They Won't Cooperate?

You know, one way NOT to honor the sacrifice of Officer Findley is to let someone get away with killing the man accused of killing him. This isn't 1908, or 1808, or even 1008. This is not something that people should just shrug off--this is something out of the Dark Ages.

Several Prince George's County correctional officers who had access to a 19-year-old inmate found strangled in solitary confinement Sunday have initially declined to speak to investigators of the slaying, a source familiar with the interrogations said.

The Maryland State Police and federal agents were investigating the death of Ronnie L. White, who was killed less than 36 hours after he was booked into the county correctional center on first-degree murder charges in the hit-and-run death Friday of county police Cpl. Richard S. Findley.

It wasn't clear why the correctional officers reportedly declined to answer questions. Sgt. Curtis Knowles, president of the county's correctional officers union, said the union's position is that its members can be interviewed only during work hours and with a union representative or attorney present, unless a criminal investigation is underway.

[SNIP]

Sources close to the investigation, who like others in this report spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said county police collected most of the forensic evidence from White's cell Sunday, before state police took over the investigation at the request of county officials. An attorney for White's family called on the Justice Department, which has launched a civil rights probe, to be a partner in the criminal investigation.

"This did not happen on some dark, abandoned, lonely road," Bobby G. Henry Jr., the family's attorney, said at a news conference. "This happened in broad daylight, in the custody of county officials. Everyone who has someone or knows someone who is in the county correctional facility should have a problem with that."

The problem is, the US Justice Department already purged the Civil Rights division--thanks to the efforts of Brad Schlozman.

It is not, however, quite over yet.

Justice Department lawyers have filed a grand-jury referral stemming from the 2006 U.S. attorneys scandal, according to people familiar with the probe, a move indicating that the yearlong investigation may be entering a new phase.

The grand-jury referral, the first time the probe has moved beyond the investigative phase, relates to allegations of political meddling in the Justice Department’s civil-rights division, these people say. Specifically, it focuses on possible perjury by Bradley Schlozman, who served a year as interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo.

Mr. Schlozman left the Justice Department last year after he was challenged over his hiring of conservative lawyers at the civil-rights division and his decision later as U.S. attorney to bring voter-fraud charges against members of a left-leaning voter-registration group days before the 2006 election.

Schlozman, an inept character who’s almost amusing in his clumsiness, has a very serious problem on his hands, which will not only lead to the likely criminal prosecution of a former top official in Bush’s Justice Department, but once again bring into focus how the Bush administration operated.

We are ruled by incompetents and thugs.

--WS

It's Called Disenfranchisement

This is an expansion of the last item from last night's newswrap--and it deserves a post. EVERYWHERE. Treating some nuns like convicted felons--that's no way to show the world what democracy is supposed to look like:

About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.

Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.

The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.

“One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,”' Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.

Yes, they're getting away with it. Yes, it's what they have been planning since the first day Bradley Schlozman showed his putrid mug to the public after law school. All courtesy of your Bush Appointed Supreme Court.

Explain to me again how a country that turns away old women who want to vote can lecture the world on anything anymore? Do you remember those pictures of old women in Iraq, holding up their purple fingers?



We are a nation that sends an army halfway around the world to fight an endless war on behalf of those old women in Iraq--just so they can vote and not complain while we line up the means to take their oil. We are a nation that empties the National Guard units in Indiana to do all of this--just so those nuns can be turned away without voting. All of this is the conservative wet dream, writ large, and it is destroying our country.

Did you know both Obama and Clinton voted AGAINST John Roberts being confirmed as Chief Justice? And that they both voted AGAINST the confirmation of Justice Alito? Those are some votes to be proud of. And for an excellent, older article on the mental depradations of a certain Justice Scalia, here's a little light reading for you...

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

As always, you gotta go to the Brad Blog for the real story--the new law in Indiana might have disenfranchised 43,000 people...

And don't forget skippy, too...

Something I Learned Today...

Apparently, the Democratic Party is entirely to blame for racism in this country! Did you know that? Neither did I. From the crackpots at the "Lincoln Heritage Institute" where you can find no shortage of articles defending Joe McCarthy, or denying global warming, or indignation about Obama's pastor comes this screed that completely ignores American history and skews every single possible thing that ever went wrong into something unrecognizable...well, you just have to read the clumsy tone of this to get what I'm saying. Lt. Colonel Frances Rice,U.S. Army Retired.

