Wisconsin Supreme Court

I haven't paid enough attention to the race in Wisco for a Supreme Court seat to be decided this fall. One of my loyal four readers, nonheroicvet, pointed me here. There are some pretty fishy things here. Back in March of 2002, there was a letter sent out concerning a breakfast with the then Gov. of WI, McCallum, a right wing ideologue who inherited the position when Tommy! went to be one of Bu$hCo's enablers. This letter indicates that a couple of folks connected to the Bad River Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Chair Mr. Bigboy & a lawyer for the tribe, Kevin Osterbauer were there. Also on the list were slum landlord Hank Martinson & his son Hank Jr., although rumor has it that he really isn't a Jr., another Martinson who may have distributed a racist joke via email, along with Gabelman, who was the DA of Ashland County at the time. This letter was sent out on official Ashland County stationary. There were a couple of other ReThugs present, including Shutterwi's pretty boy Sean Duffy, the present ReThug DA of Ashland County. Talk about a line-up & one can only hope that some day they all will be in a line-up. The gist of all this is that it appears Gableman got himself appointed a judge over in Burnett Co., without really being much of a judge, he was more like a real good ReThug. The goods. I've made the links workable in this passage.

Former Republican Governor Scott McCallum admitted Thursday he manipulated the judicial appointment process established by his own executive orders in order to appoint Republican Party official Mike Gableman, a McCallum donor and fundraiser, to the Burnett County Circuit Court.

“[A]s governor, the final decision to appoint a judge was mine alone…,” McCallum said through a Gableman campaign press release. The media has reported McCallum has refused press calls since an investigation by One Wisconsin Now released Wednesday showed Gableman was appointed judge after McCallum ignored established protocol for a candidate who neither applied in time, nor was a finalist recommended by McCallum’s own judicial advisory council.

The executive orders McCallum ignored, requiring a Judicial Advisory Panel screen potential judicial nominees and forward finalists for consideration to the Governor to ensure among other issues the “appointment of competent, public-minded lawyers of the highest integrity,” can be accessed here, page 2, page 3.

“Governor McCallum confirmed what we already knew, that Mike Gableman got his job as a judge because that’s what McCallum wanted for his donor and fundraiser,” said Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. “Why are there no state documents showing that Gableman ever formally applied for the job, that he was ever interviewed for the job, or that he ever answered the extensive questions designed to indicate his qualifications and competence to have the job?”

In his response, Gableman says his work on a couple of commissions provided McCallum with enough of an understanding of his (Gableman's) work to allow the appointment without going through the process. OneWisconsinNow found that on one of the commissions, Gableman missed 5 of 7 meetings. I guess he was Albert Einstein & Steven Hawking during those two meetings. This is how the ReThugs rule, by corruption. Give me money & I'll give you a judgeship. Jeez Louise, at least back when postmasters were "politically" appointed, they actually had to do the job. More or less.

So, while I'm not changing my vote, here's my recommendation: Vote Butler for crying out loud. We really don't need any more ReThug corruption. Plus, given this post, & 40 years of electing tough on crime types, how come we keep having crime? Apparently, they want to lock just about everyone up, except, of course, drunken drivers working for a ReThug State Attorney General.

Such A Maverick

Seems like McCain has learned the true values of the ReThugs, to wit:

The man who's absurdly proclaimed that "I’m the only one the special interests don’t give any money to" is surrounded by lobbyists.

In fact, he got a headstart during the Savings & Loan scandal.

One More

Seems like the ReThugs just loves them some indictments. It builds character, I'll bet.

Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion,
wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in
Arizona.

Asshole

St. Fucking McCain. What an embarrassment.

John McCain: He was against waterboarding before he was for it.

Chickenshit

Rove "decides" not to speak at a graduation ceremony. I'm happy. Remember, however, that the tuition at Choate is $39,360. If you don't want to live on campus, i.e., you'd be a day student, it will only cost you $29,260. Hey, pretty cheap for a high school. Of course, there are some other fees you need to pay, but for a measly $117,040 (no room or board) you'd have one hell of a high school diploma. & then on to college. & some people still wonder about who rules America. Anybody attending this school won't have to worry about paying a fee to play football or to take driver's education. Eat the rich, man, eat the rich.

One More ReThug Gone?

We can only hope the Vitter will be pummeled by his colleagues as was Bathroom Boy Craig. I suppose, however, that being gay is much worse than being a fornicating adulterer.

The woman, Wendy Yow Ellis, claims that she had intercourse with Vitter in a French Quarter apartment at Dauphine and Dumaine streets in 1999, the year the Metairie Republican was elected to Congress.

Ellis, whose maiden name is Wendy Yow, said Monday that she took the polygraph test because Vitter tried to impugn her credibility at a news conference in July, when he denied news reports about his involvement with prostitutes in New Orleans without being specific.

Rule Of Law

Not so much. Typical ReThug values.

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Corruption

From TPM.

The silence is starting to get a tad deafening. Fired US Attorney says two members of Congress contacted and nudge him on getting a Democrat indicted before election day. Everyone seems to be denying it was them. Except for two folks. No one seems to be able to get a call returned from Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) or Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM).

More here.

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Sound Familiar

Looks like Canada has been infected with the ReThug disease. Too bad, it's generally a great country.

Harper's response set off a series of Liberal dissections of the prime minister's character.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said Harper has proved time and again that he is "mean and petty," willing to stoop to ``concocted slander."

"For the prime minister, quick, partisan advantage trumps everything else, every time, no matter the cost, no matter the collateral damage, no matter the innocent victims, no matter the truth."

Liberal MP Ken Dryden said Harper plays ruthless, hardball politics on every issue, "no matter what or who gets run over along the way."

