I only know about President Ford from history books and news accounts; I have not read either a biography on him or any memoirs of his. Of the mid-to-late seventies I can tell you that the United States was precariously positioned between despair in direction and trust of government. I can tell you that after Nixon’s "Imperial Presidency" departured from the White House, the country sought closure and Ford gave the United States that with his pardon of Nixon. For leadership he paid a price. That is the way of the world.

Big decisions are never made without sacrifice whether private, material, reputation, or life; the burden President Ford carried with him after his presidency closed - he carried quietly and without the inclusion of public debate. President Ford's death has been accompanied by numerous press accounts of his previously unpublished feelings and impressions on everything from Nixon and the pardon to the Iraqi situation we face today. What is most surprising about all of these news items is that while the country openly debates these topics it is those men who were closest to President Ford who have led the nation for a second time (Vice President Cheney, recently retired Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld) to big decisions with a price.

First, it is not for me to say whether Saddam Hussein’s death sentence was justice. It is for the people in Iraq who suffered from his bloody rein.

I do want to suggest that as the world watches the United States attempt to democratize a part of the world that seems to swallow ideology like a sandstorm; is that now and forever will be seen a grainy video of Hussein’s last moments in some makeshift gallows.

The scene is that of a bombed-out post-apocalyptic society, handing justice out in a warehouse complete with hooded executioners and chanting scornful witnesses (chanting in victory the name of a local militia leader) - lacking all solemn observance that a country not a mob is carrying out this sentence. The credibility that this is a relevant moment in the continued birth of a long lasting Arab-led democracy that understands this execution is a solemn moment, is lost.

Fortified by United States appreciation of justice or sense of individual liberty we seem unable to build Iraqis toward a unified nation based on the rule of law. Gangland style behavior seemed more on display than an orderly controlled transition to a democracy or anything like it, my fear is if this is the best we can do to confer an obligation of order, liberty, and minority rights to the fledgling democracy without the meaning visual of state authority carrying out acts with symbolism; we should not be surprised when displays like this are played out repeatedly in Iraq's future when the political system fails.

Former US Senator John Edwards is running for President, and this time to get the nomination he must set the campaign’s pace early, if not even prematurely. In 2004 he was a Washington insider with a thick field of them all vying for airtime. This cycle he lays claim to outsider’s status. Up against what can fairly be described as the Washington insider choice of Senator Hillary Clinton, and what has been coined “rock-star” appeal of Senator Barack Obama; Edwards to maintain his “alternative choice” status must top the public opinion polls in all early primary and caucus states to be a thorn in the side of the Washington political machine. Despite the very fact that his leading in the opinion polls will be treated with dismissal, his candidacy will have to survive on the ability to maintain a lead in the polls as the others candidates officially announce.

I usually don't run stories found on websites that aren't news, I think it is intellectually. Since this site was on hiatus while I was away last year, I have found almost no time to do more than scan headlines for a feeling of what news isn't’t getting its due. I always feel bad about how little I have pressed this site into service.

In 2007 while I am back in Washington, D.C. I hope to change this; to start I will try to crimp each news piece with a comment or note. Also add a liner note of direct to knowledge or better said, facts which are not being actively reported with in a news article.

To start, I found this piece on RAWSTORY, I scan them everyday for their point of view on news. But today, I found a very well written and as far as I can remember accurate piece about the Bush Administration which sums up the nagging disappointment I have will the Republicans in this White House. LINK TO ARTICLE.