Sex abuse of juveniles in Texas covered up

[Joanne98]

Sex abuse of juveniles in Texas covered up
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117327090143970.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, March 07, 2007Alicia A. CaldwellAssociated Press
Pyote, Texas - For at least two years, investigators say, boys at a juvenile prison in the West Texas desert were summoned from their dorms late at night and taken to darkened conference rooms, offices and ball fields for sex with two of the institution's top administrators.

The boys told their parents, their teachers, any staff member who would listen. A few diligent staff members took their complaints to their supervisors. But the allegations were largely covered up until last month, when they exploded in the biggest scandal ever to engulf the Texas juvenile prison system.

The No. 1 and No. 2 officials at the Texas Youth Commission have lost their jobs over their handling of the allegations. Prosecutors are looking into criminal charges. And lawmakers are infuriated.

"What scares me the most is what I don't know," said state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee.

The allegations became public when the Dallas Morning News cited a never-released 2005 Texas Rangers report that said 13 boys were molested at the West Texas State school, a red-brick institution ringed by razor wire in a desolate part of the state. Since then, others have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse at other juvenile prisons across Texas.

Lawmakers were outraged to learn that the two men accused of molesting boys at the West Texas State School - Ray Brookins, an assistant superintendent who temporarily ran the place, and Principal John Paul Hernandez - were quietly allowed to resign in 2005 with no criminal charges. (Hernandez took a job as the director of a nearby charter school, which accepted his resignation last week.)

Attempts to reach Hernandez and Brookins by telephone and at their homes were unsuccessful. Hernandez previously denied wrongdoing.

The Texas Youth Commission oversees 7,500 youths - including some of the most dangerous offenders, ages 10 to 21 - and operates 15 prisons, nine halfway houses and numerous treatment and counseling centers.

Among the parents to come forward with horror stories since the scandal broke is Genger Galloway, who told lawmakers this week that her 19-year-old son finally told her Saturday about abuse he suffered when he was held in a juvenile prison in central Texas at age 15.

"They've tried to figure out why he's so angry and why he's so hurt and why he won't talk," Galloway said. "And it's because he doesn't feel safe in there."

Galloway said that her son, who has been jailed for molesting his siblings, was sexually assaulted by a female staff member and beaten and sodomized by a male inmate in 2003.

Mary Jane Martinez of San Antonio told lawmakers last week that her son also was sexually assaulted at a juvenile jail. "My son is home, but he is not the same since he was raped in the TYC," she said. She said her 17-year-old son "is so ashamed of himself he built a wall."

Randal Chance, a retired inspector general with the Texas Youth Commission and author of the book "Raped by the State," said the routine mistreatment of children by the Youth Commission has long been ignored. "This one here, it finally snuck out," he said. Investigators said that at Pyote, Brookins and other administrators used intimidation to suppress complaints about sexual abuse.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117327090143970.xml&coll=2

Keep your eye on this story it's going to get BIGGER!

[Joanne98]

1. Alberto Gonzales wikipedia,

Alberto Gonzales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
Alberto R. Gonzales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Gonzales


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

80th United States Attorney General
Incumbent
Assumed office
February 3, 2005
Under President George W. Bush
Preceded by John Ashcroft

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born August 04, 1955 (age 51)
San Antonio, Texas
Political party Republican
Religion Roman Catholic
Alberto R. Gonzales (born August 4, 1955) is the 80th and current Attorney General of the United States. He formerly served under U.S. President George W. Bush as White House Counsel, and prior to that had been appointed by Bush to the Texas Supreme Court. He is currently under fire for the recent FBI infractions in improperly, and at times illegally, using the USA PATRIOT Act to secretly pry out personal information about Americans in terrorism investigations and the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, which have allegedly been politically motivated. A number of members of Congress have called for his resignation and the Bush Administration is reported to be looking for a replacement, while expressing confidence in him publicly.<1>

Contents
1 Personal background
2 Texas career
3 War on Terror
4 Attorney General nomination and confirmation
5 Possible Supreme Court nomination
5.1 O'Connor vacancy
5.2 Rehnquist vacancy
6 Controversies
6.1 Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys in 2006
6.2 No right of Habeas Corpus
6.3 Warrantless domestic eavesdropping program
6.4 Calls for resignation or firing
7 Legal Career
7.1 List of Texas Supreme Court opinions, concurrences, and dissents by Gonzales
7.1.1 Court opinions
7.1.2 Concurring opinions
7.1.3 Dissenting opinions
8 References
9 See also
10 External links



Personal background
Gonzales was born in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Humble, near Houston. He was the second of eight children born to Pablos and Maria Gonzales. His father, who died in 1982, was a construction worker. Both his parents were children of immigrants from Mexico with less than a high-school education themselves; in the midst of a national debate in the US about immigration from Mexico, Gonzales told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that no immigration documentation exists for three of his grandparents and they may have entered and resided in the United States illegally (<2>).

