The Strange Case Of An Imprisoned Alabama Governor

New York Times:

Alberto Gonzales is out as attorney general, but there is still a lot of questionable Justice Department activity for Congress to sort through. The imprisonment of Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama, should be at the top of the list. Jill Simpson, an Alabama lawyer and Republican operative, is heading to Washington this week to tell Congressional investigators that she heard prominent Republicans plotting to use the United States attorneys' offices to remove Mr. Siegelman as a political threat. The case should be the focus of a probing Congressional hearing this fall.

Mr. Siegelman was a major frustration to Alabama Republicans. The state is bright red, but Mr. Siegelman managed to win the governorship in 1998 with 57 percent of the vote. He was defeated for re-election in 2002 under suspicious circumstances. In the initial returns, Mr. Siegelman appeared to have won by a razor-thin margin. But a late-night change in the tallies in Republican Baldwin County gave the current governor, Bob Riley, a victory of a little more than 3,000 votes out of 1.3 million cast.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[owiseone]

Jill Simpson the Republican lawyer who is testifying before Congress as to a conspiracy to keep Siegelman out of the Gov.'s office, was run off the road mysteriously, and her house burned to the ground soon after she contacted the authorities with the information she has.

[cowboyjerkface]

Coincedence I am sure! Could happen to anyone...who ends up on the wrong side of the GOP Hate & Corruption Machine

[Zhonni]

I believe I am experiencing a case of "Outrage Fatigue".

I want to state that we need change in the worst way, otherwise, we would be heading into hades in a hand basket.

IMPEACH BUSH NOW!!!!!!!

[ghostsofamerica]

Wayne Madsen has been writing about this in detail for many months, and actually has THE most fascinating article about the Judge Fuller, Abramoff, Rove stealing elections, money from CIA, etc.


waynemadsenreport.com has all the amazing and awful details, including turning Alabama into a fiefdom for the Bush crime family.

Do you reall think MSM is going to write about this?

[diogeron]

Why would anyone who is marginally literate, listens to anyone other than Rush Windbag, and watches anything other than Faux News, be surprised by anything that came out of this "Injustice" Department?

I just read that 27% of Americans haven't read a book in the last year, the identical percentage of whom think that Bush is doing a good job. Coincidence? I don't think so.

[johnnyjust]

Don't you know that anytime a Republican wins an election it can only be because of some unseen conspiracy or shenanigans?

Sheesh, that's Chapter One of the Liberal WhineBook...er, Handbook, er...Whiny Liberal Handbook.

True, Whiny Liberal' is a bit redundant.

[macfee]

I am from Alabama, corrupt and governor are interchangeable terms, No doubt he did what he was charged with doing, But this falls into the speeding tickets at the Indy 500 kind of thing.

Unless you spend years down there you can't believe how harsh it is. I don't think it really is even translatable to the rest of the country anymore. Beautiful place but harsh.

[pagangrandma]

Why is this not front page news? Why has MSM abrogated its responsibility?

[accountability]

pagangranbma.

Send them the article.
All of them.
I have begun to regularly send articles to different newsies.
I just sent this to Cafferty, Matthews and Keith O.
I send it to Keith and then cc it in the same email to the other 2... sort of a little hiss so to speak.

Then send it to whoever needs to see it in Washington.

We need to flood all of them with multiple mail.
Either it will stuff their servers, which is not likely, or maybe they might pay attention.

I still think snailmail campaigns are good ways to get attention. If hundreds of thousands of letters came all on the same day to these people it would be a little harder to ignore. Especially if we could get press to show it when it arrived.
I was trying to get people I know to get people they knew etc. to get involved. I guess writing letters, finding envelopes and stamps are behind us now, things of the past.

[Plowboy]

So it goes in great Bushamerica!
Old TJ was right: our democracy cannot work correctly unless its soil is watered frequently with the blood of tyrants.
But it does seem that we've lost our Revolutionary principles --- and our American Revolution. One King George was defeated, but another has just about destroyed us.

[brooklyncitizen]

....and destroyed the world.

[bwbray]

Don Siegelman is a personal hero of mine. Not only has he endured vastly more political heat than was warrented, he brought back Sunday liqour sales to Alabama - WOOT!

[waynesmyer]

" I don't got to show you no stinking Justice, Gringo" attributed to Alberto "Speedy" Gonzalez, Supreme SS Attorney General

p.s. If you want Law & Order,don't vote for Ready Freddie Thompson! (from : Lazy & The Bitch) Lwayno

[uglybetty]

Every day we learn more of just how EVIL and CORRUPT this Bush group of NAZIS have been !!!

I think it's time for the TRIALS to begin for this FILTHY BUNCH OF RETHUGS !!!

[bethinCary]

everything about this case is rotten.
Hope Rove gets his due for this one.

[Libsrule]

I've read some about this case and it stinks to high heaven. BUT then again, the feds do this sort of thing regularly.

I've been on Huffpost to start some sort of library showing these sorts of transgressions by the feds. YES it would require a huge server, but it would indeed be worth it.

In particular, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette did an unbelievable series called.

CONVICT. AT ANY COST.

Showing how the feds lie, cheat, steal, plant evidence and overcharge to get convictions.

It was a horrifying account of just how crooked our department of (in)justice is. Hell just look at the recent case of Padilla.

There is so much corruption in the Department of Justice it would make you faint out of dizziness just reading about it.

AND what's worse is how so many judges plainly allow it to happen. Judges are so terrified of of the rightwing nutjobs who watch court cases to make sure everyone gets convicted no matter what.

There was a lady who used to be the most intelligent person working for "Today" magazine, you know the one on Sundays?

She once positied that with only a 90 percent conviction rate, then there must be something wrong with the department of justice and said investigations should be done to find a way to get it to 100 percent.

I thought, what a fucking bitch. Did it ever occur to her that maybe that being arrested was NOT a sign of automatic guilt? I wrote her as well. Never heard back, but it made me realize I.Q.s mean nothing in the real world.

Well that's my rant, and I'm sticking with it. We need to have an investigation into why we have such a dishonest DOJ and why convictions are more important than truth.

[SandiH]

That's easy. The more convictions a prosecutor has the higher up he/she goes. It's all about self interest. Republicans aren't the only ones who are guilty of putting themselves before "truth, justice and the American way." But I want to believe that the Democrats would do the right thing if it smacked them in the face -- Some of the time.

[serialcoma]

Self interest is the only interest of republicans and they can always be counted upon to act accordingly.

republicans are a threat to the freedom of the United States.

[accountability]

good work.
A worthy rant!

[NoblesseOblige]

I feel such empathy for all progressives and the down-trodden living a nightmare in these red states. Surely, it must be pure hell.

God bless them all and keep them safe!

Peace

[meandmagoo]

Wow.I actually lived in Robertsdale,which is in Baldwin County when this happened.I had just moved there like a week beforehand.It struck me as exceedingly strange that as far as everybody was concerned,nothing out of place had just happened.

And then,during the later trial,it always seemed like the Feds were almost giddy when they got convictions on Siegelman or one of the other defendants in this series of trials.If you didn't see the local coverage,it's hard to explain how it was kind of surreal and really right wing oriented.

[knosiswar]

Siegelman's lawyer's office was broken into and her files were rumaged through right after he was convicted. It smells rotten in Alabama. It's such a beautiful area but it's ruined with bigotry and ignorance. And there are the few that make a ton of money through the port of Mobile, not to mention all the military federal money Alabama gets from it's late great Senator Howell Heflin who ran the Armed Services committee forever. Alabama is a state with no unions and is seeing a lot of business being thrown it's way since the Republicans have taken over the court systems and passed limits on Jury awards against corporations. Siegelman was Railroaded.

[dadw5boys]

WHAT ELSE DO YOU EXPECT IN THE JIM CROWE SOUTH!
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE BLACK IN THE SOUTH TO BE HUNG!