Clipmarks | schreibe's 'gonzales' clips

Time To Vote Contempt

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:58:16 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Where's the beef, when it comes to justice, and the rule of law. I guess politics trumps the law everytime.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Alberto Gonzales may be out, but the country is still waiting for a full accounting of how he and his White House patrons cynically politicized the Justice Department.

Some of the people who likely know the most about the role politics has played in the Bush Justice Department have defied Congressional subpoenas to testify. Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, contend that they are protected from testifying by executive privilege. That is not enough. They have a legal obligation to appear before Congress and plead that privilege to specific questions.

The House Judiciary Committee voted in July to hold Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers in contempt. The House’s Democratic leadership has been trying to figure out the pros and cons ever since. The public needs to hear the testimony of these officials (along with Karl Rove, who is also refusing to appear), and the full House should vote as quickly as possible to hold them in contempt.

Tags: bush, justice, law

Unworthy Nominees

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:21:28 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: This is how Bush began his failed presidency, and, I guess, this is how he plans on ending it. What a goof!

Clip Source: select.nytimes.com

Unworthy Nominees

15 months after American voters put the Democrats in control of the Senate, Mr. Bush is still trying to muscle far-right ideologues with troubling records into important positions.

Mr. Bradbury is best known for signing legal opinions that cleared the way for harsh interrogation techniques, and perhaps torture. He has also defended the administration’s lawless domestic surveillance programs

Richard Honaker, Mr. Bush’s nominee for the District Court in Wyoming, is an extreme anti-abortion activist with troubling views on the role of religion in public life.

Mr. Bush is insisting above all on getting Mr. Bradbury confirmed.

The Senate has eagerly confirmed too many of Mr. Bush’s bad nominees, including Mr. Brown, Mr. Gonzales and many others. The voters put Democrats in charge so they could rein in the Bush administration’s excesses. Holding the line on unworthy nominees is an important part of that mandate.

Tags: politics, bush

The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:02:19 GMT

clipped by: schreibe

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us

“BUSH lies” doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves.

President Bush gave his standard response: “This government does not torture people.” Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of “torture” is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Mr. Bush can keep pleading innocent.

By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture,

As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”

Tags: bush, gonzales, politics, torture, war

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:51:09 GMT

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clipper's remarks: MORE:
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.

Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

October 4, 2007

By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Tags: politics, bush, secret, torture, justice, gonzales, cheney

Keeping the lights on

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:58:22 GMT

clipped by: schreibe

Clip Source: www.economist.com

The Bush presidency

Keeping the lights on

What should—but probably won't—happen after the welcome departure of Alberto Gonzales

THE Sun, a feisty tabloid, once ran a headline asking sarcastically whether the last person to leave Britain would turn out the lights. A similar taunt could be made about the White House. One by one, the president's men are leaving: Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and now Alberto Gonzales, the hapless attorney-general. The Democrats scent more expulsions, more Bushies yearning to spend time with their families. The Republicans talk of witch hunts. The image of George Bush tottering around an empty building—empty, that is, except for mad old Uncle Dick in the cellar—is hard to resist.

None of this is to mourn the departure of Mr Gonzales. As with Mr Rumsfeld, the tragedy lay not in his ouster, but in the length of time Mr Bush put up with an incompetent crony.

a friendship with the president that went back to Texas—was an especially unhealthy one f

Tags: bush, gonzales, politics

Going, going, Gonzales

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:01:48 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: more:
Mr Bush also has precious little political capital left, even with his own side, and certainly not enough to relaunch his presidency. The Gonzales fiasco has dealt yet another serious blow to his reputation. Mr Bush (“the decider”) prides himself on his ability to pick good men and then allow them to get on with things. But Mr Gonzales was a lightweight crony who was out of his depth. Mr Bush also prides himself on his loyalty to his subordinates. But this loyalty has persuaded him to back friends long after they have become liabilities.

Messrs Gonzales and Rove and the rest of the Texas posse now have the luxury of spending their retirements in their home state. Mr Bush has no choice but to spend the next 17 months in Washington. He is not in for a pleasant time.

Clip Source: www.economist.com

The Bush administration

Going, going, Gonzales

Aug 30th 2007 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

The resignation of George Bush's attorney-general leaves the administration in a pretty ruinous state

BETTER late than never. On August 27th, with his reputation in ruins and the Justice Department in chaos, Alberto Gonzales finally resigned as attorney-general. The immediate cause of his departure was the firing of nine federal prosecutors. The bigger cause was that he embodied most of the things that Mr Bush's critics find intolerable about his presidency.

“Fredo”, as the president liked to call him, was at the centre of two of Mr Bush's most controversial policies.

The first was the politicisation of the federal government.

Mr Gonzales gave the green light to the Guantánamo prison camp, secret CIA prison camps, the wiretapping of American citizens and the use of torture. He even described some of the Geneva Conventions as “quaint”.

Farewell to the Texas Raj

Tags: gonzales

Officials say Gonzales has resigned

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:09:27 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Yippee!

