Very interesting

Teen stacks chairs on
24th story balcony to view
sunrise, falls to his death.

When a highly respected Professor of Constitutional Law appears on national television (the Rachel Maddow Show) and says that Bush/Cheney are obviously guilty of war crimes and need to be prosecuted, what are we to do? Professor Jonathan Turley minced no words about their guilt and insisted that any investigation would be the shortest one in history because the case is so obvious. He also said that President Obama is blocking any prosecution, and obviously for political reasons. Turley believes that we (Obama) should do what is right, not what is politically advantageous. I agree completely with Professor Turley. I know that Obama and his administration have “a lot on their plate,” and I understand why politically, and perhaps even practically, they do not wish to prosecute, but if they do not, under the Constitution, they will themselves be equally guilty of a crime. I would like to think it is only a matter of time until such prosecution will have to take place. And, indeed, until it does, there is no way American will ever be restored to a respected position in the International Community.

Bush/Cheney are guilty of the most heinous war crimes possible. They lied to preemptively attack a nation that was no threat to us. They have engaged (admittedly) in torture. They have encouraged and accepted war profiteering, they have allowed the use of prohibited weapons, allowed the killing of innocent women and children and other civilians, they have hidden prisoners from the Red Cross, and they have stood by while a nations national treasures were looted. They have violated the Geneva Convention in more than one instance. They have incarcerated for years individuals they knew to be innocent of any crime against us. Here at home they have made a mockery of our Constitution, taken away civil liberties, illegally spied on us, and more. And yet, to date, they have gone unpunished, and Dick the Slimy continues to spread lie after lie about what they did and what Obama is doing. He clearly belongs in jail, if not in the dock at the Hague. So how about it President Obama? Are you going to step up to the plate, or just beg off. If the latter, do not expect any respect from me.

I have never believed there was much of a connection between the performance of the Stock Market and reality, so I don’t know what to make of today’s spectacular 500 percent rise. Those who comment on the market seem to think it rose so much because the banks and Wall Street are in favor of the Obama plan to buy up the poisoned assets. But no one has bought any yet, and perhaps they won’t. Besides, what conceivable realistic change could have occurred overnight to make a stock so much more valuable the next day? I believe those clever souls (insiders) who drove the market down, and still have money, will buy now and drive it back up again, thus realizing enormous profits. But what has that to do with reality, other than the surreality of the Stock Market itself? I recall seeing somewhere that fully 90% of those who try to play the market, fail. No wonder. In the meantime, those of us whose only investment in the market are pension plans and such, can merely stand by helplessly and watch others at play in the fields of greed and avarice.

Somewhere today I saw where members of our Idaho legislature were arguing about whether we were a union or a confederacy or a democracy or a republic or a confederate republic or sovereign or………and someone else wants to go back to the gold standard and….Don’t they have enough to do?

Quite a long time ago a couple of people argued that the measure of how civilized and progressive a nation was had to do with how much energy they consumed (the more energy, the more progressive). Bill Sali has reportedly said he is proud of how much energy we use. I should think the measure should be quite the opposite, the less energy used the more progressive and civilized. Doing more with less energy seems to me to be a highly desirable goal, but a highly unlikely one in the U.S.

LKBIQ:
It is partly to avoid consciousness of greed that we prefer to associate with those who are at least as greedy as we ourselves. Those who consume much less are a reproach.
Charles Horton Cooley

TILT:
The only fruit eaten by the aardvark is the aardvark cucumber.