"Alberto Gonzalez's coup d'etat"

[FourScore]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/02/09/united_states_attorneys/


"...Again, the White House and the Justice Department have been exposed in a secretive attempt to expand executive power for partisan purposes. And again, their scheming is tainted with a nasty whiff of authoritarianism...

...Leading senators of both parties are disturbed by these incidents because U.S. attorneys -- the powerful officials appointed by the president to prosecute federal crimes and defend federal interests in each of the nation's judicial districts -- are supposed to be as nonpartisan as possible. Democrats mostly appoint Democrats and Republicans mostly appoint Republicans, but the U.S. attorneys are usually chosen with the advice and consent of the senators from their home states, and then confirmed by the full Senate, with a decent respect for skill and experience as well as political connections...."

SNIP

"...Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego who successfully prosecuted the sensationally crooked Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, was fired for no known reason while she is still pursuing important leads in that historic case. Cunningham is supposed to be cooperating, but if Bush replaces her with a partisan stooge, he may be able to keep his secrets. Bud Cummings, the respected U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., was canned to make room for a Republican opposition research operative and Karl Rove acolyte named Timothy Griffin. Could that conceivably have anything to do with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential candidacy? Paul Charlton, the U.S. attorney in Arizona, was thrown out while investigating allegations of corruption against Republican Rep. Rick Renzi

And John McKay, the U.S. attorney in Seattle whose diligence has been praised by judges and lawyers of both parties, was simply ordered to quit last December, for no obvious reason. Although McKay's last evaluation by the Justice Department was excellent, the attorney general insists that all of these curious firings were due to "performance" issues..."

SNIP

"...The Senate Democrats should continue to probe the attorney general's little coup d'état and all of the resulting appointments..."

[bdamomma]

1. these guys are nothing but criminals.

[midnight]

18. Does any one remember the year Kerry was running for President

and he was tapped by the media, after a speech he gave,he said, that the guys in office are nothing but criminals.

[midnight]

19. Does any one remember the year Kerry was running for President

and he was tapped by the media, after a speech he gave, he said, that the guys in office are nothing but criminals.

[KansDem]

20. More here...

From March 10, 2004

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry, all but officially the Democratic presidential nominee, called Republicans he is battling "crooked" Wednesday.

The comments, caught on tape, came after Kerry addressed the AFL-CIO by satellite. Union workers had been standing behind him. When the satellite feed ended, Kerry spoke briefly with a couple of them.

"Keep smiling," one man said to him.

Kerry responded, "Oh yeah, don't worry man. We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you -- we're just beginning to fight here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen."

"It's scary," replied another worker.

debatebothsides

[dogday]

22. These guys are nothing but a bunch of crooks

it was priceless then and is still priceless......

[redqueen]

2. Yes they should...

and they should do more than that. Those appointed in such a way should be impeached.

[BuyingThyme]

3. Of course.

[atreides1]

4. It is due to "performance issues"!!!

Those U.S Attorneys who were canned refused to perform like trained seals.

Q: What's the difference between Alberto Gonzales and Roland Freisler?
A: Roland Freisler was a Nazi judge, and Alberto Gonzales is a...okay there is no difference!!!!

[redqueen]

5. It is not...

some guy said as much in his testimony before Congress just this week, after someone who was 'asked' to resign came forward to dispute the offical reason. Of course, that person then refused to say why they were canned, if not for performance issues...

[spanone]

6. Gerrymandering the courts.

So many crimes, where do you start?

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. There's something brewing with the border guards

and it's bubbling to the surface quickly. Not sure what's going on, but the Cons that are making such an issue of it are smelling something really rotten. I heard on Ed Schultz just a few minutes ago something about a piece in the El Paso (Times?) newspaper about some err...suspicious dealings between Gonzo and a private contractor.

Not sure what or exactly when, but I'm sensing something's going to be hitting the fan big soon. That is, unless there's a distraction somewhere in the Middle East.

[nashville_brook]

13. $470 million dollar Halliburton contract for "immigrant detention facilities"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlie-cray/prison-camps-bushcos-bi_b_28909.html

Prison camp construction is also another lucrative income stream for the usual cast of corporate cronies. E.g. last year the NYTimes reported that Halliburton would get paid $30 million to help expand the prison facilities at Guantanamo, work that was part of a $500 million contract announced in June 18, 2005.

So what's the other $470 million for?

One of the sick ironies in all this, is Halliburton's hypocrisy. The company has been criticized for using "slave labor"" to dig ditches in Australia, ordered to stop trafficking in human contractors in Iraq, and criticized in the U.S. for hiring undocumented workers to replace union contractors on post-Katrina reconstruction contracts.

Yet despite this well-known pattern of exploitation, the company announced in January that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had awarded it a 5-year $385 million contract to build immigrant "detention facilities" (prisons) for immigrants arrested on charges of entering the country illegally and to provide construction and logistics support services in the event of an "immigration emergency," a term vague enough to cause activists to suspect the worst -- that they are openly planning to build detention camps for political dissidents.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Not "unless ther's a distraction".

More like, hidden by the distraction in the Middle East.

Everybody's focused on Iraq and Iran, like a magician waving one hand to draw attention from the other, while here at home...

[Benhurst]

8. Recommended #2

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. The Senate Democrats should read bills before they vote for them and if they didn't vote for those

provisions in the Patriot Act, should have screamed bloody murder!

[helderheid]

10. recommend#3

[Raffi Ella]

11. "Leading senators of both parties are disturbed"

right.They seem to be disturbed over a lot of things these days and yet...?

[proud patriot]

12. Fascist Bastards

:grr:

[nashville_brook]

14. so true. "reducto ad Hitlerum" is yesterday's quaint mannerism

[TahitiNut]

17. Amen, m'dear.

My outrage meter has been pegged at "11" for longer than I can remember. We're so far past the time for non-violent civil disobedience, it's appalling. We The People deserve what we're getting ... until we're willing to risk our blood, sweat, and tears - our very lives - to regain any semblance of democracy.

We're sitting back and watching Lady Liberty get raped by these perverts ... and doing almost nothing.

[In Truth We Trust]

15. Impeach! Imprison! Restore and Protect the Constitution of the United States of America!

[hootinholler]

21. Yes it *was* performance issues

They wouldn't perform felatio on the administration.

-Hoot

[Supersedeas]

23. Al Gonzo is THE White House yes man.