“Business” as usual. Money talks. Honour/integrity walks.

I’d say we’ve had more than enough of the people in charge violating the written rules over the last 8 years to last for a long long time.

Citizen looseheadprop:

Are you certain that he actually violated the written rules and the Thompson memo or did he successfully parse around them in order to facilitate the ends he wanted. It seems that MAYBE he has gone right up to whatever lines there are like many very adroit attornies do but it would surprise me if he didn’t provide himself a parachute argument.

They can always argue around the intent of the law. It’s the spirit of the law where they run into problems parsing.

P.S. Even if Holder is not in violation of the written rules and the memo of instruction in these cases, his proximity to malpractice would be enough to scrutinize his appointment…but I jest wanna know that when you accuse someone of actually goin’ over the line in your profession you are without doubt because I and a lot of us common folks here at FDL rely on your analysis.

Citizen SouthernDragon:

But as “progressives” and believers in rule of law and due process we have an obligation to state clearly whether we are arguing that someone has violated the “spirit” or the written letter of the law or practice. In this case the distinction has a real difference to whomever is bein’ accused.

any chance he doesn’t survive confirmation?

I would have no problem with Holder breaking the rules to put George Bush and his Regime behind bars.

Citizen Blub:

I think he will be confirmed but it will cost Obama a lot of political capital to folks to whom he can’t afford to be indebted (like Arlen Specter).

I wonder how many right wingers will read this post and then pass it on to their neocon Senators to look into when the time comes? I bet a lot. One thing I don’t like is us giving the right wing any fuel for their democratic-hating-fire! They are obstructionists and I think it would be better if we let the yahoos of the right wing do their own homework rather than we do it for them. Because we know how lazy they really are. ;-)

Citizen KaytnMaine:

“I would have no problem with Holder braking the rules to put George Bush and his regime behind bars.”

I would and that is why the question of whether Holder violated the letter or the spirit of laws or practice is so important. If he did what most very accomplished lawyers do in serving their clients within the letter of the law or practice in the cases discussed, then let ‘im go apply the letter of the law to put these bastards away. That’s the way the system is s’posed ta work and it hasn’t worked that way for the good guys in the recent past…

Have been watching video of the shoe toss incident.
I rate the tosser highly on velocity and follow through- but he fails to “lead” his target adequately….Lower and lefter and he would have thrown a strike

Citizen KaytnMaine:

Your concern about the use of arguments like this to torpedo Holder’s nomination bothers me too.

And then he’d have gotten 30 years instead of 15.

My point exactly.

Well, the spirit of Americans want George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their Oil Cartel behind bars. See? LOL

Then, he’d be D.E.A.D They’ve already tortured the guy to within an inch of his life in the US prison camp at the Baghdad airport “facility”.
You should have heard the tr0lls on HuffPo screaming about the “sanctity” of the office of POTUS.

Lighten up, please. I’m not torpedoing anything. That said, we Democrats torpedo ourselves constantly and are very good at it. But! From what we’ve witnessed so far is the more we hem and haw about what we want, the more Barack goes in the opposite direction. Nice, huh? We can’t win. LOL

He hasn’t gotten anything yet, that I’ve seen. Al-Zaidi made his first court appearance earlier today.

Arlen and the other SJC Republics upped that ante today

They requested Elian Gonzales Files

lhp – linked this to you earlier

Umm, not that Norske can’t defend himself, but I think he was agreeing with you.

Obama is basically re-installing the Establishment in government, warts and all. These are people who do not disagree with Bush fundamentally but merely think he went too far or poorly executed some of his policies.

You’re right. The 15 years is possible sentence.

Okay, now that I reread it using a different voice in my head (LOL), I can see where I made the mistake. Sorry Norske if you were actually agreeing with me!

Sometimes our intent gets lost online.

Dana Perino was reported as saying today that Bush has faith in Iraqi justice. That is a statement that is ambiguous on so many levels.

Hey, I stand in constant need of people interpreting me to myself, as you all have discovered here. *g*

Dana Perino was reported as saying today that Bush has faith in Iraqi justice. That is a statement that is ambiguous asinine on so many levels.

Fixed it for ya, Hugh.

That just gave me a chill.

This is, and has been, my greatest fear.

New SecAG = full speed ahead with the ethanol sham, more farm subsidies, more Frankenfood

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I’m so glad that Arlen Specter is a man of his word.

it’ll give the kids over at Free Republic something to do in btw turns at World of Warcraft

New post

I think it was a mistake to appoint ANYONE who has served in a previous administration to the new one at cabinet level.

ALL of them were part of the growing and gathering problems that culminated in the W fiascos.

There are more than enough intelligent and motivated and ethical and non comprmised people who could serve in these posts.

Obi – BAD MOVES -that’s not a change we can believe in. It’s more of the same.

Holder is a member in good standing of the oligarchy and the first and only rule of the oligarchy is do not do anything to harm the oligarchy. One can add Obama’s selection of Colorado’s Salazar to the Dept. of the Interior to the list of oligarchs. Meet the new bosses, pretty much the same as the old bosses, but with a smiley face.

When the patterns of light, colors and textures are integrated together that is what makes up the final picture. And many final pictures also contain optical illusions that are never seen until pointed out by the astute observer.

That is precisely the problem.

By violating the rules to achieve a desired result – be it Republicans breaking the laws against torture or warrantless wiretapping on the one hand, or Democrats just throwing Bush and Cheney in some place where the sun never shines – the violators become equally wrong, and commit the same wrongs.

Either we show ourselves better than the Rethugs who wreaked such havoc, or we’d better get ready for worse.

Because if there is one thing history teaches, it is that once the line dividing obeying law from obeying force is crossed in the direction of force, the thuggiest characters always win. Because beyond that line, there is no limit.

The Republicans seem to be putting up a fight about Holder’s nomination. What is it that they object to?

OT but fodder for future blogs… what has $1.48/gallon of unleaded done to the Iranian economy?

I’ve been waiting for over a month for comments on this. Aren’t these folks in deep doodoo??!! OPEC announces cut-backs is skimming the surface for sure.

Certainly in the case of the Rich pardon, he not only did not consult with the relevant US attorney’s office, he deliberetly kept it from them until after it was accomplished. There are very damning emails inthe public sphere.

I would have a great problem with him breaking the rules to put Shrub and Darth in the can.

We are either a nation of laws, or we are a notion of men. If the latter, no one is safe, ever.

I don’t know that the GOP actually objects to Holder, after all, he has proven himself to be a consummate corporate lackey. I think they are going after him because he is one of the few Obama picks who has some ugly stinky baggage and they want to rob Obama of as much political capital as possible.

If Holder were a more honorable person, might he not have withdrawn his name by now to save Obama that fight?

And Norske, conceding you point, solely for the sake of argument,, is “hasn’t been disbarred or found guilty of malpractice” really the bar we want to set for our Attorney General?

My whole point with Holder has always been twofold. 1) he will caost Obama needless loss of political capital, and 2) we can do so much better