The list of offenses by George W. Bush and his sneering co-conspirator that qualify as “high crimes and misdemeanors” — and therefore merit charges of impeachment — is so long that if I detailed them here we might indeed finally hit a sign that says “Internet ends here.” So let’s just deal with one that, while I know it’s been exhausted elsewhere recently, I have to cover for just a moment to get off my chest.

Being connected to the outing of one of our own spies has to qualify as treason. Our spies are, well, ours. Ideally, spies gather intelligence that helps fend off the threat of war. But of course, that wasn’t what was wanted here — in fact, what was wanted was quite the opposite, at all costs. And so, to silence our spy’s husband, our spy was outed. By her own government.

I don’t put anything past Bush/Cheney, which is one reason I view askance the pony race of the presidential campaign in progress: I’m not sure these people are stepping down. I’m predicting “a national emergency” that requires them to stay in power. In college when we played a lot of the board game Risk, one of our friends would always maneuver with others to attack this country or that, saying that it was “for the good of the game.” But we knew that it really wasn’t for the good of everyone in the game; it was for the good of his vested interest in winning the game. No one was fooled. I’m predicting that this “national emergency” will be “for the good of the game. “What I don’t know is whether or not we’ll be fooled. (If the past is prelude to the present, then probably so.)

Since I don’t blame Bush/Cheney, given that it’s the scorpion’s nature to sting, I blame a media that did things like focus on Al Gore’s sighs in the 2000 debates (and don’t those sighs look appealing now), and a Supreme Court that overturned all jurisprudence to install an illicit regime. Re the media, this piece right here from Newsweak is what has prompted this posting. It details Bush’s “process,” such as it was, to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby, one of those guys involved with jeopardizing our spy’s life while she was doing things like serving the country.

Here’s a telling paragraph:

Behind the scenes, Bush was intensely focused on the matter, say two White House advisers who were briefed on the deliberations, but who asked not to be identified talking about sensitive matters. Bush asked Fred Fielding, his discreet White House counsel, to collect information on the case. Fielding, anticipating the Libby issue would be on his plate, had been gathering material for some time, including key trial transcripts. Uncharacteristically, Bush himself delved into the details. He was especially keen to know if there was compelling evidence that might contradict the jury’s verdict that Libby had lied to a federal grand jury about when—and from whom—he learned the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of Iraq War critic Joe Wilson. But Fielding, one of the advisers tells NEWSWEEK, reluctantly concluded that the jury had reached a reasonable verdict: the evidence was strong that Libby testified falsely about his role in the leak.

So the Administration’s own person concluded that the jury was right. And Bush himself was “uncharacteristically” consumed with details (his more characteristic responses having been well on display during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina). (I guess when it comes directly through his own door, it’s important. If we’re ever attacked by Martians or zombies, we can only hope they hit the Oval Office first so that there’s a response.) Then, in the piece in Newsweak, we get this:

The president was conflicted. He hated the idea that a loyal aide would serve time. Hanging over his deliberations was Cheney, who had said he was “very disappointed” with the jury’s verdict. Cheney did not directly weigh in with Fielding, but nobody involved had any doubt where he stood. “I’m not sure Bush had a choice,” says one of the advisers. “If he didn’t act, it would have caused a fracture with the vice president.”

Newsweak just about gives the most disturbing aspect of this a pass: Although the aide found that the jury had reached the proper — and reasonable — verdict, because Bush “hated the idea that a loyal aide would serve time,” and because he didn’t want to risk pissing off Dick Cheney, he commuted the sentence.

So here’s my question:

Is this a nation or laws, or not?

Because if laws can be ignored because we “hate the idea” of some of them, then we’re in for an even worse time when more people start to notice this. But hey, why not, when you can act this way:

1. lose an election and get installed by a court
2. trump up evidence to invade a country that didn’t attack you
3. hold clandestine meetings with energy corporatists to line your friends’ pockets
4. grab up people from anywhere on the planet and toss them into a gulag with no access to process or representation
5. get legislation passed that strips away troubling individual rights
6. and on and on and on until

Internet ends here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 4:36 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.