Fred Cederholm: Any extradition of Bush to face the music at some international tribunal just isn’t going to happen ... trust me!

VHeadline commentarist and money market specialist Fred Cederholm writes: I've been thinking about semantics ... about books, hypothetical contingencies, our financial messes, election 2008, and USA -- the United Spinning(s) of America.

Semantics are word games. Semantics involve choosing/using "loaded words and phrases" to bias opinions in favor of your agenda, your objective, and your side. In the alternative, careful word choices undercut your opponent's position, strategy, and objectives. Accentuate the positive(s) and mitigate the negative(s) are first and foremost the game plan in economics, finance, marketing, and politics!

You see the forthcoming "tell-all" by former US Presidential Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, that the American Public was mislead to war in Iraq by the Bush Administration and that the American Press/media dropped the ball in the reporting of the events/ justifications leading up to the invasion on March 19, 2003, got a great deal of media brouhaha last week. The snips and snibbets leaked during the book's pre-release condemning the Administration (and the media) for the "non-truths" divulge nothing new. (McClellan doesn't use the word "lies" behind the justifications for war or outing of Valerie Plame by Veep Chief of Staff Libby.)

Most of US/us already "knew" or at least suspected as much. No smoking guns are revealed here. If there were… we'd have heard about them! The White House and the "speaking" friends have been amazingly silent in their direct denials – choosing rather to discredit the book as merely the disgruntled musings of a frustrated former employee seeking to cash in on his Executive Branch tenure. This also is nothing new. Truth, or true "reality," lies somewhere in between.

Famed prosecutor and New York Times best selling author of "Helter Skelter" (the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Charles Manson cult), Vincent Bugliosi, has only just penned a "fictional" work -- "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder." The McClellan book's premises/speculations pale in comparison to the implications of this Bugliosi work. While pre-distribution/marketing presents "Prosecution" as a tight, meticulously researched legal case putting George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting in Iraq, there is already festering speculation abroad that future actions could be brought against Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, and/or Rumsfeld in ex-patriot jurisdictions for atrocities of war and crimes against humanity.

While such may have been ultimate the fate of Noriega, Pinochet, Saddam, and Hussein's co-horts; any extradition of Bush poobahs to face the music at some international tribunal just isn't going to happen ... trust me!

There will undoubtedly be more leaked disclosures of concerted "non-truth" telling justifying the war. I'm certain there were "good" reasons for this war, we just haven't been made privy to them. It is not the rich, the well-born, and the powerful who pay the price of major conflicts with their blood, their injuries, their sacrifices, and their deaths. Wars for economic benefit of corporations, financial moguls, or vested interests just "don't play well in Peoria" -- you need to fire up the patriotism and the intangible beliefs of the masses to garner the necessary support as the casus belli -- the justification for acts of war. The post-election Congress will undoubtedly convene more hearing investigations "to put the matter to rest" (as in bury it for a generation or more).

There will be the obligatory: "Mr./Miss/Ms… what did the President know, and when did he know it?"

• Like Watergate of some 30 years ago, not much will come of the costly Congressional hearings, and not much will really change ... cynical yes, but ultimately true.

The public was not only left out of the loop regarding the real justifications for war, we are still being kept in the dark regarding the severity and duration of our looming financial messes. Things are far from well in Mudville. Uncle $ugar is stepping up to the plate like the mighty Casey to turn the game around, but despite the $70+ plus BILLION "invested" in the US by foreign sovereign wealth funds since last August and a MUCH larger amount of freshly printed bail-out bucks from the FED; things are NOT improving. We the people… don't as yet have a clue what will be the ultimate costs in write-offs/ write-downs for ALL that looming exposure out there. Those who might be in the know, aren't talking.

This week should finalize the Democans and Republicrats candidates for this Presidential run in 2008.

Will they fess up to the American public in their campaign messages of "change" and "straight talk" with truthful and honest disclosures of where we are, and where "they" plan to take US/us in their administrations?

After all… there is tradition at stake, the USA prevails - the United Spinning(s) of America is as American as apple pie...

Fred Cederholm
asklet@rochelle.net