At some point, it all becomes unbelievable.
President George W. Bush has not made many moves more unethical than offering Noel L. Hillman, the Abramoff prosecutor, a federal judgeship. Hillman has apparently been talking with Bush’s representatives since last year, and on last Thursday, he publicly announced he was accepting the appointment.
Let me make this perfectly clear.
At the same time that Mr. Hillman was conducting a grand jury and submitting evidence aimed at Bush’s allies and perhaps Bush himself, he was meeting with Bush, who was, in effect, offering him a bribe.
Mr. Hillman, Bush is saying, leave the job, let me put someone else in your stead, someone I want. Forget, says Mr. Bush, that you have been in charge of the investigation for two years, that you have been involved on a day-to-day basis, and that your leaving seriously impedes the investigation.
All this had been kept quiet until Thursday, January 26, 2006. Neither the Bush administration nor Mr. Hillman thought it appropriate to let anyone know what was going on until the deal was done. Secrecy, the modus operandi of this administration, kept the information from the public.
President Richard Nixon was the last one who tried something like this, but he didn’t get away with it. In 1971, he invited a California federal trial judge, Matthew Byrne, then sitting on the criminal prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg for his release of the Pentagon Papers, to Nixon’s San Clemente home, to offer Byrne the job of heading the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Byrne accepted the invitation. A limousine sent by Nixon picked Byrne up after the court. The next morning, at 7am, John Ehrlichman sent a limousine to Byrne to get his answer.
Neither Nixon nor Byrne nor Ehrlichman released information about any of the meetings. But secrecy, the modus operandi of that administration, did not work.
That day, the story leaked. Leonard Weinglass, one of the attorneys for the defense, virtually cross-examined the judge in the courtroom. The judge confirmed the meetings and then turned down the job.
Byrne then denied a recusal motion, continuing with the case. Byrne, then totally aware of his impropriety, ultimately dismissed the case, in part, because of the storm created by his secret Nixon meetings.
Both Matthew Byrne and Noel Hillman have good reputations. Byrne recognized that he was offered a bribe and turned it down.
I do not personally know Mr. Hillman. Thus far, his public actions seem to warrant only applause. But Hillman’s boss is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Neither has said a word about the offer and its acceptance. The public is entitled to know more.
But Bush is getting away with it. There’s been very little press coverage. Alito, Hamas, Iraq, and Oprah Winfrey have buried the story.
The Democrats should insist on the appointment of a special prosecutor to fill Mr. Hillman’s position. Attorney General Gonzales should not be permitted to designate Hillman’s successor.
This, unlike the botched up Alito hearings, is a war we can win. We should not let Bush appoint his own person, someone like Harriet Miers, Samuel Alito, or the man Bush’s father said was the best person qualified for a Supreme Court seat, Clarence Thomas.
It is nearly impossible to have faith in any of America’s governing personnel or institutions. This administration’s total disregard for law and ethics continues to shock even though we thought we were by now unshockable.
but according to my democratically elected, democratic congressional representative, there is enough of a question about whether his actions are impeachable or not that “more investigations” are necessary before we jail this bastard…
big surprise…
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — A majority of Americans said the presidency of George W. Bush has been a failure and that they would be more likely to vote for congressional candidates who oppose him, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
Fifty-two percent of adults said Bush’s administration since 2001 has been a failure, down from 55 percent in October. Fifty- eight percent described his second term as a failure. At the same point in former President Bill Clinton’s presidency, 70 percent of those surveyed by Gallup said they considered it a success and 20 percent a failure.
In a poll conducted in January of 2002, after Bush was president for one year, 83 percent of those surveyed said his presidency was a success.
In the new poll, conducted Jan. 20-22, fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to vote for congressional candidates who do not support Bush’s policies.
The percentage of Americans who called Bush ‘honest and trustworthy’ fell 7 percentage points in the last year to 49 percent, the poll found.
The new poll also found that 62 percent of Americans said they are ‘dissatisfied’ with ‘the way things are going’ in the U.S., unchanged from a December survey. The percentage of ‘dissatisfied’ Americans reached its peak in October of 2005 when 68 percent of those surveyed agreed.
The survey interviewed 1,006 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. For the questions about whether Bush’s presidency is a success, about 500 U.S. adults were surveyed and the margin for error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.
if that’s the case then why isn’t there more action towards getting him out of office and into a jail uniform? 8/
by the way, in a typical republican move, they moved up the vote for alito’s confirmation from tomorrow to today but didn’t tell anyone in hopes that the democrats won’t get behind a filibuster. i heard about the possibility on friday, and sure enough, today it’s announced.
tomorrow is too late!
ACLU sues Homeland Security for arresting, spying on vegans who protested ham
The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit in Atlanta on behalf of two vegan protesters who were subjected to imprisonment, arrest and harassment by Homeland Security officials.
