*** Official 60 Minutes Siegelman/Rove Story Thread *** Blocked in Alabama! (TRANSCRIPT & VIDEO)

[Hissyspit]

I'm gonna try to live-blog this thing, but don't know if the Siegelman story is the opening segment or not. The disappearing bees story might lead. My typing skills are o.k., so bear with me.

UPDATE: Thanks for your help, everyone! Others, be sure and read through the whole thread.

FROM CBS MESSAGE BOARDS: 'This segment of 60 Minutes was blocked on Comcast Cablevision in my area of Alabama. The block lasted until 6:13 pm, assuring that very little of the segment could be viewed here. As I changed back and forth quickly to other channels to see if all other coverage was blocked, I found all other channels to be functioning normally. Also, it took 27 minutes for a Comcast representative to answer the phone. Her explanation was that it was obviously not a Comcast problem if all other channels were functioning normally. (BTW, I am not a registered Democrat. I simply wanted to see the segment.)'

On the front page of CBS News: "The Prosecution of Governor Siegelman"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml




The Prosecution Of Governor Siegelman
Scott Pelley Reports On The Case Against Alabama’s Former Governor, Don Siegelman
Comments 1009 | Page 1 of 4
NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2008

VIDEO: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/emailtoafriend/videoplayer_share.html?id=3860131n&title=Pelley's%20Reporter's%20Notebook§ion=60%20Minutes

Pelley's Reporter's Notebook
Scott Pelley discusses his "60 Minutes" report on the controversy surrounding the trial of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman who is serving prison time after being convicted on corruption charges. | Share/Embed

Pelley's Reporter's Notebook (3:21)
Preview: Don Siegelman (1:22)» More Videos

(CBS) 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. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, 52 former state attorneys-general have asked Congress to investigate whether the prosecution of Siegelman was pursued not because of a crime but because of politics.

- snip -

“Mr. Bailey had indicated that there had been a meeting with Governor Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy, a private meeting in the Governor's office, just the two of them,” says Doug Jones, who was one of Siegelman’s lawyers. “And then, as soon as Mr. Scrushy left, the governor walked out with a $250,000 check that he said Scrushy have given him for the lottery foundation.”

“Had the check in his hand right then and there? “ Pelley asks.

“Had the check in his hand right then,” Jones says.

“That Scrushy had just handed to him, according to Bailey's testimony?” Pelley asks.

“That's right, showed it to Mr. Bailey. And Nick asked him, ‘Well, what does he want for it?’ And Governor Siegelman allegedly said, ‘A seat on the CON Board.’ Nick asked him, ‘Can we do that?’ And he said, ‘I think so,’” Jones says.

- snip -

“I haven't seen a case with this many red flags on it that pointed towards a real injustice being done,” says Grant Woods, the former Republican attorney general of Arizona.

Woods is one of the 52 former state attorneys-general, of both parties, who’ve asked Congress to investigate the Siegelman case.

“I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square. This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of,” Woods says.

- snip -

She says she spied on Siegelman for months but saw nothing. Even though she was working as a Republican campaign operative, Simpson says she wanted to talk to 60 Minutes because Siegelman’s prison sentence bothers her conscience.

Simpson says she wasn’t surprised that Rove made this request. Asked why not, she tells Pelley, “I had had other requests for intelligence before.”

“From Karl Rove?” Pelley asks.

“Yes,” Simpson says.

Rove was a strategist in Alabama. Simpson says she worked with him on several campaigns.

60 Minutes contacted Rove. Through his lawyer, he denied Simpson’s allegations. One of Rove’s close Alabama associates was Republican consultant Bill Canary. Simpson says she was on a conference call in 2002 when Canary told her she didn’t have to do more intelligence work because, as Canary allegedly said, “My girls” can take care of Siegelman. Simpson says she asked “Who are your girls?”

“And he says, ‘Oh, my wife, Leura. You know, she's the Middle District United States Attorney.’ And he said, ‘And then Alice Martin. She is the Northern District Attorney, and I've helped with her campaign,’” Simpson says.


- snip -

Bailey told 60 Minutes that before the Siegelman trial, he spoke to prosecutors more than 70 times, and he admitted that during those conversations he had trouble remembering details. He told 60 Minutes the prosecutors were so frustrated, they made him write his proposed testimony over and over to get his story straight.

If Bailey’s telling the truth, his notes, by law, should have been turned over to the defense. But Siegelman’s lawyers tell 60 Minutes they never saw any such notes and never had a chance to show the jury just how much Bailey’s story had changed.

- snip -

But Grant Woods, the former attorney general of Arizona, says the case should never have gone to trial. “The prosecutor's gotta look at it and say, ‘Hey, is this the sort of thing that we're really talking about when we're talking about bribery?’ Because what the public needs to know here is there is no allegation that Don Siegelman ever put one penny in his pocket,” he says.

Richard Scrushy did make donations totaling $500,000 to that education lottery campaign, and after serving on the hospital board under three previous governors, Scrushy was re-appointed by Siegelman.

But Woods says that’s politics, not bribery. “You do a bribery when someone has a real personal benefit. Not, ‘Hey, I would like for you to help out on this project which I think is good for my state.’ If you're going to start indicting people and putting them in prison for that, then you might as well just build nine or ten new federal prisons because that happens everyday in every statehouse, in every city council, and in the Congress of the United States,” he says.

“What you seem to be saying here is that this is analogous to giving a great deal of money to a presidential campaign. And as a result, you become ambassador to Paris,” Pelley remarks.

“Exactly. That's exactly right,” Woods says.

- snip -

“He had him manacled around his legs like we do with crazed killers. And whisked off to prison just like that. Now what does that tell you? That tells you that this was personal. You would not do that to a former governor,” Woods says.

“Would you do that to any white collar criminal?” Pelley asks.

“No, I haven't seen it done,” Woods says.

“Help me understand something. You're blaming the Republican administration for this prosecution. You're saying it was a political prosecution. You are a Republican. How do I reconcile that?” Pelley asks.

“We're Americans first. And you got to call it as you see it. And you got to stand up for what's right in this country,” Woods says.


Karl Rove and others at the White House were subpoenaed to testify before Congress but they refused to appear. And the Justice Department has refused to turn over hundreds of documents in the case.


MORE TRANSCRIPT AT LINK

[Hissyspit]

1. TEASER: "This is Don Siegelman, formerly the governor of Alabama."

"He is now in federal prison, some say because of politics..."

Doing the teaser for the bee colony collapse story now.

[Hissyspit]

163. Background: Scott Horton of Harper's - "Justice In Alabama" Simpson's house burned & her car was run

off the road...



http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000351

Justice in Alabama
DEPARTMENT No Comment
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED June 24, 2007

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the film version of To Kill a MockingbirdDeep in southwestern Alabama sits the town of Monroeville. It’s a sleepy place, not of much consequence since the cotton industry gave out. People in America may think they don’t know it. But then, perhaps they do. This town gave America two of its literary giants. It is the town described in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the home of Harper’s Magazine contributors Harper Lee and Truman Capote. ...

- snip -

And where today is the spirit of Atticus?

“We have a Justice Department that has substantially been turned into a political arm of the White House,” Bruce Fein told the McClatchy Newspapers earlier this week. He went on to say that the public could have no confidence that federal prosecutions of Democrats by the Justice Department were fair. Mr. Fein is a conservative Republican lawyer and legal scholar of some note–the former senior legal analyst at the Heritage Foundation. As the Deputy Attorney General, he was responsible for the operational management of the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan. Bruce Fein would not make such a charge lightly. He is speaking from knowledge, not conjecture.

- snip -

And then, still more troubling, there is White House intervention to persecute their political opponents: the telltale sign of tyranny. Georgia Thompson was a state contracting officer in Wisconsin prosecuted for corruption when she awarded a bid to a contractor that had made campaign contributions to the state’s Democratic governor. ...

