"The rats are jumping ship"

That's the title of the email I recieved from a friend of mine who forwarded me this. You know when lawyers jump ship there's something wrong somewhere!

Career Lawyers Leaving Justice Department
by Ari Shapiro

Civil Rights Division Letters Critics say these two letters are evidence of the division's changing culture. A Justice spokesman says there is no fundamental difference between the two.

Vista, Calif., Letter (2003) (Requires Adobe Acrobat)

Franklin, Ohio, Letter (2005) (Requires Adobe Acrobat)

Morning Edition, October 6, 2005 · Tension has been growing between career lawyers and political appointees in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, according to some longtime career attorneys who have recently left the division. Now the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding confirmation hearings for a new leader of the politically sensitive group.

Some career professionals who have left the Civil Rights Division say they left because they were shut out of the decision making process in a way that did not occur under previous administrations.

Darn. I missed Morning Edition today because I had a job interview. The letters are interesting and definitely are not just variations on a theme, but you can judge for yourself.

Now, George, There You Go Again!

Have you ever noticed that when things aren't going well for Bush he gives a speach reminding us about the terrorists who hate us because we are free?

He did it again today, and I'm going to go out on a limb today to predict that within six weeks, he will find a way to up the Terror Alert. Will there be a real threat? Doesn't matter - the neocons have turned the terror alerts into a joke and no one will believe them anyway. Just look at the history of the alerts vs. Bush administration problems. Somwhere on Frankenbot I've got a list I was compiling and as soon and I'll post it as I find it.

The speech today was given before the National Endowment for Democracy, a doublespeak group founded during Reagan's WH. To find out the skinny on the group, click here for the Cato Institute, or if you are in a Googling mood, click yourself silly.

Here are some highlights and some of my heckling of his speech.

In this new century, freedom is once again assaulted by enemies determined to roll back generations of democratic progress. Once again, we're responding to a global campaign of fear with a global campaign of freedom. And once again, we will see freedom's victory. [I didn't think the definition of a global campaign of freedom was lying to the American public and the UN about WMD and then going to war about it while many of our friends opposed us. I guess they just don't love freedom like we do.]

[snip]

I appreciate Carl Gershman. [Carl Gershman? The same Carl Gershman who was a member of the Socialist Party USA in the 70s? The answer to that is apparently yes.]

[snip]

The government of Russia did not support Operation Iraqi Freedom, and yet the militants killed more than 180 Russian schoolchildren in Beslan. [It might be prudent to note that the militants who did this were Checnyan rebels; so because the Russian government did NOT support Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Checnyan rebels killed the 180 schoolchildren? What would they have done if Russia had supported it?]

There's more, but it's the usual warmed over rehash of old material. You can read the full text here.

I spy with my little eye....

This is from ABC News:

Oct. 5, 2005 — Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history.

Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I don't know of a case where the vetting broke down before and resulted in a spy being in the White House," said Richard Clarke, a former White House advisor who is now an ABC News consultant.

Federal investigators say Aragoncillo, a naturalized citizen from the Philippines, used his top secret clearance to steal classified intelligence documents from White House computers.

In 2000, Aragoncillo worked on the staff of then-Vice President Al Gore. When interviewed by Philippine television, he remarked how valued Philippine employees were at the White House.

"I think what they like most is our integrity and loyalty," Aragoncillo said.

Aragoncillo admits to spying in while in Cheney's office, and he worked at Al Gore's office when he was VP, but he doesn't whether he spyed there as well.

Huffington Post has good dirt on Miers.

What is it with Texans and corruption? What'd they all do: go to the J.R. Ewing School of Ethics? David Sirota at the Huffington Post reports this:

In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm. That's right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that "it aided a client in defrauding investors."

The details of the case are both nauseating and highly troubling, considering President Bush is considering putting Miers at the top of America's legal system. Under Miers' leadership, the firm represented the head of a "foreign currency trading company [that] was allegedly a Ponzi scheme." The law-firm admitted that it "knew in March 1998 that $ 8 million in [the company's] losses hadn't been reported to investors" but didn't tell regulators.

Read more here.

Quick! Say "Corrupt Corporate Conservative Cronies" five times real fast!

O'Reilly does bait and switch with David Kline

David Kline's blog is BlogRevolt.com and here's an excerpt about his date with Bill O'Really, er, O'Reilly.

Last night I appeared on the conservative TV talk show The O'Reilly Factor, ostensibly to talk about political blogs and the impact they are having on the American political process.

Or so I was told by the two producers for the show who spent over an hour pre-interviewing me. Unbeknownst to me, however, the show turned out to be a total set-up job in which host Bill O'Reilly and guest Jed Babbin spent the entire time attacking the web site Media Matters for having posted commentary in the past critical of them both.

