Thom Hartman has said for a long time…. it might not be about those US Attorney’s who were fired but those who were NOT fired…. Those are the ones that need to be examined…

Yesterday on Ring of Fire they were discussing another bunch of investigations against Democrats in AL & MS very similar to the Don Seigleman case

Meant ot mention above that I’ll be on with Sam Seder today at 5 pm ET — and I think Glenn is going to be one of the other guests. You can listen live at the Air America website here. Linked this above as a note as well…

Cool, the dynamic duo!

Lets see…. at the DOJ you can loose your job for….

Speaking out and standing by your principles
Prosecuting Republican corruption but not enough immigration crimes
Working while gay….

did I miss any?

Scott makes a good point on that issue with regard to the career hires that have been made — one that we’ve talked about several times here in the comments as well. How do you deal with deliberately politicized hires in career positions that you can’t just get rid of without cause, but whose personal agenda may not mesh well with a true commitment to the rule of law because for them political and/or “moral” agenda trumps all. (And I put moral in quotes because refusing to give a job to someone based on their sexual orientation is so utterly immoral as to be offensive to me. What would Jesus do, indeed…)

It’s very similar to what the tried to do to the Pro Bono lawyers representing Gitmo detainees.

That says a lot coming out of the mouth of Mr. Republican, Dick Thornburgh

Very much so — except in that instance, they tried to take on some of the attorneys at the big name firms in DC and got massive and immediate smack back, both in the media and in private discussions which I have heard were ugly, heated, and immediate. That they didn’t anticipate that these people would stand up for the rule of law is sad enough…that they expected them to simply roll over and ask how little they should do is beyond appalling.

The bar association in Miami has been very heated about this indictment, because by every account I’ve seen from folks who know him, Keuhne is supposed to be a fairly decent guy. And he wasn’t even vetting fees for himself, he was vetting payments to Roy Black as a third party administrator trying to suss out legitimate funds or otherwise — which is not that easy to do, by the way. But every defendant is entitled to representation, and this is a huge shot across the bow at the people who provide it.

It’s never easy to determine whether the payments are coming from clean or tainted money, mainly because criminals have a habit of co-mingling their funds. But going after lawyers for representing them where they have made some good faith effort to actually determine whether that has happened or not? That’s really irregular in my experience. Especially where you don’t have any concrete evidence that the person you are accusing of aiding and abetting on this had any real knowledge that there was any problem at all — you can’t just infer actual knowledge — you have to have evidence of it, and the indictment reads as though they did not when it was granted. Lots of oddities in this one.

I thought to, too — I had missed that testimony the first time around, and thought others might have as well…

Meant to mention that I was especially amused at Thornburg’s swipe at Rick Santorum and his residency questions and education system bilking for his kids computer homeschooling on the record. Clearly there is a history between those two of no love being lost — anyone know the history on that?

G.W does know that these rules will apply to him right? His dad’s Carlyle Group had the Osama family as business partners, they invested in several military contractors who at any time after a Democrat gets in office might be investigated for short changing the troops.
Plus lets not forget all the energy companies making a huge buck off of $3.48 a gallon gas who might have engaged in price manipulation like Enron did.
Is this the kind of precedent the Bush family wants to establish with a Democratic President coming in? Does Bush want to make this personal messing with Al Gore’s lawyer is personal.

Ooooh, there is a gorgeous male goldfinch on the feeder at the moment — the bright yellow plumage of spring is back. He’s a beauty…

Except in the case of “Gold Bars” Luskin(sp?).

It’s amazing how fast they change color. The ones in my area went from brown to full yellow in the last week or so. Spring is here :)

I’m a history buff and one of the questions I’ve pondered over the years is what was it like living day to day in Nazi Germany, especially the legal system. Since the annointment of The Idiotchild it is becoming more clear everyday.

Yes, well, the “good faith” effort portion of the argument becomes a little more steep a hill to climb where you are taking payment in Gold Bars, now doesn’t it? *g* (”But, your honor, my client just happened to have these gold bars around the house as assets for a rainy day.”)

