Bu$hco: Accountability for war crimes among other things

Michele Bachmann Tells Michael Steele: "You Be Da Man!"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen Challenges Michael Steele

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

huffingtonpost.com

Last week, Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, in an interview with the "Washington Times," said he was planning an "off the hook" public relations offensive for the RNC.

"We need messengers to really capture that region -- young, Hispanic, black, a cross section ... We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings."

Break Time: No politics today... ( :

NEW Jan 2009- Impossible Downward Acceleration of the North Tower

Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth

The roofline of WTC1 (The North Tower of the World Trade Center) begins dropping with sudden onset and accelerates uniformly downward at about 64% of the acceleration of gravity (g) until it disappears into the dust. This means it is meeting resistance equal to about 36% of its weight. The implication of this, however, is that the force it is exerting on the lower section of the building is also only 36% of the weight of the falling section. This is much less than the force it would exert if it were at rest. The acceleration data thus prove that the falling top section of the building cannot be responsible for the destruction of the lower section of the building. I want to acknowledge the work of Graeme MacQueen and Tony Szamboti who have been engaged in similar measurements by other means and have reached similar conclusions.

Any one care to read the NIST Report. It consists of around 10,000 pages which makes a James Michener book look about the size of a Little Henry comic. I tried reading some of it, but when I got to the part that declares that nothing in it could be used in a court of law I quit on the spot. From what I can see it is a work of fiction, but not even close to the fiction written by Michener, who did a lot more research on the subject, such as his book "Hawaii" which left you with some accurate history about the subject...G:

We will restore science to its rightful place...

- Barack Obama, President of the United States of America

Recommended Reading for Rahm

The Zionist Attack on Jewish Values

Lawrence Davidson
Issues
Winter 2009

(This article was originally published on Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture, www.logosjournal.com, and is reprinted with permission)

On November 17, 1917 Sir Arthur James Balfour, acting for the wartime British cabinet of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, issued what has historically become known as the Balfour Declaration. Promising a national home for the Jews in Palestine, the declaration established an alliance between the Zionist movement and the British Empire. For the Zionists the end game was to turn Palestine into a Jewish state. Though the Zionist leadership probably did not initially intend it, an eventual consequence of this ambition was the transformation of institutional Judaism into an adjunct of Zionist state ideology.

Even before the Balfour Declaration was announced the danger to Judaism inherent in the Zionist state orientated ideology was sensed and critiqued by insightful Jewish individuals. They would describe their anxiety in varied ways, sometimes using political, or moral, or religious argument. All of them, however, could draw on a tradition of Jewish tolerance and humanitarianism that, in its modern formulations, went back to the work of Moses Mendelssohn and the 18th century Jewish enlightenment. For instance, Ahad Ha-am (the pen name of the famous Jewish moralist Asher Ginzberg), noted as early as 1891 that Zionist settlers in Palestine have “an inclination to despotism. They treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, deprive them of their rights, offend them without cause, and even boast of these deeds; and no one among us opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination.” He warned that such behavior stemmed from the political orientation of the Zionist movement which could only end up morally corrupting the Jewish people. Unlike Chaim Weizmann, who famously desired that the Jews become a nation like all other nations, Ha-am (who was dedicated to Jewish cultural revival in Palestine) believed that the return to Zion was worthwhile only if the Jews did not become like other nations. By 1913 Ha-am knew this was not to be, and he completely rejected the nature of Zionism as it was evolving. “If this be the ‘Messiah,’“ he wrote, “I do not wish to see his coming.” In effect, critics like Ha-am were making a distinction between Judaism, with its moral values and cultural richness, and the ethnocentric, tribal Zionism that was now coming into being.

Article

JEWISH CRITICISM OF ZIONISM

Albert Einstein was also anti-Zionist. He made a presentation to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, which was examining the Palestine issue in January 1946 and argued against the creation of a Jewish state. Einstein also later turned down the presidency of the state of Israel. In 1950 Einstein published the following statement on the question of Zionism.

"I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from the practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight without a Jewish state."

