Alberto Gonzales

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives General Counsel filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee to enforce subpoenas issued by the committee seeking information on the U.S. Attorney firings. The defendants in the case are former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten who were cited by the House for contempt of Congress last month. Contrary to federal law, the Department of Justice (DOJ) refused to present the House-passed contempt citations to a grand jury.

“The Bush Administration’s claim of executive privilege goes well beyond any privilege recognized by any court decision,” said Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) who worked closely with House leadership to help pass the contempt resolution.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Throughout his tenure, Alberto Gonzales has allowed political gamesmanship to drive the US Justice Department, an agency that has enormous power to jail people, destroy reputations, and affect the outcome of elections.

In addition to the firing of nine US attorneys and the use of warrantless wiretaps in the war on terror, Gonzales also assisted in a five-year Republican campaign to pursue restrictive voter ID laws that would disproportionately disenfranchise minority, senior, student, and disabled voters.

That legacy of voter suppression extends to North Carolina, where Republican State Auditor Les Merritt trumped up earlier this year unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud to discourage eligible voters from going to the polls.

“The North Carolina Democratic Party is pleased that the Bush Administration’s exit strategy includes the resignation of Alberto Gonzales,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek. “But while we’re throwing out the bad apples and restoring integrity to the electoral process, Mr. Les Merritt should be the next to go.”

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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By Scott Mooneyham

You'd think the U.S. Justice Department had more important worries, bosses to save or court cases to lose. But unfazed by public humiliation or courtroom defeats, the federal agency apparently has chosen North Carolina as the latest state to harass regarding how it maintains voter registration rolls.

The Justice Department sent a letter to state election officials in the spring implying that they are failing to properly purge registration lists of ineligible voters.

The letter stated that voter registration in some North Carolina counties exceeds the voting-age population.

To be fair, federal laws enacted in the aftermath of the 2000 election debacle require states to periodically review voter registration rolls and make "a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters."

But those same laws make clear that state election officials may not remove voters who have changed residence unless the voters have failed to vote in the last two federal elections and haven't responded to written notification.

The Help America Vote Act and National Voter Registration Act also provide no guidance on how states are expected to match databases to remove deceased voters or convicted felons.

The federal laws avoid such specificity for good reason.

According to liberal-leaning Project Vote, studies have found that even well-intended database matching efforts resulted in error rates between 20 and 32 percent. Those errors disenfranchise legitimate voters.

Revealing her partisan allegiances, Elizabeth Dole today voted against a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even though Gonzales is directly responsible for the mismanagement and politicization of the Justice Department.

Over the past few months, an increasing number of bipartisan calls have been made for Gonzales to resign because of his incompetent leadership as the nation’s Attorney General.

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson & My Left Wing


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I know we're all feeling a little Bushwhacked after 6 long years of this guy and his horde of minions running the country, but did any of you get a load of the news out of the justice department late last week and over the weekend?

Democratic Senate leaders are calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto "Torture is A-Ok" Gonzalez. As if his reasoning that the Geneva Conventions is a pro-torture document wasn't enough reason to put him in jail, much less take him out of our GOVERNMENT, we now find that he's firing US attorneys under the direction of Karl Rove. Some might call it a "Plaming" of the justice department.

And we also found out that the FBI has been abusing the Patriot Act, needlessly accessing bank and phone records of thousands of Americans while they sleep the blissful sleep of the drugged and apathetic. If they fire US attorneys for not exercising their political will, we can only wonder what they are planning to do with our personal information. Who knew that when they came up with the term, "identity theft," they'd be talking about the action of a government bureau!

The Winston-Salem Journal is reporting that Congressman Walter Jones has requested the assistance of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in determining whether Mike Nifong has violated the civil rights of the Duke lacrosse players accused of rape.

According to the Journal:

GOP Rep. Walter Jones wants the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the district attorney prosecuting three Duke University lacrosse players charged with rape has violated their civil rights.

More below the fold...