No, He Will Never Be Accused of Knowing Too Much

Justice is said to be blind, and it will likely be viewed as humane, perhaps, that Lady Liberty was wearing a blindfold today, of all days.

Blind, yes, but not unctuously unconscious

We speak of, of course, the Crony General, Michael "See/Hear/Speak No Evil" Mukasey.

Mukasey Won’t Pursue Charges in Hiring Inquiry

Mr. Mukasey also said it would be unfair, and possibly illegal, for the department to go back and reassign or dismiss those lawyers and other employees who were hired in part because they were seen as trusted conservatives. “Two wrongs do not make a right,” he said.

Holy Cow!

"Two wrongs do not make a right"

How about hundreds-of-thousands of wrongs, you know, like the entire span of the regime of the Bush Grindhouse?

Just how many of their wrongs does it take to make a wrong?

Alex, from Martini Revolution;

Got that? Mukasey is not going to prosecute the political hacks who violated the law and hired less qualified political cronies selected for their political views and loyalty to the GOP cause — sort of a retarded Fuhrer principle. And he’s going to protect the illegally-hired underqualified cronies and GOP loyalists, thereby insuring that the original objectives of the illegal scheme are enduring achievements, because they are now protected by the same Civil Service laws which their very hiring violated.

"Two wrongs do not make a right"

Mukasey didn't stop at the preschool cupboard of Mother Hubbard just for that one, he also tossed the bon mots of "But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime" and that "Negative Publicity’ Is Sufficient Punishment".

Damn, if I ever get bagged for something, I hope the roll of the judicial dice nets me a judge with the moniker of "Tabloid Ted", and just get a couple of months of "Negative Publicity".

Digby, though, offers the sobering, depressing take-away on this;

"The Democrats have achieved the worst of both worlds: conservatives will pay no price for the blatant politicization of the government during the Bush administration and the Democrats will be powerless to clean house once the government is in their hands. That worked out well."

So, as often as we have done here on The Garlic, when it comes to the Bush Grindhouse, we fade out with a link to this tune.

Tonight, we ramp it up, with the icon of pure goodness, Doris Day, from the Hitchcock gem "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (the second Hitchcock make of this, from the 1950's).

'Que Sera Sera' in "The Man Who Knew Too Much"




And, if we want to read into this, using little Hank as a symbol for lost, and trapped, justice, unfortunately, just singing this song won't bring these crooks, these dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds, to the proper accountability they deserve.

Ahhh, if only life was like the movies.


Bonus Injustice Department Riffs

Emptywheel: I Hate to Say I Told You So…

Larisa Alexandrovna: Mukasey is no Elliot Richardson...

D-Day: Enforce The Laws? Sorry, Not My Job

Kate Klonick: Mukasey to Bar Association: "The System Failed"

Steve Benen: Attorney General tells ABA: Not every crime is a crime

Pass The Word ... Mukasey Lies!

Was The Mukasy Vote Part Of That Rovian New Math?

Top Ten Cloves: Things Brett Favre Can Expect On His Return To The Green Bay Packers

News Item: Brett Favre forces the issue with comeback


10. Boasts, when he first walks in the locker room "I am the one you have been waiting for!"

9. Farrelly Brothers announce plan to make sequel to 'There's Something About Mary', but say Favre won't be in it

8. He demands a trade to the LA Dodgers, so he can play with Manny Ramirez

7. Gets surprising support from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who endorses Favre's plan to keep playing

6. A shocking new email surfaces, from Monica Goodling, recommending the Packers not hire Favre

5. John McCain will run an ad, with Britney Spear and Paris Hilton, accusing Favre of being a celebrity and not being ready to lead the Packers

4. He'll get back at the Packers by giving Bill Belichick film of the Packer's play signals

3. Walmart calls mandatory meeting and tells their managers not to cheer for Favre

2. After trashing Packer management, Green Bay media brings Favre box of donuts

1. Facebook launches new game - Favreulous!


Bonus Pigskin Posts

Flutie Sends "Cease-and-Desist" Letter To Media Over 'Hail Mary' References Regarding Surge; Diminutive QB Longtime Copyright Holder; "It Still Feeds My Family"; Says Open To Negotiate On Usage

Top Ten Cloves: Good Things About Losing The Super Bowl and Ending Up 18-1

Top Ten Cloves: Possible Reasons Peyton Manning Threw Six Interceptions Last Evening

Developing Story! Tancredo: Shut Down Super Bowl; Says Two Black Coaches "Amounts To Segregation"; Appeals To NFL Commissioner To Make Big Game "Color-Blind"; Biden Weighs In, Backs Coaches

More Steroid Hearings; The NFL Goes To Congress; McGwire Surprise Witness; Still Not Talking

Retro Garlic: Is Monica Goodling Just Like Batman?

