Where’s the Outrage?

I found this article on my computer. I wrote this article back in May of 2007. Hope that you enjoy it.

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Just because something is complex does not mean it’s not understandable. The US Attorney scandal is confusing. The question is, what’s going on? Well, in order to figure out everything that’s going on there must be investigations. Some folks on Capitol Hill are calling the current investigations a witch hunt and “political theater.”

Question B if a policeman sees someone walking down the street with a large plasma TV should he be curious? So he asks the guy, “What are you doing with that TV?” He replies, “I’m fixing it for Ms. Smith.” “Ms. Smith? There’s no Ms. Smith that lives on this street.” “Did I say fixing it? I meant delivering it to Mr. Jones.” I think that everyone would assume that this situation deserves further investigation.

The same type of thing has happened with the Justice Department. Eight US attorneys were fired out of the blue. All of these attorneys were Republicans. The initial explanation was that they were fired for performance reasons. Several reporters were able to obtain performance evaluations on several of these attorneys and they were excellent. The next explanation was that some of the attorneys did not prosecute enough immigration cases. This explanation did not hold up to investigation either. Finally, Alberto Gonzales, the US Attorney General, stated that these US attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. Therefore, the president can fire them at any time for any reason. Well, this is sort of true. It is true that the president has the power to hire and fire US attorneys. But, and this is important, the President cannot fire at a US attorney to influence a particular case or to halt a particular investigation or for political reasons. [Read more →]

Tags: Newsletter, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Here are some things that I have been reading about and I think need more discussion:

• Remember the U.S. Attorney scandal? Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias testified before Congress  that he got a call from Senator Pete Domenici. During the call Domenici asked about whether or not Iglesias was going to file an indictment against some New Mexico Democrats right before the 2006 mid-term election. Domenici got a slap on the wrist from the Senate Ethics Committee for the “appearance of impropriety.” In my opinion, I think this is terribly mild.
• Abstinence-only education doesn’t work. There have been numerous studies to show this. Florida has passed legislation that Florida schools teach sex education. Some teens believe that drinking Mountain Dew or smoking marijuana can prevent pregnancy. I took care of a teenager who injected herself with turpentine in order to prevent herself from becoming pregnant. Representative John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems “rather elitist” that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. “I don’t think it’s something we should abandon,” he said of abstinence-only funding. Education– we truly need our children to be educated. (and we need to vote John Duncan out of office!)
• Did you see that the Veteran’s Administration is being sued in a class-action? In spite of the official rhetoric out of the Bush administration, a recent RAND report found that “300,000 U.S. troops — about 20 percent of those deployed — are suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.” They fight for us and we can’t at least give them decent health care when they get back. We have to do better.
• Finally, did you see where a government contractor supplied these flash-band grenades that never worked. After the $15 million contract, the Department of Defense found a flaw in the law enforcement weapon and ordered it to be fixed. Pyrotechnic Specialties, Inc. figured out it was cheaper to just print new labels. Three FBI agents have been injured. Company officials were indicted but there was this nugget: Company officials bribed a federal official and paid for a visit to a strip club.

Tags: Corporate Wrongs, Military, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Keith Olbermann’s Bushed segment reminds all of us of the many, many, many scandals of the Bush Administration. There seems to be a new one every week.

CIA torture tapes - seems another CIA detainee states that he was taped

Jose Padilla - the dirty bomber. The Bush Administration wanted life. They didn’t get anywhere close. I don’t know if Padilla desired to get life or not. I do know that the judge that sentenced him to 17 years criticized the government’s handling of the case.  I was kinda surprised that Glenn Greenwald didn’t have something on this.  I’m sure that he will today.
Gonzo-Gate - Alberto Gonzales is the gift that keeps on giving. The House and Senate ethics committees are looking into whether congressional republicans tampered with witnesses who were preparing to testify before Congress.

 

 Bushed - CIA recordings, jose padilla and Gonzo [1:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Countdown, National Intelligence, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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For some reason, many liberal blogs haven’t picked up this story.  They should.  On the other hand, maybe they are so deflated after the Scooter Libby thing.  Maybe they are trying to do what it appears the Democratic Congress is doing, waiting until after the November election to fix everything.

