Vincent Bugliosi, the American attorney best known for prosecuting Charlie Manson, is releasing a new book next week, titled The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, in which he argues that, well, the title kinda gives it away.
HuffPo has an exclusive excerpt:
If Bush, in fact, intentionally misled this nation into war, what is the proper punishment for him? Since many Americans routinely want criminal defendants to be executed for murdering only one person, if we weren’t speaking of the president of the United States as the defendant here, to discuss anything less than the death penalty for someone responsible for over 100,000 deaths would on its face seem ludicrous.** But we are dealing with the president of the United States here.
On the other hand, the intensity of rage against Bush in America has been such (it never came remotely this close with Clinton because, at bottom, there was nothing of any real substance to have any serious rage against him for) that if I heard it once I heard it ten times that “someone should put a bullet in his head.” That, fortunately, is just loose talk, and even more fortunately not the way we do things in America. In any event, if an American jury were to find Bush guilty of first degree murder, it would be up to them to decide what the appropriate punishment should be, one of their options being the imposition of the death penalty.
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He better pardon himself.
Wow, the world is suddenly becoming an interesting place. Given the current mood of the American people this might gain some traction.
Bugliosi for AG! :)
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
–Stalin
Nice title. I can hear rightwing heads esploding all over.
Yes! I’ve been dreaming about this more years.
why not!
Please, where do I sign up for Jury Duty.
Left&Left @ 6:
Sorry, I got too excited. I meant ‘for many’ years.
I’m not sure anyone here would actually know anything about this — but is there any legal procedural issues that would keep the various Bush people from having charges brought against them after they are out of office?
Does leaving office on January 20, 2009 mean that if they make it till that time then they are less likely to be prosecuted — or more likely?
Don’t foget. If you order it from Amazon, you can have it gift wrapped.
Can we just bypass the trial?
How can they keep us safe from dem Mooslamofascists who are gonna knock our cities down if we don’t leave them alone?
Murdering his syntaxes?
Man, that’s man who really hates taxes.
Hopefully these charges would be put on him in Texas. Such sweet irony to be executed by his own hand. Could not Cheney be on the gallows with him for the same crimes?
Conservative promoted capital punishment laws are to be applied to us, the poor and middle class, not the conservative political elite. There are two Americas in the eyes of justice as well!
Cheney, Rove, and most of his crooked administration as well as his military generals needs to be tried as well.
I hope that we have adequate electrical power for the mass electrocutions!
The terrorist butcher should be handed over to the Irai people for trial and execution.
No Death penalty. Let him serve out his days in a tiny cell with Guido and Chuck ( whose son’s quite possibly were killed in Iraq).
A prison term in which he can only exercise 1 hour per day ( that alone would kill him) and have to work in the laundry.
And the only book that he was allowed to read would be The Stranger — until he could actually understand the meaning of it.
I would love to see him live. I would want him to have to make a public, world-wide apology for his war crimes… make him read them out loud like a kid in a classroom apologizing to hs class-mates. And make him PERSONALLY hand over the documentation reporting his donation of ALL personal assets, as well as all profits/net worth of the companies he owns, and their subsidiaries, back to the American people. I say cripple his entire spawn financially. I think, mthat may even be necessary if he were convicted of war crimes, right? somebody out there knows a lot better than I do, would he have to surrender all war profiteering gains? him and his buddies?
I would love to see all their companies become not-for-profit companies that take their profits to government-paid healthcare, or some shit. may not be feasible, but if it’s possible, that’s what I’d like to see. And make him watch every bit of it; in fact, make him lead the proceedings himself. Then make him fight, to the pain (Princess Bride reference), with his dear friend Rove… winner takes on Cheney. and then they get to keep what limbs they have left to ponder their evil actions for the rest of their jailed lives.
Trying el Busho small boots for murder is a nice start…
Followed by a trial for treason against the United States.
but really, Herr Chimpenfuhrer should be put on trial at the Hague.
For war crimes.
And crimes against humanity.
I’m against the death penalty. I think if convicted he gets a life sentence in Abu Graib.
Great! Not only is Bugliosi a good lawyer, but he’s a great writer too. I loved his books on the 2000 election (The Betrayal of America) and on the Paula Jones case (No Island of Sanity). Thanks for posting this: I shall order the book.
Dear Mr. Bugliosi:
Your first premise is wrong. The judicial and legislative branches of the U.S. federal government have been merged into the executive branch.
P.S.: Don’t worry about Karl Rove. He WON’T appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. They haven’t jailed or fined anyone thus far.
Underground Pirate @ 12:
No, we need a trial for the world to see, like with Saddam. Besides, to regain our moral standing in the world we need to show the world we hold these ruthless thugs to the same laws they would hold us to if we killed someone while trying to steal what they had.
Frog march Cheney into the court room first!
Billy Shears @ 10:
I’m not an expert by I believe the President can issue a self-pardon before leaving office. That would take care of things.
I’m against the death penalty in all cases. Having said that, life in prison is fine with me.