Same here — it was a fairly abrupt change. One day, they were coming to the feeders all brown, and the next? Gorgeous, bright yellow.

I hope that in November we elect a Democrat who believes in payback.

OT: off to see Gnome, yellowdog Jim and nonplussed. Our first firepup birthday party. Catch y’all later!

Maybe they’ll just have to cancel the election.

Have fun, Betsy! Please say hi to the de Plumes for me?

Thom Hartman has said for a long time…. it might not be about those US Attorney’s who were fired but those who were NOT fired…. Those are the ones that need to be examined…

Do the Bushies in the Justice Dept know that they will be investigated for things they are doing right now? Do they know they could loose that Law license they worked so hard to get?
Do they know Tom Cruise played one of the fired U.S attorney’s in a movie and that if they keep adding gas to the fire they might end up being played AS A VILLAIN ON THE BIG SCREEN?
Which I’m sure will help them get *cough* guilty GOP connected clients assuming they keep their law license. In other words they might be reduced to making a living defending people who pay them with the very same Ethical Payment Problems they are prosecuting.
Plus being a Tom Cruise Movie villain and having everyone you know point at you would be annoying.

REALLY???I did not know that…I’ll have to start keeping an eye for it because if you are getting it there in WV, we will be seeing it here..maybe next month?

Or at least one who hires a head of the Justice Dept who does.

I dugg it

But the Digg site is sure acting up… took 4 tries before I could submit the post! Has any one else had issues with them ??

Christy great post!
This administration is rotten to the core! If they are not impeached before the curtain goes down on it tenure in office I will be very disappointed. They must be held to task for the wrongful prosecution they have been engaed in over the last seven years!

One word. Edwards. White collar criminals beware.

I for one would love to see Edwards as AG… broke my heart after we won Fayette Co. Iowa for him this January. Or maybe poverty czar?

Glenn Greenwald and Scott Horton will be on Ian Masters’ program from KPFK in LA at 2:00 EDT, i.e., 11:00 PDT, i.e., five minutes from now: http://216.240.136.64/

Move them all to a new position that might change their outlook on things gathering personal testimony of the victims of Bush’s war when we file charges about the Army Bullet proof vests that were not tested. Have them supervised of course interview the families.
Then after stories start leaking to the press or other side start giving out lie detector tests to find the leaks.
A good person when doing research on a case like this might start to see things our way. A bad person will see a way to make a buck helping the other side.
We pretend to banish them to low level uncomfortable work and forget them. When in actuality we are testing them to see what they will do.
And God help them if they take money or favors for helping the other side in a case.

There are days when this whole mess just depresses me so much - I have not heard one word from Obama or Clinton that leads me to believe that anything will be done about all of this when one of them is elected. It is so huge, messy and far-reaching that it seems impossible to get one’s arms around it. The GOP, I think, figures that even if a Democrat will be elected this November, it won’t make any difference because a) things are such a mess militarily and economically that whoever it is will only get one term, and b) they’ve set things up so tight with SCOTUS that they won’t have anything to worry about personally, that Robertson, Alito, et al. will take care of them.

I was thinking the same thing and I want Ralph Nader as head of the EPA or the FDA. Can you imagine how much American exports will go up if we can tell other countries that our products were approved by Ralph Nader?
Advertising created myths about Japanese Quality Control, or German Engineering have nothing on Ralph!
I bet the Japanese would even by our beef again if Ralph said it was clean:)

This is shocking and crazy! The Department of Justice is anything but. In the banana republic that is Pakistan its lawyers and judges were on the front lines fighting for justice. Here we just shake our heads and wring our hands, and continue sleep-walking towards tyranny.

Christy, another case that would be interesting to look into is the IRS/Dept. of Justice intimidation of All Souls Espiscopal Church in Pasadena.

