Tuesday Briefing
Announcements; DC judicial rot; and a master class in how to fight
• First an announcement: the Three Whisky Happy Hour podcast will be recording early this week on account of tangled schedules that make our preferred Friday taping impossible, so we’ll be livestreaming tomorrow Wednesday) afternoon at 4 pm PACIFIC time right here. John Yoo is unavailable tomorrow, so we’re going to have a special mystery guest who anchors a rival podcast of sorts (hint: the initials of this rival podcast are TNT). As always, subject to change if something goes wrong; otherwise tune in here at 4 pm, or watch your email for a notice.
• Lloyd Billingsley is up first in today’s briefing, with this item:
Trouble in Faruquistan
Judge fundamentally transforms himself into Cole Thomas Allen’s pro-bono attorney
Magistrate judge Zia Faruqui protested the treatment of attempted Trump assassin Cole Thomas Allen, telling the gunman “It’s troubling. I never heard of one Jan. 6 defendant who was put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell,” adding, “at a minimum I should be apologizing to him. We are obligated to make sure he’s taken care of. Mr. Allen, I’m sorry that things have not been the way they are supposed to.” As Sir Bedevire (Terry Jones) might say, who is this who is so wise in the ways of the law?
“The Judge Who Won’t Bend the Knee: Pakistani American Zia M. Faruqui’s Lonely Stand Against Trump’s Justice Department,” headlines American Kahani. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro calls Faruqui an “activist judge” who has “allowed his politics to consistently cloud his judgment.” A craven apology to a potential assassin, who shot a Secret Service agent, should confirm that judgement. For full-on judicial depravity, consider also DC District judge James Boasberg.
As presiding judge of the secret FISA court, Boasberg authorized surveillance of US Navy veteran Carter Page a Trump campaign advisor in 2016 and asset for the CIA. FBI lawyer Kevin Klinesmith altered an email to say that Page had notbeen an asset for the CIA. That felony carried a five-year maximum but in his circuit court role, Boasberg let Klinesmith off with probation, not even a tap on the wrist.
Last year Boasberg effectively appointed himself head of the FAA, demanding that a flight of criminal illegals turn around and return stateside. The Obama judge appears to believe he can exercise supreme executive power without a mandate from the masses. For a similar performer consider federal judge Emmet Sullivan, appointed to the DC District by Bill Clinton.
FBI boss James Comey set a perjury trap for Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s pick for national security advisor. The case wound up with Sullivan, who kept it going after the DOJ sought dismissal. Sullivan then appointed former federal judge John Gleeson, a 1994 Bill Clinton pick, to argue that the DOJ decision to drop the case was improper. Gleeson accused the Justice Department of a “corrupt, politically motivated dismissal” that constituted a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power,” and so on, similar to judge Faruqui’s antics.
According to the Georgetown Pakistan Public Policy Conclave, Zia Faruqui “received” his BA and JD from Georgetown University and served as a federal prosecutor in St. Louis and Washington DC. For this non-lawyer, it matters not if Faruqui earned his degrees at Southwest Einstein A&M while starring on the cricket squad. This partisan poltroon has no place in any court and should be impeached along with Sullivan and Boasberg. As the peasant Dennis (Michael Palin) might say, black robe supremacy is no basis for a system of justice.
• I [Steve] have neglected to make note of my contribution to the Civitas Outlook symposium a few days ago reflecting on Justice Clarence Thomas’s recent speech on the Declaration of Independence. My contribution was “‘Silent Clarence’ Meets ‘Silent Cal’,” and as you might guess I draw out the parallels between Calvin’s Coolidge’s justly celebrated speech on the Declaration in 1926, and Thomas’s citation and extension of it today. But wait—there’s more! It was a clean sweep for the hosts of the Three Whisky Happy Hour podcasts, as the symposium also features essays from John Yoo and Linda (”Lucretia”) Denno, too.
As podcast listeners know, Lucretia and I like to poke John for his positivism and allergy to natural law. So I like to pass along this endorsement, posted on Facebook, by Christopher Wolfe of the University of Dallas:
• I am sure some readers enjoyed watching EPA administrator Lee Zeldin expose Rep. Rosa DeLauro—who is, ahem, one of the more “colorful” members of the House, and who apparently aspires to represent the Mos Eisley cantina from Star Wars—about climate hysteria. Here’s a three-minute clip:
But it gets better. One thing I love about the Trump era is that it has finally gotten conservatives out of their long-time defensive crouch when the left attacks. Like this fabulous tweet from Zeldin:
This is how you should fight.
 | A guest post by
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God, I would love to have Lee Zeldin pursue national elective office. Politicians so often disappoint, but he seems like someone who is extremely smart with no b.s. through and through. Not an ideologue, just in possession of sensible ideas.
The idiots in our government (all 3 branches of every state & the feds) need to be taught like the elephant at the county fair. His handler posted a sign next to it stating: $10 if you can get the elephant to shake his head. A youngster came up holding a 2x4. He looked the elephant straight in the eyes and asked "Do you know what this is?" The elephant shook his head to indicate he didn't and then the boy smacked him upside his head. Man paid the boy the $10. A little later on, the boy came back with his 2x4 to see a sign stating:$10 if you can get the elephant to nod his head. The man told the boy "You can hit him with that stick again". So the boy held up the stick and said to the elephant "Do you know what this can do?" The elephant nodded yes. Boy got his $10. Just a while later he came back and the sign said: $10 if you can get the elephant to nod his head and shake his head right after. The man told the boy to put the stick down first. He did and then asked the elephant: Do you remember me?" Creature nodded. The boy then asked "Do you want me to pick up the stick and do it again". Elephant shook head. Boy got the $10 for the third time.MORAL: A 2X4 upside the head teaches lessons quicker than reading this joke. Pubbies need to learn from Zeldin how to wield a "proverbial" (or not) 2x4.