A step forward in San Diego

Presented without comment.

(h/t TAPPED, via Feministing. Harvard's Quench has also covered this.)

U.S. Attorney in Duke Cunningham case forced to resign by Bush Administration

In a shocking move with political consequences, the Bush Justice Department has asked San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam to resign. Under a process changed by the Patriot Act, Bush can now appoint a new U.S. Attorney without Senate confirmation (normally the Senate confirms the President's nominees for U.S. Attorneys).

This is also not the first time the Bush Administration has fired U.S. Attorneys and replaced them without Senate confirmation: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., criticized the Bush administration yesterday for 'pushing out U.S. Attorneys from across the country under the cloak of secrecy.' 'We don't know how many U.S. Attorneys have been asked to resign – it could be two, it could be ten, it could be more. No one knows,' she said in a statement."

While the stated reason for her dismissal is her job performance, Lam has been focusing less on illegal immigrant and drug cases and more on white collar crimes and corruption, like that of resigned Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

San Diego Bans Wal-Mart

The San Diego City Council has voted to ban Wal-Mart Supercenters. I was interested in this for two reasons: Wal-Mart sucks and San Diego politics are crazy.

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