Albert Einstein, Sidney Hook, Hannah Arendt and twenty-five other prominent Jews, in a letter to The New York Times (December 4, 1948), condemned Menachem Begin's and Yitzhak Shamir's Likud party as "fascist" and espousing "an admixture of ultra-nationalism, religious mysticism and racial superiority." The same theme is echoed in William Zukerman's 1934 article in The Nation, "The Menace of Jewish Fascism. " This is also the premise of Michael Selzer's book, The Aryanization of the Jewish State.

The Great Escape: Coyote Rex

A scriptless movie by my daughter and grand daughter in Portland Oregon where things get wierder when the weird get going. There is also a great great grand daughter who wasn't in the play, but only because her ability is underestimated. At age 5 he is already shooting some pretty good video.

The new monkey, Russell, let's Coyote Handsome and Geezersaurus Rex out into the big, scary world, and madness ensues.

Don't miss the special ending after the credits, and remember not to let the kids watch, as there is strong language in this series!

Paulrus is included in the video, and seems to be something akin to the "Kilroy was here" graffiti from another era.

Blackwater quietly changes name to Xe

US Security Firm Mired in Iraq Controversy Changes Its Name

Friday, February 13, 2009 by The Associated Press

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company's new name is pronounced like the letter z.

[Blackwater Worldwide's headquarters is seen in Moyock, N.C., in this July 21, 2008 file photo. Blackwater is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticized work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)]Blackwater Worldwide's headquarters is seen in Moyock, N.C., in this July 21, 2008 file photo. Blackwater is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticized work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre - the subsidiary that conducts much of the company's overseas operations and domestic training - has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.

The decision comes as part of an ongoing rebranding effort that grew more urgent following a September 2007 shooting in Iraq that left at least a dozen civilians dead. Blackwater president Gary Jackson said in a m

Fed Lends Two Trillion Without Oversight

So, you know about the Treasury's $700 billion bailout plan. But you probably don't know that the Federal Reserve has lent out about $2 trillion since September. Few do. And that is what's irritating bulldog Congressman Alan Grayson. Will he be able to shed a light on the Fed's secret spending?

WASHINGTON - In just a few short weeks, freshman U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, has delivered more memorable quotes than some members of Congress do in an entire career.

Mark K. Matthews | Washington Bureau
February 9, 2009

"In interviews, the 6-foot-5-inch Grayson downplays his combative approach, bridling at a reporter's use of the "abrasive" label and saying that he would not have been assigned to the House Science Committee -- the "most bipartisan committee in Congress," he said -- if he wasn't collegial."

"Meanwhile, his Dylan-quoting, freewheeling stance has earned him liberal fans nationwide, including Darcy Burner, a failed Washington state congressional candidate who has already asked supporters to back Grayson's re-election campaign."

"He's going to have a vicious re-election battle in two years, and he's getting pressure to sell out to the lobbyists and corporations so that he'll have enough money to fund his re-election. That, my friends, would be a real pity," Burner wrote in a letter.

"Fundraising, however, is unlikely to be a problem. He is the 10th-wealthiest House member, with assets of more than $29 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."

The rest of the story

I hope that Alan won't be offended if I compare him with Steven Seagal as an abstract, reality TV, illustration of what should really happen to the major players in the shadow government that still hangs over the White House...G:

Congressman Alan Grayson: "The Bush administrations worst night mare is going to be me with subpoena power"

Alan Grayson on Waste & Fraud in Iraq



Here Grayson talks about Haliburton and the Bu$h administrations pre-emptive role in the Iraq war and their methods of tying up the courts so that it will be a long time before anything can ever come to trial. This, of course is the same thing that we have seen for the last eight years, and war contractors fraud is only one of many things that need accountability. The elephant in the room as far as I am concerned is the 911 investigation, which will be forestalled past the time limitation. Is it just me or is this a travesty of justice, where grand larceny and murder don't even begin to define the allegations.

Power Hitter: Rookie Congressman Alan Grayson

Rep. Alan Grayson asked Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit about the terms of the government assistance his firm received, and read comments from several angry constituents. He is one of the more Progressive Democrats on the Obama team and should prove to be a real asset, especially on issues of accountability.

Grayson also has a record of combatting war protiteering and waste concerning the Defence Industries, as he points out, "the money we have thrown away on war profiteers could go a long way on the domestic front".

