Public Corruption
Doyle’s Gone, Good Riddance
mal contends
One thing that progressive Democrats and rightwing Republicans agree on is that Jim Doyle is a liar, a vindictive and corrupt politician.
That’s who he is as governor. A lot of Democrats cannot stand the guy on a personal level. And Republicans are sad to see him go as Doyle would have given them a clear shot at the governor’s office.
That’s not really news and it’s not entirely clear how this reality fits into Doyle’ decision to not seek reelection.
According to Doyle, he reached his decision some seven to 10 days ago [WisPolitics], coming around to his belief that he claims to have held since being first elected governor in 2002: He will only serve two terms, the “norm” for governors.
"I think this national norm serves good purpose. It keeps the political world from becoming stagnant. It allows new leaders to develop. It gives the voters more choices,” said Doyle Monday.
Why then did Doyle raise more than $2 million for reelection?
Republicans are demanding that Doyle return the campaign money, but he’ll likely give it to a worthy cause to polish his legacy.
Tags: Pardon Jailed Wisconsin Veteran
mal contends
Ensuring that the world does not enter into a second depression, halting a war or two, saving the environment, formulating an industrial policy on alternative energy, one can go on; all are problems of a massive scale.
But readers of Uppity Wisconsin may notice a comment from a veteran posted this week about another veteran who is serving a four-year sentence in federal prison.
Biskupic Leaving in Disgrace
mal contends
Good riddance, though Biskupic allowed that he has amassed a good "track record."
Many Wisconsin Democrats and allies would agree with that positive performance assessment.
But I doubt that Biskupic is sending a Christmas card to the proven-innocent Georgia Thompson this year [see also Biskupic tried to 'squeeze' Georgia Thompson, and Investigate Biskupic].
On CNN, Van Hollen Admits to GOP Lawsuit Collusion
mal contends
From the Wisconsin Democratic Party:
Van Hollen says GOP 'may have asked lawyers in my office to file the lawsuit.'
In a recent interview with CNN, Attorney General JB Van Hollen finally admitted to what we’ve known all along, that his hyper-partisan lawsuit against the GAB was brought in collusion with his Republican Party bosses.
Van Hollen doesn’t have a very good poker face. Watch his eyes wandering nervously when the reporter presses him on whether or not the GOP personally asked him to file the lawsuit. Maybe he’s nervous because he lost his lawsuit and now his web of cover-ups and deceit at the DOJ is finally unraveling.
Remember, this is the same guy who made the following statements to reporters last month:
Jailed Wisconsin Vet Loses Appeal, VA Claim Still Pending
mal contends
In a unanimous opinion (07-1546) a three-member panel for the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has affirmed the controversial conviction on fraud of Wisconsin Navy veteran, Keith Roberts.
The Roberts family is planning on filing a motion for an en banc hearing, a hearing before the full appellate court.
U.S. Atty Stephen Biskupic's office had convinced a jury that Roberts and a deceased Navy airman (Gary Holland) did not have a friendship, and Roberts who was on line duty at a Naval base in Naples, Italy on February 5, 1969 at the time that Holland was crushed to death by a C-54 aircraft, exaggerated his efforts to save Holland, which constituted fraud for which he was convicted in November 2006 by a jury in northern Wisconsin.
Weak grounds for a federal prosecution? These are the grounds on which the government successfully pursued a prosecution against this honorably discharged Navy veteran who served during a combat era.
Jailed Wisconsin Veteran Awaits Court Decision, in Fed Prison for Claiming PTSD Benefits
mal contends
Madison, Wisconsin - Keith Roberts awaits the decision of his appeal before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit as he sits in a federal prison in Minnesota because the United States government said he did not tell the truth about his service in the Navy.
Veterans are assumed under the Veterans Judicial Review Act of 1989 to be (as they often are) in an diminished capacity to tell the full truth of the circumstances they encountered that contributed to their suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The many stressors that would lead to the granting of disability benefit payments need to be rigorously documented to the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs' (VA) satisfaction, thus the VA claims process propagated under administrative rules is non-adversarial and paternalistic for the veterans.
Weakening US Criminal Case, VA Turns Down Jailed Wisc Vet’s PTSD Claim
mal contends
by Michael Leon (via mal contends)
Madison, Wisconsin —Vietnam-era Navy veteran Keith Roberts (1968-71) is an honorably discharged Navy airman who feels betrayed by his government, specifically the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Dept of Justice, for its self-conscious and successful efforts to financially ruin and imprison him.
Kentucky Paper Runs Piece on Jailed Wisconsin Veteran
mal contends
The Kentucky News-Enterprise has a piece this week on jailed Wisconsin veteran, Keith Roberts.
