MichaelMoore.com : Hearings on Cheney, others halted

November 22nd, 2008 2:44 pm
DA wants judge off case against Cheney, others

By Lynn Brezosky / San Antonio Express-News

RAYMONDVILLE — From his bare-bones office in a courthouse with peeling paint and no working men's room, District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra on Friday recalled how his battle with the Willacy County establishment started when he was appointed to the post in 1991.

Guerra was catching his breath after a table-pounding and at times tearful soliloquy in a courtroom full of defense attorneys eager to quash his swan song — a flurry of indictments against longtime local foes and reaching as high as the vice president and former attorney general of the United States.

Guerra questioned the judge's impartiality and why he moved quickly, compared with indictments brought in March 2007 against Guerra.

“It's very obvious you're trying to ambush the district attorney in this case,” Guerra shouted. “What's the urgency? ... Eighteen months you kept me indicted, through my election.”

Defense attorneys called it ranting and raving.

Presiding Judge Manuel Banales called the state Supreme Court for advisement on Guerra's motion for Banales' recusal — a motion defense attorneys called a stall tactic.

At the end of the day, Banales issued no rulings Friday. With no one at the state Supreme Court able to immediately address the recusal issue, Banales tentatively rescheduled everything until Wednesday.

A grand jury handed up charges alleging murder, organized criminal activity, abuse of office and other offenses Monday, after meeting secretly with Guerra in his house. Guerra said “Operation Goliath” had to be kept hushed, even as witnesses from around the country flew in to testify to the sometimes-deadly abuses at privately run prisons. Otherwise he'd be stopped, he said.

One indictment alleges that Vice President Dick Cheney, who oversees federal agencies, hired private prison companies through underlings to house detainees, then profited through stockholdings in the prisons. The same indictment charges the GEO Inc. prison company with murder.

State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., used his political influence to steer prison contracts through his sideline as a consultant, another says.

Other indictments say local judges, special prosecutors and the district clerk abused their offices, essentially acting to keep Guerra down.

Attorneys were by Wednesday ready with motions to dismiss the indictments as baseless acts of prosecutorial vindictiveness.

But Guerra didn't show — he later told reporters he hadn't been advised — and Banales refused to consider motions without him present.

Courtroom mayhem erupted with the recusal motion Friday.

J.A. “Tony” Canales, who represents GEO and was acting as liaison to lawyers for Cheney as well as former Attorney General Albert Gonzales, urged the judge not to put off the cases again.

After Banales rescheduled the proceedings, perturbed attorneys again packed their briefcases.

Seventeen years of news clippings show Guerra is no stranger to strife.

From his first days in office, he became unpopular with the police and sheriff's department for not prosecuting cases, earning the nickname “Great Emancipator” for throwing out DWI cases he said were improperly investigated.

He upset the local school district by setting up classes for expelled students in a nearby barn.

When he ran to hold on to the post, the publisher of the local paper wrote in Mickey Mouse as an opponent in the primary. Guerra won the primary, but lost the general election to Gustavo “Gus” Garza. Garza is another of the newly indicted.

But Guerra won in 1996, and he says he's proud of his record. His investigation into bribes for votes on prison contracts resulted in guilty pleas by two former county commissioners in 2006.

He blames his overwhelming loss this year on those who want to stop his fight against wrongdoing.

“The corruption is bringing this county down, and I'm the only one that is standing here,” he said Friday.

November 22nd, 2008 2:44 pm
Obama Vows Swift Action on Vast Economic Stimulus Plan

By Jeff Zeleny and Jackie Calmes / New York Times

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama said Saturday that he had started work on a sustained, two-year economic stimulus plan designed to create or save 2.5 million jobs, funnel money toward public works programs to repair the country's failing infrastructure and invest in alternative energy programs.

Mr. Obama's plan, which he announced in the Democratic radio address, is broader than the pledges he offered while campaigning for president. He said the deepening financial outlook demanded more robust action, so he directed his economic team to devise "a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office."

Mr. Obama said he hoped to have the plan completed, approved by Congress and ready for his signature shortly after he takes office in January.

"The news this week has only reinforced the fact that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions," Mr. Obama said. "We now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further."

The announcement by Mr. Obama is seen as an effort to calm the tumultuous financial markets. The stock market fell last week to lows not seen in a decade, before swelling on Friday with news that Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, would be nominated as Treasury secretary.

On Monday, Mr. Obama is to introduce his economic team, which also will include Peter R. Orszag, head of the Congressional Budget Office, who will be the next White House budget director.

Transition officials said the economist Lawrence H. Summers, who was a senior economic adviser to Mr. Obama during the campaign, might also have a senior White House role, but that remained unclear on Saturday. Mr. Summers served as secretary of the Treasury in the last 18 months of the Clinton administration and was a contender for the same job in the Obama administration.

Mr. Summers has advocated for a forceful government stimulus plan in recent newspaper columns and has argued that the recent $700 billion bailout package means the federal government should be doing more, not less, in areas like health care, energy, education and tax relief. Mr. Obama appeared to echo those thoughts in his radio address.

"We'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy," Mr. Obama said. "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead."

Though few details were provided, Mr. Obama's proposal would most likely require the new administration to go back to Congress for approval of a significant jobs and infrastructure program beyond the money it has already authorized for the financial bailout. Democratic leaders have been calling for a robust economic recovery initiative including large spending on infrastructure to create jobs, but the Bush administration has refused to consider it.

