Politics

Last night I attended a small event where Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) spoke about his candidacy for president as a Republican. I found it a bit of a disappointment. On the plus side, he is making opposition to both the drug war and the war in Iraq a major part of his campaign. He also opposes warrantless wiretapping, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the Military Commissions Act. And in response to a question from one of several atheists present, he indicated his support for the separation of church and state (and opposition to Bush’s faith-based initiatives). On the minus side, his stance on illegal immigration is to “secure the border,” deny benefits to illegal immigrants, and eliminate birthright citizenship. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s stance on illegal immigration (double Border Patrol officers, implement a guest worker program, and provide a mechanism for illegal immigrants to pay a fine and become legal residents) makes a whole lot more sense than that. Also on the minus side, as Sameer Parekh has pointed out at his blog, his stance on free trade is to oppose anything that he sees as a compromise on free trade (like major free trade agreements), which makes him look like he’s pandering to protectionists–his web page makes no indication that he support free trade, which strikes me as dishonest. Nutjob Arizona State Senator Karen Johnson was there, and she asked a question about Bush’s “stealth campaign” to establish a North American Union; Paul responded that he opposes creation of such an entity and a common currency for such an economic area (the “amero”). This is going into WorldNetDaily and Alex Jones conspiracy theorist territory, conflating the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (a meeting between the three heads of state to increase economic cooperation) with the ideas of Robert Pastor, a professor at American University, about creating a political union. If the EU can’t approve a Constitution (with France and the Netherlands rejecting it) and still has holdouts on the euro (Britain and Norway), how likely is it that countries as different as the U.S., Mexico, and Canada would combine into a single political entity? I’m glad Ron Paul has provided a consistent voice in Congress against the war in Iraq and erosion of our civil liberties in the name of the global war on terror, but I’m afraid he probably wouldn’t make a very good president (though I did make a small contribution to his campaign which I’m feeling some buyer’s remorse for this morning). My preference is to see a Democratic president and split control of Congress–gridlock seems to be the most effective way of achieving economic growth and slowing the erosion of our civil liberties. UPDATE (April 12, 2007): The argument that Paul makes about illegal immigration–that we should stop it because of the impact on welfare–is aptly turned on its head in this post from last year at David Friedman’s blog. UPDATE (February 11, 2008): Here’s a debunking of a number of Ron Paul claims, including the NAFTA superhighway. ...

Whoever maintains John McCain’s MySpace page borrowed the template from another MySpace user without giving credit. That template included an image in the “Contacting ” section, which was being pulled from the original user’s page and had a list of menu items to click on. The original user, upset at his template being used without credit, changed the image, so that it said: “Dear Supporters, Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage… particularly marriage between passionate females. John” McCain’s MySpace page has subsequently been fixed. BTW, the Republican candidate for president with the most MySpace friends is libertarian Rep. Ron Paul, who has for some reason been removed from multiple online polls about candidate preferences (including Pajamas Media and Slate’s reporting of the online idea futures). UPDATE (March 30, 2007): Pajamas Media has re-listed Ron Paul and added Fred Thompson this week; Fred Thompson is leading and Ron Paul is in second for the Republicans; Bill Richardson is leading for the Democrats. Not that online, self-selected polling has any reflection on how an actual vote would go…

Talking Points Memo has been discussing the fact that the very first contract that Mitchell Wade’s MZM, Inc. got with the federal government, back in July 2002, was with the Executive Office of the President, allegedly for office furniture. It now turns out that it was actually to screen mail for anthrax. How did MZM, Inc., which had no record or experience, get such an important contract? Who did Mitchell Wade bribe to get that one? Rep. Henry Waxman is asking for answers. And remember, the Cunningham/MZM scandal is what San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was investigating when she was asked to resign, the day after she announced that she was going after “Dusty” Foggo, then #3 at the CIA. More at Talking Points Memo.

Yesterday’s Washington Post prints a first-hand anonymous account from the head of a small ISP who received a National Security Letter from the FBI, which was an apparent abuse of authority: Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand – a context that the FBI still won’t let me discuss publicly – I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power and that the letter sought information to which the FBI was not entitled. Rather than turn over the information, I contacted lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, and in April 2004 I filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the NSL power. I never released the information the FBI sought, and last November the FBI decided that it no longer needs the information anyway. But the FBI still hasn’t abandoned the gag order that prevents me from disclosing my experience and concerns with the law or the national security letter that was served on my company. In fact, the government will return to court in the next few weeks to defend the gag orders that are imposed on recipients of these letters. Living under the gag order has been stressful and surreal. Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case – including the mere fact that I received an NSL – from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie. I resent being conscripted as a secret informer for the government and being made to mislead those who are close to me, especially because I have doubts about the legitimacy of the underlying investigation.More at the Washington Post.

Although I’m not generally a fan of Arizona’s U.S. Rep. Trent Franks (R-District 2), I have to give him compliments for his stance on this issue. He’s one of only two Congressmen who has reached out to the Egyptian ambassador to the United States on behalf of Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Nabil Soliman (also known as Kareem Amer), who was arrested, beaten, held in solitary confinement, and sentenced to four years in prison for criticizing his government in his blog. As the other Congressman is Massachusetts’ Rep. Barney Frank (D-District 4), this is about as bipartisan as it gets. Kudos to Franks and Frank. (Via Tim Lee at the Technology Liberation Front.)

In a CNN interview, former Arizona governor and current pastry chef Fife Symington says he saw the “Phoenix lights” in 1997 and believes that the cause was an extraterrestrial spacecraft. The CNN coverage fails to offer any alternative explanations (see the “Skepticism” section of the Wikipedia entry on the Phoenix lights and Tony Ortega’s 1998 New Times story), or to note that Symington was the second Arizona Republican governor of the 1980s to be indicted on criminal charges, impeached, and removed from office. Also see the Arizona Republic’s coverage.

Radley Balko reports at the Agitator on the political reasons behind the firing of U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton of Arizona. The only reason for his filing in documents released from the Justice Department is that former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert complained that Charlton refused to pursue marijuana cases unless they involved at least 500 pounds of marijuana. This seems like a reasonable strategy for something that shouldn’t even be illegal in the first place, and certainly should be a lower priority than other issues. But it also seems that the White House was not happy that Charlton and one of the other fired U.S. Attorneys were not pursuing obscenity cases that were being sent to them by the Justice Department. The Justice Department’s “porn czar,” Brent Ward, sent a memo to recently resigned DOJ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson titled “Obscenity Cases” which said: We have two U.S. Attorneys who are unwilling to take good cases we have presented to them. They are Paul Charlton in Phoenix (this is urgent) and Dan Bogden in Las Vegas. In light of the AG’s [Attorney General’s] comments at the NAC to ‘kick butt and take names’, what do you suggest I do? Do you think at this point that these names should go through channels to reach the AG, or is it enough for me to give the names to you? If you want to act on what I give you, I will be glad to provide a little more context for each of the two situations."Adult Video News did further investigation, and found that Charlton had taken an obscenity case, but it would be far-fetched to call it a “good case.” It was an obscenity case against an adult video store in Arizona, while simultaneously another video store chain was selling and renting the same titles that the first video store was indicted for selling. The reason the second chain wasn’t also prosecuted? It had recently declared bankruptcy and was being run by trustees from the federal government. And it appears that this inequity in treatment may be the reason why Charlton declined to pursue the original case, after it was brought to his attention by attorneys from the indicted store. More details and links at The Agitator. And there’s more on the other attorney firings at TPM Muckraker. UPDATE (March 26, 2007): Balko has further comments on Charlton’s firing based on the emails that have been released from the DOJ. Charlton was the #1 prosecutor in the nation for number of cases, and had the backing of Sen. Jon Kyl, but was fired anyway. Was it for his refusal to prosecute low-level pot cases, for his investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi, or was it because he was promoting the idea that the FBI should videotape interrogations and interviews of suspects, an idea which was scuttled because the FBI and DOJ didn’t want juries to see what actually happens in such interrogations. UPDATE (April 27, 2007): The New York Times editorialized yesterday about the connection between Charlton’s firing and his investigation of Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi: ...

Over at Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Blog, Tim Lee points us to a dogpile of conservative criticism of Dinesh D’Souza’s book, The Enemy at Home. Some choice quotes: D’Souza has written a very bad book. If one were to take his NRO apologia seriously, his dishonesty would appear to be an issue secondary to his grandiosity. But he is not to be taken seriously and his dishonesty is the primary issue. Thus in his apologia D’Souza fails to address the thesis that frames his book. His thesis, let it be remembered, is this: “The cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11.” It is a thesis, he states in the very first sentence of the book, “that will seem startling at the outset.” It is startling because he is the first writer commenting on 9/11 to have tumbled to its cause. [Scott Johnson]and “When in doubt, change the subject.” I don’t really blame Dinesh D’Souza for following that cynical bit of debater’s advice. Had I written The Enemy at Home, I would be tempted to try it, too. Alas, I fear that his 6,800-word effort to stimulate, er, “civil discussion” has failed. Why? It has nothing to do with “heresy,” as D’Souza suggests. He comes much closer when he mentions “massive errors of fact or logic.” The problem with The Enemy at Home is . . . well, everything. (I put this more politely in my original review.) What I mean is that it’s not a matter of this or that argument going astray. It’s rather that D’Souza’s major premise—that “the cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11”—is wildly at odds with reality. Starting out from that mistake, D’Souza takes readers on a fantastical voyage in which white is black, day is night, and a dozen jihadists plowed jetliners into skyscrapers because of Britney Spears—or maybe it was because of Hillary Clinton, America’s high divorce-rate, or its lamentable practice of tolerating homosexuals instead of stoning them to death. [Roger Kimball]More at Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Blog, including a link to the full set of criticisms. ...

Sen. Charles Schumer has provided a nice list of how the Bush administration has lied to Congress so far about the U.S. Attorney purge: Schumer: Here are some of the falsehoods we’ve been told that are now unraveling. First, we were told that the seven of the eight U.S. attorneys were fired for performance reasons. It now turns out this was a falsehood, as the glowing performance evaluations attest. Second, we were told by the attorney general that he would, quote, “never, ever make a change for political reasons." ...

Talking Points Memo has a list of reasons Giuliani shouldn’t be president based on his association with and continued giving of high-profile jobs to Bernie Kerik: They seem to be stipulating to their knowing about and being untroubled by a) Kerik’s long-standing ties to an allegedly mobbed-up Jersey construction company (see yesterday’s piece in the Daily News and tomorrow’s in the Times), sub-a) that Kerik received numerous unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at said Jersey construction company (Ray was later indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine “The Snake” Persico and others on unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News called a “$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle.” b) that Riker’s Island prison became a hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch, c) that he is accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss, d) that a warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued in New Jersey as recently as six years ago, e) that as recently as last week he was forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in which the plaintiff, “former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero,” or f) his rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad. … Pretty much the most generous interpretation of all this is that Giuliani was guilty of amazingly poor judgment in giving Kerik all these plum assignments. And it strongly points to a tendency on Giuliani’s part of bad judgment with a strong penchant for surrounding himself with cronies and yes-men. … TPM Reader RR notes that the list above is by no means exhaustive. And he’s definitely right. This was just the most convenient catalog of sins and ridiculousness that I found with the TPM search function. For instance it doesn’t include the Judith Regan/Luv Shack scandal that broke I think the day after post above ran. This was the case in which an apartment near ground zero – made available by a New York real estate developer – for off-duty cops to relax while taking a break from clean up duties ended up being commandered by Kerik so he could use it as his off the books bachelor pad for doing the wild thing with celebrity book editor Judith Regan.To add to that list, The Smoking Gun obtained a copy of the April 8, 1993 “Rudolph W. Giuliani Vulnerability Study” which was commissioned by Giuliani’s NYC mayoral campaign, all copies of which were supposed to be destroyed. The Smoking Gun comments: He surely could not have been pleased to read that his “personal life raises questions about a ‘weirdness factor.’” That weirdness, aides reported, stemmed from Giuliani’s 14-year marriage to his second cousin, a union that he got annulled by claiming to have never received proper dispensation from the Catholic Church for the unorthodox nuptials. “When asked about his personal life, Giuliani gives a wide array of conflicting answers,” the campaign report stated. “All of this brings the soundness of his judgement into question–and the veracity of his answers.” The internal study also addresses prospective charges that Giuliani dodged the Vietnam draft and was a “man without convictions” because of his transformation from George McGovern voter to a Reagan-era Justice Department appointee. “In many ways Rudy Giuliani is a political contradiction…He doesn’t really fit with the Republicans. Too liberal. Giuliani has troubles with the Democrats, too."Also at The Smoking Gun is a summary of some of the revelations in Wayne Barrett’s biography of Giuliani.