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Gone-zales
A Youtube round up of Alberto's greatest hits.
Alberto Gonzales, the U.S. Attorney General who helped open the door to torture in the war on terror and later became an object of public ridicule for his contradictory and baldly obfuscating testimony on the fired U.S. attorneys scandal, resigned today, becoming the second major Bush administration figure to step down in recent weeks.
Here then, via Youtube, some of Gonzo’s greatest hits.
Testifying before Congress on the attorneys scandal, Gonzales improbably cites his own faulty memory more than 70 times when refusing to answer questions.
The above performance led the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart to opine that Gonzales “is either a perjurer or a low functioning pin head.”
You have to think that the writers at the Daily Show and the Colbert Report will be at least a little sad at today’s news. The chance to pen bits like “ “Mommy why is the lying man still in charge of the law?” doesn’t come every day.
On a more serious track, Gonzales’s enduring legacy may be his relentless fight to undermine the right of habeas corpus, a bedrock principle of criminal law. Here, again before the Senate judiciary committee, Gonzales makes the unlikely argument that “There is no express grant of habeas in the constitution.” There is only “a prohibition against taking it away.”
Finally, in a display of what can’t really be described as anything short of utter contempt (in the social, not legal sense) Gonzales, summoned back to the Senate in May, proceeds to read the exact same statement he gave them a month earlier.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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3
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DPL
4 years ago
George sure has some strange
George sure has some strange friends. Maybe if they quit now he will give them all medals. The US political system is beyond my understanding but now and again the elected folks down that way actually get rid of some of the deadwood
Birch
4 years ago
US/Canada
Although the American and Canadian governments are somewhat different in structure, overall their similarities are greater than their differences. These similarities are reflected in the broader society, as well.
These include a fairly balanced division between so-called conservative forces (embodied in the Republican and Conservative parties in their respective countries) and more progressive forces (embodied by the Liberals and NDP in Canada and the Democrats in the US). Elections in both countries have provided very closely contested results, leading to the difference of only ONE state's electoral votes in the last presidential election in the US, and to minority government in Canada.
Where the US has managed to outdo us over the past decade or two has been in the absolute level of corruption prevalent in Washington. Compare the petty nature of the Gomery Affair here in Canada, which we all took fairly seriously, to the rigging of two presidential elections (see "Censored: 2005" and "Censored: 2006", two publications regarding suppressed stories in the US press), the stacking of the Federal and Supreme Courts with politically partisan appointees, the systematic presidential undermining of the constitution with respect to Habeas Corpus, application of torture, etc. (despite having sworn to uphold the constitution at the inauguration).
Within Canada we did have Bre-X a few years ago; the Americans have countered with Enron, Worldcom, and a host of lesser ugly financial messes.
When the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold. There are plenty of indications that we could chug along in the same general direction that they have, especially given the Montebello meetings and their ilk designed to more closely integrate our country with theirs. Consider provincially the tangle of the suppressed scandal to do with the legislature raids, among other things. Consider the Federal efforts to glorify our military efforts in Afghanistan (and the general gullible apathy with which the population buys into this policy).
As has been said, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance (talk about jingoist, eh?); as has also been said, the price of eternal vigilance is our sanity.
Thanks for keeping a vigilant view of our southern neighbour before us. It may seem like looking in a fun-house mirror, but the reflection is not totally unlike us.
Cunningham
4 years ago
Next up
Even knowing what we know about Mr. Gonzales and his friend who appointed him "eternal general" (sic), it's pretty amazing to watch the man at work.
Next up, YouTube does former commish Zacardelli. Some fine lying there too, set jaw and all....
One can only hope a camera got inside one of the private rooms at Montebello.