absolutely alex’s adventures & times

Another reason why the death penalty should be abolished, before it’s too late for the innocent to be exonerated.

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Congress had better think carefully about whether they want to put another person who chooses executive power over the Constitution in charge of the Justice Department.

Democratic senators have started to express discomfort at the ambiguous views of the nominee for the attorney general position, Michael Mukasey, towards interrogation techniques that hinges on being torture, such as waterboarding. Some senators had said that they could vote against his confirmation if he did not state that waterboarding is a form of torture.

The New York Times cited the expert opinion of Dr. Allen S. Keller, the director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, on waterboarding. He explained to the newspaper that in waterboarding, a person is tipped back, his mouth covered with a cloth and water is poured over the cloth to make him gag and feel like he is drowning. If done long enough, Dr. Keller told NYT, the person could drown or even have a heart attack.

Mukasey had refused to say if he thought waterboarding was tantamount to torture when questioned in the recent congressional hearing on his nomination. Furthermore, Mukasey had hinted that he thought the administration’s program of eavesdropping and wiretapping without warrants was legal, although it violates the terms of federal surveillance laws.

Clearly, Mukasey has views that are at odds with the role of being attorney general. The role of the attorney general, along with the Justice Department, calls for the upholding of the Constitution and the nation’s laws. Does Congress want a repeat performance of the mess and the politicization of the Justice Department under its former head, Alberto Gonzales?

Gonzales was forced to resign because of his tendency to put the Bush administration and the Republican party before the Constitution, choosing personnel for their loyalty to the Republican party and abetting the administration’s shameful tactics in its so-called “war on terror”.

Congress should not make the same mistake twice, by giving a free pass to Mukasey. If he is unable to condemn torture unequivocally – and waterboarding being one of them – and put a stop once and for all to the illegal domestic spying programs, should Congress be confident that he will ensure federal laws are upheld during the upcoming election and that he remains unswayed by politics?

While the talk is that Mukasey would be confirmed despite the doubts, Congress should probe deeper and not just rubber stamp his appointment.

John McCain has come out to state unequivocally that waterboarding is torture, and rebuked his fellow Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani for fudging on the issue. “All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” McCain told the NYT.

If Mukasey wants the attorney general’s job, he should do well to follow McCain’s lead, and call a spade a spade. Otherwise, he should withdraw from the candidacy altogether, or be blocked from taking the job.

What a great start to the week!

Gonazales, who has brought nothing but shame to the office of the Attorney-General, has finally bitten the bullet and resigned.

This, after countless calls to Congress for questions, especially over the firing of nine US attorneys, believed to have been relieved from their positions as they refused to toe the Republican party line to be more “loyal”.

“Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the Washington Post.

Gonzales was also threatened with impeachment attempts by congressional members.

Gonzales will be gone by September 17.

All the details of the to-ing and fro-ing here.

” . . . The plaintiff is not entitled to any relief whatsoever.”

Hallelujah! Thank goodness common sense has prevailed. There’s hope for the US justice system yet.

The DC Superior Court has dismissed the frivolous lawsuit brought by an administrative judge, Roy Pearson, against his neighborhood dry-cleaners, Korean immigrants, the Chungs.

Pearson had sued the Chungs for a whooping $54 million, all because they had misplaced his pair of pants. Better yet, Pearson has to pay the administrative costs for the Chungs.

Pearson may also have to pay the Chungs’ legal costs, which could cost him tens of thousands of dollars. At the same time, his job as an administrative judge is hanging on the line, after his case came to light and provoked an uproar by the public angry at his bullying and abuse of the justice system over a frivolous suit.

The sorry saga started two years ago, when Pearson brought a pair of pants to the Chungs for alterations and the Chungs initially misplaced. They were found later and the Chungs tried to return them to Pearson, but he claims that they were not his and accused them of defrauding him.