- snip -

But the Georgia Thompson case is not the worst. Far, far more troubling still is the conviction of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman in a prosecution in Montgomery. When this case got started, I was ready to accept what those Montgomery jurors did – namely, what on earth could be surprising about allegations that a political figure sells appointments for money? Isn’t that indeed just the way our system works? And shouldn’t we throw the book at them when they’re caught doing it? Truth is, I never much cared for Mr. Siegelman anyway.

In the meantime, however, I have spent over a month looking at this case. I have spoken with a number of journalists who covered the trial, pulled out and read the transcripts, talked to figures involved in the case. And I have received tips and messages from Alabamians who are trying feverishly to spin the case one way or the other. My conclusion: I have no idea whether in the end of the day, Mr. Siegelman is guilty or innocent of corruption. But that the prosecution was corruptly conceived and pursued and that the court proceedings were corrupted, almost from the outset: that is already extremely clear. This is not a prosecution of a political figure for corruption. It is a political vendetta, conceived, developed and pursued for a corrupt purpose.

How, you may ask, can a prosecution be corrupt? At Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, where I lecture, we frequently engage in the comparative study of criminal justice administration. I have my students read from the works of Andrey Januaryevich Vyshinsky, Stalin’s great legal choreographer and from Arkady Vaksberg’s authoritative biography of Vyshinsky. For Vyshinsky, of course, the criminal justice system existed to identify and punish criminals. But more essential was its political function. If those in power have political enemies, they can throw the enemies out of power or banish them. But this carries with it some risk. The enemies may gain public sympathy over their treatment, and they may regroup and then in the future present a serious threat. The solution advocated by Comrade Vyshinsky is to use the criminal justice system to vilify political adversaries – they will be branded criminals, stigmatized, driven from all office and power. And people will be afraid to associate with them in any way. The “crime” is in the end of the day irrelevant. The process is critical, and indeed, the process must be a public one and the humiliation complete.

What has happened under Karl Rove is not so daring and dramatic as Vyshinsky prescribed. It does not entail “show trials,” nor the brutal extraction of confessions – the technique Vyshinsky dubbed the “queen of evidence.” But it follows the same general plot line and is pursued for roughly the same purpose. Perhaps Rove read Vyshinsky and perhaps not. In any event, he clearly understands the rules of the game.

The Siegelman prosecution was commenced as the result of a plan hatched between senior figures in the Alabama Republican Party and Karl Rove. This connection is not coincidental, because Rove was once fired by the first President Bush and then had to rehabilitate himself. Rove did this in spades, and the place where he worked his political magic was in Alabama. He put together a campaign to engineer the Alabama GOP’s capture of the state’s judicial machinery. It worked brilliantly. And Rove has retained tight connections with the Alabama GOP ever since. Rove and the Alabama GOP leaders set out to destroy Siegelman’s political career and thus smooth the path by which the Republican Party could secure and retain political control of the Alabama statehouse. It was crafted in such a way as to retard the ability of Democrats to raise money from campaign donors so that they might contest office in Alabama. Each of these purposes is “corrupt.” Key to this plan was the use of the machinery of the Department of Justice for its completion – involving the U.S. attorneys offices in Birmingham and Montgomery, and the Department of Justice in Washington. Rove was in a position to make this work and he did so.

The curtain was pulled back on this plan when Dana Jill Simpson, a Republican lawyer who previously worked on a campaign against Siegelman, decided to blow the whistle. Her affidavit described William Canary, a legendary figure in the Alabama GOP, bragging that “his girls” would take care of Siegelman. Canary’s wife is Leura Canary, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Alice Martin, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama is a close confidante of Canary’s. He referred repeatedly to “Karl,” assuring that “Karl” had worked things out with the Justice Department in Washington to assure a criminal investigation and prosecution of Siegelman. Canary is a close friend of Karl Rove, and I have documented their long relationship in another post.

The response to Simpson’s affidavit has been a series of brusque dismissive statements – all of them unsworn – from others who figured in the discussion and the federal prosecutor in the Siegelman case, who has now made a series of demonstrably false statements concerning the matter. She’s been smeared as “crazy” and as a “disgruntled contract bidder.” And something nastier: after her intention to speak became known, Simpson’s house was burned to the ground, and her car was driven off the road and totaled. Clearly, there are some very powerful people in Alabama who feel threatened. Her case starts to sound like a chapter out of John Grisham’s book The Pelican Brief. However, those who have dismissed Simpson are in for a very rude surprise. Her affidavit stands up on every point, and there is substantial evidence which will corroborate its details.

This disclosure was treated as explosive news by Time Magazine and the New York Times. However, newspapers inside of Alabama reacted with awkward silence, as if these disclosures were very unpleasant news, best swept immediately under the living room carpet. I will single out the Birmingham News and the Mobile Register. I took some time earlier this week to review their coverage of the Siegelman story from the beginning. It left me wondering whether these publications were really newspapers.

MORE

[Debau2005]

2. I am here with you!

I was a member of the Democratic Party of Alabama until I moved to Georgia. I campaigned for and supported, and still support Gov Siegelman.

[Hissyspit]

4. Feel free to help out. The 60 Minutes segments are actually pretty short and can

go by very quickly!

[lisainmilo]

185. CALL 212-371-5999 with reguard to the BLACKOUT

%u201DI contacted CBS News in New York and was told that %u201Cthere 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, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.%u201D I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama %u201Ccould only have been an editorial call.%u201DChannel 19 is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, who can be contacted through Rhonda Barnat, 212-371-5999 or [e-mail] . Oak Hill Partners represents interests of the Bass family, which contribute heavily to the Republican Party. Viewers displeased about the channel%u2019s decision to censor the broadcast should express their views directly to the station management or to the owners."

This is from the comments on the CBS 60 minutes report: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830_page2.shtml#ccmm


Please call today.

[bagrman]

195. FAX Alabama DoJ to let Sieglman out on Appeal. 205-934-2067 Get Involved Next time it might be you.

[Vadem]

3. I hope somebody is taping it and will put it on youtube! ... n/t

[Hissyspit]

8. Segments are available at the CBS News site, but yes, the whole thing will be nice.

I'll look for it.

[L. Coyote]

130. ENTIRE VIDEO now online

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

[trthnd4jstc]

141. Thank you L. Coyote!

What an injustice! What an injustice! I am so close to tears, and I am a guy. This administration, and the Republicans, Why? I liked that former prosecuter from Arizona, Brooks, who responded after being questioned why this case matters, because you are a Republican, "We are supposed to be Americans first." Damn Right!

[deminks]

5. Watching here. Both segments are interesting to me. nt

[IndyOp]

6. Keep typing! When he is back on, that is... :-) (n/t)

[Subdivisions]

7. Checking in. I hope this story is helpful and not more of the same. n/t

[Debau2005]

9. He's first!

[zabet]

10. Starting now on the East Coast. nt

[Hissyspit]

11. "The Prosectution of Governor Siegelman" 52 former states attornies have asked to investigate

the case

[Hissyspit]

13. 1999 raising money to improve education - state lottery

Asked Repubs to come up with better idea.

[Debau2005]

15. And now

Bama is the only state in that are without a lottery or gambling. The money is running out of the state to the surrounding ones.

[Olney Blue]

12. I was born in Alabama, so I'm interested in this story.

Thanks for the thread, hissyspit!


edited to say thread, not threat! bad spelling error

[supernova]

14. You know, before this brouhaha

I had never heard of Don Siegleman.

[Hissyspit]

16. Showing siegelman in LA prison. Bringing up Scrushy (sp?)

Interview with Siegelman's lawyer about Bailey's testimony.

[Debau2005]

19. Richard Scrushy info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Scrushy

[Nutmegger]

17. R&K

Thank you for this thread.

[CatWoman]

22. nother

K and R!!

[rosetta627]

57. Ditto, appreaciate this thread

Wow, that was a short piece.

[Olney Blue]

18. Siegelman is serving 7 years in a federal prison- showed

him emptying mop water in prison.

[zabet]

20. "this many red flags"

that point to injustice..

Targeted Don because they
could not be him fair and square...

[Hissyspit]

21. Grant Woods, former AZ attorney general "They targeted Siegelman because they could not beat him

fair and square."

[Debau2005]

This was true for the most part

They didn't have a viable candidate to run against him. And the fear was the lottery might become more popular.