E-mail released under the FOIA to the church show that the DoJ was conferring with the IRS over the anti-war sermon of Rev. Regas that ignited the IRS investigation, suggesting politicization of the case back in 2004.

The IRS later dropped the case but the church is insisting on an apology and an investigation into whether it was politically motivated through the DoJ. Who would be surprised?

http://www.allsaints-pas.org/s.....xam_splash

The Daily Business review article published in Law.com has a little tidbit that Rove scholars will find familiar, as will those following the political prosecution of Don Siegelman [emph. added]:

Kuehne represented Gore in Palm Beach County, Fla., where the infamous butterfly ballot forced a recount and numerous other politicians.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.....2426499766

Petulant elephants never forget.

Our Candidates have to be quiet the GOP knows we will hit them but on what? If we tip our hand Bush will try to pass laws like the FISA laws he is trying to pass to protect his fellow law breakers.
But your right without a public declaration we don’t know if our Democratic Presidential Candidates are reaching side deals with the Slime.

Edwards for Poverty Czar, maybe. But Ralph Nader as AG would be stupendous! He would truly be a modern-day Hercules cleaning up the Augean stables.

Thanks! Look forward to hearing Christy later too.

What ever happened with the woman in Texas (AUSA?) who was drowned, and the AUSA who was killed in (I think) Washington state? Have these cases been investigated?

It is truly the case of a frog being placed in a saucepan filled with room temperature water which is slowly brought to boil.

Now that the DOJ has so clearly gone over to the dark side, the organized bar has no option but to come out of its Harvard & Yale and Union Clubs and remind their wayward students that the law is not the sovereign’s plaything. It is civil society’s tool to keep him in check.

That is, when they’re not busy demanding that the S.Ct. immunize their clients for products approved by an underfunded, understaffed, politicized, disorganized and often lied-to FDA. Just saying…

OK Attorney General, Head of the FDA, Head of the EPA, for Ralph. Edwards Attorney General Poverty Czar. What about VP? Never mind who is at the top.

Well, it could have been Hillary, who would have been more likely to take the fight to the Federalists than the law professor-like conciliatory Obama. But.. water under the bridge.

Lets not forget the grads from the fundie schools like Monica Goodling.

She was a 1991 graduate of Northeastern High School in Manchester, Pennsylvania, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995 from Messiah College. She received her Juris Doctor degree in 1999 from Regent University Law School, graduating cum laude. She transferred to Regent University from American University her second year.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Goodling

Hate to burst your legal bubble, but on every case where there is an attorney representing a corporation — which, by the way, deserves adequate legal representation just like anyone else with a case at bar — there is a corresponding attorney on the other side representing the plaintiff suing said corporation in most cases. And with every prosecution there is a corresponding defense counsel working the other side. The system functions best when both sides of a case have vigorous representation fighting over the facts and the law.

But it functions badly when one side is trying to stick a cheating thumb on the scale and tain the process by whatever means are available. And that is what the Bush Administration has been trying to do all along. They can’t seem to win an argument on the merits, so they ignore the merits altogether and make up their own facts, rules, and proceedings. Convenient, that…

But all along the way, attorneys for any number of non-profit groups and practitioners of all stripes, including Dick Thornburgh in the YouTube above, have been pushing back the way they are trained to do — in a court of law. It may not be as swift a meting of justice as some would like, but they are doing their jobs — and well - to expose the problems.

If politicians are not bringing corresponding heat in the political process — that is on their heads, and ours for not forcing them to do so with political pressure. Lawyers can always try to do more — and many are, every day. But the political process has its own role to play in this, and it could be bringing a LOT more heat to bear as well. We need to keep pushing for that to heppen.

“But it functions badly when one side is trying to stick a cheating thumb on the scale and tain the process by whatever means are available. And that is what the Bush Administration has been trying to do all along. They can’t seem to win an argument on the merits, so they ignore the merits altogether and make up their own facts, rules, and proceedings. Convenient, that…”…Christy Hardin Smith
Slytherins, everyone of them. Can only win the Quidditch match by cheating.

