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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGov. Don Siegelman spent 57 days in ''The Hole''
Photo shows bearded Don Siegelman fresh out of solitary confinement
by Jeremy Gray
al.com, Dec. 29, 2015
Former Gov. Don Siegelman on Sunday shared a photo of himself sporting a beard and fresh out of solitary confinement.
Siegelman was released Dec. 11 after having spent nearly two months in solitary following an interview he gave to a talk radio host.
"My first day of "freedom' after having spent 57 days in "THE HOLE" or Solitary Confinement or as the Federal Bureau of Prisons terms it, in its "Special" Housing Unit (The SHU, pronounced shoe), no matter how one says it, it is the way death row inmates spend their time. It's the worst of the worst," the Facebook post stated.
CONTINUED...
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/photo_shows_bearded_don_siegel.html
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Some people are more equal than others...we have mass murderers living free (as long as they don't go to Europe) for dogs sake.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)haikugal
(6,476 posts)fredamae
(4,458 posts)Obama Could pardon him...but to the best of my knowledge he has, in the face of petitions etc...ignored this matter and remained unresponsive and silent. Can congress take action on this-if they wanted to?
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Thanks fredamae!
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)Or day 1 of the Sanders admin for sure.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)I get the feeling that the party powers don't want him out.
former9thward
(32,082 posts)Siegelman is scheduled for release in early 2017 no matter what.
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)swilton
(5,069 posts)and to all other responders to your question....
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Thanks for your comment swilton!
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)"supported" him? I honestly don't know if he is guilty or innocent and of which particular charges. Fwiw, he was convicted on federal charges brought by the DOJ, not the State of Alabama, and lost something like 3 appeals. He was a very successful, high-level Alabama official for many years, and should have had a lot of powerful friends on his side.
As for the solitary -- he brought it on himself (no one should know better than he how that knuckle-dragger state operates) -- and it's good experience for one who was a power player for many years in Alabama government. All officials who make decisions on prisons and punishment should spend time in prison in solitary.
I assume you are not a Democrat yourself or you would be explaining what you did or why you did not instead of wondering about we did? During the crooked 2002 election that cost him reelection I drove a few people to vote in Georgia but otherwise did nothing, and since then I have also done nothing.
OP, thanks for the post.
femmedem
(8,208 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)and DoJ is still controlled by many corrupt political officials appointed by the Bush Junta.
One of Obama's biggest mistakes was not firing every Bush appointee he could, especially all the US attorneys, the deciders of the fate of people like political prisoners.
WTF is wrong with you, broad-brushing every one of us in the party when we have fought so tirelessly defending Don.
Are you here just to find chances to malign the Democrats? If so, find the door.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)I've watch him being given every excuse for his actions but rarely seen him taken to task. Always the excuses, the explanations and accusations against anyone who didn't accept them of 'you're not a democrates why are you here'...
Not you necessarily but a pattern of behavior I find self defeating.
For me it's a matter of who's side are you on?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)He is an American political prisoner -- an opponent of Karl Rove/BFEE.
From his Facebook page:
If Gov. Don Siegelman was among the current governors, he would not be rejecting refugees of war-torn Syria. Instead, he would surely be leading the way in devising the state and national solutions for the situation, stepping up to the plate with unityng solutions and non-contentiousness to make it happen.
https://www.facebook.com/FreeDonSiegelman/photos/a.1410951185788605.1073741829.1409289659288091/1665249493692105/?type=3&permPage=1
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Why no help? Why is this man still in jail when a rapist would be out on parole?
Thanks Octafish for the information and link.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)John Conyers, in particular, was active in investigating the railroading of Gov. Siegelman. More than 120 GOP and DEM states Attorneys General sided with Siegelman. Then, Solicitor General and now Associate Justice Elena Kagan led the team charge in getting him back in prison and his sentence extended.
As to where the rest of the DEMs and pukes now stand, it seems to me that they're afraid of "The Treatment" where the powers of secret government get turned on them.
No matter the cause, theirs is a disgusting and Buy Partisan display of cowardice. They side with Karl Rove and BFEE justice.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Good information on why a good man is treated this way. He's an example. Others just die conveniently in mysterious ways.
Here is the system America...land of the brave.
Thanks Obama.
OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kreig/siegelman-judge-asked-to_b_534628.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8308581
Andrew Kreig
DC legal reform advocate and attorney
Posted: April 12, 2010 04:24 PM
Siegelman Judge Asked To Recuse As Kagan, Rove Oppose Reviews
But Kagan, now widely reported as a leading candidate to ascend from her post as Justice Department solicitor general to become her friend Obama's nominee for a Supreme Court vacancy, urged the high court in November to deny Siegelman a hearing. Kagan used technical legal arguments devised with the assistance of DOJ's trial prosecutors.
Since the 2006 convictions DoJ has withstood complaints that include: political prosecution orchestrated by Rove, judge-shopping, jury tampering, lying about Canary's recusal, firing a DoJ whistleblower, and suppressing evidence that DoJ tried to blackmail its central witness.
