Let's start with a few thoughts on drunk driving. If your state is anything like my state of Michigan, you frequently see public service announcements featuring uniformed police officers warning you that, if you drink and drive, you will do prison time, lose your driver's license, pay hefty fines and end up with a felony record that will make it impossible for you to get a job.
Yet people to drink and drive. Why? Well one reason is that none of the above is really true. Oh it's true in theory. There are statutes that provide for all this. But they are not applied as the commercials would lead you to believe. In reality, people get seven, eight, nine DUI convictions before there is serious thought given to prison time - unless they kill someone. But even then, the perps rarely serve anywhere near what the law permits.
Leaking of classified information from employees of the federal government
That's because, as a society, we pretend to be more disapproving of drunk driving than we really are. Sure, we know that you could theoretically take someone's life. But hey, who hasn't been there? You have four or five cocktails. You came to the party in your own car. It would be a hassle to come back and get it in the morning. It's just a mile or two. Come on. Don't be a moralizer.
We're not very tough on drunk drivers because most people think that there but for the grace of God go they. So you can get multiple DUIs, and apart from whatever public shame might accompany it, you'll pay no real penalty.
I went through all that because I suspect most people can relate to it, and because it's basically the exact same principle that applies right now to the leaking of classified information from employees of the federal government.
According to existing, in-force law, this is a felony. It is a very serious matter that could endanger national security. It should be considered absolutely beyond-the-pale behavior by everyone who works for the federal government, and those caught doing it should face blood-curdlingly serious consequences.
In theory.
In practice, Washington leaks like a seive. Federal employees from the White House to the national security agencies to congressional offices laugh at the quaint notion of protecting classified information, and leak it to the media whenever it serves a personal agenda to do so. Almost no one is ever fired, let alone prosecuted or put in prison, for doing so.
This is partially because it's gone on so long that it's become part of Washington's culture. It's also because the news media cheer the leakers on, since they are the primary beneficiaries of the leaks. The media don't care that the information they publish could endanger national security. They only care about publishing it, especially if doing so hurts Republicans in general and Donald Trump in particular.
And apparently much of the White House staff is also happy to undermine Trump by leaking classified information to the media for the purpose of embarassing him.
So just as we do with drunk driving, we pretend to have a bigger problem with classified leaks than we really do.
But in both cases, we actually should treat the matters as seriously as the law suggests, and as we claim rhetorically that we do.
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The Espionage Act is designed to prosecute people who leak classified information to foreign agents
So I'd like to suggest something: The Espionage Act is designed to prosecute people who leak classified information to foreign agents. It is usually not applied to people who leak to the press. But there is no reason it couldn't be. If classified information is published in the press, then foreign agents can access it just as easily as they could if they got it directly from the leaker in a dark parking garage.
Thus, leaking to the press is the same exact thing as leaking to a foreign agent. It has the same effect.
So I propose that when the White House leakers are identified, they be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, and that prosecutors seek the death penalty.
Yes. I'm serious. When a nation fails to take seriously the measures designed to protect its own security, it is only a few missteps away from seeing that security irreparably compromised. Whoever is doing this doesn't care a whit about America's security, despite having accepted a high-level job in which said security is supposed to be a high priority. That is a very serious crime. I would argue it is a capital offense.
Let's see if avoiding the electric chair might be part of that agenda.
And if the defense is, "People do this all the time and no one gets prosecuted, let alone executed," then the response to that can simply be:
"Not anymore."
Do this one time. And whether you get a conviction or not, or the death penalty or not, see if people in Washington continue to leak the way they've been doing lately.
I know they don't care about the country. But they obviously do care about their own personal agendas. Let's see if avoiding the electric chair might be part of that agenda.
Let's start with a few thoughts on drunk driving. If your state is anything like my state of Michigan, you frequently see public service announcements featuring uniformed police officers warning you that, if you drink and drive, you will do prison time, lose your driver's license, pay hefty fines and end up with a felony record that will make it impossible for you to get a job.
Yet people to drink and drive. Why? Well one reason is that none of the above is really true. Oh it's true in theory. There are statutes that provide for all this. But they are not applied as the commercials would lead you to believe. In reality, people get seven, eight, nine DUI convictions before there is serious thought given to prison time - unless they kill someone. But even then, the perps rarely serve anywhere near what the law permits.
