Monday, August 31, 2009

Robbery Suspect Denounces Robbery Investigation As "Unwise."



Oy did I wake up pissed off this morning.

But then I read John Pacenti's tremendous column today and learned that former prosecutor Sean Cronin, who got into such hot water for his shockingly poor judgment during the Ali Shaygan trial before Judge Gold (now on appeal), is actually working on Gitmo cases!?!?!

Thanks John, now I feel a whole lot better.

Here's Senor Calli on this pickle of a predicament:
“I was surprised to learn that there would be an appeal of that order with a professed view from the Department of Justice in Washington to hold prosecutors accountable,” he said. “Judge Gold is one of the finest district court judges in the country. He went to great pains at the sanctions hearing to protect the due process rights of these prosecutors and law enforcement agents and gave them every opportunity to explain themselves.”

Calli said Gold, along with many federal jurists around the country, is concerned that prosecutors are not being held accountable by their department.

“I think whether it’s in Alaska or Florida or in Boston, you are seeing district judges police their own courtroom,” he said.
Ahh yes, accountability --a wonderful concept that should in all cases be applied strictly to others.

Angry commuter Joe DeMaria chimes in:
“Government seems to be blind to the message Judge Gold was sending,” DeMaria said. “I’m concerned when a senior government prosecutor seeking the position of U.S. attorney is being defensive about it. Whether it’s sanctionable or not, the conduct was not defensible.”
Defensive? Lack of accountability?

You want to talk defensive and unaccountable conduct, consider the Dark One's appearance on Fox News Sunday:
“We ask these people to do some very difficult things,” Mr. Cheney said. “They do so at the direction of the president.”
Interesting choice of words, "difficult."

In what sense is it "difficult" for the perpetrator to have to torture someone "at the direction of the President"?

Hmm, this reminds me of a discussion we had recently on Rump's blog.

You mean it's "difficult" for the torturer in that sometimes this person is called on by the state to be ruthless, to be cold-blooded, to be merciless in committing what some might from the outside view as cruel, inhumane or even immoral acts -- to compartmentalize and justify these actions because they are being done for the greater good, for the nation, for total Victory, and for Our Fearless Leader?

Nope, good thing modern Western Civilization has never encountered that impulse before.

13 comments:

Godwhacker said...

Chris Wallace, A Teenage Girl Interviewing The Jonas Brothers

bob-dylan-ranters-for-the-princess said...

Superb commentary, SFL.

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.

GB said...

Pissed off can be good. Anger is too oft maligned as a negative emotion.

Anonymous said...

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, ma, i'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind it's gates
But even the president of the united states
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, ma, i can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say god bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But i mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, ma, if i can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, i scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, i have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, ma, it's life, and life only.

Cheney's Ghost said...

You missed how hurt Cheney's feelings are because Obama does not ask him for advice on keeping us safe. He really said this!!

Anonymous said...

Id like to see SFL work the song Kumbaya in one of his posts.

Anonymous said...

I'd Like to Teach The World To Sing?

Anonymous said...

Judge Gold is going to be reversed in some way, shape or form. I'm just a regular civil litigator, but last time I checked you can't convert a Hyde Amendment hearing (which doesn't provide for sanctions against the individual prosecutors) into a contempt hearing without issuing the necessary Order to Show Cause. And you certainly cannot individually sanction attorneys based on a hearing that they were excluded from, except when the judge called them to the stand to ask them questions. Mr. Calli should brushen up on the law governning sanctions before offering his opinion . . .

Anonymous said...

Mr. Calli will likely brush up on reading about you losing your meal ticket, Sean me boy.

busy being born said...

3:46=Roberto

Anonymous said...

Re: 4:46 pm/Roberto "Mr. Calli should brushen up on the law..."

Is that like a combination of "brush up" and "freshen up"? Or did you mean "brush off" ie "brushen off" the dirt after getting knocked on your ass and called out for being a liar by a federal district judge?

Either way, from Pacenti's article, Cronin's conduct sounds indefensible.

Anonymous said...

"You are a bright man. You remember everything. You never use a note. So please don’t tell me your memory is faulty. Tell the truth.”

Can you imagine a federal judge punking you like that?

Nothing like a good spanky, Sean. Bad boy.

Anonymous said...

I raise me glass to ye, Sean me boy! It seems ye got the "seismic shift" you blustered about, only not the one you are capable of surviving. And now you whine like a stuck pig on St. Patty's Day. For shame. You have the Irish Curse, in more ways than one, apparently.