An honors student at MacArthur High School in Houston, Gonzales enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1973, for a four year hitch, serving for two years at Fort Yukon, Alaska before being accepted to the United States Air Force Academy in 1975. In 1977, he transferred to Rice University, where he was a member of Lovett College and earned a degree in political science in 1979; he never completed the remaining two years of his USAF obligation; he then earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1982. He was the only one of his siblings to finish college. He has been married twice: he and his first wife, Diane Clemens, divorced in 1985; he and his second wife, Rebecca Turner Gonzales, have three sons.

Despite keeping a low profile about his religious affiliation, Gonzales has described himself as a Catholic.


Texas career
Gonzales was an attorney in private practice from 1982 until 1994 with the Houston law firm Vinson and Elkins, where he became a partner. In 1994, he was named general counsel to then-Texas Governor George W. Bush, rising to become Secretary of State of Texas in 1997 and finally to be named to the Texas Supreme Court in 1999, both appointments made by Governor Bush.

Outside of his political and legal career, Gonzales was active in the community. He was a board director of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast from 1993 to 1994, and President of Leadership Houston during this same period. In 1994, Gonzales served as Chair of the Commission for District Decentralization of the Houston Independent School District, and as a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions for Rice University. He was chosen as one of Five Outstanding Young Texans by the Texas Jaycees in 1994. He was a member of delegations sent by the American Council of Young Political Leaders to Mexico in 1996 and to the People's Republic of China in 1995. He received the Presidential Citation from the State Bar of Texas in 1997 for his dedication to addressing basic legal needs of the indigent. In 1999, he was named Latino Lawyer of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association.

As counsel to Governor Bush, Gonzales helped Bush be excused from jury duty when he was called in a 1996 Travis County drunk driving case. The case led to controversy during Bush's 2000 presidential campaign because Bush's answers to the potential juror questionnaire did not disclose Bush's own 1976 misdemeanor drunk driving conviction.<2> Gonzales' formal request for Bush to be excused from jury duty hinged upon the fact that, as Governor of Texas, he might be called upon to pardon the accused in the case. Upon learning of the 1976 conviction, the prosecutor in the 1996 case (a Democrat) felt he had been "directly deceived". The defense attorney in the case called Gonzales' arguments "laughable".<3>

As Governor Bush's counsel in Texas, Gonzales also reviewed all clemency requests. A 2003 article in The Atlantic Monthly asserts that Gonzales gave insufficient counsel, failed to take into consideration a wide array of factors, and actively worked against clemency in a number of borderline cases. (The state of Texas executed more prisoners during Gonzales' term, and still has more prisoners on death row, than any other state.)<4><5>


War on Terror
The Executive Order 13233, drafted by Gonzales and issued by George W. Bush on November 1, 2001 shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, attempted to place limitations on the Freedom of Information Act by restricting access to the records of former presidents.

Gonzales authored a controversial memo in January of 2002 that explored whether Article III of the Geneva Convention even applied to Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan and held in detention facilities around the world, including Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The memo made several arguments both for and against providing Article III protection to Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. He concluded that Article III was outdated and ill-suited for dealing with captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. He described as "quaint" the provisions that require providing captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters "commissary privileges, scrip, athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments". He also argued that existing military regulations and instructions from the President were more than adequate to ensure that the principles of the Geneva Convention would be applied. He also argued that undefined language in the Geneva Convention, such as "outrages upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment", could make officials and military leaders subject to the War Crimes Act of 1996 if mistreatment was discovered.<6>

In 2004, when this memo was leaked to the press, Gonzales said about the memo in Senate confirmation hearings that "... I don't recall today whether or not I was in agreement with all of the analysis, but I don't have a disagreement with the conclusions then reached by the department." This indicates that, despite the Bush administration's withdrawal from the memo, Gonzales still believes that the Justice Department was correct in its reasoning about torture.

Gonzales also authored the Presidential Order which authorized the use of military tribunals to try terrorist suspects. He fought with Congress to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy task force documents from being reviewed. Gonzales was also an early advocate of the controversial USA PATRIOT Act. He is also accused of being involved in the decision to allow foreign combatants in U.S. custody to be deported to nations that allow torture, in order to extract further information from them; he denies that he has ever supported this measure.

On June 23, 2006 Gonzales, along with Deputy Director of the FBI John S. Pistole gave a high level press briefing involving the Miami bomb plot to attack the Sears Tower.

On November 14, 2006, invoking universal jurisdiction, legal proceedings were started in Germany for his alleged involvement under the command responsibility of prisoner abuse by writing the controversial legal opinions.<7>


Attorney General nomination and confirmation

U.S. President George W. Bush announces his nomination of Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft as the next Attorney General during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room Wednesday, November 10, 2004.Gonzales' name was sometimes floated as a possible nominee to the United States Supreme Court during Bush's first presidential term. On November 10, 2004, it was announced that he would be nominated to replace United States Attorney General John Ashcroft for Bush's second term. Gonzales was once regarded as moderate compared to Ashcroft since, unlike many in the Bush administration, he did not oppose abortion or affirmative action.

These controversies were the grounds for a strong degree of opposition to Gonzales that started during his Senate confirmation proceedings at the beginning of President Bush's second term. The New York Times quoted anonymous Republican officials as saying that Gonzales's appointment to Attorney General was a way to "bolster Mr. Gonzales's credentials" en route to a later Supreme Court appointment.

