Siegelman Given Hero's Welcome by Alabama Democrats

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Siegelman given hero's welcome by Alabama Democrats

Associated Press - May 2, 2008 10:14 PM ET

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman received a hero's welcome from Alabama Democrats at the party's annual dinner.

Siegelman was released on appeals bond from federal prison in March. He had served nine months of a more than 7-year conviction in a federal government corruption case before being ordered released on bond by an appeals court.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recognized Siegelman during her speech to the party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner and he received a standing ovation.

The former Democratic governor said the reception he received "touched my heart."

Read more: http://www.waaytv.com/global/story.asp?s=8264752

[annabanana]

1. That had to have felt good.

This poor guy has been put through so much. Dragged to Louisiana, his appeal stalled, attempts to keep him from travelling..

It just must have felt good to get that support.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. We need to let the nation know that Siegelman is a political prisoner

and that we need to take down the vindictive Republicans who are manipulating the DOJ for their own nefarious ends.

[Octafish]

4. What ayeshahaqqiqa said.

Rove works for somemonkey.

[midnight]

7. I agree.

[abq e streeter]

11. We need to let the nation know that Reverend Wright said something or other,

let 'em know who's not wearing their flag pin, let 'em know who's the latest missing perky young white woman....... C'mon, get your priorities straight. This stuff about courts and trials'n stuff is WAYYY too dang complicated...( as always, hope I didn't need the sarcasm emoticon; which I can't get to work)......Didn't mean to make light of the Siegelman situation either; I've made sure to tell as many people as possible about it. Just a frustrated commentary on how so many people will never bother to learn about the outrageous crimes this administration commits on a seemingly daily basis; thereby making it easier to get away with it all...

[coalition_unwilling]

16. While we're letting the nation know that Siegelman is a "political prisioner," how

about letting the nation know that John Walker Lindh and the detainees at Guantanmo, Bagram, the CIA black sites are also political prisioners?

I'll bet Lindh now wishes he had never let his attorney negotiate the 20-year plea. There is incredibly strong evidence that Lindh was tortured while in U.S. military custody and that his constiutional rights were knowingly and deliberately violated. FWIW, the plea agreement Lindh and his attorney negotiated specified that they could not raise the issue of torture and violation of rights post-sentencing.

On edit: Meanwhile, former deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo teachs at the UC-Berkeley Boalt school of law (wonder what genius at UC-Berkeley made that appointment???) and is a free man. On further edit: although I'll bet Yoo has sharply curtailed any plans he might have to travel abroad.

[judasdisney]

19. Political prisoners that go unchallenged foreshadow a dark age ahead

[fascisthunter]

3. I Hope He Reconsiders His Political Future

I'm sure he still be involved on a grassroots level. I just don't want to see someone like Rove dictate a person's future.....


It's only a matter of time for a traitor like Rove to pass a very heavy price.

[terrell9584]

5. Recent polls estimate that about

60% or so of the statewide population believes that Siegelman may have been wrongly prosecuted.

This issue, if manipulated right, probably allows for continued Democratic control of the legislature, we are guaranteed the Lt. Gov's office because of who the candidate is, and we probably will have the governor's mansion and the AG's office. The Republican brand is starting to wear off and Siegelman's case may be what kills it. The reason that Southerners were Democrats, were taught that they were, is because Lincoln was a Republican, and that Republicans believed in federal interference into state's affairs, which is another way of saying Reconstruction. The Republicans took up the mantle of state's rights from Nixon onward, convincing southern voters that the Democrats were the ones who wanted to meddle in the internal affairs of states. The conviction of Siegelman in what was a politically motivated prosecution, and Siegelman, a man who had been the governor to declare April "Confederate Heritage Month", a man who executed men during a one term period than any other the state had, a man who essentially fit the model of old school Alabama Democrat, the fact that Siegelman was taken down in a prosecution driven by a northern political apparatchik will not sit well with non-Evangelical voters in the state, who will see it as another "Reconstruction" type thing.

