Hello again from the Commonwealth (God save it!) -- aka Worldwide Scary Monster HQ, where we have a whole lot of terroristin' going on in our courtrooms and that's not even to mention the fact that Whitey Bulger got two life-terms plus today.

(Whitey also seems to have picked up a pen-pal out of the deal. Somebody wants in on the Scorsese sequel really badly.)

No, we're talking about gen-U-wine Mooslim terroristin'. Take, for example, Tarek Mehanna, who lost his appeal for a new trial on the grounds of OMIGODHIDEUNDERTHEBED!!!!!!

Terrorism is the modern-day equivalent of the bubonic plague: It is an existential threat," the court said, adding that the case required the trial court "to patrol a fine line between national security concerns and forbidden encroachments on constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and association."

If you're comparing a guy's visiting websites to the bubonic plague, which killed somewhere north of 75 million people back in its heyday, then the line you are walking is not very fine.

Meanwhile, the lawyers for surviving Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are trying (and failing) to get some relief so they can mount some kind of defense.

Tsarnaev's lawyers complained that prosecutors have failed to turn over several types of evidence they believe could help them argue against the death penalty, including information on a 2011 triple slaying in Waltham in which Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, is a suspect. Miriam Conrad, one of Tsarnaev's lawyers, told the judge that the defense has also been frustrated by the government's refusal to turn over the immigration files of Tsarnaev's family and friends - information she said could also be used to argue against the death penalty.

Having the federal case all tangled up with a state prosecution concerning Tsarnaev's late brother, Tamerlan, is a nice coincidence for the Feds, not that the latter case is any less hinky, since it involves the (still) mysterious shooting of a witness who was in the middle of being questioned by the FBI.Beyond that, the case against Dzokhar Tsarnaev is not any more transparent.

Tsarnaev's lawyers also asked the judge to ease restrictions placed on Tsarnaev in prison, arguing that they are inhibiting their ability to defend him. The measures, which are often used in terrorism cases, restrict a defendant's access to the mail, the media, the telephone and visitors. O'Toole took both defense motions under advisement and did not immediately rule.

The judge also apparently bounced the ACLU from a hearing on the case on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. ruled the ACLU would not be permitted to speak on Tsarnaev's behalf, and that a memorandum the ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts submitted in support of its position be stricken from the public record. "While there may be no positive rule forbidding it, in my judgment a trial court presiding over a criminal prosecution should not receive or consider volunteered submissions by non-parties except as may be specifically authorized by statute ... or other authority," O'Toole wrote in his ruling. Last week, the ACLU filed the memorandum that stated it planned to fight for Tsarnaev's right to have access to his attorneys.

This trial should be a showpiece to the world about how we do criminal justice in this country. It also should be a showpiece to this country that the Constitution-shredding parts of our "war" on terror are now over, and that our institutions are strong enough to try criminals as criminals and not as threats as "existential" as the Black Death. Whitey Bulger was a bigger threat to the public order, and was a threat to the public order for a longer period of time, than was Dzokhar Tsarnaev. Their respective surnames do not change that fact.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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