The appointment to Attorney General, in a maneuver designed by Karl Rove, would "get out of the way" the above controversies and allow Gonzales to demonstrate his positions on issues such as affirmative action and abortion. Others believe that Bush chose him as Attorney General because the pro-life base of the party would never allow a pro-choice Republican to be appointed to the Supreme Court.<8>

Gonzales was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 60-36 on February 3, 2005. He was sworn in on February 14, 2005, becoming the highest-placed Hispanic ever in the U.S. Government.


Justice Sandra Day O'Connor presents Gonzales to the audience after swearing him in as Attorney General, as Mrs. Gonzales looks on.
Possible Supreme Court nomination

O'Connor vacancy
Shortly before the July 1, 2005 retirement of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Sandra Day O'Connor, rumors started circulating that a memo had leaked from the White House stating that upon the retirement of either O'Connor or Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist, that Gonzales would be the first Bush nominee for a vacancy on the Court.

Quickly, conservative stalwarts<9> such as National Review magazine<10> and Focus on the Family, among other socially conservative groups, stated they would oppose a Gonzales nomination.<11>

Much of their opposition to Gonzales was based on his perceived support of abortion rights; typically, they cited his place in the majority opinions of various Texas Supreme Court rulings in a series of In re Jane Doe cases from 2000 that ordered lower courts to reconsider minor women's requests for a "judicial bypass" provided in a provision of Texas' parental notification law, and in one case (43 Tex. Sup. J. 910), granted the bypass that allowed the girl to obtain an abortion without notifying her parents. Gonzales wrote concurring opinions in two of these cases: In re Jane Doe 3 (43 Tex. Sup. J. 508) and In re Jane Doe 5 (43 Tex. Sup. J. 910). For In re Jane Doe 3 he concurred, on the legal grounds that the lower court had issued its ruling only one business day after the Texas Supreme Court had issued guidance on what the applicant for a judicial bypass must prove, with the differently reasoned majority opinion to remand the case to the lower courts.

For In re Jane Doe 5 his concurring opinion began with the sentence, "I fully join in the Court's judgment and opinion." He went on, though, to address the three dissenting opinions, primarily one by Nathan L. Hecht alleging that the court majority's members had disregarded legislative intent in favor of their personal ideologies. Gonzales's opinion dealt mostly with how to establish legislative intent. He wrote, "We take the words of the statute as the surest guide to legislative intent. Once we discern the Legislature's intent we must put it into effect, even if we ourselves might have made different policy choices." He added, "o construe the Parental Notification Act so narrowly as to eliminate bypasses, or to create hurdles that simply are not to be found in the words of the statute, would be an unconscionable act of judicial activism" and "While the ramifications of such a law and the results of the Court's decision here may be personally troubling to me as a parent, it is my obligation as a judge to impartially apply the laws of this state without imposing my moral view on the decisions of the Legislature."

Political commentators had suggested that Bush forecast the selection of Gonzales with his comments defending the Attorney General made on July 6, 2005 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bush stated, "I don't like it when a friend gets criticized. I'm loyal to my friends. All of a sudden this fellow, who is a good public servant and a really fine person, is under fire. And so, do I like it? No, I don't like it, at all." However, this speculation proved to be incorrect, as Bush nominated D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court.


Rehnquist vacancy
After the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist on September 3, 2005, creating another vacancy, speculation resumed that President Bush might nominate Gonzales to the Court. This again proved to be incorrect, as Bush decided to nominate Roberts to the Chief Justice position, and on October 3, 2005, nominated Harriet Miers as Associate Justice, to replace Justice O'Connor. On October 27, 2005, Miers withdrew her nomination, again renewing speculation about a possible Gonzales nomination. This was laid to rest when Judge Samuel Alito received the nomination and subsequent confirmation.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Alberto GonzalesOn September 11, 2005, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter was quoted as saying that it was "a little too soon" after Gonzales' appointment as Attorney General for him to be appointed to another position, and that such an appointment would require a new series of confirmation hearings. <3>


Controversies

Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys in 2006
Main article: Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
On December 7 2006, eight United States Attorneys were notified by the United States Department of Justice that they were being dismissed, after the George W. Bush administration made the determination to seek their resignations.<12> Critics claimed the dismissals were either motivated by desire to install attorneys more loyal to the Republican party or as retribution for actions or inactions damaging to the Republican party. At least six of the eight had positive internal Justice Department performance reports.<13> There were various hearings and testimony offered in January though March. The firestorm increased upon the release of emails by Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson, which showed extensive communication between Sampson and White House Administration official Harriet Miers. Sampson resigned, but the emails also showed that a number of statements from the Dept of Justice, including statements made by Gonzales himself, were inaccurate. But Gonzales also admitted that Justice Department officials had misled Congress. According to the Attorney General, in a press conference given on March 13, "incomplete information was communicated or may have been communicated to Congress."<14><15>

Gonzales lost more support when records subsequently challenged some of this statements at the March 13 press conference. At that press conference he stated: "I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood." But DOJ records released on March 23 showed that on his Nov. 27 schedule "he attended an hour-long meeting at which, aides said, he approved a detailed plan for executing the purge." <16>.


