Senate limits Gone-zales' hiring authority

Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Essentially, the Senate returned the law regarding the appointments of U.S. attorneys to where it was before Congress passed the Patriot Act, including the unilateral appointment authority the administration had sought in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Note to Congress: Save us some trouble in future. READ the goddam things before you sign 'em into law.

Actually, although I am of course glad it's gone, I'm kinda glad the provision was in there. It let the administration take one more step too far off the pier. Another thing to get 'em for. Thank God for the elections. They forgot who has the subpœna power now.

Get a rope...

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Most Despicable Confession

"I cast the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore - it earned me Al Qaeda Man of the Year."

Come to think of it, get four ropes, four elephants, and a slightly dull, but large, knife...

Salt Lake City Mayor calls for Bush's impeachment

CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He's a mayor in a state that President Bush carried by 46 percentage points in the 2004 election, but Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told CNN Monday he thinks it's time the president should be impeached.

"We think if impeachment were ever justified, this certainly is the time," Anderson, a Utah Democrat, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "This president, by engaging in such incredible abuses of power, breaches of trust with both the Congress and the American people, and misleading us into this tragic, unbelievable war, the violation of treaties, either international or our Constitution -- our own domestic law, and then his role in heinous human rights abuses, I think all of that together calls for impeachment and certainly would communicate to the rest of the world that is not who we are as the American people."

Get 'em, Rocky!

Court 'can envisage' Blair prosecution

Telegraph (UK)

Tony Blair faces the prospect of an International Criminal Court investigation for alleged coalition war crimes in Iraq.

The court's chief prosecutor told The Sunday Telegraph that he would be willing to launch an inquiry and could envisage a scenario in which the Prime Minister and American President George W Bush could one day face charges at The Hague (my em).

Luis Moreno-Ocampo urged Arab countries, particularly Iraq, to sign up to the court to enable allegations against the West to be pursued. Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations said that his country was actively considering signing up.

It's gonna come down around yer ears one of these days, Georgie boy.

The next real President should sign us up with the ICC right after his/her inauguration speech.

Supporting the Troops - A Modest Proposal

It seems to me that a lot of people have profited of the last 4 years of Bush's Folly while many have suffered. I was talking to Mrs Jersey about this at dinner tonight and came up with a simple proposal. Congress should pass a bill with a couple of provisions. Gifts to families of troops that have given their lives or come home with serious lifelong injuries in the service of Bush's lies can pass, in any amount, tax-free to the donor and tax-free to the families. Pressure should be then brought to bear on companies and individuals that have profited from the war to give, say, 1-5% of their post-tax profits to the families. Another use that some of the Bush billionaires could put their money to would be to fund a state-of-the-art medical facility for treating the troops that are not being well-served by the military hospitals. The possibilites are endless and chump change compared to the profits that have been made.

R.

The Porn Plot Against Prosecutors

Max Blumenthal

In September 2006, just weeks before pivotal Congressional midterm elections, Paul Charlton, US Attorney for Arizona, opened a preliminary investigation into Republican Representative Rick Renzi of the state's First Congressional District for an alleged pattern of corruption involving influence-peddling and land deals. Almost immediately, Charlton's name was added to a blacklist of federal prosecutors the White House wanted to force from their jobs. Charlton is someone "we should now consider pushing out," D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, wrote to then White House Counsel Harriet Miers on September 16. In his previously safe Republican district, Renzi had barely held on in the election. On December 7, the White House demanded Charlton's resignation without offering him any explanation.

The Justice Department and the White House offered a scattershot of alibis for firing Charlton. The Bush Administration's case against Charlton rested ultimately on the account of a little-known Justice Department official named Brent Ward, who claimed in a September 20, 2006 e-mail that Charlton was "unwilling to take good cases." Ward's allegation was vague in its claim, mysterious for its submission and vacant in context.

Ward's endless stream of mandates, the source revealed, were a source of frustration to many US Attorneys. "There were countless child obscenity cases crying out to be prosecuted," the source told me, "but [Brent] Ward wanted to focus on cases involving consenting adults. That's just not a good way of dedicating resources. When you have so many children being harmed, why not allocate your resources towards that?"

Ward's heedless prosecutions of legally available pornography reflected more than his ideology; they also defined his power within the Justice Department. Once Bush began his second term in the White House, Gonzales declared the prosecution of pornography portraying sex acts between consenting adults "one of the top priorities" of his department. He signed off on an FBI headquarters memo that recruited agents for an anti-porn task force. That memo stated that prosecutions would focus particularly on material depicting "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior." These acts, according to the memo, were most likely to offend local juries.

