Day: April 8, 2007

Flunky Flying Monkeys: DOJ Has Been Katrina-ized

Jon Ponder

The incompetence that rots the Bush administration from the head down was revealed at its starkest in its abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina. It has manifested itself since then in Iraq, Walter Reed, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Pentagon, Homeland Security, the FBI and now the Dept. of Justice.

Why does Alberto Gonzales need to prep for two weeks for testimony about the policies and practices of the department he supposedly oversees?

The scenario at Justice is familiar and similar to what happened to FEMA before Katrina: At DOJ, Bush installed a trusted flying monkey, Alberto Gonzales, as the head of a huge bureaucracy. Gonzales stocked the ranks with meagerly credentialed and woefully over-matched flunkies whose only real qualification was loyalty to the Bush cabal inside the GOP.

The flunkies quickly subverted the department’s true mission, redeploying its apparatus in pursuit of Bush’s political goals. They ran roughshod over senior staffers, pushing aside anyone who was competent or non-aligned with Bush.

In this sort of system, sooner or later, corruption and chaos will ensue.

The revelation of the Katrina-ization at Justice that was exposed in the bungled firing of eight U.S. attorneys in December continued to ratchet up last week:

  • Gonzales canceled his vacation in order to crib for his congressional testimony, which is scheduled for April 16. The prompted Keith Olbermann to ask why an official would need to prep for two weeks on testimony about the inner workings of the department he supposedly runs.
  • Monica Goodling, a high ranking DOJ Bushie, resigned rather than becoming the first Justice official to plead the Fifth in the history of the republic. Her attorney says she is refusing to testify out of fear she might perjure herself. Goodling is one of 150 DOJ employees who graduated from a law school operated by the Christian nationalist TV preacher Pat Robertson.
  • In the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s office, four top staff members of the new federal prosecutor, Rachel Paulose, a Gonzales flunky, voluntarily demoted themselves in protest over the incompetence of their boss. Paulose, 33, was a special assistant to Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is reportedly best friends with Monica Goodling.

A normal president would be so humiliated that he would have cleaned house long ago.

Boycott Your Church

Trish

Or just expect more from it.

Pensito Review reader Rick left this eloquent and strong comment about why folks like us aren’t doing church anymore:

I stopped going to church after our shameful shock and awe of Iraq. I believe God spoke loudly and clearly February 8th when over 8 million people of conscience poured out into the streets and pleaded that we not do this. This we did, and this we would’ve done even if it would’ve required tanks in the streets of America to enable it.

My faith is not wrapped in a flag. My conscience is not deadened to silently condone torture. And I can’t fellowship with those whose consciences are that dead.

I’m not going to church this Easter, as well as not joining with family, because I don’t silently condone torture nor can I shut up about it. I’m supposed to zip my lip and not offend the morality of other family members who “love my country”. Excuse me. My morality is offended, much more deeply than those offended by my protests could ever fathom because of their shallowness. Abu Grahib was the 9-11 event to our morality. Where is the outrage?

This president is not ashamed or embarrassed to use tortured confessions. This country is not ashamed or embarrassed to use tortured confessions. Need I say more? I don’t suspect there is any questioning of this in the churches of this country. Rather, there is pray for our troops. And just what are our troops doing?

My faith is not wrapped in a flag. My conscience is not deadened to silently condone torture. And I can’t fellowship with those whose consciences are that dead… nor with those who sing happy hymns while being totally oblivious to what we are doing, what we’ve become.

Bush: Attorney Firings Just Need Better Press

Trish

Who’s behind the payback firings of U.S. attorneys? Do you think it’s:

a) Attorney General/Bush personal lawyer Alberto Gonzales
b) Deputy Chief of Staff/Bush Brain Karl Rove
c) Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Lying Weasel Asshat Bush
d) All of the above

Yes, students. Both answers and “c” and “d” are correct.

Which is why it rankles so to hear Bush talk about it they way he did during a press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon this week. Bush makes it sound as if the skullduggery manifested out of thin air, not unlike a plop of pigeon poo on your shoulder as you walk beneath telephone wires. Except the pigeons all have the seal of the Oval Office on their wings.

Bush somehow managed to effectively pass along complaints without naming names, and by some miracle of coincidence Gonzales correctly identified who needed to be fired and did so

On Wednesday, Bush said he passed on to Gonzales complaints that he had received about the attorneys last fall but did not name names or ask him to fire anyone.

The president said the decision to fire the attorneys was justified.

“And yet this issue was mishandled to the point now where you’re asking me questions about it in Mexico,” Bush said.

Man, that pisses me off. Here he is in frickin’ Mexico, and you want him to be accountable.

We need to be straight about what the problem is, folks. What we have here — and follow me closely now — is a failure to communicate. It’s not that anyone did anything wrong. No, Bush somehow managed to effectively pass along complaints without naming names, and by some miracle of coincidence Gonzales correctly identified who needed to be fired and did so.

So obviously, the problem is that you people just aren’t getting the right message. But we’re going to fix that.

Bush said he and Gonzales, a longtime friend from Houston, “talked about his need to go up to Capitol Hill and make it very clear to members in both political parties why the Justice Department made the decisions it made.”

…”Mistakes were made, and frankly, I’m not happy about it,” Bush said… “Al was right, mistakes were made, and he’s going to go up to Capitol Hill to correct them.”

See, this needs to be done with “members in both political parties.” Because it’s, you know, partisan criticism. So we’re going to do the right thing and lie to members of both political parties, not just one. Got it?

Evidently not.

A few hours after the president’s news conference, Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire became the first congressional Republican to call on Gonzales to step down.

Somebody call Rover. Now!