CSPAN Video: 06/26/09 National Press Club Conference on Bush "Justice" Dept Political Misconduct

At last! A televised conference at the National Press Club on the "HIDDEN AGENDA" behind the law-twisting and justice-thwarting policies and actions of the Bush/Cheney/Rove Department of Justice.

Thanks to NYU Media professor, author, and voting integrity activist Mark Crispin Miller forwarding this link and message from Marilyn Noyes:

Judge Clemmons, Scott Horton, Charles Walker Jr. (OUTSTANDING!!!), and many others talking about the egregious misconduct of the Bush DOJ. It's long, but what so much of this is what we've been wanting to hear for so long.

Call Eric Holder and demand justice for Don Siegelman, Paul Minor and the other political targets of the last administration's Justice Department. It's time to disinfect the department and exonerate those righteous individuals who have suffered so much.

Attorney General Eric Holder (202) 514-2001; fax: (202) 307-6777; E-mail: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

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David Swanson, of www.afterdowningstreet.org, was at the National Press Club, and has posted his notes here, pointing out highlights to find in this lengthy video.

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Earlier today, I received the following info from Mark via his most excellent "News from the Underground" email:

Major Forum June 26 On Selective DoJ Prosecution To Feature Victims & Advocates On June 26 In DC

WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2009 - An unprecedented conference June 26 at the National Press Club about misconduct by the U.S. Department of Justice will feature prominent officials as well as victims whose compelling stories were captured by filmmaker John McTiernan in his recent documentary, "The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove."

The video by Project Save Justice features experts who say that federal prosecutors targeted hundreds of defendants around the nation primarily for political reasons.

The scheduled keynote speaker, House business permitting, is U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr (D-MI), whose committee is preparing to interview former White House strategist Karl Rove following a nearly two-year legal battle to force Rove's cooperation. The Committee's majority staff issued a report last year citing evidence of politics in investigations. Elected Democrats were seven times more likely to be investigated than GOP officials, according to a leading study.

Calling for more Congressional oversight and community action across the U.S. Friday will be Charles "Champ" Walker, son of the former Georgia State Sen. Majority Leader Charles Walker. Since 2005 the elder Walker has been serving a 10-year term on corruption charges. Last month, the elder Walker won recusal of his 2005 federal trial judge for appearance of bias.

Retired Chief U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon of Birmingham will discuss at Friday's forum his recent letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder saying that former Alabama Gov. Don. Siegelman's first trial was "unfounded." Investigative reports by Alabama journalist Roger Shuler this week documented further questions about the fairness of Siegelman's second trial.

Law professor and Harper's columnist Scott Horton will present new evidence of scandal involving U.S. attorneys fired during the Bush administrations. Also, he will also suggest why the government's misconduct in the recently dismissed conviction of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens (AK) was political.

Department of Justice leaders have been invited to respond but have not designated a representative. In general, they have maintained that their prosecutions were mostly in compliance with legal standards and ethics.

The victim stories by McTiernan portray a different story, including accounts of orchestrated leaks to the press of damaging information by prosecutors and collusion by friendly judges to secure convictions against designated targets. Among the video subjects speaking at Friday's conference will be former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz, Jr. and Puerto Rico State Senator & Minority Whip Eduardo Bhatia (D), representing former Gov. Anibal Acivedo. Both Diaz and Acivedo were acquitted following highly publicized DoJ corruption investigations that affected the politics of their regions. McTiernan was accused in 2006 of lying to an FBI agent who called his home regarding Hollywood investigator Anthony Pellicano.

"The lid is coming off deep, dark secrets," says John Edward Hurley, a former staff aide to the late White House correspondent Sarah McClendon. "This is an opportunity to learn about some of the nation's most important and controversial recent investigations of official corruption." The McClendon Group, a speaker society, is host for the event. There is no registration fee. Sponsors include Alliance for Justice, Project Save Justice, and Velvet Revolution US.

"This conference is vital to acquainting the public with DOJ misconduct," comments Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman, author of the definitive book, "Prosecutorial Misconduct." ##

Agenda

8:00 a.m. Introduction. John Edward Hurley, President, Sarah McClendon Group

8:10 a.m. National Overview & Agenda for the Day. Andrew Kreig, journalist, author & attorney Scott Horton, Harper's Columnist, Attorney and Hofstra Visiting Professor of Law

8:30 a.m. View from Congress. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Chair, House Judiciary Committee, or Committee Counsel Elliot Mintzberg if a vote is occurring
Nan Aron, President, Legal Director, Alliance for Justice, Introduction

9 a.m. View from the Bench. Hon. U.W. Clemon, Shareholder, White, Arnold & Dowd, former Chief U.S. District Judge, Alabama's Northern District (1981-2009)

9:30 a.m. National Plan for Community Action. Charles "Champ" Walker, Jr., business executive and son of imprisoned former George State Sen. Majority Leader Charles Walker, Sr., owner of the Walker Group and Augusta Focus newspaper.

