The Scarlett Letter is no longer an A. Now it's a B. B for "Bleep" Word. The Illinois Governor's Cursing Wife, accused of no crime, never charged, no wiretaps authorized against her, no 4th amendment warrants or probable cause ever considered, no constitutional rights of privacy respected by the Bush Regime -- the Illinois Governor's Cursing Wife who happened to use the Bleep Word when yelling at her husband in the privacy of her home -- she's now been taken down by the Bush hitmen. Publicly ridiculed and demeaned. Her crime? Yelling at her husband and using the Bleep Word.
Why did the Prosecutor decide to reveal such personal information about the Governor's Cursing Wife, a woman accused of nothing? Maximum lethal potential. Shock and Awe. Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine writ small. Like the death squads: take the whole family unit out. If they've got kids, they'd better look out because some schoolyard bully has probably been wearing a wire, and we'll soon see our leading newspapers, front page headline: Governor's Gal Wets Bed. Or maybe Governor's Son Pervert: Likes Nude Girlie Photos. That's if the kids are in grammar school. If they're older, then the Bush folks will really get tough.
The farse approaches tragedy. I've never seen the Democrats quite so three-stooge-ish in their approach to this latest misuse of the Department of Justice to prosecute Democrats for minor charges while covering up massive Republican crimes.
Just like when the Bush regime wanted to go after Joseph Wilson for writing the article saying Hussein did not have WMD, and they took out Wilson's wife Valerie Plame as revenge, the Prosecutor in this matter has gone after the Governor's Cursing Wife and taken her down. Supposedly she has a series 7 license to sell securities. Well good luck getting a job or keeping that license. By violating her constitutional rights of privacy, by parading her personal and private comments into public light, onto the 6:00 p.m. news and onto the headlines in all the major newspapers of the country ("Governor's Wife Has A Foul Mouth"), they've pretty much ruined that lady. A woman who swears is the worst thing in our sexist, hypocritical, ridiculous society in which mass murderers get medals and pensions.
But the Governor's Cursing Wife has not been accused of any crime. No complaint against her, no pending indictment. Nobody is claiming they had grounds to wiretap her home to eavesdrop on her, listen in on her conversations. Yet the Prosecutor copied and publicly disclosed, by attaching to the complaint, a portion of a transcript of the wiretap which says that Governor's Cursing Wife was heard in the background using the Bleep Word.
The question is this: under what possible theory can the Prosecutor claim that it is within the realm of justice to publicly humiliate this woman, intrude on her most personal conversations, hold her up to ridicule, possibly destroy her reputation and make it impossible for her to ever find work. What's the theory there? Isn't it called the Valerie Plame Theory? Doesn't it come out of the Godfather, or Scarface, or some hoodlum and gang movie: kill the wife, or at least maim her in order to hurt the husband, make it too risky for him to try to defend himself, warn all the other Democrats that their families are at risk too? Isn't that really what's going on?
A few other questions about the Crime of the Century. When Denise Rich wanted her husband pardoned, she paid $450,000 to Bill Clinton (or some entity he set up) and "someone" else paid $1.0 to Bill Clinton or his entity, and then the pardon was issued. Is that the same thing as the Governor's Trash Talk? http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,99302,00.html http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/03/02/clinton.library/
When Obama went to the Clintons after Hillary was out of the race, and met with them repeatedly seeking their support, they supposedly wanted (1) Obama to get somebody to pay off $25.0 million of Clinton's campaign debt. What do you call that? And (2) maybe they wanted Hillary appointed V.P. or Secretary of State in exchange for the Clintons telling their rich friends to give money to Obama. What do you call that?
Look at Wall Street. They got deregulation which allowed them to steal most of the money in this country. And they paid the politicians, and paid and paid and paid, and they got exactly what they wanted. What do you call that?
I don't have any particular interest in this Governor. I'm just more than a bit appalled at how the media and the public is piling on without question or analysis.
Take a breath and think back for a moment. Why did all those Republican attorneys get fired from the Justice Department? Because the Bush administration was directing them to file flimsy or bogus lawsuits, before elections, claiming Democrats were corrupt. Patrick Fitzgerald did not get fired. He appears to be in solid with his peeps in the Bush white house.
