Tuli Can't Stop Talking

These are just my thoughts on contemporary issues and an attempt to open up a dialogue.

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Location: New York City

A citizen who cares deeply about the United States Constitution and the Rule of Law.

Monday, November 28, 2005

The Dukester is Down. Who’s Next?

So, Republican Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham has pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bribery, tax evasion and fraud. Not that we are shocked. This has been a long time coming as was reported in the WAPO. He also has resigned his seat in Congress. The question is who is next?

Representative Cunningham was engaged in the “Pay for Play Scheme” which seems to be the natural quid pro quo of the Republican K Street types these days.

According to the NYT’s:

“Representative Randy Cunningham of California resigned from Congress today after admitting to a federal judge that he had taken $2.4 million in bribes from a military contractor.

Mr. Cunningham, 63, made a brief and tearful announcement to a group of reporters outside a federal courthouse in San Diego after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. He admitted to taking money from a military contractor in exchange for his supporting the contractor's efforts to secure Defense Department contracts. The eight-term Republican congressman, one of the most highly decorated fighter pilots of the Vietnam War, also pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.”

[snip]

“Mr. Cunningham, who has long been known as Duke, was also living in Washington on a yacht, renamed the "Duke-Stir," according to the indictment, that was owned by Mr. Wade. The firm was also getting more federal military-related business in recent years, during a time when Mr. Cunningham was on a subcommittee overseeing military spending.

Mr. Cunningham's resignation is the latest blow to Republicans dealing with other ethics investigations. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas had to step down as majority leader after he was indicted in a campaign finance case. Investigators are looking into a stock sale by the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee. And I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, was indicted in the C.I.A. leak case.

Rep. Cunningham’s crimes will cost him, and possibly the Republican Congress, but he was just a part of the smaller scheme. Now, with the Abramoff larger scandal many others maybe forced to pay the price.

My bet on the next Republican Representative is Bob Ney. He is Exhibit A in the Scanlon indictment and the K Street “Pay for Play Scheme" implemented by Tom Delay and Grover Norquist.

"Pass the Popcorn."

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Thanksgiving!

The only holiday that I celebrate is Thanksgiving. I am one of those folks who is opposed to the commercialism of every other holiday. Thanksgiving stands out as the one and only that has escaped that fate. Have you ever received a Thanksgiving Day card? I think not! Do they even exist?

Thanksgiving for me is a day of celebration with your family, whether natural or reconstituted. It is a day to celebrate those things in your life, and the world, that we should all be thankful for and the Friday after is a day to celebrate our bounty and all of the food leftover from Thursday. For two whole days we celebrate our togetherness and that which we share with our friends and children. I love it.

That said, I have been seriously depressed since December 12, 2000 when SCOTUS decided to jettison democracy. After November 2004 I was bereft, just like 1972, when a majority of voters chose to, once again, elect a criminal enterprise. So, it would seem to many that this year I didn’t think that we had much to be thankful for.

This administration has dug a hole that the American public is going to have to repair. George W. and his cohorts maybe able to leave in 2009, but the rest of us will be left to clean up this terrible mess. We have the war, deficits as far as the eye can see, environmental damage, the destruction of America’s image abroad, the administration’s justification of torture, and the cleave in our social structure and citizenry.

So, beside the fact that our friends and family are resolute in our desire to be thankful for our bounty, whatever its size, and our love and support for each other in our isolated world, what do we have to be thankful for in the world at large?

It appears that the “Wheels Are Coming Off” the Criminal Enterprise that is BushCo., and the Republican controlled government. The Republican leadership is under investigation for money laundering and insider trading. Both Rep. DeLay, Majority Leader of the House who was forced to step down due to the felony charge, has been indicted and Sen. Frist, Senate Majority Leader, is being investigated.

The Administration's Poll numbers, as well as the President’s personal numbers, are dramatically down. Americans have also decided that the Adventure in Iraq isn’t quite what it was led to believe it would be and are getting disenchanted.

The Vice President’s chief aid, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been indicted for obstruction of justice, among other charges, in the Plame investigation. And U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald has a new grand jury which is continuing to investigate other administration officials, such as Karl Rove, not to mention the involvement of the Vice President, etc.