He rejected several attempts at settlement of sums from $3,000 to $12,000. Arguing that he did not receive service that qualified as “satisfaction guaranteed” as promised on the sign in the Chungs’ shop, he sued for the incredible (and much derided) amount. The exorbitant amount was based on the city’s fine for violation of consumer protection laws, at $1,500 a day. Also included in the sum was the car rental fees that Pearson calculated he would need to ferry his dry-cleaning to a dry-cleaner in a different area, mental anguish and attorney’s fees, even though he represented himself. The $54 million is a reduction of an original sum of $65 million he had asked for.

Pearson’s greed and excessive bullying behavior has captured world-wide attention and prompted calls for him to be disbarred.

He should be feeling pretty shitty about himself. The Chungs had said, post-verdict, that they were just relieved at winning the case and bore him no ill-will. They even said they would welcome him back as a customer. Are they nuts? After all this, Pearson should be banned from going to a dry-cleaner ever again!

Pearson could, of course, still appeal the verdict. However, it seems unlikely that he’d get anything, not only because of how ridiculous his suit is, but also due to the tide of public opinion against him. He only has himself to blame.

Oh, it’s alright, it’s all perfectly legal and above board, because the FBI has the approval of the Department of Justice for each flight on its $40 million Gulfstream Jet V.

Hmmm, right. That’s really reassuring, especially if you’ve been reading the news and followed what’s been going on in that Department and how it’s run.

If that’s not all, the jet costs taxpayers $3.6 million a year for upkeep and derives that cash from the war spending bill. Go to the Gulfstream website and check out how fancy these planes are. Some come equipped with cherry oak-panelled bars and plush leather seats. It’s not the jet for Hollywood moguls for nothing.

Ostensibly, the jet is a tool in the “war on terror”, but the Washington Post reports that it is more often than not used to take FBI chief Robert Mueller to speeches, public appearances and field office visits.

Talk about a waste and misuse of taxpayers’ money by pompous government bureaucrats with royalty- or rock star-complexes. It’s amazing how much money is being misused under the pretense of its necessity for the war against terror.

Some will argue that it’s small change compared to the billions we have bled away in Iraq. Sure, but don’t be surprised that government expenses have become so bloated and the federal government is up to its eyeballs in debt. In the private sector, companies that are too excessive or inefficient go under but our government agencies, which have proven themselves disastrous when real disasters strike, just seem to get more cash thrown at them. Where’s the logic in that?

Part of the FBI’s justification for the Gulfstream jet is because of its special communications system. “FBI officials said Mueller relies on the jet’s special communications gear to ensure that he can be in instant contact with Washington in the event of another terrorist attack that grounds commercial flights, and also to conduct sensitive conversations during routine travel,” the Washington Post said.

I fail to see the rationale for Mueller to fly in this “special-purposed” jet. The “secure communication” excuse is just that, an excuse. Does Mueller have to be within reach at all time? Is Mueller the sole person on whom the entire country depends in the “war against terror”? What about his deputy and all the other staff? The implications that Mueller has to be in contact and no other person at FBI can handle emergencies when he is flying just seem excessive and frankly ludicrous.

Sure, the director of the FBI needs to fly securely. So let him fly in military jets then. No need for custom luxury jets. He wouldn’t have to stand in lines for security searches or show up hours early like for commercial flights (not that he would have to anyway, even if he were to fly commercial. Get real). If the FBI chief can’t trust military jets to ensure him a safe and secure flight, what does that say about our security?

The Senate proposal of a no-confidence vote against Alberto Gonzales, the besieged Attorney General, was expected to fail.

And fail it did, as Republicans refused to back the proposal spearheaded by the Democrats, which needed 60 votes to bring the no-confidence resolution to a vote.

Only one prominent Republican has publicly stated that he would join the Democrats. Six other Republicans, along with Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voted with the Democrats. He said he would vote for the resolution, as “The department at the present time is in shambles”.

Which is only one of the many reasons why Republican Senators who have a conscience ought to vote with the Democrats on the matter.

