zed?

I’m getting quicker. Now to read…

Zed?

Hi there Christy!

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

EPU’d

Anyone notice how Griffin’s qualifications are continually and progressively amplified and expanded as these documents progress?
Check out page 2 vs. page 19 in the first set of documents…

The first, short entry is at 2:43 PM and the longer, exaggerated version shows up after 8PM…

EPUed from last thread

Does anybody know where the RNC hosts its hardware? I think its necessary to have bodies with Video cameras, etc. Out in force watching for the likely removal / shredding.

Slothrop @ 5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

It’s hard to imagine that someone with those emails also has a conscience. After all, how could they work with Rove if they had one?

EPU’s from last thread:

Biodun @ 194

From the dump:

2 U.S. C &452 During the Reagan and Clinton administrations, Presidents Reagan and Clinton did not seek to remove and replace U.S. Attorneys they had appointed whose four-year terms had expired but instead permitted such U.S. Attorneys to serve indefinitely under the holdover provision.

There likely are several explanations for this. In some instances, Presidents Reagan and Clinton may have been pleased with the work of the U.S. Attorneys who, after all, they had appointed. In other instances, Presidents Reagan and Clinton may simply have been unwilling to commit the resources necessary to remove the U.S. Attorneys, find suitable replacements (not ??? the advice of the home state senators), complete background investigations, and secure Senate confirmations.

There are practical obstacles to removing and replacing U.S. Attorneys. First, wholesale removal of U.S. Attorneys would ??? disruption to the work of the Department of Justice. Second, Individual U.S. Attorneys were originally recommended for appointments by home state senators, who may be opposed to the President’s determination to remove the U.S. Attorneys. Third, a suitable replacement must be found in consultation with the home state Senator, the difficulty of which would vary from state to state. Fourth, a background investigation must be completed on the”

(end pg 1)

Christy,
Thank you and your fellow posters on the site once again for staying on these issues so doggedly.

I want justice for Karl Rove.

Federalist Soc membership? After all they are the chosen few, right?

Back with the copying from a PDF bit – I’ve done it with WP-generated text PDFs and without needing Adobe Pro. This won’t work if it’s a scanned image, because it’s only an image with no actual text involved.

Does anyone know if RNC employees sign a standard Communications Policy statement? When I was in a corporate job, we received something regularly which informed us that, essentially, our e-mails weren’t our own and that they could track what websites you’d been visiting, etc. So no one at my old employer had any illusion that e-mails were confidential.

Also, if someone had tapes with Turdblossom’s e-mails on it, and started releasing them, would it rise to the same level as, say, intercepting postal mail? IANAL, but it seems to me that those are two very different things…

Billie @ #7 — one of the earlier threads said that the servers were somewhere in Tennessee – maybe a Tenessee Fire-pup can call the local media and tell them to keep an eye on that?

I’ll try to track down the reference in the Lake…

FedSoc is “Federalist Society”. This is a detail that is coming up in the parallel TPM thread.

Redacted sections can be read.

from here
http://judiciary.house.gov/Pri…..ection=472

This PDF

OAG12-22-NEW-.pdf

is redacted on the first page. But you can read it anyway. Here is part of my transcription of a redacted section

January 1, 2006

Memorandum for the counsel to the president

From: Kyle Sampson

Subject: Us attny appointments

You have asked whether President Bush shouls remove and replace US Attorneys whose four year terms have expired. I recommend that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of US attorneys.

United States Attorneys are appointed to a four year office and, thereafter may holdover until a sucessor is appointed. The US Code provides:

Nothing earth shattering. But you can read it.

MY MY MY Old habits are hard to break. Once a thief always a thief. A zebra can’t change his stripes. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You bet on a horse based on his track record……..Look what I found on Democracy Now. So far from the mainstream media——-ZILCH.

World Bank Staffers Call on Wolfowitz to Resign
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is embroiled in a scandal that could see him lose his job. Wolfowitz was found to have ordered a major pay increase and promotion for his longtime companion, Shaha Riza. The World Bank’s staff association is calling on Wolfowitz to resign. On Thursday, Wolfowitz tried to address staff members but was met with chants and boos calling for his departure. Wolfowitz also appeared at an unusual news conference to plead his case.

Page 9 of section 2 (after many blank or blotched pages) is a real eye-opener, we have heard about this one before (I don’t know if they know this, but some of their black-ed out passages can still be read, at least in part…)

Badwater @ 8

Slothrop @ 5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

It’s hard to imagine that someone with those emails also has a conscience. After all, how could they work with Rove if they had one?

Tech support staff, especially at a third party vendor, may not be subject to the same kool-aid swilling requirements as RNC staff…

kinda OT from last thread: Motherbear posted a terrific comment. I think she’s spot on – we’re witnessing a historic moment. (I hope Motherbear will speak up more, too!)

Any updates on whether Moncia Goodling might get immunity to testify? I read about this on TPM last night. She is in quite an interesting place – she could either refuse to testify and take the gamble that she goes to jail, or she could testify with immunity and spill part or all of the beans. Fascinating.

(I’m afraid to get into the doc dump – I have too much work to do today. I’ll pop in every now & then to see what you all have learned. Happy digging!)

One of the things that bothers me – and I don’t think I’m the only one – is that far too many of these Federalist Society peeps seem never to have read the ‘Federalist Papers’, or they’d understand why there’s supposed to be checks and balances and Congressional oversight of the Executive and all that other stuff they think is so quaint and unnecessary.

Raph at 16 — Yep, and when you couple that with the loyalty oaths question that Goodling raised…you get a pretty tidy picture of the rigid mindset the Bushies wanted in USAtty slots. For legal/philosophical reasons? Or for political purposes? Now there is a question well worth asking over and over again…

What may end up being interesting is WHAT was redacted and why.

I find it amazing that Sampson was able to keep all of this in his head without any additional documents except those that might have been “tossed in a drawer.” Incredible memory that Kyle Sampson

I don’t know if this has been pointed out but the impression I’m getting from the Raker Street Irregulats at TPMuckraker is that the new docs are well after the fact of the firing and appear to be ever-expansive backward looking reasons backing up their decisions. Retro-rationales. I’m not looking myself so I can’t vouch for that but I have utter respect for the ferretting that is happening so have no reason to doubt.

Slothrop @
5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

It would be questionable. Mime headers can be falsified and the actual origin; not being retrieved directly from the RNC servers would be suspect. But, if the bona fides could be provided, I’d be interested to hear what sort of legal ramifications would ensue!

No more lawyers from Pat Robertson university or the federalist society if the Dems get into power they should be banned from Government jobs unless we want a fifth colume.

first line from the second blacked-out paragraph on page 6 of the 2nd set, “none of the above obstacles are insurmountable”

I’ll see if I can find those obstacles hiding in the shades…

Schlepped over from the previous post, while seeming to still be on point:

I know that there are good honest judges out there, but don’t you see what this administration has done? It has us (me) questioning the very validity/honesty of the courts…

As well you should! I live in a semi-rural area where the district courts are completely controlled by the local GOP machine. The machine tells the governor who to appoint, and then the judges are lackeys, owing their jobs to the local machine.

One criteria of late is they must brandish their “Federalist Society” credentials, which is code for towing the GOP line in court.

I had a new Federal Magistrate judge tell me directly that he had an obligation to make decisions which reversed the “tide of liberal decisions over the last few decades.”

I was shocked! I have become completely cynical about judges and courts.

I can honestly make the statement – and defend it – that most judges are political hack lawyers who owe their jobs to the political level.

This whole DOJ scandal, and Rove’s agenda, is further along than people realize. Talk to people who have had to deal with the courts for some time. Talk to an everyday lawyer who leans liberal. They will confirm what I say.

With each passing day the rats of the Bush administration are being cornered. This makes them even more dangerous. Watch out for something big. As in a four letter word.

Liberty Lover @ 25

I find it amazing that Sampson was able to keep all of this in his head without any additional documents except those that might have been “tossed in a drawer.” Incredible memory that Kyle Sampson

You mean Kyle “I don’t recall having any memory of that” Sampson? That Kyle Sampson? :)

Bush’s processes for selecting people results in assholes who can’t do their jobs but who can recite the gooper loyalty oath in their sleep.

Only one aspect of his managerial ineptitude.

Tim Griffin has another email address – griffinjag @ comcast. net.

Just a quick scan of document 6 revealed the rather interesting management approach of Margaret Chiara on page 17. What an asshole.

I’d love to interview a few of the employees who were humiliated.

For the latest news, email archives, hearings, legal filings and other essential documents on the Bush DOJ prosecutor firings, see:
“The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents.”

Slothrop @
5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

I think this is a very good question and I’d like to know the answer too, although I think it may have to do with how the person got the e-mails. If they got them by hacking into computers, there may be a price to be paid, bigtime, if his/her identity is revealed. If, however, they got them in a legal way, I would think the most danger to the person who publishes would be a potential civil case. But it’s an intriguing question. Hope you have a reason for asking.

A lot of those redacted materials will become clear with a little time. The ink continues to dry up. Eventually it will become transparent, and the text beneath will be visible. Since this investigation will continue until Congress is satisfied, and will be dragged out by the Bushies, much of that ink will have evaporated before the investigation is complete.

Tidbit:

Tim Griffin email: griffinjag @ comcast. net

For what it’s worth, it looks like most or all of these tables and notes evaluating USA’s seem to have been produced well after all of the firings/resignations/replacements happened. That is, they appear to be after the fact attempts to rationalize what happened rather than contemporaneous documents that were actually part of the process at the time. (I see Mayan noted this at 26)

P J Evans @
13

Back with the copying from a PDF bit – I’ve done it with WP-generated text PDFs and without needing Adobe Pro. This won’t work if it’s a scanned image, because it’s only an image with no actual text involved.

Most printers these days come with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. I don’t currently have any, but a quick search of printer manufacturer websites and their download pages may turn up something that would be of help for this. Much business is done via OCR captures of faxes and scans.

Oklahoma kiddo @
31

With each passing day the rats of the Bush administration are being cornered. This makes them even more dangerous. Watch out for something big. As in a four letter word.

starting with “I”?

I don’t think the first document of section 2 is redacted, I think it’s just legibility-challenged. Substantially the same text appears later in the PDF.

That’s not to say these documents aren’t heavily redacted. I’d go so far as to say “sanitized.” I have no idea what excuse they have for whiting out so much of it. I did find one case where it was justified – when prosecutors were asked to describe their experience with recording interrogations (to support the case that recordings would be more helpful than not), they were told their names wouldn’t be widely disseminated. That kind of stuff you want to redact before posting documents publicly. Just about everything else, not so much.

A good image to represent the extreme redaction is p. 1101 in set 3. It’s a calendar page from Otus2007, AG (I’m pretty sure this is Gonzales), with everything whited out except for one entry: “Senate Judiciary Hearing Prep.” Perhaps this could be used as a thread image if the kind owners of the lake see fit to create a thread primarily focussed on the redactions.

In talking about responding to Jennifer Duck, Chief Counsel and Staff Director, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, Sampson emailed this:

Received a voicemail from Jennifer Duck saying sorry she missed my call, would I please try to return it again. Her number is (I’ll redact it, the doc dump doesn’t) Kyle, I undertand Paul McNulty thinks we should go up in person? Do you want us to set that up? Not sure how we do today if that is the case given how booked the day is. Phone call easier, and may be easier to get out of (i.e. not trapped up there) when she doesn’t get the info she wants (i.e. why they were fired).

johnSwifty @ 27

Slothrop @
5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

It would be questionable. Mime headers can be falsified and the actual origin; not being retrieved directly from the RNC servers would be suspect. But, if the bona fides could be provided, I’d be interested to hear what sort of legal ramifications would ensue!

It seems the answer may be in the Federal E-Mail interception laws. I believe these may be found at 18USC 2510 through 2521..

For Example: Upon reading one section, Sec 1520, it seems someone stealing an e-mail – surreptitious interception – can be sued for civil damages. So, these RNC techies need to be careful.

This is all blacked out, but if you zoom in it gets a little easier. If anyone wants to finish this one-be my guest. Here it is….http://judiciary.house.gov/media/PDFS/OAG12-22-NEW-.pdf

From: Sampson
There likely are several explanations for this. In some instances, President Reagan &
Clinton may have been pleased with the work of the us attorney’s, who after all, they had appointed in some instances. President Reagan & Clinton may simply have been unwilling to commit the resources necessary to remove the US attorney’s and find suitable replacements….the advice of the home state
senators, complete background investigations and secure Senate confirmations.