Kagan's stance already has created strong skeptics in progressive circles in Alabama, and is certain to irritate Siegelman supporters around the country if she is nominated to the Supreme Court. DOJ has requested that Fuller re-sentence Siegelman, now 64, to an additional 20 years in prison.
The Rule of Four says that at least four Supreme Court Justices must agree to hear a case before it can be reviewed. If Kagan must recuse herself, Siegelman's case will never get reviewed.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/court-hear-siegelman-appeal-16490322
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014135600
The Supreme Court will not take another look at the bribery conviction of former Ala. Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.
The high court on Monday turned away the two men's appeals. Siegelman was convicted of selling a seat on a hospital regulatory board to Scrushy in exchange for $500,000 in donations to Siegelman's 1999 campaign to establish a state lottery.
Siegelman's lawyers wanted to argue that campaign donations can't be bribes unless there's a clear agreement between the donor and the politician, and that there was no such agreement in Siegelman's case. Siegelman has been free on bond while appealing his conviction, while the courts refused to free Scrushy.
The appeals were turned away without comment.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Thank you for finding and sharing the details, OnyxCollie. More from Kreig's article:
EXCERPT...
$50 Billion In Air Force Contracts At Stake
Meanwhile, I reported last week that a factor prompting Siegelman's prosecution was the aim of some Republicans to seek contracts valued from $35 billion to $50 billion for Europe's multi-national consortium EADS and Northrop Grumman to build next-generation Air Force refueling tankers.
The EADS-led plan would replace Boeing Corp., the previous tanker builder. Years ago, EADS used competitive intelligence agents to show that Boeing had bribed an Air Force procurement officer. My column noted that an EADS victory would enable an assembly plant in Alabama, as advocated by four European heads of state, major global financiers and some U.S. politicians.
"The ring of truth in the article," Siegelman wrote me last week after publication and follow-up ,"is that Republicans wanted EADS, and I was close to Boeing because I had helped them expand their National Missile Defense Center in Huntsville and had them locate a manufacturing facility for the Delta IV and Delta II Rockets in Decatur, AL."
Siegelman was Alabama's governor from 1999 to 2003, but lost reelection in 2002 when 6,000 of his votes mysteriously shifted from voting machines in Baldwin County after polls closed. "Keep in mind," Siegelman wrote last week, "the head of Alabama's Business Council after my election was stolen was, and is, Bill Canary."
Siegelman argues that Rove worked with Alabama prosecutors in an office run by U.S. Attorney Leura Canary. Her husband is Rove's longtime friend and political ally Canary, who managed the 2002 campaign of Siegelman's Republican rival Bob Riley, Alabama's current governor.
SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kreig/siegelman-judge-asked-to_b_534628.html
Big money to be made in Alabama, provided the "Right" folk are there to grease the wheels of war.
Know your BFEE: WikiLeaks Stratfor Dump Exposes Continued Secret Government Warmongering
Seems the friends of former California Congressman Don Cunningham are the ones getting the grease these days.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)CrispyQ
(36,527 posts)ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)I find this disgusting. Rove didn't even show up for the court hearing! It should have been dismissed!
Octafish
(55,745 posts)I kid you not:
CONTINUED...
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/12/24/siegelman-column-riddled-inaccuracies/77887478/
Legal Schnauzer barks a different tune:
Why would Josh Moon reject the story Steve Feaga has been selling for almost a decade? There are plenty of reasons, but this might be the most important: In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Montgomery-based Justice Department whistleblower Tamarah Grimes outlined egregious misconduct by key members of the prosecution team--including U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin, and Feaga. From the Grimes letter to Holder:
Mr. Feaga instructed the investigators how to approach the cooperating witnesses on a particular subject and specified what he needed the witness to say in order to support his prosecutorial theory. For instance, Mr. Feaga would say, "See if you can get him to say it like this . . . , " "Ask him if he is comfortable saying it like this . . . ," or "I need him to say it like this . . . ." The investigators would return from meeting with the cooperating witnesses to report to Mr. Feaga, who would send the investigators back with new instructions.
The process became so absurd--and so blatantly unlawful--that some members of the prosecution could only joke about it. Writes Grimes:
I recall one of the investigators, FBI agent Keith Baker, commented on the conduct by saying, "There is truth, there are facts, and then there are "Feaga facts."
With his December 24 op-ed piece in the Montgomery Advertiser, we know that Steve Feaga still is pushing "Feaga facts." Instead of trying to shove "Feaga facts" down the throats of investigators who reported to him, Feaga now is pushing them on the public.
CONTINUED...
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2015/12/prosecutor-steve-feaga-reportedly-once.html
I think Feaga writes on DU, too. Must be good for business.
PS: Thanks for caring about Justice, ViseGrip! From one Detroit to another: Welcome to DU!
mhatrw
(10,786 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)he has to wait for five years after his release.
former9thward
(32,082 posts)He can pardon any person who has been convicted of a federal crime at any time.
hack89
(39,171 posts)You can take it up with them.
former9thward
(32,082 posts)The website is intended for people convicted of crimes and the DOJ does not want to deal with thousands of requests so they put out guidelines to request a pardon. The President is not bound by them and the DOJ would certainly agree with that.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Ok
former9thward
(32,082 posts)Nixon hadn't even been charged with a federal crime let alone convicted of anything. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a fugitive at the time. So yeah, Ok....
