Ronald Reagan was only the first part of the build-up in the action which continued under Clinton and the Bushes until the grand finale - now - when they steal the last of your childrens' inheritance and disappear to places like Monaco and off-shore havens like "The Colony." Too Much reported just last September:
several top Wall Streeters purchased villas in The Colony, a new Caribbean luxury project touted as Jamaica’s "most expensive gated oceanfront development on record." The villas run up to $7 million each and carry a $72,000 annual fee that gives owners 60 days of butler, chef, and maid service.
When you own a third of the whole American pie, that kind of money is no problem. And this is who is getting your bail-out money.
It sure isn't going to the schmucks getting laid off at these institutions. It sure isn't going toward a 2-year voucher for any worker training you choose, help with your mortgage, and jobs programs. That's because you aren't the one who gave $114 million in campaign money to fewer than 100 men and women, especially those sitting on banking and finance committees and sub-committees.
You ain't seen nothing yet. The economy is hemorrhaging jobs like the blood of an accident victim in the head trauma unit, and we haven't even had a terror attack produced by the blown job in Afghanistan yet. Or the Chinese calling in their debt.
Primary challenges to senators like Leahy are hard to come by in ordinary times, but the next two years will be anything but ordinary times. The following is posted on behalf of Charlotte Dennett, one of the Vermonters reporting on Leahy's Truth Commission wimp-out.
Leahy’s Truth Commission Hits the Skids
Those of you following the prosecution trail will be interested to know that Patrick Leahy’s Truth Commission is a no-go. I was in a meeting with Leahy and 4 other Vermonters on Monday when he broke the news to us. We had asked for the meeting to learn why he supported a Truth Commission over the appointment of a special prosecutor. Halfway through the allotted 30 minute meeting (with him taking up much of the time explaining why he was not generally opposed to prosecution, since he had been a DA for 8 years and had the highest conviction rate in Vermont) he told us that his Truth Commission had failed to get the broad support it needed in Congress , and since he couldn’t get one Republican to come behind the plan, "it’s not going to happen."
It was a sobering exchange. The meeting had begun with our expressing serious concerns about ongoing dangers to our democracy, with the trend going to executive power while damaging our constitution. "We are a nation of laws," said Dan DeWalt, who had helped organize 36 Vermont towns to vote for Impeachment of Bush on town meeting day. " If we have a system of justice, why not let it take its course? It seems to many Americans that the rich and powerful don’t have the same system of justice, and they’re getting away with torture, murder, fraud, and Ponzi schemes."
By the end of the meeting, we were beginning to wonder whether anything at all was going to done – by Congress, by Attorney General Holder, by President Obama -- to hold the Bush team accountable for its crimes.
Leahy own aversion to appointing a special prosecutor appeared to be more practical than philosophical.
"We don’t want another Abu Ghraib," he said. "You know, ‘Boy did we get those privates and corporals. So many up on high will never get touched. Its like the war on drugs – lets get those black kids on cocaine." So its not that he had a problem with prosecutions per se. "I just worry that the prosecutions will be done only on middle-level people."
Well then, what would happen to the higher ups? Leahy had said, on previous occasions, that the purpose of his Truth Commission was to grant immunity to those willing to testify – presumably middle level people – and we could infer from that that they, in turn, would spill the beans on their superiors. If any of the witnesses lied under oath or were less than thorough in their answers, he had told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow a month ago, they could be prosecuted for perjury. But that still left the destiny of high government officials uncertain.
Leahy had hinted to Maddow that if officials refused to honor subpoenas, they, too could be prosecuted. But in the real world, as Monday’s news suggests, the people most responsible for the crimes will continue to get off free.
We should at least be content, Leahy said, with his success in forcing former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’s resignation.
After Leahy left the meeting, his aide, Chuck Ross, assured our group that there was no one more devoted to protecting the Constitution than Leahy. "He has been persistent in the face of obfuscation. He got rid of Gonzalez. I would challenge you to find someone who has done more to defend the Constitution."
Then Ross let out a memorable one-liner. "He’s all you’ve got."
