A Good Year for the Outlaw

I’m in an online simulated baseball league with 27 other guys from all across North America (yes, we have a Canuck or two) and the neat thing about our little “community” is how we talk about everything, not just baseball. Baseball has become secondary quite often to talk of families, kids, politics, culture, media, etc.

So I received an email from one of the guys the other night, an attorney in a large Southern city, and I can’t keep it to myself. Everyone (or at least the few that come in here and read the rants) needs to read these words from my buddy Dan:

“To me, the White House’s multiple acts of clearly running roughshod over the Constitution is a bigger deal than is the mistaken decision to go into Iraq. 

Mind you, I’m not defending the decision to go into Iraq or to stay there now.  But I do think that it is not inherently wrong to commence war to remove the world of an evil dictator.  We would have been justified in joining England in declaring war on Germany when Hitler invaded Poland rather than wait until after Pearl Harbor.  We could have been justified into invading Iraq to rid the world of Hussein even if there was no credible threat directly against us.  But to do so, we needed to have thought through the consequences, including strengthening Iran and the religious fundamentalists in the Middle East, together with the sectarian violence that was long repressed by Hussein’s acts. Fighting a war in Iraq, even as aggressors, was / is not inherently wrong, but fighting a war designed primarily to seek vengeance because of a verbal threat made against one’s father, or to line the pockets of Halliburton investors, is.

Anyway, what the Comey testimony, together with the warrantless wire tapping, Gitmo quasi-trials, torture of prisoners, deprivation of right to access the courts, etc. shows is a President who believes that he is above the rule of law.  We are a country of laws, not one of men.  When a man, however powerful, can ignore the law, what this country stands for crumbles.  There may be some very limited situations where the Jesuit approach of the ends justifying the means may be warranted; here, clearly, is not one of them.  This is a story that should be shouted from the rooftops, this is a story that warrants impeachment, this is a story that the man elected president and his closest and most trusted advisors do not believe in the very foundation of what makes this country great.”

So, is the story being shouted from the rooftops today, as Dan says it should? Well, er, no.  CNN.com’s headline story right now is about Floyd Landis and Greg LeMond…something that should be on ESPN.com. Other “headlines” at CNN.com right now include: Still no answers in ‘06 lettuce E-coli outbreak; Deep sea treasurehaul could top 500 million; Cops keep secret tabs on Alicia Keys, JayZ; and Mom faces jail for fudging kids’ school zone. The latest story involving Comey is buried down in the political section and talks more about how Senator Specter “thinks Gonzales will resign”.

The FauxNews website is no better. Nothing about Comey’s testimony anywhere near the front page, and the talking heads section near the bottom shows O’Rielly talking about immigration, Cavuto bitching about the “hypocrisy” of the Wolfowitz scandal, Gibson saying the Dems need to do more “soul searching”, and Hume talking smarmily about John Edwards’ substantial “part time” income.

Dan is right, this is the story we should be hearing about today. But big media is not letting it happen…can’t touch the Bushies, ya know.