No right of Habeas Corpus
On January 18 2007, Gonzales was invited to speak to the Senate Judiciary Committee where he shocked Republican Senator Arlen Specter by stating that there was no right of Habeas Corpus in the United States Constitution.

In short, Habeas Corpus is the right of an individual to have a trial before he is jailed. It is the protection against arbitrary imprisonment. Without Habeas Corpus you have no right to tell anyone you have been arrested, you have no right to legal counsel, you have no right to protest your innocence or even mistaken identity. Most Constitutional Scholars believe the right of habeas is the very foundation of our legal system, where none are supposed to be above the law and none beneath it.

The most likely explanation of why this statement shocked the Senator is that he is familiar with the 2nd Clause of Section 9 of Article One of the Constitution of the United States which reads: "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."

An excerpt of the exchange follows:

GONZALES: The fact that the Constitution — again, there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution. There is a prohibition against taking it away. But it’s never been the case, and I’m not a Supreme —

SPECTER: Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. The constitution says you can’t take it away, except in the case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus, unless there is an invasion or rebellion?

A video of the exchange, as well as a more complete transcript can be found on Think Progress. "Gonzales: There Is No Express Grant of Habeas Corpus In The Constitution", Think Progress, January 18, 2007.





Warrantless domestic eavesdropping program
Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
In a December 2005 article<17><4> in The New York Times, it was revealed that the NSA was eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants. This led to an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility in the Justice Department. This investigation was shut down after Bush took the unique<18> step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work. Bush had received advice on shutting down the investigation from Gonzales, shortly after Gonzales learned that he himself would likely be a subject of the investigation. It is unclear whether Gonzales told Bush about this fact.<19>


Calls for resignation or firing
Several senators have publicly said Gonzales should resign, or be fired by Bush. Following is a partial list:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), First U.S. Senator to call for resignation
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Sen. John E. Sununu (R-NH), first Republican senator to call for firing
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)

Four House members have called for Gonzales' ousting:

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of House Judiciary Committee
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH)
In addition, several Republicans have been very critical of Gonzales, while stopping short of calling for his resignation or firing.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), suggested that Gonzales could "die by a thousand cuts"
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ranking Member of Senate Judiciary Committee, quoted as stating that any lack of candor by Gonzales "very compelling reason for him not to stay"
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), citing his actions as "idiocy"
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), "incompetence," "they blew it"
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), "improperly handled"
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), "could have been more clear," "some things just don't add up"
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), "cloud hanging over his credibility"
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), "mistakes made"
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), "bungled"

Legal Career

List of Texas Supreme Court opinions, concurrences, and dissents by Gonzales
This is a list of cases in which Alberto Gonzales wrote the court opinion, wrote a concurring opinion, or wrote a dissent. Cases in which he joined in an opinion written by another justice are not included. The Texas Supreme Court issued 84 opinions during Gonzales's tenure on the court, according to LexisNexis.


Court opinions
Fitzgerald v. Advanced Spine Fixation Systems (42 Tex. Sup. J. 985).
Texas Farmers Insurance Company v. Murphy (42 Tex. Sup. J. 998)
Mid-Century Insurance Company v. Kidd (42 Tex. Sup. J. 1007)
In re Missouri Pac. R.R. Co. (42 Tex. Sup. J. 1018)
General Motors Corporation v. Sanchez (42 Tex. Sup. J. 969)
Mallios v. Baker (43 Tex. Sup. J. 254)
Gulf Insurance Company v. Burns Motors (43 Tex. Sup. J. 647)
Southwestern Refining Co. v. Bernal (43 Tex. Sup. J. 706)
Golden Eagle Archery, Inc. v. Jackson (43 Tex. Sup. J. 989)
City of Fort Worth v. Zimlich (43 Tex. Sup. J. 972)
Prudential Insurance Company of America v. Financial Review Services, Inc. (43 Tex. Sup. J. 980)
Texas Department of Transportation v. Able (43 Tex. Sup. J. 1055)
Pustejovsky v. Rapid-American Corp. (44 Tex. Sup. J. 89)
John G. & Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation v. Dewhurst (44 Tex. Sup. J. 268) (Opinion has been withdrawn by the court).

Concurring opinions
In re Dallas Morning News (43 Tex. Sup. J. 192)
Osterberg v. Peca (43 Tex. Sup. J. 380)
In re Jane Doe 3 (43 Tex. Sup. J. 508)
Lopez v. Munoz, Hockema, & Reed (43 Tex. Sup. J. 806) (Partial concurrence)
In re Doe (43 Tex. Sup. J. 910) (This case is popularly referred to as "In re Jane Doe 5")
Grapevine Excavation, Inc. v. Maryland Lloyds (43 Tex. Sup. J. 1086)

Dissenting opinions
Lopez v. Munoz, Hockema, & Reed (43 Tex. Sup. J. 806) (Partial dissent)

