Clinton is impeached with a reach around because he committed adultery; but Bush, who has made policy that supresses rights, goes back to Dallas because the process is too tedious in ‘the current climate.’

What the hell is this country about if it isn’t about bringing everyone…not only gangbangers…to justice!

But the reality is that if we hold up the choice to most Americans:

1) Mete out justice to those who have basterdized our American culture

2) Find out what is happening to Britney Spears

We know that #2 will will be overwhelmingly chosen. So why bother with the former?

We are a country that gets what it wants…knowing the cost of everything, but the quality of nothing!

I was disgusted when Andrew McCarthy characterized Horton’s arguments as “cute”; it reminded me of Alberto Gonzalez referring to tenets of the Geneva Conventions as “quaint”.

The spirit of our nation in upholding the Rule of Law and condemning acts of torture and other atrocities must find its expression in serious, extensive and deeply probing investigations, and prosecutions where appropriate.

It sickens me when I hear arguments and indications that Bush and Cheney are too big to jail.

The Cheney/Bush administration has been consistent in claiming that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “is the mastermind of 9/11″.

There has been no proof of that offered in any tribunal where testimony and evidence are introduced under oath.

And what is also true about the “19 hijackers” is that there has been no proof offered in a court of law. While you might reply that, Dude, they be dead–no alleged perps to prosecute. But there have been sightings of the alleged suicide-perps–those 19 on the FBI’s “wanted” lists, perambulating hither and thither elsewhere in the world. That is, they be “alive and well.”

Maybe with the exception of ‘the alleged ring-leader,’ whose daddy said he got a call from him on Sept. 12, 2001, in which he quotes his son, Mohammad Atta, predicting that he–the son–is not going to be alive much longer. And of course there have been responses by Bob Muller to the reports of the hijackers being alive and well to the effect that, Well, we’re not sure about all of them we put on the list–had to do it quickly, and all of that. And, as I recall, the names of the hijackers, as listed by the FBI, did not appear on any of the flight manifests of the four commercial jets on which they were said, by the government, to have been riding/hijacking.

Quite frankly, while killing prisoners of war during torture is a capital offense under the US War Crimes statute, that would only cover the deaths of from something like 20 to 100 homicide cases in our POW camps–Gitmo, Bagram AFB, various secret ‘black sites’ around the world.

Of much greater significance is the deaths on the day of Sept. 11, 2001, however, number something like 2,752, at least in the collapse of the three buildings in the World Trade Center (the twin towers and the 47-story skyscraper called WTC #7 or Seven World Trade Center). It was privately owned by Larry Silverstein’s outfit. I don’t know whether #7, like #1 and #2, were insured “against terrorist attack”. Another something to look into.

We need to start back at the beginning of this entire illegal rampage, or “go back to zero (or ground zero, in this case)” and start all over again.

I personally consider all the NBIGTRATS* documentation generated by NIST and FEMA, and Phillip Zelikow’s well-written novel, “The Official 911 Report,” I think he called it, incomplete, inconclusive and, in general, more designed to obfuscate than to illuminate what occurred on 9/11.

* I’m not completely certain of this acronym, but heard one gov’t official use it to describe the NIST and FEMA reports as “nobody is going to read all this ’stuff’”, by way of explaining that the reams of paper consumed in its printing were meant to mislead and obscure any real evidence or analysis hidden away in the thousands of pages.

As for “tearing up this country,” that’s just some kind of propaganda scare tactic. The greatest danger to our civil order — our “domestic tranquility” — is to permit people in high places to get away with murder. Or, more precisely, 2,752 murders, plural.

Or to get away with trillions of dollars from the Federal Reserve vaults (there is no money in the “federal treasury”–only IOUs, debts, loan repayments, with compound interest, owed to “purchasers” of “treasury bonds.”)

In this country, unlike in other countries, we are eminently able to countenance even the assassination of our presidents without taking to the streets in a general strike or similar. If anything, such an event would seem more likely to “tear up the country” than would having a president, vice president, secretary of state, secretary of defense, etc., sitting, in leg irons, at the defense table in a US courtroom.

Even the redoubtably insane Republican campaign to somehow get rid of Bill Clinton–a campaign that raged, mostly at public expense, for the duration of Clinton’s 8 years in office — did not “tear the nation apart.”

One can see how it might have done so, as the Republicans were completely abusing the legal and constitutional process and should have been charged with said abuse. But the nation was not torn apart–just the US Constitution, if anything, figuratively typing.

Personally, I can’t imagine a more reassuring sight to the nation’s stability of having our highest officials held to account for crimes committed while in office.

Indeed, I would be happy, relieved, reassured about the durability of our republic, were I to see all of the 535 invertebrate members of congress ALSO at a defense table in a courtroom, defending themselves against conspiracy charges in aiding and abetting the Cheney/Bush administration in their multitude of criminal activities. Not only did they NOT uphold their oaths of office, by investigating, impeaching, trying and removing from office the members of a criminal administration, they also furthered the goals of the administration, through legislation and monetary appropriations.

