07-05-2007, 05:13 PM
Quote:No, I'm talking about 25 years of the political infighting using special prosecutors to go on fishing expeditions usually indicting the cronies of the incumbents on narrow interpretations of law. Let's ignore Scooter for a moment, and reflect on the numerous Clinton era psuedo-scandals and indictments. If only *real* crime were pursued with the same zeal and resources.
I agree that it is an abuse of justice to simply throw out a special prosecutor like an attack dog, and hope he brings back a corpse. Judicial resources should be directed to where they matter, not to irrelevancies, and certainly not to ridiculous things like people's sex lives.
But that can't mean that reasonable investigations into the conduct of the government are just "fishing expeditions." If you don't mean for this to apply to the Scooter Libby case, then fine and good, but why bring it up in a thread about the communation of his sentence? If you do mean for it to apply, then I disagree with you on that point.
Quote:Yes, they are. There is a difference between alleged foreign enemies caught on a battlefield, and US citizens imprisoned for disagreeing with powerful politiical parties.
You never quite know what they'll drag out of the PATRIOT Act, so maybe there's something to that.
Quote:I fear that the political majority passes so many laws infringing on citizens liberties that it becomes impossible *not* to break the law.
While this certainly is a fearful scenario, it seems unlikely at this point. The crimes Scooter was charged with were not "bogus" crimes, designed to trap citizens by infringing on their liberties. Nor was the crime that Scooter was busted for covering up, for that matter. Some laws (the ban on marijuana, for instance) do result in ridiculously high imprisonment rates, but those are a rather different matter.
I think you have much more to fear at this juncture from administrations claiming that they are above the law than from the government using laws to restrict your liberties.
-Jester