DOJ Misconduct Scandals NN09 Panel (The Selective and Wrongful Prosecution of Don Siegelman)

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman(after he let go of my arm)


Dr. Cyril Wecht takes one for the blog
The full title of the panel was Reporting DoJ Misconduct Scandals: Why Netroots Remains Last Hope for Justice and panelists included former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and former coroner of Allegheny County Cyril Wecht, MD, JD.

Most Pittsburghers have some familiarity with Wecht's trial (read here if you don't) and some thought his case was an example of selective prosecution by the Bush administration and U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan.

Less Burghers may have followed the case of Don Siegelman. Way back in 2007, The New York Times in an editorial titled "Selective Prosecution" described it thusly:

Putting political opponents in jail is the sort of thing that happens in third-world dictatorships. In the United States, prosecutions are supposed to be scrupulously nonpartisan. This principle appears to have broken down in Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department — where lawyers were improperly hired for nonpolitical jobs based on party membership, and United States attorneys were apparently fired for political reasons.

Individual Democrats may be paying a personal price. Don Siegelman, a former Alabama governor, was the state’s most prominent Democrat and had a decent chance of retaking the governorship from the Republican incumbent. He was aggressively prosecuted by both the Birmingham and Montgomery United States attorney’s offices. Birmingham prosecutors dropped their case after a judge harshly questioned it. When the Montgomery office prosecuted, a jury acquitted Mr. Siegelman of 25 counts, but convicted him of 7, which appear to be disturbingly weak.

The prosecution may have been a political hit. A Republican lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson, has said in a sworn statement that she heard Bill Canary, a Republican operative and a Karl Rove protégé, say that his “girls” — his wife, the United States attorney in Montgomery, and Alice Martin, the United States attorney in Birmingham — would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. Mr. Canary also said, according to Ms. Simpson, that Mr. Rove was involved.

The Rove controversy is still ongoing.

You can watch the 60 Minutes expose on the front page of Siegelman's website: http://www.donsiegelman.org

Unfortunately, like many of the Netroots panels that I wanted to see, the DOJ one conflicted with two others (Torture, Accountability, and Prosecutions: Looking Back to Move Forward and Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama).

But Siegelman wasn't having any of that. He stood outside his panel room and literally grabbed people in the halls (including me) to convince them to hear him speak with the line, "I'll be speaking during the first 10 minutes -- just stay for that."

I did just stay for his part (mostly because I already knew a lot about his case and the Wecht case), but if you're not as familiar, I urge you to check out his website, watch the 60 Minutes piece and then take action.

By the way, Siegelman did have something new to say in those first 10 minutes.

He had a chance to speak with Valerie Jarrett -- one of Obama's most trusted advisors -- that very day. He implored her to remove Rove's clones from the DOJ.

I found her reported response to be terribly discouraging. He said she told him that it was up to us to lobby for that reform.

[sigh]

You can contact Jarrett via Siegelman's website here.
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iBurgh @ Netroots

(Still playing catchup from being ill.)

By now, you've all hopefully have heard about iBurgh: the first iPhone application for registering citizen complaints through a mobile phone. You also know the part played by Councilman Peduto in trying to advance "e-democracy."

Peduto hosted a panel at Netroots Nation 2009 called "How Technology Can Enhance Democracy in Pittsburgh and Beyond."

Priya Narasimhan of YinzCam which developed iBurgh spoke during the panel and you can see her presentation here:




Pittsburgh City Councilor Bill Peduto at NN09


Priya Narasimhan, Director Carnegie Mellon'sMobility Research Center (left) at NN09
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AP Article on Netroots Nation Quotes Both Political Junkies

From ABC News, the article opens with:

They wish he'd done more in his first eight months, but the liberal bloggers who helped propel Barack Obama to the White House are far from giving up on him.

Gathered in Pittsburgh for the annual Netroots Nation convention, they say they're not disappointed. At least not too disappointed. Yet.

David and I were interviewed separately. I was right outside the convention center -- OK, I was smoking a cigarette -- when the AP writer (Ramit Plushnick-Masti) approached me. Later on, I had met up with David inside and we were hanging with the P-G folks and the reporter saw me and I pointed out my co-blogger to her.

We're on page 2.

I will add that I said "the Great Progressive Hope" instead of just "progressive."

Also, notice that the article appears under Technology & Science and not Politics.
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NetRoots 2009 photos

Johnny Mac, Ace photographer Gab Bonesso and the best man at my wedding, Tony Norman.


A WELL-FOCUSSED photo of Maria (the Other Political Junkie), Spork (who knows absolutely everybody), and Mackenzie Carpenter of the P-G.

NetRoots Update

In case you hadn't heard, there was somewhat of a phone ruckus at NetRoots today. TPM has the story:

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) just told a crowd of skeptical progressives that he's willing to take up and dispel the death panel rumor with perhaps its most respected proponent: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Specter said he'd call Grassley from back stage and tell him "it's not a death squad."

