Tweet
Well, so much for that hazy “people convicted of perjury and lying to federal agents during the course of an investigation didn’t really commit crimes and oughtn’t go to jail, and they never prosecute that anyway” talking point malarky. And it comes from the US Supreme Court, too:
The case that the court decided yesterday, Rita v. United States, No. 06-5754, was meant to help define “advisory.”
Victor Rita, convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, asked for a lighter sentence based in part on his past military service. But the judge gave him 33 months, as suggested by the guidelines. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, upheld the sentence, saying that penalties within the guidelines are “presumptively reasonable.”
What did defendant Rita do, you ask? (H/T to 2strange for the link)
He made two false statements to a federal grand jury. The jury was investigating a gun company. Prosecutors believed that buyers of a kit, called a “PPSH 41 machinegun ‘parts kit,’ ” could assemble a machinegun from the kit, and that the company had not secured the necessary permits to import machine guns.
Rita had purchased one of the kits and when he was contacted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he agreed to let the agent inspect the kit. But, before, meeting with the agent, he sent back the kit and, instead, substituted a kit that did not amount to a machine gun. The government contended that he lied to the grand jury about his actions and he was convicted for making false statements and committing perjury.
Hmmmm…he committed perjury while under oath before a federal grand jury which was investigating his allegedly criminal actions and he also lied to federal agents. And federal prosecutors brought this case against him, tried him in a court of law and a jury of his peers convicted him, and then a federal judge sentenced him under the federal sentencing guidelines applicable to his conduct, with a bump up for an enhanced penalty for the underlying crime related to the investigation.Now why does that sound familiar, I ask myself?
They keep this up, someone is going to have to write Victoria Toensing some new talking points. Because the “they never prosecute these types of perjury cases” bullshit has just been exposed for the fraud that it is in an 8 to 1 opinion.
(More to come on the Walton Memorandum Opinion — am working fast as I can, gang…)
184 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Hahahahahahaha! Got ‘em, Christy!
zed!
Next Von
Poor Victrola Toesuck.
And Waxman thought she lied about her age as well.
Does anyone want to proffer a guess as to whether Karl Rove will ever be prosecuted for anything in connection with his service to the Bush administration?
It would really be interesting to come up with an actual annual statistic of these cases nationwide.
She can just amend her statement:
“They NEVER prosecute those crimes- except for when they DO”
epu’d and soon to be on topic:
I’m just glad that my best guess at the silliness of the appointments clause issue ended up in one of Judge Walton’s footnotes (gotta love those footnotes). I ranted away about it over at my place, but Reggie read them the riot act.
No worries, Redd. we can wait. It’s always worth the wait. btw, nothing new on PACER. Wish they had let the amicus brief through before they denied it out of hand. I’m sure it would have provided a few laughs.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 5
Maybe if they ever figure out what he did with his “other” computers (that Susan Ralston described in her deposition) and blackberrys that he kept losing. Does he live near a lake???
OT from the AP via NYTimes Wyoming senate replacement named.
Sounds like the 4th Circuit just had their opinion written for them. I wonder how Libby’s lawyers are feeling now. ;-)
dakine01 @ 4
Toesuck is just a rethug good ole boy in drag.
Hahahahahaha! Love this! Thank you, Christy!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 5
There is no doubt that Rove will receive a blanket pardon on or before Bush’s last day in power.
Toes-breath aint the only one in need of new talking points. Most of the WaPo’s editorial board is in need of a refresher.
8 to 1!
Who was the one? Thomas or Scalito?
You know, when the arch-conservative pundits bloviate on teevee about Scooter’s “years of service to his country,” I’m beginning to think what they mean is “years of service to the conservative cause.” Which, to them, is a redundant sentence.
Woodhall Hollow @ 16
Souter.
Souter dissented. Now that is weird.
Wyoming dem governor has apparently chosen a right wing gooper beast to fill the vacant senate seat. Perhaps he has chosen the gooper with the least chance at re-election come the election?
I promise to never lie to the Feds about my machine guns or about my role in destroying highly effective CIA clandestine networks.
A little more than a year to go to the completion of the Bush ‘rule of law’. And what do we have to show for all the obvious criminality? As a result of Watergate, in which by the way, no one was killed, we got Mitchell, Ehrlichman, Haldemanm, Liddy, and eventually Nixon, plus a bunch of others. Talk about frustration.
oh, and I have 2 words for Chay-knee: deauthorize and de-fund. got that Obey?
rwcole @ 20
Haha! He threw them a rotten bone!
rwcole @ 20
Sadly, he didn’t have much of a choice.
Christy: Go get em. I love when you get angry. hehehe
TiredFed @ 23
Cut off the electric power to his office, wherever it is, and don’t forget to defund his bunker.
newspaperbrat @ 12
Guess that makes Boris a standard rethug closet case, huh?
Woodhall Hollow @ 19
Yeah. Things that make you go Hmmmmmm?
Means we have to Think About It.
I mean, that was my first thought too. But, again, knee-jerk reactions sometimes lead us somewhere we don’t wanna go.
Maybe we’ll come up with another angle.
Joe- He had to choose between three candidates submitted by the gooper party- He may have picked the MOST conservative thinking that a centerst dem could beat him?
Actually, the Souter dissent isn’t weird, given his positions that have been critical of the disproportionality on sentencing guidelines. This was one of those fact-based and not policy-based arguments in the Court and the questions on policy issues with Sentencing Guidelines still remain active, I think. But the fact pattern of the charges and conviction — and the reasons that Rice was challenging said conviction — were too amusingly close to Libby not to point out. Loudly. *g*
They picked the surgeon who believes that abortion and gay marriage are wrong.Just what Congress needs ….
sorry christy, I’m afraid you’re missing the point: I think from the wing-nut perspective, scooter, shooter, and gun-nut Rita would be understood to all be martyrs to the conspiracy to impose the rule of law on right wing white people along with anyone else. So, it follows that the Rita case proves nothing.
Nice try, though.
Badwater @ 14
Undoubtably true, however the pardon won’t free him from spending considerable time and money with subpoenas compelling him to become something of a busy witness for heaven knows how many of his water carriers.
demi @ 29
I am guessing from what was quoted in the WaPo that it is because he doesn’t like the idea of any sentencing guidelines at all…that Judges should be able to make the final call? Which is interesting to think about, as that is how things were for a very long time…
Oh, and everyone enjoy the 70s hair vibe from the Kansas “Wayward Son” YouTube above. ;-)
rwcole @ 20
***
Not sure but I think the rules are that under these circumstances, the governor has to choose someone of the same political party as the one who died.
