Have you ever heard the saying; “Be careful what you wish for.” Tonight I’m thinking about all the Republicans who have been supposedly clamoring for judges who interpret the constitution literally – as it was written. Well, as everyone who has paid attention to this subject knows, a literal interpretation of the constitution is pretty much impossible – there has to be interpretation. But, I have to agree at least with the Republican rhetoric, that I believe in the constitution as a non-negotiable document, within the reasonable bounds of the interpretation, and I agree that it should be as literal as possible. However, the idea that a person of African descent is 3/5ths of a person, isn’t reasonable (unless, maybe you’re John Cornyn the Senator from Texas who is holding up the confirmation of Barrack Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder) but the fact that torture is illegal is reasonable. And torture has been clearly defined by the Geneva Conventions which the United States is basically responsible for. So, I find it interesting that the Republicans in the Senate of the United States are holding Holder’s approval as Attorney General because of his views on torture.

I suppose when you go back in time about a year and remind yourself of the testimony of Michael Mukasey, the last of George W Bush’s Attorney’s General you get a better picture. He refused to make any kind of stand on torture – especially when confronted with the practice of “waterboarding,” an interrogation “technique” that led us to prosecute Japanese military personell after World War II as war criminals and that is clearly defined as torture under the Geneva Conventions. When you think back to the Bush administration, they came up with a plethora of justifications for their actions which went way beyond waterboarding, but in the media were pretty much focused on waterboarding. At first they said that the “enemy combatants” weren’t subject to the Geneva Conventions because they weren’t in any specific military force – they were “just” terrorists – presumably therefore without rights of any kind and subject to the whims of President Bush. This rationale was debunked by none other than the Supreme Court that put Bush in office, so they went to Congress, while it was still controlled by Republicans (along with some spineless Democrats) and they managed to get legislation passed that superficially looked like it stopped these practices, but in reality through signing statements or just plain ignoring the “Will of the People,” most of us who were paying attention knew that the practice was still going on.

Then, within the last two weeks of the Bush administration, both Dick Cheney and George W Bush admitted on national TV that they authorized the “enhanced interrogation” techniques which included waterboarding, and I’m sure we’re going to find out a whole bunch more “techniques” that violated the rights of the detainees at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and the secret rendition prisons wherever they might be. Now, for a person who interprets the constitution “literally” this poses a severe problem for George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, and who knows who else. These people have clearly violated our own laws and the international laws against war crimes. So, I believe the reason John Cornyn is holding up the confirmation of Eric Holder is because Holder has clearly demonstrated knowledge of the laws against torture. Additionally, he has a history of being a man who believes in the literal interpretation of our laws and the fair enforcement of them (you might have heard of the theory he quoted during his confirmation hearing – which I’m sure terrified the Republicans: “No one is above the law.”

So you would think the Republicans would be supportive of someone with the same philosophy as theirs. But that is before you look at the record of the last eight years and you realize they want this literal interpretation for us “little people.” They, themselves, shouldn’t fall under the same guidelines as Democrats and working people like me. I find this so IRONIC it makes me want to laugh, but then I think of the seriousness of the problem and it’s hard to laugh about it. TORTURE IS NOT FUNNY, AND THE FACT OUR GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN DOING THIS SINCE AT LEAST THE REAGAN YEARS IS DESPICABLE! Bush didn’t start this although he carried it to the extreme, and I believe he will be the first President to actually have to pay for his illegal activities – unless the Republicans can figure out a way to circumvent the law – the fact they are so obviously attempting to do this is also ironic. Isn’t this what they are constantly accusing Democrats of doing? I heard one Senator, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, speculate that their strategy is to stall this confirmation to the piont that the statute of limitations expires – supposedly on when Bush initially authorized the illegal activity. What doesn’t make sense to me about that one is if the activity has continued for the past 5 years or so, wouldn’t everytime it happened reset the clock on the statute of limitations?

Regardless, they are in a very weak position and it’s going downhill from there. As people see the results of the Republican pilfering of our economy, which will continue to get worse for the immediate future, I think there will be less and less sympathy for GW Bush, and especially Dick Cheney. There are going to be more crimes uncovered, and the American people are going to see that they were being governed by a group that had more in common with a mafia family than an American presidential administration. And tonight, on Keith Olberman’s show “Countdown” the National Security Agency “whistleblower” I mentioned in my previous post was on a second time – confirming what is in the book “Shadow Factory” that virtually every American’s phone calls and emails have been monitored to some degree by the federal government over the past 6 years or so. There is much to learn about this illegal activity, but, to me, it is even more egregious than the torturing because it initiates the possible tearing down of our constitution. And this is the issue which could possibly take the honeymoon status off of the Obama Presidency – and in a hurray.

It was reported tonight on one of the shows I watched that President Obama is reluctant to follow through on his pledge to re-make the FISA legislation that he voted for, much to the dismay of supporters such as myself, and restore the original intent of the law, which was to force the government to have probable cause before it could listen to the phone calls of its citizens. The report said that Obama was reluctant to give up the power. Now, this is exactly why I have been pushing so hard for a thorough investigation of the Bush administration and then, where warranted, prosecutions. I don’t care who the president is, it is much more difficult for politicians to give up power than to usurp it. And I don’t want to “trust” Obama to “just listen to the terrorists” as he data mines all the communication happening in this country. It was even reported tonight that the NSA under Bush was collecting data on credit card transactions by American citizens. YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! This has to be stopped and if Obama is reluctant to do it, then it is up to us – the people of this great nation – to demand action. As encouraging as the first two days of the Obama administration has been – THIS IS A MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY! – The security of our constitution.

Bush’s actions in the wiretapping scandal need to be fully investigated – and screw any of his convoluted “national security” excuses – and anyone who participated in these felonies should have to face up to what they have done. Just like the guy who was speaking out on Olberman’s show, the people working for the NSA know what the law is. The telecom companies have experienced lawyers who know full well what the law is. Everyone involved knows what the law is and they knew they were breaking it (at least we need to find out who did know what was going on). The NSA whistleblower on Olberman’s show was fired for questioning the legality of what was happening – and he didn’t come forward until after Bush was out of office because of the fear of retribution – which everybody who has been paying attention also knows was a reality with Bush. So, now we have Republicans, the so-called “strict construtionists” when it comes to the constitution defending a policy that clearly violates the right to privacy of millions of Americans. We’re all guilty of some level of hypocrisy in our lives, but these guys keep taking it to extremes. I hope they continue trying to hold up this nomination, with the end result of their actions a thorough national discussion on torture, wiretapping, outing CIA agents, war profiteering, fraudulent no-bid contracts (which actually led to harm for our troops in Iraq), firing Justice department officials for political reasons, refusing subpoenas to Congress, shredding evidence, committing troops to “harms way” without proper protection, and corruption regarding the so-called TARP bailout funds. This discussion, I believe will lead to accountability for all these wrongs, and the Attorney General they are playing games with, I trust, will enforce the law – as it is written. In an attempt to show Republicans the true spirit of bipartisanship, we need to make sure President Obama knows that if he ignores Bush’s actions he, himself, will have part ownership in them!