See links to newer stories below:

Wonderful NEWS! I just learned that Alabama former Governor Don Siegleman is going to be released from prison tomorrow morning. I'm beyond thirlled to hear this. As ugly as the rest of the world situation is, and it's still ugly, believe me, it's at least heartening to learn that the wheels of justice are slowly starting to move in the correct direction for Don Siegleman. He's expected to testify in Washington soon according to some sources, and I, like many others, hope that the truth comes out. There was egregious wrongdoing in that situation and the whole world (to the extent that the world cares what happens in Alabama) now knows it. It gives me renewed hope in the future when I learn that the efforts of people like Scott Horton, Dana Siegleman, mooncat at leftinalabama, and a growing number of ordinary Alabamaians, who until recently were under the assumption that imprisoning people for political reasons didn't happen in this country, can take a deep breath and gather strength from this one positive step in a long line of negative occurrences that should never have happened. And one of the lessons we should learn is to keep ourselves informed through these various channels that have brought us together in the recent past. LeftInAlabama with it's way too purple (even if for a good reason) website colors, DailyKos (with it's way too orange colors, for that matter) and bunch of mailing lists that I'm aware of were bringing this situation to the attention of many people who weren't aware of it. And if you still don't know the back story, it's just as important now as it was then, because Don's got a long road ahead of him and the more we support him the more we can help shine the light into some very dark corners where some pretty underhanded and ultimately evil stuff has been going on for far too long.  

Let's do all we can to show Don we support him, and put an end to the type of politics that Lee Atwater perfected and Karl Rove made his stock in trade. Yes We CAN!

Here's a link to the Free Don Siegleman site - give them some love for all the work they've done.

And while we're at it, buy all the papers you can find tomorrow with this story in it. That's one way to show the Press-Register that we care about good reporting. Here's a link to the story on Al.com

 

The New York Times has a good article and a copy of the court order

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Donald Siegelman, former governor of Alabama, was ordered released from prison on Thursday by a federal appeals court, pending his appeal of a bribery conviction that Democrats say resulted from a politically driven prosecution.

In its order, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, said Mr. Siegelman had raised “substantial questions” in his appeal of the case and could be released on bond from the federal prison in Oakdale, La., where he has served nine months of a seven-year sentence. The order did not say what those questions were, but his lawyers have argued for months that the bribery charge on which he was mainly convicted revolved around a transaction that differed little, if at all, from a standard political contribution.

Mr. Siegelman’s lawyers maintained that — as is standard in many white-collar crime cases — the veteran Democratic politician never should have been imprisoned in the first place while he appealed his conviction.  

Rest of this article is here;

 

This just makes me feel like singing! And since I am in such a cheery mood, I think I'll share this interesting article/blog I found on today's NYTimes website about writing songs...

http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/

I've never understood how these guys do it, but this is a pretty fascinating peek into the mind of one songwriter. Enjoy!

8:40:41 PM     comment []

Photo from Bill Lavender's New Orleans publishing house Lavender Ink (see below)

 

Sometimes it pays to check out the links in the side bar that are generated by the computer algorythms that pervade the internet experience. On my gmail account there are always lots of things that I'm usually amused with because I have absolutely no interest in whatever is linked there. For instance, in the margin aside my receipt for a purchase on iTunes, I see a link that asks me if I like Hanna Montana. Well, no.  And right above that one is something about a class action lawsuit involving drivers - have no idea how that connection was made. Oh, wait. There's a link on my email to an album called A Thousand Roads, and the "roads" must have matched something that pulled up the class action lawsuit about drivers. I guess. My point is, usually those things aren't really all that worthwhile. But today in reading my daily feed from Dave Pollard's How to Save the World I noticed a link to something called The Writers Eye, and when I followed that link I was very pleased to find an online magazine devoted to writers who are artists as well. Here's their current issue. Now, I'm not particularly a fan of the checkerboard graphic on the front but the inside is very nice. Go read the poetry and other articles. It's a breath of fresh air.

Speaking of fresh air, I journeyed over to Andrei Codreascue's online site, Exquisite Corpse, and there are some pretty interesting things there as always. Among the most interesting is the series on Katrina, including the 31 Poems by Bill Lavender which I found particularly compelling. I'm going back to that one later today because it is a full experience, not to be passed over lightly.

 

At the very bottom of Bill Lavender's poetry there's a link to something called Lavender Ink, " a small publisher of poetry and literary extravagance in New Orleans" which is another satisfying excursion. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful day. Enjoy the spring if you're in Mobile, and if you're elsewhere, it's coming, I promise. It always does.

6:50:59 AM     comment []