Goodling is one of 150 graduates of Regent University who have served in this administration, as Regent’s Web site proudly proclaims. Pretty impressive for a 29-year-old school. The university says that “approximately one out of every six Regent alumni is employed in some form of government work.” And that’s precisely what its founder desired. The school’s motto is “Christian Leadership to Change the World.” Former attorney general John Ashcroft teaches at Regent, and graduates have obtained senior positions in the Bush administration. The express goal is not only to tear down the wall between church and state in America but also to enmesh the two.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01799.html

The VP in our penile winner-takes-it-all society is worth just a bit better than a bucket of warm spit. Perhaps if both at the top of the ticket were women there might be more equitable power sharing; but I digress.

The worst part of this kind of persecution is the helpless feeling, the shame I feel, that we lawyers cannot police our own profession. John Yoo is a teacher? Diane Beaver is still practicing law? And the rest of the lickspittle lawyers at DOJ?

The Feds in Alaska raided the son of US Sen. Ted Stevens’, Ben Stevens in early August 2006. They raided Ted’s own Alaska house on May 29, 2007, the only time in US history a Senator’s home has been raided. Although several low-level “Corrupt Bastards” have been convicted so far, the two Stevens men, who collectively are being investigated for millions in money they’ve taken in or sifted and laundered to other GOP-controlled people and entities, continue to sit pretty - and uncharged.

Some think there is no White House or top-level DOJ interference going on in this. But many, myself included, are beginning to wonder why these two - and other - investigations in Alaska seem to have spun out and stalled.

The VP in our penile winner-takes-it-all society is worth just a bit better than a bucket of warm spit. Perhaps if both at the top of the ticket were women there might be more equitable power sharing; but I digress.

You have heard of Dick Cheney?

It is truly irritating — and partly due to the sheer level of mendacity and the sheer number of people involved. It’s become impossible to keep up with the level of crud that keeps oozing out.

Good Snark! Seriously the VP if they decide to run is the front runner next time. When was the last time a VP who wanted to run lost his parties nomination?
I want someone to the Left of both our Presidential nominees we have worked our but off defining the war as THE ISSUE this election.
We deserve something for our support. A safe middle of the road VP will not inspire us worth Spit.
After Dick we can’t risk having a VP who might be able to lead but does not share our values, our human values that is.

Andrew Sullivan says that Rumsfeld, Addington, and Yoo best stay home, and that they will face war crimes trials.

Chris Cilizza’s been running a series of Beltway CW posts about potential running mates over the last few weeks, and the latest on McCain’s possible choices caught my eye. The paucity of support for anyone, really, is amusing.

Just finished reading Winston Churchill’s six volume set on WW2. Interesting comment toward the end about a free society where he defines the key ingredients. Among them, a judiciary that is not under the control of the govt- or any political party. He might have also included the dept. of justice.

This is not small potatoes- this is the foundation of a free society. If the govt. can use the judiciary system to it’s own partisan advantages- freedom is gone- vanished- stolen in the night by an idiot prince from a pig farm.

If a Democrat is elected President this fall, what should their posture be towards the malfeasance and/or crimes of Bushco? Often in the past, new administrations have decided to focus on the future and have not used their political capital to pursue the malfeasance and/or crimes of the previous administation.

Generally, I have been supportive of moving forward. But, in this instance, I would not be. For instance, this assult on justice must be answered for.

That’s funny. Means that the Repubs are really not going to be satisfied with anyone. Ha!

Amen, to all of the above. Funny how when the wingnuts trot out Churchill to legitimize some point or other by giving it a varnish of historical tie-in, they always forget to mention his staunch commitments to rule of law issues in terms of institutional independence, isn’t it?

