Does anything illustrate more clearly that ultimate power is now invested entirely in the President, that we are now a government of men, not of laws, to turn the cliche on it's head? Tamm's crime was exposing the President's spying program, a program that his co-workers explicitly described as "probably illegal."

Now our media and political elites stand by giving mute acquiescence as he is hounded and pursued by what is amusingly called our "Justice" department.

Note the concern by Pelosi that the program had only a presidential imprimatur; to believe that vast warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional and thereby a crime, is so 18th century.

Bob Baer, former CIA official, was on on the Rachel Maddow show last night talking about the CIA's view of the Congressional intelligence "oversight" committees. He said the view in Langley was that Congressmen should be treated like mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed manure.

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.

Why kid ourselves any longer? All hail the imperial President. Long live the King.

In a nutshell, you will find no justice in America. It is not something "we used to have" because we never had justice.

Innocent minorities or poor (or both) are convicted of crimes all the time; usually because America's prosecutors are morally bankrupt and don't give a damn about guilt or innocence --- only convictions.

We will put a man in prison for a little grass (perhaps planted by police/goons), but a man that steals millions (billions these days) will get kid glove treatment.

We are not a land of law (verses a land of men) --- that has never been true.

is the press. Back in the old day (i.e. Nixon) journalists used to have to go to all sort of lengths to dig up stories on corruption at the highest levels. They had to hold secret meetings with people nicknamed "deepthroat," and here we are in 2009 with evidence of corruption at the highest levels right in front of everyone's faces - just waiting for the press to pluck like an apple from a tree - and there's only one taker, Glenn.

It's just hard to wrap your head around. Why doesn't the press swarm like sharks when corruption is so blatant and obvious? Why isn't this on every news program every night?

Talk about dereliction of duty, the press is as guilty as Harman, Pelosi, Rockefeller, Cheney, etc..

This country has really lost its way on every level...

Isn't what Tamm did illegal and isn't the rule of law to be applied impartially? Or just when the "right" people say so?

I totally support your continuing campaign to bring attention to our despicable two-tiered justice system. We need to get that message in any way that we can to Eric Holder so that it will be part of his DOJ charter. One way to do that would be to have members of congress grill him on that during his confirmation hearings. You might want to determine who those members might be so that you could interview them for your radio interviews and plant this idea firmly in their minds.

Also, Bob Baer former CIA agent, author of Blow The House Down, current intelligence expert for Time.com and the character played by George Clooney in the movie Syriana, based on Baer’s book, See No Evil, was interviewed by Rachel Maddow last night in her segment titled, Intell Showdown. The two discuss how the appointment of Panetta means that there is accountability as far as those who have a tainted torture past and their future role, or lack of a role, in the Obama administration.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#28530452 (see sig)

She also was interviewed on Countdown on the same subject and discusses how the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has been co-opted and is no longer performing its oversight role thanks to DiFi and Rockefeller.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#28529928

Tamm's real crime is that he's not a member of the beltway aristocracy. If he was he'd be protected.

What would cause a person like Nancy Pelosi or Jay Rockefeller, supposedly members of the "loyal opposition", to march in lockstep with the authoritarian Bush Junta's attacks on the Constitution? Here are a few possibilities:

a) Co-option: they are simply in a privileged position (on the payroll), and don't want to rock the boat;

b) Threats: to destroy someone in a deliberately toxic environment, when the most minor of sins is endlessly a amplified, is easy for the vicious scum in the shadows. Who knows if actual physical threats are involved? Consider the anthrax mailed to prominent Democrats: US government- or contractor-sourced anthrax. Do you think they got the message?

c) Showtime: people like Pelosi and Reed are just hired public faces putting on a show to baffle the masses while the real business goes on in the shadows.

d) Interest: Pelosi and Reed represent the interests of a very small group of "people in law", and actual citizes can hang.

I think it's probably a combination. Only one solution, however: T'row the bums out! They are Quislings, Judas's, vendus, and wholly unworthy of respect let alone positions of public trust.

Isn't what Tamm did illegal and isn't the rule of law to be applied impartially? Or just when the "right" people say so?

Personally, I don't know if he is in violation of the law. I don't know enough about the details of the case to comment on that.

But, I think it's in our national interest to allow whistleblowers to expose corruption at the highest levels of office without prosecution. ESPECIALLY, when you see the leaders of the legislative branch complicit with those in the Executive Branch. The implied oversight (between the two branches) was supposed to keep this kind of illegal activity from ever occurring.

If both branches are complicit in these crimes, then the ONLY way you'd ever find out about it would be through a whistleblower who went public to force them to abide by the rule of law.

I am thankful for his vigilantism, and believe he should be given whistleblower status from prosecution and possibly an award for what he's exposed.