The CBS magazine show “60 Minutes” showed that the Siegelman prosecutors suppressed exculpatory evidence and lied about it to a federal judge, according to a key lawyer who reviewed the evidence in advance.

“This is devastating,” he said. “For the DOJ to fail to deny accusations of serious prosecutorial misconduct is a BIG DEAL. This is beyond smoke, it’s a raging five-alarm fire.”

Certain sources are urging people to send mails to CBS news congratulating them on running this piece and asking for more from the extensive outtakes. They can send notes to CBS using the “Contact Us” comment function at the bottom of this CBS Web page.

The transcript can be found in the comments section on the previous post.

If you have comments about the show, the blackout of the show in North Alabama or questions for Glynn Wilson, fire away…

Since Scott Horton at Harpers.org does not take comments, if you want to comment or ask about his piece:

CBS Alleges More Misconduct in Siegelman Case

Or, if you have comments or questions on Jill Simpson’s appearance on Dan Abrams’ legal show on MSNBC, post them here and help us set the record for blog comments in Alabama…

Or Scott Horton’s latest piece here:

The Great Tennessee Valley Blackout

Feel . . . free . . . to . . . comment . . . here . . .

If it’s good enough for the mainstream media, it’s good enough for us (sang to the tune of “If It’s Good Enough For Jesus, It’s good enough for me.”)

We figure if the mainstream media believes it is necessary to cover “Faith” as news, why not engage in a little Biblical scholarship of our own on this Sunday when the CBS News magazine show will air on the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. I mean Richard Scrushy had his own religious TV show.

And after all, that’s the life-long goal of University of Alabama journalism historian and professor David Sloan, who may be as responsible for our religious news media as any man alive. It’s a remarkable achievement, putting the University of Alabama’s fine journalism program into heated competition with the Baptist Samford University in Birmingham - for who could produce the most reporters to take care of the internship needs of the Alabama Baptist newspaper for generations to come. And occasionally, slip one in over at the Birmingham News and Fox News 6.

Since I was steeped in the Bible myself in my Birmingham upbringing, an experience that took many years to wear off in my own writing, I say with some chagrin, I figure I’ve got as much right as anyone else.

Since most of the religious people involved in American and Alabama politics I confront seem to use the Bible in ways that indicates they do not have “an ear to hear,” as it says in “Revelations,” and maybe they’ve never really sat down and read the entire thing themselves.

When I was in junior high, a coach and Sunday school teacher set our championship basketball team on a path of reading for the year. We would read the entire King James version of the Holy Bible. In one year.

So we did, and we won, every single game through the state and national championships. And I’m happy to say I only strayed from the reading a few times, during all them begets and such in the Old Testament.

I’ve often thought of those words, since I embarked on a more scientific academic path, perhaps not unlike E.O. Wilson, the Harvard professor from Alabama who has tried to start a movement to get Southern Baptists to embrace the cause of nature as “God’s creation.”

But there is something about the soil here, and the way the words are used, that is not only troubling. Who or what is it going to take to reach the great religious masses of the South and turn them away from hatred and violence?

Where is the newspaper editor who will send up a sharp warning on an editorial page somewhere, begging these people to “stop the killing!”

There were a few newspaper editors who had the guts to do that during the great Civil War, who called on their citizens to stop the killing.

In the early 20th century, there were a few newspaper editors who stood up against the Ku Klux Klan. Some of them lived to tell about it. Some didn’t.

During the Civil Rights struggle in the 1950s and ’60s in Alabama, there were a few courageous newspaper editors who got out front on covering race, but not many. There were crusading liberal lawyers in those days, and a few brave preachers, like the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who is now being treated in a Birmingham hospital.

Where are those voices today? Buried in the antiseptic cubicles of professional drudgery at the last vestiges of newsrooms in America’s cities? Or out there in wild blogland, the dot dot dot wilderness, where e-mails sometimes obliterate communication rather than fostering it - at breakneck speed.

We are looking for those voices and linking to them here, trying with 110 percent, the same as the effort required for winning basketball, to show you the way to the promised land of the best information on the Web. It’s an evil world out there, with all kinds of hacks and hackers, full of evil men who will play both sides against the middle for a dollar all day long every day.

But we know, and you know, that The Word is good. And God is THE WORD!

The Unjust Judge and the Importunate Widow

See you after the show…

We’ll have the embargoed transcript up at 7 p.m.

Here’s the blurb:

IS DON SIEGELMAN IN PRISON BECAUSE HE’S A CRIMINAL OR BECAUSE HE BELONGED TO THE WRONG POLITICAL PARTY IN ALABAMA? SIEGELMAN IS THE FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA, AND HE WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRAT IN THAT REPUBLICAN STATE. BUT WHILE HE WAS GOVERNOR, THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAUNCHED MULTIPLE INVESTIGATIONS THAT WENT ON YEAR AFTER YEAR UNTIL, FINALLY, A JURY CONVICTED SIEGELMAN OF BRIBERY.

