Clipmarks | boniface's 'government' clips

Not Every Violation of the Law is a Crime: US Attorney General

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:02:08 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Justice Staffers Won't Be Prosecuted For Illegal Hiring Practices

NEW YORK — Former Justice Department officials will not face prosecution for letting improper political considerations drive hirings of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

he told delegates to the American Bar Association annual meeting, "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

An internal investigation concluded last month that for nearly two years, top advisers to Gonzales discriminated against applicants for career jobs who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists.

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.

Tags: justice department, alberto gonzalez, michael mukasey, monica goodling, hiring practices, discrimination

Freedom In The View Of Justice William O. Douglas

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:24:37 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Damn straight, I'd say.

Clip Source: www.neatorama.com

William O. "Wild Bill" Douglas (1898 - 1980) was the longest-serving justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's what he has to say about free speech, freedom, and the government:

"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom."

"It was against a background poignant with memories of evil procedures that our Constitution was drawn."

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

"An arrest is not justified by what the subsequent search discloses."

"Those who won our independence believed ... liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."

"What a man thinks is of no concern to government."

"Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest."

Rep. Wexler to House Judiciary re: impeachment

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:40:34 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Our government was founded by a delicate balance of powers, whereby one branch carefully checks the other branches to prevent a dangerous consolidation of power. The actions of this White House have eviscerated this careful balance. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue; this is an American issue."

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

REP. ROBERT WEXLER: Never before in the history of this nation has an administration so successfully diminished the constitutional powers of the legislative branch

This is not how our founders so carefully and delicately designed our democracy.

failure of administration witnesses to even appear is unprecedented in the history of our nation

Our government was founded by a delicate balance of powers, whereby one branch carefully checks the other branches to prevent a dangerous consolidation of power. The actions of this White House have eviscerated this careful balance. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue; this is an American issue. Without these checks and balances, a president can run roughshod over any law with impunity. Congress must end this disturbing pattern of behavior. And in these circumstances, unfortunately, the only option left is impeachment hearings.

Tags: impeachment

Sir Winston Churchill, Quote about Nazis

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:55:32 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: quotes.liberty-tree.ca

The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.

Tags: totalitarian, government, habeus corpus

Judge Orders White House to hold Emails

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:45:20 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Bush Administration lawyers are arguing strongly against the decision. They protest the decision, of a federal judge, when it should be remembered that Bush owes his Presidency to a Supreme court decision, after the 2000 election. Maybe they want it to be taken to the Supreme Court. They know some people there.

Clip Source: www.mail.com

By PETE YOST

A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.

The White House is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government and the National Security Archive.

The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House

e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.

The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.

Tags: white house, email, protest, judge, order, law

Blackwater Immunity Draws Criticism

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:07:45 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

Blackwater Immunity Draws Criticism

Democrats criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for giving immunity to Blackwater USA bodyguards, calling the move a failure to hold the security contractors responsible for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.

The offer for limited immunity, first reported Monday by The Associated Press, has delayed the government's criminal inquiry of the shootings that enraged the Iraqi government, and threatens to derail prosecution as investigators seek other evidence from the crime scene now six weeks cold.

"In this administration, accountability goes by the boards," said Leahy. "That goes equally for misconduct and for incompetence. If you get caught, they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence."

Tags: blackwater, immunity, draws, criticism, administration, criminals, bush

Pentagon Facilitating Christian Evangelism

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:28:15 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

    Report: Pentagon Facilitating Christian Evangelism
    By Jason Leopold
    t r u t h o u t | Report

The Defense Department (DOD) allegedly provided two fundamentalist Christian organizations exclusive access to several military bases around the country. This access became official sanction for these groups to proselytize amid the ranks, despite the fact that such activities were in violation of federal law.

According to a week-long investigation by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a government watchdog organization, the evidence it has uncovered proves the Pentagon has been engaged in a pattern of widespread evangelizing in violation of Clause 3, Article VI of the Constitution, which forbids a religion test for any position in the federal government, and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which says Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion.

Tags: pentagon, facilitating, christian, evangelism, dod

USS Liberty Conspiracy Unravelling, at last!

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 10:37:52 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: "The documents also suggest that the US government, anxious to spare Israel's reputation and preserve its alliance with the US., closed the case with what even some of its participants now say was a hasty and seriously flawed investigation.

"In declassifying the most recent and largest batch of materials last June 8, the 40th anniversary of the attack, the NSA, this country's chief US electronic-intelligence-gatherer and code-breaker, acknowledged that the attack had "become the center of considerable controversy and debate." It was not the agency's intention, it said, "to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material," available athttp://www.nsa.gov/liberty .

"An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman called the attack a tragic and terrible accident, a case of mistaken identity, for which Israel has officially apologized." Israel also paid reparations of $6.7 million to the injured survivors and the families of those

Clip Source: www.baltimoresun.com

New revelations in attack on American spy ship

Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident

Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star for heroism, ordained Baptist minister

"I'm angry! I'm seething with anger! Forty years, and I'm seething with anger!"

was aboard the USS Liberty, a super-secret spy ship

and many other survivors, the anger is mixed with incredulity

that Israel would attack an important ally

then attribute the attack to a case of mistaken identity by Israeli pilots who had confused the U.S. Navy's most distinctive ship with an Egyptian horse-cavalry transport

Their anger has been stoked by the declassification of government documents

strengthen doubts about the U.S

position that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots -- communications, according to those who remember seeing them, that showed the Israelis knew they were attacking an American naval vessel.

