If anything, it does underscore the fact that competent leadership is needed at the Department of Justice.
Once again Steven, I am not sure why you are using the ‘incompetent’ tag here.
Willful disregard for the rule of law IS the policy.
Gonzalez is doing EXACTLY what is being asked of him which is why he has Bush’s unqualified support.
There is no incompetence going on here–its rather a matter of the administration’s values and ethics.
Comment by Ratoe — Monday, April 2, 2025 @ 11:18 am
I understand your position.
I agree that there are issues of values and ethics here.
However, I also think that for some of these actions to have happened because of conscious policy decisions would require planning and coordination that I do not think that this administration is capable of.
I don’t, as do some, use the competence issue as some sort of excuse. I simply think that a lot of what we are seeing is driven by incompetence.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Monday, April 2, 2025 @ 11:27 am
I am curious what action constitutes a willful disregard of the law that some speak of? So far the only thing even remotely scandalous is the inability to just shut this nonsense down. They fired those people legally.
As for the National Security Letter, notice in the end no information was forced to be given to the FBI. You could say the system worked as well can be expected. Testing the limits of any new law is an ongoing process that takes many years. The fact we are even talking about the FBI stepping over the limit is in a way proof that safeguards are in place and working.
So the FBI is looking into it’s own possible misconduct. Think about that, it is policing itself and getting things straightened out.
The way to ensure protection is to prosecute those cases that “could be” considered misconduct. I doubt we can find many of those and we certainly can’t say the one in the WaPo was really misconduct since we have too little information.
Comment by Steven Plunk — Monday, April 2, 2025 @ 3:33 pm
[…] I was reading over the report in WaPo about documents that the DoJ doesn’t want to turn over to Congress regarding the firing of the USAs (Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings) and I was struck by what I think is a deep irony in this whole situation. To wit: many of the counter-terrorism programs that the DoJ has overseen and/or defended under Gonzales’ tenure have been predicated on the notion of gathering larges amounts of data from innocent persons to sort through for the purpose of finding terrorist-related behavior (such as domestic wiretaps without a warrant, massive phone call databases, the gathering of reams of financial data or the issuing of national security letters–to name a few). Many (myself included) have complained that such intrusions are unwarranted because it requires exposing large numbers of innocent citizens to unjustifiable scrutiny. […]
[…] I was reading over the report in WaPo about documents that the DoJ doesn’t want to turn over to Congress regarding the firing of the USAs (Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings) and I was struck by what I think is a deep irony in this whole situation. To wit: many of the counter-terrorism programs that the DoJ has overseen and/or defended under Gonzales’ tenure have been predicated on the notion of gathering larges amounts of data from innocent persons to sort through for the purpose of finding terrorist-related behavior (such as domestic wiretaps without a warrant, massive phone call databases, the gathering of reams of financial data or the issuing of national security letters–to name a few). Many (myself included) have complained that such intrusions are unwarranted because it requires exposing large numbers of innocent citizens to unjustifiable scrutiny. […]
If anything, it does underscore the fact that competent leadership is needed at the Department of Justice.
Once again Steven, I am not sure why you are using the ‘incompetent’ tag here.
Willful disregard for the rule of law IS the policy.
Gonzalez is doing EXACTLY what is being asked of him which is why he has Bush’s unqualified support.
There is no incompetence going on here–its rather a matter of the administration’s values and ethics.
Comment by Ratoe — Monday, April 2, 2025 @ 11:18 am
I understand your position.
I agree that there are issues of values and ethics here.
However, I also think that for some of these actions to have happened because of conscious policy decisions would require planning and coordination that I do not think that this administration is capable of.
I don’t, as do some, use the competence issue as some sort of excuse. I simply think that a lot of what we are seeing is driven by incompetence.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Monday, April 2, 2025 @ 11:27 am
I am curious what action constitutes a willful disregard of the law that some speak of? So far the only thing even remotely scandalous is the inability to just shut this nonsense down. They fired those people legally.
As for the National Security Letter, notice in the end no information was forced to be given to the FBI. You could say the system worked as well can be expected. Testing the limits of any new law is an ongoing process that takes many years. The fact we are even talking about the FBI stepping over the limit is in a way proof that safeguards are in place and working.
So the FBI is looking into it’s own possible misconduct. Think about that, it is policing itself and getting things straightened out.
The way to ensure protection is to prosecute those cases that “could be” considered misconduct. I doubt we can find many of those and we certainly can’t say the one in the WaPo was really misconduct since we have too little information.
Comment by Steven Plunk — Monday, April 2, 2025 @ 3:33 pm
[…] I was reading over the report in WaPo about documents that the DoJ doesn’t want to turn over to Congress regarding the firing of the USAs (Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings) and I was struck by what I think is a deep irony in this whole situation. To wit: many of the counter-terrorism programs that the DoJ has overseen and/or defended under Gonzales’ tenure have been predicated on the notion of gathering larges amounts of data from innocent persons to sort through for the purpose of finding terrorist-related behavior (such as domestic wiretaps without a warrant, massive phone call databases, the gathering of reams of financial data or the issuing of national security letters–to name a few). Many (myself included) have complained that such intrusions are unwarranted because it requires exposing large numbers of innocent citizens to unjustifiable scrutiny. […]
Pingback by PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » A Deep Irony in the USA Situation — Friday, April 6, 2025 @ 11:33 am
[…] I was reading over the report in WaPo about documents that the DoJ doesn’t want to turn over to Congress regarding the firing of the USAs (Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings) and I was struck by what I think is a deep irony in this whole situation. To wit: many of the counter-terrorism programs that the DoJ has overseen and/or defended under Gonzales’ tenure have been predicated on the notion of gathering larges amounts of data from innocent persons to sort through for the purpose of finding terrorist-related behavior (such as domestic wiretaps without a warrant, massive phone call databases, the gathering of reams of financial data or the issuing of national security letters–to name a few). Many (myself included) have complained that such intrusions are unwarranted because it requires exposing large numbers of innocent citizens to unjustifiable scrutiny. […]
Pingback by Political Mavens » A Deep Irony in the USA Situation — Friday, April 6, 2025 @ 11:35 am