There are practical obstacles to removing and replacing us attorneys. First wholesale removal of us attorney’s would cause disruption to the work of the Dept. of Justice. Second, individual US attorneys were original–recommended for appointment by a home state senator who may opposed to the Presidents determination to remove the us attorney. Third, a suitable replacement must be found in consultation with the home state senator, the difficulty in which would vary from state to state. Fourth, a background investigation must be completed on the replacement–a taskoften complicated if
the outgoing US attorney remains in office. Fifth, after nomination, the Senate must confirm the nomination.

None of the above onstacles are insuperable. First, an unlimited number of Attorney’s could be targeted for removal and replacement.

PS: I hope someone has time to finish this one….at the link!

Tithonia @ 32

Liberty Lover @ 25

I find it amazing that Sampson was able to keep all of this in his head without any additional documents except those that might have been “tossed in a drawer.” Incredible memory that Kyle Sampson

You mean Kyle “I don’t recall having any memory of that” Sampson? That Kyle Sampson? :)

That’s the one… :)

Question, I didn’t know diddly about the Federalist Society but I have two friends , a couple, who are big in it and they seem like really good folks. What gives?

sorry, meant to say ’scanners’, not ‘printers’

We cannot look from the sides as we are led towards crisis over Iran

Bush and Blair have spent four years preparing an onslaught that is about oil, rather than non-existent nuclear weapons

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…..27,00.html
STTP in Ohio @ 42

Oklahoma kiddo @
31

With each passing day the rats of the Bush administration are being cornered. This makes them even more dangerous. Watch out for something big. As in a four letter word.

starting with “I”?

Yep.

WMR has domain details/host info on the RNC servers for the techies in the crowd:

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

SmarTechCorp in Chattanooga – Lock-down those servers!

Why is it I’m feeling more and more that these doc dumps are becoming the new “shiny thing”?

Ann in AZ @ 37

Slothrop @
5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

I think this is a very good question and I’d like to know the answer too, although I think it may have to do with how the person got the e-mails. If they got them by hacking into computers, there may be a price to be paid, bigtime, if his/her identity is revealed. If, however, they got them in a legal way, I would think the most danger to the person who publishes would be a potential civil case. But it’s an intriguing question. Hope you have a reason for asking.

It would be nice if someone grew a conscience like Daniel Elsberg did with the Pentagon Papers… he smuggled them out of the Pentagon and did the right thing…

The Standard or Pro versions of Adobe Acrobat also have built-in OCR that work nicely, but Acrobat Reader and Apple’s Preview do not.

Liberty Lover @ 47

Tithonia @ 32

Liberty Lover @ 25

I find it amazing that Sampson was able to keep all of this in his head without any additional documents except those that might have been “tossed in a drawer.” Incredible memory that Kyle Sampson

You mean Kyle “I don’t recall having any memory of that” Sampson? That Kyle Sampson? :)

That’s the one… :)

I have high hopes that he will be the one to suffer an attack of conscience, and tell all.

I’d gladly go to jail for a long time if I could shed serious light on the mis-deeds of this admin.

If I had documents (or received them anonymously), I would post them as a patriot, and suffer any consequences.

These assholes spent every waking hour figuring out how to use the power of the government to make certain that they stayed in power.

They used the power of federal funds to insure that campaign finances would always favor them over the dems.

They used the power of the justice dept to attempt to bring cases against political opponents and cover up their own crimes.

They used the bully pulpit to lie incessantly about their actions.

They used the war making powers of the govt to reward campaign contributors.

They used social programs as a method of passing federal money to religious groups in exchange for votes and cash.

And so it goes….

first blacked-out paragraph, page 6, “replacement a task often complicated if the outgoing U.S. attorney remains in office (eifht?) senate must confirm the replacement” followed by that “not insurmountable” redacted
paragraph…

In Doc. Dump 5 there are charts as well as handwritten material at 000001165 and 66 that look like excuses they were using to justify the firings. I’ll dive deeper and report back…its in the Monica stuff

cccmask @ 46

This is all blacked out, but if you zoom in it gets a little easier. If anyone wants to finish this one-be my guest. Here it is….

judiciary PDF

From: Sampson
There likely are several explanations for this. In some instances, President Reagan &
Clinton may have been pleased with the work of the us attorney’s, who after all, they had appointed in some instances. President Reagan & Clinton may simply have been unwilling to commit the resources necessary to remove the US attorney’s and find suitable replacements….the advice of the home state
senators, complete background investigations and secure Senate confirmations.

There are practical obstacles to removing and replacing us attorneys. First wholesale removal of us attorney’s would cause disruption to the work of the Dept. of Justice. Second, individual US attorneys were original–recommended for appointment by a home state senator who may opposed to the Presidents determination to remove the us attorney. Third, a suitable replacement must be found in consultation with the home state senator, the difficulty in which would vary from state to state. Fourth, a background investigation must be completed on the replacement–a taskoften complicated if
the outgoing US attorney remains in office. Fifth, after nomination, the Senate must confirm the nomination.

None of the above onstacles are insuperable. First, an unlimited number of Attorney’s could be targeted for removal and replacement.

PS: I hope someone has time to finish this one….at the link!

i’ve been working on this one too. I don’t see why it was blacked out.

I got all day.

Oklahoma kiddo @ 50

We cannot look from the sides as we are led towards crisis over Iran

Bush and Blair have spent four years preparing an onslaught that is about oil, rather than non-existent nuclear weapons

guardianSTTP in Ohio @ 42

Oklahoma kiddo @
31

With each passing day the rats of the Bush administration are being cornered. This makes them even more dangerous. Watch out for something big. As in a four letter word.

starting with “I”?

Yep.

The Guardian also revealed last weekend that Bush already tried to start a war with Iran without Congressional approval, but Blair declined. Please ask your Senators if they want to know why Blair has more say in where we go to war than they do.

Gromit @ 54

The Standard or Pro versions of Adobe Acrobat also have built-in OCR that work nicely, but Acrobat Reader and Apple’s Preview do not.

There are Open Source OCRs. Shouldn’t be hard to find something that worked.

Slothrop @ 5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

That would depend upon how those emails were obtained. What state you were in. andother minutia

On behalf of any future Daniel Ellsbergs:

“The RNC’s web site (RNC.ORG) is hosted by SMARTECHCORP.NET. Relevant whois data is:

Registrant Name: Republican National Committee
Registrant Organization: Republican National Committee
Registrant Street1: 310 First Street SE
Registrant Street2: Registrant Street3: Registrant City: Washington
Registrant State/Province: DC
Registrant Postal Code: 20003
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 1.202863850
Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX: 1.202863885
Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email: dns@rnchq.org
Admin ID: 6248954-NSI
Admin Name: Steve ** Ellis
Admin Street1: 310 First Street SE
Admin Street2: **
Admin Street3: Admin City: Washington
Admin State/Province: DC
Admin Postal Code: 20003
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: 1.2028638670
Admin Phone Ext.: Admin FAX: Admin FAX Ext.: Admin Email: dns@RNCHQ.ORG
Tech ID: 15683805-NSI
Tech Name: RNC
Tech Organization: RNC
Tech Street1: 310 1ST ST SE
Tech Street2: Tech Street3: Tech City: WASHINGTON
Tech State/Province: DC
Tech Postal Code: 20003-1885
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: 1.2028638651
Tech Phone Ext.: Tech FAX: Tech FAX Ext.: Tech Email: knolan@RNCHQ.ORG

Name Server: NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET
*SmarTech Corp.*
801 Broad Street, Suite 220
P.O. Box 11181
Chattanooga, TN 37401

Phone: *423-267-8853*
Toll Free: *866-664-7684*
Fax: *423-664-7680*

All relevant e-mails sent to and from the RNC should be held by Smartechcorp or whoever stores their backup media, possibly Iron Mountain, Pennsylvania. Congress should subpoena these backups before they are tampered with.

As for GEORGEWBUSH.COM, the same website provider, Smartechcorp, was used:

Relevant data:*Registrant:* Make this info private
Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc. P.O. Box 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
US
*Domain Name:* GEORGEWBUSH.COM
*Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :* Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc. Chuck@georgewbush.com
P.O. Box 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
US
Phone: 703-647-2700
*Record expires on* 06-May-2008 *Record created on* 05-May-1997
*Database last updated on* 28-Jun-2006
*Domain servers in listed order:* Manage DNS
NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET

Congress should likewise subpoena Smartechcorp and/or its backup for all relevant e-mails to and from the Bush-Cheney 04 Campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.”

Rove. Lets get him into court. And sweat it out of him. Perhaps a bit of metaphorical H2O-boarding would do the trick.

Urban Pirate @ 56

I’d gladly go to jail for a long time if I could shed serious light on the mis-deeds of this admin.

If I had documents (or received them anonymously), I would post them as a patriot, and suffer any consequences.

Not a good idea Urban. It’s all coming out eventually.

Just briefly looking over these emails, it would appear that they are print outs of emails, but do not include the “source” code, which would include router information, and email addresses and other info which would be important information if I was investigating this.

Chiara’s office in disarray, has low morale, and has lost confidence of her subordinates…

I am nowhere near awake enough to read through the document dump, but I am guessing it confirms what we already know: that these folks are worse than the mafia!

Good morning all.

Get Rove, and you’ll get the ‘other two’.

noen @ 17

Redacted sections can be read.

from here
http://judiciary.house.gov/Pri…..ection=472

In this PDF, the blacked-out portion is an image, not text. The non-blacked-out portion is text and can be copied. However, you can make out the text in the image when you look at it.

PDFs can be very complicated behind the scenes. Sometimes the blacked-out text is still available because it’s blacked out by commands contained in the PDF itself.

Oklahoma kiddo @ 70

Get Rove, and you’ll get the ‘other two’.

Yes, I think so. Where does Gonzales fall?

Hi folks -

I’m skimming Document set 6 (OLP-917)…

1) Tim Griffin resume stuck in at pg 12 (in midst of sequential pages on Lam).

2) On pg no 1, DOJ (?) Bushie Michael Frank is pissed because Roger Haines (DOJ?) provided USA Carol Lam with detailed info strongly supporting her office’s persecution of undocumented persons.

Michael Frank grumps to Rachel Brand (DOJ?) “I’m starting not to like Roger Haines”.

[poor Michael Frank - another Bushie sandbagged by reality)

Texas Betsy @ 72

Oklahoma kiddo @ 70

Get Rove, and you’ll get the ‘other two’.

Yes, I think so. Where does Gonzales fall?

on his butt, hopefully.

who or what entity gets to decide what is redacted? Does the DoJ get to do it without some oversight by a neutral party or staffers from the committees?

Because it seems to me that if the DoJ does redactions without oversight, they can conceal a lot of incriminating evidence with a few sharpies. (I find myself feeling sorrow that I have to suspect the DoJ of covering up crimes. Yes, I am still an idealist, despite the reality I’ve experienced in the 5 decades I’ve been alive).

Didn’t Nixon at one point issue redacted transcripts of the WH tapes?

I am very busy today so all I can do is pop in occasionally.
But in the mean time, know that I am cheering you all on in spirit.

GO DOGS!
SIC ‘EM!

rwcole @ 57

These assholes spent every waking hour figuring out how to use the power of the government to make certain that they stayed in power.

They used the power of federal funds to insure that campaign finances would always favor them over the dems.

They used the power of the justice dept to attempt to bring cases against political opponents and cover up their own crimes.

They used the bully pulpit to lie incessantly about their actions.

They used the war making powers of the govt to reward campaign contributors.

They used social programs as a method of passing federal money to religious groups in exchange for votes and cash.

And so it goes….

WELL SUMMARIZED.

ABUSE OF POWER TO SUBVERT THE ELECTORAL PROCESS.

THAT IS THE BUMPER STICKER.

SAME, BY THE WAY, AS WATERGATE.