Maybe it will take another day, or two.

Some Right Wing Freak Show blog, or publication - perhaps the Wall Street Journal, again - will run an essay comparing the newest Brokeback Batman, err, The Dark Knight, to Monica Goodling.

After all, in her Pat-Robertson-educated mind, she was fighting for the American Way.

She could be equally tough and ruthless, coming out with The Commander Guy's "You're either with us, or against us" ethos, asking prospective Justice Department hirees "What Is It About GWB That Makes You Want to Serve Him?"

Oh boy, is that a loaded question ...

(Knowing, during the Bush Regime, the Republicans healthy, lusty carnal appetites, I wonder if anyone answered that question with "the twins")

So, you ask, why is this Lady Injustice back in the news again?

Well, yesterday, The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility released findings on the investigation of how Crony General Alberto Gonzales, and his cronies Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, stacked the deck at the Justice Department (turning it into the Injustice Department), by skewing the hiring, dumping qualified candidates because they didn't Goose Step to the Bush Grindhouse, and hiring lame GOP lackeys for career positions.

In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal law and Department policy, and therefore committed misconduct, when she considered political or ideological affiliations in hiring decisions for candidates for career positions within the Department. In particular, the evidence showed that she considered political or ideological affiliations in deciding several waiver requests from interim U.S. Attorneys, in promoting several candidates for career positions, and in disapproving a candidate for an EOUSA career SES position

Yeah, I know, another "I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling going on here ..."

It may become easier to line up all the people, all of them, who worked in, and for, the Bush Grindhouse the past eight-years, and ask whoever hasn't broken the law, violated the Constitution and otherwise went about their work completely unethically, to take one step forward.

You could probably count them on one hand.

Now, one would think of the terrible scandal, the hours of hearings, followed up by indictments, trials and perp-walks to jail, however, you only need to remember that it is the 110th Congress in session, so, likely, this will slowly fade away, no trials, no jailbirds, just quietly falling off Nancy Pelosi's infamous table.

Anyway, the Retro Part;

Top Ten Cloves: If Monica Goodling's Wedding Plays Out Like Her Last Job


Bonus Lady Injustice Links

Larisa Alexandrovna: Speaking of Monica "The Good American" Goodling... did you know...

John Cole: Crooks

Think Progress: Goodling ‘frowned’ when applicant said he admired Condi Rice: ‘But she’s pro-choice.’

Greg Palast: Palast Exclusive: The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom

Top Ten Cloves: If Monica Goodling's Wedding Plays Out Like Her Last Job

News Item: Breaking: Monica Goodling Is Engaged!

10. In unusual step, the DOJ is notifying all Government contractors of Goodlings' Wedding Registry

9. Reception will be in a Congressional Hearing Room motif

8. Pat Robertson will offer one of his special blessings for the couple

7. All emails about the wedding will be sent "directly up to Goodling and outside the system"

6. Justice of the Peace who will perform ceremony got licensed from Regent College

5. Goodling not sure if she will say "I Do", or plead the 5th Amendment

4. Goodling had Barbara Comstock do a thorough "opposition research" on her prospective husband

3. Bridesmaids and ushers will be chosen strictly along party affiliation

2. Alberto Gonzales will pull her aside, before the wedding, to talk to her about what to say during the wedding

1. Karl Rove is planning the whole thing!


Bonus Monica/DOJ Riffs

Think Progress: Monica Goodling engaged to conservative blogger

Attaturk/FDL: Just Perfect for Marching to Wagner Together

Dana Milbank: Monica's Own Monica Problem

"He aggressively and successfully pursued public corruption ..."

Alberto Gonzales Sings 'Justice For Sale'


Here's Monica, practicing for her ring fitting

Become a Cheney's Cheney ... Help The VP Build His Team, For The Most Gleaming of Brass Rings - Iran

We have a situation developing, with the Cheney side of our government all running around with puffed up tents in the crotch of their trousers, over the prospects of "hot conflict" with Iran, that there is talk of "insubordination against President Bush" and his wimpy diplomacy-first side of the government.

We'll set aside, for the moment, using the words "President Bush" and "diplomacy" in the same sentence.

Jackson Williams, on the Huffington Post, asked yesterday "Just who is Cheney's team these days, what with Scooter Libby headed to jail and Rummy off playing bridge? Well, the ranks have surely thinned as this blunder has gone on, but there is probably some recruitment of new blood taking place, too."

Where is the new blood coming from?

The Garlic, not wanting to be shown up as not supporting our troops, wants to lend a hand for this effort and has composed a Want Ad for the Office of Vice President, being that Monica Goodling resigned, and can't be sitting there any longer, wearing her BL armband (Bush Loyalist) when screening potential candidates.

