What rule of law

Our government doesn't really operate under the rule of law anymore. There's no clearer illustration of that than AG Mukasey's refusal to prosecute former Justice Department employees who illegally applied political litmus tests in deciding who to hire and fire within the Justice Department. Of course, we expected no less from Bush's hand-picked lackey.

Mukasey basically contends that the perps already suffered enough embarrassment by having their criminal conduct publicly exposed. Right. Remind me to recommend that defense the next time an unconnected friend gets a traffic ticket. Meanwhile, these white collar perps will probably all eventually write books from the safety of their comfortable homes and make a fortune on the speaking circuit.

On a related note, it's not unnoticed that this administration has no fear of abridging the laws that protect us from government misconduct. Via Avedon, I see that a google search for the phrase, "it's a free country" only turns up 260,000 hits and most of those are bemoaning the fact that it's not anymore. Only the links to decades old material use the phrase to describe the state of the nation.