Bush League Justice.

lhp!

Our new justice system. Trial by accusation (and association).

BOIYAD - But only if you are a Democrat..

This bunch of criminals and torturers needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They have already admitted to torture, from organization to micro managing abuse. Unfortunately, the fox is in the hen house and has already eaten most of the eggs. Who will prosecute the prosecutors?

500 words to my reality based friends on last weeks top news stories and my thoughts on the candidates vis-a-vis their relationship with Atheist morality.
Concluding with:

Better to be in league with a man who fears for the better nature of his soul, than a women who promises to annihilate an entire civilization hoping to score a few boners with the neocons over at Faux News.

http://thetimtimes.com/?p=221
Enjoy.

Obviously, the consequences of violating the USA manual are not incentive enough to discourage this type of behavior.

I imagine it is difficult to trace the leak back to a particular individual.

What are the consequences for violating the rules outlined in the USA manual?

If we don’t put a stop to this era of Bushian policies by defeating McCain, soon they will omit the time consuming trial phase entirely. It will be so much more efficient to snatch suspects off of the street and rendition them directly to the nearest penal institution. In the case of the poor, this is pretty much what happens anyway.

Unless, of course, you are somebody like Republican Super Donor Bob Perry, in which case, you simply purchase the justice you desire.

Particular care must be taken to avoid any statement or presentation that would prejudice the fairness of any subsequent legal proceeding.

I think Randy Samborn (Fitz’s spokesperson) has this engraved into his desk.

In Blazing Saddles there is a scene in State Attorney General Hedly Lamarr’s office in which Lamarr is screwing a statue of Justice. I never thought I’d live to see the day where that sort of action became commonplace.

Interesting note: When the Christian-oriented Family Channel ran Blazing Saddles [Mrs. B.C. asked if it was a 45-minute version], they left the above scene in. They censored the farting around the campfire scene. This says something about them, but I’m not quite sure what.

BC

Just FYI. The manual can be found here.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eous…..wnload.htm

[Mod: thank you, added to post]

I think I’d also add, retrying people multiple times, just because the prosecutor wants a guilty verdict, regardless of previous verdicts and the actual evidence. It’s all because they have to appear to be ‘tough on crime’.

To quote our distinguished VP” “So?”

Is anyone surprized by this?

There comes a point where a responsible news organization just doesn’t print the story unless the person leaking the information is willing to use their name.

Amazing. isn’t it?
Hundreds of documented scandals involving Republicans but it’s OK to ignore those and focus on some low level Dem bureaucrat.

Or at least has to ask “why is this person telling me this story?”

Sometimes, a leak is the only choice a whistleblower has, and the press serves the cause of justice in keeping the identity of the leaker a secret. More common, though, is the leak done for political purposes, which certainly appears to be the SOP in the Bush Administration, including the USA in SDNY. As LHP put it, “She’s not indicted, they haven’t decided yet if they’re going to indict, but they [SDNY attorneys] are shooting their mouths off ruining this woman’s reputation.”

I’d love to see an editor do a little self-analysis of their work. Go through their stories over the last seven years, and document how many times they’ve been used and spun by anonymous sources.

LHP!

Thanks for another extremely informative post.

proofreader hat: 1st graph “therefore before you indict you have to examine”
2nd graph “it’s not just about your conviction rate”

Loo Hoo @ 13: I agree! And the reporter damn well better have kept notes of who said what when or face jail for contempt. And be open to civil action for libel. And I don’t actually care if the “accused” is a dem, thug, or anything else. Rule of law, goddamnit!

FunnyDiva

[Mod: thank you]

That is something that I simply couldn’t agree with more. Anonymous sources have their place, especially in a secrecy and retribution obsessed Administration such as this one, but derogatory information which can have such a profound impact on one’s career and personal life needs to be attributable to someone.

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten
colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back
of each one, sat down. Man came in said, “All rise.” We all stood up,
and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he
sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the
twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows
and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog.
And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry,
’cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American
blind justice, and there wasn’t nothing he could do about it, and the
judge wasn’t going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each
one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And
we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but thats not
what I came to tell you about.

oops. forgot
/proofreader hat

and rule of law and equal justice and presumption of innocence and decent, even-handed treatment for everyone. I want my forking Constitution back. Please clean the sh*t off of it first, since you Powers That Be have been using it to wipe your a**es for the last 7 years!

FunnyDiva

You can get anything you want,
At Alice’s Restaurant…

sorry to highjack ot looseheadprop but this is disturbing and probably fodder for later thread

think progress

Bolton: Striking Iran ‘Is Really The Most Prudent Thing To Do’

ah, the dogs morons of war

Whatcha in for kid?

sing: You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant and just walk out.
If it’s just you, they’ll think you’re just one nut. If 2 or 3 do it, they’ll think you’re just a few nuts. If 100s of people do it, they’ll think it’s a movement…

Has the chorus “come around on the guitar” yet? Can we start singing this to Dana Peroxide when she starts dribbling her inane and untrue drivel?

FunnyDiva

I didn’t get nothing, I had to pay fifty dollars and had pick up the trash.

I confused my kids for year with Arlo.

Littering. (and they ALL moved away)

And creating a public nuisance (and they ALL moved back and we had a grand old time there on the Group W bench)

“Prudent” per the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.: Wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense. 2. Careful in regard to one’s own interests; provident. 3. Careful about one’s conduct; circumspect.
Bolton thinks that attacking Iran is “prudent”?

Rut ro, what have I started!

Garcia may have a spot reserved for him on the Group Dubya Bench, right next to Yoo, Addington, Cheney, Chertoff, . . .

It’s a very, very big bench, reserved for law-stabbers, Constitution-rapers, and all kinds of other mean, nasty folks.

Miller’s Analogies Test question:

“John Bolton is to diplomacy as Michael Bolton is to ________________.”

Alice’s Restaurant. I love that movie.

The comic relief? Music to soothe the savage breast?

FunnyD
Feeling a bit savage this am. Must. Not. Start. Day. at. FDL.

I’m not in for nuttin’, sir.

That’s not what I came here for, I came to talk about the draft.

Baroque counterpoint.

I have one of those always-awake editors, too…

“…go ahead and take her to indict her and then prove it…”

/editor hat

LP what if anything can be done about this now? Or do we have to wait until we get a Dem for Prez?

707 man! Good one.
Thanks for the laugh!

FunnyD

Aren’t we sorta dating ourselves? Alice’s Restaurant is dog chow for hippies.

bolton is probably the biggest of the pnac morons, amazing he gets any air time without being laughed out of the room

Ya’ll know this Arlo song?

To quote another song from that era, if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with…

You too?
Glad I’m not alone. Missed that one though.

I’m not being snotty. I love the writing here. Just want it to be as immaculate as possible: takes away one more excuse for the unconvinced to blow us off.

FunnyD

I just do not understand why ANYONE with two brain cells talks to this guy other than if they want something provocative. Other than his affiliation with the right wing, what makes this guy any sort of expert. They’d be better talking to Shirley Temple Black.

I’m still waiting for Bobby to tell me if I got the right answer…

Yeah, but I missed it the first time. Can’t we have just a little fun? Can I join “Hippies: the Next Generation?”
Oh, wait. Nemmermine. Don’t trust me. I’m over 30.

FunnyD

I just do not understand why ANYONE with two brain cells talks to this guy other than if they want something provocative

because cheney tells them to

There are no singularly right answers here, LOL!

One I think is more appropiate: “Paranoia stikes deep” Can’t remember the title, but it surfaces in my thoughts more and more often.

But BCs is so brilliant, none of the rest of us want to play. If I’d been thinking better, I’d have filled in the blank with “Bach’s B Minor Mass” which is what BC said in fewer words.

FunnyD

So a guy named Louis is working in a plumbing supply warehouse. Steps on a banana peel and in falling, accidentally pushes a button that sends out delivery trucks full of lavatories.

the short version:

Lou slips, ships sinks.

But I didn’t intend to kill the game…

It was intended as a play on ‘dating ourselves’, not as summarizing the (sad) state of our DoJ…

In a normal world? You get yelled at by your boss.

No, in a normal world, you would never violate it in the first place. USAO’s used to be places of integrity and honor where people would never dream of just willfully violating a rule.

Hey loosehead!

For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield (Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Jim Messina, Richie Furay and a couple of others)

Buffalo Springfield, For What it’s Worth

Any possibility of an inquiry/investigation by the state bar association?

US Attorney Garcia in SDNY and O’Brien (Jerry Lewis non-investigation) in LA, we are seeing that even USAs with prosecutorial experience are making Republican friendly decisions. The corruption and politicization of the DOJ under Ashcroft, Gonzales, and now Mukasey go to the bone.

