I’m not up to Ramos/Compean blogging yet (soon) but I couldn’t pass up this El Paso story from last week:

“EL PASO, Tx. – A multi-agency, high-speed chase on I-10 results in the detention of a suspected drug runner and his drug load. According to law enforcement officials, the chase started near the Ft. Hancock Port of Entry, 59 miles east of El Paso. Agents spotted a suspicious vehicle near the bridge which then fled into the US and onto the freeway.

US Customs, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department units chased a late-model ford pickup truck from the county, all the way into city limits. Once in the city limits, El Paso Police joined in the chase, and began shutting off the entrance ramps to the freeway. The chase came to an end on I-10 west, just before the McRae entrance ramp.

The suspect was unable to get around several tractor-trailer rigs that had slowed to hamper his getaway. His truck then struck a Ford Explorer, forcing him out of the vehicle. TxDot traffic cameras caught the suspect as he ran from the truck and was quickly tackled by several law enforcement officials. El Paso County Sheriff’s officials say they found nearly 1000 pounds of pot in the bed of the truck, covered by bags of animal feed.

A US Customs Blackhawk helicopter was also involved in the chase. TxDoT officials closed I-10 West and the Yarbrough on-ramp (west-bound) for at least 2 hours as they cleared the scene.”

If I recall correctly from the Ramos/Compean trial transcript, Fort Hancock is adjacent to the Fabens sector. I’m glad to see so many local and state law enforcement agencies were involved. Good job by the truckers, too.

H/T James Taranto.

[Posted by WLS]

I posted a comment last week defending the appoinment of Rachel Paulose notwithstanding the fact that she was “underqualified” and light on experience, but certainly not “unqualified” as was being suggested. I noted her “gold plated resume” and her prior experience both in the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office and as an associate at the very powerful and politically connected Williams & Connelly firm in D.C.

Part of my comment was picked up and linked by Powerline’s Scott Johnson.

Powerline put up another comment on Paulose defending her appointment from attacks on the left and right — Paul Krugman and David Frum.

But, from my perspective, the links in Johnson’s newest post to articles in the Minn. Star-Trib. raise more questions about Paulose’s appointment than answers, and I’m troubled by the unresolved questions and my gut feeling about the answers.

In my earlier post I reversed the dates during which Ms. Paulose was employed as an associate by Williams & Connelly in D.C., and by Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis. I assumed she had gone to Williams & Connolly for one year prior to her joining DOJ in early 2006, and her time/connections at Williams & Connolly were instrumental in getting her the nod for the US Attorney’s position in Minneapolis. From the Star-Trib. story of 4/14, it appears that her time at Williams & Connolly came first, and after one year she returned to Minneapolis to join Dorsey & Whitney, where she remained until Jan. 2006 when she applied for a job as Counsel to the Dep.AG.

(more…)

Horrible news: a gunman at Virginia Tech has killed at least 32 people in one of the worst (if not the worst) mass shootings in the country’s history.

This is a time to put aside politics and come together as a country. Or it should be. My guess: DU, Daily Kos, and HuffPo are all crawling with threads accusing Karl Rove of being behind the shootings, to distract from the upcoming testimony of Alberto Gonzales. (Bonus points to the first commenter to post links bearing out my hypothesis.) [UPDATE: Commenters are beginning to post the all too predictable evidence of nonsense along these lines.]

Consider this an open thread on the massacre. I’m especially interested in hearing from those of you in Virginia, to get a sense of what things are like there.

UPDATE: Some commenters are blaming me for jumping to conclusions without evidence.

You want evidence?

Here’s an example from DU. It’s a deleted post, followed by a response that says: “You can’t seriously think this is a Cheney/Rove distraction, can you?”

At least they had the decency to delete it.

And at Daily Kos:

We will get to the bottom of this issue one way or another. If Gonzales has done what we think he has, someone will soon find out. Just like the votes finally got counted from 2000, somebody will eventually learn all the details.

And HuffPo:

Anybody account for Gonzales’s whereabouts today?

By: SouthpawSass on April 16, 2007 at 07:55pm

That’s three for three. As if there was any doubt it would happen.

UPDATE x2: Here is another charmer, from HuffPo (where else?):

A shooter like that should visit the white House and rid the world of the scums.
It’s Payback Time America….Your kids are being shot just like the innocents in Iraq.
How does it feel Now ?
What goes around…Comes around and that is just the beginning of your sufferings !
By: DICKSCARPETMUNCHERGIRL on April 16, 2007 at 03:14m

Correction….31 dead and 29 injured in VA.
Not bad for a world record !
A good shooter like that should visit the White House and Congress !
I guess it’s called PAYBACK TIME for Amerikkkans. What goes around…comes around !
How does it feel to have your kids murdered for nothing ?
By: DICKSCARPETMUNCHERGIRL on April 16, 2007 at 03:17pm

Adam Cohen writes:

Opponents of Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin spent $4 million on ads last year trying to link the Democratic incumbent to a state employee who was sent to jail on corruption charges. The effort failed, and Mr. Doyle was re-elected and now the state employee has been found to have been wrongly convicted. The entire affair is raising serious questions about why a United States attorney put an innocent woman in jail.

The conviction of Georgia Thompson has become part of the furor over the firing of eight United States attorneys in what seems like a political purge. While the main focus of that scandal is on why the attorneys were fired, the Thompson case raises questions about why other prosecutors kept their jobs.

Cohen implies that prosecutors kept their jobs because they brought thinly based political prosecutions like that of Georgia Thompson.

Cohen never explains that Steven Biskupic, the head of the office that prosecuted Thompson, is thought to have been targeted for firing only after Biskupic’s prosecution of Thompson had been completed.

The timing makes no sense. But Cohen shows no interest in exploring that angle. Instead, without any evidence whatever, Cohen speculates about Biskupic’s motives:

Mr. Biskupic made the creative argument that she gained by obtaining “political advantage for her superiors” and that in pleasing them she “enhanced job security for herself.” Those motivations, of course, may well describe why Mr. Biskupic prosecuted Ms. Thompson.

Cohen describes that as “ironic indeed.” What I find ironic is that, while Cohen is willing to excoriate Biskupic for leveling serious accusations at Thompson with slim evidence, Cohen is only too happy to level accusations at Biskupic with no evidence at all.