I read the following in Tina Brown's latest aggregator, THE DAILY BEAST:

One of the few pardons that President Bush gave this week was bestowed on a rapper and one-time backup singer for Carly Simon and producer for the Fugees. John Forte has already served eight years in prison for smuggling $1.4 million in liquid cocaine through the Newark airport. Forte also was a graduate of the Exeter Academy, where he befriended Simon's son. Simon pled for his pardon to a ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch, one of whose songs she recorded. Hatch arranged for Forte to have his guitar in jail and then pushed Bush to pardon him. Bush, a graduate of rival Phillips Andover Academy, granted mercy on the prep school coke user.

If you know me in real life, you'll know that I really don't care who does what drugs, who sells what drugs ... that I am truly a "live and let live" (or "Live and Let Die") kinda gal. I try not to pass judgment lest I be judged...

HOWEVER

WHAT THE FUCK is ANYONE doing with $1.4 MILLION worth of liquid cocaine? The story goes that a broke John Forte was helping out some friends who were indeed drug dealers and he was courier-ing the stash... and his side of the story is that he was asked to do this transaction by his dealer friend's other couriers who were, unbeknownst to Forte, cooperating with the DEA agents who had busted them.

I am not surprised at this element of the story: George W., a prep school party boy himself, is just playing the good old boy routine. I mean - he certainly can relate to the details of the case, I'm sure.

And then Carly Simon - I understand where she's coming from. She believes her friend and back up singer is innocent. For her, my out-of-the-blue question is: WHY DID YOU RECORD A SONG BY ORRIN HATCH? That action obviously bought you some leverage. I guess I'm being pre-emptively judgmental on the songwriting talents of the Senator, but I disagree with his voting record when it comes to spying on Americans.

Also, I'm of the school of thought that drug use is a victimless crime in many instances... unless you're the kind of scumbag who steals or kills or otherwise injures other in the course of your acquisition, using and maintenance of your drug use. However, that amount - $1.4 MILLION worth. Really, that's not a personal stash... that's not even a weekend with your friends stash... so why would you take the risk of transporting this amount of drugs? Even if the rationale that Forte has put forth - that he thought he was moving large sums of CASH for his buddy the drug dealer... didn't he have the sense to put two and two together?

Where do I draw the line? I don't know. But dude went to a fancy prep school and he's no dummy. We have laws in this country, that whether or not we agree with, we have to live by - or pay the consequences if we get caught... that applies to everything from jay walking to murder... a moving large sums of cash or drugs.

Should we have mercy on John Forte? He served 8 years of a 14-year sentence, and pardoning him gives him a clean record, theoretically voiding the fact he got caught trying to do something he knew was against the law. He took the risk and paid the consequences. He's lucky that he has friends and advocates in high places. Most other people committing this same act would continue to rot in prison.

That opens the door for another discussion on mandatory minimums for certain classes of crime, and for the whole war on drugs mind-set in this country. Its all pretty gray... except for all the Black dudes sent up to prison for these crimes...