Obama boo-hoos that Conyers is dissing him

Looks like President Barack Obama is kind of thin-skinned when it comes to criticism from his left, at least inside Washington. As his reaction to John Conyers shows, his claims he wants to be pushed from the left is apparently just another whopper he told a while back, nothing more.

Corruption and religious cover-up is bipartisan

Michigan Rep. John Conyers’ wife, Monica, a member of the Detroit City Council who is close to a federal corruption indictment, has this whitewash to say:

“If you aren't praying for me, then you are just adding to the problem. First and foremost, I am a child of God,” Conyers said. “All these things going on right now, I believe in my heart, God will deliver me from.”

What, gOd will magically becloud the minds of federal jurors? Good luck with that one.

Oh, and given the ethical slap on the hand the hubby got from the House Ethics Committee two years ago, this must run in the family.

And, schadenfreude alert: This is what African-Americans of this mindset (edited) get for being the most religious sector of America.

Update, June 26: Less than two weeks after swearing and swearing and swearing she would not plead out to federal criminal charges, City Councilwoman Conyers has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.

Whose your god now, Monica?

Update No. 2, June 29: A poster, via Carnival of the Godless, I assume, says my schadenfreude comments are racist.

I reject that.

I may, or may not be overgeneralizing too much, but, unlike Charles Murray’s claims about IQ or something, fact is that, by racial groups, African-Americans are by percentage the nation’s most religious people, the most regular church-goers, etc.

And, the holiness tradition, complete with miracles for today’s world, etc. is stronger within African-American Christianity than among other ethnic groups. To put it directly, COGIC is a bigger part of black Christianity than Foursquare is of white Christianity. (John Ensign aside.)

Well, Monica Conyers didn’t get her miracle; she didn’t get her deliverance. And, all too many African-Americans in these churches don’t. Especially among poorer elements of black society.

Now, it’s arguable that my schadenfreude might be harsh, or it might be too generalizing. I’ll buy that it’s too generalizing, and, as one can see, I’ve edited it.

But, that’s as far as we go.

Instead of another antitheist wanting to cyber-duke it with me, he ought to recognize that African-American Christians, on average, are likely to be the most deluded of any ethnic group’s believers. Including those like Monica Conyers educated enough to know better.

That then said, as for “deliverance,” given that, IMO, certain strands of black Christianity can be exploitive of the mindset of their members, deliverance is needed. But not the deliverance preached from these pulpits. Rather, deliverance from that “deliverance.”

Update 3, also June 29:This, in turn, leads me to say that, like other liberals of similar mindset, while I still favor some sort of affirmative action, I am quite ready for future affirmative action to be moved beyond a specifically race-based focus to looking at socio-economic class.

That’s not directly related to race or ethnicity and religious life, but it is reasonably tangential to the idea of whether its any worse to feel schadenfreude based on a racial group’s strong religiosity or a socioeconomic group’s strong religiosity.

Political ethics bipartisan as Conyers’ wife pleads

Just two weeks after swearing and swearing and swearing she would not plead out to federal criminal charges, Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, wife of Democratic Congressman John Conyers, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.

Beyond that, in Detroit?

What the hell is left to be bribed over?

John Conyers’ $64 Obama question

“Why is he becoming so conservative now,” the long-term Michigan congressman wants to know.

Conyers’ question is specifically about Obama’s backtracking on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but could apply to a number of issues.

Uhh, Rep. Conyers, maybe he was that conservative, relatively speaking, all along, and you, like millions of voters, got bamboozled.

That’s the $128 answer.

Rove contempt vote means nothing

So the House Judiciary Committee has finally voted to hold Karl Rove in contempt.

Big deal.

We know that Attorney General Mike Mukasey won’t enforce it.

And, we have no evidence so far that House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, let alone Speaker Nancy Pelosi, aka Passive Pelosi™, has any desire, guts or cojones for a showdown from using Congress’ inherent contempt powers.

So, it’s meaningless.

More proof? Last December’s Senate Judiciary contempt votes for Rover and Josh Bolton.

The panel’s ranking Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who has been extremely critical of the Justice Department, voted in favor of the contempt citations “knowing that it’s highly likely to be a meaningless act,” as he put it then.

You are correct, sir!

Sham impeachment hearing update

Yesterday, I called today’s House Judiciary impeachment hearing a sham, above all for the reason that no impeachment vote will actually be allowed, but for the number of people banned from the witness list.

Well, the actual hearing has become even MORE of a sham, with Cindy Sheehan and other activists evicted from the gallery. Their crime?

Applauding too loud when witness Vincent Bugliosi said President Bush should be indicted for first-degree murder for lying us into Iraq.

But, THAT’s not all.

A person in fatigues, claiming to be a veteran, was barred for wearing an anti-war pin. And, John Conyers was OK with this:

Conyers instructed committee staff and Capitol police officers to “ask anyone with such signs to either remove them or leave the hearing room from this point on.”

This request kicked off more than three minutes of disruption and commotion as blue-clad police officers entered the crowd to escort out a man wearing camouflage fatigues and an button with an anti-war button.

