What a Day. Or Two.

First, there was yesterday. I refer you to the humor blog for details.

Today, Tim Russert dies, suddenly and without warning. Which is perhaps not overly surprising, the man looked as though he never met a cheese steak or a La-Z-Boy recliner he didn't love, but still, there's something disconcerting when someone who seemed so hale and hearty, so alive, just days before (I last saw him during last Saturday's punditry on the final suspension of the Clinton campaign) passes suddenly. Like the Crocodile Hunter just a couple of years ago, this one will probably haunt me for a while.

But then there came some good news, that even though they've swung quite a great distance in the direction of supporting the unsupportable, backing President Bush on his assertions of broad, sweeping executive powers, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in favor of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay that said detainees do have the right to challenge their detentions in U.S. civilian court. This is a good thing. Not to coddle terrorists, but because we're a country that believes in justice and the rule of law and the inalienable rights of all men. We're a country that believes that it is better for 10 guilty men to go free than for an innocent man to suffer improperly. And until recently, it's never been seriously suggested that the "all men" who "are created equal" only really refers to "all men who are American citizens". And so this is the right decision. Sure, it may force the release of someone who truly is a bad guy for lack of evidence, but that's the way it's supposed to work, and in the mean time, if we treat our prisoners fairly again, perhaps we regain some of the high moral standing and international good will we had prior to the insane squandering by George Bosh on this whole Iraq debacle.

Maybe if, instead of giving more people reason to hate America, we went back to being a shining example of human rights, we will stop breeding the next generation who long for nothing more than to break themselves against the rocks of the "great Satan" in those hopes that enough such shots will break down the foundations and cause our house to crumble.

We don't do things because they're easy or because they're safe, we do them because they are right.

Which brings us to the final bit of news from today, John McCain's oh-so-predictable response to this ruling by the Supreme Court: calling this one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. Yeah, we can all see just how different you are from George W. Bush, John.

What was that about the change we need? Sounds like more of the same to me…