Another Subpoena or...Let Us Hope They've Got the Gravitas

Ah, another day, another Congressional subpoena. This time, it's Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove. Not to necessarily namecall, but Rove is sneaky, slimy, and underhanded, and he's got this coming. If he goes the way of other loyal Bushies and ignores the Judiciary Committee, he should recieve the maximum punishment for contempt.

Mr. Rove has been called upon to testify on matters relating to the firings of nine Justice Department attorneys for political reasons. These firings, and the use of the Justice Department as a political tool, are among the many Bush abuses of authority that have been uncovered. While Attorney General Gonzales claims the firings were performance-based, a good majority in Congress believe otherwise. This is not a partisan issue either, as Republican Senator Arlen Specter has been very outspoken against Gonzales. Do Bush and the AG not realize that these attorneys represent nine families to support, or do they just not care? While these issues I'm sure have already been covered, as this saga started a good while ago, it is still very important to remember how and why the Administration is attempting to deceive the public.

I, for one, sincerely hope that Congress has the guts to do whatever is necessary to investigate the deceptions of the Administration, and to do something about it. They cannot be allowed to get away with things that would land others in jail. I want to see Alberto Gonzales behind bars, if not Bolten, Miers, and even Rove. Bush must not be allowed to intervene with the investigations either, because it is the duty and the responsibility of Congress to have oversight powers when the executive branch is acting illegally and against our Constitution. Checks and balances were created for a reason, lets use them.

Alberto Gonzales, what can be said about you that hasn't been said about members of the Nazi Party? The Attorney General is either stupid or naive enough to believe that Congress would not catch his lies and distortions. The things he has said and done during his time in this position are such that the public would rather have seen him out of a job than nine other U.S. attorneys, no matter their "performance". His statement calling the Constitution of the United States of America "quaint" alone would be reason enough to keep him out of government. Also, his plan to circumvent the Geneva Conventions by labeling those captured during our two wars "enemy combatants" is despicable and inhumane.

These sidesteps around our legal system and our human rights leads right into the travesty that is Guantanamo Bay. The prison there should be shut down, with any so-called combatants either placed in prisons within the U.S. if there is actual evidence against them, or if there is not, shipped back to their homes and given whatever we can to apologize. Many held there are guilty of no crime and have done nothing to harm the U.S. or its citizens, yet they are treated as less than human, put through "enhanced interrogation techniques" (torture) that if administered to any normal criminal here, would bring down a huge public outcry.

One man in Guantanamo, a Sami al-Hajj is guilty of nothing more than being Muslim, Arab, and a cameraman for Arab-language TV news station, al-Jazeera. Former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and others within the Bush Administration have characterized al-Jazeera as a propaganda station, championing al-Qaida and demonizing the U.S. This is far from the truth. In fact, al-Jazeera is even less of a propaganda station than U.S. networks, especially Fox News. And lets face it, its hard to make the U.S. look good in a region where they are invading, bombing, and killing tens of thousands of civilians.

Anyways, back to the prisoners at Camp X-Ray, they should be afforded every protection in the Bill of Rights. Now I know some of you are going to say that they aren't citizens, and that they're the enemy, blah blah blah. The legal rights as defined in our Amendments do not extend only to citizens, but to all those under the authority of our justice system. That means those prisoners, even being foreign nationals have rights to habeas corpus, and to a fair and speedy trial. If we're so great and so morally strong, we can't just ignore the founding documents of our country. Otherwise, "the terrorists" have won.