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Officials say Gonzales has resigned

CRAWFORD, Texas - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, ending a months-long standoff with Republican and Democratic critics who called for his ouster over the Justice Department's botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firing of U.S. attorneys, officials said Monday.

The likely temporary replacement for Gonzales is Solicitor General Paul Clement, who would take over until a permanent replacement is found, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Justice Department planned a news conference for 10:30 a.m. in Washington. President Bush was expected to discuss Gonzales' departure at his Crawford, Texas, ranch., before leaving on a trip to western states.

Two administration officials speaking on grounds of anonymity said that Gonzales had submitted a resignation letter last Friday. These officials declined to be identified because the formal announcement about Gonzales was still pendi

Tags: bush, gonzales, politics

Yet again, the Democrats roll over

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:20:15 GMT

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clipper's remarks: More:
The Orwellian measure allows the federal government -- without a court order or oversight -- to intercept electronic communications between people in the U.S. and people outside the U.S.

The old rule required that a special court give its approval for that kind of surveillance. The new law bypasses the court and empowers the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to authorize the surveillance.

McConnell -- who is pushing for more spy power -- and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- who has huge credibility problems -- will decide on the targets. Both will also have charge of oversight of the program. Figure that!

In recent weeks, administration officials have warned that the United States is under a heightened terrorist threat.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid denounced the new legislation, saying it authorizes warrantless searches and surveillance of American phone calls, e-mails, homes, offices and personal records.

Civil liberties advoca

Clip Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Yet again, the Democrats roll over

Last updated August 9, 2007 6:34 p.m. PT

By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has the Democrats' number on Capitol Hill. All he has to do is play the fear card and invoke the war on terror and they will cave.

What's more, the president has found out that he can break the law and the rubber stamp

Democratic Congress will give him a pass every time.

The fear of being branded "soft on terrorism" was enough to make the Democrats capitulate once again to the Bush administration's demands. Or was it simply a looming vacation and beckoning campaign travel that led them to desert the nation's capital after giving the National Security Agency the power to expand its eavesdropping program without a warrant.

The Orwellian measure allows the federal government -- without a court order or oversight -- to intercept electronic communications between people in the U.S. and people outside the U.S.

Tags: bush, gonales, liberties, politics

Why Bush Won't Ax Gonzales

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:11:31 GMT

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Clip Source: www.time.com

Why Bush Won't Ax Gonzales

1. Gonzales is all that stands between the White House and special prosecutors. As dicey as things are for Bush right now, his advisers know that they could get much worse.

Without Gonzales at the helm, the Justice Department would be more likely to approve requests for investigations into White House activities on everything from misuse of prewar Iraq intelligence to allegations of political interference in tobacco litigation. And the DOJ could be less likely to block contempt charges against former White House aides who have refused to testify before Congress.

2. A post-Gonzales DOJ would be in the hands of a nonpartisan, tough prosecutor, not a political hand.

Over the past six months, more than half a dozen top political appointees have left the department amid scandal. The unprecedented coziness that once existed between the Justice Department and the White House now remains solely in the person of Gonzales.

Tags: bush, gonzales, politics

Gonzales Helped Bush Hide His Drunk Driving Conviction

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:44:44 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Gonzales and Bush have quite a history together. Is there anyone out there who could have survived a drunk driving charge and go on to be President of the United States of America. Bush didn't stop drinking until he was 40 years old. It was not just a youth oriented mis-conduct event!

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Gonzales Helped Bush Hide His Drunk Driving Conviction

Gonzales's apparent willingness to dissemble in order to protect himself or President Bush stretches back to at least 1996, when he intervened to prevent then-Gov. Bush from serving jury duty in Texas, the Post notes.

by not serving jury duty in the drunken driving case Bush was able to keep his own drunken driving conviction a secret for several more years.

Questions about Gonzales willingness to protect Bush in relation to the drunken driving case were first raised last year by Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff. If Bush had served on the jury he would have had to reveal his own past conviction, but Gonzales convinced the defense attorney to ask that Bush be kept from the jury on the grounds that he may be called on to pardon the defendant.

"It's obvious that Gonzales owes Bush his career," Schott said. "Part of his behavior comes from this gratitude and extreme loyalty to Bush."

Tags: bush, hypocrisy, politics, gonzales

Gonzales is telling the thruth!

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:23:08 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: HA HA .... fooled you!..... click on the link for the entire "clarification" by the NYTimes of the debacle at our number one law enforcement agency! What a joke! The joke is on us! This President, and his buddy Gonzales could care less about the rule of law, and hence about this country! It is disgusting how they continue to get away with this stuff.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Mr. Gonzales’s Never-Ending Story

Published: July 29, 2007

President Bush often insists he has to be the decider — ignoring Congress and the public when it comes to the tough matters on war, terrorism and torture, even deciding whether an ordinary man in Florida should be allowed to let his wife die with dignity. Apparently that burden does not apply to the functioning of one of the most vital government agencies, the Justice Department.

