"Barbara O’Brien’s wide-ranging account of Zen history is conveyed with a master storyteller’s ability to keep the forest from getting lost in a myriad of trees. Wearing her scholarship lightly, she blends just the right amount of skepticism about her hagiographic sources with a deep appreciation for the Dharma." — Barry Magid, author of
Nothing Is Hidden and
Ending the Pursuit of Happiness Order here!
What’s wrong with America that it can accept such drivel from what is supposed to be their leader? Bush’s lies and deceptions are sickening!
If I’m going to rest assured in anything,it will be in the fact that Bush won’t prosper in his deceits, and his condemnation in history shall be well earned.
The asshole is going to have the only Presidential Library where everything in it will be classified. So much for delving into a superior mind?
Keith Olbermann rocks tonight! Another special comment well-written and well-spoken.
I would like to share some terrific news – Tammy Duckworth, vieing for Henry Hyde’s seat against an entrenched Repug, has been endorsed by the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0610180034oct18,1,2126898.story?coll=chi-politics-stories
Last polls indicated that she was up 5 points and her message is just now getting heard and undoubtedly will continue to rise. For the Trib to come out like this, as also did the conservative suburban paper The Daily Herald, it is quite the miracle in the eyes local liberals & progressives.
A question that’s been on my mind, and I know has no firm answer, is whether Bush will be able to avoid accountability for his deceptions and lies until the completion of his Presidency. My hope is that he’s made to answer, but my confidence in justice isn’t so secure. Anybody want to make a call on that question?
Swami — I think it could go either way, but I think it depends on him. If he backs off and doesn’t force a constitutional confrontation with Congress I’m guessing Congress will let him serve the rest of his term. The Dems are probably thinking that keeping an unpopular president in the White House will help their chances in 2008.
However, I don’t see where it says he can’t be prosecuted for all kinds of nasty things, including war crimes, once he’s out of office.
On the other hand, if he spins way out of control and too far overreaches his constitutional powers, they’ll probably have to move against him, especially if the Democratic base (that’s us) throws a big fit and demands action.
It certainly could go either way. Ollie North escaped Iran Contra and has his own T.V. show and has written several books. John Poindexter was briefly in with the Bush administration in a spy organization. Kenny boy Lay suddenly died of a heart attack several months ago, and has been cleared of charges against him ( and his estate) and the investigation into Enron will stop. This means the trail will die. Will Kenny Boy surface in Paraguay or some other third world location? Inquiring minds want to know.
Sound paranoid? Too many strange things have happened on the Bush watch, serendipity usually strikes but once in a lifetime, while this bunch makes a living off it.
I remember a similar situation when I was a kid, playing chess with a classmate who was the smallest in the class, but had a bad attitude. Whenever I got his king in check, he simply moved the king closer refusing to recognize my call of “check” and took my pieces. when I finally beat him, he threw the chess board at me and stormed off. That same kid was too small to be good at athletics, but he was smart (evil) enough to realize he could be the manager of both the football and basketball teams ,free to boss the real athletes around and take credit for their efforts..Several years after high school, he was killed in a fight.His Napolean attitude did him in.
It takes a while for Americans, particularly those of Bush’s political party, to accept that they have been played for fools by a ‘God-appointed’ compassionate conservative…..just like it takes a while for any family to accept that one of theirs actually did do criminal acts and has been caught and faces the consequences.
I believe in my gut that the ‘Torture Law’ was a last-minute plea bargaining set-up [in the face of the coming loss of a Republican majority] to give the criminals of the Bush team a legal leg to stand on in the coming years of investigative consequences.
The logics of my belief are 1] the legislative protection was made retroactive, sort of like changing the laws on murder after a murder has been committed, so the murderer will not suffer the punishment that legally applied at the time of the murder; and 2] the heavy hitters in the Republican Party, like Graham, McCain, Warner and Specter who so fought this legislation, then suddenly gave way and allowed it. Either those more principled ones lost their deepest moorings OR they were persuaded that the law would be knocked down by the Supreme Court EXCEPT for the ‘amnesty against prosecution’ clause, a clause particularly designed to ‘save America’ [and their Republican Party] from the spectacle of ‘crimes against humanity’ prosecutions carried out with an American president in the defendant’s chair.
Donna:
Regarding the behavior of those “heavy hitters”; I’m sorry, but there is another scenario that is orthogonal to the ones you posit. Simply put, it was all nothing but theater, a sham put before us to convince Americans that the MCA came out a morally and legally sound piece of legislation. McCain and the others (but most of all him) used their credibility to provide cover for the President and granted him tyrannical power. Nothing in the MCA is in any wise legitimate, AFAIC, though I am not a lawyer, so my reading my be ever-so-slightly off.