Further Erosion of American Values

A couple of recent events have gotten little attention due to the New Hampshire primary and the endless 'analysis' from the misbegotten pundit class. Either is more important than the question of whether Hillary's emotional episode was real or calculated. Let's not let them go down the memory hole.

Item #1, from ABC News:

The Defense Department's top watchdog has declined to investigate allegations that an American woman working under an Army contract in Iraq was raped by her co-workers.

The case of former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones gained national attention last month. An ABC News investigation revealed how an earlier investigation into Jones' alleged gang-rape in 2005 had not resulted in any prosecution, and that neither Jones nor Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been able to get answers from the Bush administration on the state of her case.

In letters to lawmakers, DoD Inspector General Claude Kicklighter said that because the Justice Department still considers the investigation into Jones' case open, there is no need for him to look into the matter.

Uh huh. And the fact that the DoJ didn't even deign to send anyone to testify at the congressional hearing into this dark matter - what exactly does that tell us? After two and a half years, and with the events having taken place in a war zone, how is this being investigated anyway? The primary evidence in the case, the rape kit performed by an army doctor, disappeared while in the custody of KBR security. Looks like a clear case of spoliation to me, but DoJ's performance in the last seven years doesn't hold up much hope for this one. What can you expect from a bunch of 'loyal Bushies' anyway?

Item #2, from TPMMuckraker:

A federal judge refused on Wednesday to delve into the destruction of CIA interrogation videos, saying there was no evidence the Bush administration violated a court order and the Justice Department deserved time to conduct its own investigation.

Sound familiar? Let's hand all cases involving Bu$hCo™ malfeasance over to the loyal Bushies who have shown themselves to be so spectacularly partisan and unwilling to pursue any case against a Republican. How this came to pass bears looking at.

This is the inevitable and predictable result of Congress's inexplicably letting off the pressure on the Prosecutors' Purge scandal. Once a top item, they took it to the point last July where administration officials were defying Congressional subpoenas left and right, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy was making all sorts of noise about ordering arrests for contempt. Demanding documents, that sort of thing. Then the Senate and Congress went on a month long vacation. When they came back they seem to have left there spines on the beach. No progress has been made since late last summer on the Prosecutors' Purge case, the plethora of FISA violations, or any other Justice matter. The main thing though is the failure to clean up Justice, gutted and left in tatters by ex Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and the further failure to ensure a clean broom replacement for Gone-Zo to sweep it clean. Mukasey? Give me a fucking break! Anybody who can't tell that waterboarding is clearly torture under US law (Japanese were prosecuted for war crimes over it after WWII - it's called PRECEDENT you pinhead!) should automatically be disqualified for any position in law that doesn't involve fetching coffee or pushing a broom. Indeed those pushing brooms and fetching coffee within the court system can hold their heads a lot higher than the ones with sheepskins on their walls.

One could argue that providing a functioning court system is the first and most essential duty of government to the people. All three branches of government are equally complicit, as are both political parties. And the so-called press! OMG! Has anybody heard a statement from any of the candidates for the highest office in the land to indicate any desire to stem this tide of anarchy? The absence of any concern from any quarter for these most vital issues bodes ill for not only the country, but the whole world.

Isn't it well past time that something be done about this? The Democrats have had control of both legislative houses for a year now. It's high time we started demanding results.

TAGS: Prosecutors' Purge, Jamie Leigh Jones, CIA Torture Tapes, Constitutional Crisis.