B'Man's Revolt
Don Siegelman
Don Siegelman: What Is The Media Hiding
The other, more important thing is this: As you may or may not know, the one aspect of your long ordeal that the press has stubbornly refused to mention–or, I think, even to perceive–is the theft of that election in 2002. Like you, I believe that that was crucial; but the press, quite typically, won’t mention it. Frankly, I believe that they, and most leading Democrats, are in denial about it, as its implications are too frightening.Just as they’ve looked away from all the evidence of vast election fraud throughout Bush/Cheney’s reign, therefore, they’ve also looked away from the subversion of that gubernatorial race in Alabama. And so that chapter of your story is unknown to most Americans, even those who’ve lately heard the rest of it.
Mark, I mention the vote stealing in every interview. 60 Minutes cut it out. Don Abrams didn’t want to go there either. I have told the story to the Washington Post and LA Times.The hook is Rove’s fingerprints are found there too. First, in that Rove’s friend Jack Abramoff hires Dan Gans, who was in charge of ” electronic ballot security” in Baldwin County, Alabama, where the votes were stolen. Gans, working for the Alexander Strategies Group, claims credit for the win on his website, which he then takes down when Abramoff gets arrested. The second is Rove’s business partner, Kitty Mc Cullough (a/k/a Kelly Kimbrough) is given credit for the electronic vote switch by the state Republican Party.
The first question that came to my mind is why didn’t they want to “go there”. If they are truly trying to illuminate the potential illegal activities, this would be an excellent one to look in to, wouldn’t it?
The MSM cannot be trusted, even when it appears they are doing something worthy of admiration, one should always be suspicious.
For when it comes down to it, they will not allow something to be aired that will cause them to lose money. Somehow, we need to figure out what, in this case, would cause them to lose money by telling the story.
My suspicion is that somehow, even in silence, they are complicit.
Siegelman To Be Released!
Some justice is finally served. Breaking news…
Siegelman To Be Released From Prison Pending Appeal
ATLANTA, Ga. — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted former Gov. Don Siegelman’s request to be released from prison pending the outcome of his appeal.
Siegelman is currently serving a 7-year sentence in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana following his 2006 public corruption conviction.
Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin confirms the 11th Circuit granted Siegelman’s release in a fou- page order which states Siegelman had raised a “significant question” about his conviction.
Siegelman was convicted of accepting $500,000 in campaign contributions from HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy in exchange for giving Scrushy a seat on a state hospital board.
Scrushy is serving a similar sentence at a federal prison in Texas.
Don Siegelman beaten in Prison
I saw this at C&L (one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs and probably one of my very favorite), which got it from DailyKos:
All roads lead to Rove. That was the message scrawled as an afterthought in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope I received in yesterday’s mail. It contained a letter from an old and dear friend of mine. His name is Don Siegelman. He is the former governor of Alabama and he is being held as a political prisoner of the Bush administration in a Federal prison in Louisiana.
They don’t allow Don the luxury of stationary so he must write his letters on whatever he can find. He wrote me on a xeroxed article he wanted me to see. [..]
When I first heard of Don being prosecuted for corruption my heart sank. I didn’t know what to think. It had been years since we’d spoken and the press made it sound awful for Don (what else?). Of course I had no idea what was really going on. Now that I do I am horrified…and furious.
Don is a formidable force in Alabama politics. His friends are loyal and his supporters enthusiastic. They re-elected him Governor in the midst of a bogus corruption trial engineered by the Bush Justice Department at the behest of Karl Rove who takes orders from you-know-who. Don campaigned for re-election throughout the early phases of the trial. On election night he was declared the winner, but Karl Rove’s minions stole the election overnight by manipulating the ballots in Baldwin County. It was classic Rovian/Republican election theft. They did it with computers and electronic voting machines. Don went to bed the re-elected Governor of Alabama, and woke up an unemployed defendant. [..]
Something that has not been reported is that they have been physically beating Don. I don’t know the extent of his injuries or exactly how many times it has happened – but it has been multiple times.
There are no words for the fury I feel. This is an outrage. And it is the most un-American thing I have ever heard. I cry bitter tears of frustration and rage.
Please everyone. We have to help Don, and we have to crush these thugs and put them out of the business of perverting our democracy. We must investigate and prosecute the responsible parties, not for political reasons, but to actually serve the interest of justice. The cause of justice calls upon us to hold these criminals accountable. We must bring them to justice and stop such travesties from ever again happening in our United States of America.
You can contact Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Patrick Leahy, Judiciary committee chairmen, and ask them to appoint an Independent Investigator so the complicit Bush Justice Dept (his personal law firm, as it were) is forced to stay out of it. To donate, go to Siegelman’s Defense Fund.
“they could not beat him fair and square”
So what do the ReTHUGlicans do? Railroad the man under KKKarl Rove’s direction. I wrote and added a video about the subject here. The sad part is that ReTHUGs own Alabama politics so thoroughly, it is finally taking honest, law-abiding Republicans to try to fix this.
Why is it that everything that the Bush Administration is involved with seems criminal? More importantly, why are there so few that seem to notice and care. These people should be frog-marched to Gitmo for a little vacation and relaxation with a little water poured over their heads, as they are so quick to endorse.
Scott Horton from Harpers (who has been following this story very closely) shares:
…the show was dominated by one of 52 former attorneys general from 40 of the 50 states who have called for a Congressional probe of the conduct of the Siegelman case, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods. He leveled a series of blistering accusations at the Bush Administration’s Justice Department. With the Alabama G.O.P. this evening issuing a near-hysterical statement in which it characterizes the CBS broadcast—before its transmission—as an anti-Republican attack piece, it was notable that Woods, like the piece’s other star witness, is a Republican. Not just any Republican, either. Grant Woods is co-chair of the McCain for President leadership committee, and a lifelong friend and advisor to the presumptive 2008 G.O.P. presidential candidate. Woods is also godfather to one of the McCain children.
