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hue's JournalState Supreme Court’s Actions on John Doe Cases Reveal Big Money Impact on Courts
http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-24624-state-supreme-court%25E2%2580%2599s-actions-on-john-doe-cases-reveal-big-money-impact-on-courts.htmlEthically challenged conservative majority could eradicate campaign finance laws and give a pass to white-collar criminals
Last week’s unanimous decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take on three cases relating to the John Doe investigation into the political allies of Republican Gov. Scott Walker is ostensibly about campaign finance laws.
But in the big picture, the high-profile fight over whether Walker, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and roughly two dozen conservative special-interest groups could coordinate fundraising, messaging and spending during the 2011 and 2012 recalls shows the influence of big money on our court system. Big money is involved at all levels of the latest chapter of the John Doe saga, from buying justices to shutting down criminal investigations to potentially destroying the state’s campaign finance laws.
Ethical Conflicts of Justices
Six of the seven state Supreme Court justices agreed to take on and consolidate three cases related to the John Doe. The absent justice, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, has recused herself from the cases since her son practices law with Dean Strang, one of the attorneys filing suit. Bradley is up for re-election in April 2015.
However, four of the remaining justices—Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler—benefited from the spending of two groups at the heart of the cases, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). According to the Center on Media and Democracy’s Brendan Fischer, the groups spent more than $10 million since 2007 to elect their four favored conservative justices.
Despite this financial connection, Wisconsin judges and justices aren’t forced to remove themselves from cases involving any campaign donor. That’s because the court amended their own Judicial Code of Conduct to allow them to rule on cases that involve donors. The majority of the court adopted the rule, verbatim, that had been proposed by WMC and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. WMC just happens to be a participant, along with Wisconsin Club for Growth and Walker, in what prosecutors call their “criminal scheme” to subvert Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws. The John Doe cases before the court target the groups’ coordination.
Republicans Try to Fix Damage Scalise’s 2002 Speech Could Do in 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/us/politics/scalises-speech-to-white-supremacist-group-clouds-republicans-plans.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=1&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders, poised for a celebratory takeover of Congress next week, instead found themselves scrambling Tuesday to defuse a racially charged controversy over one lawmaker’s speech a decade ago to a white supremacist group.
After staying silent Monday when news broke that Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the third-ranking House Republican, had appeared before a group called the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, Speaker John A. Boehner and the majority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, on Tuesday afternoon issued coordinated statements of support for Mr. Scalise, who acknowledged “regret” and said he had made a mistake.
“More than a decade ago, Representative Scalise made an error in judgment, and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate,” Mr. Boehner said, adding, “He has my full confidence as our whip, and he will continue to do great and important work for all Americans.”
The controversy erupted as Republicans were making a renewed effort to reach out to black voters. It threatened to cloud their agenda after capturing control of the Senate and adding to their House majority in last month’s election. Republicans anticipated using their new power to focus on economic growth and potentially find areas of common ground with President Obama, both elements of a broader push to demonstrate that the party can govern at a time when lawmaking in Washington has all but come to a halt...
“Everybody there knew EURO was putting it on, and David Duke was the national president of EURO,” said Corey Ortis, a Louisiana representative for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization from 2000 to 2004 who attended the conference. “You don’t go to a James Brown concert and not know it’s James Brown. It is what it is. But I can see why Steve Scalise would say he didn’t remember very much.”
John Doe emails: 'Dark side' was code for Scott Walker campaign
Source: WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
Scott Walker’s Milwaukee County staff had a code name for his gubernatorial campaign with which they secretly coordinated strategy and messaging nearly every day: “the dark side.”
The winking reference appears several times in emails that are among some 227,000 pages of records released Tuesday by Milwaukee County. The records, from 2009 and 2010, are among hundreds of thousands of documents seized by prosecutors in the John Doe investigation into Walker’s county executive office before he became governor and are now being released at the request of various media.
It was the fifth release of records related to that investigation, which closed in 2013. The probe resulted in charges and fines against six former employees and associates of Walker — including two for campaigning on county time. Walker was not charged.
Most of the correspondence involves routine county business, but many of the messages were sent using private email accounts.
