The Soviets would be proud. Central American dictators of decades past would be proud. Dictators the world around have nothing on what our government is capable of in corrupting the basic principles and foundations on which this country was founded. Many times before I have written about Don Siegelman’s case. You remember, the former Democratic governor of Alabama who was indicted, convicted and jailed in a case so full of holes, you could fill the Albert Hall. (Siegelman is currently free on bail pending yet another appeal, meanwhile Sen. Ted Stevens’ case has been dropped by the Department of Justice; for prosecutorial misconduct.) From the look of things, Attorney General Holder could spend the entirety of Obama’s first term just reviewing prosecutorial (and judicial) misconduct in political prosecutions over the last 8 years.

A group called “Project Save Justice” has created an hour-long film entitled, “The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove” detailing the prosecutions of hundreds of people around the country based almost completely on political affiliation and involving dozens of corrupted prosecutors and judges. The film shows how widespread this problem became throughout the Bush years and how the actions of the parties involved have created a calling card of sorts for Karl Rove. The politicization of the Justice Department is a scary, scary prospect and it is not fiction. This stuff happened and real peoples’ lives were destroyed because of how they voted. You can watch the film below, which includes commentary by Scott Horton, a professor, civil rights attorney and editor for Harpers Magazine.

Horton describes how the mainstream media was used in many of these cases to convict the target of an investigation in the court of public opinion often before prosecuting the case in court. This PR game is nothing new, but when case after case shows the systematic use of the media by the prosecution to try and convict, something is seriously wrong (actually, this is a crime). Innocent people are in jail or even worse, dead because of these prosecutions and save for a story here and there about the most vocal victims of this campaign (i.e. Gov. Siegelman), the mainstream media has remained silent. I knew political prosecutions had become more widespread over the last 8 years, but I had no idea how widespread. But this is precisely why often low-level political activists in the Democratic party were targeted… Sensationalism in the media is what sells and only on a hyper-local level will the prosecution of a state legislative fundraiser be reported. Actually, you are more likely to find 10 minutes of your evening “news” broadcast dedicated to the latest health scare (remember Anthrax?) or the price of gas, then a report on innocent member of your government being sent to jail because of how they vote.

Why is Chris Matthews such a panty waist? I’ve asked this question many times before and yet somehow I’m still surprised when new evidence of his fresh disposal is found. Thanks to TPM for this little clip where Matthews discusses how the Justice Department has dropped the charges against Senator Ted Stevens due to prosecutorial misconduct… Well, sort of. That is why the charges were dropped, but apparently Tweety Bird thinks the charges should have never been brought! Oh, and apparently Sen. Stevens is no longer the senior Senator from Alaska BECAUSE of these now dropped charges, according to this blithering idiot.

Well, Mr. Matthews – Just to clarify a few points: Sen. Stevens was already convicted last fall for not reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from an oil executive (normally we would call this a bribe, but somehow in this country the crime is just not telling anyone about the bribe, not the bribe itself). And to say that the charges should have never been brought? That is not at all what the Justice Department has said, rather that the charges held merit but that the prosecution failed to share evidence with the defense, thereby screwing up the case. On a related note though, perhaps Matthews should be more concerned with another politician whose re-election bid and political career WERE affected by prosecutorial misconduct, politicization of a trial and a whole other list of crap. Don Siegelman, the former Democratic Governor of Alabama has another appeal pending to try and have his charges dismissed, but he lost his re-election bid years ago because of this crap. Any mention from Matthews on this lately? Some of his other colleagues at MSNBC are a bit better, but so far only when it is convenient. Siegelman was interviewed by TPM regarding these comparisons and you can read that here.

The next possible Idiot-in-Chief, Sarah Palin, has apparently been using her Yahoo! email account for official Alaska business. This was first revealed months ago, but only just resurfaced because she got caught! Hackers have infiltrated the account (big surprise), revealed some of its contents and now the Secret Service is asking the Associated Press for copies of the records (too convoluted to explain, just go here if you care that much).

Of course this explains how she became the Republican Vice Presidential Nominee! Everyone knows how much spam Yahoo’s filters don’t catch, well apparently Palin clicked on the email entitled, “Be McCain’s VP for a day” hoping it would give her a boost of sexual prowess. Palin was just looking for a hunting partner, but didn’t even blink when McCain asked her to be his soul-mate instead. This now makes sense why everyone was surprised when Palin was picked as McCain’s running mate, but the folks over at Yahoo! were too busy saying no to the merger with Microsoft to bother saying no to this sacrilegious partnership. Well, chalk up another win for Google: On the recommendation of Karl Rove, infamous for using unofficial email accounts for official business, Palin is now using Palinisafox@GMail.com.

Oh, by the way, here are a couple of screen shots of Palin’s actual Yahoo! email account thanks to Duncun.

UPDATE – Sunday evening – Apparently, because the 20-year old college student knew enough to be dangerous, but not enough not to get caught, his identity has been revealed and he has been arrested. You can read more on the technical details of this case here.

Kate Klonick of Talking Points Memo blogs:

“Buried in the 50-page report on Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch released today by the House Oversight Committee, is a priceless quote from none other than the new head of the AP’s Washington Bureau, Ron Fournier.

Straight from page 21 of the report:

“Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line “H-E-R-O.” In response to Mr. Fournier’s e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, “How does our country continue to produce men and women like this,” to which Mr. Fournier replied, “The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight.”

Although it took Fournier a couple of hours to react, he finally released an entirely useless apology to his employer, the Associated Press:

“I was an AP political reporter at the time of the 2004 e-mail exchange, and was interacting with a source, a top aide to the president, in the course of following an important and compelling story. I regret the breezy nature of the correspondence.”

So in other words, because you were corresponding with a source, it is OK to make snarky comments in support of the administration’s blatant profiteering and propaganda relating to Pat Tillman’s death? Shame on you, Mr. Fournier for again blurring the line so that we cannot distinguish who is reporting the news from who is making the news.

23/6 has a great post outlining some of the things McCain might use in the general election to derail the Obama train from winning the presidency. They do it in the form of a “letter” written by McCain to Karl Rove. This thing is so full of compliments, back-handed mentions and corruption that it could be confused for President Bush’s letter to Santa Claus (although he actually calls him Turd Blossom). Let’s imagine for a moment what the New York Post, Fox “News” and the Los Angeles Times would look like if, even for a day, they took all of these issues and elaborated on them in their “coverage” to see what happens… Well, we probably don’t have to imagine because the general election is about to start and all of the above-mentioned media and more will surely be picking up on all of these points. In the meantime, enjoy the irony and again, thanks to 23/6 for posting. (Note: If this is hard to read, simply click on the image to go directly to 23/6 and magnify.)