OK, if for some strange chance that you’ve been reading any of my posts, you’ll know that one of my obsessions is that I’m very concerned that President Elect Obama, in concert with a spineless Democratic Congress, is going to let the Bush administration walk away “scott free” from a crime spree that lasted most of the eight years they were in office. Especially, when you learn that the warrantless wiretapping actually started pre 9/11, although in reading “The Shadow Factory” it’s not totally clear to me that this abuse was originally authorized by the President. However, it is clear that the incredible buildup of the NSA after 9/11 was directly authorized by Presdent Bush and directed by Dick Cheney and his right hand Lawyer David Addington, both of whom have been disgruntled about the FISA legislation since it’s inception in 1978. And the resulting “bugs” are going to be very difficult to get rid of. The crimes of this administration are many and they are excessive. Torture, war profiteering, forging documents to justify war, and lying us into a war are just the tip of the iceberg. The thought that the Democrats won’t pursue prosecution doesn’t surprise me, but I have to say that I will be devastated if Obama, for the sake of unity, pursues a course that lacks accountability for these crimes.

It appears that Obama is going to go along with the strict accountability for the auto industry regarding the “bridge loans” the government is providing in an attempt to preserve the main part of our industrial complex that has not been outsourced to third world countries. Hopefully, the end result of this won’t be that we are buying Chevrolet’s built in China and shipped back to the US for purchase. How can we expect this accountability while ignoring the other? Yes, restoring good jobs in this country is of paramount importance. At some point, we as a nation need to start looking out for each other and realizing the importance of keeping good union jobs in this country. I have no idea how the leaders, during the last two decades could rationalize the idea that we could have an economy built almost entirely on consumption. Of course, when you add in the abuses of the Wall Street fat cats, the CEO’s of the corporations who are left in this country, and the incompetence of our government under the “trickle down” economic theory, the present economic meltdown should not be a big surprise. And I realize that Obama’s main priorities need to be revitalizing the economy, dealing with a health system that itself has “cancer,” and completely redesigning our priorities to finally confront the global environmental crisis – the crisis that republicans would ignore until there was conclusive evidence that the planet was dying – I don’t think there is a last second bailout procedure for that problem. But Bush/Cheney et al MUST BE INVESTIGATED, if for no other reason the sake of posterity – I REALLY DON’T WANT THIS TO EVER HAPPEN AGAIN!

The truth is that Obama could be totally focused on those economic issues (and of course, don’t forget Iraq and Afganistan – they are going to take a lot of focus) and just appoint an independent counsel to investigate the previous administration letting the “cards fall where they may.” This could be done without a bunch of fanfare in the scaredy cat Democratic Congress (Patrick Fitzgerald would be OK with me – a good republican investigating republicans). The Democrats could continue to blame the senate republicans for everything that doesn’t go right which seems to be what they’re good at and we could just hope and pray that they could get enough republican support to pass Obama’s initial stimulus bills, but in the end, the “Bush Crime Family,” as many refer to them, would have to answer for their deeds, one way or the other. In my view this is the best way for us, as a nation, to tell the rest of the world that we “get it.” We need to send the message that torture is, again, unacceptable in the US along with invading soveriegn nations, and random massive wiretapping. Now, just to make sure that I’m clear, in this past three years of consuming books on how our government works, it is clear to me that our CIA has been overstepping it’s bounds for decades. They have facilitated many government coups causing “socialist” governments to succumb to tyrants in the name of cheap natural resources for our multi-national corporations who have bought off virtually every politician who’s been in Washington for any length of time. And I guess this is why many don’t want to prosecute Bush and company, because when we learn the “truth” about what our government has been doing, more heads may “roll.”

But, I’m convinced the time is right for this to finally happen. If we don’t face up to the actions of our government now, with Barrack Obama becoming our first African American President, I don’t know when we will. If he, and the Democratic party, don’t start showing some backbone and stop worrying about what the press is going to say, they won’t last more than four years in office. I think it’s great that Obama wants to “bring people together.” But the way to do this is not to look the other way in the face of obvious criminal actions by the Bush administration. For example – and a good one at that – the other day I watched with my own eyes as Vice President Dick Cheney, a man who has a lot of legal vulnerability – and in my opinion is beginning to get the reality of that – on national TV admitted to authorizing torture of the degree that we had Japanese tried and executed before the Hague after WW II. Waterboarding, along with several other of their “enhanced” interrogation techniques is clearly a war crime. Whether or not some other country is going to attempt to hold these guys accountable, I think Cheney’s “admission” in a strange way tells us that he’s a bit worried (so far, our pitiful response is putting a few “privates” in the brig with the assumption being that we, the public, will buy the idea that this torture was their idea – unbelievable!).

At first, I thought “What an arrogant SOB” to just say all this on TV, kind of daring someone to prosecute him (Cheney). But, after a couple of days to digest this I’ve come to a very different conclusion. If Cheney authorized this and participated in meetings in the White House where it was discussed, which is what he clearly said, then the assumption has to be that Bush was there, as was Rice, Rove, Addington, Libby, Rumsfeld, and others. The key is that we now know that Bush was there – although that was already clear to me (and it was no secret that Rumsfeld authorized it as well). But Cheney is pushing the issue. Now, why would he do this? Well, I believe it falls under the old theory we followed when I was in the sawmill called CYA. Cover your ass! I believe Cheney is trying to force Bush to issue pardons for everyone who was present at those meetings, including himself of course. Now, I’m not sure whether or not you can pardon someone prior to them being convicted of a crime, or even accused – it seems to me that you would need to be convicted first. But at the bare minimum, it seems to me that if you pardon someone, that means a crime has been committed. Doesn’t that put Bush in a difficult spot? Won’t a blanket pardon for torture be an admission by Bush that he authorized torture? I’m glad Cheney is finally speaking honestly about what was done. I believe that Obama should accomodate him with the opportunity to talk about everything that happened during these eight years, including the outing of a CIA agent. Bush is busy trying to define his legacy and I think Cheney being investigated could go along way in doing that. In fact the way things are going, when this is all over I’m not sure Bush and Cheney will still be such good friends!