"the contractors have only the safety of their charges in mind."

I don't think anybody, including me, actually believes that.

What I do believe, however, is that the big bucks, soldier-of-fortune, gun-as-penis mentality has attracted a large number of the wrong kind of people to these "security" organizations.

The "little Napolean complex" that some see in their local hometown constabulary can take on gargantuan opportunities and consequences when men are given the chance to act out their Rambo fantasies on a population they view as weak, inferior and inconsequential. Especially when they can operate outside the law, gunning down unarmed women and children, among others of their choosing from the relative safety of a heavily armed convoy. The excuse of "guarding" a dignitary gives them an overblown sense of importance and entitlement to inflict harm at the slightest "perceived" danger.

Also, as with most "gun-as-penis" types, the thought of real danger doesn't pump up controlled adrenaline, it pumps up fear, and that fear makes people trigger-happy and indiscriminate. If they were really concerned with security and serving their country in the face of risk, they would be Marines, as my two sons are.

The entire concept of these mercenaries is a bad idea gone even more wrong.

It is not providing security, it is instilling hatred and mistrust and putting our troops at greater risk. You know, those troops who will go on trial and to prison if they wrongfully shoot someone themselves, while contractors collect their enormous pay, are shuttled out of the country to escape any consequences...and probably to end up in Iraq again for another greedy security company that is more concerned with billings than with personnel issues.

Our troops must now patrol streets where citizens have seen instances of careless and deliberate brutality by "private security contractors".

Get the security forces out now. And get our troops out, too. This is a fiasco that just gets worse and more shameful for our nation every day.

You're right. Let's hold our fire until we see the white's of their eyes. Giuliana is a gift. (I'll just try not to think about how blind and stupid so many voters are.)

I stand shushed.

Rudy and Bernie were pals. As Giuliani's driver, I'm sure Kerik demonstrated his ability to look the other way, and I'm sure the mayor reciprocated.

Did they alternate using the "love shack" earmarked for tired 9/11 workers in NYC? We all know how Kerik made use of it.

They were/are business partners. At the time Rudy was pushing Kerik on Bush as head of Homeland Security (a job for which he was woefully unqualified) the two of them were engaging in war profiteering through Giuliani Partners. What a sweet deal to have your partner doling out billions in contracts.

No one is talking about this in the true light of its seedy, illicit, profiteering reality.

Instead, Giuliani gets off with the "oops I guess I should have done a better job of vetting him." Giuliani knew everything, and it fit right in with his own rickety set of morals and ambitions.

Giuliani should have his feet put to the fire over Kerik. Instead, he's warming them over the comforting coziness of the media's acquiescence and appeasement. Gosh. It's almost like he's the President.

Exactly.

Then it is nothing less than GHW Bush deserves. In 2004 a group of us "military moms" were campaigning in Ohio. GHW showed up in the same town at the same time and scoffed at our message.

He wasn't there to bother us, however, he was there to make a plea for the election of his son.

The sum total of his plea:

Please help get my boy re-elected. That was his whole speech. Elect MY BOY.

No need to explain why. He was talking to the eyes-straight-ahead empty-headed automatons who constituted a loyal group of Rotary Club mentality Republicans. He was calling in chits for his boy.

GHW knew the damage his son was doing and could only offer the profound ego of a father trying to grab glory for his progeny, in spite of his unsuitability.

And that's why we are not a monarchy.

The legacy of GHW Bush will always be linked with that of the worst, most incompetent, arrogant, and most dangerous and destructive President in the history of this nation.

And for his part in this as the father who watched his son's misdeeds with complaisance, which as just as immoral as complicity, he deserves no less.