On second thought, indict the S.O.B.
ByMarch 2, 2009
Two months ago, I kicked off the New Year with a column that urged that we forget about pursuing George W. Bush and his corrupt administration for their many crimes. We needed, I thought, to concentrate on the more pressing economic problems facing this nation.
I was wrong. Bush and his criminal cabal must be investigated, indicted, prosecuted and punished for their actions.
Why the change of heart? Reality: Nothing more, nothing less. As I watch a once-great nation crumble around us, I realize those responsible must pay.
While all of the ills that currently threaten the survival of America cannot be laid at Bush’s feet, he and his co-conspirators certainly did their part to tear this nation apart and that ripping up of the fabric of this country cannot be ignored or forgiven.
We cannot, and must not, look the other way or turn the other cheek. We cannot, and must not, simply forget and forgive what Bush and the Republican Party have done.
Bush and his administration ignored signs that the economy was in trouble, blindly insisting that nothing was wrong. When action might have prevented — or at least lessened the impact — of an economic meltdown, the Bush White House maintained a "business as usual" attitude that allowed the cancer eating away at this nation’s health to spread beyond control.
He and his administration continued to pander to the very special interests that padded their pockets at the expense of others: the bankers, the industrialists, the rich special interests that have — for too long — controlled our government.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the most corrupt administration in American history destroyed the Constitution, washed away freedoms once taken for granted and turned this nation into an arrogant international bully that is despised on the world stage.
They must be punished. They must be held up as an example so that future leaders can never consolidate so much power and corruption to ignore the wishes of the American people.
We, the American people, deserve justice. We cannot — and should not — settle for anything less.
19 Responses to On second thought, indict the S.O.B.
BobCMU76
March 2, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I never had so much trouble with the man as with the over-the-top adoration of the glib, incurious, frat boy who longed to be one of the club of plutocrats, but just carried their water all his life.
I don’t much care for the over-the-top adoration of the current President. And he’s still something of a cipher. Law Review… right out of the Paper Chase. I wonder who Obama’s Kingsfield is.
Anyhow… to get on topic, I favor full inquiry into the crimes of the past several years, perhaps conviction, and then — and only then — pardon. Can’t let pardon take away the power of supoena and grand jury to force dark secrets into the open.
But I think CPAC illustrates how the man is being punished. He’s being disowned by the faithful. Our sticks and stones he’s suffered for years. Their words…. hurt.
Warren
March 3, 2009 at 12:30 am
The solution is not recrimination and vengeance. That’s backward looking. The solution is to elect worthy people to office in the first place. Only when we wake up to the inherent and seductive evils of power will we start choosing honest and worthy representatives. Let’s look forward, not backward.
—W—
Janice
March 3, 2009 at 8:30 am
We can not undo what has been done, but we can remedy the situation. The powers taken by the Bush administration must be returned, and the (bad=all) laws enacted must be removed. We need to restore our Constitution and repeal the bad legislation passed over the last many years. Then, we need to prosecute those who have broken laws. We are supposed to be a country where no one is above the law, and until we actively exercise this truth, the cancer called Bush will continue to eat away at our democracy.
If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
storky
March 3, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Yes, let’s continue to ignore the lessons of the past and re-repeat the failures.
“Without justice, there can be no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Towards Freedom.
ChescoRes
March 3, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Of COURSE that paragraph is signed simply “W”.
Who among us could not imagine Bush basically calling HIMSELF incompetant and unworthy just to save his own ass from jail.
Not sure if that was your intent, Warren, but you really cracked me up there.
brcarthey
March 3, 2009 at 6:24 pm
great commentary doug! but people like rush limbaugh and his “dildo-heads” will make things too difficult for anything of substance to occur.
however, i think you’ll like the image from this link as it seems to be a good representation of your commentary.
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/warcrimes01/piratesoftheconstitution.jpg
Blitz Carthey
–If Descartes’ declaration, “I think, therefore I am,” were true, then this world should be a lot less crowded!
bryan mcclellan
March 2, 2009 at 8:45 am
Were his acts judged in the same manner as that of the average American the cage door would have slammed long ago and the key sent to the nether regions of outer space.