“You’re hassling a veteran for wearing a pin? That’s an outrage!” another spectator shouted, before escorting himself from the hearing room.

But, THAT’s not all. More of Conyers in the tank.

A committee aide tells RAW STORY that members were cautioned to abide by the Rules of the House, which prohibit lawmakers from “impugning” the president’s character during official debate. Some apparently took this to mean they could not explicitly call for Bush' impeachment. None of this would stop Republicans from accusing the committee's majority of seeking just that.

And, just what does “impugn” mean? Wearing a button?

And, Conyers wouldn’t even USE the “I-word”:

The prepared text of Chairman John Conyers opening remarks referred to Congress’s “power to impeach.” When he spoke before the committee, Conyers modified that line to the “power to remove through the constitutional process” officials who abused their powers.

With Democrats like this, who needs Republicans, eh?

‘Impeachment’ hearing July 25 will be Shakespearean

Tomorrow, if nothing more than symbolically, is a long-awaited day for many of us true liberals who think Nancy Pelosi is full of it for her “taking impeachment off the table.”
The House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on one article of impeachmentproffered by Dennis Kucinich.

Shakespearean? How?

“Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”:

The committee can talk about anything deemed to be abuse of power by the president or the White House but not vote to impeach him, the first step toward removing him from office.

Beyond that, here's more “sound and fury, signifying nothing”:

1. Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, apparently taking his cue from Passive Pelosi™, or perhaps acting on his own, doesn’t actually want an impeachment vote

2. Both Ralph Nader and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney were excluded from Conyers’ witness list, although Libertarian candidate Bob Barr is on the list.

3. Given that Conyers has, to date, refused to call the bluff of people like Karl Rove and Mike Mukasey by using his powers of inherent contempt, he’s just going through the motions here, too.

Update: See here and here for follow-up stories, including a critique of the Four Horsemen of mainstream quasi-liberal blogs on this issue.

Passive Pelosi™ FIGHTING inherent contempt

That’s the word from After Downing Street about this oh-so-tough Speaker of the House.

Specifically, she’s fighting Judiciary Chairman John Conyers on the use of inherent contempt against Karl Rove.

The link has numbers for all the Dems on House Judiciary; Pelosi’s phone is listed in comments.

Or, e-mail her.

WHAT KIND of contempt will Rove get from Conyers?

Let’s face it. Karl Rove is NOT going to show up at the House Judiciary Committee’s July 10 hearing on the possible political motivations of the trial of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Let Conyers subpoena away, like he did with Harriet Miers and John Bolton in the U.S. Attorney firings. Attorney General Mike Mukasey refused to enforce the contempt citations, so the House filed a legal motion.

But, in that case, the court could simply tell Conyers that he hasn’t exhausted all his possibilities yet, namely that of inherent contempt.

The flip side to that, though, is that inherent contempt only applies to the Congress sitting at the time. So, Conyers et al would have to compel testimony from Miers and Bolton (or Rove) with the clock ticking toward the clichéd Labor Day start of the campaign season.

And, even with inherent contempt, what if they still refuse to testify? Is Passive Pelosi™ going to swear out the Capitol police to go to their houses with warrants?

Kucinich ups impeachment ante on House Dem leadership

Were 35 articles of impeachment not enough? Dennis Kucinich promises 60 more unless the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman John Conyers (and the ultimate puppetmaster, Speaker Nancy Pelosi), get cracking.

Kucinich, in comments originally reported at a WaPost blog, gives Conyers 30 days to act.

“The minute the leadership said ‘this is dead on arrival’ I said that I hope they believe in life after death; because I’m coming back with it,” Kucinich vowed in an interview with the Sleuth this week. “It’s not gonna die. Because I'll come back with more articles. Not 35, but perhaps 60 articles.”

Sounds generous to me, actually.
I don’t know whether Kucinich is being generous, or he’s trying link his pressure to the status of FISA renewal and specifically the issue of telecom immunity.

Conyers’ puts burr up Pelosi’s ass on contempt

And, about time. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers has filed a resolution demanding Speaker Nancy Pelosi file a civil suit regarding Congressional contempt charges against Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers if Attorney General Michael Mukasey refuses to pursue the comtempt issue, as the pair continue to cite executive privilege.

Executive Director Philip Zelikow had at least two known phone calls to Karl Rove. In addition, as director of Condoleeza Rice’s National Security Agency transition team after the 2000 election, he had a major hand in demoting Bill Clinton counterterriorism czar Richard Clark.

Commission add-on Bob Kerrey threatened to resign when he found out about it, but let Chairman Tom Kean (sadly) talk him out of it.

Note: This is not just an Obama dig, but it is in part. To the degree Republican Congressmen, let alone Republican committee staff and bureaucrats learned anything in the first six years of BushCo, it’s how to roll “compromisers” in the gutter.

NOW Bush and Alberto V-05 have done it: Pissed off John Conyers

The Michigan congressman, who just happens to be chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is steaming about the firing of federal district attorneys for political reasons.

Alberto V-05 (I’m sure W didn’t give Alberto Gonzales this nickname, but I am) has one week, according to a letter Conyers sent him, to provide whole lotsa info about the firings.