This is not from The Onion...

Via CNN:

"You guys have it way too soft – nice ride," he wrote, while the press corps were preparing to cover his Weatherly, Pennsylvania stop.
...
"P.S.," he added after his signature, "erased your hard drives."

Hahaha that's so funny...not. I believe it's also a crime. Vandalism? Destruction of property?

Republican nominee for president. Oh. Kaaay.

George W. Bush has been exceedingly stingy when it comes to presidential pardons and commutations, issuing fewer than any modern president. But as Bush’s presidency winds down, there’s some talk about the president using his powers to help conceal some of the administration’s own transgressions.

As the administration wrestles with the cascade of petitions, some lawyers and law professors are raising a related question: Will Mr. Bush grant pre-emptive pardons to officials involved in controversial counterterrorism programs?

Such a pardon would reduce the risk that a future administration might undertake a criminal investigation of operatives or policy makers involved in programs that administration lawyers have said were legal but that critics say violated laws regarding torture and surveillance.

Some legal analysts said Mr. Bush might be reluctant to issue such pardons because they could be construed as an implicit admission of guilt. But several members of the conservative legal community in Washington said in interviews that they hoped Mr. Bush would issue such pardons — whether or not anyone made a specific request for one. They said people who carried out the president’s orders should not be exposed even to the risk of an investigation and expensive legal bills.

There are two angles to consider here: whether the White House would do this and whether the White House could do this.

On the prior, the Bush gang isn’t saying much. The NYT asked the White House about whether “pre-emptive pardons” — clearing people of legal responsibility before they even face charges — are on the table. The Times reported, “Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, would not say whether the administration was considering pre-emptive pardons, nor whether it would rule them out.”

On the latter, is this even a legal option? Does the president even have the authority to pardon someone who isn’t even facing criminal charges? Apparently, he can.

KAKE.com: (h/t J)

No criminal charges will be filed in the death of a Goodyear worker, who passed away after being tased by Shawnee County Sheriff's deputies.

Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht released his report Tuesday on the March 29th death of 59-year old Walter Haake. The report says Haake had suffered a head injury in a fall at his home the night before his death. It says Haake had been incoherent at work and fellow workers tried to deter him from driving when he left the plant. Shawnee County Sheriff's Deputies were called in when Haake refused to get out of his vehicle.

"Mre Haake physcially resisted removal, leaving the officers in the position of simply leaving him in the vehicle and letting the medical condition play out or using such force as may be required to remove him," Hecht wrote in the report.

The deputies chose to remove Haake by tazing him, then restraining him. The coroner ruled that an existing heart condition, combined with the compression to his chest when he was placed on the ground to be handcuffed, led to his death. Read on...

We posted this story back in April, and it appears the tragedy has gotten even worse. Haake was guilty of being injured and refusing treatment -- nothing more. That no charges will be filed against these officers is a travesty of justice and its a slap in the face of his poor family. This man's civil liberties were obliterated and I hope his family files a civil lawsuit. This case deserves national attention, as it sets a very dangerous example.

I love Asian Yakuza movies. Heck, I love a lot of the J-horror flicks too, but I never thought I'd see this in real life. Hello, DHS---where the hell were you?

UCLA Medical Center and its most accomplished liver surgeon provided a life-saving transplant to one of Japan's most powerful gang bosses, law enforcement sources told The Times.

In addition, the surgeon performed liver transplants at UCLA on three other men who are now barred from entering the United States because of their criminal records or suspected affiliation with Japanese organized crime groups, said a knowledgeable law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The four surgeries were done between 2000 and 2004 at a time of pronounced organ scarcity. In each of those years, more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the Greater Los Angeles region...read on

You have got to read this story. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner....I have used the UCLA medical group in the past. Damn, if I would have produced a samurai sword when I checked in---who knows what kind of treatment I might have received.

Reality Principles: A branding & marketing professional noticed something important about John McCain's new ad: He is not being marketed as a Republican. Apparently, Republicans realize their 'Brand' is toxic.

The Daily Dish: The War Criminal President

Obsidian Wings: Another quality BUSHCO appointee going down...

The Big Picture: Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Arthur Levitt says the Bear 'bailout' raises new regulatory issues.

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: FCC opens inquiry into Siegelman report blackout...A gay hero soldier and the Wapo...NPR News: National Pentagon Radio underreports Iraq deaths...and they're in the tank for McCain...Frameshop on the Wright stuff...Obama guilty once again...Venezuela vs. WaPo...Where was the media when the subprime crisis unfolded?...Reality TV kills

That list of disgraced ex-Bush administration officials keeps getting longer and longer and longer...

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced Monday he was resigning after seven years on the job.

Jackson, 62, is under criminal investigation and has been fending off allegations of cronyism and favoritism involving HUD contractors for the past two years.

He also was under intense pressure from Democrats to resign.