It is time to show the self proclaimed royalty (politicians) of this nation that none are above the laws or deserving of less than it’s full adjudication.
The white collar crime we have witnessed is of the most heinous and despicable.These actions were and are tantamount to murder.In the case of the economy, premeditated murder. As you say Doug, they have torn the very fabric of our nation and left us as tattered and starving waifs at the mercy of the wolves of their self made Pagan history.
It’s time to say as the old song goes, Goddamn the Pusher man while adding the Politician man to the refrain.
AustinRanter
March 2, 2009 at 10:48 am
Doug,
I’ve never had a problem imposing justice on those who violate our laws. But, we have an entire government body that has created legal shelters to protect its members from accountability. No actions are taken because there are profound conflicting opinions over who violated what, and how the law applies.
I say let’s draw a line in the sand, here and now. We have to prevent future infractions by creating a new paradigm or set of standards to force government accountability and transparency.
Bush is just one of many…”many”…who need to face the music for their crimes. But our government has put themselves in a very unique position. Most of their crimes are null and void because of the laws made by our government to protect themselves from accountability. So, we can only argue that they have committed moral violations rather than legal ones.
*************************************************************
Example of moral vs. legal argument:
Because of the current laws, we can’t prosecute any of Wall Street CEO’s, Bank CEO’s, Insurance executives who literally raped mega-millions of their life savings, pensions, investments, and home equities.
But to Add Insult to Injury…
Every single person who has the capability to engage in critical thinking understands that we are in peril today because of laws created by our government to allow all of the aforementioned make billions, if not trillions at the expense of our nation’s citizens and commerce…are equally as guilty as the criminals listed in the previous paragraph. WHO WILL PAY for these crimes?
*************************************************************
Who, in our nation, will step forward and demand that our government get honest? Who will we put in place to champion the necessary laws to make our government elected and appointed officials perform their duties as our founders envisioned and as stated in the Federalist Papers and in our Constitution?
We have failed, on all fronts, to evolve with the times and deal with all of the issues of government that Madison and others warned of over 200 years ago.
We the People can’t say we weren’t warned.
Bush is but a speck of sand on the beach. His criminal transgressions are real, but no more so than the 1000′s of crimes against our nation committed for decades by all levels of government (All of which we can only argue from a moral standpoint).
We have to nail all of the bastards in Washington who have exploited the American people and our Constitution, but we have to force our criminals to pass laws that will give us warrant to take them down for their crimes.
I don’t see any actions by the people likely to happen…We the People don’t have the balls or the collective voice to do it. In my not-so-humble-opinion, WE (the citizens / electorates) don’t have a history of learning from our mistakes, apathy, and ignorance.
Sorry if this is incongruent…or my stream of logic is wrecked, but as I write this…it burns my ass that we’ve let our government become a legal mob of criminals. My thoughts are all over the place.
Janice
March 2, 2009 at 11:09 am
We the People do have our voice, and our vote. It is our responsiblity to write, call, and visit our elected representatives to let them know what we want to happen. It is also our job to write our media outlets and let them know what we think. Every American citizen was directed to do this by the founding fathers. Our elected and appointed officials MUST be held accountable for their actions. Bush and his band of cut-throats must be held accountable. There are laws that were broken, and they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
woody188
March 2, 2009 at 6:24 pm
With all due respect, writing, calling, and visiting got us to this point. Our votes are stolen via electronics or simply just not counting them. It’s time to pluck the chickens and boil the oil.
Charlie Couser
March 2, 2009 at 11:47 am
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (Vermont) is attempting to get enough signatures on a petition to pursue the investigation, and hopefully, prosecution, of Heir Bush, Darth Cheney and the rest of their SS cabal. I would suggest each of you visit Sen. Leahy’s website and join this very worthwhile endeavor.
