Giving Gonzales more power?
By Steve Benen Monday Aug 13, 2007 4:59pmFor a man who no one seriously believes should be Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales seems to be acquiring more power, not less. Two weeks ago, under the administration’s FISA “fix,” the AG’s office obtained new auditing authority over warrantless surveillance. This week, the AG’s office is poised to get the authority to “fast track” death penalty appeals.
The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts.
Even if the Attorney General weren’t an honesty-challenge incompetent, this would be a bad idea. But with Gonzales as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, it’s a ridiculously bad idea.
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My question is: Why was this authority given as part of the renewal of the so called "Patriot" Act?
what more proof does anyone need to know that the Democrats are no better than Republicans.
GOSH DARN IT......i am sick of this crap
What next? Giving George W. Bush and Dick Cheney control of enough nuclear weapons to wipe out the world ten times over? Oh, thats right, they already have that kind of control. Gulp.
Our country, as we knew it, is lost to us, forever. And, I fear, we have not yet learned enough to build one anew. 'Sucks to be us.
those guys on death row are puckering right now(in calif)granted some do deserve to die(sex crimes with children w/murder)..but what about the guys who are innocent. That's been proven by DNA testing that they have arrested,put on trial and convicted to die...the wrong people.as I said before some guys do deserve to die....the ones who have confessed to crimes involving children....or other sick grisly crimes ....so now they won't have as long to appeal....he's going to change Calif into Texas......got a rope
yet another move to show the world how evolved we are... killing kids, the mentally disabled... now faster than ever!
it makes me sick.
"We need to make sure all due process is done, just as long as we can do it during the commercial."
I'm telling ya, the last few years of warrant less surveillance have been used on our Representatives and they are now marching lock step no matter what they claim!
Or the Democrats have hired Repugs as interns and staffers to read the bills for them before they rubber stamp.
Either way we're hosed kids.
Doesn't matter what you...or any of us think. He's Chimpy's pal, so he stays.
Give Chimpy this much. He understands that if you simply wait it out for a few days, the MSM gets bored and moves on to another story.
Jesus Christ, somebody stop the insanity! I don't trust this man at all and he'll have people's lives in his hands. How fu*king stupid are we? Time to raise a little hell!
WTF? How the hell does stuff like this happen? How does a man who is universally acknowledged to be a disgrace in his job accumulate MORE authority?
And with so many death row inmates being exonerated by DNA evidence these days, is "fast-tracking" their appeals process the way to ensure justice is done? Or is it just another example of neocon bloodlust?
by doing this he is certainly stacking the deck against the repub's in the next election.....
This from people of the state that declared "everyone on death row deserved to be there" only to find DNA evidence that didn't support that claim at all.
Goodbye Democracy..nice to know ya.
I guess this makes as much sense as anything else in this crazy bizzarro Bush world... AG who should probably be on trial for perjury if not in the middle of an impeachment trial for incompetence.. Should be... But....Naaahhhh.. this congress is congenitally incapable of doing anything that might actually challenge Bush's phony authoritarian overreach, let alone actually piss him off... Soooo, (drum roll please) instead... Of course, let's give this AG dude more power... I don't think he's really fucked up quite enough yet...Obviously congress doesn't think so either..
Maybe he can fast track an innocent person or two to death instead of waiting out the regular, you know, proscribed legal process...... I've heard they were big on that puttin em to death without wasting time thing in Texas back in the wholly bad old days of the Texas Bushco governorship.... Now, we're fixin to get the full flavor national model version thanks to the Chimpster and Big Al, the tube steak with a legal degree.............
Don't anyone mistake my derision and cynicism here, I am not for freeing criminals and letting all the murderers go.. But to put my faith in this idiot to do his job with expanded powers like this correctly, after completely fucking up to date and proving himself to be a completely corrupted political tool as the nations top law enforcement official.... Fuck, I might just as well put my faith in John Gotti to be an honest businessman..... or support the idea of a statue to Al Capone as a symbol of Chicago civic pride....
