Conservatives undermine their own credibility, or what remains of it, when they commit heinous crimes and then refuse to face the consequences. So much for "individual responsibility".

Further, they don't want just anyone having the same privileges, and constantly seek to destroy unions (and union reps and collective bargaining), rail against trial lawyers (those who fight against highly-paid corporate lawyers on a contingency basis) and tighten their sphincters about minor crimes (like marijuana possession).

A two (or more) tiered justice system is hardly the creation of snot-faced Republicans in the US, but the American ideal is equality and justice for all. At some point, character matters. The far right has declared a Culture War and finds itself on the wrong side.

As you've written so many times, it's not merely the political and media elite who support a two tiered system of justice in the country, but also many Obama supporters as well. Seems that they're afraid of being called vindictive by the media and political elite, when really all they urge is justice. And not the imbalanced justice you describe in your post, but true justice -- punishment that fits the crime. We do have examples of that, too.

We may have sent the wrong Illinois guy to the Whitehouse. That crazy son of a bitch may actually instruct subordinates to prosecute war crimes. Someone may have to pay him to do it, but whatever it takes.

And we have the death penalty.

It seems like this has always happened anytime our society has declared "War" on an inanimate object (drugs) or on a concept (terror, or for that matter, witchcraft). When these concept/inanimate object wars are started, all of our principles get chucked. Due process, punishment fitting the crime, adequate legal representation, the list goes on...

I sincerely hope that one day we can connect the dots on this and see the correlation between these two social phenomena. Maybe then, when a politician starts talking about declaring war on anything other than a legitimate military adversary, we will have enough sense to not vote for that person. War is hell.

On the other hand, I wonder what it will take for us to start utilizing all of these "war" resources to start building positive, constructive things in our society. I guess it's always easier to be against something negative than it is to be for something positive, because those positive thinkers are dreamers that don't know "how the world really works".

My Congressman, Cliff Stearns, is having quite a month. After first distinguishing himself by asking Nancy Pelosi to postpone votes in the House so that he could attend the BCS championship game (and earning himself "Worst Person in the World" from Keith Olbermann), he then voted against this year's SCHIP bill.

Now, he's topping that by writing at HumanEvents.com that he is introducing a bill that will allow people with concealed weapons permits in their state of residence to carry concealed weapons in states that do not issue such permits. In Cliff's world, good, God-fearin' 'Mericuns can take the law into their own hands and deal with prison overcrowding by just gunning down those who they think are about to rob them.

That creates a special two-tiered justice system for Cliff: He thinks that he can hold up critical action on the tanking economy so that he can attend a football game, but then comes back to try to withhold health insurance from children and promote vigilante justice in states that are trying to prevent it.

The Oxdown linked at my name has some info from Handgun Control, Inc. that points out just how warped this idea is.

The alternative to investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by political leaders is tyranny: if the leadership does it, it cannot be a crime. All of our vaunted system of rule of law, checks and balances in government, and individual rights goes right out the window and we become subject to the whims of the political leadership. Sure, we'll continue to venerate the Constitution, safely buried in its climate-controlled crypt, but it will have lost its relevance to the conduct of practical affairs in government.

Prisons are like everything else related to our bloated government. Everyone looks to government to solve their problems and are surprised when an axe is used to prune bushes and are even more surprised when the axe is turned on them. This really is not a left or right issue. It's a centralist versus decentralist issue.

I've seen black urban neighborhood groups lobby for more prisons and stricter sentences right along side white chamber of commerce types and suburban soccer moms. The motivations may be different - neighborhood "peace" on one hand and protection from the "criminal class" on the other - but they both view more government as the answer. Then both complain that there is no money for better housing or schools and destroyed families in the urban neighborhood or no money for that new suburban freeway exit or lower taxes and a few middle class kids get swept up in the dragnet.

I think we are nearing the end of this stupidity and it won't be because we've come to our senses. It will be because we will be bankrupt and will have to find ways to handle these issues in a common sense way that doesn't allow us to shift our responsibilities on to government whether it is the prison or school systems. As states become increasingly insolvent, there will be an even stronger backlash against federal unfunded mandates and maybe we'll see sanity arrive at the local and state level first. I won't hold my breath.

If you are poor you are a financial burden on the system. But local governments discovered a long time ago that middle class people will pay anything to stay out of jail. So local government taxes and fines the hell out of them in lieu of prison. Between court costs, diversion programs, drug screening, probation, fees, fines and so on, a lesser possession charge, up to a low grade felony, will cost the offender 10's of thousands of dollars that go to the city and county. The poor simply run up a tab and are given light prison terms so that they can get out sooner and start working off their tab.

At the state level, the national average is about 64% of the prison prison population is there for non violent drug felonies under mandatory sentencing. Now you can debate whether there's a difference between the accountant who launders a drug lord's money and a person caught with 10 Oxycontin tabs none the less they are both non violent crimes.