While in the hospital my wife gave me a book to read titled, “Three Cups of Tea.” As I got into this book it soon became the most “I can’t put it down” book since “One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest” back, it think, in the 60’s. I REALLY want to write about this book, and I will soon, but “other matters” seem to keep cropping up – so I’ll put that off for another day. That being said, if you’re looking for a good read, try “Three Cups of Tea” – I ordered three copies today to pass along to my children and a friend of mine. I virtually guarantee that you’ll be inspired and uplifted from reading the book.

Tonight’s thoughts, if you’ve been around this site lately, you know that I’m recovering from surgery which has kept me pretty much away from the keyboard for about a week – I think I managed to fit one session in due to some excellent pain medication :o). It’s just been a couple days now since I could manage to sit in a chair long enough to watch one of the “News” programs I watch (really, are there any “news” programs anymore?). For well over six months I’ve been “harping” on what I consider to be the FACT that the “misdeeds” (ie – criminal activity) of the Bush administration MUST be investigated FULLY. Now, I realize we are amid the most severe economic crisis since the crash of 1929 and most people are concerned about their “pocketbooks” above all else. However, the harsh reality is that the economic crisis will be temporary – no matter how severe – and no matter what lifestyle changes are dictated once it “passes.” Abuses of power, if left unchallenged, can easily become permanent. To me, the scary part of all of this is the FACT that power is a very difficult thing to “give up.” I say that to frame my thoughts tonight about the abuses of the Republicans under Bush/Cheney from 2001 until 2009 (and, believe me – if the investigations take place – we’ll discover the abuses started well before 9/11 – that only intensified and expanded them). From the start – Dick Cheney was determined to regain the executive power he felt had been lost because of the Watergate fiasco.

Cheney is the ultimate authoritarian. I read a book on Dick Cheney titled “Angler” by Barton Gellman which, in explaining how Cheney chose himself as GW Bush’s VP, gives a very clear picture of what kind of man he is. He was Bush’s choice to “vet” possible VP candidates and he collected boxes of information on maybe the 30 top Republicans – all in strategic places – telling each one of them that they were on the “short list” for VP, to keep quiet about everything until a choice was made, and to make sure that they didn’t hide anything – just to make sure that someone wasn’t chosen who would be vulnerable to scandalous attack. Sounds like a good plan, right? But, true to his nature, Cheney then chose himself as the VP candidate while, at the same time, leaking information on one of the potential candidates (I believe the guy was governor of Nebraska – or some other midwest state). This information ruined the political career of the governor in question and sent the message to all the other possible candidates of “Oh, my gosh, he’s got boxes of info on me going back to my childhood.” The message Cheney sent to these leading Republicans was “Fall into line, and I’ll keep all this information confidential – step out of line and, well ………..” – I think you can get the message. And, I must add, it was a very effective strategy – for “loyalty.”

So, the abuses began soon after Bush/Cheney took the “controls” of our government. And, the secrecy was there right from the start (which leads me to some of my alarm regarding President Obama, but I’ll get to that later) – remember the so-called “energy task force” which met in Cheney’s office under a complete lid of secrecy and up to the last days in office Cheney had refused to divulge information from those meetings – which I’ve ALWAYS felt would give some of the motivation behind the invasion of Iraq. It would be no secret to anyone happening onto this site that the abuses of our constitution, the abuses of international law, and the power grab in the executive branch of government were ongoing, arrogant, and criminal. The years of the Bush administration were among the most frustrating of my life – as a person who passionately loves this country (and who actually studied the constitution in college). I’ve stated many times on this site my frustration that MY government was violating our laws, international laws, and abusing the power granted the executive branch by our constitution. My frustration has been pointed at the Republican party which “rubber stamped” everything Bush/Cheney did (somewhat understandable considering Cheney’s mode of operation as explained above) – but has slowly been swinging toward the Democratic party, which, based on how our system of government works is the “check” to the abuses being committed by the Republicans under Bush. The Democrats are the ones we voted into office to “fix” all the abuses!

I’ve also mentioned many times that eventually more and more of the truth is going to come out – and I keep hoping that something will be done about these abuses which GUARANTEE that they won’t be repeated. The Republicans have come to a place of almost pity in my mind – they’ve become so disgusting – HOWEVER, MORE AND MORE I FEEL THAT WE NEED A REAL CONSERVATIVE TO EMERGE – someone who’s not “owned” by the corporate heads that seem to be running Republican politics from behind the scenes. Someone who can lead the Republicans back into a respectable opposition party – one that I could vote for! (I’ve been an independent for over 40 years – even though I sent money to Democrats in order to get these Republicans out of office) The Democrats – who I’ve been calling weak and spineless for some time – seem to be all too happy to carry that moniker (weak and spineless, that is). THIS IS MAKING ME EVEN MORE FRUSTRATED THAN PUTTING UP WITH REPUBLICAN RULE. It’s like, well I’m trying hard to find the right words here, they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Let me go over the list – AGAIN – all stuff that is public knowledge, and all stuff that ends up going “unaccounted” for will be damaging to the future of this nation – well, I don’t want to get to descriptive here – but, suffice it to say that, in my opinion, the effect on our lifestyle if we allow the Bush/Cheney crew to “get away” with their crimes will be much more severe than anything that could happen – long term – based on the economic crisis created by the SAME PEOPLE who broke all these laws!

Honestly, as I’m sitting her writing this I can’t believe the words that are flowing from my computer. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE (and, in this instance, I’m talking about the Democrats)? OK, this is the list: Bush/Cheney lied us into a war that is bankrupting our nation (just ask yourself if each one of these things isn’t exponentially bigger than Whitewater – a poor business deal which led to 7 years of hearings in Congress), Bush/Cheney authorized and encouraged the use of Torture openly violating our own laws against such behavior and international laws which the Untited States was instrumental in establishing, post WW II (and, in the process, an undetermined number of prisoners were killed) – both men have admitted this in public MANY TIMES, Bush/Cheney authorized an illegal warrantless wiretapping scheme (that is going on to this day – SHAME ON YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!) which has violated the FISA laws of 1978 on (at least) thousands of occasions, Bush/Cheney “outed” a covert CIA agent to get back at her husband for telling the truth and contradicting their most outrageous lie intended to gain support for their war of choice in Iraq – this is TREASON!, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others PROFITED by sums exceeding ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS from the no-bid contracts associated with their invasion of Iraq (again, compare that to Whitewater!), Surrogates of Bush/Cheney regulary refused to cooperate with Congressional subpoenas – actually refusing to show up when called to testify before Congress, Bush’s Attorney General told more obvious lies in front of Congress than anyone I’ve ever seen in my lifetime of following politics (with still no accountability), The Bush Whitehouse – led by Karl Rove – outed US attorneys based on their “lack of cooperation” in prosectuing Democrats and they used a “loyalty pledge” to the Republican party in their choice of lawyers hired into the Justice Department – totally politicizing it, Karl Rove had the Governor of Alabama (a Democrat) thrown in jail on trumped up charges that were enforced by political cronies, and I could go on, but I’ll end this list by saying that George W Bush wrote more “Signing Statements” declaring his intention to ignore the will of the Congress than all the Presidents before him COMBINED!

HERE’S WHAT IS REALLY BOTHERING ME! How can any Democrat sleep at night while turning their back on this stuff. Tonight, it was leaked that President Bush was the one who sent Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to the hospital bed of then Attorney General John Ashcroft to get him to sign authorization of the secret wiretapping program which had become known and had gained opposition from justice department lawyers who acknowledged the program was unconstitutional. As I mentioned above and in many past posts – this stuff is going to keep coming out – and the longer the Democrats wait in doing something about this THE WORST THEY LOOK! It’s like they have no guts! I remember talking to my own Representative Brian Baird at a town hall meeting about the importance of impeaching President Bush – his response was (despite OVERWHELMING APPLAUSE FROM THE AUDIENCE IN SUPPORT OF MY POSITION) – this was during the period between the 2006 and 2008 election – “We don’t have enough votes in the Senate to convict.” This is their attitude. The TRUTH IS that if a President commits “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” the “Check” as per the constitution, is that the House of Representatives is OBLIBATED to impeach the President. This is just like the torture issue for Obama – theoretically – HE HAS TO PROSECUTE WAR CRIMINALS if he’s aware of war crimes. Now, Obama has stated publically that “Waterboarding is torture.” It is listed as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions – Both George Bush and Dick Cheney have publically admitted to authorizing this torture (and, read “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” – it’s far worse than “just” the waterboarding) WHAT MAKES PRESIDENT OBAMA THINK HE HAS A CHOICE HERE? That would be like me having a student tell me they’ve been abused at home and then me, as a teacher, not reporting it to CPS – I would then be guilty of a crime! PRESIDENT OBAMA IS VIOLATING THE LAW BY LOOKING THE OTHER WAY!

This is what’s making me think we’re getting more of the same with a different moniker on it. Sure, the economic pollicies are a bit different and, at least, these guys recognize there’s an economic crisis at hand. But, I’ll say it again, what will be the most important accomplishments or lack thereof (and the lack thereof side seems to be looming strong at this point) will be how the Obama administration deals with the overreaching and lawbreaking of the administration which preceeded them. IT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH TO GET WALL STREET BACK ON IT’S FEET! If we still have a government which is tapping our phones (Obama clearly doesn’t want to give up this “power”), if we still have a government operating in secrecy (the signs are strong here that Obama doesn’t want to “give up” some of the Bush abuses in this area as well), and worst of all, if we still have a government which is failing to enforce our laws on the people at the top, then we have something that is far too familiar to the past administration for me. In my mind, the people at the top are the ones who should be held accountable for their actions FIRST! How can President Obama stand in front of any group of people with a straight face and say that “No one is above the law in America” (I’ve heard him do this) while we have Sargeants and Privates from Army Reserve units (who were totally untrained for the job they were given at Abu Ghraib) doing time at Leavenworth for “Torture” while the men who authorized their actions (and then stood cowardly by, denying their role in the whole disgusting abuse of humanity – while these “grunts” took the entire “fall”) not only are walking free, but have profited handsomely all the same! We are in desperate need of some leadership in America right now and looking the other way to all this “Carnage” is the same as condoning it. If Democrats don’t have the courage to stand up to the Republican abuses, then it’s time for a THIRD PARTY!