Sometimes I wonder if Dick Cheney openly murdered someone in plain site, on camera, and vocally announced the fact to everyone within earshot if he would be arrested and tried.

I'm seriously beginning to think not.

Yet, a black man in his own home can be arrested for no apparent reason even after showing the cops proof that he lives there.

Alice in Wonderland doesn't even begin to capture the true idiocy at work here.

....include this:

But his posts have a downside. Absorbing the full force of his arguments and dutifully following his corroborating links, I felt myself drawn into an ideological wind tunnel, with the relentless gusts of opinion and analysis gradually wearing me down. After reading his harsh denunciations of Obama's decision not to release the latest batch of torture photos, I began to lose sight of the persuasive arguments that other commentators have made in support of the President's position. As well-argued and provocative as I found many of Greenwald's postings, they often seem oblivious to the practical considerations policymakers must contend with.

Allow me to translate this for you:

But his posts are full of facts and links and studies and such, which require effort to research them and get to the truth. And dagnabit, that makes me tired. After reading his common sense blasting of Obama for not releasing the latest torture photos, I began to make sense of his arguments and forget about the idiotic, superficial, and feel-better lies being spouted by the nutbag right. As well-argued and blatantly full of common sense as I found many of GG's postings, they often seem stuck at the "30,000 foot level" and oblivious to our current state of political elitism and maintenance that reinforces the status quo and exempts our politically powerful from accountability.

I didn't even bother to get the author's name, but whoever he is, he gets an "A" in the journalism course "Douchebaggery 404: Concepts in Advanced Douchiness While Employed at a Prestigious Literary Outlet."

When the political elites have decided that the laws simply do not apply to them (yeah, assholes, we get it: NOT investigating someone for torture (!!!) resonates a little too well with us simple proles who get whacked hard in fines and surcharges for something as simple as a speeding ticket, or do time on a bullshit misdemeanor charge) and the financial elites have decided that the laws simply do not apply to them (yeah, assholes, we get it: being "too big to fail" means you get our hard-earned tax dollars but us proles in need of a decent universal health plan have to "have patience"), how much longer do you really think it is going to take until more and more of us proles begin to realize that WE THE PEOPLE also get to decide that the laws no longer apply to US!?

I was just thinking about this too. (Absurd examples will now follow.) How long is it going to be before we see ordinary citizens hiring attorneys (say, former Fed prosecutors who were fired by Gonzo and Rove) to write memos authorizing any number of illegal acts as being lawful using equally stupid and specious reasoning.

For instance, let's say I want to rob a bank, but not just any bank. I want to rob a Chase or Citibank outlet somewhere. I get my attorney to concoct a memo which explains how it is really MY tax money that I'm "withdrawing" that was illegally funneled to this bank via the illegal TARP program. Included in the memo are plenty of details backing up why the money they have was ill-gotten, and that a portion of that money belongs to me as the taxpayer, and as such I have a right to reclaim it when all other established legal channels have been exhausted. US law or the Constitution really doesn't apply here because the money was really mine to begin with, and as such, I am not actually stealing from anyone. I am acting in "good faith" after all my other attempts to otherwise retrieve the money failed.

How is this line of thought materially different from the bullshit we are seeing re: torture?

On a less absurd level, why not have an attorney write up a memo giving you blanket immunity against speeding tickets, citing the large amount of data which exists showing they are merely forms of revenue enhancement, and do not provide an amount of additional safety or reduction in injuries or deaths commensurate with the amount of revenue collected. Therefore, unless I was speeding "in great excess" of the posted speed limits, or actually injured or killed someone while speeding, I am asserting my innocence under the "punishment does not fit the crime" statutes, and thus not subject to this law or its consequences.

After all, if exceedingly clear cut laws and treaties that prohibit torture are not good enough to prosecute those who commit them, I don't see why the citizenry needs to pay any attention to laws like speeding tickets or robbing banks.

Ignoring the rule of law is called anarchy, and I don't think it's applicable only to a certain social or political class. One can hardly fault the people for following the lead of their elected leaders.