Guantanamo

Guantanamo Lawyers: Obama Gets Away With Legal Moves Bush Wouldn't Have

Ryan J. Reilly | April 17, 2012, 5:31AM

More than two years after President Barack Obama blew his self-imposed deadline to shut down the extrajudicial prison at Guantanamo Bay, close observers and defense lawyers with clients making their way through the reformed military tribunal system say the public isn't paying attention.

"I think what you'll find is the interest in the process will never get back up again," Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM. "It's fatigue and the thought that 'Well, it must be okay now because Obama said it's okay.'"

Broyles and other observers believe that some policy changes instituted under the Obama administration would have sparked outrage if President George W. Bush was still in the White House. One change he said should have been "extremely alarming" to the legal community: the rule allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty and still receive the death penalty.

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Pardons

Pardon Applicants Benefit From Friends in High Places

December 5, 2011, 9:00AM

by Dafna Linzer ProPublica

Second of two parts. Part one here. This story was co-published with The Washington Post.

Dale Critz Jr. had millions riding on his bid for a presidential pardon. Scion of a prominent family in Savannah, Ga., Critz was poised to inherit the luxury car dealerships his grandfather had built in one of America's most historic cities.

But Critz's past blocked his way. Years earlier, while learning the ropes at an unrelated dealership in Florida, he took part in a scheme to falsify loan documents for low-income car buyers. He pleaded guilty in 1989 to a felony -- a conviction that could have prevented him from owning the family business. Many automakers do not let felons run their franchises.

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Chemical Disclosure

Bush Administration, Not Science, Prevented Regulation of Toxin In Drinking Water

Zoe Schlanger | July 13, 2011, 1:15PM

The EPA's controversial 2008 decision not to regulate a drinking water contaminant long connected to impaired brain development and decreased learning capability in infants had more to do with the interests of the Bush administration than with scientific findings regarding its safety, according to a report released Tuesday by a congressional watchdog agency, the LA Times reports.

Perchlorate is a toxin in rocket fuel and fireworks, is present in most states' drinking water, lettuce and milk, and is found in high concentrations near current and former military bases as a byproduct of weapons testing. The E.P.A. currently says it could be contaminating the public wells supplying anywhere from 5 million to 17 million Americans.

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Scott Bloch

Scott Bloch Feels Vindicated By Report On Bush-Era Abuse Of Gov't Resources

Ryan J. Reilly | January 31, 2011, 12:15PM

Scott Bloch and and former Pres. George W. Bush.

Bush-era official Scott Bloch, the former head of the Office of Special Counsel who will be sentenced on Thursday for misdemeanor contempt of Congress, told TPM in an interview that he felt vindicated by the report on the Bush administration's use of taxpayer funds for political purposes.

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Samuel Bodman

Bush's Energy Sec Spent $30K On Gov't Flights To Political Events

Ryan J. Reilly | January 25, 2011, 3:50PM

Samuel Bodman, Energy Secretary under former President George W. Bush, appears to have spent over $30,000 in federal funds on government plane rides to political events for Republican members of Congress in the lead up to the 2006 elections.

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George W Bush

How Bush's 'Political Boiler Room' Dispatched Cabinet Members To Campaign For GOPers

Ryan J. Reilly | January 25, 2011, 2:00PM

Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush

With the rest of the political world gearing up for the 2012 elections, the Office of Special Counsel on Monday released a long overdue report that said that George W. Bush administration's Office of Public Affairs in 2006 was essentially an extension of the Republican National Committee in the White House.

The report found that the Bush administration regularly broke the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of federal tax dollars for political activities. The Office of Political Affairs in Bush's White House, overseen by Karl Rove, dispatched cabinet officials to campaign for Republican candidates on the federal dime and forced federal political appointees to attend political meetings during work time, the report concluded.

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George W Bush

Report: Bush White House Violated Law By Using Gov't Resources To Support GOP in '06 Elections

Ryan J. Reilly | January 24, 2011, 8:51PM

Former President George W. Bush

George W. Bush's White House Office of Political Affairs violated the law by giving political briefings to political employees, concludes an Office of Special Counsel report issued Monday, nearly five years after the fact.

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Bush

Bush Audiobook Chapters Now Include "Bush It" For Windows Users

Ryan J. Reilly | December 28, 2010, 9:55AM

George W. Bush signs copies of his book, 'Decision Points'

If you plug your brand-new "Decision Points" audiobook into your Windows computer, you'll get some pretty unexpected track titles. Why? Because in 2007, various artists made a protest album called "George W. Bush," and the online database that Windows Media uses to fill in the track titles thinks your audiobook is their album.

There have been complaints of late -- we're guessing from someone who got a copy for Christmas -- that chapter titles like "Innocent Children Die" and "Bush It" were popping up when they loaded the album on Windows Media Player.

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