News from Larisa: SIEGELMAN SUPPORTERS ABOUT TO BE SMEARED!

[mod mom]

From Larisa Alexandrovna:

Horton, Me and others to be attacked...
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/02/horton-me-and-o.html

Folks, I have gotten yet another heads up - a third in a two day period - which is why I am now taking this seriously, that some sort of attack piece is coming against me, Scott Horton, and anyone else writing about Siegelman and the Riley camp. I am hearing various versions of what the attack will look like and two publications have already been named as getting the hit ready.

My understanding is that the whistle-blower, Dana Jill Simpson, Scott Horton of Harper's, Glyn Wilson of Locust Fork, and possibly (this I have only heard from one person) 60 Minutes are going to be smeared from here to eternity. I don't know the exact form the slander will take, but what I do know is that this will constitute an act of political war using an Alabama publication, possibly two - willingly I might add - to attack reporters.

I am not going to name the publication(s) at this point. I am hoping that they have some sense of ethics and refuse to run the hit piece. But, I will say this and openly, any publication that acts as the personal attack dog of a group of corrupt politicians needs to be run out of business. Or let me put it another way, none of us are going to stand by and allow slander as intimidation.

I ask that everyone - who believes in a free press; who depends on publications like Harper's, Raw Story, and TV shows like 60 Minutes for truth; everyone who believes in whistle-blower protection; everyone who does not want Soviet style justice in this country; and everyone who believes that this is still a country of laws - to please be ready to shame any publication that prints this hist piece into non-existence. Defend your reporters people, because they are all you have standing between you and an all-powerful authoritarian state. You want a free press? Fight for it. So, I ask you to ready yourselves for this assault. If any Alabama publication runs this hit piece, I want to know you will stand with me - with us really.

I will keep everyone posted on what happens. Let's hope there is still some integrity left in the two major newspapers in Alabama. Certainly the citizens of Alabama deserve honest brokers in the news business.

[KamaAina]

1. 60 Minutes smeared by the right?

Nah. Never happen.

Oh, wait a minute... :eyes:

[mod mom]

7. It's probably a threat not to air see this synopsis on Siegelman:

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/DonSiegelman/SubjectOf/BlogEntry

[DCKit]

60. I hope they do run the smear on Saturday and that the MSM picks it up...

runs it on a loop and then a lineup of all the Faux bobble heads screaming until they turn purple. By Sunday evening, 60 Minutes' viewer numbers will be through the roof.

Now, if we can only get them to mention Sibel Edmonds on that same show....

[librechik]

2. We are with you, Larisa

And I think a lot of the country now are more aware of the pathetic "attack the messenger" tactics this administation uses so frequently. They just aren't as effective as they once were.

NGU!!

[rumpel]

3. I'm with you, too. n/t

[coffeenap]

4. KICK!!!! nt

[Cleita]

5. Hi. It would help if you name the publication down the line, when you

are comfortable doing so, so that we are prepared when the hit pieces start popping up on DU and other websites and blogs. Then we would be ready to hit back without having to go through the usual search mission to vet their reliability before we do so.

[Robbien]

10. True. Hopefully Larisa will have contact info ready at hand

to give to us when and if the attacks start.

[mod mom]

14. I passed on what Larisa wrote w link to her site. I posted below a link to

CBS 60 minutes (contact form at the bottom) to request folks contact them to stand firm and report the truth.

[EFerrari]

6. If they want war, they'll get it. They'll be sorry they ever went there. n/t

[mod mom]

8. We need a president who will fight BFEE-not sweep crap like BCCI under the rug

and issue pardons to their allies (think Marc Rich)!

[EFerrari]

9. Our whole government needs to be disinfected.

I hope we get to it in time for our kids.

[Mister Ed]

55. And sunshine, they say, is the best disinfectant......n/t

[foxer]

62. use Lie-sol

[Dhalgren]

11. K&R! Let's do this...

[mod mom]

12. Contact CBS-ask them to deliver the truth and stand up for injustice:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

[nolabels]

31. When we are all stuck in a mud pit its hard for anyone to stand up for being dirt free

They have the problems of shareholders needing growth. The profit margins gleaned from hand-in-hand business relationships with corporate advertisers are factored into most moves they make. Turn the crap off if you don't like being lied to and can't stomach it.