Attorney General Woods has this to say about the Bush Justice Department’s prosecution of Siegelman: “I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square. This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of.”
In other words, not being able to beat Siegelman at the polls, Woods believes that his own party corruptly used the criminal justice process to take out an adversary. This is an extraordinary, heavy accusation. Not something that a senior Republican would raise easily about his own party. And the facts back the accusation up, beginning to end.
Like I said, this came from an insider Republican with some integrity (yes, there are some out there). Let us NEVER confuse the real republicans with what has hijacked their party, the ReTHUGlicans. They are NOT one and the same.
One more thing: WHNT, the CBS affiliate in Huntsville, AL was the ONLY station in the USA to have a “technical” problem arise, ONLY during this segment of the program. How amazing is that? Did you know that the owners of that bogus assed tv station are heavy contributors to Republicans and the Bush Admin? Did you know that the rest of you Alabamians are worthless to them and their agenda? That they are playing you for fools?
Wake up, rednecks!
I don’t know if Siegelman is a crook or not. But, after what the ReTHUGs have done in the past 7 years, the best bet is to reopen this case and see where the lying, thieving bastards associated with “W” have done others wrong. Nothing they have done should go without crucial and thorough evaluation for additional law breaking.
They truly are THUGS.
Station Says ‘60 Minutes’ Blackout Was Just Technical
A television station in Huntsville, Ala., offered viewers nothing but a black screen for 12 minutes Sunday night — at the exact time that the CBS News program “60 Minutes” was broadcasting a report about potential political skulduggery involving the former Bush administration official Karl Rove in the conviction of a former Democratic governor of the state.
The interruption raised suspicions among some viewers, especially Democratic backers of Don Siegelman, the former governor, that partisan political interests might be behind the blackout.
Even some CBS executives wondered initially about the reasons for the disruption, though the general manager of the station, WHNT-TV, denied any ulterior motives, and immediately offered the report in its entirety on the station’s newscasts Sunday and Monday nights, as well as on its Web site.
“We know what our license means to us,” said Stan Pylant, the chief executive at the station. “There were no political motives in this.”
Mr. Pylant blamed a signal receiver. “The receiver failed to pick up the video from CBS,” he said. The station had no problems picking up CBS for the half-hour before “60 Minutes” started. The network’s Sunday evening news was on. But Mr. Pylant said that as he watched at home he saw the signal break off just as “60 Minutes” started…
Yeah, right. Everything was working moments before the segment and then miraculously started working correctly AFTER the segment and you folks had NOTHING to do with it? Yours was the ONLY affiliate to have this problem at that moment in all of CBS in the world.
Don’t insult even a redneck’s intelligence, you Bush crony Richard Noggin. Even we are smarter than that.
GOP Operative: Rove Sought To Smear Dem, 60 Minutes: Woman Says Top Bush Adviser Asked Her To Take Compromising Pictures Of Alabama Gov. Siegelman – CBS News
from www.cbsnews.com posted with vodpod
This is what happens when a Republican’s honor cannot allow the ReTHUGlican law breaking to continue. On a side note, I lived in Alabama when Don was governor and from what I remember, he was a good governor and well liked.
As I have said countless times, the stench of guilt is so strong with the Bush Administration and especially Karl Rove’s actions/tactics, that how can anyone EXCEPT a party clown not suspect wrong-doing, or, at least, dubious, political motivation? How can ANYONE (of honor) NOT want this investigated and brought into full view of the public and official evaluation/processing?
I don’t watch much TV, but I’ll turn her on for this.
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UPDATE from Glenn Greenwald with additional charges coming:
For months, Harper‘s Scott Horton has been following and reporting on the story of Karl Rove’s limitless crusade to destroy Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama about as closely as anyone can follow a story. Yesterday, Scott emailed to say:
You should alert your readers to watch 60 Minutes on Sunday for an extremely important piece. They will learn how at the instigation of Karl Rove, the Justice Department was turned into a political hit machine to destroy the reputation and ultimately imprison AL governor Don Siegelman on accusations which do not constitute, no matter how you parse it, a crime. Rove will be directly linked to the process by the testimony of a Republican political operative (I can tell you that her testimony was corroborated by numerous other witnesses who refused to be named or cited, some of whom where physically present during the operative’s meetings with Rove); and then we’ll see how the Justice Department built a bogus case, shoving aside the career prosecutors who concluded there was no basis to proceed.
Finally, it will show that the prosecutors coerced witnesses to give false testimony, withheld exculpatory evidence, and lied about all of this. In fact, when contacted for comment DOJ asked for a day to look into it before responding. They then came back and admitted that they were not in a position to deny any of the allegations, so they went with “no comment.” It’s an explosive piece. And it’s only the first. CBS has substantial additional data showing how the judge, a George W. Bush appointee and Republican political campaign functionary, was hand picked by prosecutors to run this circus, and how he refused to recuse himself notwithstanding his conflicts. And they have a great deal more information on the US attorney involved, who is the wife of the state’s leading GOP campaign advisor, who managed the campaign against Siegelman, and who is also a long standing friend and business associate of Karl Rove’s. It’s an extraordinary, deep peek into a hopelessly corrupt Justice Department. They’ve been struggling to keep the lid on this story for two years. And on Sunday it is going to blow.Scott is a very smart and savvy commentator, not prone to hyperbole, so this piece will undoubtedly be worth watching. Scott’s latest post on the Siegelman/60 Minutes matter is here.