I believe that there was a time when the goopers would have been outraged by the constitutional encroachments of the Clusterfuck administration, sadly, that party of principle has devolved into a petty partisan echo chamber that will enure any crime or contraints on liberty- as long as they are done by goopers…

Let’s have a funeral- that Grand Old Party is as dead as Abraham Lincoln and Barry Goldwater.

OT on CSPAN 1
Foreign Relations Committee is just coming on:
Political Developments in Iraq

(from Wednesday)

Lincoln Chaffee made that point yesterday during book salon — how they have truly become the party of Goldwater republicanism, but that it’s been stretched beyond a point where even Goldwater wouldn’t recognize a lot of it.

The pollsters asked 453 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (from March 24-27) if they could “name someone that you would like to see John McCain choose as his vice-presidential running mate?”

If the person said “yes,” they were asked to provide a name.

Here are the results:

Mike Huckabee 18%
Mitt Romney 15%
Condoleezza Rice 8%
Fred Thompson 4%
Ron Paul 2%
Rudy Giuliani 2%
Charlie Crist 2%
Joe Lieberman 2%
Colin Powell/John Edwards/Tim Pawlenty/Newt Gingrich/Bill Richardson 1% each
Cannot Name Anyone 31%
http://blog.washingtonpost.com.....takes.html

Thanks Christy! They can’t get above 20% for anyone and they say that we are divided? If the Frakers could summon up the interest they might aspire to be divided.

Yeah!

Redd,

Yep- Clusterfuck has his portrait on the wall- Winnie must be turning red.

Winnie carried a great nation through one of the cruelest wars in history. He did so with intense personal involvement every waking hour. He personally supervised the creation of defenses and weapons and visited the warfront repeatedly..

The contrast with this craven piece of manure is too much to bear.

I had the pleasure of meeting Barry Goldwater late in his life. I don’t believe he would have recognized or approved of much that this craven fool has created in his name.

McBush will probably choose Romney in my opinion.

Have we learned anything from the last seven years?

Well we should have:

1) The Bill of Rights is what makes us free- it must not be fucked with,

2) Regulatory agencies were designed to regulate- when they DON’T, serious shit happens- like economic catastrophes.

3) Tax Cuts are great- but only if you can afford em.

4) If yer gonna start a war- you damned well better be able to win it- and in less than 10 years- unless we have been invaded by a superior army.

Iraq may be President Bush’s war, but Gen. David H. Petraeus has become its front man: a clear-speaking, politically savvy, post-Vietnam combat veteran with a Ph.D. from Princeton. Given the failures that have plagued the mission from the start, he may yet be Mr. Bush’s best hope for sustaining public support for an unpopular war once his presidency ends.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04.....myers.html

I wonder if the idiot who wrote this piece Steven Lee Myers realizes just how absurd and illogical that last bit is. You see, Steve, “unpopular” means that the public isn’t supporting his and Bush’s war. I know this is a concept that is way too difficult for someone like you to see, especially when you have the kneepads on but trust me on this one.

No bubble to burst. I’m aware that the see-saw only works when two people ride it, as I am of the work done by lawyers not working for Sullivan & Cromwell or Jones, Day. Those with their fingers in democracy’s dike just now are among the most passionate and underpaid in the legal profession. As always. Nor am I a fan of simply reversing this administration’s priority to “get” only the other side’s lawyers while enhancing the power and immunities of its own. That’s buying the referees, not fielding a better team.

The fulcrum of that see-saw is the neutrality of the judicial system. I think corrupt prosecutions corrode that as much as they debase the prosecutorial function.

You mention that lawmakers are not doing enough, either, to rein in administration excess. I agree. That negligence is made worse because of the active damage done by the administration’s own rulemaking via agency rules and decisions and EO’s.

My plea is for more Scott Horton’s, talented, experienced corporate lawyers who can reach people that regard lawyers working at the ACLU or the EFF as inherently opposed to their interests. Scott strikes a fine balance between representing well-heeled businesses and advocating for civil rights in society and the military. My point is that when the administration has driven the legal system’s wagon into mud up to its axles, it’s not just the lowly paid who need to get out and push.

