Slip-Slidin' Away?

President Bush isn’t rushing to the rescue of his old Texas friend, Alberto Gonzales, after the attorney general’s one-time lieutenant undercut his old boss’ account of the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

[...]

Asked about Gonzales during a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Thursday, Bush did not defend his longtime friend, according to one official who attended the session and demanded anonymity because it was private.

Instead, Bush tepidly repeated his public statement: The attorney general would have to go up to Capitol Hill and fix his problem, according to this official.

That's the AP report as posted at DelawareOnline.

This is the same report at WTF Is It Now?

Preznit Loyaltude isn't ridin' to the rescue of his Texas pardner Alberto Gonzales, after Kyle Sampson cut his old boss's nuts off at the Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry yesterday and waved them around his head like a flag.

I like to have more than one source for a story.

And that wraps it up for a Friday.

If you haven't been doing it, I suggest you go have yourself some fun.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Purge

Kyle Sampson's testimony must have been a great show. Talk about your political theater!

Sampson said that he was collecting viewpoints from various administration officials about their views on particular US Attorneys but that he couldn't remember specifics and that no one issue was ever determinative. He also said whatever records or notes he kept about the process likely no longer exist.

TPM post

"I let the attorney general and the department down. . . . I failed to organize a more effective response. . . . It was a failure on my part. . . . I will hold myself responsible. . . . I wish we could do it all over again."

The witness fessed up to an expanding list of sins. He admitted that the Justice Department was trying to circumvent the Senate confirmation process. He confessed that he proposed firing Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak case. "I regretted it," he explained. "I knew that it was the wrong thing to do."

But the self-sacrificing witness still managed -- inadvertently, perhaps -- to implicate Gonzales and Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove. Sampson, who resigned from the Justice Department earlier this month, admitted that Gonzales "had received a complaint from Karl Rove about U.S. attorneys in three jurisdictions." Asked about the accuracy of Gonzales's claim of non-involvement, Sampson confessed: "I don't think it's entirely accurate what he said."

WaPo article

But then...

"We've just received word that the Republicans have objected, under the Senate rules, to this meeting continuing," Leahy (D-Vt.) announced before angrily bringing down the gavel.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), in the middle of questioning Sampson, was puzzled. "Does it apply to a Republican, too?" he inquired.

High comedy, that.

The GOP quickly claimed that there had been a misunderstanding, and the show went on, with the "I don't remember" defense in high gear.

It may have been a tactical effort to limit his risk of perjury, but Sampson displayed the recall of a man who recently fell off a ladder.

[...]

"I can't pretend to know or remember every fact that may be of relevance," he warned at the start -- and he wasn't kidding. He used the phrase "I don't remember" a memorable 122 times.

He didn't remember if he talked about the proposed firings with the President. He didn't remember if he talked about them with Rove.

After Schumer elicited three consecutive I-don't-remembers, John Cornyn (R-Tex.) objected to the questioning style.

Leahy overruled him. "We're trying to find what in heaven's name he does remember," the chairman said.

Not much.

Hey, it worked for Reagan.

Joseph Rich, formerly in the Justice Department's civil rights division would like to take this opportunity to pick a bone or two.

A destructive pattern of partisan political actions at the Justice Department started long before this incident, however, as those of us who worked in its civil rights division can attest.

I spent more than 35 years in the department enforcing federal civil rights laws — particularly voting rights. Before leaving in 2005, I worked for attorneys general with dramatically different political philosophies — from John Mitchell to Ed Meese to Janet Reno. Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants.

Under the Bush administration, however, all that changed.

[...]

From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities.

[...]

At the same time, career staff were nearly cut out of the process of hiring lawyers. Control of hiring went to political appointees, so an applicant's fidelity to GOP interests replaced civil rights experience as the most important factor in hiring decisions.

[...]

Outright hostility to career employees who disagreed with the political appointees was evident early on. Seven career managers were removed in the civil rights division. I personally was ordered to change performance evaluations of several attorneys under my supervision. I was told to include critical comments about those whose recommendations ran counter to the political will of the administration and to improve evaluations of those who were politically favored.

LA Times article

Racial factor? Well, considering which way the racial groups tend to vote...

Corporate media pundits speculate as to how this will fly with Latino voters, but most often neglect to mention that Gonzalez was acting as hatchet man for ongoing Republican efforts to disenfranchise Black and Latino voters. More than any other tactic, systemic suppression of the Black and Latino vote is central to preserving a Republican majority in state and national politics.

U.S. Attorneys are key to this subversion of voting rights. Under Republican administrations, they are expected to mount spurious investigations of voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns in Black and Latino precincts. Failure to do so - a refusal to pursue bogus cases with enthusiasm, energy, and the full weight of the federal government - can be fatal to a Republican U.S. Attorney's career, despite the fact that the GOP has turned up no credible evidence of significant voter fraud in minority communities.

[...]

In New Mexico, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, a Latino and a Republican, was marked for termination because he wasn't aggressive enough in criminalizing Democratic efforts to register voters in mostly Hispanic and Black precincts. In Arkansas, a U.S. Attorney on Gonzalez's hit list was replaced by a political operative whose claim to fame was his contribution to suppressing the Black vote in Florida. However, these and other facts of racial motivations in the scandal are assigned a low profile by Democratic leaders, even as they pretend to mount a full-court press against the Republicans.

Black Agenda Report

From the K-Street Project to the Attorney Purge - it's all about takeover for a permanent GOP. They've slipped now. Will they fall?

Josh Marshall has some questions about one of the attorneys who replaced one of the ousted ones.

Back in 2000, did Patriot Act-appointed US Attorney Tim Griffin really say he makes the bullets in the war against Democrats?

TPM post

TPM video here.

And remember Dan Dzwilewski? The San Diego FBI bureau chief who said Carol Lam's dismissal was definitely political and who was then warned to shut up?