Because of his track record suing defense contractors'>, Grayson is completely uninterested and unintimidated by ridiculous arguments about secrecy and national security. He thinks that war crimes have been committed, that people need to be put in prison, and that we absolutely cannot let bygones be bygones with the 2000-2008 era.



I really like this guy. Here he is defending Obama from the attacks of right wing media spin, as Rush Limpballs gets a perspective from the other side of the mirror.

"Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser, who craves attention,His right-wing lunacy sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev, extolling the virtues of communism. Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1 percent of what he wanted us to do, then we'd all need pain killers."

Oh! No! The Democrats might restore the Fairness Doctrine

The rats who now control over 90% of the main stream media are freaking out at the idea of returning to the Fairness Doctrine , which has been held in check for years by Vetoes from both Ronnie Raygun and Poppa Bu$h. The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was (in the Commission's view) honest, equitable, and balanced. Faux News, who's motto is, "cough cough* fair and balanced' has a few things to say about this outrageous possibility.

And needless to menton, so does Clear Channel who owns over 1,100 full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations, twelve radio channels on XM Satellite Radio, and more than 30 television stations in the United States. Premiere Radio Networks, which is the largest syndication company in the United States, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Clear Channel and is home to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and many others. Sean Hannity recently signed a large multi-market contract with Clear Channel, as well.

In early 2004, Air America Radio Network was launched and was then the only all-progressive talk radio network. A predecessor, the UAW's I.E. America Radio Network, which was home to hosts such as Thom Hartmann, Peter Werbe, and Mike Malloy, never gained national attention. Its last day on the air was February 27, 2004, only weeks before Air America took to the airwaves. Al Franken's show was the centerpiece of the network, and would remain so for a little less than 3 years. The show featured Franken's low key humor, political commentary, and guest and audience participation. AAR became the fastest growing network in modern radio history as Sinton was able to assemble a national network of 100 stations, including 18 of the top twenty markets, in just six months.

Sludge Report: Joe takes us to the wood shed

I'm sure a lot of you have been thinking along these lines for some time now. The question is, "what do we do about it". I've been particularly concerned about all of the plastic I'm bringing home and am attempting to recycle it all. Virtually everything I bring home is encased in plastic sometimes several times over, and sometimes in a plastic or styrofoam tray. I even save the small candy wrappers, bags etc. and in one week I have a sizable plastic bag full. Not to mention a large plastic box full of various containers to keep all of the foodstuff so that it is untouched by human hands.

Us hippies had a handle on all this in the 1960's and used our own containers and had our own food co-ops so we could be lighter on the environment, but I have slid back so far I even have a "shudder" microwave.

So, anyways, thanks Joe, I deserved it and will try to get back in the groove...G:

Builderburglers Upping the Anti on Bail Out Gamble

Tarp Two: New deal or no deal?

By: Richard Baum...February 10th, 2009

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner speaks during a news conference in the Cash Room of the Treasury Department in Washington, February 10, 2009.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday unveiled a revamped financial rescue plan to cleanse up to $500 billion in spoiled assets from banks’ books and support $1 trillion in new lending through an expanded Federal Reserve program. But initial market reaction reflected investors’ doubts about the plan, with stocks falling around 3 percent after the announcement by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

“For all the rhetoric that this is a new plan, they’ve done nothing but rehash and expand the old procedures,” said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities USA.

Carl Lantz, U.S. interest rate strategist at Credit Suisse in New York, said details of a proposed public-private investment fund for mopping up toxic bank assets were “very vague”.

“It sounds like for this public-private investment fund they are still exploring a range of different structures for the program or seeking input from market participants,” he said. “That’s the the kind of stuff we heard on TARP One and suggests that given all this time they still don’t have anything very specific nailed down.”

James Ellman, president of Seacliff Capital in San Francisco, criticized the proposals. “Investors want clarity, simplicity, and resolution. This plan is seen as convoluted, obfuscating, and clouded. We know that Geithner was able to overrule many other Obama administration people, and said we should not be tough on bank equity holders or bank management. So equity holders got a better deal, and it’s still not a good deal.”




