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!