Biden says an Obama administration could launch criminal investigations of Bush administration officials. I hope he’s right.
Pants.
The U.S. has spent $4 billion over the last five years on its destructive coca eradication program in the Andes. Over that period coca production in the region has risen to early 1990s levels, including a 27 percent increase in Columbia, where we spend most of the anti-drug money.
Nazi raccoons on warpath!
If you gave money to Louisiana Sen. David Vitter in support of his positions on God-n’-family issue, you should probably know that he has now been given permission to use campaign funds to pay for legal bills related to his patronizing prostitutes.
What does it take for a restaurant to win an “Award of Excellence” from Wine Spectator magazine? Apparently not much.
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on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 9:44 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
Radley, the “Nazi raccoons on warpath” link leads to the same article as your “Biden says” link… I’m hoping that this means that Nazi raccoons will play a role in future prosecutions.
Nazi raccoons
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article85048.ece
The U.S. has spent $4 billion is also a bad link.
The fake restaurant winning a Wine Spectator award of excellence… that makes my day. Seriously. Those nutty Italians.
Goering introduced raccoons to Germany? I knew he was insane, but come on. Raccoons are the North American equivalent of monkeys. Smart, obnoxious, dexterous, and destructive. Plus, they are a severe rabies vector. Good one, Hermann!
Thanks for the link, Claude. The article states that Goering introduced raccoons to Germany to “enrich its fauna”, but I’ve read elsewhere that raccoons were brought to Germany and raised on farms for their fur. During the war, some of the farms were bombed and some raccoons escaped.
Reichcoons!
Way to go Wine Spectator, now the caloric menu inspection department is gonna have to confirm the quality of the wines on the lists and confirm the existence of the restaurant…
The Biden thing arouses thoughts of Caesars bid for dictatorship.
Ah yes…..let’s criminalize political differences. Of course, after the democrats win this election, we can trash the Consitution so there will never be another election again. With Obama in the White House, we won’t need anymore, will we?!?
Ummm… going after someone for holding a US Citizen in Solitary confinement for three + years, and denying him the basic rights guaranteed under the Constitution is not “criminalizing political differences” no matter how you try to spin it.
It’s the first place they should start. They could then follow up on all these IG reports that are coming out showing the Bush Administration officials broke the law, but Mukaseky has decided not to prosecute because they’ve already been punished enough by resigning.
Not to defend the Bush Administration but I’m not too thrilled with this. I can see it getting totally out of hand where when the party out of power returns to power it launches such investigations simply as routine in an attempt to gain a political advantage or keep one. Turning criminal investigations into politics leaves me with a really uncomfortable feeling.
I think there are probably mechanisms already in place for these kinds of things. Investigating cases of wrong doing when brought to the attention of the new administration and on a case-by-case basis is one thing. Launching wide spread investigations in the hopes of finding something is another thing entirely.
From Radley’s link,
Yeah, but fuck all the violations we (the Democrats) will perpetrate in pursuing our policies.
And then the next Republican Administration does the exact same thing and it becomes part of the political process and not really about criminal acts. Think of it as more detailed and serious oppo research.
Sorry Edmund, I’m not thrilled with the rather broad nature this looks to be taking on. But hey, maybe I’m wrong and Obama really wont be corrupted by power…he is after all the Obamassiah.
Radley get a damned rolling eyes icon please.
While I would applaud them, I doubt any serious investigations will occur against Bush or top level aides. As was mentioned above, that would set a precedent that no POTUS would want to set.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the coca eradication program results in larger crops: when someone is out to destroy your fields, you plant more!
Good ol’ unintended consequences. Again.
Re: wine spectator
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=499240&in_page_id=1770#
Most “critics” turn into a self-parody quickly…
Radley, as much as we both hate Bush, do you really want incoming administrations to start criminally prosecuting their outgoing rivals? I’m not sure you’ve thought this though to its logical conclusion…
Obama and Biden will be way too busy expanding presidential power themselves to investigate any expansion of presidential power under Bush.
Why would anybody believe any promise any politician (and most especially a hack as slimy and steeped in evil as Biden) says?
And why wouldn’t the Democrats do what Dubya did and pardon the outgoing President? How could the Democrats afford investigation of crimes in which they’ve been enthusiastically complicit (all of them) and which they can’t wait to have at least nominal charge of committing themselves?
This is just idle talk by Biden.
Does he realize, though, that he and Obama not running against George Bush?
I know he’s trying to draw in the whole Republican=Bush=evilcriminalbadguy and therefore McCain is tarred, but I’d call this one quite a reach.
If politicians are going to jail for losing an election, then threat of jail is no reason for them to not rig (or even cancel) the election itself.
And like it or not, this is criminalizing political differences. That is why the founders were wise enough to make removal from office the highest penalty a president could receive.
CTD: Of course I want criminal prosecutions for criminal actions. Prosecution for policy differences would of course be a terrible thing, but there’s no indication of that as of yet.
Phelps: politicians going to jail for commiting crimes is different than politicians going to jail for losing elections.
I get the entire “we don’t want each administration going after the last” and I do not want to see this either, but don’t we as an enlightened people want to punish war criminals (not saying that anyone is). How do we find out if the charges are not investigated?
Hitler’s Nazi henchmen were investigated and found guilty of war crimes and paid with a noose around their necks (except the pill swallowing pussy, and those that escaped). Does it only count if the criminals were on the other side?
If there really is a threat of prosecution, won’t Bush just pardon everyone, resign, and then let Cheney pardon him?