The immediate result of Geithner's unveiling was a significant drop in the stock market, which should be no surprise, because he is part of the problem, along with Henry M. Paulson, Jr, ' ex secretary of the treasury' and Ben S Bernanke 'Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System'. All three of these unsavory characters attended the latest BILDERBERG MEETING at Chantilly, Virginia in June 2008.

~BREAKING NEWS~

Bernanke Begins ‘Thorough Review’ of Fed Disclosure (Update1)

By Craig Torres...

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke initiated a review of the information it provides the public after lawmakers criticized the central bank’s disclosure policies during the unprecedented expansion of its holdings.

Bernanke has invoked emergency authority and more than doubled the size of the Fed’s balance sheet to $1.8 trillion to combat the worst credit crisis in seven decades. His moves have prompted concern that the central bank is encouraging excessive risk-taking, distorting pricing in financial markets and jeopardizing the Fed’s independence. The Fed hasn’t disclosed many of the assets and participants in its programs.

Evolution of the blogosphere, Majestic 12, & the UFO cover up

Hmm. lets see...

Man, I don't have the froggiest what to write about today. I'm completely boggled frazzled overamped...like my hard drives draggin & needs defraggin... Duhhbya's finally gone but the country looks like it has been raped by the Mongel hoards. oh well, maybe I can I cruise the innertubes for the usual MSM nonsense... Oh, I know what I'll do, just post a video, maybe a billbobjoe...zzzZZZ Hmm Joe didn't do a new one yet so it looks like a good day for a bike ride. Life gets tedious don't it...G:



Ah, the Majestic 12 documents, I remember reading about them in the 1950's but never really seen any evidence. These sure look authentic, but like every other thing on the innertubes there are folks who call themselves debunkers just like the ones that were denying the existence of UFO's in the old days. Project Bluebook if I remember it correctly. It filed most of the reports where they couldn't be seen or explained them away as weather balloons, ball lightning, or just plain old hallucinations. All I can say is that there are two sightings that they can't explain to me, because I seen them. So it boils down to separate realities and folks seem to understand it a little more after sighting one...G:

UFO Disclosure? Are We ready?



On Wednesday, May 9th 2001, over twenty military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses came forward at the National ... all » Press Club in Washington, DC to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. The weight of this first-hand testimony, along with supporting government documentation and other evidence, will establish without any doubt the reality of these phenomena, according to Dr. Steven M. Greer, director of the Disclosure Project which hosted the event.

Here's complete video coverage of the UFO Conference - National Press Club 2007

And complete video for UFO Coverup Documentary - Out Of The Blue

Seeya, my eyeballs are tired

A day at the zoo

A video by my daughter who brought her grand daughter to the zoo. If she had brought her daughter along I wouldn't have to explain that I'm a happy pappy, a grumpy grampa, and a great grampa to boot...(~:

Rise of the Vulcans: Defence Planning Guidance & Office of Special Plans

Office of Special Plans~Feith based intelligence

The Office of Special Plans (OSP) was created by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to help create a case to invade Iraq. OSP evolved from the Northern Gulf Affairs Office, which fell under the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia policy office. It was renamed and expanded to the Office of Special Plans in October 2002 to to handle prewar and postwar planning.




Right Web

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Rise of the Vulcans author James Mann for a discussion of the history of the Bush administration's foreign policy.

The 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance (DPG), crafted by then-Defense Department staffers I. Lewis Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, and Zalmay Khalilzad, is widely regarded as an early formulation of the neoconservatives' post-Cold War agenda. Under the auspices of then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Libby and Wolfowitz, two of the few neoconservatives given posts in the realist-dominated administration of George H.W. Bush, were given the task of producing the DPG, a classified document that outlines U.S. military strategies and provides a framework for developing the defense budget. Because it would be the first DPG since the end of the Cold War, the officials had the daunting task of devising what essentially would be an entirely new framework for U.S. defense policy. In preparation for the drafting, the officials held a number of meetings with outside experts. Notable among the participants were Richard Perle, Albert Wohlstetter (former mentor to Perle and Wolfowitz), and Andrew Marshall, head of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.

The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods

WorldHealthNet.tv

Where ever we go, be it Mac'Donalds or Alice's Restaurant we are probably eating Frankin-Food. When we shop at the super market there's a good chance that we're buying stuff that has been genetically altered whether it be fresh, frozen, canned, or in a pastic bag. If you expect the USDA to be any help on this then be sure to watch the video on World Health Net.

January 21, 2008

Over the last 20 years Jeff Smith has worked with over 30 scientists to collect all of the known health risks of genetically modified foods. Studies have produced thousands of sick, sterile and dead laboratory animals; thousands of people linking toxic and allergic type reactions to these foods and damage to virtually every system in the laboratory animals studied. Despite this alarming evidence 70% of the foods in our supermarkets have genetically modified organisms in them.

Scoot on over to Home Nature Report for more videos about Frankenfood.

Obama vs Keane, Betrayus, and the Industrial War Complex

The ongoing story of war and profit that the Bu$h crime family just can't afford to let go of.
General Keane is a Director of METLIFE, Inc. and General Dynamics Corporation.
He is also member of the Secretary of Defense's Policy Board. Vector today announced that General Jack Keane, USA (ret) has agreed to become a board member. He is also Senior Managing Director and co-founder of Keane Advisors. The really sad thing about all of this is that a whole bunch of defense industries will go broke along with a lot of minor players who are getting rich because of war. This is, of course described in detail from the WW1 viewpoint by Smedley Butler, but what's going on today will make "War is a Racket" look like a game of monopoly.

Traces of animal life have been found in rocks dating back 635 million years.

Ancient sponges leave their mark

By Jonathan Amos February 4, 2009
Science reporter, BBC News

Rocks in Oman

The rocks date to a time of dramatic glaciation on Earth

Traces of animal life have been found in rocks dating back 635 million years.

The evidence takes the form of chemical markers that are highly distinctive of sponges when they die and their bodies break down in rock-forming sediments.

The discovery in Oman pushes back the earliest accepted date for animal life on Earth by tens of millions of years.

Scientists tell Nature magazine that the creatures' existence will help them understand better what the planet looked like all that time ago.

"The fact that we can detect these signals shows that sponges were ecologically important on the seafloor at that time," said lead author Gordon Love, from the University of California, Riverside.

More





Photo taken from the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Arizona in January 2002. This is some of the oldest exposed rock in the world, with an average age of 1,700 to 2,000 million years. These rock layers were once the base of an ancient mountain range, comparable to the Rockies, which over time completely eroded away and now provides a tantalizing glimpse of the enormous time scale on which geologic events occur. The Colorado River is in the foreground.

© Mark Meyer Photography

click pictures for larger view

Grand Canyon Canyon Explorer

Early Pre-Cambrian Rocks

* Vishnu Schist and Zoroaster Granite - This layer averages about 1,700 to 2,000 million years old and consists of mica schist. These were originally sediments of sandstone, limestone and shale that were metamorphosed and combined with metamorphosed lava flows to form the schist. This layer along with the Zoroaster Granite were once the roots of an ancient mountain range that could have been as high as todays Rocky Mountains. The mountains were eroded away over a long period of time and new sediments were they deposited over them by advancing and retreating seas. The color of this layer is dark grey or black.

Ex general Jack Keane grea$e$ the wheels of war

Muckity.com

Retired Gen. Jack Keane also contributed to surge strategy in Iraq
By A. James Memmott
September 22, 2008 at 10:15am

In the military, as in politics and in business, connections count.

And, by most accounts, one connection that impacted the war in Iraq for the better was the friendship between two soldiers, Gen. David H. Petraeus and retired Gen. John M. “Jack” Keane.

Petraeus, who stepped down last week as commanding general of coalition troops in Iraq, is widely praised for his leadership following the so-called “surge” of 21,500 additional U.S. troops in Iraq that began in early 2007.

But Keane also deserves credit, analysts say, for his early advocacy of the surge.

The former Army vice chief of staff, Keane retired in 2003 after a 37-year career. But even though he was retired, he remained actively involved in the debate over the conduct of the Iraq war.

He visited Iraq often. And as he saw conditions there deteriorate, he became a strong advocate for sending in additional troops.

In December 2006, Keane and Francis W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, published a pro-surge report entitled, Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

It would take many moons to follow the trails of chicken shit to the defense industries, news analysts, and military contractors, where ex military brass are sitting on the boards to insure the "more of the same" agenda in the Middle East.

