Can You Spell "Outrage"?

Well I'm sure glad I did not jump the gun in posting about the first Legal Breaking News today, as I did with small circle of work friends, one of whom not much later was the first to alert me to the second Breaking News. Not that I really crowed about #1, mind you - it was more in the way of sharing, prefaced with words like "well this certainly puts the pressure on." But I remember some Flash I shared in the past that had at least one of you hopping mad when it came to less than a proper humanist would have hoped (I was weepy too).

Anyway, I hope you took in the day's roller-coaster with proper equanimity. It is what it is. We could not have (and rarely have) expected more of the Nickel-store Cowboy. This appears to have been the course that minimized the potential legal exposure for his inner circle. And selfish motives like that we know have of course always been the theme of the Bush administration. Their speechifiers come up with lofty terms like "spreading Democracy," but the reality is that they are not even supportive of Democracy here at home. They have of course done more damage to the former sidewalk-stand, three-ring-circus, poster-child for the Concept of Democracy than all prior attackers, domestic or foreign.

It is obvious that little if anything in the concept of Democracy as it is enshrined in our primary founding documents and the working practice of our country has any relevance or importance to them. Other than, of course, when it might be used as a prop or shill for one of their skits that involve justifying war, torture, and the need to set aside internationally recognized principles of jurisprudence.

The course so carefully charted for the cowboy-bully by his handlers (remember those 20+ lawyers suddenly bunkered-up with Laura a few weeks back?) apparently leaves Libby with access to the Fifth Amendment (full pardon no doubt already penciled in for Jan. '09). Hence there seems little leverage to get actual truthful testimony out of him (i.e., the sort we have not yet had, which a system like ours depended on up until the time we approved torture).

I gather there is potential for either Congress or a Special Prosecutor (e.g., Our Man Fitz, my candidate for Man of the Year) to grant immunity and "invite" testimony. But what do either of those parties have in the way of leverage? Subpoenas, I suppose, with contempt for anyone in defiance - but we are learning about that process in more or less real time right now with the WH. But that just drags me back to the sleazy details of all of this.

Why have I learned more about our legal system in the last two years than in my prior lifetime? And what does it tell that I have had to learn all of this now?

Actually that is not entirely fair. By the time Watergate was playing out I was pretty burned out on the whole political schtick. I had been captured I suspect by cynicism, that deadly foe of activism and optimism, after the experience of the late '60's and early '70's. From Hubert to Daley to Cambodia to Kent State it was an incredible era of government lying and citizen dis-empowerment.

I can't help but think many could feel the same way now, and for good reason. If anything, the extent of dishonesty that seems to be tolerated in our elected officials, and the erosion of the rights of actual citizens is actually far more extreme than it was "way back then."

Potentially significant changes include the rampant culture of talk-radio/O'Reilly/Limbaugh/Coulter (and tolerance of those slimeballs!) and hence hyper-right fright-speech, the mainstream media more or less having flushed themselves down the nearest receptacle, and the InterNet (oh, hello there!).

And I want to close on that last note. There was nothing like this medium I am exploiting right now Back Then. Admittedly it has its Coulters - I always thought Werewolves were an abstract concept until I encountered her - but it also has its Greenwalds, and Hamshers, and Marshalls, and Digbys, and so on. Rumor has it that there are tens of thousands of bloggers out there, and I bet a solid majority are right there with us on most issues.

And most of their blogs, like mine, are probably rarely even visited, hence invisible to the mainstream pollers and self-important pundits.

As the classic Starship tune has it "we should be together." (For the record, I believe that tune also included the memorable words "tear down the walls, MF-er"!) In that spirit, one suggestion is that you consider contacting your elected representatives and demanding an aggressive investigation of the obvious conflict of interest of the president absolving a convicted criminal with knowledge of potential criminal activity by the president and vice-president. And by all means agitate, fulminate, and make yourself otherwise totally troublesome to those around you by keeping the Scooter case alive.

And please do "Be Together," with all that entails. Comaradery rather that sniping at details is essential right now, in my opinion.