The difference betwen the way Pat’s office twist themselves into pretzels to observe these rules to the umteenth degree as contrasted with the degradation of best practices in the rest of DOJ is really a study in contrasts.

It really does show the difference that the leadership can make.

Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth

Move On should do a major ad (like Betrayus) on this issue. It has to stop. Bet Siegleman would let them use his picture…

LHP, isn’t the prosecutor responsible for this in some way?

Dayum, you’re quick, the YouTube and the names, thanks.

Excepting Alice.

Right now, today, all we can do is call “bullshit” and point out that Garcia’s not playin’ by the rules. This is no different than my Don Quixote-like series on John Yoo’s torture memos.

You make a stink, you don’t acquiecse by silence. You call an ugly/unethical/low act for what it is. You hold the low actor up to ridicule and scorn.

If he’s allowing these leaks b/c he thinks it will further his career, than we have to do our best to make it backfire, so there will be no profit in it for him. If he won’t do the right thing because it is the right thing, maybe we can shame him into doing the right thing to preserve his own future career?

Send a big photo of Mike Nifong to the SDNY.

Thank you! I knew I knew that from somewhere and it was beginning to drive me crazy!

Music.

Buffalo Springfield was one of the greatest collections of talent in one band, think of all the other great bands that BF alumni went on to found!

this one’s for hoopster BobbyG:

Public Enemy - He Got Game (set to the tune of For What it’s Worth)…with cameo by Stephen Stills

I don’t know, you mean like the Nifong thing?

I think the most likely place there would be ramifications would be in any future confirmation hearings he might have. Ya’ know, like if he wants to be a federal judge. I could see Sen Whitehouse having a little fun at such a hearing.

For What It’s Worth…

Live Alice, circa 85

Perhaps a letter from a Senator on the Judiciary Cttee to Mukasey asking if this is an example of how he runs his dept? Perhaps many letters/emails from attys nationwide? Anything?

Uh, yeah. It would be VERY unusual for the FBI to leak against the wishes of the USA, and if they did, there would be war inside DOJ. DOn’t forget the FBI is a sub agency of DOJ.

I don’t see this happening on two different cases unless Garcia is cool with it happening. If he was opposed to the leak, massively intimidating memos would have gone around the office after the Spitzer leak. there might have been mandatory ethics training on the topic. There would have been all manner of staff meetings on it and the people who work for him would have known it would not be tolerated.

LHP - do I have the process right –
Arrest
Indict
Grand Jury
Trial
Conviction
Incarceration

Gottcha if he ever wants to get appointed somewhere that needs Senate approval we hope that your around to remind us of this post and then we turn up the heat,…but until then all we can do is post here and break out the Voudoo dolls.

I think the comment about using the power of the prosecutor cautiously was Fitz having internalized the teachings of an earlier Attorney General, Nuremberg Prosecutor and Supreme Court Justice, Robert H. Jackson. From his April 1, 1940, speech as Attorney General, a post he had then held for three months:

One of the greatest difficulties of the position of prosecutor is that he must pick his cases….What every prosecutor is practically required to do is to select the cases for prosecution and to select those in which the offense is the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain.

If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted….[A] prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case,…it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm — in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself.

Emphasis added. The whole speech is well worth a read:
http://www.roberthjackson.org/Man/theman2-7-6-1/

Wasn’t thinking of any specific person, but rather whether the NY State Bar Association thinks this reflects well on their integrity? Some kind of statement, ethics inquiry, anything?

Perhaps a letter from a Senator on the Judiciary Cttee to Mukasey asking if this is an example of how he runs his dept? Perhaps many letters/emails from attys nationwide? Anything?

I like that idea. Brava

Why does this remind me of George Tenet?

Arrest
Indict
Grand Jury
Trial
Conviction
Incarceration

Sometimes indictment comes before arrest. Also, sometimes a defendant is not “arrested”, but is allowed to surrender themselves at the courthouse. But in general, you have it right.

I like that hall him up to Congress and ask him if thats the way he runs things, ask him what if any punishment he is giving that dweeb.

Especially given the emerging “pattern of conduct.” Egregious.

[Sorry, good eg!]

Now that justice is a synonym for political prosecution, rather than law and order, we will likely see more.
Since the justice system has caused it’s own collapse, what will rise in it’s place? When in the course of human events…..

