Gov. Don Siegelman remains in prison, railroaded for a crime he did not commit.

[Octafish]

Meanwhile, the guys who should be in jail remain free and living high off the hog. For starters:

U.S. Judge Mark E. Fuller, the guy who helped railroad Gov. Don Siegelman.



Fuller just happens to be the owner of a company that's made a huge fortune off the Pentagon and War Inc via no-bid crony War on Terror largesse.

The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller

By Scott Horton
Harper's August 6, 2007, 5:14 pm

For the last week, we’ve been examining the role played by Judge Mark Everett Fuller in the trial, conviction, and sentencing of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. Today, we examine a post-trial motion, filed in April 2007, asking Fuller to recuse himself based on his extensive private business interests, which turn very heavily on contracts with the United States Government, including the Department of Justice.

The recusal motion rested upon details about Fuller’s personal business interests. On February 22, 2007, defense attorneys obtained information that Judge Fuller held a controlling 43.75% interest in government contractor Doss Aviation, Inc. After investigating these claims for over a month, the attorneys filed a motion for Fuller’s recusal on April 18, 2007. The motion stated that Fuller’s total stake in Doss Aviation was worth between $1-5 million, and that Fuller’s income from his stock for 2004 was between $100,001 and $1 million dollars.

In other words, Judge Fuller likely made more from his business income, derived from U.S. Government contracts, than as a judge. Fuller is shown on one filing as President of the principal business, Doss Aviation, and his address is shown as One Church Street, Montgomery, Alabama, the address of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse, in which his chambers are located.

SNIP...

Doss Aviation and its subsidiaries also held contracts with the FBI. This is problematic when one considers that FBI agents were present at Siegelman’s trial, and that Fuller took the extraordinary step of inviting them to sit at counsel’s table throughout trial. Moreover, while the case was pending, Doss Aviation received a $178 million contract from the federal government.

CONTINUED...

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000762

There's a special place for Judge Fuller, and it's not on the bench.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Kick and rec!

[Octafish]

13. About that picture of the Dishonorable smirking turd Fuller...

...revelatory:

Alabama Judicial Scandal Could Taint Many Cases, Not Just Siegelman’s

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Andrew Kreig
Washington's Blog

EXCERPT...

The Siegelman jury provided a mixed verdict on June 15, 2006. Minutes later, the rarely photographed Fuller invited freelance photo-journalist Phil Fleming into judicial chambers to commemorate the occasion.

Fleming has released to me his copy of the private portrait (shown above). The blunt-speaking Fleming also told me that he advised the judge during the photo-shoot to stifle what Fleming told him was a “Cheshire cat” smile in order to look sufficiently dignified.

That implication of bias is congruent with testimony by Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson, who helped make this case nationally famous in 2007 and then later in the 60 Minutes broadcast. Simpson, at right, was a longtime Republican operative (and now a political independent) who says she worked with Karl Rove and others as a confidential opposition researcher while also earning large sums in the government contracts field.

In sworn statements in 2007, she described Republican plots beginning in 2002 whereby the Justice Department would indict Siegelman with the assistance of “Karl” in order to remove the state’s most popular Democrat from politics.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/05/alabama-judicial-scandal-could-taint-many-cases-not-just-siegelmans.html

I manipulated Fuller's image with Photoshop, for Art and Just-Us's sake. No retouching, just adding one special effects filter. Here's what it revealed:



Apart from his own ill-gotten loot, Fuller really hasn't amounted to much in life more than being a servant to the really, really rich.

[Th1onein]

2. And people want to know what's the harm in collecting and storing all of our communications?

THIS is what's wrong. THIS is the danger. Anytime they want to single one of us out and put us in prison, THIS is all they have to do.

Spitzer got off easy; he just lost his career, and his reputation. But you can bet your ass they used his bank records against him, and guess where they got them from?

[Octafish]

14. Absolutely, Th1onein. Meanwhile, trillions looted from the Treasury now sits in Switzerland.

There is a simple solution, use the technology FOR good:

Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting In First World Banks

James S. Henry
07.01.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated July 19, 2010

Let's tax offshore private wealth.

How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels--arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders--to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change and development? Simple: Levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot.

Many aboveground economies around the world are struggling, but the economic underground is booming. By my estimate, there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.