What do we know about the man chosen? Is he a neo-con? Any chance of aligning his votes with the Dems on any of the major issues?
It’s no wonder most folks have no faith in their government.
Jed at 33 — Alas, you are likely all-too-right on the right-wing interpretation. Those damn laws and the prosecutors who think that everyone should follow them, including Republicans. What in the hell are they thinking with that?
/snark
They want Libby shut up. He knows everything about everybody. Thing is, if he is locked up, he might flip too. So which is it? I’m betting no pardon and no flip.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 36
Did you have to remind us? And embarrassing to think of how it all seemed so “cool” back then!
1,555 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen oklahome kiddo and the firepup Patriots:
As for Rove goin’ ta jail, not a snowball’s chance in a hot place and I’m still not convinced that Scooter is gunna see the inside of a cell either.
I think the corporatists have the fix in, the Chimpenfurer will pardon scooter and everyone in senior executive staff by name so’s they can’t be brought ever before the bar of justice. In addition, the oligarchy thinks they’ve got a lock on the White House for the next 8 years with Mrs. Clinton so you ken strap it up for a long term bloody occupation of Iraq and kiss the Paletinians “goodbye”.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…BOY DO WE HAVE WORK TA DO!!
Joe Klein’s conscience @ 25
What I read after the list was first published had the person named as probably the best choice (most human) of the three as well as the one most likely able to win a re-election.
rwcole @ 20
Meet John Barrasso.
Barrasso is considered a “conservative” and is “pro-life,” although he has changed his position on this issue. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the Senate in 1996 for the seat vacated by the moderate Alan K. Simpson of Cody, an abortion-rights supporter. In 1996, Barrasso had characterized himself as “pro-choice.” He lost the primary to anti-abortion advocate Mike Enzi. He has received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 5
He will be the last rat clinging to the flotsom of the sinking ship (unless Cheney claws him off).
OT
Here’s to measuring our oil correctly.
LS @ 6
***
That’s not a bad idea. And besides sending copy to the media outlets…
Does Fitzgerald get a chance to send anything to the court that is hearing Libby’s appeal? It might be helpful if he had a whole little booklet of these cases to send and remind them how the “little people” are treated under the same circumstances.
A couple hundred of such cases should be enough
LS @ 40
Respite. Till the neocons are safely (dog willing) out of power.
NorskeFlamethrower @ 42
;0)
Christy Hardin Smith @ 36
Ah, it was the closing song in the movie “Heroes” where Henry Winkler played a Nam Vet suffering from PTSD who was on a road trip to find his buddy and start a worm ranch! The terrible thing is that when they put it on DVD they had to leave the song off. The film also had Sally Field and Harrison Ford. “Carry on my Wayward Son, there’ll be peace when you are done”. I’m still waiting.
KestrelBrighteyes @ 47
The “harsh sentence” BS is one of the things that bugs me the most, especially since it’s been so unquestioningly accepted by the media. Judge Walton sentenced Libby to the low end of the sentencing guidelines. Just because he didn’t “compromise” halfway with Team Libby’s ludicrous haggling (”How much is it?” “Thirty dollars.” “I’ll give you a dollar for it!”) doesn’t make it “harsh.”
Oklahoma kiddo @ 50
Fukin A Norse.
Might be able to find statistics here:
http://fjsrc.urban.org/index.cfm
lisadawn82 @ 46
:~)
From Scooter to the Dick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L-RNy01g7k
Christy Hardin Smith @ 36
my own real-life variation on “here today, gone tomorrow”:
hair yesterday, gone today.
Isn’t it about Friday news dump time, or have we Had Enough?
Norske, geeze, I’m Norwegian, ya’d think I could spell it!
“Carry on my Wayward Son, there’ll be peace when you are done”. I’m still waiting.
I hope, for you and yours sake, that you are not holding your breath.
Rumpled_Foreskin @ 17
Yup. Just like Schlozman fired experienced Civil Rights Division lawyers so he could replace them with “good Americans,” to these bozos radical Republicans are Americans, and the rest of us are the enemy.
LOL Punaise — I was trying to find a song with just the right hair vibe for a Friday afternoon. *g* Sometimes, it’s just serious fun crusing YouTube video memory lane. hehehehe
ccmask @ 57
There are some new Monica emails over at TPM, but so far not much of interest.
demi @ 60
Well, I try to meditate so I don’t really hold it but I do count it.
Rumpled Foreskin at 17 — Your nickname made me spew my tea. I needed to say that. *G*
Somebody needs to unplug the Wurlitzer on these lying sacks of weasel shit.
Scooter, your jumpsuit is ready.
Redshift @ 63
There is the curious one about having to keep an eye on Griffin and handling him carefully…I’d love to know more about what that was about!
raven @ 64
From Bernie to Rudy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..mp;search=
2005 Perjury:
http://fjsrc.urban.org/analysi…..result.cfm
How do you lose all those missing RNC emails sent to differnt people from differnt computers? Unless the White House can document a cyberattack, hacker, virus capabel of doing this then I have to assume they destroyed evidence willfully. We know they had the evidence they have to prove how they lost it. I so want to hear this story I love Science Fiction.
Since Bush V. Gore, “precedent” has lost much of its impetus, what will keep them from taking the “no underlying crime” mantra to heart next time around?
We are in the lower limbo of legal chaos, disguised as government machinations. But it is really nothing more or less than lawlessness, with a shameless batch of lawless neocon lawmakers and lawyers stirring the pot with twisted arguments, meant not to promote justice, but to inhibit it.
Redshift @ 63
I still think the annoouncement of the CIA releasing documents on their crimes of the 50s, 60s, 70s is a bright shiny object for distraction purposes. But it could be a Friday news dump as well.
demi @ 68
Kiddo, I’ve been in “action” since 1966!
things come undone @ 71
And,(see bold) no doubt, they must have conspired willfully and broadly to do so…
Again, the conspiracy might be much easier to prove than the crimes…
Shuttle landing at Edwards AFB – Go to start de-orbit burn 24 minutes from now. Landing 2:49 CT.
raven @ 74
Well, actually 1949!
things come undone @ 71
And,(see bold) no doubt, they must have conspired willfully and broadly to do so…
Again, the conspiracy might be much easier to prove than the crimes…
Sorry if I sounded pendantic or offended. I didn’t mean to. I’ve been in action since ‘69. Just trying to connect.
