Terri Whitehouse March 10th, 2008
Law Student Jill Filipovic has two excellent posts up on Feministe this week, which follow up on that 1 in 99 statistic that was recently reported.
In “America Behind Bars”, Filipovic discusses the economic and social impact of the incarceration rate:
And entire communities depend on prisons for their economic stability. They have disproportionate political power — prison inmates count as residents, meaning that the areas are allocated greater resources that the inmates don’t benefit from and they’re counted in the population of Congressional districts. And inmates, of course, can’t vote — and in many states, they can’t vote once they get out, either.
Piggybacking on that post in “Judicial nominees, prison exploitation and discriminatory country clubs”, Filipovic takes a closer look at the prison-industrial complex and those who profit from it:
…like the private military contractors that the Bush administration pays to do our dirty work in Iraq, private prison employees were long not subject to the same laws that federal and state prison employees are…
- Blogging , Coporate Greed , DOJ , Daddy State , Disenfranchisement , Economy , General Knowledge , Jobs , Money-Grubbing , Outsourcing , Prisons , Racism , Rural America
Joe Sonka July 30th, 2007
(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)
Tomorrow at 2:00, six Congressmen, all former prosecutors, are holding a press conference to announce their resolution for the Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be impeached.
The resolution is sponsored by Jay Inslee (D-WA) and co-sponsored by Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Michael A. Arcuri (D-NY), Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Bruce Braley (D-IA) and, I’m proud to say, our own Rep. Ben Chandler.
It’s good to see Ben stand up for the rule of law and against the mockery that the Bush administration has made of our Justice Department.
Go give him some love.
(h/t our departed KY blogmaster)
Terri Whitehouse June 27th, 2007
Laurie Kellman of the AP reports:
The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush’s warrant-free eavesdropping program.
Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal squabbles within the administration over the legality of the program, said a congressional official speaking on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas had not been made public.
Oy! Executive immunity, anyone?
Addendum: Nope, that didn’t take long at all!
- DOJ , Dick Cheney , General Knowledge , George W. Bush , Homeland Security , Impeachment , Iran , Iraq War , RNC Email Scandal , Republican Fascism , Republican Party Decline , Terrorist , U.S. Attorneys Scandal
Shawn Dixon May 18th, 2007
With more information coming to light about politically motivated firings of United States attorneys an increasingly bi-partisan groupof Senators are demanding that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resign.
Yesterday the national scandal moved closer to home as it was revealed that David Huber, the U.S. attorney for Louisville and Western Kentucky, was on the list of attorneys to be fired.
From the AP story
Huber, in a statement, said he was unaware of Sampson’s memo until a reporter brought it to his office yesterday morning. Huber said he has not been asked to resign.
“While I was surprised to be mentioned, I personally consider the list to be a minor distraction, at best,” Huber said. “As a matter of fact, I have never had at any time a conversation of any sort, including e-mail or written correspondence, with anyone in the Department of Justice about my job performance or being on any type of list — period.”
Turns out Mr. Huber once served as general counsel to Senator Mitch McConnell. I wonder if McConnell had to personally step in and save Mr. Huber’s job?
The Senate is poised to overwhelming pass a vote of no confidence on the Mr. Gonzales. Now the question is: will Senator Mitch McConnell do what’s right by following many of his Republican colleagues in calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign and supporting a vote of no confidence?