The FDA’s handling of Plan B is under scrutiny, as is the Administration’s use of Media Propaganda. That is a good thing. There is the imploding corruption scandals that the state of Ohio Republican’s are dealing with from the Governor’s office on down. This is not a good thing for the state that re-elected Junior amid voting irregularities.

The incompetence of this Administration was exposed when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, one of the most important cities, both culturally and economically, in this country. How many administrations can boast of that?

President Bush 41’s friends are now openly trash talking Junior. Other family, friends, and employees are exposing Junior as being unhinged. After all, this is a hard job and what you do has consequences, unlike any of his other jobs. And for Junior things haven’t been going very well lately. The question is whether his father’s friends can pull him out of this mess that he has created. The world is hoping they can.

And then there is the scandal to beat all scandals. The multiple investigations of Jack Abramoff have the Republicans in Congress and the Administration pretty much crapping in there pants. Michael Scanlon, Abramoff’s partner,and former aid to Tom Delay, has copped a plea and is expected to expose the underbelly of this Republican operation. It is also expected that he might have some insight into that pesky gangland style hit in the SunCruz case that Abramoff and his other partner were indicted in for fraud.

Mr. Scanlon knows where a lot of the bodies are buried and you can bet that he would like to minimize the amount of time he spends away from his family. So, yes indeed, this is the one scandal that could devour the party and end the Rove and Norquist dream of Republican political hegemony. It has exposed the DeLay, Rove and Norquist K Street Project for what it is: extortion. For a really good rundown on Abramoff, DeLay, Norquist, Reed, SunCruz Murder, and K Street Project visit this site by the WAPO.

These are all things to be thankful for as they, hopefully, will remove from power those who are undermining our democracy. But at the same time they are a sad indication of where our nation has gone. That there is a national dialogue about torture as if it were a legitimate use of power, and our government is curtailing our liberties and civil right by suspending habeas corpus, a foundation for our democracy, among other actions taken by this administration and congress does not portend well for our future and the future of our Country.

These are sad times for the United States of America, and though we should be thankful that the Wheels of this Administration’s bus are coming off, we should be asking ourselves how did we get to this place?

That this dialogue is happening in earnest is what we can be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Once we give thanks, we need to roll up our sleeves as there is much work to do. So, let’s get to it.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Scanlon Down. Can Ralph and Grover be far behind?

Be still my heart. The Abramoff Scandal is the gift that just keeps on giving. For those of you who are not up on the nuts and bolts of it, just peruse the Wikipedia entry, which is pretty good, though it does not go into the nuance of this scandal. Nuance meaning that it hits just about everyone.

Jack Abramoff’s partner and Tom DeLay’s former spokesperson, Michael Scanlon, is about to plead guilty to conspiracy and rat out, more than likely, everyone involved.

The WAPO reports:

Scanlon, 35, is charged with one count of conspiracy. He has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, said sources familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Such cooperation from a pivotal figure in the Abramoff case is a major advance in the 18-month federal investigation into alleged bribery and corruption involving the lobbyist, members of Congress and executive branch agencies.

In the court documents, prosecutors said Scanlon, once a press aide to former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), worked with Abramoff in a scheme in which the lobbyist would direct tribes to hire Scanlon's public relations firm without telling them Scanlon had agreed to kick back half of the profits to Abramoff.

So, who will be next to stand in front of the judge and declare his innocence? We can pretty much assume that Jack will be having to make an appearance in court. Maybe Jack will even have to make an appearance before another judge in that pesky “gangland style murder” case in Florida. We can pretty much assume that Rep. Ney will have to plead one way or another. I am sure that there will be other Representatives dragged before a court of competent jurisdiction as well.

"I think this has the potential to be the biggest scandal in Congress in over a century," said Thomas E. Mann, a Congressional specialist at the Brookings Institution. "I've been around Washington for 35 years, watching Congress, and I've never seen anything approaching Abramoff for cynicism and chutzpah in proposing quid pro quos to members of Congress."

But folks, what I want to see is Grover Norguist and Ralph Reed in the dock. These two self-righteous bastards have used libertarianism and religion to undermine democracy and enrich themselves in the process. Okay, so they are part of the “Republican Revolution,” so, what is my point?

My point is that there are many folks out there that have been led astray by their rhetoric and perversion of a philosophy to benefit themselves and the oligarchy. Okay granted we all know that the States has a very low level literacy rate which makes it even easier to take advantage of folks. But, these guys are scum and need to be taken down. And they need to be taken down sooner rather later.