[blm]

13. Hey lala...have you contacted Will Pitt? His dad is a Dem lawyer in Alabama

isn't he? Maybe he can provide some assistance?

[mod mom]

15. blm, why don't you suggest it to Larisa here:

http://www.atlargely.com/contact.html

She didn't post this here-it went out on MCM's list.

[nealmhughes]

39. His father is the former head of the DP in Alabama and is an attorney in Decatur.

The outgoing head of the Alabama Bar Association is an old radical by the way!

Alabama is politically a poster case for mutliple personality disorder. In the north of the state, there is a very strong historically progressive community of (formerly) union workers in Decatur, Huntsville, Florence, Birmingham,Tuscaloosa, Jasper, and Gadsen and Anniston, formerly based in the metal industry. That is mostly gone now. There is one small "boutique" steel mill on the Tennessee in Decatur, but the old mills and foundaries are largely gone, save for the scandal riddled one in Anniston (your cast iron water pipes and sewer manholes were probably made there).
Montgomery still is as noxiously Dixiecrat/Republican and the most segregated city I've ever seen in the Southeast. Mobile is almost as bad. The Birmingham new suburbs are rabid Atlanta 'burb wannabes.
The Black Belt that starts just south of Tuscaloosa and then bends on a right turn towards the Georgia/Florida state line is mired in poverty, people leaving for parts unknown and nothing to recommend it save as a place you would not want to live. This is the place where one is amazed to find flush toilets in the schools and not an outhouse or bush.
Towns like Greenville or Demopolis are so far removed from the reality of life in Florence, Southside of Birmingham, Huntsville or Decatur or Tuscaloosa that it is amazing they are in the same state.
The party is about as useful as proverbial teats on a boar. They won't even put up anyone against Miss Jeff Sessions! My neighbor Dr. Susan Parker tried once, and got slaughtered, no DP money went to her.
Sue Cobb Bell won the ASC chief judgeship though, using her "This little light of mine" commercial, defeating the old desicated Republican who was Holy Roy S. Moore's replacement. The AG is a moron who is more interested in the enforcement of the "dildo law" than anything else, except trying to execute retarded youth.
The federal judges for the Northern District are noxious beyond belief: the Drummond case about death squads in Colombia was basically railroaded thru an aquital by one and then the other, one society Republican fundraiser pretend lawyer, Alice Martin is a joke.
On the other hand, the governor isn't as bad as one would expect for a Republic and former Congressman, and the Lt. Governor, Jim Folsom is a progressive, as is State Sen. Dr. Parker Griffin, and there is a great progressive community down in Mobile, not just up here on the Tennessee. But the Congressional delegation is only 2:7 Bud "Blue Dog" Cramer and Artur "At least I ain't Earl Hilliard" Davis.
Once again, with people wanting to move the state line into Tennessee to get Tennessee River water (sorry, it's under TVA control and not Tennessee's and you need a permit to put in a boat dock in a creek here from TVA, much less tap into the water) I wish that we could have all the counties north of the Tennessee River migrated to Tennessee, myself. At least going to Nashville is fun and to Montgomery an exercise in trying to not die from boredom and finding a restaurant that one would not find on an interstate rest area.
But, hey, it ain't Mississippi! And the beaches are better, much, much better than Biloxi.

[Oilwellian]

16. Of course we stand behind reporters willing to lay it on the line

But I have to ask, when was the last time anyone read anything from an Alabama newspaper? If they do publish the smear, I'm sure there will be many DU'ers ready to respond.

[Junkdrawer]

17. Pretty much par for the course nowadays....

Actual assassination makes martyrs.

Character assassination neutralizes the "trouble maker" and sets back the "cause" in one step.

I've seen some pretty extensive ops right here on DU.

They do because it works.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Ha! I knew it.

The long arm of the Alabama good ole boys network is a lot longer than we realize. This Siegelman thing, I suspect, is just the tip of the iceberg.

[caligirl]

19. Would be good to post an alert thread to all DU members when the moment arrives.

Have posted and ready emails phone numbers and sample letters to send. If someone could set up a page at raw story for us to go to for this, perhaps with a section for sending them a message with the tap of a button.