Tags: uss.liberty, conspiracy, israel, 1967, coverup

They're Not Really People

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:27:21 GMT

clipped by: boniface
clipper's remarks: I guess it all comes down to your definition of "torture" or maybe, your definition of people. As for me, the stuff they're willing to talk about publicly sounds like torture, in my opinion.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Bush: 'This government does not torture'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday defended his administration's methods of interrogating terrorism suspects, insisting, "This government does not torture people."

"When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we're going to detain them and you bet we're going to question them, because the American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence, so we can help them -- help protect them," Bush said.

Bush's remarks followed a report Thursday in The New York Times that said a secret Justice Department memo in 2005 amounted to "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency."

Tags: bush, cia, torture

'A Coup Has Occurred'

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:13:21 GMT

clipped by: sahara
clipper's remarks: Daniel Ellsberg, former Defense Department analyst ,offered insights into the looming war with Iran & the loss of liberty in the U S at an American University symposium on Sept. 20. "I took an oath many times, an oath of office as a Marine lieutenant, as an official in the Def. Dept, as an official in the St. Dept as a Foreign Service officer. A number of times I took an oath of office which is the same oath office taken by every member of Congress and every official in the United States and every officer in the United States armed services.
And that oath is not to a Commander in Chief, which is not mentioned. It is not to a fuehrer. It is not even to superior officers. The oath is precisely to protect and uphold the Constitution of the U.S.
Now that is an oath I violated every day for years in the Defense Department without realizing it when I kept my mouth shut when I knew the public was being lied into a war as they were lied into Iraq, as they are being lied into war in Iran."

Clip Source: www.globalresearch.ca

I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental of our Constitution, … what the rest of the world looked at for the last 200 years as a model and experiment to the rest of the world – in checks and balances, limited government, Bill of Rights, individual rights protected from majority infringement by the Congress, an independent judiciary, the possibility of impeachment.

Tags: government, war, politics

Illegal to Buy an Eco-Friendly Car

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:49:42 GMT

clipped by: ellen_001
clipper's remarks: It's illegal to buy a low emissions car. Goes against reason, doesn't it?

Clip Source: autos.msn.com

Dirty Secret: Green Cars
Automakers Won't Sell You

There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.

Not only can't you buy one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act—in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off—anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only for the special states.

Tags: environment, government

Bush seeks immunity for Telecoms

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:16:03 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: "Republicans say immunity is necessary to protect the companies that responded to legal presidential orders to thwart terrorists in the years after 9/11. Yet some Democrats fear the administration's proposal would do much more than advertised, potentially protecting anyone who gave broad categories of aid to the government as part of a spy program that monitors communications."

Wait if they where legal, why would they need such a vaguely worded blanket type immunity.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants the power to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that are slapped with privacy suits for cooperating with the White House's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.

The authority would effectively shut down dozens of lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies accused of helping set up the program.

The vaguely worded proposal would shield any person who allegedly provided information, infrastructure or "any other form of assistance" to the intelligence agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. It covers any classified communications activity intended to protect the country from terrorism.

More than a dozen government officials interviewed for this story spoke on condition they not be identified because sensitive negotiations with Congress are ongoing.

The companies could face civil penalties of at least $1,000 per customer, for a total that would reach well into the billions.

Tags: bush, lies, crimes, spying, survellieance, privacy, none

Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:09:21 GMT

clipped by: sam.reckoner

Clip Source: www.ft.com

Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.

“They need to make fiscal responsibility and inter-generational equity one of their top priorities. If they do, I think we have a chance to turn this around but if they don’t, I think the risk of a serious crisis rises considerably”.

Tags: politics, government, finance, economy

Because Tithing is Beneath Pagans!

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:21:50 GMT

clipped by: boniface
clipper's remarks: It will not happen anytime soon because:

1. Government should stay out of the religion business and so shouldn't contribute.
2. Christians, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, etc. already give to THEIR OWN organizations.
3. And finally, Paganism abhors the concept of "tithing," in other words, Pagans are cheap!

I'm a Wiccan Pagan and have tried to start a couple of Pagan organizations and these people just don't want to give! At least, not enough to make a difference. So that's why no Pagan seminary.

Clip Source: www.progressiveu.org

It is time for a pagan seminary

I do not see the reason why this concept should fall by the wayside and why private groups or government groups cannot offer aid to such students. I am not alone, nor am I truly one of a few. I have heard voices speaking up all across the country and even in other countries, wishing to have a program or programs such as these. The silence is here to be broken, and the ringing of one voice shall be joined by others. I say to any and all who read this, who support and think why not, to stand behind this cause. If a Catholic, a Hasidic Jew, a Sunni, A Buddhist or a Sikh can have such open and funded for them, why not have such a program for us pagans. We are not few, we are not small and with this we can truly show you our voice. Not in some tyrannical oppressive speach or inviolent actions against others...but in a peaceful way, a proper way and a way that speaks to all our brethren and sisters.

Tags: tithing, seminary, pagan, wicca, wiccan, heathen, school

More BushCo Dictitorial Arrogance - Our "Elected Dictator"

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:10:31 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Laugh if you will. This is getting grim and scary. IMPEACH!!!!

Clip Source: www.oregonlive.com

Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.

As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

"We're talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America," DeFazio says. "I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee."

This is the first time DeFazio has been denied access to documents. DeFazio has asked Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to help him access the documents.

"Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right," DeFazio said.

Tags: bush, security, conspiracy