3,000 pages were just released to the House Judiciary Committee by the Dept. of Justice in re: the U.S. Attorney purge. Judiciary is getting ’em posted as quickly as they can, even as we type. Says Conyers in a statement just released:
“While I appreciate the Department’s willingness to make these voluminous documents regarding the U.S. Attorney firings available to us for review, I am disappointed that they are denying other important information to Congress without any real authority to do so. This investigation has uncovered serious charges of misleading congress, obstructing justice, and abuse of power. I hope we can resolve the outstanding issues over redactions, but if necessary, we are prepared to press ahead to get to the bottom of this growing scandal, using subpoenas if necessary.”
Looks like it’ll be a long night for the folks at Judiciary, and likely much longer for Josh Marshall and friends at TPM. Happy reading, all!
Earlier from U.S. News & World Report:
Paralysis Sets In as DOJ Faces Crisis
…
“You have no idea,” said one Justice official, “how bad it is here.”
…
“You have no idea,” said one Justice official, “how bad it is here.”
The fear that virtually any piece of communication will have to be turned over has paralyzed department officials’ ability to communicate effectively and respond in unison to the crisis…
Accountability sucks, huh? Welcome to it. We believe your nightmare is just beginning.
“The fear that virtually any piece of communication will have to be turned over has paralyzed department officials’ ability to communicate effectively and respond in unison to the crisis…”
Interesting.. And what do the Trolls� have to say about this? I mean, there aren’t too many alternatives to the interpritation of “they can’t seem to put anything in writing because they are guilty and anything they put to paper will be used against them”..
See, when you’re being honest and not breaking the law, you have nothing to fear from speaking. When you’re lying and engaging in criminal activity as a matter of policy, you fear even a single word being heard.
Lock all of these corrupt and morally bankrupt pricks up and throw away the key.
For all your Patrick J. Fitzgerald facts and needs.
Perhaps, if we’re lucky Conyers will get upset enough to retract his earlier “impeachment is off the table” pronouncement. Meanwhile, I’ll sleep better and better the more Bush and his cohorts squirm.
“The fear that virtually any piece of communication will have to be turned over has paralyzed department officials’ ability to communicate effectively and respond in unison to the crisis…”
What about US??? With Bushco’s wiretapping, email & snail-mail spying???????????? You think WE like that?
So, how do THEY like it???????????????
I posted this here over a year ago:
(Yahoo News, 2/11/2006). But what the “are you as smart as a neoCon” employees of bushieland do not understand is that it does not require a writing to show proof of obstruction of justice. There are many facets to the notion of obstruction of justice, but lets focus on this one:
(18 U.S.C. 1503(a), emphasis added). Since any US Attorney is an “officer of the court” under the criminal statute above, any attempt to influence or steer them in a direction away from a prosecution in the pursuit of justice is a felony.
The boyz in the what house these daze are going to be yelling “witch hunt” for years to come!!!
Many times, life can be complicated; others, well….
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
-Mark Twain
I have been downloading the documents from the Judiciary Committee site.
There is a technical problem in that the docs were not scanned in as text.
So searches are problematic and ineffective.
Does anyone have an idea about how to convert the images into text (.pdf –> .txt)?
“Does anyone have an idea about how to convert the images into text (.pdf –> .txt)?”
You can try OCR (optical character recognition) software, but that’s hit and miss. There are also companies that specialize in doing stuff like this. Depending on the number of people involved, it may be possible to get some sort of distributed data entry going depending on the number of pages of data, and interested people.
Thanks noname #8 … hope the judiciary committee will make a request that the docs be submitted on disk type media … then they could save us who want to help view the docs some unnecessary work … 🙂
Raw Story is reporting that Bush called Gonzales to give full support.
John N. Mitchell, AG for Nixon, was sentenced to prison for obstruction of justice under similar circumstances.
“Accountability sucks”—
This comment speaks volumes. Whenever I hear folks yelping that they are drowning in government regulation and can’t get government off their backs, I think remembering this moment is worth the effort.
Government oversight and expectation of good performance depends in large measure on accountability. We all know people’s performance should be measured carefully by fair standards. We all know people should be “on their honor” to do the right thing unless it can be demonstrated otherwise.
But what happens when a megalomanicial ghead of government and his lackies flout honor and fairness, and behave to the detriment and destruction of the society? We apparently do not have the political tools to stop them (failure of political parties, failure of the ballot for a variety of reasons). What is left, dear folks who complain about oversight and regulation.
What’s left is the paper trail –not of ballots, but of schemes and counter-schemes lying dormant on someone’s email server until a government investigation is launched.
