Bush League Justice: More on Siegelman
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Feb 27, 2008 11:00am
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Luckily for us, Dan Abrams isn't letting go of the Don Siegelman story. On Wednesday's show, he brought on Harper's contributer Scott Horton, who has been covering this story from the beginning. They discuss the "mysterious" blacking out of the 60 Minutes piece at WHNT and the various connections that the station owners have with the Republican party and the Bush administration.
Abrams speaks to whistleblower Dana Jill Simpson, of whom the Alabama Republican party (and chief strategist Karl Rove) disavow knowledge.
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Finally, Abrams speaks to Don Siegelman's daughter, Dana, who speaks out on her father's feelings about this new publicity in his case and gives some indication of why the Republican party was interested in getting Siegelman out of the way.
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One must ask how this is possible in our country. How is this allowed?
Jason @ 1:
It's apparent to me that this country is under attack from a domestic enemy. And that enemy is the GOP and the neo-con movement.
Turdblossam at work?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dV2ECMd66M
Oops. A Republican foot soldier who is pissed about being given the hand. Sounds a bit like those pissed off attorney generals all over.
We should all do what we can to help Don Siegelman out. This is our country after all.
http://www.house.gov
I'm glad to hear the Alabama station rebroadcast the segment. Can't they get fined for that shit? At least, can't the network punish them?
Dan Abrams also said there would be a follow-up segment tonight, (Thurs.), and every night until the governor is released on appeal. That was great to hear!
Off topic: Bush says US not headed for recession but economy slows to a crawl - great screen grab from Yahoo News:
http://www.moxiegrrrl.com/2008/02/couldnt-pass-this-up.html
Orangutan. @ 5:
It's been hi-jacked for seven years. Everyone should do what they can to chase the neo-cons out of DC.
By the way; one of them told the Turks today to get their buisnes in northern Iraq done in a hurry and get out. Why doesn't the white house follow its own advice? Not that they had any buisnes in Iraq from the get go.
meanwhile...
kkkarl rove's career is taking off. with new stints on faux noise, newsweek and god knows what else, it is evident that he feels that, after all of his illegal and immoral activity, he is in the clear--legally and professionally speaking.
i say, no. not on my watch.
personally, i am down with--for the rest of his sad and fat days--haunting him and making his life all that more difficult, with his career, and with his sanity. contact sponsors for newsweek and sponsors for any other organization that is dumb enough to hire this bumblefuck. when he goes to the store he should be followed by protestors. when he moves to a new neighborhood he should be followed by protestors. when he goes to have a bite to eat he should be followed by protestors.
some might find that chilling and unamerican, but until he is held accountable for his myriad of crimes he does not deserve to experience the freedom he has been a part of taking from the people.
the notion that he can simply walk away from the damage he has created... actually not even walk away, he is now getting richer off of his illegal activities, is a non-starter. never let him forget that he is one of the most hated people in the universe. he fits somewhere between goebbels and rasputin. he deserves to be put on trial. he deserves guantanamo bay.
MoxieGrrrl @ 8:
Kind of reminds me of when Reagan used the word resession in '87 just to avoid the word depression. They call it something different every time. That way people don't run to the bank in a frenzy.
ysbaddaden @ 3:
I loved Hogan's heroes and Schultz. But to say that Turdblossom is Schultz is to underestimate the SOB. Schultz was a denier, turned his back on what was going on in front of him. TurdBlossom is the source of the devious misdeeds of the GOP, has been since his earlier Nixon days in the College repub. He is behind the win at all costs mentality of the present GOP.
As a kid, at 10, I remember Nixon, his dog, reading Herblock and trying my hand at penning "I am not a crook" cartoons, and being told by my parents that democrats don't do that. That mudslinging was bad! That it debased you more than it harmed the target.
I wish my dad had talked to turdblossom back them!
Orangutan. @ 5:
This is his country also!
MoxieGrrrl @ 8:
I saw that and was stuck by the irony, too. What is Bush - a liar or a dolt?
Thanks for everyone for staying on this story!
Samson- @ 10:
And don't forget about Tony Snow, and the rest of this cabal. Flood the phone lines when Tony subs for BillO (or is it Rush?)
Haunt them all, and send GW to the Hague with Rummy.
