Free Don Siegelman Now

Email Print posted by Cenk 02/25/2008 04:00:50 AM EST

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Karl Rove is a criminal. What he did to Governor Don Siegelman is beyond contempt. He should be a pariah in Washington. Newsweek should immediately fire him.

But most importantly, the United States government needs to free Don Siegelman right now!

If you think I'm exaggerating or you don't believe me, you will after watching this incredible 60 Minutes report here.

Free Don Siegelman!!!
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Free Don Siegelman Now | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
right on Cenk (4.50 / 2)
I saw enough in the 60 minutes feature to convince me.

by cosmic on 02/25/2008 03:22:45 PM EST

don't free siegelman, imprison more crooks (none / 1)

the "60 minutes" report did not establish (as it cannot, since it is not a court of law) that siegelman was innocent, and wrongly convicted of the crime of bribery.

obviously, alabama is a red-state shithole where bribery is considered "politics as usual", but if it takes republican gestapo tactics to get some justice in that state, so be it.

what needs to happen is for a reinvestigation to determine if siegelman was truly guilty as charged---if so, he remains in prison.

 

democrats should then immediately go to work and convict every other alabamian piece of turd who has been similarly bribed, even if it "will take 10 to 20 more federal prisons" to house the scum.

the solution to the problem of corruption in politics is not to let them all go scot-free, but to convict them all. siegelman's conviction simply got the ball rolling.

---

in any case, cenk, here is a suggestion for you.

why don't you ask all of the newsweek reporters you have on the show to quit their positions at newsweek, to go on strike as it were, in protest until karl rove is fired.

are these "reporters" not willing to stand up for what is right, and for the integrity of their profession? you were outraged that no professors of law were out protesting in the streets at the gross violations of the constitution---should you not expect similar protestations from members of the journalistic profession whose integrity is tainted by the presence of an excresence like rove (who is guilty of so much more than this siegelman case) in their midst.

calling for rove's firing when no one seems willing to make any sacrifices will just not work.

finally, just as economic boycotts are a tool to shift the balance of incentives to achive specific goals, one needs to use "interview" boycotts to force "news" organizations to clean up their act. once newsweek reporters stop getting invited to appear on various shows (like yours), and once they are told that this ostracism is because newsweek hires and pays karl rove to write his shit for their magazine, maybe these reporters will protest to their management.

who is willing to make a sacrifice anymore these days? no one, apparently. it is all talk, no walk. 

by neo on 02/25/2008 05:21:54 AM EST

Maybe (none / 1)
but ask yourself, why did parts of Alabama see a condensed version of the story while some didn't get to see the story at all?

That is the definition of shady censorship, and it should piss people off.  Not to mention the fact that anytime people try to prevent others from hearing a story (and do it quietly), it usually means the story is 1,000% true.

by ihavenobias on 02/25/2008 12:23:30 PM EST

[ Parent ]
tv blackouts are not relevant to criminality (none / 0)

keep in mind that this is alabama; the deep fetid anus of multi-generationally inbred redneck republicanism.

i don't care that siegelman was the victim of election fraud---it has no bearing on his conviction for bribery.

i don't care that siegelman was viciously and narrowly targeted while other bribe takers (republican or democrat) in alabama were not---it has no bearing on his supposed crime.

i don't care that alabama viewers did not get to see some sections of the 60 minutes broadcast---these are sub-human retards at lower rung of the intelligence ladder than even zoolander when faced with a mac.

 

i really do not see the usefulness of this new-found passion in the liberal/progressive blogosphere for defending siegelman and demanding his immediate release:

  1. the law does not state that the criminality of a single person's actions is somehow dependent on: (a) how many other people commit the same action, and/or (b) how many others committing the same action go unpunished. uniform application of the law is a matter for a meta-level jurisprudential debate, but not relevant for any specific case.
  2. if siegelman was indeed guilty of bribery, he should be punished.
  3. the most that can be done in this case is for the proper authorities (aclu, alabama bar association, alabama attorney general, alabama supreme court, etc.) to ask for a re-examination of the case and escalate the matter through the state and federal courts as appropriate. until then, any calls to free siegelman are simply subverting the machinery of justice without even knowing if siegelman was actually guilty.
  4. all other shenanigans in this matter: spying and digging for sexual misconduct, using family-connected u.s. attorneys to investigate the case, using bush-appointed judges to convict, not maintaining proper transcripts, etc. are not relevant to the primary question at hand: did siegelman take bribes. that alone should be the question that decides whether he should be set free or not.