You mean like:
Crosby, Still,s Nash, and Young
Poco
Souther, Hillman, Furay Band
Loggins and Messina
Manassas

And I know I’m probably missing a few.

Wow that spells out the dangers…reminds me of justice in Russia. And perhaps Alabama and other places here.

i love that speech. I’ve done a couple posts that included references to it. It really is the gold standard for how a prosecutor should conduct his/her office.

Thanks very much eoh.

A comic, an opera singer, a country singer and a newscaster were so impressed that they formed their own band:

Cosby, Sills, Cash and Chung.

Reform, setting right, is possible, in fact necessary to restore integrity. Last night’s 60 Minutes had a powerful expose on the past bad acts of the Dallas DA which led to people being wrongly incarcerated for decades.

Highly recommend viewing.

The NY State Bar Association does not do its own attorney discpline. In NY, Bar Assoc. are clubs. Attorney Discipline is done by the Judicial branch, by the courts themselves. The courts admit you to practice before them, they can kick you out too. Each judicial department has its own attorney discipline staff.

Then all the more reason to bring voice to this to the Senate Judiciary Cttee and to Mukasey. After all, this was his own Court, wasn’t it? Is he okay with being mocked by the bad acts of current underlings and those over whom he once presided? Just asking.

I guess that makes the CheneyBushRove Justice Department an example of Gresham’s Law.

bwa-ha, bwa-ha, bwa-hahahaha!

You’re smokin’ today, BC! Thanks for the chuckles.

FunnyD

Well, I don’t know about that, but here’s a case where the person is suing the prosecutor’s SUPERVISOR for negligence.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/126125.html

dday has a companion piece up over at digby drawing from the Don Siegelman case.

The Republicans have really been holding hostage and gang-raping Lady Justice during BushCo.

I literally can’t help it. Spelling or grammar glitches or typos literally jump off the page at me when I’m only reading for content. Sometimes it’s a useful skill, sometimes it just annoys people. Where I work (a university IT organization) I’m the resident wordsmith.

Great post and thread, thanks lhp.

So, you see how the leak of the Spitzer prostitution investigation does NOT fit the standard for pre-indictment release of information, right?
So I haven’t read the whole post yet. But to the above, yes, yes yes.
Well, it seems that Garcia’s shop is at it again.
LHP what do you make of all this? Why are the Rethugs doing this now, when the public is already suspicious of DOJ-related partisanb malarkey?
I don’t see this happening on two different cases unless Garcia is cool with it happening. If he was opposed to the leak, massively intimidating memos would have gone around the office after the Spitzer leak. there might have been mandatory ethics training on the topic. There would have been all manner of staff meetings on it and the people who work for him would have known it would not be tolerated.
Or maybe they patted each other on the back?

As an aside. Congratulations to Jane on roasting McCain on ABC with Sugar Momma Express. Phrases like that stick in the public’s mind. It should be used regularly, so that it becomes conventional wisdom.

I must admit that this is no longer shocking to me. In fact, I have a hard time considering these types of tactics even news! Independent Prosecutor Ken Starr sharpened his teeth by leaking things that weren’t the public’s business to the press for the purpose of trying his case in the press rather than in a court of law! We had not seen this from Archibald Cox or Leon Jaworski like we saw it with Starr. He had absolutely no professional integrity to my way of thinking, and yet now, isn’t he teaching in a law school? Isn’t that law school held in high esteem? Then people wonder how the profession gets such a bad rep. Unfortunately, those that publicize stuff that is not meant for public consumption may be rare, but the fact that they are so vocal magnifies the effect, and makes people think that all prosecutors and attorneys are devoid of integrity.

I’m a little surprised that you didn’t address the case of the new Ohio AG as it is written up in TPM. Check it out if you want to get really disgusted! You can find it at TPM under the name Muck Perpetual Motion Machine. (Sorry, I tried to make it a link and that returned an error message 404 on a separate FDL page. Then I tried to cut and paste the url, but it also got me only another FDL page with error message 404, so you’ll have to find the article yourselves, but it’s about a Dem. We have some work to do in our own party!)

Hell, they did this to the Clintons in the 1990s all the damned time. The OIC leaked like sieves, but Starr’s overseers were his Federalist Society buddies Sentelle and Silberman, so they faced no penalties for this.