[mod mom]

20. Here is some background on the Siegelman case from Raw Story:

The permanent Republican majority:
Part one: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor to jail
Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Published: Monday November 26, 2007




Part one of a Raw Story Investigates series on the architects and the execution of backroom Republican politics

For most Americans, the very concept of political prisoners is remote and exotic, a practice that is associated with third-world dictatorships but is foreign to the American tradition. The idea that a prominent politician -- a former state governor -- could be tried on charges that many observers consider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trial that involved numerous questionable procedures, and then hauled off to prison in shackles immediately upon sentencing would be almost unbelievable.

But there is such a politician: Don Siegelman, Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. Starting just a few weeks after he took office, Siegelman was targeted by an investigation launched by his political opponents and escalated from the state to the federal level by Bush Administration appointees in 2001.

Siegelman was ultimately charged with 32 counts of bribery and other crimes in 2005, just as he began to attempt a political comeback. He was convicted the following year on seven of those charges. Last summer, Siegelman was sentenced to seven years in prison and immediately whisked off to a series of out-of-state jails, not even being allowed to remain free on bond while his appeal was under way.

Shortly before the sentencing, however, suspicions expressed by Alabama observers that there was something "fishy" about the case -- as Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine would later put it -- began to reach the national stage. What initially appeared to be merely a whiff of possible political corruption became something stronger, with allegations that Karl Rove and the Bush Justice Department had been operating behind the scenes. And yet, despite these suspicions and the attempts of a few journalists to bring them to greater notice, Siegelman's case remains virtually unknown to most of America.

-snip

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html




Timeline: The prosecution of Don Siegelman
Muriel Kane and Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Monday November 26, 2007



The Rove-Canary-Pryor Connection

Karl Rove became involved in Alabama politics in 1994, when he joined with veteran GOP operative Bill Canary to help elect pro-corporate Republican judges to the Alabama state supreme court.

A further ally of Rove's and Canary's was Alabama Attorney General William Pryor. Both Rove in Texas and Pryor in Alabama tried to discourage their respective states from actively pursuing the 1996-97 state lawsuits against the tobacco industry, which formed an important aspect of their pro-corporate agenda. However, Alabama's Democratic Lieutanant Governor Don Siegelman was a strong supporter of the tobacco lawsuits.

In November 1998, Siegelman was elected Alabama governor, defeating the Republican incumbent, at the same time that Pryor was re-elected attorney general. Just a few weeks after Siegelman took office, Pryor began an investigation of his administration. It was this investigation that would lead many years later to Siegelman's conviction and imprisonment.

-snip
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/timeline_don_siegelman_1126.htm

[mod mom]

22. More background form Harpers:

Judge Fuller and the Trial of Don Siegelman
DEPARTMENT No Comment
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED August 3, 2007
In the American criminal justice system, in a case presented to a jury, the trial judge is less a searcher in pursuit of truth than a referee. As long experience has shown me, it is a myth that the two forces—prosecution and defense—are equally matched. Not only does the prosecution have greater resources and influence, but the typical juror is likely to view the prosecutor as a public servant crusading for the truth and the defense counsel as a gun for hire.

It’s the responsibility of a judge to ensure balanced and fair combat between the prosecution and the defense, guiding and protecting the jurors from outside and improper influences. A good judge will not only make sure that a balance exists in the courtroom, but will pare back inflated charges, or charges for which there is not enough evidence.

Given these standards of judicial conduct, we can ask: in the case against Don Siegelman, did Mark Fuller perform the essential functions that the citizens expect of a federal judge?

Five Unasked Questions
I can see five major questions that should have been asked before the trial began.

The first question was whether it was appropriate for Judge Fuller to handle the case given his highly partisan political past coupled with his clash with the Siegelman administration over the “salary spiking” case in Coffee County.

The second question is why, given that a case against Don Siegelman had been commenced in Birmingham before Chief Judge U.W. Clemon, ending in a dismissal with prejudice, the federal prosecutors were suddenly before a new grand jury in a new district. Conventionally, criminal claims against a defendant are joined, but here they were not. There seem to be plenty of illegitimate reasons for this strange bifurcation, the most troubling being that the prosecutors were busily shopping for a judge to their liking—a very dubious practice, and something that judges should guard against. But Judge Fuller raised no questions on the matter.

