"Cabinet members should be loyal to a president, but they have a larger loyalty to the public."--Robert Reich, former U.S. Labour Secretary

Naomi Klein has written the article '2003: the year of the fake,' that is an opinion which is being shared by more and more people around the world. At one time I remarked that "We used to make fiction out of reality, and now we make reality out of the fiction of the Free Market." Fired Secretary Treasurer Paul O’Neill has charged President Bush of planning the war against Iraq in the next few days after his presidential inauguration and has compared the cabinet meetings to a room where the president was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people." The White House is reacting with these defaming allegations and the Treasury Department is asking for an investigation into the possible misuse of classified information by O’Neill. Our fictional reality continues as the truthfulness of O’Neill’s allegations has been put aside and the polls have been flooding the media with the "Yes or No" question for this investigation.

What is extremely dangerous is that this fictional reality is the monopoly of the few and privileged and there is no less fewer and more privileged than the Bush dynasty culminating with present President George W. Bush. Bush demands loyalty out of his cabinet officials while at the same time he pursues the policy of preemption "with us or against us." But common sense tells us that loyalty cannot be provided at the expense of public interest, and common sense tells us that a policy of preemption cannot be exercised in a democracy.

Saskatchewan Justice has a tradition of historical injustices, but rather than learning from their experiences they are digging deeper into their injustice system and make their injustice system their Saskatchewan Justice. I am referring to the governmental appeal of the malicious prosecution of the Klassen family in which this family was wrongly prosecuted for the alleged sexual abuse of three children. Saskatchewan Justice Minister Frank Quennel has supported the governmental appeal by stating : "It is our view that the judge erred in his judgement. This judgment significantly changes the criteria for malicious prosecution from the one outlined by the Supreme Court of Canada." However, University of Saskatchewan law professor Russell Buglass has affirmed that "the government's interest is what's in the public interest, it's a broader interest, it engages a political morality."

Some good news yesterday. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been passing laws to enrich himself and protect himself from prosecution for bribery charges. Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has sent back to parliament a law which would have allowed additional concentration of the media owned by Berlusconi, and the Constitutional Court has found Law 140 protecting Berlusconi from prosecution unconstitutional.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Stengel, Richard What's With Bush's Love of Loyalty? As George W. Bush assembles his governing team, TIME.com's Rick Stengel ponders the incoming President's emphasis on fidelity. Could it be a code word for a yes man? January 5, 2001 Time Online, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,93818,00.html

Crutsinger, Martin O'Neill Denies Charge Over Book Documents (PDF) January 13, 2004 Associated Press, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=5&u=/ap/20040113/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_o_neill

Klein, Naomi The Year of the Fake January 26, 2004 issue, The Nation, http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040126&s=klein

Gumbel, Andrew Bush was demanding excuse to invade Iraq in January 2001, says ex-treasury secretary (PDF) 12 January 2004 the Independent/UK http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=480363

Bates, Eric The House of Bush: Rep. strategist Kevin Phillips on the Bush family's hunger for power (PDF) January 5, 2004 RollingStone, http://rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2751

Injusticebusters, site managed by Sheila Steele http://www.injusticebusters.com

Yourk, Darren Saskatchewan offers Klassen no apology (PDF) January 8, 2004 The Globe and Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040108.w2klass0108/BNStory/National

CBC Saskatchewan Law prof says gov't should reconsider Klassen appeal January 13, 2004 http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=klassen_case040113

Tiscali Europe Berlusconi's immunity law declared unconstitutional: Italy's Constitutional Court says the self serving law went against the principle of equality January 13, 2004 http://europe.tiscali.co.uk/index.jsp?section=Current%20Affairs&level=preview&content=163763