We need to continue to try to do the right thing.  We need to continue to support the constitution.  We need to continue to hold hearings.  We need to continue to investigate.  Democrats have to be against torture and for human rights while at the same time be against terrorists.

I posted a lot about the Justice Department investigating Alberto Gonzales a couple of days ago.

 

 Countdown - Gonzo investigation [5:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Countdown, Domestic Spying, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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For months the Democrats have been asking or begging for documents about various items - US Attorney firings, Wire Tapping, Valerie Plame case to name a few.  The White house has universally given Congress the finger.  Representative John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has asked for all documents pertaining to political prosecutions in the US Attorney’s office.  The Department of Justice has selectively released some documents.  Representative Conyers is mad and red in the face.

So what is he going to do?  Continue to stop his foot?  Continue to hold his breath?  Or is he going to finally issue some subpoenas?  When they refuse the subpoenas, then what?  This is like in the great movie the Untouchables.  (If he sends one of yours to the Hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.  That’s the Chicago way.)  What is he, Conyers,  prepared to do?  Is he prepared to have a constitutional showdown?  Because if he isn’t, he’s already lost.  The White House is prepared to take this as far as it can.  The Supreme Court is the end game unless the White House backs down and I don’t see that happening.

Tags: Congress, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Talking Points Memo has put together the 10 greatest Alberto moments.

 

 TPM - Alberto's 10 greatest [8:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: US Attorneys by ecthompson
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No one has been able to get me a good explanation of why Alberto Gonzales has resigned.  Why did Bush accept it?

 

 Gonzo out [3:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Alberto Gonzales the man that was at the center of so much badness in the Bush Administration is/has stepped down. President Bush has spoken in support of Alberto since the beginning of the various scandals. Glenn Greenwald, who is coming to Asheville on September the 13th, has a great post on him. Glenn rightly states that the Democrats have an opportunity to say that they are not going to accept neocon, yes men from Bush any more.

Michael Vick who really has nothing to do with Alberto Gonzales threw himself on the mercy of the American people in his first press conference since the dogfighting allegations surfaced. He stated that he was immature and that he was sorry. Immature doesn’t really cover it but at least it is a start.

I’ll more on these stories later.

Update: Video added for Vick. You know I was sort of with Michael during this speech. His excuse for not being able to say what he wants to say was that he has been a football player. What? He made enough money to hire his personal speech coach but it wasn’t a priority. And, I’m sorry, but the worst part of the cliche was that he has turned over his life to God. These athletes always seem to find God once they are in the soup up to their eyeballs. The worst part of the sappiest speech of all-time was the children. Yep, he hated that he let down the children. Oh, please. He hated that he got caught. I know that the speech had to be done. It was just nauseating.

 

 Vick Speaks and he is sorry [4:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Sports, Torture, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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I’m out of town.  Jennifer is back in the studio.  I call in and we discuss Ann Coulter.  Why?  Because I believe that she can’t be ignored.  The only reason that she has sold so many books is because progressives have not spoken out against her hate speech.  I interview Cynthia Brown, expert on education, from the Center for American Progress.   We tackle No child Left Behind and other issues in the classroom.  I then chat with Glenn Greenwald, lawyer and blogger at Salon.com, about the US Attorney scandal.  Jennifer wraps up the show with a scary journey through several recent Supreme Court decisions.

Rough cut.

 

 The Errington Thompson Show 6-30-07 [53:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Podcasts, Supreme court, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Feingold takes no mess in his opening statement in the Gonzales hearing part 5.  I have said it before and I’ll say it again, Russ Feingold has been pulling the Democratic Party, kicking and screaming, to the light.  He was the first to say the Domestic Spying Program was wrong.  He was the first to call for censuring the President.

 

 Feingold scolds Gonzo [6:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Senate, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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There is a ton of stuff going on today. The House Judiciary committee votes for contempt charges. Gonzo seems not to be as slick as he thinks he is. He might have been caught lying. New documents seem to contradict the Attorney General.

I’ll have more soon. Promise. Got beaten at work today.

Tags: Bush Administration, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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This should be familiar to everyone who has followed these hearings. Between what she didn’t remember and what she claimed was executive privilege nothing of substance was said.

