My disgust with the Republican party, more specifically the Bush administration, is what motivated me to start writing this “blog.” I have long felt a deep sense of gratitude that I was fortunate enough to have grown up in the United States of America, and better yet, was able to make it through college (took 25 years :o), and have been able to participate in the economy as a paying taxpayer for most of my adult life (I’ve been officially a member of the “work force” for 45 years). In fact, due to a couple “road bumps” along the way, every year when it’s time to pay my taxes, I give thanks – because I know what it’s like to not have to pay taxes – in my case because I had no income on a couple of occasions. I think this is what drives some of my frustration with Republicans. They seemingly complain about any taxes they have to pay while, at the same time, complaining about how government services are inadequate. To me, it’s the old “I want something for nothing” routine, and it’s part of the hypocrisy that seems to permeate both political parties in this great nation.

The United States of America became a great nation on the backs of the blue collar working men and women who built the cities, the roads, the railroads, the dams, the electical grid, and on and on. Entrepenuers have created thriving businesses which have accelerated the modernization of the entire world, and the workers they hired have been the most productive work force in the history of the world. Millions of Americans have volunteered to participate in our military, which at one point in our history, was the saving grace of the world as the German military machines were thwarted during both “World Wars” in the first half of the 20th century. The signs of a “train” headed in the wrong direction appeared in the early 60’s as our leaders allowed us to be drawn into the Viet Nam conflict based on fear of communism. I always thought the Viet Nam conflict was such a profound blunder that our leaders would never allow something like that to happen again – certainly not in my lifetime.

The sixties spawned the “hippie” movement, ushered in the era of casual drug use – especially among younger Americans, and a seeming willingness to protest the actions of the government by a large section of what is now the so-called baby-boom generation. Unfortunately, this is the generation which includes George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and – I have to add – myself. During the Viet Nam conflict there was a military draft which was designed to spread the “burden” of “service” across the board, but, in reality, people like Bush, Cheney, and others were able to “skirt” the draft by having prominent parents or other ways of receiving deferments from service. In my case, despite my attempt to be a US Marine, I received a deferment due to an injury in football which made me, according to the Marine doctor giving the physical “unfit for service.” Many people told me how lucky I was at the time and it took a few years before that really sunk in.

However, the reality was that over 50,000 Americans – including 13 members of my graduating class from high school – paid the ultimate price for cavalier decisions made by our leaders. This experience, and watching what happened to my highschool classmates who served in Viet Nam and returned to a nation which would virtually ingnore their sacrifices – amidst the great debate generated by the war – was what caused me such angst when George W Bush repeated the incredible blunder of Viet Nam by launching an invasion of Iraq in 2003. The subsequent years brought me out of my political “hibernation” which led to my reading of, up to today’s date, close to 30 books chronicling the internal workings of our government – mainly in the GW Bush years, but beyond as well. In fact, I have friends where I work who don’t even want to talk to me any more, because I would bring each book to school (I’m a public school teacher) with the idea that maybe they should read them – and knowing what is actually happening in our nation’s government is just too depressing for them. The truth is, we have, as a nation, been taught that our government is good and honorable, and we (myself included) have a tendency to just trust them to do “the right thing.”

This is a government, when you dig into what is happening, that consists – at least in the Congress of Washington DC – of a group of Senators and Representatives who have universally been bought off by the huge multi-national corporations which have been recently defined as “too big to fail.” As taxpayers, we continue to work our butts off every day – statistically, for less return for more production – so that these Congress people can dole out our tax dollars to these corporations by the TRILLIONS! This is what gets me to the part that is so annoying. It is a virtual given that our leaders in Congress are basically pathological liars. When it is pointed out that this is the case, people respond with phrases such as: “Well, duh!” It has gotten to the level of the absurd – IT IS DESTROYING THE VERY NATION THAT WE ALL LOVE! And, I don’t feel I can “attack” the Republicans anymore without some kind of Democratic disclaimer. I have a sticker on my car which says “Enough is Enough, vote Democratic.” I put that on during the election of 2006 with the hope that a Democratic victory would bring our brave soldiers home from Iraq. For the first time in my life, I sent money to various Democratic candidates in a miniscule attempt to be a part of a significant change in direction of this nation. Obviously, the Democratic party has shown itself to be almost exactly what the despised Republicans claim – “spineless.” (that’s my word which summarizes what I feel is representative of claims I’ve heard for years from Republicans about Democrats)

This is exactly why the Republicans claim Democrats are “inferior” when it comes to “national security.” Of course, the claims are ludicrous, because no one could be worse than the Republicans since George Bush took over relating to National Security. But, the reality remains that the Democratic party continues to show itself as spineless in many ways – and just as “mortgaged” to big business as the Republicans – maybe nearly as mortgaged would be a more appropriate way to say it. The bottom line is prostitution is wrong no matter how much you’re charging the client. And we, as voters, seem to have no good options at this point. I apologize for the lengthy history lesson, but felt it was necessary to get to my main point of the evening.

I’ve been railing against the “overtures” President Obama has been making to Republicans almost since he took office. The crimes committed by the Bush administration are no secret. There isn’t a lot of investigation necessary in at least a couple of areas because the perpetrators have admitted on national TV that they committed war crimes in one respect and direct violations of wiretapping laws in another. In fact, it almost seems impossible to get Dick Cheney to shut up about authorizing torture directly in violation of our own laws and the international laws of the Geneva Conventions. These politicians are very cagey and everything they do is calculated. And, I don’t put President Obama above the fray in this regard. There’s a lot for me to like about what Obama wants to accomplish and it is true that in his first four months in office much has been done. The problem I’m having is that while much of the “much” is good, the bad part could be REALLY BAD. For some strange reason, Obama being a Constitutional scholar, the President is not only furthering the notion that our nation’s laws are enforced selectively – HE IS DOING IT IN AN EMPHATIC MANNER! I’m afraid the damage may be irreverseable – because realistically, and he I’m sure is well aware of this, if his “base” rebels the “other option” is back to Republican rule! Ughhhhhhh!!!!!

His refusal to REALLY “clean up the mess” of the Bush administration is BAFFLING! He’s implying that by getting Wall Street “back on track” our nation is on the way to recovery. The problem I have with that thinking is that if the “Bush Crime family” as they are so affectionately referred to by many on the “left” is allowed to “get away” with their crimes – A TERRIBLE PRECEDENT has been embedded in our legal history books. And, I’m beginning to see some either naivete on Obama’s part, or more realistically, some calculated voter manipulation that is not encouraging. I’m very concerned that the nomination of Sonia Sotomayer for the Supreme Court is being used as a way to stop the torture debate in it’s tracks. We now have a debate raging that was entirely predictable and seems to be getting fueled, very subtley by the White House – I suspect as a way to end the debate over whether or not Bush and company should be prosecuted. The end result may very well be they will be “off the hook.”

Let me explain in more detail. The Republicans made it clear they were going to attack whoever Obama nominated for the Supreme Court vacancy. Therefore, their diatribe is not worth responding to. When the Republicans take one phrase spoken years ago completely out of context to claim this woman is a racist – IT’S NOT WORTH A RESPONSE. Give me a break! The Republicans claiming a Latino Woman Judge is a racist – talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Here’s the rub. Today, I listened to the White House explaining how “she could have probably used different words to make her point.” Absurd! If you read the whole text of her speech, her words make perfect sense. And, I’m not trying to get caught up in the debate over this appointment – in fact, my point is I believe the appointment itself and its timing is designed to end the torture debate by switching the national debate to a nomination which Obama is certain to ultimately win. Very canny political move – gets his nominee on the court and when all is said and done Cheney will be out of the news and we’ll be arguing about something other than torture and other laws violated by the Bush administration.

I can only bring myself to believe the motivation is that President Obama doesn’t want to take the chance that he will have the next President coming after him. You know, like doctors protecting other doctors, lawyers protecting other lawyers, etc. You can’t say, on the one hand when you’re giving a national speech to explain what will be done with the detainees at GITMO that “We are a nation of laws” and our laws are enforced fairly and without prejudice – and then, on the other hand, turn your back on clear criminal activity without being just as wrong as the people who came before you that you’re protecting. I have never written anything in my life which I have more hope that I’M WRONG! But, I’m beginning to see a brilliant calculating politician in Obama who will very likely get some very important accomplishments through Congress, but at the same time, is risking leaving us with a legacy that our leaders are above the law and confirming President Nixon’s claim that “If the President does it, it must be legal.” There have been many courageous efforts to disprove that claim – in my lifetime – but for some reason we now have a President who is willing to undo all that work. The other night I listened to a very refreshing politician (well former politician) make a profoud point that I hadn’t even considered, but since has really resonated with me. Jesse Ventura said: “The only possible reason Obama’s not prosecuting the Bush administration is because Democrats are culpible.” After thinking of Nancy Pelosi’s incredible “Impeachment is off the table,” and the actions of many Senators (including Obama) caving in on the war and the FISA bill – inexplicably – I believe Ventura is RIGHT ON!