[zabet]

23. Karl Rove wanted pics

of Seigelman in compromising
sexual positions...

[Hissyspit]

24. Telling Simpson's story now: Karl Rove asked you take compromising pictures?

"Yes." "If I could."

Were you surprised Rove made this request?

"No, I had had other requests from Rove before."

[grasswire]

93. subpoena Barbara Comstock

She was head of oppo research for RNC. Subpoena her ass. Ask her how many "engineered" photos were requested by Karl Rove to be used for oppo research. Ask her just what other tactics Rove has managed, where the money came from to pay for this "evidence" and where the "evidence" is now. Did Rove remove evidence when he left the WH?

We need the whole story.

[Olney Blue]

25. Karl Rove told Simpson to get dirt on Siegelman.

Ugh. Pictures of Rove make me ill.

[bamademo]

26. I'm here in Huntsville, Al on Knology Cable and their are technical difficulties

It's just a black screen!!! Tin foil hat firmly in place. Why is 60 minutes not coming in? It's WHNT Channel 19 but I have digital cable not broadcast. What's going on?!

[Debau2005]

34. Gov Riley's son got involved.

[Olney Blue]

45. I don't blame you for worrying. It's fine here in Maryland,

and this video will be available on the web. You will see it.

[bamademo]

86. On the al.com Huntsville forum many people reported it black

They were on direct broadcast, Comcast Cable, Directv and Knology. I'm really suspicious.

[Olney Blue]

91. I presume that Fox News worked perfectly......

[Olney Blue]

104. bingo

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2918171

[EFerrari]

122. Can you tell what channel(s) went dark?

The bastards.

[barbtries]

116. i am sure you've been prevented from seeing this program

because you're in Alabama. this has got to be illegal. is there a siegelman support group, lawyers, someone who can make a stink about this with the FCC? would they have any jurisdiction (more to the point would they do a goddam thing since they're all run by bushies it seems)?

i couldn't get CBS to come in on my tv in NC, but doubt if it was due to the powers that be that took the show out in AL, because i started trying to get it way before 6pm. i don't have cable, just rabbit ears, and just could not find CBS.

tin foil hat not required - the blackout in AL could not be a coincidence, not considering what CBS was running when it happened. how many other times have you encountered 13 minutes of black screen on just one channel of your tv?

what's scary to me is that there is a power elite that can make this happen. it chills me to the bone.

[zabet]

27. K and R

[myrna minx]

28. K&R. n/t

[Hissyspit]

29. Canary: "My girls can take care of Siegelman."

Simpson talking about Canary who denies conversation. His daughters, top prosecutors in state.

[Hissyspit]

30. Justice Dept's first case. Judge throws it out. "There's no case here."

[bluhoodie]

49. OMG, such a railroading!!

I like this U.S. attorney Wood.
Did they say he was U.S. atty. of AZ?

[lala_rawraw]

149. he held them in contempt

[dbackjon]

190. Former REPUBLICAN Attorney General of Arizona

[supernova]

31. Judge threw out the case the first time

[bluhoodie]

32. "The case is so lame - it was thrown out immediately"

Sheesh.

[Hissyspit]

33. Simpson: Justice Department was gonna try again because Siegelman was running again.

Told this story to Congressional investigators.

[malaise]

35. This is great so far

Happy Birthday Don Siegelman - justice at last.

[libnnc]

40. Does anyone have his address?

It was posted here a few days ago.

I'd like to send him a belated card.

[Debau2005]

50. Here ya go

Don Siegelman
24775-001
FPC P. O. Box 5010
Oakdale, La 71463

In this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3195195

[libnnc]

51. Thank you

:thumbsup:

[Hissyspit]

36. DS's lawyer: They started over. People started getting subpoenas. "The net was cast much wider."

"You have to investigate crimes, not people."

[Hissyspit]

39. Woods: Everytime they had the chance to be independent and objective, they didn't do it.

[Debau2005]

43. Witness notes not turned over to the defense

They could have shown how this witness, Bailey's, story changed.

[ihavenobias]

37. I sure hope...

someone gets some clips of the 60 minutes stuff online so it can spread.

At any rate, this is a good clip to share (since a lot of people will miss the 60 minutes segment, or won't invest the time) since it's just over 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG5sJHFtSIk

[Olney Blue]

38. Political opponents (Canary) running cases- it all stinks.

[Hissyspit]

41. THE CHECK was cut days after the alleged meeting. Siegelman couldn't have had it.

Bailey was a crook.

Met with Bailey. Justice department wouldn't let cameras in.

Prosecutors made Bailey write his proposed testimony over and over.

Those notes should have been turned over to defense.

No one at justice department would be interviewed for story.

[Hissyspit]

46. Grant Woods: Case should have never gone to trial.

[Hissyspit]

48. Woods: Scrushy's reappointment was politics, NOT BRIBERY

Happens everywhere, everyday in the United States.

[Hissyspit]

52. Judge Fuller sent Siegelman DIRECTLY to prison. Handcuffed maniculed. Woods: Tells you it was

personal.

[Vadem]

83. This corrupt Judge Fuller needs to be investigated, impeached,

indicted and sent to prison!!!

[supernova]

42. This Bailey guy

is such a weakling... rolling over and letting them tell him what his testimony would be.

:puke:

[EFerrari]

146. They had him on extortion. What a fine little star witness.

:puke:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

44. sonna va bich.

no notes? no disclosure? No production of evidence that conflicts with the theory?

SONNA VA BICHes.

[EFerrari]

47. So much for discovery.

:grr:

[Debau2005]

53. Judge sent him directly to prison.

[malaise]

60. Let's hope KO and others

keep this in the media. Rove should be in prison

[LizW]

58. THAT's why they won't let the transcript be completed

Prosecutorial misconduct. Reversible.

[EFerrari]

85. Bingo. n/t

[Lint Head]

54. This was personal. They shut him up.

We are Americans first. :dem:

[Olney Blue]

55. Judge had him shackled and whisked off to prison.

Highly unusual- you usually get 45 days to get your affairs in order.

[bluhoodie]

73. No other white-collar crime treated this way

Shocking! Jaw-droppingly shocking, as someone else said.
Was this during Alberto's tenure??

[Hissyspit]

56. Woods is a Republican: "You have to do what's right."

[supernova]

69. I like Woods

He's impressive.

This whole situation is just despicable.

[CatWoman]

59. "We're Americans First"

:patriot:

[malaise]

63. That was pretty decent of him

but where was he all this time.

[CatWoman]

66. Malaise

better late than never :thumbsup:

[Hissyspit]

61. "Don Siegelman has six years and eight months left on his sentence."

Rove and others have refused to turn over documents.

[samplegirl]

87. These Republican judges gotta go

Bob Ney out in 10 months for coingate at a halfway house now.

[Botany]

90. Put their asses in jail and sue them for every fucking nickle

Don Siegelaman is gonna have one hell of a civil suit.

[Subdivisions]

62. I am ENRAGED! And not just at the injustice done to Don

Siegelman but also with 60 Minutes' weak portrayal of the bigger story and Rove's involvement.

Ugh!

[Debau2005]

68. Link

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

[katandmoon]

81. Considering the pressure that had to have been brought to bear on CBS

Not to show this at all, I found the segment very powerful and very damning of Karl Rove et al. Especially the closing statement "WE'RE AMERICANS FIRST" by a REPUBLICAN former U.S. attorney on behalf of Siegelman (not to mention his commentary throughout). I found this segment far more hard-hitting than I expected. I was already familiar with the story - and I felt like I was hit in the gut when the segment was over.

[Subdivisions]

99. I do have to give them props for airing it.

I'm glad to have been one who was a part of that pressure.

[Lint Head]

64. Are there any groups or organizations we can contact to free

this man and undo this injustice? :dem:

[ThomWV]

65. Just a plain and simple jaw-dropping "WOW!"

[Hissyspit]

74. Disgusting, isn't it? We've been aware of this for some time. Now you know why Horton and Larisa

Alexandrovna have put so much time and energy into this. Siegelman IS a political prisoner.

