The Imperial Family

This painting by Edward Sorel is titled The Imperial Family and was featured in Vanity Fair's farewell slide show. It's not a very flattering portrait, is it?

But it is accurate nonetheless. Dick Cheney is the patriarch and George W. Bush is the little drooling spawn.

A lot has been said about Cheney in the last eight years, but his own words are the most incriminating. Last month, while the world was asleep or something, Dick Cheney took credit for torture. Torture is a war crime. The Vice President of the United States confessed to a war crime in prime time. Americans yawned and changed the channel.

Anybody who has been paying attention already knew about torture memos and other documents linking high level officials to the torture decision. Of course Dick Cheney was the planner of these crimes. I was not surprised.

But I was angered. At this point, the anger is just anger heaped on top of more anger. Will anybody anywhere ever have the balls to prosecute this man?

Surprisingly, in the rush to pardon nearly everybody, Bush has not issued a pre-emptive pardon for Cheney. Cheney is so arrogant that he recently told the Associated Press that "he sees no reason for President George W. Bush to pre-emptively pardon anyone who authorized or was involved in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists."

Clearly, he is counting on the American people and the Obama administration letting him get away with these crimes.

Cheney's hubris is appalling. Let's stop calling him a "mastermind" or even "imperial." He is a scheming criminal bureaucrat with blood on his hands. To let him walk free is a crime in itself.

Pardonoia

So I heard that Still-President Bush is being inundated with requests for pardons. Why bother with pardons when an Obama legal adviser recently stated that "only the most egregious Bush administration crimes should or would be prosecuted"?



Egregious, huh? I agree with Jonathan Turley that "all crimes committed by the government, particularly the President, are egregious."

But did Obama and his advisers read the news today? Salon has uncovered new evidence of post-9/11 spying on Americans. Obtained documents point to a potential investigation of the White House that could rival Watergate.

One of the key allegations against the Bush administration is the use of a secret database called "Main Core" which reportedly collects and stores -- without warrants or court orders -- the names and detailed data of an estimated 8 million Americans considered to be threats to national security.

A recent article in Radar Magazine described how such a database would be utilized during an emergency:

With the population gripped by fear and anger, authorities undertake unprecedented actions in the name of public safety. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security begin actively scrutinizing people who—for a tremendously broad set of reasons—have been flagged in Main Core as potential domestic threats. Some of these individuals might receive a letter or a phone call, others a request to register with local authorities. Still others might hear a knock on the door and find police or armed soldiers outside. In some instances, the authorities might just ask a few questions. Other suspects might be arrested and escorted to federal holding facilities, where they could be detained without counsel until the state of emergency is no longer in effect.

I'm not sure if this roundup would go down before or after the President suspends the Constitution. (And don't go thinking that he can't.)

So now Washington lawmakers are talking about an investigation modeled after the Church Committee.

Key issues to investigate, those involved say, would include the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance activities; the Central Intelligence Agency's use of extraordinary rendition and torture against terrorist suspects; and the U.S. government's extensive use of military assets -- including satellites, Pentagon intelligence agencies and U2 surveillance planes -- for a vast spying apparatus that could be used against the American people.

As you may know, I'm very cynical. Congress might investigate this and they might investigate that, and oh by the way, no lawmaker has openly endorsed a proposal for a new Church Committee-style investigation.

And as we all know, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken impeachment off the proverbial table.

Don't count on the Democrats to green-light an investigation. They have mostly been complicit in approving these crimes.