The lawsuit stems from a Dec. 2003 incident, when vegans Caitlin Childs and Christopher Freeman were protesting on public property outside a Honey Baked Ham store in Georgia’s DeKalb County.
After the protest, the duo noticed they were being watched and photographed by a man in an unmarked car. They approached the car and wrote down the make, model, color and license plate number on a piece of paper. They then noticed the unmarked car was following them.
According to the ACLU suit, the car contained both a uniformed police officer and an undercover detective, later identified as Homeland Security Detective D.A. Gorman. The two pulled in behind Childs and Freeman and ordered them to exit their car.
Gorman then demanded that she turn over the piece of paper on which she had copied his license tag number. Childs refused to hand the paper over, and was handcuffed.
She was searched a male officer, despite her request to be searched only by a female officer, the ACLU says.
Both Childs and Freeman were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Police confiscated the piece of paper and Childs’ house keys. Both were released from custody, but neither the piece of paper nor the keys were returned. The county has not pursued a criminal case.
To view the surveillance photos taken by Homeland Security, go to http://www.aclu.org/spyfiles/honeyham/1.html.
More from the ACLU’s release:
“All across the country, the ACLU is uncovering information about Americans engaged in peaceful protest being spied on by Homeland Security, the FBI and local police,” said Debbie Seagraves, Executive Director of the ACLU of Georgia. “It is deeply disturbing that the government would use resources intended to protect national security to instead spy on innocent Americans who do nothing more than express their opinions on social and political issues.”
The ACLU argues that by stopping and detaining Childs and Freeman for no legal reason and then refusing to tell them why they had been pulled over, Detective Gorman and the DeKalb County Police Department deprived them of their right to be secure in their person and to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The officials’ actions violated the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the federal and state constitutions, charged the ACLU.
“People of this country need to realize that our basic human rights are being whittled away on a daily basis,” Freeman said. “I hope this case brings to light the fact that anyone can come under government security and pay the price.”
In addition to the lawsuit, the ACLU has filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on behalf of Childs and Freeman to uncover any surveillance files kept on the activists by Homeland Security or other law enforcement agencies. ACLU affiliates in 15 other states have filed similar requests with the FBI on behalf of more than 100 groups and individuals, as part of a nationwide effort to expose unlawful domestic spying.
Last month, the ACLU of Michigan obtained an FBI report summarizing a meeting that was intended to keep local, state and federal law enforcement agencies apprised of planned protests and activities by various groups and individuals. Among the groups discussed at the meeting were an affirmative action advocacy group and a peace and justice group.
The ACLU launched its national “Spy Files” effort last year in response to widespread complaints from students and political activists who said they were questioned by FBI agents in the months leading up to the political conventions. The FOIA requests seek two kinds of information: 1) the actual FBI files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out or practicing their faith; and, 2) information about how the practices and funding structure of joint task forces between the FBI and local police may be encouraging rampant and unwarranted spying.
no, it’s not the war on vegetarians, it’s the war on terrorists… this just goes right along with bush and his unwarranted domestic wiretaps, and it’s another reason why we need to revolt and oust these people from power… and people think it’s dangerous for me to wear a button that says "I Am A Terrorist!"… 8/
those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
It’s very close to being enough to make someone seriously consider abandoning ship and migrating somewhere else. I know I am considering a move elsewhere once I’m finished with my schooling.
i don’t want to seem like a negative thinker, but i believe that the combination of the fact that our “leaders” seem particularly good at obfuscation in the process of stealing our rights, and the fact that there’s an appalling degree of apathy amongst a majority of Americans these days, says that is exactly what will happen… 8(
Unknown where the Cursed Wave was born…
After the stars doth cross the heavens…
The sky in the East doth darken.
And air doth fills with mourning.
From the chosen land beyond the forest,
A sign of the Wave comes.
Riding the Wave is: Skeith, the Shadow of Death,
to drown all that stands.
Mirage of Deceit, Innis,
Betray all with the flawed image,
and did aid the Wave.
And by the Power of Magus,
a drop from the Wave doth reach the heavens,
and creates a new Wave.
With the Wave, Fidchell,
the power to tell the dark future,
hope darkens, sadness and despair rule.
Gorre schemes when swallowed by the Cursed Wave.
Macha seduces with the sweet trap.
Wave reaches the Pinnacle, and escape none can.
Tarvos still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy.
And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave.
Only a void remains.
From deep within the void arrives Corbenik.
-Excerpted from the Epitaph of Twilight, a fictitous poem written for an RPG. It just seemed to resonate to me at the moment.
It’s possible the nightmare could stop before all the Phases arrive, but I don’t know if it will.
apparently so… i just hope the ride is over before this country turns into a modern nazi germany… 8(
This presidency stopped making sense the minute Bush was elected the first time. And now, we seem cursed to ride the wave out, because nobody wants to do anything.