[Hissyspit]

67. Please recommend for others who are not online tonight (will see it tomorrow.)

And kcik. Thanks.

[Joanne98]

70. Thank you Sixty Minutes!

[annabanana]

71. That was very good. It took what might be confusing and

made the whole stinking mess crystal clear.

[Name removed]

72. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Olney Blue]

75. NOTHING good has ever come from Rove. NOTHING.

[supernova]

79. Why is he

still walking upright?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

120. Karl Rove's bill is mounting and he'll get his due: less than nothing. nt

[Submariner]

76. Karl Rove is a TRAITOR of the highest order and needs to go to prison n/t

[supernova]

82. I wanna see a Rove perp walk

[Glimmer of Hope]

77. That was depressing. Rove and his friends have a corrupted our justice system.

I hope Siegelman gets his justice one day.

[salin]

98. I hope Siegleman gets his justice, and I hope that this segment

made clear to many people who have not paid close attention to the news, and especially the USA scandal and corruption of the Deptarment of Justice - as to how corrupt the system has become and how dangerous a situation that is.

[Hissyspit]

78. Murder of Chauncy Bailey/Black Muslim Bakery story is on now. Then the bee colony collapse story...

[KoKo]

80. K&R...saw it...amazing.....

[Junkdrawer]

84. 60 Minutes completely skipped the 2002 Election Theft...

Video Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymqcU5zOPSg

Video Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUYOSruz4dw

[LizW]

92. Yes, but that's a whole other segment

They had to keep this one clean and easy to understand. I think they did a good job with it.

The whole saga could fill a book.

[Junkdrawer]

94. You're right, but I'll bet that part of the story NEVER sees the light of day...

outside of DU et al...

[road2000]

178. I agree, Junkdrawer.

There was mention near the segment's beginning that he "lost" the 2002 election. The theft of votes in the dead of night in Bay Minette could have been mentioned as brief background, because the fact that he actually won is pertinent to the story. Locals were well aware of it, and called it "Little Florida."

Awash in shame for my native county...

SE

[klook]

88. Siegelman's crime

was being a Democrat and getting elected governor of Alabama. He ignored the Rove pronouncement that the state was to have a permanent Republican majority.

Hope this story informs more Alabamians about what a screwjob this was/is. Siegelman needs to be freed, and the scumbags who entrapped him need to serve time.

[immoderate]

89. GODDAMMIT! K&R

:mad:

--IMM

[Stinky The Clown]

95. Ok ...... I'm pissed. How in the lving FUCK does Rove get away with giving the finger to Congress???

They subpoena, he flips 'em off.

Nobody does shit.

WHAT the fuck is that?

[lisainmilo]

181. Agreed, why is he not in contempt of court?

Their arrogance is appalling. I do not know why they are not in contempt of court. They simply refuse to show up when subpoenaed. How in the world is a blackout of CBS 60 minutes allowed? This is fascism!

[Fly by night]

96. What a fucking lame-ass story. I am glad some Republicans consider themselves Americans first ...

... because CBS (Corporate Bloviated Shills) left the most important story in the Alabama shadows.

Yes, they couldn't beat Don Siegelman -- that's why the hell they stole the 2002 election from him. Much documentation to that effect exists -- most posted here on DU for years now.

But NOOOO, we have to hear that the KEY evidence is an aide that misspoke.

What in the pluperfect hell is the corporate (or corpulent) media so afraid of re: the election theft stories? Why is that story so radioactive when it underpins everything else that the Rethugs have been able to get away with?

I am sorry I recommended that people watch this 60 Minutes episode -- it was not only kool-aid but watered-down and pissed in kool-aid at that.

Said in solidarity with another BOP inmate who does not deserve his fate.

FBN
BOP # 16502-075

[Junkdrawer]

102. I share your frustration. I don't go quite as far....

As you can see from my post above, I agree that there's a embargo on stories of provable election theft.

The farthest they ever go is "These machines may be hacked by theoretical hackers."

[Grateful for Hope]

97. K&R n/t

[Hissyspit]

100. UPDATED with TRANSCRIPT and VIDEO link. n/t

[EFerrari]

101. Thanks, Hissyspit!

:applause::applause::applause:

[Hissyspit]

103. Bee story is disturbing, too. Beekeeper: Where did they go? "I don't know. There's no dead bees"

"Anywhere. They flew off" and got lost. Never seen that before.

Within a month he had lost 2/3 of his bees.

[bluhoodie]

105. Yes, very disturbing. Wasn't it the cell towers everyone was blaming

several months back? No mention here. Sounds like viruses and such.
(Unless I missed something.)

[rainy]

109. in the end he said he believes it was from the pesticides used on the crops

they are a new kind and are designed to make the insect have a week immune system and forget. Organic bee keepers and organic farmers are not having this problem.

[Hissyspit]

112. The Neonicotinoids. We have discussed that possibility here at DU (always on top of everything

before the MSM gets it...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoids

Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticide. They are an artificial form nicotine that acts as a neurotoxin to insects. There is controversy over the role of neonicotinoids in relation to pesticide toxicity to bees and imidacloprid effects on bee population.

That may account for worker bees neglecting to provide food for eggs and larvae, and for a breakdown of the bees' navigational abilities.

In 2001, the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Syngenta when the company filed suit against Bayer to protect its patent on a class of neonicotinoid insecticides.

Neonicotinoids have been strictly limited in France since the 1990s, when they were implicated in a mass die-off of the bee population.

Extensive testing, however, has never proven these concentrations are high enough to harm bees, said Chris Mullin, a Penn State entomologist.

Contents
1 Imidacloprid
2 Confused and disoriented bees
3 Related
4 References
5 External links



Imidacloprid
The neonicotinoid insecticides include imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin, nitenpyram, and several others. Imidacloprid is used extensively in seed dressing for field and horticultural crops, and particularly for maize, sunflower and rapeseed (canola). Imidacloprid was detected in soils, plant tissues and pollen using HPLC coupled to a mass spectrometer. The levels of the insecticide found in pollen suggested probable delirious effects on honeybees <3>. For several years since 2000, French and Italian beekeepers have been noticing that imidacloprid is lethal to bees, and the insecticide is suspected to be causing the decline of hive populations by affecting the bee’s orientation and ability to return to the hive.


Confused and disoriented bees
A team of scientist led by the National Institute of Beekeeping in Bologna, Italy, found that pollen obtained from seeds dressed with imidacloprid contains significant levels of the insesticide, and suggested that the polluted pollen was one of the main causes of honeybee colony collapse <4>. Analysis of maize and sunflower crops originating from seeds dressed with imidacloprid indicated that large amounts of the insecticide will be carried back to honey bee colonies <5>. Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid in sucrose solution affected homing and foraging activity of honeybees. Bees fed with 500 or 1,000 ppb (parts per billion) of the insecticide in sucrose solutions failed to return to the hive and disappeared altogether, while bees that had imbibed 100 ppb solutions were delayed for 24 h compared with controls <6>. Imidacloprid in sucrose solution fed to the bees in the laboratory impaired their communication for a few hours <7>. Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid in laboratory and field experiment decreased flight activity and olfactory discrimination, and olfactory learning performance was impaired <8>.

