Completely Unnecessary

With the presidential election looming and the economy ending, it can be easy to forget that there are other decaying structures in the US.

While Attorney General Mukasey refused last month to prosecute DOJ officials (namely, Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson) for the politicized hiring of career employees, the investigation into the firings of US Attorneys will get some legs.

The internal Justice Dept review of the affair just produced a 356-page report on the “fundamentally flawed” system of hiring and firing of US Attorneys.

But the year of Administration stiff-arming “produced significant “gaps” in [the investigation's] understanding of the events”.

As a result, Mukasey has appointed the Acting Connecticut US Attorney, Nora Dannehy, to continue where the internal investigation left off.

I would quote parts of the article, but it’s really just worth reading in its entirety.

Rove, Miers and Goodling refused to be interviewed. There’s pretty much no question that Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Heather A. Wilson (R-NM-1) got US Attorney David Iglesias fired. Alberto Gonzales was “remarkably unengaged”. Etc, etc.

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The Bush Administration is proposing changes to the way Health and Human Services deals with definitions, abortion and access.

Specifically, the new rules would require anyone receiving federal funding for health care to allow employees to refuse services to which they object.

The obvious target here is abortion. Or is it?

Senator Clinton and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, point out in a NYT op-ed last week that the ‘obvious’ target masks the real concern.

Rules allowing medical professionals to opt out of abortions have been in place for 30 years.

The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception.

This document is the update from the July version, which defined birth control IUDs as abortificants, but the wording is no so vague as to be the same thing.

Health care professionals are allowed to decide what is meant by ‘abortion’ - and would be allowed to refuse care on the basis of their own definitions.

The rules would also allow federal funding for so-called ‘pregnancy crisis centers’, which are established for the specific purpose of keeping women from having abortions.

(You know how they functioned in Minnesota when I was working up there? At least one ‘clinic’ was showing women fake ultrasounds and telling them they were too pregnant to an abortion.)

Public comment on the new rules are open until 25 September at midnight. Please click this link and add your name to the petition.

Links:
Blocking Care for Women [NYT Opinion]
HHS Attack on Women’s Health Care [Planned Parenthood Action Center]

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At least for today.

Damn perfect. Republicans get out of having to have Bush speak at the RNC so that he can go ‘attend’ to Gustav.

Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino says the White House is working on possible alternatives that would allow Bush to make a speech at the convention, which begins Monday.

Somehow I bet that’s not going to happen, Dana.

God forbid there’s chance for Bush to make an ass of himself when it actually benefits us.

You know, as opposed to mortally embarrassing us to the point lamenting the last eight years on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

On a non-political note - let’s just hope he doesn’t stuff this up as badly as the last one.

Update: Cheney’s out, too. Though Laura Bush - whose approval rating sits some 20 points higher than her husband’s (so, like, a 98 points higher than Cheney’s) will still be speaking tonight. Enjoy!

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Wow. I did not see that coming.

An internal report at the Justice Dept. concluded that aids to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales violated federal law by using partisan criteria in the hiring of non-partisan positions.

Gonzales, of course, said he knew nothing about the conduct of his subordinates. Then again, he didn’t ever manage to remember anything about anything, despite frequent trips to the Hill for questioning.

Taking the brunt of the blame is Monica Goodling, one of Gonzales’ top aides. She denied people jobs for a host of reasons: having Democrat wives; rumors of possible lesbianism, Internet searches returning the words “abortion,” “homosexual,” “guns,” or “Florida re-count”.

Goodling last made news testifying in May 2007 on the firing of US Attorneys. She was granted immunity in that investigation in return for her testimony before the Judiciary Committee, but it appears she may be charged in this case. Today’s DOJ report cited her (and others’) activity as patently illegal. The man who would have to prosecute her, however, is Attorney General Michael Mukasey, also a Bush appointee.

Perhaps to encourage Mukasey, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is considering perjury charges against Gonzales, Goodling and Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ former chief of staff who fell on his sword for his boss during the US Attorney scandal.

Reflecting on this absurd level of corruption, I think it’s a good time to remember that there are less than 100 days til the election. Are you registered?

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These stories are a couple of days old at this point, but I couldn’t stop gritting my teeth long enough to post about them.

Cook County Democrats - led by their torpid President Todd Stroger - struck down a bill to repeal the 1% tax that gives Chicago the highest sales tax in the US.

All the Republicans voted to repeal the tax, joined by - we can all do this together right? - Chicago Democrats Forrest Claypool and Mike Quigley.

Stroger and co. accused Tony Peracia (R), who proposed the repeal and was Stroger’s 2006 opponent, of political machinations to help his campaign for State’s Attorney in November.

And Stroger knows corruption when he sees it! His 2006 campaign just got fined $27,000 for incomplete and missing reports on contributions of more than $500.

