Tag: Alberto Gonzalez

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Who knew? Presidential candidate for the GOP nomination, Newt Gingrich is like the family’s crazy uncle that gets let out for family gatherings and then gets sent back to is room. His recent emergence as the “favorite” for the nomination has met with some harsh criticism and not just from the left. Many of the right wing punditry are not happy with Newt Gingrich’s surge in the polls for the nomination. During Newt’s interview on Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer, he said he would have “activist judges” (translation: judges who disagree with Newt) hauled before Congress to answer for their decisions, if necessary arresting them:

   SCHIEFFER: One of the things you say is that if you don’t like what a court has done, that Congress should subpoena the judge and bring him before Congress and hold a Congressional hearing… how would you enforce that? Would you send the Capitol Police down to arrest him?

   GINGRICH: Sure. If you had to. Or you’d instruct the Justice Department to send a U.S. Marshal.

I have no idea how Schieffer didn’t react with disbelieving “what?” much like Barbara Walters’ response when Herman Cain said he would want to be Secretary of Defense.

Obviously Newt is off the rails and a couple of former Republican Attorney Generals with some questionable constitutional decisions under their belts think so, too. Former attorney generals Alberto Gonzalez and Michael Mukasey, also a former judge, weighed in on Newt’s judicial lunacy to defy the Supreme Court and, if necessary according to Newt, eliminate the courts that disagree with him all together. In appearances on Fox News they called Newt’s ideas “ridiculous,” “irresponsible,” “outrageous,” and “dangerous”:

   KELLY: He wants to see the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals entirely abolished, your thoughts on that?

   MUKASEY: Ridiculous. . . . to say that you’re going to undo and entire court simply because you don’t like some of their decisions, when there are thousands of cases before that court, is totally irresponsible. It’s outrageous because it essentially does away with the notion that when courts decide cases the proper way to have them reviewed is to go to a higher court. It’s dangerous because, even from the standpoint of the people who put it forward, you have no guarantee that you’ll have a permanent majority. . . . It would end with having a Democratic majority that then decides to abolish the Fourth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit. And you go on and on and on. And I guess they could then reconstitute another court. It would reduce the entire judicial system to a spectacle.

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had a similar reaction:

   GONZALES: The notion or the specter of bringing judges before the Congress, like a schoolchild being brought before the principal is, to me, a little bit troubling . . . . I cannot support and I would not support efforts that appear to be intimidation or retaliation against judges.

Keep in mind that these two men, supported some if the most unconstitutionally egregious of George W. Bush’s policies, including torture.

But poor Newt, he’s even slipping in the polls. According to Public Policy Polling, Rep. Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa:

Newt Gingrich’s campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa.  He’s at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson.

Gingrich has now seen a big drop in his Iowa standing two weeks in a row.  His share of the vote has gone from 27% to 22% to 14%.  And there’s been a large drop in his personal favorability numbers as well from +31 (62/31) to +12 (52/40) to now -1 (46/47). Negative ads over the last few weeks have really chipped away at Gingrich’s image as being a strong conservative, now only 36% of voters believe that he has ‘strong principles,’ while 43% think he does not.

Paul’s ascendancy is a sign that perhaps campaigns do matter at least a little, in a year where there has been a lot of discussion about whether they still do in Iowa.  22% of voters think he’s run the best campaign in the state compared to only 8% for Gingrich and 5% for Romney. The only other candidate to hit double digits on that question is Bachmann at 19%. Paul also leads Romney 26-5 (with Gingrich at 13%) with the 22% of voters who say it’s ‘very important’ that a candidate spends a lot of time in Iowa.  Finally Paul leads Romney 29-19 among the 26% of likely voters who have seen one of the candidates in person.

