CEAUSESCU, PINOCHET, BUSH AND CHENEY-- ONE DOWN, ONE GOING DOWN, TWO TO GO

I was contemplating the parallels between the Bush Regime and Romania's former Ceausescu Regime this morning and started wondering if the Bushes could ever end up like Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, quickly tried after attempting to flee, and then shot by a firing squad. Yesterday, just one day short of his 90th birthday, Chile's former CIA-installed, right-wing dictator, Augusto Pinochet was arrested on tax fraud (not a few pesos misplaced, but $27 million hidden in Swiss banks) and human rights charges (actually 7 specific political murders, which were referred to by the judge as "permanment kidnappings"). Like Cheney, Pinochet was a big advocate of torture-- and, like Cheney, only when it was important, of course. During his nearly 2 decades in power, at least 3,000 Chileans were...permanently kidnapped by his corrupt, fascist regime (installed at the insistence of Nixon and Kissinger) which also tortured tens of thousands of Chilean citizens (but only for the very best of reasons, I'm sure).

Recently, when the judge who is working on this case, Victor Montiglio, questioned him, Pinochet said he regrets losses that people suffered during his rule but doesn't believe he had had gone too far in his fight against Communism-- but if he did God would pardon him. If the court does in this particular case, however, Pinochet is about to lose his judicial immunity in a case involving torturing politicians from other parties. Pinochet keeps getting off because he's been diagnosed as senile and every time he's about to be sentenced he has a convenient "life-threatening medical emergency" and they let the old fascist off. I sure hope we won't have to wait 20 or 30 years before Bush and Cheney and the many criminals they've surrounded themselves with to be brought to justice.

The tens of billions of dollars stolen by BushCheney cronies should be recovered for the nation and all of their ill-gotten wealth should be expropriated. The idea of these bums and crooks and their families having to work for a living would be the greatest justice ever meted out. But, I suppose if things get hairy enough, Bush could skip off to Bahrain or Qatar like Michael Jackson and evade justice (like Jackson does).