i really have no sympathy whatsoever for the supposedly "poor siegelman whose entire political and personal career" was destroyed by rove.

keep in mind that siegelman in a dino---you cannot be anything but a dino to get elected in a bumfuck garbage dump like alabama.

did siegelman, during his tenure as governor, fight for racial equality and civil rights.

does siegelman, leebrul poster boy of the moment, support equal rights for gays and lesbians (or does he agree with the rest of his state that homosexuality is an abomination under god).

does siegelman, champion democrat, believe in darwinian evolution and did he fight to ensure that it would be taught in science curricula during his governorship. or did he pander to the retards of his state and claim that the earth was made in 6 literal days 'cause the bible says so.

siegelman, by the very fact that he got elected governor of alabama, the state that sends unspeakable shits like sessions and inhofe to the senate term after term, cannot and should not be considered with sympathy by democrats.

he deserves to suffer for living in a red-state. if he really cared about the country and the constituion, he would have moved out of alabama and into some blue state, long long ago.

by neo on 02/28/2008 02:57:36 AM EST

[ Parent ]
While neo wasn't paying attention (none / 0)

Don Siegelman's plight has been a subject of reports for 4 years, more recently Scott Horton in Harper's Magazine, since at least 2006 or earlier, and Larissa Alexandrovna at Raw Story (story and links).

Governor Siegelman "lost" an election in 2002 after going to sleep on election night with a comfortable lead, but thousands of "missing" votes were "discovered" overnight. Those votes have never been revealed or verified. Not only that, Siegelman can't contest his conviction because the judge who sent him from prison to prison immediately after the trial also hasn't released a transcript of the trial. A transcript is needed to make an appeal. Nobody is allowed to talk to Siegelman, not the press, and not even his counsel, since he keeps being moved to different prisons without counsel being notified. 

The 60 Minutes segment on Governor Siegelman was censored, blocked from showing on CBS affiliates in Alabama, but those of you with friends in Alabama can send them a link to the story so they can see what Alabama cons don't want them to see. 

Innocent or guilty, Siegelman was a victim of election fraud, and liars who would rather put him in jail on trumped up charges than lose to a very popular Alabama Democrat. 

by zenie on 02/25/2008 03:13:37 PM EST

so now what? (none / 0)
I don't see how anyone could watch that piece and not at least agree that more investigation of this matter is warranted.  So the question is, what can any of us do?  Is there a fund or petition or something that is already in motion to help spur an investigation?

by hiboost on 02/26/2008 10:35:36 AM EST

Two good sources plus interviews with Siegelman (none / 0)

Mark Crispin Miller of New York University in his News from Underground has been reporting about election fraud and stolen elections in the United States for a long time, and the Siegelman case is a gross example of some of the worst cases of election fraud. Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog is an investigative reporter who has cracked open some of the minute and dirty details of BushCo corruption, remaining unfired federal attorneys, election fraud, voting machine hacking.

More Siegelman links from Mark Miller. 

More Siegelman stories from Brad Friedman. 

Video interviews with Don Siegelman. 

by zenie on 02/26/2008 01:06:58 PM EST

Alabama Blackout (none / 0)
WHNT-TV is claiming that the coincidental twelve minute blackout in Huntsville at the same time this story ran on 60 minutes is being blamed on a “technical glitch.”  If you read the article, it’s interesting to see that Oak Hill Capital Partners owns this station and the manager, Robert Bass, is a major Bush contributor.  No biggie, but pretty stinky if you ask me...

by rev24 on 02/26/2008 01:18:13 PM EST

Free Don Siegelman Now | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
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