Great rundown on contempt of Congress - here.

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From WaPo:

“I did not speak to the president about removing U.S. attorneys,” Taylor said. “I did not attend any meetings with the president where that matter was discussed.”

The remarks came during several hours of reluctant testimony from Taylor, who sought to respond to a subpoena from the Senate panel while also abiding by a request from Bush not to provide details about the firings. Bush and his aides assert that such internal deliberations are protected by an executive privilege, and thus do not have to be divulged to Congress. (more…)

 

 Taylor testifies, sort of [2:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: US Attorneys by ecthompson
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I took 3 segments of MSNBC’s Countdown and cut out the fat. Alison Stewart begins with discussing General Pace’s issues. Peter Pace admits that he was let go today. Our good friend, Alberto Gonzales is still in hot water. This scandal will not go away. Finally, Libby’s attorneys are filing more papers in an attempt to try to keep Libby out of jail. Alison talks with Rachel Maddow of Air American about Scooter Libby.

 

 Countdown - WrapUp [8:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, US Attorneys, Valerie Plame by ecthompson
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There seems to be a ton of news in the last couple of days.

• A former Gitmo detainee will be allowed to John Ashcoft (former attorney general) and Robert Mueller (FBI director) in a lawsuit which allegies mistreatment at Gitmo.   It may be me but it sure seems that more and more lawsuits are mounting against President Bush’s policies. 
• In the category - Can He Do that - President Mahmoud Abbas told the Palestinian government to get lost.  He declared a state of emergency.  I understand a state of emergency.  There has been unspeakable violence over the last several days.  With Fatah, the President’s party, losing key battles to Hamas.   According to an article in NYT, the Bush adminstration has encouraged President Abbas to dissolve the government.  I’m not sure how this helps the violence. 
• It seems that the investigation into the US Attorney scandel is widening on a number of fronts.  The internal investigation of the Justice Department has formal told Congress that they are looking into a meeting that Gonzo had with Monica Goodling.  I feel that a couple of committees in Congress are doing the same thing. 
• Brownback and Romney are trying to see which one can be more pro-life.  C&L has the whole stupid mess.   Again, I will state for the record that until a man has to make that decision, men should stay out of the debate.  In a free society, how can we force our opinions on women.  I just don’t see how in a free society that we can force women to chose one way or another.   (Of course, if Brownback and Romney don’t talk about abortion they have almost nothing else to talk about, except for hunting.  Oops I shouldn’t have mentioned that one, right Mitt)
• A Mississippi jury found James Ford Seale, a Klansman, guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy today.  The crime happened back in 1964.  Seale, 71, may be looking at a life sentence. 
• New deal on Capital hill on the immigration bill.  The details are still being worked out but it appears that an additional $4.4 billion will be added to border security (hopefully, this is not money to continue building that stupid fence.)
• Finally, in a new NBC news/Wall Street Journal poll  - 19% of American are happy with the direction of the country and 29% approve of the President’s job performance.

Tags: Bush Administration, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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I’m not sure what took the Senate and House judiciary committees so long. Maybe they were dotting their I’s and crossing their T’s. Maybe they were hoping that the White House would be reasonable. (just joking)

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From NYT:

The Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas on Wednesday to Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara M. Taylor, the former political director, ratcheting up the pressure on the White House to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry into last year’s firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House has rejected previous Congressional requests to interview presidential aides, offering to let them be interviewed in private if no transcript is kept. (more…)

 

 CF - subpeona time [2:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Tags: Senate, US Attorneys by Texas Liberal
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The no confidence vote in the Senate failed. What was the purpose of this vote? To embarrass the the President? Please a vote in the Senate no matter how lopsided will not embarrass our Commander and Chef. It isn’t going to happen. What about to pressure him into forcing Alberto out into the cold? Not. Now, the purpose may have been to show the American public who is still on the Bush bandwagon and who isn’t. If this was the purpose then spit!! This is just partisan politics and I don’t have the stomach for this. There are real problems in this country which require real leadership. Play politics on your own time.

Oh and just in case you thought that you had a stake in the government. You’re wrong. Listen to the clip. Our president clearly states that this is HIS government. What an egomaniac.

