Crazy Pete Hoekstra Throws Hissy Fit, Chases Jobs from Michigan

Well, this is a mighty auspicious accomplishment from Congressman and Gubernatorial-wannabe Crazy Pete Hoekstra. By throwing a hissy fit opposing moving Gitmo detainees to Standish, MI, he has officially chased possible jobs guarding Gitmo detainees to Illinois.

Check out how much the letter from Hillary and Bob Gates to Governor Quinn informing him formally the government is going to buy the prison at  emphasizes how cooperative Illinois has been.

On November 12,2009, you wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder proposing that the Federal Government work with the State of Illinois to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center to house Federal inmates and a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We appreciate the leadership and assistance you and Senator Dick Durbin have provided during our evaluation of this proposal. We also would like to thank Thomson Village President Jerry “Duke” Hebeler and the people of Thomson and the surrounding region for their support and hospitality.

We write to inform you that the President has directed, with our unanimous support, that the Federal Government proceed with the acquisition of the facility in Thomson. Not only will this help address the urgent overcrowding problem at our nation’s Federal prisons, but it will also help achieve our goal of closing the detention center at Guantanamo in a timely, secure, and lawful manner.

[snip]

Federal officials also have consulted with local, county, and state law enforcement authorities to begin the process of identifying additional resources they may require to handle the increased population of Federal inmates and detainees. We are pleased that Illinois law enforcement authorities endorsed this plan in a letter to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General dated December 2,2009. We also note that more than 30 villages, towns, cities, counties, chambers of commerce, and other community and business organizations have sent letters, approved resolutions, or otherwise expressed their support for this plan. We are greatly encouraged by this support, and we commit to working with local authorities closely as this process moves forward. [my emphasis]

You see, Crazy Pete? Not only did you ruin the opportunity to save jobs in Standish, MI, but you’ve made Michiganders look like cads by comparison.

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33 replies
  1. qweryous says:

    Thanks to the gopernor to be there will be no scary mooslims in Michigan.

    Not on his watch.

    Pete on the jobs issue:

    Jobs?

    Jobs? We got all we need already?, or

    Jobs? Not that kind, or

    Jobs? No gobermint jobs in this state if I’m elected, or

    Jobs? I already haz one! Duz U need 1 2? Dats socialism!

  2. qweryous says:

    They wanted to write to Pete, but could not find any crayons.

    Staff is analyzing how to proceed.

    It will also be necessary to translate the response from English to
    something that Pete will understand, staff discussions are continuing on this issue.

  3. realitymatters says:

    OT

    Torture Roulette

    The Obama administration has picked the worst possible case for its first torture trial

    For close to a year now, the Obama administration has been playing judicial Whac-a-Mole over accountability for Bush administration torture policies. Each time an opportunity arises to assess the legality of Bush-era torture, the Obama administration shuts it down. When another case pops up, the administration slaps it down. This all started last February when the Justice Department invoked the alarming “states secrets” privilege in an effort to shut down an ACLU lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. for its role in Bush’s “extraordinary rendition” program. (That case will be reheard at the 9th Circuit tomorrow).

    Since then, Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department has worked tirelessly to shutter or pre-empt torture litigation in cases ranging from a civil suit against former Bush lawyer John Yoo filed by Jose Padilla, (in which the Obama administration has now taken the position that Justice Department lawyers’ advice on torture issues should have absolute immunity from lawsuits) to shifting its position on the release of torture photos.

    ….

    If the trial of a man who was instrumental in killing thousands of innocent Americans becomes the sole forum in which the legality of prisoner abuse is to be litigated, public sentiment in favor of torture will only grow stronger. As David Feige argued recently in Slate, the KSM trial is poised to make a lot of bad new law as a result of the pressure to convict. But the most appalling result might well be a judicial determination followed by widespread public acceptance that torturing KSM wasn’t that bad. The Obama administration will have been instrumental in selling the public on future torture in a way that is even more distressing than its recent efforts to immunize the torturers themselves.