Slothrop @ 64

On behalf of any future Daniel Ellsbergs:

“The RNC’s web site (RNC.ORG) is hosted by SMARTECHCORP.NET. Relevant whois data is:

Registrant Name: Republican National Committee
Registrant Organization: Republican National Committee
Registrant Street1: 310 First Street SE
Registrant Street2: Registrant Street3: Registrant City: Washington
Registrant State/Province: DC
Registrant Postal Code: 20003
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 1.202863850
Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX: 1.202863885
Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email: dns@rnchq.org
Admin ID: 6248954-NSI
Admin Name: Steve ** Ellis
Admin Street1: 310 First Street SE
Admin Street2: **
Admin Street3: Admin City: Washington
Admin State/Province: DC
Admin Postal Code: 20003
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: 1.2028638670
Admin Phone Ext.: Admin FAX: Admin FAX Ext.: Admin Email: dns@RNCHQ.ORG
Tech ID: 15683805-NSI
Tech Name: RNC
Tech Organization: RNC
Tech Street1: 310 1ST ST SE
Tech Street2: Tech Street3: Tech City: WASHINGTON
Tech State/Province: DC
Tech Postal Code: 20003-1885
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: 1.2028638651
Tech Phone Ext.: Tech FAX: Tech FAX Ext.: Tech Email: knolan@RNCHQ.ORG

Name Server: NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET
*SmarTech Corp.*
801 Broad Street, Suite 220
P.O. Box 11181
Chattanooga, TN 37401

Phone: *423-267-8853*
Toll Free: *866-664-7684*
Fax: *423-664-7680*

All relevant e-mails sent to and from the RNC should be held by Smartechcorp or whoever stores their backup media, possibly Iron Mountain, Pennsylvania. Congress should subpoena these backups before they are tampered with.

As for GEORGEWBUSH.COM, the same website provider, Smartechcorp, was used:

Relevant data:*Registrant:* Make this info private
Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc. P.O. Box 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
US
*Domain Name:* GEORGEWBUSH.COM
*Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :* Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc. Chuck@georgewbush.com
P.O. Box 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
US
Phone: 703-647-2700
*Record expires on* 06-May-2008 *Record created on* 05-May-1997
*Database last updated on* 28-Jun-2006
*Domain servers in listed order:* Manage DNS
NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET

Congress should likewise subpoena Smartechcorp and/or its backup for all relevant e-mails to and from the Bush-Cheney 04 Campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.”

archive.org has saved hundreds of copies of those web sites, dating back to 1996. I’m sure the emails can be found somewhere.

Texas Betsy @ 72

Oklahoma kiddo @ 70

Get Rove, and you’ll get the ‘other two’.

Yes, I think so. Where does Gonzales fall?

Somewhere between an anvil and a hammer. Al is already toast, me thinks. ;0)

looseheadprop @ 63

Slothrop @ 5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

That would depend upon how those emails were obtained. What state you were in. andother minutia

You would probably be arrested by the end of the day. OTOH, Karl Rove can illegally conduct gov business on RNC servers and illegally delete said emails – get caught dead to rights by his own organization (the RNC told him to cut the sh*t and he kept doing it so they archived the stuff to cover their own asses) and he can still roam the halls of the WH and make fart jokes with Dubya.

No one can help me understand the Federalist Society huh? Guess it’s gooogle.

EPU’ed from previous thread

re; Doc Dump, What do the #’s at the bottom of each copied page mean? Were they on the originals or are they from the copiers?

Dump five handwritten page 1165
“Who recommended griffin?”
“What was told to FARSA(?)”
“Was there Doj dissent?”
“May want to see EARS(?)Reports”
WAS PRESIDENT TOLD ABOUT THIS? (emphasis mine)
Any outside calls about Lam?”
ILLEGIBLE portion
then …”DOJ put together a list of problematic people, SENT TO WHITE HOUSE(My bold),WH cleared”

Go read Monica’s best excuses yourselves. there is much more

still laughing at stephanie miller & co’s new name for karl’s super special “delete” key: the rosemary 1000.

hackworth says

You would probably be arrested by the end of the day. OTOH, Karl Rove can illegally conduct gov business on RNC servers and illegally delete said emails – get caught dead to rights by his own organization (the RNC told him to cut the sh*t and he kept doing it so they archived the stuff to cover their own asses) and he can still roam the halls of the WH and make fart jokes with Dubya.

With full top secret clearance no doubt!

Everything you need to know about gwb43.com is at whois.domaintools.com here, with tools, embedded links, everything.

Christy Hardin Smith @ 23

Raph at 16 — Yep, and when you couple that with the loyalty oaths question that Goodling raised…you get a pretty tidy picture of the rigid mindset the Bushies wanted in USAtty slots. For legal/philosophical reasons? Or for political purposes? Now there is a question well worth asking over and over again…

It just seems to me that this whole matter is much more basic…Bush thinks that the computers and work done by aides to his administration are his property and under his sole purview; the American people, through our elected representatives, believe the work product and computers and equipment, etc., belong to us. Kinda like a CEO vs. stockholders thing. In this respect, it doesn’t really matter what the President’s mindset is, because obviously, the Congress holds the purse strings and to some degree, holds veto power over the administration, in that they can bring charges of abuse of power or contempt of congress or obstruction of justice and any of these charges are impeachable offenses. The President really needs to think about that.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see Elliot Richardson being interviewed on Olbermann tonight? A la John Dean.

raven @ 81

No one can help me understand the Federalist Society huh? Guess it’s gooogle.

It’s a club of right wingnut lawyers who help each other attain power. Like skull and bones without the funny hats

Slothrop @ 64

The DNS registrant is not necessarily the one that operates the mail servers. The MX records for those point to mailscan1.smartechcorp.net. Those also might not be the servers where backups are kept – it could be they just scan for viruses and spam, and forward to the real servers, which may be in Cheney’s undisclosed location for all we know.

Let’s not get too mired in these technical trivia, and keep focussed on these facts:

* If this were a criminal investigation, the prosecutors would be able to do a proper forensic inquiry into the missing emails, and they likely would succeed. This kind of thing happens frequently in litigation.

* The Bushies will do everything in power to stop these emails from coming to light. In other words, they will attempt to throw sand in the face of the Congressional committees.

* The fact that they’ve allowed such lax handling of emails, after considerable attention has been focussed publicly on that very issue, is in itself a serious wrongdoing for which people should be held accountable, and now that it’s a serious scandal, should be immediately fixed. No more rnc.org as a way to get around the Presidential Records Act, effective today.

Glenn Greenwald has, as per usual, a thorough analysis of these issues.

looseheadprop @ 89

raven @ 81

No one can help me understand the Federalist Society huh? Guess it’s gooogle.

It’s a club of right wingnut lawyers who help each other attain power. Like skull and bones without the funny hats

Skull & Bones has funny hats?

timidly, because i’m still smarting from the last thread, but here’s Rove’s response:
“Lawyer: Rove didn’t mean to delete email” @ yahoo.com.

i’ll just slink back to the corner. with apologies. really. didn’t mean to upset anyone earlier.

First time I heard about this. Considering ole Joe is said to be the most important Sentor who is being romanced by both sides because of the slim dem majority, has this been looked into? I read lots of news, and was surprised to read this.

In 2000 the candidate running against Lieberman got 448,077 votes
In 2006 the candidate running against Lieberman also got the exact same number of votes, 448,077.

Very wierd result in the CT race. Lamont loses with EXACT number that republican did in 2000 PDF by drummer55 Nov 08, 2006
Vote Fraud? How A*P*C Lieberman ‘Won’ PDF By Karl WB Schwarz 11-11-6

Edited by * Mod

FedSo?

That’s clearly Federalist Society. Why not just Professional Associations?

It’s telling.

looseheadprop @ 89

raven @ 81

No one can help me understand the Federalist Society huh? Guess it’s gooogle.

It’s a club of right wingnut lawyers who help each other attain power. Like skull and bones without the funny hats

And lord only knows how many of these assholes have infiltrated our justice system throughout this country. What a mess.

Oklahoma kiddo @
50

We cannot look from the sides as we are led towards crisis over Iran

Bush and Blair have spent four years preparing an onslaught that is about oil, rather than non-existent nuclear weapons

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…..27,00.htmlSTTP in Ohio @ 42

Oklahoma kiddo @
31

With each passing day the rats of the Bush administration are being cornered. This makes them even more dangerous. Watch out for something big. As in a four letter word.

starting with “I”?

Yep.

I must be dense. A four letter word starting with “I”

I’m drawing a blank

Edit: or seeing a later comment, Iran? I think of that as a scandal yet to come.

tbsa @ 94

looseheadprop @ 89

raven @ 81

No one can help me understand the Federalist Society huh? Guess it’s gooogle.

It’s a club of right wingnut lawyers who help each other attain power. Like skull and bones without the funny hats

And lord only knows how many of these assholes have infiltrated our justice system throughout this country. What a mess.

Hmm, that’s why I asked earlier. These folks I have known for a long time don’t seem like assholes or right-wing nuts.

I am inching closer to thinking we are going to get Rove.

Oklahoma kiddo @
50

We cannot look from the sides as we are led towards crisis over Iran

Bush and Blair have spent four years preparing an onslaught that is about oil, rather than non-existent nuclear weapons

STTP in Ohio @ 42

Oklahoma kiddo @
31

With each passing day the rats of the Bush administration are being cornered. This makes them even more dangerous. Watch out for something big. As in a four letter word.

starting with “I”?

Yep.

Imus?

Chiara doesn’t come across as likable. Between the whining and pleading in her emails about finding a suitable job after being purged, and that stunt with publicly announcing the bonuses, she certainly doesn’t seem like somebody I’d especially like to know.

Carol Lam, on the other hand, sounds fantastic. She’s very clear and focussed. There’s an account of a meeting with Issa and Sensenbrenner in the docdump, where somebody comments, “she handled it well, and it was actually constructive.” Somebody who can sit across from the table from those two slimeballs and turn it into a constructive meeting has my respect, admiration, and support.

Keep in mind, if they could only fire one attorney for improper reasons, Lam would be the one. Chiara may well have been a case where replacing her would be an improvement.

When all is said and done, this story will turn out to be mostly about Lam, I think.

Abu’s rationale for circumventing the constitution regarding appointments without confirmation is astonishing. Somehow a system that has worked for more than 200 years is no longer good enough.

Liberty Lover @
25

I find it amazing that Sampson was able to keep all of this in his head without any additional documents except those that might have been “tossed in a drawer.” Incredible memory that Kyle Sampson

Based on his testimony the other day, NOT!

Raven @81The Federalist Society is all about states rights when states rights is being used as a code word for racism. Its against states rights when states try and stop poluters from out of state from poluting their state. There against states rights in bush vs gore, but they said that case can never be used as a precedent. Maybe Christy can explain the legal theory behind that bit of reasoning I can’t. Corporations have more rights than people or states in their minds power trumps law.

tbsa @ 101

Abu’s rationale for circumventing the constitution regarding appointments without confirmation is astonishing. Somehow a system that has worked for more than 200 years is no longer good enough.

That’s because the Bushies want a monarchy.

Oklahoma kiddo @ 98

I am inching closer to thinking we are going to get Rove.

You may be right. Those admissions by RNC counsel Rob Kelner that they treated Rove’s email “in a special fashion” are damning and could lead further, much further. Good thing the Waxman is on it!

things come undone @ 102

Raven @81The Federalist Society is all about states rights when states rights is being used as a code word for racism. Its against states rights when states try and stop poluters from out of state from poluting their state. There against states rights in bush vs gore, but they said that case can never be used as a precedent. Maybe Christy can explain the legal theory behind that bit of reasoning I can’t. Corporations have more rights than people or states in their minds power trumps law.

Thanks, the wiki had an intertesting link to a NYT article that was helpful. Amazing how people could seem like really great folks, have very nice parties, a great kid and be vampires!

From:

To: Nowacki, John (USAEO)
Monday, February 12, 2007 2:46 PM
From: Goodling, Monica
Table and Spreadsheet
Importance: High
Attachments: US Attorney chart.doc; USA data (GWB).xls
Please call me on receipt re Bogden and Iglesias JAG service

Anyone see this? from NYT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Karl Rove’s lawyer on Friday dismissed the notion that President Bush’s chief political adviser intentionally deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored server, saying Rove believed the communications were being preserved in accordance with the law.

The issue arose because the White House and Republican National Committee have said they may have lost e-mails from Rove and other administration officials. Democratically chaired congressional committees want those e-mails for their probe of the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

”His understanding starting very, very early in the administration was that those e-mails were being archived,” Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, said.

Tithonia @ 55

Liberty Lover @ 47
Tithonia @ 32
Liberty Lover @ 25
I find it amazing that Sampson was able to keep all of this in his head without any additional documents except those that might have been “tossed in a drawer.” Incredible memory that Kyle Sampson
—–
You mean Kyle “I don’t recall having any memory of that” Sampson? That Kyle Sampson? :)
—–

That’s the one… :)
—–

I have high hopes that he will be the one to suffer an attack of conscience, and tell all.

And isn’t he appearing “voluntarily” today in front of Congressional investigators?

