Isn't it amazing how paranoid Bush and Co. have become?  Some guy from Portland, Oregon recently made a rather lame joke about "Burning Bush" and the government saw to it that he's going to get three years in prison.  Three YEARS for a lame joke!  (Idle question: Would he have gotten more or less jail time if the joke was actually funny?)

That's just the tip of the iceberg.   How about that "no fly" list, which the government denies exists?  Sorry, that's not right.  The FBI, the CIA, and the INS deny it exists.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which maintains the list, acknowledges that it exists, but won't tell you how your name got on it, except that some other agency, such as the FBI, CIA, or INS, put it there.  Nor is there any way to appeal, if being classified as a "terrorist" is an error.  Here's a recent article on the mess, including the quote, "According to the Associated Press, 'Dave Steigman, spokesman for the TSA, said revealing any of the reasons a name may end up on the list could jeopardize national security.'"  Got that?

"National Security" has become a catch excuse for unlimited paranoia, secrecy, and detainment of citizens with no explanation.  There are dark rumors, as yet unconfirmed, of internet writers already on the run from government goons.  It's almost a given that the situation is going to get worse -- a lot worse -- before it gets better. 

I mention these examples in the spirit of full disclosure as to what my motivations are in pondering the question of what punishment to advocate for our thuggish leaders.  This is part of the reason I say, Long Live the Tyrants!

But I have another reason, even more compelling: I want them all to live to a hundred years or more, with perfect eyesight and perfect hearing, so that they can vividly receive the full measure of condemnation that is due them.

I don't much care if they go to prison.  True, they certainly deserve to.  Bush Junior, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, and many others, have flagrantly violated their sacred oaths of office, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.  All should be arrested, by the proper authorities, then tried and convicted, in the proper courts, for treason against our nation.  There would certainly be some satisfaction in seeing that happen.

Still, I'd just as soon see Bush, as a doddering old fool (it seems clear that he can't get any stupider than he already is), blundering down the street in the year 2040, so I can hiss at him, "You miserable, lying, murdering THUG!", then watch him dodder off and receive similar treatment from other people he meets.  Oh yeah!  Ditto Cheney.  Ditto Ashcroft.

That won't bring back all the people whose lives they have ended, or ruined, during their all-too-long tenures in "public service," to be sure.  If killing murderers could bring back their victims, I might have a different attitude.  But it can't. 

No, the damage done by these jerks is written in stone, and the "best" may be yet to come.  Idiot Bush seems determined to outdo his Daddy's death count (100,000 plus in Gulf War I alone) before he's done, and he's got a circle of thin-lipped advisors who tell him that this is exactly what he needs to do in order to achieve Greatness.

The fact that invading Iraq (or North Korea, or any other country) is certain to multiply the terrorist threat against U.S. citizens, bothers Bush not at all.  We may have no protection, but he and his friends do, paid for by us, so he has no worries.  Isn't that a wonderful irony?  We pay for Bush's platoons of bodyguards so that he can act with impunity and put OUR lives in danger.  What a system!

Long live that sorry, pathetic excuse for a human being, George W. Bush.  And Cheney, and Rumsfeld, etc., etc.  You guys have a whole lot of feedback coming, and I want you to receive it all.

Of course, it's not just the nation's "highest" leaders who deserve such a long life.  Anyone who ever worked for the IRS could be included.  All the cops who have enforced the brutal, anti-freedom drug war laws, instead of going after actual criminals, come on down.  Any petty bureaucrat who spent his life making others' lives miserable, can join the list too.  And let's not forget all the legislators at every level of government, with precious few exceptions (in Congress, Ron Paul, one in 535, for example).

Still, the top condemnation is due to the top thugs.  Did I say a hundred?  No, let them live to 120.