Hello,

In the article "Babbling from Fitrakis," Scott Malone sounds like he's spent the last three years on the moon rather than here on earth. This is not about some sophomoric facts and figures as to the "President's" IQ; this is about the soul of a nation! Should the Democrats not be able to get themselves together, it's very true that Bush may very well win and win big. But if that happens, it would be precisely because of uninformed and surface-looking people like Malone rather than any inherent insightfulness in Bush's worldview. Mussolini and Hitler in fact exuded the same appeal to their people and employed the very same methods used by today's neocons. And, in both Germany and Italy we saw the voice of reason brutally silenced and the war machine put to use.

These "drug saturated anarchists" to whom Malone refers, include people like Chomsky, Fisk, Said, Krugman, Vidal and countless other scholars, each one of which will take pages to cite their contributions and achievements for humanity. They also include the overwhelming majority of the good people of the planet earth.

So, on this second day of our Lord

Thanks for that in depth information on preemptive war and our defiant leaders who are violating every treaty we have.

Count our blessings, an act the eternally pessimistic American left usually shuns on the grounds that it might indicate we've made some headway in progress toward the good, the true and the beautiful.

            First, let's look back. This year was a pretty good year. Who can complain about a span of time in which both William Bennett and Rush Limbaugh, outed respectively as a compulsive gambler and a drug addict, were installed themselves in the public stocks amid the derision of the citizenry? Some say that they've both winched themselves out of the mud, with Bennett's sessions in Las Vegas and Limbaugh's steady diet of OxyContin already faded in the public mind. I don't think so. There's nothing so enjoyable as the plight of a professional moralizer caught in the wrong part of town.

It is with extreme disappointment that we write to you regarding the Bush administration's decision to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule. The Tongass is just the first. Having gained access to the Tongass for commercial interests, Bush and his friends in the timber in! dustry will continue to pursue our public lands with no consid eration for native populations and endangered species.

Let's face it, the Bush Blow Out Sale has begun.

Enacted in 2001, the Roadless Rule protects 58.5 million acres of the last wilderness areas in the United States from industrial logging interests. Over 2.5 million Americans have voiced their support to protect these areas in our national forests.

However, it seems the Bush administration doesn't agree.

One clear reason the right wing think tanks that have been at the root of the right wing's success in politics have received so much money from wealthy businessmen is these think tanks have envisioned national policies that will make megacorporations megabucks. The Here are 17 "what ifs" that are very doable.

Today,  I was reviewing the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) document that describes the Bush pre-emptive war policy, published in 2000, even before Bush was  president. The document, titled REBUILDING AMERICA'S DEFENSES; Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century,  has the following credits; DONALD KAGAN, GARY SCHMITT, Project Co-Chairmen and THOMAS DONNELLY Principal Author

I'd done some research on Kagan and Schmitt but I hadn't checked out Donnelly. So I Googled him.  His little writing exercise for PNAC certainly paid off. He went from being executive director for PNAC to... are your ready for this? ... Director, strategic communications and initiatives, Lockheed Martin Corporation, 2002. Now, would you like to guess how many billions his strategic plan has made for Lockheed? Nice payoff.