[Modnote: watch the number of re-quotes out of mercy for the Margin Faerie, thanks]

Well I think we are being a little unfair to monarchs…… there were a few who were as dumb as Bush……. loonies, lots, and one of them especially loony and especially dumb. Ah, i have it, he’s the one Dumbya wants to emulate —- Ludwig of Bavaria, he of Neuschwannstein.

From this doc:

43 districts are currently being led by a [sic] U.S. Attorney nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2001 or 2002. All of these U.S. Attorneys have completed their four year terms and continue to serve at the pleasure of the President (5 of the 43 have announced their resignations).

GWB put that in there, I just know it. It’s semi-literate enough.

Cool
Things always get fun when Luskin speaks.
It is a good barometer of Rovian discomfort.

It’s getting hot in here…

TexasBetsy:

OT but:
They say it’s your birthday. Well, happy birthday to ya! :})

mind the Zigs!

Mr. ReddHedd owes Ms. ReddHedd some extra [blog love] attention this Friday…

Mayan @ 109 asks:

And isn’t he appearing “voluntarily” today in front of Congressional investigators?

I believe I saw that he had been postponed due to the doc dump but may be mistaken.

BillE @ 7:

IIRC, I saw on the ‘net not too long ago that the hosting is done by some company in Chattanooga with deep ties to the GOP. Karl Rove was allegedly in that city either this past Tuesday, or the week before. Don’t you wonder what he was doing there?

anyone else able to get the full file of

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/PDFS/OPA7-217.pdf

???

I can’t seem to open it or download it.

raven @ 106

things come undone @ 102

Raven @81The Federalist Society is all about states rights when states rights is being used as a code word for racism. Its against states rights when states try and stop poluters from out of state from poluting their state. There against states rights in bush vs gore, but they said that case can never be used as a precedent. Maybe Christy can explain the legal theory behind that bit of reasoning I can’t. Corporations have more rights than people or states in their minds power trumps law.

Thanks, the wiki had an intertesting link to a NYT article that was helpful. Amazing how people could seem like really great folks, have very nice parties, a great kid and be vampires!

Your welcome Vampires seems to be a good way to describe them I am just at a loss understanding them!

Georgesimian @
108

Anyone see this? from NYT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Karl Rove’s lawyer on Friday dismissed the notion that President Bush’s chief political adviser intentionally deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored server, saying Rove believed the communications were being preserved in accordance with the law.

The issue arose because the White House and Republican National Committee have said they may have lost e-mails from Rove and other administration officials. Democratically chaired congressional committees want those e-mails for their probe of the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

”His understanding starting very, very early in the administration was that those e-mails were being archived,” Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, said.

By Jove, I think we must be onto something if Mr.Luskin is back on the payroll!

LS: by the way, any further followup on that Medical Supply Chain thread? The fact that two attorneys died under suspicious circumstances is really getting under my skin. Thelma Quince-Colbert sounds like a great person. Found in her swimming pool? Shannon Ross was only 43 when she died “after feeling ill”.

I’d really like to believe that these deaths are totally coincidental, but on the other hand, I think the corrupt healthcare industry can play rough when they need to. Just the fact that these deaths don’t seem to have been investigated or, until now, publicized, sends chills down my spine.

From page 21 of the PDFS at #7:

Email from Tasia Scolinos (she’s Director of Public Affairs at the DOJ) to Dan Bartlett and Cathy Martin on March 5, 2007 subject: US Attorney Hearings — DRAFT Talking Points.

Right now the coverage will be dominated by how qualified these folks were and their theories for their dismissals. We are trying to muddy the coverage up a bit by trying to put the focus on the process in which they were told

That is, they were trying to mea culpa all over the place for the clumsy way in which this was done, in order to obscure the underlying wrongness of their dismissals in the first place….

Document set 6 (OLP-917)…

Page 29

HOLY SHIT!

Senior DOJ officials talking about how to use their official knowledge of a SEALED indictment to help the White House’s immigration messaging.

They have so politicized JUSTICE that not just any attorney, an attorney who is now…

in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General of the United States of America..

asks her legal peers “can we use this” SEALED INDICTMENT?

Why do the Bushies hate Justice?

__________________________________________

re:

“Alien Smuggling Arrests – SEALED INDICTMENT”

“this sounds like a story that the WH-1 immigration working group should be aware of and perhaps highlight.“

(from)

Courtney Simmons Elwood
Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General

(to – includes Kyle Sampson and Jeffery Taylor at DOJ, as well as the aforementioned Brand)

Brand (ODAG) asks “Can we say anything about it at this poinnt?”

Taylor (OAG): “Not until it is unsealed, an then, of course, we would have to be careful.”

Ryan W. Bounds (OLP) observes to Brand (ODAG) …and only Brand:

“That is all very serendipitous, since we were just talking with Taylor yesterday about criticism for the lack of alien smuggling prosecutions in So Cal….”

[nerd note - please link to this comment when citing. I want credit for finding this one. ;) kjm]

Redd, do you suppose Senator Byrd has a trick or two up his sleeve that would keep the Senate in session so Bush can’t make any more of those horrendous recess appointments? If anyone can do it, Senator Byrd can.

Raph Levien @ 121

LS: by the way, any further followup on that Medical Supply Chain thread? The fact that two attorneys died under suspicious circumstances is really getting under my skin. Thelma Quince-Colbert sounds like a great person. Found in her swimming pool? Shannon Ross was only 43 when she died “after feeling ill”.

I’d really like to believe that these deaths are totally coincidental, but on the other hand, I think the corrupt healthcare industry can play rough when they need to. Just the fact that these deaths don’t seem to have been investigated or, until now, publicized, sends chills down my spine.

There is a long trail of dead bodies behind the Bush Family. A stench that rises up to heaven.

first letter I
second letter R

holy smokes batman! documents have been dumped already???? whoa. gotta get back to work but will be chewing on them later. Sweet

STTP in Ohio @ 122

The phrase “permanent retainer” comes to mind. I don’t think Luskin’s been off the payroll for quite some time.

dakine01 @ 112

TexasBetsy:

OT but:
They say it’s your birthday. Well, happy birthday to ya! :})

It is indeed! And thanks! Kids are taking me out to dinner and everything.

I haven’t looked, but let me guess – There isn’t a single Karl Rove-authored or received e-mail in the document dump, right? Was he even cc’d on any of the e-mails offered up?

It’s time for Leahy to issue those subpoenas and stop fooling around! There is more than enough evidence right now to convene a Grand Jury on Obstruction charges related to the ‘78 Presidential Records Act alone!

Subpoena the entire RNC IT Staff and the SmarTechCorp IT Staff – they aren’t protected by privilege – and get that equipment off to Quantico for analysis!

Karl Rove is NOT PROTECTED under privilege for his dealings with the RNC and SmarTechCorp – Subpoena him – if he deleted “Official Business” e-mails on non-gov servers, he committed a crime – What could the Architect of Dirty Tricks possibly say to Congress about that – “I didn’t know?” or “I don’t recall deleting that message” a thousand times?

While they’re at it, they should subpoena Mehlman, too, and have him explain to the nation how he understood the ‘back channel’ e-mail/text system to work, what did he know and when?

From politics.netscape.com:

Rove spotted in Chattanooga with brochure for gwb43.com…

Politics – Karl went out and hired his own politically wired nameserver company. Of course, Karl would never give business to any company that hadn’t sworn fealty to the authoritarian agenda.

Tags: rove, email
View Story Discuss (5)

The View Story link is dead, but Discuss is not. Somebody was wondering whether Netscape has gone left.

Minnesotachuck @ 117

BillE @ 7:

IIRC, I saw on the ‘net not too long ago that the hosting is done by some company in Chattanooga with deep ties to the GOP. Karl Rove was allegedly in that city either this past Tuesday, or the week before. Don’t you wonder what he was doing there?

Well I hope St Patrick or St John will be “inviting” them by reminder that it is an offence for them to have deleted any email traffic of the United States whatsoever, and it better goddammed by still on disk/tape!!!

TiredFed @ 126

holy smokes batman! documents have been dumped already???? whoa. gotta get back to work but will be chewing on them later. Sweet

Just crumbs, really.

JEP @ 6

EPU’d

Anyone notice how Griffin’s qualifications are continually and progressively amplified and expanded as these documents progress?
Check out page 2 vs. page 19 in the first set of documents…

The first, short entry is at 2:43 PM and the longer, exaggerated version shows up after 8PM…

On top of that, if you look at Griffin’s website, you’ll see he earned “engagement” medals for his few months in Iraq. Must make servicmen who actually *earned* medals feel a little crappy. Rewards on top of rewards for Griffin.

And THAT on top of Condi saying Iraq yesterday was just “a bad day.” Imagine a coffin coming home, officers delivering the body, shrugging and telling the family, “There are good days and bad days. Looks like he had a bad day.”

noen @ 118

anyone else able to get the full file of

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/PDFS/OPA7-217.pdf

???

I can’t seem to open it or download it.

I can open/save all of it: 211 pages

Bush Renews Call for ‘Culture of Life’

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Tell it to our soldiers. Tell it to Iraq.

The Federalist Society is a society of lawyers committed to a naked power/money grab for the elite to rule completely over the rest of us, without restraint of any kind. Nothing more. It fashions itself a “counterpoint” to the ACLU. It’s nothing of the sort.

The key to understanding the Federalist Society is the name itself. We’re talking the Federalist of the original political party after we ratified the Constitution. And the most renowned “partisan” Federalist was its founder, Alexander Hamilton. Lovely fellow. He though the rich, white and powerful should have all the levers of control in government, and the “rabble” ought to be grateful for the magnanamity of the sacrifice of ruling them.

Read up on Hamilton, and it will pretty much explain the mindset of the FedSo.

kirk murphy @ 123

Document set 6 (OLP-917)…

Page 29

HOLY SHIT!

Senior DOJ officials talking about how to use their official knowledge of a SEALED indictment to help the White House’s immigration messaging.

They have so politicized JUSTICE that not just any attorney, but someone who went to law school and is now…

in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General of the United States of America..

ask her peers “can we use this” SEALED INDICTMENT?

Why do the Bushies hate Justice?

__________________________________________

“Alien Smuggling Arrests – SEALED INDICTMENT”

[response - kjm]

“this sounds like a story that the WH-1 immigration working group should be aware of and perhaps highlight.“

(from)

Courtney Simmons Elwood
Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General

(to – includes Kyle Sampson and Jeffery Taylor at DOJ, as well as the aforementioned Brand)

Brand (ODAG) asks “Can we say anything about it at this poinnt?”

Taylor (OAG): “Not until it is unsealed, an then, of course, we would have to be careful.”

Ryan W. Bounds (OLP) observes to Brand (ODAG) …and only Brand:

“That is all very serendipitous, since we were just talking with Taylor yesterday about criticism for the lack of alien smuggling prosecutions in So Cal….”

[nerd note - please link to this comment when citing. I want credit for finding this one. ;) kjm]

Great catch!

Kind of reminds me of Nixon on the Watergate tapes. To the best of my recollection, he said something like “We could pay them [the plumbers] hush money, but that would be wrong.”

Methinks we may be moving toward criminal procedings rather soon, if this is any indication.

plainjane @ 136

Bush Renews Call for ‘Culture of Life’

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Tell it to our soldiers. Tell it to Iraq.

The Bush strategy: Feed the base. Make them think you care.

maunga @ 109

Well I think we are being a little unfair to monarchs…… there were a few who were as dumb as Bush……. loonies, lots, and one of them especially loony and especially dumb. Ah, i have it, he’s the one Dumbya wants to emulate —- Ludwig of Bavaria, he of Neuschwannstein.

At least Ludwig had some degree of taste. That is one beautiful castle.

And THAT on top of Condi saying Iraq yesterday was just “a bad day.” Imagine a coffin coming home, officers delivering the body, shrugging and telling the family, “There are good days and bad days. Looks like he had a bad day.”

It doesn’t really matter what they say, that about covers it.

LJ/Aquaria @ 140

maunga @ 109

Well I think we are being a little unfair to monarchs…… there were a few who were as dumb as Bush……. loonies, lots, and one of them especially loony and especially dumb. Ah, i have it, he’s the one Dumbya wants to emulate —- Ludwig of Bavaria, he of Neuschwannstein.

At least Ludwig had some degree of taste. That is one beautiful castle.

Yah, but he shouldn’t have franchised it to all the branches of Disney, should he?

A big tip of the hat to Cannonfire for this one.
This shit is more intertwined than you can believe.

Rumor had it that GovTech and SmarTech were in some way linked. A tech-savvy reader named ViViDVeW has found a concrete link between the two firms:

Well Joe, if your looking for a connection between SMARTech and GovTech, here it is.

