The Seattle Times Exploits a Fellow Loser, Rep. Bill Janklow

[JailBush]

I'm from South Dakota, and I know live in the corporate brothel of Seattle, so this editorial really hit home:

Editorial: South Dakota justice (Dec. 14, 2003)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2001814612_verded14.html

"Too bad the story of what happened in Flandreau, S.D., is not likely to circulate in towns with names like Mosul, Basra and Tikrit.

"The promise held out for Iraqis after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein — democracy and the rule of law — was powerfully on display in a South Dakota courtroom. Ordinary people in the home town of a long-serving, influential political figure were convened to pass judgment on his role in a fatal traffic accident. Rep. Bill Janklow is a former attorney general, governor for 16 years and the state's lone member of the U.S. House. . . .

"The story to share abroad is not about the mighty brought low. This is about having laws, and no one being above the law. Twelve jurors backed up by an idea with the power of an army."

Is that the kind of crap you'd expect to read in a tabloid that endorsed George W. Bush, or WHAT?

The irony is that, if Janklow was Seattle's Mayor or a member of the Seattle City Council or Seattle School Board, the Seattle Times would be campaigning hard to get him a reduced sentence. Our drunk-driving judge Bobbe Bridge, another judge who had neighbors' trees cut down to improve his view, a Mayor who presided over murder and school board members who are arguably worse than pedophiles - these are the people the Seattle Times loves. Times owner Crank Blethen and Jackalope Janklow could well be brothers.