Spittin Hot Fiya

A word to the wise.

Don't fuck with John Conyers!


Man, Congressman Conyers isn't buying any of this "bipartisanship" bullshit when it comes to Barack Obama's rhetoric about "looking forward not backward" in respect to investigating the Bush Administration. He didn't seem to get that memo. As chairman of the House Judicial committee he has just released a damn near 500 page report recommending entitled “REINING IN THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY” which is an intense review of Bush's controversial decisions and actions over the last 8 years in addition. I can't excerpt from that many pages but I will hit you with the high points from the executive summary and I encourage you to read the whole thing even if you do it just a little bit at a time.

This Report has been prepared at the direction of Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. It was drafted to itemize and document the various abuses that occurred during the Bush Administration relating to the Committee’s review and jurisdiction, and to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations to prevent the recurrence of these or similar abuses in the future.

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The next five sections of the Report describe specific abuses of the Imperial Presidency relating to Judiciary Committee inquiries. Section 1, “Politicization of the Department of Justice,” describes the Committee’s U.S. Attorneys investigation and concerns relating to the politicization of the Civil Rights Division in general and the Voting Rights Division in particular. Even as this report is being released, the Justice Department’s Offices of the Inspector General and Professional Responsibility have released a report further documenting politicized hiring and politicized decision-making in the Division. Section 2, “Assault on Individual Liberties,” broadly details Bush Administration policies relating to detention, enhanced interrogation, extraordinary rendition, ghosting and black sites, warrantless domestic surveillance, and the issuance of national security and exigent letters. Section 3, “Misuse of Executive Branch Authority,” describes concerns relating to signing statements and misuse of regulatory authorities. Section 4, “Retribution against Critics,” details the facts ascertained relating to the outing of former intelligence agent Valerie Plame Wilson, and other instances of improper retribution by the Bush Administration against its critics. Section 5, “Government in the Shadows,” describes multifaceted efforts of the Bush Administration to avoid accountability and culpability through a variety of legal techniques, including broad and unprecedented assertions of executive privilege, withholding testimony and information without formal assertion of privilege, extraordinary assertions of state secrets, broad uses of classification authorities, and unduly narrow construction of the Freedom of Information Act, as well as manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War. Each of these sections includes a comprehensive set of findings detailing specific legal and factual conclusions drawn from the review.

Section 6 of the Report sets forth a comprehensive set of 47 policy recommendations designed to respond to the abuses and excesses of the Bush Imperial Presidency. The list begins with three major threshold recommendations:

• First, that the Judiciary Committee pursue its document requests and subpoenas pending at the end of the 110th Congress.

• Second, that Congress create an independent blue ribbon commission or similar body to investigate the host of previously unreviewable activities of the Bush Administration, including detention, enhanced interrogation, extraordinary rendition, ghosting and black sites, and warrantless domestic electronic
surveillance.

• Third, that the new Administration conduct an independent criminal inquiry into whether any laws were broken in connection with these activities.

In this regard, the Report firmly rejects the notion that we should move on from these matters simply because a new Administration is set to take office. This is because there never has been an independent, comprehensive review of these very serious allegations with a full report to the American public. The investigations to date have either been limited in scope or authority, hidden from the public and the Congress, or stonewalled or obstructed by the outgoing Administration behind impenetrable walls of classification and privilege. The purpose of the above-described investigations is not payback, but to uphold the rule of law, allow us to learn from our national mistakes, and prevent them from recurring. Such an effort would be a welcome sign to our friends, and a warning to our foes, that this Nation can indeed serve as a beacon of liberty and freedom without weakening our ability to combat terrorism or other threats.

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The Report makes clear that even after scores of hearings, investigations, and reports, Congress and the American public still do not have answers to some of the most fundamental questions concerning the Bush Imperial Presidency. These include the following:

1. Who created the U.S. Attorney firing list, and how were specific U.S. Attorneys included or excluded from the list?

After more than 13 House and Senate Judiciary committee hearings and depositions with over 12 witnesses, we still do not know who created the U.S. Attorney firing list and why.

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2. Were any Laws Broken as a Result of the Enhanced Interrogation Tactics Engaged in by the Bush Administration?

Notwithstanding various internal reports by the Bush Administration and a number of investigations and hearings in the Congress (limited and constrained in many cases by Administration obstruction), there never has been a full and independent inquiry into whether there have been criminal violations of federal statutes prohibiting torture and war crimes.

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3. Were any Laws Broken as a Result of the Extraordinary Rendition Tactics Engaged in by the Bush Administration?

The Committee has uncovered considerable evidence of potential criminal culpability relating to the rendition of Maher Arar.

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4. Were any Laws Broken as a Result of the the so-called “Terrorist Surveillance Program” and related activities?

There have been numerous efforts to obtain a judicial determination of the legality of the President’s warrantless domestic surveillance program.

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5. To what extent were President Bush and Vice President Cheney involved in the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson and its aftermath?

There is considerable evidence that culpability for the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson and subsequent obstruction goes above and beyond Scooter Libby.

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Given that so many significant questions remain unanswered relating to these core constitutional and legal matters, many of which implicate basic premises of our national honor, it seems clear that our country cannot simply move on. As easy or convenient as it would be to turn the page, our Nation’s respect for the rule of law and its role as a moral leader in the world demand that we finally and without obstruction conduct and complete these inquiries. This can and should be done without rancor or partisanship.

Yep it sounds like the Bushies just might go down after all. And I for one think Congressman Conyers should be applauded for not just letting it go. The mere fact that none of our recent Presidents have ever spent a day in jail for their transgressions in office in my opinion is the main reason why they continue to abuse their power at will. And the only way to stop that cycle is to finally hold someone to account and I can't think of anyone more deserving than Bush and his homeboys.

(h/t Thinkprogress)