"Bad People Employ Bad People"

A Criminology of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's Staff

In The American Prospect, Farai Chideya addresses the laws that Bill Frist aide and accused theiving Republican bastard Manuel Miranda may have broken in accessing Democratic Judiciary Committee documents from a shared server:

Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes, "Each time the Republicans accessed the Democrats' files without authorization, they at a minimum violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 USC Sec.1030(a)(2)." That statute includes anyone who "intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains information from any department or agency of the United States."

Tien also rejects the reports that focus on the content of Democratic memos versus their theft. In describing this crime, he says, "It's pretty sleazy to blame the victim when you're the one exploiting the weakness in the first place. Good computer security is hard. Poor computer security is extremely common. ... I don't believe in double standards, so maybe we should think of all the companies and governments who have been hacked in the past few years because of poor security."

Pretty sleazy -- and not a defense to criminal charges!

Meanwhile, The Hill reports that Manuel is the latest victim of the Bush jobless recovery:

The Hill has learned that he agreed to resign under pressure from Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The Democrats have not agreed to scale back their demands for wide-ranging punishments following a full-blown leak inquiry.

In this exclusive photo, Bill Frist shows Manny what's behind Door Number 3: It's your ass in a sling, Manny! (Waahh .... waahh ... whahh)

Will any of Miranda's big media friends -- Sean Hannity, Novakula, etc. -- stick up for Manny? Don't count on it. Will they be subpeonaed to testify? Let's hope so!

Hey, Capitol Police! Don't forget to read Manny his Miranda rights... even if he doesn't believe in 'em.