is to watch new 'Regimes dealing' with the old one ( I don't like to call the new American government a 'Regime because I'm all for Obama) - BUT if the Bush government really was

a 'Regime' (and not just a bunch of egotistical and individualistic criminals and idiots who

just happened to be President and Vice President and so on) it is going to be wildly entertaining. The last time I watched something like it, was when in Germany the wall came down. It was high noon for the average Joe (Hans) and all kind of politicians, public

figures and lawyers and even the church (don't forget the preachers either praying for the wrath of god or forgiveness.) To punish your average torturer or somebody who gave direct orders to do so was easy - but the higher up you went in the chain of command the more

muddy it got and especially lawyers had a field day. Their are still some of them who build their whole career on defending the 'Betonheads'. Don't take me wrong - I was very pleased with this type of 'executing the rule of law', but these Germans are pretty stringent - you can't sue anybody there if you burn your lap with coffee and in the homeland I never figured out what 'the rule of law' really means (Is it for example the acquittal of OJ being a murderer and putting him in prison for assault?) So anyhoow I am all ready for another spectacle and

perhaps it also could be some kind of stimulus package for all these unemployed Republican lawyers in Washington (who otherwise would have to start chasing ambulances)

which is pretty crappy. i can see how O would not want to start him administration on that foot, even though i have been dying for Bush to get nailed to the wall. i think Bush is an outright criminal, but it looks like he's going to walk.

"We are in a near state of emergency at the moment as a country and all of our energy needs to be focused on remedying it."

-- ealvarez12

I can walk and chew gum at the same time. How about you?

wrote:With respect to the policies and misdeeds Glenn is talking about, the most important things are that they be exposed in the daylight and that they end.

The dominant important thing is that these and other misdeeds be exposed in a way that makes them much less likely to happen again. Thus it is necessary that there be some significant accounting. Nobody does the time, the sooner someone repeats the crime.

Something to do other than be cynical with the Europeans about how stupid Americans are:

Here's a petition to stop the killing in Congo. Specifically, it calls on the Europeans to get off their butts and send in a peace keeping force in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_action_on_congo/

It would also inadvertently help us Americans and the others in the ISAF force in Afghanistan, since asking the Pakistanis to solve a problem set up by those Infinite Wisdom Belgians is seriously keeping them from dealing with their own problems, and the Pakistani's problems are killing Americans and Canadians (and others).

They're up to 5 million dead in the African World War, about 200,000 raped.

The rule of law RULES. Without it we're toast.

In my opinion, the "rule of law" is a bullshit scam designed to convince dumbasses that the system will give them a fair shake. It won't.

If you haven't figured that out by now, you haven't been paying attention.

"You're saying the Democrats are too spineless to hold "true criminal proceedings," but they have the ballz to stage a "show trial"?

Are you calling the Democratic Party a sort of oversexed jellyfish? It's certainly a striking image. I wish I could draw what I'm seeing.

Please do explain." - Bald Bird

I am saying that I do not believe that the democrats will act on principle. They will act on politics, for the good of themselves.

Given: GG and most of the salonistas view Bush as a criminal, whose crimes are without question.

Given: During Bush's presidency, the democrats chose "inaction" in response to Bush's "crimes".

Question: Were the democrats acting on principle when they chose NOT to discipline Bush, or were they acting on politics?

Answer: Politics, obviously.

Why:

1) At least some democrats are complicit.

2) They don't want the public to hear Bush's justification. A lot of people, were they to hear all of the details re; what was done, why it was done, and what we learned from it, will be less sympathetic to the left-wing mantras. Most of those details are secret. We don't know them, but I suspect that once someone's "backs are up against the wall", they will come out. . . legally or not.

The democrats inaction is motivated by self-preservation. While else would they NOT impeach Bush? . . . incompetence?

democrats as jellyfish? . . . Not sure about this, before I decide, can you tell me what jellyfish excrete? . . . that may be more apt.

Nice work Glenn - this kind of dangerous nonsense is what Madison and others warned about in the Federalist Papers. For decades, and especially since Tricky Dick, we see this pattern of post-partisan harmony trump the rule of law. How can we reasonably expect the citizenry to continue to accept the legitimacy of the operators of the system? Not the system itself necessarily, the mechanisms are in place and operable, but the will to use them and thus elevate the rule of law above that of the rule of party. I'm willing to wait and see what President Obama will do, but it appears the tawdry pattern is set to continue ad nauseum.

the illegal things that the Bush administration did is because senior DEMOCRATS knew about many of them and went along with it. You're now asking the felons to investigate the felons.

Fat chance, that!

Nixon lawbreaking, Iran-contra lawbreaking, Bush/Cheney lawbreaking? Why, they're all Republican! How surprising and amazing. What else do they have in common? Democrat-let's-let- bygones-be-bygones. So much for justice being about deterrents to future lawbreakers. Why do we have to sacrifice our principles (and our standing internationally) for our elite? Do the people in Washington believe anything they say, or is it entirely window dressing, propaganda to convince the wronged (all Americans) that things have been (nicely) righted? Come the next Republican administration we're supposed to slap on our blindfolds again? If the crimes of Nixon and Reagan had been properly examined for what they were - anti - American activities, I don't think we would be here today.