The third question is why the prosecution was permitted to use the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) as the basis for its case against Siegelman. RICO was developed in the late 1960s to provide prosecutors more reach to fight organized crime. The use of this statute in cases involving political corruption charges is problematic for a number of reasons, among them because it begins a process of marking government functions as organized crime—which in itself undermines public confidence in government. As Harvard’s Arthur Maass said, applying RICO in such cases is “unauthorized, out of control, and overall questionable.” For this reason, it has often been urged that the RICO statute be used extremely sparingly, if at all, in political cases. Procedures are in place which limit its use and require approval at a very high level in the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. In the Siegelman trial, the essence of the prosecution’s case was what Notre Dame law professor G. Robert Blakey, a former prosecutor who wrote the RICO statute, calls the “trashcan theory of prosecution.” The prosecution’s case was, essentially, a dog-and-pony show: countless facts were presented, and the jury was asked to see corruption behind every deed. As Alexander Hamilton once observed, when a prosecutor makes enough claims of wrongdoing against an innocent man, he is very likely to get a conviction on something. The use of RICO in this case is one of the telltale signs that the prosecution is politically motivated and driven. In fact, a former senior Justice Department lawyer who requested anonymity told me:

Congressional investigators need to probe into the process by which the RICO charges were brought in this case. I believe they will find a trail of politically incendiary decision-making in which established practices and procedures were cast to the wayside in a vendetta-like prosecutorial effort.

The fourth question is why the case was built by linking Siegelman to his adversary Richard Scrushy, the notorious executive of HealthSouth. Scrushy had supported Siegelman’s Republican opponent, and was himself a Republican. However, Scrushy had already been tried and acquitted in Birmingham, and many in the state were seething over the botched prosecution. There was a broad public demand for Scrushy’s head. Given this situation, the linkage between Scrushy and Siegelman was weak and highly prejudicial to Siegelman. The judge should have investigated whether prosecutors were attempting to capitalize on public anger against Scrushy to “get” Siegelman—but I can find no evidence at all that Fuller examined this possibility.

The fifth question has to do with press coverage of this case. The leading newspapers in two of Alabama’s major cities—Birmingham and Mobile—are sibling publications under joint ownership. They gave extensive and tendentious coverage of the investigation and prosecution of Don Siegelman. And these papers had access to nearly every aspect of the prosecution’s case, including its witnesses and its evidence. They knew the charges before their formal presentation; they even knew in some detail what transpired before the grand jury. The press is free to make inquiries and publish what it learns, and the more the better. However, the prosecution is obligated to maintain the secrecy of the proceedings, and the disclosure of grand jury secrets by the prosecution is a very serious violation of Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Usually the publication of grand jury secrets in the press is taken as sufficient for a judge to trigger an inquiry into violations of Rule 6(e) by the prosecution. In this case, the federal prosecutors openly and publicly lauded the newspaper reporters who were disseminating their materials. This practice of “poisoning the well” is extremely abusive and the judge should have stopped it. But not Judge Fuller.

-snip

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/DonSiegelman/SubjectOf/BlogEntry

U.S. Attorneys Scandal—Birmingham
DEPARTMENT No Comment
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED June 1, 2007
Some months ago one of my Alabama relations mentioned that she had been tracking the prosecution of Governor Don Siegelman, a Democrat. “There’s something awfully fishy about this whole prosecution. It just doesn’t smell right. It smells like politics.” Don Siegelman is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26, and as his hearing approaches, the stench surrounding the whole case is beginning to rise and engulf the U.S. attorney’s office.

Today, The New York Times’s Edmund Andrews takes an in-depth look at the Siegelman prosecution, and it reveals that the suspicions targeting the U.S. attorney fit a familiar pattern. At the center is an affidavit which exposes a Republican political cabal aimed at using the machinery of prosecution to bring down the Democratic governor as the first step in an effort to retake the Statehouse in Montgomery for the GOP.

