if only we could all be like judith miller

think she wants me to feel like she is some sort of hero for the constitution. like journalistic integrity needs people like her (never mind that journalistic integrity went down the shitter years ago...and journalists are the bozos that acquiesced in thinking it was a good idea to print the name of a CIA operative in a newspaper with worldwide circulation). like if she didn't agree to go to prison (which it now appears may have been some staged shit on her side since her source may or may not have given her "permission" to testify a year ago) the constitution would crumble and the first amendment would become meaningless.

i dont buy it. i've said it before and i'll say it again...THERE IS NO REPORTER/SOURCE PRIVILEGE. never has been one, never will be. what we have here is a grand jury (testimony before which is secret to begin with...under penalty of law) investigating a serious, serious crime. we all know what drug dealers do to folks when they find out they are DEA agents...imagine that tenfold and you've got the danger covert CIA agents face if their cover is blown. serious shit.see, the grand jury is one of the most important institutions in the criminal justice system. it is almost a fourth branch of government, it answers to noone but itself, and it decides whether the government has enough evidence to bring charges. it was formed as an answer to ridiculous abuses of power by the old english monarchs...and it was so important that the "founders" of this country had the wisdom to make it its own separate constitutional entity.

the thing with grand juries is...they get everyone's evidence if they ask for it. hell, here in new mexico the government even has to present the would-be defendant's evidence. they need it to work correctly. this is why you go to prison if you dont testify after subpoenaed by a grand jury....you have no right not to. freedom of speech and the press doesnt carry over into this arena, never has, never will. judith miller wasn't protecting the constitution...she was thumbing her nose at it.

and lets not forget, that while some jackass (cough, cough, karl rove, cough, cough....who by the way, really, really pisses off the left because he is an evil genius and continues to whoop good) in the white house decided it would be a good idea to disclose the identity of a CIA operative (whether or not she was covert and it was knowing and all that jazz....well, the grand jury gets to decide if there is probable cause to believe that....and they cant do that without all the evidence they see fit to make that decision...so again, judith miller is no "champion of rights") to the press....the press decided it would be a good idea to print it. reminds me of geraldo drawing maps in the sand...sometimes you just wonder why these folks don't stop for a minute and say to themselves "you know...some really, really bad shit could happen to some good, innocent people if i put this information out there...information that there really is no public need-to-know" (hell, they could have printed this ... "karl rove and some other white house cronies tells the [insert paper here] that the wife of a critic is a cia operative who investigated some shit in africa...perhaps a federal grand jury should hear about this matter."

so here's to judith miller...the woman who spent awhile in prison for a principle that has never been recognized in american jurisprudence...and a principle that gives the finger to one of the most important institutions in this country...one that plays a vital role in protecting joe schmo from the government and overzealous prosecutions.

i'll be outta here in three days, and it's not a day too soon.