Well, he just resigned.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Speaking of Memory Loss

On Wednesday, Lurita Doan, the chief of the General Services Administration, insisted that she "really didn't remember" much about a highly political and dubiously legal videoconference briefing at her agency last January, where a top White House operative outlined in painstaking detail exactly which House and Senate seats will be most hotly contested in the next election cycle. Then on Thursday, Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, said again and again that he was unable to remember various events leading up to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Taken together, the appearances of Sampson before the Senate Judiciary Committee and Doan before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were, as Robert Klein once said sardonically of the Watergate hearings, a "veritable festival of recollection."

  Salon article

In case you're wondering....Federal Agencies are supposed to be non-partisan.

Doan, apparently not realizing her microphone was still on, turned to an aide and said: "Take my water, and my glass. I don't want them to track my fingerprints. They've got me totally paranoid." [...] Doan's husband and her chief of staff both have a military-intelligence background, and she has sold surveillance equipment to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies -- so she knows how these things work.

   article

"They" may have her paranoid, but she herself is the nut job. Her fingerprints? Like they don't know who she is? Like she committed some physical crime? I hope this was a joke she was making. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt.

A little bit more about Ms. Doan can be found at the Pennsylvania Progressive...

Five Pennsylvania Districts On Rove's Radar

Crooks and Liars has a video of GSA head Lurita Doan squirming to explain an illegal poliitcal meeting she led targeting Congressional races. The meeting used federal resources and time and she participated, something which is prohibited under the Hatch Act. Watching her trying to escape the uncomforatble questions is riveting. They have her dead to rights so she gets a sudden case of amnesia.

  Pennsylvania Progressive post

Amnesia. Paranoia. She could maybe use the services of Health and Human Services.

....but hey, let her do what she wants....she will anyway.

Bush Meets Russian General

Sorry. I'm just going to lift the whole article...(but do visit Raw Story; they've always got unique bits and breaking news.)

US President George W. Bush met this week with a Russian general linked to atrocities in Chechnya, the White House said Thursday, while suggesting that the meeting should not have taken place.

Bush would have been "unlikely" to sit down with Russian General Vladimir Shamanov had the president known about allegations tying the general to the massacre of Chechen civilians, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Bush met with Shamanov as part of an effort to "reinvigorate" the work of a Russo-US commission on prisoners of war and missing-in-action soldiers, Perino told reporters.

"The president was attempting to reinvigorate that commission. That's why he agreed to this photo-op(portunity) with the official. The president was not aware of the allegations made against him (Shamanov)," said Perino.

Shamanov was one of three Russian generals in charge of a federal intervention against separatist rebels in breakaway Chechnya launched on October 1, 1999, now nearly into its 15th month.

He was removed from duty in January 2000 following allegations he turned a blind eye to the massacre of civilians in a Chechen village southwest of Grozny. But officially he quit his job for reasons for ill-health.

  Raw Story article

Yes, we are all too familiar with the old "quit because of my health" defense.

Did anybody check? Where was Karl? Was this more CIA vetting?

Lordy.

Two in the News

Agencies which had political appointees with little or no experience - here are only two, currently in the news.

Health and Human Services

Bush appointee Eric Keroack has just resigned.

The head of the federal office responsible for providing women with access to contraceptives and counseling to prevent pregnancy resigned unexpectedly Thursday after Medicaid officials took action against him in Massachusetts.

The Health and Human Services Department provided no details about the nature of the Massachusetts action that led to Dr. Eric Keroack's resignation.

Just five months ago, Keroack was chosen by President Bush to oversee HHS' Office of Population Affairs and its $283 million annual budget. [...] Keroack had worked for an organization that opposes contraception.

[...]

Keroack's office oversees family planning services provided through the Title X program. Services include screening for breast and cervical cancer, as well as treatment for sexually transmitted disease.

Keroack told his staff in a letter Thursday that he became aware of action being taken against his private medical practice in Massachusetts. He said he immediately hired an attorney to initiate an appeal. He did not elaborate on why the action was taken.

[...]

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called on the Bush administration to appoint as a successor a "medical professional who actually believes in birth control to lead the nation's family-planning program."

  Raw Story article

There's a laugh.

Now, recall what you read above (if you did read above) about the services this federal office supplies, including breast and cervical cancer screening for poor women. It seems that the Women's Health portion of the budget is about as ephemeral as Bush's AIDS budget.

[T]he FDA has decided to hold $1.2 million of that funding (out of a $4 million total) for use elsewhere in the agency.

The Post continued, "Because the remaining $2.8 million has already been spent or allocated for salaries and started projects, the office must effectively halt further operations for the rest of the year, according to a high-level agency official with knowledge of the budget plan."

[...]

The Office of Women's Health is the lead federal agency on gender differences in medicine. It holds health fairs nationwide informing consumers about the latest scientific information available on how pharmaceuticals, surgery and other treatments affect women and men differently. More important, it oversees a variety of important pharmaceutical and surgical research on osteoporosis, menopause and reproductive health. If the office were to shut down for the rest of the fiscal year (which ends in October) all those efforts would come to a sorry halt, and women consumers (and the men who love them) would be the worse for it.

  Seattle Post Intelligencer article

When the complaints were being voiced about Keroack's appointment, an HHS spokesmodel claimed that, in his private practice, Keroack prescribed contraceptives. Conflicted? (Or maybe he prescribed them for the women in his own family.)

Just for the halibut....I ran across this comment on the Think Progress website discussing Keroack's resignation.

How many problems in our current society (or even just Africa) would be instantly solved if everyone waited until marriage to experience God’s gift of sex?

Comment by Jake — March 29, 2007 @ 10:16 pm

Maybe he was seriously asking for a number. Anybody? But I don't know how to excuse him for that Africa comment. Actually, I'm not even sure why he felt it necessary to throw that in.

Aaaaaaanyway...

Environmental Protection, Bush Style

The Justice Department is far from the only government agency troubled by politicization under the Bush administration. All you have to do is spin the wheel.