According to the dictionary the word convoluted means: “twisted, coiled, intricately involved.” I point this out because – and I’m really not trying to beat a “dead horse” here, but – the Republican party is on a constant convoluted mission to derail the Presidency of Barack Obama. These guys could care less about what is best for this nation – THEY ARE GOING TO TRY TO UNDERMINE EVERYTHING OBAMA DOES! They have this way of totally disregarding reality, the truth, justice, etc. in their plan to somehow convince the American people that Obama is a socialist – or better yet from their perspective – a communist, in fact, I’ve even heard the word “facist” thrown around lately by Cheney and company. This last absurdity, of course, is quite interesting because Cheney himself has tendencies that reminds one of fascist dictators from years gone by.

I’m pointing this out because I continue to believe that we are at war, but the main war this nation is “hinging” on is the war “within.” And the sooner President Obama agressively pursues this war the better for all Americans. The war is being waged by people like Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, essentially the remnants of the diminishing Republican party. They are betting everything they have on Obama’s demise – in fact, I feel they would almost celebrate if something bad happened – maybe like a terrorist attack similar to what was allowed to happen during the Bush years. I put it that way, because to listen to Dick Cheney, they kept us “safe” for the “last 7 1/2 years – of course, he’ll never mention that 9/11 happened on “his watch” and should have been prevented if only Dick, George, and company weren’t “asleep at the switch.” These guys are carrying on a campaign trying to convince the American public that we should be torturing people, that the war in Iraq was in response to 9/11 (I think Cheney has said this enough that he actually believes his own lie), and that President Obama is making us less safe by “talking” to our “enemies.”

These guys (the Bush disciples) have been operating on fear for as long as I can remember. President Eisenhower warned us all about the “Military Industrial Complex” over 50 years ago. And, I’m sure that the Cheney’s and Limbaugh’s would call Eisenhower a lousy liberal. These guys have made incredible fortunes by playing against the fears of the American people. The sad thing to me is that their strongest constituency is the “Christian Right.” These people, of all people, in my view, should not be vulnerable to the “fear card.” If one believes in Christ and trusts that “He is in control” then what is there to fear? I honestly don’t get it. Our government has been manipulating Americans with fear in a way that seems to go under the radar. In the process we have developed this huge Military, which we seem to think should be policing the whole world – or at least the places where there’s lots of natural resources which might benefit our economy. When anyone tries to stand up to their nonsense, they immediately brand them as weak, or as traitors, or – in Obama’s case – socialist.

And, I can tell you that I’ve always considered myself a conservative in many ways, and I’m not happy about a lot of what Obama is doing. It feels to me that he’s leading our economy right back into the Wall Street “corner” where we all feel dependent on the success of these companies which Henry Paulsen declared to be “too big to fail” and Obama seems to be on the same “bandwagon.” However, there are some obvious differences although they are not as radical as the Republicans would have us all believe. They are showing themselves to be only interested in power and bilking the system for as many of our tax dollars as humanly possible. That is one reason I’m disappointed in Obama’s reaching out to them. I believe President Obama should “steamroll” the Republicans while he has the political capital and put as many of them “out to pasture” as possible. For example, Dick Cheney should be in Jail. I can’t think of another way to put that. I listened the other day as President Obama was explaining his plan for the prisoners presently being held at “GITMO.” In his explanation he referred to the fact we are a nation of laws and that he is bound to faithfully execute the laws more than on one occasion during his speech. I couldn’t help but think as I was listening to that – WHAT ABOUT TORTURE? Isn’t President Obama bound by our system of justice to prosecute those who have broken the law – NO MATTER WHAT? To me, it was just a bunch of hypocrisy coming from the other direction. Letting the thugs off is INDEFENSEABLE!

President Obama is being set up by the Republcans. They are throwing the perverbial s#*@ against the wall – not even hoping it will stick – but, in my view, plannning for all the “I told you so” sound bites down the road when the first disaster strikes. I’m a school teacher and one of the first lessons teachers learn is to be proactive instead of reactive. I honestly don’t believe Obama is being proactive by placating Republicans. We know that several of the top people in the Bush administration, including Bush himself, violated our laws and COMMITTED WAR CRIMES. I still find it umimaginable that I’m constantly feeling like I need to give President Obama advice about this. He can’t let Dick Cheney continue to run around bragging that he broke the law and daring Obama to “do something about it.” I believe President Obama “Should do something about it!” Now Cheney has his daughter out there defending torture. If we are less safe than we were after 9/11 TORTURE is the main reason why.

Tonight I heard a sound bite from Newt Gingrich suggesting that the American troops were in favor of torture – THIS IS ABSURD! Every person that I’ve talked to – 100% – who’s in the military says they hate that we are doing torture. What happens when they get captured. How are we going to condemn another country who violates the Geneva Conventions when we are leading the way. The reason for the Geneva Conventions was to prevent dictatorial, sadistic countries from violating the human rights of detainees – AND HERE WE ARE AT THE FRONT OF THE PACK! The Republican party is bankrupt and needs new leadership. We need two parties to make our system work. I’m no more in favor of total Democratic rule than I was of total Republican rule. It’s just that with Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney at the head of the party, the Republcans are in danger of becoming an afterthought. There wish – that something bad would happen to Obama – is not going to get them back in power. President Obama could do them and us a big favor by encouraging the prosecution of illegal torture – therefore getting Cheney out of the spotlight, and possibly Limbaugh with him. And we can look for more moderate Republicans who might be able to appeal to a larger number of Americans – like for instance – Colin Powell. I don’t think he wants to get into politics, but he could be a transforming figure for Republicans if he will continue to take the battle to Cheney and Limbaugh. I believe Powell “gets” that this is war going on internally with the right wing Republicans – and I wish I felt the same about Obama. Maybe President Obama is taking a more subtle approach to dealing with these guys than I would – I can always hope – but, as long as Dick Cheney is on the TV stations he hasn’t had to face up to the crimes he’s committed (remember, he even allegedly ran a “death squad” out of the Vice President’s office). While it’s true Cheney is no longer torturing “enemy combatants,” he’s busily torturing the rest of us with his lies!

I started writing on this “blog” – if that is what it is (so far, no comments from people who have read the posts) – because of my frustration with the direction of the United States of America which peaked (my frustration that is) during the reign of George W Bush/Dick Cheney in the early part of the 21st Century. Kind of like having a couple “Old Testament Guys” at the helm a few thousand years late. During this time my first daughter got married and had a grandchild (well, I think you get the point – she had a child, but I see everything from my own perspective :o) which really heightened my interest in the direction of our country and intensified the conviction I felt about the 30 years or so of silence I had “committed” since I became (originally) disgusted following the Viet Nam Fiasco (Fiasco #1 in my lifetime). Having become more of a realist with the “wisdom” of 60+ years of breathing, I have confined most of my “speaking out” to this venue and the lunchroom at the school where I work. And really, in respect to the other teachers who eat in that lunchroom, it’s really largely confined to this site.

All that being said, I was really hopeful when I “latched on” to the candidacy of Barack Obama during the election of 2008. I read his book (among about 25 books I read to get “re-informed” from my years of “hibernation”), I listened to his speeches, I believed his rhetoric, and I even sent him money. I got tears in my eyes the night he was elected President – called a Black friend of mine to tell him that I never thought I’d see the day this happened, but couldn’t get the words out of my mouth because I instantaneously realized my excitement and relief was miniscule compared to my friend who has spent a lifetime being discriminated against due to the color of his skin – this is a man who I wouldn’t be worthy to wear his shoes. The reality that HOPE was rekindled that day was almost overwhelming.

