Tuesday morning quick hits

Got Propaganda? Media Matters has done that thing they do, and compiled and analyzed the data points on the Pentagon's program of manipulating public opinion using retired military officers as willing propaganda tools to cram Bush's pet war down the throats of the American sheeple. They found that between early 2002 and and the point at which Bob Gates terminated the propaganda efforts in recent days, these retired officers parroted the party line on network and cable news shows over 4500 times. (A spreadsheet listing each of the analysts' appearances documented by Media Matters is available here.)

As we now know, many of these retired officers were employed by defense contractors and granted undue access to Donald Rumsfeld and the procurement process. There are twenty retired officers and twenty wiki pages just screaming for a line to be added: His reputation has suffered since being exposed in a New York Times article on April 20, 2008 as a Pentagon propagandist who was willing to be used by the Bush administration to sell the invasion of Iraq in exchange for access.

Rove still refuses to testify under oath in the Don Siegelman case. He has offered to talk to the members of the House Judiciary Committee "privately and off the record," but that option doesn't establish a clear record as such a meeting would lack a transcript. Rove's refusal to appear before Congress in this matter, which cost a man his freedom for political reasons, is the latest assertion of executive overreach to undercut the congress and establish the presidency as a unitary, all-powerful office.

It doesn't get any better than this...you know how the republicans rolled out their rebranding effort yesterday, with the catchy theme "The Change You Deserve," and you thought that sounded strangely familiar? It's because it is the advertising tagline of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals anti-depressant Effexor. How staggeringly appropriate, given the depressing landscape the republicans face this fall.

John McCain Takes Care of Another Patron

Arizona developer Steven A. Betts claims he never discussed a deal with Senator John McCain that turned 35,000 acres into a development project for an estimated 12,000 new homes to be built by his firm.

[Senator] John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest [in Prescott, AZ] for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.

Steve Benen picks up the rest of the thread, and highlights some of McCain's other dealings with big money donors:

When considering John McCain’s history of unethical behavior, the list usually starts (and ends) with the Keating Five scandal in the 1980s, for which McCain was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for having shown, at a minimum, poor judgment. While McCain took on the role of a “reformer” in the scandal’s aftermath, his ethical lapses have hardly disappeared.

The NYT noted a few weeks ago, for example, that McCain went to considerable lengths in 1999 to help one of his top campaign fundraisers buy the land at an Army base that was being closed. McCain helped his benefactor get the land — and special water rights — for just $250,000, which the donor then sold two years later for $30 million. (The donor, Donald Diamond, was rather candid about buying influence with politicians: “I want my money back, for Christ’s sake. Do you know how many cocktail parties I have to go to?”) It’s the kind of obvious influence peddling McCain swears he never gets involved with.

Today, the WaPo has a front-page item highlighting yet another real-estate controversy in which McCain helped out one of his most generous supporters.

When asked by the Washington Post about the timing of the land deals and of the campaign contributions that were made by the interested parties, the McCain Campaign issued a denial:

Question from the Washington Post: On several occasions, Sen. McCain worked on land exchange legislation that involved property in which campaign donors had a financial stake. Among them: A 1994 swap in the Las Vegas area involving the land Developer Del Webb Corp and its lobbyist; legislation in 1991 and 1994 regarding land swaps involving Donald R. Diamond; a trade proposed in 1997 involving the preservation of 2,250 acres of Sonoran desert that allowed for development in the Tonto National Forest, including land owned in part by Great American Life Insurance, the company run by Carl Lindner. How does Mr. McCain explain the close timing of campaign contributions to his efforts on those land exchange deals?

[McCain Campaign] RESPONSE: Rather than offer a single explanation describing the events leading up to Senator McCain’s legislative involvement in all the land deals to which you refer, we are willing to try to answer specific questions you may have on each. What can be said about all of them, without further specific questions, is that Senator McCain did absolutely nothing to help, improperly or inappropriately, any campaign donor on any land deal.

Regular readers will recall the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and note that, in certain circles, trading campaign contributions for favors is considered an indictable offense:

...Siegelman emerged as one of the few Democratic stars, winning the Governor's race in 1998. He lost the seat in a close and contested race in 2002, but polls in 2003 showed that he had a good chance of recapturing the governorship. Then came the first indictment from the U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, charging Siegelman with using his position to rig a state bidding process. A judge dismissed the case in 2004 for lack of evidence. Just as Siegelman was preparing to run for Governor again, a second round of charges was brought in 2005 by the U.S. Attorney's office in Montgomery. His trial in 2006 overlapped with Alabama's Democratic primary, in which Siegelman had initially been a heavy favorite.

