Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...
Out of retirement for just this once (and besides, it's raining here in the desert today.)
You all probably know by now of the horrific assault on justice, also known as the J. Steven Griles sweetheart plea agreement.
So let's talk about who approved the deal, and, well, is there any chance there's a link to the burgeoning US Attorney scandal?
Well, according to the AP, the judge in the case was U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. Ms. Segal Huvelle was a 1999 appointee to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Hence, one would assume the prosecutors on the case to be from the US Attorney's office in the District of Columbia. The newly appointed (September 2006) USA is one Jeffrey A. Taylor. Mr. Taylor previously worked as a close advisor to AG Alberto Gonzales, as well as an aide to Senator Orrin Hatch (hey, just like Kyle Sampson.)
Taylor was obviously a political appointment, at a time that more and more former Bush Administration official corruption cases were coming home to roost. Coincidence?
Update1: More on Taylor's close relationship to Gonzales:
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has appointed U.S. Attorney Leura G. Canary of the Middle District of Alabama; U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland; and U.S. Attorney Amul R. Thapar of the Eastern District of Kentucky to serve three-year terms on his 2007 Attorney General's Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys. He has also appointed Jeffrey A. Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to serve as an ex officio member. The Committee provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General.
(Note: Not to be bitter curmudgeonly or anything, but I'm already noticing as people start to "discover" Griles for the first time, that my extensive research on the cretin is overwhelmingly ignored. Well, I guess anyone is welcome to reinvent the wheel over and over again... But then, perhaps only the white viewpoint on this really matters.)
Comments
Just this once? Please reconsider!
I've been barred from the tubes for almost two weeks now due to a hard drive death, and am just now catching up, and came over here to 1) see how things are going in Calif (whopee, you're going to Joshua Tree in the spring!!!!) and 2) hoping for something on Elizabeth E., whose husband I've loved because she loves him. (she is every girl's dream of a best friend forever, imo)
I hope you love JT as much as I do. It is one of those places that has been a goddess-send memory-salve when the rough gets tough.
All this to say...I am wishing for bright times for you and yours, MB. And that it has been a wicked nice honor to know a little of you in this pixelated world.
(& time & space to play hard and well is a closely held vision I hold for all of us beings/relations...)
Posted by: sunrunner | March 23, 2007 04:53 PM
Now that I've poured my heart out, I feel as though I should say something about your post.
I have a gut feeling that you're gut feeling re a connection between Griles and the US attorney scandal is right on the $$ (so to speak). For me the clue is (can't remember where I read this today) that there are no requirements in the plea deal to cooperate with the DOJ. (Sort of like the tobacco trial...?)
And as a white person who reads this blog, I did recognize Griles name in connection to the Abramoff scandal, but didn't remember why until I get there. But since I haven't (for the 1st time in my entire life) been sleeping well, I am writing off my inability to immediately connect the dots to menopause, of which I have been in denial about until rather recently.
Posted by: sunrunner | March 23, 2007 05:02 PM
I'm embarrassed about the "you're" instead of "your." My only excuse is that I just have a high school diploma, but if there were a decent educational system in this country, that would be a really lame cop-out.
Posted by: s | March 23, 2007 05:06 PM
jaja you can't say that's RETURIN'! :)
thanks for that first parenthetical phrase that was nice.
Posted by: nezua limón xolagrafik-jones | March 23, 2007 06:15 PM
Hello. Found you on recommendation of kirk murphy at Fire Dog Lake. Yes, this is related to Abramoff, the AG/USA stuff and the Indian Trust Fraud. Rayne-Today has been working on it, she had figured out that most of the attys were in states with large Indian populations and -- but check out her blog and see what she has put together. And that's not all of it. The Griles deal is set to go down probably Monday, we are trying to contact legislators and newspapers about this.
Is it OK if we tell people to go to Wampum for more info? Sorry I didn't know about you before.
Thanks and regards,
Hotflash
www.hotflash.hotflash.blogspot.com
Posted by: HotFlash | March 23, 2007 07:25 PM
HotFlash, you are welcome to send people here to gain some background on Griles, but I have no interest in working with FDL.
Posted by: MBW | March 23, 2007 08:47 PM