Besides Gonzales’ obviously weak and incompetent leadership that has made a mess in the Department of Justice, the New York Times reported that morale at the Department is low, as more staffers leave after the scandal over the firing of the federal attorneys and top positions remain unfilled.

A more critical reason they ought to be backing the vote, no matter their political stripes, is the damage and credibility loss Gonzalez has brought to the Department, and with it, the country’s justice system.

There cannot be much, or any, credibility left to the Department if it’s so blatantly set on a political, rather than a justice and law-driven, agenda.

It didn’t help when a former aide of Gonzales’, Monica M. Goodling, testified that political allegiance was a factor when she hired people for lower-level nonpolitical jobs at the Department. Her actions are a possible violation of federal employment laws.

It’s interesting that President George W Bush is wasting his political capital from standing by Gonzalez faithfully, and Republican Senators don’t have the courage to vote with their conscience, even as conservative Republicans increasingly condemn Bush’s backing of Gonzalez.

Right-wingers like Robert Novak are screaming injustice at the way Bush is treating Gonzalez, compared to Scooter Libby. “Prevailing opinion among Republican office holders, contributors and activists could not differ more from Bush’s posture. They regard Libby as a valuable public servant who faces serious prison time thanks to prosecutorial abuse made possible by Bush administration decisions. They see Gonzales as an embarrassment to the party who presides over a hollow Justice Department while presidential staffers search for Senate votes to block a no-confidence motion,” Novak wrote in the Washington Post.

Novak warns that with Bush’s latest choice, and in the wake of the immigration debate, Bush risks losing the Republican faithful on issues like Iraq.

Interesting though Novak’s point might be, the bigger issue here is not just Gonzales’ incompetence. Much has happened during the Bush administration to erode the principles that the US stands for — civil liberties, the rule of law and the impartiality of the justice system.

If Republican Senators insist that the vote is irrelevant and nothing more than just a stunt, they have failed to grasp the significance behind the fiasco that has been perpetuated by Gonzales under the administration’s directions.

A wise man once said that a good leader is strong enough to admit that he has made a mistake.

We know that is beyond Bush’s ability. We would be kidding ourselves if we called him a good leader.

But the latest suicide of a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay should be a wake up call to change course and shut down Guantanamo Bay for good.

It has been operating for over five years and besides the negative publicity for the US, its symbol of being the negation of everything the US stands for, and its effectiveness in recruiting and rallying jihardists, Guantanamo Bay has done nothing good for the so-called war against terror.

It’s shameful how this atrocity has endured for so long.

Guantanamo Bay is a daily reminder that American values like truth and justice are just platitudes. The detention of 380 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay without trial and their status outside of the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war not only lessens US credibility, it also makes a mockery of the legal process. Besides, it smacks of sheer pigheadedness — why prolong a policy that hasn’t produced results but made it tougher on the war on terror? And that’s especially after the US Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunal system, the only recourse for some detainees, is illegal.

There’s no doubt that the latest suicide is a result of the prisoner’s desperation from the illegal detention. The deceased, a Saudi Arabian, is the fourth detainee there to end his own life. Three other suicides by hanging occurred in June last year.

If it’s not closed down, the only certainty is that the recent death isn’t going to be the last. As morale sinks and hopes of ever leaving the detention facility slips, more detainees are likely to take their own lives, experts say. There have been over 40 suicide attempts so far.

Ironically, one of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay has appealed to the kidnappers of BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, to free him. Johnston, a Gaza correspondent, disappeared in March and is believed to have been captured by an Islamist group operating in Gaza.

“What the Americans are doing to me is very, very wrong,” said the prisoner, Sami al-Hajj, a native of Sudan, in a letter made public by his lawyer. “Yet this can never mean that a Muslim should similarly hold a British journalist, and put him and his family through similar suffering.”

Listen and learn.

Most people might hear news coverage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his links to the Department of Justice’s dismissal of eight attorneys and feel that it’s all media hype, particularly left-wing, liberal hysteria.