References
^ Report: White House Eyeing Replacement AGs (CBS News)
^ George W. Bush DUI arrest record, The Smoking Gun.
^ Bryce, Robert. Prosecutor says Bush "directly deceived" him to avoid jury duty, Salon.com,November 5, 2000.
^ Berlow, Alan. The Texas Clemency Memos, The Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2003.
^ Dean, John W. White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales's Texas Execution Memos: How They Reflect on the President, And May Affect Gonzales's Supreme Court Chances, FindLaw, June 20, 2003.
^ Gonzales, Alberto. Decision Re Application of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War to the Conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Memorandum for the President, January 25, 2002. (PDF file provided by MSNBC/Newsweek)
^ Universal jurisdiction
<1>
Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse By Adam Zagorin, Time
War Crimes Suit Prepared against Rumsfeld Democracy Now, November 9, 2006
War Criminals, Beware by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, The Nation, November 3, 2006
^ Bumiller, Elisabeth and Neil A. Lewis. Choice of Gonzales May Blaze a Trail for the High Court, New York Times, November 12, 2004.
^ In Their Own Words: "Do As We Say, Not As We Do" Says the Right Wing on Judicial Nominees, Right Wing Watch, People for the American Way, July 6, 2005.
^ Editorial: No to Justice Gonzales, National Review, June 28, 2005.
^ Howard Fineman, Howard and Debra Rosenberg. The Holy War Begins: Bush must choose between the big tent or the revival tent. Inside his Supreme Machine, Newsweek, July 11, 2005.
^ Plan for Replacing Certain United States Attorneys. Attached to email from Kyle Sampson to William W. Mercer, December 5, 2006.
^ Johnston, David. "Reviews of 6 fired attorneys positive", Washington Post, February 25, 2007. Retrieved on 2006-03-07.
^ http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-13-2007/0004545543&EDATE= Transcript of Media Availability With Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, March 13, 2007
^ "Prosecutor Firings Are My Bad - Gonzales", AP, March 13, 2007.
^ Lara Jakes Jordan. "White House backs AG as support wanes", Associated Press, March 26, 2007.
^ "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts". NYT's Risen & Lichtblau's December 16, 2005 "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts". Retrieved on <[18 February>], 2006. via commondreams.org
^ January 18, 2007 letter from the DOJ's Richard Hertling, see question 171
^ Murray Waas. "Internal Affairs", March 15, 2007.

See also
2006 Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Alberto GonzalesOfficial biography from whitehouse.gov
Announcement of his nomination on CNN
Current Law Office in Thomson Legal Record
Vinson and Elkins, Lawyers
A second biography from ABC News
"Death in Texas" by Sister Helen Prejean in The New York Review of Books
"A Poor Choice" — Human Rights Watch
Letter to 9/11 Commission from FindLaw
The Geneva Convention is "obsolete" memo in PDF from Washington in Depth, AP
Bush Admin. policy memos re: torture, interrogations, and POW status from FindLaw
http://web.archive.org/web/20050207005523/http://kennedy.senate.gov/~kennedy/statements/05/1/2005201A51.html Kennedy urges Senate to deny Gonzales nomination over torture policies] from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, February 1, 2005.
"Torture and Gonzales: An Exchange" from The New York Review of Books
Gonzales Grilled Over Drowning Torture
LaRaza Confirms Gonzales Is a Member
Support of Torture Not Gonzales' Greatest Sin
Transcript of Gonzoles' Press Conference, March 13, 2007, relating to the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
Preceded by
Raul Gonzalez Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court
1999–2000 Succeeded by
Wallace B. Jefferson
Preceded by
Beth Nolan White House Counsel
2001–2005 Succeeded by
Harriet Miers
Preceded by
John Ashcroft United States Attorney General
Served Under: George W. Bush
2005 – present Incumbent
Preceded by
Robert Gates United States Presidential Line of Succession
7th in line Succeeded by
Dirk Kempthorne
Preceded by
Robert Gates United States order of precedence
as of 2007 Succeeded by
Dirk Kempthorne




United States Attorneys General
Randolph • Bradford • Lee • Lincoln • R Smith • Breckinridge • Rodney • Pinkney • Rush • Wirt • Berrien • Taney • Butler • Grundy • Gilpin • Crittenden • Legaré • Nelson • Mason • Clifford • Toucey • Johnson • Crittenden • Cushing • Black • Stanton • Bates • Speed • Stanberry • Evarts • Hoar • Akerman • Williams • Pierrepont • Taft • Devens • MacVeagh • Brewster • Garland • Miller • Olney • Harmon • McKenna • Griggs • Knox • Moody • Bonaparte • Wickersham • McReynolds • Gregory • Palmer • Daugherty • Stone • Sargent • W Mitchell • Cummings • Murphy • Jackson • Biddle • T Clark • McGrath • McGranery • Brownell • Rogers • Kennedy • Katzenbach • R Clark • J Mitchell • Kleindienst • Richardson • Saxbe • Levi • Bell • Civiletti • W Smith • Meese • Thornburgh • Barr • Reno • Ashcroft • Gonzales

v • d • eCurrent members of the Cabinet, and Cabinent-Rank members of the President George W. Bush Administration.
Bodman • Bolten • Chao • Cheney • Chertoff • Gates • Gonzales • Gutierrez • Jackson • Johanns • Johnson • Kempthorne • Leavitt • Nicholson • Paulson • Peters • Portman • Rice • Schwab • Spellings • Walters


v • d • eG8 Justice Ministers
Rob Nicholson · Pascal Clément · Brigitte Zypries · Clemente Mastella · Jinen Nagase · Vladimir Ustinov · John Reid · Alberto Gonzales

