While many Campus Progress readers and bloggers are tanning or cramming, a manifestation of Lord Acton's description of "absolute power corrupts absolutely" surfaced this week in the form of Libby's guilty verdict. Please take the time during your Spring Break or after you ace all your midterms to see the full breadth of casualties in the Iraq War.

Because of Iraq, our country lost the finest members of our generation. Because of Iraq, our country lost international respect, credibility and the very principles and values that make America great. The first casualty of this war was not a soldier. The first casualty of the Iraq War was truth. Those who believe they are above the law also believe in perpetuating this course of American degradation in the name of saving face and winning political victories of ideology.

I write this post to highlight Libby, the "Gonzales 8" and the atrocities of the Walter Reed scandal. I write this post to call for an examination of the conscience of the citizenry of this country in order to inspire them to action for a better America- the America conceived by our Forefathers and made possible by the sacrifices of the generations that came before us.

Talking heads, pundits and Republican Party operatives alike are embroiled in a rhetorical battle to decide whether Scooter Libby was a fall guy or a scapegoat. This miniscule debate sadly overshadows the big picture of Libby's Trial. I will be the first to admit that the complicated details of this case convoluted my own understanding of events at times yet one thing is clear: Vice President Dick Cheney, with the assistance of his own blind adherence to neoconservatism and the cooperation of his cronies in the Bush Administration, actively sought to undermine if not flat out break the law as well as discredit the truth.

Libby is guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury and rightly deserves to go to jail. However, he holds conservative convictions and worked for the Bush Administration- somehow justifying spin by the Right-Wing Noise Machine in the eyes of many. The people who call for Libby's pardon today are the same people who called for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in the 90's. Their reasoning? Libby maintains his innocence while Clinton took responsibility for his misdeeds. I suppose the Republicans who are now soft on crime want to release every Death Row inmate who maintains their innocence as well.

This blatant hypocrisy of simultaneously justifying impeachment for a Democrat on grounds of perjury and justifying a Presidential Pardon from perjury for a Republican rests at the heart of why politics is valued above the law in this country today. Vice President Dick Cheney honestly believes he is above the law. President George W. Bush believes he does not need Congressional approval to send troops into battle. Our country's principles and values are slaughtered at the hands of those hell-bent on vindicating the merits of the failure of neoconservatism. That is what Libby's trial is really about. That is the big picture missed by so many.

Moving on from the Vice President's office and into the U.S. Department of Justice we are brought onto the stomping grounds of a U.S. Attorney General who appears to value party loyalty above keeping faith with the American people. As I discussed in a previous post, eight well-respected and competent attorneys were fired and removed from working on cases potentially damaging to the Republican Party. Their replacements? Staunch GOP loyalists. This is not mere cronyism. This is permeating vile, partisan politics into a government institution established to fight for justice on behalf of the American people- not just party hacks. The U.S. Department of Justice must be insulated from politics in order to preserve its credibility and fulfill its purpose as an arm of the President's Administration. That purpose is an overarching purpose of public service for every citizen of the United States of America. Once again, the founding principles of our country are slaughtered in the name of preserving the influence of Republican ideology in this country.

Our brave men and women in uniform are punished because the insistence of privatization by this administration gutted medical effectiveness at the crown jewel of Army medicine. Instead of looking out for our troops, George Bush decides to cut the VA budget. The selfless Americans who fight overseas to serve their country in a neoconservative war are mistreated by the war's very architects. It's bad enough to unnecessarily send our troops into harm's way without a plan to win the peace. It's flat-out un-American, heartless and hypocritical to not properly honor their sacrifices while simultaneously accusing political detractors for years of not supporting the troops.

This Campus Progress blogger has reached breaking point. I am at breaking point with tolerating the secrecy, lies and corruption of the Republican Party and the Bush Administration. I am at breaking point with not speaking out against the gutting of laws established on American principle. I am at breaking point with standing idly by as I am accused of not supporting the troops who are my peers today and my decorated grandfather yesterday. I am at breaking point with being accused for so long of hating the country I love because I do not agree with those that harm Her. I am at breaking point with tolerating hypocritical politicians who campaign on homeland security, only to fail to understand that a fundamental part of homeland security is honoring the sacrifices made to achieve that security.

I am at breaking point and I dedicate myself to action. I encourage all others who are at breaking point to join me in restoring the American principles and values envisioned by our Forefathers. I encourage all others who agree that we are not the country molded by neoconservatives to take back America. Don't give up. Speak out. Tell your friends and family- liberal and conservative alike- that America was not founded on the value of politics above law and America was not founded on the principle of party before country.

Dear reader, you and I are not merely fellow participants in democracy. You and I are Americans and this is our country, too.