Dictator
Stunning. Actually, it's stunning that anything can still be "stunning" coming from this wannabe dictatorship. Still. Stunning.
The WaPo reports this morning that the radical Junta controlling the executive branch of the American government will instruct its "Justice" department to refuse to prosecute Contempt of Congress citations in cases concerning executive privilege claims. Stunning.
In America, certain parts of the government are meant to be non-partisan. The job they do is far too important for any party to use their narrow interests to guide them. Also, important legal and scientific considerations must be more important than the relative success or failure of a political movement over time.
Americans understand this. George Bush and the authoritarians who work for him and support him politically do not.
Justice must be blind or it is not justice. When the slope-browed brown-shirts use the United States Department of Justice as a branch of their extremist movement, the ideal of America dies.
The argument today is that since US Attorneys serve at the "pleasure of the president" (boy do they love saying that one), they can't act against the executive. That, of course, is psychotic lunacy. UN Attorneys are appointed by the president, but serve the American people. They are meant to be - and have been - non-partisan.
When you explicitly make the role of the top federal prosecutors into partisan political warriors, you defeat democracy. Democracy can only exist where there is freedom - free speech and real justice. When the executive owns justice, there can no longer be any freedom - if you oppose politically, you get thrown in jail. You get prosecuted. If you support the Leader, you walk away free - no matter what.
Isn't that what we have today? Politically toxic terror suspects - suspects - are jailed for life with no access to any justice. Political supporters like Lewis Libby walk away from extremely serious charges.
My question, as always, is this: who wants to live in a country like that? Who, exactly, is the constituency for a lawless authoritarian Junta? Obviously, there are a core of 26-30% of US voters (I won't call them Americans) who want to live in a country like that. I feel sorry for them.
The other constituency is the 47 Senators who will steadfastly refuse to bring standards of freedom and justice back to the country that was once great because of those very standards.
Here's what they need to do:
Both chambers [of Congress] also have an "inherent contempt" power, allowing either body to hold its own trials and even jail those found in defiance of Congress. Although widely used during the 19th century, the power has not been invoked since 1934 and Democratic lawmakers have not displayed an appetite for reviving the practice.
That's the challenge. They must not back away from it. The country is in peril of losing its soul. Can Democrats find the guts to save America?
The WaPo reports this morning that the radical Junta controlling the executive branch of the American government will instruct its "Justice" department to refuse to prosecute Contempt of Congress citations in cases concerning executive privilege claims. Stunning.
In America, certain parts of the government are meant to be non-partisan. The job they do is far too important for any party to use their narrow interests to guide them. Also, important legal and scientific considerations must be more important than the relative success or failure of a political movement over time.
Americans understand this. George Bush and the authoritarians who work for him and support him politically do not.
Justice must be blind or it is not justice. When the slope-browed brown-shirts use the United States Department of Justice as a branch of their extremist movement, the ideal of America dies.
The argument today is that since US Attorneys serve at the "pleasure of the president" (boy do they love saying that one), they can't act against the executive. That, of course, is psychotic lunacy. UN Attorneys are appointed by the president, but serve the American people. They are meant to be - and have been - non-partisan.
When you explicitly make the role of the top federal prosecutors into partisan political warriors, you defeat democracy. Democracy can only exist where there is freedom - free speech and real justice. When the executive owns justice, there can no longer be any freedom - if you oppose politically, you get thrown in jail. You get prosecuted. If you support the Leader, you walk away free - no matter what.
Isn't that what we have today? Politically toxic terror suspects - suspects - are jailed for life with no access to any justice. Political supporters like Lewis Libby walk away from extremely serious charges.
My question, as always, is this: who wants to live in a country like that? Who, exactly, is the constituency for a lawless authoritarian Junta? Obviously, there are a core of 26-30% of US voters (I won't call them Americans) who want to live in a country like that. I feel sorry for them.
The other constituency is the 47 Senators who will steadfastly refuse to bring standards of freedom and justice back to the country that was once great because of those very standards.
Here's what they need to do:
Both chambers [of Congress] also have an "inherent contempt" power, allowing either body to hold its own trials and even jail those found in defiance of Congress. Although widely used during the 19th century, the power has not been invoked since 1934 and Democratic lawmakers have not displayed an appetite for reviving the practice.
That's the challenge. They must not back away from it. The country is in peril of losing its soul. Can Democrats find the guts to save America?
posted by fiduciary at 8:24 AM
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