Bill O'Reilly takes a lot of abuse. He is "arrogant", he is a "bully", he is a "conservative". The usual charges.
Hundreds if not thousands of blogs and main stream media outlets had a field day with the David Letterman'debate' with O'Reilly during a recent airing of his show.
I have even had my own beefs with O'Reilly from time to time (read here).

The field day that regular folks like you as well as other 'concerned' citizens have with every failing and falling of the rich and powerful is somewhat understandable. The fixation some have is downright disturbing. We all like to see the proverbial "train reck" but we also have to balance out our personal interest with the topics and stories that truly impact our lives.

While many of us are still chuckling over the Letterman/O'Reilly 'debate', Bill has been busy discussing another more important story. The story revolves around the sentencing of a 34 year old man to a 60 day prison term for the alleged rape of a 6 year old girl for 4 years. Yes 4 years!

The 'thinking' behind Judge Edward Cashman's sentence is that the quicker Mark Hulett can get 'through' the system, the quicker he can go through 'rehabilitation'.

A quote from the judge (source):

My heart goes out to this family. And I would hate to be in the situation this family is in, but there's other families out there. And there's other people who could be victimized. And I'm trying to take the long view.

Heartwarming to the last, judge.

I know that Vermont, the land of maple syrup and the moose, is a liberal state but this borders on absolute insanity. All the considerations are being made for the criminal(who admitted to the crime) but is justice even being served to the little girl? Does this punishment (not to be confused with the rehabilitation part) really fit the crime?

Because this lacks all the traditional intreague of the usual "George Bush Good, Rest of World Bad", "Democrats Bad, Republicans Good" or even the "Rich Liberal Media Guy Badmouths Rich Conservative Media Guy" story lines this may pass a lot of us by, and that is unfortunate.

Bill has been careful not to make this a political debate either calling both Democrats and Republican leaders in Vermont to the floor by openly criticizing the likes of Republican Governor Jim Douglas:

As for Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican, he's dodging our calls. He's MIA. So we now must send the governor a message as well.

The new billoreilly.com poll question is, "If Judge Cashman is not removed from the criminal court, will you boycott Vermont?" [I'll say it again] If Judge Cashman is not removed from the criminal court, will you, the American public, boycott Vermont? Yes or no?

...and Democrat House Speaker Gaye Symington:

Well, Ms. Symington, let me be clear. That's bull. You, madam, are clueless. It is the job of the legislature to make laws and see that they are upheld. Cashman's actions are a direct violation of the little girl's constitutional protection that the punishment fit the crime.

Cashman's incompetent. And the Vermont legislature has the power to remove him. Clear?

In my opinion we should give credit where credit is due. Bill has at least taken some time to give some air time to a very disturbing story that might otherwise might not have been noticed. I hope you take some time to review it.

And unless you are convinced this is part of the 60% crap that Letterman was talking about, take some action too. Writge the Vermon governor here.

We all have our causes but how often is yours about something as important as this?

Update: Appropriately so, many are asking where organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other Civil Rights Groups stand on this issue.