... or War!

Democrat's Real Security Trumps Bu$hCo Bluster!

The Democratic Party has released their "Real Security" propaganda.

I'll label it "propaganda" before some Bu$h "True Believer" does. It is just talk or words reduced to writing. And talk and words are cheap. Yet what have we been getting from Dubya and Dead Eye and Rummy and ... ? Remember Wolfowitz saying the oil would pay for the war? And Dead Eye's "last throes"? And Rummy going to war "with the army we have"? And ... ?

The Democrats, even those that voted for it before they voted against it as John Kerry inartfully phrased it, have not been in power. They've been frozen out by the Rubber Stamp Congress and this Bu$hCo cabal on any concern. This partisan version of the modern GOP has taken the level of DC politics to places I doubt anybody could recognize from even a few years back.

John Murtha and many serious military leaders know the Bu$hCo bunch has mismanaged this mess. Our ports still aren't secure! More information keeps coming like this most recent leaked memo. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts is still stalling on phase two of the Iraq intelligence investigation!

I was against invading Iraq. I thought patience and diplomacy seemed smart. I was however somewhat OK with giving Bu$h the initial green light because I though somebody in his administration had some sense. I also thought Colin Powell knew Diplomacy 101. When Secretary Powell was the loyal soldier that doomed us as I believe the rest of that cabal is essentially a group of Mayberry Machiavellis.

At least give the Democrats a look. They/I will have more to follow! Peace ... or War!

UPDATE - March 29, 2006 8:45ish PM Check this out. Harry Reid bitch slaps Karl Rove with

Recently, Karl Rove explained how Republicans approach homeland security as essentially a political issue. Unfortunately for Mr. Rove, the Republican record on security doesn't support his political rhetoric. Time and again, it's the Democratic Party that has proven to be the party that has learned the lessons of 9/11. Democrats' legislative priorities have been shaped by the recognition that the fundamental issue facing the country today is the need to bolster America's real security. Bush Republicans have displayed a dangerous incompetence. America can do better.

Bu$h Put Iraq Posturing Ahead of Real Threat

Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News revealed in a March 2, 2006 piece, generally ignored by the mass media, that President Bu$h did not go after a known terrorist in the run up to the Iraq war. The report read in part

Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq. But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger. ...

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

The United States did attack the camp at Kirma at the beginning of the war, but it was too late — Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. “Here’s a case where they waited, they waited too long and now we’re suffering as a result inside Iraq,” Cressey added.

And despite the Bush administration’s tough talk about hitting the terrorists before they strike, Zarqawi’s killing streak continues today.

Invading Iraq was the goal of neo-cons that controlled the Bu$hCo cabal. They were saying one thing about "can't wait" to justify their invasion and yet doing another by letting this serious threat slide. Stopping the military from doing what they knew needed doing three times and yet the have always claimed they "listen the commanders on the ground". Heck of a job Bu$hie! Worst administration ever! Peace ... or War!

Worst of Both Worlds? Bu$h Supports of Course!

Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly points out the idiocy of "guest worker" programs offered up by the Corporate GOP. Complicated issue that I'm still studying but having a citizenship path seems wise. Peace ... or War!

Alabama GOP values? And National Tactics!

I posted a long piece on Captain Bama regarding a paleo-conservative named Hugh McInnish from Huntville, Alabama. I received an e-mail of a fax that he'd forwarded to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions on the immigration issues. McInnish has possibly served on the Alabama GOP Executive Committee yet I'm not certain if this is currently so. Some of language, and it is very nasty, he sent Jeff (note the first name relationship) is as follows:

I think it not an exaggeration to say that the fate of the country hangs in the balance. More, much more, is at issue here than wages, employment, the purported need for chicken-pluckers, and even short-term humanitarianism. I say it bluntly: cultures are not equal. The Mexican culture is as apart from our culture as the night is from the day. Any who would argue otherwise would only expose himself as a fool. To allow millions of these miscreants to remain here would move our culture toward theirs, and would ultimately produce the tragedy of bilingualism.

The full fax and my commentary appears at Captain Bama yet I noted how Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute regularly posts at McInnish's SuppressedNews.com. This Alabama Policy Institute is an arm of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is clearly corporate funded and oriented. To have Palmer working these Nativist while still funded via the business arm of the GOP might show one of the more effective ReThuglican Party tactics. Peace ... or War!