Samson- @ 10:
Everybody in the white house deserves to be waterboarded at Guantanamo. If it doesn't happen, the legal system in the US is fucked.
Oh, wait........................ Never mind.
JohnA @ 14:
i type legal transcripts for a living (in massachusetts). if a delay of this length had occurred in massachusetts, they would be bringing contempt charges against the reporter (if in fact the transcript has not actually already been completed).
based on over 25 years typing massachusetts superior court criminal trials, something of the length of governor siegelman's trial would take no more than six weeks at the very outside to prepare.
if alabama needs some help getting it done, they can contact me and i will clear my calendar.
The more I hear about this story, the more appalled I become at the treatment of the neo-pagan media and liberal bloggers to the mistakes made by WHNT. They are technical glitches. It happens, and technical by nature. Why this sort of witch-hunting to the extreme by MSNBC and left-wing Godless liberal bloggers on this particular issue is beyond reasonable and rational thinking.
All aside, should we put our trust on a lone vindictive crusader against Karl Rove at all ? If there is any meat to this story, if at all, there would have been multiple federal investigations into this matter. But there isn't, there is only one investigations to this alleged story, which has not gone anywhere at all. So please stop this vindictiveness and witch-hunting, and get back to the real world.
DJ, Arlington Group
JohnA @ 14:
it just blows my mind when i hear people say "well, if the public didn't like it they would let us know." excuse me? hello? drafting a letter and sending it out to whoever one can think to contact, or making a phone call to your senator or rep is no more productive than spitting in the wind. it would be a full-time job for me to conduct the kind of oversight and follow-up necessary to get ANYONE's attention on any one issue, but the number of actual crimes (much less your average policy failure) committed by the bush administration overwhelms those of us who have to work full-time (or two or three jobs thanks to this terrific economy).
"nobody knows nothing" is the response i have gotten whenever i have phoned my representatives or senators. and they're democrats.
my favorite part is where we are constantly told we live in a democracy -- but the minute anyone suggests that our elected representatives should bow to the will of the people, they start muttering that this is a republic and we elect them to make the decisions for us, regardless of the fact that 80% of the public disagree. 'cause they're just so darned smart and we're just so darned not.
excuse me while i spit out some more teeth.
I likes me some Dana.
dj @ 20:
umm...We ARE talking about the real world-which is Criminal activity by The Thugs who rule US. So,when The Thugs stop the vindictiveness and witch hunting,it'll be a START to a better world.
Uh, where are the Dems during all of this? Isn't this about the time the seeds should be planted for this story to surface to a) get justice for Siegelman and b) use it to help further bury the GOP in the election?
dj @ 20:
liberalNmoderation @ 2:
First mistake is calling it "our country." It doesn't belong to us anymore. It's their country and it's their government: the GOP and the neo-cons (and, of course, the corporations that own them). We allowed them to take it in 2000. We'll see if the Dem party is much better.
Imagine if somebody hijacked your own child and you didn't move mountains to get him/her back over a 7 year period. That's about our reaction to what BushCo has done.
Turdblossom is probably at work (behind the scenes) on the election of 2008 also. The fact that he is out there, doing whatever he pleases, scares the sh!t out of me.
She's Hot!!!
Abrams has been a real tool at times, so it's nice to see him hammer this one. It's an important story.
Alternate Reality Headline Goes Here
More Distortions Hit The Web in Siegelman's Case
Let this echo all across the “Internets.”
The little Birmingham News reporters have gotten themselves a big time interview with Karl Rove, that mastermind of Bush politics who managed to take over the Alabama Supreme Court a few years back - by fooling the Birmingham and Mobile newspaper reporters with assertions of "jackpot justice" and such. You know, the same Karl Rove they used to call "Bush's brain" - before we figured out he didn't have a one.
The Locust Fork News and Journal
http://www.locustfork.net/
http://blog.locustfork.net/
Siegelman's story is bigger than domestic wiretapping and at least as big as US tortore, I mean for fucks sake - WE ARE TAKING POLITICAL PRISONERS! I was always told that the Republican party was ANTI-Soviet but here they are, Emulating the repression they screamed so much about.
Red states indeed!
RELEASE THIS MAN! He did nothing wrong but kick every Repub's butt in Aalabama and they cried like little babies and had him locked up. Release him, and charge those and imprison those for starting this stupid, pathetic episode.