So today, it's the Fish and Wildlife Service! And at the center of it is one Julie A. MacDonald, appointed by Bush to be the deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks at the Interior Department. The very ugly details of her malfeasance have been exposed by an inspector general report. (Update: MacDonald, by the way, has a degree is in civil engineering and has no formal educational background in natural sciences.)

[...]

Here's how she works: MacDonald just made stuff up. If scientists recommended a certain action, MacDonald would alter the recommendation or simply ignore it if it threatened industry or landowners in any way.

Some examples of her scientific method:

MacDonald tangled with field personnel over designating habitat for the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher, a bird whose range is from Arizona to New Mexico and Southern California. When scientists wrote that the bird had a "nesting range" of 2.1 miles, MacDonald told field personnel to change the number to 1.8 miles. Hall, a wildlife biologist who told the IG he had had a "running battle" with MacDonald, said she did not want the range to extend to California because her husband had a family ranch there.

[...]

The Interior Department's Inspector General has referred the case to Interior's top officials for "potential administrative action." We'll see if she gets a scolding or a pat on the head.

  TPM Muckraker article

Any bets?

Yes, the Democrats do it too

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

[...]

Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases—often without the benefit of competitive bidding—to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch.

[...]

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

  Metroactive article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Oh, Lord

Well, I was going to comment on the chocolate Jesus, but Maru did it better. So, I'll just limit my remarks to this quote:

“This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever,” said Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League.

No. I take it back. You can probably just imagine for yourself what my remarks might be about "Christian sensibilities."

I will, as a bonus, tell you that once upon a time when I worked for a law firm in San Francisco, one of the attorneys came out of his office, stood behind me at my desk and announced to everyone, "I just got off the phone with a woman from Georgia. Southern accents offend my sensibilities."

Right. Obviously he had none.

And speaking of other websites, Project for the OLD American Century always has lots of good information, and its headlines are nicely organized. Check it out. Also, visit the websites linked in YWA's sidebar. Good stuff all.

And speaking of Jesus - or, more accurately, JEEEEEEEZUS...

It has all the ingredients of a wedding. The proud tuxedo-clad father, the frosted white cake, the limousines and an exchange of vows.

But there is no groom and the girl in the long gown is no bride. She's daddy's little girl, there to take a vow of chastity.

In what is becoming a trend among conservative Christians in the United States, girls as young as nine are pledging to their fathers to remain virgins until they wed, in elaborate ceremonies dubbed "Purity Balls."

The gala affairs are intended to celebrate the father-daughter relationship.

  Raw Story article

uh-huh.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Ooops

The Former head of the [British] Foreign Office's maritime section, Craig Murray, said on his website, "The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government."

"Only Iraq and Iran can agree their bilateral boundary, and they never have done this in the (Persian) Gulf," he writes.

  RealPaulitik post

Hope those soldiers have good attorneys.

Uh-oh Gonzo, They Got Ya - Two to One

From the NY Times...

The document dump.

It was disclosed last week that Justice Department documents showed Mr. Gonzales to be present at the Nov. 27, 2006, session in which the firing of federal prosecutors was discussed. That disclosure seemed to contradict Mr. Gonzales’s assertions at a March 13 news conference that he was not involved in talks about letting the prosecutors go.

Kyle Sampson's testimony today.

“Now, this is hard to believe,” Mr. Kohl said. “Either the attorney general was simply absent as manager of the Justice Department or he’s not been candid with the American people about his participation in the firings. Which one is it, or is there some other explanation?”

“Well,” Mr. Sampson replied, “as I said in a previous answer, the attorney general was aware of this process from the beginning in early 2005. He and I had discussions about it during the thinking phase of the process.” The attorney general’s involvement continued until the list of dismissals was final, Mr. Sampson said.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Refusing to Go

Ehren Watada is the first commissioned officer to refuse to be redeployed to Iraq.

...Army Lieutenant Ehren Watada had just stepped up to the podium at the 2006 Veterans for Peace annual convention last August 13, when about two dozen of his fellow Iraq War veterans silently filed up to occupy the stage behind him in a spontaneous act of solidarity for his stand against the war...

  OhMy article

Watada's first court-martial in February was declared a mistrial. He will face a second in July.

Funding the Occupation

Still wavering on the return to blogging. Since my internet connection is down at home and there may be a problem with me doing it at work, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep at this "return". Also, it's sometimes difficult to be serious about the world. Especially if you stand back a bit from it. And nobody ever told you this was a serious blog.

Anyway....

Proposed Troop Withdrawal Timetable

First of all I should say that, to take charge of the debate, actual anti-war proponents and people who seriously want the American troops out of Iraq ought to stop referring to this as a war and call it an occupation (like King Abdullah - see previous post) whenever they talk about it.

The outcome of the Senate vote took both parties by surprise. Republicans were stung by the defection of Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who has not supported a timetable for withdrawal before although he is his party’s most outspoken critic of the war in Congress.

“There will not be a military solution to Iraq,” Mr. Hagel declared. “Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there. It doesn’t belong to the United States. Iraq is not a prize to be won or lost.”

The Democrats also gained the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, who voted against a withdrawal date just two weeks ago.

“People want our troops home,” Mr. Nelson said.

  NYT article

Yes, and sadly, that won't be happening.

Congress members know that won't be happening. This is a show for the next round of elections. "I voted for it." Or, "I voted against it." Whichever serves in your district. Bush has promised to veto the legislation. Would Hagel vote to override a veto? Would 2/3 of them? Barely over the necessary half voted for it in the first place.

Preferring More Than Geographical Distance...

Saudi Arabian King Abdullah at an Arab summit, called for an end to the Palestinian blockade. Then he bowed out of a big-deal state dinner at the White House that had been scheduled for April 16. This, despite the fact that he is a Bush family friend, and despite the fact that he can't really come up with a good excuse for non-attendance.

Even the Saudis are treating Dubya as though he were radioactive!

