Setting An Example

Good news on top of good news. For once, we're not being sarcastic.

An Algerian who plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium was sentenced to 22 years in prison Wednesday by a judge who used the opportunity to sternly criticize the Bush administration's anti-terrorism tactics.

"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said. "The message to the world from Wednesday's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."

....

"The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism," Coughenour said. "Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."

Whoa, hey, Sean Penn! Don't legislate your "hate America" agenda from the bench, man! Haven't you read Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin? Who put this Wavy Gravy dude in a judgeship? For the love of Paula Abdul, don't make Jonah Goldberg swivel his fat ass around in his chair and type something snarky about you. After all, that's his contribution to the war he believes very much in, as it goes for all the keyboard kommandos.

It's nice to finally see someone in such a position of authority express a bit of common sense about all this. The point has only been reiterated over the past few weeks, since the bombing in London, as we've watched stoic Brits brush themselves off and go right back to what they were doing.

We don't have to abandon our principles to fight terrorists, and Judge Coughenour demonstrated that quite handily. Moreover, authorities were able to get Ressam to work with them and give up crucial information -- without resorting to torture, or the cop-out of "extraordinary rendition".

One day we'll realize that many of the schlubs we carted off to Guantanamo were innocent -- they were either in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were convenient reward money for unscrupulous Afghan warlords. That's why we never got much in the way of useful intel out of them.