An Open Letter to the Democratic Party
By Lt. Colonel Frances Rice,U.S. Army Retired: Contributor to the LHI

"We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert:

Whereas in the early 1600's 20 African men and women were landed in Virginia from a Dutch ship as slaves and from that tiny seed grew the poisoned fruit of plantation slavery which shaped the course of American development,

Whereas reconciliation and healing always begin with an apology and an effort to repay those who have been wronged,

Whereas the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities and racist practices committed against African Americans during the past two hundred years, nor for the residual impact that those atrocities and practices and current soft bigotry of low expectations are having on us today,

Whereas the Democratic Party fought to expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to disenfranchise African Americans,

Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who supported them,

[snip]

Whereas Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election was "stolen" from him and that African Americans in Florida were disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the "Miami Herald" and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to vote,

Whereas the Democratic Party's soft bigotry of low expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government social programs,

Whereas the Democratic Party's use of deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is consistent with the Democratic Party's heritage of racism that included sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill until this generation of African Americans,

Now, therefore, for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the Democratic party.

Can you imagine the mind that created that? Can you imagine the self-deluding fantasy that this poor woman suffers under? I read that and I just sat back and shook my head. Generally when you read something that purports to be "historical" or "factual" and have it look absolutely nothing like what we all understand or agree upon, well. The weirder it looks, the better, because it makes it easier to disprove and ultimately dismiss as the ranting and raving of a deranged person.

When she can wake up to the fact that the only reason--the ONLY reason--why anyone hears her voice at all is because Democrats forced the Civil Rights Act through and because Democrats have fought tooth and nail for minorities for decades while the Republican Party has all but run on a continual "Southern Strategy" while using people like Bradley Schlozman to disenfranchise their votes, then maybe we can have a dialogue.

Unbelievable.

GAO Auditors Thrown Out of Agriculture Department Headquarters

Nothing gets me more animated than the subject of agriculture. What used to be the single most important thing in this country--and the sole reason for its expansion and greatness in the early years of our founding--is now the province of agribusiness concerns and massive conglomerates.

The family farm has all but disappeared and has been replaced by urban sprawl, poor land management and rampant subsidies. What used to be an institution that would guarantee minorities successful enfranchisement in this country is an afterthought. The very idea that minorities could own land, borrow money, farm successfully, and reap the benefits helped raise the standard of living for countless minorities. Owning property is the key to establishing a class of people who have a vested interest in good government at the local, state and Federal level. And owning a farm is an act of faith in society.

The incompetence of the Bush Administration has now spread to an area where you would think there would be a minimal amount of insanity. After all, it's the Department of Agriculture. Most Americans don't even realize we still have a Department of Agriculture.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department abruptly ordered congressional auditors to leave its headquarters and told its employees not to cooperate with them.

"You are hereby instructed not to meet with any member of the (Government Accountability Office) today, or until this matter is resolved," Michael Watts, a top USDA attorney, wrote to employees Wednesday in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.

The auditors were seeking information for an ongoing audit on Agriculture's office of civil rights and its handling of discrimination complaints. Specifically, they were investigating allegations that the department had previously provided false information for the audit.

J. Michael Kelly, Agriculture's deputy general counsel, said the GAO investigators called the department Wednesday morning to say they were on their way to its headquarters and wanted to speak with a handful of specific employees.

The auditors refused to allow USDA lawyers to be present for the interviews, and after allowing one employee to talk, department officials stopped the interviews and told the investigators to leave the building, Kelly said.

"We are not interested in having our employees potentially put themselves at risk when they have not yet been advised of their rights and when we were not allowed to provide counsel," Kelly said. "We also pointed out to them that while they hold themselves out to be criminal investigators, GAO is an arm of Congress and has no authority to investigate violations of criminal law."

[snip]

John Boyd, a Virginia farmer who for years has criticized the Agriculture Department on civil rights issues, said the development shows that the department is not open about its handling of civil rights complaints.

"We think it's appalling that the USDA would go this far to obstruct civil rights," he said. "It's obvious that they have something to hide."