Bayer corporation scientists reported that neither honeybees exposed to imidacloprid in sunflower seeds dressed with the insecticide <9> nor maize seeds dressed with the insecticide or released from the seeds during planting <10> were detrimental to honeybees. The Bayer studies did not deal with sub-lethal behaviour of intoxicated bees. An independent study found that imidacloprid was released to the environment from treated maize seeds during seed planting <11>. Bayer eco-toxicologists directed harsh criticisms at reports showing lethal or sub-lethal toxic effects of imidicloprid seed dressing and concluded that imidacloprid does not pose any significant risk to honeybees in the field <12>, without, however, disproving the findings. It is simply yet another case of the anti-precaution principle being applied <13> (Use and Abuse of the Precautionary Principle, ISIS News 6)

Turning to GM crops such as maize, canola, cotton and soybean it is clear that all of these GM crops, with or without Bt genes, use seeds most of which are coated with neonicotinoid pesticides highly toxic to honey bees. For example, Herculex maize with Bt genes to control rootworm, like Yieldgard corn borer resistant maize, is tity planted with seeds dressed with a neonicotinoid insecticide and a fungicide. Furthermore, the GM planting requires setting aside plots of non-GM maize making up 20 percent of the planted area as a “refuge” to discourage the evolution of resistant insects. But the “refuge” is sprayed with neonicotinoid pesticide to protect its yield <14>, and is more like a death camp for insects. Monsanto’s US Patent 6,660,690 provides for coating GM seeds with chemical pesticides <15>.


http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PI117

Pesticide Toxicity Profile: Neonicotinoid Pesticides1
Frederick M. Fishel2
This document provides a general overview of human toxicity, provides a listing of laboratory animal and wildlife toxicities and a cross reference of chemical, common and trade names of many neonicotinoid pesticides registered for use in Florida.


General
The mode of action of neonicotinoid pesticides is modeled after the natural insecticide, nicotine. They act on the central nervous system of insects. Their action causes excitation of the nerves and eventual paralysis which leads to death. Because they bind at a specific site (the postsynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor), they are not cross-resistant to the carbamate, organophosphate, or synthetic pyrethroid insecticides, which was an impetus for their development. As a group, they are effective against sucking insects, but also chewing insects such as beetles and some Lepidoptera, particularly cutworms. All neonicotinoid products are classified as general use.
Acetamiprid is for use against sucking insects, such as aphids and whiteflies, on leafy vegetables, cole crops, citrus, cotton, ornamentals, and fruiting vegetables. Ready-to-use formulations are available in addition to wettable powders and water-dispersible granules.

Imidacloprid was first registered for use in the U.S. in 1992 and is possibly the most widely used insecticide of the group. It has a wide range of target pests and sites, including soil, seed, structural, pets, and foliar treatments in cotton, rice, cereals, peanuts, potatoes, vegetables, pome fruits, pecans, and turf. It is a systemic with long residual activity and particularly effective against sucking insects, soil insects, whiteflies, termites, turf insects, and Colorado potato beetle. Products are available in dusts, granules, seed dressings as flowable slurry concentrates, soluble concentrates, suspension concentrates, and wettable powders. The application rates for neonicotinoid insecticides are much lower than older, traditionally used insecticides.

Thiamethoxam's chemical structure is slightly different than the other neonicotinoid insecticides, making it the most water soluble of this family. Because of its greater water solubility, it moves readily in plant tissue. Products are labeled for soil, seed, and foliar treatments to a wide range of vegetable and field crops. Product formulations include emulsifiable concentrates, water dispersible granules, and soluble concentrates.


Toxicity
Neonicotinoids are classified by the EPA as both toxicity class II and class III agents and are labeled with the signal word "Warning" or "Caution." Because the neonicotinoids block a specific neuron pathway that is more abundant in insects than warm-blooded animals, these insecticides are more selectively toxic to insects than mammals. The most available toxicity data of the neonicotinoids is with imidacloprid. These data indicate that it is less toxic when absorbed by the skin or when inhaled compared to ingestion. It causes minor eye reddening, but is non-irritating to the skin. Signs of toxicity in rats include lethargy, respiratory disturbances, decreased movement, staggering gait, occasional trembling, and spasms. There are no accounts of human poisoning, but signs and symptoms of poisoning would be expected to be those similar for rats. A chronic toxicity study showed that rats fed up to 1,800 ppm resulted in a No Observable Effect Level (NOEL) of 100 ppm. The EPA categorizes imidacloprid as a "Group E" (no evidence of carcinogenicity). In animals and humans, imidacloprid is quickly and almost completely absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, and eliminated via urine and feces within 48 hours. Of the neonicotinoids, imidacloprid is the most toxic to birds and fish. Both imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are highly toxic to honeybees. Mammalian toxicities for neonicotinoid pesticides registered in Florida are shown in Table 1 . Table 2 lists the toxicities to wildlife by the common name of the neonicotinoid pesticide. Table 3 provides a cross listing of many of the trade names that these products are registered and sold by in Florida.

MORE

[DemReadingDU]

121. at end of show, the beekeeper told 60 Minutes that

he lost 50% of bees from when the story aired 6 months ago.

that's a LOT more bees disappeared

:(

[IndyOp]

106. Wow! Good reporting - finally!! I hadn't heard this little tidbit before:

From the interview transcript: Richard Scrushy did make donations totaling $500,000 to that education lottery campaign, and after serving on the hospital board under three previous governors, Scrushy was re-appointed by Siegelman.

Not only was this donation NOT a bribe for Scrushy to be on the board -- Scrushy had been appointed to the board by 3 previous governors. Holy hell.

[Hissyspit]

107. kick with updates n/t

[L. Coyote]

108. K & R & Impeach two too = from the Pacific Ocean. We are still waiting out here.

[lala_rawraw]

114. guys...

am now getting calls that not only Alabama, but parts of Florida too were blacked out

[Junkdrawer]

117. Long time DUer Dhalgren confirms....(Huntsville, AL)...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2918171&mesg_id=2918207

[lala_rawraw]

110. Folks...

Sorry I was not here. Hissy, good job. Listen, I wrote up what I have learned and point two will fucking blow your mind
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/02/soviet-america.html

[OneGrassRoot]

171. Thank you very much. Will write CBS right now. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

111. K&R

Let's keep this alive.

[EFerrari]

113. Do we know it was blocked in AL? Because that's news. n/t

[L. Coyote]

118. HUGE NEWS + A CBS affiliate "went black" for 12 minutes. It weas Comcast!

AMAZING!! A real first in the USA! Blacking out a T_V station to block a story, to keep the truth from the People. DAMN!!

[EFerrari]

119. OMFG. Let's check and see who DOESN'T pick up on this

in the morning.

:wow:

[JPZenger]

147. Comcast had nothing to do with it

The story was broadcast on every CBS affiliate except Huntsville Alabama. Comcast is innocent.

[girl gone mad]

172. Unfortunately not a first.

This has been a media MO for years.

[MelissaB]

123. WHNT in Huntsville, AL has this on their home page now:

60 Minutes Programming Note
February 24, 2008

We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman."

It was a techincal problem with CBS out of New York. We are working (click to read rest) with them right now to see if we can re-broadcast the segment.

Please be patient with us during this time. We are doing our best to correct the problem.




http://www.whnt.com/

[EFerrari]

124. Unbelievable.

:wow:

[MelissaB]

125. Yep! Just a bit too convenient.

:hi:

[L. Coyote]

134. No mention of the FIXED election during the segment. One needs 60 minutes to report this one!

The segment is great, and has some new info too. But, there sure is more to this story,
especially the election financing, and rigging the outcome. Missing from the 60 Minutes
report are Hillman, Abramoff, Scanlan, Reed, the Choctaws, and others.

[pacalo]

140. Just too coincidental; will they schedule the re-broadcast at 3 in the morning?

[AnotherMother4Peace]

152. Thanks for the link - I just sent them an e-mail about their censorship. n/t

[road2000]

179. Checking now.

I have calls in to friends in Mobile and Birmingham to see how widespread the blackout was. They're reliable folks. Will post when I hear.

SE

[L. Coyote]

115. PARTICIPATE! ***** Happy Birthday Gov. Don Siegelman ***** Official SHOUT OUT Support Thread *****

***** Happy Birthday Gov. Don Siegelman ***** Official SHOUT OUT Support Thread *****
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2915968

[alfredo]

126. It should be Persecution, not prosecution.

[Hissyspit]

127. Digg this thread here:

http://www.digg.com/politics/Transcript_Video_60_Minutes_Siegelman_Rove_Blocked_in_AL

Thanks!

[EFerrari]

129. Done. n/t

[Hissyspit]

128. WHNT-TV Apologizes for Siegelman Blackout...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2918410

How convenient. They want to rebroadcast it. When? At 3:30 a.m.?