See why I have VERY little tolerance for these thugs?
dj @ 20:
It is naivete (or willful ignorance) like this that is destroying your country.
dj @ 20:
Run along, TROLL!
I am so happy that Dan is not letting this story die.
To D.J. Arlington Group - I suggest you read TAKEOVER by Charlie Savage...it is how the slow insidious removal of our freedom is happening. The book is factual not opinionated. Today it is Mr. Siegelman's freedom, tomorrow it could be yours. Conservatives in this administration who believed in laws were hounded out of their positions. Our Courts have been taken over, and if you think the Supreme Court is still objective you need to read their bios and the favors that got Roberts and Alito and others where they are.
This administration has tentacles like a cancer that will be hard to kill unless more people become aware and stop buying the fear tactic which all dictators use to gain power.
texaslady @ 36:
read?
as if....
:-)
but seriously, you can lead a horse to water....
texaslady @ 36:
and KEEP.
dj @ 20:
Crawl back up into Alan Keyes ass fascist. It's because of people like you that people like
Karl Rove, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and the rest of the criminal
administration get away with doing what they do DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.
Fuck off with your 'Renew America' shit from Alan Keyes and Arlington Group! You people
are ALL that is WRONG with America.
Jesus...the sheer, pathetic stupidity of the 18%!
Why has a worse-than-Watergate story like this been abandoned to Don Abrams, the Nancy Grace of MSNBC, to share a little air time with Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, O.J. Simpson, American Idol hijinks, and so on?
I don't say this to insult Abrams. I very much doubt he IS insulted. He seems ultra mega proud of what he does. While in charge of programming, he very nearly turned MSNBC into 18 hours a day of Nancy Grace style reportage.
There ain't no justice. if that was ever true, it is 1,000 times truer NOWADAYS. Bush's function as president has been to cram that hideous truth down our throats sideways, and this, he has done better than any other "man" ever could have. It is a NEW DAY.
I think it is funny that Dan "calls for his release" like Dan has some special powers or something.
dj @ 20:
Troll, Troll, Troll. Anyone can put their initials in front of "The Arlington Group". Stop hiding you Troll and come out into the sunlight.
dj @ 20:
Holy Super Troll Batman !!!!! The Rescumlicans are bringing this on themselves. Free thinking , peace loving, Constitution loving, land of laws fans are thoroughly enjoying the implosion of the wingnuts and their minions. Karma is a bitch isnt it ? Im willing to bet ole DJ here thinks the Bushies are angels and lilly white and this is all just a partisan witchhunt to discredit the holier than God GOP. Too much koolaid perhaps ?
dj @ 20:
Beyond reasonable and rational thinking? GODLESS liberal bloggers? Who you calling Godless? Every one of you rabid evangelicals is already branded with 3 sixes, your black souls committed to the antichrist for worshipping evil human demigods and reveling in human sacrifice (thousands upon thousands of our best, strongest, young males, blood pouring in hot rivers down the steps of the mighty zigurat!), horrors that went out with the ancient Mayans.
I imagine you "speak in tongues" so as a mere "Godless" mainstream Protestant, I don't expect to get through to you, nor do I wish to. You're going to Hell. But don't worry...it probably won't be today. :^)
Oh, and there is a great deal more out to "get" your human demigod, Karl Rove, than just "one vindictive crusader." Count on it.
dj @ 20:
Ok...go crawl back into your cave, ya troglodyte phillistine bastard.
You are so obviously one of the 19%'ers...you do realize that this election, the GOP is gonna take a thumpin, and that will be the start of criminal investigations into your boyfriend Rove, and SOOOOOO many other Neo-Con fuckheads that have been destroying the planet, the country and the constitution.
Where is Amnesty International? Where is the UN? There is no way the US judicial system, US Attn Gen., the Bush Administration (obviously) or the Democratic congress is gonna free him. There needs to be international pressure applied!
We need to do what we can to make sure this story stays on the radar. Jeff Sessions (R) senator from Alabama and a Republican Judge William Pryor Jr. are involved in this also.
This GOP are a bunch of lying bastards that should be all taken before a national court to explain themselves. The extent to which this nation of ours continues to allow such corruption to exist in the face of ongoing and continuing overwhelming proof simply tells me that what we have now is a mere FACADE of the government we used to have. I am beginning to seriously believe that we have been overthrown.
