No, this isn’t going to satisfy Randy, mainly because I don’t think it’s as bad as he thinks it is. But I was just looking back at some of my recent work, and happened to run across this, which I wrote minutes after McCain announced he’d chosen Sarah Palin. It was the very end of my column of Aug. 31, in which I had complained mightily about Hillary Clinton’s use of the "fight" metaphor:
Just moments ago as I write this, as he announced he’d chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate, Sen. McCain promised the GOP crowd that he’d “fight for you.”
Lord help us.
Note that this was before America fell even in love with Sarah, which was in turn before it fell OUT of love with her.
As I said, that’s not going to be enough for Randy, but as far as criticizing the tone of the McCain-Palin ticket, I was out there first, baby!
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The tone of “fight for you” pales in comparison to “pals around with terrorists,”socialist,” or “election fraud.” A subtext of some of Palin’s speeches is that Obama doesn’t love the country enough and that his supporters aren’t really patriotic. Frankly, a lot of Republicans will be glad to say goodbye to the Limbaugh-style demonizing and divisive style of campaigning. Some would view a good whipping as a chance to at last repudiate the Dent/Atwater/Rove legacy and get on to a more civil tone. It could happen.
Well, geez, Harry, “fight for you” was all I had to work with that day. Give a guy a break, huh?
If the news media was honest and objective, instead of an arm of the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign, McCain and Palin wouldn’t have to educate the public about Obama’s racist, socialist pals and their agenda.
Obama is a socialist. He says so every day and in his books. Every policy he proclaims is right out of Karl Marx, Mussolini and Hitler.
Obama is an authoritarian. He has no respect for democracy. It is something to be subverted. His justify his means.
Obama has worked closely with Bill Ayers, Michael Klonsky and other communists since 1987.
Obama doesn’t understand business or the economy, because he has never held a real job in his entire life.
Obama worked for ACORN, training them on tactics. Obama represented ACORN as an attorney 3 times. On the board of the Woods Fund with communist Bill Ayers, Obama directed almost $2,000,000 to ACORN projects. ACORN works for the Obama campaign, and even says on their website to vote for Obama.
200,000 illegal voter names registered by ACORN in Ohio IS election fraud.
1,200,000 voters in Indianapolis, a city of 600,000, is election fraud.
The FBI is prosecuting ACORN and Obama workers in 13 states for ELECTION FRAUD. 21 plead guilty last week.
Neither party or potential President has me standing up to cheer. Neither Obama or McCain has convinced me, who I should vote for? Yet I’m voting for Obama. I’m terrified that he will give ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS a path to citizenship, even the they violated our laws. However, he will have a nasty battle trying to get it past the House, Senate and 80 percent of the American people. Taxpayers don’t need to subsidize a war, plus an estimated 37 million illegal aliens, according to the Tucson sector Border Patrol union local 2544. I know I don’t want to support illegal aliens or pariah employers who hire them.
However I will compromise for Health care for my sick family, members, building up our U.S.infrastructure which is falling apart, stopping job outsourcing and selling America to foreign governments. Taking our economy back from China, India and other cheap labor lands. Fighting for Americans, instead of the International globalists who have no loyalty to this nation.
Since you call yourself "Brittanicus," which illegal immigrants do you mean? The Angles? The Saxons? The Normans? Me, I get most worked up about those Normans… yay, Robin Hood… Forgive me, I watched "Men in Tights" over the weekend, and "Spaceballs" right after. Sometimes, I need relief from all the serious stuff…
Lord help us. – Brad
WHHHOOAAAA, tone down the caustic rhetoric there Christopher Hitchens!
I take it all back Brad! You were right there with David Brooks calling her a “cancer”; Kristol wanting to fire the entire McCain staff; Buckley calling him “inauthentic”; and the real Hitchens upbraiding McCain for his “ludicrous” VP selection.
The commish is wise.
Mel Brooks offers great escapes. But if you’re looking for escapist drama and don’t mind a bit of (well, a lot of) violence and blood, I highly recommend The Boondock Saints. Set in modern-day Boston, it’s got the Mafia, the Russian Mafia, and the Murphia; murder, mayhem, and a hint of humanity; tragedy, humor, pointlessness, and a point. While the script and direction are uneven, Willem Dafoe’s performance is remarkable, as are those of other members of the cast. This flick may be hard to find, but is worth buying.
