Crime and Punishment

This will probably sound like one of those trivia columns: did you know that our Constitution guarantees equal protection under the law? Who knew?? Looks like a great idea on paper; let’s see how it really works:

Millions of non-violent drug offenders (mostly marijuana users) are serving huge federally-mandated prison sentences. And several people are facing up to twenty years in jail for importing Khat — a plant which acts as a mild stimulant when you chew the leaves — from East Africa into the United States. And in Georgia an 18-year-old boy was sentenced to ten years in prison for having consensual oral sex with an underage girl.

Boy, are we strict. But then again:

Scooter Libby had his 30-month prison sentence commuted. The average sentence for obstruction of justice is five years and four months. Even if Bush hadn’t commuted Libby’s “excessive” prison term, his sentence would’ve been less than half of the average sentence for that crime.

Equal protection??? Maybe Scooter Libby should smoke some marijuana so he could get sentenced to fifteen years at Leavenworth.

Send Scooter Libby to Guantanamo — or Shut It Down

That’s the title of an e-mail I got yesterday. And it makes sense. In the name of “National Security” we've been putting terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay so that the Constitution and Geneva Convention won’t apply.

Well, if outing a CIA agent isn't a breach of national security, what is? Remember, Bush 41 once said that people who reveal the names of covert operatives are “the most insidious of traitors.” If the Constitution and Geneva Convention are “quaint” and “outdated” — as Abu Gonzales says they are — then why should Scooter Libby get any special privileges? Off to Gitmo with him!!

I personally would rather have the Guantanamo Bay prison shut down. I think the Constitution and Geneva Convention should apply to all war criminals, including Scooter Libby. If you think the same standard — whatever that standard is — should apply to everyone convicted or suspected of war crimes, click here.