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)former9thward
(32,082 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)and triggered several investigations. Clinton later said he deeply regretted doing it. So that particular example perhaps explains why Obama has consistently adhered to the DOJ guidelines for pardons.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)The cases couldn't be different. And your logic fails. You seem to say that because Clinton used bad judgement, that Obama is afraid to use his judgement. Gov Siegelman is a political prisoner. Railroaded with many illegal actions. Great justification for a pardon. But the Oligarchy doesn't like Gov Siegelman. Apparently he is too big of a threat.
former9thward
(32,082 posts)They had no legal effect. Clinton has complete pardon power. May you should read Art. II, Section 2 of the Constitution if you think there is a limit to the President's pardon power.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)They are fearful of something.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)They know who has money and power unimagined by the 99.9-percent.
The Permanent Republican Majority: Part III - Running elections from the White House
by Larisa Alexandrovna, Muriel Kane and Lindsay Beyerstein
Raw Story, Sunday December 16, 2007
EXCERPT...
Bill Canary, Karl Rove, and the 2002 Elections
Karl Rove is known to have worked with Bill Canary on numerous political races in Alabama, beginning in 1994 and including William Pryor's campaign in 1998. Canary and Pryor both enjoyed a close political and social relationship with Rove who went on to become a senior adviser to the president, before Bush's "brain" resigned earlier this year.
Two Republican lawyers who have asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation allege that Canary and Rove also worked together on the 2002 Alabama governor's race. One of the lawyers is close to the Republican National Committee in Alabama.
According to the lawyers, Rove and Canary initially supported Republican Lieutenant Governor Steve Windom in his bid for the nomination to challenge Governor Siegelman but then switched their allegiance to Rep. Bob Riley after his victory in the primary. The Windom campaign was well known to be sluggish, however, prompting many observers to wonder just how serious an undertaking it really was.
By 2002, George W. Bush was president and Karl Rove was working in the White House as his special assistant with the highest level of security clearances. Rove, however, did not lose his security clearances, even after he was identified as one of the sources in the CIA leak case, in which the cover of covert CIA officer, Valerie Plame Wilson was exposed to journalists in 2003 as an apparent act of reprisal against her husband Joseph Wilson.
Rove could not be reached for comment for this article. A call placed to the White House for forwarding information was answered but not returned.
Windom, after being told about the article and the name of this publication, said, "Im not interested, thanks.
According to the Alabama RNC source, Rove met regularly with operatives for the Riley campaign. The source's allegations are confirmed in part by campaign disclosure forms, which show that Windom paid Canary as a consultant between 1999 and early 2001 and later received large contributions from Canary's business partner, a pattern that is duplicated with Riley and Canary.
According to public records, Windom paid Canary's firm $38,022 for consulting and polling between 1999 and 2001. At the same time, PACs associated with Canary's business partner, Patrick McWhorter, donated heavily to Windom's campaign, contributing $149,000 in 2001 and another $75,000 in 2002.
After Windom lost the primary, PACs associated with McWhorter and Canary switched their donations to Bob Riley, giving him $85,000 in the days immediately preceding the November election. After the election victory, Windom emerged immediately as a close confidant of Riley's, advising him on the appointment of a new Insurance Commissioner, Walter A. Bell, and other matters. Canary also emerged as a key Riley advisor.
Public records also show that at the same time Canary was consulting for Bob Riley's campaign, his lobbying group, the Business Council for Alabama, donated $678,000 to the campaign of his client. This was the third largest donation the campaign received, exceeded only by those from the Republican National State Elections Committee, for $2,475,000, and from Bob Riley himself, who contributed $1,070,000 to his own campaign.
CONTINUED...
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_Part_III_1216.html
"If you want to get along, go along." -- Sam Rayburn, (D-Texas) Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Octafish
(55,745 posts)From WIAT.com (note they misspelled Thom's name):
http://wiat.com/2015/12/10/former-al-governor-don-siegelman-in-solitary-confinement/
It really is getting hard to recognized the USA, cprise. Thanks for remembering!
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)because it sets a precedent to use against him in case he is the VP nominee. Scary.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Perry...Palin...Huckabee...Jindal...even the Honorable Terminator Himself Arnold Schwarzenegger.
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/12/does-siegelman-case-mean-prominent-gop.html
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)politicians that there is a price to stepping on their big toes. You don't take billions from Big Oil and not pay for that.
=================
Deja DU:
L. Coyote Mar-27-08 07:26 PM
Original message
Gov. Don Siegelman, the Roughly $3.6 Billion, ExxonMobil, and Pissing Off BIG OIL.
GRRREEAATT NEWS!!! Don Siegelman is being released from prison, albeit only on appeal.
This, of course, means he cannot be kept from the press! What are the implications?
Is it time to dig deeper into the Siegelman political prisoner saga? How did it start?
