George W. Bush was in the owner’s box at the Super Bowl yesterday.
Why?
Why is the rich and powerful Bush allowed to go free?
While more than 3,500 Americans are in prison in California for life for non violent offenses – after being sentenced under a draconian three strikes law (Check out Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes.)
And many thousands more across the country are being sentenced to long jail times because of draconian mandatory minimum laws. (Check out Families Against Mandatory Minimums.)
Why such great disparities in justice?
To gain some insight, we rang up Vince Bugliosi.
Remember that name?
Bugliosi is a former prosecutor.
As a state prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bugliosi prosecuted Charles Manson and members of his “family” for the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others.
Bugliosi says that as a prosecutor, he lost only one of the 106 felony cases he tried as a prosecutor.
And he won 21 out of 21 murder cases.
He is the author of Helter Skelter – the best-selling book on the Manson trial.
He is also the author, most recently of the best-selling The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder (Perseus Books, 2008).
“The disparity of justice in America is nothing short of staggering and obscene,” says Bugliosi.
To put some balance back in the system, Bugliosi wants Bush charged with murder.
Bugliosi argues that Bush misled the nation into a war that has killed more than 4,000 Americans.
In the book, he lays out the case for a prosecution of Bush for murder.
Under what law?
Any of the homicide statutes in any of the states.
Bugliosi mailed the book to more than 2,200 district attorneys.
And all 50 state Attorneys General.
So far, he has had no takers.
But there is no statute of limitations for murder.
And he believes he can nail Bush for murder – if given the chance.
So why has no prosecutor taken Bugliosi’s book and run with it?
Bugliosi quotes Mark Twain:
“Why is physical courage so common but moral courage so rare?”
“I’m disappointed but not angry,” Bugliosi told Corporate Crime Reporter last week. “Who am I to be angry at someone who is frightened?”
“I get angry when I’m confronted with terrible hypocrisy.”
“So, I’m not upset with people like George Stephanopoulos or Ted Koppel,” Bugliosi said. “They are terrified of their own shadow. They are frightened. They never take a position on anything. All they do is talk. I’m not angry with these people.”
“But I am angry with these phonies out there – who get on the air and attack George Bush, who were very much against the Iraq war, who were on my side.”
“But you know what every one of those people did? They refused to put me on the air.”
“They are terrible hypocrites, they refused to put me on the air. Their own personal friends beseeched them, called them, sent them e-mails. But they didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“They refused to have me on – and still the book was a bestseller.”
“What I can tell you about the liberal left – and I can probably say this with a little more authority than the average person – people on the liberal left actually think if they can say something nasty about George Bush, they have achieved something – and they feel good about it.”
“Then I come along and say – these are just words, let’s do something about it.”
“And all of a sudden, they all immediately retreat into the woodwork.”
“They are spineless.”
Bugliosi says that people like Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice are like your typical school yard bullies.
“They are weak and have no character. If you don’t stand up to them, they are vicious. But if you stand up to them, they will wilt.”
“Not only isn’t there a prosecution. Not only isn’t there an investigation. But the liberals in the media didn’t even want to talk about it.”
In July 2008, the New York Times did write an article about the book titled – Ex-Prosecutor’s Book Accuses Bush of Murder.
Bugliosi says that after that article ran, he did appear briefly on two television shows – MSNBC’s Morning Joe – “they were vicious” – and CNN – “it was pro-Bush.”
“I was blocked out of the mainstream media,” Bugliosi said. “But the book still became a bestseller.”
Meanwhile, this year, Bush gets on the networks with his own bestseller – Decision Points.
Two years ago, when The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder was published, Bugliosi told us that even if the prosecution of Bush doesn’t come about for a number of years, he wants to plant in Bush’s mind the idea that such a prosecution is possible.
“The least I can do is put that thought in his mind until he goes to his grave,” Bugliosi said at the time. “That’s the least I can do for the thousands of American soldiers who came back in an aluminum box or came back as a jar of ashes. And the parents are told – don’t open the box, it is unviewable.”
“They are getting back limbs and body parts. And this – I don’t want to use a cuss word here – this small, horrible human being – while young men who never had a chance to live out their dreams, being blown to pieces by roadside bombs – and this guy is having a ball dancing.”
“I want to put the thought in his mind that at any time in the future – five years from now, ten years from now – some aide is going to tap him on the shoulder and say – Mr. President, there is this prosecutor, I don’t know how to pronounce his name, he’s up in Fargo, and he’s charging you with murder sir, and we are due for an arraignment next Wednesday in Fargo, sir.”
“Bush will never know whether that will happen. They went after (former Chilean strongman Augusto) Pinochet for murder 33 years later. I want to put that thought in Bush’s mind. This guy has been enjoying himself throughout this entire war. And the suffering and the horror and blood is unbelievable. And he has enjoyed himself throughout this whole thing.”
Is there a prosecutor out there – somewhere – who will hire Bugliosi and put his record to the test?
He’s 21 for 21 in murder prosecutions.
He wants to make it 22 for 22.
RUSSELL MOKHIBER edits the Corporate Crime Reporter.
