and they should be treated as such.

"His crime was not playing along with the team."

The obvious weakness of this Admin is that all disloyalists are the enemy (rather nixonish). You only appoint staunch partisans to government vacancies and when some slip by or see the light and bolt--

make them pay. Such weak rulers that to go to such measures to ensure their agenda and positions meet with the least resistance. Bullying, brownshirt tactics at their finest.

Jew spies are everywhere ... Can never be too sure.

Any evidence for this? This is truly hateful language worthy of prosecution. I shall indeed look into this.

Thank you.

Thanks for bringing up Matthew Diaz, and indirect thanks to your teacher for helping him out. He is a nearly unsung hero without whom there would have been no Rasul, Hamdan, or Boumediene decisions, and probably still 700+ instead of 250+ inmates at Guantanamo. Prying open Guantanamo has led to lawyers being able to follow clients back, in some cases, to Afghanistan and elsewhere, where the curtains of secrecy have been also pushed back, much more than they would have if Mr. Diaz had not done what he had done. So his influence on the fight to make the government obey the law has been enormous. I personally think he should be a candidate for an appointment in the Obama administration.

One small correction: he sent the card to a lawyer named Barbara Olshansky at CCR, where they were having trouble getting standing to fight the detentions at Guantanamo in court. It became public after she brought it to the judge's attention, because she and others at CCR were unsure of what she had to do with it legally.

The media (not just the opinions of the Marcuses and Broders of the news organization) is more complicit. Where was the follow through by the NY Times or any other news outlet -- left to people like Glenn, the bloggers with more intelligence and knowledge than the reporters that work for these organizations.

Politicians will be politicians and lie and deceive -- the media is who should be held accountable for their inaction of not holding these politicians feet to the fire. I will never forgive the NY Times for burying this story for a year -- but then after it was written, where was the continued follow up.

Reverend Wright was kept in the media for about 4 weeks, the Blagojevich story and Obama's nefarious connections (of course untrue) went on for about the same amount of time -- but a few investigative reports were written then all was forgotten. Again the blogs followed through -- and not the pathetic blog "The Caucus" of the NY Times that just has the same ignorant reporters posting instead of someone with the knowledge truly needed to comment on the news.

Newspapers, broadcast network and cable news entertainment shows are guilty -- by ignoring all this, they have become complicit in the lies and deceipts. There does not need to be a fairness doctrine, there needs to be a law suit on the monopoly the media has on this nation -- otherwise, we are doomed to failure in this country.

Spark of hope -- Greg Sargent with WaPo -- if this blog can take the news stories and keep the discussion going and fresh on the minds of Americans, then maybe pressure will build on the establishment to change their ways. But after reading this depressing post by Digby, I hold not illustions: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/going-back-to-church-by-digby-in-ddays.html.

of course parallel Tamm's, and they can be replicated over and over again throughout the so-called "justice system." The problem is endemic to the system.

Replacing some of the honchos doesn't fix a broken, thoroughly corrupted, and politicized system intended and used for the enhancement of the authoritarian/autocratic executive.

I see so many expressions of "hope" that Obama (The New Autocrat) will do something about this. Of course he will. But what he will do, more than likely, is adapt this broken, corrupted and politicized "justice system" to his and his regime's particular needs and requirements which don't necessarily have anything to do with Upholding the Law and Applying It Equally.

If anything, there is more rationale now for an autocratic system ruled by ukase and decree -- rather than a constitutional self-governing one ruled by law -- than during the Bush years. The Crisis State that Obama is inheriting is on the verge of -- or is actually -- imploding on many fronts simultaneously. Just prioritizing the Catastrophe the Nation faces calls for an autocrat rather than a democrat (which is one reason why ancient democracies often turned to "temporary dictators", eh?) to get through the troubled times ahead to say the least.

So I don't see any real reform any time soon. I see perpetuation of whatever enhances the autocratic executive (much as Cheney, the Dark Lord, has predicted) and elimination of pretty much everything else.

Thank you GG for another fabulous article pointing out the hypocrisy of Democratic leaders such as Pelosi, Rockefeller, Reid, Harman and my very own so-called Democratic Senator, Feinstein. We need to be the persistent noise that Barack Obama cannot get out of his ear until true justice is done, even if he has to buck the leadership of the Democratic Party, even if it means frog-marching not only Bush, Cheney, Addington and Woo to jail, but Pelosi, Reid, Rockefeller, Harman and Feinstein, too. I truly believe that Obama knows what has to be done, which is why he DIDN'T tell Feinstein and Rockefeller about his nomination of Leon Panetta to be CIA Director. Maybe Bush's imminent pre-emptive pardon of all those involved in such acts in his administration will be the "straw" that will finally wake America up to the constitutional crisis.

Members like Rockefeller, Harman and Feinstein know their role is to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, to create the appearance of democratic oversight when in fact there is none.

Say amen, someone. Now we need to shrink that down to something that the Freeway Blogger (and his elves) can plaster on bridges all over the land.

Cheers,