Get this.Harriet Miers was told by President Bush to not show up in response to a Congressional subpoena. She obeyed, like the good little puppy she is. Even though she was ordered to do this by her master, she is legally in contempt of Congress and should be prosecuted accordingly.The House Judiciary Committee has already requested that Miers be held in contempt, but in order for the case to continue, the grand jury must be convened by the DC US Attorney.The DC US Attorney is Jeffrey Taylor, who is refusing to move forward to convene the grand jury.Jeffrey Taylor is a former counsil to Alberto Gonzales. His name was one of those kicked around to replace Carol Lam of San Diego after their purge, who was likely fired because of her investigations of Republicans such as Duke Cunningham. However, before Carol Lam could be canned, Gonzales and friends granted Jeffrey Taylor the DC US Attorney position. His is an interim appointment, which has not been confirmed by the Senate, because of th
Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) opens the Alberto Gonzales hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on April 19, 2007. Patrick Leahy addresses the crowd about the purpose of the hearings. Leahy stats that the purpose of the meetings is to determine the reasons of the dismissals of the eight U.S. attorneys and to determine if the firings were political or not. "If the White House did nothing wrong than prove it. If nothing to hide then the White House should stop hiding it. Quit claiming the emails cannot be produced. ...Show us the documents," Leahy said. Senator Kohl (D-Wisconsin) questions Gonzales about possible voter fraud in Wisconsin and why that U.S. attorney was not fired for not prosecuting those cases. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) questions Gonzales about recess appointments of U.S. attorneys and Patriot Act revisions.
As James Madison famously said, "if men were angels, no government would be necessary," (Federalist #51). The founding father also said, in Federalist #10, that "No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity." And to think Madison wrote all this before the discovery of modern genetics and the advent of evolutionary biology.Why are those two disciplines relevant? Unless you are a creationist, you must acknowledge that mankind is the result of billions of years of evolution. And the singular quality of all those billions and billions and billions of creatures that stayed alive long enough to reproduce is selfishness--the biological imperative to wrest from the environment the resources necessary for survival. That imperative is still with us today to some degree. Certainly the selfish impulse varies from individual to individual (just as other traits vary genetically from individual to
Senator Patrick Leahy in the Capital. Leahy is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is seeking answers from the administration on the the issue of the attorney firings. Photo by REUTERS. President Bush said on Tuesday he would not let his top aides testify under oath over the dismissal of United States attorneys. Bush also placed a call in the morning to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to issue his support to the man who has been under intense fire by members of both parties to resign or be replaced because of his handling of the firings. President Bush said he would only allow his top aides to be interviewed privately by members of congress and not under oath. “We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants,” Bush said. Bush’s reason for not wanting to have his aides called before congress was that he did not want the people working for him to have to worry about the kind of advice they give him bcause they might be hau
I am always impressed when someone has the balls to be honest like this. ~RJH Times article link Where Credit Is DuePosted by Jay CarneyTwelve days ago, after David Iglesias went public, I said that if there turned out to be a broad conspiracy behind the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, "I will take my hat off to Marshall and others in the blogosphere and congratulate them for having been right in their suspicions about this story from the beginning."My hat is off. Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings, and who dug around and kept writing about them while Iglesias decided whether to talk to the press or go quietly on to his next job, deserve tremendous credit.When this story first surfaced, I thought the Bush White House and Justice Department were guilty of poorly executed acts of crass political patronage. I called some Democrats on the Hill; they were "
I guess that I shouldn't really be surprised should I? I hear the President talking all the time about securing our borders and enforcing immigration laws and I know he's lying straight to our faces. Why should I expect anything different on any subject now? I can't believe how much I supported this administration in the past. I feel like such a fool now. I wonder where this and the travesty involving ex Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean are going to lead? Is it going to turn out that Mexico was pulling Bush's strings on immigration all along? Nothing shocks me anymore.  ~RJH Washington Post story link Firings Had Genesis in White HouseEx-Counsel Miers First Suggested Dismissing Prosecutors 2 Years Ago, Documents ShowBy Dan Eggen and John SolomonWashington Post Staff WritersTuesday, March 13, 2007; A01The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors last
While it is entirely normal for an administration to replace en-masse political appointees in the beginning of a term it's unusual to do so mid term like this. And it is of course the White House's prerogative to do so. Initially the White House said it was strictly routine turnover but then later "clarified" that saying that while they had no direct inout they had replaced: "prosecutors they believed were not doing enough to carry out President Bush's policies on immigration, firearms and other issues". I think it's fair to assume that they are dumping the people that they think haven't embraced the Presidents open borders policy as enthusiastically as they wished. And they did admit that one was a simple political appointee that is a friend of the President. The allegations by US Attorney David Iglesias are that he was fired because he hadn't pushed for investigations against two Democrats as forcefully as two New unnamed Mexico legislators had requested
