Free at last, they took your life, but they could not take your pride...

Though Bono has admitted that he was wrong about the time of day (it was the afternoon, not the "early morning") that song is playing through my head today. You see, "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was written to celebrate the courage and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today is the fortieth anniversary of his assassination.

Many remember King's speeches and marches in the early 1960s, but few know how much of a liberal he was on issues such as the war, socio-economic status, the labor movement and others. King, like any great visionary, realized that the issue of race is felt in all of these struggles and that they, too, need to be focused on to reach a more perfect union.

This blog by Katrina Vanden Heuvel is a nice piece.

But what more brilliant picture can you paint than that his son has painted here.

Today is a remembrance of the great man who gave this great nation of ours a dream, but it is meaningless unless we work towards full achievement of that dream for all. That means confronting violence--not only the violence that comes at us, but the violence we create--and confronting socio-economic injustice in a real and meaningful way.

Today is a day of remembrance.

Today is a day of action.

I so want to work on this appeal.

A federal district court judge dismissed Valerie Plame's suit against the Bush Administration today regarding the leak of her identity as an undercover CIA agent.

Apparently it wasn't good enough for him. Well, sort of....

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

The judge stated, in his opinion:

"The alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory, " Bates wrote. "But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials."

Um....no. Their jobs do not include attacking the credibility of anyone. Show me where in the spirit, word or interpretation of the constitution that the president and his or her staff has the authority, permission or directive to do this. If can you show me that, I have a house on Mars I'd like to sell you.

And just to add insult to injury, the now-free Libby's attorney had this gem to add:

"This just dragged on the character assassination that had gone on for years," said Alex Bourelly, one of Libby's lawyers. "To have the case dismissed is a big relief."

Yeah...money was exchanged on this one.