Now they have an affidavit from a lawyer who says she heard a top Republican operative in Alabama boast in 2002 that the United States attorneys in Alabama would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. The operative, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Mr. Canary, who heads the Business Council of Alabama, was an informal adviser to Bob Riley, a Republican, who defeated Mr. Siegelman in 2002. Earlier, Mr. Canary worked in the White House under President Bush’s father and has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political strategist.

In the affidavit, the lawyer, Jill Simpson, said Mr. Canary’s remark was made in a conference call with her and Rob Riley, Governor Riley’s son and campaign manager. Ms. Simpson said Mr. Canary assured the younger Mr. Riley that “his girls would take care of” Mr. Siegelman before he had a chance to run for the governor’s seat in 2006 and identified “his girls” as Leura Canary and Alice Martin, the United States attorney in Birmingham.

Neither Ms. Martin nor her office have offered much by way of retort to these explosive accusations, and, of course, they stack up perfectly against a pattern which has now been demonstrated all across the country – the prosecution by Steven Biskupic in Milwaukee of a key Wisconsin civil servant, which also had the subtext of attempting to bring down a Democratic governor, for instance. That case also produced a conviction, but was unanimously reversed by the Seventh Circuit, with its prominent Reaganite chief judge calling the whole case “preposterous.” And as the facts of the case were spelled out, any reader wonders not just how a jury could convict, but how and why a prosecutor would bring such a charge.

Ms. Martin’s handling of the case was a cakewalk no doubt, because in these days just about anyone is prepared to accept the suggestion that a politician is corrupt. Indeed, it’s the conventional wisdom. The presumption of innocence is a quaint notion which has never, practically speaking, had much effect in our courts. To the contrary, it is quite overwhelmed by confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the federal prosecutor. Or at least it was.

-snip

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000212

[fascisthunter]

21. Right Wing=No Integrity nor Morality

twistos

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

23. Remember one thing, Lala:

You eat clowns like these for breakfast. ;-)

[ClayZ]

24. There! K and R

[L. Coyote]

25. Same Larisa who said 60 Minutes was burying this story? Maybe the attack will be

on Larisa only for getting that all wrong!

I told you so when she was trumpeting rumors for news!!!
Now she does this on the heels of Horton saying 60 Minutes is running the story!

[Hissyspit]

26. There's no reason not to believe that 60 Minutes wasn't going to run the story

when she said that they apparently were not going to. She also said 60 Minutes was thinking about changing their minds. Apparently they did.

But never mind logic, hunh?

[L. Coyote]

27. There is no reason to believe Larisa either. But, it may make people feel better

to write letters to CBS and then get the news CBS is running the story.
They can believe they made a difference even if there is "no reason not to believe that 60 Minutes wasn't going to run the story."

[mod mom]

28. "no reason to believe Larisa either"

what's your deal? to you have supporting reason to suggest such a thing, or are you inciting rumor against a fellow DUer?

[Hissyspit]

30. Reason to Believe Larisa: She's never lied to me before...

In all the time I've known and corresponded with her.

[L. Coyote]

35. People can sometimes be wrong, esp. if predicting the future

and that is context in this case. Don't get too upset, because I'm not the one saying she is that which she is defended as not being, a liar.

I'm giving up the context, one that she created not me, and pointing out what came before is all.
And I spoke up then and said the 60 Minutes story might run, or was pulled for other reasons ....

I did not fan the false flag fire to send messages to CBS, AS IF that (I) could influence the airing a 60 Minutes story!!

Being wrong about the future is not lying! It is misprognostication! :rofl:

[lala_rawraw]

43. I was not predicting the future, I was describing the present...

Here is what I wrote then:

"Well folks, seems that 60 Minutes is postponing (read "killing") its Siegelman story. The excuse I am told for this lapse in ethics is that the network needs more time to vet the whistle-blower, Dana Jill Simpson. You see, the reason the network suddenly needs more time to vet Simpson is that the White House has launched a direct campaign inside CBS to discredit her and just to make sure the dirt sticks, they have called in some favors too. I am told that Senator Jeff Sessions has been instructed to help the White House discredit Simpson as part of his "Senatorial" duties. Nice system of government we have here, eh?

So, two things are going to happen now. The first is, we will be including what 60 Minutes did not report as part of the Raw Story series on the case. Instead of 5 installments, we will now have 6. Second, all of you as citizens of this nation must voice your concerns about this situation to CBS. You want a free press? Then fight for it!"