Hey--civil rights? Remember those? Now, why would the Bush administration have a problem making sure people aren't having their civil rights violated?

In March 2006, Bradley Schlozman was appointed interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Two weeks earlier, the administration was granted the authority to make such indefinite appointments without Senate confirmation. That was too bad: A Senate hearing might have uncovered Schlozman's central role in politicizing the civil rights division during his three-year tenure.

Schlozman, for instance, was part of the team of political appointees that approved then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's plan to redraw congressional districts in Texas, which in 2004 increased the number of Republicans elected to the House. Similarly, Schlozman was acting assistant attorney general in charge of the division when the Justice Department OKd a Georgia law requiring voters to show photo IDs at the polls. These decisions went against the recommendations of career staff, who asserted that such rulings discriminated against minority voters. The warnings were prescient: Both proposals were struck down by federal courts.

Schlozman continued to influence elections as an interim U.S. attorney. Missouri had one of the closest Senate races in the country last November, and a week before the election, Schlozman brought four voter fraud indictments against members of an organization representing poor and minority people. This blatantly contradicted the department's long-standing policy to wait until after an election to bring such indictments because a federal criminal investigation might affect the outcome of the vote. The timing of the Missouri indictments could not have made the administration's aims more transparent.

Apparently, we're going to have to turn over a lot of rocks in order to figure out whether or not each Federal agency has been protecting the Civil Rights of every American. Since they can't protect us from standing water, terrorism, religious bigotry, the chickenhawk Republican crime wave, or the mortgage industry, how much do you want to bet those rocks are hiding a whole lot we don't know?

Acquitted

Katherine Shields has been acquitted on the thin soup of a mortgage fraud charge that was filed by one of Gonzo’s replacement minions in an effort to derail her political career.

Bradley Schlozman, political hack and Loyal Bushie, amoral sleazebag and smarmy fuck extraordinaire – rode into Kansas City as an unconfirmed United States Attorney in March of 2006. He immediately set about meddling with the electoral process in an effort to influence elections and undermine Democrats in the Democratic strongholds of Jackson County/KCMO and St. Louis.

First, in a thinly disguised attempt to help Jim Talent retain his Senate seat against Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill, he filed the charges against four ACORN employees who falsified a couple of voter registration cards (no fraudulent votes were cast and would not have been, even if no charges had been filed.) Department of Justice guidelines state explicitly that charges should not be filed until after elections when the filing could influence the outcome (innocent until proven guilty and all that).

He ignored protocol because he wasn’t here to serve Justice. He was here to spurn Justice. He was here to use the Department of Justice to help the Republican party in the states Democratic strongholds. Period.

And while the outcry over the ACORN charges was still echoing off the tall buildings downtown, the bastard turned around and did it again! He filed a mortgage fraud charge against two-term Jackson County Executive Katherine Shields, and brought the specious charges against her while she was conducting a mayoral campaign.

As soon as the charges were filed, her campaign tanked. She finished the primary far back in the pack, after what started out a tight three-way race. The runoff was held six weeks later, and the contest was between former City Auditor Mark Funkhouser and Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Brooks. Our son was so pissed, he voted for her anyway, as a write-in candidate. My candidate prevailed and is now the Mayor of the city I have grown to love – but Schlozman’s tampering with the electoral process cheapens that victory to fire-sale prices.

And today, she and her husband were acquitted on all charges. The two other defendants, who originated the scheme, were found guilty.

Now…What will the future hold? Will she reclaim her place in Democratic politics on this side of the state? She was long considered an up-and-comer in the Democratic Party – that is, she was – before she was slandered, slurred and prosecuted for the crime of being a star in Democratic politics in the bluest part of a red state. It was just a given that she would be sent to Jeff City or Washington D.C. at some point in the near future to continue representing us at a higher level.

As she exited the courthouse after the verdict was announced, she was loath to speculate on what the future holds for her politically. Whatever the future holds for her, this blogger wishes her all the best, and congratulates her on the verdict. And prays to a God she doesn’t believe in that we have seen the end of political persecution of Democrats by the Department of “Just Us” in an attempt to help the whiny, sniveling, pathetic, hapless losers of the GOP.