71% of Americans want to see Bush administration investigated

[BirminghamExaminer]

71% of Americans are in favor of an investigation into the possible misuse of the Department of Justice by the Bush administration according to a Gallup poll released yesterday. The Bush administration has been accused of using the Department of Justice for political maneuvering including the firing of U.S. attorneys and the investigation and conviction of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, a Democrat.

(snip)

President George W Bush was sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States but did not. He ignored Geneva conventions that America has held to since WWII.

To simply give a pass to those who break our nation's laws and rules sets a frightening precedent. If officials in the Bush administration shouldn't be held accountable for their crimes, then who should be?

To read the entire article, go here. Comments are welcome.

[Demeter]

1. Yup All But the 29% Sheeple

[mwb970]

4. That 20-30% idiot level seems to be permanent now.

Every worthwhile effort or individual is favored 75-25 in polls. Every horrible act is supported by 25%. The percentage that claim to be Republicans (for shame!) is around 25%.

Barring the Rapture or other God-induced cleansing, it looks like we will be stuck forever with one-quarter of the population permanently trapped on Planet Stupid.

How can we get rid of them? Education doesn't work because they fight knowledge and truth tooth and nail. No amount of logic or persuasion, even the personal presentation of direct contrary evidence, has the slightest effect on their crazy beliefs. They idolize trash like Coulter while calling Obama the "antichrist". They refuse to watch anything but Fox "News" or listen to anything but Limbaugh. Their minds are shut tight and double-padlocked. Their view is very narrow.

These are truly lost souls. It makes me so sad to hear their bitter squalling all the time.

[Demeter]

6. It Has to Be Done Through the Generations

Siphoning off their children isn't impossible. That's why public education and related law takes such a beating. That's why public health is fought tooth and nail. too. Healthy children, exposed to a reality that works and that has material and intellectual goodies on offer, will not follow the Fundies.

[L. Coyote]

12. Where's the rec a post button?

[ggould1]

16. Well said. I guess they're the base

AND they're base. Anti-science, anti-intelligence, anti-education. Are they FOR anything? Oh wait, they care about other peoples' unborn children, it's only once they're born they call them welfare trash.

[Ghost Dog]

2. And what percentage of Rest.of-World opinion,

may one ask?

[bemildred]

3. One has to wonder why more politicians are not concerned about Bushite abuses of power.

Do they not understand that they could be next? Or are they just a bunch of timid sparrowfarts that are not really thinking at all?

[Demeter]

7. A lot of people are marshmallows

it is learned behavior, and sometimes improves survival. Unfortunately, it maintains the status quo.

Pioneers are despised, as if you didn't know through personal experience. They make a ruckus, cause changes, inflame public opinion and stir up prejudices and ignorance. They afflict the comfortable and don't necessarily comfort the afflicted, since pioneers demand that the afflicted stop accepting victimhood and do something productive.

[bemildred]

8. True, it's a dirty job, and the pay sucks even when you are right.

Better trust the "experts" and go along, at least it won't be your fault. There may still be time before things collapse. And what can one person do by themselves anyway? What would the neighbors think? You could be shunned or denounced. Maybe it won't be that bad. You're still doing OK, why risk that? What if you lose your job? What then? The job market is pretty bad. The government wouldn't just let people stave or sleep on the streets, would they? It's not people like you that are at risk, is it? Go along and get along, that's what I say.

[cherish44]

5. On the front page the headline reads

71% of Americans want to see Bush


I was going to say there's already a porn thread on here somewhere (teehee)

:yoiks:

[BirminghamExaminer]

9. That is sooo bad...but I like it

[wroberts189]

10. ho hum ...maybe someday knr

[Mr. Sparkle]

11. 99% of the World want to see Bush administration investigated ...

there's always a few who go against the grain, no matter what :)

[L. Coyote]

13. 99% of the World wants to see Bush administration punished.