  Cannonfire post

"In the beloved Iraq, the bloodshed is continuing under an illegal foreign occupation and detestable sectarianism." -- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, today (emphasis added).

  Bobs Links & Rants post

Domestic Terror: OK City Bombing, Years Later

The FBI on Friday objected to a Utah lawyer's motion to conduct depositions of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and a death-row inmate in a lawsuit that alleges the attorney's brother was murdered in a federal prison.

Attorney Jesse Trentadue says the two prisoners can provide valuable information concerning his brother's death in 1995 and the FBI's alleged refusal to turn over all relevant documents requested in his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit. He believes authorities mistook Kenneth Trentadue for a bombing conspirator and that guards killed him in an interrogation that got out of hand.

  Salt Lake Tribune article

Danny Coulson, a 31-year veteran of the FBI, was deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Division at the time of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla., which killed 168 people, 19 of them children in an on-site day care center.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the bombing in 1997 and executed in 2001.

Mr Coulson said there were some “very strong indicators” that other people were involved with Timothy McVeigh.

  Homeland Stupidity post

NAFTA repeat: CAFTA, One Year Later

The year anniversary proved an important moment for debunking the government’s promises about the boon CAFTA would bring for all Salvadorans. Even the U.S. and Salvadoran governments’ official numbers show that El Salvador’s trade deficit with the U.S. has grown, with U.S. exports to El Salvador far outweighing Salvadoran exports to the U.S. [...] Foreign investment in El Salvador went from $300 million in 2005 to $222 million in 2006, whereas in Costa Rica – where CAFTA has not been implemented – foreign investment is eight times higher.

  Upside Down World article

I heard somebody on Democracy Now! a few weeks ago reporting that with US subsidies to farmers, after NAFTA, 1,200,000 Mexican corn growers lost the ability to compete, and therefore, their livelihood. World Hunger Year says a bit more.

Mexico is the center of diversity of maize, and the crop has long been central to its culture, economy and diet, yet NAFTA opened Mexico's maize sector to the dumping of millions of tons of cheap U.S. corn by multinational agribusinesses. This caused the price paid to Mexican corn farmers to drop by 70%, contributing to the loss of over 1.5 million Mexican farm livelihoods in the first 10 years of NAFTA alone. During that same time, the price of corn tortillas -- the most important staple food in Mexico -- rose by 50% and higher. Dumping of U.S. corn into Mexico -- including GM corn -- has also had serious environmental implications.

And now we have to try to keep them on their side of the border.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Recently Discovered

I came across this blog, dealing mostly with Indian affairs, from a link in a comment on another blog. I like the wry style as much as the content.

The Supremes didn't comment on why they declined to review the removal of Judge Royce Lamberth from the Indian Trust Fund lawsuit. So that's a dead end. On the up side, at least the troublesome Judge wasn't cut down in church by gentlemen friends of the King.

  Wampum post

Nicely done. And here's a Wampum link to an old post rendering a clever accounting of the rats abandoning ship.

Protecting the Children

August 2006:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced a new public service campaign Monday that will warn teenage girls against posting information on the Internet that could put them at risk of attack by child predators.

"Every day, these predators are looking for someone to hurt," Gonzales said at the 18th annual Crimes Against Children Conference in Dallas. "Every day, we must educate parents and children about the threat."

  CBS article

Protecting them from the likes of Congressman Mark Foley, R-Fla, I suppose.

Protected against child predators unless your child somehow ends up in the hands of the Texas Youth Commission....

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, both already under siege for other matters, are now being accused of failing to prosecute officers of the Texas Youth Commission after a Texas Ranger investigation documented that guards and administrators were sexually abusing the institution's minor boy inmates.

[...]

The Texas Youth Comission controversy traces back to a criminal investigation conducted in 2005 by Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski. The investigation revealed key employees at the West Texas State School in Pyote, Texas, were systematically abusing youth inmates in their custody.

[...]

Burzynski presented his findings to the attorney general in Texas, to the U.S. Attorney Sutton, and to the Department of Justice civil rights division. From all three, Burzynski received no interest in prosecuting the alleged sexual offenses.

[...]

Angle says that while the U.S. Justice Department and Texas attorney general's office were not prosecuting in this case, they were actively pursuing minor voter fraud issues with only a handful of allegations to go on.

On March 2, 2007, Governor Rick Perry appointed Jay Kimbrough, his former staff chief and homeland security director, to serve as "special master" to lead an investigation into the Texas Youth Commission sex abuse scandal. Shortly thereafter, the commission stopped a hiring practice that had allowed convicted felons to work as administrators in the system. The practice had involved a requirement that prior criminal records be destroyed for employees hired by the commission.

On March 17, 2007, the entire Texas Youth Commission governing board resigned.

  Free Republic article

And here's how easy it is to fall into the hands of the Texas Youth Commission...

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

DALLAS - A teenager has been jailed for more than a year for shoving a teacher’s aide at her high school, a case that has sparked anger and heightened racial tensions in rural East Texas.

Shaquandra Cotton, who is black, claims the teacher’s aide pushed her first and would not let her enter school before the morning bell in 2005. A jury convicted the 15-year-old girl in March 2006 on a felony count of shoving a public servant, who was not seriously injured.

The girl is in the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex in Brownwood, about 300 miles from her home in Paris. The facility is part of an embattled juvenile system that is the subject of state and federal investigations into allegations that staff members physically and sexually abused inmates.

Under the sentence handed down by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, she will remain at the facility until she meets state rehabilitation standards or reaches her 21st birthday.

  Boston Herald article

And how is Gonzo Gonzales faring these days?

Surge and Purge

Troop Surge

A few weeks ago, [Mark] Benjamin wrote a piece exposing how a group of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade-3rd Infantry at Ft. Benning, GA had their medical statuses summarily downgraded in February so they could be re-deployed to Iraq.

This week, Benjamin examines how some of those soldiers, plus many others, were recently sent to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA for "training," despite being physically unable to perform most usual exercises.