NOW, MANY DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS HAVE BECOME SUSPICIOUS OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S MOTIVATIONS. FIFTY-TWO FORMER STATE ATTORNEYS-GENERAL HAVE ASKED CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER THE PROSECUTION OF DON SIEGELMAN WAS PURSUED NOT BECAUSE OF A CRIME BUT BECAUSE OF POLITICS.

Jill Simpson will also be on MSNBC Monday and CNN soon, so watch for details as they come in…

Other Links

A Primer on 60 Minutes Story

And oh yea, lest we forget, that snowy screed of desperation out of Montgomery:

Judge, Conduct of Siegelman Trial Defended

As always, we welcome any comments after the show, and editor and publisher Glynn Wilson will answer questions about the case based on his coverage and other inside info – now that the show is finally out. It’s been a long wait…

There will be a Birthday Party for former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman Sunday night at The Rare Martini, 2839 7th Avenue South (in the Lakeview district at the corner of 7th Avenue and 29th Street), with doors opening at 5 p.m. The program begins at 6 p.m. Central time.

Democrats across Alabama will gather to watch tonight’s airing of “60 Minutes,” which will include an expose of the Bush Administration’s politically motivated investigations of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, who turns 62 Sunday, and other Democratic politicians nationwide.

There will be a Birthday Cake and a photo taken of the group, which will be turned into a poster and sent to Siegelman in his Louisiana jail cell wishing him a happy birthday, according to organizers.

Montgomery supporters will gather at the Bama Lanes on Montgomery Highway starting at 4:30 p.m.

“Come out to the watching events and show your support for fairness and accountability in our nation’s Justice Department,” the press release states.

You can also show your support by visiting the Alabama Democratic Party Web site at www.aladems.org.

Luke 18:1-8

1 And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man;
3 and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, `Vindicate me against my adversary.’
4 For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor regard man,
5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.”
6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
7 And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
8 I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Meditation: Persistence pays off, and that’s especially true for those who trust in God. Jesus tells a story that is all too true - a defenseless widow is taken advantaged of and refused her rights. Through sheer persistence she wears down an unscrupulous judge until he gives her justice. Jesus illustrates how God as our Judge is much quicker to bring us his justice, blessing, and help when we need it. But we can easily loose heart and forget to ask our Heavenly Father for his grace and help.

Jesus told this parable to give fresh hope and confidence to his disciples. In this present life we can expect adversity and trials, but we are not without hope in God’s provident care and justice. When trials come your way and setbacks disappoint you, where do you turn for help? Do you pray with expectant faith and confidence in God’s merciful care and providence for you?

“Lord, give me faith to believe your promises and give me perseverance and hope to withstand trials and adversities. Help me to trust in your unfailing love and to find joy and contentment in you alone.”

Lock Yourselves In, Folks

The Newhouse press is putting out the press releases for the Alabama Department of Public Safety again, this time reporting that this non-holiday weekend will be another “Take Back the Highways” weekend.

Chris Murphy, director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, tells the corporate, chain press motorists can expect more frequent, unannounced state trooper highway blitzes this year, even on non-holiday weekends.

There will be at least one statewide blitz using 400 troopers, and “regional blitzes” using 50 troopers over four days.

“We are trying to get more creative,” Murphy said. “We are trying to not just write tickets. If we wanted to do that, we could target I-459 to give speeding tickets, which is like fishing in a barrel. We want strategic enforcement.”

Wooh! Strategic enforcement to take more money out of your pocket with a recession looming, and more money out of the state coffers from sales taxes on meals out at the state’s restaurants. But it seems Bill Canary at the Business Council of Alabama has no problem with that. Maybe business is better at the churches?

The department plans to put more unmarked patrol cars on highways, including 30 new Dodge Chargers, although the unmarked cars will have DPS emblems on the passenger doors and officers will be in uniform, the News reports in Alabama, the nation’s number one police state.

Murphy also plans to put more marked vehicles on the highways, and this year he plans to use DPS’ 18 motorcycles as part of the traffic blitzes, like the seven that sometimes run a speed trap on John Rogers Drive by the Birmingham Race Course and new Guiding Light Church.

Topping the list is a blitz jointly planned for Mobile and Baldwin counties, where 90 people were killed in highway crashes last year. Other counties targeted are Chilton County, with 24 people killed in crashes last year, Tuscaloosa with 31 and Cullman with 39.

But remember, if you have to get out of the house and on the highways, and a small town Barney Fife pulls you over on the Interstate, that is against the law. You can challenge the ticket in court - and win! Call a lawyer…

To read more of the press release, click here and weep…