Sister takes up brother’s fight for freedom
By JOSHUA COFFMAN
RADCLIFF —Sally Harrod is crunching numbers that stretch beyond her job as an accountant. She oversees a legal fund for her brother in two legal cases regarding benefits he sought as a Navy veteran.
Keith Roberts, 60, is in a Minnesota federal prison, convicted of fraudulently receiving electronic funds from the department of Veterans Affairs. ...
Harrod, her family members and other veterans’ advocates ... fear the VA sought retribution against Roberts for seeking decades of back pay for post-traumatic stress disorder and criticizing the agency’s slow response to approve or deny his medical claims. ...
And, once it is all settled, she hopes her family can help veterans in similar situations.
“It’s unbelievable to all of them,” she said. “If they can do it to my brother, they can do it to anyone at any time.”
House Judiciary Comm Demands Action on Political Prosecutions, Including US Atty Biskupic's
mal contends
The House Judiciary Committee is proceeding in investigating the Bush administration's political prosecutions.
Press Release from April 17
(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Committee Members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced three critical actions in the Committee's investigation into allegations of selective or poltiically-motivated prosecution in the Justice Department.
The Members today invited Karl Rove to testify before the committee; urged the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate those allegations; and demanded that Attorney General Michael Mukasey provide additional documents on this subject.
Today's actions result from the Committee's majority staff report, also released today, which details the cases, interviews and documents they have reviewed since the Committee began its investigation last year.
Report: Corrupt US Atty Ready to Investigate Wisc Voters in Primary
mal contends
Here's a reassuring bit of news. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that US Atty Stephen Biskupic stands ready to investigate any cases arising from casting votes in tommorow's presidential primary, if someone complains and the Milwaukee Co DA begs out from investigating.
Writes John Diedrich:
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said his prosecutors and the FBI will be available to investigate cases if citizens are dissatisfied with the response they get from the city Election Commission, police or local prosecutors.
US Atty Biskupic Tainted in Bolten-Miers Contempt Charges
mal contends
The House of Representatives issued contempt citations for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers Friday, eliciting howls from House Republicans intent of protecting Bush corruption.
After months of stonewalling the House Judiciary Committee, the White House refused to testify under oath and produce documents about myriad DoJ and White House scandals, essentially flipping off Congress and the American people, bringing about the contempt citations.
Writes Scott Horton at Harper’s Magazine:
(T)he White House took the position that the scope of examination would be narrowly tailored so as to exclude precisely the subject matter of the inquiry: Did White House staffers interfere with prosecutors for partisan political reasons?
Harper's Magazine: How Can US Atty Biskupic Continue in His Job?
mal contends
Compensating the Victims
The Bush Justice Department has engaged in a number of blatantly political prosecutions. One was already ascertained in an internal probe. My understanding is that a pending Inspector General investigation has reached the same conclusion in another case in which it confirmed Karl Rove’s intervention and involvement, and that it is looking at several more. And one of them was ascertained by a Court of Appeals decision, by a unanimous, all-Republican panel of the Seventh Circuit, which in fact labeled a prosecution, which produced a conviction and was before them on appeal, with a stinging one-word rebuke. They called it “preposterous.”
Colon: Feds Should Cough Up Money for Corrupt Prosecution by US Atty
mal contends
Why should Wisconsin citizens get stuck with the $200,000 tab paid to an innocent Wisconsin woman who was the victim of a political prosecution by the United States Dept of Justice?
State Representative Pedro Colon (D-Milwaukee) says the federal government should foot the bill, not Wisconsin taxpayers.
United States Attorney Stephen Biskupic was excoriated by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last year in an extraordinary decision that freed the innocent state worker, Georgia Thompson.
From the Associated Press:
MADISON,Wis. (AP) -- A lawmaker wants the state to force the federal government to reimburse an employee who was wrongly convicted in federal court.
Lueders Lets Justice Ziegler off the Hook
mal contends
But I was stunned to read Lueders’ piece, “In Defense of Annette Ziegler,” in which Lueders calls Nichols’ criticism of Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler’s admitted conflicts of interests “way overblown,” “unfair,” and motivated by hostility toward Ziegler’s “ideology.”
Lueders’ acknowledges “… Ziegler was wrong to preside over cases in which she had an undisclosed personal connection to one of the parties. Her poor judgment was exacerbated by her initial refusal to admit she'd done anything wrong. …”
Wrong? A more apt description of Ziegler’s judicial misconduct is appalling, and contrary to settled law and ethical rules that specifically call for judges to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety to promote public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary.
Lueders knows better than most the violence that can be inflicted upon citizens by officials at all levels of law enforcement and the judiciary in civil and criminal litigation.
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