The injured soldiers were not forced to train, but were simply housed in tents on site--their physical presence apparently being good enough to count them among the numbers cited as "trained" for the surge.

  Iraq Slogger post - links embedded

Attorney Purge

Warned to shut up.

...[FBI] bureau chief for San Diego Dan Dzwilewski had complained to the press about Carol Lam's firing, said that he "guaranteed" politics was involved, and that without her, a number of ongoing investigations might be jeopardized. Specter didn't want to hear that from the press -- he wanted to hear that sort of thing from [Bureau Chief Robert] Mueller.

Mueller responded that Dzwilewski hadn't passed such complaints up the chain, and that "my understanding is that our chief out there believes he was misquoted, but that our investigations were continuing, without any diminishment."

Misquoted? Sen. Dianne Feinstein followed up:

FEINSTEIN: Well, we followed up and I had my chief counsel call them to verify what they said. And they said, yes, they said it. But they also said they'd been warned to say no more. Are you aware that they had been warned to say no more?

MUELLER: Yes, I am.

  TPM Muckraker article

Carol Lam's dismissal is (okay, "allegedly") connected to the Duke Cunningham bribery case, the fallout of which is ongoing.

[Congressman Henry] Waxman has asked for all MZM contracts related to the White House and other materials...

[...]

It could be that MZM in the summer of 2002 managed to snag a small White House contract in legitimate fashion, even as Wade was plotting a quick, bribery-greased rise to the top. But given that the Cunningham/MZM tale is one of sleaze and crime--I haven't even mentioned the prostitutes Cunningham received as bribes--Wade's first contract with the Bush administration deserves scrutiny. Republican legislators--no surprise--expressed no interest in this when they ran Congress. And, coincidentally or not, the US attorney in charge of the Cunningham case, Carol Lam, is one of the prosecutors who was fired by the Bush administration. But here comes Waxman, and the Case of MZM's First Contract is alive and open.

  David Corn post

Gettin' a little hot in the kitchen for Gonzo.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dashed out of a Chicago news conference this afternoon in just two and a half minutes, ducking questions about how his office gave U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a subpar rating.

Gonzales, who increasingly faces calls for his resignation, was here to promote a new ad campaign and had planned a 15-minute press availability. He left after taking just three questions over a firing scandal consuming his administration.

Before leaving, Gonzales said he wanted to "reassure the American people that nothing improper happened here."

  Chicago Sun Times article

Rich.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Somethin' Happenin' Here...What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear

[Researchers for the non-profit watchdog Government Accountability Project say] it has identified hundreds of instances where White House-appointed officials interfered with government scientists' efforts to convey their research findings to the public, at the behest of top administration officials.

  ABC News article

Take a minute to get over your shock.

Okay, then...

What's happening here?

A large increase in the number of dolphins stranded on beaches in the Galveston-Sabine Pass areas over the last two weeks is puzzling marine mammal experts.

The bodies of at least 35 bottlenose dolphins, most of them newborns, have washed ashore during the last two weeks

[...]

The number is nearly double the dolphins stranded in the same period last year during the annual stranding season that runs from January through March [...]

Scientists are concerned because dolphin health can be a barometer for the health of the marine environment

[...]

Investigators suspect the dolphins may be dying off the Louisiana coast and being carried by currents to the Texas shore [...]

  Houston Chronicle article

I myself haven't seen any beached dolphins, but I haven't been down to the west end of the island for a while. I did see a pickup truck parked along Seawall this weekend with a handprinted sign on its top reading "Free Dolphin Rescue Training". So far what has been found in these dolphins is lung infections and parasites. I read somewhere an opinion that it was simply the fact that the winter was more severe this year.

After a little commercial boat tour of the Galveston Bay harbor a couple of weeks ago, where I got to watch six or seven dolphins lazily following a shrimp boat, Cpt. Paris Price (great name, eh?) told me that before the EPA was created and mandated a clean-up of the bay, it had become terribly polluted - so much so that the native brown pelicans were becoming extinct due to pesticide exposure. (At the time I thought that may have been the subject of the movie The Pelican Brief -based on a John Grisham novel, set in New Orleans. But checking online, it appears that I am probably wrong about that. I'm reading the book to find out.)

pelican photo by Steve Schuenke, Galveston, here

Paris also told me that while the harbor is now clean in a non-polluted sense, in its pre-European settlement history, it was said to have been pristine and clear. What is now a muddy bottom was lined with oyster shells. They dredged the shells from the bottom of the harbor to make roads. You can still see some of the shells today embedded in chunks of concrete that I assume were the next version of pavement in Galveston.

And...what's happening here?

Cities are cracking down on charities that feed the homeless, adopting rules that restrict food giveaways to certain locations, require charities to get permits or limit the number of free meals they can provide.

[...]

"The feedings were happening several times a week" in parking lots and sidewalks downtown, says Dewey Harris, director of Wilmington's Community Services Department. "A lot of the merchants said, 'We feel uncomfortable when you have all these homeless being fed downtown when we're trying to attract tourists.' "

  USA Today article

Wasn't Mr. Compassion's rationale in gutting government programs for the poor that these things should be done by charities?

Feeding the hungry several times a week. Indeed!

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Lower Expectations

You gotta admit, it's a very practical solution.

State lawmakers appear on the verge of dumping the math and science sections of the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), and replacing them with a very different kind of test.

The idea is to do something about the fact that so few students pass the math and science sections.

  King5 article

Just following our leader, the self-acclaimed master of low expectations!

It reminds me of a college lecture course I took in chemistry. After our finals, the professor announced that he was grading the tests on a curve "so somebody in here will pass."

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Princes of Darkness

In 2005, investigators from the Texas Rangers found that guards and administrator [of the Texas Youth Commission] were sexually abusing institutionalized youths, who were recruited to provide "entertainment" during night-long orgies.

[...]

