After Comey, after Goldsmith rescinded the Bybee Memo on Torture, after Congress passed laws barring torture, and many more denials by Bush, yet another secret opinion was written saying torture was ok, even when done to the extreme.

Former federal judge, Michael B. Mukasey, is President Bush’s decisive choice to head the Justice Department following Alberto Gonzales’ resignation and departure. While ideological conjecture churns around his nomination, many may be already asking the wrong questions and ignoring the obvious specter that it simply may not matter who is Gonzales’ successor.

::::

Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has turned in his walking papers. His excuse ? He wants to spend time with his family, usually codetalk for the shit is about to hit the fan.

It seems that once again the spotlight will be on Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, as Representative John Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy will ask the Justice Department to investigate whether or not the Attorney General misled, lied, or otherwise acted improperly when testifying before Congress on the issue of the illegal wiretaps. This request came on the release of notes maintained by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, pertaining to his meeting on March 12, 2004 with then Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Crossposted from The GreenState Project |

This, as they say, goes all the way to the top:

The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.
*****
Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired.

Think about that for a moment while you make the jump.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is a bulldog.  He's worried more bones that the Bush Administration has tried to bury in the DoJ than any backyard canine.  Now he's worrying another.

-- Cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --

We've been told to expect a no confidence resolution against Albert Gonzales in the US Senate this week. Despite calling for Gonzales to resign, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) will not say how he will vote. In other words, his clear statements and especially the the one on the 5/18/07 edition of Almanac do not necessarily mean that he will in the end vote against President Bush's Attorney General.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

This an entry in a series of blogs to keep people informed on current election reform and voting rights issues in the news.

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