There is a story little told, from before the 2006 prosecution,
before the illegal campaign contributions to Riley from Abramoff and his felonious pals,
before the 2002 AL election theft stole victory from Dems in the middle of the night.
Siegelman's administration sued BIG OIL. ExxonMobil committed fraud and underpaid Alabama
in a contract for natural gas pumped from Mobile Bay. Alabama won that litigation, and a
jury awarded the state a judgment against ExxonMobil of roughly $3.6 billion. Not chump change!
Is that where it starts? This incident is certainly a BIG possible!
Or was this gambling corruption? Or just felonious politics?
How about defense contractors corrupting politics? Possible.
Or, it it another case of "ALL OF THE ABOVE"? Your opinions?
============================
ExxonMobils Alabama Paydirt
Scott Horton - Nov 4, 2007 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001584
Back in 1904, Ida Tarbell published what ultimately was to be seen as the seminal work of the muckrakers, The History of Standard Oil. It appeared first in nineteen installments in McClures Magazine, a rather less successful competitor of Harpers, and shortly after the last installment appeared, Tarbell published the work in book form as well. In her work, Tarbell exposed the dark underside of corporate deal-making, the series of interlocking directorates and manipulations which had allowed John D. Rockefeller to build the oil leviathan and dominate the American market. Tarbell demonstrated that Rockefellers success came not so much from business acumen (though she never contested that he had plenty of that) as through a thorough understanding of how to game the system. John D. Rockefeller was a power unto himself. Politicians around the country were made and broken to suit him.
But Tarbells disclosures fueled the drive for antitrust legislation and a fairer and more competitive business environmenta drive which was, in its time, championed by progressive politicians of both parties, but particularly by Theodore Roosevelt. By 1911, Standard Oil was broken into thirty companies.
But over time, like the liquid-metal monster in the Terminator series, Standard Oil pulled itself back together again. It was aided in this process by a change in attitudes across the political spectrum, but most particularly it was aided by Americas campaign finance system in which politicians standing for election require increasingly larger sums of money to pursue their campaigns, and support from the corporate till is essential. The final act of rebirth occurred when the two principal surviving pieces of the company, Exxon and Mobil, merged at the close of 1999. The resulting behemoth, ExxonMobil, is the largest publicly traded integrated petroleum and natural gas company in the world. It is also the worlds largest petroleum and natural gas company by revenue, with revenues of $377.6 billion in fiscal year 2006.
The State of Alabama believes that it was victimized by ExxonMobil. According to the states complaint launched by the Administration of Governor Don Siegelman, ExxonMobil committed fraud and underpaid the state in a contract dispute over natural gas pumped from Mobile Bay. Alabama won that litigation, and a jury awarded the state a judgment against ExxonMobil of roughly $3.6 billion. Not chump change .....
...... http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001584 ..............
===============
More. Follow past DU Siegelman threads from this post:
Political Prisoner Don Siegelman: Will the 60 Minutes Spotlight Make a Difference?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2909551
gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)... our legal system has become. And yet, a malignant bag of rat shit like Karl Rove still wanders free, befouling the planet with every breath he takes.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Was Carol Lam Targeting The White House Prior To Her Firing
By Faiz Shakir on Mar 19, 2007 at 1:52 pm
lamReferring to the Bush administrations purge of former San Diego-based U.S. attorney Carol Lam, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) questioned recently on the Senate floor whether she was let go because she was about to investigate other people who were politically powerful.
The media reports this morning that among Lams politically powerful targets were former CIA official Kyle Dusty Foggo and then-House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA). But there is evidence to believe that the White House may also have been on Lams target list. Here are the connections:
Washington D.C. defense contractor Mitchell Wade pled guilty last February to paying then-California Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes.
Wades company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.
Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boats name was later changed to the Duke-Stir. Said one party to the sale: I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away.
According to Cunninghams sentencing memorandum, the purchase price of the boat had been negotiated through a third-party earlier that summer, around the same time the White House contract was signed.
CONTINUED w/LINKS...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2007/03/19/11209/carol-lam-white-house/?mobile=nc
The record shows Carol Lam was on to Don Cunningham and the CIA's connections to the "Money Trumps Peace" crowd... Rove-Cheney-Bush-BFEE.
gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)... Makes my blood boil just thinking about it. Not much has changed.
MariaThinks
(2,495 posts)I'd like to understand how someone can be treated as badly as him - with a Democratic President in office who could pardon him.
SamKnause
(13,110 posts)when he returns to HBO in February.
Seven of his previous shows brought about discussions
and real change.
He does an outstanding job !!!!
I think Jon Stewart has a new show coming to HBO as well.
MariaThinks
(2,495 posts)SamKnause
(13,110 posts)or very knowledgeable about DU.
I do not know the answer to your question.
Sorry.
I know Democracy Now does in depth coverage and has
interviews with Don Siegelman.
http://www.democracynow.org/
It is archived all the way back to February 1996.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)it here.
DeeDeeNY
(3,356 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)After the initial reports he would help, expressed to Gov. Siegelman's adult children, Joe Biden's been on radio silence.
Thank you for remembering, DeeDeeNY.