Here are the key points:
1. WH pressuring CBS corporate
2. Sessions pressuring CBS corporate
3. 60 Min postponing
4. People please respond.

Here is what I wrote on 2/10/07:

"Okay, folks, whatever you did with your calls and emails, what I have now learned is that the finished product (finished for some time) by 60 Minutes was finally screened for CBS corporate this past Friday. Now let's not all give up and go home with a victory just yet. We have work still to do, because until the show airs, we have not yet won. I would urge you to continue to call CBS corporate expressing your interest in this story.

But for the time being, we can at least breath easier knowing that we won a small battle, if not the victory yet.

Against this backdrop, I give you the latest from the brilliant Scott Horton, who also describes yet another corrupt case by US Attorney and Rove pal Alice Martin. Most importantly, he appears to be showing the WH that the story won't die even if CBS does not run it, because someone is leaking."


##

Hardly playing prediction games. Rather updating people as things develop. You are right, you doing nothing did nothing to contribute. But don't take away this hard won fight from others who did do something.

[bikeboy]

32. Larisa has a stellar reputation for accurate and intrepid reporting.

No criticism of you, L. Coyote, but she has my full support, and the support of many DUers who have followed her work for years now.

[Truth2Tell]

33. It's best not to feed it. nt

[Richard Steele]

36. Pfft. Your "opinion" is duly noted. nm

[EFerrari]

29. If you don't know it, that is not Larissa's MO.

Why not go familiarize yourself her blog?

[Cherchez la Femme]

34. Par for the course

Expect a huge fight over this -- the Repug's will NOT let their nefarious deeds come to nationwide attention if their vast propaganda machine has anything to do about it.

Just remember: Truth will out, but only the Truth. The most important thing is to present the FACTS without any embellishment or the slightest exaggeration. Every statement must be backed up by fact, or they'll use any slip to denigrate the entire sordid story

...and Mr. Seligman deserves much more than that. He deserves TRUE Justice and Vindication
(yep, capitalized LOL)

[Richard Steele]

37. K&R

[johan helge]

38. K & R

[lala_rawraw]

40. Thanks mom:)

And everyone else!!!
:grouphug:

and the teaser is up too:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

[myrna minx]

42. We have your back, Larisa.

:pals: Best wishes.

[lala_rawraw]

44. :D

[Coexist]

48. hey there!

thanks for the link.

[ngGale]

41. K & R ... n/t

[FourScore]

45. Brace yourself, Larissa!!! n/t

[lala_rawraw]

46. i am wondering

if they would have found this pictures of me and Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky with a goat? I thought we all deleted them... and the goat went to sleep with the fishes. Oh well, this proves once again never video yourself with the president, his intern, and a farm animal all in compromising positions:)

[FourScore]

47. lol. The goat must have squealed.

You can find out just about anything from a goat for a few carrots and a sugarcube. AND they tend to embellish. Also, the fish will turn into SHARKS. I know from experience.

Now your really screwed.

[RuleOfNah]

51. I was ready to push back against the mud.

Now I am kind of curious about the mud. :)

[bonito]

49. Kick!

[ooglymoogly]

50. I am at my battle station... waiting for the coordinates

of the traitors to start shooting out letters of disgust when the time comes. Just need a heads up on the exact targets.

[Career Prole]

52. I'm with ya.

I may not say much these days but I light off when I get mad enough, and that'll prob'ly do it. :D

[bleever]

53. Larisa, please tell me you weren't involved in an Arkansas real estate deal.

:7

We're ready to be your internet SWAT team if they mess with you.

[drm604]

54. K&R for Larisa

:kick:

[Elwood P Dowd]

56. The Birmingham News and Mobile Press Register basically convicted Don in print.

The good ole' boy network, mostly University Of Alabama grads and members of The Machine, run this state. They divide their time between destroying Democrats or attempting to destroy Auburn University. If you're not a republican and University of Alabama football fan, life is hell down here in certain parts of the state.

