Vote Machine: How Republicans hacked the Justice Department

April 3, 2008 7:22 AM

Vote Machine: How Republicans hacked the Justice Department.
posted by chunking express (28 comments total)

Related.
posted by rusty at 7:40 AM on April 3, 2008

Surely the Democrats will hold them responsible for HAHAHAHAHA oh i couldn't keep a straight face.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:14 AM on April 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Over time, Pope Guilty, I'm edging closer and closer to the "crazy conspiracy theorist" end of the political spectrum. I never thought that with an administration as blatantly evil as Bush II that we'd see such rampant cronyism and complicity.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:39 AM on April 3, 2008

Nothing says fun like getting too disgusted to finish an article. Earlier this morning on the news an airline expert suggested that the FAA should just be abolished as its nothing more than a bunch of people waiting for retirement. Add to that a Dept. of the Interior that happily writes critters off the endangered species list and promotes the corporation of public American resources, etc...etc.

I'm a pretty ardent supporter of national sovereignty, but I certainly wouldn't mind seeing someone from this administration hauled into an international court of justice. Bah.
posted by Atreides at 8:40 AM on April 3, 2008

Just part of Karl Rove's project for a thousand year right.
posted by jamjam at 8:48 AM on April 3, 2008

jamjam,

If that is the case I'm not sure that Rove cares a fig WHO is in power so much as it is him doing the string pulling. Or having done the string pulling. I'm hoping he got tired of it over the last 8 years, realized his favorite toy is broken and is now content to pull the lint out of his navel.

This is not to say that he was a good man. But, he did seem pretty self-serving. Or perhaps the men he worked for seem self-serving.
posted by Sam.Burdick at 9:08 AM on April 3, 2008

Nothing says fun like getting being too disgusted to finish start an article.

I think of myself as a cynical person. But these guys in this administration? They're Olympic-caliber cynical - not to mention venal, craven, greedy, amoral (and immoral) and downright sociopathic. I'm not even going to go into the coercive interrogations FPP a few up from this one.
posted by rtha at 9:33 AM on April 3, 2008

Sonic meat machine, I'm experiencing a similar change in alignment. When the mainstream media are covering insignificant human interest stories and inundating us with 3 minute commercial breaks while ignoring any important happenings in our own government and very tersely giving us any information about it, I start to wonder who is in charge and why this is happening.

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist or hyper-perceptive to realize that nothing important is being covered in the mainstream news while online and foreign news outlets publish piece-after-piece detailing the consistent politically motivated abuses.

This article is one of the most detailed about this subject or in general and well done I have read in a long time. I did catch a couple of small editing mistakes, but it's a direct dump from the actual magazine's pages. Cheers to Harper's Online and Scott Horton and keep it coming.
posted by hellslinger at 9:34 AM on April 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Also related: The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating whether a career attorney in the department was dismissed from her job because of rumors that she is a lesbian
posted by hydropsyche at 9:42 AM on April 3, 2008

From hydropsyche's link: As one Republican source put it, "To some people, that's even worse than being a Democrat."

Great. Now I'm not just depressed, I'm entirely angrified. Thoroughly, completely, and violently angrified.

These stupid fucking pieces of fucking shit. Wreck my country and call me unpatriotic? Fuck them all straight to hell in a bucket of cocks. I hope they roast forever in that lake of hellfire they're always talking about.
posted by rtha at 9:56 AM on April 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

hellslinger: Sonic meat machine, I'm experiencing a similar change in alignment. When the mainstream media are covering insignificant human interest stories and inundating us with 3 minute commercial breaks while ignoring any important happenings in our own government and very tersely giving us any information about it, I start to wonder who is in charge and why this is happening.

Indeed. I'm finding that I'm getting a lot more of my news about these governmental abuses from non-typical "news" sources like Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Wired, or Harpers. Stuff like CNN is unwatchable to me now and I can't even have it on as background noise.
posted by Challahtronix at 10:20 AM on April 3, 2008

If you want to read Seymour Hersh or Greg Palast, you pretty much have to read the UK press now. None of our domestic press actually do any real reporting anymore: just duelling talking points on a field where what anyone elsewhere in the world would call a centrist is a wild-eyed liberal, and real liberals are not heard from at all, only name-dropped as bogeymen.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:11 AM on April 3, 2008

* I'm finding that I'm getting a lot more of my news about these governmental abuses from non-typical "news" sources...

* None of our domestic press actually do any real reporting anymore...

Domestic (U.S. domestic, that is) news orgs have been slashing their newsrooms to the bone for some years now. The LA Times has been through four or five editors in the last three years because they keep getting shitcanned when they refuse to implement the drastic cuts ordered by the publisher at the behest of the shareholders' desperate need for profit! above! all! The orgs cut or eliminate foreign newsdesks, health beats, political beats, and other stuff that's not "fun." Fortunately, CNN and Reuters both managed to find the cash and the staff to open "bureaus" on Second Life! Thank goodness!
posted by rtha at 11:27 AM on April 3, 2008

I'm in the middle of an e-mail exchange that I wish I could share here with an old friend in the Justice Department, about what a new president could to reverse the David Addington/John Yoo "unitary executive" power grab. He has stressed - maybe self-servingly, but earnestly - that the really large-scale incursions on our civil liberities are coming from the defense intelligence agencies, where Ashcroft's canceled "Total Information Awareness" initiative has been moved to the black budget and reconstituted and expanded.
posted by nicwolff at 12:04 PM on April 3, 2008

I'm amazed the US has not dissolved into a second Civil War yet considering the crimes of the scoundrels who've taken/stolen charge.
posted by peppito at 12:05 PM on April 3, 2008

I am constantly amazed that people as mind alteringly stupid as Monica Goodling can even work in the Justice department without massive public outcry. Never mind the politically motivated firings or the fuckwit's inability to even effectively cover up her or her boss' role in those- her appointment alone makes me want to hit myself with a hammer.

