Honestly, I don’t know what the hell goes on in Albany. I admit that freely. But this is quite the eye-opener. Looks like the two rat bastahds that revolted in the Senate were already well known shills in the first place. Gotta love it.

This site is a political site, primarily, with a ton of other random subjects as suit my fancy and that of my blogger friends who are good enough to help me out. I am generally uncomfortable delving into subjects such as the Brittanee Drexel case because there’s not a lot I can add to the conversation and because I feel like those of us in alternative media and media generally who have nothing to contribute aught not to interfere.

I understand that this crisis affects a lot of people and that those people deserve to have their pain acknowledged by their community. In fact, I am much more personally aware than most readers know, though by no means among the directly affected. But at the same time as I acknowledge the need for local media coverage, I find the national media coverage of such subjects largely ghoulish, voyeuristic and opportunistic. So while this space will remain largely silent on the condition of the ongoing investigation and on the suffering of Brittanee, her family, her friends and the coping of all those kids and teachers and parents and custodians and security guards and principles and so many others whom she knew and or went to school with, I felt as though I aught to address the one subject for which this website is suited: the media.

The South Carolina press has finally caught wind of the fact that Brittanee Drexel’s prom - along with that of hundreds of other Gates-Chili kids innocent of the entire awful affair - is this Saturday night. That means that the national media - who has already been watching this case - is also aware. You know what that means, don’t you?

Swarms of cameras outside of the party house where the kids are having their prom. Cameras and journalists pushing for a spot closer to the door, eager to interview kids who know nothing more than they do. Kids who can’t get inside because the media’s in the way; Can’t get in the way to their own prom because of people who will forget this case in a month. Maybe even a few kids who won’t go in, just because the media is there.

So, if you’re listening down there in New York, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News and all the rest of the Katzenjammer Kids: do us a favour and have your local affiliates - who have to live here - do a bit of light filming and let it go at that. Let these kids have their prom.

Did John Edwards use campaign money to cover up his affair?

I’m surprised I need to make this distinction, but allow me to point out that there is a difference between accepting history with all it’s warts and accepting contemporary crimes as simply a matter of historical fact. As the torture story continues to evolve in the media, we find that many people, particularly Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough, want to simply dismiss the acts committed in the Bush Administration as part of a larger historical fact of life which cannot be helped. For example, let’s review the TPM “Day in 100 Seconds” from yesterday:

The fire bombing of Dresden was indeed a nightmarish and shameful act. The dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the most egregious acts of war in the history of mankind, it’s fair to say. And in both cases, while we may argue around the particulars, these acts were done in the heat of a war when generals did not believe other alternatives remained. Sherman’s march to the sea also comes to mind.

But those things are in the past. We might have done something different at the time, but we did not. And in the animal nature of man and the horrors of war, these things do happen repeatedly throughout history. We cannot condemn all of our history - or that of mankind - as simply evil because of the evil acts contained in that history. All of this is true. Yet that hardly justifies or excuses criminal acts of war committed in our recent past, still subject to criminal investigation. Neither justifies, excuses those acts, nor releases us from the duty to prosecute those acts.

Put simply, the question is this: because Jesse James killed a lot of people and robbed a lot of banks, does that mean we have to accept that bank robbers and murderers operate in our midst currently? Or do we hold the present to a different standard than the past? By Morning Joe’s standards, there is no particular reason to seek out Osama bin-Laden, since after all, terrorists have always existed. Or how about Bernie Madoff? Thief is probably as old an occupation as whore, don’t you think?

Not to pretend that either Left or Right, Republican or Democrat actually holds the morel high ground as an intrinsic quality. Far from it. But we keep hearing over and over again on the news that the pressure to investigate torture is coming from the Left. As if the shit-storm we’re seeing right now could possibly be generated by the relatively small group of independents on the Left.

We know that the media loves to drive the Right-Left Bloodsport story, but the idea that a bunch of cigarette-smoking, absinthe-drinking, goatee-wearing bongo-playing poet intellectuals have driven the story of Americans torturing perceived enemies into the tops of all the headlines is simply absurd. This story is being driven by a genuine outrage across a large section of the American public over - call me over sensitive - genuinely outrageous stuff.

And for fuck’s sake, people, does it not matter to anyone in the MSM that crimes appear to have been committed? Politics be damned. Optics be damned. Crimes committed in a nation of laws need to be prosecuted, even if you think they were justified; justification is a question for opinion makers, immaterial to the proper prosecution of laws.

Even more frustrating about the conversation - and even more of a measure of the psychosis that the War on Terror has thrown a large portion of our nation’s power structure, as reflected by the media that bathes itself in that power - is the idea that, because there’s a war going on, we cannot stop to examine our mistakes. This is simply not the case and there is simply no precedent for that type of heedlessness in our history. Plenty of prosecutions have happened in war time, from the Revolutionary War right up to the present day.

I would like someone in the media to patiently explain to my obviously ignorant ass what, precisely, about the United States of America continuing to prosecute it’s laws would embolden the enemy? What about the United States of American proving that it’s laws can withstand it’s institutions and it’s institutions can withstand it’s laws makes us weak?

We derive our strength from our laws. Crimes appear to have been committed. A proper investigation, even if no prosecutions or convictions proceed from it, is the only strategic move.

Senator Ted Stevens walking away from what seems like richly deserved jail time is upsetting to many people. However, the bigger issue here is that prosecutors withheld information that could have negated their case, which has been ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. That’s the larger issue that Judge Emmet Sullivan chose to address in his remarks on the case.

And I mean, honestly: what’s more important? A grumpy old Senator from Alaska or the rights of all Americans that have been so abused by the Bush Administration?

From the comments section, and a hat tip to dadofone for putting this all together.

If you wondered, as Bill Maher did on a recent episode of Real Time, why the federal government was able to track down some rough sex between Governor Spitzer and a hooker but didn’t know about Bernie Madoff or the credit crisis, Eliot Spitzer himself has an answer for you: he got shut up.

We’ll have to see where this goes. Maybe old Spitz is making a comeback. Maybe we can legalize prostitution and put this whole thing behind us. Ya never know. . .

Amazing. A major miscarriage of justice was just a heartbeat away in Greece - all because of an egregious breakdown in the chain of custody on the part of Greece police - and the chief is stunned by the thought that he might be asked to resign for something that happened on his watch. Check this douchebag out.

“I’m embarased. I’m ashamed. And I’m the chief and I have to answer for it.”

“Would you ever consider resigning?”

“Me? Phht! I didn’t do anything wrong.”

I mean, holy shit: that’s like something out of a Reno 911 bit. Or The Onion. But I would think anyone interested in justice might now be inclined to record this interview and play it over and over again till the dude’s gone.

Well, how about this? The original founder of Spot Coffee is going to do three years in the pokey for a stock scam related to Spot. Not to worry, though: Spot is now owned by a Canadian company and going strong.

Sure, carrying a loaded rifle in the car brings with it some risks, especially if you get pulled over. But how would anyone know you have the rifle in your car? No, for the real thrill seeker, it’s better to have something less concealable, like a couple of pot plants in the back seat and some more pot in the “boot.” And the rifle, now we’re talking.

But why stop there? Just as cops are getting used to spotting the “Cell phone swerve,” now seems like a perfect time to employ the ultimate in thrill seeking activities and give them something new to look out for: driving down the highway with two pot plants in the back seat, pot in the trunk and a loaded rifle, all while filming yourself masturbating.

Dare to dream.