Abu G's New Book
You know, these fuckers will keep us in business for at least the next two years, debunking their attempts to rewrite history.
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who resigned last year amid congressional investigations, is working on a book to tell his side of the story of the political demise of the highest-ranking Hispanic in the history of the federal government.
"This is not about writing a best-seller," the Texan said in an interview. He said the book would be a success even if read only by his sons, now 13 and 16, "to set the record straight so they know what happened."
"I think there is so much misinformation out there, not just about me but about the Bush administration and what we were about. It’s important for our side of the story to be told. If it’s not told by us, no one is going to tell it," he said.
Since leaving office in August 2008 amid an investigation into the firing of U.S. attorneys, Gonzales said he has concentrated on cooperating with ongoing investigations. He also has given speeches, done some consulting and mediating and talked with law firms about jobs.
So far, nothing has panned out on the job front.
"It’s a rough economy right now, and it’s a tough time for a lot of law firms right now. Obviously they are very careful about bringing on new people, and they are going to be careful about bringing on people where there are questions about things that may have happened in their past," he said. "Over time, I’m confident those things will be resolved, and things will work themselves out." [my emphasis]
The best part, though: Gonzales is angling for Bush’s hoped-for future job: Commissioner of Baseball.
"I’m very wide open. I’ve had some people say I’m very fortunate that I’m at a point in my life where if I wanted to do something completely different — be baseball commissioner, for example, I would love a job in baseball, a plug there — I can do it." [my emphasis]
I suspect that Loyal Bushie code; it’s really a super-secret request for a pre-emptive pardon so Abu G doesn’t have to compete for the job Shrub wants.
I’m sorry, Senator, but I don’t recall ever discussing gambling with Mr. Rose.
oh, now he recalls…
In reporting this last night, Keith Olbermann said, “as a long-time fan of baseball, I can say I’d rather see it wiped off the face of the earth than have Gonzales as Commissioner.” [Or something to that effect.]
This is my favorite part of Gonzo’s delusional rant:
Hey, kiddo, I don’t think it’s just the economy that has law firms worried about hiring a moron who showcased his complete lack of brain power on national tv. The stock market could be at 15,000 and you’d still be out of a job.
It must have been a job-requirement to join the Bush [non]administration to be delusional, committed to living in the Bush alternate, we-make-our-own-reality (see: R. Suskind, NYT Mag, 2006).
I am so happy that Gonzo hasn’t found a job. It has always seemed that no matter how terrible a job a poltical appointee does or what scandals happen on his watch, he (sometimes she) gets a job, even if only the wingnut welfare kind, within days of leaving.
I can only figure that Gonzales not only steeped himself in scandal, he showed himself so utterly stupid that even the RW “think tanks”don’t want him.
Couldn’t have happened to a better guy.
I notice there is no mention of a contract to PUBLISH his book. Much like Bush has no contract – but his wife does. Just a little more schadenfreude if Gonzales has to vanity-publish.
And on that note of satisfaction, I’m going to bed.
That article by Suskind was the most telling evidence of the grand “Crusade” conspiracy, and the utter disdain this administration had for the Constitution and the American people.
It’s the first time I’d ever heard the term “discernible reality,” sure to have been a quote by one Karl Rove – as chilling as any evidence can be that our own system of governance had in fact been overthrown, and was working at cross-purposes to our own – using brainwashing techniques to accomplish their coup:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10…..38;ei=5070
As surely as you are reading the words on this page, Fredo is guilty of Misprision Of Fraud, Conspiracy To Defraud The United States and Treason:
Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
923 18 U.S.C. § 371
Hass, 216 U.S. at 479-480. In Hammerschmidt, Chief Justice Taft, defined “defraud” as follows:
To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest. It is not necessary that the Government shall be subjected to property or pecuniary loss by the fraud, but only that its legitimate official action and purpose shall be defeated by misrepresentation, chicane or the overreaching of those charged with carrying out the governmental intention.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eous…..m00923.htm
OT, but come on…
Israeli citizens are spectators of genocide on nearby hillsides…applauding exploding bombs like so many fireworks, as limbs fly and babies die.
http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/
Fredo was a co-conspirator in the Fraud against the United States perpetrated by one Richard Cheney for purpose of personal enrichment (see no-bid Halliburton contract at minimum).
