tagged w/ Washington politics
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25 Aug 2008 // On August 25, 2008, CREW sued the Department of Justice for failing to provide records of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's interview with Vice President Richard Cheney stemming from the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity as a CIA officer.
For over a year the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has been seeking documents from DOJ related to the leak of Ms. Wilson's covert identity. While some records have been provided, DOJ has refused to provide the committee with access to records related to the vice president's interviews, despite the fact that the interviews were not grand jury material and the Office of Special Counsel had made no promises to the vice president regarding their use.
When the committee subpoenaed the records, Attorney General Michael Mukasey asked President Bush to assert executive privilege over the records and on July 17, 2008, the committee announced that the president had done so, blocking DOJ from providing them. CREW then sent a Freedom of Information Act request to DOJ for the interview records, requesting that they be processed on an expedited basis due to public interest in the matter.
Though it agreed to expedition, the Department has failed to provide CREW with any records or identify a date by which processing would be complete. As a result, CREW filed suit in federal court alleging violations of the Freedom of Information Act. The matter has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan.
25 Aug 2008 // On August 25, 2008, CREW sued the Department of Justice for failing to... more
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28 Aug 2008 // Today CREW filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in CREW v. Dep't of Justice, a FOIA lawsuit seeking copies of the FBI's interview of Vice President Cheney in connection with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity. Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to turn the interview and related notes over to the House Oversight Committee in response to a Committee subpoena, claiming that the documents were subject to executive privilege in their entirety. The vice-president had no promise of confidentiality when he spoke to the FBI. Although the Department of Justice ("DOJ") granted CREW's request to expedite the agency's processing of the FOIA request weeks ago, it has yet to produce a single document to CREW or otherwise claim an exemption for any of the requested documents. CREW's emergency motion seeks to compel DOJ to process the request within 10 days.
Legal filings:
PDF file of August 25th Complaint
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/complaint_0.pdf
PDF file of August 28th Motion
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/Document%203%20(8-28-08).pdf
Join C.R.E.W. with a donation of any size. They are tenacious and use your important contributions to use our justice system to go after wrongdoers. They also have a tip line for citizens to make them aware of other illegal activities.
Financial support from members is fighting to recover those 5,000 “lost” emails in the DOJ scandal and another suit is seeking information about Cheney’s part in the Plame leak case.
Please help expose these crooks since the Democratic Congress seems not to have the time or inclination to pursue many of these issues with hearings and subpoenas.
28 Aug 2008 // Today CREW filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in CREW v.... more
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Besides reeking of "Rovian" timing, the McCain VP announcement was meant to capture the news on the heels of Obama's extraordinary speech at the Democratic Convention.
Didn't she say her husband was a commercial fisherman? I've heard he also works for BP as a production supervisor. Since Commercial Fishing is seasonal in Alaska, I wonder why she chose to play up the "fisherman" part more than the oil part?
She was once appointed to the Ethics Commission in Alaska. Did she really intervene as Governor to try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired as a state trooper? She IS currently under investigation for this personal vendetta.
FOR SURE she has allowed the aerial slaughter of wolves pushed by outfitters who guide hunters on expensive Caribou hunts for well-to-do "sportsmen".
While she could have ordered that those wolves be darted and relocated along with the pups the slain females would undoubtedly leave behind, she allowed them to be hunted by helicopter and aircraft without regard for the orphaned pups waiting to be fed in the den. They were simply allowed to starve to death or to be eaten by predators when the mothers did not return to feed or defend them.
She also SUED the Department of Game and Fish to have Polar Bears REMOVED from the endangered species list.
Sounds like Palin and McCain are for more of the same Bush/Cheney arrogance that is destroying the planet and its wildlife. They are waiting in the wings to continue the GOP's awful legacy.
Hockey Mom?
Read the links below to see how far that flies.
http://www.defendersactionfund.org/releases/082908.html
http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2008/07_23_2008_statement_regarding_illegal_killing_of_14_wolf_pups_in_alaska.php
http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2008/08_12_2008_bush_administration_takes_aim_at_endangered_species_act.php
Her Gubernatorial experience? Obama's Senate District has a bigger population and remember, GWB was a Governor for a term and a half while he took Texas from a $2 Billion budget surplus to a $4 Billion DEFICIT! It was a PREVIEW of what he would do to the COUNTRY'S economy, wasn't it? Besides reeking of "Rovian" timing, the McCain VP announcement was meant to... more
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“IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER” - We're going to court again but we need everyone's help.