But there are likely to be more fines since they didn’t follow the rules in other ways, as well. Here’s a quote that makes me laugh:

Stroger spokesman Eugene Mullins also said he was working to better reflect that a $441,000 certificate of deposit obtained by the 8th Ward Democratic Organization fund, of which Mullins is treasurer, was used as collateral for a $500,000 loan that Stroger’s campaign received shortly before the 2006 election.

One commenter on one of the stories noted that a $27,000 one-time tax would probably be requested some time soon. I say, one time! Better make it permanent. I mean, the 8th Ward only has so much money…

As much as I loathe and disagree with nearly every decision President Bush has made, at least his Administration went in with a plan. All Stroger plans to do is absorb taxpayers money and hand out jobs to cronies. Give me grand (horrible) plans any day over sponge-like, fatuous greed.

Links:
Cook County Board rejects sales tax increase repeal [Chicago Tribune]
Cook County does it again [Chicago Tribune]
Todd Stroger campaign hit with nearly $27,000 state fine [Chicago Tribune]

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Either leave office or leave us alone, Mr President.

A Bush Administration memo would expand the definition of abortion to include birth control pills and interuterine devices - which would bring them under the auspices of ‘conscience clauses’, allowing medical professionals to deny such items to women requesting them. Via Reuters:

“The Department proposes to define abortion as ‘any of the various procedures — including the prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation,’” it said.

Since some pills and the IUDs prevent fertalized eggs from implanting, they would fall under this category.

I mean, I know I’m never going to get over the Bush Admin’s great idea of appointing a veterinarian as the head of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health. But seriously - can you just leave us alone? Less than 200 days. Just go to Crawford. No one cares anymore; we’re not going to complain that you’re not doing your job.

Just go.

Via Jezebel and Reuters

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Senators Feingold and Dodd have delayed the Senate vote on the bill that would grant immunity to the telecom companies for their role in the warrantless wiretapping.

In December, Obama:

unequivocally oppose[d] giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Senator Dodd’s efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill. Granting such immunity undermines the constitutional protections Americans trust the Congress to protect.

The situation today is somewhat different, Obama saying:

“Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program,” Obama said in a statement hours after the House approved the legislation 293-129.

Glenn Greenwald and Keith Olbermann are screaming at each other across the interwebs, the latter seeming to suggest that a President Obama would be able to take advantage of the poorly written bill to get the telecoms.

That’s not a good enough answer. Aside from the fact that Obama hasn’t stated this ’secret plan’ as his reason for supporting the bill, Greenwald’s argument that no political leader should be given that much blind faith is compelling. Blind faith is what the Right gave Bush for - well - about seven years.

Granted, I’m no legal scholar, but from everything I’ve read, it’s a bad bill that erodes Fourth Amendment protections. Secret Plan or no, it’s time to restrict the power of the executive. I like Obama a lot, but I still want him to have far less power than Bush has claimed.

Obama’s promise to make sure that he doesn’t abuse his power is not a reason to vote for a bad bill. Bush promised to ‘carefully monitor’ all sorts of things and has paved our lovely little road to hell.

Which brings me to my point. I’m in the position of not only being an Obama presidential supporter, but also an Obama senatorial constituent- as are a goodly number of those to read this blog (thanks Google Analytics).

Senator Obama can be contacted here. Tell him to stick to his (December) guns on the FISA bill and not to get involved in political expediency. Make sure to check the box asking for a reply.

You can also call the Chicago office on (312) 886-3506 or the DC Office on (202) 224-2854.

Two weeks ago, Obama demonstrated that Democrats can and should push back on issues of national security. We don’t need to run to the center on this one either.

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…for not posting.

I mean, it does. I know that more than one of you check this blog regularly for new and (ahem) insightful content.

But I can’t control your poor life choices.

So I’ve been tempted this week to blog about the lovely and soul-inspiring weddings of biddies - because obviously that’s awesome.

I think if you can’t be happy for 80+-year-old women getting married you don’t really understand what life is about. There’s fundamental level at which you don’t understand happiness.

[Ed. note - Um, Firefox 3, vaguely appealing though it is, does not seem to have incorporated spellcheck in a timely manner. This is absolutely disastrous for your editor, who can't spell her way out of a very small shoebox.] [Oh thank crap, it kicked back in; I had spelled disastrous wrong. I'm more of a big picture kind of girl.]

Anyway, I’ve been sick and also working/marking/watching Angel, so it’s really a grab bag of reasons why I’ve lacked the wherewithal to fulfill the blogging duties that - I will remind you - come with little to no financial reward.

I had something to say. I think it was this:

I know the Administration only has a short number of months (yay!) left in office, but this doesn’t mean that they should drive down their game.

