Ding dong the tyrant's gone: Revenge 1 - Justice 0

The WaPo reports:

"Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was hanged in the predawn hours of Saturday for crimes against humanity in the mass murder of Shiite men and boys in the 1980s, sent to the gallows by a government backed by the United States and led by Shiite Muslims who had been oppressed during his rule, Iraqi and American officials said."

In a statement W. said, Saddam got the "Kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime. Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule." Of course, the fact is that fair trials are still unimaginable in W.'s new Iraq. According to Amnesty International the tiral "Has been a shabby affair, marred by serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal, as currently established, to administer justice fairly, in conformity with international standards."

A Human Rights Watch report says: "The court's conduct, as documented in this report, reflects a basic lack of understanding of fundamental fair trial principles, and how to uphold them in the conduct of a relatively complex trial. The result is a trial that did not meet key fair trial standards. Under such circumstances, the soundness of the verdict is questionable."

But W. insists that: "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people's determination to create a society governed by the rule of law."

Yeah right! These days they seem just slightly more determined to get the hell out of the country. Waiting around for W. & Co. to create a society governed by the rule of law can get a person killed.

I thought the Dujail trial was supossed to be a practice run for the big trial for the gassing of the Kurds in Operation Anfal. I'm sure the families of the 100,000 Kurds who will now be denied justice for their loses are dancing in the streets.

Now that we've overthrown Saddam, disarmed him of those WMD which "intelligence leaves no doubt" he continued to "possess and conceal," and created a society governed by the rule of law that has successfully tried him and put him to death; why are we talking about a "surge" of new troops? I reread W.'s speech of March 18 2003 and I can't find the part where he says we'll take sides in a civil war.

Back then he said, "The only way to reduce the harm and duration of war is to apply the full force and might of our military." Maybe that's what's all this talk about surging is all about. He's finally getting around to putting enough troops into to get the job done.

The big joke in Baghdad. Death is cheap.

On Tuesday, an Iraqi "appeals court" courageously decided Saddam must be hanged. The judge said Saddam must hang within 30 days. That was two days ago. Today, AP reports: "Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the execution. "All the measures have been done," Haddad said. "There is no reason for delays."

Wow, this guy sounds like he might have a future on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals when he's eventually forced to flee Iraq after the Green Zone falls. He'll no doubt have a special place in W.'s heart -- who himself known as quite the execution signing type -- for giving him something to point to as success in Iraq.

Man they don't fool around in Iraq, no Siree. Why wait? Let's kill him!

Nuri al-Maliki, our bastard in Baghdad, said: "Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence." Yes, because killing is all about Human Rights.

Eye for an eye, it's all so Biblical. Maybe, Chrisitians and Muslims can find common ground, after all. Lucky, though, that that damn Catholic bastard L. Paul Bremer isn't running the show anymore. He actually supended the death sentence in Iraq. Can you imagine? The Pope is against the death penalty? What?

I found this paragraph in the AP story above interesting:

"In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis. 'Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,' said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, the dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition.

Didn't W. just invite Sciri's leader to the White House, a man Robert Dreyfus calls a "mass murder?" Sounds like our kind of people. We've dealt with mass murderers before. At least he's a man of religious convictions.

Gosh, it seems like it was just yesterday that Achmad Chalabi's nephew Salem, the head of the Iraq Special Tribunal, was saying that the minute Bremer turned over the keys "The Iraqi government has to affirmatively take that step to lift the suspension." Of course, he was also speculating that Saddam and other regime figured would be handed over the minute Iraq gained "sovereignty," to.

It looks like today, that no onw seems to know where exactly Saddam is.

Anyway, my question is: why are they even bothering to put on this charade of a tribunal and then a trial? Beyond a few Central Asian dictatorships and maybe the junta in Burma who’s really buying the fiction that Saddam got a fair trial? His few surviving defense lawyers either, spent most of their time getting thrown out of court, or had to flee the country fearing for their lives. I’m not saying Saddam is the wounded party here, but common,’ give me a break!

The Iraqis are in such a rush to off Saddam that they’re not even going to let him long enough to finish the trial he’s currently defending himself in. This one involves the gassing of the Kurds in Operation Anfal back in the eighties. Now, let me try and remember, who might know something about Saddam gassing Kurds but not bothering to do anything about it. . . Oh, right George Schultz and Rummy! Maybe, that’s why they want to get him out of the way before he starts talking about the pass he got from Ronnie and company.

