It took Libby to bring me out of hiding

It's not that I haven't had plenty to rant about. It's that I've decided to take my warpath to the next level. I'm going to law school.

With that comes studying and planning and trying to keep the Feds out of my internet activity.

But I'll be damned if the past week wasn't enough to resuscitate my dying political heartbeat.

We'll get to the stellar job PBS and Tavis Smiley did with last weeks All American Presidential Debates. I have much to say on why Hillary should beware the seemingly happy Negroes, why it's important that Obama's (bank account) is bigger than yours, and why the failure of the immigration bill and core GOP support for the surge mean a very fun 12 months for people like myself.

But right now I have to talk pardons and commuting sentences and how no matter what they tell you white men know they are under siege in this country (and by siege I mean at danger of being treated like everyone else) and how this is just the beginning of what they are willing to do to maintain their privilege.

There's a reason I don't discuss Mike Nifong and the Duke rape case. People lost the ability to apply any logic to that "case" the minute they felt an emotional connection with either the accused or the accuser. However, today seems a good time to point out what Nifong has really been disbarred for. In taking the word of a black, lower class, female who removes clothes for money over the word of several white men attending a legacy institution like Duke he broke the rule of whitedom.

The law of this land is primarily designed to maintain order as it is defined by white men. It goes without saying that their definition would include a preference for their own. If the law happens to also benefit other folks some of the time, fine. But it had better be infallible when applied to white men of means and missing white women. We cannot forget about the missing white women. NO, really, we cannot. *casts side eye at Nancy Grace*

So they didn't just want justice with Mr. Nifong, they - the parents, the outraged bystanders, white folks - they wanted REVENGE. That's why he was disbarred. Perhaps you'd have to know, as I do, stories of drunk attorneys passing out at defense tables while their clients were convicted who still have their license to see the irony there, but trust me, it's ironic.

Fast forward to today where the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, a wartime president with major issues on his desk found the time to disagree with no fewer than three judges who thought that Libby's sentence fit the crime and, well, you'll have to forgive me for wanting to say a really appropriate Chris Rock joke.

It's not that powerful white men are above the law is news. It's that in 2007, in the era of 24 hour news coverage that this administration cares so little for covering up. I miss the good ol' days when, sure, the powers that be raped you of your civil rights but had the decency to lie to you about it. You know? It's like the guy who feels you up BEFORE dinner - just rude.

And while I concede that the president is within his rights to commute Libby's sentence I deny him the right to try and justify it by condemning it as "excessive".

Two years ago a man named Junior Allen was released from a N.C. prison after serving 35 years - for stealing a TV. Right now 21 year old Genarlow Wilson continues to serve his ten year sentence for having consensual sex when he was a teenager. There are men and women in the judicial system without Mr. Libby's money, adequate legal representation or access who are serving all manner of disproportionate sentences.

I'd like to tell the President all about them. I mean, seeing as how he's now in the dispensation of justice game. Is there an email? A 1-800 number?

I'm sure there are a few thousand folks who'd sure like to get a hold of it.