ordinary Dutch in Indonesia as a child. Indonesia was once part of the Dutch East Indies. Maybe it would be kinder to describe his laboured answers to straightforward questions as simple gobbledegook, a mish-mash of words which communicate nothing.

GWB is here precisely because Ford wanted to "look forward" and pardon Nixon. And because congress agreed to "look forward" instead of vigorously prosecuting the "big fish" in Iran Contra.

I'm looking forward, and my forward vision includes an honest and thorough investigation of the law-breaking that was common practice under Bush.

"... what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past."

Which obviously means we need to know what we got wrong in the past. Which obviously means investigations.

What's the point of having the most brutal criminal justice system in the civilized world for the poor if the rich and powerful can't get away with anything they want?

Obama has indicated that he intends to help restore Americans faith in their government. How can he acheive that goal if he refuses to hold past government officials accused of wrong doing to the rule of law.

Looking forward is fine. Prosecuting criminal behavior of public officials for past abuses is just as necessary. How can we possibly look towards a brighter future knowing that government criminals got a free pass becuase of their political position, and the unwillingness to prosecute by Obama.

Justice needs to be blind. My faith in my government is not.

...and now Obama. The leadership of the Democratic party is a disgrace. With no one willing to accept stewardship of the legal and Constitutional health of the nation, I guess we really are fucked. We had a good run - maybe the next experiment in healthy, transparent democracy and a free society can learn from our failures. Until then, it's all downhill, baby!

By his reasoning, to "look forward," Obama would pardon Administration officials who wrote pro-torture memos and who sat in the Oval Office and approved torture in the minutest detail; also those who authorized illegal wiretapping and surveillance. Not to mention those who lied us into war. That's where Obama's logic leads. Bush need not pardon anyone. That will be Obama's job.

I am sick to death of each and every politician seeking only to "look forward" and not hold the most reckless and lawless administration in our nation's history to account.

I am deeply ashamed and angered that all of our "leaders" in Washington have been so weak and so utterly spineless when it comes to investigating and prosecuting high crimes against the constitution and laws of the United States.

The intention of the checks and balances in our system, which have been atrociously abrogated over these past years, is to hold to account those in power who would corrupt our system toward malicious ends and for their own selfish means.

I am deeply disgusted at such a weak and dismissive attitude. Those who would break our laws -most especially those in positions of power- must be held accountable and must not be allowed to escape without consequence. Our society is based upon the rule of law. In the absence of fair and equal application of the law, our society crumbles.

While he uses the president's newly-granted powers to procure needed evidence, quietly surrounds them, and nails them all at once, as soon as he's been able to negotiate with congress whatever's possible to save the country and the world from the effects of what they've done.

Of course the ultimate justice would be if the FBI, CIA and NSA just disappeared them all, especialy Bush, Cheney, Rumsefled, Fredo, Yoo, and all identifiable Neocons, through special rendition, then claimed ignorance regarding their whereabouts for the next six or so years.

The communist regimes have fallen. Get over it.

Just downright peachy! George Bush couldn't have said it better.

You know, I never expected Obama to be an aggressive progressive - I'm not sure how anyone could have after his FISA vote. I read his policy statements and listened to what he had to say. And I didn't vote for him.

And now I'm even more satisfied that my third party candidate vote was the right thing to do, because the more I hear about Obama's plans the more I realize that, just like virtually every politician out there, whether there's a "D" or an "R" after his name doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of difference.

And please, spare me the how-can-you-judge-him-before-he's-even-taken-office bullshit. If he's the paragon that he's so often painted to be we should be able to believe he'll do what he says, and what he says is:

"Meet the new boss;

Same as the old boss."

Looks like we did get fooled again.

History: Republicans in power break laws

Response: Republicans overwhelmingly lose power; Dems want to forgive and forget in the hope of national unity

Future: Repugs retake power and screw Dems in every conceivable way

HERE WE GO AGAIN

From an article in the weekend Globe & Mail concerning the "greatest Russian" vote recently held (link at sig):

...in The Gulag Archipelago, Mr. Solzhenitsyn makes the point that, as of 1966, some 86,000 Germans had been convicted in Germany for Nazi crimes. But what about in the Soviet Union - the Gulag, the Terror? "In our own country (according to the reports of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court) about 10 men had been convicted." And he asks, "What kind of disastrous path lies ahead of us if we do not have the chance to purge ourselves of that putrefaction rotting inside our body?"

He insists, in a written voice that still thunders, that Russia has a defining duty to name all of these people (Lenin, Stalin ...) and their party to have been executioners on a scale that beggars description - except that he does describe it.

He declares to his country that, in keeping silent about evil, "we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future." He asserts (in 1974!) that failure to do so will cause a generation to grow up ignorant of and indifferent to, or even supporters of, those foul deeds. And he ends a passage of colossal power by declaring: "It is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country!"

And that is the point. That is the sort of country that can vote as Russia did, choosing its greatest figures.

Denying, suppressing, falsifying the past, however savage it might have been (perhaps especially when it was savage) exposes a society to the raw power of history when it isn't dealt with. And that is a power strong as glaciers grinding everything in their path, shaping a landscape. It is critical to realize that this isn't some abstract, intellectual issue. It defines the world today, from Moscow to the Middle East, Kosovo to Kenya.

A country where Lenin and Stalin are proclaimed as heroes is a country that invites emulators and disciples to follow where they led.