Well it is a sad day in American, but under Bush not a shocker, that the Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales lied to congress about that he knew. In face new documents (Friday news dump) says he not only knew about it, but did it!

Last week he said

QUESTION: How could your chief of staff be working closely with the resident on which U.S. attorneys to be let go and you not know the pecifics?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, again, as — I accept responsibility
for everything that happens here within this department. But when you have
110,000 people working in the department obviously there are going to be
decisions that I'm not aware of in real time. Many decisions are delegated.
We have people who were confirmed by the Senate who, by statute, have been
delegated authority to make decisions

Well this was a ball face lie! The AP Has this.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals.

The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice Department officials said late Friday.

There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week amid a political firestorm surrounding the firings.

The five-step plan involved notifying Republican home-state senators of the impending dismissals, preparing for potential political upheaval and naming replacements and submitted them to the Senate for confirmation.

The documents indicated that the hour-long morning discussion, held in the attorney general's conference room, was the only time Gonzales met with top aides who decided which prosecutors to fire and how to do it.

The Dems have made statements

Nonetheless Democrats pounced late Friday.

 

"If the facts bear out that Attorney General Gonzales knew much more about the plan than he has previously admitted, then he can no longer serve as Attorney General," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who is heading the Senate's investigation into the firings.

Added House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers:

"This puts the Attorney General front and center in these matters, contrary to information that had previously been provided to the public and Congress."

The developments were not what Republicans, skittish about new revelations, had hoped.

Shocker! From the AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - White House political adviser Karl Rove raised questions in early 2005 about replacing some federal prosecutors but allowing others to stay, an e-mail released Thursday shows.

The one-page document, which spans e-mails between the White House and the Justice Department in January 2005, also indicates Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was considering a range of options in dismissing U.S. attorneys early in President Bush's second term.

But it concludes with Gonzales' top aide warning that an across-the-board housecleaning "would certainly send ripples through the U.S. attorney community if we told folks they got one term only."

The e-mails released Thursday by the Justice Department indicated that Gonzales and his then-chief aide, Kyle Sampson, suggested replacing 15 percent to 20 percent of federal prosecutors they identified as underperformers.

Sampson resigned under fire this week over the Justice Department's mishandling of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys - and misleading Congress about the process.

I read this, and I can honestly say that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales comments are so un-American that he should be impeached. He and the rest of the Bush administration have complete and udder contempt for the judicial branch of government. He says federal judges are unfit to rule on national security issues and says judges generally should let Bush do anything he wants, NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

From MSNBC, Bolds are mine

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy, ramping up his criticism of how they handle terrorism cases.

In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday, Gonzales says judges generally should defer to the will of the president and Congress when deciding national security cases. He also raps jurists who “apply an activist philosophy that stretches the law to suit policy preferences.”

The text of the speech, scheduled for delivery at the American Enterprise Institute, was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. It outlines, in part, what qualities the Bush administration looks for when selecting candidates for the federal bench.

“We want to determine whether he understands the inherent limits that make an unelected judiciary inferior to Congress or the president in making policy judgments,” Gonzales says in the prepared speech. “That, for example, a judge will never be in the best position to know what is in the national security interests of our country.”

It is good to know that there is someone of power in this nation that wants to protect this nation. A US Federal judge said “NO” to the Bush Administrations “Operation Fuck the 4th Amendment” that was used to spy on Americans without a warrant.

Now I know that the blow-hard right-wing talking heads are all wound up right now about how the terrorist have won, Activist Judges and so on, but here are the facts. Not a single person has ever said that wiretapping is wrong, what has been the “Issue” is the “warrantless” part. You see this nation, before Bush, was a nation of checks and balances. The executive could spy on an American if it wanted to, it just had to prove to a judge that there was a real reason for it, that is all. Now the right-wing would like you to think only warrantless wiretapping is the ONLY way we can spy on the terrorist because the president can’t be bothered with having anyone question him. This is not how our founding fathers worded the Constitution. They built it for a reason, and that reason was simple, to make sure that ALL members of the government had some level of oversights on their actions. This is what keeps us from being North Korea. This is a huge victory in the “War on Terror” because now the info gained in a wiretap can be used in a court of law (Info gained illegaly is not allowed to be used).

This is a huge win for the foundation of our great nation, because now Americans do not have to live in fear of a crazy SOB in the White House spying on them without any oversight, even if the SOB is Hillary.

In a 5-3 decision (Chief Justice Roberts abstaining), the Supreme Court ruled that President Bush did not have authority to set up military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, finding the “military commissions” illegal under both military justice law and the Geneva Convention. The opinion of the Court, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, declares that “the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction.”

UPDATE I: The AP has more: “The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and international Geneva conventions.”

UPDATE II: SCOTUSBlog has the voting breakdown: “The main opinion [was] written by Justice John Paul Stevens. That opinion was supported in full by Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote separately, in an opinion partly joined by Justices Breyer, Ginsburg and Souter…Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the dissenters, each wrote an opinion.” Read the opinions (pdf).

