Slate's Mapped Diagram Of Administration Wrongdoing Demonstrates The Awfulness Of Alberto Gonzalez

The only thing in all the world I love more than flowcharts, which are awesome, are Venn diagrams. I especially adore interactive Venn diagrams and I am really, really fond of this one on Slate, that maps out the Bush White House's five major crimes and groups the people involved. It's big help, considering the fact that you'll want to know, going forward, who needs to be put in the stockade and who needs to bound, blindfolded, folded into a stress position and carted off to a CIA prison or the Hague.

Anyway, you wouldn't imagine that there would be a single figure who's involvement in pure, un-American malfeasance was so deep and wide and vast that they'd be central to all these major crimes, but you'd be wrong! At the middle of the entire mess is the man who I've long and happily and comfortably referred to as the Worst American In My Lifetime, former Attorney General and Affront to God Himself Alberto Gonzalez. Slate says, "if this were The Sopranos he'd be our Silvio."

The entire presentation is well-laid out by Slate, and it should be sufficient in demonstrating that everyone out there currently writing that Batman, as portrayed in The Dark Knight, is a fitting stand-in for the Bush administration needs to have their heads examined, by gorillas armed with powerful jackhammers.

Comments

[mlaiuppa]

Well, yeah, if you leave out Plame Gate.This is mostly DoJ stuff. Naturally Gonzalez would be in the middle of it.

[JessWonderin]

Gonzales MAY appear at the center, but if pressed (waterboarded?) or placed in a holding cell on Rikers with Tater Salad, would burst into tears and gush like a broken New Orleans levee . . . . he would make In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on ludes seem "too short" forcing stenographer teams to work in double shifts back-to-back for days . . .

[rich3324]

Pardons for everyone.

[BrickSykes]

The following sixteen commenters haven't watched the C-Span coverage from Friday that included Vincent Bugliosi, Bruce Fein, and a couple of other heavy legal minds. If they had, they would have known that there are legions of Americans aware of the Crimes of George W. Bush and his supporting cast. Alberto was not the 'Ring Leader' in the whole affair, he was just an imaginative and shameless lieutenant to his Gringo Master, Sire Bush, and went above and beyond the borders of law to please him.

And, to those who believe that nothing will happen to this varied Band of Criminals, I'll say that it actually IS in the process of happening. Ahhh! My favorite tenet of Democracy.­...Due Process!! Remember, it says nothing of expedience­.....it simply means to take as long as it takes (to do it right!).

Brick

[Peteyman]

This is why I want a f***ing attack dog as AG.

(Cough, John Edwards, Cough)

[norwaylass]

"former Attorney General and Affront to God Himself Alberto Gonzalez. "
Jason is my hero

[NoahVail]

A MUST bookmark.

[kellygrrrl]

definitely!

I think every single high school kid should play with this

[levibatgirl]

Cool.

Thanks.

[jupitor]

Don't understand How the worst could possibly be Gozalez! Bush was in charge, and Cozalez took his orders from Bush/Chaney. Have you not heard "The buck stops here" That means at the president, not his lacky's! Sorry Jason I disagree with you on this one. That would mean you would have to think Condi, a Rumsfield and the rest of them are that bad to, and I don't! The man who is cammander and chief bears this burdon! Or should I blame you jason for what your editor tells you that you must do or I will fire you? I certainly do not like Gozalez one bit and would like to lay the blame on if, just if not for satisfaction sake, but I can't.

[waitforme]

Geesus, take a minute to scan, proof-read and edit, will you?

[kellygrrrl]

I can't believe Rumsfeld is only in one "circle"
same with Rove

I really gave them a lot more cred

[metalpipe]

I second the motion on proof reading your post before hitting the send button.

Also, if you had been keeping up, you would know that no one on this chart is worried about prosecution because they were given legal protection by Gonzalez and his lackies at the beginning of the game. The only thing we have in court on the Bush gang is their amazing ability to cover their arses.

[realpolitic]

Gonzalez was not a criminal mastermind enough to be behind all these crimes. It must have been Rove.

[CAskeptic]

This diagram and the book "The Dark Side" indicates to me that we have to go after Addington and Yoo. We probably cannot do anything about Cheney.

[marc1antony]

sad to think that we finally get a minority in that position, and he does not help others that have been oppressed, but instead plays the P R E J U D I C E and bias card... shameful

[Crake]

This administration is like the evil bad guys straight out of a bond movie... it's surreal... and yet we all sit around like cattle and let them pardon and cover themselves­...

[111]

Why were the Democrats who were the co-conspirators, e.g. Pelosi, Reid, Hoyer, etc. left out? None of this could have been accomplished without them.

I wish we could hope for justice but doubt it will happen. Glenn Greenwald has written about this

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/19/law/

Good interviews and information

[useyourbrain]

And they didn't even mention voter caging (there are smoking gun emails) and fixed elections in 2000 and 2004, and continuing plans to undermine 2008.

Where is Congress? Where is the Attorney General or the Attornies General of the States? Where is the Supreme Court?

AWOL

[robiform]

A good beginning, but unless I missed something, I didn't see any reference to the illegal outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. By the way, that's one of the most colorful Venn diagrams I've ever seen!

[TunaFish]

Okay, great chart, and very factual. Good job Slate. Now, find someone, anyone, to actually do something about it. Whether now, or in the future, will there be anyone who is willing to take the necessary legal and political, action to see that justice is served? With the information being available to the public, and to Congress, why is there no action? Please don’t tell me about the puny efforts at impeachment, or attempts to subpoena Rove, or anyone else in the Bush administration. Is everyone just waiting for after the election and hoping that these issues disappear? Has the collective will been so burdened by war, and economic factors, that there is no energy left to act? Or, is that we would rather talk about the level of criminality that has been outlined as though it was some intellectual exercise in a civics class, than to actually make concrete efforts to combat it? We do still have a Constitution, and a set of laws do we not? These are issues which transcend party affiliation, candidate choice, religious choice (or lack thereof), or any other social division. These issues that are presented by Slate, and others, which the Administration has hanging around its collective neck, are clearly contemptible at the least, and potentially criminal, or worse.