RICKIE LEE JONES HAS A MESSAGE FOR NANCY PELOSI ABOUT FATHERS AND SONS

Yesterday Robert Parry wrote an essay for ConsortiumNews called G.W. Bush Is A Criminal, Like His Dad.

Watching Attorney General Michael Mukasey evade the obvious fact that waterboarding is torture-- and the reluctance of Democrats to press him-- I was reminded of how the first President Bush got away with an earlier batch of national security crimes.

Indeed, one of the common questions I've been asked over the years is-- if the evidence really does show that the Reagan-Bush crowd was guilty of illegal dealings with Iran, Iraq and the Nicaraguan contras-- why didn't the Democrats hold those Republicans to account?

For people who have posed that question, I would suggest that they watch the Senate Judiciary Committee's Jan. 30 hearing with Mukasey. Everybody in the room knew what the unspoken reality was, but nobody dared say it: George W. Bush authorized torture, which is a crime under U.S. and international law.

However, if the Attorney General-- the highest-ranking law-enforcement officer in the United States-- recognized the obvious, he would have to either commence legal action against President Bush or send a referral to Congress for the initiation of impeachment proceedings.

If such a referral were sent to Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have little choice but to permit the start of impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee. A wide range of Bush's illegal actions would then begin spilling out, provoking a political crisis in the United States.

...on the most sensitive issue to Bush-- his assertion that he possesses unlimited presidential powers that let him violate criminal laws and ignore constitutional protections-- Mukasey was as much in lock step with the administration as his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.

The failure of Congress do do their constitutional duty in 1992 and 1993 when they found out the Reagan-Bush campaign had contacted the Iranian mullahs directly-- treason-- and orchestrated the "October Surprise" to win the presidential election and help their right wing terrorist goons in Nicaragua, has emboldened Bush II.

A Giuliani ad in the NY Times on December 6, 2007 reminds us-- although he meant it in another context-- that when you let tyrants get away with a little, it only guarantees they will want more:

"The best way you deal with tyrants and terrorists, you stand up to them. You don't back down."

Congress didn't deal with them in the early 90s and look what we've had to deal with because of that. Pelosi is refusing to do her job now. Itr's not funny. Her reprehensible political calculous is part of the coverup and she should be prosecuted for dereliction of duty.

Rickie Lee Jones, on the other hand, has very much done her duty-- and more. Rickie can't put impeachment back on the table but in 2003 she released a song, "Ugly Man," that was a little ahead of its time-- a a LOT ahead of Nancy Pelosi. Rickie is just finishing a string of gigs in the heart of Pelosi's congressional district.

She decided to do two California residencies, one in L.A. and one in San Francisco. Monday she starts in L.A. for a total of four nights at the Echoplex in Silverlake, 1822 Sunset Blvd-- February 4, 11, 18 and 25. She's already done 3 shows at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco and her last night there is Tuesday (February 5)-- a night California Democrats will make history. I put a little video clip together that makes the point. Enjoy: