Re:Open for litigation (Score 2, Insightful)

The legal process is an advesarial process. Civil matters are people vs. people and criminal are local/state/federal gov't (representing the people) vs. some guy. We used to believe in the system, trusting that the government would stand up for our rights and punish those who wronged 'The Public'. But with this administration, that trust has been broken numerous times; reporters phone lines being tapped because they didn't like the information that the reporter had a hold of, the addition of local problems (ie. drug dealers) to national security bills (PATRIOT Act), reclassification of previously declassified documents, seemingly willy-nilly and for no reason better than, 'It shouldn't be out anymore.' and many others. Where's our chance to become advesarial on a government that has wronged us? The voting booth? Sure, but with massive uphill obsticales for all but the incumbent to overcome, years between lever pulls and an attention span of one scandal by the majority of people, the voting booth really only allows for sweeping changes when the fuckups are public, big and recent. The media? I guess I'm glad there's only so many stories on Britany Spears' birthing cooch and Keifer tackling Christmas trees so they can bring out the other, less important things like this. But the reporters who do want to bring light to issues like this are being hamstrung along with the sources being terrified of being identified unless they jump through the many hoops highlighted in spy novels and drug organizations. The gun? It took an ocean of space and help from the Frogs for us to get rid of the British government. And why did we want that? No taxation without representation. The south took up arms against the federal government and lost when the north choked supplies (plus the north was fighting on God's side to free the slaves from the dirty, cotton-picking, no-good scoundrels.) The Constitution set up a government that would be the binding force behind disseperate factions. Now it's being used to form a cohesive people behind the one true leader (I guess it's whomever's in charge that day). We used to be a country of, 'Truth, freedom and the American Way,' and now it's more of a, 'American Way or the highway.'