The headlines sure make it seem like it's 1965:
"There seems to be at least one in every state. A local with a blog and an aggressive interest in state politics and muck. Publishing what the local papers wouldn't touch. Walking the line between rumor and news. Conversant with the key issues, and familiar with the key names. Unafraid or indifferent to pissing people off."
"There seems to be at least one in every state. A local with a blog and an aggressive interest in state politics and muck. Publishing what the local papers wouldn't touch. Walking the line between rumor and news. Conversant with the key issues, and familiar with the key names. Unafraid or indifferent to pissing people off."
"Shuler was arrested last week in his Birmingham home and is being held without bail in a Shelby County, Ala. jail for contempt of court and resisting arrest."
"The charges stem from a case brought by Rob Riley, a Birmingham attorney and the son of former Gov. Bob Riley (R). Over the past 11 months, Shuler has written blog posts asserting that Riley had an affair with an Alabama lobbyist. Riley has denied the story, and tried to take Shuler to court. Shuler wouldn't cooperate. And he continued to write about the alleged affair, violating a court order in the process."
"For years, Shuler has maintained a blog called Legal Schnauzer, to which his wife, Carol Shuler, also contributes. (The blog's tagline is: "The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.") A 1978 graduate of the University of Missouri, Shuler worked as a journalist and then for years as an editor for the University of Alabama at Birmingham's publications office. He was fired from that job in 2008, and claimed his firing came as a result of his writing about high-ranking political figures in Alabama. While Shuler didn't have proof, his firing got attention outside Alabama."
"Shuler's problem arose not because he blogged nor because he did so from his workplace, because it's clear he didn't," Scott Horton, a journalist for Harper's Magazine and a lecturer at Columbia University Law School, told Raw Story in 2008. "His problem came from the fact that he wrote critical, well received insights targeting a number of very powerful figures in Alabama, starting with U.S. Attorney Alice Martin and prominent Republicans with which she is aligned, and including a number of major figures in the Alabama media.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/alabama-politics-blogger-jailed-for-writings-on-ex-governor-s-son
It's true that Shuler violated a court order but it sounds like the court order a rather compromised one:
"Riley claims our reports are false and defamatory, but he has taken a number of steps to shield the case from public view," Shuler wrote. "The Riley lawsuit explains the swarm of Shelby County sheriff deputies that repeatedly trampled our property and pounded on our door throughout last week. It also explains the fraudulent traffic stop that Lt. Mike DeHart conducted on Sunday afternoon in order to 'serve' me with court papers."
"Things escalated from there. On Oct. 4, Riley asked a Shelby County court to hold the Shulers in contempt of court for violating a restraining order -- the court papers served by Lt. DeHart -- that directed them to "cease and desist immediately from publishing ... any defamatory statement about Petitioners, including, but not limited to, any statement that Petitioners had an extramarital affair." (Shuler appears to have represented himself in the case.) By Oct. 22, Shuler anticipated that he might wind up in jail, in a post accusing Riley of having a hand in the court orders issued in the case."
"
Jay Murrill, an attorney at Riley's law firm who is representing his boss in the case, appears to have written an order to grant a preliminary injunction and seal the public file, plus an order to hold us in contempt," Shuler wrote. "If granted, the contempt order could subject us to incarceration."
For me when I hear conservatives sing the praises of states rights Birmingham Alabama is the kind of place that immediatley comes to my mind
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-anti-gay-discrimination-chuck-hagel.html
It's probably what comes to conservatives' minds as well-this is their definition of justice where powerful, connected Republicans put anyone they want to in jail with impunity. Stories like this hardly make you want to greatly increase the power of the states.
In checking out Legal Schnauzer just a cursory look shows it's well worth the price of admission.
"Two prominent Alabama Republicans--Rob Riley and Jessica Medeiros Garrison--have filed lawsuits against me in recent weeks, claiming my reporting on their extramarital affairs is false and defamatory. I know--and I suspect Riley, Garrison, and their respective lawyers know--that the lawsuits are baseless and designed merely for purposes of harassment and intimidation."
