Since he died while appealing, he is technically, though clearly not morally, innocent of any criminal offense, a judge has said that he can go after his assets in a civil proceeding where the standard of proof is far lower.
As a matter of principle, I am opposed to taking a second bite at the apple this way, but nonetheless, I do feel a bit of glee at this.
The rumors were something involving him in diapers.
Vote Democratic….Our perverts are far less disturbing.
I sense the Ghost of John Mitchell.
My heart bleeds at the thoughtthat Gonzales is facing serious legal costs in response to a DoJ investigation of potential perjury and witness tampering.
You know, telling the truth and being honorable might be cheaper in the long run.
The FBI taped calls between him and Don Smith, President of Veco, which apparently bribed half of the Republicans in the state.
Of note, Young participated in informal “Golf tournaments” with political supporters, with 10-15 people playing, and the winner keeping the $100 contributed by everyone, and his record would make Tiger Woods envious.
Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers have refused a subpoena to testify before congress about the US Attorney scandal, and John Conyers has been asking for the House of Representatives to pass a contempt citation.
Well, it now appears, that they are again delaying the vote, this time to December:
Other top Democrats, including Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), have argued that the House should put off that fight while debates over Iraq funding and electronic eavesdropping dominate the floor. The contempt vote had been tentatively scheduled for Friday before Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) informed his colleagues that it was being delayed.
We really need some serious primary challenges for the wimp caucus, both Hoyer and Emanuel.
14 of the 17 deaths are deemed completely unjustified.
No big surprise there. But it appears that they will walk:
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.
Impeach Dick Cheney today, impeach George W. Bush tomorrow,
Some knuckle dragging Neanderthal prosecutor inColumbia County, Wisconson has seen fit to have a Woman prosecuted for talking about sex with her children in a frank and open manner.
Un-dirtyword-believable. It appears that the mother described her own sexual history, which might make the kids uncomfortable, but is well within the bounds of parental prerogative.
I have this theory about the nature of things. Specifically, there is always a sort of a tipping pointy, and after that, nothing goes right.
I think that we may be seeing that the right wing has truly jumped the shark, who in this case is Judith Regan, who I have been told has very sharp teeth.
Ex-Publisher’s Suit Plays a Giuliani-Kerik Angle
By RUSS BUETTNERJudith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed yesterday protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004.
The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.
Ms. Regan makes the charge at the start of a 70-page filing that seeks $100 million in damages for what she says was a campaign to smear and discredit her by her bosses at HarperCollins and its parent company, News Corporation, after her project to publish a book with O. J. Simpson was abandoned amid a storm of protest.
…
One of Ms. Regan’s lawyers, Brian C. Kerr of the firm of Dreier L.L.P., said she had evidence to support her claim that she had been advised to lie to federal investigators who were vetting Mr. Kerik and who might have sought to question her about their romantic involvement. But Mr. Kerr declined to discuss the nature of the evidence.
…
(emphasis mine)
Word on Olbermann is that there are tapes…..With Republicans, there are always tapes.
I’m pleasantly surprised. Bush is screwed. He wanted this guy, he threw a tantrum over it, and now he has him, and it appears that he will actually do his job with this.
Hopefully he fries the lizards, including the pukes at AT&T, who did this, but I’m fearing that this is just an attempt to forestall a congressional investigation by creating an ongoing DoJ one.
Here is hoping that the pleasant surprise continues.
I’ve related some, and only some of the misdeeds of Rachael Paulose, a completely unqualified political hack appointed as US Attorney in Minnesota.
It appears that her litany of self-aggrandizement, racial epithets, mishandling of classified documents, and retaliation has come to the attention of the New York Times.
You can read the editorial, but basically, it can be reduced to three word advice to Attorney General Mukasey, “Ditch the Bitch”.
My guess is that we will shortly see US v. Miller overturned, which defined the 2nd amendment as a states right, which will be a bad thing.
FWIW, my reading of the debates at the constitutional convention, and my understanding of the language of the times, I’ve always read it as, “A militia is necessary for the protection of individual freedom, so in the context of a militia, people must be allowed to keep and bear arms.”
That was also the essence of the Miller decision in 1939, which I expect to be overturned.
If the White House obeys this order, and that’s a big if, we can expect to see the email records from this point forward preserved.
It’s good news for historians, and any future war crimes tribunal.
This is not surprising. Australian anti-terror prosecutions have been even worse than those of the US. John Howard has used this bogeyman, and a lot of implied racism, to maintain power, and now that people get it, tbe judiciary does too.
You remember that the vote on Mukasey was rushed, about 1/2 hour’s notice before the start of debate.
Well, now we have a reason. It appears that Reid cut a deal with teh Republicans to allow for a military funding bill to proceed without money for Iraq and Afghanistan.
I guess that they think that this will provide cover while trying to get the troops out of Iraq. It’s won’t. With George W. Bush at 26%, worse than Nixon, the Bush dogs are still going to fold like wet broccoli when he makes vague noises about “not supporting the troops”.
They still don’t get it. Any opposition to Bush on any issue is both the right thing to do and a political win.
I agree 100% with what she says.
I would add that this even applies to the worst of the unions, the California Prison Guards for example, at least as applied to working conditions. I don’t support their lobbying for what amounts to increased incarceration of the population.
I would also add that the alternative, the private incarceration companies, are still 100x worse than the prison guards.
The story here is odd. It appears that Senators received something less than an hour’s notice the the debate prior to the vote was going to start.
According to Senate sources, as the Dem Senate leadership remained in closed-door negotiations with their GOP counterparts over whether to hold the vote, Senators were getting mixed signals throughout the day as to whether the vote would happen by the end of yesterday. The actual notification that there would be a vote didn’t come from leadership until at least 6:30 or 7 PM last night — catching aides on the staffs of the presidential campaigns and on the staffs of other senators off guard.
“I had my coat on and was walking out the door when I first heard about the vote,” one staffer said.
The senators were notified that there would be five hours of debate, and that a vote would be happening at midnight, or possibly before, sources said.
Aides to one of the senators running for President said they were surprised at how adamant the leadership was that a vote would be coming so quickly — with or without them present. One aide to this senator said that his staff told leadership that they couldn’t get back for a vote until later in the night.
This is seriously odd.
Why the proverbial bum’s rush. With the goal of a vote by midnight, and 5 hours of debate, a 6:30 notification is almost no notice. What was Reid trying to do, and why was he trying to do it?
When one considers how blythly the Bush DoJ signed off on Georgia’s poll tax voter ID law, the news that the department of justice is enforcing the laws is a bit surprising.
My guess is that Waxman has scared the hell out of them.
here:
Consider this an open thread.
Damn.
Of course, the Very Serious People™ are claiming that it’s a compromise, but it’s a weasel.
You see, his “compromise” would make the Federal Government, as opposed to the telcos, the defendants. This allows for wholesale classification, foot dragging, sovereign immunity, and all the other tricks which would guarantee that nothing would come out.
Seriously, this sort of crap is why our government is so f*^%ed up.