New York Times and Washington Post Pawns in Leaks

Alabama Whistle-Blower Says Rove Should Be Charged

President George Bush comforts Karl Rove on the day he was forced to resign from the White House in August, 2007.

by Glynn Wilson

The master of spin from the Bush years, Karl Rove, is at it again, even as he testified before the House Judiciary Committee for the second time Thursday about his role in manipulating America’s judicial system from his office in the West Wing of the White House.

While the transcript of Rove’s testimony might be released in August and the committee may hold a public hearing on White House involvement in the political firing of U.S. attorneys and other executive branch intrusions into the judicial branch, including the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, Rove had already granted interviews with the New York Times and Washington Post to spin the story his way in what may constitute an act of obstruction of justice. Rove even selectively released a few e-mail messages to the papers to bolster his case, although what was reported seems to indicate he was just as involved as we have been reporting for the past two years.

Here’s how the Washington Post played the story.

Political adviser Karl Rove and other high-ranking figures in the Bush White House played a greater role than previously understood in the firing of federal prosecutors almost three years ago, according to e-mails obtained by The Washington Post, in a scandal that led to mass Justice Department resignations and an ongoing criminal probe.

Rove Had Heavier Hand in Prosecutor Firings Than Previously Known

In the exclusive interviews Rove granted to the Post and the Times earlier this month, Rove described himself as a “conduit” of grievances from lawmakers and others about the performance of certain prosecutors.

“The e-mails and interview were provided on the condition that they not be released until Rove’s House testimony concluded,” according to the Post.

Rove said he did not recall several events because of his “busy job” and asserted that he had done nothing to influence criminal cases, “an allegation by Democrats that has dogged him for years,” the Post reports, even though the Post has not been the lead news organization investigating Rove.

The Post allows itself to be used by Rove and his attorney Robert Luskin, who asserts that “there was never any point where Karl was trying to get a particular prosecution advanced or retarded.”

“Yes, I was a recipient of complaints, and I passed them on to the counsel’s office to be passed onto Justice,” Rove told the papers in what appears to be a total distortion of what actually happened. This will most likely come out in the end in either the congressional probe or an ongoing criminal case.

Rove injects a canard about “weak enforcement of voter fraud laws and public corruption,” which he says “had the sound of authenticity to me. If what I’m told is accurate, it’s really troublesome.”

What the two top newspapers in the land don’t seem to realize is that this is an attempt by Rove to not only snake his way out of culpability in politicizing the Justice Department, but to actually try and make it appear as if he gives a damn about the problems he created as Bush’s lead political brain and attack dog. Every single decision made by the Bush administration was filtered through Rove to make sure it met political muster, and the administration aggressively pursued a strategy of taking over the country by the Republican Party. Rove often promised his GOP buddies that his mission was to keep the Republicans in charge of the country “for a generation.”

So why does this come as a surprise to the Post and the Times at this late date?

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Birmingham Water Works Seeks Quick Sale

Forever Wild Board Says Wait

by Glynn Wilson

The Birmingham Water Works Board is rushing to sell 3,200 acres of land along the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River and forestalling a move to acquire the property to preserve it by the state Forever Wild board.

Glynn Wilson

Donna Schultz and Friends of the Locust Fork president Sam Howell on a recent outing on the river…

The Black Warrior Riverkeeper non-profit group is opposing this move and asking that citizens immediately contact the Birmingham Water Works Board to oppose the action.

“It is a shame that the (Birmingham Water Works Board) has chosen to abruptly shun Forever Wild and sell to the highest bidder. It seems that the rush to sell is unfounded, as they have held this property for more than a decade,” said Nelson Brooke, executive director of the group.

The property has been appraised at $3.2 Million, according to the water board. At the last Forever Wild board meeting on June 11, that board voted to seek their own appraisal of the property, a first step toward buying the land to preserve it and protect it from development forever.

The water board, however, voted in their board meeting on June 30 to open up a bid process to accept offers on the property through Friday, July 31.

“This unfortunate move effectively cuts Forever Wild out of the running for the property, as the earliest Forever Wild could make a decision would be at their September board meeting,” Brooke said. “I have been unable to meet with their realtor Stan Smith this month to figure out why they are doing this and how the process will work, despite repeated attempts and promises.”

Brooke encouraged the public to contact the board and urge them not to do this. You can learn how on its Website at BirminghamWaterWorks.com.

“This is it folks,” Brooke said. “If they choose to sell to the highest bidder after tomorrow, then the public option is off.”

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Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck Are the Racists

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but we ain’t buyin’ it…

Glynn Wilson

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman in front of the federal courthouse in Montgomery, with Sephira Bailey Shuttlesworth, wife of Birmingham Civil Rights icon Fred Shuttlesworth, in the background.

Federal prosecutors in Montgomery filed their response this week to Alabama Governor Don Siegelman’s and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy’s motion for a new trial, and their demands for recusal of Chief U.S. District Justice Mark E. Fuller.

It is boilerplate legalese that basically says they do not deserve a new trial and the judge should not recuse himself.

Siegelman reacted immediately to the news.

“I am shocked by the contentions of the United States Government’s response to the motion for the judge to recuse himself from all other proceedings in this case,” Siegelman said in an e-mail message.

“The government farcically argues that the trial judge and 11th Circuit decided in my case that the system operated fairly for me because the trial judge assumed that the emails from Juror No. 7 and Juror No. 40 were ‘authentic’.” he said. “So when he denied our motion for a new trial, based on those emails, both courts said that it’s OK for jurors to be emailing each other before the close of the government’s case, OK to be in a a conspiracy to subvert the defendant’s constitutional right to a fair trial.”