The Texas Rangers submitted their report of sexual abuse to the A.G. in Texas and to the U.S. Attorney for that state, Johnny Sutton, and to the Department of Justice. The Rangers wanted someone to prosecute the bad guys, and they felt they had a strong case.

Now, Johnny Sutton -- unlike, say, Carol Lam -- was never in danger of losing his gig, since he is considered one of the "loyal Bushies" among the U.S. Attorneys.

[...]

When the Texas Rangers asked to have the Texas Youth Commission abuses prosecuted, Sutton's chief assistant sent an extraordinary response: The office had decided not to pursue the matter because the sexually abused boys had not sustained "bodily injury."

[...]

The Alberto Gonzales Department of Justice declined prosecution as well. The paperwork is here. Matt Angle of the Lone Star Project believes that the case was shut down on direct orders from Washington.

  Cannonfire post

Update 3:20pm: TJ at POAC reminds me of Gonzales' recent claim under fire: "I'm not going to resign," he said. "I'm going to stay focused on protecting our kids."

Matt Angle, you note, doesn't "know", but "believes". However, I can understand that belief, considering how past Republican White Houses involving the Bush name have managed to avoid investigation in this hideous realm.

And I guess we shouldn't have expected the Texas "Justice" Department to do anything other than to tie a criminal action in a sexual abuse case to "bodily injury". The paper reads:

As you know, our interviews of the victims revealed that none sustained "bodily injury". Federal courts have interpreted this phrase to include physical pain. None of the victims have claimed to have felt physical pain during the course of the sexual assaults which they described.

Just taking their cue from the AG's office - the guy who defined torture as something producing organ failure.

I always think I can get away from this subject, and the view of the Bush circle as fiends, but it just keeps coming back up. It's not like I haven't completely been convinced of their involvement in narcotics, or that they truly are a Crime Family, but there's something so much more insidious and heinous about this that I subconsciously continue to put it aside. Which may be why it keeps coming back into my window.

Just about two years ago, when the Jeff Gannon case brushed up against this dark story, I asked a question on YWA:

Will this hideous business finally break into the light of day and the criminal predators in our government be stopped? Or will it be buried again?

Apparently the latter

Down the Rabbit Hole

[B]oth houses voted overwhelmingly to ensure Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys. What a difference a scandal can make.

  TPM Muckraker post

And how deep does the rabbit hole go anyway?

The former No. 2 official in the Interior Department yesterday admitted lying to the Senate about his relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who gained the official's intervention at the agency for his Indian tribal clients.

J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a felony for making false statements in testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in November 2005 and in an earlier interview with panel investigators. He is the 10th person -- and the second high-level Bush administration official -- to face criminal charges in the continuing Justice Department investigation into Abramoff's lobbying activities.

  WaPo article

The scope of the Griles, Federici and Abramoff scheme was not limited to a few casinos. It included defrauding the Federal Minerals Management Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and of course, Tribal Governments.

For reasons that either pass understanding, or are patently obvious, the media and its non-tribal alternatives construe Abramoff et alia as a morality play in which Indian Gaming alone occupies the central stage.

Similarly, the political control of US Attorneys, manifested in the Gonzales Eight, is construed as partisan voting rights, overlooking the peculiarity that six of the eight fired US Attorneys had significant MMS and Tribal lease prosecution responsibilities.

  Wampum post

So, has anyone in our government or media raised the question as to why it took John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee (at least from January, 2005, though previously still the lead Senator on the Abramoff investigation for the ten months prior) from March, 2004, when he first received emails and other documents implicating Steve Griles, until late October, 2005 - a full eighteen months, until Senate investigators even "informally" questioned him?

  Wampum post

I do believe there are a lot of dots to connect for some diligent investigator somewhere.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Of Emails and Document Dumps

We didn't really expect them to still be emailing the illegal stuff, did we?

GWB43 is the name of an internet server owned by the Republican National Committee.

The White House has its own internal email system, ending in the .gov suffix, as mandated by the Presidential Records Act. The law requires that public business be conducted on a public server.

Yet documents made public in the course of the U.S. Attorney Purge scandal reveal that key Administration figures used such email addresses ending with "gwb43.com."

  Trust Me article

Waxman wants 'em. Good luck with that.

Bubble Boy, of course, doesn't even use email.

Let's see...AG Gonzales' First Boy, Kyle Sampson, takes the blame (maybe), and Monica Goodling takes a leave of absence and the 5th Amendment.

Here's a handy Attorney Purge Timeline should you need one.

Sacrificial Lambs?

Fifteen British servicemen were scooped up in (debated) Iranian waters.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

[...]

The penalty for espionage in Iran is death. However, similar accusations of spying were made when eight British servicemen were detained in the same area in 2004. They were paraded blindfolded on television but did not appear in court and were freed after three nights in detention.

  Times article

Of course, this isn't 2004.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The low cost heating oil deal from Venezuela to U.S. cities was to run from Nov. 15, 2006 through March 14, 2007. Somehow that seemed like it happened a long time ago to me. Time's funny like that.

But what I really wanted to talk about is...

Massaging the base

What about that fence? To keep out the Mexicans. That little 14 miles of fence along the California-Mexico border. Estimated at $14 million - a million a mile. Whose first nine miles actually cost $39 million.

Lycos photo

Weren't we supposed to build some more? In Texas?

President Bush authorized the construction of a border fence. [...] In October of last year, just before the midterm elections, the president signed the Secure Fence Act. It authorized the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling and prevent terrorists from sneaking into the country. The act also authorized additional checkpoints, lighting, and high-tech devices to monitor the border. But the problem is the word "authorized." "No money was attached to the bill," says Democratic congressman Silvestre Reyes of El Paso [...] "It was more of a political piece of legislation designed to appeal to conservatives before the election."

[...]

