My nominee decision:

Senator Barack Obama.

For several reasons, but two dominate:

First and perhaps foremost, Senator Hillary Clinton's vote to empower President Bush to invade Iraq.

Understanding who Saddam Hussein was - his revulsion of al qeda and all Islamic militants, the failure of reputable researchers to find *any* material evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the long desired acquisition of Iraqi oil by American oil interests and George Bush, and the desire to fatten the pocketbook of Dick Cheney's employer Halliburton - giving the multinational corporation the bidless contract to rebuild the destroyed invaded nation for billions of American tax dollars and many more billions borrowed from other nations like China and India, not to mention the US National Intelligence Estimate advising against it -- it seems to me that any informed representative or senator would have voted against it.

In fact many did, including Obama. Clinton admitted not reading the NIE report, which would have, in my opinion, chilled anyone's desire to allow any military action in Iraq.

Second, it's been widely reported just in the past two days that part - if not the majority - of the reason Clinton's campaign has run into trouble is because she hired people based more on their loyalty to her than clear, cold qualifications.

We have lived for nearly eight years with a president who values loyalty more than qualifications and the result has not only been a shockingly substandard and corrupt administration, but a government whose wheels have come off all three branches of government - executive, judicial and legislative - and needlessly cost countless lives in an illegal war and natural catastrophies such as Katrina, whose destruction is *still* not rectified despite President Bush's shameful broken promise that the federal government would give them appropriate and proper assistance following the devastation.

To be fair - unlike George Bush, Hillary Clinton appears to learn lessons from her mistakes, which is great and will ultimately make her a fine leader. But as someone pointed out awhile back, the decisions she made are too costly to have a "do over" or take time to learn and then only after her campaign suffered so greatly.

Barack Obama did not vote to empower George Bush, and he has been consistently meeting with individuals throughout his campaign to surround himself with qualified, topnotch personnel if and when he is nominated to be the Democrat's nominee for the presidency, as well as if he is elected President of the United States.

Having powerhouses like Oprah Winfrey support him does not mean these people passively give him the nod. He does not surround himself with "yes" people or any sycophants who are there to massage his ego. They are there to make him a better person and leader.

Obama is by no means perfect. But, in my opinion, he has put himself on a track and in the company of those who will make sure he does not sell out or have any other goal than to serve the best interests of American citizens.

Just my two cents, please adjust for inflation.

Iraq "weapons of mass destruction" stories a hoax

CBS's Sixty Minutes' reporter Bob Simon finally told the factual story that had been swirling in rumor for nearly seven years: that the person who provided stories about "weapons of mass destruction" supposedly being developed by Sadam Hussein were completely false.

His nickname was Curveball, an Iraqi refugee who wanted to live and work in Germany. To help his cause, he fabricated stories he thought might give him a leg up to get the equivalent of an American green card to live and work in Deutchland. Phony stories of manufacturing biochemical materials in Iraq.

All untrue, and in fact, German intelligence, when they released his stories, noted in every case that everything he said "could not (as in NOT) be confirmed."

UN inspectors reported there was no evidence of Iraq developing "weapons of mass destruction." They were pulled out when President Bush sent in soldiers to fight his imaginary villain.

The Bush administration was so adamant about going to war with Iraq, they passed on the bogus stories. Even US UN Representative Colin Powell quoted a report about the "eyewitness" who was in fact no eyewitness at all.

Curveball claimed to be a biochemist, and by golly, wouldn't you know, the slightest, most elementary investigation of his education and work history showed everything he claimed about his background to be false.

This is why nearly 4,000 Americans have lost their lives in the civil war that the US fomented, why nearly 30,000 of our troops have been injured, most of them seriously.

The head of the CIA, George Tenent, did not pay attention to German intelligence warnings that "Curveball's" stories could not be confirmed, nor Tenent's bosses, who also received the same information.

This is the reason other nations objected to the incursion of a sovereign nation, Iraq, by the US. They consider the war illegal because there was not a shred of evidence that showed American security was in jeopardy. Some argue even planning the war against Iraq and Iran is illegal, against international law.

When you go to the CBS 60 Minutes page, the video of the story is nearly 15 minutes long; one US intelligence officer who warned others that the information was not enough to start a war is included in this report and has a stand alone statement as well.

By the way, the Iraqi refugee who lied to German intelligence did get his card to live and work in the country and could not be found.

Please remember this malfeasance, incompetence and misfeasance of office when you hear about the need to bomb Iran and start another war. The only result of George Bush's "avoid a third world war" rhetoric is higher gas prices, filling the already full pockets of his oil industry and stock market playing buddies beyone their wildest dreams.

Nothing has changed in Iran over the past several years, but since the Bush administration won't talk with them, apparently the President wants to go to war with people he doesn't talk to.

Meanwhile, because the Bush adminstration moved troops from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, where Osama bin Laden (behind the 9-11 attacks on the US), al qeda, and the Taliban are holed up, havoc is now wrecked in that area. Unless that area is restabilized, ultra-conservative Muslims stand a chance to take over there, which could be a frightening development because Pakistan, thanks to the US, already has nuclear weapons. Iran does not.

Congress tried - and failed - to impeach Bill Clinton for a reprehensible personal, but private, failing.

I don't understand why impeachment proceedings are not already underway against George Bush and Dick Cheney for their reprehensible and unforgivable public failings to every person who has lost life and limb in a senseless, useless, never ending war in the Middle East - a war that has destabalized the world - for which there was not a single fact, no endangerment of our national security or a single reason to fire the first shot.

Sadly, there are those uninformed people who drank the Bush Kool-Aid and continue to spread venomous, inflammatory anti-Muslim, anti-Middle Eastern information, based only on hateful bigotry.

Too many soldiers die=no more individual memorials

Michael Gilbert reports in The News Tribune that because the system can no longer handle the large numbers of soldiers killed in Iraq returning to Fort Lewis, Washington for appropriate individual memorial ceremonies, the army will have only one memorial service a month now to honor everyone killed during that time.

The one memorial observance a month for all soldiers killed policy has already been established at other US bases from which the soldiers were dispatched.

One soldier killed in Iraq, Casey Sheehan, whose mother Cindy tried in vain to make certain her son did not die for nothing, has quit her role of being "the face" of the new American anti-war movement on Memorial Day. Because she has been so villified for her anti-war views and Americans seem to be so apathetic about our military volunteers being killed in Iraq, she believes she can do no more to raise awareness or fight the system.

Just days earlier, Sheehan quit the Democrat party when dems went along with the vote to continue funding the war in Iraq.

"The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning," wrote Sheehan, " was that Casey did indeed die for nothing." Casey would have just turned 28.

She continued, "Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people."

She also slams leaders of the anti-war movement, characterizing it as "... a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life."

You can read her entire letter of resignation here.

Interestingly, Sheehan's right-wing detractors ripped her apart, day after day, with personal slurs, name-calling and allegations rather than with issues-oriented argument and debate; they also neglected to have any empathy for a woman whose son was killed in battle wearing a US uniform.

I'm always suspicious of people who are only capable of calling people with whom they disagree disparaging names rather than discussing issues over which they disagree.

As of yesterday, the death toll of US women and men soldiers killed in Iraq is 3,428, according to the Washington Post, which publishes the names and faces of every fallen hero. Officially, 25,549 US troops have been wounded; unofficial estimates run as high as 100,000.

May has been one of the most deadly months of the war for our soldiers; more than 117 women and men have been killed.

With Sheehan's resignation, George Bush and company register a big domestic win; there will be one less major distraction from the way they prefer us to live as Iraq continues to deteriorate, and our soldiers continue to be killed: with bid'niz as usual.