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/…..203.97.226

Guess who’s owns the IP that GovTech’s web site is on. YUP. SMARTtech. It’s in the same network block as all the servers that run gwb43, and for all the same reasons looks like its run from servers in the same datacenter in Chattanooga.
snip

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/

I snipped the back half, please read the rest.
It names names.

raven @ 141

And THAT on top of Condi saying Iraq yesterday was just “a bad day.” Imagine a coffin coming home, officers delivering the body, shrugging and telling the family, “There are good days and bad days. Looks like he had a bad day.”

It doesn’t really matter what they say, that about covers it.

Send her and the rest of them to Oz in search of a heart. But don’t tell them how to get back, please.

Raph Levien @ 121,

I read a long recognition article about Thelma Louise Quince Colbert (before she died) in an alumni newsletter. Her accomplishments were vast, as were the “issues” she was going after. I just couldn’t figure out how to cut out just that part of the document.

I expect we will hear more about this and other perhaps, not yet discovered, pieces of the puzzle as they come to light.

plainjane @ 136

Bush Renews Call for ‘Culture of Life’

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Tell it to our soldiers. Tell it to Iraq.

They only care about life to the extent they can control a woman’s uterus.

neokneme at 117 — I’m not certain what extra [blog love] is, but it sounds good to me, so I’ll second that. *g*

maunga @ 141
LJ/Aquaria @ 140

maunga @ 109
Well I think we are being a little unfair to monarchs…… there were a few who were as dumb as Bush……. loonies, lots, and one of them especially loony and especially dumb. Ah, i have it, he’s the one Dumbya wants to emulate —- Ludwig of Bavaria, he of Neuschwannstein.

At least Ludwig had some degree of taste. That is one beautiful castle.

Yah, but he shouldn’t have franchised it to all the branches of Disney, should he?

You’re nicer than I am. I would have said Disney didn’t need to steal it for their own purposes.

google this!
Smartechcorp scientology

page 3, section 7, reads like Griffin hired a PR firm to make his resume seem worthy and promote his lack of experience as an asset… is this goodling’s work? Or is Griffin doing his own PR work?

Since March 9,2006, when the Congress amended the Attorney General’s authority to appoint interim United States Attorneys, the President has nominated 16 individuals to serve as United States Attorney. The 16 nominations are:

Erik Peterson – Western District of Wisconsin;
Charles Rosenberg – Eastern District of Virginia;
Thomas Anderson – District of Vermont;
Martin Jackley – District of South Dakota;
Alexander Acosta – Southern District of Florida;
Troy Eid -District of Colorado;
Phillip Green – Southern District of Illinois;
George Holding – Eastern District of North Carolina;
Sharon Potter -Northern District of West Virginia;
Brett Tolman – District of Utah;
Rodger Heaton – Central District of Illinois;
Deborah Rhodes – Southern District of Alabama;
Rachel Paulose – District of Minnesota;
John Wood – Western District of Missouri;
Rosa Rodriguez-Velez – District of Puerto Rico; and
Jeffrey Taylor – District of Columbia.

All but Phillip Green, John Wood, Rosa Rodriguez-Velez, and Jeffrey Taylor have been confirmed by the Senate – 12 of 16 nominations.

OPA000000014

Who are these people? Tolman, an Orrin Hatch protege, inserted the language in the Patriot Act that allowed him to be named USA Utah. Paulose had several assistants demote themselves rather than work with her. But the others?

Alexander Acosta for one:

When FBI supervisors in Miami met with new interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta last month, … [they] were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it’s obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article…..5318960389

Jeffrey Taylor from his wiki:

From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Taylor served as majority counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee where he advised Chairman Orrin Hatch and drafted provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Mr. Taylor served as Counselor to Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales from 2002 to 2006.

This is the same Taylor mentioned in some of the comments above.

Hey, CHS:

Thanks for the h/t!

set 6 (OLP-917)

Page 80.

Executive Branch (DOJ) conspires to provide false and misleading testimony to Congressional oversight.

USA Lam busts them.

DOJ claims 29% growth in AUSA’s in the Southwest. Lam caluclates less than 6%.

DOJ is lying to Congress by a five-fold factor.

Overestimating by five hundred percent.

That’s 500%.

Lam busts them:

“I assume nobody is taking credi for the 29% figure, and I’m on my own?”

(in another message)

“Can anyone tell me how the 29% increase was calculated, in case the Congressmen use this figure in our discussion?”

WH briefing with Perino on CSPAN 3.

Document set 6 (OLP-917)…

Page 29

Kirk at 123, you may have spotted another smoking gun with a mushroom cloud rising from the barrel!

High crimes and misdemeanors?

Do we have a breakdown here of who’s covering what in the docudump?

PSA – tornado watch for NW Texas until 7PM tonight.

From OPA-217
pages 19-20

May 24.2006
Ms. Carol C. Lam
United States Attorney
880 Front Stxet,
Room 6293 San Diego. C
alifornia 92101

Dear Ms. Lam:
In response to your comments on the Border Patrol internal memo my office obtained and released, your statwnent misses the mark and exhibits a willll disregard to the documented 251 incidents in fiscal year 2004 where the Border Patrol at the El Cajon station apprehended smugglers but led to smuggling charges for roughly 6% of the cases. The memo I released contains a specific enforcement number for each of the 251 incidents that you or the Department of Homeland Security can confirm by simply typing the number into a computer database.

Your failure to address the substantive issues raised in the memo is consistent with previous news reports and comments that I have repeatedly heard from Border Patrol agents who work closely with your office. You have previously disregarded my requests for information that can help me understand the extent of the problems associated with prosecuting alien smuggling cases and the resources you would need to adopt a zero tolerance policy for trafficking in human beings. In the case of the memo I released, the fact that you have chosen to focus on unspecified alterations to what you freely admit is an “old Border Patrol document” and your assertion that this document was not seen or approved by Border Patrol management does not dismiss the verifiable facts and details in the memo. I can readily understand that the internal memo, written by a Border Patrol employee, is an embarrassment to your office as the memo speaks with such candor about barriers to prosecution that it could not be embraced and released publicly as a report representing the views of Border Patrol management.

On Monday, my office requested your assistance in obtaining a copy of the report you referenced in your statement but your office has not returned that phone call. I find your statemat that “all dialogue and debate should be based on well-informed and accurate data” incredibly disingenuous considering your record in response to my past requests for information on criminal alien.. and alien smuggling. The last correspondence I sent to you was October 13,2005, concerning an alien by the name of Alfredo Gonzales Garcia, aka Isidro Gonzales Ales. FBI # 180566JAS. In this letter I asked that if there is some barrier to the prosecution of criminal aliens, including smugglers, that I am unaware of, to please communicate it so we can make sure you have the resources and policies in place needed to allow you to bring these criminal aliens and repeat offenders to justice.

Finally, as the representative of a Congressional district that is greatly impacted by border crimes and as a Member of Congress who sits on the Judiciary Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Government Refom Committee that collectively have oversight responsibilities for the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, your lack of coopention is hindering the ability of congress to provide proper oversight over your office and to make informed policy decisions. I am asked to craft and vote on legislative policies that determine your authority and the resources you receive and having full and correct information on an issue like the challenges of stopping alien smugglers is essential.

I request a joint meeting with you and the Chief Patrol Agent of the San Diego Border Sector to discuss the prosecution of alien smugglers nnd what resources are needed to establish a zero tolerance policy for prosecuting individuals who traffic in human beings. My office will contact your office to try and arrange a meeting time.

Sincerely Yours
Darrel Issa
Member of Congress

Sounds threatening to me.

I can’t get section 7 to load. Anyone else having that problem?

Ah–never mind. It’s finally here.

cspan 3 has white house briefing on the emails

lolo @ 159

cspan 3 has white house briefing on the emails

CNN is showing it now too but i’m sure they will break away…

time to investigate the Federalist Society for its pernicious and malignant influence on Democracy.

Badwater @ 135

noen @ 118
anyone else able to get the full file of

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/PDFS/OPA7-217.pdf

???

I can’t seem to open it or download it.

I can open/save all of it: 211 pages

I’m able to get it now. Don’t know what was wrong before.

Thanks

Christy Hardin Smith @ 147

neokneme at 117 — I’m not certain what extra [blog love] is, but it sounds good to me, so I’ll second that. *g*

“~}

(Mr. RH… our collective goodwill is in your hands…)

OT -

In his WaPo chat this AM, Jonathan Weisman slaps down DanGerstein not once but twice.

Ah, Fridays . . .

how many cups o coffee do we firedoggers drink a day?

C @ 166

how many cups o coffee do we firedoggers drink a day?

Four or five.

Raven – Others here have given you a thumbnail sketch of the Federalist Society; let me relate a story that gives you an idea of their ethos. In the early 90’s I represented a criminal defendant in a high profile, media scrutinized case. Through court watchers and other lawyers, it got out that we were setting up a jury nullification argument for trial. Questions suddenly came flowing in as to whether we were arguing nullification. Since jury nullification is technically strictly prohibited, I said only “we are just going to present our defense and let the jury decide their verdict”. Even that turned out to be to much, and the trial judge set a hearing to clamp down on any thoiught of using a nullification defense. Once that became known, leaders of the Federalist Society started appearing out of the woodwork trying to co-opt our case (jury nullification was one of their pet theories apparently). National Federalist people called relentlessly, local Federalist people showed up at my office unannounced; they even approached my law clerk in a class at law school. The full court press put on be these people was amazing, and literally rabid. They were so sure our case was their holy grail on their pet issue that they would not back down. I literally had to threaten one group of them with a restraining order to get them to back off. There are some bright people that have been involved with the Federalist Society off and on, but they truly are a bizarre group of dogmatic true believers.

plainjane @ 136

Bush Renews Call for ‘Culture of Life’

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Tell it to our soldiers. Tell it to Iraq.

Iran?

kirk murphy @ 123

Document set 6 (OLP-917)…

Page 29

HOLY SHIT!

Senior DOJ officials talking about how to use their official knowledge of a SEALED indictment to help the White House’s immigration messaging.

They have so politicized JUSTICE that not just any attorney, an attorney who is now…

in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General of the United States of America..

asks her legal peers “can we use this” SEALED INDICTMENT?

Why do the Bushies hate Justice?

__________________________________________

re:

“Alien Smuggling Arrests – SEALED INDICTMENT”

“this sounds like a story that the WH-1 immigration working group should be aware of and perhaps highlight.“

(from)

Courtney Simmons Elwood
Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General

(to – includes Kyle Sampson and Jeffery Taylor at DOJ, as well as the aforementioned Brand)

Brand (ODAG) asks “Can we say anything about it at this poinnt?”

Taylor (OAG): “Not until it is unsealed, an then, of course, we would have to be careful.”

Ryan W. Bounds (OLP) observes to Brand (ODAG) …and only Brand:

“That is all very serendipitous, since we were just talking with Taylor yesterday about criticism for the lack of alien smuggling prosecutions in So Cal….”

[nerd note - please link to this comment when citing. I want credit for finding this one. ;) kjm]

Watch for lots and lots of Courtney Elwood fingerprints folks.

Dana Purina has been drinking….KOOL AID….a lot of it! She actually looks likes she believes what’s coming out of her trap! Have I said before how I loathe her?

The amount of time these goons waste on this, instead of doing what their jobs descriptions state. Our Federal government at work on our tax dollars.

Take a look at the ex post facto “reasoning” here to support the removals: http://judiciary.house.gov/med…..9-1234.pdf (document group 5)

See pages 10-12 for a chart/summary, and then pages 23-26 for the full blown “justification”.

Note particularly on p 25, last line of Igelias’ bullet 2: “as we expected and needed her to do” which was cookie cutter-ed from Carol Lam’s bullet 3 on page 23. Nothing like individual attention!

And the gratuitous preaching-to-the-converted bullet 4 on page 25, referring to Mr.Charleton alleged refusal to pay attention to Gonzo’s priorities: “…the federal crime of obscenity, which coarsens our society…” (my bold).

My my.

Oklahoma kiddo @ 79

Texas Betsy @ 72
Oklahoma kiddo @ 70
Get Rove, and you’ll get the ‘other two’.
———

Yes, I think so. Where does Gonzales fall?
———–

Somewhere between an anvil and a hammer. Al is already toast, me thinks. ;0)

I’m envisioning toast placed on an anvil and hit by a hammer. That’s kind of a fun way to think of AG.

Moon @ 18: when you get done checking the mainstream media for the Wolfowitz girlfriend story, maybe you could try the New York Times. They have it.

