out with the old, in with the ewwwww

there was much rejoicing yesterday when it was announced that the holy roller john ashcroft had resigned as attorney general. that rejoicing lasted about 24 hours.

now bush has appointed white house counsel alberto gonzalez as the new attorney general. this is the guy who wrote some very controversial memos that attempted to justify brutal interrogation techniques in iraq & afghanistan (using ideas similar to the ones that were just struck down by a federal judge):

Democrats will probably press Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on the legal advice he and the Justice Department gave Bush regarding people captured in the war on terrorism.

Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the panel should be tough on Gonzales.

"The road from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib was paved with the memos of Gonzales," Ratner said. Photos of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad showed them being mistreated by U.S. guards.

Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that lawmakers should probe Gonzales's beliefs about the Guantanamo Bay detentions, the legality of torture and the constitutionality of the Patriot Act.

Sixteen provisions of the act, including some that deal with wiretaps and access to business records, will expire at the end of 2005 unless Congress renews them.

he's latino, which is good. but he has a seriously flawed sense of ethics and human rights. he probably won't annoint himself with oils or censor seminude statues in the justice department, but he probably won't do anything to preserve civil rights in this counrty (or throughout the world) either.

he still must be approved by the senate, but they approved ashcroft last time, so don't count on that meaning much.

rumors are also circulating that powell & rice will step down soon, and millions of fingers worldwide are crossed in the hopes that rumsfeld will resign also.