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| Home Front: Politix |
| Meltdown at Justice |
| 2007-03-12 |
| Incompetence is compromising presidential power. Just when President Bush seemed to have beaten back the Congressional defeatists on Iraq, along comes his own Justice Department to undermine some hard-won antiterror policy gains. The incompetence at Justice is getting to be expensive for Presidential power. The latest episode involves the FBI's failure to adequately supervise the issuance of so-called "national security letters," or administrative subpoenas for counterterrorism cases that don't require a judge's approval. Congress authorized these letters in 1986 and their scope was expanded as part of the 2001 Patriot Act. An Inspector General's audit has found that some of these subpoenas were improperly issued, and that the FBI lacked the means even to monitor how many were issued, leading to misreporting to Congress. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #2 Mr. Iglesias was later sacked and he told Congress last week that he felt "leaned on" and "pressured" by Mr. Domenici's call. I’m sure the former head of FEMA felt a little pressure too for his performance during Katrina, as the heads of Walter Reed and the Army Secretary for theirs recently. Mr. Iglesias’ office has bungled corruption investigations in New Mexico. The Donks have owned and operated the state for generations. It rivals Old Mexico for the level of corruption. To steal a phrase, it’s a target rich environment. The Trunks are not as corrupt because they’ve never had the opportunity. So, if the corrupt politician is a Donk its because the Donks have all the means. In six years his office has only gotten two names, both former treasurers. The statehood act dictated that all revenue from mining had to be invested not spent. So the state has accumulated billions in investments [making NM part of Big Oil in the process]. Both treasurers pressured and collected ‘contributions’ to their political funds from brokers for the state’s investments. The federal AG’s office got one with a plea bargain. However, even with his testimony and video showing the second treasurer taking the money, they got a hung jury in the first and all charges rendered innocent save for one count in the retrial. In the sentencing, the judge observed that the convicted treasurer was probably guilty of a number of the previous charges. No leadership, no skill, no delivery. If this is all Mr. Iglesia can deliver, he certainly should be collecting a check elsewhere. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-03-12 15:13 |
| #1 It's a simple equation. If you give a cop special powers for a special occasion, OF COURSE he will want to use them for run-of-the-mill stuff. 99.99% of our federal law enforcement people would never use and never needed most of the post 9-11 Patriot Act anti-terrorism security laws. But they got them anyway, so they figure why not use them for everything else? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-03-12 10:01 |