[JDPriestly]

14. Once Obama realizes that The Republicans Are Just Not Into

Him or into bipartisanship or into cooperating or into crossing the aisle or reality or honesty or doing the right thing or respecting the Constitution, then, finally, maybe we will get the Obama administration to allow its Attorney General to investigate whether Bush and his accomplices in crime should be prosecuted. Hope, hope, hope, hope.

[BirminghamExaminer]

15. The GOP just keeps shooting itself in the foot

And in the meantime President Obama keeps coming out smelling like a rose. He reaches out a hand, they slap it away. Who looks bad here? They just keep looking worse and worse.

Some Freeper just wrote the other day that if the election were held today, the GOP would be back in majority in the house and though my first reaction was anger, I came to realize that it's better this way. Let the silly asses keep thinking they're doing well by staying the same and holding on to the ideals that flourished over the last 8 years. When 2010 comes around, they're going to get the shock of their lives. Then, like now, instead of coming to the correct conclusion that they might be wrong about some things and start thinking about changing, they'll come up with some wild conspiracy theory like Limbaugh's latest George Soros evil plot to make the GOP look bad and get Obama elected. So they're going to be out of the loop for a long time to come.

[struggle4progress]

17. Poll: Majority Want Investigations on Warrantless Wiretapping

Commentary by Hugh D'Andrade

... On the question of wiretapping, 63% support investigation of some kind. (38% prefer a criminal investigation, while 25% want investigation by an independent panel.)

Meanwhile, Senator Patrick Leahy has proposed a panel to "get to the bottom of what happened" during the Bush administration, along the lines of the "truth commissions" in South Africa. The panels would be a fact-finding mission, and would have the power to offer immunity in exchange for testimony. Leahy discussed the proposal with White House Chief Counsel Greg Craig on Tuesday. While President Obama has not yet taken a position on the proposal, Leahy noted that Senate Judiciary Committee investigations would go forward with or without White House support.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/poll-majority-want-investigations-warrantless-wire

[struggle4progress]

18. Almost two-thirds of Americans back torture inquiry

... First, the legal, national-security and political obstacles to securing convictions against top officials in the White House and Pentagon would be impossible to overcome. It simply would not happen. At best, and at worst, you could secure convictions against lower-level officials who were carrying out the decisions made by their superiors, and I have no stomach for that. If you can’t get the big fishes, don’t make examples of the little fishes.

We already saw that dynamic play out at Abu Graib, where lowly enlisted personnel were sentenced to long prison terms but no higher-ranking personnel were ever prosecuted criminally. They should have gone after those officers who by negligence, incompetence or active encouragement allowed such practices to occur, including those who wore stars on their shoulders. But they did not ...

Even the prospect of non-criminal investigations makes some in Washington nervous. “If every administration started to re-examine what every prior administration did, there would be no end to it,” Sen. Arlen Specter said. “This is not Latin America.”

Ordinarily, I would agree wholeheartedly with Specter. But government-sanctioned and government-operated torture is hardly an ordinary issue. Ignoring what happened is not the act of a moral or contrite people. An independent commission with subpoena power — backed by the threat of perjury for those who lie — is a good idea.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/02/12/almost-two-thirds-of-americans-back-torture-inquiry/

[DCKit]

19. "The Officers" were only in charge of Abu G on paper...

The CIA was running the show.

Just sayin'.

[BirminghamExaminer]

20. You make a point that I've made before but nobody seems to want

to talk about. The lowly personnel as you say, who were sentenced to prison terms for their actions at Abu Graib.

The only thing I can suppose is that people don't want to think about the possibility of prosecuting all of the people who have participated in torture under the direction of George W Bush and Dick Cheney. And this may be one of the reasons that the Obama administration hasn't been clear about where they stand on the issue of investigating the Bush administration.

Should we prosecute those who participated in torture? Personally, I think we should. But I have a feeling that I'm in the minority on this.