so nothing will be done, Each administration protects the last one so they can keep the MO for governing. If you made the rules and you know there is no accountability would you not do the same thing?

After all, the most important thing in life is how much money you can accumulate.

Deep thinkers.

"To accept the central premise of our political class -- it's unfair to prosecute Bush officials for things that DOJ lawyers told them was legal -- is to destroy the rule of law in the United States."

This alone should give pause to anyone who thought Constitutional Law and has a modicum of historical knowledge, like Barrack Obama, no? But apparently, it doesn't.

What gives here? IMO, it's ego. Obama wants to reform several things that are broken; health care, the economy, immigration, climate change etc. He wants to leave his mark in the history books as the one who put the country back on a sound footing, and be popular while doing so.

You can't be very popular when you come across as the muckracker that exposed the dark sides (yes...plural) of the American social and political psyche. All of us who try to stay truly informed have a pretty good idea of the depth of the rot afflicting our institutions. Less informed people also have a pretty good idea of the situation; while hard pressed to provide specifics, the feeling of "the country is heading in the wrong direction" seen in poll after poll show clearly that they're not oblivious to their surroundings.

But there is a world of difference between a diffuse feeling of malaise and seeing exposed in plain sight (that is what real investigations are for) the extent of the ugliness and rot that our representatives have engaged in during the last decade. There is no telling how it would play out, how many heads would roll, WHICH heads would roll and how damaging to the political status quo these revelations could be.

Along the obvious need for serious accountability and the restoration of checks and balances, perish the thought that the "little" people could demand extensive reforms that could affect the privileges of the powerful, tear apart the veil of unaccountability and force them to be more obedient to the principles that underlies the constitution. You just never know where this can lead to. Politicians abhor unpredictability that may affect their status and privileges, which is exactly what a true application of the rule of law can do.

So, what Obama is telling us is "No, we can't!" (have my agenda derailed)

Obama's excuse for not investigating and prosecuting blatant criminality - "Wah! I don't want this to get in the way of my agenda!" - is getting more and more unbelievable. One simply cannot give any credence to such a rationale for avoiding basic enforcement of the law.

His agenda - no matter how laudable and necessary - is an end that is not justified by the means of concealing and refusing to prosecute criminality, let alone criminality so obvious that it's virtually hanging on your front door like a dead rat. Such means will inevitably taint his agenda, poison anything he achieves, and go down in history as a massive, willful, unconstitutional assertion of presidential power to the detriment of our ideals and principles.

And Obama is smart enough to realize this. One hopes. No, "my agenda" cannot be the real reason. The real reason must be the simplest explanation: Obama wants to preserve the power that Bush passed on to him - after all, Obama may want to use this power some day.

Oh wait - he's already using it. And he's finding he likes it.

You can't be very popular when you come across as the muckracker that exposed the dark sides

Gosh, that's strange. On the other thread, I was discussing what to do to commemorate the 35 year anniversaries of Nixon's resignation and subsequent pardon. In looking at Nixon's Wikipedia entry, I noticed that Ford's approval rating dropped from 71% before the pardon to 49% in less than a month. At least in 1974, the average citizen expected criminals, no matter their position, to face the consequences of their crimes.

"The cognitive dissonance is deafening"

Don't you mean the outright hypocrisy? Unbelievable that he has the audacity (wonder where I heard that before) to lecture them on their acts of corruption. The only difference between theirs and ours is that theirs is called 'corruption' while ours is 'lobbying'.

GG wrote: As any litigator will tell you, the lack of power to compel key witnesses to answer questions and produce documents severely hampers any ability to conduct a real investigation.

As the libertarians will tell you, compelling anyone to do anything is a crime in of itself.

Where is the outrage? where is justice?

This is not small. This is serious and we are becoming hopelessly defenseless against it.

Who would have thunk it as the Corrupt Government politicians...and the Washington Consensus goes on.The Shock Doctrine roars with the force of hungry lions through the world at the end of our bayanettes.America is just the criminals playground of the day.You can listen to other country press tell us how american politicians have not only violated our own laws but the international laws as well per their reports.Epecially with health care which is stated in universal law as a human right.

Are we suppose to pay for human rights?

When will people count as human and not as a cash cow for the congressional industrial complex? do we think about the grants and donations these individuals receive to undermine our interests in our government all in the name of nonprofits? Think tanks,defense industries,schools that promote economic demise,and others.

I feel like an insurance policy for the congressional government complex.However the deductable is my life and savings.Too high, but madatory.If I do not pay this I go to jail as a criminal.Where is the benefit for my investment?

Democracy is an illision,a dream,and can only be attained after a reversion,a complete turn around, and heading backward to fix the complete errosion of our government systems of la breaking.

blatant disregard for the laws that work has to be restored soon.We have to find officials if this is at all possible to fix these fulgar abuses of our laws.

Instead some officials are replacing laws to benefit their agendas.Shame on them.However i have been stating this for a while now and it comes as no big surprise.however any fact to back up what was an opinion is welcome although distressing.

Is it not quoated "experience is the best teacher"? is this proving true when it comes to the Glass Steigle Act of 1933 and other laws in place or were in place to protect us against government or anyone from listening or monitoring our private conversation or bank accounts?

Is there enough hard money to give everyone who has deposits in a bank cash?

No...