Get yourself in the game, it's likely this position will be filled very quickly.

Position: Loyal, Hard-Nosed Neoconservative Yes-Man

Have you ever wanted to overthrow a foreign regime, start a war or tell a United States Senator to "go fuck yourself"?

Do you often find yourself sticking, obstinately, to a minority viewpoint, refusing to give in because you know, deep in your gut, you are correct - even when some panty-waist liberal is waving irrefutable evidence in your face?

If so, the Office of the Vice President has an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for you.

In the dynamic world of the nation's first "Shadow President", you will be in the vortex of domestic and world events, meeting with the nation's energy chiefs, or taking an overseas trips to berate foreign governments.

You may, at times find yourself holed-up in a genuine Secret Bunker, and you'll have the thrill of living through the Armageddon drills and running the country "the day after" with surreptitious weekend retreats.

And, you just may be on-board for the most gleaming of brass rings - Iran.

Qualifications

• Ability to write, bully, steal, fabricate, and/or otherwise generate intelligence supporting the Vice President's policies and vision
• Talent, in face of withering criticism, to be able to stay on message and repeat false claims
• No Conscious and no regrets in outing and exposing covert CIA agents
• Lying and the knack for placing blame on others are required skills for the position

*Internships and/or employment with the American Enterprise Institute or the PNAC is highly desirable

** All candidates, to be considered for the position, will be required to sign a waiver, indicating the acceptance of going to prison in order to protect the Vice President should such an occurance manifest in carrying out your duties in the Office of the Vice President.

Contact, with cover letter and resume, Chief of Staff (and the original Cheney's Cheney) David Addington at vice_president@whitehouse.gov


Bonus Links

The Trouble With Cheney: He's Dumb

Cheney Sets Up Shadow Government In Area 51

Libby Trial Update - The Scooter and Cheney Show Theme Song

Cue The Zither Music ... Minced Garlic: New Keith Olbermann Special Comment

The Entire Government Has Failed Us On Iraq

Another Keith Olbermann Special Comment this evening, about shame, and the bi-partisan governing exhibited by our President and Congress over the past day in regard to the Iraq War Spending Bill.

He called it a "betrayal" and, for the Democrats, "their Neville Chamberlain moment"

"That’s what this is for the Democrats, isn’t it?

Their “Neville Chamberlain moment” before the Second World War.

All that’s missing is the landing at the airport, with the blinkered leader waving a piece of paper which he naively thought would guarantee “peace in our time,” but which his opponent would ignore with deceit.

The Democrats have merely streamlined the process.

Their piece of paper already says Mr. Bush can ignore it, with impunity.

The Garlic thanks to a confluence of events, sees it more like the classic "The Third Man", with George Bush taking on the Harry Lime role (so deliciously portrayed in the film by the great Orson Wells), with a haunting score of zither music.

Last night, taking on the Holly Martins role, the U.S. Congress, with not enough cynicism, and wanting to believe so much in their Bush-as-Harry Lime, capitulated and gave him a toothless Iraq War Spending Bill.


This morning, the stalwart of justice, Monica Goodling, certainly taking on the part of Anna Schmidt, all misty-eyed in love with Harry, took her turn before the House Judiciary Committee, to, alternately defend Lime and his cohorts, and, at the same time throw a few people under the bus - and hope, just as Anna in the movie did, she doesn't get arrested, but will do so, willingly, for her Harry.

Today, The Commander Guy goes to the Coast Guard Academy, to raise the curtain - again - on fear, playing the Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda card - with, at least, two-year old intelligence, only recently declassified for The Decider's usage - telling how Iraq will be used as a launching pad for attacks on the United States - the same Iraq that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda wasn't in when the Bush Grindhouse unleashed their "Shock and Awe" to invade and occupy the country.

Lime, in post WWII Vienna, was trafficking in bad penicillin, along with other unsavory activities, including murder.

Bush-as-Lime, in the post Sept.11th world, is trafficking in bad intelligence, illegal wiretaps, the politicization of the Justice Department, as well as the aforementioned invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation.

Lime, in a famous scene, runs through the Vienna sewer system.

Bush-as-Lime, by his actions, has dragged the United States of America down in the sewer, with his attack on the U.S. Constitution, the suspension of habeas corpus, governing via Signing Statements, and his lying.

Lime, in the movie, doesn't get away with it.

Our Bush-as-Lime, thanks to the Congress, playing the passive Martins, half wanting to stop him, and half, wanting to see him succeed, may just get away with it, keeping us, and our soldiers, in harms way, right up to January 20th, 2009.

