Posts Tagged ‘bush’

I read Bob Burnett’s excellent and timely post yesterday over at HuffPo, entitled "Bush’s Day of Reckoning."  I recommend reading it in its entirety.  The topic is whether or not to proceed with criminal investigations of Bush, Cheney & their ilk over torture and any other violations of the Constitution.  Bob does point out that incompetence is not a crime and focuses on things like ordering torture or illegal spying on Americans, which are crimes.

(Image courtesy of indiesocial.com)

I walked onto the train platform in downtown Chicago today.  A woman had just finished shopping at Macy’s and had several red shopping bags.  She was trying to put everything into one bag.  The wind picked up and blew some of the empty bags down the platform.  I took off running and stopped them from blowing out onto the street. 

Then, she yells to me that: "It’s OK!  They’re empty."  Then she sits down and waits for the train with her two bags full of stuff.  The 5 empty big red bags are just out there on the platform and she makes no effort to pick them up.  I told her that I didn’t want litter for a Christmas present, picked them all up and threw them in the trash (no recycling on CTA platforms…dammit!).

I condemn murder in all of its forms. This is a conversation about terrorists and attacks on civilian populations.

Last week’s brutal attacks of unarmed civilians in Mumbai got me to thinking about the nature of attacks on civilians. For many years, I accepted the given definition of ‘terrorists’ as people that are so filled with evil that they want to frighten and kill us all. There are always sociopaths out there to fit into this mold. I think that for the sheer numbers of civilians killed in targeted violence, sociopaths are not the only explanation. The large role of religious / dogmatic programming in targeted violence against civilians eliminates sociopathology as a cause because the sociopath has no conscience or care for his/her impact on society. For the most part, the religious killer is convinced that his/her morality is calling for the murder of civilians.

“The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard, it ceases to be anything more than “the gang in possession,” and its days are numbered.” (H. G. Wells, as quoted in the Gravel Edition of the Pentagon Papers.)

The enemies of democracy are the enemies of the rule of law.

“enemies both foreign & domestic…”

Our Presidents and our armed forces swear to protect the Constitution from this threat – with good reason. The Constitution is the rule of law and it is the one thing that can prevent tyrants, thieves and murderers from the ruinous world of their unchecked greed and brutality.

That giant sucking sound that you hear, is the hole in the ground where the GOP used to be. The Christian Reich Right (CR) took them over and instead of spreading out to envelop the entire country, the greedy, intolerant, deceitful hypocrites have killed the GOP. Moderate and independent citizens have spoken with their votes. It turns out that Americans really do want equality for all.

Eugene Jarecki has detailed his experiences with and assessment of dealing with John McCain on the Huffington Post today. He is the director of “Why We Fight”, a film that I posted already on this blog. I highly recommend watching it, if you have not already done so.

Mr. Jarecki was granted an interview on camera with Sen. McCain for his opinions on Defense spending and corruption. In an all-too-familiar fashion, Sen. McCain spoke of the need for accountability, then his staff scrambled to retract his words for fear of upsetting lobbyists.

“The code” is a good basic model of loyalty and works well enough in many instances. However, it is trumped by loyalty to the country.

We need some whistle-blowers and we need them now. Our country is in deep kim-chee right now and we need some real patriots to step forward and make secret information – public. I am not talking about the schematics to advanced weapons systems or Col. Sanders’ secret formula with 7 herbs & spices. I mean the secrets that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Miers, Gonzalez and their corporate sponsors are hiding from us and trying to keep hidden.

Hello,

Gadfly here.  We are constructing this site.  This site is dedicated to exposing the abuses of power in our world today. To call out liars, criminals, killers and cheats operating in our public and private institutions.

Here is a video that one of our group just made.  Please watch it, pass it along and keep checking in on the site for our formal launch in the coming days.

- gadfly