The investigation into Siegelman began as an inquiry into a contract held by [Clayton Lamar (Lanny)] Young [Jr.] to build a state warehouse in Alabama. Young was a well-liked figure in Montgomery who, by his own account, was in the habit of handing out cash, checks, rides on his private airplane and other goodies to members of both political parties. In return, he apparently hoped to receive favorable treatment for his garbage dumps and other lucrative state-related business.

Young testified that he had furnished Siegelman with an all-terrain vehicle and a motorcycle, lavishing money on the Governor and his aides. But he was an equal-opportunity influence monger. Early in the investigation, in November 2001, Young announced that five years earlier, he "personally provided Sessions with cash campaign contributions," according to an FBI memo of the interview. Prosecutors didn't follow up that surprising statement with questions, but Young volunteered more. The memo adds that "on one occasion he [Young] provided Session [sic] with $5,000 to $7,000 using two intermediaries," one of whom held a senior position with Sessions' campaign. On another occasion, the FBI records show, Young talked about providing "$10,000 to $15,000 to Session [sic]. Young had his secretaries and friends write checks to the Sessions campaign and Young reimbursed the secretaries and friends for their contributions."

Further updates as necessary.

Siegelman is Being Beaten In Prison

We want to stress that this is from a Diary at DailyKOS. We have no idea how thoroughly vetted this story is. We hope it is not true, actually, but we relay it because of what we know to be true - that Don Siegelman is a political prisoner. --BG

I'm back, and your initial comments are the same as mine, basically. How do you know for sure? Like you, I'm not certain of the veracity of this information. I found it on a Daily Kos diary that Crooks and Liars was linking to. I've watched the comments at C&L and it's the usual trolling concern over there--people going after Siegelman and the like.

The bottom line is this--it's not whether Siegelman is guilty or not. It's about the dignity of his treatment and did he have a fair trial. If there are indications that he is not being treated with dignity and that he didn't have a fair shake, that's an outrage.

What seals the deal is the image on Crooks and Liars and on the DKOS diary, which is Siegelman forced to write a letter to someone on a printed page like it was being snuck out of the gulag--pretty powerful stuff.

As always, view with skepticism and view with a critical eye towards what could be happening.


Start spreading this around...

DailyKos:

All roads lead to Rove. That was the message scrawled as an afterthought in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope I received in yesterday’s mail. It contained a letter from an old and dear friend of mine. His name is Don Siegelman. He is the former governor of Alabama and he is being held as a political prisoner of the Bush administration in a Federal prison in Louisiana.

They don’t allow Don the luxury of stationary so he must write his letters on whatever he can find. He wrote me on a xeroxed article he wanted me to see. [..]

When I first heard of Don being prosecuted for corruption my heart sank. I didn’t know what to think. It had been years since we’d spoken and the press made it sound awful for Don (what else?). Of course I had no idea what was really going on. Now that I do I am horrified…and furious.

Don is a formidable force in Alabama politics. His friends are loyal and his supporters enthusiastic. They re-elected him Governor in the midst of a bogus corruption trial engineered by the Bush Justice Department at the behest of Karl Rove who takes orders from you-know-who. Don campaigned for re-election throughout the early phases of the trial. On election night he was declared the winner, but Karl Rove’s minions stole the election overnight by manipulating the ballots in Baldwin County. It was classic Rovian/Republican election theft. They did it with computers and electronic voting machines. Don went to bed the re-elected Governor of Alabama, and woke up an unemployed defendant. [..]

Something that has not been reported is that they have been physically beating Don. I don’t know the extent of his injuries or exactly how many times it has happened – but it has been multiple times.

There are no words for the fury I feel. This is an outrage. And it is the most un-American thing I have ever heard. I cry bitter tears of frustration and rage.

Please everyone. We have to help Don, and we have to crush these thugs and put them out of the business of perverting our democracy. We must investigate and prosecute the responsible parties, not for political reasons, but to actually serve the interest of justice. The cause of justice calls upon us to hold these criminals accountable. We must bring them to justice and stop such travesties from ever again happening in our United States of America.