I rate it even with Snatch, which has more laughs and less blood, but some pretty violent scenes. It too has a Russian mobster, but offers a band of Gypsies, including Brad Pitt as their leader.
One cut below is Snatch’s prequel, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, also directed by Guy Ritchie. It has many of the same characters, less Brad Pitt, and is not as funny or as violent.
All three are offensive in too many ways to list.
Obama is counting on the selfish materialism of voters like “Brittanicus” to sell out their country to have some taxpayer pick up the bill for their medical insurance.
Obama’s entire sales pitch is for Americans to give up their freedom now for the promise of being taken care of in the future.
Reconsider, Brittanicus.
Brad –
On a more serious note, some reporters seem to be falling in love with Palin; see my comments in your SNL entry.
As for fighting, this is politics and the language of warfare is often employed during the campaign that’s waged to win battleground states. Some candidates urge their supporters to get in the face of opponents or undecideds, is that different?
But there is a fight going on and a lot of everyday Joes are agitated. Even those named Tito, if Byron York’s report of McCain’s campaign rally in Virginia Saturday is a good indication.
Tito then engaged in a one-on-one with David Corn of Mother Jones. You ought to read the whole thing and take a look at the photos of Tito’s confrontation. It’s a hoot but quite instructive: those folks consider the press — NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN — to be hostile to McCain and his message, of covering up negative information about Obama. They were hurt and angered by what they viewed as the media’s attacks on Joe, a regular guy with a dream, just as they are regular working folks with dreams too.
Tito was ready for the fight: he had all his papers and was determined to take on the press, the enemy in his mind, the folks that disparaged Joe’s dream, his dream, the American dream.
That’s worth a fight, no?
The MSN jumped right on a smear campaign of Joe the Plumber, but has no time or bandwidth to report on Bill Ayers, Michael Klonsky, Jeremiah Wright, Frank Marshal Davis, Percy Sutton, Khalid Monsour, Tony Rezko, or any of the other sleazy associates of Obama.
Wow!
Go Lee!
Go Tito!
Down with the lying media!
Down with the lying bho!
Viva La Liberte’
Mike, is “Joe the Plumber” behind on his taxes? Yes or no. If he’s behind and the press reported that how is than anything other than reporting the truth? Fact is under the Obama plan “Joe” would be LESS behind in his taxes (since his tax burden would be lower) and would have a BETTER chance at evenutually saving enough money to buy his business. The fact that the press is telling the truth about “Joe” is nothing but an indication that it’s doing it’s job.
“Obama is counting on the selfish materialism of voters like “Brittanicus” to sell out their country to have some taxpayer pick up the bill for their medical insurance.”
Ordinarily I don’t bother to respond to Lee’s comments (or even read them) but I can’t ignore this cavalier attitude toward the health care problems millions of Americans face.
I don’t have employer-sponsored health care. In exchange for a $1,500 deductible (which I never meet) and a policy that pays for pretty much nothing before deductible, I pay $450 a month. Coverage for my children is another $300 a month. If another adult were on the policy, the total cost would be around $1,200 a month — fully one third of my after-tax earnings.
Who in the world can afford that?
I am very inclined to vote for the candidate who takes my health care problem seriously. If that makes me a selfish materialist, count me in.
KP,
I can understand your frustration, but is the issue the cost of your insurance or the cost of healthcare?
Let’s say you fell and broke your leg and it required surgery to repair? Can we assume that the bill from the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the nurses, the hospital, physical therapy, etc. would greatly exceed the amount of money you pay for insurance for one year?
How would you envision paying for those services in a different system? Who would determine how much the surgeon was paid and how much physical therapy you would receive?
Someone will have to pay. There was news out of Hawaii last week about the state abandoning its universal health care for children plan that had only been in existence for seven months. Why?
“People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free,” said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. “I don’t believe that was the intent of the program.”
