Venezuela's regime has imprisoned political opponent; can't happen here

Abuse of power really pisses me off.

I'm talking about any situation where one person or side has relatively unlimited power, and uses it unjustly (that is, not in accord with law or ethics) to punish a domestic opponent or threat.

In Venezuela the opposition to the socialist regime found a rising star--a former mayor named Leopoldo Lopez.  The guy has double the approval rating of the country's socialist president, which pretty much tells you the regime regarded him as a threat.

So last February the regime jailed Lopez on some crap charges, and has held him in near-total isolation since then.

I think the U.N. and Human Rights Watch, both of which usually support leftist governments--are pretty useless, but in this case the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, HRW and the European Parliament have ruled that Lopez "has been jailed arbitrarily" (i.e. not in accord with legal process) and should be freed immediately.

Given the consistent reluctance of all three of these organizations to oppose socialist governments, these opinions speak to the outrageousness of the guy's imprisonment.

Here in the U.S. it would be unthinkable for the government to imprison someone simply because they had information that would embarrass the administration.  Our emperor is MUCH craftier than that.

Thus we have Holder's Department of Injustice very publically announcing it is considering charging a former head of the CIA and former Army 4-star general Petraeus with a felony for leaking secrets to his mistress.

This probably doesn't seem odd to you.  After all, leaking national secrets to unauthorized persons is illegal.  Like when the NY Times printed details about a secret program that enabled the U.S. to follow funds raised in the U.S. and sent to terrorist groups overseas.  In that case the government immediately charged...wait, no one was charged.

No one on the Left is ever charged for leaking secrets.  And in Petraeus' case no one has alleged that any secrets actually leaked (as in, published or turned over to an enemy).  So why is he being threatened with a felony charge?

To use a naval term, it's a shot across the bow--a threat intended to keep the guy from telling the new Republican congress something that would make life more difficult for the emperor.

Understand that the government does NOT intend to actually try to convict the guy at a trial.  That would make his defense public record, which the emperor doesn't want.  Rather, it's the threat of loss of pension that will keep the secret long enough for the emperor to be untouchable. 

I doubt the DOI will actually file charges, but if it does, they'll be quietly dropped when we get closer to the end of the emperor's term.  Another likely outcome--with the same effect but quieter--is that the DOI will simply let the clock run without making any sort of declaration one way or the other, leaving the next president to dismiss 'em.

See?  Much better than those socialist thug bastards running Venezuela.