Tag: Scandals

Waxman Going after Rove’s Rogue Email System

Jon Ponder

As soon as the Bushies installed themselves in the White House in 2001, the Republican Party set up a second tier of electronic communications out of the political office run by Karl Rove.

While the White House may find it more difficult to claim executive privilege in preventing Congress from reviewing emails on the RNC system, Republicans aren’t too worried: the RNC purges emails from its servers after 30 days.

On its surface, the new email domains were legal. In fact, their stated purpose was to avoid the criticism that they were doing GOP politics on the public dime — a charge Republicans had made against the Clinton White House without ever offering proof of it, of course.

According to the Presidential Records Act, a government “sunshine law,” all communication involving a member of the president’s staff are required to be preserved for scrutiny. If we learned nothing else over the six years when the GOP ran all three branches of government, conservatives view laws as only applying to “the little people” — meaning, of course, Democrats. It is only natural, therefore, that Rove and his network of operatives in the federal bureaucracy began using the alternative email servers to subvert the Act and conceal improper political operations inside the government.

Amid the thousands of documents dumped by the Dept. of Justice in response to congressional demands in the U.S. Attorney purge, investigators found emails to and fron Rove’s White House and DOJ political flunkies using the alternative email domains (including gwb43.com and rnchhq.com), apparently in an effort to circumvent the oversight and the sunshine law.

Rep. Henry Waxman, who chairs the House committee that investigates government operations, is demanding to see the GOP’s official emails sent to and from the White House related several investigatiosn – the prosecutor purge, the corrupt GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rove’s use of the Government Services Administration (GSA) for political purposes:

White House staff arranging for the GSA briefing by a Rove deputy, Scott Jennings, used the gwb43.com e-mail domain name. That caught the attention of Waxman’s investigators, who had previously examined e-mails from Abramoff to Rove’s executive assistant, Susan B. Ralston, to object to an impending Interior Department decision. The decision, he wrote, was “anathema to all our supporters it’s important if possible to get some quiet message from the WH [White House] that this is absurd.”

Ralston used outside accounts — including at rnchq.org — to communicate with Abramoff and his partners. One e-mail from an Abramoff associate said that White House personnel had warned “it is better to not put this stuff in writing in [the White House] … e-mail system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc.”

Abramoff’s response, according to a copy of his e-mail released by Waxman’s committee, was: “Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.” Ralston later resigned in connection with the lobbying scandal…

In the U.S. attorney case, Rove deputy Jennings used the RNC e-mail system to write to D. Kyle Sampson, then Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff, in August 2006 about replacing Arkansas U.S. Atty. H.E. “Bud” Cummins III with former Rove protege Tim Griffin.

“We’re a go for the U.S. atty plan. WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes,” Jennings wrote in an e-mail from the gwb43.com domain name. Sampson noted in a related e-mail that “getting him appointed was important to” Rove, then-White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers and other officials.

While the White House may find it more difficult to claim executive privilege in preventing Congress from reviewing emails on the RNC system, Republicans aren’t too worried: the RNC purges emails from its servers after 30 days.

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.

Monica Goodling ‘Resigns’ – Would Have Been First DOJ Official to Take the Fifth

Pensito Editors

Another Friday night, another bad news dump by the Bush Dept. of Justice, which has just announced that Monica Goodling is “resigning” tomorrow.

Had she stayed on, Goodling would have been the first senior official in the Dept. of Justice to assert her Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination in United States history, according to many sources including Jonathan Turley on MSNBC’s Countdown last night. She has been called to testify before committees in both houses of Congress regarding the U.S. attorney firings in December, however her lawyer announced she would refuse to answer because she feared she might perjure herself.

Goodling is one of 150 graduates from the law school at a university operated by televangelist Pat Robertson.

One question: Why is her last day a Saturday?

Official Misstatements about Ryan Skipper’s Murder Have Been Propagated in the Media

Jon Ponder

One of the saddest aspects about the aftermath of Ryan Skipper’s murder is that no one outside his friends and family seems to care about the heinous manner in which he was killed.

“I want to identify with the people that I serve. I want them to identify with me. And I want to be blatantly honest with them. I don’t intentionally say anything that will impugn anyone other than a real criminal, and then I’m not too concerned about that.”
— Sheriff Grady Judd, March 18, 2007

Neither the governor nor the attorney general in Florida — both of whom are Republicans — has expressed concern about the fact that Skipper’s murder has been labeled a hate crime. National gay organizations have been largely mute, and coverage in the local and national gay press has been very slim, especially considering the brutality of his murder.