Iowa is no predictor of who will get the nomination and the caucuses are an undemocratic form of voting with no absentee ballots and very low voter turn out but Iowa is a predictor for early primary states. However, the recent harsh criticism from right wing politicians and pundits may keep Newt out of the Oval Office. Poor crazy Newt. Back to your room.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

I know our fellow dharma bum Edger already covered this, but I wanted to keep the story alive and enjoy the celebration of the rule of law

From September 8, 2009

    A Spanish judge has decided to go ahead with the prosecution of six Bush administration lawyers – including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales – who were the architects of the legal framework for President George W. Bush “enhanced interrogation” program, according to a report in the Spanish newspaper Publico. (Original article here; Google translation here.)

    The six Bush administration alumni targeted in the prosecution are former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; John Yoo, author of the “torture memos”; Douglas Feith, then a deputy defense secretary; Pentagon lawyer William Haynes II; former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee; and David Addington, a former chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

~snip~

. . .  Holder’s investigation will be limited to instances where interrogators overstepped the boundaries set out by Bush lawyers for “enhanced interrogation.” By contrast, the Spanish case challenges the legality of the entire program.

rawstory.com

More below the fold! YAY!

    If you have not heard, Texas Tech University has taken on Ex-Bush Attorney General Alberto “I Don’t Recall” Gonzalez. According to thinkprogress.org

Gonzales will be a visiting professor leading a course on “contemporary issues in the executive branch” and focusing on “recruiting and retaining first generation and under-represented students.”

    Students and angry alumni quickly spoke out, starting Facebook groups and writing scathing editorials. Many of the Texas Tech faculty, however, remained silent.

Not any longer. Approximately 45 Texas Tech faculty members have signed onto a petition calling Gonzales’ hiring “objectionable.” They charge that Gonzales is nothing more than a “celebrity hire” who won’t be worth his $100,000 salary.

    Alberto Gonzalez claims that his course will, among other things, highlight the “accomplishes of the Bush Administration”.

    I guess that means that classes will be short.

   Contemporary issues in the executive branch, such as “how to commit war crimes” and “wiping your ass with the Constitution 101” will be covered in the course, unless Alberto Gonzalez forgets them or pleads the fifth.

    And, “under – represented students” must be code language for “We are going to need more batshit neo-conservatives”

    We’re gonna need a bigger boat. That way, we can set them all adrift together.

    The protest by Students and Faculty has picked up a lot of steam. You can support their boycott of Alberto Gonzalez by joining the facebook group here

    Despite the outrage coming from Texas Tech Students and Faculty, Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance is standing by his hiring of Gonzalez, who he says is a ‘close friend’ of his.

    Why anyone would send their kid to a school for thousands of dollars so they can learn re-writing the rule of law from one of the worst liars and crappiest lawyers ever is beyond me. You’d be better off getting your law degree from Phoenix University online.

    But, there is a way to solve this problem. We can save the fragile little minds of a whole class of law students by doing something today.

    Investigate and Prosecute Bush/Cheney/Gonzalez et all for War Crimes.

    War Criminals don’t take Sunday’s off, and neither should we.

    You can find contact information for AG Eric Holder and President Obama beneath the fold. Send them an E-Mail this Sunday and demand a strong, independant Special Prosecutor who will go all the way in the fight to clear America’s name and prosecute the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney Regime.

    And, of course, YELL LOUDER!

    Just don’t write the e-mail to AG Holder in all CAPS.

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

It might be easy to forget the Federal Death Penalty.  We might not want to think about it. It wasn’t an issue in the past election.  For eight years the Bush DoJ used its muscle to expand federal use of capital punishment by overruling local United States Attorneys’ decisions not to seek death.  Those political decisions to seek death are still very much in effect: the US government continues in court to seek the death penalty in all of those cases.

As the new Attorney General arrives in Washington, it’s vitally important that the new DoJ immediately remember to re-evaluate all of the federal cases in which the death penalty is presently being sought. And it’s important that if these cases do not meet their professed higher standards for imposition of the death penalty (this is an oxymoron, standards that allow state killing cannot be high), authorization to seek the death penalty be withdrawn.  This may save 49 lives and prevent state killings from being carried out in our names.

Please join me below.