Also keep an eye on Mississippi. The reason Lott stepped down is because the feds indicted his brother-in-law, who is a major trial lawyer and Democratic contributor. This lawyer had also been very active, as Lott had, in trying to get justice for Katrina victims from the insurance companies. There is also a belief in Mississippi that Lott was pushed aside as majority leader by Bush during the Thurmond thing because Bush wanted someone who he could easily control. All these federal corruption prosecutions in the South are beginning to turn the southern people against the Republicans because more and more of them are seeing the party as they once did, as the party of Lincoln and Reconstruction, rather than the party of Goldwater and Reagan that they voted for.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Thanks for an interesting analysis

Funny that the GOP has turned back to the bad old days of Reconstruction, which displayed the worst in Republican radicalism. The ideals of Lincoln and the early Republicans, which included progressive programs such as land grant colleges, are still here-enshrined in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

[MissWaverly]

8. their malicious persecutions are turning us Yankees off too

See case of Dr. Cyril Wecht in PA

The latest from Pittsburgh , where the U.S. attorneys' office continues to drop jaws with its handling of the case. From The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review : Two jurors said Thursday they were unnerved by FBI requests for home visits to explain why they deadlocked in the federal public corruption trial ...

Yesterday, we noted that the jury had hung in the case of forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat and former coroner of Allegheny County, and that the jurors seemed inclined towards acquittal. Wecht's attorneys, among them former attorney general Dick Thornburgh, have charged that U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan pursued the case out of political motivations. Today, the jury foreman, speaking to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , was even more explicit : "As the case went on my thoughts were this was being politically driven.

http://tailrank.com/5675600/FBI-Agents-Contacted-Wecht-Jurors

[defendandprotect]

9. Wecht has long been a strong opponent of the Warren Commission Report . . rightly so!

[MissWaverly]

10. I think he is a man of integrity

Like Siegelman this is another case where someone is prosecuted just because he's a prominent democrat

[pnorman]

12. "...jurors said Thursday they were unnerved by FBI requests for home visits to explain why they ..."

Is that correct? I don't believe i have EVER heard of this sort of government interference in a trial!

pnorman

[Hissyspit]

13. Yes. To the best of my knowledge, it's correct. n/t

[MissWaverly]

17. Yes, unfortunately it is

first you can see info on the case here

The letter to Mukasey, given to the Associated Press by Wecht's attorneys, was signed by political leaders, attorneys, a retired FBI agent and some media members...The letter echoes arguments by Wecht's defense that the hung jury showed the government's case is weak and much ado about nothing. The letter notes that one anonymous juror told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that a "majority" of jurors favored acquitting Wecht. "You brought your case to the people. The people have spoken. You have discharged your duty," the letter says. "Do not now summarily dismiss the findings of this jury, but rather dismiss the indictment."

Wecht's attorneys argued the charges were administrative oversights - 24 wire counts involve faxes that cost the county $3.96 to send - that didn't rise to the level of federal crimes.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1344804~Letter_to_Mukasey_asks_for_end_to_case_against_Cyril_Wecht.html

Here's the scoop on the FBI, THEY wanted to visit the jurors in THEIR homes to discuss the case

Two jurors said Thursday they were unnerved by FBI requests for home visits to explain why they deadlocked in the federal public corruption trial of former Allegheny County coroner Cyril H. Wecht. Experts said the practice of using FBI agents to contact and interview jurors in their homes after mistrials was unusual, but the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh characterized it as "commonplace."

"I thought it was kind of intimidating," the jury foreman said about the FBI phone call.
Said another juror, "I found it kind of unusual."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/s_561792.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Good new/bad news

Huntsville tv covered it, as least on their web page.

but

I want video!!!!!

[diva77]

15. So many public officials have gone away in silence rather than speak out

despite the threat and reality of hellish retribution by the Rovian machine. Don Siegelman is an incredibly brave soul. There ought to be a new award established to honor his unfailing willingness to speak out!!

[midnight]

18. It is an error only, and not truth, that shrinks for inquiry.

[diva77]

20. Thomas Paine quote is actually,"It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry"

but I confess that I'm not 100% sure of the meaning of this quote...:dunce: