At Occupy protest encampments across the country this week, the controversy that was all the rage had to do with the defense budget bill just passed by Congress. The paranoia was palpable, and for good reason, considering how the issue was covered by the mainstream, corporate news media — and the implications for protesters worried about being arrested and detained indefinitely without due process as they carry their protests into an election year in 2012.
While much of the debate over the policy on detaining suspected terrorists on domestic soil was probably lost on much of the country now in a shopping frenzy with only a week to go before Christmas, even at the Occupy Birmingham encampment downtown activists were not happy with President Barack Obama. One even suggested he was taking a look at voting for Mitt Romney, the Mormon from Massachusetts, “because at least he represents a minority.”
“A Question of Integrity” examines growing concerns about ethically questionable and overtly political behavior by some Supreme Court justices, and explores the need the need to apply the same ethical standards that govern every other judge in the federal court system to the nation’s highest court. Viewers are called to action in support of reforms essential to preserve the integrity of our most important legal institution.
The Alabama Democratic Party sent a formal letter to Attorney General Luther Strange Wednesday asking for a full-scale investigation into campaign violations of two Alabama Republicans, Congressman Spencer Bachus of Birmingham and state Rep. Dickie Drake of Leeds
“We have asked Attorney General Luther Strange to stand by his word and investigate this blatant violation of the Alabama Fair Campaign Practices Act,” said former Alabama Supreme Court Justice and chairman of the Democratic Party Mark Kennedy. “This is not the first time that Dickie Drake has violated the election laws. He has failed to file reports that were even close to accurate as required by law, he has accepted money through PAC-to-PAC transfers, and now it appears he has committed a felony with Rep. Bachus.”
“I have spent many years on the bench as a judge and it is clear there is strong evidence to warrant an investigation into the campaign practices of both Spencer Bachus and Dickie Drake,” Kennedy said. “I think it’s important for Attorney General Strange to send a message that the statute is enforced equally and without bias. If he doesn’t investigate the violations of Bachus and Drake, it sends a message that he is selectively enforcing the law at best and, at worst, he is using his office to protect criminals in his own party.”
According to campaign finance records, U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus and newly-elected state Rep. Dickie Drake have committed a felony offense, he said. The offense comes after the principal campaign of Bachus donated $2,000 to the principal campaign of Drake.
Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman outside the federal courthouse in Montgomery
by Glynn Wilson
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman says if he is guilty of bribery and corruption for being the fourth governor to appoint HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy to a hospital regulatory board — in his case allegedly in exchange for contributions to an education lottery campaign — then Texas Governor Rick Perry could be “executed” for what he has done in that state.
Mr. Siegelman made the comment after a hearing on Wednesday requesting more information from the federal government to form the basis of an evidence gathering proceeding that could lead to a new trial for himself and Scrushy.
“If they can put me in prison for nine months for being the fourth governor to reappoint Richard Scrushy, they ought to be able to execute Rick Perry for what he did in Texas,” Siegelman said (see video below).
“There is a standard of justice that should apply across the board and I think the United States Supreme Court will see that and will apply the rule of law in this case,” Siegelman said, talking to the media in front of the federal courthouse in Montgomery after a three hour hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody. “Rick Perry would be in prison today if this were the standard.”
Lori and Don Siegelman stand together outside the federal courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, after a hearing on alleged “selective prosecution” and “judicial misconduct” in his case that traces its roots back to the late 1990s, when political operative Karl Rove was making a name for himself in the campaign world in Alabama.
Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman in front of the federal courthouse in Montgomery on a break from his sentencing hearing in June, 2007.
Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman will be back in federal court in Montgomery again Wednesday, this time making an oral argument before a different federal judge asking for a chance to be heard on issues related to “selective prosecution” and “government misconduct” in the handling of his case.
In an exclusive interview Tuesday morning, Siegelman, a Democrat, told me his attorneys will be making an argument that former U.S. Attorney Leura Canary — the wife of Bill Canary, head of the conservative Business Council of Alabama — had a partisan conflict of interest in bringing the alleged bribery and corruption case against him.
They will be revealing documentary evidence that Ms. Canary never actually recused herself from the case, he said, an issue we have reported on extensively in the past. She recused herself on the pages of the Birmingham News, but never actually filed a formal recusal document with the court, and e-mail messages show she was involved in directing the prosecution team even after she claimed to recuse herself.
Evidence will also be presented about judicial misconduct on the part of Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller, who handled the case against Siegelman. Because of that, Siegelman said, Fuller will not be hearing the evidence on Wednesday. Instead, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody will be presiding.
A federal judge with close ties to former president George W. Bush failed Wednesday to strike down Alabama’s strict new immigration law, even though the Obama Justice Department argued that it violated the Constitution and usurped the federal government’s authority to set immigration policy.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, who dated Bush in 1972 when he was in Montgomery avoiding service in Vietnam, was appointed to the court in 1991 by then-President George H.W. Bush. In Wednesday’s ruling, she upheld some provisions of the law, while withholding a final ruling on others, including the one concerning church objections to feeding and transporting those in the country without a green card.
The ruling appears to be politically crafted to give the churches what they want, big business what they want, and to grant police unlimited power to target and even profile Latin Americans. The unions are also screwed by this ruling, since they wanted the provision to hold companies accountable, and trial lawyers will not be able to sue companies for hiring illegal immigrants.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
