As President George W. Bush reminds us so often, he is the War President, the "decider", and the supreme authoritarian commander in chief. He has micromanaged the Iraq War since day one. So it would appear he is the one who ordered these injured troop back into battle. I wonder how many these military mmembers voted for Mr. Commander in Chief in 2004.

I think there's one reason why the media failed to challenge America's leaders and conventional wsidom about the middle east in the run-up to Bush's "holy" war. That reason is money. Big media is big business and Wall Street insists on big profits for their share-holders. Unfortunately old-fashioned truth-telling doesn't sell enough newspapers or get high enough television ratings to keep the sponsors happy. As long as the only reason for newspapers to exist is the profit margin I'm afraid we're bound to repeat these failures.

I have followed presidential politics from Kennedy to Bush 43. And this president's hiring practices seem to focus entirely on political loyalty. Mr. Bush, more than previous presidents, seems to surround himself with "yes men". Remember that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to resign twice before the November 2006 elections. The voters decided Rumsfeld's fate for the "Decider". So I'm not surprised that Bush wants to promote the Walter Reed Task Force Co-Chair. He rewards political loyalty and resists firing these people even when they demonstrate incompetence.

I can't be the first letter-writer to express contempt for high-level federal government employees who leave for high(er) paying jobs in the private-sector. President Eisenhower warned us about the perils of a runaway "military-industrial complex". We didn't listen then or now. Take the cold war period in which we spend billions on warheads and the military. When I returned from a trip to the former Soviet Union in 1988 I told friends I couldn't understnd the reason for our paranoia about the perceived Soviet threat. I observed a country running on "fumes". The communist system didn't work and the Russians knew it. The crippled postal system could barely deliver mail, so I wondered why the CIA thought they could deliver warheads. The Soviet system collapsed because it didn't work, not because we had so many weapons. And we continue this ignorant approach even though convential wisdom dictates the mess in Iraq can only be solved by the Iraqui people not by our military intervention.

The older I get the more I realize that when public figures, whether in the public or private sector, fall on hard-times the first thing they do is blame their "enemies". However it appears to me these "victims" have only themselves to blame for their problems. But I guess a poor excuse is better than none.

Karl Rove must have been pleased with election results in Ohio until the disaster in November, 2006. For the first time in sixteen years Democrats were elected governor. secretary of state, attorney general, and treasurer.

Things got even worse on March 31, 2007, when the chairman of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board in Cleveland filed a lawsuit to keep his job. It was widely reported that the May, 2006 primary in Cuyahoga County was plagued by problems including missing vote-memory cards, and late, missing, or poorly trained poll-workers. In addition two former employees were convicted for rigging a 2004 presidential recount sample. For this reason the Attorney General asked the remaining board members to resign and they complied. However the chairman refused and sued the Attorney General. His lawsuit was dismissed and he was forced to resign on April 11.

The name of this disgraced elections board chairman is Robert T. Bennett, and his other job is chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. Mr. Bennett hasn't been asked to resign this job. He probably has the full support of Mr. Rove. What a pair!

Mr. Cheney's comments about only doing what's right not popular sounds like he thinks he's a parent practicing tough love. Only he's a politician not our parent. And he and Bush got elected by winning a popular vote. So I'm not convinced by this twisted logic.

Another example of Cheney's twisted logic is described in Ron Suskind's recent book, "The One Percent Doctrine". In this book the author describes the run-up to the Iraq war. Cheney was the major impetus for this war and based it on his idea that if there was only a 1% possibility that Saddam Hussein had WMD the US should treat it like it was 100% fact. And even after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and finding no WMD, Cheney still wants continue this fight with 100% of our precious resorces. After all, parenthood isn't a popularity contest.

According to this article and others recently published, Monica Goodling and almost 150 Regent University Law School graduates have jobs in the Bush-Cheney administration. I would bet easy money that when these "Regents" get in trouble they will hire the best criminal defense lawyers they can find to keep their sorry-selves out of jail. And I doubt if any of them will consider another Regent graduate as their first choice.

I read that when Howard Dean got the job as chairman of the National Democratic Party his goal was to visit all fifty states and make changes. Apparently the party officials thought Mr. Dean should concentrate on specific states and races but he convinced them otherwise. Well, no one can argue with the success of the Democratic Party in November, 2006. I think President Bush called the results a "thumpin". I'm suprised that Mr. Dean wasn't named "man of the year" for his accomplishments.

As the old song goes "the times they are a changin". And I agree with your premise of "Power to the people". I also have the feeling that Republicans are in for another "thumpin" in 2008.

After reading this article I realized that this Supreme Court is telling the great unwashed American populace the true meaning of The Golden Rule, which is "He who has the gold rules!".