^and they should all be removed from office......I was in favor of the Clinton impeachment. I didn't give 2 shits about his bjs, but when he blantantly lied, it should have been over.

obviously it will be made into a bigger deal the higher up the chain you are

[Edited on April 6, 2007 at 12:58 PM. Reason : 3]

4/6/2007 12:55:52 PM

well hey, at least you are consistent. doesn't change the fact that the current shenanigans are little more than partisan squabbling

4/6/2007 1:02:21 PM

i'd call the transition from federal prosecutors into a more political office a lot more than partisan squabbling.

and for the record: plenty of republicans are not happy about this either.

[Edited on April 6, 2007 at 1:14 PM. Reason : .]

4/6/2007 1:14:20 PM

Quote :

"current shenanigans are little more than partisan squabbling "

the prosecutors are supposed to operate on the premise of the law, not "what would bush do" they can't be expected to carry out their rightful duties if they're worried about getting fired for not being a "loyal bushie".

4/6/2007 1:18:07 PM

I really thought his resignation was coming a month ago. I'm glad it didn't. This is getting fun.

Here are some comments from US Senate Judiciary Committee members to Attorney Gen. Gonzalez:

Quote :

"The communication was atrocious. It was inconsistent -- it's generous to say that there was misstatements; it's a generous statement. And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered ... I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation. --Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma "

Quote :

"You said something that struck me — that sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time. If I applied that standard to you, what would you say? --Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-SC "

Quote :

"I'm concerned about your recollection --Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL "

Quote :

"Why is your story changing? --Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA "

4/19/2007 7:24:59 PM

I loved specter's reaming of gonzales.

4/19/2007 7:30:29 PM

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is on C-SPAN right now...asking AG Gonzales "who was the decider?"

Classic.

4/19/2007 7:30:37 PM

I caught the "decider" thing on the radio at lunch. I lol'ed.

4/19/2007 7:37:44 PM

"Mister Attorney General, who was the decider? Were you the decider?"

oh, hell yeah, i also heard that on the radio. that was awesome.





[Edited on April 19, 2007 at 7:47 PM. Reason : ]

4/19/2007 7:46:01 PM

so whats the verdict? u think he stays after this...i kept hearing this was "make or break time" for gonzalez

4/19/2007 7:49:57 PM

no one that i've read wants to call it.

the most ive heard is that "people in the white house" close to the president are "disappointed" in the A.G.'s performance, that they dont think he did very well.

but i'm giving more consideration that he may survive this now. not much more. but a little bit. :/

only because GWB is a loyal motherfucker.

i think its going to be a wait and see for a few days.



[Edited on April 19, 2007 at 8:19 PM. Reason : ]

4/19/2007 8:17:08 PM

this whole thing is funny

4/20/2007 10:31:52 AM

i was listening to that shit on the radio on my way home and i could smell the bullshit through the radio. They need to shitcan that dude.

4/20/2007 10:36:22 AM

he said "i do not recall", or something along those lines dozens of times.....I don't know about anyone else, but I really don't like a high ranking leader like that "not being able to remember" his decisions.....especially when it was LESS THAN 6 MONTHS AGO.

4/20/2007 10:40:29 AM

^72 times

4/20/2007 10:46:04 AM

So essentially, the Attorney General is either a liar or a patsy?

4/22/2007 4:57:49 PM

And apparently it's alright to have a patsy leading the US attorney system

4/22/2007 5:15:31 PM

I didn't read this entire article, so please, don't shoot the messenger. I assume this site is a bunch of liberal nuts, maybe the rest of you have time to read through it and see if it is fluff or not

http://www.alternet.org/story/50941/

4/24/2007 1:19:38 PM

oh man.

just from the title alone, i don't have the strength to read that right now. it would sap all my energy, and i'd be completely worthless for the rest of the day.




i'll get to it, but thats a whole nother can of worms. related to proprietary source-code blackbox voting machines and all that shit.

makes me want to go buy some guns.

no wait. scratch that.



[Edited on April 24, 2007 at 2:21 PM. Reason : ]

4/24/2007 2:16:39 PM

He needs to go. I dont think there was anything wrong with firing the lawyers, but this guy keeps changing his story every week. He makes it appear like there is some kind of scandel going on, which cant be allowed. This would basically be a nonstory if it wasnt for this idiot saying one thing..then after some facts come out saying the opposite.