To support Ward's task force, Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller diverted eight FBI agents and other staff. Ward soon secured his biggest score, the successful prosecution of the Girls Gone Wild series producer Joseph Francis for knowingly including footage of two young women without receiving legible documentation, on paper, of their ages. Francis's company, Mantra Films, Inc., was slapped with a $500,000 fine--a drop in the bucket for an operation that rakes in at least $40 million a year.

Many veterans of the FBI consider Ward's efforts a burden on their ability to fulfill serious departmental priorities. "I guess this means we've won the war on terror," an anonymous FBI agent sarcastically remarked to the Washington Post about agents diverted to Ward's task force. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

The revelation of Ward's participation in the dismissals arrived as the Christian right clamored that more resources be funneled to him. "Give him some gas and he'll win the war," Burress told the Salt Lake Tribune. "I wish the Department of Justice was full of Brent Wards." The prosecutor purge may have backfired, but Burress and his allies can take heart that the Bush White House is devoted to their culture war, even at the expense of its "war on terror."

Not getting signatures from drunk college girls may not be as important as prosecuting Repuglican corruption cases, but it's less dangerous to The Party and plays well to the base.

And they damn sure don't want any U.S. attorneys following the money to terrorists.

Was Carol Lam Targeting The White House Prior To Her Firing?

Follow the money that got Duke Cunningham thrown in jail right to Cheney's office at Think Progress.

The media reports this morning that among Lam's politically powerful targets were former CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and then-House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA). But there is evidence to believe that the White House may also have been on Lam's target list. Here are the connections:

– Wade's company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to "provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney."

– Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boat's name was later changed to the "Duke-Stir." Said one party to the sale: "I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that...Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it - all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away."

– According to Cunningham's sentencing memorandum, the purchase price of the boat had been negotiated through a third-party earlier that summer, around the same time the White House contract was signed.

Duke. Stir. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

I hope either she gets her job back or that her replacement picks up where she left off.

Rep. Lewis is very popular in his Riverside County district because he brings home the bacon, but he's crooked as a dog's hind leg.

Fitzgerald ranked

WaPo

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday.

The ranking placed Fitzgerald below "strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty" to the administration but above "weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.," according to Justice documents.

The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show.

I'm kinda surprised they didn't fire him just prior to Libby's trial. Musta thought that woulda been a little too obvious...

As if we didn't know ...

March 19, 2007— New e-mails released this evening by the Justice Department reveal the in-depth conversations Department of Justice staff members had about the eight U.S. attorneys fired last year. The department released more than 3,000 pages of documents late Monday ...

We always expect the worst from this administration, but why is it the truth is always worse than we can imagine? Wait until the bloggers sift through this data dump and find the juicy shit. I guarantee you this originated in the Office of the Vice President.

Hat tip to Atrios.

A small request

Something light for a change. I have a friend, John, in Calgary who is the scribe/photographer for the Glenlake Hawks, a PeeWee Hockey team for which one of his sons plays. Well the Hawks went from being the league doormats last year to winning the division championship this year. John tells them they have an international audience, but they don't believe him. This is his request verbatim.

For the boys, could y'all drop by

http://glsportspages.blogspot.com/2007/03/champions.html

And post some congrats with where you live. They don't believe me
that people around the world follow them . . .

Take a few minutes, if you will, to stop by and give the guys a little love. If you have more time, John is an ace photographer and an extremely good writer and there is plenty of his stuff there to examine. Thanks to anyone who takes the time.

R.

4 Down, ? To Go

Just so we remember what all the fuss is about as we go into year 5. I'll bet a dollar that whoever fired up this unit of 3rdBn,8th Marines (my old outfit)in Ramadi wishes they hadn't.

What it's all about ...

In case you had any doubts:

Price of a share of Halliburton stock:

March 19, 2003: $20.50
March 18, 2007: $64.12 (adjusted for a split in 2006)

Off to work ...

4 years

So, the balloon went up 4 years ago today. Oh yay! We're going to war! When Johnny comes marching home again ...

So, 4 years on and we're still there. The folks I was listening to on TV yesterday believe we'll have a military commitment in Iraq for the next fifteen years. We were assured this war would be over before we knew it. "6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months ..." Rummy said. When Johnny comes marching home ...

What have we seen in the last 4 years? We've seen our medical technology in action, men and women surviving injuries that would have left them dead on the battlefield in Vietnam, even when I was in. We have seen the gallantry and professionalism of the Hawkeye Pierces, the Trapper Johns, and Margaret Houlihans whom I believe should all get a medal for the work they do. But we've also seen the soldiers who they've given a second chance at life kicked to the curb by the people who are supposedly 'compassionate' and 'supporting'. When Johnny comes marching home ...

