— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

"You know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I'd be waving it."
-- President George W. Bush, April 30, 2008.

DETROIT -- The sorcerer-in-chief is a failure for the ages. George W. Bush is now the most unpopular president in modern American history, an ignominious distinction he earned and richly merits. His magic touch wounds and scars the nation and world, and the suffering he wrought will last for decades.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll shows 71 percent of the American people disapprove of Bush's handling of his job. Richard Nixon's disapproval rating in August 1974, just before he was forced to resign, stood at 66 percent.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

Hillary Clinton has to be the toughest guy on the block. No hints of careful, deliberative approaches to our troubled world. In her do-anything campaign to snare the Democratic presidential nomination, tough rhetoric will always trump reasoned discourse, even if it means creating more fear and distrust toward the United States in the Muslim world.

Sen. Clinton's shameless performance last week on the morning of the Pennsylvania primary showed how low she would stoop to show targeted voters her toughness, not giving a hoot that many in the world see her behavior as recklessness.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

Spring presents joyous opportunities to enjoy nature. The sounds of the insects and animals are inspiring. The chorus of the young amphibians joins with birds chirping, creating a lovely, soothing harmony. I am fortunate enough to live on a little pond, so these spring sounds are omnipresent and much appreciated.

I get to watch the water fowl swoop in and glide to graceful landings. There is a beaver shaping up his share of the pond. In the evening, deer stroll freely. The air smells cleaner, filled with the scent of la primavera, the beautiful Italian word for spring. The tranquility is a welcome respite from the human sounds and activities I must endure. The experience inspires.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

"I think there's very little that I can say but the utmost praise for a great American citizen, who served as a role model to so many millions of people in this country and around the world." -- Sen. John McCain responding to reports Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is angling to become the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Old John's showing plenty of confused thinking these days, demonstrating a foggy grasp of the facts essential in understanding what's going on in the world. The media pounce on his nearly daily claims that al-Qaeda, a Sunni project, is getting essential support from Iran, a Shiite theocracy.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- George W. Bush's failed presidency has produced unprecedented dissatisfaction for the battered American people. More storms will rage this spring in a troubled economy hurtling into a serious recession.

The nation lost 80,000 jobs in March -- 250,000 in the first quarter. Unemployment is at 5.1 percent and indications are joblessness will grow. Real incomes are down and the junk loan crisis is affecting credit at nearly every level. The housing sector is a disaster and foreclosures are occurring at rates not seen since the Depression.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- Detroit's mayor is facing felony perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office charges. Kwame Kilpatrick says he's innocent and promises when a jury hears "the facts" he will be vindicated.

While quite different in many obvious ways, Detroit's embattled mayor and our nation's lame duck president are quiet alike in fundamental ways: Both loudly and frequently claim God chose and anointed them for their duties and both use lies on a monstrous scale to get what they want.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

How about a little focus and perspective about what's happening to our nation in the steady grip of international imperialism and domestic Stalinism? Sure, there should be howls over people at the State Department illegally peering at the passport files of presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The file-prying was an egregious violation of privacy.

Even McCain was a tad miffed, saying, "I expect a through review and a change in procedures as necessary to ensure the privacy of passport files." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promises an internal investigation and called the candidates to apologize.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

Who'll be the last to die for a mistake,
The last to die for a mistake,
Whose blood will spill,
Whose heart will break,
Who will be the last to die?
-- Bruce Springsteen,
"Last to Die," Magic Album, 2007.

DETROIT -- The Boss belts out the crunch questions the presidential candidates should be asked. Throughout the endless debates and Sunday morning gabfests, the reporters and pundits who grill the candidates usually don't frame questions about the war in Iraq with the stark premise that it is a mistake and people continue to die for a futile cause.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

They've created a record of failure for the ages and the Republicans deserve to be pummeled for the mess they've brought upon a suffering nation. This election should be a referendum on that record and the Democrats should force them to defend it at every turn.