 

 Countdown - No Confidence in whom? [3:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Countdown, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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This show is inverted.  I start with an interview with Garrett Epps because I have over slept.  The Epps interview was pre-recorded.  This is a great interview.  His Salon.com article is here.  I then explain why I was late.  I try to discuss why we are in the morass in Iraq but I don’t really have enough time because of my long explanation.  I then interview Elise Gould about her recent post on the EPI web site.

 

 The Errington Thompson Show 5-11-07 [49:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Issues, Economy, Podcasts, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Just because something is complex does not mean it’s not understandable. The US Attorney scandal is confusing. The question is, what’s going on? Well, in order to figure out everything that’s going on there must be investigations. Some folks on Capitol Hill are calling the current investigations a witch hunt and “political theater.”

Question B if a policeman sees someone walking down the street with a large plasma TV should he be curious? So he asks the guy, “What are you doing with that TV?” He replies, “I’m fixing it for Ms. Smith.” “Ms. Smith? There’s no Ms. Smith that lives on this street.” “Did I say fixing it? I meant delivering it to Mr. Jones.” I think that everyone would assume that this situation deserves further investigation.

The same type of thing has happened with the Justice Department. Eight US attorneys were fired out of the blue. All of these attorneys were Republicans. The initial explanation was that they were fired for performance reasons. Several reporters were able to obtain performance evaluations on several of these attorneys and they were excellent. The next explanation was that some of the attorneys did not prosecute enough immigration cases. This explanation did not hold up to investigation either. Finally, Alberto Gonzales, the US Attorney General, stated that these US attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. Therefore, the president can fire them at any time for any reason. Well, this is sort of true. It is true that the president has the power to hire and fire US attorneys. But, and this is important, the President cannot fire at a US attorney to influence a particular case or to halt a particular investigation or for political reasons.

For the last several months we’ve had several officials from the Justice Department testify on Capitol Hill. Each of these officials from Kyle Sampson to Alberto Gonzales to Monica Goodling have related interesting tales. Many of the witnesses have contradicted one another. There has also been tens of thousands of e-mails that have been released from the Justice Department and they also tell a tale which is partial and incomplete. The question is, what are the facts? H. E. “Bud” Cummins was removed in Arkansas in order to make room for a Karl Rove protégé. It appears that David Iglesias, from New Mexico, was probably removed because he did not pursue a voter fraud investigation in which he thought there was not enough evidence against a Democrat before the 2006 election. His decision angered New Mexico Republican Senator Pete Domenici. There appears to have been a phone call both from Pete Domenici and from New Mexico Republican Representative Heather Wilson. (Calling a US Attorney and inquiring about an ongoing investigation is illegal.) Iglesias testified in front the Senate Judiciary committee that he felt pressured, again it is illegal to influence or pressure a US Attorney. [Read more →]

Tags: Bush Administration, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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I’m not sure what was the most important moment in Monica Goodling’s testimony yesterday.  First, I was struck by how she admitted to clearly violating the law.  Secondly, she clearly stated that Paul McNulty lied to Congress.  Thirdly, she admits to a meeting between her and Alberto Gonzales which takes place after it is clear that both she and Alberto were going to be called as fact witnesses before Congress.

I can tell you the most depressing moment was her toe in the sand presentation.  The “I just wanted to help” routine while it may genuine, it was nauseating.

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From WaPo:

Under intensive questioning from Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), Goodling also described a mid-March meeting with Gonzales that began as a discussion of her future at Justice but ended with talk about the U.S. attorneys’ firings.

“Let me tell you what I can remember,” he said, according to her account.

“He laid out for me his general recollection . . . of some of the process” of the firings and then asked “if I had any reaction to his iteration,” Goodling said.

She said the conversation made her “a little uncomfortable” because she knew that she, Gonzales and others would be asked to testify before Congress.

“Do you think, Ms. Goodling, the attorney general was trying to shape your recollection?” Davis asked.

Goodling paused, then said: “No . . . I just did not know if it was a conversation that we should be having, and so I just — just didn’t say anything.”  (more…)

 

 Countdown - monica and gonzo [6:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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