4/24/2007 2:35:28 PM

Quote :

"On Nov. 10, 2005, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sent a letter to a federal judge in Montana, assuring him that the U.S. attorney there, William W. Mercer, was not violating federal law by spending most of his time in Washington as a senior Justice Department official. That same day, Mercer had a GOP Senate staffer insert into a bill a provision that would change the rules so that federal prosecutors could live outside their districts to serve in other jobs, according to documents and interviews. Congress passed the provision several months later as part of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill, retroactively benefiting Mercer and a handful of other senior Justice officials who pull double duty as U.S. attorneys and headquarters officials."

Quote :

"The practice has come under scrutiny in Congress because of claims by the Justice Department that it fired New Mexico prosecutor David C. Iglesias in part because he was absent from the job too much. Iglesias, who is a Naval Reserve officer, has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel alleging that the firing was, among other things, a violation of federal laws prohibiting discrimination against military personnel. "It's a curious contrast that leaders in the Department of Justice would slip a change into law to allow one U.S. Attorney to spend only a few days a month in his district and keep his job, while at the same time claiming to fire another for spending a few days a month away from his district to serve his country," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR2007050101961.html?hpid=topnews

5/8/2007 11:53:45 AM

Dear Sen. Patrick Lazy,

Military personnel who work at the Pentagon are not AWOL.

US Attorneys who work at their HQ in DC are also doing their job.

US Attorneys who work for a different government agency should get their paychecks from that other agency.

5/8/2007 12:51:35 PM

dear 1,

you're dense and apparently don't get it

5/8/2007 1:15:48 PM

Quote :

"At today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales whether any U.S. citizens are “being held today, for over a month, who have been denied habeas corpus or access to an attorney.” Instead of giving an answer, Gonzales replied, “[Y]ou’re asking me a question I hadn’t really thought about.” Sherman then followed up and asked whether there any “U.S. citizens being held now by foreign governments or foreign organizations, without access to attorneys, as a result of rendition.” Gonzales again said, “It’s just — quite frankly, I hadn’t thought about this.”"

[Edited on May 11, 2007 at 1:57 AM. Reason : ]

5/11/2007 1:57:27 AM

good lord

5/11/2007 1:33:14 PM

I can't believe the shit they get away with.


Or I can, but I'm always assuming people remember their history.

5/11/2007 3:49:56 PM

Speaking of getting away with stuff, I read this today... A short synopsis of the Comey testimony. Gives a little glimpse of some of the crap he got away with before he was even Attorney General.

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/05/comey_ashcroft_and_the_nsa_wir.php

Here's the full transcript of Comey's testimony: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501043.html

There is some pretty damning stuff in there, and this furthers for me the thinking that there is much more evidence of wrongdoing in the NSA wiretapping scandal than this whole firing thing.

5/17/2007 1:36:43 PM

Quote :

"Gonzales Likely to Resign The Washington Post reports Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "is likely to resign before the Senate takes up a no-confidence resolution," according to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "A vote on such a measure could come as early as this week.""

5/20/2007 5:12:59 PM

no kidding?

in a sense, i'll be sad to see him go now. he's hung on so long, and againsts all odds, i'm growing attached to the little guy.

... seriously though, who'd have ever thought he could make John Ashcroft look good

5/20/2007 11:48:27 PM

this here is a few days old, but its just incredible. Ive been assuming everyone knows about this, but I havent seen any discussion, other than when Honkeyball posted similar links earlier.

For those of you who don't read links, here's a full article from the LA Times.

i think its important to remember as we get ready to hear testimony from Monica Goodling (Gonzales' assistant), now that her grant by the Senate for immunity from prosecution has been approved.

Quote :