Charlie Couser
Oldpoop
March 2, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Is this the same Senator Leahy that persuaded Bill Clinton to sign a bill in March 1998 that made Lake Champlain a Great Lake? After receiving the $50 million designated for Great Lakes, Pat said he made a mistake (but kept the money) and requested it not be made a Great Lake.
I REALLY feel good about having Pat decide what the government should be doing.
Ray
griff
March 2, 2009 at 12:27 pm
If we indicted all the criminals in Washington it would be a ghost town overnight.
sherry
March 2, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Who knows what is in the back room deals? Pelosi has said since 2004 Impeachment (as well as prosecution?) was off the table. Obama has said he will not pursue any charges against Bush. The blazing question is, why?
griff
March 2, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Because it is clear that Obama will be carrying out essentially the same programs. Closing Gitmo was a PR move and hasn’t even happened yet. CIA renditions and torture abroad are still going strong.
Obama worked hand-in-hand with Bush to push through the banker bailout against the will of the People.
If he were to pursue charges against Bush then he would be culpable for carrying on the same programs.
Everyone that voted for Obama because you thought he was going to do anything differently should stay out of the voting booth next time. You’re apparently not smart enough to figure out who really runs the show in Washington. There’s your lesser of two evils…enjoy it.
spartacus
March 2, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I’m so glad that you’ve finally seen the light! The more the last 8 years are investigated, the more information will come to light. The corruption of the Bush administration is so mind-blowing no one would publish it as a work of fiction because it seems too fantastic to be reality.
Sherry, Obama never said he wouldn’t pursue any charges against Bush. He left that up to whoever might do the investigating (i.e. Eric Holder, members of Congress, etc). He has indicated he wants to look forward, but has also said that no one is above the law. In other words, he has never ruled it out. Perhaps that’s his way of staying out of it, and letting others do their jobs. It’s not up to the president to investigate the previous administration. Pelosi also now says she wants an investigation. Impeachment would have made her president. It also would have seemed like a power grab after the wrong done to Bill Clinton. Right now, the winds have shifted, and she probably realizes that it’s way past time to do her job. Better late than never. The guilty can still be put in prison, after all.
I wouldn’t rule out some sort of justice in the end. After all, there are investigations going on all over the place, from dirty contracts in New Orleans, Justice Department firings, Blackwater, illegal contracts in Iraq, you name it. Those are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s just a matter of time.
gazelle1929
March 2, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Give them bread and circuses (trials) and they will forget about how bad things really are in the world.
Keep focused, people, keep focused. We have a disastrous depression hurtling our way and we don’t have either the time or the national energy to go through a series of political trials, particularly trials that would divide us even further within our teetering house.
Lastly, with what crimes would you charge these people? Treason? Murder? Terminal stupidity?
griff
March 2, 2009 at 8:44 pm
True, but we’re not politicians either. They would be in Washington, far removed from us – and our reality. The depression hurtling our way will not be denied.
I think the most important thing to do right now would be to take back the states. 30 states have sovereignty bills introduced in their legislatures. We need to voice overwhelming suport for their passage in states that have them and pressure those that don’t. We need to “bind the federal government with the chains of the Constitution”.
The federal government was created and ratified by the individual states, and the states should maintain their internal affairs as their constituents see fit in matters of domestic policy. The federal government is out of control.
ChescoRes
March 2, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hey Doug, in response to your earlier column on this subject, you made a comment about needing to “keep your powder dry”, to which I said:
=====================================
exactly WHY should I be “keeping my powder dry”? In case someone breaks the law? In case someone in my gov’t grossly violates the Geneva conventions? In case the Constitution starts getting shredded?
If the obvious and numerous crimes committed by George Bush are not enough to make the rest of America stand up and say “no more”; if these crimes are not enough to cause the Congress to act, then what WILL be enough?
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/13762#comment-46574
======================================
Obviously, I am in full agreement with your column today.
Way to come around Doug.
“…indict the S.O.B.”
LOL!