(sheesh)
demi @ 79
Oh, not at all. I wasn’t bein snarky. Sorry for the disconnect. :)
And then of course there’s this from Condi to Georgie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7JVxE2SYxo
raven @ 77
How are we defining ‘action’?
spurious @ 82
I don’t know, my mom said I came out swingin!
victoria toenail is as culpable as libby as far as I am concerned
this maggot actually got in fron of congress and with absolutely no way to know what valery did for our country, told congress that she knew as a fact valery was not covert
first of all, she couldn’t possibly know whether or not valery was covert and second of all she presented her jaded “OPINION” as if they were accepted facts
she is a maggot
even after the president’s own cia director informed the world that valery was covert this maggot had the nerve to say “no she wasn’t”
she should be tried for perjury as well since I cannot possibly believe she agreed with her own testimony
But, but, but . . .
This SCOTUS decision is about a litte person, not someone big and important and the right hand man of no-controlling-legal-authority V-POTUS Cheney — therefore, this decision does not apply to poor lil’ Scooter.
Woodhall Hollow @ 67
There are some gwb43.com sent to the White House. Also Monica talks almost daily yo Tim Griffin but he needs to be managed carefully.
I thinkSeamusD found a memo where Monica(?) claims to have selected Tim.
—————–
pg 20 OAG1819-1901.pdf
From: SJennings@gbw43.com
Sent: Monday August 21, 2006 10:29 AM
To: Sampson, Kyle: Goodling, Monica
Subject: 2pm, re:Griffin
Can we chat at 2pm today?
J. Scott Jennings,
Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Political Director,
The White House
———-
pg 35
From: Sampson, Kyle
Sent:Friday, February 02,2007 2:45 pm
To: ‘Oprison, Christopher G.’
Subject: RE: E. D. Ark.-Griffin
Tim needs to be carefully managed
monica is the one here who tim calls regularly
as tim is frequently calling you also, perhaps the two of you should compare notes
monica what say you?
Raven,
Okey Dokey,
Guess it’s time for me to get some work done around here.
But, I’ll leave you all with this:
Why they cancelled the Gitmo Meeting today…
Poor Dana. She always sounds So Defensive.
I agree with the idea: a presidency that begins in the courts, ends in the courts. Hopefully, the Hague for Bush. I have the impression that we won’t get these guys out of the WH even after the ‘08 elections are over. I think congress should start locating many crowbars.
Christy, you’re on fire! I love your brain power!
demi @ 87
peas
Ah…
Me, 1952. So, we’re in the same ggggggeneration baby.
JEP @ 75
Its the coverup not the crime that gets most people into more trouble than the actual crime itself. Is the White House going to explain or is Bush claiming Executive Priviledge on that too! Doesn’t matter when are the Democrats going to issue a subpoena on this subject? Seems like after the new polling showed Bush is at 28% but Congress is at 25% the Democrats realized we voted for them to stop Bush. Not we voted for them personaly.
Powell and Rice on WMD’s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHnSPsZshyM
demi @ 90
Another water dragon here as well. Just hit the double nickle a couple of weeks ago…
1949?
Raven is three years older than me???
Wow, I thought you were much younger…
As something of a pup here at FDL, I am always surprised when my illusions about fellow posters prove inaccurate.
As for Kansas and “there’ll be peace when you are done…”, the operative question is; when “what” is “done”?
The “wayward” qualifier doesn’t specify…
Maybe that is the key… that we all end our “wayward” ways?
As a nation, I think that means “Populist Democratic Government.
Anything else is “wayward.”
dakine01 @ 93
Me too, looks like the Dragonclutch of 52 is well represented on FDL.
Woodhall Hollow @ 67
Could be a lot of things.
1) he’s a whiny crybaby and a drama queen.
2) he’s really stupid and could conceivably give press interviews talking about all his caging activity, because he doesn’t know caging is illegal.
3) he’s the one actor who connects most directly to Rove, so they’ve got to keep him on a very short leash.
I’d like to know too.
A big wildfire in the Susitna River Valley, about 35-40 miles from us started early Thursday from a lighting strike. No measurable precipitation in the past 40 days. Hundreds of thousands of acres of dead spruce trees killed by Spruce Bark Beetles over the past 15-20 years – a product of climate change – are fueling the uncontained fire there, and another larger one near Homer.
The wind changed last night, bringing the smoke down on us – ash falling from the sky, and my throat is getting parched. It has gotten too smoky for the DC-6 and converted P-3 firebombers to operate. Good day to stay inside. The fire has tripled in size since this story was filed yesterday evening, plus hundreds of lighting strikes in the local area have started new fires. Hundreds of firefighters being flown in from other Western states.
No direct danger to the major population centers at this time.
1952
dakine01 @ 93
Oh! And me back in March…an Aries on top of being a Dragon. What a time! Parents dead or dying….emptynest syndrome….Ah, me.
It’s a pickle.
JEP @ 94
Probably because of the stupid stuff I say.
dakine01 @ 93
Fire pig here. No wonder most of us don’t favor pajamas.
things come undone @ 91
Here’s another good Republican joke;
How many Republicans does it take to make a conspiracy?
102;
2 to conspire about it and 100 more to lie for them after the fact…
LS
U 2?
wowzers….
:)
spurious @ 101
hotflashes anyone?
Wrong Raven — “because of the stupid stuff I say.” I believe that’s my particular corner. Oh, and ‘48. (See.)
yikes! Mr. Teller! as a So Cal resident who lives next to the Nat’l forest, I know the feelin’…
hang in there… keep the windows closed…
raven @ 100
actually, I was thinking more “refreshing” than “stupid”
JEP@102 Good One!
JEP @ 94
As far as Wayward Son. For me it was always a song about Nam Vets but that’s the lens through which I see almost everything. Done with what? Very clear to me, when we are dead. Every hear Huey Lewis’ “Walking on a Thin Line”?
Sometimes in my bed at nightI curse the dark and a pray for light
And sometimes, the lights no consolation
Blinded by a memory
Afraid of what it might do to me
And the tears and the sweat only mock my desperation
Dont you know me Im the boy next door
The one you find so easy to ignore
Is that what I was fighting for?
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Labeled as freaks loose on the streets of the city
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Take a look at my face, see what its doing to me
Taught me how to shoot to kill
A specialist with a deadly skill
A skill I needed to have to be a survivor
Its over now or so they say
Well, sometimes, it dont turn out that way
Cause your never the same when youve been under fire
Dont you know me Im the boy next door
The one you find so easy to ignore
Is that what I was fighting for?
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Labeled as freaks loose on the streets of the city
Walking on a thin line
Straight off the front line
Take a look at my face, see what its doing to me
thanks for the heads up, LS. the sonic booms always scare the #%&@ out of me when they catch me unawares…
LS @ 76
OldCoastie @ 106
And car parked facing out, keys in pocket. (Used to have some land in the CA gold country…)
OldCoastie @ 106
That is really scary. Damp bandana over nose and mouth if it gets really bad.
rosalind @ 109
They’re going to fly right close or over Austin, but it’s cloudy. It is an awesome sight.
