Month: April 2008

Attack of the Lesbian Lawyers!

No, not her! She’s getting married. Rolling on the floor

Go read the story over on NPR:

The Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating whether a career attorney in the department was dismissed from her job because of rumors that she is a lesbian. The case grew out of a larger inquiry into the firings of U.S. attorneys and politicization at Justice under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Several people interviewed by the inspector general’s staff described the case to NPR and said they came away with the impression that the Attorney General’s office decided not to renew Leslie Hagen’s contract because of the talk about her sexual orientation. Hagen received the highest possible ratings for her work as liaison between the Justice Department and the U.S. attorneys’ committee on Native American issues. Her final job evaluation lists five categories for supervisors to rank her performance. For each category, a neat X fills the box marked, "Outstanding." And at the bottom of the page, under "overall rating level," she also got the top mark: Outstanding.

The form is dated February 1, 2007. Several months before that evaluation, Hagen was told her contract would not be renewed.

Here’s where Goodling gets into the Picture:

The official line on Hagen’s dismissal was that contracts like hers are a privilege. Rotating new people through the job each year gives more people a chance to serve.

But what happened next seems to undermine that explanation. Internal Justice Department documents obtained by NPR show that soon after Hagen was let go, two people in her office had their contracts renewed for another year.

And Hagen’s post remained vacant months after she left.

Justice Department e-mails obtained by NPR show that Gonzales’s senior counsel Monica Goodling had a particular interest in Hagen’s duties. A few months before Hagen was let go, according to one e-mail, Goodling removed part of Hagen’s job portfolio — the part dealing with child exploitation and abuse.

Goodling, who left the Justice Department last year, declined through her lawyer to comment on the matter.

Well, I would guess so! Especially if she did do this. It could come back to haunt her.

Should be interesting to follow….

I could go one and rant and rave about how this Administration was corrupt from the ground up. But what more can I say, that hasn’t been said by people who get paid much better money then me? Not much at all.

 

Others: DownWithTyranny!, Wonkette, Law Blog, Pam’s House Blend, The Carpetbagger Report, Salon and A Spork in the Drawer and more via Memeorandum

Ebay Jerk stalks Obama

I can tell you with no amount of hesitation. That this would have never happened, had I been running security.

Political Opinion aside, whomever was running that security detail, should be fired from the secret service.

If that had been me running that detail. This jerk’s noggin would have been beamed off the pavement  and he would gotten his butt kicked, royally.

That guy was very much over the line and should be sitting in a jail cell right now. Period.

I find it quite amazing that our United States Secret Service is that damn incompetent that they did not arrest this guy.

I guess this can be expect considering the White Piece of trash that we have in the White House.

Damned Idiots. Angry

Editorial: In defense of Senator Debbie Stabenow

I am not writing this to defend the actions of Senator Stabenow’s husband.  The actions of Thomas Athans were deplorable.  If I were the senator, I would be seeing a lawyer and relieving this man of his burden of marriage.

However because the story of Thomas Athans has become the catalyst of great political fodder and blogger ridicule, and outright mocking by those of opposite political ideology.  Because of this sort of nonsense, I am writing a simple defense of Senator Stabenow as a Senator of the State of Michigan.  

I am quite aware of Senator Stabenow’s political stance, However, I am also aware of her performance in the Senate.  I can personally testify to her consistency in addressing issues brought before her.  I have personally e-mailed TONS of issues, brought to my attention by the John Birch Society, to Senator Stabenow’s office.

Senator Stabenow’s office was always faithful to reply to my e-mails to her, sometimes, the replies were even personal, and not a computer generated response, even though I am sure that some of the issues brought to her attention were in direct opposition to her political stance.

Further, of all the political representatives in my local area, other than one other political official for my local area, Senator Stabenow was the ONLY political official who responded to my e-mails, sometimes Senator Stabenow would reply to me personally via United States Mail, Even though she did not have to.

Therefore, I feel that this smearing by the Republican and Conservative Bloggers is just unwarranted.  We are not dealing with a seedy politician here.  We are dealing with a very nice woman, who has a husband who is an idiot.

I think that the Blogosphere needs to take a step back and leave this woman to sort out her own affairs.  I hope that she will do the right thing in the situation regarding her husband.

More Opinions via Memeorandum

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D'OH! April Fool's Edition….

Oh Man… this had to suck….

Via the WaPo:

An "in memoriam" ad about a former U.S. ambassador that was placed as an April Fools’ Day joke backfired yesterday.

A photo of Edward M. Gabriel, a very much alive international business consultant who was the U.S. ambassador to Morocco from 1997 to 2001, topped an ad on Page B8 in yesterday’s Washington Post.

In language reminiscent of the movie "Brokeback Mountain," the $322.20 ad said, "Though I no longer have you as my partner, this day will always be OUR anniversary. . . . I could never quit you."

The ad was taken out by J. Peter Segall, a public relations executive and lawyer. Segall is paying for a retraction in today’s Post. Segall said last night that he is a mature man who made an immature mistake.

"As I said in a correction that I hope is published [today], I engaged in a very stupid and ultimately cruel April Fools’ joke against a man that has been my best friend for 30 years, and I deeply, deeply regret it," Segall said. (The retraction appears on Page B7.)

There’s a song here:

Oy…. Good going meatball! Rolling Eyes

Detroit has worst High School Drop out rate

 and… on the home front:

Article: Study: Detroit Gets F In Grad Rate (via WXYZ-TV)

Seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, issued by America’s Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation’s largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said.

Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.

"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance.

Hmmmmmm… You don’t think it is because of that Socialism that I blogged about a while back do ya?

Thinking

Of course, our Liberal Government here in Michigan and in Washington D.C. will throw more money at it and institute more entitlement programs for the problem. More Band-aids to fix the leaking dam.

Of course, the Right Wing, Christian, "Let’s take America over for Jesus Christ!!" Zealots will say, "See? this is why we need Christian schools!!!!" I got news for you, I dropped out of a Christian School, Because I was 18 years old and I wasn’t learning anything. Yes, I admit it, I have A.D.H.D.  But Honestly? As someone who spent almost all of my young life in Christian Schools, the Majority of them are ran by unqualified feckless imbeciles, who wouldn’t have a clue as to how to be a teacher.

Oh, the stories I could tell about my experiences within the realm of "Christian Schools"!  It would be enough to make a liberal squeal with glee.    

I was in a school, the last one that I was in, before I quit, that used the program called the "A.C.E. Program".  A very nice program for people, who don’t have learning disabilities. Not to mention the theological indoctrination or as some would call it, Mind control. While praised by many within the Christian Community, I had a well-known Baptist Minister admit to me, that ACE wasn’t for everyone.  It is for those so-called "Perfect Children", you know, the ones who don’t have any learning disabilities, or as I like to call them, "The Beautiful People".

Speaking of that guy, (that is if you caught the reference…) Did you know that he grew up in Church? Boy, do we have quite a bit in common!

Anyhow, there’s the story about the crap schools in Detroit. Thank God, I never went to them, Well, except for Higgins and that was only for a year or two.

Elizabeth Edwards uses her Cancer for Political Gain…

Just like she and John did with their dead son.

Go read it

I personally think it is sick and disgusting to use something of this nature as a means to make a political statement. Just like the congress did with the SCHIP nonsense. In reality Mrs. Edwards is a wealthy woman who does get the best care out there. Their talk of "Two Americas" and all that other nonsense did not fly with me. I mean, ever see the house that John Edwards owns?

Other reactions Here

Hillary Clinton fired from Lawyer Job

This juicy bit of info came out yesterday and I didn’t get chance to Blog about it.

This comes via the guys over at HotAir.com.

An Article by Dan Calabrese basically removes any varnish off of Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer days. Calabrese quotes Jerry Zeifman, a life long Democrat as saying the following:

Quote:

As Hillary Clinton came under increasing scrutiny for her story about facing sniper fire in Bosnia, one question that arose was whether she has engaged in a pattern of lying.

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?

“Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

It is being reported that this isn’t really news, however, it is the first time that I have heard of it. So, far only Conservative Blogs are talking about it, I haven’t seen any movement by the bigger Blogs, but if this did catch fire, it could spell the end of Hillary Clinton. Because basically, she’s used her years as a lawyer to say she is ready for the White House.

Zeifman goes on to say at his website:

After hiring Hillary, Doar assigned her to confer with me regarding rules of procedure for the impeachment inquiry. At my first meeting with her I told her that Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, House Speaker Carl Albert, Majority Leader “Tip” O’Neill, Parliamentarian Lou Deschler and I had previously all agreed that we should rely only on the then existing House Rules, and not advocate any changes. I also quoted Tip O’Neill’s statement that: “To try to change the rules now would be politically divisive. It would be like trying to change the traditional rules of baseball before a World Series.”

Hillary assured me that she had not drafted, and would not advocate, any such rules changes. However, as documented in my personal diary, I soon learned that she had lied. She had already drafted changes, and continued to advocate them. In one written legal memorandum, she advocated denying President Nixon representation by counsel. In so doing she simply ignored the fact that in the committee’s then most recent prior impeachment proceeding, the committee had afforded the right to counsel to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.

I had also informed Hillary that the Douglas impeachment files were available for public inspection in the committee offices. She later removed the Douglas files without my permission and carried them to the offices of the impeachment inquiry staff — where they were no longer accessible to the public.

Hillary had also made other ethical flawed procedural recommendations, arguing that the Judiciary Committee should: not hold any hearings with – or take depositions of — any live witnesses; not conduct any original investigation of Watergate, bribery, tax evasion, or any other possible impeachable offense of President Nixon; and should rely solely on documentary evidence compiled by other committees and by the Justice Departments special Watergate prosecutor.

If any of the above is true, Hillary Clinton could be in deep trouble should this story begin tread water among the main stream media.

Ed Morrissey on this:

The right to counsel is considered one of the inviolable tenets of our justice system. It doesn’t speak well of ambitious attorneys working on a highly-charged political investigation that she wanted to deny someone the right to an attorney. Small wonder Zeifman questioned her ethics.

If all she did was to propose that as a tactic, that would not make it terribly concerning — but she did much more than just spitball ideas. When informed that public evidence showed a precedent for the right to counsel, she absconded with the files to eliminate the evidence. Does that remind anyone of later incidents in the Clinton narrative, such as the billing records for the Rose Law offices and the 900+ raw FBI files on political opponents of the Clintons?

For the sake of the Democrats and for the sake of this election, I am hope that this story just dies off and goes away. I mean, the Democrats have enough trouble right now as it is.

Should be interesting indeed.

Others: protein wisdom, TBogg, Power Line, Doug Ross, Stop The ACLU, PoliGazette, Pat Dollard, North Star Writers Group, NewsBusters.org, QandO, Secular Blasphemy and Digg (via Memeorandum)