Kline had been invited on the talk show to supposed to have a chat about the impact of American blogs and how they are affected the American political process. Alas, at the last minute, O'Reilly (can't imagine why) and his producers pulled a bait and switch and railed on against Media Matters. Media Matter doesn't seem to be very fond of Bill, and aren't afraid to show it. Anyway O'Reilly got his knickers in a knot about this, and went off on the blog, despite Kline having absolutely nothing to do with the blog whatsoever.

It's a good read. You should click here.

While you're at it, check out Media Matters to see their reaction to this. Here's a choice cut:

In a segment on the October 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor that he promoted as examining "the most vicious political websites in the country," host Bill O'Reilly named Media Matters for America "the worst," falsely claiming that Media Matters "make[s] stuff [up] about me ... [e]very day of my life" and has "no ethics or scruples." He also referred to Media Matters as "assassins" and called those alerting the media of items posted at Media Matters "zombies."

Nothing like a good cat fight to help you wake up in the morning while you are waiting for the coffee to brew!

The Wild, Wild South

First of all, let me go on record as saying I'm for responsible gun ownership. I have family members who are hunters, and I can also understand the need of having a gun for protection as long as a person knows how to use it properly. However, I think Florida has gone a bit bonkers on his. And I think the National Rifle Association went bonkers long ago.

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Clark Ramm sees shades of the Wild West in Florida's new law giving greater legal protections to people who shoot or use other deadly force when threatened or attacked.

"It seems like everybody ought to be packing a piece," said Ramm, a visitor from Ukiah, California. "I don't know if that's the right thing to do."

Ramm and other tourists found out about the law Monday from a gun control group handing out leaflets at Miami International Airport.

The leaflets begin with the words "An Important Notice to Florida Visitors" in bold red type by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

"Do not argue unnecessarily with local people," it says. "If someone appears to be angry with you, maintain to the best of your ability a positive attitude, and do not shout or make threatening gestures."

Florida's "stand your ground" law, which took effect Saturday, removes a duty on the part of citizens to retreat in the face of an attack as long as they are in a place they have a legal right to be, including a public street or their place of business.

It also gives immunity from criminal or civil charges to a shooter as long as the person shot is not a police officer.
The rest of the article is here.

The NRA thinks the measure will make Florida a safer place. I lived for about 40 years in Florida, and it's not guns that will make it a safer place, it's people not acting like jerks while they are armed! Unfortunately legislating the jerk factor is hard to do.

I'm not aware of any city, state, or nation with a law like this. Florida used to have a slogan in the 70's: "The Rules Are Different Here." It looks like they still are.

Let me give you a theoretical situation to describe the problem I have with the "Stand Your Ground" law.

Stan has a restaurant in Coconut Grove and late one Saturday night the police are called to the restaurant because he says he was being robbed and shot the intruder. Under the law, Stan isn't in danger of being charged with murder if the alleged robber dies. But what if he wasn't being robbed and mistook the actions of a foreigner who was just trying to break and fifty dollar bill. It's Stan's word against the dead guys. And the dead guy isn't going contribute much to the conversation. What was a request for change turned into a murder of an innocent man. But if Stan says he was threatened, it's OK.

This is just a bad law. Florida's governor: Jeb Bush, presidential brother.

Brother in Idaho Prison Needs Assistance

I have a brother in the Idaho prison in Boise. He has numerous health problems, including bipolar disorder, type 1 diabetes and dystonia.

He is only getting 4 of his 11 physician prescribed medications, which is adversely affecting his health. A few days ago he suffered an insulin reaction. His blood sugar went down into the 30's. It could have been avoided if the guards had not taken the food he is allowed to keep in his room to prevent such reactions.

If anyone knows of an prisoner advocacy group there, please let me know. I've not had much luck online, and Idaho is a bit backward when it comes to dealing with mentally ill prisoners.

Actually, they are backward with dealing with the mentally ill period. When my mother was severely depressed and in the midst of a disassociative attack, the police were called because my mother was turning violent. Did they take her to a mental health facility or hospital? No, they arrested her. Yes, arrested her. It's Idaho's way of dealing with the mentally ill when the police are called to help. When she finally came out of the dissassociate fugue, she found herself in chains before a judge. She should have been in a hospital, not in jail. That gives you an idea of what the Idaho criminal justice system is like when dealing with the mentally ill.

I don't know if the ACLU deals with this type of problem my brother is having, but I'm sure John probably isn't the only prisoner having these problems. I've emailed the ACLU and I'm awaiting a response. Because has no access to computers, so I'm doing the virtual legwork for him. If anyone can help, please let me know and feel free to pass on my email (bovina_sancta@yahoo.com) to anyone you think might be able to help John.

At this point I am concerned for his life. If he had not been found the other night, he could have died from the insulin reaction.