"Gonzales pressured seriously ill AG John Ashcroft on his hospital bed WASHINGTON -- James B. Comey, then the acting U.S. attorney general, was on his way home one night in March 2004 when he got an urgent call from the office on his cellphone. The distraught wife of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who was recovering in the hospital from gallbladder surgery, had called the Justice Department to report that her husband was about to get two uninvited guests. The visitors were two top aides to President Bush, and they wanted Ashcroft's signature on a secret national security directive that Comey had rejected only a short time before. "I was very upset. I was angry," Comey told a Senate panel Tuesday. And he was determined to get to the hospital first. Thus began one of the most unusual episodes in Bush's first term, a showdown over warrantless wiretapping that nearly brought the resignations of Ashcroft and several other top administration officials until the president intervened. The saga of the race to Ashcroft's bedside left senators amazed. While the hospital encounter had been described previously in general terms, Comey's was the first eyewitness account, and offered new and dramatic insight. Comey got to the hospital first and Ashcroft didn't sign the document. But it was a close call, Comey said. "I thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man," he said. His story was more than just an insider's anecdote: One of the White House officials who arrived at Ashcroft's bedside was Alberto R. Gonzales, whose performance as attorney general is receiving critical attention in Congress. Comey's testimony -- at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing called to scrutinize the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year -- added fuel to the debate about whether Gonzales is fit to run the Justice Department. "I would say what happened in that hospital room crystallized Mr. Gonzales' view about the rule of law: that he holds it in minimum low regard," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leading Gonzales critic, said at the hearing. "It's hard to understand after hearing this story how Atty. Gen. Gonzales could remain as attorney general, how any president -- Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative -- could allow him to continue." The Justice Department on Tuesday declined to address the testimony of its former No. 2 official. "We cannot comment on internal discussions that may or may have not taken place concerning classified intelligence activities," spokesman Dean Boyd said. He added that the program had been subject to "vigorous" oversight. At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Bush has "full confidence in Alberto Gonzales." He refused to discuss Comey's testimony, which he described as "old conversations." "You've got somebody who's got splashy testimony on Capitol Hill. Good for him," Snow said. Comey's testimony came a day after his successor, Paul McNulty, announced that he planned to resign as deputy attorney general this summer, making him the fourth Justice official to step down since the U.S. attorney purge became public earlier this year. McNulty cited the financial burden of having college-age children, but he was known to have been dismayed by how the firings were handled, and has alleged that he was left out of the loop by Gonzales aides until the two-year process was almost complete. Democrats have alleged the firings were calculated to manipulate public corruption cases in a way that would benefit Republicans. Gonzales struck back at McNulty on Tuesday and attempted to shift some of the blame to his departing aide, saying that he relied on McNulty more than any other aide to decide which prosecutors were to be fired. "You have to remember, at the end of the day, the recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names," Gonzales told reporters at a National Press Club event. "And he would know better than anyone else." On Capitol Hill, Comey took pains not to identify what he termed the "classified program" that prompted the race to the hospital. But lawmakers said they believed he was referring to the Terrorist Surveillance Program that the Bush administration secretly launched after the Sept. 11 attacks. The electronic eavesdropping program, administered through the National Security Agency, has swept up international phone and e-mail correspondence of persons in the U.S., and has been of great importance in anti-terrorism investigations, administration officials have said. But the program also sparked controversy because, at first, it was conducted without the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court -- a tribunal created under a 1978 law to monitor domestic spying in the U.S. after Watergate and other abuses. Bending to criticism that the plan was of dubious legality, the Bush administration agreed in January to submit wiretap petitions under the program to the FISA court. Ashcroft and the Justice Department initially had approved the program but had second thoughts after a new head of its office of legal counsel, Jack Landman Goldsmith, began raising concerns about whether it violated the law, Comey said Tuesday. A week before the attorney general fell ill, Comey said, he and Ashcroft decided that there were legal problems with the program and that they would oppose recertifying it. With the program set to expire on March 11, 2004 -- and with Ashcroft in the hospital -- administration officials approached Comey to get the Justice Department's blessing for reauthorization, but he refused to give it. That touched off the flurry of late-night maneuvering on March 10 that ended up in Ashcroft's hospital room and, later, at the Justice Department and White House. Comey said he was being driven home when he received a call from Ashcroft's chief of staff, David Ayres. Ayres relayed the fact that Ashcroft's wife, Janet, had just received a call from the White House that Gonzales and then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. were en route to the hospital. Mrs. Ashcroft was upset because she had forbidden visitors and phone calls; her husband was recuperating from surgery the previous day. Suspecting an end run was in the works, Comey ordered his security detail to head for George Washington University Medical Center; he called FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and several top aides to meet at the hospital to protect Ashcroft from any effort at coercion. "I raced to the hospital room, entered, and Mrs. Ashcroft was standing by the hospital bed. Mr. Ashcroft was lying down in the bed, the room was darkened," Comey said. "And I immediately began speaking to him, trying to orient him as to time and place, and try to see if he could focus on what was happening, and it wasn't clear to me that he could. He seemed pretty bad off." ... continued below ... "

[Edited on May 22, 2007 at 8:49 PM. Reason : ]

5/22/2007 8:44:51 PM

Quote :

