Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: "Is The U.S. Targeting Dems For Their Beliefs"

[Hissyspit]

Is the U.S. targeting Dems for their beliefs?

By Joe Atkins
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

OXFORD — A tobacco road of hard-core, down-and-dirty politics winds across the South from Texas to the Governor's Mansion in Jackson to the White House in Washington, D.C., and it's a road paved with cash. It's also a road that can be dangerous to travel, particularly for Democrats. Some believe its more recent drive-by victims include former Mississippi Gulf Coast attorney Paul Minor and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

In the chambers of two U.S. House Judiciary subcommittees, on the pages of Harper's magazine, and elsewhere, a map of this road is unfolding that, if accurate, could show how far justice and politics have become indistinguishable in this country.

POLITICAL TARGETS?

Minor is serving an 11-year sentence for his involvement in loans and contributions to two judges in cases he argued, for the most part a bipartisan sin widely practiced in a state that elects its judges. Minor's greater sin may have been that he was a big contributor to the Democratic Party and one of the trial lawyers who helped bring about a multi-billion-dollar settlement with Big Tobacco in 1997. Minor's conviction came despite the fact that juries in earlier related cases were unable to reach a unanimous decision regarding Minor and dismissed claims against state Supreme Court Judge Oliver Diaz.

Mississippi's best-known trial lawyer, Richard Scruggs, the lead attorney in the 1997 tobacco settlement, is now facing troubles of his own, criminal contempt charges for his handling of documents in a Hurricane Katrina-related case against the State Farm insurance company.

In Alabama, former Democratic Gov. Siegelman is serving an 88-month prison sentence for his conviction in a corruption case that GOP activist Dana Jill Simpson says was the handiwork of President Bush's former top adviser Karl Rove. Simpson, whose claims are now under investigation by the House Judiciary subcommittees, said top GOP insiders told her Rove and the U.S. Justice Department had targeted Siegelman, who narrowly lost to Republican Bob Riley in a 2002 election that some claim was stolen.

Are such cases the bitter fruit of a U.S. Justice Department so politicized that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned in September under a cloud of suspicion that he hired and fired U.S. attorneys based on their political allegiance? Many believe Gonzales was simply a figurehead under the Justice Department's real ruler, Rove, an erstwhile top-dollar consultant for tobacco giant Philip Morris.

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[flordehinojos]

1. it is interesting that the Poppy Rule of Discipline, Vengeance and Harshness,

which gave, has given, and will continue to give so many passes to Little Sh*t Bush is so impiously cruel to anyone else who as so much dares to raise a voice of protest against any in the Bush Family Evil Empire, or any who as so much dares to speak the truth, or do the honest and right thing--which is always in direct contradiction to whatever, or anything, that the bushes stand for.

these bushes are pushing the envelope... but the envelope can be pushed only so far before they have a far fletched, far flung revolution on their hands ... of course, by that time we might all be in bush gulags who knows where in this world.

we are living in one hell of a state of repression and people are still blinded to it.

[flashl]

2. Another story in the South being watched ...

AG King accuses Sen. Singleton, others of voter fraud

Attorney General Troy King on Thursday filed court papers naming state Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and others as suspects in a voter fraud investigation in west Alabama.

The court papers also accuse Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins of trying to impede the Hale County investigation to "protect members of his family," including Singleton.

King asked the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to force Wiggins to step aside from one part of the voter-fraud investigation because his sister, former Hale County Circuit Clerk and absentee election manager Gay Nell Tinker; his brother-in-law and former bailiff, Singleton; and his first cousin, Carrie Reaves, "are suspects in the instant investigation and are directly benefiting from the court's quashing of the search warrant and subpoenas."

And, another question about Americans beliefs

Crime is down; why do people think it's worse?

Crime is on people's minds -- and according to a Gallup poll released this week, many think crime is getting worse

(graph)

But crime isn't getting worse. In fact, violent crime rates have been on a steep 10-year decline, and the average U.S. resident is less likely to be victimized than anytime in recent memory

So why so people think crime is up? I agree with Texas blogger Grits for Breakfast that a leading cause is local news coverage, where each night's story lineup is driven by "if it bleeds, it leads."

Combine that with national TV's endless parade of cop shows and court coverage, leavened with bouts of politicians stirring up crime hysteria (usually with racial overtones), and you have the makings of a national perception about crime far out of pace of reality.