Gonzales Finally Resigns

By Ben Cohen


Alberto Gonzales, the U.S Attorney General FINALLY resigned after months of public humiliation. Having shown himself to be either completely incompetent or a liar, Gonzales swayed to public pressure announcing his depature from the White House today. Read the New York Times article for the full story: Click here Read more!

Here and no further

by Ari Rutenberg

Once again, for the umpteenth time in the past year the Democrats in congress have demonstrated their complete lack of connection with the American people as well as the feature that Republicans love to talk about, and are unfortunately right about: their spinelessness. Have they not heard us? Have they not listened to the cry of the people for genuine change? With the passage of the "temporary" FISA-destroying electronic surveillance bill last week the Democrats showed us that they were more interested in going on vacation on time than getting the work done right. As several Democrats have said they "do not want to go on vacation without passing an intelligence reform bill" because they fear that if an attack occurs they will be politically vulnerable. This to me is simply unacceptable. They were elected to run the country, not to protect their own careers.
It is a genuine indictment of this Congress that they cannot see past their own vacations. They believe that it is better to keep their vacation schedule and force through another poorly written and half-baked law like the PATRIOT Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The would rather go on vacation and give Alberto Gonzales, who aside from his obvious political problems is clearly not competent to run the Justice Department, the power to OK domestic wiretapping with no oversight what so ever.
Now this is not a power any attorney general should have as it completely eliminated any process of checks and balances for domestic wiretapping. That being said it seems especially egregious to give such carte blanche for spying to Alberto Gonzales, who in both a political and professional sense is in no way qualified to use such a power wisely and for the purpose it was intended.
It would seem from this episode that the Democrats simply have not learned from the past 8 months. This is not about Republicans, or George Bush changing his demands after legislation had been agreed to. Instead this time the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. This is about putting image and job ahead of reason and country. Instead of staying to uphold their oaths and write a bill that addresses the so-called problems (read here warrants and due process) with domestic wiretapping, they simply gave Bush everything he wanted and then said "well its only temporary and we'll deal with it in six months." That six months more of eroding freedoms. Six months more of Bush and Gonzo having powers that no one should have in our system of government. Six months more of no accountability in government.
In the end this is about the Democrats being more afraid of the media and what they might be called by Republicans then actually doing what is in the interest of the security of the commonwealth. When will the Democrats start standing up for the American people and the constitution? When will they say enough with political games and empty rhetoric? When will they say the only thing the American public wants to hear: here, and no further. Read more!

Oh dear...Alberto Gonzales goes back before the Senate

by Ari Rutenberg

Where even to begin with the Attorney General. He has been so inept and incompetent that one might think almost nothing he could do would shock the conscience anymore. And yet you would be wrong.

First the latest news from the Associated Press, via thinkprogress.org:

The AP reports that a four-page memo sent by then-National Intelligence Director John Negroponte in May 2006 confirms that a March 2004 White House intelligence briefing for top congressional leaders was on “the Terrorist Surveillance Program.”

The revelation is significant because just yesterday Alberto Gonzales testified that the White house briefing was about “other intelligence activities.”

“The dissent related to other intelligence activities,” Gonzales testified at Tuesday’s hearing. “The dissent was not about the terrorist surveillance program.”

“Not the TSP?” responded Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “Come on. If you say it’s about other, that implies not. Now say it or not.”

“It was not,” Gonzales answered. “It was about other intelligence activities.”

In response to that and other totally fabricated and mendacious testimony, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary committee said the following (again from thinkprogress.org)

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) warned Gonzales yesterday: “My suggestion to you is you review your testimony to find out if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable,” Specter said. Time reports, “The maximum penalty for being caught lying to Congress is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count. Specter wryly noted to reporters during a break that there is a jail in the Capitol complex.” (read the full article)

If Republicans are saying he clearly perjured himself in front of Congress, then these are dire times indeed for General Gonzales. It is shameful that the DoJ has been reduced to such a pale and malicious caricature of its former self. Though I do not want to sanitize the record of the DoJ in terms of its often oppressive and sometimes unlawful conduct, there has been a sense at least since World War II that it should operate independently of the normal political machinations of the government in terms of consistently, fairly, and blindly applying the law to everyone including holding other branches of government and themselves accountable for their misdeeds.
It is very disappointing to see these ideologues throw away such noble sentiment in favor of bold politicization and dogmatic ideological purity among even the professional ranks of the department. And to make the DoJ party to criminal manipulation of the Justice system and the electoral process, as the U.S. Attorney firings blatantly have done, seems to me one of the most dishonorable and contemptible actions a government could perpetrate on a supposedly free people, if indeed it does not rise to the level of unconstitutional activity and possibly outright treason.
It is time for this government to be held accountable for its disgraceful, immoral, and illegal mismanagement of our government. Alberto Gonzales should be tried for perjury and Bush and Cheney should be impeached. There is nor more time for political correctness. There is only, maybe, enough time to stop these men before they permanently damage our government's most basic ability to function. Read more!