Mayor of Baltimore indicted!

stockingfull wrote:

coalmeister wrote:

gerard wrote:Also all of these prosecutorial offices, both state AND federal, that are headed by political appointee's, have as the rank and file people of both parties who are career people and it is those people who do the actual investigation and put the case together.

devil505 wrote:Not true under the current administration. Career workers were fired & new one hired based on political & religion tests, not merit. There have been many Senate hearing looking into this. (I'll get you some links when I have more time)
A number of US Attornys have been fired under very questionable circumstances too!

Only difference is Clinton fired them all upfront!

FWIW, that's a HUGE and unprecedented difference. DOJ is different from other departments. While it's actually customary for an entirely new corps of US Attys to come in with every new Administration, it's decidedly NOT for them to be fired for not doing the Administration's political bidding.
The politicization of Justice was just one of the many areas in which unprecedented power grabs were undertaken by Dick Cheney and the boyz in the "Unitary Executive" push. The systemic defiance of "signing statements," the exploded police powers conferred by the "USA Patriot Act," the ambiguous legal status of the VP, and just now the carte blanche given to Treasury on the "TARP" -- all these are examples of strains on the checks and balances between the branches.
If anybody thinks these ballooned powers are good things, imagine a President you really don't like having them and using them against you.

So you are saying GW should have started with a clean slate of attorneys that were hand picked to do his bidding from the start, like Clinton, instead of waiting?

coalmeister wrote:So you are saying GW should have started with a clean slate of attorneys that were hand picked to do his bidding from the start, like Clinton, instead of waiting?

I assume your question was directed to Stockingful but I'll just add that I would suggest you watch a little bit of the Congressional hearings I linked to on CSPAN in a response to Gerard. http://www.c-span.org/search.aspx?For=u ... %20firings
They completely explain why SELECTIVE firings of US Attys , done for political retribution. is totally different than what other Presidents have done in the past, & may well be violations of federal criminal law.

coalmeister wrote:So you are saying GW should have started with a clean slate of attorneys that were hand picked to do his bidding from the start, like Clinton, instead of waiting?

No, what I'm saying is that he did have a brand new team at the start (which is nothing unusual), then fired the ones who refused to do the Administration's political "hits" for them, which is the part that had never been done before.

stockingfull wrote:

coalmeister wrote:So you are saying GW should have started with a clean slate of attorneys that were hand picked to do his bidding from the start, like Clinton, instead of waiting?

No, what I'm saying is that he did have a brand new team at the start (which is nothing unusual), then fired the ones who refused to do the Administration's political "hits" for them, which is the part that had never been done before.

Correct!

We are wandering way off topic here though & if the mayor of Baltimore is guilty of crimes, she is despicable & should be prosecuted like any low life.

stockingfull wrote:

coalmeister wrote:So you are saying GW should have started with a clean slate of attorneys that were hand picked to do his bidding from the start, like Clinton, instead of waiting?

No, what I'm saying is that he did have a brand new team at the start (which is nothing unusual), then fired the ones who refused to do the Administration's political "hits" for them, which is the part that had never been done before.

Not true. He did not start with a new team like most do.

coalmeister wrote:

stockingfull wrote:

coalmeister wrote:So you are saying GW should have started with a clean slate of attorneys that were hand picked to do his bidding from the start, like Clinton, instead of waiting?

No, what I'm saying is that he did have a brand new team at the start (which is nothing unusual), then fired the ones who refused to do the Administration's political "hits" for them, which is the part that had never been done before.

Not true. He did not start with a new team like most do.

None other than Pat Buchanan disagrees with you:

former GOP presidential candidate and MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan said that "it is not unusual for all U.S. attorneys -- or almost all except some outstanding ones, to be replaced when a new party comes into power, say, in 1993 or 2001."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703150001

But we digress: this is about the Mayor of Baltimore.

Worthy of note is that Pat Buchanan lives in Maryland, as does the Mayor of Baltimore.

All I KNOW is it's 15 deg f outside, the coals a glowin', and I'm a comfortable 71 deg and nice warm cup of coffee!!

gerard wrote:All I KNOW is it's 15 deg f outside, the coals a glowin', and I'm a comfortable 71 deg and nice warm cup of coffee!!

At the risk of going OT again, I'll note here that I mentioned to my bride at dinner last night (roast chicken, stuffing, gravy, etc.) that one of the best parts of enjoying the seasons is the variety of eats. Meaning that what we BBQ in the summer and what we roast and make gravy with in the winter are different things -- and that's a good thing.

For my abbreviated attention span.

Sorta like the correlation I saw a couple years ago between coal burners and motorcycle riders. We just change toys in the spring and fall. All part of the ADD.

gerard wrote:All I KNOW is it's 15 deg f outside, the coals a glowin', and I'm a comfortable 71 deg and nice warm cup of coffee!!

Something we both agree on & welcome to the forum!

BTW...when you said this "Yes - I work in that type of environment and have known the same people for over 20 years. "

would you mind telling us what you do/did for a living?

BTW...when you said this "Yes - I work in that type of environment and have known the same people for over 20 years. "

would you mind telling us what you do/did for a living?

I have to be a little vauge because I'm still emplyed and the 1st amendment doesn't totally apply!! I'm in law enforcement and work regularly with the US Attorneys office, DA's offices, US Marshalls, state attorney generals office etc so I'm familiar with the process, the appointments vs career people. I've seen political corruption investigations over the eyars on both sides of the aisle. (Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, Mayor of Oswego John Gosik, Mayor of Syracuse Lee Alexander, Blagojevich, the crack smoker from DC whose name escapes me at the moment). I get tired or hearing the investigations were "politically motivated" when the facts seem to get borne out. I'm not naieve enough to beleive political considerations are never a factor but sometimes people are just dirty - period. Maybe the answer is to appoint US attorney for life like federal judges, then their objectiveness wouldn't be called in to question so much.........

gerard wrote:I get tired or hearing the investigations were "politically motivated" when the facts seem to get borne out.

If you watch a bit of the hearings I linked to b4 & study the firings of the US Attys, I'm confidant that you will come to the same conclusion that most of the Congressmen & Senators did at those hearings: The firings were done strictly for political retribution to well respected US Attys, with excellent records, who had not followed orders to go after political enemies of this administration.

gerard wrote:I have to be a little vauge because I'm still emplyed and the 1st amendment doesn't totally apply!! I'm in law enforcement and work regularly with the US Attorneys office, DA's offices, US Marshalls, state attorney generals office etc

You could certainly tell us what your job title is & what your duties are, but that's up to you. (you have piqued my curiosity )

gerard wrote:the crack smoker from DC whose name escapes me at the moment

That would be Marion Barry, Democrat mayor of DC caught in a hotel room with a hooker smoking crack and RE-ELECTED by the citizens of DC

coalkirk wrote:

gerard wrote:the crack smoker from DC whose name escapes me at the moment

That would be Marion Barry, Democrat mayor of DC caught in a hotel room with a hooker smoking crack and RE-ELECTED by the citizens of DC

marion barry.jpg

You obviously bought into the prosecution's BS at his trial! If you had listened to his defense attorneys you would have found out the truth, not revealed in those tapes:

In actuality, Mr. Barry was there to pick up a bag of powdered milk to be delivered to Mother Teresa's Home For Blind Orphans (with speech impediments) & this whole thing was a giant misunderstanding!!

Right! Just like Mayor Dixon solicited those gift cards from developers in Baltimore for needy families and then spent them on herself.

Get back on topic guys.