[trof]

66. Bingo.

[lala_rawraw]

57. Red alert, it begins

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/02/scott-horton-of.html

[EFerrari]

63. Have you a link to the text? al.com has a lousy search engine. n/t

[bleever]

76. You can always use

Google "advanced search", and enter the domain name to do your searching on, instead of using that site's own search engine. Works really well.

[EFerrari]

78. Thanks, bleever!

:hi:

[Cerridwen]

58. Time to kick this back up n/t

[Elwood P Dowd]

59. K & R

:dem:

[McCamy Taylor]

61. CBS, owned by Viacom, Sumner Redstone CEO, crucifed Dan Rather in 2004

because they needed the Bush FCC to continue its pattern of granting exemptions from federal media ownership limitation rules so that Viacom would not have to sell any of the TV properties that it was ordered to sell by the Clinton FCC in 2000. Viacom also killed Ed Bradley's story about the Lies About WMDs which was supposed to air before the 2004 election, again to help Bush.

While the Bush AWOL story probably didn't hurt Bush, Rather and Mapes were scheduled to go to Florida to investigate a Voter Suppression Story after the AWOL story--and that could have hurt Rove and Bush. CBS pulled the plug on that. And by taking Rather out of action, kept 60 Minutes away from Ohio 2004.

So, yeah, I would be concerned about whether or not 60 Minutes is going to air a piece about how Karl Rove is trying to steal elections and bribe judges and railroad Democratic defendants in Alabama.

[notadmblnd]

64. Looks like LaLa is right again

this was moved by a mod from LBN but it sounds like this is the beginning of the smear on Simpson.

Simpson testified to congressional investigators last year that she overheard conversations among Republicans in 2002 indicating that Rove was involved in the Justice Department's prosecution of Siegelman. She has never before said that Rove pressed her for evidence of marital infidelity in spite of testifying to congressional lawyers last year, submitting a sworn affidavit and speaking extensively with reporters.

Read more: http://www.al.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/...

[wogget]

65. America needs to know there are Political prisoners here.

1984 isn't just for 10th grade English anymore. Keep up the good work!

[Time for change]

67. Wow -- It sounds like they're getting desperate.

She's right -- we owe a lot to the reporters who have the integrity and courage to stand up to this administration.

[mod mom]

69. and now we know why-PLS rec this thread on Report on Rove wanting Dirt on Siegelman:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2905334&mesg_id=2907184

[mod mom]

70. and now we know why-PLS rec this thread on Report on Rove wanting Dirt on Siegelman:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2905334&mesg_id=2907184

[groovedaddy]

68. Say the word and the emails will fly and the calls will be made!

Too important to ignore.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

71. here's another article....

A Republican operative in Alabama says Karl Rove asked her to try to prove the state’s Democratic governor was unfaithful to his wife in an effort to thwart the highly successful politician’s re-election.

Rove’s attempt to smear Don Siegelman was part of a Republican campaign to ruin him that finally succeeded in imprisoning him, says the operative, Jill Simpson.

Simpson speaks to Scott Pelley in her first television interview, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Simpson spoke to Pelley because, she says, Siegelman’s seven-year sentence for bribery bothers her. She recalls what Rove, then President Bush’s senior political adviser, asked her to do at a 2001 meeting in this exchange from Sunday’s report.

"Karl Rove asked you to take pictures of Siegelman?" asks Pelley.

"Yes," replies Simpson.

"In a compromising, sexual position with one of his aides," clarifies Pelley.

"Yes, if I could," says Simpson.

Simpson says she found no evidence of infidelity despite months of observation. She tells Pelley that Rove, who had been a top Republican strategist in Alabama, had made requests for information from her before in her capacity as an "opposition researcher" for Republicans running for office.

Rove would not speak to 60 Minutes, but elsewhere has denied being involved in efforts to discredit Siegelman.

Siegelman was convicted of bribery in a case that has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans. In fact, 52 former states’ attorneys general from both political parties petitioned Congress to investigate Siegelman’s case, resulting in hearings held last fall.

"I haven’t seen a case with this many red flags on it that pointed towards a real injustice being done," Grant Woods, the former Republican attorney general of Arizona and one of those who petitioned Congress, tells Pelley. "I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square."