LS
Did you see my thanks earlier for the Palast alert in the hearings yesterday?
Greg thanked me for alerting him.
So, that’s a thanks to you too!
(Greg and I went to school together – still friends.)
From me to Lady Liberty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzezIg2Ei0A
Silver tiger (1950) ….
I guess I can expect a wakeup call about 12:30, then, if the brickyard is going into Edwards. The weather should be good for it (SoCal being short of anything resembling real weather this time of year).
things come undone @ 108
Hey, I just made that one up!
My humor is sometimes questionable; like..
Will O.J. ever find that one-armed golf caddy?
Gotta go, and after that BAD joke, I better go soon..
As for Kansas and “there’ll be peace when you are done…”, the operative question is; when “what” is “done”?
I don’t think that means anything but when we die. Sort of like Billy Joel “Goodnight Saigon”. “Yes we will all go down together”!
demi @ 113
I did, thanks! Boston did an extraordinary transcription on the post right before the one I was on, with lots of detail. I sure loved it when Conyers brought up Palast. He has really uncovered some amazing things over the years – like that huge post invasion document he got a hold of.
demi @ 87
Here’s the thing they say that really, really frosts my ass (my bold):
Can someone (paging Chairman Waxman!) please explain to these public employees that when they meet with one another in public buildings on the public payroll about a public issue coordinated between public agencies — that it ain’t a private meeting?
jeebus
Ed*ard Teller @ 21
You’d better level with them about ... who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp? *g*
Science question: What causes the sonic boom?
I’m in the Northwest San Fernando Valley. Just told my 13 year old and we’re waiting for the boom. Now we’re speculating about the sound..
any help?
1957 Fire Rooster here, and feeling rather like a spring chicken!
A better version perhaps, Lady Liberty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzezIg2Ei0A
1,555 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Raven and the Firepup Patriots:
“Kiddo, I’ve been in “action” since 1966.”
Tell it like it is,brother Raven, and I will add the “A-men”. For some of us, the last 40 years have been a recurrin’ nightmare, kinda like God’s remedial testing program makin’ us do it over and over again until we finally figure it out and do the right thing. I don’t think that most younger folks ken understand where yer comin’ from and few of those who are old enough but didn’t get “over there” really understand either. So we gotta bring it home to ‘em…there will be no peace, there will be no justice and there will be not even the IDEA of democracy until we bring the war home to the streets of this country and overthrow the power of the warmakin’ oligarchy that has been in place since 1877.
That was the cry in 1968…”bring the war home”…and that is what is necessary today. In a very real sense, what we are experiencing is nuthin more than a continuation of Viet Nam. The Nixon pardon and the withdrawal in 1975 provided breathin space for the profiteers and warmakers to take care of business here at home. The generation that fought the war for them and threatened to destroy the Potemkin Village political system they used to rule had to be brought to heel. So we end up with tens of thousands of vets dyin’ in the streets or rottin’ in southern jail cells. We end up with political regimes staffed by the same rotten fascists that ran the Viet Nam debacle. And we end up with kids trapped in an endless civil war in the desert while these same rotten bastards use the mightiest warmakin’ machine in history to kill hundreds of thousands of common folks to secure the last drop of petroleum and ensure that there are nuclear plants in everyone’s future.
There it is, brother Raven, and I understand why you have been “in action” since 1966, you have no choice…none of us can leave 1966 behind, we owe it to our brothers and sisters who will be there forever. We have one last chance to get it right…let’s bring the war home, let’s plant a million people between the reflection pool and the Lincoln Memorial, let’s put a little “Willie Peter” heat on the toes of our Democratic legislators. And most of all, let’s see to it that Mrs. Clinton doesn’t get close to the White House bedrooms.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE BATTLE HASN’T EVEN STARTED YET!!
TiredFed @ 8
TiredFed, is there any reference to Walton’s scathing comments on the amicus that can be linked to. I wanted to add that reference to the Wikipedia article on Bork.
raven @ 117
So, Death is Peace?
Sorry, I’m ever the optimist, but I anticipate something very special long before that final, fateful day.
NorskeFlamethrower @ 124
Willie peter make you a believer!
TeddySanFran @ 119
Too bad about the stem cell research veto. Along with the other advantages to the research, we could use a coupla clones of Henry. He sure has his hands full!
demi @ 121
Sonic boom.
Ah…Kansas – saw ‘em concert in Lexington (UK). I don’t remember the hair. I do remember that electric violin, though.
Saw this on CNN regarding the firefighters in Charleston:
“This event is about the firemen who were lost — honoring them and their families. It is not a political event and shouldn’t be politicized in any way,” said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International Association of Firefighters.
Ah…Kansas – saw ‘em concert in Lexington (UK). I don’t remember the hair. I do remember that electric violin, though.
Saw this on CNN regarding the firefighters in Charleston:
“This event is about the firemen who were lost — honoring them and their families. It is not a political event and shouldn’t be politicized in any way,” said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International Association of Firefighters.
demi @ 122
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_boom
This is the better version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..M&NR=1
Oh dear….am I double posting again? I thot we managed to fix that.
Edit: Nope – whew! Well, that was just plain weird.
dakine01 @ 10
Gee sounds like he’ll vote with the Dem’s except perhaps on taxes.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 62
Christy, don’t start that again, unless you want a repeat of This Party Thread !!! *g*
Thanks to Spurious and Badwater…but, why do we only hear it when there’s a landing?
I’ll have the kid read the site.
Latest FaBlog: We Are All in Building 18
demi @ 121
I think the boom occurs when the vehicle which is like a falling piano going at an extraordinary speed comes into the earth’s atmosphere. You’ll hear it when it is close to landing in less than an hour. It is really a loud boom like thunder sort of. The thing is, it has to fly through the plasma layer where the temperature on the outside of the shuttle is 3,000 degrees F. That is the most dangerous part other than landing. When it is doing that, there is no communication with those on board, then it emerges from that and glides down very, very fast and then, slows down to land. Amazing. Do you get NASA channel??
Wordsmith @ 130
Good. Media wh*res.
Their answer they’d offer to this is that here the feds found evidence of a crime, i.e., the original kit, whereas there’s no evidence of an “underlying crime” in the Plame case, i.e. there’s no definitive statement that she was covert. How can you argue with them. When they ignored Hayden’s statement of Plame’s status that was proof enough of their bad faith.
Progressives rule!