Just imagine what the history of the past eight years would have looked like if Congress had exercised its responsibility to:
Create an independent investigation of 9/11, of the failure of the most sophisticated and expensive military in the entire world to be able to protect major US population areas from bombings. To investigate why it is that all of the people in charge of these failed efforts have been promoted, not fired for their failures (unless, of course, the promotions are, as per usual, a reward fort good performance, but the performance awarded in this case is the counter-intuitive one of “doing good by deliberately failing to perform your duty”?

Think for a moment of the images of the Secretary of Defense, in shirtsleeves, having abandoned his post as civilian head of our military when the nation was arguably under attack, and being an extra, unnecessary, excess, superfluous supernumerary on the Pentagon front lawn. If the nation’s capital, capitol, White House, Pentagon were really under attack, would he have been out romping on the lawn, helping to carry the already-injured to a 1st aid station or ambulance?

Unless the man was unhinged, I’d have to say that was dereliction of duty, abandoning one’s post when under fire. At any rate, we need to start from scratch on this investigation, even though a lot of the evidence was destroyed, with incredible speed when you reflect on how many people watch TV shows like Crime Scene Investigators: [NY, Miami, Buffalo, LA, Boston...wherever] and know that crime scenes are not supposed to be disturbed until the forensics teams, the arson inspectors, the building inspectors, the structural engineers, the air- and water-pollution teams, the insurance adjustors, the DAs and federal prosecutors, the FBI, CIA, SEC, NSA, and police have completed their assigned and necessary work.

What we witnessed instead (or at least caught glimpses of, because of the bravery of some photographers and videographers who sneaked past the police, who were preventing firemen and others from continuing rescue and recovery operations) was the rapid and systematic destruction of a crime scene–the scene of a mass murder–by the very government agencies and instrumentalities that should have been facilitating and ASSISTING in the investigations. Yet another instance of “counter-intuitive conduct” on the part of our governmental units.

What we need, to bring this nation back together again, is for accountability to be brought into the light of day, so that a nation that is ALREADY torn apart by distrust and suspicion about our government.

That will be a healing thing, 180° in the opposite direction from “tearing the nation apart.” I would humbly request, suggest, urge you, Tom, to eliminate that hysteric’s locution from your otherwise luminous lexicon of broadcast constructs.

bw

PS: Don’t forget to report on the U-6 unemployment numbers tomorrow (friday, 9 January 09) along with the U-3, or so-called “official” unemployment figures. The number is included in the same table from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s on this page: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm

Last month’s figures had U-3 at 6.7%, while U-6 is pegged at 12.5%, which is, I think you’ll agree upon reading the BLS descriptions of the numbers, a more accurate take on what’s going on in the job market these days than the narrow U-3 statistic.

I suspect Obama will do nothing because he doesn’t want to ruin his chances of using the same powers Bush did. Bush did a great job equalizing the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. Obama’s no fool.

Scott Horton may feel that the torture issue is so big that it takes precedent over all other potential crimes, but I’m not sure I agree. Illegally spying on American citizens, suspension of habeas corpus, renditions,… these are all very serious Constitutional crimes. (If found to be criminally liable for renditions, then prosecute Clinton also. Prosecute all criminals of all parties.)

Our Constitution is the key to our credibility in the world at large. We need to demonstrate that we still regard it as the foundation for our country. Not only do we talk the talk, but we walk the walk.

And I agree with the others who feel our country is plenty strong enough to handle an investigation and criminal prosecution. We’ve survived Watergate, Clinton’s impeachment (over lying about a b-job for crisakes!), and we can survive this.

Or, maybe Obama should just declare Bush and Cheney (and Rumsfeld? Wolfowitz? Addington?…) enemy combatants, and ship them off to Gitmo, or some such place, and deny them lawyers, visitors, hearings, etc. That’s all well within the President’s power, as established by precedent.

Wouldn’t be…prudent.

I think what we REALLY need in this country is
a TRUTH and Reconciliation Commission (like the one that
was SUCCESSFUL in South Africa)

That can help make our nation more honest, give us TRUTH, and forgive (exclude jail time!) the people who confess:

Look here for a post from last September:
http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com/2008/08/topic-of-week-this-week-truth-and.html

The key here is that people testifying (whether on POLITICS, Business malfeasance (think sub-prime mortgages) or simply cheating on your corporate taxes)
WOULD all get to publicly admit /humiliate themselves, and WE the people would get the TRUTH…

And those NOT testifying Would be subject to prosecution…

Wish I hadn’t missed the live show today!

Would be happy to discuss this with anyone!!!

sos-newdeal.blogspot.com

Why we need a new-deal to get out of THIS SECOND DEPRESSION!!!

and/or an inquiry about
TREASON
go to my blog above and search “treason”
also:
I feel that we need to expect NOTHING from our country, perhaps a foreign government may try and prosecute.

also: I feel that the CRIMINAL negligence of DUTY (and delegation to the VP) is TREASON, but also wrote it is likely only dereliction of duty, which bush IS guilty of…
(search blog for treason )

cheers

That’s the only way we can avoid the pre-emptive pardons Bush is going to issue to himself, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Bush will only be immune to the US court system.