A Good Read

Thinking this weekend might be include some time curled up with a nice mystery? Perhaps you're a fan of police procedurals? Looking for a read with something with the flavor of Law & Order crossed with, say, the West Wing?

At the risk of depriving your local independent bookstore of business, I recommend finding your weekend reading on the Web. The invaluable Marcy Wheeler, who blogs as 'emptywheel' at The Next Hurrah, introduces us to a compelling mystery involving high powered conspiracy, political intrigue, and investigators slowly piecing together a picture clue by clue. It begins with a review of the high points of the new interim report on the Congressional investigation to the US Attorney firings.

Let's remember, Alberto Gonzales' equivocations, faulty memories, and misleading testimonies really got started there, with questions about the attorney firings, originally portrayed as an 'overblown personnel matter.' The Congressional report does an impressive job of detailing, step-by-step, what evidence has been uncovered, what laws have possibly been violated, even why Congress is well within its rights to be asking more questions, and why claims of executive privilege are invalid.

Ms. Wheeler starts here, with a general review of the congressional report. Here's a 'blurb':

The report on the findings to date in the USA purge lists the following crimes and violations that may have been committed in the course of the USA firings:

* Obstruction of justice, attempted obstruction of justice [18 USC 1503, 1505, 1512(c)(2)]
* Criminal Hatch Act violations [18 USC 606]
* Presidential failure to ensure that laws are faithfully executed [Constitution, Article II, Section 3]
* Civil Hatch Act violations [5 USC 7323(a)(1)]
* Federal Civil Rights laws [18 USC 242]
* Conspiracy [18 USC 2, 371]
* Perjury [18 USC 1621]
* False Statements [18 USC 1001]

For a number of these potential crimes (particularly obstruction and criminal Hatch Act violations), the report cites multiple possible violations. This is a list that bloggers on this topic need to keep ready at hand, because it puts in concrete terms what this whole investigation is about. This report, for the first time, makes clear that Congress is investigating real criminal violations, that evidence suggests a crime was committed, and that by invoking executive privilege, the White House is obstructing the investigation into potential crimes.

Make sure to click through to all the links in her post, because she's been following this with the same professionalism that made her an expert of l'affaire Plame.

For a compact slice of the criminal conspiracy, read her summary of the report's treatment of testimony regarding the dismissal of New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias.

But if you're hankering for a real escape, really sink your teeth into all the details, without nearly the hours required for the new Harry Potter. The report itself is a downloadable PDF file. Take a refreshing journey into a world where rules and laws still apply, logic holds, and the English language has actual, objective meaning!

One of the tactics the administration is using is to spread confusion and doubt through constantly changing stories and complications, knowing that in today's media environment it all eventually becomes static in the ears of the electorate. This report is one way to resist their efforts to con you and lure you into giving up on the story. An informed citizenry, bulwark of democracy, and all that, you know?

Dig in. It's quite a read.