And I remember thinking that the opportunity was there for the first President of color to be one of the greatest Presidents of all time (despite what I may eventually write tonight – I still believe this). However, at the same time, I realized there would be tremendous opposition – much of it exactly for the reason I was so excited – Our President descended from an African – he is not white. As much as I hate this reason – I know it is there, and I have witnessed it lurching out in many forms since Obama moved into the White House. Those of us who have been watching politics for many years know some of the people with racist tendencies – for example the de-facto head of the Republican party, Rush Limbaugh is an overt racist. He’s practiced his “wares” on national TV and on his radio show repeatedly. The incident that comes to mind relates back to how Limbaugh somehow managed to get a spot on “Monday Night Football” and lasted about a week before making a racially insensitive remark about a Black quarterback. In fact, I figured that Obama is kind of in the same place as the first Black quarterback in the NFL – succeed or there might not be another Black quarterback (President) – because we have such a tendency to stereotype as Americans (probably as humans – I’m just more familiar with Americans – OK, I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right, I do the same thing – make stupid judgements about people). Worse than the overt racists are the stealthy ones, those “flying under the radar” who just can’t stand the idea that the “Commander in Chief” is of African descent. And, I believe there are many political leaders – members of Congress, governors, etc. – who fall into this category (including many Democrats!)

This gets me to one of the main reasons I say there are so many things to write about – which is the disastrous state of our Congress. It is also why I feel Obama has the opportunity to be a great President. I’m just a bit (actually a lot) concerned that he has his focus a bit tweeked – and the irony here is that what’s bothering me about President Obama is how he’s trying to stay focused by “looking forward” and doing things that are causing the very things he’s trying to avoid and possibly leading him to a “date” with disaster – at least in my “humble” opinion (I’m really trying to save all the “I told you so’s” until another time). Let me get back to the disastrous state of our Congress. First off, the Republicans have been reduced to a bunch of whining sheeplike creatures who are following a shepherd that talks to a national audience of “ditto heads” for three hours a day – and that’s about it. They’re finding themselves defending torture, the shredding of our constitution, the destruction of our middle class, and the public welfare of the largest banks in the country. They’re OK with bailing out banks, but they hate helping car companies who have union workers. They don’t want to pay any taxes, but they want more benefits – more and better roads and bridges, a stronger more violent military, more prisons, safer planes, and lower interest rates. They are opposed to abortion AND healthcare for children, and they favor the death penalty and unprovoked war. They don’t appear to have a single good idea aimed at fixing the MESS created by the Bush administration mostly because THEY’D LIKE TO DO MORE MESS CREATING.

Of course, then there’s the Democrats (if only there really was a third party out there – one with some guts). I think you can surmise from the last comment in parentheses what I think of the Democrats. First they took my money in the 2006 election giving me the FALSE IMPRESSION they we’re going to end the (endless) war in Iraq. The war that should have never begun, the war that has cost America some 4500 lives (who’s counting anymore? not apparently passe`), has cost Iraq about a million lives (not to mention the wounded, terrified, and displaced), and that everyone I know of voted in 2006 AND 2008 TO END! But, much to my chagrine, the war is still going on – and, in my opinion, much to Obama’s chagrine, OUR TROOPS DON’T SEEM TO BE COMING HOME AT ALL!(It’s almost June) Today, the Democrats joined Republicans in refusing to fund the closing of GITMO because as Harry Reid said, “You can’t move terrorists without releasing them.” Huh? I’m not sure what the guy’s drinking, but personally, if I was worried about moving them, I’d shackle em up pretty tight – JUST TO BE SAFE. Put them in a prison cell next to Charles Manson – and maybe do an experiment to see who is more nuts (probably the “terrorists” if they’ve been through enough of Cheney’s Marqui de Sade impersonations (forgive me if I’m getting a little twisted here, but I keep getting visions of the Abu Ghraib photos – and now we know who cooked those ideas up). Getting back to the Democrats, they have no problem voting against Obama on the GITMO issue, apparently trying to show how “strong” they are on “national security,” but where was all this courage when they could have voted against Bush and ended the Iraqi occupation about 1500 American lives ago. And, of course, then there’s Nancy Pelosi, who will go down in infamy for saying “Impeachment is off the table” regarding a President that SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED! Personally, I too want to know what Pelosi knew about torture. (If you’ve been watching the news lately, the Republicans are trying to blame torture on her to deflect the blame from where it belongs – but I’m OK with finding out whether or not she should have been speaking up about this) Between Reid and Pelosi, if the Democrats can’t come up with something better than that, well – we all are hurting!

And this is where my concern for Obama comes in. Right now in our history, we DESPARATELY NEED A STRONG LEADER! We don’t need another pragmatist in the White House. We need someone with a clear vision of what is right for this nation and is prepared to fight for it. Today’s vote on the closing of GITMO should have just assured Obama that he’s in for the fight of the century. These Congress people remind me so much of my sixth grade students (usually, I reserve that honor specifically for Republicans, but tonight I’m throwing the whole Congress in) – everything needs to be BLACK AND WHITE for these guys. They specialize in the grey area – by the time they get done with an issue virtually no one benefits from their results – so that we are stuck in this seemingly endless cycle of the STATUS QUO. Personally, I’m looking for something better than that – and for this to happen, President Obama needs to make a clear SPLIT FROM THE PAST! This would require a lot of COURAGE. However, I’m very certain that his “first hundred days” are leading us right back to where we started – with a slight tweak in direction. (If Obama can get the healthcare legislation and energy legislation through, I’ll maybe recant a bit)

Yes, I’m happy about some of the accomplishments and many of the goals. But, I’ll tell you what I think is the problem – and if you’ve been on this site much before tonight, what’s coming next shouldn’t surprise you too much. First, I understand that getting the economy “back on track” is a priority, BUT – if we end up where we were (cow-towing to Wall Street and the major corporations) we’re just putting off the inevitable. I say, we’ve created this mess, let’s fix it now instead of putting it off on our children (and here, I could talk about many things, but I’ll save the specifics for another evening). I’m seeing way too much GW Bush in the Obama administration. I hate to even say that, because I know that President Obama is a much better man and more honorable man than President Bush – but the evidence is mounting in a way that is not favorable from my perspective (I’ve written Obama about this, and just as I would have expected from Bush, got no reply – even from some flunkee who reads the email messages). Let me list the problems: as stated above, it’s almost June (soon to be six months in office) and I haven’t heard of one troop coming home from Iraq – maybe they’re coming home, but I haven’t heard about it and believe me, I’m tying to hear about this because I want us out of there in the WORST WAY! Second, and I’m now hearing others speaking out about this – the US government is continuing the warrantless wiretapping policy of the Bush administration, the FISA bill hasn’t been “fixed” (and I’ve heard little talk about fixing it), and Obama’s justice department has taken up the torch of the Bush administration defending this utterly defenseless policy. Third, THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION BUSH/CHENEY/RUMSFELD/RICE/TENET/ADDINGTON/ and others authorized torture and many members of the military, the CIA, and some reports suggest “contractors” carried out ILLEGAL TORTURE. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS and President Obama is stubbornly refusing to honor his PLEDGE TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION AND FAITHFULLY ENFORCE THE LAWS OF THE LAND. Fourth, we are “surging” in Afganistan with a seemingly pointless campaign which is killing more American troops and Afganistan civilians than terrorists – apparently continuing the pointless “nation building” premise of the “Bush doctrine.” And finally, our justice department seems to be helpless in actually enforcing the laws of the land if the perpetrator is someone “important” in Washington DC. Today it was reported that President Obama responded a bit angrily when a group of “liberal” human rights advocates “called” him on his Bush-like policies advising him that if he continued the present direction he would be assuming ownership of these policies. HE DIDN’T LIKE THIS SUGGESTION. But let me end here be saying something that grieves me and I couldn’t believe I’d be saying it four plus months ago: President Obama, you are in danger of taking ownership of Bush administration follies!

I keep telling myself that we aren’t as stupid as the Republicans think we are. And, by us, I mean the American people in general. However, it is obvious that there is a bunch of “us” who don’t pay too much attention to what is “going on,” and rely on others for their information. In fact, many of my Christian friends say they hate politics and they just don’t pay attention to it. Personally, I think that would be for the better, except that there is a small number of “Right Wing” politicians who have “snagged” (my word) these Christian’s votes by making a public spectacle about abortion. (Please don’t get me wrong here – this post is not about abortion and personally I can’t find any way to look at abortion as something other than taking a human life – it has been an issue which has grieved me since before Roe v Wade, because I knew of people who considered abortion nothing more than birth control of last resort – this was before it was “legal” – I’ll talk about all that at another time). The problem I have with the abortion issue is with the Christians who don’t pay attention to the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say – and end up supporting politicians who do things like torture people, invade people’s privacy in violation of the constitution, start illegal wars, and generally support legislation which “bludgeons” the middle class. The irony here is that most of these Christians are members of the middle class.

