This post should be required reading for bloggers, journalists and lawyers. This level of analysis and writing is something typically not taught in school. Comparing this post to the legal "reasoning" in the Yoo memorandum highlights why our country is in such a mess. In a court of law this post would be devastating. Unfortunately, since the MSM is directly implicated and is choosing to not cover the story, I am not certain how this can come to further light. As others have noted, the response to this story is like a perfect storm of institutional indifference and/or hostility.

BTW, isn't it amazing that we can get seven hours of coverage of two Democratic primary races, highlighted by John King (Glenn's BFF) playing with the "Big Board," but not even once mention of a coordinated Pentagon propoganda program (say that fast five times) to sell Americans on the need for the Iraq war and the need to stay in Iraq?

Patrick Morgan: As more malfeasance on the part of the Bush Administration comes to light (primarily through Glenn's blog and others, not the MSM), I have taken to considering more and more the possibility of more direct action. Short of revolution, a path that I have been advocating to friends and colleagues is calling for a constitutional convention. Put everything on the table: Should we explicitly provide for a right of privacy, or should all Americans be required to have a homing device/national ID inserted in their skulls; Should we get rid of the First Amendment and require compulsory Christian worship and the teaching of creationism in our schools; should bloggers (and their commentators) who question the actions of the federal government be excluded from the protections of the Fourth Amendment; etc.

Another thought I just had in thinking about your post is that perhaps we need a modern day secular Martin Luther, someone who will post 95 theses regarding the abuses of the federal government. These theses could be posted on the Capitol Building, although someone carrying a hammer up the stairs would probably be arrested before reaching the building, so perhaps crazy glue would be better.

Or perhaps, ala the Sermon on the Mount, we could have the Sermon on the Lincoln Memorial, extolling the virtues of the Constitution and the rule of law.

Anyway, I think that the time for massive civil disobedience is close at hand. Certainly, as Baldie McEagle says, people would be arrested. But get enough people and the authorities cannot arrest everyone. Get a million people in D.C. and shut down the government just by being there and the government and the MSM would have to take notice.

Part of me hesitates to write this because it sounds naive, but nothing up to now really appears to have worked. The time for more direct action is nearing.

Unfortunately I do not have the time now to digest the Court's opinion (damn you, discovery deadline!!!). However, this passage from the opening of Scalia's "dissent" stopped me cold:

America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy

began by killing Americans and American allies abroad:

241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar

Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar es Salaam

and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. See

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the

United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 60–61,

70, 190 (2004). On September 11, 2001, the enemy

brought the battle to American soil, killing 2,749 at the

Twin Towers in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in

Washington, D. C., and 40 in Pennsylvania. See id., at

552, n. 9. It has threatened further attacks against our

homeland; one need only walk about buttressed and barricaded

Washington, or board a plane anywhere in the

country, to know that the threat is a serious one. Our

Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in

Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week, 13 of our countrymen in

arms were killed.

Funny, I do not remember Congress or President Bush declaring war on radical Islamists. Of course, I do not remember Congress declaring anything at all, shame on that institution and its 535 members. Interesting that Scalia includes the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon but omits the first World Trade Center bombing. It looks like Scalia also attempts to rely on a memo by John Yoo. I do not know if this is the infamous torture memo, but certainly Scalia's reliance on any opinion by John Yoo should give one pause.

On a separate note, to the poster who said that different standards apply to criminals and terrorists, explain the harm that resulted from trying the plotters of the first World Trade Center bombing in federal court, or the harm in trying Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols in federal court? To my mind, terrorist is just a synonym for criminal

Glenn,

Great work as always. I can't wait to see the results. I will be donating as soon as I get home.

In thinking through this, perhaps another way to get the message out to Americans unfamiliar with this issue is to remind them how much they hate their phone company/cable company/ISP. Something along the lines of:

Every month you write your check for your phone bill/cell phone bill, despite the crappy service. You can't break your contract because of the outrageous penalty. Instead of using your money to make your service better, your phone company uses the money to pay off members of Congress to protect itself from lawsuits by you.

Make people think about where there money is really going.