Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Civil Disobedience

The time has come for federal judges to go to jail. They should do so willingly if that is what we need to fight the latest right wing outrage. The far right wing in this country count on the fact that very few Americans have the inclination or the ability to pay attention to details. The media usually help by ignoring the news we need to know but occasionally even the New York Times does its job and gives us the news that is fit to print.

You probably have not heard of the Feeney Amendment. It allows Congress to have access to all of the supporting documents from federal sentencing decisions. As I recall from my school days in the last Ice Age, we have a separation of powers in this country. The legislative branch can't tell the judicial how to do their jobs. Our conservative friends are at it again. They change the rules as they go along.

By the way, the Feeney Amendment was sneaked into the Amber Alert bill. How did we get the Amber Alert bill? Once we were terrified about child abductions it was easy. You now see why I caution against being influenced by the latest media effort to scare us. The truly scary people always use these things to screw the rest of us later on.