Sorry this thread got killed prematurely- a badly needed discussion.

The Times’ seems to mimic Jim Lehrer’s style. News and commentary ought to reflect Gemuetlichkeit, cozy comfort, optimism and restraint. Never mind that manipulative contradictions like, “sustaining popular support for an unpopular war” misdescribe both Bush’s actions and those of Petraeus.

The Times’ editors seem to want their reporters to write the news the way they do their headlines, the reverse of the WSJ’s techniqe, which uses headlines to soften or redirect the sometimes excellent reporting by its journalists.

Absolutely agree with you there. Including the fact that we could use a whole helluva lot more folks like Scott standing up publicly and denouncing what they well know to be abhorrent actions and behaviors. Much, much more.

More of this is going on in Alabama :

http://www.iht.com/articles/20…..labama.php

The same United States attorney who prosecuted (Democratic) Governor Siegelman is now after a bunch of (Democratic) legislators.

“There’s a direct link between the Siegelman debacle and what’s going on here,” said one legislator, nervously looking around. Like many, he refused to be quoted by name.

“There’s a fear factor,” another lawmaker said. “It’s kind of scary.”

Page not found…

[Mod: refresh]

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to how you detect whether someone is “filing a brief while gay”?

I suppose it would depend upon how well the briefs were packaged.

(Disclaimer: I know gay stereotypes are verboten, but I advance no negatives in this ‘brief’ reply to a very inviting opening. Augggh! De puns never stop! Oh, the humanity!)

Robyn Blumner was a rare island of sanity when I lived in Florida in the 90s. As the former head of the ACLU there, if she says Kuehne is about integrity, I trust her judgment completely.

My prediction: this indictment will be dropped sometime after the election which it was clearly filed to influence.

Bush and Cheney get their best ideas for justice from their much admired pal, former Soviet spook chief Putin.

Their salaries are such a small proportion of the DOJ budget, not to mention the federal budget, that the next USAG can simply stick them in a closet with one light bulb, no telephone, and make them sit there all day to collect their pay. Some no doubt will, but it’s a hard life, and cdertainly wouldn’t constitute anything close to Mukasey’s definition of torture, or mine, for that matter.

Give them literally nothing to do.

Christy: I have been having trouble with the site all week. It is very slow and it is freezing up my computer. Yours is the only site that is causing me this problem. I have been sending emails all week but no one has responded. I read everyday several times per day and try to post sometimes. This past week has been a serious problem for me. Do not know if any one else is having that problem. my email is wnoblejr AT msn.com

More politicization: Keith Olbermann, April 3

Number three: Gonzo-gate. It keeps on ruining lives and neutering the Justice Department. Its inspector general is now investigating why last year, Justice did not renew the contract of its own liaison to the U.S. attorneys committee on Native American issues. Leslie Hagen had gotten the highest possible scores on her official job evaluation, the guy would hired her and described as the best qualified person in the nation and Ms. Hagen got fired.

Why? The inspector general is investigating evidence that Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales‘ senior counsel, that woman with that law degree she got in by sending 100 box stuff to religious lunatic university. Goodling heard a rumor that Ms. Hagen was a lesbian. And of course, she limited her duties and then, fired her.

Goodling never heard that department‘s name quite right. Justice.

Not injustice, lady. Justice.

Christy, you were great, as usual, on Sam’s show today. We either have a country of laws or of men. And the current men are thugs, radicals, and heretics. We must all oppose in every way possible.

I hope that November brings the election of someone with respect for justice and the rule of law.

Oldgold,

bush* very clearly broke that tradition himself when he immediately ordered investigations into Clinton’s pardons, claimed horrible vandalism to the Whitehouse offices and other imagined offenses. I’m afraid that we will be seeing these abuses and damage on a scale far greater than their most preposterous claims against Clinton when they finally evacuate the sinking ship of state they are leaving us.