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With Obama Meeting Tuesday, Israel Eases Gaza Blockade

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Sheera Frenkel - Jul. 05 (News) - Among the prohibited items announced Monday were insulation, many types of cement, steel cables of any thickness and construction forms. Also prohibited were fertilizers and all manner of seacraft, from boats to JetSkis. Humanitarian organizations serving Gaza said that even with increased truck traffic and the new entry regime, the blockade would remain crippling.

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ACORN foe: Phone plot to embarrass senator

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - Jan. 30 (News Report) - An activist accused of trying to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu?s phones said the incident wanted to investigate complaints that constituents calling her office couldn?t get through. ...

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Judge Dismisses All Charges in Blackwater Shooting

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Matt Apuzzo - Jan. 01 (News Report) - A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007...It was unclear what the ruling means for a sixth Blackwater guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, who turned on his former colleagues and pleaded guilty to killing one Iraqi and wounding another.

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The Republican War Against ACORN

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold - Sep. 27 (News Report) - In recent days, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other major news outlets have recounted the "troubled" history of the poor people's advocacy group ACORN, but left out the five-year anti-ACORN campaign led by White House adviser Karl Rove and other Republican operatives.

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Where Have You Gone, Ferdinand Pecora?

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Michael Winship - Apr. 26 (Opinion) - No, it's Ferdinand Pecora. Who is he, you may ask, and guess that maybe he once played infield for the Dodgers or sang Faust at the Metropolitan Opera. But back in the '30s, during the depths of the Great Depression, Ferdinand Pecora emerged as an unlikely hero, leading a sensational Senate investigation of what caused the '29 market crash.

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The Former Attorney General’s Legal Bills

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Nov. 20 (Editorial) - It is galling to think that Mr. Gonzales, whose department trampled over the rights of so many people, is having taxpayers pay for private counsel, but it may be appropriate.

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Spread It Around

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Jacob Weisberg - Nov. 01 (News Analysis) - In the last lap of his limping campaign, John McCain is claiming that Barack Obama "believes in redistributing wealth." The problem with this charge is not that it's untrue. It's that McCain—and most of his supporters—favor redistribution, too.

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How to Rig an Election, the 2008 Edition

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Esquire - By John H. Richardson - Oct. 22 (Opinion) - In Michigan, they tried to block the votes of people who had lost their homes to foreclosure. In Montana, they challenged some six thousand voters for filing change-of-address forms. According to The New York Times, nine states have broken the law by using Social Security data to purge registration lists. CBS found voter purges under way in 19 states. In Ohio, Republicans are fighting a bitter legal battle to challenge 660,000 new voters. There's a new voter ID law in Indiana. Pima County, Arizona now requires birth certificates at the polls.

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Report Shows White House Engineered U.S. Attorney Firings

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Zachary Roth - Oct. 02 (Special Report) - Almost since the scandal broke early last year, there have been clear signs that the plan to fire U.S. attorneys as a means of advancing the Bush administration's political goals was being driven by the White House.

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Report Implicates White House

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson - Oct. 01 (News Report) - ...Wilson approached Rove to tell him that the U.S. attorney was a "waste of breath," according to her interview with investigators. She said Rove told her: "That decision has already been made. He's gone." Less than three hours later, a Justice Department official forwarded a firing list to the White House Counsel's Office on which Iglesias's name appeared, giving rise to questions about how Rove learned about its contents in advance, and whether the department ultimately fired Iglesias for improper political reasons.

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Report Implicates White House

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

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Internal Justice Dept. Report Cites Illegal Hiring Practices

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson - Jul. 29 (News Report) - For nearly two years, a young political aide sought to cultivate a "farm system" for Republicans at the Justice Department, hiring scores of prosecutors and immigration judges who espoused conservative priorities and Christian lifestyle choices

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Justice Department Ousted Torture Critic

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ABC News - By Jan Crawford Greenburg, Ariane DE Vogue - Jun. 20 (News Report) - Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, now under investigation for allegedly politicizing the Justice Department, ousted a top lawyer for failing to adopt the administration's position on torture and then promised him a position as a U.S. attorney to placate him, highly placed sources tell ABC News.

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Fired U.S. attorney says colleague told him politics was behind his ouster

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Marisa Taylor - Mar. 07 (News Report) - A longtime protege of President Bush told former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias that he was fired for political reasons and that he shouldn't fight his ouster, Iglesias says in a new book.