Seriously, some people just wanna whine about mainstream media cover-ups regardless of the facts.

radiofreewill @ 130

I haven’t looked, but let me guess – There isn’t a single Karl Rove-authored or received e-mail in the document dump, right? Was he even cc’d on any of the e-mails offered up?

It’s time for Leahy to issue those subpoenas and stop fooling around! There is more than enough evidence right now to convene a Grand Jury on Obstruction charges related to the ‘78 Presidential Records Act alone!

Subpoena the entire RNC IT Staff and the SmarTechCorp IT Staff – they aren’t protected by privilege – and get that equipment off to Quantico for analysis!

Karl Rove is NOT PROTECTED under privilege for his dealings with the RNC and SmarTechCorp – Subpoena him – if he deleted “Official Business” e-mails on non-gov servers, he committed a crime – What could the Architect of Dirty Tricks possibly say to Congress about that – “I didn’t know?” or “I don’t recall deleting that message” a thousand times?

While they’re at it, they should subpoena Mehlman, too, and have him explain to the nation how he understood the ‘back channel’ e-mail/text system to work, what did he know and when?

Uh guys? THe FBI is a division of DOJ. They work for Abu G

Today’s Froomkin

bmaz @ 168

Raven – Others here have given you a thumbnail sketch of the Federalist Society; let me relate a story that gives you an idea of their ethos. In the early 90’s I represented a criminal defendant in a high profile, media scrutinized case. Through court watchers and other lawyers, it got out that we were setting up a jury nullification argument for trial. Questions suddenly came flowing in as to whether we were arguing nullification. Since jury nullification is technically strictly prohibited, I said only “we are just going to present our defense and let the jury decide their verdict”. Even that turned out to be to much, and the trial judge set a hearing to clamp down on any thoiught of using a nullification defense. Once that became known, leaders of the Federalist Society started appearing out of the woodwork trying to co-opt our case (jury nullification was one of their pet theories apparently). National Federalist people called relentlessly, local Federalist people showed up at my office unannounced; they even approached my law clerk in a class at law school. The full court press put on be these people was amazing, and literally rabid. They were so sure our case was their holy grail on their pet issue that they would not back down. I literally had to threaten one group of them with a restraining order to get them to back off. There are some bright people that have been involved with the Federalist Society off and on, but they truly are a bizarre group of dogmatic true believers.

Which is why I’m sure they were going after Vicky Toensing in the Libby trial (snark).

C @ 166

how many cups o coffee do we firedoggers drink a day?

one pot. sometimes two.

weeeeeeee!!!!!!

tbsa @ 146

plainjane @ 136

Bush Renews Call for ‘Culture of Life’

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Tell it to our soldiers. Tell it to Iraq.

They only care about life to the extent they can control a woman’s uterus.

It’s time for Jenna and Barbara to step forward and volunteer to give birth to as many snowflake babies as they can. Dorms can be built on the Bush Brush Ranch to house all these new Bushies.

Urban Pirate @ 176

C @ 166

how many cups o coffee do we firedoggers drink a day?

one pot. sometimes two.

weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

With a straw.

Fair warning to all the Pups north of the border: If we get much closer to a draft here, I and mine will be found mountain biking in BC.

Lawyer: Rove didn’t mean to delete email

snip

The prosecutor probing the
Valerie Plame spy case saw and copied all of Rove’s e-mails from his various accounts after searching Rove’s laptop, his home computer, and the handheld computer devices he used for both the White House and Republican National Committee, Luskin said.

The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, subpoenaed the e-mails from the White House, the RNC and Bush’s re-election campaign, he added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..rosecutors

motherlowman @ 179

Urban Pirate @ 176
C @ 166
how many cups o coffee do we firedoggers drink a day?
———–
one pot. sometimes two.

weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
———–
With a straw.

Mainlined.

Darrel Issa is an embarassment to California. Gary Miller would be a bigger embarassment, but he flys under the radar and only does things to enrich himself and his pals.

I’m at the “talking points” for handling the “resigned” attorneys issue of Section 7, pp 18-? Don’t know how far this goes yet. It’s s-l-o-w to slog through.

It’s unbelievable that not one MSM outlet is jumping on this story in an aggressive way. This is the *story of the century* and still not one major newspaper or network will do up-to-the minute reporting and analysis.

Doesn’t one have the cajones to come out in front?! They could make a s**tload of money and would establish a reputation for real news that no one could ever knock down.

Makes no sense.

Dangit, I’m downloading these pdf’s. Looking at them through the web is a real pain.

LJ/Aquaria @ 186

Dangit, I’m downloading these pdf’s. Looking at them through the web is a real pain.

IDM is an excellent PC app for downloading files.

Cozumel @ 181

Lawyer: Rove didn’t mean to delete email

snip

The prosecutor probing the
Valerie Plame spy case saw and copied all of Rove’s e-mails from his various accounts after searching Rove’s laptop, his home computer, and the handheld computer devices he used for both the White House and Republican National Committee, Luskin said.

The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, subpoenaed the e-mails from the White House, the RNC and Bush’s re-election campaign, he added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..rosecutors

Good catch, Coz.

I’d imagine they are all properly archived by Fitz, and can be gotten. That should cover 2003-2005.

Jenny from the Blog @ 185

It’s unbelievable that not one MSM outlet is jumping on this story in an aggressive way. This is the *story of the century* and still not one major newspaper or network will do up-to-the minute reporting and analysis.

Doesn’t one have the cajones to come out in front?! They could make a s**tload of money and would establish a reputation for real news that no one could ever knock down.

Makes no sense.

Too comfortable being stenographers, and not true stenographers like my friend is in school to be. Going after this story means they’d have to work for their paycheck and piss off their bosses. Which is why we’ve only got a few voices in the MSM that do their jobs as they’re supposed to.

Dover Bitch @ 186

LJ/Aquaria @ 186
Dangit, I’m downloading these pdf’s. Looking at them through the web is a real pain.
——

IDM is an excellent PC app for downloading files.

Thanks, but I’m on Mac. All I have to do is right-click, and it’s downloading. And there it is. :)

Jenny from the Blog @ 185

This is the *story of the century* and still not one major newspaper or network will do up-to-the minute reporting and analysis.

the story of the century is the downing streat minutes that tell us with no doubt the president lied us into war

the story of the century is the sick fraternity known as the PNAC who came up with the plan to lie us into war

this story pails

The Perino WH line today seems to be that the simple clear cut rule to keep political and official business separate was somehow “murky” and resulted in an accidental wholesale hiding of official business from WH archiving for 6 years. It’s an example of the big lie.

New thread.

The Spin I’m In: Nailed

aliasofwestgate -

Too comfortable being stenographers, and not true stenographers like my friend is in school to be. Going after this story means they’d have to work for their paycheck and piss off their bosses. Which is why we’ve only got a few voices in the MSM that do their jobs as they’re supposed to.

Yes, all that. But this is *must-see TV* and the whole country would be riveted. Advertising dollars up the wazoo (brave advertisers, to be sure, but…).

I dunno, someone’s got to break out of the pack!

perris -

This story encompasses everything. Once they start investigating/examining it will all be exposed. People will want more.

You all are doing God’s work by going through the document dump and looking for smoking guns. However, there is other work that needs to be done. On the bottom line, the bad guys think they have a winning line in “U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president.” As sophisticated Firedoglakers know, the president can fire all or some or none of the U.S. Attorneys for a good reason, or for no reason. But he cannot do so for a bad reason. See, The Pleasure of the President.

What we need (in addition to a fine tooth comb applied to the document dump) is some of the brilliant legal minds here looking for arguments and precedents for the proposition that it is illegal to politicize the DOJ. A good starting point might be the House Judiciary Committee’s Articles of Impeachment vs. Richard M. Nixon. e.g. Article 2, Specification 5: “In disregard of the rule of law, he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division, and the Office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, of the Department of Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” N.B. No criminal act is charged.

It’s going to be tough — though not impossible — to make the case that some of the firings amounted to Obstruction of Justice, especially in the case of Carole Lam. Talking Points Memo is making a good case that the Wisconsin USA kept his job by bringing a phony prosecution. See, The Veracifier. (I highly recommend you follow this link.)

Okay, Firepups — get on it!

Please visit the Schapira blog, What we know so far …

“… and tell ‘em Big Mitch sent ya!”

FEMA just announced they are throwing away 40 million $ worth of MRE (meals ready to eat) for lack of storage…

So, what about Darfur????

White House briefing on CNN now. Idiot Perino just totally blew a chance to let Suzanne Malvaux lead her to the conclussion Malvaux wanted her to reach.
Malavux:”So, to your knowlege there’s no problem within the whitehouse e-mail system, in terms of messages or emails that have been deleted, or at this point you just don’t know?”
Perino:”No. What I’m saying is that..all..the way that the system is set up, and the way that..to comply with the Presidential Records Act is that any email that comes to or from an white house acc’t..an eop account..you know, that y’all email us on, thosr are automatically preserved. Their question was specific, not to whitehouse emails but to gwb emails…there are allegations that there could be days, whole days of emails missing..and what I’m saying is that we’re looking into that….yada yada yada.. no indication that that could have been intentional..yada yada.”
Idiots, both of ‘em. Who does Malvaux think she’s working for, anyway? And doesn’t Perino listen to the questions? Malvaux was practically begging her to say there was no problem with the whitehouse emails, and Perino blew right past. Ladies and gentlemen it is (finally) amature hour at the whitehouse briefing room.

Jenny. That’s why we’re here! Because they for the most part will not break out of the pack easily any time soon.

I felt uneasy about going into journalism here in the states for this reason. I’d figured it out by pure observation. I won’t do what they’re doing. So i’m here on the ‘net at FDL. Getting the truth without the bullcrap and the deflections.

Something will eventually break the MSM’s trance, but for now? We look at the tiny amount of good voices and continue to hammer the stenographer wannabe’s ummercifully.

Jenny from the Blog @ 195

perris -

This story encompasses everything. Once they start investigating/examining it will all be exposed. People will want more.

oh I agree with that, and beleive me, if it weren’t for the few that did report the downing street memo and the pnac democrats would have never been elected and this srory would have never come about

but oh I wish we would revisit those official government documents from england and oh how I wish we would revisit the influence of the sick maniacs in the insane society known as the pnac

aliasofwestgate @ 199

Jenny. That’s why we’re here! Because they for the most part will not break out of the pack easily any time soon.

I felt uneasy about going into journalism here in the states for this reason. I’d figured it out by pure observation. I won’t do what they’re doing. So i’m here on the ‘net at FDL. Getting the truth without the bullcrap and the deflections.

Something will eventually break the MSM’s trance, but for now? We look at the tiny amount of good voices and continue to hammer the stenographer wannabe’s ummercifully.

alias, yes, and thank god for the great work of the blogs. Thanks.

Here’s a letter from people in San Diego complaining about Lam. It’s very hard to read, and deciphering the signatures is tough. A guy stopped at the border; two priors (drugs). Lam didn’t pursue prosecution. (What was he stopped for, was he arrested and released on the other side of the border, what?) Another guy arrested (for what unknown), coyote and drugs, not prosecuted for this mysterious offense. These guys wanted full extent of law pursued, automatic 2 years in jail, hey, they met the criteria, why wasn’t it done?

Without knowing what they had done to get arrested (beyond being “illegal aliens”), it’s impossible to say if Lam is right or wrong in either of these cases. I’m not sure what the point of the complaint is. IANAL, but if they were arrested for jaywalking or public intoxication, wouldn’t Lam be on good ground in saying she had better things to do than to take a P.I. to court, even of an illegal alien?

This seems awfully week and petty….

Conniptionfit @198 –

Let me get this straight, Malvaux led the witness and the witness blew right past her?!

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

perris @ 200

Jenny from the Blog @ 195

perris -

This story encompasses everything. Once they start investigating/examining it will all be exposed. People will want more.

oh I agree with that, and beleive me, if it weren’t for the few that did report the downing street memo and the pnac democrats would have never been elected and this srory would have never come about

but oh I wish we would revisit those official government documents from england and oh how I wish we would revisit the influence of the sick maniacs in the insane society known as the pnac

Me too, perris. Oh how I wish.

Big Mitch @ 196

You all are doing God’s work by going through the document dump and looking for smoking guns. However, there is other work that needs to be done. On the bottom line, the bad guys think they have a winning line in “U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president.”

