Rooked from the Rookery

Mole, unpacking lunch, by Charles van Sandwyk
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Mr. Toad, Ratty and Mole are the leads in Kenneth Grahame's wonderful tale, Wind in the Willows. I believe Gonzo is Mole, though he is a toady, too. In the above illustration, he is supplicating to Rat.

Musing upon the shuffle off to Buffalo of Attorney General Gonzales yesterday, I was brought again to the great victory of the Padilla trial, which was really nothing but a pipe dream.

Ranger agrees that the federal court system is the proper venue for dealing with terrorists, as they are criminals, and must be addressed as such.

The problem with Padilla was that it only demonstrated that the federal court system will prostitute itself to the dictates of the head pimp, GWB. Gonzales was merely a proxy pimp.

But he "was instrumental in decisions to detain U.S. citizens and non-citizens for indefinite periods without charging them, supported the use of military tribunals, rather than civilian courts, to try foreign suspects for alleged war crimes, and helped draft the now-infamous administration memo that supported harsh interrogation tactics of terrorism suspects" (Gonzales Out; Big Challenges Ahead.)"

Like another Bush appointee, Condoleeza Rice, it has been said that Gonzales was in over his head. Cronyism, yes, but also indicative of the devastating effects of the leveling phenomenon.

It is the middling benchmark for which GWB's signature program, No Child Left Behind aims. It is why new studies say you might get fat if you hang around fat friends. Behaviors are contagious, and can be institutionalized. This administration is marked by the institutionalization of mediocrity, and worse.

The most basic abuses hurled upon Padilla were suspension of habeas corpus and the right to remain silent. Somewhere in the right to remain silent is the implied right not to be drugged and tortured by inquisitors.

Regarding the now-convicted Big Bad Wolf Padilla himself -- how many people did he kill? In round numbers: ZERO.

The only thing confirmed by this trial was the rot that has become federal law enforcement and the courts, thanks to the winning trifecta of GWB, Gonzales and Congress. This Jai-Alai has only brought higher lies. Justice is no longer blind; she is a coercive dominatrix.

If the court is so effective, as all are hailing, why aren't terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried in open court? If KSM is the alleged puppet master behind 9-11, then his kill record is +/- 3,000. Now that would be a meaningful conviction.

What about the other dozen or so high yield prisoners now rat-holed in Gitmo? Try a real terrorist and not mind criminals.

Let's have a reality check here. The U.S. legal system which prosecutes these people is screwed from the get-go (the Git-mo?) The government can't kidnap, transfer to secret prisons and torture people, and then tell us that justice is being done.

The U.S. response to terrorism has made a joke out of our legal system. One of the rotted bars of this scaffolding has now fallen off.

Let's hope his replacement is not such a shameless toady.