Does anyone get what I'm sayin here... Ya just can't trust somone this immoral to do this kind of job ethically....And without the ethical standards required of the person in that position, one can never truly be certain of the legalities of their decisions....
And not to put too fine a point on it... FUCK Alberto Gonzales...and the Bush he rode in on...................JD
God Bless America! The land of the Cowards and the home of the Wiretapped!
The next time you see somebody with a GWB '04' sticker on their rear window...lay some lung butter onto it...especially if the owner is watching you... :)
"Even if the Attorney General weren’t an honesty-challenge incompetent,"
Even though he is incompetent, he is not well-described as 'incompetent.'
He is a co-conspirator, a traitor, a warcriminal, a genocidist, and a torturer.
The problem with Nazis was not that they were also incompetent. Please stop soft-pedaling Bushco criminality to this polite adjective.
Religious conservatives love to kill people bigger than a blastocyst.
The democrats are incompetent, inept, spineless cowards.
How is this happening?
Still suffering shell shock from this FISA debacle....
Why in the world would you give somebody who is under investigation for abuse of power more authority?
Damn--------
Hail To The Chimp @ 19:
Yes, and so sad they are more competent and brave than most Republicans in power.
That's why Gonzo is still in office. The Justice Department needs someone like Gonzo to properly misuse all of that power. Imagine if he was replaced and his replacement actually understood and respected the Constitution.
PopeTodd @ 8:
Just not true.
Democrats will be offering a FISA rewrite, top to bottom, this September (and again as often as it takes to pass it). It made no sense to try to pass that bill in August the day before the break, and the better FISA interim bill they presented in the House on Thursday lost because the House Dem leadership used a process that required 2/3 (in order to suppress R amendments, which would have tied up the departing Congress for weeks). It's not like Bushco has been following the FISA law anyhow -- that's why the bill itself needs a full rewrite. Chairmen Conyers and Reyes have been working on that rewrite, and the Speaker has asked them publically to present that bill in early September.
Those are the facts, and even though disaffiliated impeachment activists are blaming the Speaker for not allowing impeachment bills (because we don't have enough votes in the Senate to actually convict), the facts of this FISA fight are clearly not her fault EITHER. We need to put a rewrite forward, and vote it under amendments in a simple majority vote process. That bill will go to the Senate, and then the fight will become more complex. But this IS moving forward.
People who refuse to acknowledge complexity and demand simplicity from our Congress, ignore the facts.
GOP promotes the "Culture of Life" meme, while serving up another full plate of steaming hypocrisy.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, I must admit I'm beginning to wonder what kind of damning info the Rethugs have on our Democratic representatives. It is just not logical that they keep going along with this stuff. Something stinks. I think this criminal administration has been wiretapping and reading their Emails for several yrs. Something is at work here that we can't see. Don't forget a few yrs ago one of Orin Hatch's office stooges hacked Ted Kennedy's Emails at election time. Like I said, something stinks.
lou dobbs is onboard with bombing iran!!!!what a douch!
Our country, as we knew it, is lost to us, forever....
we’re hosed kids...
Goodbye Democracy..nice to know ya....
Jeez. And here I thought I was a cynical pessimist. Be that as it may, we haven't quite reached the point where we're shoving political dissenters and homosexuals and single mothers and abortion doctors into gas ovens yet. Not that huge injustices have been, are, and will continue to be committed under the present administration and its henchmen like Gonzo. But I don't think we're quite at the stage where we should start jumping out highrise windows en masse in despair just yet.
Bush exposed himself early on as someone who wants to be a dictator. It's no surprise that this entire administration from the git-go has been dedicated to just that aim. But I don't think Bush managed to read that far in his history books - the vast majority of history's dictators, both ancient and modern - didn't get to live out their old age in peace and contentment adored by the people they enjoyed suppressing. He's not likely to end up stabbed by Roman senators or commit suicide in a bunker or hung from a lamppost or shot by a firing squad (twice, in Ceaucescu's case, btw - the film crew botched the first take so they had to stage a second). And even though I am a registered Democrat, I haven't been overly impressed with the current Congress's vertebral calcium content so far either.