I’m saying this because the rhetoric of the Republicans who appear to be the “leaders” of this seemingly leaderless party is getting more absurd all the time. And yet, there is always the “base” which seems to be willing to go to the “tank” with these guys. And, apparently the “base” is made up mostly of conservative Christians – many of my friends included. I go to church with these people and I honestly have no idea how they can connect what we learn in church with the reality of what these Republican hypocrits are spewing out each and every day. I have come to appreciate Keith Olberman who has a show on MSNBC every weekday evening and he’s about the only one out there who is willing to take these thugs on face up (well, now they have Rachel Maddow who is doing the same). Despite their obvious “bias” – I find the information on their shows about the closest thing I can find to people trying to report what is actually going on out there (they do not give Obama and the Democrats a “free pass”). For those of you who watch Fox “News” – you might try these guys. I was forced to watch Fox for several months after I discontinued my satellite TV service because it was the only channel that wasn’t stopped. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was watching people who portrayed themselves as purveyors of the news yet they were apparently caucusing with Republicans because their rhetoric was completely parallel to what I was hearing from the Republican politicians. In the six months I watched that station I learned to put Sean Hannity in the same light – or possibly lower if that’s possible – with Rush Limbaugh – the man who I believe has perfected the art of lying on the public airwaves – always to further the propoganda machine of the Republican party.

Well, these guys are getting more absurd all the time. Now we’ve got Limbaugh as the apparent “head” of the party, there’s Dick Cheney running around trying to convince everyone that torture is what has kept us safe for the past 7 and 1/2 years, there’s John Boehner saying that Barack Obama’s policies make him “sick to his stomach,” there’s Alan Keyes (and others) claiming that Obama is a Communist, and it goes on and on. I read today that the Republicans have garnered pledges in the millions to fight Obama’s Supreme Court nominee – it doesn’t matter who it is, they are going to make a battle of it – trying to rile up this “base” – and I GUARANTEE YOU – the debate will center on abortion. (these people have watched quietly as over a million people have died as a direct result of devious decisions made by George Bush – but they will continue to support him because he was against abortion!) They are prepared for a major fight over Obama’s health care proposals which would create a government run health care insurance plan which would compete with the private insurers. The Republicans are opposed to this – not because of the benefits it would have on millions of Americans, especially the ones who don’t have or can’t get health insurance – but because they’re worried millions of Americans who are presently insured with private companies – such as Blue Cross (where I’m insured) – will switch due to the private companies inability to “compete” with the government plan.

These Republicans have tried to “twist” the debate on torture around so that the focus is on Nancy Pelosi – kind of like “you get my guy and I’ll get you” type of philosophy. The problem with that logic is there’s probably a lot of progressives who feel just as I do. INVESTIGATE THE TORTURE ISSUE – COMPLETELY, AND LET THE CARDS FALL WHERE THEY MAY! If Nancy Pelosi did something she shouldn’t have – then I have no different feelings toward her than I do for Dick Cheney. Let everything come out – THIS IS A MUST FOR THE FUTURE HEALTH OF THIS NATION – not to mention the necessity of this happening before we can even hope to regain our “moral authority” with the rest of the world. And, the other thing these Republicans are miscalculating on – they are attempting to give Obama a series of ZERO’S on major legislative votes in an attempt to lead his administration into “failure.” I believe in the process the only thing they’re accomplishing is shrinking their own “base.” Personally, I don’t believe the American people are stupid – and I believe as the economy continues to contract – more and more people are starting to “pay attention.” They are beginning to see these Republicans for what they are – nothing more than irresponsible obstructionists.

Still another thing they’re miscalculating, in my view, is that “Progressives” are like the sheep that Republicans are so proud of being. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe there are many other people out there who voted for Obama, like myself, who are not automatically going to support everything he does. In fact, I firmly believe that Obama’s “looking forward, instead of backward” is kind of blowing up in his face and it will soon be changed. The only people I’m hearing (now) who support that approach are the moderate Republicans who have begun to lean toward Obama due to the “ridiculous rhetoric” coming from the leaders of the Republican “leadership” (Limbaugh, Cheney, Boehner, et al – ughh!) at this time. The longer Obama waits to start “investigating” the Bush administration the worse the blowback will be. In my view, the simple truth is – the Bush administration MUST BE FULLY INVESTIGATED. Their crimes were too egregious and there were too many of them to just “look the other way” – that’s what is really being said when Obama says “looking forward.”

The arrogance of the Bush administration was off the charts and I believe that the “secrets” will continue to come out for (probably) years to come. Obama would be wise to accelerate the problem this causes him as he tries to push through his agenda by appointing a special prosecutor and getting it over with. Then, he possibly could concentrate on the issues at hand. It has been reported that President Obama is going to meet soon with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and there might be an agreement where Israel would support the formation of a Palestinian state. Now, with Israel, we shouldn’t get too excited because there will always be caveats that the Palestinians won’t accept – but this could be a MAJOR HISTORICAL announcement. Yet, I can virtually guarantee that the Republicans will find a way to say this is due to something they have done in the past – and, at the news conference to announce this, there will be questions that relate to torture and whether or not Obama is going to support prosecution of those who authorized it and carried it out. My point: The sooner President Obama supports an investigation of the Bush administration the sooner he can get on with fixing all the stuff Bush and company screwed up!

I guess the thing that is really “bugging” me is the fact that these Republicans just WON’T SHUT UP! If you’ve read any of my previous posts you would know that I believe that having a “viable” opposition party is PARAMOUNT to the success of our republic. The practical solution to that problem is the Republican party, but if the leadership continues to be Limbaugh, Hannity, Cheney, and these governors who are proposing succession from the Union (presumably because we have a Black President – well, half “Black”) – maybe it’s time for the Green Party or some other group to step forward and challenge the Democrats. I know that I would support a party that was willing to firmly adhere to our constitution (no warrantless wiretapping of our people no matter who attacks us, no torture, and no refusals to testify before Congress when issued a subpoena among other things). There are many other Americans who feel just as I do that this idea that we can decide whether or not to prosecute illegal activity is HOGWASH! President Obama doesn’t have much time to figure this out – he will soon start losing support from his “base” in droves – if he doesn’t deliver on the “Change we want to believe in.” There are too many decisions being made that resemble the Bush administration – THIS IS BAD! So far, no troops have come home from Iraq, the warrantless wiretapping continues (that hasn’t even made the “evening” news yet), and the Republicans are twisting the torture issue around on the Democrats (ie – Nancy Pelosi). President Obama, the real war that needs to be won is a “war within!” There is nothing the Republicans won’t say in order to destroy the your administration! They (the Republicans) believe that you, President Obama, don’t have the courage to prosecute them!

I really wasn’t going to write tonight, but I came home from school and who was right in the middle of my TV screen when I turned on Keith Olberman’s show but Dick Cheney. And what he was saying was not only incredible, it REALLY BRINGS UP SOME GOOD POINTS! If you didn’t see it, not only was Dick Cheney continuing his defense of torture – BLATANTLY CONFESSING THAT HE’S A WAR CRIMINAL RIGHT ON NATIONAL TV (I guess this happened on Face the Nation on Sunday June 10th, Mark it down! – but he also clearly implicated George W Bush! When Cheney was finished there could be no doubt that the order to torture came right from the desk of George Bush with the total complicity of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Tenet, Rove, Rice, Addington, and others “down the line.” More than “outing” his former boss (of course everyone knew this anyway – in fact Bush has admitted to authorizing waterboarding himself – it’s just the principle of this thug Cheney – I need to come up with a better word, because the man has NO principles!) Cheney went on to call for a full investigation of the torturing program – which he thinks will prove that torture is what “kept us safe” for 7 years.

As incredible as all this seems to me – surrealistic is a better way to put it – sometimes I think I’m in the middle of a bad dream. Dreaming that MY COUNTRY TORTURES people and then I wake up and there’s Cheney admitting to torturing people. It’s not a dream, these guys actually did all these horrible things they’ve been accused of. And for all the lying that Cheney did during his 8 years as Vice President, it sounds like he’s finally telling the truth. Probably because the truth is coming out whether he likes it or not, so now he has to go on the defensive to protect his interests which include a massive bank account “garnered” by funneling billions upon billions of dollars of no-bid contracts to Halliburton – one of the multi-national corporations which is happy to take mega tax dollars for jobs either poorly done or not done at all at the expense of our troops in Iraq – yet moved to Dubai in order to avoid paying a dime in taxes to the US and also to avoid potential prosecution for shoddy work in Iraq and Afganistan. Work that endangered the health and safety of the very troops Dick Cheney, George Bush, and the others were so willing to proclaim they were “supporting.”

