House, Senate aides quiz USA Mary Beth "Chong's Bongs" Buchanan on USA firings

[L. Coyote]

House, Senate aides quiz Buchanan on firings
Saturday, June 16, 2007
By Jerome L. Sherman and Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07167/794643-85.stm

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan yesterday faced six hours of questions from congressional staffers in the ongoing probe into last year's controversial firings of nine other U.S. attorneys from across the country.

Her lawyer, Roscoe C. Howard Jr., said she was "absolutely not involved" in the firings, although she served as director of the U.S. Justice Department's Executive Office for United States Attorneys from June 2004 to June 2005, part of the time period under consideration by investigators.

Ms. Buchanan was questioned by Democratic and Republican staffers from both the House and Senate Judiciary committees in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

"I think it's a little premature to go into the actual substance of it," Mr. Howard said after the closed-door meeting. ....

[MADem]

1. Arlen isn't ready to throw her under the bus, so Tommy's glee will have to wait a while

Congressional staffers made a transcript, but they likely won't release it publicly in the near future because their investigation is continuing. On Wednesday, both the House and the Senate Judiciary committees issued subpoenas to former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and its former political director, Sara M. Taylor.

A spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee declined to comment on Ms. Buchanan's interview yesterday.

Ms. Buchanan has solid support from at least one powerful congressional Republican. Mr. Specter, the ranking GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week said she had "acted properly" throughout the process.

He also called her an important witness.

[L. Coyote]

7. There are real questions about her politizations too.

And Specter might not be the best ally to have these days. Have you looked at his ethics record and his revolving door staff?

[MADem]

8. The Senate is terribly collegial, and slow (the cooling saucer, as I think Jefferson called it)

And Arlen is still ranking on Judiciary, even with his ethical challenges. We're not going to treat the minority ranking members with the same shitty attitude that they gave us. It's a clever way of shaming them by being civil, it sure takes the wind out of their sails, at any rate.

That said, this story certainly isn't over. She certainly was, as you noted, a political animal, to the point where she attracted undue attention because of it. When her fellow attorneys and prosecutors feel compelled to write editorials on how much she sucks, well, that is significant! http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07079/770820-109.stm

This woman may well have 'Goodlinged.' She may have/probably did cross a line, and is ready to exchange testimony for a "leave me alone" card. She might be warming up like a professional opera singer. Perhaps all Arlen was doing was stating the obvious--her lawyer seems more than ready to emphasiz:e her cooperative nature!!!

"As we have said from the beginning, Ms. Buchanan is ready, willing to cooperate with whomever, wherever, whenever," Mr. Howard said. "And that hasn't changed. So if somebody wants to ask us to come testify, we'll be there."

[Bitwit1234]

2. Ihave read snips of all the testimony and the posts

and right now, I can't for the life of me find any mention as to who fired or asked, the attorneys and can't find a reference as to who appointed the new ones.

WHO IN THE HELL IS RUNNING THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. Is it about time to call "Ghost Busters".

[L. Coyote]

3. The Decider has some explaining to do, like "Who is the Decider, anyway?"

What with all the illegalities, no one want to claim that title anymore. :rofl:

[L. Coyote]

4. Tommy Chong's Bongs - A stoner icon goes to jail.

Tommy Chong's Bongs - A stoner icon goes to jail.
Greg Beato | May 2004 Print Edition
http://www.reason.com/news/show/29137.html

Is U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan the meanest movie critic in the country? Before her negative review of the Extreme Associates adult video catalog, she gave a thumbs-down to actor/comedian/stoner icon Tommy Chong for his role in the operation of Nice Dreams Enterprises, a family business that manufactured and distributed bongs, urinalysis kits, and related products.

Chong's home was raided in February 2003 as part of the Justice Department's nationwide crackdown against 55 companies and individuals who, according to a rarely enforced federal law, were illegally selling drug paraphernalia over the Internet. In May 2003, Chong pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to distribute paraphernalia, and on October 8, 2003, he started serving a nine-month sentence at Taft Correctional Institution, a privately run federal prison in central California. Chong also received a $20,000 fine and forfeited $103,000; when he's released in July 2004 he'll be on probation for one year.

"He wasn't the biggest supplier. He was a relatively new player," Buchanan said at the time of Chong's sentencing. "But he had the ability to market products like no other."

Thanks to quotes like that, and the fact that Chong received a harsher sentence than anyone else who was caught in the crackdown, many people have taken up his cause, with Web sites like freetommychong.org charging that the 65-year-old comedian is being "unfairly targeted for prosecution because of his celebrity status."

..........

[L. Coyote]

5. Buchanan has pursued the partisan priorities of the Bush administration

Our U.S. attorney should resign
Mary Beth Buchanan has pursued the partisan priorities of the Bush administration
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By Thomas J. Farrell
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07079/770820-109.stm

... I am proud of my time as a federal prosecutor and ... I sit on the board and Legal Committee of the Pittsburgh American Civil Liberties Union and in that capacity I lecture to community groups about federal criminal investigations. Often I find myself defending the fairness and integrity of my former colleagues, because I never doubted that the U.S. attorney's office was above partisan politics -- until now.

Recent revelations about White House involvement in the firing of seven U.S. attorneys sickened me, as if I were the parent who had defended a teacher against vicious rumors only to hear him admit that he molested children.

The Bush administration's efforts to use an obscure provision of the Patriot Act to replace U.S. attorneys it deemed too vigorous in investigating Republican officials, too slow in indicting Democratic public officials or too reluctant to investigate "voter fraud" -- a euphemism for attempting to suppress the minority vote -- caused me to re-think my opinion of the fairness of Western Pennsylvania's U.S. attorney, Mary Beth Buchanan. I began to wonder why all of the recent public-corruption investigations in our region have been of Democrats.

The Bush administration has politicized the Department of Justice, just as it has every federal agency. The solicitor general used to be known as "the 10th justice" for his presumed fairness and independence in presenting arguments to the Supreme Court; the current solicitor general is just a mouthpiece for the administration's far-right ideology. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his subordinates have disgraced their offices with the positions they've taken to justify torture and the administration's evasion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's restrictions, loose as they are, on wiretaps.

Ms. Buchanan has been a devotee of the administration's policies. She has aided the effort to inflate the law-enforcement successes in the war on terror by misclassifying routine immigration and false-document cases as "anti-terrorism cases." .......

[L. Coyote]

6. Interviews by Terry Gross - Tommy Chong: Free, and Back on the Road

Interviews by Terry Gross - Tommy Chong: Free, and Back on the Road

- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4488902

Tommy Chong spent 9 months in jail on drug-related charges. That '70s Show



Fresh Air from WHYY, February 7, 2005 · Comedian Tommy Chong. As one half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong, Tommy Chong made a career out of making jokes about being stoned. Along with Cheech Marin, Chong recorded six gold comedy albums and starred in seven films. He currently has a recurring role on FOX TV's That '70s Show. The role comes after Chong spent nine months in prison; he pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia.

Chong's arrest was part of the U.S. Justice Department's Operation Pipe Dreams investigation of Internet distribution of drug paraphernalia like bongs and marijuana pipes. Chong says he pleaded guilty to protect his son, whose company was targeted. Chong is now on his first tour since leaving prison, performing in the play The Marijuana-Logues. An upcoming reunion will take place between Chong and his long-time partner Cheech Marin.