However...
The Republican hegemony is coming to an end. And frankly, the only reason I can see for speeding up death penalty convictions would be a last ditch effort to 'fast track' a few rather embarrassing cases into silent oblivion... oh, say... 'terrorists'?
the fisa bill will be re-written and passed to bush for the veto and then back
to the senate where the dems don't have the votes to override.
You are mistaking the Dems for democracy, which has NEVER been as efficient as the public wishes.
• Speaker Pelosi is easily one of the best and most competent politicians in my half-century lifetime.
Ingratitude masks its own inactivity in slanders.
Look this is getting silly... there's not much Democrats can do right now because REPUBLICANS and the PREZIDENT continue to obstruct, and block everything. So if Pelosi tried to impeach Bush it would fail because Bush still has support from his crazed republican base, and all you would here all over the news is how Democrats were defeated yet again by Bush and his cronies. Ain't gonna happen people, it's not the democrats fault, its the people that continue to support Bush and his thugs. Until things get sooo bad that even the most pig headed republican won't support Bush then we will just have to wait.
I expect next election there will be even fewer republicans elected, so everyone just chill.
tr @ 27:
That's true. But you beg the question, since those facts are NOT the Dems' fault, and progress IS only available through that benighted process. The best we can do is put a better bill forward, and work to get Reps and Senators to support those improvements. Bushco's power is not going up, no matter how much people want to help them 'catapult the propaganda' by announcing the end of the world every ten minutes. We ARE making progress.
jdw - while there's much validity in your post, the idea that everyone should 'just chill' is a bit off the mark.
Sure - recognise the things we can't change, don't waste too much time or energy in futility, but 'chilling'? Not much social change was ever instigated by people just sittin' back, havin' a Bud, watching da game, waiting patiently... and chillin'.
We've had enough waitin' and chillin' over the past seven years. I'd like to see a bit more heat being generated under Republican arses, thank you, whether it's a Democratic Congress or just Joe/Jo Schmo ringing up their local Congresscritter and giving him/her hell over just such issues as important as THIS one, thank you.
tyree @ 25:
...must kill the "lepers"...
He probably even thinks he's a Christian! Bearing false witness and supporting state-terrorism and mass-murder has never bothered Lou.
Biggus Diggus @ 3:
No, actually they don't, not outright.
You might want to recall that Rumsfeld hated the Joint Chiefs, because he knew that they opposed his policies. According to Sy Hersh, the JC took nuclear strikes on Iran off the table last Fall -- there is resistance within the Pentagon, and Bushco is losing power by the day within the government bureaucracies.
Which, on topic, is why Gonzales is in deep crap, and sinking. Nevermind that the hysterics have to run around with their hair on fire, nevermind that Bushco barks and the hysterics fall all over themselves pissing each other -- the fact is that 109,000 LOYAL Department of Justice are now empowered to force the AG out of office FROM THE INSIDE -- both through whistleblowing to Congress, internal pressures of various sorts, and non-cooperation.
That Gonzales hasn't been removed IS HURTING BUSHCO. Trumpeting that as if it were a sign of imminent large-scale tyranny both ignores the past seven years, and the progress we have made.
I don't know how many of everyone out there noticed it, but this looks like something the Justice Dept. is trying to give themselves power on.
Just another case of the WH trying to extend its power grab without the consent of Congress.
We may as well put Charles Manson in there as AG. I don't know how he could be any worse or more corrupt than the madman who occupies that position now.
gonzo executed his career long ago, and once bush is gone (hopefully sooner) gonzo will fast track his way out of our lives forever.
nonny mouse @ 31:
Agreed...
My concern is that some people seem to think that all democrats have to do is impeach Bush and problem solved. And we know most Dems would impeach Bush if it had a chance to pass, but it doesn't. It takes congress as a 'WHOLE' for an impeachment to stick. When we do impeach Bush I want it to go through NOT GO DOWN in flames. Fox news would have a field day, the republicans would fire up their base and Dems would suffer a huge defeat. It's like putting all your chips on the table knowing that you can't win the hand. It just doesn't make sense right now. There will come a time, it's just not here yet. Thats my point.
tyree @ 25:
Somehow he sees that as force protection for the troops. I guess he hasn't figured out that starting a war with Iran is going to lead to the deaths of many more American soldiers.