We go to press before the outcome of Tuesday's critical primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont. I can only hope the outcome is clear and Hillary Clinton goes gentle into that good night.

Her campaign has hinged on the Clintonian claim of an entitled presidency, the incessant "ready on day one" mantra, the support of the stale Democratic Party establishment and a campaign war chest largely squandered on high-priced consultants, now positioning themselves away from responsibility for the strategies and decisions that saw Hillary's once-sure grip on the nomination slip away.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

What kind of people are we? Ten months before the presidential election, the choices are clear, unambiguous. We can choose fear or hope, freedom or fascism.

With the speed of summer lightening, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, embraced the most radical elements of his party as he endorsed fear and torture and rejected reason and restraint. In a flip-flop that would make even Willard "Mitt" Romney dizzy, McCain voted against a measure passed in the Senate last week banning waterboarding and other "harsh interrogation methods."

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

The Republican Party of the 21st century clings to the memory of Ronald Reagan's vastly overrated presidency while ignoring the wisdom and achievements of Dwight Eisenhower, the best two-term Republican president of the 20th century. All the Republican presidential hopefuls wrap themselves around Reagan, hoping to morph into the second-rate actor who read his lines well and used his superficial charm and relaxed manner to win elections.

No candidate did the Reagan evocation act as often and shamelessly as Willard "Mitt" Romney. Every speech he made included his claim to be the reincarnation of the "great communicator." Reagan was a much better actor.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

My nightmare is half over. Six months ago, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton led in national polls and the two appeared to be poised to coast to becoming the nominees for president. The dark prospect of the American people having to choose between Giuliani and Clinton made me shudder and wake up at night in cold sweats.

Rotten Rudy is now gone, tossed into the political trash heap. His campaign strategy -- ducking the early primaries and expecting Florida voters would propel him into top-tier status in the Republican field -- was a classic flop.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- The American economy is faltering and more hardship looms. The war is Iraq is a manifest failure. The incessant violence and military occupation assure continued suffering for the Iraqi people. As a result the American people are less safe, precious resources are squandered and terrorists delight in the unending fiasco.

Yet President George W. Bush assures us he knows "how we can keep our economy strong and our people safe." Bush made that boast on his Saturday-morning radio sermonette, promising more details in the State of the Union address.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- Fixing Michigan's abysmal economy and ending the mass exodus of manufacturing jobs should be no problem if we listen to some of the Republicans vying to become president. All we need to do is cut taxes, offer tax incentives to businesses, toss in a little worker retraining, dust off that old entrepreneurial spirit that made the state the automotive capital of the world for a century, and presto, the assembly lines will roll with renewed energy.

Crowds should roar with laughter when they hear the candidates stumping through the state echoing those themes. But instead they sit politely and take in the simplistic bromides as the GOP hopefuls struggle to win Tuesday's Michigan primary.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

The end of the era of someone named Bush or Clinton serving as president or vice president for the last 28 years is a welcome prospect. As a republican (the lower-case type), I deplore dynasties. Merit and achievement should trump surnames and the entitlements that come with them.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's sputtering campaign could mark the end of the Bush/Clinton/Bush progression through the White House. Bill Clinton -- the best of them -- is the only one whose name was not his major ticket to high office, the only one who struggled without the bestowed benefits and privileges of a famous name and inherited influence.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- As we slide into 2008, the real election season begins. Sure, 2007 helped cull the herd and gave the presidential candidates plenty of time to try out their themes and one-liners -- and, for many of them, to practice new lies and repeat old ones.

But the real business of nominating the candidates and electing a new president will unfold over the next two or three months. The Iowa caucus, the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries and the Nevada caucus are the first string of contests likely to position the candidates and give us some indication of their electability.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- As people flock to Christmas gatherings -- or holiday parties, if you prefer -- many will adhere to that old saw never to discuss politics and religion in polite company. Frankly, few subjects are more interesting. Toss in the topics of food and sex, lace it with a little alcohol, and your chances of having an entertaining conversation increase considerably.

