He has a post on the Group News Blog, where he asks the following question:
How come, the Feds didn’t have a clue that this GOP fella took $1 million out of the NRCC? But they busted Spitzer in less than a month.
My answer, because IOKIYAR.
Category: Justice
Trent Lott’s Brother-In-Law Pleads Guilty to Bribery
Truths in Life: Law Enforcement Agencies will ALWAYS Abuse Survelliance Abilities
In this case, we have the FBI using national security letters, which require no judicial review, as a giant Hoover to spy on tens of thousands of Americans illegally.
What’s more, when they were informed that this was illegal, they engaged in an orgy of illegal ass-covering:
This created a backlog of records that the F.B.I. had obtained without going through proper procedures. In response, the letter said, the F.B.I. devised a plan: rather than issuing national security letters retroactively for each individual investigation, it would issue the blanket letters to cover all the records obtained from a particular phone company.
Lets be clear. This is not the exception, this is the rule. It is the basic place that any part of the state security apparatus is coming from, and it has been since well before the founding of the Republic.
These sorts of situational ethics are simply part of the mindset.
It’s Always the Tapes
It turns out that the military has dozens, if not hundreds of tapes of interrogations, and that some of them do show “harsh tactics”, including FBI agents participating in torture.
I want my country back.
And This is The Damage of the US Attorney Scandal
Scott Horton details the political machinations of Alice Martin in Alabama.
They just banned state legislators from teaching at community colleges, where the legislator/instructors are almost all black Democrats, but it’s OK at 4 year colleges, where they are whiter and more Republican.
Surprise, the Bush Justice Department, after having purged its civil rights division, thinks that it’s all okey dokey to do this.
Countrywide Under Criminal Investigation
The FBI is investigating Countrywide financial for possible fraud.
I kind of thing that this is a “well duh” thing, but I’m an engineer, not a lawyer, dammit!.*
When you look at just the appraisal process, it’s clear that something was very rotten in Denmark.
*I love it when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!
David Iglesias, Former US Attorney, Says He Was Told Fireings Political
He has written a book about his experiences:
“This is political,” Iglesias recalls Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton telling him shortly after he was ousted. “If I were you, I’d just go quietly.”
There are a whole bunch of people out there who should be going to jail, or at least losing their law licenses, after this.
Torture Looks Set to Free Terror Suspects in Canada
It appears that a significant amount of the evidence against two Canadians was from Abu Zubaydah, the clinically insane man tortured by the CIA.
As a result Mohammed Harkat, and Adil Charkaoui are now free on bail.
Either they never will terrorists, or they are free on bail and are terrorists.
They are so lucky that they are in the custody of Canada, a country with the rule of law and a functioning justice system.
A hundred miles further south, and they would be in Gitmo now.
That torturing mentally ill al Queida travel agent thing worked out great, didn’t it.
EPA is Stonwalling the Supreme Court
This is just bloody unbelievable.
Each time that I think that Bush and His Evil Minions™ can’t do any worse, they exceed my lowest expectations.
Consequences of the Supreme Court’s Redefintion of “Obvious”
The people just won one, where the Federal District Court just struck down Bayer’s patent on Yasmin, a contraceptive.
The patent, which expires in 2020, is on a formula for the compound drospirenone in which the particle size was reduced so it could be absorbed by the body more quickly before it is exposed to stomach acid. U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan agreed with Barr that the decision to reduce the particle size would have been obvious to any researcher.
Hell, it’s obvious to any cook too.
Why else would they sell powdered sugar. Smaller particles dissolve more quickly.
Judith Regan Sued By Her Lawyers
Judith Regan, the woman who engaged in an affair with Bernie Kerik in the in an apartment overlooking ground zero, an apartment that was intended for use by the rescue workers, has been sued by her lawyers for non-payment of fees.
They were the ones who represented her after she got canned by Rupert Murdoch.
I don’t have much to add except for personal Schadenfreude. I just don’t have enough snark in me today.
Kibosh Kommitted on Kansas Kangaroo Kourt*
Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, who was defeated as Kansas AG because of his jihad against planned parenthood, has failed to get a grand jury to indict the clinic in Overland Park, KS.
This guy is like 0 for 12 now, with hundreds of thousands if not millions of taxpayer dollars down the hole.
Perhaps its time for the voters to remove him from public life.
*Yes, it’s immature. And you are surprised by this?
Spam Conviction Upheld
Under Virginia law, Jeremy Jaynes will serve his 9 year sentence under Virginia law, so says the Virginia Supreme Court, which found that the VA anti-spam law was not an infringement on the first amendment.
5-4 decision.
California Supreme Court Reviews Same Sex Marriage Ban
I have no clue as to how they might rule on this issue, but only one of the judges is a Democratic appointee.
Wikileaks Takedown Order Reversed
The federal has reversed himself on the takedown order for Wikileaks.
It’s being lauded by civil libertarians, but the initial take down order was less of a ruling on the internet than it was a consent decree between a domain registrar, Dynadot, and the owner of a money laundering operation in the Caymans, Julius Baer.
Mukasey Ignores His Sworn Duty to Obey the Law
So, the House of Representatives has decided to hold Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton in contempt, and Michael Mukasey, the man that Chuck Schumer loves so much, has just told Congress that he is refusing to enforce the law, specifically 2 U.S.C. § 194 and 2 U.S.C. § 192.
