"The Mikado" (photo: Brian Negin on Flickr)

My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime.

- W.S. Gilbert, “The Mikado”

If there were any doubt that the United States is hurtling straight through the looking-glass, this little niblet of insanity ought to convince the nonbelievers:

The climate change and clean energy debates might have reached a new low–just ask the US Attorney General’s office.

Ted Glick, a legendary nonviolent advocate, who dropped a “Green Jobs Now” banner down the hallway of the Hart Senate Office Building last fall, goes to trial on Tuesday, July 6th, at the Superior Court in Washington, DC. He faces up to three years in prison.

Three years for dropping a banner that reminds Congress to pursue green jobs and clean energy?

Oh my, fetch me my smelling salts. A dirty fucking NONVIOLENT hippie dropped a piece of fabric over the balcony of the Hart Office Building? Now we’ll have to bring in masonry experts and industrial waste clean up crews and pay the janitorial staff overtime in order to expunge the fetid stench of “liberal” from the hallowed Atrium of Civility. How DARE that infidel violate the rarified hallways of Congress with his outrageous demands for congressional accountability!

The irony of this latest waste of taxpayer money? A scant two days ago, Hillary Clinton wagged her finger and issued a stern warning to all those naughty countries that are methodically extinguishing the rights of political protesters:

KRAKOW, Poland — Intolerant governments across the globe are “slowly crushing” activist and advocacy groups that play an essential role in the development of democracy, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday.

She cited a broad range of countries where “the walls are closing in” on civic organizations such as unions, religious groups, rights advocates and other nongovernmental organizations that press for social change and shine a light on governments’ shortcomings.

And in a moment of irony impairment, President Obama’s office delivered the following statement:

[T]he United States is particularly concerned about “the spread of restrictions on civil society, the growing use of law to curb rather than enhance freedom and widespread corruption that is undermining the faith of citizens in their governments.”

*cough*FISA/wiretapping/Gitmo/habeas corpus/MMS/U.S. border drone patrols/off-campus coffee shop lobbyist meetings/[fill in the administration failing du jour here]*cough*

See, Glick’s mistake was unfurling the banner over the balcony railing in the Hart Building. What he should have done was find a statue that offends the most delicate corporate sensibilities and gently draped the banner over that. Then he would have been hailed as a hero by the Obama DOJ.

As we’re all now well too aware, underregulated corporations fuck over this country on a daily basis, engaging in far more heinous . . . and illegal . . . activity than waving around a piece of fabric to remind our immoral, craven representatives that they have a greater responsibility to their constituency than they do to their campaign coffers. Too bad the DOJ seems intent on refusing to seek the punishment to fit their crimes.