I know this is what you are saying, but simply put, the president cannot obstruct justice and cannot fire anyone if that obstructs justice

and while it migh be true these attorneys “work at the pleasure of the president” it is more so that the president works at the pleasure of the people

the people vote for congress to do that will and for that very reason the president works at the pleasure of congress

so if he fires someone “at his pleasure” congress can and SHOULD act in kind

LJ/Aquaria @ 201

Here’s a letter from people in San Diego complaining about Lam. It’s very hard to read, and deciphering the signatures is tough.

Is this the one that people like Pombo signed?

The redacted material in this document is similar to the text that follows it.

From: Sampson, Kyle

Harriet, you have asked whether President Bush should remove and replace U.S. Attorneys whose four-year terms have expired. I recommend that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S. Attorneys.

(…text on “obstacles”…)

None of the above obstacles are insuperable. First, a limited number of U.S. Attorneys could be targeted for removal and replacement, mitigating the shock to the system that would result from an across-the-board firing. Second, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) could work quietly with targeted U.S. Attorneys to encourage them to leave government service voluntarily; this would allow targeted U.S. Attorneys to make arrangements for work in the private sector and “save face” regarding the reason for leaving office, both in the Department of Justice community and in their local legal communities. Third, after targeted U.S. Attorneys have left office or indicated publicly their intention to leave office, then the Office of the Counsel to the President can work with home-state Senators and/or other political leaders in the state to secure recommendations for a replacement U.S. Attomey. Finally, after background investigations are complete and the replacement candidate is nominated, the Attorney General can appoint the nominee to serve as Interim U.S. Attorney pending confirmation, thereby reducing the time during which the leadership of the office is uncertain.

If a decision is made to remove and replace a limited number of U.S. Attorneys, then the following might be considered for removal and replacement:

(gap)

3. Margaret M Chiara, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan
Term expired I 11/2/2005
Replacement candidates: Rachel Brand?
Home-state Senators/political leaders: Levin (D) and Stabenow (D): numerous GOP congressmen

(gap)

5. Harry E. “Bud” Cummins Ill. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas
Term expires 1/9/2006 (today!)
Replacement candidates: Tim Griffin?
Home-state Senators/political leaders: Pryor (D) and Lincoln (D); Gov. Huckabee(?)

6. Kevin V. Ryan, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California
Term expires 8/2/2006
Replacement candidates: .Dan Levin? .
Home-state Senators/political leaders: Feinstein (D) and Boxer (D); Parsky Commission

7. Carol C. Lam, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California
Term expires 11/18/2006
Replacement candidates: Jeff Taylor, Deb Rhodes
Home-state Senatorslpolitical leaders: Feinstein (D) and Boxer (D);’Parsky Commission

I list these folks based on my review of the evaluations of their offices conducted by EOMA and my interviews with dfficials in the Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and the Criminal Division. If a determination is made to seek the removal of these folks. then we should similarlv seek to remove and replace Please let me know how you would like to proceed. The first steps, I think, would be (1) to agree on the target list of U.S. Attorneys and (2) ask EOUSA to’begin quietly calling them to ascertain their intentions for continued servicelindicating to them that they might want to consider looking for other employment.

Badwater @ 178

tbsa @ 146
plainjane @ 136
Bush Renews Call for ‘Culture of Life’

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush.html

Tell it to our soldiers. Tell it to Iraq.
——
They only care about life to the extent they can control a woman’s uterus.
——–
It’s time for Jenna and Barbara to step forward and volunteer to give birth to as many snowflake babies as they can. Dorms can be built on the Bush Brush Ranch to house all these new Bushies.

Bite your tongue! That’s sooo disgusting! The thought of helpless children in these peoples’ clutches! Shame on you for concidering condemning even fictional children to this!

Late and somewhat OT, but wasn’t Susan Ralston supposed to meet privately last week with one of the Judiciary Committees? Any word from that? Did I miss something?

Heh, I guess what I’m saying is… where is the one MSM outlet GREEDY enough to get on top of this story? :)

From a pure business perspective this is dynamite.

LJ/Aquaria @ 202

Here’s a letter from people in San Diego complaining about Lam. It’s very hard to read, and deciphering the signatures is tough. A guy stopped at the border; two priors (drugs). Lam didn’t pursue prosecution. (What was he stopped for, was he arrested and released on the other side of the border, what?) Another guy arrested (for what unknown), coyote and drugs, not prosecuted for this mysterious offense. These guys wanted full extent of law pursued, automatic 2 years in jail, hey, they met the criteria, why wasn’t it done?

Without knowing what they had done to get arrested (beyond being “illegal aliens”), it’s impossible to say if Lam is right or wrong in either of these cases. I’m not sure what the point of the complaint is. IANAL, but if they were arrested for jaywalking or public intoxication, wouldn’t Lam be on good ground in saying she had better things to do than to take a P.I. to court, even of an illegal alien?

This seems awfully week and petty….

I lived in La Jolla (next door to S. Diego) doing post doc work @ UCSD the first 2 yrs. Carol Lam was USA there. Coverage of her tenure in the Union-Tribune (very conservative paper) was uniformly stellar. Articles describing her work made Lam sound like the Pat Fitzgerald of San Diego. No beefs on immigration prosecuting either…

Brisingamen @ 203

Conniptionfit @198 –

Let me get this straight, Malvaux led the witness and the witness blew right past her?!

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

ayep. Rejoyce, a stumbling press briefer who doesn’t know when to shut up is on deck! I think this is a good time to be paying very close attention to hw press briefings.

BusChen minionettes spewing smoke can’t quench the underlying fire…

Q We’ve heard the name Karl Rove. Are there are any other assistants to the President, that highest title, that have these outside accounts? Will you provide the names of all the 22 who do use these outside the –

MS. PERINO: Let me take that back and see if I can get you either a list, or if I can at least find out if there are any other assistants to the President. I’m not aware of one off the top of my head, but, again, I said handful, and there were 22, so I’m being called on that. So I’ll hold back until I have the correct answer.

Dana, we beseech thee! Don’t hold back! Only the Articles of Impeachment will contain the correct answers!

1,485 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..

Citizen Raven and the Firepup Patriots:

Brother Raven, the Federalist society is the training academy of legal cadre for the Fourth Reich…these folks are fascist true believers who are committed to using the structure of the constitution to destroy it.

These folks are the upscale versions of the Regents Law School grads and they are pod people who will march in step to any new world orders. The long range take-over plan for “friendly fascism” has been developed over the last 40years and includes “universities” (see the Christianist schools and their graduates in positions of political operations), think tanks (see AEI, Cato Institute, Hudson Institute…)professional organizations like the Federalist Society and, of course, a completely corporatized news media which recycles political operatives as “objective” political commentators.

No, dear friend, these folks in the Federalist Society might be the nicest people on the block but ya surely don’t want ‘em runnin’ yer school board (or your local animal control for that matter).

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…NOBODY GETS IN WITHOUT A PASSWORD!!!

Jenny from the Blog @ 210

Heh, I guess what I’m saying is… where is the one MSM outlet GREEDY enough to get on top of this story? :)

From a pure business perspective this is dynamite.

Naah. If you stack up all the oil and weapons money that would be threatened by blowing the lid off on one side, and a little bit of ad revenue from a ratings bump on the other, it’s clear which wins.

neokneme @ 213

BusChen minionettes spewing smoke can’t quench the underlying fire…

Q We’ve heard the name Karl Rove. Are there are any other assistants to the President, that highest title, that have these outside accounts? Will you provide the names of all the 22 who do use these outside the –

MS. PERINO: Let me take that back and see if I can get you either a list, or if I can at least find out if there are any other assistants to the President. I’m not aware of one off the top of my head, but, again, I said handful, and there were 22, so I’m being called on that. So I’ll hold back until I have the correct answer.

Dana, we beseech thee! Don’t hold back! Only the Articles of Impeachment will contain the correct answers!

Oh yeah, that’ll happen.

JML @ 209

Late and somewhat OT, but wasn’t Susan Ralston supposed to meet privately last week with one of the Judiciary Committees? Any word from that? Did I miss something?

Christy and LHP both said that since the meeting was private, we would probably never know the details. I don’t know if there has been an update. Anyone is welcome to correct me if my recollection is off.

Excellent point, Ralph.

I’m having all kinds of problems with
OPA7-217.pdf

It seems to be a badly formed PDF or at least Adobe reader is being fussy. I can’t save it because it’s mangled.

TPm has a lively discussion on the WH excuse for the 5 million ‘missing’ e-mails – they’re claiming they got lost in converting from LotusNotes to Outlook. Some of the commenters have experience in this kind of conversion (or others) and are saying that there should be backups; also that you don’t just ‘lose’ everything in that kind of changeover.

Grab the servers and the backups, y’hear, Conyers, Leahy, Waxman?

From page 121 of 211 in the 7th set of docs:

—– Original Message—–
From: Scolinos, Tasia
To: Bartlett, Dan; Martin, Catherine
CC: Roehrkasse, Brian
Sent: Mon Mar 05 10:51:44 2007
Subject: US Attorney Hearing: DRAFT Talking Points
>
>
Dan/Cathie -

In preparation for tomorrow’s hearing where six of the dismissed US Attorneys will be testifying, we have drafted some talking points that we were going to insert into Will Moschella’s testimony (the DOJ witness) that get out the message that although we stand by the decision to remove these folks the process by which they were informed was not optimal. Right now the coverage will be dominated by how qualified these folks were and their theories for their dismissals. We are trying to muddy t h e coverage up a bit by trying to put the focus on the process in which they were told – I suspect we are going to get to the point where DOJ has to say this anyway. First, it is true. Second, we are having morale problems with our other US Attorneys who understand the decision but think that these folks were not treated well in the process. I think from an internal management perspective it needs to be said. We are also discussing internally if we can/should release more information about why these folks were let go if we can address the privacy act aspects. I think it cuts both ways – it does prolong the story in a sense because I suspect that the US Attorneys will just go away at some point when they feel they have vindicated their reputations. On the other hand, I don’ t know if the Senate Dems will let this go until it is all out in the open. Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks.

I’ve just called my senator’s office (Feinstein-who is on the Judiciary Committee) and told her staff we want no let up in the seeking and retrieving of documents and for the WH to FESS UP.

I’ve also asked for her to PLEASE STEP UP AND DO NOT ACCEPT THE STONEWALLING FROM FIELDING AND LUSKIN BEHIND THE USA FIRINGS. THEY. MUST. COOPERATE. OR. THEY’RE. IN. CONTEMPT. OF. CONGRESS.

More on Carol Lam from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

“Border crime prosecutions in the past had made San Diego the busiest U.S. Attorney’s Office in the nation. Lam tried to remake the office’s role along more traditional lines, where federal prosecutors go after big fish.
But that policy may have alienated key law enforcement constituencies. The union that represents Border Patrol agents was outspoken in its dissatisfaction. Lam tightened the guidelines for deciding which smuggling and immigration cases her office would undertake, meaning fewer cases went to court. Instead of going after coyotes, the guides who bring illegal crossers into the United States, her office targeted the leaders of smuggling organizations. It also prosecuted corrupt Border Patrol agents and border inspectors.
The result was predictable. Statistics show that prosecutions fell during Lam’s tenure.”

Lam’s Legacy

P J Evans @ 220

TPm has a lively discussion on the WH excuse for the 5 million ‘missing’ e-mails – they’re claiming they got lost in converting from LotusNotes to Outlook. Some of the commenters have experience in this kind of conversion (or others) and are saying that there should be backups; also that you don’t just ‘lose’ everything in that kind of changeover.

Grab the servers and the backups, y’hear, Conyers, Leahy, Waxman?

If there are no backups, someone needs to be fired. If there are no backups, it was astonishing incompetence, or a deliberate attempt to kill the archive.

The current line from Dana Peroxide (and Luskin) is bullshit, utter bullshit, and relies upon ignorance of basic tech procedures among the reporters covering it. That’s where hard pushback from the blogosphere, and particularly those with tech experience, is important. It’s already clear that Conyers, Leahy and Waxman have good techies on their staff, but what’s needed is a push for, in essence, the largest public computer forensics operation in US history.

Hugh – 151

Taylor and Sampson also swim close to Griles.

Griles was the number two at DOI – he presided over the ongoing document loss and destruction at DOI in obstruction of the Cobell suit.

The Cobell suit alone could easily exceed $200 billion dollars – ultimately owed by the Rocky Mining energy/mining companies who own Hatch.

Similar suits threaten Big Energy / Mining with more massive liabilities for unpaid royalties – and decades of penalties and interest.

Taylor was USA for DC when Griles got his sweetheart* sentence for…

lying to Congress.

(about Abramoff matters).

