Why can't we do that?

By Rich Miles

On June 1, 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to life in prison for failing to stop the killing of protestors in a demonstration last year.

Got that? Not for killing anyone - but for failing to stop the killings.

Now I ask you: why can't we do that here in America?

I mean, God knows we had a much worse criminal in the White House for 8 years. Just the short list of his crimes include election fraud and stealing at least one, possibly two national elections; nearly bankrupting the national budget to the tune of trillions of dollars, and then blaming it on his successor; and last but by no means least, the killing of over 4000 American soldiers and countless Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and maiming even more thousands on both sides, in an unnecessary and pointless war designed to a) avenge one man, his father, who was not even injured by any Iraqi, and b) get himself re-elected, on the belief that the American people would not vote out even the most incompetent leadership in wartime. Remember "Don't change horses in the middle of a stream", Lincoln's campaign slogan? I am virtually certain that the overweeningly stupid American electorate has never done that, voted out a president in wartime since then, and probably not before. Nixon took over for LBJ in Vietnam, but that was voluntary. Johnson quit.

So why can't WE try and convict the criminal who was in the White House for 8 years, and who has put this country in such a bloody-awful mess in so many ways? Why can't we avenge our national shame in electing him twice, and put the sumbitch in prison for the rest of his life? He's only 65 years old, and if we put him in prison for life, he'll likely stay there to serve as a national example for many more years than Mubarak, who is 84 and reportedly in poor health.

Look, I've said this so many times before, but it will serve my thesis to say it again: we must nail some of these people, most egregiously Bush, who by now is firmly established as the worst president in U.S. history - we must ensure that there are CONSEQUENCES to heinous acts like Bush's, or politicians will keep doing this kind of crap in the future, assured in the knowledge that they can GET AWAY WITH IT, to their own and their friends' enrichment (see tax breaks for the wealthy, over and over again, among other things).

I mean it, people - we all complain about what a bunch of crooks we have in Washington, and our respective statehouses and city halls, and I think it would not be overstating to say that it's gone on for hundreds of years and will continue for hundreds more, if we don't take steps to curtail it!

And really, the only steps that will have any HOPE of curtailing such behavior is to PUT THE BASTARDS IN JAIL!!! Or even, in extreme cases, execute a bunch of 'em. What more fitting judgment for GWB, who used US military personnel like his own personal game pieces in a war NO ONE wanted, except him and his coterie of war criminals? Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, and many, many more?

I mean, am I wrong? Do you think the sumbitches will reform themselves on their own? There are politicians like Alan Grayson, Russ Feingold (sadly voted out of office), Dennis Kucinich, John Yarmuth, and a few more, who are not only honest, but will continue to be honest even to their own political detriment. Even after nearly 4 years, I can't say I'm sure where our current president falls on this continuum. I think he's more honest than not - but I don't know if I can call him honest.

But at any rate, the overwhelming majority of elected officers in this country are thieving, lying, say-anything-to-get-elected bastards! They craft and pass legislation that exempts themselves from the broader laws of the land, and they take bribes and let themselves be bought every day of the year. And yet there is no punishment, no consequences, nothing to HURT the bastards into stopping this crap. They are using taxpayer money to screw and hurt the taxpayers - you and me!

So will we keep believing that they are all assholes except OUR guy, and keep electing our guy, no matter how corrupt he obviously is? Or will we wake up to the reality that MOST, almost ALL of them are corrupt, and we have to clean house across the board - perhaps ousting even the few who are honest, just to avoid even the appearance that we're going to keep any of the bad ones?

Anti-incumbency!!! Say it loud, we're mad and proud!

Gotta get rid of the bad guys - AND do it in a way that will let their replacements know that it can happen again! That never again will we be arm-twisted into keeping the assholes for years and years and years - viz., the proud racist Strom Thurmond, who was in the U.S. Senate and other office for over 50 years. And just by the way, died an incompetent and addled old man, still in the Senate at the age of 100.

Public office is not supposed to be a lifetime profession. And getting rich off the taxpayer's nickel is NOT an honorable means to personal wealth. Why is that so hard for politicians to understand? Why is it so hard for US to understand, such that when the fools screw up, we know to get rid of them?

When does GWB's trial on the above charges and more begin? I want it televised, including the hanging. OK, he won't be hanged, no matter how much he may deserve it - but can he go to prison? Please? Can we watch?

I remain, sir or madam, your obt. svt.,
Rich Miles