It will potentially frighten several of you to learn that my father is a Republican. Not of the truly alarming variety - he just believes in lower taxes, etc, etc. (whereas I believe in stealing from the rich, etc., etc.).

Anyway, he sends me an article last week in which George Will (displaying the youngest picture GenXers have ever seen of George Will) is all about drilling in ANWAR and everywhere offshore because the Chinese are already doing it.

Eh, they’re not.

But, if the story gets repeated enough times, it looks like good enough impetus for Bush to advocate drilling off all our coastlines a few days later. The NYT, however, is not so impressed with that, considering it won’t lower gas prices until 2030.

But hey - talking points trotted out in the press ten days before they become ‘policy’ is just typical. Could these guys try anymore? I mean, where are those bold policy suggestions of yore? Isn’t there a country we should think about invading?

Oh, or is it just that we’ve gotten lazy, considering the oil contracts with one that we’ve already invaded?

Personally, I’m happier thinking about old ladies getting married.

Congrats to them and everyone taking the plunge (especially to Elissa and Keith, who I love with all my heart… even though they’re not gay. It’s not, like, a definite criteria for my support of your union).

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I know I’m behind the times; on the upside, I know far more about Australian irrigation, catchment levels and the Murray-Darling scheme than I’d ever hoped to learn.

Anyway, onto Justice Kennedy, who reasserted himself as my favorite Supreme Court justice after a lengthly period on my shit list. Writing the Opinion (.pdf) in Boumediene v. Bush (the case that gave Gitmo detainees their rights back) he said:

Although the United States has maintained complete and uninterrupted control of Guantanamo for over 100 years, the Government’s view is that the Constitution has no effect there, at least as to noncitizens, because the United States disclaimed formal sovereignty in its 1903 lease with Cuba. The Nation’s basic charter cannot be contracted away like this. The Constitution grants Congress and the President the power to acquire, dispose of, and govern territory, not the power to decide when and where its terms apply. To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say “what the law is.”

I feel that ‘Snap!’ doesn’t properly represent the the six years of illegality under which these detainees have been held.

Kennedy first won his way into my heart via his Opinion in 1993’s Church of the Lukumi Babalu-Aye v. City of Hialeah:

Our review confirms that the laws in question were enacted by officials who did not understand, failed to perceive, or chose to ignore the fact that their official actions violated the Nation’s essential commitment to religious freedom… No one suggests, and on this record it cannot be maintained, that city officials had in mind [as the target of their ordinances] a religion other than Santería.

I might not always agree with him, but the man does not mince words, which I respect more than most things. The Hialeah ruling is like series of uppercuts to the judge below him - awesome.

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There’s no better way to say this than has already been said:

On Tuesday the group Colorado for Equal Rights submitted 131,245 signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot that would define a fertilized embryo as a person. Voters will decide on the measure that would amend the state Constitution to extend a fertilized embryo equal rights and protections. It would define “any human being from the moment of fertilization” as a “person” for purposes of the state’s constitutional provisions “relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice and due process of law.”

Mother Jones notes that such an amendment might ‘trigger governmental investigations into miscarriages, restrict in-vitro fertilization by couples trying to conceive, and could limit birth-control methods.’

Aside from its glaring, rage-inducing absurdity and almost certain unconstitutionality, this initiative raises some amazing questions.

One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers, for instance, asks if she can move to CO and receive Social Security benefits sooner.

Could a woman be charged with manslaughter or reckless homicide for a miscarriage? Or, better yet, what if the family carries Accidental Death insurance? Given how many zygotes self-terminate, you could make a pretty penny just claiming based on statistics.

And what do we do if the fetus kills the mother, in childbirth or otherwise? Is it incumbent upon the state to try the infant for manslaughter? Can the father sue his newborn or fetus for loss of consortium, wages, etc?

And perhaps the most obvious question - how on Earth can anyone know when the moment of fertilization is? Outside of a science lab, it’s pretty darn unprovable. And even if a test was developed, I’m pretty sure it would involve the government asking a woman to put her feet in the stirrups. So let’s hope Colorado for Equal Rights has something to nix the Fourteenth, as well.

As recent years have shown, however, this initiative is perhaps just crazy enough to pass.

I mean, a veterinarian was selected by the Bush Administration to head up the Office of Women’s Health in 2005. (Alderson was quickly removed after a number of groups justifiably lost their minds.) Minnesota’s Right to Know laws required doctors to provide state-scripted information on abortion that defied medical science. Missouri lawmakers are trying to get Plan B regulated as an abortifacient.

Anyway ladies, I suggest looking into Accidental Death insurance, just in case. If we move to Colorado, natural self-termination might be the new sugardaddie.

H/T: Andrew Sullivan via Mother Jones

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