Sheriff’s Assertions Were Based on Killers’ Statements

It is likely that the lack of outrage stems from a series of misstatements to the media at the outset of the investigation that have been attributed to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and others in his office. On the face of it, the motivation for making these statements appears to be bigotry toward gay people.

On Friday, March 16, two days after Skipper’s body was discovered, the local newspaper, The Ledger, reported:

Skipper, 25, was driving around Eloise late Tuesday night looking to pick up someone when he met [his all edged killer, Joseph] Bearden, whom he took back to his home in Winter Haven, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The next day, the paper ran a quote from Sheriff Judd that sounded like it could have been the basis of the earlier reporting:

“What we do know is that Ryan was out looking to pick up someone that evening,” Judd said.

Elsewhere, the full quote has been given as:

“What we do know is that Ryan was looking for someone to pick up that evening. And unfortunately for Ryan, he picked up the wrong person.” [Emphasis added.]

In fact — and as we have said in other coverage of this story — Sheriff Judd did not “know” this. It was immediately obvious to my colleague Trish, who reported the story here on March 18, that, since the victim was dead and could not speak for himself, the only source for this information had to have been the alleged killers.

But the slander against Ryan Skipper did not stop there. In its coverage on March 17, The Ledger published the trawling-for-sex allegation as well as three additional completely unsubstantiated statements:

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Movie in the Works on the Life of Whitewater’s Only Hero, Susan McDougal

Jon Ponder

Out of the morass of GOP dirty tricks in the 1990s variously known as the Whitewater scandal, the Arkansas Project and the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy, only one person was a true hero: Susan McDougal.

Remnants of the Gang of 500’s sneering tone about Whitewater and the Clintons are evident in the US News blurb, which referred to Susan McDougal, who is a true American patriot, as a “bit player” in the scandal.

To truly comprehend the skullduggery deployed by the Republicans to lay the way for saddling the nation and the world with the Worst President Ever, you have to understand what they were up to in the 1990s. McDougal’s autobiography, The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk is one of the best primers around on the story. When it came out in paperback earlier this year, she was interviewed by Robert Scheer at Truthdig. The video is posted HERE.

US News is reporting that McDougal’s story is going to be made into a movie, with Paul Haggis — director of two Oscar winning movies, the horribly written “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” — and Charlize Theron in the lead role.

Remnants of the Gang of 500’s sneering tone about Whitewater and the Clintons are evident in the US News blurb, which referred to Susan McDougal, who is a true American patriot, as a “bit player” in the scandal.

The truth is, McDougal is the only person in the scandal who stood up to evil “Judge Starr,” and for that service she should be applauded.

War Funding Bill Benchmark Helps Big Oil Companies Gain Control of Iraq’s Reserves

Jon Ponder

The emergency war funding bills passed by the Democrats in the House and the Senate could pave the way to handing over Iraq’s oil reserves to big oil companies. Bush took us to war to gain control of the oil. Will he veto the bill anyway?

The supplemental appropriation package requires the Iraqi government to meet a series of “benchmarks” President Bush established in his speech to the nation on January 10 (in which he made his case for the “surge”). Most of Mr. Bush’s benchmarks are designed to blame the victim, forcing the Iraqis to solve the problems George Bush himself created.

One of the President’s benchmarks, however, stands apart. This is how the President described it: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis.” A seemingly decent, even noble concession. That’s all Mr. Bush said about that benchmark, but his brevity was gravely misleading, and it had to be intentional.

The Iraqi Parliament has before it today, in fact, a bill called the hydrocarbon law, and it does call for revenue sharing among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. For President Bush, this is a must-have law, and it is the only “benchmark” that truly matters to his Administration.

Yes, revenue sharing is there-essentially in fine print, essentially trivial. The bill is long and complex, it has been years in the making, and its primary purpose is transformational in scope: a radical and wholesale reconstruction-virtual privatization-of the currently nationalized Iraqi oil industry.

If passed, the law will make available to Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell about 4/5’s of the stupendous petroleum reserves in Iraq. That is the wretched goal of the Bush Administration, and in his speech setting the revenue-sharing “benchmark” Mr. Bush consciously avoided any hint of it.

The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.

It is why we went to war.

Abu in Trouble: AG Statement ‘Not Accurate,’ Says Former Aide

Jon Ponder

I missed Kyle Sampson’s second session in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. In the morning session, Sampson, the recently resigned chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made it clear he will not be Scooterized. He contradicted statements by his Gonzales, some of which were reportedly under oath. Some of Sampson’s answers were clearly half-truths but were probably sufficiently artful that he did not perjure himself.