He accused the prime minister of having "no internal compass" to tell him when he's gone too far.

For those who are wondering, yes, it is this Ken Dryden. Time for me to get the puck out of here. Who says athletes are all backward thinkers?

ReThugs

Another headline. This one not so good.

GOP Senators Again Block Debate On Escalation

As expected, GOP Senators succeeded today in preventing the anti-escalation resolution passed by the House yesterday from going to the floor in the Senate -- the second time in a row the GOP has succeeded in scuttling Senate debate on the "surge." Senate Dems fell four votes short of the magic number of 60 votes they needed for a filibuster-proof victory. The vote was 56-34, with seven GOP Senators defecting to vote with Dems in favor of debating the anti-escalation measure.

The son-of-a-bitches don't even want to talk about their dear leader's actions. Tools of the worst kind.

ReThug Family Values

Supreme Court edition. I'd like to hear Tony talk about personal responsibility one more time.

Seems like he has/had a problem with child rearing.
A daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was arrested Monday night in Wheaton, Ill., and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment, Wheaton Deputy Police Chief Thomas Meloni said.

Ann S. Banaszewski, 45, was stopped about 7:25 p.m. in a 1996 Ford Econoline van after a citizen reported a possible drunken driver was at the McDonald's restaurant near there, Meloni said.

Three of Banaszewski's "small children" were in the van with her at the time, leading to the child endangerment charge, Meloni said.

Support The Troops

Joe, the new guy told me about this a week or so ago. The only good thing to come out of it was that Joe got his tooth fixed ASAP. When will the war criminals in suits be held accountable?

Is J.B. van Hollen An Asshole?

You decide. Oh, & stop breathing, it is bad for your health.

Ethics Smethics

Via TPM Muckraker.

The Interior Department's internal watchdog says top officials at the agency knew about problems costing taxpayers as much as $10 billion in revenue, but tried to hide the problem from the public, according to Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Tollefson.

How Low

Can the world-wide right go?

On a recent evening, Marcos Suarez celebrated his first birthday with a single candle on a cake from the family he never knew existed until months ago.

Suarez, 31, is the latest of the "recovered grandchilden," as Argentines call them: the youngest victims of the "Dirty War" that the country's military waged against leftist opponents from the mid-1970s until 1983.

As many as 500 infants, according to relatives and witnesses -- some abducted with their parents, others born to pregnant activists in clandestine torture centers -- were never returned to their next of kin. In a calculated scheme to raise the children of leftists with conservative values, the babies were secretly given away, mostly to military couples or sympathizers.

There appears to be similarities to how the right responds to anyone who challenges there messianic belief that only they have the ability to rule others. Of course, the right in America will claim that they never took/take children from their parents. It doesn't take a lot of googling to find this:

He argues that through the boarding schools, reformers, educators, and federal agents waged cultural, psychological, and intellectual warfare on Native students as part of a concerted effort to turn Indians into "Americans." School administrators and teachers cut children's hair; changed their dress, their diets, and their names; introduced them to unfamiliar conceptions of space and time; and subjected them to militaristic regimentation and discipline.

For those of my loyal four readers who are interested, here's a brief summary of the training that the Argentine military, among many other Latin American rightists, received in the United States at The School of Assassins, or The School of Dictators, take your pick. In either event, it's enough to want a normal person to take a shower & scrub themselves. Still, the collective grime is hard to remove.

After Argentina's return to democracy, Viola was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for criminal responsibility for human rights violations during Argentina's so-called "dirty-war against subversion" in the 1970s. 8 Viola was succeeded by Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri, another School graduate, who ruled from December 1981 until June 1982. Galtieri led Argentina during the unsuccessful war with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

Feeling Safer Yet?

Apparently, the pursuit of justice doesn't include non-corporate people,illegally held for years without charges. These ReThugs have only one goal - fascism. Sure it's a loaded word, but goddamnit, the word fits these power mad bastards.

Another Reason

John "The Bully With A Bad Moustache" Bolton shown to be the dickhead he truly is. It's good that he only had a year to make us even more hated in the United Nations.

Legal Times reports:

[T]hen-Assistant Attorney General John Bolton -- who more recently served as ambassador to the United Nations -- signed off on the request and said he would "accept responsibility should concerns be raised about the role of the FBI."

Well Hung, #3

It justs keeps getting more depressing.

With all of the world watching, we yet again were the primary authors of a violent, uncivilized, and primitive act which -- no matter how justified in some ultimate moral sense -- was carried out in the most thuggish, wretched, inept, and (we now learn) patently illegal manner.

It really is striking, and a potent sign of just how absurd is our ongoing occupation, that the "Iraqi Government" which we are fighting to empower could not even conduct this execution with a pretense of legality or concern for civilized norms -- the executioners were not wearing uniforms but leather jackets and murderers' masks, conducting themselves not as disciplined law enforcement officers but as what they are (death squad members and sectarian street thugs).

And the most revealing, and most disturbing, detail is that Saddam's executioners -- in between playground insults spat at a tied-up Saddam -- chanted their religious-like allegiance to Moktada Al Sadr, the Shiite militia leader whom we are told is the Great Enemy of the U.S., the One We Now Must Kill. This noble and just event for which we are responsible was carried out by a brutal, murderous, lawless militia. Freedom is on the march.

Unfuckingbelieveable

C&L has the story. How low & stupid we've become since Bu$hCo came to power.

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

You Point A Finger At Maliki

& there are three more pointing back at you. You know, we invade his country, destroy his country's infrastructure, disband his army, kill his citizens, & it's all the elected prime minister's fault that things are so fucked up. Bu$hCo can't take responsibility for anything. The fault always lies elsewhere. But I see that he has passed that on to his daughters. The whole family is an embarrassment to America.