There’s so much I could write about and I wish I could just stay focused on a positive discussion of the important issues at hand.  For example, a very dear friend of mine is lying in intensive care tonight – I’ve spent the bulk of this evening praying for a miracle – and, thus I’d like to discuss the importance of health care for all Americans.  In fact, I’m not particularly happy with the impending legislation moving through Congress and being bludgeoned along the way by the obstructionist, naysayers on the “right.” (how did they ever get that name when they’re always so wrong?)  A significant majority of Americans realize that until we take the profiteers out of the middle of health care decisions we will have a broken system.  And these profiteers are making enough profit to be able to spend in excess of a million dollars per day for over one year in an attempt to block any reform to our broken system.  The 45,000 Americans dying annually due to lack of health insurance doesn’t bother them one bit – the only thing on their minds is increasing their profit margin for their shareholders.  To say that our system is SICK, is an understatement!

To me, what’s SICKER is the constant barrage of lies and anti-American rhetoric coming from the “right” in the guise of “patriotism.”  The other day I listened with utter contempt as Rush Limbaugh went on another of his dishonest, disengenuous, disgusting rants about the Obama administration (it seems like this is the normal feeling when I listen to Limbaugh).  This time he was complaining about the announcement that – after almost 8 years – the perpetrators of 9/11 who have been captured will stand trial in New York for their criminal actions.  He actually said that the Obama administration and those who support this action (prosecution) “HATE AMERICA.”  I can’t tell you how much offense I, personally, take everytime I listen to this blowhard accuse me and millions like me of “hating America.”  If anyone hates America and what it stands for, it’s Limbaugh and the people who are behind his propoganda campaign to destroy everything that’s been accomplished in this nation in the past 80 years.  His rational for being so upset about this trial is his prediction that the trial will end up being all about the Bush administration and their torture tactics – and, I suppose, their inhumane treatment of detainees in general.

For one thing, to say that someone who wants the Bush administration held accountable for their criminal behavior “hates America” is absurd on it’s face.  They tried to destroy everything America stands for in the name of profits for their suppoters – even to the extent of obscene war profiteering in Iraq and Afganistan while our troops (who they claim to support were going without the basic necessities necessary to keep them as safe as possible).  Their cronies have heisted TRILLIONS from our economy with much of it being stashed in overseas banking accounts so that they can avoid paying taxes.  Dick Cheney’s Halliburton moved to the Middle East to avoid investigation for fraud and abuse in Iraq and probably to avoid paying taxes on the Billions they’ve taken from the American taxpayers as well – for just one example (and Cheney profited handsomely from his “trust” – containing his Halliburton stock which appreciated, by some accounts, over $100 MILLION during the Iraq occupation via no-bid contracts – while our troops were dying on the ground).  If these people have done nothing wrong they should welcome any investigation into their activities just to clear their names.  However, they – AND LIMBAUGH – know full well what any investigation will turn up and they want nothing to do with it.  So, Limbaugh is starting with the “Hate” speaches already in defense of any possible disclosure of the horrific torture tactics of Bush/Cheney et al in these trials of the 9/11 perpetrators.

Here’s where for once, I HOPE LIMBAUGH’S CORRECT!  I can’t express how much I hope the torture issue  becomes center stage in the American political discussion.  If it has to happen in the trials of these terrorists, so be it.  It should have already happened and we could have had the discussion – all the while listening to Limbaugh and his ilk trying to convince the American public that waterboarding is not torture – despite the FACT we prosecuted the Japenese for waterboarding our troops during WW II, and we prosecuted our own troops for doing it in Viet Nam.  It’s been listed as torture for longer than either Limbaugh or myself have been alive.  And, the worst part of all this is that waterboarding isn’t even close to the worst thing done in our name under the Bush administration during the 7 years of their prosecuting the wars in Iraq/Afganistan.  I won’t get into all the gory details, but suffice it to say that many “enemy combatants” – not all of which were necessarily even “combatants” have died at the hands of those acting with authority from Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Tenet/Gonzales/Addington/Rove/Yoo et al while in “custody” – these people look at the Geneva Conventions with disgust.  In fact, it’s these people who are disgusting – the crimes we’re talking about are international war crimes – and it’s a blight on our nation that we are allowing them to walk away from these deeds “scott free” – their actions have left a “wound” which will never be “healed” without the missing national discussion/debate.

Here’s where I wish I didn’t want Limbaugh to be correct.  These crimes shouldn’t be made public during these trials.  Of course the prosecution (Obama administration) – despite the claims of Limbaugh – will do everything they can to keep the torture issue out of the trials.  The FACT Sheik Mohammed was waterboarded 183 TIMES IN ONE MONTH would naturally cause any evidence gained from that point on to be non-admissable in court – so one has to assume that Eric Holder, Obama’s Attorney General, has sufficient evidence to gain a conviction without anything said after the torturing began.  I just don’t think it’s possible to refuse the defendant his/her right to present a case.  Maybe they can keep it out somehow and, in this way, we could see the Obama administration playing to the “ditto heads” instead of those of us who worked so hard to get him elected only to see him refuse to even allow investigations of the Bush administration – despite public admissions by both Bush and Cheney that they authorized waterboarding.