OT, but this could be good. Like spew beverage-of-choice good: In a couple of minutes (3 p.m. EST) the president is going to deliver a messasge in honor of Black Music Month.
can’t wait. http://www.whitehouse.gov
LS
I’ve got CNN on…they just promoted it…I thought the kid would like to watch while we hear the BOOM.
Ah, summer. Simple pleasures.
Dimwit Perino thinks that the VP is “unique.”
Norske! (with a h/t to Raven, Dak and other VN era vets.) Right on, bro.
demi @ 137
NAS, but maybe because it has to take place in the atmosphere?
spurious @ 141
Just wait for the Firefighters to make good on their threat to follow Ghouliani around in protest.
His campaign will disappear faster than his combover !
Woodhall Hollow @ 146
In the sense of “thank goodness there’s only one of him!!” I suppose she’s right…
Woodhall Hollow @ 146
He is but not in the way she’s thinking.
Woodhall Hollow @ 146
I love that Dana and Snowjob have taken to outright lying and no one in the press calls them on it.
MSM is D.O.A !!!
Long Live the Blogosphere !!!
TeddySanFran upstairs
Woodhall Hollow @ 145
He certainly is.
spurious @ 154
Eunuch
Redshift @ 63
There’s a good Friday news dump underway on your TV Financial Channel.
Between imploding hedge funds and exploding interest rates, Brokers don’t know whether to shat or go blind.
Redd, did you note the trace of snark in Walton’s footnote 15 on page 10? where he disses Scalia? that was a good one! I can hardly wait for your piece on this. Can ya tell?
TiredFed @ 156
Hey TiredFed, have you written anything on this?
I’d love to read your comments as well as Christy’s.
oh this is rich. Pat will have to start asking for his Starbucks to be shaken not stirred. Walton is a genius. pure genius.
retirin’ in five @ 147
In country 68-69, Korea 67-68.
Petrocelli @ 157
only a bit of a rant over at my place. am waiting with bated breath for Christy.
TiredFed @ 161
Linky, please.
Atlantis is in. Nice landing!
Petrocelli @ 161
ah. yes. click on my pseudoname. should get you there.
TiredFed @ 159
TiredFed – link to Walton’s opinion, so we can read too? THANKS!
Rita vs. United States. Tell all your neocon buddies and right wing bloggers to look it up. Great stuff. It would also be interesting to know if the initial crime by the gun company was ever proven because in the mind of a neocon if the cover up works and the crime is not proven then there is no obstruction of justice.
selise @ 164
shoot. sorry. I have a copy of my own. will find linky. brb
demi @ 104
Earth Dog here; a little younger than you folks, but I’ve been deep in hot flash territory lately. Going to an accupuncturist in a couple hours to see if she thinks she can help me get relief.
Before I return to lurker mode — big thanks to y’all for making the Lake such a great place.
TiredFed @ 167
ok. here’s one: Walton Opinion pdf warning
TiredFed @ 169 –
thank you!
selise @ 170
shoot, selise! I didnt even notice it was you. I could have emailed you a copy. haha. enjoy.
Judge Walton’s 30 page Memorandum Opinion on his 6/14 order for Scooter to scoot his butt to the BOP cube ( a slab of concrete walls about 8′X 5′) is here:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/43a3…..ndingAppea
Judge Walton:
1) Decided: No close questions
2) Chided Robbins et. al. for relying on dicta.
3)Gives what I think is a careful,and valid analysis of the Appointments clause, Morrison, Edmond, and CIPA as opposed to Robbins’ specicious, superficial, and off point one.
Just because you pay millions for your legal talent, doesn’t mean they can’t miss terribly.
I feel compelled to comment as others have, that Larry Robbins’ demeanor before Judge Walton was egregious. I certainly understand forceful, focused advocacy, but telling the judge that you already have it sewed up at the D.C. Circuit [because I suppose Larry Robbins perceives as Christy and others have showcased, it has 14/17 deciders who are very pro Bush administration] is beyond the pale.
I thought his tone was inappropriate to say the least. Sure federal trial judges and appellate judges can make egregious mistakes, and what is not showcased is that a significant percentage of them never litigated in a federal court room, but IMHO Reggie Walton has done a very thorough job on this case and his memorandum opinions are butressed carefully and correctly. Other judges I know would have taken Robbins head off then and there.
My perception is that the Federal Defender’s offices don’t have a $5 million dollar honey pot per each defendant, and Christopher Hitchen’s comment that almost no defendants [who aren’t part of the Beltway Elitsia who broke the law from the West Wing and coctail with Barbie the Comstock and Mary the Matlin] don’t have constitutional issues is proof positive that Hitchens never got near a constitutional law class or very near a decent law review.
This case, to me, is all about the self-perceived privileged believing they can do whatever they want–even to the point of putting several people who have diligently served the country the way the Scooter shills say he has at risk, i.e. Valerie Plame and the people who were her collegues in cover with her.
I have heard every talking head and blog argument as to why because Armitage was *one of the leakers Fitz should never have brought this case. These people are in completel denial, and do not understand simply that Scooter blocked Fitz from nailing the architects of the leak: Cheney, Bush, and various White House Counsel. They also may include–many of the occupants of the upper echelon at DOJ who are looking more and more to me each day literally like the back room at the Badda Bing–and David Margolis is looking more like Sylvio Dante the more emails are leaked that DOJ isn’t either hiding or that were deleted from the server.
No one has mentioned, that I can find, in blog comments that if Congress had the chutzpah, it could subpoena these servers.Of course there would be a court fight over that and any other subpoena.
If they were to prevail, and it’s a big If, they could have someone like MIT who is probably exponentially better than DOJ or FBI forensic cyber teams pull those emails off the servers. MIT’s Cyber department has pulled complete data off the literal edge of hard drives that have been submerged in the ocean. It certainly would be worth a try if I were able to weigh in at Senate Judiciary, whose lethargic pace at subpoenas has been carefully choreographed in order to get as many subordinates before they subpoena big fish. Fielding certainly will drag this out in a court fight to ensure the new President has taken the West Wing long before it is resolved.
The White House strategy is that they will be long back in Texas before Rove and Cheney and Bush could be nailed criminally. All they have to do is continue to withold documents,emails, and stone wall. That’s why Fielding is White House counsel. That they would testify not under oath and not on a transcript is ludicrous. There should be no difference whatsoever in how they testify and someone in a federal trial testifies.
The horse has now gotten light years out of the barn with the confirmation of Roberts and Alito. The Borkian momentum is in motion and nothing can stop it now, tragically.
Jay Gould is certainly correct that Ginsberg and Breyer are by no means liberals, and while Ruthie may fondly remember being one of the ACLU’s litigators, she has long abandoned that path, dispite her small and merely symbolic protest of recent vintage, reading excerpts of two of her dissents out loud.