While the Secure Fence Act did not provide any funding, Bush had already signed a spending bill that allocated $34.8 billion to homeland security. Of that, $1.2 billion was earmarked for a "security barrier," though that language is intentionally vague. [...] Initial estimates ranged from $2.2 billion to $9 billion. That difference seemed ridiculous enough until a government study came out in January that suggested the price could swell to more than $60 billion after figuring in costs such as purchasing the private property that lies in the path of the fence and solving environmental issues related to construction. And that's not even for the whole border.

  Texas Monthly article

What a surprise, eh? Like Bush's support of anti-gay marriage legislation.

And what do Texan politicians think of the deal?

Governor Rick Perry said, "Building a wall across the entire border is preposterous." Then he joked that a wall would only benefit "the ladder business." (That's a pale version of what Arizona governor Janet Napolitano said in December 2005: "Show me a fifty-foot wall, and I'll show you a fifty-one-foot ladder at the border.") Of course, Perry didn't think it was so preposterous to have cameras at the border hooked up to a public Web site so that average residents could report suspicious activity, but that's another story.

Yes, that is another story. Part of the story of how a bunch of people with European heritage manage to steal land and dignity from native residents time and again.

Where is the study that elucidates the differences in relations between the descendents of the European invaders of this part of the North American continent and Mexican-Americans, Native-Americans and Afro-Americans? There is some national tendency toward an apology for the treatment of Native Americans. At least there is some sense of national guilt about it. But the Euro-American attitude toward Mexican-Americans seems to be more like our attitude toward Afro-Americans. Why? Mexican-Amerians are natives to the southern US. They weren't imported for slavery like Africans. They were swallowed up. Much more like Native-Americans. Well, in fact, they are Native Americans.

But...back to that fence...

In September Boeing won a contract, estimated to be worth $2 billion, from the Department of Homeland Security to construct a "virtual fence." The project, known as the Secure Border Initiative, or SBInet, doesn't focus on permanent walls; it features a series of 1,800 towers similar to the ones you find in shopping-mall parking lots during the holidays. In addition to cameras, these towers will be equipped with high-tech heat sensors and motion detectors. Boeing will install the first group of towers along a 28-mile stretch of the border near Tucson, Arizona, and the company says it can have the entire program up and running in three years.

Estimated cost: $8 billion, possibly ballooning to $30 billion.

Sooooo much better a deal than the fency fence that never got funded anyway. I feel safer already. Oh, wait. I'm on an island in the Gulf. I want some floating patrol piers. With helipads.

We need a president who will actually do something here. Actually fund something. None of this pretty talk to sucker us into voting and then letting us hang out in the wind!

Seriously, this is a matter under the control of the Department of Homeland Security. Terrorists and illegal immigrants fall under the same agency. They're starting to all look alike to us pale-faces.

Raise the drawbridge!

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Getting Up To Speed

Yahoo headline: Bush calls Democrats' Iraq timetable 'political theater'.

And he knows political theater if anyone does. (Mission Accomplished, Turkey Day in Iraq, Secret Flight to Turkey Day, Scripted Town Hall Meetings, Bring 'Em On, and on and on and on.)

After spending nine months in México and several more back in the U.S. without blogging, I was getting used to floating above the continuing madness. Because it truly is madness. There's nothing sane about the world.

So much has happened in the meantime - beginning with the Katrina disaster down to the federal justice purge (media headlines these days are either surge or purge) and (for me) the anti-climactic conviction of Scooter Libby for lying to an investigator. Karl Rove lied too. To the same investigator. In the same investigation. I don't see him in jail.

Well, anyway...

Too much has happened for me to try to go back and recover it all, but at the same time, nothing has changed. So the game goes on.

I recently listened to Molly Ivins' last public speech, and she had some good advice for the Colorado audience she addressed: Don't lose your sense of humor. Molly will be missed. While things are crumbling around us, I sometimes (less and less frequently) get down in the muck and mire and heaviness, but I remember the ancient Egyptian admonition about not getting to heaven unless Anubis weighs your heart on the scale and finds it to be lighter than a feather. I used to think that meant that you had a pure heart - only the good make it to heaven, right? But there's no need to make that interpretation. Light is light. Light-hearted. A heavy heart traps you in Hell.

Of course, it's no doubt a lot easier to be light-hearted for people with some financial security. And who don't have a kid in Iraq.

And, speaking of Hell...

That's a picture of my new neighbor on the other side of the island.

I recently moved from Columbia, Missouri, to Galveston, just south of Texas (as a Texan liberal who lives here on the island described it). That's Halliburton on the north side of the channel between me and the mainland.

There's a lot of poverty in Galveston. Demographically, the minority populations are just barely a minority. There also seems to be some resentment of the Katrina victims who came and stayed. I guess even the poor don't want the poorer around.

But Galveston was once the richest city in Texas, before that other great storm that drowned over 6,000 people and wiped most of Galveston right off the earth. It has a glorious history, still some of the old mansions, and a lot of charm. Not to mention, Gulf tides, palmetto palms, and sea gulls. And pelicans. And dolphins.

But I wanted to talk about Halliburton moving its headquarters to Dubai. Remember Dubai? That place that can't be trusted to manage our seaports? They're Arabs, remember? Even the Right-Wingers didn't like that one.

Halliburton, the company making a killing, so to speak, in Iraq from U.S. taxpayer dollars. Take the money and run.

Skipping a segue....I might be able to come up with one, but this post is long and I need a break. So do you....

Bernie Sanders wonders why the gaping chasm between the few haves and the multitude of have-nots isn't a topic of discussion in this country. Probably because the media owners and the "journalists" aren't homeless. And neither are the people being targeted by the advertisers. Recently I heard a couple of reports on Democracy Now! giving the following figures: in 1980, the average CEO of a corporation made 4 times the amount paid to its hourly-wage-earners, whereas now, the amount is 300 times. Now that's growth.

And those are the ones that are doing it legally.

