Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Gonzales... Wait A Minute - What About Bush?

[seemslikeadream]

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/coonsey/2009/04/cheney-rumsfeld-rice-ashcroft.php?ref=reccafe


Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Gonzales... Wait A Minute - What About Bush?
April 22, 2009, 10:56PM


Is it just me or are we missing something during all this conversation about torture and who said what, when and why did they say it? Aren't we forgetting the missing link here? Who was the superior in charge of all these people that we are accusing of possibly having done wrong? Why are the media and others omitting or pushing aside the actions of President George W. Bush's during the past 8 years?

Do you think for one minute that if the situation were reversed and President Barack Obama's administration had committed war crimes, that the Republicans would just go after VP Biden and AG Holder, Sec of State Clinton and their employees? Not only no; but hell no! They'd go straight to the top -- straight to the guy that was in charge of it all.

George W. Bush authorized these actions and may have even asked for them to be looked in to.

All through the CIA agent's name leak story, we only heard about V.P. Cheney, Scooter Libby, different reporter's names and others surrounding them -- nobody accused President Bush of authorizing that action. President Bush even lied on television as though he knew nothing about the case and demanded to know who leak the agent's name -- when all along it was his own people - near and dear.

Do you honestly believe that these people did all these bad things completely on their own? I realize we all love to make fun of George W. Bush's brain and speaking capabilities; but gosh folks, the man wouldn't have gotten to be President by being completely stupid. Besides, even if he knew nothing and was put in a padded cell while in office -- the BUCK STOPS at his desk. He was in charge. He either gave the orders or ignored what his people were doing -- either way, he is just as guilty if not more so than all the rest.

Do not forget who was the BOSS from Jan of 2000 - Jan of 2009!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Bush was the President he is ultimately responsible

[spanone]

2. the world knows where the buck stops.

[stillcool]

3. This from the Armed Services Report...

In the First Bybee memo, the OLe had asserted that "any effort
by Congress to regulate the interrogation ofbattlefield detainees would violate the Constitution's
sole vesting ofthe Commander-in-Chiefauthority in the President.,,932 In keeping with that
finding, the March 14, 2003 fmal OLC memo held that the power to detain and interrogate
enemy combatants arose out ofthe President's constitutional authority as Commander in
Chief. 933 "In wartime," according to the memo, "it is for the president alone to decide what
methods to use to best prevail against the enemy.,,934
(U) In the March 14, 2003 final opinion, the OLC used its broad reading ofthe
Commander-in-Chiefauthority to conclude that "even if' federal criminal statutes "were
misconstrued to apply" to interrogations, the "Department ofJustice could not enforce this law
or any ofthe other criminal statutes.,,935 According to the OLC, "ven ifan
interrogation method arguably were to violate a criminal statute; the Justice Department could
not bring prosecution because the statute would be unconstitutional as applied in this
context.,,93

[ncteechur]

4. There is the boss and THE boss. I believe THE boss was RBCheney.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Schultz brought this up today in his radio show

He said that Obama should just invite Bush back to the WH and they could have a quiet chat about it.

As if.

[laststeamtrain]

6. Jr. is scheduled for a 'come-to-Jesus' moment.

He will be spiritually counseled to confess & tell all to 'get right with Jesus'.

He should be encouraged.

It should be made clear to him that if he does this people will like him & think he's a great man.

You're not to blame, George. It was all those evil bastards around you.

[Solly Mack]

7. I haven't forgotten Bush

[Snazzy]

8. please, don't kill me

Volume 52, Number 1 · January 13, 2005
Death in Texas
By Sister Helen Prejean

...


In his autobiography, Bush claimed that the pending execution of Karla Faye Tucker "felt like a huge piece of concrete...crushing me." But in an unguarded moment in 1999 while traveling during the presidential campaign, Bush revealed his true feelings to the journalist Tucker Carlson. Bush mentioned Karla Faye Tucker, who had been executed the previous year, and told Carlson that in the weeks immediately before the execution, Bianca Jagger and other protesters had come to Austin to plead for clemency for her. Carlson asked Bush if he had met with any of the petitioners and was surprised when Bush whipped around, stared at him, and snapped, "No, I didn't meet with any of them." Carlson, who until that moment had admired Bush, said that Bush's curt response made him feel as if he had just asked "the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed." Bush went on to tell him that he had also refused to meet Larry King when he came to Texas to interview Tucker but had watched the interview on television. King, Bush said, asked Tucker difficult questions, such as "What would you say to Governor Bush?"

What did Tucker answer? Carlson asked.

"Please," Bush whimpered, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "please, don't kill me."

Carlson was shocked.<4> He couldn't believe Bush's callousness and reasoned that his cruel mimicry of the woman whose death he had authorized must have been sparked by anger over Karla Faye Tucker's remarks during the King interviews. When King had asked her what she planned to ask Governor Bush, Karla Faye had said she thought that if Bush approved her execution, he would be succumbing to election-year pressure from pro–death penalty voters.

Election-year pressure?

Bush was receiving thousands of messages urging clemency for Tucker, including one from one of his daughters. "Born-again" evangelists such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, normally ardent advocates of execution, urged him to commute Tucker's sentence. When Pope John Paul II urged Bush to grant mercy to Tucker, Bush responded disingenuously in a letter to the Pope, saying, "Ms. Tucker's sentence can only be commuted by the Governor if the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends a commutation of sentence." On several occasions, Bush stated publicly that in deciding Karla Faye Tucker's fate, he was seeking "guidance through prayer," adding that "judgments about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority."

But there was no way Bush could avoid the godlike power thrust on him as governor. When Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that life-or-death judgments should be "left to the Almighty," he meant that such supposed judgments, even if they are believed to be divine, cannot properly be discerned and administered by flawed human agents. This recognition led him to oppose government executions. But while Bush claimed to leave the judgment of Karla Faye Tucker to God, in reality he exercised his own political judgment and authorized her death.

....

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17670

[PuraVidaDreamin]

9. I don't think Cheney let Bush see the memo

But if he did, do you really think Bush read it?

It was all fun and games to him.

[tomp]

10. for the record, i haven't seen colin powell's name come up, either. nt

[Forkboy]

11. Like Iran/Contra, the Big Man himself won't take the fall.

:puke:

[Danascot]

12. Not to worry

There will be those in the second and third circle who will throw Bush under the wheels so their punishment will be lessened.

[glitch]

13. People who mention every name but Bush show they are still afraid of the BFEE

Especially now that Jeb is making noises again.