State Attorneys General in the United States
This box: view • talk • edit
AK: Talis J. Colberg
AL: Troy King
AR: Dustin McDaniel
AZ: Terry Goddard
CA: Jerry Brown
CO: John Suthers
CT: Richard Blumenthal
DE: Beau Biden
FL: Bill McCollum
GA: Thurbert Baker

HI: Mark J. Bennett
IA: Tom Miller
ID: Lawrence Wasden
IL: Lisa Madigan
IN: Steve Carter
KS: Paul Morrison
KY: Greg Stumbo
LA: Charles Foti
MA: Martha Coakley
MD: Doug Gansler

ME: G. Steven Rowe
MI: Mike Cox
MN: Lori Swanson
MO: Jay Nixon
MS: Jim Hood
MT: Mike McGrath
NC: Roy A. Cooper
ND: Wayne Stenehjem
NE: Jon Bruning
NH: Kelly Ayotte

NJ: Stuart Rabner
NM: Gary King
NV: Catherine Cortez Masto
NY: Andrew Cuomo
OH: Marc Dann
OK: Drew Edmondson
OR: Hardy Myers
PA: Tom Corbett
RI: Patrick C. Lynch
SC: Henry McMaster

SD: Larry Long
TN: Robert E. Cooper, Jr.
TX: Greg Abbott
UT: Mark Shurtleff
VA: Bob McDonnell
VT: William Sorrell
WA: Rob McKenna
WI: J. B. Van Hollen
WV: Darrell McGraw
WY: Patrick Crank


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other members of the National Association of Attorneys General
AS: Malaetasi Togafau • GU: Alicia Limtiaco • NMI: Matt Gregory • PR: Roberto Sánchez Ramos • VI: Kerry Drue
DC: Linda Singer • United States: Alberto Gonzales (honorary member)


Persondata
NAME Gonzales, Alberto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gonzales, Alberto R.
SHORT DESCRIPTION 80th United States Attorney General
DATE OF BIRTH August 4, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH San Antonio, Texas
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Gonzales"
Categories: Semi-protected | Current events | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1955 births | Texas lawyers | People from Austin, Texas | Harvard Law School alumni | History of Texas | Living people | Mexican Americans | People from Houston | Rice University alumni | Roman Catholic politicians | State cabinet secretaries of the United States | People from San Antonio, Texas | People from McLean, Virginia | Texas Supreme Court justices | United States Attorneys General | Texas Republicans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Gonzales

[shance]

2. Will you post in GD as well Joanne?

If not, I'll be happy to.

Thanks for posting.

[Joanne98]

4. Please do! Although if you look at the date, it's not a current article.

I'm making a bigger point. Maybe there is a connection between Gonzo and the Texas/juvenile scandal...

[Joanne98]

3. Alberto Gonzales was appointed by GWB to the Texas Supreme Court.

Texas Supreme Court
IS IN CHARGE OF JUVENILE DELINEQUENCY!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Supreme_Court
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Texas Supreme Court is the court of last resort for non-criminal matters (including juvenile delinquency which the law considers to be a civil matter and not criminal) in the state of Texas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the court of last resort for criminal matters.

The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. The Court meets in Austin, Texas in a building located on the state Capitol grounds, behind the Texas capitol.

Contents
1 Regulation of the legal profession in Texas
2 Justices of the Court
2.1 Election of members of the Court
2.2 Current Justices
2.3 History of membership of the Court
2.3.1 Justices of the Republic of Texas, 1836–1845
2.3.1.1 Chief Justices
2.3.1.2 Associate Justices
2.3.2 Justices 1845–1876
2.3.2.1 Under the Constitutions of 1845 and 1861
2.3.2.1.1 Chief Justices
2.3.2.1.2 Associate Justices
2.3.2.2 Under the Constitution of 1866 (1866–1870)
2.3.2.3 Under the Constitution of 1868 (1870–1876)
2.3.3 Justices under the Constitution of 1876 (1876–present)
2.3.3.1 Justices 1876–1945
2.3.3.1.1 Chief Justices
2.3.3.1.2 Associate Justices
2.3.3.2 Justices from 1945
2.3.3.2.1 Chief Justice, Place 1
2.3.3.2.2 Justices, Place 2
2.3.3.2.3 Justices, Place 3
2.3.3.2.4 Justices, Place 4
2.3.3.2.5 Justices, Place 5
2.3.3.2.6 Justices, Place 6
2.3.3.2.7 Justices, Place 7
2.3.3.2.8 Justices, Place 8
2.3.3.2.9 Justices, Place 9
3 External links

Regulation of the legal profession in Texas
By law the Texas Supreme Court has administrative control over the State Bar of Texas, an agency of the judiciary (see Tex. Gov’t Code section 81.011). The Texas Supreme Court has the sole authority to license attorneys in Texas (see Tex. Gov't Code sections 81.061 and 82.021), and also appoints the members of the Board of Law Examiners (see Tex. Gov't Code section 82.001) which, under instructions of the Supreme Court, administers the Texas bar examination (see Tex. Gov't Code section 82.004).


