Hi, everybody.  Things are looking up at last, and the national scene is properly messy, - just the way I like it.  Trust this administration to do right things for wrong reasons and wrong things for right reasons; -they’ll never let you down.  Now the FBI’s got all red in the face caught snooping.  The FBI chief Mueller is shedding buckets of tears and taking, in fact inviting, all the blame for misusing the Patriot Act.  It’s been a great mistake, he says.  It’s entirely my fault, he says.  Blame me and only me, he says.  What he doesn’t say, is that, never look for those on the field who had systematically  bused the Patriot Act.  Never look for them who actually forced confidential data from private businesses.  That can make things very, very messy.  You never know where the trails may lead.  If the little agents spill their beans, the stink can suffocate the nation.  So, it’s better for all this way.  Mueller the fall guy, Mueller the martyr, the man who took blame for the rape of democracy, and the man who says he cannot resign since he needs his seat to correct the mistakes.  Welcome to the season of funny fall guys.

Earlier last week, Scooter Libby shot to fame as a messed-up martyr of the media.  Everybody, including members of his trial jury, said there were bigger fish behind Scooter.  However, nobody went forward to drag out the big fish and punish them.  So, everybody agreed Scooter should be punished.  Speculations on his sentencing in Doug Berman’s blog hit the mark and make interesting reading at http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2007/03/more_libby_sent.html.  Peter Henning’s taken a different angle on the issue asking whether CIA will now start prosecuting everybody who leaks classifieds to the people.  Read it at  ttp://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2007/03/initial_thought.html. I know you’ll like them.
I struck gold in a March 12^th article on the National Law Journal.  This article discusses the issues on jurors turning deviants as bloggers.  In a case between Stephen Goupil and the State of New Hampshire, the conduct of a juror who blogged came under scrutiny, and thankfully the decision was in his favor.  The ruling that saved the blogger from becoming the fall guy can be found at http://www.nh.gov/judiciary/supreme/opinions/2006/goupi110.pdf

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But the best fall guy of the season was actually a wall clock.  The wall clock at the post office has sacrificed itself for the greater good. The U.S. post, fed up with complaints from people waiting in long lines has at last taken decisive action, - all wall clocks in the offices have gone under the axe.  Check your neighborhood P.O. and see if you can find one and don’t forget to tell me if you do!