Can You Say "PIN-O-CHET"? Those Three Syllables Should Be a Sacred Mantra for Patriots; Tear Up that Check to PBS, Make It Out to Alternate Media Instead
By Richard Power
Three recent developments, largely ignored by news media pundits and political power brokers, offer fragile but encouraging signs of renewal and progress toward the restoration of the rule of law in the USA. Furthermore, those involved in alternative media and the progressive blogosphere should derive a great degree of personal satisfaction from these fragile and encouraging signs.
First, former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) has been released from federal prison, and clearly he is not playing with a weak hand: In an interview shortly after his release, Siegelman singled out former White House aide Karl Rove’s involvement in his case ... Mr. Siegelman said there had been “abuse of power” in his case, and repeatedly cited the influence of Karl Rove, the former White House political director. “His fingerprints are smeared all over the case,” Mr. Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case. Think Progress, 3-28-08
Second, remember the Qui Tam law suit that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio brought in regard to the theft of US elections? Now that the Bush-Cheney DoJ has decided not to participate (are you surprised?), the details of the complaint have been made public and the case can proceed: Despite having some direct involvement in the case from the beginning, The BRAD BLOG has been unable to report any details on it for going on two years --- we haven't even been able to offer the names of the plaintiff or defendant in the case --- since originally reporting that it had been filed in federal court, due to the fact that it was under seal, waiting for the U.S. Attorney General to decide whether the DoJ would join the suit or not. ... In July 2004, Mr. Singer wrote the Secretaries of State for the States of Texas and Ohio, to alert them to [HartCivic]’s misconduct. He received no substantive response. Mr. Singer provided discrete bits of information to the press in hopes of attracting attention to Hart’s misconduct. Having “accomplished nothing” in Mr. Singer’s words, he decided to seek legal redress. ... An attorney close to the Singer case tells The BRAD BLOG today that "the fact that DoJ declined to join the case does not deter us for a moment." Brad Blog, 3-27-08
To download the full complaint click here. (Although Words of Power will continue to post from time to time on significant developments, for day to day coverage of the election security issue, I refer you to Brad Blog and also Mark Crispin Miller’s Notes from the Underground.)
And third, although the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (whose involvement in the betrayal of US secret Agent Valerie Plame was of no concern to James Carville) has been commuted, at least he has been disbarred: Former vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby has been disbarred, according to Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP. “A three-judge panel on the DC Court of Appeals stripped Libby of his ability to practice law after he was found guilty last year of obstructing the investigation in the CIA leak investigation,” according to the station. President Bush commuted Libby’s sentence in July 2007. Think Progress, 3-20-08
Can you say "PIN-O-CHET"? Those three syllabes should become a sacred mantra to US patriots.
Yes, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Rice, Fieth, Wolfowitz and the others should be looking over their shoulders for what happened to Valerie Plame, for what happened to New Orleans, for what happened to the US military, for what happen to US honor and prestige, for what happened to the DoJ, the EPA, and other vital federal agencies, etc. Presidential pardons might be able to insulate the principals from US law, but they cannot insulate them from international law.
And what must we do to make sure that Bush, Cheney, et al, like Pinochet, have to look over their shoulders at potential legal woes for the rest of their lives?
Well, support the alternative news media.
And I suggest you start by tearing up that donation check to Public Broacasting Corporation (PBS); and write one out to Robert Parry, or one of the other bastions of the information rebellion (e.g., Buzzflash or Crooks and Liars).
I mention Parry in particular for this insightful dissection of US mainstream news media coverage on the fifth anniversary of Bush-Cheney's invasion of Iraq: In the news media, there were specials, including a much-touted PBS Frontline two-parter on “Bush’s War” which followed the mainstream line of mostly accepting the Bush administration’s good intentions while blaming the disaster on policy execution – a lack of planning, bureaucratic rivalries, rash decisions and wishful thinking. ...
An obvious reason why the mainstream U.S. press can’t handle this truth is that to do so would mean that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, a host of other U.S. officials and even some prominent journalists could be regarded as war criminals. ...
Not only are Bush and Cheney still in office – and two of the three remaining presidential candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, voted for the war – but the roster of top Washington journalists remains remarkably intact from five years ago.
Iraq War hawk Fred Hiatt still runs the Washington Post’s editorial pages where you can still read the likes of Charles Krauthammer, David Ignatius, Richard Cohen and a bunch of other columnists who pushed for the war.
The same is true for the New York Times’s op-ed page, where writers like Thomas Friedman have prospered despite their erroneous war judgments and where one of the few changes has been to recruit prominent neoconservative William Kristol, who has used his column to chide Americans who won’t hail Bush’s courageous war leadership. ... Robert Parry, Consortium News, 3-28-08
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Siegelman, Plame, the Six Fired US Attorneys & the Deep-Sixing of Justice in the USA; You Can't Heal a Wound Until You have Cleaned It
William Pfaff: "A coup d’etat has taken place ... not as an act of law defiance, but by faithful execution of their duty as required by law."
"Live Free or Die" has New Meaning: Stolen Elections? Not Just 2000 and 2004, But Also 2002
Hard Rain Journal: The NIE and Its Implications for the 2008 Election and the Fate of the Republic
Hard Rain Journal 12-3-07: David Gregory Meet I.F. Stone and Tom Paine x 10,000
Hard Rain Journal 9-28-07: Ellsberg Says It, "A Coup Has Occurred."
Hard Rain Journal 8-31-07: "Tyranny is a Continuum" -- Robert Kennedy, Jr. & George Soros Debate Fascism, the News Media, & the Role of the People
For Words of Power's archive of posts on Corporate News Media Complicity, Power of Alternative Media, Propaganda & Freedom, click here.
For the Words of Power Archive of Election Security Posts, click here.
For an archive of Words of Power posts on 9/11, Terrorism, etc., click here.
Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.
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