SNIP...

This wealth is concentrated. Nearly half of it is owned by 91,000 people--0.001% of the world's population. Ninety-five percent is owned by the planet's wealthiest 10 million people.

SNIP...

Is it feasible? Yes. The majority of offshore wealth is managed by 50 banks. As of September 2009 these banks accounted for $10.8 trillion of offshore assets--72% of the industry's total. The busiest 10 of them manage 40%.

CONTINUED....

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html

Otherwise, we can follow the French model and call for the tumbrils.

[Th1onein]

15. What are tumbrils?

[hobbit709]

18. Here you go.

[jtuck004]

20. An open cart that tilted backward to empty out its load, in particular one used to

convey condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution

Part of a populist fantasy that crops up now and again.

[DirkGently]

3. KNR.

[Octafish]

27. Political Justice in Alabama: Don Siegelman Goes to Prison

August 12, 2012 | Lou Dubose

EXCERPT...

As a federal judge, Fuller held a substantial equity position—$5 million to $25 million—in Doss Aviation, which provided a variety of services (flight training, avaition fuel, aircraft maintenance, air traffic control) to the Navy, Army, and Air Force. In other words, the judge was also a federal contractor, dependent on procurement decisions made in the Pentagon.

The investigation of Don Siegelman was started by Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, whose campaign had been run by Alabama political consultant Bill Canary. Pryor was subsequently appointed to the federal appellate bench by George W. Bush.

In 2002, Siegelman had been narrowly defeated, after an retabulation of votes, by Republican Congressman Rob Riley. The U.S. attorney who picked up the AG's investigation until she perhaps recused herself herself, was Leura Canary, the wife of Bill Canary. Bill Canary was working on Riley's campaign.

Before Siegelman was convicted in 2007, the same charges against him were dismissed by a federal judge hearing the case before it was assigned to Fuller. A former U.S. attorney who briefly represented Siegelman as a private lawyer told a House subcommittee that Bush Justice Department officials ordered federal prosecutors in Alabama to "review the case from top to bottom"after it was initially dismissed.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonspectator.org/index.php/Blog/entry/political-justice-in-alabama-don-siegleman-goes-to-prison.html

[madfloridian]

4. Kick

and rec.

[Octafish]

28. Abramoff and the Riley Band of Choctaw Republicans

Harper's, February 28, 2008, 11:05 am
By Scott Horton

Lord Acton had it just right when he said “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But the American Founding Fathers understood this principle perfectly, and it’s why they turned to a tripartite system of government with careful checks and balances. The Republican Party under Newt Gingrich had a field day with the petty corruption of an entrenched Democratic leadership in Washington. And then, in power, they renounced their “Contract With America” by proving that they could easily surpass the Democrats. Epidemic corruption really dates from roughly 2002, as the G.O.P. achieved its long sought after lock-hold on the Congress, the White House and the judiciary. And the simple truth is that corruption among public office holders is not the preserve of one party or the other, but rather something that thrives when the checks-and-balances system fails, and the press turns a blind eye on the problem or becomes itself too cynical (or even, like in Alabama, enmeshed in the corruption). There are several lessons to be learned from the Bush presidency, and this I submit is an important one. We underappreciated the role of checks-and-balances.

SNIP...

The Abramoff case itself presents an interesting example of the sort of gamesmanship that has surrounded political corruption inquiries. In the words of Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, the Abramoff scandal is by most measures the most significant political corruption scandal in the nation’s history. It was pursued, but only so far, and then the matter came to an amazing dead-end: in Alabama. Sam Stein reports:

On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.

In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff’s activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff’s influence peddling scheme. Riley, a Republican, won election in November 2002, and was reelected in 2006.

In a December 2002 email obtained by the Huffington Post — which McCain and his staff had access to prior to the issuance of his report — Abramoff explains to an aide what he would like to see Riley do in return for the “help” he received from Abramoff’s tribal clients. An official with the Mississippi Choctaws “definitely wants Riley to shut down the Poarch Creek operation,” Abramoff wrote, “including his announcing that anyone caught gambling there can’t qualify for a state contract or something like that.”

The note showed not only the reach of Abramoff, but raised questions about Riley’s victory in what was the closest gubernatorial election in Alabama history.

