Well, there’s been a lot of visits to my “lair” of late, yet still no “comments.” I’m assuming this is because you have to register to comment, not because everyone agrees with everything I say (wouldn’t that be a sad miracle). In case you read this, I’m OK with “comments” (in fact, I’m looking forward to the first one :o) and I have no plans (or ability) to do anything with info if you sign up. In fact, I don’t even know what you have to do to sign up, but if it involves an email address, please rest assured that I will do nothing with ANY INFO (I don’t even know how to check for it). So, now I’ve admitted what a clutz I am, writing in the middle of cyberspace. If you’re new around here, I started writing shortly after my first grandchild was born – simply as a way for me to “blow off” my frustration with the direction of our government. It was sometime in the middle of GW Bush’s second term in office, and everyday he was there was difficult for me. I’m a Christian who has opposed Bush’s actions from almost day one. I, like most Americans, was supportive of the invasion of Afganistan for the SOLE PURPOSE of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. After Bush got sidetracked into Iraq – with almost complete support from the Christian community – I started to feel like some kind of outcast.

I decided that I didn’t have to give up my own spiritual connection to God because Bush and many of his Republican cronies were quoting scripture to support many of their illegal or immoral actions. History is full of leaders justifying obscene behavior by quoting scripture – and I’ve been determined to “stay the course” with my own beliefs and fight back against what I eventually came to believe was the most corrupt administration in the history of this great nation. If you’ve read many of my posts, I BELIEVE STRONGLY that it will be a HUGE MISTAKE if former President Bush and his associates are allowed to walk away from the damage they’ve done to this nation, and more egregiously, to millions of HUMAN BEINGS with no accountability. It’s almost like all the people who are dead have just become statistics for people (like me) to banty around in a debate that is falling on deaf ears in the Obama administration. As I’ve stated in the past couple of posts, I believe my frustration with President Obama could potentially supercede my frustration of Bush, simply because I was such an ardent supporter of Obama’s and I really expected something much more idealistic than what I’m seeing.

Hundred’s of Billions of dollars have been skimmed from the taxpayers in the name of the Iraq war and fighting terrorism, I’m guessing at least a million humans are dead based just on the decision to invade Iraq (who knows what else these thugs were up to?), the infrastructure of Iraq has been virtually destroyed, estimates have the number of displaced Iraqi’s somewhere aroung 4 – 5 million people, and the wounded numbers are astronomical. Our military has been stretched to the breaking point and we have hundred’s of thousands of troops with “side effects” of varying degrees who are struggling just to get care once back in the states – and JUST LIKE IN VIET NAM these troops are coming home to a nation which is virtually ignoring them – DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN! What’s the old saying?, “Those who choose to ignore history are destined to repeat it.” On top of all of this the Bush administration was BEYOND ARROGANT as all of this unfolded – continuing to support the pillaging of our treasury by their “contractor buddies,” continuing to abuse detainees in UNIMAGINABLE ways, refusing ANY ACCOUNTABILITY even after the Democrats took over Congress – to the point of even refusing to answer subpoenas! UNBELIEVABLE!

Yet, the Democrats during the 2006 – 2008 session of Congress proved to be total cowards, as far as I was concerned. I continued to support them during the 2008 election because then Senator Obama convinced me he had the “guts” and the “will” to do something about all these abuses. In concert with the “evil one” – Dick Cheney – George Bush had pushed the boundaries of the executive branch of our government WAY PAST what is defined in our constitution. I supported Obama and the Dems because I was convinced they would push these boundaries back. It is in EVERYONE’S BEST INTEREST (Republicans and Democrats alike) that these abuses be reversed. Our constitution is a “living” document, meaning “precedent” plays a huge role in how the document “evolves” over time. Yet, the constitution will always define who we are as a nation. Therefore, should Obama and the Democrats fail to reverse all of these abuses, we may be stuck with them indefinitely – that means my generation will have left a legacy for my children and grandchildren of TORTURE, ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING, ROGUE WARS, PERJURY, and just plain arrogance that the leaders of this nation are not subject to the same laws they swear to uphold when taking office.

OK, the lack of will in the House of Representatives shouldn’t be too big a surprise to me. Shortly after the Democrats took control of the House in 2006 Nancy Pelosi was “crowned” Speaker of the House and promptly took “Impeachment off the table.” That was a jaw dropper for me. I thought, “How can she do that?” If crimes have been committed isn’t she and the rest of the House OBLIGATED to act? Well, the answer is that YES! they were obligated to act, but in our new interpretation of the constitution it appears that selective enforcement has been somehow included in the document – you know, if it’s politically expedient, then we’ll follow what the constitution dictates. At the same time Harry Reid, as the Democratic leader of the Senate (with a razor thin majority – which included Joe Lieberman – ugh) showed time and again that just the threat of a filibuster by the opposition was enough to kill anything meaningful. It was like Harry didn’t want to force anyone to have to actually vote on important issues and he certainly didn’t want the poor Republicans to actually have to get up on the floor of the Senate and actually do a filibuster – ALL HIS THREATS WERE HOLLOW (see my post of the previous day – and, in fact, the Republican behavior hasn’t changed much even though the Dems supposedly now have the “magic” 60 votes necessary to “cut off debate” on the floor of the Senate).

So, none of all that surprises me at this point. The wrongs are still sitting out there in front of all of us. More and more is becoming “public knowledge” and that trend will continue – yet, still NOTHING’S BEING DONE ABOUT THE ABUSES OF POWER. And, I have come to the conclusion that, as far as I’m concerned, the blame is going to be squarely on the shoulders of Barrack Obama and his staff of “long time” Washington insiders who seem to be all about “business as usual.” Not being the world’s greatest political expert, my suspicions were alerted when Rahm Emanuel was chosen as Obama’s chief of staff. I knew enough about him to understand he had a record of being able to “get things done,” but I also understood that the man was totally ingrained in the culture of Washington, DC – which has been evident from day one of Obama’s administration. And, David Axelrod is the consummate Washington insider and political strategist. What I’m seeing is what I should have expected – the same type of politics that has permeated Washington for as long as I can remember. I WAS VERY NAIVE! I thought “Change we can believe in” wouldn’t be MORE OF THE SAME!

Let me give some examples of what I mean – and, really, I’m not trying to “beat a dead horse” here, but – in my mind – this stuff is critical to the future of my children and grandchildren and I just can’t seem to bring myself to SHUT UP. I’ve mentioned many times the problem I have with President Obama defending the secrecy positions of George Bush in court – THIS IS REALLY BAD, but lately I’ve seen evidence that the Obama administration is “going back” on it’s pledge for transparency. It appears to me that those behind the “military industrial complex” that President Eisenhower so wisely warned us about back in the fifties are “getting to Obama.” Not only regarding his decisions regarding Iraq and Afganisatan, but his decisions to imbed torture into the character of this nation FOREVER – by refusing to investigate the OBVIOUS abuses of the Bush administration. He’s even showing signs of incorporating more secrecy into what is going on inside the White House. The “tide” seems to be slowly turning toward an administration which is finding many of the Bush abuses to be “convenient” in pushing forward their own agenda – so, not only will the abuses like torture, illegal wiretapping, politicizing the Justice Department, outing a CIA agent, lying to Congress (in fact, eventually refusing to even talk to Congress) go unchallenged, but it appears that many of the other abuses of power will “stay on the books” and will become part of the way Obama does business. Here’s a really sly Bush trick that Obama seems to have picked up – that is, how to hide information you’d rather not be made public from the public, but still put it out – I hope that’s not written too awkwardly.

Last Friday, late in the day, it was announced that the infamous trip that Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card took to the hospital bedside of then Attorney General John Ashcroft with the plan to get the groggy Ashcroft to sign re-authorization of the illegal warrantless wiretapping program which Bush/Cheney had instituted post 9/11 (by some reports, it was instituted pre- 9/11) was ordered DIRECTLY by George Bush himself. James Comey, the acting Attorney General – who was refusing to sign the document because it was unconstitutional – in a RARE ACT OF COURAGE during the Bush years, rushed to the hospital with the head of the FBI and stopped this incredibly insensitive abuse from happening. This just adds to the public PILE of evidence that George W Bush knowingly violated the rights of Americans countless times with wiretaps without warrants. Of course, President Obama is doing everything in his power to prevent any kind of investigation of the Bush wrongdoings – and, here, he’s adopted one of their strategies – release the information late Friday afternoon and by Monday it will be buried and lost due to whatever happens over the weekend – and, I might add, while this strategy is less than honorable – IT IS VERY EFFECTIVE. This weekend they even topped that one (which is what prompted this post). Late Saturday evening it was released that the CIA program in the news last week, where the CIA has some program which was hidden from Congress (violation of some law passed in 1947), involved Dick Cheney AGAIN! That is, the New York times reported in it’s addition that I get on my desktop at midnite Saturday evening that the program was hidden from Congress at the direction (order) of the Vice President. OK, so he’s violated another law – ANOTHER FELONY – how can we protect him? Get the news out Saturday evening – that might be more effective than Friday. That, of course, remains to be seen here – but I’m, for one, getting very confused. It’s like the Republicans are going around daring Democrats to “do something about it” regarding all the abuses that happened under Bush – and, yet, it’s almost like the Democrats AND PRESIDENT OBAMA are doing everything they can to protect them – they all know that if there are investigations EVERYTHING is going to lead right to Bush/Cheney – with a LOT OF COLLATERAL DAMAGE! It’s almost like George Bush and Dick Cheney don’t need lawyers to defend them, they’ve got Barrack Obama!