And not that I want to get sidetracked here, but to give a little more “background” on the veracity of Cheney – the man that Rush Limbaugh is now proclaiming to “love his country” (these guys are such prolific liars that they believe their own lies before the words come out of their mouths) – let’s look at Cheney as CEO of Halliburton. Now, I don’t have a single statistic in front of me and I’m just using the logic and inferential skills I try to teach my SIXTH GRADERS – but Cheney had done nothing in the “private sector” prior to being named CEO at Halliburton that would indicate that he could run an oil services business. What he had done was head up the Pentagon and he knew the “ropes” on how to get cushy government contracts – you know the ones where the government pays a couple thousand dollars for a toilet seat and “deals” like that. I dare anyone out there – again, I’ll state that I don’t have a single statistic in front of me – to provide evidence that would refute what I believe is the inevitable result of Cheney being Halliburton’s CEO – and that is GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS (especially no-bid contracts) HAVE INCREASED EXPONENTIALLY SINCE HE TOOK OVER! I’ll even bet that the increase in government contracts didn’t slow down a bit once he became Vice President. The man has NO SHAME whatsoever – if anyone actually has the guts to fully investigate this crook, I believe what they find out will turn Dick Cheney into one of the most despised men in American history (and I’m pretty certain that Donald Rumsfeld will be right there with him should he be investigated as well).

Back to tonight’s “saga” on TV. Does anyone else out there find it interesting that Cheney is calling for an investigation and the Democrats – especially President Obama aren’t? As I’ve stated before, I believe with all my heart that President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and the Congress of the United States are obligated to give Cheney his wish. Not only that, he should be called before Congress and forced to testify about torture and a host of other allegations – UNDER OATH! Remember, Cheney doesn’t like to do anything under oath. The man clearly “outed” Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA agent – a treasonous offense – everyone knows this, yet Congress refuses to investigate. Him and George Bush conspired to lie our country into a war of choice against a nation that posed NO THREAT to us – the first time in our history such a premeditated act has been committed, hundreds of thousands of people (by some accounts over a million) are dead because of this – and yet no investigation or accountability. Cheney, I’m sure of it, was behind the warrantless wiretapping (which is still going on – by the way) of millions of Americans which is a HUGE PILE of felonies if you take the law literally – unfortunately, our Justice Department apparently doesn’t take the laws seriously when the crimes are committed by high government officials – kind of like they do in THIRD WORLD NATIONS!

God Bless President Obama, I hope with all my heart that he turns the economy “around,” and I wish he didn’t have “so much on his plate.” But, the reality is that he does have so much “on his plate” and he has no choice but to act on this stuff or face the consequences of inaction. While President Obama is “reaching out” to Republicans, I guarantee you they are trying to figure out how to “stab him in the back.” Inaction regarding these clear offenses against the international laws against torture, not to mention our own laws against torture (remember, we were the driving force behind the Geneva Conventions) – plus looking the other way for all the other “stuff” will be a blight against Obama’s Presidency forever! If I could talk to him I would plead that he act decisively and quickly. I know he feels that “looking forward and not backward” will prevent us from going through a bitter fight as a nation, but I GUARANTEE YOU THAT LOOKING THE OTHER WAY WILL BE WAY WORSE AND WILL DIVIDE THIS NATION EVEN MORE. The Cheney position is INDEFENSIBLE. The idea of looking the other way is INDEFENSIBLE. All of the allegations of the Bush years need to get a full public AIRING! This stuff needs to ALL COME OUT – The health of our nation depends on it. Please President Obama, give Dick Cheney what he wants – a full criminal investigation of the Bush administration’s authorization of torture!

I would like to end there, but Cheney did something else that was beyond the “pale” tonight, and it put an exclamation point on where the Republican party is at present (and, keep in mind, despite my disgust with Republicans at this point, I’m really pulling for the party to get their act together – get rid of these tired old thugs who are seemingly in charge – we need an actual conservative party to challenge the Democrats – but they’ve got to have at least a bit of integrity. A couple days ago, I purchased “Conscience of a Conservative” by Barry Goldwater – I haven’t read this book for 40 years and I just wanted to see if my memory is that bad, or have these guys really strayed that far from where conservatives were in the 60’s – that book gave me my perspective on “conservative” and I don’t recognize any of it in ANY OF THE REPUBLICAN LEADERS!). While I believe Colin Powell allowed himself to be “used” in the run-up to the Iraq War, and he hasn’t spoken out like I believe he should have once the “truth” was known (the guy’s a soldier, and I believe he just couldn’t bring himself to be insubordinate to the “commander in chief”) he is one member of the Republican party I can respect. Tonight I actually heard Dick Cheney say he would prefer Rush Limbaugh as a Republican to Colin Powell. Of course, Powell came out in support of Barack Obama during the last Presidential Campaign – and, true to his nature, Limbaugh couldn’t give Powell the intellectual respect he deserves and stated that Powell’s decision wasn’t based on his judgement that Obama was the best candidate, but was based solely on race. Well, anyone who’s listened to Limbaugh at all (you don’t have to listen to him for an extended period of time to figure this out) knows he is a racist thru and thru. Powell has served as a General of Generals (can’t remember the exact title right now) for a Republican president, Secretary of State for George W Bush, he’s a decorated war hero (remember neither Cheney nor Limbaugh ever served a day in the military) and I’m convinced Powell could have been the Republican nominee for President had he wanted to run – the guy is the one Republican left with any credentials that might include honor – and Cheney is willing to “trade” him for Rush Limbaugh! Really, THAT SAYS IT ALL!

There’s an old saying that goes something like “When your neighbor is out of work, it’s a recession; when you’re out of work, it’s a depression.” I’ve been thinking of that saying as news of the Republican governors who have “refused” “stimulus” money which was earmarked toward unemployment benefits during a time when national unemployment is approaching 10% has surfaced. And, of course, anyone who’s paid any type of attention over the years to these unemployment statistics knows that unemployment is terribly under-reported. That is, many people have already exhausted their benefits and are no longer “statistics” by the time things accelerate in the wrong direction during recessions. Also, anyone who’s less than around 80 years old realizes that the recession we’re in is the most severe since the 1930’s and the Great Depression. And, to make matters worse, we’re not out of the “woods” yet, although there are some encouraging signs – but the reality is that the federal government has pumped a HUGE amount of corporate welfare into the system – AIMED DIRECTLY AT WALL STREET – in an attempt to mitigate the reckless behavior of the large Wall Street Corporations which precipitated this severe downturn.

Another unreported “fact” about recessions is that when the unemployment figures approach 10% as they’re doing now, you can bet that the unemployment rate for Blacks and other minority groups is much higher. I’m pointing this all out because I find it “par for the course” watching these Republican governors “refusing” federal assistance for the unemployed in their states. We’re talking about a bunch of governors who have their eyes set on the Republican nomination for President in 2012 – and evidently, what’s left of the Republican party has no sympathy whatsoever for the people who are losing their jobs by the millions in this country. I guess their jobs (these governors and their constituents) are secure (although I hope I’m wrong about that – I sincerely hope that the people in their states vote them out at the next opportunity) and they could care less about the vulnerable in their states. We’re talking about Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindahl, Mark Sanford, and Rick Perry. These people are also talking about succeeding from the union – the term for that is sedition and it’s a treasonous offense (although, evidently we’ve evolved to the place in this country where if you’re in an elected office you don’t have to follow the law).

And, make no mistake about it, the backbone of the Republican party is the “Christian Right” (I call it the Christian Wrong) and the corporate heads who only believe in welfare if they’re getting it. I mean, these guys fought the “stimulus” bill tooth and nail, with nary a Republican voting for it in the house and only 3 in the Senate – after they had weakened it sufficiently for them to be able to vote yes. (and, of course, that vote brought Arlen Specter into the Democratic caucus so we now have a twin for Joe Lieberman – ughhhh!). So, these people will take government “handouts” by the trillions if it allows them to continue with business as usual on Wall Street, but they won’t give the homeowners a break who are losing their houses to foreclosure and they don’t want people to be able to collect extended unemployment benefits because of some mysterious “principle.” The reality is that the Republican party proved long ago that the only principle they have is skimming as much money out of the system as they can without putting anything back – ie no taxes! How these people get anyone who is an average person to vote for them is beyond me.

