Oh..um .........about W's next AG nominee Gonzales and.......HALLIBURTON

[underpants]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/121800-105.htm

Was the Fix In?
New White House Counsel Accused of Favoritism for Cheney's Halliburton
Published on Monday, December 18, 2000

Cheney's Halliburton corporation, through its executives and its separate subsidiaries, was the second-largest corporate contributor to Texas Supreme Court races in the last three election cycles, contributing over $79,000 to the Justices. Five times in the past seven years, cases involving Halliburton have come before the Texas Supreme Court, and each time the Court has either ruled for the company or refused to hear an appeal of a favorable verdict for the firm from a lower court.

In 1999, a Halliburton employee had won a $2.6 million trial verdict due to allegations that a company supervisor framed him to test positive for cocaine, only to see the verdict overturned by a Texas Court of Appeals. Just before the Texas Supreme Court ruled on the case, Halliburton gave a number of contributions to the Justices, including $3000 to Alberto Gonzales. None of the Justices recused themselves from the case and the Court refused to hear the appeal against Halliburton.

[Maat]

1. Sweet.

Well, now I know I'll be going into an honorable profession with honorable people.

[flpoljunkie]

2. And this...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39519-2004Nov10.html

Gonzales' career has been linked with Bush for at least a decade, serving as general counsel when Bush was governor of Texas, and then as secretary of state and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

Gonzales has been at the center of developing Bush's positions on balancing civil liberties with waging the war on terrorism - opening the White House counsel to the same line of criticism that has dogged Ashcroft.

For instance, Gonzales publicly defended the administration's policy - essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in the lower courts - of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.

He also wrote a controversial February 2002 memo in which Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war. That position drew fire from human rights groups, which said it helped led to the type of abuses uncovered in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

[JudyM]

3. So our taxes go to Halliburton to be used to promote the rethug agenda

[auburngrad82]

4. His name is all over the Iraq torture documents

He is supposedly the one that signed off on using torture.

[bloom]

5. ....

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Chimpy loves this guy.

I think Asscroft stepped down so that Gonzales could be AG for a couple years, then in about '06 - '07 be put up as an associate justice on the Supremes.

Any takers?

[Born_A_Truman]

7. Court TV

Also mentioned his firm worked for Enron as well. I'll have to see if I can find anything about that online.

Frying Pan to the Fire?

[Born_A_Truman]

8. Hello Enron!

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/10117261.htm

(snip)

Gonzales may face opposition, but it's uncertain how much. He has written controversial memos, including one that surfaced during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that had said foreign detainees were not entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions. Human rights groups said that legal interpretation contributed to the climate of abuse.

(snip)

Gonzales also has connections to scandal-ridden energy giant Enron. He is a former partner in the Houston law firm Vinson and Elkins, which represented Enron. He also received $6,500 in campaign contributions from the company when he ran for re-election to the Texas Supreme Court.

[underpants]

9. Who? What?

God they can't find ANYONE who isn't connected to Enron or Halliburton, it seems.

[ReadTomPaine]

10. Sure they could, but why would they?