Everyone in Washington DC knows that if investigations start they could go on for years – because the abuses are so egregious.  I’m sure Obama is taking a calculated gamble that people like me will ultimately forgive him prior to the 2012 elections.  And, I have to say that, to me, this is nothing more than POLITICS AS USUAL in America.  That is why I’m looking elsewhere for a candidate to support for the next election.  I’ve voted in every Presidential election since 1968 – sometimes holding my nose as I cast my ballot – and never with greater disappointment at the results than this past election.  It’s not that I don’t support, like,  and admire Obama – I was just expecting a statesmen of the caliber of a Roosevelt or Lincoln (which, in my view, is what is desperately needed in America) and what we have is an extremely smooth talking politician.  The refusal to hold Bush/Cheney accountable, the refusal to take decisive action in Iraq (as promised), and the apparent willingness to accept whatever comes his way as far as “health care reform” and other significant legislation,  is just not working for me.  As far as I’m concerned Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are not even close to angry enough.  Obama has been WAY TOO NICE TO REPUBLICANS and I’m not sure he understands the importance of soundly defeating what they presently stand for.

I believe people like Limbaugh and the others like him actually believe they will be back in power in the next election.  They are counting on the American public’s ignorance regarding their lies and obstructionist behavior.  And, in many ways, I believe the Democrats are playing right into their hands – by risking so much on a health care bill that they’re unable to deliver without providing 40 million new customers for the health insurance industry which is already ripping us off.  Additionally, there’s a lot more that Obama is doing which is turning off his supporters on the “left.”  It will be more evident as time goes on.  Many people I know (these are people who pay attention and have advanced college degrees – I suppose Limbaugh would call them – and me – elitists, despite our far less than $400 million salaries) have no idea, for instance, that Obama is supporting several Bush policies in court – such as illegal wiretapping and using “state’s secrets” claims to protect government secrecy – indiscriminately.  To me, along with the protection of the torture abuses, these choices are “deal breakers” and I believe more and more “progressives” are joining me in this conclusion.

So, we’ve got people like Rush Limbaugh claiming that those of us who actually want our government (whether or not it’s Republican controlled or Democratic controlled) to operate according to the constitution “Hate America;” and we’ve got a Congress which seems unable to overcome the HUGE amounts of money being spent by lobbyists intended to defeat legislation which, if passed, would actually jumpstart the recovery from eight years of Bush/Cheney;  and we’ve got a President who is so obsessed with bi-partisanship (sucking up to people who overtly despise him) that he’s unwilling to take a firm principled stand on key issues such as the stimulus bill and health care – the single payer option being “off the table” (anything is better than nothing).  Just writing this is kind of depressing.   Ralph Nader is looking better and better.

It is the Republicans like Limbaugh that I believe everyone should be trying to expose for what they are and the way the Democrats and Obama are going about things only empowers them.  I really hope I’m wrong on this, but if you check back to many of the previous “rants” I’ve made on this site, many things I’ve predicted have been right on.  And, I’m not trying to say that as a pat on my own back (well, maybe a little :o) – it’s just that a middle school teacher shouldn’t be able to figure this stuff out better than our leaders.  What is wrong with Washington DC?  The politicians there seem to have a requirement that they be out of touch with the reality of their constituents in order to serve.  People are dying while they argue about legislation that won’t solve the problems, even if it gets passed!  If I had it to do over again, I would be solidly behind Dennis Kucinich in the Presidential primaries.  He’s the only one besides Bernie Sanders (Independent from Vermont – who wasn’t a candidate for President) – and maybe Alan Grayson, a first year Congressman from Florida, who has the GUTS to tell it like it is in Congress.

Republicans have been against everything that is valuable to the middle class in America for the past 100+ years.  They were against unions (unions brought us the 40 hour work week and the weekend, for starters), they were against everything good in the New Deal (which brought this nation out of the previous bank meltdown in the 1930’s), they’ve hated Social Security since it’s inception, they fought tooth and nail against Civil Rights, they fought against Medicare and Medicaid, they hate the minimum wage laws, they hate Public Education (they’re trying to create a permanent “underclass”), they’ve fought against women’s rights, they were even against children’s health care, and now they’re fighting against gay rights and universal health care.  An example of what they’re “for” would be the Medicare bill passed under Bush where the government was “forbidden” from negotiating the lowest rates from the Pharmaceutical companies costing our seniors BILLIONS of dollars in drug expenses.  And, now that President Obama wants to prosecute the 9/11 perpetrators in court Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans are AGAINST THAT!  To the point of accusing anyone who believes we are a nation of laws as being “America haters!”  Despite his “fear” (isn’t that what terrorists are trying to accomplish – create fear?) I believe this is still a great nation of laws, not withstanding Limbaugh’s and those associated with the Bush “regime’s” attempts to undermine it, and we have nothing to fear from prosecuting these criminals.  And, if the Bush torture policies are made public during the 9/11 trials, America will be better for it!