A new review of evidence suggests that an aligned group of Republican interests were pressing for — and seeking to profit financially from — the trial of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on charges of bribery, according to Sam Stein of HuffPo.

Please contact Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairmen of their respective Judiciary committees and ask them to appoint an Independent Investigator. You can also donate to Siegelman’s Defense Fund.

Filed Under: Republican Party, Scandals

Have you ever heard of a man so dangerous, he was denied blank sheets of paper in prison?

What is THAT all about???

Don Siegelman
#24775-0001
Satellite Prison Camp
Post Office Box 5010
Oakdale, LA 71463-5019

UPDATE I - Warren Street (adding image from Crooks and Liars/DKos story)

Pretty powerful image, huh? Definitely NOT appearing in the GWB presidential library.

Sure I do

Hysterical.

Woman, off camera: "You don't have to do that."

Man, holding sign: "Sure I do."

Suprised by This? Update on the Don Siegelman Case

From Think Progress:

60 Minutes Report On Rove’s Dirty Politics Blocked In Parts Of Alabama

Last night, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired its long-awaited report on Alabama’s incarcerated former governor Don Siegelman, featuring allegations that Karl Rove personally told a Republican operative in the state to find evidence that Siegelman was cheating on his wife.

Siegelman, a Democrat, was convicted in 2006 for conspiracy, bribery and fraud. But observers from all sides of the political spectrum are now questioning whether his prosecution “was pursued not because of a crime but because of politics.”

Though the report aired last night, it was not seen by everyone who may have wished to view it. In several Alabama locations, “the show was blocked - black screen - during the Siegelman segment of 60 Minutes only.” Harper’s Scott Horton, who has investigated the Siegelman prosecution and was interviewed for the segment, reports:

I am now hearing from readers all across Northern Alabama–from Decatur to Huntsville and considerably on down–that a mysterious “service interruption” blocked the broadcast of only the Siegelman segment of 60 Minutes this evening. The broadcaster is Channel 19 WHNT, which serves Northern Alabama and Southern Tennessee.

WHNT originally claimed last night that the blocked segment was due to “a techincal(sic) problem with CBS out of New York.” But that claim was contradicted by CBS in New York, who told Horton, that “there is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19.”

WHNT now has a different explanation on its website:

NewsChannel 19 lost our program feed from CBS. Upon investigation, WHNT has learned that the CBS receiver that allows us to receive programming from CBS failed. WHNT engineers responded as quickly as possible to restore the feed at 6:12 p.m.

WHNT says it “will re-air the broadcast of that segment.”

Man, the corruption is so blatant in this country, they don't even try to disguise it or hide it. What's funny is that, as far as I can tell, WHNT is owned by Local TV LLC, and the CEO is a man named Bobby Lawrence.

Now, why is that relevant? Let's have a look at what Robert Lawrence has given to politicans:

LAWRENCE, ROBERT
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
3/29/2006
$1,000
Chabot, Steve

LAWRENCE, ROBERT
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
SELF-EMPLOYED/BROADCASTER
1/26/2004
$1,000
Portman, Rob

LAWRENCE, ROBERT
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
JACOR COMMUNICATIONS/CO-CHIEF OPERA
1/14/2002
$1,000
Portman, Rob

LAWRENCE, ROBERT
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
JACOR COMMUNICATIONS
5/29/1996
$1,000
Pressler, Larry

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
8/31/2000
$7,000
Republican National Cmte

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
LOCAL TV/CEO
12/21/2007
$1,000
Black, Stephen L [Democrat, running against Jean Schmidt in Ohio]

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
LACOR
6/22/1993
$300
Portman, Rob

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L MR
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
JACOR COMMUNICATIONS/CO-CHIEF OPERA
6/23/2003
$2,000
Bush, George W

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L MR
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
KEATING MUETHING KLEKAMP/ATTORNEY
3/27/2007
$1,000
Romney, Mitt

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L MR
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
INFO REQUESTED
9/3/1999
$1,000
Quayle, Dan

LAWRENCE, ROBERT L MR
CINCINNATI,OH 45243
LACOR
3/5/1993
$500
Portman, Rob

So the CEO of the company that owns WHNT is a big-time donor to Republicans, and his station goes black when it runs a story about corruption carried out by the Republican Party?

What a coinkydink...