9:45 a.m. Report Card On Legal, Congressional and Media Oversight of the Justice Department. Scott Horton, Harper's Columnist, Attorney and Hofstra Visiting Professor of Law
TBA Representative, U.S. Department of Justice (Invited)
Bruce Fein, author of "Constitutional Peril," and former Reagan Administration Associate General Counsel of the Justice Department and General Counsel of Federal Communications Commission
Bill Yeomans, Legal Director, Alliance for Justice
Cliff Arnebeck, Chair, Legal Affairs Committee, Common Cause Ohio, National Co-Chair, Alliance for Democracy and 2004 Ohio election voting litigation expert
Andrew Kreig, author, attorney and journalist

10:25 a.m. Faces of the Accused. Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz, Jr., acquitted
Puerto Rico State Senator & Minority Whip Eduardo Bhatia (D), representing former Gov. Anibal Acivedo, acquitted
Gail Sistrunk, Executive Director, Project Save Justice (Producers of the video, "Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove")

11 a.m. Forum Adjourns

Manhood Exposed and Pathetic

What are we seeing?!

Clinton was very frustrating -- a demonstration of how an intelligent, dedicated politician is still run by his penis. What was most annoying about him was the bizarre concurrent behavior - not stepping away from his job for a moment to handle the cheat - the not-unusual obnoxious extra testosterone that seems to be part of the same character that has the drive and ability to reach the highest office.

Besides, I always knew he was set up. Duh, everyone knew his weakness before he even hit the White House. That meant the GOP could use that weakness to push their own agenda, and later be able to share responsibility/blame with the Democrats for the "unintended consequences" they caused -- to muddle the defining of the problem.

Thus under Clinton:

There was a major shift in banking/mortgage accountability with the repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act.

Depleted uranium was in the tips of the bombs dropped by Clinton in the N.A.T.O. raids on Kosovo and Bosnia (and Europe was infuriated as they saw their cancer rates explode).

The welfare system was irresponsibly and punitively strangled, making it much more difficult for generations of women to rise above poverty (and thus rippling more stress and less education and possibilities into the lives of their children and their children and their children).

So, who knows at what point the GOP had Clinton by the balls. One time only, I heard on a major broadcast station, that Monica Lewinsky had first worked for some Republican in the Senate Office Building and when she couldn’t keep quiet about her desire for the President, she was suddenly transferred to the White House. Of course.

Men are such sell-outs for risky sex.

So, of course, we have since had to go through the inevitable (and kharmic) exposure, so to speak, of Republican and Religious Right hypocrites – with Congressional pages, in airport bathrooms, in the Department of the Interior, with staffer’s wives – by those who have tried to gain power by claiming to hold higher “moral values.”

For me, the great disappointment was John Edwards. At that point, I clearly saw that men are powerless sellouts. If Edwards, whose sincere desire to change the system that left so many so poor felt so true, can be felled by an affair, anyone can.

Please note: Shame on that woman. How could she possibly rationalize encouraging or allowing such a relationship if she believed in anything he worked towards, when such a connection would surely destroy his ability to achieve his goals.

Now, Sanford blames it on Maria in Argentina. Come on, what is this? West Side Story -- or Evita?

As I commented early today at Huffington Post,

“Don’t cry for cheating with Argentinian...” (Where is Patti Lupone when you need her?)

But seriously, I’m so tired of the lies, the greed, the toxins, the job losses, the wars – all of which come from this out-of-control, testosterone-driven, alpha male need to be in charge, no matter the “collateral damage.”

Sanford has no right to return to the Governor’s Office. He selfishly and irresponsibly turned his personal inadequacies, his inability to uphold his commitments as a husband and father, into a national security risk, disregarding the commitments of his office as well.

What an irony that he didn’t want his state to accept federal money, when his disappearance and failure to empower the lieutenant governor could very well have resulted in a more urgent need for federal assistance and perhaps even intervention if there had been an emergency.

As the infamous and brilliant Geurilla Girls have often suggested, it just may be time to break out the estrogen bombs!

Sorry, guys, but today, I must say it.

The Most Important Thing Barack Obama Said in Cairo

There's one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

This truth transcends nations and peoples -- a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the hearts of billions around the world. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.

We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.

The Holy Koran tells us: "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now that must be our work here on Earth.

Barack Obama, June 4, 2009, Cairo

Light Beginning to Shine on Bush SEC's attack on Mark Cuban

The Inspector General of the Security and Exchange Commission is at work, and one of its investigations shows misconduct in the way the SEC went after Mark Cuban before Bush left office.

I commented at The Huffington Post:

2004: James Moore, co-author of Bush's Brain (about Rove), goes on book tour with retired Texas Air National Guard Lt. Col Bill Burkett, who witnessed the scrubbing of W's military records to hide history of belligerence, favoritism and and time AWOL before 2000 election.

Burkett is contacted and given memos by mysterious source who then disappears.

Burkett does nothing with memos until GOP uses Swiftboat lies against Kerry, then contacts 60 Minutes II producer Mary Mapes, who co-broke Abu Gharab (with Seymour Hersh).

The instant Dan Rather airs memos, GOP operatives start powerful blitz on memo authenticity, and successfully strangle/punish Dan Rather (who had nailed Poppy Bush with Iran Contra questions in 1988 Presidential election interview), Mary Mapes (Abu Gharab producer), Lt. Col. Bill Burkett (witness to scrubbing), and, indirectly, James Moore.

Rather & Mapes lose jobs, all lose credibility, Bush/Rove silence media and steal a second election.

Mark Cuban courageously backs Dan Rather's investigative reporting on HDNet. Comcast refuses to carry HDNet.

2006: Rather busts open story on Sequoia 's special intentionally-flawed ballots for Palm Beach Florida 2000 election. Undoubtedly much more, but not freely accessed.

2008: Bush's SEC goes after Mark Cuban (Rather's funding) on trumped up charges.

But now there's a break in the clouds. Here comes the sun. . .