[JPZenger]

137. Blackout on station owned by loyal bushies

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Bush_associates_consolidate_hold_on_US_1226.html

The Huntsville station that blacked out the Siegelman story is owned by the Bass brothers, who are very loyal bushies. One was a classmate of King George's.

[JPZenger]

145. More on Bass Brothers- Owners of Blackout Station in Miss.

http://www.jonesreport.com/article/12_07/271207_media_consolidating.html

The Huntsville station that "accidentally" blacked out the Siegelman report is controlled by one of the billionaire Bass brothers of Texas. They have given hundreds of thousands to George Bush and his inauguration, and helped bail him out of near-bankruptcy when Bush was involved in the Harken energy debacle when he was much younger.

[lala_rawraw]

131. Where the hell are the liberal blogs for Christ sake?

They are telling us that a New York glitch affected ONLY Alabama - the topic of the blocked broadcast - and ONLY during the Don Siegelman segment? Bullshit!!!! Now go forth and spread to every blog out there... get this out.

Here are my two inputs:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/parts-of-60-minutes-broad_b_88218.html
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/02/update-on-the-m.html

[EFerrari]

133. My OpEdNews thingy will likely go up tonight. I'll edit to include. n/t

[orleans]

135. exactly what i thought: new york glitch in just alabama, my ass!

but i was getting a broken pixeled screen off and on throughout the segment and i'm outside chicago.

[EFerrari]

136. Reports from FL and LA, too. Waiting to see if we'll be glitched out West. n/t

[orleans]

139. let me know.

i think it's crazy alabama just happened to be the only place blacked out.

[EFerrari]

143. I saw the whole sordid thing.

They said nada about the stolen election but otherwise, it was a well done segment.

[lala_rawraw]

148. they only had 15 min...

but i agree and also, they left out the Baily's brother thing I mentioned as well as Fuller's sordid history.

[EFerrari]

150. 15 minutes isn't long enough, that's right.

God, I'm so fucking mad right now.

[Hissyspit]

164. I think they left out Simpson's house burning and her car being run off the road, too.

[Hissyspit]

132. Bass Family of Lee Bass and Harken Energy Own WHNT-TV:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2918585&mesg_id=2918585

[L. Coyote]

180. HORTON: CBS: More Prosecutorial Misconduct in Siegelman Case

CBS: More Prosecutorial Misconduct in Siegelman Case
Scott Horton - February 24, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002487


CBS aired its long-awaited feature on the prosecution and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman this evening at 7:00. In a stunning move of censorship, the transmission was blocked across the northern third of Alabama by CBS affiliate WHNT, which is owned by interests of the Bass Family. Those who were in the zone of censorship or who missed it, can catch the whole segment here:

VIDEO

The CBS piece, for which I was repeatedly interviewed, came through on its promise to deliver several additional bombshells. The most significant of these was the disclosure that prosecutors pushed the case forward and secured a conviction relying on evidence that they knew or should have known was false.....

False Evidence
But even if we accept that it’s possible for the Bush Department to create a new category of “Democrats Only” Crimes, we still have the basic fact that the evidence on which the Siegelman conviction was secured was false, ......

This is Only an Introduction
CBS conducted dozens of interviews and has much more that it hasn’t shown. The additional footage concerns the Canary team—husband Billy who advised the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidates against Siegelman, and wife Leura Canary, whose prosecution of Siegelman was essential to the G.O.P.’s efforts to secure the Montgomery statehouse. And they have much more on the inexplicable conduct of federal Judge Mark Fuller .........

Off the Air in Alabama
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 .........................

[JPZenger]

138. Links With More Info About America's No. 1 Political Prisoner

Siegelman was leading in the vote for his re-election until a group of Republicans at the last minute "found" some ballots stashed away in a corner in 2002 that changed the vote count in his re-election bid. Those ballots have never been available for independent examination, and remain sealed today.

Here's more:

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000805

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2007/12/siegelman-speaks-ex-gov-calls-02.html

http://www.donsiegelman.org/

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000708

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/28/23164/4575

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/16/18741/5794

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/16/213656/09

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1668220,00.html

-----
"Questions About a Governor's Fall - New York Times Editorial
June 30, 2007

It is extremely disturbing that Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, was hauled off to jail this week. There is reason to believe his prosecution may have been a political hit, intended to take out the state’s most prominent Democrat, a serious charge that has not been adequately investigated. .. If the Justice Department was looking to help Republicans in Alabama, putting away Mr. Siegelman would be a shrewd move. In a state short on popular Democrats, he was elected governor in 1998. He was defeated for re-election in 2002 by just a few thousand votes, in an election marred by suspicious vote tabulations.

The charges Mr. Siegelman was convicted of suggest that he may have been a victim of selective prosecution. He was found to have named a prominent Alabama businessman to a state board in exchange for a contribution to a campaign fund for a state lottery, something Mr. Siegelman supported to raise money for his state’s woefully inadequate public schools. He was not found to have taken any money for himself and many elected officials name people who have given directly to their own campaigns to important positions. The jury dismissed 25 of the original 32 counts against Mr. Siegelman.

The most arresting evidence that Mr. Siegelman may have been railroaded is a sworn statement by a Republican lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson. Ms. Simpson said she was on a conference call in which Bill Canary, the husband of the United States attorney whose office handled the case, insisted that “his girls” would “take care of” Mr. Siegelman. According to Ms. Simpson, he identified his “girls” as his wife, Leura Canary, and another top Alabama prosecutor. Mr. Canary, who has longstanding ties to Karl Rove, also said, according to Ms. Simpson, that he had worked it out with “Karl.”

The idea of federal prosecutors putting someone in jail for partisan gain is shocking. But the United States attorneys scandal has made clear that the Bush Justice Department acts in shocking ways..."

[EFerrari]

142. OMFG,star witness Nick Bailey was a crook and an extortionist.

:wow:

[Hissyspit]

153. I missed that somehow, too. n /t

[EFerrari]

154. It hard to keep track of so much slime.

:wow:

ETA: They had him on extortion and he was facing 10 years. So, he decided to "cooperate".

[suffragette]

159. And even after they had him practice his testimony over and over, he

still got it wrong on the date.

It's all so damn blatant and sleazy, continuing with the blackout tonight in Alabama.

[McCamy Taylor]

144. Those involved in his prosecution will be in jail once Dems control DOJ.

They will serve as examples of what happens when prosecutors, witnesses and judges go bad.

I hope that the rest of Rove's hand picked federal prosecutors are watching.

A federal judge in prison is not going to have it easy, either.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

151. My God, I hope so! n/t

[ooglymoogly]

155. KR and thanx for this important thread nt

[ngGale]

156. K & R

Keep it going...

:donut:

[woundedkarma]

157. sigh... none of this is surprising

I'd read a tiny bit about Siegelman before this 60 minutes report, enough to know there was something fishy. Now, I feel quite enlightened. None of this is surprising. Except that he reran for governor in 2006. Now that I think about it however, that makes sense too.

I wonder if Siegelman had thought about running for President in 2008 and that's why he was targeted? A popular southern governor. Sounds like a shoe-in. Or whether Rove was just playing pals with whoever Republican nominee for Governor was. Either way it is so glaringly obvious that he was targeted and thrown in jail for nothing.

To the people who think the perpetrators of this will go to jail, I doubt it. Probably not over this. I do so hope to one day see Rove on tv in jail-house-jumpsuit-orange though.

Anyway, I felt like applauding 60 minutes at the end, even though I think they've delayed the story a bunch of times?

Thanks to everyone who has brought this to the attention of DUers.

[Truth2Tell]

158. 60 Minutes

only scratched the surface tonight. But it was one hell of a surface to scratch. Now we need to keep the momentum up. Will CBS continue to further investigate and cover this story? Or was that it. Limited hang out. We will see.

I think the piece was pretty darn good all in all. Better than I expected. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

160. What now?

I am feeling frustrated. Can't imagine how those who've been closely involved in this are.

[Hissyspit]

161. Larisa Alexandrovna's Huffington Post on the '60 Minutes' Blackout here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/parts-of-60-minutes-bro_b_88218.html

[Hissyspit]

162. Post by Bookwoman at Huff Po:

BOOKWOMAN (See profile | I'm a fan of BOOKWOMAN)
"There's a lot more. By law, the trial transcript should have been available for appeal within 30 days of sentencing. It is not available and the judge has refused to turn it over. The current governor fancies himself as VP material. He needs to be in jail as does the judge, the appellate judge, the prosecutor and Karl Rove. Read one comment from a sheriff in Alabama - his comments were chilling - he was obviously afraid of these people and knew that there were no limits to their power. Damn - that's a sheriff in Alabama - think about it. The treatment of Seligman in the prison system has been grotesque - moved to 7 prisons, denied access to counsel, medical care....However, we have become numb to the treatment of prisoners. 16 years ago - less than 1 million - 3.6 million in prison right now - 1 percent of our population is in prison - learning the skills of brutality from a prison system that dehumanizes prisoners and employees alike. I can't even comprehend the injustice against Seligman - but think - how many others have been imprisoned in such a fashion.."

[pnwmom]

166. I looked for this but couldn't find it. Do you have a link? Thanks. n/t

[Hissyspit]

167. Huffington Post Link here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/parts-of-60-minutes-bro_b_88218.html

[nealmhughes]

165. This is not a rumor: it is fact. Channel 19, WHNT out of Huntsville went black for almost 15 mins.

It was not just us here in North Alabama, but people in southern Middle Tennessee and NE Mississippi who did not see the show. There has to be a million and a half people in the coverage area.
I turned on the TV and didn't see the timeclock ticking. I switched channels and all the others were fine. I went to the alternate channel on DISH (there are two channels for our local feed on DISH). Nothing, no static, no Indian chief, no clown, nothing, nothing but a blank screen.
I even took my battery operated TV out of the closet and it was blank on 19 but picking up PBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX just fine on the rabbit ears.
WHNT used to be owned by the NY Times and was a great channel for local news, now except for weather (we have 3 real live meteorologists with advanced degrees) most of us have switched to 48, the ABC channel for news.
It came on at the very end of the story and statements that one of the witnesses had not been allowed to be inteviewed by the feds and that the feds coached him for days, in writing, until he had his story straight. That was all we saw from outside Tupelo MS towards Chattanooga TN almost to Birmingham and halfway to Nashville.
The local newspaper is blaming CBS out of NY, but no one believes it, since it wasn't lost nationwide or even anywhere else in the SE, the weather was perfect -- no storms, no rain, no nuttin'.

[Heroman]

168. I saw the whole thing on TV.

And as much as I hate to say it, it looked like a technical issue.

When 60min was supposed to start it went black.
I changed from the HD station to the SD one to see if it was just the HD going out. It was black on SD too.
So I sat and waited, expecting the show to come back on any second.

What happened then was the screen would flicker briefly, like they were changing signals or something.
Then the audio to 60 min would come in for 10 seconds or so, then go away again.
Then the screen would flash a few more times to various shades of black (difrent signal strengths or something I guess, I would call it interference really).
At one point it even flashed up what looked like a celing with a production light in the shot. Like they activated a camera that was pointed at the celing. That went away after about 20-30 seconds.
The audio came in and out several times.

And at about 6 or 7 min into the show, 60 min came back on and I was able to see the second half of the piece about the Governor.
It was about half way through the piece, because I watched it again in full when WHNT re-aired it during thier 10pm news, and I had already seen about half.



So like I said, to me it looked like a legit technical issue.
I don't know who's fault it was. But it looked like a real technical problem they were trying to fix.

[radfringe]

169. **REGARDING BLOCK**

same thing happened in my area with the BUSH-AWOL story in 2004

just after the opening credits - the station mysteriously went off the air, but was up and working again a few minutes after 60 Minutes ended..

and yes - we were using comcast cable at that time

the explaination give was "transmission problems" with affiliate station

they did make a "tiny and obscure" announcement that 60 minutes would be rebroadcasted in its entirety -- and they did - at 2am in the middle of the week

I know from being on the DU at that time, other DUers in other parts of the country experienced the same "transmission problem"

---on edit:
just for the record - we dumped comcast a few months ago, and are now using DISH/TV. We were able to watch 60 minutes last night

[Hissyspit]

173. I remember that being discussed here now that you mention it.

Too much of a coincidence.

Disgusting abuse of public trust.

[Hissyspit]

170. Gov. Siegelman interview 2003(?): "I gained the disfavor of Karl Rove"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymqcU5zOPSg

"Here is some amazing video: a very candid interview with Don Siegelman, who spoke to Julie Sigwart of Take Back the Media on Sept. 13, 2004--months before the Governor was finally put away on trumped-up charges by the Alabama GOP.

As he himself makes clear, Siegelman's ordeal began back in 2000, when he came out early on, and publicly, against the presidential bid of his fellow governor, George W. Bush, and backed Al Gore instead. It was a move that Karl Rove never did forget, and never would forgive, says Siegelman."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUYOSruz4dw

[groovedaddy]

174. I really hope they get nailed for this, It's way passed time, n.t

[MasonJar]

175. The state of Alabama is embarrassing itself. It is Rove and those

attorneys-general who need to go to jail, not Seigelmann. It turns out that the chief witness is a crook, who made a deal with the prosecutors and whose testimony was false. It also turns out that all Seigelman did for the domation to the fund was to reappoint the gentleman who gave the money to a board that he was already a member of. This is Rovian ethics at its worst. The husband of the attorney-general was involved, as was the son of the current governor. Seigelman may be the only honest politician in the entire state.

[EFerrari]

176. Massive corruption, And like merh said, Siegelman isn't the only

political victim of this cabal.

[Stuckinthebush]

177. I'm in Birmingham...

I saw the entire piece. I have Charter cable.

It must have been a glitch with Comcast.

[EFerrari]

183. It wasn't Comcast. The CBS affiliate has already taken responsibility

for the "technical problem".

[road2000]

182. Dana Siegelman Statement

Statement by Siegelman's daughter to Mobile CBS affiliate:

http://www.wkrg.com/news/article/dana_siegelman_statement/10688/

by Dana Siegelman

Published: Feb 25 2008 - 5:09 am
Last Updated: Feb 25 2008 - 6:21 am
Our family grows more and more outraged with each revelation showing that – for 8 years - my father has been targeted for political reasons -. America should never lose sight of the tragic fact that while the world is just now discovering the corrupt tactics used by the Justice Department in their pursuit of Don Siegelman, our Dad is in a Federal Prison where he has been for eight months. He has not been allowed to be free while he appeals his case and he remains unable to appeal his conviction because there is no trial transcript – even though his trial ended over 600 days ago.

The new revelations by "60 minutes" sit on top of the mountain of evidence already in existence that shows the Justice Department illegally targeted my father. Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee showed that the prosecutors in Alabama were not going to prosecute my father but were told by the Justice Department to do whatever it took to bring Dad down. Adam Zagorin at TIME Magazine reported that during the investigation, prosecutors discovered - and ignored - evidence against a Republican US Senator and Alabama's Republican Attorney General. Most egregious in this episode is the fact that the Justice Department officials and investigators involved in that investigation continued to pursue Dad in the face of their blatant conflicts of interest that should have removed them from the case. In the Siegelman case and in other Alabama cases, affidavits and information has come to light showing that investigators threatened, intimidated, and coached witnesses to incriminate Don Siegelman. The revelations in the "60 Minutes" report cries out for an independent investigation of this case and the immediate release of my Dad.

My family's question to the Congress is "how much evidence will be enough?". The US Attorney apparatus in Alabama is corrupted and only an outside, independent investigation will right this grievous wrong.

Had the US Attorneys in this case followed the rule of law and the code of conduct for US Attorneys, there is no reason to believe that my Father would have ever ended up in a federal courtroom – much less in a prison cell. The question that needs to be answered is did the prosecutors and the Department of Justice violate the law in pursuit of my Dad, and if so why is my father still in prison?

Our family implores the Congress to initiate an independent investigation to once and for all expose the crimes of the Justice Department personnel in Alabama and Washington who had a hand in this grave injustice.

~Dana Siegelman

[fascisthunter]

184. Somebody from Alabama Should Repost This on Craigslist

get this out there in Alabama

[Cleita]

186. Be sure to write CBS about airing more of this story.

Larissa was on Thom Hartmann this morning and she said CBS would air more parts of the story if enough watchers show an interest. Now I don't know how many people left the Oscars to watch this but I thought it was pretty tacky of them to put this story up on one night when the majority of viewers would be watching something else.

Anyway if you want more of the story including what looks like election fraud on the part of the RNC in Alabama go to CBS, Sixty Minutes and get the contact information there. Please write them to air the whole story.

[Ava]

187. glad we have charter not comcast

we got to watch it in our part of alabama

[suffragette]

188. "Media Blackout Update: Pakistan and Alabama?"

From the NYT this morning, a comparison of the Alabama blackout with one in Pakistan. Very apt comparison.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/media-blackout-update-pakistan-and-alabama/

Governments that try to keep a firm grip on information flow in their countries, like the Kremlin, have used “technical problems” as an excuse to shut out unwelcome content on the Web and television. But could it have happened in the United States?

~snip~

Upon hearing reports of the missed segment from readers, Scott Horton, a writer blogging at Harper’s, phoned CBS headquarters in New York, which offered him a startling contradiction:

“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, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.” I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama “could only have been an editorial call.”

~snip~

Unlike the puzzling episode in northern Alabama, this one seemed easily tied to the nation’s political leaders. CNN’s coverage, datelined Islamabad, begins with a remarkably candid assertion:

A Pakistani television cable and satellite channel resumed programming Saturday morning, several hours after it was abruptly shut down for reportedly upsetting the president.

[road2000]

189. Segment Aired in Mobile

Verified by several friends who saw it on the local affiliate.

[Hissyspit]

191. Scott Horton to be on Randi Rhodes show today at 4 ET

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2921100

[Hissyspit]

192. Larisa Alexandrovna exclusive interview today will Jill Simpson

Hat Tip to kpete!

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/In_exclusive_interview_Alabama_whistleblower_says_0225.html

[Hissyspit]

193. Simpson: "I testified under oath to Congress. He won't even show up. You tell me who's lying."

In exclusive interview, Alabama whistleblower says Rove trying to smear her
Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Monday February 25, 2008

Rove's attorney says CBS should apologize for story

After a CBS affiliate blacked out 60 Minutes in Alabama, Dana Jill Simpson, the Republican attorney from Alabama and a whistleblower in the Don Siegelman case, told RAW STORY Monday that the coordinated smear attack on her credibility by the state's GOP and the American Spectator publication are being pushed by Karl Rove – the former senior aide to President Bush – in retaliation for her revelations of his role in the investigation and conviction of Don Siegelman.

Siegelman was convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2006. A 60 Minutes piece Sunday, as well as several by RAW STORY and Harper's Magazine, have raised questions about the circumstances of his conviction.

Over the weekend, a series of articles appeared in the Montgomery Independent and the American Spectator attacking both Simpson and Harper’s reporter Scott Horton.

Karl Rove, through his attorney, declared that Simpson’s allegations are false and the story foolish.

“60 Minutes owes Mr. Rove an apology for circulating this false and foolish story," Rove attorney's Robert Luskin said.

Simpson, however, points to the fact she testified to Congress under oath. Though called to testify, Rove did not show up.

“Mr. Rove was subpoenaed to testify in front a Congressional committee,” said Simpson this morning during a telephone interview. “He would not testify. He did not even appear in front of Congress, which is like not showing up for a court subpoena.”

“I testified under oath in front of Congress," she added. "He won’t even show up. Now you tell me who is lying?”

[Hissyspit]

194. Was DU first to report 60 Minutes black-out in Alabama?

I think we may have even beat the CBS News blog post (see bamademo post upthread and CBS blog post in my OP), I haven't checked the times and don't have time right now.

Just tooting our horn a little (and mine)! :7

Hope for Gov. Siegelman!

[suffragette]

198. Wow. Hissyspit, Are you going to send the post below

to Larissa or Scott?
It took me awhile, but reading the username and then connecting it to the signature made my eyes bug out.
Looks like we made an impact.

[DVickers]

196. WHNT Apology & Siegelman Segment to Re-air at 6pm

Hello everyone!  

I am the Station Manager/News Director at WHNT-TV.  I feel
compelled to post to this site today to clear up the
misconceptions about what happened at our station on Sunday,
Feb. 24.  Last night at the worst possible moment, we had a
technical failure of a piece of equipment that allows us to
receive feeds from CBS.  It happened just as the 60 Minutes
segment on former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was about to
air.

Initially, we thought the problem was on CBS' end.  That was a
logical assumption on our part as we had problems just 24
hours prior during a CBS televised basketball game.  Upon
further investigation, WHNT learned that the problem was on
our end at the station.  WHNT engineers responded as quickly
as possible to diagnose the problem and were able to restore
the feed with a few minutes left in the Siegelman segment.  

As you might imagine with a story of such intense local
interest, our phone lines and emails were bombarded with
complaints and rightly so.  That's why we requested and were
granted permission from CBS to re-air the segment in its
entirety on Sunday night during our late news, NewsChannel 19
at 10pm.   We also posted a link on WHNT.com to a streaming
video clip of the entire segment.

Still, many people indicated to us that they missed it at 10pm
because they did not get word that it would re-air.  So, once
again we asked and were granted permission from CBS to again
re-air the "Prosecution of Don Siegelman" segment. 
It will air again tonight (Monday) on NewsChannel 19 at 6pm.  
We are abbreviating our news, weather and sportscasts in order
to do this.  And, we are pre-empting all commercials in order
to make this happen.

We have received hundreds of emails and phone calls from
viewers who accused us purposely sabotaging the broadcast for
political reasons.  I can understand how people might think
that was the case.  But, I assure you that it is patently
false.  We have been working to remedy this problem.  CBS has
bent over backwards to help us through this very regrettable
situation.  If we were conspiring to blackout this story from
the public, we wouldn't have promoted it heavily in our
newscasts in the days preceding.  No one would invite such a
public relations nightmare like this on themselves.

We apologize to all viewers of the Tennessee Valley for the
interruption.  We assure them and you there was no intent
whatsoever to keep anyone from seeing the broadcast. 

I hope readers of this forum will accept our sincere
apologies.  

Anyone who wishes to engage in further dialogue about this,
may do so by emailing me directly at [e-mail].

Sincerely,
Denise Vickers
Station Manager/News Director
WHNT-TV

[greyl]

197. Thanks, that seems like a reasonable explanation for everything.

Welcome to DU!

[guitar man]

202. It doesn't sound reasonable

To someone who works in television, especially to someone with years of experience behind a master control switcher. It will only sound reasonable to me after I get an explanation as to what went wrong with the backup. When something like this happens, you first switch to your backup to restore the programming to air, then you go look for what went wrong with the main. I'm not buying it.

[lovuian]

199. Thanks for the explanation because sabotaging the broadcast

for political reasons would be tantamount to obstruction of freedom of speech and make it look like WHNT were accomplices in keeping this travesty of locking up an innocent man

I'm so glad you understand the implications and are reairing it

I applaud your decision

Americans have awakened that the Bush administration is not about Justice but about Power

[Kolesar]

201. edit: Ms. Vickers talks earnestly, but Scott Horton says she is a liar

No in depth technical explanation...TBA

CBS aired its long-awaited feature on the prosecution and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman this evening at 7:00. In a stunning move of censorship, the transmission was blocked across the northern third of Alabama by CBS affiliate WHNT, which is owned by interests of the Bass Family.
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002487

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2919156

We shall overcome.

[greyl]

203. According to her explanation, she was mistaken - not lying.

If it's not true that the basketball game was interrupted as she says it was, then we've got something.
Everything she said in her explanation looks like it could be verified, if true.

[Kolesar]

204. What? You won't indulge me in my hyperbole?

Hey, Olbermann is doing the Siegelman story tonight. Or should I say Siegelmann?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

200. K&R from Alabama... if not for DU, I'd have heard NOTHING about the black-out