100% conviction rate
I think that whoever is the Democratic nominee for President will need to have the smartest team of political advisers ever assembled. The Republican political machine will not go into the sweet night quietly. They have far too much to lose. Let’s think about this - in the next 4 - 8 years, there are going to be at least 3 and maybe 5 Supreme Court judges who will retire. With a Democratic lead House and Senate and a Democratic White House, could Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales be hauled before a court and found guilty of crimes against humanity? Could a former President and Vice President have to sit trial for outing a CIA agent? Would companies that have raped the American people, by pocketing millions and millions of dollars by being contractors in Iraq, have to re-pay moneys that were stolen or poorly accounted for? Did you see that a defense contractor has placed a $3 billion bid for Diebold.
I’m just asking because we have been holding Khalid Shaikh Mohammed for at least 5 years. Now, just before the 2008 election, there is going to be a trial. I wouldn’t be surprised if other things pop up to galvanize the base and distract from the Presidential race.
The Nation has a great article on this trail. Former chief prosecutor Col. Morris Davis says that the trials are rigged. Who’s surprised? After Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift (I thought that I posted his story but I haven’t. I’ll do that tomorrow.) resigned after he was passed over for promotion, he told his story of a rigged process.
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From The Nation:
Secret evidence. Denial of habeas corpus. Evidence obtained by waterboarding. Indefinite detention. The litany of complaints about the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is long, disturbing and by now familiar. Nonetheless, a new wave of shock and criticism greeted the Pentagon’s announcement on February 11 that it was charging six Guantánamo detainees, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with war crimes–and seeking the death penalty for all of them.
Now, as the murky, quasi-legal staging of the Bush Administration’s military commissions unfolds, a key official has told The Nation that the trials have been rigged from the start. According to Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantánamo’s military commissions, the process has been manipulated by Administration appointees to foreclose the possibility of acquittal. (more…)
The probability that any Bush administration defendant will ever stand trial is vanishingly small. Regardless of party affiliation, all pols are members of a mutually protective class. And we’re not. Forget “the rule of law,” which is just an applause line. The law that rules is the doctrine that The Biggest Crooks Skate. Nixon retired to San Clemente, not San Quentin. If anything, we’ll be lectured that “for the good of the country, we must move on and heal and blah, blah, blah, blah….”
Why would a defense contractor want to buy a company that makes voting machines? Unless the machines are malfunctioning and the states don’t have paper ballots to do a recount. Then wouldn’t it be interesting if you just wipe out a whole city or county or even the states votes and blame it on the machines.Wouldn’t that be convienent for the republicans if they are losing. No more hanging chads just simply lose the votes. Ohio has a county that got rid of them altogether because they didn’t work right. They went back to paper. Utah has paper ballots for backup but not all states do. It would play out for a long time in the courts.
You hit the nail on the head with your statement that the next President with have to have a crack team of advisors. What a mess to clean up after 8 years of GW Bush. And SCOTUS appointees are very important as well.
Everything Bush Jr touched has turned into a quagmire and mess. The economy, healthcare, lack of immigration reform, our world standing, education, science, and of course, the Iraq War. Etc etc etc. Jeezus!!!!