Of course, he was he was interviewing James Woolsey who seems to want to bomb everyone. In June 2006 Woolsey was talking about bombing North Korea on the Situation Room. Woolsey's solution to everything, drop a bomb. Woolsey is one of the guys that got us into this mess in Iraq in the first place.
There are two things which have come out about the renewed Patriot Act. The first gave the AG and president the means to fire US Attorneys and replace them without going through Congress. Now we have this "fast track" to executions. Did anyone in Congress, including the effing Democrats, read what was in the Patriot Act before signing onto it? What else is in there? Some are saying that a blueprint to declare martial law is there.
I love Alberto Gonzales. I just love him and the horse he road in on. (He is reading this, right?)
Or were the Democrats "hoodwinked", to Charles Schumer's words, as they were when they voted for Alito and Roberts?
Carmikl @ 38:
Dobbs: '...we must kill brown-skinned people...'
We must have scapegoats, or else we will be forced to have self-knowledge instead.
Don't worry the dems will...
Ok I couldn't even type it with a straight face.
naschkatze @ 39:
No 'blueprint' matters. Bushco does not have the power, the people, the ability to declare a martial law condition that lasts more than a few days.
Here's the shocking truth (and it ain't new): The Congress has not had the time, or the staff, to read the bills they vote upon. That's been true for at least 50 years. Of course, no one had the ability to read the first Patriot Act, which magically appeared right after Nine-eleven and was forced through in a day or two. Such laws can only be passed through coercion -- mission accomplished.
HOWEVER, we will reverse the Patriot Act overreach, if not in the next two sessions of Congress (within a year), then when we again have a LOYAL President after 2008.
Blaming the Democrats for democracy and the deficiencies of Congress is quite absurd. Look at the crap they endure on our behalf! And all they get is trashed by every tinhorn dictator and the ravenous public. The honest politician gets no respect -- only the ones who tell the people what they want to hear (and then get nothing of it done -- like, HELLO, Dennis Kucinich). You really have to love the country to be willing to do that job honestly.
Liked comment read yesterday:
"If I was anwhere near him (insert Gonzales) they'd have to pull me off of him".
mudshark @ 5:
Who do you think you are to say that some do deserve to die?
Death penalty is one of the very basic things that are wrong in your barbarous nation. Your criminal government constantly demonstrates that the death penalty doesn´t even work as deterrant.
Judge, jury and executioner.
Fucking wonderful.
the 4th Reich is rising @ 46:
4thReich, Most people here (u.s.) find this one more misrepresentation of justice that have us wondering how to get out of here. Gonzales comes from a family of criminals which is why he and Bush are such easy, compatible friends when it comes to extinguishing life. I personally don't understand how creatures such as this have managed to steal this country out from under us.
For a country to call itself civilized there cannot exist a death penalty under any circumstances, and Bush's execution record in TX show there is no life worth saving.
bush and his criminal croney gonzales are tearing away civilities from us as easily as ripping off a spiderweb. They're getting it all from the pimps that represent us.
dothehop @ 34:
That's ALWAYS what they're after. I don't want to scare anyone with what immediately came to mind, only that it has to do with numbers and efficiency.
Paul at 44, I was going to answer you at 29 but took a dinner break. If the Democrats don't undo the bad things in both the FISA bill and the Patriot Act before the next election, I am not voting for them.
Too bad there's no opposition party in this country to fight against a Gonzalez takeover of the country . Once, not so terribly long ago, this country had two parties Now we just have left and right wings of the Republicrats and the difference between those wings is so small it's indecipherable. Yay us!.