I have had this email, and several others for some time, and have alluded to them in several of my posts. In fact one of the things that attracted me to the Siegelman case was recognizing an array of names brought out to attack Jill Simpson when she first spoke. They appeared, cited as indubitable authorities in the Birmingham News — and they were many of the names I learned from reading the Abramoff email traffic that was reviewed by John McCain’s committee.

Stein’s concerns that the investigation dead-ended in Alabama without following the trail of millions in Abramoff-related cash are extremely well taken.

CONTINUED...

http://harpers.org/blog/2008/02/abramoff-and-the-riley-band-of-choctaw-republicans/

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. K&R

[Octafish]

29. ''Fuller blamed Siegelman for exposing him.''

What Mike Hale said...

Fuller blamed Siegelman for exposing him. Fuller owns 47% and is/was president of Doss Aviation of Colorado, Springs, CO. He was working both jobs. His uncle Everett Terry serves on several Congressional Defense Committees and made his nephew Mark Everett Fuller a wealthy man through military contracts.

SOURCE: http://eatatjoesplace.blogspot.com/2007/12/from-words-of-power.html

[OnyxCollie]

6. The NSA scandal meets the US Attorney scandal.

This, I believe, is the real reason for the warrantless mass surveillance.

Gather info on politicians and then use parallel construction to put them in prison.

ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT’S 2002 MEMORANDUM

On March 6, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memorandum regarding new procedures to apply to foreign intelligence (FI) and foreign counterintelligence (FCI) investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It proposed significant changes to FISA and allowed overlapping between intelligence officers and law enforcement officers:

Prior to the USA Patriot Act, FISA could be used only for the "primary purpose" of obtaining "foreign intelligence information." The term "foreign intelligence information" was and is defined to include information that is necessary, or relevant, to the ability of the United States to protect against foreign threats to national security, such as attack, sabotage, terrorism, or clandestine intelligence activities. See 50 U.S.C. § 1801(e)(1). Under the primary purpose standard, the government could have a significant law enforcement purpose for using FISA, but only if it was subordinate to a primary foreign intelligence purpose. The USA Patriot Act allows FISA to be used for "a significant purpose," rather than the primary purpose, of obtaining foreign intelligence information. Thus, it allows FISA to be used primarily for a law enforcement purpose, as long as a significant foreign intelligence purpose remains. See 50 U.S.C. §§ 1804(a)(7)(B), 1823(a)(7)(B).

The Act also expressly authorizes intelligence officers who are using FISA to "consult" with federal law enforcement officers to "coordinate efforts to investigate or protect against" foreign threats to national security. Under this authority, intelligence and law enforcement officers may exchange a full range of information and advice concerning such efforts in FI or FCI investigations, including information and advice designed to preserve or enhance the possibility of a criminal prosecution. The USA Patriot Act provides that such consultation between intelligence and law enforcement officers "shall not" preclude the government's certification of a significant foreign intelligence purpose or the issuance of a FISA warrant. See 50 U.S.C. §§ 1806(k), 1825(k).


These procedures were changed or rejected by the FISA court and its opinion was publicly released in August 2002.

In spite of the long-accepted, constitutionally sound, independence-preserving method of appointing interim U.S. Attorneys, the appointment process was radically changed with the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2006. Removed was the interbranch appointment from the district court; the Attorney General could now make interim U.S. Attorney appointments. Also eliminated was the 120 day period that interim U.S. Attorneys could stay in office before a district court could appoint an interim U.S. Attorney to fill the vacancy. Interim U.S. Attorneys could now remain in office indefinitely, or until the President appointed a U.S. Attorney to the district. Interim U.S. Attorney appointments bypassed Senate confirmation, leaving the determination of qualification to the Justice Department.

The insertion of this new clause into the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act went unnoticed. Senators were at a loss to explain how the clause made its way into the bill. It was later determined that the Justice Department had requested Brett Tolman to insert the clause into the bill (Kiel, 2007). At the time the clause was inserted Mr. Tolman was a counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which is Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is a member. Sen. Specter responded to inquiries about his involvement with the clause by saying, “I do not slip things in” (Kiel, 2007, p. 1). According to Sen. Specter, the principal reason for the change was to resolve “separation of power issues” (Kiel, 2007, p. 2). The Senate voted to repeal the clause in February 2007 (P.L. 110-34, 2007). At the time of this writing, Mr. Tolman is a U.S. Attorney for the state of Utah.

