It’s action-packed half-a-load of kung fu adventure today as we dig down deep in the mailbag, brush aside the shrunken heads that teenager in Olympia keeps sending us (people curry favor in different ways, one presumes) and respond to a couple of good ones.

Dearest Czar,

Is it possible for ordinary folks to write you?

—An imaginary person conceived as a contrivance for this topic

Yes, imaginary person, each of us welcomes submissions (but not arm bars) on pretty much any topic. Today’s real writers are good people such as yourself who send us thoughts on all sorts of things. Yes, thousands of people will read you, but don’t worry: we clean up the most egregious errors (if any) and protect your privacy. So go ahead! Drop each of us a line to say hello.

A less imaginary person, MC, writes in to ‘Puter and the Czar, but only one of us will bother replying because only one of us knows how to work electronic mailz:

Mr. ‘Puter and The Czar (almost sounds like a 70s band),

A fascinating read, at least to me.

Up through page 17 is pretty much boilerplate, establishing that the information was classified TS/SCI, Kim knew it, and knew it was illegal to release it to uncleared people like James Rosen of Fox News.

The e-mail exchanges are pretty interesting. First, Rosen and Kim had amazingly sucky “tradecraft”. Putting your code (one asterisk for “proceed as planned”, two for “don’t”) in an e-mail? Duh, do that in person. Besides, bury it in innocuous text – an e-mail limited to just an asterisk or two is a big-ass “dig here” sign for an outsider. Item (k) on page 22 has Rosen’s “Alex” alias in an e-mail from Rosen’s *work* account with his work signature block appended. WTFO?! How effing sloppy can you get?

The warrant calls for (a) all emails between Rosen’s account and Kim’s known Yahoo/Gmail accounts, but also for (b) two days’ worth of all e-mails from Rosen’s account to anyone else. I can’t see a purpose for the latter request other than to fish for other leakers (which seems to be an inappropriate use of this warrant).

If nothing else, this will keep people from conversing with Rosen because Rosen is careless.

Perhaps Puter can comment on whether the warrant was truly necessary to further the case, or whether it was a fishing expedition. I think a full case could have been made without the emails in Rosen’s account to other individuals.

Rosen may have been careless, or he may not have sensed any real danger; the person who was careless, of course, was most probably Kim. Because The Media is a 14-year-old girl, they are eating this story up. Know how someone claims to have seen a seagull eating a bandaid on the beach, and the local 14-year-old girl becomes this outraged proselytizer at school, organizing fund raisers and beach clean-up events, and basically talking about nothing except saving the seagulls for two weeks? Rosen is the seagull.

The media is making a lot of hay out of this one, and even MSNBC reporters are talking the side of a FoxNews reporter. And why not: even the most lefty MSNBC meat puppet wants to be part of FoxNews’s ratings mafia. More people have probably heard about the DOJ’s overreach than they heard about Fast and Furious.

The real story here is that the DOJ is treating Rosen—in every real way—as a criminal. There is no presumption of innocence here, but they are treating him as a flight-risk murder suspect or as the kingpin of some masterful criminal enterprise. Think how many people were involved in this nonsense in which a reporter is a Wanted Man for basically following a good story. That’s the real heartbreaker: that a person performing well within his Constitutional rights is treated as a full-on Top Ten Wanted criminal.

ID writes back on the subject of ethics, for which we are grateful:

Your immenseness:

I have been musing on something of late, since the submission of my last post. This island is made for musing. We can call it Shangri-La.

I was not born here, but in a major midwestern city, the product of an education that culminated with the award of a degree from a Catholic university, a commuter college really, in that city. My instructors were in some cases Jesuits. One of the blessings – or curses – of a parochial education (if you take it to heart), including at university level, is that your instructors will not only teach you the mechanics of your chosen profession – but the morality of it as well. Trust me, in the line of work I retired from I had need of this education – especially toward the end.

I drew some flak in the past over statements I’ve made, voicing concern about the progressive creep toward moral relativism I’ve seen displayed in Federal law enforcement over my 23-year career. “Feds” are drawn from society. If moral relativism is taught in society in general, it will find its way into small and rather select bodies such as the military and Federal law enforcement as well. Because of this, it is no wonder even senior IRS personnel are behaving as they are, since they are ultimately come from society in general. Somehow, they have come to believe their first loyalty is to the temporary occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, instead of the Constitution of the United States, which they are sworn to protect. I’m not sure if the quote is exact (perhaps one of your time-traveling companions can correct me, if I err) but didn’t some French monarch say something like, &laquo L’Etat, c’est moi! » and another fellow say, „Deutschland ist Hitler, und Hitler ist Deutschland!“, thus equating Germany with Hitler. This is beginning to sound like our nation’s leadership talking about itself – with its minions in government echoing the sentiment. It is becoming increasingly difficult for those in government to differentiate between the country and its leader; or perhaps, between the Constitution and the President. They are not one and the same, and the Nuremberg defense of “I was only doing what my boss told me to do” won’t hold water any more, and, under these circumstances, never did anyway.

Yours in trepidation,

Island Dweller

Yeesh, one has a lot of thoughts in support of your observations. Here are two:

1. Your equation of education minus moral instruction equalling ethics-prone drones is spot on. And your historical support is right on the money: government employees are better at following party orders than believing in the Constitution. You could not have made a better argument.
2. Have you ever noticed that the President seems to be intentionally unaware of our divisions of government? To him, the Federal government is the only legitimate government there is—which is odd coming from a former State Senator. Not surprisingly, as Dr. J. would say, with Sauron’s gaze elsewhere, a lot can happen: the states have never become more solid and Republican during this presidency. This emphasis on federalism has forced the federal government to act as a cadre of Democratic Party lapdogs, yes, but has also allowed for a resurgence of government at the state levels to the chief benefit of Republicans.

Thanks, gentlemen, for encouraging us to think some more today.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.