The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson's department as a construction manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.Jackson said he needs time to attend to personal and family matters.

He did not take questions or elaborate on the family reasons he cited for the decision.

Jackson resigns at a time when nation's housing industry is in a crisis so serious that it has imperiled the nation's credit markets and led to a major economic slowdown.

The Seminal points out that this is the last of the Bush Texas cabal to leave.

Brad DeLong: A century ago we had banks. They created systemic risk. We decided to regulate them in order to limit the systemic risk they could create. That was wise. Now we have non-banks. They create systemic risk...

bustardblog: Dick Cheney is a war criminal and a lying sack of sh*t

Sadly, No! The heart knoweth its own Vitterness

Words of Power: How about making hypocrisy an Olympic competition?

Facing South: Black America is in a permanent recession.

skippy the bush kangaroo: Who knew? Turns out there are bloggers who can respectfully disagree about the Democratic presidential primaries.

The National Republican Congressional Committee’s accounting scandal has been percolating for a couple of weeks, but given the scope of the controversy, it’s now front-page news. What started as an embarrassing criminal controversy involving one staffer has become something of an election-year crisis for the GOP’s House campaign committee.

The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars — and possibly as much as $1 million — of the organization’s funds into his personal accounts, GOP officials said yesterday, describing an alleged scheme that could become one of the largest political frauds in recent history.

For at least four years, Christopher J. Ward, who is under investigation by the FBI, allegedly used wire transfers to funnel money out of NRCC coffers and into other political committee accounts he controlled as treasurer, NRCC leaders and lawyers said in their first public statement since they turned the matter over to the FBI six weeks ago. [...]

The committee also announced that it has submitted to banks five years’ worth of audits and financial documents allegedly faked by Ward, some of which were used to secure multimillion-dollar loans. It is a violation of federal laws to obtain loans through false statements; the crime is punishable by up to $1 million in fines and 30 years in prison.

The reason this is especially significant right now, is that before yesterday, the NRCC had only acknowledged “irregularities” and announced that Ward was the subject of an FBI probe. Now, however, we know that the NRCC may have lost as much as $1 million.

And it may yet get worse for the party: “The magnitude of the alleged fraud staggered Republicans, who are bracing for the final accounting from the forensic audit in six to eight weeks. Many said they expect a total far greater than the minimum cited yesterday.”

Ironically, all week, the NRCC has argued that Democratic House candidates shouldn’t have anything to do with contributions from Eliot Spitzer, because he was involved with a sex scandal. By this logic, should Republican House candidates reject NRCC funds in light of the committee’s massive fraud scandal?

You may remember the piece I wrote about this stalker Babe: "Cafferty debates with a Man-Stalker named Rachel Mardsen: “waterboarding is a swim lesson” The ex-FOXer who was escorted off their premises is at it again, or so it would seem. And it looks like Sarkozy might be her next target:

A right-wing former Fox TV pundit is being investigated for criminal harassment after accusing an ex-boyfriend of leaking Canadian anti-terrorism secrets. I don't know why he (gave me the documents)," she said yesterday in an email response to an interview request, "other than perhaps he was too cheap to buy me jewelry and figured state secrets would be a good substitute." She denied harassing the officer.

"I live in NYC," she wrote. "If I was going to 'stalk' anyone from that kind of a massive distance, it sure wouldn't be that loser.

"Anyone who reads my blog or column knows it would be (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy!" Backhurst's lawyer Andrew McKay said Marsden is harassing the officer through emails and inaccurate website postings.

"Her conduct is simply outrageous," he said. Backhurst, who ran unsuccessfully in 2004 as the federal Tory candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River, acknowledges a brief love affair with Marsden two years ago – not one that continued until nearly three months ago, as Marsden maintains. The OPP's criminal investigations branch recently cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. A separate internal investigation is ongoing, his lawyer said...read on

Hmmm, another case where the guy is cleared. OK, I wonder when CNN will put her on the air again?

Most Attorneys General, upon stepping down, move to private-sector legal work. Some take on faculty positions at respected law schools. And then there’s Alberto Gonzales, arguably the worst Attorney General in U.S. history.

Since resigning in disgrace, Gonzales has retained a high-powered DC criminal-defense lawyer to represent him. Given that the U.S. Inspector General may recommend criminal charges against Gonzales, it was probably a good move.

It’s reached the point at which Gonzales’ friends have had to create a legal defense fund for the embattled former AG.

Supporters of former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales have created a trust fund to help pay for his legal expenses, which are mounting in the face of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales committed perjury or improperly tampered with a congressional witness.

The establishment of a legal defense fund for the nation’s former chief law enforcement officer underscores the potential peril confronting Gonzales, who is one of a handful of attorneys general to face potential criminal charges for actions taken in office.

If criminal charges against Fredo come quickly enough, maybe he can get the special Scooter Libby get-out-of-jail-free card?