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THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER |
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS What is recommended in this book is, as the title says, the prosecution of the president of the United States for murder. Although America is supposedly a free country, with freedom of speech and expression being our most cherished constitutional right, a considerable number of establishment people in this country -- including many of the biggest and most powerful publishing houses in America -- made it clear that even though they completely agreed with what I was saying in the book and recognized its potential in the marketplace, the book was something they did not want to have their name connected with. (Two law professors, liberal at that, were afraid to even look at the book. ) In other words, the publishers' fears trumped money: Having cold feet, their essential position was that the book, as one publisher put it, was "too hot to handle." I understand their position, and I don't criticize them for it. But that doesn't mean I'm impressed with them, either. Why all the fear? It's because of what this nation has become in the last twenty years, particularly the last eight. A nation whose virulent and dangerous right wing -- the most unpatriotic of all Americans, and about whom Barry Goldwater said late in his life, "Don't associate my name with anything you do; you've done more damage to the Republican party than the Democrats have" -- has transformed us into a country where many everyday Americans, for the first time ever, do not feel 100 percent comfortable and safe. And most humans yield to fear, even curry favor with those who cause it. When you have a very decent and honorable man like Mario Cuomo being sufficiently intimidated to say, "I respect Rush Limbaugh," an uncommonly loathsome individual (if I may be so presumptuous, Mario Cuomo does not respect Rush Limbaugh. How would that even be possible?), that one example among countless others reflects the shadow of fear, no matter how small, that has now descended on a once great nation. Out of this miasma of fear emerged a man, Roger Cooper, the publisher of this book, who loved America enough and had enough courage to step up to the plate and say, in effect, "No matter what, if America is ever to become the nation it once was, this story has to be told." I am deeply appreciative of Cooper, a legendary figure in the book publishing world, for being the American patriot that he is and for giving my book his 100 percent support. He always provided me with whatever I needed to help make it the book I believe it is. It has been a distinct pleasure to work, for the first time in my long writing career, with him and his astute, number one publishing manager, Georgina Levitt, whose delightful British accent could charm a bird out of a tree. The two of them are professionals of the very first order, and I feel fortunate to have found a new literary home with them. I also want to thank my superlative editor, Betsy Reed, not only for the great job of editing she did on my manuscript, but for the very judicious suggestions she made to change the tone of my writing in several places. Betsy's work ethic, coupled with her being highly intelligent and a trained observer of the American political scene, made her an ideal editor for this book. And, of course, there is my virtual secretary; Rosemary Newton, who for years has been the person I rely on the most in the writing of my books. Always competent and extraordinarily reliable, she not only has to type hundreds of thousands of words from my less than perfect penmanship, but since I don't have a computer, in the last few years she has saved me many hours in front of the microfilm machine at the library (where I still do much of my research) by finding things for me on the Internet. I don't know what I'd do without Rosemary: And finally, but certainly not least, I want to thank my wonderful wife of fifty-one years, Gail, who has always brought sunlight to my darkest hours, for the tremendous support and encouragement (and for sacrifices too numerous to mention) she gave me in the writing of this book. Among so many other things, we had been planning a short vacation when I finally; after twenty years, completed my magnum opus, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in early 2007. But because of the constraints of time and our belief in the importance of this new book, I didn't take one day off from my seven-day-a-week schedule before starting this book. Only my lifetime partner, who has endured so much because of my hectic life throughout the years, would accept something like this. Whatever I have accomplished in life, I owe much of it to her. Vincent Bugliosi
U.S. deaths in
Iraq from all corners of the nation Deaths by home county, per million population Confirmed as of March 15 Number indicates
total deaths per state or territory YEAR 1 -- 582 SOURCES: AP research; Department of Defense The preferable venue for the prosecution of George W. Bush for murder and conspiracy to commit murder would be in the nation's capital, with the prosecutor being the Attorney General of the United States acting through his Department of Justice. This book, however, establishes jurisdiction for any state attorney general (or any district attorney in any county of a state) to bring murder and conspiracy charges against Bush for any soldiers from that state or county who lost their lives fighting Bush's war, which as you can see applies to every state in this nation. Since the date of this map, March 15, 2007, hundreds of other United States soldiers have died in the war. The first casualty
when war comes is the truth.
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