I generally prefer a higher level of discourse, but when it comes to the Bushes, they are all crap, low-level human beings who never deserved to be in public life in any capacity. Starting with Prescott, they have done great harm to the country and to the planet. George I suckered Saddam Hussein into invading Kuwait, hyped the evidence for his invasion of Iraq, invaded Panama for no good reason, and was intimately involved in the Iran-Contra criminal scheme. Like father, like son, except on steroids (or more accurately, on booze and drugs), son George suckered the country into a second invasion of Iraq.

Maybe George I was really crying because he knows it is all over, that no more Bushes are going to be president or even dog catcher, that the game is up, that you reap what you sow. Like the final days of William Rehnquist, where he had to look at what he wrought with the appointment of George II (as well as his other crimes, like voter suppression in his younger days), George I has to look for the rest of his life at what he hath wrought. No amount of corruption and image-making is going to put the Humpty Dumpty of the Bush crime family back together again.

So cry on, big George. You were away from home too long when your worthless sons were growing up. Consumed with ambition, you left the raising duties to your nasty wife. Your sons took the worst lessons from your rise to power, seeing your criminality as the essence of public life. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons, and in this case the visit was a lifetime stay.

Only an absolute dictatorship can change your legacy, by erasing all your criminal records (which seems to be what 43 has been trying to do for the past six years).

It won't work. The world knows too much. Your criminal operation has failed. It is now too weak, and weakening by the day. I expect one last gasp crime caper, but the world is on to you. The FBI is on to you. The CIA is on to you. The DIA is on to you. The American people are on to you. The U.N. is on to you. You are through. Have a good cry. You have plenty to cry about. Do it wearing a sack cloth and spread some ashes. .

I hope Newt Gingrich does run for president. It will be a great test of how low we have sunk as a people. Gingrich, a profoundly mediocre human being, chose conservative Republicanism early in life as the fastest path to power. He had no genuine beliefs other than his own ego, and hasn't deviated from that path since.

The people of the "United States" are learning a bitter lesson. If we aren't very careful about who we choose for the nation's highest office, we will pay dearly, and for a very long time.

What will be interesting to see between now and 2008 is if there are any changes in the way the news media portray presidential elections. As the Iraq occupation (It is not a "war." We invaded and "defeated" what military opposition existed.) continues to unravel, and Bush does likewise, the corporate news media are trying to generate buzz for the next "horse race." The added factor of global warming makes the need for responsible leadership and responsible journalism even more critical. Newt will likely have a catalyzing effect.

Before pardoning Nixon the only things Gerald R. Ford was known for were his futile attempts to have Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas impeached, and for his tenure on the notorious Warren Commission. The kept press is feverishly trying to make a legacy out of his two years and five months as president, but he was a mere caretaker. The invented legacy is important to the powers that be in order to prop up the office, not the man, though it is the man they prop up. It is especially important to the powers that be to prop up a "Republican" president. They have all been pretty mediocre the last several decades, so a lot of revision is needed.

It won't work. The real is being separated from the unreal in the U.S. these days, and as we contend with the increasingly threatening phenomena of Global Warming and comprehensive environmental degradation, the purposes for which presidents are propped up will seem pretty hollow. As hollow as the men themselves. What a wrecking crew. Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush, and the "decent" Jerry Ford. The "Democrats" were only marginally better, except Carter, who at least gets some credit for good intentions. We have no choice but to do better.