Keep in mind what these jurors were saying and what they were trying to do, he said.

For background, check this story from our archives:
Explosive New Story Lends Credence to Siegelman Appeal

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Glynn Wilson

by Glynn Wilson

ROSA, Ala. — More than 75 people packed the Rosa Town Hall to overflowing Monday night to learn about a giant coal mine planned for Blount County within 100 feet of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River that, if approved, would destroy hundreds of acres and dump millions of gallons of toxic sludge over five years into a river that is already stressed nearly to the breaking point.

The public did not even find out about the permit application from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management until it was basically too late to launch a full-scale fight. A tiny legal notice was published in The Blount Countian, a local weekly newspaper with a marginal Web presence that doesn’t tell people much about the world. No one at the paper even thought to do a story to notify the people who live on land adjacent to where the 2,000 acre coal mine is planned.

Glynn Wilson

Dwight Norris tells his story…

They may not have found out at all if not for Dwight Norris, who hiked into the woods to investigate when he heard a bulldozer digging some test holes in the area.

After hearing the presentation from Black Warrior Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke and seeing the overwhelming turnout, Norris said he has some hope that the people can launch a movement to stop the mine.

“This gives me some hope,” he said.

The public has only until August 1 to write in public comments for the Alabama Surface Mining Commission permit, although now that people know about it, they may try to bring some political pressure on the Blount County Commission, their state legislative representatives and the Alabama Environmental Management Commission to extend the public comment period. The mining commission is planning a public hearing of sorts for the third week of August

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TVA Coal Ash Comes to Alabama’s Black Belt

Glynn Wilson

An off duty Uniontown Police officer, with his town cruiser and air conditioner running full blast on a hot July day, guards the entrance to the Arrowhead Landfill in poor Perry County in Alabama’s Black Belt where TVA is shipping its toxic coal ash from the massive spill in Kingston, Tennessee back in December. After a day trip there on Saturday with John Wathen, the Hurricane Creek Keeper and with TheDirtyLie.com, we are working up a full report on the latest environmental injustice to result from the biggest ecological disaster of its kind in American history.

This Time With The Web Press

Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson

The crickets fill the night air outside with their incessant mating tune, playing their bent legs like tiny violins. Otherwise the suburbs appear to be locked down and fast asleep, as the Homeland Security Department and the Birmingham Police like it. The headlines are up on the news page, and the Facebook comments are slowing down.

It is time to shut down two of three computers, all connected to the Internets, time to crack open the third Yuengling Black and Tan, and head over to the Strat-o-Lounger to catch up on some TeeVee.

Surfing first the news channels, mostly MSNBC but checking in on CNN and Fox. Then the free movie channels. Then the premium pay jobs, often peddling the same old fare.

But there on the Turner Classic Movie channel, running without commercials, was that old 1939 American classic: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

The other choices being not so great, I figured what the hell, it’s been awhile, and you know, the political situation being what it has been for the past eight and a half years and all, with some obvious recent improvements, it might be worth another viewing.

As I type this, the following day, the talking heads are discussing a so-called “teachable moment” out of the Cambridge PD. I don’t know about wasting precious news and political time talking about the arrest of a Harvard professor, who just happens to be black. Hey, leave it to me and I say screw the cop. Fire the bastard. But Obama has to make nice, and we understand why. They will make nice at the White House, and then onto New York for the book and movie deal.

Who cares.

Here’s a teachable idea. For all of us worried about the major problems with American capitalism and democracy and the law and the press, minorities or not, re-watch this movie any way you can get your hands on it. Think of it as a sort of booster shot. A dose of courage that can only come from film.

It you are one of us who still believe in the possibility of a free and peaceful world, somehow, who cling to the one small hope that we still have a chance, a little more time, to solve the problems that may lead to our extinction as humans, not just conquer the fear of being shot walking down the street as individuals, watch it.

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An Update From DC

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers told a nationwide audience via C-SPAN at the National Press Club today (July 24) that Attorney Gen. Eric Holder “must appoint a special counsel” to investigate DoJ abuses under the Bush Administration.

Also, he urged formation of a “blue-ribbon” panel to explore abuses by DoJ. Conyers said that more scrutiny is needed beyond the Judiciary Committee’s oversight hearings in recent years, especially because many witnesses have declined to appear.

During a reception before his remarks, Conyers told me that he was not aware of two recent allegations of DoJ abuses, including the alleged “blackmail” of Siegelman/Scrushy prosecution witness Nick Bailey by DoJ reported this week and DoJ’s firing of whistleblower Tamarah Grimes.

See, for example, Did DoJ Blackmail Siegelman Witness With Sex Scandal? and Prosecutors Used ‘Sex Scandal’ to Intimidate Key Witness in Siegelman Case.

Conyers encouraged me to provide the stories to his staff for his review. I’ll be doing so, with copies to traditional newspaper and broadcast channels that have largely ignored the latest developments.

Andrew Kreig
Washington, D.C.

Concerned Citizens Get Involved

A 3,255 acre coal mine (Rosa Mine) has been proposed in Blount County along the east side of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River from Royal/Hendrix past King’s Bend to Cleveland/Rosa, according to reliable sources.

There will be a meeting at the Rosa Fire Department for concerned citizens who want to learn more about the mine and how to get involved on Monday, July 27 at 7 p.m.

Two regulatory permits have been applied for through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Surface Mining Commission.

For more information about the mine and the meeting, click here .