But all the Commander Guy could come up with today was to pull out the tired, well-worn, fear mongering speech, nothing even remotely close to the classic riff Harry Lime gives Holly (with a bit of fear mongering of his own - "... I carry a gun...I don't think they'd look for a bullet wound after you'd hit that ground...") at the top of the Riesenrad, the large Ferris wheel in the Prater amusement park;

HARRY
Don't be so gloomy...After all,
it's not that awful. Remember what
the fellow said...

- in Italy, for thirty years under
the Borgias, they had warfare,
terror, murder, bloodshed, but they
produced Michaelangelo - Leonardo
Da Vinci, and the Renaissance...In
Switzerland, they had brotherly
love. They had five hundred years
of democracy and peace, and what did
that produce?...The cuckoo clock.
So long, Holly.

Olbermann, for his part in this play, came out swinging.

Few men or women elected in our history—whether executive or legislative, state or national—have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear:

Get us out of Iraq.

With bullet points, Olbermann blasts the Dems, with punches that likely were felt down in the Beltway, before going on to;

A President, Mr. Bush, uses the carte blanche he has already, not to manipulate an overlap of arriving and departing Brigades into a ‘second surge,’ but to say in unequivocal terms that if it takes every last dime of the monies already allocated, if it takes reneging on government contracts with Halliburton, he will make sure the troops are safe—even if the only safety to be found, is in getting them the hell out of there.

Well, any true President would have done that, Sir.

You instead, used our troops as political pawns, then blamed the Democrats when you did so.

Olbermann finishes (and I won't ruin it here for you) with a flourish, a heated "we’re not going to take it", while laying down a challenge, to, well, someone, stop the lies, and stop the war.

Links

Read and/or Watch The Video of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment - The Entire Government Has Failed Us On Iraq

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Breaking News! Gonzales To Shift Testimony, Has New Excuse

AG To Cite 'Circuit City' Policy, Claim Replacement Attorneys Costing DOJ Less; Fired USA's Can Reapply in Ten Weeks

In yet another stunning twist to the growing scandal, sources tell The Garlic that Crony General Alberto Gonzales will abandon the expected testimony he was to deliver today, when he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and instead, deliver a brand new excuse for the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys.

Gonzales will tell the committee that he actually was implementing what now has become known at the "Circuit City Policy".

The eight U.S. Attorneys fired were replaced with attorneys who are willing to work for less money, saving the Department of Justice, tens-of-thousands of dollars in their budget.

Gonzales will stop short of saying the fired attorneys were overpaid, as Circuit City cited when they implemented their policy, and the Crony General will announce that the fired attorneys can reapply for their jobs - at the lower pay scale now in place - in 10-weeks.

When apprised to the shift planned by Gonzales, Judiciary Committee Chairman, Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) rolled his eyes and threw up his hands.

"We've gone from the dog ate my homework, to do you want fries with that order," huffed Leahy. "I suppose this means now that the DOJ attorneys now get an employee discount if they purchase a new stereo."

Circuit City, the third largest electronics retailer in the United States, with revenues over $11-Billion, caused an uproar last month, when they fired over 3,400 employees for the reason of they were paid too highly, and replaced then with lower-paid workers.

Much like the fired U.S. Attorneys, Circuit City justified the move, saying the firings had nothing to do with job performance, but rather, to improve the company's bottom line.

The Gonzales shift comes against a backdrop of the Senate committee considering offering immunity to former Gonzales aide, Monica Goodling, to testify. Goodling had previously stated she would plead the 5th Amendment if called before the committee.

Additionally, millions of email messages, between the White House and DOJ, are missing, some of which may be related and/or specifically dealing with the fired U.S. Attorneys. White House staff, such as Karl Rove and others, used an email system provided to them by the Republican National Committee, which has fueled speculation that they did so to avoid investigations.

Gonzales himself is said to have been "studying" over the past two weeks, as preparation for his appearance today.

The Crony General, in shooting a shot across the Senate committee's bow, penned an Op-Ed in The Washington Post this past weekend, offering little new information and citing he has done nothing improper or has anything to hide.

Gonzales gave no indication in the Op-Ed of the new 'Circuit City Policy' that he will, apparently, offer in today's testimony.

Leahy indicated he would wait to hear the Crony General's testimony, before making any decisions on subpoenaing Circuit City executives or emails.

Links

Bush, Gonzales Reportedly Discussed Fired Prosecutor

Aborted DOJ Probe Probably Would Have Targeted Gonzales

Top Ten Cloves: How It Would Be Different If Alberto Gonzales Was The Head of March Madness

Alberto Gonzales Sings 'Justice For Sale'

Did Crony General Alberto Gonzales come up with the 'Circuit City Policy' for firing eight U.S. Attorney's, or did the White House?