Prison walls a border can make

As sure as God made little green apples, George W. Bush is going to go pardon happy in the next two months. There are rumours of huge blanket pardons of thousands of government employees and the most criminal administration since the Nixon White House forever going beyond the reach of justice.

What can Obama do? If he was to use his own presidential authority to set aside some of this impending immunity for lawbreaking he will be accused of partisanship and suck oxygen away from his own priorities. If he lets Bush get away with immunizing his whole grotesque regime he'll infuriate his own base.

However there is one way this lawless group of war criminals can be at least partly penalized: Obama can and probably will, sign the US on to the International Criminal Court. Bush made 'unsigning' Bill Clinton's ratification of the Hague process one of his first presidential acts. Obama could reverse that decision with an executive order.

And then those pardoned by Bush would be immune from American justice, but would never be able to leave the borders of the United States again without wondering if the gendarmes will be knocking on their hotel room doors.

It's not a sufficient punishment but its better than nothing.