Healthcare costs too much. But is it because of insurance or because of other factors? Medical malpractice insurance costs due to over zealous lawyers are skyrocketing and those costs get passed on to the consumer. Drug companies have long patents on medicines and can keep costs higher. Good for their shareholders, bad for the general public. Prescription drugs are advertised on tv, radio, and print media. Who do you think pays for those marketing costs? Medicare pays below market prices for services — so besides paying for the healthcare of seniors with money taken out of every paycheck, we also end up paying more for healthcare to make up for the Medicare difference. And the amount of fraud and waste in Medicare is staggering. Billions of dollars transferred from our paychecks through the government and into the hands of criminals.
It’s an extremely complex issue that can’t be solved just by saying “national healthcare”. A solution would require a President who could stand up to trial lawyers, drug companies, and the AARP. That ain’t happening any time soon.
If only we just got along better with Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha, and Harry Reid. We just need to love them a little more. I mean really, these are great leaders. I’m not scared at all to put our collective future in their hands. With BHO’s experienced leadership we are headed to the Promised Land. Forget about ABSCAM (Murtha), crack (Obama), male prostitution rings (Frank), sweetheart land deals (Reid), sabataging banks for personal gain (Schumer), backing Murtha as Majority Leader and using the Air Force as her personal taxi (Pelosi). These are all fine people. Really.
Doug of all the over-stated problems of our healthcare system the one about the malpractice costs is the one that is most disturbing. If malpractice insurance is so expensive then doctors should consider doing a bit less malpractice. That would bring the costs down. Besides, I doubt even 5% of our healthcare costs can be attributable to that. Probably 20% can be attributed to corporate greed and overpaid insurance company CEOs.
Doug is correct that the underlying healthcare problem is the cost of healthcare. It also includes the insurance industry mishmash. When Hillary Clinton went about healthcare reform, the effort at cost control was sabotaged by a horde of interest groups. So, instead of “socialized medicine,” we got corporate medicine. He didn’t mention the 20 – 28% administrative cost of private heath insurance compared with medicare’s 3%. Private insurers only pay lip service to cost control, because they base their premiums on their costs. Bigger pie, bigger slice for them (at 20+ percent). Any plan that simply dumps tax money into the private insurance market will inflate costs rather than control them. Anyone who thinks market competition will provide affordable, responsive health insurance to the American public hasn’t had to deal with that market as a consumer. “Putting control into the patient’s hands” is far past naive – or purposely deceptive. Look at the crap we got for Medicare Part D, largely by trying to make it a market-based program.
Bud,
I didn’t mean to imply that malpractice insurance is a big component of healthcare costs. But the fear of lawsuits causes healthcare providers to order more tests in order to minimize the risk. That adds more hidden costs into the system.
My problem with insurance is that the companies are able to create profitable pools of subscribers and reject anyone who might not fit the balance sheet. Rather than nationalizing healthcare, I would rather see government regulations that make insurance portable and accessible to everyone. No “pre-existing conditions”, no denial of coverage.
You know, Brad, it really is amazing that you, as a military brat, and basically a lifelong McCain admirer, would trash McCain and Palin for using a fight metaphor.
Fighting is what the military does, isn’t it?
And not only that, you’re actually proud of being first to trash the tone of your hero and his running mate.
You are one strange bird.
Doug: I am very sure that if I broke my leg, insurance would pay far more to fix it than I pay for my annual premium.
But only if I can afford to keep paying the annual premium, which has increased by 50 percent over the past three years. If I can’t, it won’t pay anything at all.
Of course the underlying problem is health care costs. And everything that you and others mentioned probably contributes to it. But relying on the market to control costs is ridiculous because insurance companies have us over a barrel. As I say, I can’t afford to have it, and as you say, I can’t afford not to.
I sure don’t know the answers, but I want a President who will look for them.
Bud,
As someone very very familiar with what drives healthcare costs, at or very near the top of the list are the incredible suffocating regulations healthcare providers must comply with. EMTALA, HIPAA, Antikickback, Stark, Certificate of Need. There are multiple hospitals in this state that spend well over a million dollars a year on compliance with stark alone. There are for-profit hospital chains that have been fined well into the hundreds of millions of dollars because they pay physicians too much money, they lease space for too little or they paid too much for physician practices. Healthcare is overregulated to a degree that most cannot fathom.