The troop carriers, armoured cars, and even the tanks are obselete in a real war where the so called enemy has real weapons and money to replenish them. Yet we are cranking them out like there is no tomorrow where we can continue to bully and maim unarmed countries. If Iraq or Gaza had stinger missiles with depleted uranium warheads, you can bet that there would be no boots on the ground.

Just my opinion, but I think that there is a lot of difference between collective punishment of a civilian population and an all out war, with a formidable enemy, where there really is a winner.

The President's Therapist and the Secret Intervention to Treat the Alcoholism of George Bush

A work of fiction, John Wareham, a practicing psychologist for corporate nut cases, has written an interesting sounding book about a counselor for George Duhhbya Bu$h...zzzZZZ* Or is it?

Washington Watch

On this video Mark Alter says it is the 2nd of may 2007

On May5,2007 his housekeeper reports him missing.

It also Shows that Mark Alter was an adviser to the Eagles Foundation of America, which is actually advised by John Wareham.

And that his son, Ethan Alter, died of a drug overdose on April 25, 2007.

His wife of 30 years Grace was killed in 2002.

Hmmm

Here's a review from across the pond.

The Kiwi author, the president and alcohol

By BRITTON BROUN and NZPA - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 17 January 2009

A Kiwi author is about to storm the United States with a controversial novel that explores outgoing President George W Bush's battle with the bottle and motivations for starting the Iraq War.

John Wareham's book, The President's Therapist and the Secret Intervention to Treat the Alcoholism of George Bush, will not appear in US stores till January 20 when Barack Obama is inaugurated but is already into its second print run after climbing online bestseller lists.

The thriller follows the attempts of protagonist Mark Alter to persuade Bush to address his closet alcohol addiction and reverse the course of the Iraq war.

While the therapy sessions and marriage counselling involving Mr Bush's wife are pure fiction, Wareham said the story contained a lot of biographical data.

"Someone said it was a Bush-bashing book, but it's not at all. It treats him very sympathetically and accurately. He's just too easy to make a caricature of so the book does not do that."

Wareham, 69, is an industrial psychologist who has lived in New York for more than 30 years since leaving Wellington.

He was one of New Zealand's first corporate leadership trainers and has published several books.

He counsels business leaders in the US but likes getting back to New Zealand to work with gang leaders and prisoners.

His mother and brother still live in Wellington.

Wareham was flattered that New York literature professor Charles Defanti had compared the book's "hyper-realism" to Tolstoy but thought it should be easier to read than anything by the Russian master.

He joked the book was being officially released after Mr Obama was inaugurated to make sure CIA agents under the Bush regime did not make him "disappear".

This could happen to a home town near you

Carrie Blast Furnaces Number 6 and 7 - declared a National Landmark in 2006. Located in Braddock/Rankin, across and upriver (the Monongahela) from Homestead, PA. Part of the steel making complex of Andrew Carnegie, which was sold to J.P. Morgan and became US Steel.





The steel industries, which were the backbone of the city, collapsed during the Raygun admistration in the early 1980's, and today much of the old city is abandoned.

Settled in 1823, Bradford was chartered as a city in 1879 and emerged as a wild oil boomtown in the late 1800s. The area's Pennsylvania Grade crude oil has superior qualities and is free of asphaltic constituents, contains only trace amounts of sulfur and nitrogen, and has excellent characteristics for refining into lubricants. World-famous Kendall racing oils were produced in Bradford. The refinery, bought out by American Refining Group, is the oldest continuously operating refinery in the United States. Bradford is also famous as the home for Case Knives and for Zippo lighters.

Braddock Rises From the Ashes

NY Times Video

View of the old town from the back yard. The building with the COSCO sign on it is the mayors penthouse. These pictures are clickable for closer view.

The Carnegie Library

When Andrew Carnegie dedicated the Braddock Library in 1889, he intended it primarily for the benefit of his employees of his first major steel mill, the Edgar Thomson Works, and their families. The Music Hall, Pool, and Gymnasium were added in 1893. At a time when few homes had indoor plumbing and a bath was a rarity, this was the place where employees could come to shower or bathe, take a swim, enjoy a book, play billiards, and get a haircut!