The best that the non hard core right-winged Supremes (and we are watching Kennedy evolve into one of the hard core right winged Supremes) can do is to muddy the waters, the way they certainly did in an opinion that established absolutely no direction whatsoever, an enigma enshrouded in a mystery, Rita v. U.S. (announced yesterday) that was supposed to help clarify, but did nothing whatsoever to clarify the U.S. sentencing guidelines’ application.
The practical application will be anti-defense bar, anti-defendant, and anti-Sixth amendment, and as Justice Souter’s lone dissent said:
“This would open the door to undermining Apprendi itself, and this is what has happened today.
Without a powerful reason to risk reversal on the sen-tence, a district judge faced with evidence supporting a high subrange Guidelines sentence will do the appropriate factfinding in disparagement of the jury right and will sentence within the high subrange.”
This case is but one of many examples of opinions during this term that have foreclosed the rights of the individual, and it is going to be a rocky 35-40 years as Alito and Roberts serve out their long terms, and potentially worse if Bush can ram through two more appointments by a one of the most passive Senate Judiciary commitees in U.S. history.
Christy writes:
The nation needs a more balanced approach to the law — and to its political implications — than what we have now, and the only way to obtain this is for new justices to be appointed by a liberal President whose appointees will provide an intellectual counterbalance and counterargument to those currently serving on the court.
A lot of us agree, but watch any Congressional or Senate hearing these days, for example the egregious witchery and impudence of Lorita Doan (she of the “hortatory subjunctive–when could you need I.V. phenergan more than to watch this imbecile)last week who knows she shattered the Hatch Act and has been recommended to be fired by the counsel who investigated her.
What you get at every one of these hearings are Republicans clucking “why are we here–this is all innoquous!”
My point is that with the recalcitant Republicans who even refused to vote “No Confidence” in Gonzales last week, you are going to have to have significantly more of a majority and a Democratic win among Gore, Clinton or Obama–I don’t think Edwards will win enough of the “Super Tusnami Tuesdays”
I am afraid Christy’s admirable and correct idealism is never going to see the light of day in this contentious Congress that is polarized against a backdrop of the most apathetic era of Americans in our history.
There is an old platitude that goes “You get the degree of democracy that you deserve.” We are sure getting the pseudo-fascism of the Bush-Cheney administration and the unitary executive rammed down our throats right now–with two nit wits who claim they are exempt from every law and they can upend any law passed with a mere signing statement.
I think the Supreme Court of the U.S. has been irreversibly now evolved into one of Dante’s rings of hell and will stay that way for the next 50 years at least.
Jeff Toobin captures the essence of the current Supreme Court, and it will take more than a Democratic President, either Gore, Obama, Clinton,or Edwards is the reality to change the Court significantly and I wouldn’t expect any of those four, one of whom will be the candidate, to change appointments significantly besides Obama.
Toobin points out how this Court has already foreclosed on defendants, the defense bar, civil liberties, racial equality, and health care:
“http://www.newyorker.com/talk/…..alk_toobinFive to Four”
It is also rarely pointed out, so I will, that if you examine the backgrounds of the 1250 or so current trial and appellate judges, a very significant percentage of them who are not from the ranks of the U.S. attorneys or AUSAs have never litigated for a second in a federal court room. If you examine all 12 appellate courts, you will find this paradoxical fact to be true.
We also have an environment right now where the upper echelon of the DOJ closely resembles the back room of the Bada Bing on the Sopranos where ridiculously no one testifying can recall who dressed them that morning, and of course Rove, Cheney, and the White House Counsel fired U.S. Attorneys in the middle of a number of investigations and pending indictments.
The Stanford Law review reported a statistical study recently that revealed Democrats prosecuted over Republicans at a ratio of 4:1.
The Supreme Court has headed into a horrible context as to fairness, and one that I believe is totally irreversible.
The D.C. Circuit took a big whiz onto civil liberties when it denied habeas in Randolph’s and his law clerk’s opinion in Hamden v. Rumsfeld and the Supreme Court denied cert. twice. to review detainee habeas.
The Vice President claims the law doesn’t apply to him, using the familiar stonewall Vaudeville team of Cheney and Addington–Scooter’s replacement as he scoots toward the custody of the B.O.P.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06…..washington
realworld @ 126
ooops. sorry realworld, just seeing this now. no reference I could see in Walton’s written opinion. what he said in court was probably sufficient dissing. he does have a snarky thing to say to Scalia though. I will wait for Christy to further enlighten (since I can’t hold a candle to her brilliance).
Judge Walton:
1) Decided: No close questions
2) Chided Robbins et. al. for relying on dicta.
3)Gives what I think is a careful,and valid analysis of the Appointments clause, Morrison, Edmond, and CIPA as opposed to Robbins’ specicious, superficial, and off point one.
Just because you pay millions for your legal talent, doesn’t mean they can’t miss terribly.
I feel compelled to comment as others have, that Larry Robbins’ demeanor before Judge Walton was egregious. I certainly understand forceful, focused advocacy, but telling the judge that you already have it sewed up at the D.C. Circuit [because I suppose Larry Robbins perceives as Christy and others have showcased, it has 14/17 deciders who are very pro Bush administration] is beyond the pale.
I thought his tone was inappropriate to say the least. Sure federal trial judges and appellate judges can make egregious mistakes, and what is not showcased is that a significant percentage of them never litigated in a federal court room, but IMHO Reggie Walton has done a very thorough job on this case and his memorandum opinions are butressed carefully and correctly. Other judges I know would have taken Robbins head off then and there.
My perception is that the Federal Defender’s offices don’t have a $5 million dollar honey pot per each defendant, and Christopher Hitchen’s comment that almost no defendants [who aren’t part of the Beltway Elitsia who broke the law from the West Wing and coctail with Barbie the Comstock and Mary the Matlin] don’t have constitutional issues is proof positive that Hitchens never got near a constitutional law class or very near a decent law review.
This case, to me, is all about the self-perceived privileged believing they can do whatever they want–even to the point of putting several people who have diligently served the country the way the Scooter shills say he has at risk, i.e. Valerie Plame and the people who were her collegues in cover with her.
I have heard every talking head and blog argument as to why because Armitage was *one of the leakers Fitz should never have brought this case. These people are in completel denial, and do not understand simply that Scooter blocked Fitz from nailing the architects of the leak: Cheney, Bush, and various White House Counsel. They also may include–many of the occupants of the upper echelon at DOJ who are looking more and more to me each day literally like the back room at the Badda Bing–and David Margolis is looking more like Sylvio Dante the more emails are leaked that DOJ isn’t either hiding or that were deleted from the server.
