Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.

Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.

It was a chilling moment on a split-screen of history. While the Senate debated the Iraq war on the night of July 17, a long-dead senator again renounced a chronic lie about congressional options and presidential power.

     The Senate was in the final hours of another failure to impede the momentum of war. As the New York Times was to report, President Bush “essentially won the added time he said he needed to demonstrate that his troop buildup was succeeding.”

     Meanwhile, inside a movie theater on the opposite coast, the thunderous voice of Senator Wayne Morse spoke to 140 people at an event organized by the activist group Sacramento for Democracy. The extraordinary senator was speaking in May 1964 -- and in July 2007.

     A typical dash of media conventional wisdom had set him off. The moderator of the CBS program “Face the Nation,” journalist Peter Lisagor, told the guest: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”

If "The Waitress" were a pie, which it very well may be, it would taste like a variety of flavors from sweet, sour and spciy to utterly delightful! Somehow all of these flavors seem to work for this dish!

The main character a sincerely sweet pie-making artiste. All of her life feelings and problems are translated into different pies. Everyone feels badly for her, especially after her recent pregnancy with her horrible husband. Even her closest friends, two fellow waitresses at the pie shop, tell her they would never trade places with her. I too, would never want to be in her shoes, married to a man like Earl. All of which sets off the deliciousness of the main characters' affair. This movie is by no means a setting of morals and values. Almost all of the characters in it commit adultery or suffer from personality disorders!

But this gives the movie its reality factor as well. Although it's a movie with real problems and sadness, there is humor and irony to be found everywhere. The doctor with whom the main character confides and finds herself in love, is also married. Their love may be the most random suprising part of the movie

Of all the things out there to be afraid of, why have we wasted so much ink and airtime on the vaguely troubled churnings of Michael Chertoff’s gut? And why, for that matter, do the media, dutifully following the lead of the Bush administration, show such ongoing reverence for al-Qaida’s alleged capacity to bring us to our knees and wreck our way of life?

But the $64,000 question amid all the frantic noise (adjusted for inflation, it may be the $2 trillion question) is: Why is our waiting time at the airport punctuated at regular intervals by utterly meaningless reminders over the PA system that the nation is at threat level orange?

I have my theories. It may well be true that air travel security — unlike airplane maintenance (let us pray) — is a profession with no deeper roots in rationality than any other type of fortune telling, but the widespread collusion of otherwise sensible people in the dissemination of vague “warnings” that do not translate into any obvious modification of behavior point to another explanation.

My country ’tis of thee . . .

The bulk of John Edwards' wealth is invested in, his recent income derives from, and his biggest contributors are employed by Fortress Investment Group.  Fortress, which paid Edwards almost half a million dollars to advise them, deals in hedge funds and private equity.  Its private equity holdings have not been reported on.  (Where is journalism when there's no sex involved?)  Its hedge funds invest in, among other things, publicly traded companies.  Those are reported to the SEC, most recently on May 15th in this filing: http://tinyurl.com/ytzlba