One of Karl Rove's victims of injustice, former governor of Alabama Don Siegelman, recently made an appearance before a judge in Montgomery, Alabama, to plead his case.
In Siegelman's transfer from the Oakdale prison facility in Louisiana to Montgomery, he was treated in every way possible to humiliate and demean him:
He was forced to enter the courtroom in jumpsuit and shackles from the prisoner dock on the side of the room. There was no entrance for him from any public venue.
The following doesn't detail how Don was forced to publicly strip off all of his clothes, subjected to a complete search, then reclothed in shabby prison wear out in the open before he boarded the bus.
The trip to Montgomery was long and tortuous for him. He traveled some 12 hours by bus and another 7 hours by plane over the course of 10 days - all while shackled hand, waist, and foot.
Siegelman's pleading for justice was denied and the Karl Rove regime of abuse and torture continues:
Well he is in a small cement cell by himself, no change of clothes, no freedom to move around except for doing some crunches and push-ups. He has been reading a book a day and has a bible but has been asking to get new books. They don't have a lot of choices there so he depends on the guards to ask other inmates when they finish what they are reading. Anyway, he's hoping to get out of there soon. He actually misses Oakdale and needs to have more access to his attorneys before the Jan 13th hearing. He hasn't been able to call Greg Craig. So! That's the news but hopefully he'll be out of there soon.
Reflections below the fold:
We now live in the Karl Rove nation, the Dick Cheney nation, the Ayn Rand nation:
The United States is addicted to torture. Not only does this savage addiction run through its history like an overheated electric current, but it has become intensified as part of a broader national psychosis of fear, war and violence. A post 9/11 obsession with security and revenge has buttressed a militarized culture in which violence becomes a first principle, an essential need, whether in the guise of a national sport, mode of entertainment or celebrated ideal.
Don Siegelman committed no crime, let alone a crime of violence that might justify being chained and shackled.
America needs to undertake a deep examination of its soul. The wrong people are in shackles.
Oh, in case you are totally out of the loop and don't know who the hell Don Siegelman is, here's a recap:
Of all the egregious instances of misconduct by the Bush administration’s Department of Justice — its ruthless pursuit of voting rights cases and government corruption cases against Democrats and firing U.S. attorneys who resisted — no case epitomizes the abusive, vindictive, and politically-driven agenda as much as the prosecution of Don Siegelman. In 2002, Siegelman, a Democrat, was governor of the blood-red state of Alabama and was predicted to win re-election. But according to sworn and strongly-corroborated testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Alabama’s top Republican operative Bill Canary contacted Karl Rove and instigated the Justice Department’s prosecution of Siegelman. Rove contacted the Public Integrity Section, and Canary declared confidentially that “his girls would take care of Siegelman.” When asked who “his girls” were, Canary replied Alice Martin, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, and Leura Canary, the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Leura Canary, by the way, is Bill Canary’s wife.