After spending a good part of the day Tuesday studying the U.S. attorneys response to the motion for a new trial filed in federal court by former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy, I re-watched The Other Boleyn Girl film on Encore last night. As many long-time readers will remember, we spent a good bit of time and space back during the Bush years showing parallels between American democracy then and European monarchy in the days of Henry VIII as well as King George III. So what’s the lesson for today? Read the full column to find out...

Karl Rove admits having a "senior moment" in his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, dancing around the key allegations that he had direct knowledge and an active role in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and the firings of U.S. attorneys. He takes what Washington insiders call the Ronald Reagan defense, a.k.a. the "Alzheimer's defense," as in "I don't recall." In other words, and in contradiction with other published reports that Rove once again denied his role in manipulating the justice system from the White House, Rove's testimony is what we call in the news business, a "non-denial denial." Read the full story in the New York Times of blogs, The Locust Fork News-Journal.

UNIONTOWN, Ala. — The Rev. James R. Murdock sits on his porch with a view of the Arrowhead Landfill and wonders, watching the TVA coal ash train roll in. A cancer survivor, Murdock is anxious about the toxic and radioactive coal ash rolling into town. It contains at least 14 different chemicals and heavy metals, including arsenic and lead. There are ways to recycle some coal ash, like putting it in concrete. But experts say this particular coal ash is some of the most toxic ever generated as a byproduct of burning some of the dirtiest coal to ever be mined for electric power. It has been piling up in East Tennessee since the 1960s. A member of Congress from Huntsville, a doctor, recently testified it was as deadly as nuclear waste. Read the full story in The Locust Fork News-Journal...

The master of spin from the Bush years, Karl Rove, is at it again, even as he testified before the House Judiciary Committee for the second time Thursday about his role in manipulating America's judicial system from his office in the West Wing of the White House. While the transcript of Rove's testimony might be released in August and the committee may hold a public hearing on White House involvement in the political firing of U.S. attorneys and other executive branch intrusions into the judicial branch, including the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, Rove had already granted interviews with the New York Times and Washington Post to spin the story his way in what may constitute an act of obstruction of justice. Read the full story in The Locust Fork News-Journal...

The Restore Justice At Justice Coalition calls on Attorney General Eric Holder to dismiss all charges against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The Restore Justice At Justice campaign, representing hundreds of organizations with more than one million members, issued a press release today calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately dismiss criminal charges against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman "in light of the latest astounding evidence filed in his case attesting to gross violations of the rule of law by federal prosecutors." Full Story in: The Locust Fork News-Journal...

Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama, little known to the country, will lead the charge against Obama's Hispanic nominee, Sonia Sotomayor of New York
by Glynn Wilson

Video: Glynn Wilson questions House Judiciary investigtor on Karl Rove

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Elliot Mintzberg, chief counsel for oversight investigations of the House Judiciary Committee, answered direct questions from Glynn Wilson, Editor and Publisher of The Locust Fork News-Journal, last Friday at a press conference on corruption in the U.S. justice system. He refused to give a date for former Bush political aide Karl Rove’s interview, but he insisted it would be under oath, subject to perjury and transcribed for public release, and could possibly lead to public hearings — as we reported the other day in the news feature Political Justice Under the Spotlight in Washington.

by Glynn Wilson
For the most complete analysis in the country of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman's latest motion in federal court asking for a new trial based on the emergence of new evidence uncovered since his conviction along with his co-defendant Richard Scrushy, see the Locust Fork News-Journal. According to the court document, available at the link, and after a full reading of the motion, these are the main points. Siegelman’s lawyers are accusing the federal prosecutors of blatant misconduct, including the manipulation of testimony from key witness Nick Bailey, improper contact with jurors and failure to disclose key documents to the defense, thus denying Siegelman and Scrushy a fair trial under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One of the most significant problems corrupting American society and politics over the past eight years is finally getting the public spotlight it deserves in the nation’s capital. You can’t run a successful democracy without an honest system of justice that is removed as far as possible from politics, according to a panel of experts who spoke at one of the most venerated institutions in the United States, the National Press Club. Elliot Mincberg, chief counsel for oversight investigations of the House Judiciary Committee, who came in Conyers’ place, insisted that all the investigations are continuing full bore into the politicization of the justice system by the Bush White House and Department of Justice — in spite of a certain camp in Washington who would rather “look forward, not back.” More...

In response to a new story in The Huffington Post Wednesday about a conflict of interest on the part of the judge who presided in the federal case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, attorney and whistle-blower Jill Simpson issued a rare, lengthy public statement today calling on the Obama Justice Department to immediately set aside the convictions of Siegelman and release his co-defendant Richard Scrushy from prison. In her statement, released in a breaking news story in The Locust Fork News Journal, she details misdeed on the part of the Bush Justice Department’s Public Integrity Division, including hiding evidence.

In the latest development in the federal case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, retired Chief U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon of Birmingham recently wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a probe of misconduct by federal prosecutors.

He cited alleged "judge-shopping," jury-pool "poisoning" and "unfounded" criminal charges in an effort to imprison Siegelman and forestall his election campaign in 2006.

Judge Clemon, a highly respected jurist and one of the first African American judges in the American South, took this unusual step because he felt duty bound to report corruption that occurred on his watch, according to an announcement from the non-profit Velvet Revolution.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Hidden away in the basement of a bank building on Broad Street here, there is a bank of computer servers containing all the evidence Congress and the courts need to investigate and prosecute all the crimes of the Bush years. That includes the mysteriously missing e-mail messages sent by Karl Rove from his White House office through the Republican National Committee e-mail addresses from his special Blackberry reserved for political activities. For the full story and video report, get it all in The Locust Fork News-Journal.

President Barack Obama's attorney, White House Counsel Greg Craig, may be asked to recuse himself from deciding the new administration's policy on "executive privilege" as it relates to the Congressional investigation of Karl Rove, the former Bush political adviser who was involved in advising the Justice Department on political firings and prosecutions. Rove is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Monday under a congressional subpoena to testify about his knowledge of political manipulation of the justice system, in the firings of U.S. attorneys who would not do the bidding of the Bush White House and in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. For the full story, read all about it in the The Locust Fork News-Journal.

A staff member for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said today that the deposition hearing scheduled for Monday, Feb. 23, for Karl Rove, the infamous former political adviser to President George W. Bush, “is still on at this point.” The Obama administration had sought a two week delay to weigh in on whether former Bush White House officials must testify before Congress about the politics involved in the firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys across the country, as well as the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. For more, including the details of an investigative reporter's allegations of a cover-up by the Obama White House in seeking a delay, read the full story in the progressive Locust Fork News-Journal run by investigative reporter and former New York Times free-lancer Glynn Wilson.

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is not giving up on forcing former Bush political adviser Karl Rove to appear before the committee and testify under oath. He has sent another letter to Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, with an enclosed a subpoena for Rove to appear before the committee on Feb. 23. More...
Conyers Subpoenas Rove, Again
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