County staff also used private emails to conduct campaign business and communicate with Walker and his campaign staff, sometimes during regular working hours. In one email from September 2009 with the subject line “county vs. dark side,” Walker’s county spokeswoman, Fran McLaughlin, warned Walker chief of staff Tom Nardelli and campaign manager Keith Gilkes about not crossing the two email systems.
Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/john-doe-emails-dark-side-was-code-for-scott-walker/article_f75df497-e403-5f44-be03-ae1c040e1ce5.html
John Nichols: It is time to apply the rule of law to Dick Cheney
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/john-nichols-it-is-time-to-apply-the-rule-of/article_264047fb-afdb-5e44-8bed-6abd5a96c228.htmlArizona Sen. John McCain, who during his time as a prisoner of war came to know something about the abuse of incarcerated combatants, provided the soundest assessment of the revelation that the United States abandoned its values and international standards in order to permit practices that the world knows as torture.
“We gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer,” McCain said after the release of details from the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Central Intelligence Agency abuses. “Too much.”
McCain's calculation raises a question: If the United States has given up too much moral territory, what might be done now to regain the high ground? Surely, President Obama's curtailing of the worst practices was a start, as are the protocols that have been developed to guard against future abuses.
But what about accountability?
Doesn't that have to be part of the response?
Experts in international law believe this to be the case. “The United States is obligated under both the Geneva Convention and the convention against torture … to investigate and prosecute the commission of torture," Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame, told the Guardian newspaper.
Groups that seek to stop torture agree. "Torture is a crime and those responsible for crimes must be brought to justice," says Steven W. Hawkins, the executive director of Amnesty International USA. “This was not some rogue operation. This was a program, chilling in its detail, unlawful from day one, that gave the green light to commit the crimes under international law of torture and enforced disappearance — with impunity. It’s time for accountability, including a full investigation, prosecutions and remedy for victims."
Joining the chorus of calls for accountability are Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights; Juan Mendez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture; and Ben Emmerson, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch have gotten specific about how to pursue accountability. In a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, they urged the nation's top law enforcement officer "to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the crimes detailed in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s torture program."
"Even though our organizations have dedicated tens of thousands of staff hours to researching, litigating, and advocating on concerns related to torture and other ill treatment in the RDI program, the depravity of the tactics and immensity of the enterprise still astound us," the letter explained. "There is no need to repeat the details in this letter to you, but we believe it is fair to say that many of these crimes would be horrific even if committed by an individual acting alone; but when done as part of a deliberate, coordinated government program, the crimes are more shocking and far more corrosive to U.S. democracy."
Report: Rep. Grimm To Resign After Meeting With Speaker Boehner
Source: TPM
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) plans to resign from Congress in the wake of pleading guilty to tax evasion, according to The New York Daily News.
Grimm, who was easily reelected in November, initially said he would not resign from Congress over the tax changes but, according to the Daily News, he decided to change course after speaking with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Monday.
Grimm will announce his resignation on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the Daily News.
In April, Grimm was charged with 20 felony counts related to his alleged involvement in trying to hide $1 million in wages and sales at the restaurant he helped run before Congress. He was also charged with hiring illegal immigrants.
But last Tuesday Grimm only pleaded to a single count of tax evasion.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will have to call a special election to fill Grimm’s seat as a result of Grimm’s decision.
Grimm also made national headlines when he threatened to throw a NY1 reporter off a balcony. He told the reporter “I will break you in half.”
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michael-grimm-resign-tuesday-wednesday-congress
Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Court upholds conviction against former Walker aide
http://www.jrn.com/tmj4/news/Court-upholds-conviction-against-former-Walker-aide-286698301.htmlMADISON -- A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld a theft conviction against a former aide of Gov. Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive.
The 1st District Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled against Tim Russell in his appeal of his 2012 conviction.
Russell was Walker's deputy chief of staff in 2009 and 2010 and was charged with stealing more than $21,000 from a nonprofit group benefiting veterans. He pleaded guilty to one felony theft count and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Russell argued on appeal that he was wrongly sentenced for the crime of misconduct in office, rather than theft. He also argued that he was ordered to pay $5,000 more in restitution than was proper.
