It's going to fascinating to see whether GWB issues a bunch of blanket pardons for everyone from Darth Cheney on down and how far down they go. 5:1 the pardons leave a few "bad apples" who can't prove they were only following orders so we can have some Lt. Calleys to blame for this.

Someone needs to start a Gitmo Watch, counting down the days until the Supreme court hands down their verdict relating to the Military Tribunals acts. Strike that, anything that looks like a Fox product can not be used with integrity. I guess it would be nice to know if their is a site which registers people who disagree with the Military Tribunals act and the continued detention and abuses at the Gitmo facilities. Maybe if we can get over amillion responders perhaps some from the legal community will allow more transparency into the sham that has been this administrations handling over the last 8 years.

The evidence of calculated, politically motivated wrongdoing continues to mount. Whether it's a Supreme Court member recently opining that torture of unconvicted prisoners isn't punishment or a so-called president claiming dictatorial powers that include the arbitrary suspension of habeas corpus, we cannot ignore the evidence.

If something could be done, it would have been done already. Instead we're barraged with (for instance) Rev. Wright's rants against that wrongdoing as if political opposition were a sort of wrongdoing itself.

We're long past the point of no return. Like many in this country and across the world, I hold the hope that a new administration might reverse the policies and actions of the Bush regime. Unfortunately, that hope is unrealistic and contributes to an inertia that favors the wrongdoers.

Any solutions?

This is as close to the proverbial smoking gun as one can imagine. Pelosi and company need to step up and examine this carefully.

If nothing happens we're sunk as a country. Both Bush and Cheney need to be called to account for what they've done. If congressional republicans make light of this it'll be a problem in November. I don't see they have a lot of leeway anymore but then it has been apparent for quite some time that Bush and company have bent and / or broken laws and house and senate republican leaders have stuck with Bush through it all. They're running out of wiggle room. I don't see where they'll be able to spin this and make it look different than it is.

Republicans are screwed either way actually. Spin isn't going to be satisfactory to voters and upholding the law will be ugly. But republicans don't have an available in between remedy given all that has passed. What a mess.

When a nation emerges from a period of "dark ages" as I hope we will in January next year, some form of reconciliation process is essential. We need a systematic way to cleanse our national soul. I am very sure that it will not be possible to prosecute the members of this administration for their crimes, and spending months and more months trying to do so will not help either.

What will help a great deal is to establish a "truth commission" charged with revealing the ugly secrets of this administration, explaining the reality of what we did when we allowed Bush to be reelected in 2004, the crimes committed in our names, etc. The law setting up such a commission would have to also require the newsmedia, especially the TV networks, to give free prime TV time for regular weekly reports from that commission.

I think our biggest problem now is that average citizens are unable to accept the reality that is the Bush Republican administration. And, with the massive amounts of money at stake in the "defense" industries, it isn't likely that the free press will ever report on that reality. Eisenhower's bad dream came true.

We will type. That is as about as bold as the action is going to get, from any quarter, against these abominations.
Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas will not be helpful to the proper exercise of the constitution for Americans. These "others" at Gitmo are not keeping them awake at night at all. They are no more sleepless than Cheney.
As for Pelosi; where would she wear the new outfits her husband buys for her if she wasn't in with the in crowd.
It is as simple and venal as that.

Thank you Colonel for telling the truth. This is my America?

Throw these bums out. McCain that means you, too. War crimes here we come. Prognosis or pathways for trying US Military brass and the Administration?

I think Pelosi is waiting for the next pres- BO said he would review, would HRC?

Here is a tough question to consider: what did it take to get the Germans to the Nuremberg Trials? The sad truth is that as low as we've sunk on the moral level, we can sink an awful lot lower, and we may have to before the terrible lesson that American exceptionalism is an evil sham penetrates our general consciousness. So far our population has been largely immune from the evils of war, famine and pestilence that have plagued most of humanity (and which our government has been content to visit on them). I fear we may have to join in the general suffering before the wrong is set right.

The President can pardon anyone he wants regarding Gitmo, the interrogations, et.al but that has absolutely no effect on any charges, war crimes or otherwise, that may be filed with the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Posted by PoliSciJunkie
April 29, 2008 2:22 PM

In fact, it would make such prosecutions even more likely, as the refusal of a gov't to prosecute its own triggers a provision which lowers the bar.

So here's hoping, if he does pardon everyone but those who have suffered his election theft and the consequences of not prosecuting that, that he and they take trips outside the US: torture is so beyond the pale that any country can prosecute it.

Chile didn't prosecute Pinochet, even though they had every reason to do so. So he was subjected to prosecution in Europe.

I want John Yoo on a plane to any country in western Europe.

"Democrat Vs. Republican? That's insanity, they both represent the same interests.

"Posted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta"

No, they do not. One borrows and spends, building up huge debts -- and then preends that is wiser and more fiscally responsible than taxing and spending -- pay as you go.

I'm tired of hearing from those -- such as you --who have nothing to offer but excuses for being disengaged fom the political process. It's precisely because of those who are disengaged, because they BS themselves that they are superior in insight, superior to the system, superior to democracy, that we have arrived at where we find ourselves.

Either start doing the heavy lifting that is required of citizens in a democracy, or shut the fuck up and continue to sit on your ass and do nothing.

Begin by educating yourself in something relevant, such as the treaties and laws which prohibit torture everywhere, at all times, without exceptions, and then spreading that knowledge to others. We the people are the gov't; which means we haven't the luxury of sitting on our asses and taking pot-shots as excuse to do nothing more than that.

As an alternative to "Gitmo Justice", perhaps we can try "Daniel Pearl Justice". Perhaps we might "take no prisoners" so as not to have the issue to deal with. "Gitmo" is NOT swell. It is NOT however, the ultimate evil either.

There are still a number of living graduates of the Hanoi Hilton here in America. Perhaps getting information from them about how our POW's were treated might shed some perspective. Unfortuately not many of our people have survived being captured in the middle east, so getting perspective from them is tougher.