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Democratic Voices

April 18th, 2007

Stalinist Justice and Incompetence in the Bush Era

There seems to another perfect political storm brewing in our federal government that will likely impact the 2008 elections. A crisis of corruption, injustice and incompetence is being faced by potential Republican candidates as a result of actions and inactions by the Bush Administration and their allies in Congress.

The Attorney-gate issue has already shown that politics is interfering with law enforcement and prosecutions of crimes in the Department of Justice linked to the top levels of the White House and Republican members of Congress. Republicans pushed aggressively all over the nation for “Stalinist” trumped-up show trials of non-existent voter fraud for blatantly political reasons. US Attorneys who played ball on these political prosecutions are still in power. Those who refused were fired.

The “Stalinist” nature of the US Attorney firings were not just linked to fake voter fraud cases but included pushing weak corruption cases against Democratic politicians and blocking prosecutions of strong corruption cases against Republican politicians. Use of executive privilege claims to obstruct Congressional investigations of these abuses are unlikely to be successful and will cost 2008 Republican candidates in a very big way. Of course, the scope of the scandal is expanding rapidly.

Millions of emails requested by Congressional investigators are conveniently missing according to the White House and the Republican National Committee. The use of RNC email accounts by top White House aides to discuss these issues seems to designed to thwart investigations by Congress and demonstrates the key role of politics in the handling of criminal issues in the Bush White House. This scandal is definitely bigger than Watergate.

Homeland Security issues are going to be huge problems for Republican candidates. Domestic spying, torture, detentions without trials, secret prisons and the huge waste in spending of taxpayer dollars are going to be important issues that demonstrate both the “Stalinist” tendencies of the Bush White House and their incompetence.

For political reasons, the Bush Republicans did not change federal gun laws to prevent foreign nationals from legally buying guns in the aftermath of 9-11. It is a no-brainer that stronger homeland security concerns should have made gun ownership by citizens of other countries residing in or visiting the United States illegal. Potential foreign terrorists should not be able to legally buy guns in America. This incompetence put deadly weapons in the hands of the Korean student who killed 32 innocent victims at Virginia Tech.

It is obvious that the Iraq War is going badly despite the Bush-McCain troop surge. In just one attack in Iraq, 117 Iraqis were killed. The Republican approach to Iraq has always been doomed to failure. Every additional day our troops stay in Iraq, the greater the damage done to America’s position in the world and our national security. The Republican inability to admit mistakes is costing our nation in terms of lives, taxpayer dollars, global respect, our own traditional values and national security. We are weakening our military for no good reason except the political needs of Republican politicians.

Republican approaches to government debt, spending and taxes have proven to be failures marked by corruption and incompetence. The same problems are obvious in their handling of labor issues, trade policies, worker safety, energy policy, consumer price-gouging, business monopolies, health care, prescription drugs, environmental issues, educations and most other areas of public policy.

Republican candidates are going to pay at the polls for their Stalinist approach to politics and government. Republican incompetence in government is a direct result of their lack of belief in the role of government to improve the lives of average Americans. If you do not believe in government, you are unlikely to be good at managing government.

Written By Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of DemocraticTalkRadio.com ).
Mail: P.O. Box 283, Earleville, Maryland 21919. Phone: 443-907-2367
Feel free to publish at no charge without prior permission in your newspaper, newsletter, website or blog.



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