LetsNotMoveOn.org Good Government via Accountability Contact   Crimes and abuses   Flash music/animations   Links

In 1998, MoveOn.org was created as a grassroots movement to encourage the nation to move on from the divisiveness of Bill Clinton's impeachment.

A decade later the country is again divided, but this time the issues dividing the country, and the alleged crimes of our leaders, are much more significant than lies about sex in the White House.

America may never recover from the damage of the Bush years.

Indeed, amidst the celebrations over the Obama inauguration, there is a profound undercurrent of sadness and disgust about what has happened to our country.

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Restoring trust and sanity

What's depressing is not just that bad people got into power -- that happens now and then everywhere. What's depressing is not just the extent of the damage. What is most depressing -- indeed, frightening -- is that Congress, the media, and tens of millions of our fellow citizens either actively supported the malfeasance or stood by and allowed the wrongdoing to continue unchallenged -- even after the lies, torture, corruption, waste, and incompetence became public knowledge.

Moreover, to a large extent the damage was intentional. In conservatives' eyes, government is the problem, not the solution, and so to conservatives the incompetence and mismanagement are justified. The Bush Administration was the consumnation of the Reagan Revolution; in many ways, it succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Conservatives complain that government is corrupt and wasteful. But the last eight years have brought us unprecedented corruption, waste, criminal incompetence, and villainy. Failing to hold the wrongdoers accountable is both an invitation to further abuse and a travesty of justice.

To regain its sanity, America must confront the terrible crimes and betrayals by our leaders -- not in a vindictive way, but in order that the mistakes shall not be repeated. The ideas and policies that led us to the brink of ruin need to be repudiated. The facts must be exposed to the public so that our trust in Congress, the media, and our fellow citizens (our neighbors and coworkers) can be restored. The wrongdoers and enablers, of both major political parties, must be held accountable -- if not in a court of law, then at least in the court of public opinion.

Our divisions are real

The issues dividing us are both important and real: unjustified war, torture, corruption, economic injustice, government solvency, civil liberties, the role science in society, and the separation of church and state -- to name just a few. Forty-six percent of the popular vote in November's presidential election went for McCain-Palin. Tens of millions of Americans still give Bush high approval ratings. Tens of millions of Americans question the theory of evolution. Tens of millions of Americans oppose gun control. Tens of millions of Americans think global warming is a liberal fantasy. Tens of millions of Americans think government is the problem and are ideologically opposed to taxation. Tens of millions of Americans think abortion is murder. Tens of millions of Americans are OK with tax cuts for the rich, despite over $10 trillion in national debt. "Unity" and "bipartisanship" are impossible under these circumstances.

It is NOT time to move on

President Obama wants the nation to move on from partisanship towards pragmatism. He doesn't want his first term to be bogged down by backward-looking retribution when there is so much needing to be fixed.

But sometimes "pragmatism" is a euphenism for "collaboration." Sometimes moving on means failing to pursue justice for terrible crimes. And sometimes moving on means failing to learn from the mistakes of the past.

There is nothing wrong with partisanship when the cause is just.

We the People demand accountability!

Accountability can be achieved both via legal proceedings (starting with a special prosecutor) and via nonlegal measures such as hearings, commissions, lectures, and the estabilishment of museums. The full extent of wrongdoing needs to be made manifest to the public.

The crimes and wrongdoings

The Bush Administration and its supporters in Congress

• Systematically and intentionally deceived the nation about the grounds for invading Iraq;
• Killed over 4000 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians;
• Displaced millions of Iraqis from their homes;
• Promoted torture and extraordinary rendition;
• Fired federal prosecutors for political reasons;
• Held prisoners in Guantanamo detention camp without trial and without sufficient cause;
• Illegally revealed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame;
• Illegally wiretapped Americans;
• Granted no-bid contracts to politically connected corportations;
• Staffed federal regulatory agencies with partisan political ideologues and industry lobbyists bent on dismantling those agencies and favoring the interests of industry over the interests of workers and the public;
• Allowed government assets to be sold off at bargain-basement prices;
• Suppressed evidence concerning climate change, the war in Iraq, the outing of Valerie Plame, and Dick Cheney's meetings concerning energy policy;
• Depleted the military and exhausted our soldiers;
• Bungled the war in Afghanistan;
• Committed the nation to years of expensive, debilitating conflict in Iraq;
• Bankrupted the US Treasury, leaving inadequate funding for needs such as infrastructure repairs, veterans' hospitals, disease prevention, education, the FBI, conservation, and scientific research;
• Bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina;
• Transferred hundreds of billions of dollars to the super-rich, thereby exacerbating the already skewed distribution of wealth;
• Recklessly deregulated the banking and securities industries, contributing to the subprime crash and ongoing financial chaos;
• Shortchanged US veterans;
• Corrupted the media; (For example. the right wing media continued to report that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein was connected to Al Qaeda, even after the contrary truth was established, with the result that most Americans believed the untruths, even as late as 2006.)
• Oversaw the concentration of media power into fewer hands;
• Engaged in election fraud and vote suppression;
• Threatened the well-being of the world by refusing to acknowledge and address the threat of climate change;
• Failed to address the Palestinan-Israeli conflict that's a core cause for terrorism and instability;
• Failed to address reform of the inefficient and ineffective health care system;
• Pursued destructive energy and transportation policies that transferred hundreds of billions of dollars to overseas oil-exporting nations, polluted the air, and made our roads more crowded; and
• Exploited fear, patriotism, and prejudice for partisan political ends.

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Flash music and animations

	A musical Flash animation, with Scot Lee on vocals. A version with me on vocals. Additional Lyrics for My Favorite Things
	An Examination of Republican Talking Points
	Guns N' Religion: a (satirical) anti-elitist, anti-government song (sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", lyrics only)

Relevant Links

• Holding Bush Accountable by Elizabeth Holtzman (The Nation)
• Forgive and Forget? by Paul Krugman (New York Times)
• Eight Years of Madoffs by Frank Rich (New York Times)
• TruthSite.org
• Government is Great! (countering conservative propaganda about government being the problem)
• Some Questions about Justice (a Flash presentation about the need for impeachment)
• Shoe Bush
• After Downing Street