RW @ 48:
You have put it into words. We have been overthrown.
Has Dana Jill Simpson ever taken a polygraph ? Just curious. I believe her anyways of course but it would add even more credibility to her story. Just another affirmative.Piece of the puzzle.
What was done to Governor Siegelman is exactly the sort of shennanigan for which "loyal bushies" were needed to REPLACE honest (fired) federal prosecutors nationwide. I see now. Gonzales-Gate. Overthrow. End Times. Got it!
Your "evangelicals" are mostly fakes, especially their "leaders." They don't believe in any world but this one. Certainly they don't believe in ANY GOD. Erik Prince is proof enough of that.
Bush is on the boob toob now, talking about the ok economy, lecturing us like poopy-pants babies. Me, I earned $12,339 last year, a single, head of household person. I paid $187 in federal income tax. I owe $249 more. So when (if) I get my stimulas package refund check for $300, I'll just endorse it over to the IRS. And...voila! The economy revives. (Poor people don't pay federal income tax, so they say. LOLOLOLOLOLOL!)
Dang, I wish I coulda gotten in on those juicy, famous "Bush Tax Cuts" I hear tell about, which repuglican presidential candidate Blot McCrazy vows to make permanent! I'm just not rich enough *sigh*. Me, and 99% of the country.
lets see how funny rove thinks it is when he's finally convicted and getting pounded in the ass every night by bubba
Col Kilgore @ 50:
I don't know about a polygraph but she testified under oath before a congressional committee I believe. Which is why she said Rove needed to testify under oath.
"dj" you fucking mutt.
There is an innocent man sitting in jail.
Peddle your "Neo-Pagan" horse shit elsewhere.
Raw Story has a great series of articles about the Siegelman case including an in-depth interview with Dana Siegleman. Very disturbing what that creep Rove has been getting away with.
raw story article
debit @ 35:
Its amazing how little this is mentioned on the news. They even blacked out a TV broadcast and nothing came of this. Why aren't the dem candidates talking about this.
Rove is a bad motherfucker. He must have a lot of dirt on a lot of peoble.
I am surprised Dan Abrams did not mention that the key witness in the trail was actually wrong (or lying) about the most key element of the case: specific dates and about seeing an actual check AND that he had his own legal problems and basically testified as a plea agreement with prosecutors. (He too is in jail if I am not mistaken.)
He was also coached 40 times before he testified.
The whole thing stinks.
Actually, this is a better link to the Raw Story articles. Easier to find all the installments of the story on this one.
Raw Story/Siegelman
Jason @ 1:
Every read the story behind the "recall" of Governor Gray Davis in California? Republicans are definitely internal enemies - at least those who take part in or condone this type of behavior.
This case can be the thread that unravels what's left of the GOP machine, which is why they will fight to their last breath and pull out all stops to suppress it.
I would not be surprised at all to find that Mr. Rove had used the newly created illegal wiretap program to snoop on Don to find anything they could use against him. Hell, they broke into offices and homes, burned down homes, bribed crooked aids for testimony, withheld evidence, moved the guy all over the country to hide him, and god knows what else. With nobody looking over his shoulder and all that valuable "opposition data" at his fingertips, how could a person like Rove resist?
EMPY @ 60:
People like him exist because there is a need for an asshole that's willing to do anything for his boss. Also... he exists because someone mated anally with an inbred hog, and Rove is the result.
mcrazamnesty @ 52:
How does it go...soueeee? Oink, piggy piggy. It's a mental picture I can stand quite nicely, squeamish girlie-girl though I am. I think the WAR has hardened me a bit.
MoxieGrrrl @ 8:
Shall we start calling him "Bagdad Bob"?
What would being said if it were 'former Govenor Smith'?
Wow, turn down the echo, Dan.
Shoot the engineer.
This is an utter outrage and its happening in the United States of America. How far we have fallen!!! Meanwhile the U.S. citizens slouch on their couches, eat and burp their way through another episode of American Idol showing no outrage at the erosion of their freedoms, the rule of law, civil liberties, and U.S. Constitution.
Au contraire @ 66:
Try to recall that we are talking about ALABAMA.
