Alberto: hero of the right?

“Gimmie a break, XL. Even the majority of the Repubs want this tool gone.”

“Hey XL - You're a freaking racist moron.”

“Ad in the Washington Post today

AN OPEN LETTER TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES

May 15, 2007

Dear Attorney General Gonzales:

Twenty-five years ago we, like you, graduated from Harvard Law School. While we arrived via many different paths and held many different views, we were united in our deep respect for the Constitution and the rights it guaranteed. As members of the post-Watergate generation who chose careers in law, we understood the strong connection between our liberties as Americans and the adherence of public officials to the law of the land. We knew that the choice to abide by the law was even more critical when public officials were tempted to take legal shortcuts. Nowhere were we taught that the ends justified the means, or that freedoms for which Americans had fought and died should be set aside when inconvenient or challenging. To the contrary: our most precious freedoms, we learned, need defending most in times of crisis.

So it has been with dismay that we have watched your cavalier handling of our freedoms time and again. When it has been important that legal boundaries hold unbridled government power in check, you have instead used pretextual rationales and strained readings to justify an ever-expanding executive authority. Witness your White House memos sweeping aside the Geneva Conventions to justify torture, endangering our own servicemen and women; witness your advice to the President effectively reading Habeas Corpus out of our constitutional protections; witness your support of presidential statements claiming inherent power to wiretap American citizens without warrants (and the Administration’s stepped-up wiretapping campaign, taking advantage of those statements, which continues on your watch to this day); and witness your dismissive explanation of the troubling firings of numerous U.S. Attorneys, and their replacement with others more “loyal” to the President’s politics, as merely “an overblown personnel matter.” In these and other actions, we see a pattern. As a recent editorial put it, your approach has come to symbolize “disdain for the separation of powers, civil liberties and the rule of law.”

As lawyers, and as a matter of principle, we can no longer be silent about this Administration’s consistent disdain for the liberties we hold dear. Your failure to stand for the rule of law, particularly when faced with a President who makes the aggrandized claim of being a unitary executive, takes this country down a dangerous path.

Your country and your President are in dire need of an attorney who will do the tough job of providing independent counsel, especially when the advice runs counter to political expediency. Now more than ever, our country needs a President, and an Attorney General, who remember the apt observation attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” We call on you and the President to relent from this reckless path, and begin to restore respect for the rule of law we all learned to love many years ago.

Yours truly,
Signatures

THE SIGNATORIES ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL CLASS OF 1982

LINKYPOO
last edited: 5/16/07 11:23:36 AM”

“Yeah, Gonazales is a real class act.

"See! It was the deputy!!!"”

“Silly Libbies”

“Me too, silly libbies.”

“LOL...if they had spent even a smidgen of this effort investigating, TravelGATE, FileGate, MonicaGate, etc etc....Hillary probably would not...no wait libbies will vote for criminals regardless.”

“yes, that Ben Franklin was such a silly libbie.

good to know the new breed of conservatives support this general disdain for the separation of powers, civil liberties and the rule of law. dumb little things like spying on US citizens by the government, suspending Habeas Corpus, wiretapping without warrants, firing for political reasons... only a silly libbie would care about that. or maybe a Lincoln, Goldwater or a Reagan?”

““LOL...if they had spent even a smidgen of this effort investigating, TravelGATE, FileGate, MonicaGate, etc etc....Hillary probably would not...no wait libbies will vote for criminals regardless.”
XL400236

Ken Starr spent years investigating it all. Slick was impeached, tried, and was not convicted. If the darling prosecutor of the right couldn't come up with charges that stick, how could a bunch of dumb ass silly libbies on Trail Talk do any better. Or a loud mouth neocon, for that matter. If you have evidence man, file charges. Go for it.”

“LOL Geo...okay this is going to be hard for you to take but he PLED guilty...see you don't need a trial if the accused plea bargains (LOL). Silly Libbie, law is for reality.

UM Judge Starr (a great guy by the way) got over a dozen convictions. If you want I will list them. They were not for "alleged" feel good crap that we see now they were for crimes that cost the American Taxpayer (all of us except Marky mark...whose wife pays the taxes) MILLIONS, watched as thousands of Average Americans watched their life savings disappear and a crime of violence against a woman whom the Libbies called a sleeze for letting herself be raped.”

“Umm, he pled guilty to lying about a blow job from a willing partner who was of legal age and that makes him an arch criminal how?”

“NO SIR, President Clinton pled guilty to lying to a Grand Jury. (his terminology was using misleading testimony). His lie was in order to prevent another American Citizen from getting her Consitutional Right to a Fair Trail. In this Case Paula Jones.

The fact that the President has the only oath contained in the Constitution, and it is to protect the Constitution kinda blows over people's heads. It wasn't about sex it is the same thing as if you are charged by a Police Officer (member of the executive branch) with some crime on basically "circumstantial evidence".

In court the Police Officer in a He said She said case has the greater veracity becuase of his badge and the inherent respect.