I was there. It was sooo cool. Let me flesh out the details. Specter was being questioned about whether he thought that Grassley was wrong when he said what he said about the government "pulling the plug on grandma." Specter said he was definitely wrong. (But we all knew that).

The crowd, I should say, was somewhat skeptical of Specter throughout the talk and there was some grumbling in the crowd when he said he'd talk to Grassley. Then Specter stepped right into it.

He said he'd call Grassley today.

At that point I saw a few dozen people in the crowd lifting up their cell phones - in a sense to offer them to Specter to make the call. A few people (including me) yelled out, "Call him now! Call him now!"

After stammering through a few words, Specter then said, "And to those who yelled that out, come back stage and watch me dial."

He was done only a few minutes later. That portion of the talk over (Congressman Sestak, Specter's challenger, was set to go on after) and Specter left the stage.

A couple dozen of us went back stage to watch Arlen Specter dial his cell phone and call Chuck Grassley. Unfortunately, he didn't get through to Grassley. But it was cool nonetheless.

And now Chuck and Arlen are tweeting at each other.

Photos to come...

Netroots Nation 09 - Photos from Day One

Georgia Berner from http://www.whatifpost.com/ at the Women's Caucus
 
Fadia Halma, Politcal Director, Pennsylvania Democratic Party at the Women's Caucus (in purple)
 
The Other Political Junkie and Post-Gazette's Tony Norman and my camera functioning poorly
 
The Post-Gazette's Mackenzie Carpenter
 
The Post-Gazette's Tim McNulty


As always: What Digby Said (http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/)


Braddock Mayor John Fetterman and Celeste Taylor from http://pennsylvaniaequity.org/


PA Rep. Chelsa Wagner talking about redistricting
 
Pam Spaulding from http://www.pamshouseblend.com/ takes one for the blog
 
The crowd waits for The Big Dog
 
Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato running for governor talking about our region
 
Surprisingly this was taken before the heckler. Someone shouted out about Don't Ask Don't Tell. By the time that Clinton finished answering Lane Hudson, Hudson gave Clinton a Standing O.
 
This way to the party at The Warhol


Franco "Dok" Harris outside The Warhol
http://www.harrisforpittsburgh.com .

NetRoots Today

Interesting day.

I arrived at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center a little before 10am, met Spork and Fester. Did you know Fester has a beard now? Neither did I.

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Update: Maria was there, too.
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I got to see an amazing panel - "How to Get The Most Out Of The Polling Data You Read About":

This panel will share insights and observations from some veteran pollsters and analysts that might help you interpret the next set of poll data you see. Charlie Cook (The Cook Political Report, www.cookpolitical.com), Mark Blumenthal and Charles Franklin (www.pollster.com), and Nate Silver (www.fivethirtyeight.com) will join moderator Greg Dworkin (Daily Kos) on a discussion about how to get the most out of poll watching.

McNulty was there, too:

Charlie Cook of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report had bad news for the liberal Dems at Netroots Nation today -- political intensity has switched over to the Republican side and Dems are facing a bloodbath next year.

Democrats had a great run from 2006 through 2008, Cook said, running up a 54 seat advantage in the House alone. But "there's offense and there's defense -- right now you're going to be spending time on defense," he said at a polling panel today.

"Intensity matters a lot. Last time you had it, this time they have it."

Cook expects Democrats to lose about 20 seats in the 2010 midterm elections, cutting their majority in the House of Reps in half.

And:

Superstar pollster Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight doesn't agree with Cook -- he thinks the Dems will do worse.

Silver said Democrats commonly told him his Obama-friendly polls comforted them last fall. "I don't think you should feel at all comforted about 2010," he said to the liberal Dems at the conference today. He said he was 80% confident Democrats will lose between 20-50 House seats and up to six Senate seats.

There was a lot more stuff in the discussion. Lotsa stuff about how to place the numbers in context. Great talk.

Lunch time - a sandwich at Sammy's. Earlier in the day, I'd e-mailed my friend Fred (who's got a radio show on KDKA) to let him know I was at NetRoots. Not really sure why I did but I did. Right in the middle of my roast beef on wheat (with provolone and mustard) my phone rang. It was Fred's producer. He wanted to know if I wanted to be on the air at 1:30. It was 1:20. I said yea, sure.

The result can be found here.

After lunch there was a panel on comedy and then a panel on the newspaper business. The former was very funny. The latter, while just as important, was (forgive me) kinda boring. Maybe I was just hungry.

More tomorrow. And Saturday.