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/…..216fa_fact
* United States Code
o TITLE 18 – CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
+ PART I – CRIMES
# CHAPTER 47 – FRAUD AND FALSE STATEMENTS
Section 1031. Major fraud against the United States
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/….._1031.html
Cheney’s Halliburton Ties Remain
Contrary To Veep’s Claims, Researchers Say Financial Links Remain
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2003 | by Jarrett Murphy
excerpt:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories…..5356.shtml
http://www.worldproutassembly……_hall.html
This is evidence of an ongoing criminal conspiracy…
Fredo, meet RICO!
wait a minute
this guy doesn’t remember anything
he can’t “remember remembering” anything
he’s like, FAMOUS for not remembering
how the fuck can this guy write his story
don’t cha gotta be able to remember stuff to do that ???
Yeah, but he’s a MESCAN. In Texas they just do shit jobs for crap pay. Ain’t no worryin about what happens to ‘em after the job is done.
Gonza thought rethuglican racism didn’t apply to him – big mistake.
He misremembers enough to fill a Volume …
I am surprised that the Neocons don’t have a place for Ex-AGAG.
It seemed at the time he performed admirably for the Bush League–law breaking, oversight blocking, investigation stalling, information hiding, and all.
Appears to me that Gonzo failed the Neocons’ ultimate test: He wasn’t slick enough or quick enough with the tongue twisting leagaleese to get away with it (as the Neocon kingpins do). The Bush Dynasty law firms can’t risk his inadequacies, for the result might be that he could do to them what he did to Bush’s dirty DOJ.
I also find it weird. The best explanation that comes to mind is that Abu Gonzo’s little Beside Visit to Ashcroft in the ICU made even long-time Republicans and wingnuts spooked by him. Who wants to hire a guy that might turn up at your beside to pressure you, eh?
Couldn’t he find a job doing cartoon voiceovers, or in a zit cream commercial?
It’s hard out there for a pimp.
AbuG is a pimp. And a crappy one at that.
Here is my favorite line
Funny, I have not heard about all this cooperation. I don’t think “cooperation” means what he thinks it means. Not to mention that, as Freep so eloquently stated:
No shit. You really do I think.
You know, now that I’ve slept on this post, I think it really IS designed to be a warning shot for Bush.
Think about it. Abu G is hte only one of the cabal currently experiencing job difficulties–and his are acute. As a number of you have pointed out upthread, Abu G has conveniently forgotten everything that might implicate Bush. Now, all of a sudden, he seems to be saying he remembers enough to write a book about. And that he plans to tell stories.
And Baseball Commissioner thing, then, would be just a way of making clear who he was targeting.
Maybe Abu G is a lot shrewder than we know and this is just a plea for wingnut welfare to prevent Abu G from remembering too much when he writes his memoir.
hmmmm, Gonzo best not take any flights in small planes.
… or go fishing or eat the Cannoli ..
And to show his understanding that Bush used him as a token.
I totally agree this is a shot at Bush and a pitch for wingnut welfare. But why can’t I get any traction on the idea Iseman is doing a similar thing with McCain? She can’t win her expensive lawsuit against the Times, so who does she really want money from?
B L A C K M A I L
I know that most here think the word conspiracy refers to UFO’s, but I guarantee you that there is more implied and actual blackmail going on in Washington DC than any other place on earth. When in doubt, assume blackmail first. Sometimes it’s the ONLY explanation that makes any sense.
I know for a stone cold fact that Israel is blackmailing the Bush Administration to “cooperate” on its plan to implement the PNAC (acquire all of the territory and resources in the middle east) and to keep “hands off” ANY judicial proceedings against the two named co-conspirators from AIPAC who collaborated with Larry Franklin in the matter of espionage – passing top secret US intel on Iran to Israel. That trial has been stopped in its tracks – forever.
When confronted by the inexplicable, assume blackmail.
Has anyone in this administration been guilty of violating the DC Blackmail Statute?
District of Columbia blackmail statute. D.C. Code § 22-3852 provides that:
a) A person commits the offense of blackmail, if, with intent to obtain property of another or to cause another to do or refrain from doing any act, that person threatens:
1) To accuse any person of a crime;
2) To expose a secret or publicize an asserted fact, whether true or false, tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule; or
3) To impair the reputation of any person, including a deceased person.
