... who was a JAG at Gitmo who, on his last day there, sent a Valentine's Day card- containing the names of all detainees- to one of the plaintiffs in a suit seeking the names under FOIA. The names were eventually released anyway, but Diaz was prosecuted, court martialed and sentenced to six months in the brig. Soon he found himself nearly broke, with a family to support, so he took a teaching job in New York. Just before he was set to begin, after he'd moved his family to New York, the job offer was rescinded. I notified one of my former teachers, David Feige, about Matt's predicament and David, during the debut week of the show he inspired, Raising the Bar, stepped forward and arranged an interview for Matt at the Bronx Defenders, where Matt works today as a parent advocate for the indigent, having come close to this himself.

If David Feige wouldn't have stepped up, what would have happened to Matt and his kids? Who knows, just like who knows what things he witnessed at Gitmo. Unlike "Fredo" Gonzales, Matt is a "casualty of the war on terror" who almost ended up jobless despite risking his career in taking this moral stand. Just as there is disparate treatment for the elite and the commoners when it comes to prosecution, there is a huge difference between those who break the law for the Bush Administration and those who either break it or uphold the oaths they take as attorneys.

Just ask Lt. Charles Swift, the JAG who refused to follow an order to plead Hamdan guilty leading to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Though Hamdan, through Swift and Kaytal, eventually prevailed, Swift paid a steep career price and any would be whistleblowers saw the likely fallout.

A link to Matt's story is at the signature if you're interested.

... Terri Gross interviewed law professor Lawrence Lessig (who's already suspicious, being a lawyer!) who stated that the First Amendment "was created for the blogs." He went on to explain that the "pamphlet press" was deemed essential to the important discourse the founders observed and attempted to protect. Terri Gross, like a good NPR employee, expressed her fear that blogs were usurping newspapers, finally stating, "I like newspapers."

I would have liked to ask Terri if she liked the role they played in the lead up to the Iraq invasion or the use of black sites. I agree that newspapers play an essential role that blogs likely cannot duplicate, but to pretend that this modern "pamphlet press" hasn't assumed an equally valuable one is likely, whether she realizes it or not, borne out of a fear of loss of turf rather than truth.

(link at sig)

This is a disgusting choice for many reasons. First, Warren is clearly from the group McCain once called "agents of intolerance." While Warren comes off as more mild than someone like Falwell or Dobson, he has also claimed that any differences are ones of tone rather than substance.

Second,the commercials he created on behalf of Prop 8 certainly aren't what I thought Obama stood for.

Worst, however, is his willingness to read Romans 13 to justify Hannity's dream of "taking out" Ahmadinejad:

"HANNITY: I think we need to take him out... Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers."

Obama's choice, made just two weeks after Warren's comments, reminds me of that scene in "Braveheart" where Wallace removes the helmet of his enemy to reveal the face of the person he thought he was fighting on behalf of. Remember how he just sits down, shocked that he's been duped? That's how I feel.

Hopefully this will have wide repercussions and Obama will learn that the cost of moves like this isn't worth paying as his base won't stand for these supposed "bipartisan" moves toward those whom your supporters rebelled against in the first place.

I suggest going to his website, which invite stories, and telling them stories that begin "once upon a time I believed in a politician who claimed to be different and then he sold me out by..."

Maybe he will listen to us rather than this supposed Christian who appears to believe the Beatitudes have become quaint.