Justices of the Court
The Court has a Chief Justice and eight associate justices. All members of the Court must be at least 35 years of age, a citizen of Texas, licensed to practice law in Texas, and must have practiced law (or have been a lawyer and a judge of a court of record together) for at least ten years (see Tex. Const., Art. 5, Sec. 2).


Election of members of the Court
The Chief Justice and the associate justices are elected to staggered six-year terms in state-wide partisan elections. When a vacancy arises the Governor of Texas may appoint Justices, subject to Senate confirmation, to serve out the remainder of an unexpired term until the next general election. Five of the current Justices, a majority, were originally appointed by Governor Rick Perry. The current Justices, like all the Judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, are all Republican.

The place numbers have no special meaning as all justices are elected state-wide, except that the Chief Justice position is considered "Place 1".


Current Justices
Justice Place Date Service Began Term Ends
Wallace B. Jefferson Chief Justice September 20, 2004 2008
Don R. Willett 2 August 24, 2005 2012
Harriet O'Neill 3 January 1, 1999 2010
David M. Medina 4 November 10, 2004 2012
Paul W. Green 5 January 1, 2005 2010
Nathan Hecht 6 January 1, 1989 2012
Dale Wainwright 7 January 1, 2003 2008
Phil Johnson 8 April 11, 2005 2008
Scott A. Brister 9 November 21, 2003 2010
:wow: :wow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Supreme_Court

[Joanne98]

5. Gonzo reviewed all clemency cases

As Governor Bush's counsel in Texas, Gonzales also reviewed all clemency requests. A 2003 article in The Atlantic Monthly asserts that Gonzales gave insufficient counsel, failed to take into consideration a wide array of factors, and actively worked against clemency in a number of borderline cases. (The state of Texas executed more prisoners during Gonzales' term, and still has more prisoners on death row, than any other state.)<4><5>

[jaybeat]

6. There's another thread on this that links this to the USAs

It was a week or two ago...

The basic gist being that the Repuke-loyal USA declined to prosecute, dragged his feet, wouldn't touch it, etc., etc., because (we assume) he didn't want his Repuke masters (including the Texas governor) to look bad.

At the same time, he was tearing up the earth, technicalities be damned, goin' after so-called "voter fraud" as a pretense to yank likely Dem voters off the rolls.

K&R in hopes that someone can link to the post that made the connection to the USAs.

It is like Paul Krugmann said a while ago: the real story is the USAs who were *not* fired--what have they perpetrated to make their loyalty to Herr Bush beyond question?

Looks like letting child molesters off the hook, for starters.

Yeah. The party of "family" values...

:puke:

[Joanne98]

8. Gonzo was the head of the juvenile system. It's a civil system..

Someone should look into this in light of the allegations that "good ole boys" are raping the children. HOW DID THIS GET TO THIS POINT?

I DOUBT if the MSM will get within a mile of this... But maybe a blogger. One in Texas.. Should get in the car and go start asking questions... They might hit PAY DIRT!

:freak:

[Joanne98]

13. I think this whole investigation that started two years ago was in the hands

of a part-time DA. It just got kicked up to USA! This whole thing really smells!

[Joanne98]

7. Bush, Gonzales and the rape of juveniles in the Texas Prison System

I think there might be a connection.. YESSER!

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Conference
The Hilton Washington Hotel
Washington, D.C.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060110-2.html

White House News

11:05 A.M. EST

The FIRST LADY: Thank you all very much. And, thanks so much to the Attorney General. Thank you, Alberto, for what you do every day. But I'm especially grateful to Al and to Regina Schofield for what they did at the Helping America's Youth summit. Both of them were very actively involved in that summit, and Alberto Gonzales actually spoke at part of it. So I want to thank both of them.

I want to thank everybody here for everything you do to help children and teenagers. Whether you work in social service, or education, or law enforcement, your work is vital to helping young people stay on the right path so they can set great goals for themselves, and then so they can develop the confidence to achieve those goals.

The Helping America's Youth initiative is a way to help American young people grow up to be healthy and successful. And I'd like for you to be part of our work.

As the Attorney General mentioned, President Bush announced the Helping America's Youth initiative at his State of the Union address a year ago, and he asked me to lead it. During my husband's first term, I had concentrated mostly on early childhood development and early childhood education. But I've also always been interested in older children and young adults, and in their lives and what we can do to help them establish really healthy and successful lives.

So over the last year, I've traveled to many parts of our country, visiting with young people and with the adults who are so important to their lives. I've been to schools and to after-school programs. I've met with mentors and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I've visited with gang intervention programs -- one of them, Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, where I met the young people who are leaving gangs and finding jobs thanks to the inspiration of Father Gregory Boyle, who started Home Boy Industries.

At the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth, which concluded this year of travel, Father Boyle spoke. And he spoke about the power of hope in a young person's life. He said, "I've never met a hopeful kid who joined a gang."

