http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/

email: rshuler3156@gmail.com

A transplanted Midwesterner puts down roots in Alabama and helps show how "loyal Bushies" have corrupted our justice system.

FishbowlAmerica.com:The rumor mill in Montgomery is swirling of news of a potential resignation by Republican Attorney General Troy King, amid rumors that he was caught by his wife having sex with a male aide and subsequently banished from his home by his wife.

King, a potential GOP frontrunner for Governor in 2010, succeeded Bill Pryor, one of George W. Bush's most controversial judicial nominees. In addition, King was also an early endorser of John McCain.

While at face value it smells of a whisper campaign on the internet, much like the recent whispers about MO governor Matt Blount, a number of reputable Alabama blogs are reporting, in the very least, that the rumors are there and widespread.

Alabama Gov. Riley caught in a LIE?  Apparently, he caught himself!!

Gov. Riley is parsing the truth, not-so-cleverly dodging the questions with non-denials, and back peddling on his own words.

He said he talked to Karl Rove by saying, "He told me he would" testify.  This AFTER
he said he had talked to noone (actually, he said he said that to Don Siegelman years before, and may have lied to Don Siegelman).  Then he quickly back tracks and says he has not talked to Karl for two years.  Well two years ago was before Karl was asked to testify.

He only denied talking to "a prosecutor" about Siegelman.
He said nothing about a prosecutor's husband, i.e. Bill Canary!
The truth lies (pun intended) between the lines and the not-so-clever parsing.

So, did he LIE?  Has Riley been talking to Rove?  
Who cares.  I just want to know how he stole the 2002 election!

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The news from last night: the Republicans have a nominee, the Democrats don't - yet. I'm taking a one day break from the Obama Veepstakes poll (which means you can still vote in round I/5). It will continue tomorrow as I still think it's basically, logically impossible for Hillary Clinton to win the pledged delegates and eventually the nomination.

But since John McCain finally managed to win his party's nomination, I thought we might just be a little generous today and help old John in his quest for a running mate. This is an entirely serious endeavour on my part and in no way intended as snark, so taking a break from the Democratic primary madness for a minute, put yourself into John McCain's position (yeah, I know it's a far stretch but bare with me):

If you were John McCain who would you choose as your running mate?

The Ignoble Arrest of Sue Schmitz at Dawn

In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel.
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level.
And show that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded.
And that even the nobles get properly handled.

All credit for the reporting of this story should rightly be attributed to Scott Horton at Harpers Magazine.

As a devastating drought continues to parch the Southeast, Republican Governors in Georgia and Alabama are turning to divine intervention to help replenish their dwindling water supplies.  In Atlanta, Governor Sonny Perdue held a public vigil at the state house Tuesday to "pray up a storm."  His plea follows on the heels on Alabama Governor Bob Riley's week-long "Days of Prayer for Rain" in June.

As then-Governor George W. Bush showed with his 2000 proclamation of "Jesus Day," prayer is now a centerpiece of the Republican approach to public policy.  And with the GOP fallen on hard times, Governor Perdue is hardly the only Republican turning to prayer in search of better days.

Here, then, are the Top 10 Republican Prayers:

 This diary is not an argument for more gun control. Many liberals like guns. You've heard of postal workers, right? Nothing here should be interpreted as disrespect for the police. They do what local governments tell them to. Police forces in north Alabama are largely responsible for keeping me alive. Let us criticize politico-religious momzers who call the cops every time they get goose bumps.

The ongoing DOJ scandal has, at its heart on thing: an utter contempt for the law and the destruction of an independent DOJ on their watch.

Two stories broke yesterday that provide stunning confirmation of just how bad it is.  Moreover, these stories DIRECTLY implicate Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and show this has been going on since AT LEAST 2002.

First, a Republican Campaign staffer for Now Gov. Riley Lawyer has filed a sworn affidavit claiming  that in 2002 Karl Rove promised the  Republican candidate that DOJ would prosecute then Dem. Gov. Siegleman  after the Republican had won a narrow and highly controversial victory and Seigelman was considering challenging the results.

Meanwhile Back at the White House, we have former Deputy AG Comey, the only senior DOJ official with a blush reflex apparently, claiming Dick Cheney PERSONALLY intervened to punish a lawyer and block his promotion; because he opposed the wiretap program

Stunning.  And Maybe even grounds for indictment/impeachment respectively:

If anyone thought a little thing like a blood clot and hospitalization would slow Vivian Beckerle down, don't count on it. She's maybe a bit rested after a few days in a local hospital, but otherwise she's fine. I just saw here tonight and she looks great - radiant and determined to get the message out to as many Alabama voters as she can before next Tuesday.

Things are heating up even down here - the usual thuggery - stealing signs and slinging a bit of mud here and there maybe, but we're pretty civil compared to what's going on elsewhere. I have a feeling that's because no one really cares about what happens down here very much, but Bonner is spending money on TV ads and signs. Word is he'll actually drive around the district tomorrow as well.

There's a great story in the Albany Times Union today about John Sweeney (NY-20) and his work to help Jack Abramoff and his sweatshop owning patrons on the Mariana Islands.