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Why Hasn’t Pervo Mark Foley Been Arrested?

Buck Banks

It was last September when the story first broke that U.S. Rep. Mark Foley was sending inappropriate e-mails to underaged U.S. House of Representatives pages. It was September 29 when Foley resigned from the House and entered rehab for alcoholism and “behavioral problems” related to childhood sexual abuse by a priest. Here iwe are on the cusp of April and the perv still hasn’t been charged. Why not?

According to the Associated Press:

It’s in the best interests of the GOP powers that be to keep the Foley case under wraps and out of the media — at least until after the prez elections of 2008.

“I can’t really give any more detail other than to say we’re still in the preliminary investigative stance and we are working with state authorities,” said Debra Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington field office.

Florida authorities announced their own criminal investigation in November but have remained tightlipped on the status since then.

Foley’s lawyer maintains that he never did anything physical to the pages, so no crime was committed. That may be the case some places, but not in Florida:

Federal law generally requires a person to meet or attempt to meet a minor for sex for it to be a crime. However, under laws in some states where the Florida Republican communicated with minors, an attempt to seduce the victim might be enough for a criminal case.

Under state law in Florida, where the age of consent is 18, a crime may have been committed if Foley is simply found to have seduced or attempted to seduce a minor using lewd or explicit language.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel was a little more blunt:

“This type of activity would fall under Florida law’s criminal statute,” said Maureen Horkan, director of the Child Predator Cybercrime Unit in the Florida Attorney General’s Office, adding that the statute is “broad.”

The law states “any person who knowingly utilizes a computer online service or Internet service to seduce, solicit, lure, entice, or attempt to seduce a child” would be committing a third-degree felony and could receive a jail sentence of up to five years.

So why are law enforcement authorities dragging their feet on the investigation? It doesn’t sound like they are working the case zealously:

Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said Wednesday the Foley investigation is “still ongoing” and is weeks if not months away from concluding.

“We are still conducting an active and ongoing investigation into the matter and continue to work with the Florida Attorney General’s Office Cybercrime Unit,” said Kristen Perezluha, an FDLE spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, FBI officials said they are still conducting a preliminary investigation into the matter. “Nothing has changed,” said Debbie Weirman, an FBI spokeswoman. “We are still working with Florida authorities. It is still a preliminary investigation.”

In an interview Wednesday, Stephen Jones, a lawyer for one of the underage pages at the center of the controversy, said authorities have not questioned his client since October.

“Nothing has occurred this year,” Jones said. “[State and federal] authorities have not contacted us recently.”

Foley is an embarrassment to the Republican Party. Any charges or a trial would just dredge up the scum that surrounds Foley, whose resignation contributed to the Democvratic takeover of the House of Representatives last November. It’s in the best interests of the GOP powers that be to keep the Foley case under wraps and out of the media — at least until after the prez elections of 2008. And remember, Florida is a RED state.

Here’s what Foley would have to do if convicted and labeled a “sexual predator” under Florida law:

    To ensure all sexual predators and sexual offenders are identified through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) system the following Florida driver’s license or ID card registration change was added:

  • Within 48 hours after initial registration, whether the sexual offender/predator is released or under custody of the Department of Corrections (DC), he or she shall register in person and present proof of initial registration at a driver license office of the DHSMV to secure a Florida driver’s license or ID card.
  • The sexual offender/predator must also report to DHSMV within 48 hours any change of address or renewal of driver license or ID card.
  • The failure of a sexual offender/predator to maintain, acquire or renew a driver’s license or ID card, to submit to the taking of a digitized photograph, provide location information or by act or omission to comply with registration requirements, is a third degree felony.

    • Added Community Notification Requirement (Effective July 1, 1998):

  • Within 48 hours upon notification by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) of the presence of a sexual predator, the sheriff of the county or the chief of police of the municipality where the sexual predator establishes or maintains a permanent or temporary residence shall notify each licensed day care center, elementary school, middle school and high school within a 1-mile radius of the residence of the sexual predator.

    • Sexual Offender/Predator Designation:

  • A sexual predator or sexual offender who was designated by a court on or after October 1, 1998, and released from supervision or confinement for at least 20 years and has not been arrested for any felony or misdemeanor offense since release, may petition the court for removal of the sexual offender/predator designation.

I wonder how the former pages feel about justice deferred ….

Will Limbaugh Criticize Tony Snow’s Reaction to His Cancer Diagnosis?

