The Periphery of the Mind

First we have the fun with problems regarding voting machines, as summed up by the nifty XKCD comic.



But what's really gotten my goat is the following blurb from our Attorney General in regards to punishment of those members of the Justice Department guilty of using political leanings as a factor in hiring new civil attorneys and judges (i.e. if you didn't support Bush and the Republican party, you weren't likely to get hired). In the words of the Attorney General:

"Where there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing, we vigorously investigate it. And where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute," Mukasey said in a speech to the American Bar Assn. in New York. "But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."

Now, I'm no lawyer, but isn't violating the law a pretty good definition of committing a crime? Sure those who were hired weren't guilty, but those who did the hiring aren't exactly innocent in all of this. The Attorney General's response, "The officials most directly implicated in the misconduct left the department to the accompaniment of substantial negative publicity," is his way of saying that "if you quit a job for getting caught breaking the law, you've been punished enough." And while those involved have gained a great deal of negative press, they're also all employed and doing well elsewhere. Essentially proving, to some extent, that you can be rewarded for abusing your position within the American Judicial system.

I figure I'll actually register and vote Obama at that point. Not because I think he's so great, I really, really, really don't, but because I'm sick of rewarding the Republicans for pulling crap like this.

Labels: politics, rant