Granted, it’s hard to feel sorry for attorneys. All those bad jokes about them make it hard for most people to care much if they were fired, much less feel moved to do something or be outraged at what has happened in the Justice Department.

What’s all the fuss about, one might ask.

Here’s a superb New York Times editorial explaining why we should care and be riled about what has happened.

NYT argues that serious damage has been done to the Justice Department, trust in the powerful offices of the US attorneys eroded and partisanship has run rampant.

The firings have become much more than just a personnel matter at the Justice Department.

The Republican Party has employed the offices of US attorneys to be unabashedly partisan, promoting the interest of the Republican Party.

A line has been crossed and it’s now Congress’ turn not just to press for Gonzales’ resignation, but ensure there is reform in the Justice Department and that there will not be a repetition of something this cynical.

Will Attorney General Alberto Gonzales quit rather than face the no-confidence vote scheduled for later this week in the Senate?

According to Senator Arlen Specter, Gonzales might just do that.

Specter, who’s a ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, anticipates more Republicans joining the majority Democrats in favor of a resolution expressing a lack of confidence in Gonzales over the way he handled the firing of eight federal prosecutors, Bloomberg reports.

Six Republican senators have already called on Gonzales to go, with more likely to follow.

The vote is non-binding, as the attorney general is appointed by the President, not Congress. But the senators believe getting a no-confidence vote would press the case against Gonzales harder. It would also be a blot on Gonzales’ record.

Meanwhile, the heat is soaring not just for Gonzales, but also for the White House.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer is looking at investigating into the 2004 episode, when Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to pressurize then Attorney General John Ashcroft into approving a warant-less spying program while Ashcroft was sick in hospital.

Schumer is sending letters to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington, seeking answers for the person(s) who ordered Gonzales and Card to make the request of Ashcroft, according to the Washington Post.

This coming week should be an interesting one.

No wonder lawyers have such a bad rap.

No thanks to low-lives like Roy Pearson, an administrative law judge for the District of Columbia who is suing his local dry cleaners for an exorbitant $65 million for misplacing his pair of pants which he brought in for alternations 2 years ago.

He arrived at the amount by citing the “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort” from the incident, the cost of weekend rental car payments clocked up for transporting his dry cleaning elsewhere and the hours he put in towards representing himself on the case. The sum also comes from Pearson’s interpretation of DC’s consumer protection law, which fines violators $1,500 per violation, per day, which he further multiplied by three, for the three defendants of the dry cleaner’s family, the Chungs, immigrants from South Korea.

Though the pants turned up later, he denied there were his, claiming that the Chungs were trying to pull one on him. Pearson also repeatedly turned down offers of compensation from the Chungs.

What kind of shamelessly greedy, morally reprehensible and entitled person is Pearson? What makes him think he has any right to the ridiculous and frivolous claims he is making?

To highlight the level of his vitriol, Pearson wasn’t satisfied with just making himself the plaintiff. He sought to expand it to a class action suit, but was thankfully denied by a DC civil judge.

This smacks of a flagrant abuse of power of someone who knows the system and works it to his advantage. Taxpayers in DC ought to demand investigations into whether Pearson was spending office hours building his absurd case.

Suits like his are an abuse of the judicial system, clogging it up when there are more urgent, and deserving, cases to be pursued, wasting everyone’s time. It’s also a classic example of the rampant number of suits demanding excessive liability in the US.

Just imagine the amount of distress and trouble this is causing the Chungs. They have been so overwhelmed by the whole episode they were talking of returning to Seoul. But the Chungs ought to fight back. Counter sue, on the grounds of the loss of business, stress and the legal costs incurred. Pearson should be made to pay restitution to them.

Oh yes, Pearson should also be denied of the services of dry cleaners. Ever again.

One more thing – disbar Pearson and fire him. His severe lack of judgment in this whole sorry saga is justifiably sufficient to show how unfit he is for his job.

Help the Chungs here.