While the religion-and-politics taboo remains in force in etiquette guides, there are no such restraints found in contemporary American politics, especially in that revival tent of religious fervor and intolerance known as the Republican Party.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- The stunned reaction of so many to the intelligence report that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 frankly stuns me. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their legions of neoconservative warmongers use lies and deceptions so routinely, I've learned to anticipate them.

The mainstream media trumpeted the assessment in a National Intelligence Estimate as a "bombshell," a "major reversal" and a "shocking development." Where have these people been? Don't they remember the serial lies used to sell the war in Iraq? "Mushroom cloud" Condi Rice told us we had to invade Iraq to avoid nuclear annihilation. Cheney declared with sober certainty that Saddam Hussein had "reconstituted nuclear weapons."

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

"This is the most arrogant, incompetent administration I've ever seen personally or ever read about." -- Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

DETROIT -- Chuck Hagel, a student of history, can read until the cows come home before he finds any administration as arrogant and incompetent as President George W. Bush's. Hagel's spot-on assessment of Bush's disastrous presidency really should dominate the campaign for his successor.

Whatever the candidates say they would like to do is overshadowed by the monumental mess they will inherit, and Bush still has time to wreak more havoc on the nation and world. Hagel noted it would take the next president at least four years to "dig out from under" the dung heap of the horrible Bush years. Hagel is an optimist.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- The news that Saudi Arabia is the nation providing the greatest number of foreign fighters in Iraq underscores the lies and duplicity at the foundation of President George W. Bush's policies in the Middle East.

When the undersecretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing points to Saudi Arabia as a continuing conduit for millions of dollars to al-Qaeda, and the president ignores the assessment and then certifies that "Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to combat international terrorism," you know the fix is in.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

Making money from government service and war, and lining the pockets of family and friends is a sacred creed in the Bush family. The Corleone family in "The Godfather" showed more restraint and was less inclined toward violence than the greedy gangsters the Bush crime family unleashed on the world.

Using public office and influence to make millions is so ingrained in the Bushevik regime that they don't even think twice when they raid the public treasury to take care of themselves.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- The "San Francisco Democrats" are the handmaidens for President George W. Bush: feckless, short-sighted and cynical. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., both wealthy San Franciscans, are leading voices in the congressional chorus that chooses convenience over principle and perceived political advantage over certain political truth.

Pelosi wants no talk of impeachment for Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other war criminals. She has done nothing to block funding for the war in Iraq, the only way to end the occupation, save Iraqi and American lives and let the Iraqi people determine their own destiny.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

"I can believe anything provided it is incredible." -- Oscar Wilde.

DETROIT -- Wilde would find these times deliciously incredible, although the abundance of extraordinary events and rot he'd find among modern American politicians might be too easy to pounce upon and unworthy of his considerable literary talents. On second thought, he probably couldn't resist.

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between," Wilde once cracked. But he was only looking at the Gilded Age in the second half of the 19th century -- times of relative civil decency compared with what President George W. Bush, along with a supporting cast of crass politicians, Republican and Democrats alike, has done in the 21st century.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

DETROIT -- The steady beat of war drums reverberates fear and silences reasoned debate. The Bush administration is using reckless rhetoric in marketing another pre-emptive attack on a sovereign Islamic nation, and the plan is working with tragic effectiveness.

The amen chorus of right-wing pundits and shouters is in perfect tune with every inflammatory utterance of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It's stunning that people actually listen to this same trio that brought the war in Iraq as they sell another war in Iran.

— from the Niagara Falls Reporter

"I've never felt more energized and more capable of getting the American people to realize there is a lot of unfinished business."
-- President George W. Bush.

DETROIT -- There is frightening truth in commander guy's claim of relevance, with 15 months left in our long national nightmare. He has plenty of time to take care of business, and that means more violence and suffering and even greater hostility toward the United States and less security for the American people.

Bush has no intention of going gentle into that good night. His family business and that of his sponsors is to use politics and influence as a means of dominating the world's energy resources to sustain and increase their wealth. It is as simple as it is ruthless.