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Justice Dept. accused of blocking Gonzales probe

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Richard B. Schmitt, Tom Hamburger - Jan. 29 (News Report) - The status of the internal investigation of the department under Gonzales has been of great interest to lawmakers. The furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals was one of the factors that drove Gonzales, one of Bush's closest confidants, from office last year. Democrats believe that the U.S. attorneys were identified for dismissal based on their history of pursuing cases that could benefit Republican office-holders.

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Attorneys probe deepens

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:30:01 -0800

The Hill - By Manu Raju - Jan. 22 (News Report) - recent behind-the-scenes activity in several investigations suggests that the issue that roiled Congress in 2007 could re-emerge in the heat of the election year. Two inquiries by the House and Senate ethics committees are examining whether several congressional Republicans, including one running for the Senate this year, improperly interfered with investigations.

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Mukasey's Nomination Runs Into Trouble

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:58:37 -0700

Associated Press - By Laurie Kellman - Oct. 26 (News Report) - Judge Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general ran into trouble Thursday when two top Senate Democrats said their votes hinge on whether he will say on the record that an interrogation technique that simulates drowning is torture. "It's fair to say my vote would depend on him answering that question," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told reporters late Thursday.

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Selective Justice in Alabama?

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:07:27 -0700

Time - By Adam Zagorin - Oct. 04 (Special Report) - According to [[Clayton Lamar (Lanny) Young Jr.,], among the recipients of his largesse were the state's former attorney general Jeff Sessions, now a U.S. Senator, and William Pryor Jr., Sessions' successor as attorney general and now a federal judge... [Don Siegelman, the Democratic former Governor of Alabama] named by Young in a series of interviews [received an 88 month sentence while]none of the Republicans whose campaigns he fingered were investigated in the case, let alone prosecuted...Leura Canary, the U.S. Attorney whose office drove Siegelman's prosecution, is married to Bill Canary, Alabama's most prominent political operative and a longtime friend of Karl Rove's.

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U.S. Attorneys Investigation Waits on House Leadership

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:30:00 -0700

TPM Muckraker - By Paul Kiel - Oct. 03 (News Report) - "The scandal at the Department of Justice has gone on long enough," said Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) back in March. "Careers have been destroyed and legitimate public corruption cases have been derailed. It is time for accountability -- it is time for the truth."

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W. H. asks for quick Mukasey confirmation

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:10:17 -0700

The Politico - By Carrie Budoff Brown - Sep. 17 (News Report) - By noon Monday, Michael Mukasey had pecked the ring of official Washington. President Bush's nominee to be the next attorney general talked by phone with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate's fiercest critic of the last attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.

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Budget Crunch Hits U.S. Attorneys' Offices

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:40:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Scot J. Paltrow - Aug. 31 (News Report) - Whoever succeeds Alberto Gonzales as attorney general will face a long list of challenges at the Justice Department, from unfilled senior positions to sagging morale. One of the most pressing, according to dozens of current and former federal prosecutors, is a budget squeeze at U.S. attorneys' offices that has led to declines in crime prosecutions and delays in major investigations. In the past few years, U.S. attorneys' offices around the country have been unable to fill vacancies. Lawyers sometimes can't travel to interview witnesses. Even funds for basic office needs such as photocopying documents and obtaining deposition transcripts have been cut, according to current and former officials.

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Justice Department Probe Looking at Hiring Since 2004

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:31:10 -0700

Bloomberg - By Robert Schmidt - Aug. 30 (Special Report) - Justice Department investigators have expanded their probe into whether political considerations were improperly used in hiring, inquiring about personnel decisions as long as a year before Alberto Gonzales became attorney general.

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Gonzales Resigns as Attorney General

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:25:01 -0700

New York Times - By Steven Lee Myers - Aug. 27 (News Report) - Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

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Gonazlez Resigns

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:41:06 -0700

American Thinker - By Rick Moran - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has resigned as reported by several media outlets including the New York Times: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalz, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington. Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here. Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.

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Investigative Drama: Special Counsel's Crusade

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:30:00 -0700

Congressional Quarterly - By Shawn Zeller - Aug. 06 (News Report) - There's probably no worse time to be a politically appointed attorney managing an important legal arm of the Bush administration. Congress continues to investigate the apparent political motives behind the dismissal of nine federal prosecutors, and the White House is continuing to stonewall such inquiries on grounds of executive privilege. Yet Scott J. Bloch, who heads the small investigative and prosecutorial executive branch agency known as the OSC, for U.S. Office of Special Counsel, apparently has hit upon a jujitsu-style means of minting political advantage out of legal investigations into possible administration improprieties, up to and including his own investigation of the U.S. attorney firings.

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