Siegelman was the only politician in Alabama history to be elected to all four of the state’s highest offices of secretary of state, attorney general, lieutenant governor and governor, and he did it as a Democrat in the heavily Republican state.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

[JPZenger]

72. Take Inspiration from JP Zenger's Trial -- Speak the Truth to Power

My screen name comes from John Peter Zenger. His case is very similar in many ways to Siegelman's.

http://law.jrank.org/pages/11436/Zenger-John-Peter.html

In 1735, Zenger was a publisher of a brand new newspaper that printed articles that mocked the Royal Governor of New York. Among other charges, the articles accurately accused the Governor of replacing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court judge with the Governor's buddy in a case in which the Governor tried to extort money from his predecessor. The articles also accused the Royal Governor of conspiring to defeat a populist running in the State Assembly by finding a technicality to disqualify voters who were Quakers. (some things never change).

The Governor had three different grand juries convened to indict Zenger for seditious libel, but they each refused. The Governor then ordered the public burning of all of the newspapers. He ordered his Attorney General to prosecute Zenger under a technical procedure that did not require a grand jury. Zenger was imprisoned with bail set at a huge amount.

Zenger's wife took over the printing of the newspaper, and used it to raise public awareness of the situation.

Zenger was accused of printing false, scandalous, and defamatory articles that tended to bring the governor into disrepute. The case was tried before the Chief Justice - who was the Governor's recently installed buddy, as well as another judge hand-picked by the Governor. When Zenger's two attorneys questioned the impartiality of the judge, the Chief Justice disbarred them. A new attorney volunteered his services, Andrew Hamilton.

Hamilton concentrated his efforts on the fact that the articles were true, although the judges ruled the truth was irrelevant. Hamilton argued that there was an American ideal that the people had the right to publish the truth about government officials, even though it was contrary to British law. Hamilton said the law should not prohibit "the just complaints of a number of men who suffer under a bad administration."

The Chief Justice instructed the jurors to only consider whether Zenger published the articles, and since he did, they must say guilty. The Chief Justice threatened the jury with prison if they did not follow his orders. Hamilton convinced the jurors to follow their conscience and their sense of justice. To the cheers of the crowd, the jury quickly came back with a verdict of not guilty.

Here is an excerpt of Andrew Hamilton's closing argument:

"Men ...have a right publicly to remonstrate against the abuses of power in the strongest terms, to put their neighbors upon their guard against the craft or open violence of men in authority, and to assert with courage the sense they have of the blessings of liberty, the value they put upon it, and their resolution at all hazards to preserve it as one of the greatest blessings heaven can bestow....

The loss of liberty, to a generous mind, is worse than death. And yet we know that there have been those in all ages who for the sake of preferment, or some imaginary honor, have freely lent a helping hand to oppress, nay to destroy, their country.... This is what every man who values freedom ought to consider...

Power may justly be compared to a great river. While kept within its due bounds it is both beautiful and useful. But when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes. If, then, this is the nature of power, let us at least do our duty, and like wise men who value freedom use our utmost care to support liberty, the only bulwark against lawless power, which in all ages has sacrificed to its wild lust and boundless ambition the blood of the best men that ever lived....

...The question before ... jury ...is not the cause of one poor printer ... It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty. And I make no doubt but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny, and by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right to liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power (in these parts of the world at least) by speaking and writing truth."


http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengeraccount.html

[spanone]

73. K&R

[StrictlyRockers]

74. We have your back, Larisa. Count on it.

I will check DU frequently for updates on this story and to see who might need to hear my opinion.

SR

[Elspeth]

75. Kick

:kick:

[antigop]

77. I'm with you, Larisa. I'll do what I can. n/t

[peacetalksforall]

79. There iare two little pluses. Once smeared their case against you will never

be as strong. They expose themselves and they will peak as moralist-saints. Especially if all the relationships within and between the team members are exposed, then understood.

Rove must be shown to have a particular obsession with Alabama. It must be shown that Alabama is Rove's own special playing field because of the people he knows and partners with whether on the Sen floor or in State affairs.

(I am hoping to learn some day that Rove in the mid-70's, while working for Poppy, was the one who arranged the political desk job for Jr when Jr got tired of flying. Just a wish.)

CBS and Alabama. Think about it. Two on and off controversial stories. One forced resignation.