James Carroll on disarming the memory of Jesus: “America threatens the world with violence in ways t
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/20/james_carroll_on_disarming_the_memory_of_jesus_america_threatens_the_world_with_violence_in_ways_that_no_other_country_does/James Carroll on disarming the memory of Jesus: “America threatens the world with violence in ways that no other country does”
The brilliant scholar James Carroll on anti-Semitism, Pope Francis and how liberals can be honest believers
Jesus died around the year 33. Thirty years later, the Romans began killing Jews in a more systematic way. Between 67 and 136, over the course of a three-phase war, the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and killed thousands, perhaps even millions, of Jews, in communities across the Mediterranean.
It was during this period that the Gospels were written, offering the first accounts we have of Jesus’ life. Somehow, we tend to forget this, but Christianity was born as a Jewish sect, during a time of terrible violence. We read about Jesus’ life through a prism of strife. “The Christian movement,” James Carroll told me, “is stamped with a case of communal PTSD.”
Carroll is a journalist, columnist, novelist and scholar. A devout Catholic, he used to be a priest. In his new book, “Christ Actually,” Carroll chronicles how the Roman war pushed early Christians to define themselves in opposition to Judaism, and to divorce Jesus from his Jewish roots.
That antagonism would lead to other wars against the Jews centuries later, one of which would outstrip even Rome’s. For Carroll, the Holocaust is a defining moment for Christians, one that requires a new look at the religion’s history.
Carroll isn’t interested in pinning down the exact historical details of Jesus’ life, though. Instead, in “Christ Actually,” he seeks an interpretation of Jesus that isn’t quite so warped by hostility and war. The interpretation that emerges is of a resolutely nonviolent, wholly Jewish figure—a figure, in short, who offers little traction for anti-Semitism and holy war.
Reached by phone, Carroll spoke with Salon about religious violence, Pope Francis and why Christians should bring their Jewish friends to church.
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush on climate change
Published on Dec 16, 2014
How would Jeb Bush address the global climate crisis? With a mixture of skepticism, avoidance, and downright denial of the science—if his track record is anything to go by
U.S. sends four Guantanamo prisoners home to Afghanistan
Source: REUTERS
(Reuters) - Four Afghans held for over a decade at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been sent home to Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Saturday, the latest step in a slow-moving push by the Obama administration to close the facility.
The men were flown to Kabul overnight aboard a U.S. military plane and released to Afghan authorities, the first such transfer of its kind to the war-torn country since 2009, according to a U.S. official.
Obama promised to shut the internationally condemned prison when he took office nearly six years ago, citing the damage it inflicted on America's image around the world. But he has been unable to do so, partly because of obstacles posed by the U.S. Congress.
With a recent trickle of releases, including the transfer of six prisoners to Uruguay earlier this month, Guantanamo’s detainee population has been gradually whittled down to 132.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/20/us-usa-guantanamo-afghanistan-idUSKBN0JY0FL20141220
Here comes another President Obama accomplishment...
Scalia on Retirees Losing Their Health Insurance: 'I Can't Feel Bad About It
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nan-aron/scalia-on-retirees-losing_b_6354340.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592In Apple Grove, West Virginia, there are some retirees from a chemical plant whose Christmas wishes probably include this: They want to keep the health insurance they were promised.
The United Steelworkers union negotiated a series of collective bargaining agreements stipulating that retired employees "will receive a full company contribution towards the cost of [health] benefits." The union believed the benefits were guaranteed for life. The company contends it could take away these benefits whenever it chose--which it did in 2007.
The retirees challenged that action. The retirees won in the lower courts, and now their case is pending before the Supreme Court.
As USW President Leo Gerard points out in a column for the union's blog:
In that same blog post, Gerard quotes Freel Tackett, the lead plaintiff in the suit and one of those who helped negotiate the agreements, as follows:
Is there anyone who simply wouldn't care what happens to these retirees? Apparently, yes. During oral arguments, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia offered up the functional equivalent of "Bah, Humbug!"
Said Scalia:
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