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Nikos_Retsos

Dick Cheney's mode of operation for the Bush administration was a bi-lateral scheme that included: A) Ask the willing U.S. Justice Department official John Yoo to produce "Legal Opinions" favorable to George Bush's policies that were borderline illegal, and B) If a policy was of such nature that John Yoo could not declare it legal within the Constitutional or Statutory framework, then the Vice President will order its implementation under strict orders to be kept secret from Congress!

As the news about the CIA's secret program trickle out, it appears that the program was about a global CIA assassination squad operation. John Yoo definitely could not issue a legal opinion declaring such a program legal, especially since his other legal opinions justifying various Bush actions were disputed by U.S. and European experts - including the International Commission of Jurists. Secrecy of illegal activities from Congress, therefore, was mandatory, but now come these questions: 1. Can the Administration carry out illegal programs that violates international conventions and protocols that the U.S. is a signatory member? 2. Can the Administration deliberately keep such activities and programs secret from congressional oversight with immunity?

Surely, the republicans started already to scream "witch hunt." But the real question is: Can a U.S. Administration secretly organize and operate extra-judicial killings in a global scale? The American people would like to know where Dick Cheney had gotten the authority to order such operations, or the authority to do it secretly from the U.S. Congress. Nikos Retsos, retired professor

Rush Limbaugh is a dysfunctional demagogue that
serves as the mouthpiece of dysfunctional citizens. Those citizens do not have any formal knowledge of how a sovereign government works,
and instead of living like lost souls in a political environment they do not understand,
they attach themselves to a demagogue and feel like they are in the front line of political developments and in the right political direction. Therefore, a demagogue is in affect a
Global Positioned System (GPS) for those who do not know how to reach their [political] destination, as much as GPS in automobiles help the drivers to reach their desired destinations.

Demagogues hold no official positions, as Aristotle said. They simply exercise a peculiar
degree of influence for people who cannot think themselves. And Rush Limbaugh is actually providing them a service while he has become a millionaire doing so.

What is the value of Rush Limbaugh's diatribes and rhetorical chaff? a) Zero, for the citizens who are able to evaluate their government themselves and decide on their own if change and/or reform is needed. b) Brain-waves maintenance for those who cannot - and
that includes congressmen.

And the conclusion. Aristotle said: Demagogues
"demagogues could exercise initiative and determine policy without incurring political responsibility, since it is not their duty to execute the policy." Rush Limbaugh, and other
extremists in the right, therefore, including Dick Cheney, grabbed an ignorant and naive George Bush craving for making history for himself, and turn him into a "Chucky" [the baby vicious character in that movie] that smashed everything uncontrollably. Now the rest of America is picking up the pieces, while Rush Limbaugh takes no responsibility for. He didn't execute any policy. He just initiated the frenetic lobotomy on George Bush's ideology.

Rush Limbaugh still continues his sermons trying to influence his disciples in congress to sabotage Obama's programs. Obama told them -according to reports: "Don't listen to Rush Limbaugh and come here to tell me what to do."
But the marionettes can only do what the string puller commands them to do. Unfortunately for the rest of us, dissent is part of democracy. And as with everything else in life, democracy has its parasites too. Nikos Retsos, retired professor

I have some different viewpoints than those expressed by experts in this article. 1. Jennifer Duffy's view on Obama urging fellow democrats to be lenient on Lieberman was wrong. Well, it was right. Obama followed the concept of the virtuous winner that is supposed to be "magnanimous in victory." He had campaigned on an all "inclusive" America promise, and slaughtering [politically] his opponents after his win would have been hypocritical.

2. Julian Zelinger's view that Obama shouldn't have interdicted himself between Blagojevich and
his Roland Burris appointment in the senate is also out of line. Illinois is Obama's home state,
and Obama could not have looked the other way and
say nothing when the headlines were blaring across America that Blagojevich was arrested for trying to sell a U.S. senate appointment for $ 1.5 million, nor he could have said that another appointment by Blagojevich after his arrest was just fine! After all, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fidgerald had said: "Blagojevich has put a sign "For Sale" over the door of his office.

3. Burdett Loomis's view that "Reid should resolve the issue without drama" is totally unrealistic. Blagojevich has created a post-corruption arrest drama with the Roland Burris appointment, and Reid has to deal with it. The drama is created by the media which waits urgently to see what precedent will be set with the senate appointment of a governor under impeachment in his own state, who is also waiting indictment by the U.S. Justice Department for selling appointments and contracts of the State of Illinois.

Given the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Blagojevich in the Illinois House of Representatives, and the ongoing investigation by the FBI against the depth of his corruption spree, Harry Reid cannot accept Blagojevich's
appointment to the U.S. senate as a spotless package. There is a presumption here that the highly ethical standards of the U.S. senate appointments have to be preserved.

Sure, there will be drama in this case. But it is not Harry Reid's making. It is Blagojevich's making, who, with the appointment of a black in the U.S. senate seat, is trying to woo black jurors in his expected future federal trial for corruption. Nikos Retsos, retired professor, Illinois