Well, now that I think about it, they’ve had a brainwashing program going on for about 25 years with the right wing “talkers” on the radio, the right wing “pundits” on TV who get their info right out of the Republican caucus (OK, I know that the Dems are guilty of this as well, they’re just not nearly as sophisticated as the republicans), and the politicians who are such incredibly GOOD (of course I really mean BAD) liars! Again, I’m not in love with the Democrats – but the Republicans take this self-serving hypocracy to another level. The biggest problem I have with the Democrats is that they are all too willing to go along with this garbage. They allowed George Bush to bully them around for 8 years, evidently afraid of what the public would think if they stood up for their own principles. And, all I can say at this point is I hope these governors (I wanted to put a descriptive adjective in front of the previous word, but it was going to be pretty ugly so I decided to let anyone who might read this put their own adjective there) are forced to publicly defend their decisions ON A NATIONAL SCALE – since they are all considering a run for President. I’m sure they are thinking that they can solidify their “base” by making some kind of “stand” which only effects poor people – who aren’t their constituency anyway.

Just for fun, let me make a suggestion to anyone out there who might be a Republican and also a Christian. LET THESE PEOPLE KNOW WHAT JERKS THEY ARE. It would be a lot better if they heard it from you. And, if the Republcans themselves, especially the ones who consider themselves Christians, actually started to act like people who believe in the teachings of Jesus, maybe we could actually have a two party system again. Stop and think about it – for eight years (and if you’re a Republican – and you have any capacity for the truth at all – you know what I’m saying here is true) we have listened to Republicans accuse anyone who wasn’t “on board” with Bush’s illegal war, his wiretapping, his torture, his outing a CIA agent, his destruction of the very government we all depend on – get called words like traitor or “enemy combatant.” In fact, I believe when the truth of what was happening during the Bush years comes out – the illegal wiretapping info will show that, just as in the Nixon years, the political “enemies” were being wiretapped without warrants. Now these people, when faced with a President (Obama) who is – and if you’ve read many posts on this site you know that I have my issues with him – trying to restore the middle class in this country – which is the backbone to our strength as a nation – they’re calling for succession from the union. UNBELIEVABLE!

When all is said and done with this present “downturn” I believe we will discover that there has been exactly what John McCain and Sarah Palin made a big push to smear Barack Obama about during the campaign and that is there has been a tremendous “redistribution of wealth.” Remember “Joe the Plumber?” You know, the guy who was really named Samuel Wurzelbacher (or something like that) who was thrust into “star status” among Republicans through one of John McCain’s desperation attempts at connecting to “the average Joe” – he made it into infamy by lying to President Obama during the campaign in an attempt to claim he would be hurt by Obama’s proposed increase in taxes for those making over a quarter of a million dollars (Unbelievable as it might seem, this guy – who is anything but an “expert,” was treated as such at actual official Republican events – NATIONAL EVENTS!). The Republicans latched onto that as a way to call Obama a Socialist (actually I heard Allan Keyes of all people referring to Obama as a Communist). I wish I could put this in a softer, gentler way – BUT THESE GUYS ARE LYING IDIOTS! Unfortunately, they have people like Rush Limbaugh cheering them on to his audience of supposedly 20 million listeners who call themselves “ditto heads” which I presume means they can’t think for themselves – so, of all people, they let Rush do their thinking for them. THIS IS SAD! The truth is that Wall Street is getting an infusion of tax dollars that I’ve heard will amount to something close to 11 trillion – so, this will be the largest redistribution of wealth in the history of the world – it will just be in a direction that none of the rank and file Republicans has a clue about (and, unfortunately, I’m aftaid not too many Democrats either).

To sum it up. Republicans are going to do everything they can to keep the unemployed workers in America from getting extended benefits – a program that, in its entirety, might amount to 30 or 40 billion dollars – based on my budget, a lot of money to be sure. But compared to the bailout of Wall Street, it – as they say – AINT EVEN A DROP IN THE BUCKET. When all is said and done, based on what I’m seeing as the direction we seem to be taking – the average American worker will be happy to get a job with a lower pay scale than the one they lost – or keep the job they have with a reduction in salary and/or benefits – while the companies who are “too big to allow to fail” will be chugging along as if nothing happened – still paying out the huge salaries for their top execs along with the huge RETENTION bonuses – because these execs are too important to lose – and the argument will be whether or not this recession was the “big one” or not. We’ll still be measuring the health of “Main Street” by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the American worker’s wages and benefits will still be declining. The large Wall Street corporations will be able to “thrive” on the infusion of cash they’re receiving during this crisis and Republicans will be saying that Obama was “lucky” and the recovery was the result of policies initiated by the Bush administration. This scenario is too absurd to even use it as a story line for a novel – YET IT IS REPUBLICAN REALITY. And it may be too late to prevent this from becoming American reality. Sometimes I just think the Republicans are totally stupid, but then I think everything with them is calculated. So, in summary here, while all these governors are acting like idiots, while the rest of us are focused on the absurd proposals and comments they are making – The so-called “Free Market” devotees are bilking our treasury for something like eleven trillion dollars! (and getting away with it!)

I’ve been hearing quite a bit of discussion about the fact President Obama is soon to appoint his first Supreme Court nomination. Of course, from right wing Republicans what we’ve heard from the first moment this opening was apparent is that they oppose the President’s nomination (they obviously have been preparing their “fight” since Obama won the election, knowing that he’s going to get at least two members on the court in just his first term). They are against the nomination of a liberal judge who will “legislate from the bench” from one source I was reading, and another said, “we oppose President Obama’s choice of another activist judge who will intrude on the rights of individual Americans.” Now, what is fascinating about both of these comments is that they came from official Republican sources and both of them were made BEFORE ANYONE WAS NOMINATED! I haven’t even tried to get the perspective of the Limbaugh’s and the Hannity’s out there – these Republicans make me sick – they’re in opposition to everything BEFORE IT EVEN HAPPENS! These comments come from the same people who supported and used the court in order to over-rule the will of the people to stop the recount in Florida in December of 2000, thereby handing the 43rd Presidency of the United States to one George W Bush. And the rest, as they say, is history.

As I’ve stated before – the part of that scenario which doesn’t bother me is that Joe Lieberman would have been Vice President had the court stayed out of it like they should have. Now, if you could ask me to name one politician out there who could possibly be as bad a Vice President as Dick Cheney, I would have to say Joe Lieberman. I can’t even remember the debates between Lieberman and Cheney, but considering what has happened since that election, they should go down in infamy. As much as I don’t like George W Bush, I believe with all my being that his Presidency would have been SO MUCH different had he chosen someone else to be his Vice President (and probably so much better for us all – history will show how many of the “culprits” to the Bush administration’s lawbreaking were Cheney appointees – and how many truly HORRIBLE decisions were Cheney decisions). Cheney, AKA Darth Vader, the man who was “lurking” in the background and either overtly or covertly running things during the first 6 years of Bush’s Presidency is showing his true colors as he continues his not so subtle attempt at “whitewashing” the historical record of his term as VP. Many of the documents he felt were essential to keep secret he now wants published, claiming they will prove that torture “works.” Today, I heard excerpts from another interview where he admits to not only authorizing torture, but ordering it to be used. He was explaining the required circumstances which had to exist for “waterboarding” to be appropriate. In essence, once again he admitted in public that he had authorized and encouraged the use of torture, and more importantly – HE IS NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST REMORSEFUL FOR DOING SO! And, this guy continues to go around attempting to play his part in the Republican’s strategy of undermining the Presidency of Barack Obama.

Cheney, along with Limbaugh – the apparent leader of the Republican party – Hannity, and a host of Republican congressional “leaders,” are trying to convince the American public that either waterboarding is not torture or, if it is, it’s OK for the United States to use it because, well, because…………. because we’re the United States! Wow, WHAT AN INTELLECTUALLY BANKRUPT DEFENSE. Cheney and his cohorts – meaning those who are supporting him – are busily lobbying congress and the Justice department to add fuel to the fire as far as our (the United States) abuses of the Geneva Conventions. There is apparently a justice department memo that is the result of an internal investigation, which slaps the hands of the lawyers who justified what everyone knows is a war crime – apparently using the “If the President does it, it’s not a crime” logic to their argument, that is about to be released and which is being “modified” because of lobbying from the very Bush appointees who are under investigation. That is, people like John Yoo and Jay Bybee have been able to see the results of this investigation and respond to it prior to its being made public. To me, if this is true, it’s just further evidence that this country is “GOING TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET.”

