Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of GoLeft TV and Air America's Ring of Fire talks with authors Victor Navasky and Christopher Cerf about their new book "Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won The War In Iraq."

World history books are full of stories about small, selfish megalomaniacs who were able to convince themselves that their ugliest conduct was justified for some higher good.

In those stories, the delusional power freak typically regards himself as almost a father figure who knows what's best for the rest of the world whether the rest of the world wants it or not.

In 1997, a group of those delusional megalomaniacs met with a purpose of organizing a neo-con nut cabal called the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). The goal of the group was empire building. Ground zero for that empire-building goal was the Middle East—specifically Iraq. Members of that secretive creepy group are the usual suspects: Dick Cheney, Steve Forbes, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and a dozen other misguided political neurotics who have a personal hero list that no doubt includes Napoleon Bonaparte and Julius Caesar. The PNAC has flourished for 11 years now.

There is a common theme in stories about empire building. It is that the last chapter of the story is always about disaster. There are few living scholars in the world who have analyzed empire building more thoroughly than Howard Zinn and Chalmers Johnson. In interviews with them, I learned about the dangers of building empires. Both Zinn and Chalmers agree that no country can maintain the bloated expansive level of the militarism that is required for the process. The Soviet, Roman and Ottoman Empires all failed because they squandered too many resources on a gargantuan military complex. They were not the kind of military structures designed to protect citizens from aggression at home. Instead, it was a military designed to expand and protect monied commercial interests of the empire.

Mike Papantonio of GoLeft TV and Air America's Ring of Fire talks with renowned attorney and author Vincent Bugliosi (Helter Skelter) about his latest book - The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, and whether or not such a prosecution could be possible.

This week’s Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio:
Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern

Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) will be joining us to talk about why he hasn’t given up his fight to impeach vice president Dick Cheney.

Former economic hitman and author John Perkins will be here to talk about his latest book “The Secret History of the American Empire,” which tells how corporations are quickly taking over the world.

Brad Friedman (www.bradblog.com) and attorney Matt Schultz will join us to give as an update on the Qui Tam lawsuit filed against voting machine manufacturers, and what this means for America’s voting system.

Since the end of last year, we've been flooded with camera shots of Bush walking around in what looks like a lovers' embrace with dozens of Arab sheiks.

You can be pretty certain that every time Bush kisses the cheek of another Arab prince he has to feel regret that he ignored the advice of economists, think tanks and consumer groups that seven years ago warned him that America needed to save itself from imported oil dependence.

Countries all over the world are figuring out that oil dependence creates economic disaster for the needy types who are counting on billionaire sheiks to give them a break.

There are at least two parts to the problem: