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Old 04-08-2007, 04:00 PM   #1 (permalink)
Banned
 
When We Noticed it At FEMA, The Extremist Politicization was Destroying DOJ, too.

The "stuff" reported here, makes me suspect that all of our key federal agencies have been intentionally politicized and "dumbed down", to a degree similar to what we observed at FEMA, after Katrina struck the gulf coast:

Quote:
http://www.boston.com/news/education...school?mode=PF
Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school
Grads influential in Justice Dept.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | April 8, 2007

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.

Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation, fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in national law student competitions.

But even in its darker days, Regent has had no better friend than the Bush administration. Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of the more than <b>150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a university website.</b>

One of those graduates is Monica Goodling , the former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the center of the storm over the firing of US attorneys. Goodling, who resigned on Friday, has become the face of Regent overnight -- and drawn a harsh spotlight to the administration's hiring of officials educated at smaller, conservative schools with sometimes marginal academic reputations.

Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress, was one of a handful of officials overseeing the firings. She helped install Timothy Griffin , the Karl Rove aide and her former boss at the Republican National Committee, as a replacement US attorney in Arkansas.

Because Goodling graduated from Regent in 1999 and has scant prosecutorial experience, her qualifications to evaluate the performance of US attorneys have come under fire. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked at a hearing: "Should we be concerned with the experience level of the people who are making these highly significant decisions?"

And across the political blogosphere, critics have held up Goodling, who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example of the Bush administration subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions.

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is something seriously wrong at the DOJ."

The Regent law school was founded in 1986, when Oral Roberts University shut down its ailing law school and sent its library to Robertson's Bible-based college in Virginia. It was initially called "CBN University School of Law" after the televangelist's Christian Broadcasting Network, whose studios share the campus and which provided much of the funding for the law school. (The Coors Foundation is also a donor to the university.) The American Bar Association accredited Regent 's law school in 1996.

Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal government. <b>But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent's government school, Kay Coles James , to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management -- essentially the head of human resources for the executive branch. The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to Regent alumni.</b>

"We've had great placement," said Jay Sekulow , who heads a non profit law firm based at Regent that files lawsuits aimed at lowering barriers between church and state. "We've had a lot of people in key positions."

Many of those who have Regent law degrees, including Goodling, joined the Department of Justice. Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks.

Previously, veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools.

In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people's civil rights.

"When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was 'maddening,' I knew I correctly answered the question," wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him for the Civil Rights Division's housing section -- the only employment offer he received after graduation, he said.

The graduate from Regent -- which is ranked a "tier four" school by US News & World Report, the lowest score and essentially a tie for 136th place -- was not the only lawyer with modest credentials to be hired by the Civil Rights Division after the administration imposed greater political control over career hiring.

The changes resulted in a sometimes dramatic alteration to the profile of new hires beginning in 2003, as the Globe reported last year after obtaining resumes from 2001-2006 to three sections in the civil rights division. Conservative credentials rose, while prior experience in civil rights law and the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicant dropped.

As the dean of a lower-ranked law school that benefited from the Bush administration's hiring practices, Jeffrey Brauch of Regent made no apologies in a recent interview for training students to understand what the law is today, and also to understand how legal rules should be changed to better reflect "eternal principles of justice," from divorce laws to abortion rights.

"We anticipate that many of our graduates are going to go and be change agents in society," Brauch said.

Still, Brauch said, the recent criticism of the law school triggered by Goodling's involvement in the US attorney firings has missed the mark in one respect: the quality of the lawyers now being turned out by the school, he argued, is far better than its image.

Seven years ago, 60 percent of the class of 1999 -- Goodling's class -- failed the bar exam on the first attempt. (Goodling's performance was not available, though she is admitted to the bar in Virginia.) The dismal numbers prompted the school to overhaul its curriculum and tighten admissions standards.

It has also spent more heavily to recruit better-qualified law students. This year, it will spend $2.8 million on scholarships, a million more than what it was spending four years ago.

The makeover is working. The bar exam passage rate of Regent alumni , according to the Princeton Review, rose to 67 percent last year. Brauch said it is now up to 71 percent, and that half of the students admitted in the late 1990s would not be accepted today. The school has also recently won moot-court and negotiation competitions, beating out teams from top-ranked law schools.

Adding to Regent's prominence, its course on "Human Rights, Civil Liberties, and National Security" is co taught by one of its newest professors: Ashcroft.

Even a prominent critic of the school's mission of integrating the Bible with public policy vouches for Regent's improvements. Barry Lynn , the head of the liberal Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said Regent is churning out an increasingly well-trained legal army for the conservative Christian movement.

"You can't underestimate the quality of a lot of the people that are there," said Lynn, who has guest-lectured at Regent and debated professors on its campus.

In light of Regent's rapid evolution, some current law students say it is frustrating to be judged in light of Regent alumni from the school's more troubled era -- including Goodling.

One third-year student, Chamie Riley , said she rejected the idea that any government official who invokes her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination could be a good representative of Regent.

As Christians, she said, Regent students know "you should be morally upright. You should not be in a situation where you have to plead the Fifth."
Has the politicization of former competitive, civil service hiring, "dumbed down" the ranks of formerly non-political career government positions, in addition to changes caused by the ideology "pollution" introduced by replacing randomly hired, "best and brightest" applicants with partisan predominantly caucasian , christian conservatives?
Quote:
http://education.yahoo.com/college/facts/5592.html
Regent University
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Minimally difficult entrance level, 52% of applicants were admitted

Freshmen

* Admission 996 applied, 522 admitted, 242 enrolled, 3.03 average high school GPA
* Average high school GPA 3.03
* Test scores SAT verbal scores over 500 62%, SAT math scores over 500 47%, ACT scores over 18 92%, SAT verbal scores over 600 30%, SAT math scores over 600 9%, ACT scores over 24 60%, SAT verbal scores over 700 9%, ACT scores over 30 5%
Here is a comparison of "stats" with another "average" Virginia school of higher education, and by no means a "top tier" school:
Quote:
http://education.yahoo.com/college/facts/9363.html

University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia

Very difficult entrance level, 47% of applicants were admitted

Freshmen

* Admission 5,778 applied, 2,743 admitted, 775 enrolled, 3.47 average high school GPA
* Average high school GPA 3.47
* Test scores SAT verbal scores over 500 96%, SAT math scores over 500 97%, ACT scores over 18 98%, SAT verbal scores over 600 77%, SAT math scores over 600 83%, ACT scores over 24 84%, SAT verbal scores over 700 21%, SAT math scores over 700 26%, ACT scores over 30 26%
.....and here are the stats of the "school" where president Bush, himself was educated....compare the SAT scores at Yale to the Regent U. scores. I have to wonder, if Bush had kept up a relationship with Yale, instead of staying away from the campus for 32 years after he graduated in 1968, if he could have attracted a significant number of it's grads into the civil service "slots" that Regent U. alumni were offered, instead....if we would now have a more talented and less political and ideological DOJ, and other federal departments, than we have had foisted on us, now....
Quote:
http://education.yahoo.com/college/f...t99raydK4ZvskF

Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

Most difficult entrance level, 10% of applicants were admitted

Freshmen

* Admission 19,451 applied, 1,880 admitted, 1,321 enrolled
* Test scores SAT verbal scores over 500 100%, SAT math scores over 500 100%, ACT scores over 18 N/R, SAT verbal scores over 600 97%, SAT math scores over 600 98%, ACT scores over 24 N/R, SAT verbal scores over 700 78%, SAT math scores over 700 78%, ACT scores over 30 N/R
Quote:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...sh_era?mode=PF
Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era
Conservative leanings stressed

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | July 23, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe.

The documents show that only 42 percent of the lawyers hired since 2003, after the administration changed the rules to give political appointees more influence in the hiring process, have civil rights experience. In the two years before the change, 77 percent of those who were hired had civil rights backgrounds.

In an acknowledgment of the department's special need to be politically neutral, hiring for career jobs in the Civil Rights Division under all recent administrations, Democratic and Republican, had been handled by civil servants -- not political appointees.

But in the fall of 2002, then-attorney general John Ashcroft changed the procedures. The Civil Rights Division disbanded the hiring committees made up of veteran career lawyers.

For decades, such committees had screened thousands of resumes, interviewed candidates, and made recommendations that were only rarely rejected.

Now, hiring is closely overseen by Bush administration political appointees to Justice, effectively turning hundreds of career jobs into politically appointed positions.

The profile of the lawyers being hired has since changed dramatically, according to the resumes of successful applicants to the voting rights, employment litigation, and appellate sections. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Globe obtained the resumes among hundreds of pages of hiring data from 2001 to 2006.

Hires with traditional civil rights backgrounds -- either civil rights litigators or members of civil rights groups -- have plunged. Only 19 of the 45 lawyers hired since 2003 in those three sections were experienced in civil rights law, and of those, nine gained their experience either by defending employers against discrimination lawsuits or by fighting against race-conscious policies.

Meanwhile, conservative credentials have risen sharply. Since 2003 the three sections have hired 11 lawyers who said they were members of the conservative Federalist Society. Seven hires in the three sections are listed as members of the Republican National Lawyers Association, including two who volunteered
for Bush-Cheney campaigns.   click to show 

The academic credentials of the lawyers hired into the division also underwent a shift at this time, the documents show. Attorneys hired by the career hiring committees largely came from Eastern law schools with elite reputations, while a greater proportion of the political appointees' hires instead attended Southern and Midwestern law schools with conservative reputations.

The average US News & World Report ranking for the law school attended by successful applicants hired in 2001 and 2002 was 34, while the average law school rank dropped to 44 for those
hired after 2003.   click to show 


Learning from others
The Bush administration's effort to assert greater control over the Civil Rights Division is the latest chapter in a long-running drama between the agency and conservative presidents.

Nixon tried unsuccessfully to delay implementation of school desegregation plans. Reagan reversed the division's position on the tax-exempt status of racially discriminatory private schools and set a policy of opposing school busing and racial quotas.

Still, neither Nixon nor Reagan changed the division's procedures for hiring career staff, meaning that career attorneys who were dedicated to enforcing traditional civil rights continued to fill the ranks.

Yeomans said he believes the current administration learned a lesson from Nixon's and Reagan's experiences: To make changes permanent, it is necessary to reshape the civil rights bureaucracy.

``Reagan had tried to bring about big changes in civil rights enforcement and to pursue a much more conservative approach, but it didn't stick," Yeomans said. ``That was the goal here -- to leave behind a bureaucracy that approached civil rights the same way the political appointees did."
Nearly a year later, the points in the preceding article are supported by this:
Quote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...opinion-center
Bush's long history of tilting Justice
The administration began skewing federal law enforcement before the current U.S. attorney scandal, says a former Department of Justice lawyer.
By Joseph D. Rich, JOSEPH D. RICH was chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil right division from 1999 to 2005. He now works for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
March 29, 2007

THE SCANDAL unfolding around the firing of eight U.S. attorneys compels the conclusion that the Bush administration has rewarded loyalty over all else. A destructive pattern of partisan political actions at the Justice Department started long before this incident, however, as those of us who worked in its civil rights division can attest.

<b>I spent more than 35 years in the department enforcing federal civil rights laws — particularly voting rights.</b> Before leaving in 2005, I worked for attorneys general with dramatically different political philosophies — from John Mitchell to Ed Meese to Janet Reno. Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants.

Under the Bush administration, however, all that changed. Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.

It has notably shirked its legal responsibility to protect voting rights. From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities.

At least two of the recently fired U.S. attorneys, John McKay in Seattle and David C. Iglesias in New Mexico, were targeted largely because they refused to prosecute voting fraud cases that implicated Democrats or voters
likely to vote for Democrats.   click to show 

At the same time, career staff were nearly cut out of the process of hiring lawyers. Control of hiring went to political appointees, so an applicant's fidelity to GOP interests replaced civil rights experience as the most important factor in hiring decisions.

For decades prior to this administration, the Justice Department had successfully kept politics out of its law enforcement decisions. Hopefully, the spotlight on this misconduct will begin the process of restoring dignity and nonpartisanship to federal law enforcement. As the 2008 elections approach, it is critical to have a Justice Department that approaches its responsibility to all eligible voters without favor.
I don't think that "the best and the brightest", are going to be all too keen on the idea of working with and for Bush's corps of political "hacks", so it should get even dumber and more partisan and religiously ideological before we see any trend reversal in career civil service employment, IMO:

Four career DOJ prosecutors demoted themselves, the other day, in protest of having to work for this Bush political "hack", and close associate of Monica Goodling:
Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/wa...vg&oref=slogin
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: April 7, 2007
Deputies to a U.S. Attorney Step Down

WASHINGTON, April 6 — Rachel K. Paulose’s swearing in on March 9 as the United States attorney in Minneapolis stirred debate in local legal circles because of the ceremonial trappings, including a performance by a municipal choir and a Marine Corps color guard, at the event attended by more than 300 people at the city’s University of St. Thomas law school.

Rachel K. Paulose has drawn criticism since her swearing-in ceremony last month as the United States attorney in Minneapolis.

But the complaints about Ms. Paulose’s investiture seem mild in comparison with the uproar ignited on Thursday, when three of her top deputies stepped down from their leadership positions. Several of their associates described the action as a protest over what the three deputies regarded as Ms. Paulose’s ideologically driven and dictatorial managerial style.

None of the three are quitting. Each is returning to a nonsupervisory role within the office, but their decisions to give up their managerial roles signaled a rebellion of sorts to Ms. Paulose. At 34, she is the first woman in the state’s history to hold the job as United States attorney, and she is also the first person of South Asian descent in the country to be confirmed in that position. .....

......Ms. Paulose had experience as a federal prosecutor in Minnesota from 1999 to 2002. She is also one of several conservative lawyers who worked at Justice Department headquarters or the White House who have been named to top jobs in United States attorneys offices on an interim basis. Others are J. Timothy Griffin in Arkansas, Bradley J. Schlozman in Missouri, R. Alexander Acosta in Miami and Matthew M. Dummermuth in Iowa.

Jeanne F. Cooney, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis office, said on Friday that John Marti, the top assistant prosecutor; Erika R. Mozangue, chief of the office’s civil division; and James E. Lackner, head of the office’s criminal division, had returned to their prosecutorial jobs. Ms. Cooney said Ms. Paulose would have no comment.

The decisions by the three prosecutors to step down came after a career prosecutor assigned to the Justice Department’s United States attorney liaison office flew to Minneapolis on Thursday to meet with the prosecutors and Ms. Paulose in an unsuccessful effort to mediate the conflict......

.....<b>Ms. Paulose’s defenders at Justice Department headquarters said the criticism of her was unwarranted. They said older lawyers had difficultly dealing with a young, aggressive woman</b> who had tried to put into place policies important to Mr. Gonzales like programs to combat child exploitation.

Their associates said conflict had been steadily building since Ms. Paulose arrived as an interim prosecutor in early 2006. They said she had embraced the department’s policies with a single-minded zeal that cost her the confidence and trust of lawyers in her office.
Note the explanation from the "hack", Ms. Paulose’s (anonymous) defenders. It seems reminiscent of the negative remarks about the eight fired US Attys that incentivized them to testify before Congress, since they felt a need to defend their reputations....and consider that one of "the older lawyers [who] had difficultly dealing with a young, aggressive woman", was herself, a woman.

Maybe a "real" reason is this:
Quote:
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox...Y&pageId=3.2.1
Shake Up at the U.S. Attorney's Office
Last Edited: Friday, 06 Apr 2007, 10:18 AM CDT
Created: Thursday, 05 Apr 2007, 9:11 PM CDT
MN U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose

Controversy Surrounding MN U.S. Attorney
U.S. Attorney General Talks to FOX 9
Attorney General Says Adoption Agency Didn't Deliver
MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s a major shakeup at the offices of new U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.

Four of her top staff voluntarily demoted themselves Thursday, fed up with Paulose, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings......
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Old 04-09-2007, 05:54 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Location: Florida
I'm with you 100% on this one, Host. I think it's despicable that religious beliefs and practices should be a factor when deciding the people who work for this country in D.C.. While it may or may not have been the administration's explicit preference for a religiously unipolar staff, what could the administration expect when hiring James? It's stupid. Its stupid to overlook very qualified and intelligent people, and favor instead those who share your personal beliefs. I find myself hating this administration more and more everyday.

Until this administration came into play, I had no problem with religion in the White House, but now...I just don't know. It can't be denied that some leaders will be devoutly religious, but I never thought religion would become so accented and fundamental in the White House and in D.C..

While I'm sure we can all agree that religion is a freedom of every American and it should never be repressed or imposed, I don't think it has any positive role in the important choice making and leadership of the country.
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Old 04-10-2007, 05:55 AM   #3 (permalink)
Junkie
 
I am going to start out my response to this by disclaiming that I am an evangelical Christian and I believe that Christian beliefs can be an asset in any job. With that been said this concerns me because, while I am a Christian, I do not believe that should be the ultimate trump card in hiring. In fact I do not believe agenda of any kind should be the ultimate trump card. In order for the government to work well we need qualified people in the positions of power. On top of that I believe we need people who are open minded and just in those positions. If the only qualification these people have is that they are from Pat Robertsons university then they should not be hired. Now if they are very intelligent people and are capable to do the job assigned I don't have a problem however it looks like this was not the case.
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Old 04-10-2007, 06:25 AM   #4 (permalink)
will always be an Alyson Hanniganite
 
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Location: In the dust of the archives
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rekna
I believe that Christian beliefs can be an asset in any job.
I disagree with this part of your post.
Christian beliefs hold no water for me. Completely useless in any work setting, save that of Clergy.

Christian values, on the other hand, could very well be considered an asset in most work environments.

There's a difference.
__________________
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Old 04-10-2007, 02:47 PM   #5 (permalink)
Deja Moo
 
Elphaba's Avatar
 
Location: Olympic Peninsula, WA
I just lost a lengthy post and don't have the inclination to start all over again. In short, of the following list of departments, has any of them not suffered from the cronyism and ideology of this administration?

Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Department of Commerce (DOC)
Department of Defense (DOD)
Department of Defense Inspector General
Department of Education (ED)
Department of Energy (DOE)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Department of Labor (DOL)
Department of State (DOS)
Department of the Interior (DOI)
Department of the Treasury
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
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Old 04-11-2007, 07:59 PM   #6 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill O'Rights
I disagree with this part of your post.
Christian beliefs hold no water for me. Completely useless in any work setting, save that of Clergy.

Christian values, on the other hand, could very well be considered an asset in most work environments.

There's a difference.

You are correct when you make this distinction. However for me Christian beliefs are one with Christian values. If someone has Christian beliefs then they should also have Christian values and thus I used the word beliefs to mean values where I should have said values and not belief.
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Old 05-23-2007, 11:46 AM   #7 (permalink)
Banned
 
Today comes confirmation for the premise of this thread:
Quote:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003275.php
Goodling Admits to Political Hiring
By Paul Kiel - May 23, 2007, 11:48 AM

Both in her opening statement and in further testimony, Goodling admitted to weeding out candidates for assistant U.S. attorney positions because they were not Republicans.

Under questioning from Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Goodling admitted that she did block the hiring of an assistant U.S. attorney in the D.C. U.S. attorney's office because she judged him too liberal. "I made a snap judgment and I regret it," she said. When Sanchez pressed as to how many times Goodling had done this, Goodling said she couldn't come up with a number, and that she didn't "feel like there were that many cases."

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) later pressed her on whether she had committed a crime. “I don’t believe that I intended to commit a crime," she said at first. Then, when he pressed, <b>“I know I crossed the line of civil service rules."
Did that mean she crossed the line of breaking the law, he asked? "I believe I crossed the line, but I didn’t mean to," she said.</b> Here's video of that:

<b>WATCH IT</b>
Quote:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/doc...?resultpage=3&
Monica Goodling's Opening Statement Before the House Judiciary Committee
05-23-2007
Updated: 05-23-2007

...Nevertheless, I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions, and may have take inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions. I regret these mistakes....
Quote:
Goodling: a Power player behind Justice's scenes
The former Justice insider, a mystery to many, is set to testify under immunity in Congress on the U.S. attorneys' firings.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
May 23, 2007

........"People like Monica … were misguided and didn't get it," said H.E. "Bud" Cummins III, one of the U.S. attorneys dismissed last year. Still, Cummins said, Gonzales and other senior officials deserve the lion's share of the blame. "It is their job to stand up and say, 'No,' " he said in an interview. "There obviously was a failure, no matter whose idea this was, at the top levels of the department to assert independent judgment."

Some of Goodling's former co-workers insist that she has been vilified.

Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department spokesman, said Goodling was trying to bring balance to the department, and he ridiculed those who criticized her for trying to screen potential hires based on their political beliefs. <b>The civil rights division, he argued, has long been populated by "some of the most radical Democrats in the law."</b>
Quote:
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0507/420376.html
ONE OF THE TOP PRIORITIES OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS TO PROSECUTE VIOLATIONS OF OUR CIVIL RIGHTS. HOWEVER THE TEAM OF PROSECUTORS THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HAS PUT TOGETHER LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE AMERICA IT'S SUPPOSED TO PROTECT.

Story: Some of the most notorious crimes committed in America police brutality..cross burnings..violence at abortion clinics..modern day slavery - all federal crimes - are prosecuted by The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.


But our investigation has found that the Justice Department is missing a key component in its mission to protect civil rights - DIVERSITY � diversity in the attorney ranks to prosecute cases.

Congressman John Conyers: "They need someone to investigate them."

The I-Team has learned that since 2003...the criminal section within the Civil Rights Division has not hired a single black attorney to replace those who have left. Not one.

(Graphic)

As a result, the current face of civil rights prosecutions looks like this: Out of fifty attorneys in the Criminal Section - only two are black. The same number the criminal section had in 1978 - even though the size of the staff has more than doubled....
....and Lurita Doan at the GSA, was busy, after Bush appointed her, "post Katrina"...."FEMAtizing" that agency, as well as further politicizing it:
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...052201653.html
Changes Spurred Buying, Abuses
Taxpayers Overcharged Millions in Sun Deal, Auditor Says

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 23, 2007; A01

In February 2005, an auditor at the General Services Administration presented evidence to agency leaders that one of the government's top technology contractors was overcharging taxpayers.

GSA auditor James M. Corcoran reported that Sun Microsystems had billed the government millions more for computer software and technical support than it charged its commercial customers.

If true, the allegation was grounds to terminate the contract and launch a fraud investigation. Instead, senior GSA officials pressed last summer to renew the contract.

That decision meant the government's leading contracting agency would be able to continue collecting millions of dollars in what are called industrial funding fees from Sun under rules that permit the GSA to take a percentage of every sale made to the government. It also meant that taxpayers would pay millions more than necessary, according to congressional investigators.

"We thought of ourselves as being, not a part of the government, but as being a business, and we looked to profit on our customers," said GSA contracting officer Herman S. Caldwell Jr., who warned his superiors against renewing the Sun contract. "When a government buying office becomes a profit center, then bad things are likely to happen."

The circumstances surrounding the Sun contract are now being scrutinized by the GSA's inspector general, the Justice Department and members of Congress.

<b>"Why did GSA agree to do business with Sun despite warnings of possible fraud?"</b> Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement to The Washington Post.

GSA officials declined to comment for this article. In testimony before Congress in March, <b>GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan said the agency made a good decision on behalf of taxpayers by renewing the contract.</b> She also said a top aide had looked into the auditor's allegation and told her "nothing was there."
He called Goodling "a real perfectionist; an incredibly energetic, good person."


Growing influence

Goodling's rise to power paralleled the growing influence of religious conservatives in the Bush administration in general, and the Justice Department in particular.

In 1999, she earned a degree from the Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Va. <b>Founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, Regent University claims 150 past and present members of the Bush administration among its alumni. Accredited by the American Bar Assn., the law school boasts of a "distinctive" Christian-based mission "to bring to bear the will of our Creator, Almighty God, upon legal education and the legal profession,"</b> according to its website.

Goodling was an ardent practitioner of her faith, according to former colleagues who — like most interviewed for this report — requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about her. Her conservative ideals, they said, were such that she once refused to go to a Justice Department baby shower because the mother was unwed. They also said that she once balked at funding an anti-gun public service video because she thought it promoted rap music and glorified a violent lifestyle.

After law school and a stint during the 2000 election doing opposition research for the GOP, Goodling landed in the public affairs office at the Justice Department. She did a six-month tour at the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria, Va., that was designed to give nonprosecutors a taste of the courtroom. In spring 2005, she became deputy director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys — a Justice Department arm that provides support, personnel and policy guidance to prosecutors around the country.

Her tenure at that office appears to have been crucial to facilitating the plan to fire U.S. attorneys. Former colleagues said that <b>she prevailed upon the head of the office, Michael A. Battle, to replace two long-serving officials who probably would have viewed the firing of prosecutors without cause as highly suspicious, and helped install a fellow Regent law school graduate as a replacement.</b>

Battle, who since has resigned from the Justice Department and has been unavailable for comment, was the Justice official who notified seven of the U.S. attorneys that they were being dismissed in December.

Later, as both counselor to Gonzales and the White House liaison, Goodling's influence appeared to grow. Working in tandem with Sampson, she was delegated the power to hire and fire scores of political appointees at the Justice Department.

She also weighed in on the hiring of career prosecutors in offices run by interim U.S. attorneys around the country, who did not have full hiring authority. She once held up the application of a Howard University law graduate who had worked in the civil rights division of the Environmental Protection Agency <b>because she feared he was a "liberal Democrat,"</b> former colleagues said.

Justice Department e-mails produced during the congressional investigation into the U.S. attorneys' firings have shown her to be a powerful and opinionated figure. Her notes indicate she considered fired U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias of New Mexico to be an "absentee landlord"; Iglesias contends he was away from the office only because he was fulfilling a military reserve obligation. She saved a U.S. attorney in North Carolina from the hit list because "there are plenty of others there to start with.".....
It was also reported on May 21, that the office of Special Counsel has issued a determination that Lurita Doan broke the law by violating the Hatch Act:
http://news.google.com/news?um=1&tab...doan+hatch+act

Bushy...."yer doin' a heck of a job" !
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Old 05-23-2007, 01:56 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Quote:
She also weighed in on the hiring of career prosecutors in offices run by interim U.S. attorneys around the country, who did not have full hiring authority. She once held up the application of a Howard University law graduate who had worked in the civil rights division of the Environmental Protection Agency because she feared he was a "liberal Democrat," former colleagues said.
I really wish I could contribute more to the discussion than "this is disgusting,' but I really don't know what else to say. There was no justification for this, and I can't conceive of any way to defend these actions. Discarding a a qualified applicant because his politics differ from yours...Despicable.
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