Thomas and Sheriff Joke

Hello from the state that has brought you John McCain. Sorry about that. You would think that would be enough shame for the Arizona Republican Party. Sadly, they have much more to offer. Reprehensible does not start to describe the efforts of the Arizona GOP and their poster boy of hate, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. You may remember Thomas, he was behind the blatantly unconstitutional arrest and attempted prosecution of the two publishers of the local independent investigative weekly newspaper, The New Times.

Andrew Thomas is a young, extreme right wing, fundamentalist nightmare, and he, along with his best friend Joe Arpaio, are the law in Maricopa County, the home of Phoenix and the fourth most populated county in the United States. Here is the latest morally repugnant bile out of Andrew Thomas and the Arizona GOP:

An official with the Arizona Republican Party says he pulled an innuendo-heavy ad linking Tim Nelson, the Democratic candidate for county attorney, to defense lawyers in child- pornography and child-murder cases.
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The ad refers to suggestions made in news releases, news conferences and interviews generated by Rose’s agency.

In mid-September, one of Rose’s associates issued a news release saying that a lawyer who defends pornographers contributed to Nelson’s campaign. Nelson donated the $390 in question to a charity for parents of murdered children.

"It’s sickening that they have sunk to a new low," Nelson said.

Nelson characterized Thomas’ attacks as "personal, mean and with false innuendo."
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The Nelson ad opens with images of children riding tricycles and eating dinner at a family table.

"They deserve a safe neighborhood, a secure home," a woman’s voice says. "They deserve the innocence of childhood and all of its wonder. And they deserve to be protected."

Then there’s a drum roll and a frowning photo of Tim Nelson flashes on screen.

"But can they count on liberal ACLU lawyer Tim Nelson?" the woman continues. "He took money from a child pornographer and from lawyers who defend child murderers. Liberal Tim Nelson isn’t just wrong. He’s dangerous."

What are Tim Nelson’s crimes? That fully upstanding citizens, that happen to be employed as criminal defense attorneys, contributed to his campaign. Oh, yes, and that over ten years ago, the firm that Nelson worked at was appointed by the court to assist an indigent defendant with a death penalty appeal. Not Nelson personally understand you, just his firm. Wonderful. The United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to counsel. But when big civil law firms, like the one Nelson worked at, donate their time in the interest of upholding the Constitution and the rule of law, everybody affiliated with them are tarred by Andrew Thomas and the Arizona GOP as dangerous criminal aider and abetters themselves. This is beyond despicable.

And what does Andrew Thomas himself have to say about this? Is he apologetic and embarrassed? Of course not. While admitting that the ad was slightly exaggerated, Thomas dives right back into the cesspool.

"The fact is: My opponent has prostituted himself to lawyers for Valley criminals," Thomas said. "I would hope the party, if they choose to help my campaign, will rework the ad to stick to the facts as laid out in our campaign material."

We talk so much about the national elections here, and with good reason, the Presidential and Congressional elections are of critical significance with our nation teetering on the brink of self immolation. But the simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of real governance occurs at the state and local level. We must not forget that; those elections count every bit as much as the national ones in a lot of ways. More and better Democrats are direly needed all the way across the board.

In Maricopa County, a very critical spot in the rapidly growing and significant Southwest, arguably the most significant spot, there is a chance to make a dent. While Sheriff Joe Arpaio probably cannot be defeated, Andrew Thomas sure can. It is a neck and neck race, and Tim Nelson is a very solid candidate. Nelson is very close to Janet Napolitano, who is remarkably popular in Arizona for a Democrat, and he has run an honorable race so far. But Thomas is far better financed, and is benefitting from outside GOP money and groups that are active here because of McCain.

It is a miracle that Nelson is dead even with Thomas. Thomas won the office in 2004 by a huge margin. Tim Nelson needs help to finish off the deal. I will be discussing this race again in the coming days. In the meantime, however, if you live in Arizona, or have an interest in seeing an extremely critical race won by the good guy for once, help Tim Nelson out by donating some time or money. We always strive to make a difference, we have a chance here.

It must be extremely chilly in hell, because I am going to write about the Okielahoma Sooners. Seems they have a game today. Against some chaps with horns. Long ones. It is the Red River Shootout and John Wayne is nowhere in sight, but Mack Brown and Bob Stoops are. I have never thought that much of either one of these guys as game coaches, but they sure keep winning, so I must have it wrong. Boomer Sooner is a six and a half point favorite. Gonna be more than that; Oklahoma wins big. Freepatriot has a big day; but he likes it rough, give him some trash.

Then there are the Patriots. Roidney and gang are strapping the longboards to the Woody and going to visit Randiego. Hope they haven’t turned the Trestles into a parking lot yet. After catching some rollers (you just know that boys from Beantown can’t hit real waves), they are going to tilt with the Fightning Bolts. Bolts are favored by 5. I rate it a tossup; Bolts are starting to play better and Cassell is getting more comfortable. Also seems to have discovered that there is a dude named Moss on his team. No idea who will win, but I’ll take the Pats and the points.

The good news is that Brett is back. The Bengals have apparently received permission from their parole officers to travel out of state and they will be breaking and entering the Meadowlands. Jets are solid favorites and Carson Palmer is very iffy with a bum right elbow. Ryan Fitzpatrick is the backup; don’t know who he is, probably used to coach the Raiders or something. Jets should win.

The ‘Boys at Cardinals might actually be a good game. Big might on that though. I have some inside scoop on the Cardinals for ya. They are freaking losers. Always have been. Just when things start to look up, they tank. Always have. Things are looking up after their blowout of the previously undefeated Bills; probably means they will stink up the joint. But the game is here, and they do play well at home. Except that the Cowboys pretty much consider this home too. There literally used to be as many Dallas fans as Cards fans at games here, but is getting better. I think Dallas beats em down.

Other good games are Bears at Falcons and Jags at Broncs.

The F1 Circus is at Mt. Fuji for the Japanese Grand Prix. Often is wet for this race; once so wet that Nikki Lauda refused to even run. That is considered a mark of shame in F1. These aren’t some hillbillies in a Pontiac, they run no matter what the weather is. They don’t stop for rain. Weather looks good this weekend though, currently 60 degrees and sunny. Race goes off at 11:30 pm EST tonight; if you go looking for it tomorrow morning, you will have missed it. By the way, my condolences to my friends up north; the Canadian GP has been dumped from the schedule next year, replaced by the Abu Dhabi GP. Brutal. Let’s hope Ecclestone comes to his senses and reinstates Circuit Giles Villaneuve for 2010.

Oh, wait, there are a few boys of summer still playing in the fall. Manny is one of them, and he is kicking ass and taking names. Unfortunately, the rest of the boys from LA are blue. Those big flies that the Phillies hit at home are outfield put outs at Chavez Ravine though. We shall see, but not looking good for the Dodgers. Sawx continue to rock.

There you go. Trash it up!

Yeah baby. The last time the US Government gave AIG a wad of cash infusion, this is what happened:

Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, Congressional investigators revealed today.

Well, guess what? Yep, after the sterling performance of AIG the last time, the government has decided to give AIG another shot of vacation incentive:

The Federal Reserve will provide as much as $37.8 billion in additional liquidity to American International Group Inc.’s regulated insurance units after rescuing the company with an $85 billion loan last month.

They’ll be flying down to Rio this time baby! It’s Carnival for the AIG!

UPDATE: Just so you know what kind of style these high flying, hard working, AIG Execs are accustomed to, Ari has the lowdown and dirty:

$200,000 for Rooms
$150,000 for Catered Banquets
$7,000 for Golf
$23,380 for Spa Treatments (These are stressful times for AIG executives, they needed facials.)
$1,400 at the Hotel Salon.

The opinion by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in the Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten subpoena matter has just been issued. The court has granted the stay requested by the Bush Administration; which, by all appearances, will effectively end the litigation as the subpoenas presumptively expire on January 3, 2009 when the term of the current 110th Congress expires. The opinion is short, easily understandable and should be read by one and all to get a first hand look at truly mendacious appellate judicial practice.

The present dispute is of potentially great significance for the balance of power between the Legislative and Executive Branches. But the Committee recognizes that, even if expedited, this controversy will not be fully and finally resolved by the Judicial Branch—including resolution by a panel and possible rehearing by this court en banc and by the Supreme Court—before the 110th Congress ends on January 3, 2009. At that time, the 110th House of Representatives will cease to exist as a legal entity, and the subpoenas it has issued will expire.
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In view of the above considerations, we see no reason to set the appeal on an expedited briefing and oral argument schedule. If the case becomes moot, we would be wasting the time of the court and the parties.

Last I heard consummate can down the road kicking was not an affirmative duty in the judicial canons. This is buggered up. Basically the Court has said "We’re going to presume there would be further appeal, which we are going to presume will take us past the moot date of Congress turn over – and VIOLA – it is already therefore effectively moot. Buh bye, gotta go lunch and martini now!"

Lest you think I am kidding about the pernicious nature of this decision, get a load of the specially concurring, and kind of dissenting, Judge Tatel:

Nevertheless, I am perplexed by the panel majority’s willingness to grant a stay while hypothesizing that the expiration of the 110th Congress might moot the case before it is heard on the merits. Never have we granted a stay that would have the effect of irrevocably depriving a party of its victory in the district court. Nor have we authority to do so, for a stay in such circumstances would necessarily cause "substantial” — indeed, overwhelming — harm.

Man; no kidding. That is kind of an understatement there Judge.

As much of a disgrace as this opinion is, the real fault lies with Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and the Democratic Leadersheep as they intentionally strung out the filing of this litigation to an extent that compels the conclusion this is the precise result they desired.

The Democratic Leadership screwed off all kinds of time in addressing the issue, and, when they finally did, they completely rejected common sense, and even Judge Bates’ advice that they needed to man up and exercise their Constitutional prerogatives. By that, of course, he was referring to the exercise of their inherent contempt power.

Par for their course, Pelosi, Hoyer et al. did not even discuss protecting and defending the Constitution and the Congressional prerogative inherent under the Separation of Powers. These "leaders"are so derelict in their duty as to be treasonous.

In Arizona, the tales of John McCain’s angry rage and belligerent, threatening behavior in relation to the Mt. Graham Observatory project are legendary.

Today, new evidence in the form of a document, made at the time of the events, has been produced confirming the charges and demonstrating McCain’s patent dishonesty in repeatedly denying his misconduct. From Alan Maimon at the Review-Journal:

Frustrated that a massive telescope project he backed had hit a snag in 1989, Sen. John McCain lashed out at a U.S. Forest Service supervisor, threatening his job if he failed to help get approval for the project.

McCain over the years denied making the menacing comment, but newly surfaced government documents indicate that his anger boiled over to the point where he did.

The incident with the forest official wasn’t the first or last time McCain became irate at someone he felt stood in his way.

From environmental activists to former high-ranking Republican officials in his home state, a diverse group of Arizonans have vivid memories of heated skirmishes with the Republican presidential candidate.

The flare-ups started in the late 1980s, around the time that McCain and the others in the Keating Five orruption were under investigation for improper relationships and influence peddling with Charlie Keating in the Savings and Loan Bailout Scandal that led to Keating’s criminal prosecution and conviction. McCain was under immense pressure on many fronts resulting from his conduct in those days. As remains the case today, when John Sidney McCain III is under pressure, he lashes out furiously at anyone in his path. It is his way.

In an interview with the Review-Journal, former GAO manager Joe Gibbons said McCain proceeded to interfere with the agency’s work, "going bananas" and "steamrolling the GAO" to get his way.

McCain had already shown a willingness to throw his weight around, according to some involved in the Mount Graham project.
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But Gibbons and other GAO investigators charged with examining the scientific fights over the project also reached conclusions about related personal clashes.

An internal GAO memo from 1990 obtained by the Review-Journal refers to McCain’s "admitted threat" to the forest supervisor. The memo was designed to remain between the GAO and McCain’s office. Its contents have never been made public before.

"I wouldn’t have written that without something material in my hands," former assistant GAO director Bob Robinson said when asked about the document he authored.

Angry brutish bullying, dishonesty, duplicity and a ready willingness to do and say anything that will serve his boundless ambition, or gratify him at the moment, are the hallmark of John Sidney McCain III’s life. It is who he is. It is what he does. A disturbing character set for a man that seeks to lead the United States in such troubled times.

Well, I tell ya, the natives are restless out there. Randiego has been mercilessly hammering on the Patriots lately. He has been pounding on me daily to say bad things, very bad things, about the Pats. Even – gasp – that they are washed up and wouldn’t be any better even with Tom Brady. Lost their mojo when Ashanti Samuel walked out the door. Bad things. I have tried to shield Marcy from it cause, you know, she is so delicate and frail on this gridiron stuff. Now, the good Professor Foland has joined in the fray. Something about Juice Williams, 431 yards and 45 points by the Fighting Illini. In the Big House. Oh my. Oh, and just so the record is clear, yes I know my Sun Devils suck too. What is a poor boy to do?

But, before we get to the NFL, let’s take a quick look at

MLB Playoff Baseball – Ruh roh. Just wait until next year. Yep, it is that time in the Windy City. At least on the North Side anyway. Coming soon to the South Side Sox. Talking about some mojo, that damn cow of Mrs. O’Leary’s was one powerful critter eh? Brutal. Can’t blame Bartman this time. Halfway through the season the Dodgers had nuthin; but along came Manny being Manny, and now they are all manned up. Derek Lowe knows how to pitch big games; looks like the boys in Blue are in the NL catbird seat.

In the junior circuit, with that confounded designated hitter thing, it is looking very much like a Sawx-Rays (sans Devil) finale. What the hell happened to the Halos? And Beckett is pitching game three? Say good night Gracie. Oh, one more thing. Where is the Team That Dumped Torre? Oh, that’s right, they are at home. Or Madonna’s crib. But Joe Torre, he has already won another playoff series. Hank the Skank Steinbrenner ain’t real bright.

National Favre League – Not much to talk about with the Bretts on their bye week. Pats looking for an upset over the Niners; looking for friendlier ground than Miami. Those fish are tough you know. Maybe randiego will let us know how the Frightning Bolts stack up, because the Bolts are headed to Miami Sunday. The Redskins at Iggles and Buccos at Broncs appear to be the class games of the day. If Jason Campbell keeps on improving on his solid play, the Skins are going to be surprisingly good; their defense has been first rate for quite awhile now, with offense, you really got something there. Eagles are schizo; you just don’t know from week to week what is coming. I rate as a toss up, slight edge to the Skins. Cutler and Broncos should dispatch the Bucs at Invesco. The other game that is really interesting is the Titans at Ravens. Both have not good, but great, defenses. Both fairly conservative offenses. I like young Chris Johnson better than Magahee at this point though, and that should be the difference. Titans go to 5-0. Masaccio had them at 5-0 already last weekend, but he gets it for real this weekend.

Back to the NCAA for a minute. A special congratulations to the two Commodores fans, Blue
Texan and Masaccio. No, not the Lionel Ritchie Commodores. The Randy Vandys! That’s right, Vanderbilt is Five and Oh baby. Who’d a thunk it?

The F1 Circus is off until they hit the Mt. Fuji Circuit next weekend, and, yawn, those good old boys are still driving their lumbering sacks of American iron around in circles somewhere.

Crank up the BBQ and pop open a cold one. The games are on! Unless, of course, you are a Cubs fan; in that case you will have to wait until next year. Or fight in the streets.

photo by EarthPro flickr cc

Since nominating Sarah Palin for the Republican VP slot, John McCain and his campaign have put on a full court press in Alaska to shut down the Troopergate investigation. The main effort centered on the McCain Campaign strongarming several Republican Legislators in Alaska into filing a lawsuit seeking to halt the investigation into Palin’s alleged wrongful firing of her Director of Public Safety and abuse of the power of her office as Governor.

Yesterday, lost in the commotion of the debate, the Superior Court of Alaska slapped down the McCain Campaign’s attempt at obstruction:

An Anchorage judge today refused to halt the Legislature’s investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin and denied the state attorney general’s attempt to throw out legislative subpoenas.
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Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski heard arguments from both sides Thursday morning and ruled just before 5 p.m. Alaska time.

"I think it’s great. It’s a big day for the state of Alaska," said Peter Maassen, the lawyer representing the Legislative Council, which ordered the investigation.

It is indeed a big day for Alaska. Their Constitutional separation of powers has been affirmed, and despite the brazen malevolent attempt by John McCain to thwart it, the will of the Alaskan people through the unanimous bi-partisan voice of their Legislative Council, has been honored.

But not just will the investigation and report by Investigator Steve Branchflower proceed with a due date of October 10, the court took woefully unqualified and incompetent Alaska Attorney General Tavis Colberg, a cipher in office only because he is Palin’s childhood friend, to the woodshed over his obstruction of enforcement of the subpoenas duly issued by the Alaska Legislature.

Judge Peter Michalski said the Alaska Legislative Council can move ahead with its investigation, including having the state Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena Palin aides to testify.

“It is legitimately within the scope of the Legislature’s investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the termination of a public officer,” Michalski wrote in his ruling.

Barring the extremely unlikely intervention of the Alaska Supreme Court, the investigation is on and the subpoenas are active again. Branchflower may demand that the state employees, and First Dude Todd Palin, submit immediately to their depositions, and if they continue to refuse, it is quite clear that they will be subject to criminal prosecution, and potential incarceration, if convicted pursuant to Sec. 24.25.080 of the Alaska Statutory Code.

Well, this pretty much puts the lie to McCain’s disingenuous blathering about the illegitimacy of the Troopergate Investigation. I wonder what smoke the McCain Campaign will blow up our southside next?

Game on!

Ted Stevens has been sitting in the courtroom of Judge Emmet Sullivan in the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in DC since jury selection began on September 22. This morning the excrement hit the fan. Big time. Stevens’ attorney, Brendan Sullivan, has moved for dismissal of the charges against Stevens, and he just may get it. The prosecution has screwed the pooch in a fundamental and intentional way.

From a wire report off of Reuters filed an hour ago:

Lawyers for Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska urged a judge Thursday to dismiss the corruption case against him because they said prosecutors had withheld evidence helpful to their defense.

U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Brenda Morris admitted a mistake had been made, but asked the judge to allow the trial to go forward. "We are human and we made an error," she said. "It was a mistake."

The information involved an interview by an FBI agent with Bill Allen, the prosecution’s star witness. In the interview, Allen said he believed Stevens and his wife would have paid for the renovations to their home in Alaska if Allen had sent them a bill.

Prosecutors had notified the defense about the information only late Wednesday, after Allen had completed his second day of testimony.

Stevens’s attorney Brendan Sullivan asked the judge to dismiss the indictment. "It goes to the core of the defense," he said.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan did not immediately rule on the request to throw out the case, but he clearly was angered by the mistake, calling it "unbelievable" and "very troubling." (emphasis added)

This is really bad. Blatant intentional withholding by the prosecution of exculpatory evidence. And it is evidence that bores straight into the heart of Stevens’ not guilty defense. The defense did not learn of the existence of this until long after Allen took the stand. The directly and materially exculpatory to Stevens. There is no way to argue that Stevens’ attorney would not have conducted his examination of all witnesses to date, much less Bill Allen, differently with knowledge of this in the government’s evidence set.

Here is the clincher.

The new evidence involved an interview that had been turned over to the defense, but the key part of what Allen said — that the couple would pay if they had been sent a bill — had been blacked out.

How do you not view this as intentional and malicious conduct by the prosecution? The key exculpatory portion of the witness statement, of the most important and star prosecution witness, Bill Allen, owner of VECO, blacked out and hidden from the defense? Please. That is intentional and flagrant.

When you hear legal types discussing "Brady material" or "Brady evidence", this is exactly what they are describing. Under the seminal case of Brady v. Maryland (maybe we should ask Sarah Palin) the prosecution must disclose to the defendant any exculpatory evidence they possess. Failure to so disclose can result in the dismissal of a case.

The situation in Stevens’ case is awfully blatant and clearly exculpatory. It should result in at least a mistrial; if I were the judge I would bounce the entire indictment with prejudice. If a defendant can’t obtain relief on this fact set, then the theory in Brady v. Maryland has no meaning. Those judges in DC must be ready to explode over what this justice department has done over the last 8 years. The prosecution is in for a reaming of some sort either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: McClatchy has some additional information up:

The lead Justice Department prosecutor, Brenda Morris, equally angry, had this response: "He’s getting a fair trial, believe me. You’re getting a great fair trial."

Infuriated, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said he found it "unbelievable."

"It strikes me this is probably intentional," the judge said. "This is the government’s chief witness!"
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Judge Sullivan sent the jurors home for the day. He’ll hold a hearing later Thursday afternoon to determine whether to dismiss the case.

"Maybe they’ll come back tomorrow for further service, maybe they won’t," he said.

Even if it wasn’t intentional, he told prosecutors, it was "gross negligence on the part of the government."

He bristled at the prosecution’s characterization that it was "lucky" that Allen was still on the stand and had yet to finish his testimony for the government, let alone be cross-examined by Stevens’ attorneys.

"It shouldn’t have to be lucky to get the government to do its job," Sullivan said. "The fair administration of justice doesn’t depend on the luck of the draw, a lucky day or a lucky continuance."

The judge is right, this is very offensive conduct from a due process standpoint. The withheld evidence goes directly, and I mean directly, to the element of intent. The prosecution argues that it is harmless error because they have adduced testimony that Stevens requested bills (actually additional bills, because it is established that Stevens paid a substantial sum, just not enough to allegedly cover all the work), but that Allen didn’t forward them. However, the blacked out (redacted) portion of their disclosure directly and unequivocally states that Allen believes that Stevens would have paid if he had been billed further. This mitigates intent as to Stevens and belief in existence of a crime on the part of the key prosecution witness, Allen.

There is some salvation in that Allen has not been cross-examined yet; but if the defense can show how they would have done things with the opening statement and examination of other witnesses sufficiently differently, they have a heck of an argument.

If I were Stevens’ attorney, I would already have had the junior members of my team combing the daily express court transcripts for instances in the opening statement, and with every witness that has been on the stand to date, as to how I might have argued and examined differently; specifically with an eye to how the theory of defense itself may have been altered. Might even go back into motions if there is any ground there to plow there.

If the prosecution argues that it is explained by mistake because Stevens demanded a quick trial, I would jam that up their rear. Exercise of Constitutional speedy trial rights does not mitigate due process guarantees and they ought to be humiliated in so arguing. Did they say they were not ready for trial because they needed more time to comply? No. By arguing that nonsense, the prosecution only looks worse.

It will be fascinating to see what remedy for the prosecutorial misconduct Judge Sullivan imposes. And, as Christy noted earlier, there has been other misconduct that the judge already was not happy about.