No one has mentioned, that I can find, in blog comments that if Congress had the chutzpah, it could subpoena these servers.Of course there would be a court fight over that and any other subpoena.
If they were to prevail, and it’s a big If, they could have someone like MIT who is probably exponentially better than DOJ or FBI forensic cyber teams pull those emails off the servers. MIT’s Cyber department has pulled complete data off the literal edge of hard drives that have been submerged in the ocean. It certainly would be worth a try if I were able to weigh in at Senate Judiciary, whose lethargic pace at subpoenas has been carefully choreographed in order to get as many subordinates before they subpoena big fish. Fielding certainly will drag this out in a court fight to ensure the new President has taken the West Wing long before it is resolved.
The White House strategy is that they will be long back in Texas before Rove and Cheney and Bush could be nailed criminally. All they have to do is continue to withold documents,emails, and stone wall. That’s why Fielding is White House counsel. That they would testify not under oath and not on a transcript is ludicrous. There should be no difference whatsoever in how they testify and someone in a federal trial testifies.
Christy’s previous post made me wonder about a couple things:
The 8 page redaction in Judge Tatel’s concurrence in the opinion on Judy Miller and Matt Cooper having to testify has me puzzled.
I know that there have been some legitimate claims in the last 3 years that certain Circuits have made cases disappear from their clerk’s office–in the district courts in Florida and one notable case in the Eleventh Circuit at Atlanta that was written about in legal newspapers, with Court personnel refusing any comment. It’s not hard to figure this out when the file is there one day and gone the next, however.
I don’t understand what law or rule allows Tatel to redact anything in an opion. It’s sad enough that so many cases are relegated to per curiam opinions screened by a staff of lawyers in every circuit who aren’t clerks, and some who have relatively little experience in a federal courtroom if any. The litigants never have an idea of the reasoning that applied that scrapped their efforts and dashed their hopes.
What FRAP (I can’t find one) or Rule allows this to happen? I also wonder how according to Jane’s blog that Fitz is able to allow certain portions to be non-redacted. Shouldn’t both parties have equal say, and why does one of the litigants have a say anyway if whatever allows this has made it Tatel’s call? Is there any time constraint on ruling on Dow’s motion to release the 8 pages? Why don’t we have the right to see them?
My other question related to the inevitable appeal from either party from the en banc ruling of the D.C. Circuit. I have no doubt that when this panel rules, either party will go after an en banc reversal.
That prospect is frightening to me, because of the clear 14/17 population of Bushie judges who certainly rule with this administration the majority of the time.
Should there be an appeal to the Supreme Court of the order on appeal bond, wouldn’t this take the form of an emergency motion and an opinion issued by the Justice and their law clerk assigned to the D.C. Circuit unless there are enough votes for them to consider this appeal (Of course on the main appeal it takes 4 cert. votes to get to the Supremes, but I’m not sure on the appeal bond motion. Hopefully someone will help me out here.
The horse has now gotten light years out of the barn with the confirmation of Roberts and Alito. The Borkian momentum is in motion and nothing can stop it now, tragically.
Jay Gould is certainly correct that Ginsberg and Breyer are by no means liberals, and while Ruthie may fondly remember being one of the ACLU’s litigators, she has long abandoned that path, dispite her small and merely symbolic protest of recent vintage, reading excerpts of two of her dissents out loud.
The best that the non hard core right-winged Supremes (and we are watching Kennedy evolve into one of the hard core right winged Supremes) can do is to muddy the waters, the way they certainly did in an opinion that established absolutely no direction whatsoever, an enigma enshrouded in a mystery, Rita v. U.S. (announced yesterday) that was supposed to help clarify, but did nothing whatsoever to clarify the U.S. sentencing guidelines’ application.
The Rita opinion, in my view, isn’t worth the paper it’s written on because it clarifies absolutely nothing new, and if anything will force judges to stay within the guidelines instead of within a case by case context.
It has always amazed me that the jury who is deciding guilt is purposefully blinded from knowing anything about the sentence unless an individual juror is familiar with the guidelines, and most of those people are called attorneys who litigate in federal venues.
The practical application will be anti-defense bar, anti-defendant, and anti-Sixth amendment, and as Justice Souter’s lone dissent said:
“This would open the door to undermining Apprendi itself, and this is what has happened today.
Without a powerful reason to risk reversal on the sen-tence, a district judge faced with evidence supporting a high subrange Guidelines sentence will do the appropriate factfinding in disparagement of the jury right and will sentence within the high subrange.”
This case is but one of many examples of opinions during this term that have foreclosed the rights of the individual, and it is going to be a rocky 35-40 years as Alito and Roberts serve out their long terms, and potentially worse if Bush can ram through two more appointments by a one of the most passive Senate Judiciary commitees in U.S. history.
Christy writes:
The nation needs a more balanced approach to the law — and to its political implications — than what we have now, and the only way to obtain this is for new justices to be appointed by a liberal President whose appointees will provide an intellectual counterbalance and counterargument to those currently serving on the court.
A lot of us agree, but watch any Congressional or Senate hearing these days, for example the egregious witchery and impudence of Lorita Doan (she of the “hortatory subjunctive–when could you need I.V. phenergan more than to watch this imbecile)last week who knows she shattered the Hatch Act and has been recommended to be fired by the counsel who investigated her.
What you get at every one of these hearings are Republicans clucking “why are we here–this is all innoquous!”
My point is that with the recalcitant Republicans who even refused to vote “No Confidence” in Gonzales last week, you are going to have to have significantly more of a majority and a Democratic win among Gore, Clinton or Obama–I don’t think Edwards will win enough of the “Super Tusnami Tuesdays”
I am afraid Christy’s admirable and correct idealism is never going to see the light of day in this contentious Congress that is polarized against a backdrop of the most apathetic era of Americans in our history.
There is an old platitude that goes “You get the degree of democracy that you deserve.” We are sure getting the pseudo-fascism of the Bush-Cheney administration and the unitary executive rammed down our throats right now–with two nit wits who claim they are exempt from every law and they can upend any law passed with a mere signing statement.
Jeff Toobin writes in the current New Yorker article “Five to Four” on the current Supreme Court’s foreclosure of individual civil liberties, foreclosing racial equality, defendants’ rights, the defense bar, and the rights of women, and women’s health issues when the life of a mother could be at stake:http://www.newyorker.com/talk/…..alk_toobin
chch16 – I see you were there, too. I certainly agree on Robbins’ tone. It was beyond aggressive. Especially the crack about havign “been there” when Scalia read his dissenting opinion on Morrison. I do hope good old Larry gets in front of Walton again, don’t you?
chch16 @ 172
thank you, i enjoyed reading your comment… just one question:
why obama?