    Had Holder allowed the various other torture trials to go forward, some of the litigants would prevail and others would lose. We would end up with a fuller picture of the rendition program, CIA abuses, and the legal advice that allowed for water-boarding. We would have a set of courts piecing together a consensus on what the anti-torture statutes require and whether anyone has violated them. Instead, the KSM trial is about to become the only torture game in town. And it’s a game the Obama administration cannot win.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2238568/pagenum/all/

  4. qweryous says:

    Sorry,

    Don’t think that, intended as snark.

    Western Michigan, and Holland Michigan;not so much.

    Unfortunately expect that similar statements will be issued by the candidate, if they have not already been .

  5. fatster says:

    Ahhhhhnold and the Repugs have so inertly responded to the financial crises, that I predict only two types of jobs will be available in CA in the future: Wal-Mart “associates” and prison guards.

  6. Leen says:

    Howard Dean “Kill the Bill”

    And the punches keep coming

    http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/506262/a_sucker_punched_harry_reid_throws_in_the_towel_on_real_reform
    enate Majority Leader Harry Reid is, famously, an ex-boxer.

    Put an emphasis on “ex.”

    As the health-care debate made its way to the Senate, the chamber’s top Democrat refused to take tactical steps that would have allowed for the passage of meaningful legislation with a majority vote.

    No, no, no, Reid argued. He did not need to alter the filibuster rule that required 60 votes to act.

    No, no, no, Reid argued. He did not need to consider using the budget reconciliation process that Republicans had employed to move controversial legislation when they were the majority party in the Senate.

    No, no, no, Reid argued. He could use the power of persuasion to get the chamber’s 58 Democrats, two independents and maybe even a few Republicans to vote for real reform.

    Reid was convinced that he could wrangle the likes of Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman and Nebraska Sort-of-Democrat Ben Nelson into a super-majority that would matter. And why not? He had protected Lieberman, in particular, when other Democratic senator’s had questioned why an active campaigner for John McCain’s 2008 Republican presidential run should enjoy the benefits of seniority and membership in the majority caucus.

    Besides, Reid bet, he would have the muscular presidency of Barack Obama to help him get the job done.

    Reid bet wrong.

    • bobschacht says:

      That’s right. If your guys are indicted for war crimes, change the laws! ‘cuz obviously, if the laws make our guys look bad, then the laws are wrong.

      Bob in AZ

    • skdadl says:

      That’s some serious huffing and puffing from Netanyahu, eh?

      We may never get these guys in the dock — we’ve never got Kissinger, eg — but it’s no small thing to be making a whole bunch of them nervous about travelling, especially when they leave office, when they are expecting to segue on to some comfortable niche in the international über-state.

      We cannot lose Nuremberg. We cannot.

      • BoxTurtle says:

        I doubt any of them are nervious about traveling. Or ever will be. They will have the protection of their respective Governments, except possibly Blair.

        Wouldn’t it be odd if Blair ended up being the only person to pay for BushCo crimes?

        Boxturtle (Best we can hope for is a truth commission, after everyone guilty has died)

        • skdadl says:

          I disagree. If they weren’t nervous, we wouldn’t be hearing this level of huffing and puffing.

          There are already countries they cannot go to — Spain, eg, a member of the so-called “coalition of the willing” only a few short years ago. Italy, watch your step. And you might have noticed that the British courts don’t think much of wee David Miliband, who isn’t going to be in office that much longer anyway.

          Sure, most of them can be yanked out of trouble by fiat in a pinch, but none of them wants to be in that situation. They will think twice and more before they travel.

          • BoxTurtle says:

            Have you also noticed that these folks are traveling under a diplomatic passports? Untouchable.

            I doubt Gonzo thinks about not traveling to Spain at all. Or if he does think about it, he doesn’t miss it much. Ditto the CIA agents convicted in Italy.

            These guys won’t sweat until their home countries go after them. Which is why Blair is the only one sweating. Even if some US prosector got an indictment for torture, Obama would pardon. You’ll see pink elephants flying before you see an Israeli soldier/politician held accountable for crimes against a Palistinian in Israel. The closest they’ve come to holding someone accountable is Sharon for the refugee camp massacres. Supposedly retired in disgrace, he eventually became prime minister.