We've seen families and veterans groups in this country rise to the occasion, having bake sales and raffles to supply equipment to the troops because the 'compassionate' and 'supportive' went to war with 'the Army they had' as opposed to 'the Army they needed'. The wealthiest nation in the world cannot see its troops protected adequately, yet we 'support' them. And when their limbs are blown off and their minds destroyed, we warehouse them in deplorable conditions and make them wade through layers of red tape in order to get barely adequate care. When Johnny comes marching home ...

The 'compassionate' and 'supportive' said this war will be paid for from revenue from Iraqi oil. 4 years on and a half-trillion dollars later, our wallets are still open, but not for the wounded, not for the families struggling to keep their heads above water, and not for those who would provide care, but for those who make the weapons, for those who drill the oil, and for those who kill for the highest bidder. When Johnny comes marching home ...

When Johnny comes marching home, he comes home to a broken marriage, broken finances, and inadequate care for his broken body. He comes home to a nation who shows their gratitude by sticking a magnet to their cars. He comes home to a nation who will send him back to the war because they can't talk anyone but criminals and psychopaths into enlisting at this point. He comes home to a nation who sees him as nothing but a figure on a force strength chart, as nothing more than a trigger finger.

When Johnny comes marching home, he comes home to a nation that treats its pets better than they will treat him. Whether the Iraq War was right or wrong, moral or not, legal or illegal, the disgrace of this nation is the way we treat those who have fought for it. When Johnny comes marching home, we will be dealing with the consequences of that treatment for decades to come.

Update:

Read this too.

...

Today is really a day to remember the men and women whose lives ended for the lies of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their NeoCon cabal. This is also the day to remember the families of those men and women and the men and women who have come back and need our help as a nation to become whole again after their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

...

Advice for all 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidates

From one of the best, "Give 'em Hell Harry", a.k.a. Harry S. Truman:

"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the
defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."

This should be somewhere where every Democratic candidate can see first thing every morning, last thing evey night, and at the beginning and end of each meal. It should be burned into their consciousness. Every time they apologize, whatever it is for, the other side gains at least a small victory. Politics is street-fighting, not fencing.

R.

Uniform of the Day

Since spring is day after tomorrow or some shit (can't tell looking out my window), we go to desert digital.

¡Richardson es mi Gente!

I know it's too soon to be making this choice. Fuck it. I said it and I'm glad.

I am not for Bill Richardson. I prefer the more personally committed Mexican style: I am with Bill Richardson.

Yo soy con Bill Richardson por Presidente en '08. Bad Spanish, but you get the idea.

From the bumper sticker site:

Representative, Ambassador, Envoy, Secretary, Governor: Bill Richardson has a diversity of experience -- an experience that gives him the kind of perspective that parochial George W. Bush could only dream of. Isn't it time we had someone at the helm of the country who has the ability to consider issues from more than one perspective? Bill Richardson not only has the political skills and practical knowledge necessary to make a great president; he also has a strong commitment to taking core Democratic principles and seeing them through to fruition in policy.

Plus he's a Westerner and seems to be a good guy with a sense of humor. We don't need any more southerners, actors, ideologues, or retards.

Bill Richardson For President.

Please forgive me for this outburst. I'll go back to sleep now for a year or so.

Oh, Timmeh ...

How, at this time, with scandals breaking around the Republicans left and right, can you actually, with a straight face, have an indicted, disgraced ex-congressman and the architect of the failed war and resultant occupation on your show for anything other than to be the objects of derision and ridicule, let alone as credible commenters on anything? Dude, after the Libby trial, you're on thin ice as it is. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Today's Quote - 2007-03-18

“A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.” –General John J. Pershing

R.

Cross-posted at Jersey Guy

The new Baghdad Bob ...

You remember him. Well, our good friend Mimus found the American version:

...

I really do love Fred Barnes. His demeanor is so... upbeat. No matter how badly things are going for the neo-conservative experiment in empire-building -- or how many people's lives are wasted or shattered because of it -- he never gives up on it, never loses his powers of positive thinking. He must be incredibly... healthy, in body, mind, and spirit, to be able to look at all that terrible suffering with a smirk and a chuckle, just like his buddy Bush does. The way Barnes retains his good cheer in the face of all that horror just... revs me up. It's... infectious.

...

Update:

I forgot to mention Pauly and RSB were in Washington yesterday.

Quote of the Day

An anonymous Dem via C&L:

We've only had subpoena power for the last six weeks and every tree that we've barked up so far has a cat in it. Imagine where we'll be in 6 months.