I say, just take the guy out and shoot him or hang him or whatever. But please don’t insult my intelligence with this ridiculous show. The Iraqi "government" can’t even issue speeding tickets, how do they get away with pretending they've legally convicted a war criminal? It's all a big joke.

Musings on Gerald Ford: No Lincoln he.

Well, it's a day late and a dollar short, thanks to the Philly library system and their state of the art internet connection, but here is what was on my mind on Tuesday when the news of Gerald Ford died hit. Note, this was before he spanked W., Cheney and Kissinger from the grave.

The media is all a buzz about the death of former president Gerald R. Ford. NPR is having another one of its dead president banachals, although, mercifully, they're not in full Ronald Reagan funeral mode yet. [Just wait until Sharon dies!] News of Ford's death comes hours after the announcement of the death of the "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, who died on Christmas morning. I think one could argue James Brown probably had a lot more influence on the history of the country than old bumbling Gerry Ford ever did, but all you hear is Ford, Ford, Ford: ''He was a healer, he was a steady hand (when he wasn't falling out of planes), blah, blah, blah.'

One thing you can say for him, he helped heal the GOP, that's for sure. Ford's pardon of Nixon made it a certainty that there wouldn't be any kind of nasty trial dragging on in the midst of the elections in 1976. Daily exposes in the press about tricky Dick and Henry Kissinger's role in the overthrow and assassination of Salvador Allende's government or the secret bombing of Cambodia, or spying on domestic enemies, would not have been good for business. There is the distinct possibility the Republican Party may not have recovered from a thorough public investigation into Nixon's dirty deeds for decades if not a century. Imagine if Kissinger had had to testify under oath about putting machine guns into official U.S. diplomatic pouches bound for Allende's assassins in Chile! (If W. wanted to talk to him now about the New Way Forward in Iraq, he would have had to do it while visiting him in Leavenworth.)

Whatever Ford's motives may have been, pardoning Nixon may have ended his Party's long nightmare, I don't know about the Nation’s. I think the American people were entitled to a fuller explanation and accounting of what exactly the Nixon regime was up to. Sending a few lower level functionaries to fenced-in gulf resorts for a few months didn't come close to "healing" this Nation after what Nixon & Co. had done. Letting that bunch off with a slap on the wrist gave Cheney and Rummy -- both in the Ford administration -- the idea that they could get away scot-free with something like Iraq.

If there is anything to say about Ford's legacy, it's that he was one of the last GOP moderates. For sure he is the last moderate GOP president we'll ever see. The whole notion of moderation in the GOP went to hell when kindly old grandpa Reagan came in and gave the bomb throwers and religious nuts the keys to the asylum. In retrospect, I actually wish that Ford had beat Carter in '76, so we could have had four more years of Chevy Chase signing and vetoing his hand, petting his wooden dog "liberty" and falling over his desk.

There would be a lot more golfers with serious head wounds and crazy hippy chicks serving time for trying to kill the president, but at least Ronald Reagan and his -- what was then considered the -- "crack pot" wing of the Republican Party, would have remained on the fringes. [By the way, it sure would have been nice if Ted Kennedy hadn't done his part to destroy what little chance Carter had of winning by launching a last minute coup d' tat at the Democratic convention.] Cheney and Rummy would have gone ahead and had disastrous careers in corporate America, like they should have done all along, and W. would now be an infrequent blip on the pages of the tabloids, playing the role of semi-prominent politician's black sheep son. [Kind of like Neil Bush does nowadays.]

Newt Gingrich is really into the "alternative history" thing; like 'what if Hitler had won,' that sort of thing. That was my humble attempt at the alternative history. My alternative future history is that Cheney gets caught lying at Scooter Libby's trial -- really going out on a limb here -- and has to resign. W. appoints Bill Frist or Trent Lott -- one of those dumb rednecks -- as VP and in '08 America comes out in droves to vote for Barak "Osama" "Saddam" Hussein Obama. That's the only way I see Obama having a chance against whoever the GOP puts up. If Hillary doesn't completely destroy him in the primaries, what's left of him will be mopped up by the son's of Rove new model attack machine. The "Hussein" "Osama" thing is a real killer.