Paperwork. Regulation. Trackability. Accountability.
So remember the next time you hear someone say he’s dying under government paperwork and regulation.
There is a reason for it.
Dredd–
You might try to use PDF Converter by Nuance. Or their Omnipage OCR product. I use both, but only occasionally. They seem to handle conversions of PDF into text pretty well.
Dredd, I thought if you open up PDF files in Adobe, there is a search in Adobe?
Hubbabubba # 11 quotes the “Accountability sucks” statement by Brad. Good point. Haliburton is trying to avoid some of it by going to a place that has little if any:
(Columbia Journalism Review, emphasis added).
Haliburton can find oil field slaves there and without oversite “accountability”.
This is the Taliban supporting nation that the bushies wanted to run our ports. If we are lucky Gonzales and Cheney will move there too.
Big Dan #13 and Hubbabubba #12
Big Dan the text search only works if the content was entered as text.
Evidently DOJ did .jpg images … or the like … and just scanned it that way … (so we can’t do our research?) … or Conyers’ staff did not request it on disk as text … whatever …
Hubbabubba … I will look at Nuance … thanks
I’ve got my popcorn!
I can’t wait to see what’s in the emails. The information thus far is damning, to say the least. For instance:
It looks like one of the attorneys, Carol Lam, might have been fired because her investigations were getting a little too close to Shooter.
Could Carol Lam have been looking into this?
Was Carol Lam Targeting The White House Prior To Her Firing?
And this one, about Arizona US Attorney Paul Charton:
Arizona US Attorney fired for failed porn case?
The Department of (In)Justice is paralyzed with fear of turning anything over? Now, why is this? Could it be they have broken laws and knew it all along? Can it be that it will become apparent the DOJ follows Bush politics instead of JUSTICE? I have no sympathy, not a speck. Sic em, Leahy and Waxman.
Just gotta say, you are the best bunch of dot connectors I ever read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANKS
.
Conyers calls for vote to subpoena five current and ex-White House and Justice Department officials: Kyle Sampson, Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, William Kelley, and Scott Jennings, as well as White House and Justice Department docs, which have not been provided: Soon…(raw story)
Conyers to subpoeana Rove & Miers!!!
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/C...s_of_0320.html
S. 214 just passed in the Senate. It restores the law pre-Gonzo business … the Senate must approve any US Attorney appointments.
When you scan an item on a scanner and don’t OCR it, it isn’t searchable as a pdf file. DOJ apparently gave them paper to slow them down, is my bet.
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of Alberto & Karl starring in the new White House presentation of “Justice Is Served”…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
The biggest Joke so far this year:
To ward off subpoenas, White House offers Rove, Miers testimony behind closed doors
They MUST be made to testify under oath – anything short of that is totally unacceptable.
KestrelBrighteyes & Dredd
I’ve missed you guys while off doing other things
Dredd: http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org.../20/1665/33040
I predict.
Subpoenas, more stalling, possibly some convictions but with light sentences (like the Ohio election workers 18 months crap), and presidential pardons.
They’ll not be held accountable.
They’ll not follow the constitution.
They’ll not uphold “oath of office.”
They’ll not tell the truth. (If an oath don’t mean shit)
They’ll keep destroying anyone in their path.
Keep stealing, Keep killing, same old shit.
Our boxes aren’t working folks.
The Voting box
The Jury box
What box is left?
Bush might as well have said “terrorists would benefit if Rove and Miers have to tell the truth”.
But since nobody would buy it anymore, and he knows it, he has to do a James Cagney “come and get me coppa” routine.
It came across as a spoiled brat tantrum, rather than a principled stand. Shameful nixonian criminality pure and simple.
OT – BLUBEAR!!
LOVE the new blog, I’ll have to poke around there when I have some time.
BTW, LOVE LOVE LOVE the Pink Floyd reference at the top – someday maybe I’ll share with you the personal story linked forever in my mind with that song *winks* (Um..you ARE over 18, correct?)
KestrelBrighteyes
So far over 18 I can hardly remember it! LOL
I have a good story about the song as well. Drop a comment at the Lair and I’ll tell you all about it.
Bluebear2
Good to blog with you and KBE again! I remember when we could only hope for congressional oversite.
Now we can kick back and enjoy it!
I am loving all of these hearings!!! And the way many of the republicans are acting in them is disgusting. They look like total jackasses. Then they get the smackdown. Good TV! Start recording them, you won’t be disappointed.
I noticed today many republicans doing the old “democrat” instead of “democratic” slur again. How childish.
Chris Hooten:
The world’s dumbest criminals in an elegant setting!