Comments on: Jonathan Turley Describes Rove’s New Politburo

By: Bluetoe

Bluetoe — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:47:12 +0000

The U.S. people should begin thinking about deportation and exile of those prominent Republican Party members not convicted and imprisoned for their traitorous actions. Republicans are a greater threat to American democracy than any terrorist.
”A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.
An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the
traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys,
heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in
accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the
baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and
unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can
no longer resist. A murder[er] is less to fear.” Marcus Cicero

By: Jesterfox

Jesterfox — Wed, 02 May 2007 18:07:42 +0000

OldCoastie @ 55

very disturbing this morning, watching the local news, to see the LAPD shooting rubber bullets into the crowd and beating people with billy clubs…

lots of families with small children in that crowd.

WTF! What are you talking about? Was this an immgration demonstration?

By: Scarecrow

Scarecrow — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:45:41 +0000

Mommybrain @
159

Scarecrow, another great post. Along these lines, read Naomi Wolf in The Guardian:
here

Saw Wolf’s piece last week; scary.

pluege at 157: we agree. Both are important.

Thanks for the great comments this morning, gang; obviously more to follow on this topic.

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:27:48 +0000

Purposeful maladministration at the DOJ is just the tip of the iceberg. It goes on throughout the federal government, from Interior and the GSA to the FDA and Consumer Products Safety Commission.

No operation is too large too small to derail if doing so yields a patronage job or contribution from a corporate sponsor whose federal watch dog has just been muzzled.

By: Mommybrain

Mommybrain — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:02:42 +0000

Scarecrow, another great post. Along these lines, read Naomi Wolf in The Guardian:
here

By: margaret

margaret — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:00:22 +0000

What you have described is what I wrote on Glenn Greewald’s blog some time ago, to wit, that the Republicans have operated like a Fifth Column, and old Communist technique, of placing opeartives in key positions in the media, public office, higher education, and, in this country (in my hometown) on local school advisory committees, in order to shape policy to their benefit. Using this technique of infiltration, along with placement of operatives in the elections boards of counties and state in order to ensure election of sympathetic Congressmen, and other officials, and combining all this with ability to spy on citizens is all you need as evidence of the similarity with the Soviets.

By: pluege

pluege — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:54:40 +0000

“We now understand that the entire rule of law at the federal level rests to a surprising extent on trust — a faith that no matter what else happens in Washington, there will be enough integrity and political courage residing in the career professionals at the Department of Justice to demand that the laws be faithfully executed.”

this is incorrect. The entire system depends on an independent and agressive 4th estate keeping all of the politicos substantially in check and under the microscope. That US corporate media has across the board become the propaganda arm of the cult of republicanism is why the system has failed.
.

By: itwasntme

itwasntme — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:51:35 +0000

This will be EPU’d but I have to say it here:

FABULOUS POST!

By: Brisingamen

Brisingamen — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:49:18 +0000

egregious @ 84

I am missing something.

When people resign, then Congress can’t have them in for questioning? I don’t understand why resignation protects them in any way from responding to Congress.

To the best of my knowledge, they are still required to testify. (Didn’t Sampson resign before his hearing?)

By: Brisingamen

Brisingamen — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:44:24 +0000

JGabriel @ 61

Possibly important correction:

The Waas article, and others, have pretty consistently characterized the delegated authority as the authority to hire and fire “non-civil service employees, including political appointees”.

To be honest, I’m not sure exactly what the distinction is. It could include interns, management, attorneys, or some combination of those three.

The point is that not just political appointees were affected. That’s important for two reasons, (a) it undercuts any WH/DoJ excuses that the affected employees are only those who ’serve at the President’s pleasure’, and (b) it apparently covers a much wider group of people.

It would be a good idea for us to find out who those other, non-political appointees, affected by this change would be.

In other words: It shows the WH trying to politicize non-political employees in the DoJ.

Christy, LHP, anyone with legal, DoJ, civil service experience that could add their knowledge and experience to this?
.

Non-civil service employees are usually contractors, their positions rarely last more than a year.

Interns fall under a special category of civil service as they may later get a position with the Federal government, and the time they accrued as an “intern” counts toward their retirement.

Management is usually civil service, but their salaries fall under the Senior Executive Service, rather than the General Schedule for the rank-and-file Federal employees. (Note all Federal employees are “appointed” rather than “hired.”)

There are other pay systems for certain classes of employees (firefighers, law enforcement, postal, and medical come readily to mind). There are also some experimental pay systems, i.e. pay banding.

Delegating hiring/firing authority to an underling is not good news. Makes me wonder where else this is happening…