Lying to Congress under oath is a crime. Charging a professional baseball with perjury after lying about steroids while doing absolutely nothing about a multitude of lying Bush administration officials responsible for destroying democracy — among a plethora of other crimes — is not only hypocritical, one-sided justice, it’s also discrimination.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not okay to take steroids or to lie to Congress, but punishing a professional athlete for telling lies when Bush administration officials paraded in front of Congress and lied –at great cost to this country — for eight years is just another example of selective justice, and should not be tolerated.
Tejada’s lies about steroid usage did not end up killing anyone. Tejada’s lies didn’t cover atrocious war crimes committed with glaring impunity, or the destruction of Democracy, habeas corpus, rights and freedoms, the humiliation and torture of ‘suspected terrorists,’ bankrupting a country, setting up gulags around the world or the illegal destruction of the United States Constitution, nor did his lies result in illegally occupying other countries.
When you’re an illicitly appointed president whose corrupt administration amounts to nothing more than eight years of repeated lies and deceptions, apparently it’s okay to lie to Congress.
As noted by The Dissident Voice, there is something perverse in considering a lie about using steroids to gain an unfair advantage over opponents in a game that causes no direct harm to anyone else a greater crime than the willful destruction of a Nation and its people, as was done by George W. Bush, his collaborators and his enablers — which, by the way, includes many in Congress.
No Charges Yet For Lying Bush Admin. DOJ Officials
Alberto Gonzales and Bradley Schlozman are two former Bush administration Department of Justice Officials who, as yet, have not been charged with perjuring themselves while testifying before Congress.
As noted by Talking Points Memo, a report released last July by the Justice Department’s Inspector General indicated that Gonzales may have lied to Congress about politicization of the Justice Department. Others have said that Gonzales perjured himself during his testimony at a Congressional hearing on the U.S. Attorneys firings scandal. A special prosecutor was allegedly appointed to look into whether crimes were committed, but so far Gonzales has not been charged with anything.
Schlozman, according to another report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General, lied — verbally and in writing — to a Senate Committee about his own role in politicizing hiring in the Justice Department. Bush’s Justice Department declined bringing charges against Schlozman.
Tejada will be sentenced next month. He didn’t lie about his own use of steroids. Prosecutors say he lied when he told Congressional investigators that he didn’t know about any other players using steroids. Gonzales and Schlozman lied to conceal their own involvement in the politicization of the U.S. Department of Justice. Who did more damage?
Congress and the Justice Department are transmitting the message that it’s okay to lie when you hold a political office, even when your lies result in destroying Democracy, freedom, civil liberties and rights, illegal spying, illegal wars, entirely too many deaths — and so much more — but if you’re a professional athlete who lies about other athletes taking steroids, it’s not.
Congressional complicity in Bush administration crimes and the lies told to the public by Congress show just how skewered our political and justice systems really are. As noted by the Dissident Voice, justice applied unequally is a denial of justice. It’s time for the double standards and selective justice to stop. More on the Congressional perjury and discriminatory justice can be found from AlterNet, Talking Points Memo and The Washington Post. Either the Law applies to EVERYONE, or it applies to NO ONE.
Email | Share This
Back to Bill’s Blog | Bill’s Links and More