So, as the noose tightens around their necks, I have to say, “Thank you Jack Abramoff, and a special thanks to Michael Scanlon.”

Oh, and in that other scandal rocking the Administration, I want to see Faux Ambassador John Bolton taken down.

A girl has to dream.

UPDATE: ReddHedd at Firedoglake has a very good post on this with some exceptional links. As she said, “Now pass the popcorn.”

Sunday, November 13, 2005

The End of Democracy, Part II.

ReddHedd, over at Firedoglake, has a very thorough and historical explanation of the importance of Habeas Corpus. She makes clear the threat to democracy by the Senate’s vote to limit its application.

I would just say, in addition, that not just “foreigners” can be classified as Enemy Combatants. Jose Padilla, a natural born citizen, was classified as one and is still being held, indefinitely without charges, in a U. S. brig.

For all the xenophobes out there who think it is only going to happen to foreigners: get a grip. It is happening right now to American Born Citizens.

What makes you think you won’t be next?

I can’t believe there is a person of color, with any historical knowledge, in this country that doesn’t know the answer to that question.

ReddHedd is far more knowledgeable and eloquent than I am. Therefore, read every word of what she has to say. It is a much overdue Civics lesson.

Weimar Germany, circa 2005. Indeed!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

I Heart Walter Pincus!

And quite often, I Heart Dana Milbank. So, when the two of them get together and take on Bush, I swoon.

George W. is blaming everything on his critics, read: Democrats. They, according to him, had the same intelligence that he had when he made his decision to preemptively invade a sovereign nation that was not a threat to the United States . And not only that, but they voted to give him the power take out Saddam. So, he now wants to know why are they siding with the Terrorists and rewriting history?

President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw the same intelligence the administration did before the war, and that independent commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence.

Neither assertion is wholly accurate.

The administration's overarching point is true: Intelligence agencies overwhelmingly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and very few members of Congress from either party were skeptical about this belief before the war began in 2003. Indeed, top lawmakers in both parties were emphatic and certain in their public statements.

But Bush and his aides had access to much more voluminous intelligence information than did lawmakers, who were dependent on the administration to provide the material. And the commissions cited by officials, though concluding that the administration did not pressure intelligence analysts to change their conclusions, were not authorized to determine whether the administration exaggerated or distorted those conclusions.

[. . .]

But the only committee investigating the matter in Congress, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has not yet done its inquiry into whether officials mischaracterized intelligence by omitting caveats and dissenting opinions. And Judge Laurence H. Silberman, chairman of Bush's commission on weapons of mass destruction, said in releasing his report on March 31, 2005: "Our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers, and all of us were agreed that that was not part of our inquiry."

Bush, in Pennsylvania yesterday, was more precise, but he still implied that it had been proved that the administration did not manipulate intelligence, saying that those who suggest the administration "manipulated the intelligence" are "fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments."

In the same speech, Bush asserted that "more than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate, who had access to the same intelligence, voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power." Giving a preview of Bush's speech, Hadley had said that "we all looked at the same intelligence."

But Bush does not share his most sensitive intelligence, such as the President's Daily Brief, with lawmakers. Also, the National Intelligence Estimate summarizing the intelligence community's views about the threat from Iraq was given to Congress just days before the vote to authorize the use of force in that country.

In addition, there were doubts within the intelligence community not included in the NIE. And even the doubts expressed in the NIE could not be used publicly by members of Congress because the classified information had not been cleared for release. For example, the NIE view that Hussein would not use weapons of mass destruction against the United States or turn them over to terrorists unless backed into a corner was cleared for public use only a day before the Senate vote.

Go read the whole thing.

Is it possible that a spine is growing on the MSM? Not that Mr. Pincus ever lost his, but the Editors didn’t bury this on A18.

That is a good sign. One might say a revolutionary sign.

The End of Democracy!

Paul Craig Roberts has an excellent essay on this administration’s tyranny and its intention to destroy our democracy, delicate as it is. The question I have, and which he asks as well, is why are our fellow citizens and representatives allowing this?

Habeas Corpus is one of the bedrocks of our democracy. It is what differentiates our form of government from a Monarchy and/or a dictatorship. The power of one man, in this case the president, to hold anyone in custody without the individual's protection under the laws of our constitution, and international law, is the defining feature of tyranny and dictatorship.