I think the part about this that bothers me the most is that large numbers of “Christians” are supporting the position of Dick Cheney and the others on his “side.” I find this about as repulsive as it gets. All you have to do is read the Bybee memo which describes the “waterboarding” they were doing and then read the definition of torture as per the United Nations conventions WHICH WE WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN GETTING ESTABLISHED AS PART OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, to realize – in just the case of this one “technique,” AND THERE WERE MANY SEEMINGLY AS GRUESOME – the Bush administration committed torture. It is clear that not only the lawyers who “justified” waterboarding and other horrible acts as “legal” are guilty, but both George W Bush and Dick Cheney have admitted on national TV (Cheney multiple times) that they authorized what amounted to WAR CRIMES, David Addington is guilty, Alberto Gonzales is guilty, Donald Rumsfeld is guilty, Condoleeza Rice is guilty, George Tenet (the head of the CIA at the time) is guilty, Karl Rove is probably at least an accessory to the fact, and who knows who else is guilty. For my Christian brothers and sisters out there, there’s no way you can convince me that Jesus would put someone in a coffin size box with a bunch of insects and close the lid for any period of time, let alone extended periods of time – or any number of the other “techniques” in question here!

And, I’ll take it a step further. For all of the people out there who would claim someone with my perspctive is on a partisan “witch hunt” I will say right here and now that if President Obama continues his policy of “looking forward and not backward” he will become guilty. He is REQUIRED under the international law to prosecute when WAR CRIMES are committed if he has knowlege of this. EVERYONE WHO’S NOT GOT THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND IN AMERICA HAS KNOWLEDGE OF THIS! This is not a partisan witch hunt, it is a requirement under international law (not that our own laws should be applied to everyone but high government officials – they should be prosecuted under these laws as well) that War Criminals be PROSECUTED! THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION! And taking the same logic the Marines used on my son when he witnessed someone doing something they shouldn’t have been doing and didn’t report it – if there are members of Congress who knew about this – Nancy Pelosi included – they should have to go home! Charges shouldn’t be filed against them, but they should no longer be Congress men or women. As citizens, we are depending on these people – President Obama and members of Congress – more than anyone else in our country to UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION! That is the oath they take when accepting the responsibility of their office.

So, getting back to my first point this evening, when selecting a Supreme Court justice, I have several “hopes” regarding President Obama. First, I hope that he DOESN’T LISTEN TO REPUBLICANS OR TRY TO BE BIPARTISAN! Their idea of a good judge would be the five judges who voted to decide the 2000 election against the will of the people. And, if the actual vote totals ever become publicly known, EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT Bush v Gore will go down in history as maybe the WORST decision ever made by the court (as one who firmly believes that abortion is the taking of a human life, I believe this decision is far worse than Roe v Wade for many reasons which there’s not time to get into tonight). Second, knowing the Republicans have already “panned” your choice and are geared up to fight it no matter who it is, Please Mr. Obama don’t try to compromise with them. Give them something to fight about – nominate a judge that is truly going to “get” that the government is not here for the “few” but the “many.” You have to give George W Bush credit for finding two bull-headed pro-business conservatives in Roberts and Alito who will be on the court for many years to come voting on behalf of Bush’s constituency which is largely made up of corporate heads and fundamentalist Christians (please don’t get me wrong here, I’m a Christian – I just have a different perspective on the teachings of Jesus than these guys) – President Obama, nominate a progressive judge that will be counterbalancing these guys FOR YEARS TO COME. And finally, nominate someone who will stand firmly behind the constitution – someone who will vote against the government intruding on the privacy of its citizens (I know this one will be hard for you Mr. Obama, seeing as how you’re still wiretapping us), someone who will never give away the right of habeous corpus, someone who will support three co-equal branches of government and will not tolerate ANYONE refusing to answer subpoenas – ESPECIALLY FROM CONGRESS – and someone who does not adhere to the ridiculously dangerous idea that “If the President does it, it must be legal.”

Fixing the economy is on most people’s minds right now. And, personally, I’m following what is going on in that regard probably more than I should – considering, as a sixth grade teacher, it’s getting close to the end of the year and, as they say on the farm during the hot August summer days, “There’s lots to do!” But, I’ll say this again (If you’ve been on this site before, I’m very passionate about the constitution) the economy will eventually heal no matter what the President does – the question with that is how long will it take to be in a state of “prosperity” again (at least statistically) – but these critical legal precedents, almost all of them the result of the Bush administrations abuses of our constitution, will stand for (possibly) generations to come. My son is in the process of becoming a US Marine (and what a process it is) and how are we going to defend him from being tortured by others, (God forbid) should he be captured on the field of battle, IF WE ARE JUSTIFYING TORTURE? If we don’t do the “right thing” here (and we’re depending on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to make sure that happens) we have added another chapter of SHAME to the history books of the United States. Our citizens are led to believe that we are the country in the world which stands for “HUMAN RIGHTS,” yet we have lawyers telling “interrogators” to have a doctor standing by to give detainees a tracheotomy in order to keep them from dying after being waterboarded – because DYING WOULD BE TORTURE! I honestly can’t believe I’m even feeling compelled to write about garbage like that actually being condoned by our government. The new supreme court justice should be someone who is willing to apply the laws AS THEY ARE WRITTEN to all citizens, he/she should be asked to make his/her views clear on torture and our constitutional guarantees, such as the 1st, 2nd, and 4th amendments to the constitution (not that other parts aren’t relevent as well), and should be someone who REALLY RILES UP THE REPUBLICANS. If President Obama nominates someone who is palatable to Limbaugh et al (that is, the Republican party) to the Supreme Court, WE ALL LOSE IN THE END!

As I’ve mentioned before, I really feel a bit uneasy giving President Obama “advice” which could be construed as me “pulling” my support from him. The reason I’m so uneasy about this is I don’t see another alternative besides the Republican party – which is really in a pathetic state right now. That being said, there is no doubt that I am leaning toward pulling my support from the President. I’ve been watching politics closely for over 40 years – waiting for someone to FINALLY come along who is not either afraid of or bought off by the huge corporations who have essentially taken control of our system of government. It kind of reminds me of what was called the “Jordan Rules” in the NBA a few years ago when the referrees were clearly tilted toward helping the success of the “Main man” of their league. Michael Jordan was fueling the resurgence in popularity of professional basketball and everyone basically seemed to go along with it because they all profited from the revenue generated through Jordan’s success. Just as we Americans have gone along with the “pampering” of Wall Street because its success seemed to indicate that our economy was “strong.”

We have evolved to the point where the large corporations are generating so much revenue that buying off congress persons is a cheap way to protect their respective places in whatever market they are in. In the process we have propped up corporations which have now been determined to be “too big to fail.” I’m watching the resultant “bailouts,” “rescues,” “bridge loans,” and who knows what will be next as we try to save our system which is essentially a huge bubble that is bursting. I fully understand that President Obama has assumed the highest office in the land in the absolute worst of times to be President. I believe history will determine that his challenges far exceed those of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s challenges in the 1930’s. Not only does Obama have the challenge of trying to figure out how to “fix” the problems he inherited, but he has to do so with an opposition party that has no desire whatsoever to participate in the process. To make matters worse, he feels that now is the time to find a way to bridge the chasm that has developed between the two major political parties in this great nation – which, as I’ve stated several times before on this site, I believe to be his major problem.

The part that bothers me the most about what is driving my potential “defection” is that it’s due to issues that shouldn’t even come into play here. The issues of torture, illegal wiretapping, politicization of the Justice Department, lying us into war, and outing a CIA agent among others are legal issues that Obama’s Justice Department should be quietly handling in a way that clearly demonstrates to our own citizens and to the rest of the world that we are a nation of laws. Obama could discreetly direct his Attorney General (he shouldn’t even have to do that – Eric Holder should just investigate fully the allegations of wrongdoing and follow the law regardless of the results with no hesitancy to the question of prosecutions) to treat the investigation of the Bush administration in a “fair and balanced” manner and then focus totally on the “fixing” that needs to be done. He need not make any other statements than those he made during the campaign – that no one is above the law and his Justice Department will enforce our laws fairly and impartially. THAT IS NOT HAPPENING. PRESIDENT OBAMA IS LEAVING THE IMPRESSION THAT THE LAWS DON’T APPLY TO HIGH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS. THIS IS VERY BAD!

The real reason I wish he wasn’t coming up short in this regard is that he’s doing some difficult things RIGHT! HE WILL NEED THE SUPPORT OF ALL “PROGRESSIVES” TO COMPLETE SOME OF THESE TASKS! I’m a sixth grade teacher and I believe Obama should be treating these Republicans like sixth graders, which is the way they are acting. For starters, Dick Cheney should be in indefinite “lunch detention.” One of the main reasons the Justice department needs to do its job is to SHUT CHENEY UP! This guy is like the basketball coach who’s playing the refs during the game in order to sway people into thinking the gustapo type actions he was “championing” while Vice President were needed, effective, and legal. We’re all suffering from the actions of Cheney and the others in Bush’s administration and it will continue until we can get some leaders to put them where they belong – in the Prison cell next to Lindy England and the other “grunts” who took the fall for America’s torture policy. It makes me sick to my stomach that President Obama would even allow anyone to think that we will continue this policy in America that our leaders are above the law and just finding scapegoats for all their poor decisions “makes things right.” IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE – THE CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!

