Minor gives it to us straight

After the U.S. House Judiciary Committee released its report on corruption within the Department of Justice and the White House in political prosecutions, the Jackson Free Press called Bill Minor, and here's what he had to say.

For Paul to be held in federal prison in Pensacola before his appeal has been considered by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, while his wife of 40 years is 1,500 miles away fighting a losing battle with brain and lung cancer is an outrage. This is not the American system of justice for which I fought in World War II or Paul fought for in Vietnam.

The jury that convicted Paul in April 2007 was never allowed by the judge to hear that he was a Vietnam veteran and won the bronze star medal for valor. Immediately upon his conviction, he was shackled and sent to jail, without being allowed to remain free on bond or given the opportunity to arrange his family affairs. Paul and Silvia’s 110-year-old house in Ocean Springs was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, with nothing but a barren slab left. They have been unable to make any insurance claim.

A former Arizona U.S. attorney (Grant Woods) declared (on a February 2008 episode of "60 Minutes") regarding the case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman that the case was highly unusual. In fact, he said he had never seen such a case in which a person convicted of a white-collar crime was shackled and immediately taken off to prison while under bond and before his appeal.

Twenty-six former U.S. attorneys have since spoken up for Siegelman, who has been recently released on bond by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

It is clear from recent events that the U.S. Department of Justice was corrupt. Just yesterday, the former deputy director of the Public Integrity Section of the department of Justice, Robert Coughlin who prosecuted Paul, was accused of taking bribes to go easy on an investigation of the notorious Jack Abramoff, the prominent Republican lobbyist who is now in jail for paying off several members of the US Congress.

Knowingly or not, Judge Henry Wingate became a tool for the corrupt DOJ, rejecting use of 80 percent of the evidence used in Paul’s first trial when he, along with Justice Oliver Diaz was acquitted, and refusing to allow evidence from expert witnesses who could have shown that the judge’s decisions and rulings in the two earlier cases of so called bribery of judges John Whitfield and (Wes) Teel were exactly correct.

I had a high regard for Wingate when he was first appointed to the bench 25 years ago, but I do not anymore.

I hate to be so blunt.

For more background on this, read "A Minor Injustice" by Scott Horton (reprinted in the JFP) or last week's Sun Herald article "Was Diaz, Minor prosecution political?". The JFP wrote one about last week's report- it's in the print edition, but not online.

Bubba to run for Supreme Court

Chancery Court judge Randy "Bubba" Pierce of Leakesville announced that he will run for the Mississippi Supreme Court (District 2, Position 2) this year, according to a release from Pierce.

This seat is currently held by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz. Diaz, who has held the post since 2000, was a victim in the White House witchhunt that Scott Horton of Harpers has covered recently (Cottonmouth has posted and linked all of his blogs on the issue).

Pierce served in the MS legislature as a Democrat from 2000 until 2005 when he quickly forgot his friends who made him chairman of the Education committee and was offered the judgeship by Haley Barbour.

As folks qualify for the Supreme Court races (there are four seats up), Cottonmouth will have more information and coverage of the races and the candidates.

Bush's Legacy / The End (of an error) is Near

The Iowa Caucuses have brought us one step closer to ending the nightmare the Bush Administration has been for many Americans and much of the world.

It's hard to grasp the damage George W. Bush has done.

Legal Schnauzer:

Horton reports on a speech by an obscure public official named David M. Walker, who is the comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

What did Mr. Walker have to say? "The federal government's fiscal exposures totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007, up more than $2 trillion from September 30, 2006, and an increase of more than $32 trillion from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000. This translates into a current burden of about $175,000 per American or approximately $455,000 per American household."

What does this say about the fiscal management of the George W. Bush administration? Let's allow Horton to put that into perspective: "The cost of this presidency, put in dollars and cents through today, is $32 trillion. That's a 150 percent increase in exposure since the reins of office were handed to George W. Bush."

Then Horton cuts directly to the heart of the matter: "It's as if a team of professional burglars were set loose with the tax code."

What kind of coverage did Walker's speech draw? Almost none. It appears that Horton came across it on a relatively obscure Web site. "Americans don't want to hear it," Horton says. "They'd rather be building up credit-card debt, not investments or savings."

The final word from Horton?

"If there is one single fault of the Bush-Cheney administration that will haunt it beyond all others, then it is this: They recognize no duty to posterity. They consume and squander shamelessly. And they mortgage the nation's future in the process."

The Government Accountability Office.

Perhaps we'd be a little better off if we'd pay a little closer attention to what they have to say in the future.