If this law by Senator Graham is passed, Mr. Roberts has this to say about 2006:

When a Republican next campaigns, all he can say is "vote for me because I want power to lock you up and torture you."

Please read his essay, it is so clear on what we have in store for our future.

Be afraid, be very afraid, and contact your representatives today.

This is So Carl Hiaasen!

If that piece of work, Jack Abramoff, had wanted to he couldn’t have written the outline of Hiaasen’s next novel any better. Let me see, we have Republicans both high and low, Gangland style murder, bank fraud, the Christian Coalition, Grover Norquist and the tax no oligarch crew, FBI investigations, Congressional investigations, Indian Casino’s, and TOM DELAY. The only thing missing is the SEC investigation of the head of the Senate for insider trading. Oh, yeah, that’s another story.

So, with total disregard for copyright infringement, here is Hiaasen’s take on the Abramoff adventure:

Adventures of Jack Abramoff -- an ugly story



The glistening slime trail left by lobbyist Jack Abramoff leads to an infamous homicide scene in South Florida.

And while the indicted bosom buddy of indicted Rep. Tom DeLay says he had nothing to do with the mob-style execution of casino fleet founder Gus Boulis, Abramoff probably wasn't turning cartwheels when three men were recently charged with murdering Boulis back in February 2001.

One of the defendants is Anthony ''Big Tony'' Moscatiello, identified by police as an associate of the Gambino crime family. Moscatiello is a longtime pal with lawyer Adam Kidan, who was Abramoff's partner in what prosecutors say was a fraudulent purchase of Fort Lauderdale-based SunCruz casinos from Boulis.

Kidan and Abramoff go way back. At the Georgetown Law Center they were both members of the College Republicans.

Abramoff grew up to be a big-time GOP operative whose friendship with House Speaker DeLay opened doors to all sorts of wondrous opportunities. For example, his lobby firm received $66 million in fees from Indian tribes that either wanted to set up casino operations, or block rival tribes from doing the same.

Sen. John McCain, the tenacious Arizona Republican, is currently holding hearings about Abramoff's unorthodox lobby tactics and the favors he seems have bought at the Interior Department, which oversees Indian matters.

It's an ugly story, but not the worst of Abramoff's legal problems. That would be his partnership with Kidan, whose keen business acumen and sterling ethics had already led to multiple bankruptcies and the loss of his New York law license.

In 2000, Abramoff shiningly recommended Kidan to Gus Boulis as a buyer for the SunCruz casino boat fleet, which Boulis was being forced to sell because he wasn't a U.S. citizen.

The buyout sounded like such a sweet deal that Abramoff decided to go 50-50 with Kidan, and the papers were finally signed in September 2000.

Boulis, who'd kept a stake in SunCruz, soon became enraged with Kidan's free-spending management. Among those hired for catering and security services were Kidan's old mob friend Moscatiello and another upstanding citizen named Anthony ''Little Tony'' Ferrari. When Boulis started to raise hell about the money, things grew so tense that Kidan got a restraining order and even hired three bodyguards.

Boulis filed suit, and the next month he was dead, shot to death in his BMW after leaving his office in Fort Lauderdale. Like Abramoff, Kidan says he knows nothing about Boulis' murder.

In September, Moscatiello, Ferrari and a third man, James ''Pudgy'' Fiorillo, were charged with the crime. But back to the deal:

Four months after Boulis died, SunCruz was in the toilet. Court records showed that Kidan and Abramoff had diverted $310,000 of company funds for a luxury skybox at FedEx Field in Washington, D.C., where Abramoff entertained politicians and GOP fat cats.

He and Kidan also had helped themselves to $500,000 salaries and lots of expensive perks. But here's the best part: According to prosecutors, the two men took control of the casino line without ever putting down a dime of their own dough.

Abramoff and Kidan were indicted in South Florida last summer for allegedly faking documents showing they'd invested $23 million in the deal. Those papers enabled them to obtain $60 million in real financing.

Both men say they're innocent. Predictably, Abramoff blames Kidan for the alleged fraud and insists he didn't know about his pal's past business flops, or the disbarment.

It's quite a tale, and quite a statement about the prevailing culture in Washington, D.C., where until his troubles began Abramoff owned a restaurant popular with the conservative crowd.