By even allowing the question of whether or not Bush et al will face acccountability the fracture in support will possibly sidetrack other important legislation. Let me give you an example. A few days ago President Obama announced a plan to stop the offshore tax havens that many of the largest corporations in this country – with the backing of most Republican members of Congress and, I’m sure, a fair number of Democrats – have allowed and almost encouraged. The worst one that I’m aware of in supporting this – now we’re talking about a place where American corporations can shield BILLIONS of dollars in profit from taxes – was Tom Delay. Why Tom Delay is not in jail is a mystery to me and it would not surprise me if he resurfaced as a leader among Republicans (for all their “principles” they tend to support people like Delay, Gingrich, Limbaugh, and others who have terrible records both publicly and privately regarding their own personal “morals”) – I have read in several places how he was a leader in setting up the Cayman Islands as a place for corporations to create “subsidiaries” which would not be subject to American taxes. Some of the companies really abusing this would be GE, Microsoft, many of the drug companies, and probably most companies which do business overseas. I read the other day that one corporation had almost 300 subsidiaries which allowed them to shield something like 75 Billion dollars in profit from taxes! OUCHEEEE!

Cheney’s former corporation Halliburton had the audacity to bilk American taxpayers for hundreds of Billions through no-bid contracts in Iraq and Afganistan and then move its headquarters to Dubai so that it could avoid American taxes. And, of course, Limbaugh and Hannity and the other Republican water carriers will be hammering away at the “socialism” or some other ridiculous false argument to all their “sheep” as the President tries to get these companies to pay their fair share of the tax burden required for our government to function (and of course these companies receive a disproportionate share of the benefits despite their reluctance to pay for them) and it will be very difficult for President Obama to pass this legislation which should be a no-brainer – just like us citizens, corporations should share in the tax burden of this country. I’ve mentioned on this site that I have a couple friends who listen to Limbaugh and watch Fox “News” and it is unbelievable to me the words that come out of their mouths. I work with a guy who has a master’s degree and I just shake my head when I hear the exact words that have become the recent “talking points” of the Republicans as hammered home by the right wing “talkers.” It’s like they have some kind of mysterious hold on otherwise good people – who actually think they’re being informed by these guys. I mean, I listened to Rush Limbaugh the other day talking about the Chrysler auto bailout for a few minutes (that was all I could stomach – I just wanted to hear what he was saying that day) and I heard at least a half a dozen bold faced lies in less than five minutes. And, of course, at this point I couldn’t remember specifically what they were, but in the past I’ve even given proof to one of my friends about some topic we were disagreeing on and he threw it (the proof – an article that I found on the internet in less than a minute) on the ground and started making disparaging remarks about “liberals” – so I’ve just learned to not say anything to them. These people have been BRAINWASHED!

This is what President Obama is up against on everything he tries to do. People like Limbaugh, Hannity, and many others on the Republican side are not too subtle about their distaste regarding having an African descendant as our commander in chief. Remember Bill Clinton – these guys will not let up as long as Obama is President. He’s never going to be the right color for them. That is why it is so important for him to recognize that he should be trying to keep people like me “on board” before expanding the party to Republcans. I’m even OK with the reaching out to them and giving them an opportunity to compromise over legislation – IT’S JUST THAT I’VE SEEN DEMOCRATS TURN THEIR BACKS ON REPUBLICAN LAWBREAKING OVER AND OVER IN MY LIFETIME AND I WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS! I EXPECTED MORE FROM OBAMA! For all of President Obama’s intelligence and seeming wisdom he is wrong to “look forward instead of backward.” The economy will recover eventually from this crisis, but this nation may never recover if we don’t do the right thing regarding the issues of torture and illegal wiretapping. If we sacrifice our principals because of 9/11 the terrorists will have “won.”

In my last post I said “President Obama is doing a great job, but…….,” and what I was referring to was his reluctance to encourage investigations of what everyone knows was lawbreaking, en masse, by the previous administration. Sort of leaving the impression that Presidents don’t “testify” against Presidents – kind of like doctors don’t testify against doctors, lawyers don’t testify against lawyers – while the rest of us essentially get left “holding the bag.” In the instance of the reluctance to hold Bush et al accountable, the reputation of the United States belongs to ALL OF US! So, in protecting the “brethren” President Obama is willing to leave a “stain” on the rest of us that seems pretty much overwhelmingly that “WE” don’t want. I believe eventually these investigations and the truth will come out – whether there is any legal accountability is an entirely different matter. I have suggested that Obama’s reluctance to do this along with his willingness to continue the Bush wiretapping policies stand to undermine his reelection chances in four years (well, I guess it would be more accurate to say three and a half years now). I fully believe that is true.

However, there are other areas which might “undermine” Obama’s Presidency. Of course, he came into office with the most challenging “docket” possibly ever. And, as long as the opposition is today’s version of the Republican party, he will probably be OK. But, I still have an awful feeling about Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. Geithner, if you haven’t been paying attention, is the Secretary of the Treasury and Summers is Obama’s “chief” economic advisor. Geithner devised the “amended” version of the TARP bailout program that was originally put in place by Henry Paulsen of the Bush fiasco. This is the program that took the position that our major banks are “too big to fail” and that their failure would lead to a collapse of our economic system. I was never in favor of this bailout and I’m less in favor of the revised version as I understand it. I keep thinking of the saying “Don’t throw good money after bad.” I know from my own personal experience (on a much smaller scale, of course) this is a very bad predicament to find yourself in. And that, to me, is what is happening with our government regarding the big Wall Street banks whose gambling habits caused this financial mess in the first place.

You could argue, and many have – somewhat convincingly, that the crux of the problem was the removal – over a period of about 25 years – of many Depression era regulations which would have prevented this banking crisis. And, for you Democrats out there, the worst part of that argument is that the repeal of the Glass-Stegall act was a bill signed by Bill Clinton, and at least partially championed by Larry Summers and Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin – who used the freedom’s granted by the repeal of this and other regulations to lead CitiCorp into virtual bankruptcy following his tenure in the Clinton administration. Yes, Phil Graham was the co-author of the legislation but there is no denying the part the Clinton people played in the process. With the removal of that regulation, along with others, and combined with the Bush administration’s tendency to ignore regulations that were still in place, we ended up with Wall Street gambling other people’s money away like a runaway train.

That has led to the TARP program which Geithner seems to have modified into a potential major “boon” for private investors (presumably the hedge funds that have been TOTALLY UNREGULATED and that control billions of dollars worth of America’s wealth) where they stand to make huge gains with miniscule investments. The same leveraging of your money theory that got us into this mess in the first place, only the government – ie taxpayers – are guaranteeing that if the losses are significant, they will bear the burden and the “private investors” have a small risk. I believe the private investors put up something like 7.5% of the investment and get 50% of the gain. That may be a great idea, it just sounds “fishy” to me, and considering that both Geithner and Summers have close connections to all the parties on Wall Street who were imploding, I’m not sure President Obama is making a wise choice here. Again, I believe this is one of those things that could “blow up in his face.” Once they have modified this program, then they have ownership of it. And, the American people tend to have a short memory about these things, and something around 50 million Americans voted for a ticket that had Sarah Palin and John McCain on it – so you know that anything is possible here. (I honestly can’t imagine them running this government)

The Republicans look like a thing of the past, and rightfully so, but President Obama needs to remember who’s side he’s on and I’m not sure about this plan to save the Wall Street banks. From what I’ve been able to find out there are still two crises we haven’t dealt with yet. First, there is a credit card crisis looming that could rival the mortgage meltdown, and secondly, there is a significant number of commercial real estate loans that are apparently headed in the same direction as all the sub-prime loans that supposedly were the cause of the present economic crisis. Should that be the case, it appears to me that the government will be out of “bullets” to bail out these banks that seem to have completely lost their “heads” – no pun intended – unfortunately most of their “heads” are still in place – that is, there has to be a limit on how much money the taxpayers can give these guys before we realize they are insolvent. I believe that in the end we’ll find out it would have been cheaper to let them fail, take them over, and once they are functioning again, put them back into private hands – only with new “leaders” and with regulations in place that would prevent a recurrance of their excesses. I’m suspicious of the earnings reported by the banks that suggested they’re making record profits in the middle of this deep recession, and I believe the banking crisis is in no way “behind us.” President Obama would be wise to reconsider having Tim Geithner and Larry Summers on his economic “team.”