Seriously, a law degree from Regent University should be grounds enough for disqualification from the civil service.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:38 PM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

I am constantly amazed that people as mind alteringly stupid as Monica Goodling can even work in the Justice department without massive public outcry.

Its pretty simple. The people required for a massive public outcry aren't paying attention or helped vote this effect in. The real issue is simply that the American public has not been affected in a way that harms their way of life. Changes in the Justice Department doesn't affect their ability to go to the movies or hang out at the park. The biggest fear I hold is that by the time the majority of the public recognize the damage done, it'll be too late to reverse it.
posted by Atreides at 1:27 PM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

"The biggest fear I hold is that by the time the majority of the public recognize the damage done, it'll be too late to reverse it."

Trillions of dollars and 4000 soldier's lives too late?
posted by Max Power at 2:30 PM on April 3, 2008

I'm amazed the US has not dissolved into a second Civil War yet considering the crimes of the scoundrels who've taken/stolen charge.

We can't afford to buy any gardening angry mob supplies until the economy recovers.
posted by oaf at 2:36 PM on April 3, 2008

I need a new firing pin for my .45.
Anyone wanna trade for some canned creamed corn?
posted by Balisong at 3:28 PM on April 3, 2008

Trillions of dollars and 4000 soldier's lives too late?

In terms of lives, one soldier's life wis too late. In the grand scheme, I had a much more horrific and Orwellian nightmare in mind.
posted by Atreides at 4:25 PM on April 3, 2008

If you think this is effed up now, just wait until the next Democratic administration has to cull all these Regent University grads and other hacks. The GOP will surely cry foul over the Democrats politicizing the justice department by firing so many avowed Republicans.


...This kind of stain doesn't come out.
posted by IAmHumblerThanYou at 6:28 PM on April 3, 2008

Trillions of dollars
One of the best things about inflation is how it makes your pay packet look bigger.

and 4000 soldier's lives too late?
4000 mostly lower-class, many new or second-generation immigrants, out of a nation of 250 million. Despite the family's love and so on that each of those 4000 have--just like the 3 million Iraqis who didn't sign up for this, that they helped kill--very few of those families are in any real position to do anything about it, and over half of them are actually OK with it. They seriously think their son/father/brother/relative was killed achieving something.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 8:13 PM on April 3, 2008

The GOP will surely cry foul over the Democrats politicizing the justice department by firing so many avowed Republicans.

They've worked very, very hard to establish a judicial and media environment where crying foul does nothing. So let them cry foul, and see what it's like. Obama needs only spend a few months giving them things to cry about, and all the public will want is for them to shut up.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 8:18 PM on April 3, 2008

Indeed. I'm finding that I'm getting a lot more of my news about these governmental abuses from non-typical "news" sources like Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Wired, or Harpers. Stuff like CNN is unwatchable to me now and I can't even have it on as background noise.

My thoughts exactly. I seem to have missed this bit of journalism about Blackwater by the big news channels. I remember a blip or two, but...
posted by hypersloth at 1:53 AM on April 4, 2008

sorry, here's the print-friendly version
posted by hypersloth at 1:56 AM on April 4, 2008

It is precisely during times of relative crisis that we should adhere most closely to the Constitution, not abandon it. War does not justify the suspension of torture laws any more than it justifies the suspension of murder laws, the suspension of due process, or the suspension of the Second amendment.

We are fighting undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an open-ended war against terrorism worldwide. If the president claims extraordinary wartime powers, and we fight undeclared wars with no beginning and no end, when if ever will those extraordinary powers lapse? Since terrorism will never be eliminated completely, should all future presidents be able to act without regard to Congress or the Constitution simply by asserting “We’re at war”?

Conservatives should understand that the power given the president today will pass to the president’s successors, who may be only too eager to abuse that unbridled power domestically to destroy their political enemies. Remember the anger directed at President Clinton for acting “above the law” when it came to federal perjury charges? An imperial presidency threatens all of us who oppose unlimited state power over our lives.

A strong separation of powers is at the heart of our constitutional liberties. No branch of government should be able to act unilaterally, no matter how cumbersome the legislative process may be. The beauty of the Constitution is that it encourages some degree of gridlock in government, making it harder for any branch to act capriciously or secretly. When we give any president – one man – too much power, we build a foundation for future tyranny.

By that fascist nutjob, Ron Paul.

WRTTFA, I didn't close it out of disgust, I didn't even bother opening it. We're at the point where anyone that hasn't yet been convinced of this administration's abuse of power will never be. In fact, I have the disconcerting suspicion that the more blatant and cruel these abuses become, the more they will actually support the President's lackeys as they clamor for power and torture and fear.

We have a lot of great history in this country. Religious and political freedom, representative government, a cleverly distributed balance of power, and constitutional limits on government overreach.

But there's a lot of other history we need to face, starting with the dispossession of the continent from its original inhabitants, through Manifest Destiny, robber-barons, the abuse of Chinese coolies and African slaves, internment camps, slavery, segregation, McCarthy, all the way to unnecessary and preemptive wars.

This is just the latest beat of the dark heart of fear and prejudice in our country, propelling violence and abuse before it.
posted by vsync at 11:33 AM on April 4, 2008

Erps. Can a moderator move my last post to "The Chain of Command in Coercive Interrogations"? Not that it matters. We could save front page space by just having a single "Bush" thread and adding to it.
posted by vsync at 11:36 AM on April 4, 2008