If you think that's "we" you haven't watched enough In the Heat in the Night.
liberalNmoderation @ 45:
Google Arlington Group. You'll see who you're responding to. Grain of salt, and all that.
Free Donald Siegelman! Jail Karl Rove! Seriously, if America were what it really claimed to be, Karl Rove and all his fellow creeps would be spending at least the next decade in jail.
There should be an investigation, convened by a grand jury, in a state court in Alabama and indicts rendered against
every criminal who perverted the justice system and obtained the incarceration of this innocent man.
I'm sorry for what I posted initially about Dan Abrams, and dearly hope Crooks and Liars won't let this terrible injustice FALL OFF THE RADAR either...
Charlotte
Why are not Cheney, Rumsfeld, & Rove in jail?
Ten of thousands of convicted felons are serving their sentences in prison while their lawyers prepare their appeals. Why should we apply a double standard to Siegelman? A janitor convicted of theft would have to stay incarcerated until his appeal was adjudicated. Just because the ex-Governor is rich and influential does not entitle him to special treatment by the judicial system. Siegeman needs to sit down and shut up and serve his sentence until the appeals court decide otherwise.
I really like Dan Abrams. I didn't at first (when he was reporting on the O.J. murder trial), but the guy kind of grows on you. As for his not letting the Siegelman Affair get relegated to page B-9, you must remember, he was an attorney before he was a TV reporter and pundit. He has an innate sense of fairness and justice and he's not afraid to speak his mind and debate with the mindless twits that populate neocon enclaves these days, the folks who think Scalia and Thomas are good judges.
I don't think anyone should forget the Siegelman Affair, since it is an object lesson in how, once we allow politics to invade our system of justice -- to chuck holes in the dike that separates the executive and judicial branches of our system of checks and balances -- we see our civil rights turned into totalitarian wrongs. If the 60 Minutes report is any indication, this is the worst example of what was going on during the Alberto Gonzalez tenure, including the scandalous firing of those U. S. attorneys who weren't towing the party line.
In the wake of that ugly episode, the neocons were quick to point out that when Clinton came in, he ousted the entire roster of D.O.J. appointees under G.H.W. Bush.
But that was precisely the point: it is one thing to rid the Department of your predecessor's cronies in one fell swoop and quite another to cherry pick the list to weed out the ones who weren't vigilant enough in prosecuting the opposition party people, even when there was insufficient evidence to convict. This whole sorry period was obviously the tip to the iceberg in the politicization game played by Bush, Cheney, and Rove, and if John McPain -- Bush III -- gets elected, it will continue unabated, as will the ultra right wingnut political appointments to the Courts.
If Dan Abrams actually "sticks with" this case, he might conceivably embarrass the Alabama crooks enough to do their duty.
But it's going to take a lot, because Alabama crooks are some of the toughest crooks in the land.
Joseph Wilson, while speaking on the dispicable outing of his wife as a covert CIA operative, said that George W. Bush should carry out his assertion that he would remove anyone from the White House who was involved in the Treason. As Wilson put it, they should be "Frog Marched" out of the White House. Well, Rove was never frog marched out of the White House because George W. Bush is not a man of his word. We all know THAT. Rove is now where he belongs, at Fox "News". There is only one thing missing: a giant jail cell around the Fox "News" Organization. We need only to lower a cell down on the whole place and then everything would be as it should be. Just make sure that Dick Cheney and George are doing an interview on "The Factor" at the time. Case Closed!
Nicole Belle @ 68:
It is ironic that someone from the Arlington group would accuse us liberals of conducting a witch hunt. Historically, we know it was hateful, intolerant, self-righteous, bigoted bastards like those found in the Arlington group who conducted the witch hunts. And as for the "neo-pagan media", I wish that were true. Pagans were the victims of the crusades, not the perpetrators. Pagans did not support Hitler. Pagans believe that what you do to others comes back to you, ten-fold. Pagans care about the planet because they understand that we are connected to it. Pagans don't knock on doors, preaching to others about their beliefs. Pagans don't abuse altar boys or tell their daughters that they are less valuable because they are female. Pagans don't invade other countries for oil and profit. Pagans don't shoot their friends with buck-shot and then refuse to apologize for it. Pagans don't preach on Sunday after using meth on Saturday night, while cheating on their wives with a male prostitute. We could use more pagans in this country.
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