Griles, Federici and Abramoff

The scope of the Griles, Federici and Abramoff scheme was not limited to a few casinos. It included defrauding the Federal Minerals Management Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and of course, Tribal Governments.

For reasons that either pass understanding, or are patently obvious, the media and its non-tribal alternatives construe Abramoff et alia as a morality play in which Indian Gaming alone occupies the central stage.

Similarly, the political control of US Attorneys, manifested in the Gonzales Eight, is construed as partisan voting rights, overlooking the peculiarity that six of the eight fired US Attorneys had significant MMS and Tribal lease prosecution responsibilities.

Griles was the big fish. He’s not required to cooperate with the continuing, now gutted, federal investigation of the Abramoff network.

They won.

[wampum]

Taylor/Sampson also conspired and attempted to compel the Special Master for Indian Affairs to provide false testimony to Congress.

Orrin Hatch was at the hearing that day.

*Griles just got a ten month sentence he’ll spend five on home arrest with his partner, the former energy megalobbyist who headed DOI legal stuff – she was Griles’ ethics supervisor!

The two of them own a home with a senior Conoco mega-lobbyist.

The best work I know on Hatch / Griles / Taylor / Sampson / Big Energy is at Wampum. They have been on Griles for years.

With good reason. He’s the stalking horse for Energy/Mining on our public lands. He works for the people Orrin hatch works for.

_________________________________________________

COMING ATTRACTION:

Big energy/mining megacorps want substantial control over of energy/transport in north-south corridors running from Canada to Mexico.

The projects (“Fair Access”) will totally override state and local control/planning.

And override Tribal sovereignty.

Three of the eight fired USA’s are in the path of the megacorps “free access” plan.

Oh – remember Griles’ partner, Sue Ellen Woodridge? The mining/energy lobbyist selected by mining/energy uberlobbyist Gail Norton, the DOI secretary Cheney OK’d.

Well Sue Ellen went from her private practice of fierce advocacy for mining/energy over to be the Solicitor General of Interior. Where she met our boy Griles – the number two at DOI.

And moved in with him – after she was assigned to watch his ethics. As Solicitor General to DOI?

Well, Mary Sue moved to DOJ – where she had oversight on all Tribal land business issues involved in the “free access” grab.

And was responsible for making decisons about those pipelines over Tribal lands. The pipelines that Conoco/Phillips wants.

The Conoco/Phillips that pays the megalobbyist who shares the vacation house that he purchased with Steven Griles and Sue Ellen Wooldridge.

(above info from Wampum)

Susan Ralston’s meeting with a congressional committee last week was a deposition, not part of a hearing. So no coverage.

Can we call Lam’s firing “The Silencing of the Lam?”

There needs to be some heavy pushback, ideally from people with tech expertise. Because the line from Dana Peroxide and Luskin is bullshit, and the WH press corps is probably not sufficiently clued to do anything but play stenographer.

Glorfindel @ 162

time to investigate the Federalist Society for its pernicious and malignant influence on Democracy.

In all seriousness, I ‘d love to know the precise criteris for RICO.

I’m expecting to find the Federalist Society “qualifies” as a conspiracy….

From page 130 of 211 in the 7th set of docs:

From: Roehrkasse, Brian
Sent: Monday, March 05.2007 2:38 PM
To: Scolinos, Tasia
Subject: RE:

Can you ask Kyle if I can attend too since I am sure the WH will have multiple communications people in the meeting?—–

Original Message—–
From: Scolinos, Tasia
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 2:35 PM
To: Sampson, Kyle; McNulty, Paul J; Moschella, William; Hertling, Richard; Battle, Michael(USAEO)
Cc: Elston, Michael (ODAG); Roehrkasse, Brian; Goodling, Monica; Washington, Tracy T
Subject: Re:
Works for me

—– Original Message—–
From: Sampson, Kyle
To: McNulty, Paul J; Moschella, William; Hertling, Richard; Scolinos, Tasia; Battle, Michael (USAEO)
CC: Elston, Michael (ODAG); Roehrkasse, Brian; Goodling, Monica; Washington, Tracy T
Sent: Mon Mar 05 14:30:17 2007
Subject: FW:
All, please see the below. I propose to you all that I propose 5pm to Bill — I assume they’ll want us to go over there. Thoughts?

From: Kelley, William K. [mailto:William-K.-Kelley@who.eop.gov]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 1:57 PM
To: Sampson, Kyle
Subject:

Kyle–We’ve been tasked with getting a meeting together with you, Paul, Will, DOJ leg and pa, and maybe Battle — today — to go over the Administration’s position on all aspects of the US Atty issue, including what we are going to say about the proposed legislation and why the US Attys were asked to resign. There’s a hearing tomorrow at which Will is scheduled to testify, so we have to get this group together with some folks here asap. Can you look into possible times? Thanks, and sorry to impose.

I’m hoping Leahy et al are holding back on the subpoenas because they’ve got some aces in the hole and want to deploy them at just the right time — after the WH digs itself into a HUGE hole. But I’m very afraid they everything is going to end up in court and the clock will run out. ITS SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SOO wish for the day that the Sergeant at Arms is sent to bring Rove before Congress, willing or not. :)

Re: Jeff Taylor

Prior to his work in Washington, DC, Jeffrey Taylor served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California from 1995–1999.[1] From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Taylor served as majority counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee where he advised Chairman Orrin Hatch and drafted provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.[2]

Before his appointment as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Taylor served as Counselor to Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales from 2002 to 2006 where he oversaw law enforcement operations by U.S. attorneys.[1] He was appointed interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia by Alberto Gonzales on September 22, 2006 and was sworn in seven days later.[1] He took office so quickly because he bypassed Senate confirmation under a provision of the USA Patriot Act.[2]

Re: Rachel Brand

“Ms. Brand has apparently been heavily involved in the judicial nominations process both at the White House and at DOJ. Given this administration’s pattern of nominating ideologically extreme candidates for the judiciary and making politically aggressive nominations decisions such as re-nominating candidates previously disapproved, I would like to hear about Ms. Brand’s role in crafting nominations policy and her views about ways to reach consensus in this process. I also look forward to hearing about Ms. Brand’s views about the important congressional and judicial checks set out in the Patriot Act. I am interested in the policies and priorities she has developed for OLP. I would like to hear about DOJ’s plans to carry out the mandates and priorities set out in the Justice For All Act,” Leahy said.

Re: Tim Griffin

There’s only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That’s replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.

There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush’s firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn’t bend to political pressure.

But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove’s assistant, the President’s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.

Key voters on Griffin’s hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Re: Dan Levin

Gonzales and other administration lawyers wrote memos that said the president’s wartime powers superseded anti-torture laws and treaties. Human rights advocates say those memos effectively condoned abuse and set the stage for the mistreatment of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay.

The Justice Department in June specifically avowed an August 2002 memo to Gonzales that said cruel, inhumane and degrading acts may be considered contrary to the benefits of torture if they don’t produce intense pain and suffering.

That memo was replaced by the Dec. 30 memo from Daniel Levin, acting chief of the Office of Legal Counsel. It opens by bluntly stating: “Torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and to international law, but it is the most useful tool that we have in forcing false confessions out of innocent people.”

The 17-page memo does not address two of the most controversial assertions in the first memo: that Bush, as commander in chief in wartime, had authority superseding anti-torture laws and that U.S. personnel had legal defenses against criminal liability in such cases.

Levin said those issues need not be considered because they “would be inconsistent with the president’s factitious directive that United States personnel not engage in torture.”

Re: Deb Rhodes

Prosecutor Posts Go To Bush Insiders

When Gonzales was preparing to appoint Deborah Rhodes, counselor in the department’s criminal division, she stopped by to visit with Alabama’s two Republican senators. “I don’t think I’d ever met her, or heard of her for that matter,” recalled Sen. Jeff Sessions, a former U.S. attorney in the southern Alabama district in which Rhodes was to work. Sessions said he and Sen. Richard C. Shelby had intended to recommend someone local for the job permanently but ended up urging Bush to nominate Rhodes, because she appeared to be turning around an office beset by low morale and a probe of her predecessor.

Other insiders who have been made U.S. attorneys have drawn complaints that they are political or inexperienced.

LJ/Aquaria @ 190

Dover Bitch @ 186
LJ/Aquaria @ 186
Dangit, I’m downloading these pdf’s. Looking at them through the web is a real pain.
————

IDM is an excellent PC app for downloading files.
————

Thanks, but I’m on Mac. All I have to do is right-click, and it’s downloading. And there it is. :)

LJ, when you download, is ther any way to view the pdf files directly on Firefox?

Saving the text from the external Adobe reader program into Firefox (for paste in FDL comments) won’t work for me. :(

Sorry for OT post.

so, has anyone found a single email with Rove’s name on it?

Bueller?…. Bueller?….

It’s really quite rude the form the documents were put into by the DOJ. They are what are call image on text. The image of a scanned paper doc that’s been ocr’d. The pdf has two layers: an image layer on top of the ocr’d text (redacted material fails to get ocr’d and winds up treated as an image).

All these memos and emails originated in digital form. The digital form should have been imported into pdf files instead of the photocopies, along with copies of the paper docs to help verify their authenticity.

OT
Dana Perino looks awful. She’s wearing down. poor thing.

Orrin Hatch’s sticky fingerprints are all over this.

Question for the legal eagles: The Hatch Act, which the Bushco White House has apparently violated…does it relate to Orrin or his family?

Glorfindel @ 237

Orrin Hatch’s sticky fingerprints are all over this.

Question for the legal eagles: The Hatch Act, which the Bushco White House has apparently violated…does it relate to Orrin or his family?

No.

BMAZ,
If you are here I wanted to let you know I anonymously busted the Monica Goodling handwriting that’s the subject of a thread at the Muckraker. You’ve been brilliant here lately. Isn’t underemployment great? Take care

NYT has an article up that makes Kyle Sampson an out and out liar. David Johnston has it nailed down. Title:Gonzales Aide Recommended Replacements for Attorneys

Seems like they did have replacements in line for fired USAs.

Tithonia @ 238

Glorfindel @ 237

Orrin Hatch’s sticky fingerprints are all over this.

Question for the legal eagles: The Hatch Act, which the Bushco White House has apparently violated…does it relate to Orrin or his family?

No.

Hatch Act, Senator Carl Hatch, 1939. But it does smell like Orin.

Glorfindel @ 237

Orrin Hatch’s sticky fingerprints are all over this.

Question for the legal eagles: The Hatch Act, which the Bushco White House has apparently violated…does it relate to Orrin or his family?

The Hatch Act was passed in 1939 and applies only to the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. It states what political activities Federal employees are allowed to perform or participate in. (And it’s beginning to look like the Bush Mis-Administration has violated it six ways from Sunday.)

It has no relation to Senator Hatch.

Glorfindel @
237

Orrin Hatch’s sticky fingerprints are all over this.

Question for the legal eagles: The Hatch Act, which the Bushco White House has apparently violated…does it relate to Orrin or his family?

NO. Carl Hatch is responsible for the Hatch Act (1939). He was a Senator from New Mexico, and later a federal judge. He was an early supporter of a federal minimum wage law, and was almost fanatical about clean elections and anti-racketeering.

Which means he might as well not be in the same solar system as Orrin.

oops – post deleted.

I notice that in the emails notifying ppl of the meeting about the Doj officials, there are quite a few staff members listed… surely some of them have emails of or related to correspondence with KKKArl Rove…

Badwater @
8

Slothrop @ 5

What would happen, if, say, someone somewhere had most of the Karl Rove RNC emails and they began anonymously posting them on blogs everywhere?

The legal consequences would be…what?

It’s hard to imagine that someone with those emails also has a conscience. After all, how could they work with Rove if they had one?

Also, can Conyers, Leahy or Waxman just put out a blanket request for copies?

Urban Pirate @
56

I’d gladly go to jail for a long time if I could shed serious light on the mis-deeds of this admin.

If I had documents (or received them anonymously), I would post them as a patriot, and suffer any consequences.

You’d face a jury of your peers. Just tell the good judge that your peers are at the Lake!
Good for you, but I’d sneak them to Dan Froomkin.

P J Evans @
220

TPm has a lively discussion on the WH excuse for the 5 million ‘missing’ e-mails – they’re claiming they got lost in converting from LotusNotes to Outlook.

Today’s excuse: the cat urped on my homework.

Stop Iran War

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Please help by using the above link to write congress, local newspapers, print doorhangers, petitions, etc.

Also, a couple industrious Clarkies have made some beautiful FREE BUTTONS — order some, pass them around.

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