Above the Law

December 1, 2008

Oddly enough, in a way, this article is about the death penalty and imprisonment in America. It is, as usual, a vain attempt at “perspective in America,” a country made more infamous in the past eight years than any nation since World War II Germany. Did we, the American people, deserve this responsibility? Of course not. Are we to be responsible for the actions of irresponsible, even evil, leadership? Of course not. Why should we be put in the same category, mentioned in the same breath as Saddam’s Iraq or Ahmadinejad’s Iran or Mao’s Red China or Stalin’s USSR or, yes, Hitler’s Gernany? The people in all these countries were not the problem. It was the leadership, was it not?

Saddam has paid the price, but his people continue to pay and pay and pay. Stalin, Khruschev and other barbaric killers did not pay, nor did Mao pay the price. Hitler paid a small fee compared to his population’s price and Japan’s people paid very dearly indeed. We are paying the price for our leaders. As usual, the cost is overwhelming and unfair. Worst of all, our leaders will not be punished for any of their offenses. Of this, I am quite certain. It is not in our nature to punish serious offenses. In this country, if the offense is serious and harmful enough, it is destined to go unpunished.

Clearly (unless you are either a total imbecile or in abject denial) you can see that creatures like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are quite deserving of the legal death penalty. They are not only grotesque war criminals of the worst kind, inventing wars, stealing billions of dollars meant for our armed forces, refusing to protect or to even care for our wounded soldiers or for dead soldiers’ families, stealing funds meant for Hurricane victims… not to mention the oaths that these “chicken hawks” violated promising to protect our citizens. This has been the most ruthless, amoral and incompetent administration we have ever had: the sports equivalent of a lifetime “triple double.”

Every day over the past eight years I have read of some new obscenity shamelessly rendered by these people. No depth of depravity is a surprise. They have virtually numbed the American public to their utter evil and cruelty.

President Elect Obama’s disdain for pressing a major indictment of “torture” on this administration is actually of little importance. It is not the fact that people were tortured by our government’s incompetent henchmen that is of such importance as much as why? Of course torture is not always inappropriate. If my daughter is kidnapped and the perpetrator won’t tell me her whereabouts, no one will question the ethics of torture if it gets me my daughter back in good health. The problem is that even Israel has given up torture for information, not because they are “nice guys,” but because it doesn’t work. Torture only works to obtain or create false information- that’s what the North Vietnamese used it for, right Mr. McCain? So our brilliant administration obtained reams of false information, mostly from prisoners who were turned in for no legitimate reason by mercenaries- most of the prisoners did nothing illegal. Good job!!!

No, what needs to be investigated is: how much money are Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld making off of this war? Neither should be allowed to make a penny. Mr. Paulson should not be able to make a penny off of the money given to Goldman Sachs. The Justice Department must be cleansed with Gonzalez and Rove testifying to every evil and criminal act they have committed or be jailed for contempt. If e-mail records are not forthcoming, no problem. Mr. Rove needs to be jailed until they are produced. Similarly, if he does not answer his subpoena regarding Mr. Siegelman, then jail for contempt is the only alternative. No preemptive pardon will help, by the way, if he is given immunity. Besides, criminal immunity for all of these things will not prevent a lifetime of civil suits, or punishment by the community.

If these people are permitted to live above the law, our country will continue to be more thoroughly destroyed from within than any terrorist can accomplish from without. The new administration must be relentless in seeking justice, but not revenge. This is the only way for us to restore our dignity within our borders as well as in the eyes of the “outside world.”

We have some 2 million prisoners in these United States, predominantly African American men. This is no coincidence in the richest country in the world, with two justice systems- one that punishes and one that is blind to crime as long as it is done in a most grotesque and wholesale manner. As long as the “Free Money System” serves to further divide us into two classes, we will further self destruct. We will need to imprison and execute more and more of our citizens.

The Republican Party, obviously made up of mostly good people, has somehow been struck down by a plague of bad leadership never before seen in this country. A blatant attempt has been barely thwarted- that is to change our tri-branched system of government into a highly centralized and totalitarian monolith- what is commonly called a “fascist regime.” This cannot be defined away as “Neoconservative” or “Free Market” or even my sarcastic nicknames “Neopsychotic” or “Free Money System.” Fascism is fascism, unfortunately, and Herrs Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld look, feel, smell and act like fascists. What size shoes do these fellows wear??

What is necessary is the “death penalty” for the Republican Party. What needs to happen is for the Republican Party to “burn to the ground.” It needs to be utterly destroyed, its unbalanced leaders “left for dead.” It needs to rise from the ashes like the Phoenix and land in the hands of the Bobby Jindels and Tim Pawlentys, the Charlie Crists and others with the understanding of how to govern and not serve only a few elitist corporations or misguided religious fanatics.

 

Allen Finkelstein, D.O.