" ... continued from above ... Comey said he stepped out into the hallway and spoke by phone to Mueller, who instructed the FBI agents not to allow Comey to be removed from the room "under any circumstances." Two other senior Justice officials soon joined Comey and the Ashcrofts in the room. Shortly thereafter, Comey said, Gonzales -- carrying an envelope apparently containing the presidential spying order -- arrived with Card. "They greeted the attorney general very briefly. And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there: to seek his approval for a matter, and explained what the matter was," Comey said. "And Atty. Gen. Ashcroft then stunned me," Comey continued. "He lifted his head off the pillow and, in very strong terms, expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact ... drawn from the hourlong meeting we'd had a week earlier ... and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, 'But that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general.' " Card and Gonzales then left, he said. According to Comey, Card called later to angrily demand that he meet him at the White House. "I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness," Comey said. "He replied, 'What conduct? We were just there to wish him well,' " Comey testified. "And I said again, 'After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness." Comey then tracked down Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson at a dinner party, and Olson agreed to be the witness. After meeting with other Justice officials at department headquarters, Comey said he and Olson headed to the White House about 11 p.m. but that nothing was resolved. Comey said the White House renewed the program the next day without his approval. With the White House disregarding the Justice Department's legal advice, Comey said, he, Ashcroft, Mueller and several other senior Justice officials made plans to resign. They relented only after Bush agreed to restructure the program after meetings with Comey and Mueller the next day. "It has some characteristics of the 'Saturday Night Massacre,' " said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, referring to the Watergate-era episode in which the attorney general and his deputy resigned rather than fire a special prosecutor investigating wrongdoing by the Nixon White House. Some observers said Comey's testimony reinforced a view of Gonzales as someone who is loyal to Bush and little else. "The picture he painted of department leaders ... standing up to pressure from the White House, ready to quit rather than give up their principled view of what the law required, stands in stark contrast to the picture that has emerged from Gonzales' tenure," said Daniel Richman, a Fordham law school professor and former federal prosecutor. --http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-gonzales16may16,1,356803.story "

5/22/2007 8:45:43 PM

bttt by request

7/31/2008 11:08:43 AM

Quote :

"DOJ: Former aides broke law in hiring scandal By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Justice Department officials broke the law by letting Bush administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, according to an internal investigation released Monday. For nearly two years, top advisers to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discriminated against applicants for career jobs who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists, the Justice report found. At times, their search for GOP activists delayed filling judgeships and threatened to clog immigration courts, the report said. The federal government makes a distinction between "career" and "political" appointees, and it's a violation of civil service laws and Justice Department policy to hire career employees on the basis of political affiliation or allegiance. Yet Monica Goodling, who served as Gonzales' counselor and White House liaison, routinely asked career job applicants about politics, the report concluded. "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?" Goodling asked at least some candidates, according to the joint investigation by Justice's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility. Others were asked about their views on abortion and gay marriage. "It appeared that these topics were discussed as a result of the question seeking information about how the applicant would characterize the type of conservative they were," the report said. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who succeeded Gonzales, said he was "of course disturbed" by the findings. He said he would make sure "that the conduct described in this report does not occur again at the department.""

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JUSTICE_POLITICS?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I really hope I'm not the only one who sees a problem with this.....

7/31/2008 11:09:58 AM

In a similar vein:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25949309/

Quote :

"WASHINGTON - A federal judge has sided with Congress in its fight with the Bush administration over whether top White House aides can be subpoenaed by Congress. The House Judiciary Committee wants to question the president's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former legal counsel Harriet Miers about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. But President Bush says they are immune from such subpoenas. They say Congress can't force them to testify. Story continues below ?advertisement U.S. District Judge John Bates said there's no legal support for that stance. He refused to throw out the case and said the aides can be subpoenaed."

7/31/2008 11:14:48 AM

It's really mind boggling to me that a group of individuals elected by the people for the people (and their staff) are somehow absolved from normal procedures that everyone else not in that group would be subject to. What the hell do you do in your job serving the people that shouldn't be open to scrutiny by those very people that elected you? Is this for real? Thanks for the support in getting me in office, now fuck off.

The executive branch of government has gotten out of control and the god damn legislative branch needs to get their fucking shit together and reign this in.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 11:23 AM. Reason : a]

7/31/2008 11:21:03 AM

The legislative branch has done what they can in terms of the subpoena's, it's up to the judiciary branch now to force the testimony.

Which is finally happening ^^

7/31/2008 11:29:08 AM

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080902-report-gonzales-mishandled-classified-wiretap-docs.html

Gawd damn, this guy was a total idiot.

9/2/2008 5:32:21 PM

liberal media. sputter. froth. rawr. rawr.


but seriously, warrantless wiretaps is one of the most grievous pound-you-in-the-ass fascist police state violations that this administration and 6 years of their republican congress cronies ever thought to engage in...

yet when it came up for review, the democratic congress passed it AGAIN.

what the fuck?

what?

the fuck?

how can anybody have any outrage left?






[Edited on September 2, 2008 at 10:18 PM. Reason : ]

9/2/2008 10:06:58 PM