Fredo gets more power because he is a Bushie through and through. In the end he'll get a medal too! Apparently no one can touch him, Cheney or Bush. They are playing the entire country for saps. In the end they will waltz laughing all the way back to Texas and laugh about their 8 years of living like royalty while sticking it to anyone who didn't toe the line. They will have a lot to laugh about because while everyone knew what they were about no one could rally enough support to actually do anything to stop them.
Pretty good for a president who can't even speak english.
The death penalty is flat out wrong simply because innocent people have and continue to be put to death. It doesn't work as a deterrent and it costs more to actually carry out the execution than it does to keep the person incarcerated. Further, it is absurd that mandatory DNA tests are not conducted on every death row inmate if there is DNA available. By the way, Republicans don't hate all government social programs. Prison is definitely one they support 100%. Something that has caught my attention is how the police forces in this country seem to look more like S.W.A.T Teams or Special Ops. Blackwater is now setting up a training base in Illinois on no bid contracts government contracts. WTF! Does anyone remember the Police Riot during the Democratic Convention in 1968? The police went batshit and just started whacking protesters left and right. Imagine what a private mercenary army might do to civilians.
Worst. Lawyer. Ever!
I guess states' rights don't apply to executions.
naschkatze @ 50:
They may not be ABLE to undo what is until there is a new President. Your ultimatum may be unreasonable in real terms, having nothing to do with the worthiness of Democrats for your vote.
You do realize the scope of the betrayal by the other party, don't you? Really historic in its proportions. Bushco tried to take over the country, and they failed (while making humongous amounts of filthy and bloody lucre). Their failure doesn't mean that we can magic wand their various treasons in one go round. It has historically taken Congress a decade to respond fully to events of the more normal size (like Cointelpro, and the resulting FISA Act). This set of treasons is so much larger, and the press is still complicit, and the R party is still trying to decide how to cover over their complicity, and yet save their own arses.
Supporting Democrat-led reforms represent one way they can redeem themselves -- but WILL they?
Working to improve the Dem party is better than pretending that a voter boycott can ever really be pertinent. You just shoot yourself in the foot when you weaken the caucus or pretend to being able to.
Paul in LA, they have to prove themselves. After George Bush I don't buy the "just trust me" line from anyone. The Republicans have been very effective obstructionists since they lost the majority, why couldn't the Democrats have done the same when they were in the minority? Or, for that matter, when they are now in the majority? They could have stopped the Supreme Court nominations, they could have kept the FISA legislation from going forward, they could have taken a hard look at the new Patriot Act, they could have started impeachment. Both parties are rotten to the core, and we need new ones to replace them. If Bloomberg runs, he will be a viable third party candidate, not just a spoiler like Nader. I even have a wild hope that Gore will run as an independent.
and to think that many free thinking americans had a difficult time understanding why king george was standing by his man gonzo. when you know more power is coming to you and the oversight to that power is potentially your main man gonzo, why the hell would bush want to get ride of him and maybe actually appoint someone qualified to be A.G.. i simply wonder how long it will take to rebuild our democracy after this administration "heads down the road" to texas.
20 minutes.That's the amount of time it took Gonzo and W to decide life and death in Texas.I can't imagine it taking any longer anywhere else.God Help Us All!
the federalist society death cult think nothing of executing mentally retarded people like Bush did in Texas
Pat Lehy was on Ed Schultz's show today. Lehy said basically they are NOT going to impeach Gonzales. Sad to say, but the Democrats have done nothing to hold Bush/Cheney/Gonzales accountable, which makes them accomplices to the corruption. I had high hopes, for the Democrats,only to be betrayed. I have voted Democrat all my life. Now I feel totally disallusioned by themAnd what's worse they keep forcing Hillary down our throats. Oh by the way, it's already decided, she will be the candidate representing the Democratic Party in the next election. What a dismal future!
naschkatze @ 57:
Simple. They won't damage the Constitution by playing dirty tricks.
Apparently you don't recall Nine-eleven, the anthrax attacks on our Dem leaders (and no R leaders, hmm), the Wellstone assassination (some, like me, say), the lies and scapegoating and deaththreats of the demonstrably EVIL Rapepublican party. Please review.