In any case, Gerry Ford wasn't really all that bad, he was a nice guy and he loved beer, nachos and "Big Blue." Here's to a decent man who did his best under difficult circumstances. Rest in peace.

Musings on Gerald Ford:

Well, it's a day late and a dollar short, thanks to the Philly library system and their state of the art internet connection, but here is what was on my mind on Tuesday when the news of Gerald Ford died hit. Note, this was before he spanked W., Cheney and Kissinger from the grave.

The media is all a buzz about the death of former president Gerald R. Ford. NPR is having another one of its dead president banachals, although, mercifully, they're not in full Ronald Reagan funeral mode yet. [Just wait until Sharon dies!] News of Ford's death comes hours after the announcement of the death of the "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, who died on Christmas morning. I think one could argue James Brown probably had a lot more influence on the history of the country than old bumbling Gerry Ford ever did, but all you hear is Ford, Ford, Ford: ''He was a healer, he was a steady hand (when he wasn't falling out of planes), blah, blah, blah.'

One thing you can say for him, he helped heal the GOP, that's for sure. Ford's pardon of Nixon made it a certainty that there wouldn't be any kind of nasty trial dragging on in the midst of the elections in 1976. Daily exposes in the press about tricky Dick and Henry Kissinger's role in the overthrow and assassination of Salvador Allende's government or the secret bombing of Cambodia, or spying on domestic enemies, would not have been good for business. There is the distinct possibility the Republican Party may not have recovered from a thorough public investigation into Nixon's dirty deeds for decades if not a century. Imagine if Kissinger had had to testify under oath about putting machine guns into official U.S. diplomatic pouches bound for Allende's assassins in Chile! (If W. wanted to talk to him now about the New Way Forward in Iraq, he would have had to do it while visiting him in Leavenworth.)

Whatever Ford's motives may have been, pardoning Nixon may have ended his Party's long nightmare, I don't know about the Nation’s. I think the American people were entitled to a fuller explanation and accounting of what exactly the Nixon regime was up to. Sending a few lower level functionaries to fenced-in gulf resorts for a few months didn't come close to "healing" this Nation after what Nixon & Co. had done. Letting that bunch off with a slap on the wrist gave Cheney and Rummy -- both in the Ford administration -- the idea that they could get away scot-free with something like Iraq.

If there is anything to say about Ford's legacy, it's that he was one of the last GOP moderates. For sure he is the last moderate GOP president we'll ever see. The whole notion of moderation in the GOP went to hell when kindly old grandpa Reagan came in and gave the bomb throwers and religious nuts the keys to the asylum. In retrospect, I actually wish that Ford had beat Carter in '76, so we could have had four more years of Chevy Chase signing and vetoing his hand, petting his wooden dog "liberty" and falling over his desk.

There would be a lot more golfers with serious head wounds and crazy hippy chicks serving time for trying to kill the president, but at least Ronald Reagan and his -- what was then considered the -- "crack pot" wing of the Republican Party, would have remained on the fringes. [By the way, it sure would have been nice if Ted Kennedy hadn't done his part to destroy what little chance Carter had of winning by launching a last minute coup d' tat at the Democratic convention.] Cheney and Rummy would have gone ahead and had disastrous careers in corporate America, like they should have done all along, and W. would now be an infrequent blip on the pages of the tabloids, playing the role of semi-prominent politician's black sheep son. [Kind of like Neil Bush does nowadays.]

Newt Gingrich is really into the "alternative history" thing; like 'what if Hitler had won,' that sort of thing. That was my humble attempt at the alternative history. My alternative future history is that Cheney gets caught lying at Scooter Libby's trial -- really going out on a limb here -- and has to resign. W. appoints Bill Frist or Trent Lott -- one of those dumb rednecks -- as VP and in '08 America comes out in droves to vote for Barak "Osama" "Saddam" Hussein Obama. That's the only way I see Obama having a chance against whoever the GOP puts up. If Hillary doesn't completely destroy him in the primaries, what's left of him will be mopped up by the son's of Rove new model attack machine. The "Hussein" "Osama" thing is a real killer.

In any case, Gerry Ford wasn't really all that bad, he was a nice guy and he loved beer, nachos and "Big Blue." Here's to a decent man who did his best under difficult circumstances. Rest in peace.