U.S. District Judge Approves Monica Goodling Immunity

      It now appears that former Justice Department aide Monica Goodling will get to testify to Congress about those eight federal prosecutors who were fired because of " poor performance."        Source                                         

    U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan approved the deal to give Goodling immunity from prosecution, which Congress agreed to. Goodling had refused to testify unless she was given the immunity, so now things should get really interesting for Bush/Rove and Gonzales.

"Monica Goodling may not refuse to testify," Hogan began his brief order, which said that Goodling could not be prosecuted for anything other than perjury in connection with her testimony.

Lawmakers want to question Goodling as part of an inquiry into whether the Justice Department played politics with the hiring and firing of department officials. What began as an inquiry into whether U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons has grown to include the role of the White House in the firings and whether the Justice Department officials misled Congress about them.

Goodling's lawyer has said that, with an immunity deal, she would cooperate and testify honestly.

   My take is that Monica Goodling will go before the Congress, and just as Gonzales has done, she will have a memory lapse and she simply will not remember the circumstances to some of the questions which she will be asked. Typical Republican b.s. Then again, there is the slight chance that she will become a humane being with some morals and answer as she should, truthfully and completely.

Tags: Monica Goodling Judge Thomas Hogan Alberto Gonzales Congress immunity

Friday News Blastoff! OxyContin,Iraqi Parliament, and Mexican Trucks Everywhere?

ABINGDON, Va., May 10 — The company that makes the painkiller OxyContin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court here to criminal charges that it had misled doctors and patients when it claimed the drug was less likely to be abused than traditional narcotics.

The company, Purdue Pharma, agreed to pay $600 million in fines and other payments to resolve the criminal charge of “misbranding” the product, one of the largest amounts ever paid by a drug company in such a case.

The three executives, including its president and its top lawyer, also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of misbranding the drug. Together, they agreed to pay $34.5 million in fines                    NYTIMES

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BAGHDAD, May 10 -- A majority of members of Iraq's parliament have signed a draft bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels. The development was a sign of a growing division between Iraq's legislators and prime minister that mirrors the widening gulf between the Bush administration and its critics in Congress.

The draft bill proposes a timeline for a gradual departure, much like what some U.S. Democratic lawmakers have demanded, and would require the Iraqi government to secure parliament's approval before any further extensions of the U.N. mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of 2007.

"We haven't asked for the immediate withdrawal of multinational forces; we asked that we should build our security forces and make them qualified, and at that point there would be a withdrawal," said Bahaa al-Araji, a member of parliament allied with the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters drafted the bill. "But no one can accept the occupation of his country."    WaPo

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The day may be nearing when Mexican trucks will carry freight deep into Arizona and other states for the first time in a generation.

The prospect has rekindled controversy over the safety of Mexican trucks, the fairness of international trade agreements and the effectiveness of border security efforts.

The latest round of debates comes as the U.S. government prepares to open up the southern border to 100 Mexican trucking companies as part of a one-year experiment. Tucson Citizen

 

Tags: Iraq Mexico Bush Congress OxyContin Arizona