"Aside from the lawsuits' merits (or lack thereof), we see an alarming trend involving the plaintiffs. They and their associates can't even get the complaints served without engaging in fraudulent conduct. And I don't use the "f word" casually here. The cases hardly are off the ground, and court documents show that individuals acting on the plaintiffs' behalf have engaged in fraud on the court."
"The charges stem from a case brought by Rob Riley, a Birmingham attorney and the son of former Gov. Bob Riley (R). Over the past 11 months, Shuler has written blog posts asserting that Riley had an affair with an Alabama lobbyist. Riley has denied the story, and tried to take Shuler to court. Shuler wouldn't cooperate. And he continued to write about the alleged affair, violating a court order in the process."
"For years, Shuler has maintained a blog called Legal Schnauzer, to which his wife, Carol Shuler, also contributes. (The blog's tagline is: "The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.") A 1978 graduate of the University of Missouri, Shuler worked as a journalist and then for years as an editor for the University of Alabama at Birmingham's publications office. He was fired from that job in 2008, and claimed his firing came as a result of his writing about high-ranking political figures in Alabama. While Shuler didn't have proof, his firing got attention outside Alabama."
"Shuler's problem arose not because he blogged nor because he did so from his workplace, because it's clear he didn't," Scott Horton, a journalist for Harper's Magazine and a lecturer at Columbia University Law School, told Raw Story in 2008. "His problem came from the fact that he wrote critical, well received insights targeting a number of very powerful figures in Alabama, starting with U.S. Attorney Alice Martin and prominent Republicans with which she is aligned, and including a number of major figures in the Alabama media.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/alabama-politics-blogger-jailed-for-writings-on-ex-governor-s-son
It's true that Shuler violated a court order but it sounds like the court order a rather compromised one:
"Riley claims our reports are false and defamatory, but he has taken a number of steps to shield the case from public view," Shuler wrote. "The Riley lawsuit explains the swarm of Shelby County sheriff deputies that repeatedly trampled our property and pounded on our door throughout last week. It also explains the fraudulent traffic stop that Lt. Mike DeHart conducted on Sunday afternoon in order to 'serve' me with court papers."
"Things escalated from there. On Oct. 4, Riley asked a Shelby County court to hold the Shulers in contempt of court for violating a restraining order -- the court papers served by Lt. DeHart -- that directed them to "cease and desist immediately from publishing ... any defamatory statement about Petitioners, including, but not limited to, any statement that Petitioners had an extramarital affair." (Shuler appears to have represented himself in the case.) By Oct. 22, Shuler anticipated that he might wind up in jail, in a post accusing Riley of having a hand in the court orders issued in the case."
"
Jay Murrill, an attorney at Riley's law firm who is representing his boss in the case, appears to have written an order to grant a preliminary injunction and seal the public file, plus an order to hold us in contempt," Shuler wrote. "If granted, the contempt order could subject us to incarceration."
For me when I hear conservatives sing the praises of states rights Birmingham Alabama is the kind of place that immediatley comes to my mind
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-anti-gay-discrimination-chuck-hagel.html
It's probably what comes to conservatives' minds as well-this is their definition of justice where powerful, connected Republicans put anyone they want to in jail with impunity. Stories like this hardly make you want to greatly increase the power of the states.
In checking out Legal Schnauzer just a cursory look shows it's well worth the price of admission.
"Two prominent Alabama Republicans--Rob Riley and Jessica Medeiros Garrison--have filed lawsuits against me in recent weeks, claiming my reporting on their extramarital affairs is false and defamatory. I know--and I suspect Riley, Garrison, and their respective lawyers know--that the lawsuits are baseless and designed merely for purposes of harassment and intimidation."
"Aside from the lawsuits' merits (or lack thereof), we see an alarming trend involving the plaintiffs. They and their associates can't even get the complaints served without engaging in fraudulent conduct. And I don't use the "f word" casually here. The cases hardly are off the ground, and court documents show that individuals acting on the plaintiffs' behalf have engaged in fraud on the court."
Shuler argues that the service of processing papers weren't done properly so that by definition the case should be thrown out. Alabama justice-if conservatives had their way coming to a county near you.
P.S. I digress but Shuler also has a great picture of Garrison on his site-she is a very attractive woman. Just putting it out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment