Department of Justice

The deal that I cut with my  friends in the transition was that I would get released a couple of weeks early so that I could begin the process marketing my new book, The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, which will be in bookstores and available online January 14th. I will still be talking with my friends in transition, helping good people find jobs, etc. but I am officially phasing out. I will write more about my book in the coming days, but as I am leaving transition work, I wanted to reflect on the incoming Obama administration for a moment.  read more »

WASHINGTON — In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counterterrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects.

Following on last-night's heated OpenLeft debate about whether it's fair/acceptable to consider what clients an Attorney General candidate defended, I wonder - if it isn't fair to judge a lawyer on the clients he/she opts to work for, is it fair to judge anyone else?

Some have said that when considering the merits of Obama Attorney General nominee Eric Holder, it is unacceptable to factor in his decision to defend Chiquita, one of the most brutal corporations in the world.  read more »

I'm really impressed with the debate in the comments section of the last post - the one over the nomination of Eric Holder for AG, considering his work for Chiquita. The comments that stuck to the question (as opposed to folks like commenter "ergotist" that dishonestly claimed the argument was that Holder should be automatically disqualified or that anyone opposed to Holder hates the Sixth Amendment) really made me think hard about whether we should simply be allowed to factor in who a lawyer defends when appointing them to head the entire U.S. legal apparatus. Moreover, I'm gratified that - slowly but surely (with some exceptions, of course) - we're able to have a debate on the merits of issues/principles, rather than getting into a fact-free "this means you hate Obama and that means you suck" flamewar.  read more »

Now that I have clarified why we, or at least I, have focused on personnel instead of policy here at Open Left, let me clarify where I stand on Obama's senior personnel moves during the transition. Although I have been stereotyped by both the establishment media and by many blog commenters as a simplistic one-note progressive who supposedly dislikes everything Obama has done during the transition, my writing shows that this simply is not the case. In the extended entry, using my past writing on the subject, I place my opinion on all major Democratic personnel moves since November 4th into for categories: what I am excited about, what makes me cautiously optimistic, what leaves me wary, and what I actively dislike. Hopefully, it will help bring an end to certain arguments that have become increasingly irritating in their vagueness and generality.

More in the extended entry.  read more »

This is not a post about the relative merits of Eric Holder for the position of Attorney General. Nor is it about the ideological makeup of the administration officials Barack Obama introduced yesterday (parenthetically, while the group lacks in progressive leanings they are at least a diverse bunch, 3 of 6 female and 2 of 6 African American).

As I watched Obama unveil his national security team a jingle from childhood went through my mind:

"One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?"

The one that didn't belong was Eric Holder. I'll explain below.  read more »

An article in yesterday's Washington Post, "EPA, Interior Dept. Chiefs Will Be Busy Erasing Bush's Mark" is not really news for anyone paying attention the last 8 years:

Few federal agencies are expected to undergo as radical a transformation under President-elect Barack Obama as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, which have been at the epicenter of many of the Bush administration's most intense scientific and environmental controversies....

In June 2007, Obama told reporters in Reno, Nev., that he would not hesitate to reverse many of the environmental policies Bush has enacted by executive order.

"I think the slow chipping away against clean air and clean water has been deeply disturbing," Obama added. "Much of it hasn't gone through Congress. It was done by fiat.

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Quoted with permission from an email discussion on Obama's political style, as based on David Sirota's post on the ghettoization of progressives in the appointment process, Pastor Dan of Street Prophets said the following, opened with a quote from a previous post of his:

I think this might be the right moment to introduce a useful distinction between political movements and communities:

The former is always goal- and often status-oriented; movements are driven toward particular ends, usually by large personalities, if not big egos. They require a great deal of coordination which almost inevitably turns into a desire for lockstep-action.

Communities, on the other hand, are focused on persons and the relationships they manifest.

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Note: I don't usually think it is cool to single out individual commenters since they don't have an equal platform with which to respond, but I was pushed on this one by multiple people in the comments. So, please consider it a respectful rebuttal rather than an angry singling out. Also, consider it a rare event. I'm not going to make a habit of this--Chris

Over the past week, I have argued on several occasions that Obama's cabinet picks have been unanimously centrist so far. Commenter devilrays disputes this, and provides the following ideological classification of the picks so far:

1. Liberals / progressives: Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder, Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle, John Podesta, and Rahm Emanuel

2. Moderates / centrists: Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers

3.

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H.R. 7301 would provide for the conveyence of a parcel of land held by the Bureau of Prisons of the Department of Justice in Miami Dade County, Florida, to facilitate the construction of a new educational facility that includes a secure parking area for the Bureau of Prisons....

• Vote on This Bill: For | Against

In my earlier diary, Midnight De-Regulation and the Myth of A 'Center Right Nation' -- Part 1: The Environment, I presented a list of Bush Administration midnight de-regulations of environmental protections, as an example of how unpopular center-right policies really are enacted in this supposedly "center-right" nation--so unpopular that they are done quickly and stealthily in the dead of night, with as few witnesses as possible-a dead giveaway of the real popularity of such policies.  In this diary, I want shine a bit more light on the particulars of how this happens.  I'll get into that on the flip.  read more »

Palin Calls Media Criticism of Her Smears of Obama A First Amendment Threat!

Of course it goes without saying that Palin is utterly clueless about the First Amendment.  But what tickles me most about this is how utterly typical of the rightwing bully mentality it is.  Everything's fine until someone dares lift so much as a pinky finger in response to her bottomless venom.  ABC reports:

Palin Fears Media Threaten Her First Amendment Rights

October 31, 2008 11:25 AM

ABC News' Steven Portnoy reports: In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov.

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As everyone knows, John McCain and the GOP have been attacking ACORN for weeks.  We've been pretty successful in recent weeks debunking their unfounded claims, but the traditional media's been so complicit in facilitating the attacks that they've largely missed the greater threat to a free and fair election this year: voter suppression and intimidation.

Already, reports from around the U.S. confirm the fact that voters are facing active campaigns to prevent their participation at the polls, coordinated by partisan operatives and now, insidiously involving law enforcement agencies at all levels, from the local all the way to the Department of Justice.  read more »

It happened in 2004 and 2006, and it may be happening in 2008

In the 2008 election Americans may once again be seeing law enforcement turned into a tool of voter suppression.

It is illegal for law enforcement agents to use their authority to attempt to intimidate or suppress the vote. Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 states that no person “whether acting under color of law or otherwise,” shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce any individual for  voting or attempting to vote, or for attempting to assist others to vote. Section 12 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993  provides for criminal penalties against any person who intimidates or attempts to intimidate any person for registering to vote, voting, or attempting to register or vote.  read more »

Four weeks ago most people in the United States had never heard of ACORN.

But then the entire apparatus of the GOP started a concerted and coordinated campaign of attacks and smears on us, reaching a zenith of sorts when John McCain attacked us during the last Presidential debate in front of 50 million viewers, saying that we “may be destroying the fabric of democracy”.
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