“The Bush administration... has repeatedly supported a federal sentencing system that is distinctly disrespectful of the very arguments that Bush has put forward in cutting Libby a break,” said Douglas A. Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University who writes the blog Sentencing Law and Policy.

The Libby clemency will be the basis for many legal arguments, said Susan James, an Alabama lawyer... “What you’re going to see is people like me quoting President Bush in every pleading that comes across every federal judge’s desk.”

Similarly, in a case decided two weeks ago by the United States Supreme Court and widely discussed by legal specialists in light of the Libby case, the Justice Department persuaded the court to affirm the 33-month sentence of a defendant whose case closely resembled that against Mr. Libby.

Read the article. The last line in it is, I think, the most important.

Whether the pardon was right or wrong is irrelevent. Whether or not the prosecution was politically motivated is irrelevent. Whether or not Libby is truely guilty is irrelevent. Whats important is that this decision runs against the grain of everything the Republican party claims to stand for.

Bush Rationale on Libby Stirs Legal Debate - New York Times

skullaria wrote

I don't think it is race related - I think it is class related. It is the POOR that don't matter.

Our prison rate is crazy. So much is crazy.

However, it makes sense to me that more blacks get caught in the class war, as minorities have less power and money to fight with.

i'm inclined to agree

RE: When Is Enough Enough? - New York Times

There comes a time when people are supposed to get angry. The rights and interests of black people in the U.S. have been under assault for the longest time, and in the absence of an effective counterforce, that assault has only grown more brutal.

Have you looked at the public schools lately? Have you looked at the prisons? Have you looked at the legions of unemployed blacks roaming the neighborhoods of big cities across the country? These jobless African-Americans, so many of them men, are so marginal in the view of the wider society, so insignificant, so invisible, they aren’t even counted in the government’s official jobless statistics.

And now this new majority on the Supreme Court seems committed to a legal trajectory that would hurl blacks back to the bad old days of the Jim Crow era.
...
If black people could find a way to come together in sky-high turnouts on Election Day, if they showed up at polling booths in numbers close to the maximum possible turnout, if they could set the example for all other Americans about the importance of exercising the franchise, the politicians would not dare to ignore their concerns.

For black people, especially, the current composition of the Supreme Court should be the ultimate lesson in the importance of voting in a presidential election. No branch of the government has been more crucial than the judiciary in securing the rights and improving the lives of blacks over the past five or six decades.

When Is Enough Enough? - New York Times

The Supreme Court ruled 53 years ago in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated education is inherently unequal, and it ordered the nation’s schools to integrate. Yesterday, the court switched sides and told two cities that they cannot take modest steps to bring public school students of different races together. It was a sad day for the court and for the ideal of racial equality.

Resegregation Now - New York Times

possibly noteworthy wrote:

Gradually, a compelling idea emerges: Now that the Communist Party has embraced crony capitalism, Gifford explains, it has become just the latest dynastic iteration in the great cycle of Chinese history, every bit as autocratic, venal and corrupt as the Qing, Tang and Qin emperors and empresses. And when do Chinese dynasties fall? Not when the urban intelligentsia is restless, as was the case in the 1980s before the massacre at Tiananmen Square, but when the rural peasant class finally rises up, he concludes.

the communist regime has long been argued to be just another dynasty: foreign and short lived like the Mongols probably and certainly Mao was in the mold of Hongwu the first Ming Emperor.
I forget the history of China I read which argued the case - it was written a few decades ago but it was a lovely book with some lovely prints of the process of growing rice
certainly lots of dynasties - certainly the Ming were interested in reorganing society and particularly the peasantry
the communists were different especially under the Cultural Revolution by wanting to destroy history and the past and by destroying Confusionism
the communists were the first dynasty to introduce a new driving philosophy behind the Imperial civil service
communism is the first set of memes to make a major impact on China since Buddhism which had a major political impact during the Tang dynasty(618AD-907AD)

RE: 'China Road' by Rob Gifford

At every stage since his capture, in a taxi bound for the Afghan-Pakistan border, Hicks had crossed a legal landscape that Cheney did more than anyone to reshape. He was Detainee 002 at Guantanamo Bay, arriving on opening day at an asserted no man's land beyond the reach of sovereign law. Interrogators questioned him under guidelines that gave legal cover to the infliction of pain and fear -- and, according to an affidavit filed by British lawyer Steven Grosz, Hicks was subjected to beatings, sodomy with a foreign object, sensory deprivation, disorienting drugs and prolonged shackling in painful positions.

The U.S. government denied those claims, and before accepting Hicks's guilty plea it required him to affirm that he had "never been illegally treated."

Part 2 of the Washington Post's piece on Cheney and where we are now. Required reading.

Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power | Cheney | washingtonpost.com

We've all been whining about the "corruption" of government forever. We all should be whining about the corruption of professions too. But rather than whining, I want to work on this problem that I've come to believe is the most important problem in making government work.

How does Finland do it?

It is interesting that the name of the Berlin agency that ranks perceived corruption of countries is called "Transparency International".

I also think it is interesting that the trend of transparency in professional organizations seems to be leading to a decrease in perceived corruption.

From Wired 15.04 cover story:

Smart companies are sharing secrets with rivals, blogging about products in their pipeline, even admitting to their failures. The name of this new game is RADICAL TRANSPARENCY, and it's sweeping boardrooms across the nation.

See... even Michael Scott gets it.

Is the key to eliminating corruption being transparent?

The gist:

Goth obviously emerged from punk, but punk didn't last. The same is true of most subcultures: Hippies are old hat; skinheads have come and gone; grunge is yesterday's news. Why does goth alone remain undead?

Some tidbits:

If it suits you, you can be a goth all your life.

Taking for granted the misery of the human condition, goth turns depression into an aesthetic, a semi-ironic pose — a perfect style for the awkward and self-conscious.

Goth's Wan Stamina

First came the breast-feeding fatwa. It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times, to establish family ties. Then came the urine fatwa. It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing.
...
For many Muslims, fatwas, or religious edicts, are the bridge between the principles of their faith and modern life. They are supposed to be issued by religious scholars who look to the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad for guidance. While the more sensational pronouncements grab attention, the bulk of the fatwas involve the routine of daily life. In Egypt alone, thousands are issued every month.

The controversy in Cairo has been more than just embarrassing. It comes at a time when religious and political leaders say that there is a crisis in Islam because too many fatwas are being issued, and that many of them rely on ideology more than learning.

A Compass That Can Clash With Modern Life - New York Times

That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.

She added that the books were harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.

Right, sticking your head in the sand is reality. Teach your children to read between the lines and to understand the difference between facts and ideas. Harry Potter may be using magical spells to accomplish his goals, but the idea within the message is akin to many in the Bible - selfless acts for the greater good, with the constant nemesis of those who embrace greed, prejudice and bigotry. I'm sure that's why all of the school shootings proliferate - because the shooters all believe that they are doing selfless acts against the greedy, prejudicial bigots.

quite

RE: 'Ban Harry Potter or face more school shootings' | the Daily Mail