Blogger made a lot of nice changes since I stopped posting, and I'm trying to catch up to the format. The label function (at the end of each post) is nice for tracking topics, but since it didn't exist in the first years of YWA, I have to go back through each post and add labels. It's a tedious process. So far, I've gotten 100 posts labeled. Only 5,800 more to go.

And, lastly, the French government has opened up all its UFO files to the public. Have at 'em - if you can get through the crowd.

Okay, that's it for bridging the gap. Just like those White House crooks, Nixon and Bush. 18 minutes. 18 days. Mine's 18 months. Don't expect a document dump.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Iraq

With healthcare in Iraq deteriorating "to a level not seen since the 1950s," the U.N. warns that a shortage of safe water risks an outbreak of cholera this summer, and the BBC reports "horror stories" from Iraqi doctors who have fled to other countries.

'Betrayed' is how George Packer sums up the treatment of Iraqis who worked with the U.S. for years but who now get no help in their search for asylum because it would send a message "that it's game over" in Iraq.

  Cursor, March 23, 2007 - links embedded

Just too depressing. Let's change the subject.

Woody Harrelson's father died.

Actor Woody Harrelson’s father, Charles Harrelson, died of a heart attack in the Supermax federal prison where he was serving two life sentences for the murder of a federal judge in Texas, officials said Wednesday.

[...]

The actor was just 7 when his father was first sent to prison, for murdering a Texas businessman. He was in college when his father was convicted of the judge’s assassination.

  Texas Herald Democrat article

Harrelson's attorney in the case with the businessman was Percy Foreman, attorney for Jack Ruby and James Earl Ray.

The judge he was convicted of murdering was about to sit judgment on a mobster/drug smuggler, Jimmy Chagra, who claims to have hired Harrelson, a "freelance hitman."

But wait. There's more.

Charles Harrelson, shortly after his arrest for the murder of Judge Wood, admitted his involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, stating that he was the shooter on the infamous Grassy Knoll. He later retracted that statement and would say no more about it.

  Sinister Forces article

Before his arrest for the Wood murder, the elder Harrelson bragged about taking part in the JFK murder. Although he later retracted the claim, Chagra's brother has said at trial that Harrelson was hired based on his alleged participation in the JFK assassination. Moreover, a reporter named Chuck Cook has said that Harrelson once promised revelations about "November 1963" if he ever got out of prison.

  Cannonfire article

Stick with me. I'll keep you swimming in mysterious waters, off that road to hell we've been paving.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Here There Are Prophets

Everyone is afraid of mirrors, Mr. Simon said, readjusting the knitted skullcap on his nimbus of white hair. “We hate the mirror. We don’t want to look at ourselves. We don’t like photographs of us — we say, ‘Oh, that’s not a very good likeness.’ We want to be much nicer than we are. But here there are also prophets who are mirrors, who are not afraid of kings and generals. The prophet says, ‘You are ugly,’ and we don’t want to hear it, but we have to look at the mirror honestly, without fear.”

  NYT article

Israeli soldiers talk about the occupied territories at Shovrimshtika.org.

The War on Ideas

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain

Socialism - the new Communism

As president, McCain said he would work on political, diplomatic and economic fronts to counter the rise of socialism [...] Yet the United States must also stress the advantages of capitalism and democracy to win "a war of ideas" in the region, he said.

[...]

[McCain] said the Iraq war "has diverted attention from our hemisphere and we have paid a penalty for that" in the form of a growing leftism.

  Raw Story article

A war of ideas. I guess it goes pretty well with terror wars, come to think of it.

Apparently "leftism" is on McCain's hitlist should he become president. I like how he associates capitalism with democracy as though socialism can't be democratic.

Get the point: the Iraq Invasion is a diversion from the threat in our own hemisphere. Apparently the threat of socialism is even greater than the threat of WMD. Who knew?

I just watched a video of the Joseph McCarthy-Army hearings before the Senate (Point of Order). Are we going there again?

The more I read about McCain, the slimier - or maybe nutser - he seems. And if the Democrats insist on foisting Hillary Clinton on us, I have no doubt McCain would beat her hands down, no matter how great public intolerance of the current GOP administration grows.

By the way, not too long ago I watched the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck. If you haven't already seen it, do yourself a favor. You'll get to see what a real reporter (Edward R. Murrow) is like.

And, if you want to see some more real reporting - particularly war reporting - there's a nice clip of Morley Safer in Viet Nam (the burning of Cam Ne) in the Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home. Another video I highly recommend, as much for its clips of the U.S. scene in the late 50s, early 60s, as for anything else, including some great music by artists who influenced Dylan. I actually bought the DVD, even though I am not a big Dylan fan, his brilliance notwithstanding, and rarely buy DVDs - I only own two others.

-----------

Back on topic....closely related to the war on ideas....

Silenced

After questioning a Republican congressmember's "decency" for seeking to restrict housing reconstruction funds for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims, a Democratic Representative was barred Wednesday from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

[...]

"He wants to punish [towns affected by Katrina] for mistakes of the Bush administration," said Rep. Taylor. "Mr. Price, I wish you'd have the decency, if you're going to do that to the people of south Mississippi, that maybe you ought to come visit south Mississippi, and see what has happened, before you hold them to a standard you would never hold your own people to, and that you fail to hold the Bush administration to."

Price immediately asked that Taylor's remarks be stricken from the record, which the Chair at the time agreed to. Taylor was then barred from speaking on the House floor for the remainder of the day.

  Raw Story article

[...]

Littig explained that criticizing Price's "decency" on the House floor had gone too far according to the body's rules of procedure. [...] [H]e should have used the word "courtesy" instead of "decency."

Oh, yeah. Huge difference. And I say, lock 'im up next time he says something like that. A veritable incitement to violence. No...no...it's the equivalent of a physical attack.

You must not question a Congressmember's "decency". Actually, "Congressmember" sounds a little indecent to my ear.

....and hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

The Decider Makes His Decision

Tom TolesClick to enlarge

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

You Got Away With It

You always do.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Click picture to view video at YouTube