What has been done to Gov. Siegelman is beyond scary.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/12/nation/na-rove12
Lesson learned is that some things never change, like Just-Us.
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)This is truly the effects of the corporate take over. I met Siegelman and his wife about fifteen years ago at an wilderness event. They were there and very open to conversation. The Governor did evade serious talk about the clear-cutting and strip-mining interest. His wife did not hold back. She made it clear that the Governor was not making any friends among those people.
Who am I talking about -
Lets look at two
Drummond Company, Inc. is a privately owned company based in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, involved in the mining and processing of coal and coal products as well as oil and real estate.
BOGOTA, Colombia A former contractor for the U.S.-based coal company Drummond Co. has been convicted of murder and sentenced to nearly 38 years in prison as the mastermind of the 2001 killing of two union leaders.
The trial judge also ordered prosecutors to investigate Drummond's U.S.-based president and three current and former employees to determine whether they might also be responsible.
The killings are the subject of a U.S. lawsuit and have drawn considerable attention because several witnesses, including the convicted man, Jaime Blanco, allege senior managers of Alabama-based Drummond ordered them.
and
Burkes Mechanical Hammermill Division at 601 County Road 78, Selma, AL 36703
Hammermill Paper Co is a superfund site located at 294 Mill St, Centreville, AL 35042.
Hammermill Paper Company Lake Dam is a Dam in Bibb County, AL
Hammermill Papers Group
River Rd, Selma, AL 36701
National Priorities List: No
Status: Archived
Hammermill Papers Group is a superfund site located at River Rd, Selma, AL 36701. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies sites such as Hammermill Papers Group because they pose or had once posed a potential risk to human health and/or the environment due to contamination by one or more hazardous wastes. Hammermill Papers Group is currently registered as an Archived superfund site by the EPA and does not require any clean up action or further investigation at this time.
I can not even begin to describe the damage done by these two companies to the environment in alabama. They are after the last little bits of the protected land in alabama.
this is what they are after
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sipsey+wilderness+poplar+tree&view=detailv2&&id=8D594913FFB6FD1353B00238BED37220CFB9743B&selectedIndex=19&ccid=KRvhTOtx&simid=608055271312395389&thid=OIP.M291be14ceb7195ebf143ea309105ae7co0
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Thanks to your info, I found "The Governor of Goat Hill" and learned just how much the rich hated Siegelman:
https://books.google.com/books?id=nh7QqlkTCmYC&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=drummond+corp+alabama+riley&source=bl&ots=xWC9mBtNCi&sig=jqsrhAU1_EG554nvpppX34GE7Ns&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi52qLe8o3KAhWISSYKHQfQAs4Q6AEIIjAD#v=onepage&q=drummond%20corp%20alabama%20riley&f=false
Whereas Siegelman worked to tax the wealthy, his GOP successor and Friend of Rove Riley shifted the tax burden on the poor. That IS evil.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Are they scared of something or someone?
The whole thing is just bizarre.
Botany
(70,589 posts)Don did nothing that previous Alabama governors had done too and that was to appoint a
person to an unpaid postion.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)He was the most popular and charismatic Democratic governor from the South in years.
Killing Atticus Finch is how a movie maker put it.
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)I've read a bunch of stuff on the case but I'm no expert so I'm not convinced he's innocent because of that. He may well be innocent. I just haven't got to the bottom of it.
But I have been left with a bad odor - something smells about this case. I just don't know it well enough to be sure what exactly that smell is.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)I can only conclude the conviction was justified.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)I never click on links from you.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Before you hit Alert:
Don't want you to think I called you "ignorant," MohRokTah. Reading what you post on DU shows that I don't need to do that.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)The only ignorance is in believing silly conspiracy theory woo.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Those who automatically avoid the truth are not really my concern.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025558627#post43
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)There is no truth in conspiracy theory woo, so even considering it is just a waste of time and effort.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Like the time America was attacked by Saddam Hussein?
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)So I won't even consider it.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)He posted one of my threads from DU as an example for his readers to consider:
What's interesting: Since posting that in 2004, no one has posted something that is wrong -- factually, logically, historically or otherwise in terms of truth.
Original on DU:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2748315
I bet if you bothered to look, you wouldn't be able to find anything wrong there, either.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Again, I do not clikc any links from you and I will not even consider CT woo silliness.
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)This kind of CT cultism is more common on the far right but we have it on the left too.
It's them against the world.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Never thought I'd see the day when I have to defend myself on DU for what I've written about the BFEE, shorthand for Bush Family Evil Empire.
Bartcop coined the phrase to put a handle on the cabal that use their political and economic power to enrich themselves at the expense of the nation. They include the Wall Street types and their heirs who were the political and legal enemies of Gen. Smedley Butler.
Bill Moyers, Alfred W. McCoy and others have identified some of these players as part of The Secret Government. They use political and financial power under the cover of official secrecy to selfishly gain and unreservedly serve the ultra-right and ultra-rich who through their combined and concerted criminal actions have become the most powerful and undemocratic group in human history.
Among their policies that have remained in place since at least 1981 are the major tax cuts for the rich, while simultaneously increasing public spending on military hardware and now warfare and disaster capitalism without end while cutting back public expenditures, if not eliminating entirely, public education, housing, healthcare, welfare and other social-benefit programs. It also is why, by design and by law, most of the wealth created since Reaganomics has accrued in the pockets of the richest of the rich. It was supposed to.
Rather than bringing all that up, while still making them easy to identify, I call them the BFEE. Perhaps the best moniker for them is the War Party, for using their positions to make money through death, suffering and the exploitation of humanity. Its what George W Bush meant when he said, Money trumps peace. And for the record, the last president to stand up and oppose these unmitigated warmongers was President John F. Kennedy.
Anyway, that bothers some DUers. Tuesday, I made the observation that a person is only a suspect until convicted in a trial. That concept is central to our system of justice, yet I got mocked by several DUers for stating it. The idea that all are innocent until proven guilty and the idea that all are equal under the law are basic to democratic government.
Heres what I suspect these DUers dont know or dont want to acknowledge knowing. There are truly evil people in positions of power, both in and out of government. An important example is this guy, thoughtfully misidentified by Fox TV as a Democrat, the former Republican representative out of Florida, Mark Foley, BFEE:
The now-known child predator was given a position to oversee laws designed to protect children from child molesters. Whats more, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) covered it up. In America, married households may now be a minority, but parents who have kids hate child molesters. Same for most people, in general: Child molestation generates universal hatred.
Thats why Fox and so many other news media have tried to connect Foley, by accident, to the Democrats. Even Huffington Post made the connection. Once an idea is in a persons head, it takes a LOT of Truth to drive it out. Consider the nonexistent ties between Osama and Saddam that so many Americans still believe to exist. So, if the connection between the House Republicans and Foley can be made in the minds of enough Americans, they will not vote for Republikkkens.
Eleven GOPers Fingered in Foley Cover-Up
By Justin Rood - September 30, 2006, 9:32 PM
Roll Call's John Bresnahan reports:
As of Saturday evening, nearly a dozen House GOP lawmakers and staffers have acknowledged that they knew of the initial batch of non-sexually explicit messages from Foley to a 16-year-old former House page, some of them for a year or more. These include Hastert (R-IL); Majority Leader John Boehner (Ohio); National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.); Reps. Rodney Alexander (La.) and John Shimkus (Ill.); Mike Stokke, the Speakers deputy chief of staff; Ted Van Der Meid, Hasterts counsel; Paula Nowakowski, Boehners chief of staff; Jeff Trandahl, the former Clerk of the House; and another Hastert aide and Alexanders chief of staff, according to public statements and GOP insiders.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/eleven-gopers-fingered-in-foley-cover-up
Not only did he chair the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, Foley was in the House GOP leadership. As Deputy Majority Whip, he mightve followed in the sweaty steps of his mentor, Dennis Hastert as Speaker of the House. Thats something you wont hear mentioned by John Boehner or anyone on Fox TV.
Foley never went to trial. But he should have been investigated in public, preferably by a Grand Jury led by a Special Prosecutor. Same for his colleagues in power, Dennis Hastert. A big reason they aren't around when you need one is George H.W. Bush let the special prosecutor law expire.
This is hard to write about when all the powers are with those in secret offices of government. Consider what Snowden, Assange and the other brave whistleblowers in and out of government and private industry have endured just to give us a peak at the top of the iceberg that represents the virtually unlimited spy powers applied by the FBI, NSA, DIA, CIA and who knows what else.
Then again, if DU, like Bartcop before us, and Thom Hartmann and Talking Points Memo and ConsortiumNews and the all too few others didnt, who would? Rupert Murdoch? Roger Ailes? ABCNNBCBSFakeNoiseNutworks? Not bloody likely.
So thanks to all the DUers who mock me for posting about the BFEE. I dont do it because I enjoy it. I do it because I dont want the bastards who use their positions of power and wealth to prey on the less fortunate, or, in the present case, the weakest members of the world, children. Telling you about it is why the pen is mightier than the sword and Freedom of the Press so fundamental for democracy, it's enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.
OP: [link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026954410|BFEE Just Us]
Please show me what you find in error with any of that.
PS: What have you posted on conspiracy, rjsquirrel?
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)Too much lol.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)That explains the ad hominem and the "Little Man" soundtrack.
You don't have anything but massive piles of conspiracy theory verbiage.
I learned a long time ago that conspiracy theory true believers are impervious to facts or reason. I would suggest you stop listening to fools like Thom Hartmann. (Wait is this finally the year the oligarchs will destroy the economy?)?
Your anger is corrosive and your type isn't interested in reasoned debate. No one with half a brain could believe most of what you say, but there are plenty of halfwit paranoids on DU, just like on Free Republic.
So who is it ... The illuminati? Freemasons? Jews? Space Aliens? Who dovyou think is behind this conspiracy, or is it that mastermind Karl Rove or the real secret evil genius George Bush?
You still haven't shown me any evidence Roger Shuler has ever been a credible source for anything.
Hope you find peace, because being this enraged and spluttering (or copy/pasting) long incoherent screeds full of patterns only you can detect is bad for you.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)You would point to the first falsehood you could find.
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)It's link to AL.com, a mainstream media platform in Alabama.
What it reports is that the "journalist" Roger Shuler, cited by our mutual friend, recently earned himself $3.5 million libel judgment. His relationship to the Siegelman conspiracy mania is significant.
We are dealing with stuff not that far off from the sovereign citizen folks on the right.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)What is it you think this proves...or is a rebuttal to?
Rex
(65,616 posts)As they demonstrate almost on a daily basis.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)femmedem
(8,208 posts)The New Yorker had a great article on the case a year ago.
mhatrw
(10,786 posts)I can only conclude the opposite.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Of course, our opinions have absolutely no effect on this case.
The case was tried, he was found guilty, all subsequent appeals have failed. He remains in prison.
You must agree, the system has played out as designed.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)of evidence that corroborates my assertion.
The chances of electing an honest President are slim. The thieves seem to have almost total control over public information.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Notice also that nothing has been done to correct our voting irregularities either. Yet we keep hearing about the SC like it'll make a difference. The truth is if a third way 'new democrat' is in office you don't get what we need...you get republican, oligarchy.
I'm going to stop differentiating between the two...it's all one single entity. One club that we aren't members of.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Kinda makes us like some crappy dictatorship imo.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Former U.S. Secret Service Agent Abraham BOLDEN was the first African American Secret Service agent to serve in the White House detail. He was literally hand-picked by President John F. Kennedy. Agent Abraham Bolden reported overt racism by his fellow agents and outright hostility toward the "n... loving president," quoting fellow Secret Service agents on the JFK detail.
In addition to enduring all manner of personal indignities, he was concerned at the lack of professionalism in those assigned to protect the president and reported his concerns. He was told, "OK. Thanks" by his superiors. When the problems weren't addressed, Bolden requested transfer back to the Secret Service office in Chicago.
Abraham Bolden speaks at JFK Lancer.
The story of a man who told the truth:
After 45 Years, a Civil Rights Hero Waits for Justice
Thom Hartmann
June 12, 2009 11:52 AM
A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. But there is finally a way for citizens to not only right that wrong, but bring closure to the most tragic chapter of American presidential history.
After an outstanding career in law enforcement, Abraham Bolden was appointed by JFK to be the first African American presidential Secret Service agent, where he served with distinction. He was part of the Secret Service effort that prevented JFK's assassination in Chicago, three weeks before Dallas. But Bolden was framed by the Mafia and arrested on the very day he went to Washington to tell the Warren Commission staff about the Chicago attempt against JFK.
Bolden was sentenced to six years in prison, despite glaring problems with his prosecution. His arrest resulted from accusations by two criminals Bolden had sent to prison. In Bolden's first trial, an apparently biased judge told the jury that Bolden was guilty, even before they began their deliberations. Though granted a new trial because of that, the same problematic judge was assigned to oversee Bolden's second trial, which resulted in his conviction. Later, the main witness against Bolden admitted committing perjury against him. A key member of the prosecution even took the fifth when asked about the perjury. Yet Bolden's appeals were denied, and he had to serve hard time in prison, and today is considered a convicted felon.
After the release of four million pages of JFK assassination files in the 1990s, it became clear that Bolden -- and the official secrecy surrounding the Chicago attempt against JFK -- were due to National Security concerns about Cuba, that were unknown to Bolden, the press, Congress, and the public not just in 1963, but for the next four decades.
SNIP...
Abraham Bolden paid a heavy price for trying to tell the truth about events involving the man he was sworn to protect -- JFK -- that became mired in National Security concerns. Bolden still lives in Chicago, and has never given up trying to clear his name.
Will Abraham Bolden live to finally see the justice so long denied to him?
CONTINUED...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/after-45-years-a-civil-ri_b_213834.html
After the assassination, he went to Washington on his own dime and reported what he saw to the Warren Commission. For his trouble -- and despite an exemplary record as a Brinks detective, Illinois State Trooper, and Secret Service agent -- Bolden was framed by the government using a paid informant's admitted perjury and spent a long time in prison. The government also drugged him and put him into psychiatric hospitals.His real crime was telling the truth.
Americans know the Truth: the country hasn't been the same since Nov. 22, 1963. President Kennedy kept the nation out of Vietnam and started toward the moon. Imagine what the New Frontier could have become for us today? Certainly would not be a time where "money trumps peace."
CrispyQ
(36,527 posts)There seems to be a lot of that going around.
Thanks for this post. I had no idea about this man.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)After all he endured in prison, we are privileged to know his story.
Here's a decent home webcaster from "Brother Ron":
On Thom Hartmann:
Thank you for grokking, CrispyQ.
roody
(10,849 posts)haikugal
(6,476 posts)onecaliberal
(32,902 posts)is a huge black eye on his administration. He is far to willing to accommodate republican corruption.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)It isn't just republicans. We need to start thinking and speaking about this in a different way.
onecaliberal
(32,902 posts)Against myself, my family, my country. Everything is corrupted, I'm done going along to get along.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Ghost in the Machine
(14,912 posts)This whole ordeal has been a tavesty of the "Just Us" Department since day one! It should be considered a National embarrassment and disgrace!