Mr. Bush refused to fire him after it was clear Mr. Gonzales lied about his role in the political purge of nine federal prosecutors. And he is still refusing to do so

Democratic lawmakers are asking for a special prosecutor to look into Mr. Gonzales’s words and deeds. Solicitor General Paul Clement has a last chance to show that the Justice Department is still minimally functional by fulfilling that request.

If that does not happen, Congress should impeach Mr. Gonzales.

Tags: bush, politics, gonales

For God’s Sake

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 11:00:19 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: This attack against the separation of church and state has been going on for a long time.

Clip Source: select.nytimes.com

For God’s Sake

In 1981, Gary North, a leader of the Christian Reconstructionist movement — the openly theocratic wing of the Christian right — suggested that the movement could achieve power by stealth. “Christians must begin to organize politically within the present party structure,” he wrote, “and they must begin to infiltrate the existing institutional order.”

Today, Regent University, founded by the televangelist Pat Robertson to provide “Christian leadership to change the world,” boasts that it has 150 graduates working in the Bush administration.

Monica Goodling, a product of the university’s law school. She’s the former top aide to Alberto Gonzales who appears central to the scandal of the fired U.S. attorneys and has declared that she will take the Fifth rather than testify to Congress on the matter.

the Texas Republican Party pledges to “dispel the myth of the separation of church and state.”

Tags: politics, religion, separation, republican

Have you ever been accused

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:16:53 GMT

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Clip Source: select.nytimes.com

Mr. Gonzales may be a nonentity, but he’s a nonentity like Zelig. He’s been present at every dubious legal crossroads in Mr. Bush’s career. That conjoined history began in 1996, when Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, was summoned for jury duty in Austin. To popular acclaim, he announced he was glad to lend his “average guy” perspective to a drunken driving trial. But there was one hitch. On the juror questionnaire, he left blank a required section asking, “Have you ever been accused, or a complainant, or a witness in a criminal case?”

A likely explanation for that omission, unknown to the public at the time, was that Mr. Bush had been charged with disorderly conduct in 1968 and drunken driving in 1976. Enter Mr. Gonzales.

Mr. Gonzales met with the judge presiding over the trial in his chambers (a meeting Mr. Gonzales would years later claim to have “no recollection” of requesting) and saved his client from jury duty.

Tags: politics, gonzales, bush

When Will Fredo Get Whacked?

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:54:54 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: Fredo outdone himself with this statement.

"his infamous 2002 memo dismissing the Geneva Conventions’ strictures on torture as “quaint” and “obsolete.”

Clip Source: select.nytimes.com

When Will Fredo Get Whacked?

PRESIDENT BUSH wants to keep everything that happens in his White House secret, but when it comes to his own emotions, he’s as transparent as a teenager on MySpace.

The Jekyll-and-Hyde contrast between these two performances couldn’t be a more dramatic indicator of Mr. Bush’s priorities in his presidency’s endgame. His passion for protecting his power and his courtiers far exceeds his passion for protecting the troops he’s pouring into Iraq’s civil war. But why go to the mat for Alberto Gonzales?

misrepresenting a Justice Department purge of eight United States attorneys, all political appointees, for political reasons — seems an easy-to-settle kerfuffle next to his infamous 2002 memo dismissing the Geneva Conventions’ strictures on torture as “quaint” and “obsolete.”

Actually, he’s going to stay focused on protecting the president.

Once he can no longer be useful in that role, it’s a sure thing that like Scooter before him, Fredo will be tossed overboard.

Tags: politics, federal prosecutors

Replace a U.S. Attorney Killed by Terrorism?.......

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 11:23:07 GMT

clipped by: schreibe
clipper's remarks: I didn't have room to post this next paragraph...but here it is in all it's gory!
Disgusting!
========================================================
In firing the prosecutors and replacing them without Senate approval, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took advantage of a little-noticed provision that the administration and its Republican enablers in Congress had slipped into the 2006 expansion of the Patriot Act. The ostensible purpose was to allow the swift interim replacement of a United States attorney who was, for instance, killed by terrorism.
But these firings had nothing to do with national security — or officials’ claims that the attorneys were fired for poor performance. This looks like a political purge, pure and simple, and President Bush and his White House are in the thick of it.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Politics, Pure and Cynical

Published: March 14, 2007

We wish we’d been surprised to learn that the White House was deeply involved in the politically motivated firing of eight United States attorneys, but the news had the unmistakable whiff of inevitability. This disaster is just part of the Bush administration’s sordid history of waving the bloody bullhorn of 9/11 for the basest of motives: the perpetuation of power for power’s sake.

Time and again, President Bush and his team have assured Americans that they needed new powers to prevent another attack by an implacable enemy. Time and again, Americans have discovered that these powers were not being used to make them safer, but in the service of Vice President Dick Cheney’s vision of a presidency so powerful that Congress and the courts are irrelevant, or Karl Rove’s fantasy of a permanent Republican majority.

to allow the swift interim replacement of a United States attorney who was, for instance, killed by terrorism.

Tags: federal prosecutors, patriot act, u.s. attorneys