There are so many people in the Bush admin who desperately need to go to jail.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: USDA Expels GAO Auditors
I’m not kidding. The GAO was investigating allegations of Civil Rights allegations, and their general council expelled them from the premises, and instructed Ag Dept. employees not to talk with them.
This is simply a mind %^$* beyond belief.
More Than 1% Of All Americans in Prison
Ummm that is more than any other nation on earth.
Do we have a lower crime rate? No.
I think that this is by some definitions a police state.
In the future, of course, only the criminals will be out of prison, because it’s the only politically palatable way to get state supported healthcare for everyone.
Pelosi Refers Contempt Citation to Mukasey
How quaint, she expects the Attorney General of the United States of America to enforce laws when they are inconvenient for his boss.
To quote a scion of the Bush Crime Family, “Not gonna happen.”
Perhaps she should send the House Sargent at Arms, or whatever it is called, out with a pair of handcuffs.
February 28, 2008
The Honorable Michael B. Mukasey
The Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001Dear Mr. Attorney General:
In accordance with 2 U.S.C. § 194 and the attached House Resolution 979 (adopted on February 14, 2008), I have today sent a certification to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey Taylor, advising him of the failure of former White House Counsel, Harriet Miers, to appear, testify and produce documents in compliance with a duly issued subpoena of a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee and of the failure of Joshua Bolten, White House Chief of Staff and custodian of White House documents, to produce documents in his custody as required by a duly issued subpoena of the House Judiciary Committee.
Under section 194, Mr. Taylor is now required “to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action.” The appropriate grand jury action is a criminal charge for violation of 2 U.S.C. § 192, which provides: “Every person who having been summoned as a witness by the authority of either House of Congress to give testimony or to produce papers . . . willfully makes default . . . shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor” and shall be subject to a fine and “imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.”
According to the testimony of your predecessor, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and your recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department intends to prevent Mr. Taylor from complying with the statute and enforcing the contempt citations against Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten. You claimed that “enforcement by way of contempt of a congressional subpoena is not permitted when the President directs a direct adviser of his… not to appear or when he directs any member of the executive not to produce documents.” Hearing on Oversight of the Dep’t of Justice Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 110th Cong. 87-88 (Feb. 7, 2008). You purported to base your view on a “long line of authority,” but cited no court decision that supports this proposition.
There is no authority by which persons may wholly ignore a subpoena and fail to appear as directed because a President unilaterally instructs them to do so. Even if a subpoenaed witness intends to assert a privilege in response to questions, the witness is not at liberty to disregard the subpoena and fail to appear at the required time and place. Surely, your Department would not tolerate that type of action if the witness were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury. Short of a formal assertion of executive privilege, which cannot be made in this case, there is no authority that permits a President to advise anyone to ignore a duly issued congressional subpoena for documents.
Your press spokesman has stated that you will “act promptly” to review this matter and reach a final decision. We will appreciate your acting with appropriate dispatch on this important matter. I strongly urge you to reconsider your position and to ensure that our nation is operating under the rule of law and not at presidential whim. If, however, you intend to persist in preventing Mr. Taylor from carrying out his statutory obligation to present this matter to the grand jury in the District of Columbia, we respectfully request that you inform us of that decision within one week from today, so that the House may proceed with a civil enforcement suit in federal district court.
Thank your for your prompt consideration and attention to this matter.
best regards,
NANCY PELOSI
Speaker of the House_______________________________
February 28, 2008
The Honorable Jeffrey A. Taylor
United States Attorney
District of ColumbiaThe undersigned, The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, pursuant to the attached House Resolution 979, One Hundred Tenth Congress, hereby certifies to you the failure and refusal of Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel, to appear, testify, and furnish certain documents in compliance with a subpoena before a duly constituted subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. The undersigned further certifies to you the failure and refusal of Joshua Bolten, White House Chief of Staff, to furnish certain documents in the custody of the White House in compliance with a subpoena before said committee. These failures and refusals are fully shown by the certified copy of the House Report 110-423 of said committee which is also hereto attached.
Witness my hand and seal of the House of Representatives of the United States, at the City of Washington, District of Columbia, this twenty-eighth day of February, 2008.
__________________________________
Speaker of the House of RepresentativesAttest:
___________________________________
Clerk of the House of Representatives
Massachusetts Judges Rules Some Mortgages “Structurally Unfair” Under State Consumer Protection Law
This is interesting. The judgehas basically ruled that this business model is fradulent and illegal:
A Suffolk Superior Court judge has issued a potential landmark order slowing down thousands of Massachusetts foreclosures and declaring whole classes of subprime mortgages “structurally unfair” under state law.
“It is both imprudent and unfair to approve mortgage loans that the borrowers cannot reasonably be expected to repay if housing prices were to fall,” Judge Ralph Gants wrote in a preliminary injunction against notorious subprime mortgage lender Fremont Investment and Loan. “Just because we as a society failed earlier to recognize that (many subprime loans) were generally unfair does not mean that we should ignore their tragic consequences and fail now to recognize that unfairness.”
My guess is that it will either be overturned on appeal, or the foreclosures will resume after 90 days, or both.