If you were facing a trial and found out your accuser was doinking a little trailer trash and wanted to use this to cast doubt on his veracity...should you have a right?”

“No one besides me saw Goodling testify yesterday? Jeff Toobin was pretty rough on her.... said she was a fifth-rate lawyer from a seventh-rate law school (Pat Roberts has a Law School??) and there was No Way she should be in that job.



The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom
Special to BRADBLOG
by Greg Palast

This Monica revealed something hotter — much hotter — than a stained blue dress. In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One….And the Committee members didn’t even know it.

Goodling testified that Gonzales’ Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin’s “involvement in ‘caging’ voters” in 2004.

Huh?? Tim Griffin? “Caging”???

The perplexed committee members hadn’t a clue — and asked no substantive questions about it thereafter. Karl Rove is still smiling. If the members had gotten the clue, and asked the right questions, they would have found “the keys to the kingdom,” they thought they were looking for. They dangled right in front of their perplexed faces.

The keys: the missing emails — and missing link — that could send Griffin and his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.

Kingdom enough for ya?

But what’s ‘caging’ and why is it such a dreadful secret that lawyer Sampson put his license to practice and his freedom on the line to cover Tim Griffin’s involvement in it? Because it’s a felony. And a big one.

Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet - except the USA - only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.

Here’s how caging worked, and along with Griffin’s thoughtful emails themselves you’ll understand it all in no time.

The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked “Do not forward” to voters’ homes. Letters returned (”caged”) were used as evidence to block these voters’ right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and — you got to love this — American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.

Why weren’t these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation — and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission Accomplished.

How do I know? I have the caging lists…

I have them because they are attached to the emails Rove insists can’t be found. I have the emails. 500 of them — sent to our team at BBC after the Rove-bots accidentally sent them to a web domain owned by our friend John Wooden.

Here’s what you need to know — and the Committee would have discovered, if only they’d asked:

1. ‘Caging’ voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.

2. Griffin wasn’t “involved” in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin, Rove’s right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge campaign. How do I know? It’s in the email I got. Thanks. And it’s posted below.

3. On December 7, 2006, the ragin’, cagin’ Griffin was named, on Rove’s personal demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became prosecutor.

The committee was perplexed about Monica’s panicked admission and accusations about the caging list because the US press never covered it. That’s because, as Griffin wrote to Goodling in yet another email (dated February 6 of this year, and also posted below), their caging operation only made the news on BBC London: busted open, Griffin #&%!$ed, by that “British reporter,” Greg Palast.

There’s no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet — except the USA — only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.

And now, not bothering to understand the astonishing revelation in Goodling’s confessional, they are missing the real story behind the firing of the US attorneys. It’s not about removing prosecutors disloyal to Bush, it’s about replacing those who refused to aid the theft of the vote in 2004 with those prepared to burgle it again in 2008.

Now that they have the keys, let’s see if they can put them in the right door. The clock is ticking ladies and gents…


***************
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone WILD. For more info, or to hear Brad Friedman, Ed Asner and other troublemakers read from Armed Madhouse, go to www.GregPalast.com



I think Mr. Palast would be more than happy to testify before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and bring along his collection of Rove emails.”

“

*snicker*”

“As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070902065_pf.html”

“Its OK violin. Think of all the domestic terrorists they caugth. The ends justify the means, no?”

“LOL..when the first terrorist action took place in 1993....we did..DIDDLY in 2001 we paid (actually 3000 people paid) the price for that silliness....now lets discuss REAL rights violations...you know internment camps...lets see who did this??? On the tip of my tongue......”

“Lessee, dialed up on the ol Respons-O-Meter, oh yes ... number 18.”

“So were any of these infractions related to the Patriot act or were they criminal investigations?”

“Good question bacpac. The Patriot Act vastly expanded the use of the NSL's mentioned in the article, but there are no specifics to determine if those abused were issued as a result of the Patriot Act.”

“...and fo the history books...that administration set up CAMPS where citizens were interred....some of these citizens went on to serve in the war in Italy (a country that never attacked us but was never the less invaded)

They would end up winning 18,000 decorations (the most decorated unit for its size in the US ARMED FORCES

21 Medals of Honor (the first awarded posthumously to PFC Sadao Munemori, Company A, 100th Battalion, for action near Seravezza, Italy, on April 5, 1945; the others upgraded from other awards in June 2000)
52 Distinguished Service Crosses (including 19 Distinguished Service Crosses which were upgraded to Medals of Honor in June 2000)
1 Distinguished Service Medal
560 Silver Stars (plus 28 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award)
22 Legion of Merit Medals
15 Soldier’s Medals
4,000 Bronze Stars (plus 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters for a second award; one Bronze Star was upgraded to a Medal of Honor in June 2000)
9,486 Purple Hearts

Okay can someone give me a comparable list of Islamic or suspect Americans we have interred without cause? Just want to check thier service to the country...”

“Did Bert have a clue what his people were doing? Does he have a clue to this day?”