His role in the SunCruz takeover wasn't widely known four years ago when Gus Boulis was shot, but Abramoff obviously wasn't concerned. He and Kidan blithely siphoned the cash out the company and moved on.

Abramoff was coasting along nicely, ripping off the Indian tribes, until the SunCruz indictments last summer. Today his big-shot friends can't help him, and wouldn't if they could.

Once a star and darling of congressional Republicans, Abramoff is now political poison. No more skybox parties or free Scottish golf vacations for the Speaker of the House. No more schmoozing with Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.

Indicted in Florida, under fire from McCain in Washington, Abramoff can now look forward to an upcoming mob-hit trial in which his once-golden name might be unflatteringly invoked.

He could even be asked to testify, an event that would reduce his once-bulging Rolodex to the thickness of a library card.

The players and politicians who are so desperately distancing themselves from Abramoff would prefer that we think of him as some small-time hustler, a fringe sleazeball who crawled out of the shadows.

He wasn't. He was a big-league hustler and a mainstream sleazeball.

And he was all theirs.


Yes, he was, and is, all theirs. And they are terrified. What a guy!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Weimar Germany Redux

Jeralyn at TalkLeft has the scoop on the Republicans' desire to turn us into a version of Germany in 1933. Remember folks when this administration told us that the “Enemy Combatant” status would never be used against American Citizens? Well, just ask Jose Padilla how that turned out for him.

So now Habeas Corpus, the bedrock of our freedoms and all that stands between citizens and tyranny, is being undermined.

Dictatorship is accomplished one step at a time.

I thought that we had progressed some what from the terror of the past and Plessy v. Ferguson , et al. I am wrong. This country is still suffering from social psychosis.

Why do the Republicans hate our Freedoms and want the Terrorists to win.

This is a sad day for the United States of America and all who believe in her promise.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

What is Good for the Goose. . .

An old friend of mine sent me this essay. I thought that I would share it. Let me know what you think.

Rendition for Libby: Let’s Torture Scooter!

(The Applicability of Torture under the “War on Terror & the Patriot Act)

“In our system of government an accused person is presumed innocent until a contrary finding is made by a jury after an opportunity to answer the charges and a full airing of the facts. Mr. Libby is entitled to that opportunity”.

– Statement by Dick Cheney following the indictment and resignation of I. Lewis Libby http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051028-4.html

US criminal law and international law (Geneva conventions) forbid the use of torture and cruel treatment of the accused and prisoners

In days gone by the United States once prided itself on the above tenet of law, affording constitutional protections to those accused of a crime. However, these guarantees no longer apply across the post 9/11 American spectrum, especially where the accused could conceivably be involved in terrorism.

ter·ror·ism (tr-rzm)
n.

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Unfortunately for Mr. Libby, his public involvement as one of the neo-con architects of the current debacle in Iraq, the first stop in the War against terror, has left him open to charges as a war criminal and a terrorist, and as such could easily be perceived to be subject to the vagaries of the “Patriot Act”. As a consequence of this behavior, he should be stripped of any constitutional protections, deported for rendition and tortured as a means to prevent further terror from occurring in the form of illegal invasions of foreign states which would inevitably lead to the loss of life of American troops as well as the obligatory “collateral damage” the adventures cause..

Some might lift an eyebrow or bristle at this suggestion [no small feat these day, given our societal addiction to Laci and Michael and…] that a prominent and as of yet still un-convicted recent member of our government should be subject to such unthinkable and horrendous treatment, and surely not the sort of thing an American would expect from their government.

However it appears that Mr. Libby would have an uphill battle should he be held as a war criminal. Were he subjected to the same standards (“We’re a nation of Laws” - GW Bush) as the Nazi’s at Nuremburg, it is doubtful Scooter would have much of a chance at acquittal, given the lack of WMD’s or links between Osama and Saddam, and the ever changing reasons for being in Iraq then and now.

U.S. Justice Robert Jackson made it clear to those who would be a part of any pre-emptive war in his opening statement to the tribunal on Nov. 21, 1945:

Any resort to war - any kind of war - is a resort to means that are inherently criminal. War inevitably is a course of killings, assaults, deprivations of liberty and destruction of property. An honestly defensive war is, of course, legal and saves those lawfully conducting it from criminality. But inherently criminal acts cannot be defended by showing that those who committed them were engaged in a war, when war itself is illegal. The very minimum legal consequence of the treaties making aggressive war illegal is to strip those who incite or wage them of every defense the law ever gave, and to leave the war-makers subject to judgment by the usually accepted principles of the law of crimes.