"There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making," Mr. Obama said. "And it's likely to get worse before it gets better. But January 20th is our chance to begin anew, with a new direction, new ideas and new reforms that will create jobs and fuel long-term economic growth."

In the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama focused largely on tax cuts for low-wage and middle-class workers and tax breaks for small businesses. But as part of a stimulus package, his advisers have discussed letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire after 2010 as scheduled. That, in effect, would delay the tax increases that rich taxpayers would have faced had Mr. Obama repealed the Bush tax cuts a year or two early as he had suggested in his campaign.

Mr. Obama would extend the Bush tax cuts for households with less than $250,000 annual income.

That could have both economic and political benefits. Economically, Mr. Obama would not be open to the charge from Republicans and other critics that he is raising taxes in a recession, which many believe is counterproductive. His Republican presidential rival, Senator John McCain, raised that argument in their election battle.

Politically, by simply letting the tax cuts expire, Mr. Obama would get the benefit of higher revenues in 2011 and beyond to help finance his proposed health care plans without having to take any action himself, and without the Democratic majorities in Congress having to take a vote. He has less political need for higher revenues in the short term because the seriousness of the economic crisis has brought bipartisan agreement that the government must do whatever it can to spur economic growth through spending and tax cuts and cannot worry about deficits for the time being.

President Bush and the Republicans who then controlled Congress wrote his 2001 tax cuts to expire as a way of minimizing the projected revenue losses in future years, to comply with Congressional budget rules and help pass the legislation. Mr. Bush repeatedly called for making the tax cuts permanent, but no action was taken.

With daily news media attention focusing constantly on Mr. Obama as he prepares to take office, he has taken pains not to appear to be competing against Mr. Bush — emphasizing several times that there was only one president at a time. But once again on Saturday, Mr. Obama took the limelight away from Mr. Bush, who used his own radio address to criticize Democratic Congressional leaders for adjourning without reaching an agreement to help the ailing automobile industry.

"If the automakers are willing to make the hard decisions needed to become viable, they should be able to receive the funds Congress already allotted to them for other purposes," Mr. Bush said. "This is a critical issue for our economy and our country."

Mr. Obama did not mention the controversial proposal to rescue the auto industry. But he did hint that his proposal, too, would be a political battle.

"I know that passing this plan won't be easy," Mr. Obama said. "I will need and seek support from Republicans and Democrats, and I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle.

"But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action," Mr. Obama said. "Right now, there are millions of mothers and fathers who are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills. There are Americans showing up to work in the morning only to have cleared out their desks by the afternoon. Retirees are watching their life savings disappear, and students are seeing their college dreams deferred. These Americans need help, and they need it now."

November 22nd, 2008 3:59 am
Hearings on Cheney, others halted

By Emma Perez-Treviño / Brownsville Herald

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra brought a hearing to a halt on Friday when he asked that Judge J. Manuel Bañales recuse himself from presiding over the arraignments of several high-profile public officials.

Guerra filed a motion that Bañales recuse himself from the hearings, because he questioned how the judge handled the indictments and whether the state would receive a fair trial. The motion remained pending.

In a courtroom packed with defense attorneys, court personnel, media and observers, Guerra accused the judge of giving the defendants, including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., special treatment in allowing motions to quash the indictments to be heard before they were arraigned.

Guerra was indicted in March of 2007 for allegedly using county property for personal use, but Bañales dismissed the charges last month for lack of evidence, according Valley Freedom Newspapers archives. Guerra attributed his re-election loss in the March Democratic Primary to the indictment against him.

"Eighteen months you kept me indicted," Guerra told Bañales.

Clearly stunning defense attorneys who shot up from their chairs, David Oliveira noted that Guerra had done the "same thing" before, referring to the strategy.

For now, the matter is in the hands of Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson who will review Guerra's motion for recusal.

Bañales recessed Friday's court hearing until 10 a.m. Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving.

Neither Cheney nor Gonzales was represented in court and Cheney's Washington D.C. attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Guerra also disputed Bañales' appointment of Cameron County Assistant District Attorney Alfredo Padilla as district attorney pro-tem in the official oppression and abuse of office charges against 103rd District Judge Janet Leal, 197th District Judge Migdalia Lopez, former Willacy County special prosecutors Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. and Gustavo Garza, and Willacy County District Clerk Gilbert Lozano.

They allegedly were improperly involved in the investigation and indictment of Guerra last year.

Guerra also questioned the validity of his removal from five of the latest eight cases without a court hearing.

With pent-up grievances erupting, Guerra's voice cracked with emotion and increased in timbre as he cried out to the court that Bañales and the defense attorneys were trying to "ambush" him.

Guerra said that the problem is that 12 citizens were wise enough to "know what is happening in Willacy County."

"Do you really think that my grand jury didn't take this (indicting officials including Vice-President Cheney) seriously? They (grand jurors) took it very, very, seriously," Guerra said.

The controversial DA noted that grand jurors who returned the indictments Monday were not ignorant and that he was not crazy.

Padilla did not support Guerra's move to recuse Bañales from all of the cases.

Bañales directed Guerra to cooperate with Padilla and to allow his access to the files on the five cases. Although Guerra initially said that he would be going to the 13th Court of Appeals, he later changed his mind and said he would not.

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