Don't Shred our Constitution Jeff Sessions

While the FDL crew figured faxing was ideal, an e-mail is free and perhaps just as effective. If I had the money and the time I'd camp out in DC these days. If I went to DC perhaps Stormie could arrange an appointment with Senator Sessions for me! Carrying the fantasy even further Stormie and Scarlotte could show me around town when I got through meeting with the power brokers in DC.

She'll always be ReddHedd to me yet the now out of the closet Christy Hardin Smith at FireDogLake inspired me to e-mail Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who serves on the same Senate Judiciary Committee that once rejected him for the Federal bench, the following:

Senator Sessions,

I met you when you were in Randolph County recently. I understand Judiciary will be holding more hearings on the administration's illegal domestic NSA spying without a warrant on Tuesday. I understand Judiciary will also be discussing Senator Russ Feingold’s censure resolution on Friday.

I found it ironic when I went to your splash page and found a photo and report of your videoconference on the three branches of government with 5th graders in Shelby County. I'd argue that even a fifth grader could see that Checks and Balances are at issue here. We are a nation of laws that has withstood threats of facism and nuclear war without shredding the Constitution. The FISA law is clearly applicable and no serious constitutional scholar accepts the strained and vague arguments of this administration in justifying their ignoring the law. Adding to the fact that AG Gonzales and others have avoided answering certain questions makes their positions even less justifiable.

Congress should stop the clearly illegal actions of the President. You and others in Congress must uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights if President Bush chooses in fact to treat it as "just a goddamned piece of paper". President Bush, just after signing the Patriot Act extension recently, issued a signing statement that said he will ignore the law if he deems it appropriate. He must be censured as he truly continues to believe he is above the law.

Senator, this administration has pushed this "unitary executive" theory to the point that I think today's issues would shock our Founding Fathers. This is not a partisan issue although I am surely a proud lefty Progressive. I would likely never vote for you and probably actively seek your defeat. However, if in fact you are a principled Conservative then you surely cannot allow this administration to continue defying the laws passed by Congress. Even more importantly, our Constitution must be followed. I've heard many from the right speak of "strict construction" and "the rule of law" and "activist judges" and ... yet if your GOP allows this administration to continue with their actions I'll know it was simply talking points.

We are at a crossroads here I fear. It might be too late but I do not think history will judge us kindly if we destroy our form of government via misplaced allegiance to a failed Presidency. It is time for men of influence to resist the Bush cabal. He/They are due some serious checking and balancing!

Don't shred our Constitution! Thanks, **** ****

Congress and Bu$hCo Ignore Constitution

Glenn Greewald gives us "Administration tells Congress (again) - We won't abide by your "laws" and Digby weaves some of his magic with "Outlaw Party". Georgia10 at Kos takes Congress, including the Democrats not resisting Bu$hCo, to task with "Endgame". The bottom line in that Checks and Balances means nothing to many in DC. That our Congressional leadership can't see the peril in their accepting Unitary Executive theory floors me. I posted yesterday on the fact that Bu$h used a signing statement to say he'd not follow the Patriot Act when it did not suit him. With The Department of Justice now saying the President will not give up whatever his inherent power might be despite what the law, even laws he signs, it is indeed time to rally against this Bu$hCo cabal. Glenn Greenwald says it best when he writes

Can that be any clearer for you - Congressmen, Senators, journalists? The President is bestowed by the Constitution with the unlimited and un-limitable power to do anything that he believes is necessary to "protect the nation." Thus, even if Congress passes laws which seek to limit that power in any way, and even if the President agrees to those restrictions and signs that bill into law, he still retains the power to violate it whenever he wants.

To think that Republican Lite Bill Clinton had to deal with continual questioning and analysis of his administration's every move (and even dating back to well before he came into power!) to now have Dubyah given a pass over and over amazes me. It can not just be 9-11 in that our checks and balances lasted through our history, recently facing off against facism and threats of the Cold War. Our Constitution works. Follow it! Peace ... and War!

So Laws Still Don't Apply to King George?

President Bu$h issued a "signing statement" addendum after he signed the Patriot Act extension stating that his administration can ignore parts that don't suit their agenda. In that this legislation was hardly viewed by many leftist and even "old school" Conservatives as being protective enough of our Constitutional guarantees, especially given this administration's record, Bu$hCo's actions are rather a confirmation of our concerns. Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe reports

Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.

In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

Bush wrote: ''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . "

This latest addendum has been remarkably ignored by the mainstream media, especially given the context of censure or even impeachment options over the bypassing of FISA by the NSA, torture, gaming the intelligence, etc. Bu$h truly believes that he is above the law. He has apparent contempt for Congress and certain contempt for the Constitution. Peace ... or War!

