But does she like your Tombstone references?

Believe it or not, she said to me "enough with that. What are you, an idiot?"

Well, sir, I said by way of retort, "I'm your huckleberry."

And she did not laugh.

In fact, this Administration has displayed a strong commitment to the rule of law, with all that entails and I suspect, and I admit it is a suspicion tinged with hope, that the next Administration will maintain far more of this Administration's legal architecture than the intemperate rhetoric in some quarters would seem to suggest.
— M.B. Mukasey, prepared remarks

Interestingly enough, the Nazis also had a strong commitment to the rule of law. This is why extermination camps were set up outside of Germany proper — because they were against the law in Germany. In much the same way, the Bush administration has set up its internment camps and torture facilities outside the US because they would be against the law in the US.

Like the Nazis, the Bush administration sought legal advice on how to make the most heinous crimes somehow fall within the law. Now we hear that torture, indefinite detention on the say-so of the executive, secret prisons, and "extraordinary" (i.e., outside the niceties of the legal system) rendition for indefinite extralegal detention and torture are just "policy differences" and should not be criminalized. These things were criminalized long before the current policies that implemented them.

Glenn,

my friend (and I say this losely), Jeff is merely saying that justice is NOT colorblind! Can you not (can't you) see that? I think you do. Left/right/central. Regard for human law is NOT dependent on you're artificial understanding of what RIGHT is! Friend, there comes a time in everyones life (Americans) when we have to decide: can WE live this way? I say YES. But only if we share an understanding of what legality is. This is what Jeffery Harrison was eluding too (in my opinion)>

His point was more comprehensible than your attempt to clarify it.

And his point was totally incomprehensible.

I forgot to add, I love you're work! You are allright in my book, sir! And I'm not ashamed to admit it! Are you, Baldie?

...John Brennan is a different matter. [...] someone [...] who was one of George Tenet's closest aides when The Dark Side of the last eight years was conceived and implemented, and who, to this day, continues to defend and support policies such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" and rendition (to say nothing of telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping), [to support his appointment] is to cross multiple lines that no Obama supporter should sanction. [...] Appointing John Brennan to a position of high authority would be to affirm and embrace, not repudiate, the darkest aspects of the last eight years. -- GlennGreenwald

And yet, it will probably go through with little notice. Even the more "liberal" members of our population are inured to the freedom-destroying innovations you listed. I don't know why.
I think it may be the entertainment media; they've promoted a very dark view of power, policing and international engagement for a couple of decades now. You almost need to be a media-hermit like me to have been untouched by the memes they've spawned.
Also, a lack of personal experience with oppression, or the isolation of those who have experience with it. It's usually "your own fault" in this country when you (a white, middlish class guy) fall afoul of our security forces. That results in a very different sense of right to liberty. It's pretty clear cut that your human rights have been violated if some irregular soldiers bust into your hut in the western Congo, steal all your food and money and burn the place down.
It's quite a bit less clear if you lose your over-sized stucco & SIPs board hyper-shack to foreclosure, because some slick spiv in a polyester suit lied to you about the potential risks in the contract you signed. See, it's all "your fault" in the latter case. Even when your government uses your tax money to prop up the financial companies that underwrote your toxic deal.

The distinctions between "not your fault", "all your fault" and "partly your fault" matter.

The "company" our government now keeps is partly our fault. There is no way out of that fact.

CG, why did you bring up the Luna case? I sat up a little, recalled the case and googled to see if it had ever been solved.

No.

If the Eff Bee Eye can't solve a murder like Jonathan Luna's, what good are they?

If I were paranoid (ha), I would suspect that there is a conspiracy of sorts behind the scenes, beginning to take shape with Obama's rumored appointments. Before I get all tin-foil-hatty on you, we should wait to see who really winds up in charge of what.

I can't stand all the sturm and drang.

If Obama appoints Brennan, there will be no longer any doubt that the agenda for this country is being dictated by a cadre of power interests and we are all screwed.

Oh well, it was fun to imagine otherwise while it lasted.

This essay is a wonderful example of why most Americans do not trust the left to keep them safe.

Mr. Greenwald, the notion that the persecution of journalists in the US (which at its most severe means forcing them to drink coffee from a diner rather than Starbucks) is comparable to persecution in Zimbabwe, etc., is not only ridiculous, it is offensive and, ultimately, a threat to Democracy.

Yes, a threat to Democracy. Why is it that liberals, who love nuanced John Kerrys and despise simplistic Sarah Palins, absolutely fail to take a nuanced approach when comparing the evil of the US government to the evil in other nations?

The answer is quite simple. Liberals are Ameriphobes. Oh yes, you hate your country but either don't know it or, more likely, will not admit it.

Remember, Ameriphobes, people keep trying to get in to this country and it is easy as pie to leave; even Bill Ayers trusts the police enough to call them when mean journalists harass him; being poor in the US means drinking Folgers while you are surfing the net while being poor in many parts of the world means you eat a bit of grain each day; and on and on and on.

There is no comparison and you expose your Ameriphobic nature by suggesting there is.