It’s getting hard out there on the pimps and cons in the CIA, first Director Goss goes down the tubes, and now his right hand man Foggo is headed to the slammer.

As reported Monday, Dusty Foggo has copped an incredibly lenient plea to one count of simple wire fraud. Foggo, formerly Number Three man in the Bush CIA, under Director Porter Goss who also resigned in disgrace, had been charged with 28 counts of sordid and sundry fraud, conflict of interest, bribery aiding and abetting, and false statements, all primarily related to the Duke Cunningham and Brent Wilkes criminal convictions.

Just how did Foggo get such a sweetheart deal?

It must have been the evidence that Foggo created a new deputy director of administration position and hired his mistress to fill it, the weekly poker games at Washington hotels with Congressmen such "Duke" Cunningham, lobbyists, House intelligence committee staff members and prostitutes. Or maybe Foggo’s assistance to childhood friend, Brent Wilkes, one of two defense contractors bribing House intelligence committee member Cunningham with tens of thousands of dollars in antiques, travel, fancy meals, house payments, and hookers in exchange for earmarks steering more than $100 million worth of government contracts to Wilkes’ San Diego-based firm, right?

As the always excellent Laura Rozen details in an article just out in Mother Jones:

No, what truly worried Agency brass were the darker secrets their former top logistics officer was threatening to spill had his case gone to trial as scheduled on November 3. They included the massive contracts Foggo was discussing with Wilkes, estimated by one source at over $300 million dollars. "Wilkes was working on several other huge deals when the hammer fell," a source familiar with Foggo’s discussions with Wilkes told me. What kinds of deals? According to the source, they included creating and running a secret plane network
…
The "classified air support contract" and its implied purposes for renditions are among the truly damaging national security secrets, along with the methods the CIA uses to create front companies and dole out black contracts, that the CIA and Bush White House would have been anxious not to have exposed, especially in a trial set to take place the day before the election in a suburban DC courtroom within a ten-minute drive of the entire national security press corps. (Emphasis added)

Now, most people covering the Foggo case, including Laura, attribute Foggo’s wildly successful plea deal to a strong "graymail defense", especially in light of the fact that Foggo threatened "to expose the cover of virtually every CIA employee with whom he interacted and to divulge to the world some of our country’s most sensitive programs—even though this information has absolutely nothing to do with the charges he faces".

But it’s not graymail behind Foggo’s plea, it is CYA. A true graymail defense is where:

The defendent claims that classified records are necessary to the defense. The goal of the defense team is to request so many classified documents that the federal government says "no." At that point, the defense tries to convince a judge that they cannot get a fair trial without these records; the goal is to have the case or charges dismissed.

Congress enacted the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) to permit defendants to deal with secret information germane to their trial in sealed court hearings; so anything germane to Foggo’s case could have been handled thusly. And the rest, such as Foggo’s brazen and scurrilous threat to reveal every fellow CIA agent and contact he knew, and all the programs, well that is the epitome of extortion via threat of treason; simply make a record of the threat and throw his rear in solitary. If he makes one single overt act on the threat, prosecute him for treason outright, which is punishable by death.

There were tried and true ways to legally deal with Foggo and his treasonous threats. No, it was that Cheney, Bush, Mukasey and the other grifters, pimps and lackeys they populated our government and intelligence service with didn’t want the public reminded of their secret torture airlines, corruption, dishonesty and perfidy right before the election. Gee, who could have predicted that? Must be hard on those pimps out there these days.

There are a bunch of games. Half the mopes will lose. Teams from Phoenix will be among them; but with the USC burp Thursday night, it is a little easier to take. This done on the fly, so additional fun discussion will have to follow later. I am thinking you guys know how to rip the joint up without a bunch of mumbo jumbo anyway.

Trash and smash at will!

(Video: Hey Georgia Bulldogs! They kicked the Sun Devil’s butt last Saturday. Their tailback, Moreno, is seriously good)