Why Wealthy Elites Shape Public Opinion

Loyola Philosophy Professor Gary Alan via Common Dreams serves up Propaganda and the Fear Factor(y). This is a nice take on Orwell and Huxley in today's world. Some portions truly spoke to me such as

... in a would-be free and open society——and especially in a society that aspires to be a democracy——propaganda and thought-control are crucial to the formation of public attitudes. In a nominal democracy, such as exists today in the United States, shaping the opinions of the masses is crucial to the appearance of legitimacy for the ruling elite. The public must be guided and persuaded to ratify the policies favored by the wealthy and well connected, while insuring that the general public does not actually interfere with the policies and profits of the corporate rulers.

Huge public opinion and marketing machines, along with the advertising industry provide commercial forms of propaganda. Their success flows from their ability to keep people self-indulgent, to keep people consuming, to keep them on the debt treadmill, and to keep them complacent, self-absorbed, and hedonistic.

In that I've been trying to teach hardly motivated or capable kids these last five years I know the future is likely not much better. Intellectual thinking and critical analysis is hardly accomplished in many classrooms these days. The standardized testing and data-driven education that the Conservatives have pushed hardly prepares kids for actions the Professor has suggested provide remedies to this problem. I admittedly get a touch conspiratorial when I ponder how the wealthy and connected might have designed systems such as our current finance and media and educational complex. Peace ... or War!

WaPo Shows Boxturtle Ben the Door!

Is The Washington Post really this Toasted? Boxturtle Ben Domenech was surely toast once fellow travelers Mad Michelle Malkin and Rick Moran (not Moron!) of Right Wing Nuthouse took him to task for his many cases of plagiarism. Getting in nevertheless some of their usual trashing of Progressives and Liberals and ... but at least they are dealing somewhat in reality it seems. I'm sure his canning will give them more material.

The reason many from the left are so pleased to nail Domenech is that he has been so quick to shill the right wing talking points crap for Bu$hCo and the ReThuglicans. Ben is a proud fundamentalist Christian yet he apparently forgot the 8th Commandment! Just a few days back Ben was Malkin's very smart and talented editor! That Ben works as an editor with Regnery Publishing (which brought us such classics as Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, Malkin's very own In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror plus Unhinged: Liberals Gone Wild and David Horowitz' Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left) can help explain our schadenfreude. Or it could be Ben's racism combined with Red Baiting? It could have been his favorable comparison of the KKK to the Supreme Court?

At the end of my post I learned via the WaPo blog that Ben's gone! Jim Brady's got some more 'splaining to do! Peace ... or War!

American Theocracy - WE reap what YOU helped sow Kevin Phillips!

Nixon's architect of the "Southern Strategy" has perhaps learned that one may indeed often reap what they have sown. Lots of that going around these days, even locally in the Captain's Highlands. Kevin Phillips, now registered as an Independent, has just released American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century. I'll perhaps wait for a library copy as frankly I'd just as soon not give him any of my hard earned dollars yet NPR gives us a taste. Thanks tons for getting the modern GOP to focus on fear and hate. They really learned those lessons! Peace ... or War!

Dixie Chicks ... Not Ready to Make Nice!

The Dixie Chicks are Not Ready to Make Nice! I don't blame you one bit! Bu$hCo polling in the mid thirties makes you seem rather prophetic Natalie! Soldier on Chicks! Peace ... or War!

Geezers Unite! Send GOP to Recycle Bin!

Dean Baker via In These Times gives us "Victory in the Medicare Drug War?" which skewers Bu$hCo and the ReThuglican Congress for selling out to Big Pharma and Big Insurance for the Medicare Prescription Bill. These groups essentially wrote the legislation for the GOP and they pushed in through despite the fact that many knew it was a train wreck of a solution. Baker hits on the undisputed fact that older Americans' votes really matter in off year elections. Despite AARP dropping the ball on this one, one can hope that more seasoned citizens will see the fools this modern GOP have proven themselves to be. Send the bastards home. Peace ... or War!

Dionnne - The GOP's Shrinking Middle

The WaPo's E.J. Dionne Jr. laments and then analyzes the retirement of Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (NY-R) . One of the last "liberal" Republicans in Congress, Representative Boehlert is cashing in his chips. The analysis of how this type of moderate will be missed by the GOP, the party in the increasingly complete control of our government over the last twenty five years, is rather solid. Mr. Dionne, in "The GOP's Shrinking Middle" writes,

But it turns out that a Republican Party dominated by conservatives is no more coherent than the party that left room for progressives. The huge budget deficit is conservatism's Waterloo, testimony to its political failure. The conservatives love to cut taxes but can't square their lust for tax reduction with plausible spending cuts. ...

Paradoxically, because the liberal Republicans didn't pretend to hate government, they were better at fiscal responsibility. They were willing to match their desired spending levels with the taxes to pay for them. It didn't make for exciting, to-the barricades politics. It merely produced good government. ...

Absent a robust progressive wing, congressional Republicans will continue to produce fiscally incoherent government. Democrats now have the task of representing their own brand of politics, and that of progressive Republicans, too.

I'll miss Boehlert and his optimistic moderation. Our politics worked better when a sufficiently large band of Republican moderates and liberals could take the edge off polarization and orient government toward problem-solving. But the liberal Republicans are gone. We have to deal with the GOP we have, not the GOP we wish still existed.

I think Mr. Dionne is a bit kind to the Congressman. If he and some of his liberal or moderate brethren had stood up to these ReThuglican Radicals then perhaps the "compassionate conservatism" would have been seen as a sham. If they'd bitch slapped Karl Rove when he threatened them maybe the Bu$hCo bunch could not have manipulated their way back in for another four years of ruining what they've yet to screw up. The GOP has simply been taken over by power mad radical wingnuts that hand the Big Mules whatever they want. If you've got cash then they are ready to do your bidding. They turn the Heartland upside down with false threats and flawed logic to get them to keep voting against their economic interests. It is POWER via FEAR for the GOP. Time to clean house. Peace ... or War!

Ann Coulter Is Proud Of Fellow Sinner Claude Allen

Ann Coulter is still crazy as a run over dog! I slummed and went to see what Angry Ann had to say on her site only to find "Revenge of the Queers" from back on March 15th. I love how Real Clear Politics changed Hateful Ann's title to "Welcome to My World, Claude Allen". And again a change here to even a less offensive label. Typical Coulter but she's always good for a ride on the edges of hateful stupidity. Recent ridicule "corrections" for Ann are here and here and ... She's only about jargon and bashing the left yet has taken that angry audience straight to the bank. I just wish she would vote legally at her nice new Palm Beach abode. Why live in a "leftist" enclave if you hate liberals so much?

Indeed both you and Claude Allen are possibly looking at felony charges! If you are upset about sympathy, feigned or otherwise, shown to Mr. Allen perhaps it is because most folks just plain hate you. I posted previously on Claude Allen being collared. Of course the Bu$h bunch lied about the reason he resigned as pointed out by Digby. According to TomPaine, Claude Allen is being spun by Bu$hCo as hardly involved in making policy. He was often tapped to appear with Bu$h and sit with Laura and ...

Everybody has heard of Condoleezza Rice Angry Ann. We've surely seen her great work. "Heck of job Condi!" As NSA Director she basically ignored a report from before 9-11 titled something like "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.". She's lied for Bu$hCo several times, before and after she replaced Secretary Powell, as she's apparently a "true believer". Condi didn't know Hamas was going to be winning in Palestinian elections and ...

Crazy Ann even claimed the highest American of African descent in the Clinton Adminitration was his Secretary Betty Currie and yet Slick Willy had many black high ranking officials. Are you really this dumb Ann or do you enjoy the ridicule?

The ridicule is all about the morality issue Ann. Dobson and Bauer and ... loved Allen's radical conservatism. Allen was Rove's watchdog at HHS. He was simply not experienced enough to be considered for a U.S. Circuit Judge slot. And finally he symbolizes the Bu$hCo Administration and the ReThuglican Party so very well.

Go back to drinking Ann! Peace ... or War!

Al Gore 2.0

Ezra Klein, via the The American Prospect, gives us "The New, New Gore". This is a superb and detailed view into Al Gore's "transformation" since 2000. The way Gore goes after the media is great. I'm hopeful that Gore might step back in the fray for 2008. Mark Warner and Russ Feingold and Wesley Clark and John Edwards and ... we've got some decent prospects that might be alternatives to Hillary Clinton as far as electability with coattails. Even though I think we'll see at least a shot at Congress this year I'd sure like to see 2008 take us over the top. Now that we seem to be reacing a tipping point with Bu$hCo where Rovian hardball isn't working as well we could very well see this administration drag the GOP down with him. I've frankly grieved over and over that Al Gore is not my President. Anybody would have been better than Bu$h but compared to Mr. Gore the contrast is especially significant. I think America will take a long hard look at what should have been in 2000 after seeing the disaster Bu$h has been. Peace ... or War!