There is no free market in healthcare because the government won’t allow it. Nationalized healthcare will make it much much worse.
The three hospitals in Columbia have probably spent close to 10 million dollars just over whether or not Lexington Medical Center can perform open heart surgery.
Just another example of where over-regulation can be very very bad and cost citizens a ton of money.
And malpractice is huge. Ever heard of defensive medicine? Doug alludes to it above.
And as for healthcare, wait and see what happens when Obama gets his unionization bill passed, increases taxes on companies making over 250 (think for-profit hospitals, long-term care facilities, physician offices, ambulatory surgery centers, diagnostic testing facilities) and then converts to a single payor source (the government). You can’t fathom the impact this will have, but it won’t be good.
And by the way, Obama is socialist. His policies are the pure definition of it. Why can’t his supporters just admit and say that is what they think this country needs. The focus from the left on joe the plumber is stupid. His stance during his discussion with Obama highlights Obama’s true stance on economic policies. Tax the rich to pay for everyone else.
Can’t wait to see how the big companies in this country react to further revenue cuts due to higher taxes. I promise you this, they won’t be adding jobs.
If we didn’t have so much to lose, watching this trainwreck would be fun to watch.
Jimmy, let’s be very clear about one thing. We both agree the current system is a mess. I’ve personally been a victim of all the ridiculous insurance paper work, high costs, and impossible to understand billing statements. But I’m also certain that this is clearly and without any doubt whatsover the fault of the REPUBLICANS. I repeat, this is REPUBLICAN health care. It’s the REPUBLICANS who have been in charge of this nightmare. It’s the REPUBLICANS who have blocked any attempts at reform through their tactics of fear. They want this mess to continue so their biggest constituents, namely big pharma and big insurance, can continue to make outlandish profits.
Any simplification of the system can only result in lower profits. I repeat, this is the healthcare system the REPUBLICANS have been able to foist onto the American public. Since they were able to defeat the Hillary Clinton plan in 1993 things have only gotten worse and profits have soared. This is one of the biggest reasons I reject the Republican party. The Democrats are by no means perfect on this issue and frankly the Obama plan is too complex. But it’s a vast improvement over REPUBLICAN healthcare.
Obama and the dems are finally highlighting the de facto nationalized health care system that ALREADY exists.
The emergency room provides primary care for millions without insurance. These patients cannot be turned away and they cannot pay. The result is taxpayers with insurance subsidize the health care for others NOW. Taxpayers who have to use the ER also wait HOURS because of this glut.
The idea that we shouldn’t formalize this system to make it cheaper and more efficient for all is demagoguery for political gain. Is a $5000 tax credit really going to solve this? Taxing health benefits to help provide this credit for the poor sounds like “spreading the wealth”.
Randy, excellent points. The current system is already socialized medicine. And it’s not working.
Rep. Robin Hayes, during a warm-up act for John McCain this weekend in North Carolina, remarked to a rowdy crowd that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” reported on MSNBC
Trickle down idiocy:
Palin speaks of “pro-American areas of the country”. McCain speaks of Obama the socialist who “wants to lose a war to win an election”. Both speak of Obama “palling around with terrorists”.
A GOP official speaks of “real Virginia”. The lunatic congresswoman from MN thinks Obama may be “anti-American” and includes Pelosi, Obama, liberals, and anti-American in the same sentence. The “public servant” identified in the quote above talks about “liberals hating America.”
On Fox News an video editor that writes the news captions at the bottom of the screen identified Michelle Obama as “Obama’s baby momma”. Rush practically screams out that General Powell is a racist.
Then we have the “kill him” and “traitor” remarks at McCain-Palin directed at Obama. Outside one McCain supporter carries a stuffed monkey adorned with an Obama sticker. Another distributes Obama stickers adorned with the Islamic crescent (as if being a Mulsim is inherently bad.) Of course there’s the lady who called Obama an “Arab”.
Good thing we have Brad to stand up to this with his condemnation, “Lord help us”.