Thanks for keeping up the good fight, and for the treasure trove of information that you have provided over the years.
Peace,
Ghost
Octafish
(55,745 posts)What could be so scary about Don Siegelman's words that it would force the government of the United States to go full-on NAZI?
Possibly the interview in question:
PS: You are most welcome, Ghost in the Machine! Thank you for all you do to protect and promote Democracy. Can you believe it's 2016?
Ghost in the Machine
(14,912 posts)a few others, am surprised that I am still here! I was lucky to make it through my 20's... literally! I was mixed up in some bad stuff back then, and can think of a few situations that, to this day, I still don't know how I made it.
My first memory of a changing decade was from 1969 to 1970... I was 6 years old, almost 7, and had just started back to school after the Christmas Break. I am pretty sure that it was 2nd grade, maybe still 1st grade. I, like my son, had to start school a year later than most of my friends, due to my birth date.
I can remember the RFK & MLK assassinations, and watching a few of the Apollo Missions either blast off or splash down. Watching one of the splash downs is also one of my first memories of wanting to be something when I grew up... I wanted to be a "frogman"!
I have seen a lot of things in my lifetime, a couple of them being things that NO HUMAN should ever see.... but the hardest thing to watch has been the erosion of our Rights, the erosion of our Democracy, and the backwards direction of our Country and civilization as the inmates have taken over control of the asylum. I hope that I live to see the day that we, as a society, get back in the right direction and can live peacefully as One. I am beginning to think that the dream of World Peace is just that... a pipe dream, but Hope keeps me going.
Peace to you and yours,
Ghost
senz
(11,945 posts)Until then, may we find a way to begin Mr. Rove's well-deserved punishment here on earth.
That's about as nice as I can put it.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Very nicely said, senz. The guy's an example of what's happened to the United States of America: The nation has been taken over by gangsters.
They don't care about who gets killed as long as they get their way.
spanone
(135,886 posts)Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, is currently incarcerated in a federal prison in Oklahoma.
from the New Yorker:
Siegelman, a Democrat, served a single term in office, from 1999 to 2003, in the last days before Alabama turned into an overwhelmingly Republican state. Hes spent the subsequent decade dealing with the fallout from the case that landed him in prisona case that, at its core, is about a single campaign contribution. Siegelman ran for office on a promise to create a state lottery to fund education in Alabama. The issue went to a ballot question, and Richard Scrushy, a prominent health-care executive, donated five hundred thousand dollars to support the pro-lottery campaign. (Voters rejected the lottery.) After Scrushy had given the first half of his contribution, Siegelman reappointed him to Alabamas Certificate of Need Review Board (the CON Board), which regulates health care in the state. Scrushy had served on the CON Board through the administrations of three different governors. The heart of the case against Siegelman came down to a single conversation that he had with Nick Bailey, a close aide of the Governors, about a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar check from Scrushy for the lottery campaign. As summarized by the appeals court:
Bailey testified that after the meeting, Siegelman showed him the check, said that it was from Scrushy and that Scrushy was halfway there. Bailey asked what in the world is he going to want for that? Siegelman replied, the CON Board. Bailey then asked, I wouldnt think that would be a problem, would it? Siegelman responded, I wouldnt think so.
In 2006, after a district-court trial before Judge Mark Fuller, Siegelman was convicted of seven counts, including bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. He was acquitted of twenty-two charges and sentenced to seven years in prison. (An appeals court overturned two of the seven convictions and allowed Siegelman out on bail during some of the time his case was on appeal.) Siegelman is currently incarcerated in a federal prison in Oklahoma; his projected release date is in 2017.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/obama-pardon-don-siegelman
Omaha Steve
(99,741 posts)K&R!
OS
seafan
(9,387 posts)Did Ex-Alabama Governor Get A Raw Deal?
Now, many Democrats and Republicans have become suspicious of the Justice Department's motivations. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, 52 former state attorneys-general have asked Congress to investigate whether the prosecution of Siegelman was pursued not because of a crime but because of politics.
.....
"I haven't seen a case with this many red flags on it that pointed towards a real injustice being done," says Grant Woods, the former Republican attorney general of Arizona.
Woods is one of the 52 former state attorneys-general, of both parties, who've asked Congress to investigate the Siegelman case.
"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," Woods says.
.....
Karl Rove and others at the White House were subpoenaed to testify before Congress but they refused to appear. And the Justice Department has refused to turn over hundreds of documents in the case.
.....
Most tragically, Governor Siegelman was not on President Obama's list of pardons and commutations.
This is a grave injustice for all of us. If a Governor can be railroaded into prison on engineered political retribution, so can we all.
And that Rove ba$tard and his criminal associates still walk free.
Thank you for keeping the light of Truth on Governor Siegelman's case, Octafish.
Another Rove hit I'll never forget...
Pastiche423
(15,406 posts)librechik
(30,676 posts)What a gentleman. I am heartbroken over his maltreatment. Karl Rove should be in solitary, not Governor Siegelman.