There is a lot in the story, but this was my favorite part:

Sweeney was quoted in the Saipan Tribune on Jan. 15 [2001] as saying reports of poor working conditions in the CNMI were overblown, and that he had seen worse sweatshops back home in New York. Carlson said Sweeney was "absolutely not" aware of any severe mistreatment of workers or forced prostitution before he made these comments.

U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a longtime champion of legislation to change CNMI wage and immigration laws, traveled to the islands in 1998 [snip].

Problems were obvious "unless you choose not to look at the facts on the ground," Miller said, adding: "A blind pig could run into the human rights violations and the exploitation of workers on the islands."

That sums up the modern Republican Party: Blind Pigs.

And we have three weeks to take them out.

To the jump...

Alabama is electing a governor this year, although it hardly seems worth the bother.

The Democratic candidate -- Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley -- is doing her best imitation of Roy Moore, trying to tack to the right of incumbent Republican Bob Riley. It isn't working.

Way behind in the polls and apparently stung by Riley TV ads that dropped the "L" bomb on her and linked her to (gasp!) Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, she seems to think she needs to be the second coming of Roy Moore.

It is a big news day, so it is the perfect day for the White House to release another snippet of their endless contacts with Jack Abramoff and support for his clients, whims and wishes.

Now there are quite a few Diaries out about this story, but I want to focus on how to use the Abramoff scandal to WIN in November.

The key is to use this moment to reframe the Abramoff Scandal narrative.

It has been about a gang of scamps ripping off casinos. Sort of an Oceans Eleven staring Jack, George, Karl, Grover, Ralph, Ed and the gang.

When that is the scandal narrative the Republicans win. The scandal gets no tractions because nobody cares if a casino is ripped off.

We need to change the narrative.

The Abramoff scandal is about forced sex, human trafficking and selling out ones values and principles for money and power

The framing that drives this home is Abramoff's work on the Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands (CNMI).

It was a proven strategy in Georgia. And now Charlie Brown is showing how this is a winning issue for Democrats this fall.

Learn how on the jump...

Perhaps Jack Abramoff said it best:

"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."

I've been swimming through Republican corruption. Over the last couple of months I've been trying to compile a list of Republican candidates in this cycle who have multiple links to Jack Abramoff and the slush fund he was managing for the GOP.

Earlier this year, a reporter told Newshour:

EAMON JAVERS: I have one source who says it could be as many as 60 members of Congress that they are looking at.

I think he might be right.

Join me on the jump to meet The Abramoff 64 (34 in competitive races)...

I've been swimming in corruption.

I've been reviewing old Jack Abramoff files, documents and news clips.

Not surprisingly, the number of Republicans with ties to Jack Abramoff and the Slush Fund behind the Gingrich/DeLay/Bush era of incompetence and corruption is growing.

At the beginning of August I posted a Diary about 21 GOP Candidates tied to Jack Abramoff. Since then I've kept digging. I've gotten some nice leads, tips and suggestions. More names have been added to the list.

Now I need your help.

53 Republican candidates in this election cycle have an Abramoff problem. (And I suspect that more names will be added to the list as the research continues).

I need your help to promote these links and to help me make more connections between these candidates and Jack Abramoff and the GOP Culture of Corruption.

Each of the Abramoff 53 has multiple ties to the scandal. Some connections are politically embarrassing, some smell fishy and some are clear criminal acts.

So, if you're ready, please join me on the jump and meet the Abramoff 53...

I've been swimming in corruption.

I've been reviewing old Jack Abramoff files and how the scandal connects to a number of GOP Candidates for the elections this fall.

Not surprisingly, it seems like everybody in the Grand Old Party was hooked into the Abramoff/Gingrich/DeLay/Bush era of incompetence and corruption.

As Jack told Vanity Fair:

"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."

And there is more to the paper trail than just email. There are invoices, donations, Bills, Resolutions, appropriations and endless clues embedded in press releases, news accounts and old Web sites.

Some are politically embarrassing, some smell fishy and some are clear criminal acts.

To the Jump...

Some observations from a quick read of Tuesday's primary in Alabama:

More Alabamaians voted in the Democratic primary for governor than the Republican primary. Each primary had a contest of roughly equal voter appeal so this should have been a good measure of party identification. The Democratic primary drew 465,021 voters, the GOP drew 459,759.

Those numbers give Dem nominee Lucy Baxley some hope, but she is unlikely to defeat an incumbent Republican who is presiding over a state that is doing well economically (relatively speaking) and has a state government surplus. To win, she will have to say a lot more than that she is in favor of education and is a competent manager. It will take more than "We Love Lucy" bumper stickers. If she runs the kind of namby-pamby campaign in the fall that she ran in the primary, she'll lose by 20 points.

Today our grassroots effort to clean up the roadways of Alabama paid off. We made the front page of the Birmingham News!

http://www.al.com/...

EDIT: Whoops! Forgot to add the link to our site. Litter On A Stick

Right up front let me just say that I don't give a rip who wins tonight's American Idol. And the reason I don't care is because I live in Alabama -- home of Ruben, Bo and Taylor. If you have to ask who they are, you aren't from Alabama or an American Idol fan.

You see, the newspapers and local TV are just eaten up with Taylor Hicks: