The Political Prosecution of Gov. Don Siegelman

The firing of US Attorneys in 2006 brought to light the unprecedented politicization of the Justice Department under the Bush Administration and their chief strategist, Karl Rove. Why eight federal prosecutors, all appointed by George W. Bush, and with good performance evaluations were fired in the middle of a presidential term has caused a lot of people to wonder what it was that they were or were not doing that the White House didn't like. Perhaps a better question that should be asked is: What were the other 85 prosecutors doing that the White House approved of.

Sunday night, 60 Minutes provided a sad and disturbing glimpse into one possible answer to that question with regard to the federal prosecutors in Alabama. The Prosecution of Don Siegelman tells the story of how a respected and well liked Democratic Governor of Alabama had his political career ended by a politicized indictment, most likely directed from the highest levels of government, and following conviction is now serving a 7 year sentence in prison. This story should be viewed by everyone who cares about the rule of law and justice in America:

Siegelman's attorney has asked for an independent prosecutor to investigate the corruption in this case:

http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/022508/D8V1JV3O2.shtml

Some are calling on Congress to investigate this abuse of the justice system. If you are as outraged by this story as I was, call your congressman and ask them to push Congressman John Conyors to open a Judiciary Committee investigation into this matter.

An interesting side note, check out Karl Rove's reaction today when he was confronted by a Siegelman supporter:

Free Don Siegelman:

The Sad State of OSHA Enforcement

I just watched a disturbing Frontline episode from a couple of weeks ago: A Dangerous Business Revisited. It was a follow-up to a story from 2003 where Frontline, the New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation teamed up to investigate the sorry state of worker safety at a number of iron pipe foundries in North America all owned by McWane, Inc.

The show makes it clear that the Bush administration has slow-rolled enforcement of worker protection rules at OSHA. Only when the Frontline story brought the case to the attention of the Justice Dept. and environmental laws were used to go after McWane and its executives did any real improvements occur at the plant. Thanks to Frontline and prosecutors at the Justice Dept., McWane is finally being held accountable for their reckless behavior that has injured and killed workers for years. Clearly more needs to be done to improve working conditions for American workers, but this documentary gives some hope that things can change.

Bush Administration Hiding Inconvenient Truths from Public

This administration never ceases to amaze. Time and again when the news on their performance has not been good, instead of doing something to fix the problem, they have simply swept the evidence under the rug and made it harder for people to find out what they are up to. Yesterday, Think Progress and The Carpetbagger Report pulled back the covers on another attempt to pull the wool over our eyes. With the economy tanking, the Economics and Statistics Administration is shutting down EconomicIndicators.gov website as of March 1st. Really unbelievable. Check it out here:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/13/economic-indicators/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14575.html

Off we go!

Off we go into the wild blue yonder. Put your tray tables up and fasten your seatbelt. It may be a bumpy ride!