@ Netroots Nation Today

I'll We'll be a little busy today:


More at:

Pittsburgh City Paper
Pulling Up Roots and Moving to Pittsburgh
Never mind the G-20: For progressives across the country, the data streams converge in Pittsburgh this week.
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:67200

Netting the Big Names
Guess who's coming to Pittsburgh?
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A67201

Separation Anxiety
Netroots panel to discuss idea of unifying church and state http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A67204

Green Roots
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A67205


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Liberal bloggers descend upon city for convention
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09225/990561-53.stm

Conservative bloggers meeting here admit being outgunned by liberal counterparts
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09225/990560-53.stm


Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Liberals, conservatives come together in Pittsburgh
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_638017.html


Will We'll both try to post something here tonight.
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Bill Clinton at Netroots Nation + Other NN News

President Bill Clinton will be giving the keynote speech at Netroots Nation 2009 this Thursday. Those not living under a rock know that NN 2009 (formerly known as YearlyKos) is being held in Pittsburgh this week (August 13-16 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center) and that it's a national convention for progressive bloggers.

Other pols and local luminaries participating in various panels include:

Gov. Howard Dean
Sen. Arlen Specter
Gov. Don Siegelman
Rep. Joe Sestak
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
PA Rep. Chelsa Wagner
Mayor John Fetterman
City Councilman Bill Peduto
Witold "Vic" Walczak
Dr. Cyril Wecht
Rev. Janet Edwards
Khari Mosely
Celeste Taylor
Paradise Gray
Kimberly "Dr. Goddess" Ellis

Full Speaker list here and agenda here.

I am looking forward to hearing from some of the rock stars of my world including: Digby, Pam Spaulding, Marcy Wheeler, Jane Hamsher, Christy Hardin Smith, Amanda Marcotte, Amanda Terkel, Robert Greenwald, Matthew Yglesias and Gen. JC Christian. I also plan to attend the Official "Unofficial Opening Night After-party" and the mixer sponsored by Keystone Progress.

Or, I could decide to bag it all and attend the competing conservative blogger conference in Pittsburgh this week (RightOnline) and see Joe the Plumber -- talk about your star power!

If you'd like to help with NN 2009, you probably can still volunteer by contacting Eric Thut (eric@netrootsnation.org), but you'd better be quick about it.

Also, check out the forum in pghRoots where there are folks looking for room shares, rides, etc.
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Sestak and Specter in interactive session at Netroots Nation

From Suburban Guerrilla:

The Netroots Nation Pennsylvania Leadership Forum, scheduled for Friday morning at 11 a.m., will give you and your fellow attendees an opportunity to engage both leaders in substantive discussion about issues of the day.

Rep. Sestak and Sen. Specter will each participate in an interactive session moderated by Pennsylvania blogger Susie Madrak and The Nation’s Ari Melber. Much like our Presidential Leadership Forum back in 2007 and our Ask the Speaker session last July, each participant will be asked questions solicited online in advance, as well as from the audience.

Suburban Guerrilla's Susie Madrak taking advance questions here.

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I will be attending Netroots Nation and I believe that David will too. Who else is going?
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Pittsburgh to host G20 Summit

I've got to stop just skimming the subject lines in my inbox...

From the White House Media Affairs Office:

Fact Sheet: United States to Host Next G20 Summit in Pittsburgh

The United States will host the next G20 Summit September 24-25, 2009, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the Pittsburgh Summit, President Obama will meet with leaders representing 85 percent of the world’s economy to take stock of progress made since the Washington and London Summits and discuss further actions to assure a sound and sustainable recovery from the global economic and financial crisis.

About the G20

Invited leaders represent approximately 85% of the world’s GDP and come from all regions of the globe. The United Nations Secretary General and heads of International Financial Institutions and appropriate International Organizations and groupings also participate.

G20 finance ministers have met regularly to coordinate policy since the Asian financial crisis in the 1990’s. At the leaders level, the G20 is not an institutionalized process, but a response to the global economic and financial crisis. The G20 leaders held their first summit in Washington in November 2008 and met again in April in London.

How the Pittsburgh Summit Came About

At the meeting in London in April, leaders decided that, given the nature of the crisis and the importance of a robust response, it would be useful to meet again in September to assess the status of the economy and to discuss further actions. With leaders already scheduled to be in the United States in September to attend the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama offered to host the Summit and leaders of the G20 welcomed the invitation.

About the Summit Location

Pittsburgh has demonstrated a commitment to employing new and green technology to further economic recovery and development. The Summit will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, an exemplar of that commitment. The facility is proud to have a LEED Gold Certification from the U.S Green Building Council for leadership in energy and environmental design.

And, don't forget that Pittsburgh will be host to Netroots Nation in August.
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Netroots Nation 2009 - IN PITTSBURGH

From the Daily Kos:

Sometimes those of who focus on energy and global warming issues seem to screaming into the wind, with little attention from others in the community.

Netroots Nation's announcement for the 2009 put those emotions to the side. The Netroots Nation staff worked hard to find a site and location that meets the types of standards that are hoped to from us.

To be held at the nation's leading edge LEED Green convention center,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is close to major US cities, with a good rail network providing options to get there from New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago.

Bram, did you do this???

This is too cool.