A report from Professors Emeritus Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan of the University of Missouri and Illinois State University respectively, shows that of 375 elected officials investigated and/or indicted, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. “U.S. Attorneys across the nation investigate seven times as many Democratic officials as they investigate Republican officials, a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops” (Shields & Cragan, 2007, p. 1).

[MannyGoldstein]

9. This is the only plausible use

Given that the intelligence services can't even act on direct information about terrorists living in the US, e.g. The Boston Bomber Brothers.

[Octafish]

33. Spot on, OnyxCollie. Either Prison or go along to get along and take the suitcase o' Benjamins...

...because there isn't much else in-between for an alternative, apart from an unmarked grave at the bottom of the shipping canal or in the desert, piney woods, swamp, industrial wasteland, pig farm or other semi-official, sanctioned human remains disposal area.

Watching the Detectives

State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, James Risen, Free Press, 256 pages

By JAMES BOVARD • March 13, 2006

James Risen’s State of War has opened a Pandora’s Box for the Bush administration that no amount of howling, scowling, or bogus terrorist-attack warnings will be able to close. Risen’s revelations on pervasive National Security Agency warrantless spying on Americans shred the final pretenses to legality of the Bush administration. Now the debate is simply whether, as Bush and his supporters claim, the president is effectively above the law and the Constitution during a time of (perpetual) war.

Risen has been a national security reporter for the New York Times for many years. He was not one of the Times reporters who simply recycled hokum from the White House Iraq Group. In October 2002, he wrote a piece shooting down the Bush administration’s claims that Mohammad Atta had met an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, one of the favorite neocon justifications for attacking Iraq.

Risen had the story on NSA wiretapping before the 2004 election, but the Times, under pressure from the administration, sat on the piece for at least 14 months. The paper’s timidity may have awarded George W. Bush a second term as president. After the Times finally published Risen’s story in mid-December, Bush seized upon the exposé to portray himself as heroically rising above the statute book to protect the American people. The administration has been boasting about its “terrorism surveillance program” ever since.

Bush announced that “the NSA program is one that listens to a few numbers called from the outside of the United States and of known al Qaeda or affiliate people.” Except that the program also listens to calls from inside the United States to abroad. And, in some cases, it has wiretapped calls exclusively within the United States. No one knows how flimsy the standard may be that the administration is using for associating people with terrorist suspects—consumption of more than a pound of hummus a week?

Risen revealed that the “NSA is now eavesdropping on as many as five hundred people at any given time” in the United States. Bush’s “secret presidential order has given the NSA the freedom to peruse … the email of millions of Americans.” The NSA’s program has been christened the “J. Edgar Hoover Memorial Vacuum Cleaner.”

CONTINUED...

http://jimbovard.com/blog/2013/06/10/my-2006-book-review-on-warrantless-wiretapping-scandal/

Until he brushed his teeth one morning, Hoover was the nation's foremost blackmailer.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Sorry, Jamie and Lloyd just don't feel it's the right time

These things are complicated.

[Octafish]

35. Cass Sunstein would not approve of that or this thread.

It's what he's all about, government conspiracies being, at root, like banal and all.

Cass Sunstein’s Conspiracy Theory: The Tuskegee Experiment

The Classic Liberal, 2010-01-20

Obama Administration Czar Cass Sunstein wrote a paper in 2008 stating that the government should respond to conspiracy theories via "cognitive infiltration of extremist groups."

In other words, Cass Sunstein advocates thought and speech control.

SNIP...

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Using Humans as Laboratory Rats

For 40 years ... from 1932 to 1972, the U.S. government conducted an experiment on 399 black men with syphilis. These men were mostly illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama.

The government never told them what disease they were actually suffering from, nor of its seriousness. Instead, the government told them they were being treated for "bad blood." The government and its doctors never had any intention of curing them.

These (black) men were not only given false information about their disease, but were inflicted with dangerous "treatments" as well - while genuine treatment was intentionally withheld. In 1947 for example, when penicillin became the drug of choice for sufferers of syphilis, the United States Public Health Service (PHS) refused to offer it to the 399 "subjects" of their study.

CONTINUED...

http://the-classic-liberal.com/cass-sunstein%E2%80%99s-conspiracy-theory-tuskegee-experiment/

What's telling, regarding Don Siegelman, is Dr. Professor Sunstein's evident concern for the Bush Crime Family:

Government Nanny Censoring "Conspiracy Theories" is Also Responsible for Letting Bush Era Torture and Spying Conspiracies Go Unpunished

Washington's Blog
Thursday, October 7, 2010

Cass Sunstein was the main adviser to the Obama White House advocating against prosecuting Bush administration officials for torture, illegal spying, and other crimes. As constitutional expert professor Jonathan Turley wrote in 2008:

Close Obama adviser (and University of Chicago Law Professor) Cass Sunstein recently rejected the notion of prosecuting Bush officials for crimes such as torture and unlawful surveillance.

*****

The exchange with Sunstein was detailed by The Nation’s Ari Melber. Melber wrote that Sunstein rejected any such prosecution:

Prosecuting government officials risks a “cycle” of criminalizing public service, argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton — or even the “slight appearance” of it.

Sunstein did add that “egregious crimes should not be ignored,” according to one site, click here. It is entirely unclear what that means since some of us take the views that any crimes committed by the government are egregious. Those non-egregious crimes are precisely what worries many lawyers who were looking for a simple commitment to prosecute crimes committed by the government.

SNIP...

So Sunstein isn't calling right now for proposals (1) and (2) -- having Government "ban conspiracy theorizing" or "impose some kind of tax on those who" do it -- but he says "each will have a place under imaginable conditions." I'd love to know the "conditions" under which the government-enforced banning of conspiracy theories or the imposition of taxes on those who advocate them will "have a place." That would require, at a bare minimum, a repeal of the First Amendment. Anyone who believes this should, for that reason alone, be barred from any meaningful government position.

CONTINUED w links...

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2010/10/main-obama-adviser-blocking-prosecution.html

Complicated things are too much for small minds, like possessed by the common folk.

[bobthedrummer]

8. Kick, and a couple of links about other people that use the oldest tricks in 21st century politics

This was prompted after reading about Judge Fuller's "affair" and a ref to Rove..

For the record and in keeping with what we know, so far, here are Karl's girls..
(started by Fridays Child 3-31-07)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x548152

Meet Gov. Scott Walker's Political Hit Women
(by Brendan Fischer/Alternet post)
http://www.alternet.org/story/153979/meet_gov._scott_walker%E2%80%99s_new_political_hit_women

Rovian star pupil Jocelyn Webster is currently Scott Walker's Communications Director.

[dmr]

16. So Webster's really a Republican political operator being paid by the State of Wisconsin.

What a scam.

Thanks for the links.

I think of the railroading of Don Siegelman all the time when I hear/read about the shenanigans and fraud in Virginia, Wisconsin, etc.

[bobthedrummer]

49. We are a battlefield here dmr-and a lot of these networks use ALEC policies-really John Birch

Society in the 21st century stuff (the Koch brothers dad, Fred KOCH, was a founder of the John Birch society, The John Birch Society is headquartered here, etc.)

John Birch Society page (Wikipedia entry)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society



One result of Walker's "WISCONSIN IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS" corruption is that the RW has third generation operators like Jocelyn. Yep, there are lots of young women careerists with special skill sets being thrown against the PEOPLE here my friend.

[WillyT]

10. K & R !!!

[Octafish]

41. Justice Elena Kagan played a central role...

No matter what some people say, there are reasons to be concerned. From the great DUer autorank:

Elena Kagan - Willing Accomplice

By Michael Collins

Then, when Siegelman appealed his case to the Supreme Court in 2009, President Obama's Attorney General dispatched Solicitor General Elena Kagan to argue against the appeal in November.

Before accepting the case, Elena Kagan knew or should have known: that the U.S. Attorney who began the Siegelman investigation was closely tied to Karl Rove; that Siegelman never benefited personally from the contribution to an education funding initiative; that the case was so outrageous, forty-four attorneys general petitioned Congress; and, that the presiding judge in the case owned a major interest in a defense firm that received a $178 million federal contract between Siegelman's indictment and trial, a massive conflict of interest.

Most revealing, before her argument against the former governor's appeal, Kagan knew or should have known the following. After two charges had been dropped in a 2009 appeal, Justice Department attorneys recommended a twenty year sentence instead of the seven years already rendered. Fewer offenses for sentencing meant thirteen additional years by the strange logic of federal justice.
Kagan knew or should have known all this and more. That didn't stop her from arguing that Don Siegelman should be kept in jail. ...

That judgment is that Elena Kagan was a willing accomplice in one of the most outrageous political prosecutions of our time. Why should anyone ever trust her?

Her nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States should be rejected unanimously.

[Auntie Bush]

11. Not fair! Fuller sits on the bench and Siegelman sits in jail.

Should be the reverse! I wonder if that day will ever come.

[BlueManFan]

12. I'm Sure DonSiegelman Is Pleased With Obama/Holder's Decision Not To Look Back

Nothing worth fightin' for here folks....let's get back to raiding medical marijuana clinics, clamping down on internet poker, and making downloading shit off the internet a felony. You know, the important stuff. I scratch my head and wonder W-T-F?

[HiPointDem]

17. +1

[sabrina 1]

19. Siegelman should have lied to Congress. Or he should have started a few wars based on lies.

He could have crashed the economy so long as he provided for the Big Gambling Casino on Wall St.

What he did was be a good, decent man and that is not acceptable in the world we live in.

I remember him back when Bush was starting up his wars and his Security State, criticizing him publicly when few had the guts to do so.

THAT was his crime, not jumping on that lucrative bandwagon they are all on.

This country needs outside intervention at this point. Siegelman should have his conviction overturned and those responsible should be investigated, tried and convicted, Karl Rove at the front of the line.

But that would be a country where the rule of law prevailed.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

34. Too late. n/t

[JDPriestly]

21. K&R.

[xchrom]

22. du rec.

[kelliekat44]

23. I think he deserves a Presidential pardon...and more a hero than Snowden. nt

[panzerfaust]

32. But first, one would have to have a president who has both honor and courage

... not one who furthers the work of his predecessor in dismantling our civil liberties.


Rest assured, that our current president likely sees nothing wrong in what happened to Governor Siegelman. Obama certainly would stand with Bush and Rove in the right of the president to destroy anyone who is a threat to their presidency.

Yes, I do have voter's remorse.

[leftstreet]

24. DURec

[chuckstevens]

25. Water board Karl Rove!

Just another victim of the slimy pig, who never seems to pay for any of his crimes. Honest to God, will someone finally get the balls to go after this treasonous fuck?

[FourScore]

26. This upsets me so much. n/t

[Initech]

30. Satan definitely has a special place in hell reserved for corrupt judges.

[Octafish]

48. It gets sicker. Remember the US Attorney who was arrested after soliciting sex online with a minor?

A family man, John Atchison promised what he thought was the 5-year old girl's mother he wouldn' t hurt the child -- stating he'd done it before. In reality, he was corresponding with an undercover deputy in Michigan. He showed up at the airport with toys. Originally from Alabama, the guy was a riser in the Dixie GOP. Like so many of the evil ilk, after his arrest he tried suicide in jail, the second time successfully.

I wondered if he was friends with Bob Riley, Mark Fuller and the rest of the Alabama Old GOP Boys. What turned up:

The Strange Tale of a Pedophile in the U.S. Justice Department

Legal Schnauzer, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

The U.S. Department of Justice generated plenty of strange stories during the George W. Bush years. But one of the strangest involved John David "Roy" Atchison, an assistant U.S. attorney in Pensacola, Florida, who committed suicide after being caught in a pedophilia sting in Detroit.

Atchison's sad story has many connections to Birmingham and Alabama. And it raises this question: How did a guy with a shaky work record and a history of run-ins with the law get hired by the world's supposedly foremost crime-fighting organization? Did Atchison attain his lofty position because he had connections to powerful figures in the Alabama legal world?

Investigative journalist Margie Burns examines these questions, and much more, in a series of posts about the Atchison case at her blog, margieburns.com.

Burns begins with the actions that turned Atchison into a national figure in fall 2007:

This is not the story of a man who engaged in pedophilia for years or decades before being caught. It is the story of a man whipsawed by the strain of living up to a high-achieving family rooted in Birmingham, Ala., whose high-functioning connections assisted him for years in developing a career for which he turned out not to be suited. On Sept. 16, 2007, Assistant U.S. Attorney John David Roy Atchison, serving as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Florida, was arrested on credible charges of basically pedophilia. Atchison committed suicide in federal prison Oct. 5.

A dead pedophile might not sound like a tragedy. But Atchison was thought to be participating in a pedophile ring, and his death removed a useful informant from law enforcement resources. The question of how he was enabled to kill himself rather than being preserved for justice is one of the loose ends left hanging in his case.

CONTINUED 'though I wish it didn't...

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2010/09/strange-tale-of-pedophile-in-us-justice.html

Margie Burns detailed how the guy rose up through the GOP ranks, warts and all. When this is the kind of person putting people behind bars on behalf of Uncle Sam, these are worse than NAZI times.

[99th_Monkey]

31. The fact that, under Obama, Siegelman is still sitting in prison, speaks volumes

as to how there's this seamless thread that runs from BushCo to Obama on so many fronts,
completely blind-siding O's supporters.

Siegelman is one of the most egregious of these seamless threads.

[bvar22]

36. What makes that doubly BAD is that...

...getting corrupt REPUBLICAN Senator Ted Stevens out of jail and Out of Trouble was literally
the FIRST FU**ING THING on Attorney General Eric Holder's
MUST DO IMMEDIATELY list,
after being appointed by the Newly Elected President Obama.

...but unjustly imprisoned Democratic Governor Don Siegelman?
...never heard of him.

These things ARE complicated,
unless you're a Republican.



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[99th_Monkey]

39. I'd forgotten about the Stevens thing. damn. you are right, doubly bad. ~nt

[chimpymustgo]

40. You will know them by their works: Bush/Obama.

[steve2470]

37. k&r nt

[rhett o rick]

38. I think Obama was told not to mess with Gov Sieigelman's situation. Just sayin.

The Powers to Be make the decisions. What other explanation.

[Octafish]

42. I hear ya.

Sometimes, for those running in that milieu, things happen. Like that time in Dallas, when the guys who were supposed to be guarding President and Mrs. Kennedy went out for a good time.

That wasn't the worst thing someone in the Secret Service did that weekend.



Not this guy, though. Secret Service Agent Donald Lawton tried to do his job. And he registered dismay when ordered off the bumper at Love Field.

[rhett o rick]

46. And most of us think we are free. Delusion is needed by some to maintain their sanity.

I would like to have the conversation someday as to who specifically runs the country.

[barbtries]

45. i hate to agree with you

but not much else does make sense.

[librechik]

43. this is a crime and an outrage on a level with Guantanamo

it's really sick that Holder and Obama haven't addressed the Siegelman issue. Perhaps Obama will deign to pardon him at the end of his term.

[barbtries]

44. i don't know how they sleep.

and can't believe this goes on still. too frustrating.

[Zorra]

47. Email from Dana Siegelman, Don's daughter:

July 23, 2013

Update about "President Obama: Please restore justice and pardon my dad"

Dear Friends and Family,

Dad is doing well! He spends his time in prison helping others cope with the legal process of seeking clemency, especially minorities who have received disturbingly long sentences, and he is acting as a life coach to many of the young men. He wishes he could write each of you personally to tell you how fortunate he feels to have you in his life.

He would appreciate if you wrote to your member of Congress (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members) about disproportionate sentences for minorities, harsh drug laws for small time drug offenses, and lengthy sentences for non-violent inmates in general.

Dad would love if you took a moment to thank Congressman Steve Cohen for addressing the Siegelman case with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in a House Judiciary Committee meeting recently. Congressman Cohen has been incredibly supportive and is scheduled to be speaking about the case this week on Huffington Post Live. His address is:

The Honorable Steve Cohen
2404 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

If you would like to donate to Dad's commissary or legal defense fund, you can do so here (http://www.free-don.org/action_home.html). My family is honored and blessed by your support and appreciates you everyday. I hope to be celebrating Dad's freedom with you very soon!

With very best wishes,

Dana (https://www.facebook.com/dana.siegelman)