Repurposing Gitmo

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Now that the Rethuglicans have once again fearmongered and the spineless Democrats have caved and not even tried to put up an argument, much less a fight, and the Senate has refused to give the President the funding he needs to close down Guantanamo, I have a modest proposal.

As trials are held, as prisoners are transferred...as they inevitably will be...heck, many already have been transferred out or released....

As the prison cells empty out...

I propose we consolidate the remaining Guantanamo prisoners in one section where they can be carefully guarded.

And for the empty spaces, I suggest they be declared the designated prison for any federal officials convicted of war crimes. And any and all convicted war profiteers.

No real hardship, of course...we've been assured the current occupants have better food, better healthcare than mere Americans...and those wonderful tropical breezes.

What's that you say? It'll never happen?

Well, then, the empty cells will speak volumes, too.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Developing...Torture Memos

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Word is former Bush Administration officials are trying to soften the Justice Dept investigation of the torture memos.

Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury.

Names in infamy? Or keys to those who sought and approved of the memos' cover for torture?

Truth must out. Wherever it leads. Whoever it indicts.
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75 Former AGs Call for Investigation on Siegelman Case

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The AP is reporting:

A bipartisan group of 75 former state attorneys general from across the country has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

This is an investigation that should encompass not only the Siegelman prosecution but also the larger umbrella of DOJ politicization under Bush.

The public will is on the side of transparency, investigation and accountability. Now we await learning whether the man who knows a coward when he sees one will have the courage to stand against the predictable partisan firestorm that would erupt and launch this investigation.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Welcome to George Bush's Great Depression

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When I first started [this blog] a year ago... one of the issues that I felt—and continue to feel—most passionate about was hunger and homelessness. Maybe because my own family history included my grandparents losing their pioneer farm.

I wrote "Let Them Eat Mud Cookies" about the dire straits of people in Haiti. And tracked down a Library of Congress photo of one mother by Dorothea Lange that still stands as an iconic image of the 1930s. You know her face.

But now, more and more, the pictures that are emerging are not half a century old, not from other lands. They are our neighbors. They are ordinary everyday Americans.

And they are hurting. We all are hurting as a nation. Hurtling into a destiny we may not be able to pull back from without grievous circumstances for far too many.

So I hope the folks who are using Blair House between now and January 15, the folks who worked to orchestrate the destruction of the auto bailout bill in the Senate, the folks who are pillaging and plundering the American economy from their cloistered towers of power...I hope all these people meet the ugly face in the mirror...

George Bush is merely the facade, a small man made even smaller by his cheerleaderating for the greediest, most rapacious and venal style of economic class warfare we have seen in generations.

And, lest it happen again in the forgetfulness of time, I hope that each and every one of those who brought this debacle about meets their own destiny at the hands of an empowered force in the Dept. of Justice tasked to right the wrongs of the last eight years.

There are two men from Chicago who could make it so.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Prairie's Reading: Froomkin on “A Culture of Corruption”

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Froomkin writes in his WaPo column about the role of who was directing Monica Goodling in the twisting of the Department of Justice into an ideological corruption of justice with the ticking timebomb of embedded radical right extremists who would remain long after BushCo leaves the White House.

Indeed, it's hard to reach any conclusion other than that White House political operatives masterminded a plan to defile the Justice Department's mission in the short run and to seed its ranks with people who will be in a position to continue the corruption for a long time to come.

Defile.

For their ends justify any means modus operandi, this is just one more sordid chapter in the same sorry saga of the worst presidency and vice-presidency in the history of this nation.

Bush and Chee-knee's names will have legacies. With the worst scoundrels of history.
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