I usually find myself in agreement with Rubern Navarette Jr, so my sense of disappointment today was a bit surprising...

Mr. Navarette's column on his interview with AG Alberto Gonzalez went into this area:

... So it was no surprise when, in discussing the firings of eight U.S. attorneys -- a subject on which Congress is holding hearings this week -- Gonzales started to sound like the manager of a team.

"What I care about," he said, "is, 'Are we trading up?' Are we going to make an improvement in the performance in that (judicial) district?"

That may not be easy to do. Most of those who were dismissed had stellar performance reviews. Still, Gonzales disputed the suggestion that the firings may have been politically motivated.

"Some of the reasons that have been speculated are just not true," Gonzales said. "For example, the notion that we would remove someone because they failed to pursue a public corruption case, we would not do that ..."

...Gonzales has one good argument on his side: U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president.

"We have to remember that these are political appointees," he said. "These people were put in initially in large part because we thought they support the president's priorities and support the president's policies. And the president is entitled to have the people he wants as part of his team."

------------

NO Goddamit! NO! The US Attorneys do NOT swear to protect, preserve, and defend the policies of the President -- their oath is to uphold the Constitution (as in the founding document of our government, not the effects of working out in the gym).

We went through this crap years ago with Reagan and the man from whose jizz this smirking little son of satan sprang, when a commission of appointees consisted entirely of Republicans who'd contributed to or been a part of the presidential camapign, and, when asked pointedly, the spokesman said:

"Why should we give the job to someone who didn't vote for us?"

BECAUSE you don't own the country or the government, ok?
Even if you think you do or that you should -- you DON'T OWN IT.
IT'S NOT YOUR TOY.

Reason Enough?

The Justice Department is supposed to be independent of and seperate from the Executive branch.

But who can tell that to this prancing smirking asshole?

Oh do I have to tell you WHICH asshole I mean? -- ok -- the one who was running around South America, quietly setting up hit squads to take out the "commies" (and, according to RUMOR, buying 100,000 acres in Paraguay to be his retirement residence) -- and acting as if his loathesome presence there will make all the little "pepper-bellies" (sic) just roll over and pee on themselves in adulation instead of what's been really happening -- throngs of panicked folk trampling anyone in their way so they can line up behind Hugo Chavez in droves, now that they've seen the unholy one close up.

I don't know what to do, what would be right action, but even waiting out 2 years with this monster in unacceptable --

Yes, old pal Dick, I agree with your evaluation -- I watched him speak as he kicked off his tour, looked into his eyes (as is pro forma with this bozo) and saw the reptilian calculating arrogance and condescension and contempt behind the smirking mask, and understood he's not JUST a fool and a dummy, not JUST a self-serving little shit whose family's Hitler money bought him a big ride -- he is a vicious, vengeful, idiotic, tool for the most debased, depraved, greed-ridden sociopaths our society has been able to produce.

And if we couldn't produce enough psychos, we imported them -- Batista's murders from Cuba, and from Vietnam, Madame Nhu's slaveys who were willing to betray their country because it seemed unimaginable the USA could not win the invasion, and from Iraq and Iran, and from the followers and employees of every country's opium-heroin producers (Madame Nhu, Chiang Kai Shek, etc) -- a melting pot of sociopathic tools for the ones who hide in the shadows

(You think Cheney is a creep? You ought to see HIS masters!)

But for now, all that can be done is tell Ruben Navarette Jr he's been on the job too long and doesn't even remember when the criteria for presidential appointments was that the individual could do something good for the country.

Of COURSE there were lots of political appointments, but there also was STILL a smidgeon of giving a flying fuck for the country.

No longer -- Not this crowd -- with them, the days of actual patriotism are over, dead, gone, defunct, and sold to the Saudis (who are financing Al Qaeda in Iraq, because they're Sunni -- what a tangled web) and the Dubee Dubee Do-wop Dubai'ians who are THIS war's version of Paraguay and Uraguay -- safe harboring for the very very rich war criminals (and pederasts).

They're so arrogant, they don't even fear justice.

But they should.