The White House conference featured scholars, researchers, and other adults who work directly with young people. They shared the statistics, the results of many programs that many of them had started, anecdotal evidence, and their own experience. And then we introduced the Community Guide to Helping America's Youth, which I'll talk about in a little bit in my speech.

Many of you in this room are fortunate to have had two parents who showed you love and instilled in you the importance of education, and hard work, and good character. When I was growing up, it was common for most children to have two parents to rely on. And in Midland, Texas, I could count on just about every adult in town knowing who I was and what I was doing. And they'd report it to my mother if they saw me doing something they thought I shouldn't.

Today, America's children and young people face many more dangers than we did just a generation ago. Drugs and gangs, predators on the Internet, violence in real life and on TV and movie screens are just some of the negative influences today in American children's lives.

And as today's children face greater dangers, they often have fewer people to turn to for help. More children are raised in single-parent families, most often without a father. Millions of children have one or both parents in prison. Boys and girls spend more time by themselves or with a group of their peers than with many family members.

Young people need positive influences in their lives, and with the Helping America's Youth initiative, we can make sure that happens. We want every child to be surrounded by caring adults who provide love, advice, and encouragement, and who can serve as good role models. We're taking action in the most important parts of a child's life -- family, school, and community.

Families are the foundation of every child's life. And we must do all we can to help families stay together. Through programs like the Fatherhood initiative or the Marriage initiative, the administration supports ways to help parents stay together and to help men be involved and responsible dads.

Schools are at the heart of Helping America's Youth because every child must have a good education to have a bright future. Today, our schools are improving thanks to accountability, higher standards, and the hard work of teachers and principals who bring out the best in their students. But many students in middle school and high school have been moved through the school systems without mastering vital skills like reading. The Striving Readers program provides funds from the federal government that schools can use to help adolescents improve their reading skills and become proficient at grade level. With stronger reading skills, these students are more likely to graduate high school and more likely to succeed in life.

Communities are the third pillar of Helping America's Youth, and communities support the other two pillars. Strong communities support families, so that parents know the values they teach will be reinforced when their children are outside the home. Strong communities bolster the work of schools by providing educational and safe after-school activities for students. And strong communities nurture healthy children by surrounding them with a network of loving people who keep them safe and can help guide them toward a successful future.

Forming what we call "community coalitions" is an important step in reaching children who need help. Community coalitions bring together everyone in a community, from teachers, to mentors, to pastors, to parents, to police officers, substance abuse experts, social service providers, and business leaders. Anyone who can have a positive impact on a child's life should be part of a community coalition.

You are all leaders in your communities. You have positions of respect, and authority. You have contacts with other people in your community who work with children. You're well-versed in the issues that are faced by the young people in your community. And you have ideas about how to address these tough problems.

We need your help.

I'm asking you personally, when you go back home, to contact people in your community who want to make an extra effort to help America's youth; work together to form a community coalition. And make sure you include children and young people themselves, because their opinions and their experiences can be very informative.

The federal government can help make your community coalition effective. The Community Guide to Helping America's Youth helps communities assess their unique local needs and find programs and resources to meet them. The Guide is available at www.HelpingAmericasYouth.gov . That's -- G-O-V.

The Guide is easy to use. With the community inventory feature, community members can answer questions about their town and receive feedback about where problem areas exist. Then the Guide will direct communities to more information about programs and resources that are designed to address the challenges they face. You can put a map of your community on the assessment guild. Your law enforcement can lay out crime statistics on this map. You can plug in your Boys' and Girls' Clubs, your public libraries, all of the things that offer children help. And then you can see which parts of your communities have the highest crime statistics, need the most law enforcement, and need other programs to help children in those communities.

The Helping America's Youth website was developed, tested, and is managed by a team of seven White House Offices and nine federal agencies, including the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The Community Guide includes more than 180 programs that are shown to be effective at preventing and reducing juvenile delinquency and other problem behaviors.

I'm pleased to say that since October 27th when the website was introduced, the site has been used by more than 30,000 people. And 80 communities have registered to use the community inventory feature. These communities now have access to a number of resources that can help them improve life for the children in their communities.

I've visited many communities during the last year, meeting people who are helping children develop a strong character, a love of education, and the self-respect and self-control to stay away from violence, gangs, and drugs. One of the first visits I made was to "Think Detroit," a program that teaches character development and healthy behavior through sports. After my visit, a newspaper reporter asked one of the little boys that I'd met what he thought about my visit. And I was moved when I read that he simply said, "I wish she could stay here."

Children want us in their lives and they need us in their lives. And as I've witnessed all across America, each of us has the power to help America's youth.

Thank you very much for your wonderful work. Have a great conference in Washington, DC, and remember to visit the Helping America's Youth website when you get home. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

END 11:16 A.M. EST

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060110-2.html

[Joanne98]

9. I have to go to bed.. Please keep kicked!

:kick:

[guruoo]

10. k&r - We need to keep an eye on this. n/t

[Joanne98]

11. kick

[Lerkfish]

12. kicked and recc'd

:kick:

[Joanne98]

14. THE LONESTAR PROJECT!

Here's where the story came from..
http://www.lonestarproject.net/index.html