To add to Jackie's comments concerning Alberto Gonzales. I read the transcript on Meet the Press with Senator Schumer regarding Gonzales. Schumer that there is strong evidence that Gonzales lied under oath during his January 18, 2006 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his January 18, 2006 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Alberto Gonzales said this:

Alberto Gonzales: "I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney position for political reasons or if it would, in any way, jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it."

Gonzales would be violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001 makes it a crime to: 1) knowingly and willfully; 2) make any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation; 3) in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the United States.

This is the fourth anniversary of in invasion of Iraq. Iraq is far worse than before the invasion. It will take many years for Iraq to be restore but it will never be the same again. As we remember the lives of the our troops that have and had died, we should remember the deaths of the journalists, international soldiers, and innocent Iraqi citizens on this anniversary.

Re John Maceda's report last night on Baghdad's makeshift medical centers in which he says in effect that Iraq's health care system is in "critical condition":

It's interesting that while NBC Nightly has been paying plenty of attention to health care in Iraq (Besides last night's report, there was that piece on the Iraqi girl who due to Iraq's health care system's being in a shambles, had to be operated on by US Army medics), coverage of the fact that about 18 months after Katrina New Orleans' health care system is still on life support has consistently been censored from Nightly's newscasts.

To add to what Martin Savidge reported in his blog last week, per a recent report in the L.A. Times, New Orleans' health care system is in such disarray patients with heart disease cannot get prescribed follow-up care, some cancer patients must travel hours for chemotherapy, and people with severe mental illness often go without medication. People line up before dawn in hopes of getting care at clinics staffed by volunteers.

"The current status of the healthcare infrastructure in New Orleans is tenuous and critically ill," said Dr. Cathi Fontenot, medical director of the Medical Center of Louisiana in New Orleans.

And here's something even more heartbreaking: the director of New Orleans' health department said his analysis of death notices before and after Katrina suggested that the number of deaths was up by more than 40% last year compared with pre-storm levels. Available data "strongly suggest that our citizens are becoming sick and dying at a more accelerated rate than prior to Hurricane Katrina," Dr. Kevin Stephens said.

Behind this situation is a squabble between Louisiana and federal officials with competing ideas regarding healthcare: While Louisiana has traditionally maintained 2 healthcare systems, one of public hospitals for the poor and uninsured, the other of private hospitals for people with coverage. The Bush Administration wants her to use much of the federal funding that has supported public hospitals instead for private health insurance for the uninsured. But Louisiana officials say there's not enough money going to public hospitals to provide insurance for all those in need--only about half. According to Louisiana Secretary of health and Hospitals Dr. Fred Cerise, it would take an additional $1 billion per year (a mere fraction of what's being spent in Iraq, by the way) to make sure the vast majority of the population was insured.

So currently, in New Orleans, patients with cancer, heart disease, and other serious conditions are getting inadequate care. This sort of thing should not be happening in America. Why, from a nightly newscast that has very well-covered the sad state of the Iraqi health care system, is news of the dire state of New Orleans' health care system still being censored? I'd say someone has forgotten these are Americans who are suffering, not foreigners, if it weren't for the fact that foreigners' health care problems are being better covered on Nightly than health care problems in Louisiana. I wonder if it would make a difference were Louisiana, or at least New Orleans, to secede from the union. Perhaps, having made themselves foreigners, the people there would attract better attention to their health care problems from Nightly.

I'm going to continue blogging about this until I see the serious problems New Orleans' health care system is in get the coverage they should be getting. This is important because it presents a threat to that beleaguered city's recovery and should be covered at least as well as Iraq's health care problems have been.

Jackie, thank you for the Bush/Gonzales background. I had not heard about it, although I am not surprised.

Good Evening Mr. Seigenthaler, With the four year anniversary of the war it seems as if things are even worse. Yet I know there have been some improvements. It just seems hard to find. The story about the medical care facilities was heartbreaking because children are the victims in this situation. This violence has caused so much hardship for everyone. When will these groups ever stop? What will it possibly take to convince them? Everyone has had enough already! Peace to all!

Hello Dear John,
The cost of this war is many times more than its benefits. The country has achieved one goal only which is the killing of Saddam and his sons. If we had not done that, Saddam would have been dead anyway. Some of the war supporters were on the Meet the Press. One of them, Tom Delay, was defending the war because he is a crony for the oil corporations. He still thinks that we are in Iraq to fight terrorism, using AL Qaeda as a source for justifying his point!. He has forgotten that the Bush administration is supporting the new Hezbollah fighters in Iraq. The second supporter was Mr. Pearle who is another crony for the military complex, whose dream that the Iraqis would give us flowers four years ago did not come true. He thinks that if we leave Iraq it means we are defeated. Mr. Pearl and Mr. Delay want our troops to stay in Iraq indefinitely in order to create more profits for the military complex and the oil corporations. Both are fueling terrorism and hatred against our nation for the profitability reason. It will be indeed the Permanent War. Best Regards

Sunday's discussion of the firing of the DOJ lawyers if wondered by the media never told the background of Gonzales and Bush. Most of the media knew this but never printed it:
And he owes Gonzales a debt of gratitude: in 1996, Gonzales pulled off a skillful courtroom maneuver to allow Bush to escape jury duty in a drunken-driving case. Bush's lawyer made the clever argument that the governor had a conflict of interest, since he might be called on one day to pardon the defendant (a dancer at a local strip club). Had Bush gone through the normal jury voir dire, he might have had to disclose a 1976 DUI arrest, thereby jeopardizing his presidential ambitions.
This makes since by Bush finds it hared to fire Gonzales.
Our troops are dying everyday as the Military leadership say things are going good in Iraq. Now the White House sends Hadley out on the talk shows to say this invasion was all bout Saddam and it had nothing to do with WMDs or Iraq Freedom. Like all the White House lies the stories change with the wind, say anything that the public will believe.