In the Oct 31, '05 edition of the New Yorker there's a long article called "Breaking Ranks" by Jeffrey Goldberg. It's about Brent Scowcroft's falling out with the current administration, although he was very close to Bush senior and helped mastermind the original Gulf war, including its conclusion. He was the national security advisor when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. He has nothing good at all to say about Bush junior, nor about the neocons generally. This is a painful position for him because Bush senior was someone he loved and admired, but this crowd have no interest in consulting or learning from anyone, regardless of their training or experience or wisdom. Scowcroft more or less "discovered" Condi Rice, pulled her out of Academia into the national foregin policy scene -- but she hasn't consulted him or listened to him for years now, because she's now a W-robot, and the W-bots just don't listen to ANYBODY, as a matter of policy.

I didn't much like Bush senior when he was in office but he looks like a screaming genius compared to this bunch of wing nuts.

Oh, and PS, I think a progressive tax, where the very wealthy pay a larger percentage than the very poor, is an enlightened and necessary thing in this world.