Rough Justice

George W. Bush is one slimy dude. His view of justice thinks it's OK to;

a) permit Karla Fay Tucker to be executed and then laugh,

b) sign the death warrant for a man whose lawyer slept through his trial and then snicker when asked about it,

c) execute a great-grandmother who murdered her abusive husband.

He even thinks it's OK to invade a country that posed no risk to us, resulting in nearly 4000 American deaths and 25,000+ injuries - to date - and then cut funding to the VA that takes care of the injured.

But when one of his own lies to the FBI, obstructs justice, and is convicted in a court of law he just can't stand to see him pay the price (30 months in jail) meted out by that court. This gives new meaning to the phrase compassionate conservatism. He's only compassionate toward conservatives.

It's clear his lawyers have been working on Scooter Libby's commutation of sentence for some time. He issued a statement within a couple of hours of the appeals court deciding - unanimously - that Libby must go straight to jail. And of course he didn't have the backbone to deliver the news in person, choosing to issue a written statement instead.

It's now time for Congress to find out what Libby knows that George W. Bush doesn't want us to know. Clearly, it must be enough to endanger his tenure as President and/or Dick Cheney's Vice Presidency to risk short circuiting the legal process. John Dean reminded us, the other day, that he knows all about stonewalling from personal experience via Watergate. They only do it when they have something to hide. This administration is stonewalling Congress. They have something to hide.

Libby should be subpoenaed before the House Judiciary Committee, granted immunity, if necessary, and questioned about what really happened re the outing of Valerie Plame's status with the CIA. I'm convinced that Dick Cheney is behind all of this and should be impeached. While they're at it, it's time to get tough about the politicization of the Justice Department: institute impeachment proceedings against Alberto Gonzales.

Remember 50 Republican Senators voted to convict Bill Clinton of lying over a sexual liaison which, although sleazy, was not illegal. They wanted to remove him from office. But when one of their own lies and obstructs justice, is convicted, and sentenced to 30 months in jail, George W. Bush sees it as "excessive."

Hello!!!! Wake up, Republicans! Do you really want to be associated with an unprincipled, holier than though cretin who not only believes he is above the law but isn't even smart enough to learn that our constitution is what separates us from other 'sort-of' democracies? It's what demands that we be a nation of laws, not of men (and I use MEN advisedly).

I've had it with this mess and demand that Congress take action - NOW! I'm calling Nancy Pelosi's office and the Whitehouse. And I'll continue calling until I see some results.

Don't We Have a Constitution, Not a King?

"Bush has issued a directive that would place all governmental powers in his hands in the case of a catastrophic emergency" according to Marjorie Cohn of AlterNet. "If a terrorist attack happens before the 2008 election, could Bush and Cheney use this to avoid relinquishing power to a successor administration?

"Bush quietly issued an unconstitutional bombshell that went virtually unnoticed by the corporate media.

"The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, would place all governmental power in the hands of the President and effectively abolish the checks and balances in the Constitution." Cohn goes on.

In case of a "catastrophic emergency" the new directive reads, "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government" continuing, the President proposes that the three co-equal branches of government would be "coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers." The Vice President would help implement these plans.

Dictionary.com says comity means, "mutual courtesy; civility." In other words, the Congress and the Courts would be treated with courtesy but would have no power. I don't know about you but I don't trust George W. Bush, or any president, with so much power and surely even the poor souls who voted for him would have to concede that we fought a revolution in 1776 to get rid of King George and don't need another one.

Bet you didn't even know our president had issued such a directive back on May 9th. Probably because the MSM was too busy worrying who Anna Nicole's 'baby daddy' is, or whether Paris Hilton would serve out her 45 day term, or Harry Reid had called Peter Pace incompetent (although he is).

Read the full story (link under title above) and post your thoughts as to what you plan to do about this signing statement?

a) ignore it and hope for the best
b) demand that Congress confront him and take action (I'm not sure what)
c) pack up and move to Canada

A nod to David Pollak for ferreting out this story.

I am outraged that our President isn't outraged about the mess at Walter Reed. Building 18 should be shuttered and all vets moved away from there immediately. This is just one more example of the administration's incompetence and lack of care for the citizens of this country.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate, very much, how hard Secretary Nicholson is working and especially honor his willingness to talk candidly about the VA's need for more funding. But, he can't possibly do an adequate job unless his boss gives him the support he needs.

The Bush Administration is completely removed from the real world, the one we live in, and seemingly not interested in changing the situation: Our President picked a fight with a bully who wasn't threatening us, committed other's children to fight him, tried to do it on the cheap, and then had the audacity to neglect their care in the aftermath.

If you presented a work performance like that, what would your boss do? S/he would have long since demanded that you clean up your act or fired you. So, why hasn't that happened? Becuase those we hired to monitor his performance were 'sleeping' with him. We tried to head this train wreck off at the pass last November when we changed management in Congress but a ship the size of this country doesn't turn on a dime. It will take years to clean up this mess and, in the meantime, good men and women are paying a horrible price for the CEO's incompetence.

As I see it, the first priority is to get adequate care for the wounded troops caught in the middle of this mess. Some ideas: 1) close Building 18, 2) move all of the wounded to other facilities - private ones, if necessary, 3) provide them with everything they need to reintegrate into society, 4) don't even consider questioning their right to disability payment. Concurrently determine what is actually needed to put things right at Walter Reed and make it happen.

If all of this sounds expensive it's because it will be, and we simply have to suck it up and find the money. I would suggest a tax increase on the wealthy - you know, the ones who got a nice tax break a few years ago so they would invest capital and create jobs. The kinds of jobs that would, ostensibly, generate sufficient taxes to replace those the rich were excused from. It might have worked - eventually - if the CEO hadn't, concurrently, given his buddies a fire-sale price on government.

I just have a few questions for you, Mr. President. Where's your outrage? Why aren't you demanding accountability? What are you going to do to protect the troops you're so willing to send into harm's way? Oh, and DON'T SEND AND MORE TROOPS INTO HARM'S WAY!!!

Step up to the plate, Mr. President. If you really admire Harry Truman model his favorite saying, "The buck stops here."