UPDATE I

Rove comments on what's going on:

[f]ormer White House political adviser Karl Rove denied allegations made by a former GOP operative on CBS’s 60 Minutes last night that he personally told her to find evidence that former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) was cheating on his wife. Asked if CBS called him for comment, Rove said that he had spoken to them five months ago, but that they didn’t call him for comment when they decided to air the report.

At some point, denying things just doesn't get the job done. We've seen a lot of comments from the good people of Alabama who just aren't going to put up with this kind of thing, and I think it's important to remember that, in all parts of this country, there are bloggers and commenters who work long hours, trying to stay informed and to inform people as to what the issues are, and I'm glad they could come here and weigh in on the matter.

What Are You Watching This Sunday Night?

Might we make a suggestion?

I am advised by CBS News that their long-awaited feature dealing with the trial of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman will air on the next 60 Minutes program, on Sunday, February 24.

This story is related to the politicization of the Justice Department--remember those days, when Gonzales ran things and no one knew what was really going on? What with all of those missing E-mails, and with Mukasey making sure no one holds the Justice Department accountable, we'll probably never know. People who have previewed or seen transcripts say that the 60 Minutes piece is going to wow some people.

Here's why the Don Siegelman case is so important:

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 31 — Alabama has a tradition of savage political warfare, but Don E. Siegelman’s fight to stay out of prison is reverberating all the way back to Washington.

Federal prosecutors here are seeking 30 years in prison for Mr. Siegelman, who was the Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003 and was convicted last year of accepting $500,000 in bribes from the chairman of the HealthSouth Corporation.

Mr. Siegelman, who is scheduled for sentencing on June 26, says he was singled out by prosecutors with close personal ties to Alabama Republican leaders and to the Bush White House.

Mr. Siegelman’s defenders have tied his plight to the uproar in Washington over the Bush administration’s decision to dismiss eight United States attorneys, but they have produced no firm evidence of political interference.

Now they have an affidavit from a lawyer who says she heard a top Republican operative in Alabama boast in 2002 that the United States attorneys in Alabama would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. The operative, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Mr. Canary, who heads the Business Council of Alabama, was an informal adviser to Bob Riley, a Republican, who defeated Mr. Siegelman in 2002.

Earlier, Mr. Canary worked in the White House under President Bush’s father and has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political strategist.

In the affidavit, the lawyer, Jill Simpson, said Mr. Canary’s remark was made in a conference call with her and Rob Riley, Governor Riley’s son and campaign manager.

Ms. Simpson said Mr. Canary assured the younger Mr. Riley that “his girls would take care of” Mr. Siegelman before he had a chance to run for the governor’s seat in 2006 and identified “his girls” as Leura Canary and Alice Martin, the United States attorney in Birmingham.

Neither Mr. Canary nor Mr. Riley responded to requests for comment about Ms. Simpson’s affidavit.

In 2003, Ms. Canary recused herself from the investigation, after Mr. Siegelman’s lawyer accused her of conflicts of interest. She turned the case over to Louis Franklin, a career prosecutor who had served under Republicans and Democrats.

After a nine-week trial last year, a jury acquitted Mr. Siegelman on 25 counts and convicted him on 7, almost all tied to accepting money from Richard Scrushy, the former chairman of HealthSouth. Mr. Siegelman was not convicted of pocketing any money himself. Rather, a jury convicted him of persuading Mr. Scrushy to pay $500,000 to retire the debt of a political group that had campaigned to win voter approval for a state lottery.

Yes. That Scrushy:

Scrushy guilty of bribery in case involving ex-governor
Updated 6/30/2006

By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
Richard Scrushy, the charismatic former chief executive of HealthSouth who was acquitted last year of masterminding a $2.7 billion fraud, was found guilty of bribery and related charges by an Alabama jury Thursday.

Scrushy, the only CEO to triumph over the Justice Department in the government's recent campaign against corporate fraud, was convicted of funneling $500,000 to former Alabama governor Don Siegelman in exchange for a seat on the state hospital regulatory board.

The jury convicted Siegelman and Scrushy of six charges of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud. Siegelman was also convicted of obstructing justice. The two men face as much as 30 years in prison each. Both vowed to appeal.

Scrushy's conviction is yet another reversal of fortune for a man who's been riding a legal roller coaster for three years. Throughout the 1990s, Scrushy was a highly respected CEO who helped HealthSouth grow from a regional chain of hospitals into a Fortune 500 company.

So what does it all mean? Tune in and find out. It should be a hell of a show.