since President Reagan placed a wreath on the graves of SS soldiers in the Bitburg cemetery. Yet Reagan's mistake was unintentional

Reagan's mistake was hardly unintentional - he knew prior to going that the cemetery was for SS - voluntary soldiers who signed up to do Hitler's bidding. These were not drafted soldiers. He knew and did it anyway.

This is a first-rate article on our President's recent travel abroad. Thanks, Sidney!

We are interested in the impressions of the world's leaders as 72% of Americans disapprove of President Bush's job performance. Do they see as we do that many of his appointments to office are based much more on loyalty than competence? Do they question, as we do, the logic of his statements?

Mr. Blumenthal offers an explanation to the disarray of our foreign policy. He writes that Bush's foreign policy (and therefore ours) "has descended into a fugue state". Blumenthal continues "In a fugue state, a trauma creates a kind of amnesia in which the sufferer is incapable of connecting to his past."

A psychiatrist wrote a book relating how he measured the mental health of his patients. He used something called the "Rappaport Time Line". We all have a 'time line'. It is the continuum of our past, present, and future. For solid mental health we should be comfortable moving without distress from our past, to our present, and looking into our future. Do we see events realistically?

To help us see things realistically we need an honest and an engaged free press. This free press is helpful to the President as well. We cannot allow the President nor his associates to distort actual events. An example is the choice to "surge" our troop strength in Iraq.

The President searched and searched for a general who would tell him what he wanted to hear. But there were a number of prominent generals, both active and retired, who thought otherwise. Generals against the "surge" were: Abizaid, Batiste, Casey, Odom, Eaton, Clark, Hoar, McCafferty. The President allowed his slander machine, the right wing press, to label these men 'surrender monkeys'. These generals made valid arguments opposing the 'surge'and they are being proven right according to present events in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So to folks who are unhappy with the performance of their opposition party, I say "get involved". Your local Democratic or Independent Committee needs your help. As one 91 year old activist woman said last night on a Bill Moyers program, "You are the leader that you have been looking for."

to resist our slide into oblivion. We do have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which the authors wrote in an attempt to prevent tyranny such as we risk in the next 19 months (and if you argue that we're already in one, I nod my head yet still hold out hope).

Gonzales is the key.

We have him dead to rights, for perjury and/or obstruction of justice (No, Senator, I haven't spoken to anyone at DOJ - Monica Goodling, for instance - because it's important that I not appear to obstruct the internal investigation or coach witnesses to cover up the truth that Karl Rove fired the prosecutors). And the Democrats now have the majority in Congress and can issue subpoenas to get to the truth, at least about most of the crimes that have been committed at DOJ and possibly some at the White House. Now if the media will only stop aiding and abetting the Orwellian lies that this investigation has been "drug out" for political reasons and cite Conyers' or Leahy's forceful evidence that the White House has, so far, stymied the fact-gathering.

Make use of that subpoena power, counter the inevitable Rovian talking-points by telling the knee-jerk Republican defenders that if no wrong-doing has occurred, they have nothing to worry about, and peel off the onion layers one at a time. We'll get to that stinking, oozing middle part of the onion soon enough - Cheney, of course - and in the meantime the Offal Office (or is that Awful?) will have less time, energy and attention-span to devote to starting the Iran War, justifying the Iraq Occupation, and continuing to stick their thumbs in the Democratic eye by nominating ridiculously unqualified, already rejected or just plain evil nominees to key government agency posts and our appellate or Supreme courts (may God continue to bless Justice John Paul Stevens!).

We've got Libby already. Can SOMEONE in the media PLEASE ask Cheney how he can continue saying all those nice things about Scooter when he's been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice - to prevent an investigation of Cheney himself? And how about a reporter pressing Bush to follow up on his pledge to fire the leakers when it's been proven that Rove was one? And to trap Bush into admitting that he's going to pardon Scooter to save his own ass - what other justification can he possibly have - and to make him state publicly his reasoning?

Subpoena power is not predicated on 60 votes in the Senate - we have it now; use it, and call the bastards to account.

The Messiah is not going to show up in 2008. There's no hope for Americans. Americans are too stupid and crazy to save the country with an election. THis country has decided to abandon all contact with reality.

If you want proof, consider the fact that it's the norm in LA County for DUI probabtion violators to be ankle-braceleted and sent home the first day.

So why is Paris Hilton serving 23 days in solitary confinement?

Because Americans are scary people who can't be bothered to think over some facts for ten seconds before they rise up and demand action.

The American people demanded action, and they got it.

There's no political leader out there who is going to save the world from America's population of rabid hyenas.

It's actually wonderful that we have a sterling example of typical American stupidity like Bush to blame everything on.

The next president might not be so stupid. Who will we blame everything on then?