Bush, Cheney, Libby, and We the People - Shame on Us All!

I have a five year old nephew named Sam. If you ask him, he will insist that he is almost six. He loves to be around pretty girls, and he used to be afraid of monsters until I explained to him that there was no such thing. After the events that have taken place during the last thirty days, in order for me to be the man of integrity and the role model I live to be in his eyes, I must now go to him and explain that he lives in a world where pretty girls, i.e. Paris Hilton, go to jail for driving infractions, while real live monsters like Lewis Libby commit acts of treason, endanger the lives of millions of people around the world, cause the deaths of untold numbers of souls, lie about doing it, and, in the end, get convicted of these felonies only to be given a pat on the back by the leader of this great nation in which we live, and a fine that doesn't even amount to a slap on the wrist. Now that I think about it, I'm going to have to explain to Sam that there are people who are in prison for twenty years and more because they were caught growing the same plant that the first American flag was made out of, a plant that made the sails of the Mayflower and the ropes used to secure it at Plymouth Rock - a plant that was grown by the fathers of the United States of America, but I digress. It makes me more than mad. I am infuriated and insulted and you should feel the same way too.

President Bush recently commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby the former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby had been sentenced to 30 months in prison, two years of probation , and a $250,000.00 dollar fine after being convicted of two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of making false statements to federal investigators. To put this into terms that we all can understand, this guy went out and told the press the true identity of a covert, or undercover, CIA agent. In addition, the leak enabled the identification of the CIA agent as an employee of the CIA front company, Brewster Jennings & Associates, and in doing so enabled the identification of other CIA agents who were "employed" there. Libby lied about doing it, and he did things that served to foul up the investigation of not only his crimes, but those of others in the Bush administration.

We shouldn't stand for this. This is the stuff of revolutions. This is the kind of corruption that has toppled nations since the beginning of history. Yet the thing that really frightens me is the realization that nothing will come of the entire matter. It will pass and become the stuff that makes up the jokes we will laugh at while we watch late night TV, or the ones we tell while we take time out from work at the water fountain with the other drones who have become so complacent and placated and misled into believing that they are anything other than the mindless sheep, the grist for the mill, the pawns of the neo-feudal corporate empires that really pull the strings of the puppets who play before us and re read the lines of script from the tired old drama that ended long ago- the lines that proclaim that all men are free in this land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It will pass because of a single thread of truth that runs through the tattered fabric of this arrogant society. The truth is that this shameful government of flagrant criminal, contempt filled, lying, murderous, bigoted, corruption is not made up of a group of untouchable, unreachable, unquestionable super beings. It is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people- we, the people. Each one of us bears responsibility for this embarrassing abomination that is careening out of control like an unmanned hell ride at the carnival of the absurd. The bottom line is this is who we are, and we are like this because there is no one there to stop us. We should be ashamed. And the next time we hear about a car bomb, or a feeble terrorist attack launched by so called fundamental religious savages, perhaps we should have the balls to wipe that stupid look of disbelief off of our seemingly dumbstruck faces and acknowledge the idea that there are a couple of billion people riding on the rock with us who simply don't care to take a bite of the same rancid apple pie we choose to dose ourselves with on the path to judgement day.

Scooter Libby, and anyone who supports, condones, enables, approves, or in any way causes him to escape the responsibility he bears for his actions and the full punishment he was sentenced to serve should either be shot for treason or convicted as accomplices and given the harshest punishment under the law without the possibility of any departure. Either that, or there are a whole lot of men and women doing time for the same or lesser crimes that need to be set free in this country with our deepest apologies and some fat payments of cash. Now. Right this very minute.

It ain't gonna happen. Shame on us. Shame on us all.