FWIW, overly long comments can trip the moderation filters and require a mod to manually release them.
Changing screen names does not help free them more quickly.
Thanks.
I just worry that Scooter may conveniently suffer a “sudden illness” before he reports to ClubFed, as did Kenny Boy. Ohhh, the secrets that must be sleeping w/ Mr Lay!
Because I believe that the other candidates are in reality to the right of center in their perception of the Supreme Court and I believe that Obama has a signficantly greater concept of constitutional law than Clinton or Gore, and one equal or greater to John Edwards. Edwards might make an excellent President. I personally think he is terribly bright, obviously a skillful litigator who made his fortune on predominantly significant malpractice litigation instead of much of the junk of maloutcome that attorneys fling at physicians, particularly OBGYNS and Neurosurgeons who pay enormous malpractice premiums right now.
But although it is early, and as has been pointed out people who led during past elections changed places with the ultimate winners, I just don’t think Edwards can beat Obama or Clinton, and of course I could be dead wrong about this. He’s a promising candidate to me.
Obviously Obama doesn’t have the well-honed political machine that Clinton has spent years putting in place.
The “no foreign policy experience” charge often bandied about makes me grin. As if Bush was getting foreign policy experience sitting in Austin, Texas who applied that particular experience to become a candidate for conducting the most damaging foreign policy in American history.
If Bush had tried to kill more people (the surge is a surge in dead bodies in coffins at Dover, and hundreds of Iraqis dead per week) he could not have succeeded better.
Bush has again vetoed embroynic stems, and no physician who knows the literature believes any of the other alternatives hold a candle to their potential for dealing with Diabetes, spinal paralysis, and many leukemias and lymphomas to name a few.
I sure don’t see conservative Republican shils lifting a finger to adopt and implant into their uteri any of the 400,000 embryos that are now banked and soon will have to be discaded. It is imbecilic to connect embryonic stem cell use with abortion increases, and the Bushies, expert at selling bad or no science, are of course pushing it.
It was painful to happen to catch Elizabeth Hasselbach shouting her ignorance of stem cell research on “The View” yesterday and claiming ethics.
As has been said many times, Republican Conervatives are very concerned about the fate of the embryo, and don’t give a damn what happens to the child once it’s born.
They certainly don’t seem to give a damn about the kids in Iraq (or the parents and grandparents for that matter) not to mention 2 million Iraqi refugees and the hundreds of Iraqi women forced into prostitution in Syria now in order to survive.
RBG @ 176
RBG – I think he has been saving them up for a long time and finally vented. good hint, though. may need to be more specific about the penalty for sock puppeting, too.
RBG–
I changed the screen name because I thought for some reason my comments weren’t getting posted– a couple hit “posts are closed” after I worked on them earlier and you could be right about the length. I’ll try to post shorter comments and I wondered why two in a row ran into a closed thread the moment they were posted, and sometimes there may be a delay if several posts hit the server at once.
I understand.
Thanks
Comments close approximately 24 hours after the thread begins so it may have just been coincidence that you happened to hit that time frame as you were submitting your comment.
Welcome to the Lake.
Tired Fed you are right and I checked out your blog last night and enjoyed it a lot.
Christy and the FDL bloggers are excellent.
I didn’t intend to “sock puppet”, so please accept my apology. I was confused when possibly the length of the posts could have caused two threads to close at the exact time I was posting previously.
I have been frustrated with the incredible illegality and amorality of this administration, but I realize I’m hardly alone in this.
I knew when the litigation started after Gore won the popular vote that Bush could be bad, but I didn’t realize the infinite extent of the destruction and death he would cause.
I also realize there doesn’t seem to be much I can do about it. I cannot get over how apathetic this country seems to Iraq, warantless wiretapping, foreclosed civil rights, FBI saying “whoops we misues thousands of target search letters”–or “whoops we did it again,” ATT and other large carriers wire tapping every phone call.
Note that Dana Perion’s robotic answer to everything “we follow the law” has been ironically handed to every Bush official to use as a stone wall.
Christy writes often about people who break the law having to pay a penalty as a consequence. That’s just not happening now at Christy’s former home–DOJ–nor is it happening within the West Wing and there are victims. The US Attorney and different DAs and ADAs and AUSAs like to talk about caring for the victims of crime–girls and boys we are huge victims of an administration that believes it adheres to no law whatsoever.
When one of them gets close to a rather small consequence–an actual 24 months calculated sentence for Libby to serve–look at how much hell breaks loose.
I believe that Lawrence Robbins, Libby’s appellate attorneys and the Libinistas (Matlin, Comstock, the former solicitor general and the rest) fully believe that they have safety in an en banc D.C. Circuit that portends to function as a Bushie robot and will laugh at Scooter’s convictions–and if they don’t that Bush who could care less about public opinion will step in.
Cheney and Addington’s stance described here is a good metaphor for what drives me crazy:
Agency Is Target in Cheney Fight on Secrecy Data (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06…..washington
Woodhollow@19–
If you read Souter’s dissent (.pdf from S. Ct.’s site),
here (not that long):
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/…..6-5754.pdf
you’ll understand why he dissented. He believed, correctly that this opinion does little to clarify anything–and that it’s end result will be that Judges will loose some of the freedom to individualize and use well reasoned departures from the Guidelines because they don’t want to be reversed on appeal. I think that this opinion just muddied waters. Perhaps Christy and others see it differently.
IMHO the guidelines have worked out terribly, and they haven’t spawned consistency. The guidelines can often be Draconian–and the people who think they aren’t are the first that would wet their pants if they were locked in their garage or a closet or a car. I doubt many attorneys have much of a scintilla of a concept of prison, including most of those in the federal defense bar because they don’t work with them on issues that come up in prison.
The great fear of Scooter’s predicamant on the Georgetown/Beltway cocktail circuit is based on the fantasies of Comstock and Matlin, and other self-important D.C. cowpokes, who don’t have a clue. They are some of the people you see making small talk on C-Span at a book signing–or the kind that show up at Sally Bradley’s parties or Fred Thompson’s wife the age of his daughter sharing a chuckle with Wolfie Wolfowitz after he ripped off the World Bank and helped kill thousands of Americans years after his own deferment. One common denominator that has united the Neo-Con hawks that led this administration into Iraq and the Committee Mary Matlin was on–the so called “White House Iraq http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W…..Iraq_Groupgroup”
is that they all experienced a the joys of deferment or multiple deferments like Dick the Cheney (5).