My mother was Lady Justice.
I've seen that smirk before. I saw it on my stepfather's face when he got away with abusing or lying to my mother. The same smirk appears on our Attorney General's face every time these hearings skirt around the obvious and he walks away leaving more questions than answers.
That smirk came out when my stepfather would lie about cheating on my mother and he knew she knew about it but she was too afraid he would leave her to be on her own with two kids. So she said nothing.
That smirk came out when the attending nurse in the emergency room asked how my mother split her lip open to require eight stitches at two O'clock in the morning. She answered, "she fell on the ice" and he turned and looked at me with that smirk.
That smirk came out when he drank half his paycheck away and came home loaded and wanted a hot dinner, there and now. His heartbroken wife and scared children huddled in a darkened bedroom and waited for him to pass out at the table.
That smirk came out when the police were forced to remove the hand-cuffs from him because my mother wouldn't press domestic battery charges against him.
That smirk came out when I overheard him talking to his drinking buddies about how he banged the neighbor lady on his lunch hour. That smirk came out again the next morning after I told my mom about him and the neighbor lady and he pulled me out of bed, punched me in the face and put the back of my head through and old console television.
What I hated most about that smirk was the sense of helplessness we felt when we saw it. It meant we were trapped and no-one was going to help us because he had all the control and he knew we were afraid of what he would do to us.
One afternoon my stepfather and I were cleaning up the side of the house. We were getting rid of soda cans, litter, weeds and such. While I was picking up the junk, he started smacking the back of my legs with a broom saying, "C'mon. Move it!" and "Get going, hurry up!". His taunting and that smirk became more annoying and painful. And the more it got to me, the more he did it. I knelt down to throw away a chunk of concrete that came loose from under our front porch, and pulled out an arms-length of rusted rebar. As the next whack of the broomstick hit my ankle, I swung around, without even a second thought, and as hard as I could, hit him in the shins. He went down. Tears filled his eyes as I dropped the length of metal at his knees and walked away.
I stayed away from the house as long as I could, terrified that he was going to kill me or worse, take it out on my mom. Dinner was cleared from the table by the time I got home and he was already off to the bar. My mom asked me what had happened. He had said nothing to her about it. And I just told her I had had enough of him and wasn't going to be afraid of him anymore. And I never was.
My stepfather was gone several months later. He left my mom for the neighbor lady. But I did notice something was different after that one afternoon. That smirk was gone. It never returned, even 'til the day he left.
So, I guess my point is...
Gonzales Giggles Through Testimony
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL JIUJITSUS CONGRESS WITH A SMILE
Gonzales Lies Under Oath
Gonzales Is Challenged on Wiretaps
Gonzales OK could be seen as OK for torture rules
Eight Days in July
CONTEMPT
Alberto Gonzales and the Blame Game
It's time the Judiciary Committee breaks this cycle of non-answers and half truths provided by our Attorney General in regards to his abusive relationship with our Lady Justice. She's taken enough of his shit and she needs your help. To turn your eyes from her plight will condemn her to a life of continued abuse, retaliation, lies and contempt for her preservation.
The American voters gave you the metal bar last November so how many times will you allow him to diminish your authority with his taunting smirks and evasive style? If you've never been in an Abusive relationship, you may not be aware that it is generally the one being abused that has to make the decision to change the situation. It's never the abuser.
It's time to Swing Away.