            Boxturtle (Obama decided to “move on”. He’s the only one who can change it)

            • Mary says:

              Remember, though, that one of the CIA agents had been operating as a member of State Dept and had purchased what was going to be his retirement home – which he has had to abandon and which may end up being subject to confiscation later. So he had definitely suffered disproportionately to some of the others.

              The main architect of the whole fiasco, though, has received at least one prominent promotion.

              • BoxTurtle says:

                Don’t worry about him, he’ll likely be made whole in some way. Obama is looking out for these folks I think. He wants the CIA to like him.

                Boxturtle (He wants the GOP to like him too. We can see how that’s worked out)

            • Acharn says:

              Wait a minute — traveling on a diplomatic passport doesn’t make you untouchable! The only way you get diplomatic immunity is if you are officially assigned to the diplomatic mission to the country concerned, and your credentials are accepted by said government. If you are traveling on other business the fact that you hold a diplomatic passport doesn’t give you any immunity.

          • Mary says:

            Don’t you wonder if the target of the huffing and puffing isn’t so much Livni as it is someone like Bush for whom guys like Milliband don’t want to even have to have the public discussion of trying to rein in a possible warrant? Livni is the convenient name to which they can attach the issue, while giving it the pseudo importance of the umbrella of it being “necessary” to the “middle east peace process” to be able to have the diplomats travel to the UK without fearing arrest?

            EW – Illinois looks coordinated, but not even crazy Pete can make Michiganders look like cads. They look badly used by their politicos, but that’s very different from looking cad-ish.

            OT – a bit related to some things we talk about here sometimes – despite DOJ being able (in the torture and torture killings and unconstitutional data mining and mega-wiretape cases) to get by with fibbing to the courts, overseeing the destruction of evidence, inability to track and locate “secret” evidence that now is a black hole etc. – when the defendant’s “funny” name is Broadcom rather than Al-Masri, there are consequences to prosecutorial misconduct.
            http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202436347723&Federal_Judge_Tosses_Broadcom_Prosecutions

            Maybe someday someone will event a legal and political system where human torturees have the benefits extended to a piece of paper backed by money.

          • MadDog says:

            …And you might have noticed that the British courts don’t think much of wee David Miliband, who isn’t going to be in office that much longer anyway…

            Speaking of Miliband, via the Beeb:

            Government accused over Binyam Mohamed torture claims

            …A QC told the court CIA admissions over his treatment would expose the government to “criminal liability for an international war crime”…

            …But on the second day of the hearing, Dinah Rose QC, appearing for Mr Mohamed, argued: “Admissions of serious international war crimes cannot properly be described as confidential”…

    • BoxTurtle says:

      I wonder how much power the British Government has to ignore a British issued arrest warrant by a lawfully seated judge. I’m sure they’ll simply issue her a diplomatic passport and avoid the issue entirely.

      Certainly, here we could be confident that DoJ would never find the time to act upon it.

      Boxturtle (Would very much like to see a similar warrant issued for Bush)

      • fatster says:

        It’s so special, isn’t it? There are two sets of rules for everything. One set for us (and they make the rules for us) and one set for them (and they make the rules for themselves). What is wrong with this picture? And what is wrong with us for putting up with it?

        (I kept getting an error message early this evening when I tried accessing Emptywheel, so I left a link to that IRS story over at David’s Newsdesk. I’m using Firefox now and so can access here. Weird. Will call Apple tomorrow. In any event, pardon the rhetorical questions. Between the frustration of the error messages and the apparent denouement of “Health Care Reform”, I’m exhausted.)

        • bmaz says:

          Sorry about the connectivity issues. We did some security updates to our system a couple of days ago and the associated gremlins are still being sorted out. Even some of the contributors have had similar issues, it is not just you. when it happens, clear your cache and your cookies – i.e. do a limited browser reset – and you should be good to go. The issues are known, being tracked and remedied.

          • fatster says:

            Oh, thank you so much, bmaz; so kind of you to let me know why I’ve been having the connectivity issues. Will do as you recommend, of course. Tomorrow’s a new day. Onward.

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