Government controls 58% of the medical care, and that is where all the costs are rising so fast. Medicare and ER abuse by free riders and illegal immigrants have played a large part in price inflation. 31% of the entire Medicare budget was lost to fraud in 2007, according to the GAO.
Several studies by very liberal schools of medicine and by economists have found that the 42% of the medical industry which is outside much government control has actually had no price inflation. Many procedures in dentistry, opthamology and cosmetic surgery have actually become less expensive and more available.
Obama’s claim that McCain supporters had shouted “kill him” (Obama), was a lie.
The Secret Service has investigated all these claims, which come from Obama workers, and found them to all be false. No news network has been able to produce a single videotape with such verbal abuse on the sound track. Obama is lying.
Meanwhile, the McCain bus was shot with paintballs and a window shot out by a .22 rifle, according to news from New Mexico yesterday. I have not had time to look for any followup articles on AP.
RE: Joe the Plumber and the media ‘exposing’ him:
The media can report all that they like about him. The fact of the matter is, Charles Manson could have asked the question. The answer is the issue and it was provided by Barack Obama.
The Republican approach is not a new one. As the spiritual grandsons and daughters of the intolerant Puritans, they employ the same tactics. It is not a mystery why this is the party of choice for evangelicals.
They claim that they are supportive of more individual freedom, yet they restrict them at the first chance to do so. See also: Bush Administration, Patriot Act, Roe v. Wade debate, Creationism in schools, McCarthy Trials.
Disagree with them and you are a “witch, the other, the despised, the un-American.
When will we ever mature as a nation past this type of narrow thought? What could be more American than positing true criticism of your country in hopes of its improvement? A guy named Murrow had a lot to say on that very subject, but that was a long time ago when the news media was thoughtful and critical, instead of just plain ineffectual.
As a previous poster mentioned, one aspect of Obama’s election that appeals to me is that it serves as an indirect referendum on the Atwater/Rove/Cheney/Rumsfield school of politics…and I hope the new school Murrows are not far behind.
As for me, I have had enough TMZ and national leaders guided by voices for one lifetime.
My goodness you are misguided Bud.
Let me introduce you to Pete Stark, Democratic House member from California. Here is bio for you since you think you know so much but actually know so little. http://www.house.gov/stark/
Does Stark ring a bell. It should. He authored the Stark rules and he is the author of so many other regulatory efforts.
There is absolutely no way you can pin healthcare regulation on Republicans. This definitely cuts both ways. Remember genius, according to Obama, republicans want to de-regulate everything. So what is your point again. Nationalized healthcare will only work with one of two major concessions, neither of which this country can stomach: Increased taxes to pay for it or rationed services to keep costs down.
We have already proven who tried to enhance regulations on the GSE’s and who fought that tooth and nail. We have already heard specifics from McCain as to what he would do to help the financial crisis. Obama blathers on about the middle class and blames the republicans.
Obama’s campaign reminds me of the line in the movie the American President (insert Obama for Rumson)
I’ve known Bob Rumson for years, and I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t get it. Bob’s problem is that he can’t sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.
Obama has spent the last few months telling American what the problem is and who is to blame. He offers no real insight as to how is going to fix it and the one time he slips up and says what he means (his comment to Joe the Plumber) he has to spend the next week defending his comment. It really is pathetic to watch so many intellegent people blindly support a guy who never really says what he is going to do and tries to deflect any focus on his actual action items. Just go to his website and read about his redistribution of wealth policies, taxation on big company policies, affirmative action, unionization, hate crime stance, etc., etc., etc., and you tell me how he can get away with this.
Oh yeah, what’s really our problem is eight years of failed policies and what we really need is change. BRILLIANT!!
Jimmy, you wasted many words to form your bloated balloon of an argument. In not even half as many, I can sharpen and brandish the needle that pops your anti-nationalization of health care “stance.”
Taxes DO NOT have to be raised in a national health care plan. Health care is already nationalized, in a sense, as we pay much higher premiums due to those who ALREADY use emergency rooms as their primary form of healthcare.
Why not approach the presently-flawed health care system that is in place for what it is, rather than for what you don’t think you want it to be?
Let’s admit that we already have socialized health care for the main reason aforementioned, and instead approach its fixes in ways that are more effiecient, orderly and honest than what is currently in place.