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/faachallenge.html
An unconstitutional F.I.S.A. bill passed the last real obstacle by a Senate vote of 69-28.
68 Senators INCLUDING Barack Obama signed on to again shred both the fabric and the sanctity of our constitution.
We must do two things:
We must express our discontent with our Senators (yes, even with Obama!) AND also help the ACLU fight this law as being unconstitutional.
The ACLU needs our political clout and they need our donations and for us to stand beside them as they have so often stood beside the rights of each of us in the past!!!!!
From the ACLU website:
“The bill essentially grants absolute retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that facilitated the president’s warrantless wiretapping program over the last seven years by ensuring the dismissal of court cases pending against those companies. The test for the companies’ right to immunity is not whether the government certifications they acted on were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that certifications were issued, all of the pending cases will be summarily dismissed. This means Americans may never learn the truth about what the companies and the government did with our private communications."
“With one vote, Congress has strengthened the executive branch, weakened the judiciary and rendered itself irrelevant,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “This bill – soon to be law – is a constitutional nightmare. Americans should know that if this legislation is enacted and upheld, what they say on international phone calls or emails is no longer private. The government can listen in without having a specific reason to do so. Our rights as Americans have been curtailed and our privacy can no longer be assumed.”
Senate vote results page:
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168
Here are the Senators who voted FOR the unconstitutional bill.
You’ll find them listed alphabetically along with their Washington phone numbers.in the next two posts.
YEAs --- 69
Alexander (R-TN) (202) 224-4944 (not seeking re-election in 2009)
Allard (R-CO) (202) 224-5941 (not seeking re-election in 2009)
Barrasso (R-WY) (202) 224-6441 (Term runs through 2013)
Baucus (D-MT) (202) 224-2651 (Democrat seeking re-election)
Bayh (D-IN) (202) 224-5623 (Democrat term runs through 2011)
Bennett (R-UT) (202) 224-5444 (Term runs through 2011)
Bond (R-MO) (202) 224-5721 (Term runs through 2011)
Brownback (R-KS) (202) 224-6521 (Term runs through 2011)
Bunning (R-KY) (202) 224-4343 (Term runs through 2011)
Burr (R-NC) (202) 224-3154 (Term runs through 2011)
Carper (D-DE) (202) 224-2441 (Democrat term runs through 2012)
Casey (D-PA) (202) 224-6324 (Democrat term runs through 2012)
Chambliss (R-GA) (202) 224-3521 (Seeking re-election in 2009)
Coburn (R-OK) (202) 224-5754 (Term runs through 2011)
Cochran (R-MS) (202) 224-5054 (Seeking Re-election in 2009)
Coleman (R-MN) (202) 224-5641(Seeking Re-election in 2009)
Collins (R-ME) (202) 224-2523 (Seeking Re-election in 2009)
Conrad (D-ND) (202) 224-2043 (Dem. seeking Re-election in 2013)
Corker (R-TN) (202) 224-3344 (Seeking Re-election in 2013)
Cornyn (R-TX) (202) 224-2934 Up for re-election (512) 494-8535)
Continued below“IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER” - We're going to... more
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Here is my Republican Congressional Representative ignoring the economy, the gas prices, inflation, food prices, jobs lost, the illegal Iraq War, the hundreds of Bush Administration lies, the loss of our liberty under the Patriot Act, the FISA debacle, the unbelievably slim vote over Habeas Corpus that clearly tells you Nazis like Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Scalia are one vote away from revisiting the Gestapo, threats about invading Iran and a gazillion other things to "CONCENTRATE" on the important things like heaping praise on Texas teachers like that old Bush 41 PR "1000 Points of Light" funny business.
Would any of you care to join me as I ROTFLMAO as I do every few days when I receive another "News"letter with such vital and pressing information. A few weeks ago, she devoted a whole newsletter to a story of some people who saved a single West Texas Hawk and who bring it to see her every year in Washington (as the Bush Administration, aided by her votes, plunders the planet with lobby-laden deregulation and extended pollution deadlines).
Way to go Kay Granger! You are certainly immortalizing the complete uselessness and love of corruption so prevalent in your class.
At least Kay donated some $5K in questionable funds obtained from Tom Delay before he was indicted to a local Boys and Girls Club AND only after an onslaught of petitions and news stories pointed out your connection to "Hot Tub Tom". .Here is my Republican Congressional Representative ignoring the economy, the gas... more
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