“
Anybody catch Albert on C-SPAN yesterday?  It was all Specter could do not to call him a flat out liar.


Gonzales may have revealed classified meeting, committed perjury

After finishing up his latest round of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales may have more than his credibility to lose. Wednesday's (paid-restricted) Roll Call reports the AG "may have put himself in legal jeopardy" as senators from both parties cast doubt on the veracity of his testimony.

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) put it bluntly: "I do not find your testimony credible." He reminded Gonzales that the entire committee would review his testimony, in an apparent threat of legal consequences for lying to Congress.

”

“did you see the report yesterday that shows the specific ways that several administration officials may have broken the law during the firings of U.S. attorneys? it says senior white house and justice dept. staff obstructed justice and violated federal laws that protect civil service employees, prohibit political retaliation against government officials and cover presidential records.

the probe turned up evidence that the U.S. attorneys were improperly selected for firing because of their handling of vote fraud allegations and other cases that could affect close elections. also says that Alberto Gonzales and aides "appear to have made false or misleading statements to Congress, many of which sought to minimize the role of White House personnel."

the memorandum asserts repeatedly that Karl Rove was the first administration official to bring up the idea of firing U.S. attorneys shortly after the 2004 election -- an assertion the White House has repeatedly said is not true.”

“I'm just waiting for them to follow up on the voter caging lists Greg Palast has been reporting on.  Rove's little buddy Tim Griffin could be indicted for a few thousand felonies.

Griffin was picked for one of those suddenly vacant US Atty slots, but it didn't last long.

Griffin's name popped up again recently --- he was being considered for a job with Fred Thompson's campaign.... ha!”

“That hearing is so bad,' Faux Noise' labeled Arlen Specter as a democrate behind his name(Pa-D).”

“that happens to anyone not toeing the wingnut party line”

“Imagine backpacking with Alberto,how much would you have to carry-220 lbs?”

“Silly Libbies keep throwing meaningless crap on the walls hopeing something anything will stick. LOL”

“Clinton should have designated Monica Lewinski a "presidential aide".”

“So another day in the meaningless witch hunting in Congress. Nothing will come of this, because it is not a crime to fire political appointees.”

“ALL RIGHT...here we go again

TITLE 28 > PART II > CHAPTER 35 > § 541

§ 541. United States attorneys

(a) The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney for each judicial district.
(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.
(c) Each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President.


Any Questions.....this is a moot case, just like the Plame Case...no crime, no foul, President's Priviledge.”

“Thanks for the ruling, yer on 'er.”

“Libbies are so silly.”

“I guess its not catching on..its THE LAW guys...part of the Constitution that is still valid.

TITLE 28 > PART II > CHAPTER 35 > § 541

§ 541. United States attorneys

(a) The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney for each judicial district.
(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.
(c) Each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President.”

“Ole Rovey got subpoenaed (man, that is a hard word to spell)...”

“How can you tell when the wingnuts are lying?

The keyboard is clicking.”

“DUI spaceshuttle- Al Gonzales uses my SS# to get att.general job- Libbies are even sillier when right- the word supoenaed does not a 'v' in the middle like 'Rover'- sunny, 94*F, 7 knots WSW, Beer 44*F.”

“Guy down the street bought a used Rove Ranger.”

“Congress. Doing the people's business.

Huh?

How about some border security and a tax break?”

“
Tonight
(Friday July 27)

Greg Palast appears on 'NOW' with David Brancaccio to report the story first broadcast for Britain's BBC Newsnight, the scheme to attack voters of color - the 'Blue' ones.

Palast lays out the latest evidence never before televised.

8:30pm Eastern.
Check local listings.



It's about time.  This story has been floating around for months and the networks haven't picked it up --- Tim Griffin even joked about it in the misdirected emails.

So much for that Liberal Media crap.”

“LOL...same useless charge...lets remember

I guess its not catching on..its THE LAW guys...part of the Constitution that is still valid.

TITLE 28 > PART II > CHAPTER 35 > § 541

§ 541. United States attorneys

(a) The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney for each judicial district.
(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.
(c) Each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President.””

“Get to work, SLACKASS.”

“Silly Libbie.”

“Is that like that healthy duck,'ASSSLACK"!!!”

“LOL>..been working all night there Tiltypoo...but then I have a job...(LOL)”

“Will Paul Clement to appoint a special prosecutor?  Will Rove's subpoena come gift-wrapped?  What role did our resident Schutzstaffel play in the Coast Guard ship fiasco? VBG   Will XL quit porking the taxpayers and get off his ass? (LOL)


Stay Tuned ------
last edited: 7/27/07 6:50:11 AM”

“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003808186_gonzales27.html

FBI chief contradicts Gonzales' testimony

By Laurie Kellman and Lara Jakes Jordan
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller contradicted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sworn testimony and Senate Democrats requested a perjury investigation Thursday in a fresh barrage against President Bush's embattled longtime friend and aide.

In a third blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, in connection with its investigation of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, including John McKay of Seattle.”