Of course, if you can tell me where I can find healthcare for $5000 as McCain suggests, I’ll immediately launch into orbit with no need for an airship’s aid. Methinks that proposal is more akin to a lead zeppelin, truth be told.
Let’s not confuse “healthcare regulation” with “healthcare distribution”. I don’t care whether healthcare is regulated or not regulated. This is a matter of pragmatism, plain and simple. Bud’s rule of pragmatism is simple. If something works (social security) keep it. If something doesn’t work (healthcare distribution) fix it. I don’t care whether we have no government intervention, some or 100%. I only care about what works. The current system does not work. The current system is largely supported by GOP lawmakers. Just look at the various policy proposals. The GOP proposals are limited to a few minor adjustments here and there.
Healthcare distribution needs to be simplified for patients, costs reduced and outcomes improved. We’re falling behind the Europeans on all three measures. It’s time for change. We won’t get enough change with Barack Obama. We won’t get any with John McCain. In this case half a loaf is better than none. This issue is a major reason why I support the Democrats. With the GOP we’ll only get more of the same perverse “enrich big insurance/pharma” that we’ve had for too long.
Mine may be bloated, but yours makes no sense whatsoever. I’ve read it five times and still can’t understand your middle three paragraphs.
Note, I’m not proposing a fix, I’m addressing the added costs of regulation.
You just referred to yourself in the first person. You now can’t be trusted to tell anyone what color the sky is, much less engage in a lucid political debate.
Hey Brad–yes–you, Warthen…what, pray tell, what have you been drinking?
That’s got you tipping so far to the left that you’ve even left off…thinking!
So…you really think that America has fallen out of love with Palin?
Mayhaps it’s just the stuff you drink…or the other stuff you’re…inhaling
But if you need a wake-up call–just cozy up to your digital TV
On election night…when you Democrat waterboys…get to hear from voters like…me
Outside of that Socialist menagerie–where all of you liberals dwell
There’s a real world full of conservatives…just waiting to ring your bell
Take out a copy of the Constitution–you know–the one that defines who we are
And you’ll soon discover how
very far from “the law” …all you liberals are
And when your war on God and the law fails to sink our nation’s ship
And you discover how irrelevant you are…when the voters hold the chips
Perhaps then you’ll come to understand that–at the helm of the ship we’re all sailing
Is an army of patriots who revere our land–the Constitution–and…Sarah Palin!
bud —
Sorry for the late response. Yes, Joe Wurzelbacher did have a tax lien (he may have paid it — see the link), but Obama’s plan would not have helped much. It was a federal tax lien, but one applied by the state of Ohio.
Obama promises to immediately look into sending Bush, Cheney and others to the Hague for war crimes.
Interview with reporter in Philadelphia, Monday, April 14, 2008.
Here’s his answer, in its entirety:
“What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can’t prejudge that because we don’t have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment — I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General — having pursued, having looked at what’s out there right now — are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it’s important– one of the things we’ve got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I’ve said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that here were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law — and I think that’s roughly how I would look at it.”
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.html
Lee, we can only hope.
But seriously, sounds like typical Obama: he pays some lip-service to those (like me) who are the most outraged by the Bush/Cheney abuses and believe there to be violations of domestic and international law…but in the end, his sense of prudence carries the day and he correctly senses that he would not want to have his first term enveloped in pursuit of the most severe legal options available.
More than likely, there will be some hearings about the last 8 years. Much more information will come out in other ways. Nobody’s going to go to jail, but many sordid details re Gonzales, Yoo, etc., will emerge. The main thing is that the errors of this era will be corrected. That is more important than any kind of punishment or retribution.
In any case, Bush and Cheney already have to stay away from two towns in Vermont lest they be arrested.
Why aren’t you hot to prosecute those responsible for the mortgage scam which is taking down our economy, like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and…Joe Biden, and….Barack Obama?
A liberal Democrat, Orson Scott Card on the Fannie/Freddie melt-down, and the media cover up:
“Would the last honest reporter please turn on the lights?”
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was … the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was … the Republican Party.
… read the article
http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081017light.html