It's the First Amendment, Stupid!

There's no reason this shouldn't be the most significant story of the entire year. Wisconsin labor laws and even military personnel brainwashing our Senators is not as significant as what has supposedly happened here.

The federal government illegally stole or infiltrated the private and personal records of a journalists at the nation's best-known newspaper because of the stories he wrote, and has now used that information to prosecute another person.

This is a massive and all-out assault on the 1st and 4th Amendment, but most especially the 1st. This is censorship, this is punishment for speech, for journalism. A free press is a nothing but a theory or an illusion in a world where the government will raid the personal information of journalists as a result of the stories they write. Indeed, the government tried to subpoena some information (as in, only the information they actually wanted) but couldn't get the results they want from those pinko, civil liberties absolutists known as federal court judges. So instead they just took all the information they could get - illegally.

So far, to my reading, it's not clear when this story began, or whether or not Obama ordered it, but he is responsible for it's continuance and the fact that the prosecution of the source appears to still be going forward. Of course this is another (though perhaps most glaring) in a long line of Obama lies, flip flops and law optionality, in the leader-loyalty of Dems who were oh-so-concerned when Bush did similar or even less terrible things. But this story is bigger than a lying politician, or hypocritical political factions.

The only appropriate response from any President of any party who claims to care one wit about the law or the Bill of Rights would be to issue an immediate apology to the journalist, fire then investigate and prosecute the officials who ordered, carried out or conspired in this, establish a new oversight body or office to ensure nothing like this ever happens again, and of course immediate drop the prosecution.

And, the only appropriate response from the public, and especially to people who claim to be journalists on TV, is absolute, unrestrained outrage.