As it is slowly becoming painfully obvious to most Americans, there never was a valid reason to attack Iraq and because self-defense is the only instance accepted by the Geneva and UN conventions, those responsible for these acts of war could and should be prosecuted in the same fashion as their counterparts at Nuremberg. Instead, these architects of our current debacle in Iraq are still in Washington and elsewhere scurrying about attempting to further obfuscate their original intentions while at the same time laying the groundwork for yet more pre-emptive strikes, most notably in Iran and Syria. If the premise that torture is an acceptable method to be used to prevent further carnage, then the recent indictment of I. Lewis Libby could serve as an example of just when torture is indeed justifiable.

Even the bumbling Inspector Clousseau would find Libby’s failed attempts to rebuke Ambassador Wilson’s claims regarding the bogus yellowcake from Niger by disseminating the employer of his wife an act that would render him a prime suspect, connecting him in the plotting and commission of acts of terror throughout the world. The 2.000 plus dead American soldiers, 15,000 plus wounded and maimed, and a minimal accounting of 35,000 dead Iraqi civilians certainly constitutes an act of terror by use “of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies . That this resulted in the terrorizing of people could be readily confirmed by conversing with any of the deceased’s families, while the wanton destruction of property (in Iraq as well as here in the US in the form of increased taxation, MY personal property[emphasis added]) continues unabated at this very moment.

While most Americans are not willing to admit it, the carnage that has been fomented on other nations (most notably Iraq) in response to the attack of 9/11 has now eclipsed that event in terms of death of innocents and destruction of private property. Thus torture could be seen here as a prophylactic measure to prevent additional loss of life.

The premise of the use of extra-legal means in this the age of terror is pro-actively removing an act of terror prior to its inception. As such Scooter is a prime suspect, and given the recent rumblings by Mr. Libby’s cohorts of the need to use force in other Sovereign nations such as Syria and Iran, time is of the essence. And when time is of the essence, it has been pretty much agreed that the use of torture is necessary, albeit unfortunate.

None other than the “great legal mind” of our time Alan Dershowitz points out that should a suspect hold information that might save thousands of lives, it is imperative that we use any means necessary to find out what plots are afoot, and quash them before they reach fruition!

Given Mr. Libby’s close proximity to Mr.’s Cheney, Feith, Perle and their ilk, notorious for advocating the next illegal act of aggression soon in the “axis of evil” (Iran, Syria & North Korea), he would be the prime person to be deported abroad for rendition [1], and far more likely to provide immediate results than say, the “dirty bomber” from Chicago. And an expedited course of extra legal treatment might allow this country to avoid yet another embarrassing international debacle.

Some might find this suggestion cruel, but we know that according to the Washington Post, our very own CIA has an archipelago of “black sites” where we could send Mr. Libby, and judging by the mount of detainees (30 +70) it is possible that it may just be working. We also wouldn’t feel as if we were leaving him in solitary or anything as unpleasant as say, Guantanamo.

Once there, it might be beneficial for the CIA to probe into who was responsible for outing one of their own. While we all know Mr. Fitzgerald did an admirable job in trying to attain this info the old fashioned way, a more forthright admission might be just around the corner, which amongst other things, could save a whole lot on court costs and clogging the court calendar, a subject which has long been a mainstay of the Republican Party. In addition we wouldn’t be bombarded with the usual parade of elected Republicans complaining about the high costs of the Special Prosecutor, yielding only minor infractions.

It would also leave Court TV & CNN’s Law page more time to ponder the big issues around the corner. In fact, I think Robert Blake may be in line for a civil verdict any moment now.



[1] “extraordinary rendition.” This program had been devised as a means of extraditing terrorism suspects from one foreign state to another for interrogation and prosecution. Critics contend that the unstated purpose of such renditions is to subject the suspects to aggressive methods of persuasion that are illegal in America—including torture.

From The New Yorker

OUTSOURCING TORTURE

The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program.

by JANE MAYER

Issue of 2005-02-14

Thought provoking, no?