I have seen several cars with stickers on them that look like wanted posters. There is a full face and profile drawing of geo bush’s face. At the top it says, Wanted for War Crimes, George W. Bush.
theWalrus @ 11:
We could send copies to Ann the Man, Sean-o, Bill O’Lielly, Michael Wiener, and a box of wrapped books to Murdock so he could make sure everybody else at FAUX News gets their own private copy.
Ruthless People @ 16:
Justice may not be blind, but she’s cross-eyed.
Imagine the nightmares you or I would have if a book like that had been written about one of us. I can’t even imagine how that would feel. I’m not sure I could live with myself.
mike @ 15:
Gurney not gallows.
I’d like to see him do his Karla Faye Tucker imitation now.
Yes. We should join the world court, ship him and the rest of the nixon legacy Neanderthal murdersto the Haig, put them in front of a world court and try them for Crimes Against Humanity. If we do not deal with this festering pustule, these 18th century, reptilian-minded, chicken-hawk, men-children will want to play war again sometime in coming years. The will rear their heads once againgThis cast of characters would include however not limited to:
Cheney
Bush
Negroponte (including his death squad activities in C.America in the 80’s)
Rumsfeld
Rice
Tenant
Wolfowitz
Perle
Feith
Cambone
Abram N. Shulsky
William Luti
Mary Matlin (throw her crusty sleeping with the enemy husband in there as well)
Lewis Scooter Libby
My african gray parrot, Molly, weighs in on Bush.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOsux0eXsA
pissed off patricia @ 30:
If boosh were normal and could feel guilty he would kill himself.
pissed off patricia @ 30:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAnayUpbJYs
piano wire ala mussolini
pissed off patricia @ 30:
Which is probably why (aside from your own nature) you haven’t DONE any of those things. Too bad George can. :-(
“f an American jury were to find Bush guilty of first degree murder, it would be up to them to decide what the appropriate punishment should be”
How about strapping him to a daisy-cutter bomb, and dropping him on the RNC convention? After all, since GWB IS guilty of murder and so much worse, everybody who ASSISTED him is guilty of (at the very least) Aiding and Abetting if not outright Conspiracy to Commit.
Wait a minute…that won’t work. Spraying GWB over the countryside would be toxic pollution on an unimaginable scale.
How about instead we just encase him in concrete and put him up as a new statue in Baghdad, with the inscription “commemorating a worthless pile of shit”?
But if the death penalty is not your thing, we can get into some SERIOUS punishment for his crimes! Strip him naked and cover him in the branded names of everybody he has killed (in all countries), then make him sit in an open-air cage in the main square of Baghdad, apologizing (on international streaming video) to anybody who comes near the cage. Put it on a pay-per-view system for 1 Euro an hour (since he ruined the dollar), and we could pay off the debts he has caused us to accrue in a year! It would also serve as a great object lesson to future fascist corporate assholes…er…I mean fundanazis…er…I mean republicans.
Bugliosi’s premise is absurd on its face, because Bush did not single-handedly take the country to war.
Anyone who is capable of an objective analysis of history knows that there was a long-running march to the 2003 Iraq invasion. As a point of reference consider all the saber-rattling coming out of the US Congress since Desert Storm, coming from both Democrats and Republicans alike. The neocons tapped into what was already there and merely applied just enough momentum to take it over the top.
36 stizz
D’ja hear the one about the 12 inch pianist?
Kathy @ 33:
Is that really your parrot? I got the george bush part but couldn’t understand what she said after that.
ysbaddaden @ 35:
Yeah, like that.
Losing a war alone ought to be grounds for execution, but starting one on false premises is even worse. In general I don’t believe in the death penalty but when it comes to corrupt officials making decisions that willfully destroy the lives of thousands of people — a firing squad or guillotine sounds like a damn good idea to me.
Stick him in a cell with his long lost twin, Charlie Manson.
On the other hand, the intensity of rage against Bush in America has been such that if I heard it once I heard it ten times that “someone should put a bullet in his head.”
I find it offensive and disgusting for someone to suggest that Dick Cheney become our next president.
Some things will happen when Bush and his cronies are tried and convicted:
1. The world will be absolutely elated.
2. US’ image around the world will be dramatically improved.
3. The Bush Liebrary will really be an interesting place when built, heh.
Murder
Treason
Torture
War Crimes
And possibly all of these.
If Bush were found guilty by a jury obviously I would support any sentence they hand down but I would prefer to see the death penalty. The way I see it, Bush is no different than any other mass murderer and should receive a sentence comparable to those of any other murder this country has put away.
forget murder . . . treason. plain, simple and to the point. and the penalty is pretty clear.
po @ 49:
Agreed.
Strangefate @ 43:
Nah, death is too quick, painless and does not endure.
I say put him in a Baghdad jail for the rest of his life and let the Iraqi’s take care of him.
Wise_Fool @ 20:
I’d like to see them jailed with one condition for release: they memorize the names and faces of all 4000+ US troops killed in Iraq.
Yes, I’ll be reading the book; and yes, I have no problem with bringing anyone up on murder charges if there is sufficient evidence to support prosecution in a court of law. Bring it on!