Sany @ 61:
You do realize that's NOT Leahy's decision to make?
• If Gonzales is impeached, he will be impeached in the HOUSE.
I don't think it will be necessary. Because of the blogs, people think that they are informed about everything. But with 110,000 bureaucrats in the Department of Justice, just how many do you think the conspiracy was able to install? Already Gonzo's assistant, and both White House liasons, and several others have resigned.
• Pressure from WITHIN the Department and the legal system may very well force Gonzales from office. Or, alternatively, DoJ whistleblowing may bring him down. There are many scenarios not considered by the blogistas, with all their weight of knowledge (and surprisingly light understanding of politics within our system).
Sany @ 61:
Hilarious nonsense. You do realize that Fredo and Rove have been caught trying to steal elections, don't you? You completely discount all the EVIDENCE produced by this Congress in the last six months.
• Like many, you mistake newspaper (and blog) reports for facts in law. Nope, that's just hearsay. When it is written as evidence within the Congress -- THAT is evidence. And we have turned up bushels of evidence, and more to come. Bushco is falling apart, and the Dem Congress is much of that effect.
I don't know if any of you heard the report over the weekend that supposedly Rumsfeld has accelerated aging. Cheney is about to cack out. Bush looks like a bulldozer went over his face. Gonzales is universally despised as the toady he is.
Bushco is in sad shape, and the Congress will continue to make inroads against their conspiracy and the R Senators and others who are complicit in their crimes. Our job is to seek and demand justice -- not bash the Dems and blame the wrong people for the gross criminality of the Republican party.
naschkatze @ 57:
1. SCOTUS nominations are handled by the Senate. Senate Dems are not the whole party by far.
2. FISA needs a complete rewrite. That is in the works. So what, on paper some of Bushco's crimes now have a partisan sanction. They weren't following the law anyhow, and FISA has never really worked. The new FISA law will be offered in September.
3. The Patriot Act, in its various versions, cannot be simply legislated away. Bush has signed hundreds of secret orders, and without a loyal (and legally-elected) Executive, it isn't possible to actually stop all that crap. We will reverse quite a bit of the worst stuff in the next session, I believe.
4. Starting an impeachment you can't finish (with conviction and removal) is DUMB. Far better is working to remove the AG and the USA crony Taylor, who are obstructing justice. By naming a raft of special prosecutors as soon as possible, we will be on our way to remove ALL the cronies and putting ALL the conspirators on trial. That's far better than an impeachment STUNT which collapses in the Senate.
fuck this fucking place. my god i cannot WAIT to get out of here.
democracy in the U.S., to the degree that it ever existed, is now officially deader than a doornail.
rubyinparadise @ 66:
Well, and it has been a real pleasure having your royal company. Will you be going back to Versailles soon?
As an interesting counterpoint, Stephen Colbert had a man on tonight who had spent 26 years in prison before DNA evidence cleared him (I'm still wondering: 26 years! How do you pick up the pieces? Find a job? Pee without someone telling you when and where to do so?). He wasn't on death row, but had he been, AG would have sent him home to Jesus long ago. An innocent man.
More power for Gonzo?? Bad idea - BAD - BAD - BAD
Anyone seen Mike Judge's Idiocracy? We're living it now.
Why do you think he smirks and chuckles with his flippant testimony under oath. It doesn't matter. Congress isn't going to do a thing to him...He holds the cards. Congress can rant and rave and huff and puff. But at the end of the day, Big Al's house still stands and Congress is bent over wheezing and gasping from their gaseous efforts.
No. It's not right. It's not legal. It's not ethical. It's not constitutional. But until Congress stands up and assumes its responsibilities, its stewardship of the Constitution, one of 3 equal members of our government...it doesn't matter. Al knows it. Bush knows it. Congress knows it, too.
When the Dems helped the Pukes with the "FISA fix", didn't they effectively give the Bush Cartel an easier way to spy on the Dems themselves?
How hard is it to lose a game when you know what your opponent is planning to do?
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