UPDATE III: From SCOTUSBlog: “The Court appears to have held that Common Article 3 of Geneva aplies to the conflict against Al Qaeda. That is the HUGE part of today’s ruling. The commissions are the least of it. This basically resolves the debate about interrogation techniques, because Common Article 3 provides that detained persons ’shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,’ and that ‘[t]o this end,’ certain specified acts ‘are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever’—including ‘cruel treatment and torture,’ and ‘outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.’ This standard, not limited to the restrictions of the due process clause, is much more restrictive than even the McCain Amendment. … This almost certainly means that the CIA’s interrogation regime is unlawful.”

UPDATE IV: “Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a strongly worded dissent and took the unusual step of reading part of it from the bench something he had never done before in his 15 years. He said the court’s decision would ’sorely hamper the president’s ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy.’” Justice Breyer responded in the opinion that Bush should consult with Congress to receive specific authority, and doing so, would strengthen the nation’s ability to deals with threats:

Nothing prevents the President from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary. Where, as here, no emergency prevents consultation with Congress, judicial insistence upon that consultation does not weaken our Nation’s ability to deal with danger. To the contrary, that insistence strengthens the Nation’s ability to determine—through democratic means—how best to do so. The Constitution places its faith in thosedemocratic means. Our Court today simply does the same.

Yet another failed Bush policy, yet another way Bush is dumbing down Americans.

From Reuters (bolds are Mine)

U.S. President George W. Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind education policy is failing to close racial achievement gaps and will miss its goals by 2014 according to recent trends, a Harvard study said on Wednesday.

It said the policy has had no significant impact on improving reading and math achievement since it was introduced in 2001, contradicting White House claims and potentially adding to concerns over America’s academic competitiveness.

Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act was meant to introduce national standards to an education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for blacks and Hispanics.

The study released by Harvard University’s Civil Rights Project said national average of achievement by U.S. students has been flat in reading since 2001 and the growth rate in math has remained the same as before the policy was introduced.

As expected, NCLB is crap, from a president of about the same make-up.

These 19 voted to allow Alito’s debate to close. These 19 Democrats must hate the American people, that is all I can think of, they, like all the Republicans HATE AMERICANS!

• Akaka - HA
• Baucus - MT
• Bingaman - NM
• Bryd - WV <–MINE!
• Cantwell - WA
• Carper - DE
• Conrad - SD
• Dorgan - SD
• Inouye - HA
• Kohl - WI
• Landrie - LA
• Lieberman - CT
• Lincoln - AR
• Ben Nelson - NE
• Bill Nelson - FL
• Pryor - AR
• Rockerfeller - WV <–MINE!
• Salazar - CO
• Johnson - ND

I am sorry if you have one of these Democrats… They are no longer Dems as far as I am concerned.

The fact that the democrats have chosen not to use the only power they have as the party of opposition and filibuster this bigot Supreme Court Justice nominee shows we may as well pack up and go home. If ever a time for us to use the only tool we had, now is the time.

Diane Feinstein and many other Dems have signals that they are spineless. We may as well just let them have there way with everything Miss Feinstein. Our beloved Constitution speaks about a balance of powers, yet with a Republican lead everything, there are none, and we are doing little to help. You should take a moment to read Jonathan Alter story on MSNBC on this very subject.

George W Bush Has Forfeited His Right to Name a Supreme Court Justice - As Steve noted today, Diane Feinstein has decided that although she personally won’t vote to confirm Alito, she does not believe there is sufficient cause to filibuster him in order to keep him off the court. Other Democrats have been… [Left Coaster]

A victory for those in our nation that pride themselves on having a brain, and a defeat for the sheeple that will swallow anything, as long as they are told

In an exchange with CBSNEWS Press.
John Roberts:

What do we know about this fellow? (Thank you to ThinkProgress.org, Again)

*Well he is Catholic, this would make 56% of the SCOTUS Catholic, the US population that is Catholic is 24.5%, so the SCOTUS is farther than ever representing America.

*ALITO WOULD OVERTURN ROE V. WADE: In his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito concurred with the majority in supporting the restrictive abortion-related measures passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in the late 1980

I am sorry anyone who says, “Bush is one of the smartest men I know” is to dumb to sit on the SCOTUS. If he is the smartest man you know, you need to get out more.

Oh it’s over for Harriet Miers, a Right-Wing Chick Group has poo-poo’ed her, the others will follow.

From the site of Concerned Women for America.

Washington, D.C.

Technorati Tags: Crazy Evangelicals, Judges

From Knight Ridder Newspapers.

WASHINGTON

Technorati Tags: Judges, Right Wing Hypocrisy

From ABC News…

President Bush said Monday that he will not release any records of his conversations with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that could threaten the confidentiality of the advice that presidents get from their lawyers.

“That would breech very important confidentiality, and it’s a red line I’m not willing to cross,” Bush said.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding more documents on Harriet Miers, including from her work at Bush’s counsel.

“People can learn about Harriet Miers through hearings, but we are not going to destroy this business about people being able to walk into the Oval Office to say, Mr. President, this is my advice,” Bush said after a meeting with his cabinet.

Mr. Bush, If I were you I would release them, god knows every time this gal opens her mouth, people are LESS impressed. She has shown she is clueless of the law, clueless of the process, and she is incapable of filling out a simple questionnaire.