I think it’s useful to consider the influence of wives and families in the decisions post-bush. Both Gonzo’s and Scottie’s wives, in brief glimpses, seem to have said, “Enough”….Laura, not so much…
At least two years..
If this guy isn’t convicted they need to set up a special “post-tenure impeachment Committee” in the House and issue Bills of Impeachment for all of these guys. Part of the punishment would be, as under the Constitution that the former officeholder never be allowed to “hold a position of honor, trust and profit under the United States”. Given that Baseball holds a special anti-trust exemption it would mean that the Commissioner would be in charge of holding that trust. Registered lobbyists hold positions of trust. Those who practice law before Federal Courts do so under trust and honor. And those who receive Federal Grants and Contracts are given those under stipulations of trust, honor and profit.
If these guys want to enter the sphere of PRIVATE enterprise, and Repugs are always asserting that they don’t want any government benefits…then make them keep to their word.
oops, was replying to 10.
There was one positive note on Gonzales which advocacy organizations and NYT included in the dossier for the 2002 federal judgeship nomination of Priscilla Richman Owen, namely his decrying judicial activism in an Owen ruling against a lady in a TX abortion case, Owen being a Rove protege in origin, as the NYT article describes. I think Rove must figure into the Gonzales book development calculus, as well, Rove being a key figure in concocting the administration’s configuration and management until the revelations in the Libby-Cheney spy outing matter, and much later the Siegelman divulgations which the 111th has on their future pallete Real Soon Now, evidently.
I thought Gonzales surprisingly soft spoken, and remember Biden’s friendly remarks to Gonzales at the time of the nomination of Gonzales to the AG post.
I think the FBI IG report on the origins of the torture paradigm of US war policy is weighing heavily on Gonzales’ mind, maybe even more worrisome to him than to other architects of that abrogation of international covenants and US tradition. I hope Waxman’s IT experts who developed the grid of all the tapes OCIO’s Payton apparently lost, overwrote, or fed to various canines along with other homework, remain in assignments to oversee the integrity of the passing of documentation from the prior administration’s DoJ to its successor leadership. Congress may take more than a year to investigate with new entree, so, Gonzales’ book is likely to address that flap, as well, by m.o. another Rove implemented strategem, this one to suppress voters, with help of the lowerarchy at the Republican National Committee.
I expect Gonzales to vet his prepublished MSS widely among former members in the administration, as well. Likely, he will have feedback from the zone of Fielding’s wiles on the White House Counsel side, but also Gonzales is likely to have to receive edits, even by proxy, from people like Bradbury at olc, and certainly Yoo, Haynes, Bybee, and the group of principals, to name a few of the most political folks whose interactions with him would figure in his volume of the Alexandrine Quartet of Bush.
Then there will be Woody’s chance to clarify. Likely Woodward will have available time for yet further authorship himself Real Soon Now; maybe Woody should make an appointment at the Observatory for an exit interview series for the next book.
Just keep wondering how former AGAG remembers enough to write a book. How many times did he repeat “I can’t recall” during those hearings?
For sometime what’s been in the news is “corruption” and it’s everywhere. Before that it was “lies” and people were crying about the lies for a long time until they realized the lies were supporting something else.
So today this article complains about the unrealistic energy being put into trying to rewrite history, but the real question that needs to be asked is WHY? Why is there so much energy being put into trying to change the record around? Maybe it’s because there is a lot more that THEY were up to and only the corruption is what has surfaced.
The people involved in this high energy attempt to cover up the past know well. I know as well from being in a family for more than 26 years who have been directly involved. Beleive me, the corruption isn’t ANYTHING compared to what else they have been up to! However, my opinion is they big plan is failing, thank God. They have to see that it is failing as well and those like Gonzoles who were nailed early are squirming like crazy trying to escape the anger that will surface when the rest of this surfaces. If you’re wondering what else may surface, trying reviewing history as to how Hitler’s family and others involved with him, their families survived after all of their secrets surfaced. Many changed their names and moved elsewhere. But Hitler’s efforts were limited to Europe and what these people are part of is Global so there are many more who are going to be angry. The planet Earth is a globe and there isn’t anywhere to hide. Bush made a wise move to buy a huge farm out of this country where he may try to find safety when his part finally surfaces. It may only but him a little time though.
