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Friday, July 11, 2008

Karl Rove skips the country
Posted by Jill | 6:14 AM
Yesterday Karl Rove told the House Judiciary Committee to go Cheney itself. Not only did he not appear as required by subpoena, but it seems he's left the country in a trip that was scheduled LONG before the subpoena -- but about which his lawyers didn't see fit to inform the Committee.





Last night on Dan Abrams' show, Linda Sanchez phumpered around the question of whether she would invoke inherent contempt and subject Karl Rove to arrest, and Politico is reporting that a vote won't be held until later this month, presumably after the Committee's collective fingers in the wind determine if it's "safe" to uphold the rule of law.

As for the claim of executive privilege, Marcy Wheeler notes that the Bush Administration has NOT explicitly claimed executive privilege for Karl Rove. The bind for the Administration is that these hearings are about the politicization of the Justice Department, including, but not limited to, the attorney purge. A claim of executive privilege for Karl Rove would by definition mean White House involvement in this politicization -- and the White House is trying to keep its hands clean.

Will they throw Rove under the bus? Hardly -- he knows too much. But once again, the House is in a position to find its collective nutsack. I for one am not optimistic that it'll do so.

(h/t)

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Our Futile Attempts at Some Semblence of Justice...And Trying Not to Forget What We Were Trying to Remember a Second Ago....
Posted by Anonymous | 6:54 PM




In the better late than never file of don't hold your breath wishes we got a lil' surprise today that likely won't add up to a hill of beans. The house Judiciary Committee finally filed criminal contempt of congress charges against White House Attorney,Harriet Miers, and Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolton for disregarding subpoenas issued to them regarding the firings of US Attorneys last year.
According to Brad Blog, this story broke today, and is hanging only on one last chance being offered to the White House to produce Miers and Bolton for testimony, before the motion goes before the entire House. And then according to Raw Story, the White House doesn't give a shit, as usual, calling a congressional criminal contempt charge a "futile filing that won't go anywhere." The pathetic thing is that they are probably right. If these charges had legs, the White House, such as it is, would pardon them or retroactively pass a law or whatever else they have in their bag o' tricks.

And that's the rub; the real contempt that the White House has for our system should be looked at closely. It is, as Sam Seder said on Sunday on his unequaled show, Seder on Sundays, a form of mental illness that has become common in the right wing of this thing.
I hate to go into Janeane Garafolo's cognitive dissonance theory, which I seem to find reason to return to all too often these days, but it seems like I have to. In embracing the contempt that these people feel for the system and what they think is their God given right or due, they have confused the wrong and right of things, and in that confusion they end up embracing the dark side because thew reality of what they've done to our system and to the people who live by this system would be just too much for an ordinary mind to handle. When you embrace a failed idea that has hurt so many people, how can you live with yourself...and further, it takes a particularly strong person to face the truth and to accept their own flawed thinking in a circumstance. of the many words that I could think of to describe this bunch, strong is not one of them.

If a candidate purports to support the Constitution and laws of the United States while he is running for office, how can he turn 180 degrees over these long years and continue as if his administration is above the law...whatever laws are left...and change the entire tone of America's place in the international community. Isn't there some sorta recall for this? Don't we have some sorta recourse?

Oh yeah...impeachment....and I guess that's futile too, as is trying to prevent nominees for important posts with alot of power from taking offices where they might just continue the repugnant practices that the criminals who were previously in those offices practiced. Futile...


That's what Schumer tells us anyway. Its something about the devil you know. But before you know it, you've embraced that devil so hard that you lose any ability to tell right from wrong and you forget how things used to be.

We're fucked.



C/P on RIPCoco

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Monday, April 16, 2007

Justice Department Fails to Comply with House Judiciary Subpoena
Posted by SPIIDERWEB™ | 10:25 PM

Surprise! Surprise! The Bush administration just doesn't give a damn about oversight and certainly won't have anything to do with it.
Today, U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) issued the following statement in response to the Justice Department’s failure to comply with the Committee’s subpoena response deadline of 2 p.m. today. The subpoena seeks information the Department has continued to refuse to provide or has provided only in redacted (read conspiratorial) form.

“We are disappointed that the Justice Department failed to produce the documents and other materials for which we issued a subpoena last week. While we understand that the Department considers this effort a priority and we plan to continue working with them, we will review all available legal options to secure compliance with the subpoena.” [emphasis mine or Eli's]

I guess they forget who's holding the reins now.

Each day it seems the Democrats are becoming more like stallions than geldings. They seem to be capable of growing balls.

(read more)

H/T Eli

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