Jon Ponder

After Elizabeth Edwards announced her cancer had returned last week, comedian Rush Limbaugh criticized her and her husband, the presidential candidate John Edwards, for staying in the race:

The likelihood Limbaugh will suggest that Snow’s announcement is a political ploy to gain sympathy for the White House — despite abounding evidence they could use it — is slim and none.

Now, let me say something else that might be accused of cynicism: What is their religion? I don’t doubt they’re religious people, but, we talked about this. Political people are different than you and I. And, you know, most people when told a family member’s been diagnosed with the kind of cancer Elizabeth Edwards has, they turn to God. The Edwards turned to the campaign.

Their religion is politics and the quest for the White House. And that’s — it’s not just with them, I mean, it’s part and parcel of political people — undergo all this stuff, the media anal all over their private life being made public even by the candidates themselves — it’s all part of the drill.

After slamming the Edwards over their reaction to Elizabeth’s cancer diagnosis, Limbaugh went on — with typical blindness to his own rank hypocrisy — and slammed Sen. Hillary Clinton by harshly suggesting that she would “find a way” to criticize the Edwardses. (She could just read his statement out loud, of course.)

Now that White House spokesman Tony Snow has announced that his colon cancer has returned, it is fair to wonder what Limbaugh will say about it. Of course, the likelihood he’ll suggest that Snow’s announcement is a political ploy to gain sympathy for the White House — despite abounding evidence they could use it — ranges between slim and none.

Instead, Limbaugh will treat Snow’s diagnosis, and his choice in how to handle it, with the sort of sympathy and deference that he should have given Elizabeth Edwards.

Ryan Skipper: Cops’ Statements Disputed in Murder of Gay Man

Jon Ponder

As the two rural Florida men who allegedly stabbed Ryan Skipper to death two weeks ago await trial in a local jail, questions are being asked about how the events leading up to the murder were described in the press by investigators.

At one point, Matthew Shepherd’s killers tried to assert the “gay panic defense,” saying they were driven to temporary insanity by their victim’s alleged sexual advances. Later, they said they only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him when they lashed him to a fence and bashed his head in.

The sequence of events that night as reported seemed not to add up from the start, when a Polk County Sheriff’s Dept. spokesman was quoted as saying:

Skipper was driving around Wahneta on Tuesday night when he found [21-year-old Joseph] Bearden walking along Sixth Street in Eloise about 11 p.m. Tuesday, and offered him a ride. The two went back to Skipper’s house, where they smoked marijuana and discussed using Skipper’s computer to copy checks, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The problem with this statement is that it appears to come from a single source: Joseph Bearden, the alleged murderer and apparent homophobe.

However, there was at least one other witness who was apparently not consulted by investigators. Ryan had two roommates, including one, Kelly Evans, who says she was home all night on the evening in question:

Evans was home the night of the murder and disputes what has been reported in the news. “Ryan went out and never came back,” Evans said. “They keep saying he was here with those two guys, smoking marijuana and taking his computer when they left. I was here. That never happened. He wouldn’t do that.”

Did investigators interview Kelly Evans — or did they base their timeline solely on the word of a young man whom they suspected of murder? One investigator also made this odd declaration: “What we do know is that Ryan was out looking to pick up someone that evening.” How could the police “know” this? They might suspect it, especially if that’s how the young alleged murderer characterized Ryan’s motives. Similarly, investigators appear to have accepted without scrutiny the alleged murder’s claim that Skipper was conspiring with him in a forgery scheme.

The reality is, only one person could have actually “known” for certain what Skipper’s intentions were that night, or whether he conspired to forge checks with someone he’d only just met. That would be Ryan Skipper himself, and the fact that he can’t defend himself against these slurs compounds the tragedy of his death.

All of these questions lead to the conclusion that the police were ready to believe the worst about Skipper because he was gay.

Joseph Bearden and William Brown, 20, whom Kelly Evans describes as a relative of her landlord, are accused of stabbing Skipper 20 times and dumping his body on the shoulder of a road. Brown later told someone that “Ryan Skipper was messing with him, that Ryan Skipper was a homosexual, so [he] killed him.”

All of this brings to mind memories of the murder of college student Matthew Shepherd in Wyoming a decade ago. Like Ryan Skipper, who was 25 years old, Shepherd was killed violently by two young men and left to die on the side of a rural road.

As the Shepherd case advanced, the killers tried to assert the “gay panic defense,” saying they were driven to temporary insanity by their victim’s alleged sexual advances. Later, they said they only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him when they lashed him to a fence and bashed his head in.

What remains to be seen is whether local police are so blinded by their own homophobia that they are unable to investigate this heinous crime objectively.