Glenn Greenwald has posted another home run article that perfectly describes the root of most of our problems in this country. The article can be found at CommonDreams, for those who prefer to bypass the Salon gateway. I highly recommend reading Greenwald's view on our current situation at one of these sources.
Glenn begins by an examination of the N.Y. Times article Tapes by C.I.A. Lived and Died to Save Image about "why the [CIA interrogation] tapes were made and then eliminated." He points out that Alberto Gonzales and David Addington were present at discussions regarding the fate of the tapes, but "the positions Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Addington took are unknown," and that the "tapes were critically relevant to a number of judicial proceedings and government investigations," as well as "any decision to destroy that evidence would constitute the crime of obstruction of justice." He observed that if Gonzales or Addington advised or gave permission for destruction of the tapes, "it very likely means that Bush and/or Cheney (and certainly their top aides) committed serious felonies."
According to Glenn, the problem with this situation is that (1) we are not likely to find answers to any questions about whether high level administration officials broke any laws in the latest BushCo scandal, or (2) that there would be no accountability for anyone above mid level managers if we did discover illegalities.
The case of the destroyed CIA tapes was offered as an example for his thesis that "our highest political officials and our most powerful corporations are beyond the reach of the law," (...) and that "we have a perfect oligarchical system in which, literally, our most powerful and well-connected elite are free to break the law with impunity, exempt from any consequences."
He ends with:
... the CIA video scandal presents an extremely clear and straightforward case of serious lawbreaking by our highest government officials. It’s far less complex and far more serious than the scandals that brought down Richard Nixon. That a rational person would be highly skeptical about the prospects that we will find out what happened, let alone that there will be consequences for any of it, is pretty compelling evidence of the kind of country we are becoming.
Unfortunately, this is not news to 99.5% of the people who read Daily Kos, and Greenwald doesn't offer any solutions. However, this is the kind of article that might inform even the most indifferent of our electorate.