Our economic collapse wasn’t something that just happened. It has been in the planning stages for decades. I learned about it in the 90’s and if you review history as to what happened during the last collapse, it looks like a carbom copy. However we put in safeguards then but they all were removed, why? So we could have this new collapse happen all over again. The family I was in works in part for the big banks.
Meet the family:
Mexico drug plane used for US ‘rendition’ flights: report
Sep 4, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/…..-xUcQEZbVg
But we aren’t out of it yet and it’s going to be hell to get through it.
Clyde O’Connor is my ex-sister-in-law’s brother. Her Husband is my ex-wife’s brother and Money Man behind Clyde. They openly discussed starting their new air shipping business in the 90’s at my house right in front of me. Guess who assisted them with preparing their new business? Obama while working at the law firm is felt to have drawn up their papers. This comes from their statements while i questioned them as to if they were worried about being discovered. By the way, how could Rezko invited Obama to work at a law firm he didn’t own? This came out of Rezko’s trial.
Just so you know, the huge drug shipments proceeds FUND “Black-Op’s” in support of another White House Coup. Private Investigators found a fleet of more than 100 planes, some being used by CIA with shipping drugs into the US and Rendition flights. Please note the CIA link. The family bragged about being a CIA Asset when questioned why they weren’t worried about being prosecuted even if it involved murder. The family said there are many CIA Operatives in the Chicago area.
I learned about our current Present Bush while he was Governor of Texas. Texas at that time was part of the drug path. All truck drug shipments were granted safe passage through the border. Now guess who was his AG?
Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL
My theme regarding some of the compliments Gonzales received has a sequel, in what occurred in the House hearings, and, for that matter, the Senate in some oversight hearings as well. Primarily in the House I think Gonzales felt he could bamboozle a disorganized bunch of representatives, but end up discovering a few astute questioning sequences made him face the unrevealed and amorphous internal knowledge he had which was going to require a passle of forgetfullness claims. In the Senate the Gonzales defenses typically were more like, ‘ask me that in our secret hearing four hours from now’. Gonzales was a pawn in the states secrets over-reaching policies that developed to shroud a lot of things which I think Gonzales would likely never have wished to know or shield. However, if bmaz is right, that Dems and Reps both, in DoJ, remain on the job as supporters of torture, that is the congressional hearing direction that needs public airing next. Obama and congress can accomplish that without any risk to the organizers of that aspect of the Bush administration. This country tossed out torture as inhumane during at least a few transits I would characterize as turning points: the incremental squelching of the slave trade and slaveholding; and the outlawing of witch persecutions in the pilgrim colonies. The reversion to deployment of battlefield morals into the military peacetime system and the civilian service in a variety of agencies and bureaus was only partly successful. I think FBI stood its ground and refused to look, until congress would stand by its side as a partner and protect it from the aberration. I am far from wishing Gonzales get off without blame, but sense he had to protect too many people with too numerous alibis for him to provide adequate cover. Addington, and some other more assertive folks under oath provided the strongest resistance to rule of law, or law as it had been known. What occurred was more than wilde west sagebrush law, as well. The administration brought the sophisticated apparatus of modern government into line supporting torture. I think that is what worries Gonzales. Obama’s and Clinton’s first meetings with senior officials from UK and ‘Old Europe’ might elicit more. Wiretapping with a vacuum connected to a computer may be offensive, although the beligerents were on the wavelengths available for eavesdropping. But sending a computer tech for tortcha to a middle east country, then making public statements criticizing that same country for unfair foreign policies, is a bit disingenuous.
1) Sounds like wingnut welfare please funnel me some cash/buy my book.
2)Also Gonzo is trying to warn Obama’s political people that Gonzo will play the race card if brought to trial.
3) Gonzo can’t find a Job because the economy is bad? Well considering that Gonzo is the obvious fall guy for torture for Bush and he is being taken care so well…just like the White Guys.
I’m guessing that the GOP will lose the Hispanic vote more next election if the Gonzo story gets big airplay.
Different audiences see different things Gonzo’s story sounds like he will play being persecuted. White GOPers will see that story.
Hispanics will see that he has been left out in the cold to take the fall. Hispanics will see that Gonzo was never really part of Bush’s gang.
Conyers, Nadler, et al introduced HR 104 early in the 111th congress to form a nongovernment commission to investigate the development of the torture policies of the past administration. h/t as well: thinkProgress, and a more full review at TPM.