Why would the Bush people want this lawsuit filed right now? Well, they've already got the moronic Democrats agreeing to hold an election, giving the Republicans a shot at taking another seat. The Republicans were well organized, as if they knew in advance, and issued their demands and allegations saying Obama is corrupt, right off the get-go. They get to dirty the Democrats, start the process of undermining Obama. And maybe create a dust cloud to cover all Democrats in dirt, or at least many of the leading ones, right before Bush pardons the key Republican criminals in the country -- all 2 million of them or so.
Is the Governor sleazy? Appears so. Has the Government even with all its drama, fireworks, nasty personal attacks, prudish recitation of the Governor using the "Bleep Word," has the Prosecutor even come close to pleading facts which support a criminal indictment, never mind the Crime of the Century as the Prosecutor suggested? Not even close. The guy Talked Trash. That's it.
According to the Prosecutor, the Governor called up a newspaper that was critical of him, and tried to get some people fired. Hasn't the Bush administration done that, at least indirectly through their mouthpieces at Rupert Murdoch's whorehouses? Didn't the Clintons go after almost every single person working at msnbc at various times during the campaign? And didn't the Republicans, through their mouthpieces at Fox, try to get Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews barred from covering the elections?
Better still, Attorney General John Mitchell threatened Katherine Graham (then-publisher of the Washington Post) when that paper was disclosing details of the Watergate scandal, by saying that somebody better tell her that she was going to get her tit caught in a wringer if she didn't watch out. That's an actual threat of torture. But I don't remember any indictments.
It may be unsavory, but politicians trying to harm the careers of newspeople is not a crime.
As far as the conspiracy charge goes, it's as flimsy as Sarah Palin's knowledge of international affairs. In general, a person cannot be liable for "conspiring" to commit a crime if the person is legally incapable of actually committing the crime. A person cannot, for example, "conspire" to steal their own money -- it's their own money, they can do what they want with it. In order to have a conspiracy, you need to show at least two people, both of them legally capable of committing the crime, agreed to commit the crime. With whom did the Governor agree? Nobody. How about if John and Joe "conspire" to take all of Joe's money, to "steal" it. There is no crime of conspiracy because Joe is legally incapable of stealing his own money. No conspiracy, no crime.
How can the Governor's aides be held liable for "conspiring" to sell the Senate seat when the aides had no legal ability to commit the crime -- they did not have the ability to sell the Senate seat. The aides have no legal authority to determine who gets the seat, only the Governor can. What did the aides do other than listen to their boss talking trash? And if the aides did not conspire (there was nothing in it for them) then with whom did the Governor conspire, with whom did he agree? A conspiracy is an agreement between at least two people to commit a crime, with each of the two people being legally capable of committing the crime. With whom did the Governor agree? Nobody.
The Government and the Prosecutor both know their claims are flimsy. That's why they had the big fireworks show, lots of drama, so much focus on the Bleep Words, going after the Governor's Cursing Wife to take her down. They want to distract the public from realizing what a horrendous misuse of our justice system this represents.
The Governor may be sleazy. I see nothing wrong with his wife yelling at him or using the Bleep Word, whatever that may be. I'm aware of no law which criminalizes the act of men talking bullshit and women swearing, and if there is such a law we'd better start building more prisons.
Even if people don't like the Governor, we should all object to the misuse of our justice system. Just look at what Mukasey, the AG, Ashcroft, Gonzalez have done during the past eight years, letting the Republicans and those who own them loot the country, commit international war crimes, commit mass murder in Iraq, kidnap, torture, murder, destroy our country, lie us into war, let Americans die in New Orleans while the privileged went shoe-shopping and ate birth-day cake. Yet from our justice department we hear not a peep. It seems like the only thing they did during the last eight years was cover up the crimes of the Bush regime, and fire the attorneys who refused to do go along. And now, in these last days, they rise up and go after the Governor and his Cursing Wife, and try to convince the public that they've got bin Laden. Well, they don't.
Has the Bush administration mis-used the Justice Department to harm their political opponents, and bring pointless and baseless lawsuits to distract the public from Republican crimes? You bet they have. Is this another example of the same old thing? Fool me once .....
You have an interesting take and I enjoyed reading through your post. I also liked your piece on the Republic Door and Window sit-in. The fact is I will quell my urge to be aghast at some of the small local shenanigans while the U.S. Treasury is being thoroughly looted. I find it astonishing that such a fervor can be generated by Fitzgerald over Blagojevich while guys like Paulson and Kashkari roam the streets. Perspective is a very dear thing these days. Thanks for sharing some.
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